Noah

Genesis 9:8-28 (NRSV)

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;
    lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”

He also said,

“Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
    and let Canaan be his slave.
May God make space for Japheth,
    and let him live in the tents of Shem;
    and let Canaan be his slave.”

After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.

I recently saw the new Hollywood production of "Noah."  I liked it both more and less than I thought I would:  I was pleasantly surprised by what I felt was a lot of attention to Biblical detail.  But I was also not entirely a fan of some of the details.  

But this is a reflection, not a review, and I should say that one of the objections I read in some reviews of the film was that Noah ends up drunk at the end of the film.  There seems to be a need in some Christian circles to sanitize Biblical characters.  

Well, here we have it.  God makes a covenant with Noah and Noah goes and gets drunk and the curses his grandson for his son seeing him naked.

For me, there is no need to sanitize Noah.  In the whole sweep of Biblical history the hope I keep clinging to is God's devotion to this imperfect people. God chooses - and uses - people of all stripes.

Through Noah God has renewed his creation and has promised never to destroy it again by flood.  Since the time of Noah, we have all gotten a lift in our hearts when we see a rainbow across the sky.

Noah has cursed his son and that curse will play out on the Biblical stage in the land of Canaan.  From Shem will come Abraham, whose descendants will be given Canaan as their Promised Land.

God made something out of Noah and through Noah made a promise to his creation.  God can make something out of anyone.  No need to sanitize it.

God all all creation, use us for your good will.  Even when we fall short, which happens more perhaps that we'd like to admit.  Amen.

Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1-16 (NRSV)

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

The question that has always haunted me - even perhaps more than why did Cain kill Abel - is this:

Why did God prefer Abel and his offering?

Or maybe it is this: DID God prefer Abel and his offering?  I know the text says God had regard for Abel's and not for Cain's.  But there seems to be a big gaping hole here about why.

I've heard it said that God preferred Abel's because it was a blood offering.  You get into that whole sacrifice thing there.  Maybe. But that doesn't really fit with the God that I see over and over in scripture.

It's clear something is missing here.  Perhaps it has to do with Abel's generosity versus Cain's - it was the firstlings of the flock Abel brought: the desirable, fatty, portion.  Abel brought his best.

Cain brought fruit of the ground.  My hunch tells me there is something to that.

But whatever it is, in the end, despite being haunted by the question, I don't really any longer think this is a story so much about actual preference as a story about God knowing hearts.  God knowing where Abel's offering came from.  God knowing where Cain's came from.

God knowing that since that fall, that the human heart was vulnerable to selfishness and jealousy.

That as long as there were humans, there would be oppression and death and anger and hatred.  In this story after all we have the genesis of a darkness in humans that would lead to God's wanting to completely start over with the flood.

And all of that lurked in Cain's heart.

And he isn't alone.

Yet even here - even in the Old Testament that many bemoan is full of stories of an angry, wrathful God - God's grace completes the story. Cain is not killed for his transgressions.  God protects him.

But the movement of death has begun.  It's a dance that will continue through the Hebrew scriptures and into today.

You are the Lord of Life!  God, help me to live under your light shining in the darkness.  Heal me from the temptations of anger and vengeance and jealousy, knowing that they lead to death.  Lead me instead to generosity, grace, and compassion, knowing that that is where life is found.  Amen.

Adam and Eve

God's People: Adam and Eve

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  I took some time during the past week to visit my aunt, who had been in the hospital until later in the week, and to think about what to do next with my daily devotional.  I think my time with the ELCA readings are spent for now.

So, I have come up with something new.  Let's take a look at God's people in Scripture.  Who they are, how they play a part further God's story, and what if anything we can learn from them.

First, since they were first, Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:7-8 &15-24 (NRSV)

 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
    for out of Man this one was taken.”

24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Adam's name literally means "dust from the ground."  He is, as I've heard other's call him, "Dustman" or "Dirtman."   But it isn't so much a name here, as it is a description of his creation - of his genesis.

The woman will not get a name until the next chapter.  Until after the fall. (We seem to know more about the fall then we do about life before the fall, don't we)?  

I have always seen this section of Genesis as somewhat comedic.  And it's important to note that it is a second view of the creation story.  Here God makes Adam before the animals, and then parades them in front of him to see if any would be good helpers or partners for him.

And the man names then.  Names them, perhaps, because they aren't indeed proper partners for him.  Instead, they are creatures for the man to watch over as part of his stewardship of creation.

But the woman - created from the man is part of the man.  And so, here, in this perfect creation, equal to the man.  He does not name her.  Instead, she is his partner and together they are one.

It is only after the fall that this all falls apart (pun intended).  After the fall is not God's intended view for creation.  After the fall is humankind asserting their own will.  Their own way.  God's grace protects them, but death and sin and disobedience have come into the world and are not God's will for the world.

It is only then that Adam names his wife.  With the advent of sin, the rules have changed. God's holistic creation has been turned upside down.  

The trajectory from here on out in the Bible will always be about God's continued desire to return the creation back to the hope of its promise.  It will be about God building relationship with his people in attempts to bring creation back to its intended place as a blessing.  The arc of God's relationships with the people in scripture will build and fall apart and grow and change and lead ultimately to God doing something new and bold and permanent and fixed in the person of Jesus.

So, I will spend some time with some of them that have stood out to me over the years as we move through the books in the Bible.

Gracious God, help us to remember that we are fragile.  We are dust.  We often trust too much our own strength and ignore the breath of life that you have implanted in us.  Bring us ever closer to you so that we may be partners of your continual blessing of creation.  Amen.

Preparing for something new....

Preparing for something new....

I've never considered myself to be artistic or even creative per se.  However, the writing process has always been the one place where I've felt creative juices going.  It's also the place where I practice disciple.  Strange bedfellows sometimes, creativity and discipline...

Commenting on the ELCA's daily devotional texts was a primary way to help me focus on the discipline of writing.  But I was beginning to feel my creative juices begin to wane with those texts.  I was longing, I think, for some kind of thread to tie the daily devotionals together, but also just for something different.  Reflecting on the seven last words of Christ fueled that desire.

I'm not feeling terribly inspired to go back to the daily readings.  So, I am taking this week off to think, pray, and look into something else to focus on.  I will begin again next week - or sooner if something strikes me sooner - and am open to any kind of suggestions.  Perhaps a book of the Bible?  Perhaps people of the Bible?  Perhaps concepts of the Bible?  Feel free to comment in the comment section.  (for those who get my devotionals via email, you can comment at the blog site here: http://wanderingaim-fully.blogspot.com)

In the meantime, here is a quote to ponder for the day.  I just finished reading this wonderful book by Rob Bell:  What We Talk About When We Talk About God.  I highly recommend it.

“What we see in these passages [in scripture] is God meeting people, tribes, and cultures right where they are and drawing and inviting and calling them forward, into greater and greater shalom and respect and rights and peace and dignity and equality. It's as if human history were progressing along a trajectory, an arc, a continuum; and sacred history is the capturing and recording of those moments when people became aware that they were being called and drawn and pulled forward by the divine force and power and energy that gives life to everything.” 

God of all creation, call us forward.  Inflame our hearts to love and serve you and our neighbors.  Move your creative process in and around us so that we may find who it is you long for us to be.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Seven

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." - Luke 23:46


The backdrop for these, Jesus' final words, is dramatic.  Darkness has come over the whole land.  The very light of the sun has failed in middle of the afternoon, and the temple curtain has torn in two.  It had to seem a setting of utter hopelessness.

And yet in this final moment Jesus displays complete and utter trust.

Again, we are getting a quote from a psalm.  This time, Psalm 31, a Psalm of David:

³ "You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
   for your name’s sake lead me and guide me, 
⁴ take me out of the net that is hidden for me,
   for you are my refuge. 
⁵ Into your hand I commit my spirit;
   you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God."

In life, Jesus perfectly displayed faith in God and now in death, it is not surprising that he does as well.  Despite the sorrow around him - sorrow displayed by the very world itself - Jesus lets go of life with the very calm and trust and assurance he always had.

This trust of God has a forward looking sense to it.  In Psalm 31, David tells God that he has been redeemed by God.  In these last moments of Jesus then, we can enter into that same hope.  

That death does not have the final word.

God of life, let our trust in you be complete.  Help us to let go and fall into your open arms with the same hope of Jesus, in whose perfect love and faith is our salvation.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Six

"It is finished." - John 19:30


I like superhero movies.  OK, not all superhero movies.  But I like many movies where the heroes set out on a mission to save the galaxy or the world - or at least New York City - and as the end nears, and it really looks like they aren't going to make it, they get the upper hand and save the day.

There are cheers then of "Mission Accomplished!" and everyone hugs and wipes their brow with a collective "whew!"

Batman saving Gotham City from the Joker.  Luke Skywalker letting go of that photon torpedo to destroy the Death Star.  Iron Man rescuing the little Afghani village.  Superman turning the earth backwards to save Lois Lane. Aragorn routing the forces of Sauron with the Army of the Dead.  

Big. Heroic. Moments.

Sometimes, however, the biggest of missions come to an end in what seem like small, intimate moments.

Sometimes the hero accomplishes the mission with a simple: "It is finished."

It's done.  Mission accomplished.

As Jesus closes his eyes for the last time in the Gospel of John, it is again with the assurance that he is in command of the situation.  Perhaps he is relieved also that the pain is over, but the Greek verb here "teleo" indicates completion. Jesus has finished what he set out to do.  From the moment right before Jesus' arrest, we know Jesus is in control as John tells us that Jesus was "knowing all that was going to happen to him" and went willingly to his fate.  

Scripture had been fulfilled and salvation had burst forth.  The cross revealed God's full love to a broken world.

Of course, we know that God was not quite done yet.

God of power and mystery, you saved us through an act of self-sacrificial love.  It is hard to understand why sometimes and hard to fathom it all, and yet we know one thing: your love for us is boundless and far reaching enough that there is nothing you would not do to show us.  Amen

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Five

"I am thirsty." - John 19:28

Yesterday, I said that while some thought that Jesus' cry to ask why God had forsaken him could be a quote from Psalm 22, I felt that likely it was more Mark's highlighting Jesus' humanity.

Here we have a similar situation.  Jesus is thirsty, and that very thirst reminds us of his very human reality.  However, we also again have Old Testament scriptures to call back to.  

Psalm 43: "My soul thirsts for God, the living God."

Psalm 69: "They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."  

Psalm 107:  "Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them."

Isaiah 21: "Bring water to the thirsty, meet the fugitive with bread."

Here I think John was very comfortable having Jesus' thirst be foremost a direct reference back to the the scriptures.  John as a gospel writer was all about showing Jesus as a the fulfillment of scripture.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus' march to the cross is very different than in the other gospels.  He is portrayed a much stronger and very much in control of the entire situation.  Was Jesus thirsty?  Undoubtedly.  Regardless of how strong he is in John's gospel, the reality of the crucifixion can't be denied.  He suffered and was no doubt thirsty.

But also in John, I can not help but remembering Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.  He came to her thirsty, asking for water.  Yet he came also as the antidote to her own thirst - one she did not even realize she had.  He came as living water, and is also the Bread of Life. Jesus is the antidote to our hunger and our thirst.

In the tale of the Samaritan woman ironically the woman never gives Jesus his water.  She drops her jug and goes to spread the news of who Jesus is. 

Now, Jesus is thirsty again.  The living water is thirsty.  Will we, like the Samaritan woman, be quenched of our own thirst and spread the news of where other can get that living water as well? 

Gracious Lord, you seek to satisfy the hunger and thirst of all your children.  You indeed hunger for our satisfaction.  Help us to satisfy the hunger and thirst of those who still need both the living water and bread of life you offer, but also food and drink to fill their empty bellies.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Four

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - Mark 15:34



Among the seven last words of Jesus, three come from the book of Luke, three from John, and only one from Mark (Matthew includes the same as Mark).  

Why was this so important for Mark to make this known as Jesus' last word?  Is it what you imagine when you think of Jesus on the cross?  Is it faith-shaking to conceive that the only word we get from Jesus in Mark or Matthew is his anguish over God forsaking him? 

There has been speculation that Jesus was quoting Psalm 22 here.  Perhaps.  We can't know for certain.  But that has always felt like a bit of a cheat to me.  At least if that's all there is to it.

Instead, what I have tended to imagine is that Mark wants us to know here that Jesus so fully entered the human condition that he experienced everything we experience.

Including the agony of feeling cut off from God.

Mark's Jesus is so very human.  And is suffering here not just physically, but emotionally as well.

When I'm suffering or in an emotional free-fall, he tends to be the Jesus I think of first.  Not as much the Gospel of John's carefully in control Jesus.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Jesus in John.  But when I'm in the midst of an existential crisis, Jesus as he appears in that gospel is less accessible to me.

But in Mark and in Matthew, Jesus knows emotional suffering.  He knows alone-ness.  He knows what it is to feel cut off.  Separate.

Mark, it seems to me, wanted us to know that.

As I said, we can't know for certain.  Even Martin Luther was daunted by this very verse.  Of it, he is claimed to have said:  "God forsaken by God.  Who can understand it?"

Perhaps we can't understand it now.  But when we feel alone and separate from God, maybe then perhaps, it will make some kind of sense.

God of surprises, you know our suffering because you have felt that suffering as well.  You hold us in your heart when we feel lost and cut off.  Remind us always that you are present with us in each moment of our lives, loving us with everything you have.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Three

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ - John 19:26-27


We don't know for sure which disciple is meant by 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.'  Traditionally, it has been thought to be John, thought then also to be the author of the gospel.  But some have also speculated that it was Lazarus, whom we know Jesus loved based on Jesus' reaction to Lazarus' death.

But whether it was John or whether it was Lazarus, this disciple is now someone else entirely.  He is Mary's son.

And Mary is his mother.

You have to wonder as Mary stood at the cross, gazing up at her dying son, if she was tormented by Simeon's words when Jesus was a baby:  "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

Likely a sword was piercing her soul.  Piercing the depth of her very being.  

It's a stark and tragic moment.  It's a real moment that makes us remember that Jesus died a human man with a mother who wept for him.  Who would miss him.  Who was present at his death, just as she was at his birth.

A mother who was vulnerable, but not alone.  

Jesus put families together all throughout his ministry.  He put families together who followed God together.  He put families together who might under no other circumstances ever have known each other.

And in his last moments, he put a family together for the woman who brought him into the very world he loved enough to die for.

God of love and companionship, thank you for all those you have put in our lives to love us: those families of blood ties, but also those who we are tied to simply by you.  Help us to seek the lonely and vulnerable so that they might know they are not truly alone.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: Two

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." - Luke 23:43

He had heard his friends talk about this Jesus fellow.  Had even once seen the crowds following him.  In fact, the sound of the people crying praises to him less than a week ago had aroused him from a painful stupor in his jail cell. Hosanna, they'd cried!  Hosanna to this broken, bloodied, defeated man next to him - king.  King?

Of course, he hadn't seen him himself.  He'd been in prison a week already by then, awaiting the fate he now suffered.  The waiting almost seemed worse.  Now, now...now it was finally almost over.  A life of crime hadn't been one he'd relished, but it had kept him alive. Ironic that in the last week of his life he hungered for death.

King?

This man looked like no king he'd ever seen.  Not one of stories, or one of reality.  Not a Jewish king, nor even Roman or anything else he'd seen on earth.

Messiah even.  Not just king.  Messiah.

And yet...

As the catcalls and taunts directed at his man flooded his ears, it was as if something inside him melted away.  Some primal response that had always served him.  Rage. Anger.  Righteous indignation at suffering such an ignoble death at the hands of these Romans thugs.  

It all melted away.  

This man, made him feel a peace he'd never know.  It had to be this man.  There was no other accounting for it.  Feeling peace on a cross?  Peace in this midst of excruciating pain and misery?

It didn't seem to affect their compatriot in suffering.  His partner in crime - who had helped him rob a Roman soldier's home - mocked this man just as the crowd did.  He rebuked him for it.

And then, before he knew it, the words were out of his mouth:  "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

A king after all.

And Jesus promised him that today they would be in fact in the new Garden of Eden.  Paradise!  Him!  Him whose life until today had amounted to nothing more than broken relationships, broken laws, as well as a few broken body parts from time to time.

Him!  Who had never done anything that hadn't been self-serving.  Him, who until a few moments before had even wondered if God even knew he existed.

Set free.  Forgiven.  Loved even.

Him!

And if him?  Who else.  

Suddenly he felt as if this were not the end, but instead the beginning of something new.

Lord of all mercies, you shone your glory on the cross and forgave even those who the rest of the world had written off.  You promise life - life that comes through your own scandalous death.  Thank you and help us live that life with abandon.  Amen.

Seven Last Words of Jesus: One

As we move tomorrow into Palm/Passion Sunday and Holy Week, I'm going to step back from my normal devotional to write a week of devotions for Holy Week based on the Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross.

1) Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." - Luke 22:34

In the Gospel of Luke we have a Jesus who, perhaps even more than in the other gospels, cares for the outcast, heals the wounded, and forgives what some might see as unforgivable.  In this moment - after suffering violence and humiliation as he is put on a cross to suffer a death steeped in indignity - it should perhaps not be surprising that his first words are words of forgiveness.

It is a remarkable moment that initiates the world into the work of the cross itself.  Forgiveness is there for all to see in the cross of Christ.  Even when forgiveness is not asked for. "They do not know what they are doing."

How often is that true?  How often do I pay attention to my actions and see how their consequences take me down a path turned away from God's intentions for me?  How often do I insist that I am right; assert my control; feel the strong desire to prove someone wrong, and so completely miss how far off the mark that puts me?

Where it doesn't put me, however, is distant from God.  On the cross - especially in forgiving his tormenters - Jesus shows that God is near even when we are at our worst.  God is reaching out always, pulling us in, loving and forgiving and hoping that we will see that forgiveness and live into the freedom it gives.

Gentle Jesus, in your worst moment you forgave those who tormented you.  Let your cross be a reminder to me always to live into the forgiveness you so freely give and let that forgiveness set me free from the bonds of my sin.  Amen

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Something a little different today.  I've not been feeling good this week, and admit that I found today's Jeremiah text to be a bigger load to bear than I was up for.  When you aren't feeling well, Jeremiah, who was called "the weeping prophet" can sometimes be a lot to take in!

So, instead today I want to lift up today's commemoration in the Lutheran Church.  Today is anniversary of the martyrdom in 1945 of Dietrich Bonheoffer and on the church calendar, it is today that we remember him.

Some quotes then from Bonhoeffer to ponder and pray on.  Bonhoeffer more than many theologians, showed us the true power of the theology of the cross;  the cost of discipleship; the taking of our faith seriously; the importance of loving our neighbor with everything we have.  

So in memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world." - from Meditations on the Cross

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol”

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
from The Cost of Discipleship

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”  from  Letters and Papers in Prison

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” 

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  from The Cost of Discipleship


What is it today that you are called to die to?  What needs to die in your life so that new life - a richer, more abundant life in Christ - can spring forth?

Gracious God, thank you for your servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer who showed us the path of discipleship, who showed us the unfathomable power of the cross and who taught us to follow you with our whole selves so that we can live into the life you have given us with purpose, meaning and fullness.  Amen.

True selves

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NRSV) You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. The theology here from Paul has given us ample thought, discussion, and even debate over the millennia.  As a Lutheran, verses 8 & 9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God -- not the result of works, so that no one may boast" are rather like mother's milk.  I was bred on them. And yet verse 10 is what keeps me going, reminding me not to be dismissive of "good works" in thinking about justification by faith alone. We are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.  That's it.  It's who we are.  Who we are meant to be.   Our true selves. Our whole and complete selves. Forgiveness and being made right through Christ is only half of the story. We are made right to be set free from the prison that our selfishness holds us in.  In modern language maybe we'd say our ego. When we let go of that, and our faith instead leads us to remember who God created us to be - serving and loving our neighbor - then we are truly and complete free.  We are who God intended us to be.  Our true selves. It is, I have discovered, a life's journey.  One not unlike a winding river that brings us forward and then on detours out of the way.  Freedom is not easily accepted sometimes.  Reality and truth also often take time to accept. But the gift has been given to us and revealed to us.  Our true selves await and the gift of realizing it and living into it is our true reward. Lord you have set me free from the bonds of sin to live into the full and abundant life you have prepared for me.  Remind me each day of this journey of life so that I may latch on with joy and hope to this life of purpose and meaning.  Amen

Hope

I Kings 17:17-34 (NRSV)

After this the son of the (the widow of Zarephath), the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, ‘What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!’ But he said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?’ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, ‘See, your son is alive.’ So the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.’

This scene happens immediately after Elijah has performed a miracle for the widow and her son that they won't starve: their jar of meal and jug of oil will not be emptied.  The woman, who told Elijah she was preparing to die before he came and provided her with sustenance, now has a way to eat thanks to the prophet.

And then immediately her son gets sick.

You can sense in the woman's response perhaps that she just wishes Elijah had left well enough alone.  She was prepared to die with her son, only to have hope come into her world fleetingly (so she believes) just to be snatched away again.

Hope is a funny thing.  We often live in fear of it being snatched away.  We give into it and then wait for the bottom to fall out.  In this case, it seemed to the woman that the bottom had indeed fallen out.  

How quickly she'd forgotten the hope that Elijah had given her.

Yet can we really blame her?

We live in a world where anxiety seems to have more power over us than hope. Countless people have taken anti-anxiety meds - myself included.  I know the feeling that comes when you think the bottom is going to fall out.  

There's an uneasy connection between anxiety and control.  We often want control of our lives rather than the hope that comes with letting go.  In moments of panic and the need for control, we forget the freedom that comes though God's sustaining mercy.  

This woman was given her son back - life was given to her by Elijah once again, despite her forgetfulness.  God's sustaining love was greater than the fear that ruled her life.

Panic and anxiety will come.  But God's mercy and love and hope is greater than fear, even when the bottom drops out in our lives.  The pain and hopelessness that comes with that bottom dropping out must be gone through and not avoided: our valley of the shadow.  But hope remains.  St. Paul reminds us that "hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

God of hope and mercy, lift me up and carry me through those times when hope seems to allude me: when the bottom has dropped out and I can't see my way on the path that is put before me.  Remind me always of your unfailing mercy and that while fear may come, I can trust in you always to provide hope and love to sustain me.  Amen.

The depths

Psalm 130 (NRSV)

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
LORD, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the LORD
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!

For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities. 

One of the hardest lessons I think that a parent can teach a child is that suffering and pain and heartache are part of the rhythm of life.  When they are little you want to simply take the pain away. And as they get older, that instinct doesn't go away.  But you know that you can't.

There comes a time when you know that all you can do is give them your attention and sit with them in their suffering.  Take their hand, cry with them, hold them and wait for them to move through the valley and get to the other side.  Knowing however that they are not alone as they get to the other side.

It is no different for friends and loved ones.  When someone sits with suffering or tragedy or illness or depression, it is sometimes tempting to offer a pithy saying that you hope comforts:  "God did this for a reason" or "God will make this alright."

But that isn't the message the Psalmist gives us.  One of the reasons the Psalms can be so powerful is their unvarnished truth about the reality of the human condition.  And here the Psalmist contends that suffering is not alright.  Sometimes all we can do is wait and hope and live in the knowledge that though it is not alright, we can ask God to pay attention and wait with us until the morning comes.

 God of compassion, sit with me when I am in the depths.  Comfort me and keep me fast.  And give me the compassion to be able to sit with those I love when they are in their depths as well:  to cry with them and to be with them and give them my full attention.  Amen.