Eastertide
May 6, 2014

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. — 1 Peter 2:1-3 

In my book Houses Divided, I talk about the filters that all people have created within their minds to help them navigate life. Such filters are based on life experiences and gleanings that we store in our brains for future reference. So, if life has taught us that if we touch a hot stove we will burn our finger, we generally stop touching what we perceive to be hot stoves. This is a very important function of our brains giving us shortcuts to common experiences thus saving us from repeating the some process of thinking over and over again. Problems arise when an original experience or learning was incorrect or when the source of our patterning changes, and we retain the same filter we have always had.

Our scripture today is addressing the issue of the need to clean our filters. We do that by intentionally holding our perceptions up to the light of Christ to see if our filters contain the same shortcuts as His. When we have some missing, we need to add them.  Probably more likely when our filters have become clogged with out-of-date film or just wrong lint, we need to clean them.

Sometimes cleaning filters can happen just by acquiring new information. Many times, however, some filters are so incrusted with the grime of bad information or experiences that we need to turn to God for help in removing that which is blocking us from growing into salvation. We do this by practicing the spiritual disciples, particularly those of prayer, meditation, and study.

Prayer: Almighty God, help me first to see the film and lint in my filters and then scour them away. 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.

Eastertide
May 5, 2014

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures for ever.’ That word is the good news that was announced to you. — 1 Peter 1:23-25

As I write this I listen to the wind howling. The weather reporters say it is a south wind blowing somewhat slower now as darkness has fallen and the humidity has risen slightly. It is a very dry spring here in Oklahoma, very dry. We hit a record high temperature today. They said it got up to 97. It was 101 on my car thermometer as I drove home from a meeting at the church at 6:00 pm.  Why does that matter? About thirty miles straight north of where I live a small fire driven by the wind and the low humidity and the dry, dry spring has become a wild fire, destroying homes, vegetation, and probably wild and domesticated animals– perhaps even humans. It is traveling north just east of Interstate Highway 35.

The fragileness of our ecosystems is particularly evident when it is tested by wind and fire. We are well acquainted with the power of wind in Oklahoma and more and more gaining firsthand knowledge of the impact of wildfire. Grass withers and flowers fall more quickly in wind and fire. It is of little comfort in the midst of such destruction to remember that both wind and fire are natural cleansing agents for the earth. That will come later when new growth appears out of the ruble.

It thus seemed a little ironic that I was randomly called a couple of hours ago, while watching the fire on the TV news, to participate in a survey by our city utility department regarding my opinion/attitudes toward water usage and ways to conserve water. As God’s children we were given responsibility for the care of the earth and all the living things supported by it. Now is the time to take that job very seriously not only here but throughout the earth.

But just now we need to take a few moments to pray for all those families who have no homes to return to and through our actions over the next weeks and months we must live into the word that is good news that we have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seeds as we work to rebuild broken lives.

Prayer: God of Grace and God of Glory on your people pour your powers both to restore those who have lost so much and to ignite the fire of your love in us their neighbors. 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.

Eastertide
May 4, 2014

Read Scripture: 1 Peter 1:17-23

If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.  

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.— 1 Peter 1:17, 22-23

 How much time and worry do we spend judging ourselves and judging others?

“What are people going to think of me for doing that?”

“Considering what he did, he deserves all the torture that he was put through and probably more.”

“I don’t want people like that in my church.”

Jesus Christ got the job assignment of judging me and you and everybody else. As far as I am concerned, he can have it. When we judge others, it leads to no good thing. That is probably why He drew the assignment because he is the only one who could possibly turn what is unforgiveable into salvation and that’s a good thing.

We, of course, must make judgments every day in every aspect of our lives, but we must make them within the presence of God and the ultimate judgment of Jesus Christ.  Reverent fear is a most apt way to describe being in the service of God. The ability to let go of judgments that are leaving us with “impure” souls and thus limiting us in our capacity to love one another deeply from the heart is counterproductive to our call.

Prayer: God of Grace, enable us to live in reverent fear so that we may have pure souls as we relate to others along the way. 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.

Eastertide
May 3, 2014

Read Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
   a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
   of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.

It will be said on that day,
   Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
   This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
   let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.—Isaiah 25:6, 9

When I read the words throughout the Bible that describe the coming Kingdom of God, I sometimes wonder if that is really what we want. Our society surely does not act like it at times. We seem to enjoy bounty that comes at the expense of others. Hate spews from our mouths with ease not recognizing that all peoples are God’s children and thus our brothers and sisters. We image God in our little boxes and cannot accept that God just may transcend our imaginations.

Would it not be more prudent to invest our lives in practicing how to live in the Kingdom of God now so that when it arrives we will recognize it and find ourselves in the home we had envisioned ever since we read the promises of its coming? It would be a place where everybody has enough to eat, where no one would live in oppression, where no one commits crimes because they have learned how to love and be loved, where all people would have the opportunity to be fully the individuals God created them to be.

This is what the body of Christ has been called to do: practice Kingdom living now.

Prayer: God of Justice and Mercy, enable our full citizenship in the Kingdom of God now so that on that day we will feel at home when we enter into your presence. 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.

Eastertide
May 2, 2014

Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ – 1 Peter 1:13-16

All people have been made in the image of God and thus have the potential to be imitators of God. We are capable of loving like God. Jesus Christ demonstrated how that can be done in his life here on earth. His modeling of being in the nature of God is our model to follow. That is what being holy means. We are called to be set apart, to be different from what perhaps our human inclinations and environmental influences might make us. First Peter 1:13-16 is saying that we have to work at being holy.

We are challenge to be active not passive, disciplined, and focused on the grace of Jesus Christ.  By disciplining ourselves to be Christ like we are enabled to become Christ like because he is holy. I call that being in synch with God.

I have been frustrated recently. I just bought a new HD TV that is supposed to be great and indeed I now can see all the moles and wrinkles on all the actors not to mention the scores during basketball games. The only problem is that the TV apparently gets out of synch occasionally with the cable stream and I see the pixels in slow motion from time to time. At points it totally shuts down and a message flashes telling me that the cable company has lost the stream for the station I am watching. I can either try to find something else to watch or call a number and they will reset the box, which could take up to 15 minutes. The only problem is the message does not stay on long enough for me to catch the number I am supposed to call.

I think my TV experience describes the way many of us handle our relationship we God. Rather than doing the work necessary to be in synch with God, we let the relationship flounder and find ourselves in a constant state of rebooting.

Being holy is intrinsically connected with being whole.

Prayer: Holy One, enable us to be whole through the disciplines of the spirit. 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.

Eastertide
May 1, 2014

Read Scripture: Isaiah 25:1-5 

For you have been a refuge to the poor,
   a refuge to the needy in their distress,
   a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
   the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
   the song of the ruthless was stilled. – Isaiah 25:4-5

One of the responses from Micah 6:8 in answer to the question, “What does the Lord require of you?” is to do justice—to do the right thing that is to do the right thing in God’s eyes. The prophet Amos described justice as being like a plumb line And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said, Amos 7:8 ‘See, I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;… Doing justice is a part of who we are as followers of Christ.

In our scripture today when God’s people do justice, the poor are given refuge and help, the homeless are sheltered, and the oppressed aliens and the disenfranchised are protected. What justice have we done recently? How have we brought comfort to the poor, homeless, and the oppressed? Are we actually even acquainted with anybody that falls into one of these categories? Do we have a clue about the challenges they are facing or that those who are trying to help them are facing?

The beginning of justice is seeing where justice needs to be done. I was struck last night when listening to the news about the USA’s negative feedback to Egypt regarding what we perceive as their overuse of the death penalty. We also raised questions about whether these sentences were the result of due process. The other news I heard last night was that the execution of a convicted murderer here in Oklahoma had to be stopped because the lethal injection had been botched. This was the first time the specific combination of drugs had been used. The convicted man died of a massive heart attack later after the drugs did not work. His lawyers had filed for a stay of execution until the drugs and the company that produced them could be checked out. The appeal was denied even though similar problems had occurred recently in other states. Is that justice? Are we being a blessing to the rest of the world by setting an example such as this?

Prayer: O God, forgive us for seeing the splinter in the others eye and not the one in our own.  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.

Eastertide
April 30, 2014

Read Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10 

As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord;
      and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you;
     what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’
Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. – Jonah 2:7-10 

I have been watching the NBA playoffs (Thunder UP!) and have been struck by the perceived need by the media for “urgency” to strike the players. Does that happen in game two or four? For sure it strikes in game 7. Urgency struck Jonah in the belly of a whale.

I rejoice in the fact that we have a forgiving God who rescues us when we stray and turn to repent at the last second. We have probably all been there at one time or another.  I cannot help but think though that God might rejoice more in us, the church, if we followed Kevin Durant’s plan of action: It comes down to perseverance and will and heart.* No one questions Kevin’s talent and work ethic, but even super stars have a bad night now and then. Kevin just keeps playing, he may not score much (not scoring much for Kevin Durant is a relative phrase) but his assists and/or his rebounding will be up and his defense will be locked down.

Taking God’s abundant life for granted is what led Israel into slavery. It is what is hurting the church today. A little urgency might be a good thing right now regarding loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. But more importantly, we need to inculcate that mission into our lives to the extent that we cannot help but live it.

Prayer: Lord, strengthen our perseverance and will and heart to love you more dearly and serve you more nearly. Amen.

*Daily Oklahoman April 28, 2014, Oklahoma City Thunder: Thunder proves it’s not going down without a fight—Berry Tramel

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.

Eastertide
April 29, 2014

Read Scripture: Psalm 114

When Israel went out from Egypt,
   the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became God’s sanctuary,
   Israel his dominion. – Psalm 114:1-2

At first blush one wonders why the Israelites would consider Egypt’s language as strange since Jacob’s descendants had lived in Egypt for around 400 years at the time of the Exodus. They surely knew the language well enough to survive. Language in this instance may be a metaphor for the entire Egyptian experience. The Israelites apparently had held on to their own language and customs and most importantly their faith. Perhaps the “strangeness of the language” was the byproduct of being held and worked against their will. Perhaps the Israelites could never assimilate into a culture where they would never be accepted as equal because of their ethnicity.

In John 17:20-22 Jesus prays, I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 

Does the church speak “strange language” in its attempt to meet the command of Jesus to be one? Oneness will never exist without justice. Our words mean nothing without actions that reveal our actual intent. Our words mean everything when they spew forth venom and call it love.

The saddest thing about this Psalm is that its time setting is already in the divided kingdom. Judah and Israel are separated.  Jesus said it best: …if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. (Mark 3:25)

Prayer: Lord, bless us with the gift of shared language as you did on the day of Pentecost. 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Eastertide
April 28, 2014

Then Gideon said to God, ‘In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.’ And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. –Judges 6:36-40

I have always been thankful that the compilers of the Bible included the story of Gideon as I think he is very representative of many of us.  Gideon lacked confidence. He did not lack faith in God; he lacked faith in Gideon. Now, I suppose that one could take this full circle and say that if Gideon fully accepted that God created him then it might demonstrate a lack of faith by denying his own abilities. I do not think that is the case here.  Gideon was a farmer not a military leader. My guess is if God had told Gideon to grow the best crops in the land so the hungry could all be fed, he would have set forth with all due haste to do just that.

I think the story firmly recognizes that God knew God had caught Gideon off guard. Why else would God have been patient enough with him to take the challenge of the fleece not once but twice? God looked around to find someone with the perseverance, wisdom, and fidelity of a farmer to deliver Israel from its enemy.

In working with the poor, I have discovered most have amazing skills at survival, at making ends meet, at caring for children in terrible circumstances, at understanding the needs of others. Identifying and tapping innate skills and building confidence are most often the building blocks for the pavement out of poverty.

Prayer: Lord, give us the confidence we need to develop our innate skills so that we can help others do the same. 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.

Eastertide
April 27, 2014

Read Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9

In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  — 1 Peter 1:6-9

     In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me,
          Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned
          in my heart. 

     This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday
         To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me– A place
         where none appeared.—From Dark Night of the Soul by  John of the Cross

John of the Cross penned this poem in the sixteenth century while in prison for reformations he was trying to make in the church.

The writer of I Peter, while recognizing that the people to whom he was writing suffered great trials, noted that they obviously had passed through a Dark Night of the Soul similar to that described by John of the Cross. They had thus fully embraced the resurrected Christ.

Both this scripture and this poem describe a relationship with Christ that is transcendent. It is a faith in a world full of questions that does not fear uncertainty. A hope when all seems lost that awaits abundance. A love as gentle as a plant seed adrift in the breeze that is stronger than death itself.

Prayer: Open the eyes of my heart, Lord—Open the eyes of my heart.  I want to see You. Amen. –Michael W. Smith

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.