Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Monday, June 29, 2009
All You Need To Do About God
Matthew 6:7-13; Revelation 22:1-7
I once attended a prayer breakfast whose keynote speaker was the prime minister of the Kingdom of Tonga. He was a huge man, and in Tonga that turns out to be a key part of the job description. The National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our World puts it this way:
In the island kingdom of Tonga, fat is beautiful. Boys approve of plump girls. Tongans think the more important a man is, the fatter he should be. When the king takes a walk among the white wooden buildings of Nukualofa, the capital, everyone admires his weight -- over 300 pounds. Tonga's three groups of low green islands offer plenty of food for improving your beauty -- yams, pigs, coconut, and taro, a root vegetable as big as a football. Feasts are frequent, and guests are welcome.
Now, that little island kingdom filled with large island people can be found on a map about 2,000 miles east of Australia. But it's not really the geography that matters, as much as the king-size values that follow Tongans wherever in the world they move and live and have their being.
And so it is with the Kingdom of God.
If you asked in the 8th century B.C., "Where on earth is the Kingdom of God?" the answer would be, "In that little buffer zone on the Mediterranean coast midway between Egypt and Assyria." But around 30 A.D. Jesus had a radically different answer: "The Kingdom of God is within you." Your spiritual citizenship is not defined by where you are, but by who you are and what you live by.
He gave us a simple signal of that startling fact when he taught us the Lord's Prayer.
"Thy kingdom come," we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's a prime example of the Hebraic pattern of parallelism -- You say something once and then you repeat it in a different way to underline your point.
So Jesus' prayer means that wherever in the world Christians show up, there's the Kingdom of God. At least in principle. For better or for worse.
Actually, ever since Adam and Eve throughout all of human history, God's Kingdom on earth has shown up always and only where men and women, boys and girls, accept God's authority and obey God's will.
How is God's will done in heaven? Promptly. With pleasure. Completely.
The Bible says God's angels are "spirits in the divine service," going here and there wherever God sends them, to make sure God's will gets done on earth as it is in heaven (Hebrews 1:14). No questions asked, no hesitation given. Just do it!
Same thing here and now, says Jesus. By people like you and me. If we really want it.
On reflection, who wouldn't want that? And why?
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:41 PM
Monday, June 22, 2009
All You Need To Say About God
Exodus 3:13-15; Luke 11:1-4
My father's name was Albert Edson Buckley. One of my brothers is named William Edson Buckley. A nephew is Richard Edson Buckley. I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of my 40 or so grand-nephews and grand-nieces owns that middle name as well.
You may well ask, "Who the heck was this Edson guy?" All of us Buckleys have wondered the same thing. So far nobody knows, or much cares. Maybe the name lives on because it's just so melodious. Not!
I hope that your family's method for naming babies has more rhyme or reason to it.
But in our culture a name is often chosen because of some favorite celebrity, a character in a popular book or movie, or perhaps to honor a special friend or family member. And sometimes just because it sounds so nice.
In most cases, the name has little meaning in and of itself, but takes on significance as we get to know the person who wears it. Eventually, then, just hearing or reading the words Jack Buckley conjures up all sorts of impressions in the mind of someone who's spent much time in my company.
How different this is from the way names are used in the Bible. And what a difference that makes in the way we use God's name, and in the meaning of our prayer, "Hallowed be thy name."
In the Book of Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all received their famous names as markers of their character, virtual prophecies of the way their lives would work out.
So Abraham means "Father of a Multitude" -- and at long last the old man and his barren old wife had a miracle baby whose descendants became the nation of Israel.
That baby was named Isaac, which means "Laughter" -- to remind him and all who met him that his mom-to-be laughed out loud at the prophecy she would have a baby at her ripe old age. God had the last laugh after all.
Then there's Jacob, aka "Supplanter" -- named halfway out of the womb when his seconds-older twin brother was born with Jacob's fist locked tight around his ankle. Talk about your sibling rivalry... This little guy grew up nudging and tricking poor Esau, jockeying for first place every way he could.
So it goes, biblically speaking. Your name is such a powerful descriptor that it makes you who you are, and who you're going to become.
When Moses asked ever so politely at the burning bush (Exodus 3) for God's name -- as in, "How do I know I'm dealing with the Real God here?" -- the answer pretty well floored him.
"I Am Who I Am," God said. And then, "I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. That's who I am."
For a nice Jewish boy like Moses, those few words had a world of meaning.
Through all their ups and downs on the journey of faith, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never walked a single step without God by their side. What God promised, God performed.
And now God says to Moses, "Well, of course! I mean, that's my name, isn't it? You can count on me... I'll always be the same... True to my self, true to my word... That's my name!"
(By the way, the Jewish people historically respect God's name so highly that they forbid themselves to say it out loud. Modern Christians have tried, with varying results like "Jehovah" or "Yahweh." My friend the rabbi reminds me those are nonsense noises compared to the Hebrew name. He says we might as well pronounce it "Yoo-hoo." Which probably would make a congregation laugh out loud when they really shouldn't.)
About this "hallowed be thy name" prayer, we have to remember that God's name is holy regardless of what we humans do or don't do to honor it!
God does not need us, in order to be filled up full with power and glory, goodness and truth, and all the rest of what it means to be God!
But we need God -- in our hearts and our minds and our daily life as God's people in God's world! And we need to remember that fact, every single day of our existence.
So Jesus teaches us to pray, "Hallowed be thy name."
And praying that prayer commits you and me to two critically important intentions...
1. Reverence for God's holiness: Anything or anyone that's holy is distinctly different from life's ordinary stuff, so temples and priests and altars are not your usual buildings or workers or tables. Even so, God is pre-eminently everything but ordinary. Even as "Our Father," God is anything but a sentimental Daddy. So, above all else, remember the reverence. Especially in what you say about God.
2. Respect for God's reputation: What the world thinks of God largely depends on the ways God's people behave, so calling yourself by God's name means you represent God for better or worse. Long ago the prophets worked long and hard to get God's people to change their rowdy ways, so other nations would have no excuse to laugh off God's claim on the whole wide world. You and I today are called the same way to let God's glory be our spiritual heartbeat 24/7, 365 days a year. Especially in what you do in God's name.
Jesus and his disciples were the Founding Fathers of a revolutionary new way to be and do the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven. The Christian church had to succeed! And this prayer he taught them meant it would succeed only by honoring God in all its members said and did!
In the next few centuries, the Church Fathers led and taught Christians how to live in the midst of a Pagan world. The Church would survive and spread only by proving in everyday life that faith in Christ transforms all of one's life into Christlike living!
Christians today live in a culture that assumes Christian values -- mutual respect, honesty, loyalty, tolerance of differences, etc. -- without accepting Christianity itself! If not indifferent to our Christian faith and fellowship in the church, our neighbors are sometimes simply oblivious. And occasionally hostile!
What will persuade our neighbors and friends that what we believe about Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life? Carefully phrased theology... diligent Bible study... well orchestrated worship experiences... are all good and useful in their own right.
But the most persuasive evidence for the claims of Christ is a daily life lived in the name and power of the Risen Christ.
Jesus introduces the Lord's Prayer with an invitation. "Pray to God in secret," he says. (The King James Bible says "your closet.") Then God (who knows and loves you through and through, even with your deepest darkest secrets!) will give to you openly, abundantly, everything that you need.
Loving and honoring all that God is, in your heart's most private place, is the one sure route to loving and honoring all that God is in every part of your life!
That may sound a bit preachy. And not a little bit demanding. But if you think in terms of family resemblance it makes just plain good sense.
In recent years I've been to family events where a couple of Edsons and a lot of other Buckley types mingle. And I'd swear that, for all the variety of facial features, an outsider would see in a snap that these people are all related to each other. The names just confirm the obvious.
I'm convinced that if we go by the name of God, then something of God's own character will be obvious to any observer, whether a family insider or a watcher from the outside in. If that's so, then our responsibilities for reverence and respect are actually opportunities to become all the more who we really are already -- the holy children of our holy God.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:22 AM
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
All You Need To Know About God
Hosea 11:1-11; Matthew 6:1-8
I had a recurring dream for several years, one of those troubling dreams that come without warning, certainly without invitation, and leave you without peace when you waken.
In the dream I'm about 12 or 14 years old, living in the apartment I grew up in on the second floor above my father's store. (He rented the space about four times during the 16 years we lived there, each time going out of business and into deeper debt.)
It's nighttime in my dream. Dad is not home. In fact, he hasn't been at home now for several days, maybe even weeks. I don't know where he is, why he's there, or if he's all right. I really don't know if he's alive or dead. Nobody in the family knows what has happened to my Dad.
As happens in dreams, I'm suddenly downstairs, out on the sidewalk in front of Dad's darkened store. I notice that the door to the store is not closed all the way. Curious and not a little afraid, I open the door and step into the darkness. By the door, I know, is a panel of light switches, and now I reach slowly to find the switch that will light the front area of the room, the place where Dad's desk sits empty. Or is it empty now? With fear and trembling, I reach to turn on the lights.
And then, as suddenly as it began, the dream ends.
That's the way the dream came and went for me, again and again and again.
Until one night, how and why that particular night I'll never know... Until one night it continued for just a few seconds more. And then this dream never came to me again.
Whenever I prepare to preach on the Lord's Prayer, those few short phrases Jesus gave his church that span the whole world of human joys and concerns... Every time I plan to preach about that prayer, I remember once again that haunting dream about my missing Dad.
Can you guess why? Do you want to know? Then please...
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:48 AM
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
I Hear You
Acts 2:1-21
Pentecost Sunday was a gray and chilly day weather-wise, but our people were warmed with the glow of God's Holy Spirit throughout our time together.
The worship service's music was glorious, from both choir and congregation, all of it resounding with joy and praise in a sweet variety of musical styles. Even a lively Caribbean chorus, performed in our best Calvinistic white rhythm (we try our best).
Acts 2 tells us that, on the Church's very first Pentecost Sunday, onlookers thought the disciples and their friends were drunk! That would explain all the wild stuff going on, they thought. Why else would these simple folk be running around speaking in a cacophony of foreign languages?
(Do you think anyone would mistake your church's meetings for a drunken revel? Do you wish God might once in a while make it at least resemble a happy hour?)
Well, a bit too much to drink would be a reasonable guess to explain one strange thing. But it made no sense at all to cover the other two miraculous phenomena taking place. What does wine have to do with a strong wind blowing all around? Or with flames of fire flickering on the heads of all the people who were speaking in tongues?
So Peter got everyone's attention and told them, "This kind of stuff doesn't come from alcoholic spirits, but from the Holy Spirit of God!" And then he preached the great good news that Jesus was God's Messiah and that their entire lives could be changed, for now and all eternity, if they'd simply put their faith in him. And 3,000 people did just that, right on the spot! It was the birthday of the worldwide Christian church, which now comprehends every continent and hundreds of languages in thousands of cultures.
In my message I quoted John 3:16 as the best brief summary of Peter's gospel sermon on Pentecost. The King James version goes, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Then six members of the church family stood up and recited, one after the other, that same verse in the language of their family heritage: Dutch, Spanish, Assyrian, two indigenous dialects from Ghana, and Tagalog. And then they all spoke the verse again, simultaneously. That gave us a taste of what all the people in Acts 2 experienced when God's Spirit broke through the linguistic sound barrier once and for all.
When our worship was done we gathered a while in the church courtyard with members of the Alameda Korean Presbyterian Church, with whom we share the buildings and grounds. There we relived Pentecost one more way: We sang and prayed and praised God in English and Korean; then we released several white doves (think Holy Spirit again), which quickly disappeared into the cloudy sky before our wondering eyes.
The greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is this thing of speaking in tongues. Not so much the ecstatic utterings of the Pentecostals, wonderful as that can be. Much more, it's the mini-miracle that happens when people become able to speak clearly and hear accurately what is truly the heart of the matter between them.
That's what the Day of Pentecost was all about, 2000 years ago and on May 31, 2009. That's what every single day is about, truth be told (and heard), as we make our journey together on the path of Christian discipleship.
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:08 AM
Monday, June 01, 2009
Sign of the Times?
Greeting people at the door after morning worship, I was surprised when one woman doubled back to speak with me again. Was I that much fun? Did she have second thoughts?
She said we really needed to take down that sign right away. Which sign? Where?
Following her lead, I found it, strapped to the bus stop signpost twenty paces from our front door.
Some creative soul (although s/he might resent the term) had whited out a strategic "S" to form a spiritual warning for all who passed by our house of worship on Pentecost Sunday.
No problem, though. By the time we discovered and removed the sign we'd already prayed and praised the goodness of our God.
I'll find out at this Thursday's meeting of the ministerial association if any other churches were targeted for the whimsical warning.
Meanwhile, I'm just grateful the perp also whited out the fine print subscript about "spreading poisons."
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:16 AM
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