6-7-24 - God's Will

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

Welcome to the family! You’re in. Jesus says so. But on what basis were you accepted? Were you born into it? Millions have been over 2,000 some years. Born and baptized, you belong.

Or did you get in on faith? That’s supposed to be a sure-fire way, believing in Jesus the Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen. Don’t need any documents from Column B – you believe, you’re in.

And what about behavior? Some of us “solo gratia” types aren’t so keen on the idea that folks can “do-good” their way into the Kingdom. But Jesus did say something about doing the will of God: And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

We can’t take behaving out of the picture, any more than we can take out believing, birth or baptism. The Realm of God is a “both/and” enterprise. It can be useful, though, to explore what it means to do the will of God. If it were easier to discern God’s will, we wouldn’t worry, wonder or wander as much.

One way to discern God’s will is to ask if we’re doing something Jesus told his apostles to do: proclaim the Good News, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. Oh, and feed the hungry, visit the incarcerated, love the unloved, forgive those who have wounded or taken from us. All that.

And what about things that don’t fall easily into "apostolic" categories? What about choices facing us for which we want to know what God wants? A few measures can guide us:

• Is what we’re contemplating consistent with what we find in the Bible, or at least not contrary to what Jesus or the apostles taught?
• Is there confirmation within our community of faith, even by one other person, for the course we’re taking?
• The “gut check.” Do we have an inner sense of peace about it? If not, we should keep praying and exploring. 

Those are key components to discerning the will of God in our lives. Each is important, and to be taken in concert with the others. Our instinct matters, but if it clashes with the other factors, we should pay attention.

Are you in discernment about anything in your life at present? What happens when you pray about it? We don't always get a “straight answer” to those kinds of prayers, but if we keep our eyes and spirits open, we might find clues in “coincidences,” or things we observe or song lyrics, you name it. God has our number, if we keep our lines open.

Ultimately, Jesus said, his Father’s will was that “everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life...” (John 6:40). If we can live in that understanding, we will swim in God's will all the way to eternity.

© 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.

8-9-22 - Reading the Weather

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

When I need to know how to dress for the day, or whether or not to close my windows, I check a weather app. I can get a detailed forecast 48 hours ahead, or a more general one ten days out. In former times people had other ways of predicting the weather:

He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

Jesus has just spoken of an impending crisis: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” He does not clarify the exact nature of this crisis, but he’s furious that his followers seem unable to discern what is happening. From where we stand, it appears he is referring to his spiritual battle with the forces of evil, and the human structures and systems that allow evil to have its sway. He is on a mission to burn away the chaff of sin, and to release the captives who are bound to it. And the way he will do that, this “baptism with which I am to be baptized,” is his upcoming passion and death.

Jesus did accomplish the redemption of the world on the cross, and confirmed that in his rising to new life on Easter morning. If he has already won our liberation, is there more discernment for us? Do we need to scan signs to predict what is to come? How are we to read this troubling passage?

We live in the “already/not-yet. His work is accomplished yet still being brought to completion. The devil’s days are numbered yet, as we can see, sin and evil are still having a pretty good run. And the means by which God seems to have chosen to engage these final skirmishes is through us. We don’t need to battle evil – but we do need to see it, name it, and call in the spiritual forces of God to overwhelm it.

Paul writes that one of the gifts given to Christ-followers is the ability to discern spirits – to know when evil is present, to know when God is present. We are to pay attention to the clouds darkening our land, the prevailing winds blowing in the world, and to pray all the more when the signs indicate bad weather ahead. We don’t need to shrivel up in a heap when things look bad, or tuck our heads into the sands of our many modes of distraction and avoidance – we can stand firm on the promises of God, the saving work of Christ, our identity as redeemed sinners and saints of the Realm of God.

Evil cannot stand against the name of Jesus. It is our work to invoke his name and his power, early and often.

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12-27-21 - Star-Chasers

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

They knew their stars, these wise men, magi of scripture and legend, astrologers or astronomers from east of Judea (how far east? Everything’s relative…). They knew they had observed a new star in the night sky, and they knew how to interpret what they saw. According to their calculations, this one indicated a new king for the Jewish people – and this discernment induced them to leave home, undertake a lengthy journey of uncertain destination, find this new monarch and offer honor. Were they cultivating an alliance with a powerful new figure, or simply paying their respects?

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

Their predictions got them to the right country, if not the precise location where this new king could be found. And so, logically, they began their search in Jerusalem at the court of the current king, Herod. Bad idea – but that’s how great stories come about. More on that later in the week…

Today, let’s rest with these travelers. I am touched by their priorities, their attention to the movement of the heavens, their conviction that they’d read the stars correctly, their willingness to put aside their daily lives and duties to travel to a foreign land and pay homage to a monarch they’d only learned about through astrological charts and observation. They are models for us of faith in action, even amid our global crises that just keep coming.

Is there a star you are chasing? Another way to ask that is,
Have you discerned a movement of God in your life or in the world around you? 

Has it included a call to action for you?
Have you explored this with wise people in your life?
Have you been able to act on your discernment?
Have you been part of someone else’s discernment, been a “wise one” for another?

What divine action do you sense around you at this point in your life, on the cusp of a new year? This is often a time when we pay special attention to new movements in the greater arc of our lives, as the magi scanned the heavens for changes in the stars.

We have an advantage over those eastern sages – we already know the king they were seeking, or at the very least, we’ve been introduced. We don’t need to scan the heavens – we need only seek the light of Christ in and around us, and move toward that. That Star will give us all the direction we need.

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.

6-4-21 - God's Will

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

Welcome to the family! You’re in. Jesus says so. But on what basis were you accepted? Were you born into it? Millions have been over 2,000 some years. Born and baptized, you belong.

Or did you get in on faith? That’s supposed to be a sure-fire way, believing in Jesus the Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen. Don’t need any documents from Column B – you believe, you’re in.

And what about behavior? Some of us “solo gratia” types aren’t so keen on the idea that folks can “do-good” their way into the Kingdom. But Jesus did say something about doing the will of God: And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

We can’t take behaving out of the picture, any more than we can take out believing, birth or baptism. The Realm of God is a “both/and” enterprise. It can be useful, though, to explore what it means to do the will of God. If it were easier to discern God’s will, we wouldn’t worry, wonder or wander as much.

One way to discern God’s will is to ask if we’re doing something Jesus told his apostles to do: proclaim the Good News, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons. Oh, and feed the hungry, visit the incarcerated, love the unloved, forgive those who have wounded or taken from us. All that.

And what about things that don’t fall easily into "apostolic" categories? What about choices facing us for which we want to know what God wants? A few measures can guide us:

• Is what we’re contemplating consistent with what we find in the Bible, or at least not contrary to what Jesus or the apostles taught?
• Is there confirmation within our community of faith, even by one other person, for the course we’re taking?
• The “gut check.” Do we have an inner sense of peace about it? If not, we should keep praying and exploring. 

Those are key components to discerning the will of God in our lives. Each is important, and to be taken in concert with the others. Our instinct matters, but if it clashes with the other factors, we should pay attention.

Are you in discernment about anything in your life at present? What happens when you pray about it? We don't always get a “straight answer” to those kinds of prayers, but if we keep our eyes and spirits open, we might find clues in “coincidences,” or things we observe or song lyrics, you name it. God has our number, if we keep our lines open.

Ultimately, Jesus said, his Father’s will was that “everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life...” (John 6:40). If we can live in that understanding, we will swim in God's will all the way to eternity.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.  Water Daily is now a podcast! Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.