Tag Archives: Oneness

Let Love Abound

Ordinary Time

February 14, 2022

Scripture Reading:
Genesis 45:3-11, 15

Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ And they came closer. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. —Genesis 45:3-7

I cannot imagine what it might be like to have sold your brother into slavery only to find him years later as a leader in the government of a great nation. God wants the very best for all of God’s children including the ones with exceptional talents and the ones who are threatened by those abilities. Parents have a great challenge of guiding children to be the best that they can be while being understanding of people with differing skills. Everyone has talents and skills that are necessary for the fruition of a world ruled by love.

God enabled Joseph to not only become a ruler of Egypt but to also discern that would not have happened had he not faced the jealousy of his brothers who sold him into slavery.  He seemed thrilled to see them and was particularly concerned about his father.

I think Paul may have said it best in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Prayer: Lord, grant us the patience love requires and the ability to grow in 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Expect Nothing

Ordinary Time

February 12, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 6:27-38

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. –Luke 6:27-36

I do not recall when I started practicing the art of expecting nothing in return. It must have been somewhere in my childhood. The most positive thing about expecting nothing is when a positive response returns to you—an uncontrolled smile or a  reflexive hug—it becomes an unexpected blessing.

There is no way any of us can know everything that has happened in another’s history or even if they have a toothache that makes them behave the way they do. Others have the same problem when they consider why I do what I do or say what I say. I think God created very different people because a diversity of skills and talents are needed to maintain the world. Sometimes we need others to translate those differences to help create cohesion in the work we do. I grew up on a farm went to a very small rural school. Although I have lived in a city two-thirds of my life, I still understand the differing needs of people living in the country and those living in the city. I can become a translator between the two entities.

Jesus uses the language of the day like “enemies” to describe other people, but he is also saying that there are no enemies when love rules; there may be some people who do not understand that yet. We are called to translate that through our love.

Prayer: Help us to love others expecting nothing in return. 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.

 

Restoring our Souls, Restoring our World

Ordinary Time

February 9, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 1
Happy are those
   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
   or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked will perish.

The wicked are hard to discern in our world today. They very craftily reshape reality to meet their ideology, through partial truths or outright lies. If they repeat it enough, people start to believe it. We definitely have a good supply of scoffers, at times leading to violence. The Psalmist above assures us that the wicked will perish in the judgment. My question is what do we do in the meantime?

While it feels like we are in dangerous times, and, indeed, I think we could travel down wrong paths long enough, as the nation of Israel did, that we might find ourselves in exile. I have a greater sense that we have entered a time in history when a major move toward the good is opening if we seek and take advantage of the opportunities that lie within it. God sent Jesus to challenge us to work together in oneness to actualize, make real throughout the world, God’s vision of all operating on the power of love and doing great and wonderful things, together. We all think we are not the wicked when to some degree as we foster divisiveness and self-righteousness, we all become wicked. Clearing out the cobwebs of our souls is a great place to start, fostered by a closer relationship with God.

Prayer: Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.

 Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm*! Amen.

*Fourth and fifth verses of Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier  see at https://hymnary.org/text/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind

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.

Who Do You Trust?

Ordinary Time

February 8, 2022

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
   whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
   sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
   and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
   and it does not cease to bear fruit. –Jeremiah 17:7-8

In the 1950s there was a game show on TV. Who do you trust? It required a couple to decide which one would answer the next question, the man or the woman, based on the question’s subject. Indeed, we each must make the decision whether we trust in the Lord, but we also gain trust in the Lord by sharing our personal experiences with others.

I love my Sunday School class for that reason, it includes business owners, schoolteachers, government workers, lawyers, engineers, nurses, each with a slightly different take on life. As I wrote this, I was reminded that that group of people are mostly well-educated middle class or above people. Reminding me I also value highly my experience in high school and college working as a waitress and nurses’ aide. Working with women in minimum wage jobs who were the sole support of their families was eye-opening. Some were young mother’s others were older women who were working outside the home for the first time in their lives because their spouse had died or become disabled. It certainly is not the same as living in their shoes but at least I knew they existed. When I worked in those jobs the minimum wage was about the same as the poverty level. Today the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and $2.13 an hour for persons receiving tips. The poverty wage for 1 person in Oklahoma is $6.13 and a living wage is $13.53. In all families with more than one person, the minimum wage is below the federal poverty level*.

During Jesus’s ministry, he went out of his way to open his disciples’ eyes to the needs of all people. Rich or poor and called us to love them all. I am sure you can trust that remains his goal for all his disciples today in a world where trust is in short supply.

Prayer: Lord, renew and restore our trust in following your example as we work to renew and restore the love we need for one another and all others.  Amen.

*https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/40

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.

Called to Serve

January 29, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus understood he needed a diversity of disciples to carry out God’s plan for God’s people.  Paul put it this way in Romans 12:1-5, For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

I once worked in a hospital that was being rebuilt while conducting its mission. That resulted in the main parking lot’s closure requiring much of the staff to walk several blocks from a temporary lot located in a high crime area at all hours of the day. Most of the janitorial staff were women over 50, many did not have the appropriate clothing for the weather. The elite parking places near the entrance of the building were reserved for doctors, residents, and interns, most, at that time, were males in the prime of their lives. In a staff meeting, the issue of the long, unsafe walk arose. The leaders said the doctors are the most important staff in the hospital. Lives depended on their presence. To which one in attendance replied, “if the surgical theater was not spotlessly clean, the work of a surgeon could be meaningless.” There was silence and finally the comment “we will look into it.” That same week two vans began picking up and returning employees to the distant parking lot on a regular schedule.

God created an interdependent world where everyone has a purpose and is needed to fulfill God’s vision of God’s kingdom here on earth.

Prayer: Lord, enable us each to serve you as you have called us and enable us to work together in shalom. 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.

Restore Our Souls

Ordinary Time

January 26, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 84

For a day in your courts is better
   than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
   he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
   from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
   happy is everyone who trusts in you. –Psalm 84:10-12

The Lord is brighter than the sun and more protective than the strongest shield. Envision a group of people waiting on a hillside for the sun to come over the horizon. A wonderful explosion of color surrounds it until it rises high enough and becomes so bright one cannot look at it without the help of sunglasses.

 The title of J. B. Phillips’s book, Your God Is Too Small, flashes through my mind when I read scriptures like this one. Scriptures like this give me great hope that God will restore us to wholeness from our wandering ways. I have become very cynical during the COVID pandemic because of our response to it. We seem caught in a web of total denial unable to deal with the reality that is around us. Our self-righteousness may be catching up with us. We have lived in a favored state for so long we forget the blood, sweat, and tears our ancestors experienced creating the privilege we now see as normal. Indeed, to whom much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48)  We have millions of fellow citizens who do not have enough of the basic needs of life and we have a world full of starving people longing for the people of God to relieve their suffering so that they might too enjoy setting under a rising sun with the protection of God’s love.

Prayer: O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
   give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God;
  look on the face of your anointed*. 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.

Let Your Light Shine

Ordinary Time

January 24, 2022

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-10
 ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.’
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’

One of the few bright spots in our world today is the actions of youth and young adults to make the world we live in a better place. From world-renowned advocates for peace, Malala Yousaf and for climate change, Greta Thunberg, to Amanda Gorman who recited her poem, The Hill We Clime, at the Biden inauguration, young adults are taking responsibility for making the world a better place. There are also those who show up and take charge of the small, community-related issues. I saw a teenager filling holes in the streets in front of his home on TV a few months ago, and youth through their own initiative trying to end school shootings. Jeremiah was one such young adult who accepted the call to warn his nation of its folly. We can learn a lot from the study of the book of Jeremiah, and we can learn a lot from the example of the young people in our world today setting the example for us adults.

Prayer: Lord, let our light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven*. Amen.

*Derived from Matthew 5:16

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.

Called

Ordinary Time

January 15, 2022

Scripture Reading: John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

How do we know the right time to initiation our life’s calling?

  • Moses encountered a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-17),
  •  Gideon tested God twice before following God’s command (Judges 6:36-7:23),
  • Isaiah had a vision (Isaiah 6),
  • Jesus had a mother who was told by an angel who her son was, and she encouraged his stepping into that role (Luke 1:26-38).

These were all leaders whose works deserved recording in the annals of history. However, each Christ-follower has at least one calling, likely many, from checking on the sick to donating food to a pantry or working for justice for all God’s children. Each person is gifted with skills to foster the Kingdom of God on this earth. Answering our calling and supporting others in theirs are critical elements to enabling a world ruled by God’s love. We must keep our whole beings open to hearing our calls and answering them.

Prayer: Grant us each the strength and courage first to hear your call and then answer it with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 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.

Created to be One

Ordinary Time

January 14, 2022

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. –1 Corinthians 12:14-26*

In Jul 2015, former president Jimmy Carter said the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves*.”

An Oligarchy is a group or organization that is controlled by a privileged few**

Recalling Carter’s above observation, I saw this scripture in a new light. I more and more believe that God created the world to be interdependent, and any attempt to disconnect that objective leads eventually to disaster. Like steering a boat sharing the waterway with many other travelers, we are each called to maintain a steady course using all the skills and talents God has gifted us to be the best of who we are and desire that all those other people become the best that they can be. I fear greed blinds some to the necessity of achieving that critical mission to sustain our very lives. There is no trickle-down in the economy. All wealth is dependent upon the abundance each person shares in the economy.

The USA is a grand experiment on whether a nation can exist in harmony as a government of the people by the people and for the people. We have never met that vision fully, but we stand very close to the precipice of proving we cannot. The actual test is whether the people want democracy. Are we letting ourselves be trapped by the oligarchs? Why are we letting them rule us?

 Prayer: Lord, strengthen us with the power of love to recover our dream of a world ruled by loving our neighbors as we love ourselves and not impoverishing them so we can be richer. Amen.

*https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/

**https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/oligarchy

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.

We Can Do All Things in Christ

Ordinary Times

January 13, 2022

Scripture Reading:
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. –1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 27-31a

Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City was a decrepit place when I arrived to work there in 1974. That is, the building and facilities were dilapidated. I was amazed at the quality of work accomplished by a very dedicated staff who cared about children—all children. They provided routine care for the poorest of the poor up to state-of-the-art lifesaving care for any child that needed it within the limitations of its resources. The state legislature could not find the money to improve the facilities until they remembered that the two-cent sales tax could only be used by the Department of Public Welfare. So, they transferred the Children’s hospital to DPW and said fix it, and Lloyd Rader did. He was a powerful man, scary even, but he knew how to get things done.

Much of the social work staff at the hospital left with the transfer to DPW. I was a child welfare supervisor in Payne County and was transferred to supervise social workers at Children’s Hospital. Trailers were set up to house much of the administrative staff while rebuilding was completed. The social work staff officed at the end of a wide hallway. My boss was a wonderful gentleman. Each morning he came by our “office” and emptied all the mouse traps in our desks before we began work. I remember those days when I drive by the beautiful facility in its place today and hear about their various services and accomplishments. Those changes happened because some people saw a need, others joined them, and a state-of-the-art facility became a reality.

As the Body of Christ, we are called to work together for the well-being of all God’s children, whether caring for the sick or assuring that all people have the necessities of life. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us*.

Prayer: Help us see needs and meet them. Amen.

*Derived from Philippians 4:13

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.