Being Good

The LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone;                                                                  I will make him a helper as his partner."   Genesis 2:18

                                        Study of Hands                       V. Van Gogh                       

During the creation of the world, God paused at the end of each day to assess what had been created and deemed it “good.”  What a shock, then, to hear God deeming man alone as “not good.”  Forget all the Adam and Eve jokes you’ve heard for a minute and consider this one line, for it epitomizes the wisdom of all biblical teachings.  This one short line in the very beginning of Genesis epitomizes, for me, the essence of the entire Bible. 

It is not good for us to be alone.  We need each other. 

This is far broader than a simple statement about marriage or coupling; it is an instruction for life. Ours is not a faith that is focused on our own spiritual growth; ours is a community that nurtures our growth. We need others – helpers – to accompany and assist us as we grow into the full stature of Christ.  

Two questions:  

Who are your helpers?

Who might be in need of your help? 

Complaining

The Israelites wept again, and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."   Numbers 11:4-6

                                       Fruit                 Igor Bragin, 2010

The Israelites are at it again. They cried out to God in their misery, and God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. They cried out to Yahweh in their hunger, and God sent them manna. And in this week’s passage, they cry out because they are tired of manna, remembering only the lavish produce in Egypt. They had forgotten the beatings and the ridiculous quotas levied upon them by their Egyptian masters.

How is it with us? Is the grass always greener somewhere else? Do we fall into self-pity and forget the provisions God has bequeathed to us? The readings next week tell of a whiny, complaining people. They highlight humanity’s propensity for finding fault, for forgetting the beauty of the present moment.

This week, let us remember to pause. To consider not those things we lack, but all that we do have. To raise a loud shout to God in praise of God’s creation and in thanksgiving for our place in it.

Yes, now. Do it now.  

Gentleness and Mercy

For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.      James 3: 16-17

Most of us strive for peacful lives; we do not aspire to “disorder and wickedness of every kind.” Here, James offers Christians a dire warning against envy and selfish ambition.  

Given our Puritan forbears, the idea of God as “gentle and willing to yield” may surprise us. My grandparents, raised at the end of the Victorian era, preached strict obedience and proper solemnity when it came to life and work and worship.  They were unfeignedly comfortable with the metaphor of God as Rock: immutable, permanent, stalwart. A mighty bulwark.... Right?

James suggests another perspective.  Think of God’s wisdom as poured out among us like streams of living water. It is the antithesis of rigidity.  James calls it “pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”  Think about it: God’s wisdom without a trace of partiality and hypocrisy? Oh, Lord, let it be so!  

How might our relationships with God and with each other change if we cast aside all the “thou shalt nots” and, instead approached life gently, kindly, willing to yield, and without partiality or hypocrisy? Oh Lord, let it be so!

The Mighty Member

So also the tongue is a small member; how great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.                James 3:5, 9-10

                                       The Tongue      Nadia Ayari c.2012

This week, James ruminates on the power of the tongue. He muses over the fact that such a small body part can both bless and curse. We are simultaneously saints and sinners.

    

Think back for a moment. What statements made to you do you remember from years past? Do you remember the hurtful ones or the encouraging ones? I think we tend to remember the former more viscerally. Was it a parent? A teacher? A school yard bully? A sibling? For me it was something an aunt said to me on my wedding day that made me feel “not okay.” The memory of it still stings.

  

We cannot un-ring the bell. We cannot take back words once they slide forth from our mouths.  We can use our speech to impale and to spread lies, or we can use our speech to bless, strengthen and encourage. 

This week, let us initiate a new conversation with God. Let us ask for forgiveness for those times we used our tongues as weapons and ask for the fortitude and discipline to use them now only for the greater good: for the building up of the body of Christ and for the realization of the Kingdom.       

Be Opened!

Jesus said, “Ephphatha! Be opened.”  Mark 7:34

When I was discerning for Holy Orders, I remember hoping God would just give me a sign or something – something to tell me I was walking down the right path. “Please just send me an e-mail,” I often whined. I never expected that I’d have some monumental religious experience like the appearance of a tower of flames and a voice saying, “Liz……? It’s God…….”  I knew better.  But discernment is such an ephemeral thing, and we rarely know specifically what God wants us to do or what paths to pursue. God just isn’t into e-mail yet, I guess.  

In this week’s Gospel, we will encounter the passage about Jesus healing a man who was deaf. “Ephphatha! Be opened,” Jesus says.  And that command got me to thinking.  What if our eyes and ears and hearts were really opened and not distracted by the white noise that surrounds us day after day? What would happen if we were really opened? Opened to differing opinions? Opened to different perspectives? Opened to new neighborhoods and cultures? I think we’d be astonished.                                                                                                                                             

What if your eyes and ears and hearts were really opened – for just one day?                                    
What would change?