Sharing the First Fruits--by Linden Malki

The earliest mention in Genesis of bringing the "first fruits" to God is in the very beginning of the story that became the history of God's people is Cain and Abel, as they bring their results of their first harvests as offerings to God. One thing to notice is that they had more than they needed to feed themselves and their family.  In general, this is true of most of what we do to provide for ourselves--we do usually have the skills and the provisions for more than we need, and we can share our harvests and what we can make with our hands with others. The results are that we can trade with each other to all benefit from the variety of what we can grow and what we can make, and we can give from our harvests and our skills to be able to support those who spend their time and efforts to lead the community in serving God and taking care of each other.

As the earliest communities were formed, usually based on families and their neighbors, included in the guidelines for actually making the community work properly were instructions to bring a "tithe", defined as ten percent, to a central location to where those who cared for the religious observances and the charitable needs of the community had the resources to do their jobs. I can't help noticing that as part of the intelligence that we were endowed with from the beginning were not only language skills, but math skills as well. I've noticed that when archeologists uncover the remains of ancient settlements, they often find collections of clay tablets engraved with records much like the paperwork that we still find necessary to keep a community organized--census data, records of taxes and payments, records of the goods and services produced by members of the community, and even copies of "homework" assignments of the students that are learning how to maintain the records.  We find that people are required to give of what they grow and produce as an offering to God, and  His designated representatives. Some of these are sacrificed in recognition that God does provide what is needed for food to be grown and materials to be used for building and other needs. Some of this production is designated for those charged of caring for the spiritual, educational charitable and organizational needs of the community.

 From the beginning, most communities have recognized their responsibility toward those who care for the needs of the community, and support of the religious and social/political authorities have been seen as a religious and social duty. Part of the instructions believed to have been given to the people by God include certain days of the year to be set apart for recognition and celebration of God's provision for His people. The Jewish and Christian communities no longer include actual sacrifices, (but the Islamic annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Passover celebration the small remaining Samaritan community in Israel still offer animal sacrifices). We do celebrate special occasions with special foods and meals, and we do consider regular donations of food and money as required support of the religious and social communities. 

The Special Days We Share as His Family

This time of the year is especially full of occasions to gather--as families, friends, fans of sports teams, shoppers, audiences of all kinds of events and activities.  Many of the things we do during this holiday season has to to do with celebrating historical and religious traditions, and how often do we stop and think about the origins of those traditions? There are more things to celebrate and remember; events in our own family history, our community, our nations and our world. Some are happy memories, some are things that we remember with the idea of never repeating the underlying events.

There are many cultures in our world, and there are different stories and different occasions that become the backbone of our gatherings. Most people in our own "western" culture have a background of a seven-day week, which goes back about four thousand years to a small group of families who believe their ancestors were called by God to follow a set of instructions for living life at its best. The central part of the tradition was a relationship with God, and the growing memories of events that shaped our history and our lives. We have records of people like Abraham, Moses and David that shaped a nation of people who worshiped a God who created us all, and wants us to know and remember what He has done over all these centuries.

The central story we share at this time of the year is a celebration of His stepping into our history and forever changing our lives. Historically, we have agreed to celebrate this at a time of the year that we note the renewal of our physical seasons. We believe that the birth of a specific Baby, two thousand years ago, forever changed our relationship with God, our Creator; and that even though He suffered and died, He came back to life on one spring day and offered to connect us with God in a new and special way. Our lives cycle around a seven-day "week" that is based on a celebration of His Life, and one special day when we come together as His family to share our experiences in His life--the Day that He came back from death to Life, the Life that He offers us for Eternity. 

Old as the Universe, and yet New to each of us!--by Linden Malki

There are three faith traditions based on the relationship of God the Creator of the Universe to His creatures. All three are based on a call of God to a person or persons to follow Him. Two of them describe this calling in terms of a set of rules to obey, so that they may be part of a community that has the favor of God. The third one, while it does have principles by which its followers are called to live, is based not on obedience to rules but a relationship with a Person. What we know about this Person is based partly on a tradition passed down from people who knew Him and lived with Him, partly on the Story of His death and Resurrection, but the most important things we know about Him come from our own experience of Him in our lives.

We are coming into the season of the year that has become the traditional celebration of His coming, as a human baby who was born to be a very special and unusual person. A few people were told Who He was, and from the beginning that knowledge brought both rejoicing and fear. That is still true; there are those who recognize His promise of life, not only in this world but beyond it, in His presence. There are also those who fear the disruption of their lives if they were to take His word seriously. He said and did things that were both recognizable to those who had heard of God, and upsetting to those who thought they knew everything they needed or wanted to know of God.  He could be gentle with children, and welcoming to those who were outside of the ancient Jewish tradition. He could be scathing with those who claimed to have a monopoly on God, who were judgmental and unforgiving to those who fell short of what they thought were God's standards. He had little patience with those who expected God to send legions of angels to crush the occupying Roman empire and restore their dreams of running the world.

Jesus came with a message and a promise to the whole world, not just those who bragged of their promised vindication, but of all the world that would recognize God's power, offered not as a crushing imperial slavery but available as a gift which had to be opened to be used. He told a small group of men that responded to His offer of a new life that they would be responsible for reaching out to all the world, from Jerusalem (which tried to bring God's kingdom by force and was destroyed in the process), to Samaria, where remnants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had hung onto their version of the prophecies and who recognized and welcomed Jesus' refugee followers, to the world outside who had heard of the Jewish traditions, and the wider world that was totally outside of that culture.  We have the stories; we have the instruction book; have we opened our lives to Him and His Spirit, and His calling to a new life?                                       

     

The Price of Leadership--by Linden Malki

The list of qualifications that St Paul gives Timothy is very demanding--but it is not only a good checklist for leaders, but for each of us. (Think how much more smoothly life would be if everybody was like this.!) It is interesting that from the beginning of Jesus' ministry, He called a group of men to be with Him and learn from Him. They did a fairly good job of living up to Jesus' requirements, though they did miss the point a few times, and of course one of them was a phony and troublemaker. Peter had a tendency to have a self-control deficiency, but he was willing to stop and straighten out.  But there were things that Jesus taught that needed to be part of any teachings that were shared with others. The early Church was wrestling with the calling to preach the existence and authority of God, the teaching and life of Jesus, and the obligations of members of a community of believers to God and each other. The tradition of meeting as a community goes all the way back to the family of Jacob, who became a community that had been touched by God and chosen to teach others what this meant.

The coming of Jesus changed the nature of this community, from one whose basic identification was a family, to one that adopted anyone who was willing to accept the calling to identify with Jesus as Lord, and connect with God the Father, and His desire for personal relationship with all people who would respond to His message. The last human words we have on record from Jesus is a command to go and welcome all who were willing into this relationship, beyond the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This new community as commanded by Jesus, reached out not only to those who were familiar with this God. but to their relatives in Samaria and then to the wider world.

This calling got a mixed response; there were those who embraced the opportunity to have a relationship with their Creator, and those who rejected it. We have seen through the centuries the havoc caused by those who take this position in a wrong direction, of personal failure, greed, abuse, and other sins that can destroy the community and be a misleading and dangerous witness to the world.  We, who are committed to God's Word and His people, need to hold our leaders accountable and pray and support them in their calling. 

Come Before Him with Song! --by Linden Malki

Music has been part of life for as long as we have existed, as far as we know. We are created with the capacity to make sounds, and use the sounds to communicate with other people, as well as animals. But beyond the gift of communication, we are also blessed with voices that can create harmonious sounds, that can express many different feelings, usually pleasurable. We can make pleasant sounds with all sorts of things--things that we can bang on, things that we can whistle with, strings that can be tensioned, tuned and plucked or bowed. And, more than that, we have the ability to hear and appreciate.

We also have the ability to recognize and appreciate the sounds made by other creatures--especially birds, but also other animals.  And there are evidences that animals can respond to music as well as our voices and the sounds of other creatures. We also respond to noises of inanimate objects--big things like the ocean, as well as little tiny things like a clock ticking.

We also realize that God has used the wonder of sound to interact with His creation; He uses the ability He created in us to make not just sounds but music, and voices that can be controlled and combined to make both simple music, like a child singing "Jesus Loves Me", and wonderful soaring music like the "Hallelujah Chorus."  We also can use music to tell a story. One of the first musical stories that that has been preserved is Moses and Miriam's song celebrating the defeat of the Egyptians in the sea.  This not only reminds us of the event, but it combines the story of God's action with praise and thanks for the God who showed His power in the lives of His people.  We read: "Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said,I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him." (Exodus 15:1-2) We also have songs of David, Solomon, and many other writers and singers. Solomon's Temple was a place of singing--we find  among the musicians on staff in the Temple grandsons of the prophet Samuel; and the longest single Book in the Bible is a songbook. We have stories of children praising God in song, and all sorts of people in all sorts of places. We should thank God that He gives us the gift of song--that can then return to Him in our Praise!
                                                                                                           

TELLING THE STORY--by Linden Malki

As we've been studying about being real, there are several things that need to happen. We need to be real about ourselves; who we are, who God created us to be, and how our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others that we come into contact with see us. We need to be real about God--who He is, how we learn about Him and experience Him, and how our lives are changed by our relationship with Him. And if we know God and what He has done to change our lives, we have a story to tell. It may be drama, like my great-great uncle who was a merchant seaman who was shipwrecked in an Atlantic Ocean storm and miraculously rescued--and went on to be converted from a nominal Swedish Lutheran to a Baptist missionary who set up the first believers' baptism in Sweden, and organized the first Baptist church in Sweden, and was imprisoned and then banished for preaching outside the state church. On the other hand, some of us were raised in solid Christian families and grew, as Jesus did, "in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." Our story may be one of obedience and growth, which is not always as easy as it looks. We may have grown up in a family of faith, and rebelled, and had to be rescued and restored. And we may have grown up in a family whose  relationship with God was nominal and not healthy.  And it might have been totally without faith or knowledge of God.

Most of the people Jesus interacted with were Jews, who more or less knew the traditions of their ancestors' interactions with God. He usually was pretty low-key in His dealings with them--asked the people He had healed to not talk about it. There were a few exceptions: He sent out messengers, but there message was one of a coming event, not a lot of information about Jesus Himself. There was the Samaritan women in John 4, who had a religious background that had separated from the Judean tradition 700 years earlier, but shared a basic knowledge of 'God, and Jesus was very upfront with her, and spent several days in her village. The most dramatic incident was in Mark 5, Luke 8, and Matthew 8, when Jesus, in the Greek area east of Galilee, encountered a man seriously possessed by demons. When Jesus told the demons to leave the man, they asked if they could go into the pigs instead of banishment, which Jesus allowed. When Jesus was leaving the area, the now sane man asked to go with him, but Jesus sent him back to tell his story to his friends and family. His story, as well as the Samaritan woman's, were spread in their home areas, and Samaria and also the Greek Decapolis areas were open to the Gospel when Judeans were persecuting Jesus' followers.

As obedient followers, the best stories we have to tell are based our own experiences with God, and our compassion and willingness to show God's love to those we encounter, who are thirsty and open for the Word of God.

The Starting Point...by Linden Malki

                   

Jesus had an advantage when He talked to Jews--some things were already part of the culture; Moses had covered some of the ground that the Gentiles were not familiar with. (However, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and Zechariah, and Daniel--at least! had challenged their countrymen with the idea that part of their calling was to acquaint the rest of the world with their God.) The writer of the epistle to the "Hebrews" starts at the beginning: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible...
 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:1,3,6)  This is where it has to start! Anyone who does not believe in the existence of God is not going to pay attention to the rest of the story. Then, when we are willing to accept the idea that there is a God that created everything, and that He actually cares who we are, what we do, and that it is worth the time and effort to not only believe, but to follow what He says.

In the political climate that is currently accusing everybody they don't agree with of being a "Nazi", I ran across a very interesting discussion of why Hitler was aggressively trying to wipe out Jews, as well as Christians and a whole bunch of other people that he didn't think should be allowed to live. One thing that comes out in his writing is that he didn't respect Jews as well as Christians for being committed to an ethic that values all people and forbids the wholesale wiping out or enslaving of anybody and everybody who doesn't agree with his Norse pagan ideals of strength and dominance.  (The total death toll of this attempt is now estimated at 12-20 millions.)

We often hear somebody who doesn't want to pay attention to the traditional morals and ethics justify their opinion by saying "Jesus never said anything about...." , not realizing that He didn't have to say anything about teachings that were already accepted and understood in His culture. For example, He begins His discussion with Nicodemus by recognizing that Nicodemus is already an expert in Jewish law and tradition, and so He just needs to take him to the next step of developing a personal and essential relationship with God.  We have this story because we also need the same thing: to be "born again" as a child of God, committed to a personal relationship at a level higher than the external law and traditions.