You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
It is a surreal scene, this genial interrogation by the Roman governor of an occupied territory, of an itinerant holy man with no visible support – whose very life hangs on the outcome of this interview. These two do a conversational dance, Jesus never answering a question directly, making no effort to defend himself or to set up a scenario in which his life might be spared. When asked directly, “So you are a king?” Jesus only says, “That’s what you say,” and that his purpose in being born was to testify to the truth. And then he says enigmatically, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
This strikes me as a funny way to put things – I don’t think of people "belonging" to truth, but rather having the truth, possessing truth, grasping truth, denying truth. What Jesus suggests is that the Truth is much bigger than we are; we can no more possess it than we could contain the ocean or corral the stars in the night sky.
This truth that encompasses us, Jesus suggests, is an objective reality – which prompts Pilate to pose his famously early post-modern question (left off our lectionary this week…) “What is truth?” I don’t think that’s a question on many people’s lips these days. There is your truth, my truth, the media’s truth, “deep fake” truth, doctored distortions of history masquerading as truth. How can anyone know the Truth, much less get lost in its vastness?
Those who follow Christ are given a clue – he said he was the Truth, the Way, the Life. One way we enter into the Truth is by coming to know Jesus as he was, and is, and is to come. The time we invest in growing our relationship with this Lord who calls us friend brings us deeper and deeper into the ultimate reality of things – the Truth.
And he offered another clue: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” I see many Christ followers reacting out of deeply human responses these days, throwing off little evidence that they are listening to that Prince of Peace who commanded us to love our neighbors, tend the wounds of the outcast, lead with humility and not with combative fear.
How do we listen to Jesus' voice? We study his word. We tune ourselves to receive his voice in prayer. We follow his commands and teachings. We listen to other followers of Christ. We pay attention to where his Spirit is bringing life to dead places around us, and join him there.
As we listen, we will hear, and we will know the Truth, and come to belong to this Truth big enough to set us free.
© 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.
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
3-9-23 - True Worship
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When Jesus names some uncomfortable truths about her life, the woman he has met at a well does not comment. She changes the subject, bringing up the source of division between Jews and Samaritans: “Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."
I always saw this as an evasive pivot away from the topic of her personal life. But I wonder – is she actually trying to deepen the conversation? “Okay, Mister, if we’re going to talk truth, let’s talk about why your people and mine don’t get along. Let’s talk about our relationship. Why do you say we all have to worship in Jerusalem?”
Jesus gives her a full and perhaps surprising answer, not condescending:
When Jesus names some uncomfortable truths about her life, the woman he has met at a well does not comment. She changes the subject, bringing up the source of division between Jews and Samaritans: “Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."
I always saw this as an evasive pivot away from the topic of her personal life. But I wonder – is she actually trying to deepen the conversation? “Okay, Mister, if we’re going to talk truth, let’s talk about why your people and mine don’t get along. Let’s talk about our relationship. Why do you say we all have to worship in Jerusalem?”
Jesus gives her a full and perhaps surprising answer, not condescending:
“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
This truth Jesus offers should be emblazoned on our church buildings and service bulletins. How and where we worship can both lead us into divine presence, and keep us far away. It is human nature to seek connection with the holy – and when we find it, to attempt to recreate the circumstances we believe led to that moment. Thus we get ritual, and we repeat it and soon deem it sacred, and then all kinds of actions and objects and spaces and even clothing accrue – and before we know it, we may put our focus on all the apparatus and lose sight of the divine connection we were seeking in the first place.
Worship, as Jesus defines it, is not something we do. It is how we open ourselves to encounter with the Living God. It is a spiritual activity, engaging our spirits – and, because our spirits are embodied, also our senses, minds and bodies. And worship is truth-seeking. We don’t need to be in church to worship – church can help sometimes, and get in the way others. What we need is an open heart and humility.
When do you feel yourself most fully alive in worship? Is it during a service? If so, what elements draw you in? Music? Prayer? Proclamation? Teaching? Movement? Sacrament?
It’s good to be aware of how you feel most connected to God.
Maybe you feel yourself most worshipful in silence or in solitude or in nature or doing something for someone else – it’s good to know that too, to honor that as worship.
If you don’t feel you connect to God in worship of any kind, you might ask the Spirit to show you a way for you.
Worship, above all else, is encounter – a profoundly cross-cultural encounter across boundaries of difference more pronounced even than the ethnic, religious and gender barriers Jesus and this woman were bridging. Worship is an encounter between a mere human, unique and ordinary, and the God who made all things, holy and transcendent. Yet this God invites us to meet, to break bread, even to dance.
The hour is coming – and is now here – when God is in our midst, in spirit and in truth. God has shown up. Will we?
This truth Jesus offers should be emblazoned on our church buildings and service bulletins. How and where we worship can both lead us into divine presence, and keep us far away. It is human nature to seek connection with the holy – and when we find it, to attempt to recreate the circumstances we believe led to that moment. Thus we get ritual, and we repeat it and soon deem it sacred, and then all kinds of actions and objects and spaces and even clothing accrue – and before we know it, we may put our focus on all the apparatus and lose sight of the divine connection we were seeking in the first place.
Worship, as Jesus defines it, is not something we do. It is how we open ourselves to encounter with the Living God. It is a spiritual activity, engaging our spirits – and, because our spirits are embodied, also our senses, minds and bodies. And worship is truth-seeking. We don’t need to be in church to worship – church can help sometimes, and get in the way others. What we need is an open heart and humility.
When do you feel yourself most fully alive in worship? Is it during a service? If so, what elements draw you in? Music? Prayer? Proclamation? Teaching? Movement? Sacrament?
It’s good to be aware of how you feel most connected to God.
Maybe you feel yourself most worshipful in silence or in solitude or in nature or doing something for someone else – it’s good to know that too, to honor that as worship.
If you don’t feel you connect to God in worship of any kind, you might ask the Spirit to show you a way for you.
Worship, above all else, is encounter – a profoundly cross-cultural encounter across boundaries of difference more pronounced even than the ethnic, religious and gender barriers Jesus and this woman were bridging. Worship is an encounter between a mere human, unique and ordinary, and the God who made all things, holy and transcendent. Yet this God invites us to meet, to break bread, even to dance.
The hour is coming – and is now here – when God is in our midst, in spirit and in truth. God has shown up. Will we?
11-1-22 - Popularity
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” always makes me giggle; I call it the “Halitosis Hymn.” Why, you ask? Because the lyrics remind me of ads for mouthwash I found in the 1950s issues of Good Housekeeping lying around our lake cottage. These ads painted dire pictures of social isolation facing those with bad breath, with copy like, “Is halitosis keeping your friends away?” Hence my amusement at, “Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?”
Jesus seemed to imply that we’re doing something wrong if people do like and approve of us: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets." … Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."
Since Jesus was often was the subject of adoring crowds, I'd like to think he was exaggerating a little, lest his new disciples become too attached to the adulation. He knew that living out the mission God had given him would result in friends turning away, and crowds morphing into mobs. He knew that the approval of humans can be shallow and fickle, and no foundation on which to rest our self-worth.
As a person who thrives on the three A’s – attention, acceptance and affirmation – I know this syndrome all too well. And those who offer themselves as public servants of God need to walk an even finer tightrope between doing and saying that which would make us popular, or being so "true to ourselves" we end up being simply disagreeable.
If the Gospel is truly being preached, and the Realm of God fully proclaimed, it’s going to make somebody mad. Often very powerful somebodies. Jesus’ Way of Love was a profoundly counter-cultural movement. The ways of God are not the ways of the world.
Yet this world is where God is calling us to proclaim his love. Sometimes when people walk away from us, it’s because our values are incompatible. Sometimes it’s because we’ve been obnoxious. It takes the Spirit’s discernment to show us which is which.
Our call is to be sure that when people revile and exclude us, it’s because we have truly been preaching Christ, and him crucified; and that when they say good things about us, it is because we have been faithful to the witness of Christ and Scripture. I will gratefully receive affirmation when it comes, but not expect it to hold any weight.
The only affirmation that truly counts is that sweet feeling of being filled with the Spirit when we know God has been working through us, and people say they saw Christ in us. That we can rejoice in always.
The hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” always makes me giggle; I call it the “Halitosis Hymn.” Why, you ask? Because the lyrics remind me of ads for mouthwash I found in the 1950s issues of Good Housekeeping lying around our lake cottage. These ads painted dire pictures of social isolation facing those with bad breath, with copy like, “Is halitosis keeping your friends away?” Hence my amusement at, “Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?”
Jesus seemed to imply that we’re doing something wrong if people do like and approve of us: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets." … Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."
Since Jesus was often was the subject of adoring crowds, I'd like to think he was exaggerating a little, lest his new disciples become too attached to the adulation. He knew that living out the mission God had given him would result in friends turning away, and crowds morphing into mobs. He knew that the approval of humans can be shallow and fickle, and no foundation on which to rest our self-worth.
As a person who thrives on the three A’s – attention, acceptance and affirmation – I know this syndrome all too well. And those who offer themselves as public servants of God need to walk an even finer tightrope between doing and saying that which would make us popular, or being so "true to ourselves" we end up being simply disagreeable.
If the Gospel is truly being preached, and the Realm of God fully proclaimed, it’s going to make somebody mad. Often very powerful somebodies. Jesus’ Way of Love was a profoundly counter-cultural movement. The ways of God are not the ways of the world.
Yet this world is where God is calling us to proclaim his love. Sometimes when people walk away from us, it’s because our values are incompatible. Sometimes it’s because we’ve been obnoxious. It takes the Spirit’s discernment to show us which is which.
Our call is to be sure that when people revile and exclude us, it’s because we have truly been preaching Christ, and him crucified; and that when they say good things about us, it is because we have been faithful to the witness of Christ and Scripture. I will gratefully receive affirmation when it comes, but not expect it to hold any weight.
The only affirmation that truly counts is that sweet feeling of being filled with the Spirit when we know God has been working through us, and people say they saw Christ in us. That we can rejoice in always.
12-6-21 - Holy Ranting
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. Scroll down for info about an upcoming online Advent Retreat this Saturday.
Today is St. Nicholas Day – a day of cheerful giving in the tradition of the great Bishop of Myra. Yet, though he was known for generosity, lending his name to the jolly figure we now know as Santa Claus, St. Nicholas could be fierce and combative when he felt Christian belief was being attacked. One of the many legends about him has him slapping the Egyptian theologian Arius in the face at the Council of Nicea over whether or not Jesus the Son was the equal of God the Father. (The Council eventually came down on the side of the full equality of all three persons of the Trinity, and Arius has gone down in history as a heretic…)
Old Nicholas, like anyone with a social media account today, was no stranger to the rant: an impassioned articulation of support or denunciation, fueled by indignation, righteous or otherwise, sometimes punctuated by biting wit. A good rant can leave you feeling somewhat singed, or slightly sick. John the Baptist, like many a prophet in Israel’s tradition, was a master of the good rant. He let the crowds who’d come out to see him know just what he thought of their sight-seeing curiosity and trendy repentance.
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’
Wow. In a few short words, he’s called them a nest of poisonous snakes and warned them of wrath, fire and axes. He’s told them their history as “God’s chosen people” will not protect them from God’s righteous judgment. Is this the kind of preaching that fills churches?
It didn’t seem to hurt John’s numbers… nor did he care. Like the prophets of old, he had a message from God to deliver, and he delivered it without concern for the outcome. He was there to tell them what they needed to hear, and to offer them a ritual that made visible the internal repentance to which he called them. What people did with that message was between them and God.
The prophets we meet in the Hebrew Bible didn’t mince words either. Their prophecies veered between doom and promise, and were often terrifying. A prophet doesn’t have to be frightening, but the prophet does have to honestly say what she or he believes God wants the people to hear. That’s the tricky part – to speak for God, and not just out of your own sense of right or wrong – or grievance.
John’s essential message, if we take out the scary bits, was that people were to bear the fruit of repentance, not just say the words. If they were genuinely sorry for the way they had been living, conducting business and relationships, there should be a visible effect in changed lives and behaviors.
We are not to stop calling out injustice and untruth when we see it. We are to work for equity and access to resources and security for all people, and if necessary to speak against those who would deny those basic rights. Sometimes that speaking out will include ranting. More often it will entail a steady, relentless process of forming relationships in which communication can happen in humility and honesty.
Jesus could get up a good rant too – yet usually he brought transformation by drawing people into a relationship of love. A good prophet speaks the truth; a good leader fosters relationships to bring about outcomes that reflect that truth. That is our mission, transformation in Christ’s love.
Today is St. Nicholas Day – a day of cheerful giving in the tradition of the great Bishop of Myra. Yet, though he was known for generosity, lending his name to the jolly figure we now know as Santa Claus, St. Nicholas could be fierce and combative when he felt Christian belief was being attacked. One of the many legends about him has him slapping the Egyptian theologian Arius in the face at the Council of Nicea over whether or not Jesus the Son was the equal of God the Father. (The Council eventually came down on the side of the full equality of all three persons of the Trinity, and Arius has gone down in history as a heretic…)
Old Nicholas, like anyone with a social media account today, was no stranger to the rant: an impassioned articulation of support or denunciation, fueled by indignation, righteous or otherwise, sometimes punctuated by biting wit. A good rant can leave you feeling somewhat singed, or slightly sick. John the Baptist, like many a prophet in Israel’s tradition, was a master of the good rant. He let the crowds who’d come out to see him know just what he thought of their sight-seeing curiosity and trendy repentance.
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’
Wow. In a few short words, he’s called them a nest of poisonous snakes and warned them of wrath, fire and axes. He’s told them their history as “God’s chosen people” will not protect them from God’s righteous judgment. Is this the kind of preaching that fills churches?
It didn’t seem to hurt John’s numbers… nor did he care. Like the prophets of old, he had a message from God to deliver, and he delivered it without concern for the outcome. He was there to tell them what they needed to hear, and to offer them a ritual that made visible the internal repentance to which he called them. What people did with that message was between them and God.
The prophets we meet in the Hebrew Bible didn’t mince words either. Their prophecies veered between doom and promise, and were often terrifying. A prophet doesn’t have to be frightening, but the prophet does have to honestly say what she or he believes God wants the people to hear. That’s the tricky part – to speak for God, and not just out of your own sense of right or wrong – or grievance.
John’s essential message, if we take out the scary bits, was that people were to bear the fruit of repentance, not just say the words. If they were genuinely sorry for the way they had been living, conducting business and relationships, there should be a visible effect in changed lives and behaviors.
We are not to stop calling out injustice and untruth when we see it. We are to work for equity and access to resources and security for all people, and if necessary to speak against those who would deny those basic rights. Sometimes that speaking out will include ranting. More often it will entail a steady, relentless process of forming relationships in which communication can happen in humility and honesty.
Jesus could get up a good rant too – yet usually he brought transformation by drawing people into a relationship of love. A good prophet speaks the truth; a good leader fosters relationships to bring about outcomes that reflect that truth. That is our mission, transformation in Christ’s love.
To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is now a podcast! Subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Advent Spa for the Spirit - Saturday, December 11
Taking the Advent theme of awakening, we'll explore how we can wake to the still voice in our own spirits, to the lives of others, and to the Life of God all around us.
We'll gather on Zoom at 9 and be done around noon. You can register here - more information and the link will be sent. Please invite others who may like to come.
11-19-21 - Belong To the Truth
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
It is a surreal scene, this genial interrogation by the Roman governor of an occupied territory, of an itinerant holy man with no visible support – whose very life hangs on the outcome of this interview. These two do a conversational dance, Jesus never answering a question directly, making no effort to defend himself or to set up a scenario in which his life might be spared. When asked directly, “So you are a king?” Jesus only says, “That’s what you say,” and that his purpose in being born was to testify to the truth. And then he says enigmatically, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
This strikes me as a funny way to put things – I don’t think of people "belonging" to the truth, but rather having the truth, possessing the truth, grasping the truth, denying the truth. What Jesus suggests is that the Truth is much bigger than we are; we can no more possess it than we could contain the ocean or corral the stars in the night sky.
This truth that encompasses us, Jesus suggests, is an objective reality – which prompts Pilate to pose his famously early post-modern question (left off our lectionary this week…) “What is truth?” I don’t think that’s a question on many people’s lips these days. There is your truth, my truth, the media’s truth, doctored distortions of history masquerading as truth. How can anyone know the Truth, much less get lost in its vastness?
Those who follow Christ are given a clue – he said he was the Truth, the Way, the Life. One way we enter into the Truth is by coming to know Jesus as he was, and is, and is to come. The time we invest in growing our relationship with this Lord who calls us friend brings us deeper and deeper into the ultimate reality of things – the Truth.
And he offered another clue: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” I see many Christ followers reacting out of deeply human responses these days, throwing off little evidence that they are listening to that Prince of Peace who commanded us to love our neighbors, tend the wounds of the outcast, lead with humility and not with combative fear.
How do we listen to Jesus' voice? We study his word. We tune ourselves to receive his voice in prayer. We follow his commands and teachings. We listen to other followers of Christ. We pay attention to where his Spirit is bringing life to dead places around us, and join him there. As we listen, we will hear, and we will know the Truth, and come to belong to this Truth big enough to set us free.
It is a surreal scene, this genial interrogation by the Roman governor of an occupied territory, of an itinerant holy man with no visible support – whose very life hangs on the outcome of this interview. These two do a conversational dance, Jesus never answering a question directly, making no effort to defend himself or to set up a scenario in which his life might be spared. When asked directly, “So you are a king?” Jesus only says, “That’s what you say,” and that his purpose in being born was to testify to the truth. And then he says enigmatically, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
This strikes me as a funny way to put things – I don’t think of people "belonging" to the truth, but rather having the truth, possessing the truth, grasping the truth, denying the truth. What Jesus suggests is that the Truth is much bigger than we are; we can no more possess it than we could contain the ocean or corral the stars in the night sky.
This truth that encompasses us, Jesus suggests, is an objective reality – which prompts Pilate to pose his famously early post-modern question (left off our lectionary this week…) “What is truth?” I don’t think that’s a question on many people’s lips these days. There is your truth, my truth, the media’s truth, doctored distortions of history masquerading as truth. How can anyone know the Truth, much less get lost in its vastness?
Those who follow Christ are given a clue – he said he was the Truth, the Way, the Life. One way we enter into the Truth is by coming to know Jesus as he was, and is, and is to come. The time we invest in growing our relationship with this Lord who calls us friend brings us deeper and deeper into the ultimate reality of things – the Truth.
And he offered another clue: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” I see many Christ followers reacting out of deeply human responses these days, throwing off little evidence that they are listening to that Prince of Peace who commanded us to love our neighbors, tend the wounds of the outcast, lead with humility and not with combative fear.
How do we listen to Jesus' voice? We study his word. We tune ourselves to receive his voice in prayer. We follow his commands and teachings. We listen to other followers of Christ. We pay attention to where his Spirit is bringing life to dead places around us, and join him there. As we listen, we will hear, and we will know the Truth, and come to belong to this Truth big enough to set us free.
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