You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Among the Spirit's blessings promised us as saints of God are spiritual gifts. These are Spirit-given abilities that help the church carry out the mission of God. As such they are distinct from talents and abilities we are born with or train for. Sometimes our spiritual gifts overlap with our natural talents, as with musicians who also help lead worship music, or talented speakers who also preach, or naturally gregarious people who also have a gift of evangelism. But sometimes spiritual gifts are abilities we discover we have or others notice in us - say, an accountant who happens to be a wonderful Sunday School teacher. We discover them because they bear fruit.
We find several lists of spiritual gifts in New Testament letters by Paul and Peter (though Peter’s list might be cribbed from Paul…). The more obvious are ones like teaching, healing, preaching, evangelism. There are others, listed and not: prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues, administration, compassion, generosity. Where spiritual gifts overlap with talents or traits we have, we identify them as spiritual gifts if they help the church proclaim and share the Good News of life in Jesus Christ, and sometimes by the intensity with which we manifest that gift. For instance, many people are generous; but someone with the spiritual gift of "giving" gives abundantly and with such joy and often in situations where their gift makes all the difference. Many people are well organized, but someone with the spiritual gift of administration is able to facilitate the ministries of the whole group for mission.
What are some spiritual gifts that you are aware of having received? What ministries do they empower you to live out? When did they surface? Sometimes when our circumstances change, such as when we retire or become empty nesters, new gifts emerge for ministries we are now able to do. What gifts have others identified in you, that you may not have thought you had?
It’s also good to look at our “gift mixes.” Taking an inventory of our spiritual gifts and seeing how they combine can point us to ministries. (Here are Methodist, Lutheran and other online inventories; there are more.) Someone with a gift of healing and compassion (beyond the average) might be called to minister to people on the streets, or someone with a gift for teaching and music to lead choirs.
St. Paul wrote a lot about spiritual gifts, because he wanted his churches to know that God equips us for every ministry to which God calls us. He wanted them to crave the gifts – and to recognize that they are all Spirit-given and equally important. To the Corinthians, who were very keen on certain “flashier” gifts, he wrote, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” He enumerates some of the diverse gifts for ministry, concluding, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” (I Corinthians 12:4-11)
Paul also reminded his readers that there’s no point being spiritually gifted if we’re lacking in love. That’s what that famous hymn to love read at weddings is really about – how to exercise the gifts of the Spirit in community, a community that is to be marked by love.
The gifts of the Spirit are gifts, not assets or rewards. We cannot buy or earn them, but we can pray for the ones we believe we want or need. We can trust the Spirit to give us what we need to live fully into God's purposes for us.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-15-24 - Holy Pie
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When I start reading what St. Paul has to say about the Holy Spirit, I soon get to thinking about pie. Why’s that, you ask? Because there’s a lot of talk about fruit and filling!
St. Paul had much to say about the Holy Spirit – the Spirit’s function in the life of the church; the gifts, or charisms, given to us by the Spirit; the way the more charismatic of the charisms should be lived out in worship and community; and the fruit and the filling ("... be filled with the Spirit..." Eph 5:18). Paul said he accompanied his proclamation of the Good News with signs of the power we're given as heirs to the Gospel: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (I Cor 2:4-5)
It is the Spirit’s power that makes our message and our ministry effective at opening hearts and making peace and calling forth justice. The Spirit equips us with the gifts and character we need as saints of the Living God on an ongoing basis. There are personality traits that Paul called “the fruit of the Spirit”: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23a).
Human beings are capable of such attributes without God, I’m sure – but not often, and rarely in a sustained manner. When we truly allow the Holy Spirit to fill and transform us, we find ourselves manifesting these fruits in a way that surprises us and the people around us. We can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and depression meds when someone who's always been downcast becomes a person of joy. Likewise, when someone known for her temper develops forbearance, you know God is up to something.
What if we were to make a list of these “fruits” Paul names, adding ones we feel are missing, like humility. Then we might do an inventory, noting the levels of each of these we feel we possess – give it a number or fill in a circle with a rough percentage. Have you experienced more of any of these since you became more conscious about following Jesus? Which are the attributes you particularly crave? We could revisit the list periodically, check our "levels."
God desires that each of us experience this fruit. And we don't get the fruit without the filling. One way we get Spirit-filled, allowing God to sow the seeds of these traits in us, is to intentionally invite the Spirit to take up residence in us. That prayer is as simple as “Come, Holy Spirit!” It is a prayer I utter frequently before and during worship, or when my spirits are low, or at times when I realize I’m trying to do something on my own. If we could get to the point where that prayer rose up in us all through the day, as well as spending lengthier times bathing in the Spirit’s love and peace, we’d find ourselves both filled and fruitful.
In my experience, the Spirit is an eager guest, but one who awaits our invitation. She does not insist or break down the door. He doesn’t even knock all that hard, just is happy when we say, “Oh, I forgot you were there. Please come in... Have some pie?”
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
When I start reading what St. Paul has to say about the Holy Spirit, I soon get to thinking about pie. Why’s that, you ask? Because there’s a lot of talk about fruit and filling!
St. Paul had much to say about the Holy Spirit – the Spirit’s function in the life of the church; the gifts, or charisms, given to us by the Spirit; the way the more charismatic of the charisms should be lived out in worship and community; and the fruit and the filling ("... be filled with the Spirit..." Eph 5:18). Paul said he accompanied his proclamation of the Good News with signs of the power we're given as heirs to the Gospel: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (I Cor 2:4-5)
It is the Spirit’s power that makes our message and our ministry effective at opening hearts and making peace and calling forth justice. The Spirit equips us with the gifts and character we need as saints of the Living God on an ongoing basis. There are personality traits that Paul called “the fruit of the Spirit”: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23a).
Human beings are capable of such attributes without God, I’m sure – but not often, and rarely in a sustained manner. When we truly allow the Holy Spirit to fill and transform us, we find ourselves manifesting these fruits in a way that surprises us and the people around us. We can tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and depression meds when someone who's always been downcast becomes a person of joy. Likewise, when someone known for her temper develops forbearance, you know God is up to something.
What if we were to make a list of these “fruits” Paul names, adding ones we feel are missing, like humility. Then we might do an inventory, noting the levels of each of these we feel we possess – give it a number or fill in a circle with a rough percentage. Have you experienced more of any of these since you became more conscious about following Jesus? Which are the attributes you particularly crave? We could revisit the list periodically, check our "levels."
God desires that each of us experience this fruit. And we don't get the fruit without the filling. One way we get Spirit-filled, allowing God to sow the seeds of these traits in us, is to intentionally invite the Spirit to take up residence in us. That prayer is as simple as “Come, Holy Spirit!” It is a prayer I utter frequently before and during worship, or when my spirits are low, or at times when I realize I’m trying to do something on my own. If we could get to the point where that prayer rose up in us all through the day, as well as spending lengthier times bathing in the Spirit’s love and peace, we’d find ourselves both filled and fruitful.
In my experience, the Spirit is an eager guest, but one who awaits our invitation. She does not insist or break down the door. He doesn’t even knock all that hard, just is happy when we say, “Oh, I forgot you were there. Please come in... Have some pie?”
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-14-24 - Pumped
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Theological doctrines relating to the Holy Spirit are called “Pneumatology,” pneuma being the ancient Greek word for breath, spirit, soul. It is also the root of our word “pneumatic,” referring to compressing air to create power. (On the other end of the intellectual spectrum, there's the old Saturday Night Live sketch with the body builders Hanz and Franz and their catch phrase, “Pump you up!"…)
Definitions of pneumatic refer to things being “filled with air,” or “using air pressure to move or work.” We see how inflated tires will help a vehicle move, or steam-fed pistons power machinery. The compressed air moves the pistons, which move other parts, small things powering the whole. That’s a pretty good image of the church engaged in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness. What if we were to think of ourselves as vehicles or machines working pneumatically to accomplish far more than we could on our own?
The New Testament has many references to people being “filled with the Spirit.” This is one way the Holy Spirit seems to work in the world – by filling human beings. We even read of Jesus, before certain miracles, that “the Spirit was with him.” When we are filled with the Spirit, we are able to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,” to use Paul’s phrase. We are able to exercise faith, mobilize others, speak boldly, pray powerfully, organize brilliantly, joyfully aware that God is working with and through us.
What does it feel like to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It can be a gentle experience, waves of comfort or well-being or peace washing over us. It can feel like an influx of energy, with a physiological effect on our nervous system – increased heartbeat, tingling, trembling, feeling heat in extremities or all over. It can come with an intensity of emotion – joy, hope, faith, love – or give us total clarity about something we’re doing or saying. What does it feel like for you?
I can feel the difference between when I do something on my own steam (writing Water Daily, for instance), using natural talents and ideas, and when it feels like the Holy Spirit is filling me, writing through me. Sometimes I don’t feel different – I only know by the result that the Spirit added more than I brought. And sometimes I’m in a flow that I know to be Spirit-filled. We might call that pneumatic ministry. I think God desires us to be filled with compressed power that moves us so that the whole enterprise functions at peak effectiveness. God wants our faith tires filled so we can move mountains.
Of course, “pumped” is also slang for “excited,” “psyched up,” anticipating great things. If we truly want the gifts and blessings and ministries that are our inheritance as beloved believers in Christ, we will allow the Holy Spirit to "pump us up," and seek to live “pumped.”
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Theological doctrines relating to the Holy Spirit are called “Pneumatology,” pneuma being the ancient Greek word for breath, spirit, soul. It is also the root of our word “pneumatic,” referring to compressing air to create power. (On the other end of the intellectual spectrum, there's the old Saturday Night Live sketch with the body builders Hanz and Franz and their catch phrase, “Pump you up!"…)
Definitions of pneumatic refer to things being “filled with air,” or “using air pressure to move or work.” We see how inflated tires will help a vehicle move, or steam-fed pistons power machinery. The compressed air moves the pistons, which move other parts, small things powering the whole. That’s a pretty good image of the church engaged in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness. What if we were to think of ourselves as vehicles or machines working pneumatically to accomplish far more than we could on our own?
The New Testament has many references to people being “filled with the Spirit.” This is one way the Holy Spirit seems to work in the world – by filling human beings. We even read of Jesus, before certain miracles, that “the Spirit was with him.” When we are filled with the Spirit, we are able to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,” to use Paul’s phrase. We are able to exercise faith, mobilize others, speak boldly, pray powerfully, organize brilliantly, joyfully aware that God is working with and through us.
What does it feel like to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It can be a gentle experience, waves of comfort or well-being or peace washing over us. It can feel like an influx of energy, with a physiological effect on our nervous system – increased heartbeat, tingling, trembling, feeling heat in extremities or all over. It can come with an intensity of emotion – joy, hope, faith, love – or give us total clarity about something we’re doing or saying. What does it feel like for you?
I can feel the difference between when I do something on my own steam (writing Water Daily, for instance), using natural talents and ideas, and when it feels like the Holy Spirit is filling me, writing through me. Sometimes I don’t feel different – I only know by the result that the Spirit added more than I brought. And sometimes I’m in a flow that I know to be Spirit-filled. We might call that pneumatic ministry. I think God desires us to be filled with compressed power that moves us so that the whole enterprise functions at peak effectiveness. God wants our faith tires filled so we can move mountains.
Of course, “pumped” is also slang for “excited,” “psyched up,” anticipating great things. If we truly want the gifts and blessings and ministries that are our inheritance as beloved believers in Christ, we will allow the Holy Spirit to "pump us up," and seek to live “pumped.”
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-13-24 - Inspired
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's New Testament reading is here.
Next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. This week, rather than looking at a specific biblical text, we will reflect on the Holy Spirit generally. After all, the Holy Spirit is the God-Person who makes possible everything we experience as Christians, our faith, our praise, our prayers, our ministries. There can be no Church without the Holy Spirit.
In fact, I once wrote a sermon drama called “It’s a Wonderful Trinity," the ridiculous premise of which was borrowed from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The Holy Spirit is feeling depressed about his usefulness, since the Father and the Son seem to get a lot more attention. (Theologians would call this a weak Pneumatology, or Doctrine of the Holy Spirit...) An angel has to show him what the world and the church might be like if there were no Holy Spirit. We see a really dull sermon, a choir singing listlessly and out of tune, people unable to carry out ministries with any effectiveness, and the like. It was very silly - and I hope it got people thinking about how the Spirit affects our lives as carriers of the Gospel.
It is easy to overlook the operation of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit focuses our attention on Jesus. Jesus likened the Spirit to the wind, which we know by its effects on other things and only “see” as it carries matter through the air. So it is with the Holy Spirit – we know her presence by the fruit our ministries bear, or by our experience of the presence of God in prayer or worship, or by what we see in other people, or others see and hear in us.
The Holy Spirit enables us to pray and praise, to experience peace, to wield spiritual power, to bear the fruit of love and healing in our lives. The Bible shows the Holy Spirit to be the source of power, wisdom, creativity, comfort, prophecy, gifts for ministry, and virtues like joy and patience. The Spirit, who is the spirit of the Father and the Son, is the way we experience God.
When and where do you most often experience or discern the movement of the Spirit?
Next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. This week, rather than looking at a specific biblical text, we will reflect on the Holy Spirit generally. After all, the Holy Spirit is the God-Person who makes possible everything we experience as Christians, our faith, our praise, our prayers, our ministries. There can be no Church without the Holy Spirit.
In fact, I once wrote a sermon drama called “It’s a Wonderful Trinity," the ridiculous premise of which was borrowed from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The Holy Spirit is feeling depressed about his usefulness, since the Father and the Son seem to get a lot more attention. (Theologians would call this a weak Pneumatology, or Doctrine of the Holy Spirit...) An angel has to show him what the world and the church might be like if there were no Holy Spirit. We see a really dull sermon, a choir singing listlessly and out of tune, people unable to carry out ministries with any effectiveness, and the like. It was very silly - and I hope it got people thinking about how the Spirit affects our lives as carriers of the Gospel.
It is easy to overlook the operation of the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit focuses our attention on Jesus. Jesus likened the Spirit to the wind, which we know by its effects on other things and only “see” as it carries matter through the air. So it is with the Holy Spirit – we know her presence by the fruit our ministries bear, or by our experience of the presence of God in prayer or worship, or by what we see in other people, or others see and hear in us.
The Holy Spirit enables us to pray and praise, to experience peace, to wield spiritual power, to bear the fruit of love and healing in our lives. The Bible shows the Holy Spirit to be the source of power, wisdom, creativity, comfort, prophecy, gifts for ministry, and virtues like joy and patience. The Spirit, who is the spirit of the Father and the Son, is the way we experience God.
When and where do you most often experience or discern the movement of the Spirit?
Can you tell the difference when you're praying or acting on your own steam or in the Spirit? When and where are you conscious of seeing the movement of the Spirit in people or situations?
The word "spirit" is at the root of our words for inspiration and for respiration, or breathing. As we focus this week on the various ways the Holy Spirit works in our lives as Christians, I pray we will increase our lung capacity, as it were, making more space within for God's loving presence, God's transforming power. Be inspired; breathe God in!
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
The word "spirit" is at the root of our words for inspiration and for respiration, or breathing. As we focus this week on the various ways the Holy Spirit works in our lives as Christians, I pray we will increase our lung capacity, as it were, making more space within for God's loving presence, God's transforming power. Be inspired; breathe God in!
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-10-24 - Sent and Sanctified
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Yesterday was Ascension Day, when the church marks Jesus’ final bodily exit from this world. From this time on he would be present with his followers as he promised, but in spirit, not flesh. He told them he was going to the Father, and we envision him “seated on the right hand of the Father.” After the activity and stress of his incarnate life, sitting down might have sounded good, but to spend eternity seated, even at the right hand of the Father? That’s a lot of sitting. Of course, he did have a job to do: to intercede for these followers he launched into the world he was leaving.
This prayer we’ve been studying this week articulates in human language Jesus’ eternal work. It is a prayer for protection, a prayer of sending, and a prayer for holiness: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
That same world he told his disciples not to become too attached to is where he sent them. Lest they wonder why, Jesus reminds them it is to continue his mission – “As the Father sent me, so I send you…” Lest they wonder what their work was to be, it was to do anything they had seen Jesus do: proclaiming, teaching, healing, forgiving, restoring. Their passion and energy was to be spent loving the people they would encounter in the world as they had been loved: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”
Lest we wonder what our apostolic mission is, there’s our answer – the same as those original apostles. We too are sent into the world to love in Jesus' name. We can be sure that his aims and desires have not changed – he still wants people to believe in him, to be united as one. We can be sure that Jesus is interceding for us as we go about his mission.
It is both daunting and comforting to know that Jesus is praying for those who will believe in him through our word. It is daunting, because it puts the pressure on us to share his word; otherwise, how will any meet him and come to believe? And it is comforting because it reminds us that Jesus does not send us out without equipping us for the transforming work he is doing through us.
To be sanctified is to be made holy, saint-like. Sanctification is an already/not yet proposition – we are already made holy by Jesus’ action, and we experience it gradually, as we allow the Spirit to take root in us, to transform us from the inside. As we engage in ministries of transformation for others, we are simultaneously being transformed ever more into the likeness and stature of Christ. This plane is being built as it flies.
The mantle of those apostles has passed to us. Christ’s intercession for us continues too – if not in these words set down in John’s gospel, then in ways that articulate the dream of God better than we can imagine, with the power that answers the prayer before the words have been uttered. The power and love flow from the heavenly places to us and through us – and ultimately will welcome us home, wholly sanctified.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Yesterday was Ascension Day, when the church marks Jesus’ final bodily exit from this world. From this time on he would be present with his followers as he promised, but in spirit, not flesh. He told them he was going to the Father, and we envision him “seated on the right hand of the Father.” After the activity and stress of his incarnate life, sitting down might have sounded good, but to spend eternity seated, even at the right hand of the Father? That’s a lot of sitting. Of course, he did have a job to do: to intercede for these followers he launched into the world he was leaving.
This prayer we’ve been studying this week articulates in human language Jesus’ eternal work. It is a prayer for protection, a prayer of sending, and a prayer for holiness: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
That same world he told his disciples not to become too attached to is where he sent them. Lest they wonder why, Jesus reminds them it is to continue his mission – “As the Father sent me, so I send you…” Lest they wonder what their work was to be, it was to do anything they had seen Jesus do: proclaiming, teaching, healing, forgiving, restoring. Their passion and energy was to be spent loving the people they would encounter in the world as they had been loved: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”
Lest we wonder what our apostolic mission is, there’s our answer – the same as those original apostles. We too are sent into the world to love in Jesus' name. We can be sure that his aims and desires have not changed – he still wants people to believe in him, to be united as one. We can be sure that Jesus is interceding for us as we go about his mission.
It is both daunting and comforting to know that Jesus is praying for those who will believe in him through our word. It is daunting, because it puts the pressure on us to share his word; otherwise, how will any meet him and come to believe? And it is comforting because it reminds us that Jesus does not send us out without equipping us for the transforming work he is doing through us.
To be sanctified is to be made holy, saint-like. Sanctification is an already/not yet proposition – we are already made holy by Jesus’ action, and we experience it gradually, as we allow the Spirit to take root in us, to transform us from the inside. As we engage in ministries of transformation for others, we are simultaneously being transformed ever more into the likeness and stature of Christ. This plane is being built as it flies.
The mantle of those apostles has passed to us. Christ’s intercession for us continues too – if not in these words set down in John’s gospel, then in ways that articulate the dream of God better than we can imagine, with the power that answers the prayer before the words have been uttered. The power and love flow from the heavenly places to us and through us – and ultimately will welcome us home, wholly sanctified.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-9-24 - Dual Citizens
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I lived in New York City for 22 years. The rhythms and pulse of the city were my way of life – I could navigate the streets and subways, theatres and restaurants, even drive like a maniac on the rare occasions I was behind a wheel. Like most New Yorkers, I felt I was where I belonged and thrived in the environment best suited to my energy. I didn’t think I would ever leave.
Until I did, to go to Yale Divinity School in New Haven. I had an easy transition, going back and forth on weekends for a few months, until gradually I went less often, and built up friendships and activities in New Haven. Even while living in Stamford, a commuter train ride away, I rarely went in, despite friends to see and such a wealth of culture to enjoy. Yet when I do find myself in “the city,” I easily drop back into its pace and flow. I can get around like a New Yorker, though I am no longer one. “New York” is a language I can speak, but rarely use.
Maybe that hints at what Jesus meant when he prayed about his followers not “belonging to this world.” This world is clearly not a place to rest for citizens of God's realm. “… I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”
Why such suspicion of “the world?” By the time these words were set down, the early church was into its fourth or fifth, maybe sixth decade. It had grown and spread and developed structures. It had become familiar with controversy, resistance and fierce persecution, not only from the occupying Romans, but from the Jewish establishment which saw this reform movement as a blasphemous threat. It's easy to read back into these words the opposition the early Christians who wrote them were facing. Yet even apart from that history there is a clear distinction expressed here, between the values of the world and those of the Christian community.
In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with “the world," right? After all, God created it and called it good. Jesus entered into human life to dwell in it and save it. Yet Jesus, and Paul and other leaders after him, often used "the world" to mean human-centered society – corrupt, materialistic, full of oppression and inequity. It is the realm which is passing away, of which the saints of God, called to reflect the holiness of God’s realm, are to be wary. Paul writes to the church in Rome, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2) The pattern we are to conform to is the one Christ laid down for us, and in which the Spirit leads us.
Are we "of the world?" Or "In the world but not of the world?" I tell the newly baptized that they now have dual citizenship – they are still very much a part of this world, and now simultaneously citizens of the kingdom of God, that supra-national realm of supernatural power and peace. That realm is where we will spend eternity. This realm is where we live now, preparing for that other world, and participating in Christ’s redeeming, transforming work here.
Our spiritual work is to love this world as Christ does, because it is filled with creatures and people God loves, AND to live ready to leave it when we’re called to New Heaven (the original name for New Haven…) See? Someday we all leave the City and go to Divinity School.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I lived in New York City for 22 years. The rhythms and pulse of the city were my way of life – I could navigate the streets and subways, theatres and restaurants, even drive like a maniac on the rare occasions I was behind a wheel. Like most New Yorkers, I felt I was where I belonged and thrived in the environment best suited to my energy. I didn’t think I would ever leave.
Until I did, to go to Yale Divinity School in New Haven. I had an easy transition, going back and forth on weekends for a few months, until gradually I went less often, and built up friendships and activities in New Haven. Even while living in Stamford, a commuter train ride away, I rarely went in, despite friends to see and such a wealth of culture to enjoy. Yet when I do find myself in “the city,” I easily drop back into its pace and flow. I can get around like a New Yorker, though I am no longer one. “New York” is a language I can speak, but rarely use.
Maybe that hints at what Jesus meant when he prayed about his followers not “belonging to this world.” This world is clearly not a place to rest for citizens of God's realm. “… I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”
Why such suspicion of “the world?” By the time these words were set down, the early church was into its fourth or fifth, maybe sixth decade. It had grown and spread and developed structures. It had become familiar with controversy, resistance and fierce persecution, not only from the occupying Romans, but from the Jewish establishment which saw this reform movement as a blasphemous threat. It's easy to read back into these words the opposition the early Christians who wrote them were facing. Yet even apart from that history there is a clear distinction expressed here, between the values of the world and those of the Christian community.
In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with “the world," right? After all, God created it and called it good. Jesus entered into human life to dwell in it and save it. Yet Jesus, and Paul and other leaders after him, often used "the world" to mean human-centered society – corrupt, materialistic, full of oppression and inequity. It is the realm which is passing away, of which the saints of God, called to reflect the holiness of God’s realm, are to be wary. Paul writes to the church in Rome, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2) The pattern we are to conform to is the one Christ laid down for us, and in which the Spirit leads us.
Are we "of the world?" Or "In the world but not of the world?" I tell the newly baptized that they now have dual citizenship – they are still very much a part of this world, and now simultaneously citizens of the kingdom of God, that supra-national realm of supernatural power and peace. That realm is where we will spend eternity. This realm is where we live now, preparing for that other world, and participating in Christ’s redeeming, transforming work here.
Our spiritual work is to love this world as Christ does, because it is filled with creatures and people God loves, AND to live ready to leave it when we’re called to New Heaven (the original name for New Haven…) See? Someday we all leave the City and go to Divinity School.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-8-24 - One
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
One day I was reading Amos, a prophet to whom God gave symbolic visions. So I said to God, “If I were a prophet, what would you show me?” Right away a picture formed in my mind. To my left, I saw a crowd of people, frantic, their faces turned toward the sky, their mouths open like baby birds waiting for food. I understood they were ravenous. Then my attention was drawn to another crowd nearby, angry, shouting at each other. I realized these were bakers, arguing about who had the best recipe for bread. The interpretation came into my mind almost as quickly as the images: the bakers were the churches, squabbling over their differences, while people hungered for the Bread of Life.
If we were to draw out one strand of the many in Jesus’ farewell discourses, we might pick unity among Christ-followers. In his prayer for his disciples on his last night among them, Jesus expresses a deep concern. He prays that they be protected from the world, and from the evil one. And it seems that what he most wants to see them protected from is disunity. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he tells them. As he prays for them, he says, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
It’s as though the worst thing that could happen to the worldwide community of Christ-followers is not injury or failure, but breaking faith with one another. When we look at how fractured the church of Jesus Christ is and has been, we can understand his concern. The power of God is unlimited except when it comes to the human heart. God gives us choice, and we can hear the longing in Jesus that we exercise our choice to come together, not stand divided.
I don’t see in this passage an indictment of denominations and different expressions of Christianity – that’s just the way human nature and human institutions work. Jesus doesn’t need us all worshipping the same way or even emphasizing the same points of doctrine. What Jesus does plead is that we love one another and that the world see his church as united in love for him and for God’s children. So much divides us – interpretation of scripture, history, theology, divergent views on justice and holiness. Much of this is real and important. Can we possibly set aside those things that divide and focus on the One True thing – or, more biblically, the True One, our Lord Jesus, Son of God, risen savior of the world?
Or is it the worst sort of denial to say, “Oh, let’s just get together and love Jesus, and I'll overlook your homophobia/ racism/defense of privilege/disregard for the sanctity of life/ cherry-picking Scripture/[fill in your own rant here]?” Where do the claims for Christian unity crash against God's call for justice? That’s a huge question. I can’t answer it. I only know this polarization, even injustice, is not Jesus’ will. Jesus prayed, “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me.” He promises he is still praying for his apostles, those called to reveal the Good News of restoration in Christ. I don’t know how to lay aside my outrage at some of the things my fellow Christians say or do, any more than some of them know what to do with what they might term my “Godless liberalism.”
But we all know how to pray to the One we call Lord, whose power to heal and transform can work even on our stubborn hearts as we’re willing to invite him in. Enough prayer and enough humility, enough allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us, one day we might fulfill Jesus' prayer that we be one.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
One day I was reading Amos, a prophet to whom God gave symbolic visions. So I said to God, “If I were a prophet, what would you show me?” Right away a picture formed in my mind. To my left, I saw a crowd of people, frantic, their faces turned toward the sky, their mouths open like baby birds waiting for food. I understood they were ravenous. Then my attention was drawn to another crowd nearby, angry, shouting at each other. I realized these were bakers, arguing about who had the best recipe for bread. The interpretation came into my mind almost as quickly as the images: the bakers were the churches, squabbling over their differences, while people hungered for the Bread of Life.
If we were to draw out one strand of the many in Jesus’ farewell discourses, we might pick unity among Christ-followers. In his prayer for his disciples on his last night among them, Jesus expresses a deep concern. He prays that they be protected from the world, and from the evil one. And it seems that what he most wants to see them protected from is disunity. “Love one another as I have loved you,” he tells them. As he prays for them, he says, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
It’s as though the worst thing that could happen to the worldwide community of Christ-followers is not injury or failure, but breaking faith with one another. When we look at how fractured the church of Jesus Christ is and has been, we can understand his concern. The power of God is unlimited except when it comes to the human heart. God gives us choice, and we can hear the longing in Jesus that we exercise our choice to come together, not stand divided.
I don’t see in this passage an indictment of denominations and different expressions of Christianity – that’s just the way human nature and human institutions work. Jesus doesn’t need us all worshipping the same way or even emphasizing the same points of doctrine. What Jesus does plead is that we love one another and that the world see his church as united in love for him and for God’s children. So much divides us – interpretation of scripture, history, theology, divergent views on justice and holiness. Much of this is real and important. Can we possibly set aside those things that divide and focus on the One True thing – or, more biblically, the True One, our Lord Jesus, Son of God, risen savior of the world?
Or is it the worst sort of denial to say, “Oh, let’s just get together and love Jesus, and I'll overlook your homophobia/ racism/defense of privilege/disregard for the sanctity of life/ cherry-picking Scripture/[fill in your own rant here]?” Where do the claims for Christian unity crash against God's call for justice? That’s a huge question. I can’t answer it. I only know this polarization, even injustice, is not Jesus’ will. Jesus prayed, “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me.” He promises he is still praying for his apostles, those called to reveal the Good News of restoration in Christ. I don’t know how to lay aside my outrage at some of the things my fellow Christians say or do, any more than some of them know what to do with what they might term my “Godless liberalism.”
But we all know how to pray to the One we call Lord, whose power to heal and transform can work even on our stubborn hearts as we’re willing to invite him in. Enough prayer and enough humility, enough allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us, one day we might fulfill Jesus' prayer that we be one.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-7-24 - Yours, Mine and Ours
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When I was young, one of my favorite books was Yours, Mine and Ours, the true story of a blended family (a widower with 10 children married a widow with 8, and they had 2 more…). I got the biggest kick out of the shenanigans in that household. (The book was made into a film with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in 1968, and then a more forgettable remake in 2005.) None of which has anything to do with this week’s gospel, except that the way Jesus talks to his heavenly Father about his disciples always reminds me of the title:
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours."
This prayer for Jesus’ disciples, like his instructions to them which we explored the past two weeks, is elliptical, moving forward like a tide in overlapping waves. In this first part, it’s hard to track who belongs to whom. Jesus refers to his disciples as “those you gave me,” those entrusted to him by the Father. “They were yours, and you gave them to me…”
What if clergy more often thought of their congregants in this way – as those who belong to God, entrusted into their care for a time? And the same for the way a congregation might view its pastor. And a wife her husband; and parents their children; and teachers their students, doctors their patients, stockbrokers their clients. How different the web of human relationships would be if we all viewed the people in our lives as belonging to God first and foremost, and only secondarily and in a very limited way, to us. How much heartache might be avoided.
If we thought of other people as belonging to God, we might treat them with more reverence and care. Maybe this is why Jesus was so easy sitting with lepers and outcasts, the greedy and the deranged – because he knew they were God’s precious creatures and therefore worthy of honor. He healed not to make them more acceptable; he healed because wholeness more perfectly reflected their status as God’s beloved.
Periodically I encounter the advice to “Remember you are a child of God” or words to that effect. That is a valuable spiritual practice; most of us would be kinder to ourselves if we lived it. And let’s turn it around. Think of a person or group or type of person in whom you find it hard to see anything good, to respect, let alone love. Call that person to mind. And then overlay this message over that picture: “Belongs to God.” How does that change the way you regard that person? Try it every day this week. Note what feelings come up, and pray through them.
Jesus ended with a statement of mutual possessing: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.” We are invited into that mutual belonging in this gigantic blended family we call the human race, beloved beyond measure by the God who created, redeemed and sustains us. We continue to bring Jesus glory as we treat everyone around us as both ours and God’s.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
When I was young, one of my favorite books was Yours, Mine and Ours, the true story of a blended family (a widower with 10 children married a widow with 8, and they had 2 more…). I got the biggest kick out of the shenanigans in that household. (The book was made into a film with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball in 1968, and then a more forgettable remake in 2005.) None of which has anything to do with this week’s gospel, except that the way Jesus talks to his heavenly Father about his disciples always reminds me of the title:
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours."
This prayer for Jesus’ disciples, like his instructions to them which we explored the past two weeks, is elliptical, moving forward like a tide in overlapping waves. In this first part, it’s hard to track who belongs to whom. Jesus refers to his disciples as “those you gave me,” those entrusted to him by the Father. “They were yours, and you gave them to me…”
What if clergy more often thought of their congregants in this way – as those who belong to God, entrusted into their care for a time? And the same for the way a congregation might view its pastor. And a wife her husband; and parents their children; and teachers their students, doctors their patients, stockbrokers their clients. How different the web of human relationships would be if we all viewed the people in our lives as belonging to God first and foremost, and only secondarily and in a very limited way, to us. How much heartache might be avoided.
If we thought of other people as belonging to God, we might treat them with more reverence and care. Maybe this is why Jesus was so easy sitting with lepers and outcasts, the greedy and the deranged – because he knew they were God’s precious creatures and therefore worthy of honor. He healed not to make them more acceptable; he healed because wholeness more perfectly reflected their status as God’s beloved.
Periodically I encounter the advice to “Remember you are a child of God” or words to that effect. That is a valuable spiritual practice; most of us would be kinder to ourselves if we lived it. And let’s turn it around. Think of a person or group or type of person in whom you find it hard to see anything good, to respect, let alone love. Call that person to mind. And then overlay this message over that picture: “Belongs to God.” How does that change the way you regard that person? Try it every day this week. Note what feelings come up, and pray through them.
Jesus ended with a statement of mutual possessing: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.” We are invited into that mutual belonging in this gigantic blended family we call the human race, beloved beyond measure by the God who created, redeemed and sustains us. We continue to bring Jesus glory as we treat everyone around us as both ours and God’s.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-6-24 - Eavesdropping
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Everyone knows it’s bad form to listen in on other people’s conversations. Yet that’s exactly what we are invited to do in the gospel passage appointed for next Sunday. We are eavesdropping on Jesus’ conversation with his heavenly Father on the night he takes leave of his beloved disciples and prepares to enter into the suffering which will complete his mission in this world.
We will explore the text of this prayer, but first let's deal with a “meta-question.” How is it that we know what Jesus prayed that night? Was one of his followers listening and feverishly writing it all down as a transcript which got passed along for the forty or fifty years before John’s gospel was composed?
Or perhaps what was passed down was the tradition of what Jesus prayed. “And then, do you remember, after he talked to us all that while, he started to pray for us, that we would be protected and know the truth….”
It’s also possible this is a literary device used by the author of John to reiterate the themes he has been emphasizing all along. Would that make this text any less valid for us? It doesn’t have to. Remember, what we receive as Holy Scripture bears the fingerprints of many, many fallible human beings. We receive it as holy and authoritative, not as a court transcript but as a Spirit-inspired record given authority by the early church and generations afterward.
In other words, it is holy in part because it has been regarded as holy, and because it brings life to the communities that regard it as holy. This “high priestly prayer,” as scholars call it, has given life to generations of Christ-followers, who have persevered in mission because of the promise of belonging and love and intercession encompassed in these words attributed to Jesus.
In a sense, we are always eavesdropping when we read Scripture – we overhear God’s words to other people, their stories about their encounters with God, their letters to one another about their encounters with God. This is not meant to be a passive overhearing. We are invited to join this conversation and bring into it our own stories and doubts and connections and joys.
God also speaks to us directly through prayer, through proclamation, through encounters that we realize are “God-moments.” If the records we leave in our journals and testimonies last a fraction of the time these stories did, they might get smoothed out and edited a bit too. I hope you are leaving a record of God’s dealings with you. That is precious and holy writ, if not Holy Scripture.
We believe, by faith, that the pages of Scripture are not merely human documents, though it required human beings to record and preserve them. We believe these are God-breathed words of life. It doesn't matter whether these are the exact words Jesus prayed. The Holy Spirit was with him when he prayed. The Spirit was with those who remembered it. The Spirit was with those who eventually wrote it down, and those who saved it, and those who wove it into the record we now call the New Testament.
And the Holy Spirit is with us as we encounter it and ask God to bring it to life for us. This week, as we explore this prayer, let’s keep asking where we find ourselves in these ancient words. The Holy Spirit with us - that’s what makes this holy for us.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Everyone knows it’s bad form to listen in on other people’s conversations. Yet that’s exactly what we are invited to do in the gospel passage appointed for next Sunday. We are eavesdropping on Jesus’ conversation with his heavenly Father on the night he takes leave of his beloved disciples and prepares to enter into the suffering which will complete his mission in this world.
We will explore the text of this prayer, but first let's deal with a “meta-question.” How is it that we know what Jesus prayed that night? Was one of his followers listening and feverishly writing it all down as a transcript which got passed along for the forty or fifty years before John’s gospel was composed?
Or perhaps what was passed down was the tradition of what Jesus prayed. “And then, do you remember, after he talked to us all that while, he started to pray for us, that we would be protected and know the truth….”
It’s also possible this is a literary device used by the author of John to reiterate the themes he has been emphasizing all along. Would that make this text any less valid for us? It doesn’t have to. Remember, what we receive as Holy Scripture bears the fingerprints of many, many fallible human beings. We receive it as holy and authoritative, not as a court transcript but as a Spirit-inspired record given authority by the early church and generations afterward.
In other words, it is holy in part because it has been regarded as holy, and because it brings life to the communities that regard it as holy. This “high priestly prayer,” as scholars call it, has given life to generations of Christ-followers, who have persevered in mission because of the promise of belonging and love and intercession encompassed in these words attributed to Jesus.
In a sense, we are always eavesdropping when we read Scripture – we overhear God’s words to other people, their stories about their encounters with God, their letters to one another about their encounters with God. This is not meant to be a passive overhearing. We are invited to join this conversation and bring into it our own stories and doubts and connections and joys.
God also speaks to us directly through prayer, through proclamation, through encounters that we realize are “God-moments.” If the records we leave in our journals and testimonies last a fraction of the time these stories did, they might get smoothed out and edited a bit too. I hope you are leaving a record of God’s dealings with you. That is precious and holy writ, if not Holy Scripture.
We believe, by faith, that the pages of Scripture are not merely human documents, though it required human beings to record and preserve them. We believe these are God-breathed words of life. It doesn't matter whether these are the exact words Jesus prayed. The Holy Spirit was with him when he prayed. The Spirit was with those who remembered it. The Spirit was with those who eventually wrote it down, and those who saved it, and those who wove it into the record we now call the New Testament.
And the Holy Spirit is with us as we encounter it and ask God to bring it to life for us. This week, as we explore this prayer, let’s keep asking where we find ourselves in these ancient words. The Holy Spirit with us - that’s what makes this holy for us.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-3-24 - Chosen
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Most people like to be chosen. Whether it’s for a team in grade school, a dance in high school, a job, an award, a date, it makes us feel good to be seen and selected, as long as the attention is positive. But being chosen is passive – we can’t ensure we’ll be picked, hard as we might try to be the best candidate.
That makes some people more comfortable being the chooser. Choosing puts us in control. Freedom of choice is a huge value in American life. (So don’t say “we only serve Pepsi” when I want a Diet Coke!) We champion the right to choose our jobs, spouses, healthcare and reproduction, even gender identity. Freedom to choose is a core value for all human life and interaction.
Jesus’ disciples thought they chose to follow him. He didn’t compel them – he came along and said, “Follow me.” They made that choice, often at great cost to their families. So imagine their surprise to hear Jesus say that’s not the way it happened: “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
Did Jesus really choose this motley crew of hard-headed, occasionally thick-headed men and women? Maybe Jesus has different criteria for leadership than we do. Maybe this mixed up group was just exactly who he wanted to graduate as his first team of apostles. And maybe he has chosen us for the same reason, because he believes that we too are gifted and lovable, capable of bearing fruit, abundant fruit that will endure.
Do you feel chosen by God to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Or did it feel like something you chose, or someone else chose for you? There has to be an element of response on our part; we’re not puppets. Often it is the realization of being chosen that elicits a response in us. That’s how it works when two people are courting. And this relationship with Jesus is more love story than hiring process.
How do you respond to being chosen by God? Does it affect the way you live your faith?
How does knowing God’s desire for us is fruitfulness affect the way you live your faith?
The fruitfulness and the chosen-ness go together. We cannot make ourselves fruitful any more than we can get ourselves chosen. When we let in the mystery of how precious we are to God, the wonder that God would choose us to participate in God’s great mission of reclaiming, restoring and renewing all of creation to wholeness in Christ – that knowledge of our chosen-ness generates a desire in us to bear fruit in that mission, the fruit of lives transformed and hearts opened.
Our hearts become opened by the awareness of Love, and then we bear the fruit of Love into the lives around us, as God's transforming power works through us. That's what Jesus promised. That is how we see fruit that will last.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Most people like to be chosen. Whether it’s for a team in grade school, a dance in high school, a job, an award, a date, it makes us feel good to be seen and selected, as long as the attention is positive. But being chosen is passive – we can’t ensure we’ll be picked, hard as we might try to be the best candidate.
That makes some people more comfortable being the chooser. Choosing puts us in control. Freedom of choice is a huge value in American life. (So don’t say “we only serve Pepsi” when I want a Diet Coke!) We champion the right to choose our jobs, spouses, healthcare and reproduction, even gender identity. Freedom to choose is a core value for all human life and interaction.
Jesus’ disciples thought they chose to follow him. He didn’t compel them – he came along and said, “Follow me.” They made that choice, often at great cost to their families. So imagine their surprise to hear Jesus say that’s not the way it happened: “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
Did Jesus really choose this motley crew of hard-headed, occasionally thick-headed men and women? Maybe Jesus has different criteria for leadership than we do. Maybe this mixed up group was just exactly who he wanted to graduate as his first team of apostles. And maybe he has chosen us for the same reason, because he believes that we too are gifted and lovable, capable of bearing fruit, abundant fruit that will endure.
Do you feel chosen by God to be a follower of Jesus Christ? Or did it feel like something you chose, or someone else chose for you? There has to be an element of response on our part; we’re not puppets. Often it is the realization of being chosen that elicits a response in us. That’s how it works when two people are courting. And this relationship with Jesus is more love story than hiring process.
How do you respond to being chosen by God? Does it affect the way you live your faith?
How does knowing God’s desire for us is fruitfulness affect the way you live your faith?
The fruitfulness and the chosen-ness go together. We cannot make ourselves fruitful any more than we can get ourselves chosen. When we let in the mystery of how precious we are to God, the wonder that God would choose us to participate in God’s great mission of reclaiming, restoring and renewing all of creation to wholeness in Christ – that knowledge of our chosen-ness generates a desire in us to bear fruit in that mission, the fruit of lives transformed and hearts opened.
Our hearts become opened by the awareness of Love, and then we bear the fruit of Love into the lives around us, as God's transforming power works through us. That's what Jesus promised. That is how we see fruit that will last.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
5-2-24 - No Longer Servants
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
There are promotions – and then there are status upgrades. Jesus' followers got one of those his last evening among them. He told them what it means to abide in his love, live by his rules, love one another with the kind of love they received from him. He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
In a culture in which people attached themselves to a spiritual master whom they served and revered, followed and learned from, this language of friendship might have sounded jarring. So Jesus explained, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”
Being someone’s servant and being their friend are very different. Servanthood can be easier – you have no responsibility to get to know, strategize, plan, or achieve a vision. You need only fulfill the tasks assigned you with all the skill and commitment you can muster, anticipating needs as appropriate. And then collect your paycheck and take your assigned time off. There is a simplicity to contractual, hierarchical relationships.
Friendship, with its mutuality and intimacy, is much messier; covenantal, not contractual, with commitment to nurturing and growing the friendship. Friends are responsible for one another in a way that a supervisor and servant are not. Friends are recipients of each other’s joys and worries and confidences. This is what Jesus highlights; he says he has entrusted his followers with everything he has heard from God the Father. That must have been daunting to hear.
Yet it must also have been exhilarating to be told they were his friends. If we work for someone we respect and admire, it’s a rush to be elevated from employee to friend. There is more freedom and collegiality, along with more responsibility.
Sometimes in the church we can act more like polite admirers, or pack mules struggling up a hill than as independent, respected, friends of the Living God. Is it easier to think we work for Jesus rather than with him? Jesus didn't ask us to work for him. He wants us working with him, filled with his Spirit, not checking off tasks and having him sign off on our time-sheets. He has entrusted us with the honor and responsibility and joy of being his friends.
Have we accepted? Do we hang out in prayer with him as a friend? Do we go out, healing and transforming people with him, sitting with the sinful, challenging oppressors, loving the loveless?
How do we move and talk and sit and listen as friends of the Risen and Anointed One? Figuring that out - that's the work of ministry.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
There are promotions – and then there are status upgrades. Jesus' followers got one of those his last evening among them. He told them what it means to abide in his love, live by his rules, love one another with the kind of love they received from him. He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
In a culture in which people attached themselves to a spiritual master whom they served and revered, followed and learned from, this language of friendship might have sounded jarring. So Jesus explained, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”
Being someone’s servant and being their friend are very different. Servanthood can be easier – you have no responsibility to get to know, strategize, plan, or achieve a vision. You need only fulfill the tasks assigned you with all the skill and commitment you can muster, anticipating needs as appropriate. And then collect your paycheck and take your assigned time off. There is a simplicity to contractual, hierarchical relationships.
Friendship, with its mutuality and intimacy, is much messier; covenantal, not contractual, with commitment to nurturing and growing the friendship. Friends are responsible for one another in a way that a supervisor and servant are not. Friends are recipients of each other’s joys and worries and confidences. This is what Jesus highlights; he says he has entrusted his followers with everything he has heard from God the Father. That must have been daunting to hear.
Yet it must also have been exhilarating to be told they were his friends. If we work for someone we respect and admire, it’s a rush to be elevated from employee to friend. There is more freedom and collegiality, along with more responsibility.
Sometimes in the church we can act more like polite admirers, or pack mules struggling up a hill than as independent, respected, friends of the Living God. Is it easier to think we work for Jesus rather than with him? Jesus didn't ask us to work for him. He wants us working with him, filled with his Spirit, not checking off tasks and having him sign off on our time-sheets. He has entrusted us with the honor and responsibility and joy of being his friends.
Have we accepted? Do we hang out in prayer with him as a friend? Do we go out, healing and transforming people with him, sitting with the sinful, challenging oppressors, loving the loveless?
How do we move and talk and sit and listen as friends of the Risen and Anointed One? Figuring that out - that's the work of ministry.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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