Author Archives: WOJ@deborahsdescendants.com

Perfection

Ordinary Time

January 31, 2023

Scripture Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. –Malachi 3:2-4

I connect Paul to the use of the word perfection calling us to strive to be perfect. However, Jesus is quoted as saying. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). The Greek word, teleios*, could also mean being complete, fully matured, or possessing wholeness—all descriptors that are probably more comfortable to us English speakers than perfection. In our competitive world, there is always something better than our “now” toward which to strive to make perfection almost impossible.

We tend to think of perfection as an end product, but striving for perfection requires us also to maintain the wholeness we have gained while seeking even more maturity. It is a balancing act of constant self-examination resulting in any indicated corrections. I am not a sailor, but I have friends who are. I have watched how they carefully steer the boat to adjust to the wind and the waves. We, too, must adjust to the wind and the waves of life that can quickly throw us off course unless we intentionally stay ahead of the storm through our communion with God.

Prayer: Lord, stay ever near us as we sail through the challenges of life and mature, following you more nearly. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/5046.htm

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.

The Word of God

Ordinary Times

January 30, 2023

Scripture Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? Most of those of us who claim to be Christ-followers generally think we are following the ways of Jesus Christ. The interesting thing is that we have a very broad spectrum of interpretations of what those ways are and how we emulate them in our lives today. First, we must trust the stories of Jesus passed down by our faith ancestors. Even in the first century, we have the beginnings of different interpretations. We also must glean our understanding of Jesus Christ through stories all originally written in languages other than those we speak. Finally, we have over 2000 years of life experiences that have shaped our understanding of God. The truth is, we probably all interpret God’s path through our personal preferences, reading and following the scriptures with which we are most comfortable.

John, the latest gospel written, addressed that issue in the first sentence of that book, John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus Christ can never be fully understood through the written word. He is the Word, and we meet him through a combination of studying the Bible, sharing discussions with other God-followers, and, most importantly, developing a personal relationship with God through practicing spiritual disciplines that keep us in sync with God. Jesus even modeled that himself—going up the mountain to meditate and pray, throwing his body to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking God to take what he was facing from him (Luke 22:42); and in the end, hanging on the cross reporting to God that he has finished the work he was sent to complete (John 19:30).

Hebrews 4:12 states that Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it is in that reckoning that we find the truth and work toward the maturity in faith to find the oneness among all Christ-followers that will be the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Lord, examine each of us and help us to find the best way we can do our part in oneness with all people. Amen.

The Times They are a Changin’*

Ordinary Time

January 29, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Our world is entering a new worldview similar to the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution, causing us to struggle with what was and deal with what is as we prepare for the future. The result is people trying to find stability in an unstable environment as our worldview is changing rapidly. Thus we are experiencing a steady stream of grasping for anything that can make us feel grounded.

Homeostasis is a word that describes a tendency toward maintenance of relatively stable social conditions among groups with respect to various factors and to competing tendencies and powers within the body politic, to society, or to culture among [people]**.

Years ago, my roommate and I invited two guys over to play cards at our apartment. The day before, our dishwasher stopped working, and the apartment manager had not yet sent anyone to fix it. Our dirty dishes were stacked all over the counter. When our friends arrived and saw the mess and heard our plight, one of them walked over to the sink, put his hands on each side of it, looked at us, and said, “In ancient days, people washed dishes in this appliance using their hands, dish soap, washcloths, and towels.” Neither my roommate nor I had even considered doing such a thing. We were caught in homeostasis. We were programmed to do dishes the way we had always done them. Of course, our always was a short time earlier because we were raised in homes without dishwashers.

We live in a time when we no longer have a relatively stable social condition. The world is changing around us, and we have lost our grip on stability. In the first century, one of those changes that literally impacted the whole world was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the movement that was formed to spread its worth throughout the world. The Sermon on the Mount prepared the members of that movement to deal with the impact of such change. Two thousand years later, we must recall this advice as we strive to build Christ’s beloved community in a world in the chaos of change.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount describing how to spread your love in the changing worldview in which we live. Amen.

*Title of a song by Bob Dylan

**https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/homeostasis

Sermon on the Mount

Ordinary Time

January 28, 2023

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the foundational scriptures of Christianity. Jesus is quoted as outlining the breadth of God’s love and thus sets the standard for our love of others. He recognizes we are all subject to challenges for which he is always with us. He describes both our need to be meek* as well as to answer our call to do justice. He opens the door to our striving to interact with others on the higher ground of mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking. Finally, he reminds us that we are called to love like him in the storm of evil, working its will throughout the earth, yet we remain in the shelter of his blessings.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for coming among us to help us humans live in your love. Amen.

*Meek refers to exercising God’s strength under His control – i.e. demonstrating power without undue harshness. See at https://biblehub.com/greek/4239.htm

Acceptance

Ordinary Time

Scripture Reading:
1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’—1 Corinthians 1:26-31

I was having a sleepover with a good friend when I was in the fifth grade. After dinner, my friend and I were supposed to be doing homework sitting on the floor in her family’s living room while her mother was cleaning up the dishes. A boy had been placed in our class that week who came to our town to live with a foster family. He and his brother had apparently not attended school for a while. After the school staff reviewed the records on the boys and visited with them, the principal determined that the younger one, who was 15 needed to be placed in the fifth grade. He was already six feet tall and could barely sit behind a fifth-grade desk.

While working on our homework, my friend and I started calling him dumb and laughing about how he dressed. Suddenly my friend’s mother appeared in the doorway, still drying a frying pan in her hands, and said, “ I want you girls to stop making fun of the new boy in your class. You aren’t any better than he is.” And she turned back into the kitchen. Just as quickly, she reappeared and said, “And nobody is better than you.” That was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever learned, and it still has a powerful impact on me to this day.

Prayer: Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us;
teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.
Be present, Lord, among us and bring us to believe
we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live*. Amen

First verse of the hymn Help us Accept Each Other by Fred Kaan, See at http://www.pateys.nf.ca/cgi-bin/lyrics.pl?hymnnumber=632

Christ Crucified

Ordinary Time

January 26, 2023

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. –1 Corinthians 1:18-26

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. –John 15:13

The Greek language has several words that are translated into English as the word love. The Greek word Agápē* translated as love in this quote from John typically refers to divine love (= what God prefers). Christ crucified was and is an act of divine love expressing God’s preference that all God’s people know that God loves you and me and all people. As God loves all of us, God calls us to love one another. That simple statement, followed by the action necessary to fulfill it, is the keystone to abundant life. A keystone is the wedge-shaped piece at the crown of an arch especially: such a piece inserted last and locking the other pieces in place**.

John 10:10 tells us that Jesus said The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Is Paul saying to the Corinthians and to us that the wisdom of the world is that thief that comes only to steal and kill and destroy? Greed, lust for power, and bigotry are not what God prefers. I now think I must add violence to this list of the principalities and the powers that too often are pressing to overcome the power of love. Surely, we Christ-followers must account for our acceptance of violence as a routine part of life and become more vigilant in spreading God’s love to all people.

Prayer: Lord, do not ever let us grow in acceptance of violence as a normal part of life. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/26.htm

** https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/keystone

God’s Guidance

Ordinary Time

January 25, 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 15
O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
   and speak the truth from their heart;
who do not slander with their tongue,
   and do no evil to their friends,
   nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
   but who honor those who fear the Lord;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
who do not lend money at interest,
   and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things shall never be moved.

Create in me a clean heart and a right spirit, (Psalm 51:10) and Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord. (Psalms 141:3) are two prays that are important to pray daily. I identify with Jacob who wrestles with an angel in preparation for his reconciliation with his brother Esau. We cannot walk blamelessly, speech the truth, or any of the other thing listed in the above scripture until we deal with our own demons.

We also can not follow the above guidance unless we take the time and energy to understand the people with whom we are interacting. None of us can ever know all the things that impact the lives of those we encounter daily. We do not know if they left a sick child at home or have an ingrown toenail dueling with too-tight shoes nor if we are white do we know what it is like to be black if we are female, what it is like to be male or vice versa. We must always look for the good triggers and the bad triggers in our interactions, guiding our next steps in communicating God’s love while dealing with sometimes tough issues.

Prayer: Hear our prayers, O Lord, and guide us in our love. Amen.

Sharing Love

Ordinary Time

January 24, 2023

Scripture Reading: Micah 6:1-8

‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
   and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
   with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
   with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God? –Micah 6:6-8

Do we really understand that God calls us to a partnership with God and with one another to spread God’s love to all? Making a burnt offering, even using one of the finest sheep or bull, and then walking back into the culture of the world around us does not mean we have excepted the responsibility to fulfill our relationship with God. We are not called to bribe our way into God’s good graces. We are called to accept God’s gift of grace that enables us to be a conduit of God’s love creating the Beloved Community where each and all are persons of worth. Worship rituals can be very meaningful to our growth in faith, but such activities are never the final goal. The final goal is building that Beloved Community that includes all of God’s creation, and God tells us how to do that through the voice of the prophet Micah,

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for sending us prophets to share the great challenge but the simplicity of loving like Jesus. Amen.

Jesus as a Mentor

Ordinary Time

January 22, 2023

Scripture Reading:

Matthew 4:12-23

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. –Matthew 4:18-23

I read the book Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership by Laurie Beth Jones when it was first published in 1996, and I was still working. I thought of it as I read the above scripture recognizing that Jesus’s leadership role was much like a CEO’s job. I remember that I thought the book provided good guidance for people who supervise other people. I could not remember the author’s name, so I searched for it on the Internet. I was surprised to see that the book had been republished and updated on its 25^th anniversary in 2021. I guess I will read it again.

One does not have to be a CEO to learn from Jesus’s way of dealing with people and drawing out the very best in each person while helping people to work well together as a team. Jesus was a great coach. Being a leader is both an art and a science. I strongly believe that God created each person with unique skills that are necessary to fulfill the Kingdom of God. Our role is to be the very best person we can be while helping others do the same thing. That requires us to recognize the skills and abilities of others and understand the best way to communicate with them. When working as a team, we must develop our own skills to negotiate and compromise and surround ourselves with people who make the group with whom we are working whole.

Because all teams require the meshing together of differing skills, we all must learn to love ourselves as the person God created us to be so we can recognize that the talents and skills of others do not diminish who we are and what we are contributing. We are all called to make each other whole. The talents of a good surgeon would be wasted if the cleaning crew had failed to do their job. My paternal grandfather died because a scalpel had not been sterilized properly.

Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10). Amen

Wholeness/Oneness/Justice

A Covenantal Conversation on Church and State

Author Archives: WOJ@deborahsdescendants.com

Perfection

Ordinary Time

The Word of God

Ordinary Times

The Times They are a Changin’*

Ordinary Time

Sermon on the Mount

Ordinary Time

Acceptance

Ordinary Time

Christ Crucified

Ordinary Time

Jesus as a Mentor

Ordinary Time