Jackie, come sit with me.

Grandma had died five years earlier, and from time to time at Grandpa’s house we could ask permission to go through her cedar chest and certain drawers. On a previous visit I found a cigar in her cedar chest. Understand that the strict fundamentalist church in which I was raised viewed smoking as about the most sinful thing there was before sexual debauchery and drinking alcohol. I began to wonder if Grandpa was going to Hell.

On the way back home to Oklahoma, I asked Mom if Grandpa was hiding a smoking habit. She assured me that he didn’t smoke and that the cigar might even have been put there before Grandma died as a way to fend off bugs and moths. When we were back for this weekend visit, Mom told him I had asked. Thus it was, Grandpa stopped me as I bounded off his small concrete porch on the way to my cousin’s house.

“Jackie;” a name I thought I had left behind with the 2nd Grade, “come sit with me. I want to talk to you.”

He was sitting alone on one of his two springy metal porch chairs. I sat in the other one for the only memory I have of Grandpa intentionally asking to visit with me alone. I was 12, and he was 85. I was in Kindergarten when he and Grandma moved off the farm, so I don’t have many clear memories of a young Grandpa. As I approach 69, I hold this memory dear to my heart as the only overt lesson I remember from him; a stalwart heritage, to be sure.

“Jackie, when I was young I loved drinking a glass of beer, and smoking an occasional cigar, but when I began teaching back in Indiana, I gave it up. I knew it was my responsibility to set a good example, even though I didn’t consider smoking and drinking to be sinful. Even today,” he said, “I could go into the bar downtown and have a glass of beer, and I would love to smoke a cigar. It wouldn’t be a sin, but if you or Ronnie” (my brother) “or any of your cousins would see me and take it for an example, and if you became addicted to smoking and drinking, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Such were the attitudes of responsibility of my elders. It’s not THE reason I never took up smoking, or even drinking more than an occasional goblet of wine; maybe 20 times in my whole life. It is, however, a grand testimony to setting a good example. I truly hope I have been so faithful that someone some 50 years from now will remember me so well.

Praying in God’s will

Another one I don't think 
was displayed publicly.

A bit from my experience when training for hospital chaplaincy; unless we are listening intently, we cannot know what God wants to do at any specific time. Oh, sure, we can know the general things like grace, love, freedom from guilt -- you know the ones God wants to give to all. In my time working on oncology, cardiac and other units, however, I was constantly into needs I could not know in advance, yet needs in which I had to know God's specific, intended gift for that patient in order to be God's minister/messenger.

Fortunately, I learned early that year to ask for divine revelation of the specific God-intended gift. I would pray, "As I (we) fall silent and listen, teach us your intended gift in this time." Each time, I was ready to wait for hours or even days for the answer, but it often came within nanoseconds as though God was speaking audibly. Sometimes the intended gift was healing for emotional/physical pain; sometimes for physical healing; and yes, sometimes for saving grace.

I can say without reservation; when I prayed in the power of God's intended gift, miracles happened. It wasn't that I performed any miracle.
      I DIDN'T!
It was that I and everyone else took faith in God's promise. We prayed for the specific thing God wanted, and it happened.

Don't ask me to explain any further than to say that when we pray in the power of God's intention; when we pray in line with divine will; when we get out of God's way and quit trying to unlock the doors for God, God is finally able to work in our lives and in the lives of those we touch.

So, with all due respect to everyone who reads this, quit praying that God will find you the best deal on a car, or find you the best option on a house, or *any*such*thing*. Start instead, asking God to teach you what to ask for. Hey! It *MAY*BE* that best car deal, or the best house, OR it might be a direction you cannot possibly imagine now, something far more important.

Just stop; ask for revelation; listen for it; pray when you understand, then you will receive. You will receive in generous measure, pressed down and running over, and you will be blessed and praise God every time you remember it. I have those memories that bring joy to my heart and tears to my eyes whenever I remember them, now even a quarter of a century later.

What could he have meant?

Note, weeks ago I shared 

this on Google+. I don't 

believe it was seen publicly.

When I hear prayer end with “In Jesus’ name we pray,” I wonder what do we think that phrase adds? What do we expect? What did Jesus mean by, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”? (John 14:14)

A clearer picture of why I raise this point will come by reading all of John 14:1- 20.

Back then “in my name” had little of our 21st Century context. It wasn’t a tag-line or an invocation of the power of the actual name, Jesus. He was neither referring to himself, nor was he offering a code phrase. He was invoking EVERYTHING he taught and EVERYTHING he commanded. That was the 1st Century (and earlier) context of “the name” of a rabbi.

Verse 15 provides the context: “If you love me, keep my commands.” Ancient manuscripts weren’t divided as we know The Bible today. Modern versions place this verse with the promise of asking God to send “another advocate.” It would be interesting to see how this was divided in John’s first manuscript. I’d bet that v. 15 would be found connected directly with v. 14; or at best as a stand-alone. It would be clear that Jesus was commanding a spirit and an understanding of prayer. He was saying, “I have taught you what to ask for and how to ask. When you follow that, your petition will be heard and granted.”

It is simple: If I pray “in Jesus’ name,” will I ask anything Jesus would not ask? Could I pray for personal wealth “in Jesus’ name”? Could I pray for the death of an enemy “in Jesus’ name”? Can I pray to God for peace “in Jesus’ name” with a gun in my hands?

NO!

Did Jesus really mean that?

In Biblical Palestine, a “Rabbi’s NAME” evoked the entirety of his teachings and commands; which brings me to believe that in being baptized, Jesus claimed something much broader. Going into the water was an immersion. Later, before ascending to Heaven, Jesus told his disciples to go preach The Good News, “baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have taught you,” (Mt 25:19-20). I believe he was telling them to “immerse” everyone so deeply in his teachings/commands that their old selves would die and be replaced by a new reality. Back then death itself was considered a baptism of sorts.

My hypothesis, and there is a lot for me to learn: I believe that customs of Jesus’ day on Earth viewed immersion in water as a sign (a testimony) of repentance and not an actual cleansing from sin. Even some views of baptism during the Protestant Reformation show more interest in this public witness than in a dispensation of divine grace. Counter-Reformation, Free Church traditions tended toward viewing baptism as a communal co-witness involving the whole congregation. A few score years later, Quakers totally eschewed baptism.

I recently asked an OT prof about the history of this “in-the-name-of” concept. He cited customs of naming children according to desired/assumed attributes, then renaming to reflect new and different realities; Abram/Abraham, Sarai/Sarah, Jacob/Israel, Simon/Peter, Saul/Paul. Names were intended to reflect one's essence. 

“Jesus” like the OT name “Joshua” meant “savior,” but even though Jesus, the person, embraced his title, he didn’t preach similar to modern fundamentalist understandings of “savior.” He preached “release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and the year of The Jubilee” (ref. LK 4:18-21 where Jesus read Isaiah 61:1-3 in the synagogue). He preached a repentance to simple righteousness (restorative justice), not altar calls and “holiness.”

My hypothesis again; I believe that Jesus’ command to “baptize” and to pray, asking “in my name,” implied total immersion in his teachings and commands. Such a prayer is truly “in Jesus name,” in direct alignment with his divine will. From that kind of prayer follow miracles unimaginable.

I welcome comments in dialogue.