Of Men and Microcosms

Few people know this and probably fewer people even care, but when yours truly was attending Allan Hancock College as a twenty year old sophomore, I announced to one of my teachers my intention to obtain a Ph.D. in Sociology. I even made careful (though completely misguided) plans to chose a California State University Campus that would not require me to change venues during my undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate studies.


The reason I mention that is that in the prerequisite studies for that degree, we learned about microcosms. Microcosm is defined as "A world in miniature." By extrapolation, anything that is a smaller model of something larger could be considered a microcosm. We often say we are in our, "own little world." Our own little worlds intersect each other's "own little world" and the sum of them is a larger world. That really is not quite as confusing as it sounds at first blush. Perhaps it is easier to grasp if we say that our society is made up of each of us individuals coming together to form a larger community. Without stretching the point too far that makes each of us a representation of our culture, society, or community. That is not quite the idea of a microcosm, but I now either have or have not completely lost your attention.


For those of you who are still here, let us consider governmental representatives as a way to understand what we are talking about here. Without mentioning any of them by name, we are represented in various governing bodies by duly elected officials from our geographical area. We have city council people, county supervisors, a state assemblyman and senator as well as United States Senators and a Congresswoman. Each one of them are individuals representative of each of us individually and collectively. They cast votes for various things in our place. They do what we would do if we were there ourselves. (Ok, I know that is not always true, but the point is still valid.)


Now, suppose you are one of those representatives because any one of us very well could be. All it takes is the right political machine and enough money. In fact, I ran for county supervisor in a faraway land, many, many years ago. I got a few votes, but not really enough to cause much of a ripple in the election. The local newspaper did run an editorial saying they did not think I should be allowed to run, but that is another story entirely.

So anyway there is, of course, a point to this exercise. Do you remember the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch? (Acts 11:26) Christian was a derisive term when first applied to those disciples, those followers of Jesus. The people of Antioch were mocking the disciples as people who followed Jesus. Of course, they did not themselves believe that Jesus was the Messiah. What they were saying is that each of those disciples was a little Jesus, a microcosm if you will. When we think about it, that should be considered quite a compliment. Oh to be like Jesus! Talk about influence.


Now, think about what people see when they see you. Do they see Jesus? If they call you a Christian are they saying it derisively or admiringly? Do they notice your love? The Bible tells us that we Christians will be known by our love. (John 13:35) There is a man in my program who is having the most serious struggle I have personally ever witnessed over whether to make Jesus his Lord. He knows he will have to give up something very dear to him because Jesus would not approve. He also looks at Christians and is baffled by the way we sometimes think and act. He sees the contradiction between Bibilcal Christianity and those who call themselves Christian today. Dare I use the term hypocrisy? Perhaps you have run into people like him?

We have to be honest, there is a lot to dislike in the modern church. It often bears little resemblence to what Jesus left upon his ascension. Sometimes we almost want to ask, "What was He thinking when He left the church to sinful men?" If you have read much of this blog you probably expect me to say something like, we need to tap into the spirit more, "...be filled with the Spirit." (Ephesians 5:18) as the scripture says. Actually when read in the original language, the phrase is, "be being filled with the the Spirit." It shows continuing action. Unfortunately, most of us, yours truly included, spend way too much time doing what seems right in our own eyes. How is that working out for you? You may be doing fine on an individual basis, but I will quote my pastor here. "We are trying to move from it's all about me to it's not about me at all." Oh, by the way, I did just say it.

I just heard some great news over my back fence yesterday. Apparently there is a man of some, quiet influence in town who is taking it upon himself to organize some focused prayer activity. I am going to look up an email address for him and send a link to the blog. Will you excuse me? I am pretty sure I hear the Holy Spirit calling.

Where Are Those Who Weep Over Santa Maria

As promised, another title in the form of a question. It is also the last one of the titles I heard during worship last Sunday. That could be a good thing since it is already Saturday evening and who knows what might come up tomorrow. Of course the Lord does speak at other times than during the worship time on Sunday mornings, but that is a good time to hear Him if you are listening. We would suggest that if you are having difficulty at that time, you might try reading some scripture before you go to church. At those times when I have had the most difficulty hearing from God, I have found that reading even a few verses before church seems to open me up just a bit more to whatever the Lord has for me there. It seems to even work better to read a few verses just before bed Saturday night then a few more Sunday morning before church.

"Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will...surround you and close you in on every side...because you did not know the time of your visitation.'" (Luke 19:41-44)

Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. He was not just weeping over a city though. Jerusalem was the capital of a nation, the nation of Israel. Depending on who you think is right, He was either the first or second person to fill the office of prophet in the New Testament. Some think John the Baptist was the first New Testament prophet. Others would argue that he ended the line of Old Testament prophets. (There is no extra charge here for that information.) Our position is that it really does not matter. John came as a prophet to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus came as prophet, priest, and king. As such, He changed all the rules of spiritual life between God and man.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and Luke is very specific as to why He did that. He was weeping because they had no spiritual insight. They did not recognize the Messiah, the promised One. Throughout the Bible, beginning with the protevangelium in Genesis 3:15, God had promised to provide a Savior for the sins of mankind. The leaders in Israel had failed to recognize Jesus even though they knew the scriptures from the inside out, forward and backward.

The nation of Israel was in distress. They were under the iron fist of the Roman Empire. They were free to exercise their religion only as long as the Romans allowed it. The Romans recognized Herod as the legitimate head of Israel. That is another teaching all together. The Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, was the group that ran the Jewish religion. They were the ones who decided Jesus should die for the good of the nation. We have discussed their reasons for that in a previous post. With the possible exception of Herod, all Israel was awaiting the revelation of the Messiah on earth. They expected a king to come and throw off the yoke of Roman bondage. When Jesus came, humbly, riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:5) He did not fit the picture they had. God was building a spiritual kingdom from the ground up as He had from the time He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. The Jews were looking for a physical kingdom to come on earth. They missed God, missed what He was doing in their midst because they erred in their theology. Let us not make the same mistake.

Where are the people who are weeping over the Santa Maria valley as Jesus wept over Jerusalem? Where are you? We know a few of you. God is seeing your tears and hearing your prayers. It took us over twenty years to get to this place. No doubt some of you have been praying a good portion of the time, possibly even prior to that. We know God called us to this city and to this valley for such a time as this. Although it took twenty years to figure out exactly why He issued that call, at least we can now say we know. These are exciting times in Santa Maria. Let us not miss what God is doing. He is at work in ways we do not yet see to demolish the strongholds of the enemy wherever they exist. We will tell you the first place to look for those strongholds in the next post.