Sep. 19, 2016

Five Ways God's Kingdom Is Different #5

By Sonlight
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He Can Handle the Truth

At one point this year, I was tired. You probably know that feeling, where you think, "I am tired to the point that I could throw up." And I had been dealing with some upsetting issues, and was sad about Syria, and, generally, just . . . depleted.

And I headed up to town for a birthday party, and put in a new CD. The first song was from Psalm 94. And I listened to the words and was stunned.

I grew up in a home where the rule was, "No put-downs." And I know Matthew 5:22, that "Anyone who says, 'You fool,' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

And yet here was what the Psalmist said.

Take heed, you senseless ones, you fools,
When will you understand, you fools,
Does the God who teaches man all things not know?
Does he not know?

Does the God who formed the ear not hear,
Does he who formed the eye not see,
Does the God who disciplines nations never punish?
Does he not judge?

By the time this song was done, I was sobbing. More than sobbing. Screaming, wailing . . . the sounds of deep emotion that, had I been at home, I would have kept inside, because no child needs to hear their mother melting down. But I was alone in the car, with God and Psalm 94.

I listened to this song five times. And in between my wailing for Syria, and broken relationships, and all the rest, I would think, "Is it okay to sing along? I'm calling people fools. And I guess it is foolish to rebel against God and think he doesn't see you. But that feels really awkward and bordering on wrong. On the other hand, if I'm singing Scripture, and part of the Psalter, how far off can I get?"

And it reminded me of something C.S. Lewis, in his meditations on the Psalms, says. Paraphrased: "The Ancients were far more willing to express their true feelings, unedited, than are we today."

Which is what I leave you with. If you are rejoicing: rejoice. And if you are angry, don't be angry about being angry (anyone else been there?!). The Psalmist says, "Why have you rejected us forever, O God?" (Psalm 74). That's a pretty gutsy thing to say. And that's in God's worship manual.

So worship God as you are. He can handle it.

Love

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

P.S. And that Psalm 94? You can hear a version here.

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Sep. 17, 2016

Five Ways God's Kingdom Is Different #4

By Sonlight
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No, Really. It is Backwards

From childhood, I remember a nice diagram of how the Armor of God relates to the armor of a Roman soldier: helmet, breastplate, belt, shoes, sword, shield.

So I was surprised, reading Timothy Gombis's Drama of Ephesians years later, to find that Isaiah 59 actually speaks of God as a warrior: "He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head."

Gombis says, "Just as God waged warfare in the past to vindicate his name, to rescue his people or to judge his people, so now God wages warfare against the power through the church" (158).

And this warfare is not clashing in some kind of spiritual pitched battle.

Our warfare involves resisting the corrupting influences of the power. The same pressures that produce practices of exploitation, injustice and oppression in the world are at work on church communities. The church's warfare involves resisting such influences, transforming corrupted practices and replacing them with life-giving patterns of conduct that draw on and radiate the resurrection power of God. Our warfare, then, involves purposefully growing into communities that become more faithful corporate performances of Jesus on earth (159-160).

This is intense to think about. Gombis talks at length about the ways that we are lulled into not having the mind of Christ. Maybe that looks like consumerism, or the hunt for power. Those are obvious values of the world, and it can be hard to settle into service and loving your family, in the face of friends with perfect Facebook lives.

Which is all to say: the mind of Christ is not like the world's mind. Just resisting the way the world thinks, valuing things the world doesn't value (like children) . . . this is warfare the way Christ fought. Subversive, painful, sacrificial, unexpected.

When you love your children, you advance the Kingdom of God. It's exciting to think about.

Love

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

P.S. I had no thought, when I started this series, of a way to connect it with the Sonlight missions project. None. But as I wrote, the connection came to mind. If you haven't done so already, Sign up here!.

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Sep. 16, 2016

Five Ways God's Kingdom Is Different #3

By Sonlight
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It Is All Backwards

Timothy Gombis, in his book The Drama of Ephesians, talks at length about how completely different the Kingdom of God is. Power demonstrated through weakness.

Throughout John's Gospel, Jesus has opportunities to assert himself and conduct his ministry by grabbing headlines and making impressive displays of power. Each time he says, "My hour has not yet come"; this is not the way that God is glorified in him. Nearer to the end of his ministry, however, Jesus begins to recognize that his hour has come. The time to glorify the Father has arrived. How does Jesus do that?"

As John says, "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."

And he washes their feet.

Don't read past that. Sit there for a minute.

He could have done anything at all, at this end of his life, and he serves in the most demeaning way possible.

There is no way you can prepare for a king that backwards.

But keep going. As Jesus finishes praying in Gethsemane, "he looked up to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you. . . .'"

And it is easy for me to read that as, "Because I'm about to be resurrected and will eventually have every knee bow." I read that as a statement of final exaltation.

But Gombis would argue that my reading is faulty. Because we worship Jesus, who triumphed over principalities and powers through dying.

That's not the way the world triumphs.

When David fought Goliath, he killed Goliath. He didn't win by having Goliath kill him! It's ridiculous.

It is backwards.

  • So next time your baby decides to finger paint with the contents of his diaper, and you clean it up;
  • So next time your children, after playing happily all morning, have a sudden, sharp disagreement that ends in screams, tears, or maybe worse, and you go to help them find the way of peace;
  • So next time you hit your 4 o'clock slump, when it's a long time yet for the husband to come home and dinner is not yet begun, and you start it anyway;
  • So next time you teach your fidgeting children, because you love them and want good things for them;

Don't think that is nothing.

Because in the backwards kingdom of God, this is how God's power is manifested. Through the little things done in love.

There is a beautiful verse in Ephesians 3. Paul says that he has been given the grace to preach Christ, to tell the things that have been hidden, "that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places."

The picture I have is of faithful service in small things, and the rulers and authorities (however defined) are watching in awe.

The little things you do for Christ matter in the heavenlies.

It is backwards. But I am thankful for it.

Love

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

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Sep. 15, 2016

Five Ways God's Kingdom Is Different #2

By Sonlight
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Poor in Spirit

I have been reflecting lately on the Beatitudes.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit. . . ."

I have read that "blessed" is translated "happy," or, more properly, "in your happy place." As in, you are in your happy place when you are poor in spirit.

And in my journey, I have gone through different ideas of what that means, and different ways of considering how Jesus relates to that statement.

Because I look at Jesus and see the fullness of the godhead bodily, and it makes me uncomfortable to think of him as poor in any way except financially.

I don't think of Jesus as impoverished in spirit, as if his spirit was anemic. I find it hard to imagine how "poor in spirit" relates to Jesus.

But then I go to the next verse, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." And I can see that in Jesus. There is Jesus, after all, weeping over Jerusalem the week before the Crucifixion.

And I like that this verse doesn't say, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will get more mourning." No. The end result is comfort. But the mourning comes first.

Matthew Jacoby, in Deeper Places, a book about the Psalms, talks about how we, as humans, are good at mistaking reality, thinking that we have some control. And then we realize that we don't.

And our response to this is lament. He says "the pain of reality too easily wells up from underneath like volcanic lava. Ironically, when this happens, we are closer to reality, which is why Jesus declared that the 'poor in spirit' are blessed (Matt. 5:3). It is they who are closest to the truth."

Ah. That is a definition of "poor in spirit" that I love. That we are entering into the reality of the world, the brokenness of the world, and it grieves us. But that is the right response.

Of course, Jesus came for restoration. So that we might have life. So that he might leave us a Comforter.

But if you find yourself poor in spirit, if you are mourning and you aren't quite sure this is yet your happy place (in fact, you know that it isn't), may you find yourself turning more to Jesus, clinging more to him, and finding him worthy of trust.

And worthy of praise.

Love

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

P.S. While I personally have never been diagnosed with depression, I have dear friends who have walked that path. I have gone through a time of despair. And if that is you: take heart. This message is not to overwhelm you. This is a reminder that in the midst of our pain, in our darkest hours, Christ is near. He is the One who holds us, and our world, together.

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Sep. 14, 2016

Five Ways God's Kingdom Is Different #1

By Sonlight
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The message I want you to hear is this: God's kingdom is different.

And if you've plunged into that difference, and you're sinking more than you're swimming . . . I'm sorry. I grieve with you, because I know how painful that is.

But keep going.

It Is Intense to Deal with The Fall

In 2009, we moved from a comfortable suburban life to unimproved land, and we got a bunch of animals.

I'm not a vegan, so on some level I knew that death happens so I could eat, but I was unprepared for how much death happened, especially when I didn't expect it.

I went from a safe environment, where I was mostly cut off from the effects of The Fall, to a place where I was immersed in both the incredible life that springs forth (plant a seed, get an edible treat!), and the reality of death that hangs over us at all times.

I had been able to ignore this in suburbia. But I came face to face with The Fall on the land. An almost constant reminder that life ends in death—and it stunned me.

It is possible that you find yourself in a similar place today. Not necessarily over physical death of a chicken from hawk predation (or, if so, you know you're in the minority).

But if you are at home with your children, you are dealing with the effects of The Fall every day. Broken relationships, broken responses. And broken relationships and broken responses are even more painful than the death of animals.

Especially if you have had children in school for some years, you are dealing with a whole new level of connection. And that is, in some ways, like my move to the land—exciting for the ways life springs forth, crushing for the new ways you face brokenness every day.

Comparatively, I can see that it can seem far, far easier to send children away to be taught by others. It involves less time, less trauma, less turmoil.

But . . . if your children are away, you are removed from both the trials and the joys.

And I know that some days, that might sound appealing (let someone else deal with this!).

But, really, you know that life is good. Connection is good. The pain, the pushing through, the relief, the joy, when something new is born.

And if it's surprisingly painful and raw . . . yes. That is life.

Real life!

Welcome.

More to come.

Love

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

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Sep. 3, 2016

The School Year Begins #5

By Sonlight
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Just What Is a Smoking Flax?

The Gospel of Matthew says of Jesus, "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. . . ."

Than

A teacher said, "The smoking flax would be like a spent match. You know how, once the flame is extinguished, there's smoke? That's the picture."

Another commentator said that this would be like the wick of a lamp just before it finally gutters out. Usually you would extinguish such a pathetic light.

And yet we have this picture of Jesus, so gentle, blowing this nothingness back to light and life.

And the first part of that passage, about the bruised reed? My mental picture with that is something like a sock that has a worn spot. Have you ever had a threadbare spot, and with a little nudge of your finger, you put a hole in the cloth? Or maybe like when you bite the inside of your cheek, and then it doesn't heal for a week, because you keep biting it or playing with it?

It's easy to do!

And yet the picture of Jesus is the opposite of that. He doesn't put extra pressure on the bruised part of the reed, mindlessly destroying the reed.

Oh—and it's a reed. I don't live in Israel, but I suspect that reeds there are rather like grass here. They grow. There's a lot of them. Any individual one isn't worth much, because you can always get another one.

But here are these beautiful pictures of Jesus, gently caring even for the bruised reed, tenderly blowing back to life the smoking wick.

Receive this gentleness of Jesus.

Love,

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

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Sep. 2, 2016

The School Year Begins #4

By Sonlight
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Hold These Two in Tension

Jesus has a beautiful invitation to his followers: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I love this.

And so it jars me to get to Paul, who tells Timothy, "The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules."

Paul compares the walk of faith to soldiers going to battle (not on leave) and to athletes competing.

Truthfully? I don't want to have to be that intense. I prefer the rest, the yoke shared with Jesus.

But the record of Scripture is that the hardships of battle, the athletic endurance . . . this, too, is part of my walk.

I don't know that I fully understand how to hold this in tension. I suspect that there are both times of harder running and times of rest, and that maybe those don't always occur simultaneously. Or maybe even the hardships of battle, with Jesus, are more restful than daily life without Jesus. I'm not sure.

But I take comfort that both the rest and the running are part of the life of following Jesus.

So whether you are more feeling like life if a battle, or more feeling like life is restful . . . congratulations! You are walking by faith. Carry on.

More to come.

Love,

Amy's pic

Amy Lykosh
John and Sarita's oldest daughter
Second-generation Sonlighter
Homeschooling mom to five

P.S. I love reading your responses, and, please know, even if I don't respond, I read each one. If you have something on your heart or mind that you would like me to write about, would you let me know? As we walk this road together, I count it a privilege to have an insight in your life and what you are thinking about.

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