Gospeling your life ~ Jesus' prayer for you?

 

Read John 17-18 ~ In chapter 17, Jesus prays for his disciples.  What do you think Jesus’ prayer is for you today?  Is Jesus’ prayer tangled, inseparable, from your own prayers for yourself?  Or does Jesus pray, move, nudge you in ways you may not want to go?  I find verse 26 in chapter 17 a powerful verse to memorize (or write down on a post it note where I can see it or cross stitch into a pillow) ~ “I (Jesus) made known God’s name/presence, so that the love with which You have loved me may be in them and I in them”.  We abide in God and God abides in us.  It is a circle without ending or beginning.  We abide in God (or pray constantly as Paul would say) to the One who goes before, beside, and behind us every moment today. 

 

Now, turn to the page to chapter 18 and read about Jesus’ betrayal and arrest.  Jesus has just been pouring out his heart about love and abiding in God.  Then, the bottom drops out.  Being grounded and guided by love isn’t living life in Willie Wonka’s Chocolate factory (I know, two references to that fictional place twice in one week, who saw that coming??).  Jesus is preaching about love.  Jesus lives/embodies/expresses God’s love.  Jesus seeks to saturate and soak your life with love.  And, the world doesn’t get it.  The world is still caught up in swords and violence and might makes right and how many likes you got on your latest Instagram post.  The world still cares more about culture than Christ.  So many of us grew up in a world where Christianity was the norm.  In fact, in the 1950s, being a part of Christianity was expected.  You went to church, more than likely because it was the only thing to do on Sunday mornings.  The world has changed.  There are more options now for you on Sunday mornings than you could possibly do.  The church is now part of the consumer culture.  We talk about church shopping as if selecting a community of faith is like picking out toothpaste.  Hold this.  There is no easy resolution.  We live this messiness together.  Hold together God love, that isn’t a shield but a shelter.  God’s love isn’t a guarantee of the good life, we will be betrayed and denied and deserted.  We will have wounds and scars, and God is still there in the midst of it all.  How has this been true for you?  Pro tip, it is often easier for me to see God’s love in hindsight than in the moment.  I often see God’s love clearer in the rearview mirror than I do in the windshield as I am going through the storm.  Feel God’s love abiding with you.  Hold the heartbreaks and soul aches.  Then, I want you to wrap your arms around yourself in a hug, that is God’s presence, not magically taking everything away, but giving you strength for today.  May God’s abiding love be with you.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Animating Force

 

Read John 13-14 – In chapter 12, Jesus enters Jerusalem in the Palm Sunday parade.  You may want to go back to compare John’s telling to the other three gospels we have read.  Notice what comes next, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.  Jesus shows us what leadership looks like.  Jesus embodies a way of life that feels downright offensive given the gospel of America based on the teachings of Adam Smith.  Leaders are supposed to be confident and certain and even a bit full of themselves.  As Brian McLaren said, we prefer a confident lie to a confusing truth.  The gospels are confusing truths.  My page of questions about the gospels grows longer every time I read a chapter or verse. My page of certainties keeps getting crossed off as what I thought I knew just ain’t so. 

 

Do you think Jesus washed Judas’ feet?  Would you wash the feet of one who betrayed you?

 

Jesus gives a new commandment in 13:31-35 to love one another.  Jesus breaks open God’s inclusive, expansive, evolving love.  Jesus soaks and saturates our life with God’s love.  And God’s love isn’t meant to just live in the corners of our souls.  It isn’t about getting a golden ticket to the Willa Wonka chocolate factory in the sky (there is a strange vision of heaven).  Jesus calls us to love because we are loved.  Love is a fuel that feeds our actions and lives.  Love is an animating force.  How is that true for you?  How might that be true?

 

As you ponder this re-read chapter 14 where Jesus describes, defines the Advocate who animates our lives with love.  You are not alone.  We are not alone.  We are empowered by a Spirit that is hovering and humming over the chaos of our lives in creative ways.  May this Spirit of Love from the Living God fall afresh and anew on you and me and we this day in ways that the world around us senses. 

Read John 15-16 ~ John 15 has captured my sacred imagination as a metaphor/image for the church.  We are leaves on a vine.  Each leaf (representing an individual) is unique.  And leaves share similarities too, just as all humans share 99 percent of the same DNA.  Both are true.  We tend to over emphasize the differences and uniqueness and write off the similarities as being too simplistic.  We are connected as people of faith to the vine of life.  The vine in creation delivers nutrition and water and what is necessary for life to the leaf.  The vine of the Holy feeds and fuels us.  In our church, we celebrate our Core Values of worship, belonging, caring, justice, faithfulness and welcome.  Each of these can be expressed in our lives individually and collectively.  Where have you encountered these words in the gospels?  How did Jesus express these values?  And where do you see these words taking life in our church?  And where can we continue to expand and evolve in living these words?  In chapter 16, Jesus is asking us not to be a cul-de-sac or dead end to the world of the Spirit.  The benediction at the end of worship is, “Our service of worship has ended and our service/worship (caring, belonging, faithfulness, justice, welcome) in the world begins”.  The moment we step out the narthex doors our values are lived in you, and you continue to abide in the vine of the One who is with you.  I encourage you to hold this prayerfully, loosely, and lovingly as you go about your day today.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Weeping

 

Read John 11-12 – Chapter 11 is a profound and powerful story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  I invite you today to enter this story.  Imagine being Mary and Martha, what would you say if Jesus didn’t show up?  Wait.  What do you say to Jesus when he doesn’t show up on your time schedule like a genie to grant you your wish?  Imagine being the disciples, wondering why Jesus don’t just “say it plain”?  Why did Jesus wait?  Why does Jesus say it won’t lead to death?

And why, given what Jesus said, does he weep in verse 33?  Especially, given how confident and certain Jesus seemed up to that point.  Jesus was clear that Lazarus was sleeping and that this wasn’t really, truly death, just looked like.  So, why weep?

 

I have a lot of questions about this passage.

 

I love the truth that Jesus wept.  We are not meant to be somber stoics unaffected by the world.  We are not made of Teflon but flesh (earth/dirt).  I weep.  I weep for the devastation caused by recent hurricanes.  I weep for women and children killed in wars by weapons produced in the United States and paid for by our tax dollars.  I weep for leaders who would rather show might rather than humility.  I weep for young people who are numb to violence and have grown up thinking school shootings are normal.  I weep for a country that may have “United” in our name but seems to have no desire or appetite to live that.  I weep for older generations who only criticize younger generations.  I weep for younger generations who struggle in so many ways.  I weep for the church trying to reclaim glory days that have passed us by and the energy we expend trying to recapture what was ~ rather than sink into what is.

 

I need to be unbound (like Lazarus) from the wounds of the past.  I need to be unbound (like Lazarus) from expectations of success that are only measured by numbers and noses in the pews.  I need to be unbound (like Lazarus) from feeling like it is all on my shoulders.  I need to be unbound from anger at family members who no longer talk to me.  I need to be unbound by hurts I keep lugging in the luggage of life.

 

Now is your turn.  Where do you weep today?  Name what is in your heart.   Where do you need to be unbound?  Pray this.  May the One who calls us out of tombs death that might become wombs of new life.   Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Deconstructing

 

Read John 9-10 ~ These two chapters are rich in metaphor and meaning, worth reading a few times.  Chapter 9 is a narrative of a beloved son of God who is blind from birth.  Notice how the disciples want to explain (even blame or shame) who is at fault for this brokenness.  I don’t know what hurts more ~ the fact that this is in the Bible OR that we keep doing this today?!  We keep blaming and shaming people who are hurting, telling them that they didn’t pray enough, believe enough, follow our instructions well enough.  This adds salt to the woundedness of the world.  To be sure, Jesus saying the blindness was for God to work through this beloved, could be taken several different directions.  We should be clear that Jesus is breaking down the accepted theological explanation of the day ~ that if you had a disease, it was from the divine.  You made God angry.  Jesus is pushing against that.  I wish that he had said this a little clearer ~ that illnesses/pain/grief are not punishment!!  And I don’t want to miss how Jesus is deconstructing bad theology equation of the day that a bad event was caused by something you did.  As the story unfolds, the Pharisees (that is, good religious folk) want to figure this out.  So do we today.  We want, almost demand, reasonable and rational reasons for why bad things happen to good people.  The Pharisees cannot accept mystery and ambiguity.  The question is, can we?  Are we willing to enter a realm where our brain won’t be able to come up with witty, cynical, thoughtful, well-argued reasons?  Are we willing to be mystics who hold life loosely, or do we keep treating life as a problem to be solved?  Do we keep erasing the chalkboard pushing ourselves to understand everything.  Do we let grace confound and confuse us?  Do we let joy disrupt and disturb us (that evokes laughter at the absurdity of it all)?  One final note, I love how the medicine in 9:6 is mud – soil – earth.  This echoes Genesis 2 where God makes humans out of the earth – mud – soil, breathing in us the breath of life.

 

Breathe in the breath of God.

 

Breathe in the One who longs to shepherd your life through these words you’ve been reading for the last 40 plus days.

 

Breathe out the prayers of your heart ~ what is life giving right now, what is life draining?

 

Breathe out the voices that want to criticize and critique and throw tomatoes at you because you are daring to let your light shine and follow the voice of our Shephard/Savior.

 

Breathe and be.  Breathe and be.  Breathe and be.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Written in Sand

 

Read John 7-8 ~ Jesus shows up in chapter 7 at a major Jewish religious festival, the Festival of Booths.  He creates quite a stir, makes a scene.  He starts challenging the preachers and teachers, demanding the organist to play certain hymns, and offering his own prayers.  In some way, I wonder, what would I do if Jesus showed up on Sunday and did that at our church?  Would I embrace this rebel-rouser or ask the ushers to call the authorities?  Would I recognize God’s love incarnate or would I want to protect/hide behind the way things are supposed to be done?  And not only does Jesus cause a stir, some in the crowd think, “He’s got a point.”  They start calling him the Christ or Savior or Messiah.  Quick aside, remember that is political language.  Caesar (and Caesar alone) was the Savior, that job was taken and no one else should even dare apply.  This creates more chaos as people try to arrest Jesus and creates division among people.  Good Lord, that sounds like the news I read this morning.  Then, there is this powerful story of a woman caught in adultery.  Note, where is the man?!?  We all know, to quote my grandma, “It takes two to tango.”  But apparently the guy got to walk away, because, sigh, that is still heartbreakingly truth today.  Jesus writes something in the dirt (8:6) and inquiring minds, like mine, what to know, what did he write??  Did he write the man’s name?  Did he start writing the law, which commanded that both parties be held responsible and accountable?  Did he start writing down what others in the crowd did?  Whatever he wrote, the people drop their rocks, and slowly back away.  And yet, friends, we still carry rocks and throw them around.  Oh, today it is much more anonymous online or gossip behind people’s backs or in parking lots after the meeting.  Jesus says in verse 12, I am the light.  Light helps us see and light casts a shadow, both are truth.  To abide, be present, and take up residence in the presence of Jesus will not be all pony rides and chocolate rivers, we will face our shadow sides.

 

You may want to light a candle today and ponder where you are at.  Where is just stirring up dust in your life?  Where is Jesus writing in the soil of your soul, what do you sense him writing?  Where is your shadow that you are protecting (or ignoring) because we have rocks to throw at those people?  May these questions cause all of us to know that as we drawn to abide in the light, there is work to be done in us, through us, around us, and only by the grace of God. Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life ~ Stories we Tell

 

Read John 5-6 ~ Please note, I will be preaching on John 4 in March to honor Women in the Bible during Women’s History Month.  Just a short note that I believe the Woman at the Well serves as a wonderful counterbalance to Nicodemus.  The two are meant to be linked and remind us of two parts of ourselves.  I am both Nicodemus and the Woman at the Well.  Both are curious.  For Nicodemus, he needs to sit with the wisdom of Jesus for a while (contemplate what Jesus said), for the Woman at the Well her heart is instantly and immediately opened to God in transformation.  Sometimes change takes time, other moments we adopt and adapt quickly.  Hold these two important characters in scripture pondering the truths each teach and tell us.

 

As you read chapters 5-6, there is a wonderful question Jesus asks the beloved on God sitting by the pool.  In 5:6, “Do you want to be made well?”  That is a great question.  Do I want to be made well, whole, full of God’s Shalom?  On the one hand, you may think, “Duh, Wes.  Of course I don’t want this illness, pain, ache, brokenness, hurt.”  On the other hand, we can sometimes hold onto past pain tighter than grace.  I can feed, fan to flames, the words of another person, lugging them around in the luggage of life and tell anyone who will listen, “You won’t believe what that church member said to me…fifteen years ago.”  Or I can rehearse and replay the actions of another anew and afresh each day, until my life is defined and confined those actions.  You can tell a lot about a person by the stories they tell.  You can tell a lot about yourself if you listen to the stories you tell.  Do I want to be made well?  Yes.  Am I willing abide in the One who calls for forgiveness, non-violence, standing with the marginalized, being a peacemaker, being a seeker/learner, being an embodiment of God’s love?  Is that where I want to reside in a world, especially when none of that is trending on social media?  How do I want to show up and let God write the story of my life?  We ask and answer that question moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day.  How you life each day, is how you live your life.  May you find ways to abide with the One who is calling us to wholeness/shalom/healing/wellness this day and every day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Nicodemus

 

Read John 3-4 ~ I confess, I love Nicodemus.  I think he has gotten a bad reputation from the church. Oh, we love to criticize him coming in the middle of the night.  What, Nicodemus, afraid of what your peers will think of you?  We love to laugh at his expense.  What, Nicodemus, can’t wrap your mind around Jesus’ being ‘born again’ puzzling comments?  And then, Nicodemus, fades into the background, steps back into the cover of a starlit night, not to appear again…until chapter 7 when he defends Jesus.  And also, at the end, chapter 19, when he is there at the last breath of Jesus’ life. 

 

You see, I love Nicodemus, because I am Nicodemus.  I sometimes hide from my faith.  I don’t go around blurting and blasting to everyone that I am a pastor.  I sometimes duck and cover, especially when the people around me start criticizing religion.  I justify this by saying/singing, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  Which, yes actions speak louder than words, but sometimes words, sharing our faith, is helpful too.  Second, I am often baffled and bewildered by Jesus.  I don’t get him.  I’d rather shake my head with a smirk at Nicodemus than confess that I don’t have Jesus figured out.  I have some thoughts on being born anew/afresh, which is what Jesus is saying to him, but I also don’t get what Jesus is saying entirely.  And I can fade into the background, be a wall flower, slip off the sidelines of life silently, hoping that no one notices. 

 

And, I want to be like Nicodemus, showing up in places and spaces to share God’s love in real ways on behalf of those who are being hurt (see chapter 7).  Yes, I want to be like Nicodemus showing up in pain of death, when resurrection isn’t on anyone’s radar as the next logical step.  Thank you, Nicodemus, you don’t get the credit you deserve for showing us how to live our lives.  Thank you, Nicodemus for helping us realize that faith is complicated and contradictory and isn’t neat and tidy.  Thank you, Nicodemus for showing me a way to live this day.  Amen.