Being Neighbors

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."              Galatians 5:14

"Neighbors"  Tew Nai Tong

The whole law? All 613 of the Jewish mitzvot? The Pharisees of the 1st Century were the arbiters of these 613 commandments, and policed their people accordingly. Imagine trying to remember all 613, much less enforce them! Paul points out that there is freedom in Christ, because, in Christ, the law can be boiled down to just one: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, that certainly makes things simpler. Or does it?

Loving our neighbors in a contentious election year is tough. Loving our neighbors when they crowd our neighborhoods and schools and judicial system is tough. Loving our neighbors when they do not speak our language or value our cultural norms is tough. 

But life is tough.

And yet, there stands our Lord, whispering, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s the simplest commandment of all, and the most difficult.

Where shall we start?

Unleashing evil

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.      Luke : 31-33

                                               Jesus drives the demons out of the Gerasene


The swine had been snorting and snuffling for food on that same plot of ground for years. They were unclean; un-kosher.  The demons, recognizing the purity and power of Jesus, begged him to let them enter the swine so that they might escape from the presence of God swiftly. So Jesus gave them permission, and literally, all hell broke loose. The swine rushed to the edge of the bank and jumped off the cliff and into the sea below, where they were drowned.

This story calls to light the ferocity and the unpredictable nature of evil. Evil is everywhere, and evil moves quickly, and stealthily, and intentionally seeks to bring mayhem and catastrophe into the world. We saw it in Paris, in Brussels, in New York, and this week we saw it in Orlando.

As children of God, we reject and condemn evil and speak loudly and courageously against it.  As we do, we proclaim boldly that neither powers nor principalities, nor death nor life, nor things present or things to come can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. .

Stand firm. 

Invitations

June 8, 2016

Give ear to my words, O Lord; *
    consider my meditation.

2 Hearken to my cry for help, my King and my God, *
    for I make my prayer to you.

3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; *
    early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.   Psalm 5: 1-3

                                                Crack of Dawn         -Vladimir Kush


The Psalm for Sunday is an invitation to prayer. Some of us may think that God is too busy setting the planets on their courses and preventing planes from dropping out of the sky to be interested in our prayers, but this is simply not true. Each of us, made in the image and likeness of God, are beloved by God. God wants to hear from us! God yearns to be  in conversation with us, and when we initiate the conversation, I imagine God twinkles with delight.

You are God's hands and feet in the world. Without dialogue, we easily stray off the paths that are laid out for us. When we begin and end our days with God, the paths will be made clear, and our hearts restored. The reverse is also true. 

Compassion

As Jesus approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." Luke 7:12-13

                               "When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her."

It's still new and raw for me, being a widow; yet my being a widow carries very little of the baggage it did for first century women.  No, Jesus did not raise my husband from the dead as he did in Sunday's Gospel, but I can testify to the Lord's compassion. 

In the first few days, a cloud of prayers buoyed me up like one of those hydrofoil catamarans that ply the waters between Seattle and British Columbia. Family arrived. Casseroles arrived. Cards arrived. Bishop Lee showed up do do the funeral. But after the flurry, the evenings got long. The calls tapered off. The cards stopped arriving, Depression sank in, and with it, despair. It was then when Jesus was most present. 

On the precipice of despair, the phone would ring or an invitation to lunch would be extended, or the gentle kiss of a happy memory would float by. But mostly? Mostly Jesus was just there, stoking my hand, lifting the veil of darkness and whispering, "Do not weep; let me show you hope."  And hope is a gentle balm. 

Healing

When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." 

Luke 7:9

Karen Frank - Pakistani artist who uses recycled shopping bags

A Roman Centurion had a slave who was near death, so he sent some of the Jewish elders from Capernaum to find Jesus and to ask him to intervene. Not a particularly unusual request, except that the request came from the enemy: a Roman official. The passage tells us that Jesus assented.   

How do we welcome the enemy? Do we minister to them or avoid them? Note that Jesus did not play favorites. He healed those who came to him in faith: Jew or Roman, slave or free, male or female.  In Christ there is no East or West, nor is there race, gender, color, creed, sexual orientation, or economic status.

As Christians, do we extend the balm of healing simply in the name of Jesus?

Can We Bear It?

Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."  John 16:12

Unretouched Photograph "God: Off the Coast of New Zealand"                 Rose Surgay

I am still reveling in the mystery of Pentecost, that is, the extraordinary arrival of the Holy Spirit as s/he came crashing into the hearts of the disciples that day in Jerusalem so many years ago.  We busy, literate, 21st century Christians do not cope well with mystery. We prefer facts, proof. Perhaps Jesus addresses the likes of us in this 16th chapter of John:  "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."

What would it take for us to bear the great Truths? To accept the great Mystery? Is Truth and Mystery so gut crunchingly wonderful that we dare not ingest it? Might we drown from drinking the Living Waters of astonishing purity?  What holds us back?

Mystery demands we believe ourselves to be made in the image and likeness of God. Mystery demands that we accept our belovedness. Perhaps Jesus was right; it is all too much for us to bear. It is easier for us to accept the labels the culture adheres to us. Tragic.

Draw near. Consider the Mystery. Allow it to swirl in your head. And pray that we will be able to bear it, one day. 

The Fear Trap

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…. Romans 8: 14-15

"Earworms of Doubr"  Michelle Walka

"All who are led by the Spirit are children of God."  That is what we are: Children of God. As such, much is required of us and much is given us.  Sometimes, though, we forget whose we are and fall into Satan’s snare – the fear trap. The fear trap subtly uncoils its tentacles and draws it unto itself with the earworms of doubt, self-hatred, and unworthiness; thoughts that we are not good enough, or strong enough, or faithful enough to be children of God.

But remember, God always wins! Just as the Holy Spirit rushed in at Pentecost to fill the disciples with itself, the Spirit of God, when faced with the devil’s tentacles, rushes in and beckons to us. The Spirit softly yet persistently whispers to us that we are God’s own beloved ones: loved, cherished, worthy and enough.  

Our task is to become attuned to that voice, to train our ears to be aware of its quiet persistence.  In doing so, we will hear the Spirit of Love and able to defeat the trap of fear.   

Praying for the Future

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.     John 17: 20-21

                                                                  "Argus"                        Salvador Dali c. 1963

The first thing that strikes me here in this passage from John’s Gospel is that Jesus prayed for his disciples.  I don’t know why this surprises me, but it does.  And more surprising still is that Jesus goes on to pray for all of us who would one day become his disciples!  We are in this fellowship of Christ that we call “The Church” because Jesus prayed for us!

So now I’m wondering about prayer existing without the limitations of time and space. In other words, Jesus was praying for the generations who would come after him. Prayers for the future of humanity.  How often do we pray for the generations that are to come after us? If our Lord did, then we ought to give it a try.

How boldly might we pray if we prayed that our children’s grandchildren might inherit a world that is safer, cleaner, and more beautiful than the one in which we now live.   “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, I pray that they may also be in us….”

Pray for our future.

God's Blessings

The Reading:

The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.  Psalm 67:6




I've been visiting the Morton Arboretum 2-3 times a week this month. The landscapes change daily at this time of year, from the spring beauties that quietly creep into bloom and litter the forest floor with their delicate petals to the glorious abundance that explodes onto the landscape when the crabapples begin to bloom.  A profusion of miracles -- every day, when we take time to notice. 

This verse from the psalm reminds us to look for God's increase and to seek out God's blessings every day.  For it is the spiritual side of ourselves that births transformation. Crossing items off our temporal  "to-do" lists may bring temporary satisfaction, but will never transform us.  Transformation occurs only when we remember that God is the author of all miracles and the provisioner of the grace which blesses us every day. . 

May God, our own God, bless us this day. 

Labels

The Reading: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying,..Three men from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.  Acts 11: 2-4, 11-12

“The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.” We are so human; so prone to labeling others. It starts when we are young, as we naively become aware of who “brings” vs. who “buys” lunch. During this election year, the candidates use separatist pronouns such as  “they” or “them” to garner support. Those fundamentalists. Those Muslims. Those immigrants. Those liberals. Those rednecks. Labels make it easy to dismiss entire groups of people, and we are lured into forgetting that each person is a beloved child of God.  Taken to its extreme and most nefariously, labels have been used to assign value to human beings, defining who is  “in” and who is “out” as happened in Nazi Germany and in Rwanda.  Yet each one of us is made in God’s image and beloved by God. This lesson from Acts makes it clear that it takes neither the mark of circumcision nor a special diet to enter into the Body of Christ. There is great freedom in Christ. Love God. Love one another. That’s it. Every time we find ourselves dismissing and labeling a group of people, we must examine our motives. For we are all one in Christ Jesus, and the Spirit calls us “not to make a distinction between them and us.”

Recognizable

The Reading: 
My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”   John 10: 27-30

I struggle with this passage. There have been times when I’ve not been sure of the Shepherd’s voice — or known, exactly, what I’m listening for. There have been times when I’ve sat primly in a pew and wondered whether the shepherd knew me at all. But then? Then that still, small voice whispers: “No one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Hindsight is 20-20. There have been incidences when I was ripe for snatching and times when I probably deserved it. I’ve been retrieved from those gaping jaws and drawn into the arms of the holy of holies more than once. Grace led me there.

To know the sweetness of the nectar when we come to believe that the Shepherd recognizes us is the culmination of a life in faith. To gulp thirstily when we recognize the Shepherd’s voice is primal. And when God carries us through times of trial or dances with us during times of celebration? That is like drinking from God’s own cup.

It is the nectar of Truth that bids us return.

Blindness

Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Acts 9: 8-9

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus, met his fate as he approached Damascus. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

You’ve heard the story: Suddenly Saul’s eyes were covered with scales and he was blinded for three days. During this time, he realized his utter dependence on others; realized his helplessness. It became a moment of conversion.

God calls to us in our faithlessness and in our blindness. Let us not assume it is not God calling. Let us, in faith, recognize the call so that the scales might fall from our eyes and that we might see where the Lord has need of us.