(Read Luke 17:11-19 and Philippians 4:4-9)
Life is Beautiful. This is the name of an Italian film which was released in America in 1998 and won the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, as well as Best Actor.
Life is Beautiful begins as a whimsical, slapstick, romantic comedy. Guido, an Italian Jew, is a happy guy, wearing a big grin on his face, playing silly jokes on people, and trying to win the love of a woman named, Dora. Robert Benigni, who plays Guido in the film and who won the Best Actor Academy Award, sets the tone for this movie with his jovial, fun-loving, and kind –hearted personality.
But somewhere along the line, after Guido has won Dora’s heart, after they have had a son named, Giosue (Joshua), the circumstances of the whole family’s life turn from good to bad. You see, Life is Beautiful is set in Italy during World War II. And since Guido and Giosue are Jewish, they are arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Dora, though not Jewish, insists on going with her family when they are taken captive.
You would think that the tone of the film would change dramatically at this point, and I suppose a sort of melancholy or sadness does arise. But Guido remains the same loving, laughing, spirited guy. The title of the film, Life is Beautiful, becomes ironic as Guido tries to protect his son from the ugly realities of life in a concentration camp.
What Guido does, you see, is keep Giosue with him at the concentration camp, hiding him from the Nazi guards and sneaking him food. Guido convinces Giosue that the camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a tank. He tells Giosue that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother or complains that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards continue to earn points. Guido convinces Giosue that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for themselves and that all the other children are hiding in order to win the game. Despite being surrounded by rampant death and sickness, Giosue does not question the fictional reality his father constructs because of Guido’s convincing performance and the boy’s own innocence (partially quoted from wikipedia entry).
Guido maintains this story right until the end, when—in the chaos caused by the American advance–he tells Giosue to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final test before they will win the tank. After trying to find Dora, Guido is caught, taken away and shot by a Nazi guard, but not before making his son laugh one last time by imitating the Nazi guard as if the two of them are marching around the camp together. Giosue manages to survive and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has died. Years later, Giosue realizes the sacrifice his father made for him and how he kept him alive and happy even in the worst situation imaginable. (wikipedia entry).
This movie offers a perspective on life that many people would consider inconceivable: that life is beautiful even amidst tragedy.
When you think about it, perspective makes all the difference in life. Yes, life is filled with sin and sickness and suffering, with pain and cruelty, but it is still beautiful. Life is still filled with love. There are always people to care for and be with. There are always flowers to smell and songs to sing. There is always air to breathe, a heart with which to feel, and a spirit that wants to live and soar.
In the Gospel of Luke, nine lepers took what God had to give, and they literally ran away with it. By healing them, Jesus reintegrates these lepers into a society which had thrown them out, giving them a new lease on life. They run to the priests, as Jesus instructed, to receive their welcome back into society, but they do not come back to give thanks for what God has done.
“Where are they?” Jesus said. “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God?”
The Samaritan leper who returns to thank Jesus and praise God, he is the only one with an attitude of gratitude, the only one with the right perspective. He has the understanding necessary to truly appreciate life. All ten of the lepers were cured of their disease, but only the one who returns is truly made well. Only he is able to rejoice completely, in body, mind and spirit, with all that he is.
My friends, we are designed, we are created to rejoice and appreciate life. Life is beautiful. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phillipians 4:4).
Philipians 4 says, “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The holiday of Thanksgiving is upon us, and it is such an important spiritual holiday because it is one way of resisting all the worry and fear that we live with on a regular basis. For one day, we focus on the positive and not the negative. We focus on the blessing and the abundance. We celebrate what we have, instead of striving for something more. We allow ourselves the luxury of being content. For one day, we focus on all that is good in our lives, how life is beautiful, and let the troubles we normally give so much thought to fade into the background.
Thanksgiving is more than a day of the year though; thanksgiving is a perspective on life. Thanksgiving is an attitude. It’s a way of living; it is a way of looking at life and seeing that God has blessed us. To put those blessings at the forefront of our minds instead of taking them for granted is the point of giving thanks.
An attitude of gratitude or an attitude of thanksgiving keeps our eyes open to God’s goodness and presence in the world.
Tonight I encourage you to accept Paul’s challenging invitation in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Don’t dwell on what is wrong in your life or with another person, but on what is right in your life and admirable in another person. Don’t fantasize about a life that you don’t have, but embrace what you do have. Don’t try to change what another person is feeling, but honor who they are and where they are at.
Most of all, don’t look at life and concentrate on the suffering. Look at life and see that life is beautiful, that heaven is all around.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
What's Your Salvation Story?
(Read Mark 2:13-17, Matthew 11:1-6 and Isaiah 61:1-4)
If Jesus were still alive, on any given night, where do you think he would be hanging out? At Cozimos on Route 9, where you can barely find a parking spot, eating wood-oven pizzas? At the Danbury Plaza ballroom, where Grace James, a female, Pentecostal minister, who looks like Dolly Parton but with black hair and dressed all in black, is shooting the Holy Spirit into people, healing in Christ’s name? Or in the living room of some ordinary family, where television and alcohol are the primary sources of entertainment?
The truth is, Jesus is in all of those places. Wherever people are sick and suffering, wherever people are sinning, wherever people are searching for healing, that’s where Jesus is.
The Pharisees were surprised to find Jesus at Levi’s (Matthew’s) house. Surprised because it seemed like he was keeping unworthy company. They asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 11:16).
Jesus overhears the question and responds by saying, this is where I need to be. Or in his exact words: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." (Matthew 11:17).
And there we have it. Jesus Christ, who is the Living Lord, dwelling among us, is present amongst those who are in need. He doesn’t play it safe, hiding from the problems of life. He enters right in, penetrating into the heart of all that matters, offering comfort, healing and redemption.
One of my concerns with Christian language and theology is its emphasis on sin as the umbrella description of the human problem. I have no problem admitting that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness, but that’s not my only problem, that’s not your only problem.
Marcus Borg, an excellent contemporary Professor of Religon and Culture at Oregon State University, in his book, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, writes: “[Our] problem is not simply that we have been bad and have rebelled against God [aka. sinned], but that we are blind, estranged, lost, in exile, self-centered, wounded, sick, paralyzed, in bondage, grasping, and so forth” (pg. 169-70).
Sin is a part of what you and I struggle with on a daily basis, but it’s not the one-size-fits all designator of our human condition. We also struggle with being confused and not knowing what to do. We also struggle with trying to love people who don’t love us back in the way we need them to. We also struggle with fear so deeply entrenched in our hearts that our entire perception of reality is distorted in some way, making us timid and defensive instead of confident and trusting.
Borg writes, “When sin becomes the one-size-fits-all designator of the human condition, then forgiveness becomes the one-size-fits-all remedy. And this is [a] problem. [Because] If the issue is blindness, what we need is not forgiveness, but sight. If the issue is bondage, what we need is not forgiveness, but liberation.” “If we are in exile, we need to return; if we have closed hearts, we need to have our hearts opened; if we hunger and thirst, we need food and drink; if we are lost, we need a way, we need to be found” (pg. 168).
I chose today’s Scriptures so you would see very clearly who Jesus of Nazareth is, what he did in his earthly ministry, and what he can or is doing in our lives. Isaiah, a great prophet of Israel, testified that one anointed by God would come out of the house of David to “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1).
John the Baptist, who was called to prepare the way for the anointed one (Messiah) that Isaiah prophesized about, baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. And “When John heard in prison what [Jesus] was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:2-5).
Jesus was, and is, a healer and redeemer. He came, and continues to come, to mend our brokenness.
I want to show you a video that witnesses to the power God has in people’s lives. The Bible is filled with stories of a God who saves, and this video is filled with the stories of people like you and me, who have unique journeys of how they went from being sick to healthy, of how they went from being lost to found. As you watch the video, think of how Jesus might enter in, or has entered in, to your life. How would you describe your salvation story?
Watch Video. For those of you who can’t, here is a description: One person after another came forward on a stage carrying their own posterboard, with a word written on the front and a different word on the back. They would stand up and show the first word, and then slowly but surely, flip the board over to show the second. And in just those two words, or maybe two short phrases, these people, these children of God, were witnessing to their unique faith journeys, and the grace, love and mercy that they have known in God.
The poster board would say on one side: hurting; on the other: healed.
On one side: Addicted; on the other side: set free
On one side: Angry; on the other: peaceful.
The people kept coming with their testimonies.
Bitter turned to Gentle.
Despairing. Grateful.
Slave. Servant.
Dead. Alive.
Tortured. Loved.
Desperate. Saved.
Sinner. Forgiven.
Broken. Whole.
Isn’t that an amazing testimony? Do you see what God has done for these people? Every single one of us has or can have a testimony like that. What Jesus did for the sinners and tax collectors 2000 years ago, what God did for those people in the video, the Spirit is doing for us today.
We all have a story, and our happy ending, our salvation, begins by inviting God into our lives to help us. Surrender. Be lead. It’s not easy because it requires you to be vulnerable, to open yourself up.
When God heals us, it often makes us uncomfortable because we are being challenged to be different than we have been before. That’s always a foreign, awkward feeling. It will be uncomfortable and challenging when God puts in your life what you so deeply need.
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We have to be willing to think, act and speak different than we always have.
Don’t be insane. Be faithful. This morning I invite you to surrender to God and let real healing and transformation into your lives. Go to that new place and let Christ come with you.
If Jesus were still alive, on any given night, where do you think he would be hanging out? At Cozimos on Route 9, where you can barely find a parking spot, eating wood-oven pizzas? At the Danbury Plaza ballroom, where Grace James, a female, Pentecostal minister, who looks like Dolly Parton but with black hair and dressed all in black, is shooting the Holy Spirit into people, healing in Christ’s name? Or in the living room of some ordinary family, where television and alcohol are the primary sources of entertainment?
The truth is, Jesus is in all of those places. Wherever people are sick and suffering, wherever people are sinning, wherever people are searching for healing, that’s where Jesus is.
The Pharisees were surprised to find Jesus at Levi’s (Matthew’s) house. Surprised because it seemed like he was keeping unworthy company. They asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 11:16).
Jesus overhears the question and responds by saying, this is where I need to be. Or in his exact words: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." (Matthew 11:17).
And there we have it. Jesus Christ, who is the Living Lord, dwelling among us, is present amongst those who are in need. He doesn’t play it safe, hiding from the problems of life. He enters right in, penetrating into the heart of all that matters, offering comfort, healing and redemption.
One of my concerns with Christian language and theology is its emphasis on sin as the umbrella description of the human problem. I have no problem admitting that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness, but that’s not my only problem, that’s not your only problem.
Marcus Borg, an excellent contemporary Professor of Religon and Culture at Oregon State University, in his book, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith, writes: “[Our] problem is not simply that we have been bad and have rebelled against God [aka. sinned], but that we are blind, estranged, lost, in exile, self-centered, wounded, sick, paralyzed, in bondage, grasping, and so forth” (pg. 169-70).
Sin is a part of what you and I struggle with on a daily basis, but it’s not the one-size-fits all designator of our human condition. We also struggle with being confused and not knowing what to do. We also struggle with trying to love people who don’t love us back in the way we need them to. We also struggle with fear so deeply entrenched in our hearts that our entire perception of reality is distorted in some way, making us timid and defensive instead of confident and trusting.
Borg writes, “When sin becomes the one-size-fits-all designator of the human condition, then forgiveness becomes the one-size-fits-all remedy. And this is [a] problem. [Because] If the issue is blindness, what we need is not forgiveness, but sight. If the issue is bondage, what we need is not forgiveness, but liberation.” “If we are in exile, we need to return; if we have closed hearts, we need to have our hearts opened; if we hunger and thirst, we need food and drink; if we are lost, we need a way, we need to be found” (pg. 168).
I chose today’s Scriptures so you would see very clearly who Jesus of Nazareth is, what he did in his earthly ministry, and what he can or is doing in our lives. Isaiah, a great prophet of Israel, testified that one anointed by God would come out of the house of David to “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1).
John the Baptist, who was called to prepare the way for the anointed one (Messiah) that Isaiah prophesized about, baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. And “When John heard in prison what [Jesus] was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:2-5).
Jesus was, and is, a healer and redeemer. He came, and continues to come, to mend our brokenness.
I want to show you a video that witnesses to the power God has in people’s lives. The Bible is filled with stories of a God who saves, and this video is filled with the stories of people like you and me, who have unique journeys of how they went from being sick to healthy, of how they went from being lost to found. As you watch the video, think of how Jesus might enter in, or has entered in, to your life. How would you describe your salvation story?
Watch Video. For those of you who can’t, here is a description: One person after another came forward on a stage carrying their own posterboard, with a word written on the front and a different word on the back. They would stand up and show the first word, and then slowly but surely, flip the board over to show the second. And in just those two words, or maybe two short phrases, these people, these children of God, were witnessing to their unique faith journeys, and the grace, love and mercy that they have known in God.
The poster board would say on one side: hurting; on the other: healed.
On one side: Addicted; on the other side: set free
On one side: Angry; on the other: peaceful.
The people kept coming with their testimonies.
Bitter turned to Gentle.
Despairing. Grateful.
Slave. Servant.
Dead. Alive.
Tortured. Loved.
Desperate. Saved.
Sinner. Forgiven.
Broken. Whole.
Isn’t that an amazing testimony? Do you see what God has done for these people? Every single one of us has or can have a testimony like that. What Jesus did for the sinners and tax collectors 2000 years ago, what God did for those people in the video, the Spirit is doing for us today.
We all have a story, and our happy ending, our salvation, begins by inviting God into our lives to help us. Surrender. Be lead. It’s not easy because it requires you to be vulnerable, to open yourself up.
When God heals us, it often makes us uncomfortable because we are being challenged to be different than we have been before. That’s always a foreign, awkward feeling. It will be uncomfortable and challenging when God puts in your life what you so deeply need.
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We have to be willing to think, act and speak different than we always have.
Don’t be insane. Be faithful. This morning I invite you to surrender to God and let real healing and transformation into your lives. Go to that new place and let Christ come with you.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Loyalty
(Read Ruth 1:1-18)
When Elimelech and his sons die, Naomi is left with practically nothing. Her husband and her sons were her security, her protection, her fortune. I say practically nothing because she was left with two daughter-in-laws. But really, that’s just added pressure. Now, there are three women who are lacking security, protection and fortune. That’s how it was in those days.
Naomi decides to head back to Judah, where she is from, but she encourages her daughter-in-laws, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house…The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband” (Ruth 1:8-9). Naomi is telling them to return home and find new husbands to take care of them. Orpah wants this for herself, and she returns to her mother’s house in Moab. Ruth, on the other hand, chooses to remain with Naomi. She puts Naomi’s well-being before her own. Or maybe Ruth believes that her well-being is intertwined with Naomi’s well-being.
For the moment anyway, the truth is, Naomi is not doing well at all. She could use Ruth’s support. Naomi feels abandoned by her husband, her sons and God. “It has been far more bitter for me than for you,” she says, “because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”
I have great compassion for Naomi. The word "compassion" means to suffer with. Think of her heart-break. She is a widow. She has lost not one, but two children. She is living in a foreign land.
As I was thinking about Naomi’s suffering and trying to enter into her story, I couldn’t help but think of so many others who are suffering right now. The families of the 13 victims who were killed at Fort Hood. My friend’s mother who has lung cancer, and to make matters worse, fell and fractured her hip a few days ago. Now, she has to have surgery. All the adults, and especially the children, who have swine flu and are in the hospital.
People are sick, not just in body, but also in mind and heart and spirit. You have to be sick somehow to go on a shooting spree and hurt so many people.
Just think about our church family, and how many people need prayer, and for all the different reasons. The world needs a lot of love and healing right now. What can we do? How can we love and heal each other?
I think Ruth shows us a way that we can make a difference in each other’s lives. Those of us who are healthy and well need to stick by those of us who are hurting and sick. May a renewed sense of loyalty rise up among God's people.
Lately, I have been talking a lot about your future, saying things like: God has a plan for you, a vision for your life. Continually you are being encouraged, invited to join together with God in the process of your own healing and transformation so that you will mature spiritually and spread the love and light of Christ in this world.
Today, in light of Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, I would like to suggest that the unfolding of your future is intertwined with the unfolding of someone else’s future. It could be a friend or a total stranger. Most likely, it’s a member of your family. Whomever it is, consider that what your life might be about right now is helping someone else get through their life.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). To lay down one’s life for another could be referring to a soldier in the war or a martyr in the faith. Or it could be referring to you putting yourself second for someone that you love. It could mean scrapping your individual agenda and sticking with someone who needs someone to stick with them. That someone could be you. Greater love has no one than this, than to set aside your own life for your friend’s life.
It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s certainly not always fun for you, but it could mean all the difference in the world to someone who is suffering. And that is noble and a reason to live.
I know a woman named Beth with a great personality, filled with vim and vigor, filled with Spirit. She worked very hard in her life to become a principal at a school. Many years ago she was diagnosed with MS. She remained active and worked for a couple of years, but now she is to the point that she can’t leave the house very often and the wheel chair almost never. She struggles with a sense of purpose and feels isolated from the world.
But she’s got two things going for her that make life better, that make life worth living. A Yorkshire terrier named Tabitha with golden ears and a black button nose who doesn’t leave her side, and a husband named Peter who has become her companion and friend. As Beth tells the story, Peter wasn’t always her companion and friend. Earlier in their marriage, work, fishing and baseball were his priorities. But since Beth’s illness has progressed, Peter has taken an increasing interest in her as a person and in their relationship. They love to play Risk together, of all games. They rented and watched every movie that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture starting with the first, Wings, in 1927 all the way to Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.
Peter gets weary sometimes. He wishes they could travel more. He worries about Beth falling when she transfers. But he also knows that he’s not the one living with MS. He’s not the one who can’t walk anymore and whose mind gets fuzzy from the medications. In fact, Peter took up hiking as a way to thank God that his legs still work.
I respect Peter. I am proud of what he is doing with and for his wife. Not all husbands would. Not all wives or sons or daughters would.
In the Bible story we heard today, I respect Ruth as well. Even with uncertainty before her, even with a long life yet ahead of her, Ruth sticks with Naomi who is in a really difficult situation. She is loyal, faithful, steadfast. When Naomi tells Ruth to go her own way, Ruth says, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17).
What powerful words. What devotion.
I have never been in a dire situation like Beth’s or Naomi’s, but I have been through some rough times, and I know what it’s like to have people be there for me. It’s the most loving, comforting, reassuring feeling in the world. And I know that if I lost it all, my health, my direction, my financial security, my employment—there are people who would be there for me no matter what, who would pick me up if I fall, feed me if I’m hungry, house me if I’m homeless, cheer me on if I’m depressed.
I am incredibly grateful for those people in my life.
I pray that you have such people in your life.
And on top of that, I pray that we can be that person for someone else. That we can be the loyal ones, that we can be the ones to sacrifice our life for a period of time in order to make someone else’s life better.
When I was looking up the definition of the term loyal, the word faithful kept coming up. And so the last thing I want to say is that, no matter what side we are on, whether we need help or if we are giving help, we all can rely and get strength from a faithful God.
The testimony to God that is the Hebrew Scriptures uses the words “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” in reference to God upwards of 150 times. Whatever we go through, we know that God is on our side, bearing our pain with us, picking us up when we fall, carrying us when we cannot walk.
May we all rely upon the One who is eternally loyal, eternally faithful to us.
And may we be a reflection of the faithful One, laying down our lives for one another
in this world.
When Elimelech and his sons die, Naomi is left with practically nothing. Her husband and her sons were her security, her protection, her fortune. I say practically nothing because she was left with two daughter-in-laws. But really, that’s just added pressure. Now, there are three women who are lacking security, protection and fortune. That’s how it was in those days.
Naomi decides to head back to Judah, where she is from, but she encourages her daughter-in-laws, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house…The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband” (Ruth 1:8-9). Naomi is telling them to return home and find new husbands to take care of them. Orpah wants this for herself, and she returns to her mother’s house in Moab. Ruth, on the other hand, chooses to remain with Naomi. She puts Naomi’s well-being before her own. Or maybe Ruth believes that her well-being is intertwined with Naomi’s well-being.
For the moment anyway, the truth is, Naomi is not doing well at all. She could use Ruth’s support. Naomi feels abandoned by her husband, her sons and God. “It has been far more bitter for me than for you,” she says, “because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”
I have great compassion for Naomi. The word "compassion" means to suffer with. Think of her heart-break. She is a widow. She has lost not one, but two children. She is living in a foreign land.
As I was thinking about Naomi’s suffering and trying to enter into her story, I couldn’t help but think of so many others who are suffering right now. The families of the 13 victims who were killed at Fort Hood. My friend’s mother who has lung cancer, and to make matters worse, fell and fractured her hip a few days ago. Now, she has to have surgery. All the adults, and especially the children, who have swine flu and are in the hospital.
People are sick, not just in body, but also in mind and heart and spirit. You have to be sick somehow to go on a shooting spree and hurt so many people.
Just think about our church family, and how many people need prayer, and for all the different reasons. The world needs a lot of love and healing right now. What can we do? How can we love and heal each other?
I think Ruth shows us a way that we can make a difference in each other’s lives. Those of us who are healthy and well need to stick by those of us who are hurting and sick. May a renewed sense of loyalty rise up among God's people.
Lately, I have been talking a lot about your future, saying things like: God has a plan for you, a vision for your life. Continually you are being encouraged, invited to join together with God in the process of your own healing and transformation so that you will mature spiritually and spread the love and light of Christ in this world.
Today, in light of Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, I would like to suggest that the unfolding of your future is intertwined with the unfolding of someone else’s future. It could be a friend or a total stranger. Most likely, it’s a member of your family. Whomever it is, consider that what your life might be about right now is helping someone else get through their life.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John 15:13). To lay down one’s life for another could be referring to a soldier in the war or a martyr in the faith. Or it could be referring to you putting yourself second for someone that you love. It could mean scrapping your individual agenda and sticking with someone who needs someone to stick with them. That someone could be you. Greater love has no one than this, than to set aside your own life for your friend’s life.
It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s certainly not always fun for you, but it could mean all the difference in the world to someone who is suffering. And that is noble and a reason to live.
I know a woman named Beth with a great personality, filled with vim and vigor, filled with Spirit. She worked very hard in her life to become a principal at a school. Many years ago she was diagnosed with MS. She remained active and worked for a couple of years, but now she is to the point that she can’t leave the house very often and the wheel chair almost never. She struggles with a sense of purpose and feels isolated from the world.
But she’s got two things going for her that make life better, that make life worth living. A Yorkshire terrier named Tabitha with golden ears and a black button nose who doesn’t leave her side, and a husband named Peter who has become her companion and friend. As Beth tells the story, Peter wasn’t always her companion and friend. Earlier in their marriage, work, fishing and baseball were his priorities. But since Beth’s illness has progressed, Peter has taken an increasing interest in her as a person and in their relationship. They love to play Risk together, of all games. They rented and watched every movie that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture starting with the first, Wings, in 1927 all the way to Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.
Peter gets weary sometimes. He wishes they could travel more. He worries about Beth falling when she transfers. But he also knows that he’s not the one living with MS. He’s not the one who can’t walk anymore and whose mind gets fuzzy from the medications. In fact, Peter took up hiking as a way to thank God that his legs still work.
I respect Peter. I am proud of what he is doing with and for his wife. Not all husbands would. Not all wives or sons or daughters would.
In the Bible story we heard today, I respect Ruth as well. Even with uncertainty before her, even with a long life yet ahead of her, Ruth sticks with Naomi who is in a really difficult situation. She is loyal, faithful, steadfast. When Naomi tells Ruth to go her own way, Ruth says, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-there will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17).
What powerful words. What devotion.
I have never been in a dire situation like Beth’s or Naomi’s, but I have been through some rough times, and I know what it’s like to have people be there for me. It’s the most loving, comforting, reassuring feeling in the world. And I know that if I lost it all, my health, my direction, my financial security, my employment—there are people who would be there for me no matter what, who would pick me up if I fall, feed me if I’m hungry, house me if I’m homeless, cheer me on if I’m depressed.
I am incredibly grateful for those people in my life.
I pray that you have such people in your life.
And on top of that, I pray that we can be that person for someone else. That we can be the loyal ones, that we can be the ones to sacrifice our life for a period of time in order to make someone else’s life better.
When I was looking up the definition of the term loyal, the word faithful kept coming up. And so the last thing I want to say is that, no matter what side we are on, whether we need help or if we are giving help, we all can rely and get strength from a faithful God.
The testimony to God that is the Hebrew Scriptures uses the words “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” in reference to God upwards of 150 times. Whatever we go through, we know that God is on our side, bearing our pain with us, picking us up when we fall, carrying us when we cannot walk.
May we all rely upon the One who is eternally loyal, eternally faithful to us.
And may we be a reflection of the faithful One, laying down our lives for one another
in this world.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Born of water and Spirit
(Read John 3:1-17 and Romans 8:12-17)
None of us exists in isolation. We live in community. We all affect each others lives. You are who you are because of who you relate to and how you relate to them. I am who I am because of who I relate to and how I relate to them.
Relationships have the potential to heal and bring joy to our lives. They also have the potential to harm and bring suffering to our lives.
I am always saddened when I hear stories and statistics of domestic abuse and child abuse. The family is supposed to be the safest place in a society, the place where one is loved and nurtured, but according to the Department of Justice, over 2 million men and women are assaulted by their intimate partner every year. Twenty percent of nonfatal, violent crime perpetrated against women happens in the home (http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html), and at least half of those women have children under the age of 12 in their home. “A recent study of low-income pre-school children in Michigan found that nearly half (46.7 percent) of the children in the study had been exposed to at least one incident of mild or severe violence in the family. Children who had been exposed to violence suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu” (Sandra Graham-Bermann & Julie Seng, Violence Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms as Additional Predictors of Health Problems in High-Risk Children, 146 J. of Pediatrics 309 (2005) http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html#children).
When it comes to relationships, abuse is at the furthest end of the spectrum. The way God does not want it to be. It’s what we want to eradicate. As we move along the continuum, we hope that relationships become more healthy and loving to the point that it is in our relationships with each other that we find our fullest and highest expression of ourselves. It is when “we” are together that you not only feel safe as a person, but that you are built up as a person. It is in our life together that you find the courage and commitment to live into your calling as a child of God.
Human beings are created in the imago dei, which is latin for “the image of God.” This means that we are to reflect who God is in our lives. Christians often discuss this in terms of being like Jesus, but today, I would like us to think about how being created in the image of the triune God impacts our life. While the word “Trinity” never appears in the Bible, it is one of the unique Christian claims about who God is in God’s own being. The word “Trinity” may not appear in the Bible, but the concept of God existing as a Creator, a Father, a Messiah, a Son, a Spirit, the Breath of Life does occur over and over again throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is Christianity’s unique claim that we believe in one God existing in three persons, often referred to as Father, Son and Holy Spirit or, in more inclusive language, the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. The readings today from John 3 and Romans 8 are two passages that mention all three persons of the Trinity within just a few verses.
What Scripture and Christian theology tell us about God is that God is relational within God’s own being. The Creator of heaven and earth, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have a shared, communal life together in which they all play a distinct role. The Trinity exemplifies two ways that we can reflect the imago dei, and the point of this is to move our relationships away from the end of the spectrum that is harmful to the other end, in which our relationships are edifying. First, we are called to exist in relationships of mutual, self-giving love, and second, at the same time, each of us is called to become a distinct, unique person, to live into God’s vision of who you, and you alone, are created to be.
Let me explain this a little more fully:
The persons of the Trinity have a relationship that is one of mutual self-giving on our behalf. The Father/Creator poured out his love to create the universe and all that dwells within it. The Son/Jesus gave his life to save humanity of our sin and put us in right relationship with God. And the Holy Spirit/Spirit of Life gives us its power, guidance and comfort so that we might be transformed and become the children of God we are created to be. In this way, the individual persons of the Trinity work together, giving freely of themselves for the creation and redemption of the world.
Even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are bound together in relationship, inter-connected and inter-dependent on each other, giving and taking from each other, each person of the Trinity remains distinct. No matter what they give or how closely they work together, they never morph one into the other. No matter how much love the Father pours out, he remains the Father. Even though Jesus sacrificed his life, he remains Jesus of Nazareth. And no matter how much power the Spirit sends out, it remains the Holy Spirit.
Now, how can we best reflect these two aspects of the Triune God?
1. We are to exist in relationships of mutual self-giving, and in order for these relationships to be healthy, the mutual self-giving needs to be balanced.
Relationships in which I try for you, and you try equally for me. I offer to you, and you offer equally to me.
This means that when you are in a relationship, if you give and give, but receive much less than you give, then that relationship is out of balance and does not adequately reflect who God is calling us to be in our shared life together. The same is true if you are receiving and receiving, but not giving back in mutual support.
Think of the most important relationships in your life or the relationships that are affecting you most. Are they balanced? And if not, try to figure out what the problem is. Does one person have too much power? Is one person overly needy? Etc. We have to be careful with each other in all of our give and take so that we don’t get out of balance. And if and when we do find ourselves in a particular relationship that is out of balance, it is necessary for us to work towards restructuring that relationship if we ever want it to be a holy, life-enhancing relationship.
2. The second way we reflect the Triune God is to remain a distinct self, a strong presence while in relationship and while giving.
Jesus didn’t lose who he was because he gave himself over to the Father’s will. In fact, Jesus became Jesus because of his sacrifice. The Spirit did not compromise itself as it came down at Pentecost to remind us of Jesus and teach us the truth. In fact, the Spirit showed us exactly who it is and what it does when it came down at Pentecost. The Father did not cease to be the almighty, unnameable God when he gave his essence of love to create the world. In fact, God proved to us exactly who God is at creation.
This means that as “I” exist in relation to “you,” as I love you, as I serve you, as I serve with you, as we walk together on this journey, I will mature and develop as a person, as a spiritual being, as a unique child of God, and so will you. Our relationships shouldn’t make us less like God’s design, but help us to live more fully into who God is creating you to be.
This reminds me of Paul Simon’s song, Slip Slidin’ Away, which says:
I know a man/He came from my hometown/He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown/He said, “Dolores, I live in fear/My love for you is so overpowering that I’m afraid I will disappear.”
I know a woman/Became a wife/These are the very words she uses to describe her life.
She said, “A good day aint got no rain.”/She said, “A bad days when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been.”
In each of these instances, the man and the woman are expressing that they have somehow lost themselves or fear losing themselves because of the relationship they are in.
Even though a man and woman become one flesh in marriage, they are each to retain a strong sense of self. The one flesh that they become is a new person comprised of the two individual selves. Couples fall into dangerous territory when one or both lose/compromise their own identity in their coupledom. Examples: maybe we give up our hobbies or even our dreams, maybe we let our values slip or let our priorities get rearranged.
We can diminish or compromise ourselves in many other types of relationships as well.
Another type of relationship where people tend to get lost is that of employer/employee. I have a friend who, if her boss is stressed, she is stressed. If her boss has a good day, she has a good day. I know it’s natural to be affected by others, but this friend started making decisions she wouldn’t normally make, and even stopped taking care of her own needs at one point to please or appease her boss. This is not a healthy relationship. It showed a lack of boundaries. A lack of a strong sense of self. We don’t need to blend into each other just because we work together. A distinct person remains distinct even as we relate and give to each other.
Another relationship in which one or the other or both can lose their identity in their life together is that of parent and child. We all know the dangers of parents who try to live through their children. And a child who never asserts him or herself beyond the parents is one who never fully develops. I read a promising story a few months ago in People Magazine of all things. The actress Melissa Joan Hart (best known for her role as Sabrina the Witch) was on the cover looking great in a bikini, and the headline was, “How I lost 45 pounds.” I just scanned the article at the newsstand, but essentially, Melissa said that after she had her children, she gained a lot of weight. In her story, she said, just because I am a mother to my children doesn’t mean I have to be unhealthy and overweight. She doesn’t have to give up the lean, active woman she has always been just because she had children.
In John 3, Jesus says that in order to walk in the kingdom of God, in order to really live this life to the fullest as God intends, we must be born from above or we must be born anew. We are physical beings so we had a physical birth, but we are also spiritual beings, and so we must have a spiritual birth. Different religious traditions have different rituals or rights of passage signifying spiritual birth. For the Christian, we are born of water and Spirit. To be born of water is to be baptized, to be claimed as a child of God and invited into the family of God, and to be born of Spirit is receive the Spirit of God and let it live through you, guiding you, inspiring you, transforming you and the world you live in.
This morning, I invite you to remember your baptism and receive the Holy Spirit once again. Let us all be spiritually reborn together. Rebirth has the potential to invigorate our lives, our relationships, our communities, our world. As we join together in the liturgy and in Communion, remember that we are created in the image of the Triune God, which means that we are created with and for each other. May all of our relationships be a blessing. May they bring us a sense of belonging and comfort. May they build us up in love and inspire us to live out our divine destiny as children of God.
None of us exists in isolation. We live in community. We all affect each others lives. You are who you are because of who you relate to and how you relate to them. I am who I am because of who I relate to and how I relate to them.
Relationships have the potential to heal and bring joy to our lives. They also have the potential to harm and bring suffering to our lives.
I am always saddened when I hear stories and statistics of domestic abuse and child abuse. The family is supposed to be the safest place in a society, the place where one is loved and nurtured, but according to the Department of Justice, over 2 million men and women are assaulted by their intimate partner every year. Twenty percent of nonfatal, violent crime perpetrated against women happens in the home (http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html), and at least half of those women have children under the age of 12 in their home. “A recent study of low-income pre-school children in Michigan found that nearly half (46.7 percent) of the children in the study had been exposed to at least one incident of mild or severe violence in the family. Children who had been exposed to violence suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu” (Sandra Graham-Bermann & Julie Seng, Violence Exposure and Traumatic Stress Symptoms as Additional Predictors of Health Problems in High-Risk Children, 146 J. of Pediatrics 309 (2005) http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html#children).
When it comes to relationships, abuse is at the furthest end of the spectrum. The way God does not want it to be. It’s what we want to eradicate. As we move along the continuum, we hope that relationships become more healthy and loving to the point that it is in our relationships with each other that we find our fullest and highest expression of ourselves. It is when “we” are together that you not only feel safe as a person, but that you are built up as a person. It is in our life together that you find the courage and commitment to live into your calling as a child of God.
Human beings are created in the imago dei, which is latin for “the image of God.” This means that we are to reflect who God is in our lives. Christians often discuss this in terms of being like Jesus, but today, I would like us to think about how being created in the image of the triune God impacts our life. While the word “Trinity” never appears in the Bible, it is one of the unique Christian claims about who God is in God’s own being. The word “Trinity” may not appear in the Bible, but the concept of God existing as a Creator, a Father, a Messiah, a Son, a Spirit, the Breath of Life does occur over and over again throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is Christianity’s unique claim that we believe in one God existing in three persons, often referred to as Father, Son and Holy Spirit or, in more inclusive language, the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. The readings today from John 3 and Romans 8 are two passages that mention all three persons of the Trinity within just a few verses.
What Scripture and Christian theology tell us about God is that God is relational within God’s own being. The Creator of heaven and earth, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have a shared, communal life together in which they all play a distinct role. The Trinity exemplifies two ways that we can reflect the imago dei, and the point of this is to move our relationships away from the end of the spectrum that is harmful to the other end, in which our relationships are edifying. First, we are called to exist in relationships of mutual, self-giving love, and second, at the same time, each of us is called to become a distinct, unique person, to live into God’s vision of who you, and you alone, are created to be.
Let me explain this a little more fully:
The persons of the Trinity have a relationship that is one of mutual self-giving on our behalf. The Father/Creator poured out his love to create the universe and all that dwells within it. The Son/Jesus gave his life to save humanity of our sin and put us in right relationship with God. And the Holy Spirit/Spirit of Life gives us its power, guidance and comfort so that we might be transformed and become the children of God we are created to be. In this way, the individual persons of the Trinity work together, giving freely of themselves for the creation and redemption of the world.
Even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are bound together in relationship, inter-connected and inter-dependent on each other, giving and taking from each other, each person of the Trinity remains distinct. No matter what they give or how closely they work together, they never morph one into the other. No matter how much love the Father pours out, he remains the Father. Even though Jesus sacrificed his life, he remains Jesus of Nazareth. And no matter how much power the Spirit sends out, it remains the Holy Spirit.
Now, how can we best reflect these two aspects of the Triune God?
1. We are to exist in relationships of mutual self-giving, and in order for these relationships to be healthy, the mutual self-giving needs to be balanced.
Relationships in which I try for you, and you try equally for me. I offer to you, and you offer equally to me.
This means that when you are in a relationship, if you give and give, but receive much less than you give, then that relationship is out of balance and does not adequately reflect who God is calling us to be in our shared life together. The same is true if you are receiving and receiving, but not giving back in mutual support.
Think of the most important relationships in your life or the relationships that are affecting you most. Are they balanced? And if not, try to figure out what the problem is. Does one person have too much power? Is one person overly needy? Etc. We have to be careful with each other in all of our give and take so that we don’t get out of balance. And if and when we do find ourselves in a particular relationship that is out of balance, it is necessary for us to work towards restructuring that relationship if we ever want it to be a holy, life-enhancing relationship.
2. The second way we reflect the Triune God is to remain a distinct self, a strong presence while in relationship and while giving.
Jesus didn’t lose who he was because he gave himself over to the Father’s will. In fact, Jesus became Jesus because of his sacrifice. The Spirit did not compromise itself as it came down at Pentecost to remind us of Jesus and teach us the truth. In fact, the Spirit showed us exactly who it is and what it does when it came down at Pentecost. The Father did not cease to be the almighty, unnameable God when he gave his essence of love to create the world. In fact, God proved to us exactly who God is at creation.
This means that as “I” exist in relation to “you,” as I love you, as I serve you, as I serve with you, as we walk together on this journey, I will mature and develop as a person, as a spiritual being, as a unique child of God, and so will you. Our relationships shouldn’t make us less like God’s design, but help us to live more fully into who God is creating you to be.
This reminds me of Paul Simon’s song, Slip Slidin’ Away, which says:
I know a man/He came from my hometown/He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown/He said, “Dolores, I live in fear/My love for you is so overpowering that I’m afraid I will disappear.”
I know a woman/Became a wife/These are the very words she uses to describe her life.
She said, “A good day aint got no rain.”/She said, “A bad days when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been.”
In each of these instances, the man and the woman are expressing that they have somehow lost themselves or fear losing themselves because of the relationship they are in.
Even though a man and woman become one flesh in marriage, they are each to retain a strong sense of self. The one flesh that they become is a new person comprised of the two individual selves. Couples fall into dangerous territory when one or both lose/compromise their own identity in their coupledom. Examples: maybe we give up our hobbies or even our dreams, maybe we let our values slip or let our priorities get rearranged.
We can diminish or compromise ourselves in many other types of relationships as well.
Another type of relationship where people tend to get lost is that of employer/employee. I have a friend who, if her boss is stressed, she is stressed. If her boss has a good day, she has a good day. I know it’s natural to be affected by others, but this friend started making decisions she wouldn’t normally make, and even stopped taking care of her own needs at one point to please or appease her boss. This is not a healthy relationship. It showed a lack of boundaries. A lack of a strong sense of self. We don’t need to blend into each other just because we work together. A distinct person remains distinct even as we relate and give to each other.
Another relationship in which one or the other or both can lose their identity in their life together is that of parent and child. We all know the dangers of parents who try to live through their children. And a child who never asserts him or herself beyond the parents is one who never fully develops. I read a promising story a few months ago in People Magazine of all things. The actress Melissa Joan Hart (best known for her role as Sabrina the Witch) was on the cover looking great in a bikini, and the headline was, “How I lost 45 pounds.” I just scanned the article at the newsstand, but essentially, Melissa said that after she had her children, she gained a lot of weight. In her story, she said, just because I am a mother to my children doesn’t mean I have to be unhealthy and overweight. She doesn’t have to give up the lean, active woman she has always been just because she had children.
In John 3, Jesus says that in order to walk in the kingdom of God, in order to really live this life to the fullest as God intends, we must be born from above or we must be born anew. We are physical beings so we had a physical birth, but we are also spiritual beings, and so we must have a spiritual birth. Different religious traditions have different rituals or rights of passage signifying spiritual birth. For the Christian, we are born of water and Spirit. To be born of water is to be baptized, to be claimed as a child of God and invited into the family of God, and to be born of Spirit is receive the Spirit of God and let it live through you, guiding you, inspiring you, transforming you and the world you live in.
This morning, I invite you to remember your baptism and receive the Holy Spirit once again. Let us all be spiritually reborn together. Rebirth has the potential to invigorate our lives, our relationships, our communities, our world. As we join together in the liturgy and in Communion, remember that we are created in the image of the Triune God, which means that we are created with and for each other. May all of our relationships be a blessing. May they bring us a sense of belonging and comfort. May they build us up in love and inspire us to live out our divine destiny as children of God.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Imperfect and Embraced
(Read Romans 7:14-25 and John 8:2-11)
There are parts of the Bible I have a hard time understanding and I cannot relate to, like the book of Numbers and parts of Revelation, for example. But one passage I understand and relate to very well, and I expect you might also, is Paul’s words from Romans 7. Paul says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15).
You know what he’s talking about, right? Each day or maybe every other day, we find ourselves in conflict, wanting to behave in one way, but instead behaving in another. We want to get up early, perhaps to workout or have devotional time, but we end up hitting the snooze until the last possible second. We want to take care of important matters, like calling friends, putting together the photos from last year’s vacation or cleaning the house or doing the yard work, but instead, we end up watching some pointless TV show or surfing the net, or whatever it is.
Sometimes, when we “do the very thing [we] hate,” our actions are even more detrimental. We want to serve God, but we feed our own selfish desires instead. We want to give love, but we end up hurting the people we love instead. We want to follow a straight and narrow path that leads to life, but we end up going down the dark road that takes us deeper into the heart of our own misery.
As Paul says, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it” (Romans 7: 18).
Being unable to do what we want to do is a part of being human. In a way, it sounds ridiculous. Why wouldn’t we be able to do what we want to do? Paul says that it is the sin that dwells within us that keeps us from doing the good we want. Without speaking any condemnation this morning, I simply want us to acknowledge that sin, inner conflict and making harmful, unhealthy, unskillful choices is a part of our human reality.
We love God, and we want to do what we believe is the healthy and right thing for us and others, but there is a war that rages within us. Sometimes, we choose the noble path. Othertimes, we are overcome, destructive, even possessed. We succumb to the very behaviors, addictions, actions, and interactions that cause harm.
Sometimes, we can see it coming a mile away, and we watch ourselves as we do the very thing we hate. Othertimes, we surprise even ourselves because we don’t have much awareness when it comes to our shadow side. We sort of close our eyes and act automatically because we don’t want to admit the darkness and pain that is within us. I don’t think we “do what we don’t want to do” because we are evil. I think we do it because we are hurting, and in our pain, we confusedly and mistakenly reach for things that cause us and others more pain.
Think about the woman who has been caught in adultery. She’s probably a good woman, but she is lonely and in need of love. I’m sure she would rather have a relationship with a man she could fall in love with and marry, but for some reason, that option doesn’t seem available to her. So she takes what she can get. And in settling for less than she deserves, she increases her own suffering and the suffering of others.
The woman caught in adultery was wrong to do what she did, and yet, she doesn’t deserve to be condemned or stoned.
You know what Jesus said to those who brought her before him. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And everyone disappeared.
Why? Because the scribes and Pharisees and everyone listening to Jesus suffer from the inner conflict and the harmful actions it leads to just like she did, just like we do.
Jesus says, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Her reply, “No one, sir.”
And then these words, some of the greatest words in the whole Bible. “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Jesus doesn’t condemn us for our sin. He embraces us. He accepts us. He loves us even when we are broken. We are imperfect and embraced by God all at the same time. And we need to follow God’s lead on this. If God loves us no matter what, than we must love ourselves no matter what. We should be honest with ourselves about who we are and what we do, and even if we wish we were making better choices, the best way to treat ourselves in all circumstances is with acceptance and love.
The main reason is because all people, no matter who they are or what they do, deserve to be loved unconditionally. End of story.
The other reason is that if we have any hope at all of changing, of transformation, we must begin from a loving place. If when we “do what we don’t want to do,” we condemn ourselves or beat ourselves up, all that does is push us into a shame spiral. We feel bad about how we act, and then we go and do something unhealthy to kill the pain of feeling bad. This is a trap.
Through compassion, acceptance and affirmation of the self, we receive the love and freedom we need to make change possible. When in our weakness, we continue to build ourselves up, we are strengthened within. We develop character and integrity.
And the truth of the matter is, we can do what we want to do, we can stop making poor, unhealthy, destructive choices in our lives, but we need that character and integrity to do it. It takes courage to face our demons. It takes strength to turn away from our vices and our anger and our sadness. It takes strength and understanding to get our needs met in ways that are healthy and righteous. Courage, strength and understanding develop in the soul that knows unconditional love and acceptance.
Paul says, “Wretched man that I am! [Which isn’t a very loving thing to say by the way…] Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And then immediately he says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Because God has rescued us through the love of Jesus Christ. Not even the fear of death could make Jesus compromise his love for us and all living beings. And after Jesus died and God raised him from the dead, God declared that the law of sin and death was forever broken. That means we can say “no” to sin. We can say “no” to the path that leads to death. In Jesus Christ, we are set free, and we are given the power to choose what is good, what is healthy, what is wise and loving.
The Lord has been gracious and merciful to us our whole lives. God has forgiven the transgressions of our past and with steadfast love continues to urge us to reach our full potential as blessed children of God. So when you find yourself conflicted and acting in ways that diminish your existence as a unique, loving, Spirit-filled person, don’t waste time condemning yourself. When you see others going astray, don’t waste time condemning them either. Jesus isn’t. God isn’t.
But love yourself. Love that other person. And know that God is loving you as well. You are imperfect and embraced all at the same time. When you know this in your heart, healing and transformation will happen. And you will be free to live life as you choose.
There are parts of the Bible I have a hard time understanding and I cannot relate to, like the book of Numbers and parts of Revelation, for example. But one passage I understand and relate to very well, and I expect you might also, is Paul’s words from Romans 7. Paul says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15).
You know what he’s talking about, right? Each day or maybe every other day, we find ourselves in conflict, wanting to behave in one way, but instead behaving in another. We want to get up early, perhaps to workout or have devotional time, but we end up hitting the snooze until the last possible second. We want to take care of important matters, like calling friends, putting together the photos from last year’s vacation or cleaning the house or doing the yard work, but instead, we end up watching some pointless TV show or surfing the net, or whatever it is.
Sometimes, when we “do the very thing [we] hate,” our actions are even more detrimental. We want to serve God, but we feed our own selfish desires instead. We want to give love, but we end up hurting the people we love instead. We want to follow a straight and narrow path that leads to life, but we end up going down the dark road that takes us deeper into the heart of our own misery.
As Paul says, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it” (Romans 7: 18).
Being unable to do what we want to do is a part of being human. In a way, it sounds ridiculous. Why wouldn’t we be able to do what we want to do? Paul says that it is the sin that dwells within us that keeps us from doing the good we want. Without speaking any condemnation this morning, I simply want us to acknowledge that sin, inner conflict and making harmful, unhealthy, unskillful choices is a part of our human reality.
We love God, and we want to do what we believe is the healthy and right thing for us and others, but there is a war that rages within us. Sometimes, we choose the noble path. Othertimes, we are overcome, destructive, even possessed. We succumb to the very behaviors, addictions, actions, and interactions that cause harm.
Sometimes, we can see it coming a mile away, and we watch ourselves as we do the very thing we hate. Othertimes, we surprise even ourselves because we don’t have much awareness when it comes to our shadow side. We sort of close our eyes and act automatically because we don’t want to admit the darkness and pain that is within us. I don’t think we “do what we don’t want to do” because we are evil. I think we do it because we are hurting, and in our pain, we confusedly and mistakenly reach for things that cause us and others more pain.
Think about the woman who has been caught in adultery. She’s probably a good woman, but she is lonely and in need of love. I’m sure she would rather have a relationship with a man she could fall in love with and marry, but for some reason, that option doesn’t seem available to her. So she takes what she can get. And in settling for less than she deserves, she increases her own suffering and the suffering of others.
The woman caught in adultery was wrong to do what she did, and yet, she doesn’t deserve to be condemned or stoned.
You know what Jesus said to those who brought her before him. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And everyone disappeared.
Why? Because the scribes and Pharisees and everyone listening to Jesus suffer from the inner conflict and the harmful actions it leads to just like she did, just like we do.
Jesus says, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Her reply, “No one, sir.”
And then these words, some of the greatest words in the whole Bible. “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
Jesus doesn’t condemn us for our sin. He embraces us. He accepts us. He loves us even when we are broken. We are imperfect and embraced by God all at the same time. And we need to follow God’s lead on this. If God loves us no matter what, than we must love ourselves no matter what. We should be honest with ourselves about who we are and what we do, and even if we wish we were making better choices, the best way to treat ourselves in all circumstances is with acceptance and love.
The main reason is because all people, no matter who they are or what they do, deserve to be loved unconditionally. End of story.
The other reason is that if we have any hope at all of changing, of transformation, we must begin from a loving place. If when we “do what we don’t want to do,” we condemn ourselves or beat ourselves up, all that does is push us into a shame spiral. We feel bad about how we act, and then we go and do something unhealthy to kill the pain of feeling bad. This is a trap.
Through compassion, acceptance and affirmation of the self, we receive the love and freedom we need to make change possible. When in our weakness, we continue to build ourselves up, we are strengthened within. We develop character and integrity.
And the truth of the matter is, we can do what we want to do, we can stop making poor, unhealthy, destructive choices in our lives, but we need that character and integrity to do it. It takes courage to face our demons. It takes strength to turn away from our vices and our anger and our sadness. It takes strength and understanding to get our needs met in ways that are healthy and righteous. Courage, strength and understanding develop in the soul that knows unconditional love and acceptance.
Paul says, “Wretched man that I am! [Which isn’t a very loving thing to say by the way…] Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And then immediately he says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Because God has rescued us through the love of Jesus Christ. Not even the fear of death could make Jesus compromise his love for us and all living beings. And after Jesus died and God raised him from the dead, God declared that the law of sin and death was forever broken. That means we can say “no” to sin. We can say “no” to the path that leads to death. In Jesus Christ, we are set free, and we are given the power to choose what is good, what is healthy, what is wise and loving.
The Lord has been gracious and merciful to us our whole lives. God has forgiven the transgressions of our past and with steadfast love continues to urge us to reach our full potential as blessed children of God. So when you find yourself conflicted and acting in ways that diminish your existence as a unique, loving, Spirit-filled person, don’t waste time condemning yourself. When you see others going astray, don’t waste time condemning them either. Jesus isn’t. God isn’t.
But love yourself. Love that other person. And know that God is loving you as well. You are imperfect and embraced all at the same time. When you know this in your heart, healing and transformation will happen. And you will be free to live life as you choose.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Freedom to Follow
(Read Mark 10:17-31)
The nature of all people, animals, plants and minerals, the nature of all objects is impermanence. Nothing lasts forever. The grass withers; the flower fades. Cars rust; houses rot. Life for me and for you comes, and it goes.
Not only are living beings and objects impermanent, but so are feelings and thoughts. How you feel right now will not be how you feel at the end of this service. What you are thinking right now will not be what you are thinking tomorrow morning. Everything moves; everything changes in this life. Jobs change; goals change; relationships change. Impermanence is a fact of life. And if we know this, if we embrace this truth, we will relieve our own suffering and the suffering of others.
The rich man in today’s Scripture reading does not understand the law of impermanence, and thus he has allowed himself to become attached to his possessions. And in being attached to them, he cannot leave them.
The rich man goes to Jesus very excited, saying, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to follow the commandments, and the man proudly exclaims, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” And then, Jesus clues in on the man. Jesus takes a look at him and sees that this rich man really wants eternal life; he wants to have the life of the Eternal One as a part of his earthly life; he’s already walking the spiritual path and he wants to exist on a higher plane. Jesus feels love for him because this man is a kindred spirit, one who wants to walk with God.
Jesus says, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But as we know, in hearing Jesus’ instruction, the man is shocked and greatly grieved for he has many possessions, and he walks away.
The rich man isn’t just grieved because he has many possessions, he’s grieved because he has put great value in his possessions. He has built his life around them. He thinks he needs them to be happy. If he sells them, he thinks he will lose his happiness.
There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy in and of itself. The problems arise when we become attached to our wealth, when we give our riches value that they do not deserve, when we let wealth control, guide and rule our lives, instead of God, which is what the rich man has done. He can’t follow Jesus; he can’t walk in the kingdom of God because his heart and time and energy are being put into acquiring, enjoying and preserving his wealth.
The kingdom of God is a past, present and future reality. It was established in the past. It exists in the present, and it comes to completion/fulfillment in the future, what we might call heaven.
To be in the kingdom of God on this earth is to live a life where God is the ruler. So in a way, we can step in and out of the kingdom of God depending on what we are letting rule our lives. If we live for God, then we are in it. If wealth and riches or anything else control us, then we are not walking in the kingdom.
This is a trap that we must be careful not to fall into. We all know that we must earn money and acquire some possessions in order to survive in this world, in order to create a safe and comfortable place for our families to live and grow. So we start out innocently enough, working diligently to get to that place we have conceived of in our minds, that level that we have marked as enough. But I think we all know that it’s easy to get caught up and not to be able to stop. To want a little bit more, a little bit nicer. To feel pressure to work a little bit harder, a little bit longer. But at what expense? Our souls become enslaved when they live for something other than their own expression.
If the reason we wake up in the morning and do what we do throughout the day is to acquire and maintain our wealth, we have a real problem, spiritually speaking. This is not the purpose of life. And the term "wealth" can have broad meaning – living for cash, stockmarket, houses, cars is one aspect. But also, living for power, for status, for presige is another form of how we feel wealthy. Even our family can be considered our assets. Jesus tells us to leave father and mother, children, sisters, brothers if we have to in order to follow him and walk in the kiingdom
What Jesus is trying to tell the rich man, whom he loves, is not to make the purpose of his life about acquiring, enjoying and maintaining things he values. Life is about more than that. Jesus tells him, use your life to follow me, which is to say: Use your life to seek the face of God. Use your life to grow in understanding and insight. Then, use what you learn to love others, to relieve their suffering. (Help families see through their quarrels. Help those who are afraid grow courage, etc). And teach others how to live in this way also. Teach others how to follow Christ, how to walk in the kingdom where God rules. So that what all of us are doing here is building up the kingdom of God. We can use our lives to decrease illusion, blindness, confusion, suffering, anger, fear. As these things decrease, the kingdom of God expands. It grows. We can use our lives to increase understanding, insight, compassion, happiness, peace, wellbeing. As these things increase, the kingdom of God expands. It grows.
What the rich man is lacking in putting his wealth above following the spiritual path is freedom. He is not free to live as the child of God he was put here to be. He is not free to live into God’s great vision for what his life is meant to be. His spirit is not free to learn and create and love.
But Jesus calls us all to such freedom. Leave what you have behind and follow me, he says. So I ask you: what are you living for? What gets you out of bed each day? Do not waste your energy on the acquisition and preservation of things which by their very nature will not last. Let go of whatever you have to so that you can follow the Spirit as it moves through your life, shaping your destiny. The kingdom is here and now. Enter in. Live in it. Help it to grow.
The nature of all people, animals, plants and minerals, the nature of all objects is impermanence. Nothing lasts forever. The grass withers; the flower fades. Cars rust; houses rot. Life for me and for you comes, and it goes.
Not only are living beings and objects impermanent, but so are feelings and thoughts. How you feel right now will not be how you feel at the end of this service. What you are thinking right now will not be what you are thinking tomorrow morning. Everything moves; everything changes in this life. Jobs change; goals change; relationships change. Impermanence is a fact of life. And if we know this, if we embrace this truth, we will relieve our own suffering and the suffering of others.
The rich man in today’s Scripture reading does not understand the law of impermanence, and thus he has allowed himself to become attached to his possessions. And in being attached to them, he cannot leave them.
The rich man goes to Jesus very excited, saying, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him to follow the commandments, and the man proudly exclaims, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” And then, Jesus clues in on the man. Jesus takes a look at him and sees that this rich man really wants eternal life; he wants to have the life of the Eternal One as a part of his earthly life; he’s already walking the spiritual path and he wants to exist on a higher plane. Jesus feels love for him because this man is a kindred spirit, one who wants to walk with God.
Jesus says, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But as we know, in hearing Jesus’ instruction, the man is shocked and greatly grieved for he has many possessions, and he walks away.
The rich man isn’t just grieved because he has many possessions, he’s grieved because he has put great value in his possessions. He has built his life around them. He thinks he needs them to be happy. If he sells them, he thinks he will lose his happiness.
There is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy in and of itself. The problems arise when we become attached to our wealth, when we give our riches value that they do not deserve, when we let wealth control, guide and rule our lives, instead of God, which is what the rich man has done. He can’t follow Jesus; he can’t walk in the kingdom of God because his heart and time and energy are being put into acquiring, enjoying and preserving his wealth.
The kingdom of God is a past, present and future reality. It was established in the past. It exists in the present, and it comes to completion/fulfillment in the future, what we might call heaven.
To be in the kingdom of God on this earth is to live a life where God is the ruler. So in a way, we can step in and out of the kingdom of God depending on what we are letting rule our lives. If we live for God, then we are in it. If wealth and riches or anything else control us, then we are not walking in the kingdom.
This is a trap that we must be careful not to fall into. We all know that we must earn money and acquire some possessions in order to survive in this world, in order to create a safe and comfortable place for our families to live and grow. So we start out innocently enough, working diligently to get to that place we have conceived of in our minds, that level that we have marked as enough. But I think we all know that it’s easy to get caught up and not to be able to stop. To want a little bit more, a little bit nicer. To feel pressure to work a little bit harder, a little bit longer. But at what expense? Our souls become enslaved when they live for something other than their own expression.
If the reason we wake up in the morning and do what we do throughout the day is to acquire and maintain our wealth, we have a real problem, spiritually speaking. This is not the purpose of life. And the term "wealth" can have broad meaning – living for cash, stockmarket, houses, cars is one aspect. But also, living for power, for status, for presige is another form of how we feel wealthy. Even our family can be considered our assets. Jesus tells us to leave father and mother, children, sisters, brothers if we have to in order to follow him and walk in the kiingdom
What Jesus is trying to tell the rich man, whom he loves, is not to make the purpose of his life about acquiring, enjoying and maintaining things he values. Life is about more than that. Jesus tells him, use your life to follow me, which is to say: Use your life to seek the face of God. Use your life to grow in understanding and insight. Then, use what you learn to love others, to relieve their suffering. (Help families see through their quarrels. Help those who are afraid grow courage, etc). And teach others how to live in this way also. Teach others how to follow Christ, how to walk in the kingdom where God rules. So that what all of us are doing here is building up the kingdom of God. We can use our lives to decrease illusion, blindness, confusion, suffering, anger, fear. As these things decrease, the kingdom of God expands. It grows. We can use our lives to increase understanding, insight, compassion, happiness, peace, wellbeing. As these things increase, the kingdom of God expands. It grows.
What the rich man is lacking in putting his wealth above following the spiritual path is freedom. He is not free to live as the child of God he was put here to be. He is not free to live into God’s great vision for what his life is meant to be. His spirit is not free to learn and create and love.
But Jesus calls us all to such freedom. Leave what you have behind and follow me, he says. So I ask you: what are you living for? What gets you out of bed each day? Do not waste your energy on the acquisition and preservation of things which by their very nature will not last. Let go of whatever you have to so that you can follow the Spirit as it moves through your life, shaping your destiny. The kingdom is here and now. Enter in. Live in it. Help it to grow.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
What Does Your Soul Really Need?
(Read James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a)
When I was a kid, I loved fairytales. And now my neice, Soliel, loves fairytales. She is obsessed with “princesses.” There’s Cinderella and Bell and Jasmine and Snow White and Ariel and Aurora. They are all princesses to her. Even though Soliel likes me to tell her the stories, if I mess up or change some of the storyline, Soliel stops me, and she corrects me. “No, Mandy. First, the prince kisses Snow White, and then, she wakes up.”
Lately, I have been changing the storyline a lot. Why? Because I feel like I am indoctrinating my precious niece with the idea that the way to happiness in life is to fall in love with a prince, get the prince to fall in love with you, and get married. In all these stories, that’s how one lives happily ever after. As a woman who is 31 years old, single, without children, working in a profession once available only to men, and as one who knows countless women who believe that if they just get married, everything else will fall into place, I cannot in good conscience teach Soliel this fairytale.
Today, I’d like us to question what we are taught by fairytales, movies, and advertisers, and to get serious about seeking wisdom from God, the real teachings we ought to live by.
In today’s Scripture reading, the community that James is writing to is experiencing conflict; people are fighting, disputing. Commentaries say that there were various teachers within the community, and several of them were not wise teachers. It appears that some of the teachings were flawed, and some were downright incorrect, “false to the truth,” contrary to the teachings of Jesus. But since the teachers were filled with selfish ambition, they kept insisting on proclaiming their warped message. It was causing real disorder within the community. As the Message puts it, things were falling apart and people were at each others’ throats (James 3:16).
When you think about it, our community, our society is filled with unwise teachers and teachings as well. And this also creates problems for us. I think that advertising has one of the loudest voices in our society, teaching the masses when we don’t even realize it. And the crazy thing is: advertisers don’t care about us. They are trying to make money.
They make promises to us with their products, but these are promises that their products cannot ultimately fulfill. Just because you drink a certain kind of beer, does not mean you will be surrounded by a great group of friends, where everyone is filled with laughter. Makeup, hair dye and expensive lotion might enhance your appearance, but they can’t make you feel beautiful inside. Certain prescription drugs can be very beneficial to one’s health and wellbeing, but they can’t fix all your problems; they do not guarantee happiness. But advertiers falsely try to convince us that is the case.
James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly.” I think we ask wrongly in that we desire, we go after that which cannot fulfill our deepest needs. We settle for cheap thrills and quick fixes. Sometimes, we do this knowingly, but often, I think we are unaware. We don’t know what will truly satisfy our souls. And earthly “wisdom” (if it can even be called that), leads us astray.
On a surface level, you might desire a donut or a drink (pick your poison), but when you go deeper, when you wrestle with God dwelling inside of you, you might realize that what you are really hungry for or thirsty for is a closer connection with your family or friends or partner. You might pray for time and money to take a vacation, but when the still, small voice speaks to you, you might just discern the Holy Spirit telling you that what you really need is to live every day at a slower pace. You may ask God to change something about someone else, but maybe what you really need is for something within yourself to change.
Vincent Van Gogh said, “I wrestle with nature long enough for her to tell me her secret.”
I think that now is the time for us to wrestle with God long enough for God to tell us the secrets that we need to know. Since God dwells within us, we will find answers when we wrestle with ourselves. Let’s cut to the heart of the matter. Ask yourself: what does my soul really need? With all that you pursue or purchase or are attracted to, what’s underneath it? What do you really need in your life?
Cars and anti-wrinkle cream make promises to you that they can’t keep. But God keeps his promises. And God wants you to be fully satisfied in healthy ways.
What a little girl needs when she grows up is not a prince. She needs a family that loves her, a community that will support her, and strength within herself to walk unafraid through this world. God taught me that when I wrestled with him.
My friends, like there was no shortage of unwise teachers and false teachings in biblical times, there is no shortage of unwise teachers and false teachings in this day and age. It’s time to question many of the messages we have been sent.
What abounds even greater than the false teachings is the wisdom of God available to all of us. We are called to be the wise and to live wisely. It is important for you to know what you need and to seek it directly.
You will be wise if you wrestle with God, if you seek his face, if you seek his kingdom. And in being wise, you will be truly satisfied.
When I was a kid, I loved fairytales. And now my neice, Soliel, loves fairytales. She is obsessed with “princesses.” There’s Cinderella and Bell and Jasmine and Snow White and Ariel and Aurora. They are all princesses to her. Even though Soliel likes me to tell her the stories, if I mess up or change some of the storyline, Soliel stops me, and she corrects me. “No, Mandy. First, the prince kisses Snow White, and then, she wakes up.”
Lately, I have been changing the storyline a lot. Why? Because I feel like I am indoctrinating my precious niece with the idea that the way to happiness in life is to fall in love with a prince, get the prince to fall in love with you, and get married. In all these stories, that’s how one lives happily ever after. As a woman who is 31 years old, single, without children, working in a profession once available only to men, and as one who knows countless women who believe that if they just get married, everything else will fall into place, I cannot in good conscience teach Soliel this fairytale.
Today, I’d like us to question what we are taught by fairytales, movies, and advertisers, and to get serious about seeking wisdom from God, the real teachings we ought to live by.
In today’s Scripture reading, the community that James is writing to is experiencing conflict; people are fighting, disputing. Commentaries say that there were various teachers within the community, and several of them were not wise teachers. It appears that some of the teachings were flawed, and some were downright incorrect, “false to the truth,” contrary to the teachings of Jesus. But since the teachers were filled with selfish ambition, they kept insisting on proclaiming their warped message. It was causing real disorder within the community. As the Message puts it, things were falling apart and people were at each others’ throats (James 3:16).
When you think about it, our community, our society is filled with unwise teachers and teachings as well. And this also creates problems for us. I think that advertising has one of the loudest voices in our society, teaching the masses when we don’t even realize it. And the crazy thing is: advertisers don’t care about us. They are trying to make money.
They make promises to us with their products, but these are promises that their products cannot ultimately fulfill. Just because you drink a certain kind of beer, does not mean you will be surrounded by a great group of friends, where everyone is filled with laughter. Makeup, hair dye and expensive lotion might enhance your appearance, but they can’t make you feel beautiful inside. Certain prescription drugs can be very beneficial to one’s health and wellbeing, but they can’t fix all your problems; they do not guarantee happiness. But advertiers falsely try to convince us that is the case.
James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly.” I think we ask wrongly in that we desire, we go after that which cannot fulfill our deepest needs. We settle for cheap thrills and quick fixes. Sometimes, we do this knowingly, but often, I think we are unaware. We don’t know what will truly satisfy our souls. And earthly “wisdom” (if it can even be called that), leads us astray.
On a surface level, you might desire a donut or a drink (pick your poison), but when you go deeper, when you wrestle with God dwelling inside of you, you might realize that what you are really hungry for or thirsty for is a closer connection with your family or friends or partner. You might pray for time and money to take a vacation, but when the still, small voice speaks to you, you might just discern the Holy Spirit telling you that what you really need is to live every day at a slower pace. You may ask God to change something about someone else, but maybe what you really need is for something within yourself to change.
Vincent Van Gogh said, “I wrestle with nature long enough for her to tell me her secret.”
I think that now is the time for us to wrestle with God long enough for God to tell us the secrets that we need to know. Since God dwells within us, we will find answers when we wrestle with ourselves. Let’s cut to the heart of the matter. Ask yourself: what does my soul really need? With all that you pursue or purchase or are attracted to, what’s underneath it? What do you really need in your life?
Cars and anti-wrinkle cream make promises to you that they can’t keep. But God keeps his promises. And God wants you to be fully satisfied in healthy ways.
What a little girl needs when she grows up is not a prince. She needs a family that loves her, a community that will support her, and strength within herself to walk unafraid through this world. God taught me that when I wrestled with him.
My friends, like there was no shortage of unwise teachers and false teachings in biblical times, there is no shortage of unwise teachers and false teachings in this day and age. It’s time to question many of the messages we have been sent.
What abounds even greater than the false teachings is the wisdom of God available to all of us. We are called to be the wise and to live wisely. It is important for you to know what you need and to seek it directly.
You will be wise if you wrestle with God, if you seek his face, if you seek his kingdom. And in being wise, you will be truly satisfied.
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