8-30-19 - Who You Gonna Sit With?

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

I’ve been wondering why Luke calls Jesus’ social advice here a “parable.” Parables are usually little stories or examples. Then I remembered – parables are devices Jesus used to explain God-Life to his listeners. They often begin, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

And they often feature wedding banquets and feasts. Jesus not only instructs his followers about how they are to regulate their social interactions in this world – he’s also talking about eternity, the “larger life.” At that party, it is God who says to us, “Come up higher, to this seat of honor,” no matter how deserving we are. It is God who will repay us “at the resurrection of the righteous” for our generosity and inclusion of those on the margins.

I don’t spend much time thinking about the afterlife – there’s plenty of life right here. But the Bible is full of references to our life in God as a banquet or a feast, tables laden with wonderful foods (no calories!), fine, aged nectars, and wonderful people. All kinds of peoples. ALL kinds. It’s safe to assume that we’ll be at that table with people we might not choose to sit with in the here and now – and if heaven is all it’s cracked up to be, we’re going to be just fine with that. Because no one will be more or less important than another, and we won’t value any one person over another.

A clergy colleague once overheard me say this, and was horrified. “You mean, I’m going to have to sit with so-and-so for eternity? I’m planning to hang out with my loved ones.” I replied, “If these promises we claim are true, and in eternity we find ourselves in the presence of Love itself, how would we love one more than another? How can there be ‘less love’ in the presence of pure Love?” He did not look pleased.

As I reflect on people I find difficult, officials often come to mind. So God has given me a new practice: when I read the news and feel outraged, I pray right then for that person to be blessed, whoever he or she may be. If God’s blessing brings good, that prayer can’t hurt, right? (Probably good for my blood pressure too…). Part of the reason Jesus encourages us to break through the cultural and ethnic and economic and temperamental and all the kinds of barriers we set up between ourselves and others, is to practice this equalizing kind of love now, so we can enjoy it eternally.

So let’s practice: we’ve been praying for and about people we find challenging. 

This weekend, let’s take it outside: Find a way to offer friendship or kindness to someone who is difficult for you to love.
Let’s go further: Let’s be the one who says to someone at the edges, “Come on, sit here with me in the good seats.” Who might that be for you?
And let’s think of someone we really don’t love, with whom we would not want to sit at table, and ask God to share God’s love for that person with us.

I mean, why wait? Really, why waste one precious day in this incredible life NOT loving?

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8-29-19 - Gifts of the Other

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

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind…” – Jesus.

My parents had a habit of inviting what we called “stray cats” for holiday meals, often foreigners far from home. As an adult, I’ve done that too. But as a child I would cringe at what I perceived to be the awkwardness of some of our guests. While a long way from inviting in the homeless and lost, it still seemed too far a stretch. I couldn’t get past the “other-ness” to relax into their company.

Part of why we see some people or groups as challenging is that our vision gets distorted by whatever “offending” characteristic we focus on. We fail to see their full humanity, to remember that a mean-looking biker is somebody’s son; a resource-squandering 1-percenter someone’s sister.

I was once in a wedding in rural England. After the festivities, I traveled to see to friends in north London. There I was in the Tube, still in my bridesmaid’s dress, holding my bouquet along with my luggage, when a group of very “tatted,” black-leather clad, loud and boisterous young men got on the car I was in. “Oh, please don’t notice me,” I thought – but sure enough, one of the biggest, baddest-looking came and loomed over me. “Oh Lord…,” I thought, my heart pounding. “Is them frezhas?” he asked. “Wha-what?” “Frezhas. Frezhas.” I had no idea what he was saying. “Is them frezhas?” he asked again, pointing to my bouquet. “Look, mates, frezhas. My nan used to grow these…” Ah. Freesias. He smiled, I smiled, they smiled – there we were, bonding over flowers in the subway, no longer strangers. (And I learned what a freesia looks like…)

Jesus spent a fair amount of time with people we’d be scared to run into on the Tube or on the street. Many of them became his friends and followers. So it still is, I’ve discovered by praying with people in homeless shelters. Some manipulators, sure, but mostly people who want to be whole and productive, to feel God's living water splashing through their lives and hearts. And Jesus suggests that these, people on whom we’d rather bestow charity than offer hospitality, are the ones we should invite into our lives. “And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you…”

I don’t want to argue with Jesus – but I think those people can repay us, do repay us. When we stop seeing those who frighten or annoy us as “those people,” or view those who are in need or debilitated as “victims” or “needy,” and rather as people with assets and talents and gifts to offer, it becomes a lot easier to think about having “them” in “our” space. We enlarge our space to accommodate them. Our reading from Hebrews on Sunday reminds us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Yesterday I invited you to imagine in prayer having someone you find really challenging at your table. Today, let’s bring up the same person or group of persons, and just hold that image in your mind’s eye.
Now, invite God to show you more about who they are – their gifts, wounds, defenses, connections.
Look for what you have in common – that’s often where we start to enlarge our space.

The realm of God is one of radical social equality (maybe that’s why so many decline to dwell there). “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, woman nor man, slave nor free,” Paul wrote into the future. All our superficial differences melt away as we become part of the family of God. And you do meet the most amazing people hanging out with this family.

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8-28-19 - Jesus' Guide to Etiquette

(You can listen to this reflection here.)
Who knew that Jesus was the Emily Post of his day? In this week’s story, we find him awfully concerned with the etiquette and protocol of party-going – and giving.

Having been raised in Foreign Service life, I know how critical protocol is – where each guest is seated, according to social rank and significance at that event; how each is to be addressed. These matters are particularly important in Middle Eastern culture. I once attended an interfaith event and a Lebanese friend was outraged that I was not seated at a table befitting (his view of) my importance.

So Jesus was attentive to the etiquette at the Shabbat dinner to which he had been invited – at the home of a leading Pharisee, no less (quite a social coup, to be invited to such a home...). Watching his fellow guests subtly and not-so-subtly try to snag “important” seats, he offers his spin on etiquette and protocol. And once again he turns things on their heads.

“Don’t try to sit in the good spots, near the 'important' people,” he says. “Take the most humble seat; let someone else single you out for honor.” And he doesn’t stop with correct behavior for guests – he also advises on how to go about giving a party. Addressing his host directly, he says, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”

What a faux pas, telling your host who else he should have invited! And what guests! The poor, crippled, lame and blind… Wait, did he really say, the poor? They couldn’t possibly have the right clothes, my dear. And they might smell. And… what on earth would we talk about? And it might not be safe…. And the crippled, lame and blind? Doesn’t he know that as followers of Moses’ law we can’t consort with the blemished? Good Lord!

Okay, it’s easy to make fun of that unknown Pharisee. But doesn’t this teaching challenge all of us? I tend to invite people I know and like, whom I think will like each other. Sometimes I even like to invite people I think are important, with whom I’d like to become friendly so I feel important.

We keep coming back to this: that Jesus was always crossing boundaries of difference to bring the Good News, as he did in coming to us in our time and space in the first place. As his followers we also are called to go beyond our zones of familiarity and comfort to reach out to the Other.

What kind of “Other” most scares or bothers you? (think age/ethnicity/profession/style…)
In prayer, can you imagine inviting one of those people into your home, to sit at your table? This is a way we can pray for and about people – in our imaginations.
What would you serve? Try to sit with this in your imagination, really feel what you would be feeling.
What might you say? What might your guest say? Who else might around that table?

I can think of at least one person I KNOW will be there – the One who told you to cross that boundary in the first place. You didn’t think he was going to leave you at that party by yourself, did you?

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8-27-19 - Humblest of Them All

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

“Mirror, mirror on the wall – who’s the humblest of them all?” It’s funny to think of humility as a virtue at which to excel – if we truly succeed, no one will know. But that’s the upside-down-ness of the Life of God – it’s all backwards from the way we naturally think.

“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” Jesus said. So, does that mean as soon as someone has noticed your humility and pointed it out, you go back to square one?

Humility is to be a characteristic of those who follow Christ. It’s worth spending a little time on. Let’s start with what humility is not: Humility is not humiliation, which is exposure of our worst attributes or actions. Enduring humiliation can sometimes lead us into true humility, but it’s a twisty, most undesirable road that can lead to despair and destructiveness instead.

Nor is humility self-abasement or self-denigration. Talking about how awful and unworthy we are is, spiritually speaking, pride; pride being that tendency to think ourselves equal to God. When we run ourselves down, we are setting ourselves up as judges of God’s work. That’s pride. Sure, we can judge our actions, and repent of destructive words, thoughts, behaviors – but to judge ourselves innately less worthy than another is as prideful as to say we are innately better than another.

We might best define humility as the art of seeing ourselves clearly, seeing God clearly, and knowing which is which. Humility includes rejoicing in our gifts and talents, in who we are as unique creatures made in God’s image. It includes enjoying being the best at what we do – and delighting in that as a gift from God, a gift enhanced by God’s life moving in us. (For a powerful reminder of this, watch the first 1.44 minutes of this clip from the movie Chariots of Fire…)

Humility includes loving ourselves despite our shortcomings, which creates space for those shortcomings to be transformed. Humility helps us love other people better because we see them as neither more nor less important than we are. Humility helps us invite the love and grace of God into those parts of ourselves that are not as we wish, so that we become transformed from the inside.

Yesterday, I invited you to make a list of things about yourself that you’re not thrilled with, and another list of things you are proud of. Go back to the first list, and invite the Holy Spirit into each one of those things, asking for a glimpse of what it might look like transformed. (Temper into a passion for justice? Sadness into a greater capacity for compassion? Over-shopping into more proactive generosity?)

For the second list, remind yourself how each attribute makes the portrait of you more true. Give God the credit.

And if you are among those who have had a habit of self-abasement, ask God’s forgiveness and help in seeing yourself more clearly. “Mirror, mirror on the wall – show me true, not too big or small.”

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8-26-19 - A Place At the Table

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

I have seating issues, “place at the table” issues. If you invite me to a meeting, make sure there’s only one circle of chairs or a big-enough table. And if you invite me to a wedding, please don’t seat me in outer darkness at the edge of the room, at a table of strangers. There might be weeping and gnashing of teeth – from me.

Guess Jesus might have a thing or two to say to me, as he did to those Pharisees studying his table manners so closely. He turns the tables on them: “If you’re invited to a wedding, go sit at the place furthest away from the action, where you feel the least honored. Then you might get upgraded, maybe to a table with the bride or groom’s family. But if you pick out that better seat…look out. You might be asked to move. “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Pecking orders. Jockeying for position. Honors. Credentials. Where is your office and how many windows does it have? With whom are we on a first-name or peck on the cheek basis? Why do we so often let external things and people tell us what we’re worth? Perhaps you don’t – but I can put far too much weight on affirmation and indications of status.

Worrying where we sit or whether we’re acknowledged as important is human, at least to humans who feel some insecurity about their place in the world. But if you’re already royalty, do you need a place card to tell you so? As part of Jesus’ family, we are royalty – sisters and brothers of the King. How might it feel to move through today with that knowledge? How might you walk differently, look at people differently, talk to people differently, use your gifts differently, if you remember your true status as an heir to the Kingdom of God, a beloved son and daughter of the Creator? A princess in disguise, a prince under wraps?

If royalty, is not your thing, pick a status that resonates with you – a brilliant athlete, entertainer, author, elected official. Or maybe you don’t have to pretend to be anyone other than YOU, an utterly unique, gifted and wonderful child of God growing into the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Today, list the things that make you feel insecure about yourself. 

If there are people in your life who make you feel insecure, list them too.
Then list the things that make you feel proud about yourself, the things you wish everyone knew. 

If there are people in your life who make you feel more secure, list them too.

Now – pray over all four lists. 

Pray for the people who make you feel less than yourself, that they would be blessed. 

Same for the people who make you feel great about yourself - you might thank them.
Pray about the things in you that make you doubt your status as God’s unique and wonderful child. Give thanks for the things you’re proud of – and invite God to keep working in you.

And then spend some time exalting God – a fancy word for praise. Know that God delights in you – when we rest in that, we’re sitting pretty no matter where we are.

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8-23-19 - Spreading God-Life

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

Tradition tells us that Luke the evangelist was a physician. He could have done well as a political publicist – in both his gospel and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, he offers summaries that tell us how Jesus just won the latest debate, and how enthralled the populace is: 

“When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.” 

Jesus was not out to shame his opponents, though gospel accounts of his life reveal quite a few “gotcha” moments. And we know that the “entire crowd” didn’t stay rejoicing for long – soon enough, many were calling for his blood. Neither was he out to win popularity contests, then or now. Jesus was about proclaiming the Life of God released in and among humankind, and about demonstrating that Life in healing, forgiving, challenging corruption and injustice, and setting people free from evil, wherever it is manifest.

That’s exactly what he invites his followers, then and now, to join him in. What if the statement read, “And the entire crowd joined him in all the wonderful things he was doing?” Rejoicing is only a start. Following Christ is not a spectator sport or an academic pursuit – it’s an invitation to full-on engagement in heart, body, mind, spirit. We don’t have to argue against opponents of the Way of Christ; we just have to live out that Way in fullness, and let others see for themselves why we choose this God who has chosen us.

Mahatma Gandhi is famously quoted, when asked why he “rejected Christ,” as saying: “Oh, I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.”

Following Christ is about more than merely following his teaching – it includes becoming conscious of his Spirit in ours in relationship. Yet I do not argue with the premise of that statement. We are called to demonstrate this Love we have received, and to share it liberally in the world. Tomorrow a team from my church will offer healing prayer to passersby at a street fair; Sunday, we will pray for one another during the service. That’s one way to spread the Life of God throughout the world. That is how many can rejoice in all the wonderful things Christ is doing even now, through us.

In what is your spirit rejoicing today? What joy is burbling up from deep inside you?
To what longtime sufferer are you being invited to offer a touch of healing grace? Ponder a moment and see what names come up in your mind. Bring them to Jesus in your imagination. That’s a start. If you’re supposed to pray with them in person, the Holy Spirit will give you that nudge.

Keep looking for signs of God-Life around you this weekend. The more we look, the more we see. The more we see, the more we rejoice!

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8-22-19 - When Being Right Is Wrong

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

Don’t you hate it when you know you’re right and find out you’re wrong anyway? 

“But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’” 

This synagogue leader knew he was right. “Who is this rabbi to come into my synagogue and call me a hypocrite? This commandment is one of the Big Ten, for Christ’s sake…” God’s law clearly stated that one day out of seven people were to cease from work. This Sabbath commandment is one of the wisest of God’s gifts to us – not only does a day off allow people to recharge, even work animals get some rest. Servants get a break. The whole economy slows down (omg!) for one day a week, a day to be set aside for community, for worship, reflection, walks, meals, conversations – anything unproductive and lifegiving. It is a day devoted to freedom.

Yet most of us would agree that Jesus is more right than the synagogue leader. He pushes the leader’s logic to its illogical conclusion. Of course people feed and water their animals even on the Sabbath, or haul their sheep out of wells, an example Jesus gives in a similar argument elsewhere. If we do farm chores, or rescue valuable livestock, why wouldn’t we heal and bless people on God’s special day?

When we try to live by “the rules,” it often turns out we’ve focused on one rule to the exclusion of another, or we haven’t looked at the implications for other people of our adherence to that rule. A huge part of Jesus’ message was that all the systems we set up to regulate our lives need to be checked against the greater commandment to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. He doesn’t toss out the whole Law – he tries to correct misinterpretations of the Law which result in a brittle, legalistic, condemning religious system instead of a living faith in a loving God.

It is in the nature of religious systems to become brittle, legalistic and condemning if we are not constantly open to the fresh winds of the Spirit. When we lock into any one interpretation, we close off opportunities for God to lead us to new ministries, new people, new blessings. The action of God as we see it in Christ’s life, and in the lives of Christ’s followers since his resurrection, is usually across boundaries of difference, often into zones of slight discomfort – that’s where we learn who God is. That’s a lifetime’s learning. Maybe an eternal lifetime’s learning.

Where are your beliefs are more rigid, and where they are more pliable? What are the “codes” or “contracts” by which you live? Did those actually come from God?

There’s a fine line between conviction and dogmatism. We might say that line is faith, which is a living affirmation of what we deeply believe but can never be absolutely sure of. Once we know it, it’s not faith. Jesus invites us into a living, growing, doubting, testing, adventurous, loving life of faith in the unseen yet present God. Where is he challenging you today?

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