Strangely Dim

Tentmaker No. 19

Nov 13, 2024

Number 19 includes a t-shirt, art, maps, history, scripture and more.

We pray.

We ask God to give us strength to do something but really mean for Him to do it for us. “Lord help me to …” I’m not sure we want to do anything, but I’m really sure that we want things to happen.

If we truly thought that we were seen and heard by the immortal maker of all things, the incomprehensible God-of-All, our bodies would crumple and a primal realization would instantaneously take place -

we have come to the court of the Incomprehensible God totally unprepared for the meeting. Before words could even be spoken, we would see our true need and our natural position:

humility.

Humility because we ourselves are so far removed from the standard. We would stammer that we should not have even come, that we have forgotten our place. Look how unkept our lives are, how thoughtless. How base. How shallow and empty - how very different we are from the all-consuming Cosmic Holiness of the Trinity. We forgot, and chose our own way.

We wouldn’t even speak.

We would become a puddle, level and still at God’s feet.

Whatever we came to ask for would be forgotten until we have cried, melted, and begged - repented.

Our awareness of our own shortcomings and utter inability to do or give anything to make up for our state would be the thing that finally gave us strength to push up from that holy ground - just a few inches - and confess our state of affairs and truly beg, “Lord, have mercy.”

This is the beginning and end of our prayer.

This is the beginning and end of our lives.

Do we look out onto a world and wonder where God is, why doesn’t He act?

“Why doesn’t God…”

“I just don’t understand…”

Alternatively, why can’t we see how God is acting? Where is He working? Why does every week fill up with the same things - concerns, problems, hurdles, agitations?

Does God hear? Does He act?

Having been pressed into the muck of humility before, I can now say that there in the muddy ruts I came face to face with my past and future. The dust I was made from filled my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears and squeezed up on my sides as I was pressed harder. Humility is the truth that no one wants while living, but all will find in death - except the fortunate. They will find it while they breathe.

And yet,

being humbled is not the same as being disgraced.

A torn garment can be mended. A marred surface may be polished. How do we see God?

By reflection - in others and in our surroundings. How do others see God? Why can’t they?

Take a guess.

We must become a puddle - small and level. In this way, we can become who we are meant to be and others can see God through reflection. It will be dim and imperfect, but that is alright.

If you cannot see God at work in your life or in the culture, it is because both have churning surfaces.

God can be seen reflected in still water, no matter how small, and what wonder! That the uncontainable maker of all things would potentially fill every dewdrop and tear with the image of Himself.

Many times, our surfaces are turbulent, and the sound of our intentions rushing downhill is lost in the churn. We pray and then immediately move on, seeking our own answer. We say that we pray, but it’s more like we send an email.

What was it that Jesus said to Peter that stormy night?

Jesus was in the turbulence, and the storm knew His voice. Peter knew well the dangers of drowning. Imagine what all flashed through his mind. Perfectly normal, we’d say. Perfectly reasonable.

It may seem reasonable to look at all the disruption and question our neighbors or hold a grudge, but we stand or fall to our master, not our circumstances. We can choose to look at Christ. To do that - to look upon the all-holy, perfect gift and giver is uncomfortable and sears us with blinding light leaving us with ghosted thoughts, but the alternative is a life lived from storm to storm, always seeking answers and accommodations but not the Savior.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

Humility is the real answer to every prayer and the foundation upon which all answered prayer is built and all unanswered prayer is accepted as good.

Praying for healing in a loved one? Are you aware of your own brokenness? Need money for a stove that is failing? Are you aware of your own brokenness? Asking God for everything about your children to be good all the time? Are you aware of your own brokenness? Do you snarl at the people who vote in ways you don’t like? Are you aware of your own brokenness? Have you become roiling water, churned by one thing after another? Do you find answers through Google more than by prayer and silence? Have you chosen to fill your life with so many important things that you are unwilling to let go of?

Does repentance sound like a compromise?

The peace we seek is in stillness and in having an open hand that is always releasing, knowing the one before whom we stand.

When the vitriol makes the waters boil or when our intentions are a rushing river, hear the Lord say, “Peace. Be still.” Even if you are the only one, even if you are offended or insulted, count it all joy that you have been given the opportunity to actually act in faith by being like a small puddle - not just pray about being faithful. Remember that the hand that Peter took still reaches for us. The eyes that Peter left still requite our gaze. The voice that Peter heard still speaks. The waters still obey.

These two prayers are my walking sticks:
“Lord, have mercy.”
“Thy will be done.”

Seek first the kingdom of God, whose foundation is humility. Eden was built on it. Rebuilding it - reattaining it - means digging and digging and digging, ever deeper to find the cornerstone. The one who begins this work will find answered prayers everywhere, and everywhere a world of wonder.

Act. Do not just react.

Hear above the noisy din, “Why did you doubt?”

Take a night visit to the darkest natural area you can then look up.

Don’t just drive by the fallen leaves. Sit with them. Listen to them fall.

Give away some clothes.

Give away some money.

Skip a meal.

Relinquish argument as a tool.

Avoid petty conversations.

Get still and look out the window in silence.

Let it go.

(Beware of the hobgoblins of little minds.)

SCRIPTURE

Mark 7:24–8:10

²⁴And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.¹ And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. ²⁵But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶^tNow the woman was a ^uGentile, ^va Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷And he said to her, “Let the children be ^wfed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and ^xthrow it to the dogs.” ²⁸But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s ^ycrumbs.” ²⁹And he said to her, “For this statement you may ^zgo your way; the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

³¹^aThen he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to ^bthe Sea of Galilee, in the region of the ^cDecapolis.

Tyre and Sidon were Gentile areas.

She was unclean.

He was holy.

She became as nothing before him

and persisted.

Jesus acted.

He saw love and holiness in humility.

Matthew 7:7–11

Ask, and It Will Be Given

[7] “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8] For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [9] Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? [10] Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? [11] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (ESV)

SONG

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O sacred head now wounded
With grief and shame waighed down
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns thine only crown
How pale Thou art with anguish
With sore abuse and scorn
How does that visage languish
Which once was bright as morn

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners' gain
Oh mine was the transgression
But thine the deadly pain
Lo, here I fall, my Savior
'Tis I deserve thy place
Look on me with thy favor
Vouchsafe to me thy grace

What language shall I borrow
To thank thee, dearest Friend
For this, thy dying sorrow
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me thine forever
And should I fainting be
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love to thee

NEWS

Christians continue to die in the Middle East because of strikes against Israel and because of Israeli bombs.

Every now and then I remind myself that Israel is not Christian. Jews are not Christian. Israel is not the church. America is not Christian. America is not the church. So when Israel says people need to die, people die. When the American government arms foreigners, people die. A significant number of those people are Christians with ancient links and deep heritages like you and I cannot fathom. When a Church somewhere in the middle East is bombed, it isn’t exactly the same as losing the building in the strip mall where the Dollor General used to be. Hundreds and hundreds of years of Christian activity - baptisms, sermons, marriages - Christian life and culture - all set back to dust and rubble.

Christians continue to be persecuted in Ukraine in an awful reminder of how separation of church and state can be a really good thing, while the nationalization of faith can be devastating.

Violent attacks are up five-fold since 2016 in West Africa. In recent years, thousands of Christians have been slaughtered, forcibly converted to Islam, kidnapped for ransom or sexual enslavement, and/or driven out of their homes and into refugee camps. Such a pattern is called “religio-ethnic cleansing” though it may amount to legally defined genocide. (footnote 1)

Facts 1

Although recent massacres in Burkina Faso are almost as alarming, no place in sub-Sahara is more notorious for religious hostility against Christians than Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. Over the last decade, more Christians have been deliberately murdered for their faith by Islamic extremists in Nigeria’s northern and central belts than in all the Middle East combined.
Over 20 Catholics and Protestants have been beheaded since Christmas in Nigeria, alone.
Among those murdered for their faith over Christmas include a Catholic bride and all her bridesmaids, while trav eling to the bride’s country home to prepare the wedding.
In mid-January, Rev. Andimi, the director of a regional office of the Christian Association of Nigeria, was filmed by Isis’ affiliate pleading for his life and, in a later film, being beheaded by the terror group. His executioner was identified as Emanuel, a man from his church who had been previously abducted and forcibly converted to Islam.
Also, in mid-January, word came that the 14 -year-old Nigerian Christian girl Leah Sharibu, whose case of abduction and enslavement “for life” two years ago after courageously giving witness to her faith at gunpoint became internationally known, is now a mother and has been forcibly converted to Islam while captive in the Nigerian wilderness.
In tiny Burkina Faso, three priests and two Protestant ministers have been murdered, along with their congregations during 2019. On 20 January 2020, a village of 195 homes was razed to the ground and the Christian inhabitants who could flee were eventually taken hostage or killed. Terrorists carefully choose and target teachers and priests with a view to crippling social services for a population who becomes homeless and poor through internal displacement. By the end of January 2020, there were at least 600,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) under the care of the Catholic Church.
A few months ago, all the residents of an entire Christian village were slaughtered in Mali, leaving no survivors.
Even majority Christian Mozambique on Africa’s east coast is experiencing a “cyclone” of extremist attacks, according to the Catholic bishops’ conference there.
In each of these countries, churches are being systematically burned in the areas under extremist’ control.

There is violence everywhere and complex situations, so if you can choose where you attend services and do so in peace, count your blessings.

HISTORY

TYRE - One of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.

(images above from the BBC)

The following section was generated by ChatGPT:

1. Early Christian Period in Tyre

Apostolic Era: Christianity is believed to have reached Tyre relatively early, in the 1st century CE, as part of the broader spread of Christian teachings across the Eastern Mediterranean. The New Testament mentions Tyre in several places, indicating its significance in early Christian history. According to the Gospel of Matthew (15:21-28) and Mark (7:24-30), Jesus visited Tyre and interacted with a Gentile woman, healing her daughter. This episode highlights the presence of Christians and possibly early Christian converts in the city.
Saint Paul: Tyre is also mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 21:3-7) as a place where Saint Paul stayed during his travels. According to the text, Paul visited Tyre during his journey to Jerusalem, and he was warmly received by local Christians. This reflects the city's role as an important early Christian center.
Christianity in the Roman Empire: During the Roman period, Tyre continued to be a significant city, and it became part of the Roman province of Syria. Early Christians in Tyre would have lived under Roman rule, often facing persecution, but the city remained a key site for the spread of Christianity in the Levant.

2. The Role of Tyre in Christian Development

Ecclesiastical Importance: Tyre became an important center of Christian worship and ecclesiastical administration. In the early centuries of Christianity, the city was known for its bishopric, and Christian bishops of Tyre were influential in church councils and theological debates.
- Bishopric: Tyre’s bishopric was one of the early Christian sees in the region. The city had an active Christian community, with a bishop who played a role in the larger ecclesiastical hierarchy of the region. Tyre was part of the broader ecclesiastical structure of the Byzantine Empire, and its bishops participated in several important theological and doctrinal discussions.
The Council of Tyre (335 CE): One of the most notable events in Tyre’s Christian history was the Council of Tyre in 335 CE, which was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine. This council was primarily concerned with settling theological disputes, particularly about the nature of Arianism, a Christian heresy. Tyre, along with other cities in the Eastern Roman Empire, was a center for such theological debates, reflecting its significant Christian presence.

3. Byzantine and Early Medieval Period

Byzantine Era: During the Byzantine period (4th–7th centuries), Christianity became the dominant religion in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Tyre continued to be an important Christian center. The city’s Christian community flourished under Byzantine rule, and Tyre’s churches and monasteries were prominent institutions.
The Church of Tyre: During the Byzantine era, several churches were established in Tyre. Among the most famous was the Church of St. George. The city was also home to a thriving monastic community, with monks and religious scholars contributing to Christian intellectual and cultural life.
The Fall of Tyre to the Arabs (638 CE): In the mid-7th century, after the rise of Islam, Tyre, like much of the Levant, fell to the Arab Caliphate. The Muslim conquest of Tyre in 638 CE, led by Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, resulted in the city being incorporated into the Umayyad Caliphate and later the Abbasid Caliphate.
- Despite the Arab conquest, Tyre’s Christian community survived under Muslim rule. Christians were given the status of dhimmis, meaning they were tolerated as “People of the Book” and allowed to practice their religion, though they were subject to certain legal restrictions and taxes.

4. Crusader Period and the Role of Tyre

Tyre and the Crusaders: During the First Crusade (1096–1099), the city of Tyre was one of the last major cities to resist the Crusaders. After the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, the Crusaders turned their attention to the coastal cities, including Tyre, which was then ruled by the Fatimids (a Shia Muslim dynasty).
Baldwin I of Jerusalem: Tyre was finally captured by Baldwin I of Jerusalem in 1110, after a lengthy siege. Baldwin, who later became known as the Leper King, made Tyre a key part of his Crusader kingdom. The city's port became a critical asset for the Crusader states in the Holy Land, and it was fortified by Baldwin and other Crusader kings.
Christian Population Under Crusader Rule: Under the Crusaders, Tyre remained an important Christian city. The Crusaders, primarily Latin Christians, allowed the local Byzantine Christians and Syriac Orthodox Christians to continue practicing their faiths. Several churches and monasteries were rebuilt or expanded during this period, and the Christian population of Tyre, both native and Crusader, grew.
- Tyre’s churches continued to serve as places of worship for the Christians living under Crusader rule. After Baldwin I's capture of the city, it became an important hub for pilgrims and Christian clergy traveling to the Holy Land. The Crusader kingdom also established an Archbishopric in Tyre, which was part of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

5. Decline of Christian Influence in Tyre

Mamluk and Ottoman Periods: After the fall of the Crusader states in the 13th century, Tyre came under the control of the Mamluks (1250–1517) and later the Ottomans (1517–1918). Under these successive Muslim empires, the Christian community in Tyre, like many other parts of the Levant, began to shrink in number, but it still remained a part of the city’s social fabric.
- Christians in Tyre during the Ottoman period were primarily Maronite Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Melkite Catholics. The city was still home to several Christian churches, although their influence was diminished by the growing Muslim population.

6. Modern Era

Lebanon and Tyre Today: In modern times, Tyre is part of Lebanon, a country with a significant Christian population. The city itself has a mixed population, with Christians making up a minority of the population in the present day. The Maronite Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, and Melkite Greek Catholic Church are still active in Tyre, with churches and religious sites continuing to serve the Christian community.
Tyre remains an important archaeological and religious site, with several Christian churches, including the Church of Our Lady of the Sea and the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Cathedral, drawing both local Christians and tourists. Additionally, Tyre’s Christian community has continued to contribute to the broader Lebanese society, participating in various cultural, political, and religious activities.

Conclusion

The history of Christians in Tyre spans more than two millennia, from the early Christian period to the modern day. Tyre has always been a significant site for Christian worship, theology, and culture, from the early missionary efforts of Saint Paul and the apostolic era, through its role in the Crusader Kingdom, to its position as part of modern Lebanon. Despite the various political changes and challenges the city has faced, Tyre remains a center of Christian heritage and continues to hold cultural and religious significance for Christians in the region.

ART

Thomas Blackshear

I had no idea that one day I would meet the man responsible for making so many of the images that shaped my youth. Thomas Blackshear now paints Western Art, but Lifeway Bookstores used to be full of his art. Here is one where the robes are made of the flags of nations. Beautiful.