Monthly Archives: April 2019

Idolatry Today

Lent
April 10, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success! –Psalm 118:21-25

We followers of Christ read Psalms like the one quoted above an instantly see Jesus in the role of chief cornerstone. The readers of its day saw it as hope for the one to come who would save them from oppression. Jesus’ life on earth places us in a new but similar realm of hope. I find myself longing for the Kingdom of God ruled by love every time I listen to news reports of hate, violence, oppression, or lust for power no matter who it may hurt. During Lent we must wonder though if such a Kingdom is what we really want, or do we desire the ways of the world with just a pinch of Christ to save us from getting too close to falling off the edge of such idolatry.

The Hebrew Bible delves deeply into the distractions of idolatry. We of the modern era can tsk, tsk at our primitive ancestors in faith for their worship of graven images carved in stone or gold or other metal. We forget that idols advance with progress perhaps even faster than our ways of serving God. It is my observation that churches discover the latest and greatest ways of attracting new members borrowed from the world about the same time they lose sway in the culture.

Followers of Christ are called to not be of the world but in the world sharing the good news of a God of love who probably does not have a problem with the music we play or the audio-visual tools we use but does not see them as our primary focus. God cares about how we love God and love one another and how we work together as the Body of Christ in the world today charged with the responsibility of bringing about God’s kingdom on this earth.

Prayer: God who is Love bring us to such an awareness of the wonders of your love that we are driven to work toward its dominance in the world in everything we do. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Wide Open Gates or Narrow Entrances

Lent
April 9, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it. –Psalm 118:19-20

This Psalm says the gate of righteousness is fully opened and welcoming. Jesus is quoted as describing the gate as narrow and the road hard that leads to life. He also said it is harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

 ‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ (Matthew 19:24)

So, what is going on here? I think both thoughts are truths for us to understand. I am a basketball fan and thus am acquainted with various commentators’ illustrations. One description often made, when a player cannot seem to miss a shot, is the commentator saying something to the effect that the game is slowing down for him or her or the basket is getting bigger. Obviously, the basket is not getting bigger but the whole idea of the game slowing down is a phenomenon for all athletes. With more practice athletes develop something called muscle memory, I call it playing on automatic pilot. Hitting shots becomes second nature to them and even if they miss one now and then they keep making shots until they get back into the rhythm of hitting. The more we practice the spiritual disciples the more our spiritual memory strengthens and the gate to righteousness seems bigger.

Prayer: Lord, help us see the open gate of righteousness even when the distractions of our world seems to make the path to it narrow. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God’s Love

Lent
April 8, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-28-40

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures forever!

 Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’ –Psalm 118:1-2

We can take God’s word for granted that God’s steadfast love endures forever, and we never should take these words of God for granted. The amazing gift of God’s grace and love is the foundation of our wholeness. It allows us to be our best selves, enabling us to live into the full covenant of God’s desire for all God’s creation to be one.

We are one in the bond of love
We are one in the bond of love
We have joined our spirit with the Spirit of God
We are one in the bond of love

 Let us sing now, ev’ry one,
Let us feel His love begun;
Let us join our hand that the world will know
We are one in the bond of love*

Prayer: Father God, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me. I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me. If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there. Teach me today to love you more. Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child. In Jesus name, Amen**

*Chorus We Are One in the Bond of Love by Otis Skillings see at https://www.hymnlyrics.org/newlyrics_t/the_bond_of_love.php** Author Unknown

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.

Poverty or Poor

Lent
April 7, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 12:1-8

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ –John 12:4-8

I am sure the four gospels do not contain quotes of all the wisdom Jesus shared. The last sentence of the scripture above is one that I, at times, wished had not made it into the record books. It, like many other scriptures, when taken out of context provides a foundation for some dubious theology, including bad attitudes toward the poor. Jesus is talking about priorities at any moment in time and at that time and in that moment the woman’s ministry to Jesus was the appropriate priority.

The phrase, You always have the poor with you, is an observation of society not an acceptable way of being.  I guess if there are differences in income levels the statement always applies. The concern is not that some earn more income than others; the concern is whether there are people who do not have incomes adequate to meet their most basic needs. In modern language we call that a living wage for those who work or its equivalent for those who are aged or disabled to the extent they cannot work*.

In the 1960’s the US federal government developed a measure of what is enough to meet basic needs and called it the poverty level. It was based on the discerned cost of food multiplied by three to cover the cost of clothing, food, shelter and so forth. At the time it was a positive move to address poverty. Time and cultural changes have long since rendered it to be an impractical means of measuring what is adequate. Finding a better means of defining what is enough over the last fifty years has become a political football and resulted in odd practices to offset its limitations. For example, food stamp eligibility is based on 33% of the poverty level. The current minimum wage is below the poverty level even for a single person.

In 2017 the poverty rate for Oklahoma was 15.8%** of the total population. While Jesus recognized the disparities in incomes in our scripture today, he commanded us to make sure that people had enough to eat, safe water to drink, clothing to wear, and health care. We have a lot of work to do.

Prayer: Lord, bring us together as the Body of Christ working in the world until those who are designated as poor have incomes that are high enough to meet their basic needs. Amen.

*For more information on the concept of a living wage see http://livingwage.mit.edu/

**https://okpolicy.org/new-census-data-shows-that-oklahoma-fell-further-behind-the-u-s-on-poverty-and-uninsured-rate-for-second-consecutive-year/

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.

Loving Like Jesus

Lent
April 6, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. –John 12:1-3

I do not spring for a massage very often, but I will confess a good massage is good for my soul as well as my body. I had known that for some time before I made my first visit to Ghost Ranch and discovered that it make massages available as a routine part of its wholeness ministry. I prefer a complete body massage, but a good foot massage can soothe one’s soul. Of course, the washing of feet in Judah was a routine practice on entering a home in an arid land full of sand where most people wore sandals or no shoes at all. Mary apparently took this routine practice to a higher level of perhaps veneration.

A story somewhat like the one above is told in Luke 7:36-50 only the woman washing Jesus feet is not the righteous Mary, but one described as sinful, thus not worthy to touch Jesus’ feet. Jesus allowed her to express her thanksgiving in this most humbling way.

The receiving and giving of any act of comfort is intimate requiring a high degree of trust. Ministers are now required to attend classes training them in understanding how to meet the need for comfort among those they serve without breaking their trust. We even practice safe hugs. We must be sensitive to the cultural and life experiences that have shaped the way the people we serve gain comfort often without knowing their backgrounds. Some welcome a hearty hug, others may not even be able to make eye contact. Some have primarily related to others in sexual ways and will need to learn that such behavior is not the only way to relate.

The great challenge is that the people attempting to give comfort often must rise above their own cultural and life experiences to comfort others. Comforters are required to be emphatic to determine what will comfort and what might make matters worse.  This is particularly important regarding abused and neglected children and persons who have been sexually abuse. In most instances, we may never know the background of person we serve particularly if there is great shame connected to their life experiences.

Jesus modeled loving individuals just as they were but in such a way that they experienced love without hurt or pain or self-degradation. We are called to love like Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, help us rise above our own limitations and see the reality of persons we are trying to love as you love. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Doing the Processes Necessary to Reach a Goal

Lent
April 5, 2019

Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 3:7-14

Fully becoming the Body of Christ in the world today is a journey with lots of twists and turns. I must confess I test as being highly goal oriented on the Myers-Briggs personality types so committing to only processes or tasks is a challenge for me. My brain understands the idea of making a commitment of striving to righteously function in all that I do. My whole being, however, longs for reaching a final goal. The problem in that is I am then not happy until I have another goal to attain. The way we goal oriented people must function is to set interim steps so we can have our goal and keep it to. I have considered what Jesus would be on the Myers-Briggs type indicator and my best guess is that he was fully goal oriented and fully process/task oriented.

Paul in his striving to obey Jewish law perfectly leaned toward being task oriented. Christ challenged him in his journey by making him consider to what purpose he was striving. I think he came to realize that individual righteousness is important but if it serves no purpose toward sharing God’s love with others, it leads to nothing. Or at least that what I think he is saying in 1 Corinthians 13.

Prayer: Lead us toward your vision of a kingdom rules by love through both our commitment to spiritual disciples and our continued quest to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Privileged Paul

Lent
April 4, 2019

Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. –Philippians 3:4b-6

In my Pro-reconciliation/Anti-racism work, I am personally dealing with the idea of white privilege and being part of the dialogue with others grappling with white privilege. Apparently, privilege is not limited to white people, as our society now must address the wealthy buying their children’s way into prestigious college, taking a slot that someone with less money deserved because of his or her academic and personal achievements. Wealth has its privileges as, being male and being heterosexual do. And I am sure the list could become longer if we thought about it enough.

Paul was privileged. He was apparently from what I would call an upper middle-class family, had a good pedigree, was well educated, and obeyed every Jewish law to the letter. He had the go-ahead to persecute a new sect that identified as followers of Christ because they did not practice the Jewish faith properly. Of course, Paul did not identify as privileged at all and most likely would have said these Christ followers were the oppressors of the Jewish faith.

There are degrees and layers of privilege and to be honest most people hold some type of privilege that some others cannot claim. One of the traits of privilege is that people rarely recognize it in themselves, although it is clear to see in others. I am left handed and must make all kinds of adjustments to a world designed for right handed people.  In a lot of cases one just learns to accept it as a nuisance. Privilege becomes problematic when it results in discrimination or oppression.

For followers of Christ, privilege gets in the way of loving ourselves and our neighbors. Thus, it is imperative that we examine ourselves to find out how privilege is impacting our ability to serve God as conduits of love in our world and that we turn away from what is harmful to ourselves and others and strive for wholeness where privilege is no longer needed as God’s nurturing love is all anyone needs to be complete persons of worth.

Prayer: Lord, cleanse us of all that divides us. Make us whole. Make us one. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Living God’s Love

Lent
April 3, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
   we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
   ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced.

 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
   like the watercourses in the Negeb.
May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.

I am in the process of finishing the book We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. It is a novel describing the real story of a Jewish family living in Poland at the outbreak of World War II. It traces the lives of the family members, parents and young adults, as they were scattered from Poland to Brazil, Siberia, Tahran, and Italy. The story provides new insights on what it truly must feel like to worship God after the horrors of being condemned refugees. They were the lucky ones. Around 6 million European Jews were killed*. I could not help imagining that family’s emotional response to reuniting as I read the above scripture.

One of my uncles served in Germany during that war. He and a few other soldiers had just crossed a bridge in Germany when it was blown up with the rest of his platoon on it. German soldiers came along shortly and shot all but my uncle and one other man all were defenseless and severely injured some already dead. When my uncle was flipped over by the butt of a rifle to see if he was alive, he said he played possum. I guess all those hours of hunting and observing wildlife had paid a dividend. He and his buddy were two of the lucky ones also. He lived the rest of his life with a metal plate replacing a bone in his head and another metal bar holding a shattered leg bone together. He did not tell me this. He did not talk about the war. My dad got the story probably from someone else when he visited him while he was in the hospital. After reading the book I wondered what other horrors my uncle had seen.

The Psalm above is a song of ascent sang by worshipers as they walked up the hill to the temple. It relates the story of celebration when Israel was freed from bondage. There were an estimated 68.5 million* refugees in our world in 2018 and the number is growing. These people were driven from their homelands to save themselves from certain death from violence, starvation, lack of drinkable water, and oppression. How is that possible in a world where many claim allegiances to the God of love who calls followers to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? God created a bountiful world with enough resources for all to live in their homelands and have adequate resources to not just survive but thrive. Too many people, some claiming to be God’s people worship at the feet of greed and lust after power resulting in even more mistreatment of those escaping violence. God’s call still echoes through this world, we need to listen for that still small voice and live God’s love.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for turning blind eyes to the needs of refugees. Show us avenues of service where we can help meet their immediate needs and paths to justice to create a world ruled by love. Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

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.

Working toward Shalom

Lent
April 2, 2019

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
   rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
   the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise. –Isaiah 43:19-21

What is this new thing? Shalom is—completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. Shalom is the rejuvenating gift of God. Water is most important in the wilderness desert. Streams of living water represent love. Without water our bodies soon perish. Without love our souls would die. God promises water in the desert to nourish our bodies, and God’s eternal love to nourish every soul. The new thing is as old as God, making new everything it touches as it renews life.

Love requires a working relationship and is best served when all who love are whole—complete and sound individuals. Of course, we are all works in progress toward such wholeness and thus relationships are always works in progress. I wonder if God built that into us at creation knowing that humans are more respectful of that which we learn by experience. My guess is God puzzles over why some of us do not learn from experience or we only learn after multiple experiences of the same kind.

God did create us with brains and God expects us to use them. We were also blessed with free will so we are left to choose whether we will use our brains for good or evil. God even went the second mile with us by sending Jesus to serve as a role model giving us an example to help us avoid those repeated episodes of tripping over our own self-will even knowing that our actions will only lead to disaster.

Paul uses the example of athletes who work hard to stay in good shape so that at any given time they are ready to face with confidence the competition placed before them. Our souls require the stamina of the athlete gained from our continuous interaction with God through spiritual disciplines like prayer, meditation, silence, service. Such spiritual wholeness prepares us for the temptations that might otherwise pull us off track.

Prayer: Thank you God for giving us the tools we need to attain wholeness. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Romanticized History

Lent
April 1, 2019

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the Lord,
   who makes a way in the sea,
   a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
   army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
   they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
Do not remember the former things,
   or consider the things of old. –Isaiah 43:16-18

Humans romanticize history, but we fail to learn from it. My “cooking” today involves heating something five minutes in a microwave and loading water and coffee into a single-cup coffee machine then pushing a button. I do not recall the last time I used my kitchen range. Other food preparation includes opening a single serving cup of hummus or guacamole, pouring pre-cut salad greens in a bowl, tossing in a few nuts, adding canned salmon, and salad dressing from a bottle. Food preparation in my childhood was a major production three times a day. We raised most of our food—vegetable, fruit, beef, and chicken—which required a lot of hard work. The advent of the pressure cooker to hasten cooking time was an innovation my mother appreciated. My dad bought a home freezer in anticipation of the installation of electricity in our neighborhood. His mother had to can or dry the beef they butchered, even more hard work. And yes, it brings back happy memories for me because it involved working with my family and the love that flowed through everything we did.

Isaiah warns the Israelites about longing for the ways of the past and about how fleeting they were. Progress happens and much of it is driven from finding new and better ways to meet our needs. We have excelled at creating better machinery of war. Chariots and horses have been relegated to movies and rodeos while we now build nuclear missiles and fight digital warfare. We have learned from experience how to build bigger and better machines of destruction. We have not learned how to eliminate war through developing better relationships with our worldwide neighbors.

What mattered in the past were the relationships among people. That is the same thing that matters most today. God calls us to heal relationships and turn our weapons into instruments of harvest* because we no longer need them for wars and there are many hungry people in our world who could benefit from our harvest.

Prayer: Lord, heal our relationships with each other and with all others so that we may live in peace. Amen.

*Derived from Isaiah 2:4

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.