Driving through Rhode Island yesterday...
My car radio was tuned to 90.9 FM to pick up my favorite Boston NPR news station. Coming in from Connecticut somewhere was a student radio station on the same frequency, playing avant-garde indie rock. The band's name included an anatomically unmentionable body part.
As my road rose and fell, my radio alternated between the two stations and sometimes just gave me a confused signal of the two on top of each other.
It struck me that this was an analogy of the Christian life. The voices of the Holy Spirit broken up by and sometimes drowned out by the voices of our world - entertainment, endless sports, news, work...the avalanche of noise and information we are all immersed in.
How necessary, beautiful, restoring to turn the world's signal down a while and listen to the pure signals of Father. Of course Boston isn't heaven, and I wouldn't equate NPR to the Holy Spirit, but you get the idea.
The closer I got to Boston, the clearer my station came in...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saturday, September 05, 2009
3 little words, Part 1
I've been considering three little words that each convey to us the very character of God, tell us about ourselves, and are the bedrocks of both church, and the ultimate goal of God working in time/space. Pretty comprehensive huh? Well as you might imagine, for three such powerful God-words, they are in Hebrew.
Word number one is...macom. It's pronounced 'ma-comb'.
Macom is often translated into English as 'space' or 'hospitality'. As with all Hebrew words, it conveys a complex idea. This is hospitable space. This is what the powerful one does for the weak one in a relationship. They create a hospitable space for a relationship to happen. It doesn't take but a moment to see this is a word for grace, and indeed it is sometimes translated that way.
God , the one whom we frequently ignore, malign and blaspheme, He opens macom towards us. He come to us. He creates a hospitable space, and there He invites us into relationship. It is a self-giving, but not overwhelmingly so - for that would not be hospitable.
Rather, astonishingly, He creates space for us. For us. For us to misbehave in, for us to encounter Him, discover Him. He waits for us there. It is sheer utter graciousness. Macom. What a beautiful, powerful, wonderful idea.
Last, macom is a word for heaven too. Heaven is macom-space. Where God is filling, where we can grow in worship of Him, continually discovering Himself, and what it means to be made in His image, together, for ever and ever.
The church is heaven on earth. An instance of the in-breaking Kingdom of God on earth. Where the fabric of heaven is being formed in the here and now. Church is macom - a hospitable space where people - anyone - can come and encounter God. Christ will be in church. Because the church is Christ's body, we are Christ. And we open up macom and invite the world in, without pre-conditions, without expectations. Just a grace-space. May you dwell in macom, may you be a macom-creating person for the world around you to encounter the Christ within and through you.
I've been considering three little words that each convey to us the very character of God, tell us about ourselves, and are the bedrocks of both church, and the ultimate goal of God working in time/space. Pretty comprehensive huh? Well as you might imagine, for three such powerful God-words, they are in Hebrew.
Word number one is...macom. It's pronounced 'ma-comb'.
Macom is often translated into English as 'space' or 'hospitality'. As with all Hebrew words, it conveys a complex idea. This is hospitable space. This is what the powerful one does for the weak one in a relationship. They create a hospitable space for a relationship to happen. It doesn't take but a moment to see this is a word for grace, and indeed it is sometimes translated that way.
God , the one whom we frequently ignore, malign and blaspheme, He opens macom towards us. He come to us. He creates a hospitable space, and there He invites us into relationship. It is a self-giving, but not overwhelmingly so - for that would not be hospitable.
Rather, astonishingly, He creates space for us. For us. For us to misbehave in, for us to encounter Him, discover Him. He waits for us there. It is sheer utter graciousness. Macom. What a beautiful, powerful, wonderful idea.
Last, macom is a word for heaven too. Heaven is macom-space. Where God is filling, where we can grow in worship of Him, continually discovering Himself, and what it means to be made in His image, together, for ever and ever.
The church is heaven on earth. An instance of the in-breaking Kingdom of God on earth. Where the fabric of heaven is being formed in the here and now. Church is macom - a hospitable space where people - anyone - can come and encounter God. Christ will be in church. Because the church is Christ's body, we are Christ. And we open up macom and invite the world in, without pre-conditions, without expectations. Just a grace-space. May you dwell in macom, may you be a macom-creating person for the world around you to encounter the Christ within and through you.
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