Tag Archives: Loving Like Jesus

Gratitude

Living in the Spirit

November 26, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

How much do we take God for granted? The fact that we can take God for granted does not mean we should. God’s love and grace are gifts without strings attached. How does that make us feel? How does that impact our way of being? How does the knowledge of God’s love and grace give us the strength to reach for our full potential? How does it enable our ability to love one another? How does expressing our gratefulness for God’s love and grace bring us closer to God? How does our expressing gratefulness bring others closer to God?

Jesus modeled giving thanks:

At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; Matthew 11:25

So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. John 11:41 (Raising of Lazarus)

Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; Matthew 26:27 (Last Supper)

We should also model gratefulness.

Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God’s own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.*

Prayer: Thank you God for your everlasting love and gift of grace. Amen.

First verse of Come, ye thankful people, come by Henry Alford see at https://hymnary.org/text/come_ye_thankful_people_come

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 in God’s Love

Living in the Spirit

November 18, 2020

Scripture Reading: Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name.

For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures forever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.

The paradox of God is that if we choose to follow God, basking in God’s love and being conduits of that love to others, our lives will be full of joy and music and Shalom—peace, harmony, wholeness, and wellbeing. Why do we not want that? Why do we choose to live in discord?

The forces of evil routinely do everything possible to counter God’s righteousness and justice with the self-righteousness of the world.  I ended my book Houses Divided with the observation that, if our goal is to live in eternity in God’s kingdom, we had better start loving all God’s children because that is exactly who we will be spending time with in eternity.

I love the story of someone arriving in heaven being led down a hallway. He peeks into a room and sees rows of people sitting across from each other with food on plates before them but with spoons too long to allow them to feed themselves. They were starving. In the next room with the same setup, the people on one side of the table are reaching across to feed the person across the table with those too-long spoons*.

Prayer: Lord, free us from the bondage of the world we worship, lead us to the freedom of your love. Amen.

*Allegory of the too long spoons. See more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons#:~:text=The%20allegory%20of%20the%20long,to%20eat%20with%20long%20spoons.&text=In%20hell%2C%20the%20people%20cannot,the%20table%20and%20are%20sated.

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.

Serving Others

Living in the Spirit

November 15, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25:14-30
‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded. –Luke 12:48b

I saw a story on the news about soldiers who had been in battle returning to the USA feeling the need to use the service skills they had learned in the military in helping others. They started responding to disasters with the same tenacity they enter battle. Now they are formalized as a non-profit, Team Rubicon, Built to Serve. Helping others, helps them heal from the ravages of war.

I think it is interesting that Jesus choose using economics to illustrate service in the Kingdom of God. Perhaps he chose it because he understood that wealth vs having enough is something most humans understand. We are taught from early ages the value of money and what it can and does mean in our society. When money becomes our only object of value we sell our souls to acquire riches. 1 Timothy 6:10 probably describes it best, For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Jake Wood, one of the founders of Team Rubicon, said in the news interview that his military service has forced him to seek challenges to use his skills and enable the use of the skills of other soldiers whose experience in war had taught them the better way. We can learn from them.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for those who bravely serve our country and return home to continue their service to help and heal others and themselves. 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.

Together in Love

Living in the Spirit

November 6, 2020

Scripture Reading: Amos 5:18-24
Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!
   Why do you want the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, not light;
   as if someone fled from a lion,
   and was met by a bear;
or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall,
   and was bitten by a snake.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light,
   and gloom with no brightness in it?

I hate, I despise your festivals,
   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,
   I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
   I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

The day of the Lord to many Christians marks the coming of Christ and eventual return. In the Hebrew Bible the day of the Lord relates more to temporal events like the darkness of being overthrown by an enemy. Amos deals with people who are caught up in the image of a god of their own creation. A god they worship with great festivals and solemn assemblies in the very midst of great. Rome burned while Nero fiddled; Israel landed in Babylon while it ignored God’s prophets. Problems arise when our cultural lives serve as blinders for any injustice present in our world.

Our personal worth, all people’s personal worth’s began when we were created in the image of God. Our challenge is actualizing the skills and talents with which we are endowed while furthering the advancement of others made in God’s image. In creating the world, God manifested an interdependent system that works best when fueled by the force of God’s love in and among all of us. There is no place for injustice in such a schematic. Houses divided fail and fall.

We, as a nation, are very divided. Now is the time to assess our situations to seek common ground for the Common Good.

Prayer: Creator of all, forgive us for missing the mark in seeking justice for all. Guide us in finding your path toward 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Christ with Us

Living in the Spirit

November 5, 2020

Scripture Reading:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Strangely this scripture is significant to me at this time, in this place. My electric company is good at keeping me posted on where they are regarding getting my electricity back on following an ice storm that downed thousands of lines. I got many emails saying they could not give me a specific time but were assessing outages in my area. I then got projections with dates and times, but they are all moving targets. I watched the website for reductions in outages. They would decrease and then pop back up higher than before as more trees fell and pulled down more lines.

I sense that Paul is addressing a similar concern regarding when Christ was going to return. “I do not know” response is not very comforting when loved ones have died before Christ’s expected return. Christ did promise to return. It is hard to understand. Life after death is a great mystery, as is Christ’s return. Two thousand years later, as a child, I heard preachers on the radio saying Christ is coming soon, often listing signs present in our society. I was a skeptic at an early age. Most of those shows ended with a request for money, so the ministry could continue warning people to get ready for Christ’s imminent arrival. In my young mind, that was a distraction from the work Christ’s expected us to do. Probably because of my skepticism, I do not put much emphasis on what is called the second coming. I do take Jesus’s gift of the Spirit seriously. In the Spirit’s presence, Christ never left. The Spirit guides us as we live out our life as part of the Body of Christ, loving our neighbors and doing justice.

Prayer: Lord, our understanding of you is driven in part by the world around us and its influences. Guide us in separating with is your way, your truth, and your life. 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.

Seeking Justice

Living in the Spirit

October 27, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Micah 3:5-12

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
   and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
   and pervert all equity,
who build Zion with blood
   and Jerusalem with wrong!
Its rulers give judgement for a bribe,
   its priests teach for a price,
   its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
   ‘Surely the Lord is with us!
   No harm shall come upon us.’
Therefore because of you
   Zion shall be ploughed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
   and the mountain of the house a wooded height. –Micah:9-12

Reading the Hebrew prophets is like reading a newspaper today. What Micah cried out against in 700 BC applies today.

Abhor justice and pervert all equity
CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978. Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time. (Economic Policy Institute) Many of those workers do not earn a living wage.

Rulers give justice for a bribe
January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. (The Brenan Center for Justice)

Priests teach for a price. Prophets give oracles for money.
The “prosperity gospel,” an insipid heresy whose popularity among American Christians has boomed in recent years, teaches that God blesses those God favors most with material wealth…Few theological ideas ring more dissonant with the harmony of orthodox Christianity than a focus on storing up treasures on Earth as a primary goal of faithful living. (The Washington Post, The Worst Ideas of the Decade, The prosperity gospel by Cathleen Falsani)

We find ourselves caught in the web of the greed pandemic raging through our land as we invest our time and talent in making money, the Baal of our time.  Also, being ravage by the COVID-19 pandemic, we throw up our hands and say let it run its course while we develop better treatments and a vaccine. Dealing with COVID-19 is hurting our economy.

We do possess the means of controlling both pandemics. The treatment outlined by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31 has two steps, the first is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Wearing a mask, physical distancing, testing, tracing, and quarantining as indicated, markedly reduces the spread of COVID-19. Putting God first in our lives over any idol sets us on the path of righteousness.

Prayer: Lord, free us of the burden of worshiping lesser gods, bring us back into your fold, and lead us to higher ground. Grant us the patience and forbearance we need to face the COVID-19 virus head-on and help us find ways of loving our neighbors involved in it, whether as victims or health care workers. 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

Re-formation

Living in the Spirit

October 26, 2020

Scripture Reading: Joshua 3:7-17

Joshua 3:7-17

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.

When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. –Joshua 3:7,14-17

What happens when we reach our destination? Amid a very contentious campaign, we are caught in the waiting time when our leaders are identified—not just the President but also Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, and local leaders of various types. I voted about a month ago, the same day I received my absentee ballot. I long for some magic button to press when all the political ads could be removed from all my media sources. However, it may be useful for me to see them in the clearer light of having already voted. 

I have discovered being honest in ads may hurt the candidate. Have we reached that level of division, or is it denial? If we do not do anything about climate change, then it must not exist?

Sharing ideas and plans about addressing issues is counterproductive to the election. In my memory, this is the first time one of the major political parties did not present a platform.

I have recently had the feeling that we are at a crossing point in our nation. I do not know whether it is crossing over into new and better ways of being or exile. Scary when you think about it, but change always is. My prayer is that we are at another Re-formation where we take stock of our faithfulness to God’s leadership and carefully discern and choose God’s choices for our lives.

Prayer: Lord of Love, direct our responses to our leaderships changing as we strive to be your Body in a very fragmented 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Sharing Good News

Living in the Spirit

October 23, 2020

Scripture Reading:
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

I had to read this scripture three times before I comprehended its fullness. I would read a few phrases, and my mind would drift off on some horrible campaign ad I had just turned off full of half-truths and innuendo. I was already concerned about the latest COVID-19 numbers just released on the news. We live in times of high frustration.

Paul and his crew arrived in Thessalonica after departing Philippi, where they were shamefully maltreated. The situation was different in Thessalonica. The visiting evangelists were welcomed by a people who were also dealing with challenging issues, but who allowed Paul and his group to love them in the way these travelers longed to share Christ’s abundant love with others.

We have lost sight of the meaning of the word evangelists in our world today. It means sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. The good news does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery. Never comes with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed. The politics of faith is a travesty. The understanding that wealth is God’s outward approval of one’s salvation is heresy.

All Christ-followers must evaluate their lives individually and as communities of faith carefully to consider if we are sharing Christ’s good news or our self-righteous ideas of what Jesus surely meant to say. Repentance results in redemption when we realign with Jesus Christ’s righteousness..

Prayer: Lord of All, open our hearts and minds to the truth that we have forsaken. Forgive us and guide us back through your Spirit to following you. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Living on the Plain

Living in the Spirit

October 20, 2020

Scripture Reading:

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

We quote the phrase love your neighbor as yourself easily and regularly. We fail to remember the admonitions that are summarized in this commandment. I am writing this amid the political ads that are bombarding us leading up to the 2020 election. They are no different than the ones we have heard in the past. Many are designed to divide and conquer.

God calls us to live on a level plain, where all are judged the same, where hate has no place in our hearts. Having worked for years with and for the poor, I was interested in the phrase shall not be partial to the poor. When the poor are poor because they are working hard but not paid a living wage, it is not partial to correct that situation. It is doing justice. The poor do need to take responsibility for themselves in every way they can. Our helping them become the people God created them to be is also doing justice.

Isaiah describes it well,

Every valley shall be lifted up
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain. — Isaiah 40:4

Prayer: Lord, help us see your image in each person we encounter and make that our starting place in our interactions with 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

God’s Graciousness

Living in the Spirit

October 12, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Exodus 33:12-23

Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, you have said to me, “Bring up this people”; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.’

The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’ Moses said, ‘Show me your glory, I pray.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, “The Lord”; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

Moses prayers for his salvation and for that of the people he leads. The Lord responds that God will be gracious to Moses and otherwise will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Paul says in Philippians 2:12–Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Moses is praying for protection regarding the Israelites escape from Egypt of both the individuals and the collective involved. Paul, too, seems to be instructing the Philippians as they strive to be the Body of Christ in an unwelcoming world in the same manner. God cares for us as individuals and as part of the family of God, and God holds us accountable as individuals and as the collective Body of Christ. The further we get into the story, the Exodus illustrates that Moses had his hands full, occasionally dealing with his fellow Israelites working together, following God’s ways.

Those proclaiming to be the Body of Christ in the USA today are torn asunder with the various sides, not recognizing the other groups as relating to the same Christ. We, too, must pray for God’s presence to go with all who call on Christ’s name that we might be the One Body of Christ working together toward building the Kingdom of God.

Prayer: Be gracious with us, Lord, forgive us for our sins of self-righteousness. Let your love flow through us, enabling us to love one another. 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.