"The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son." -- John 5:26
I remember in a biology class spending almost an entire class period talking about how to define "life." Life is somewhat of a mystery it turns out. While we know how life is initiated at conception, we do not know exactly at what moment the combination of chromosomes results in "life." It is almost easier to define life by what it isn't -- as "not dead" -- than to try to define what it is. The signs of life, e.g. breathing, pulse, motion, etc, also do not explain what the actual animating energy is that causes a person or creature to "start ticking" or to be alive. We know neither when or from where that "spark" comes, or where it goes after death.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
The Walls of Safe Space
Raising of Jairus' daughter -- Mark 5:35-43 "She is not dead, but asleep."
Eugene Peterson in The Message calls the crowd at Jairus' house gossips and casserole bringers. These people at his house laughed at Jesus when he said she's sleeping. These people had also told him to quit bothering the teacher. A dismissive, unbelieving bunch of sarcastic folks. "Poo, she's dead. Isn't that too bad? Sucks to be them." So, Jesus shoos them all out, keeping with him only his 3 disciples, Jairus, and his wife -- the ones who could love, the ones who could believe. How often we die in response to ridicule and shaming! How often those who are supposed to care can cause our hope to wither, our belief to be scorched to ash in the face of heated criticism. How often we give up when our peers laugh at us! Jairus sets out to bring Jesus to heal his daughter. They are worried sick and scared. The crowd follows him only to see if he'd really follow through with his hair-brained scheme. The hecklers shout, "She's a dead duck, Jairus. Quit bothering the Teacher." "Don't listen to them. Trust me," says the quiet rebel man that Jairus and his wife have gone out on a limb in desperation to pursue. We must save our daughter's life. I'm a leader of the synagogue. I'll be laughed at by everyone...but our daughter. Our beautiful daughter. A faithful Jew surrounded by cynical, doubting peers. A dead daughter. "Trust me." Then, "Shoo, shoo you blind doubters." A safe space created. Loving walls surround a loving hand up, and the sleeping wakes! This is no ghost, for she can eat. Faith has made her well. Love wins. Parental love triumphs. Cynicism is put down, scoffers denied. Don't buy cynicism. Be love. Be trusting. And, as our Heavenly Parent protects the frightened and lonely let us,too, put up the walls of safe space so love always wins, even when it looks impossible.
Journal Questions:
Eugene Peterson in The Message calls the crowd at Jairus' house gossips and casserole bringers. These people at his house laughed at Jesus when he said she's sleeping. These people had also told him to quit bothering the teacher. A dismissive, unbelieving bunch of sarcastic folks. "Poo, she's dead. Isn't that too bad? Sucks to be them." So, Jesus shoos them all out, keeping with him only his 3 disciples, Jairus, and his wife -- the ones who could love, the ones who could believe. How often we die in response to ridicule and shaming! How often those who are supposed to care can cause our hope to wither, our belief to be scorched to ash in the face of heated criticism. How often we give up when our peers laugh at us! Jairus sets out to bring Jesus to heal his daughter. They are worried sick and scared. The crowd follows him only to see if he'd really follow through with his hair-brained scheme. The hecklers shout, "She's a dead duck, Jairus. Quit bothering the Teacher." "Don't listen to them. Trust me," says the quiet rebel man that Jairus and his wife have gone out on a limb in desperation to pursue. We must save our daughter's life. I'm a leader of the synagogue. I'll be laughed at by everyone...but our daughter. Our beautiful daughter. A faithful Jew surrounded by cynical, doubting peers. A dead daughter. "Trust me." Then, "Shoo, shoo you blind doubters." A safe space created. Loving walls surround a loving hand up, and the sleeping wakes! This is no ghost, for she can eat. Faith has made her well. Love wins. Parental love triumphs. Cynicism is put down, scoffers denied. Don't buy cynicism. Be love. Be trusting. And, as our Heavenly Parent protects the frightened and lonely let us,too, put up the walls of safe space so love always wins, even when it looks impossible.
Journal Questions:
- Recall a time when you were scoffed at or laughed at for what you believed or thought was right. How did you feel?
- Did anyone come to your defense? Knowing what you know now, what might you do to create a safe space for someone who might be caught in a similar circumstance?
- How likely are you to hold out hope in seemingly hopeless situations? Can you, or do you join the doubters who throw in the towel early to protect yourself?
Prayer:
Create in us, O God, the skill to build safe space where love can win out. Through Christ's power and with Jesus' light. Amen.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Abundant Living
The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy: I came that you may have life, and may have it abundantly. -- John 10:10 (ASV, modified)
Negativity is an expansive, easy-to-find energy into which we can easily find ourselves pulled. Negativity often feels like it is the default switch on which society and the world operates, and daily we have to work to unplug from it. What do I mean? Take the worldly obsession with possessions. Radio, TV, print media, internet -- as long as we are plugged into the news of the world we are bombarded with the messages that a) theft, murder, and destruction abound, or b) that what we have or possess is shabby and second rate if we don't have the newest and most advanced products. The barrage is constant and we feel it in our spirits. The negative vortex to be pulled into despair and emptiness is powerful, and the clarion call to join the lines at department stores & their websites to buy more and more to assuage our inferiority and pathetic existence is ever present. As James Forbes has said in his sermon, "No Justice, No Righteousness," the sin of consumerism and materialism chokes us all. (Rev. Forbes sermon)
Often when TV evangelists preach on this passage they add to the angst that our existence is too meager and pathetic for good decent people. They preach that by believing in Jesus Christ your life will magically improve and you will suddenly come into untold material abundance (as though we have none.) The most blatant examples of this "abundance theology" offers that simple prayer will bring you all the wealth and happiness any person could dream, and if that doesn't occur, there is something wrong with your faith. Considering that our "want lists" are driven, constructed, and pursued endlessly at the ever-present clamoring of advertisers working to make us feel bad about ourselves if we don't have their particular product we are doomed when the "word of the Lord" supports us in wanting it all through prayer. It doesn't work that way!
Our faith in Christ is alone our abundance. The antidote to the media and cultural blitz to feel scared and inferior is to turn off the sources of those messages to us. The antidote to the static buzz in our heads that we don't have enough is to stop dwelling on what we don't have or on what bad thing might happen to us. In it's place dwell on the abundances you already have! Perhaps that sounds odd to you... what abundances? First, note it is plural -- there are many. When I start feeling overwhelmed by all that I might not have, or lay awake worried about what is going to happen, I have found it therapeutic to begin listing what all I have in abundance. I have an abundance of warmth and comfort in my soft bed. I have an abundance of food in my cupboard (so much that some of it I'm not even interested in eating!) I have an abundance in the car and gasoline that takes me where I want to go. I have an abundance of people who care about me and love me. The outside messages are so strong that we shouldn't be happy we might have to work at getting our thinking pulled out of the negative "what you don't have" and plugged back in to what you do have. The most basic abundance you have at the center of your being is the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ... already there! Christ has come and has brought you abundance. Go there when you feel discouraged, or inadequate, or dissatisfied, or worried. Dwell on your many abundances. Dwell on Christ.
Journal Questions:
1. Is there some material want that is relentlessly pursuing you to buy? Is it really a necessity or have you been brainwashed to THINK you need it?
2. Is shopping an addiction for you? Meaning, do you find yourself wandering stores in search of something/anything to buy and feel a happy rush when you get it, only to have that rush fade in hours or a day?
3. Try making the list of abundances. If it is difficult to think that what you have is abundance, consider a primitive tribal person surviving in some almost inhospitable environment. They often have a happiness and lack of care that all of us in modern society can't find and can't imagine. What abundance do you have alongside that?
Prayer:
God of all creation, Christ of all granting abundance, Spirit of all satisfaction and healing grant us peace from our frenzied wants and rest us in the arms of your perfect peace. We pray in the name of the Christ at our door knocking, open us to Christ. Amen.
Negativity is an expansive, easy-to-find energy into which we can easily find ourselves pulled. Negativity often feels like it is the default switch on which society and the world operates, and daily we have to work to unplug from it. What do I mean? Take the worldly obsession with possessions. Radio, TV, print media, internet -- as long as we are plugged into the news of the world we are bombarded with the messages that a) theft, murder, and destruction abound, or b) that what we have or possess is shabby and second rate if we don't have the newest and most advanced products. The barrage is constant and we feel it in our spirits. The negative vortex to be pulled into despair and emptiness is powerful, and the clarion call to join the lines at department stores & their websites to buy more and more to assuage our inferiority and pathetic existence is ever present. As James Forbes has said in his sermon, "No Justice, No Righteousness," the sin of consumerism and materialism chokes us all. (Rev. Forbes sermon)
Often when TV evangelists preach on this passage they add to the angst that our existence is too meager and pathetic for good decent people. They preach that by believing in Jesus Christ your life will magically improve and you will suddenly come into untold material abundance (as though we have none.) The most blatant examples of this "abundance theology" offers that simple prayer will bring you all the wealth and happiness any person could dream, and if that doesn't occur, there is something wrong with your faith. Considering that our "want lists" are driven, constructed, and pursued endlessly at the ever-present clamoring of advertisers working to make us feel bad about ourselves if we don't have their particular product we are doomed when the "word of the Lord" supports us in wanting it all through prayer. It doesn't work that way!
Our faith in Christ is alone our abundance. The antidote to the media and cultural blitz to feel scared and inferior is to turn off the sources of those messages to us. The antidote to the static buzz in our heads that we don't have enough is to stop dwelling on what we don't have or on what bad thing might happen to us. In it's place dwell on the abundances you already have! Perhaps that sounds odd to you... what abundances? First, note it is plural -- there are many. When I start feeling overwhelmed by all that I might not have, or lay awake worried about what is going to happen, I have found it therapeutic to begin listing what all I have in abundance. I have an abundance of warmth and comfort in my soft bed. I have an abundance of food in my cupboard (so much that some of it I'm not even interested in eating!) I have an abundance in the car and gasoline that takes me where I want to go. I have an abundance of people who care about me and love me. The outside messages are so strong that we shouldn't be happy we might have to work at getting our thinking pulled out of the negative "what you don't have" and plugged back in to what you do have. The most basic abundance you have at the center of your being is the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ... already there! Christ has come and has brought you abundance. Go there when you feel discouraged, or inadequate, or dissatisfied, or worried. Dwell on your many abundances. Dwell on Christ.
Journal Questions:
1. Is there some material want that is relentlessly pursuing you to buy? Is it really a necessity or have you been brainwashed to THINK you need it?
2. Is shopping an addiction for you? Meaning, do you find yourself wandering stores in search of something/anything to buy and feel a happy rush when you get it, only to have that rush fade in hours or a day?
3. Try making the list of abundances. If it is difficult to think that what you have is abundance, consider a primitive tribal person surviving in some almost inhospitable environment. They often have a happiness and lack of care that all of us in modern society can't find and can't imagine. What abundance do you have alongside that?
Prayer:
God of all creation, Christ of all granting abundance, Spirit of all satisfaction and healing grant us peace from our frenzied wants and rest us in the arms of your perfect peace. We pray in the name of the Christ at our door knocking, open us to Christ. Amen.
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