DAILY BYTE
This week we have learnt that the author of Hebrews 11 reminds us that the ‘heroes of the faith’ who have gone before us were actually very ordinary people with very human flaws, but what set them apart and made them heroic was their willingness and desire to keep on trusting in God even at life’s most difficult and demoralising times.
It seems that they daily lived with the great truth we are reminded of in Romans 8 – the belief that despite any apparent evidence to the contrary, God WILL ALWAYS work for our good because he loves us. This does not mean their prayers were always answered exactly as they asked, or that they never faced disappointments – it just meant they were able to hold onto faith in God DESPITE seemingly unanswered prayers and bitter disappointments.
Anyone can have faith when life is easy and all is going well, but faith really counts when everything is going wrong and we are hanging on by our fingertips. Faith really counts when nothing is easy and we are having to wrestle our way through every day just to make it to the end.
I love how Jacob’s name was changed after an all-night wrestling match with God. His name was changed from Jacob (meaning ‘one who supplants’) to Israel (meaning ‘one who struggles or contends with God’).
And that’s how a people of faith have been defined and known for thousands of years – as those who wrestle or struggle with God!
Ultimately, that is exactly what faith is. Faith begins and ends by knowing who God is, and our rightful place in relation to that, but it is SUSTAINED by courageously, stubbornly and obstinately holding onto a belief in the promises of God despite everything that may be going wrong.
The author, Nikos Kazantzakis, tells a story that came out of his own personal religious quest. He speaks of visiting a saintly monk on a secluded island. He asked the monk, Father Makarios, ‘Do you still wrestle with the devil?’
“Not any longer, my child,” replied the godly man, “I have grown old and he has grown old with me. He does not have the strength. I now wrestle with God.”
“With God!” exclaimed Kazantzakis in astonishment, “and do you hope to win?”
“No,” answered the monk, “I hope to lose.”
Perhaps, above all, that is faith.
PRAYER
Holy God, even during the darkest and most difficult parts of my life, may the Good News of your loving grace be victorious over these struggles. Help me to never let go of you and to always persist in my faith journey. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Romans 8: 26-28
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirits intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Greeting Distant Promises
DAILY BYTE
There is another vital recognition that the author of Hebrews 11 teaches (and in fact bases much of the chapter upon). Faith, we are told in verse one, is a conviction of things not seen, an assurance of things hope for.
For many South Africans, times are pretty hard. Many are tired, disillusioned, fearful and struggling to keep on hoping. There is financial pressure, crime fears and corruptions stories – that same old same old really.
It seems the original audience that Hebrews 11 was written for were also living in difficult and violent times that offered them only minimal security – most especially because they faced persecution for their faith. So the author of Hebrews 11 was trying to encourage them to see beyond the difficulties of the present moment in a way that would enable them to deal with those difficulties in a more life-giving way.
I love the phrase towards the end of the passage, where the author mentions that many of these heroes died without fully receiving the promises of God, and yet they saw them from a distance and ‘greeted them’ (verse 13).
That is a beautiful and abiding description of what it means to have faith – that we can trust God even when there is no supporting evidence – even when our lives are in a total mess, our prayers are seemingly unanswered and we are hanging on only by our fingernails. We are encouraged by the memories of these ‘heroes’ who were distinguished not by their own personal brilliance or ability, but simply because they chose to trust God no matter what, because they refused to give up on the goodness of God and his promises to them. Their faith allowed them to greet those promises even when distant – and so those promises sustained and inspired them nevertheless.
This reminds us that faith is essentially an ATTITUDE about life. It means that faith helps us to see life in a way that we could not or would not before. It means that faith helps us to hold onto what is truly important when the rest of life weighs us down.
In one of his books, John Killinger, describes a busy airport late one afternoon. People were scurrying to meet their schedules and make their flight connections. Tempers were on edge and nerves were frayed. Suddenly, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, a loud voice erupts, exclaiming, “Good work, God!”
Nearly everyone turned to find an old woman in a wheelchair. Her gaze was directed out of a large glass window at the majestic sunset lighting up the sky. Smiles broke out on many faces, and some airline passengers began to walk with a renewed bounce in their steps. The entire atmosphere of the place was transformed by this woman’s observation, “Good work, God!”
That’s faith. Faith helps us to see life a little differently and to look beyond the evidence of today’s bad news to the promise of God’s Good News beyond ... a Good News that promises to transform how we live today.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, help me to keep trusting in you even when my life falls apart and nothing goes right. Help me to keep hold of your promise to never let go of me and to always work your loving grace into my life. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Hebrews 11: 1-3 & 8-16
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old--and Sarah herself was barren--because he considered him faithful who had promised Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
There is another vital recognition that the author of Hebrews 11 teaches (and in fact bases much of the chapter upon). Faith, we are told in verse one, is a conviction of things not seen, an assurance of things hope for.
For many South Africans, times are pretty hard. Many are tired, disillusioned, fearful and struggling to keep on hoping. There is financial pressure, crime fears and corruptions stories – that same old same old really.
It seems the original audience that Hebrews 11 was written for were also living in difficult and violent times that offered them only minimal security – most especially because they faced persecution for their faith. So the author of Hebrews 11 was trying to encourage them to see beyond the difficulties of the present moment in a way that would enable them to deal with those difficulties in a more life-giving way.
I love the phrase towards the end of the passage, where the author mentions that many of these heroes died without fully receiving the promises of God, and yet they saw them from a distance and ‘greeted them’ (verse 13).
That is a beautiful and abiding description of what it means to have faith – that we can trust God even when there is no supporting evidence – even when our lives are in a total mess, our prayers are seemingly unanswered and we are hanging on only by our fingernails. We are encouraged by the memories of these ‘heroes’ who were distinguished not by their own personal brilliance or ability, but simply because they chose to trust God no matter what, because they refused to give up on the goodness of God and his promises to them. Their faith allowed them to greet those promises even when distant – and so those promises sustained and inspired them nevertheless.
This reminds us that faith is essentially an ATTITUDE about life. It means that faith helps us to see life in a way that we could not or would not before. It means that faith helps us to hold onto what is truly important when the rest of life weighs us down.
In one of his books, John Killinger, describes a busy airport late one afternoon. People were scurrying to meet their schedules and make their flight connections. Tempers were on edge and nerves were frayed. Suddenly, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, a loud voice erupts, exclaiming, “Good work, God!”
Nearly everyone turned to find an old woman in a wheelchair. Her gaze was directed out of a large glass window at the majestic sunset lighting up the sky. Smiles broke out on many faces, and some airline passengers began to walk with a renewed bounce in their steps. The entire atmosphere of the place was transformed by this woman’s observation, “Good work, God!”
That’s faith. Faith helps us to see life a little differently and to look beyond the evidence of today’s bad news to the promise of God’s Good News beyond ... a Good News that promises to transform how we live today.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, help me to keep trusting in you even when my life falls apart and nothing goes right. Help me to keep hold of your promise to never let go of me and to always work your loving grace into my life. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Hebrews 11: 1-3 & 8-16
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old--and Sarah herself was barren--because he considered him faithful who had promised Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
Anti-heroes and Clay Feet
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we questioned why the author of Hebrews 11 held up certain Old Testament characters as ‘heroes’ of the faith, when they so obviously had clay feet and vital character flaws.
Well, perhaps it is because these are stories not just about heroes of the faith, but also ‘anti-heroes’. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean ‘anti’ in the sense of anti-Christ or even opposite to. Instead, I mean ‘anti’ in the sense that we are meant to learn from their flaws, mistakes and failures AS MUCH as we are meant to learn from the undoubted good of their lives.
Ancient Hebrew Scripture is unique compared to other religious literature (of its day and age), because it unashamedly announced the flaws of its heroes without comment or excuse. This is because Hebrew Scripture was most concerned with proclaiming the goodness, grace and power of God AND NOT of people.
This thought could be summed up by saying that Hebrew Scripture was mainly concerned with proclaiming two important truths; firstly that there IS a God, and secondly, it’s NOT you.
Get it? There is a God ... but it’s not you.
It is clearly and gracefully evident that God’s loving purpose and plan is worked out into human history not because the people mentioned by name in Hebrews 11 were great, but rather because God is great.
Faith, as the Bible proclaims its, cannot begin without this vital recognition. For actually, we can and do have faith in many different things indeed, but as Father Richard Rohr reminds us: “True wisdom is knowing WHOM to worship.”
The Good News the Bible so joyfully offers us is actually very good news for all, because we learn that it is not about us and our ability to pull it off. No, it is God and God alone who can save us.
This means our very worst personality traits, our various weaknesses and failures, need not be insurmountable obstacles to faithfully following God. By using these flawed anti-heroes with obvious clay feet as examples the Bible is reminding us that if God can work through and redeem even these guys, then no matter how broken you may be, no matter how utterly ordinary and uninspiring you may feel you are, then know that God can also use you in a wonderful way.
Now that sounds like Good News!
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of grace, just as you have used broken and uninspiring people throughout human history to do wonderful things in your name, I pray that you would use me also to share the Good News of your endless grace, mercy and hope. Amen
FOCUS READING
Isaiah 43: 1-3a
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.' "
Yesterday, we questioned why the author of Hebrews 11 held up certain Old Testament characters as ‘heroes’ of the faith, when they so obviously had clay feet and vital character flaws.
Well, perhaps it is because these are stories not just about heroes of the faith, but also ‘anti-heroes’. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean ‘anti’ in the sense of anti-Christ or even opposite to. Instead, I mean ‘anti’ in the sense that we are meant to learn from their flaws, mistakes and failures AS MUCH as we are meant to learn from the undoubted good of their lives.
Ancient Hebrew Scripture is unique compared to other religious literature (of its day and age), because it unashamedly announced the flaws of its heroes without comment or excuse. This is because Hebrew Scripture was most concerned with proclaiming the goodness, grace and power of God AND NOT of people.
This thought could be summed up by saying that Hebrew Scripture was mainly concerned with proclaiming two important truths; firstly that there IS a God, and secondly, it’s NOT you.
Get it? There is a God ... but it’s not you.
It is clearly and gracefully evident that God’s loving purpose and plan is worked out into human history not because the people mentioned by name in Hebrews 11 were great, but rather because God is great.
Faith, as the Bible proclaims its, cannot begin without this vital recognition. For actually, we can and do have faith in many different things indeed, but as Father Richard Rohr reminds us: “True wisdom is knowing WHOM to worship.”
The Good News the Bible so joyfully offers us is actually very good news for all, because we learn that it is not about us and our ability to pull it off. No, it is God and God alone who can save us.
This means our very worst personality traits, our various weaknesses and failures, need not be insurmountable obstacles to faithfully following God. By using these flawed anti-heroes with obvious clay feet as examples the Bible is reminding us that if God can work through and redeem even these guys, then no matter how broken you may be, no matter how utterly ordinary and uninspiring you may feel you are, then know that God can also use you in a wonderful way.
Now that sounds like Good News!
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of grace, just as you have used broken and uninspiring people throughout human history to do wonderful things in your name, I pray that you would use me also to share the Good News of your endless grace, mercy and hope. Amen
FOCUS READING
Isaiah 43: 1-3a
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.' "
Men Behaving Badly
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we began a discussion prompted by Hebrews 11 – which looks more deeply at the issue of what it means to have faith. The author of Hebrews 11 holds up a number of Old Testament figures (or heroes of the faith) as inspiration and encouragement to the rest of us.
However, when you look carefully at the stories of these of these figures – and I mean carefully in reading parts of Scripture that aren’t read in church or included in our daily devotions too often – you may be forgiven for wondering why on earth they are styled as heroes!
For we encounter stories about a bunch of men behaving rather badly at times. We find these heroes of the faith lie, cheat, break promises and endanger women.
Abraham for example, twice deceived others by telling them that that Sarah was not his wife but his sister. Abraham does this because he fears for his own safety but in so doing, he places Sarah’s life at great risk because she was taken from him into various harems.
Or what about the story of how Jacob married Rachel (who was in fact Leah)? Sounds a little like your favourite soapie doesn’t it? Jacob, of course, is well known for deceiving his own father and cheating his brother out if his birth rights. He is forced to flee from his brother’s wrath to the safety of his uncle’s tents, where he promptly falls in love with his cousin Rachel. He offers to work seven years for his uncle to win her hand.
After the seven years is completed, and under the cover of darkness and Jacob’s own inebriation, his uncle tricks him and sneaks Leah rather than Rachel into the marriage tent. Leah was Rachel’s older sister. Jacob the Deceiver takes umbrage at being so fooled, but his uncle placates him by throwing Rachel into the marriage deal as well, but only for another seven year’s work.
Throughout their marriage there is great enmity between the sister-wives over the issue of children, and both of them end up offering their hand-maidens to Jacob to sleep with as a way of getting further children for themselves and thus increasing their power base within the home.
And you thought your family was dysfunctional!
Of course there are many other stories we could look at with similar themes – men and women who are upheld by Scripture as heroes and heroines of the faith – and yet they often make foolish, greedy or cowardly decisions.
What exactly is it about them we are meant to learn from? Well, we will discuss this in more detail tomorrow but in the meantime why not make a list of reasons you feel that we can learn from these Old Testament characters despite their flaws and mistakes.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you, Almighty God, for the lineage of grace that runs through all the heroes and heroines of faith who have walked before me and upon whose shoulders I stand. Thank you for the ‘warts-and-all’ honesty of their stories which brings encouragement and hope to me. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Hebrews 11 : 8-10
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Yesterday, we began a discussion prompted by Hebrews 11 – which looks more deeply at the issue of what it means to have faith. The author of Hebrews 11 holds up a number of Old Testament figures (or heroes of the faith) as inspiration and encouragement to the rest of us.
However, when you look carefully at the stories of these of these figures – and I mean carefully in reading parts of Scripture that aren’t read in church or included in our daily devotions too often – you may be forgiven for wondering why on earth they are styled as heroes!
For we encounter stories about a bunch of men behaving rather badly at times. We find these heroes of the faith lie, cheat, break promises and endanger women.
Abraham for example, twice deceived others by telling them that that Sarah was not his wife but his sister. Abraham does this because he fears for his own safety but in so doing, he places Sarah’s life at great risk because she was taken from him into various harems.
Or what about the story of how Jacob married Rachel (who was in fact Leah)? Sounds a little like your favourite soapie doesn’t it? Jacob, of course, is well known for deceiving his own father and cheating his brother out if his birth rights. He is forced to flee from his brother’s wrath to the safety of his uncle’s tents, where he promptly falls in love with his cousin Rachel. He offers to work seven years for his uncle to win her hand.
After the seven years is completed, and under the cover of darkness and Jacob’s own inebriation, his uncle tricks him and sneaks Leah rather than Rachel into the marriage tent. Leah was Rachel’s older sister. Jacob the Deceiver takes umbrage at being so fooled, but his uncle placates him by throwing Rachel into the marriage deal as well, but only for another seven year’s work.
Throughout their marriage there is great enmity between the sister-wives over the issue of children, and both of them end up offering their hand-maidens to Jacob to sleep with as a way of getting further children for themselves and thus increasing their power base within the home.
And you thought your family was dysfunctional!
Of course there are many other stories we could look at with similar themes – men and women who are upheld by Scripture as heroes and heroines of the faith – and yet they often make foolish, greedy or cowardly decisions.
What exactly is it about them we are meant to learn from? Well, we will discuss this in more detail tomorrow but in the meantime why not make a list of reasons you feel that we can learn from these Old Testament characters despite their flaws and mistakes.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you, Almighty God, for the lineage of grace that runs through all the heroes and heroines of faith who have walked before me and upon whose shoulders I stand. Thank you for the ‘warts-and-all’ honesty of their stories which brings encouragement and hope to me. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Hebrews 11 : 8-10
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Faith Questions
DAILY BYTE
So what exactly is faith and what does it mean to have faith?
There seems to be a common misconception in Christian thought that faith means you should never, ever struggle with doubt. In this way we treat our faith like the proverbial donkey with massive sacks of grains strapped to its back. The donkey’s owner drove it with a stick until eventually the donkey collapsed on the road, too tired to continue any further. It was then that the owner beat it again and again and again.
Many Christians treat their faith like this. Believe it! Wham! Believe it! Wham! Stop doubting and believe more firmly. Admonitions, guilt and warnings are piled onto faiths back until it can take no more.
The injustice is that the donkey was beaten until it collapsed and then was beaten for collapsing! In the same way, many Christians drive their faith unfairly when they believe, and then cruelly flog their faith when they doubt. In both cases they do this because they have been led to believe that true faith is doubt free.
Yet, we learn from Scripture that in reality, true faith is almost NEVER doubt free! In Mark 9.24 , a sick boy’s father was challenged to believe that anything is possible for God, but he seemed to struggle with that – it was as if he could only get half-way there: ‘I believe,’ he said, ‘help me with my doubts’.
So what did Jesus do in response? Did he tell him to go away and come back when his faith was totally doubt-free? No. Jesus healed his boy.
‘I believe, help me with my doubts’ is a statement that speaks powerfully to many, for that’s the reality of how faith can be at times – a mixture of belief and doubt, trust and fear.
There were a lot of doubters in the Bible ... Abraham, Sarah, Elijah, John the Baptist … all at some point doubted God’s presence and work in their lives, but God didn’t give up on any of them because of their doubts.
God isn’t going to give up on you either.
God never asked those doubters to manufacture certainty. He just asked them to be faithful to what they did know.
Perhaps that is all God is asking of you as well.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, thank-you that you don’t reject us for our doubts. Help us even in the midst of our deepest anxieties and worst fears to stay faithful to you. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Jude 1 : 22 NIV
Be merciful to those who doubt.
So what exactly is faith and what does it mean to have faith?
There seems to be a common misconception in Christian thought that faith means you should never, ever struggle with doubt. In this way we treat our faith like the proverbial donkey with massive sacks of grains strapped to its back. The donkey’s owner drove it with a stick until eventually the donkey collapsed on the road, too tired to continue any further. It was then that the owner beat it again and again and again.
Many Christians treat their faith like this. Believe it! Wham! Believe it! Wham! Stop doubting and believe more firmly. Admonitions, guilt and warnings are piled onto faiths back until it can take no more.
The injustice is that the donkey was beaten until it collapsed and then was beaten for collapsing! In the same way, many Christians drive their faith unfairly when they believe, and then cruelly flog their faith when they doubt. In both cases they do this because they have been led to believe that true faith is doubt free.
Yet, we learn from Scripture that in reality, true faith is almost NEVER doubt free! In Mark 9.24 , a sick boy’s father was challenged to believe that anything is possible for God, but he seemed to struggle with that – it was as if he could only get half-way there: ‘I believe,’ he said, ‘help me with my doubts’.
So what did Jesus do in response? Did he tell him to go away and come back when his faith was totally doubt-free? No. Jesus healed his boy.
‘I believe, help me with my doubts’ is a statement that speaks powerfully to many, for that’s the reality of how faith can be at times – a mixture of belief and doubt, trust and fear.
There were a lot of doubters in the Bible ... Abraham, Sarah, Elijah, John the Baptist … all at some point doubted God’s presence and work in their lives, but God didn’t give up on any of them because of their doubts.
God isn’t going to give up on you either.
God never asked those doubters to manufacture certainty. He just asked them to be faithful to what they did know.
Perhaps that is all God is asking of you as well.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, thank-you that you don’t reject us for our doubts. Help us even in the midst of our deepest anxieties and worst fears to stay faithful to you. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
Jude 1 : 22 NIV
Be merciful to those who doubt.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Manure Matters
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we discussed how crazy it would be for a gardener to refuse the direct orders of his boss, and commit himself to doing extra work in an attempt to save a fruitless tree. The gardener offered to dig around the tree and fill the hole with manure.
We spoke about how this teaches us that God is the kind of God who insists ‘well, just one more year.’ He is the God of second chances, the God of crazy grace and wild belief that even the most hopeless and least fruitless cases have a chance.
Manure does not rank high in our estimation as it is both smelly and unsightly, it is refuse and garbage. However, the observant and the wise know that this apparently dead and despised waste is actually teeming with life – enzymes and microorganisms.
Manure is the stuff of resurrection!
It’s like God is saying – just one more year and I will work my love, my forgiveness, my hope into this person, into this situation, and into this world. Just a bit more! Because God IS loving and HAS a loving plan. This is the best part of this story and the larger salvation story behind it.
For ultimately, the parable of the fig tree is a story of redemption because it emphasises that even amidst great suffering and real evil (dissonance), God is bringing the universe towards justice and love, peace and wholeness – that for which it has been made and for which it aches.
That for which you and I ache.
God will bring harmony to all this dissonance and this is what we live for! So even as you allow this parable to challenge your life and ask of it hard questions, may you become more and more aware of God’s resurrection power, his love, life, grace and hope being worked into you.
And yes, may you be totally, utterly, thoroughly ‘manured’!
PRAYER
Holy God, I ask that your love, life and grace may be worked deeply into me and may this produce much fruit. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:6-9 NRSV
Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
Yesterday, we discussed how crazy it would be for a gardener to refuse the direct orders of his boss, and commit himself to doing extra work in an attempt to save a fruitless tree. The gardener offered to dig around the tree and fill the hole with manure.
We spoke about how this teaches us that God is the kind of God who insists ‘well, just one more year.’ He is the God of second chances, the God of crazy grace and wild belief that even the most hopeless and least fruitless cases have a chance.
Manure does not rank high in our estimation as it is both smelly and unsightly, it is refuse and garbage. However, the observant and the wise know that this apparently dead and despised waste is actually teeming with life – enzymes and microorganisms.
Manure is the stuff of resurrection!
It’s like God is saying – just one more year and I will work my love, my forgiveness, my hope into this person, into this situation, and into this world. Just a bit more! Because God IS loving and HAS a loving plan. This is the best part of this story and the larger salvation story behind it.
For ultimately, the parable of the fig tree is a story of redemption because it emphasises that even amidst great suffering and real evil (dissonance), God is bringing the universe towards justice and love, peace and wholeness – that for which it has been made and for which it aches.
That for which you and I ache.
God will bring harmony to all this dissonance and this is what we live for! So even as you allow this parable to challenge your life and ask of it hard questions, may you become more and more aware of God’s resurrection power, his love, life, grace and hope being worked into you.
And yes, may you be totally, utterly, thoroughly ‘manured’!
PRAYER
Holy God, I ask that your love, life and grace may be worked deeply into me and may this produce much fruit. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:6-9 NRSV
Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
Crazy Grace and Wild Belief
DAILY BYTE
The last affirmation and question found in the parable of the Fig Tree is like an explanation mark to the two that precede it. It is foundation, root, soil and manure to everything that goes before and after it. It can be summarised as follows:
Life can be unfair, but why not live with the greatest truth of all ... that God is loving and that God has a loving plan!
In a world of dissonance and disharmony, God has a plan to redeem everything, to bring it back into the beat of his harmonising salvation song. We need to trust that and live inspired by that!
What I love most about this parable, is that it tells the story of this crazy gardener who actually cared about the life of the tree. He saw the fruitless tree more as a wounded life worth healing than a wasted opportunity for profit in need of clearing.
Jesus’ parables are often defined by their shocking reversals, and if we read one of his parables and find no unexpected behaviour in its characters, then we are not reading properly!
The point is that it would be crazy for a gardener to care about a tree in that way. It would be crazy for a gardener to tell his boss ‘no’! It would be crazy for a gardener to plead for one more year, and then to volunteer for extra work in terms of digging around the tree and piling manure in.
And did you notice how he implied to his boss that even after that year, if the tree was still not fruitful, that he wasn’t going to pull it up – the boss would have to do it himself!
But isn’t that just the kind of crazy way God cares for us? Isn’t that just the crazy kind of love Jesus lived and died for?
In this parable, Jesus is telling us that God is the kind of God who insists ‘well, just one more year.’ He is the God of second chances, the God of crazy grace and wild belief that even the most hopeless and the least fruitless cases have a chance.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O God of second changes, God of crazy grace and wild belief, I thank you for never giving up on me. I ask that your hope in me would produce wonderful fruit. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:8-9 NRSV
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
The last affirmation and question found in the parable of the Fig Tree is like an explanation mark to the two that precede it. It is foundation, root, soil and manure to everything that goes before and after it. It can be summarised as follows:
Life can be unfair, but why not live with the greatest truth of all ... that God is loving and that God has a loving plan!
In a world of dissonance and disharmony, God has a plan to redeem everything, to bring it back into the beat of his harmonising salvation song. We need to trust that and live inspired by that!
What I love most about this parable, is that it tells the story of this crazy gardener who actually cared about the life of the tree. He saw the fruitless tree more as a wounded life worth healing than a wasted opportunity for profit in need of clearing.
Jesus’ parables are often defined by their shocking reversals, and if we read one of his parables and find no unexpected behaviour in its characters, then we are not reading properly!
The point is that it would be crazy for a gardener to care about a tree in that way. It would be crazy for a gardener to tell his boss ‘no’! It would be crazy for a gardener to plead for one more year, and then to volunteer for extra work in terms of digging around the tree and piling manure in.
And did you notice how he implied to his boss that even after that year, if the tree was still not fruitful, that he wasn’t going to pull it up – the boss would have to do it himself!
But isn’t that just the kind of crazy way God cares for us? Isn’t that just the crazy kind of love Jesus lived and died for?
In this parable, Jesus is telling us that God is the kind of God who insists ‘well, just one more year.’ He is the God of second chances, the God of crazy grace and wild belief that even the most hopeless and the least fruitless cases have a chance.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O God of second changes, God of crazy grace and wild belief, I thank you for never giving up on me. I ask that your hope in me would produce wonderful fruit. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:8-9 NRSV
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
So how’s it all working for you?
DAILY BYTE
The parable of the Fig Tree in Luke 13. 1-13 has a repetitive pattern of affirming a life truth, and then asking of its readers a resulting question. Today we look at the second of these which is:
Life can be messy (failures and fruitlessness abound), so why not be courageous enough to ask yourself some truly hard questions.
The point of this parable is that the fig tree had been given every chance to be fruitful. It was planted in a vineyard, and the normal practice was to plant fig trees in the corner of the vineyard where all the best soil was. The fig tree also had a full time gardener attending it but even after all this time and effort it was still fruitless.
Dr. Phil is probably most famous for the question he repeatedly asks someone whose life is mired in some dysfunctional behaviour or habitual mistake that they are refusing to acknowledge. He will ask them to assess their life and then say, “So how’s it working for you?”
This parable asks us almost exactly the same question – So how’s it working for you? Are you bearing fruit? Or are you barren and empty where it really counts – in terms of God-life, God-hope and God-love?
It has been said that the main cause for emptiness and unhappiness (fruitlessness) is trading what you want most for what you want at the moment. If the best things in life are not things, then what do you actually want most?
Fulfillment? Love? Joy? Meaning? Intimacy? Friendship? Spiritual wholeness? To thirst after God?
This parable affirms that life can potentially be filled with emptiness if we prioritise all the wrong things. Which is why the parable goes on to ask us the following question – how is it really working for you? And if it isn’t working at all, then why not do something real about it? Why not change what you prioritise and sink your roots deep into God and what God values.
So how is it all working for you?
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of love, help me to sink my roots deeply into you and everything in life that you value and prioritise. Help me to recognise and cut short wherever I may be meandering down paths of emptiness and fruitlessness. Amen
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:6-9 NRSV
Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
The parable of the Fig Tree in Luke 13. 1-13 has a repetitive pattern of affirming a life truth, and then asking of its readers a resulting question. Today we look at the second of these which is:
Life can be messy (failures and fruitlessness abound), so why not be courageous enough to ask yourself some truly hard questions.
The point of this parable is that the fig tree had been given every chance to be fruitful. It was planted in a vineyard, and the normal practice was to plant fig trees in the corner of the vineyard where all the best soil was. The fig tree also had a full time gardener attending it but even after all this time and effort it was still fruitless.
Dr. Phil is probably most famous for the question he repeatedly asks someone whose life is mired in some dysfunctional behaviour or habitual mistake that they are refusing to acknowledge. He will ask them to assess their life and then say, “So how’s it working for you?”
This parable asks us almost exactly the same question – So how’s it working for you? Are you bearing fruit? Or are you barren and empty where it really counts – in terms of God-life, God-hope and God-love?
It has been said that the main cause for emptiness and unhappiness (fruitlessness) is trading what you want most for what you want at the moment. If the best things in life are not things, then what do you actually want most?
Fulfillment? Love? Joy? Meaning? Intimacy? Friendship? Spiritual wholeness? To thirst after God?
This parable affirms that life can potentially be filled with emptiness if we prioritise all the wrong things. Which is why the parable goes on to ask us the following question – how is it really working for you? And if it isn’t working at all, then why not do something real about it? Why not change what you prioritise and sink your roots deep into God and what God values.
So how is it all working for you?
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of love, help me to sink my roots deeply into you and everything in life that you value and prioritise. Help me to recognise and cut short wherever I may be meandering down paths of emptiness and fruitlessness. Amen
FOCUS READING
Luke 13:6-9 NRSV
Then Jesus told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "
Boxed Understandings
DAILY BYTE
The story Jesus told in Luke 13.1-13 (and the conversation which precedes it), does not in way deny life’s dissonance and disharmony. Rather it affirms it and then asks hard questions of us in turn. In fact, the whole parable is shaped by a consistent and repetitive pattern of first affirming and then questioning. The first of these can be summarized as:
Life can be difficult to understand and is unpredictable, so why try to fit everything into neat boxes?
That is exactly what those who were questioning Jesus were doing – they were trying to find a neat religious explanation for why people suffered. The Hebrews of the time commonly believed that suffering was the result of your own sin. So if you were desperately poor – it was because of your sin. If you were involved in an unfortunate accident or slaughtered by a megalomaniac – again it was because of your sin. Remember the question asked by the disciples in John 9 – ‘Jesus was this man born blind because of his sin or because of his parent’s sin?’
Both in John 9 and here, Jesus totally rejects this particular boxed understanding. Jesus just acknowledges that life can be tough and difficult to understand at times. But we Christians tend to be threatened by these questions, because the issue of suffering for many seems to be the single greatest obstacle for belief in a loving God. And so we try to come up with neat explanations, and complicated theological concepts in an attempt to explain it all.
Perhaps though, the answer does not lie in answers themselves, but rather in relationship and presence. The story is told of a group of training ministers who were doing a ‘Pastoral Counselling’ course and part of their assessment was a group discussion around some difficult situations. Their examiner would listen to their responses and mark them accordingly.
The first issue they had to discuss was this: A little girl in your church recently and very suddenly lost her mother. She approaches you at coffee after church and asks you, “Will I see my mommy in heaven?”
This launches these young training pastors, all eager to impress their Professor, into a complicated discussion about a variety of things such as the teaching of 1 Corinthians 15, different ideas of the immortality of the soul, and how they could be explained to a 7 year old girl.
However, as the discussion progressed, they began to sense they were not doing very well – their Professor was looking less and less pleased as time wore on. One of them stopped and questioned the Professor, “I sense we have lost ourselves a little. Could you help us? What would you have said to this little girl?”
The wise Professor replied, “Well, if a grieving little girl asked me about the eternal destination of her mother, I think they most important response I could come up with would be to say, ‘It sounds like you really miss your mommy.’”
At this stage the little girl did not need neat theological answers and boxed understandings. No, what she most needed was someone to care for her; someone who was willing to step into her confused suffering, to listen to her, to be with her and to love her.
There are situations out there that are just so gray and hazy, so complex in their pain, that to try to explain them is to do them an injustice. But always, we Jesus followers can love, we can support, we can reach out armed not with absolute certainty and all the right answers, but with loving faith.
And perhaps that is what is most needed.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Almighty God, in his teaching Jesus acknowledges that life is both difficult to understand and unpredictable. We know that nothing in life is absolutely certain except the truth that you are gracious, merciful and kind, and that your loving presence will always, always be there. For this we give thanks and praise. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
John 9:1-2
As he went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Luke 13:1-2
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
The story Jesus told in Luke 13.1-13 (and the conversation which precedes it), does not in way deny life’s dissonance and disharmony. Rather it affirms it and then asks hard questions of us in turn. In fact, the whole parable is shaped by a consistent and repetitive pattern of first affirming and then questioning. The first of these can be summarized as:
Life can be difficult to understand and is unpredictable, so why try to fit everything into neat boxes?
That is exactly what those who were questioning Jesus were doing – they were trying to find a neat religious explanation for why people suffered. The Hebrews of the time commonly believed that suffering was the result of your own sin. So if you were desperately poor – it was because of your sin. If you were involved in an unfortunate accident or slaughtered by a megalomaniac – again it was because of your sin. Remember the question asked by the disciples in John 9 – ‘Jesus was this man born blind because of his sin or because of his parent’s sin?’
Both in John 9 and here, Jesus totally rejects this particular boxed understanding. Jesus just acknowledges that life can be tough and difficult to understand at times. But we Christians tend to be threatened by these questions, because the issue of suffering for many seems to be the single greatest obstacle for belief in a loving God. And so we try to come up with neat explanations, and complicated theological concepts in an attempt to explain it all.
Perhaps though, the answer does not lie in answers themselves, but rather in relationship and presence. The story is told of a group of training ministers who were doing a ‘Pastoral Counselling’ course and part of their assessment was a group discussion around some difficult situations. Their examiner would listen to their responses and mark them accordingly.
The first issue they had to discuss was this: A little girl in your church recently and very suddenly lost her mother. She approaches you at coffee after church and asks you, “Will I see my mommy in heaven?”
This launches these young training pastors, all eager to impress their Professor, into a complicated discussion about a variety of things such as the teaching of 1 Corinthians 15, different ideas of the immortality of the soul, and how they could be explained to a 7 year old girl.
However, as the discussion progressed, they began to sense they were not doing very well – their Professor was looking less and less pleased as time wore on. One of them stopped and questioned the Professor, “I sense we have lost ourselves a little. Could you help us? What would you have said to this little girl?”
The wise Professor replied, “Well, if a grieving little girl asked me about the eternal destination of her mother, I think they most important response I could come up with would be to say, ‘It sounds like you really miss your mommy.’”
At this stage the little girl did not need neat theological answers and boxed understandings. No, what she most needed was someone to care for her; someone who was willing to step into her confused suffering, to listen to her, to be with her and to love her.
There are situations out there that are just so gray and hazy, so complex in their pain, that to try to explain them is to do them an injustice. But always, we Jesus followers can love, we can support, we can reach out armed not with absolute certainty and all the right answers, but with loving faith.
And perhaps that is what is most needed.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Almighty God, in his teaching Jesus acknowledges that life is both difficult to understand and unpredictable. We know that nothing in life is absolutely certain except the truth that you are gracious, merciful and kind, and that your loving presence will always, always be there. For this we give thanks and praise. Amen.
FOCUS VERSE
John 9:1-2
As he went along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Luke 13:1-2
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
Questions of Dissonance
DAILY BYTE
There is a well known story about Bach the composer, that one night while he was in bed, his wife was playing the harpsichord in the music room. She kept playing an unresolved chord – an unresolved 7th. Well, this bothered Bach so much that he could not sleep. Eventually, he had to get up out of bed, go to the music room and play the appropriate resolved chord so that he could then sleep in peace.
There is something within most of us that cries out for dissonance to be resolved ... and there is much dissonance in our world.
There is discord and there is disharmony ... something not quite right with the world we live in. The parable that we will be focussing on this entire week echoes that dissonance back to us, so that even when reading the Bible, we are reminded of some of the harsher realities of life.
Today’s focus reading is a parable of dissonance and it all begins with Jesus being asked some hard questions. Some Jews had been slaughtered by the Roman Governor Pilate as they worshipped, so that their own blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. As people questioned Jesus about this, you can sense they were thinking – how could God allow a thing like this to happen?
This questioning reflects many of our own struggles as we try to make sense of evil (dissonance) for ourselves. Why are there Pilates and Hitler’s? Why are there rapists and murderers?
Jesus then mentions the accident of the Tower of Siloam (in which innocent bystanders were killed). Perhaps he is pre-empting further questions about suffering such as why horrible accidents like that happen to innocent people. Why do car crashes happen? Why are there Tsunamis, floods and droughts?
There is a dissonance and disharmony that plays itself out in the suffering of ordinary people like you and me and it seems so wrong! It seems out of tune with how life should be - like someone is continually playing an unresolved chord or singing out of tune.
Notice that Jesus does not answer these questions directly – instead he replies with a parable. Elie Wiesel, the Jewish spiritual writer, was once asked why so many Jewish teachers respond to questions with a question of their own. To which Wiesel replied: “Well, why not?”
In this parable Jesus does exactly that. He answers a question with a question, or should I say he tells a story that by its very nature asks of our lives some hard questions. Remember that we don’t interpret parables as much as they interpret us. Parables are more meaning than answers, more relationship and encounter than neat explanations.
Parables are a little like kaleidoscopes, which if you shake will give you different patterns, except unlike kaleidoscopes we don’t shake them, they by nature shake us up and in so doing open our eyes and hearts to look at life somewhat differently.
This is exactly what this parable does. It shakes us up by not denying life’s dissonance, but rather in acknowledging it and then turning the hard questions right back at us and challenging us to begin playing our part in bringing everything back into harmony.
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of Life, I have often been left confused and afraid as to the harder questions of life. Help me to see more clearly how I can dedicate my life to bringing everything back into harmony with you. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13: 1-5 NRSV
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
There is a well known story about Bach the composer, that one night while he was in bed, his wife was playing the harpsichord in the music room. She kept playing an unresolved chord – an unresolved 7th. Well, this bothered Bach so much that he could not sleep. Eventually, he had to get up out of bed, go to the music room and play the appropriate resolved chord so that he could then sleep in peace.
There is something within most of us that cries out for dissonance to be resolved ... and there is much dissonance in our world.
There is discord and there is disharmony ... something not quite right with the world we live in. The parable that we will be focussing on this entire week echoes that dissonance back to us, so that even when reading the Bible, we are reminded of some of the harsher realities of life.
Today’s focus reading is a parable of dissonance and it all begins with Jesus being asked some hard questions. Some Jews had been slaughtered by the Roman Governor Pilate as they worshipped, so that their own blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. As people questioned Jesus about this, you can sense they were thinking – how could God allow a thing like this to happen?
This questioning reflects many of our own struggles as we try to make sense of evil (dissonance) for ourselves. Why are there Pilates and Hitler’s? Why are there rapists and murderers?
Jesus then mentions the accident of the Tower of Siloam (in which innocent bystanders were killed). Perhaps he is pre-empting further questions about suffering such as why horrible accidents like that happen to innocent people. Why do car crashes happen? Why are there Tsunamis, floods and droughts?
There is a dissonance and disharmony that plays itself out in the suffering of ordinary people like you and me and it seems so wrong! It seems out of tune with how life should be - like someone is continually playing an unresolved chord or singing out of tune.
Notice that Jesus does not answer these questions directly – instead he replies with a parable. Elie Wiesel, the Jewish spiritual writer, was once asked why so many Jewish teachers respond to questions with a question of their own. To which Wiesel replied: “Well, why not?”
In this parable Jesus does exactly that. He answers a question with a question, or should I say he tells a story that by its very nature asks of our lives some hard questions. Remember that we don’t interpret parables as much as they interpret us. Parables are more meaning than answers, more relationship and encounter than neat explanations.
Parables are a little like kaleidoscopes, which if you shake will give you different patterns, except unlike kaleidoscopes we don’t shake them, they by nature shake us up and in so doing open our eyes and hearts to look at life somewhat differently.
This is exactly what this parable does. It shakes us up by not denying life’s dissonance, but rather in acknowledging it and then turning the hard questions right back at us and challenging us to begin playing our part in bringing everything back into harmony.
PRAY AS YOU GO
God of Life, I have often been left confused and afraid as to the harder questions of life. Help me to see more clearly how I can dedicate my life to bringing everything back into harmony with you. Amen.
FOCUS READING
Luke 13: 1-5 NRSV
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Going Home to Community
DAILY BYTE
This week we’ve now seen two ways that the story in Mark 2 speaks of the reality of the body of Christ. First, we saw that people listening to Jesus still often keep others from being near him. Second, we saw that the people carrying the paralytic had nothing special about them, other than the fact that they were willing, they joined together, and they persevered with faith, getting their hands dirty.
This brings us to the climax scene for today: when Jesus heals the paralytic. It says, “they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”
Notice that Jesus did not heal the paralytic because of the paralytic’s own faith. He healed him because of the faith of the community that surrounded him. How often do we find ourselves feeling like we’re out of faith and we don’t have the strength or wisdom we need to get through our challenges. It is through those moments that the community prays. That’s why prayer teams and chains and visitors to people who are sick and just plain lonely are not just important ministry programs. They are the essence of what it means to increase the faith of the body of Christ. When we hold the challenges in our life just out of the reach of Christ, it takes the community to lift us down - graciously and humbly - into Christ’s presence.
But, notice also that at first, Jesus doesn’t heal this man in the physical sense. Remember it said: Jesus saw their faith, and he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Only after that does he heal the man’s body, which reminds us that the healing of the body and the healing of the soul are integrally intertwined, and both of them must be surrounded by the community of faith.
When I was in seminary, I participated in a prayer group with about ten other women seminarians, and one night, we decided to have time just to confess things to one another. It was one of the most powerful nights of my life - and I can’t even remember what I confessed. What I recall is the palpable sense of forgiveness in the room. I remember someone in the community that I loved speaking the words out loud: You are forgiven.
My friends took me from where I was, feeling far away from Jesus and lifted me down, grounding me in the deep and timeless truth that my sins are forgiven. And I could not have experienced that without sitting in the midst of the people I loved as they listened to my life. It would not have been the same for me to tell myself that I was forgiven. I needed to hear it through someone else’s voice – someone that for me, that day, was the voice of Jesus.
Now, notice one more thing about the end of this story in Mark. After Jesus heals the paralytic, he stands up in spirit and body to the amazement and joy of the community, but Jesus doesn’t tell him to do a victory dance. Jesus says to go home.
Because Jesus knows that today might be a day of healing, but tomorrow will bring new challenges of its own, and when those challenges come, we will need to remain with the people in God’s community who love us and will be there again to carry us to Jesus.
Who is God’s community to you? How do you participate in God’s community, through God’s strength, carrying, grounding, and healing others?
FOCUS TEXT
Mark 2:5; 10-12 (NRSV)
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’...But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic—‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’
PRAY AS YOU GO
Uniting God, you gave us yourself through the body of your son, Jesus, and through his resurrection, you have made every one of us an integral part of the body here in your world. Ground our feet in your grace. Ground our minds in an understanding of your word. And then, teach us to use our hands and the gifts you have given us to become doers of your word and not hearers only. Forgive us for the times we have failed to allow you to work through us, and empower us in the “impossible possibility” of becoming the loving community you desire us to be. Amen.
This week we’ve now seen two ways that the story in Mark 2 speaks of the reality of the body of Christ. First, we saw that people listening to Jesus still often keep others from being near him. Second, we saw that the people carrying the paralytic had nothing special about them, other than the fact that they were willing, they joined together, and they persevered with faith, getting their hands dirty.
This brings us to the climax scene for today: when Jesus heals the paralytic. It says, “they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”
Notice that Jesus did not heal the paralytic because of the paralytic’s own faith. He healed him because of the faith of the community that surrounded him. How often do we find ourselves feeling like we’re out of faith and we don’t have the strength or wisdom we need to get through our challenges. It is through those moments that the community prays. That’s why prayer teams and chains and visitors to people who are sick and just plain lonely are not just important ministry programs. They are the essence of what it means to increase the faith of the body of Christ. When we hold the challenges in our life just out of the reach of Christ, it takes the community to lift us down - graciously and humbly - into Christ’s presence.
But, notice also that at first, Jesus doesn’t heal this man in the physical sense. Remember it said: Jesus saw their faith, and he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Only after that does he heal the man’s body, which reminds us that the healing of the body and the healing of the soul are integrally intertwined, and both of them must be surrounded by the community of faith.
When I was in seminary, I participated in a prayer group with about ten other women seminarians, and one night, we decided to have time just to confess things to one another. It was one of the most powerful nights of my life - and I can’t even remember what I confessed. What I recall is the palpable sense of forgiveness in the room. I remember someone in the community that I loved speaking the words out loud: You are forgiven.
My friends took me from where I was, feeling far away from Jesus and lifted me down, grounding me in the deep and timeless truth that my sins are forgiven. And I could not have experienced that without sitting in the midst of the people I loved as they listened to my life. It would not have been the same for me to tell myself that I was forgiven. I needed to hear it through someone else’s voice – someone that for me, that day, was the voice of Jesus.
Now, notice one more thing about the end of this story in Mark. After Jesus heals the paralytic, he stands up in spirit and body to the amazement and joy of the community, but Jesus doesn’t tell him to do a victory dance. Jesus says to go home.
Because Jesus knows that today might be a day of healing, but tomorrow will bring new challenges of its own, and when those challenges come, we will need to remain with the people in God’s community who love us and will be there again to carry us to Jesus.
Who is God’s community to you? How do you participate in God’s community, through God’s strength, carrying, grounding, and healing others?
FOCUS TEXT
Mark 2:5; 10-12 (NRSV)
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’...But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic—‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’
PRAY AS YOU GO
Uniting God, you gave us yourself through the body of your son, Jesus, and through his resurrection, you have made every one of us an integral part of the body here in your world. Ground our feet in your grace. Ground our minds in an understanding of your word. And then, teach us to use our hands and the gifts you have given us to become doers of your word and not hearers only. Forgive us for the times we have failed to allow you to work through us, and empower us in the “impossible possibility” of becoming the loving community you desire us to be. Amen.
The “impossible possibility”
DAILY BYTE
Are you intimidated by the need you see in the world? We’re often intimidated by our own insufficiency and by the tasks we already have to do. So, we look at facing other peoples’ problems as well as our own deep paralyses as though they’re impossible to tackle. But, serving one another actually takes very little special gifting or circumstance on our part - we simply must be willing to get our hands dirty.
Being part of a loving, Christlike community is not an impossibility. It is what Letty Russell calls an “impossible possibility” - that God is in the process of fulfilling the unity of the church and mending everything that’s broken in us and in the world (Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference - page 68).
We all have something to offer this process, even if it’s just our hands joining together, as innocently unskilled or as arthritically gnarled as they are. All of our fingernails should have dirt under them, if we are going to become the kind of community that lifts people down to reach Jesus. Now, you probably won’t be required actually to carry someone on a mat, as the people in Mark 2 are... But, every community has its own types of mats.
I am a PK – a pastor’s kid. And when I was in high school, I remember telling my parents that I would almost become a minister just so that my children could be raised by the church like I was. For as long as I can remember, the grannies and grandpas and families of the church welcomed me into their own. Even when people disliked my mom’s policies or sermons, I was oblivious because of the shower of hugs that came my way at the end of every service.
One older lady in the church particularly stands out to me. I didn’t know her very well, but at my birth and every year of my life until she died, she wrote me a birthday card. It was an amazing reminder of being surrounded by a loving community. But, the more I have thought about it over the years, the more I have been slightly saddened by my childhood church celebrity because I don’t think every child in that church was given the same embrace that I was – and they should have been. Every person should be. Because of course, the result of such love is that we reciprocate it. We become a part of one another’s lives. The poet, Alfred Tennyson, wrote, “I am a part of all that I have met.”
Who are you a part of? Who do you have a connection with in the community?
Are you locked into a group that is so much like you that there is little challenge to grow? Are you new in a church, looking with wary eyes at all the unknown faces around you? Are you an older person who feels as though you have given all you have to give or you don’t have what others might need? Are you raising a young family, where your life is consumed by running around – so much so that it’s lonely and exhausting, and you could really do with someone else to cook dinner just this once...? Are you a young person, who secretly craves the hug or just the listening ear of someone who’s been around a few years more than you – someone who might have wisdom to get you through some of the most confusing times of your life.
Who is lifting you down to Jesus? Who might you be able to lift down to be near him, grounded and close to the one who made us and knows everything about our bodies and spirits so intimately that it takes but a word for him to heal us?
FOCUS TEXT
Mark 2:3-4 (The Message)
They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren’t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher.
PRAY AS YOU GO
God, you are a community in and of yourself. You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Teach us to embrace and love one another, as you have loved us with all that you are. Amen.
Are you intimidated by the need you see in the world? We’re often intimidated by our own insufficiency and by the tasks we already have to do. So, we look at facing other peoples’ problems as well as our own deep paralyses as though they’re impossible to tackle. But, serving one another actually takes very little special gifting or circumstance on our part - we simply must be willing to get our hands dirty.
Being part of a loving, Christlike community is not an impossibility. It is what Letty Russell calls an “impossible possibility” - that God is in the process of fulfilling the unity of the church and mending everything that’s broken in us and in the world (Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference - page 68).
We all have something to offer this process, even if it’s just our hands joining together, as innocently unskilled or as arthritically gnarled as they are. All of our fingernails should have dirt under them, if we are going to become the kind of community that lifts people down to reach Jesus. Now, you probably won’t be required actually to carry someone on a mat, as the people in Mark 2 are... But, every community has its own types of mats.
I am a PK – a pastor’s kid. And when I was in high school, I remember telling my parents that I would almost become a minister just so that my children could be raised by the church like I was. For as long as I can remember, the grannies and grandpas and families of the church welcomed me into their own. Even when people disliked my mom’s policies or sermons, I was oblivious because of the shower of hugs that came my way at the end of every service.
One older lady in the church particularly stands out to me. I didn’t know her very well, but at my birth and every year of my life until she died, she wrote me a birthday card. It was an amazing reminder of being surrounded by a loving community. But, the more I have thought about it over the years, the more I have been slightly saddened by my childhood church celebrity because I don’t think every child in that church was given the same embrace that I was – and they should have been. Every person should be. Because of course, the result of such love is that we reciprocate it. We become a part of one another’s lives. The poet, Alfred Tennyson, wrote, “I am a part of all that I have met.”
Who are you a part of? Who do you have a connection with in the community?
Are you locked into a group that is so much like you that there is little challenge to grow? Are you new in a church, looking with wary eyes at all the unknown faces around you? Are you an older person who feels as though you have given all you have to give or you don’t have what others might need? Are you raising a young family, where your life is consumed by running around – so much so that it’s lonely and exhausting, and you could really do with someone else to cook dinner just this once...? Are you a young person, who secretly craves the hug or just the listening ear of someone who’s been around a few years more than you – someone who might have wisdom to get you through some of the most confusing times of your life.
Who is lifting you down to Jesus? Who might you be able to lift down to be near him, grounded and close to the one who made us and knows everything about our bodies and spirits so intimately that it takes but a word for him to heal us?
FOCUS TEXT
Mark 2:3-4 (The Message)
They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren’t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher.
PRAY AS YOU GO
God, you are a community in and of yourself. You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Teach us to embrace and love one another, as you have loved us with all that you are. Amen.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Carrying the Mat
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday, we said that being Christian community means getting your hands dirty! Can you remember the last time you were so excited to bring someone to know Jesus that you would’ve done something insane like destroy someone’s home by ripping their roof off and digging through the ceiling? The people that carried the paralytic in Mark were more than stuck with his care - they were passionate about it. They got muddy and sweaty and were probably looked at with more than a few raised eyebrows, as dirt started to crumble down through the ceiling onto Jesus preaching below...
When other people got in the way, they went a different way. They literally climbed outside of the box and persevered until they got the person they cared about to Jesus. Now, let’s notice a few things about the people who are carrying this person.
First, the Bible doesn’t say anything about who they are. It just says “some people” came bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man. It doesn’t say how old or young they are. What colour or nationality they are. What doctrine they believe. If they’re men or women or transgender. It doesn’t say. So, this is an opportunity that the writer of Mark has given us to insert ourselves in the story. Can you see yourself here?
Notice secondly that a specific number is given for how many people are carrying this paralyzed person. Four. This scene doesn’t have one lone person gripping onto the corner of a mat, trying to drag it through the crowds, staring defeatedly at the roof of the house, realizing that there would be no way she could possibly lift her burden through. The gospel writer offers instead a picture of one person, carrying each corner of the paralytic’s mat. Each one bears weight, using the strength they’ve been given and combining it with the strength of others so that together, they can bear the pain of the person who is suffering.
We often try to do it the first way. We look at the pain of others and of the world and say it’s too much for us to bear. And we’re right. It is too much. Which is why we’re not asked to do that. The only person in the world who was ever asked to do that was Jesus Christ, bearing everyone’s pain and sin in his self on the cross. But, we are human, and God has created us to bear each other’s pain together - not suffering in silence alone and not avoiding one another because we are too frustrated by the depth of what seems to be required of us and by our individual inability to cope.
Mother Teresa said, “Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures.”
Which leads us to the final observation for today about these four people. There is nothing special about them. They have no significant gift that we are aware of. They’re described with no remarkable physical feature. They’re not super-people. They are simply people who have a little bit of strength and a willingness to serve. They did what must have seemed crazy and awkward, something with no guarantee of turning out well. In fact, it had every possibility of turning into disaster.
But they did what they had the capacity to do to get that person as close to Jesus as possible. They didn’t perform miracles or give a great speech that caused the crowd to part in awe of their eloquence. They simply used their hands to carry and to dig.
Do you try to carry burdens all on your own? Do you think you have nothing special to offer? Do you have the compassion to carry others and the humility to get on your hands and knees to dig a way to Jesus?
FOCUS READING
Mark 1:3-4 (NRSV)
Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
Yesterday, we said that being Christian community means getting your hands dirty! Can you remember the last time you were so excited to bring someone to know Jesus that you would’ve done something insane like destroy someone’s home by ripping their roof off and digging through the ceiling? The people that carried the paralytic in Mark were more than stuck with his care - they were passionate about it. They got muddy and sweaty and were probably looked at with more than a few raised eyebrows, as dirt started to crumble down through the ceiling onto Jesus preaching below...
When other people got in the way, they went a different way. They literally climbed outside of the box and persevered until they got the person they cared about to Jesus. Now, let’s notice a few things about the people who are carrying this person.
First, the Bible doesn’t say anything about who they are. It just says “some people” came bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man. It doesn’t say how old or young they are. What colour or nationality they are. What doctrine they believe. If they’re men or women or transgender. It doesn’t say. So, this is an opportunity that the writer of Mark has given us to insert ourselves in the story. Can you see yourself here?
Notice secondly that a specific number is given for how many people are carrying this paralyzed person. Four. This scene doesn’t have one lone person gripping onto the corner of a mat, trying to drag it through the crowds, staring defeatedly at the roof of the house, realizing that there would be no way she could possibly lift her burden through. The gospel writer offers instead a picture of one person, carrying each corner of the paralytic’s mat. Each one bears weight, using the strength they’ve been given and combining it with the strength of others so that together, they can bear the pain of the person who is suffering.
We often try to do it the first way. We look at the pain of others and of the world and say it’s too much for us to bear. And we’re right. It is too much. Which is why we’re not asked to do that. The only person in the world who was ever asked to do that was Jesus Christ, bearing everyone’s pain and sin in his self on the cross. But, we are human, and God has created us to bear each other’s pain together - not suffering in silence alone and not avoiding one another because we are too frustrated by the depth of what seems to be required of us and by our individual inability to cope.
Mother Teresa said, “Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures.”
Which leads us to the final observation for today about these four people. There is nothing special about them. They have no significant gift that we are aware of. They’re described with no remarkable physical feature. They’re not super-people. They are simply people who have a little bit of strength and a willingness to serve. They did what must have seemed crazy and awkward, something with no guarantee of turning out well. In fact, it had every possibility of turning into disaster.
But they did what they had the capacity to do to get that person as close to Jesus as possible. They didn’t perform miracles or give a great speech that caused the crowd to part in awe of their eloquence. They simply used their hands to carry and to dig.
Do you try to carry burdens all on your own? Do you think you have nothing special to offer? Do you have the compassion to carry others and the humility to get on your hands and knees to dig a way to Jesus?
FOCUS READING
Mark 1:3-4 (NRSV)
Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Getting in the way of Jesus
DAILY BYTE
This week, we’re looking at the story of the paralytic in Mark 2, uncovering aspects of the story that might teach us about community. So, first, the community gathered in this story specifically because they heard Jesus was in the house! The gospel-writer says, “It was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.”
They came to see the actual body of Christ and to hear it speak! Picture a church so full that people are blocking the door. Now, you’d think this is a really good thing - right? The place is packed - the community’s thriving! Hallelujah - and of course, partly we would be right. It’s exciting when people flock to learn from Jesus! We wouldn’t want it any other way - except...
“Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And...they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd...” A community of people gathering to hear from Jesus can actually keep people from reaching Jesus. And this is the first way that this story describes our real experience of what it can be like to be part of the body of Christ.
When we are cliquey - when we allow our selfishness and our busyness to distract us so that we are not aware of others around us, we may be in the presence of Christ, but we are not participating in the working of the body. In her book, Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference, Letty Russell says when “unity is achieved through exclusion or domination of those who are different, this is no longer unity in Christ” (66).
So, we have a choice, we can be a part of the in crowd - the group that passed the gossip that Jesus was in town fastest and pushed to get the best seats. We can be the ones who are “in the know,” who Lord our knowledge of Jesus and church, our access to Christ, and the image that we want people to have of our place in our spiritual journeys over others.
Have you ever walked in and out of a church, and not one single person says hello to you? Everyone is either sitting quietly, not engaging with anyone - or they’re wrapped up in conversations of their own with people they clearly know well. Is that the kind of community you want to be?
Now, that’s not to say that quiet moments of contemplation and conversations of digging deeper with people are not part of the Christian journey. They are vital to us! But, if those aspects of our faith become insular and actually work to oppose the greater building of community, then we must be careful because isolated or segmented community is not the kind that Jesus supports in the story for today.
So, we have a few other options: We can admit that we’re neither part of the crowd nor the stretcher-bearers but we’re actually the paralytic who needs to be carried. This may be the most honest choice.
Or, we can notice the mat-carriers’ desperate attempts to get to Jesus, helping to part the way and lead them closer. Not a bad option.
Or, we can do what the four people in the story did, and this is the second way this story is about real community. We can get our hands dirty.
How are you involved in Christ’s community? Are you a part of the community that keeps others and yourself from coming near to Jesus, or do you desire to get your hands a little dirty, finding out how we can all carry one another as close to Jesus as possible?
FOCUS READING
Mark 2:1-4 (NRSV)
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him...
This week, we’re looking at the story of the paralytic in Mark 2, uncovering aspects of the story that might teach us about community. So, first, the community gathered in this story specifically because they heard Jesus was in the house! The gospel-writer says, “It was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.”
They came to see the actual body of Christ and to hear it speak! Picture a church so full that people are blocking the door. Now, you’d think this is a really good thing - right? The place is packed - the community’s thriving! Hallelujah - and of course, partly we would be right. It’s exciting when people flock to learn from Jesus! We wouldn’t want it any other way - except...
“Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And...they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd...” A community of people gathering to hear from Jesus can actually keep people from reaching Jesus. And this is the first way that this story describes our real experience of what it can be like to be part of the body of Christ.
When we are cliquey - when we allow our selfishness and our busyness to distract us so that we are not aware of others around us, we may be in the presence of Christ, but we are not participating in the working of the body. In her book, Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference, Letty Russell says when “unity is achieved through exclusion or domination of those who are different, this is no longer unity in Christ” (66).
So, we have a choice, we can be a part of the in crowd - the group that passed the gossip that Jesus was in town fastest and pushed to get the best seats. We can be the ones who are “in the know,” who Lord our knowledge of Jesus and church, our access to Christ, and the image that we want people to have of our place in our spiritual journeys over others.
Have you ever walked in and out of a church, and not one single person says hello to you? Everyone is either sitting quietly, not engaging with anyone - or they’re wrapped up in conversations of their own with people they clearly know well. Is that the kind of community you want to be?
Now, that’s not to say that quiet moments of contemplation and conversations of digging deeper with people are not part of the Christian journey. They are vital to us! But, if those aspects of our faith become insular and actually work to oppose the greater building of community, then we must be careful because isolated or segmented community is not the kind that Jesus supports in the story for today.
So, we have a few other options: We can admit that we’re neither part of the crowd nor the stretcher-bearers but we’re actually the paralytic who needs to be carried. This may be the most honest choice.
Or, we can notice the mat-carriers’ desperate attempts to get to Jesus, helping to part the way and lead them closer. Not a bad option.
Or, we can do what the four people in the story did, and this is the second way this story is about real community. We can get our hands dirty.
How are you involved in Christ’s community? Are you a part of the community that keeps others and yourself from coming near to Jesus, or do you desire to get your hands a little dirty, finding out how we can all carry one another as close to Jesus as possible?
FOCUS READING
Mark 2:1-4 (NRSV)
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him...
Monday, 12 October 2009
Paralysis in the Body of Christ
DAILY BYTE
When my mom was dying, she used to say that she felt like the paralytic person being carried down to Christ. That image of being carried by people to Jesus, along with the reality of the community’s embrace in her life, carried her through the most painful, long days imaginable. Now my mother was the one who was ill, but I also felt paralyzed - by fear.
Have you ever felt paralyzed in life? By a big decision you need to make, but you don’t know how? By an unexpected turn of events? A terrifying diagnosis? Or simply by plodding along in the same pattern of living?
I remember when I was caring for my mom, my favorite moment of the day would be when someone unexpected would pop in to the hospital, just to see how she was doing and offer a brief prayer. I would wander around and peek at other patients sometimes, noticing how lonely many of them were, how barren and depressing their rooms were, and how they just slept away the days. That stood in stark contrast to the way people reached out to my mom and also the way that love not only carried me – but solidified my calling as a minister.
Because, I decided to become a minister not because I knew I had gifts that were required. The catalyst came when I saw the way people in the community of faith lifted my family into Christ’s presence when we were struggling, so that we could live, even in the midst of death, and I could not imagine myself ever being apart from that kind of loving community. That was the kind of life I felt called to lead people into. No other way of living made any sense to me.
So, the story we explore this week is one that I hold very near to me. It’s the familiar - but not well-worn - tale in Mark 2:1-12 of the paralytic who is lowered through the roof to see Jesus. This story is our story, as we are both paralytics and the people carrying them. It is the story of the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 includes a long description of the body of Christ, using the word for body - soma - which in Greek means the physical body, the body of Christ, the Church, or a corpse… It means the reality or substance of something, as opposed to a shadow. The body Paul speaks of is about what is real in life, as opposed to floating through a shadowy nonexistence. So, this week, we’ll explore what makes the story about the paralytic a story about the reality of the body of Christ. We’ll examine what makes this story about real community.
Think back to the things that are currently paralyzing you in life. How do they affect how you see yourself in relation to the community of faith? How do you currently perceive the body of Christ in your life and in the world?
FOCUS READING
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (NRSV)
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
When my mom was dying, she used to say that she felt like the paralytic person being carried down to Christ. That image of being carried by people to Jesus, along with the reality of the community’s embrace in her life, carried her through the most painful, long days imaginable. Now my mother was the one who was ill, but I also felt paralyzed - by fear.
Have you ever felt paralyzed in life? By a big decision you need to make, but you don’t know how? By an unexpected turn of events? A terrifying diagnosis? Or simply by plodding along in the same pattern of living?
I remember when I was caring for my mom, my favorite moment of the day would be when someone unexpected would pop in to the hospital, just to see how she was doing and offer a brief prayer. I would wander around and peek at other patients sometimes, noticing how lonely many of them were, how barren and depressing their rooms were, and how they just slept away the days. That stood in stark contrast to the way people reached out to my mom and also the way that love not only carried me – but solidified my calling as a minister.
Because, I decided to become a minister not because I knew I had gifts that were required. The catalyst came when I saw the way people in the community of faith lifted my family into Christ’s presence when we were struggling, so that we could live, even in the midst of death, and I could not imagine myself ever being apart from that kind of loving community. That was the kind of life I felt called to lead people into. No other way of living made any sense to me.
So, the story we explore this week is one that I hold very near to me. It’s the familiar - but not well-worn - tale in Mark 2:1-12 of the paralytic who is lowered through the roof to see Jesus. This story is our story, as we are both paralytics and the people carrying them. It is the story of the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 includes a long description of the body of Christ, using the word for body - soma - which in Greek means the physical body, the body of Christ, the Church, or a corpse… It means the reality or substance of something, as opposed to a shadow. The body Paul speaks of is about what is real in life, as opposed to floating through a shadowy nonexistence. So, this week, we’ll explore what makes the story about the paralytic a story about the reality of the body of Christ. We’ll examine what makes this story about real community.
Think back to the things that are currently paralyzing you in life. How do they affect how you see yourself in relation to the community of faith? How do you currently perceive the body of Christ in your life and in the world?
FOCUS READING
1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (NRSV)
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Fire!
DAILY BYTE
In our devotions this week we’ve looked at the difficulties of life and how our sinful rejection of God’s loving limits adds to life’s difficulties. We’ve looked at the great feast of salvation that Christ sets before us and how Christ’s work of salvation is so much more than just the forgiving of sin. As we bring this week’s devotions to a close, I’d like to share a captivating story. It illustrates the difference between taking hold of what Jesus came to do, and merely paying lip service to that.
There was once a man who knew the art of making fire. He took his tools and went to a village in the north, where it was bitterly cold. He showed the people there the value of fire, its uses and benefits for cooking and keeping themselves warm. The people were very interested in this great art, and so the man taught them how to make fire. They were deeply grateful that they had learned this art. But before they could express their gratitude to the man, he disappeared. He clearly wasn’t concerned with getting their recognition, he was simply concerned about their well-being, and the well-being of others also.
In fact, he had left to go to another village where it was also bitterly cold, and began to show the people there the value of fire. Once again, the people were very interested in this great art. A bit too interested for the liking of their priests, who noticed that this man was becoming more popular than what they were. They also felt that making fire was not in keeping with their customs and traditions. So they decided to kill the man, which they did.
But they were afraid that the people might now turn against them, so they did a very shrewd thing. They had a portrait of the man made and mounted it on the main altar of the temple. The instruments for making fire were placed in front of the portrait, and the people were taught to revere the portrait and to pay reverence to the instruments, which they dutifully did. The homage and the worship went on, but in that village where it was so bitterly cold, there was no fire.
As you think about your life, with all its difficulties, and your rebellion against God’s loving limits, and your need for the saving work of Christ, my prayer for you is that you wouldn’t miss the essential point of Christ’s coming. My prayer is that you would know the fire of Christ’s redeeming love in your life, not just as an idea, but as a reality. And may that love of Christ so blaze within you, that your very life would be consecrated anew each day to the glory of God.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Thou who camest from above
The pure celestial fire to impart
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart
There let it for Thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze
And trembling to its source return
In humble prayer and fervent praise
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
To work, and speak, and think for Thee
Still let me guard the holy fire
And still stir up Thy gift in me
Ready for all Thy perfect will
My acts of faith and love repeat
Till death Thy endless mercies seal
And make the sacrifice complete
(Charles Wesley)
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 3:11
[John the Baptist said,] “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
In our devotions this week we’ve looked at the difficulties of life and how our sinful rejection of God’s loving limits adds to life’s difficulties. We’ve looked at the great feast of salvation that Christ sets before us and how Christ’s work of salvation is so much more than just the forgiving of sin. As we bring this week’s devotions to a close, I’d like to share a captivating story. It illustrates the difference between taking hold of what Jesus came to do, and merely paying lip service to that.
There was once a man who knew the art of making fire. He took his tools and went to a village in the north, where it was bitterly cold. He showed the people there the value of fire, its uses and benefits for cooking and keeping themselves warm. The people were very interested in this great art, and so the man taught them how to make fire. They were deeply grateful that they had learned this art. But before they could express their gratitude to the man, he disappeared. He clearly wasn’t concerned with getting their recognition, he was simply concerned about their well-being, and the well-being of others also.
In fact, he had left to go to another village where it was also bitterly cold, and began to show the people there the value of fire. Once again, the people were very interested in this great art. A bit too interested for the liking of their priests, who noticed that this man was becoming more popular than what they were. They also felt that making fire was not in keeping with their customs and traditions. So they decided to kill the man, which they did.
But they were afraid that the people might now turn against them, so they did a very shrewd thing. They had a portrait of the man made and mounted it on the main altar of the temple. The instruments for making fire were placed in front of the portrait, and the people were taught to revere the portrait and to pay reverence to the instruments, which they dutifully did. The homage and the worship went on, but in that village where it was so bitterly cold, there was no fire.
As you think about your life, with all its difficulties, and your rebellion against God’s loving limits, and your need for the saving work of Christ, my prayer for you is that you wouldn’t miss the essential point of Christ’s coming. My prayer is that you would know the fire of Christ’s redeeming love in your life, not just as an idea, but as a reality. And may that love of Christ so blaze within you, that your very life would be consecrated anew each day to the glory of God.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Thou who camest from above
The pure celestial fire to impart
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart
There let it for Thy glory burn
With inextinguishable blaze
And trembling to its source return
In humble prayer and fervent praise
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
To work, and speak, and think for Thee
Still let me guard the holy fire
And still stir up Thy gift in me
Ready for all Thy perfect will
My acts of faith and love repeat
Till death Thy endless mercies seal
And make the sacrifice complete
(Charles Wesley)
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 3:11
[John the Baptist said,] “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Looking Through the Window
DAILY BYTE
There’s a common misunderstanding that salvation means having your sins forgiven. Certainly, the forgiveness of sins is an indispensable part of salvation, but it’s only a part. The truth is, Jesus has far bigger concerns than just our sins. Yes, he came to save us from our sins, but he came for much more than that. He came that we might have LIFE, and have it to the full. To miss that is to miss the whole point of the salvation story.
Let me illustrate what I mean:
There was once a painter who lived in a humble little house. The house wasn’t much to look at, but it had one outstanding feature, and that was the view. It overlooked a spectacular section of coastline, framed with mountains on either side. It was breathtakingly beautiful, like a picture postcard. Realising how special the view was, and wanting to be able to enjoy it and paint it, the painter made some alterations to his house. He put in a massive window in his living room, so that he could sit there and gaze at the mountains and the sea, and stand next to his easel and paint to his heart’s content. It was glorious.
But then one day a bird messed on the living room window, and so the painter got a bucket, some rags and soap and cleaned it, so that nothing would obstruct his view.
A few days later there was a big storm, and the rain and wind off the sea left ugly streaks on his window. So he got the bucket and rags and soap, and cleaned it again.
A few days later he noticed some fingerprints on the inside of the window – the grandchildren had come to visit. So once again he got the bucket and rags and soap to clean it. And so it continued.
If you visit that house today you’ll find the painter sitting in his living room, with a bucket and rags and soap by his side, watching and waiting for the slightest mark to appear on his window. What he hasn’t realized is that he’s so intent on looking at the window, that he no longer looks through it. The view, of course, is still there – as glorious as ever. But the man no longer sees it – he’s too focused on keeping his window clean. And his canvas? His canvas remains empty.
Which is a parable.
What if the forgiveness of sins is like the cleaning of the window? Necessary – yes! Important – of course. But let’s understand why. It’s so that we can see the breathtaking beauty of God and the life that God lays before us, all of which he wants us to enjoy, and to experience, and to share.
The point of Jesus’ coming was not just so that we might be saved from our sins. That’s like looking at the window instead of through it. Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Jesus came so that the lives we’re living right here and right now may be infused with his love and his power. Jesus came so that we might become channels of healing and transformation for our world, working for justice and peace, speaking the truth in love, pointing people to God.
That’s what salvation is really about, and that’s why it’s good news.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Saviour of the World. Come, with all your saving power and grace, and be my Saviour too. Come not just to save me from my sin, but come to save me for your Kingdom, for your purpose, for your glory. Save me for the new life that is found in you – a life of righteousness, compassion and love; a life that will be a witness to hope and a channel of grace within the world. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
John 10:10b
[Jesus said,] “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
There’s a common misunderstanding that salvation means having your sins forgiven. Certainly, the forgiveness of sins is an indispensable part of salvation, but it’s only a part. The truth is, Jesus has far bigger concerns than just our sins. Yes, he came to save us from our sins, but he came for much more than that. He came that we might have LIFE, and have it to the full. To miss that is to miss the whole point of the salvation story.
Let me illustrate what I mean:
There was once a painter who lived in a humble little house. The house wasn’t much to look at, but it had one outstanding feature, and that was the view. It overlooked a spectacular section of coastline, framed with mountains on either side. It was breathtakingly beautiful, like a picture postcard. Realising how special the view was, and wanting to be able to enjoy it and paint it, the painter made some alterations to his house. He put in a massive window in his living room, so that he could sit there and gaze at the mountains and the sea, and stand next to his easel and paint to his heart’s content. It was glorious.
But then one day a bird messed on the living room window, and so the painter got a bucket, some rags and soap and cleaned it, so that nothing would obstruct his view.
A few days later there was a big storm, and the rain and wind off the sea left ugly streaks on his window. So he got the bucket and rags and soap, and cleaned it again.
A few days later he noticed some fingerprints on the inside of the window – the grandchildren had come to visit. So once again he got the bucket and rags and soap to clean it. And so it continued.
If you visit that house today you’ll find the painter sitting in his living room, with a bucket and rags and soap by his side, watching and waiting for the slightest mark to appear on his window. What he hasn’t realized is that he’s so intent on looking at the window, that he no longer looks through it. The view, of course, is still there – as glorious as ever. But the man no longer sees it – he’s too focused on keeping his window clean. And his canvas? His canvas remains empty.
Which is a parable.
What if the forgiveness of sins is like the cleaning of the window? Necessary – yes! Important – of course. But let’s understand why. It’s so that we can see the breathtaking beauty of God and the life that God lays before us, all of which he wants us to enjoy, and to experience, and to share.
The point of Jesus’ coming was not just so that we might be saved from our sins. That’s like looking at the window instead of through it. Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Jesus came so that the lives we’re living right here and right now may be infused with his love and his power. Jesus came so that we might become channels of healing and transformation for our world, working for justice and peace, speaking the truth in love, pointing people to God.
That’s what salvation is really about, and that’s why it’s good news.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Saviour of the World. Come, with all your saving power and grace, and be my Saviour too. Come not just to save me from my sin, but come to save me for your Kingdom, for your purpose, for your glory. Save me for the new life that is found in you – a life of righteousness, compassion and love; a life that will be a witness to hope and a channel of grace within the world. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
John 10:10b
[Jesus said,] “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The Feast of Salvation
DAILY BYTE
Yesterday we looked at the archetypal story of Adam & Eve, which describes the alienation, brokenness and blame that ensues whenever God’s loving limits are rejected. This has been true for us collectively as the human race; and it’s also been true for each of us as individuals. Thinking we know best, we’ve tried to do things our own way, rejecting the limits that God, so lovingly and graciously, has set for us.
Thankfully, this is not the end of the story. For even as we rejected our human limitations to try to become like God, so God, in Christ, was accepting human limitations to become like us. Jesus came to show us what it means to be fully human, and what it means to live in trusting relationship with God.
Make no mistake, life for him was difficult, filled with much struggle and suffering. But the difference with Jesus is that in spite of the difficulties of his life he never stopped trusting God. So that even the tragedy of his life cut short in its prime didn’t diminish who he was, but heightened it, adding to the sumptuous feast of the kingdom in which he invites us all to share.
It’s the great feast of Salvation, that comes to its climax in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A feast that reminds us of the feast of Eden that was lost and spoiled through our sin, but which now restores us to a ‘second innocence’ whereby we can commune with God once more. Vulnerable – yes. Weak – yes. Frail & fallen – yes. Naked – yes. Yet unafraid.
Whenever the people of God gather at the table of the Lord to share in Holy Communion, this great feast of Salvation is celebrated again. What a beautiful and powerful reminder that the life of Christ has been given to deal decisively with the hunger caused by our rebellion and the desolate emptiness caused by our sin. That Jesus feeds us with his very self, so that we might be nourished and sustained in the very depths of our being, in order to live the kind of transformed lives that can bring hope and meaning to the world.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you Gracious God that our rebellion and disobedience do not mark the end of our story, but that there is a further chapter of grace that you have written in the life, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus. Thank you that through his life and love, poured out so freely and selflessly, a new feasting table has been set where we all can come once again and take our place, and be nourished deep within. Help us to feed on him in our hearts by faith, not just on those special days when we gather with your people to share in Holy Communion, but every day. And may the great feast of salvation strengthen and sustain us for doing your work within the world. Amen
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 26:27-29
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.’
Yesterday we looked at the archetypal story of Adam & Eve, which describes the alienation, brokenness and blame that ensues whenever God’s loving limits are rejected. This has been true for us collectively as the human race; and it’s also been true for each of us as individuals. Thinking we know best, we’ve tried to do things our own way, rejecting the limits that God, so lovingly and graciously, has set for us.
Thankfully, this is not the end of the story. For even as we rejected our human limitations to try to become like God, so God, in Christ, was accepting human limitations to become like us. Jesus came to show us what it means to be fully human, and what it means to live in trusting relationship with God.
Make no mistake, life for him was difficult, filled with much struggle and suffering. But the difference with Jesus is that in spite of the difficulties of his life he never stopped trusting God. So that even the tragedy of his life cut short in its prime didn’t diminish who he was, but heightened it, adding to the sumptuous feast of the kingdom in which he invites us all to share.
It’s the great feast of Salvation, that comes to its climax in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A feast that reminds us of the feast of Eden that was lost and spoiled through our sin, but which now restores us to a ‘second innocence’ whereby we can commune with God once more. Vulnerable – yes. Weak – yes. Frail & fallen – yes. Naked – yes. Yet unafraid.
Whenever the people of God gather at the table of the Lord to share in Holy Communion, this great feast of Salvation is celebrated again. What a beautiful and powerful reminder that the life of Christ has been given to deal decisively with the hunger caused by our rebellion and the desolate emptiness caused by our sin. That Jesus feeds us with his very self, so that we might be nourished and sustained in the very depths of our being, in order to live the kind of transformed lives that can bring hope and meaning to the world.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you Gracious God that our rebellion and disobedience do not mark the end of our story, but that there is a further chapter of grace that you have written in the life, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus. Thank you that through his life and love, poured out so freely and selflessly, a new feasting table has been set where we all can come once again and take our place, and be nourished deep within. Help us to feed on him in our hearts by faith, not just on those special days when we gather with your people to share in Holy Communion, but every day. And may the great feast of salvation strengthen and sustain us for doing your work within the world. Amen
SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 26:27-29
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.’
Loving Limits
DAILY BYTE
Given the reality that life is difficult, and at times even brutal, the pointed question that arises for people of faith is this: “Is this what God had in mind when God created the heavens and the earth, and breathed into us the breath of life?”
That’s a tough question to answer. Who of us can say with certainty which of the difficult dimensions of life are a necessary part of God’s good creation? But what we do know is this: many of the difficulties and crises and tragedies of this life are of our making, not God’s.
Greed, and lust, and cruelty, and hatred, and oppression, and injustice can make life not just difficult, but intolerable. These things are of human design and are part of the tragic crisis that we have fomented within the world. The crisis of humanity’s fall. The crisis of sin.
The story of the origin of this crisis is told in the Bible in Genesis chapter 3. We know the story well. About Adam & Eve, and a serpent, and the fruit of a forbidden tree, and the tragic consequences of disobedience that can make such a mess of the good things that God intends for us.
In the story, a luscious garden is set before Adam & Eve as a sumptuous feast for them to enjoy freely and unselfconsciously. There is only one limitation – the fruit of a certain tree is not for eating. On the great banqueting table that is Eden, this tree is the centre-piece. And God says, ‘Don’t eat the centerpiece!’
And that should have been the end of that. But then a serpent enters the story and starts asking questions about God. In other words, this was the Bible’s first theologian. Which is not to say that theologians are always bad news, but it is to say that theological inquiry is always inadequate and theological perspectives are always incomplete, because talking about God can never capture the essence of God. And Genesis 3 is a tragic case in point – because the serpent, whether malicious or just misinformed, gets it so wrong about God. But in the process sows seeds of suspicion as to whether God’s good intentions can be trusted.
A God-given limitation had been placed over Adam & Eve’s lives. “Don’t eat the fruit of this true, if you do you will die!” It wasn’t because God was being mean; it was because God was being loving. This limitation was part of the great gift of Eden. This was part of the sumptuous feast for them to enjoy. Accepting their limits was part of what it meant to be fully human. Because some things are not intended for human consumption, and to taste them makes us less not more.
Accepting our God-given limits enables us to live whole and holy lives. Rejecting these God-given limits brings chaos and mayhem. Like what happened to Adam & Eve. They chose to reject their limits. They tasted the forbidden fruit and their eyes were opened, but not in a way that brought clarity, but rather confusion. It was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they ate, but it was fruit that they could not digest. It was knowledge that they could not handle.
And immediately we see them exercising this knowledge in monstrous ways, judging what was good and bad, when really they had no idea which was which. We see them deciding that their nakedness was a bad idea, and that hiding from God was a good idea. Adam even suggests that the gift of Eve was a bad idea.
And so it began, and has continued ever since. A story that has repeated itself over and over again, as people in every age have decided that they know better than God, have sought to commandeer God’s place in the world, rejecting their God-given limits, and have ended up making a mess of their lives.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Forgive me, Lord for rejecting the loving limits that you have placed over my life. Help me to trust that the boundaries that you have set for my existence are for my benefit, and that within these boundaries there are wide open expanses in which to explore what it means to be fully human. Amen
Given the reality that life is difficult, and at times even brutal, the pointed question that arises for people of faith is this: “Is this what God had in mind when God created the heavens and the earth, and breathed into us the breath of life?”
That’s a tough question to answer. Who of us can say with certainty which of the difficult dimensions of life are a necessary part of God’s good creation? But what we do know is this: many of the difficulties and crises and tragedies of this life are of our making, not God’s.
Greed, and lust, and cruelty, and hatred, and oppression, and injustice can make life not just difficult, but intolerable. These things are of human design and are part of the tragic crisis that we have fomented within the world. The crisis of humanity’s fall. The crisis of sin.
The story of the origin of this crisis is told in the Bible in Genesis chapter 3. We know the story well. About Adam & Eve, and a serpent, and the fruit of a forbidden tree, and the tragic consequences of disobedience that can make such a mess of the good things that God intends for us.
In the story, a luscious garden is set before Adam & Eve as a sumptuous feast for them to enjoy freely and unselfconsciously. There is only one limitation – the fruit of a certain tree is not for eating. On the great banqueting table that is Eden, this tree is the centre-piece. And God says, ‘Don’t eat the centerpiece!’
And that should have been the end of that. But then a serpent enters the story and starts asking questions about God. In other words, this was the Bible’s first theologian. Which is not to say that theologians are always bad news, but it is to say that theological inquiry is always inadequate and theological perspectives are always incomplete, because talking about God can never capture the essence of God. And Genesis 3 is a tragic case in point – because the serpent, whether malicious or just misinformed, gets it so wrong about God. But in the process sows seeds of suspicion as to whether God’s good intentions can be trusted.
A God-given limitation had been placed over Adam & Eve’s lives. “Don’t eat the fruit of this true, if you do you will die!” It wasn’t because God was being mean; it was because God was being loving. This limitation was part of the great gift of Eden. This was part of the sumptuous feast for them to enjoy. Accepting their limits was part of what it meant to be fully human. Because some things are not intended for human consumption, and to taste them makes us less not more.
Accepting our God-given limits enables us to live whole and holy lives. Rejecting these God-given limits brings chaos and mayhem. Like what happened to Adam & Eve. They chose to reject their limits. They tasted the forbidden fruit and their eyes were opened, but not in a way that brought clarity, but rather confusion. It was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they ate, but it was fruit that they could not digest. It was knowledge that they could not handle.
And immediately we see them exercising this knowledge in monstrous ways, judging what was good and bad, when really they had no idea which was which. We see them deciding that their nakedness was a bad idea, and that hiding from God was a good idea. Adam even suggests that the gift of Eve was a bad idea.
And so it began, and has continued ever since. A story that has repeated itself over and over again, as people in every age have decided that they know better than God, have sought to commandeer God’s place in the world, rejecting their God-given limits, and have ended up making a mess of their lives.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Forgive me, Lord for rejecting the loving limits that you have placed over my life. Help me to trust that the boundaries that you have set for my existence are for my benefit, and that within these boundaries there are wide open expanses in which to explore what it means to be fully human. Amen
Life is Difficult
DAILY BYTE
'Life is difficult.’ That’s the opening sentence of M Scott Peck’s book ‘The Road Less Traveled’, that has sold millions of copies around the world since it was first published 30 years ago. It’s been suggested that the opening sentence itself has been responsible for many of the copies that have been sold, because it instantly resonates with people’s lived experience. M Scott Peck writes, ‘Life is difficult,’ and we intuitively respond, ‘Yes, that’s right. It is.’
But here’s a curious thing. While pretty much all of us know intuitively, in our gut, that life is difficult – cognitively, in our heads, we have a hard time accepting that this is indeed so. There is this idea that many people continue to hold onto that life is easy, or at least it should be easy. And so many people spend a great deal of energy bemoaning the struggles, and hardships and difficulties that they face as if this were something abnormal, as if this were some kind of unique affliction that has been specially visited upon them, and unfairly so.
But that’s not how life works. In many traditions there is a more sober recognition of what life is really like. In Buddhist thought, for instance, the first of the Four Noble Truths is that life is dukkha, which means suffering.
The 18th century French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who inaugurated the age of secular intellectualism, observed that alienation lay at the heart of the human condition.
Gordon Cosby, the founder of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, has famously observed that next to every single person there is a great big pool of tears.
Certainly, as we reflect on our own stories and observe our own experiences we can see for ourselves that life is, indeed, difficult. Or to put it differently, we could say that it is the very nature of life to stumble from one crisis to another.
Cruel teasing takes place even on preschool playgrounds.
Hormones, and acne, and anguished questions of identity play havoc with those adolescent years.
Romantic love relationships can lift us to the heights of rapture and just as quickly drop us into troughs of despair.
The incredible joy and privilege of parenthood is filled with many crises, many sleepless nights, many anxieties, many bitter disappointments. Parents of teenagers often testify to the sobering truth that you can sow a child, but end up reaping a bomb. Certainly, the decision to have a child is the decision for your heart always to live outside of your body.
I could go on. There are the further crises of life related to work, and finance, and ill-health, and old-age. Not to mention the crises of inexplicable suffering or sudden bereavement that can tear at our souls and leave us completely gutted and utterly bereft.
Life is not just difficult – at times it can be brutal. And it raises the pointed question for the people of faith: “Is this what God had in mind when God created the heavens and the earth, and breathed into us the breath of life?”
IS this what God had in mind?
That’s the tough question we’ll be exploring in our devotions this week, as we listen for the hope-filled answer that God offers to the reality of life’s difficulties and crises that come our way. May it be for you Good News.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, sometimes life is really really hard. Sometimes it’s tough to make sense of it all, and to know what to think. It’s in such times that we need you most of all. Help us to listen to your still, small voice of truth, that comes to us in the midst of the stormy crises of life. May it speak hope and promise to our souls. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
'Life is difficult.’ That’s the opening sentence of M Scott Peck’s book ‘The Road Less Traveled’, that has sold millions of copies around the world since it was first published 30 years ago. It’s been suggested that the opening sentence itself has been responsible for many of the copies that have been sold, because it instantly resonates with people’s lived experience. M Scott Peck writes, ‘Life is difficult,’ and we intuitively respond, ‘Yes, that’s right. It is.’
But here’s a curious thing. While pretty much all of us know intuitively, in our gut, that life is difficult – cognitively, in our heads, we have a hard time accepting that this is indeed so. There is this idea that many people continue to hold onto that life is easy, or at least it should be easy. And so many people spend a great deal of energy bemoaning the struggles, and hardships and difficulties that they face as if this were something abnormal, as if this were some kind of unique affliction that has been specially visited upon them, and unfairly so.
But that’s not how life works. In many traditions there is a more sober recognition of what life is really like. In Buddhist thought, for instance, the first of the Four Noble Truths is that life is dukkha, which means suffering.
The 18th century French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who inaugurated the age of secular intellectualism, observed that alienation lay at the heart of the human condition.
Gordon Cosby, the founder of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, has famously observed that next to every single person there is a great big pool of tears.
Certainly, as we reflect on our own stories and observe our own experiences we can see for ourselves that life is, indeed, difficult. Or to put it differently, we could say that it is the very nature of life to stumble from one crisis to another.
Cruel teasing takes place even on preschool playgrounds.
Hormones, and acne, and anguished questions of identity play havoc with those adolescent years.
Romantic love relationships can lift us to the heights of rapture and just as quickly drop us into troughs of despair.
The incredible joy and privilege of parenthood is filled with many crises, many sleepless nights, many anxieties, many bitter disappointments. Parents of teenagers often testify to the sobering truth that you can sow a child, but end up reaping a bomb. Certainly, the decision to have a child is the decision for your heart always to live outside of your body.
I could go on. There are the further crises of life related to work, and finance, and ill-health, and old-age. Not to mention the crises of inexplicable suffering or sudden bereavement that can tear at our souls and leave us completely gutted and utterly bereft.
Life is not just difficult – at times it can be brutal. And it raises the pointed question for the people of faith: “Is this what God had in mind when God created the heavens and the earth, and breathed into us the breath of life?”
IS this what God had in mind?
That’s the tough question we’ll be exploring in our devotions this week, as we listen for the hope-filled answer that God offers to the reality of life’s difficulties and crises that come our way. May it be for you Good News.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, sometimes life is really really hard. Sometimes it’s tough to make sense of it all, and to know what to think. It’s in such times that we need you most of all. Help us to listen to your still, small voice of truth, that comes to us in the midst of the stormy crises of life. May it speak hope and promise to our souls. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
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