5-5-23 - Greater Things

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

How did the church’s expectations get so small? Maybe not all churches – some do expect that God will move in power among them. But many churches, and Christians, seem to ask very little of God, as if unsure what they can count on. Just listen to what Jesus said:

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Greater works than what Jesus did? He who transformed water into vats of finest wine, who extended a snack into a meal for 5,000, who healed the lame and lepers and gave sight to the blind? He who rose from the dead? It’s not possible. And yet, for a time, after the Spirit came at Pentecost, the apostles did indeed perform just such amazing works in God’s name and power. So what happened?

Well, God still works among us in miraculous ways, despite lukewarm faith or hesitance to ask too much of the Lord, as though God’s power were finite. Perhaps one obstacle comes from what Jesus is quoted as saying next, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” And, in case they didn’t get it, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

I have asked for things in Jesus’ name that I have not seen come to pass. Good things, holy things – healing and restoration, the gift of faith for those who wanted to believe but didn't. What are we to make of these words? Bad translation? Maybe the writer of John adding things for effect? I say that’s too easy. However this came into our sacred writings, we are invited to deal with it.

In part, that means dealing honestly with our disappointment with God for the “unanswered prayers.”* It means opening our spirits to the operation of the Holy Spirit so that more and more we pray for what God already intends – and maybe was waiting for us to be willing to be the conduits for. Praying in Jesus' name means praying in his will, in his Spirit. It means praying Jesus’ prayers.

It is a fine balance to pray with huge faith and boldness and yet release our desires into the mystery of God’s will. We can only do that, I believe, from within an honest relationship with God, trusting in God’s love, even when that is hard to feel. That’s why they call it faith.

Name a “great work” you would like God to accomplish through you. Don’t be timid, don’t be rational – go for broke. Let God know that today in prayer. Ask the Spirit to help refine that prayer in you until you have an inner conviction that you are praying God’s prayer. If we have to say, “If it is your will,” we don’t yet have that conviction. We are invited to keep praying and keep inviting the Spirit to knead that prayer in us until it is ready to rise and become bread.

If we don’t ask, if we don’t step out on the promises of God in faith, we will see mostly small works. Jesus said it; let’s lean on it. The more we pray, in faith, in the Spirit, the more amazing activity of God we will see. Amen! Let it be so!

*We’ll go 5 for 5 with the song links this week… Garth Brooks gets the nod today, if not the prize for theology…

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12-30-22 - Power In the Name

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

Sunday we observe the Feast of the Holy Name. Why is there a feast day dedicated not to a saint, not to a major event in Jesus’ life, but to his name? There is a biblical reason, and a theological one (beyond the fact that someone in the late 15th century thought another festival would be good for fundraising...)

We mark this occasion because Luke tells us it was significant. In keeping with the custom of the time – which continues in the Jewish community today:
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The bris, or circumcision, was standard. What was unusual is that Jesus was named not for his father or an ancestor, but according to the instruction of an angelic messenger (Gabriel was specific with Zechariah and Elizabeth too, insisting that their baby was to be named John.) The name Jesus, or Y’shua, invoked the Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, who led the people of Israel into the promised land after long years in the wilderness. This Y'shua was to lead all of humankind from the greater wilderness of sin and rebellion into the promised land of eternal life.

Yet this feast day is about more than just marking that occasion. The New Testament tells us that the name of Jesus itself carries power. When we utter someone’s name, we invoke their presence and power – and in some very real way, that happens when we proclaim the name of Jesus into situations where he is needed. When I am in crisis, injured or afraid, I instinctively say, “Jesus, be here now.” It’s become a default prayer.

Jesus himself told his followers to use his name in prayer:
“If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” (John14:14) And in Acts 3, Peter and John cure a lame man simply by saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” After this they explain to naysayers, “And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong.“ (Acts 3:16)

There is power in the name of Jesus – the only power we need to wield against the force of evil, against the enemy of human nature. As the ancient hymn recorded in Philippians asserts, “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

To some ancient peoples, knowing someone’s name gave you power over them, access to them. Jesus has freely given us his name and said, “Use it.” We have access to the power that made the universe as we invoke the name of Jesus. It’s up to us to use that privilege. The next time you feel up against a challenge, or powerless in some situation, try using the gift given to you as a follower of Christ: the name of Jesus. He comes with it.

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9-28-22 - Authority

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

When my beloved cat Dandelion was diagnosed with heart disease I became a font of panicked prayers anytime I thought her breathing looked funny. One day I was praying anxiously, asking Jesus please to heal her, and I sensed him say firmly, “You heal her.” “What?” I said. “You heal her. I’ve given you authority over disease; I’ve given you my name – use it.” (I did - and she lived for several more years, enduring two more moves, before succumbing to a tumor.)

When Jesus told his disciples to wield their faith boldly, he illustrated his point with a parable about authority: “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Make supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; you can eat and drink later’? Do you thank the servant for doing what was commanded?“

Later in the Gospel of Luke (12:37), Jesus is quoted as saying the opposite. Clearly He is making a different point here, about authority. He has given his followers authority over nature, sin, disease, demons – even death. (Over pretty much everything except other people with free will – which is why we could tell a mulberry tree to plant itself in the sea, but all the faith in the world can’t change someone's mind or heart...)

Jesus seems ticked off at the timidity of his disciples, given the authority they have as agents of God. “You are giving your challenges and obstacles way too much power. You are in charge – act like it when you pray!”

Jesus always invites us to be bold, not timid. Sometimes we let something like a common cold disable us, when we could take our God-given authority and invite the power and love of God to flow through us to bring wholeness. That’s what God does – make things whole. Sometimes we feel powerless over social systems that reinforce injustice, instead of asking how God would have us exercise our faith with the Holy Spirit in that realm.

What are you being invited to take authority over in your life? It might be a personal trait, it might be something in the natural order, or an illness or injury. You might say, "Lord, help me with this one - you have the power."

We don’t have to take authority in a “large and in charge” kind of way. We don’t have to be negative about the obstacle – we can simply stand firm in the power and love of God, unequivocal in our faith that God is in charge and God is at work through our prayers, whatever their “strength.”

The only thing we can do wrong is not pray, shrug our shoulders and walk away, going, “Oh well, that’s bigger than me.” It may be bigger than you and me, but it ain’t bigger than the God who made us.

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2-8-22 - Christ the Transformer

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

When trying to come up with a name for a church newly formed out of two parishes, I knew I wanted “Christ” in it. People have heard of Christ, even if they’ve never been introduced. The rest of the name also needed to be something people could connect to, a word in use nowadays. “King” seemed too monarchical and male-centric; “Redeemer” not particularly relatable – these days we only redeem points and coupons. We ended up with “Christ the Healer,” which was great. But what I really wished we could have used was “Christ the Transformer.”

They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Electric transformers take energy running on one current (say, that used in America) and transform it so it can be used by appliances wired for a different current (such as in Europe or Africa). Jesus was the Transformer extraordinaire, taking the energy current that birthed the universe and translating, mediating, making it usable for God’s creatures in this earthly realm. More than once the gospel writers refer to Jesus’ power being something that people could feel, that came out of him. Here we see a whole crowd trying to touch him, just to get a dose of what Jesus was mediating to the world. This bible passage, like others, suggests to me that God is pure energy, of a frequency we could not withstand were it not transformed for us.

That power coming through Jesus didn’t just “zap” people – it healed and restored. It cast out “unclean spirits,” whether demonic forces, or mental or physical diseases, or both. It forgave and released people. God’s power coming through Jesus transformed in body, mind and spirit – and healed individuals become transformers in their communities.

We are called to be transformers as we grow into Christ's likeness and ministry. We receive the power of the heavens and transform it into a current that “runs appliances” – lifting up the lowly, feeding the forgotten, healing the infirm, forgiving the unforgivable, loving the unlovable. As we grow in faith, exercising the power of God in prayer and ministry, we become able to withstand and channel a higher and higher frequency, or voltage, of spiritual power. God’s power has not weakened from the time of Christ to now; it is as strong as the wiring able to carry it.

Every single time we exercise faith in the name of Christ we mediate the power of the heavens to bring transformation and life to the things and creatures and people of this world. The more we channel God's power and love, the stronger and deeper our capacity grows.

Christ the Transformer is alive and eager to work through us, his Body in the world. How much can your wiring take?

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