Puzzled, Confused & Bewildered

Jesus: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Disciples: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel.”  Acts 1:4-6

Last week I was definitely puzzled, confused and bewildered. Someone told me something and in my context it made no sense to me. But thinking I understood what they meant I continued on with certain plans. It wasn’t until a day later that I learned that what they were saying, which made sense in their context, was very different from what I thought.


Have you had that same experience? Perhaps you were to meet someone at 9:00 but you thought it was morning and they meant it was at night. Or maybe the prof said a 10-page paper and you struggle to fill 8 pages single spaced when he meant double-spaced. There are lots of times when communication breaks down because we have one perspective and the other person has a different idea in mind. And it is usually only in hind-sight when things become clear.


That is what is happening in this conversation between Jesus and the disciples. Forty days earlier Jesus was resurrected and now he is ready to go to his Father. He tells them they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It was necessary for the Spirit to come to empower the disciples for the work of God’s Kingdom. That’s Jesus’ context.


But the disciples were living a different context. They are still expecting the gift they were to receive was the overthrow the Roman government. Isn’t that why the Messiah has come? Now that he has come back to life they were ready for the kingdom to be re-established in Israel, for God’s chosen people.


But you can see the difficulty arise in the references to time. Jesus says, “Wait,” and “in a few days”; the disciples ask “at this time.”


The disciples thought they had a grand plan but in fact were thinking small, a narrow strip of land for a relatively tiny number of people. Jesus was thinking immense, all the nations across the whole earth.


Are there times when the circumstances are perfect, when everything is in place to move ahead on a project, a relationship, a position? There seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t. We are ready and our context makes it seems like this is the time. But nothing happens. And we can become puzzled and confused and bewildered. Why is it not happening like I thought it should?


My confusion last week was changed to abundant gratitude as I saw again God working out his plan for his glory. Are you being limited by your context? Seeing only from your perspective? Wait. And God will reveal his astonishing plan in his time..

Transitions

Transition: the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. 

Paul: “and we…are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 3:18

September is a period of transition for everyone on campus. First-year students and transfer students, new faculty and new staff may be experiencing the greatest amount of change including different living, studying and working environments. HA’s and RA’s and RLF’s are shifting into roles with new sets of responsibilities and requirements. Becoming an Associate Chaplain has meant a very significant transition for me from a corner cubicle on the second floor to the window office in a main hallway. Even those who are long-term members of the Redeemer community are in transition: new challenges; different classes; or changing responsibilities. Whether Redeemer is new to you are not we are all in transition.

As schedules develop and life seems to take on a new routine we may think there is little that has changed. “Same old, same old” can be the way we often see life. But in reality today is a transition from yesterday and all the days that went before. Each day brings new experiences, conversations, and activities adding new insights and perspectives that help shape and form us.

And every day as the sun rises and sets we have the opportunity of experiencing God’s mercy in beautiful, unique, and challenging ways. Although God’s love is constant his compassions are new every day.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Lam. 3:21

Did you notice the plural? It is compassions: multiple expressions of God’s love that are revealed every day.

These compassions are new. That means we haven’t experienced them before.  

Do you have the eyes, ears, and heart to notice God’s outpouring of his love every day? Do you take the time to notice?  Do you see his compassion when you awake in the morning, while waiting in line or in traffic, during your walk to class? I encourage all of us to take a few minutes each day to absorb into our lives some of the countless demonstrations of his love.

When we are willing daily to be open to knowing his love in a way that surpasses knowledge, we can begin to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is his love. The more we experience the love of God, the most beautiful and amazing transition takes place in our lives: we become transformed more and more into the likeness of the Son of God.

Walking through Lent - Easter Sunday

Luke 24:  36-49 (excerpts) - SH

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Jesus is alive forevermore -- and his resurrection leads to the next promises that come in the drama of redemption:  what the Father will send.

We have received what the Father has promised (the Holy Spirit), and therefore "we have been raised with Christ" (Col. 3: 1).  We share in the beginnings of his resurrection now.

What are resurrected people like?

"They have suffered hurt without rancor, are gently corrective toward wrong rather than judgmental, and do not try to set things straight as much as order affairs lovingly, intent upon carrying along joyfully any who may be weak, trustfully biding God’s timing.  They live like people raised from the dead; they don’t have to prove anything to themselves or to anybody.  They are not compulsive people trying to make good or to live up to requirements.  They are subject to grace alone, and act clean, singularly pure amid all kinds of complexities that won’t go away."   (From Dr. Calvin Seerveld's meditation on Jesus' resurrection published in Christian Courier, April 2007).  

Walking through Lent - Holy Week Saturday

Luke 23:  55-56 -- SH

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Those who loved Jesus saw that he had not been buried properly.  They would remedy this, but it would have to wait till Sunday.  The same faithfulness that led them to care for the body of their rabbi shaped their obedience to the Sabbath commands.  

But they forgot two things:  (1) after a woman had anointed Jesus' feet earlier that week with costly perfume, he declared that she had prepared his body for burial; (2) he also declared that something surprising would happen on the third day.....

Good Friday

Luke 23:  44-49 -- SH

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Three realities:  darkness at noon, a torn curtain, a dead body.

Three types of observers:  a centurion, the breast-beaters, the Galilean women.  

The combination of all six are overwhelmed with the power of this moment.

What kind of a God would have us know Him in the deepest possible way by having us gaze at an emaciated, bloodied body spread-eagled on rough-hewn beams?  What kind of a God would do this?

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died

My richest gain I count but loss

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Walking through Lent - Holy Week Thursday

Luke 23:  33-34 -- SH

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.  Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

When I was 22, I left my small hometown and moved to downtown Toronto.  A week later I received a ticket for turning left at a "No left turn" intersection.

I went to court and told the judge I was new to Toronto and had never encountered such an intersection before.  He let me off the hook, but he shouldn't have.  Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.

Grace follows a different path than law does.  Jesus uses one of his final living breaths to pray that his murderers and mockers be forgiven, because they are acting out of ignorance.

I will never understand the mysterious paths of grace.  All I can do is give humble, adoring thanks.  

Walking through Lent - Holy Week Wednesday

Luke 22: 31-32, SH

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Take a moment to live into these incredibly dramatic and powerful words.

• It is the Last Supper, and Jesus is just about to tell Simon Peter that he will betray Jesus three times.
• Satan has been given permission to "sift" Simon; sifting separates the useless outer shell from the inner kernel.  Satan's sifting accomplishes the Lord's work.
• During the sifting, Simon's faith will falter, but through the prayers of Jesus, it will not fail.
• The outcome will be that Simon Peter will repent (turn back) and be equipped to strengthen others.  God's purposes will triumph through Satan's attacks.

I turn to these words often when I am sifted.  

Are you ever sifted?