Devotional

Investment Strategy

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 108; 150, Isaiah 19:19-25, Romans 15:5-13, Luke 19:11-27

Common wisdom in business says if an enterprise is standing still, it’s moving backward. This can refer to both innovation and revenue. A business that doesn’t keep up with current technologies and culture ceases to be competitive; even artisans producing boutique, traditional, hand-crafted products need to accept credit cards. A business which breaks even can’t invest in capital improvements necessary to stay competitive or to simply maintain its own aging assets.

Church, like government, isn’t a business but some of the same principles apply. Jesus told a parable about three slaves who were trusted with money by their master while he was away. One invested it and profited tenfold, another profited fivefold, and a third only buried his sum until his master returned. The master was displeased with the third who failed to do so much as put it in the bank to collect interest. This parable is about how we are to invest our own resources of time, treasure, and talent in growing God’s kingdom. A person or church who hoards them rather than risking them is not doing what Jesus says is pleasing to God.

Many Christian individuals and communities are content to take care of their own. Church growth is usually a goal, but it is too often measured only by how many people show up in the pews on Sundays. Since polling consistently shows overall church attendance is declining, any significant increase in the size of a congregation is more likely due to people changing churches than becoming new Christians. Attendance measures little more than the shift of a declining population. A church satisfied by the measures of its own congregation or – perhaps slightly more generously – in its specific denomination is effectively burying its talents in the back yard. If stewardship is defined in terms of the ability to keep the doors open (or to buy bigger doors), the church is moving backward.

Today’s passage from Romans describes a church which flourishes because it expands into territory which was unexpected and to some unacceptable: the Gentile world. The Jews were expecting a Messiah dedicated specifically to the Jewish people; taking him to the Gentiles verged on blasphemy for many of the original Jewish disciples. Yet Paul essentially built the church out of the unacceptable.

The prophet Isaiah talked about a future where Jews, Egyptians, and Assyrians worshipped the Lord together. To the Jews who had been persecuted, enslaved, and exiled by these nations this was equally unthinkable. Yet through Jeremiah God instructed the Jews to survive exile by promoting peace in the city of their captors until they were once again free.

The church does not grow – or fulfill her mission – by patting herself on the back about how holy she is. Yes in many ways we are directed to be a community apart from the world, but should that separation manifest itself in our physical and social separation or in our attitudes and values? Taking credit for poaching church members is like claiming to improve our cash flow by moving money from savings to checking.

The future of the church lies in the people we don’t currently appeal to – and who may not appeal to us. Real opportunities for investment are scary and may not pay off. We have to resist being tainted by the lure of the less savory elements of the world. But our master is not so fearful that we can’t risk what we value by taking it where it really has a chance of multiplying, and then we’ll know the reward of being trusted with more.

Comfort: Our Lord is invested in our future.

Challenge: Do something that scares you today.

Prayer: Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.  (Psalm 66:8-9)

Discussion: Is there any group you think the church is neglecting today?

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Trickle Up Economics

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 122; 149, Nehemiah 7:73b-8:3, 5-18, Revelation 22:14-21, Matthew 18:21-35

A slave owed his king more than a half a million dollars. Because he could not settle the debt, the king was going to sell off  the man and his family to recover what he could. The slave pleaded for some more time, promising he could come up with the money. The king showed mercy. On his way out of the palace, the slave ran into a second slave who owed him about a hundred dollars. When the second slave pleaded for patience, the first slave had him thrown into prison. The king, angered the first slave couldn’t show mercy in turn, had him tortured until his debt was paid in full.

Swap out talents and denarii for dollars, and this summarizes a parable Jesus told about forgiveness. The message is that we have been given a tremendous amount by God, so we should be able to muster at least a fraction of that forgiveness in kind.

This parable also gets at the heart of an important reason we find forgiveness so difficult: we don’t see ourselves reflected in other people as often as we should, and when we do we are likely to condemn them for the traits we hate in ourselves.

Sadly there is no shortage of “family values” advocates caught up in scandal for engaging in behaviors they declare immoral and campaign to make illegal. There are also plenty of people identifying themselves as progressive who turn out to be closeted misogynists and racists. And for some reason, rather than humbly reach across the aisle to establish a dialogue about how we can love and work through the human condition together, we continue to point at specks and ignore planks … all the while trading in actual morals for a sense of moral superiority.

And if right now anyone is thinking about someone else who needs to hear this, instead of how they themselves might be lacking in empathy and extrapolation, respectfully they are missing the point.

All the time we spend declaring and condemning is time we don’t spend listening and understanding. Maybe we can honestly look at someone and say we wouldn’t commit that particular sin or mistake, but when it comes to what we’ve been forgiven, a dime is as good as a dollar. Jesus didn’t leave the casting of the first stone to “he who hasn’t committed adultery” but “he who is without sin.” He didn’t die for some, but for all.

A lack of forgiveness – which necessitates a willingness to see ourselves reflected in our fellows – is a rejection of the forgiveness we have received. It can be difficult to see humanity in others when we are scared, angry, or ashamed but those are the times we need to try the hardest. The king could have said “it was smart of you to try to collect so you could pay me back” but he valued paying mercy forward more. Ultimately all debts are settled through the Prince of Peace, so let’s be generous with ours.

Additional reading: For more thought’s on today’s passage from Matthew, see Love and Forgiveness and Seventy-Seven Times. For more on empathy and extrapolation, see Invitation: Extrapolation.

Comfort: Forgiveness has more reward than cost.

Challenge: Talk with someone you are having trouble forgiving. If you can’t yet bring yourself to forgive, try to just listen.

Prayer: Merciful and loving God, may gratitude for your forgiveness fill my heart until it overflows into the world. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever condemned someone for something you were also guilty of? If so, how do you feel about that now?

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Tax Reform

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 88; 148, Nehemiah 9:26-38, Revelation 22:6-13, Matthew 18:10-20

Today’s passage from Matthew has been embraced by Christians as a model for discipline within the community. Jesus offers the disciples a model for addressing when a member of the church sins (or in some translations, more specifically “sins against you.”)

First, talk to the person one-on-one in a spirit of reconciliation. If that doesn’t resolve satisfactorily, have the conversation again but this time with the addition of one or two witnesses. If there’s still no repentance, take it before the church “and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In Acts and Corinthians we can read about how this model plays out.

And yet…

Bible scholars are divided on the authenticity of this passage. It’s unusually prescriptive for a saying of Jesus. It refers to a church which, while Jesus may have foreseen it, did not yet exist. It takes a shot at tax collectors as worth shunning, yet Jesus and his disciples shared meals and went to the homes of tax collectors. And perhaps most tellingly, it is immediately followed by Peter asking Jesus if forgiving someone seven times (which seemed generous compared to the rabbinical standard of three times) was sufficient, and Jesus answering we should forgive seventy times seven times.

The reality is, if someone threatens the well-being of a community from within, we may need a loving yet firm way of dealing with it. Forgiveness is not a blank check for endless tolerance of the unjust. The process described in Matthew gives multiple opportunities for repentance and reconciliation – and also allows for the chance the accused might actually be the wronged party. It discourages overreaction and public shaming. Like an employer’s performance improvement plan, it’s not primarily intended to be the way of driving someone out, but of finding a way to keep them in the fold. But like an improvement plan, it can be misunderstood, misapplied, and abused – especially when expulsion is the predetermined outcome.

What about more personal disputes? We like having an option to take people to task; Jesus is more about curbing that than endorsing it. We are less fond of forgiving them more times than we can count (OK yes, one could theoretically count to four hundred and ninety, but it’s a symbolic number). Just because a disciplinary process is available to use doesn’t mean we are required to use it. Shy of physical danger, it is entirely conceivable for two people who don’t get along, even if one has been wronged, to peacefully coexist in the same congregation. That’s pretty much the definition of forgiveness. And it seems most of Jesus’s teaching put the responsibility on us to make the sacrifice of peace rather than demanding it of someone else.

When someone owes you a sin tax, you are within your rights to follow the collection process to the bitter end. The whats, whys, and hows of it are between you, your debtor, and God. Just keep in mind that Jesus taught us to pray to be forgiven our debts as we forgive our debtors. There will be an audit.

Comfort: Forgiveness has more reward than cost.

Challenge: Being within your rights is no guarantee you are right.

Prayer: Merciful and loving God, teach me to focus more on what I owe than what is owed me. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever experienced someone being ostracized from a community? How did it make you feel?

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Step Into The Light

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 143; 147:12-20, Nehemiah 9:1-15 (16-25), Revelation 21:22-22:5, Matthew 18:1-9

Revelation is a complicated book. Some people read it quite literally, others symbolically, and still others as a mixture of both. Whatever your take, the following passage paints a beautiful picture of eternal life.

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

In this world, shadows and darkness hide a great deal of evil. The shadows may be literal like those providing cover for thieves in the night or muggers in a dark alley, or they may be more figurative like secret meetings in boardrooms and halls of power. They can even be psychological and cultural, like the lies we tell and the cover we provide to ignore and excuse exploitation of all kinds of people.

In God’s presence, none of these shadows exist.

In this world we will never know the absolute light of eternity, but we have a choice between reflecting the light or the darkness. We are complicated mix of both, and we can’t always tell the difference in ourselves or others. One of the most important criteria in making that distinction is truth – even when it contradicts what we’d rather say or believe. If we feel it’s our job to pad God’s resume by overstating claims about our faith and church or by ignoring and denying inconvenient information, we aren’t letting the light shine through us. Covering something up – be it scandal, doubt, failure, or mistake – only casts a deserved shadow on our reputation. Being truthful about who we are doesn’t diminish God; it demonstrates how much we need God.

Anyone who’s left a movie theater mid-afternoon knows stepping from the darkness into the light can be a painful transition. Yet we eventually must leave behind the pleasant fictions and enter reality. The highest reality, illuminated by love and truth and mercy and righteousness, strips away all shadows. Let’s do our best to step through its always-open gates with nothing to hide.

For thoughts on today’s reading from Matthew, see Faith Like a Child, Speechless, or Hands, Eyes, and Butterflies.

Comfort: Truth is the light which drives out darkness.

Challenge: Inventory the words and behaviors you keep secret, and ask yourself whether they should be revealed or discarded.

Prayer: Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. (Psalm 116:7)

Discussion: Twelve-step programs have a saying: “You’re only as sick as your secrets.” What do you think that means?

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Fish Story

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 65; 147:1-11, Ezra 10:1-17, Revelation 21:9-21, Matthew 17:22-27

When Jesus and the disciples stopped in Capernaum, one of the temple tax collectors asked Peter whether Jesus paid the temple tax. Peter said he did, but when he got home Jesus posed the following question before Peter could speak:

“What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”

This question cut right the heart of who Jesus was. If, as he claimed, he was the son of God, he was no more obligated to pay taxes for the temple than a prince was to pay taxes for the king’s castle. Peter replied “From others” so Jesus continued:

“Then the children are free. However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”

The passage establishes Jesus’s identity and authority while promoting the model of servant leadership.

But what’s up with that fish?

Several commentaries refer to this incident as the Miracle of the Coin in the Fish, but there’s no actual miracle recounted. There’s talk of a miracle, but unlike most of the other ones (walking on water, water into wine, multiplication of loaves, curing diseases) it happens off-screen. It’s notable this story appears right after one where Jesus told the disciples their lack of faith was the reason they couldn’t cure a demon-possessed boy.

So did Peter find the fish and the coin or not?

The gospel is silent on the outcome, but Jesus said it was going to happen. Peter, very likely still stinging from having the size of his faith compared unfavorably to a mustard seed, didn’t question it. Apart from a few scholars who think this may have been Jesus making a joke or speaking symbolically, most Christians speak and write about it as if it did.

Before becoming Christ’s disciple, Peter made his coin as a fisherman. Suddenly that mundane act was imparted with meaning beyond the ordinary. That’s a big part of faith: trusting that the Lord can transform the ordinary acts we perform into something greater than we can understand. We don’t always see or know the outcome. It may seem a little weird. It can be physical or metaphysical, literal or symbolic, convoluted or simple … or any and all of these things and more. The seed of faith, without a little mystery mixed in to nurture it, doesn’t grow. Faith is not trusting what we know, but trusting when we know not.

Comfort: Faith doesn’t mean you have to have the answers.

Challenge: Look for Gospel stories about fish and meditate on what they have to say.

Prayer: By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. (Psalm 65:5)

Discussion: What unanswered questions have you learned to live with?

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When in doubt…

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 54; 146, Ezra 9:1-15, Revelation 21:1-8, Matthew 17:14-21

Doubt is an inescapable factor of the human condition. From checking an iron we aren’t sure we unplugged to wondering whether a God could possibly exist, we all experience doubt, most of us on a fairly regular basis. Many of us fall prey to the false choice between doubt and faith. In a world that emphasizes an “either/or” mentality, we can find it difficult if not sometimes impossible to sustain a “both/and” perspective. It is entirely possible to balance both doubt and faith in our lives.

After her death, Mother Teresa became a famous example of the embodiment of both doubt and faith. The publication of her private papers revealed her inner struggle with God and faith. For some people, this revelation confirmed their skepticism of faith. But rather than undermine her previous image, perhaps it really served to make her more accessible: if such a revered religious figure struggled with the same doubts we do, our faith also has the potential to be as great as hers.

Jesus worked mercifully with doubters. Matthew describes how one day a man brought Jesus his son, a boy who would fall into the fire and the water when convulsed by seizures. In Mark’s version of the story, the man claimed a demon had also struck the boy mute. When the man asked Jesus to help “if you are able,” Jesus replied all things were possible to those who believed. The man replied “I believe; help my unbelief!” Could there be a more desperate, humble and honest response? Jesus went on to heal the boy through prayer. Yet this man, while his belief was bolstered in the moment, certainly continued to experience doubt throughout his life, just as the rest of us do.

Both Matthew and Mark tell us the disciples asked why they hadn’t been able to cure the boy. Jesus blamed it on their lack of faith. How could the disciples, who lived with Jesus day in and day out, lack faith? It seems neither faith nor doubt are determined by what is  right in front of us, but by our spiritual state. When we allow doubt to make us feel guilty, it only gains a stronger hold.

We are built to juggle contradictory emotions and ideas. At a good memorial or wake, we grieve loss and laugh at memories. Sending a child to the first day of kindergarten or college is often bittersweet. Our relationships with loved ones are a complicated mix of love, anger and countless other simultaneous feelings. These conflicting emotions do not invalidate each other or the experiences that drive them. God has given us the ability to harbor both faith and doubt, so let us use each wisely.

Comfort: Doubt is not failure.

Challenge: When you doubt, don’t try to cover it up. Work through it with trusted friends and advisers.

Prayer: Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God. (Psalm 146:5)

Discussion: How are you affected by other people’s doubt or faith?

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The Journey Home

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 57; 145, Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36, Revelation 20:7-15, Matthew 17:1-13

Do we recognize the distinction between technical freedom and equality and practical freedom and equality?

After King Artaxerxes decreed any Jewish people who wished to return to Jerusalem were free to do so – and to take with them an abundance of gold, silver, holy vessels and urns, livestock for offerings, and other supplies – the prophet Ezra led them home. Ezra did not ask for military protection because he’d boldly proclaimed the Lord would protect them from harm.

Over the next four months and nine hundred miles, the Jews did indeed manage to avoid enemies and ambushes and return to the city, where they began to rebuild.

How would we describe that time between the decree and the arrival in Jerusalem? The people were technically free, but they certainly weren’t yet an autonomous nation. They were surrounded by enemies and far from home. Almost certainly a few of them died before reaching the city. The joy of no longer being prisoners must at times have been muted or eclipsed by the dangers of freedom without security.

There’s a significant lag between the time people are legally decreed to be free or equal and the time it becomes a practical reality they can take for granted. The history of the United States is full of slow, jerky progress for many kinds of people. Slavery was outlawed over 150 years ago, but racial inequity persists to this day. Women are legally equal to men, but a long history (and present) of federal court cases are evidence the culture hasn’t caught up with the law. People with disabilities have legal protections, but struggle daily to be seen, heard, and accepted. One of our oldest guaranteed freedoms is freedom of religion, but people of all religions face discrimination to greater or lesser degrees. Undoubtedly you can think of numerous additional examples. That four-month, nine-hundred-mile journey seems short in comparison.

Just because someone has been declared free … doesn’t mean they are home free.

When someone who belongs to a group that has been oppressed or marginalized tells us they aren’t home free yet, instead of dismissing them with “you have equal rights” let’s be willing to listen to what is still wrong. Let’s listen to what enemies lie in wait to ambush them.

Artaxerxes was wise enough to understand he needed to make restitution to restore the possibility of opportunity to the Jews. Just as Ezra did not ask Artaxerxes to rebuild or even protect the Jews in their new freedom, communities still seeking full freedom and equality today only want what has been taken or withheld from them and the opportunity to build themselves up. The least we can do is figure out how to get out of their way.

Comfort: God desires justice for everyone.

Challenge: Make a point of listening to the experiences of people who differ from you, particularly people who have been historically oppressed in ways you have not.

Prayer: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145:8-9)

Discussion: How diverse is your church? Your employer? Your dinner table?

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The Balance

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 67; 150, Ezra 7:(1-10) 11-26, Acts 28:14b-23, Luke 16:1-13

The Parable of the Unjust Steward (or Dishonest Manager) isn’t one that gets trotted out for sermons as frequently as some of Jesus’s better known parables. Maybe this is because it differs structurally from the others, and is less obvious in its intent, though Jesus does follow it with some application.

In short, a wealthy man discovers his steward/manager has been mishandling his estate. The steward gets wind of this, so he goes to several of his master’s clients and gives them discounts on the debts they owe while he still has the power to do so. Effectively, this obligates them to him so he might call on their generosity and support after he’s fired. His master commends the steward’s clever response. Jesus then tells his disciples to also be clever with how they handle their wealth, for while unbelievers are more shrew in worldly financial matters, believers should handle wealth (which ultimately belongs to God) as a tool for serving more eternal purposes. If they can be trusted with little, flawed resources, they can be trusted not to ruin the larger, better ones.

Jesus isn’t recommending or condoning shady business practices, but he is telling us we need to deal with the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be. We don’t influence the world for the better by withdrawing from everyone and everything who don’t meet our litmus test for worthiness. If we can close the gap between where we are and where we’d like them to be by eight, fifty, or even twenty percent, we have accomplished something. In such transactions and relationships we definitely do need to cultivate some shrewdness so we don’t end up being manipulated to move beyond what it acceptable.

This balancing act is on full display in elections, where we have to balance what public policies and values we believe a candidate supports against her or his personal peccadilloes and misdeeds. If a person is on “our” team we’re inclined to excuse many flaws we might use to disparage a person on the “other” team. Each of us must decide where that tipping point is, and we should apply it without hypocrisy.

Of course the factors leading to that decision began long before we got to the voting booth. What have we tolerated or promoted that results in so many choices between less-than-great options? Are we focused on the little things of the short-term – like the steward was before he got caught – or on the larger things of the longer term – like he was when trying to secure his future? Real shrewdness lies in not selling out long term principles for short-term gains.

Whether we are making decisions about politics, health, personal relationships, finances, or most importantly our eternal souls we are doing so in a broken world. Even Christian communities with the best intentions must deal with brokenness – inside and out. Perfect choices are extremely rare, if they exist at all. God has trusted us with stewardship – not possession and not perfection – of the imperfect. Just because we can’t get one hundred percent of what we want doesn’t mean the remainder isn’t worth loving and tending. Let us live as though those accounts are coming due any minute.

Comfort: Everyone falls short of the glory of God, but we are still to love each other.

Challenge: Unless you withdraw entirely from the world, you’re going to have to compromise. Do it with mercy, love, and integrity.

Prayer: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. (Psalm 67:4)

Discussion: When do find it difficult to compromise?

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Someone Needs The Wood

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 56; 149, Nehemiah 13:4-22, Revelation 20:1-6, Matthew 16:21-28

You may have heard the expression, “Get off the cross; someone else needs the wood.” It’s generally used in response to someone who engages in showy, unnecessary, and/or self-inflicted martyrdom – probably over something trivial. It also implies the person is casting themselves in the role of a victim.

When Christ told his disciples “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” was he asking them to become victims? Perhaps if the only way we can define victory is through someone else’s defeat, we might think so. But the sacrifice Christ calls us to make is not just martyrdom to prove our loyalty to him. As his sacrifice was not for himself, but for others – for the world – so our own cross is not just about us.

In places around the world, simply declaring one’s faith may lead to a figurative or literal cross. In most of the western world, however, we are free to slap crosses on buildings, merchandise, jewelry, and even our own bodies without experiencing any real persecution. Since sacrifice is central to the Christian tradition, in the absence of actual crosses we manufacture persecution when we are forced to share public space and accommodation with people who do not believe or behave as we do.

Every year Christian culture warriors want us to believe a cheery utterance of “Happy Holidays” in the local big box store serving people of all faiths (and no faith) is an offense we need to confront with an aggressive “Merry Christmas” that represents Christ in an extremely poor light. It’s not enough to live our values, we want to force others to observe them as well. Did Jesus ever force anyone to do anything? We do it to accomplish the mental contortion necessary to bully our way to victimhood.

Focusing our attention on a cross no one asked us to build and draping ourselves in a shroud of victimhood may prove our loyalty to Christianity™ but not to Christ. The victory and sacrifice of the cross we are meant to carry is found in humility and service. In the absence of persecution, we are still fully capable of making loving sacrifices: patience, kindness, charity, not insisting on our own way, giving from our excess (and sometimes our basics) so others may have enough … all that Bible stuff.

Deep faith and witness don’t need to be branded with the cross like some product logo; when it’s real, people will want it without having to be sold on it. Tearing it down to give the wood to someone in need may be the biggest sacrifice of ego we can make.

Comfort: With Christ as our savior, we are never victims.

Challenge: Don’t look for reasons to be offended. Look for reasons to be merciful.

Prayer: O Lord, I put my trust in you. Thank you for the love that frees me from all other needs. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever played the victim, maybe without realizing it until later?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and 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!

Chairity

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 130; 148, Nehemiah 12:27-31a, 42b-47, Revelation 19:11-16, Matthew 16:13-20

When Jesus asked his disciples who the people thought he was, they answered Elijah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, and other prophets. He then more pointedly asked them “But who do you say that I am?” Peter quickly answered “the Messiah” and Jesus told him this knowledge came not from flesh and blood, but from God. Then Jesus instructed his disciples to tell no one else.

Who do you think Jesus is?

Like Peter we can answer “the Messiah” because it’s definitely not a secret any more … but what does that mean to us? After the crucifixion and the resurrection, the role of “the Messiah” meant something very different to Peter and the disciples. Christians unite around the idea of Christ as Messiah, yet given the variety in our expression of faith and belief, mostly derived from the same Biblical sources, we don’t all mean the same thing when we say it.

Is there a perfectable understanding of Christ we all strive toward? Plato had a theory of ideal forms. Summarized in a simple example, there exists a metaphysical ideal form of any object, such as a chair, which is the standard by which we recognize other less-than-ideal objects in the physical world as chairs. Is there an ideal form of Christ (which would be, one supposes … Christ himself) which helps us recognize expressions of Christ in this world we presently inhabit?

Chairs can be plush, wooden, yielding, rigid, wheeled, or rocking. They can have various numbers of legs or – in the case of bean bags – no legs at all. Yet in all their variety they hold in common factors which define them as chairs.

If Peter and the disciples who knew Jesus personally underwent a transformation in their understanding of Jesus, let’s not be too quick centuries later to declare one earthly expression the only real thing. This isn’t some wishy-washy excuse to turn Jesus into whatever we’d like him to be. To the contrary, encountering Jesus changes us, never the other way around.

The same Christ can inspire one person to a conservative worldview and another to a progressive worldview. Both probably believe the other to be misguided, but there will be central issues – such as feeding the hungry and caring for the ill – upon which they agree. Why do we find it so much easier to focus on the areas where we disagree, when areas of agreement are where we find Christ?

When it comes to discipleship, we all get some right and some wrong. Moving toward that ideal form of discipleship – that understanding of who Christ is and what he asks of us – is a lifelong endeavor. Let us undertake that journey with humility, love, and mercy. Isn’t that who we say we are?

Comfort: Christ’s love is greater than we imagine.

Challenge: So let’s not limit him to what we can imagine.

Prayer: I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope (Psalm 130:5)

Discussion: What words describe Jesus for you?

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