Faith with Flair!

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 92; 149, Ezekiel 3:4-17, Hebrews 5:7-14, Luke 9:37-50

In the cult-hit movie Office Space, Joanna works as a server in a restaurant named Chotchkie’s (think mid-90s T.G.I.Friday’s) where they are encouraged to adorn their uniforms with “fun” badges and buttons called “flair.” The minimum requirement is thirteen pieces, which Joanna wears. Comedic tension arises when the manager wants but can’t demand more than the minimum effort, and Joanna has no interest beyond meeting it.

Since the movie is a farce about corporate life, we’re meant to sympathize with Joanna; who hasn’t had a job that seemed unnecessarily stupid to us? On the other hand, in Colossians Paul advises: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Even when our job stinks, our attitude is a reflection of our heart. When we can’t find passion for our work, we can create it.

The same is true of our faith lives. Is following Christ something we approach with gusto, or are we skating by on the bare minimum? If Christianity was chosen for us by accident of birth or other default setting, it may feel like a job we never sought. We show up on Sundays (or just holidays), give enough to note it in our tax returns, and say grace when we think someone might notice. Or maybe we are very involved at church, but the work feels burdensome and monotonous.

Jesus asked his followers for passion: “What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.” While he promises anyone who “gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple” will not lose their reward, doesn’t comforting a thirsty child feel like the minimum amount of Christian flair we can muster?

Since “by grace [we] have been saved through faith,” let’s lead lives that reflect eternal gratitude and amplify that good news for all to see and hear. When we deliver a meal to the hungry, the side of love and fellowship should be freely given.

Comfort: Work that seems menial can still matter.

Challenge: For one week, try to react to boredom by asking what needs to change inside, not outside.

Prayer: Gracious God, I will seek you in all my efforts. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever found out something you thought was unimportant or even boring made a difference you didn’t expect?

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Call-Out Culture

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I haven’t posted other articles to my blog before, but ran across this and it fits really well with yesterday’s post about communicating versus pummeling. In my opinion, this exemplifies the kind of self-reflection we all need to engage in before engaging the world at large.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/a-note-on-callout-culture/

Wall of Sound

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 92; 149, Ezekiel 3:4-17, Hebrews 5:7-14, Luke 9:37-50

Have you ever left a discussion or disagreement and felt it was more like two parallel monologues? One where you talked over instead of with each other? Today’s social and political climate seems to have moved us past conversation, past persuasion, past argument, and right into word avalanches meant to bury anyone who disagrees with us. Sometimes it really does seem like we might not be speaking the same language From dog-whistles (coded language meant to signal and incite people within our social tribe against another one) on the right to virtue signaling (speaking more to reinforce moral superiority among our peers than to facilitate conversation) on the left, we speak primarily to hear ourselves talk and have our views reflected and amplified back to us. Language becomes a barrier instead of a bridge.

Before sending the prophet Ezekiel to warn the people of Israel, God basically told him, “I’m sending you to people who should understand exactly what you are saying. Not people speaking a different language, but people from your own tribe. Guess what? They’re going to ignore you because they have hard and stubborn hearts.”

Hard and stubborn hearts cut both ways. They render us effectively deaf to those we don’t want to hear – even when they speak important truths. And when we are speaking, our own hard and stubborn hearts use words to pummel, punish, and shame … and when has anyone responded favorably to that?

When we speak from a grace-filled place, our words will be easy for people to hear. Of course whether they choose to listen is beyond our control, but we have a choice to make: create an impenetrable wall of sound or create an opportunity to harmonize? If we are hurt, angry, or scared the wall option is attractive, and feels good … for a while. But sealed away we will simply fester in the pain and fear. Harmony – reconciliation – requires us to speak plainly and honestly, and to listen the same way.

Communication is more than words: it requires intent, effort, vulnerability, and trust. Let’s try asking ourselves: “What would Jesus say?”

Comfort: New information changes our understanding; truth remains the same.

Challenge: Question your assumptions about other people’s words.

Prayer: Lord, may I seek more to understand than to be understood. Amen.

Discussion: What triggers you to stop listening to someone?

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Eat it! It’s good for you!

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 96; 148, Ezekiel 1:28-3:3, Hebrews 4:14-5:6, Luke 9:28-36

After God bestowed upon Ezekiel a fantastical vision of four-faced heavenly beings, God commissioned the prophet by presenting him a scroll and instructing him to eat it. The image of consuming a scroll may be less cinematic than multi-limbed giants emerging from a storm, but it is also rich with meaning. The scroll was covered with words of lament and mourning, and Ezekiel was commanded to share those words with the rebellious nation of Israel.

When God tells Ezekiel “eat what is before you,” he is confirming Ezekiel’s obedience, in direct contrast to the rebelliousness of the people. In Ezekiel’s time, scrolls were not made of paper, but papyrus (the same basic material as sandals and baskets) or parchment (the skin of a kosher animal); neither would have been an appetizing proposition. Yet the scroll was sweet as honey in his mouth. Like Ezekiel, we may find the tasks to which God calls us less than appealing, but in the end we may find they provide us with a sweet fulfillment only discovered when following God. A popular riddle asks: “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: one bite at a time. The stumbling block for most efforts is motivating ourselves to take the first step. If we can bring ourselves into obedience and choke down that first bite of scroll, who knows how sweet the rewards might be!

Would it have been easier for Ezekiel to hold onto the scroll and read it to people? Probably. Yet as a prophet, Ezekiel was called to literally internalize the word of God, to let it nourish and become part of his being. Do we consume God’s word and let it fuel us, or are our scrolls lying around, collecting dust? The answer is the difference between a living relationship with God and Gospel that we can’t help but share because it’s part of us, and devotion to an eternally external text that is an object of study but not sustenance.

God does not offer us merely a recipe for salvation, but the bread of life itself. Let’s devour it with gusto!

Comfort: Faith is lived, not just studied and kept to ourselves.

Challenge: At each meal, offer a prayer of thanks.

 

Prayer: Holy God, let others see your spirit filling me up! Amen.

Discussion: Do you feel God is preparing you for anything you are hesitant to take on?

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For Ascension Thursday, possibly the most joyous version of this song I’ve seen or heard. Enjoy!

African Children’s Choir – Lord I Lift Your Name On High

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Miaphysitism?! YOU a physitism!

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 47; 147:12-20, Ezekiel 1:1-14, 24-28(b), Hebrews 2:5-18, Matthew 28:16-20

Readings for The Ascension of the Lord:
Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47:1-9, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53

Today many churches celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, or the bodily ascent of the risen Christ into heaven. This story challenges the modern and scientific mind. Its accompanying readings are no less difficult. Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced beings and a god of fiery metal are highly symbolic and almost incomprehensible to anyone but a dedicated Bible scholar. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews explains the human and divine interplay in the person of Jesus. Heady material that for many of us is fairly inaccessible.

In contrast, the Matthew reading is short and clear: Jesus asserts his authority and commissions the disciples to spread his commands and teachings to make and baptize more disciples. Notably his teachings did not include technicalities like hypostatic union or Miaphysitism: Christ’s nature in both the human and the divine, versus a nature which is of both. Clearly different… right? Yet centuries ago these semantics, which matter not one iota to loving as Christ instructed, caused schisms that last to this day. Passages like the one in Hebrews fueled the debate. What do we imagine Christ – who brought together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles – might say about his followers feuding over such distinctions?

Theological discussions have their place; after all, why follow Christ if we do not believe he is a unique confluence of the human and the divine? But sometimes we get so wrapped up thinking or talking about faith we become like people who believe reading a child psychology book equips them to be parents; being able to quote theories does not help us touch a human life in a loving way. Maybe we don’t denounce Monophysitism (don’t ask) on a daily basis, but based on mere opinion we do make “religious” distinctions of the kind Christ worked to overcome. Even our choice of Biblical translation may decide whether we are “in” or “out” with a specific clique, congregation or denomination.

Christ’s nature – human or divine – was radically inclusive. Any effort spent separating us from others, rather than loving them, betrays that nature. Christ tells us to love God and our neighbor. Why add more?

Comfort: Christ’s commands are simple.

Challenge: Look up “Christology” on Wikipedia or another reference.

Prayer: Holy God, may your love live in my heart and not just my head. Amen.

Discussion: When have you encountered religion getting in the way of following Christ?

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Holiness and Homicide

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 99; 147:1-11, Deuteronomy 19:1-7, James 5:13-18, Luke 12:22-31

In Deuteronomy, God instructs Israel to position three cities in regions so no one will be too far from one. These Cities of Refuge are for people who commit unintentional homicide. Who should seek such sanctuary? Deuteronomy elaborates:

Suppose someone goes into the forest with another to cut wood, and when one of them swings the ax to cut down a tree, the head slips from the handle and strikes the other person who then dies; the killer may flee to one of these cities and live. But if the distance is too great, the avenger of blood in hot anger might pursue and overtake and put the killer to death, although a death sentence was not deserved, since the two had not been at enmity before.

That’s … oddly specific.

Three other Cities of Refuge are established earlier in Deuteronomy, but their asylum-seekers had to be willing to undergo a trial. The roads to these cities were well-maintained and unusually wide for easy access.

If holiness is a condition of being set apart from the world to serve God, these places were holy. Throughout Western history, churches have also been recognized (if not always legally) as holy places of asylum. One famous (though fictional) example is Esmerelda seeking sanctuary in Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral in Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Of late, the idea of sanctuary – of intentionally safe places in general – has been highly politicized. Sanctuary seems indulgent or dangerous … until we need it ourselves. Deuteronomy reminds us what is legal does not define what is just, and kindness is not weakness. Circumstances matter. Sometimes pausing to consider them – even if in the end they do not favor the asylum-seeker – is an act of faith. If possible, shouldn’t the church and its members offer mercy when law and circumstance have denied a higher justice?

Residents of the Cities of Refuge undoubtedly had mixed feelings about harboring fugitives, and some fugitives undoubtedly took advantage, but the need for a holy place transcended doubt and abuse. Living in the Kingdom requires us to accept its grace even for the fugitive.

Comfort: Offering safety makes it easier to seek it.

Challenge: Watch the short video below to learn more about the differences between refugees, asylees, and immigrants.

Prayer: God of peace, open my arms and heart to the stranger. Amen.

Discussion: Sanctuary isn’t just for fugitives or refugees. Where do you see a need for sanctuary in the world?

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Undone

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 98; 146, Deuteronomy 8:11-20 (or Deuteronomy 18:15-22), James 1:16-27, Luke 11:1-13

“Your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.”

What sobering words from James. Don’t we all have the capacity to work up a righteous (or self-righteous) anger? Shouldn’t evil and injustice make us angry?

Though wrath is reserved for the Lord, anger is an inescapable part of the human condition. We may spend a lifetime trying to master it – or trying to make sure it doesn’t master us – but on some level we cling to the belief that anger gets things done. Maybe we need to ask if they are the right things.

Anger is the beast that rips the wings off the better angels of our natures; the saboteur that dismantles our mechanisms of compassion and reason just when we need them most. Anger is the self-devouring fear we experience when forced to face the truth of one power we all lack: the power to undo. We get angry because something has happened, something we would have prevented if we could go back. When we are angry about what may happen in the future, it’s because we can’t change an event in the past. If that event is of our own making and anger turns inward, we find ourselves caught in a barbed net that draws tighter the more we struggle.

But Christ … Christ redefines the past. Christ transforms the cross – the murderous embodiment of the anger of an entire corrupt empire – into a sign of new life. Christ tames the beast, foils the saboteur. Submitted to Christ, anger is resurrected and refocused as a drive for justice, an energy for radical love, a passion for mercy, a courage for truth. Our anger does not produce God’s righteousness, but God’s righteousness can produce amazing things from an anger we are willing to turn over.

In the heat of the moment, anger may be unavoidable, even necessary for survival, but the most necessary armor will eventually suffocate us. Know when to peel it off, when to seek the breath of life, when to beat the sword into a plowshare. What we cannot undo, Christ will not leave undone.

Comfort: Your anger does not have to define you.

Challenge: Read some articles or books on managing anger.

Prayer: God of peace, take my anger and resurrect it as love. Amen.

Discussion: How do you usually deal with being angry? Shouting? Silence? Violence? How do you feel about it?

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The Long Game

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 97; 145, Deuteronomy 8:1-10 (or Deuteronomy 18:9-14),  James 1:1-15, Luke 9:18-27

Great coaches do not hang their hopes or reputation on any single game, tournament, or season. They focus on long-term goals for the team and the program. Fans and players who demand short-term results can quickly become disgruntled. No one likes to see their team lose. No player likes to sit the bench, especially a former star in high school, college, or the minors. Despite complaints, good coaches stick to the strategy, put in players who prioritize the needs of the team, and patiently mold a team into its optimal form.

God also plays a long game – the longest. As the Israelites entered the Promised Land after forty years of wandering the wilderness, Moses explained how their trials had prepared them. Their faith was tested, and refined when found lacking. As their endurance was pushed to its limits, they became a people who could face adversity and come out the other side. No matter how much they complained, God forcefully but lovingly stuck to the program for benefits they couldn’t foresee. In the end they learned the problem was not the program, but their ability to accept and live it.

Under the best circumstances, people appreciate great coaches. Under the worst, they replace them with someone who promises more immediate results. Like the golden calf worshipped by the Israelites while Moses was on the mountain, cheap substitutes satisfy the present urge, but fail to build character that sustains the team for the long haul.

Jesus understood the importance of long range planning. When Peter admitted he thought Jesus was the Christ, Jesus told him to keep that information under wraps until all that needed to happen had happened. Events might have unfolded differently if the Jewish authorities had believed Jesus was the messiah – different in ways that could have been easier on him – but he chose to stick with the program.

A good program adapts to the needs of the team, while simultaneously moving each team member closer to the goal. God can work similarly in our lives – if we are open to the program. Let’s come ready to play.

Comfort: Patience is not the same as doing nothing.

Challenge: Write down some long range goals. Pray about and revisit them regularly.

Prayer: God, thank you for your patience and guidance when I wander. Amen.

Discussion: When are you tempted to take shortcuts in life?

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Year Six

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 93; 150, Deuteronomy 15:1-11, 1 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Matthew 13:24-34a

Deuteronomy is one of those Old Testament books some Christians like to pick and choose from when it comes to identifying sins. We come up with complex academic, theological, and just plain arbitrary reasons to separate the rules we want enforced from the ones we don’t. We cling tightly to sexual sins, but don’t seem to have much problem anymore with usury (charging interest on loans), divorce, or mixed fabrics. Many times the distinction seems to boil down to whether the people committing the sin in question can be identified as “them” rather than “us.”

When’s the last time you heard Christians debating whether we should still observe remission? Since it would cost us money, probably not ever. Remission was the practice of forgiving loans every seven years. And it wasn’t just the act, but the spirit that was important: Deuteronomy warns against denying a loan in year six just because year seven is around the corner. Imagine what incredible relief that sort of financial amnesty meant for the poor. How does it compare to our current attitudes about debt, the poor, and generosity?

Since we follow a Christ who said “give to all who ask of you” (Luke 6:30 and Matt 5:42), why are we more likely to trot out passages about sexual transgressions than Deut 15:7-8 (“Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be’”) or 15:11 (“Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”)? Why do we demand religious-based legislation about what people can do with their bodies, but chafe under legislation that touches our wallets to aid the poor?

That sixth year admonition emphasizes how much God desires us to examine and correct our own hearts, even when it doesn’t make financial sense, and to cultivate an attitude of Christ-like generosity. Grace is not an equation like compound interest; the more you give, the more you get.

Comfort: The more generous you are, the more generous you will want to be.

Challenge: Try to think of generosity as something that benefits the giver spiritually as much as it benefits the recipient materially.

Prayer: God of grace and abundance, create in me a clean and generous heart. Amen.

Discussion: What’s the most generous gift someone has given you?

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