7-9-20 - Of Thorns and Roses

You can listen to this reflection here.

The thorns are the only location in Jesus’ parable that provides its own peril: 

“Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.”

The path had birds to snatch away the seeds; the rocks had the hot sun to wither and scorch them. But when we try to plant the seeds of sacrificial love and other-directedness amid a thicket of competing claims… look out.

We are called to sow love in a very thorny landscape. The cares of the world and the lure of wealth, which is what Jesus likened the thorns in his story to, are as strong as ever in our western culture. Some churches respond to diminishing fruitfulness by positioning the benefits they offer among those other lures – “Look at the return you can get for your investment!” Or they offer their own version of the competition, church-based banks, health clubs and the like.

The competing claims of wealth, family, security, recreation, status are a given. How do we embrace those goods without worshipping them? How do we navigate around them, or help move seeds to healthier soil – especially when those seeds are us?

What most chokes your desire to be connected to God?

For me, it's time and the to-do list. So I have to think, how might I invite Jesus into my time management, or lack thereof, and my to-do lists? Some people put alerts on their devices to remind them to stop and pray. Others make sure they stop and take a prayer walk each day.

If it’s our relationships or our work that loom larger than our God-connection, we can invite God to be more fully a part of those areas in our lives, and figure out how.

Today, let’s contemplate the thorns in which we occasionally find ourselves, and pray for them to be transformed into roses. God has an amazing way of taking what we offer, and not removing it from our lives, but consecrating it for us, making it holy, as God is ever making us holy.

We need not fear the choking thorns when we turn daily to the source of our life.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-8-20 - Of Rocks and Sun

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

Rocks and sun are a perfect combo for lizards. For plants? Not so much…

We’ve probably all encountered the fervor of the newly converted – people hot on a new thing they’ve learned or experienced. A new love, a new job, maybe a new diet; I couldn’t shut up about Weight Watchers when I found it working for me. We may even have met a few born again Christians in the first throes of excitement about the love of God they’ve come to know in Christ.

Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the depth of soil that allows roots to grow:
“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.”

What conditions make for rocky soil? Sometimes familiarity can breed complacency – same old, same old… That’s a kind of rockiness. Preoccupation with other concerns can keep us from growing spiritual roots.

What is the hot sun that causes the newly rooted plants to wither? Fear, ambition, sorrow, overwork, stress – some of the same enemies we named yesterday. What are yours?

I remember once being deep in prayer on a retreat (been a really long time since I’ve been on retreat, speaking of letting roots become exposed…). In the prayer time, I sensed Jesus say to me, “I want you to come be with me every morning, to water your roots.” That’s partly why I named this Water Daily.

Are you feeling robust or withered as a spiritual person? Might you walk that path with Jesus in your imagination and let him show you where you are today – on the path, on the rocks, in the deep soil? What does he suggest you do?

And what are we to do for those whom we see withering spiritually – including ourselves at times? Help transplant them into deeper soil, provide shade in the form of spiritual friendship - and sprinkle liberally with the Living Water gushing inside you, the Holy Spirit who renews all things in Christ.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-7-20 - Of Paths and Birds

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

“Listen! A sower went out to sow," said Jesus. "And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up."

Paths can be beautiful, but they’re not places for growing, are they? We call a path full of greenery overgrown. Paths are places for journeying, arteries that carry us from one place for growing to another, if you will.

When the Good News is shared with people on the path, on the move, they may not receive it fully – it remains on the surface, easy pickings for other messages and other priorities that conflict with it.

What are the birds, do you suppose, these entities that gobble up the newly scattered seeds so they cannot take root? Distractions, competing claims, yes – and something deeper: lies the Enemy tells us to undermine our ability to trust in the goodness of God and the goodness of God in us. Those lies can take many forms, and are often disguised in Advertising. Competitiveness. 60-80 hour workweeks. Stress. Anxiety. What’s on your list?

Name some paths in your life, in between spaces.
(Work can be a field, or a path; relationships can be a field or a path…)
What are the growing places in your life that you can name and celebrate?

Do you know anyone for whom the Word of God has fallen onto the path and been picked off?
How might you help them become rooted in good soil? There’s a prayer for today…

The birds are a given. They have their place.
We just need to shoo them off when they threaten our spiritual health, or someone else’s.

Maybe being active and intentional in the Life of God is like the netting people put over their growing berries and vegetables – the sun and water get through, but the birds have to do their munching somewhere else.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-6-20 - Sowers and Seeds

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

Ah – we’ve arrived at a stretch of parables in our Sunday Gospel selections. Parables were stories Jesus told to show what the Kingdom of God, or the Life of God, looks like, how it operates in ways that are often very different from how the world works. Parables invite us to play, to turn them this way and that and see how our interpretation shifts according to our angle. Some are short, some long; some are challenging to figure out; some are explained – which can take some fun out of it…

This week is one of those stories; Jesus told it and then explained to his disciples in private. Let’s pretend we don’t have that explanation and wonder about the images he offers.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow…”

What do sowers sow? They sow seeds.
Where do they sow it? Ideally, in good soil.
This sower seems to have been a little careless – or maybe carefree. He, or she, seems to have just tossed the seeds randomly rather than laying them down in carefully plowed rows. We know this because some land in places where seeds have trouble rooting and growing.

Who do you think this sower is?
Is it God in creation?
Is it Jesus, the one who came to reveal and redeem?
Is it the Holy Spirit showing up wherever he is invited?
Is it us when we share our faith with another, or when we show love in the name of Christ?

Yes…

Why the randomness?
Are all seeds meant to take root, and some just don’t?
Are we meant to seek those and help replant them?

What are the seeds – the Word of God, the Good News of freedom in Christ? Are we the seeds? Hmmm…. How does the story look when it we turn it that way?

We can pray ourselves into this parable – where do you find yourself? Are you a sower or a seed or soil? Ask God to show you where God might have you sow love and spirit in your life at this time.

There is something frustrating and wonderful about the scattered seeds – it means that the Life of God can spring up anywhere at any time. Be ready for it!

Note: I was sown into this world on this date some years ago – I am delighted to count this Water Daily community among the fruit I hope I am bearing!

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-3-20 - Independence or Freedom?

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

Tomorrow is America’s Independence Day, which many will celebrate today by being freed from a day at work. Independence means something different in the Christian life than it does politically – the kind of liberty Jesus invites us into is strongly inter-dependent. We are invited to be tethered to God, to one another and to serving the world, not because we are being forced, but freely choosing.

Paul writes in Romans that we have been set free from sin so as to be bound to God – enslaved is the word, loaded as it is – the reward for which is sanctification, being made holy. Would anyone be voluntary enslaved? Perhaps… Our lives are full of ways in which we yield our freedom – on a limited basis – to achieve a goal. We commit ourselves to lifelong relationships; work under the policies and procedures of our employers; pay personal trainers large sums to make us perform painful and arduous exercises; adhere to certain diets.

And we voluntarily take on the yoke Jesus offers, which he says is easy. When we truly trust him, it is. It is only when we pull away that it chafes.

I believe God’s greatest desire for us is freedom, to be free from all that holds us back and makes us less than who we were intended to be, less than who God already knows us to be. That freedom does not make us independent, however – it makes us interdependent.

We are invited to be more dependent on God, to throw all our weight and trust on this One we cannot see but discern in our lives and around us. As we grow in that relationship, we discover ways in which God is depending upon us, to be the vessels by which God’s transforming love and healing power are enacted in the world. As I am fond of saying, “We cannot do it without God; God will not do it without us.” (Listen to Matthew West’s Do Something…)

We are invited to be interdependent with others in our communities of faith, and with those whom we would serve. We will see peace and justice reign when we truly understand that to seek the good for our neighbor will create good and security and plenty for us. Even better will be the day when we don’t think in “us” and “them” terms at all – as U2 sings in Invisible, “There is no them; there’s only you, there’s only me.”

And we are interdependent in service to the world, willing to be served as well as serve. This year more than most we are keenly aware of how inequitably our freedoms are distributed – we are still a long way from the “liberty and justice for all” we so proudly proclaim. As we enjoy a day of freedom and fun today, I pray we will find a pattern of “tethered freedom” in Christ that allows us to be truly free, and ensure the same for everyone with whom we share our country and world.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-2-20 - Come Unto Me

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

Were sweeter words ever found in Scripture for a harried people? “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

To be a disciple implies taking on the discipline of a master, doing whatever he or she tells you to do. The Pharisees and teachers of the law demanded much of their followers, to keep the Law of Moses perfectly in every particular. Nuances of love, mercy and relationship often fell by the wayside. The burdens of these demands were heavy indeed, and never satisfactorily met - except by the Teachers, of course.

The same can be said of the demands our culture places on us – to be more productive, more successful, more financially secure, more fashionable, attractive, sweet-smelling, popular, you name it. The new law is no less onerous than the old. So Jesus’ invitation is alive for us as well.

We take on a yoke when we take on Christ’s life – yokes being the apparatus placed on oxen so they can pull a cart. We offer our obedience to him and take on the ministry of pulling forward his mission, being his apostles, his witnesses – proclaiming the Good News, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, freeing the captives. Like his original disciples, we are sometimes called to give up things or people we find precious for rewards only known later.

But Jesus says his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Unlike the burden of the Law-bound, his is the yoke of freedom in God. Unlike the arrogant Teachers, he is gentle and humble in heart, never ashamed to eat with obvious sinners and people on the margins.

Do you want to find rest for your soul? In many of us, our soul is the most restless part, especially in a culture that does not privilege space for the spiritual.
Have you experienced knowing Jesus as restful or stressful? 

 If it’s stressful, let’s take a look at what part of his message we’re focusing on.

What can you do today to find rest for your soul? Normally, you might be in high gear planning to get away for the holiday weekend or host a gathering, which would be pretty much the opposite of finding rest for your soul, right? This year, you may instead be worrying about the contracting Covid or what’s happening to your retirement savings. If there is stress in your life, ask Jesus to refresh you in the midst of it.

And if you’re staying put and having a quiet long weekend (what is a weekend when we’re always home?), may I suggest you start with some “soul rest” time in Jesus’ presence? (Here’s a lovely song by Jami Smith based on this reading to help you settle in.) Hand off your burdens and take on his promise of peace. And spread it around.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

7-1-20 - Access

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

Who the heck did this guy think he was? “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Jesus probably infuriated a lot of people when he said that, claiming to be the one to whom God had entrusted all things, the only one who could make God known. Some believed him, some did not, some wondered. Pretty much covers the gamut for us too.

It feels great when we know something other people don’t yet know. And when we know someone important and get to introduce other people to that person, don’t we feel some power, excitement, a moment of superiority? If I can have a well-known artist at a party, or a U.S. senator at a worship service, I feel like hot stuff. Well, friends, we know a guy who can introduce us to the God who made the universes, who can not only introduce us but get us an audience at which we can ask anything, confess anything, say anything.

Those who believe that Jesus is who he said he was, and that he is risen and ascended, who count themselves as his brothers and sisters, are ones to whom he has chosen to reveal the Father. Maybe he also chooses to reveal God to others; I don’t know. He said he has made God known to us.

Are we taking him up on that invitation? If you had a chance to meet with your favorite celebrity, or maybe the Dalai Lama or Pope Francis, would you go? I’d move my schedule around to get there. Do we want to know God? We’re told Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God… and he said that those who have seen him have seen the Father… so Jesus is the best place to start.

Today in prayer we can take another imaginary exploration. Our imaginations can be wonderful vehicles for prayer, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Imagine walking with Jesus into wherever it is you imagine the Father to be… a throne room? A corner office? A beautiful field? Play it out in your mind – what do you see? What do you hear? What is said? How do you feel?

In an age when access to power is everything, we might hold as precious how much access to ultimate power and eternal love we have been given in Christ. “For through him we have access to the Father by one Spirit.” You’ve got the “in.” Use your connections!

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.