The Difference with East--November 29, 2016
"In days to come, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways an that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" [Isaiah 2:2-5]
We get our bearings from the direction of the new day.
We find our place--our orientation, quite literally--from the constancy of the rising sun.
My son was putting on his shoes yesterday morning, and as I told him, "This one is for your left foot," he proudly announced back to me, "This is my left foot, and this..." as he wiggled the other, "is my right foot."
"Very good," I said, confirming that he had correctly identified left and right feet.
Then he doubled down on his directional declarations, pointing with his fingers in different directions. "Left, and right," he said, pointing his finger correctly to either side of him. But then the followed up by pointing forward and backward and saying, "North, and... east!"
Well, he was right about the left and right at least.
I said to him, "You got left and right correct, buddy, but east is different. North and south go together, and east and west go together." And then I added, pointing my finger behind me out the window, "That way is east."
He was confused for a moment, and then while he faced me, he pointed behind himself and said, "Oh.... that's east!" He was confusing the word "east" for "behind." He thought I was telling him that east is just another term for the relative direction of being "behind" something or something.
So I said to him, "No, not quite--east is different from left and right, buddy. If you turn around and face the other way, what you called 'left' and what you called 'right' will seem to switch. But 'east' is always pointed in that direction. And you can always find east by looking at the direction where the sun rises from."
Well, that seemed to satisfy a five-year-old who was only just trying to put his shoes on, but that little exchange got me thinking. There is a difference between relative terms like "left" and "right," which depend on asking what your reference point is, and a directional term like "east," which at least on our planet is roughly the direction from which the sun rises. You can head north a long ways until you hit the north pole, but at that point, if you keep going around the world in the same direction, you'll find yourself headed south again. But east is different. If you are pointed east and keep on going, you will always be headed east. And east will always be the direction from which a new day comes. And by the same token, that means, you can always get your bearings for where you are now, if you know from what direction the new day will dawn. The promised tomorrow orients you for where you are right now.
At the start of this new year-long journey together, that's an important truth to consider. We live this life in light of what the promised future will bring. The direction of the new day informs what we do now and where we point our feet. Everything else in this life may well seem relative or uncertain, but there is a difference with East. The sun always rises from the same direction: once you know that direction, you know how to plant your feet no matter what else comes along to get you off your bearings.
So for as the followers of Jesus, as people who belong to his movement that we sometimes call the Kingdom or the Reign of God, this is where it all begins. We start the journey with an awareness of the direction of the promised new day. We start the journey knowing where things are headed. And even if there are a lot of steps in between that we cannot see, we begin with confidence that we know from what direction the new day is coming.
And when the Scriptures describe the direction of that promised future, they keep saying that it looks like... peace. It looks like an end to war. It looks like reconciliation between old enemies. It looks like justice with none other than God sorting out troubles and setting things right. It looks like the ability to love enemies and hammer our weapons into farm tools. That's the direction toward which God is moving all of creation. It sure may not feel like it on a lot of days. Every day there is news of new violence, a new attack somewhere, a new feeling of fear, a new anxiety, and a new worry. But to be honest, a lot of those anxieties and fears are relative--they depend on where you are standing. Like the way left and right reverse themselves when I turn around 180 degrees, there are plenty of worries and fears these days that are relative. People who felt despondent and fearful a year ago may now feel secure and self-confident, while those who were hopeful now feel threatened. Your situation determines some of those fears or feelings of comfort--and they may well change depending on where you are standing and whom you are standing next to in life.
But there is indeed a difference with East. The direction of the new day is constant. And for the people of God, we keep holding out those visions of what God's New Day will look like, so that we know in what direction to move today. So if one day we will all let go of our weapons and learn to forgive one another and do right by one another, well, then the people of God today will start to live in that direction now. We will be people who practice forgiveness, because that is the direction that God's New Day is leading us. We will be people who love enemies, who do good when it has not been done to us, because we can see that is the way that God's New Day will work, too. And we dare to set our feet from the light of that New Day that is just over the edge of the horizon.
If the whole Christian life is a journey, then the "direction" in which we move is always pointed toward that promised future. And we can count on it always being the same, despite the other things that change for us, because that new day is always going to dawn from the same direction.
That is the hope we find on the horizon. That is the difference with East.
Lord God, keep us always pointed at your promised future, and then lead us toward that day together as your moving people.
Well, that seemed to satisfy a five-year-old who was only just trying to put his shoes on, but that little exchange got me thinking. There is a difference between relative terms like "left" and "right," which depend on asking what your reference point is, and a directional term like "east," which at least on our planet is roughly the direction from which the sun rises. You can head north a long ways until you hit the north pole, but at that point, if you keep going around the world in the same direction, you'll find yourself headed south again. But east is different. If you are pointed east and keep on going, you will always be headed east. And east will always be the direction from which a new day comes. And by the same token, that means, you can always get your bearings for where you are now, if you know from what direction the new day will dawn. The promised tomorrow orients you for where you are right now.
At the start of this new year-long journey together, that's an important truth to consider. We live this life in light of what the promised future will bring. The direction of the new day informs what we do now and where we point our feet. Everything else in this life may well seem relative or uncertain, but there is a difference with East. The sun always rises from the same direction: once you know that direction, you know how to plant your feet no matter what else comes along to get you off your bearings.
So for as the followers of Jesus, as people who belong to his movement that we sometimes call the Kingdom or the Reign of God, this is where it all begins. We start the journey with an awareness of the direction of the promised new day. We start the journey knowing where things are headed. And even if there are a lot of steps in between that we cannot see, we begin with confidence that we know from what direction the new day is coming.
And when the Scriptures describe the direction of that promised future, they keep saying that it looks like... peace. It looks like an end to war. It looks like reconciliation between old enemies. It looks like justice with none other than God sorting out troubles and setting things right. It looks like the ability to love enemies and hammer our weapons into farm tools. That's the direction toward which God is moving all of creation. It sure may not feel like it on a lot of days. Every day there is news of new violence, a new attack somewhere, a new feeling of fear, a new anxiety, and a new worry. But to be honest, a lot of those anxieties and fears are relative--they depend on where you are standing. Like the way left and right reverse themselves when I turn around 180 degrees, there are plenty of worries and fears these days that are relative. People who felt despondent and fearful a year ago may now feel secure and self-confident, while those who were hopeful now feel threatened. Your situation determines some of those fears or feelings of comfort--and they may well change depending on where you are standing and whom you are standing next to in life.
But there is indeed a difference with East. The direction of the new day is constant. And for the people of God, we keep holding out those visions of what God's New Day will look like, so that we know in what direction to move today. So if one day we will all let go of our weapons and learn to forgive one another and do right by one another, well, then the people of God today will start to live in that direction now. We will be people who practice forgiveness, because that is the direction that God's New Day is leading us. We will be people who love enemies, who do good when it has not been done to us, because we can see that is the way that God's New Day will work, too. And we dare to set our feet from the light of that New Day that is just over the edge of the horizon.
If the whole Christian life is a journey, then the "direction" in which we move is always pointed toward that promised future. And we can count on it always being the same, despite the other things that change for us, because that new day is always going to dawn from the same direction.
That is the hope we find on the horizon. That is the difference with East.
Lord God, keep us always pointed at your promised future, and then lead us toward that day together as your moving people.
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