“All You Need Is Love”

Since the development of human speech, poets, prophets, preachers and performers have been talking about, singing about and proclaiming love. In the 1960’s we heard “All you need is love” and “I love him, I love him and where he goes I’ll follow,” and many other songs and poems about love. Of course, the Bible proclaims love in many of its various books: Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” and Luke 10:27-28, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

About 100 A.D., a teacher of the Johanine School (1 John 4:7-21) proclaimed,

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

The teacher goes on to proclaim that, “as God is so are we in this world.” That is, if God is love, then we too are love in this world!” And after God’ promise, the challenge: “those (of you) who say, I love God, and hate your brothers or sisters are liars. For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” “The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

And who are our brothers and sisters? I believe they are the same people Jesus describes as neighbor in his parable of the Good Samaritan related in Luke 10:29-37.  I share with you a “Southern Version” of that Parable, as told to me by the protagonist who I will call “Reverend Bob.”

In the late 1960’s Rev. Bob was pastor of a small, Southern, rural Methodist church. He was invited to lead the devotion at a Klan Rally. He was picked up, blindfolded and driven into the mountains where the paved road turned into a dirt road. At the end of the dirt road he was lead down a foot path to the circle where the cross was burning, at which point the blind fold was removed. He began to preach, telling a story of a black man who drove his car into a ditch. Amid cheers and applause, Rev. Bob told of the local Methodist preacher, Baptist preacher and Police Chief who stopped, looked over the situation and drove on. And then . . . a Klansman stopped, saw the man and helped him to the hospital. The cheers turned to boos.  The fire was extinguished and Rev. Bob was left alone in the mountains in the dark. Slowly he found his way back to the paved road where a member of his congregation picked him up and took him back to his car.

Who is our neighbor? Who are our brothers and sisters? I believe Micah, John, Jesus and Reverend Bob help us see who they are.

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

The Person of Jesus

A major trait of almost all human beings is that we love to argue. Some of us argue because we want to be, or “know,” we are always right. Some of us love to argue because it’s fun, or just to stir things up. For the past two thousand plus years we have continually argued about “who is Jesus.”

In 325 CE, the emperor Constantine called the bishops together in Nicea and charged them to figure it out: “is Jesus God, or is he human? Is he fully God or fully human, or something in between. After weeks or months of discussion (arguing?), and as rumor has it, a few fist fights and a night or two in jail for some of the bishops, they found an answer: “yes, Jesus is both fully God and fully human.” As Christians in the twenty-first century, we believe that Jesus will be known “in the sky by and by, but can he be known as and loved as a human being.

The Gospel of Luke (24:13-17) states, “two of Jesus’ followers meet Jesus after the crucifixion and resurrection as they were walking the road home to Emmaus.” Cleopas and, if the Mosaics in the Jerusalem Chapel at the National Cathedral are correct, his wife or sister are heading home discussing the events of the weekend when Jesus appears to them and ask what they are concerned about. Though they failed to recognize Jesus as they focused on their own doubts and fears, he was a real person to them. He listened to their concerns, feeling their pain and showing compassion for them. Jesus, as a real person, felt their frustrations, disappointments, hopes and fears. This is what real people do. As Jesus shared a meal with the couple and broke bread, they recognized him as their Lord and as a fellow traveler.

Do we, the church today, at times walk with Jesus and fail to recognize him? Do we remain absorbed in ourselves as did the disciples on the Emmaus Road? Years ago and in a church far away, I learned a lesson about giving up our wills to Jesus’ will. Construction in the Nave/Sanctuary had destroyed the women’s meeting room downstairs. As the church discussed the repair of the meeting room, a woman in her 80’s spoke up: “we do not need another meeting room for those of us who are older. We need a nursery for the children of young families, or we will die as a church.” She truly was walking with Jesus and recognized him and knew him as a person, and heard his call. And the church built a nursery.

Jesus became a “real” person to the disciples on the road when they poured out their hearts to him and invited him into their lives. If Jesus is to become real to us, and not just a spirit we will meet “in the sky by and by,” we too must be willing to share our lives with him. When we do this, we see Jesus as a real person, who cares about our lives in this world as well as our salvation. As the old song in the Cokesbury Hymnal of my youth proclaims:

We serve a risen savior, his in the world today, I know that he is living, whatever men my say. I see his hand of mercy I hear his voice of cheer and just the time I need him, he’s always near. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along lives narrow way. He lives, he lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. (Alfred Ackley, 1933)

As Jesus becomes more and more real to us, the barriers that separate us from God are torn down. We can approach him and share our lives with him. Jesus knocks on the door to our hearts and waits for us to invite him into our lives. Today and everyday!

           

Answers are the Easy Things

I love the exciting and challenging story of Jesus’ first post resurrection encounter with the disciples, all but Thomas, and of Thomas’ (legitimate) doubts. (John 20:19-31) I believe “Doubting” Thomas gets a bad rap. I suspect that until Jesus breathed on the other 10 and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” that they were at least a wee bit skeptical. I am pretty sure my reaction would have been similar to Thomas’, proclaiming that “until I put my fingers in the holes in his hand and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” As we know from scripture, when offered the opportunity, Thomas simply proclaimed, “my Lord and my God.” Maybe doubt is as important as belief in our Journey with Jesus.

Another doubter, someone I will call “Doubting Dennis,” holds an important place in my heart. Many years ago, Dennis came to my study almost in tears. I asked him to “tell me what was going on.” He told me that “he was afraid he was going to hell because he could not believe all the Bible Stories some of his friends believe with such certainty.” As we talked we shared some of the stories that made believing difficult for both of us: why would God harden Pharaohs heart? Why does God create man and woman at the same time and then one chapter later create Eve from Adam’s rib? People can walk on water without sinking, really, do dead people really return to life? We could go on, but you get the point. We talked about these things and the possibility that parts of the Bible are efforts of the writers to explain to themselves and others the experiences of God in their lives.

The Bible is the foundational book (Library actually) of our faith, containing many stories, teachings and hymns that strengthen our faith. It also contains stories that can cause doubts in some of us. The Bible answers many questions, and those answers often lead to more questions. As singer, songwriter, Jimmy Buffett once sang, “Answers are the easy part, questions raise the doubts.”

As a Christian who has had both strong faith and strong doubts, I went to seminary to find “the answers” and a simple, understandable faith. What I found were more questions and a life-giving faith

Our faith is challenged not only by some of what we read in the bible, but by events in the world and in our lives: untimely deaths of loved ones, sadness, depression, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters that shake up or lives and shake the foundations of our faith. In times like these I often find myself praying the prayer of the father who brought his son to Jesus to be healed (recorded in Mark 9:14-25). “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

I still have doubts, but my faith is strengthened through regular worship with a Christian Community as we read and study the scriptures together and as we are joined with Christ and one another by receiving Holy Communion. I have learned not to be afraid of my doubts and questions but to see them as opportunities to grow in grace. As we travel this journey with Jesus together, may we with Thomas proclaim, “My Lord and My God.”

We Wish to See Jesus

(A Good Friday Meditation)

Throughout history people have looked for the meaning of life, have wished to see or know God. As Jesus was attending Passover and approaching his death, a group of Gentiles approached Philip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Jesus’ answer to this request allows all of us “to see Jesus” more clearly.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. (John 12:23-26)

Six Centuries before Jesus, the Hebrew Prophet, Jeremiah, proclaimed:

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. . .this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. . .for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (31:31-34)

Like Jesus after him, Jeremiah was helping us to see the face of God. To see a God who loves us as we are and will lead us more fully into God’s own heart. In Psalm 51 we see even more deeply into the heart of God and how God seeks to change our own hearts.

  7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me, and will make me understand wisdom secretly.

  8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.

  9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, that the body you have broken may rejoice.

10 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

13 Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

The Psalmist reminds us that God is not only with us, but that God is within us: that God is in our heads and in our hearts, that God’s presence is with us forever and that through the Holy Spirit God uses us to share that presence with all those around us.

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus, we wish to see God”

Perhaps a hymn attributed to fifth century bishop and missionary to Ireland, Patrick, sums up the desire and reality of seeing and knowing Jesus, better than anyone.

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ Behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. (St. Patrick’s Breastplate)

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus!”

The Passion of the Christ--Not the Movie

Join me on a journey to Jerusalem at Passover in the year of our Lord 33. We see Jesus’ Triumphant Entry and how people praised him as the king who came in the name of the Lord and spread their cloaks and leafy branches along the road for him. All well and good, but I want to suggest that as important as this was, it was not “the Triumphant Entry” that actually took place on that day. I suggest that the “Triumphant Entry” actually took place from the West and stared Pontius Pilate rather than Jesus. Passover was an exciting, crowded and potentially volatile and dangerous time in Jerusalem. Jews from all over the Mediterranean and Middle East gathered to make their annual sacrifices, renew their faith and enjoy time with friends, old and new.

The Emperor of Rome made sure that Jerusalem was secured by legions of soldiers on foot and horseback. These soldiers along with Pilate, most likely on a strong white stallion, made up the “Triumphant Entry” into Jerusalem from the coast. Jesus and his motley crew, on the other hand came in from the East, with Jesus, not on a mighty steed, but on a donkey. Yes, on a donkey. I believe Jesus’ entry was, in fact, an act of protest, an act of resistance against the worldly and religious forces which were exploiting and oppressing the people of God.  As the people proclaimed “hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” they were proclaiming that Jesus is Lord. And, if Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not.  Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, and if God is King, Caesar is not. The very next day, according to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus enters the temple and drives out the Money Changers, the sheep and the cows and those who sell them.

This is exactly the kind of disturbance the empire did not want, and therefore the kind of disturbance the Chief Priests wanted to avoid. This attracted too much attention and could bring about persecution for all Jews. A plot was developed to have Jesus betrayed and executed.

As I reflect on Jesus’ act of resistance and his courage in his time, I reflect on resistance by some of his followers in our day. Martin Luther King Jr.’s resistance by his work with the Memphis Sanitation Workers in April 1968, and Archbishop Oscar Romero’s work for the poor of El Salvador in 1980. And just the day before Palm Sunday, a major act of resistance to bring changes to gun laws and save lives of Americans, participated in by millions of, mostly young people and lead by students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,.

Jesus warned his disciples that he would be tortured and crucified by the powers of this world. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed that as desirable as longevity was that there were more important things, and proclaimed, “I have been to the mountain top and have seen the Promised Land; mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Archbishop Romero worked tirelessly against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture. All three were executed or assassinated.

So far the March for Our Lives organizers have not been killed but they have been the subject of vicious lies, made up stories and photo shopped posts on social media. Yet they have not backed down.

Jesus was persecuted and executed because he proclaimed by word and example that the kingdom of God was for all people. He turned over tables and spoke truth to power. His church has been and will continue to be persecuted when we do the same. And yet, do the same, we must!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Blessed are we who follow him! Amen!

Zeal for your house will consume me: Jesus goes to the Temple

Early in Jesus’ ministry, according to John’s Gospel, he and his disciples head to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. Jesus encounters people in the temple selling animals for sacrifice and changing money into the “coin of the realm.”(See John 2:13-22)  Neither of these activities was inherently evil, and in fact, was necessary for worship in the Temple for people travelling long distances and from different countries with different currencies. Nonetheless, Jesus was not very happy. I suspect he saw that the commercial enterprise had overshadowed the importance of worship. Scripture tells us that Jesus was so upset that he wove a whip of cords and drove the sheep and cattle out of the temple, turned over the tables of the Money Changers and poured out their coins. The House of Prayer for all nations had become a Marketplace.

When we ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do, (WWJD)?” we must realize that the answer just might involve turning over tables and driving injustice out of the Temple. It might involve fighting injustice in the world and working for the peace and mercy of God’s Kingdom.

By placing this episode at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, John sets the theme of Jesus’ entire life and mission. Mark, Matthew and Luke place it at the end of Jesus’ life and here it leads directly to his execution.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, also faced evil in the world and like Jesus, chose to “turn over tables and fight injustice.” In the late 1930’s Bonhoeffer had a teaching fellowship at Union Seminary in New York. Instead of staying in America where he was safe, he went back to Germany to work against the evil that was raising its head in his native land. He was arrested and imprisoned for his involvement in a plot to bring down the supreme leader, Adolph Hitler, who was destroying the German Nation and the world. In 1945, a few days before the prison was liberated, Bonhoeffer was hanged. He was 39 years old.

Bonhoeffer’s words reflect the life and the words of Jesus: “Silence in the face of evil is in itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act.”

Now to another episode in Jesus’ life, recorded in Luke 4:17-21: “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Jesus and he read: ‘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, and to let the oppressed go free—to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’”

If Jesus had just stopped there, sat down and kept his mouth shut everything would have been fine. But no, he had to say something—“today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Most of you know the story, the people take Jesus out of the village to the brow of the cliff and attempt to throw him off and kill him.

Jesus, Bonhoeffer and many others have demonstrated by their lives and their deaths that proclaiming truth to power, fighting against injustice and for peace, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor do not often turn out well for those engaged in these enterprises.

We are called by God to be like Jesus, to be like Bonhoeffer: WWJD? He might just turn over some tables—he might just replace the temple with the Kingdom of God—and he might just be killed for doing it.

WWJHUSD (What Would Jesus Have Us Do)? He might just ask us to turn over a few tables—he might just ask us to replace the status quo with the Kingdom of God. And yes, we too might just be killed for doing it.

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created; and so you shall renew the face of the Earth. Amen.”

                                                              

The God who Gathers, Rebuilds and Heals

Amidst the trials and tribulations and breakdowns of our lives, our God continues to gather His people together, to restore and rebuild and heal lives and nations and peoples. Psalm 147 celebrates one such occasion in the life of Judah, the Sixth Century BCE return of the exiles from Babylon and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. It gives us a model of hope for all of us who are God’s people. I share a portion of that psalm with you.

Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground. 

God is a restorer and Psalm 147 offers us a vision of a world restored, no matter how deep the ruptures. This is a vital message for all people in our world today. In Chapter one of Mark’s Gospel, we see the same power of God working through Jesus to heal, rebuild and restore. “That evening at sundown Jesus healed Simon Peter’s Mother-in-law, who then cared for Jesus and the disciples. The people in the village brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.” The next morning, even though “everyone was searching for him,” he called the disciples together and explained that it was time to head out to the neighboring towns “to proclaim the message there as well, for that is what I came to do.”

Jesus, like the Psalmist, preaches the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, by gathering, restoring and healing. That is why he came into the world. Through the ultimate miracle of His death and resurrection, and the power of the Holy Spirit promised to us by the resurrected Christ, we continue to be healed today, so that God through us will continue to gather, rebuild, heal and restore. As God heals each of us of our broken hearts, bodies and souls, we receive the power of the Holy Spirit to bring healing to those around us, and to the whole world.

This is God’s Good News for us today!