Eye Contact

 

I suppose I’m old school. I do not like ordering from a kiosk, I want to speak to someone, to look them in the eye, to ask them how they’re doing.

 

I don’t want to put my money in the cloud with something that’s supposed to be a bank, I want to have a place to go if I have a problem or a question, a place I can walk into, ask for the manager, look her in the eye and say, “I need help with this please.”

 

How old school am I?

 

A new gas station has opened where we live. I stopped there to get gas, got out of the car fully expecting to have three choices, high grade, mid-grade, and poor man’s grade. But oh no, there weren’t just three choices, there was another choice, I think it’s called E85. I stared at the pump like an opossum on an eight-lane highway looking at oncoming traffic with headlights on high-beam. Realizing I was in the wrong place I got in the car and left and I haven’t been back.

 

When I was younger we used to call places where you get gas “service stations.” You could actually get service at these places. Your oil could be checked, your tire pressure checked, your windows washed! (no kidding), and your gas pumped for you. Now you get to check your own tire pressure and if you need air they charge you for it and you get to put the air in the tires yourself – imagine that, paying for air. We’ve been conned for sure.

 

Being old school, a firm handshake and eye contact are vital statistics, they are components of first impressions. They are integral to communications, they can communicate trust, doubt, or warning and suspicion. I have a friend, Jim, who is a general contractor. I knew him as a contractor before I knew him as a friend; becoming friends was a natural process based on trust. When I first met him his eye contact and handshake communicated trust and truth and dependability. In all the years we worked together Jim never let me down. If he said he was going to do something, he did it. If there was a problem with work his team did, he took ownership and solved it. If Jim was on a job and called me and told me about an issue I needed to address, I didn’t need to go see it for myself, I could trust Jim. I could do business with Jim on his word and a handshake.

 

We used to live in an agricultural region that employed folks who were not born in this country. When I walked down the streets of our little town and saw one of these folks coming my way I especially wanted to make eye contact, smile, and say, “Good afternoon.” I wanted these men and women to know that they were welcome. However, many of them passed me with heads down and eyes on the sidewalk, as if they were trying to be invisible. I was ashamed that they would feel unwelcome.

 

If I was ashamed a few years ago, you can imagine the shame I have today.

 

Prior to retirement my office was in a building that housed several firms, and since my firm was located on the first floor there was foot traffic outside our doors as folks headed to and from the elevators. I always tried to speak and make eye contract with the women and men I passed in the hallway and lobby area. Since this was not Grand Central Station, I’m not speaking of crowds of people, a crowd might be two or three in our building, normally it was just me passing one other person.

 

It bothered me that so many folks were too busy for a civil return to my, “Good morning,” or “Good afternoon.” Forget about eye contact.

 

We have a fair number of walkers in our community. This is a great place to walk because there is no through traffic. It amuses me that some walkers are like the agricultural workers I mentioned. They seem to think that if they don’t make eye contact with me that I won’t see them. This is especially amusing when I’m walking toward them on the other side of the narrow street.

 

When Vickie and I are sitting outside and walkers pass our home we make it a point to wave, say “Hi,” and jump up and down to acknowledge folks. (Well, not really jump up and down, but it may come to that.) Most folks respond, but some do it reluctantly, giving something akin to a royal wave where the hand barely moves when the king acknowledges the unwashed masses.

 

A few mornings ago I approached the deli counter at our grocery store to purchase some lunch meat, it was early and there wasn’t much going on, I was the only customer at the counter.

 

There was a woman bent over a slicing machine beyond the counter. Without looking up and without making eye contact she said, “What can I do for you?”

 

“May I please have a half pound of low sodium turkey Ma’am?”

 

“Anything else?” (Still bent over and not looking up.)

 

“And a half pound of roast beef please Ma’am.”

 

I then stepped away from the deli counter to pick up some cheese and a baguette on nearby shelves while she retrieved the meats and sliced them.

 

As the corner of my eye caught her moving to the counter to give me my order, I saw that she remained bent over in her walk, head and eyes still downward. I then realized that she had a physical condition, and I was reminded of the woman in Luke Chapter 13 who had been bent over for 18 years. As I silently prayed for her and thanked her for helping me, two things came to me.

 

The first was how thankful I was that the grocery store employed her, many businesses would have passed her by.

 

The second was that there are people who would like to make eye contact with us but can’t. Some can’t because of physical conditions, some, like the agricultural workers mentioned above, won’t because of social conditions. I could give example after example of this, but if you think about it long enough, you’ll find your own examples. A question is, of course, “Am I contributing to the problem or the solution?”

 

Are we bridging the chasms or deepening them? Are we building walls or opening doors?

 

The Word was made flesh (John 1:14) so that God could make eye contact with us. The Incarnation is God’s great “look you in the eye” offer of a firm handshake with fallen humanity; His offer to return us to relationship with Himself and with one another. (We cannot have one without the other.)

 

If we claim to know Him, then our calling is to lift others up, to look them in the eye with the reconciling love of God in Jesus Christ, to identify with them, to embrace them, to love them, and to suffer with them.

 

If the eye is the window of the soul, then what do our eyes communicate to others?

 

Violence, hate, rejection, judgment, disdain?

 

Or compassion, love, care, understanding, and an offer of relationship?

 

Let there be no mistake, we must not walk through life with our eyes diverted from those around us, as if they did not exist. To do so is not only to reject our identity in God and in Jesus Christ, it is also to ignore the fact that the Eye of God is watching us.

 

If we live in eye contact with Jesus, we will learn to live in eye contact with others.

 

 

 

Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (7)

 

The second conversation that shocked me occurred less than two months ago, it is the most recent of the three. Vickie and I were sitting at our table with a dear family member. While we don’t see him often, for he lives on the other side of the country, nor talk to him with great frequency, we love him and his family deeply.

 

We were talking about reading and understanding the Bible when he said to me, “I’m not an intellectual like you, so it is hard for me to understand the Bible.”

 

My first thought was, “O my, what have I done?” I was completely taken aback.

 

I rose from the table, got a Bible from a bookshelf, placed it in front of him and sat down. Then I said, “Please open it and let’s read it. Open it anywhere.”

 

He opened the Bible at Daniel Chapter 10.

 

Now of all the passages in the Bible, Daniel Chapter 10 was not toward the top of my list to read with him because of its apocalyptic language and imagery, but as Reepicheep counsels, we must take the adventure that Aslan gives us. And so our nephew began reading aloud, and as he read a thought or two he’d stop and reflect on it with Vickie and me. It was a sweet time and before we knew it Neil had taken us through Daniel Chapter 10.

 

Neil saw the essence of the chapter. He didn’t need a commentary, he didn’t need Vickie or me to explain it, he did (I hope) benefit from our encouragement. While we made occasional comments about possibilities of meaning, it was more along the line of a hitting coach suggesting to a batter what pitches to look for with a particular pitcher. A hitting coach cannot face the pitcher, only the player at bat can do that.

 

After Neil had taken us through Daniel Chapter 10, we turned to Matthew and looked at a few passages. Since he was reading Matthew at home this seemed like a good idea – once again, to use another baseball analogy, he was making contact and putting the ball in play.

 

I don’t know what our nephew’s concept of “intellectual” is, perhaps it is more along the line of someone who receives formal education in a particular field, I suppose I should ask him. I do hope that in our time together that he saw that the Bible, by God’s grace, is accessible to us all – that as we come to God’s Word that God’s Word comes to us.

 

When I facilitate a small group, and when I preach, I tend to ask questions rather than give answers. This was also true in my business career, since I wanted my employees to grow, I needed to ask and seldom answer. Some folks respond well to this approach, others hate it. I think that once most people get over their insecurities that they not only begin to grow, but they learn to practice it with others and thereby help them grow.

 

I have learned much from the insights of others, insights which they would not have expressed had I been doing most of the talking. Often in a small group someone will say something that I had never thought of or seen in quite the same way – those times are exciting to me. Furthermore, whether in the Kingdom or in business, I’ve learned that if you give a group of people a problem and then leave them alone, they will usually come up with some great solutions and possibilities.

 

In the first conversation with our husband-and-wife friends, I was challenged by the erroneous idea that you need to exegete the Bible in a certain methodical way in order to understand it. In the second conversation I was challenged by the idea, also false, that you have to be “intellectual” to readily understand Scripture. In the first conversation I was asking myself, “Have I given that impression in my teaching and preaching?” In the second conversation I was asking myself, “How have I given that impression?”

 

The Scriptures are clear that only the Holy Spirit can reveal God’s Word to us (John 16:12 – 15; 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16). Pastors and teachers fall short if they do not instill this in their people. All of our learning and education must go through the Cross of Christ for it to be of lasting benefit. Perhaps all seminary and Bible college students should memorize 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 before they begin their studies. Perhaps all teachers and professors should be required to take an annual refresher seminar on 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16.

 

Perhaps Jesus’ words in John and Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians should be written above the entrance to every seminary and every seminary library. Perhaps every author who seeks to write a commentary ought to read these two passages every day prior to beginning his work.

 

It is the rare commentary that is unambiguous in its dependence on the Holy Spirit for conveying the Word of God. These are the commentaries that view history, archeology, textual spade work and transmission through Scripture and Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring the “natural” alive, rather than building a foundation on the “natural” and forcing the Bible into the image of natural man. Many commentaries are a mixture and can be confusing to the unaware and wearisome to others (wearisome because the reader must constantly pick bones out of the fish). Some of us have learned to eat fish with bones faster than others; all of us should be careful when we do so.

 

The Holy Spirit either breathed the Bible or not. The Holy Spirit is either the Primary Source of the Bible or not. Yes, for sure God incorporates contemporary images, using them “as-is” or transforming them upward into higher and deeper perspectives – but the Primary Mover must always be the Holy Spirit, not the human author’s contemporary surroundings, understandings, beliefs, practices, intentions, and cultural biases. We must submit all things to Christ and seek Christ in all things. The Bible, by God’s grace, transports us into the eternals in Christ Jesus. We are not to live as earth dwellers.

 

We live in a time of exceptional information, I do not say that it is a time of exceptional knowledge, for to really know something requires, I think, a marriage of the mind and heart with the object to be known – whether in the concrete or the abstract (and the abstract is no longer the abstract to those who know it). Using this measure, we can seldom know anything by using a search engine. 

Employing a search engine and thinking the results by themselves give us knowledge is like purchasing a tomato at a grocery store and thinking that we have grown the tomato. We may gain data from the internet, but we are not likely to gain knowledge or wisdom. We may come home from the grocery store with a tomato, but that is not the same as our neighbor’s tomatoes on his table, for he has nurtured the soil, planted the seeds, cared for the plants, and harvested the tomatoes. Hothouse tomatoes seldom have taste, hothouse data from the internet is the same.

 

Interpretive methodologies may have their place, they may be helpful, but they must not sit on the interpretive (hermeneutical and exegetical) throne – Jesus has reserved that for the Holy Spirit. The wise interpreter submits himself and his approach to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, knowing that “knowledge puffs up, but love edifies,” knowing that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

 

If we remove the Holy Spirit, if we remove the supernatural, if understanding the Bible is open to anyone who can learn hermeneutical and exegetical principles, if 100% of the process of Biblical interpretation can be taught and tested – then what the Bible says about itself is a lie, 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16 is a lie, because it teaches us that “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually understood” (1 Cor. 2:14).

 

Our “faith is not to rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5).

 

We, who are in Christ, have been given the Holy Spirit “who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (1 Cor. 2:12 – 13).

 

Now, how we negotiate all this is another matter, and whether we can recover from where we are and return to where we ought to be in the Holy Spirit and the Living Word is another matter. How these things are worked out is beyond my vision – I suppose it must be local, always local – yet it may indeed have broader currents. Christ Jesus must always be our North Star; the Cross must always be our portal into the Divine and heavenly.

 

Someone has said that while over the past few decades we may have done a good job of teaching people the Bible (which I question), we have not done a good job at teaching people to know Jesus.

 

There is an irony here, when thinking about the Biblical text and interpretation. The irony is that when we remove the Holy Spirit and supplant Him with our methodologies, that our focus on the text is pretty much the same as those who teach the Bible solely as literature; neither approach requires the Living Christ, neither requires the supernatural, neither requires the Holy Spirit, both are controlled by “man.”

 

As John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven” (John 3:27).

 

You may have discerned another possible irony, and that is that I may appear to have drifted into the “intellectual” after beginning this reflection insisting that being “intellectual” is not necessary for seeing and understanding the Bible. If thinking about things is being intellectual then I am guilty, but I don’t think so, I think I am simply seeing Scripture as it is written, that I refuse to gloss over passages such as 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16.

 

If I am using terms and concepts and sharing concerns that are unfamiliar to a reader, I am complementing the reader on his or her ability to think about these important ideas and teachings from the Bible. We do not grow by being constantly fed baby food (Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3; 1 Cor. 3:1 – 2). Much of our small group and Sunday school material might as well be published by the Gerber baby food company.

 

I refuse to treat people as if they are stupid. I refuse to water down the Gospel and the Bible. I refuse to deviate from calling us to total devotion and commitment to Jesus Christ. I refuse to treat adults as children.

 

“For I determined to know nothing about you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Only the crucified Jesus Christ opens the door to seeing and understanding Scripture.

 

Let us trust the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus and His Word to us (John 16:12 – 15).

Postscript: I realize that this can be challenging to those of us trained in hermeneutical and exegetical methods (methods of interpretation and communication). It is difficult for me to work through it, and I imagine I’ll die without having fully done so. Aren’t we always striving to see Jesus more clearly? To see His Word more fully? 

Some of my teachers have held “methods” loosely and graciously, giving room for their students to explore and grow as the Holy Spirit works and lives in them, others have been more rigid. All have loved Jesus; all have done their best. This is analogous to being trained to preach by a good teacher. I love Scott Gibson and Haddon Robinson – for who they are in Christ (Haddon is now in the Presence), for the content of their teaching, and for their own preaching.

 

As I have previously shared, I was trained so well by Scott and Haddon that I didn’t need the Holy Spirit. After I’d been pastoring for a few months and preaching every Sunday, I realized that I had so absorbed and bought into Haddon’s methodology, including his exegetical approach (which I incorporated with that of the broader faculty) that I could preach without reliance on the Holy Spirit and that few, if anyone, would notice. 

This frightened me and (I hope) drove me to a dependance on Christ (I hope in some measure, I’m still learning this Way) and helped me to hold all methods loosely. I may return to this subject at some point, we’ll see. When you live in a culture or system, it can be difficult to critique it – especially when it appeals to you.

He's Calling for You

 

 

“Martha went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you” (John 11:28 NASB).

 

Musings from John the Beloved Apostle:

 

I am often asked, “What was it like to write your account of Jesus?”

 

In response I usually have no response, just as I have no response to the question of what it was like to write the Apocalypse. There are some things that cannot be answered, at least in this life, and, I suppose, if they could be answered it would not be lawful or helpful to do so. Once in a long while I’ll look the questioner in the eye, pause, and then say, “You can only imagine.”

 

Yet, as I am with you today, I do feel like sharing an element of not so much what it was like to write the Gospel, but rather what it is like to live out of the Gospel I have written. One does not write a Gospel and have closure, anymore than one should read a Gospel, or Isaiah, or Job, and have closure. I dare say that anyone who reads Scripture and experiences closure has never read Scripture – for is not reading Scripture to enter into relationship with the Word who was in the Beginning, to live in the Eternal? Ha! Is it not to breathe His Life, to inhale and exhale? Ha!

 

O how I remember, how I still feel His holy breath upon us! How I felt it when I wrote, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.” (John 20:22). I felt His breath in the Upper Room, I felt His breath when I wrote those words, I feel His breath as I write these words. May I ask you, do you feel His breath right now?

 

To write is to remember, to relive, to experience, to be there – and it is for Him to be here; with me, with you, with us.

 

And so it was, when I related Lazarus’s death and Jesus raising him from the dead, when I described seeing Martha and Mary in their grief and Jesus in His compassion, when I wrote the words, “She went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you,’” that I thought, “Yes, amen, that is it, that says it all.”

 

Do you see what I mean?

 

Is this not what my life has been all about, since that Day when He called me?

 

There is Martha, conveying to Mary Jesus’ words of calling and His desire for Mary to come to Him.

 

“The Teacher is here,” Martha says.

 

Isn’t this what my life has been all about? To say to those around me, no...not to merely say, but to proclaim, to insist, that the Teacher is here! Right here, right now! The Word has become flesh and lives among us, He who was in the beginning, that is, He who is the Beginning, He has come, He is coming, He is here – O for people to know that He is here, here for them.

 

Martha speaks the calling of Jesus to Mary. “He is calling for you.”

 

Hasn’t this been my Message? Haven’t I learned from dear, dear Martha? O reader, there is more to Martha than meets the eye. Yes, yes, she may have her times when she is busy serving (John 12:2; Luke 10:40), but her serving also includes speaking the Word and heart of Jesus to others. Can you think of a more sacred charge than to say to those around us, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?

 

In the midst of her own grief, Martha speaks the presence and call of Jesus to Mary. This is, I know, a hard thing. It is a hard thing to go out of our own sorrow and pain and share joy and hope and peace and the call of Jesus with others. How well I recall when James, my sweet brother, was murdered by Herod (Acts 12:2).

 

At that very same time my beloved friend Peter was thrown into prison, indeed many of our brothers and sisters were persecuted, it was chaos around us. Yet, the peace of the Lamb was with us, the Teacher walked among us, and Voice of our Good Sheperd spoke to us…and I knew I must continue to encourage the sheep of our Lord Jesus, pray for Peter, and rejoice that my brother James had proven faithful to our Lord and His saints. I recalled Martha going to Mary as I was living through that particular trial, I recalled her words to Mary, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Out of her own grief, Martha spoke words of hope to grieving Mary.

When Martha came to Mary their house was a cacophony of wailing and crying…it was chaos. Yet, Martha spoke and Mary heard. I have learned that no matter the chaos around us, no matter the noise, no matter the hopelessness, no matter the distractions, that if we will be the Voice of our Teacher, if we will be His Presence, if we will call others to Him, that His sheep will hear and respond.

 

Sadly, as I was reminded when I penned the Apocalypse, we often blend in with the chaos, make alliances with the world and the dragon, and fail to call others to our Lord Jesus.  

 

When Martha came for Mary, there was an empty place at their table. As the sisters would learn, in Jesus Christ there is never an empty place, for He is the Resurrection and the Life and when we believe in Him we never die…I reminded myself of that when I lost my brother James…a temporary parting you might call it…but since he remains with me it isn’t even that…one of those things you can’t explain, and if you could it wouldn’t be lawful to do so.

 

O the memories I had when I recorded my Gospel, how I relived what I wrote, how I learned from Martha and Mary…and how I am still learning from them, from Jesus, from Peter, from James…learning to say to others, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Whom can you share those words with today?

 

With whom can you be the Presence of Christ?

 

To whom shall you say, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?