Tag Archives: Beliefs

Water for Souls

Good samaritanAdvent
December 8, 2015

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 12:2-6

Surely God is my salvation;
   I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation.  

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
   call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
   proclaim that his name is exalted. –Isaiah 12:2-3

I have been struggling recently with the importance of what we believe as it relates to our life of faith. Strange problem you say, surely what we believe drives our life of faith, but does it? Several years ago, but at least in the era of computers, I changed my screensaver to display a phrase I had read on a church marque that struck me as being particularly meaty: If you do not live it, you do not believe it. What is particularly puzzling to me of recent times is whether the phrase is reversible or not: If you live it, you believe it. Would that apply if you could not name “it” by its properly prescribed tenet of faith? Who is the Good Samaritan in our time and place?

These questions matter because many of us are having trouble relating to those in our society who were/are not steeped in our Judeo-Christian stories and traditions from birth, and probably do not even know from where the story of the Good Samaritan came nor would it have any cultural relevance for them. In a lot of instances, they would have stopped and helped an injured man by the side of the road while we, who know the story, roll up our windows, lock our doors, and drive on by. The government can take care of those folks as long as they do not raise our taxes to do it.

How meaningful is our message of salvation when it is only tied to an afterlife that does not exist in the minds of many whose existence on earth is closer to hell right now than it is to heaven?

Prayer: Lord, make us seekers of justice in a world where it is sorely lacking, not just justice for those who think and believe like us but for all your children even if we do not identify them by your name. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

God’s Judgment

Paul writing to the churchesEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 23, 2015

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

 While I was writing my book Houses Divided, I was struck by the possibility that the full realization of the coming of the Kingdom of God may be awaiting our capacity for loving God and loving each other to the extent we would be able to experience God “dwelling”* among us all the time. The irony of such an idea is that while we are waiting for God to fix the world we now live in, God has already saved us. God has given us the gift of God’s love in human form. Our task is to love like Jesus loves God and his neighbors, and in so doing transform the world. He also challenged us to make everyone in the world our neighbor. Paul puts it precisely: For the present form of this world is passing away. We humans just keep reaching back and trying to drag some of that former world with us.

We seem to be caught up in our human need to compete. Even to compete for God’s salvation. Now, I like a good basketball game as much as anyone, football too, but I do not move up on God’s rating chart by trying to be more righteous or more zealous or more anything than any of God’s other children or by assigning greater judgment magnitude to what I deem to be the sins of others while being blind to my own. God does not have a comparative rating chart. God’s judgment, as I understand it, is not based on who of us has the corner on “right” beliefs or are more self-righteous.  God’s judgment is based on how we have loved. Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? (Matthew 25:37+)

Prayer: Lord open my heart to the infusion of your love. Wash away all the barriers I raise to loving as you love. Free me from my need to judge myself by any standard other than the one you have established for me and free me from my need to judge others. Amen.

*See John 1:14 and Revelation 21:3

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.