Those who doubt the full humanity of Christ might look no further than the 7th chapter of Mark's gospel. In the story we have this week, we meet at Jesus who appears out of sorts, brusque to the point of rudeness - and seemingly able to change his mind.
Jesus has come to this house to get away from the crowds and incessant need for his attention and power. He needs a break. And this woman, a Gentile yet, finds him and has the temerity to intrude upon his solitude, demanding deliverance for her daughter. At first he dismisses her, curtly saying she is outside his assigned mission, and then likens her to a dog seeking scraps.
She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
As she steadily insists, though, refusing to take offense, he detects something underneath the annoyance she is causing. He discerns a woman of real faith, who will not take "no" for an answer because she knows with all her heart that Jesus can heal her little girl. This is the kind of faith he has hoped to see in his own Jewish community – but familiarity can cloud faith vision. This Gentile woman has no such blinders. She can see, and once Jesus' own blinders fall, he sees her truly too, and rewards her faith.
This story contains several invitations for us. One is to be persistent in prayer, with faith, even when it looks like God seems not to answer. Prayer is primarily about deepening our relationship with God, not "getting what we need," so we can pester and cajole and ask nicely and cry our need. Jesus hears us, and adds his perfect faith to ours, as we learn to trust his perfect will and timing.
Another invitation is to keep our senses tuned to discern faith in people outside the community of faith as we recognize it. Those of us who are longtime churchgoers and deeply steeped in our religious tradition don’t always see that the woman with the angel posters or the multiply "tatted" guy at the Shelter may have a clearer, less complicated,more powerful faith than we do. As we recognize that, we can make it our mission to invite such people to draw nearer the community, nearer to Christ – and maybe find that it is they who make Christ known to us once again.
8-31-15 - A Little R&R
I’m away on a brief vacation this week (I set this up to send before I left). And I can sure use some time off – I’ve worked hard this year, and worried hard this summer. I can tell when my creativity becomes stunted that I need to let my brain and spirit get off the grid for a bit.
If I think I need a vacation, imagine how much Jesus needed some rest time! He had been preaching and healing and traveling and disputing and training, never in the same spot for more than a day, it seems. And now he arrives in Tyre, on the coast, and he just wants some time apart. It’s his Garbo moment, “I vant to be alone!” But it’s not to be.
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. (This week's Gospel passage is here.)
It’s great to read that Jesus did seek these times to rest and recharge, for it reminds us that he was indeed human, and it gives us permission to recognize our limits as well. And, of course, he was also the God who ordained a day of rest in every seven; if we would only live into that promise, we might not even need vacations.
And it’s also helpful to learn that Jesus was interrupted at his rest. The demands of the world do not subside just because we take some time out. The woman who came and found him had business she felt was much more pressing than his need to rest. And, though his initial response appears surly, in the end he agrees with her: her need, and her faith, were worthy of his attention.
When we’re on vacation we put down our regular work, our regular tasks, sometimes even our regular landscape, and seek to be renewed in the space that opens up. But we do not cease to be servants of the Living God, engaged in God’s mission of restoration and wholeness. We may find ourselves presented with needs in the people around us. We may fall into some interior, spiritual work we’ve neglected in our busyness, or find ourselves dealing with issues in our families or relationships. We may be surprised at how God wants to work through us in our time away.
I plan to be alert to opportunities, but not seek them out. I’ll probably keep churning out Water Daily, because I like the Gospel reading this week, though I’ll have to locate internet access to do it. I guess I might find, as Jesus did, that sometimes the mission of God draws us in despite our best intentions to stay apart. And then we have to trust that God will give us the R&R we need in some other way.
If I think I need a vacation, imagine how much Jesus needed some rest time! He had been preaching and healing and traveling and disputing and training, never in the same spot for more than a day, it seems. And now he arrives in Tyre, on the coast, and he just wants some time apart. It’s his Garbo moment, “I vant to be alone!” But it’s not to be.
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. (This week's Gospel passage is here.)
It’s great to read that Jesus did seek these times to rest and recharge, for it reminds us that he was indeed human, and it gives us permission to recognize our limits as well. And, of course, he was also the God who ordained a day of rest in every seven; if we would only live into that promise, we might not even need vacations.
And it’s also helpful to learn that Jesus was interrupted at his rest. The demands of the world do not subside just because we take some time out. The woman who came and found him had business she felt was much more pressing than his need to rest. And, though his initial response appears surly, in the end he agrees with her: her need, and her faith, were worthy of his attention.
When we’re on vacation we put down our regular work, our regular tasks, sometimes even our regular landscape, and seek to be renewed in the space that opens up. But we do not cease to be servants of the Living God, engaged in God’s mission of restoration and wholeness. We may find ourselves presented with needs in the people around us. We may fall into some interior, spiritual work we’ve neglected in our busyness, or find ourselves dealing with issues in our families or relationships. We may be surprised at how God wants to work through us in our time away.
I plan to be alert to opportunities, but not seek them out. I’ll probably keep churning out Water Daily, because I like the Gospel reading this week, though I’ll have to locate internet access to do it. I guess I might find, as Jesus did, that sometimes the mission of God draws us in despite our best intentions to stay apart. And then we have to trust that God will give us the R&R we need in some other way.
8-28-15 - Grace in the Garden
This August, we are doing a worship series at my church on Summer Pastimes and how they speak to us of the life of faith. So each Friday I will turn from the lectionary to the gospel I’ve selected for worship that week.
I am not a gardener. I’m a would-be gardener, and I know a lot of real gardeners. And I reap the benefit from those who designed the garden in my yard, especially the peonies which tell me that spring has arrived. A well-designed flower garden - plantings balanced in color, height, time of blooming – is a gift to the community around it, as well as to the one who planted and tends it.
Vegetable gardens are another gift that offer both beauty and bounty to their communities. They require work to prepare the soil, and knowledge of when to plant what, and the sower never knows exactly which seeds will grow, or how great or small its yield will be. (Except zucchini, I guess – those always seem to be in abundance).
This week we explore the summer pastime of gardening as a way of thinking about our faith lives. What parallels do you draw as you consider gardening and gardens? We might think of God as the one who designs, plants and tends – and never knows for sure what will yield, as God has given this garden free will.
What opens up when we think of our lives as gardens? What’s growing and thriving, and what’s stunted? Who planted what? Are there weeds we’d like to pull out? Growth we should prune back? New plants we’d like to put in?
And what if we think of ourselves as gardeners tending God’s garden, not our own? The second creation story, starting in Genesis 2:4, suggests that humankind was created in part to serve as gardeners, to tend and nurture the beautiful creation God had wrought. How much freedom do we have to add to God’s design? Is it up to us to weed out evil? In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus suggests it is not.
I hope this weekend you can sit and contemplate a beautiful garden, your own or someone else’s. Ask Jesus how he’s calling you to plant, water, weed and prune. He should know; the first person he encountered after he rose from the dead, thought he was a gardener. She wasn't all wrong...
I am not a gardener. I’m a would-be gardener, and I know a lot of real gardeners. And I reap the benefit from those who designed the garden in my yard, especially the peonies which tell me that spring has arrived. A well-designed flower garden - plantings balanced in color, height, time of blooming – is a gift to the community around it, as well as to the one who planted and tends it.
Vegetable gardens are another gift that offer both beauty and bounty to their communities. They require work to prepare the soil, and knowledge of when to plant what, and the sower never knows exactly which seeds will grow, or how great or small its yield will be. (Except zucchini, I guess – those always seem to be in abundance).
This week we explore the summer pastime of gardening as a way of thinking about our faith lives. What parallels do you draw as you consider gardening and gardens? We might think of God as the one who designs, plants and tends – and never knows for sure what will yield, as God has given this garden free will.
What opens up when we think of our lives as gardens? What’s growing and thriving, and what’s stunted? Who planted what? Are there weeds we’d like to pull out? Growth we should prune back? New plants we’d like to put in?
And what if we think of ourselves as gardeners tending God’s garden, not our own? The second creation story, starting in Genesis 2:4, suggests that humankind was created in part to serve as gardeners, to tend and nurture the beautiful creation God had wrought. How much freedom do we have to add to God’s design? Is it up to us to weed out evil? In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus suggests it is not.
I hope this weekend you can sit and contemplate a beautiful garden, your own or someone else’s. Ask Jesus how he’s calling you to plant, water, weed and prune. He should know; the first person he encountered after he rose from the dead, thought he was a gardener. She wasn't all wrong...
8-25-15 - Inside Out
Americans are increasingly conscious about what we consume. Soaring rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and substance abuse – not to mention a culture obsessed with body fat – have led to a focus on fat, sugar, gluten, pesticides and their attendant evils. Vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, organic diets are all the rage. We know all about the damage we can do by what we take into our bodies.
Perhaps we’re not so different from the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Focused on the fine points of the Mosaic Law, they were hyper-conscious about the dangers of eating the wrong food, or overlooking the proper precautions and rituals. Jesus had a thing or two to say about that:
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
He went on to list a great many sins and character flaws that issue from the human heart – and to suggest that we concern ourselves more with what comes from inside us than from without.
It’s not an either/or, of course. The emotional climate in which we operate factors into the thoughts and behaviors we exhibit to the world, just as the actual food and drink we consume play a role in how healthy our minds and spirits are. But Jesus is right, as usual: It’s ridiculous to worry about the toxicity in our food supply while we sow discord in social discourse, or to demand transparency about genetically modified foods and not in our financial or political systems.
To Jesus’ list of “evil intentions” and wickedness of which the human heart is capable, I would like to add a list of all the good things that also issue from inside us: compassion, generosity, forbearance, empathy, love – the fruit of the Spirit at work in us that Paul mentions in Galatians.
As we allow the Spirit of Christ to live in us, we can become more aware of the interior landscape in which we ask that Spirit to dwell. Is it littered with garbage and debris, old wounds, dysfunctional patterns of being and relating? Toxic dumps of anger, fear, envy and shame that leak into our reactions and interactions? Might we ask God to tour that landscape with us, and invite healing and cleansing of all that leads to hurt? There’s some prayer work, to be done with God alone, or with the help of a spiritual director, confessor and/or therapist.
And then let’s pay attention to what we take in – not only good and healthy things for our bodies, but all that is good and true and worthy (another great list from St. Paul in Philippians 4…). So may we be able to say with the Psalmist, “Let all that is within me bless God’s holy name.”
I’m going to take a few days off from Water Daily here and there this week and next. See you Friday!
Perhaps we’re not so different from the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Focused on the fine points of the Mosaic Law, they were hyper-conscious about the dangers of eating the wrong food, or overlooking the proper precautions and rituals. Jesus had a thing or two to say about that:
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
He went on to list a great many sins and character flaws that issue from the human heart – and to suggest that we concern ourselves more with what comes from inside us than from without.
It’s not an either/or, of course. The emotional climate in which we operate factors into the thoughts and behaviors we exhibit to the world, just as the actual food and drink we consume play a role in how healthy our minds and spirits are. But Jesus is right, as usual: It’s ridiculous to worry about the toxicity in our food supply while we sow discord in social discourse, or to demand transparency about genetically modified foods and not in our financial or political systems.
To Jesus’ list of “evil intentions” and wickedness of which the human heart is capable, I would like to add a list of all the good things that also issue from inside us: compassion, generosity, forbearance, empathy, love – the fruit of the Spirit at work in us that Paul mentions in Galatians.
As we allow the Spirit of Christ to live in us, we can become more aware of the interior landscape in which we ask that Spirit to dwell. Is it littered with garbage and debris, old wounds, dysfunctional patterns of being and relating? Toxic dumps of anger, fear, envy and shame that leak into our reactions and interactions? Might we ask God to tour that landscape with us, and invite healing and cleansing of all that leads to hurt? There’s some prayer work, to be done with God alone, or with the help of a spiritual director, confessor and/or therapist.
And then let’s pay attention to what we take in – not only good and healthy things for our bodies, but all that is good and true and worthy (another great list from St. Paul in Philippians 4…). So may we be able to say with the Psalmist, “Let all that is within me bless God’s holy name.”
I’m going to take a few days off from Water Daily here and there this week and next. See you Friday!
8-24-15 - Majoring in Minors
Were you ever sent away from the dinner table with the stern command, “Wash your hands?” It was ingrained in me as a pre-prandial requirement, though, as a rule, we ate with utensils, not bare hands. And when I cook I've learned to wash my hands frequently, as a precaution against spreading bacteria that may have escaped my chicken or kale.
Health concerns may have been the root of the elaborate washing rituals handed down in Hebrew tradition, but Jesus and his disciples seem not to have bothered with these rites, for the Jewish leaders who had come from Jerusalem to investigate the Jesus movement found them eating with “defiled” hands.
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” (This week's gospel passage is here.)
Jesus is not gentle in his response:
He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Once again, his accusation against his interrogators is rooted in his perception that they are missing the point, majoring in minors, and so distorting the heart of God’s law. It would appear these rituals were an age-old community practice that had become elevated to the status of Law. This was not bad in itself, but Jesus charges that these men focused an inordinate amount of attention on matters of human tradition while they ignored actual laws of God – such as the command to care for the poor, the orphan and the widow, or the command to honor your father and mother.
Sound familiar? How often do we hear of faith leaders attacking other Christians over lifestyle or political issues, yet doing little to proclaim the Good News of forgiveness in Christ? How often do we see churches, even those facing declining attendance, focus their resources on maintaining a certain style of liturgy, or replacing the sanctuary carpet, or organizing yet another congregational dinner that draws no one from outside, instead of turning their vision outward?
Oh, it’s easy to point fingers. Let’s bring it closer. What occupies much of our time and emotional energy? Is it the “commandment of God” or “human tradition?” I know I spend an awful lot of time perpetuating institutional life, which may or not be how the Spirit is inviting me to spend the time and gifts I have been given in this limited life. How about you? Might we do a little inventory of where the bulk of our energy, time and money goes? A quick glance over calendar and checkbook (and Facebook…) can tell us a lot.
What if we were to ask God to tell us daily where our energies can most fruitfully be invested? And listen for the answer before going about our day? That’s a lot more important than washing our hands before meals.
Health concerns may have been the root of the elaborate washing rituals handed down in Hebrew tradition, but Jesus and his disciples seem not to have bothered with these rites, for the Jewish leaders who had come from Jerusalem to investigate the Jesus movement found them eating with “defiled” hands.
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” (This week's gospel passage is here.)
Jesus is not gentle in his response:
He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Once again, his accusation against his interrogators is rooted in his perception that they are missing the point, majoring in minors, and so distorting the heart of God’s law. It would appear these rituals were an age-old community practice that had become elevated to the status of Law. This was not bad in itself, but Jesus charges that these men focused an inordinate amount of attention on matters of human tradition while they ignored actual laws of God – such as the command to care for the poor, the orphan and the widow, or the command to honor your father and mother.
Sound familiar? How often do we hear of faith leaders attacking other Christians over lifestyle or political issues, yet doing little to proclaim the Good News of forgiveness in Christ? How often do we see churches, even those facing declining attendance, focus their resources on maintaining a certain style of liturgy, or replacing the sanctuary carpet, or organizing yet another congregational dinner that draws no one from outside, instead of turning their vision outward?
Oh, it’s easy to point fingers. Let’s bring it closer. What occupies much of our time and emotional energy? Is it the “commandment of God” or “human tradition?” I know I spend an awful lot of time perpetuating institutional life, which may or not be how the Spirit is inviting me to spend the time and gifts I have been given in this limited life. How about you? Might we do a little inventory of where the bulk of our energy, time and money goes? A quick glance over calendar and checkbook (and Facebook…) can tell us a lot.
What if we were to ask God to tell us daily where our energies can most fruitfully be invested? And listen for the answer before going about our day? That’s a lot more important than washing our hands before meals.
8-21-15 - Grace Will Lead Us Home
This August, we are doing a worship series at my church on Summer Pastimes and how they speak to us of the life of faith. So each Friday I will turn from the lectionary to the gospel I’ve selected for worship that week. Here is this week's (a bit of a seventh-inning stretch..)
Baseball is in the on-deck circle this week, and boy, does it lend itself to puns and metaphors for the life of faith! Strikes, outs, fouls, errors, sacrifice plays, stealing bases, walking runners. You could say it starts in Genesis: “In the Big Inning…” Most of all, with its circular play and the goal of getting players to a base called Home, it lends itself to thoughts of heaven.
Baseball allows us to explore the concept of grace – what does it mean to have an unlimited number of strikes and fouls? How do we live into the wonder of a system based not on running back and forth but round and around again, always moving toward Home? How might we think about Jesus – as the pitcher who walks us all, or the hitter who came to bat when the bases were loaded and both sides were losing?
I invite you to consider your spiritual life in Christ as though it were a baseball game – what opens up for you? What position do you see yourself playing? Where on the field is Jesus – or is he the Manager?
In this game of God-life, we are all good hitters, capable of foul balls now and again as well as the occasional homer. But no matter where we are – in the field, in the dugout, or hugging a base, we don’t have to steal home – Jesus has come to the plate, and has hit us all in.
Baseball is in the on-deck circle this week, and boy, does it lend itself to puns and metaphors for the life of faith! Strikes, outs, fouls, errors, sacrifice plays, stealing bases, walking runners. You could say it starts in Genesis: “In the Big Inning…” Most of all, with its circular play and the goal of getting players to a base called Home, it lends itself to thoughts of heaven.
Baseball allows us to explore the concept of grace – what does it mean to have an unlimited number of strikes and fouls? How do we live into the wonder of a system based not on running back and forth but round and around again, always moving toward Home? How might we think about Jesus – as the pitcher who walks us all, or the hitter who came to bat when the bases were loaded and both sides were losing?
I invite you to consider your spiritual life in Christ as though it were a baseball game – what opens up for you? What position do you see yourself playing? Where on the field is Jesus – or is he the Manager?
In this game of God-life, we are all good hitters, capable of foul balls now and again as well as the occasional homer. But no matter where we are – in the field, in the dugout, or hugging a base, we don’t have to steal home – Jesus has come to the plate, and has hit us all in.
8-20-15 - Where We Gonna Go?
A measure of doubt and despair is normal in a healthy faith. After all, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. If we’re going to live on the ledge of faith, it’s not surprising periodically to experience a wave of “what am I doing here!” when we look down. This can come in times of personal crisis, or when it seems evil is still winning, or just because we read something that challenges our ideas.
It can even come because of something we hear Jesus said or did. So it was for his followers in the wake of his “Eat my flesh” comments, when he suggested that those who couldn’t accept this teaching had not been called by God:
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
What a beautiful statement of faith Peter makes! There might be an element of, “You’re the best of a range of bad options” in “Lord, to whom can we go?” If so, it is quickly eclipsed by the simple and profound declaration of belief: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
That is how faith in God grows – it is something we come to believe, and something we know, not all at once, but fully even as it is still growing. Gradually, that heart knowledge comes to override other input of our senses and intellect that suggest God is not real or to be trusted. When hard things happen or we see the persistence of evil rampant in the world, it’s not that those things aren’t real. They are true and we believe Jesus is the Holy One of God. We hold those truths in tension.
Spiritual maturity comes in our ability to live with that tension, not seeking the comforts of an either/or. The realm of God is a both/and place, and the more comfortable we become with nuance and shades of grey, the more room the Spirit has to move in and through us.
What things cause your faith to weaken? How do you deal with doubts or a desire to jump ship when they come up? We can always pray right then and there, as honestly as the psalmists do, being real with God about what we’re feeling and thinking. That’s how the relationship deepens.
I pray that, through our deepening relationship with God in Christ, living more and more in the Life of God, we can come to say with Peter, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
It can even come because of something we hear Jesus said or did. So it was for his followers in the wake of his “Eat my flesh” comments, when he suggested that those who couldn’t accept this teaching had not been called by God:
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
What a beautiful statement of faith Peter makes! There might be an element of, “You’re the best of a range of bad options” in “Lord, to whom can we go?” If so, it is quickly eclipsed by the simple and profound declaration of belief: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
That is how faith in God grows – it is something we come to believe, and something we know, not all at once, but fully even as it is still growing. Gradually, that heart knowledge comes to override other input of our senses and intellect that suggest God is not real or to be trusted. When hard things happen or we see the persistence of evil rampant in the world, it’s not that those things aren’t real. They are true and we believe Jesus is the Holy One of God. We hold those truths in tension.
Spiritual maturity comes in our ability to live with that tension, not seeking the comforts of an either/or. The realm of God is a both/and place, and the more comfortable we become with nuance and shades of grey, the more room the Spirit has to move in and through us.
What things cause your faith to weaken? How do you deal with doubts or a desire to jump ship when they come up? We can always pray right then and there, as honestly as the psalmists do, being real with God about what we’re feeling and thinking. That’s how the relationship deepens.
I pray that, through our deepening relationship with God in Christ, living more and more in the Life of God, we can come to say with Peter, “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
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