Tag Archives: Love

The Victory Ride

Triumphal entryLent
March 25, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
   We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you.  

 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever. — Psalm 118: 26-29

 All four gospels* record the story of what we now call the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and all four gospels quote the line from this Psalm: Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The quotes are exact except in Luke where the word “king” is substituted for “one”. All four surely intended the connection between this poem of victory and Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. All four most likely recognized the reference back to King David. Most of the participants and onlookers were acquainted with the Psalms, perhaps even the Roman soldiers, whose security alert level might have been raised when one entered the city like returning Roman troops. They might even have been offended by the caricature of a victorious king riding on a donkey.

Up to this point as we have journeyed through the gospels, we have seen a man who wished to remain in the shadows: “tell no one”, “he withdrew”, “Let us go to the other side.” On this day, he takes his victory ride straight into the arms of danger. Who is this man called Jesus anyway?

Prayer: Lord as we prepare to follow you from your victory ride to Golgotha open our hearts and minds to know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly**. Amen.

*Matthew 21-22, Mark 11-12, Luke 19-20, John 12
**from prayer of Richard, Bishop of Chichester  –1283
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.

 

 

Love like Jesus

MelchizedekLent March 19, 2015

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son,    today I have begotten you’; as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest for ever,    according to the order of Melchizedek.’ — Hebrews 5:5-6

Hebrews 5:5-6 is a cautionary tale for the church today. We do not serve God for self-aggrandizement. It chills me when I hear people, particularly politicians and others trying to profit financially, wrapping God around themselves like an endorsement from on high.

Melchizedeck is noted as the King of Salem and priest of God Most High (Genesis 4:18) when he blesses Abraham. Hebrews 5:5-6 also bring the two roles together quoting from Psalms 2:7 and 110:4. The name Melchizedeck itself may mean King of Justice.* Even if it doesn’t mean that, it seems to me it is an apt descriptor of Jesus and his ministry.

Jesus was a servant leader. He welcomed all, loved all. He saw injustice and interpreted it for want it was, responding not by kingly edict, but by the way he loved. In so doing he demonstrated for us the way we are to love.

Churches need to invest their energies in developing disciples that love like Jesus. Who knows if that happened we might find ourselves living in a country that welcomed all, and loved all.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to the ways of Jesus’ love. Give us the courage to love like he loves. Amen.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchizedek 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.

Grace, Love, Compassion

Create in me a clean heartLent
March 18, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-12

Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin. — Psalm 51:1-2

In many Bibles our scripture today is preceded by and introductory remark like this. To the Leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.* This introduction has been there for a long time but scholars really do not know if it were with the original or not. It certainly adds to the flavor of the Psalm when it is considered in the light of the infamous story of David, King of Israel, taking the wife of one of his soldiers and then ordering the soldier to be placed clearly in harm’s way so that he would be killed. Of course David got caught. I wonder if he would have ever repented had his sins not been called out by Nathan. It is no wonder David felt dirty.

While based on David’s sin, the Psalm is really about the nature of God’s love. In these two verses, God is described as one with steadfast love, for which we might use the words unconditional love today, and abundant mercy, which we might call compassion. Later in the Psalm we read of God’s gracious love. But most importantly the Psalm talks about recovery, a return to wholeness from brokenness, we call that restorative justice.

I think I am sometimes a very strange person, but for some reason when I worked as a waitress in high school and college, one of the things I enjoyed most was clearing the table of all the dirty dishes and dropped crumbs and then resetting it with clean flatware and table linens, making it ready for the next customer. When we mess up in life, life still goes on. We must learn from our mistakes and continue the work God called us to do. We can only do that when we shed ourselves of the sin that corrodes our souls changing us and causing us to turn away from God.

Prayer: Lord, convict me of my sins of omission and commission and forgive me of them turning me around so that I might once more know your grace, your unconditional love, and your compassion. Amen.

The New Interpreter’s Bible: A commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IV Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1996, page 883
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 Law

images8PY7HK9HLent March 4, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 19

The law of the Lord is perfect,
   reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
   making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
   rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
   enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is pure,
   enduring for ever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.— Psalm 19:7-9

Perfect, sure, right, clear, pure, and true are the words used to describe the law of the Lord. These words are a far cry from the status of our laws today. I once wrote policy regarding a program being implemented to help the unemployed gain work skills. In the law and in the regulations that resulted from the law there was a laundry list of services that could be provided. I honestly cannot remember much more about the actual program, but we implemented all of the items in the laundry list. When the federal auditors came to review our program, they cited us for being out of compliance because we should have only picked one service. The key word about which we wrangled for months was the word “or”. The auditors interpreted the word as meaning we could only implement one of the services, my counter was that the word “or” can also mean “and” and it certainly does not mean only one unless it is combined with the word “either”.  I was banking my response on my 7th and 8th grade teacher, Mrs. Gehring, who was a stickler for grammar. They were pulling out books of case law. As it turned out Mrs. Gehring was right.

While we do need rules and regulations to maintain order in society, we must recognize that they are not infallible and even God’s laws are opened to our very human interpretation. We must continually work toward being in touch with God so that our interpretations are guided by God and all of God’s laws are overlaid with love.

Prayer: Lord, teach me your way, help me always to try to understand the viewpoint of others from the point of your love for them. 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.

Give me Patience Now!

God's willLent
February 27, 2015

Scripture Reading: Romans 4:13-25

No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. – Romans 4:20-25

Do we have faith in God or not? I must confess I am stunned by legislation that is drafted, considered, and sometimes made into law that purports to do what the author seems to think God cannot do without the help of a civil law. Isn’t that interesting? Are we wasting precious moments of our time devoted to God doing futile things that may only cause more division? Is it more important to us to prove that God is on our side than to demonstrate that we are on God’s side?

Our scripture continues today Paul’s analysis of Abraham’s faith. Abraham was convinced that God was able to do what God had promised. Now that is faith. In all honesty Abraham did not live to see the culmination of God’s promise, but he knew it would happened. The sure and certain knowledge of God’s fidelity is the anchor we need in the chaotic seas of our world today.

This does not mean that we are to sit back and do nothing while we wait for God to make all our problems go away. Jesus instructed us to love God, love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and to go into all the world and make disciples. Let’s just commit ourselves to doing those three things over the next few years and see what God can do when we are on God’s side.

Prayer: Lord, I want to wave a magic wand and make all evil go away, I want to end poverty and child abuse, I want to bring justice to the oppressed and assure that mercy is made available for those who need it, I want to shut down the pipeline to prison, and open the doors of opportunity for all our children, and I want it now! Grant me the measure of the patience of Abraham, the persistence of Hannah, the courage of Esther, the vision of Isaiah, and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ I need to fulfill my role in loving you and my neighbors and making disciples. 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.

Made in the Image of God

RainbowEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 17, 2015

 Scripture Reading: Genesis 9:8-17

God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’ — Genesis 9:12-17

When you see a rainbow, do you recall God’s promise to Noah, to all of us actually? God committed to remembering that promise each time a rainbow appears in the sky. We should do that also. Rainbows are beautiful, representing the full spectrum of color.

I read the young adult book, the Giver, recently. It describes a colorless world devised to avoid change, conflict, and struggle. It prescribes a sanitized life with no meaning and no love. Like Hitler, it carefully extracts from the world anyone who is different or drifts from the sanctioned ways. There is, however, one person, the Giver, who is responsible for maintaining the memory of life before this chosen way. The story is about the current Giver passing that history to his replacement and raises the question: is there salvation for such a world as this?

People were created in the image of God and God is an innovator, a pioneer, a thinker who struggles with tough challenges and searches for solutions that can further God’s creation through God’s love and the love God instilled in each of us. God sent God’s son to show us the way of love. We are called to follow Christ’s example as innovators, pioneers, and thinkers, not run away and hide.

Prayer: Embolden us Lord, to act like you created us in your image by loving like you do. 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.

 

God’s Covenant with Noah

Flood of loveEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 16, 2015

Scripture Reading: Genesis 9:8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’  — Genesis 9:8-11

In creation God extended us the gift of autonomy, self-direction. The subsequent history of God is the story of God cleaning up our messes when we failed to use that gift well and giving us second chances. Noah’s Covenant is just such a second chance. Since Noah’s covenant God has given us guidelines to live by, leaders and teachers, and prophets to warn us. And we still seek an easy way to have our autonomy while keeping our chaos too. It will never work.

It is the lie of evil that we can be fully ourselves by settling to be something less than God created us to be. Evil is a parasite that feeds on our talents and skills draining us of energy and vision. Short-sighted, we settle for second best or less. We war with each other and suffer from envy and greed, both sins that eat us from the inside out. The whole world suffers for it because it takes the energy and vision of all of God’s children working together to be the Kingdom of God.

The season of Lent introduces a new chapter in God’s attempt to save us from ourselves. God sent his son in the man Jesus to do whatever it took to redeem God’s people. As we enter this time leading up to Good Friday and Easter, let us consider not just becoming who God created us to be but turning the whole world into the Kingdom Jesus foresaw.

Prayer: Lord, we are surrounded by terrorism, racism, human trafficking, war, disease, climate change and so many other problems. It all feels too big to even try to address. This time, Lord, empower us to be the flood, a flood of love that washes away evil and turns your vision into reality. 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.

 

The Judge

JudgingEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 11, 2015

 Scripture Reading: Psalm 50:1-6

Our God comes and does not keep silence,
   before him is a devouring fire,
   and a mighty tempest all around him.
He calls to the heavens above
   and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
‘Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’
The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge. — Psalm 50:3-6

 It’s interesting how much time people spend doing other peoples’ jobs even when they have little if any credentials for the work. We’ve got the Monday morning quarterbacks, what I would call recliner politicians, make-it-fit theologians, and judges who lack the blindfold of justice. What all these have in common is that they understand the world from a self-centered viewpoint. The most entrenched truly believe that theirs is the only viewpoint. It is like the flat-earth people who could not accept that the earth was round or that the earth revolves around the sun rather than the other way around.

To function in societies throughout history, it has indeed been necessary for we humans to develop a keen ability to discern right from wrong, what is just and what is not, and how to deal in community with those whose self-perceptions differ to varying degrees from our own. I believe a large part of our salvation through Jesus Christ is the gift of helping us see past the limitations of our individual tunnel vision and giving us glimpses of what our universe looks like through the eyes of its Creator who is Love. Thus being equipped with love as the foundation of justice, Jesus’ coming freed us to love like he loved as a means of discerning how to live in community. God is responsible for ultimate judgment. Jesus stated it thusly, You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. (John 8:15-16)

Prayer:  Thank you Lord for freeing me from the task of passing ultimate judgment on others. Enable me to love and help me to understand that that is the foundation of all interaction. 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.

 

Sharing Love Practices

Preparing to enter MosqueEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
February 6, 2015

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 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. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.  — 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

 The word translated as “win” in our scripture today is the Greek kerdaínō – properly, to profit (gain), an ancient mercantile term for exchanging (trading) one good for another; (figuratively) to exchange (trade out) what is mediocre (“good”) for the better, i.e. “trading up” (cf. Js 4:13).*

We are each called as followers of Christ to help others gain a relationship with God or gain a better relationship with God like we gain through our discipleship to Jesus Christ. When we build on that firm foundation we are freed to accept others exactly where they are and freed from judging their progress toward their relationship with God. It is a paradox but it is true that when I have entered into deep discussions with people who hold other beliefs than I do within Christianity or are of other faiths all together, I have been made a better Christian. I have had to go back to that firm foundation and re-member what it means in my life as a disciple and to discern what is really important. I do share in the blessing of such discourse. Our individual relationships with God are indeed personal and unique. Our collective relationship with God is interdependent and diverse.

Last summer I toured Turkey and on several occasions entered sacred buildings used by other faiths. My living out my love of God and my love of my neighbor dictated that I follow their traditions of covering my head and removing my shoes. I became a better Christian by following my faith’s love practices and perhaps in so doing helped those of other faiths grow through their love traditions toward that closer relationship with God.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for freeing me from the job of judging and allowing me to grow in the job I have been assigned of loving. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/2770.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 Judgment

Paul writing to the churchesEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 23, 2015

 Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

 While I was writing my book Houses Divided, I was struck by the possibility that the full realization of the coming of the Kingdom of God may be awaiting our capacity for loving God and loving each other to the extent we would be able to experience God “dwelling”* among us all the time. The irony of such an idea is that while we are waiting for God to fix the world we now live in, God has already saved us. God has given us the gift of God’s love in human form. Our task is to love like Jesus loves God and his neighbors, and in so doing transform the world. He also challenged us to make everyone in the world our neighbor. Paul puts it precisely: For the present form of this world is passing away. We humans just keep reaching back and trying to drag some of that former world with us.

We seem to be caught up in our human need to compete. Even to compete for God’s salvation. Now, I like a good basketball game as much as anyone, football too, but I do not move up on God’s rating chart by trying to be more righteous or more zealous or more anything than any of God’s other children or by assigning greater judgment magnitude to what I deem to be the sins of others while being blind to my own. God does not have a comparative rating chart. God’s judgment, as I understand it, is not based on who of us has the corner on “right” beliefs or are more self-righteous.  God’s judgment is based on how we have loved. Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? (Matthew 25:37+)

Prayer: Lord open my heart to the infusion of your love. Wash away all the barriers I raise to loving as you love. Free me from my need to judge myself by any standard other than the one you have established for me and free me from my need to judge others. Amen.

*See John 1:14 and Revelation 21:3

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.