Returning From Exile

I had a long, sleepless night recently and decided to invest it in pursuing the Good Shepherd in prayer.  During that time, I began to be drawn to the Scriptures about the return of God’s People to Judah from the Babylonian Exile.  Can you guess what has been on my mind lately?

 Several things I took away from this time:

 The Return From Exile Took Time And Happened in Roughly Three Waves

• 539 BC – Zerubbabel – the Decree of Cyrus
•  537 BC – Rebuilding of Temple begins
•  458 BC - Ezra the Priest – Rebuild the people – problem of pagan assimilation
• 445 BC - Nehemiah – Rebuild the wall

 

The Return Was Neither Perfect Nor Complete

 “Mistakes were made.”  All three leaders and the people they led were flawed and stumbled at points.  Some mistakes were significant and had painful consequences.  No one was perfect.  But they were willing.  And the LORD used those people.

 I became aware as I prayed that the people returning to Jerusalem were very different than the people who had been dragged away from the city decades earlier.  It was an entirely new generation.  They and their children had been forever shaped by the event.  They never “got back to the way things were.” 

 Already for us here at Harderwyk – indeed for the entire world – there have been deaths and births while we are “staying safe at home.”  When we do get back together under one roof, we will not be the same people, in the same way those returning exiles were different.  Certainly, there is sadness with that, but it is not all bad.  God’s People learned some things in Babylon.

  

The LORD Was With His People Wherever They Were And His Promises Were Dependable

 It was the LORD Who raised up the Babylonians as His instrument to ransack Jerusalem, the Temple and carry off the People of Promise.  While they were far away, captive in pagan Babylon, the LORD was present – speaking through the prophets (Ezekiel and others), raising up Daniels and making promises (read Jeremiah 29!) that He would deliver on.  This exile would indeed end for Judah.  And though Cyrus the Persian King would write the decree that did it, the Scriptures are clear that it was the LORD Who was at work through even the civil government to make it all happen.

 Our Heavenly Father is with us also.  He is with us in the outbreak of sickness and loss.  And His promises are good and coming to pass.  It takes time.  Missteps go on.  Life and losses are all mixed into the gumbo.  But we are not alone, and things are not out of control.

  

We Look Forward To Our True and Perfect Return Home From Our Exile

 The return of God’s People from Babylon to Jerusalem points us to God’s work, presence and promise in our own moment.  We have a Good Shepherd who has gone ahead and made a place for us.  (John 10 & 14)  The Return to Jerusalem, our return to life together are wonderful expressions of our LORD at work, but they are meant to remind us of something greater.  They are not an end in themselves. 

 There is coming a time when the worship will be perfect!  (Rev 5;9)  There will be more people and more different kinds of people that we have ever experienced or can even imagine.  (Rev 7:9)  And there will be a great feast of a meal.  (Rev  19:9)  Frankly, I can hardly wait.

 And I am living today with whatever I face with that True and Perfect Return as my motivation.

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To be clear, I am not writing here about the judgment and exile part of the narrative.  I want to specifically reject any “cause-and-effect” connection between “bad-behavior-and-troubles-in-life.”  The gospel frees me from a graceless, mechanical sort of “Judah-sinned-so-God-punished-them-with-exile” cause-and-effect view of sin and judgment specifically because no amount of exile could ever pay for the depth of Judah’s sin, or of my sin or of the sin of any person or nation.  Only God Himself could take care of that problem.  Perhaps I will address this more deeply in a future post, but for now, I want to specifically reject any connection to “we-were-bad-so-God-sent-COVID-so-that-means-we-all-need-to-be-good” thinking.  God’s answer to our sin – personally and as a nation – is always the death and resurrection of Jesus, not some measure of punishment whether for us or for anyone else.

When It Seems So Dark, And Hard To See God – The Moon Is Always Round

I’m writing in the fourth week of Michigan’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” directives in the COVID-19 pandemic.  There have been some deaths in our congregation and I can’t sit with the family.  There is COVID in an area care facility, and I can only speak with my congregation members by phone.  Nationally, this afternoon there were over 860,000 cases and more than 46,350 deaths.  I can hardly imagine what this virus will do among the poor in Third World nations.

The night seems so dark, and it seems so hard to see God.  But the moon is always round.

I’m reminded of a powerful children’s book by that title.  It is the true story of a dad helping his two-year-old son (and himself, and me) understand the stillborn death of his expected sister. 

“When I waited at the hospital to meet my little sister .  .  .  and we left without her, I asked, ‘Why, Daddy?’  And he replied, ‘I don’t know why.  But the moon is always round.”

 The situation is different for me right now, but the message is just as timely, and just as powerful.

My thanks to publisher New Growth Press and for the Gibson family for letting us into their lives during this COVID time to let Ben – now old enough to read – read the book for us, and let us look over his shoulder at the illustrations.  CLICK HERE to do that, or click on the image above.  

I first stumbled on this story by way of this video: Dad Jonny Gibson – also a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary I Philadelphia – gives the backstory on their family’s circumstances.  CLICK HERE for that story. 

And to get a mother's perspective, I recommend Jackie Gibson's post Why We Need a Children's Book on Death by CLICKING HERE.

The book is available in the Harderwyk Church Library when we are all able to get back together.  Thank you Deb Whitbeck for having this great book available to all of us for check out.  CLICK HERE to reserve it.

Finally, you can order this book for yourself. It is worth having, for yourself, for neighbors for family.  It’s a book with profound theological substance presented in an understandable and unforgettable manner.  Here are three different sources:

• New Growth Press - CLICK HERE
• Amazon - CLICK HERE
• Westminster Theological Seminary Bookstore - CLICK HERE

"Loving Your Neighbor" From Six Feet Away

I’ve said clearly and will continue to say: “It is NOT fear of disease that motivates our social distancing and not gathering for worship on Sunday mornings.  It is love of our neighbor that keeps us apart.”  (CLICK HERE and begin at 9:30 to hear this in our "Celebration Easter Sunrise Service")  Let me explain further:

• The practice of maintaining a safe distance is presently the best-known way to slow the spread of this virus, maintain the health of all and protect vulnerable populations.  By not gathering – for church and otherwise – we are practicing the best medical response that we currently have for keeping people well and alive.  That is what loving your neighbor looks like in this circumstance.
• Fear – whether of death or disease or otherwise - is never a Gospel motivation for our response to the challenges of life.  Meditate on I John 4:18 if you find yourself facing fear as a motivation in your life.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 
• Wise Choices – Those with known risks – age, chronic respiratory conditions, diabetes, etc. – act wisely when they take even further precautions to avoid infection.  That is stewardship of life, and again need not be motivated by fear.  The Book of Proverbs is filled with this sort of "wisdom-for-living."  Those with lower risk factors are in a position to serve and support those with higher risks.  That is wisdom and gospel expressed in our current situation.
• Good News!  Unlike many other religions and worldviews, Christians are not tied to a building, a style, a time or the like when it comes to worshipping God. (John 4:23-24) What matters for this is the work of the Holy Spirit – Who gathers two or three (Matthew 18:20), Who inspires the Written Word (II Timothy 3:16) and Who meets us in the sacrament (Matthew 26:26).  I was particularly struck this Easter that as we at Harderwyk were dispersed and separate in gatherings of worship, there were many, many other fellow believers around the world who were just as dispersed and separate for different reasons – Pastor Wang Yi imprisoned in China, believers in secret in Iran, senior saints in our own community who are bed-ridden or otherwise incapacitated, to name just a few.  I will be the first one back in the building when we can once again gather and lift our voices to God.  But reopening the building does not mean the church has not been meeting.
• Added April 23 - 7 Ways To Love Thy Neighbor In A Pandemic - I came across this helpful listing of other potential ways to think about Loving Our Neighbors in this time.  Let it stimulate your thinking and prayers.  CLICK HERE

I get a bit miffed when the 3% of churches and pastors who are rejecting precautions and gathering get higher profile than the 97% who are taking the precautions.  More often than not, these people represent something other than Gospel-centered, historic Christian faith.

• Several of these jokers are not Christians in any historical meaning of the faith.  Over the years, I’ve actually had contact with some of them or their movement.
• One is Rodney Howard-Browne (Pastor of The River at Tampa Bay Church – CLICK HERE) with whom I had experience while pastoring in Mt Pleasant, MI in the ‘90’s.  He was a scoundrel then, and I see he continues in that behavior.  If you are interested, when we can get out, let’s get a cup of coffee and I’ll share my recollections!
• Tony Spell and his Life Tabernacle Church outside of Baton Rouge, LA is connected to a regional movement that departed from the historic Christian faith in 1916.  They reject core Christian beliefs like the Trinity and salvation by grace.  The movement has an ongoing history of political power play in rural Louisiana.  This church fits the dictionary definition of a “cult,” not a Christian Church.  News media refer to Life Tabernacle as a megachurch, but that refers only to the number of seats filled on Sunday, not the substance of their beliefs and motivations.  There are so many stories here, it will take a lunch if you want to hear them.
• Note the focus on “our rights” that marks the conversations of pastors that continue to lead their churches to meet.  This is a political statement, not a faith statement.  Unless of course, their faith is ultimately in their political stance.  I am willing to cooperate with local, state and federal government directives regarding public health.  But the final motivation for our not gathering on Sunday is not government directing my life, it is Jesus calling me to love my neighbor.  My support for duly-placed authorities as Paul writes about (Romans 13) is based on respect for God’s final sovereignty and love of neighbor for the common good, not surrender to any demand of any human government.  There is room to respectfully disagree with various policies and directives in pursuit of the common good, but the principle for the believer is the same:  Jesus is Lord, and He empowers me to lay down my life for the needs of others.
• And then there are the ones who say that their “faith” will keep them safe from the virus.  This is using faith as a “means” to get a particular outcome. ie. “My faith is strong/true/good enough for me to get good health in exchange.”  This is faith in (my!) faith, and not faith in Jesus.  CLICK HERE for a sad and ironic story of what this leads to.

I'll say it again:

“It is NOT fear of disease that motivates our social distancing and not gathering for worship on Sunday mornings.  It is love of our neighbor that keeps us apart.”