The Human Side of Jesus

The Human Side of Jesus

In reading Matthew 15:21-28, we run across a Jesus who is very Jewish, very tribal, in fact, very human.  He is approached by a Canaanite woman looking for a favor, looking for healing, looking for the Lord to act on her behalf.  “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is tormented by a demon, please heal her.”  Instead of the answer we might expect from the one sent into the world so that “the whole world might be saved,” we get “I am sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”

 At this point, the woman kneels before Jesus and pleads, “Lord Help me,” to which Jesus replies, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  For goodness sakes, the Lord of Heaven and Earth is comparing a distraught mother and her child to dogs.  Calmly she replies, “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.  Convicted of his human blindness (in my humble opinion) Jesus responds, “Woman, great is your faith, let it be done to you as you wish.” As scripture then tells us, “her daughter was healed instantly.

This is such an important passage in our Scriptures, because we often get so wrapped up in the Godness of Jesus that we forget his Humanity.  The fact is that if Jesus is not human, then nothing he does would matter:  relationships, suffering, death.  If Jesus were only God, suffering would not really be suffering and death would not be a big deal.  After all he will be back soon.  If Jesus were only God, human relationships would be irrelevant since I believe one has to be human to understand what they could mean and how complicated they can sometimes be. 

As a Human Being, Jesus was not born (again in my opinion) knowing all that humans have to learn over a life time by trial and error.  He would not have needed his vision expanded or his boundaries enlarged.  As it is, the Canaanite woman was able to draw Jesus into an experience in which his view of the world was expanded and his blindness to God’s overall plan for Him was taken away.  The human side of Jesus had a limited vision of his mission: only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  Through this woman, Jesus was able to see the larger vision of his mission, ministry and life.  Her faith and vision helped Jesus be open to and find his larger vision.

If Jesus’ mission and vision can evolve and grow, surely ours can too.  Our interactions with other people can open our eyes to see more and better.  To recognize who my neighbor is and who my family is.  We can ask ourselves questions such as, are Central American children coming to the United States Illegal Aliens or Refugees?  Are they children of God and neighbors who need our help to escape hunger, slavery and war, or are they thieves intent on stealing our birthright?  These are simple questions with complicated answers.  Did Jesus come only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, or did he come that “the whole world might be saved?”

To answer these questions it is important that we as human beings keep ourselves informed, which includes listening to the opinions of those with whom we disagree.  It is also crucial that we, the Church, remember that the world contains “all sorts and conditions of people,” and that, for better or worse, they/we are all Children of God.

If Jesus can learn from a person a Jewish man should never listen to, a foreign woman, from whom can we learn?  If Jesus, our Lord can change his mind about who to heal and love, about what can we change our minds?  If Jesus came that we might have life in all its abundance, can we live in a manner that others may have this life as well?

“Can we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves?”

Slowing Down the Mind, Experiencing the Presence of God

Slowing Down the Mind, Experiencing the Presence of God

After a busy half week in North Alabama full of fun and people and things to do, I am sitting at my desk/dinning room table in Central Alabama watching it rain slowly on the lake.  The leaves on the trees are changing colors and there is a touch (just a touch) of fall in the air.  I am “supposed” to be turning a sermon into a blog post and reviewing Medicare part D and Supplemental information so that my wife and I can “do what needs to be done.”  Instead the rain, as it often does, has made me pensive.  Like so many human beings my brain often takes off at high speed to figure out everything that needs to be done in my life, including some things that really do not need to be done at all.  At times I convince myself that everything that needs to be done needs to be done right now, and probably by me. 

It is days like today that remind me, and hopeful some of you as well, that life is a gift and that if we can slow our bodies down and our minds down at times, that we can appreciate and enjoy that gift even more.  There is so much beauty in this world: the lakes, the trees, the mountains and hills, and the people in our lives.  On a day like today I can enjoy the beauty without having to do anything to change it, or fix it, or make it better and more beautiful.  I can think about my friends and family members and experience the emotions I feel when I am in their presence.  I can reflect on how much they mean to me and how my life is better because they are in my it.  I can even reflect on the times I have hurt others or others have hurt me and turn all the hurt over to God.  I can ask forgiveness for the hurts I have caused and let go of the hurt I have received.  (I do recognize that prayer and good therapy can be necessary as well.)

There are places for me to go today and people for me to see, but this peaceful interlude might just change how I treat the people I meet and perhaps even how I treat myself.

Remember, it was in the ‘Still small voice” that Elijah knew God, and it was in the quite places when he was alone that Jesus was able to commune with God the Creator, thus renewing His strength for His journey.  I pray that today you and I will also find blessing and peace, strength and courage.

Knit Together in the Mystical Body of Christ

Knit Together in the Mystical Body of Christ

Revelation 7:9-17

After this I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. . . .They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

The Feast of All Saints/All Souls is an occasion of both joy and reflection and sometimes sadness for those of us who are the church, who are the People of God.  The reading from the Revelation of John sums up for us what it means to be connected to one another and the communion of Saints in what we call that “great cloud of witnesses.”  We are truly a great multitude, an inclusive multitude from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages.  We are who we are because of those who have gone before us and because they shared their faith and their love and their lives with us.

On these two days we intentionally remember those “saints,” famous and not so famous, who have “proclaimed by word and deed, the good news of God in Christ,” who have taught us how to live and in some cases, have taught us how to die.  We particularly remember those family members and friends who have died, and we stop to thank God for their presence in our lives.  Yes there will be tears, but as the writer of the book of Revelation assures us, “the Lamb of God will guide us to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

As we enter into these two holy days I encourage all of you to take the time to meditate on those important relationships in your lives, to live with the tears as well as the laughter and the joy, and to offer all of these feelings and emotions to God.

On Sunday, November the 2^nd, at Christ Church we will lift up these “Saints” and our emotions to God.  Those who would like will be invited to come forward to light a candle in memory of some of those who through the grace of God made us who we are.  It truly is a time to celebrate our lives as the people of God.

“Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy.  We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.”

Love God, Love Your Neighbor

Love God, Love Your Neighbor 

Many Christians are aware that Jesus did not “invent” the Great Commandment, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and mind, and love you neighbor as yourself.”  (Matthew 22: 37-40)  They understand that the teaching is from a combination of Leviticus 19:18, “you shall love your neighbor,” and Deuteronomy 6:5, “you shall love the Lord your  God. . . .”  Jesus did know the interconnection of these two commandments.  That we cannot have one without the other, “that if we love God we must love our neighbor,” or as the Letter of James states, “we are liars.”  They became the core of his teaching and his mission.

I want to look at Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and reflect on what it might mean to love our neighbor today.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. 

I believe loving our neighbor might just have something to do with being holy as God as Holy; with walking in Love as Christ loves us and gave himself as an offering and sacrifice to God, of truly loving both God and neighbor 

According to Leviticus 19, loving our neighbor means not showing preference to either poor or rich.  That might entail welcoming all into our churches as well as encouraging fair business practices, including a fair salary for a fair day’s work. 

Loving our neighbor will include “not hurting our kin,” and since all of God’s children are kin, we are called not to hurt one another; to work for justice, freedom and peace.  We are also called not to slander, not to build ourselves up by putting others down, and not to gossip about others.  The letter of James also deals with the dangers of a loose tongue as well.  Loving our neighbor might even involve some restraint in how we talk about politicians with whom we disagree.  Hopefully this includes not putting rash and often inaccurate “sound bites” on social media. 

Loving our neighbor means not profiting by their blood, whether that be unfair labor practices or literal rape, murder or other physical harm.  If we love our neighbor, we will encourage “right relationships, while at the same time realizing that we cannot fix all people and all problems.  We will, in fact, “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and will respect the dignity of every human being.” (The Baptismal Covenant, Book of Common Prayer, pp. 304-305)

 

Sometimes it just takes a good Hebrew prophet to help is see Jesus’ teaching in a new light.

 

 

But Some Doubted

But Some Doubted 

Thank God for “Doubting Thomas!”  At least once a year it is important for me, and perhaps others, to be honest about, in fact, to celebrate doubting.  Thomas, I believe, gets a bad rap.  The other disciples had experienced the presence of the risen Christ while Thomas was away and were understandably excited to tell Thomas that “they had seen the Lord.”  Just as understandably, Thomas had his doubts, and expressed them.  A week later, Thomas was present when Jesus appeared again to the disciples and despite his bold proclamation that he would not believe until he had touched the wounds, he believed the minute Jesus called him by name. 

The key to this story, however, is the last statement Jesus makes: “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who haven’t seen and yet have come to believe” (John 20:28-29).  The question for us today in this statement of Jesus is, “how can I believe in the risen Lord without the benefit of a resurrection appearance?  For Thomas, faith came by hearing the word of the risen one address him personally.  For those who come afterward, faith comes through hearing the Risen One speak through his followers, including us, even if we at times have our own doubts. 

At times I sense that the theme of our faith journey is “seeing and not seeing, believing and doubting.   Some saw Jesus after the resurrection and believed; some did not see Jesus in the tomb and believed; and some saw Jesus and did not recognize him. Thomas did not see Jesus and doubted.   

Certainly some of Jesus’ disciples doubted: Judas betrayed him, and Peter, who swore he would never leave him, denied him three times; the eleven disciples went to Galilee with him, to the mountain to which Jesus directed them for the Ascension and “Matthew tells us that they worshiped Him, but some doubted.”  Some doubted?  Some?  There were only eleven of them.   So doubt began at the latest 40 days after the resurrection.  We are certainly in good company when we have doubts. 

What do seeing and not seeing, belief and doubt look like in the Christian community today?  Several experiences come to mind which I want to share with you and I hope you will share yours in responses and comments to this post.   

First, I know several pastors in different denominations who have doubts about some of the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, but cannot share these doubts with each other for fear of job loss or condemnation. 

 

As we get closer to home, closer to our own lives, I believe that if we are honest that most of us have had doubts:  doubts about God, Jesus, salvation, resurrection and many other matters of faith.  Some Christian’s even those who have doubts have been taught that doubt is a sin.  Others are ashamed that they have doubts and may even fear that they are losing their faith.  Personally, I believe that doubts actually strengthen our faith, that questions are very often more important than answers.  I also believe that there are Christians who discourage our doubts, either because they fear for our souls, or perhaps for their souls.  Again, doubting is good, questions lead to answers, which, of course lead to other questions.  But that is how we grow and change. 

At a conference years ago, a participant asked Roman Catholic Priest and writer, Andrew Greeley, why people could have doubts since there was so much proof of God in life, scripture and creation.  Fr. Greeley replied that the reason was that there is also so much proof in life, creation and even scripture that the opposite just might be true. 

I will share two other examples of the importance of doubt and questioning in my life and invite you to add yours in reply. 

Seven years ago we started a Bible Study at the church where I was Pastor.  The only ground rule was that everyone could ask or say anything they wanted without fear of being scorned, condemned or ignored.  The majority of people in the group had never before been given permission to ask questions or express doubts about their faith.  This fellowship has been a breath of fresh air ever sense and leads to the following story which changed my faith and my life forever.  

One of the most life changing experiences for me as a Pastor was a relationship with a young man who came to me to tell me he had lost his faith.  He said he did not believe everything that everyone else seemed to believe.  That he was not sure about the resurrection, the virgin birth and many of Jesus’ Miracles, but he loved God, he loved his church and his friends.  Through conversation and reading and honesty the young man came to realize that he did in fact have a true, living, growing and changing faith and that he was not alone in this congregation; that others, as well, had doubts and questions that had made them stronger, not weaker.  If we, the church are more willing to accept people where they are, to invite them into the fellowship of God’s Kingdom, without requiring them to be where we are on their faith journey, then perhaps we will all experience God’s presence and fullness of joy in ways we could never ask or imagine.

What If We Gave Up Division For Lent

What If We Gave Up Division For Lent 

In the Gospel of John 4:5-42 we read the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s well.  As I reflect on this story in the middle of the season of Lent, I wonder what lessons we can draw from this scripture.  Not just for the people of Jesus’ time, or even for the people living some seventy years later at the time the Gospel was written, but what lessons can we draw for those of us who live in another place and time.           

It seems to me that we can learn something from this confrontation about how and where to worship; about how to treat other people; and maybe even a little bit about who Jesus is. We may, in fact, learn something about our relationship to God and others in a world full if divisions and conflict.  How does our relationship with God affect our relationships with those with whom we differ or with whom we have honest, and at times, serious conflicts? 

To begin with, Jesus found himself, or perhaps put himself, in an awkward situation.  One in which he, a Jewish man, was with a person he should have ignored: a Samaritan and a woman.  The first major conflict to surface was about where to worship, about the validity and importance of one’s religion:  

^{1 9}The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you^* say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth . . . . 

It is so easy for us to believe that our understanding of faith, of who God is and how we relate to God is the one and only way.  I believe this confrontation about where to worship has a lot to say to 21^st Century people as well: that God is bigger than most of us believe God to be; that God is not a Christian and that other avenues of access to God are as valid as ours is and that there is certainly more than one way or one place in which and from which to worship God.  This is not to say that all religions are alike, but to say that, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father (God) in spirit and truth.”John 4:23 

This relationship with God leads directly into our relationship with others.  Jesus did talk to a woman and a Samaritan.  In fact, he talked with many Samaritans when they came out to see the man the woman told them about.  I believe Jesus has set us an example of how we are to treat and respect others, even when they differ from us in race, religion, sexuality, and politics.  We cannot change our race, our ethnicity, our gender, or our sexual orientation.  There are some things that are changeable but often with great difficulty: our religion, our political beliefs and our opinions.  What we can do in the latter cases is “love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and love our neighbor, and even the stranger, as ourselves.”  And yes, this includes not only Christians and Jews, but Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and Muslims.  Yes, even Muslims.  And no, they do not all want to destroy “us” anymore than all Christians or all Americans want to destroy them.   

Our world is complicated.  The world has always been complicated.  Our goal in a world like this is not to have all the truth, but to seek the truth wherever it may be found, and to “worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

The Unity and Beauty of Life

The Unity and Beauty of Life

Last week I wrote about the dualistic life as opposed to life as unity.  And yes, I recognize the irony in this statement.  In a forty-eight hour period just three days after posting that essay, several things happened in my life that pushed me further away from dualism (good-evil, right-wrong, saved-lost, I’m right-you’re wrong) toward an awareness of life in all of its profound, mysterious, challenging, sometimes frustrating and always powerful beauty and unity. 

In that forty-eight hour period my neighbor was flown to the Cleveland Clinic for a double lung transplant, I attended a retirement celebration for one of my High School classmates on the same day that two of our classmates died, and I received a marriage announcement from two of my (gay) friends in Utah.  When I returned home on Friday evening I sat on my deck looking at the lake and letting this events float around in my mind.  I did not try to make sense of the apparent dualism: life-death, good-bad, happy-sad of the events or issues.  I simply allowed them to form a jigsaw puzzle in my mind and heart so I could see these things as a tapestry with all the colors and shapes and sizes of the pieces of life.  A life that for all of us, is a gift.  A life where we often struggle, where most of us most of the time do the best we can.  A life in which we can feel blessed and cursed, frustrated and uplifted, enlightened and confused at one and the same time. 

My neighbor, who has been suffering from a severe lung disease for over two years will be able to be healthier and more active than he has in a long time.  At the same time, it was the death of a stranger who made this possible.  Is this a case of good and bad, of joy and sorrow?  In a way one could see it like this, but a holistic vision of life sees the connection of life and death, the truth in Jesus’ parable that a seed planted in the ground dies, but by that death produces more life.  My neighbor and his family are joyful and another family is grieving the loss of a loved one.  But, they are also aware that their loss has given life to many, many other people and brought joy and hope to them and their families. 

As many of us attended the retirement celebration for our classmate, word spread that two other classmates, lifelong friends had died.  Yes we had mixed emotions!  We were happy for our retiring friend, and we were sad and prayerful for those who had died.  We had known all three of these people since elementary school, in fact, our retiring friend and I were First Grade classmates.  It was good that we were together for her retirement, and unplanned we were able to mourn the loss of our two friends who had died.  We were able to see the vastness of life, the shortness of life and the importance of the relationships we had shared for over 60 years.  As a class we had been through marriages and divorces, the Viet Nam war where some had served and others had been war protesters, the birth of children and grandchildren and the death of children and spouses.  We had shared the hopes and dreams of one another and of our generation, our successes and failures and have found that life is a gift, a gift to be shared, a gift to be lived on the field and not on the sidelines.  As the Statler Brothers’ song of the same title states: “The Class of 57 Had Its Dreams.”  We are not the class of ’57, we are the Class of ’66, but we too had and have our dreams, and we had and we have each other, and having each other we have helped one another see the wholeness, the mystery and the vastness of life.  We continue to learn to cherish this life, to live every day as if it is our last and to share it lovingly will all those around us. 

And finally in this one forty-eight hour period I was able to celebrate with joy and by mail the marriage of my two male friends, and their love and commitment.  A few years ago, in fact just a year ago in Utah, they would not have been able to publically make this commitment to one another.  I know there are many people, though fewer and fewer every day, who still feel that they should not have been able to do so.  Their marriage is for some a remnant of dualistic thinking, of right and wrong.  For others it is a sign of hope for a future in which all men and women are created equal.  Whatever one believes about their marriage, it is still very much a part of the beautiful tapestry of life in which we have all been blessed to be born.  To see the pictures on the wedding announcement, the smiles on the faces of Kevin and Rex and their friends is a reminder that life is full of joy, that even though we may not understand everything that happens or everyone who lives on this earth, that we are inextricably bound together in one “great family:” the human family and the family of God.  As a friend of mine often reminds me, “we are all sons and daughters of the King.” 

The title of this blog is “Change an Invitation to Life.”  Life is constantly changing, constantly flowing like a river.  We step into that river with our preconceptions, our talents, relationships, hopes and dreams, and then the river takes us where it will, brings us into contact with all sorts and conditions of people and leads us into a life that is more than we could ever ask for or imagine.