So Much To Remember

When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua: ²‘Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, ³and command them, “Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.” ‘ ⁴Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. ⁵Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” ⁷then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever.’

Joshua 4:1-7

The Lord knows how forgetful people can be, and how we tend not to remember. So in today’s text God is calling for the nation of Israel to set up memorial stones and to remember. And when moms and dads take their kids on long weekends to visit these memorial stones they are to be ready to answer the question: “What do these stones mean to you?”

For many, Memorial Day is just another long weekend, the end of the school year and the start of summer. We are busy people and it is easy for us to forget the real meaning of this day. My mother used to call it “Decoration Day,” as she and her family would “decorate” the graves of fallen soldiers with flags and flowers. Over time, we have come to call this “Memorial Day” as we memorialize and remember the sacrifice of so many.

While Memorial Day is not an expressly religious holiday, this day can serve a value that runs throughout the Bible from beginning to end — that is the value of remembering. Again and again, the Lord God calls on his people to remember. Not only is not remembering embarrassing and inconvenient, it is fraught with real spiritual danger. 

In a time of such rapid change as ours, we tend not to look to our past. We regard what “has been” as pretty much irrelevant to “what’s happening.” But the philosopher and historian, Rousas John Rushdoony, warns of a tyrannical undercurrent that threatens us all: “The purpose of stripping men of their past is to reshape them into whatever form their elite rulers choose. The result, however, is not a new man, but a lost and dying man.”When we don’t remember the past, we not only forget who we are, but where we’re headed.

As I was putting up the Stars and Stripes this morning, it occurred to me, that Memorial Day doesn’t do the remembered any good. Rather, it’s something that we do for us.

On this day we have so much to remember, so much worth preserving, and so much to pass on. The faith and the values we so treasure are never more than one generation from extinction.
 
“Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” —Abraham Lincoln
A blessed Memorial Day, and remember!
 
Tim Smith

WEEKLY CLASSES WITH TIM SMITH:
EVERY WEDNESDAY THROUGH THE SUMMER
AT THE FRANCISCAN RENEWAL CENTER
(GARCES ROOM OF PIPER HALL)
Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M.
Songs for Life’s Journey:  The Psalms of Ascent
Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Profiles of Spiritual Maturity:  The Letter of James

Reframing with Faith

¹⁷When Rachel was in her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, ‘Do not be afraid; for now you will have another son.’ ¹⁸As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), ²⁰and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave; it is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. ²¹Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. Genesis 35:17-20

Here is surely one of Scriptures’ most compelling and dramatic scenes. Jacob, the swindler, finally coming home, home to God and home to family. But it is on his journey homeward that the love of his life, Rachel, goes into labor. It is a difficult labor, and in her dying Rachel breathes out the name of their newborn. The child is to be called, “Ben-oni,” or “Son of my sorrow.” But on her death Jacob quickly renames their little son, “Ben-jamin,” or “Son of my right hand.” He will be his son of favor or good fortune.

Psychologists have a name for what Jacob did. They call it “reframing.” Theologians call it “faith.’ Whatever you call it, it is taking the same situation, the same set of circumstances and giving them a different meaning. It is looking at life through new lenses. A problem becomes an opportunity. A weakness is now a strength. And an impossibility becomes a possibility. Sinners are named righteous, trials become occasions for rejoicing , and those who mourn are called “blessed.”

Notice that even God practices “reframing” in today’s text. It is “Jacob” or “swindler” that sets up a pillar at Rachel’s grave (v. 20), but the Spirit says that it is “Israel” or “prince of God” who journeys onward (v. 21). In scripture, God is ever giving people new names, reframing their stories, turning losers into winners, transforming tragedies into triumphs!

Last night I thrilled to watch and listen to a local symphony and chorus perform Beethoven’s, immortal Ninth Symphony, or his “Ode to Joy.” I was so moved by the glorious triumph of the music and I turned to Rita to say, “Just think, Beethoven couldn’t hear a note of it!” Yes, Beethoven reframed his deafness and tragedy into a song of joy!

Look at your life, your tragedies, your losses, your sorrows. Look at them through another frame. Look at them through the frame of faith. Look at them through God’s eyes. What do you see?

Grace and peace,

Tim Smith

WEEKLY CLASSES WITH TIM SMITH:
EVERY WEDNESDAY THROUGH THE SUMMER
AT THE FRANCISCAN RENEWAL CENTER
(GARCES ROOM OF PIPER HALL)

Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M.
Songs for Life’s Journey: The Psalms of Ascent
Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Profiles of Spiritual Maturity: The Letter of James

Welcome Home

How lovely is your dwelling place,
   O Lord of hosts!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
   and the swallow a nest for herself,
   where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
   my King and my God. Psalm 84:1,3

 
What a curious and remarkable sight it must have been for ancient worshipers as they made their way up to the House of the Lord to worship!   There within the inner sanctuary, on the temple platform, at the great and holy altar, they would see birds nesting, undisturbed.

Out of deep respect for all of life and procreation, the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 22:6) prohibited ever moving a nest. No holy priest or Levite could tidy up after the messy little creatures in the house of God. They were right where they belonged. They were at home there. 

Within the high and holy precincts of the magnificent temple one could see the sparrow’s weaving of grass and string trash, or the swallow’s little house of mud and spit plastered against the altar. Mothers must have smiled and nodded as they pointed out the nests to their children.  See the little heads poking out with their beaks open wide?  Right here in Yahweh’s house!

But one day, in a moment of inspiration, the psalmist gazes at this scene and sees deeper.  He sees in the chattering birds a wondrous truth for us and birds alike.

For the psalmist and Hebrew people the sparrow was symbolic of that person the world regarded as worthless and insignificant. And the swallow that was always on the roam represented the restless soul that never seemed to fit in or find her place in the world.  But on this day the psalmist sees the sparrow and swallow and knows that truly all are welcomed in Yahweh’s house!     

Sometimes we can feel worthless and restless.  We fear that we don’t measure up. We’re sure we have failed the Lord one too many times. Then we remember the little sparrow and the restless swallow and in our hearts we come home again to God.

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!” Amen.

Grace and Peace,
Tim Smith

WEEKLY CLASSES WITH TIM SMITH:
EVERY WEDNESDAY THROUGH THE SUMMER
 
AT THE FRANCISCAN RENEWAL CENTER
(GARCES ROOM OF PIPER HALL)
Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M.
Songs for Life’s Journey: the Psalms of Ascent
Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Profiles of Spiritual Maturity:  The Letter of James

The Second Born

I had gone into the patient’s room with a hope and prayer of somehow bringing help. But as is so often the case, I emerged from the room feeling that I was the one helped and encouraged. It happened to me yesterday as I was working at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. I had been referred to the patient by an oncologist who had delivered bad news to the patient on Saturday, and wanted a chaplain to follow up on him.

I sat down beside the patient’s bed and learned of being poked and cut on many times, many tears, regimens of chemotherapy, rounds of radiation, and hopes dashed. And yet, in the telling of his story I couldn’t help but see a resilience, a tempered strength, a calm, a joy in the mystery of life. No bitterness, just peace. It was a God sighting!   I felt I was on holy ground.

As I walked away from the patient’s room I thought of Williams James’ description of the “Second Born.”  James, the father of American Psychology, in his classic work, The Varieties of Religious Experience, describes those persons who struggle through a long dark night of the soul only to come to a wondrous awakening. James calls these persons, the “Second Born.” They have learned firsthand the “evil facts” of human existence. They have fought, bled, faltered, doubted, and plummeted all the way to rock bottom and given themselves over to God.  Using Jesus’ language, they have been “born again.” 

Of these “Second Born” Williams James said: 

     “They may after all be the best key to life’s significance, and possibly the only openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.”

I think that’s what I felt yesterday as I left the patient’s room — I felt I had been granted a glimpse of life’s deep significance and beauty. Here was truth at its deepest level.

Is this something of what the Apostle Paul was hinting at in Romans 5:3-5 when he wrote about our sufferings and pain?

We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not  disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

God is up to something in what you and I are struggling through!

Grace and Peace,

Tim Smith

Weekly Classes with Tim Smith – Every Wednesday
At the Franciscan Renewal Center (Garces Room of Piper Hall)

Wednesday Noon – 1:00 P.M.
Songs for Life’s Journey:  The Psalms of Ascent
Wednesday Evening 7:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Four Life Changing Prayers