Bright Shining Glory

ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!
- Isaiah 60:1 -

God loves you.  God knows you.  When God's attention, gaze, and concern fall upon you, though, what's it like?  With a sharp intake of breath and a slight squirm, I realized how acutely uncomfortable I felt about that.  Thinking of God paying attention to me directly felt like standing on a stage in a glaring-hot spotlight.  Embarrassed, afraid, wondering why there wasn’t someone else who could be standing there to act/ dance/ perform/ whatever.  In my mind's ear, there was a mortified sizzle as I melted onto the dark stage.  Lord only knew who might be watching from the black space beyond the stage-lights, but I sure didn't want to be on display for them.

Yet, I am coming to realize that God wants that light of his glory on his people—it is a thing intended to be GOOD—and as I slowly accept God's brilliance and my place in it, it begins to feel more like a warm, enveloping kind of glow in which to dance (or do whatever) confidently. No longer a place of danger or fear but of God’s love and pleasure.  God's light-- God's glory-- isn't too much for me.  I don't need to duck into the wings, or shield my eyes, or desperately push someone else onto centerstage.  I was made to be radiant.  If the light has come, ain't no shame in it.

"Glory of the LORD."  Collage of paper & mixed media.  Nov. 2009

Where are all the Exorcists?

Wanted to post a fabulous sermon (download free, or if you don't have iTunes, you can listen online here) by Brian Blount, president of Union Presbyterian Seminary.  He preached it last spring at Duke's Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Series.  In it, Blount takes on the brief story of Mark 9:38-39, where the disciples proudly come to Jesus with something to say: "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

Is the most important thing to be "one of US?"  The in-group, Christians, holy huddlers, disciples.  Or is the important thing to cast out demons?  To call on the power of Jesus' name, to be FOR the good things that God is doing.  And what would it mean to be both a Christian AND an exorcist?  I can't do Blount's argument justice, so you should really listen yourself.  But for a peek at the sermon's climax:

"To be a Christian exorcist you've gotta be a sojourner of truth wherever you encounter a lie.  To be a Christian exorcist, you've gotta be able to declare 'I have a dream' and be ready to live out that dream in this nightmarish world.  To be a Christian exorcist, you must be willing to change the world in Jesus' name even when the people who run this world and claim allegiance to Jesus do everything in their power to shut you down.  We need exorcists who will raise their voices in unconventional ways."