5-11-20 - Unconditional

You can listen to this reflection here.

I’m not fond of “if” statements where love is concerned. “If” smacks of contracts, and who wants love to be contractual? Especially the love of God, which we’re told is unconditional, not contingent upon our response or behavior?

I’m also not crazy about the word “commandments.” So the first line of this week’s Gospel passage, which continues Jesus’ farewell remarks to his followers before his arrest and crucifixion, has a double whammy: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

On first glance, I read, “Yikes, I’d better be a good girl, if I want Jesus to love me…” A closer look suggests that Jesus means quite the opposite. It’s not, “If you keep my commandments, I will love you.” Or “If you keep my commandments, I will know that you love me." It’s that keeping Jesus' commandments – to love God fully, and my neighbor as myself – is a natural consequence of loving Jesus. First we receive God’s love; our actions flow from that.

How many times do I need to be reminded that this is the order in which grace operates? God’s love is not something we must, or even can, earn. When we say that the love of God is unconditional, not contingent upon our response or behavior, it means we are free to receive it and respond as we will. Some people respond by ignoring it, putting the gift away, still wrapped. Others respond by trying to earn it anyway… which only exhausts us and makes it harder to receive what God wants for us.

When we comprehend how truly “off the hook” we are, and find ourselves in that place of humble gratitude for God’s gift of grace, something is released in us, and we find we want to choose the good, we want to follow Jesus' way, to love all the more, even when it costs us. Jesus says later, “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

What are some times in your life when that grace has gotten through to you? How did you respond?
Those are good moments to remember and dwell in again.
(And if you’re in the “I’d rather earn it, thank you very much – don’t do me any favors,” place, consider how that is or is not giving life to you and those around you.)

Today, we might ask God to show us how his commandment to love might be more fully reflected in our lives. Think about the people you know, in all the places you know them. Where is God inviting you to let divine love flow?

As we pay more attention to “if you love me," then “You will keep my commandments” will become the most natural thing in the world.

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5-8-20 - Great Expectations

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 of the sort I know best seem to ask very little of God, and operate as though they’re not sure they can count even on that. Yet, 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 could extend a snack into a meal for 5,000, who healed the lame and the lepers and gave sight to the blind? He who rose from the dead? It’s impossible. And yet, for a time, after the Spirit came at Pentecost, the apostles did indeed perform works as great – greater, if we figure that divine power was more diluted in them than in Jesus. So what happened?

God still works among us in miraculous ways. Yet many say such things are impossible, or that it’s rude 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 don’t know about you, but I’ve asked for things in Jesus’ name that I have not seen manifest. Good things, holy things – healing and restoration, and the gift of faith for those who wanted it. What are we to make of this line? Bad translation? Maybe the writer of John adding things for effect? No, that’s too easy. However this came into our sacred writings, we are invited to deal with it head on.

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. Maybe God waits for us to be willing to let God work through us. And it takes really praying in Jesus' name - which means praying in his will, in his Spirit. It means praying His prayer.

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 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. Don’t be timid, don’t be rational – go for broke. An end to the spread of Covid-19? A vaccine? A huge release of generosity, neighbor caring for neighbor? 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 have that conviction yet. We can keep praying and keep inviting the Spirit to knead that prayer in us until its ready to rise and become bread.

The only thing I’m sure of is that if we don’t ask, if we don’t step out on the promises of God in faith, we will see only small works. Jesus said it; let’s lean on it. The more we pray, in faith, in the Spirit, the more activity of God we will see. Amen! Let it be so!

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5-7-20 - A Family Likeness

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

We’ve all met children who were the spitting image of one parent – there can be no question whose child they are. That, the scriptures tell us, is how closely Jesus reflected the image of his heavenly Father. Paul wrote, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

(Col. 1:15)

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus says when Philip begs, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

“How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

Jesus' features may have been Semitic, his language Aramaic, his manners and speech shaped by his Galilean upbringing – but his spiritual authority, his healing power, his supernatural intuition, his relational instincts – those revealed his Father’s life in him.

This family likeness extends to those who are happy to be called his sisters and brothers. As we “put on Christ," as we let his life shine out through us, we grow into his likeness. Or more precisely, we grow more transparent so that the world sees less of us and more of Christ in us – “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” another quote from Paul in Colossians.

I don’t have a cute pop song today, but here’s a link to Disappear, by Bebo Norman, a song about getting out of the way so that God’s life shines through us. "And you become clear as I disappear,” he sings in the refrain.

In whom have you noticed glimpses of God-life? What was it that caught your attention?
When do you feel you best reflect the love of God to the world? When do you feel most in sync with your heavenly nature, the true self you're in the process of discovering? Write it down.

A good prayer any time is, “Lord, increase your life in me. Increase my capacity to receive your life. Let the willfulness in me that obscures people seeing you be brought into alignment with your will, so that when people see me they see you.”

It may take a lifetime to see the answer to that prayer, but we can experience the shift as we pay attention. Weare the only way the world will see Christ this side of glory. And when he is visible in us, people notice, and they want more.

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5-6-20 - If You Don't Know Me By Now...

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

I believe that human beings have a deep need to be known, perhaps even deeper than our need to be loved. After all, real love presumes intimate knowledge of the one we love, all that is wonderful about them and much that is not. So I feel for Jesus when he realizes yet again how little his closest friends have really seen him, recognized his identity, what is most authentic and true about him:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

“All this time, and still you do not know me?” Naturally, today’s pop tune link goes to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' If You Don’t Know Me By Now.* In fairness to the disciples, though, it must have been very hard to take at face value the things Jesus said about his union with his “father in heaven,” even with the amazing spiritual power he demonstrated. Surely he’s being metaphorical, symbolic, hyperbolic, they thought… Often we say the same things about this One whose truth we can never fully grasp.

No one can grasp the truth about another until we “walk a mile in their shoes.” Our sacred story tells us that Jesus came in human flesh to walk many miles in our shoes. How might we walk in his sandals? By letting his Spirit, whom we name Holy, fill us. By truly being His Body in the world. By entering into conversation with him in prayer, reading about him, talking to other people who know him – the same way we seek to get to know anyone.

Today, in prayer, be bold. Ask Jesus something you want to know about yourself, or about him. Sit in quiet awhile and see if you sense any response – it may not come in words. It may come in an image that you see in your mind, or something around you that catches your eye. It may come later in the day in song lyrics, or in an encounter with someone, in a thought or insight. It may come in words.

And ask Jesus if he has a question for you.

Our Good News departs from the song title in that it’s never too late to get to know Jesus/Y-shua (a few scary parables notwithstanding….) As with any relationship, getting to know him takes an investment of time and vulnerability and desire. Billions of people have found it worthwhile. Meet him for coffee and see where it goes.

* Check this link for the Soul Train live version, with the appliqued pastel jumpsuits – some people really have had to suffer for their art…

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5-5-20 - I Know a Place

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

“I know a place,” sings Mavis Staples, "Ain't nobody cryin', ain't nobody worried; 

Ain't no smilin' faces, lyin' to the races… I’ll take you there."

“And you know the way to the place where I am going,” says Jesus.

Do we? Do we know how to get to that place where pain and anxiety and injustice are no more, where “sorrow and sighing will flee away?” (Isaiah 51) Thomas surely didn’t. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 

In a relational system like the Christian faith, everything – places, routes, truth, even life – comes down to a person. And not just any person – the person of Jesus the Anointed, the Christ, whom we claim was the humanly embodied Son of God. More than following a way, assenting to a truth, living a life, as Christ followers we are invited to know Jesus. Knowing Jesus is the Way to know God most fully. Knowing Jesus brings us into a relationship with Truth. Knowing Jesus allows us to fully live that abundant Life he promised.

Of course, scholars have, do and will argue about how exclusive that next sentence was intended to be. Did Jesus really say that, and what did he mean? I prefer to focus on what he said after that: “If you know me, you will know my Father also.” Jesus said he was the Way. Best? Only? Fastest? I don’t know. This is the revelation I have received, so this is where I rest. I seek to know the fullness of God by allowing Jesus into my life in relationship, in conversation, in guidance and healing and love. It'll take me a lifetime (and beyond) to know Jesus. I can appreciate other spiritual ways, but this one is deep enough for me to dwell in.

If we’ve grown up with the notion that God is very close, like a grand-dad sitting in his rocker, then Jesus’ proclamation might have little power. But if, like his hearers, you’ve been taught that God is far and too impossibly holy to be known, then you can understand how radical it was for Jesus to proclaim that God was knowable through knowing him.

How do you know Jesus? Through prayer? From books? Stained glass windows? Movies? Bible study?
How well do you want to know Jesus? I sometimes feel I hold him at arms’ length… too scary somehow.

If we say to God in prayer, “I’d like to know you more,” the Spirit will begin to reveal God to us. I don’t know in what way – if you offer that prayer, you might keep a prayer notebook to write down whatever you experience in coming to know God better.

I do believe God wants to be known. That is why Jesus came like us – so we could at least recognize him enough to draw near. And when we draw near to that place… there is God.

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5-4-20 - Somewhere

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

There’s a place for us; somewhere a place for us.
Hold my hand and we’re halfway there; hold my hand, and I’ll take you there…

Somewhere. A place for us. In the musical version of Jesus’ last night with his disciples, maybe he’d break into song (actually, I’m reminded of a lot of pop songs in this passage… stay tuned this week.). He is trying to comfort his followers as they begin to grasp how soon he will be taken from them.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

If only we could believe it when people say they’re coming back for us. If small children could trust that mom’s not disappearing for good, they’d need fewer blankets and bears. If young women could trust that men really do just “want space” and aren’t taking a permanent hike, there’d be a lot less drama in social media – and bad love songs. We can’t believe what we can’t conceive – and how could Jesus’ friends conceive of a place “out there” with him and many dwelling places and plenty of room for everyone?

How can we? This passage is often read at funerals. Presumably it comforts the bereaved to know their loved one has a front-door key on a hook somewhere – although I doubt anyone who is enjoying pure being has much use for a zip code. We like to know where our people are, to imagine them somewhere. Maybe we like to imagine ourselves somewhere, so people have taken the few symbolic hints about heaven in the bible, and worked them into a whole city with golden streets and gem-encrusted gates.

I’m not quite old enough to be concerned about having real estate in the afterlife. I know that I can start living that life where I am now. We can access those heavenly places in all kinds of ways – in worship, prayer, intimate conversation, a walk on a fine day – anywhere, any time we feel connected to Jesus, in the presence and light and love of God.

What is your view of the afterlife – your afterlife?
Where and how do you best find yourself in touch with God in the here and how?
Is that anything like the heaven you imagine? In prayer today we might ask the Spirit to make us aware of the Somewhere God intends for us to dwell in - and to reveal it in our lives now. .

We are invited to live already as though we know that place, that Somewhere, where Jesus is, where God is. And when we live out that belief, that conviction, we bring it into being in the here and now. Then forgiveness and love and giving our stuff away to people who need it become a lot more natural – we’re living the life of heaven.

Somewhere. We'll find a new way of living, We'll find a way of forgiving... Somewhere …
Somewhere is here, my friends. Some time is already. May the Fourth be with you!

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5-1-20 - The Abundant Community

You can listen to this reflection here.

Abundance has its drawbacks, I reflect between sneezes. The spring growth that bedecks our trees in pink and green also generates a super-abundance of pollen. You can have too much of some things. When a whole community is living the abundant life, it generates as much growth as the trees in my yard. Sunday’s reading from Acts about the early church gives us a glimpse (perhaps slightly idealized…) of just how beautiful and fruitful abundance can look like in community:

Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.

It’s a simple recipe for the good life – and yet most Christ-followers find it impossible to live this way. This is a puzzle, and a shame, for observers outside the faith have pointed out how much more appealing Christianity would be if its followers were more Christ-like. (Mahatma Gandhi was perhaps the most noted, saying, “Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.”)

Oh well... even that early community didn’t remain long focused on mutuality and abundance. We read in Acts that very soon, someone withheld some of the proceeds of a land sale, and lied about it, which was the more community-breaking act. Conflict and scarcity raised their ugly heads.

Should we conclude this is an impossible ideal? I hope not. All it takes is one person to recommit to living the abundant life. Two is even better. They can influence others, who decide to reorder their lives, and on it goes. Sociologists have shown that human behavior is remarkably contagious. Greed, fear, and control have had a pretty good run... might we regain some ground for love, faith and peace?

• If you listed yesterday the things and people who steal your goodwill, peace, confidence and joy; and those that help you gain those gifts, you have a blueprint for action. 
• If you’re in a covenant relationship with someone else, hold each other accountable when the “scarcity thinking” starts to mess with your abundant joy. 

And as our communities commit to live this way - especially during times of economic hardship - increasing our capacity to trust that resources we need will be there when we need them; to stop and shift whenever we begin to make a decision based on our fear of scarcity – we will grow, in faith, in joy, and even in people.

Abundant life has a generative principle – abundance generates more abundance. That passage from Acts ends with this: “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” If we mourn the scarcity of people in our pews, let’s take on the discipline of abundant living and abundant trusting. Few things are more attractive than someone living at peace and trusting in “enough.”

When all the energy in the tree is focused on pushing out buds, it bursts into flower. And when all the energy in our communities is focused on living into Jesus’ promise of Life in abundance, we’ll burst into flower too. That's nothin' to sneeze at...

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