Most of us like to hang out with people who are a lot like us. We know that differences exist in the world, but we don't want them to clutter our own lives. We're a tribal people. We're northsiders or southsiders, democrats or republicans, Cub fans or Cardinal fans. When we enter a room, we gravitate to people who look like they may be one of us. We watch TV programs, even networks, that affirm what we think because we feel "at home" with them. We attend churches where the people are likely to worship God like we do, and we make sure to sit on the "right" side of the stadium when we go to a watch a game.
The North going Zax and the South going Zax don't talk much because they don't think they have much in common. There's no doubt about that, but the issue with tribalism is deeper than socializing and rooting for our favorite team...because the circles we draw isolate us and make others... the targets of our fears. The circles that keep others out tend to isolate us, and in a surprisingly short period of time, they also "demonize" others. Thus, people who are different from us...become people who are dull-witted, mean-spirited, even evil. And so it was between the Jews and the Samaritans in Jesus' time. They despised each other. The Jews considered Samaritans to be deplorable at the time and they would go out of their way to avoid them. But the Bible says (John 4) that Jesus and his disciples journeyed through Samaria en route to Galilee one day, and that they stopped at the site of Jacob's well. According to John, while his disciples went into town to buy food, Jesus waited by the well... and a Samaritan woman came alone to draw water at noon. "Can I have a drink?" Jesus asked, and his question took the woman aback. "How can you, a Jewish man, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" she replied. It was a good question because Jesus had violated two important social boundaries. In the first place, men didn't talk to women whom they didn't know, and in the second place, Jews didn't talk to Samaritans. The woman was caught off guard, but Jesus noted that she would've asked him for living water, if she knew who he was.
Well, the Jewish rabbi and an unnamed Samaritan woman talked on. They talked about religious differences and other things, but their dialogue ended with the woman saying, (v. 25) "I know that God's Messiah will make all things clear when he comes"... and Jesus said, "Ego eimi, I am!" I am the Messiah, the One who can meet your needs... for water, self-respect, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. I am, he said, in the first of his "I am" statements in the Gospel of John. It is to this woman that Jesus reached out. She is the one to whom he offered living water. She is the one he told to tell others what she had seen and heard. Which she did. She ran and told the others all about Jesus, and invited them to come with her and see for themselves.
It's a great story that reveals Jesus as a "boundary-breaker," and it calls us to consider the circles that we draw to keep some people in and others out. In this Lenten season, we are invited to ask and answer these questions: 1) What people do we avoid? 2) What kinds of people are deplorable to you? 3) What sort of people do you walk out of your way... not to see? 4) Who are the Samaritans in your world? 5) Are there people who make us "anxious, suspicious, even angry" simply because they are part of a group... that falls outside of our circle of love? Black people? Jewish people? Muslim people? Poor people? Tattooed people? Loud people? Gay people? Abusive people?.... (and I confess that I have trouble with tattooed people and even more trouble with abusive people).
How wide is your circle of love? Christ lived in a world that was filled with boundaries. Jesus knew that. Better than we do. He knew that he wasn't supposed to welcome children, let Mary sit with his disciples, eat with sinners, heal a Centurian's daughter, touch lepers, or converse with those who were leading unsavory lives. He knew all of these rules and ignored them... because love demanded it! His circle of love included everyone who was willing to be included. It still does! God's love is like that. It's inclusive and welcoming. So, let's be careful with the circles we draw. May they include family, church, friends, and people who root for the same teams as we do, but may they also include people who are troubled, difficult, unmotivated, manipulative, dishonest, compromised, and different, in all the ways we think people are different. May our circles of grace be so large that they include anyone who wants to be in, and anyone at all... even Samaritan women should we meet one at the well. Amen!
PK IN SWEDEN
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Thursday, March 7, 2019
IF GOD CAN SAVE ME... GOD WILL RESCUE YOU!
People are lost everywhere you look. They are desperate for love and opportunity, and some of them will go to any length to get attention. They confuse acquisitions with fulfillment and good times with real joy. People hurt in a hundred different ways, and they seek a hundred different remedies, just as I did for decades. In the end, at least for me, God was the answer, and I am writing this to encourage you to choose God yourself.
People are hurting in so many ways. Many of them are victims of circumstance. The man is 57 and he's been fired. "Downsized" they say, but in his gut, he feels that he's been fired. The woman is 43 and she's knee-deep in a bad marriage. She hates to go home at night and often wonders why she didn't listen to her gut (and her dad) in the first place. The boy's 17 and he has very few friends. He gets bullied and he wonders if it's worth it. He's sure that no one loves him, and he suspects that he is unlovable. The girl is about the same age, and she always feels ugly. The businessman wear a thousand dollar suit to hide his cheap values and to conceal his emptiness. And then there's an old man. He's been treading water ever since he lost the love of his life. Oh, she's still breathing, but she hasn't known him in years and it breaks his heart! There are many other people who are enslaved by their own secrets- domestic violence, sexual abuse, and perhaps, grave sins that they committed in the past. The brokenhearted, the "hopelost"- they are legion- and we cry for them. They are not at fault, but they still need a healer.
Others are responsible, at least in part, for being lost. They've fallen in love with one of the lesser gods who called their name. They've chased after the whores of money, power, pleasure. They are running with all their might- on a treadmill to nowhere- and while they think they're climbing the ladder of success, they are actually going in circles. They are in love with things that can neither think nor feel, and we shake our heads when we think of them. Still others, of course, have fallen in the hands of a demon named addiction. They've lost their souls and they no longer see things as they really are. If they're lucky, the will hit bottom, and if they're really lucky, the impact will shatter their illusions and rearrange their value systems entirely. These people played a part in their own sicknesses, but they are also "hopelost," and they need a healer.
In Biblical terms, people are "lost." They are alienated from their Creator, their neighbors, and their own best selves. They live with an emptiness that no amount of money can fill. They may have large corner lots and big corner offices. They may have a 1000 Facebook friends and several club memberships, but they fill incomplete because God is not at the center of their lives. I know this because I've been there, and I've learned that God is the ONLY enduring source of unconditional love. I've also learned that God is the ONLY source of complete and utter forgiveness. Even as Adam was created to be in relationship with God, Augustine noted that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.
He came to this conclusion after he had tried to fill his life in many other ways, and I've had the same experience. After trying so hard to be loved for so long, knowing that I am known and loved anyway still blows my mind, and after carrying my sins for so many years, knowing that God has forgiven them gives me incredible joy. If you put God first in your life, you will still face challenges. You will still hear the tempting voices of the world, and you may even find yourself in counseling for the addictions, the secrets, and the pain that I mentioned earlier. But I can promise that you will never feel unloved and that your days of trying to be "good enough" will be over. What is more- if God is at the center of your life, you will find purpose and direction.
For me- who had never believed that I was really worthy, and who sometimes cried out, "God, please help me,"- receiving God's grace was the key that unlocked the cage that I was living in. I hit bottom in 1976, and I hit with such a "thud" that it knocked some sense into me. For once, I listen when someone talked to me about God. I listened, I believed, and I accepted the new life that God offered to me. My emptiness was gone, and I saw things clearly for the first time in my life. If I found new life in Christ, anyone can... including you.
People are hurting in so many ways. Many of them are victims of circumstance. The man is 57 and he's been fired. "Downsized" they say, but in his gut, he feels that he's been fired. The woman is 43 and she's knee-deep in a bad marriage. She hates to go home at night and often wonders why she didn't listen to her gut (and her dad) in the first place. The boy's 17 and he has very few friends. He gets bullied and he wonders if it's worth it. He's sure that no one loves him, and he suspects that he is unlovable. The girl is about the same age, and she always feels ugly. The businessman wear a thousand dollar suit to hide his cheap values and to conceal his emptiness. And then there's an old man. He's been treading water ever since he lost the love of his life. Oh, she's still breathing, but she hasn't known him in years and it breaks his heart! There are many other people who are enslaved by their own secrets- domestic violence, sexual abuse, and perhaps, grave sins that they committed in the past. The brokenhearted, the "hopelost"- they are legion- and we cry for them. They are not at fault, but they still need a healer.
Others are responsible, at least in part, for being lost. They've fallen in love with one of the lesser gods who called their name. They've chased after the whores of money, power, pleasure. They are running with all their might- on a treadmill to nowhere- and while they think they're climbing the ladder of success, they are actually going in circles. They are in love with things that can neither think nor feel, and we shake our heads when we think of them. Still others, of course, have fallen in the hands of a demon named addiction. They've lost their souls and they no longer see things as they really are. If they're lucky, the will hit bottom, and if they're really lucky, the impact will shatter their illusions and rearrange their value systems entirely. These people played a part in their own sicknesses, but they are also "hopelost," and they need a healer.
In Biblical terms, people are "lost." They are alienated from their Creator, their neighbors, and their own best selves. They live with an emptiness that no amount of money can fill. They may have large corner lots and big corner offices. They may have a 1000 Facebook friends and several club memberships, but they fill incomplete because God is not at the center of their lives. I know this because I've been there, and I've learned that God is the ONLY enduring source of unconditional love. I've also learned that God is the ONLY source of complete and utter forgiveness. Even as Adam was created to be in relationship with God, Augustine noted that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.
He came to this conclusion after he had tried to fill his life in many other ways, and I've had the same experience. After trying so hard to be loved for so long, knowing that I am known and loved anyway still blows my mind, and after carrying my sins for so many years, knowing that God has forgiven them gives me incredible joy. If you put God first in your life, you will still face challenges. You will still hear the tempting voices of the world, and you may even find yourself in counseling for the addictions, the secrets, and the pain that I mentioned earlier. But I can promise that you will never feel unloved and that your days of trying to be "good enough" will be over. What is more- if God is at the center of your life, you will find purpose and direction.
For me- who had never believed that I was really worthy, and who sometimes cried out, "God, please help me,"- receiving God's grace was the key that unlocked the cage that I was living in. I hit bottom in 1976, and I hit with such a "thud" that it knocked some sense into me. For once, I listen when someone talked to me about God. I listened, I believed, and I accepted the new life that God offered to me. My emptiness was gone, and I saw things clearly for the first time in my life. If I found new life in Christ, anyone can... including you.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
A BRIEF, HOPEFUL, ASH WEDNESDAY MESSAGE
Let me begin with words that God expressed through a man who lived several hundred years before Christ was born. They can be found in Isaiah 58, and they seem to be addressed to a people who are trying to please God on their own terms! They ask me for decisions, God said (Isa. 58:2-3) and they wonder why they don't hear from me. "Why have we fasted,' they ask, 'and you haven't (even) noticed?" Yet, even when they fast, they do as they please. They continue to live as if it's all about them. They walk around with ashes on their heads, but they're filled with a sense of self-righteousness and entitlement. They attend church, give offerings, and queue up for ashes... even as they walk by beggars on the street and mistreat their workers. They fast... they swear off chocolate, they quit stopping at the bar for awhile, but there is no lasting change. Their commitment is only superficial. It never touches their souls, and when their time of fasting is done, they pick up their grievances and prejudices, and restart their fights. For them, fasting is a truce rather than a surrender and their voices will not be heard on high unless they live for God.
And the same is true for us. Lent is not a time-out, but a way of life that honors and serves God. Ash Wednesday is more than a brief service that recognizes our journey from dust-to-dust. It's a moment in which we can repent, reconsider, and reclaim... the image of God within us. Let the cross of ashes that will mark us when we leave this service be a sign that we've resolved to be "fully human" in Christ. Let it be a statement that, rather than being "merely human" as we stumble around, we will (with God's help) live as Christ's disciples and go in the way that He leads us. Listen now, as Isaiah (58:9b,ff) goes on: "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry... and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness..." If you loose the bonds of injustice, if you break every yoke, if you share your food with the hungry, if you provide shelter for the poor, if you clothe the naked when you see them, and if you take care of your own "flesh and blood," you will find your joy in the Lord and He will lift you to great heights! Amen.
I know many people who give up things for Lent, and giving up things can be a helpful spiritual discipline. I read that 24% of Americans observe Lent and that most of them give up a favorite food or drink (pray that I'm never asked to give up coffee), while others give up a bad habit or a favorite activity (either of which could be a euphemism for sin). Now, even though I link my blogs as tweets, I'm not much of a twitter (FB is as wild as I get), but I did see that among tweeters, the things that they gave up for Lent, included: social networking, alcohol, meat, (when I get to yours shout right out) chocolate, coffee, fast food, men, marijuana, smoking, swearing, worrying, shopping, gossiping, and sushi. You may be attracted to one or more of these "sacrifices" yourself, but I prefer to see Lent as an invitation to give up self and pick up God!
For me, Lent is more about deciding and committing and surrendering.., than it is about giving up something, especially if that something is given up on a temporary basis. Isaiah was so prophetic: if we free people from yokes that oppress them (sin, guilt, fear, addiction, abuse); if we quit judging others and degrading them in the way we talk about them; if we give all that we can- time, talent, and treasure- to improve the lives of those who are shut-in, shut-down, and shut-up; if we claim God's grace and share it freely; if we forgive because we know that we've been forgiven; if, in a word, we live as God's people, we will find joy and purpose as Christians! This is the promise of Lent. Let us covenant to fast... by living and loving as God's people and let our journey begin with crosses of ashes that tell the world that we are His! Amen!
And the same is true for us. Lent is not a time-out, but a way of life that honors and serves God. Ash Wednesday is more than a brief service that recognizes our journey from dust-to-dust. It's a moment in which we can repent, reconsider, and reclaim... the image of God within us. Let the cross of ashes that will mark us when we leave this service be a sign that we've resolved to be "fully human" in Christ. Let it be a statement that, rather than being "merely human" as we stumble around, we will (with God's help) live as Christ's disciples and go in the way that He leads us. Listen now, as Isaiah (58:9b,ff) goes on: "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry... and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness..." If you loose the bonds of injustice, if you break every yoke, if you share your food with the hungry, if you provide shelter for the poor, if you clothe the naked when you see them, and if you take care of your own "flesh and blood," you will find your joy in the Lord and He will lift you to great heights! Amen.
I know many people who give up things for Lent, and giving up things can be a helpful spiritual discipline. I read that 24% of Americans observe Lent and that most of them give up a favorite food or drink (pray that I'm never asked to give up coffee), while others give up a bad habit or a favorite activity (either of which could be a euphemism for sin). Now, even though I link my blogs as tweets, I'm not much of a twitter (FB is as wild as I get), but I did see that among tweeters, the things that they gave up for Lent, included: social networking, alcohol, meat, (when I get to yours shout right out) chocolate, coffee, fast food, men, marijuana, smoking, swearing, worrying, shopping, gossiping, and sushi. You may be attracted to one or more of these "sacrifices" yourself, but I prefer to see Lent as an invitation to give up self and pick up God!
For me, Lent is more about deciding and committing and surrendering.., than it is about giving up something, especially if that something is given up on a temporary basis. Isaiah was so prophetic: if we free people from yokes that oppress them (sin, guilt, fear, addiction, abuse); if we quit judging others and degrading them in the way we talk about them; if we give all that we can- time, talent, and treasure- to improve the lives of those who are shut-in, shut-down, and shut-up; if we claim God's grace and share it freely; if we forgive because we know that we've been forgiven; if, in a word, we live as God's people, we will find joy and purpose as Christians! This is the promise of Lent. Let us covenant to fast... by living and loving as God's people and let our journey begin with crosses of ashes that tell the world that we are His! Amen!
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