8-31-18 - Walking the Walk

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

“If you’re going to talk the talk, walk the walk” might be an update of what James has to say in the passage we read this week: 

“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

Those who hear the Word of God and think they’re all set, are kidding themselves, he claims. If we don't act on what we hear, there is no way to retain the Word.

Many a churchgoer faithfully attends worship, hears the Word read and preached, and then never thinks about it again till the following Sunday, living his or her life by the values of the world. That’s what it means to be a hearer only. But what does it mean to be a “doer” of the Word?

For James, it means keeping a good guard on your tongue and resisting religiosity that lacks heart. In fact, he labels as “worthless” the religion of those who “do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts.” Worthy religion involves personal integrity and active care for the poor and vulnerable: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

These qualities, alas, are not what people always see when they look at churchgoers. Too often they see a love of prosperity, allegiance to old ways of being, and judgmental condemnation of people who look, speak or live differently. In too many cases, observers do not see the Good News that Jesus Christ proclaimed and demonstrated being lived out, and so they turn away.

What if we were to spend much more time and energy and resources dealing with poverty and justice, and much less on who’s doing coffee hour this week and does everybody like the hymns? What if we were less inwardly focused on our own congregations, and more aware of our status as out-posts in a worldwide enterprise with the strategic goal of reclaiming, restoring and renewing all of creation to wholeness? What if we put transformation before comfort?

There is a promise for us, when we focus on the law of liberty instead of legalism, when we proclaim God’s freedom for all those held captive by any person, institution or condition: 

But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.

May we be blessed in our doing, and in our being.

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8-30-18 - The Implanted Word

(You can listen to this reflection here. The epistle reading for Sunday is here.)

For the rest of the week, we’ll turn to the letter of James. Unlike Paul’s epistles, usually addressed to specific people or communities, about matters of concern, confusion or conflict, the letter attributed to James is more of a general exhortation on how Christ-followers are to live. He responds to problems he sees emerging in the early church, and offers correction. Because the author of James (who may or may not have been the brother of Jesus and head of the Jerusalem church) is so concerned with behavior, not only belief, the letter has been judged by some to be legalistic, too short on grace and mercy.

Yet James is strong on mercy for the poor and those on the margins; he reserves his condemnation for the wealthy, the hypocritical, those who pay lip service to the demands of the gospel but fail to live its principles. There are many nuggets for us in this letter, so as it comes up in our lectionary this season, let’s have a look.

As Paul does in Ephesians, James begins by praising the generosity of God, the “Father of lights,” whose gift to us is the ground of all giving. Like Paul, he speaks of God’s purpose being fulfilled in those who believe in Jesus, likening the early community to the “first fruits” of God’s harvest:

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

James emphasizes that this gift of God’s grace must be expressed in the way we live, especially in our interactions. His counsel is one we might all hang on our refrigerators as we start our day: “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.”

What a world we would have if more lived by that precept! Anger is often a natural response to provocation; we need to become aware when we feel it, try to locate its source and pray that out. We don’t need to feel entitled to express it around other people – or on social media. And being quicker to listen than to speak would also improve the quality of discourse around us.

I love the phrase James offers to help us move out of angry reactivity into grounded proactivity:
“Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”

Having rid ourselves “of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness,” we turn to the Word who dwells within, the Spirit of Christ who takes up residence in us at baptism and lives with us through everything we face. This Word is not just hanging out – he has been implanted in us by the Father of lights, in whom there is no change or shadow. Just dwell on that awhile.

How does it change the way we live to know that the Word of God has been implanted in us? How does it change the way we talk to other people? How does it change the way we regard ourselves? There’s no room for self-condemnation or shame when we’re aware that the Word of God lives in us. The more that awareness grows, the more we become like Paul, who said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

And I guess the next time we're filling out a medical history and are asked if we have any implants, we’ll have to say yes!

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8-29-18 - Output

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Jesus’ teaching often turns on its head the conventional wisdom of the world. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, don’t seek revenge, trust in God’s provision when there is clearly not enough to go around. Here, too, he up-ends the standard way of looking at holiness and sacrilege, placing the focus not on what goes into a person, but on what comes out, the fruits of a life:

"Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."

This week’s teaching invites us to look at our output in life. Not only the big-picture achievements, acquisitions, prizes, gains, goals met, works produced, but also the day-to-day external evidence of our lives. What are we putting out there for the world to see?

Is the fruit of our existence good and life-giving, nourishing and tasty, or is it old, rancid, stale, mealy? Do people associate knowing us with wisdom and insight, encouragement and enthusiasm, or do they encounter sadness or anger, bitterness or resignation? What words would you use to describe your affect?

Of course, we could ask the people we know how they experience us – that would yield some interesting feedback. We can also become intentional about observing our interactions as we move through the day, reflecting back on each encounter. What did we lead with? What emotion was dominant? What outcomes resulted from our interactions?

Our bodies teach us that output is connected to input, so it’s not entirely divorced from what we take in. Heart, lungs and digestive system all involve input and output, in some cases waste product, and in others renewed and renewing substances. Not all output needs to be vital and important, yet over all, we’d like what comes out of our mouths, our minds, our work and giftedness to bless others.

This week, pay attention to what you hear yourself say, what you watch yourself do. Rejoice in the outputs you like, and ask for God's help with the ones you don't. With God's Spirit at work in us, we can leave a trail of compassion and love, gratitude and grace.

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8-28-18 - Inside Out

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Americans are increasingly conscious about what we consume. Soaring rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and substance abuse – not to mention a culture obsessed with body fat – have led to a focus on fat, sugar, gluten, pesticides and their attendant evils. Vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, organic diets are all the rage. We know all about the damage we can do by what we take into our bodies.

Perhaps we’re not so different from the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Focused on the fine points of the Mosaic Law, they were hyper-conscious about the dangers of eating the wrong food or overlooking the proper precautions and rituals. Jesus had a thing or two to say about that:

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” He went on to list a great many sins and character flaws that issue from the human heart – and to suggest that we concern ourselves more with what comes from inside us than from without.

It’s not either/or. The emotional climate in which we operate factors into the thoughts and behaviors we exhibit to the world, just as the actual food and drink we consume play a role in the health of our minds and spirits. And Jesus is right, as usual: It’s ridiculous to worry about the toxicity in our food supply while we sow discord in social discourse, or to demand transparency about genetically modified foods and not in our financial or political systems.

To Jesus’ list of “evil intentions” and wickedness of which the human heart is capable, I would like to add a list of all the good things that also issue from inside us: compassion, generosity, forbearance, empathy, love – the fruit of the Spirit at work in us that Paul mentions in Galatians.

As we allow the Spirit of Christ to live in us, we can become more aware of the interior landscape in which we ask that Spirit to dwell. Is it littered with garbage and debris, old wounds, dysfunctional patterns of being and relating? Toxic dumps of anger, fear, envy and shame that leak into our reactions and interactions?

Might we ask God to tour that landscape with us, and invite healing and cleansing of all that leads to hurt? There’s some prayer work, to be done with God alone, or with the help of a spiritual director, confessor and/or therapist.

And then let’s pay attention to what we take in – not only good and healthy things for our bodies, but all that is good and true and worthy (another great list from St. Paul in Philippians 4…). So may we be able to say with the Psalmist, “Let all that is within me bless God’s holy name.”

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8-27-18 - Majoring in Minors

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Were you ever sent away from the dinner table with the stern command, “Wash your hands?” It was ingrained in me as a pre-prandial requirement, though we ate with utensils, not bare hands. When I cook I've learned to wash my hands frequently, lest any bacteria escape my chicken or kale.

Health concerns may have been behind the elaborate washing rituals handed down in Hebrew tradition, but Jesus and his disciples seem not to have bothered with these rites, for the Jewish leaders who had come from Jerusalem to investigate the Jesus movement found them eating with “defiled” hands. So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 

Jesus is not gentle in response: He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” 

Once again, his accusation against his interrogators is rooted in his perception that they are missing the point, majoring in minors, distorting the heart of God’s law. It would appear these rituals were an age-old community practice that had become elevated to the status of Law. This was not bad in itself, but Jesus asserts that these men focused an inordinate amount of attention on matters of human tradition while they ignored actual laws of God, such as the command to care for the poor, the orphan and the widow, or the command to honor your father and mother.

Sound familiar? How often do we see faith leaders attacking other Christians over lifestyle or political issues, yet doing little to proclaim the Good News of God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ? How often do we see churches, even those facing declining attendance, focus their resources on maintaining a certain style of liturgy, or replacing the sanctuary carpet, or organizing yet another congregational dinner instead of turning their vision outward?

Oh, it’s easy to point fingers. Let’s bring it closer. What occupies much of our time and emotional energy? Is it the “commandment of God” or “human tradition?” I know I spend an awful lot of time perpetuating institutional life, which may or not be how the Spirit is inviting me to spend the time and gifts I have been given in this limited life.

How about you? Might we do a little inventory of where the bulk of our energy, time and money goes? A quick glance over calendar and checkbook (and Facebook…) can tell us a lot.

What if we were to ask God to tell us daily where our energies can most fruitfully be invested? And listen for the answer before going about our day? That’s a lot more important than washing our hands before meals.

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8-24-18 - Defended From Evil

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

We will once again end our week looking at the reading from Ephesians appointed for Sunday. This passage follows nicely our recent discussion of the distinctions between spirit and flesh. Paul reminds his readers that their enemies, though they may have human faces, are not those actual people so much as the spiritual forces of evil that animate them.

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the spiritual realm.

We need to remember where our battle ground really is – that can help us avoid demonizing other people and begin to pray for them instead. And it invites us to lay down our human weapons – anger, aggression, gossip, manipulation – and instead take up what Paul calls the full armor of God. As he details each piece of this armor – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit – notice that each item is for defense. The only weapon mentioned is the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is the word of God. Though that is often used as a blunt instrument, it is a force we can wield with truth and love in humility.

I consider this text foundational for living the Christian life. It reminds us where the true battle is, with the forces of evil that seek to degrade and destroy humanity. Accurately pinpointing the enemy is key to defeating him. And let's not forget that Christ has already vanquished this enemy. Yes, the skirmishes with evil continue, as sin is woven so deep into human hearts and interactions, but Christ’s authority over evil also prevails. We need only invoke the name of Jesus, and in his power and love command the evil one to depart and take his minions with him. Does that sound too easy? Maybe it is, if only more Christians would deploy this weapon given to us instead of expending our limited strength trying to fight battles Christ has already won.

Beyond all these forms of spiritual armor, which amount to claiming our inheritance as saints of God, Paul admonishes us to, “Pray in the Spirit at all times …. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.”

Praying for each other, for all those in ministry, all those who engage the forces of evil, is an essential part of the battle. Often, if we lead with prayer, we find the opposition fades away altogether. That has been my experience, at times when I’ve realized there was some spiritual warfare going on in a difficult situation. When I rebuke Satan in the name of Jesus, and invite Jesus to cover the situation with his power and love, I am brought back to a place of peace.

The “cosmic powers of this present darkness” are making a lot of noise in our world. As reaction to modest gains toward peace and justice bring to the surface uglier human realities like hated, greed, racism, xenophobia, exploitation, there is a lot of flack flying. It is easy to target those who generate it, and they do bear responsibility. But our fight is not with them; in fact, fighting with them yields only more fighting.

Let’s pray for them, and take our fight to the one scripture calls the father of lies, the accuser. Better yet, let’s line up behind Jesus and let him do the fighting for us, as we go about his work of restoring to wholeness all life degraded by the evil one. That is how we remain strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

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8-23-18 - Where We Gonna Go?

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

A measure of doubt and despair is normal in a healthy faith. After all, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. If we’re going to live on the ledge of faith, it’s not surprising periodically to look down and experience a wave of “what am I doing here?” This can come in times of personal crisis, or when it seems evil is still winning, or just because we read something that challenges our ideas.

It can even come because of something we hear Jesus said or did. So it was for his followers in the wake of his “Eat my flesh” comments, when he suggested that those who couldn’t accept this teaching had not been called by God:

“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” 

What a beautiful statement of faith Peter makes! “Lord, to whom can we go?” might contain an element of, “You’re the best of a range of bad options,” “but that is quickly eclipsed by the simple and profound declaration of belief: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

That is how faith in God grows; it is something we both come to believe and something we know, not all at once, yet fully even as it is still growing. Gradually, our heart knowledge comes to override other input of our senses and intellect that suggest God is not real or to be trusted. When hard things happen or we see the persistence of evil rampant in the world, it’s not that those things aren’t real. They are true, and we believe Jesus is the Holy One of God. We hold those truths in tension.

Spiritual maturity comes in our ability to live with that tension, not seeking the comforts of an either/or. The realm of God is a both/and place, and the more comfortable we become with nuance and shades of grey, the more room the Spirit has to move in and through us.

What things cause your faith to weaken? How do you deal with doubts or a desire to jump ship when they come up? We can always pray right then and there, as honestly as the psalmists do, being real with God about what we’re feeling and thinking. That’s how the relationship deepens.

I pray that, through our deepening relationship with God in Christ, living more and more in the Life of God, we can come to say with Peter about Jesus, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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8-22-18 - No Spirit Without Flesh

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

It is good to seek balance between the life of flesh and the life of spirit. Some people “live in their head,” as though physicality counted for little, and others seem to be so spiritually disconnected, so completely focused on the material, that they are neither very healthy nor very interesting.

As we come to the end of the “I am the bread of life” discussion between Jesus and people in his hometown synagogue, he more or less ends the argument by suggesting that the preoccupation with “flesh” – which he stirred up by saying people had to eat his flesh if they wanted to be part of the Life of God – is a distraction from what really matters.

He says, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” 

Did Jesus really say that “the flesh” is useless. That quote might reflect the bias in John’s gospel toward Greek thought and ideas, which posited a greater distinction between flesh and spirit than would be common in Jewish thinking. Perhaps Jesus made a more nuanced statement like, “The flesh is useless in the long run.” For obviously God valued human flesh enough to take it on in Christ’s incarnate life.

St. Paul uses “the flesh” as short-hand for “the human nature without God’s influence.” Our merely human existence, I think we might agree, has a short run indeed. It is our spirits that connect with the Holy Spirit, who gives us the Life that transcends life, the Life we begin now, even as we still very much live the life of the flesh.

Our enfleshed life allows us to enjoy the gifts of God, to fully inhabit this world and its pains and blessings. And the life of the spirit in us allows us to hold all that lightly, to recognize it as transient and temporal. We need to nurture both in this life, for a full humanity makes for a healthier spirituality.

What do you do to balance the life of your spirit with the life of your body and mind? How might you invite someone who seemed “not to have a spiritual bone in her body” to open up that part of themselves? Every day we can invite the Holy Spirit to strengthen the life of our spirit.

The flesh is indeed useless once we no longer inhabit these bodies of ours. For now, though, it is our very flesh which enables us to have the feelings and emotions and relational connections by which our spiritual lives grow. The flesh sets up the life of the Spirit, which gives us Life forever.

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8-21-18 - Too Much to Swallow

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

Not much got past Jesus. He was keenly aware of discord and disunity among his followers and often called them on it. So it is in this week’s story, when some are grumbling about his teaching on consuming his flesh and blood.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”

Instead of arguing about the thing that offends them – in this case, the flesh-eating, blood-drinking thing, which sounds like a direct violation of the Law as well as disgusting – he takes the whole argument up a notch, intensifying his claims to divinity. Maybe he was saying, “Look, that’s the least of your worries. Wait till you see me through my mission, my passion, cross, resurrection and ascending into heaven. Let that offend you!”

So much about Jesus can be too much for some to swallow. So people pick and choose the parts of the picture they find palatable. They love the teacher but not the savior; they focus on the Good Samaritan but ignore the miracles. By comparing himself to bread, and saying we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he is in effect saying, “You have to swallow me.” All of it. The healer and the table-over-turner. The story-teller and the lover of outcasts. The one who can walk on water yet lets himself be nailed to a cross.

When you think about Jesus, what do you find yourself drawn to? 

What do you turn away from?
Do you find some of what he said and did hard to swallow? 

Have you had a conversation with him in prayer about that?

A true Christ-follower is one who recognizes Jesus as the risen and ascended Lord, and has made a choice to accept all of who Christ is revealed to be, both in the Scriptures, and in our lives today. 

A lot to swallow can also leave us fully fed. 

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8-20-18 - Difficult Teaching

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel passage is here.)

What kind of sermon did you hear yesterday? I hope it was something with some grit and challenge to it - but maybe not as outrageous as what the folks in the Capernaum synagogue heard from their homie, Jesus:

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them… But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

I bet they were wishing for a nice parable right about then, or for him to say he was speaking in metaphors. But he just kept getting more graphic and direct, until even some of his disciples said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

This teaching is difficult. This chapter in John’s gospel is among the most challenging passages to interpret in all the New Testament. It’s somewhat comforting to know that it was as hard for Jesus' original audience, and not only that something got lost in 2000 years of translation.

But are other parts of the Gospels much easier? Jesus’ parables often fly in the face of human ideals of fairness and good sense. His miracles strike many as unbelievable, and often offended people who witnessed them. Jesus can seem rude in his contentious interactions with religious authorities, and harsh in his instructions to his followers. If we don’t find ourselves somewhat outraged on a regular basis, maybe we’re not reading this book deeply enough, or letting it get to us.

Today I invite you to read through these words aloud a few times and let them settle in you (an ancient way of reading Scripture called lectio divina). “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

First time through, just notice what sticks out for you, or what you get stuck on, like a snagged zipper. Don’t overthink, just notice.
Then read it again and see what reactions you’re having to it – positive, negative, bored, engaged, inspired, despairing… what are you feeling?
You might begin to talk with God about that reaction. Ask wondering questions if they come up.

Finally, read it again and contemplate what invitation you hear in this text. Pray that too.

Some of Jesus’ disciples turned away from him after he started saying these things. We are invited to stay with him and talk it out. Outrage can give way to deeper relationship, as the plot of many a romantic comedy reminds us.

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8-17-18 - Default to Praise

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

At week’s end let’s turn to Sunday’s epistle reading, still Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. 

This week’s snippet deals with how we cope with challenging times: 

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

How do we make the most of the time when the days feel evil, when it seems to many like progress toward equity and wholeness is being rolled back on every front? Paul says we should try to understand the will of the Lord. That’s easier said than done, especially if we’re looking for prescriptions from heaven or trying to interpret signs. God’s will is rarely revealed in those ways.

We might focus more on comprehending how and where God is speaking in these times. It’s easy to know where God is not speaking – if the words or actions are contrary to scripture, to what we know of the life, teachings and actions of Jesus. God’s will is often evident wherever we find marks of the Holy Spirit at work, which we recognize by the fruits like love, joy, peace, patience, energy, miracles and such. We can always ask, is there good fruit?

Paul also cautions us to maintain a positive climate within and without:
Do not get drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Several people have told me their wine consumption went up markedly in the past 18 months, and they haven’t found it helpful. As Christ-followers, we are invited to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We do that by cultivating spiritual practices like prayer and worship, scripture and journaling; by going where our hearts are fed – for me, that is certainly my deck and water and birds. Singing spiritual songs, whether we’re playing them in the car or humming them in the house, is a wonderful way to foster a God-ward heart.

And when our hearts are turned God-ward, we’re more apt to follow the last of Paul’s suggestions: giving thanks to God at all times and for everything in the name of Jesus. The best way to cultivate an orientation toward joy is to foster an attitude of gratitude. Giving thanks is often a verbal exercise, but gratitude need not be limited to what we say or pray. We can give thanks by being generous, by seeking ways to lighten someone else’s load, by choosing to walk around with a smile.

Praise and thanks are choices. Rare is the person whose life has been so harmonious and God-focused that praise and thanks come unbidden to their hearts. We must decide to praise God in all circumstances, even in times that feel evil or threatening. Especially in times that feel evil or threatening! Praise is a way of making God’s power present, invoking the Spirit, who praises through us.

Praise is a spiritual practice we can learn, and work at, and hone, until it becomes our default position. A heart that praises provides the most hospitable environment for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. And then the times we live in come into perspective.

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8-16-18 - The Bread of Not-Life

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

The book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible tells the story of how God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, where they had become an oppressed slave class, through the Red Sea to freedom. Only freedom quickly turned into stuckness of another kind, as they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, journeying slowly toward the promised land. (One scholar estimates that they took forty years to make a two-week journey…) During that time they complained loudly and often about their conditions, wishing they could return to their days of bondage when at least they knew where their next meal was coming from. Most of all, they complained about the food, and sometimes the lack thereof.

At one point, they began to receive a daily gift of manna, a coriander-like substance which fell from the sky six days a week (two days’ worth fell before the Sabbath day). This could be collected and milled into flour. In the conversation Jesus is having with Jews in our passage, this is what they cite, wanting such a miracle now.

He replies that that “bread from heaven,” though a gift of God, was not the same kind of “bread from heaven” that he himself is: “This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 

There are many sorts of blessings in our lives, things and people who nurture us. But they are not the Living Bread. They might enhance our lives, but they do not give life. They are given to us to enjoy and to share but not to become the focus of our yearning or worship. When we start seeking God-Life from the gifts God gives us, we often lose our focus on the true Bread.

And when we lose our focus on the true Bread, and seek sustenance in the good things in life, we find they cannot meet our deep hunger. Then we might turn to things that are less life-giving – to relationships, or work, or accolades, or any number of substances that numb the pain or temporarily fill us. We turn from bread to not-bread, and become hungrier still. It is a deeply vicious cycle.

What kinds of “not-bread” have you looked to at times to meet your deep needs?
What is different about receiving the Bread of Life in Jesus?

The thing about not-bread is it often fills us quite well, for a time, and often faster than the bread of life Jesus is. It takes awhile to realize that, as the cliché about Chinese food goes, we think we’re full and a half-hour later we’re hungry again.

Jesus is not so much about meeting our hunger as about transforming it into a deep hunger for true Love. When we begin to let that bread in, we truly will not hunger again.

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8-15-18 - Flesh-Eating

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

We generally associate the words "flesh-eating" with bacteria and zombies. The current vogue for vampire and zombie books, movies and television shows offers the Church a major crossover opportunity. For here, right in the fourth Gospel, Jesus himself is quoted, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

It’s not surprising that some early Christians faced charges of cannibalism, with rhetoric like that floating around. And there’s no way to make these words palatable – especially to a Jewish audience, raised on laws proscribing above all the ingestion of blood, which is life. And that is the point. The impulse toward cannibalism in communities that practice it (or so I’ve read…) is to take into oneself the enemy's power. Jesus’ invitation is to take in the very life of the Friend.

He invites those who follow him to receive his life at the most basic atomic level, into our bodies, minds and spirits. He says he came from Life and gives Life – “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.”

So much in this world can sap life, celebrate death (zombie and vampire entertainments, for instance…). Our culture does not lean life-ward or promote hopefulness and love. If we are to be seen as people of life, we need the Life of the Living Father to be filling us, renewed in us, every day. That happens through prayer and study, through inviting the Spirit to work through us in ministry – and it happens in this ritual many Christians celebrate at weekly worship, taking in the body and blood of Christ.

What are the sources of life in your life? How do you best access the Life of God?
And how do you go about sharing it with others? 

You might ask God in prayer, "Who needs to see /feel/ receive your LIfe today? Show me how..."

There are many ways to invite people. If you know fans of True Blood, tell them we do a little blood-sipping every Sunday. If your friends are partial to The Walking Dead, you can tell them we do a little flesh-eating too. And if their tastes run more to the mundane, just tell them they can find life, life and more life in the body and blood of Christ, however they receive it.

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8-14-18 - Raised

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

One of the standards of what came to be called “renewal music,” songs for worship from the Charismatic movement of the 1960s and 70s, was “I Am the Bread of Life,” a staple of many a church retreat. (No YouTube link – each version is more lugubrious than the last!).

Its verses, verbatim renderings of Jesus’ statements in our gospel passage, are probably not the reason for its enduring popularity. It is the refrain, with its sweeping lift,
And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, / and I will ra-a-ise them u-up on the last day
that made the song such a hit. Your spirit rises as you sing.

Jesus said, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day..."

This highlights an interesting facet of resurrection theology: that it is Jesus who will raise us up on the last day. I had never thought to associate the Son of God with this function. I may be over-interpreting one line, but it strikes me as yet another reason to get to know him in this life. Because I wonder: is the last day the only day when Jesus raises us up?

That question caused another Christian song to set itself on continuous loop in my brain – "You Raise Me Up," popularized by Josh Groban. This too has a swelling chorus and uplifting lyrics, and roots Jesus’ assistance in the here and now:
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains / You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders / You raise me up to more than I can be.

Though it sets up a comical image of balancing on Jesus’ shoulders, like a child getting a good view at a parade, it does remind us that we live the risen life here and now, not only there and later. And at times when we don’t feel very “risen,” we can invite Jesus to activate his life in us again.

Which generates a third musing on “raised” – Jesus as the yeast that causes us to rise and become the bread of life in the world. He may not have intended that association, though elsewhere he likens the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven. But here it is – a wonderful image for how the life of Christ works in us. Just as yeast is proofed in water, so his life is made real in us through baptism. And then it works through us, kneaded by our formation as Christians, by life's hardships and challenges, by wise and wonderful mentors. And it raises us into the life of heaven, from the inside.

Where do you need “raising” today? Ask Jesus to raise you up, and then say thank you, even before you see how that prayer is being answered. After awhile, you might notice something has changed. And when you do, say thank you again, and maybe write it down – even tell someone.

When we are low or weary or feeling powerless, we don’t have to call on the power of heaven from outside. We can ask God to activate the Life of heaven already at work within us. And we will find ourselves raised up – at the last day, and every day until then.

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8-13-18 - Eating Jesus

(You can listen to this reflection here. Next Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

“…so whoever eats me will live because of me.” – Jesus of Nazareth

It’s August. I’m on holiday at my family’s lake cottage in Michigan. Facebook is full of people vacationing in exotic and beautiful places. Who wants to think for three weeks about Jesus’ “I am the bread” discourses and their cannibalistic implications? This is why so many preachers try sermon series on other themes every third August!

It’s not just about preaching. What relevance is there to this ancient argument between Jesus and would-be followers, in which he invokes the name of God and Israel’s disobedience, and then goes on to say that what he really means by “bread” is “his flesh,” which he will give for the world?

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying,“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you....Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” 

These words made little sense to those listening to Jesus that day. For many Christians, these words only have meaning in the context of the eucharistic meal of bread and wine signifying Christ’s body and blood. And we only have that understanding because of what the three other gospels – and not John – record as his words at the Last Supper, “This is my body, broken for you; this is my blood, shed for you. Eat, drink to remember me.” These words are certainly mystifying to people exploring Christianity.

The words require a great deal of unpacking. But the action – the taking and blessing, breaking and eating – that has power even for people who have no background with this language or texts. In some mystical way, when we receive the consecrated bread and wine, by faith become the body and blood of Christ, his life in us, received at baptism, is renewed. Our tired blood is refreshed by a transfusion of Jesus, our flagging flesh made whole in these signs of healing brokenness. And that can happen even for people who know little about Jesus. (Read Sara Miles' Take This Bread.)

We don't need more words about words. Today I just invite you to remember how you feel when you take in those mystical signs, how that meal nourishes you for the week ahead. And if you feel nothing, ask Jesus in prayer what he wants you to experience in that taking and blessing, breaking and eating. The words may be strange to our ears; the Love that makes them real is where we get life.

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8-10-18 - Flesh

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

In his “I am the bread of life” discourse, Jesus becomes increasingly and alarmingly precise. He moves from “I am the bread of life” to “I am the bread that came down from heaven” to “I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” and finally to this astonishing statement: “… the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

We will explore next week how graphically Jesus “fleshes this out” and becomes yet more controversial. Today let’s sit with this idea – that his flesh is bread that he will give for the life of the world. What connections and responses does that set up in us?

For sacramentally oriented Christians, it is easy to read back into Jesus’ words a eucharistic connotation. Beneath that is a sacrificial understanding of his crucifixion, that something atoning, life-saving, world-transforming occurred in Jesus’ offering of himself and his brutal death, something that broke the hold of sin and death upon humankind for ever.

In these words are also written the story of his incarnation – God choosing to save the world through flesh and blood. For some people, that is the most radical idea of all – that the One who is Spirit came into Flesh in order to redeem flesh. We have no salvation without the Holy Spirit, I don’t believe, but also none without Jesus made man, healing the human condition from the inside out.

And God still works through flesh. We, gathered at the communion table, become the bread of life. The Spirit of Christ now dwells in our frail and fallible flesh to make known the love of God to the world. It is simultaneously a huge responsibility – for we need to be willing and to show up; and none at all, for it remains God’s work, accomplished once and for all by Jesus on the Cross, and worked out in the world through us, one encounter at a time.

Do you bring your body into this faith life along with your mind and spirit? Are you willing to be the embodiment of God's love to those whom you meet today? We might begin our day by opening our arms in a big gesture of offering and openness to the Spirit, even kneeling in humility.

It is as God and Man that Jesus was living bread that saves.
It is as we take his life into our flesh that we too become bread for the world that can bring wholeness to all.

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8-9-18 - Eternity

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

For centuries, the key selling point to becoming a Christian was the guarantee of a life that never ends. In a culture that has managed to increase the average life span to eight, nine, even ten decades, that isn’t the draw it once was. I meet quite a few people who assume they’ll just be pushing up daisies when they die, even as they are happy to be part of Christian community, and even believe in Jesus as God.

Meanwhile, people continue to develop technologies to prolong life, retain youth, maintain consciousness, move to another planet, store yourself for awakening at a later, greater time. And they sell these for a lot of money. Maybe people aren’t so ready to let go of life.

Jesus said eternal life can be ours without signing away our life’s savings. It can be ours through believing in him: "Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die." 

All the blessings the people of God had known, he says, even a blessing as great as manna in the desert, were temporal. The only truly lasting, eternal gift is the bread of life – and that, Jesus said, was him, available to those who believe. That’s too hard for some, who don’t want to just take him at his word. After all, they can’t see him. But they are willing to plunk down millions for a place in a cryogenics pod.

Is it really so hard to believe that promise? Jesus makes it pretty easy. We don’t even have to wait until we’re dead to begin to see the fruits of what we’ve signed up for. The power that raised Christ from the dead becomes a part of our lives in the here and now. The peace that transcends understanding becomes woven into our dealings with the world. The presence of God already surrounds and transforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

And as we allow those gifts to work in us, we become better able to manifest the love that we’re told is to mark the Christian community in this world, and will be the sole currency in the life to come, where all will be love. When no one lacks for anything, and no one prefers one person or thing to another, there are no impediments to love.

How does eternity sound to you? Inviting? Scary? Tedious? Exciting? What words come to mind?

When we begin to see our lives, our travails and challenges, and even joys from the perspective of eternity, the bad things don’t look as daunting, and the good we recognize as foretastes of the feast to come.

This life is but an antechamber to the palace in which we will dwell – a beautiful antechamber, yet just the beginning of the glory in store for us.

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8-8-18 - Outrageous

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

There is a trajectory to celebrity – it builds and builds, and sometimes, when a person becomes “too big,” people start looking for ways to cut them down to size. We can see that process unfold when Jesus begins to talk about being the “bread that came down from heaven.”

The people who had come to him, eager for his teaching, waiting for his next miracle, now start to grumble: Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Knowing Jesus’ roots, they couldn’t stomach what sounded like grandiose claims. In fairness to the grumblers, his words do sound far-fetched, especially if you know his human ancestry and have no reason to guess divine origins. Much of the Gospel of John is taken up with people investigating and disputing Jesus’ claims that God is his Father. But he lays it out quite clearly and boldly:

Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

If anything this is still more outrageous. Jesus rests his authority on his divine Son-ship – and says that anyone who fails to discern his Son-ship has not been drawn by the Father. For those who believe Jesus is the Son of God, that makes perfect sense. For those who don’t, it makes him sound all the more mad, and more than a little manipulative.

And there it is: the life, teachings, actions, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ are comprehensible if you believe that he came from the Father and returned to the Father. And that he is entitled to call God “Father.” If you don’t buy that, if you see him solely as a human creature, he would be someone to be feared, not revered. Given that, the fact that so many billions through so many centuries have recognized Jesus’ divine origins, and have found life and meaning in following him lends some support to the truth we claim about this one who said he was Truth itself.

So how do we make this Truth known to the people around us? Should we bother? I say we introduce him as the friend and redeemer we know, the one who breaks the bonds of injustice and brings wholeness to people and communities. We ask the Holy Spirit to make the spiritual introduction that initiates faith. We don't have to convince, only bear witness, in our actions as well as words.

We have not seen the Father. But we have seen Jesus, and can know Jesus. And in Him, the God is.

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8-7-18 - No Hunger, No Thirst

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)
When Jesus says that he is the bread of life, he also makes a big claim: 

“Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Is he only speaking figuratively? On the face of it, it would seem so. Many people believe and yet experience hunger or thirst on a regular basis, physically, emotionally and also spiritually. We have not received all that we need so that we want for nothing. Or have we?

The realm of God is an already/not yet place. Often we focus too much on the not-yet, when Jesus’ message in word and action was “It’s already here, folks! This God who loves you is near, is here, with power to heal and to provide.” The healings and the miracle of the loaves and fish were yet more ways to show that this Good News has implications in our material lives here and now, not only in our spirits. Even in the face of persecution, God provides; that’s what Jesus taught. How hard it is to trust that! Those muscles need to be developed and then exercised.

If anyone has reason to be thirsty, it is Rosie, a Latino woman I met at a nursing home where I did a service once a month. She often added to my homilies, conveying my point better and more eloquently than I did. She lived semi-reclined in a wheelchair, and looked to me to be in her mid-40s. And she was radiant, always smiling, grateful. One time I had spoken about the living water of Christ always within us, and she interrupted me. “I know about that living water. Before I knew Jesus I had this emptiness inside me, nothing could fill it. But the moment I learned about him and said yes to faith, I felt full. Now I always feel full of God, all the time, no matter what.”

Rosie’s “no matter what” is a very challenging one, confined to a wheelchair, living in a nursing home. I’m sure she had different plans for her life. But her joy is palpable. That living water of Holy Spirit life truly runs in her and causes her to be very focused on other people, on spreading her joy and peace.

St. Paul put it well: I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-3)

We have received the bread of life; we renew that awareness around the communion table. And we have received the water of life; Jesus promises it is like a stream welling up within us to eternity. As Rosie knows, eternity has already begun. Be fed, be quenched, be blessed.

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8-6-18 - The Stronger Light

(You can listen to this reflection here. Today's gospel reading is here.)

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is an odd event to celebrate, with its mystical magnificence and down-to-earth reactions from the three men who witnessed it. It is an event that takes place on a retreat, during prayer:

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai after 40 days in God’s presence, his face shone so brightly people found it blinding. Perhaps there is a physiological effect when a human is in the fullness of God’s presence, as Jesus was in prayer that day. When I feel filled with the Spirit, my face gets hot – is that just a very limited manifestation of the same effect?

August 6 is also the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, where a blinding light heralded not a divine manifestation but the unleashing of unimaginable destructive force, which vaporized some people, burned others alive and killed or sickened a whole populace. Between 90,000 and 146,000 people died as a result of the atomic bombing, (39,000-80,000 in Nagasaki); roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. Some maintain that killing prevented a much greater slaughter had the war continued; we will never know. We must live with what happened, and mourn the children and elderly and families, and survivors who were never again the same.

On the face of it these two events have nothing in common save a date of commemoration. But the power displayed in Jesus on that mountain and the dazzling light have forged a connection of sorts in my mind. The confluence invites us to remember that light does not always signal the presence of God; after all, one name in the bible for the devil is Lucifer, which means “light-bearer.” And though God is the most powerful agent in the universe, there are other powers which humans can access as well. In fact, when a person gives him or herself over wholly to evil, he can become quite powerful and unleash unbelievable and wide-ranging destruction.

Yet even such people can be countered by those who know the true light, the One who said he was the Light of the World. And He has called us to bear this true light, to come against the forces of darkness with the power that is in the Name of Jesus. Wherever we see destruction unleashed today, whether on our borders, or in the tyranny of a drug lord in a broken neighborhood, or a dictator with no regard for the wellbeing of his people, or a business with no regard for the future of our planet, we can invoke the greater light we’ve been promised in Christ.

We can speak truth to power, and justice to oppression. We can sit with those in terror for their lives, bearing witness, doing our best to ensure they are treated justly. And how do we do this? By inviting the power of the Spirit to fill us as we pray and as we do ministry. It is God’s work; we are merely the vessels. And God will prevail.

Whether or not our faces shine with God’s light, as we serve and proclaim and carry forth the greater light of Jesus Christ, the flashes of evil will be put down under his feet. God will be made known.

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8-3-18 - Bread, Daily

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

At week’s end, let’s turn to a Hebrew Bible passage appointed for Sunday, about the “bread of life” we’ve been discussing. The story of how the Israelites were fed during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness after escaping Egypt is what the people in our gospel reading were reminding Jesus about as they asked him to produce “magic bread.”

The account of the Exodus contains a lot of whining. No matter how the Lord provides for the people, soon enough they come back with their grievances, often revolving around food. “Oh, the onions and leeks we had in Egypt!” they wail, conveniently forgetting their harsh existence as slaves and day laborers, from which they were delivered when God walled up the waters of the Red Sea so they could escape Pharaoh’s pursuing army. Here they are again:

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Does God turn away from their ingratitude? No – God provides, extraordinarily, but with a twist:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 

The instruction is that they are to gather only enough of the manna for each day, and not to try to save it to the next day. They have to trust in God’s provision each day. Sure enough, they try to save it and it goes rancid and buggy. God provides enough on the sixth day to get them through the Sabbath, but otherwise, it’s just for each day, and more than enough.

And they have trouble recognizing this flaky substance on the ground, said to look like coriander, as food. But they soon learn they can make flour from it. Bread from heaven has been provided, not on their timetable and not as they expected it to look, but there all the same.

God wants us to experience his blessings daily as well – and they often don’t look like what we’re expecting. That’s why I’m learning to expect blessing in general, and try not to get specific about it. Most of my greatest blessings are things I wouldn’t even have known to look for.

And we are to expect blessing each day. I challenge anyone to get to the end of a day and not be able to name a single blessing from God, some unlooked-for gift, whether from God or another person, or uncanny timing, an insight given or progress made. Even in perilous times, God remains in the blessing business.

To expect blessing every day, without storing up gifts from the day before; to learn to recognize blessing when it looks different what we envisioned – these are skills we need on our journey into faith. As we become able to live into of these graces, we are more available for God to give others daily bread through us.

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8-2-18 - Jesus is the Bread?!?

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

A friend was teaching Sunday School once, and had just tried to explain to her class the significance and symbolism of the Holy Eucharist. As she lined the children up to return to church for communion, she taught them a little song with the words, “Jesus Is the Bread.” After singing this refrain once, a little girl paused and said loudly, “Jesus is the bread?” with an intonation indicating this was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard.

That’s the reaction some of the people listening to Jesus had when he talked about the bread of life that comes from heaven. When they replied, “Okay, then, give us this bread always,” his response was outrageous: Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

That probably sounded to many like the most preposterous thing they’d ever heard. What did he mean, he was the bread of life?

We need a mind for metaphor when we encounter Jesus in the Fourth Gospel (and possibly anywhere…). But we also need to mine the metaphor to its depth. There we discover he means it as he says it: he is the “staff of life” and has to be taken in, accepted, received, and reside in us if we are to grasp the life of God around us. He was saying to those people, who were so hungry for something, that they could find in him everything they thought was in the manna – provision, protection, presence. All those gifts are found in Jesus the Christ.

Indeed, everything we’re hungry for - which we seek in so many places – is to be found in Jesus the Christ, as he is taken in, accepted, received, living in us. And as we allow him to fill us with the life of God through the Spirit, we become communally the bread of life.

We enact this at the Eucharistic table – we take the bread, now for us the body of Christ, broken for us; we receive him into ourselves, his life renewing our lives; and as we disperse, we become the body of Christ, broken for the life of the world. How might we operate differently in the world if we were more aware of being the bread of life in Christ? Whose hunger and thirst might we address?

Another little girl I knew was better able than the first to accept the symbolic. She knew she was receiving Jesus when she took communion, and would loudly proclaim as I came down the altar rail towards her, “More Jesus bread!” More Jesus bread makes us into Jesus bread, so everyone can have some, never hunger and never thirst.

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8-1-18 - Bread That Gives Life

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

I love bread. I love bread so much, I gave it up for Lent one year. If my metabolism allowed, I would start every day with a basket of French rolls, butter and jam. (But I’d soon look like a French roll.) Bread is the staff of life, but that’s not the Life into which Jesus invites us.

In this week’s passage, the people looking for Jesus want bread from heaven, and they think Jesus might just have access. But they want a guarantee before they trust him. So when he says they are to believe in him as sent by God, they reply, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

You’d think the miracle of the loaves and fishes would have been sign enough, but they wanted to see God do what God had done before. It’s often our tendency, when we’ve been blessed, to look for blessing in the last place we found it, and in the same form. Yet, in my experience, God rarely goes back over the same ground. The trajectory of the Life of God is forward, to new life.

So Jesus tells them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

They were more interested in temporal bread than eternal. In fairness, having enough to eat is pretty urgent for an occupied, oppressed, over-taxed populace. Yet feeding the hungry was not what Jesus was up to. He told his followers to do that. His mission was to nourish souls starved for the presence of the Living God. He came to invite everyone to God’s banqueting table, and to clear the obstacles that kept people away. His priority was to proclaim the reign of God in which generosity and justice flourish so fully, everyone will be welcome at the table and fed in abundance.

We too are called to proclaim the bread that gives life. I’m glad so many churches are involved in sharing food with those who hunger; that is part of the Gospel life. The invitation to us as Christ followers is to be as much or more involved in sharing the Bread that gives Life – introducing people to Jesus as we know him, feeding thirsty spirits and broken hearts, inviting people to feast on him in Word and sacrament.

Who can you think of who is hungry for the bread of Life? How might you offer it to that person?

That is the bread we will feast on in eternity. It will never run out, and it will never make us fat, only full.

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