Tag Archives: Oneness

Celebrating Foster Parents

foster-kidsEastertide
May 8, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 17:20-26

‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’—John 17:25-26

I read a story recently about a kid who had traversed, I will not use the words been raised or reared, through his childhood and youth in a variety of foster homes, group homes, and something we call independent living when youths suddenly find themselves on their own with nobody to care. He had a mother who for whatever reason was incapable of mothering and I am not sure he knew who his father was. There is no mention of him. Amidst the many pages he could have written in the negative about these various living situations, he chose to remember the one foster home where the parents loved and nurtured him and instilled him with hope. I thought of that story when I read the above words from our scripture today and understood the love these foster parents shared is anchored in the love Jesus invests in each of us. I also realized that I would be writing this for distribution on Mother’s Day this year.

I would ask us all today to celebrate foster mothers, and fathers, who understand their calling and live the love it requires. I would encourage all to do whatever they can to surround our children with the love of Christ so that they may know his hope for a world of love not fear or violence, deprivation or despair. I would call on all to enable parents who most likely learned parenting from their own parents who may have done the best they could under the circumstances but could have done better had someone helped them understand the role of parenting.

You are also invited to celebrate the young man at the beginning of this story because he has transitioned into a caring, loving adult against all odds and largely, I think because of the love of one foster family.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for those who choose to dedicate their lives to being good parents both of their own children and the children of others who need the loving nurture of a parent when their own cannot provide 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 American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

One in the Bond of Love

onenessEastertide
May 7, 2016

Scripture Reading: John 17:20-26

‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. –John 17:20-26

What does it mean to be one? Jesus uses the human body to illustrate the Body of Christ. Paul follows up on this when he speaks of many members but one body (1 Corinthians 12:20). The Book of Hebrews takes it to a longer-term reality with the cloud of many witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). The idea of Jesus praying for you and me in the first century is amazingly nurturing.

Such oneness is not sameness. As hands worked differently than feet, so may one member of the Body of Christ serve differently than another. Apparently, such diversity is not only real but essential.

Every human God created is a key ingredient in fostering the love of God as the ethos, moral nature of our world. Every time we degrade another, we postpone the fulfillment of God’s plan for us. Every time we degrade another we degrade ourselves and all our descendants.

We are one in the bond of love;
We are one in the bond of love.
We have joined our spirits with the Spirit of God;
We are one in the bond of love.  

Let us sing now, ev’ry one;
Let us feel His love begun.
Let us join our hands, that the world will know;
We are one in the bond of love.*

Prayer: Lord, enable us to see the gifts of others with whom we live and work. Help us nurture those all gifts differing. Amen.

*Of unknown origin

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.

What is Evil?

be-not-overcome-of-evil-but-1-638Eastertide
May 4, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 97

The Lord loves those who hate evil;
   he guards the lives of his faithful;
   he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light dawns for the righteous,
   and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
   and give thanks to his holy name! –Psalm 97:10-12

What is evil? The Hebrew word translated as evil in the above scripture is described as adversity.* Other words identified as descriptive are malignant, giving pain. Hate does spread like a cancer. The Psalmist seems to be telling us that the one thing we can hate is hate itself.

I am sickened by the voice of hate that is epidemic in our land. We who call ourselves Christians seem to be some of the most rabid proponents of identifying people who fall outside our definition of who is acceptable and who is not. We somehow seem to think that if we hate enough we will be of greater worth to God. Of course, the very opposite of that is what Jesus taught. Jesus called us to love and actually freed us of the responsibility to judge anyone by accepting that assignment himself. If we choose to use the Bible as a guide for what is sin and thus how to avoid it, we do that to guide our own behavior not the behavior of others.

 God’s love is the only thing that can overcome evil. We can rest assured in that. By melding our love together as the Body of Christ in the world today, our love, not vestiges of hate, will make us a tool in God’s hands to conquer evil.

Prayer: Lord, protect us from the malignancy of evil spreading through the world and strengthen our work to love like you. Amen.

*Strong’s Concordance see at http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7451.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.
Link

God's loveEastertide
May 3, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:16-34

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ –Acts 16:25-30

This story illustrates Paul’s singularity of focus. No matter where is was or what was happening, he kept his attention fully targeted at making disciples. Thrown in prison, it is time to sing hymns. Earthquake, it is time to save a jailer from committing suicide. How dedicated are we to living and loving like Jesus every moment of every day?

I just read the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. It is the story of two men with the same name who grew up in the same intercity neighborhood in Baltimore whose outcomes were dramatically different. The other Wes Moore is now spending the rest of his life in prison. The author Wes Moore is a published army veteran, served an internship in South Africa, and is a Rhodes Scholar. How does that happen? How do two people with very similar environments come out so differently? The author Wes Moore ends the book still somewhat perplexed about that. The one thing on which most who have read the book agree, is that the consistency of small acts of love add up to big life influencers. In all honesty, I think all life outcomes result from the accumulation of acts of love or the absence of them. Our omissions of love for one another perhaps have more impact on life outcomes than outright hostility.

Making disciples means that we are to live our love in such a way that all will know the love of God. When all can love each other fully and completely the Kingdom of God will be here.

Prayer: Lord, guide us to love one another every time all the time. 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.

Lydia, a Business Woman

Lydia's%20LegacyEastertide
April 26, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:9-15

On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us. –Acts 16:13-15

I grew up on a farm in central Oklahoma and attended church and school in a very small town located about six miles from my home. The town’s population in 2013 was 158. I am not sure there are any businesses left there. There are still a couple of churches. It was probably twice that size during my childhood. It served a much wider community of farmers and ranchers in every direction. There were three gasoline stations, two grocery stores, one cafe, a farm implement company, and a lumber yard during the 1950’s that I remember.

The lumber yard was owned and operated by a man and wife and her name was Lydia. This Lydia has always served as my image of the Lydia who heard God’s call through Paul’s preaching in our scripture today. I remember her as a short round person, plain-dressed like most of us; more apt to sell purple than wear it. I think she ran the business side and her husband handled the warehouse of wood and other building materials. She was normally the person who took your order and received the payments. This couple was also very active members of my church. Served in many capacities, were always willing to help, and worked to keep the church going in good times and in bad. Her parents picked a prophetic name for her.

Described here as a worshipper of God, Lydia was most likely a gentile who followed the Jewish way, although she did not convert. Paul’s teachings must have provided insights for her that she needed. She became a follower of Christ and still serves as a role model for us today.

What kind of role model are we for the children in our world? Are we spreading the love of Christ to all?

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for our ancestors in the faith who laid a smooth path for us to follow. Help us do the same for our descendants in the faith. 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 One Another

To die forEastertide
April 24, 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

If we are to model our lives after Jesus, we are going to have to rid ourselves of our need to judge others. Sure he castigated religious leaders for their failures in leading the people in the ways of God. Yet he had great compassion, amazing empathy, without condemnation for the people. I take great solace in the breadth of his forgiveness and love. We all need those.

I saw a sign recently that said don’t judge others because they sin differently than you do. The people who have made the most positive difference in my life are the ones who saw something in me that I did not perceive and helped me to develop it. Jesus did a lot of that. I have also been impacted by those who accept me as I am and love me anyway. That’s a Jesus thing too.

Loving others includes a willingness to engage with others even those we do not understand or particularly those we do not understand. Truth is we become more ourselves the more we grow in loving others in spite of perceived differences. I use to sing the old song, Love Lifted Me with the idea that it was God’s love lifting me and I am sure that is true, but If you think about it our loving others lifts us too.

Prayer: Lord enable us 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 American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

God’s Redemptive Love

love God love peopleEastertide
April 19, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 11:1-18

And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’ –Acts 11:16-18

What is the full measure of God’s redemptive love? How do we recognize it? What is our role regarding it? Apparently if something is of God, at its core is love. No matter how holy something may seem or how obedient we may be to some tenet of faith or rule, if it is without love, it is without God. In I Corinthians 13:1, Paul calls it a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Love is hard to define; we use it so loosely anymore. I like M. Scott Peck’s simplified definition that love is wanting the very best for another, but even that definitions begs the question what constitutes “tough” love? When, in a relationship with another, is it time to stop direct actions to save them when their need is to learn to love themselves so that they too want the very best for themselves? In the end we must accept that all love involves the presence of God. All love requires us to trust that God will nurture each loving relationship and will continue to work for the very best of all God’s children even when they do not seek it for themselves. As with the prodigal son, sometimes we must let another go, freeing them to find their way back to God and to us also.

What is our role in God’s redemptive love? We have been spared the hard task of judging others. Christ has taken on that task himself. Our only job is to love others even if they eat things that would never touch our lips and don’t follow the same set of rules by which we live.

Prayer: Lord, be present to me in all my relationships as we work together to perfect my ability to love the other even when I do not understand 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.

God’s Great Choir

MusicEastertide
April 14, 2016

Scripture Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’ –Revelation 7:9-12

Is it our great desire to stand among peoples from every nation tribe and language in communal worship of God? It appears that is God’s great desire. Our actions would indicate that it is not ours. We may be willing to stand before God together with all people when and if they finally learn to conform to our ways of being and doing and faith, but the scripture does not say that. We may be willing to stand before God together with all people as long as we have the best spots to stand. But the scriptures do not say that either. The scriptures say we are to be willing to give up our box seats for the standing room only in the nose bleed section.

Of course as hard as it is for any of us to step out of our self-centered definitions of what is truth about God, if we let them go, we might find it joyous to discovered that all the seats in God’s kingdom are front row, that the joining of all cultures adds flavor and spice to our lives, and that the Body of Christ truly does have many members with differing gifts and all are vital to the world. It is at this point of understanding that we can in one voice, even speaking many languages, sing together.

Prayer: Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! 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.

One Tunic at a Time

Tabitha_jpegEastertide
April 12, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:36-43

Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner. –Acts 9:40-43

What do you think really happened in this story? Our fact-based minds want to analyze and explain rationally such incidents. Or perhaps we want to take some time to honor Saint Peter for he was truly a gifted child of God.

Christ’s messages to each of us is that that we are truly gifted children of God and that he expects us to do even more than he did. In Matthew 17:20b he says, For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’ And in John 14:12 he also says, Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

How many mountains have we moved recently? How many people have we returned to wholeness? How much of the world has experienced God’s justice through our acts?

While we do need leaders in the faith like Peter or Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Sojourner Truth, most of us are like Tabitha making one step toward justice one tunic at a time and that is a good thing. How many people could the whole Body of Christ lift out of poverty?

Prayer: Lord, make us one in our call to bring mercy and justice to all of your children. 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.

Support Systems

canstockphoto26722618 Eastertide
April 11, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:36-43

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, ‘Please come to us without delay.’ So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. –Acts 9:36-39

We shared the concerns of the day in Sunday school class. One member was back after having had surgery; another member had been transferred to rehab from the hospital to recover from a broken bone. At times it seems we spend almost as much time preparing our list for prayers as we do on the lesson. Today one said, “I sometimes don’t thing we really understand how important it is to have support systems.” We took just a moment to acknowledge the truth of what she had said.

Tabitha had just such a support system. People who loved her and cared for her and knew her so well they could describe the clothing she made for those in need. As we watch the church begin in Acts, we watch the spreading of the Body of Christ’s network from those ancient Jerusalem doorsteps to the ends of the earth. My Sunday school class is a manifestation of that reality.

While the world is about the same size geographically since the inception of the church, the number of people on it has increased markedly. More importantly with advancements in technology and telecommunications, we have immediate access to our neighbors throughout the world. We are enriched by their diverse cultures and grow in the understanding of how every person on this earth was created to make a positive contribution to the wellbeing of the earth and all that are on it. It is a truly amazing thought. One that rises to the level of a God who is love and longs for all God’s people to bask in that love.

Prayer: Lord, help us to never forget how very important our support systems are whether near or far. 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.