Water Daily

1-21-21 - Unwilling Recruits

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

Unless I’m forgetting something, the gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry only speak of one person turning down Jesus’ invitation to follow him: the rich ruler who asked what he had to do to win eternal life. When Jesus said, “Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and then come, follow me,” we’re told he turned away saddened “for he had many possessions.” John’s gospel tells of quite a few followers quitting the movement when Jesus starts talking strangely about being “the bread of life,” but most of the stories in which he calls people to follow him as disciples end with a “yes.”

It’s enough to discourage the likes of us, who often have trouble getting people to participate regularly in church, let alone take Jesus seriously. (Of course, if we emphasized the latter, we’d likely get more of the former, but that’s another story for another day…) Jesus makes it look so easy.

It’s a good thing the Hebrew Bible includes the story of Jonah, a tidbit of which is in Sunday's lectionary. Jonah is a hilariously tall tale about a man who would do just about anything to avoid the one thing God asked him to do: go and carry a message of repentance to the famously wicked and licentious populace of Nineveh.

Jonah is so unwilling and so disobedient, he hightails it in the other direction, catches a ship to throw God off the scent, gets thrown overboard and fetches up in the belly of a big fish, only to be thrown up on a beach three days later. And who’s there to greet him? God – with the same request. This time Jonah does it, sort of, doing his best to sabotage his own mission. He succeeds despite his best efforts to fail, and ends in a bitter heap of abject rage, railing against God’s mercy. It’s a brilliant send-up of self-righteousness, and a sweetly subversive hymn to forgiveness and grace.

One message we might take from this story is that God can find a way to work through even the most unwilling heart. If we know anyone who’s taken their sweet time getting around to RSVPing Jesus' invitation to closer relationship (maybe us?); if we find ourselves putting off that nudging sense that God would like us to reach out in love to certain people, or engage in certain work for justice – we might take comfort (of a sort!) from this story. God can outwait us.

But oh, how much nicer and more fulfilling it is when stop delaying and resisting, and turn and say, “Okay. I’m listening. What is it you want from me?” More often than not, the response we receive will be something God wants for us, not from us.

All God really wants from us is our whole hearts. That’s all.

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1-20-21 - What You Do Best

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

Jesus walked by a bunch of fishermen one day and recruited them away from their nets, their boats, their fathers and co-workers. He said only two things: “Follow me” and “I will make you fish for people.” However strange that phrase might sound to our ears, to them it must have conveyed at least this much: That he saw what they did, honored it, and promised to harness that gift for a wider purpose.

The gospels don’t revisit that expression, but we can look at the kind of training the disciples received from Jesus and see how he might have put their fishing instincts to good use:

They learned to proclaim the Good News of the realm of God in all kinds of “weather,” to accepting crowds and skeptics alike;
They learned to bait the hook with miracles that demonstrated the power they were proclaiming;
They learned that they might have the biggest catches in the least likely places – among the poor and marginalized, downtrodden and downright sinful;
They learned that they couldn’t keep everyone they hauled in – some went back.
They learned that Jesus kept some they would have tossed back.
And they learned that their instincts and techniques could help – but ultimately the catch was up to God.

Jesus didn’t ask them to stop being fishermen, only to transfer those skills to sharing the Good News. What do you do in your work, or in the pastimes core to your identity, that Jesus might invite you to use in a broader missional context? Are you skilled with people? With organizing? Listening? Discerning patterns? Creating community?

What in yourself do you most want to offer for God to take and transform? Why not offer Jesus that in prayer today?I once lamented to a spiritual director how willful I was – and he responded, “Who made your will? God knows you’re strong-willed. Let him use it.”

This passage reminds us that when Jesus invites us to follow him, he expects we’ll bring along all of who we are and who we have been. Some of that will fall away as we get closer to him; more of it will be turned and honed and polished, maybe even fired and made beautiful and strong for God’s purposes, as carbon becomes a diamond.

1-19-21 - Just Passing By

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

Last week we looked at the way the “disciple call stories” unfolded in John’s Gospel. This week we’re back to Mark's account, which is short on details. On the face of it, this encounter appears absurd:

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

A guy comes by, promises to make you good at, what? Fishing for people? Sounds vaguely like human trafficking… And you drop your livelihood and follow him? We must be missing something.

Well, if the stories in John’s gospel fill in this account, what we’re missing is that Jesus had already met Peter and Andrew. Andrew had already proclaimed him the “Real Thing,” and Jesus had already given Andrew’s brother Simon the nickname Petros, or Peter. All that had taken place by the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. Now we’re in Galilee, and Jesus is getting started in earnest on his mission of proclaiming and demonstrating the power of God’s in-breaking realm. Now he invites them to take the next step – actually becoming part of his inner circle. And they go.

If this is the way it unfolded, we can be encouraged that perhaps Jesus invites more than once – and that it might take us a few steps to commit ourselves to following him heart, mind, body and time.

When in your life do you feel you’ve been asked or challenged to commit yourself to following Jesus in a deeper way? How have you responded?
Have you responded differently at one time than another?

What do you think “following Jesus” means for you?

What is he asking of you? What is exciting about going deeper?

What is scary or inconvenient or otherwise causes you to hesitate?

That day Jesus was passing by the Sea of Galilee. Another day he was passing by a tax collector’s booth. Today he might pass you in the aisles of your grocery store or show up in a Zoom meeting (talk about Zoom bombing!). Here's a prayer we can say: “Lord, open my spirit to see you, to hear what you’re inviting me to do. Open my heart to saying ‘yes.’”

Jesus’ invitations to follow keep coming, and each time we can step more deeply into God’s Life – until we’re all in.

1-18-21 - This Far By Faith

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

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’"

The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Believe in the good news. It can be hard to believe in the Good News when so much bad news surrounds us. It takes a special kind of courage, a special kind of faith to continue to believe in the good news of Jesus Christ in the thick of evil, in the face of threatened violence as our nation enacts its constitutional ritual of peaceful transition to a newly elected president.

Today we honor a man who had that kind of courage, that kind of faith. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continued to proclaim justice and honor in the face of fire hoses and death threats, beatings and betrayals. But he didn’t just believe in “good news” in the abstract – he lived in relationship with the Good News himself, our Lord Jesus. He followed Jesus into those streets of battle and halls of power. He allowed Jesus to transform his life as he allied himself with God’s mission of justice. He gave voice to God’s dream, and allowed God’s dream to claim him, to take priority over other dreams he may have had for his own life and safety.

Each news cycle reminds us more starkly that the dream of racial equality continues to elude us. Today I pray we will do more than honor the man who helped bring us this far; I pray we will align ourselves with his Lord and let him lead us to our part in God’s dream.

Until every child knows her intrinsic worth and can grow into his fullest potential, unthwarted by racism or economic, political, or social injustice, we have a distance yet to go. Until we can conduct the business of democracy with everyone’s vote equally valued and secured, we have a distance yet to go. Until each citizen can walk our streets without fear of violence, we have a distance yet to go.

"We've come this far by faith," says one civil rights hymn. It takes all our faith to get to the promised land Martin saw.

How might we today proclaim the proximity of God’s realm?
How might we bring God’s justice into our own situations?
What will we say or do or pray?

How will you follow Jesus today?

1-15-21 - Follow Me

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

In these early chapters of all four gospels, we see Jesus putting together his team, his community of trainees. These are the men (and beyond the Twelve, also women) through whom his message will be proclaimed and demonstrated. I’m struck by how little Jesus had to say to get them to come along: “Follow me.” That’s pretty much it.

Why did they go, without plans or itineraries, curricula or policy papers, without any instructions about what they were to do, where, and with whom? I think it is because Jesus was not inviting them into a project. He was inviting them into relationship, a relationship that required a commitment and a releasing of all other activity. They didn’t need to know what they would be doing – more than a few might have turned back had they known. They only needed to know they would become friends and followers of a profoundly holy man, whom some suspected was the long-awaited Messiah and Son of God.

Maybe in our productivity-driven culture we don’t see more people choosing to follow Jesus because there is no to-do list. I live in my to-do list 24/7 – and though many of the items on that list are things I think I’m doing “for” Jesus, I’m not sure they interest him all that much. I suspect he’s much more interested in our interaction, in spending time in conversation and contemplation, knowing and being known.

Can we enter into relationship with someone we can’t see and can only connect with spiritually in prayer? Someone whose words we “hear” as they appear in our head and don’t seem like our own? Sometimes we begin just by learning to be still and centered and open to feeling God’s presence.

Of course there is also a “doing” dimension – Jesus had his disciples healing and proclaiming and feeding and all kinds of things. But these were things they did with him, in his power, not just for him. As we allow our spirits to open to relationship with the Living Christ, we find his power and his priorities take hold in us. So we embark not on projects as much as showings, demonstrations of God’s love.

Do you feel you are a follower of Christ? It means more than following his example – it means traveling with him, discerning where the Spirit is taking you for the next adventure. And it means sitting down to dinner with him after a long day, and letting his agenda be your agenda.

Every day, Jesus comes by somewhere we are and says, “Come on. Follow me.” We don’t have to know where we’re going, only with whom.

1-14-21 - Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

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

One measure of maturity is learning to adjust expectations – usually downward. We learn through trial that the world does not owe us anything, and neither do the people to whom we look for attention, affection and affirmation – the Triple A team that used to run my life. Spiritual masters teach us to let go of wanting, of our agendas; to accept what comes, not try to make it happen.

And yet, here is Jesus, maybe the greatest spiritual master of them all, saying, “Expect more! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” In the face of Nathanael’s new faith, which was catalyzed by Jesus’ knowing something about him he couldn’t have known in the natural sense, Jesus replies, ”Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

In response to his followers’ continued astonishment at his works of power, what we call miracles, Jesus always invited them to think bigger, to increase their estimation of what God can do as we invite the power of the Spirit into this realm. The healing and transformation that Jesus brought about were not miracles at all, but simply how things work in the Realm of God. After all, when the disciples did step out in faith and exercised authority in Jesus’ name, they too found that demons and diseases and even death yielded to their commands. So it has been throughout history, and into our own day among churches alive to the work of the Spirit.

Why do so many Christ followers manifest such tepid faith? We don’t see New Testament kind of power exercised in our midst, so we adjust our expectations downward, and consequently expect less and grow hesitant to wield the authority we’ve been given as followers of Christ. So we see fewer things we would call miracles. It's a sad little cycle of reduced investment leading to diminished returns.

When did you last ask God to reveal something big, bold, scary? Did you see an answer to that prayer? Sometimes we’re afraid to pray big because we’re afraid of what it will do to our faith if we are disappointed. Well, guess what? Your faith is more robust than you think – and like the muscles in your body, can only get stronger when it's exercised. What do you want to exercise faith for today? There is no shortage at present of situations needing God’s power and light.

Try this: "Okay, God - release your power and love and healing in me, in so-and-so, in this situation or that country." You can add, like the father whose son Jesus healed in the Gospels, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." You do not have to add, "If it be your will." It is God's will that the power and life of God’s realm be revealed, whatever that look like in a given situation.

The “bigger things” Jesus talked about aren’t only answers to prayer. He was also telling Nathanael – and, by extension, us – that he could come into the very presence of God through closeness to Jesus. If we start to spend more time opening our hearts to the power and love of Christ, we will find ourselves encouraged to believe in those greater things. And to open the eyes of our hearts to see God at work.

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.

1-13-21 - Known

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

To be fully known and fully accepted: is there any richer human experience? That is a gift God offers to us. Sometimes it is the way God gets our attention. That’s certainly how it happened when Nathanael met Jesus.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you come to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Just before this, Nathanael’s friend Philip had told him about Jesus, and he had responded with a big dose of skepticism. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But when he meets Jesus, Jesus speaks as though he already knows him, commending him for his lack of guile. Maybe Jesus is getting in a gentle dig, knowing what Nathanael had said, backhandedly praising him for holding nothing back, even sarcasm.

He surely gets Nathanael’s attention: “Where did you come to know me?” Jesus replies, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Now, Nathanael had been alone and Jesus nowhere close by. He could not have known this by natural means. As miracles go, it’s a mild one – but it captures Nathanael and opens his heart to seeing who Jesus is. And boy, does he see – he sees the whole truth! “‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’”

It takes months and years for Jesus’ disciples to comprehend his Messianic identity, and here, Nathanael gets it in the first five minutes. Jesus opened Nathanael’s heart by showing that he knew him, and then he made himself known to that open heart.

Who would you say knows you best in the world? How fully does that person know you? Do they accept you for all of who you are, the good, the bad and the ugly? Have you been able to receive that gift? And have you given it to another?

Have you experienced being known by God? I will sometimes receive a word in prayer that reveals a deep truth about myself, something I may dimly know but haven’t fully recognized. And often I sense a kind of acceptance of who I am, much more profound than I am able to offer myself. Sometimes allowing ourselves to be known by God helps us with the endless journey of coming to know ourselves.

In Jesus, God made the unknowable knowable, so that we might know God, at least as well as our limited human perceptions allow. And in coming into human life, human time, human experience, Jesus also made a way for us to feel what it’s like to be known by God. My prayer today, for you and for me, is that we will let that knowing love take root deep inside, so that we too can be without guile, without shadow, transparent as glass.