Reflection on Gospeling Your Life

 

Over the last fiftyish days you have read all four gospels, eighty-nine chapters, and I am not going to try to actually count the verses, but it was a lot.  I wonder, which passages warmed your soul like a fire on a crisp autumn eve?  Which passages were like sandpaper to your soul?  Which passages did you make notes in the margin of your Bible and which ones would you like to forget (or be like Thomas Jefferson who cut passages out of the Bible)?  There is a gospel within the gospel that has shaped you and I encourage you this week to reflect on what you have experienced as we have explored the narratives about Jesus.  A few insights I am carrying in my heart.  First, I made a special note of the narratives where women play a vital and vibrant role, I will be preaching on these passages in March to Celebrate Women’s History Month.  From the Woman at the Well, to Mary and Martha who confront Jesus about tarrying to help Lazarus, to the persistent and persuasive woman in Luke who keeps showing up to demand justice, to Mary and Elizabeth being the God-bearers of God’s love in this world ~ showing us how to let God’s love feed and fuel our life.  Please, if you have a passage where a beloved daughter of God is crucial and central let me know.  Second, I carry with me how Jesus shows a love that isn’t fuzzy or fluffy.  Dr. King said, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”  Jesus’ way of showing love and power was to face the cross, death, rather than turn to violence and vengeance.  Yet, we who bear his name, would prefer to find another way.  We who sing God’s praise every Sunday don’t know if we want to pick up the cross to carry with us Monday through Saturday.  Afterall, the stats on religion are not good right now, it is not trending on social media, and it isn’t like our numbers are growing.  Four times the gospels tell us the way to life is to let go of the grasp we have, to find a power that is not might makes right and I deserve to have it my way, but a way of service that empowers and love that embodies and affirmation that embraces the person right in front of us.  I invite you to reflect on how you are gospeling your life after reading these four books of the Bible in the last few months.  Amen.