3-10-21 - No Condemnation

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

Once upon a time I adjusted my computer’s screen saver to scroll through Romans 8:1 – “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” As one whose inner critic tends to work overtime, that’s how badly I needed to be reminded of God’s affirming love. This verse conveys the heart of the Good News Jesus came to proclaim – that God has transformed the judgment we so fear into love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Lest we doubt this message of affirmation, Jesus makes it clear in the next sentence: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Why did Jesus need to clarify this matter? Was it because the leaders of Israel were spreading a different message, that God was not pleased, that people were in trouble? It would not be hard to draw such a conclusion living under the tyranny of the Romans, only the latest in a string of occupying empires. In a culture that saw prosperity as a sign of blessing and misfortune as an indication of sin, people might be quick to see in their circumstances God’s punishment for unfaithfulness. Thus the idea that God’s very own son should have arrived on the scene in person might feel like, “Uh oh, we’re in trouble now….” And so the importance of these words to soothe and open hearts: 

“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Jesus is not saying there is no condemnation anywhere – his next words suggest that is possible, even likely, for those who have been presented with the truth about Jesus Christ and chosen not to believe: 

“Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Is this “condemnation” a punishment – or is it simply the consequence of their choice? God may not have sent his Son into the world for condemnation – but he didn’t say he would remove the consequences of our choices. People are free to draw near to God’s love, or to turn away.

Are those who have no interest in Jesus’ salvation still covered by it? What do we mean when we say Jesus took on all the sin of all the world on the cross? Did he redeem even those who choose not to believe in his power to redeem, who deny any need of salvation? Those who believe in universal salvation would say so. Those who believe each person has to say “yes” are left wondering.

And all this “on the one hand,” “on the other hand” makes my head hurt. It gets in the way of my receiving the gift I believe Jesus is offering – to accept his grace, to allow him to take us off all the hooks we have ourselves dangling from: that we’re not good enough, smart enough, wise enough, compassionate enough.

Enough! The Son of God did not come into the world to condemn the world. The Son of God came to fulfill his father’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all things and all people to wholeness in Christ. I’m taking that deal.

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3-9-21 - God So Loved

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

This Sunday we encounter perhaps the most famous of all Bible verses, John 3:16, known to American sports fans everywhere. At least, they know the words “John 3:16.” Who John is and what those numbers mean may be a mystery to many. Those with some Biblical literacy know it as that verse about “God so loved the world.” To many, this verse sums up the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Yet it is much more complex than one might think at first reading. The part about God loving the world is great… but what about the rest of that sentence? 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Let’s not even get into the “perishing if you don’t believe” part. What do we in the 21st century think about a deity who expresses his overwhelming love for his creation by offering his Son to save it? Wouldn’t we prefer it to say, “God so loved the world that he gave himself up?” Of course, our wacky Trinitarian view of God reminds us that the Father and the Son are one, with the Spirit – so of course, God was giving himself up in giving up his Son. But why was a sacrifice necessary in the first place?

That’s the million dollar question. Did someone really need to die in order for us to be freed from sin and death? The writer in me wants to answer that nobody takes a story seriously until someone dies. God dying? That’s pretty much as high as you can jack the narrative stakes.

But did there have to be a sacrifice? Was the Father consigning the Son to certain death? OR did God simply “give him up” to take on human flesh, a mission to free us from the power of evil, come what may? Maybe it was humanity who decided Jesus must die, not his heavenly Father.

Our Good News is truly good – and so much more complex than the “God loves you” message to which it is so often reduced. It is a story of an all-powerful Creator who puts into motion a plan of salvation which manages to allow for free will on the part of those to be saved. We can say "No thank you." Ever since Jesus Christ made an appearance in human history people have had to make choices concerning him. Would they believe his claims to be the Son of God? Would they follow his counter-cultural ways? Would they remain allied with him when it became dangerous?

These choices remain before us daily, with the addition of this: Do we believe he rose from the dead and has assured eternal life, now and later, for those who believe? How do you choose? Do we want this gift he gave at such a cost?

I don’t know if someone had to die. There are theories of the atonement that would say yes, and other interpretations of the Cross that find the whole idea of the need for atonement a sick distortion of God’s love. I’m not weighing in today. I am standing with the story we have received of a man, a man who was also God, who gave up his divine prerogatives to accept the limitation of human life, to live out the values of the realm from which he’d come – values so counter to human values, he became a threat that had to be eliminated.

Gee, sounds like quite a story. Someone ought to write that!

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3-8-21 - Snakes On a Pole

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In next Sunday’s Gospel, we walk into a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a highly placed member of the Jewish council. He has come at night to learn more about this fellow who is stirring up so much trouble. Jesus tells him that the Life of God is not comprehensible by physical senses; it is a spiritual reality, and one must be born of Spirit to discern the spiritual. He chides Nicodemus, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”

That’s a big “outing” of his Messianic identity. Jesus’ implication that he is this “Son of Man” who has descended from heaven must have shocked Nicodemus. He may been horrified at what sounds like megalomania, or delusion, or pure blasphemy. But Jesus has more in store for him. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

What on earth did he mean by “So must the Son of Man be lifted up?” From where we stand, this means the cross on which Jesus was to die a brutal death, suffering not only the full brunt of human cruelty, but – we claim – also the full consequence of sin, separation from God. This was the penalty he took to the grave for us, and left buried there when he rose on Easter morning. But how could such a “lifting up” bring salvation and its reward, eternal life?

The reference to Moses lifting up a snake in the wilderness comes from a story in Numbers that Nicodemus would have known well. It’s about the Israelites’ journey after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Their joy at freedom had quickly turned to bitterness. They complained mightily against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." God, angry at their ingratitude, sends poisonous snakes and many die – rapidly inducing repentance in the survivors. They ask Moses to intercede with God to take away the snakes. And here is God's remedy:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

This story is where we get our symbol for the medical profession. We can see this principle at work in vaccines and homeopathic remedies – a small amount of toxin introduced into the body can build resistance. But how would it work on sin? How did Jesus’ crucifixion set us free?

Try this on: If we are indeed slaves to sin – wired to act for ourselves at the expense of others, which is one way to define “sin” – then to gaze at an image of the crucified Lord is to focus on the full effect of sin, the worst case – all the sin of all the self-seeking, creation-exploiting, God-ignoring human beings that ever lived. Yet the healing power of the cross goes beyond a “scared straight” mentality. We are invited to gaze upon, draw near to the healing love of Christ, demonstrated supremely in his taking on this sin-sickness for us. He did not have to. He did it for love, to set us free.

If we think we have no sin, this makes no sense. But if we’ve ever hurt another living creature, or ourselves, and felt that dull ache of shame at our actions… we know. Like every person in the world the age of Covid-19, we are vulnerable to a terminal illness. From sin, we are healed.

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3-5-21 - Seeing Is Believing

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

Hey, disciples, can you take a hint? How many times did Jesus have to tell you what was going to happen? He mentioned that “rising again after three days” thing when he was coming down the mountain after the transfiguration; he mentioned it when he talked about what would happen to the Son of Man – arrest, trial, execution… and after three days rising again. And he says it here, talking about “raising the temple after three days.”

But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I can’t blame them for not being able to comprehend these words of Jesus’. They sound like a strange figure of speech – and Jesus said a lot of strange things. How should they have known he meant this one literally? This one most impossible thing?

After Jesus is risen, on his second visit to his followers in that upper room, he says to Thomas, who had missed the first visit and would not believe Jesus was resurrected until he saw him in person, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have come to believe.” I always wish Thomas had replied, “Easy for you to say!” (His response was much humbler and holier than that…)

Because in truth none of Jesus’ followers really believed until they saw the unbelievable right in front of them. So we might cut ourselves some slack when we have trouble believing, without the benefit of seeing Jesus with our physical sight. We have to work a little harder – or simply trust more – and remember all the ways we do see resurrection at work.

• Cancer patients who have experienced healing and are now cancer-free are resurrection at work.
• Addicts who have come solidly into recovery after years of self-destruction and self-loathing are resurrection at work.
• Communities that have moved from blight to habitable housing and secure neighborhoods are resurrection at work.
• Countries that have managed to choose peace and end years of bloodshed are resurrection at work. 

These examples err on the side of the obvious, and maybe all these transformations could take place without God's involvement. I say “maybe” because these sorts of “back from the brink” transformations require one or more people to give sacrificially, humble themselves, resist hostility and refuse the temptation to “win.” Such transformations require vulnerability, submission to a person or process, and a truly self-giving love, which I believe can only come from God, whether or not God gets named.

What are some examples of resurrection life in your life, in your community, in the world? Name them, claim those stories, remember them, tell them when you’re with someone who says, “There can’t be a God – look at all the evil and death and destruction.” That’s when we can say, “And look at all the life where it didn’t seem like life was possible. Here's a story...”

We don’t have to wait for heaven to see that our faith is valid. God shows us “risen from the dead” all the time. Let’s open our eyes and see Life.

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3-4-21 - The Third Temple

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

The temple complex where Jesus cast out purveyors of sacrificial animals and turned the tables on the money changers was a second iteration of the first splendid edifice erected by King Solomon. Foreign powers overrunning your small nation and sending your people into exile can be hard on the architecture. The plans for this temple must have been ambitious too, for at this point, decades into its construction, it’s not yet finished.

The temple leaders did not throw Jesus out after his scene. But they sure had a few questions for him. “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The leaders then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

It’s an audacious challenge Jesus lays down – and a safe bet, as there’s no way they would have risked harming the temple. (Within forty or so years, the Romans would demolish this one too.) The leaders take his words literally – “You’re going to raise it up in three days?” But our narrator tells us what Jesus does not tell his interrogators – that he’s not talking about the bricks and mortar in which God was said to dwell on earth. He is talking about the fullest revelation of God on earth – himself, the Son of God, fully human yet containing the fullness of the Godhead.

During his time here, Jesus was this living temple, Emmanu-el, God with us, mediating the presence of God to those who drew near. That’s where his power to heal and teach and forgive came from, God within him. That’s why he was so threatening to those who held power. They couldn’t put their finger on why he was so unsettling – it was God in him. That’s a pretty scary thing.

But God’s plan was scarier still. After Jesus’ ascension, he said God would send his Holy Spirit upon all flesh. Now anyone who believes that Jesus is Lord becomes a temple in which God’s presence is made known to the world. Not little “gods,” but vessels of the one true God. That’s why Paul exhorts us to honor our bodies and treat them with holy reverence – because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Wow.

Okay, you might ask, why doesn’t it feel like God’s presence is that powerfully present in me? Why don’t I feel like a temple? Well, I don’t know about you, but I forget, all the time, that that’s what I am. Because we also carry accumulated detritus that has nothing holy about it, that in fact can obscure the holy in us. The work of the spiritual life is to become aware of, name, and transform everything in us that is not holy, and to become aware of, name and lift up all that is. Gradually the God-Life in us becomes more and more apparent, and the natural, passing-away life dims.

How might we become more conscious of our “temple-hood?” Like any spiritual practice, we can develop it with, yes, practice. Sow reminders into your day – when you eat something healthy, when you take a rest, when you stop and pray, when you offer a kind word. “Oh yeah – I am being God’s temple.” We can also remind ourselves, when about to make choices that are destructive or not life-giving – “Hey, remember, the Spirit of God wants to hang out in you.”

There are those who await a third temple to be built, as a sign of God’s reign breaking out. Christ-followers get to see that third temple every time we look at one another, for God’s reign has broken out and we’re helping it spread.

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3-3-21 - My Father's House

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

Where should they start, these leaders of Israel’s spiritual life? Jesus, in his tirade at the temple, offended in so many ways. There was his attack on the system of sacrifice and the economic engine that drove it along. There was his lack of respect and decorum. Yet these transgressions likely paled in comparison to his words: “Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!”

His father’s house? This was the holy temple where God resided on earth. It was for everyone - as long as they were intact and ritually "clean." In fact, it had become the only legitimate place for holy rituals to be enacted, where ordinary people could come into contact with the Holy God. And this itinerant teacher presumed to refer to it as his father’s house? Blasphemy!

When Jesus called the temple in Jerusalem "his father's house," he may have been referencing Israel’s history, in particular the tradition of King David who wanted to “build a house for God.” God’s response was that it was not David who would build a house for God, but God who would establish a house, a lineage for him. And from that line would come the Messiah. Was Jesus hinting at his Davidic heritage when he called it “my father’s house?” It would have sounded no less blasphemous to his listeners than calling God his father, but it’s an interesting idea.

Are places of worship meant to be houses for God? Is that what they are? And is that how we treat them? Or are they spaces for us, places we set apart for ourselves, hoping to find in them a moment of solace, of holy presence; buildings in which we enact rituals that sometimes mediate the divine for us, in which we offer prayers and praises and portions of our wealth in hopes of encountering God? Is that what a sanctuary is?

Or is a sanctuary a place to welcome people who don’t know the living God, yet know they are missing a connection they crave? Should we decorate and arrange our churches for God – who likely doesn’t care where we meet, as long as we come in love and openness - or for outsiders who are hungry for God?
How might it change the way we arrange and decorate them, and how we conduct ourselves in them, if we saw them as houses for God’s hungry people rather than as houses for God? After a year of worshipping mostly outside our holy buildings, these questions are all the more urgent.

In the next exchange in our passage, Jesus refers to his body as the temple that cannot be destroyed. Peter likens the people of God to a holy temple built of living stones. As we have discovered this year of online worship, God’s house is anywhere God’s name and power and love are invoked – every heart, every relationship, every place of prayer and desperate hope can be “my father’s house.”

What if we began to treat our street corners as holy spaces? Our living rooms? Doctor’s offices? Shelters? Police stations? Where do you pray? Where do you invite Jesus to make himself known? That is his father’s house.

Please scroll down for information about an online retreat I'm hosting March 6 - a Lenten Spa for the Spirit. We will focus on spiritual fitness for peacemakers. All are welcome!

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.

I invite you to join me for an online retreat morning on Saturday, March 6, starting at 9 am and ending by 12:30. This retreat time will focus on the spiritual practices that keep us "fit" as peacemakers - forgiveness, hope, hospitality and peace. Even a few hours of retreat can renew and recharge our souls. 

Click here to register; Zoom link and more information will be emailed. 
Share the Facebook Event and invite others.  Download the flyer here and share! 

3-2-21 - Zeal

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After Jesus’ rampage at the temple, John tells us, His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Funny thing about the derivatives of the word “zeal.” “Zealous” has positive connotations as “on the case,” or “committed,” while “zealot” conjures images of bug-eyed maniacs raging about. The word originally referred to members of a Jewish political group in Jesus’ day who were eager to overthrow the occupying Romans. Jesus’ zeal, though, is directed not at the Romans but at his own religious leaders. In that sense, he was fairly apolitical; presumably he had views on the oppression and cruelty which the Romans exhibited toward his countrymen and women, yet his primary concern was with the corruption of message and heart which he saw in the temple leadership.

What is the place for zeal in the Christian life? The early monastic hermits whom we call the “Desert Fathers and Mothers,” men and women who went into the desert to seek union with God away from the temptations of daily life, preached the spiritual virtue of apatheia, a detachment from worldly concerns and agendas that they saw as the goal of the spiritual life. The point is not to be passion-less, but to channel all our passion into our relationship with the God who loves us passionately. I wonder what those abbas and ammas taught about Jesus’ scene in the temple.

Where do we find our balance between wholehearted passion – for justice, for evangelism, for liberation, to name a few, and apatheia, the spiritual value of letting go?

We might start with discerning when we are answering God’s call to a particular area of justice, and when our interest might be driven by personal concerns. I have a friend who has taken on the issue of sex trafficking. I asked her why that issue, and she said she felt God clearly tell her to work on that. She avoided it for some years because it is such an ugly area of human life – but ultimately she said yes. She is galvanizing communities to shine a light on perpetrators and bring freedom to survivors.

What issues get you “hot under the collar?” What about that matter hooks you, do you think? Do you feel God has invited you to participate in that aspect of God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation? Do you feel the power of the Holy Spirit with you as you work, speak, weep or rejoice – or are you drained by the effort? Those are some of the ways to know where our passion is to be expressed.

However we discern our motivation, we can always be more intentional about inviting the Spirit constantly into our passion. When we are gripped with outrage over some injustice or corruption, we can note our reaction and pray right then and there – “God, is this a holy anger? Or is this anxiety or guilt or something else?” And if we sense it is a holy anger, take the next step and ask, “What would you like me to do, with you? Show me where to hold back and trust you, and where to move forward with all the fullness of your Spirit working in me.”

We call the great sacrifice our Lord Jesus endured for us – the whole thing, from his arrest through his crucifixion – his “passion,” from the word passio,or suffering. And yet this is also the word we use for ardent love – which is what drove Christ to endure his passion for us. If we let Christ live in us, I believe we will know when to bring it on and when to dial it back. It has to be his work in us, or it’s for nothing.

Please scroll down for information about an online retreat I'm hosting March 6 - a Lenten Spa for the Spirit. We will focus on spiritual fitness for peacemakers. All are welcome!

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.

I invite you to join me for an online retreat morning on Saturday, March 6, starting at 9 am and ending by 12:30. This retreat time will focus on the spiritual practices that keep us "fit" as peacemakers - forgiveness, hope, hospitality and peace. Even a few hours of retreat can renew and recharge our souls. 

Click here to register;
Zoom link and more information will be emailed. 
Share the Facebook Event and invite others.  Download the flyer here and share!