Life‘s  Spiritual twists and turns

What kind of God would ask a father to kill his son. Abraham and Isaac, always a confusing story and confession of faith for us. But, is it not only the event but the context that makes all the difference? Events come and go, but the context of our life lives within us our entire life. Sounds baffling? It shouldn’t be. It’s life’s twists and turns that make up and help us define our lives.

God asks Hosea to marry a prostitute. Ummm, interesting of our Creator to do that. How about the command to lie on your side for over a year to prophesy the fall of Jerusalem. (Ezekiel)

That’s nothing. How about planning the perfect wedding, exchanging vows on the shores of Lake Michigan. Beautiful Saturday afternoon, 4:30, Sheboygan. Except no one reminded us about the winds that time of day as sands fills our clothes and hair. We hurry to a hallway to exchange those sacred vows because the ballroom wasn’t ready yet. The couple always now has a ready-made story to tell their friends.

Then there’s that misnamed story, “The Prodigal Son.” It’s not about the crazy, wild kid; it’s about the crazy, enduring love of the dad. Kill the fatted calf for the son who took half of your inheritance? An inheritance he wasn’t entitled to? So much for retiring at Alexian Village.

Speaking of the calf. There’s a lamb in the Abraham/Isaac story. More twists and turns. In the Christian tradition, the entire Bible points to Jesus, which is especially true of Abraham/Isaac. ‘This passage is like a lock,” one author writes. “Jesus is the key that unlocks it for us. Think about the parallels between this story and the story of Jesus. Both Isaac and Jesus are ‘beloved sons’ who have been long-awaited and are born in miraculous circumstances. Both sons carry the wood that is to be the instrument of their deaths on their backs. In both cases, the father leads the son, and the son obediently follows toward his own death. God provides the sacrifice, which Abraham says will be a lamb. Jesus was also an innocent son who went willingly up the mountain to be crucified.” “Lamb of God,” anyone?

There’s your quick crash course in lived Biblical Theology. Having lunch with a good friend, she tells me that the void of her husband’s death, after over forty years of marriage, is filled now with her young grandchildren. Her second bedroom is filled with toys and dolls for their often overnight visits. Twists and turns, or is it turns and twists? Sometimes, I get confused.

We still sillingly (I know it’s not a word, but it’s my new Christian word); we still sillingly believe in this linear trip through life. “A leads to B” which soon will become “C.” If you say that when you’re twenty, then I will understand you. If you’re over forty, then you should know better. Those “A’s” and “B’s” can be loaded with a whole bunch of “Z’s.” Good and bad “Z.” It’s called a surprise when you’re happy. It’s called a shock when unhappy. In faith, it is all wrapped up in the mystery and understood as best as you can. 

Surprise, shock, and mystery.

What about what’s-his-name who spent three days in the belly of a whale? Nice way to spend a weekend, don’t you think? Or, does it connect Christ’s three hours of death on the cross and his three days in the tomb. Or, is it Lent’s three pillars of praying, fasting, and almsgiving? Gee, I’m not sure about measuring life’s time, but I’m entirely convinced in living and honoring my crazy, meaningful Christian life of faith.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in his song, “What are senses fail to fathom, let us grasp through faith’s consent.” I love that verse.

One personal caution when you leave church today. The expression, “there’s always a reason” works for missing and dismissing the context of your life. 

There is not always a reason. We can have a multitude of reasons mulling through our controlling mind attempting to figure out the this or the that… We may even settle upon one reason and then carry it around constantly for decades and proudly tell all our friends about our one reason – when all the time there was no reason or reasonable reason…reason only raises the question of why, which is a stupid question to ask yourself in the first place… the most asked question of and about Jesus? It is never the why, or the how, or the when,… It is always who… Who are you Jesus? And so in faith, the question for ourselves is who is Jesus for us? Who are we because of Jesus?

And, we can all argue for hours about the expression of “it’s God will” but again it misses and is completely absent of our involvement. God is not the wizard behind the curtain pulling levers of light and smoke … and I don’t own a pair of ruby slippers.

I’m confident that all of you have human episodes that profoundly contain a spiritual relationship. A spiritual message. I hope many of those episodes were and are full of pure surprises, numbing shocks, because both provide a learning, humbling and maturing experience. 

Isn’t it true that life‘s unexpected twists and unannounced turns turn out to make us better persons, in giving up that so-called sacred control that we hold onto so very tightly and allow newly revealed, actual sacred, holy insights to take root and then blossom. 

Events become beneficial when lived within a life context. Place those events within a spiritual connection to our Creator and then watch how the life’s miracle slowly but surely become an even holier and a more exciting “life worth living,” as Fulton Sheen called it. 

Well, how about this one? A barely teenage girl is honored as not only the mother of our Savior but turns out to be God’s mom.