Hearing the Music

Fasting to Feasting

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Last week we began our Advent series by looking at how the word of the Lord came to Jonah (cf. Jonah 1:1) and how that coming word is part of the pattern that we celebrate each Christmas as we celebrate the Word made flesh (cf. John 1:14) who came to bring life to our world. This week we will spend time looking at the world that Jonah inhabited, a weary world if ever there was one, a world that needed a word from the Lord (we will be focusing on Jonah 3:1-4:4).

From Jonah's world it is not difficult to cross over to today. Our world is still weary and we still desperately need to hear a word from the Lord. The good news is that standing on this side of Jonah and on this side of Jesus, we not only know the central character and central life-giving action of the story, we also have the full word of the Lord contained in the scriptures. In Adult Institute this term, we have been talking about communion with God. Communion that comes through prayer. Communion that learns to pay attention to the presence of God in our everyday lives. Communion through meditation on the word. And this week we will look at communion through fasting. Richard Foster in his classic Celebration of Discipline has this to say about the practice of Christian fasting, "Fasting reminds us that we are sustained ‘by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’. Food does not sustain us, God sustains us. Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God.” I know that we talk a lot about feasting as we go through the holidays, but perhaps our waiting during Advent is an appropriate time to consider feasting on the word by momentarily setting aside our normal necessities. 

A word from the the Lord, the Word made flesh, Jonah, Jesus, fasting, feasting; that is a lot to take in. But the central point from Jonah until now is plain, let's cultivate a hunger for hearing the word of the Lord.  May we find time, or maybe make time, this Advent season to  dig into the word, devour it, digest it. And as we do, we will find that though our world is still weary, we will have fresh, Spirit-filled energy to navigate it.

 

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Posted by Andrew VanderMaas

More than a Fish Story

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I wonder if the remaining turkeys are breathing a sigh of relief? They have escaped the cleaver for the time being and live to gobble on! Now that Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror we turn our attention to Advent. The word Advent comes from the Latin Adventist which means a “coming” or “visitation”. In that spirit we are going to be looking a the coming of the word of the Lord to a prophet located around Nazareth, wait for it ... Jonah. “Now the Word of the Lord came to Jonah ...”.

Yes, for our advent series this year we are going way back, approximately 760 years before Christ, to the prophet Jonah. Why would we study Jonah for Advent? Well for starters, it is a story that is familiar both in its prominence in the Christian canon as well as in culture (think Pinocchio). Furthermore, let’s not forget, that Jonah was the subject of our summer Arts and Rec camp this past year. It is good to dive into this familiar material and look at it afresh, especially through a slightly different lens, like Advent. In addition, Jonah is a story that mirrors the other stories of the scriptures. From creation onward, God has been telling stories about His pursuit, our flight, hiding from God, exposure, repentance, return, grace. Jonah is one of these stories and we hope by looking through its lens we will see the bigger story of what God is up to in his world! For God is at work in his world. It is this work; this coming Word of the Lord, that we anticipate in Advent.

I encourage you to read through Jonah to prepare. It takes about 10 minutes to read through it out loud. While Jonah is historical, prophetic narrative, it is also rich in literary nuance. Pay attention to repetition of words, structure of the narrative, use of irony, etc ... I look forward to “diving in” with you.

 

Photo by Bart on Unsplash

 

 

Posted by Andrew VanderMaas

God is Greater Than FTX

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I have been a little fascinated by the fall of the crypto-currency giant, FTX. I don't believe there is any malice on my part — I actually kind of like the founder, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and have a baseline appreciation for the thoughts behind his big promotion, Effective Altruism (EA) (Why so many acronyms? Are they PCA?). Having said that, there remains a tale to be told about SBF. Was he genuine but naive? Did he get in over his head and cut corners looking to bail himself out? Is he the worlds biggest con man ever in shorts and a t-shirt? Is it somewhere in between?

One thing that we do know, when investors made their run on FTX looking to cash out their investments, there was nothing there. All the glitz and promise of crypto currency turned out to be nothing more than fool's gold as valuations plummeted and investors were left out in the financial cold. Which brings us to our text for this Sunday. As Paul comes to the conclusion of this opening litany of praise to his God and ours, he literally breaks into a liturgy of praise, extolling his God as one who is able to answer our prayers. In fact, as we will see Sunday, Paul trips all over himself linguistically to say that God is able to answer beyond what we could ask or think. Unlike FTX, God's resources are unlimited. We could never make a run on his bank! Pastor, hymn writer, John Newton, captured the capaciousness of God's grace and power well with these words:

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much*

 

Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

Posted by Andrew VanderMaas

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