DAILY BYTE
The devotions this week will centre on the broad theme of healing. They are being written, appropriately enough, in a hospital ward. Interesting places – hospitals. Here the full-spectrum of the human condition seems to get played out every day. From the rich promise & joyful delight of a new baby entering the world, to the tragedy of life cut cruelly short by injury or disease, or indeed the beauty of a final breath releasing a long earthly life into the wider life that awaits us all beyond this one.
Here the frailty of the human condition is so clearly evident, as is the remarkable capacity of the human spirit for great courage in the face of sometimes incomprehensible suffering.
Here the very heights of intellectual achievement get expressed through the brilliance and expertise of medical doctors, as well as the hubris, the arrogance, the pride that can arise when these same doctors forget the common humanity they share with their patients.
Here compassion and care are seen in those who have devoted their lives to serving the sick, as well as the sometimes cruel and callous indifference of a system that is driven by the profit motive.
Here people either turn to God in desperation, or hope, or trusting faith; or turn away from God in disillusionment, despair or debilitating fear.
Here life and death happens, and everything inbetween.
We don’t have to watch TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy or ER to understand what I’m talking about. Pretty much all of us have some kind of hospital experience of our own to reflect on.
I have a hunch that if there were hospitals in Jesus’ day, he would have been a regular visitor. He cared about the sick, and he also cared about how people treated the sick. He also understood the true nature of healing – healing that isn’t limited by an excessive focus on just physical cure, but recognizes that healing is an ongoing journey into wholeness of body, mind and spirit. It’s not for nothing that he is known as the Great Physician.
The story in John 5 of the healing that happened at the pool of Bethesda is perhaps the closest we get in the gospels to a ‘hospital’ story. We do not know exactly how it worked, but there seemed to be something in the water of this pool that had healing power. Certainly when the water was stirred up, and for whoever was lucky enough to be the first one in. And so a great number of disabled people used to lie there – the blind, the lame, the paralysed – in the hope that someday the miracle would happen for them. Some of them lay there for a very long time.
The man in the gospel passage had been there for 38 years. The tragedy of his story was not just that he was sick, but that he had no one to help him. But then came the wonderful day when he encountered Jesus. We read in the story that when Jesus saw the man and learned how long he had been lying there he asked him this question, “Do you want to get well?”
On the face of it the question seems ridiculous, maybe even rude or downright offensive. Of course the man wanted to get well. Who wouldn’t? And after all he was lying there wasn’t he?
But if we ponder the question a little, we’ll see the sharp insight of Jesus that penetrates to the very heart of this man’s situation, and indeed ours as we think about our own circumstances of sickness, brokenness, paralysis and pain.
Are we willing to allow our very identity to be redefined, not by the painful, broken circumstances that have befallen us, often so unjustly, but by something else? By Someone else? Someone who dares to say with us, with great authority and compassion, “Stand up...and walk!”
PRAY AS YOU GO
Thank you, Great Physician, that as you look at me you see beyond my brokenness & sickness, to the potential for wholeness that is in me. Help me to see myself in the same way, and so trust your healing words that speak newness into my life. Amen.
SCRIPTURE
John 5:6
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
Monday, 6 September 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Do you take Jesus?
DAILY BYTE
The biblical scholar, R. Alan Culpepper says that “Humility is not to be feigned as a strategy for recognition.” In other words – do not abuse humility. “On the contrary, humility is a quality of life open to persons who know that their worth is not measured by recognition from their peers but by the certainty that God has accepted them.”
We’ve been talking this week about living humbly – living in the certainty that God has accepted us – no matter what. This is what Jesus can teach us, as he walks with us, and as we sometimes stumble alongside him.
But even if we stumble, Jesus says that if we live this way, humbly loving others and humbly receiving God’s love for us, we will be blessed! Another word for blessed is – happy! We’re on a constant search for “happiness” in this world, and we usually try to get it by wielding our power over others... But in the story from Luke we’ve read this week, we see that we can find happiness not by pompously pushing our own agendas but by realizing where our wounds and failings are, working together, sitting around the table, and helping one another find the best seat in our lives.
Imagine how different the world would look if people gave each other the best seats in the house at theatres. What would it be like, if we let others go first in the queue at the grocery store? If instead of moaning about the crazy things people do and how we could do them better, what would happen to us and to the world, if we took time to listen to the reasons for why people do the things they do?
That path might not lead us to a life with a lot of money where we make all the “right” connections. It might not lead us to traditional marriage, and it might not fix all of the things in our lives that are difficult, but it will lead to a path of true happiness. Humble happiness, whether that’s in marriage, or as a church community – living as the bride of Christ.
So, do you take Jesus in marriage today, in a human vow that borders on the miraculous?
FOCUS READING
Revelation 21:2-3 (NRSV)
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them...”
PRAY AS YOU GO
Loving God, you came to earth as a humble baby, and you grew to become a humble man. Allow the way that you lived to shine through us in lives of humility and trust in your presence with and within us. Teach us to accept the faithful vows you have made to us, and help us to walk the journey of making our vows to you in return. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The biblical scholar, R. Alan Culpepper says that “Humility is not to be feigned as a strategy for recognition.” In other words – do not abuse humility. “On the contrary, humility is a quality of life open to persons who know that their worth is not measured by recognition from their peers but by the certainty that God has accepted them.”
We’ve been talking this week about living humbly – living in the certainty that God has accepted us – no matter what. This is what Jesus can teach us, as he walks with us, and as we sometimes stumble alongside him.
But even if we stumble, Jesus says that if we live this way, humbly loving others and humbly receiving God’s love for us, we will be blessed! Another word for blessed is – happy! We’re on a constant search for “happiness” in this world, and we usually try to get it by wielding our power over others... But in the story from Luke we’ve read this week, we see that we can find happiness not by pompously pushing our own agendas but by realizing where our wounds and failings are, working together, sitting around the table, and helping one another find the best seat in our lives.
Imagine how different the world would look if people gave each other the best seats in the house at theatres. What would it be like, if we let others go first in the queue at the grocery store? If instead of moaning about the crazy things people do and how we could do them better, what would happen to us and to the world, if we took time to listen to the reasons for why people do the things they do?
That path might not lead us to a life with a lot of money where we make all the “right” connections. It might not lead us to traditional marriage, and it might not fix all of the things in our lives that are difficult, but it will lead to a path of true happiness. Humble happiness, whether that’s in marriage, or as a church community – living as the bride of Christ.
So, do you take Jesus in marriage today, in a human vow that borders on the miraculous?
FOCUS READING
Revelation 21:2-3 (NRSV)
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them...”
PRAY AS YOU GO
Loving God, you came to earth as a humble baby, and you grew to become a humble man. Allow the way that you lived to shine through us in lives of humility and trust in your presence with and within us. Teach us to accept the faithful vows you have made to us, and help us to walk the journey of making our vows to you in return. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
The Bride
DAILY BYTE
Now, you might think, you’ve spent this whole week talking about marriage and promises - well, I’m not married – or I haven’t had a good experience with marriage, or I haven’t had very good experiences with kept promises in general... So, how am I supposed to be able to trust that I can be humble – that I can let my guard down?
Well, the bible describes the church as the Bride of Christ. So in effect, even if you’re not married or have had terrible experiences with marriages and promises, if you are reading this and seeking after Jesus, desiring to be in some way a part of the body of Christ – the church – here on this earth, you are married to Jesus.
Jesus has vowed never to leave you, no matter what’s going on in your life. And Jesus is the one who teaches us how to be humble to each other and how to accept those who are humbled.
Trust in these vows doesn’t just happen. Trust grows, as we learn more and more about the other person, as trust grows in any other relationship. It can take a lifetime for us to accept the vows Christ makes to us and to make our own in return.
The church is clearly not perfect at keeping promises or at accepting people for who they are, but this is the path that Jesus leads us on. It’s a journey that he continues to teach about in the passage from Luke for today. He tells the host of the banquet to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. When you’re living and celebrating as a community, invite all of those people who cannot cover up the things that humble them. They wear humility on their sleeves without a choice. And so when we invite them, when we lift them up, we are doing what Jesus wishes we would do for everyone – see who people really are with all of their faults and insecurities – and choose to lift them up and encourage them because we love them, regardless.
Jesus wants us to walk with each other as God fills us with nourishing banquet food and surrounds us with love, encouraging us to be come better versions of ourselves. When we do this, we start to look more like Jesus, as individuals, and more like the body – the bride – of Christ, as a community.
Who do you want to look like and act like? You have a choice to spend your life learning to trust Jesus’ way and promises for you, or not. If you’ve been hurt by failed marriages, broken promises, and un-accepting communities, do think there may still be a God who vows to remain married, walking with you forever?
FOCUS READING
Luke 14:12-14 (NRSV)
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE...
Write down a list of the vows you would hope Christ would make to you, and write down the vows you are striving to make to Christ for how you think he would want you to live your life. Pray over these vows, and ask God to help you trust him, as you walk together.
Now, you might think, you’ve spent this whole week talking about marriage and promises - well, I’m not married – or I haven’t had a good experience with marriage, or I haven’t had very good experiences with kept promises in general... So, how am I supposed to be able to trust that I can be humble – that I can let my guard down?
Well, the bible describes the church as the Bride of Christ. So in effect, even if you’re not married or have had terrible experiences with marriages and promises, if you are reading this and seeking after Jesus, desiring to be in some way a part of the body of Christ – the church – here on this earth, you are married to Jesus.
Jesus has vowed never to leave you, no matter what’s going on in your life. And Jesus is the one who teaches us how to be humble to each other and how to accept those who are humbled.
Trust in these vows doesn’t just happen. Trust grows, as we learn more and more about the other person, as trust grows in any other relationship. It can take a lifetime for us to accept the vows Christ makes to us and to make our own in return.
The church is clearly not perfect at keeping promises or at accepting people for who they are, but this is the path that Jesus leads us on. It’s a journey that he continues to teach about in the passage from Luke for today. He tells the host of the banquet to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. When you’re living and celebrating as a community, invite all of those people who cannot cover up the things that humble them. They wear humility on their sleeves without a choice. And so when we invite them, when we lift them up, we are doing what Jesus wishes we would do for everyone – see who people really are with all of their faults and insecurities – and choose to lift them up and encourage them because we love them, regardless.
Jesus wants us to walk with each other as God fills us with nourishing banquet food and surrounds us with love, encouraging us to be come better versions of ourselves. When we do this, we start to look more like Jesus, as individuals, and more like the body – the bride – of Christ, as a community.
Who do you want to look like and act like? You have a choice to spend your life learning to trust Jesus’ way and promises for you, or not. If you’ve been hurt by failed marriages, broken promises, and un-accepting communities, do think there may still be a God who vows to remain married, walking with you forever?
FOCUS READING
Luke 14:12-14 (NRSV)
He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE...
Write down a list of the vows you would hope Christ would make to you, and write down the vows you are striving to make to Christ for how you think he would want you to live your life. Pray over these vows, and ask God to help you trust him, as you walk together.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Human Offerings that can Border on the Miraculous
DAILY BYTE
We’ve been talking about the challenge of living a humble life this week. And through looking at the Gospel of Luke, it seems the only way it’s possible for us to live truly humble lives is for us to live them in the context of community that promises to uplift us when we are in a position that is humble. When we’re broken. When we’re wrong. We don’t need to have our wrong thrown back in our faces – we need to be called friend. In the famous Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book, Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage, she says, “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and to be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on the miraculous.”
The only reason that I let my spouse tell me what to do…sometimes – the reason he is able to critique the way I make the bed or argue – is because I know that he has vowed to stay by me – to uphold me – to walk with me in love – no matter what I say or do. And I can pretty confidently say that he knows the same to be true for me. These are human offerings that border on the miraculous. Seeing humility in one another, it seems, allows us to see the face of God.
The passage for today from Jeremiah sounds pretty harsh. God is “accusing” God’s people of changing “their glory for something that does not profit.” It says, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
That’s not easy on the ears! God is appalled – even angry. And we might think – why would we want to listen to a God who gets so angry and says such terrifying things?
Well, we can hear them because they are desolate, grief-stricken words that come not out of selfishness or intent to abuse, but out of deep love. God speaks so harshly because God so deeply wants us to remember our relationship with him – remember that when we turn away and decide our ways of doing things are better and that we are maybe even better than God. When we think that we don’t need him – God cries out – that he is faithful to his promises to us no matter what ridiculous, frustrating, and sometimes terrible things we say and do. He’s still waiting for us to remember the fountain of living water that God has promised will never run dry.
It’s okay to be humble in the presence of that God. It’s okay even to bow down. Because that God loves us and promises never to leave us. If it weren’t so, we would never be able to have a relationship with God because we would always be in a power struggle to see who was better. And we would always be wondering whether, or not, he was going to leave.
Bowing before God is not about humiliating ourselves – it’s about recognizing that our God is humble, and we must be humble, too, to be on his level.
Do you want to trust in that kind of a God? Do you want to be part of a community that can be humble and faithful like that?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Jeremiah 2:9-13 (NRSV)
Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children. Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, remind us of the fountain of living water that you offer us today. Show us where to find it and how to drink from it, even if that means getting on our knees. Teach us to trust in your promises for us, and allow that faithfulness to strengthen us, so that we can live lives that look like yours – humble lives that reach out in loving commitment to others. Amen.
We’ve been talking about the challenge of living a humble life this week. And through looking at the Gospel of Luke, it seems the only way it’s possible for us to live truly humble lives is for us to live them in the context of community that promises to uplift us when we are in a position that is humble. When we’re broken. When we’re wrong. We don’t need to have our wrong thrown back in our faces – we need to be called friend. In the famous Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book, Committed: A Sceptic Makes Peace with Marriage, she says, “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and to be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on the miraculous.”
The only reason that I let my spouse tell me what to do…sometimes – the reason he is able to critique the way I make the bed or argue – is because I know that he has vowed to stay by me – to uphold me – to walk with me in love – no matter what I say or do. And I can pretty confidently say that he knows the same to be true for me. These are human offerings that border on the miraculous. Seeing humility in one another, it seems, allows us to see the face of God.
The passage for today from Jeremiah sounds pretty harsh. God is “accusing” God’s people of changing “their glory for something that does not profit.” It says, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”
That’s not easy on the ears! God is appalled – even angry. And we might think – why would we want to listen to a God who gets so angry and says such terrifying things?
Well, we can hear them because they are desolate, grief-stricken words that come not out of selfishness or intent to abuse, but out of deep love. God speaks so harshly because God so deeply wants us to remember our relationship with him – remember that when we turn away and decide our ways of doing things are better and that we are maybe even better than God. When we think that we don’t need him – God cries out – that he is faithful to his promises to us no matter what ridiculous, frustrating, and sometimes terrible things we say and do. He’s still waiting for us to remember the fountain of living water that God has promised will never run dry.
It’s okay to be humble in the presence of that God. It’s okay even to bow down. Because that God loves us and promises never to leave us. If it weren’t so, we would never be able to have a relationship with God because we would always be in a power struggle to see who was better. And we would always be wondering whether, or not, he was going to leave.
Bowing before God is not about humiliating ourselves – it’s about recognizing that our God is humble, and we must be humble, too, to be on his level.
Do you want to trust in that kind of a God? Do you want to be part of a community that can be humble and faithful like that?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Jeremiah 2:9-13 (NRSV)
Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children. Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, remind us of the fountain of living water that you offer us today. Show us where to find it and how to drink from it, even if that means getting on our knees. Teach us to trust in your promises for us, and allow that faithfulness to strengthen us, so that we can live lives that look like yours – humble lives that reach out in loving commitment to others. Amen.
The Best Spot at the Table
DAILY BYTE
My fiancé and I learned in the wedding planning process that one of the most challenging tasks is the seating plan... It is a dreaded task, I hear, for many – I think because it presents the challenge of trying to find a place for everyone to sit where they will feel like the most important and valued guest at the wedding. Because of course, if everyone were given free reign to sit where they wanted, everyone would want to sit next to the bride and groom, which unfortunately, would lead to quite a messy pile-up.
We want to have seats of honour. We want to feel like we’re the most important people in a room. We want people to see our best sides – our most intelligent, beautiful, funny, creative, inspiring sides. And we want to be appreciated and recognized for those things.
Jesus tells the first parable in Luke 14:7 when he notices that the people at the dinner he’s attending are acting just like that. They are clamouring for the best seat - wanting to be seen and recognized. And conversely, they are not wanting others to see that they may not be the most on top of things with the best pedigree and best credentials and best party tricks.
We spend a lot of time in life pushing our resumes, trying to climb the social and economic ladders, arguing for our proposals and even plain exploiting the gifts that God has given us when we use them out of pride, knowing how good we are at things. Let’s face it – we don’t like to be humble.
And perhaps even more than we resist being humble – we don’t like to have other people humble us. I, of all people, can vouch for the fact that I don’t like people telling me what to do, and I don’t like my way of doing things to be criticized. Do you? Don’t think so...
But, I think there’s an important reason that we run from humility, and that’s because we’ve had bad experiences with it. We’ve experienced peoples’ unhelpfully harsh criticism. We’ve experienced being “put in our place” – which this scripture might seem to advocate, read incorrectly. We’ve heard others put us down simply to pump themselves up. In short, we’ve seen humility abused by power. And we’ve had circumstances like lost jobs and broken families and inconvenient deaths thrust upon us, humbling us in ways that feel terribly uncompassionate and unfair.
And if we read this parable of Jesus, as though the person being humbled is alone, simply being put in his or her place, then we would be reading it as the world often acts, but we would not be reading it as it is written. Because it’s not written in the lonely context of being singled out for failure. It’s written in the context of a wedding banquet – the gathering of a community to celebrate unity and vowed friendship. When the person in the parable is humble and asked to move to sit in a place of honour, he is not just some party-crasher – but he is called ‘friend’ by the host.
Are you feeling humbled at the moment? Has someone humbled you? Have you put someone else down, simply to pump up your own ego? How might you work on living a more humble life? Who might you learn to call friend? Do you need someone to call you, friend?
FOCUS READING
Luke 14:7-11 (NRSV)
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
My fiancé and I learned in the wedding planning process that one of the most challenging tasks is the seating plan... It is a dreaded task, I hear, for many – I think because it presents the challenge of trying to find a place for everyone to sit where they will feel like the most important and valued guest at the wedding. Because of course, if everyone were given free reign to sit where they wanted, everyone would want to sit next to the bride and groom, which unfortunately, would lead to quite a messy pile-up.
We want to have seats of honour. We want to feel like we’re the most important people in a room. We want people to see our best sides – our most intelligent, beautiful, funny, creative, inspiring sides. And we want to be appreciated and recognized for those things.
Jesus tells the first parable in Luke 14:7 when he notices that the people at the dinner he’s attending are acting just like that. They are clamouring for the best seat - wanting to be seen and recognized. And conversely, they are not wanting others to see that they may not be the most on top of things with the best pedigree and best credentials and best party tricks.
We spend a lot of time in life pushing our resumes, trying to climb the social and economic ladders, arguing for our proposals and even plain exploiting the gifts that God has given us when we use them out of pride, knowing how good we are at things. Let’s face it – we don’t like to be humble.
And perhaps even more than we resist being humble – we don’t like to have other people humble us. I, of all people, can vouch for the fact that I don’t like people telling me what to do, and I don’t like my way of doing things to be criticized. Do you? Don’t think so...
But, I think there’s an important reason that we run from humility, and that’s because we’ve had bad experiences with it. We’ve experienced peoples’ unhelpfully harsh criticism. We’ve experienced being “put in our place” – which this scripture might seem to advocate, read incorrectly. We’ve heard others put us down simply to pump themselves up. In short, we’ve seen humility abused by power. And we’ve had circumstances like lost jobs and broken families and inconvenient deaths thrust upon us, humbling us in ways that feel terribly uncompassionate and unfair.
And if we read this parable of Jesus, as though the person being humbled is alone, simply being put in his or her place, then we would be reading it as the world often acts, but we would not be reading it as it is written. Because it’s not written in the lonely context of being singled out for failure. It’s written in the context of a wedding banquet – the gathering of a community to celebrate unity and vowed friendship. When the person in the parable is humble and asked to move to sit in a place of honour, he is not just some party-crasher – but he is called ‘friend’ by the host.
Are you feeling humbled at the moment? Has someone humbled you? Have you put someone else down, simply to pump up your own ego? How might you work on living a more humble life? Who might you learn to call friend? Do you need someone to call you, friend?
FOCUS READING
Luke 14:7-11 (NRSV)
When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honour, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
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