Beatitude

It Takes A Congregation

How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? You know where that normally goes. They form a committee, then decide to study the matter and discover it's really not about the switch, it's more about the essence of light... and perhaps we could consider the light of God instead of physical light, etc. But here's where I'll go with it today, thinking about whole new light fixtures and bulbs: It takes the whole congregation. At Westminster Presbyterian Church, Olympia, Washington, we've watched the drama unfold over 20 years. The congregation turned on the lights this summer. God inspired us, challenged us, encouraged us and then showed us the final steps. These days, every time I flip a switch, I picture 20 years of faithful worshipers. In know these faithful worshipers will be the hosts to thousands of guests and that Christ will be our host each day. It takes a congregation.

Aligning our Treasure

When Jesus spoke "“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom," in Luke 12:32, he was helping his followers, and by extension us, to learn to trust. It is a good time to learn that trust. We've seen a great deal of wealth moth-eaten recently. My suggestion is to take some of the wealth we've trusted, give it away and watch what happens. In the mean time we'll have more time to pray, shifting our trust from things to God. I admit it's a risky challenge. But I think we in America need to take a careful look at what we're doing with our possessions. We're probably not at risk for trusting God too much and our wealth too little. Are we?

Stewards of Unity

 When Jesus prays in John 17:20-26 that “they all may be one” we can often become discouraged over the fragmented nature of the church. We are perhaps hyper-conscious of the fragments; a schism over here, a church fight over there, the presence of many denominations and the looming threat of further divisions among those denominations. But the prayer of Jesus in John 17 is not a command to us so much as an example of Christ’s trust in God.

I find it powerful to think about how God is answering Christ’s prayer today. So my approach runs like this: Notice where people seem to get together to do something good. Wonder about how God is involved in this emerging unity. For the most part, where there is unity, there is God helping people get together and be a blessing to the world. Because the unity is initiated by God we don’t have to assume that we are responsible for making it happen. We are simply stewards of what God has stirred up.

Certainly, faithful people must discern whether God is involved in one endeavor or another. But when we notice that God has offered an answer to Christ’s prayer “that all may be one” by presenting the opportunity to work together, then our task is to gratefully cooperate with the cooperation.

Standing in the River of Grace

In Acts 11:1-18 Peter is called upon to explain to the Jerusalem council why he ate with and baptized Gentiles. Peter had been through a great deal to get to the point of doing so. It came to him even through great perplexity and his own resistance. Two independent visions and a series of miraculous coincidences combined with some authentic religious experience and a deep reflection on scripture; these and about 80 miles of travel helped transform Peter, and through him the church into a multi-racial, multi-cultural movement. 

To me it is as though Peter was standing in the middle of the spring runoff where tributaries had overflowed their banks and come together. Peter could look and see the waters of grace flowing for the Gentiles and he could also recognize the waters of grace flowing for his fellow Jews. He simply responded by baptizing his new Gentile friends in those same waters. Those in the Jerusalem council could not see the other half of the flowing waters until Peter showed them. Then “they praised God.” 

We stand in the same spring runoff. A multitude of people experience such grace flowing. The church needs to find a way to welcome them. They are of many races and many persuasions. They are young and old, popular and friendless, rich and poor, sick and strong. God loves and embraces people. All people. And I just think the church can get to be too much like the Jerusalem council before Peter tells them about the grace he witnessed. Do you think we could more effectively reach out and welcome a larger variety of people?

Seeing Differently

 When we take a look at the whole chapter of John 20 it challenges us to see the world in a different light. It is easy enough to be confused, to be sorrowful, or afraid, or simply disbelieving in this world. That’s where we live. I live there too. Sometimes I find myself going down a path of fear and worry much like the disciples who, on Sunday evening, locked themselves inside for fear.

What changed the disciples’ minds on that first Easter and on the following week in Thomas’ case was the presence of the risen Lord. To a person they struggled to believe what seemed impossible. They had witnessed the horrific event of the death of their rabbi. To come to terms with the reality that he was no longer dead but talking to them required seeing life differently.

It requires the same of us. Now the world, the universe, life, death, all things are open to God’s new life. When the risen Christ appears amidst my fear and worry I must choose. Do I believe in the path of fear or the path of life? How will I function if my worst fears end not as I suppose, but instead in life and love and forgiveness? The greatest challenge for us is not so much dealing with betrayal, jealousy, death and darkness as it is in seeing life in terms of resurrection.

Fortunately Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit. Christ has breathed upon us and enabled us to receive life. And looking through the lens of resurrection, whoa… it’s a whole new world out there!

Whom Are You Looking For?

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb looking not for Jesus, but simply for a place to grieve in John 20:1-18. She told others about the empty tomb with the assumption that Jesus’ body was stolen, not that he had risen. She is still convinced that Jesus’ dead body has been placed somewhere else, as she weeps outside the tomb. Then the resurrected Jesus speaks to her and she can’t see him as Jesus. Even though she looks right at him, she thinks he’s the gardener. Jesus asks her the question: “Whom are you looking for?” Evidence has it that she wasn’t actually looking for the living Jesus. That would have been too much to ask of someone who had just been crucified.

This is true for most of us. Daily you and I look resurrection in the face and don’t see it. My faith is too reasonable. I expect the life and death cycle to be reliable and predictable. The normalcy of life and death, anger and hatred, wars and crime, disbelief and defeat are commonplace and reinforce our expectations. They also blind us to the very abnormal and out-of-the-ordinary divine act of resurrection.

Mary recognized Jesus when he called her name. This text was not written to remind Mary of the event, but to show us of its truth today. Jesus calls our name just as Jesus called Mary’s. The opportunity is open for us to accept resurrection life; to open our hearts to Christ’s life. This challenges us to live not according to death, and all its relatives like hatred, wars, and crime; but instead to live according to life, love, peacemaking, justice, faith and hope. I submit that it’s not a one-time deal. We need frequently to turn to the risen Christ. I’m praying that I can keep turning toward the one who calls my name. How about you?

Love in the Company of the Resurrected

In John 12:1-8 at a dinner just after Lazarus was raised from the dead Mary, Lazarus’ sister, pours aromatic oil on Jesus’ feet and wipes the excess away with her hair. The gesture was as rich as the oil was expensive. The room was filled with the scent of her love and hope.

Another witness to the same events was Judas. Nothing of Mary’s love and appreciation existed in his mind. He was bent on accumulating as much money in the disciples’ mission fund as possible for the sole reason of stealing from it. Further he was just about to betray Jesus to the local authorities who would eventually crucify him.

Notice the contrast of minds: one loving and grateful, the other greedy and malcontent; one scented the room with love and resurrection, the other fouled the room with criminal intent. They had witnessed the same Jesus, yet could scarcely be more opposite.

Do the chain of thoughts you create result in love, hope and resurrection… or something closer to greed and death? We all have quite a bit of latitude concerning where our thoughts go and how they end up. Does Mary inspire you to see things a little differently?

See, Everything Has Become New

Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 that we are made new through Christ. We have been reconciled before God and sparked into a new creation. And so, his reasoning goes, with that new life intact we are the ones to bring God’s reconciliation to others, “God making his appeal through us…” Do you see that all things are new like this? It’s really a pretty elusive task. Sometimes I just don’t have the right frame of mind.

Our imaginations need to be stocked with such a vision. Poets know how to do this. One was Gerard Manley Hopkins who declares in the poem, God’s Grandeur, that “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” and that even though we do a pretty good job of messing creation up, “… for all this, nature is never spent; / There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; / And though the last lights off the black West went / Oh morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--/ Because the Holy Ghost over the bent / World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

Another is Langston Hughes who wrote in I Dream a World that he did, in fact, dream a world “Where love will bless the earth / And peace its paths adorn...” and “…joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind.”

And Antonio Machado wrote in the poem Last Night, as I was Sleeping “…that I had a beehive / here inside my heart. / And the golden bees / were making white combs / and sweet honey / from my old failures.”

So with their help and with Paul’s vision of a new creation we are asked to re-think what is handed to us from day to day. We are asked to see grandeur in tear soaked faces, and the joy of first light. We are asked see the seeds of peace in our last social rift, and just how it is that God re-works—reconciles—our old failures. Do you see it? It’s…. it’s… just… there, it flames “out, like shining from shook foil…”

If You Were a Fig Tree

In Luke 13:1-9 Jesus proclaims an unequivocal “no” to the question “Are disasters inflicted on people as punishment for sin?” Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fluke accidents, and criminal acts do not come to humanity under God’s orders to punish us.

But Jesus does call us to recognize that life can come to an abrupt end especially if you’re not ready to meet your maker. Recognize that much of our religious practice is designed to help us to notice that life is short and sometimes dangerous, and the best way to reconcile ourselves to that fact is to live in cooperation with God’s ways.

Most of us will say that we are not ready to meet our maker. We haven’t quite put our affairs in order or taken the necessary steps to live faithfully. Passages such as this encourage us to live so that God can strengthen us, nourish us and thus help us to be just, generous, and caring. Here’s the question: If you were that fig tree and given one more year to bear fruit, what would you do? Because in effect, we are, each one, that fig tree.

Notice the gardener, who is the one in the story taking initiative to make fruitfulness possible!

Faith in the Face of Fear

The Psalmist of Psalm 27 acknowledges fear while living a faithful life. He says, “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear…” After a few readings it becomes apparent that this song struggles through some fearsome life-experiences while reaching, perhaps even desperately, for new confidence. Encounters with adversaries, false witnesses, and wars still end with: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” We may not be so very different from this ancient author. We encounter many fears, including war. It seems to me that we are less inclined to persist with faith, seems we need to be more tenacious in our discipline to have faith.

 

The daily watch is key. In your practice of faith, see what this yields: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”