Category Archives: Uncategorized

Time and Judgment

Eastertide

May 12, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 10:22-30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’

Eternal life operates simultaneously outside of time, inside of time, and beyond time – i.e. what gives time its everlasting meaning for the believer through faith yet is also time-independent*.

John is saying that Jesus’ power is the very power of God. God shares with Jesus God’s eschatological [end of the world] power over life, death, and judgment **.

I do not know which is more challenging for humans to grasp that God along with Jesus controls time or judgment. Humans seem to have a definite need to control both and often do neither well. I am a procrastinator unless I am not. It is amazing how long I can justify putting off something I do not want to do and how quickly I do the things I choose, sometimes recklessly. I have read many help books that describes ways to make the best use of time but how to use time in not my problem.  The artificial hierarchy of time-use need I carry around in my brain rules my behavior for good or bad. My inherited and personal values create that hierarchy. We rarely take our deep-seated values out and compare them to values defined by God. Now to do so would be a most meaningful use of time.

Judgment is an even thornier issue. The measuring instruments in our brains by which we judge other people have been years in the making beginning at our births. They build up like the grime in our plumbing making us think we know a lot about someone even before we meet them. Such prejudgments can be harmful to our relationships with others as we seek to become one in Christ. When we start to believe that our judgment about others takes the place of God’s ultimate judgment, we enter the dangerous territory of blasphemy, playing God.

Prayer:
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise***. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/166.htm
**The New Interpreter’s Bible: A commentary in Twelve Volumes Volume IX Abingdon Press page 677.
***First verse of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier. See at https://hymnary.org/text/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind

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 Our Hope

Eastertide

May 11, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’

Religion is defined as the service and worship of a god, of multiple gods, or of the supernatural :  commitment or devotion to a god or gods, a system of beliefs, or religious observance*.

When does religion become an entity unto itself unrelated to its object of worship? When do followers of a religion become so steeped in its traditions and practices it loses sight of the god to whom it pledges allegiance? These seem to be the problems Jesus dealt with as he attempted to re-introduce the ways of God to his own people in Israel shaking the very core of what systems theory calls their homeostasis:

  1. a tendency toward maintenance of a relatively stable internal environment in the bodies of higher animals through a series of interacting physiological processes (as the maintenance of a fairly constant degree of body heat in the face of widely varying external temperatures)
  2. a tendency toward maintenance of a relatively stable psychological condition of the individual with respect to contending drives, motivations, and other psychodynamic forces
  3. a tendency toward maintenance of relatively stable social conditions among groups with respect to various factors (as food supply and population among animals) and to competing tendencies and powers within the body politic, to society, or to culture among men[people]**

This reality in our culture is probably best exemplified in our unwillingness to recognize and address climate change even as we wade through its devastating floods. Regarding religion, first century Jewish leaders clung to enforcing ritual and rules rather than practicing the love and justice foundation laid forth for them by God in God’s earliest encounters with God’s children. While our ritual and rules may differ as we hand pick and reshape the rituals and rules of our ancestors in faith, we display the same symptoms today.

Jesus called us not only to make love and justice our homeostasis but to spread its value to all people throughout the world. For humans, it is very hard to give us something we have grown to cherished even if it is harmful to us and to all about us. To be honest, I doubt if any of us can love and do justice like Jesus unless we lean heavily on God’s love as we transition into God’s ways.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage to face life changes required to love like you. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/Religion
**http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/homeostasis

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 Love

Eastertide

May 10, 2019

Scripture Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
   and worship him day and night within his temple,
  and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
   the sun will not strike them,
   nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
   and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ –Revelation 7:13-17

Made white in the blood of the lamb is, I suppose, an oxymoron. Blood is one of the hardest stains to remove. The idea that anything could be made white by laundering it in blood is not feasible.  Sun-bleached bones were most likely once drenched in blood. Yet time, heat, and wind can make them very white. Of course, death had to have occurred for that to happen. Crucifixion was a horrid way of death and marked the onset of resurrection for all.

Jesus taught through word and deed that living love was the only way to salvation. Living love in a world filled with hate and selfishness would be impossible without the power of the greatest love enabling and sustaining us. Jesus gifted that to us through the Holy Spirit. He never said living love would be easy. He did say we would never have to do it alone.

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)

The point at which all God’s children live love to the fullest will be the full realization of the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Let your love so impower us that we move the whole world a little closer to the fulfillment of your Kingdom. 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.

Pure Wisdom

Eastertide

May 9, 2019

Scripture Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’ –Revelation 7:9-12

I realized as I read the above scripture that I have developed a jaded opinion of public demonstrations of adulation. How do we discern idols in our world today? Are some of our cherished religious beliefs separating us from the God of love? Do we worship what we prefer rather than the Holy One? How do we discern the Holy?

As a child I, along with most of my peers, participated in an Easter pageant in my home town. Our introduction to acting came in raising palm leaves in the re-creation of the triumphal entry and calling out Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord*. In these my pre-abstraction days, I knew exactly who I worshipped and to whom I belong. I knew that Jesus loved me and all the other children of the world and that I was called to be a sunbeam for him. The world I grew into as I developed higher levels of understanding did not match the sacred naivete of my childhood. On TV, I saw young black youth being escorted to school by police while angry white people shouting hate toward them. A little later I experience my friends being drafted to fight in a war that made no sense. The ones who suffered scorn from that confusion were the soldiers not the decision makers. At some point greed and lust for power became the primary focus of American life not rule of the people by the people for the people. The God of Love was vanquished to the a back of the shelf.

I now understand better what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 18:3, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’  Jesus is describing the point in life when we understand faith’s naivete as pure wisdom transcending all the knowledge of all the ages of our lives.

Prayer: Lord, help us claim as pure wisdom faith’s naivete. Amen.

*Taken from Matthew 23:39 most likely as a quote from Psalm 118:26

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.

Green Pastures

Eastertide

May 8, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
   He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
   he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
   for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
   I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
   your rod and your staff—
   they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
   my whole life long.

My mother was most at home in a garden or anywhere around grass or flowers or growing vegetables or trees. She had two maiden aunts that live near her while she was growing up and I think they had a big influence on her. Apparently, they provided many of the flowers for funerals in their hometown. Mom could immediately identify most flowers and trees. She maintained her yard and garden well into her 90’s.

My brother and sister both lived on farms and worked in the town where mom lived. My sister would have lunch with her, and my brother got in the habit on running by to check on her on his afternoon coffee break.  On one of those visits as he turned into the driveway, he saw Mom lying in the yard and his heart rose into his throat as he jumped from his truck and ran to see if she was all right. She did not know why he was so distraught. She was just resting. It was a beautiful day. She had been pulling weeds out of the lawn (she did not like to use weed killers) and just laid back on the grass to rest for a while before she finished her work. She truly was lying down in green pastures, most likely saying a prayer thanking God for the beauty of the earth.

The Psalmist tells us in the above scripture that God makes us lie down in green pastures. There is, indeed, times to work and times to play but we all need rest for not only our bodies but also our souls.

Prayer: Lord, abide with us when you see the need for us to lie down in green pastures to restore our soul. Renew in us the joy of our salvation. 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.

Minister to Ministers

Eastertide

May 7, 2019

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:36-43

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, ‘Please come to us without delay.’ So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

From the age of five until I went to college, I attended a small church in a small town near our farm. Our ministers were either seminary students or professors from a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Seminary located about fifty miles away. It was a part time job when the pastor came and spent all day Sunday with evening and morning services and returned during the week as needed for funerals and sick calls. Each year the church requested volunteer families to feed our part time minister dinner and supper (We are talking rural America where the big meal of the day is at noon) and families signed up as many times as needed to make sure he pastor was fed each Sunday and had a place to rest or study for a while in the afternoon. My memory is that my family fed the pastor three or four times a year some of those filling in for someone who could not meet the obligation on the date for which they had originally volunteered. We teased our mother about doing spring or fall cleaning just before the preacher was scheduled to visit in our home.

I share this with you to tell you that those Simon, the tanner folks serve an important purpose. Pastors need support just like all the rest of us. Just like Elijah did when God sent ravens to feed him. Pastors must be blessed with the patience of Job every Sunday as their congregants line up to tell them their personal problems and their problems with the church. Being able to withdraw unto Bethany (Matthew 21:17) on occasion is a true blessing.

Prayer: Lord, help us see and meet the need to minister to ministers. 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.

Wholeness and Death

Eastertide

May 6, 2019

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:36-43

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, ‘Please come to us without delay.’ So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.

A well-known, respected Christian writer Rachel Held Evans died recently at the age of 37. It is hard to face the death of anyone we love and harder to understand how such a gifted person could die so young. I am sure that was how all of Tabitha’s friends and family felt. The New Testament only shares the stories of the people who were returned to life but surely there were many more families and friends to whom Jesus and his disciples ministered in their grief.  The same could be said for those who were healed and others who were not. Why? Why did any children have to die in our scourge of school shootings and why those particular children? Jesus said that it rains of the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) but that, while a fact, is little comfort. It is important that he said it as it somewhat puts to rest thoughts that death was punishment for sin.

There is no easy answer. Someone said after the Oklahoma City bombing that when it happened the first heart that was broken was God’s. I believe that is true. We live in a world in progress. We were given the gift of free will at our creation and the result of that is life is not perfect and we are thus challenged every day to work toward God’s wholeness for all, which seems to move at a snails pace at times but then a breakthrough happens and we know that God is traveling with us on our journey toward God’s perfection.

Prayer: Lord, we pray for those who have lost loved ones and those who have experienced the joy of healing. Guide us as we strive toward 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.

Loving like Jesus

Eastertide

May 5, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 21:1-19

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17

I have always wondered what Jesus meant by the first question in the above scripture. Is he asking Simon if Simon loves Jesus more than Simon loves any of the disciples or is, he asking if Simon loves Jesus more than the other disciples love Jesus? I do not know what difference it makes but the statement’s ambiguity has always bothered me. Perhaps Jesus is asking both questions at once. Perhaps John, like me occasionally, writes a tongue twisted sentence that does not clearly get at what was intended or the translator missed the intent.

In either case, the question creates consideration of how we set priorities of love in our journey of faith as Christ follower. If we love Jesus, we are to love him, all his followers, and all his potential followers which eliminates any possibility of establishing priorities regarding who we love. Our culture values competition and hierarchies of worth, both of which are alien to Jesus’ way of being. We cannot interpret Jesus only through our cultural lenses. We must learn to differentiate that which is of God and that which is of the world and turn away from those things within the world that are not supportive of our loving God and loving one another.

Prayer: Lord, clear away the film in my minds eye that keeps me from seeing and doing your ways. 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.

Working within Our Strengths

Eastertide

May 4, 2019

Scripture Reading: John 21:1-19

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. –John 21:4-8

I am left handed and have had to adapt since birth to a right handed world. I am glad my parents chose to let me be the way God created me unlike many of their peers and ancestors who were required to make their right hand their dominant hand. One of my older aunts told me that two of my great aunts were born left handed and when that was discovered their mother tied the toddlers’ arms to their side until they made the transition to being right handed. The connotation of the word “right” is “better” not just more common.

The reason Jesus told them to throw the net on the right side of the boat may well have been an instruction to work within their strengths because 90% of them were most likely right handed and he knew that there were a lot of fish to haul in. In our creation God gifted all God’s children differently for the purposes of building a strong society ruled by love. Apparently, God did not need as many left handed people but apparently God needed some. Science now tells us that we humans are a whole lot more alike than different. Our cultures, past and present, have seen a need to differentiate humans by skin color, gender, etc. to serve sometimes self-serving ends like slavery and right to land and decision making. Most of those ends relate to greed and lust for power, the idols of our world today, not the rule of love in God’s vision for our future.

Prayer: Lord, help us discover our strengths and work within them to your glory. 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.

Anchored to God

Eastertide

May 3, 2019

Scripture Reading: Revelation 5:11-14

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,
‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!’
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
for ever and ever!’
And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshiped.

So, how do we see through the darkness that clouds our view and identify that which is of God and that which is not? Perhaps we all should memorize 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, where Paul spells out measures of love:

 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

I like the definition of love as wanting God’s best for myself and all others. I think that is what is meant by loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. We do not define the plumb line that measures what that best is; God does, which means to love like God we must commit to a lifetime of knowing God more fully.

Jesus is not a political button or T-shirt slogan to further human causes. Jesus Christ is the plumb line for measuring God’s love and furthering the development of the Kingdom of God on earth. Revelation tells us that we need to recognize and follow the power leading that revolution.

In times like these you need a Savior,
In times like these you need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

This Rock is Jesus, Yes He’s the One,
This Rock is Jesus, the only One;
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!*

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when my love is tainted by the ways of lesser gods. Help my anchor to hold tightly to you. Amen.

*First verse and chorus of In Times Like These lyrics and music by Ruth Caye Jones see at https://namethathymn.com/christian-hymns/in-times-like-these-lyrics.html

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.