Gathering Grass Publications: Do Justice, Love Mercy

Gathering Grass Publications: Do Justice, Love Mercy: There is a Divine contradiction in our midst. God’s will is declared to be a good mixture of justice and mercy among men. How is one to do...

A Story: Brother Elias and the Angel

Allow me to introduce you to a story… .a story of ancient Italian origin.  I am not the original author of this story.  The author is unknown.  It is a legendary account written after the death of Saint Francis of Assissi.  It is one of many such legendary accounts and it contains both an acknowledgment towards the wisdom of St. Francis and a historically practical proverbial lesson.  We can learn something from St. Francis and Elias, his brother in the faith.  Here is a retelling, in my own words, of the story of Brother Elias and the Angel….

The silent Franciscan convent was impinged by a rowdy knock.  The uninformed traveler besieged the door with his untamed fist.  “Our Father” corrected Brother Masseo, “Give only three clear knocks and wait for a brother to reply ‘Our Father’ and then come to let you in.”  The traveler asked pardon for his haste and expressed his lengthy journey towards St. Francis with whom he desired to speak…. .a man now abiding in devotions, prayer and the forest.  “I will not interrupt him,” said the traveler, “May I speak instead with brother Elias, he full of wisdom?”

Brother Elias pulled a weed.  He prayed heated prayers to no one, for who would listen?  God?  Surely not.  The angry soul was venting an anger unjustified and oh how the floral delicacies trembled for fear he should miss a gardener’s beat and pull one of they instead!  “Brother Elias, come meet with the traveler.”  A grunt over the peony suggested that he would not. 

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love never ends…”  God never ends.

He is eternal.  And His love is eternal. It continues beyond judgment and the grave.  He continues to love the very people that were both favorably or adversely judged by the righteous laws He set in place.  His law and His righteousness are best for creation and His nature sustains creation.  His attitude is that He would be cut off from existence, righteousness fulfilled and justification made complete, for the sake of our salvation.   Therefore, we must receive this final verdict towards our flesh yet poured out upon Himself.  We just receive this eternity - this eternal love.  Its sustenance is powerful to resurrect us from the grave and carry us into eternity.  If He is eternal and His love is eternal than those who receive are given His life for eternity.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love endures all things…”  God endures all things.

He persists in the face of adversity.  God doesn’t give up.  He continues to advance His kingdom in the heavens and earth.  He advances it in us against all of our stubbornness and rebellion, in the midst of our sadness and grief, in spite of our scattered and often unreliable affections. We are not always the most desirable vessels to move through, yet, God persists to save in and through us!  Bless God for His mercies!  He suffers violence against Himself, scorning the shame of its open wounding, remaining quiet concerning the personal blows and establishes His kingdom in and through us.  He knows that the very work that He persists to do has eternal ramifications. We depend on His persistence. 

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love hopes all things…”  God hopes all things.

He is confident of His own imminent success. He is confident in His own ability to succeed in us.  He is confident in His own ability to succeed in all of creation.  This causes God to rest.  This causes us to rest.  He is successful.  Hope does not disappoint because God has put a measure of His eternal promise in our spirit.  He is letting us know beforehand that He is successful. 

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love believes all things…”  God believes all things.

He recognizes that all things are legitimate.  Belief suggests legitimacy.  That something is real, not a lie.  God believes ALL things.  He accepts that all things are a form or fashion of reality.  Nothing can exist that has not been made.  So even a fabrication is part of reality.  He believes humanity.   The legitimacy of our pain, misery, suffering, foolishness, fears, anger, hate, love, joys, passions, celebrations etc…  He does not deny our perspectives or emotions.   God connects with our versions of reality in one way or another.  He meets with us and broods to bring change or enjoy our faith.  God meets with us for real.  

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love rejoices with the truth…”  God rejoices with the truth.

He enjoys truth.  It is healthy for every part of His creation.  Truth, undeniable, penetrating and sometimes confrontational, fashions an occasion for joy.  God rejoices with it.  God rejoices when His message goes out.  He rejoices when His good news is preached.  His heart delights in anticipation of its reception and the benefits that it will produce in the hearer and receiver of such good news - the truth.  When one is filled with truth, one is filled with this good news.  One has encountered that which rearranges the human heart.  One has been transformed by the beauty of what is realized about God and His relationship to mankind and all that was formerly believed, all that was a lie speaking to the conscience, is willfully resisted.  The truth is given preeminence.  Sometimes, however, the truth is also resisted.  Sometimes others deny the truth and hate the messenger.  God, love, stills delights in its presentation.  God and love still continue to carry and confront with truth.  It is His love for humanity that propels the message even at great cost.   This causes us to continue to allow Him to confront us with truth even though it stirs up our own resistance, however, we daily choose to enjoy the process because we know it produces His beauty in us.  We rejoice because it is His love revealed in the presentation of truth to every part of our body and spirit.  This causes us to continue to present truth to the earth even when it is resisted, sometimes unto our death, because we know and rejoice in its power to save and produce His beauty in the earth.  A lie may relieve anxiety for a moment, but in the end it breeds death, therefore, we opt for temporal suffering so that eternal life can be produced and we enjoy the meditation of the result even before it has come!  Where there is truth presented, even when it is temporarily painful, we always have cause to rejoice!

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love does not rejoice at wrong-doing…”  God does not rejoice at wrong-doing.

He hates wrongdoing!  Those who rejoice in wrong-doing are expecting the arrival of personal benefit from the tresspass.  Wrong-doing will always eventually lead to death and this causes us to intercede at personal cost even though we could benefit personally from wrong-doing instead.  It becomes desirable to us that all of the immature and rebellious repent from their wrongdoing rather than falling under judgment.  Our intercession causes us to suffer circumstantially in this world.  We refuse to manipulate to gain… .to sin to get the advantage. We will not compromise our testimony by allowing the wrongdoing of others to benefit us.  We commit ourselves to God and intercede for them.  Love compels us to resist personal benefit from earthen exploitations and take no pleasure in their results.  We purpose to suffer with Christ who did righteousness, even when the results would not seem favorable, and trust God with the results.  We purpose to grieve for sinners and lament the wrong-doing they sow.  God grieves wrong-doing and its various exploitations.  God grieves the sinner who has chosen to go a crooked way.  Where there is love, personal benefits are set aside for the sake of intercession.  One loves when one looks not to his or her own needs or wants but lays his or her expectations down for the need, and sometimes the want, of another…. .in this one cannot do wrong but only rejoice in the benefit of the other.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is not resentful…”  God is not resentful.

He is not bothered by forgiveness and mercy.  It does not annoy Him to set a prisoner free from his or her justifiable imprisonment.  Although it is unfair in the light of humanity to forgive the wrongdoer, God enjoys being merciful to the repentant.  He does not take it as a personal offense against His holiness.  Although He was punished for our sins, He does not resist releasing us from our punishment.  It was unfair that Christ was punished yet He delighted in satisfying justice for our sake.  This causes us to receive forgiveness.  If God who has the right to hold us accountable for our sin chooses not to, why should we hold ourselves guilty? And if we receive forgiveness we also give it.  If God who has the right to hold us accountable for our sin chooses not to how can we hold others accountable to us?  God has been wronged and shown mercy to the wrongdoer. So we can be wronged and show mercy.  In all things, we can fully trust God’s acknowledgment of our life and His willingness to show mercy and do justice for us.  We cannot resent any outcome; favorable or unfavorable, deserved or undeserved, temporary or eternal towards the righteous or the wicked.  Our faith rests complete in the mercy of a just God.. .He will be both merciful and just in ways far beyond our comprehension.  Resentment only exists when we feel that God has not been fair towards us through the persons and circumstances we have known.  But who knows of His fairness?  Who truly desires God to be fair?  I do not believe that we truly want fairness.  No, we need mercy.  God, though He could demand fairness from us, does not.  Neither should we seek it in this life from any source.  We are to beseech His mercy and trust His justice for all of mankind.  We are to love mercy and do justice in response to a God who does not resent unfairness.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is not irritable…”  God is not irritable.

He is not easily annoyed by or overly sensitive to the attitudes of the peoples of the earth.  God does not react because of our disposition.  He acts only according to His own person and character.  He is not fickle in His dealing with us.  He personally makes us conscious of His requirements and the favorable consequences of faith and righteousness or the adverse consequences of sin and disobedience.  He binds His actions to His own requirements and administers justice based upon our faith or lack of faith in Christ.  It is declared and preached.  He teaches us as much as we can handle.  He never reacts but acts according to what we know.  This moves upon our hearts to act rather than react as much as we are ably conscious.  It causes us to remain steadfast in the midst of human opinions and circumstances.  It causes us to exercise consideration and rely upon the word of God.  His word is not fickle.  It does not change.  When we believe it, we are not fickle, overly sensitive or easily annoyed by others.  We are genuine, honest and sure.  Our convictions and attitudes are constant.  We respond to the unchangeable God.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love does not insist on its own way…”  God does not insist on His own way.

He does not worship Himself.  All of creation must be reconciled to Him, not because He demands that His own way be elevated for personal satisfaction, but because God has created humanity for mutual relationship with Himself.  In the end, God’s own love can sustain His own person.  He does not need to demand our attention or affection or cooperation to get what He needs.  He is one within Himself, however, He has covenantally bound Himself to seek, honor and enjoy reciprocal relationship with His creations.  Although God can sustain His own person and therefore He can sustain all of creation, He seeks humanity to walk in the humility of mutuality that causes us to become equal partners in His purpose.  He does not have to depend upon us to accomplish His purpose but rather He desires all of humanity to participate in His purpose to increase our favor and joy.  God is good and gives humanity an equal share in the establishment of His goodness.  Yes, God even listens to, considers and often implements our strategies and designer ideas to bring about this establishment… .because He has no egotistic need to insist on things being done His own way.  Therefore, we no longer think about how others can serve us and our egotism or designer ideas, rather, we consider how we can serve them best by inviting them to share in the glory of God who will also sustain and gives wings and purpose to their bodies and souls.  We become flexible and mutual beings in the midst of others.  We commit our way to our Creator and enjoy exulting His way and their ideas!  In this God is worshipped among us.  It is our joy to worship!  And in this we experience the mutual expression of His goodness in the earth through which we become equal partners in His glory!

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is not rude…”  God is not rude.

He is not impolite, inconsiderate, or unexpected.  He always takes into account our humanity and limitations.  He offers us relationship and never forces Himself upon us.  He always announces His coming to those who are listening.  We are not thrashed and tossed about by a God who enjoys our suffering and confusion.  He considers our weakness and incapacity to receive His whole uncompromising being.  He comes and invites us little by little, day by day to enjoy Him, thus rebuilding the trust that humanity first had in its God.  This causes us to be considerate of our own weakness.  We remain under His discipleship, thereby allowing Him to teach us as much or as little about Himself as we are able to handle at that time.  We become sober, knowing our limitations and therefore gratefully staying within the boundaries God sets.  We also become aware of the weaknesses of those around us.  They are just like us and therefore we do not impose too much knowledge of God where it cannot be understood or withhold what should be freely given.  We also encourage as many safety precautions as are needed so that the souls of others will not be unnecessarily tempted… even when that means limiting our own freedoms.  Rudeness is a product of pride.  We are never to dispense or withhold the knowledge of God nor lift His limitations or impose limitations according to our own evaluation.  But we are always to allow Him to be the Father to His children through us.  He knows them best.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is not arrogant…”  God is not arrogant.

He does not flaunt a superior disgust over our fallen human condition.  He is not pre-occupied with his own importance, value, relevance and influence in the universe.  He simply knows who He is and acts accordingly.  He is aware of His own superior holiness and therefore acts holy.  And then He gives us His spirit.  Not so that we can feel inferior, but so that we can share His holiness and be like Him. He knows that all of creation is dependent upon Him and therefore He does His part.  Rather than determining to constantly remind us of our complete dependency upon Him, He simply does what He should. By this all men are made aware that they depend on Him because humanity cannot do God’s part.  Likewise, this causes us to view our relationship with God as the meeting of our own deep need and not as a means by which we can continually be reminded that we do not measure up.  Therefore, we persuade others to be reconciled to God.  Not so that they can continually be reminded of their inadequacy, but so that their need for the cleansing of their conscience may be met through continual submission to God’s holiness.  We persuade others because we know who He is.  And now we know who we are because we see Him as He is.  And we know who they should be.  It is not arrogant to be certain of what is true.  But it is arrogant to believe that because we know the truth, we have reached a superiority that others should be dependent upon.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love does not boast…”  God does not boast.

He is not self-promotional.  He does not need to be.  His works speak of His character.  He does not need to advertise what He thinks we should believe about Him by now.  He simply bears fruit, does work, lays down His life and gives His goodness away to all manners of people.  And then He lets us decide. He is justified in that His deeds are perfect and reveal that His nature is perfect.  We are not forced to a position of belief because He says we have to believe Him, but because our own hearts have witnessed that He is true to His word.  Therefore, we are condemned by our own knowledge of His person if we disbelieve or we are acquitted by our own testimony of His person if we believe.  This reveals to us that it is also our fruits that testify whether or not we are children of God.  It is not by our self-advertisement as His child that the world will recognize us as His, but rather, that our works are evidence of what we say we are.  We do as He does and let others make a decision.  Boasting is excluded.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love does not envy…”  God is not envious.

He is not filled constantly with a craving to possess our personalities to fulfill His own personal lusts.  He does not long to own our bodies and our material belongings for the purpose of building an egocentric kingdom or government.  Rather He gives of His personality, body and possessions to see us built up and edified.  The cry of His heart is that through such sacrificial giving, we would be motivated to sacrifice and give and thereby build a kingdom for His person.  Through giving and receiving, without thought for self-gain or reward, we become as He is and experience the freedom of communal oneness where He and I and all of us are shared.  Therefore, we could not envy.  This is not a religion of “use”, but a relational community of love.  When we feel that we are “used”, we must take to gain back what we have lost.  Until we are able to take, we will envy what others, or even God, has that we feel we are deprived of.  But, personally, if we know that God gives, even at a loss to Himself, we are motivated to give.  He always fills the righteous, His own children, with the good things we need.  Though we may experience a small loss in the meantime, we wait patiently for His goodness.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is kind…”  God is kind.

He has a common passion with our outcry for the salvation of our souls and the deliverance of our bodies from the bondage of sin. Therefore He gives generously according to His unlimited resource all that is necessary for the accomplishment of that salvation.  Although His passion burns like a fire, He does not pour out His saving goodness upon us with fierce expectation of return but rather with a favoring, communicable gentleness that constantly reminds us that He wants us to be saved. This passion and generosity causes us to search for subsequent opportunities to share in God’s passion for our own soul as well as the souls of others. It causes us to gratefully receive His generous gift on our behalf as well as give generously from the deposited well-spring of life within us so that others might be saved.  And our passion is for our own reconciliation with a God that is not demanding our salvation, but desiring our salvation.  So we are passionate to gently reveal that God desires others to be reconciled to Him because He loves them.  This is kindness.

Love is...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 

“Love is patient…”  God is patient.

He waits a very long time for His will to be performed in and through us without any annoyance on His part.  This causes us to wait a very long time for the will of God to be performed in our own body and soul as well as the bodies and souls of others.  Where patience is required, we can only hinder God’s will through our impatience…. A felt and expressed annoyance that the expected will of God has not already been accomplished.  When we are annoyed, we will not do our part because we have given up on the possibility of the expected. When we are annoyed with others, our impatience renders us incapable of contributing to their personal success.  God, in patience, continues to contribute.  Patience makes out of each one of us a contributor to the personal success of our companions in life while committing all annoyance to He who has been patient with us.

Prophetic Powers

On a day like any other day, Balaam pronounced a good oracle…. .but Balaam, I assure you, did not love the “the dust of Jacob” (Numbers 22:10).

“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel!  Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the water.  Waters shall flow from his buckets and his seed shall be in many waters..” Numbers 24:5-7.  The poetry slavered over the top of Peor and suffered King Balak’s ears to hear no more.  He writhed.  Balaam had been hired to curse Israel!  And, alas, Balaam was willing yet limited by the One he sought to “put a word in his mouth,” Numbers 23:16.

Balaam was a weak man.  He hoped to attain both the honor of kings and gods.  His oracles were for hire.  Love had nothing to do with it.  Israel could live or die for all he cared.  Important to Balaam was Balak’s pocket book and the favor of a foreign god.  “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?” Numbers 23:12.  The statement rings with audacity as Balaam searches for an oracle that will garner Balak’s “silver and gold” (24:13) yet dares not offend an all-powerful god to do so.  Balaam, less perceptive than his donkey, has learned to play prophetic games.  “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,” he declares brilliantly, “the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered…” Numbers 24:3-4.  And the Almighty bends down and whispers in Balaam’s ear.  He utters a true blessing.  It funnels through the consciousness of the seer, breezing past bygone convictions and pouring out of his mouth with prophetic powers.  Balaam, the weak, speaks the mighty word of the Lord for Israel. 

It had nothing to do with love.  “God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.  Has he said, and will he not do it?  Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?….The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them…” Numbers 23:19-21.  Words so powerful they are sung and proclaimed today on Christian lips.  These words were not, from the mouth of their human prophet, spoken with any love or admiration towards Israel.  The Almighty’s oracle of love passed over the deceptive lips of a foreign seer for hire.  Selah.

“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing,” 1 Corinthians 13:2.  Balaam was nothing.  Used by the Almighty.  Used and only used.  A conduit for one of the most beautiful blessings spoken over Israel in the Hebrew Bible.  He could have loved and been loved.  Love was so near.  Passing through his very conscience.   Prophetic powers and the presence of Yahweh did not provoke Balaam to live in the prophecy he spoke.  Balaam went home, nothing.

Love, Love, Love

I have been thinking about “love”.  Fancy that.  Above all, common in its overarching theme.  Everywhere one goes, love is spoken of, realized, discarded, sought, fought for and against.  Love, love, love.  Unsatisfied theologians have spent many a blue moon developing its simple, specific, broad and complex definition.  Love, love, love… .what are you?   What are you not?  

One speck of humanity discloses its goush and mash of melancholy malarky and sentimental revelations and we all go home a little sick to our stomachs while another groping soul espouses the length and breadth of love’s unfathomable intricacies and presses persistent hearts to dig deeper and climb higher.  Perhaps one day we will attain “love”.  I wonder that something so concretely and constantly spoken of from Genesis to Revelation could be either base or far removed.  It must be here, I think, close to the conscience.

Love must be humanly possible.  Oh no! one argues, God is love and therefore, in the flesh, we cannot apprehend its qualities!  But then, I am confused… .God, so high in the heavens has formed us and by one breath conceived our human hearts and that one breath perpetuates to this very day the human races upon earth.  Yet you say that love is no where near our human conscience?  

Love, I argue is so very near.  It is so near that it does not necessarily require a definition.  So near, that it defies the use of definitions to define it.  So integral to our conscience is love, that Christ could say “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and expect this to serve as enough Law to produce righteousness in human action.  Truly, if I tell you to love this or that person, you know what I mean…

Paul’s ultra-famous “love” passage, known to us as 1 Corinthians 13, serves to stump our revelations of love.  Any fantasy that we might caress concerning our own concrete efforts to bring salvation to our neighbor is deemed, just as it is, merely fanciful.  We are told to be patient and kind and content and humble and hopeful and forgiving.  We are even told to shut our boastful mouths!  All of these are fruits of love.  Duh.  We are told to do all the things we know we ought to do if we mind our conscience.  It is neither simple or complex.  Neither broad or specific.  It is just love - the rendering of right actions towards another speck of humanity like ourselves.

Love, insists Paul, is the purposeful center of our motivations.  Everything we do must be out of genuine concern for our fellow humans…. .and I don’t think I have to tell you what that is or what it looks like.  You already know.  But what I also know is that one may do all the things considered productions of love and yet not possess this purposeful center of love.  “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,” says Paul, this is not a guarantee that I have done so because I love the ears of the hearers.  “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,” says Paul, this does not reveal that I use such power to edify those who depend on God’s revelation through me.  “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,” says Paul, and then I move them and the lame walk and the blind see and they leap with joy, am I a lover of humanity or a peacock reveling in self-glorification?  

Yes, love defies our definitions.  One would think that healing the lame is a sure sign of great love, yet, it may not be motivated by love at all.  We do not even need to be told this.  We know.  We know love so well that we must justify our choices to withhold it.  We must cover our tracks of false motivations when we misuse preconceived fanciful notions.  In the end, God knows.  He knows what we know.  He knows when we are lovers or deceivers with angelic tongues.

  What is love?  We can’t answer.  We just know.  And it comes with or without burning sacrifices, mountainous faith and angelic tongues….

More Than Conduits

The agonizing twenty-second bray disputed his incessant kick.  Gaudy grey-haired stubbornness planted its footed faith on the rocky ground.  Mindless beast!  The sun-baked little seer fumed and ranted, kicked and abused his vehicle.  Ee-e-e-yo-o-ore! in another twenty second bellow and he was hurled into the vineyard wall.  “Ooo-a-a-aw!”  His left side winced under the weight of the beast; a foot pinned between it and the wall.  His right foot struck up behind the asses ear.  Profanities and hysterical hollers reverberated a vocal canal at least a mile ahead of the quirky scene.  The beast straightened and moved on.

A few hundred feet… .Thunk!  The party of two descended suddenly unto the dry earth.  The obedient animal could go no further.  The blood shot eyes of the seer squinted at his dumb companion in disbelief. “Fool!  Fool!  Fool!” He picked up his ousted body and took hold of a viney branch proceeding to whip her.  The ass hurled bewildered eyes at her master, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”  (Numbers 22:22-28)

My finger tips hover over the alphabetized ivory MacIntosh keys and I consider my powers.  Words are spelled and positioned to beguile the interested reader.  Songs, plays, articles, speeches and books are all written.  Messages are manufactured and presented in powerful words.  As my fingertips hover I realize that this power is not my greatest gift.  To study, learn and apply; to overwhelm audiences with artistry and recall God’s story for another generation… .a great gift, but not the greatest.  We are more then conduits.

From the mouths of asses and kings, from the pens of peddlers and prophets, words have addressed, assessed and rearranged our very hearts.  It is both wonderful and fearful.  God has granted humanity to share and re-share His thoughts in vocals and pages.  Yet, although such an honor, these thoughts are also written in His starry heavens and can be spoken by the dumbest creature among us.  He is able to conduct His message through any inanimate thing.

I consider, my great gift in this life is not to be His conduit.  Prophet, priest or king; painter, politician, or literary poet; preacher, healer or demon-chaser…. .or perhaps just an ordinary ass.  Every mouth is capable of proclaiming His message.  Every hand capable of recalling His works in written words.  Every anointed conduit may drive a disease or contaminated spirit away, however… .this is not our glory nor our eternal guarantee.  Asses will not inherit the kingdom…  

We have the guarantee that rests in His covenantal word, not ours.  Though I speak and write with these tongues, I rejoice, not that I am His conduit, but that He is my witness to what has been eternally written by His hand.  “…Do not rejoice… .that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” Luke 10:20.