6-11-18 - Scattering Seed

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

A person tosses a bunch of seeds on the ground, goes to sleep and wakes up for many days in a row, and then is surprised to see plants sprouting around him. This is a description of:

1. Organic farming methods
2. A lifelong city dweller’s first experience in the countryside
3. Me with the garden I just planted (see 2…)
4. The way things work in the realm of God

What does the story suggest to you?

Welcome to Seed Week in Bible Camp. I’ve never counted, but it seems to me that Jesus told more parables about seeds than any other one thing. In the passage just before this, he tells a long story about a sower of seeds and the different results he gets according to where they fall. In this week’s gospel reading we get two more seed parables, short, simple – and if we harvest them well – yielding manifold meanings and gifts. Here is the first:

“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We have no sower here, just “someone” who haphazardly scatters seed on the ground and then seems to be astonished that it sprouts and grows. How is this like the Kingdom of God? Is Jesus saying that God is the careless scatterer, hoping that the kingdom values of love and faithfulness and power will take root in some? There appears to be no cultivating, weeding, tending, or watering – just “the earth producing of itself.” Does this suggest that some people are just naturally ready to grow and thrive?

Or are we the ones unwittingly scattering the seeds of the gospel, and surprised when some sprout?

Or am I wrong to equate the seeds with people? Maybe the seeds are simply the movement of “getting it,” grasping the truth that Jesus was trying to communicate about the way the Realm of God is already around, among, even in us. The truth grows in us – we don’t have to study and prepare, simply recognize and accept and live it.

Or perhaps we should focus on the sprouting plants rather than the carelessness or cluelessness of the seed scatterer. The realm of God is constantly sprouting new life, grown from seeds we scarcely knew had been sown – and day after day, night after night, this growth continues apart from any effort we make.

What do you see when you play with this one?

This is what we do with parables – turn them this way and that, try on different angles and interpretations, see what strikes a spark in us. Come to think of it, parables are kind of like scattered seeds that sprout and grow, we know not how...

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6-8-18 - 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. Let's just check on what basis you were accepted. Were you born into it? Billions 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 strategy, 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 keen on the idea that you can “do-good” your 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 an “all of the above” 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 might not worry, wonder or wander as much.

One way to discern whether we’re doing 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 welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, visit the incarcerated, love the unloved, forgive those who have wounded or taken from you. All that.

And what about things that don’t fall easily into "apostolic" categories? What about choices we have to make, when we want to know what God wants us to do? There are a few measures that can guide us:
1. 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?
2. Is there confirmation within our community of faith, even by one other person, for the course we’re taking?
3. 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 is important, but if it clashes with the other measures, 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, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40). If we can live in that understanding, we will swim in God's will all the way to eternity.

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6-7-18 - The Unforgivable Sin

(You can listen to this reflection here. This Sunday's gospel passage is here.)

There are enough of things to worry about in this life; you probably aren’t losing sleep over whether or not you’ve committed the Unforgivable Sin. But a scripture-savvy neurotic overly given to scrupulosity might suffer a nagging concern that she has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. (I’ve been known to tell Jesus jokes… )

Reading the passage again this week, I think I can relax. It appears that the ultimate “diss” on the Holy Spirit was accusing Jesus of having an evil spirit: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

To avoid that eternal sin, we need only refrain from naming as unholy the Spirit of God. That means we must be able to distinguish the Holy Spirit from unclean spirits – and that’s not so hard to do. Jesus said one can identify a false prophet by his fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). John said to test those who claim to speak by the Spirit – and the test is whether or not they affirm that Jesus was fully human (I John 4:1-3). We can also look for evidence of the Spirit in a person by what kind of fruit they bear – are their words and work generally life-giving and God-oriented? Do we see around them the good fruit of transformed lives?

If we focus our energy on all the places and people in which we do see the Holy Spirit at work, we won’t have time to worry about evil. One of the devil's strategies is to get us focused on negatives and what’s lacking. Instead of worrying about whether or not we’ve committed the one unforgivable sin, let’s notice the much more startling announcement Jesus makes here: “…people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Wow! Talk about grace and mercy covering a multitude of sins!

I have written a lot this week about evil and the devil – those are big themes in this passage. But it’s worth remembering that the way the Tempter works is to distort the prohibitions and the penalties, and to downplay God's promises. In the Garden story(also appointed for Sunday), the man and woman are told they can eat the fruit of every tree except one. And that’s the one the tempter focuses their attention on – that one prohibition. That’s still his strategy, because it works so often.

How about we stop falling for it? How about we stand so firm in our belovedness in Christ, in the amazing mercy covering our petty sins and blasphemies, that we cannot be shaken off course by distortions and lies intended to undermine us? How about we invite the Holy Spirit to be so full and thick in us that we’re much more apt to praise God than condemn ourselves or others?

The clock is running out on the power of evil – God’s love has us covered. That is our Good News.

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6-6-18 - Breaking and Entering

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel passage is here.)

Is Jesus giving tips to burglars? Not quite – but he does have a few thoughts on the most effective way to break into someone’s house: “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.”

He is disputing a charge that the power by which he casts out demons is itself demonic. He says that’s ridiculous – that a house divided cannot stand. In fact, he says,
“And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.”

I’ve always found that statement confusing. Wasn’t Jesus all about putting an end to Satan’s power? I believe he is saying that Satan is not divided – Satan is single-mindedly focused on evil and gets stronger with each victory. Therefore Jesus will “tie up the strong man.” Hence, “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man.” And that is what we Christians claim Jesus accomplished – a definitive conquest over the forces of evil.

So… why doesn’t it seem like Satan is bound at all? Why does it seem like he still has a free run of the place, tempting, corrupting, degrading, destroying life?

That’s probably the hardest question asked of Christians. Don’t all our claims of Easter victory crash against the reality of evil still running amok in our world? Traditional apologists have likened Christ’s victory to D-Day, and the time we live in to the period between D-Day, when Axis forces were defeated, and V.E. Day, when all the battles had ended and peace was declared. That analogy has some legs.

And the issue of free will also comes into it. Yes, Jesus vanquished the destroyer – yet each and every person still must make choices and exercise free will. No one has it decided for her. The difference for us on this side of the Cross is that the choice is simpler. When we are faced with temptation to be less than who God made us to be, or when we fear evil is stronger than God, we need only remember that Jesus HAS tied up the strong man.

A person single-mindedly focused on his mission will always have more power than one who is ambivalent or unsure or wavering. Evil, personified in the name Satan, has power because he is wholly committed to destruction, to drawing people away from God. When we are equally clear about our commitment to God in Christ, to good, to love, those chains Jesus already put on him get tighter and tighter. Not only can we resist evil ourselves; we can also free those whom he has bound. That’s the work of justice and peacemaking.

We don’t have to fight or bind the evil one – that’s done. We need only stand firm on what Jesus has already finished and tell evil to get lost. We can do that in personal crises – just say, “Oh yeah, Jesus already won this battle. Come, Lord Jesus, fill me with your power…” And in global terms, what might change in the horrors that afflict our world if we were to face those crises the same way, if we were to come together in faith, pray, "Come, Lord Jesus," and focus single-mindedly on Love? Evil wouldn't stand a chance.

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6-5-18 - Fighting Evil With Evil?

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel passage is here.)

As Jesus' public ministry got under way, he took flak from many quarters. His family tried to shut him up, and next we see the scribes speaking against him: And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”

The scribes' job was to painstakingly copy out Torah scrolls and other clerical duties in the Temple. This group had come from Jerusalem to either investigate or condemn Jesus – at the point we meet them, they are clearly in condemnation mode. Unable to deny the spiritual power already evident in Jesus’ miracles of healing, they are nevertheless unwilling to credit that power to the presence of God. They assert that it is by demonic power that Jesus casts out demons.

And, as usual, Jesus makes no defense for himself. Instead, he points out the logical fallacy in their theory. “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” 

That makes sense – we cannot draw on the power of evil to rid us of evil.

Much of the horror and heartbreak in the world arises from just that: using the arsenal of evil to eliminate some oppression or corruption or injustice that benefits some people at the expense of others. What is terrorism but the attempt to counter evil with evil, destruction with destruction? What are violent revolutions and “Robin Hood” schemes but combating evil with evil?

Are there times when people rooted in goodness and godliness use violence as a weapon against evil? Of course. I think immediately of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis for his part in a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Did this deeply holy and faithful Christian leader fall into that trap – or is some evil so horrific it can only be met with violence?

An online piece about Bonhoeffer said, "Some of his later writings insist that many Christians do not take seriously enough the existence and power of evil," so I imagine he was conscious of fighting evil. He was forced to choose between two evils - letting the madman continue, or taking action to stop him. He made a choice rooted in prayer and community, to take one life in hopes of saving millions. Many have done the same; perhaps I would too if faced with such a choice.

In the gospels, Jesus never does. He can be liberal with sarcasm, but never violence. His mission was to disable the devil, to “bind the strong man,” as he puts it. As Christians we claim he accomplished that. Yet, to live into that promise takes a very long view indeed. We still see the power of evil accomplishing horrendous destruction.

What are we to do in the face of evil forces? We are invited to deploy the arsenal of God – the power in the name of Jesus, the fierce advocacy of the Holy Spirit, the defensive weapons of the Spirit promised to us (Ephesians 6). And we have the power in prayer. The power that made galaxies is ready to mobilize when we pray in faith, in the name and power and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the promise!

I sure would like to see heaven and earth move more quickly and clearly against certain evils that persist in cruel destruction around this world of ours. Yet I believe, sometimes against evidence, that the only force powerful enough to cast out evil is the love of God, wielded in prayer.

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6-4-18 - Mom! Make Him Stop!

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

This week we get a glimpse into Jesus’ earthly family. Just a glimpse, but enough to suggest they were a lot like other families: swift to pounce when someone steps out of line, protective of their reputation. And might we detect a little sibling resentment against the big brother who can do no wrong… literally?

This passage from Mark’s gospel shows Jesus right after he’s begun his public ministry of preaching, healing, casting out demons. Just prior to this, he selects his twelve closest disciples and then, Mark tells us, “He went home.” Home, presumably, was no longer the woodshop in Nazareth where he grew up, but Capernaum, the town where Peter and Andrew lived, where Jesus resided when not on the road.

But sometimes “home” doesn’t get shaken so easily. When Jesus’ family hears about the crowds that form around him everywhere he goes, they think it’s time to do something.

[Then he went home;] and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”

Imagine a parent who goes out to reclaim a son or daughter involved in a cult – and discovers their offspring is the cult leader! It must not have been easy for Jesus’ family to see him in action, the wild things he said, the miracles he did, the riffraff he hung out with, the way he stood up to the religious leaders. It sure looked to them like “he has gone out of his mind.” Perhaps they were so used to seeing him one way, they couldn’t conceive of who he had become.

Whatever their motives, their efforts to quiet him were unsuccessful. In response to being told his mother and brothers were outside, wanting to talk to him, Jesus redefined his family. His words may sound harsh to sentimental ears, but he was just being clear about priorities for those who claim to be his followers:

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 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.”

How do those words make you feel? Where in your hierarchy of values is your family – and do they support you getting closer to Jesus, or are they threatened by it?

Are you willing to let people know you are part of Jesus' family, not just a follower, but a brother or sister? Because he said we, whoever does the will of God, are now his mother, his brothers, his sisters.

That’s a pretty amazing family to be invited to join. That’s some pretty amazing family values.

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6-1-18 - Collateral Blessing

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

Imagine you have a defective hand; it just hangs limp at the end of your arm, a useless appendage, but still your hand, still a part of you. You know the Law of Moses says you are less than others; you are not whole and therefore not holy. Yet you come to worship on the Sabbath day, hoping not to be noticed, hoping just to listen and pray once again for God’s mighty hand to heal your withered one.

And, instead of blending in with the crowd, you find yourself at the center of a debate – no, an altercation between the learned doctors of the Law and that teacher who heals people. The Pharisees are baiting Jesus to heal you – not so he’ll reveal God’s power, but so they can charge him with violating God’s law. In the middle of this argument Jesus calls you forward. There is no hiding. He says, “Stretch out your hand.” You and your useless hand are front and center for all to see. If you do as he says, will the religious leaders accuse you too? But how could you disobey this holy man?

You stretch your hand toward Jesus, and as you do, you see life returning to its flesh and bone. Sensation pulses down your arm into your fingers, which tingle and hurt, but lo and behold begin to move. You make a fist, and relax the muscles. It is impossible, but your hand is alive again.

Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 

This is not the only time in the Gospels that we see Jesus heal someone to make a point in an argument, to prove his power and connection to his Father in heaven, to shut down his detractors. Jesus has different motivations in different healing stories. It doesn’t matter why Jesus heals – the power comes through even when he’s angry, locking horns with the religious authorities. The man’s hand was restored no matter what else was going on in that room.

I call this “collateral blessing,” the notion that anytime we are engaged in the mission of God, blessings can flow to those around us, just as in war “collateral damage” is unintended harm to allies or bystanders. One person consciously filled with the life of God brings Christ into any room, any conflict, any place of pain or deprivation or cruelty or injustice. Everyone around may be touched by God’s grace just by being in the vicinity.

The key is intentionality. What if each time we left our homes or set out on our day or evening, we prayed, “Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me.” And when we found ourselves confronted with tension or injury, we prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus, be here now.” Who knows how many might be encouraged or refreshed or even healed by being around us as we go about the mission of God to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness in Christ?

God’s blessing cannot be contained. Once we begin to release it, it spills out over everything and everyone, even those we aren't focused on. God is in the business of blessing, and has chosen to work through us. Get ready to bless!

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