Just Being — Plucking and Planting

I love spring mornings in our new home. Once the two oldest children are ready, we head out to the barn, check on the ducks and chicks and then head out to wait for the school bus. On our way out to wait for the bus the sun shines on our backs and shadows seem to grow from our feet and carry themselves down the drive. Some days our shadows have a dance party as we dance a jig or do the robot. Our shadow friends perform a slightly stretched version of the same dance. Other times our shadows fight each other in true shadow boxing style. Our shadows at times stretch out into the road and cars passing by run over our shadows and leave the drivers confused as to why a group pf panicking pedestrians are raising their hands in grief at our shadow's unfortunate demise. I have to admit that I am sometimes embarrassed to get too into this game, especially when I see the confused look on passing driver's faces. Yet when I get to just act like a kid again and throw those fears aside, I never feel more like a real version of myself. Who Do You Think You Are?

Identity is pretty important, especially in scripture. Who do they say I am? Who are you? I will give you a new name? You will be my people? I AM. If we look at the narrative of scripture we see a people who are desperately trying to figure out who they are and how who they are defines them. At the same time, the people of God are looking for who God really is. Trying to put words to a "being" that is the word itself. Putting language to something beyond language. When Moses is sent, his response though much less abrasive, basically is asking God who he is. Who are you? Who should I say sent me? Who do you think you are? The simplicity of God's answer is that He is. He is who he says He is. He is who He has been. He is who he will be. I AM. There is no untrue or unjust nature to God's very being. He is fully and authentically true to Himself.

Similarly, when Jesus is standing before Pilate, answering for the life that he lived in such a public display of the character and nature of God. Pilate asks Jesus what the truth really is. Jesus' answer is silence. It is as if Jesus is saying that the one who stands before you in word and flesh, in all of the truthful splendor, is truth itself. Jesus IS what he does. His life is the good news of the inbreaking kingdom of God and the silent response to Pilate's question is His testimony.

Who Are You, Really?

I think on any given day that most people are walking around revealing about 60% of who they really are. Maybe, and that is a big maybe, in a small group or support group that number goes up to 80-90%. Even in our worship and prayer time when we are communing with the creator who knows our inmost workings and substance, we never crack that 90% mark. I mean the parts of us where we do good things with sometimes unconscious motives to gain something from our charity. The parts of us that can't shake that evil thought about our neighbor. The part of us where we feel we should be acknowledged or thanked more than we have been. The part of us that is still scarred from being bullied for peeing our pants in elementary school. The part of us that just wants to scream in public at the top of our lungs to avoid walking to the front of the line and punch the person paying with a check in the grocery store. The part of us that likes having nice things because people look up to us a little more. The part of us that becomes too addicted to too many things, far too easily. We've just managed to turn those things down, to just keep them running in the background while the louder narrative, the one we let other people see is the one that does the right thing. We like people to hear the story of how we gave our last for that person who was in need. We like to show the version of us who never swears and loves their wife unconditionally. The parent who just always has the right thing to say to their kids as they wipe their brow and kiss their boo-boo.

That's not you. Let's be honest, the best version of you is not you. We are complex creatures that are constantly fighting being defined by our shortcomings and past hurts and trying to instead be defined by who Jesus is and what he has done and what God will do, in us and in this world and yet the tension is palpable. The good news is that Jesus has befriended you in all of your broken, bruised, conceited, ignorant grandeur.

Friend of the Friendless

God's answer to Moses of who He is, is what He does. God didn't give Moses a check list of things he would have to be to be His messenger. God showed Moses who God was. Jesus' answer to Pilate's question of truth Is the life of Jesus. Truth as revealed in His silent response spoke more loudly than any words possibly could. The silence was real. Let me just say, the very real Jesus wants to befriend the very real you. The parts of you that are plagued with addiction, anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear, are the only parts of you that are truly seeking out transformational friendship. Jesus sees it and he knows it, so he goes to the tax collector, the seminary dropout, ht one who has wandered, the prostitute, the liar, the thief, the zealot and the bleeding woman. Those people and that version of you is the only version that is actually seeking out friendship. The truest version of you is in desperate need of a friend like Jesus and it is the only version of you that Jesus is radically interested in befriending. That version of you doesn't have all the right answers, the right political party, doesn't always give with the best intentions, or know the right people and live with "favor" and influence. That version of you who doesn't already have everything they could want or need, is in need of a savior.

God is answering your question of, "who do you think you are?" with a simple and profound "I AM". Jesus is answering your search for truth and the realest version of humanity with...silence. Hear His word in the silence.