Tag Archives: Loving Like Jesus

Learning Like Little Children

Little child learningEastertide
April 23, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 13:31-35

Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ –John 13:33-35

Jesus address his disciples, including us, as little children, not just children. How many times do we have to repeat something to a preschooler before it is imprinted into their very being? I sat next to a young mother in a waiting room recently with I would guess, her 18-month old little girl. She was playing with her doll and every once in a while she would hug the doll closely and scream a little scream and giggled in pure delight. Each time her mother would gently say we need to be quiet here. The child soon got distracted by another activity and the screaming ended. I do not know whether the child stopped screaming because her mother asked her to or not, but I do know that every so gradually this child was learning how to deal with others.

In our scripture today Jesus is parenting his disciples. In how many ways and how many times had Jesus said basically this same thing to them? How many times do we need to hear it before we begin to live it? In Matthew 18:3 Jesus tells his disciples, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Children are learning sponges. It is amazing, really, how much information they can take in an apply in such a short amount of time, although it may not seem like a short amount of time to the parent. Adults on the other hand must learn from redundancy being taught the same thing over and over again and then it still may not stick.

The problem for adults in learning is a lack of trust. If something wasn’t what we had once been taught, it becomes suspect. Undoing such patterning takes some major motivation. The stories of Jesus and of God’s actions in the world are the source of building trust, but at some point we have to step out in faith and attempt in small ways to live the power of love.

Prayer: Don’t give up on us Lord. Keep whispering your love in our ears until through us the whole world knows 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Enabling Faith

Ananias and PaulEastertide
April 5, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:7-20

So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. –Acts 9:17-19

Who enabled your faith? My list is long and getting longer. My parents certainly would be toward the top of the list. A multitude of Sunday school teachers and ministers would follow. Authors of books that I love to read. Even the people I have observed from afar like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Theresa. I have to say though, the Jesus I was introduced to as a tiny child would have to top my list. The one these others taught me to sing about and pray to. The one who truly was my friend in every sense of the word and still is to this day.

Whose faith are we enabling? youth Sunday at my church this week was led by some of the most gifted young people you would every want to meet. They designed and wrote the whole service. Dubbed it the first Oscars for Parables. At the end when they accepted the Oscar after declaring a tie among the four parables they presented, they shared their list of enablers in their thank you speeches for the “Oscars” they received. It sounded much like mine.

Who is enabling the faith of all those people out there whose faith has never been enabled? What is happening to those who have been scarred by the church, told they were not worthy? Who is loving them like Jesus loved us once we met him?

Prayer: Lord, you call some to be preachers, some to be teachers, some to be healers, but you call us all to be enablers of the faith. Grant us each our own vision like Ananias had of who you are calling us to enable. 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.

Judgment

Jesus before sanhedrinLent
March 23, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 10:34-43

Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’

‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

 I have often wondered where we ever thought we got a say in judging God’s relationship with anyone. Yet we seem to relish the task, casting doubt on people who do not practice the same theology that we practice.

Jesus commanded us to love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I think achieving those two tasks will surely take me a full life time leaving me no time to judge anyone else’s beliefs or behaviors. Jesus actually drew the assignment to judge all of us and yet he said to the woman caught in adultery, neither do I judge you, go and sin no more. (John 8:11)

As we experience again the trial of Jesus this week consider what is behind the judgment calls being made about him. They have little to do with his actual actions and much more to do with the threats his actions bring to those judging and the way of life they have chosen to practice. How much of our judging of others is primarily concerned with protecting ourselves?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I shy away from loving a neighbor who intimidates me, who I do not understand, who does not fit my way of being. Let your love flow through me to enable me to love the others I encounter along life’s ways just as they are. 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.

Don’t be so Selfish

love1Lent
March 18, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 19:28-40

Then they brought [the colt] to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. –Luke 19:35-36

How do we show respect or adoration to someone entering our presence today? Pope Francis recently made a trip to South American from where he came. As his vehicle rolled along the streets, he was greeted with loud shouts, waving arms, people jumping up and down to see over those in front of him. He stopped at one point exited the vehicle and approached a man seated in a wheel chair. As he blessed the young man someone in the crowd reached over the seated person pulling Pope Francis over the wheel chair bound man potentially crushing him. The Pope pulled himself back and chastised the person pulling him, “Don’t be so selfish.”

How do we love without conditions? Jesus’ willingness to die on the cross was surely the best example of loving without conditions. Whether we want to admit it or not, most of us want something in return when we offer our love. The man pulling at the Pope was trying to touch him for selfish gain with no concern for who might be endangered in the process.

My teacher, mentor as a spiritual director, Bob Gardenhire, shared with our class that he really did not fully understand the meaning of unconditional love until he cared for his mother as she experienced in the end stages of Alzheimer’s. I have always wondered how many of the people laying their coats in the road to honor Jesus, were in the crowd shouting “Crucify him” a few days later. As we lay our version of our cloaks before God this Holy Week, let us all be mindful of what our commitment really is. Have we learned from Jesus’ how to love unconditionally?

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when our selfish desires overcome our concern for those around us. Enable us to love like Jesus’ loves. 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.

Welcoming “Sinners”

Loving othersLent
March 5, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

 So he told them this parable: [The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother] –Luke 15:1-2

Who are the equivalent of the tax-collectors and sinners today? Who is it with whom we do not want to eat? John Dominic Crossan says that the origins of blood sacrifice include the practice of sharing meals together. To eat together is a form of reconciliation. Makes sense. We seem to be at our holiest when we have nothing left but the bread of life.

So who are the ones we do not wish to eat with? It might be easier to describe who we like to eat with. I like to eat with friends who understand me and accept me as I am. I hope that I am gracious enough to reciprocate this attitude. I like to eat with people who enjoy a good laugh as well as those willing to delve into the richer meanings of life. I like to eat with people whom I love in family, in fidelity and in faith.

How do we reconcile our own desired eating companion choices with the people God sends our way who may not fit nicely at our dinner table? It is so easy; it is hard. Christ calls us to be actively engaged in making everyone a part of our family and faith whether they consider themselves to be thus or not. I have discovered when forced to encounter persons with whom I am not comfortable,  I reconnect with my mother’s gift of hospitality by welcoming all to my table and deal with the discomfort. I soon discover that I can at least begin to see the Christ in each of them. That is the first step. God will walk with us as we journey deeper into loving like Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, clean my filters as I try to see more clearly your image in each and every person on this earth. When I an stuck in my prejudices, let your love be my source of welcoming the other. Amen.

*The Challenge of Jesus, study book and DVD see at http://faithandreason.org/index.php/store/product/the-challenge-of-jesus

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.

Restorative Justice

prison5Lent
February 27, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’ –Luke 13-5

Funny how we humans relate to the woes of others. The evening news is a mirror image of our societies quest to judge. We are told truly sad story of a “proper” family including a request for help, and people usually respond with great compassion, and that is good. Yet when told of a family member, of whom we all are, who has done some horrible crime, or not so horrible crime, we are quick to wish that person the worse possible outcome even though he or she is no less a child of God and may actually be in more need of our compassion than most.

Bad things do happen to good people and love can heal the most hardened criminal. Prisons have started programs where persons, with life without parole sentences, have been taught to train service dogs. The combination of the unconditional love of the dogs with which they work and the knowledge that once the dog leaves their training it will help someone in great need has an amazingly restorative impact on the prisoners involved. I wonder what impact the unconditional love of another human would have?

Prayer: Lord, you commanded us to visit the prisoner show us the way to bring restorative justice to every court room, jail, and prison in our land. Make us conduits of your love and justice to those caught up in the criminal system and make us strong advocates for those whom the justice system has failed. 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.

Loving Outside our Comfort Zone

tightrope_kidAdvent
December 9, 2015

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 12:2-6

And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
   call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
   proclaim that his name is exalted.  

Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
   let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
   for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. –Isaiah 12:4-6

The God of Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah was worthy of praise and greater than all our fears, all that oppresses, and all that rules falsely. And then came Jesus who knew and named the women left out of the former listing, who recognized oppression as a symptom in need of a cure, and who provided his love as the balm to heal sin sick souls*. He experienced humanness and learned from first hand acquaintance the joys and sorrows of life. He, more than any other, understood the power of hate and that love was the only response to overcome hate.

We are a world full of sin sick souls, and just like so many of us whose doctor’s tell us to eat right, get plenty of exercise, and rest as a means of being healthy, we want a magic fix. We want to have our cake and eat it too. We want to be able to pick and choose who we love and choose what they believe and how they live. Loving like Jesus loved is like being on a tightrope without a safety harness. The only thing we are responsible for is carefully placing one foot of loving in front of the other as we move across the tightrope of life trusting that Jesus has our back all the way. I think God would be thrilled, if we would just try loving with a harness like training wheels at least until we get the hang of it.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the courage to try to love outside our comfort zone just a bit. Amen.

*From the spiritual There is a Balm in Gilead see at http://www.hymnary.org/text/sometimes_i_feel_discouraged_spiritual

 

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.

Provoked to Love

LOve worksLiving in the Spirit
November 13, 2015

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:19-25

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. This sentence struck me as rather odd. It would have made more sense to me to simply say “let us provoke one another.” The act of considering makes me envision the vultures setting in the tree in the cartoon movie Jungle Book shrugging their wings and one saying “What do you want to do tonight?” with another replying “I don’t know what do you want to do?” over and over again until “tonight” is lost. Church meetings operate like that at times. Calling a meeting to consider how to provoke ourselves seems a bit overkill, but we do it very well. We probably would identify a laundry lists of ideas and then rank order them from the ones that seem most plausible to the least. Our work would be recorded in the minutes but we probably would never get around to actually provoking anybody although the planners might try to love and do a few good deeds themselves. How many meetings have you attended over the past couple of decades designed to find ways to increase attendance? Is your attendance up?

The truth is none of us like to be provoked. The Greek word translated provoked is paroxusmos* and means a provocation which literally jabs (cuts) someone so they “must” respond. I think the author of Hebrews is recognizing that human nature prefers not to have its equilibrium disturbed. As followers of Christ when we fall into a steady state that does not include love we must enable each other to love as Christ loved and trust in his promise that his love will conquer the world.

Prayer: O Love that Will not let me Go, prick my conscience when I stray from loving as you love, forgive me, and set me back on the path toward your kingdom. Amen.

*http://biblehub.com/greek/3948.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.

Seeing through New Eyes

Spiritual blindnessLiving in the Spirit
October 19, 2015

Scripture Reading: Job 42:1-6, 10-17

Then Job answered the Lord:
‘I know that you can do all things,
   and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
“Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
   things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
“Hear, and I will speak;
   I will question you, and you declare to me.”
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
   but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
   and repent in dust and ashes.’ –Job 42:1-6

The story of Jesus’ healing the man born blind in John came to mind when I read this scripture. In the first century many believe that misfortune was the result of sin. The man’s physical blindness was considered the result of sin. So sin plays a dual role in the scripture because the Pharisees deem Jesus a sinner thus he surely could not heal, yet he did. ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see’ (John 9:25) There is also a dual role in the blindness as the scripture is pointing out the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees.

It is spiritual blindness which our scripture addresses today and when Job’s spiritual eyes are opened and he more fully comprehends the living God he is drawn to repent, turn around from his former ways of understanding.

I remember the day my sister first got glasses. She was discovered to be very nearsighted through a routine school eye check. She had apparently adapted to it so well it had not become apparent. When we walked out of the eye doctor’s office and she had on her new glasses, her first comment was “those trees have leaves.”

Most of the prevalent –isms in our world today, racism, sexism, etc. are the result of nearsighted spiritual vision. We are unable to see the image of God in each persons. The only correction for this condition is letting God open our eyes, repent of our shortsightedness, and begin to love everyone like Jesus loved.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.* 

Prayer: Lord help me see others as you see them and love like you love. Amen.

*First verse of Amazing Grace by John Newton see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/313

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.

Divorce

Living in the Spirit
October 3, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and couple getting divorcedfemale.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’ –Mark 10:2-12

Divorce is so common now we celebrate as an exception those who remain together in marriage for 50+ years. We even publish their pictures in the paper. This scripture has become one to ignore.

One of the unsaid truths of this scripture is that there is no mention of a woman divorcing a man. Jesus did not differentiate status between men and woman. The Hebrew Bible laws they are talking about basically say a man can divorce his wife for any reason like selling an animal that had lost its usefulness to him. There were no divorce rights for women. The Pharisees in hearing Jesus’ response might have been as much surprised by his treating women and men equally as they were about his stating a stronger interpretation of marriage than provided in the law.

I believe there are some good reasons for divorce. I believe that God forgives us when we have failed at the love of another including those we marry. God gives us second changes all the time to get love right. Although we do pay the consequences of our actions when we don’t get love right, we need to take the time to learn from those experiences and work not to make the same mistake again.

Prayer: Lord, help us to love each other as you would have us love and when we do not, help us to understand what part we might have played in failing to love like Jesus. Heal the gaps in our ability to 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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.