Tag Archives: Rule of Love

Dealing with Ignorance

Eastertide

April 12, 2021Justice

Scripture Reading: Acts 3:12-19
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

‘And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,

Ignorance is a challenging word. There are at least two types of ignorance. The first is a lack of knowledge or experience. We all are acquainted with that one, which can be corrected by study or observation or wisdom shared by others. I remember the centurion saying at the foot of Jesus’ cross Truly this man was God’s Son*! My high school American and Oklahoma History teacher contributed much outside information than was provided in our textbooks. Besides being my teacher, he was the Principal Chief of the Otoe Missouria Tribe at that time. The second type of ignorance is gained by ignoring what we have observed and blindly believing what we have been taught. Many of the Jews had been anticipating a Warrior King, Son of David Messiah, not one willing to die on a cross whose rule is based on love rather than military might.

Ignorance does not need to last forever. We can learn the better way, and we can turn around from holding on to knowledge without substance and experience without knowing.

Prayer: God of Love, open our hearts and minds to your ways and your truths. Amen.

*Matthew 27:54

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Taking a Knee

Living in the Spirit
July 26, 2018

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. –Ephesians 3:14-19

I did not ever think I would see the day when taking a knee would be seen as anything but a statement of reverence, respect, and in many instances grief. Taking a knee before the flag of the USA has significance because men and women have courageously given their lives since the flag’s creation in support of the vision of our nation’s founders that we are a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Grief is the appropriate response when we fail to live up to that ideal. In the USA taking a knee as a patriotic practice when it is expressing an individual’s faith is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof*.

The inclusion of the words establishment of religion grew out of the religious persecution that people in other nations were experiencing. They faced dire consequences if they refused to follow the beliefs and practices of the dominant, usually governmentally sanctioned, religion. Immigrating to the New World opened opportunities for free expression of their beliefs. Granted some were as intolerant of other beliefs at the beginning of our nation as their persecutors had been where they came from. The establishment of religion phrase was a compromise that basically said if anyone had freedom of religion all must have it.

We seem to be understanding the phrase backward as we try to legislate our faith through laws. Indeed, there are close relationships between some governmental laws and faith-based rules designed to protect one citizen from another or others. Lying, cheating, stealing, causing bodily harm to another all are found in most faith rules and governmental laws. The distinction in faith-based guidance is that it holds the follower of the faith accountable to a higher authority as stated in the above scripture, [God] may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. If we are following Christ’s way of love, we should not need governmental laws to protect one from another.

Prayer: God of Mercy and Justice, help us live mercy to the extent that justice is automatic. Amen.

*http://constitutingamerica.org/bill-of-rights/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwnNvaBRCmARIsAOfZq-3BqcAxCCXv3gmYvhC7fRO2MCuNJSQtkZlck82xGSI0eOZPJdqKe60aArWLEALw_wcB#toggle-id-2

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Saving Lost Sheep

Living in the Spirit
July 13, 2018

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. –Ephesians 1:11-14

Somehow over the years, Christianity has morphed into an individual-oriented faith. We are all about being saved ourselves and leading other individuals to be saved, becoming a rather elite self-identified group of individuals. The Hebrew prophets spoke first of the salvation of the Hebrew people and eventually migrated to the recognition of the universal salvation of all of God’s children. Jesus picked up this theme and Ephesians continues it as it talks about the redemption of God’s own people.

One could argue that if all individuals are saved all of God’s people are redeemed and that is true, but it misses the point. Individual salvation is a means to the end of the creation of a world ruled by love. Individual salvation is not an end unto itself. It is the means to an end.

I was reminded of the parable of the lost sheep* as I followed the rescue of the Thai soccer team from a flooded cave. The rescue took hundreds of people from many nations with special skills to save twelve boys and their coach. One man gave his life in the rescue. Uncountable people from various faith groups around the world were praying for all involved. I can imagine Jesus smiling down on that whole process.

Prayer: God who is Love and the Source of all Love, thank you for your presence with the Thai soccer team and with all those who as one entity worked to save them.  Let that be a reminder of the power of oneness and love. Amen.

*See Luke 15

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Bread of the World

Bread of life 2Lent
February 28, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 8:31-38

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? — Mark 8:34-36

Five years ago, I finally faced the question that had been hanging over my head for probably 20 years: “Do I eat to live or do I live to eat?” It is a tough question. Eating is such an integral part of our social structure, often the center of hospitality. Sharing the symbolism of a meal is actually the central point of Christian worship. Bread is called the staff of life. However, when food, or anything else, becomes our end rather than our means to an end it is as lethal as any weapon.

This is essentially what Jesus is describing in our scripture today. Anytime we invest our energy, efforts, and resources in random targets of self-satisfaction with no purpose, we are wasting ourselves and perhaps more importantly, damaging the synergy that results from the equitable investment of all God’s children in building a better world.

I still eat. In all honesty I actually enjoy my food more now than I did then, probably because I am no longer trying to meet a need with the wrong resource. Jesus called us to partner with him toward the rule of love in our world. Now that is a purpose worth pursuing with all our hearts, minds, strength, and souls.

Prayer:
Bread of the world in mercy broken,
wine of the soul in mercy shed,
by whom the words of life were spoken,
and in whose death our sins are dead:  

Look on the heart by sorrow broken,
look on the tears by sinners shed;
and be thy feast to us the token
that by thy grace our souls are fed.* Amen.

*Bread of the Word by Reginald Heber see at: http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh624.sht
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.

The Choice to Love

Love is a choiceLent February 25, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 22:23-31 All the ends of the earth shall remember    and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations    shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord,    and he rules over the nations. —Psalm 22:27-28

My impression, drawn from the scriptures, is that God wants to be loved because we want to love God. We demonstrate our love for God, not only through worship, but also by following the path of caring for one another that God has set before us. We do justice, show mercy, and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8) We cannot legislate love and we cannot bully or terrorize people into loving. We have been given the freedom to choose to love.

Our culture has mystified love, making it something we think we fall into or out of. We have trivialized love, applying it, in many instances, to create a superlative form of the word “like”. We have sexualized love often ignoring the boarder scope of the love God has for us or the love we have for others that is like the love of siblings. I like M. Scott Peck’s simplified definition of love: wanting the very best for another.

Such is the love God calls us to choose for all who are made in God’s image. Practicing choosing to love reorders and reprioritizes our lives. It draws us to a center where God has been along.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for choosing to love us. Thank you for the freedom to choose to love you and to choose to love others. Strengthen me to love as you love and let my love always be to your glory and honor. 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.

Family and the Rule of Love

FamilyLiving in the Spirit
August 13, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Psalm 133 

How very good and pleasant it is
   when kindred live together in unity! — Psalm 133:1

My mother died on January 13 in the midst of a frigid blizzard. It was fitting, I suppose, for my father, nearly 30 years earlier, had died on January 15 in a frigid blizzard. Their deaths had nothing to do with the weather but the weather had everything to do with planning memorials and settling the business of death. It thus was a few weeks later when there was no longer ice on the road that I traveled the seventy miles to my mother’s hometown to meet with my brother and sister to close out my mother’s bank account. My sister was at work but she would meet my brother and me at the bank. While discussing these plans on the phone, she said that she would pick up the death certificate we needed at the funeral home on her way to the bank. I volunteered to do that since I was taking the whole day off from work. When I arrived at the funeral home and made my request for the death certificate, the staff person, while very cordial, seemed very nervous. She went to the back and consulted apparently with her boss. She then returned to her desk and called my sister to get permission to give me the death certificate. After a short conversation with my sister, the woman handed me the death certificate. Knowing that I had overheard her conversation, I guess she felt the need to apologize. She said, “You have no idea how many family feuds have erupted right here at this desk over a death certificate.” The home had long practiced a policy of establishing the name of the one person who was to get the death certificate at the first visit by the family.

Families are our first opportunities to interact with other human being. They are complex structures that form the basis of all societies. Families built on the rule of love work hard at wanting the very best for each individual member while fostering the very best for the family as a whole. Weaving together diversities and similarities of personalities is a constant challenge among people at differing stages of growth and development.

The family of God must also be built on the foundation of the rule of love. We are called to be one in Christ that doesn’t mean we have to be the same. It probably means we should not because loving like God surely means loving in diverse ways. It takes all of us to even begin to love like God.

Prayer: Father and Mother of All, mold us into one by helping us to see the beauty in each of our individualities. 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.