Month: February 2019

Ep032: Samson’s Revenge

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Continuing our survey of Old Testament stories, today we look at with Samson, a leader of Israel when the Philistine army oppressed the Israelites and occupied their land.

Samson was a Nazrite, dedicated to God from birth, and he had superpower strength as long as he didn’t cut his hair. He used his strength to harass and annoy the Philistine oppressors. He was also a womanizer with a volatile temper, and he preferred Philistine women over the local Israelite girls.

At one point when he was engaged to a Philistine, things went badly wrong at the wedding feast, and the bride ended up marrying one of his companions. For revenge, Samson used his strength to collect 300 foxes. He tied them together tail to tail in pairs, attached a torch to each pair of tails, and sent them into the Philistine fields of corn and olives and grapes.

Later, Samson met his match when he fell in love with the Philistine lady, Delilah. She begged him to tell her the secret of his strength until he couldn’t resist. Then she cut off his hair while he was sleeping, and called the Philistines to capture him. Samson wasn’t aware that his hair was cut, that his Nazrite vow was broken, and that God had left him. He started using his great strength to avoid capture, but he was weak. So the Philistines threw him in prison, gouged out his eyes, and set him to grinding corn.

Then the Philistines leaders celebrated their victory over Samson and his God by holding a great feast in the temple of their god, Dagon. They brought Samson to the feast in chains and put him on display. Samson leaned against the pillars of the temple and prayed, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, give me strength just once more, and let me get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then he pushed on the pillars, collapsing the temple, and killing himself and 3000 Philistines. It looks like God answered his prayer for revenge.

Let’s pray.

Our father in heaven, Samson’s story reminds us of our world today. Like him, many leaders of your people — priests and pastors and prophets and television personalities — have corrupted their ministries with sexual sin and personal vendettas and the love of money. Why do you let this go on, God, don’t you want to protect your name from those who promise to serve you, but end up serving their own appetites and their own anger?

And God, we see your story in the life of Samson. For in the end, Samson accepted his own death in order to deliver your people from their enemies. Is there another saviour you appointed, who chose his own death to save your people?

We pray that you will help us not to follow Samson’s example of service to you. You honored him with the strength of your spirit, and sent him to deliver your people. But as he used the gift you gave him, he walked deeper and deeper into personal sin and chaos. As we serve you, help us to grow in righteousness, that our death may be honorable and that we may receive a rich welcome into your kingdom (2 Peter 1:11).
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep031: Psalm 7: Evil is a Boomerang.

Hi. I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today we consider Psalm number 7, which is titled, “A song of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjamite.” We don’t know anything about Cush except what we infer from this psalm.

I find Psalm 7 remarkable in three ways.

First, David uses a variety of names for God. He twice calls him “Jehovah my God”, three times “Jehovah”, once “the Most High”, “God Most High”, “O righteous God”, and “Jehovah Most High”. The first words in the psalm are “O Lord my God” and the last words are “Jehovah Most High.” How good it is if our prayers and our life are bookended by God. God at the beginning, God at the end, and God in all parts of the middle.

The second remarkable thing about Psalm 7 is that David appeals to God on the basis of his, David’s, righteousness. David complains to God that his pursuers want to shred him like a lion and rip him to pieces with no one to rescue him. David responds to this threat by saying to God,

“If I done evil to one who is a peace with me,
if I am guilty,
then let my enemy catch up with me
let him trample my life to the ground,
let him make me sleep in death.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness.”

If your background is North American evangelical (like mine), you probably recoil at the thought of pointing out your righteousness to God. But David has no such reluctance.

The third remarkable thing about Psalm 7 is how it describes evil as a boomerang. Listen to how it works:

“He who digs a hole . . . falls into the pit he has made,
The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
His violence comes down on his own head.”

One of the strongest arguments against doing evil is that you reap what you sow! One of God’s most terrible judgements is to let our evil take its natural course, until it comes full circle to hurt or destroy us.

Let’s pray.

Our father, David calls you Jehovah my God. There is a relationship here. We have adopted you as our God, you have adopted us as your children. In the dysfunction and violence of our human relationships we turn to you, our God. You are God Most High. Protect us by judging of the peoples of the earth.

Arise, O Lord, wake up, O God.
Attend to your relationship with us.
Notice that we have tried to serve you in righteousness and honor.
See that we have listened to your word and obeyed your laws.
Do your work as judge.
Put a restraining order on our enemies, lock them up in prison.
Respond to their anger with your anger.
Let their evil boomerang on themselves.
Let them fall into the hole they have dug
Let their violence land on their own heads.

As for us, you are our shield, God Most High.
You are a righteous judge.
You save the upright in heart.
We will sing praise to your name, Lord Most High.
Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep030: Opening to God: Book Review.

Hi. I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today is Book Review day! We will look at “Opening to God: A Guide to Prayer” by Thomas H. Green.

The author, Father Green, was a Jesuit missionary to the Philippines, where he taught and was a spiritual director at San Jose Seminary in Manila. He wrote a number of books on prayer.

When I first read his book “Opening to God,” I had been praying for a number of years. But in my prayer life, I felt like a lost soul in a foreign country. The Protestants I had read on prayer were helpful, but their advice was mostly, “Go here. Try this. Do that. Camp out with this approach for a while.” In my confused wanderings, “Opening to God” was a revelation, because it painted for me the vast and beautiful landscape of prayer and described the process of maturing in prayer. At last I had some sense of where I was and where I might be going and what roads might lead to maturity. Father Green introduced me to the country of prayer and provided a simple map to guide my travels.

Because I found the book so helpful, I loaned it to a friend and waited excitedly to hear her story about how it transformed her prayer life. When she returned the book, she said, “Do you remember telling me that if an author doesn’t grab your interest in the first 40 pages, you quit reading?” She said, “I used your suggestion. I quit this book after 40 pages.” I was crushed. I was devastated. She used my 40-page rule on one of my favorite books? I was sorry I had told her my rule.

Now, many years later, I can see why my friend might have disliked the book. It does get a bit technical in a theological sort of way. It addresses problems that interest me, like how Vatican II changed the way Roman Catholic novices learned to pray. But my friend was just too normal. She doesn’t have a nerdy, technical bent, so parts of the book didn’t interest her.

If you are learning to pray, this book is well worth a try. Here are four reasons to read it.

First, Father Green has a wonderful praying heart, which he expresses in simple language, and illustrates with great stories.

One of my favorite stories is his conversation with a student who was taking a prayer retreat. The student said to him, “Before we start, I’d like to ask one favor.” “What is that?” Father Green asked. The student said, “Whenever you start talking, I get nervous and forget what I wanted to say. So please don’t say anything until I have finished sharing.” Father Green reports that he heroically held his tongue and learned to listen (p. 27). From this experience Father Green explains that listening is at the heart of prayer. Sometimes we have to stop our incessant chatter and just listen to God.

Second, there are two broad approaches to prayer — prayer that asks God for stuff, and prayer that expresses a relationship with God. This book is one of the clearest descriptions I have ever read about prayer as relationship with God.

The third reason to read this book is that it invites use to use our imagination in prayer. A very important part of my prayer over the years has been to put myself into Jesus’ stories. I become Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night, I become the woman at the well, I become the man born blind. And listening to Jesus speak to them, I hear him speak to me.

And finally, this book has some of the best quotes ever on prayer.
For example, it asks, “When I pray, how do I know it is God I am talking to and not just myself?” (p. 48).
About knowledge: “True knowledge of God always goes hand with a painful self-knowledge.” (p. 8).
About listening: “To the beginner, there is . . . a puzzle and a mystery in listening to God. To the proficient pray-er it is no longer a puzzle, but it will always be a mystery.” (p. 34).

That’s “Opening to God” by Father Thomas Green. Read it, it will be good for your prayer life. Or at least skim it and enjoy the good stories and quotes.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Thomas H. Green. Opening to God: A Guide to Prayer (Ave Maria Press: Notre Dame, Indiana, 1977)

Ep029: Psalm 6: How Long, O Lord, How Long?

Hi. I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 6 is titled, “A Psalm of David.”  We are not sure whether this means that David wrote the psalm, or whether someone else wrote it “in the style of David.” Since the Psalms are Hebrew poetry, I will refer to the author as “the poet” instead of calling him or her “David” or “the psalmist.” You can think of your journey through life as an extended poem that you are writing. The Psalms are an invitation to share your poem with another poet.

In Psalm 6, the poet feels vulnerable, exposed, unprotected, hopeless.  

  • He says, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.” He feels that God is angry and wants him to shape up. But he can’t. He’s stuck.
  • The poet says, “I am faint, my bones are in agony, my soul is in anguish.” Her body is tired, her bones ache, her insides are constant pain.
  • She says, “No one remembers you when he is dead, who praises you from the grave?”  The poet’s thoughts turn to death. Her life feels like a one-way spiral into the grave.
  • She says, “I am worn out with groaning, I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears, my eyes grow weak with sorrow.” Eyes are made to see, but all hers do are weep. The poet can’t see beyond her current pain.

Author Anne Lamott writes of a similar experience, “. . .I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again . . . I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving. . .” (Operating Instructions: A Journal of my Son’s First Year. New York Anchor Books, 1993).

Hasty Words describes depression as “The assassin inside me”  (Hasty Words, Darker Side of Night. Self-published, 2013. See also https://hastywords.com).

Author Nina LaCour writes, “The sun stopped shining for me. . .”  (Hold Still. Speak: New York, 2009)

Yes, that was the poet’s experience in Psalm 6. Then suddenly, out of the blue, the psalm resolves into hope. “Away from me all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping, the Lord has heard my cry for mercy, the Lord accepts my prayer.” Where did the poet find hope? Did he order it from Amazon? Did it come unbidden? Was it an answer from God for the pain and tears?

Let’s pray.
Our Father in heaven, Jesus the Savior knows our depths of depression, for he was despised and rejected by men. He felt rejected by you, his father, when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Today, we bring you our feelings of hopelessness and depression.

  • Don’t be angry at us. Have compassion on our darkness.
  • Don’t turn away from us. Look at our tears.
  • Don’t hide from our misery. Expose and defeat the assassin inside us.
  • Don’t keep your distance, God. Stand with us in our pain.

We believe that you listen, God.
We believe that the sun still shines.
We believe that life is a gift worth living.
We believe that our sadness is not forever.
We believe that you will walk with us through depression.
We believe that your mercy will bring us hope and freedom.

Accept our prayer, O God. Hold us gently in your arms. May your heart of love mingle with our heart of sadness, until our sickness is healed and our life restored. Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.028: Samson’s Birth Announcement

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Continuing our survey of Old Testament stories about prayer, today we consider the birth announcement for Samson the strong-man, one of the judges of Israel.

The Israelites who lived in the promised land persistently ignored God and disobeyed his laws. So God let their enemies–the Philistines–oppress them for 40 years (Judges 13:1). This is similar to Israel at the time of Jesus, which was occupied by the Roman army. In our day, Israel is still a favorite target of local military powers.

During the Philistine occupation, an angel visited an Israelite woman who couldn’t have children. The angel said, “You are going to have a son. Don’t drink wine, and when the boy is born, don’t ever cut his hair. He will be dedicated as a servant of God to deliver Israel from the Philistines.”

After the angel left, the woman told her husband Manoah, “An awesome looking angel told me I will have a son and that I’m not supposed to drink wine. And he said we can’t ever cut the boy’s hair because he will be dedicated as a servant of God to deliver Israel from the Philistines.”

How do you think Manoah received the good news?  He prayed. That’s probably a good thing. But listen to his prayer. He said, “God, pardon me, but can you send that angel back to explain how to bring up the boy we’re going to have?” God answered his prayer. The angel returned and found Manoah’s wife alone in a field. She ran to get Manoah who followed her to meet the angel. Manoah said, “Are you the one who spoke to my wife? Tell us how we’re supposed to raise the boy.”

And the angel said, perhaps somewhat pointedly, “Just do everything I told your wife when I visited her.” Then the angel repeated his earlier instructions.

An interesting story. Let’s start with two observations.

1.    First, Israelite society in Bible times was strongly patriarchal, and the author of this story reflects that. For example, even though the woman is the central character, the author never tells us her name. She is just, “The wife of Manoah.” When she tells her husband about the angel’s visit, he asks God to send the angel back, saying in effect, “Clearly these instructions are too important for me to get second-hand from a woman. You’d better repeat the instructions so I can hear them.”

2.    Second, God simply ignores the politics of patriarchy. He has no problem bypassing the man and sending the angel to the woman. Even after Manoah prays to be included, the angel doesn’t go to Manoah–he goes straight to the woman again. She has to find Manoah who follows her to the field to meet the angel. Who is leader and who is follower in this awkward scenario? And what does the angel say to Manoah? “Just do everything I already told your wife.” Do we catch a hint of rebuke here?  Is the angel saying, “The instructions haven’t changed since the last time I gave them.”

Now, let’s look at a couple lessons for our prayers.  

1.    First, God is serious about communicating good news to his people. He sent an angel to bring good news to Manoah’s wife. When Manoah had trouble accepting the news from her, God sent the angel back to deliver the news to him.

2.    Second, God works both inside and outside our cultural expectations. He bypassed patriarchal norms by going to Manoah’s wife. He honored patriarchal norms by sending the angel again for Manoah’s benefit. God still speaks inside and outside our cultural expectations. Whether our Christianity is conservative evangelical, charismatic, liturgical, Bible-believing independent, or social gospel liberal, God makes himself present to all who seek him in spirit and in truth. He speaks to us in a language we understand, through scripture as we understand it, and through our community and through our whole experience of life.

Let’s pray.  Our Father in heaven, we live our lives in a place and time and human culture that we can’t escape. But we confess that our thoughts are too small for you, our theology is too narrow, our faith is too weak, our culture is too confining. Send your angel to us, tell us the good news of your salvation, lead us out of our narrowness into the wider culture of your kingdom. Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.