Resurrection-Living and Grace

When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, they headed for the Promised Land.

They took a little detour to Mt. Sinai to pick up the Ten Commandments, and then they headed for home. They came up against the southern boarder of Israel and set up camp.

"How to enter this land?" was the question. Moses sent in 12 spies to survey the land, to find out what was there and where they might settle. After all, they had been away for 400 years. This is where their problems became overwhelming.

10 of those spies came back scared out of their wits. They were sweating. Their knees shook. Sheer Panic. They reported that the land is occupied with really big people, the Philistines, giants. They said, "We feel like grasshoppers when we stand up next to them."

They said, we cannot possibly live in this land, they will destroy us.

Only 2 of those spies came back walking tall and confident … Caleb and Joshua. They said, "Sure, the people are big and we’ll have some problems. But we can live in the land, no matter what the obstacles, because God promised it to us."

The fear of the 10 spies spread throughout the tribes of Israel. They had no confidence. They did not believe in their dream. Moses knew: to enter the land with an anemic dream would be disaster.

So they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Struggling with their doubts. Gathering manna for one day at a time trained their faith in Providence. There were numerous crises. Eventually, the fearful generation died away and a faithful generation came along … trained to power trust their dream.

Only then did Moses lead them to the Promised Land. Of the original group, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the new land. Boldly leading the people across the Jordan.

For me, there is a powerful lesson in this story. It is a motif that runs throughout the Bible. It is not enough to have a dream, a vision of possibilities. It is not enough to receive visions or frame images in our prayers. A vision needs desire to drive it, and desire needs the vision to frame it

Friday, at the Berkeley Breakfast Club, the speaker talked about making decisions. He was well qualified: PhD in physics, having worked with NASA, awards, publications. It was very interesting – how to factor in values and estimate costs. Professional decision-making can get very complicated!

He illustrated complex points with a simple example … deciding how to purchase a child’s backpack to carry books back and forth to school. Many concerns: cost, looks, features, comfort, safety, how well it is made, wishes of the child, concerns of the parent. He put it all on the screen … alternatives charted with rows and columns, little smiley and frowny faces for ratings, very interesting.

He said the hardest thing about all this measuring is the emotional factors. And he referred to one as "anticipated regret." This is a big consideration and something hard to quantify.

And then he opened it up for questions. Within the limits of what I understood: I had one, but other questions were sophisticated; I was too shy to ask. And I still don’t have my question well formulated.

My question goes something like—what if anticipated regrets were not a factor? Like when we make a decision based on a vision, a dream, knowing there will be rough consequences. But we just accept them and work through them, knowing that the long-term goal is what is ultimately important.

The illustration I had in mind was the story of Abraham and Lot … perhaps as a metaphor for an alternative, or a variation in ways of making decisions. Abraham and Lot had two families that did not get along. So Abraham and Lot went up to the top of a hill.

Abraham said to Lot, "You go to the left; I’ll go to the right. You go to the right; I’ll go to the left. You choose!" Lot stood there and surveyed the land. He looked to one side and saw the lush Jordan valley with its streams and forests and wild life. He looked to the other side and saw the desert – rocks and sand and scorpions. Lot weighed the values and chose the best for himself – the Jordan valley.

I think Abraham knew the outcome when he gave Lot the choice. Lot’s decision led him to Sodom and Gomorrah where things went terribly wrong. He barely escaped with his life. His wife turned into a pillar of salt. And his family suffered from incest.

Abraham’s decision to wander out over the desert carried no regrets – just a dream – and it led him to be the founder of three of the world’s great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Abraham’s decision flew in the face of all the ways of making good choices – weighing values, calculating regrets. It was in accord with his larger destiny. The vision trumped any anticipated inconvenience along the way.

Consider the contrast: The children of Israel camped on the southern border of the land of Israel. Shaking with fear as they pondered their anticipated regrets. And Abraham, cautious for sure, But willing to throw regrets to the wind and trust his vision.

Vision needs desire to drive it, and desire needs vision to frame it. The Jewish Menorah is an exquisitely beautiful and incredibly powerful symbol. Like the Star of David, it has become a central symbol for Judaism. But references to the Menorah as a fundamental symbol, I believe, can be found in the Christian New Testament, as well.

There, it is called, the "Tree of Life." The seven candles of Revelation, and where it says, "the leaves of the tree shall be for the healing of the nations." The "Tree of Life" represents the various emanations of God as they filter down through the heavens to create and sustain our lives.

Jewish mysticism (the Kabbalah) names these emanations. Note our menorah that we have, here in our sanctuary. The three candles at the far end represent the "Energy" of creation. The three candles on this side represent the corresponding archetypal "Forms" of creation. The center column, the candle and the almond flowers holding the three branches, represents four emanations of "Divine Consciousness."

So somewhat like how modern science recognizes the universe as made up of matter, energy, and what is now recognized as "information," the Kabbalah world sees form, energy, and consciousness.

Of the six flanking candles, the inside pair represents wisdom (Chokmah) and understanding (Binah). These are the male and female side of God, the power of the Divine impregnating archetypal forms. We might say that this is the intellectual dimension of God.

The middle pair represents the next step-down flow of God’s Creative Power, Love (Chasid) and Justice (Gaburah). This is where we begin to feel the stirrings of God within us. We might say that this is the emotional dimension of God.

The outside pair of candles on the menorah represents the energy of desire, longing, the driving force of pray on the one side (Netzach), and the images of visions, dreams and prayers on the other side (Hod). Like the other pairs, these work only when they balance and support each other. "Evil" is understood as an imbalance among these pairs.

Now all this is just a fancy way of making the point: vision needs desire to drive it, and desire needs vision to frame it. Image needs energy. And the two together is what praying is all about.

My first, full-time pastorate out of seminary was in Mulvane, Kansas. This was a little town of about 2,000 people. For about half the town, it was a bedroom community for people who worked in Wichita. The other half was what they affectionately called, "Old Settlers." Every year, we had an "Old Settler’s Parade." Costumes and craft booths.

The town had a pride and spirit about it. Farmers gathered at the corner café for breakfast before going to their fields. The local Lion’s club met weekly for a speaker and to fine anyone a dime for misbehaving. The "tail twister" would go about with his bucket collecting dimes.

Everything about the town was alive and full of energy … except for the high school football team. It seemed they seldom won a game. It became a town joke the morning after. The school rotated with local ministers, before each game, to give a prayer before singing the National Anthem. So I had the opportunity to attend a few games.

Cheerleaders did their best to keep the enthusiasm high. The high school band – tubas and trumpets – did their part. Loyal parents sparsely filled the stands to cheer and lend support. But for some reason, the team regularly lost each game.

One time, I watched the game from the track, moving up and down the track, sighting right down the line of scrimmage. And I saw what was wrong. A small gesture of the whole team, in sync.

When the ball was snapped, the Mulvane team rocked back on their heels. The whole line met the charging opponents, rocking back on their heels.

As if they did not believe they could win. The doubt of the community had become the doubt of the team. They were defeated mentally, before the ball was ever kicked off.

When people of a church have a vision, a dream, and they feel it down deep inside, then it is important not to rock back on the heels, but to lean into the action.

For vision needs a forward-leaning desire to drive it, and desire needs a divinely inspired vision to frame it. Combine the two in prayer, and we have FAITH. FAITH, a blind and almost naive confidence in Providence.

Hold it firmly, flow with it, and by God’s grace, we will have our New Jerusalem. We will have our New Heaven and our New Earth. Peace and Justice fulfilled, on earth as it is in heaven.