10-30-20 - The Way of Love: Rest

You can listen to this reflection here. 

The seventh spiritual practice in the Way of Love shares an attribute with the seventh day of Creation: rest. Genesis speaks of God creating the world and all its life in six “days” (epochs…), and says, “And.. God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done.” Does God need rest? Isn't God unlimited in vigor and resilience? (Just like us...?)

God's ways are mystery, but could it be that a regular period of inactivity, a time to digest and process events, to refresh and recharge, is good even for this God in whose image we are made? Keeping the Sabbath holy – set apart from the ordinary – is an invitation and a command, the only commandment many Christians blithely ignore. This is like being given the deed to a beautiful house and not moving in. Do we really prefer to stay in our shacks of fatigue and stress, while God offers us the gift of time, even a whole day each week, in which to be unproductive?

That is my definition of Sabbath – a day (any day of the week) to just be, to unplug, enjoy, be creative if desired, but do nothing that would be on a to-do list. When I manage to keep sabbath on my day off, I wake up the next day so ready to work. But when I keep asking my brain and body to generate and respond to work without a break, I become less productive, and certainly less peaceful. Just as our bodies need time to digest meals, and our brains need sleep time to process all the data and experiences we’ve encountered all day, so our spirits need times to refresh. Jesus regularly sought times apart, to pray, to listen, to be still.

Why is it so hard for us? A host of obstacles work against the practice of Rest. Not only does our culture not support rest, it promotes the lie that progress is defined by productivity, that we are only as valuable as our latest accomplishment. Many of us also carry an inner demand for achievement, borne of a deep insecurity about our identity. When we work, we know who we are. But hear this: when we rest, we know whose we are. God says, “You are my beloved. With you I am well pleased.” The practice of Rest says “Yes!” to God’s love and grace.

The “tyranny of the urgent” also inhibits our ability to live into God’s gift of Rest. And with our technology, where the urgent thrums constantly through our devices, it’s even easier to get caught up in what seems most pressing. It takes maturity and discipline to step out – ideally at least once a day – and say, “Hmmm – that felt like the most urgent task. But was it the most important thing I could have done with that hour/day/week/ year?” Rest gives us that perspective.

Another disincentive to living into the gift of Rest is discomfort with feelings that might emerge when we stop. Busyness is an effective anesthetic, distracting us from fear, anger, grief or anxiety that might be stirring in us – and in these times, all of those feelings are swirling in many of us. When we stop, we often become aware of our feelings. And feelings, like 2-year-olds, can kick up some tantrums if ignored. Acknowledge them, attend to them, and they often subside. Rest helps us do that.

To commit to the spiritual practice of Rest requires decisions and discipline. Beyond the imperative of getting enough sleep, it is best to set aside time(s) to rest within each day, and longer times within each week. Going for a walk, taking a few minutes to pray, napping, a cup of tea with a friend – these are all ways we can Rest. If you cannot fathom the idea of a 24-hour sabbath, try a half day. (Though a whole day is actually easier than a partial.) The practice of Rest also invites us to step out of the rhythms and pressures of our lives one or more times a year, to take a day or several of retreat.

Like most of the practices, this one gets easier as we make it habitual. Rest is where all the other practices in the Way of Love become integrated. They are all designed to help us center our lives on Jesus. And Jesus said, “Come unto me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.” Take him up on that offer - we will rest with him for eternity. We can get used to it now.

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10-29-20 - No Rose Gardens

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

Some of the Beatitudes deal with attitudes (some call them the “Be-Attitudes”): 

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’

It is not surprising to hear that Jesus wants his followers to thirst for righteousness, practice mercy and cultivate pure, undivided, God-turned hearts. These are not easy to live, but they make more sense than what comes next:
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

Lest Jesus’ disciples think that following him was their road to glory, he tells them right up front to expect flack, slander, even persecution. This will be a sign that they’re in the big leagues, up there with the great prophets of Israel, who had a message from God the leaders did not want to hear. Look what happened to them: flogging, imprisonment, job loss – sometimes death. Jesus does specify that it’s persecution for his sake or for the sake of righteousness; ordinary suffering and mistreatment don’t buy us any reward. But suffering for the revelation he has come to proclaim and demonstrate? That will be honored. In a way, Jesus is saying they are on the road to glory, but they’ll be in gloryland before they taste it.

In America and Europe we face little persecution for being Christian – and there’s always the question of whether or not we present enough evidence to convict us. But if we’re serious about our faith and vocal about how following Christ affects our choices, decisions, priorities in how we spend our time, money and relationships, we may face derision, even some social cost.

Now, if you’ve been keeping score, you’ll notice I skipped one:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.' 

This may be the most important one - and, thanks to Monty Python’s Life of Brian (“Did he say, 'blessed are the cheesemakers?’”) perhaps the best known. I’ve included it with these persecution clauses because a true peacemaker is apt to make enemies, ironic as that may seem. Peacemaking is not for the faint of heart – just ask Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King, Jr., to cite a few obvious examples. Or Jesus. Many people are deeply invested in their enmities, in us/them thinking, in the political and economic gains to be had by demonizing others. If we take up the ministry of forging peace, we should expect flack, even shrapnel.

How do these beatitudes hit you today? Can you relate to the promise of persecution, and to the eventual reward? How have you experienced the ministry of peace-making? Are there ways your church community could become more active in that focus? It’s a prime need in our world today.

When I was young(er), there was a hit on the radio that went 

“I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden; 

along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes."
Jesus doesn't promise us a rose garden, or a return to the garden of Eden. He promises to make us part of God’s mission to reclaim, restore, and renew the garden of this earth and all its inhabitants. That breathtaking invitation is worth suffering for.

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10-28-20 - The Poor, the Sad and the Passive?

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

Now here’s a recruitment slogan: “Calling all who are poor, all who are sad, all who are passive – I’m going to change the world with you!” These may not be the qualities we associate with leadership and success… and maybe Jesus is inviting us to reconsider our criteria for leadership. The men and women who were his closest followers were not the cream of society’s crop – Galilean fishermen, tax collectors, women with “reputations.” And yet we honor them and know their names 2000 years later.

The first three “beatitudes” deal with emotional conditions:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are the grief-stricken, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.'

What does “poor in spirit” mean? I think of it as being at a low ebb, our spiritual energy sapped by fatigue or sadness, fear or disappointment, our faith less than robust. I suspect most of us have felt poor in spirit. But we, Jesus promises, will inherit the fullness of God’s spiritual realm, the Life of God.

Similarly, most of us know what it’s like to mourn; for some, it seems to go on forever. But Jesus says we will be comforted, which doesn’t end the mourning, but can shift it into a different key, so that we manage to sing a new song even in grief.

Meekness may be the one attribute here that isn’t as common to us. I think of “meek” as passive, not pushy, not forwarding one’s own agenda. We associate “meek” with being a doormat. But I have heard that “meek” may not be the best translation of the Greek. In French that word is rendered “debonair.” That gives a different slant. As an essay I found online says, “Gone was Casper Milk Toast. Instead, my mental images were of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or of Gene Kelly, singing in the rain. I would so much rather be debonair than meek! The debonair are people who move with grace through life. They have style. Blessed are the debonair!”

The writer goes on to say that the Greek word can be translated ‘gentleness.’ "The word can refer to a strong animal such as a horse, who is well-trained and gentle in spirit, in spite of its strength. It can also mean the quality of being teachable — modest, generous, humble and considerate. In other words, those who are blessed are those who have strength, and yet use it with gentleness.”

I don’t know if you’re feeling debonair today, but I hope you have a sense of your strength and your gentleness, and know that God can work through us best when we combine the two. Perhaps that’s what it means to “inherit the earth” – to be fully participating in God’s mission in strength and gentleness. And when grief and dispiritedness are upon us, we might pray for more of the gentle power of the Spirit to fill us, to pump up our tires (the word for spirit is pneuma,after all…), to transform our mourning into joy.

In making these feelings markers of discipleship, Jesus honors our emotional truth and invites us to bring all of who we are each day into the fullness of our God-Life. And he offers hope for us when we’re not feeling so strong, reminding us, “This is not the end of your story.” He is the end of our story, and he will lead us there, as we follow.

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10-27-20 - Blessed

You can listen to this reflection here.

There is only one gospel passage assigned for All Saints Day – every year, it’s the same old Beatitudes. This has always bugged me; I’ve tended to dismiss the Beatitudes as a how-to guide (albeit, Jesus’ how-to guide...) and I’m not big on the idea of people striving for sainthood. That is God’s to bestow.

But it’s time I opened myself to this famous laundry list of saintly characteristics – remembering that “saint” means Christ-follower. Jesus is speaking to his followers on a “mount” – more of a hill, but Matthew wants to draw some parallels between Moses giving the Law on Mount Sinai in the old covenant, and Jesus giving the “law” of the new covenant. (Luke, a Gentile, seems less interested in demonstrating continuity between the Jesus movement and its Jewish roots. In his Gospel, this scene takes place on a plain, on level ground – reinforcing his theme of Jesus as the great leveler, equalizer.)

Jesus has been teaching his followers every chance he gets, but on this day he has a particular message. In the face of the hardship they will endure as his disciples, he wants them to understand an important marker of that identity: that, above all, they are blessed. This is the one word he repeats over and over.

What does it mean to be blessed? It means to stand in the light of God’s love and favor. Just as we cannot make ourselves saints, we cannot bless ourselves – we have to let it happen to us.

And God’s blessing, it would seem, is often counter-intuitive – the attributes Jesus associates with blessing are not ones the world equates with success. Once again Jesus overturns the “logical” order of human priorities and introduces the upside-down reality of God’s realm. The people of Jesus’ day thought prosperity and health and offspring were signs of God’s blessing. Jesus says, “Look deeper.”

With what do you associate blessing? In what ways do you feel blessed or unblessed?
Might you ask the Holy Spirit to show you in what ways God sees you as blessed? 

I like to hold other people in my mind’s eye and imagine them showered with God’s holy, healing light – that is an image of blessing. So today maybe we want to imagine ourselves in that light. And know we are blessed, no matter what we feel like on a given day.

As followers of Christ, we are blessed to be a blessing. We are one of the ways God is blessing the world. And we’re a whole lot more effective when we’re in touch with our blessedness. The next time someone says to you, “God bless you,” whether or not you’ve sneezed, say, “Bring it on!”

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10-26-20 - Saints All

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

Next Sunday is All Saints Day, which celebrates not only those godly women and men who have gone before us into glory, but the saints we all are. Yes, even you!

There is a reason we call it "All Saints" – it reminds us that all who follow Christ as Lord are seen as saints of God. “Saints” was just the term used for Christ followers; Paul would write a letter to “the saints who are in Corinth,” or “the saints who are in Rome.” It refers to people called out and set aside, consecrated, made holy to the Lord, the way we set aside special consecrated vessels for holy rituals.

“Saint” does not mean “a really good person” or “holier than thou.” In fact, true saints are humble enough to be quite aware of their faults and weaknesses. Our doctrine of saints recognizes that saints are made, not born - just add water! We are made holy by being united with Christ in baptism, not through our own efforts and attributes. Many of our best known saints, like St. Augustine or St. Francis of Assisi, had quite rakish pasts before the Holy Spirit got hold of them. Some, like St. Teresa of Avila, were quick of wit and sharp of tongue. Some were martyrs, some monastics, some simple, some highly educated. Saints come in all shapes and sizes.

What kind of saint are you? When are you most aware of having been made holy? Another way to ask that is, when are you most aware of the Holy Spirit working through you?

If you want to become more aware of your sainthood, that’s a prayer God is always pleased to answer, “Make me more holy, Lord.” If you pray that prayer today, also ask the Spirit to show you all the ways you already reflect God’s holiness and love. Saints are a work in progress.

The Holy Spirit always leaves a residue. Through our encounters with the Spirit we become tinged with the holy, and as we keep inviting the Spirit to dwell in, with and through us, that tinge of holiness grows stronger and thicker until the holiness is more obvious than the mere humanity. And then, lo and behold, someone is liable to say of you, “S/He is such a saint!”

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10-23-20 - The Way of Love: Go

xMy congregations are exploring the Way of Love this fall, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily takes up the Way of Love topic for the week – today that is Go. You can listen to this reflection here.

The sixth Way of Love practice for a Jesus-focused life is Go. Go where God sends you. Go where you hear someone calling for you. Go across boundaries of culture, economics, race, age, gender, experience… Go and bear Christ’s love to people who are different from you. Get out of your safe spot and join Christ on the road. The road is where Jesus spent most of his time – why do we mostly hang out with him in buildings on Sundays?

Many equate being a Christian with going to church. But these days fewer and fewer people go to church, even before Covid hit. So, many churches put their energies into trying to get people to Come. Evangelism becomes synonymous with welcoming, programming, marketing, strategies of attraction. Meanwhile, so many people hungry for God’s word of life are outside our doors, doing other things, on society's margins.

Jesus never invited anyone into a building. He said, “Follow me.” His disciples learned to travel, to live on the road, supported by a group of women who also heard Jesus’ call to Go. He sent them out, saying, “Go. Proclaim the Good News. Heal the sick. And don’t get too comfortable anywhere.”

To Go in Jesus’ name requires us to get out of our comfort zones. Some associate church with comfort, a place of refuge. But Jesus said: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” We do need to gather in community as disciples, in our practice of Worship; church – even on Zoom – is where we recharge and rejoice in what God is doing through us out in the world, are refreshed in God’s Word and renewed at Christ’s Table. But it is not where we are to rest. We come in as Jesus’ disciples; we go apart again as Christ’s apostles, sent out to refresh the world with living water.

One of the most profoundly boundary-crossing encounters in the Gospels took place between Jesus and a woman he met at a well one day at high noon. Here we see a Jewish man, a holy man, talking with a Samaritan woman, an outcast both ethnically and because of her “lifestyle choices.” These two talk across so many barriers, and do their share of sparring; this woman is feisty. But Jesus says that the water in that well will leave her thirsty again; the living water he can give will well up inside her for eternal life. He tells her truth about herself, and about himself, that he is the Messiah she has been awaiting – and she believes. She drops her bucket, runs back to town and says, “Come and see!” Her neighbors do, they meet him for themselves, and the whole town comes to believe in Jesus.

When we go in Jesus’ name, transformation follows. Because we go where he will go (and has already been…). In Luke 10:1 we read, “He sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” Jesus is still sending us on ahead, to go, to meet, to listen in humility and grace, building relationships in which we can introduce him easily and naturally as we tell our God-stories and listen for those of others. How exciting it would be if our churches found ways to go out in groups, to offer worship and service among different sorts of people to whom we feel called – single mothers, folks in homeless encampments, citizens returning from incarceration, retired executives, healthcare workers…

To whom do you feel called to go, and where? Have you shared that with anyone?

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10-22-20 - Loving Ourselves

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

I still remember the evening in my twenties, at a Wednesday eucharist at Grace Church, when I realized that I would never be happy – and maybe not able to truly love another – until I learned to love myself. I’m still working on it.

Some people have a hard time with the notion of loving self. There is a self-suppressing strain in Western culture, and the Christian church hasn’t always presented Jesus’ teachings about self-denial in a very wholesome way. We often equate loving self with selfishness, self-centeredness, self-involvement. And yet, right here at the center of Jesus' greatest commandment, is the order to love ourselves as we love our neighbors. Loving ourselves is true humility.

If this is no challenge for you, great; you have a wonderful gift of grace and equilibrium to share with the world. If loving yourself does not come naturally, here are some ideas to help move into this way of living. First, see yourself as a child of God, created in love, for love. If you ask the Spirit to give you a glimpse of how God sees you, you may have a revelation of your belovedness. If you want a scriptural reminder of how chosen and precious you are to God, try the first chapter of Ephesians.

When we are reminded whose we are, it opens the way to better discovering who we are. So a next step is to look at our wounds and faults with compassion instead of judgment. What prejudices have we been turning on ourselves, perhaps more harshly than we'd apply to our neighbors? If we are given to self-criticism, let’s offer it the way we would correct a small child, not by crushing her spirit, but calling her to her better self.

Then we might move beyond accepting our “shadow sides” to actually celebrating our gifts and strengths. What are your best qualities? What is delightful about you? What do other people love in you? What do you love? And what kind of a future do you desire for this special and beloved creature of God? What do you want in your life? What do you want to do/see/experience/ taste/give/receive?

Loving our selves and loving our neighbors must go hand in hand, for fundamental to the whole exercise is the understanding that we are equal in God’s sight. No one is better, or worse, more important or less, more or less worthy of regard and honor and dignity and love.

When we fully comprehend that, loving God with our whole heart and mind and soul will be a piece of cake; we’ll simply be recognizing the inherent beauty of God’s creation, and acknowledging that God does flawless work. You are Exhibit A.

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10-21-20 - Loving Neighbor

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

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus called this the second core of the Law: Love God with all your being, and your neighbor as yourself.

This commandment can tempt us to ask, “Then who is my neighbor?” A lawyer of Jesus’ day asked him just that question. Jesus answered with the story of the Good Samaritan, one conclusion of which is that the neighbor who cares for us can be someone we don’t like or trust very much. Our neighbor can be anyone, and is everyone.

Today I'm less interested in that question than in the second part of the verse – “as yourself.” Jesus (and the compilers of the law codes in Leviticus) links love for self and love for other in a way that merits deeper exploration. What does it mean to love my neighbor as I love myself? Since we don’t always love ourselves very well, we don’t always love our neighbors well either. If we are very critical of ourselves, or take poor care of ourselves, we’ll extend that tendency to other people. That is one way of loving our neighbors as ourselves – but not a very life-giving way.

How else do we love ourselves? Most of us are protective of our security – maybe loving our neighbors as ourselves means we’re equally concerned about theirs. And most of us are wired to be sure we have enough to eat and a sheltered place to live… a godly love for neighbor would include wanting the same for them. Yikes - this is a lot! Is it just too much to love our neighbors as ourselves? Too hard?

God doesn't call us to anything his Spirit can’t equip us to handle. We just have to let the Spirit rewire the faulty coding we get from this world, the message that says put yourself and your own kind first, don’t trust the Other. But can we ever love our neighbor enough to feed everybody in the world? Well, we know there is enough food; it’s just not distributed very equitably. So maybe loving our neighbor as ourselves motivates us to work on that challenge, or on housing, or security. Maybe we keep less for ourselves so our neighbor has more.

Ultimately, this neighbor-loving business grows one neighbor at a time. When we go global in our thinking, we can end up paralyzed or discouraged. But one neighbor today? Maybe one you hadn’t planned on loving? Maybe start simply by praying for that person to be blessed? That we can do…

In prayer today think first of yourself. Try to imagine for a moment how God sees you. Love what you see, or at least trust in God’s love for you.

And then imagine someone who is your neighbor. If you’re feeling adventurous, ask God, “Who is the neighbor you want me to love today?” Who knows whose face is going to come up in your mind’s eye! Sit with the image. Ask how you’re being called to love that person.

In a world where we often assume scarcity, neighbors are one thing we’ll never run out of. And learning to love them is a challenge for our whole lifetime. We may as well get good at it, because I have a feeling that is exactly what we will be doing for all of eternity.

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10-10-20 - Loving God

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

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” So reads what Jesus calls the first and greatest commandment. We might consider this the goal of the life of faith, to love God fully, without reservation, with all of our being.

This kicks up all kinds of questions in me: 

Do I love anyone or anything with all of my heart? Do you?
In an age when our attentions are ever more fragmented, what would it feel like to focus all our heart, all our spirit, even all our mind on one thing, one person, one God?

Do I even love God at all? Taking a walk the other day, I found myself praying, “Jesus, I love you,” and then wondering what I meant by that, how much need and anxiety is wrapped in that statement? Loving God presupposes a relationship. I consider this the richest promise of the Christian life, that Jesus has enabled true relationship with the Living God. In Ephesians we read that through Christ we “have access to the Father in one Spirit.” (Eph 2:18) So I ask, am I fully engaged in that relationship, or dipping in occasionally from the sidelines? How about you?

I am not a scholar of ancient languages, and don’t know the nuances of the word translated here as “love.” The English language has a limited vocabulary for love – we use one word to cover an array of different kinds. The Greeks used at least four. I suspect this word contains shades of reverence and awe, even fear, and not simply “love” the way we think of loving our parents or children or lovers or friends. How do we name the love of a creature for its creator, of an estranged child for her reconciling parent, of a broken one for his healer? It would seem that to fully love God we must first fully recognize our need for God's unconditional love for us.

How do we begin? How about with these three components, heart, soul and mind. In prayer today, come into a quiet, centered place, and speak simply and honestly to God about where you are with loving God. Good relationships are based on honesty and authenticity. We don’t have to pretend to feel more than we do, or less.

Assuming we want to love God more fully, let’s offer our heart – and spend some time on what’s in your heart. When I think about mine, I envision a mixed landscape of joy and fear and pockets of desolation. What do you see? Can you offer it to God in love, no matter what it looks like?

Then let’s offer our soul, perhaps asking the Holy Spirit to give us a picture of our soul. What do you see or discern? Can you offer your spirit to be infused with the Holy Spirit?

Then let’s offer our minds… perhaps even more cluttered than our hearts. What would it feel like to focus your mind on loving God, even for a few moments?

What might it feel like to love with all the fullness of your being, no separation, no shadow? I confess it scarcely seems possible in this world. But I do know that the more we love God this way, the better we will be able to love ourselves – and others.

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10-19-20 - Love and Law

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

Another week, another test. For the past few weeks our Gospel passages have chronicled one long game of “gotcha” between Jesus and the religious leaders, them trying to catch him saying the wrong thing, and him neatly sidestepping their loaded questions. In last week’s test, he prevailed yet again, but another set of examiners was waiting in the wings. This week we see the Pharisees get back in the game – and since they were legal specialists, they asked Jesus a question about the Law.

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

Easy A. Jesus answers with the best known of all commandments:
He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.”

No surprises here. This is indeed the most basic command, where Israel’s relationship with God begins. Jesus might have checked the box and moved on – but he wasn’t finished. He went on to cite a much less known commandment and put it on a par with the first: “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

What’s this? An obscure half-verse from Leviticus is up there with loving God? Yes, Jesus says - “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

He isn’t making this up – he is quoting the Law as given by Moses. Nonetheless, in combining these two commandments Jesus presents a radical new way of seeing God and justice. It’s not enough to love God. We have to live out that love by the way we love our neighbors and even ourselves.

We’ll unpack these different kinds of love throughout this week. Today let’s explore this linkage Jesus makes:

Do you associate loving yourself with loving God? Do you connect God and neighbor? 

Do you feel the most love for God, for your neighbor, or for yourself?
How might the way we love our neighbor increase our love for ourselves? 

How might the way we love ourselves – or not – connect to our ability to love God?

Sit with these questions in prayer today, as a kind of diagnostic on your "love life." Talk to God about it, notice where your energy increases.

It’s good to know where we excel in love and where we can grow, for in the realm of God, love is all and all is Love. We need that reminder all the more these days, when there is so much fear being felt and expressed and acted upon. I am constantly called back to John’s reminder that, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 

The absolutely best action we can take is to love actively and consciously, and increase our capacity for love every single day.

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10-16-20 - The Way of Love: Bless

My congregations are exploring the Way of Love this fall, with different gospel readings. Each Friday, Water Daily takes up the Way of Love topic for the week – today that is Bless. You can listen to this reflection here.

The fifth spiritual practice to cultivate for a Jesus-focused life is Bless. The Way of Love defines that as sharing our faith, and unselfishly giving and serving. Blessing is verbal and physical as well as spiritual, an activity as well as an orientation. We all know how to bless superficially – we do it whenever someone sneezes. But do we know how to bless so that lives are transformed? That means learning how to channel God’s blessing. All blessing originates with God.

The first step in fostering the practice of blessing is to orient ourselves to expect it. I realized this one day when my beloved cat was seriously ill. While waiting for her vet appointment, I went to work, and walking down the stairs of my church, praying anxiously, “Please, please.” This thought popped up, “Expect blessing.” I remembered, "Oh yeah. God is in the business of blessing!” We don’t get to specify the blessing, and it may come in areas other than where we’re looking for it, but we are to expect blessing. It completely changed my outlook on prayer.

As we tune are awareness, we realize we are walking in blessing; swimming in blessing. We don’t need to ask God to bless this or that – the practice is cultivating our awareness of the blessing that already surrounds us, always, as we live in God. Cultivating that awareness includes learning to identify the “un-blessings,” the negatives that have hijacked our attention, and turn from them back to Jesus.

God is always blessing, because it is God’s nature to bless – and God invites us to join him in blessing. Here's my second Bono quote this week - some years ago, he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in DC. His words stay with me: "A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it…I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea… And this wise man said: stop. He said, “Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.” Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do."

The spiritual practice of blessing involves an active component: being blessing to those around us, to those whom God loves (and, as we know, God loves everyone…). Blessing includes giving out of our abundance, and beyond, stretching our plenty to meet another’s scarcity. Our offerings to support God’s mission through our congregations are blessing. Stopping to help someone who is hurt, and doing all we can to see them restored, as the Samaritan outsider did in the parable Jesus told about pleasing God, is blessing. Helping to resolve conflict, standing for justice and fostering peace in the power and love of God’s Spirit are blessing, more needed in our times than ever. We join God in the blessing God is already giving.

And we are to speak blessing. We know the power of words to build up or tear down; most of us have experienced both in how we speak to others, and to ourselves. Deepening the practice of blessing means training ourselves to use our words only to give life, to give God glory and other people affirmation, to let our words wrap a web of light and love around other people. Just as we were “worded,” spoken holy by the decision of God, through Christ, so God invites us to participate in that blessing by “wording” others whole, chosen, beloved. What a world we can help bring into being!

So, as we deepen our engagement with the spiritual practice of blessing, we learn to expect blessing, to be blessing, to speak blessing, knowing that we are awash in the blessing of our glorious God. Bless and be blessed!

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10-15-20 - Why Give?

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

Then Jesus said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Give to God the things that are God’s. What belongs to God? Isn’t everything God’s? Doesn’t the emperor also belong to God? And if everything belongs to God – why does God need our gifts? Our tithes? Our offerings? God doesn’t need anything from us, if God is all in all. Maybe we need to give, because things get squirrely when we don’t, and because we are transformed when we do.

It is easy to see the two kinds of “giving” that Jesus talks about here as similar, parallel tracks. We pay our taxes to fund the goods and services we need governments to render us - we're paying ourselves, essentially, paying into a common pot from which all might benefit. We give our church offerings to pay for… what? Clergy and church buildings? Charity?

If we equate giving of our money and resources to God’s mission to “taxes” or “dues,” it is an obligation, a contractual exchange. That is not what giving is intended to be for Christians. We give in grateful response to all that we’ve received. We give because it sets us free, opens us, changes our hearts. We give because we love seeing what happens for others when we do. If our giving is stunted, it may be that we are not all that grateful.

Where does giving give you the most joy? Where do you feel the least willing?
Both answers give us some ground for prayer – and action.
Maybe we are being invited to give additionally in both categories, where it’s joyful and where it feels obligatory. Maybe we want to strengthen our gratitude muscles.

We are to give as God has given us – and in Christ, we see God giving us everything. I'm reminded of the U2 song, “With or Without You,” and its refrain, “And you give, and you give, and you give yourself away.” The song is not about a human relationship, but the struggle to exist in faith and intimacy with the God you cannot see. “See the stone set in your eyes/ See the thorn twist in your side.” – big Jesus reference there. (The “she” in U2 songs often refers to the Holy Spirit or to grace…)

“I can’t live, with or without you,” Bono sings. That refrain applies to both God and us in relationship to the giving God: And you give, and you give, and you give yourself away. And you never run out.

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10-14-20 - God and Governments

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

Did God ordain governments? Many people demonize governments as purveyors of chaos and corruption, when the very purpose for which they came into being was to prevent those things, to secure a safe and equitable society where all citizens could thrive.

There are passages in scripture that read as though God very much works through political systems and leaders, even ones outside the people of Israel (read up on the Cyrus passages in Isaiah…). St. Paul, writing in Romans 13, seems to feel that no ruler on earth can exercise power without God’s authority – which makes me wonder what he thinks about all the corrupt and oppressive rulers, of which his day saw as many or more than ours. If God made us with free will, God does not manipulate us.

Jesus, in the passage we are exploring this week, seems to take governments as a given, and doesn’t say where they fit in God’s plan. As he later tells Pilate, under interrogation, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Government is a natural human phenomenon, as is institutional religion. Human beings have to organize around power, supplies and spirituality, and organizations soon take on a life and culture of their own. Like the human beings of which they are comprised, they exist on a spectrum between good and evil, helpful and self-serving, visionary and banal. Government, especially in a democracy, is us, and we are it. We don’t get to make it a “them.”

So where does that leave us as people of faith? It leaves us with a call to be agents of healthier government and a more life-bringing body politic. In the three weeks (yikes!) before our next election, as rhetoric grows ever more polarized and shrill, what if Christ followers participated as peacemakers, not trying to convince the irrational, but refraining from demonizing, holding up the values of justice and equity and freedom?

Sound like a pipedream? We have at our hands the power that transforms worlds. Surely we can pray for our governments and those who desire to lead us, as many are already doing in our 40 Days of Prayer for our Nation initiative. (You can find all the prayers here and take the pledge here.)

I don’t know if God ordains governments. I do believe God will work through anyone who asks. Let’s ask.

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10-13-20 - God's Coins

You can listen to this reflection here.

In this week's gospel story we witness yet another confrontation between Jesus and the religious rulers, this time over whether to pay taxes to the Roman oppressors. They thought this a tidy trap - if he said "No," they could have him arrested for sedition; if "Yes," they could brand him a collaborator before his adoring crowds. Win/win, right?

Not for them. Jesus asks for a Roman coin. "Whose image do you see imprinted here?" he asks. "Caesar," they answer. "It's easy," he replies, "You owe this to the one who issued it. Give to the emperor what belongs to him, to God what belongs to God." And he dances out of another trap.

Genesis tells us that humankind was made in the image of God. St. Paul asserts that Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God, and that we are united with Christ in baptism. Thus we are stamped with the image of God both in birth and in rebirth. We are the coins God has issued to the world, if you will, the means of God's generosity.

How does it change your self-perception to think of yourself as a coin bearing the image of your creator, the currency of the Almighty? What are coins and bills? They are utilitarian, sure, yet also precious. And they are used to purchase things of value to their possessor. What is of value to God? That all of God's children thrive in freedom and plenty and wholeness.

How might we be expended as "God's coins" to bring that dream of God into being? In prayer, we might offer ourselves anew to God for service, and ask the Holy Spirit to show us where God wants to spend us today, or this week, or this year, or this lifetime. What visions come up as you sit in stillness with that question? Does anything resonate with your own dreams?

The currency we carry bears the likeness of temporal authorities, and that's the realm in which we spend it. The currency we arebears the likeness of God, and so we give ourselves to be spent in God's realm. Bought with a price, we can more than double our value as we're willing to be spent.

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10-12-20 - Allegiance

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

I wonder if Jesus got tired of the questions. Seems he was constantly confronted by people wishing to interview him or entrap him, or engaged by people in awe of this very different revelation he brought, and the authority with which he spoke. He was familiar and yet so totally “other,” that they constantly questioned him, and we get to eavesdrop.

This week, the question is: should we pay our taxes to the government if we owe all our allegiance to God? It’s an either/or question – and Jesus proclaims the both/and world of paradox. This drives the Pharisees nuts – and sometimes some of us.

Once again, he refuses to step into their trap, but counters with a little show and tell.
“Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

In this life, we have dual citizenship. We are residents of this world with all the responsibilities and joys of being members of societies. And we are citizens of the heavenly realm, that already/not yet space of inbreaking power amidst our heart-breaking powerlessness. How might we best live in that tension, to reflect the values of heaven on earth, and hold up the needs of earth before the power of heaven? This season in our national life, with a high-conflict election before us and social unraveling all around, is a great time to climb onto that tightrope and figure out how to bring the values and power of the heavenly realm into our national circumstances.

How do you feel called to live in that creative tension, to love your country and invest in its people and future AND to love your God and live into your eternal future? How might you invite the power of the Holy Spirit to work through you in secular endeavors?

Might we make a discipline of praying for our political leaders, not just in church on Sundays, but on our own during the week? Join our 40 Days of Prayer For Our Nation, or create a prayer list lifting a different leader or set of leaders in prayer each day.

It's easy to get disgusted with governments; let's wield the spiritual power we've been given as well as our civic freedoms, being engaged citizens and prayer warriors. That might be the healthiest way for church and state to mingle... In us.

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10-9-20 - The Way of Love: Worship

My congregations are exploring the Way of Love this fall, with different gospel readings. On Fridays, Water Daily will take up the Way of Love topic for the week – today that is the fourth practice: Worship. You can listen to this reflection here.

When I think of spiritual practices, I think of quiet, focused, soul-searching activities – prayer, bible study, confession, retreat. Even as I consider regular engagement in corporate worship fundamental to a thriving Christian life, I never thought of it as a “practice.” But spiritual practices for a Jesus-focused life are those activities of the heart, body and mind which bring us more fully into relationship with Jesus – and we often meet Jesus most fully when we come together as the church.

In the gospels, we see Jesus interacting with people in groups, whether his chosen disciples or throngs of thousands. He was present for people, even in great crowds. So he is present when we gather in his name – that was a promise he made. When believers gather, we make a space for seekers and newcomers to enter and encounter God in community. Christian faith cannot thrive in isolation – especially not in such challenging times.

And when we gather in Jesus’ name, even during this time when we’re often in our own homes, connected by spirit and technology, we are his Body. We reconstitute the Body of Christ so it is visible to the world. Each of us can make Christ known, but when we put our faith together, God’s power to love and transform and make whole becomes concentrated and explosive and world-changing.

We also gather for worship because Jesus always shows up. The Way of Love gospel for Sunday tells the story of an encounter two people had with Jesus as they walked to a village called Emmaus on what we now call Easter Sunday. They are still reeling from Good Friday, grief-stricken at the brutal death of their Lord, and now confused by reports that his body is missing. They are joined by a stranger, who asks why they are sad – that would be like someone today not knowing about coronavirus. As they tell him of the recent events, he links those with their scriptures, explaining the meaning of the sacred texts.

When they arrive at Emmaus, they prevail upon him to have supper with them – and at table, he takes bread, blesses, breaks and offers it. The familiarity of that movement ignites their awareness: they realize they have been with Jesus this whole time. “Were not our hearts burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us?” They high-tail it back, seven miles in the dark on the road they’d just traveled, to tell their companions in Jerusalem, “We have seen the Lord!”

Our weekly worship mimics the movements of this story. We come, bearing the joys and sorrows and stresses of our lives. We are invited to view those in the context of our sacred story of redemption and restoration – at its best, a sermon offers the space for that. We gather at table and discover Jesus again in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. The power of that encounter can send us out, telling our companions of the places we have encountered God. And if, as happened for those disciples, Jesus vanishes as soon as we recognize him, we know he’ll materialize again somewhere else, often when we least expect it.

When we gather for worship, we praise God joyfully, we offer the prayers of the community, we tell again and again the stories of God’s great love for God’s creation. And we participate in the holy meal which is itself a re-telling of our most central story, of how Jesus, God in flesh, gave himself up to restore all of creation to wholeness, and told his followers to recall him (call him back) in the simple, quotidian substances of bread and wine.

We can see in the patterns of Christian worship a form of play, serious play, the way children will celebrate and express themselves and play through a story over and over again, finding new ways into it, drawing new meanings from it. So, In our worship we “make believe” and come more deeply into relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

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10-8-20 - God's Fashion Police?

You can listen to this reflection here.

As Matthew tells it, Jesus’ parable of the great banquet takes an odd turn after the influx of late arrivals from the streets and lanes: 

Those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Wow – does correct attire matter that much to this king in Jesus’ story? This part of the tale has always seemed unjust. This man didn’t know he was coming to a wedding, right? How could he have been expected to wear a “wedding robe,” whatever that is? And isn’t Jesus the one who said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Actually no… but the sentiment seems about right. Jesus did say we should judge what’s inside a person, not externals. What the heck is going on here?

No one fully knows, of course, except Jesus. Some scholars think there were certain items of clothing people wore to weddings. Here’s what I think it might mean: that even those who didn’t have much advance invitation had the opportunity to turn, to repent, to “clean up,” as it were. Is that what is meant by the “wedding robe?” This guest is just wandering around, clueless, unconscious, unrepentant and unresponsive.

I recall those verses in the scriptures that speak of being “clothed in righteousness,” and 

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” 

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” And in Revelation 19:7-8 we have this promise:

 “...for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

What do you feel “clothed in” today? Is it what you want to be wearing? Might you try on another suit, another shirt, one that is more like what you want to feel like, how you want to be seen at the banquet? Are you clothed in anxiety and want to be clothed in serenity and joy? As a prayer exercise, try playing “dress-up” with God; put on the feelings of the people you’re praying for, or the feelings you’d like to have.

Martin Luther wrote of God’s grace in Christ as the “Great Exchange,” by which Christ took on our filthy beggars’ rags and gives us his royal robes to wear. Christ has clothed us in HIS holiness. He covers even the most shameful parts of us, the parts we think are unlovable. He loves us into love. In his righteousness, his holiness, his glory, we can stand unashamed, unhidden. We can allow our true selves to be seen, knowing that we are loved beyond measure by the God who made us, redeemed us, and loves us to the end of time. We are princes and princesses – let’s dress like we know it.

I once wrote a hymn to go with this gospel reading. (If you want to sing it in your head, I put it to the tune of hymn 544, Duke Street , "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun")

Clothed in Holiness

Clothed in holiness, bathed in glory, Born anew in sacred story.
From north and south, from west and east, saints throng to your wedding feast.

Send out the heralds, the banquet waits, leave your distractions, don’t be late.
The master calls, the feast prepared of food divine and wine so rare.

If the invited will not come Send out the word to deaf and dumb
All who are sick, lame, hopeless, lost called by the host who spares no cost.

And if your clothes are ragged, old, new garments spun of finest gold
Are giv’n to all who heed the call: This invitation is for all.

So in we pour, all sorts, all kinds, the least in front, the first behind.
No class or label can divide this Bridegroom from his chosen bride.

Clothed in holiness, bathed in glory, Born anew in sacred story.
From north and south, from west and east we throng into God’s wedding feast.

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10-7-20 - The B List

You can listen to this reflection here.

I find it hard to read this parable of the wedding banquet and not think of our half-empty churches. In the story, the King has prepared a beautiful wedding feast for his son and invited all the people who used to come to his house… and now none of them will. Enraged, he says to his servants,

“The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Given how Jesus has been talking to the religious leaders, and how he’s been known to interact with the not-good-enough of his society – the lame, lepers, extortioners and “loose women” – it seems obvious that that’s who he means by the people on the main streets. As he tells it, these people are found, herded onto the king’s buses and brought back to populate his banquet hall. The servants aren’t choosy – they just bring everybody in.

What would it look like if we sent buses around shelters and homeless encampments and parks on Sunday mornings and invited people to come to our feasts? Are we prepared to deal with strangers, people’s disappointment and addictions, traumatic wounds and chips on their shoulders? Are we prepared to see them not as wounded strangers but as gifts, with assets and strengths we need in our congregations? We did, for a few months, see two homeless gentlemen become regulars at our 11 o’clock service, drawn initially by the lunch that followed it (ah, pre-Covid coffee hours!). They became crucifers and participated in worship for a time, until they got jobs that required them to work on Sundays. It gave me such joy to see them vested and invested, not defined or sidelined by housing status.

What would it look like if we took church out to folks living rough instead of asking them into our buildings? For a time, my congregation in Stamford did this in a “tougher” section of town. We went from bringing sandwiches and healing prayer to my telling Jesus stories (aka, preaching) on the curb as people lounged in their lawn chairs with their bottles. It was amazing - until gentrification struck and the people who hung out there were dispersed, and it faded away. But I saw what could be.

The poor and the lame are not the only people God wants at the feast. God also wants the stressed over-achievers, the multi-tasking moms, the doubters and questioners. This parable suggests that God wants everybody at God’s table. Who are we not inviting?

That is a spiritual task for today: make a list of everyone your congregation does not seem to be extending an invitation to. The ones who are being invited are by and large not coming. Who else are we to invite?

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10-6-20 - No Thanks

You can listen to this reflection here.

I once had a friend who would turn down invitations to do things with me, sometimes even after we’d made plans, because she’d received other offers she preferred. While I admired her honesty, it bothered me that I didn’t rate very high on her list. Not that I was about to burn down her village or anything…

The invited guests in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet have no qualms about turning down the King’s invitation to his feast – in fact, they seem to have no respect whatsoever for this king. The first group just say, “No.” Then the king sends other servants out and says, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them.

One to his farm, another to his business. In Luke’s version the excuses are more creative – one just got married and didn’t want to leave his new wife just yet. Who are these people who put God's invitations last?

Well, on any given day, it can be you or me or anyone we know. There is no end to other priorities, it seems, when it comes to engaging the spiritual. It has to be on our schedule, and not when there’s anything else we’d rather do, or when the coach has called a soccer practice or the boss a new deadline. Just think of all the reasons people give for not coming to church.

Yet, if you’re reading this today, chances are you have put engaging with God-Life above quite a few other demands on your time. Spending time and energy in the presence of God or God’s people, in praise and worship, in acts of mercy and justice, has been compelling enough that you’ve actually said yes to this invitation to the banquet, not once but many times.

What made the difference for you? If we can zero in on that, maybe we can issue the invitation in a way that more people in our lives can respond to it. That doesn’t have to mean lowest-common-denominator consumer Christianity – some of the highest-commitment faith communities are the most robust. But what we offer does have to be lively, full of life, real, true life. That’s what people are hungry for. What is it about the way we practice our faith that sometimes obscures the life at its heart?

Make a list today of all the reasons you’ve said yes to God’s invitation, and why you stay at God’s table. And if there is a list of excuses you’ve made or continue to make, list those too. Look at both lists and see what common threads become apparent. Where in these gifts and obstacles might you find the seeds of an invitation to a friend or acquaintance?

God’s banquet is waiting. In this life, we only experience the feast in parts – but oh, how rich even those morsels can be. Who is God sending you out to invite?

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10-5-20 - Who Loves a Wedding?

You can listen to this reflection here.

A story about a wedding. Who doesn’t love a wedding? Except that this parable about a wedding seems more like a Quentin Tarantino movie, with an enraged host, slaughtered guests and a bewildered party crasher. Granted, this is the way Matthew tells the story, and he seems always to ratchet up the violence. In Luke’s telling it is a lot milder.

It’s not actually a story about a wedding – it’s a story about invitation. An invitation spurned by indifferent guests, and the consequences. It’s a story about a host who won’t take “no” for an answer. The nutshell version:

A king gives a wedding banquet for his son. He sends servants to gather the invited guests, but they won’t come to the feast. He sends other servants with the message that the feast is ready, but these are mocked and given excuses, and then molested and killed. The enraged king retaliates, killing the offenders and burning their city, and then sends his servants out to the streets to invite everyone they find, “both good and bad,” to fill his wedding hall. One, who is not appropriately dressed, gets thrown out. Nice story, huh? (Did Matthew embellish the tale in the telling? It does make a LOT more sense in Luke…)

What is this parable actually about? Like many of Jesus’ stories, it is partly about his claim that the religious leaders have ignored God’s invitation offered through the prophets, and ultimately through Jesus, to come to the feast prepared for them. Since the people of Israel have not been faithful to the Lord their God, God will send representatives to the “highways and byways,” gathering up the good and the bad people in his realm – and sort out later who gets to stick around. If the King in Jesus’ story represents God, it’s not the loveliest picture of God – especially killing the would-be guests and burning down their city.

On another level, it is a story about how easily we can put aside the claims and gifts of God and lose ourselves in the mundane and the worldly. We’ll explore that aspect more tomorrow.

Today, try reading the story aloud to yourself, and notice where you get snagged. Give it some thought and read it again… what questions arise? What invitations do you hear? What warnings?

It is rather hard to find the Good News in this story – it’s very bad news for the people who have ignored God’s call to be his people, and so-so news for the ones scooped up on the streets, who may get to stay at the feast, or may be tossed into outer darkness. Where is the Good News for you?

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