Tag Archives: Modeling Jesus

In the World Not of It

Living in the Spirit

September 25, 2022

Scripture Reading:

Luke 16:19-31

Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’ –Luke 16:26-31

What does it take to make us do what is necessary to address a problem?  The phone part of my cell phone went dead on me this morning giving me the message that I had no SIM card. My very first reaction was, “what time does Target open?” I cannot live without a telephone. The store was not opened yet. I calmed down a bit so I accessed, via my computer, my phone carrier explaining my problem. The woman who responded asked me a few questions and then instructed me on how to access my SIM card and guided me through cleaning it. I chatted back that I would rather take it to someone else to fix. She said let’s try this first and I following her patient detailed instructions removed the SIM card, cleaned it, and reinstalled it. My phone worked again. If I had followed my first instinct, I probably would have spent a lot of time and money for no good reason because dust seeped through the edge of my phone and temporarily blocked its working.

As the scripture above indicates, we, too, have had Moses and the prophets and Jesus, who did rise from the dead, and still, we panic and search the ways of the world to address our life challenges before we recall we are children of God and our first step in managing our life should be to touch base with God and take strength in knowing who we are and whose we are. If we live our faith, eventually, like Paul in 1 Timothy 4:7, we will be able to say, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Prayer: Lord, help me stay in touch with you through my daily spiritual disciplines so that I seek your guidance in all phases of intersecting with the world. Remind us all, we are in the world not of it. 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 Design

Living in the Spirit

October 17, 2021               

Scripture Reading: Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Mark reports a straightforward request for healing that was granted. Other gospels in telling this story delve into the politics of the day. I was refreshed reading this version, having grown weary of media reports on issues that matter to me where the press only talks about the politics and not the contents of a bill or the problems being addressed. The media no longer seems to care about “we the people.” It is more concerned about we the political party or we the powermongers. The media cares about what gets them better ratings which translates into better profits. Jesus cared about the people.

How do we, as followers of Christ, turn that around? Getting caught up in greed and power brokering historically always ends badly, not only for commoners but especially for the wealthy and the powerful.  God did not create a world that can sustain being constantly pulled out of balance, regarding the earth itself or its people. Instead, God created a masterpiece where all people are indeed created equal. Where we all must make our contributions to making the world work for everyone in it. We were all created with gifts that must be realized and supported by all for all.

Benjamin Franklin said it this way: We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

Jesus put it this way: Love God and love your neighbors as you love yourself.

Our country was founded on that premise. The question is, do we have the will to make it work?

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we care more about worldly wealth and power than we do about one another. Turn us around to see and do your better way. 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.

Seeing as Jesus Saw

Living in the Spirit

June 20, 2021

Scripture Reading: Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he  that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

In grade school, I had to memorize Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If. The first line skittered through my mind as I read the scripture quoted above:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

I no longer can quote the whole poem, but that part stuck with me. Our society has wasted a lot of energy in recent years, losing our heads and blaming the problem identified on someone else, not ourselves. The effort that should be targeted at problem-solving is lost to deadlock. We are stuck in a societal gridlock like a traffic jam that does not move. The Beatles’ Nowhere Man also comes to mind.

He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody. . .

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see*

Jesus modeled in his life stepping out of deadlocks, analyzing problems, and addressing them. He called us to continue this work. Jesus never lost his head, nor did he just see what he wanted to see. He did get angry at least once when he drove the money changers out of the temple. That anger was targeted at people who claimed to follow God and reaped profits from their temple work. Greed always seems to be lurking around every corner.

We do not have either the time or energy to get caught in gridlock or losing our heads. We are in the fragile early stages of recovering from a pandemic in our country that is still raging worldwide.  A third of our nation is suffering from severe drought and a depleting water supply. An estimated 1.4 million people in the USA are classified as living in poverty or just one emergency from poverty. Now is the time to seek God’s guidance in responding and investing our time and energy in addressing the challenges we face.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us for not seeing what we need to see and not addressing what we need to address. Direct us in loving as you modeled love in the world. Amen.

*See at https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/887/

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.