Gospel text for Sunday 13 October 2013

Luke 17:11-19        On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." 

Reflection           Recognizing God’s merciful presence and turning toward God, turning and praising God. How many times each day do I receive a smile from a stranger? a kind word from a coworker? a heart-probing story of someone’s life? an insight that steers my direction? a glimpse of beauty in the sky? on the ground? in the leathered face of an old one? in a breath that animates my life? How many times each day does God reveal God’s self to me? How many times do I recognize Divine Presence, turn around and praise God?

I must confess I spend more time questioning God than turning around and praising God. “Why don’t You do something with the hearts and minds of this country’s stubborn leaders so they stop playing games of winner takes all? Why do You make some people so difficult to love? Why don’t You transform my heart so that I can love as You do? (And let’s not even get into the matter of people suffering.) Oh, yes, would You please inspire me with meaningful words to share with Your people?”

What if I turned around? What if I were to recognize God present in the Joy and Sorrow that swell my heart? in the Clarity that informs my mind? in the Drive that stirs my spirit? in the Courage that fortifies my will? in the Awe that stuns and bewilders my soul? What if I were to recognize God present in every one of the 23,040 breaths I am given to breathe this day? What if I turned around and praised God for every breath and all that I experience? 

All day, every day, God’s grace and mercy pour through creation; kissing our wounds, enlivening our bodies, igniting our desires, illumining our minds and strengthening our will. I believe St. Teresa of Avila (a sixteenth century Spanish mystic) knew this when she asked, “How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad?” Surely St. Teresa took St. Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonians to heart, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:16-18) Recognize God present, turn around, praise God, for you have been made well in all circumstances.

Please share this post by clicking on the icons below.

Gospel text for Sunday 6 October 2013

Luke 17:5-10        The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

Reflection             Oh dear. What is Jesus doing? First he tells me if I have even a smidge of faith I can move mountains, or at least mulberry trees. Me, a Christian, free and empowered. Then in his next breathe he tells me I am a slave, not only a slave, a worhtless slave. Me, a Christian, under command and dutiful. I wonder if these contradictory statements were the scriptures that inspired Martin Luther’s impassioned writings about the relationship of faith and works?

In Luther’s view, it is all about our interior state. External acts, no matter what they are (fasting, worship, performing sacred duties, doing secular acts of righteousness), will gain us nothing in God’s economy. There is only one thing necessary for Christian life and that is faith, faith in the word of God.  Moses preached this to the Israelites before they entered the promised land. “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut 8.3) Centuries later Jesus repeated Moses’ words which became the cornerstone of Luther’s theology. (Matt 4.4)

The Word of God, the gospel preached, sets us free and saves us. The thing is, we cannot receive the gospel good news by any works that we can do. We can only receive the Word of God by faith. In Deuteronomy we hear the law...”Live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” But like the Israelites, we are unable to follow the letter of the law. When Jesus re-speaks these words he gives them to us not as law, but as good news, the gospel. What we are not able to do by works we are given by faith... even faith “the size of a mustard seed!” We are set free from the bondage of the law, free to be in obedient relationship with God.

Which brings us to the part about being slaves. Slaves know they have a master and align their will with the will of their master. This is the appropriate relationship between humanity and God. By faith we honor God, trust God and consent to be obedient to the will of God. In other words, we are God’s slaves. As slaves we are to do God’s work, good works for the benefit of others. Good works will never earn us God’s favor. Rather good works are the response, or natural outflowing from God’s favor much as good fruit are born from a good tree.

If you found this reflection to be meaningful please share it by clicking on the icons below. Thanks!

Gospel text for Sunday 29 September 2013

Luke 16:19-31        Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Reflection       Can you hear Abraham calling to the rich man, “ You spent your life and put your faith in sumptuous feasts and fine apparel. You flaunted your privilege and stepped over a man starving at your door. You never even looked at him. You are a Jew, a religious man, you knew better. You knew the words of the prophets, and you did not listen.  But when things got really bad you did not hesitate to call me your father... Abraham. How dare you presume to be favored in God’s family. On the balance sheet of life you chose death because you did not “take hold of the eternal life....a life that really is life.” You did not listen to the prophets. You did not listen to the word of God.”

Before I go on I must say this, I do not believe Jesus’ parable is about what happens after we are dead. I believe Jesus is telling us what is important right now, while we are alive. In this parable even though we may be rich we don’t identify with the unnamed man in purple because he is dead. He made his choices and on the balance sheet of life he came up short. Neither do we identify with Lazarus, though surely each one of us has our share of suffering. Still, we are neither destitute nor are we dead. I believe in this story we are the five brothers. And, if we would listen we might be convinced to “take hold of the eternal life, the life that really is life.” 

Like the five brothers, we have Moses and the prophets. We also have a voice from heaven instructing us...listen to Jesus, the prophet of prophets. You recall the dramatic mountaintop moment earlier in Luke’s gospel when “a voice came out of the cloud saying (to Jesus’ disciples), “This in my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”” (Luke 9.35) Listen to him. 

Are you getting the message? We are supposed to listen. So, what is Jesus saying? Jesus spends much time in Luke’s gospel talking about possessions and money. I do not believe he is saying money or possesions are evil. They are neutral. Rather, evil is when we allow money or possessions to own us and make us blind to the needs and rights of others. Evil is when the power, privilege and pride associated with money and possessions begins to possess us and prevent us from being the living revelation of God’s preferential care for the poor and the suffering.

The bottom line; if we call Abraham our father and claim to be God’s people we need to listen.

We need to listen to the prophets and adjust our lives to bridge the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. We need to step out of our well meaning and comfortable ruts and adjust the balance sheets of our lives. We need to ask ourselves how will we give a little more of our selves away for the benefit of strangers today? This is the way to be truly rich; to “take hold of the eternal life, life that really is life.” This is the way to be God’s people. 

If you found this post to be meaningful please share it by clicking on the icons below. Thanks.

Gospel text for Sunday 22 September 2013

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?' He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?' He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Reflection    Some say this is Jesus’ ‘hardest’ parable, by which I presume they mean, the most inscrutable. Most agree if you focus on the first part, the manager appears to be the hero but if you consider the entire text he seems more the villian. Good or bad, black or white, here we go again, locked into dualistic thinking. But is this the mind of Jesus? I don’t think so.

The thing about Jesus is he confounded the people of his time and continues to confound us because we are captives of our judgments, our dual thinking minds. Jesus refuses to allow us the simplicity of tying things up in neat little packages of right or wrong, good or evil. Jesus’ point of view, which we may well call the Mind of Christ, understands that we cannot grasp the infinite from our limited rational perspectives. So Jesus tells us stories that muddle our minds.... and that is a good place from which to start. We must admit, we do not ‘get it.’

Our habit of dual thinking is based on judgment, this is black or this is white, this is up or this is down. Nondual thinking, or the mind of Christ, understands that life explodes in countless shades of grey and that up or down makes no sense once we leave the tiny sphere of earth’s gravity and enter infinite space. Stretched beyond our small self perspective we realize that truth is a matter of perspective and no one person can be the judge of that. 

I believe Luke included this disjointed and incomprehensible series of statements at precisely this point in Jesus’ story intending to confound any of us who think we can grasp and package the mystery that is Jesus the Christ and the hidden wisdom of God’s kingdom. Our starting, middle and ending place needs to be, “I don’t know. It is not possible for me to grasp the unborn, undying, eternally present Presence.” That’s it; it is not all about me and what I do or do not like or judge to be so!

This means I set aside my desire to be right, to know, to be in control. This means I admit there are things I do not know. Recently a friend described his encounter with it this way. A wise teacher once asked him, ‘What percentage of all that is known about the world and the universe do you know?’” He responded, ‘Three percent.’ The teacher replied, ‘I believe that is generous, but I will give it to you. Now, in what will you find your life, the three percent you know or the ninety-seven percent you do not know?’ My friend gulped. He spent the next thrity odd years discovering the freedom of not knowing and not having to be right. 

What about the manager in Jesus’ story? I suspect he was a little bit hero and a little bit villian, a smathering of good and a dollop of evil and a whole lot more than I will ever know. Finally I can set this text aside and stop prodding myself to figure it out and tell you the truth about it. I don’t know.

Did you enjoy this post? Please share it by clicking on the icons below. 

PS you can watch an amazing video of zero gravity at http://vimeo.com/29017795

Gospel text for Sunday 8 September 2013

Luke 14:25-33     Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Reflection     If I want to stop dancing around the edges of the “large crowds traveling with Jesus” and actually come to him, get close to him and be his disciple, it is not going to be easy. Jesus does not mince words. I imagine if he was speaking today he might say, “If you want to come with me and live the way of peace in the midst of anything and everything but peace, it is like climbing a fourteen thousand foot mountain carrying a hundred pound backpack. Or, it is like trying to feed the 870 million people in the world who do not have enough to eat with one boatload of rice.” 

The way of picking up the cross is not the way of burying our heads in the sand. (Did you know the only animal that buries its head in the sand is humans... not ostriches, emus or pink flamingos)? The way of coming to Jesus asks us to do the impossible, to step up and step out into the hardest places where his peace is most needed because if not we, then who?

Think about it. Estimate the cost. Do you have what it takes to stand on Jesus’ shoulders? to swim against the tide? Are you prepared to be misrepresented? misunderstood? ridiculed? excluded? Jesus counsels. Consider the cost of coming to me. It is everything, You will have to “give up all of your possessions.”He is not talking about books or real estate. Jesus is talking about getting rid of anything that prevents us from cooperating with his mission for peace in the midst of anything but. 

One of my favotite philosophers, Jimi Hendrix, put it this way, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” The question before us is, are we satisfied dancing around the edges of the “large crowds traveling with Jesus” or  are we ready to step up and step out to advance Jesus’ mission for peace?

Please consider sharing this post by clicking on the icons below. Thanks.

Gospel text for Sunday 8 September 2013

Luke 14:25-33     Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Reflection    How could Jesus who was all about healing and dinner parties and searching for every lost sheep and even the smallest coin; how could Jesus who went to great lengths to tell the story about the prodigal father who spared no expense to welcome home his profligate son who had squandered ever bit of his inheritance; how could Jesus instruct the crowds and us to get rid of all our possessions if we want to be his disciples?

Thank goodness for my seventh grade English teacher who introduced me to that extravagant figure of speech, the hyperbole. Without it to amplify my understanding of Jesus’ words to the crowds of follk that were traveling with him I would be bereft. If I want to become Jesus’ disciple I must “give up all (my) possessions,” including all of my relationships and even my own life! Really! Jesus’ use of exaggeration works with me. It evokes a strong response. There are things and people in my life that I don’t want to give up. And frankly, I prefer not to die today. But as soon as I get over reacting I remember, Jesus’ point is to get me to dig a bit deeper. 

What is Jesus actually telling me to get rid of? What does he mean by possessions? I apologize for being a bit nurdy and going back to my Greek translation of the text. Another perspective from the Greek reads, “Therefore everyone of you who does not take leave of all that he himself possesses is not able to be my disciple.” Notice the slight of hand? Rather than speaking of possessions as a noun, an object or asset that we own I believe Jesus was speaking of possessing as a verb, how we relate or hold onto relationships and all things in our lives. I believe Jesus is telling us, possessing is not the way to relate with people and things in our world.  

We are not to treat people and things (even our own life) as objects to grab, seize, dominate, control or hold onto. That is not the way of being Jesus’ disciple. Rather, the way of being Jesus’ disciple is with an unclenched fist and open heart. Being willing to let go of all ideas of ownership, control, dominion or entitlement can be a bit like dying, dying to our sense of the way things are or ought to be. That is the cost of becoming Jesus’ disciple.

Jesus invites us to become, which is to say, to be reformed, transformed, and reborn in relationship with him. What the master transmits to the disciple is not possessed. It is born. I wonder if that is what Jesus meant when he said to Nicodemus, “‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit...?” (John 3.5-6)

If you connect with this post please share it by clicking on the icons below. Thanks.

Text of the Hebrew Testament for Sunday 2 September 2013

Jeremiah 2:4-13     Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.                   Thus says the LORD:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me

that they went far from me,

and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

They did not say, "Where is the LORD

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,

where no one lives?"

I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, "Where is the LORD?"

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the rulers transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after things that do not profit.

Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD,

and I accuse your children's children.

Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has ever been such a thing.

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for something that does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.

Reflection     “Where is the Lord?”  “Where is God in all of this?” I don’t know about you, but sometimes it is hard for me to find God in the world in which I live. Where is God in the kerfuffle I had with my daughter? In the suicide of my friend’s younger brother? Where is God in Egypt and Israel, Palestine and Syria and the whole Middle East for that matter? Where is God in tsunamies, and tornadoes and rising sea levels? Where is God in wars waged with paper and politics and IEDs? Where is God for the homeless, the hungry and the just barely hanging on? All of that reminds me of the story of our ancestor Job.

You may recall Job was a good and righteous man. God said so and the devil agreed. Still a series of underserved events left the successful land and live-stock owner, admired employer of many, benevolent father of ten children and beloved husband sitting in a trash dump, his businesses lost, his employees scattered, his wife and children dead, and his body wracked with disease. Still, Job never stopped calling out to God. “Where is the Lord? Where are you God? Talk to me. Where is the Lord?”

This, I believe, is the kind of faithfulness God desires from us. The word of the Lord as spoken through the prophet Jeremiah wants to take us by the shoulders and shake us. “Don’t you see, the Lord is with you in your times of trial and success? The Lord is with you in your enslavement and as you break away from situations in which you are not free. The Lord is with you when you take risks, when you are lost, when you suffer, when you are healed. The Lord is with you when everyone else is gone. Therefore you must never stop calling out to the Lord. Where is the Lord? Where is God in all of this?”

For the Jesuits, a religous order of the Roman Church, a central spiritual practice is “Finding God in all things.” It is the lived recognition that nothing can seperate us from the presence of God, the love of God, nothing. To speak of finding God in all things is to understand that God is not distant and ‘other,’ rather God is intimately present with and for us no matter what. We are the objects of God’s love. It is the work of our lifetime to smash our litttle clay gods, the ideas, ideals and ideologies that prevent us from finding God in all things, and open the way of our hearts to experience the awesome mystery that is God present. One way to do this is pause at the end of each day, review the course of events asking, "Where did I notice God present? Where did I not?" Then pray for the grace to see more clearly tomorrow the presence and action of God in your life.  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         If you found this reflection engaging, please share it by clicking on Facebook, twitter or google+ below. Thank you.