8-1-19 - Bigger Barns

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

Jesus’ stories usually contain some detail that grabs the imagination. A stand-out feature in this parable of the rich fool (as this story is often named…) is the bigger barns this man builds to store all his grain and possessions. In a country in which many have so much “stuff” we have to stow what we can’t use in rows of storage facilities cluttering our landscape; in a time when television viewing options include not one but several “reality shows” about people who hoard – including shows that combine hoarding and storage facilities! – this parable chimes a contemporary note. Many Americans have more belongings than we can use, even compulsively buying things on credit, and then going into debt to store it all. We are indeed “building bigger barns.”

Commentators more knowledgeable than I have noted this phenomenon and reasons for it. In part it reflects anxiety about our economy, and about cultural change – a literal unwillingness to let go of the past even when we no longer need to hang on to it.

I believe it also has deeper emotional and spiritual roots – we are literally stuffing, trying to fill the vacant places in our hearts. As communities have become more dispersed and families often more fragmented; as technological and cultural change seems to accelerate while economic possibilities shrink; as people have become less familiar with the language and practice of faith traditions, and less rooted in communities that nurture spiritual connection – there is a spiritual void.

Most of us don’t like emptiness. We seek to fill it with all kinds of things, mostly to numb the feelings of aloneness or disconnection it brings. Filling spiritual emptiness with material things doesn’t work, as we know. Feelings that get stuffed down or numbed out just emerge in other, often more destructive, ways.

We may not be hoarders, yet we might ask ourselves, before God, “Is there anything I think I need more of than I really do? Anything – time, money, Facebook friends, awards, meetings on my calendar – that makes me feel more secure because I have a lot of it?”

Here’s another question: “Is there pain or emptiness in me I'm not willing to feel? Do I numb myself with work, food, alcohol, games, television, internet, [fill in the blank]? What if I let that feeling bubble up, give it some air, feel it?” There you are, sitting quietly in the company of the God who made you - you can take the risk to feel. I find that feelings, once they’re felt, tend to quiet down and fade away. Like two-year-olds, they mostly want to be acknowledged.

And then, instead of emptiness, we have some holy space to fill with holy peace, holy passion, holy presence. That is my prayer for you today – holy peace, holy passion, holy presence of the One who made you and loves you more than you can imagine. Those gifts are constantly renewed – and we don’t need a bigger barn to keep them in.

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7-31-19 - Worried to Death

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

The man in this week's story believes he can deal with his anxiety by securing his future. That’s the false promise of security. I once heard of a man who wanted to move his family to a safe place – he researched and studied what the safest place on earth could be, and finally relocated to the Falkland Islands, an untroubled island paradise with more sheep than people. Until a war broke out…

Anxiety doesn’t come out of nowhere – we usually have good reasons to worry about the things we do. Yet worry can magnify a problem and distract us from strategies for dealing with it. Anxiety is a guest who shows up unannounced; too often we extend it more hospitality than is needed, making room for it, giving it comfortable seat on the couch, feeding it with new data and bits of uncertainty. For some, anxiety is a houseguest who’s become part of the household. Might be time to say, “Sayonara, you’ve overstayed your welcome.”

And then make space for another guest who’s been asking to visit – faith. The more space we make for faith, the less we’ll have for fear. I once read an interview with the actor John Heard, and this quote stuck with me: “When you’re living by fear, you’re always looking for security. When you’re living by faith, you’re always looking for freedom.”

The man in Jesus’ story was looking for security. After building his bigger barns, says to himself, “Relax! Eat, drink, be merry.” We often associate relaxing with consuming. We do better to fill the space with more beneficial strategies. St. Paul, in his prescription for anxiety, says, 

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, will guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” 

Let’s start with where we locate our security. Take a moment, maybe write a list: What in your life makes your feel scared? What in your life makes you feel safe? Look at your lists. Invite God into the things that raise your anxiety.

Make your requests known to God, with thanksgiving. List them, in faith. Give thanks for everything you can think of – that also builds up our faith, as we remember God’s faithfulness and blessing. Anxiety has a way of messing with our perspective. Prayer restores it.

I’m learning to do that earlier, as soon as I’m aware of worrying about something – health, finances, a meeting, a thing on the to-do list still undone, the outcome of an initiative. I say, “Oh yeah, God, that’s your work. You’re just inviting me to participate in it. I’m not responsible for the outcome.” Or, “I can’t control what happens with this – I invite you to be in it.” And that peace comes. Sooner and sooner. Try it with something you're anxious about. Do both the asking and the thanking - and then expect the peace of Christ. It does come.

The more we fill our minds with trust and hope and faith and love and all those wonderful promises of God, the less room we have for fear. Then we don’t need bigger barns, for we will find we have bigger hearts.

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7-30-19 - Where Greed Can Breed

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

In this week’s story, Jesus tells a little parable about a man who felt he needed bigger barns. This was to illustrate a teaching: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

We (mostly) know that greed is unhealthy. Greed can be a powerful economic motivator, but is also corrosive, and when allowed to flourish with no inhibitors can be as destructive as an invasive species taking over your garden. No doubt that is one reason it is one of the “seven deadly sins.” But greed doesn’t come out of nowhere. Greed is a response to a deep-seated fear of not having enough – enough time, enough love, enough money, enough security, enough affirmation… that list could go on. "Not enough" is a condition reinforced by advertising and any number of cultural messages.

And to that list of “not enoughs” that many of us carry, Jesus responds with a radical message of “enough-ness.” The Good News to the poor of wallet and poor of spirit is that, in God’s economy, there is enough. He demonstrated this with bread and fish, water and wine, forgiveness and healing. Our invitation is to live into the unseen promises of God’s “enough,” which include the material as well as the spiritual, the peace, presence and power of God in every situation that confronts us.

Try making a list of things you worry about running out of. Include not only “things,” but intangibles, like time, good will, love, health.
Come into prayer and ask Jesus to release you from being preoccupied with those worries.
Ask God to show you where abundance lies in your life. If our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions, what abundance can we put our trust in?
See what words or images form in your imagination as you sit with your list and that question. 

If something comes up, write it down.

And give thanks. Every movement in our spiritual life starts with thanks. That’s how we move into greater trust in God, by recalling God’s nature as One who blesses, and giving thanks for all that we have and all that has been given into our care. We can treasure all that, but hold it lightly, not leaning on it. God alone is the source of “enough.” When that truth takes hold in us, greed has no place to breed.

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7-29-19 - It's Not Fair!

(You can listen to this reflection here.)

A family financial squabble is where we find ourselves at the beginning of this week’s Gospel reading. Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." Maybe this man had a valid gripe – some laws of inheritance favor the firstborn, who gets everything. Perhaps it was customary for the heir to share – and this one hadn’t. The man asks Jesus to use his moral authority to compel his elder brother to generosity – or at least to some behavior that was “fair.” But fairness is subjective, isn’t it? “What’s fair is fair” has no reliable measure – it all depends on where we’re looking.

As with Mary and Martha, Jesus refuses to get hooked into this family drama: “Who set me up to arbitrate your quarrels?” Yet he is not one to miss a teachable moment. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions," he says. As a good teacher, he uses a story to illustrate this truth. He tells of a rich farmer whose lands produce much, more than he can use, more than he can store. He decides to tear down his old barns and build BIGGER barns where he can store all his grain and his goods. This is where his security lies – we know this because of what he says: “And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'”

We know Jesus had no aversion to being merry – he was often in trouble for hanging around people who enjoyed eating and drinking. But his story is going somewhere else: God says, “You fool! You’re going to die tonight – and then who gets all your stuff?” 

“So it is,” Jesus tells the crowd, “With those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” It’s not about fairness, it’s about generosity.

It’s easy to get worked up about fairness when we feel we’re receiving less. But when we’re the ones who have more, often through no effort or intrinsic worth of our own, but because of where we were born, who we’re related to, the color of our skin, where we could afford to go to school, or our family’s wealth, we are often less concerned about what’s fair or not. Similarly, when someone’s taken something from us or cheated us, we want equity, but are we as aware about the ways we unintentionally injure others, perpetuating systems that deny equal access to resources?

Is there something you feel you’re owed, that’s been withheld? Can you offer that to God, trusting that you will have what you need even if it comes from another source? Can you release the person you feel owes you from obligation, moving into freedom for yourself and that person?

The Life of God is not about fairness. It is about unmerited grace. It is about abundant love, life, joy, peace – and often wealth as well – not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because we are loved beyond measure, because we are forgiven our debts toward God and invited to live in such a way that we extend the same grace to those whom we feel owe us something. This brother did not necessarily “deserve” a part of the inheritance. He, like us, was being invited to trust that he would have enough, and not to be too picky about where that “enough” comes from.

When we really focus on how much God has given us, we can be grateful that God isn’t “fair.”

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7-26-19 - Ask, Seek, Knock

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

“Teach us how to pray,” Jesus’ disciples ask him. He offers a pretty solid outline. Then he switches perspective, to how God responds to our prayers. He tells a somewhat amusing story about a guy being woken up in the middle of the night by a friend in need, who responds not to the friend’s need, but to his persistence. Jesus’ punch line is, “‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”

In case they didn’t get it the first time, he adds, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Does this mean we get everything we ask for in prayer? Find everything we’re looking for? Every door we knock on is opened to us? I don’t know about your life, but mine hasn’t always gone that way. That disconnect is enough to put some people off the whole enterprise of prayer.

Prayer is not a laundry list of things we want presented to genie. Prayer is a conversation in the context of a living relationship. We make our requests because God invites us to, the same way a human parent wants her children to ask for the unicorn even if there’s no way to grant that wish – you want the conversation to reflect her heart. And you’re unlikely to give her a viper instead.

So God, the Father in heaven, Jesus suggests, wants us to ask for the desires of our hearts, wants us to seek the truth, wants us to knock on the doors separating us from holy presence. And does Jesus say we will get what we “pray for?” He goes us one better: 

“How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’”

Maybe that doesn't sound like a gift if you wanted healing for a loved one, or a more fulfilling job. Yet the gift of the Spirit encompasses everything:

• The Holy Spirit brings the life of God into our hearts and minds and bodies. 
• With more of the Spirit alive in us, we are so much better equipped to help bring about healing, to use our gifts at a higher level of functioning, to dwell in the kind of peace that enables us to bring joy and light into all kinds of situations. 
• The Spirit equips us for ministry and gives all kinds of other gifts… love, joy, patience, forebearance. 
• The Spirit prays through us, we are told in Romans – and you can be pretty sure God will answer a prayer that started with God.

I hope we never stop searching for God in all the places and people where God can show up. I hope we never stop knocking at the doors to truth and beauty and goodness and love and peace and joy and generosity. God’s door barely needs to be knocked at – the knock itself pushes it open, and we can walk right in.

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7-25-19 - Bothering God?

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

Is it okay to ask God for stuff? Too often I hear things like, “Oh, I wouldn’t want to bother God with that…” or “God has more important prayers to answer,” as though God were limited in time or resources. If God is who we say God is – creator of all that is, seen and unseen; all-powerful, all-knowing; without limit or constraint; then we can feel free to make our needs known to God. Jesus said as much:

"Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs." 

It’s an oddly negative example, this friend who will yield to annoying persistence before the claims of friendship, but Jesus often uses negative examples to contrast God’s goodness and generosity. Jesus invites us to ask for our daily bread – a day’s supply, not a year’s – and beyond that to bring our petitions to God in prayer. Remember, Jesus tells this story in answer to his disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” This is part of praying – trusting in God’s love enough to be persistent. If we, in our limited way, are wired to want good things for our children, how much more does our God, who has no restrictions whatsoever on his largesse?

Should we have to be persistent? Doesn’t God hear us the first time? I believe God hears us before we’ve even formed a prayer into words – God hears the intentions of our hearts. And if we’re praying in the Spirit, then God has inspired the very prayer God proposes to answer. But in this life we’ll have desires and anxieties, and we can offer those in prayer. It’s the most productive way of dealing with worries and wants. We are communicating within our relationship with God. And when we talk to God, we’re promised peace. That peace allows us to better let go of our wants and worries.

Persistence doesn’t always yield the “result” we want. Sometimes God’s answer is silence, or no, or we see an outcome different than what we want or even regard as life-giving. Mystery and timing are factors in prayer we can never control. Yet even when we don’t see the answer we desire, we’re invited to pray. Jesus promises not that we will get what we ask for, but that we will receive the Holy Spirit.

This is not like getting a sweater when we asked for a pony. With the Spirit we get the faith to trust in our daily bread. With the Spirit we get the grace to forgive those who have wronged us, and the humility to ask for forgiveness from those whom we have wronged. With the Spirit we get the strength and hope that helps us weather spiritual trials. The Spirit is the answer to the whole Lord’s Prayer! God’s Spirit is the only gift we truly need.

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7-24-19 - Our Daily Bread

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

Hello. You’re in charge. Supply me, forgive me, protect me.
These are the essential elements of prayer, as Jesus taught his disciples to pray. 

He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ 

Jesus’ disciples observed his pattern of going away to spend time in prayer and were inspired to ask him how he did it. Jesus’ answer has ever since become for Christians the manual on prayer, coming down to us as the Lord’s Prayer, which we often recite in the words of the Elizabethan translation rather than the more accurate original version.

The pattern Jesus provides is pretty simple; some of it corresponds to those prayers we utter without thinking: Thanks! Help me! Give me! Forgive me! Save me! Perhaps the line most important to us is “Give us this day our daily bread.”

In those words, Jesus reminds us of the “enough-ness” we enjoy in the life of God, and invites us to stay in the present, neither dwelling on the past nor living in the future. The first often leads to regret and the second to anxiety. God’s abundant life is all around us today. God’s promises are real for this day, in all our circumstances.

Today, take some time to get still. Invite God to make you more aware of God’s field of being – where do you see, hear, sense, smell, taste, touch God’s life?
Then pray with all your heart, "Give me today my daily bread.” 

If you feel anxious, ask yourself – what are you worried about running out of? 

(Time? Food? Money? Someone’s good will toward you?)

Visualize that in a basket of “not-enough-ness” and hand it off to Jesus, or mentally put it on a shelf. Then take down the basket labeled “Today,” and ask God to show you what’s in it.
I have a feeling it will be more than enough to deal with, more than enough to fill you. 

Amen! Let it be so.

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