You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Of all the big "asks" that Jesus lays on his followers, perhaps the most extreme is this one: “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
It may be hard to see sometimes, but every human has some innate capacity for generosity, compassion, collaboration. Jesus asks these attributes of us. But to love your enemy and do good to someone who hates you? That runs counter to human nature and most cultural norms. How can we structure societies and kinship groups if we have to love our enemies the same as we love our friends and relations?
Jesus held kinship relationships very lightly – witness his dismissiveness of his mother and brothers. In fact, he redefined family altogether, saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21). And we can see what he thought of social and ethnic categories in his parable of the Good Samaritan, where the social outcast is the hero of the tale. But what about human nature? Are we not hard-wired to protect ourselves and those we love, as well as our possessions? How can we go around loving our enemies?
With only our human nature, I don’t believe we can. But we do not operate out of merely human nature. At our baptisms, God installs his operating system in us, and when we run on our God-nature, we access unimaginable power. Here’s how we can go about loving our enemies: Let God do it. Bring God into the triangle. Like it or not, there is a line running between us and our enemies – we are bound to them by mutual hatred/fear/ prejudice/anger/all of the above. It can be hard to pray along that axis, let alone open ourselves to communication or blessing. When I am unable to wish good for someone, I direct my prayers for her or him to God, and ask God to bless, forgive, heal and restore them. It is a powerful thing to ask God to bless someone you are unable to bless. We can’t know the effect it will have on the other person (though surprisingly often we see changes in their behavior…), but it releases something in us and changes us.
As we begin to be freed of our own fear and hatred, we become better able to imagine doing good to those who hate us. There is self-interest as well as altruism in ensuring that those who hate us have enough to eat, safe places to sleep and solid education. If we are victims of abuse from someone else, sometimes the only power we hold is to pray for the abuser, as we are able to do so. There is no downside to praying that a vile and evil human being be blessed and healed and restored to his or her full humanity. Such conversion can only help us and protect other victims. Think of John Newton, the slave-trader who came to see the evil he perpetuated, and wrote of his conviction and conversion in the hymn Amazing grace!
In these days of national divisions deeper than most of us have known, it’s not hard to imagine people who hate us, or even people we’d consider enemies. So we have no shortage of opportunities to practice Jesus’ biggest ask.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. 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 accepting love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accepting love. Show all posts
1-4-24 - Voice of Love
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
We’ve been looking this week at the story of Jesus’ baptism, and how each element has become incorporated into our own baptismal services. We pour the water, we invoke the Holy Spirit’s anointing by applying oil to the baptized person. Where, though, does this aural affirmation come in?
We might say, “It goes without saying.” The whole act of baptism is a response to the Love of God. We see it as incorporation into the family of God. Do we need to hear God’s “I love you?” when we’re bathed in it?
Well… yes. We’re human, and limited, and we need to hear it. Jesus heard it, and it’s not like HE needed to be reminded of his Father’s love. Or did he? Was the mission he was just starting going to be so hard and lonely and dangerous, that he very much needed to be reminded how beloved he was?
Maybe God is always telling us how pleased God is with us, reminding us how beloved we are, but we aren’t tuned to that frequency. This world and its messages throws out a lot of static. (Casting Crowns has a good song about that, Voice of Truth.) Our own inner sense of inadequacy or insecurity, however we come by that, so often overrides that message of love. How can we hear it for ourselves?
One way is to tune in every day – whether it’s a quiet time of prayer in the morning, or a step off the treadmill sometime mid-day, or in reflection in the evening. If we can cultivate the daily reminder of our baptismal life and the promises God has made to us, we might find ourselves more often dwelling in our belovedness.
But we also need to remind each other. No one is called into Christian life in a vacuum. The “noise” around us will always overwhelm us if we don’t encourage and support each other. Who has been good at reminding you that you are beloved of God, delightful and pleasing to God? Who in your life might need a reminder this week?
At one point during the Episcopal baptismal service, the congregation is asked, “Will you support this person in her life in Christ?” And the answer is to be a resounding “We will!” That’s one of the times in the liturgy when we hear the voice of the beloved, God, speaking through us.
God has not stopped speaking through us. Who will hear through you today how beloved he is, she is? That's the only way the world will hear it.
And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
We’ve been looking this week at the story of Jesus’ baptism, and how each element has become incorporated into our own baptismal services. We pour the water, we invoke the Holy Spirit’s anointing by applying oil to the baptized person. Where, though, does this aural affirmation come in?
We might say, “It goes without saying.” The whole act of baptism is a response to the Love of God. We see it as incorporation into the family of God. Do we need to hear God’s “I love you?” when we’re bathed in it?
Well… yes. We’re human, and limited, and we need to hear it. Jesus heard it, and it’s not like HE needed to be reminded of his Father’s love. Or did he? Was the mission he was just starting going to be so hard and lonely and dangerous, that he very much needed to be reminded how beloved he was?
Maybe God is always telling us how pleased God is with us, reminding us how beloved we are, but we aren’t tuned to that frequency. This world and its messages throws out a lot of static. (Casting Crowns has a good song about that, Voice of Truth.) Our own inner sense of inadequacy or insecurity, however we come by that, so often overrides that message of love. How can we hear it for ourselves?
One way is to tune in every day – whether it’s a quiet time of prayer in the morning, or a step off the treadmill sometime mid-day, or in reflection in the evening. If we can cultivate the daily reminder of our baptismal life and the promises God has made to us, we might find ourselves more often dwelling in our belovedness.
But we also need to remind each other. No one is called into Christian life in a vacuum. The “noise” around us will always overwhelm us if we don’t encourage and support each other. Who has been good at reminding you that you are beloved of God, delightful and pleasing to God? Who in your life might need a reminder this week?
At one point during the Episcopal baptismal service, the congregation is asked, “Will you support this person in her life in Christ?” And the answer is to be a resounding “We will!” That’s one of the times in the liturgy when we hear the voice of the beloved, God, speaking through us.
God has not stopped speaking through us. Who will hear through you today how beloved he is, she is? That's the only way the world will hear it.
12-23-22 - Shepherds and Angels - and You
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The stable wasn’t the only center of action that original Christmas – God’s great production had multiple locations and a huge cast. The holy child birthed and swaddled, we fade out on the manger and shift focus to the fields outside Bethlehem, to a group of shepherds “keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Flocks were precious assets, and nighttime perilous – predators, thieves; many dangers lurked.
Herding sheep was not a glamorous profession in Jesus’ time, if ever. Shepherds were considered the dregs of society, dirty, crude, unkempt, the last ones on earth you’d think would be the first to hear world-transforming news. But our God of surprises doesn’t see in such categories. The least likely became the first – does that sound familiar?
And not only the first to hear; this earthy bunch were the recipients of a celestial visit, a host of angels. The highest possible order of being, shining with the glory of the Lord, and rough-hewn riff-raff, brought together on that bright hillside to share joy.
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Think God was up to something? Think God is still up to something? A bunch of folks from whom no one expected anything good were entrusted with the best news of all – the birth of the Messiah, a savior, the Lord. This revelation, backed up by the most amazing light show ever seen, became their news to tell. To be the bearer of news everyone wants to hear – that’s quite a status upgrade.
Of the many messages in this strange tale we tell over and over, here is one: no one, no kind of person, no category of person is insignificant in God’s eyes. In God’s Life the most marginalized – even the most objectionable – can become the center of the story.
The stable wasn’t the only center of action that original Christmas – God’s great production had multiple locations and a huge cast. The holy child birthed and swaddled, we fade out on the manger and shift focus to the fields outside Bethlehem, to a group of shepherds “keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Flocks were precious assets, and nighttime perilous – predators, thieves; many dangers lurked.
Herding sheep was not a glamorous profession in Jesus’ time, if ever. Shepherds were considered the dregs of society, dirty, crude, unkempt, the last ones on earth you’d think would be the first to hear world-transforming news. But our God of surprises doesn’t see in such categories. The least likely became the first – does that sound familiar?
And not only the first to hear; this earthy bunch were the recipients of a celestial visit, a host of angels. The highest possible order of being, shining with the glory of the Lord, and rough-hewn riff-raff, brought together on that bright hillside to share joy.
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Think God was up to something? Think God is still up to something? A bunch of folks from whom no one expected anything good were entrusted with the best news of all – the birth of the Messiah, a savior, the Lord. This revelation, backed up by the most amazing light show ever seen, became their news to tell. To be the bearer of news everyone wants to hear – that’s quite a status upgrade.
Of the many messages in this strange tale we tell over and over, here is one: no one, no kind of person, no category of person is insignificant in God’s eyes. In God’s Life the most marginalized – even the most objectionable – can become the center of the story.
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
Who is on the margins of your life, or your community’s life? Can you invite someone into the center? Can you honor the least likely person by entrusting him with this amazing news? Maybe you feel like you are the least likely person. Know this: God has chosen you to share God’s most precious gift. Wrap your mind around that while you’re wrapping presents.
For a little while that night, there was peace, there was joy, there was amazement and wonder, shared between shepherds and angels, earth and heaven. I pray that for us, as we hear or tell the Magnificent Story again tomorrow night, as we look for those at the edges and invite them into the center: Peace. Joy. Amazement. Wonder. O come, let us adore him!
Who is on the margins of your life, or your community’s life? Can you invite someone into the center? Can you honor the least likely person by entrusting him with this amazing news? Maybe you feel like you are the least likely person. Know this: God has chosen you to share God’s most precious gift. Wrap your mind around that while you’re wrapping presents.
For a little while that night, there was peace, there was joy, there was amazement and wonder, shared between shepherds and angels, earth and heaven. I pray that for us, as we hear or tell the Magnificent Story again tomorrow night, as we look for those at the edges and invite them into the center: Peace. Joy. Amazement. Wonder. O come, let us adore him!
9-13-22 - Performance Review
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
“I want to talk to you.” Six words guaranteed to strike fear into my heart. I immediately assume I’m in trouble. Dread pervades me as I wrack my brain to think what I’ve done wrong; I can usually think of a few things.
Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’”
Imagine the dread this manager felt when he was called to the boss’ office. No need to wonder what’s wrong – he is told straight out that the jig is up. The only thing left to do is settle accounts as favorably as possible and find the door.
“Give me an accounting.” I preferred the God figure in last week’s parables, who seeks and finds and welcomes and forgives and restores and loves. The God of grace, not the God of justice. But guess what? There’s only one God. The grace and mercy are necessary because the justice is real. And Jesus suggests more than once that we will be called to account for how we’ve managed the gifts and resources God has given us. So shall we take a little inventory today for a mid-life performance review?
Make a list of all the gifts and resources you feel you’ve been given (family, skills, money, networks, location, genes, education, opportunities, relationships… what else?)
Name the areas you feel good about – where you’re using or nurturing what you’ve been given, and it’s healthy.
Are there any areas where you feel you’re squandering the resources entrusted to you – wasting, or not using, or mis-using, or avoiding? It’s worth naming those too.
Invite Jesus to look at your lists with you. How might you relate differently to the less fruitful parts of your life? What obstacles can you identify that keep you from thriving?
Good News: we don’t undergo our performance reviews alone. We have an advocate sitting right with us, the Spirit of truth, to quiet our inner accuser. And our heavenly boss loves us so much, s/he wants to hear from us how we’re doing – and to work with us in the areas where we feel we could do better. Ask the Holy Coach for help.
AND in this company, every employee’s performance is evaluated as part of the performance of the best. And the best One in our company was pretty much perfect. So relax. You’re good. Unlike for the guy in Jesus’ story, for you and me this isn’t gonna hurt.
“I want to talk to you.” Six words guaranteed to strike fear into my heart. I immediately assume I’m in trouble. Dread pervades me as I wrack my brain to think what I’ve done wrong; I can usually think of a few things.
Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’”
Imagine the dread this manager felt when he was called to the boss’ office. No need to wonder what’s wrong – he is told straight out that the jig is up. The only thing left to do is settle accounts as favorably as possible and find the door.
“Give me an accounting.” I preferred the God figure in last week’s parables, who seeks and finds and welcomes and forgives and restores and loves. The God of grace, not the God of justice. But guess what? There’s only one God. The grace and mercy are necessary because the justice is real. And Jesus suggests more than once that we will be called to account for how we’ve managed the gifts and resources God has given us. So shall we take a little inventory today for a mid-life performance review?
Make a list of all the gifts and resources you feel you’ve been given (family, skills, money, networks, location, genes, education, opportunities, relationships… what else?)
Name the areas you feel good about – where you’re using or nurturing what you’ve been given, and it’s healthy.
Are there any areas where you feel you’re squandering the resources entrusted to you – wasting, or not using, or mis-using, or avoiding? It’s worth naming those too.
Invite Jesus to look at your lists with you. How might you relate differently to the less fruitful parts of your life? What obstacles can you identify that keep you from thriving?
Good News: we don’t undergo our performance reviews alone. We have an advocate sitting right with us, the Spirit of truth, to quiet our inner accuser. And our heavenly boss loves us so much, s/he wants to hear from us how we’re doing – and to work with us in the areas where we feel we could do better. Ask the Holy Coach for help.
AND in this company, every employee’s performance is evaluated as part of the performance of the best. And the best One in our company was pretty much perfect. So relax. You’re good. Unlike for the guy in Jesus’ story, for you and me this isn’t gonna hurt.
9-9-22 - The Impact of Found Sheep
You can listen to this reflection here.
This week we’ve explored two of Jesus’ short parables about things lost and found, each one with the message, “So there is rejoicing over one sinner who repents.” In the reading from the New Testament appointed for Sunday, we hear from one of those sinners, Paul, writing to his colleague Timothy about his experience of having been found:
"I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost."
Paul, as we know from the Book of Acts, was Jewish, a Pharisee – and so outraged by the blasphemy of Christian claims that Jesus was divine and rose from the dead that he became the foremost persecutor of this Jesus movement, trying to stamp it out, violently if necessary. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christ-followers when he had an experience of Jesus speaking to him that changed the course of his life – and of human history. Though viewed with suspicion by those he had persecuted, he was baptized into Christian faith and gradually accepted, going on to evangelize Greek and Roman-held lands and articulate in his letters the theology that has shaped Christian understanding, especially the truth that we are saved by Jesus' works of love, not by our own “goodness.”
No one would have called Paul (then Saul) a “lost sheep.” As a Pharisee he was known for his holiness and fidelity to the Law. But he, who called others blasphemous, came to see that he was the blasphemer, having ignored all the signs that Jesus was who he said he was, the risen Son of God, redeemer of the world. He came to believe he was foremost among sinners and had gone far astray – and that he’d been found and rescued by the Great Shepherd himself, for a purpose: "But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life."
Lest we ever think it a waste of time to seek those who have strayed far from God’s will, or even those who just have no interest, we have the example of Paul who went from legalistic, self-righteous religious leader to foremost articulator of the grace of God that Jesus describes in his lost and found stories. Not even Paul, who was persecuting Jesus’ beloved community, was too lost for the shepherd to seek out – he reached from beyond the grave to get Paul. No one is beyond the reach of God's love, no one.
Who might we seek, who could end up having a huge impact for good? Who is hovering on the edges of our lives, our churches, our communities, who needs to be welcomed in?
This week we’ve explored two of Jesus’ short parables about things lost and found, each one with the message, “So there is rejoicing over one sinner who repents.” In the reading from the New Testament appointed for Sunday, we hear from one of those sinners, Paul, writing to his colleague Timothy about his experience of having been found:
"I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost."
Paul, as we know from the Book of Acts, was Jewish, a Pharisee – and so outraged by the blasphemy of Christian claims that Jesus was divine and rose from the dead that he became the foremost persecutor of this Jesus movement, trying to stamp it out, violently if necessary. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christ-followers when he had an experience of Jesus speaking to him that changed the course of his life – and of human history. Though viewed with suspicion by those he had persecuted, he was baptized into Christian faith and gradually accepted, going on to evangelize Greek and Roman-held lands and articulate in his letters the theology that has shaped Christian understanding, especially the truth that we are saved by Jesus' works of love, not by our own “goodness.”
No one would have called Paul (then Saul) a “lost sheep.” As a Pharisee he was known for his holiness and fidelity to the Law. But he, who called others blasphemous, came to see that he was the blasphemer, having ignored all the signs that Jesus was who he said he was, the risen Son of God, redeemer of the world. He came to believe he was foremost among sinners and had gone far astray – and that he’d been found and rescued by the Great Shepherd himself, for a purpose: "But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life."
Lest we ever think it a waste of time to seek those who have strayed far from God’s will, or even those who just have no interest, we have the example of Paul who went from legalistic, self-righteous religious leader to foremost articulator of the grace of God that Jesus describes in his lost and found stories. Not even Paul, who was persecuting Jesus’ beloved community, was too lost for the shepherd to seek out – he reached from beyond the grave to get Paul. No one is beyond the reach of God's love, no one.
Who might we seek, who could end up having a huge impact for good? Who is hovering on the edges of our lives, our churches, our communities, who needs to be welcomed in?
What parts of ourselves are yet unclaimed by the grace of God, that still operate out of a code of condemnation?
We have received mercy, we found sheep and found coins. To whom will we extend it?
We have received mercy, we found sheep and found coins. To whom will we extend it?
9-8-22 - Rejoicing With the Forgiven
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
How do you feel when people get away with stuff? What if they say they’re sorry? This week, we’ve looked at stories of the lost being found, and at each finding Jesus says, “So there is rejoicing over one sinner who repents.”
But do we rejoice when someone is forgiven for something awful? Not always. The media is full of stories of people who feel cheated of “justice” if a case goes against them, or if someone is publically forgiven, as when Pope John Paul II forgave his would-be assassin.
Forgiveness doesn’t come naturally, especially if we're used to a system of blaming and judging. To forgive means to “give for,” to give to another what they owe us, what they already took. When we forgive, we release the debt owed us. In a sense, we pay twice, once when something was taken, and again when we restore it ourselves. Forgiveness is costly.
Jesus says: Look how lavish with his love God is. Though we wander off to things we believe will give us pleasure or security or power or control, God greets us when we return, even before we get there, as Jesus tells in the parable immediately following these two. God extends us grace over and over and over again. To some, this makes God look like a chump, someone taken advantage of. But no; God gives with eyes wide open, and will give again.
I don’t know if the Pharisees got the point of Jesus’ stories. When you’re wired to earn your way, it can be hard to take in the message of overwhelming love. Some years ago, in prayer. I sensed God say to me: “I already love you the most. There is nothing you have to do, or can do, to make me love you more – I already love you the most, with the love that fills the universe and beyond.”
It’s taking me time to live into that love, and to extend it to others. Thankfully, I have a lifetime to learn to absorb it, trust it, let it make me whole. A lifetime, and eternity beyond that. You too.
God gives with a heart wide open, offering us forgiveness, love and grace, unearned and unearnable, unmeasured and immeasurable. Can we say, "Yes" today, and rejoice that others are forgiven too, even those we consider unforgivable? God doesn’t…
How do you feel when people get away with stuff? What if they say they’re sorry? This week, we’ve looked at stories of the lost being found, and at each finding Jesus says, “So there is rejoicing over one sinner who repents.”
But do we rejoice when someone is forgiven for something awful? Not always. The media is full of stories of people who feel cheated of “justice” if a case goes against them, or if someone is publically forgiven, as when Pope John Paul II forgave his would-be assassin.
Forgiveness doesn’t come naturally, especially if we're used to a system of blaming and judging. To forgive means to “give for,” to give to another what they owe us, what they already took. When we forgive, we release the debt owed us. In a sense, we pay twice, once when something was taken, and again when we restore it ourselves. Forgiveness is costly.
Jesus says: Look how lavish with his love God is. Though we wander off to things we believe will give us pleasure or security or power or control, God greets us when we return, even before we get there, as Jesus tells in the parable immediately following these two. God extends us grace over and over and over again. To some, this makes God look like a chump, someone taken advantage of. But no; God gives with eyes wide open, and will give again.
I don’t know if the Pharisees got the point of Jesus’ stories. When you’re wired to earn your way, it can be hard to take in the message of overwhelming love. Some years ago, in prayer. I sensed God say to me: “I already love you the most. There is nothing you have to do, or can do, to make me love you more – I already love you the most, with the love that fills the universe and beyond.”
It’s taking me time to live into that love, and to extend it to others. Thankfully, I have a lifetime to learn to absorb it, trust it, let it make me whole. A lifetime, and eternity beyond that. You too.
God gives with a heart wide open, offering us forgiveness, love and grace, unearned and unearnable, unmeasured and immeasurable. Can we say, "Yes" today, and rejoice that others are forgiven too, even those we consider unforgivable? God doesn’t…
9-7-22 - Olly Olly Oxen Free
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Sometimes we need to hear something more than once – so Jesus told those Pharisees another parable about losing and finding, repenting and rejoicing: “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”
Interpreting parables can be like interpreting dreams – you might be any or all of the characters. Who do you relate to today – the coin, or the woman? (Or the lamp, broom or house...) The way I see it at this moment, the woman is God (yep, more than once Jesus assigns God the woman’s role…) and the coins are us. Imagine: God values us so much, she will search high and low for us whenever we roll under the bed or into a dark corner. God turns on the light of truth, gets out the broom of forgiveness, sweeps the dust away from us – and keeps looking till we’re found.
Now, in both Jesus’ stories, the sheep and the coin are passive. They get lost and have to be found. As people made in God’s image, we have some choice. Yet, when we fall into self-oriented and self-destructive patterns, our freedom to choose can become compromised. We need to be found. Often what elicits repentance in us is realizing we are so precious that someone bothers to seek and find us. Guilt doesn’t do the job nearly as well as love does.
Repentance is a choice we can make every day, saying to that heavenly Seeker, “Okay, here I am, under the dresser again…” And then we join all the others who’ve been found, rejoicing when each one comes back. “When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Okay, so now who are you: the coin, the seeker, a friend or neighbor rejoicing? All of the above? Today we might spend some time in repentance – where are some places you’ve rolled that are out of the light? What parts of your life have become dusty and cluttered? Here comes the light and the broom…
Imagine being a coin that is found, picked up, turned over in the palm of the finder, smiled at, cherished – and maybe put in a pocket with a bunch of other found coins. What a great jingle-jangle we make when we’re put together, we found coins! How much more valuable we are together than apart.
Sometimes we think we can hide from God; if we’re not looking for God, God will leave us alone. Jesus says nope, God never rests while we are apart. God seeks us, finds us, invites us home. Remember that phrase kids call out in hide-n-seek, indicating it is safe to come out of hiding, “Olly, olly, oxen free?” Some say its root is: “O ye, o ye, in come free.” Do you hear God calling you home?
Sometimes we need to hear something more than once – so Jesus told those Pharisees another parable about losing and finding, repenting and rejoicing: “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”
Interpreting parables can be like interpreting dreams – you might be any or all of the characters. Who do you relate to today – the coin, or the woman? (Or the lamp, broom or house...) The way I see it at this moment, the woman is God (yep, more than once Jesus assigns God the woman’s role…) and the coins are us. Imagine: God values us so much, she will search high and low for us whenever we roll under the bed or into a dark corner. God turns on the light of truth, gets out the broom of forgiveness, sweeps the dust away from us – and keeps looking till we’re found.
Now, in both Jesus’ stories, the sheep and the coin are passive. They get lost and have to be found. As people made in God’s image, we have some choice. Yet, when we fall into self-oriented and self-destructive patterns, our freedom to choose can become compromised. We need to be found. Often what elicits repentance in us is realizing we are so precious that someone bothers to seek and find us. Guilt doesn’t do the job nearly as well as love does.
Repentance is a choice we can make every day, saying to that heavenly Seeker, “Okay, here I am, under the dresser again…” And then we join all the others who’ve been found, rejoicing when each one comes back. “When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Okay, so now who are you: the coin, the seeker, a friend or neighbor rejoicing? All of the above? Today we might spend some time in repentance – where are some places you’ve rolled that are out of the light? What parts of your life have become dusty and cluttered? Here comes the light and the broom…
Imagine being a coin that is found, picked up, turned over in the palm of the finder, smiled at, cherished – and maybe put in a pocket with a bunch of other found coins. What a great jingle-jangle we make when we’re put together, we found coins! How much more valuable we are together than apart.
Sometimes we think we can hide from God; if we’re not looking for God, God will leave us alone. Jesus says nope, God never rests while we are apart. God seeks us, finds us, invites us home. Remember that phrase kids call out in hide-n-seek, indicating it is safe to come out of hiding, “Olly, olly, oxen free?” Some say its root is: “O ye, o ye, in come free.” Do you hear God calling you home?
9-6-22 - The Other One Percent
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Jesus’ parables are sneaky. They lead you one way, and then, bam!, swerve somewhere that contradicts common sense and practice. "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” At first glance, you think, “Yeah! I’d go after that poor, lost little sheep…” On second thought... would you really leave 99 valuable livestock unprotected and search for one?
Maybe so, Jesus suggests. Remember, he’s answering the question, “Why do you eat with sinners?” Lurking beneath that question is: “Shouldn’t you hang out with the righteous folks, like us?”
Jesus says that his time in this earthly life is to be spent seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10) The “ninety-nine” can look after each other. Someone has to look for the wanderers, the explorers of steeper paths, the ones who chased greener pastures only to look up and find themselves alone in the deep, dark woods. Presumably, the "right-living" sheep already make heaven pretty happy. The recovery of the lost sheep is cause for special rejoicing.
It is a principle of church growth that you program for people who are not there, rather than ones who are. I once heard a bishop say that – and a church-goer took issue with it – “What about us? Don’t we count?” This is the cry of the ninety-nine.
In the “both/and” realm of God, it doesn’t have to be a choice – yet Jesus does make clear where his followers are to put our energy. Do we have enough “bandwidth” to care for one another AND to follow Jesus out to the ravines and scary places where lost sheep are apt to be found, those who do not know the love of the Good Shepherd, who may even feel pretty unlovable? I think we do – especially if we enhance our capacity with the infinite power and love of the Spirit.
Here are some prompts for prayer and reflection today: List everything you do to nurture your own church community – activities, funds, prayer. Do you hear the sound of rejoicing in heaven? You’re giving a huge gift.
Now list the ways you reach out to the people who might be “outliers” – not so much funding and feeding, but how you personally interact with people outside your circle. Our goal might be to aim for balance, maybe even tipping a little toward the outlier sheep.
Who comes to mind when you think of “lost sheep” in your life or community? God may send you to someone in particular… give it a moment and see who comes up.
If you get a name or face, stay with it. Ask God to bless that person, and to show you where and how you might come close to them.
Our goal is not to invite him to church, or to “get her help.” Our goal is to go and be with, offering a relationship that is mutual (we all have “lost” parts in ourselves…) – and invite the Shepherd himself to lead him or her back into wholeness.
If you remember a time when you were lost and someone found you, you know how it works. There was a LOT of rejoicing.
Jesus’ parables are sneaky. They lead you one way, and then, bam!, swerve somewhere that contradicts common sense and practice. "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” At first glance, you think, “Yeah! I’d go after that poor, lost little sheep…” On second thought... would you really leave 99 valuable livestock unprotected and search for one?
Maybe so, Jesus suggests. Remember, he’s answering the question, “Why do you eat with sinners?” Lurking beneath that question is: “Shouldn’t you hang out with the righteous folks, like us?”
Jesus says that his time in this earthly life is to be spent seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10) The “ninety-nine” can look after each other. Someone has to look for the wanderers, the explorers of steeper paths, the ones who chased greener pastures only to look up and find themselves alone in the deep, dark woods. Presumably, the "right-living" sheep already make heaven pretty happy. The recovery of the lost sheep is cause for special rejoicing.
It is a principle of church growth that you program for people who are not there, rather than ones who are. I once heard a bishop say that – and a church-goer took issue with it – “What about us? Don’t we count?” This is the cry of the ninety-nine.
In the “both/and” realm of God, it doesn’t have to be a choice – yet Jesus does make clear where his followers are to put our energy. Do we have enough “bandwidth” to care for one another AND to follow Jesus out to the ravines and scary places where lost sheep are apt to be found, those who do not know the love of the Good Shepherd, who may even feel pretty unlovable? I think we do – especially if we enhance our capacity with the infinite power and love of the Spirit.
Here are some prompts for prayer and reflection today: List everything you do to nurture your own church community – activities, funds, prayer. Do you hear the sound of rejoicing in heaven? You’re giving a huge gift.
Now list the ways you reach out to the people who might be “outliers” – not so much funding and feeding, but how you personally interact with people outside your circle. Our goal might be to aim for balance, maybe even tipping a little toward the outlier sheep.
Who comes to mind when you think of “lost sheep” in your life or community? God may send you to someone in particular… give it a moment and see who comes up.
If you get a name or face, stay with it. Ask God to bless that person, and to show you where and how you might come close to them.
Our goal is not to invite him to church, or to “get her help.” Our goal is to go and be with, offering a relationship that is mutual (we all have “lost” parts in ourselves…) – and invite the Shepherd himself to lead him or her back into wholeness.
If you remember a time when you were lost and someone found you, you know how it works. There was a LOT of rejoicing.
9-5-22 - The Company You Keep
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Jesus was often under scrutiny by the religious leaders of his day – all the more because they didn’t approve of many whom he welcomed into his company: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Why are “tax collectors” and “sinners” so often lumped together in the Gospels? Tax collectors of Jesus’ time were no mild-mannered IRS accountants. They were Jews who made a living by “collecting” taxes for the Romans from their fellow Jews. As such, they were collaborators with a hated regime and enforcers of cruel and often capricious extortion. And the Romans didn’t pay them for this – they allowed them to tack on a “fee” or surcharge. The meaner the tax collector, the higher the “fee” they commanded. Tax collectors were easy to loathe.
Yet Jesus invited one of these, Matthew, to be a disciple. He ate at the home of another, Zaccheus. He seemed to be a magnet for them – and he didn’t just dine with them. He invited them to repent and be renewed. Many saw their lives transformed, as did other “sinners” who spent time with Jesus. Who better to hang around with than someone who talks about forgiveness and the love of the heavenly Father? Who sees you as a human being despite the despicable way you’ve treated others?
And what about these Pharisees and scribes? They weren’t bad people. Pharisees deeply loved the Law of Moses and strove for lives of great holiness. In the process, they often became self-righteous, judgmental, and tipped into a compassionless legalism that – Jesus felt – caused them to focus on minute laws at the expense of God’s greater command to care for the poor and defenseless. The scribes were temple leaders, and regulated the apparatus of worship and sacrifice. They had limited power under Roman authority, and like many such people, excelled in exerting that power over people with even less.
So we have, on the one hand, notorious sinners and low-lifes, and on the other, hypocritical and arrogant “holy” people. If all the low-lifes were in one room, and all the religious people in another, and you HAD to pick one, which room would you go in? Why? What would you say to those gathered in each room?
What kind of people do you find yourself judging, even condemning?
Jesus was often under scrutiny by the religious leaders of his day – all the more because they didn’t approve of many whom he welcomed into his company: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Why are “tax collectors” and “sinners” so often lumped together in the Gospels? Tax collectors of Jesus’ time were no mild-mannered IRS accountants. They were Jews who made a living by “collecting” taxes for the Romans from their fellow Jews. As such, they were collaborators with a hated regime and enforcers of cruel and often capricious extortion. And the Romans didn’t pay them for this – they allowed them to tack on a “fee” or surcharge. The meaner the tax collector, the higher the “fee” they commanded. Tax collectors were easy to loathe.
Yet Jesus invited one of these, Matthew, to be a disciple. He ate at the home of another, Zaccheus. He seemed to be a magnet for them – and he didn’t just dine with them. He invited them to repent and be renewed. Many saw their lives transformed, as did other “sinners” who spent time with Jesus. Who better to hang around with than someone who talks about forgiveness and the love of the heavenly Father? Who sees you as a human being despite the despicable way you’ve treated others?
And what about these Pharisees and scribes? They weren’t bad people. Pharisees deeply loved the Law of Moses and strove for lives of great holiness. In the process, they often became self-righteous, judgmental, and tipped into a compassionless legalism that – Jesus felt – caused them to focus on minute laws at the expense of God’s greater command to care for the poor and defenseless. The scribes were temple leaders, and regulated the apparatus of worship and sacrifice. They had limited power under Roman authority, and like many such people, excelled in exerting that power over people with even less.
So we have, on the one hand, notorious sinners and low-lifes, and on the other, hypocritical and arrogant “holy” people. If all the low-lifes were in one room, and all the religious people in another, and you HAD to pick one, which room would you go in? Why? What would you say to those gathered in each room?
What kind of people do you find yourself judging, even condemning?
(We all do it… let’s just bring it to the surface so we can look at it…)
Think of some examples of individuals or groups. Bring them to mind.
Think of some examples of individuals or groups. Bring them to mind.
Now bring Jesus into that picture. What does he do? Say? How do you feel?
What kind of people do you feel are hypocritical? How do you suppose they got that way?
Think of some examples of individuals or groups. Bring them to mind.
What kind of people do you feel are hypocritical? How do you suppose they got that way?
Think of some examples of individuals or groups. Bring them to mind.
Now bring Jesus into that picture. What does he do? Say? How do you feel?
Those who flout the rules and those who cling rigidly to them are both living outside the sweet spot of God's grace. Jesus invites us all into the center.
Those who flout the rules and those who cling rigidly to them are both living outside the sweet spot of God's grace. Jesus invites us all into the center.
8-29-22 - Family Values
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
In our current culture, the most benign-seeming things can become controversial, and nothing so much as family. The term “family values” is often associated with conservative Christian groups and their positions on social issues. More liberal elements in society redefine the term "family" beyond biological kin to include those we choose to love, be they adoptive children or same-gendered partners.
Jesus had something to say about family values too, but I doubt our arguments about family would have interested him much. He told his followers to leave the whole concept behind and focus on making his Gospel of forgiveness and freedom known to the world: Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
Did Jesus really say that? Well, this was the man who, when told that his mother and brothers wanted to see him, said, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”(Mt 12:50) This is the man whose followers left their homes and families to travel with him, checking in now and then, but committing themselves to a bigger, messier, non-biological family.
Jesus’ teaching radically undermines how human nature and culture lead us to think and act. Our earthly families can be great blessings – and they are among the “things that are passing away.” In the perspective of eternity, they pale in importance to our membership in the family of God. We are invited to walk a fine line in loving and nurturing our human families and not letting our love for them distract us from cultivating our relationship with God and God's people.
That means prizing our family members as gifts from God given in us trust to nurture and help grow, not to possess or cling to. We don’t have to love our families less – we are invited to love our mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers in the household of God more. Then we are able to be even more loving to those in our human families.
Today, let’s give thanks for our families of origin – the gifts the challenges, the truth.
If your experience of family is painful, can you invite the living water of healing into those wounds?
Then reflect on who you’ve come to know and love in your “God-family” –grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins in the faith. Who comes to mind?
What has she or he brought to your life?
And who are your “children” in faith – people whom you’ve mentored and supported in their faith life?
Finally, who do you know who could use a new family, whom you might bring into the household of God?
During the pandemic, my congregation has expanded to enfold some Canadians who regularly worship, study, pray and minister with us online. Last week, one of these sisters came to visit us in Southern Maryland, bringing along a friend who also became a sister. They marveled at the warm reception – but that’s how you welcome family. The family of God is ever growing, as we expand our circles of love and healing to include ever more brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. That’s a lot of birthday cards!
In our current culture, the most benign-seeming things can become controversial, and nothing so much as family. The term “family values” is often associated with conservative Christian groups and their positions on social issues. More liberal elements in society redefine the term "family" beyond biological kin to include those we choose to love, be they adoptive children or same-gendered partners.
Jesus had something to say about family values too, but I doubt our arguments about family would have interested him much. He told his followers to leave the whole concept behind and focus on making his Gospel of forgiveness and freedom known to the world: Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
Did Jesus really say that? Well, this was the man who, when told that his mother and brothers wanted to see him, said, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”(Mt 12:50) This is the man whose followers left their homes and families to travel with him, checking in now and then, but committing themselves to a bigger, messier, non-biological family.
Jesus’ teaching radically undermines how human nature and culture lead us to think and act. Our earthly families can be great blessings – and they are among the “things that are passing away.” In the perspective of eternity, they pale in importance to our membership in the family of God. We are invited to walk a fine line in loving and nurturing our human families and not letting our love for them distract us from cultivating our relationship with God and God's people.
That means prizing our family members as gifts from God given in us trust to nurture and help grow, not to possess or cling to. We don’t have to love our families less – we are invited to love our mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers in the household of God more. Then we are able to be even more loving to those in our human families.
Today, let’s give thanks for our families of origin – the gifts the challenges, the truth.
If your experience of family is painful, can you invite the living water of healing into those wounds?
Then reflect on who you’ve come to know and love in your “God-family” –grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins in the faith. Who comes to mind?
What has she or he brought to your life?
And who are your “children” in faith – people whom you’ve mentored and supported in their faith life?
Finally, who do you know who could use a new family, whom you might bring into the household of God?
During the pandemic, my congregation has expanded to enfold some Canadians who regularly worship, study, pray and minister with us online. Last week, one of these sisters came to visit us in Southern Maryland, bringing along a friend who also became a sister. They marveled at the warm reception – but that’s how you welcome family. The family of God is ever growing, as we expand our circles of love and healing to include ever more brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. That’s a lot of birthday cards!
6-10-22 - How the Love Gets In
You can listen to this reflection here.
I want to end our week with the epistle reading appointed for Sunday, Romans 5:1-5; specifically the last line, which says: “…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
If we wonder how the Love we worship and rely on is delivered to us, Paul clarifies that it is a by-product of the Holy Spirit, God’s most essential gift to us. The idea that this love is inside us, ours already, rather than outside to be somehow sought or obtained – or, worse, earned – is a radical reminder to us of what grace is. Grace is unmerited favor, gift without contract or condition.
There are many gifts packed into the gift of Holy Spirit – peace, power, presence; courage, compassion, contrition; healing and hope; to name but an alliterative few. All of these are contained in the supreme gift of God’s love, God’s “yes” in the face of all the world’s “no’s.” God's love is gift to us.
And God’s love is gift throughus. We are the means through which God intends his love to reach those who do not yet know him, whose hearts perhaps have not be open to receiving her love or her Spirit. It’s up to us to make the introductions, to live and speak and interact with such light and love that people around us can see that love in us, and come to want it for themselves.
Do you feel the love of God in your heart today? I do believe it is there, but I also know all kinds of things in our lives and persons can block its flow: fear, insecurity, envy, resentment, sin… Our task is to release this love poured into us so that its flow into, around and through us is unimpeded. If you are aware of an obstacle to that flow, I invite you to lift it in prayer and invite the Spirit to help you move or transform it.
However you feel today, take some time to be present to the Love that has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit. How does knowing that pool of love is there change your day, your work, your life? Where and to whom do you want it to flow next? The prayer is simple: Come, Holy Spirit.
I want to end our week with the epistle reading appointed for Sunday, Romans 5:1-5; specifically the last line, which says: “…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
If we wonder how the Love we worship and rely on is delivered to us, Paul clarifies that it is a by-product of the Holy Spirit, God’s most essential gift to us. The idea that this love is inside us, ours already, rather than outside to be somehow sought or obtained – or, worse, earned – is a radical reminder to us of what grace is. Grace is unmerited favor, gift without contract or condition.
There are many gifts packed into the gift of Holy Spirit – peace, power, presence; courage, compassion, contrition; healing and hope; to name but an alliterative few. All of these are contained in the supreme gift of God’s love, God’s “yes” in the face of all the world’s “no’s.” God's love is gift to us.
And God’s love is gift throughus. We are the means through which God intends his love to reach those who do not yet know him, whose hearts perhaps have not be open to receiving her love or her Spirit. It’s up to us to make the introductions, to live and speak and interact with such light and love that people around us can see that love in us, and come to want it for themselves.
Do you feel the love of God in your heart today? I do believe it is there, but I also know all kinds of things in our lives and persons can block its flow: fear, insecurity, envy, resentment, sin… Our task is to release this love poured into us so that its flow into, around and through us is unimpeded. If you are aware of an obstacle to that flow, I invite you to lift it in prayer and invite the Spirit to help you move or transform it.
However you feel today, take some time to be present to the Love that has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit. How does knowing that pool of love is there change your day, your work, your life? Where and to whom do you want it to flow next? The prayer is simple: Come, Holy Spirit.
6-3-22 - Everybody In the Pool
You can listen to this reflection here.
One amazing aspect of the Pentecost story is how the apostle Peter interprets it as he is experiencing it. When Jesus’ followers get slam-dunked by the Holy Spirit and go out and start proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in languages they don’t know, some observers scoff, "They must be drunk on new wine.” But Peter begins to preach to the whole crowd, saying, “We’re not drunk; it’s nine o’clock in the morning, folks! God is up to something – and it’s something God has been promising for a very long time.”
“…this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
This idea of God’s Spirit poured out on all of humanity is startling. Don’t people need to be holy enough? Don’t they need to be part of the tribe? Don’t they need to correctly understand theology? Don’t they have to want to have God’s Spirit poured out upon them? All flesh? Really? Everybody?
That’s the vision the prophet Joel had spoken of old, and that’s where Peter found the scriptural basis to anchor this bizarre turn of events. It would be some years before he finally understood just how radical God’s welcome to people outside the community of Israel truly was, but even here, at the beginning, he understands that this outpouring of God-Life is not to be reserved to a chosen few. God wants to give his Spirit to everyone God has created.
So, does one have to be a Christian to receive the Holy Spirit? Not according to the story we read in Acts 10, where the Spirit comes in power upon Gentiles listening to Peter preach.I John 4 suggests we need the spirit of Christ to recognize the Spirit of Christ. Yet there are people who don’t claim Jesus as Lord and Savior but revere his spirit, as do Muslims and many Jewish and Baha'i people. I’ve known many non-Christians who seem Spirit-filled, even manifesting gifts of the Spirit like healing. Perhaps God’s Spirit is poured out upon everyone who recognizes the power of sacrificial love. After all, the water in a pool gets everybody in it wet, no distinctions. Is the same is true of our Living Water, by which John said Jesus meant the Holy Spirit?
My prayer is that those of us who do claim Jesus as Lord and worship him might desire the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can more actively share that Spirit outside our communities. Six years ago, my congregation in Connecticut held Pentecost worship in a downtown park. This Pentecost Sunday, what will you do to demonstrate the gifts of the Spirit outside the sanctuary? God wants everybody in this pool.
One amazing aspect of the Pentecost story is how the apostle Peter interprets it as he is experiencing it. When Jesus’ followers get slam-dunked by the Holy Spirit and go out and start proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in languages they don’t know, some observers scoff, "They must be drunk on new wine.” But Peter begins to preach to the whole crowd, saying, “We’re not drunk; it’s nine o’clock in the morning, folks! God is up to something – and it’s something God has been promising for a very long time.”
“…this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
This idea of God’s Spirit poured out on all of humanity is startling. Don’t people need to be holy enough? Don’t they need to be part of the tribe? Don’t they need to correctly understand theology? Don’t they have to want to have God’s Spirit poured out upon them? All flesh? Really? Everybody?
That’s the vision the prophet Joel had spoken of old, and that’s where Peter found the scriptural basis to anchor this bizarre turn of events. It would be some years before he finally understood just how radical God’s welcome to people outside the community of Israel truly was, but even here, at the beginning, he understands that this outpouring of God-Life is not to be reserved to a chosen few. God wants to give his Spirit to everyone God has created.
So, does one have to be a Christian to receive the Holy Spirit? Not according to the story we read in Acts 10, where the Spirit comes in power upon Gentiles listening to Peter preach.I John 4 suggests we need the spirit of Christ to recognize the Spirit of Christ. Yet there are people who don’t claim Jesus as Lord and Savior but revere his spirit, as do Muslims and many Jewish and Baha'i people. I’ve known many non-Christians who seem Spirit-filled, even manifesting gifts of the Spirit like healing. Perhaps God’s Spirit is poured out upon everyone who recognizes the power of sacrificial love. After all, the water in a pool gets everybody in it wet, no distinctions. Is the same is true of our Living Water, by which John said Jesus meant the Holy Spirit?
My prayer is that those of us who do claim Jesus as Lord and worship him might desire the filling of the Holy Spirit, so that we can more actively share that Spirit outside our communities. Six years ago, my congregation in Connecticut held Pentecost worship in a downtown park. This Pentecost Sunday, what will you do to demonstrate the gifts of the Spirit outside the sanctuary? God wants everybody in this pool.
5-11-22 - What God Has Made Clean
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's New Testament reading is here.
After reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel reading for two days, let’s spend the rest of the week on the reading from Acts. These stories have so much life. This week’s in particular amplifies the message of “love one another.” The story of what the apostle Peter experienced in Joppa radically expanded the early church’s understanding of its mission.
We hear this tale as Peter tells it to his brethren in Jerusalem. They are suspicious about Gentile converts to faith in Jesus Christ. Many of the Jewish believers fear this is too great a departure from their tradition (here they are, only a few years since Jesus’ resurrection, already defending the tradition…) So Peter goes to Jerusalem to explain to these “circumcised believers” why it is he eats and drinks with Gentiles, non-Jews. Have they so quickly forgotten that Jesus too had to explain his choices of eating companions?
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision…”
Peter relates a bizarre vision in which a sheet is lowered from heaven containing mammals, reptiles, birds, as a voice says, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter protests that he has never eaten anything non-kosher, but the voice replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times, and the moment he emerges from his trance he receives word that some men want to see him. They ask him to come and speak to a group gathered at the home of a Roman centurion, Cornelius. (These stories appear in greater detail in Acts 10 - what we have here is Peter’s re-telling). Normally, Peter would not have gone off with Gentiles, but with this vision fresh in his mind, and the Spirit’s nudging, he goes.
We’ll explore later what wondrous things happen in the home of Cornelius. Today let’s stay with the vision and message Peter received, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Do we have here a hint of how the Holy Spirit expands our understanding of God’s word? Extending the Good News to Gentiles, and the early church’s grappling with that, is instructive for us in our church conflicts over biblical interpretation and social issues. Christians on the more “liberal” end of these tensions believe that the Spirit has enlarged our interpretative lens, if you will, while those on the more conservative side feel that the tradition must be honored and upheld. Yet it seems to me you can’t get a more radical expansion of Mosaic food laws than, “Do not call profane what God has made clean.” What else might the Spirit be inviting us to re-examine?
What are some areas in which you have had to wrestle with scripture, traditional interpretation of that scripture, and a call to a more expansive view? Does this vision of Peter’s help or hinder your struggle?
For Peter, this experience provided critical data that he needed right away when called to a Roman centurion’s home. What happened when he got there confirmed the vision a thousand times. That’s how God works – he shows us something new, leads us into the unfamiliar, and then let’s us know we are exactly where she wants us to be.
After reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel reading for two days, let’s spend the rest of the week on the reading from Acts. These stories have so much life. This week’s in particular amplifies the message of “love one another.” The story of what the apostle Peter experienced in Joppa radically expanded the early church’s understanding of its mission.
We hear this tale as Peter tells it to his brethren in Jerusalem. They are suspicious about Gentile converts to faith in Jesus Christ. Many of the Jewish believers fear this is too great a departure from their tradition (here they are, only a few years since Jesus’ resurrection, already defending the tradition…) So Peter goes to Jerusalem to explain to these “circumcised believers” why it is he eats and drinks with Gentiles, non-Jews. Have they so quickly forgotten that Jesus too had to explain his choices of eating companions?
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision…”
Peter relates a bizarre vision in which a sheet is lowered from heaven containing mammals, reptiles, birds, as a voice says, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter protests that he has never eaten anything non-kosher, but the voice replies, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” This happens three times, and the moment he emerges from his trance he receives word that some men want to see him. They ask him to come and speak to a group gathered at the home of a Roman centurion, Cornelius. (These stories appear in greater detail in Acts 10 - what we have here is Peter’s re-telling). Normally, Peter would not have gone off with Gentiles, but with this vision fresh in his mind, and the Spirit’s nudging, he goes.
We’ll explore later what wondrous things happen in the home of Cornelius. Today let’s stay with the vision and message Peter received, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Do we have here a hint of how the Holy Spirit expands our understanding of God’s word? Extending the Good News to Gentiles, and the early church’s grappling with that, is instructive for us in our church conflicts over biblical interpretation and social issues. Christians on the more “liberal” end of these tensions believe that the Spirit has enlarged our interpretative lens, if you will, while those on the more conservative side feel that the tradition must be honored and upheld. Yet it seems to me you can’t get a more radical expansion of Mosaic food laws than, “Do not call profane what God has made clean.” What else might the Spirit be inviting us to re-examine?
What are some areas in which you have had to wrestle with scripture, traditional interpretation of that scripture, and a call to a more expansive view? Does this vision of Peter’s help or hinder your struggle?
For Peter, this experience provided critical data that he needed right away when called to a Roman centurion’s home. What happened when he got there confirmed the vision a thousand times. That’s how God works – he shows us something new, leads us into the unfamiliar, and then let’s us know we are exactly where she wants us to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)