Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ John 2-4

If you do a quick scan of these three chapters, John covers a lot of ground.  We read that Jesus loves a good party changing water into wine and confronts the religious institutions in chapter 2.  We meet Nicodemus who under the shadows of night knocks on Jesus’ door in chapter 3, he curious but cautious (how often is that our prayer posture in worship?).  And in chapter 4, John introduces us to a Samarian woman at the well who is a quick study going from a disciple (meaning student) to an evangelist (meaning sharer of the good news) in the matter of a few verses.

 

Three questions to ponder: Are there tables in our religious institutions and church today Jesus might overturn?  What questions would I, like Nicodemus, ask Jesus if I stopped by his house for a visit?  How like the woman at the well would I be willing to share with others how my faith makes a difference?

 

A few thoughts about these chapters.  I love that the very first “miracle” in John is the changing of water into wine.  We make religion so serious and somber.  I picture Jesus having a good time at this wedding.  Too often we might be tempted to picture Jesus and the disciples off in some corner studying a scroll while the DJ plays the music at this wedding.  But what if, Jesus is on the dance floor doing the electric slide?  What if, Jesus is laughing and enjoying the wedding feast?  I know Jesus sounds somber/rude/disrespectful in his reply to his mother in John 2:4, but Mary doesn’t seem all that hurt.  We have no idea what Mary and Jesus’s relationship was like prior to this conversation, this is one glimpse.  Honestly, there have been times when every child has said something to a parent that if those words were the only thing others had to go on, it wouldn’t sound so great.  And note, that Jesus, in the end, does what his mother asked of him.  Not sure this resolves the tension fully, but does tension ever fully resolve anywhere in life, I mean, besides the movies?

 

I also love the juxtaposition of Nicodemus (man with stature and standing ~ position and power and some privileges) coming at night and then right away in the very next chapter, we meet a woman (with no position or power or even a name) who just happens to come across Jesus in the daytime.  Nicodemus came intentionally searching at night, the woman has a chance encounter in the day.  One of the truths in John to hold onto is notice the setting ~ the woman at the well is living the promise of being a child of light both in the literal sense of it being daytime but also that she gets Jesus’ words/wisdom/love.  She goes and shares the good news while Nicodemus fades into the shadows and out of sight (by the ways Nicodemus will reappear later in John’s gospel…stay tuned for that!).  The religious guy doesn’t get it, the woman on the fringe and fray does.  I hold that close to my heart.  As a person with the degree and diploma doesn’t mean I have it all figured out…I need to be open to others whose experience of God’s love might not be confined in a building or ritual.  I need to be open to the people I might meet at the wells of life together ~ in ordinary gatherings. 

 

May these words dwell in you and you in these words as we continue to let the good news of God’s love move/reside/rest into our hearts and reside there this Lent.  Amen. 

Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ John 1 ~ And the Word became flesh and lived among us ~ John 1:14

During the season of Lent, I invite you on an adventure through the Gospels.  Some of you just thought, “Hmm, sounds intriguing, tell me more.”  Some of you just thought, “Boy, would you look at the time, I really need to go…somewhere!”  Wait.  My prayer is for this invitation to be expansive and elastic to embrace everyone.  For some, you will find meaning in opening your Bible, reading the assigned passage, and then my reflection.  For others, reading my reflection will be enough.  For still others, you may want to read one of the gospels slowly and prayerfully.  Finally, I realize some who read these morning meditations are already reading the Bible in a year.  For my brothers and sisters doing this, please don’t feel like you need to read more.  You can file these reflections away for when we get to the gospels in the coming months.  There are as many ways to read the gospels as there are people reading this meditation right now.  There is no “right” way or “correct” answer. 

 

At this point, maybe you have found your Bible on the shelf, opened it up to the Gospel of John and are thinking, why are we starting in John?  Matthew comes first out of the four, shouldn’t we start at the beginning of the New Testament?  Great question!  The reason is that I find John 1 to be one of the most powerful and profound poems of faith written.  John borrows the words of Genesis 1 where in the beginning God surfed the surging chaos calming singing to all that chaotic sloshing stew of inkiness until the chaos collaborates with God in bringing forth creation.  John says, not only did God do that, but the Word (Jesus, God’s love in the flesh) was right there riding the waves with the wind in Christ’s face too.  This love song was not a solo of God, but a duet that soon chaos itself formed a choir to join in the holy hymn that we still hear when we are out in creation.  Go outside today and listen.  Leave your phone inside and go for a walk around your neighborhood or sit on your lanai.  What are five things you see, four things you hear, three things you feel on your skin, two things you can smell, and one thing you taste? 

Where do you need God to surf into the chaos of your life today with a holy presence?

 

John says that the holy lives among us, moves into our neighborhood – right next door to you.  God, as we learned in Exodus, camps with us amid our lives.  God takes on flesh and breath and bone ~ the full human experience infused with the divine ~ to show us life.  This is the gospel or good news.  One quick historical/Bible nerd fact ~ the Gospel writers are being very political to use the word “Gospel” here.  Caesar ~ as in leader of the Roman Empire ~ had a gospel.  When he conquered your land, one of his minions came and read a pronouncement that was supposed to be “good news”.  It went something like, “Hear ye, hear ye.  Congratulations, you are conquered by Rome.  You’ve won the right to pay taxes, worship Caesar as a god, and as long as you don’t color outside the lines there is peace (called the Pax Roma).  But, if you decide to question our authority, well, we have a whole army to squish you like a bug.  Long live Caesar!”  Eek! 

 

The gospel of John says that Caesar’s gospel doesn’t bring life (I dare say there are many gospels around us – politically and socially and religiously – that still sound more Roman than like Jesus).  John preaches and proclaims that Jesus is the light of the world, Son of God, Prince of Peace who brings good news that sets us free.  That is what we are doing in Lent.  We are dwelling in the Word…so the Word (or good news) can dwell in us.  We are letting Jesus have the first, middle, and last word on the way to Easter Sunday.  When we read the gospels, like the disciples in John 1:39, we wonder, “Where is Christ abiding or residing right now?”  We curiously follow Jesus to see what we see.  This is the invitation to engage and encounter the Word that show us a way to life so that we may live the Easter truth every day of life this year.  What are you looking for, Jesus asked in John 1:38.  Hold that question today, what are you looking for/yearning or striving or praying for this Lent?  Even if you do not know an exact answer right now, this Lent we join the disciples in each gospel following the One who is God’s collaborator in creativity still to this day.  I pray this reading of the Gospels will awaken you to the good news amid the other gospels circulating today.   Amen.  

Lent 3

 

During the season of Lent, I invite you to dive in and dwell in the Gospels.  Between now and Easter Sunday (April 9^th), I encourage you to join me on a journey in reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

 

Wait…you think…I didn’t know there was homework!!

 

I understand if this Lent is not the right time for you to engage in this invitation.  I understand if you are in a season of stress and strain, that perhaps this Lent you need to subtract rather than add something to your life.  This Lent you may long to sit outside and listen to God’s first testament (before the Hebrew or New) called, “Creation”.  I honor that one more thing may feel like too much.  And if there is some curiosity at reading the Gospels during Lent, this might be the time to dare to dive in.  Please know that reading the four gospels between now and Easter means about 3 chapters a day with catch up days…always love days to catch up.  Know that if all you do is read ONE gospel, God’s good news will meet you there.  Know that if you can show up here each morning in the coming weeks and I will reflect on one chapter or verse for the day to open us ~ that too will be enough.  Or if you need a pause from reading these devotions, that space might open you to God.  We will begin next week.  If you’d like to see the reading plan, see below. 

 

I pray that this opportunity will help you meet God, Jesus, and the Spirit as if for the first time.  That by dwelling in the Word…the Word starts to dwell in you to help you edit the story you are telling yourself.  That by tasting the good news of God’s love, we are fed in ways that can fuel our lives for the living of these days.  Wherever you are, I continue to pray God will enfold and hold you in this season of Lent.  Amen. 

Reading the Gospels during Lent

 

2/27             John 1

2/28            John 2-4

3/1              John 5-7

3/2              John 8-10

3/3              John 11-13

3/4              John 14-16

Catch up day

 

3/6              John 17-19

3/7              John 20-21

3/8              Matthew 1-3

3/9              Matthew 4-6

3/10            Matthew 7-9

3/11            Matthew 10-12

Catch up day

 

3/13            Matthew 13-15

3/14            Matthew 16-18

3/15            Matthew 19-21

3/16            Matthew 22-24

3/17            Matthew 25-27

3/18            Matthew 28, Mark 1-2

Catch up day

 

3/20            Mark 3-5

3/21            Mark 6-8

3/22            Mark 9-11

3/23            Mark 12-14

3/24            Mark 15-16, Luke 1

3/25            Luke 2-4

Catch up day

 

3/27             Luke 5-7

3/28            Luke 8-10

3/29            Luke 11-13

3/30            Luke 14-16

3/31            Luke 17-19

4/1              Luke 20-24

Lent 2

 

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out love for the Author and Source of love.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out love for those whose presence warm your heart.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out a prayer for the anxiety/fear/anger/frustration/ energy of emotions that stir in all of us.

 

Be in this moment and pray with me.

God, You call us to first notice that You are here in this very room with us; that there is nowhere we are that You are not; You go before, beside, and behind us.  Help us in this season of Lent to stay aware and awake to You.  Unclog our ears from the cacophony of a world flooded with words and demands and decrees.  Untether our hearts from agendas that promise us freedom but only after we pay four easy installments of $19.95, plus shipping and handling.  Unmoor us to set sail within us in the sea of life, caught up in the current of Your presence.  We pray for the coming forty days that we would set our intentions and attentions toward moments of prayer, connecting with You, naming and noticing what is within us and between us and around us.  Help us be curious.  Open us to wonder and awe at the mystery of each day.  Let the unfolding days and weeks be for us an experience of good news that You are with us and for us and set us free from all that seeks to confine or define us by any other name than, “Beloved.”  In the name of the One who lived and taught us to trust in this truth, Jesus the Christ.  Amen. 

Lent

 

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Today is the beginning of Lent, a season of preparation for the mystery of Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter).  Next week, I will begin a series on reading all four gospels during the season of Lent.  One way we release the anxiety, anger, fear, frustration, hurt, harm, wounds, and wants of the world is to let God get a word in edgewise.  One way we let the good news of Gospel medicine heal us is to read the good news as recorded in the four gospels.  More on that next week.  I do think one of the ways we show up different that I alluded to yesterday is by letting God’s voice get the first, middle, and last word in.  Another way is prayer.  We focused on this a few weeks ago.  Prayer can be a monologue ~ expressing our emotions to God; checking in with what we are sensing in our skin; naming to tame all that is swirling within us.  One final way we seek God’s presence is quiet and stillness.  We will offer that space and place today at noon in our chapel.  We will enter the quiet center where God is at the core to listen.  You are welcome in-person at our chapel at noon. 

 

There will also be an in-person and livestreamed service at 6:30 pm for Ash Wednesday.

 

I pray that over the coming forty days you will pay attention, set your intentions and energy, toward the sacred that stirs and shows up in your life.  Too often our full calendars and busyness can cause us to race past the sacred.  I do this because my anxiety and people please causes me to keep on going because there is always one more thing I could do.  When coupled with the fact that we live in a world where our phones constantly ding with notifications, our email boxes overflow, there is a constant demand that we do something right now, we sense that if we are not exhausted by the time we collapse in bed at night ~ we are not adulting right. 

 

But to live another way will take more than thinking our way into change…or reading another morning meditation from me…or attending a class.  When we read scripture, we dwell in the Word to let the Word dwell in us.  I pray this Lent rather than racing, we would listen for the holy.  Rather than chasing after every problem thinking we are Superman/Wonder Woman/Mighty Mouse here to save the day, we would first start with the gospel truth ~ God is already there.  I know God may not be fixing the problem as quick as we’d prefer, but I believe that God is everywhere, and we show up to open up to that truth.  We seek the realm of God because the realm is here.  You are citizens and saints of God in this less-than-perfect moment (remember God’s grand arrival in a barn at Christmas is still true in February ~ even though the Christmas decorations have long been stored away for another year).  May you and I continue to collaborate and cooperate with our Creator in the coming forty days.  May God grant you a holy Lent, guide you every day of Lent, and ground you in an abiding presence in this season of Lent.  Amen.

Sermon on the Mount conclusion

 

²⁷ And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?

 

Yesterday, we learned the four spaces where anxiety/anger/fear/joy, really any emotion, can reside and call home.  To review: emotions can exist in you.  Emotions stirs and swirl in your mind/heart/soul/body.  Second, emotions exist in others.  You feel this when you talk to a friend.  Third, emotions exist between two people.  Sometimes we absorb the energy in motion from the person we are talking to.  We might arrive to lunch whistle a tune, only to turn into Grumpy dwarf when our lunch companion starts ranting and raving about the broken world.  Finally, emotions exist in a group of people.  We see this at political rallies, meetings, any time three or more gather. 

 

One note, this isn’t necessarily good or bad.  I am not asking you to become a judge (remember the morning meditations from last week about judging and removing the log from our own eye/ ways of seeing). 

 

But many of us have been taught or caught that worry/anxiety/anger/fear is the only way.  More than that, we have actually rationalized our emotions with words that we hope make what we are feeling so logical. 

 

Jesus’ gospel medicine is that there is life beyond what we know as reality here.  I am NOT talking about heaven.  I am talking about another way of life while we still here on earth.  Jesus offers us freedom from that which narrowly defines and confines us and freedom toward a way of life where the Beatitude guide and ground us.  We are coming full circle here, that if you want to know some ways to let the good news reside in you, go back and re-read the Beatitudes, which turns us toward prayer, which grounds us in beloved-ness and that I don’t have it all figured out (my point of view is a view from one point ~ not the whole truth).

 

Today, I invite you to notice and name where emotions are swirling within you ~ between you ~ in another ~ and in groups where you find yourself.  The more we are aware of this, the more we can begin to show up in different ways that I will turn toward and talk about tomorrow.  Please pray with me:

 

God, Your expansive embrace can hold all that we carry within us, between us, and those who gather with us.  Continue to enfold us; empower us to name/claim the energy within us; and open us to Your good news of unceasing grace and unconditional love.  Let the momentum of Your movement be our vision this day wherever and with whomever we find ourselves.  Amen.    

Sermon on the Mount conclusion

 

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

I have saved Matthew 6:25-34 for the finale, even though this is not where Jesus ends or lands the plane in his Sermon on the Mount.  I do this because I am a professional worrier.  If the Olympics ever host and hold a worrying event, I think I have a real chance of medaling.  I can worry about the past, wondering why I said or did that boneheaded thing and will the person forgive me.  I can worry about the present about being late or that I am not doing enough (chronic people pleasing is something many of us struggle with even as we quote the cliché, “You can’t please everyone,” we secretly think, “But I will try!”).  I can worry about the future coming up with countless “what if” fictional scenarios.  What if my sermon next Sunday is a dud ~ never mind the fact I am not even preaching next Sunday…we have a guest.  Oh, I can still worry.  I have forty plus years of cultivating and curating the art of worry.  Anxiety not only picks the radio station I listen to as I go down the roads of life, anxiety is the driver seat.

On the one hand, Jesus telling me not to worry can sound critical ~ like he is saying, “Just chillax, Dude”.  But I don’t hear Jesus getting out his preacher voice; I don’t see him wagging a finger at me with a frown on his face.  I hear Jesus saying the above words softly and tenderly, whispering this to my anxiety which so often just leaves me exhausted and feeling not enough.  Jesus wants to quiet the inner critic.  Jesus brings gospel, good news, that we don’t have to race and run around in a frantic frenzy to earn God’s love.  God’s love is because your first, last, and middle name is, “Beloved”. 

One of the most helpful insights into anxiety/fear is that this emotion (which remember emotions are energy in motion ~ momentum that sets us in a particular direction) is extremely contagious.  Anxiety/fear (like almost every emotion ~ anger, hate, joy, peace, etc…), can reside in four spaces.  These emotions reside in you.  Remember and recall a moment recently when you were anxious ~ perhaps running late or because you had an important meeting.  Or think about a time you were angry or joyful.  Emotions sit on the shelves of our souls ~ or as the Disney movie, Inside Out astutely teaches us, emotions live within us and can control how we respond ~ even as we like to think we are so rational and reasonable.  Emotions are within you.

Emotions can also be in the other.  When was the last time you were around someone who was anxious?  Did you “catch” his/her anxiety?  I can be a sponge to others emotions, especially when the emotion is extreme.  Recall and remember over the last week when you encountered someone who was processing pain did you feel that within you?

Emotions can exist in the space between you and one another.  I think of when someone in my family is having a hard day, I absorb that too.  People I love leave an impression and impact my life.  When and where has this been true for you? 

 

Finally, emotions exist in a group.  Steve Cuss who teaches these concepts so thoughtfully points to the moment when Jesus walked into a mob/angry crowd about to throw stones at a woman caught in adultery (never mind that the law was clear that the man she had the affair with was also to punished, see Leviticus 20:10).  Jesus walks into that anxious and angry crowd and starts sketching in the sand.  I wonder if he wrote “Leviticus 20”?  I wonder if he wrote the word, “Love” or “hesed” – which is loving kindness and the most used word for God in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Whatever he wrote, he eased the anxiety of that crowd and released the woman from punishment.  You have probably been in that meeting where anxiety hung and hovered in the air.  You have probably walked into that room where something was being talked about right before you entered and there is a palpable chill in the silence.

 

I encourage you today to hold the truth of how emotions exist in and around and between us.  And may the love, energy in motion, of the Divine so captivate your heart that we find our way to life that is more than what we wear or do or think or eat.  Amen. 

Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

We are beginning to wrap up and wind down the Sermon on the Mount.  There is much more that could be said on these three chapters and I certainly didn’t comment on every single verse. So, if you were struck or stuck in a passage or verse, come talk to me.  I do not promise to resolve or answer all your questions.  After all, who do I think I am trying to do interpret Jesus’ sermon for you?  I promise to listen to your questions.  I promise to sit with you in the pondering.  I promise to wait and watch to see if there might be an insight that dawns in you like the rising of the sun.  I wonder, what is one insight or idea from the last five weeks that you want to carry with you?  Please know that one insight is enough.  You may want to rewind and review some of what was offered in morning meditations and sermons over the last four weeks.  What is one question you still hold with this sermon?  I still wonder about loving my enemies and I still know there is a whole forest of logs in my own ways of seeing the world…that too often I think that I get to write my own story rather than letting God be a creative collaborator with me.  The more I name this and claim this…the more those threads are woven into my living.  As Jesus offered the benediction and began to descend the mountain, I wonder if the disciples thought, “What have I gotten myself into?”  I wonder if as modern-day followers of Jesus we think the same thing!  And yet on this day after dwelling with these words for several weeks the hymn that is in my heart goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; I have decided to follow Jesus; No turning back, no turning back.”  May you and I know that we do not go alone, we go as a community of faith seeking to grow together, learn together, stumble and pray together.  And because of that, we forge faithfully forward seeking to let these words guide us through the year to come. 

Thursday Pause

 

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out love for the Author and Source of love.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out love for those whose presence warm your heart.

Breathe in God’s love…breathe out a prayer of care and concern for those you struggle to love.

 

Be in this moment and pray with me.

 

Holy One, when the Valentine’s Day candy is on clearance and the Easter jelly beans have not yet been stocked on the shelves, we have space to pause and breathe and be in Your presence.  Help us continue to listen to the stories we tell ourselves.  Help us not just speak, but hear the words that fall from our lips when talking to others.  Help us not just talk, but tend to the narratives that all compete for space in our mind.  Loosen our grip on the pen of life that You might enter in with a grace and love that can re-write our story with a love that will never let us go.  In the name of the One who not only taught, but lived the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You actor in some play of life, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”  Matthew 7, translation edited by author

 

Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”  We all live in the story we are telling ourselves.  We play rolls and parts.  Often the story we tell ourselves and others publicly is one where we want to be the s/hero and sage.  But sometimes the story our inner critic tells us in the stillness of night is one where we are the bumbling buffoon.  We can tell ourselves stories where we are the victim or where others see us as the villain.  Our stories are complicated and complex, being written in real time.  Our stories are handed down from your ancestors.  You are still living some of the narratives given to you by family, friends, teachers, and preachers of your childhood.  Inside you, your inner seven-year-old is still dreaming and playing of a story filled with joy and laughter, but too often we have taken adulting to mean something serious and somber, after all did you read the paper this morning!!  Insert outrage here.   

 

Often, we judge others because we judge ourselves.  Wait…re-read that last sentence.  Our judgement of others is rooted in our own inner critic of seeing ourselves as not enough.  More specifically, we judge other publicly in our comments because inside us our interior critic is constantly giving us two thumbs down.  There is a gap between our inner critic and the mask we wear in the world; especially on social media where we photoshop the best picture to make it look like our life is easy and breezy and blessed (although not in the Beatitude sort of blessedness).  There is a gap between the story we tell out-loud and the one that wakes us up in the middle of the night for a chat.  And between that gap there is a log to connect who we long to be and who we are.

 

What is the story you are telling yourself?  Is it a comedy or tragedy or drama or musical?  Listen to the stories you share with others today, are you always the s/hero and sage or the victim or even the villain.  I know the stories I tell others are ones where I am the one bumbling and making all the mistakes.  I can make myself small, but that is just to protect myself from criticism.  I reason that if I point out my blunders first, you can’t.  I say this because I am prayerfully seeking to notice the log in my own eye…the hurt that resides in my own soul…the ache in my life. 

 

We judge others because the color commentary in our mind is judging us.  What if, you let God’s love get a word in edgewise today?  What if, you let God edit your story?  What if, we stopped sharing, stepped off the stage, wiped off the make-up and masks and took off the costumes and sat in the naked now of this moment with God?  I pray that question provokes and evokes something within your soul for the sake of your life at the midpoint of February.  May the love of God clothe you and reside in you today.  Amen. 

Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!  Woo hoo!  It is my prayer for you that God’s love will hold you and help you feel whole today.  It is my prayer that you will live the truth that God’s name for you is, “Beloved.”  When Paul says, “Love is patient, kind, not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude” in 1 Corinthians 13, he is preaching and teaching that love will ask us to dare and dive in with our full selves.  Love is not a spectator sport where we side on the sidelines, love asks us to be engaged with all our energy.  To continue the thread from yesterday, love looks differently depending on who is in front of me.  Love is elastic and expansive.  Love is generative and generous.  I find that when I share love, I receive love back.  Not always, this isn’t a math formula or a machine, we are featherless bipeds who are human-sized with all the bumbles and stumbles.  But the scale tips toward love that is shared does make a difference.

 

On this Valentines Day, which too often is conflated with romantic love, let us as people of faith reclaim this as a day we practice love toward each other.  You can call someone in the church to check in and catch up.  You can send a card to the person before and after you in the church directory.  You can offer the loving kindness meditation I shared yesterday for people in our church who are grieving.  You can participate in the prayer service today or watch it later on YouTube.  You can bring your pastor a gift.  (Just wanted to make sure you were still reading!).  You can watch the words you share with other.  You can try to explore different dimensions of love that have nothing to do with romance or intimacy rather practice love that has everything to do with how we connect as humans to each other.  “Love never ends,” Paul says.  To be honest, we sometimes cling to God’s unconditional and unceasingly love too tightly that this fierce force gets stuck in the cul-de-sac of our souls.  This happens when we want to determine who deserves love, as if it is some limited time resource rather than the foundation of faith.  I have found that the tighter I grasp on God’s gracious, generous love this fierce force starts to gasp for oxygen. 

 

Share love as you are love.  Be love as you are beloved.  Let love loose in a world that won’t know what to do with it…do it anyway.  We have seen the impact of cynicism and criticism and constantly seeing only the brokenness.  We have berated and belittled and badgered people thinking that is what will promote change.  Perhaps today, perhaps this month, perhaps this year, we might truly be open and curious about the revolution of love that Jesus not only preached but lived to show us the way to life. 

 

May your Valentine’s Day be soaked and saturated in the love of God.

Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  Matthew 5:43-44

 

Of all the verses in Scripture, these two bring and blend together a wisdom that at once is both inspirational and almost seemingly impossible.  Or if not impossible, maybe feels impractical.  And if not impractical, inconvenient to say the least.   Most of the time as people of faith we have dealt with these words in the same way as when someone tells us that their second cousin twice removed in Alaska has the exact same illness we did and he at fish every day and now is cured.  We should try that!  We graciously say, “Thank you,” because that is what mama taught us to do.  We walk away thinking, “I will file that away under option “N” as in, “never gonna happen”.  

 

Part of what makes these two verses so difficult and demanding is that Jesus doesn’t tell us how!  How do we love our enemies??  How do we love the people who are wonderfully creative at pushing our buttons?  I mean there are people in my life who don’t just keep repeating the same things that get my blood boiling but seem to delight in coming up with brand-new ways every time I see them to frustrate or flummox me!  On the one hand, I have to admire their ingenuity and stick-with-it-ness.  On the other hand, just stop!!  Or Jesus, please tell me how in a world of Tweets and constant criticism and not feeling like we are enough and anger hovering in the air we breath that has taken up residence in my bones, how do we love those who are unlovable?

 

Perhaps one of the realities is that we tend to, because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, make love one-dimensional.  Love is sugary and sweet.  Love, like meekness, is seen almost like a weakness.  Even more, love is almost exclusively reserved for romance, we’ve reduced love to a fluffy emotion, rather than holding the power of love (insert Huey Lewis and the News singing that great 80s song here ~ yes, I did just show my age!). 

 

Love is more expansive and elastic and evolving than we can ever exhaust.  Love can be expressed in a vast variety of ways, which is part of its power given the diversity of the world.  How I love Gina does look/feel/sound different than how I love my children.  How I love the members of the church looks/feels/sounds different than my family.  How I love the grocery clerk who checks me out is unique.  So, given that love can be expressed in more ways than we know, perhaps how we go about loving our enemies will not be the same as how I show love to the people who are capable of returning that love.  Maybe loving my love of enemies will have some distance and healthy boundaries.  Maybe loving my enemies will be with measured words carefully chosen rather than just reacting instantly.  Maybe loving my enemies will be quieter and not as expressive as when I am around people I feel safe. 

 

Our Buddhist brothers and sisters have a mantra of lovingkindness that starts with you as a person.  Sitting comfortably with a firm back and soft front, you center your breath, release your stress/strain with each exhale.  Then you say, “May I live in safety, may I have peace/joy/love, may I be free from pain, and may I live with ease.”  The comma between each of those four statements is a pause to let that intention guide your attention.  Then you say that for family members, pausing in-between each statement.  Then, you can say that for someone you are struggling to love.  Pro tip: the closer that frustrating person is to you, the better.  Often we want to take this to an extreme of praying for some troll on Twitter who gets under our skin or some politician who is pontificating.  For me, I might pray these four intentions for some extended family who have cut me out of their life.  Yet, I still pray that person who is part of my family tree is safe, peaceful/loved, free from pain, and has ease that day.  Pro tip number two: this is NOT a magical bean that will immediately grow into a bean stock that will change everything.  This is like water rushing/running over a rock that slowly changes the hardness of our hearts toward others.  It is millimeter-by-millimeter of fierce love taking hold.  As always, if you want to talk more about this, I would be glad to join in the journey of living these words of Jesus as more than good advice, but as good news for our world.  Amen. 

Friday Prayer

 

On this Friday, I invite you to rewind and review this week of standing in the need of prayer.  What new insight or idea do you have?  What questions remain roaming around your mind?  Is there any connection between the insight and your questions?  Is there a thread that tethers your thoughts to the unanswered inquires you still have? 

 

God, thank you for a life-giving and life-changing relationship with You.  Thank you that prayer doesn’t need to be confined or defined in any one way.  Help me continue to find unique ways You and I can dance together, O God.  Help me learn from those who teach me how to move in rhythm with You.  Help me loosen my grasp on prayer that together we might embark on new ways of being together.  Take my heart into the warmth of Your love; take my soul and stir with Your song; take my life today to be caught up in what You are doing here and now.  In the name of the One who lived his life wide open to You, Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

Thursday Pause

 

Breathe in God’s blessing for you today…what does that blessing taste like?  What does God’s blessing sound like?  What does God’s presence look or feel like this day?  Describe with details how God’s blessing is tactile and tangible right now.  Seriously, take a moment to let loose your sacred imagination to describe God’s blessing this morning. 

 

Breathe in God’s blessing for the hours ahead…how can your attention and intention live trusting that before you arrive at the doctor’s appointment, meeting, lunch date, or washing dishes after dinner ~ God is already there. 

 

Breathe in God’s blessing for the hours that have past…how can you let go of the grasp and white knuckling and control that we try to steer our lives in a particular direction. 

 

Prayer with me these words written by Ted Loder, Loosen My Grip

O God, it is hard for me to let go, most times, and the squeeze I exert garbles me and gnarls others.  So, loosen my grip a bit on the good times, and the moments of sunlight and star shine and joy.  That the thousand graces they scatter as they pass may nurture growth in me rather than turn to brittle memories.  Loosen my grip on those grudges and grievances I hold so closely, that I may risk exposing myself to the spirit of forgiving and forgiveness that changes things and resurrects dreams and courage.  Loosen my grip on my fears that I may be released a little into humility and into an acceptance of my humanity (to be human-size).  Loosen my grip on myself that I may experience the freedom of a fool who knows that to believe is to see kingdoms, find power, sense glory to reach out is to know myself held, to laugh at myself is to be in on the joke of your grace; to attend to each moment is to hear the faint melody of eternity; to dare love is to smell the wild flowers of heaven.  Loosen my grip on my ways and words on my fears and fretfulness; that letting go into the depths of silence and my own uncharted longings, I may find myself held by you and linked anew to all life in this wild and wondrous world you love so much, so I may take to heart that you have taken me to heart.

Standing in the Need of Prayer

 

One of my favorite books on prayer is, “Altar in the World” by Barbara Brown Taylor.  She takes the topic of prayer from the confines of the church to the world around us; from bowing your head to opening your heart to your life.  Taylor’s book embraces the ancient wisdom that God shows up disguised as your ordinary, everyday life.  Some of the chapters in her book talk about waking up as a spiritual practice of prayer; paying attention (because where our attention goes there our energy flows); walking in creation; getting lost (which I do every day literally and metaphorically); being in community; ceasing from striving; feeling pain; and blessing others. 

 

Taylor is expanding our definitions and descriptions of prayer.  She is asking us to find other prayer postures for living in this world and that the world/creation/others join us in the work of prayer.  That prayer is not an isolated individual activity, but one that can be engaged collaboratively and collectively and cooperatively. 

 

In addition to the Taylor’s understandings of how prayer can be woven into the everyday moments of life, we might also think of singing as prayer or listening to music; or sitting in silence; talking to a friend; cooking; or even washing dishes can be a prayer practice (the last one was noted by Brother Lawrence as a way we can connect with God).  Prayer is about our attention and intention.  Prayer is an openness and curiosity and noticing that God is right here and now.  Prayer is directing our energy to be in cahoots with the Divine. 

 

When was the last time you noticed you were in the presence of the Eternal?

When was the last time you cultivated and created space to awaken to the Creator?

 

This is not a test, by the way.  Nor is there shame or blame in those questions.  For many of us, our prayer life can be anemic or too academic or arbitrary/haphazard.  This is true for me.  Prayer can be a habit we slowly cultivate and curate.  The point is not for us to say, “I am totally going to pray 20 minutes now and go on a silent retreat this summer and by the end of the year should be able to levitate.”  What if today, right now, you took one minute (or thirty seconds or ten seconds) to notice your breathing?  What if right now, you opened a tab on your computer to YouTube and listened to a piece of music that sets your soul stirring/swirling?  What if you sung along?  What if you went out for a walk around the neighborhood just listened to the birds and wind stirring through the trees?  What if as you washed dishes today you gave thanks for warm water, played with the bubbles (let your inner 6-year-old loose), and held the goodness of the meal you just ate. 

 

The intention and attention being open to God here and now…that is prayer wherever you are.

 

God thank you for being here in this moment.  Thank you for Your presence that holds and enfolds me in this less-than-perfect moment.  Thank you for Your grace that gives strength.  Thank you for Your love that offers an ocean depth of meaning.  Thank you for Your creativity that reminds me that You are not finished yet.  Let these words guide and ground me in the living of this day. Amen.