Water Daily

8-10-21 - Raised

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

One of the standards of what came to be called “renewal music,” songs for worship from the Catholic Charismatic movement of the 1960s and 70s, was “I Am the Bread of Life.” (No YouTube link – each version is more lugubrious than the last!). Its verses, verbatim renderings of Jesus’ statements in our passage, are probably not the cause of its enduring popularity. Rather it is the refrain, with its sweeping lift, “And I will raise them up, and I will raise them up, and I will rai-ai-ise them u-up on the last day” that made the song such a hit. You feel your spirit rising as you sing the song.

What Jesus said was, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day..."

This highlights an interesting facet of resurrection theology: that it is Jesus who will raise us up on the last day. I had never thought to associate the Son of God with this function, and may be over-interpreting one line. It strikes me as yet another reason to get to know him in this life. Because I wonder: is the last day the only day when Jesus raises us up?

That question caused another Christian song to set itself on continuous loop in my brain – "You Raise Me Up," popularized by Josh Groban. This too has a swelling chorus and uplifting lyrics, and roots Jesus’ assistance in the here and now.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains/ You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong when I am on your shoulders/ You raise me up to more than I can be.

Despite the comical image of balancing on Jesus’ shoulders, like a child getting a good view at a parade, it does remind us that we live the risen life here and now, not only there and later. And at times when we don’t feel very “risen,” we can invite Jesus to activate his life in us again.

Which generates a third musing on “raised” – Jesus as yeast that causes us to rise and become the bread of life in the world. He probably didn't intend that association, though elsewhere he likens the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven. But here it is – a wonderful image for how the life of Christ works in us. Just as yeast is proofed in water and a sweetener, so his life is made real in us through baptism. And then it works through us, kneaded by our formation as Christians, by life's hardships and challenges, by wise and wonderful mentors. And it raises us into the life of heaven, from the inside.

Where do you need “raising” today? Ask Jesus to raise you up, and then say thank you, even before you see how that prayer is being answered. After awhile, you might notice something has changed. And when you do, say thank you again, and maybe write it down – even tell someone.

When we are low or weary or feeling powerless, we don’t have to call on the power of heaven from outside. We can ask God to activate the Life of heaven already at work within us. And we will find ourselves raised up – at the last day, and every day until then.

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8-9-21 - Eating Jesus

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

“…so whoever eats me will live because of me.” – Jesus of Nazareth

It’s August. In southern Maryland, we’ve had a week of glorious weather, sunny skies and low humidity. My Facebook feed is full of people vacationing in beautiful places. Who wants to think about Jesus’ “I am the bread” discourses and their cannibalistic implications? What relevance is there to this ancient argument between Jesus and some would-be followers, in which he invokes the name of God and Israel’s history of disobedience, and then goes on to say that what he really means by “bread” is “his flesh,” which he will give for the world?

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you....Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.”

These words made little sense to those listening to Jesus that day. For many Christians, these words only have meaning in the context of the eucharistic meal of bread and wine signifying Christ’s body and blood – and we only have that understanding because of what the three other gospels – and not John – record as his words at the Last Supper. And they are certainly mystifying to people exploring Christianity.

The words require too much unpacking, I believe. But the action – the taking and blessing, breaking and eating – that has power even for people who have no background with this language or texts. In some mystical way, when we receive the consecrated bread and wine, by faith we become the body and blood of Christ, his life in us, received at baptism, is renewed. Our tired blood is refreshed by a transfusion of Jesus, our flagging flesh made whole in these signs of healing brokenness. And that can happen even for people who know little about Jesus. (Read Sara Miles' Take This Bread.)

We don't need more words about words. I just invite you to remember how you feel when you take in those mystical signs, how that meal nourishes you for the week ahead. And if you feel nothing, ask Jesus in prayer what he wants you to experience in that taking and blessing, breaking and eating.

The words may be strange to our ears; the Love that makes them real is where we get life.

8-6-21 - God On the Road

This August, we are doing a worship series at my churches on Summer Pastimes and how they speak to us of the life of faith. Each Friday we will turn from the lectionary gospel to the one we’ll be hearing at the Christ Churches - this week that is Luke 10:1-9. You can listen to this reflection here.

The second installment in our “Summer Pastimes and the Life of Faith” series focuses on travel. There is a LOT of travel in the bible, from Abram and Sarai’s original journey from Ur to Canaan; the people of Israel’s 40-year sojourn in the wilderness (forty years to make a two-week trip…); and the fairly constant traveling done by Jesus and his disciples, and later Paul and the apostles. Travel is where the rubber meets the road in the Christian life.

The life of an apostle (you and me!) is a life on mission, and as Jesus, Paul and others lived it, that was often a life on the road. Travel involves leaving home – and coming home. That is a good description of the life of a Jesus-follower: we are ever called away from the familiar and comfortable to encounters that delight us, challenge us, stretch us, teach us, and often bless us. And while we are moving in and out of these border-crossing encounters, we are also gradually making our way home – not to the homes we live in in this life, but the Home where God-Life is all. Like the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11, we should never mistake the homes we dwell in for that ultimate Home which is our long-term destination.

The Christian life, like travel, is often richer when done with others. Relationships spring up naturally when we’re on the move; we might find ourselves talking to, eating with, sight-seeing with people we’d never encounter at home. The same can be said of our life in Christian community: we become close to people we’d never naturally come to know, and share the journey into faith with them.

Comparing travel to our life in Christ, we might think of the Bible as our guidebook. It describes places we have not been, and those descriptions are not the same as being there. And when we do get there, we find our experiences confirmed in reading the witness of those saints who have gone before.

Travel opens us, sometimes in uncomfortable ways and often joyously. So does our life as a follower of Christ. No matter where we are, we have the chance to encounter God on the road. It might be in navigating a challenge, or being kept safe from harm, or praying to be kept safe from harm, or in an encounter with another person, or in a “mountaintop” experience of great beauty and grandeur… God is in all of it, and often quite specifically. Every journey can lead us closer to the One who made us. So… bon voyage!

8-5-21 - Bread For the World

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

In his “I am the bread of life” discourse, Jesus becomes increasingly, alarmingly precise. He moves from “I am the bread of life” to “I am the bread that came down from heaven” to “I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” and finally to this astonishing statement: “… the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

We will explore next week how graphically Jesus “fleshes this out” and becomes yet more controversial. Today let’s stay with this idea – that his flesh is bread that he will give for the life of the world. What connections and responses does that evoke in us?

For sacramentally oriented Christians, it is easy to read back into Jesus’ words a eucharistic connotation. Beneath that is the sacrificial understanding of his crucifixion, that something life-saving, world-transforming occurred in Jesus’ offering of himself and his brutal death, something that broke the hold of sin and death upon humankind for ever.

In these words are also written the story of his incarnation – God choosing to save the world through flesh and blood. For some people, that is the most radical idea of all – that the One who is Spirit came into Flesh in order to redeem flesh. We have no salvation without the Holy Spirit, but also none without Jesus becoming human being, healing the human condition from the inside out.

And God still works through flesh. We, gathered at the communion table (even virtually), become the bread of life, and the Spirit of Christ now dwells in our frail and fallible flesh to make known the love of God to the world. It is simultaneously a huge responsibility, for we must be willing and show up, and none at all, for it remains God’s work, accomplished once and for all by Jesus on the Cross, and worked out in the world through us, one encounter at a time.

Do you bring your body into this faith life along with your mind and spirit? Are you willing to be the embodiment of God's love to those whom you meet today? We might begin the day by opening our arms in a big gesture of offering and openness to the Spirit, even kneeling in humility.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, when humankind demonstrated how profoundly “flesh” is capable of destroying the world. And in the Christian calendar, it is the Feast of the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ spiritual nature was briefly revealed to three of his followers as he shone with God-light. It is because he was God and Man that he was living bread that saves. It is as we take his life into our flesh that we too become bread for the world that can heal instead of destroy.

8-4-21 - Eternity

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

For centuries, the key selling point for becoming a Christian was the guarantee of a life that never ends. In a culture that has managed to increase the average life span to eight, nine, even ten decades, that isn’t the draw it once was. I meet quite a few churchgoers who assume they’ll just be pushing up daisies when they die.

On the other hand, technologies to prolong life, retain youth, maintain consciousness, move to another planet, store yourself for awakening at a later, greater time continue to be developed – and sell for a lot of money. Maybe people aren’t so ready to let go of life.

Jesus said eternal life can be ours without signing away our life’s savings. It can be ours through believing in him:
"Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die."

All the blessings the people of God had known, he says, even a blessing as great as manna in the desert, were temporal. The only truly lasting, eternal gift is the bread of life – and that, Jesus said, was him, available to those who believe. That’s too hard for some; they don’t want to just take him at his word. After all, they can’t see Jesus; but they’re willing to plunk down millions for a place in a cryogenics pod.

Is it really so hard to believe that promise? Jesus makes it easy for us. We don’t even have to wait until we’re dead to begin to see the fruits of what we’ve signed up for. The power that raised Christ from the dead becomes a part of our lives in the here and now. The peace that transcends understanding becomes woven into our dealings with the world. The presence of God already surrounds and transforms us more and more into the likeness of Christ.

And as we allow those gifts to work in us, we become better able to manifest the love that we’re told is to mark the Christian community in this world, and will be the sole currency in the life to come, where all will be love. When no one lacks for anything, and no one prefers one person or thing to another, there are no impediments to love.

How does eternity sound to you? Inviting? Scary? Tedious? Exciting?

When we begin to see our lives, our travails and challenges, and even joys from the perspective of eternity, the bad things don’t look as daunting, and the good we recognize as foretastes of the feast to come. This life is but an antechamber to the palace in which we will dwell – a beautiful antechamber, but just the beginning of the glory in store for us.

8-3-21 - Where Did He Say He Was From?

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

Often, when a popular public figure starts making comments that are just too outrageous, a movement will kick in to cut them down to size. We certainly see that process unfold when Jesus begins to talk about being the “bread that came down from heaven.”

People who had come to him, eager for his teaching, waiting for his next miracle, now start to grumble.

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Knowing Jesus’ roots, they couldn’t stomach what sounded like grandiose claims. In fairness to the grumblers, his words do sound far-fetched, especially if you know his human ancestry and have no reason to guess divine origins. Much of the Gospel of John chronicles people exploring and confronting Jesus’ claims of connection with God the Father. But he lays it out quite clearly and boldly:

Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

This is more outrageous still! Jesus rests his authority on his divine Son-ship – and says that if anyone fails to discern his Son-ship, that person has not been drawn by the Father. For those who believe Jesus is indeed the Son of God, that makes perfect sense. For those who don’t, this circular reasoning just makes him sound all the more mad, and more than a little manipulative.

And there it is: the life, teachings, actions, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ make sense if you believe that he came from the Father and returned to the Father, and that he is entitled to call God “Father.” If you don’t buy that, if you see him solely as a human creature, he is someone to be feared, not revered. Given that, the fact that so many billions across so many centuries have recognized Jesus’ divine origins lends some support to the truth we claim about this one who said he was Truth itself.

So how do we make this Truth known to the people around us? Should we bother? I say we introduce him as the friend and redeemer we know, and ask the Holy Spirit to make the spiritual introduction that initiates faith. We don't have to convince, only bear witness, in our actions as well as words.

We have not seen the Father. But we have seen Jesus, and can know Jesus. And in Him, God is.

8-2-21 - No Hunger, No Thirst

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

When Jesus says that he is the bread of life, he also makes a big claim: “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Is he only speaking figuratively? On the face of it, it would seem so. Many people believe and yet experience hunger or thirst on a regular basis, physical and emotional as well as spiritual. We have not received all that we need so that we have no wants. Or have we?

The realm of God is an already/not yet place. Often we focus too much on the not-yet, when Jesus’ message in word and action was “It’s already here, folks! This God who loves you is near, is here, with power to heal and to provide.” The healings and the miracle of the loaves and fish were yet more ways to show that this Good News has implications in our material lives here and now, not only in our spirits. Even in the face of persecution, Jesus taught, God provides. How hard it is to trust that! Those trust muscles need to be developed and then exercised.

If anyone had reason to be thirsty, it was Rosie, a woman I met at a nursing home where I used to do a monthly service. She often added to my homilies, conveying my point better and more eloquently than I did. She lived semi-reclined in a wheelchair, and looked to me to be in her mid-40s. And she was radiant, always smiling, grateful. One time I had spoken about the living water of Christ always within us, and she said, “I know about that living water. Before I knew Jesus I had this emptiness inside me, nothing could fill it. But the moment I learned about him and said yes to faith, I felt full. Now I always feel full of God, all the time, no matter what.”

Rosie’s “no matter what” is particularly challenging, living in a nursing home, confined to a wheelchair. I’m sure she had other plans for her life. But her joy is palpable. That living water of Holy Spirit life truly runs in her and causes her to be focused on other people, on spreading God's joy and peace.

St. Paul put it well: “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

We have received the bread of life; we renew that awareness around the communion table. We have received the water of life; Jesus promises it is like a stream welling up within us to eternity. As Rosie knows, eternity has already begun. Be fed, be quenched, be blessed. God-Life is already!