Water Daily: June 2023

6-30-23 - A Guide To Summertime Spirituality

You can listen to this reflection here.

No Bible today - I’m going seasonal. Coming into a summer holiday weekend is a good time to consider how the gifts of summertime can help us refresh our connection to God.

The long days and warm weather which most Water Daily readers are enjoying, based on our location, offer occasions for spiritual connection, on our own and in groups. I don’t know about you, but my spirit is fed and expanded by being outdoors, feeling a breeze, watching the sunlight play on leaves, admiring the strength and beauty of trees and flowers, observing the antics of animals large and small. The form of praise called exaltation rises in me more readily, and gratitude becomes a more dominant theme in my prayer.

Summer offers more time for spiritual activities as well. Whether we sit outside or enjoy a long walk after dinner (or before breakfast…), we can enter into conversation with God because we’re not rushing as much. Long dinners with friends allow time and space for the conversation to get spiritual as well. May I commend a few spiritual practices to try on during this season?

Mindfulness walks – take a walk in the woods or in a meadow or by a river or anywhere that you find beautiful. Pause before you start, to breathe deeply and to attend to each of your senses, ending with the eyes. What do you hear? What do you feel on your skin? What do you smell and even taste? Finally, what do you see? Take your time to tune each of these senses, and as you walk, try to notice and appreciate without engaging your thoughts – when you find your mind is busy, come back to the now by noticing with your senses again. If walking is not easy for you, you can do this sitting still outside in a favorite place.

Gratitude journal – if this is not already your practice, try it for a season. Choose a time each day to sit, preferably outside, and note what you are thankful for. Write it down if you can. Does anything you write prompt you to want to go deeper in prayer? Sometimes noting what we’re grateful for reveals to us a deep yearning – talk to God about that.

Feasting – I love summer eating, with all the fresh, local vegetables and fruits. Making food and eating it, alone or with others, is a delightful adventure. Food makes real the incomprehensible abundance and variety of God’s creation, and variety and abundance are particularly vivid in the summer.

Make a spiritual activity of planning a menu, acquiring the ingredients (especially if it can involve a garden or farmer’s market), grilling if you like that. I love to sauté on my grill’s extra burner, even chopping the vegetables outside; my yard becomes a kitchen and dining room all in one. Praise the Creator with each phase of preparation; invite Jesus to join you as you eat – he was no stranger to dinner tables or kitchens, or picnics. Savor the richness of fine food with good friends – and know that God is in the middle of it all.

There are many more spiritual practices that are particularly wonderful to embrace during the summer, but those three are enough for today. As we move into the vacation season, I pray you will have many opportunities to draw near to God and experience the presence of the Spirit this summer.

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6-29-23 - God's Free Gift

You can listen to this reflection here.

For the rest of the week we turn to Sunday’s passage from Roman, which is such a deep and complex work of theology, it’s a hard to just take a quick dip in it. But let’s jump in anyway, because it contains a beautiful invitation to freedom in Christ – freedom both from sin, and from the effort to claw our way into God’s good graces.

Thus far, Paul has been unfolding an argument to support his contention that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not through our own efforts. It is Christ’s sacrifice that sets us free, not our own will-power or ability to modify our behaviors… indeed, behavior change comes as we accept with relief the free gift of forgiveness and grace: But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In order to truly receive the free gift of God’s eternal life – which begins now, not just when we die – we need to allow God to free us from sin. Paul is concerned lest his listeners think this extravagant grace invites us to more sin. “Should we sin the more, that grace may abound?” he asks rhetorically, offering a resounding “No!” to the question. Rather, we should allow the gift of God’s grace to loosen sin’s grip on us.

“Sin” can be defined in many ways, but one way Paul uses the term is to name the purely human, self-oriented nature that exists in us. All those things we label as “sins” grow out of that basic orientation toward self that can cause us to see other people as objects for our gratification, and God’s creation as something to be exploited. When Paul says we have been freed from sin, that is an “already” gift, given at baptism, secured by Christ’s sacrifice, made real in his resurrection. As we let that reality seep into our bones we are freed to choose the Spirit-led life Jesus won for us. The fancy word for that is “sanctification," becoming holy.

Paul adds, provocatively, that we exchange one bondage for another, as we now “become enslaved to God.” Yet such a voluntary relinquishing of our self-will and prerogatives invites us into a freedom unlike any other. It is a freedom that allows us to love beyond our capacity, to forgive more than we think possible, to walk into God’s dreams for mission, to offer healing and ministry in Jesus’ name that enriches our lives beyond measure and transforms others. That’s the free gift of eternal life we have already received in Christ Jesus. Let's not leave it on the closet shelf.

6-28-23 - Being Sent

You can listen to this reflection here.

I didn’t think I could squeeze one more word out of this this week’s short Gospel passage, but I might just manage one: Sent. It is implied in what Jesus says about people welcoming those who come in his name as prophets and righteous folks, that they are sent, as he was sent. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

What does it mean to be sent? Messengers are sent, ambassadors are sent, representatives are sent, teams are sent out on the field, troops to war, ambulances to accident sites… To be sent means to be deployed for a specific purpose. Most often our being sent bears some relation to our skills or connections.

Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim Good News of God’s activity in the world, to announce freedom to the poor and those in captivity, to heal the sick and raise the dead. Those are still pretty much the reasons he sends his followers out today. Do you feel sent to any particular place or people? Where do your skills and connections and passions point you?

It can take a while to discern where we are being sent – and those “in between” times can be hard to wait through. But I have learned it’s better to wait till things begin to become clear, not force a decision or make a choice out of anxiety or an excess of rational thinking; discerning God’s sending needs to come from both head and heart. And often we’re not quite sure it is the “most right” thing till we arrive. The confirmation does come, sooner or later.

In my experience, when I am sent by God, I'm also led and equipped. Unlike a courier who goes out and reports back, apostles of Jesus Christ get to carry his presence and power with us as we go. It takes off some of the pressure, if we can only allow the Spirit to do the work and stop taking it on ourselves.

When have you felt sent by God, short or long-term? What inner urges are you discerning – or trying to push down? Where would you like to be sent? Afraid to be sent?

Being sent starts, like everything in the Christian life, with relationship. We strengthen our relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that we can better understand God's prompts. They might come through our own desires, or through discerning a need or a lack. Sometimes God makes it clear through dreams and “coincidences” that cannot finally be denied. We can check with others if a calling seems really odd or risky – and if we go forward, know it will be most fruitful as we are aware of going with God, not for God.

Wherever God sends us, when we get there, we find God there too. Funny how that works.

6-27-23 - Ministry With

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

“…And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

People often take Jesus’ remark about bringing cups of water to “these little ones” as a prompt to do outreach. While Jesus is big on caring for people in need, that’s not his meaning here. He is saying that those who do ministry with us, “in the name of a disciple,” will also be blessed.

In my previous church, we provided a monthly meal at the city's shelter for men. I would bring my guitar and sing a few songs while the crew was readying the meal in the kitchen. The gentlemen waiting for dinner were appreciative; “dinner and a show!,” some remarked. But I liked it best when someone there could play. I’d hand over the guitar and let him entertain the group.

People need to be invited to participate when we’re doing “good works.” We can offer ministry to, or we can offer ministry with – and “with” is much more inclusive and empowering. Just think which you would prefer if you were in need. Inviting other people to join us as we go about ministries of help and transformation is one of the most powerful ways to share the Gospel with others. It makes the Good News visible as people see a community of Christ-followers in action – that witness is often as vivid and appealing as the work being done.

Many churches are finding they draw more congregants by giving people opportunities to serve than by trying to entice them to worship. That puts the onus on us to be open to relationships as we serve meals and deliver clothes and visit those in prison, to get out from behind the counters and talk to the people we are serving, find out what their gifts are. I dream of a church where the well-fed and the hungry worship and serve together in one diverse community. That is what the first community of Christ-followers looked like.

What forms of helping or outreach or volunteering are you involved in? Is there room for inviting recipients of that help to participate in helping others? Can you think of ways to form community with the givers and the receivers until we are all aware of being both? No "us" and "them?"

In what ways do you sense God inviting you to work with God in bringing light and life to someone? Have you had a conversation with Jesus about that? Want to bring that up in prayer today?

It makes sense to do ministry with the ones for whom we offer our time and resources, because God has invited us to do ministry with God. We don’t work “for” God – we work with God, at the direction and power of the Spirit moving through us. If we give someone else the opportunity to offer a gift to someone in need, even us, we have given them a chance to live more deeply. From God’s perspective, we are all “these little ones,” and we are all in need of the water of life.

6-26-23 - Welcome

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

Permit me to rant… yesterday’s Gospel was 315 words of dense, challenging, provocative, hard-to-find-the-Good- News-in teaching from Jesus. And next Sunday’s? 82 words in 2 sentences, four clauses, saying not all that much. Grrrr! On the other hand, if I could parry all that talk about swords, surely I can dive in and welcome the gifts of this very brief passage… which is all about welcoming.

After Jesus gives his followers hard instructions about going out to proclaim the Good News and heal the sick, he softens a bit, saying of those among whom they would go, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

Jesus stressed welcome in his sending talk, because his followers were to go out to villages and towns taking nothing along, no extra tunics, no clean underwear, no toothbrush, no money. They were to rely on the hospitality of those who welcomed them – and if they were not welcomed some place, they were to move on, save their breath.

This is important for us to hear. So often we express anxiety about discussing our faith with others; we assume that conversation will not be welcomed. Well, so what? Some will want it, some won’t. If someone is not interested, move on, Jesus says, because you will find someone who does want to talk about matters of spirit and will be grateful that you had the courage to engage them in a conversation of the heart.

Mindfulness workshops and yoga weekends notwithstanding, our culture makes little room for spirituality that is rooted in religious tradition. When we introduce the spiritual into a conversation we are making space for a holy connection. We rely on the hospitality of the other person to welcome us into that space. If the other person doesn’t want to, no problem. Try again with someone else. Be open to the conversation if someone else introduces it. Let’s invite people to see our connection to God.

Do you anticipate rejection when you contemplate talking about your experience with God, Jesus, Spirit, or do you expect welcome? Either way, we can be surprised… Can you think of a person with whom you might want to start that conversation? What do you think his or her reaction would be if you raised a spiritual subject?

We don’t have to go out cold-calling people. We can respond to the Spirit’s prompts about who might be open. We can ask God in prayer, even over a period of weeks or years, “Shall I talk to that person about faith? What’s the right approach? When do you think I should do it?” I believe that’s a prayer that God will answer, maybe with a sign of some kind, or by our getting a feeling of “wait” or “go,” or there being an opening. That prayer will open our spirits and prepare us.

Jesus implies that someone will welcome us as we go about the mission of God to restore all things and all people to wholeness. And when they do welcome us, as we go in Christ’s name, they are welcoming him, and in welcoming him, they are welcoming God himself. It’s like bringing the CEO on a sales call, or having the chief of surgery giving an injection. We get to be the advance folks; God does the work.

6-23-23 - Family Values

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

I am amused when “family values” are equated with a 1950s American two-parent nuclear unit, as though that were a perfect reflection of Christian virtue. In fact, Jesus disregarded his own mother publicly when she showed up with his brothers to quiet him down and bring him home.

He also said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” For those who would follow Jesus, family is not blood kin, but the community of fellow Christ-followers. Loving God comes first, no matter what.

As a pastor frequently frustrated when the claims of nuclear family impede involvement in church family, I read those words with a certain grumpiness. Sigh! It’s been a hard week in Water Daily Land, trying to interpret one hard teaching about priorities after another. Putting Jesus first is more counter-cultural all the time. Our culture says family comes first, no matter what. And we are much more formed by our culture than by what Jesus taught.

You may be familiar with the Jesus Doll, a rag doll with brown hair and a beard, a tunic, coat and sandals. He's soft and squishable and great for kids. In my previous parish, we let kids bring Jesus the Doll home for a week. They were encouraged to take Jesus everywhere they went, and to write in the journal that accompanied him. Where did Jesus go this week? Gymnastics? The swimming pool? Walking the dog? Kids loved it. Mothers found it more wearing.

“Oh my God,” one said, “It’s unbelievably stressful having Jesus! I was afraid the dog would eat his sandals, or him. I was afraid we’d leave him somewhere!” Another, unable to get Jesus back to us for several weeks, wrote an apologetic email. She’d been sick, the kids had been sick, her husband had been away on business, Jewish friends visited, some other things happened… she concluded, “It just wasn’t a good week to have the Son of God at our house!”

News flash: it’s never a good week to have the Son of God at our house! Life is a whole lot easier with the priorities the world presents us: “Take what you want, when you want it, with whom you want it.” Chances are, if you’re reading this, you have already decided that is not your choice. Maybe you’ve entered the relationship into which Jesus invites you, or you are curious and exploring it. Maybe you’ve already discovered what Christians have known for 2000 years, that life is infinitely richer – though no less painful – when we are aware of having the Son of God around our house.

Jesus did not come to make us feel better about our lives. Jesus came to draw us closer in the one relationship we will have for eternity, in intimacy with God. Starting that relationship here and now makes our lives more purposeful – and often more stressful. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it,” Jesus says at the end of this teaching.

What are some of the ways Jesus’ claims have caused you to “lose your life,” or at least to give up some patterns that felt easy but were not life-giving? What are some of the ways you are resisting putting God in first place in your life? Who or what would have to be moved to second or third? Can you offer that to God in prayer, inviting the Spirit in?

The gift – which we can only discover by doing it – is that when we move God-life into first place, we engage our other priorities more fully, because we don’t try to own them. We appreciate them as gifts, and can stop ranking them. Maybe that’s what Jesus means by “finding our life…”

6-22-23 - Jesus' Sword

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

I wonder if Jesus knew how much carnage would be wrought in his name because of these words attributed to the Prince of Peace, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Would he have said them? Did he say them? By the time Matthew wrote his account of Jesus’ life, these words would have passed through quite a few reporters. Maybe they got skewed? How I wish they had never been written down.

So much blood has been shed between Christians and Jews, Christians and Muslims, Christians and indigenous peoples, Christians and other Christians. There have been crusades and counter-crusades, attacks and massacres, reprisals and counter-reprisals. Rivers of blood have flowed as corrupt politicians hungry for land, oil, power, vengeance and money have joined with zealots to cloak their murderous agendas in religious language. There is enough violent rhetoric in the scriptures of many religions, including our own, to fuel endless bloodshed.

And Jesus isn’t even talking about conflict between enemies but in families. He goes on to say, “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.” What?

I believe Jesus was saying that conflict would be an inevitable consequence of following him in his mission. Jesus came to wield God’s love against the evils of this world, injustice and oppression, corruption and complacency. That doesn’t make for a peaceful life. Those whose mission is peace often provoke conflict and die violently.

Notice, Jesus did not say, “I have come not to bring peace, but violence.” He said "not peace but a sword." Look at some of the other ways “sword” is used in the New Testament: The sword of the Spirit is one of the defensive weapons we take up against the devil. In Hebrews we read that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, “…dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow …” That is surgically sharp!

The sword Jesus refers to can be a sword of discernment, distinguishing good from evil, what will bless us and make us effective as disciples from what will harm us and make us complacent and weak. He is saying there is evil in the world, and his followers need to be ready to distinguish the Kingdom of Light from the realm of darkness. That does divide families sometimes.

Jesus demands our fidelity over all other claims. The priorities of this world – family, wealth, convenience, distraction – do not make us effective disciples. Jesus is just calling it. We can be fuzzy, or we can be clear. Jesus came not to bring peace but reality and radical freedom to move in God’s Spirit.

Have you ever had to make a choice to disassociate from people or practices that were destructive for you? Do you face such dilemmas in your life now?
Might we ask for the Spirit's help to marry “mission clarity” with our calling to be peacemakers?

Jesus paid the ultimate price for his mission, at least in worldly terms. In eternal terms, he was just getting started.

6-21-23 - Is Our Faith Pubic?

You can listen to this reflection here.

We are often judged by the company we keep. Are we willing to let the world know we hang out with Jesus? He lays it on the line in this week's passage. After telling his disciples to go forward boldly, proclaiming the good news, healing the sick, he says, "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”

It’s hard when Jesus raises the stakes like that. Where’s the mercy? It seems, from things he is recorded as having said in the gospels, that Jesus was short on mercy for religious insiders who refused to accept the good news of “God-With-Us” that he had revealed to them. His mercy ran more freely to outsiders or underdogs than to his own peers. It is unsurprising that people in need would more readily accept Jesus’ revelation of his messiahship than the “insiders” who were so sure they knew what God would look and act like. And Jesus cuts the insiders no slack.

Jesus is not in a “slack-cutting” mode in this training talk. He knew time was short; that those who said “Lord, Lord” really had to stand by their allegiance to him, and not go quiet when the association proved inconvenient or dangerous. Would he go any easier on us?

Some years ago I read the The Tenth Parallel, by Eliza Griswold, on clashes between Christianity and Islam in Muslim and Christian communities in Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. In Malaysia she met an indigenous Orang Asli who was a convert to Christianity (many Orang Asli are trying hard to hold on to their traditional beliefs and practices under threat of extinction, but some do convert). Christians and other religious minorities suffer harsh persecution in Malaysia, which has a vigorously conservative and oppressive Muslim majority.

This pastor said to her, "Americans don’t care what’s happening in other places, do they," a sentiment she encountered among persecuted Christians in many places. "He pondered aloud if need kept people closer to God and God closer to them,” she writes, and then quotes him: “I wonder, is there a place for God’s word in the lives of people who have everything?’”

It’s a good question. In my fairly privileged segment of Christendom, proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord is often muted; to some, even saying “Jesus” smacks of fundamentalism. Some Episcopalians are hostile to the word evangelism, as though there were only one (obnoxious) way to share faith. Others are happy to be affiliated with Jesus – in church on Sundays – but reluctant to let that be known in the circles they travel the rest of the week.

Are we willing to be public about our affiliation with Jesus, the Christ; to acknowledge his Lordship in our lives? Does it make us uncomfortable? Is Jesus, and proclaiming wholeness and peace in his name, important enough to us? We sit under the judgment of Jesus’ words as well as the promises they contain. What is the place for God’s word in the lives of people who have everything?

6-20-23 - Splitting Hairs

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

“Have no fear of them,” Jesus says, as he tells his followers of the enemies they may encounter on God’s mission. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

So, God knows the number of hairs on our heads and values us even more than precious sparrows. That does not mean God promises us physical protection (read Psalm 79 sometime, and remember that most of the people to whom Jesus was speaking died a martyr’s death…) It may mean simply that we are of infinite value to God, whose love for us is not diminished by our physical death.

It is a hard balance we seek as followers of the One who promised eternal life: to live fully in this life, loving its gifts and pursuing God’s mission in the world, while holding this life lightly, knowing it is not our final destination. People who have encountered death in near-death experiences often say they no longer fear death. And it is the fear of death that so often holds us back in fully living our lives.

Jesus is not minimizing the trauma of physical death, I don’t think. He is inviting us to weigh that against the greater trauma of spiritual death, apathy or even allegiance to that enemy who seeks to degrade and destroy God's creatures. If fear of death, or fear of losing income or time or reputation, keeps us from giving our hearts to God, we place ourselves in spiritual peril. Following Jesus does not mean that nothing else in our lives matters; it means we gradually allow ourselves to put God first, above every other thing and person who claims our love. It’s not either-or; it’s both-and… and in the order of priority. God comes first.

And if God comes first, it lowers the stakes for everything else. We can be more confident taking risks when we value our God-Life more than our physical life. Not caring so much about our physical existence – while still investing in it; I did say it was a balancing act – sets us free to discover who we most fully are, how exquisitely and uniquely we are made. Rather than seeing Jesus’ words as warning, might we take them as invitation to greater freedom?

Today let's examine what holds us back from making God our number one priority, if God is not. What fears impede our proclaiming to those we know our allegiance to God in Christ?

If we can name our fears, we can invite the Holy Spirit to transform them into freedom. “Perfect love casts out fear” is a promise we are given in scripture. Wherever we feel fear, we might invite God to sow love… envision the place of your fear and see God planting a seed of love in that spot.

Then we can sit with the sparrows and watch our fear wither like a weed and the love grow strong and beautiful, knowing that God is keeping an eye on us... and counting the hairs on our heads, however few or many there may be.

6-19-23 - The Un-Prosperity Gospel

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

Would you have gone on this mission if Jesus asked you? His words to his followers as he sends them out to proclaim the good news and heal the sick are full of warnings about unwelcoming communities, hostile audiences and even persecution. He says the challenges he encountered would also come to those who went forth in his name – master and disciple are equal in the sight of detractors:

“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!”

It’s a wonder any of them went. Would facing danger for proclaiming Christ embolden us – or send us into hiding?

Some preachers build huge congregations and rake in loads of money promising prosperity and good fortune for those who put Jesus first – which often gets defined as making large donations to the pastor’s ministry. I sometimes wonder if they’re right; their churches sure seem blessed. Then I remember Jesus never promised anything but love and an odd kind of joy amidst adversity in this life, and an eternity of relationship in the next. And he promised his presence with us throughout, no matter what.

That is where I suggest we rest this week as we read through another challenging passage: by opening ourselves to Jesus’ presence. That is where all ministry in his name begins – being filled with his Spirit.

Today, let’s take a few minutes to sit quietly, offering thanks for the gifts of the week past, repentance for our failures to demonstrate love, and naming those things that worry us about the week to come. And then let’s pray, “Come, Lord Jesus” (an ancient formulation is “Maranatha!”). And wait. See how Jesus draws near, or what comes up in you as you sit in stillness.

The prosperity preachers are right about one thing: cultivating an expectation of blessing yields blessing. God’s “yes” comes in many forms, not only material wealth. As we are open to it, look for it, name it, we will experience it more often, and tell what we’ve experienced. And then, whether we’re in the midst of wolves or sleepy sheep, we can proclaim our good news, “The Life of God has come near to you!”

6-16-23 - Are We Disciples of Jesus Christ

You can listen to this reflection here.

Our gospel reading this week has Jesus sending his new disciples out on their first mission trip – to go to all the towns and villages he will visit, proclaim the good news that God is near, and heal the sick. Oh yeah, and cast out demons and raise the dead, as needed. And don’t take any baggage or money – just rely on the hospitality you encounter. And if you’re not welcomed, hit the road and find some place that wants you. And if you get arrested or worse, don’t worry – God will be with you and tell you what to say.

How do we interpret these instructions in our day? Some Christ-followers take these words at face value and go out to share the Good News of God’s love. But more of us stay home, busy with work and family. Our “going in the name of Christ” mostly means going to church and maybe engaging in volunteer activities there or for other organizations whose values align with ours. Few of us are out blazing trails, telling our stories, healing the sick. What do we do with these instructions for Jesus’ road warriors when we’re not out there and may have no intention of altering our priorities?

Let's start with the call to proclaim Good News. If we don’t know what’s good about this Good News, we don’t have much of a message to share. Jesus said the Good News was about freedom, release, forgiveness, healing, the inbreaking of God’s life into this world. Where have you experienced those things in your spiritual life? What stories flow from those experiences? With whom might you share those stories?

Then there’s the “doing” part – healing, raising, releasing, forgiving: where and when in your life do you offer those ministries that Jesus said were integral to living the Good News? Is there anyone with whom you pray for healing? Anyone who you remind of their status as beloved no matter what they’ve done or said, or not done or said? Are there dead places you’ve helped bring God’s Life to? Any that are calling to you now?

These are the “what’s” – proclaiming the Realm of God, healing the sick. Jesus also talked a lot about the “how” and the “how not.” Most notably he said not to take any resources with us, to rely solely on God’s provision and that of the people among whom we go. That is probably the most challenging part of Jesus’ teaching for me and folks I know. I don’t see us untethering ourselves from our financial and emotional security systems anytime soon. Are we any good at all to Jesus, or to the people who need to hear of his love?

Might we find small ways to do this, trying to get to know our neighbors or people around us who have acute needs, not offering gifts or advice, but simply as people, building relationships that can lead to community, and seeing where the Spirit takes us?

The harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still few. Folks around us are still harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus doesn’t ask us to go to them out of guilt, but out of excitement at the joy of being his followers, and anticipating blessings. Are we his disciples?

6-15-23 - Wise As Serpents

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

Adversity is part of the deal when we become ministers of the Gospel, especially when we invite people to re-examine long-standing beliefs and traditions. Jesus uses a potent image to warn his disciples about the challenges they will face as they proceed:

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.”

The “wolves” for Jesus' disciples in this scenario are fellow Jews, in particular religious leaders benefiting from the status quo. Jesus knew they would oppose him and put obstacles in the way of his followers. He suggests meeting such opposition with a tricky balance of cunning and transparency.

It’s not so hard to fathom what it means to be “innocent as doves” – it means to have an agenda of peace and goodwill, be straightforward about your message and your aim. If we think of sharing our faith or introducing people to Christ as we’ve come to know him, it means being clear that this is part of who we are. There’s nothing worse than a “bait and switch” approach to evangelism. If we’re sincere about building relationships AND about letting our spiritual selves be part of the encounter, we’re being innocent as doves.

Jesus’ exhortation to be “wise as serpents” is harder to parse. Where does being canny morph into cunning? Let's consider what attributes of serpents we might adopt as we move out in mission. One is their ability to move quickly and nimbly and with great flexibility. They are low to the ground, able to get where they need to be without drawing a lot of attention to themselves. So we might show up at opportune moments, and maneuver with grace around those who would shut us up, or tell us to leave our religion out of it.

Jesus was telling his followers that there would be resistance to their ministry which might well harden into persecution – and that no matter what, God would be with them, speaking his message through them: "When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."

I doubt we need worry about being handed over to councils and flogged (in this country, anyway – so far). Any resistance we encounter might take the form of indifference or social pressure not to be “so religious." Whatever happens, Jesus’ counsel to be both winsome and wise, gentle and canny is as apt for us as it was for his disciples. We have a story to tell, an invitation to offer, an introduction to make – let’s not let anything stop us from making Jesus' love known.

6-14-23 - Packing Light

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

It is packing season – summer vacations, weekend getaways; many of us will be taking down our suitcases and tote bags and deciding what to bring along and what to leave behind. What we pack depends largely on where we’re going – a weekend at the beach may call for shorts and t-shirts, while packing for a wedding can require five pairs of shoes.

And what if we’re packing for a mission trip? Jesus says, “Don’t. Just go.” His instructions to his disciples are perplexing: “Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.”

He wants them to go out without any resources or safety net, to rely completely on the hospitality of those to whom they are sent. “Wait a minute,” they may have thought – “I thought we were bringing the gift. Now you want us to ask them to take us in and feed us, so we can preach the gospel to them? What’s that about?”

Maybe it’s about vulnerability. Maybe it’s about mutuality, not going to people with the resources or answers we think they need, but inviting them into relationship in which they can meet Jesus. Maybe it’s about allowing people to give to us, so that that we’re sharing on level ground, not from a place of power or control.

And for the ones who carry the Gospel to others, it is also an invitation to build the kind of trust muscles we need in the service of God. Having no money or change of clothes, no toothbrush or even a staff to lean on is an invitation to lean totally on God’s provision and love. “Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?” we ask baptismal candidates. It is very hard to put our whole trust in anything, let alone a force we can know but not see or feel. But that’s the kind of faith Jesus invites us to grow.

When have you been in a situation where you had to rely totally on God? Where you couldn’t see what good was going to come, and could only trust that it would? These are trust-building opportunities.

It is not easy, but the testimony of those who live this way is that God comes through, again and again, often in completely unforeseen ways, often through the very people they thought they were there to help. When we break down the "us" and "them" and become "us," all kinds of mutual giving becomes possible.

This story was about being sent on mission. Perhaps it is also an invitation to live more lightly always, less encumbered with stuff and space and security. Every day we have an invitation, right in our own lives, to simplify, to free up.

And every day we have opportunities to go to someone in the name of Christ, seeing what meals are provided to us when we don’t try to get them for ourselves. We don’t get to set the menu, but we will be fed. That’s the life of faith.

6-13-23 - Know Your Audience

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

It’s the first principle of marketing: know your audience, then shape your message and target your approach accordingly. Jesus knew that, sending out his disciples on their first mission foray: These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

More than once Jesus declined ministry to people from ethnicities other than his own Jewish people (though he always relented, and thus expanded his market share…) His teaching and activities suggest that he saw his initial mission as correcting misinterpretations of the Torah, and inviting God’s chosen people back into alignment with God’s love and God’s truth. It seems reclaiming the whole world came later.

Similarly, he told his disciples they were sent not to everybody, not to the “other,” but to their own people – the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Eventually, outreach and evangelism to the “other” became hallmarks of missional strategy for the church. But maybe in this early stage of training Jesus didn’t want his disciples distracted by cross-cultural chasms or barriers of language and religion. He wanted them to get used to proclaiming the Good News, healing the sick, casting out demons, even raising the dead, and to start with those who already knew the basics about the One Holy God of Israel.

The targeting was even more precise: they were to zero in on one "worthy" household, not broadcasting their seeds to see where they might take root, but planting by hand as opportunities were given: Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.

This last may sound rude, even hostile to us. Jesus may simply have been inviting them to develop a laser-like focus on building relationships with people with whom they shared a language, who might be open to the gift of Good News. The same often applies to us. It can seem easier to share our faith with total strangers than with those who look and talk like us, because maybe we don’t have to be as vulnerable. But more often than not God sends us to those with whom there are fewer barriers to connection.

Who do you know who needs to know Jesus’ love, to hear the Good News of freedom and grace? Pray about how you might go about offering that Good News. And if you are rebuffed, move on to someone else. That’s not the “anointed appointment” God is inviting you to have. The Spirit will lead us, as we ask and are willing, to those who are hungry for what we have to give.

6-12-23 - Every and All

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

When we read the Gospels with an eye to getting to know Jesus, a principle becomes evident: abundance and fullness. Five vats of water turned into wine, food enough for 5,000 with twelve baskets left over. And it applies to healing as well – Matthew tells us Jesus went to all the cities and villages, and cured every disease and every sickness.

And he expected and equipped his followers to do the same:

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

Is Matthew just being hyperbolic? From what we read in the Gospels, Jesus never failed to heal someone in need of it, though once he had to pray twice for the healing of a blind man. "All” and “every” meant just that.

If Jesus healed every disease and illness he encountered; and if he gave authority over disease and demons to his disciples; and if he empowered those disciples-turned-apostles with the Holy Spirit after his resurrection and ascension; and if we carry on the ministry of those apostles through an unbroken chain of laying on of hands In ordination and confirmation… then why don’t we heal every disease and every illness?

Engaging such “why” questions is a recipe for trouble. So much in the realm of prayer is mystery, we can only speculate, based on our reading of Scripture and our experience. Maybe we see fewer healings because so often we don’t ask. And sometimes when we ask, it is with meagre faith. Let me be clear – faith needs to rest in the community. I’m not saying each person has to have a full and clear faith – but the community can and should. In my experience, communities that expect healing, that expect answers to prayer, often experience more. The more faith we bring to the exercise of healing prayer, the more healing we see. And where healing remains joined to the proclamation of the Good News, we may see even more positive outcomes.

Healing is fundamental to what it means to be Christians, apostles bearing witness to the power and love of God unleashed in the world through the Spirit of Christ. It is not meant to be reserved to a small cadre of “healing ministers” praying for 5 minutes during a church service. It is to be exercised by all of us, all the time, everywhere we go. I long to see a congregation where it is normal to see people praying with each other at coffee hour, in the parking lot, in each other’s homes, by faith, with thanksgiving.

Perhaps when every Christ follower exercises his or her faith in releasing God’s healing in the sick, the infirm, the despairing, all people will be healed. That’s how the Realm of God becomes visible. Through us.

6-9-23 - Not Dead, But Sleeping

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

Our four gospels often tell the same stories, but sometimes the details are different. One change Matthew makes to this story probably first set down by Mark is quite dramatic. As Mark tells it, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus in a panic, saying, “‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” But in Matthew’s version, which we read this year, the distraught father says, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Dying or already dead? Did Matthew hear a different version of the story, or is he intensifying the miracle he is relating?

In both versions, Jesus gets to the house, after being diverted by the woman with the hemorrhage, and in both versions he sees life: When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.

This father suspected that his daughter's story was not yet over, and Jesus knew her life was not ended, that she was deeply asleep, perhaps in a coma. But what if she had been was already dead, as her father thought? Jesus raised Lazarus four days after burial; he raised a young man from his funeral bier. Did he raise this little girl or simply heal her? Is there a difference?

Here's a bigger question: Are we to pray for healing in the face of what looks like death? Sometimes… maybe more often than we do. Death is a reality of life, yes, and the power of God to heal is very real and very strong when communities exercise faith. When someone we know is gravely ill, we can ask the Spirit how to pray. If we feel a sense that physical healing can happen, invite the healing stream of God’s love into that person. I specify “physical healing,” because sometimes the healing a person receives is spiritual, preparing them for life after death.

Maybe it’s too limiting to talk only of healing through prayer – God also heals through medicine. A recent article in the Washington Post tells of a young woman named April, catatonic for twenty years after having been diagnosed with a rapid and severe onset of schizophrenia. Recently doctors discovered she also has lupus, a treatable autoimmune diseases that was attacking her brain. As the article says, “After months of targeted treatments — and more than two decades trapped in her mind — April woke up.” Researchers are finding that autoimmune and inflammatory conditions may be prevalent in patients with various psychiatric syndromes – who can be helped with simple treatment. Sander Markx, the physician treating April said, “These are the forgotten souls. We’re not just improving the lives of these people, but we’re bringing them back from a place that I didn’t think they could come back from.”

That is the business we are in as followers of Christ active in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness. We are called to see life, even in the face of death. We don’t always know the outcomes of our faith – that’s why it’s called faith; we don’t get a road map or guarantees. But we walk forward anyway. Whether it’s 20 minutes or 20 years, or in the life that follows this one, Life will win.

6-8-23 - Your Faith Has Made You Well

You can listen to this reflection here.

This Sunday’s gospel story is a tale with many interruptions. It begins with Jesus inviting a tax collector to join him in ministry, which begets an interrogation from religious authorities about his holiness. As Jesus is making his defense, a synagogue leader pushes through the crowd to fall at Jesus’ feet, begging him to come to his house and heal his daughter, who has just died. Jesus agrees – and the whole crowd follows along, pressing in on Jesus and his disciples.

In this crowd is another person in desperate need of healing, but where the leader could be public about his request, this woman cannot let anyone know. For one thing, she is a woman, a person of little status in that culture. For another, she suffers perpetual bleeding. This not only makes her ill; it renders her ritually unclean – anyone touching her would also be made unclean and thus unable to go to the temple until they’d been cleansed.

So she sets out to “steal a healing,” going low in the crowd, making her way closer and closer to Jesus’ side, so she can just touch the hem of his cloak as he goes past.

Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

Was this woman only driven by faith – or did she, like many of us, turn to the Healer only when conventional methods failed her? Twelve years with no improvement – and as Luke tells this story, we learn she did consult physicians who were unable to help. Was Jesus the last resort or her best hope?

I love the way this woman, like the distraught father, is determined to get what she needs, and how much she believes in Jesus’ power to heal her. I think of her as a base runner stealing third, trying to get to her goal undetected. Her faith is so strong she knows that the merest touch of his clothes will access the power that heals. And her faith is rewarded – Jesus turns, sees her, does not scold or reject her, but says “Take heart, daughter – your faith has made you well.” And at that instant she could feel she was well. What an additional gift to be told it was her own faith that effected her healing.

This is a great mystery – Jesus says these words to more than one person in the Gospels. It suggests that God does not so much do the healing as add power and love to the faith we bring. We want to be careful not to put too much onus on the faith of the person who is sick – in the other story in this week’s gospel it is the faith of the father for his daughter that is rewarded – but there does seem to need to be faith somewhere in the system. The more we bring, the more God has to work with.

Healing has been freely offered to us, a healing stream of living water always flowing in us and around us, into which we can step at will, in faith, in fear, in trust, in doubt. We don’t always see the fullness of the healing we desire in this life. Yet we see a lot more when we do what this woman did – just reach out and take hold.

6-7-23 - Now That's Faith

You can listen to this reflection here.

In the first part of this week’s gospel passage, Jesus defends his relationships with people considered sinful, saying he had come into this world to save not the righteous, but sinners. This is a point he will make over and over again, directly and in parables. But before he has a chance to develop his argument to the religious leaders suspicious of him, he is interrupted by a religious leader who has great faith in him:

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.

Now that is a person of faith. That is a person with clear vision of who Jesus is. I once led prayer with a group of children and asked them what they would like to pray for. Allie’s hand shot up. “I want to pray for my bunny.” “Sure,” I said. “What’s wrong with her?” “She’s still dead…”

Allie and this synagogue leader were way ahead of me in faith – they knew that Jesus’ power to heal could even restore life in those who had died. Jesus doesn’t challenge the man’s assumptions – he heads off with him to his home. But he doesn’t get very far before he is interrupted again, also by someone who’s faith in him was stronger than most: Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”

This woman’s faith is so strong, she doesn’t even need to talk with Jesus. She reasons that just touching his clothes will transfer healing power into her, and she is right – a moment later Jesus stops in the crowd and asks, “Who touched me? I felt power go out from me.”

Do you know anyone with faith like these two, who have the conviction that Jesus’ power can accomplish the healing they so badly desire? Would you think that person nuts or faithful?

What stops us from believing so completely? Often it is because we let the record of prayers not answered as we wanted speak more loudly to our spirits than the record of God’s faithfulness and love. When we focus on what God has done and can do; when we wire ourselves to expect blessing as did this frantic father and long-suffering woman, we might find ourselves believing as powerfully as they do.

We’ll look tomorrow at the outcome of their faith. Today I invite you to consider what in your life you might step out on a limb of faith for. What healing or reconciliation or blessing do you desire more than anything else? Maybe something you’ve lost hope in, that seems to have died? Something you have suffered with for twelve years or longer?

Can you imagine running after Jesus and asking him to stop what he’s doing and come to your house to restore that lost love? Or to sneak up on him in a crowd and invite his power and love to flow into you? What might happen with that prayer?

6-6-23 - Tainted By Association

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

Turns out I was a week ahead in yesterday’s Water Daily – we’re in an earlier passage from Matthew’s gospel this week, one with two stories. Today we’ll look at the first, which is very short as stories go: As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

Brevity may be a virtue in writing, but this is a little too short. Why did Jesus call this tax collector – had he had his eye on him for a while, or was it a spontaneous movement of the Spirit? Why does Matthew (called Levi in another gospel) get up without a question, a word, a goodbye, and follow Jesus? Where do they go? What’s going on?

It seems Matthew (the author of the gospel, who was probably not the subject of the story) is less interested in these questions than in the impact this invitation had on the people around Jesus. This mixing with notorious “sinners” like tax collectors was getting Jesus a bad rep: And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”

Why should they care who Jesus eats with? Because there was a strain of “holiness” teaching running through Jewish scripture and practice that asserted that even associating with anything or anyone unclean put your own purity at risk. This strain raises its legalistic head in ultra-conservative circles of any religion, and is usually accompanied by a conviction that the person doing the judging has no sin of which to repent. In the eyes of the Pharisees and scribes, constantly trying to discern whether he was a charlatan or the real deal, Jesus was tainted by his willingness to hang around the “sinful.”

But there is another way of thinking that we also find in the Hebrew bible, which invites “outsiders” to become insiders, encourages the faithful to welcome the stranger and alien, the “unwhole” and the impaired (who were not welcome in the temple courts). Jesus clearly saw there was more good to be done inviting the “unholy” into transforming relationship, and went so far as to suggest these were his true mission: But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Do you tend to categorize people as “good” or “bad?” Which do you feel like on most days – the righteous or a sinner? Have you been offered a friendship in which you experienced healing and a feeling of becoming more worthy of love? Have you ever invited anyone else into such a transforming relationship?

We are called to mercy, not a slavish devotion to rules and ritual. Our Good News proclaims that Jesus has passed by each one of us and said, “Follow me,” no matter whether or not we felt worthy of that invitation. We become worthy as we walk with him.

6-5-23 - Harassed and Helpless

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

Congratulations – you have made it through the seasons and festivals and holidays that span Christmas through Easter to Pentecost, and have arrived safely at that long stretch we call “Ordinary Time.” From now until Advent, minus a few feast days, we will hear stories from Jesus’ ministry and teaching. We have an opportunity to get to know him better, and to explore our own callings within his ongoing mission.

For that, we come in at a good spot – next Sunday’s Gospel lesson drops us at the start of Jesus’ travels, with his instructions to his disciples before their first foray out. Let’s listen as though we were one of them, for, indeed, we are, and the mission field Jesus described then, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” is as apt today.

The mood of the people Jesus encountered is also the same as what we see today:
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus set out to proclaim the Good News of God’s mission to restore and renew all of creation to wholeness, and to demonstrate that mission by healing every infirm person he encountered. As he went, he also responded with compassion to what he saw – people who were harassed and helpless, rudderless, leader-less.

The ones he encountered lived in poverty and fear, under the thumb of the Roman occupiers and further oppressed by their own religious leaders. People we encounter in our lives may more often be harassed by the demands of wealth and stress than poverty, but many are also seeking direction, to be led to safety and green pastures and still waters. They are hungry for meaning, thirsty for purpose and the kind of love only God can give. We have access to these gifts – will we share?

Who do you know who is harassed or helpless, or both? Who is awakening your compassion? How might God be sending you to that person with a message of promise and life?

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Are you ready to be sent? Ask God in prayer to show you where and when and how and to whom. Just say the word – God will send you into the harvest.

6-2-23 - Always

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

It's one of the great promises God makes to us: God's presence, always. Jesus does not send us off alone with the charge to spread the Good News – he comes with us through His Spirit poured out on all people. Jesus’ last words on that mountain were, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” But sometimes it can be hard to feel his presence. Here are a few ways I know of to draw on that promise:

Prayer – when we allow our minds to quiet and invite the Spirit to fill us, it is the Spirit of Christ who comes to us. The visually inclined can ask Jesus to show up in the imagination in some place and form that resonates for us, where we can talk and listen to him - and just hang out.

Praise – when we release our spirits in praise, as we sing or admire beauty or enjoy an intimate meal, we feel a presence in us and around us. That is Christ, joining our praises.

Eucharist – We offer these words and actions to remember Him, because he said to… and remember means more than "recall." It also means to reconstitute the members of a body. We receive the life of Christ in those signs of his body and blood – and He has promised to be there with us.

In the Hungry and Forgotten – Jesus said when we feed and clothe and visit and tend to those in need, we do it for him. Doing ministry among people with obvious needs – and many assets, don’t forget – is a wonderful way to be with Jesus. Ask him in advance to show himself to you.

Ministries of Power – Jesus told his followers that when the Spirit came, they would do even greater works than they’d seen in him. When we pray for healing or reconciliation or exercise spiritual power in Jesus’ name, we are invoking his presence with us.

What are the ways you sense the presence of Jesus? Are there times you feel abandoned anyway? Those are normal, especially when a lot of things are going wrong. God invites us to pray through them and pipe up and say, “What happened to, ‘I will be with you always?’ Not feeling it…”

Always is a long time. We can experience Christ with us moment by moment, and expand our capacity to feel him in the challenging spaces. This is how we prepare ourselves to be with him Always.