Tag Archives: Love

Calling Someone a Liar

LiarEastertide May 14, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:9-13 If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. –1 John 5:9-13

These are strong words calling someone a liar. Who knows what to believe any more? Although always having had a few bad apples, the media is no longer a trusted source of information. There now exists fact checkers that check the fact checkers. The church, too, is tarnished using words that attempt to protect its source of funding, power, and privacy more than to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The advice to follow the money has never been wiser.

I wonder when I read the words from scripture today what caused this response. Calling people liars is actually a theme throughout the whole book. It appears in 1:10, 2:22, and 4:10. The discourse is about believing in Jesus as God’s son in relation to how we live out our faith, how we love and whether we love. Calling people liars plants the seed of doubt about those accused in the minds of all who hear it.

I have also wondered at times, if my stance of not responding strongly enough when I know in every fiber of my being that what I am hearing or observing is not related to the truth of God, is the correct stance. When lies are hurting others; damaging their hearts, minds, souls, or bodies, we must at least profess the truth we know as we know it, and in ways that demonstrate the love of God and the love of our neighbors.

Prayer:  Lord, make me an instrument of your peace always but also an instrument of your justice. 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.

Joy, Joy, Joy

FeastEastertide May 9, 2015

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

I awoke this morning with an ominous feeling. We are in the season of tornados and the last thing I heard on the news last evening was a caution to be weather aware a bad storm is headed our way. I think this may be good advice for those of us called to ministries of justice. We need to be justice aware for as much as I am prudent about tornados, my ominous feeling was more likely caused by the injustice I see all around me and the lack of concern, will to address, or will to give up the things that are in our own lives that lie at the foundation of injustice. With that as the backdrop, what on earth was Jesus talking about when he says that he has joy and that he wants us to have joy. Where do you see Jesus’ joy in the gospels?

Jesus said:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ (Luke 15:10)

He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. (John 3:29)

These three seem to say that Jesus’ joy comes from our answering his call and all answering his call resulting in the fruition of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. He invites us to share in the joy of the rule of love, and, I believe, that can only happen when true justice exists.

Prayer: Lord, help us experience the joy in loving one another in your name. 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.

Fear and Love

abundant life 2Eastertide
May 1, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:7-21

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. __1 John 4:18-21

Some are just angry, others are very much afraid. It demonstrates itself sometimes in paranoia and sometimes in downright hatred. It is an interesting time to be white in a world that is more and more a continuum of flesh tones reaching from white to deepest ebony. It is an interesting time to be in the role of the “emperor” when we worship a God who champions the oppressed.

The answer is quite simple. We are to love each other, but the doing of that basic task is hard for we must strip away layer by layer the preconceived notions that we have about ourselves and about the other before we can love them and they can learn to love us in return. This means we have to take the time to really get to know ourselves and to know the individual others. For some reason, some of us who call ourselves Christian, have adapted the language of exclusion and exceptionalism. Being chosen by God does not mean we are better than anyone, it means we have been called to be a blessing to everyone. All of God’s children are exceptional and all children, even when they grow to being adults, are God’s.  Unique as the varied snowflakes, we have each been created to serve a distinct and vital part in the kingdom of God.

Those of us who find ourselves living in relative comfort, even prosperity, are faced with the challenge of loving the rest of the world in ways that will enable them to know the abundance of life of which Jesus spoke: John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. God calls us to be seekers of justice.

Prayer: Lord, I lift myself to you. Mold me and make me like thee. Erase my fear, enable my courage, and strengthen my ability 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

A Living Wage

Living wageEastertide
April 23, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:16-24

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
—1 John 3:16-17

First, I must confess that I am a bit of a nut regarding the need for every family to earn a living wage. The Poverty Level1 is woefully lacking in any real meaning as it does not include many costs of living items that are now routine. It is calculated based on an out-of-date formula tied to the cost of food as the starting point. For a family of one adult and one child the poverty wage is $7 an hour, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and the living wage is $16.742 in Oklahoma. The Median hourly wage earned in Oklahoma is $15.17 that means that half of the workers in Oklahoma make more than that and half make less. This is all fairly complicated and takes a computer to analyze, but I am sharing it with you and the citations below to raise the issue of poverty in Oklahoma. In 2014, the Poverty Rate in Oklahoma was 16.8% ranking us 34th in the nation. The percentage of people not receiving a living wage is much higher.

You are well acquainted with the problem if your church has a food pantry, provide gas coupons, or helps with utility bills. The steady stream of people just trying to survive until they get their next pay check is daunting. Our local food bank has a program that sends bags of food home with children to eat over the weekend because the school lunch program is their primary source of nutrition. Yet Oklahoma ranks 11th among states’ unemployment rates with a rate of 5.4%. What a difference it would make if all 94.6% of those working earned a living wage.

Figuring out how to pay a living wage is just as complicated as calculating a living wage and will require all of our brightest minds to consider the best means of paying a living wage while maintaining a robust economy. It would be time well spent as it would raise the self-esteem of parents and their children, improve the health of all, cut the costs of public assistance, and probably reduce crime. More importantly, How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Prayer: Lord, enable us to love our neighbors as you have loved us. Amen.

1http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/measure.html
2http://livingwage.mit.edu/states/40
3http://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/oklahoma-2014-report/ 4http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ok.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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Opened Minds

See and hearEastertide
April 19, 2015

Scripture Reading: Luke 24:36b-48

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. –Luke 24:44-48

Opened minds that understood the scriptures—how would we see that manifested in the world today? I have been a part of a Bible study on the book of Isaiah, first for several months in the fall and now in a spring semester. We move at a snail’s pace. Partly because it is mostly complex poetry with references to ancient realities with which we are not so familiar; partly because it appears to be a collection of writings that have been pulled together that bounce around a bit from subject to subject and among points of history; and partly because we, like its original readers, possess the desire not to see or hear that which we do not wish to see and hear. We pray every week for God to be present in our studies and our understanding.

We also often get sidetracked by seeing our world through the eyes of Isaiah. It is scary at times how closely the prophet’s observations could describe us today with just a slight change of names of peoples and places. We, of course, have larger and more technically advanced weapons of mass destruction. We have identified and implemented treatments for many of the diseases that devastated their world, but have found new ones to take their place. I do not think we are as advanced as we should be in the time lapse between Isaiah and now, regarding the care and treatment of the mentally ill.

The most important difference for us is that the Immanuel Isaiah proclaimed has come and has even poured out his life for us.  By turning around and looking into the face of God in Jesus Christ we are forgiven of our tenacity at not seeing and not hearing what has been told to us from the beginning. I will admit I still struggle with not wanting to see and hear and I regularly have to return to ask for forgiveness, but it is always there and I am still blest at times with aha moments from God when I do see and hear at least partially. Is that your experience also? Even with our limited insight, the Lord still trusted us with his call to share his wonderful truth with the whole world—the Christ has come, God is with us.

Prayer: Lord be with us in our study, open our eyes and our ears that we may be emboldened to spread your love throughout the world. 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.

 

 

Wholeness Leads to Oneness

Living Our FaithEastertide April 17, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:1-7 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. –1 John 3:4-7

How do we explain a definition of sin as lawlessness, when we have previously discussed sin as separation from God? The English word “lawlessness” is rooted truly in being without law*. My perception, and perhaps yours, is that the word “lawless” means breaking laws, but it actually means not having any law. If sin is lawlessness and sin is also being separated from God then being lawless means we are set adrift in the world rather like not having gravity to keep us anchored to the earth. Thus if we are not separated from God, we are not sinning, our lives are grounded in God. It, of course, would be very difficult to function in society without structure and order. It is just easier to function in community when everyone has at least a general idea of what is considered right and wrong. The laws given to Moses provided that structure.

The Greek word for lawlessness, anomia, has the connotation of negative influence on a person’s soul.** Obeying laws or rules in and of themselves is not righteousness. It actually can turn into self-righteousness that separates us from God. Living in community with one another in the spirit of the laws, loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, is righteousness and protects our souls from being less than whole.

We have been called to be one in Christ that can only happen, if we each are working individually to be whole.

Prayer: Lord, help us to understand the way we are to live out your laws in righteousness. Make us whole so that we can be one. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/lawlessness

**http://biblehub.com/greek/458.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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

God’s Agent Not My Own

Self-righteousnessEastertide April 9, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 John 1-2:2 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. –1 John 1:5-10

I attended a meeting of an advocacy group last night whose membership includes about half and half people from faith communities and people who are not. It is interesting these days to walk that fine line as a member of a faith community with God’s children who are not members. It has probably been true throughout history that we who call ourselves Christian have done a great deal of harm to God’s children who are not Christian by inflicting on them something less than what Christ was all about. It is true at this time in history. For example, I see this when our attitudes are shaped by a belief that we are exceptional. At the meeting a fellow Christian raised a concern that had been expressed by someone in attendance that we prayed too much. They felt uncomfortable thinking they had been pulled into some kind of religious service.

Now it is easy to say we have all sinned and that we must confess our sins but is what we are confessing really the things that are separating us from God, particularly as we serve as God’s messenger to others? So much of what we do is habit. I, personally, have difficulty not ending a prayer with “in the name of Jesus.” When praying publically in an interfaith setting, I have tried to leave it out and been successful at time but not always. I have also attempted to make it a singular statement, “I pray in the name of Jesus.”

Now I must confess my first visceral reaction to the comment about too much prayer was to think, “They expect me to respect their right to not believe, why cannot they be tolerant of people of faith?” If this were an argument about church and state, I might cry freedom of religion. If it is a discussion about loving God and loving my neighbor as myself, I need to accept the others in my life exactly where they are and let my love and actions speak louder than any prayer I might pray. I think I understand a bit more about what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 9:22: To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some.

Prayer: Lord, help me see myself in the eyes of the others in my life, particularly those who are not people of faith. Cleanse me of habit or stubborn righteousness or whatever else might be inhibiting my serving as your agent. 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.

Testing the Boundaries of Love

No greater loveLent
Palm Sunday
March 29, 2015

Scripture Reading: John 12:12-16

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. — John 12:16

Do we understand now what Jesus was all about, what the prophets may or may not have said about him, who this man really was, and most importantly what that means to you and me? Some—I think at times I grasp some of this Jesus. I remember loving him as a child. Jesus, loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so*. Jesus, loves the little children, all the children of the world**. Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day***. At times, I think that relationship is the relationship. Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18:3) Other times I need to make it more complicated. Adults are supposed to understand life at a more complicated level aren’t we?

The ability to think in abstractions has certainly moved our world further and faster than once would have been thought possible. After all, it was God who gave us our brains in the first place. God who imprinted us with God’s own image.  I think God wants us to test the boundaries of understanding, to use every bit of every resource with which we have been endowed. We do that in many areas of life, but the most important gift God gave us was his love and we have had its full capacity forever. Have we even begun to test the boundaries of our gift of love?

This week, Holy Week, we enter into the journey where God’s love was fully applied. Once again we ride into Jerusalem with Jesus, eat his last supper with him, go to the cross and watch him die, all in an attempt to increase our understanding of God’s love. Are we ready?

Prayer: Lord, walk with us as we once again walk with you so that our love may grow exponentially as we attempt to understand your love. Amen.

*Jesus Loves Me by Anna B. Warner, 1860 see at http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Jesus_Loves_Me/

**Jesus Loves the Little Children by William Bradbury, Anna Warner, Tom Fettke see at http://www.metrolyrics.com/jesus-loves-the-little-children-lyrics-veggie-tales.html

*** Jesus wants me for a sunbeam by Eugene Kelly and Frances Mckee see at http://www.metrolyrics.com/jesus-wants-me-for-a-sunbeam-lyrics-vaselines.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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Ride On

Jesus enters JerusalemLent
March 28, 2015

Scripture Reading: John 12:12-16

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
   the King of Israel!’
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:
‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
   sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ — John 12:12-15

The time had come. We have all been there whether it was getting ready for a wedding or a funeral, preparing for a family reunion, or graduating from school. There may be a few last minute runs for more food or a quick wash when a child appears with food all over but the day is finally here.

I have wondered what Jesus thought as he rode through the masses. We know that he had sat looking down over Jerusalem and said: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’ (Matthew 23:37) That ride into Jerusalem must have been heart rending. The people are still so innocent, still so lacking in understanding. Had he prepared them enough?

As followers of Christ we are continually preparing to live our love to show mercy to do justice, but all our preparations do not mean a think unless we initiate and act. We may never feel ready but we will learn along the way and we are never alone as we journey toward the Kingdom of God.

Prayer:
God of grace and God of glory,
 On Thy people pour Thy power.
 Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
 Bring her bud to glorious flower.
 Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
 For the facing of this hour,
 For the facing of this hour.* Amen.

*From God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry E. Fosdick
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.

Purpose

Purpose2Lent
March 26, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 11:1-11

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.” ’ — Mark 11:1-3

These verses have always make me think that a lot of thought and planning had gone into this trip. While Jesus appears to do random acts of kindness throughout his ministry, there is an undercurrent of purpose in each step he takes.

I coordinated planning for a large multi-functional human service agency for several years. What I learned in that time is that nothing ever goes exactly as planned and rarely are purposes met that are not planned. Most of our lives are spent doing what we might consider mundane, routine tasks that add up eventually to homes being purchased, children going to college, and ultimately, for example, cures for dread diseases being discovered.

Jesus’ purpose, I believe, was to initiate the Kingdom of God throughout the earth. There may have been several course corrections on his path to Jerusalem that day and even more to come over the next several days but he never wavered from his purpose.

We as his followers are the heirs to his plan. We share the same purpose: Loving our way toward the end that the Kingdom of God is actualized throughout the world. Let it be so.

Prayer: Lord, nurture us to love as you loved, open our hearts to your plan, and our brains and backs to your work. 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.