I Give My Heart To

I Give My Heart To 

“On the evening of the first day of the week Jesus stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he showed the disciples his hands and his feet.”  He then told them that he was sending them out as the Father had sent him, and here is the important part, “He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit.’”  Not a bad gift to receive from Jesus on the day of His Resurrection. 

“A week later he appeared to them again, and Thomas, who had not been with them the first time, was there with them. If you remember the story, you remember that Thomas had boasted that he would not believe until he put his fingers in the nail holes and his hand in the hole in Jesus’ side.  When Thomas saw Jesus, his response was simply, “my Lord and my God.”  Jesus’ response was important not only to Thomas and the other disciples but to us as well. “You believe because you have seen, but more blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” 

As God sent Jesus to bear witness to God and to lead us back into right relationship with God and Each other, Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit to empower us to lead others back into these two right relationships, to by co-workers with Jesus in building the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven.  This is truly our calling to be the Body of Christ in the World.  To do the business Jesus did in the world.  And what is that business?  Do you remember what the 12 year old Jesus told his parents when they finally found him in the temple?  That’s right, “Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?  And what is that business?  The prophet Micah tells us that that business is “to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.” 

This business involves speaking “truth to power,” as Jesus did, because the truth is the “Good News,” the Gospel which Jesus came into the world to teach, but more importantly, what He came into the world to do and to show us how to do.  Our business as the body of Christ is to move ourselves and others from lies to truth, from greed to generosity.  Living into this truth can be difficult or dangerous as we see in the life of Jesus, but it can point the way to many wild and exciting possibilities.  

It may mean standing up to our government, to our churches and other religious institutions and to our friends who do not understand us or why we are doing what we do.  The truth to which we are led by the Holy Spirit will allow us, or perhaps force us, to let Jesus out of the box we sometimes put him in.  This truth will prevent us from creating God in our own image so that God hates the same people we hate and likes the same people we like.  This truth will take us back again and again to Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown Synagogue. 

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to

the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the

blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’(Lk 4:18-19) 

The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth, but it also appears that this truth involves right living and right acting as well as, or more so, than right thinking and right believing.  Truth involves the true meaning of the Latin word for belief; Credo, I GIVE MY HEART TO.

 

 

 

 

 

A God Who Visits

A God Who Visits 

Yahweh is a God who visits!  Traditionally we think of God as Emmanuel, God with us, A God who visits.  Often we lean in the direction of a God who visits to punish, but I want to suggest that Yahweh is a God who visits in order to bring Salvation as well.  We see this in the ancient Prophets of Israel; in the Christ-event that brings life out of death, and in word and sacrament in the Church. 

Two stories, “the Widow of Zaraphath” in 1 Kings 17:8-24, and Widow of Nain in Luke 17:11-17, give us windows through which to view this God who visits. 

In both of these stories, the prophet, Elijah in one case and Jesus in the other resuscitate the only son of a widow and give the young man back to his mother.  I believe that these two stories convey a truth about God, that God is Lord over death, by means of a story rather than by means of history.  We can know this truth about God, even if we cannot know exactly what happened historically.  Whatever happened, I believe that the “more than literal truth” is the important message in both of these stories.  Taking a look at these stories may help us see the power of the presence of God in our lives and in our world, the importance of our God being “a God who visits.” 

In the Kings story, the prophet, Elijah, asks a poor widow to feed him even though she is preparing to share her last morsel with her son and then lay down to die.  Elijah assures her that she will not run out of flour or oil.  That God will care for her.  When the son dies, Elijah prays, both physically and spiritually, that God will restore the child’s life.  When, according to the story, the son is restored to life, Elijah gives him back to his mother.  The truth and power in this story come from the mother’s words to Elijah: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord is in your mouth is truth.” 

In the Luke 7 story, Jesus encounters a funeral procession in which a man, a widow’s only son, is being carried out to burial.  “Jesus raises him from the dead and gives him back to his mother.  The crowd glorifies God, Saying, “A great prophet has risen among us! God has looked favorably on his people!” 

Whatever happened historically, the truth in both of these powerful stories is found in the words of the Widow of Zarephath and in the words of the Crowd in the Village of Nain.  I  share them again with you. 

(Widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings): “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” 

(The Crowd in Nain): “A great prophet has risen among us! God has looked favorably on his people!” 

Again the truth about our God: The Lord is a God who visits, God is the Lord over death and therefore the God of life! 

Deaths and loses are a part of our lives, all of our lives.  Some can be overcome more easily than others, and some threaten to drag us down into depths we fear we cannot overcome.  These deaths can take the form of the actually death of loved ones, or the death of a relationship or a job that was vital to our life.  We can lose our hopes and our dreams, our physical abilities and other strengths.  Some will even lose their memories or their memory entirely, effectively dying while they are still alive.  

The God who is Lord over death, and thus life, is also with us in the daily deaths and loses of our lives.  This God visits us in the presence of friends who God has put into our lives, friends who do not have to know what to say, who do not have to say anything.  Their mere presence is enough.  God visits those visits us in the word and sacraments of our worship, whether Christian worship or the worship of other faiths.  And above all, God visits us in the form of the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to guide us, to give us wisdom and to lead us into all truth.

Psalm 146 communicates this presence of a God who visits in a very real and powerful way.

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
   I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

 

Do not put your trust in princes,
   in mortals, in whom there is no help.
⁴ When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
   on that very day their plans perish.

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
   whose hope is in the Lord their God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
   the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
⁷   who executes justice for the oppressed;
   who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;

⁸   the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
   the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
   he upholds the orphan and the widow,
   but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign for ever,
   your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

“Where’s The Church, Who Took The Steeple?”

“Where’s The Church, Who Took The Steeple?”

(With Apologies and Thanks to Jimmy Buffett) 

“Where’s the Church, who took the steeple, religion’s in the hands of some crazy ass people, television preachers with bad hair and dimples, the God’s honest truth is it’s not that simple.”  

These thought provoking words from singer/songwriter, and “theologian” Jimmy Buffett, along with the story of the healing of the Centurion’s servant in Luke 7:1-10 have led me into some serious reflection on my faith, Jesus and “who is in and who is out.”   

The Centurion, who is not a Jew, sends emissaries, Jewish Elders, to Jesus to ask a favor of him.  The elders point out to Jesus the faith of the centurion and his love for them, which includes the building of their synagogue.  Jesus has mentioned elsewhere in scripture that he has been sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” but he appears to have no problem in responding positively to the Centurion’s request.  Jesus’ actions seem to indicate that his purpose in coming to earth was more than just “helping us get to heaven.”  This passage of Scripture even opens up the question of the universality of Jesus’ ministry and therefore of the Christian Church today.  We are confronted with the question of Christian relationships with the 80% of the world’s population who are not Christian. 

The United States is certainly rife with religious pluralism.  Many Christians believe this is a good thing, and many Christians believe this is a very bad thing.  To quote Pontius Pilate, “what is truth?”  What do we believe, why do we believe what we believe and how do we live with those who believe differently?   

How, then, do we remain open to God’s movement among all people while remaining faithful to our relationship to God through Jesus Christ? 

I propose three steps.  You probably have others and I welcome those in response to this post.

·         First: What did Jesus Do?

o   He healed the Centurion’s Servant

o   He commented on the Centurion’s profound faith

o   He did not ask the Centurion to become a Jew 

·         Second: What do we see in the world?

o   The Alabama-West Florida District of Civitan International has asked me to be the Chaplain for the next Civitan year.  The incoming Governor reminded me that Civitan wants to make sure that in our prayers we remember that all Civitans are not Christians.  The Governor-Elect’s wife assured him that as an Episcopalian, I would probably be alright with that.

o   Some Radio and TV preachers proclaim loudly that those who do not believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior are going to eternal punishment.  And unbelieving relatives of believers will spend eternity separated from their loved ones as well as from God. 

o   In short, the world gives us mixed messages. 

·         Third: What does Scripture say?

(Scripture can, of course, say almost anything and I have my preferences as much as anyone)

o   Isaiah 56:6-8: The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant—these I will draw to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. . . .for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 

o   John 3:16-18: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not parish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 

o   Luke 4:18-19: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 

The three scriptures I included give us several points to consider.  The reading from Isaiah suggests that God cares for all people. That God wants them to follow him, to serve him, and that all who do are welcome in “God’s House,” “A House of Prayer for all people.” 

John 3:16-18 gives me assurance of God’s love for me and for all of God’s people and that the possibility of eternal life is open to all of us.  It does get sticky and confusing when it suggests that the world might be saved through him and then hastens to add that if we do not believe in him we are, in fact, condemned already.  I am willing to believe that God can save the world for all, even those who are not followers of Jesus.  This is certainly a point where Christians of Good will can and will disagree. 

And finally, Luke 4:18-19, where Jesus quotes Isaiah, explaining God’s mission for him as Jesus understands it: bringing good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, what one might just call the Kingdom of God.  It appears to me that Jesus’ mission as well as our own will include action on Earth as well as a desire to “go to heaven.” 

I close with a reminder that the word, believe, comes from the Latin word, “credo,” which does not mean to accept specific facts as true. Rather, “credo” means to “give one’s heart to.”  It seems to me that rather than having “right theology or right facts,” that “giving one’s heart to God is a much better starting place for our faith, including our relationship to God’s other Children.