Words Matter

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words-of-wisdom-1514865

Today’s reading:
Psalms 84; 150, Jeremiah 1:1-10, 1 Corinthians 3:11-23, Mark 3:31-4:9

Consider these words from the Lord to the young prophet Jeremiah:

Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.

Words, especially those inspired by (or attributed to) the Lord, are powerful. The right words can bring down nations and establish new ones. Jesus was crucified because Jewish leadership and the Roman empire both knew words are sparks that can ignite a revolution from seemingly nowhere; institutions that hide behind false words are tinder waiting to burn.

Healthy institutions welcome exchanges of words and ideas. Good ideas and true words do not need defending; they can withstand scrutiny and welcome constructive criticism. When governments and religions fear their people, they try to silence those people. Authoritarian governments and legalistic religions enforce silence through threats, imprisonment, and even death. Institutions which are less authoritarian (or wish us to believe they are not) may act more subtly yet still silence people through lies, legal action, and propaganda. The most malevolently skilled institutions get us to silence each other.

To the corrupt and fearful, the most truthful words are the most threatening. When Galileo persisted in advancing heliocentrism – the now undisputed theory that the earth revolves around the sun – the Catholic church put him under house arrest for the heresy of contradicting scripture. Under the Third Reich and the Cultural Revolution, artists and writers who expressed “unacceptable” ideas were arrested and executed. The words we hear – or are permitted to hear – shape our understanding of the world. Truth is often not in the best interest of the powerful, so they suppress it.

Don’t fear words and ideas. Don’t trust leaders who fear them. Instead, learn to listen critically so you can discern the good from the bad, the true from the false. If someone answers a question by saying you shouldn’t have asked it … ask again. Speak plainly and truthfully, and expect the same of others.

Jesus was the Word made flesh. All true words lead back to him.

Comfort: Truth is always from God.

Challenge: Not everything we think is true really is.

Prayer: God of truth, grant me the words to share your truth with others, and grant me ears to discern the good word from the bad. Amen.

Discussion: When is the last time someone spoke a truth that changed your worldview?

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Modern Samaritans

/ JJS / 2 Comments

loveyourenemies

Today’s readings:
Psalms 43; 149, Deuteronomy 11:18-28, Hebrews 5:1-10, John 4:1-26

During our two year journey through the Daily Lectionary, we return to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well eight times.  When she first meets Jesus she has no idea who he is, and she would have been scandalous by the standards of first-century Jews. First, she was a Samaritan, a people who shared common ancestry but a bitter feud with the Jewish people. Second she’d had five husbands, and her current companion was not her husband. Yet when she learned Jesus was the Messiah, she became an evangelist to her people, who then invited Christ to teach them.

Eight times a year we are reminded that Jesus fostered reconciliation with his people’s enemies and outcasts.

That’s probably not enough.

One sad truth about human nature is that we segregate ourselves into tribes and consequently define the world as us and them. Team Us likes to blame all our problems on Team Them; after all, why wouldn’t any and all decent people be part of Team Us? A common enemy gives Us purpose, and sometimes even helps Us survive. Team Them takes our jobs, our land, and our self-respect … or at least we know they’re trying to! So that justifies why Team Us – naturally the more righteous side – needs to do those things first.

Are there people who really intend us harm? Certainly. But statistically speaking we’re in more danger physically and economically from those like us or close to us than from outsiders. We don’t like to admit that our wisecracking, churchgoing uncle is more likely to assault us than is a stranger in a bathroom, or a Sikh we’ve mistaken for a Muslim. Samaritans didn’t crucify Jesus – his neighbors did.

Historically there has always been a new group of ethnic, political, religious, or sexual Samaritans we can dehumanize to serve as scapegoats for our fears and as distractions from our own failings. We always believe we have a good reason to consider them the villains of Team Them.

The history (and present) of all nations and cultures (including our beloved US of A) is riddled with examples of not just disproportionate responses to real and imagined threats, but preemptive attacks and domination of people who had nothing against Us until we moved into Their territory (be it physical, political, or spiritual) … and then declared them dangerous enemies for defending themselves. Creating a “Them” is an awfully convenient way of justifying our own sins.

If Christ is our example, shouldn’t we be doing good to them even when we are afraid?

No matter who our newest Samaritans are, Jesus died for them too.

Comfort: Jesus doesn’t require you to have enemies…

Challenge: …but he does tell you to love the ones you do have.

Prayer: God of peace, teach me to take the plank from my own eye before condemning the specks of others. Amen.

Discussion: Has your view of any social group evolved from unfavorable to neutral or even favorable?

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Relationship Status: It’s Complicated

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labyrinths-of-love-1-1236316-1920x1280

Today’s readings:
Psalms 27; 147:12-20, Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28, Romans 2:12-24, John 5:19-29

Emotions can be knotty experiences. Rarely are they tidy, discrete, easily identified conditions that we can distill to the smiley and frowny emojis punctuating our text messages. Usually emotions are interdependent and tangled and deep and as hard to unearth as ancient tree roots.

Anger may be the most complicated of all, because it is almost always a secondary emotion that develops as a defense against fear or pain. Anger, while not inherently bad, can be destructive in our relationships firstly because most of us are not skilled at identifying its true root, and secondly because we are not comfortable cracking the shell of anger to expose the soft underbelly of “weaker” emotions it protects. Divorces, for example, are so bitter partly because it takes a lot of anger to mask a lot of pain.

When Jeremiah describes God’s anger at Israel, he compares their relationship to unfaithful lovers or ungrateful children. The imagery communicates the anguish underlying God’s wrath. The Israelites have pained him in terrible ways. Damage in this relationship is deeper than a breach of contract between business partners, or resentment between master and servant.  God is not imposing a calculated transactional penalty like an employer docking wages or a bank revoking credit. He is mourning a broken relationship and its inevitable consequences.

Jeremiah’s call for repentance raises anger among the people. Their anger is a defense around their shame. Their shame comes from knowing they are not in right relationship with God. We repeat this pattern many times, in many relationships, with many people. Repentance means accepting we have been wrong at a level so fundamental we must change our way of thinking, and that is a fearful thing to do. If we respond to that fear with anger – by hardening our hearts – we have little chance of repenting.

To be in right relationship with other people, including ourselves, we must first be in right relationship with God. To be in right relationship with God, we must risk being vulnerable. That crack of vulnerability is all God needs to flood our hearts and transform our souls

Comfort: All your emotions are allowed.

Challenge: Don’t be afraid to explore emotions that make you feel vulnerable.

Prayer: Loving God, give me the courage and wisdom to know myself. Amen.

Discussion: How would you describe your relationship with your emotions?

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The dog ate my excuse.

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Image result for dog ate my homework meme

Today’s readings:
Psalms 22; 148, Deuteronomy 10:12-22, Hebrews 4:11-16, John 3:22-36

In the letter to the Hebrews, the evangelist writes:

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Isn’t that a comfort? Our high priest, Jesus, knows exactly how difficult temptation is. After forty days in the wilderness before his ministry began, he resisted the devil’s promises of power. On the cross, he forgave those who crucified him. In between, he faced every manner of temptation the rest of us do. His triumph over temptation could seem intimidating since none of us can hope to live up to it, but it is an assurance  of sympathy, mercy, and grace.

On the other hand, it gives him an excellent baloney detector.

Certainly he was tempted to make excuses just like we do. To pretend having no pleasant choice is the same as having no choice. To write off the difficult as the impossible. To blame other people for our own behavior. To dismiss those who opposed him as wicked.

Jesus chose the cross; we choose the bottom line. Jesus turned Paul the Christian-hunter into his greatest evangelist; we won’t hire an ex-felon. Jesus entered enemy territory to share bread and salvation; we create an economy dependent on foreign laborers then vilify them for accepting our invitation. Jesus showed grace to his executioners; we legislate against those who don’t share our dogma “for their own good.”

Grace and mercy aren’t granted because we cling to convincing excuses; they are available when we humbly admit no excuse is good enough. It is impossible to seek forgiveness while justifying our sin. When we fail to the love the poor, the sick, or the alien among us – even if we feel they persecute us – we must not blame them for our failure.

Grace is ours for the asking. We just have to stop explaining why we deserve it.

Comfort: Jesus understands your trials.

Challenge: For one week, don’t justify your mistakes to anyone. Just own them.

Prayer: Merciful God, boldly I approach you, humbly I lay my sins before you. Shine your merciful face upon me. Amen.

Discussion: When are you prone to make excuses? How do you react when others make excuses?

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Rest Easy?

/ JJS / 2 Comments

resteasy

Today’s readings:
Psalms 27; 147:12-20, Deuteronomy 9:23-10:5, Hebrews 4:1-10, John 3:16-21

Rest requires a lot of work.

In the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, the evangelist compares the rest that waits for us in God’s presence to the rest experienced on the Sabbath. A first-century Jewish audience would have thought of a Sabbath very differently than we modern Christians think of a traditional Sunday. The command to honor the Sabbath was not merely a suggestion to take it easy – it was a command (actually a whole lot of them) about exactly what could and could not be done. Because so many types of activities were explicitly and implicitly forbidden, lots of things – such as meals, stove fires, and candles – had to be in place before sundown on Friday. Without proper preparation, one would spend the Sabbath hungry, cold, and in the dark.

That’s the difference between idleness and rest. Idleness is inactivity when and where there should be activity. Idleness now can actually make it almost impossible to rest comfortably later. Proper rest re-energizes our bodies, fuels our creativity, and focuses our spirits. When we don’t prepare time and space for such rest – when mundane demands creep into the space and gobble up the time – we end up more tired than when we began.

Just because we aren’t toiling doesn’t mean we’re resting; vacations can be exhausting! And rest isn’t necessarily unproductive. Jews observing the Sabbath can share festive meals together, take walks, read, sing, pray, play games, and make love. Each of our lists of restful activities may vary, but we still need to be intentional about them: cramming them into random spare moments reduces their benefit.

The author of Hebrews suggests that if we want to enter eternal rest with God, we ought to be preparing now. There’s no set checklist to accomplish before the time comes, nor a minimum number of brownie points to acquire. Through grace is given freely, the choices we make now prepare us to better receive it. Let’s prepare so as not to leave any unfinished business, any nagging worldly concerns, when that day of rest is finally offered to us.

Comfort: You are allowed to rest.

Challenge: Be deliberate about your periods of rest. Mark specific times/daysRest  for it on your calendar.

Prayer: Loving God, I look forward to the day when I rest in your presence. Amen.

Discussion: Are you able to rest/relax? If so, how? If not, why?

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Willful Ignorance

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Today’s readings:
Psalms 5; 147:1-11, Deuteronomy 9:13-21, Hebrews 3:12-19, John 2:23-3:15

In legal terms, “willful ignorance” describes an intention to remain unaware of facts to avoid prosecution for them (like not asking a friend why he suddenly has a Rolex to sell you). The term has expanded into more general use to describe anyone who refuses to learn something because they want to remain comfortable or blameless. As a defense it doesn’t hold up well in court, and as a choice it isn’t morally defensible.

When Jesus tried to explain being “born again” to the Pharisee Nicodemus, Nick kept claiming not to understand. Eventually Jesus grew exasperated and said: “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.” It wasn’t a lack of testimony that vexed Jesus: it was a listener’s refusal to receive it.

In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul reminded them how their ancestors abandoned the God who led them out of Egypt and made an idol of a golden calf. When Moses didn’t return quickly enough for them from meeting the Lord on Mount Sinai, the people justified their actions by saying: “this Moses […], we do not know what has become of him.” Not “let us learn more” but “let us do what we already wanted to.” It only cost them forty years.

We practice willful ignorance when we stereotype. When we dismiss solid science. When we make excuses for unethical acts of a politician we happen to favor. Many harmful environmental and economic choices are made with willful ignorance so we can enjoy the present without being accountable for the future. We are susceptible whenever we don’t want to surrender the worldview we prefer.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If we aren’t willing to make friends with the truth, what kind of friend could Jesus have in us? God and faith survive facts, even unpleasant ones. If we’re going to be convicted of something, let it be the truth.

Comfort: Facts are not the enemy of faith.

Challenge: If you don’t like the facts, it’s not the facts that have to change.

Prayer: God of Truth, open my eyes. Amen.

Discussion: What facts do you have trouble accepting?

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Knotted Up

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knotted_up

Today’s readings:
Psalms 34; 146, Deuteronomy 9:(1-3) 4-12, Hebrews 3:1-11, John 2:13-22

All four gospels include the story of Jesus cleansing the temple of money-changers and merchants. That coin with Caesar’s likeness that Jesus was willing to render unto him? It wasn’t welcome in the temple. The money-changers charged exorbitant exchange rates to trade the currency of the empire for the currency of the temple. The merchants sold sacrificial livestock to travelers and charged typically inflated tourist prices.  Jesus was furious God’s house of worship had been turned into a center of exploitative commerce, so he drove out the animals and flipped the tables.

Only John’s gospel tells the part of the story about Jesus fashioning a whip from cords. Doing so would have taken some time, enough for people to notice what he was doing. With all the livestock nearby there were probably whips handy, yet he took the time to make one himself. As he knotted the cords in the crowded temple, somebody – probably several somebodies – must have noticed. Did they brush it off as business as usual? Did they take moment to wonder why it was happening? Did they think he couldn’t possibly be about to do what it seemed he would? Maybe there were even a few people thinking, “It’s about time.”

How many injustices being perpetrated right now, right in front of us, right in the hearts of our communities, do we ignore because business is booming? While we buy and sell, while we mingle our economy and empire with our faith, what retribution builds? While we fail or refuse to see the impending repercussions, the knots multiply. And our daily lives – our casual attitudes towards “that’s just how business works” or “you can’t expect me to risk my security over someone else’s injustice” – can’t be untangled from living our faith.

People might have left the temple peacefully had they stopped for a minute to ask if the man in the corner was the face of justice delayed. Let’s take some time this Lenten season to step back and look at how our own business as usual exploits our neighbors. The consequences of injustice are inevitable, but injustice itself is not. Perhaps Jesus doesn’t want to finish that whip any more than we want him to, and that’s why he gives us time to turn the tables before he turns them over.

Comfort: It’s not too late to do better.

Challenge: Pick one consumable item (coffee, chocolate, etc) and for the remainder of Lent buy it only from direct trade or fair trade sources.

Prayer: Open my eyes, Lord, to where I have been blind to injustice. Amen.

Discussion: What is the difference between feeling guilty and feeling accountable?

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Has your hour come?

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bloom

Today’s readings:
Psalms 119:73-80; 145, Deuteronomy 8:1-20, Hebrews 2:11-18, John 2:1-12

In the lyrics to “Beautiful Boy” John Lennon famously wrote: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” (though he borrowed it from comic strip author Allen Saunders). It seems this may have been true even for Jesus.

The first miracle in John’s gospel is the transformation of water into wine at a wedding in Cana which Jesus attended with his mother. When Mary told him that the wine had run out, Jesus brushed her off: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” Undeterred, Mary instructed the waiters to do whatever Jesus told them. In short order, they had about 150 gallons of high-quality wine.

This is kind of an odd miracle for a public debut. It was at a relatively private affair with only a few witnesses. It doesn’t have the same life-changing impact as a healing, or the grandeur of feeding multitudes with a few leftovers. It doesn’t seem to have an agreed-upon theological interpretation. Given Mary’s expectations, it likely wasn’t even his first one.

Here’s what we do know: there was a need in front of him, and he met it. If we are to follow in his footsteps, maybe we don’t need to know much more. Many of us have plans and goals, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if while we’re waiting for our hour to come we are so narrowly focused that we ignore the needs in front of us, whom exactly are we serving?

While we plan, let’s stay aware of the possibilities for service that at first blush may not seem to be of concern to us. Yes we all have demands on our time, but at the end of the day what will make that time matter? The lawn we need to mow won’t grow any taller during the five minutes it takes to check in with the ailing neighbor looking out her window. Our gesture does not need to be grand, nor our influence broad, to matter. Maybe we can’t all turn water into wine, but every one of us can turn time into love.

Comfort: Your small gifts can be enormous when given to someone else.

Challenge: Take regular pauses during your day to reflect on how you might serve someone in material or spiritual need.

Prayer: God of love, give me a servant’s heart. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever let your determination to reach a goal crowd out important things in your life?

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Everything new is old again.

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revolution-establishment

Today’s readings:
Psalms 84; 150, Jeremiah 9:23-24, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Mark 2:18-22

Today’s readings are about a faith-driven revolution in thought and attitude. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of love, justice, and righteousness working in opposition to wisdom, might, and wealth. He said those who boast about wringing success and power from the lives of those who suffer defy God. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote about God in Christ working through the foolish, the weak, and the despised to bring low those who “might boast in the presence of God.”

Who are these boasters? People who insist their power and wealth demonstrate how God has chosen them above others. They work to conserve the status quo not because it is just, but because it benefits them. After all, it’s easy to convince oneself the present order is just when examining that order too closely might undermine our comfortable position.

When Jesus reminded the Pharisees we can’t put unshrunk patches on old cloth, or new wine in old wineskins, he was telling them the old ways of doing and being couldn’t survive the new things God would do. The salvation story is not one of preservation; it is an epic of assumptions broken open to let in new truths and people. Salvation has a forward momentum.

So why does Christianity work so hard to stay in the past?

Tension has always existed between Christians who – like the Pharisees – are convinced the faith has nothing new to learn, and those who embrace the momentum. As a result, we have an uneven record of being on the right side of history regarding justice and inclusion. The Bible (or our current understanding of it) is not an excuse for closing our ears and minds to new and challenging things God might have to say and the people who say them.

Every revolution – industrial, political, theological – eventually becomes the calcified establishment and the corrupted empire. We forget that even conservative modern churches have evolved beyond what the earliest Christians would have accepted. The people suffering under the present circumstances are the foolish, weak, and despised whom God will use to bring the mighty low. If we use the past to justify their oppression and exploitation –particularly oppression and exploitation at the hands of the church – we ignore the future God reveals at our own peril.

Comfort: God is working in the world right now.

Challenge: Meditate on whether you cling to ideas because they are right, or because they are comfortable.

Prayer: Loving God, I will listen for your voice. Amen.

Discussion: Where do you find it challenging to balance tradition and justice?

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Idle Hands

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good-works

Today’s readings:
Psalms 43; 149, Deuteronomy 7:17-26, Titus 3:1-15, John 1:43-51

In his letter to his associate and friend Titus, Paul asks him to instruct the church in Crete on proper behavior for the faithful. He wants them to be obedient, courteous, and gentle, and wants them to avoid quarrels, gossip, and division. Regarding unbelievers – each of them a possible convert of course – he wants the faithful to be patient, “[f]or we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.”

See what he did there?

Paul was anything but naïve. He knew professing faith in Christ did not immediately transform a person into a saint. If it did, he wouldn’t have had to send instructions from afar. He was experienced enough to know his flock needed constant tending. By first appealing to the church’s better nature and describing the lives he hoped they would lead, he let them know he had faith in their potential. Though he attributed the less desirable behaviors to unbelievers, it was a subtle reminder to the church that they were not so different as they might like to pretend.

Throughout the letter, Paul suggests the “people learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet urgent needs, so that they may not be unproductive.” The doing of good works is a benefit not just to the recipient of the work, but also to the giver. Our actions influence our attitudes, and one way to cultivate a spirit of charity is to act charitably. Even when our spirit resists – maybe especially then! – acting in ways that demonstrate a love for God and his creation will help nourish those feelings within us.

Proverbs 16:27 says: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.” To be our best selves, we need to be intentional about how we spend our time. If we don’t fill our days with what is meaningful, we leave the gate open for the meaningless or harmful to creep in and take root. Being productive in the way Paul suggests helps grow God’s kingdom both within us and without.

Comfort: Faith is a journey. Learn from today and be better tomorrow.

Challenge: Do an informal time study of your week. Is your time going where you think it should?

Prayer: Gracious God, teach me to fill my days with what is good and pleasing to you. Amen.

Discussion: What is the difference between relaxation and idleness?

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