progressive christianity

Stay Hungry

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, Hosea 13:4-8, Acts 27:27-44, Luke 9:18-27

We complain when we’re cold, hungry, thirsty, tired, or in pain but no one ever complains: “I’m just too … satisfied.” Yet satisfaction – or perhaps more accurately self-satisfaction – led to the downfall of the nation of Israel.

Through the prophet Hosea, God shared these words with Israel: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; they were satisfied, and their heart was proud; therefore they forgot me.” In other words, God provided for them in their time of need. They were provided for so well, they started to take it for granted. Eventually, because they were without need, they forgot about God altogether.

It’s a common story, really. When we are in need or distress, we pray and demand to know: “why do I deserve this?” When God provides, and our bellies no longer ache from hunger or our hearts from sadness, it’s easy to forget where we started. We take it for granted. If part of God’s blessing required hard work from us, we may start to give ourselves a little more credit for our own success than is due – and judge others who haven’t made it as far. Sure, we say we know we owe everything to God, but do we really? When is the last time we had a well-stocked kitchen, a happy marriage, and a stretch of good health and asked: “Why do I deserve this?”

Maybe we should stay a little hungry. The spiritual discipline of fasting involves a physical hunger, an unavoidable pang we can use as a reminder to focus our attention toward God. Whether it reminds us of our own dependence, or of the needs of those who hunger not by choice, it teaches us humility and gratitude. Other disciplines – study, solitude, service, etc. – also lift us from a state of oblivious contentment and help us not to take God for granted.

Let’s sacrifice a meal, a lazy Saturday morning, or twenty dollars to a higher cause. It’s all right to feel a little deprived of the more worldly satisfaction they might have provided. That pang reminds us to focus on what’s important.

Comfort: Gratitude will improve your mood.

Challenge: Make time daily to thank God for what God has provided.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for all the  blessings in my life. All glory and honor is yours. Amen.

Discussion: What do you take for granted?

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Crash Course

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 15; 147:1-11, Hosea 13:1-3, Acts 27:9-26, Luke 9:1-17

Imagine you are a sailor on the Mediterranean sea two thousand years ago. Your crew has been charged with transporting a prisoner from Jerusalem to stand trial before the Emperor in Rome. It’s almost winter, and many ships have already docked to wait out the angry weather until spring. Your captain though is eager to complete this voyage and sets sail. The prisoner has the nerve to suggest a delay. He is probably none too eager to meet his fate, you think. Trusting in your captain, the idols you’ve tucked into your bunk, and the value of your cargo, you set sail with the rest of the crew.

And then it turns out the prisoner was right. The swells are impossible to navigate. The ship stops a few times, makes reinforcements, but eventually finds itself helpless before the mighty wind. The crew curses as they throw cargo overboard and watch their profits sink. Then, in desperation, they toss over the tackle. The prisoner, damn his eyes, calmly tells everyone they will survive, but they’re going to have to run the ship aground. And you know he’s right.

The truth made Paul unpopular. No one likes the guy telling them they have to crash to survive. We especially don’t like him when he’s right. Once in a while we take a brave step out of the box and deliver the unpopular message, but more often than we are Paul, we are the sailor – or Pharisee – grumbling and ignoring that guy so we have more time to listen to the guy who tells us what we want to hear … even as things fall apart around us.

The truth is, sometimes you have to crash your ship – or throw profit overboard, or abandon your ideology, or wreck your comfort – to save your life. God doesn’t set out to ruin you, but if you’ve stubbornly stuck to the foolish course, the disaster may have to play out before you can move on. God will wait as long as it takes to find your safe harbor. The truth, however difficult, is your guiding star.

Comfort: When you decide to correct course, no matter difficult, we are drawing nearer to God.

Challenge: Plan a an hour of solitude each week to meditate on the direction your life is taking. Perhaps keep a notebook or journal of what you’d like to correct, how you might do it, what difficulties you might encounter, and your progress. End each session with a prayer of thanks to God for being with you.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for second, third, and fourth chances. Guide my steps so they might always lead me toward you. Amen.

Discussion: What efforts have you made to improve yourself?

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The Fringe

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 123; 146, Hosea 12:2-14, Acts 26:24-27:8, Luke 8:40-56

A leader of the synagogue named Jairus moved to the front of the crowd to fall at Jesus’ feet and beg him to heal his dying daughter. Among the crowd who followed Jesus to Jairus’ house was a woman who’d suffered incurable hemorrhages for twelve years. She timidly touched the fringe of his robe, and was instantly healed. When Jesus asked who touched him, the woman tried to hide. After he asked a second time, she fell trembling before him. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Afterward Jesus continued on to the house of Jairus, and though many said the girl had died, Jesus said to her, “Child, get up!” and she did.

Jairus, a man and a religious leader, did not hesitate to force his way through the crowd and demand Jesus’ attention. By contrast, the woman’s ailment would have rendered her unclean; approaching Christ directly would have been unthinkable for her. It was no wonder she hid when he called her out, because according to her culture she should never have touched him and could have been punished. Instead, Jesus stopped to call her Daughter, and bid her go in peace.

Is our society so different? Privileged people still move to the head of the line and ask for what they need, and we usually get out of their way. The less privileged are pushed to the edges, and frequently shamed simply for asking. Whether it’s cash or a voice or a vote, too often we suspiciously insist they justify their requests in ways we’d never expect of the financially or socially affluent. We’ll fork over chunks of cash for a new church social hall, but want reckoning for every dime of grocery assistance. We call them “takers” then wonder why they’d rather hustle than be humiliated. Somehow we are more sympathetic to the poor halfway around the world than the homeless living under a bridge downtown.

Jesus was respectful of everyone in need, regardless of privilege. If we call people out, let it be to say, “Go in peace!”

Comfort: When you are in need, it’s all right to ask.

Challenge: While accountability is important, try to follow your more charitable impulses.

Prayer: God of abundance, help me to remember more for others does not have to mean less for me, and let me be willing to share when others have none. Amen.

Discussion: What’s your favorite charity and why?

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!

Things Get Real

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 135; 145, Hosea 11:12-12:1, Acts 26:1-23, Luke 8:26-39

Sometimes there is a large gap between what we say we want and what we actually want. Presenting his case before King Agrippa, Paul explained that he was a faithful Jew; like many of his accusers he was a Pharisee, and he’d actively persecuted Christians. His encounter with the risen Christ was unexpected and life-changing. By preaching the Gospel, Paul asserted, he was dutifully acknowledging the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah: “I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place.”

The Pharisees said they wanted Paul jailed for violating the law, but they actually wanted to preserve the status quo which allowed them privilege under the oppressive Roman regime. Waiting for the messiah demanded nothing, but his arrival was dangerous and uncomfortable.

Christians say we want to love the poor and the sick, but too often we actually want to express that love in ways that don’t make us too uncomfortable: nothing that messes up the sanctuary of the church, or threatens our safety, or makes us feel icky. We say we welcome strangers, but we don’t want them be too strange. Like the Gerasenes who ran Jesus out of town after he purged a man of many demons, we don’t want to be the kind of holy that attracts the wrong kind of attention – the kind that makes us look dirty and maybe unbalanced, rather than freshly laundered and pressed for the Thursday evening hymn sing.

The business of the church is not beautiful building s and respectable congregations. These things are fine; they simply aren’t the point. Filling up the pews is nice, but it’s also meaningless if we’re only playing a numbers game by poaching existing believers from “rival” congregations. We need to take the Gospel where it is not, which is often exactly where we don’t want to be. The good news is not that we bring Jesus to people, but that he is already with them and waiting to be embraced. When we don’t go to them, we don’t go to him either.

Comfort: It’s okay for your faith life to be messy.

Challenge: Same as the Comfort, but for the other half of the room.

Prayer: God, grant me the courage and strength to be an effective part of the life-altering Body of Christ. Amen.

Discussion: What chances do you regret not having taken?

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!

Borders

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 19; 150, Hosea 11:1-11, 1 Corinthians 4:9-16, Matthew 15:21-28

Our society talks a lot about borders. Usually we mean national borders, no small source of contention. We talk about them as though they are real, permanent things when the truth is they are in a state of continual flux. We are concerned with people who cross borders, but in many cases, such as Mexican-American war over the vaguely defined territory of Texas, borders cross people.

When Jesus met a Canaanite woman, the encounter was informed by centuries of borders drawn and redrawn as the Jewish people settled the area. According to the Book of Joshua, the nation of Israel had seized Canaan, slaughtered its people, and inhabited it as the Promised Land. That kind of history doesn’t unfold without leaving scars. The woman was very bold to approach Jesus, who first rebuked her by saying he had come for Israel and wasn’t going to waste the children’s food on the dogs. She countered by saying even the dogs got crumbs that fell from the table. Moved by her faith, Jesus healed her daughter of a demon.

Not all borders are geographic. The Canaanite woman bravely crossed a dangerous border. We establish such borders all the time, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. Borders drawn by race, income, and religion define us both geographically and socially. Ethnic neighborhoods may form because people like having something in common, but at least as often they form because other neighborhoods wouldn’t have them. With gentrification the income border crosses impoverished neighborhoods and drives out long-time residents. Christians establish borders of denomination and right thinking. Borders, no matter how arbitrary or unjust, are forced upon us.

Despite the dog comment, Christ was in the business of erasing borders: between sinners and the righteous, Samaritans and Jews, the clean and unclean. In God’s kingdom, borders become meaningless. Humankind insists on the vanity of division where God has put none, and we are the poorer for it. What borders do we allow to define ourselves and our faith? Are they really borders Christ would have observed? The neighbors we must love are waiting on the other side.

Comfort: As citizens of the Kingdom, all the world is within our borders.

Challenge: Breaking borders often involves making sacrifices. Ask yourself whether the borders you preserve are creating safety at the cost of your discipleship.

Prayer: Infinite God, teach me to see the world as you do. Amen.

Discussion: What spiritual borders have you crossed? What borders do you know you still need to cross?

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Weathering The Storms

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 104; 149, Hosea 10:1-15, Acts 25:13-27, Luke 8:16-25

How often have we heard teams pray before a sporting event to ask God to help them win the big game (and by inference, sabotage the other team, as though getting God to cheat for you is sportsmanlike)? How many people thank Jesus for everything from parking spots to Grammy awards, as if they are saying “Good job!” to a personal assistant? Our relationship with our God should be close, but not so cozy we forget who is in charge.

When the disciples were afraid their boat would sink in a storm, they woke Jesus from his sleep. He rebuked and calmed the storm – and then he rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. To this point they had experienced Jesus as a healer, storyteller, and prophet who taught forgiveness. For the first time, they got a glimpse of the raw power of a being who could command the clouds and sea. Not surprisingly, this revelation amazed and frightened them. They asked themselves exactly who it was they’d agreed to follow.

As we mature in our own faith, our experiences may be similar. At some point we must move past the non-threatening, undemanding baby Jesus in the manger, to a more adult Jesus who makes loving but firm demands of us. The more we follow him, the more we realize how harrowing discipleship can be. Like those first disciples, we cry out for the Jesus who takes away our problems, but eventually we learn he expects us to have faith through our personal storms. Jesus is not just a servant, but a servant leader who teaches us to have faith that casts out fear. The closer we grow, the greater our awe and the more we realize just how amazing his love for us is, because he is so much greater than we will ever imagine.

When your storm comes up, do you want to be the disciple who in a faithless panic wakes Jesus? Better to be the disciple who can say “I kept the course faithfully – even through trouble – because I trust in you, Lord.”

Comfort: We can be confident Jesus is present during all life’s storms.

Challenge: When you pray in times of trouble, ask yourself (and God) whether you should be praying to avoid or endure them.

Prayer: Teach me, Lord, to trust you in difficult and frightening times. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever become stronger from a situation you would rather have prayed away?

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Guilty Until Proven Innocent

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 51; 148, Hosea 9:10-17, Acts 24:24-25:12, Luke 8:1-15

After fleeing an angry Jerusalem mob who falsely accused him and conspired to kill him, Paul found himself in Caesarea. Felix, the governor, was familiar with The Way and sympathetic to Paul. When Paul’s accusers arrived, they argued their case that he had defiled the temple, but couldn’t make the charges stick in a Roman court. Rather than free Paul, Felix kept him in protective custody – for two years! He hoped to get money from Paul, and frequently invited him to visit and converse. Paul’s teachings about justice and self-control unnerved Felix. Eventually Felix’s successor arrived, but even then he left Paul in prison to appease the Jews. The new governor, Festus, didn’t wait long to hear Paul’s case, but he in turn decided to send Paul to Rome and the emperor for judgment.

Friends were allowed to visit and attend to Paul’s needs, but two years of confinement with no hearing was certainly unjust. Felix and Festus were true politicians who didn’t want any negative repercussions pinned to them. Freeing Paul would have angered the Jews, and convicting him would have been blatantly against the law, so instead he was left to languish.

The parallels to our modern political and justice systems are sadly obvious.

If we were Christians living in first-century Caesarea, would we have been fighting to free Paul as fiercely as his enemies fought against him? Acts doesn’t mention anyone advocating on his behalf. All around the world, people are unjustly imprisoned for political and religious reasons. A few dedicated souls toil to liberate them, but most of us shake our heads, perhaps pray a little, and don’t believe there’s much we can do.

But there is. Our faith communities can speak out against the conditions that allow such things to happen. We can organize or support non-partisan justice efforts. Our shared Christian history is one of both being unjustly persecuted, and of unjustly persecuting – and both still happen today. Our political role is not to side with one party or the other, but to be a prophetic voice against the injustices of the system itself.

Comfort: In matters of justice, even your small voice matters.

Challenge: Use it.

Prayer: God of justice, give me the courage to confront injustice where I see it, and the wisdom not to participate in it. Amen.

Discussion: If you had to pick one justice issue to receive your efforts, what would it be and why?

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See And Be Seen

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 97; 147:12-20, Hosea 9:1-9, Acts 24:1-23, Luke 7:36-50

A Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to dine with him in his home. When Jesus arrived, a woman known throughout the city as a sinner followed him inside. She bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Then she kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment from an alabaster jar. Simon looked on in contempt because he believed a real prophet would have seen the woman for what she was. Jesus told Simon a story about a creditor who forgave the debts of two people, one of whom owed ten times as much as the other, and asked which of them would love the creditor more. Simon said the one whose debt was greater.

Jesus then turned toward the woman and explained to Simon why she had showered him in kindnesses, while Simon had offered nothing: “Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Isn’t it interesting that while Jesus spoke to Simon, he looked at the woman? And that Simon, who thought he knew everything he needed to know about her, didn’t really see her at all? And that though Simon said nothing, Jesus saw his heart clearly?

If we are to be Christians – little Christs – we need to see people as Christ sees them. More importantly, we need to help people believe Christ sees, loves, and forgives them. That means meeting people where they are, but it also means letting them meet us where we are – letting sinners from across town into our orderly houses of worship to shed unseemly tears at the foot of the cross and generally make the “respectable” Christians uncomfortable. When they follow Jesus through the door, he sees exactly who they are and loves them anyway. If we don’t do the same, he sees hearts that love him only a tenth as much as they should, and they see hypocrisy instead of hope.

Don’t worry about looking like a good Christian. Try to look like Christ. That’s who people need to see.

Comfort: Christ sees you and loves you..

Challenge: Remember that you may be the face of Christ to someone today.

Prayer: Loving God, teach me to see with the eyes of Christ, and love with the heart of Christ. Amen.

Discussion: When have you felt so out of place that you just wanted to leave?

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!

Everybody Talks

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 89:1-18; 147:1-11, Hosea 8:1-14, Acts 23:23-35, Luke 7:18-35

Right now, somebody somewhere has something bad to say about you. Don’t sweat it: you’re in good company. When John the Baptist abstained from bread and wine, people said he was possessed by a demon. When Jesus ate and drank freely with everyone including tax collectors, people called him a glutton and a drunkard. Neither was true, but that didn’t stop people from talking. One way or another, the same thing happens to all of us.

Wise people realize praise and blame are all the same. Whether someone compliments or criticizes us, we should try to hear it with the same dispassionate ear. Other people’s words should neither inflate nor crush our sense of self. We don’t outright ignore what others have to say, because they may have a point – but they may also have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

While it’s hard not to take such things personally, let’s remember that whatever we do, whether we do it well or poorly, God loves us through it. God’s love for us does not depend on our failure or success, and does not fluctuate with public opinion. Of course we try to live as we believe God wants us to, but when we fall short – and we will fall short – God does not punish us by withholding love. To the contrary, God continues to pour love on us so we can begin anew. Conversely, because God always loves us completely, doing well does not “earn” us more love.

Many Christians can talk about loving others, but find it immodest or vain to talk about loving themselves. If God loves us, who are we not to? Feeling loved by God is how we learn to most fully love others. It’s human nature to criticize other people for the things we don’t like about ourselves, but the more kindly we learn to see ourselves, the more charitably we see others. When we recognize and embrace the divine spark of love in ourselves, we can more easily see it in others, and love them because God loved us first.

Comfort: God loves you. Always.

Challenge: At the beginning and end of every day for the rest of the month, remind yourself out loud that God loves you.

Prayer: God, thank you for loving me, and creating me to love. Amen.

Discussion: Which of your own flaws irritate you most in other people?

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!

And then … ?

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 412 146, Hosea 7:8-16, Acts 23:12-24, Luke 7:1-17

One hallmark of a good storyteller is knowing the best times to begin and end the story. Start too soon and people tune out; start too late and the setup may confuse them. Ending at the right time leaves the reader satisfied, yet longing for more; ending later than needed dilutes the impact of the story. The author of Luke, who many scholars agree is also the author of Acts, certainly knows how to keep a story moving.

In Capernaum, Jesus encounters a Roman centurion whose beloved slave is ill. Jesus is amazed by the faith of the centurion, who needs no more reassurance than Jesus’s word that the man will be healed, and so he is. A little later in the town of Nain, Jesus feels compassion for a widow who is preparing to bury her only son. Jesus raises the young man back to life.

In Jerusalem, Paul’s nephew overhears a plot involving more than forty men who have sworn to neither eat nor drink until they have ambushed and killed Paul, who is currently in the custody of the Roman tribune. The tribune, who wishes to protect Paul because he is a Roman citizen, organizes hundreds of men to usher Paul safely to Caesarea.

These stories offer lots of action, and leave us wondering: “What next?”

Who was this slave, that he was so important to the centurion? How did the neighbors feel about living next door to the widow and her formerly dead son? When did those forty conspirators decide it was time to eat again?

We could shrug these questions off as unanswerable, but our speculation could teach us a lot about ourselves. They might reveal whether we are optimists or pessimists. Or whether we really think people can change. Maybe they could help us explore what we believe about how and when the divine intersects with the ordinary.

Biblical stories, like all great stories, are about more than the events described. If we open the gift of our imagination, they tell us – and help us discover for ourselves – deeper truths of the human condition.

Comfort: A good story lasts long after it ends.

Challenge: Pick one of today’s stories, or other stories from the Bible which have unanswered questions, and discuss the possible outcomes with friends.

Prayer: God of infinite imagination, teach me to see the deep truths of your amazing world. Amen.

Discussion: Is there a story – Biblical or otherwise – that leaves you wondering what happens next?

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!