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?

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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.