April 30, 2011

4-30-11 Saturday, 7:48 am Springfield, 59 and sunny.

Thank you Lord for this beautiful morning. The coffee is delicious and I am well rested and ready for the day. Guide my mind, my heart, my hands and feet as I serve you with joy as a steward of time, energy and creation.

The royal wedding yesterday had a much greater spiritual emphasis than I anticipated in my morning blog yesterday. The sermon was my favorite part, and with much rewinding of the video I was able to transcribe the part that was said so well:

The Right Reverend Richard Chartres, Bishop of London preached the sermon:
“As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the west, there’s been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We’re all incomplete, we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive. We need mutual forgiveness in order to thrive. And as we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened with us, and can increasingly fill our lives with light.”

One of my goals is to keep the reality of God from fading in my life, and in the lives of those in which I have influence. As I am reading through the book of Judges with the One Year Bible, I recognize that the people of Israel experienced cycles of knowing and trusting God, then peace and prosperity, then a disregard for God (His reality fading from their lives) followed by defeat and misery. I am also reading the personal story of Vasil Zavgorodniy, My Crucible of Suffering, about his faith journey through imprisonment in the USSR in during the 1970s and 80s. His faith is victorious and joyous as he suffers at the hands of the state, and the reality of God is fresh and brightly burning in his life.

Judges 11:1-12:15

Chapter 11 contains the tragic account of Jephthah of Gilead. He was a great warrior, expelled by his half brothers who were threatened by him. When the Ammonites began to war against Israel, seeking to recover their land lost 300 years previous when Joshua was leading Israel, the people of Gilead sent for Jephthah, and made him their leader. “Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said ‘if you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in Triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” (11:30-31)

After his victory, his daughter, his only child came out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. Jephthah tore his clothes, and kept his vow. He let his daughter go for two months with her friends, then he sacrificed her. This is such a tragic event. It has always seemd to me that Jephthah sinned twice – first by his rash vow, and secondly by sacrificing his daughter. He should have absorbed his own mistake, sparred her life and suffered whatever God would have done to him for breaking that rash vow. Instead, he sacrificed his daughter, starting a tradition that the young women of Israel would go away for 4 days, remembering the plight of Jephthah’s daughter.

Chapter 12 names several judges without describing much of their lives. This list includes Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. As I daily record my thoughts and activities, my hope is that in the future pastors and other spiritual leaders will benefit from this account of my brief life as a pastor in Missouri.

Guide me Holy Lord on this beautiful Saturday in April as I serve the risen Savior, fully conscious of Your reality in my life and in this world today.