Make Us a People

A few days back I was sitting at dinner, making a terrible hash out of explaining why I wanted to do my work within what I knew sounded to my dinner partner like the desperately narrow confines of Biblical revelation. Trying to understand me, he gently suggested that I was probably one of those people who liked ideas to be fairly tidy, that being, I think, the most charitable psychological profile he could imagine for someone who would describe themselves as an Evangelical Christian. I doubt that anyone who knows me well thinks of "tidiness" as either one of my virtues or vices, but I wasn't doing a very good job that evening of being transparent.

Still, the suggestion stuck with me, and made me ponder who I am, who I think I am called to be, and who I believe we are all called to be as Christians; what my prayer is for myself and the people that I walk with. This is the song that grew. I put in links to the Biblical passages I am referencing, for those who might not already recognize them. Neat and tidy isn't really part of it. We are following a God whose Spirit sent the one he called his Beloved Son out to fast and pray in the wilderness for forty days, and then brought him to the place where he died on a cross.  This isn't a safe or an easy God to follow, but the adventure quotient is pretty high.  I'm not in the place this song describes, but this is where I want to be, and what I think that God wants to do in me and in us.

And finally, because there is a little piece of me that likes accuracy, let me take a moment to point out that while in the time that the New Testament was written, the scuzz place, the place where the dregs of society could be found was outside the city--today, for many of us, it is in the hearts of the city.  I went with the picture in the New Testament, but let me acknowledge that I am aware that the prayer to go "outside the gates of the city" could send us straight into the cities from our nice and tidy suburbs.

Make us a People

Father, make us a people
Who will walk on the water
Looking to Jesus
Climbing out of the boat.

O Lord, make us a people
Who are baptized in fire,
 And just a little drunk on the
Word of Your love

Help us go outside the gates of the city
Following Jesus, bearing disgrace as He did on that day
Carrying our crosses, walking in the footsteps of God.

Father, make us a people
Who will sing when we’re captured
Whose songs of praise break down
All the prison walls.

O Lord, make us a people
Who are born of your Spirit,
Blown by the Wind
of Your grace and Your love

Help us go outside the gates of the city
Following Jesus, bearing disgrace as He did on that day.
Carrying our crosses, walking in the footsteps of God.

Father, make us a people
Hungry to be righteous
Longing to make peace
And to see the face of God

O Lord, make us a people
Whose lives are our love for You
Who give You our lives
Both to spend and to send.

Help us go outside the gates of the city
Following Jesus, bearing disgrace as He did on that day
Carrying our crosses, walking in the footsteps of God.

Father, make us a people
Make us Your people, Lord

The Mountain of the LORD

The story of Abraham's almost-sacrifice of Isaac (or in some Muslim versions, Ishmael) on the mountain God chose has been a persistently difficult story for members of all three of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).  Would God ask for human sacrifice? Did Abraham hear wrong?  Is this a story about child abuse, and if so is it Abraham or God who is the child abuser.  And yet, despite the problems, it remains a story that has become quite central to the way all three religions tell our stories of how God relates to us. For Jews it has become a picture of Jewish martyrdom, a proof-text for God's mercy, and a clear indication that God forbids human sacrifice. (Reference)   For Christians, it is a picture and foretelling of Jesus' death on the cross (Reference)(Read more), and an example of faith (Hebrews 11:17-19; .  Muslims celebrate Abraham's submission to God on this day with Eid al-Adha.  

For myself, I find that at certain key turning points in my life, it has become necessary for me to offer back to God with open hands the thing that I have been hoping and dreaming and believing was God's promise.  That I have generally received back the thing that I offered does not take away from the fact that it was important to offer it, and that at the time of offering, there are no certainties, except that God will be faithful.  At these times in my life, the story about Abraham and Isaac on the Mountain of God has become very significant for me.  This song was written at one of those times, but before and after there were other crises where the story has had meaning.  I offer it here in the hopes that it will prove to be meaningful for others as well.

The Mountain of God

On the Mountain of the LORD

It will be provided--

All that You want me to give.

On the Mountain of the LORD

It will be provided--

The strength and the courage to live.

I'll go walking up that mountain

With my hopes and my dreams in my hand

I'll go walking up that mountain

Knowing You will allow me to stand.

Isaac was Abraham's deep delight

A hope that was too good to lose

And God spoke to Abraham in the night

Saying, "Come to the mountain I choose.

Will you lay down your son there?

Will you hand the child over to Me?

Will you give up His life there

As a sign that you're trusting in Me?"

Abraham left for the mountains that day

Leading his son by the hand

I think tears filled his eyes as he tried to pray

As he watched his dreams crumble to sand

He took wood and he took fire 

And he carefully guarded the knife

And he wondered how he'd do it--

Would You ask him to take his son's life?

Abraham knew that he had to do it

Whatever You asked him to do.

And somehow he knew You would see him through it

And still make your promises true

He bound Isaac to the altar

He was willing to go all the way

And then You sent an angel

You provided the ram there that day.

Now through faith, we're the children of Abraham

And sometimes we'll walk in his shoes.

I believe there are times we will hear Your voice calling

To come to the mountain you choose

To lay down there what we cherish

Without knowing just what we'll get back

We must trust that You are faithful

And that You will supply every lack.

On the Mountain of the LORD 

It will be provided--

All that You want me to give

On the Mountain of the LORD

It will be provided--

The strength and the courage to live

I'll go walking up that mountain

With my hopes and my dreams in my hand

I'll go walking up that mountain

Knowing You will allow me to stand.

A Song about the Concept of Prayer

I believe that God is infinite, and so I am not really troubled by the idea that God has bandwidth issues.  At the same time, I am sometimes keenly aware of the absurdity of the idea that the God who made the universe actually cares what people have to say. It is not that I do not believe that this is true.  In fact, long before I became a Christian, I found that I was unable to be an atheist because I feel so strongly that when I pray, I am heard.  Someone is listening.  Many years ago, the person who wrote Psalm 8 felt the same way. 

When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,
and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place,
4 Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them,
5 and make them a little less than the heavenly beings?  --Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)

So it is not that I do not believe that God is listening, that God hears our prayers and cares about us.  It is part of the amazing joyful message of Christianity--God is aware, God cares, God actually wants to talk to us, and be known by us, and in Jesus God paid a stunning cost to make that possible.

Prayer

When I sit and pray to you
Sometimes I feel foolish
Why should I think a king like you
Would listen to me?
The one who set the stars in place
The ground of all our being
Must have one or two
More important things to do
Than listen to a single human’s plea.
But you told us to pray at all times
So here I am praying
For the bread that will feed
Both my soul and my body today
Would you open my heart to the depths of your love
May my life reflect fully your kingdom above
Father God, teach me how to pray.

When I try to hear your voice
Well, there are times I wonder
Is what I’m hearing only me
Or am I hearing you?
I listen for your still, small voice
I hope to hear your thunder
But I’m not a priest or king
Or any special thing
So why would God be whispering to me?
But you said that your sheep hear your voice
So I want to listen
To the word that you spoke for all time
And your word for today.
Would you open my heart to the depths of your word
May your Spirit transform, so I do what I’ve heard
Father God, teach me how to pray.

And a newer version of the video