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?

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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?

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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?

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Foundations and Fruits

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 5; 145, Hosea 6:7-7:7, Acts 22:30-23:11, Luke 6:39-49

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”

Jesus spoke these words to a great crowd about two thousand years ago, and they are still instructive today. Modern Christians spend a lot of time talking about being Christian, what to believe, and who is and who isn’t really a Christian. Yet Christ is clear the hallmark of a person who follows him is the fruit that person bears. It’s easy to hear his words, to parrot them back to each other in an endless, self-satisfied echo chamber, and think we are being good Christians. But that’s not the firm foundation Jesus describes. The actions we take (or neglect) either support or undermine the credibility of the Gospel. If we spend all our time congratulating ourselves for not being those particular sinners – pointing out specks while ignoring our own logs – we haven’t done a darn thing to actually further the kingdom. To do the things Jesus tells us to do, we have to step out of church, Bible study, and Sunday school. If “each tree is known by its fruit,” what will you be known for? Works like feeding the hungry and visiting the sick may not earn us salvation, but if these aren’t the kinds of fruit we bear, it may be time to check for root rot.

It’s never too late to start laying that firm foundation, never too late to do more than hear the words of Jesus but to act on them.

Comfort: Acting on Jesus’s words helps us experience love and joy.

Challenge: Make the necessary changes in your life to help your faith radiate outward, rather than focus only inward.

Prayer: Loving God, I will follow Jesus in both word and deed. Amen.

Discussion: Some people find it easier to act out the Gospel, and some find it easier to talk about it. Do you fall into one of these camps?

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Guilt-Free

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 103; 150, Hosea 5:8-6:6, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Matthew 14:1-12

Guilt makes us behave in strange ways. Take Herod, for example: as Jesus and his ministry became more prominent, Herod became convinced Jesus was really John the Baptist resurrected with supernatural powers. Earlier Herod had executed John (who had embarrassed the family by publicly criticizing a marriage scandal), but he didn’t really want to. He actually liked listening to John preach, but his wife (whom he’d taken from his brother) and her daughter forced his hand. Guilt and embarrassment about his marriage forced Herod into a rash decision to execute John, and the guilt of the execution made him paranoid about the world. Like many a guilty party, he was looking over his shoulder waiting for the shadow of his misdeeds to overtake him.

Guilt urges us to overcompensate, sometimes by becoming falsely generous and sometimes by attempting to turn the tables and project our wrongdoings onto the people who remind us of it. Politicians and preachers who rail about conservative family values and then get caught doing the very things they condemned aren’t just hypocritical, they are suffering the destructive side effects of guilt. Very often spouses who cheat handle their guilt by buying their partners extravagant gifts, making accusations against them to deflect attention from their own wrongdoing, or avoiding them. It’s the rare individual whose behavior remains unaffected by feelings of guilt, and those effects are corrosive and unhealthy.

Fortunately Christians know a healthy alternative to guilt: repentance. Repentance is not the same as penance (good deeds to make up for the bad) or mere remorse; when we repent, we turn in a different – and better! – spiritual direction. We may not be able to avoid the consequences of our past actions, but we no longer repeat or dwell in them. Where guilt keeps us chained to shame, repentance severs those bonds and frees us to move on. Our past, once a minefield of failings waiting to detonate in our present, no longer threatens our peace of mind.

John the Baptist called the world to repentance. We answer that call by accepting the grace God offers through Christ.

Comfort: If you suffer from guilt, there’s a better way.

Challenge: Take an inventory of your guilt. How could you trade it for repentance?

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for your mercies. May the compass of my heart always seek your true North. Amen.

Discussion: Do you think it’s possible to forgive yourself for something you think you might do again?

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Citizenship

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 63; 149, Hosea 5:1-7, Acts 22:17-29, Luke 6:27-38

Despite Paul’s efforts to convince the Jews of Jerusalem that he too was a faithful Jew, many refused to believe him. The crowd was willing to listen as he told them the story of his conversion and encounter with Jesus, but as soon as he mentioned the Gentiles, they turned on him. Facts were irrelevant: his association with false accusations and foreigners fed the prejudices against him. Before the crowd could hurt him, Roman officials dragged him away to be interrogated by flogging. They abandoned that plan immediately when Paul revealed he was a Roman citizen by birth: flogging an uncondemned Roman carried serious penalties.

Paul’s persecution was unjust, regardless of his citizenship. We are sympathetic because we know his story, but do we understand what it says to us today? Citizenship – Roman or otherwise – is a human distinction, not a divine one. Christians are subject to nations which get to decide the civil rights of their citizens, but how we treat people – and how we advocate for the treatment of people – is not dictated by human law. We don’t abandon Christian principles about decency just because a government tells us we can – or must. To the contrary, the message of the gospel is incompatible with torture, discrimination, and other evils committed in the cause of nationalism. Mercy is not only for citizens. This is not a statement about immigration policy, but about our fundamental understanding of what it means when Jesus tells us to love our enemies.

“Enemies” aren’t simply people we fight in war; they are everyone we don’t especially want to love. Christ tells us loving those we like is nothing special – even sinners do that. We don’t have to like them, but he does instruct us to pray, feed, forgive, clothe, lend, and do good for them even when they hate and mistreat us … all the while expecting nothing in return. Difficult as it sounds, how we treat our enemies should look a lot like how we treat our friends. Citizenship in the Kingdom of God frees us from borders and obliges us to love.

Comfort: Loving our enemies gets easier with practice.

Challenge: Practice.

Prayer: Teach me, Lord, to love my enemies as Christ loves me. Amen.

Discussion: Whom do you find it difficult to love?

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A Level Place

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 84; 148, Hosea 4:11-19, Acts 21:37-22:16, Luke 6:12-26

Do you consider yourself comfortable or afflicted? Luke 6:17 begins a passage sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain. It parallels many of the themes of the better known and more comprehensive Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew. This sermon contains a list of blessings and woes that sound very much like the Beatitudes. They describe a reversal of fortune in which the afflicted will be comforted, and the comfortable will be afflicted. These ideas are equally unsettling to us as to Jesus’s original audience.

When we hear “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry,” does it mean we should go hungry? Is the Realm of God a world in which all people hunger? What if we are the hungry, and through the grace of God we become full? Into which camp – the blessed hungry or the cursed full – do we then belong?

A simple answer might be: if we are full (or rich, or laughing, or popular) at the expense of others, woe to us. Perhaps we should never be completely certain which camp we are in. We would be foolish and ungrateful to reject gifts like a good meal or a sheltering roof. After all, Jesus encourages us to provide these things to the poor. However, we would be equally (if not more) foolish to believe such gifts mark us as specially favored by God. The type of blessing Jesus speaks of in this passage is a state of right relationship with God. When we become complacent or take this relationship for granted, the relationship will suffer. Too much certainty our poverty is a sign of God’s favor is no better than a belief that material comfort is evidence of the same thing. This tension in the relationship helps us actively evaluate and fine-tune it throughout our lives.

Unwavering certainty in our own state of righteousness – or sinfulness – closes us off from the transformational grace of Christ in our lives, and in the lives of others. The gift of uncertainty keeps us humble seekers, always ready to discover Christ in new ways.

Comfort: The less we think we know, the better we can know God.

Challenge: Create side-by-side lists of the ways you think are rich and the ways you think you are poor. Do these line up with the Sermon on the Plain?

Prayer: Glorious Creator, thank you for a relationship that always grows. Amen.

Discussion: What is the difference between feeling guilty about the state of the world, and feeling responsible for it?

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Mob Mentality

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 116; 147:12-20, Hosea 4:1-10, Acts 21:27-36, Luke 6:1-11

Poor Paul. As if his actions weren’t polarizing enough, the Jews in the Jerusalem temple were ready to string him up for things he hadn’t done. They only had to say Paul had brought Greeks into the temple (he hadn’t), and the crowd dragged him outside, barred the doors, and beat him. Reaction was swift, forceful – and completely unwarranted.

Have you ever found yourself caught up in a mob mentality? A mob isn’t always a crowd of torch-wielding villagers. In our age of instant communication, the mob may be virtual, but it is no less infectious. We condemn or canonize people over a single image or sound bite. Technology has made it almost impossible to resist crossing the line from observer to participant. Take political campaigns: aren’t we more likely to repeat and re-post negative things about the opposition? Toss in the need of politicians to “spin” a situation to manage immediate public perception, and careers – even lives – are ruined by a media-driven mob. Even seemingly positive behaviors – for example, responses to natural disasters – are made less effective by mob mentality. Charitable organizations frequently waste donations that arrive in unmanageably large quantities at the beginning of a disaster recovery, then later run short, because people respond as a well-intentioned mob, rather than waiting to assess long-term needs.

The slow-burning mob, like the one that plotted against Jesus as his teachings began to threaten the status quo, is especially insidious. Today terms like “whisper campaign” describe indirect attacks meant to destroy a person’s reputation. Rather than appealing to a sense of outrage, this type of attack appeals to the ego; we all like to feel like we are “in the know” and a whisper campaign helps us believe we are privy to insider information. We can become part of a mob without ever knowing it. The seeds planted by the Pharisees at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry help prime the mob that eventually yells “Crucify him!”

As people of faith, we must temper our reactions with love and patience. As the hands of Christ, we do not swing blindly at shadows.

Comfort: God made us capable of thoughtful action and reaction.

Challenge: Fact check even the claims you are inclined to agree with.

Prayer: Glorious Creator, thank you for the gift of discernment. Amen.

Discussion: Have you been part of a physical or social mob and later regretted it?

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A Table Long and Wide

/ JJS / 4 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 96; 147:1-11, Hosea 3:1-5, Acts 21:15-26, Luke 5:27-39

Inclusiveness is a challenging concept. When we say people are welcome in our community, do we mean we welcome them as they are, or that we invite them to become more like us? Each community has fundamental values that are central to its identity, so we can usually assume those values appeal to people who wish to join. However, new arrivals frequently challenge customs and traditions, and most communities work harder to maintain them than to discover if they are, in fact, essential. Because communities of faith are voluntary, inclusivity presents a particular challenge, as those who are uncomfortable with it are free to depart to form or join more comfortable (that is, homogeneous) groups, and leaders don’t like to lose members.

When Paul returned to Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians elders welcomed him and praised God for all he’d done among the Gentiles. After he told his story, the elders expressed concern about rumors that he’d been telling Jews abroad to forsake the laws of Moses. Though this wasn’t true, they insisted he undergo ritual purification to validate his Jewishness so other Jews would listen to him. They also sent a letter to the Gentile Christians telling them to abstain from certain foods and fornication. These early Christians struggled with inclusion – with deciding what behaviors were simply unacceptable for members of the community. Over time some expectations have changed and some have not, and still we wrestle with establishing essentials.

The Pharisees chastised Jesus and his companions for dining with tax collectors and other sinners. Jesus responded by saying “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” His inclusive table allows for the failings of humanity, but it is not degenerate; its essential characteristic is that Christ calls all who participate to repentance. What that repentance looks like in our individual lives is between us and our Lord. Inclusion is not a call to conform to the community, but a call for the community to see and share Christ’s table everywhere.

Comfort: There’s enough room at Christ’s table for everyone; new people are not taking food from your mouth.

Challenge: Visit a church that’s different from your own. Remember how you felt about it – good and bad – the next time you welcome someone to your own.

Prayer: God of abundance, thank you for all the voices and colors of the world. Amen.

Discussion: We generally talk about diversity in society and the workplace as an advantage to people in the “minority.” It actually benefits everyone. How have you found this to be true?

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Horse Sense

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 12; 146, Hosea 2:16-23, Acts 21:1-14, Luke 5:12-26

Horses’ eyes are positioned to give them a horizontal field of vision spanning nearly 350 degrees, but the trade-off is a lack of depth perception. Their optic nerves function fairly independently, and an object seen first from the right side will be perceived as a new object when seen from the left. Raising their heads to look forward improves visual acuity, but then the field is reduced to about 65 degrees. The same world, containing the same information, can be perceived very differently by a single animal, let alone a herd.

As Paul prepared to leave Caesarea and return to Jerusalem, the prophet Agabus warned him the Jews would capture him and turn him over to the Gentile authorities. Naturally his companions did not want him to go, but Paul was ready to be bound and even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. God’s love was present both in Paul’s friends, who valued his life, and in Paul, who valued his mission over his personal safety. We can imagine the discussion was more heated and heartfelt than Acts describes.

People of good will in service to the Lord can see and understand that service very differently. At times, across and within faith communities, they may even seem to be working at cross purposes. Rather than insist on a single way, let’s consider the horse. We are limited in our perception of God and reality, yet that perception is all we have to work with. Each of us sees only a single slice. When we are focused on what’s in front of us, which may be exactly the right thing to do at the time, it’s difficult to maintain a wider view. When we try to take in the bigger picture, our comprehension will only ever go so deep. Only God knows the whole picture, and points us in the direction that is right for us.

Though we may not be in accord with each other’s point of view, like Paul and his friends we need only agree on one thing: the Lord’s will be done.

Comfort: Your slice of the plan doesn’t have to cover everything.

Challenge: Be open to the idea that God may be working in ways that will never make sense to you.

Prayer: God of Wisdom, grant me both clarity and humility. Amen.

Discussion: Do you have a favorite optical illusion?

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