As a Foreign Service family, we moved a lot in my childhood. Someone once gave my mother an inspirational poster with the words, “Bloom Where You Planted,” which she edited to read, “Bloom Where You Are Trans-planted.” I thought of that poster when I read Jesus’ instructions to his followers as they head out to proclaim the Good News and heal the sick:
Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
Remember, Jesus has already told them to go without any luggage, money or protection. They will have to rely on hospitality offered to them. They are not to pick and choose, trying out the beds or finding out the menu before selecting a place to stay. Wherever they land, they are to remain until they leave that town and go to the next.
How does this advice relate to us in our contexts and ministries? I see here a word about receiving with grace what is offered, not looking for the best deal or seeing what we can arrange for ourselves. Being the recipient of hospitality is hard for many of us, wired as we are to give - which is also a way of staying in control. Many Episcopal churches have embraced the concept of “radical hospitality,” signaling that all are welcome, whether or not they know our secret handshakes, or what (or where…) an undercroft is. Jesus invites us to an even more challenging place: to be “radical guests,” just appreciating what is offered us, not even trying to return the favor.
This word is also about staying focused on our mission in God’s life. Picking and choosing the places we want to stay and what we want to eat and how we want to schedule our days takes energy and attention that might be better directed toward being open to the leading of the Spirit and where we see God-energy around us.
Above all, I believe, we are called to live in a mode of radical trust, as followers of the One who was always on the move, always eating at the tables of others or on what his supporters could rustle up. That doesn’t mean we can never host or give; it just means we have to increase our capacity to receive if we truly want to be filled with the love and grace that only God can give.
Only as we are filled with the full measure of God-Life can we proclaim “The kingdom of God has come hear to you,” because we’re bringing it. Only as we trust in God’s provision can we bloom where we are planted, until God transplants us somewhere else.
6-29-16 - Boomerang Peace
I tend to think of peace as a static thing; I associate it with stillness, stability, rootedness. The way Jesus describes peace, though, it is very dynamic, able to bounce from person to person, house to house, community to community. This peace sounds downright restless:
Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.
What is the peace of God? It is power and purpose and presence. Different from ordinary human peace, the peace of God is strong as iron, filling us unexpectedly, able to keep us rooted in times of anxiety or conflict. As I waited to hear about this new position I am taking, I was surprised by the peace I felt; I simply couldn’t find the anxiety I expected should be there. The peace of God is pure gift – Paul says it is a gift that comes when we make our petitions known to God with thanksgiving. (Philippians 4).
Jesus goes even further, speaking of peace as a force that can be directed to another person. The idea of saying, “Peace to you,” or “Peace to this house” when we encounter another person, and really meaning it – speaking it as a command to heavenly powers – could be world-changing. What if, instead of “hello” we said, “Peace,” and as we were saying it, we prayed that God would fill that person with the peace we feel. “Peace” to institutions we deal with. “Peace” on the highway, train, in the grocery store, at family dinner. Really sharing our peace at church instead of just saying hi.
That’s all we would need to do. If the person had no interest in the peace we have to give, it would bounce back to us. But if we don’t even offer it, someone who really needs our peace might miss out.
God’s peace becomes part of us, something we can share, the same way we share our intellect, our compassion, our money and time. Maybe we want to ask God to give our peace a shape or color so we can become more conscious about sending it to others. Like any good boomerang, it will always come back to us.
Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.
What is the peace of God? It is power and purpose and presence. Different from ordinary human peace, the peace of God is strong as iron, filling us unexpectedly, able to keep us rooted in times of anxiety or conflict. As I waited to hear about this new position I am taking, I was surprised by the peace I felt; I simply couldn’t find the anxiety I expected should be there. The peace of God is pure gift – Paul says it is a gift that comes when we make our petitions known to God with thanksgiving. (Philippians 4).
Jesus goes even further, speaking of peace as a force that can be directed to another person. The idea of saying, “Peace to you,” or “Peace to this house” when we encounter another person, and really meaning it – speaking it as a command to heavenly powers – could be world-changing. What if, instead of “hello” we said, “Peace,” and as we were saying it, we prayed that God would fill that person with the peace we feel. “Peace” to institutions we deal with. “Peace” on the highway, train, in the grocery store, at family dinner. Really sharing our peace at church instead of just saying hi.
That’s all we would need to do. If the person had no interest in the peace we have to give, it would bounce back to us. But if we don’t even offer it, someone who really needs our peace might miss out.
God’s peace becomes part of us, something we can share, the same way we share our intellect, our compassion, our money and time. Maybe we want to ask God to give our peace a shape or color so we can become more conscious about sending it to others. Like any good boomerang, it will always come back to us.
6-28-16 - Traveling Light
No purse, no bag, no sandals? Jesus obviously hasn’t met the typical female traveler! The trip he offers is for people who like a little danger with their sight-seeing, who are willing to be vulnerable among strangers and live off the local economy. As he sent out the seventy disciples to proclaim his message of the realm of God, Jesus said this:
“Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.”
There are virtues to packing light, but these instructions go beyond that. Jesus is saying that those who go out in God’s mission are to carry no baggage whatsoever, to bring no resources beyond their faith and radical trust. Without money, you’re forced to rely on what you can find or what is offered to you. Without a bag, you cannot accumulate anything for later. Without sandals you become like the poorest itinerant. And going like a lamb amidst wolves means you go defenseless. Who would sign up for that trip?
At least seventy people did that day, and many millions more since then. Over the centuries, though, missionaries started to carry baggage – literally, bringing to foreign places the comforts and customs of home; politically and economically, imposing their systems upon new friends; intellectually, insisting on their priorities and categories; and spiritually, offering a system of salvation that often became codified and rigid. Many went vulnerable and defenseless, and sometimes paid the price in blood; many others went weighed down with possessions and assumptions.
And many more of us don’t go at all, don’t even think about letting the world know about our faith in God’s goodness and love. This week’s story (every week’s story, really….) is an invitation to examine that reluctance and ask the Holy Spirit to nudge us out. In your own community, among those you know, what would it look like to go without purse, bag or sandals? What would it feel like to go to the Shelter not as providers but as people who want to get to know the men and women there? How would it be to go to community meetings not with answers and proposals, just to listen? How would it be to sit with friends who are sick or scared and not try to fix it or “do something?”
The last part of this passage is curious, “Greet no one on the road.” I can’t be sure what Jesus meant, but to me it says, Don’t get distracted from your mission. If you feel a Holy Spirit nudge to call someone, or do something, or go somewhere the light of God’s love needs to be shown, don’t dither or dally. Don’t let people divert or dissuade you.
It must have been scary for those men (and women?) to head out into strange towns with not so much as a toothbrush. But think how open their arms were, unburdened by baggage!
“Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.”
There are virtues to packing light, but these instructions go beyond that. Jesus is saying that those who go out in God’s mission are to carry no baggage whatsoever, to bring no resources beyond their faith and radical trust. Without money, you’re forced to rely on what you can find or what is offered to you. Without a bag, you cannot accumulate anything for later. Without sandals you become like the poorest itinerant. And going like a lamb amidst wolves means you go defenseless. Who would sign up for that trip?
At least seventy people did that day, and many millions more since then. Over the centuries, though, missionaries started to carry baggage – literally, bringing to foreign places the comforts and customs of home; politically and economically, imposing their systems upon new friends; intellectually, insisting on their priorities and categories; and spiritually, offering a system of salvation that often became codified and rigid. Many went vulnerable and defenseless, and sometimes paid the price in blood; many others went weighed down with possessions and assumptions.
And many more of us don’t go at all, don’t even think about letting the world know about our faith in God’s goodness and love. This week’s story (every week’s story, really….) is an invitation to examine that reluctance and ask the Holy Spirit to nudge us out. In your own community, among those you know, what would it look like to go without purse, bag or sandals? What would it feel like to go to the Shelter not as providers but as people who want to get to know the men and women there? How would it be to go to community meetings not with answers and proposals, just to listen? How would it be to sit with friends who are sick or scared and not try to fix it or “do something?”
The last part of this passage is curious, “Greet no one on the road.” I can’t be sure what Jesus meant, but to me it says, Don’t get distracted from your mission. If you feel a Holy Spirit nudge to call someone, or do something, or go somewhere the light of God’s love needs to be shown, don’t dither or dally. Don’t let people divert or dissuade you.
It must have been scary for those men (and women?) to head out into strange towns with not so much as a toothbrush. But think how open their arms were, unburdened by baggage!
6-27-16 - Jesus' Advance Team
People active in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut might well be able to quote this Sunday’s gospel reading from memory, so often has it formed the basis for “Dwelling in the Word” at diocesan gatherings. It is a passage that yields fresh insights on each approach. As we review Jesus’ instructions to his followers when he sends them out in mission, we get our own marching orders for how to go out in his name in our own places and times.
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
This sending comes after a foray undertaken by the twelve, Jesus’ closest disciples. That expedition was successful, judging by the elation both they and Jesus expressed upon their return. Now he’s scaling up the operation and sending out seventy. They are to go in pairs – no one walks alone in God’s realm – and they do not go out randomly. They go to each place Jesus intends to go. This suggests to me that they went out as his “advance team,” to size up a community, see what the opportunities might be for proclaiming the Good News there, what obstacles might stand in the way.
In our electoral process, advance teams arrive ahead of candidates to do that kind of reconnoitering, and to prepare the populace for the candidate’s message. They set up communications, build a grassroots operation, generate anticipation and enthusiasm for the candidate’s arrival. They prepare the ground for planting, as it were, making everything ready for a successful campaign in that place.
What if we saw our missional life in such a light? We can assume Jesus wants to arrive at every place, every person, every heart. So what communities or people are you being assigned to prepare?
We do this advance work by telling people our own experiences of love and freedom and healing through Christ. We invite people to consider learning more about Jesus as he is revealed in the Gospels – and in our own lives, as we’re willing to tell our stories. If appropriate, we create some grassroots energy by inviting people into small groups for bible study or prayer or spiritual conversation. Like John the Baptist, we make ready a people prepared for their God.
Who were the “advance teams” who came into your life inviting you into a deeper relationship with Christ? Who planted seeds in you that resulted in your coming to faith more fully and profoundly?
This passage reminds us that we don’t have to create the mission. God has already designed it, and will reveal to us more explicit instructions as we go. But we do need to go. Find a buddy and hit the road!
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
This sending comes after a foray undertaken by the twelve, Jesus’ closest disciples. That expedition was successful, judging by the elation both they and Jesus expressed upon their return. Now he’s scaling up the operation and sending out seventy. They are to go in pairs – no one walks alone in God’s realm – and they do not go out randomly. They go to each place Jesus intends to go. This suggests to me that they went out as his “advance team,” to size up a community, see what the opportunities might be for proclaiming the Good News there, what obstacles might stand in the way.
In our electoral process, advance teams arrive ahead of candidates to do that kind of reconnoitering, and to prepare the populace for the candidate’s message. They set up communications, build a grassroots operation, generate anticipation and enthusiasm for the candidate’s arrival. They prepare the ground for planting, as it were, making everything ready for a successful campaign in that place.
What if we saw our missional life in such a light? We can assume Jesus wants to arrive at every place, every person, every heart. So what communities or people are you being assigned to prepare?
We do this advance work by telling people our own experiences of love and freedom and healing through Christ. We invite people to consider learning more about Jesus as he is revealed in the Gospels – and in our own lives, as we’re willing to tell our stories. If appropriate, we create some grassroots energy by inviting people into small groups for bible study or prayer or spiritual conversation. Like John the Baptist, we make ready a people prepared for their God.
Who were the “advance teams” who came into your life inviting you into a deeper relationship with Christ? Who planted seeds in you that resulted in your coming to faith more fully and profoundly?
This passage reminds us that we don’t have to create the mission. God has already designed it, and will reveal to us more explicit instructions as we go. But we do need to go. Find a buddy and hit the road!
6-24-16 - Don't Look Back
Jesus was in a tough mood the day he was vetting would-be disciples. Not only did he not want folks running home to bury their dead ; he didn’t even want them going back to say goodbye before they threw in their lot with him:
Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
That’s a hard word for me as I face a big move later this summer (intended to announce that more gracefully to my Water Daily friends… I’ll write a separate note, and WD will continue.) No goodbyes? I’m planning on a full month of fun-filled farewells! It's time to leave when folks say, “Oh, are you still here?” Then you’ve said enough goodbyes. Am I unfit for the Kingdom?
As with everything else in the Scripture, we have to hold this statement in tension with the other things Jesus is recorded as having said and done. I pray there is more than one pattern of becoming a disciple. And if we take ourselves off the judgment hook this statement can generate, we’ll be better placed to find the good news in such a statement. We all recognize the tendency to want to look back; where do we find life in not giving in to that impulse?
For me, it comes back to something I’ve said here before – that the life of God is always forward, always ahead of us on the road. What has been is real and important and shapes where we are now, but we do not need to look back at the last place we encountered God. We are to trust that those encounters will multiply as we follow Jesus – as we spend time with him in prayer; learn from him in scripture; work with him in apostolic action. The more we move forward, the less we need to look back.
And what about those goodbyes? Don’t they need to be said? Perhaps – and maybe we are invited to trust that we will encounter those beloveds again in different ways. Maybe we don’t need to spend a lot of energy on goodbyes, because in God’s economy we remain connected in spirit to those whom we love, even if we’re not with them in body.
Earlier this week we heard from the Shirelles and U2. Today, let’s give the last word to Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger (also frighteningly young in this video) doing “Don’t Look Back.” This song was NOT about following Jesus, but let’s just focus on the chorus, on the walking and not looking back part. God will take care of what’s behind us as we look forward.
So if you just put your hand in mine, We’re gonna leave all our troubles behind;
We gonna walk and don’t look back!
Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
That’s a hard word for me as I face a big move later this summer (intended to announce that more gracefully to my Water Daily friends… I’ll write a separate note, and WD will continue.) No goodbyes? I’m planning on a full month of fun-filled farewells! It's time to leave when folks say, “Oh, are you still here?” Then you’ve said enough goodbyes. Am I unfit for the Kingdom?
As with everything else in the Scripture, we have to hold this statement in tension with the other things Jesus is recorded as having said and done. I pray there is more than one pattern of becoming a disciple. And if we take ourselves off the judgment hook this statement can generate, we’ll be better placed to find the good news in such a statement. We all recognize the tendency to want to look back; where do we find life in not giving in to that impulse?
For me, it comes back to something I’ve said here before – that the life of God is always forward, always ahead of us on the road. What has been is real and important and shapes where we are now, but we do not need to look back at the last place we encountered God. We are to trust that those encounters will multiply as we follow Jesus – as we spend time with him in prayer; learn from him in scripture; work with him in apostolic action. The more we move forward, the less we need to look back.
And what about those goodbyes? Don’t they need to be said? Perhaps – and maybe we are invited to trust that we will encounter those beloveds again in different ways. Maybe we don’t need to spend a lot of energy on goodbyes, because in God’s economy we remain connected in spirit to those whom we love, even if we’re not with them in body.
Earlier this week we heard from the Shirelles and U2. Today, let’s give the last word to Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger (also frighteningly young in this video) doing “Don’t Look Back.” This song was NOT about following Jesus, but let’s just focus on the chorus, on the walking and not looking back part. God will take care of what’s behind us as we look forward.
So if you just put your hand in mine, We’re gonna leave all our troubles behind;
We gonna walk and don’t look back!
6-23-16 - The Walking Dead
Oh, man! Had Easter been one week early, we might have had this gospel reading on Father’s Day, and had fun dealing with Jesus’ words about wasting our time burying our fathers:
To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Sound a bit harsh? Isn’t it a normal thing, a way of honoring your father and your mother, to give them a proper funeral? What kind of child would say, “Sorry – too busy,” to such a life moment? Well, maybe Jesus would answer, “The kind of child who sees himself first as a child of God. The kind of child who knows she is my follower first, and every other relationship second.” Does this sound like a cult? No doubt many of the families of those who left everything to follow Jesus did think they’d joined a cult. No one knew this cult would last 2,000 years and turn the world upside down.
What did Jesus mean by “Let the dead bury their own dead?” He meant that those who have been born anew in the Spirit are the living, and those who operate only out of their human, natural, “fleshly” life are as good as dead. (Perhaps he would also suggest that the energy and resources we put into tending and laying to rest the bodies of our loved ones after they have ceased to inhabit them is a misplaced priority for those who are called to proclaim life… but I’m not editorializing or anything… !)
Jesus was always redefining family values. Over and over he taught that the company of those who believe in him are the first family for his followers. Our primary job as followers of Christ is to proclaim the kingdom of God – the realm of God-Life. In the course of doing that we live in relationships with the people around us, including our families of origin – but we are not to value them more highly than we do our families of faith. And when our biological families distract from our discipleship, or worse become active obstacles to following in the Way of Jesus, we are to put Jesus first.
What reaction does this remark of Jesus’ provoke in you? Would it make you want to turn away and not follow him? Where might we see the life in his invitation to put the family of faith first?
It’s not all or nothing (at least I hope not!). I believe that as we claim the Life of God already given to us we become not the walking dead but the walking living. And as we get about the business of proclaiming that Life of God unleashed in this world, as we experience it, our priorities will be quite naturally reordered. Love is love.
To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Sound a bit harsh? Isn’t it a normal thing, a way of honoring your father and your mother, to give them a proper funeral? What kind of child would say, “Sorry – too busy,” to such a life moment? Well, maybe Jesus would answer, “The kind of child who sees himself first as a child of God. The kind of child who knows she is my follower first, and every other relationship second.” Does this sound like a cult? No doubt many of the families of those who left everything to follow Jesus did think they’d joined a cult. No one knew this cult would last 2,000 years and turn the world upside down.
What did Jesus mean by “Let the dead bury their own dead?” He meant that those who have been born anew in the Spirit are the living, and those who operate only out of their human, natural, “fleshly” life are as good as dead. (Perhaps he would also suggest that the energy and resources we put into tending and laying to rest the bodies of our loved ones after they have ceased to inhabit them is a misplaced priority for those who are called to proclaim life… but I’m not editorializing or anything… !)
Jesus was always redefining family values. Over and over he taught that the company of those who believe in him are the first family for his followers. Our primary job as followers of Christ is to proclaim the kingdom of God – the realm of God-Life. In the course of doing that we live in relationships with the people around us, including our families of origin – but we are not to value them more highly than we do our families of faith. And when our biological families distract from our discipleship, or worse become active obstacles to following in the Way of Jesus, we are to put Jesus first.
What reaction does this remark of Jesus’ provoke in you? Would it make you want to turn away and not follow him? Where might we see the life in his invitation to put the family of faith first?
It’s not all or nothing (at least I hope not!). I believe that as we claim the Life of God already given to us we become not the walking dead but the walking living. And as we get about the business of proclaiming that Life of God unleashed in this world, as we experience it, our priorities will be quite naturally reordered. Love is love.
6-22-16 - I Will Follow
Whether it is the Shirelles (or in this video, Little Peggy March) singing “I Will Follow Him,” or Bono and U2 (appallingly young here) doing “I Will Follow," we have a rich soundtrack for our gospel story. When our hearts are full of love for someone, it is natural to proclaim our everlasting allegiance and intention to be with them wherever they go. Ask Dead Heads, ParrotHeads, and other fanatical band-fans.
So it was one day as Jesus walked with his followers toward Jerusalem, even strangers got caught up in it:
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus was saying, “You want to follow me, it comes at a cost. Things won’t be comfortable or predictable or stable. Wild creatures will have more security than you will.” We see in the gospels Jesus living a very peripatetic life, always on the move. We hear about his being “at home in Capernaum,” but he doesn’t seem to have spent much time there.
American Christianity has not followed this “I will follow you wherever” pattern. Other than traveling evangelists (often suspect characters in books and movies...), we prefer to do our following inwardly, quietly, spiritually, staying rooted to place and community. I am a staying put type myself, and even when I move I seek security and stability. Does this compromise me as a disciple? Is it, “I will follow, as long as I know where I’m going to sleep?” Or is there a legitimate place for being rooted in community, in our neighborhoods?
Both/And, of course… God blesses us with homes and families and communities and work and all the richness of a web of relationships. And God invites us to hold these blessings lightly, to keep our focus more on the Giver than on the gifts – and to be prepared to let them go, trade them in, keep our hands open to new blessings. It can be a difficult balancing act, but it keeps us better connected to God, nimble and ready to pivot when the Spirit calls us to bring our gifts to some new thing God is doing. And God is always doing a new thing.
The lyrics to U2’s I Will Follow are in part about Bono’s loss of his mother at a young age, but there is also unmistakably religious language – “I was blind, I could not see…” “I was lost, I am found,” that suggests the band – deeply enmeshed in Christian life at the time – had broader themes in mind. Jesus invites us away from our sorrows and stucknesses, away from our self-saving strategies and sources of security to walk with him through this world, seeing it through his eyes. Sometimes that’s on the move, sometimes it’s still. Always it is being open to grace.
So it was one day as Jesus walked with his followers toward Jerusalem, even strangers got caught up in it:
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus was saying, “You want to follow me, it comes at a cost. Things won’t be comfortable or predictable or stable. Wild creatures will have more security than you will.” We see in the gospels Jesus living a very peripatetic life, always on the move. We hear about his being “at home in Capernaum,” but he doesn’t seem to have spent much time there.
American Christianity has not followed this “I will follow you wherever” pattern. Other than traveling evangelists (often suspect characters in books and movies...), we prefer to do our following inwardly, quietly, spiritually, staying rooted to place and community. I am a staying put type myself, and even when I move I seek security and stability. Does this compromise me as a disciple? Is it, “I will follow, as long as I know where I’m going to sleep?” Or is there a legitimate place for being rooted in community, in our neighborhoods?
Both/And, of course… God blesses us with homes and families and communities and work and all the richness of a web of relationships. And God invites us to hold these blessings lightly, to keep our focus more on the Giver than on the gifts – and to be prepared to let them go, trade them in, keep our hands open to new blessings. It can be a difficult balancing act, but it keeps us better connected to God, nimble and ready to pivot when the Spirit calls us to bring our gifts to some new thing God is doing. And God is always doing a new thing.
The lyrics to U2’s I Will Follow are in part about Bono’s loss of his mother at a young age, but there is also unmistakably religious language – “I was blind, I could not see…” “I was lost, I am found,” that suggests the band – deeply enmeshed in Christian life at the time – had broader themes in mind. Jesus invites us away from our sorrows and stucknesses, away from our self-saving strategies and sources of security to walk with him through this world, seeing it through his eyes. Sometimes that’s on the move, sometimes it’s still. Always it is being open to grace.
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