Writing from his prison cell to a people in a small, nowhere town, Paul proclaims the absolute Lordship of King Jesus over Colassae, the Roman empire, and the entire cosmos. Beholding King Jesus does not require mystical vision. Rather, a vision of His rule and power is unveiled whenever the gospel is proclaimed. The “word of truth” goes forth in the power of the Holy Spirit and produces the fruit of hope, faith and love.

In the mystery of God’s love, His people are “caught up” into the communion of love between Father, Son and Spirit.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Paul uses a common convention when introducing his letter, and yet he infuses it with Trinitarian meaning. His initial greeting can be viewed in four distinct clauses:

1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
2. and Timothy our brother
3. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae
4. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

The letter with a greeting that is from Paul (who is speaking and through Christ) to the community in Christ at Colossae. This communication is part of the flow of the Triune life of the Father, Son and Spirit. Paul is speaking by the will of the Father in Christ through the power of the Spirit to the a people who are in Christ by the power of the Spirit according to the will of the Father. When the body functions, it is functioning in and through Christ by the Spirit according to the will of the Father. We as the people of God, participate in the life of God when we gather, communicate, and share the gifts of the Spirit. We are living, breathing, and acting in Christ, by the Spirit and according the will and purposes of the Father.

1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
Paul begins most of his letters by acknowledging that he is an “apostle.” He is addressing the people from a position of authority. Yet this authority does not reside in Paul, but resides in Christ Jesus.

It might be helpful to see a little background on the term apostle. Paul appears to combine a Hebrew word and a Greek word in his use of the word “apostle.”

The Greek word “apostolos” can mean messenger, sent one or ambassador. Its ancient origins appear to have referred to sending out a fleet on a military expedition. Over time, the meaning became applied more generally to a variety of naval enterprises. Eventually the word extends beyond fighting to exploring and colonizing.

The Hebrew word “saliah” also means messenger. It indicates the legal authority a messenger carries on behalf of a person or a community. Paul brings this idea of “legal authority to deliver a message” into the idea of being “sent on a colonizing expedition.”

His authority comes from the Triune community (by the will of the Father, in the Son, and through the power of the Spirit). But Paul first receives his outward commission from the church at Antioch. In Acts chapter 11, we read that the church at Jerusalem hears about the believers in Antioch and “sends out” Barnabas to investigate. Barnabas confirms the work and calls upon Saul (Paul) in Tarsus, asking him to join them.

Barnabas and Paul serve the community in Antioch for a year. Then the prophet Agabus informs the congregation that a famine is coming to Judea. The church at Antioch sends out Paul and Barnabas to raise money for the brothers and sisters at Judea from the other emerging congregations. This “sending out” becomes Paul’s first missionary journey.

He sent out from a body of people on a specific assignment. Much like the Hebrew messenger. Yet, His calling to be an apostle of Christ Jesus has come from the Father. Even as Paul is sent out from the human community, he is sent out from the Triune community.

As he proclaims the “gospel,” the “good news” of King Jesus and his universal rule, Paul establishes colonies of heaven whom he refers to as ekklesia or “called out community.” We call these colonies, the “church.”

Paul, the “apostle” writes as a man on mission. As an authorized representative of the Triune community, he is launching missions into the enemy country while he is imprisoned in enemy territory.

Here is a picture of God’s ironic kingdom. Paul the prisoner writes under the authority of a Palestinian Jew who died at the hands of the Roman Empire from some trivial incident. He is writing to some small, has-been town. And he is writing as one who is in the midst of setting up a colony of King Jesus in the midst of this crumbling kingdom (Roman Empire).

As it turns out, the kingdom did crumble and fade. And colonies of King Jesus continue spreading from town to town and nation to nation.

And Timothy our brother
Paul writes in relationship. Just imagine Paul and Timothy discussing the churches together, praying for the churches and even weeping over the struggles of the churches. In the midst, they may talk about insights or guidance from the Spirit and decide to write down these ideas. This makes the whole engagement from a relationship (Father, Son, Spirit) through a relationship (Paul and Timothy) to a relationship (the Colossian community).

3. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae
Paul writes to a particular community of brothers and sisters in Christ who live in Colossae. Compared with Rome or Corinth or even Ephesus, Colossae seems like a strange place for Paul to write. He didn’t actually plant the church, and the small town seems insignificant beside its neighbors Laodicea and Hierapolis. JB Lightfoot writes, “Without doubt Colossæ was the least important church to which any epistle of St Paul is addressed.”

Yet, this letter speaks out from that one small town to people across many towns and places throughout history. In this short address, we see a pattern of particularity and universality. When God the Son enters history, He enters at a specific place and time. He is born into a family of the house of David. The man Jesus of Nazareth is and always will be a Jew. Yet He is fully God. Living and acting and interceding on behalf of all races and classes men and women.

God acts in the particular. He acts in the small. The mundane. And often the obscure. Yet these actions ripple outward impacting all things. The life and challenges of a few Christians in a little city on the far side of the Roman empire had and has cosmic significance. In Christ, we begin to discover that every little details matters. Matter matters.

And specifically related to people. We matter. Our little communities. Our little families. Our squabbles and love feasts all matter. Christ dwells in the midst of His people by His Spirit. He works in the midst of our small communities and His great transformative work continues to ripple out, impacting all the world.

Paul writes to the saints and the faithful. Why the distinction? The saints is a Jewish references, focused on the Israel as the “holy ones” or the people set apart as a priestly nation. Paul uses this reference for the brothers and sisters in Christ (Jew and Gentile). He is including the Gentiles in the people of God, those set apart to reveal the kingdom of God.

At the same time, he is reminding, exhorting them to hold stedfast. What are they holding to? A set of morals? A set of beliefs? Based on the exhortations in this letter, I might suggest that they are being exhorted to rest in Christ alone. Hold stedfast to the simplicity of the gospel. Abide in Christ. Love one another.

Don’t be misled by promises of greater power and significance that go beyond the simple rest of the work of Christ Jesus. The temptation in Galatians, Corinthians and other places is to add our own additional set of methods, assurances, observances that may be rooted in racial distinctions or cultic distinctions (calendar observances, etc). While these emphasis are not necessarily bad things, our identity is in Christ alone. The simplicity of that profound work of Grace in us can be clouded by our tendency toward turning good things, ideas and practices into idolatries that become the focal point of our trust for identity, salvation, etc. Hold fast to Christ and Christ alone!

4. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
Paul offers a blessing from the Father. But we must remember the grace is not some power outside of the person of Jesus Christ. And when Paul blesses Colossae with Grace and Peace, he is exhorting and blessing in and through Jesus by the power of the Spirit. The gift is an outpouring of God’s love in and through the community.

James Dunn reminds me that peace is a Jewish greeting. Speaking to the Gentile and Jewish community who trust in Jesus, Paul offers the traditional Jewish greeting of “shalom.” Yet again, Paul reinforces through speech the ingrafting of Gentiles into the chosen people of God through Christ Jesus. Shalom is a blessing of harmony, prosperity, inward and outward peace that points in some way to the eschaton, the true peace that will finally be realized in the unveiling of Jesus Christ to all the cosmos.

Even as we read these words, we can rejoice that in Christ Jesus we’ve been adopted into the family of God and look forward expectantly to the day when the fullness of Christ will be revealed in all and through all.

The words of Shemaiah struck Nehemiah like a slap in the face.

“Hide in the Temple because they’re coming to kill you tonight.”

The prophet spoke with urgency and impassioned authority.

But Nehemiah wondered. “Whose authority?” He suspected these words. Did they really come from the mouth of YHWH? These words of fear and flight sounded more like the blathering mouths of Sanballat and Tobiah.

Day after day after day these God-mockers sought to distract and detour Nehemiah’s commission to restore and rebuild the walls of the holy city. And day after day this fierce-some leader faced down their threats and attacks. Operating under holy orders from King YHWH, Nehemiah had left the court of King Ataxerxes and moved to Palestine to serve as Governor of Judah.

He could still remember that first night in the land. Before Nehemiah had even announced his arrival, he rode around the city of Jerusalem to inspect condition of her walls. He saw a city in disrepair. He saw walls broken. He saw gates smashed.

In the midst of this crumbling city, he saw something else. He saw the hope of restoration. He saw a city rebuilt, a land restored, a people renewed.

He spoke, directed, and established a plan for the people to work together, rebuilding the city. Yet even as he responded to YHWH’s call, he heard the daily calls from to stop, cease, give up, walk away. The Sanballat and Tobiah schemed and deceived, wrote letters, sent raider’s, mocked and terrified the people.

LIke a thorn in his flesh, these men poked and prodded and frustrated Nehemiah at every turn. Yet he persisted. He kept building. He kept leading. He kept standing.

He kept guiding the people even when the people seemed to turn in against one another. The enemies outside the gates were mirrored by enemies within the gates who oppressed the poor and refused to unite.

Again and again, Nehemiah called upon the disruptive Word of the Lord to address, confront and overturn the voices of distraction and destruction. This governor. This ruler. This father to the people of the land cried out to his Governor, his Ruler, his Father.

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he has mercy upon us. (Psalm 123:1-2)

In the midst of his strength, he realized his absolute weakness and desperate need for the true King to rule and lead and establish the work of His hands.

3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud. (Psalm 123:3-4)

He threw his life and the life of his people upon the mercy and grace of the Lord Supreme. For only in the presence of God’s disruptive grace could Nehemiah rest and find refuge from the words and threats of mockers and cynics.

“In between” the villages.

This meant camping without the protection of surrounding clans. This meant sleeping in the face of raiders, adversaries, and wild animals. This meant trusting the Lord in the midst of naked vulnerability. Tonight they would sleep “in between.”

They had been walking since sunrise. Walking from Lachish.

Lachish enjoyed an ancient reputation as a glorious military outpost. But now the humiliated city was home to a few settlers who had returned from Babylon. Seeking to restore the land of their fathers, this band of faithful families had lived and worked there for over ten years.

Jorah led these faithful families to the Holy City for Passover celebration. Passover in Jerusalem. Passover at the rebuilt Temple. Passover like the land had not seen in over 100 years. To Jorah, it felt like Israel was returning to Mt. Sinai, renewing covenant with HaShem.

“Adin, Adin.” Jorah’s wife’s voice interrupted his reflections and in a moment he joined her in looking for their young son Adin.

At 11 years old, Adin was prone to wander off. Once Jorah found him in the middle of the village, asking some of the elders to tell him stories of ancient Israel. Another time, Adin embarked on a journey to Jerusalem. He made it as far as the neighbor’s farm.

Pilgrimage and the longing to wander off pulsed through Adin’s blood. Jorah assumed that this was because Adin was born on journey in between Babylon and the Holy Land. This “in between” baby had never stopped wandering, traveling, heading home.

Tonight his family found him at the outskirts of the camp, singing. Adin joined his voice with the aged and trembling voice of Kadmiel. They sang an ancient song of praise to the Lord on high.

Adin sang,

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?”

Kadmiel answered,

“My help comes from the Lord
who made heaven and earth.”

As they sang, they gazed across the hills of Bethlehem toward Mt. Zion. Kadmiel start to clap, and the song echoed atop the steady, constant rhythm of his clapping. As he clapped, more and more of the pilgrims circled and began to join these two hopeful dreamers.

“He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps Israel will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber not sleep.”

The joyful song continued ringing out as darkness enveloped the camp fires.

“The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.”

The song was a prayer and the prayer was a song. And a for a brief moment, all the people joined in one voice, declaring the faithfulness of God.

“The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
the Lord will keep your going out and coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.”

As the song gently drifted over the camp and up into the evening sky, the pilgrims drifted off to sleep.

In the still of the night, the rhythm of Passover had already begun beating in the hearts of these pilgrims as they rested “in between.”

Psalm 120

The words of the psalmist burned in Daniel’s mind,

“In my distress I called unto the Lord, and He answered me.”

As he rehearsed these words, his mind drifted to visions of God’s people gathering in Jerusalem at the Temple. He had never seen the Temple. In fact, he didn’t know anyone that had seen the Temple. But he still dreamed.

He could see his father assembling the sukkah for a week of festival. A temporary dwelling place, the sukkah provided a place of celebration and worship for seven days every year. His family would gather with other families building their sukkahs. And for one week, they would feast and sing and dwell together.

They were remembering. Remembering the children of Israel as they crossed the wilderness. Remembering the long and winding pilgrimage of their ancestors across time. Remembering the faithfulness of the Lord.

Ever year, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles as their father and forefathers had done. Every year they went on pilgrimage. Every year they dreamed of the Land, the Temple, and the G-d who had not forsaken them.

As Daniel dreamed, he was back at the feast, celebrating with the village and people of his youth. They surrounded him, protected him, guarded him.

But now they seemed so far away. Like the psalmist of ages ago, he was surrounded by vicious liars,

“O the Lord, deliver my soul from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.”

These vile men cursed and spit upon him. And his soul burned in anger.

“What shall be given unto thee, and what shall be done more unto thee, thou deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of broom.”

O that G-d would strike down these evil doers! Again and again and again, he would repeat the refrain,

“In my distress I called unto the Lord, and He answered me.”

He knew the Lord was faithful. He remembered. He remembered stories of the One who  led His people through water and fire. Vivid stories of the pilgrim people burned in his memory, and he was immersed in the cloud by day and the fire by night. He could see the handful of pilgrims who gradually repopulated Palestine after the long years of captivity.

He could hear his father’s voice retelling the stories of their own ancestors making pilgrimage to the land of his youth. They were a pilgrim people, wandering the wastelands of the world while looking to the Lord who had called them out. Out of the land of Ur, out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of Babylon.

But now he had been called out by a company of barbarians.

“Woe is me, that I sojourn with Meshech, that I dwell beside the tents of Kedar!”

These uncouth and vile people hated the Lord, despised the covenant and desecrated the land. He hated them. Finally he understood the anger of the psalmist toward the wicked. Finally he understood why there were times to curse.

Aching for the presence of the Lord, he gently intoned the words,

“In my distress I called unto the Lord, and He answered me.”

As he considered the words of the prayer, the smells of sukkot swirled in his mind. First the pungent citrus odor of etrog bathed his memories and he thought about a promised fruit that would bring healing for the nations.

He thought about tables covered with chicken stews and meat pies and stuffed cabbage and peppers and tomatoes. There were pumpkin cakes and walnut-covered pears soaking in fruit juices. Figs and dates and almond shortbread. The feast never seemed to end.

He heard people singing and talking. And he almost laughed out loud as he heard his father’s stories told and retold and retold yet again.

A kick in the gut reminded him that this was not a feast.

“My soul hath full long had her dwelling with him that hateth peace. I am all peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”

As his heart cried out for the peace of Jerusalem, his body felt the pangs of war. Shoved into a train car, his body crushed into hundreds of other sukkot pilgrims. The foul odors of defecation choked him and he gasped in prayer.

The pilgrim train hurled into the darkness of death, and Daniel softly repeated the refrain,

“In my distress I called unto the Lord, and He answered me.”

And he dreamed.

He dreamed of seeing the Temple. He dreamed of gathering with other pilgrims before the Lord in Zion. He dreamed of a feast that would never end.

“Vindicate me, LORD,” cries the psalmist. And in these words, I hear the ache from countless tales of injustice. I hear the cry of the mother of six children as she struggles in poverty after her husband the doctor abandons the family for his young mistress. I hear the cry of the aging advertising executive who loses his position as the company decides to save expenses by hiring a cheaper, younger replacement. I hear the cry of the husband cut off from his children by a spiteful ex-wife.

I hear the cry of countless people in my own city who are stuck in circumstances with no apparent resolve. They suffer the pain of broken relationship, financial ruin, job humiliation, devastating deception, church division, and more. I am surrounded by people who have been trapped, sometimes for years, in painful circumstances that appear to have no resolve.

There is real pain and real suffering all around us. Only when we come to face the overwhelming reality of injustice, can we understand the cry of the psalmist who cries, aches, and breaks for vindication.

As the psalmist cries out to the LORD, he is looking for covenantal justice. If YHWH is God and the just judge of His people, the psalmist believes YHWH is responsible to judge this case and deliver his oppressed child from the painful grip of unjust treatment. As the psalmist continues his prayer, he confesses his dedication to walk in the way of the LORD, his refusal to fellowship with the wicked, and his commitment to worship the LORD.

Is he trying to demonstrate before YHWH why he deserves vindication? Possibly, but there is another way to understand his language. Facing a situation that he cannot resolve, he chooses to trust in the faithfulness of the LORD. He rejects the allure of wicked ways to resolve his problem or bitter fruit to nourish his ache.

His cry for vindication takes us beyond the minor inconveniences of daily life, which challenge us to trust in the Lord’s goodness. His cry touches those aches and struggles and injustices that seem to offer no hope of resolution. Ever.

What happens when a family who enjoys a thriving business faces the sudden destruction of their building by an unexpected tornado. When they try to rebuild the insurance turns out to be unreliable, and they are forced into bankruptcy, losing their life savings and the fruit of their years of hard work. After exploring every legal option, they realize there is no recourse.

What happens when grown children watch their widowed mother remarry a man who proceeds to deplete her savings and cut off the rest of the family? Despite repeated attempts at legal intervention, they cannot resolve the situation.

It wouldn’t be hard for most of us to list page after page after page of injustices that people around us continue suffering every day.

This makes me think of another injustice. The gospels record the unjust sufferings of an innocent man at the hands of religious bigots. Jesus enters into the struggle of humanity, revealing the hope and love of God. He is mocked, beaten, and cruelly killed. There seems to be no recourse for such injustice, and in his great agony, he cries out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

There is no last minute rescue. He dies. He breathes his last breath. He drops his head. He is finished. The lifeless body is taken from the cross and sealed in a tomb. The joy, hope, and excitement of a new kingdom dies as Jesus dies. Now darkness fills the hearts of his people as they wander into a hopeless night.

After the night, after all hope is lost, after their is no future left, the Father surprises and shocks His people by resurrecting Jesus through the power of the Spirit. This resurrection is the vindication of Jesus. The just Judge heard his final cry and has responded. The just judge vindicates Jesus by raising Him up from the dead. And according to Philippians, the just Judge will vindicate Jesus in the sight of all men when every kneed will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus in LORD!

Paul write Philippians to a people who are suffering. He encourages them that God will not forsake them and that He will complete the work He’s begun. He proceeds to encourage them that in the midst of suffering injustices, they can look forward with hope to a day of vindication. Just of Jesus will be vindicated in the sight of all men, his people will be vindicated as well.

This “good news” gives the Philippians and the psalmist hope that the injustices will not be forgotten. That in the end God will redeem, restore and vindicate the people of God. This hope gives the people of God the power to do the unthinkable. We can rejoice in the midst of injustices. We can see beyond the ache of unresolved abuses and serve those around us with a spirit of gentleness and love.

But lest we ignore all injustice in the world, this message of ultimate vindication gives us hope that all our efforts at resolving the injustices of others in this world will one day be fully realized. So we can serve the poor, help the needy and pray and serve those who suffer around us, trusting that our efforts are not in vain. For the just Judge will vindicate His Son, and in Christ all injustices will be made right.

The Woman at the Well

The gentle sounds of young men softly humming mingled with bittersweet scents of late harvest and the bite of crisp autumn air. These sensations excited Shamir’s tired imagination with visions from festivals long ago.

This long-awaited journey was like stepping forth into a new world. The young men followed him back to the land that only he remembered. He told them the stories, he taught them the songs, and now he led back to the land of his past. And the land of their future.

As they walked, they hummed, and the words to an ancient song beat in their hearts and coursed through their bodies. Day after day, month after month, year after year, he held tightly to the melody of this short, joyful song of ascents.

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

A lifetime before, his father taught him to sing while on pilgrimage to the temple. To keep the body from growing weary during such a long trip, his father told him that a song can make the heart dance and tired feet step lively.

Little Shamir and his father would sing together:

I was glad when they said to me,
“We will go to the house of the LORD.”
Our feet are standing
Within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem you that are built
As a city bound in fellowship.
Here the tribes ascend,
The tribes of the LORD,
As is the law for Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the LORD.
And here stands thrones of justice,
The thrones of the house of David.
O pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
May blessing abound on those who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
Tranquility within your palaces
For the sake of my brothers and companions,
I will pray down peace upon you.
For sake of the house of the LORD our God
I will seek your good.

As they walked and sang, they joined with other pilgrims who joined with other pilgrims, and soon a large band walked and sang and longed toward the holy city. King Josiah’s devotion to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob renewed a sense of hope and purpose and destiny for this small kingdom.

Shamir’s father recounted the legendary glory days when King David the Warrior and King Solomon the Golden Son ruled the land. The world came to this tiny kingdom to hear and see the unfolding wisdom of the great High God.

Our feet are standing
Within your gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem you that are built
As a city bound in fellowship.

Standing at the gates of city, they beheld the fine craftsmanship of Israel’s ancients firsthand. Giant stones cut to fit in perfect harmony and strength. The great wall formed a mosaic that reflected the call of God to bind the tribes of Israel into one people, one voice, one sounding glory upon the earth.

Growing up immersed in the stories of his people, Shamir dreamed of one day helping this call to glory echo across the land. But his dreams of future hope fractured into memories of terror, destruction and violence when the invasions began.

During one attack his family fell under weight Babylon’s cruel victory, and he joined other young men taken captive on the long track to a foreign land. As he marched away on this dark pilgrimage, Shamir quietly prayed,

For sake of the house of the LORD our God
I will seek your good.

He continued to dream of one day returning to stand within the gates of Jerusalem. Shamir watched as some of the captives lost heart during the long years of Babylonian rule. Serving in this massive kingdom, made Judah seem like a tiny spec of a nation and the Hebrews a spec of a people.

The days and years and decades of his long dark night were filled with echoes of song, longing for a new day.

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

In the song, Shamir could still see the wonder of Solomon’s throne through the eyes of his heart. He told his stories, Judah’s stories, Israel’s stories to the young men who would listen. And gradually some began to sing and hope and long for a land their eyes had never seen.

These same young men now surrounded the old man as a band of pilgrims returning to the land of their fathers. Cyrus, King of Persia had granted bands of people from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to make the long journey and rebuild the temple.

And as they walked on this cool autumn morning, they hummed. Shamir’s broken body simply couldn’t express the giddiness of his childlike heart. He wanted to dance and sing loudly and swirl like King David of old. Instead, he stumbled and smiled and dreamed.

Walking in between waking and sleeping, he could see the city that once was. As he looked at overgrown fields and ruins from another time, he could see great walls of glory.

He also saw the pilgrims who also walked this journey.

Here the tribes ascend,
The tribes of the LORD,
As is the law for Israel,
To give thanks to the name of the LORD.

He watched old men, young men, women, a few animals and some children. All tired from the long journey. But even as he looked out to the ascending tribes, he saw beyond the handfuls of sojourners to more tribes, people of every race, every color. He saw great horses and chariots; he saw mighty kings. As far as his eyes could see, a vast multitude walked. And as they walked they loudly sang,

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

He wanted to shout, to dance, to scream. But his body was too weak. The young men began to carry him across the scarred land. For a moment Shamir rejoined the small bands of travelers heading toward the holy city.

The heat of the day now beat upon them as they pressed with all their heart and souls into the future, longing to rebuild and restore the hope of what once was.

Passing through the gates, they walked up toward Mount Zion to survey the ruins of the temple. And as they walked, they prayed

May blessing abound on those who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
Tranquility within your palaces
For the sake of my brothers and companions,
I will pray down peace upon you.

Shamir longed for the day when this city would come to life again. He long for music in the air and singing on the lips. He longed for the king to be restored and justice to reign. As he longed, the way ahead cleared and he saw Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. He saw thousands of upon thousands of people ascending.

He saw the king in all his glory seated on the throne justice and bringing peace to this war weary world. He saw light an innumerable company of angels, and then he beheld the Lord of glory.

Shamir could no longer walk but fell to the ground sang with all his heart

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

“I was glad when they said unto me
Let us go into the house of the Lord!”

The young men laid the body of their old friend at the ruins of the ancient Temple. They quietly knelt and together they sang once more an ancient song of rejoicing and worship unto the Lord.

Complete Ephesians Study

1. The importance of celebrating people, places and things. In the Exodus 20:8-11 appearance of the command, Israel is reminded that God paused after completing creation, proclaimed, “Very Good,” and set aside a day of celebration. Israel is called to take one day a week and replicate this pattern. But unlike the creation story, they are not look back at the end of their work. Their are on the start of a long journey.

In spite of this, they are commanded to rest and remember and celebrate every seven days. Just think if we developed regular patterns of celebration in our lives. We pause and celebrate the people and projects in our lives. We cheer them on. It makes sense to celebrate at the end of a project, but what if we acted like the ancient Hebrews and took a meal, an afternoon and maybe even a day to celebrate and encourage ourselves and the people around us. As we develop this idea and learn to how to remember and celebrate, we may learn how to encourage one another in the midst of our challenges and projects.

2. While we celebrate in the midst of our projects, we rest and remember one another. How did the Israelites remember? They told stories, they feasted, they acted out the stories in ritual. In a way, our birthday parties are a bit like this form of remembering. It is a ritualized form of personal, family and cultural memory. We sing to and focus upon one person in our midst. What if we applied this yearly time of remembering a person’s life and action, in friendships, in business projects, in marraige.

Instead of waiting for a yearly event, what if we took a meal or a meeting to rehearse the actions and story of a person in our life or on our team? Can you imagine the power of this for building constructive relationships? I’ve tried to model a variation of this for several years and have watched it opens doors for conversation, friendship and better teamwork.

3. The celebration extends outward. The Israelites were told to extend the Sabbath celebration to family, to animals, to servants, and even to strangers. We might do the same. Someone says, “I don’t have servants!” Well, we have people serve us in the restaurant, the grocery store, in our families and even in our workplaces.

What if we began to extend our attitude of celebration and rejoicing to these extending circles beyond us? The impact could be amazing. It could transform a workplace, a family, a culture, and even the planet (the Sabbath extends beyond people to creation). Isaiah envisions this power of extend hospitality to everyone in society include the most lowly and oppresed among us. Did he get this from Sabbath wisdom? I’m not sure, but his vision would be consistent with this spirit of Sabbath celebration

Those are a few ideas. If you’re interested in reading the full argument from a Biblical perspective, read this essay I wrote on Sabbath Wisdom.

The Wisdom of Sabbath

Galatians Bible Study