Month: November 2016

The Mix

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 97; 147:12-20, Zephaniah 3:1-7, Revelation 16:12-21, Luke 13:18-30

Potential energy is “energy possessed by a body by virtue of its position relative to others, stresses within itself, electric charge, and other factors.” Such bodies include batteries, tightly coiled springs, and a boulder balanced on a high peak. Until these things interact with the rest of the world in some way, the energy remains dormant – a potential which may or may not be realized – within them.

When Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a great tree, or a pinch of yeast that leavens an entire loaf of bread, he is talking about releasing the potential energy of the Spirit into the world through his followers. He describes something small – say a group of twelve people in the outskirts of the Roman empire – transforming the world.

Such potential is released when its bearer interacts with its environment. The mustard seed must be sown in the earth and exposed to the elements; the yeast must be kneaded into the dough and allowed to rise. Leave a packet of either on the shelf, and eventually it expires. You can read about gardening and baking, or sing songs about them, but in order for the mustard and yeast to meet their potential, they – or rather we – have to be in the mix.

We may not know whether we are mustard or yeast until we’re given a chance to grow in the right environment. Throw yeast on the ground or mustard into the dough, and you won’t get the desired results. Some of us will grow until the birds nest in our branches, and some will toil unseen alongside countless others to feed the hungry. Both are equally important to the kingdom, which is also like a banquet, a pearl, a field, a faithful servant, etc. There is no one right way to be part of the Kingdom.

Maybe you’ve already found the way to unlock your potential. Maybe you’re still waiting. Trust the gifts God has instilled in you, and you could be amazed by them. You’ll never know until you get into the mix.

Comfort: You already have everything you need to be part of the Kingdom.

Challenge: Make a list of your talents, and your suspected talents. Think about how you could best use them to serve God.

Prayer: God of Potential, help me discover all the ways I am yours. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever been in a situation that revealed a gift or gifts you didn’t know you had?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

The Gospel Unleashed

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 89:1-18; 147:1-11, Zephaniah 2:1-15, Revelation 16:1-11, Luke 13:10-17

A woman, who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit, came to Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Of course he healed her, and of course – as with all his Sabbath healings – the leaders of the synagogue were angry with him. They also scolded the woman for not coming on one of the six other days of the week when such activity was permissible. Jesus replied:

You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?

His opponents were shamed, and the crowd rejoiced.

Jesus nailed the hypocrisy. Enforcing laws against things you find sinful is easy when you aren’t affected by them. None of the synagogue leaders suffered a similar affliction, so it didn’t impact them a bit if she had to wait, but they would unlawfully untie a knot for a thirsty beast.

Still today many Christians demand civic laws against sins which don’t impact them. Unsurprisingly, they are less supportive of legislation enforcing Christ’s instructions like inviting the poor into our homes, giving away our second coats to those who have none, and doing good to those who wrong us. We want the government to prohibit gay marriage and abortion (though not all Christians agree on these issues) because we are a “Christian nation” … but when it comes to our money, the government has no business dictating the conscience of individuals. Now excuse me while I untie my ox.

If we need laws to behave, we are not faithful – we are fearful. When we prioritize rules over relationships, we have forgotten that at the end of each legalistic leash is a human being. If our witness for Christ is unpersuasive, the problem lies not in our government, or in our corrupted society, but in us. Let us live as Christ instructed, and the Gospel really will seem like good news.

Comfort: Faith exists regardless of circumstance.

Challenge: When watching or reading the news, be aware of people promoting a civic Christianity at the expense of Christ.

Prayer: Lord of the Gospel, perfect my witness to Christ until it shines like a beacon on a hill. Amen.

Discussion: What is a healthy level of overlap between our faith lives and civic lives?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Faith and Figs

/ JJS / 7 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 42; 146, Zephaniah 1:14-18, Revelation 14:14-15:8, Luke 13:1-9

One of the most troubling clichés in Christianity is blaming someone’s misfortune on a lack of faith. Many an action contains the seed of its own consequences, and we want to avoid those tragedies, but catastrophes like illness and natural disasters happen to the faithful, the doubtful, and the indifferent in equal measure. We don’t know the details of why or how the tower of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people, but Jesus – unlike many of today’s televangelists – used the tragedy not to shame the victims, but to point out the need for everyone to repent:

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.

In other words, don’t put off until tomorrow what could be prevented forever by a falling tower today.

Why are we eager to link tragedy with sin, especially when Jesus said otherwise (see also “it rains on the just and the unjust” in Matthew 5)? Maybe because we want the world to make sense. Maybe because the inverse proposition is that a lack of tragedy assures us we are doing faith “right.” Maybe because we trust the (imaginary) justice in front of us more than God’s eternal justice. Whatever the reason, Jesus tries to redirect our thinking away from externally-directed blame and inward toward repentance.

Jesus follows up with a parable about a vineyard owner with a fig tree that hasn’t produced fruit in three years (perhaps not coincidentally the length of Jesus’s active ministry). He wants to cut it down, but the gardener asks for one more year to tend and fertilize it. We never learn the fate of the tree.

Rather, it bends us toward God regardless of fortune. Like the fig tree we need to develop roots that dig deep and branches that stretch for the light so we can bear fruit through all kinds of weather. We repent joyfully because God loves us enough to offer a future regardless of our past.

Comfort: Whatever the question, faith is the answer.

Challenge: Think about something in your life you wish would change. Is there something you could change within instead?

Prayer: God of possibilities, do with my life as you will. Amen.

Discussion: How do you typically react to problems that are beyond your control?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!