Jesus said to them, "Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." (Luke 20:25)
In Luke’s Gospel the contest between Jesus and the “priests and keepers of the law” continues to escalate. Now there are spies working for the priests and they have devised yet another way to trap Jesus – to get him in trouble with Rome over taxes. And so a clever trap is devised. Of course, Jesus again turns the questions on them.
There are always nuances to a text. Here many ideas swirl about exactly what the trap is – partly at play may be that a faithful Jew should not even have had coin with stamp of Rome on it that held messianic claims for Caesar. However I say “may” because while that meaning might be in play historically, it isn’t the meaning that holds the most powerful implication for us as disciples. I think we have to look closely at Jesus response here and then note exactly what this means for our life.
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Imagine drawing up a line in your front yard… now imagine that you have pulled out everything you own. Item by item, ask Jesus’ question – does this belong to you, or to God?
Two things occur to me as I think about this in connection with Jesus’ answer. The first is that when Jesus separates things between what is the emperor’s and what is God’s – very little, if anything, would end up on the emperor’s side of the line. Secondly, that those things that may end up on the emperor’s side are trivial to Jesus. Not only might Jesus say that you can go ahead and give them to the emperor… but I imagine Jesus might even more forcefully say – what are you bothering collecting things that have nothing to do with God?
Now a third thought comes to mind. Have you ever watched one of those television shows on the organizers that help people who have collected too much junk in their houses? I’ve seen them put a tarp in the front yard and say – you can only keep what will fit on this tarp… everything else has to go. What makes the cut – and what do you use to measure what makes it and what doesn’t?
Jesus is not concerned about taboos around money and images and false claims of far off authority figures. Jesus actually is remarkable ambivalent to Rome. His problem isn’t with Rome – it’s with the faithfulness of the Jews… his disciples… and those he meets on the roads, pathways and journeys of his life. ‘Go ahead,’ I hear Jesus say, ‘give it to Caesar. I don’t care. What I care about is how you are living your life. If this thing… this money… this (fill in the blank) is causing you so much worry and concern then by all means get rid of it!’
And of course this invites a whole next level of questioning… what happens if we did the same exercise again but rather than with the “things” of our life – we did it with our time and energy… what belongs to us and what to God? And what would our lives look like if we understood that it all belongs to God?
Has your life become cluttered with things that distract, concern and worry you?
Are you caught up in games and traps that make you forget the real question of living a life reflective of the life of God?
How do you measure what is a priority in your life; what belongs and what does not?
Creating God,
You have created the world and all that is in it. And yet we divide it up and make claims of ownership. We strive to possess things to the point of distraction, anxiety… even bloodshed. Help us to reprioritize our life in line with your life.
Amen.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
March 29 - Lenten Devotional
As he (Jesus) was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" (Luke 19:35-38)
As he came near and saw the city, he (Jesus) wept over it, saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!" (Luke 19:41)
It’s amazing what a different perspective will do for you. Jesus comes into Jerusalem – the event we memorialize with Palm Sunday – and the crowds celebrate… but Jesus weeps.
A week ago I made a strange comment at the Sunset worship – strange because I didn’t really explain what I meant. I called Palm Sunday a false celebration. It is a false celebration – or a day when we shouldn’t really be celebrating. It becomes juxtaposed to the very real celebration of Easter. On Easter we can truly celebrate because, having been through the horrible journey of Holy Week, we have had priorities set straight, our vision of the world transformed, and know what it is we are really celebrating.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves… At the moment Jesus is weeping – and the crowds are cheering.
There is so much to see here but for the moment – through the lens of discerning discipleship – what it reminds me of is this: Discipleship is a community affair - I believe that it is best to discern faithful ways of living in the world in community… we need those other perspectives after all. However, we also need to be take note – communities do not necessarily discern any more accurately than individuals do.
I think it’s a funny phenomenon – very often we easily claim that we are all sinners, that we all err in judgment, in word, and in deed. And yet how often do we presume that our groups, communities, institutions… even our nations are some how without blemish. One thousand sinners get together and somehow there is no longer sin? 10,000 (maybe more – maybe less) followers and onlookers travel after, and even ahead of, Jesus – but they had no idea what it was all about… in fact they got it completely wrong.
Does this mean we give up on communities and move back to individual discernment? Not at all! It does mean however that in community we also need to know how to confess and ask forgiveness on behalf of our community… in community we need to seek out other perspectives… engage in careful and depthful discernment… in community we need to remember – with intentionality – that we see “in a mirror dimly” (as Paul put it). We still need correction – to find the speck in our collective eye and remove it… particularly before we start pointing out the specks in the eyes of other communities, institutions, and traditions.
Are you listening to other perspectives – not to find fault – but to really engage what they offer you for a deeper appreciation of God’s creation… and attention to God’s presence?
Have you gone with the crowds and status quo rather than stop to question perceived truth claims - both for your own sake, and the sake of those same crowds?
Are you attentive to what Jesus is weeping over – and seeking to help make the world aware of it and join God offering healing and wholeness?
Weeping God,
So many times we get caught up in the elation of the crowds…
Caught up in the glamour of a parade… in the “circus” lights…
In the din and noise of the multitudes – we fail to hear your tears.
Help us to attend to the voices of your prophets, and be those voices to our communities – calling each other to ever more faithfulness.
Amen.
As he came near and saw the city, he (Jesus) wept over it, saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!" (Luke 19:41)
It’s amazing what a different perspective will do for you. Jesus comes into Jerusalem – the event we memorialize with Palm Sunday – and the crowds celebrate… but Jesus weeps.
A week ago I made a strange comment at the Sunset worship – strange because I didn’t really explain what I meant. I called Palm Sunday a false celebration. It is a false celebration – or a day when we shouldn’t really be celebrating. It becomes juxtaposed to the very real celebration of Easter. On Easter we can truly celebrate because, having been through the horrible journey of Holy Week, we have had priorities set straight, our vision of the world transformed, and know what it is we are really celebrating.
But let us not get ahead of ourselves… At the moment Jesus is weeping – and the crowds are cheering.
There is so much to see here but for the moment – through the lens of discerning discipleship – what it reminds me of is this: Discipleship is a community affair - I believe that it is best to discern faithful ways of living in the world in community… we need those other perspectives after all. However, we also need to be take note – communities do not necessarily discern any more accurately than individuals do.
I think it’s a funny phenomenon – very often we easily claim that we are all sinners, that we all err in judgment, in word, and in deed. And yet how often do we presume that our groups, communities, institutions… even our nations are some how without blemish. One thousand sinners get together and somehow there is no longer sin? 10,000 (maybe more – maybe less) followers and onlookers travel after, and even ahead of, Jesus – but they had no idea what it was all about… in fact they got it completely wrong.
Does this mean we give up on communities and move back to individual discernment? Not at all! It does mean however that in community we also need to know how to confess and ask forgiveness on behalf of our community… in community we need to seek out other perspectives… engage in careful and depthful discernment… in community we need to remember – with intentionality – that we see “in a mirror dimly” (as Paul put it). We still need correction – to find the speck in our collective eye and remove it… particularly before we start pointing out the specks in the eyes of other communities, institutions, and traditions.
Are you listening to other perspectives – not to find fault – but to really engage what they offer you for a deeper appreciation of God’s creation… and attention to God’s presence?
Have you gone with the crowds and status quo rather than stop to question perceived truth claims - both for your own sake, and the sake of those same crowds?
Are you attentive to what Jesus is weeping over – and seeking to help make the world aware of it and join God offering healing and wholeness?
Weeping God,
So many times we get caught up in the elation of the crowds…
Caught up in the glamour of a parade… in the “circus” lights…
In the din and noise of the multitudes – we fail to hear your tears.
Help us to attend to the voices of your prophets, and be those voices to our communities – calling each other to ever more faithfulness.
Amen.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
March 27 - Lenten Devotional
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
I think most of us would like to have a yellow brick road… the bigger and brighter – the better! It’s nice when it’s easy to tell what is the road and what isn’t… even better if it’s clear where it leads and has a nice, obvious destination. Dorothy had a yellow brick road… she had companions for her journey and she had a clear objective – the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald Tower.
The problem with wizards, towers, and clear paths – is that they are all illusions. Oz’s answers are only cleverly worded deceptions, the tower is more about allowing awe to overcome your perception of truth, and the clear path – well it clearly got Dorothy nowhere… and when all is said and done it was in the ambiguous trials of the journey that Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and Dorothy realized that they had what they needed all along.
“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed… in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
Karl Marx called Christianity an opiate of the people… and in fact it can be, and often is one. We make Christianity an opiate when we think the kingdom of God is an end of time destination. We make Christianity an opiate when we presume that social justice is only a God agenda… and things will be made right by God in the “end”. We make Christianity an opiate when we make it a simple, clear pathway to heaven.
Christianity is not a yellow brick road.
Heaven is not an Emerald Tower.
God is not the Wizard of Oz
And yet… how often do we try to make it that way? How often do we say things and act in ways that take away the transformative power of God’s grace… and turn our faith into palliative care? The kingdom of God is among us… and a great amount of Jesus time and energy in his ministry is spent trying to help us realize that and see it for ourselves.
Heaven is not God’s kingdom… or at least heaven alone isn’t. Earth… this world, our lives – with all its muck and grime, all its ambiguity and brokenness, all the good, the bad, and the ugly… it is all God’s kingdom too! When we let the idea of an Emerald Tower (or pearly gates) allow us to think that we don’t have to worry about the grimy road were traveling… than all we’ve done is turn God into a wizard of illusions – and delusions.
Discipleship is a journey following Christ… but we are not following Christ to some “other place”. We follow Christ to learn and be formed in the journey, we follow Christ to the cross – and to resurrection, where our eyes are opened, and we realize that God is redeeming God’s kingdom... here and now!
Are you paying attention to the kingdom of God around you?
Is your faith transforming you and the world around you in the ways of Jesus?
Is your journey helping others see and know God’s love in their journey?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lord God,
This world is your kingdom.
Help us to have kingdom eyes and kingdom lives –
that all we say and do testifies to your grace and love.
Amen.
I think most of us would like to have a yellow brick road… the bigger and brighter – the better! It’s nice when it’s easy to tell what is the road and what isn’t… even better if it’s clear where it leads and has a nice, obvious destination. Dorothy had a yellow brick road… she had companions for her journey and she had a clear objective – the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald Tower.
The problem with wizards, towers, and clear paths – is that they are all illusions. Oz’s answers are only cleverly worded deceptions, the tower is more about allowing awe to overcome your perception of truth, and the clear path – well it clearly got Dorothy nowhere… and when all is said and done it was in the ambiguous trials of the journey that Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and Dorothy realized that they had what they needed all along.
“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed… in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
Karl Marx called Christianity an opiate of the people… and in fact it can be, and often is one. We make Christianity an opiate when we think the kingdom of God is an end of time destination. We make Christianity an opiate when we presume that social justice is only a God agenda… and things will be made right by God in the “end”. We make Christianity an opiate when we make it a simple, clear pathway to heaven.
Christianity is not a yellow brick road.
Heaven is not an Emerald Tower.
God is not the Wizard of Oz
And yet… how often do we try to make it that way? How often do we say things and act in ways that take away the transformative power of God’s grace… and turn our faith into palliative care? The kingdom of God is among us… and a great amount of Jesus time and energy in his ministry is spent trying to help us realize that and see it for ourselves.
Heaven is not God’s kingdom… or at least heaven alone isn’t. Earth… this world, our lives – with all its muck and grime, all its ambiguity and brokenness, all the good, the bad, and the ugly… it is all God’s kingdom too! When we let the idea of an Emerald Tower (or pearly gates) allow us to think that we don’t have to worry about the grimy road were traveling… than all we’ve done is turn God into a wizard of illusions – and delusions.
Discipleship is a journey following Christ… but we are not following Christ to some “other place”. We follow Christ to learn and be formed in the journey, we follow Christ to the cross – and to resurrection, where our eyes are opened, and we realize that God is redeeming God’s kingdom... here and now!
Are you paying attention to the kingdom of God around you?
Is your faith transforming you and the world around you in the ways of Jesus?
Is your journey helping others see and know God’s love in their journey?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lord God,
This world is your kingdom.
Help us to have kingdom eyes and kingdom lives –
that all we say and do testifies to your grace and love.
Amen.
March 26 - Lenten Devotional
(The person said) “…but let me first…” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62)
If someone asks me about texts for discipleship there are three that immediately jump out at me – three texts that stand in my mind above all others. John chapter six (particularly the last half of it), the call of original four disciples in Matthew 4 (and the continuation of it into the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5), and these verses we’ve just read that sit at the end of a series of calls to discipleship in Luke 9.
Each of these stories cuts to the heart of the radical nature of Christ’s call. Each of these texts are “favorites”… and yet I find each of them convict me – because I struggle mightily to live into any of them.
Sticking with Jesus as the only place to find words of life…
Dropping nets and following Jesus…
Not looking back…
There is no halfway disciple. This is the great rub… one either is a committed (in Jesus mind)… or one is not. You are either ready to place your whole trust in Jesus, and ready to put Jesus at the center of your life – or you are not.
Honestly I’d like to offer an easier read… an invitation with more wiggle room. But these examples don't leave room to. They come to us from three different Gospels (and its not that Mark doesn’t do the same, its just not as stuck in my head – I assure you the urgency and absolute sense of commitment is there too). They come at the beginning, in the middle, and near the end of Jesus journey with his disciples… throughout his ministry and from various perspectives the message is the same – you have to jump in... completely!
As a small child I loved water – absolutely loved it, and that love never went away. However – when I was four years old I was at my granny’s swimming pool and I slipped while running around the pool and hit my head on the side of the pool and immediately sunk to the bottom. My mother fished me quickly – I was fine, no harm. But for the next eight years I refused to put my face under water. I still loved it – but I also feared it.
The waters of Baptism are just like that pool... they are waters we all ought to love, and yet fear. We use water because water is a sign of life and death. Water is necessary for us to live – and yet to plunge into water is be in a state of death. In baptism that death is a death to the world. It is a death to sin. It is a death to holding onto our nets, to needing a non-offensive God, to putting a hand to the plow and looking back. It is death – but not for death’s sake… on the other side...
There is life! On the other side of that death we find in Christ the only place that offers words of eternal (abundant) life.
But you have to be willing to trust… to jump in, let your face plunge deep into the waters – let go of other priorities, concerns, and voices that control us. You have to let go – and die… and then life abundant springs forth. It’s the vision Tom gave us in his sermon a few weeks ago of the man who would just float in the ocean waters… a dead man’s float! And yet how relaxing to find that in such abandon… in such a state of release – we are born up on the waves by the love, grace, and steadfast faithfulness of God.
Are you willing to drop your nets, stopping looking back, and place you whole trust in Jesus?
Have you let go… died to the need for control and the desire to live the ways of the world?
Are you ready to dive deep in discipleship and float upon the grace of God?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radical God,
Your ways are truly beyond us.
Your call asks so much of us.
Our trust is shallow and the waters are deep.
Give us the strength to not need strength.
Guide us in letting go… looking forward…
Bear us up on your waters of life.
Amen.
If someone asks me about texts for discipleship there are three that immediately jump out at me – three texts that stand in my mind above all others. John chapter six (particularly the last half of it), the call of original four disciples in Matthew 4 (and the continuation of it into the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5), and these verses we’ve just read that sit at the end of a series of calls to discipleship in Luke 9.
Each of these stories cuts to the heart of the radical nature of Christ’s call. Each of these texts are “favorites”… and yet I find each of them convict me – because I struggle mightily to live into any of them.
Sticking with Jesus as the only place to find words of life…
Dropping nets and following Jesus…
Not looking back…
There is no halfway disciple. This is the great rub… one either is a committed (in Jesus mind)… or one is not. You are either ready to place your whole trust in Jesus, and ready to put Jesus at the center of your life – or you are not.
Honestly I’d like to offer an easier read… an invitation with more wiggle room. But these examples don't leave room to. They come to us from three different Gospels (and its not that Mark doesn’t do the same, its just not as stuck in my head – I assure you the urgency and absolute sense of commitment is there too). They come at the beginning, in the middle, and near the end of Jesus journey with his disciples… throughout his ministry and from various perspectives the message is the same – you have to jump in... completely!
As a small child I loved water – absolutely loved it, and that love never went away. However – when I was four years old I was at my granny’s swimming pool and I slipped while running around the pool and hit my head on the side of the pool and immediately sunk to the bottom. My mother fished me quickly – I was fine, no harm. But for the next eight years I refused to put my face under water. I still loved it – but I also feared it.
The waters of Baptism are just like that pool... they are waters we all ought to love, and yet fear. We use water because water is a sign of life and death. Water is necessary for us to live – and yet to plunge into water is be in a state of death. In baptism that death is a death to the world. It is a death to sin. It is a death to holding onto our nets, to needing a non-offensive God, to putting a hand to the plow and looking back. It is death – but not for death’s sake… on the other side...
There is life! On the other side of that death we find in Christ the only place that offers words of eternal (abundant) life.
But you have to be willing to trust… to jump in, let your face plunge deep into the waters – let go of other priorities, concerns, and voices that control us. You have to let go – and die… and then life abundant springs forth. It’s the vision Tom gave us in his sermon a few weeks ago of the man who would just float in the ocean waters… a dead man’s float! And yet how relaxing to find that in such abandon… in such a state of release – we are born up on the waves by the love, grace, and steadfast faithfulness of God.
Are you willing to drop your nets, stopping looking back, and place you whole trust in Jesus?
Have you let go… died to the need for control and the desire to live the ways of the world?
Are you ready to dive deep in discipleship and float upon the grace of God?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radical God,
Your ways are truly beyond us.
Your call asks so much of us.
Our trust is shallow and the waters are deep.
Give us the strength to not need strength.
Guide us in letting go… looking forward…
Bear us up on your waters of life.
Amen.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
March 24 - Lenten Devotional
John answered, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us." But Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you."
But they (the Samaritans) did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. (Luke 9: 49-50, 53-55)
Two stories back to back and look at the collections of words that have nothing to do with love of neighbor: tried to stop, does not follow with us, did not receive him, command fire... and consume them.
So far the disciples have tried to stop ministry from happening because they weren't the ones doing it... and they have sought to strike folk dead over lack of hospitality and creedal differences (the Samaritans broke from the Jews over Temple issues). The Samaritans of course aren't looking a whole lot better with their vindictive lack of welcome simply because Jesus was headed to Jerusalem.
I read this and it reminds me of all the sad parts of church... the politics, the sniping at people, the negativity, the exclusivity, the back stabbing... and of course the sense that its all about us.
'Master... they are doing good things and healing people...
you have to stop it!'
'Uhhh... okay I'm missing something... why am I stopping it?'
'Well I mean that's our job... we are the ones with you - we
are the ones doing it in your name - we are the ones
doing it "right" - we are the ones...'
'ENOUGH!'
I imagine that Jesus wants to fall down and cry... he formed the world and all of us in it, he loves us, calls us, leads us...
We debate who can be ordained, who has good theology, who is educated enough, who works hard enough, who... who isn't doing and being church in the way we decide it needs to look. Who isn't doing it in our name!
And I imagine Jesus saying... let it go. Just let it go - you look to yourself. Listen to what God is calling you to be and do... and let them be and do something different because God is big enough to work in more than one way.
Have you let go of the need to be right?
Are you making your ministry about Jesus, or is about you?
Are you attentive to the various ways God is at work in the world beyond you?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God of All Creation,
It is so easy to slide into thinking it terms of right and wrong.
Help us to focus on our calling and our faithfulness
And live our lives in a myriad of ways that all point beyond us to you.
Amen.
But they (the Samaritans) did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. (Luke 9: 49-50, 53-55)
Two stories back to back and look at the collections of words that have nothing to do with love of neighbor: tried to stop, does not follow with us, did not receive him, command fire... and consume them.
So far the disciples have tried to stop ministry from happening because they weren't the ones doing it... and they have sought to strike folk dead over lack of hospitality and creedal differences (the Samaritans broke from the Jews over Temple issues). The Samaritans of course aren't looking a whole lot better with their vindictive lack of welcome simply because Jesus was headed to Jerusalem.
I read this and it reminds me of all the sad parts of church... the politics, the sniping at people, the negativity, the exclusivity, the back stabbing... and of course the sense that its all about us.
'Master... they are doing good things and healing people...
you have to stop it!'
'Uhhh... okay I'm missing something... why am I stopping it?'
'Well I mean that's our job... we are the ones with you - we
are the ones doing it in your name - we are the ones
doing it "right" - we are the ones...'
'ENOUGH!'
I imagine that Jesus wants to fall down and cry... he formed the world and all of us in it, he loves us, calls us, leads us...
We debate who can be ordained, who has good theology, who is educated enough, who works hard enough, who... who isn't doing and being church in the way we decide it needs to look. Who isn't doing it in our name!
And I imagine Jesus saying... let it go. Just let it go - you look to yourself. Listen to what God is calling you to be and do... and let them be and do something different because God is big enough to work in more than one way.
Have you let go of the need to be right?
Are you making your ministry about Jesus, or is about you?
Are you attentive to the various ways God is at work in the world beyond you?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God of All Creation,
It is so easy to slide into thinking it terms of right and wrong.
Help us to focus on our calling and our faithfulness
And live our lives in a myriad of ways that all point beyond us to you.
Amen.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
March 23 - Lenten Devotional
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Messiah of God." He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:20-23)
Who is Jesus? The Messiah of God… And yet he told them, commanded them, not to tell anyone because he had to suffer… be rejected… be killed… be raised. The whole idea that Jesus didn’t want his identity as messiah revealed is called the “messianic secret”. Why does Jesus not want it getting out that he is the messiah of God?
Messiah was a word with a lot of baggage. It meant a lot of things to a lot of people… and most of them were inaccurate – or outright wrong. And maybe Jesus didn’t want his ministry to get hijacked by the agenda of all the various interest groups who wanted some claim on the “messiah”. Ultimately however it was for messianic claims – and the political consequences attached to such claims - that he was killed. It was because the “elders, chief priests, and scribes” rejected that he was the messiah.
Leave that question on hold for second and move to a second question: why must Jesus be killed? I have a suspicion it is for lots of reasons and no one answer is the whole answer, but here is the answer that works for me right now. The answer begins with a story:
In 2004 during Holy Week I had something of a crisis with God. My hopes and dreams for my future didn’t seem to be coming true… and it put me in a hard place. During that week I truly experienced the death of God on Good Friday… I really felt the reality of God’s death. Sunday came and went and I was not ready for God to be raised… and in truth I can’t remember now how long it took. God did rise from the dead… and this is what God taught me in the experience: a lot of my struggles were because I had decided who God needed to be… and in order for God to really be God, my false construction of God that was based on my wants and desires had to die. It was only in death that God could be alive to me again!
Why does Jesus try to shed the messiah label? Why must Jesus die? I think it might be related to my experience. A lot of people needed their conception of the messiah to die. A lot of people needed the God they had constructed to die… in order that God might be really and truly alive to them – a God free from all our constructions, boxes, concepts, rules, laws and ideas.
In Jesus death – all our preconceptions about what a messiah would say and do die with him. In the resurrection all that God can be – freed from all our junk – breaks free from death to glorious life! And maybe now were just a little more open to seeing him, hearing him… and following him. So much so that I think then this opens up some new meaning for our journey of discipleship when we hear the next words of Jesus in light of this understanding.
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
If we want to follow Jesus we have to set aside our wants and desires, our preconceptions and perceived needs… and daily – DAILY – pick up the cross and follow. Each day we begin the day reminding ourselves it’s not about me. Each day we begin our first steps following God by reminding ourselves that we don’t get to tell God who God is, God is bigger and more wonderful than our experience can comprehend. This also means that as we respond to the call of God we do so knowing that God can imagine more for us than we can.
We deny ourselves in favor of God. We take up our cross to remember what the servant nature of messiah really means. We follow, because where God leads is far richer, far more wonderful and far more meaningful than any place we will find on our own.
Are you willing to let the god who you desire die, in order that the God who is can truly be alive to you?
Can you open yourself to hear who Christ imagines you to be, and follow in the way he wants to take you?
Will you pick up your cross daily – and follow Jesus?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Crucified God,
We struggle to let go of our need for control.
Help us to open ourselves to who you truly are,
and not simply who we wish you to be.
Amen.
Who is Jesus? The Messiah of God… And yet he told them, commanded them, not to tell anyone because he had to suffer… be rejected… be killed… be raised. The whole idea that Jesus didn’t want his identity as messiah revealed is called the “messianic secret”. Why does Jesus not want it getting out that he is the messiah of God?
Messiah was a word with a lot of baggage. It meant a lot of things to a lot of people… and most of them were inaccurate – or outright wrong. And maybe Jesus didn’t want his ministry to get hijacked by the agenda of all the various interest groups who wanted some claim on the “messiah”. Ultimately however it was for messianic claims – and the political consequences attached to such claims - that he was killed. It was because the “elders, chief priests, and scribes” rejected that he was the messiah.
Leave that question on hold for second and move to a second question: why must Jesus be killed? I have a suspicion it is for lots of reasons and no one answer is the whole answer, but here is the answer that works for me right now. The answer begins with a story:
In 2004 during Holy Week I had something of a crisis with God. My hopes and dreams for my future didn’t seem to be coming true… and it put me in a hard place. During that week I truly experienced the death of God on Good Friday… I really felt the reality of God’s death. Sunday came and went and I was not ready for God to be raised… and in truth I can’t remember now how long it took. God did rise from the dead… and this is what God taught me in the experience: a lot of my struggles were because I had decided who God needed to be… and in order for God to really be God, my false construction of God that was based on my wants and desires had to die. It was only in death that God could be alive to me again!
Why does Jesus try to shed the messiah label? Why must Jesus die? I think it might be related to my experience. A lot of people needed their conception of the messiah to die. A lot of people needed the God they had constructed to die… in order that God might be really and truly alive to them – a God free from all our constructions, boxes, concepts, rules, laws and ideas.
In Jesus death – all our preconceptions about what a messiah would say and do die with him. In the resurrection all that God can be – freed from all our junk – breaks free from death to glorious life! And maybe now were just a little more open to seeing him, hearing him… and following him. So much so that I think then this opens up some new meaning for our journey of discipleship when we hear the next words of Jesus in light of this understanding.
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
If we want to follow Jesus we have to set aside our wants and desires, our preconceptions and perceived needs… and daily – DAILY – pick up the cross and follow. Each day we begin the day reminding ourselves it’s not about me. Each day we begin our first steps following God by reminding ourselves that we don’t get to tell God who God is, God is bigger and more wonderful than our experience can comprehend. This also means that as we respond to the call of God we do so knowing that God can imagine more for us than we can.
We deny ourselves in favor of God. We take up our cross to remember what the servant nature of messiah really means. We follow, because where God leads is far richer, far more wonderful and far more meaningful than any place we will find on our own.
Are you willing to let the god who you desire die, in order that the God who is can truly be alive to you?
Can you open yourself to hear who Christ imagines you to be, and follow in the way he wants to take you?
Will you pick up your cross daily – and follow Jesus?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Crucified God,
We struggle to let go of our need for control.
Help us to open ourselves to who you truly are,
and not simply who we wish you to be.
Amen.
Monday, March 22, 2010
March 22 - Lenten Devotional
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money-- not even an extra tunic.” (Luke 9:1-3)
This text is like a record of the first Christian mission trip. Jesus is sending out the disciples to engage themselves in a mission of healing and evangelism… it even comes with a packing list! In a strict definition this is an activity of apostles – those who are “sent out”. But I like to view this as pre-apostolic sending – this activity is still at the core of discipleship.
Jesus is there, prepares the disciples, sends them with specific instructions, and then receives them back and reflects with them on what they experienced and learned. It is like venturing out in order to make their discipleship a living, breathing, act of service. It is recognition that some things have to be learned “on the ground”. You can talk someone through the acts of swimming for instance, but that doesn’t mean they can swim – you have to actually get in the water. Here Jesus is getting his disciples in the water.
Jesus will do this again in a few more chapters. Jesus will continue to shape and form his disciples – because they need it. Why? Because not too long after that Jesus will leave them, and they will need to truly be apostles – sent out to continue Christ’s ministry. They will have to form new disciples – continue to spread the word, heal the people, and testify to the grace and love of Christ… they will proclaim the kingdom of God in the living of their lives. This is the movement to being an apostle. Where our very lives are mission trip!
So here is the important nugget for us in all of this. I think the life of a church is much like the original disciples journey with Christ. We come as called disciples to be formed and nurtured in the character of Christ. We go on mission trips and serve our community, engage in stewardship, grow in small groups and education classes, receive each other with hospitality and care for one another in love, and we worship the God who formed us, leads us and loves us.
We do all this in the name of discipleship. And we do discipleship so that we can grow and learn and be sent out as apostles. Like the disciples who will not always have Jesus with them – we live most of our lives away from that which we generally call “church”. We too have to take advantage of the church, as the original twelve took advantage of Jesus… we need to learn to “swim” – so we can engage in living testimony to the kingdom of God in our lives as apostles apart from the identified life of the church.
“Mission trips” are discipleship, learning a life of service in preparation for living lives of mission in all that we do - at work and school; home and play.
Are you actively learning from Christ?
Have you jumped in the water to move beyond theory to “lived learning”?
Are you prepared and preparing for apostleship, turning your whole life to a testimony of grace and love?
Teaching God, help us to learn from you, and learn to reflect you. Dwell in us that our lives might show forth your glory… your grace… and your love – in all we say and do. Amen.
This text is like a record of the first Christian mission trip. Jesus is sending out the disciples to engage themselves in a mission of healing and evangelism… it even comes with a packing list! In a strict definition this is an activity of apostles – those who are “sent out”. But I like to view this as pre-apostolic sending – this activity is still at the core of discipleship.
Jesus is there, prepares the disciples, sends them with specific instructions, and then receives them back and reflects with them on what they experienced and learned. It is like venturing out in order to make their discipleship a living, breathing, act of service. It is recognition that some things have to be learned “on the ground”. You can talk someone through the acts of swimming for instance, but that doesn’t mean they can swim – you have to actually get in the water. Here Jesus is getting his disciples in the water.
Jesus will do this again in a few more chapters. Jesus will continue to shape and form his disciples – because they need it. Why? Because not too long after that Jesus will leave them, and they will need to truly be apostles – sent out to continue Christ’s ministry. They will have to form new disciples – continue to spread the word, heal the people, and testify to the grace and love of Christ… they will proclaim the kingdom of God in the living of their lives. This is the movement to being an apostle. Where our very lives are mission trip!
So here is the important nugget for us in all of this. I think the life of a church is much like the original disciples journey with Christ. We come as called disciples to be formed and nurtured in the character of Christ. We go on mission trips and serve our community, engage in stewardship, grow in small groups and education classes, receive each other with hospitality and care for one another in love, and we worship the God who formed us, leads us and loves us.
We do all this in the name of discipleship. And we do discipleship so that we can grow and learn and be sent out as apostles. Like the disciples who will not always have Jesus with them – we live most of our lives away from that which we generally call “church”. We too have to take advantage of the church, as the original twelve took advantage of Jesus… we need to learn to “swim” – so we can engage in living testimony to the kingdom of God in our lives as apostles apart from the identified life of the church.
“Mission trips” are discipleship, learning a life of service in preparation for living lives of mission in all that we do - at work and school; home and play.
Are you actively learning from Christ?
Have you jumped in the water to move beyond theory to “lived learning”?
Are you prepared and preparing for apostleship, turning your whole life to a testimony of grace and love?
Teaching God, help us to learn from you, and learn to reflect you. Dwell in us that our lives might show forth your glory… your grace… and your love – in all we say and do. Amen.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
March 20 - Lenten Devotional
“Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.” (Luke 8:37)
Jesus performs an exorcism – he heals a man and gives him back sanity… his reward? The people ask him to leave. I imagine they weren’t really polite about it either! We think about Jesus being followed by the twelve, and thronging crowds running about the countryside tracking him down. It’s easy to forget there were also a lot (I would fairly comfortably say many more than followed) of detractors, doubters, and outright antagonistic voices. Whether it was Samaritans who wouldn’t even let him travel through their country, the “many” that stopped being his disciples in John 6, the people of his home town… or these here – in the country of the Gerasenes.
There were many more who didn’t follow than those who did.
There are many reasons I’m sure why folk didn’t follow or want Jesus around. The Gerasenes are said to be seized with great fear. I, for one, don’t blame them a bit. We live safely distanced from Jesus (2,000 years and half a world away). Growing up singing “Jesus loves me” and feeling like Jesus’ humanity makes him our friend (and he does call his disciples his friends) we often have a very approachable sense about Jesus. But let me tell you something – this guy messes with your world.
He doesn’t play be the rules (he’s a known and well reported Sabbath breaker, eats on the wrong side of the tracks, consorts with women and lepers, and I’m pretty sure he’s homeless). He’s known to want to change your vocation (or at the least drastically alter what you’re fishing for). He avoids answering questions – in fact he tends to answer questions with other questions. He has a tendency to tell insulting stories – and has no respect for his elders or established authorities. He’s a rogue element – doesn’t belong to the institution, in fact he seems to want to bring it down.
You might think something like healing a demoniac would be good – but its not! What if we like our demons? What if we enjoy the way we have strayed from righteousness? What if we want to be able to find a little hole and have God leave us alone… leave us to our illusions… let us have a bit of that much talked about “free will”!
Have you ever heard someone say of a sermon, “It went from preaching to meddling”? Well that’s Jesus – he meddles… and not just with some people – he meddles with everyone. He really thinks we all ought to give over our whole lives to following him. And you know what sane people do in that situation? They pick up the guy who is rocking the boat and they throw him in the water before he can dump them all in!
The gospel may say they asked him to leave- but I’m imaging it was more graphic and physical an “invitation” than that… and Jesus left – and the Kingdom of God went with him.
Where are you preventing Christ from meddling in your life?
What is it that you don’t want healed?
Are you ready to be a fool for – and with – Jesus?
----------------------------------------------------
Meddling God,
It is hard to find the trust to really open ourselves to you.
Give us strength to set aside our known and controlled world in order to enter your Kingdom. Have mercy on us, O God. Amen.
March 19 - Lenten Devotional
“They went to him and woke him up, shouting, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, "Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?" (Luke 8:22-25)
This text is rich with meaning and full of ideas to explore. Unfortunately it’s very easy to fall in the trap that the disciples fell into… namely it’s quite easy to get caught up in the amazement of Jesus calming the storm.
The calming of the storm holds wonderful reverberations of good news for us. We all have storms in which we need some respite. The text claims God’s presence as bringing “a calm” – not that the storms are gone, but that they are quiet for the moment. This is good news. However… I’m not really certain this is what Jesus thinks is important at the moment – in fact I’m fairly certain that the calming of the storm is the side show for Jesus.
“Where is your faith?”
This is what Jesus says to the disciples. They have cried and shouted to Jesus in fear – certain of their imminent death. Jesus wakes, calms the storm.. and yet, Jesus does not want to talk about his power over storm and wave. Jesus wants to talk about why they were worried in the first place.
“Where is your faith?”
I want to even push a further step. I do not believe that Jesus means that they ought to have faith that he could calm the storm. No… I believe that Jesus means their faith should have made them calm. The storm that concerns Jesus is not the storm tossing the boat to and fro – it is their storm in hearts of the disciples that was causing them so much fear at the idea of perishing, so much trembling and panic that they were all alone.
“Where is your faith?”
What is truly sad in this moment is that the disciples are unable to learn the lesson. They are unable even to engage Jesus question… they are lost to the magic and mystery of Jesus power… “afraid and amazed” – there are still storms in their hearts! The winds and water have obeyed Christ… creation had faith. But Jesus’ disciples were unable to hear and obey their Lord.
What then is faith for the disciple? I imagine the text tells us that faith is trusting that the Lord is with us in the “boat”. Faith is not allowing the storms outside to create storms in us. Faith is being able to know that “perishing” is occurring but we are still safe in the hands of our God.
Our devotional is about the length that it should come to an end – but I want to share a story of someone who witnessed to me this kind of faith.
Mary Lou Thornton was a member of our congregation who was dear to very many of us. We will gather this afternoon to honor her life and witness to the resurrection of Christ as we remember her. She had a passion for God I have seldom seen – and truly walked the journey of discipleship in the way of Jesus.
In October of last year when it was discovered that another round of treatment had not rid her of cancer – she said enough. She was done treating the cancer. She turned her back on the medical sciences (not because she doubted them or scorned medical science but because she no longer felt that it was the right answer for her) and she walked her final months free of needles and tubes, chemo or radiation, hospitals and doctors.
Mary Lou had journeyed with cancer for a long time, and now felt or sensed that perishing was happening. I think she knew it in her heart. She also knew that Jesus was in the boat with her – and that to die; having lived so fully with and for her Lord, was no loss. She did not lose a battle with cancer. She refused to even the toe the line because she was able to live without needing to battle the world. She did not let the storms outside become a storm inside her. With strength, dignity and grace she placed her full trust in God, turned her boat down stream, and floated home.
I’m not sure I’d have the strength to make that kind of decision – but having watched her journey I believe I’m more likely to be able to than I would have been without her example. She made her death, as she lived her life, a testimony to faith and the good news of Jesus Christ. And Jesus holding her hand as that boat sailed home never had to ask her, “where is your faith?”
Do you live fully in the knowledge that Jesus is in the boat with you?
Are you willing to put your life and trust in God’s hands?
Have you heard the calming voice of Christ and allowed it authority over the storms in your heart?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sovereign God, You abide with us in all the times and places of our life. Help us take strength from your presence and trust in your care. Let the faith of Jesus Christ calm our hearts and give us peace amidst the storms of life. Amen.
This text is rich with meaning and full of ideas to explore. Unfortunately it’s very easy to fall in the trap that the disciples fell into… namely it’s quite easy to get caught up in the amazement of Jesus calming the storm.
The calming of the storm holds wonderful reverberations of good news for us. We all have storms in which we need some respite. The text claims God’s presence as bringing “a calm” – not that the storms are gone, but that they are quiet for the moment. This is good news. However… I’m not really certain this is what Jesus thinks is important at the moment – in fact I’m fairly certain that the calming of the storm is the side show for Jesus.
“Where is your faith?”
This is what Jesus says to the disciples. They have cried and shouted to Jesus in fear – certain of their imminent death. Jesus wakes, calms the storm.. and yet, Jesus does not want to talk about his power over storm and wave. Jesus wants to talk about why they were worried in the first place.
“Where is your faith?”
I want to even push a further step. I do not believe that Jesus means that they ought to have faith that he could calm the storm. No… I believe that Jesus means their faith should have made them calm. The storm that concerns Jesus is not the storm tossing the boat to and fro – it is their storm in hearts of the disciples that was causing them so much fear at the idea of perishing, so much trembling and panic that they were all alone.
“Where is your faith?”
What is truly sad in this moment is that the disciples are unable to learn the lesson. They are unable even to engage Jesus question… they are lost to the magic and mystery of Jesus power… “afraid and amazed” – there are still storms in their hearts! The winds and water have obeyed Christ… creation had faith. But Jesus’ disciples were unable to hear and obey their Lord.
What then is faith for the disciple? I imagine the text tells us that faith is trusting that the Lord is with us in the “boat”. Faith is not allowing the storms outside to create storms in us. Faith is being able to know that “perishing” is occurring but we are still safe in the hands of our God.
Our devotional is about the length that it should come to an end – but I want to share a story of someone who witnessed to me this kind of faith.
Mary Lou Thornton was a member of our congregation who was dear to very many of us. We will gather this afternoon to honor her life and witness to the resurrection of Christ as we remember her. She had a passion for God I have seldom seen – and truly walked the journey of discipleship in the way of Jesus.
In October of last year when it was discovered that another round of treatment had not rid her of cancer – she said enough. She was done treating the cancer. She turned her back on the medical sciences (not because she doubted them or scorned medical science but because she no longer felt that it was the right answer for her) and she walked her final months free of needles and tubes, chemo or radiation, hospitals and doctors.
Mary Lou had journeyed with cancer for a long time, and now felt or sensed that perishing was happening. I think she knew it in her heart. She also knew that Jesus was in the boat with her – and that to die; having lived so fully with and for her Lord, was no loss. She did not lose a battle with cancer. She refused to even the toe the line because she was able to live without needing to battle the world. She did not let the storms outside become a storm inside her. With strength, dignity and grace she placed her full trust in God, turned her boat down stream, and floated home.
I’m not sure I’d have the strength to make that kind of decision – but having watched her journey I believe I’m more likely to be able to than I would have been without her example. She made her death, as she lived her life, a testimony to faith and the good news of Jesus Christ. And Jesus holding her hand as that boat sailed home never had to ask her, “where is your faith?”
Do you live fully in the knowledge that Jesus is in the boat with you?
Are you willing to put your life and trust in God’s hands?
Have you heard the calming voice of Christ and allowed it authority over the storms in your heart?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sovereign God, You abide with us in all the times and places of our life. Help us take strength from your presence and trust in your care. Let the faith of Jesus Christ calm our hearts and give us peace amidst the storms of life. Amen.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
March 17 - Lenten Devotional
"These are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance."(Luke 8:15)
These words of Jesus explain the seed that falls in good soil. I think I've read them a thousand times in much the way I've gone through a green light on the way to work. 'Oh look - I get to go, all is well let's move on through to the next stop.' And yet... the way Jesus interprets his own words should give us pause - patient endurance. Maybe I ought to slow down - not simply take these words at face value and move on, but spend some time with them to get at what is truly good about this soil.
"hear the word"
I love the Hebrew word shema. It's the word you find in Deuteronomy 6:1-6, particularly:
"Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them (commandments) diligently... so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey... Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart... Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
Does this sound familiar? Almost makes you think that Jesus knew something about the Jewish faith!! What I love about the word shema is that while its primary definition is "hear" it also has a nuance that means to "hear with attention" to "understand" and even to "obey". Its not simply like turning on the radio and hearing music as we drive down the road - but its saying, "fix your whole attention on this thing I'm about to say, and as you attend to it make sure you also intend to obey it!" This isn't a passage to take at face value but something to sink roots into... to soak up... to absorb... to play with... and wrestle with... and finally to live with!
"honest and good heart"
I think almost always we hear the word sinner and we think, "bad". A sinner is not a good person. But what if being a sinner is not a statement of good or bad... but is a statement about honest self-reflection. "Hold it fast in an honest and good heart." We are created good... but err. We turn astray. We fall short. We just don't always manage to obey - sometimes we don't even hear. This doesn't change that we are God's good creation!! So... be honest: I'm a sinner. But remember: you are God's good creation - so be a good sinner!
"bear fruit with patient endurance"
I think one of the fascinating things in this parable is that the plants that yield fruit quickest don't last long. In a world of flipping houses, making a quick buck and weighing cost versus yield it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to produce fruit quickly. But Jesus says these vines wither because they do not set down deep roots. Jesus asks us to follow - but not be too quick about moving from following to producing.
Just imagine the seedling for a moment. What must it be like to settle down in the earth - send out tendrils of little rootlings - begin to find nourishment and life - to take hold of a firm grounding in the stuff of life - and then... and only then to quest upward and outward to show forth good yield: to bear fruit.
Are you stopping yourself to hear... really - truly - deeply - attentively - hear Jesus?
Have you basked in the goodness of God's creation playing in the soil of your life with honesty?
Are you ready to quest upward and outward to show forth the good fruit God has given you?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nurturing God,
Let your word cut through our hustle and bustle and cause us to attend to you.
Guide us to plant ourselves firmly and lovingly in the good soil of your world.
May your blessings flow forth through us and beyond us.
Amen.
These words of Jesus explain the seed that falls in good soil. I think I've read them a thousand times in much the way I've gone through a green light on the way to work. 'Oh look - I get to go, all is well let's move on through to the next stop.' And yet... the way Jesus interprets his own words should give us pause - patient endurance. Maybe I ought to slow down - not simply take these words at face value and move on, but spend some time with them to get at what is truly good about this soil.
"hear the word"
I love the Hebrew word shema. It's the word you find in Deuteronomy 6:1-6, particularly:
"Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them (commandments) diligently... so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey... Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart... Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
Does this sound familiar? Almost makes you think that Jesus knew something about the Jewish faith!! What I love about the word shema is that while its primary definition is "hear" it also has a nuance that means to "hear with attention" to "understand" and even to "obey". Its not simply like turning on the radio and hearing music as we drive down the road - but its saying, "fix your whole attention on this thing I'm about to say, and as you attend to it make sure you also intend to obey it!" This isn't a passage to take at face value but something to sink roots into... to soak up... to absorb... to play with... and wrestle with... and finally to live with!
"honest and good heart"
I think almost always we hear the word sinner and we think, "bad". A sinner is not a good person. But what if being a sinner is not a statement of good or bad... but is a statement about honest self-reflection. "Hold it fast in an honest and good heart." We are created good... but err. We turn astray. We fall short. We just don't always manage to obey - sometimes we don't even hear. This doesn't change that we are God's good creation!! So... be honest: I'm a sinner. But remember: you are God's good creation - so be a good sinner!
"bear fruit with patient endurance"
I think one of the fascinating things in this parable is that the plants that yield fruit quickest don't last long. In a world of flipping houses, making a quick buck and weighing cost versus yield it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to produce fruit quickly. But Jesus says these vines wither because they do not set down deep roots. Jesus asks us to follow - but not be too quick about moving from following to producing.
Just imagine the seedling for a moment. What must it be like to settle down in the earth - send out tendrils of little rootlings - begin to find nourishment and life - to take hold of a firm grounding in the stuff of life - and then... and only then to quest upward and outward to show forth good yield: to bear fruit.
Are you stopping yourself to hear... really - truly - deeply - attentively - hear Jesus?
Have you basked in the goodness of God's creation playing in the soil of your life with honesty?
Are you ready to quest upward and outward to show forth the good fruit God has given you?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nurturing God,
Let your word cut through our hustle and bustle and cause us to attend to you.
Guide us to plant ourselves firmly and lovingly in the good soil of your world.
May your blessings flow forth through us and beyond us.
Amen.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
March 16 - Lenten Devotional
"A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed… Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it.”
“As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” (Luke 8:5, 7, 14)
The following is an excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s book, The Jesus Way:
The childlike animals (Pooh and his friends) had been assembled by Christopher Robin for an adventure – they were off to discover the North Pole. It is a meandering tale in which everyone takes everything with complete seriousness, although no one understands much of what is going on. Each character contributes something essential to the quest. The world is large with meaning and no one is left out. But neither is any one sure what the North Pole is, not even Christopher Robin, who proposed the expedition.
Along the way little Roo falls into a stream and needs rescuing. Everyone pitches in. Pooh picks up a pole and fishes him out. The emergency is over, the animals talk it over while Pooh stands there with a pole in his hands. Christopher Robin then says,
“Pooh… where did you find that pole?”
Pooh looked at the pole in his hands.
“I just found it,” he said. “I thought it ought to be useful. I just picked it up.”
“Pooh,” said Christopher Robin solemnly, “the expedition is over. You have found the North Pole!”
“Oh!” said Pooh.
The animals go on with the desultory, haphazard conversation for a while until Christopher Robin finally gets them back to attending to the North Pole that Pooh discovered.
They stuck the pole in the ground, and Christopher Robin tied a message onto it,
North Pole
Discovered by Pooh
Pooh Found It.
Then they all went home again…
I love this story – and the reason that Peterson tells it. Putting my own language on Peterson’s observations: Christopher Robin is starring today in the role of a thorn!
The difficulties in our journeys… the things that cause us to go astray… the thorns that choke the ways of discipleship out of us are rarely unattractive. In fact they are usually very enticing. They are voices we want to hear.
The “thorns” in our lives are alluring for reasons of power, or comfort, or entertainment, or convenience… They are compelling because they may just come from the one who always has the right answers - like Christopher Robin. And we like easy answers – clear answers – comfortable answers.
But however helpful that pole may have been to Pooh in saving Roo, it simply is not the “North Pole”. And this story, like Jesus’ parable, reminds us to that we need to be careful of the voices we are listening to as we journey in discipleship. We need to take care that we are truly hearing Christ… and not simply someone else distracting us with messages we’d prefer to hear. We are thirsty for God – but are we drinking from the right wells?
“But as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and
riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”
Are you taking regular and intentional time to quiet the many voices in
your life to hear Christ clearly?
Are you being careful that the communities and people you surround yourself with are not distracting you from following Jesus?
Is your journey nurturing fruitfulness and maturity?
God of the Harvest – help us to make our lives fertile soil for your word. Guide us in hearing your word. Grant us clarity to silence the voices that keep us from you. Amen.
“As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” (Luke 8:5, 7, 14)
The following is an excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s book, The Jesus Way:
The childlike animals (Pooh and his friends) had been assembled by Christopher Robin for an adventure – they were off to discover the North Pole. It is a meandering tale in which everyone takes everything with complete seriousness, although no one understands much of what is going on. Each character contributes something essential to the quest. The world is large with meaning and no one is left out. But neither is any one sure what the North Pole is, not even Christopher Robin, who proposed the expedition.
Along the way little Roo falls into a stream and needs rescuing. Everyone pitches in. Pooh picks up a pole and fishes him out. The emergency is over, the animals talk it over while Pooh stands there with a pole in his hands. Christopher Robin then says,
“Pooh… where did you find that pole?”
Pooh looked at the pole in his hands.
“I just found it,” he said. “I thought it ought to be useful. I just picked it up.”
“Pooh,” said Christopher Robin solemnly, “the expedition is over. You have found the North Pole!”
“Oh!” said Pooh.
The animals go on with the desultory, haphazard conversation for a while until Christopher Robin finally gets them back to attending to the North Pole that Pooh discovered.
They stuck the pole in the ground, and Christopher Robin tied a message onto it,
North Pole
Discovered by Pooh
Pooh Found It.
Then they all went home again…
I love this story – and the reason that Peterson tells it. Putting my own language on Peterson’s observations: Christopher Robin is starring today in the role of a thorn!
The difficulties in our journeys… the things that cause us to go astray… the thorns that choke the ways of discipleship out of us are rarely unattractive. In fact they are usually very enticing. They are voices we want to hear.
The “thorns” in our lives are alluring for reasons of power, or comfort, or entertainment, or convenience… They are compelling because they may just come from the one who always has the right answers - like Christopher Robin. And we like easy answers – clear answers – comfortable answers.
But however helpful that pole may have been to Pooh in saving Roo, it simply is not the “North Pole”. And this story, like Jesus’ parable, reminds us to that we need to be careful of the voices we are listening to as we journey in discipleship. We need to take care that we are truly hearing Christ… and not simply someone else distracting us with messages we’d prefer to hear. We are thirsty for God – but are we drinking from the right wells?
“But as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and
riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”
Are you taking regular and intentional time to quiet the many voices in
your life to hear Christ clearly?
Are you being careful that the communities and people you surround yourself with are not distracting you from following Jesus?
Is your journey nurturing fruitfulness and maturity?
God of the Harvest – help us to make our lives fertile soil for your word. Guide us in hearing your word. Grant us clarity to silence the voices that keep us from you. Amen.
Monday, March 15, 2010
March 15 - Lenten Devotional
"Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at... Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who put on fine clothing and live in luxury are in royal palaces. 26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'" (Luke 7:24-27)
In the time of the exile and after Israel ceased to be its own nation-state, but it didn't certainly didn't change the political nature of it's religious life - in many ways it increased it. The priestly aristocracy continued to play politics vying for power from Babylon, Greece, and by the time of Jesus - Rome. Scribes and Pharisees made a living - and comfort - by supporting the powerful benefactors both within Israel and from foreign powers.
What I see reading this text is this dichotomy between those "dressed in soft robes" and the prophet - and more than prophet - that is John the Baptist out in the wilderness. And I wonder if those "dressed in soft robes" and living "in luxury.. in royal palaces" are those Jesus see as scribes and Pharisees who have attached themselves to political power for financial benefit.
Presuming for the moment that this is what Jesus means (its likely at least pretty close to the mark) then we look at what it is Jesus says, "did you go into the wilderness to see someone dressed in soft robes?" The answer is a resounding no. But what does this matter? Why is important that John in the "wild man" in the wilderness?
Let us remember where we started this whole journey... with Jesus going into the wilderness to be tempted. Similarly if we went to the beginning of Paul's ministry we would see him go to the wilderness soon after his calling from Jesus. The Hebrew people wandered in the wilderness... Elijah lived in the wilderness... in fact it seems like the wilderness is getting down right over populated in the Bible!!
So what is it about the wilderness?
Here is what I think. I think as we respond to Christ's call to be disciples we are having our character and our lives re-formed by the life of Christ. I think that to begin to do that we have to dis-locate ourselves. We have to move out of our comfort zone. We have to get out from the world we are used to in order to take stock of our lives... to do the "taking the speck in our eyes out" that Jesus talked about a chapter ago. Here in the wilderness we can hear the words of a prophet... not those in soft robes who tell us what we want to hear. Here in the wilderness we can prepare the way in our hearts and lives to let the life of Christ dwell in us.
What did we come to the wilderness to hear?
Are we prepared and preparing for Christ to dwell in us?
Are we willing to set aside financial benefit, power, and comfort to serve Christ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God in the wilderness, we have come to hear your word.
We have come in hopes that we will dare to be transformed by your life and your word. Cleanse us in the wilderness and re-form us anew in your spirit. Amen.
In the time of the exile and after Israel ceased to be its own nation-state, but it didn't certainly didn't change the political nature of it's religious life - in many ways it increased it. The priestly aristocracy continued to play politics vying for power from Babylon, Greece, and by the time of Jesus - Rome. Scribes and Pharisees made a living - and comfort - by supporting the powerful benefactors both within Israel and from foreign powers.
What I see reading this text is this dichotomy between those "dressed in soft robes" and the prophet - and more than prophet - that is John the Baptist out in the wilderness. And I wonder if those "dressed in soft robes" and living "in luxury.. in royal palaces" are those Jesus see as scribes and Pharisees who have attached themselves to political power for financial benefit.
Presuming for the moment that this is what Jesus means (its likely at least pretty close to the mark) then we look at what it is Jesus says, "did you go into the wilderness to see someone dressed in soft robes?" The answer is a resounding no. But what does this matter? Why is important that John in the "wild man" in the wilderness?
Let us remember where we started this whole journey... with Jesus going into the wilderness to be tempted. Similarly if we went to the beginning of Paul's ministry we would see him go to the wilderness soon after his calling from Jesus. The Hebrew people wandered in the wilderness... Elijah lived in the wilderness... in fact it seems like the wilderness is getting down right over populated in the Bible!!
So what is it about the wilderness?
Here is what I think. I think as we respond to Christ's call to be disciples we are having our character and our lives re-formed by the life of Christ. I think that to begin to do that we have to dis-locate ourselves. We have to move out of our comfort zone. We have to get out from the world we are used to in order to take stock of our lives... to do the "taking the speck in our eyes out" that Jesus talked about a chapter ago. Here in the wilderness we can hear the words of a prophet... not those in soft robes who tell us what we want to hear. Here in the wilderness we can prepare the way in our hearts and lives to let the life of Christ dwell in us.
What did we come to the wilderness to hear?
Are we prepared and preparing for Christ to dwell in us?
Are we willing to set aside financial benefit, power, and comfort to serve Christ?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God in the wilderness, we have come to hear your word.
We have come in hopes that we will dare to be transformed by your life and your word. Cleanse us in the wilderness and re-form us anew in your spirit. Amen.
Friday, March 12, 2010
March 13 - Lenten Devotional
"A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly… hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." (Luke 7:41-48)
It is very difficult (maybe impossible?) to be disciples if we don’t think we need anything from Jesus. We will not follow… we will not re-prioritize… we will not risk and be challenged and transformed by one from whom we think we need nothing. The Pharisee whom Jesus is talking to in this text has invited Jesus to dinner. He even calls him “Teacher” which recognizes Jesus as having some wisdom and authority… though if you read the whole text you will see that this parable comes in response the Pharisee thinking Jesus must not be a prophet if he is letting this “woman” – this sinner – wipe his feet with her tears, hair and ointment.
The point is this: the Pharisee sees something in Jesus… but doesn’t really feel he needs anything that Jesus has. He’s curious – but not committed. He’s interested but not following. To place him then in the story that Jesus tells this Pharisee has little to be forgiven… and so loves little as well. Not love and devotion… just curiosity and interest.
I think so many of us can get ourselves into an illusion that we don’t need anything. Much gets made today of that fact that Christianity is most vibrant in places like Asia, South America and Africa – places of poverty, political and social upheaval, and in some cases places where Christianity is shunned or outright attacked.
What is unique to these places? The people here have much need of Jesus. They need healing… forgiveness… guidance… protection… love… empowerment… hope. And as those who need much – they love much.
The opposite is true (generally and not specific to any one person or community) of Christianity in most of Western civilization. Zeal seems gone. Faith is tame. Discipleship replaced with being card carrying “members”. We are like the Pharisee at the table who starts from a presumption of already knowing what he needs (and having the capability to get it himself) and is simply asking Jesus to dinner to sate some extra curiosity about this “would-be prophet”.
There is a danger in acquiring means (knowledge, intellect, money, power…) that we will then delude ourselves that we can do things alone – that we are independent – that we achieved success and can do so again by our own efforts – that we don’t need anyone else… except perhaps as entertainment. We are our own doctor and banker, baker and tailor… priest and king.
However, if we can do it ourselves, if we are independent, we cannot be disciples, for the beginning of discipleship is the recognition that there is something we need that this one we follow has to offer. The beginning of discipleship is the sense that our lives are not yet whole, not yet complete… that we need the healing and love, shaping and nurture of a teacher – of Jesus.
“Hence she has shown great love.”
Are you more than curious about Jesus… have you shown great love?
Do you find yourself falling into the trap of independence,
and not needing anything from anyone?
Will you risk leaving the chair and kneeling at the feet of Jesus…
and following in his steps?
Almighty God, Help us to pierce the illusion of our independence. Provoke us to see the healing and life we need from you. Guide us to place our lives in devoted service, committed following, zealous sharing of good news. Let us kneel at your feet in thanksgiving and love. Amen.
It is very difficult (maybe impossible?) to be disciples if we don’t think we need anything from Jesus. We will not follow… we will not re-prioritize… we will not risk and be challenged and transformed by one from whom we think we need nothing. The Pharisee whom Jesus is talking to in this text has invited Jesus to dinner. He even calls him “Teacher” which recognizes Jesus as having some wisdom and authority… though if you read the whole text you will see that this parable comes in response the Pharisee thinking Jesus must not be a prophet if he is letting this “woman” – this sinner – wipe his feet with her tears, hair and ointment.
The point is this: the Pharisee sees something in Jesus… but doesn’t really feel he needs anything that Jesus has. He’s curious – but not committed. He’s interested but not following. To place him then in the story that Jesus tells this Pharisee has little to be forgiven… and so loves little as well. Not love and devotion… just curiosity and interest.
I think so many of us can get ourselves into an illusion that we don’t need anything. Much gets made today of that fact that Christianity is most vibrant in places like Asia, South America and Africa – places of poverty, political and social upheaval, and in some cases places where Christianity is shunned or outright attacked.
What is unique to these places? The people here have much need of Jesus. They need healing… forgiveness… guidance… protection… love… empowerment… hope. And as those who need much – they love much.
The opposite is true (generally and not specific to any one person or community) of Christianity in most of Western civilization. Zeal seems gone. Faith is tame. Discipleship replaced with being card carrying “members”. We are like the Pharisee at the table who starts from a presumption of already knowing what he needs (and having the capability to get it himself) and is simply asking Jesus to dinner to sate some extra curiosity about this “would-be prophet”.
There is a danger in acquiring means (knowledge, intellect, money, power…) that we will then delude ourselves that we can do things alone – that we are independent – that we achieved success and can do so again by our own efforts – that we don’t need anyone else… except perhaps as entertainment. We are our own doctor and banker, baker and tailor… priest and king.
However, if we can do it ourselves, if we are independent, we cannot be disciples, for the beginning of discipleship is the recognition that there is something we need that this one we follow has to offer. The beginning of discipleship is the sense that our lives are not yet whole, not yet complete… that we need the healing and love, shaping and nurture of a teacher – of Jesus.
“Hence she has shown great love.”
Are you more than curious about Jesus… have you shown great love?
Do you find yourself falling into the trap of independence,
and not needing anything from anyone?
Will you risk leaving the chair and kneeling at the feet of Jesus…
and following in his steps?
Almighty God, Help us to pierce the illusion of our independence. Provoke us to see the healing and life we need from you. Guide us to place our lives in devoted service, committed following, zealous sharing of good news. Let us kneel at your feet in thanksgiving and love. Amen.
March 12 - Lenten Devotional
When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me. (Luke 7:20-23)
The wonderful - and annoying - nature of much of the Biblical text is that it doesn’t tell us with certainty what anything means. We like to KNOW things. The Bible presents us stories, sayings, parables, and rarely clear commandments. It is open to varied meanings and interpretations.
I say this because generally I imagine that what Jesus is doing in this piece of the text of Luke is saying to John’s disciples, “Let the fruit of my spirit answer your question for me.” Jesus doesn’t give an answer – he simply points out what kind of things are happening around him and let’s that witness speak for himself. John’s answer lies in what Jesus is doing… not in any direct response to his question.
Here we see John and his disciples wanting –waiting – to KNOW. And Jesus says nothing – but demonstrates and lives everything - and the only thing - that John and his disciples need to see. On one level this is what the text is telling us… John’s answer lies in the fact that “messiah” like activity happens around Jesus and so the answer must be “yes – I am the one you are waiting for.”
However…
(did you see this one coming?)
I think the text, like much of the Bible, gives us more than one meaning. And what caught my attention today was the contrast between two ideas:
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
“The blind receive... lame walk… lepers are cleansed… poor have good new brought to them.”
Active verbs. Active ministry. Good News!
Or… we could just wait until we KNOW.
What if Jesus’ message to John isn’t an answer about who he is… but more a statement that says, “While you are waiting – I’m bringing good news! While you are worried that you have right answers -I’m healing people! While you are seeking second opinions – I’m giving my life among the least, the lost, and the hopeless.”
I love to KNOW… I like to be certain of things, to have order and organization and clarity. Sometimes however we just need to get out there… to “go forth” and “bring good news”. Otherwise we run the risk of sitting in our upper rooms, our church buildings and our ivory towers thinking great thoughts… that cannot feed God’s sheep.
“Go, and tell John what you have seen and heard”…. Go get him moving already!!
What is it that you are waiting for?
Is good news being heard – and happening – around you?
Have you moved beyond knowing… to faith and trust?
Mysterious God, Help us to move beyond our desire to know and be certain.
Strengthen us to risk trusting your word – and living your good news. Amen.
The wonderful - and annoying - nature of much of the Biblical text is that it doesn’t tell us with certainty what anything means. We like to KNOW things. The Bible presents us stories, sayings, parables, and rarely clear commandments. It is open to varied meanings and interpretations.
I say this because generally I imagine that what Jesus is doing in this piece of the text of Luke is saying to John’s disciples, “Let the fruit of my spirit answer your question for me.” Jesus doesn’t give an answer – he simply points out what kind of things are happening around him and let’s that witness speak for himself. John’s answer lies in what Jesus is doing… not in any direct response to his question.
Here we see John and his disciples wanting –waiting – to KNOW. And Jesus says nothing – but demonstrates and lives everything - and the only thing - that John and his disciples need to see. On one level this is what the text is telling us… John’s answer lies in the fact that “messiah” like activity happens around Jesus and so the answer must be “yes – I am the one you are waiting for.”
However…
(did you see this one coming?)
I think the text, like much of the Bible, gives us more than one meaning. And what caught my attention today was the contrast between two ideas:
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
“The blind receive... lame walk… lepers are cleansed… poor have good new brought to them.”
Active verbs. Active ministry. Good News!
Or… we could just wait until we KNOW.
What if Jesus’ message to John isn’t an answer about who he is… but more a statement that says, “While you are waiting – I’m bringing good news! While you are worried that you have right answers -I’m healing people! While you are seeking second opinions – I’m giving my life among the least, the lost, and the hopeless.”
I love to KNOW… I like to be certain of things, to have order and organization and clarity. Sometimes however we just need to get out there… to “go forth” and “bring good news”. Otherwise we run the risk of sitting in our upper rooms, our church buildings and our ivory towers thinking great thoughts… that cannot feed God’s sheep.
“Go, and tell John what you have seen and heard”…. Go get him moving already!!
What is it that you are waiting for?
Is good news being heard – and happening – around you?
Have you moved beyond knowing… to faith and trust?
Mysterious God, Help us to move beyond our desire to know and be certain.
Strengthen us to risk trusting your word – and living your good news. Amen.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
March 10 - Lenten Devotional
"I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house." (Luke 6:47-49)
As I looked at this scripture two things occurred to me. The first was the generally this text ends up in people's minds as saying that we ought to read the bible more and stand on God's word - that God's word is the firm foundation. I have nothing against God's word... I stake my life on it after all. But merely reading it doesn't provide faith that holds you firm amidst the maelstroms of life. Building a good foundation is about building a whole life and community and faith that holds you fast against the hardship of life. And one thing I know - you cannot do that after the flood waters have already started. You have to set down the foundations in the good times, or at least the quieter times, in order to have that foundation to rest upon when the storms begin again.
So that brings me to my second observation... there are people who can speak to this text with stronger voice then myself. And to that end I've asked Carol to reflect a bit about what she saw in Haiti during her recent trip down there with the team from Palms.
Among all the things we saw and experienced on our recent trip to Haiti post earthquake, the most significant to me has been the faith of the people. Long ago the witness to the grace and hope of Jesus Christ was acted on in the lives of the people of Cite Soleil, Blanchard, and Repatriot. In the tragedy they have experienced it has sustained and carried them - a foundation on the solid rock of knowing Jesus Christ. What a witness! In a conversation with our interpreter, Cola, he told us that again and again they experience disaster - economic, disease, hurricane, and now earthquake - but each time God gives them a new vision. Their faith is so strong, so trusting, so tangible. Thousands fill the churches rejoicing and giving thanks. Sure, they lament. They cry out to God from deep pain and anguish but they do not give up on the relationship. They know God is present with them, listening, giving them strength and courage for the day. They are rock foundations in a country that is currently shaking beneath them. They stand solid in their faith. It does not waiver or tremor. We held hands and prayed together. Creole and English prayers were spoken from deep inside each of us.
"I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built."
In the past I have worked with and watched the Haitians build a church, a school complex and now have seen them at work repairing those buildings. They work tirelessly and with great joy. As concrete blocks are carried and put in place, as trenches are dug for walls, as sides of buildings damaged in the quake are repaired, inside there is worship - singing, prayers being offered, Biblical teaching. The voices of children are heard singing some of the very songs we sing at the Sunset Service. When the earthquake burst against the walls of life for the people with whom we serve God in ministry in Haiti, their lives did not fall apart...there was ruin, but their faithfulness withstood the force. I can show you someone in Haiti who came to Christ, heard His words, and acted on them in powerful ways.
How are you digging deep in your life and laying a foundation on rock?
Are you placing your trust in God in ways that is not shaken when the world crumbles?
Can you truly open yourself to celebrate the joy of God's promises and hope that is our rock?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God our Rock, Guide us in the work of digging deeply in our lives.
Help us to shore up our foundations with strong community, trust in your presence, and have hope and joy in the shared ministry we have with you.
Let us come, hear, and act. Amen
As I looked at this scripture two things occurred to me. The first was the generally this text ends up in people's minds as saying that we ought to read the bible more and stand on God's word - that God's word is the firm foundation. I have nothing against God's word... I stake my life on it after all. But merely reading it doesn't provide faith that holds you firm amidst the maelstroms of life. Building a good foundation is about building a whole life and community and faith that holds you fast against the hardship of life. And one thing I know - you cannot do that after the flood waters have already started. You have to set down the foundations in the good times, or at least the quieter times, in order to have that foundation to rest upon when the storms begin again.
So that brings me to my second observation... there are people who can speak to this text with stronger voice then myself. And to that end I've asked Carol to reflect a bit about what she saw in Haiti during her recent trip down there with the team from Palms.
Among all the things we saw and experienced on our recent trip to Haiti post earthquake, the most significant to me has been the faith of the people. Long ago the witness to the grace and hope of Jesus Christ was acted on in the lives of the people of Cite Soleil, Blanchard, and Repatriot. In the tragedy they have experienced it has sustained and carried them - a foundation on the solid rock of knowing Jesus Christ. What a witness! In a conversation with our interpreter, Cola, he told us that again and again they experience disaster - economic, disease, hurricane, and now earthquake - but each time God gives them a new vision. Their faith is so strong, so trusting, so tangible. Thousands fill the churches rejoicing and giving thanks. Sure, they lament. They cry out to God from deep pain and anguish but they do not give up on the relationship. They know God is present with them, listening, giving them strength and courage for the day. They are rock foundations in a country that is currently shaking beneath them. They stand solid in their faith. It does not waiver or tremor. We held hands and prayed together. Creole and English prayers were spoken from deep inside each of us.
"I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built."
In the past I have worked with and watched the Haitians build a church, a school complex and now have seen them at work repairing those buildings. They work tirelessly and with great joy. As concrete blocks are carried and put in place, as trenches are dug for walls, as sides of buildings damaged in the quake are repaired, inside there is worship - singing, prayers being offered, Biblical teaching. The voices of children are heard singing some of the very songs we sing at the Sunset Service. When the earthquake burst against the walls of life for the people with whom we serve God in ministry in Haiti, their lives did not fall apart...there was ruin, but their faithfulness withstood the force. I can show you someone in Haiti who came to Christ, heard His words, and acted on them in powerful ways.
How are you digging deep in your life and laying a foundation on rock?
Are you placing your trust in God in ways that is not shaken when the world crumbles?
Can you truly open yourself to celebrate the joy of God's promises and hope that is our rock?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God our Rock, Guide us in the work of digging deeply in our lives.
Help us to shore up our foundations with strong community, trust in your presence, and have hope and joy in the shared ministry we have with you.
Let us come, hear, and act. Amen
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
March 9 - Lenten Devotional
"Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye."(Luke 6:42)
This is another of those passages that is familiar to some of us. It get's used a lot to rebuke judgmental people or judgmental statements. We pair it with statements like - "don't throw stones in glass houses," or "the pot calling the kettle black." And don't get me wrong... there is some similarities between these sayings and what Jesus is saying. However - there is far more nuance that needs to be paid attention to in Jesus' comment. The meat of the comment here is in the second half of the verse I think, "hypocrite, first... then..."
"hypocrite"
It is really difficult to start a sentence with the word hypocrite and have the sentence be anything other than conflicting. It's not a word that starts a sentence that ends up with a feel good moment. There are lots of intriguing ways to talk about the word hypocrite that I would love to have time to engage but alas that is for a different day. Today - the word is a rebuke that the church needs to hear... that we NEED to hear. Do our lives match up with claims of Christianity - with the life of Jesus Christ? We bear Jesus name... are we hypocrites to do so, or are we actually making sure our lives are honoring that name?
I just came from a conversation with Tom and Katie about a book called unChristian. The major premise of the book is that the Church needs to pay attention to the critique of 18-29 year olds that the Church is not, or rarely, Christian. Rather the church seems hypocritical, judgmental, and sheltered. We are better at pointing out the speck in other's eyes than in seeing our own. We need to actually live the life we preach and teach.
"first..."
There is judgment in the Bible. Grace is a judgment: We all have speck's in our eyes. However, Grace is a WAY of judging that is not condemning... but loving and inviting. Grace invites healing and wholeness. When the Bible wants to talk about judgment - it is almost always (if not always) about self-judgment. We are invited to turn our eyes on ourselves and seek clarity about who we are, and who we are not. We are invited to allow God's Grace to love us into healing and wholeness.
"then..."
Here is where this text and "saying" of Jesus differs from the other two non-biblical sayings I gave earlier. While this text does move us away from judging others (and towards self-judgment), it does not leave us there. "And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye." This text takes us from judgment to accountability. After we work on our own lives and bring our lives to a place of authentic witness to the life of Christ we are to help others do the same. We, who have been disciples, are to help disciple others. It reminds me of the Great Commission at the end of Matthew - "go forth discipling all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."(Mat 28:20)
As a church... as members of the body of Christ... as disciples following the call of Christ we are to hold one another accountable. We are to "help take the speck out of our neighbor's eye." We are disciple others with Grace, inviting them to follow in the way of Jesus... to hear and follow the call of Christ in their lives.
I think we are still struggling to know what that accountability looks like, to discover the line between judgment and accountability, to find balance in clearing our own vision and helping others to do the same.
I do not claim to know where those lines are, and exactly what a healthy picture of accountable community looks like. I do know this - community that does not hold each other accountable looks like hypocrites... it looks like fake following of Christ... it looks, in a word, unchristian.
Are you looking at the specks in your eyes... and seeking to remove them?
Are you putting yourself in community/communities that hold you accountable?
Are you willing to rock the boat with love in order to hold other's accountable as well?
Gracious God,
Help us to see the ways our lives do not live up to your calling.
Strengthen us to dare to be transformed by your love.
Guide us to nurture the same risking love in our neighbors.
Amen.
This is another of those passages that is familiar to some of us. It get's used a lot to rebuke judgmental people or judgmental statements. We pair it with statements like - "don't throw stones in glass houses," or "the pot calling the kettle black." And don't get me wrong... there is some similarities between these sayings and what Jesus is saying. However - there is far more nuance that needs to be paid attention to in Jesus' comment. The meat of the comment here is in the second half of the verse I think, "hypocrite, first... then..."
"hypocrite"
It is really difficult to start a sentence with the word hypocrite and have the sentence be anything other than conflicting. It's not a word that starts a sentence that ends up with a feel good moment. There are lots of intriguing ways to talk about the word hypocrite that I would love to have time to engage but alas that is for a different day. Today - the word is a rebuke that the church needs to hear... that we NEED to hear. Do our lives match up with claims of Christianity - with the life of Jesus Christ? We bear Jesus name... are we hypocrites to do so, or are we actually making sure our lives are honoring that name?
I just came from a conversation with Tom and Katie about a book called unChristian. The major premise of the book is that the Church needs to pay attention to the critique of 18-29 year olds that the Church is not, or rarely, Christian. Rather the church seems hypocritical, judgmental, and sheltered. We are better at pointing out the speck in other's eyes than in seeing our own. We need to actually live the life we preach and teach.
"first..."
There is judgment in the Bible. Grace is a judgment: We all have speck's in our eyes. However, Grace is a WAY of judging that is not condemning... but loving and inviting. Grace invites healing and wholeness. When the Bible wants to talk about judgment - it is almost always (if not always) about self-judgment. We are invited to turn our eyes on ourselves and seek clarity about who we are, and who we are not. We are invited to allow God's Grace to love us into healing and wholeness.
"then..."
Here is where this text and "saying" of Jesus differs from the other two non-biblical sayings I gave earlier. While this text does move us away from judging others (and towards self-judgment), it does not leave us there. "And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye." This text takes us from judgment to accountability. After we work on our own lives and bring our lives to a place of authentic witness to the life of Christ we are to help others do the same. We, who have been disciples, are to help disciple others. It reminds me of the Great Commission at the end of Matthew - "go forth discipling all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."(Mat 28:20)
As a church... as members of the body of Christ... as disciples following the call of Christ we are to hold one another accountable. We are to "help take the speck out of our neighbor's eye." We are disciple others with Grace, inviting them to follow in the way of Jesus... to hear and follow the call of Christ in their lives.
I think we are still struggling to know what that accountability looks like, to discover the line between judgment and accountability, to find balance in clearing our own vision and helping others to do the same.
I do not claim to know where those lines are, and exactly what a healthy picture of accountable community looks like. I do know this - community that does not hold each other accountable looks like hypocrites... it looks like fake following of Christ... it looks, in a word, unchristian.
Are you looking at the specks in your eyes... and seeking to remove them?
Are you putting yourself in community/communities that hold you accountable?
Are you willing to rock the boat with love in order to hold other's accountable as well?
Gracious God,
Help us to see the ways our lives do not live up to your calling.
Strengthen us to dare to be transformed by your love.
Guide us to nurture the same risking love in our neighbors.
Amen.
Monday, March 8, 2010
March 8 - Lenten Devotional
"Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31)
This is the Luke version of the text we generally call "The Golden Rule". We teach it to our kids with intention of getting Jesus on side. Trying to make our kids be "good neighbors" we recruit Jesus to help us out - "remember, do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Do you think at some point though as adults we forget this applies to us and not just our children? Do you think we forget that it is to apply to all things, and not just when we wish to recruit Jesus to OUR side?
In a previous life I was a philosophy major (okay college wasn't exactly a previous life but it feels that way at times). I spent a lot of my time in the area of political philosophy. And for some reason I am always drawn back to the concept put forth by John Rawls of, "the veil of ignorance". I will over simplify and say it basically means we ask what system of government and laws and rules would we draw up if we did so ignorant of who we would be in the system.
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
It's the same idea really - just writ large. The social and political systems of our world "do" lots of things in our name... and we ought to make sure what they do to others is what we would want them to do if that was us... because basically "others" are "us".
I've shared a story before about my sister's medical problems. Every time I think of them I'm grateful she was born privileged enough to have a big and supportive family... because without that family (and particularly my parents and her husband) she would long since have ended up homeless - buried under way too much medical debt, no fault of her own... just the straw she had when the "veil of ignorance" lifted.
Everything we do in our lives affects others. Everything about our corporate lives - whether a school, club or nation - is our responsibility and affects LOTS of others. As disciples Christ reminds us that we don't get to separate faith from the social and political landscapes of our lives. In all we do... in all we are a part of (and we are a part of a great many things we often forget to think about and take responsibility for)... we are called to do to others as we would have them do to us. We tell it to our kids - but do we remember it ourselves?
What ways are you blessed by positions and places you were born into?
Are you using those gifts to help those who weren't so fortunate?
What are the groups, institutions and nation/national groups that represent you... are they doing to others as you would have them do to you?
Relational God,
Everything you call us to reminds us that we are not alone.
Everything you call us to reminds us that we are not independent.
Everything you call us to reminds us that our lives have consequences.
Help us, God, to be aware of our lives and attentive to the lives of those connected to us by space... blood... time... and you. Amen.
This is the Luke version of the text we generally call "The Golden Rule". We teach it to our kids with intention of getting Jesus on side. Trying to make our kids be "good neighbors" we recruit Jesus to help us out - "remember, do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Do you think at some point though as adults we forget this applies to us and not just our children? Do you think we forget that it is to apply to all things, and not just when we wish to recruit Jesus to OUR side?
In a previous life I was a philosophy major (okay college wasn't exactly a previous life but it feels that way at times). I spent a lot of my time in the area of political philosophy. And for some reason I am always drawn back to the concept put forth by John Rawls of, "the veil of ignorance". I will over simplify and say it basically means we ask what system of government and laws and rules would we draw up if we did so ignorant of who we would be in the system.
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
It's the same idea really - just writ large. The social and political systems of our world "do" lots of things in our name... and we ought to make sure what they do to others is what we would want them to do if that was us... because basically "others" are "us".
I've shared a story before about my sister's medical problems. Every time I think of them I'm grateful she was born privileged enough to have a big and supportive family... because without that family (and particularly my parents and her husband) she would long since have ended up homeless - buried under way too much medical debt, no fault of her own... just the straw she had when the "veil of ignorance" lifted.
Everything we do in our lives affects others. Everything about our corporate lives - whether a school, club or nation - is our responsibility and affects LOTS of others. As disciples Christ reminds us that we don't get to separate faith from the social and political landscapes of our lives. In all we do... in all we are a part of (and we are a part of a great many things we often forget to think about and take responsibility for)... we are called to do to others as we would have them do to us. We tell it to our kids - but do we remember it ourselves?
What ways are you blessed by positions and places you were born into?
Are you using those gifts to help those who weren't so fortunate?
What are the groups, institutions and nation/national groups that represent you... are they doing to others as you would have them do to you?
Relational God,
Everything you call us to reminds us that we are not alone.
Everything you call us to reminds us that we are not independent.
Everything you call us to reminds us that our lives have consequences.
Help us, God, to be aware of our lives and attentive to the lives of those connected to us by space... blood... time... and you. Amen.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
March 6 - Lenten Devotional
I was actually looking for a good break at some point to reflect on a discipleship lesson I enjoyed watching unfold... as did many of you - the Olympics. So the Gospel of Luke is on hold for a day and instead I share three memories of these recent Olympic games.
The first memory was watching the end of the 50 kilometer cross country race as the television coverage stayed to watch even the last racer cross the line - and the crowd gave that racer a standing ovation. Just finishing the race was cause to celebrate.
The second memory was watching competitors who were standing in line to win a gold medal and when the last skier, or skater... or whatever, crossed the line and beat their time they still celebrated that they won silver. Granted not all the competitors acted this way - but it seemed to me that it was true of most of them. This particular phenomenon was amplified by the competitors who were happy just to post good performances without ever having a chance or expectation to medal.
The final memory was watching the speed skating pursuit event. It was a team of three skaters. They had to skate a long race together, and the last skater to cross was the time recorded for the whole team. I thought - this is a boring event, whatever team has the best worst skater wins. I couldn't have been more wrong. In fact many of the teams who did the best had all the "worst" skaters out there... but they knew how to work together. They could act in concert with one another without speaking. They're movements were perfectly timed and coordinated - and they beat better racers!
Just finishing the race is cause to celebrate!
We are just happy to have done well - no matter the consequence!
Working together is more important than personal skill!
What we saw... in the midst of a competition that should have been far from the way of discipleship... was some core aspects of discipleship in motion - and it was inspiring!
Are you celebrating the simple joy of being in the race?
Are you content with trying hard and doing well without the need for good consequences?
Are you working with others to make each other better rather than achieve individual excellence?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Triune God,
Help us to live in relationship as you do, working together in harmony so that we support, affirm, and encourage one another in all that we are called to do and be
no matter the consequences. And remind us to do so with some celebratory flair!
Amen.
The first memory was watching the end of the 50 kilometer cross country race as the television coverage stayed to watch even the last racer cross the line - and the crowd gave that racer a standing ovation. Just finishing the race was cause to celebrate.
The second memory was watching competitors who were standing in line to win a gold medal and when the last skier, or skater... or whatever, crossed the line and beat their time they still celebrated that they won silver. Granted not all the competitors acted this way - but it seemed to me that it was true of most of them. This particular phenomenon was amplified by the competitors who were happy just to post good performances without ever having a chance or expectation to medal.
The final memory was watching the speed skating pursuit event. It was a team of three skaters. They had to skate a long race together, and the last skater to cross was the time recorded for the whole team. I thought - this is a boring event, whatever team has the best worst skater wins. I couldn't have been more wrong. In fact many of the teams who did the best had all the "worst" skaters out there... but they knew how to work together. They could act in concert with one another without speaking. They're movements were perfectly timed and coordinated - and they beat better racers!
Just finishing the race is cause to celebrate!
We are just happy to have done well - no matter the consequence!
Working together is more important than personal skill!
What we saw... in the midst of a competition that should have been far from the way of discipleship... was some core aspects of discipleship in motion - and it was inspiring!
Are you celebrating the simple joy of being in the race?
Are you content with trying hard and doing well without the need for good consequences?
Are you working with others to make each other better rather than achieve individual excellence?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Triune God,
Help us to live in relationship as you do, working together in harmony so that we support, affirm, and encourage one another in all that we are called to do and be
no matter the consequences. And remind us to do so with some celebratory flair!
Amen.
March 5 - Lenten Devotional
"If you lend to those from who you hope to receive, what credit is that to you... but love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:34-36)
While journeying on the path of discipleship most of us would not claim that we pick out people and opportunities to give when we know we will receive something in return. However... if we broaden the brush a bit to the general idea Jesus is talking about we start to see another nuance of discipleship. Discipleship gives expecting nothing in return... even love, gratitude, or good will.
We aren't earning anything in discipleship. We are not banking rewards for good deeds. I think at times this gets harder and harder to see in our world. We get tax benefits for charitable giving. We get school and honor society service hours for giving our time. We receive merit all the time for "accomplishing" good on behalf of others. None of this is necessarily bad... or wrong... or something we have to shun. It is, however, problematic.
Why?
It starts to train us in a way of thinking that is contrary to the way of discipleship. It train us that good deeds store up merit and reward. It starts to get our mind thinking that when we do good - good gets done to us. It makes our natural instincts in any situation be to imagine that we deserve praise... and then even boasting - because... well - we're such good and giving people.
I think you're good... because your God named you so.
I think you are loved... because God loves you.
I think nothing you do - good or bad - is going to change that.
And so I think it is from this place, and this reality - that we are the good, beloved, children of God - that we move to service. Our God gives. And thus it is that we - basking in that love - turn to give as well. Our giving is modeled after the giving of God.
"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Or: Love, just as God loves
This leaves me at a final thought as I think on that comment - "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." For a very long time I have held the opinion that we are not God. And that is true - and we need to take care not to be, or think and act like we are, God. However... as part of that I've always extended it to say we aren't Jesus and we need to not have a messiah complex. Well, and this may seem scandalous to you, but Jesus isn't God.
Yes, Jesus is God incarnate.
Yes, Jesus is the second person of the trinity.
Yes, Jesus is divine.
But, Jesus is God INCARNATE - Jesus is truly human... and as we follow Jesus in discipleship the hope in not simply to emulate him, but to model our lives after his in hopes that we will be formed by, in and through him to live that same life.
The hope is that we might be truly human as well.
It strikes me that Jesus had no messiah complex - in fact he sort of begs off being seen as messiah. He constantly points back to God - God is messiah... Jesus is the way of God in the world: God incarnate. When we seek to be Jesus we seek to also live our lives - not as messiahs, but as those whose lives point to God: we seek to be God incarnate also - lives filled with the life and presence of God.
And so we seek to be merciful as God is merciful - so that our lives reflect the life of God. We seek to give - because this reflects the life of God who gives. We seek to do good - because this reflects the life of God who is good. And we do all these things not for reward... not to fill a checklist - either from a college application or our own moral guidelines - but because by serving in this way we follow Jesus in forming our lives after the life of God. We are disciples - learning the way of God in the world - learning to live like Jesus.
Are you following in Jesus' way... being the incarnation of God's love in the world?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loving, Giving God,
Help us to feel your love.
Make us aware of your gifts.
Form us in the way of service.
Empower us to be
your love.
Amen.
While journeying on the path of discipleship most of us would not claim that we pick out people and opportunities to give when we know we will receive something in return. However... if we broaden the brush a bit to the general idea Jesus is talking about we start to see another nuance of discipleship. Discipleship gives expecting nothing in return... even love, gratitude, or good will.
We aren't earning anything in discipleship. We are not banking rewards for good deeds. I think at times this gets harder and harder to see in our world. We get tax benefits for charitable giving. We get school and honor society service hours for giving our time. We receive merit all the time for "accomplishing" good on behalf of others. None of this is necessarily bad... or wrong... or something we have to shun. It is, however, problematic.
Why?
It starts to train us in a way of thinking that is contrary to the way of discipleship. It train us that good deeds store up merit and reward. It starts to get our mind thinking that when we do good - good gets done to us. It makes our natural instincts in any situation be to imagine that we deserve praise... and then even boasting - because... well - we're such good and giving people.
I think you're good... because your God named you so.
I think you are loved... because God loves you.
I think nothing you do - good or bad - is going to change that.
And so I think it is from this place, and this reality - that we are the good, beloved, children of God - that we move to service. Our God gives. And thus it is that we - basking in that love - turn to give as well. Our giving is modeled after the giving of God.
"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Or: Love, just as God loves
This leaves me at a final thought as I think on that comment - "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." For a very long time I have held the opinion that we are not God. And that is true - and we need to take care not to be, or think and act like we are, God. However... as part of that I've always extended it to say we aren't Jesus and we need to not have a messiah complex. Well, and this may seem scandalous to you, but Jesus isn't God.
Yes, Jesus is God incarnate.
Yes, Jesus is the second person of the trinity.
Yes, Jesus is divine.
But, Jesus is God INCARNATE - Jesus is truly human... and as we follow Jesus in discipleship the hope in not simply to emulate him, but to model our lives after his in hopes that we will be formed by, in and through him to live that same life.
The hope is that we might be truly human as well.
It strikes me that Jesus had no messiah complex - in fact he sort of begs off being seen as messiah. He constantly points back to God - God is messiah... Jesus is the way of God in the world: God incarnate. When we seek to be Jesus we seek to also live our lives - not as messiahs, but as those whose lives point to God: we seek to be God incarnate also - lives filled with the life and presence of God.
And so we seek to be merciful as God is merciful - so that our lives reflect the life of God. We seek to give - because this reflects the life of God who gives. We seek to do good - because this reflects the life of God who is good. And we do all these things not for reward... not to fill a checklist - either from a college application or our own moral guidelines - but because by serving in this way we follow Jesus in forming our lives after the life of God. We are disciples - learning the way of God in the world - learning to live like Jesus.
Are you following in Jesus' way... being the incarnation of God's love in the world?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loving, Giving God,
Help us to feel your love.
Make us aware of your gifts.
Form us in the way of service.
Empower us to be
your love.
Amen.
March 3 - Lenten Devotional
"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.” (Luke 6:27-29)
So this is another lengthy selection from Luke – but I just couldn’t cut off the text… the whole point of Jesus here just seems to keep snowballing out of control. It goes from a strong statement into an increasingly radical statement.
“Love your enemies” – okay I can handle that… different from what I’d want to do but plenty of wiggle room with what it means to “love” my enemies. I just have to think good thoughts about them. Hope they see the error of their ways. Wish them the “best”!
Do good to those who hate you.” Uhhh… a bit of a struggle. This goes beyond just thinking good thoughts on behalf of them, but actually DOING good for them? This is when signing on board for this mission starts to get pretty rocky. I’d prefer to only do good for those who deserve it – or at the least just those who are grateful for the help… but those who hate me?
“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Alright… this is okay – Jesus is backing off a bit. I can pronounce blessings and prayers over those who are “mean” to me. Hunker down a midst their abuse and pray for God to stop them, change them, fix them!
Only now is the problem… Jesus just didn’t know when to stop… and he goes on. “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” Well… now… that’s just stupid. I mean, it is – isn’t it? Not just don’t respond – as if that’s wise in itself. But offer them the other? That’s just… letting yourself be a victim. Certainly that cannot be what Jesus means… right?
I’ve heard ways “around” the meaning. However, I’m not really one to play mental gymnastics to try to find a more palatable meaning to Jesus’ teachings. There are lots of times that Jesus teaches in unclear ways… this however is not hidden in story and nuance. “Offer the other also,” and if you think it’s not clear enough, “anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
When someone gets this radical – this “out of line” – we usually want to find a loop hole by seeing if they practice what they preach. But were talking about Jesus here – and he didn’t lead an overthrow of Rome… he stopped Peter from defending him against Roman guards… he gave – GAVE – his life for us on the cross. Clearly Jesus was prepared to “offer the other also.”
Is Jesus a victim though? I think not. He is not. For look back at the verb choice, its not – allow yourself to be struck again. “Offer the other also.” Not a victim – but active non-violent resistance. So counter to all our instincts… its not flight – its not fight – its something else. Something counter to instinct: a third way, the Jesus way… active, strong, non-violent resistance to the violent, dominating, “me first” instincts of our world.
Jesus and his disciples… even the early church did not kill for their faith or seek to dominate others to submit before their truth. They did die for their faith though… and sought to submit themselves before God’s truth. The truth of love, forgiveness, redemption and grace.
Its hard work… hard work. We have to resist all our instincts and train new response. Learn to “offer the other also”. This is why we are disciples – this is why we follow, and don’t lead. We are learning to walk the “third way” the Jesus way… to neither be victim or victimizer.
How do we encourage and affirm each other in choosing a third way?
Are you prepared to “offer the other also”, and help me do the same?
Does any of us really dare to practice love, forgiveness and grace?
Ever more radical God, at times such as these your word seems too hard. You have asked too much. Can it be that you really actually mean for us to “offer the other also” – can you not take this cup from us? If not Lord… and I know it’s a not somewhere in my heart – then give me the conviction to practice your way – to nurture grace, forgiveness and love in my heart and to live it in my life. Have mercy on me O Lord. Amen.
So this is another lengthy selection from Luke – but I just couldn’t cut off the text… the whole point of Jesus here just seems to keep snowballing out of control. It goes from a strong statement into an increasingly radical statement.
“Love your enemies” – okay I can handle that… different from what I’d want to do but plenty of wiggle room with what it means to “love” my enemies. I just have to think good thoughts about them. Hope they see the error of their ways. Wish them the “best”!
Do good to those who hate you.” Uhhh… a bit of a struggle. This goes beyond just thinking good thoughts on behalf of them, but actually DOING good for them? This is when signing on board for this mission starts to get pretty rocky. I’d prefer to only do good for those who deserve it – or at the least just those who are grateful for the help… but those who hate me?
“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Alright… this is okay – Jesus is backing off a bit. I can pronounce blessings and prayers over those who are “mean” to me. Hunker down a midst their abuse and pray for God to stop them, change them, fix them!
Only now is the problem… Jesus just didn’t know when to stop… and he goes on. “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” Well… now… that’s just stupid. I mean, it is – isn’t it? Not just don’t respond – as if that’s wise in itself. But offer them the other? That’s just… letting yourself be a victim. Certainly that cannot be what Jesus means… right?
I’ve heard ways “around” the meaning. However, I’m not really one to play mental gymnastics to try to find a more palatable meaning to Jesus’ teachings. There are lots of times that Jesus teaches in unclear ways… this however is not hidden in story and nuance. “Offer the other also,” and if you think it’s not clear enough, “anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
When someone gets this radical – this “out of line” – we usually want to find a loop hole by seeing if they practice what they preach. But were talking about Jesus here – and he didn’t lead an overthrow of Rome… he stopped Peter from defending him against Roman guards… he gave – GAVE – his life for us on the cross. Clearly Jesus was prepared to “offer the other also.”
Is Jesus a victim though? I think not. He is not. For look back at the verb choice, its not – allow yourself to be struck again. “Offer the other also.” Not a victim – but active non-violent resistance. So counter to all our instincts… its not flight – its not fight – its something else. Something counter to instinct: a third way, the Jesus way… active, strong, non-violent resistance to the violent, dominating, “me first” instincts of our world.
Jesus and his disciples… even the early church did not kill for their faith or seek to dominate others to submit before their truth. They did die for their faith though… and sought to submit themselves before God’s truth. The truth of love, forgiveness, redemption and grace.
Its hard work… hard work. We have to resist all our instincts and train new response. Learn to “offer the other also”. This is why we are disciples – this is why we follow, and don’t lead. We are learning to walk the “third way” the Jesus way… to neither be victim or victimizer.
How do we encourage and affirm each other in choosing a third way?
Are you prepared to “offer the other also”, and help me do the same?
Does any of us really dare to practice love, forgiveness and grace?
Ever more radical God, at times such as these your word seems too hard. You have asked too much. Can it be that you really actually mean for us to “offer the other also” – can you not take this cup from us? If not Lord… and I know it’s a not somewhere in my heart – then give me the conviction to practice your way – to nurture grace, forgiveness and love in my heart and to live it in my life. Have mercy on me O Lord. Amen.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
March 2 - Lenten Devotional
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man." (Luke 6:22)
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets." (Luke 6:26)
Yesterday we already touched on the blessed versus woe movements... but I wanted to focus in a bit on the last pairing - because something a bit different is going on here and I think it is VERY important for the journey of discipleship.
So what's probably not going on is that it is good to be hated and bad to be liked.
There are key additions in both cases: "on account of the Son of Man" and "ancestors did to the false prophets." What is at stake here - I think, is that disciples... followers of Jesus will necessarily have to say and do things that aren't popular - that aren't status quo behavior in society. "On account of the Son of Man", otherwise said, in following the way that I have called you, you will be asked to do and say things that will make you reviled. On the other hand - if you're well liked, and your words always well received, then there is a direct link between you and the false prophets.
I always have this problem when I think I'm going to preach a challenging sermon and afterward everyone says, "That was a good sermon, thank you." I'm thinking, "Wait, no - you shouldn't have liked it!!" And then I'm thinking, "What did I say wrong - that they liked it?"
In following Jesus there will be times we have to deliver the hard word... even worse there are times we will have to live the hard word. The temptation is always to go the way of the false prophet - to look the other way and offer more blessing and affirmation by way of avoiding conflict... and to be liked.
Being liked is always more fun than being a prophet.
But we are not called to be liked.
I remember someone telling me once that if everyone at your church likes you - you're probably not doing something "right". I'm not sure that this is necessarily true - but it isn't a far cry from what Jesus is saying here. "In following my way," Jesus says, "you will be reviled, hated, excluded and defamed." And while that will not be true all the time, we have to be prepared to risk our lives (or reputations at least) for those time it will be most certainly true!
Are we ready to dare that kind of discipleship?
Are we attentive enough in our lives to see when we are tempted to be a false prophet?
Will we trust God enough to say and do what we are called to - in the name of Jesus?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holy God,
You have called us to be set apart.
You have called us to your way that is not like the ways of this world.
Give us the courage and trust to follow.
Amen.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets." (Luke 6:26)
Yesterday we already touched on the blessed versus woe movements... but I wanted to focus in a bit on the last pairing - because something a bit different is going on here and I think it is VERY important for the journey of discipleship.
So what's probably not going on is that it is good to be hated and bad to be liked.
There are key additions in both cases: "on account of the Son of Man" and "ancestors did to the false prophets." What is at stake here - I think, is that disciples... followers of Jesus will necessarily have to say and do things that aren't popular - that aren't status quo behavior in society. "On account of the Son of Man", otherwise said, in following the way that I have called you, you will be asked to do and say things that will make you reviled. On the other hand - if you're well liked, and your words always well received, then there is a direct link between you and the false prophets.
I always have this problem when I think I'm going to preach a challenging sermon and afterward everyone says, "That was a good sermon, thank you." I'm thinking, "Wait, no - you shouldn't have liked it!!" And then I'm thinking, "What did I say wrong - that they liked it?"
In following Jesus there will be times we have to deliver the hard word... even worse there are times we will have to live the hard word. The temptation is always to go the way of the false prophet - to look the other way and offer more blessing and affirmation by way of avoiding conflict... and to be liked.
Being liked is always more fun than being a prophet.
But we are not called to be liked.
I remember someone telling me once that if everyone at your church likes you - you're probably not doing something "right". I'm not sure that this is necessarily true - but it isn't a far cry from what Jesus is saying here. "In following my way," Jesus says, "you will be reviled, hated, excluded and defamed." And while that will not be true all the time, we have to be prepared to risk our lives (or reputations at least) for those time it will be most certainly true!
Are we ready to dare that kind of discipleship?
Are we attentive enough in our lives to see when we are tempted to be a false prophet?
Will we trust God enough to say and do what we are called to - in the name of Jesus?
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Holy God,
You have called us to be set apart.
You have called us to your way that is not like the ways of this world.
Give us the courage and trust to follow.
Amen.
March 1 - Lenten Devotional
"Then he looked up at his disciples and said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 6:20)
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation." (Luke 6:24)
Like in Matthew Jesus follows up the choosing of the twelve with beatitudes at the beginning of a sermon. Like Matthew the sermon will touch on the character of discipleship. Jesus will take the "laws" of the Pharisees and their to-do lists and turn them upside down in an invitation to a way of life rather than mere commandment keeping. However there is a stark difference in Luke from Mathew - and it lies here at the beginning. The beatitudes themselves in Luke (only 3) seem not about character at all (the character comments come later as we will see throughout this week) but about wealth and life situation. And each of the beatitudes is matched with a woe.
Blessed are the poor... woe to the rich.
Blessed are the hungry... woe to those who are fed.
Blessed are those who are reviled... woe to those who laugh.
And finally: woe to those who people speak well of, for that is what they did of the false prophets.
Luke's take on Jesus ministry pushes hard on what is often called God's "preferential option for the poor". In a world where justice seems fleeting God sides with those who are oppressed... who have little or nothing at all. The "widows" and "orphans" of the world. And to push even further Jesus here pronounces woe on those don't fit those categories. Here God not only sides with the poor, but ONLY with the poor.
So what do those of us who aren't poor do with this word?
I think in other places there are "ways" out of the dilemma... Matthew obviously gives us that when he says the "poor in spirit". Even the much remembered "camel passing through the eye of the needle" leaves room for the rich man - albeit some fancy physics is necessary. But here? Woe to the rich, you have received your consolation.
I think two things: I image that the text... especially in light of where it is going in the rest of the chapter, leaves open the idea that its not all bad news for the "rich" so long as they use their money in aid of those who have none and in way that we do not imagine getting rewarded for it. Just as God has preferential option for the poor, so should we - and in doing so the way out of "woe" is opened.
Secondly I think that the text is meant to unsettle. Its meant to say - take care with wealth, with being fed, with good times and good opinion. Take care: because being consoled by these things is way to stray from God... for our consolation is to be in God's grace - not the "stuff" of this world.
Where do you find your consolation? Where do you place your trust? In your journey of discipleship are you putting your gifts to the service of God's kingdom - in the "way" that God is calling you to use them?
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Unsettling God, your word pushes us to places of dis-ease and dis-comfort. Your word convicts and challenges. Help us to see in such words the good news... the way of discipleship... the calling you placing on our hearts. And help us trust that word enough to share it with others. Amen.
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation." (Luke 6:24)
Like in Matthew Jesus follows up the choosing of the twelve with beatitudes at the beginning of a sermon. Like Matthew the sermon will touch on the character of discipleship. Jesus will take the "laws" of the Pharisees and their to-do lists and turn them upside down in an invitation to a way of life rather than mere commandment keeping. However there is a stark difference in Luke from Mathew - and it lies here at the beginning. The beatitudes themselves in Luke (only 3) seem not about character at all (the character comments come later as we will see throughout this week) but about wealth and life situation. And each of the beatitudes is matched with a woe.
Blessed are the poor... woe to the rich.
Blessed are the hungry... woe to those who are fed.
Blessed are those who are reviled... woe to those who laugh.
And finally: woe to those who people speak well of, for that is what they did of the false prophets.
Luke's take on Jesus ministry pushes hard on what is often called God's "preferential option for the poor". In a world where justice seems fleeting God sides with those who are oppressed... who have little or nothing at all. The "widows" and "orphans" of the world. And to push even further Jesus here pronounces woe on those don't fit those categories. Here God not only sides with the poor, but ONLY with the poor.
So what do those of us who aren't poor do with this word?
I think in other places there are "ways" out of the dilemma... Matthew obviously gives us that when he says the "poor in spirit". Even the much remembered "camel passing through the eye of the needle" leaves room for the rich man - albeit some fancy physics is necessary. But here? Woe to the rich, you have received your consolation.
I think two things: I image that the text... especially in light of where it is going in the rest of the chapter, leaves open the idea that its not all bad news for the "rich" so long as they use their money in aid of those who have none and in way that we do not imagine getting rewarded for it. Just as God has preferential option for the poor, so should we - and in doing so the way out of "woe" is opened.
Secondly I think that the text is meant to unsettle. Its meant to say - take care with wealth, with being fed, with good times and good opinion. Take care: because being consoled by these things is way to stray from God... for our consolation is to be in God's grace - not the "stuff" of this world.
Where do you find your consolation? Where do you place your trust? In your journey of discipleship are you putting your gifts to the service of God's kingdom - in the "way" that God is calling you to use them?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsettling God, your word pushes us to places of dis-ease and dis-comfort. Your word convicts and challenges. Help us to see in such words the good news... the way of discipleship... the calling you placing on our hearts. And help us trust that word enough to share it with others. Amen.
Feb 27 - Lenten Devotional
"But some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?'" (Luke 6:2)
"On another Sabbath... the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him." (Luke 6:7)
Okay so a few days ago we talked about the "great misunderstanding of discipleship" as being us thinking we were not "good enough" to be disciples, as if discipleship had prerequisites other than the willingness to follow. We'll call that the sin of not rising to our calling. The sin on the other side of that is one of pride and judgment. Not misunderstanding... but actually claiming a TOO MUCH understanding.
I'll be the first to admit that its difficult to find the line between accountability and judgment... prophetic preaching and presumptuous speech. The Pharisees are trying to find a faithful way to keep their identity as God's people and lead others in that way. They have good intentions. Somewhere along the line however they began to assume that the faithful way they found was the ONLY way... that faithfulness necessarily looked like their lives. The rules they had formed for finding God's way and staying on the way had actually become more important (or at the least just as important) as the way itself.
As we are called to discipleship we are called to attend to the way we follow Jesus... that we are cultivating a life and character like Jesus. However we must take care as well that while we are called to encourage others to join us on the way - the way is God's and not ours. There may well be many ways to follow Christ that look and feel different than our own journey - but that doesn't make them wrong, a fact that Jesus has to consistently remind the Pharisees, the scribes, the crowds... and even his own disciples.
As you follow Christ are you making sure not to mistake rules, guides, and markers for the actual way?
Are you attentive to the new and creative ways God may be calling you to live outside your expectations?
Are you encouraging others to discipleship, but leaving God the freedom to call them to live that journey in their own way
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Unbound God - your ways are not our ways. Remind us that you are at work in the world in ways beyond our imagining. As we seek to respond to your calling and learn to follow you and your way help us to be open to the movement of your spirit in our lives. Amen.
"On another Sabbath... the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him." (Luke 6:7)
Okay so a few days ago we talked about the "great misunderstanding of discipleship" as being us thinking we were not "good enough" to be disciples, as if discipleship had prerequisites other than the willingness to follow. We'll call that the sin of not rising to our calling. The sin on the other side of that is one of pride and judgment. Not misunderstanding... but actually claiming a TOO MUCH understanding.
I'll be the first to admit that its difficult to find the line between accountability and judgment... prophetic preaching and presumptuous speech. The Pharisees are trying to find a faithful way to keep their identity as God's people and lead others in that way. They have good intentions. Somewhere along the line however they began to assume that the faithful way they found was the ONLY way... that faithfulness necessarily looked like their lives. The rules they had formed for finding God's way and staying on the way had actually become more important (or at the least just as important) as the way itself.
As we are called to discipleship we are called to attend to the way we follow Jesus... that we are cultivating a life and character like Jesus. However we must take care as well that while we are called to encourage others to join us on the way - the way is God's and not ours. There may well be many ways to follow Christ that look and feel different than our own journey - but that doesn't make them wrong, a fact that Jesus has to consistently remind the Pharisees, the scribes, the crowds... and even his own disciples.
As you follow Christ are you making sure not to mistake rules, guides, and markers for the actual way?
Are you attentive to the new and creative ways God may be calling you to live outside your expectations?
Are you encouraging others to discipleship, but leaving God the freedom to call them to live that journey in their own way
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unbound God - your ways are not our ways. Remind us that you are at work in the world in ways beyond our imagining. As we seek to respond to your calling and learn to follow you and your way help us to be open to the movement of your spirit in our lives. Amen.
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