Searching For Some Good Real Estate

Do you ever find yourself stuck watching Home and Garden Television (HGTV)? When I was younger I made a promise to myself that I would refuse to watch such "an old person network." Yet, even before I hit 30 years old I find myself stopping on shows like "Beachfront Bargain Hunters," "Love It or List It," and "House Hunters." (Oh young Seth, you have so much still to learn!) What I find so intriguing about all of these programs, especially being a "homebody" at heart, is that I like to envision what it would be like to one day in the distant future live somewhere featured on HGTV (I do not intend to leave any time soon. I am talking four years down the road St. John's, Decatur folks). Maybe not in one of the actual homes appearing on TV, but I think about living in the mountains, on the beach, in the city, or in the country. By the time I flip off my television I am searching in my mind for a new place to call home.

Daydreaming about living somewhere else for a brief moment feels like a great escape at the time. It is refreshing, like a mini-mind-vacation. Yet, when I go searching inside for some fictional place to live I tend to leave behind what is really going on in life. This is not to say we should not think about where we live, or to dream about where we might one day live, nor is it to discount the necessity for us to have outlets for the stresses we encounter in life. We need to have healthy ways to get perspective on our daily lives. Still when I start to "future trip" to a beach bungalow in Clearwater, FL or think about flipping a home in Chattanooga, TN sometimes I end thinking that I will not be happy until I ______ (own a home, own a nice home, have granite counter tops, etc.). Believing that I have to do something to be happy is very similar to believing that I have to do something to achieve connection with the salvation that Christ initiates.

In today's letter to the Colossians, the author (probably not Paul) uses what is known as a Christ hymn to clarify for the readers that there is no requirement of any spiritual practices to satisfy some cosmic authority. There was a belief that was rampant within the church in Colossi that without ascetical work redemption in God's eyes is impossible. In the beauty of this passage though the writer of Colossians makes it clear that through Christ all things were made, in Christ God was pleased to dwell, and with Christ God lovingly reconciled all things to himself. 

Maybe this is familiar to us, and not just when we start to think that buying something new will make us feel better. Our salvation does not rest in something that we must accomplish, like updating our old bathroom with puke green wallpaper from the 1970s, so that our home might have better resale value. We are not a spiritual home-improvement project. We are not flip or flop. We are redeemed. 

We are holy and blameless and irreproachable before God because Christ Jesus has reconciled us. We can search for lots of good real estate, but we ought to know that we are priceless right were we are. Thanks be to God for that!

Ordination Day Reflection: I Am A Man Of Unclean Lips, Yet God Calls Me

The historical prophet Isaiah had a vision in the Temple. The Lord was sitting high and lofty on a throne, the hem of the Lord's robe filled the entire space, the pivots shook, the house filled with smoke, and seraphs with six wings floated around singing to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

To be certain, I have never seen quite a sight as this. In yesterday's post I described a very holy moment in my life in which I finally felt God's call to the priesthood reverberating within me. Others had heard it in me earlier in my life, but it took a profound moment for me to let God's bidding sink deep into my soul. When Isaiah experienced the overwhelming presence of God in the Temple his response focused at first upon his inadequacy, as he spoke, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips!"

At first, when I heard God's call spoken by others I felt the same way as Isaiah. Within me there is sin and separation. Sometimes I feel disconnected from my neighbor and from God. Often I focus on my needs and not the concerns of those around me. Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. Yet, there is more to what Isaiah says and I think more to a call from God than our inadequacies.

Even in his unclean state, Isaiah says, "My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Yet, God does something to relinquish this feeling in Isaiah of uncleanliness. Isaiah openly admits his state, "I am a man of unclean lips." His sinful nature is located within his mouth and the way in which he is cleansed is through a fiery coal delivered by a messenger of God to precisely where his separation is housed. By his mouth he sins, and by his mouth he is cleansed. Once the sin departs, Isaiah is able to hear the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" With his once sinful lips and tongue, Isaiah responds to God, "Here I am, send me."

This is a great reminder for me on my ordination day, and it is a wonderful call for all of us, as we serve God. God comes to us in tremendous fashion, sometimes in an overwhelming manner with flowing hems, earthquake, and coal bearing seraphs. Other times the coming of God is in the stillness or in our darkness. We may believe that we are not worthy to serve with God, I am often guilty of this, yet God is always seeking to reconcile us to Godself. Most clearly we see this in the Incarnation of God within the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In his coming, his ministry, his death, his Resurrection, and his Ascension we are, like with the seraphs from Isaiah, relinquished from our separation and fitted for ministry with God. All we can do, and all I want to do today is to respond, "Here I am, send me."