Author Archives: WOJ@deborahsdescendants.com

Yielding to God

Eastertide

May 9, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 15:9-17

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. John 15:1-17

Do we know what God is doing? Do we understand our role in the fulfillment of God’s vision? Does our idea of what God’s kingdom is meshing with what God through Jesus Christ taught us? We are called to bear the fruit of God’s love, fruit that will last, in support of God’s Kingdom ruling on earth. Our job is to work to that end by loving God and loving one another. How do we do that?

Following Jesus Christ requires us to let go of those things that get in the way of our loving others and take on the attributes of caring for others. We did not get the assignment to judge anyone, nor do we pick and choose those we are to love.  The word translated love in the above verses comes from the Greek word agape’ which, for the believer, is preferring to “live through Christ” (1 Jn 4:9,10), i.e. embracing God’s will (choosing God’s choices) and obeying them through God’s power*.

No one can do that without dedicating their lives to understanding God’s love, accepting God’s wisdom, and opening our whole beings to God’s empowerment. Life presents for us many challenges that shape us as we are. Some of that is good and directly helps us serve God fully. Some of what we have taken in as truth distracts us from following God completely.  We must be willing to let the distractions go while filling the vacancy caused by its absence with the excellent and helpful loving attributes. It is a lifetime quest that takes an intentional investment of all we are to become who God created us to be. It is indeed worth the work.

Prayer:
Have Thine own way, Lord,
  Have Thine own way;
Thou art the Potter,
  I am the clay.
Mould me and make me
  After Thy will,
While I am waiting,
  Yielded and still. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/25.htm

**First verse of Have Thine Own Way, Lord by Adelaide Addison Pollard. See at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/449

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.

Abiding with God

Eastertide

May 8, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 15:9-17

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:9-11

After major surgery, I groggily awoke in the night to see an ebony arm extended from a crisp white sleeve as the hand patted my arm. A reassuring voice said, “You are all right, just go back to sleep. Everything is OK.” I experienced the deepest level of trust and peace. God’s emissary had come to care for me, and I went back to sleep. She was probably the night nurse checking my vitals, but her assurance came from God, and I abided in it.

We call on God to abide with us when we are most vulnerable, and that is good and right. However, Jesus instructed us to abide always in his love as he continuously abides in God’s love. Abide, translated from the Greek word meno* means to stay, wait with, or remain, suggesting an intimate level of connection. We must not confuse it with the English word having the connotation of putting up with something.

Abiding with God takes practice. I worked with a man who was born in another country. English was his second language. Even though he had lived in the USA for 40 years and spoke the language with an Oklahoma accent, he still translated English into his native tongue, prepared his response in that language, and finally expressed his answer in English.  He did it very quickly as it was not apparent in conversations that he was processing something before he spoke. I wonder how long it would take Christ-followers to screen our lives through Jesus’ lens so that we could feel more confident in our loving like Jesus all the time.

Prayer:
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me*. Amen.

First verse of hymn Abide with Me by Henry Francis Lyte see at https://www.google.com/search?q=abide+with+me+lyrics&rlz=1C1CHZN_enUS922US922&oq=abide+with+me&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46i433j0l3j46l2j0l2j46.6647j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

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 our Faith

Eastertide

May 7, 2021

Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:1-6
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Faith is trusting in the advice of a valued source that has passed the test of time. Jesus Christ demonstrated his value in his sojourn on earth. He went so far as dying on a cross to save us from ourselves and the evil that distracts us. He conquered the world in his resurrection and the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us. If Jesus proclaims that loving God and loving one another is the way to fulfill God’s Kingdom, we can count on it being the way, the truth, and the life. (See John 14:6)

Why do we make life so hard? Have we ever tried loving like Jesus 24/7? I have been trying to change my everyday habits, like washing my dishes immediately after my meal instead of leaving them in the sink until the next meal. Living alone opens doors of opportunity to be untidy, particularly during the pandemic. I am trying to add one better habit at a time. I think we all might want to dedicate our post-pandemic year to practice loving like Jesus until it becomes a habit. That first will require us to review and learn anew how Jesus loved. We then need to discern the areas we are already doing reasonably well and target the areas that need improvement. We might start with a few simple things. I am a terrible card sender, but I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to get a card in the mail sometimes, just to say I hope you are doing well.

Prayer: Lord, help us see the opportunities we have to love like you. 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.

The Load of our Workarounds

Eastertide

May 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:1-6

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” ― Walter Scott, Marmion

The problem with commandments is not that they are burdensome. Trying to get around them entangle us in webs of complexity that are burdensome. The process starts with the failure to have no other gods before God, when, in fact, we move easily among the gods that tempt us. The whole prosperity gospel venture says wealth illustrates our status with God. Visualize that concept next to a cross with God’s son hanging on it.

Mark 7:10-13 tells us that Jesus called out the elders for doing workarounds when Jesus said For Moses said, “Honor your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

Ultimately if we read what we call God’s Ten Commandments, we will agree with Jesus that following two commandments covers them all, loving God and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. These are very straightforward and not burdensome until they challenge our personal desires. Our goal is to practice them so thoroughly until we prefer the lightness of their load.

Prayer: God of love, help us to seek and find the lightness of your passion as it permeates our very being. Amen.

*See Mark 12:30-31

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.

Storms of Life

Eastertide

MIDWEST CITY, UNITED STATES: Homes outside the direct path of a tornado (top) remain intact while those in the path are destroyed in Midwest City, Ok, 05 April 1999, two days after tornadoes ripped through this area killing more than 40 people and injuring hundreds. AFP PHOTO Tannen MAURY (Photo credit should read TANNEN MAURY/AFP/Getty Images)

May 5, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 98

O sing to the Lord a new song,
   for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
   have gained him victory.
The Lord has made known his victory;
   he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
   to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
   the victory of our God. Psalm 98:1-3

The 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado was a large and exceptionally powerful F5 tornado in which the highest wind speeds ever measured globally were recorded at 301 ± 20 miles per hour (484 ± 32 km/h) by a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) radar*.

Living in Oklahoma for the bulk of my life, I am well acquainted with tornadoes. When I was a child, there were few reliable early warning systems. My dad would stand on the porch with eyes on the sky and his ear to the weather forecaster who was doing the best he or she could alert us about coming danger. Dad would at times turn to my mother and say, “Get the kids. We had better go to the cellar.” We were whisked away, often in the pouring rain and high winds, and huddle together in our cellar. Our hearing was our only measure of and all clear. Most nights, we would climb up the steps into gentle rain or a sky full of stars and the moon. That memory probably came to my mind because the anniversary of the May 3 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado has been all over the news. Thank God we do have better warning systems now. Even so, 36 people were killed in that tornado, and over 500 more were injured. Damage estimates exceeded a billion dollars.

Life during the COVID pandemic has been somewhat like huddling together in that cellar only with masks and no social distancing. Glimmers of hope that we are reaching herd immunity soon make me think we will climb those steps and appreciate a beautifying world again.  First, we must all do our part to get vaccinated and follow healthy practices until we get an all-clear. Second, we must teach what we learned through this experience and make the changes needed to ensure that such a pandemic never catches us off guard and unprepared again. We also must recognize the worth of every person in our society—from medical staff to janitors, researchers to cashiers as we work toward a world where everyone has enough to meet their basic needs, including quality, accessible, and affordable health care.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your presence with us through the storms of life. Continue to guide us as we seek more and better ways to care for all your children.  Amen.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Bridge_Creek%E2%80%93Moore_tornado

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.

Privilege and Justice

Eastertide

May 4, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Acts 10:44-48

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Welcoming gentiles as followers of Christ was a culturally challenging part of the early church. In the scripture above, Peter identifies the gift of the Holy Spirit as God’s sign that the gentiles should be accepted. Who do we cast as outside God’s love, and how do we open our hearts to all God’s children?

As we arise from the savagery of COVID, I find myself to be short on patience and restless. I wonder if others feel the same. The people I observe via media seem eager to get back to what they deem normal. My impatience is targeted at all the injustice that the virus revealed, and my restless response is to wonder why we are not moving faster to restore not what to us is expected but wholeness to our fractured world. Our former normal did not and will not address justice issues.

I have been attending a class on White Privilege, and it dawned on me as I listened to the discussion that there is no justice in privilege. We often use the term underprivileged to describe poverty, lack of a good education, or loss of hope. There is nothing normal between the privileged and underprivileged. Our society tracks many measures of success by the percentile they are above, at, or below norms. There is no identified “at” related to privilege. I believe the “at” of privilege must be justice.

In our society, we stumble about measuring poverty with antiquated tools to find its impact on our world. Do we measure poverty to determine at what point it negatively impacts privilege? How do we measure privilege and its effects on the society? Is it as essential to get a handle on privilege to bring about justice as it is to address the underprivileged? At what point does justice end and privilege begin, and who gets hurt in the process?

Prayer: God of Justice, send your Spirit to show us how to wedge justice into our consideration of the impacts of privilege in our world today. 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.

Who is In, Who is Out

Eastertide

May 3, 2021

Scripture Reading: Acts 10:44-48
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Who is in, and who is out? Humans spend a lot of time discerning who is accepted and who is not. I watch grieving parents on TV recently whose son was going through the fraternity rites of becoming one of those considered acceptable. He was forced, cajoled into drinking too much hard liquor in too short a time, and died. The fraternity has been banned from the school, and eight young men face criminal charges for the incident.

Athletes at a local faith-based university knelt in solidarity against racism during the presentation of the US National anthem, and the school banned them from ever doing it again. The whole campus is now caught up in discerning who is right and who is wrong. Who sets the standards of acceptable behavior?

For weeks, I cannot recall a morning when the lead story on the news was not someone being shot overnight in Oklahoma City, many killed, many teens and young adults as our nation struggles regarding the right to possess weapons. What legacy are we passing to our children?

Peter was speaking to a crowd of both Gentiles and Jews about the living Christ, the One who came to teach all how to love and care for one another.  We are called to accept all of God’s people, and all people are God’s. It is hard to change cultural norms. We all have been taught directly and indirectly that some are in and some are out. This story of Peter’s speaking does not leave it to him to tell us who God accepts. The Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. God has spoken now; we humans must clear our hearts and minds of all those prejudices that are so much a part of our being. although we do not recognize them as pre-judgments. God calls us to love one another and that requires us to find common ground for the Common Good.

Prayer: Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us*.  Amen.

*See Psalm 51:10

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.

Rust Removal

Living in the Spirit

May 26, 2021

Scripture Reading: Psalm 29

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
   the God of glory thunders,
   the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
   the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
   the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
   and Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
   the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. –Psalm 29:3-8

How do we visualize God in our minds? Do we personify God, seeing the image of a human perhaps sitting on a throne? Do we perceive God’s presence with no visual identity? Is God’s image in your mind’s eye that of a loving father or an angry ruler or both or something else? Read through the quote from Psalm 29 above and consider how the Psalmist identified the voice of God. Most of us live in areas that are threatened at some time each year with floods, tornados, hurricanes, fires, or volcanos. These forces are fully capable of destroying everything around them. Yesterday, I saw pictures of the damage hurricanes did during the last year in Honduras. The homes were splintered wood on the ground peppered here and there with a bedframe or broken table. Worse yet, their crops were ruined—their source of livelihood gone in a split second. The story was about a young man trekking to North American in search of work to feed his family. He was turned back at the Mexican border.

I do not think the Psalmist writes to scare us. The poem highlights that God is more powerful than all the frightening experiences of life. We most often forget that truth when our lives are going well, and we begin to focus our attention on what Paul would call the flesh or the enticements of the world. That results in our getting rusty in our relationship with God–that is no place to be.

During 2020, we were thrown into multiple experiences of turmoil. We are now trying to deal with the challenges of pandemics and societal realities like racism and poverty we do not want to admit exists. Before we can refocus our priorities on the ways of God, we have a lot of rust we need to remove. The wonderful thing about an all-powerful God is God is stronger than any rust we may have developed that separates us from God. Getting rid of it may be painful as we have grown rather attached to it. God promises that God’s love can make all things new, if we follow God’s wisdom.

Prayer: Lord, remove the rust from our faith and bring us to wholeness in your 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.

Called

Eastertide

May 2, 2021

Scripture Reading:
John 15:1-8
‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

I fear some have mistaken being chosen, set apart, called whatever word we pick, meaning we are in a higher class than others. More loved, more gifted, more . . . What it usually requires is a lot of dangerous, hard work Loving like Jesus. A few months ago, I read the book Caste by Isabel Wilkerson that describes the caste system at work in the USA. It was emotionally hard to read but well worth the experience. There is nothing I can find in Jesus’ teachings that support a hierarchy of worth. Indeed, just the opposite runs through his words and example. I have probably given this example before, but it bears repeating. The best surgeon in the world would not be successful at saving a life if the person who sanitized the operating room did not do their job well. One of my grandfathers died of sepsis from an unclean tool used to lance a boil.

That said, I do think God sets some apart for particular duties. Paul certainly seems to meet that description. All those who shared Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection with us answer a special call.  Being chosen may result in doing one or more vital specific tasks, but it always means a lifelong commitment to loving God and loving like Jesus wherever it takes us. No Christ-follower serves on their own. We are always linked to that Vine extending from the Vine-Grower who nurtures us to bear much fruit.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all those who have touched our lives with your love and guided us to recognize the spiritual nourishment we need to answer your call. 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 as the Vine-grower

Eastertide

May 1, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 15:1-8
‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The imagery of Jesus as the vine and we as the branches have always been meaningful to me. However, the words that caught my attention just now as I read the scripture above were God is the vine grower. Oklahoma experienced a catastrophic ice storm in October. The wind was hurricane force sending the ice crystals on a horizontal path that stripped old, healthy tall trees of every branch, twig, and leaf. A couple of the trees were destroyed and have been cleared from my yard. They fell into my utility lines, ripping my electrical box off my house. My lawn service thought two others could be salvaged and left them to see what spring would bring. All winter, they appeared as very tall fence posts. One is looking good. What seems to be a small tree is growing from its top. I am not so sure about the other.

People are not trees, and I do not like the idea of tossing them aside when they do not produce the fruit they were created to bear, but we live in a world troubled by evil and must discern how Christ-followers follow Christ in such an environment. We are called to tell the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, sharing the love of God in everything we do. Evil, it seems, is working just as hard, perhaps harder, to pull us away from answering that call.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that since God is the vine grower, the job of pruning and tossing into a fire is God’s, not ours. We are not the judge, jury, or prosecutor. This fact tells me branches we might through away; God might be saving for a particular task.

My second thought is we must try to see others the way Jesus might see them. If we read the stories of Jesus’s healing, we see the variety of ways he brought forth wholeness. He immediately touched some, and they were healed. The woman in the crowd touched him, and she was healed. Jesus healed the mentally ill man from Gerasene and returned to talk to him, later advising him to stay where he was and share his story in his homeland. Jesus saved the life of the centurion’s son from afar and marveled at the soldier’s faith. There might not be as many branches to throw away if we follow Jesus’s example and bring wholeness to a broken world.

.Prayer: Lord, cleanse us of the desire to judge. As you make us whole, help us see the ways we can help others find 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.