Words are few - Friday, February 27, 2015

Yesterday, I went to a funeral home. I've been to them too often. I think we could all agree that even one time is too often.  My husband and I went to be with a friend of his from work. This friend didn't die. His 12 year old daughter passed away after a battle with cancer that no one should ever have to face, let alone a child.

These are the moments in life that make anyone question life and all things of faith. You're rocked by death and you questioned everything. There are no words in these moments.  We say so many stupid things in the presence of grief.  The loss goes so deep that it steals are words and hijacks hope.

Today, I visit a dear family member who is in Hospice. Cancer slowly taking yet another life.

And so my words are few today and rightly so.

Get behind me, Satan! - Thursday, February 26, 2015

SCRIPTURE READING:

     Mark 8:31-38

"He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan! he said, "You do not have in mind the things of G-d, but the things of men." Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with holy angels." 

THOUGHTS:

     I can't imagine how Jesus felt.  I don't know at what point in his life he was made aware of the path that would be his or if he knew from the moment he left the womb.  I want to believe that he got to experience being a child - that he didn't have to be a child and carry the weight of the world, but that the Father revealed to him in his humanness what was appropriate at appropriate times and stages of development.  Of course, he knew was about the Father's business even when he was 12 and stayed behind in the Temple.  But is one thing to know that you are completely devoted to the Father's business at 12 and completely another thing to know the suffering that was ahead.  We don't hear much of his childhood and I want to believe that's because he had a pretty normal childhood and he didn't knowingly carry the weight of the world on his shoulders in that time.
     No matter what, by this time he sat with his disciples and he knew full well what lie before him. He understood the necessity of it.  "I must suffer and be rejected, killed and rise again." By the nature of things, this was necessary and unavoidable.  Jesus would undergo an experience, a brutal, flesh-tearing experience of suffering on behalf of someone else...on behalf of humanity, each and every one of us.  He would be disapproved, refused, rejected and killed.  But beyond all that he would stand again!  He knew the path before him and he willingly walked it.
     Gotta love Peter! He's so passionate. His response is not one of "I'm sorry Lord I don't understand." He's bold and protective of the One he follows.  He pulls him aside and rebukes him.  Peter pulls Jesus aside and begins to berate him.  This is abrupt. It's harsh and sharp. We don't know the words that Peter spoke but we know they were words of disapproval, words of censure.  He didn't approve of this suffering path.
     Jesus looks at his disciples in this moment with his deep love and has a revelation, one that I wonder if it hurt more than the pain that he knew was coming.  He saw that his disciple didn't understand the things that must happen.  That his disciple was in this moment was thinking like a man, instead of thinking towards G-d.  But in love, Christ says "Get behind me, Satan." Peter stood in opposition to the plan of G-d. Peter wanted his agenda. He wanted Christ to triumph, to be the political Messiah they had waited for.  He wanted what he wanted.  There was still Peter's desire above G-d's desire.
     If we desire to follow Christ, to be a true disciple, it's all in.  In coming and following we must disown and remove ourselves and our desires. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross.  This cross is the most dreadful and agonizing torture.  There is nothing easy about this.  We are to become less, so that he can become more.  What I want, what I think must be laid down and we must seek first the Kingdom.
    This is the eternal struggle --- dying to ourselves, so that others might live.  Finding freedom so that we might free others. That is the path of discipleship. That is becoming like Christ.  He died. He laid himself down, so that we could live.
     There are so many ways that we are called each day to die to ourselves. I could write forever. But I won't. We must be able to say "Get behind me, Satan" to the opposition that lies within our heart and mind. Daily we must look in the mirror and push back the opposition, running towards the heart of  G-d and his desire for us!

ACTION:

Oh G-d, there's so much in my life that tempts me to put me first. Lord, with all that I am I want to follow you, I want to die to myself. I don't want to be in opposition to you.  I want to stand with you.  So G-d today I will seek physical ways to give up what I think I need and to fill those spaces with your business. Today, may I die more fully to myself so that someone else might live today!

It's a heart issue - Wednesday - February 25, 2015

SCRIPTURE READING:

     Romans 4:13-25

"It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.  As it is written: 'I have made you a father of many nations.' He is our father in the sight of G-d, in whom he believed--the G-d who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.   Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of G-d, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to G-d, being fully persuaded that G-d had power to do what he had promised.  This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.' The words 'it was credited to him' were written no for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." 

THOUGHTS:

      My daughter is taking driver's ed classes right now.  She is learning hundreds of laws that most of us seasoned drivers have forgotten, until we've broken one and been ticketed or injured.  There something about the "law" that is about protection, that is about right living, good living, holistic living.  The function of law is to guide our action - we do or don't do something - and those protect and guard us.
     The same could be said about the law of G-d.  It guides us. It directs our actions.  It offers protection and healthy living and so much more.  The Torah was not made irrelevant in Christ, as some might think. But instead Christ filled full the law.  He was the law - the Word - the perfect expression of Torah.  There are so many things I could address and contemplate in those statements; however, I want to say this: Jesus was the perfect expression of Torah because it wasn't just about the law but it was about the heart.  He held both heart and law perfectly.  We don't follow rules or regulations just to follow them to be accepted, to be loved.  We follow them as an act of love.  The Torah is a gift, Christ is a gift and a response follows.    When Paul says "For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value" he is not saying the law is dead or irrelevant.  There are people who live by Torah because of faith. And there are people who live the law without faith.  Paul is addressing the heart.
     I can follow the letter of the law and can completely miss the heart of the law.  And it must be said that I can follow the heart of the law and be missing something absolutely essential to my faith in ignoring the letter of the law.  We have an obligation to both.  Jesus was constantly drawing attention to this very thing.  The Sermon on the Mount is an exposition on this heart and law issue.
     You might be tempted to argue that the law has been abolished, but remember that Paul says just verses later that "the promise comes by faith...not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham."  If we slow down and look at what we really believe and how we behave --we have to admit this is a place where we could use some discipleship, some growth and some openness to what G-d might be trying to say.
     If we say the law is gone and abolished, then why do we incessantly cling so tightly to pointing out the sins of others? Why do we carry guilt and shame for sins of our own?  If we read literally, "And where there is no law there is no transgression" and we follow the logic through, we are left only to say that with the abolishment of the law the ability to sin is gone because without law there is no sin.  If there are no rules to break, there's no breaking them.  If there is no mark to hit, there's no hitting it.

     This, of course, is ridiculous.  But we do this all the time.  We say Jesus abolished the law, yet we hold people to that law every chance we get, while not holding ourselves to it.  I believe that this should cause us to pause and check ourselves.  What is it that we believe and how does that inform our behavior? If those two things don't match than we have a problem. We have an area that G-d is longing to develop, to mature and set free.  Paul is arguing this very thing! We are unique individuals. "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:38) In the Kingdom of G-d we are responsible to honor both law and heart because the law was never written to be excluded from the heart.  The law is love.  "Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself." This is the greatest commandment (law) - this is the fulfillment of Torah! 

"We have faith, or belief, and we believe. When we receive faith, we "faith" by trusting and believing in G-d.  We also receive content, namely G-d who is the content of our faith.  In this way, both the knowledge of G-d and the act of trusting G-d converge as gift and response.  We also have love and we love. We receive the capacity to love in G-d first loving us.  We love by loving G-d in return and our neighbors as ourselves. In this way, both love of G-d and the act of loving our neighbor, converge as gift and response. Finally, we have hope and we hope. We receive hope through the vision of Jesus' ministry on earth--a ministry that ushered in the kingdom of G-d. We hope by living in the present with an eye on his promised kingdom. In this way, the now and the not-yet converge as gift and response." (Angels, Worms, and Bogeys: The Christian Ethic of Pietism, Michelle A. Clifton-Soderstrom, pg. 100) 

ACTION:

Gracious Lord, it all comes back to love, not just in our hearts but in our actions.   My actions, my behavior honor and live out my belief and my heart. May I be a person that walks in step with Jesus, Torah made flesh. May I be a person that looks to him and seeks his heart.