Disposable Packaging (parts II, III, and IV)

You say "Glorious," I say "Sparkly"

I wish you could have been there for Sunday's service two weeks ago, because it was all about disposable packaging.* Pastor titled the sermon, "Don't Save the Veils."** Moses was in God's presence for a while, and his face was radiant. But after a few days, that radiance began to fade, and he felt (perhaps) shame as the glory left him. So he covered his face with a veil.

Moses himself was not glorious, that stuttering, murdering, shepherd. The radiance was the glory of being in the presence of God. God chooses to use inglorious people, disposable packaging, to contain and reflect his presence, because in our weakness, he is stronger. The less impressive our clay pot is, the more beautiful is the glory that radiates from the contents inside.

This week three people asked me how I was, and waited for an answer, to which I confessed an embarrassing truth: "I just... I don't feel... sparkly this week. You know? Like my sparkle is... just... blah."

One friend considered this, and somberly answered, "No. I can't say I've ever felt 'sparkly'."

Another more inquisitive soul asked, "What is your sparkle, exactly?" Of course I don't know the answer to that one. It just is sparkly. It's how I feel about myself.

And another said, "You're just tired. It'll come back," to which my inner self responded, "A-HA! So you agree that I'm not sparkly! Jerk."

But there's hope for my sparkle to return, because it's not me. "[W]henever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces, reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

And until my sparkle returns, I'll take comfort here, in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, where Paul boasts in his weakness, because,"when I am weak, then I am strong." In this passage, Paul [is crazy and] rejoices in his sufferings and deprivations, because God gets to show Himself to the world in those situations. Paul is glad that he's shown up to be the mere human (read, gifted animal) that he is, and that God gets to be God in those unbalanced situations.

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Hannah and Mary: Clay Pots Filled with Glory

Hannah and Mary were humble clay pots, entrusted to carry children who were blessed and purposed by God. They sing similar songs # about God filling the empty with good things. Mary says, "He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, because the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name."

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A Prayer

Your glory will shine in the humblest, ugliest faces, and make them beautiful.
Your glory will cover the least melodic, grating voices, and make their song rise to the heavens.
Your glory will fill the barren woman, and give her many children.
Your glory will bring down the proud, and lift up the humble.
Your glory will fill the whole earth, of this we can be sure.

You have chosen the weak of this world to confound the strong. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the mourners, the lost, desperate, and hopeless, the insulted and grieved, because your ear is attentive to their cries, and great is their reward in heaven.

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Notes

* You can listen online  (maybe start around 55 minutes), but know that it was better in person. There is so much more happening than just what is spoken, especially the moments after everyone is dismissed. People start to mill around, a few people may leave right away (they probably have friends coming over for lunch, and need to make sure their house hasn't burned down because their electric is a little finicky and the crock pot may have caused a power surge (okay, I don't even know if that's possible)).

** (but he is German, and "veils" sounds like "whales" and it's a whole German/English pun that people groaned at mostly, but that was actually the funniest thing to happen in my life all week). 

# Here's one such song, "Holy is Your Name (Magnificat)," one of the most beautiful renderings of the Magnificat I've heard, written by David Haas, performed here by Mark Haas.

Things That Are Not True

(but that are hard not to think during study hall in April, and which will become even harder not to believe in May), a list:

• Teenagers will never grow up
• I am a failure as a human being
• No one understands
• This moment will last forever
• I will never finish my grading
• I will never become a patient, understanding person
• God is not speaking to anyone anymore
• Jesus already came again, and we've been left behind

Providing in Real Time

God provides in real time. Recently, I've struggled with uncertainty about where I'll live and work for the next... ever. I am puzzled and sometimes whiny, but God keeps knowledge about the future on a strictly need-to-know basis with me. So, I trust God sometimes, when I'm not freaking out and crying to all my friends about how unfair it is that I don't know everything and have it all figured out, and that my life isn't just already lived-out and decided for me.

A second problem that I've been facing is how to teach this crazy Bible class. I have trouble feeling prepared for it. I can't see very far past the day's lesson, because it's all I can do to keep up with the Bible-reading and study it takes to teach the Bible. I have confessed here before about how I have no degree that is related to God/Jesus/Bible-anything. I find myself burdened with my own questions, let alone those of the students, which overlap often.

Tonight, in the grocery store, God showed up. Actually, it was my friend, K.

I went to the grocery store to pick up essentials (you know, vegetables and chocolate), and I turned and saw K there, saying hey! "Hi, K! What a neat place to meet, so weird, right? I almost never buy groceries..." No. Really.

As we chatted, I realized I had a beautiful opportunity before me; K is trained in theology, and was a professor at M College for a while. So I asked her the burning question inside me this week: how do I make First Samuel interactive for the students... or whatever?

She asked what resources I'd come across so far (nice, K), and I mentioned this book I've been using, and she was all like, "yeah, that was the book I used. The editor is in our theology department." Seriously, K?! Without the exclamation point!?!! This was a big deal for me, because I'm still easily starstruck, perhaps, by people who have written books. But, STILL. I left the grocery store with excitement, feeling affirmed in every which way.

THANKS, K: I hope you still had time tonight to bake for the thingy tomorrow morning.

And NICE one, God!

On This Side

On this side of the Red Sea,
let us lay down our worries.
We do not need to clean
our closets before crossing.

On this side of the Red Sea,
let us look up at eternity
written in the sky with a cloud,
a pillar of fire, blocking our view.

Sing with me, brothers,
dance with me, sisters.

God is with us, and we are breathless.
the seas curl up like living scrolls,
and we walk in unlikely places,
touching ground that living feet have not trod.

Sing with me, brothers,
dance with me, sisters.

If the water or the wilderness consume us,
we will have already
worshiped God
for setting us free.

Sing with me, brothers,
dance with me, sisters.

Disposable Packaging

We humans have been good at labeling things "disposable" lately. Let's say a box of plastic forks is labelled disposable. Says who? Those forks are going to be in the ground in their same shape until long after I'm dead. And plasticware isn't the worst of it. Packaging is the worst.

Packages are supposed to protect, and maybe hint at the quality of what is inside. But packaging should be all about what is inside. When I look at how things are wrapped at Starbucks, I begin to wonder what the deal is: 5 grams of plastic to sell 2 grams of chocolate? How is it possible that I'm so often sold by a big bow? A straight-lined, robin's egg blue wrapping paper? Often, we're being sold packaging. But why buy packaging for its own sake?

God knows how to make disposable things. Look at a banana. That wrapping is completely disposable. You throw it in the trash can at 10 am, and you can smell it decomposing by 3 pm, and you can really smell it decomposing by 10 am the next day. When a package tells us something is disposable, they're commanding us to dump something in the trash can after we use it, and never think about it again. It's "worry-free," "time-saving," "healthy."  I don't want to buy into that idea. I want to appreciate the matter around me: I want to wash it and use it again; or if I need to save time and worry, perhaps not have it in the first place.