Know When to Hold ‘Em

/ JJS / 2 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 56; 149, Esther 2:5-8, 15-23, Acts 17:16-34, John 12:44-50

A young man asked me for advice about going on his first job interviews. He was going through his “emo” phase – hair grown out over his eyes, t-shirts with four-letter words, black nail polish. I suggested that for some  employers he’d need to adjust his look – hair out of the face, collared shirt, remove the polish. He replied: “If they don’t like me the way I am, it’s their loss.”

“Tell me how that pays,” I said, and explained people are rarely hired to be themselves; employers hire the parts that fill the role for the duration of the shift and want you to leave the rest at home. If they ask you to compromise your values, it’s not the right job for you; if they forbid t-shirts with rude gestures, make the concession. Self-expression is important, but not in all ways at all times.

Esther had a sort of involuntary job interview when she was taken with many women to the king’s palace so he could select a queen. She listened to the king’s eunuch, who “had charge of the women” and asked only what he advised. She also remembered her uncle Mordecai’s advice, and didn’t revealed her kindred or her people” who were Jewish exiles in Persia. The king chose Esther because he believed her beauty and temperament filled the role of queen.

Mordecai overheard a plot to kill the king, and Esther passed this information along, gaining favor for herself and her uncle. As Esther’s story unfolds, she wisely decides when to reveal herself, when to hold back, and how to gain the trust of the king.

Sharing the gospel is not unlike interviewing for a job, or courting a king – it’s not dishonest to exercise discretion. We don’t want to blurt out absolutely everything in a take-me-or-leave-me ultimatum. Trust and relationships take time. Bosses, spouses, and friends are more receptive to challenging ideas when they come from a trusted ally than from a stranger who claims to know better. People are not projects; to bring them to Christ, we must learn to love them first.

(For further thoughts on today’s reading from Acts 17, see The Unknown God.)

Comfort: You don’t have to win converts on the spot; take your time to get to know people, and Christ will shine through.

Challenge: Be deliberate about holding and freeing your tongue.

Prayer: Loving God, teach me when to speak and when to remain silent. Amen.

Discussion: Has your enthusiasm for a project ever backfired?

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100 Thanks!

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We hit 100 followers! I know that’s small change in the blogging world, but it’s a big deal to this little voice. Thanks for your support.

Seeing God Everywhere

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 130; 148, Esther 1:1-4, 10-19, Acts 17:1-15, John 12:36b-43

The Book of Esther is not just a captivating story, it is an unusual part of the Bible: it never mentions God. This glaring omission made it a controversial addition to both Jewish and Christian canon. A work about Jewish/Persian relations from a clearly Jewish perspective, Esther shows little regard for Jewish law. But because it is included, we can assume those who selected it believed it had something to say about our relationship with God.

Are we prepared to see God in people, things and events which are not explicitly Christian, or religious in any way? We should be. God is present in all the world at all times. If we limit ourselves to people and experiences with a big, bold Christian sticker on them, we’ll spend a lot of time rejecting that presence. Our own Christian faith is not irrelevant or unimportant; indeed, our faith tradition teaches us to see God in context. We trust that God moves in people and in ways we may never fully understand. When someone is blessed with the gift of music, generosity, or poetry, we know that gift comes from God, even when the possessor of the gift doesn’t believe so. If we ignore or denigrate them because they don’t fall comfortably into a Christian marketing plan, we snub gifts God has given the world.

Our relationship with the secular world is complicated. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus himself offers us messages which may seem to conflict. In verse 9:50 he tells the disciples “whoever is not against you is for you,” while in 11:23 he says “whoever is not with me is against me.” The earlier verse is an instruction to the disciples about others doing good works, while the latter concludes a parable about Jesus’ role in salvation. If we take a long view of the Gospels, don’t we see a Christ whose actions favor acceptance and love of those rejected by self-righteous religious figures? The Pharisees accused Jesus of being too worldly because he didn’t seek reasons to reject people, but to love them. Can we do less?

Comfort: God loves us whether or not we meet others’ expectations.

Challenge: As you are exposed to popular entertainment and culture, look for where God’s presence is realized, and where it is rejected.

Prayer: Compassionate God, I will seek you in everyone and everything. Amen.

Discussion: In what secular art (music, film, paintings, etc) have you seen signs of God?

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Surrender

/ JJS / 5 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 36; 147:12-20, Job 28:1-28, Acts 16:25-40, John 12:27-36a

For most people, surrender is a dirty word. Not just in war or sports, but in everyday life. Heaven forbid we not crush the gas pedal to pass and scowl at the driver who cut us off. We dare not end any argument, no matter how pointless or relationship-damaging, by simply withdrawing from it. Our business cannot simply succeed; it must out-perform or – better yet – eliminate its competition. We talk about loving our enemies, but we put it off until after we defeat them.

When an earthquake miraculously released Paul and Silas from unjust imprisonment, what would we have expected them to do? As their jailer was about to kill himself over his failure, they could have seized this opportunity to escape, but Paul cried out to stop him. Not exactly a move from the Jack Bauer playbook, is it? The jailer was so moved he fell at their feet, asked what he could do to be saved, and took them to his home, where Paul and Silas baptized his entire family.

Paul so loved his enemy (for who is your enemy if not your wrongful jailer?) he risked imprisonment and further beatings rather than see the man harm himself. Succumbing to Christ transformed Paul – who only months before had been hunting and jailing Christians – so drastically he was able to create converts by showing mercy in the face of injustice. Christ renewed Paul, who renewed the jailer, who renewed his family, and so on…

We all contain that same potential. To tap into it, we must surrender all that we are to Christ. We’re taught to never surrender, but there’s no getting around it. We surrender not from a position of weakness, but from a position of trust. What do we surrender? The grudge against the neighbor who always takes our parking space; the certainty we are the right kind of Christian; the status of socializing with the popular crowd; the fear of the different and the unknown.

Surrender is a lifelong process that doesn’t perfect us, but opens us to the possibilities available in God’s realm.

Comfort: God finds strength in our weakness.

Challenge: At the beginning of each week, select one thing – a grudge, a habit, a fear – to surrender to God.

Prayer: Compassionate God, thank you for the arms that hold me up. Amen.

Discussion: How does the idea of surrendering make you feel?

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Now on Twitter!

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Comfort & Challenge is now on twitter! Never used this platform, but if it’s your thing, please follow @comf_n_chall. Thanks!

Seeds

/ JJS / 3 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 15; 147:1-11, Job 42:1-17, Acts 16:16-24, John 12:20-26

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
– John 12:24

Jesus shares this image of a seed dying to bear fruit as a metaphor for his own impending death, and the faith community that will grow from it. Just as an apple seed contains all the genetic material to create a fully-formed apple tree from water, soil and light, Jesus contains everything the world needs to be transformed into the limbs of the body of Christ. Both the seed and Jesus sacrifice themselves to turn potential into reality, and both remain fully present in the fruit they bear.

Like all good parables, this one contains multiple levels of meaning. Each of us needs to “die to ourselves” to release the potential God has placed in us. What does it mean to “die to ourselves?” Like a seed, we have to shed any shell that keeps us from fully surrendering to God’s transformational process. Our shells may grow from pride, greed, fear, selfishness, or anything that inhibits the Spirit. Until that shell crumbles, neither we nor the world will see any real fruit.

How do we discard our shells? The same way any seed does: a little dirt, a little water, and a little light. We have to dig in and dirty our hands by helping the poor, the sick, and anyone Christ commands us to serve. Through the waters of baptism – a ritual symbolizing death and resurrection – we surrender ourselves to God and agree to trust his understanding above our own. We allow the light of Christ, his message of love and faith, to penetrate our hearts until it burns away all resistance. Faith lives that are never exposed to these elements are like seeds that never leave the packet: we see the picture of what they’re supposed to become, but never taste the real thing.

The world hungers for God. Let’s do everything we can to feed it by nurturing the seeds within us to fruition.

Comfort: To die to the self is not to perish, but to be reborn in Christ..

Challenge: Are you getting enough dirt, water and light? Examine how you engage the world, trust God, and embody Christ’s light.

Prayer: Compassionate God, thank you for the potential in each of us. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever gotten into a debate that generated a lot of heat and little or no light?

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That’s it?

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 123; 146, Job 40:1, 41:1-11, Acts 16:6-15, John 12:9-19

It’s here! The climactic chapter of the book of Job, wherein God will conclude his explanation of all Job’s suffering – and maybe the explanation of all our suffering. He’s told us about the majesty and wonder of creation that he alone is capable of. He’s made it clear we as mortals can never be righteous or wise enough to comprehend all he has seen and done. His final words of wisdom to Job and those present …

… are thirty-four verses about what may or may not be a super-hippo. Huh?

That’s it, folks. That’s all the author(s) of Job had to offer. Perhaps, in the end, the subject matter was beyond anyone’s ability to address. Maybe there simply is no good justification for a God who allows the slaughter of a man’s family to win a wager. Maybe God is an all-powerful jerk who couldn’t just say “Sorry, that was a rotten but necessary thing to do to you.” No matter what the explanation, we can’t help feeling God just sidestepped the whole issue.

And some of us may be asking, “Did I just waste my time? Why is this book in the Bible anyway?” Well, we haven’t wasted anything. We’ve spent weeks pondering the human condition. We’ve been appropriately outraged about injustice, and equally outraged by inadequate – even unloving – efforts to explain it away. We have inquired into the nature of God, and found the conveniently packaged answers lacking. In other words, we’ve done what serious Old Testament scholars have done for centuries: wrestled with our faith. With its lack of a satisfying resolution, Job may seem like the world’s earliest piece of post-modern literature, but – intentionally or not – it does its job (no pun intended) by leaving us with more questions than answers.

We will always seek meaning in our lives. Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu, Job, and even God represent points of view we work through in our search. Like Job, the best answer we get in life may be: “It’s a God thing – you wouldn’t understand.” And we’ll keep searching, because the search alone holds meaning.

Comfort: The mystery of God is worth exploring our whole lives.

Challenge: Write your own response to Job’s questions.

Prayer: Compassionate God, thank you for your comfort when I suffer. Amen.

Discussion: What questions do you really wish you had answers to?

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It’s complementary, my dear Christian.

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 135; 145, Job 40:1-24, Acts 15:36-16:5, John 11:55-12:8

A friend of mine volunteers a lot of her time working with feral cats. It’s not uncommon for people to dismissively ask why she wastes her efforts on stray animals instead of humans. Besides making unfounded assumptions, these questions rise from an attitude of scarcity which assumes one person’s priorities must be robbing resources from another’s.

Paul and Barnabas successfully worked together to build up the church in Antioch. After a while, Paul suggested they take a journey to visit the cities where they had previously spread the gospel. Barnabas wanted to take along Mark, but Paul objected because earlier Mark had deserted them to return to Jerusalem. They couldn’t come to an agreement, and parted company. Paul took Silas to Syria and Cilicia, and Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus, and twice as much ground was covered. We hear a lot more from and about Paul, but reliable information about Barnabas is lost to history. Paul does mention Barnabas and Mark in his letters, and his words suggest they maintained a respectful, possibly friendly, relationship.

They continued to be successful on their separate paths because they realized a disagreement does not mean the work comes to a standstill until one side gets its way. They didn’t interfere with or sabotage each other. To the contrary, they allowed the Spirit room to work. Often in our faith communities, leaders have different visions for the future of the community. For example, some leaders are inwardly focused on spiritual development and sanctuary, while others are more naturally drawn to externally focused work, such as mission and social justice projects. Scarcity-minded leaders assume these visions are competing. Because they feel threatened, they hoard what they see as limited resources and even undermine the “competition.” Grace-minded leaders try to understand how these visions might be complementary, and make room in the community for both – or more.

All good work is good work. Food pantries are not the natural enemy of building fund drives. Be grateful for the work God has called you to do, and be gracious about the work He’s given others.

Comfort: Your work is valuable on its own.

Challenge: Avoid comparisons.

Prayer: Gracious and giving God, thank you for the abundance that allows all your children to do the work of your kingdom. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever been unnecessarily competitive?

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Holy Indifference

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 81; 150,Job 38:1, 18-41, Revelation 18:1-8, Matthew 5:21-26

 “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference… The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
– Elie Wiesel

When disaster strikes, some preachers can’t wait to blame the tragedy on their favorite – or would that be least favorite? – group of sinners. Never mind that disaster falls on the righteous and unrighteous alike, and any given hurricane or shooting may completely miss God’s alleged target; they can always blame America’s general decline into sin. Once they’ve drummed up sufficient guilt and fear in their listeners, they graciously offer an opportunity to relieve said guilt and fear in the form of donations to their own righteous organization.

Except … according to Psalm 81 and other scriptures, God’s worst reaction might not be punishment, but indifference. Our own life experiences tell us God is not some petty bureaucrat handing out punishments for every moral misdemeanor. Neither is God a tin-pot dictator forcibly bending us to his will. He invites us to love and obey Him, and acceptance of that invitation is not without obligation, but if we decline, the consequences – at least in this life – seem to be God’s withdrawal from our lives. The psalmist warned Israel they were suffering because they were bowing to foreign gods so the Lord had left them to the counsel of their own stubborn hearts. In Romans 1, Paul tells us about people who traded God for idols, and how “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves.” When a people stopped listening to God, he let them go. The bed they made was their own to lie in.

The good news is that no matter how badly we’ve screwed up our own lives by rejecting God, He will always accept an invitation back into that life. Whatever false idols we’ve been worshiping, God waits with the open arms of a father welcoming home a runaway child. Whether we’ve abandoned that home for an hour or a lifetime, God will be there.

For further reading on today’s reading from Matthew, see Pass the Peace.

Comfort: No matter how badly you’ve screwed up, someone who’s done worse has turned their life around.

Challenge: Be diligent about discerning between your own voice and God’s.

Prayer: God of mercy, forgive me for the times I choose my own counsel over yours. Thank you for leading me home to you again. Amen.

Discussion: What consequences have you suffered as a result of relying on your own counsel instead of God’s?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Truth and Consequences

/ JJS / 1 Comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 104; 149, Job 38:1-17, Acts 15:22-35, John 11:45-54

For decades Judea was a fairly independent kingdom, but shortly after Jesus’s birth it fell directly under Roman administration. The Romans, aware of many Jews dissatisfied with the increasing restrictions, clamped down ruthlessly on any sign of insurrection. When a messianic, rabble-rousing Jesus grew yet more influential after raising Lazarus, the political climate had Jewish leaders worrying “the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.”

We might be quick to judge the Pharisees (aren’t we always?), but the responsibility of protecting a nation against a threatening force strains ideals to the breaking point. Since the desires to keep people safe and to maintain personal power are not mutually exclusive, motivations become murky. This does not excuse the plot to kill Jesus, but it does put it into context. However, despite the Pharisee’s best efforts to appease both the Jews and the Romans, a Jewish revolt in 66 AD ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple.

The Pharisees illustrate a valuable lesson: how we defend a thing can be as important – maybe more so – than the thing itself. If our methods to defend a family, institution, or nation fundamentally alter its character – for example, covering up a scandal to avoid exposure rather than practicing the integrity we preach – we are left with a diminished thing that may no longer even be worth defending. How hard do we have to search for churches that have undermined their own moral authority, democracies that respond to threats by restricting personal liberties, and businesses which trade ethics for the bottom line? Not far enough. And in almost all cases, leaders somehow justified to at least themselves and often their people that survival was worth the cost.

Yes, the world demands compromise, but Jesus teaches us to face the consequences of integrity. He tells us it’s better to show up to heaven missing eyes and hands rather than let them cause us to sin. That goes for wallets, titles, and flags as well. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our eternal life; don’t sell him short out of fear.

Comfort: Integrity costs us a lot because it’s worth it.

Challenge: See above.

Prayer: God of all humankind, may my decisions be a reflection of your love for me and all people. Amen.

Discussion: What are you willing to sacrifice for survival?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!