10-12-20 - Allegiance

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

I wonder if Jesus got tired of the questions. Seems he was constantly confronted by people wishing to interview him or entrap him, or engaged by people in awe of this very different revelation he brought, and the authority with which he spoke. He was familiar and yet so totally “other,” that they constantly questioned him, and we get to eavesdrop.

This week, the question is: should we pay our taxes to the government if we owe all our allegiance to God? It’s an either/or question – and Jesus proclaims the both/and world of paradox. This drives the Pharisees nuts – and sometimes some of us.

Once again, he refuses to step into their trap, but counters with a little show and tell.
“Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

In this life, we have dual citizenship. We are residents of this world with all the responsibilities and joys of being members of societies. And we are citizens of the heavenly realm, that already/not yet space of inbreaking power amidst our heart-breaking powerlessness. How might we best live in that tension, to reflect the values of heaven on earth, and hold up the needs of earth before the power of heaven? This season in our national life, with a high-conflict election before us and social unraveling all around, is a great time to climb onto that tightrope and figure out how to bring the values and power of the heavenly realm into our national circumstances.

How do you feel called to live in that creative tension, to love your country and invest in its people and future AND to love your God and live into your eternal future? How might you invite the power of the Holy Spirit to work through you in secular endeavors?

Might we make a discipline of praying for our political leaders, not just in church on Sundays, but on our own during the week? Join our 40 Days of Prayer For Our Nation, or create a prayer list lifting a different leader or set of leaders in prayer each day.

It's easy to get disgusted with governments; let's wield the spiritual power we've been given as well as our civic freedoms, being engaged citizens and prayer warriors. That might be the healthiest way for church and state to mingle... In us.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify, Google, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-9-20 - The Way of Love: Worship

My congregations are exploring the Way of Love this fall, with different gospel readings. On Fridays, Water Daily will take up the Way of Love topic for the week – today that is the fourth practice: Worship. You can listen to this reflection here.

When I think of spiritual practices, I think of quiet, focused, soul-searching activities – prayer, bible study, confession, retreat. Even as I consider regular engagement in corporate worship fundamental to a thriving Christian life, I never thought of it as a “practice.” But spiritual practices for a Jesus-focused life are those activities of the heart, body and mind which bring us more fully into relationship with Jesus – and we often meet Jesus most fully when we come together as the church.

In the gospels, we see Jesus interacting with people in groups, whether his chosen disciples or throngs of thousands. He was present for people, even in great crowds. So he is present when we gather in his name – that was a promise he made. When believers gather, we make a space for seekers and newcomers to enter and encounter God in community. Christian faith cannot thrive in isolation – especially not in such challenging times.

And when we gather in Jesus’ name, even during this time when we’re often in our own homes, connected by spirit and technology, we are his Body. We reconstitute the Body of Christ so it is visible to the world. Each of us can make Christ known, but when we put our faith together, God’s power to love and transform and make whole becomes concentrated and explosive and world-changing.

We also gather for worship because Jesus always shows up. The Way of Love gospel for Sunday tells the story of an encounter two people had with Jesus as they walked to a village called Emmaus on what we now call Easter Sunday. They are still reeling from Good Friday, grief-stricken at the brutal death of their Lord, and now confused by reports that his body is missing. They are joined by a stranger, who asks why they are sad – that would be like someone today not knowing about coronavirus. As they tell him of the recent events, he links those with their scriptures, explaining the meaning of the sacred texts.

When they arrive at Emmaus, they prevail upon him to have supper with them – and at table, he takes bread, blesses, breaks and offers it. The familiarity of that movement ignites their awareness: they realize they have been with Jesus this whole time. “Were not our hearts burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us?” They high-tail it back, seven miles in the dark on the road they’d just traveled, to tell their companions in Jerusalem, “We have seen the Lord!”

Our weekly worship mimics the movements of this story. We come, bearing the joys and sorrows and stresses of our lives. We are invited to view those in the context of our sacred story of redemption and restoration – at its best, a sermon offers the space for that. We gather at table and discover Jesus again in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. The power of that encounter can send us out, telling our companions of the places we have encountered God. And if, as happened for those disciples, Jesus vanishes as soon as we recognize him, we know he’ll materialize again somewhere else, often when we least expect it.

When we gather for worship, we praise God joyfully, we offer the prayers of the community, we tell again and again the stories of God’s great love for God’s creation. And we participate in the holy meal which is itself a re-telling of our most central story, of how Jesus, God in flesh, gave himself up to restore all of creation to wholeness, and told his followers to recall him (call him back) in the simple, quotidian substances of bread and wine.

We can see in the patterns of Christian worship a form of play, serious play, the way children will celebrate and express themselves and play through a story over and over again, finding new ways into it, drawing new meanings from it. So, In our worship we “make believe” and come more deeply into relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast available on Spotify,Google, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-8-20 - God's Fashion Police?

You can listen to this reflection here.

As Matthew tells it, Jesus’ parable of the great banquet takes an odd turn after the influx of late arrivals from the streets and lanes: 

Those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Wow – does correct attire matter that much to this king in Jesus’ story? This part of the tale has always seemed unjust. This man didn’t know he was coming to a wedding, right? How could he have been expected to wear a “wedding robe,” whatever that is? And isn’t Jesus the one who said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Actually no… but the sentiment seems about right. Jesus did say we should judge what’s inside a person, not externals. What the heck is going on here?

No one fully knows, of course, except Jesus. Some scholars think there were certain items of clothing people wore to weddings. Here’s what I think it might mean: that even those who didn’t have much advance invitation had the opportunity to turn, to repent, to “clean up,” as it were. Is that what is meant by the “wedding robe?” This guest is just wandering around, clueless, unconscious, unrepentant and unresponsive.

I recall those verses in the scriptures that speak of being “clothed in righteousness,” and 

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” 

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” And in Revelation 19:7-8 we have this promise:

 “...for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

What do you feel “clothed in” today? Is it what you want to be wearing? Might you try on another suit, another shirt, one that is more like what you want to feel like, how you want to be seen at the banquet? Are you clothed in anxiety and want to be clothed in serenity and joy? As a prayer exercise, try playing “dress-up” with God; put on the feelings of the people you’re praying for, or the feelings you’d like to have.

Martin Luther wrote of God’s grace in Christ as the “Great Exchange,” by which Christ took on our filthy beggars’ rags and gives us his royal robes to wear. Christ has clothed us in HIS holiness. He covers even the most shameful parts of us, the parts we think are unlovable. He loves us into love. In his righteousness, his holiness, his glory, we can stand unashamed, unhidden. We can allow our true selves to be seen, knowing that we are loved beyond measure by the God who made us, redeemed us, and loves us to the end of time. We are princes and princesses – let’s dress like we know it.

I once wrote a hymn to go with this gospel reading. (If you want to sing it in your head, I put it to the tune of hymn 544, Duke Street , "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun")

Clothed in Holiness

Clothed in holiness, bathed in glory, Born anew in sacred story.
From north and south, from west and east, saints throng to your wedding feast.

Send out the heralds, the banquet waits, leave your distractions, don’t be late.
The master calls, the feast prepared of food divine and wine so rare.

If the invited will not come Send out the word to deaf and dumb
All who are sick, lame, hopeless, lost called by the host who spares no cost.

And if your clothes are ragged, old, new garments spun of finest gold
Are giv’n to all who heed the call: This invitation is for all.

So in we pour, all sorts, all kinds, the least in front, the first behind.
No class or label can divide this Bridegroom from his chosen bride.

Clothed in holiness, bathed in glory, Born anew in sacred story.
From north and south, from west and east we throng into God’s wedding feast.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify, Google, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-7-20 - The B List

You can listen to this reflection here.

I find it hard to read this parable of the wedding banquet and not think of our half-empty churches. In the story, the King has prepared a beautiful wedding feast for his son and invited all the people who used to come to his house… and now none of them will. Enraged, he says to his servants,

“The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Given how Jesus has been talking to the religious leaders, and how he’s been known to interact with the not-good-enough of his society – the lame, lepers, extortioners and “loose women” – it seems obvious that that’s who he means by the people on the main streets. As he tells it, these people are found, herded onto the king’s buses and brought back to populate his banquet hall. The servants aren’t choosy – they just bring everybody in.

What would it look like if we sent buses around shelters and homeless encampments and parks on Sunday mornings and invited people to come to our feasts? Are we prepared to deal with strangers, people’s disappointment and addictions, traumatic wounds and chips on their shoulders? Are we prepared to see them not as wounded strangers but as gifts, with assets and strengths we need in our congregations? We did, for a few months, see two homeless gentlemen become regulars at our 11 o’clock service, drawn initially by the lunch that followed it (ah, pre-Covid coffee hours!). They became crucifers and participated in worship for a time, until they got jobs that required them to work on Sundays. It gave me such joy to see them vested and invested, not defined or sidelined by housing status.

What would it look like if we took church out to folks living rough instead of asking them into our buildings? For a time, my congregation in Stamford did this in a “tougher” section of town. We went from bringing sandwiches and healing prayer to my telling Jesus stories (aka, preaching) on the curb as people lounged in their lawn chairs with their bottles. It was amazing - until gentrification struck and the people who hung out there were dispersed, and it faded away. But I saw what could be.

The poor and the lame are not the only people God wants at the feast. God also wants the stressed over-achievers, the multi-tasking moms, the doubters and questioners. This parable suggests that God wants everybody at God’s table. Who are we not inviting?

That is a spiritual task for today: make a list of everyone your congregation does not seem to be extending an invitation to. The ones who are being invited are by and large not coming. Who else are we to invite?

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify,Google, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-6-20 - No Thanks

You can listen to this reflection here.

I once had a friend who would turn down invitations to do things with me, sometimes even after we’d made plans, because she’d received other offers she preferred. While I admired her honesty, it bothered me that I didn’t rate very high on her list. Not that I was about to burn down her village or anything…

The invited guests in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet have no qualms about turning down the King’s invitation to his feast – in fact, they seem to have no respect whatsoever for this king. The first group just say, “No.” Then the king sends other servants out and says, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them.

One to his farm, another to his business. In Luke’s version the excuses are more creative – one just got married and didn’t want to leave his new wife just yet. Who are these people who put God's invitations last?

Well, on any given day, it can be you or me or anyone we know. There is no end to other priorities, it seems, when it comes to engaging the spiritual. It has to be on our schedule, and not when there’s anything else we’d rather do, or when the coach has called a soccer practice or the boss a new deadline. Just think of all the reasons people give for not coming to church.

Yet, if you’re reading this today, chances are you have put engaging with God-Life above quite a few other demands on your time. Spending time and energy in the presence of God or God’s people, in praise and worship, in acts of mercy and justice, has been compelling enough that you’ve actually said yes to this invitation to the banquet, not once but many times.

What made the difference for you? If we can zero in on that, maybe we can issue the invitation in a way that more people in our lives can respond to it. That doesn’t have to mean lowest-common-denominator consumer Christianity – some of the highest-commitment faith communities are the most robust. But what we offer does have to be lively, full of life, real, true life. That’s what people are hungry for. What is it about the way we practice our faith that sometimes obscures the life at its heart?

Make a list today of all the reasons you’ve said yes to God’s invitation, and why you stay at God’s table. And if there is a list of excuses you’ve made or continue to make, list those too. Look at both lists and see what common threads become apparent. Where in these gifts and obstacles might you find the seeds of an invitation to a friend or acquaintance?

God’s banquet is waiting. In this life, we only experience the feast in parts – but oh, how rich even those morsels can be. Who is God sending you out to invite?

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-5-20 - Who Loves a Wedding?

You can listen to this reflection here.

A story about a wedding. Who doesn’t love a wedding? Except that this parable about a wedding seems more like a Quentin Tarantino movie, with an enraged host, slaughtered guests and a bewildered party crasher. Granted, this is the way Matthew tells the story, and he seems always to ratchet up the violence. In Luke’s telling it is a lot milder.

It’s not actually a story about a wedding – it’s a story about invitation. An invitation spurned by indifferent guests, and the consequences. It’s a story about a host who won’t take “no” for an answer. The nutshell version:

A king gives a wedding banquet for his son. He sends servants to gather the invited guests, but they won’t come to the feast. He sends other servants with the message that the feast is ready, but these are mocked and given excuses, and then molested and killed. The enraged king retaliates, killing the offenders and burning their city, and then sends his servants out to the streets to invite everyone they find, “both good and bad,” to fill his wedding hall. One, who is not appropriately dressed, gets thrown out. Nice story, huh? (Did Matthew embellish the tale in the telling? It does make a LOT more sense in Luke…)

What is this parable actually about? Like many of Jesus’ stories, it is partly about his claim that the religious leaders have ignored God’s invitation offered through the prophets, and ultimately through Jesus, to come to the feast prepared for them. Since the people of Israel have not been faithful to the Lord their God, God will send representatives to the “highways and byways,” gathering up the good and the bad people in his realm – and sort out later who gets to stick around. If the King in Jesus’ story represents God, it’s not the loveliest picture of God – especially killing the would-be guests and burning down their city.

On another level, it is a story about how easily we can put aside the claims and gifts of God and lose ourselves in the mundane and the worldly. We’ll explore that aspect more tomorrow.

Today, try reading the story aloud to yourself, and notice where you get snagged. Give it some thought and read it again… what questions arise? What invitations do you hear? What warnings?

It is rather hard to find the Good News in this story – it’s very bad news for the people who have ignored God’s call to be his people, and so-so news for the ones scooped up on the streets, who may get to stay at the feast, or may be tossed into outer darkness. Where is the Good News for you?

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.

10-2-20 - The Way of Love: Pray

My congregations are exploring the Way of Love this fall, with different gospel readings. On Fridays, Water Daily takes up the Way of Love topic for the week – today that is the third practice: Pray.You can listen to this reflection here.

I have likened the Way of Love to deepening an existing relationship. Relationships require regular conversation. In the Christian life we call that prayer. At the most basic level, to pray is to talk to God – and learn to listen.

Just as we Turn again to Jesus, and regularly Learn about him, Pray is best as a daily practice. We often pray through the day – small “please’s” and “thank you’s” and “help me’s.” We pray together in worship each week. But to Pray as a dedicated practice can renew our hearts and transform our lives. We gain not only a deeper connection to God; we reap benefits of deeper peace and joy, a sense of God’s presence, and sharper awareness of our purpose.

Such a prayer practice requires intention and discipline. If we are to offer God this kind of space in our hearts each day, we need to set aside a regular time; a dedicated place (prayer room, or chair); a bible and perhaps a candle, journal, icon or prayer beads, if those help you center.

You don’t have to start with silence. Read some scripture, and then voice (or write) what is taking up mental space – things that worry you, or you have to get done, people you love, hopes, dreams, sorrows, blessings you’re grateful for. If you find structure helpful, you can use a pattern like ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.

• Adoration – taking time to praise God, which is not the same as thanking. Praise is naming the qualities we value in another. Praise expands our spirits and makes more room for God’s life in us.
• Confession – naming the ways we have been less than who God made us to be, how we have hurt ourselves or others, failed to honor the humanity of others or the gifts of this beautiful earth. We get real about who we are, and return to God’s loving embrace.
• Thanksgiving – naming what we’re grateful for so we don’t get complacent. it reminds us that God is in the business of blessing, no matter what is going on.
• Supplication – asking God’s transforming love to be at work in situations and people in need of it. It’s good to ask after being reminded of God’s love and mercy.

Communicating to God what’s going on in us is only the first part of the practice of Pray. The second is to leave equal time to become silent and listen for God. The child Samuel was told to say, when he heard God calling, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” This is a good phrase for us to use as we turn to silence.

We might feel a message of intense love and encouragement. We might be led into places in our imagination in which we can meet Jesus. We might have a question on our hearts and sense God’s answer. We might sense a calling to do something small – or life-changing. We might feel nothing. Listen as peacefully as you can, perhaps saying a word or phrase to occupy your mind (“Jesus,” “Peace,” “Be still and know that I am God…”). Sometimes we’ll perceive an answer later. We offer ourselves in discipline regardless of our experience on a given day. Often we'll discover in our lives more peace and focus, intimacy with God, and grace that transcends our circumstances.

Try on such a prayer practice for a time. You might keep a journal, to write what you experience. You can learn ways to get centered and still, from praying in tongues to mindfulness techniques. A spiritual director or friend can help listen with you for what God is saying and doing in your life. If you hit a dry patch, keep going. It’s not all up to you.

For prayer does not begin with us – it originates with God. We are joining a conversation that’s already ongoing on in the triune life of God and deep in our spirits. Paul writes, “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” In fact, Jesus said God will not withhold the Holy Spirit from those who pray.

There’s no one “correct” way to pray, and there’s no way to do it wrong – except not to do it.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.

Water Daily is now a podcast - so far on Spotify,Google, and many other platforms. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts, and please subscribe.