First those out to get Jesus paint themselves into a corner with their logic and now it is a follower who goes deeper and deeper with lie leading to lie. It is an all too common human weakness to keep on piling wrong upon wrong instead of stopping the madness with a simple confession.
What truth would stop you from continuing on the wrong path?
For the Jesus followers in ancient Palestine, Jesus is the fulfillment of Hebrew scripture, the One who has been sent by God to usher in a world order that is based on compassion and love, not hierarchy and fear. It is through him that they know God's purpose for their lives.
Lord, open our hearts to doing your will as your Son, Jesus showed us in his living and in his dying.
The legalists are hoisted on their own petard. The law won't allow bearing false witness but since it also requires two witnesses in order to convict they have to work hard to find two to agree. Out of the crowds that Jesus created through mercy, it was hard to find even two people who could be coerced into a lie against grace.
Are you cornered by your own too rigid thoughts?
In this parable of a man who leaves his slaves in charge of his property when he goes away, we learn that the slaves who were given many coins of great value find ways to invest them and earn more for their master, while the slave with only one coin buries it in the ground to keep it safe. On his return, the master chastises the slave who did nothing to increase the value of his coin, and he gives it to the servant who made the most of his. The good news of the nearness of the kingdom of heaven is a treasure to be shared far and wide with all who have ears to hear. When Jesus entrusts the disciples to spread the message of the breaking in of the kingdom, the gates of the kingdom are opened wide to all who listen and believe.
May we be counted among the good stewards of your love, dear Lord, so that no one need ever live in fear.
Under stress we resort to the false comfort of things left behind. Following Jesus meant forgoing violence, but here in the garden one of them becomes the mouse that roared, raging against the juggernaut of Roman power come to execute a horrible injustice.
What else do you have to offer other than returning evil for evil?
It’s a bit easier, after spending days or even weeks recently without electricity, for us to understand the deep darkness of the night sky in ancient times. In this parable of the end-times, some of the young women are careless and leave their oil behind when it is time to go out into the night to meet the bridegroom who is coming, and because they are not prepared, they are left behind in the darkness. And even when they return with lamps full of oil to guide them, the bridegroom does not open the door to them. We are there with them in their disappointment when the door is not opened for them to enter. Though, in modern times we may not believe that the world as we know it will soon be coming to an end, it is good to stay alert and ready to respond to God calling us to light the way for love to enter.
Lord, help us to carry our light into even the darkest hours, so that we might be a beacon of hope.
We stay awake through so many shallow distractions disguised as entertainment, but when we slow down and center ourselves in order to spend time with God we quickly nod off. In the case of the disciples here in the garden their sleep may have been a defense against remaining present to such deep sorrowful suffering. It is indeed very hard to bear silent witness to pain when the only gift that can be offered is human presence to help bear some of the pain.
Who needs the ministry of presence from you today?
It is easy to get discouraged when the hoped-for changes that we have been working so hard to bring about are slow to appear. Often we look around us and see only the things that are lacking, things like job security, food security, and fair access to healthcare. And yet, Jesus encourages us to be observant and take a lesson from the fig tree that puts forth leaves only when the summer is near. Then we might see the millions of brave souls working for change by providing public garden space so the hungry can grow their own vegetables, by building good-quality low-income housing where families can live safely and securely, and by voting to raise the salaries of local teachers so that the best teachers will stay to teach all of our children.
Lord, bless the peacemakers who continue their work in the faith that the kingdom of heaven may be just a gesture of love away.
Even the traitor is welcomed at Jesus' table. It is notable that all the disciples have to ask if they are the one. Some doubt inside each of them led them to ask. Perhaps that ability for self-examination is the critical tool that will help them all not just to handle the pain that lay ahead but also to be the type of leader that truly follows Jesus to lead the church in his steps.
Is it you?
Jesus encourages the disciples to respond to the overwhelming destruction that signals the end time by getting safely away from the center of Jerusalem and ignoring any interpretation of what is occurring other than their own. Amidst the chaos and fear they are to ignore the predictions of doom preached by false prophets and keep their eyes open for the true signs of the coming of the Son of Man and all the angels.
In uncertain or dangerous times, how tempting it is to be drawn this way and that by voices proclaiming “the truth”.
Help us to keep the eyes of our eyes open to your truth, dear God, so that we might find safety and comfort in the shelter of your love.
Jesus had tried to avoid crowds and now those who seek to destroy him fear those very crowds. Secret plots, political maneuvering and cunning tricks are the tools of those desperate to oppose the rightness of grace and mercy.
Are you ready to count the cost of stepping out of the crowd to stand with Jesus?
As this fifth discourse begins, Jesus has just come out of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem and is foretelling its destruction. As a symbol the Jewish faith, the temple had no match. To suggest, “not one stone will be left here on another” was a dramatic prediction of destruction, but it was only the beginning. It’s hard to read the litany of destruction in this passage without seeing parallels in our own time. Nations rising against nations, famines, and earthquakes: all of these would be “but the beginning of the birth pangs”. And yet, amidst the death and destruction, false prophets, betrayals and lawlessness, Jesus declares that the preaching of the good news of the coming of the kingdom will bring hope of salvation to all who believe.
Keeping hope alive; is that a disciple’s job when chaos and destruction reach into every corner of the world as we know it? Will love for one another keep us safe through even the darkest days?
Lord, we have seen the sky darken and the heard the winds roar; and through all the fear, chaos, and destruction we are still here, grateful to be alive. Guide us as we work to keep the flame of your sustaining love alive in our beloved community and in the world far beyond our walls.
Matt 14: 22-33
Right then, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. When he sent them away, he went up onto a mountain by himself to pray. Evening came and he was alone. Meanwhile, the boat, fighting a strong headwind, was being battered by the waves and was already far away from land. Very early in the morning he came to his disciples, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified and said, “ It’s a ghost! ” They were so frightened they screamed.
Just then Jesus spoke to them, “ Be encouraged! It’s me. Don’t be afraid. ” Peter replied, “ Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water. ” And Jesus said, “ Come. ” Then Peter got out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter saw the strong wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “ Lord, rescue me! ”
Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him, saying, “ You man of weak faith! Why did you begin to have doubts? ” When they got into the boat, the wind settled down. Then those in the boat worshiped Jesus and said, “ You must be God’s Son! ”
How does one “see” a strong wind? Likely in the same way one sees a ghost, it is a matter of perception. The same apparition that at first frightened Peter and the others turned out to be one person most welcomed in the situation, Jesus himself. As long as Peter fixed his gaze, and his mind, on Jesus, trusting him for his salvation, he stayed afloat...literally. But as soon as he could see nothing but the wind, the torment of the battering storm, he began to sink. And this is Peter, the one on whom Jesus said the church would be built. In a way then, this is the story of every Christian, each of us is like Peter in this story; frightened at first and then quick to step out in faith, but just as quick to lose it.
Technically, this is a story about Simon, it was later that Jesus gave him his new name. I wonder what the other disciples thought when they heard Jesus tell Simon that his new name was Peter, which means “rock.” I can imagine one of them snickering, “Yeah, he sure sunk like a rock out there on the water.” So Jesus promises to build his church on a sinking stone, not a foundation most of us would choose. Jesus seems willing to work with flawed materials when he builds.
Peter certainly was flawed. We have no indication that he was not as frightened as any of the rest of the disciples in the storm-battered boat. And after they scream in fear, Jesus has to identify himself to them to calm them down. But that is not enough for Peter. Notice that he says if it is you...he is looking for proof. And as long as his trust holds, that is, as long as he keeps his focus on Jesus, he is fine, but trust is a fragile thing. As Jesus saves Peter from the water, he scolds him for having weak faith. Peter has to be rescued twice, first from his fear and then from his lack of trust in the source of his salvation.
Peter's need to be rescued from himself didn't stop there. As we move toward Holy Week, we are reminded of Peter's bold prediction that he would never deny Jesus, yet broke that promise not once, but three times that very night! But it would be a shame if the only lesson we learn from Peter's need is to keep our mouths shut or to be slow to action to avoid being caught out in our own lack of trust and broken promises. Surely God, who knows our hearts and minds, is equally disappointed in our hesitance to trust or commit, as in our demonstrated lack of trust or commitment, perhaps even more so.
We obviously are not immune to storms (whether literal or figurative) and none of us are unfamiliar with fear both of the harm the storm will do us and of the risk of stepping out of the boat to find salvation. We may like to think ourselves better than Peter, but we truly do know better. We, like Peter, need salvation, first and foremost from ourselves.
After a night of being tossed in the violent waves, the disciples mistake Jesus for a ghost. Their fear is running so high, they don’t recognize their beloved teacher until he calls out to them and encourages them not to fear. But Peter wants proof and so asks Jesus to order him out of the boat to walk across the water. Peter walks across the water, but then sees the strong wind, becomes frightened and begins to sink…like a stone.
In the sacred texts of every major world religion we can find teaching about how our fears block our ability to trust in the power of love. In the midst of our storms, when we are feeling the battering winds against our little boats, any knowledge that we are held in God’s loving embrace gets overcome by our fears and negative thoughts about our present circumstances.
Where could God possibly be in this illness, this tragedy, layoff or heartbreak, we ask, when our fears are running so high? With our minds racing to find some earthly solution, some fix, there is scarce room for the sacred. It’s far too easy to leave faith behind in our efforts to fix a situation that is threatening us. We just want to fix it, to make it right for ourselves and others. And these are lofty and important desires. After all, we are called to serve. God calls us to open space for God’s love to reach into even the most terrifying, painful, or hopeless circumstances.
For the past few weeks we’ve heard remarkable testimonies to God’s presence in the storm. We’ve listened to testimonies filled with awe and wonder that even in the deepest darkness, even going down for the third time, the still small voice of God comes across the water saying, “Come! Rest! Know that you are safe and loved!” What makes these testimonies so compelling is that in each case despite fragile, shaky or even absent faith, each one felt God lifting them back into the boat, maybe not the first time, or even the second time, but gradually, eventually.
Jesus chose Peter, the rock, on which to found his church. Jesus chose the one who needed proof, whose faith was shaky, who succumbed to fear and sank like a stone. He chose the one like us.
Its not surprising, then, that in each of the world’s major religions there are practices designed to help us learn how to rest in the storm of our thoughts and emotions. Anyone who has tried to do sitting meditation knows how incessantly our minds provide us with thoughts, and how quickly we can sink into the murky water of these thoughts and feelings and get lost there.
The general instruction in most forms of meditation is to notice the thoughts that pop up in our minds and then just let them go. In letting the thoughts and noise in our minds go, we trust that the reality of God’s grace and love is something we can’t find by grasping for it, it is something that slips in when we least expect it. It’s there beneath the noise and confusion…there beneath even the darkest thoughts.
Sometimes it can feel nearly impossible to let go of our thoughts….and the feelings that continuously fuel them. When our minds are like a movie screen with thoughts popping up in front of us in living color, featuring an award-winning cast and all kinds of bells and whistles to keep our attention, it is hard to just let them go. One of my teachers says with a smile in her voice, “That’s why we call it a practice!” Staying open to faith is not always easy, particularly when we are feeling anxious, sad, or frightened about something in our lives or in the world. Trusting in the reality of God’s love can easily elude us.
Jesus knew Peter’s flaws and still he chose him. We are his descendants, needing to be rescued again and again from our reactions to the storms of our lives --from our loss of faith.
When we find ourselves tossed by the winds and the waves, may we remember to stop…and by stopping, let go of our fears and trust that we have the power to open space enough to invite the calm of God’s loving and healing presence into our boats. May it be so.
“Listen, even the children get it.” That seems to be the exasperated response gives to the angry nitpickers after one more display of mercy where it should be most expected, in God's own house. Then Jesus simply leaves, no doubt shaking his head, to spend the night with friends in the next town.
What are you doing to give children a reason to praise God?
But the parable takes a twist as the forgiven slave becomes a tyrant to an indebted fellow slave and has him thrown into jail, only to be reported to the king for his cruelty. Jesus makes a case to the disciples sitting at his feet that they must never neglect to reflect back to their brothers and sisters the mercy that God showers on them, if they truly wish to be forgiven at the last by God.
We know your commandment to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. As we travel this Lenten journey together, Lord, help us to forgive each other and forgive ourselves, to be at peace with each other and at peace with ourselves, that we welcome your kingdom right here among us.
Sometimes it takes more than soap and water to clean something. Jesus uses some “elbow grease” to drive home his point about what God approves and disapproves. Jesus has consistently attacked the fences placed by those who would limit the area of God's concern. If the mercy of God is not be constrained by the Sabbath then neither should the justice of God be practiced anywhere other than everywhere, so beginning by clearing a path right in God's house makes sense.
Where is your elbow grease needed to clean an area to welcome God's justice?
This parable of the unforgiving servant offers the disciples a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven. The king’s forgiveness of the debt owed by the slave is akin to God’s forgiveness of mistakes made by his faithful disciples, Jesus tells them. If they humbly offer up their predicaments, God, in God’s compassion, will listen and respond with justice and love.
Help us to lift our weaknesses to you, God, that we might be strengthened and set on a course that is straight and true.
According to my study bible, the forgiveness of sins, not seven, but seventy-seven times, is an echo of Genesis 4:24. The Genesis passage refers to the ancestor Lamech’s honor being avenged not seven times, but “seventy-seven fold”, a reference the disciples would pick up right away. In this new order, Jesus tells them, forgiveness takes the place of revenge as the single-most important way to uphold honor in Christian community.
Lord, help us to remember that forgiveness, though rarely easy, is an important step on the path to building healthy and authentic community.
According to my study bible, the forgiveness of sins, not seven, but seventy-seven times, is an echo of Genesis 4:24. The Genesis passage refers to the ancestor Lamech’s honor being avenged not seven times, but “seventy-seven fold”, a reference the disciples would pick up right away. In this new order, Jesus tells them, forgiveness takes the place of revenge as the single-most important way to uphold honor in Christian community.
Lord, help us to remember that forgiveness, though rarely easy, is an important step on the path to building healthy and authentic community.
Even as the journey gets closer to the painful end, the disciples are slow to learn from the example of the one they follow. Jesus has led by serving but James and John (nicknamed “the sons of thunder”) are prepared to take up positions over others if that will be granted. Their mother makes the request creating the storm of misunderstanding and hurt feelings among the followers. Jesus doesn't spare them by withholding the truth even though they don't seem to drink it in fully.
What distant thunder do you hear and is it a storm of your own making?
The earliest churches had the task of learning how to live with each other in accordance with both the wisdom of the commandments God revealed to Moses and the wisdom of the teachings of Jesus. To live as brothers and sisters in faith meant letting go of old categories of status and worth and learning to treat each other as equals. That was a very tall order in ancient Palestine. In this passage Jesus encourages his followers to be transparent in their problem solving and to involve more and more of their brothers and sisters in Christ if a problem can’t be solved easily. And then He promises that wherever two or more are cooperating in the work of building beloved community, there they will find him.
Lord, help us to acknowledge your presence in our midst as we strive to live as a loving, open, and welcoming community of faith.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, or at least so they say. The rich man in this story seems to believe that as he seeks to learn what it takes to earn eternal life. He surely hasn't noticed that Jesus is easily moved to mercy, giving grace freely. Indeed, grace is only grace if it is free. But a strange thing happens here, Jesus gives the man a way to earn grace, or so it seems. Perhaps what is simply happening here is that Jesus is helping the man empty his hands so he can grasp the gift of God.
What do you need to let go of to make room for God's grace?
Being a disciple of Jesus has multiple responsibilities, first and foremost being mindful of all every sheep in the flock. Sometimes that means putting aside other responsibilities and helping a friend or loved one find their way back to patience with the things that are unsettled in their hearts. In asking for our engagement God promises the comfort of God’s presence among us.
Its not always easy to get our priorities straight with all the responsibilities we have as parents, employees, spouses, siblings, friends and citizens. God, help us to hear you calling to us from those who may have lost their way, so that we may all count ourselves as members of your family.
Naturally when the disciples begin to take initiative they get it wrong. They think that children will be a bother or a distraction or whatever and try to keep them from Jesus. If they had been learning from Jesus how to show mercy this would have been an easy test for children are nearly always easier to bless than adults.
Who will receive your blessing today?
When I was a child I loved the protective way Jesus upheld the value of “the little ones”. It wasn’t until I took a deeper look in seminary that I understood that Jesus was speaking protectively about his newest disciples and followers. There’s freshness, awe, and vulnerability in those newly in love with life’s possibilities, a freshness not unlike the beginning days and weeks of falling in love. It’s a tenderness that helps parents, children, and lovers to establish an enduring bond of kinship. When Jesus warns against putting any impediments in the way of new disciples, the word he uses for hell is “Gehenna”, a valley near Jerusalem that had been a place where children were sacrificed to appease the gods. It is a stern reminder of what must be overcome by their entire culture.
Lord, help us to open to the blessings of your kingdom with the hearts and minds of children and to welcome every person and every challenge we encounter, as we would welcome you.
1Kings 19:11-12
The LORD said, “ Go out and stand at the mountain before the LORD . The LORD is passing by. ” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the LORD . But the LORD wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the LORD wasn’t in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the LORD wasn’t in the fire.
After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet.
Some of the most violent, certainly the most frightening storms in life are internal. And aside from those people who cannot control their emotions due to illness, emotional storms are avoidable as a matter of choice...though they don't usually feel that way.
Elijah's path to the mountain cave where he encountered God was an emotional roller coaster. During his victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he was so full of confidence that he cockily taunted them before making good on his boasts by calling down fire from heaven. But only days after this manic high we find him suicidally depressed in the wilderness ready to waste away rather than face the wrath of Queen Jezebel. If it weren't for a persistent angel kicking him awake his bones would still be under that solitary broom tree. He then journeys the symbolic 40 days and 40 nights to the very mountain where Moses encountered God, indeed likely to the very same cave. After the literal storm, earthquake and fire, he is left with nothing but sheer silence. The question he hears comes from the calm that only follows storms. And that question is “why are you here?” Deafened by his ego and paranoia, Elijah doesn't hear the bite in the question, for surely like Dorothy on her journey in Oz, he had the power to find his way all along, but traveled the difficult path of emotional turmoil instead. Elijah plays the martyr and claims to be the only one left who serves God and thus is doomed to be persecuted.
There are plenty of reasons to feel stress, not least of which being the natural disasters that have come our way, but they are not the only powerful external forces beyond our control that conspire to make us miserable. Surely it feels that way at times; that the world is out to get you. When one stressor piles on another, the downward spiral of emotions can feel like it will never end and it also becomes another stressor. It becomes like being caught in a net where the more you struggle the more youbecome entangled; the farther you are from being free.
While it may feel that the torment never ends, the storm always subsides and the question you may ask yourself is “where am I?” The answer to that is less important than considering why you are there. Why are you still in the land of fear? Why are you still in the valley of depression? Why are you hiding in the cave of paranoia? Why is the wind that has passed still howling in your ears? Why are you still burning after the fire has been extinguished? Why are you still shaking when the ground is no longer moving?
Why are you here?
Why are we here? We rarely get still enough to know. Getting still can be a real challenge. The problem is not just that we are experts at fueling incessant internal monologues whenever we experience a threat to our sense of safety, identity, or well-being. The problem is that we believe that all our thinking might actually create in us the sense of personal security and well-being we crave. Elijah comes to the mountain, it seems, to get some peace of mind in the presence of God. He comes to the mountain hoping that God will give him direction and help him understand the way forward. Here on the very mountain where Moses received the law for the Hebrew people, Elijah listens for God in storm after storm passing by, but to no avail. God is not in the storm.
Soothing our inner turmoil or insecurity with incessant thoughts and stories about the things that challenge, repulse, or scare us might give us temporary relief at best, but it rarely gives us insight. More likely than not our monkey minds create even more discomfort or suffering for us and for everyone around us.
We can look at Elijah’s manic behavior and feel a bit sorry for him...until we look a little closer and see our own patterns reflected there. I know this about myself only too well. When hard things happen, all human beings naturally crave relief. We are all wired alike with a primitive brain tucked down at the base of our skulls. This little leftover brain triggers a response to fears by flooding us with adrenalin. The difficult thing is that even if the danger is only imagined, our brains are still off and running creating stories about what happened, why it happened and what we need to do about it.
The truth is, no matter whether our fears are triggered by situations that are real or imagined, the stories we tell ourselves over and over again to help us feel secure actually block the true wisdom in us that we can only access when we stop and listen...God was not in the storm. God was in the thin silence after the storm passed by.
If we are willing to stop the noise and drop all the storylines, we may find within us the essential courage to answer the real questions of why we are here and how we will manifest our essential goodness in this world. Our inner monologues about the invitable hard things that happen in the course of our lives have the potential to close us off from each other and keep us running in little circles in our minds. But wouldn’t we rather let that all go...and instead listen in the thin quiet of God’s presence for the precious love and courage to share the truth of who we are bravely and openly for the healing of the world?
Why are you here?
The growing expectations of the disciples continues with Jesus leaving them to perform a healing that proves to be too hard for them because of their lack of sufficient faith. We like to take heart that Jesus says that even the tiniest portion of faith is sufficient to do what is expected. The disheartening part of the story is that the disciples didn't have even that much faith.
If you could measure your faith what portion of a mustard seed would it be?
When Jesus travels to his hometown of Nazareth, he is met with skepticism and disbelief. The townspeople question his authority as a teacher and a healer. How can this carpenter’s son claim to have knowledge of God beyond even that of the temple elders?! They are outraged and offended by his claim to possess a radical new religious truth. Matthew tells us that Jesus performed only a few “deeds of power” before leaving for other territory.
Holy One, please give us the courage to live by your Word, even when our ways of loving and being are misunderstood in our homes, our workplaces, or our communities.
Peter, James and John get to see the past and the future at once. They see Elijah and Moses, both long departed, and Jesus, not yet departed, transformed into a glorified state. Then the voice of God comes from a cloud, much as it did at the time of Moses, bringing the same result, fear. This outside-of-time experience on a mountaintop is followed by the journey through the valley of the shadow of death. During Lent we make a similar journey; knowing how the story ends we still have to journey through the struggles of this life before experiencing the end for ourselves.
Does God's presence fill you with awe that leaves you facing the ground needing to hear Jesus calling you to fearless action?
In ancient Palestine there were no banks with safe deposit boxes, and so people often buried their money and other valuables to keep them safe. In the parable of the field, the kingdom of heaven is described as a buried treasure that a person first finds and then secures by selling everything he owns in order to buy it. In the second, the kingdom is described as a pearl of great value that a knowledgeable pearl merchant also buys after selling everything that he owns. Its hard to grasp just how radical it was for Jesus to assert that God’s measure of a person’s worth and status was not their ability to amass wealth, but their firm, unwavering embrace of a new order based on one truth of ultimate value, the truth of the redeeming power of love.
Lord, we know that our things are not the measure of our character, and so we ask that you guide us in the ways of your love, so that we might know the value of sharing the truth of your Word for the healing of the world.
Peter can always be trusted for bold action. Many of his actions are not thought through well, but he is usually the one to take the lead. Church tradition has cast him in the role of being the first leader of the church as pope. He takes the risk of naming Jesus as the Christ and is praised for it. Again, it is knowledge that is not to be shared, but knowing it the disciples also learn that it means that Jesus will die. With familiar impulsiveness, Peter objects and this time is chastised. His example reminds us that when we go “all in” for God the road will have dramatic twists and turns.
Are you passionate enough about your faith both to proclaim it boldly and to wrestle with God about it?
Not even Hollywood could write a script more dramatic than the harvest Jesus describes in which he will come again and cull out the evil ones, who will be burned up like so much chaff. Just as in modern times, people in biblical times feared that the end of the world as they knew it was very near. The parable describes an apocalypse in which only the righteous will ascend into heaven with God. In this parable, we hear Jesus reassuring the multitudes that they are known by God, that the way they live their lives matters. God cares for them and will not forget their efforts to share his love with those who need it most, but will reward them with life everlasting.
When we forget how near you are to us dear Lord, please help us to reach out to you with our love for one another and for all of creation. Help us to trust that it is through our love for others that we come nearest to you. Help us to share your love with those who need it most, that we might draw nearer and nearer to you.
Remarkably, after all the times we have seen Jesus moved by compassion to action possibly against his better judgment, here a woman cries out to him and not only does he ignore her at first, but he also makes it clear to his disciples that he intends to ignore her. This is a hard story to hear. Perhaps we are told it so that we understand that Jesus is so much like us that he is capable of justifying inaction. Or perhaps it is part of the movement toward the disciples beginning to take more responsibility and thus action.
What cries are you hearing that God is expecting you to answer?
Jesus tells his listeners that the kingdom of heaven is like a field where weeds that have grown up alongside shafts of wheat are culled away; that it is like a mustard seed that has grown into a sheltering haven for wildlife; and also like the yeast that leavens the dough that becomes the bread of life. Jesus holds the truth of God’s love up into the light of day and shares the radiance of the kingdom. It is not riches and insider-trading that will open the gates to the kingdom of heaven, Jesus preaches, but attending to what serves life for all living creatures.
It can be discouraging to witness how easily we forget your wisdom, Lord. Please help us to sweep away the chaff from our hearts, so that we might remember that the sower of good seeds is alive in us and helping us to bring forth the fruit of the kingdom here on the earth.
One of the more important actions of Jesus was the relative inaction of prayer. He goes off by himself and orders the disciples to go on ahead without him. We don't have the advantage they had of having Jesus' physical presence but we share their fear when Jesus does appear. Even when we are in a storm, finding the comfort of Jesus' presence is difficult.
What storm do you need God to quiet?
This word puzzle about seeing, hearing, and understanding calls to mind the moments in our lives when we simply cannot see the “forest from the trees”. When our world is in turmoil, or when our loved ones are struggling or have lost their way, it may feel nearly impossible to open the door to God’s grace, even a crack. But somewhere in our hearts, just as for the disciples, there is fertile ground for the abundance of God to take hold, to crowd out even our deepest fears, and bear abundant fruits of the Spirit.
Lord, open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the wonders of your healing presence and the promise of the new life that springs from your Word.
When the crowd gathers in the remote place Jesus' first act of compassion, naturally, is to heal those who are sick. After they have been there a while, the next act of compassion is much more practical, he feeds them. But note how he does it, he tells the disciples to do it. They balk at the overwhelming task even though they have been witness to numerous miracles by this point. Even if the “miracle” was the crowd moving beyond selfishness to sharing in abundance, the point is that the touch of the savior is transferable to the followers to multiply the power of compassion.
What miracle will you be responsible for today?
My mother used to call the realization that our words or actions can have unexpectedly negative consequences, “the chickens coming home to roost”. I remember wishing I’d paid better attention to those words or actions I couldn’t take back now that the damage was done. In this first parable, Jesus alerts his listeners to the full range of consequences of not paying attention to the good news that salvation is here and now for all who have eyes to see and ears to listen.
Lest we lose in ourselves in regret, Lord keep the soil of our hearts always fertile and open to receiving your love and guidance.
Exodus 19:16-21
When morning dawned on the third day, there was thunder, lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast of a horn. All the people in the camp shook with fear. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD had come down on it with lightning. The smoke went up like the smoke of a hot furnace, while the whole mountain shook violently. The blasts of the horn grew louder and louder. Moses would speak, and God would answer him with thunder.
The LORD came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. The LORD called Moses to come up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
One of the most common ways to think of God is as the mover behind the mighty force of nature. Ancient gods were seen as casting bolts of lightning and shaking the earth. We often think of “the Old Testament God” in a similar way, particularly when we read scripture like what we have just heard. There was a simple equation in the thoughts of the ancient Hebrews: to see God is to die. Poor Uzza (in 1 Chronicles 13) learned the hard way that touching what is holy can kill you when he tried to spare the Ark of the Covenant the fate of crashing to the ground. Even Moses was not permitted to see God, but only could look after God had passed by, and after that Moses reflected that presence in such a way that the people were frightened and made him cover his face. Fear is a normal reaction when confronted with pure holiness.
Fear is also a normal reaction when faced with life's storms. When we encounter that which is beyond our control and much more powerful than what we have to throw at it, we are afraid. And when we look for someone to blame, that someone is typically God. Consider that after a natural disaster the insurance adjusters will refer to it as an act of God. But our fear is not just due to a lack of control, it has much to do with our sense of insignificance. What am I but a speck in the vast cosmos? Who am I but an imperfect human in the face of God's perfection?
It is significant that God descends on Mount Sinai in a violent storm as Moses faces his fears and ascends, fully aware of his own imperfection and the failings of the people. And what does he receive but the very standard that will measure their imperfection, the law in the form of the Ten Commandments? These scales of absolute justice cannot be tipped in our favor, we are measured and found wanting.
While tornadoes, blizzards, disabilities and life-threatening illnesses are clear sources of fear, the truly debilitating fears that cripple us are those that come from within. When we consider the standard by which we should be rightly measured and look at ourselves with brutal clarity, full on in the mirror, we shrink and cower. When there is no place to hide from our imperfection we are haunted by a fear that we have birthed and empowered. We must then have the courage of Moses to ascend the holy mountain to encounter the perfect.
As human beings, our natural impulse in the face of things that threaten or frighten us is to get away from them as quickly as possible. This animal instinct is hard-wired into us and it serves us well in the face of natural disasters like fire or a tornado. In situations like those, the adrenalin pumping through our veins may very well save our lives or help us to save the lives of others. There are remarkable stories of people who survive because of the adrenalin rushing to their limbs and their brains, people like my brother Ben who survived being buried under a tree that broke apart while he was felling it. Because of the adrenalin surging through his body, Ben was able to keep himself alive by holding a picture of his wife and daughter in his mind’s eye long enough for the EMTs to arrive, lift off the tree, and give him oxygen and morphine.
But Moses had a really different impulse on that morning when the mountain was shrouded in clouds and the sky was full of thunder and lightening. Despite the fact that the people were shaking with fear, Moses’ response to the blast of the horn was to gather the people and lead them toward the thing that terrified them, that filled every cell in their bodies with fear. It had to have taken tremendous courage for Moses to lead the people closer to the violent elements, even when he knew that he was bringing them into the presence of God. When they got to the foot of the mountain, Moses spoke and God answered with thunder. And then right there in the midst of their fear and trembling at the foot of the mountain, God called and Moses ascended the mountain to enter into the very presence of God.
The Tibetan Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron, teaches a meditation practice that involves leaning into the things that scare us, the memories or anticipation of experiences our instincts tell us to run away from. When I was first learning this practice, it felt really counter-intuitive. What possible purpose could there be for me to move closer to the memory of fearful or painful experiences or to mental pictures of my mistakes and inadequacies? What good could come from leaning into my fears about the future? Wasn’t that just a way to fan the flames? It wasn’t until I had practiced this for a while that I began to experience my fears gradually, gradually falling away and leaving space for something new to enter. Into that holy space came self-forgiveness, compassion for myself and others, and a hopefulness about the future that evaded me for years.
We are saved by our courage to move closer to God, by our willingness to stay with the things that scare us. When we have the courage to bring our self-judgments and fears into the light of God’s presence, we are saved from the consequences of feeling disconnection from our own worthiness, our own holiness. It takes faith and practice to be brave. But ultimately we are saved by our God-given capacity to stay with our fears and our imperfections long enough for God’s message of hope and redemption to reach us in all the hidden recesses of our hearts and minds. When we have the courage to face our fears directly, we create space for God to enter and to show us the way.
And so it is through courage and hope, hope in the reality of God’s love for each and every one of us, that we are restored.
Some see in this passage Jesus actively rejecting his family. There is an element of this encounter that seems to demean Jesus' family since they are left waiting on the outside. But there is an element of lifting up others to the honored position of family. Perhaps the story is much more both/and than either/or.
Who in your life is family to you?
When Jesus commissioned his beloved disciples to heal in his name, he instructed them to raise up all whom their culture neglected, persecuted, or cast aside. To these outcasts they were to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of a God who cherished them, and stood with them, and in whose embrace they would be safe, at last. In welcoming the good news of a new order, all would be blessed and rewarded with a peace that would stay with them in this lifetime and the next.
O Holy One, help us to go out into the world confident that your welcome travels with us everywhere there is need, multiplying your blessings to the ends of the earth.
It seems that the magnitude of the healings are increasing, perhaps to show the movement toward the end of the story. Here a man is both blind and possessed. His healing prompts the crowd to question if Jesus might be the messiah they are looking for. It is interesting that Jesus' response is to talk about knowing someone by the nature of their actions. It is easy to make a claim about yourself, it is a whole other thing to live in such a way that others make the claim about you.
Do others say about you the things you say about yourself?
In the culture of the ancient Near East where Jesus was born, family, society, and religious communities functioned as hierarchies. In each system there were those who had rights and those who did not, those whose lives mattered and those whose lives were considered worthless or expendable. Slaves were property, people with leprosy were cast outside the gates, and women were not allowed to make decisions for themselves. Following Jesus meant preaching a radical freedom and living by the spirit of a new law; it meant embracing a God whose love transcended the boundaries created by human beings. It meant risking everything, even one’s life.
God, when we encounter the ways that our society gives value to some and takes away value from others based on categories of class, race, age, gender, or sexual orientation, please help us to remember that when we follow you, we are called to stand for those who are being diminished, even when it means that we may be asked to give up some of our privileged ways for the sake of others.
So knowing that the powerful are out to get him, Jesus goes about his merciful business knowing the cost. Ironically, he tells the crowds that he heals not to say anything, surely not because he fears being found out by those out to harm him, but to keep the very crowds of people seeking healing down to a manageable size. At this point in the story, the inevitability of the end is beginning to come into sharp focus.
What sort of attention have your actions brought?
When the social or political norms are challenged in a culture, it can threaten time-honored ways of being and doing. Every liberty won by citizens in modern times has come at some cost to the status quo. The end of slavery, women’s suffrage, desegregation, and gay rights, all were hard fought fights that divided families, churches, and communities. When Jesus says to the disciples, “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the world; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”, I believe that he is speaking about just that reality, the very real pain and resistance that we human beings often experience when the things we know begin to fall apart. All things that are new take the place of things that are old and familiar, no matter how hard we might try to hang on to them.
God, we live in a world where changes are accelerating. Please help us to have compassion for the suffering that arises, for us and for others, when the nearness of the kingdom overwhelms everything we know.
How quickly the offense felt by the preservers of the law turns to anger and action to destroy. They set Jesus up to show mercy with a cost. Jesus could have easily avoided their trap by simply allowing the man to continue in his withered state, but the demand of love was greater than the urge for survival.
Does mercy tug on your heart more strongly than justifications to inaction come to your mind?
In many of the world’s great religions we find the teaching, “Have no fear.” Have no fear of those who oppose you, Jesus reassures the disciples, for everything is known to God. And he reminds them to stay mindful of their worth in the eyes of God, for if even the tiny sparrows are dear to God, how then would God forget any one of them? Not even death can separate them from God. We, like the disciples, are working to usher in a new age, an age when love will reign, and fear and suffering will fall away. And we too may feel uncertain at times about how best to participate in God’s healing work.
God, help us to let go of our fears and trust that your light and love will guide us as we share the good news of a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness reigns and all of creation is made new through love.
Now Jesus' disciple’s actions are under scrutiny by those concerned with the law. In a splendid rhetorical display, Jesus answers their concern about the law by quoting the law. Again he tells the listeners that God requires mercy not sacrifice. Sabbath is a gift not a burden and Jesus boldly proclaims that he will control the mercy of the day of rest.
How will you turn the burden of sacrifice to the joy of mercy?
Jesus is preparing the disciples for persecutions that await them. “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” The serpent is watchful and waits; the dove move is light and quick and flies from danger to a safe haven. Both a keen mind and a light heart are needed for the journey. Like the disciples who are facing the unknown, we also find comfort in knowing that God will be with us in all we encounter, guiding us as we find our way through even the most difficult circumstances.
Like the serpent and the dove, may we develop both the ability to act quickly and the ability to wait, so that we may courageously respond to the Holy Spirit speaking through us for the highest good and purpose of the heavens and the earth.
There is a grace to the way that Jesus carries himself in all the work that he performs. Great power is always a great burden, yet Jesus seems never to feel it. On top of that, he offers to carry ours with us, to share the burden together. He knows the wisdom of community as the source of strength. Together we are more powerful than the sum total of all our strength individually.
Are you ready to take up Jesus' burden as he takes up yours?
With a blessing and the clothes on their backs, Jesus sends the twelve into the world to heal the lost sheep amongst their fellow Jews and proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven is near at hand. We may wonder with what combination of trepidation and resolve these twelve faced their commission. Did they have faith that the peace in their souls might become a blessing for all who welcomed them in? Though it may be daunting for us also, Christ is calling us all to share the good news of the kingdom of God and to offer the blessing of who we are to those most in need of healing love.
God, help us to be alert and open to your invitations to offer our peace for the healing of our families, our neighbors, and the world.
Genesis 7: 11-15
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day—on that day all the springs of the deep sea erupted, and the windows in the skies opened. It rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
That same day Noah, with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ three wives, went into the ark. They and every kind of animal—every kind of livestock, every kind that crawls on the ground, every kind of bird — they came to Noah and entered the ark, two of every creature that breathes. Male and female of every creature went in, just as God had commanded him. Then the LORD closed the door behind them.
When the power was out for a week in October, we all were reminded how much we rely on those things that protect us from the potential torment of the natural world. We were reminded of the disconnection we have from natural ways of survival. Few of us have the skills to survive without our modern conveniences. Even though we are rural, we still have limited experience of and even less knowledge of “the great outdoors.” We pay a price for this disconnection, not only when basic survival skills are required but even more so when our souls require the nourishment of feeling their rightful place in the created order. One of the mistaken principles too often taken from the creation story is that we humans were created in such a special place that we are to have dominion over everything else, indeed that everything under the sun is created specifically to serve us. Creation is not a pyramid with humans at the pinnacle, rather it is an ever-changing web of connection in which we move. When we forget our connectedness to creation, we disconnect from the Creator as well.
Research continues to confirm that we are hard-wired with what are called circadian rhythms. When we force our bodies to wake and sleep at unnatural times, such as staying up all night or getting far too little sleep we suffer disorders that effect our health. Lack of sunlight also has a detrimental impact on our physical and even mental health, as seen in Seasonal Affective Disorder.
The great flood is a disturbing tale of the whole of innocent creation suffering as a result of human sin. It is a lesson that we have yet to learn as we continue to voraciously consume the fruit of the earth, not only consuming non-renewable resources that will someday, perhaps soon, be exhausted, but also renewable resources at rates faster than can be sustained. All of creation suffers when we neglect our connections.
If the root of human sin is temptation and disobedience, the first fruit is disconnection: Adam blames Eve, who blames the Serpent and in doing blames the Creator. The harmony of Eden was based on interdependence within the created order. Any time we break our connection with fellow humans we move farther from the Garden. We were created to be a help to one another. We were built for connection.
And when the power was out for a week in October we learned again about connection as we leaned on each other for support. We spent time together and we helped each other with our needs. It reminded us of June when knew right away that we were intended to help our neighbor, that we are indeed our brother's (and sister's) keeper. When we are disconnected storms leave us adrift and alone.
Those who are old enough remember a time when stores were closed on Sundays. And because there was no shopping on Sunday, it was just naturally a more restful day. People had time to get together for meals, to take outings to special places, or to curl up for a nap in the afternoon. Sunday afternoons created a natural pause, a rhythm of rest in the week, a time to find our balance and feel restored in anticipation of the week ahead. Taking time to rest became a natural part of the rhythm of our days. By setting time aside from the hectic workweek, we allowed a space to open up for connecting with each other and with ourselves. We allowed time and space for appreciating our blessings.
At the end of the creation story that we heard last week, we learned that God rested in order to appreciate all that was created. There is an invitation in that passage to consciously build rest into our busy days and weeks. It’s an invitation to enhance our capacity to see clearly and to recognize the places in our lives and in the lives of others where things aren’t right, places where there is hardship and disconnection.
Today’s scripture passage about Noah tells us that it was God who closed the door of the Ark. Along with displeasure at all the devastation and destruction wrought by humankind’s sinfulness, I have to wonder if there wasn’t a sense of urgency within God that the frenetic, out-of-control, and increasingly harmful activity of humankind on the earth HAD to be stopped…just like that...with the closing of that heavy door.
It’s not hard to trace the storms of our own time, the hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes of the past few years, to our increasing inability as a human species to rest. By resisting our natural rhythms and forcing ourselves and others to work around the clock in order to build up riches on the earth, we disconnect ourselves from the richness and blessing of our own true natures. We lose touch with that spark of God that is our internal guiding light.
Don’t get me wrong, we need our jobs. We need new discoveries and inventions to help bring nourishing food, medical care, and education to more and more people around the world, and to slow global warming so that the plants and animals don’t vanish. But we also need our internal compasses set to true north.
If we are dedicated to answering the call to love and heal this world, we need to learn to rest and be refreshed. If we want our hearts to be open and turned to the work of justice, we have to be whole and healthy and able to feel joy. The hard truth is that we can’t be who the world desperately needs us to be, if we refuse to give in to the refreshment of rest. If we’re frazzled and worn out, really what good are we to anyone? We know this.
The Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on every Friday night. As the last rays of the sun fade, all work stops for twenty-four hours. For those who observe the Sabbath in its traditional form, a big heavy door closes on the busyness of life. There is no cooking, cleaning, writing, fixing, building, buying… all the busyness stops… just like that. In the Ark of the Sabbath, reading, resting, and lovemaking are the only activities allowed. Work stops…just like that. For 24 hours the heart, mind, and soul opens to the beauty of God in the stillness…and returns after those 24 hours feeling re-connected to God: refreshed and renewed to do the work of love and justice in the world.
If we accept God’s invitation to rest and renew ourselves by taking time now and then to close the door on the busyness of our lives and turn our ears to the voice of love-- so real and so alive inside every one of us!!--who knows what strength and courage we might find to bring the fullness of who we are to God’s work, the work and joy of restoring healing connections throughout our beautiful, fragile world.
