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Psalm 112

Praise the Lord!
   Happy are those who fear the Lord,
   who greatly delight in his commandments. 
Their descendants will be mighty in the land;
   the generation of the upright will be blessed. 
Wealth and riches are in their houses,
   and their righteousness endures for ever. 
They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright;
   they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. 
It is well with those who deal generously and lend,
   who conduct their affairs with justice. 
For the righteous will never be moved;
   they will be remembered for ever. 
They are not afraid of evil tidings;
   their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. 
Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid;
   in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. 
They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor;
   their righteousness endures for ever;
   their horn is exalted in honour. 
The wicked see it and are angry;
   they gnash their teeth and melt away;
   the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.

Everything starts and ends for me today with the opening line of this Psalm.  "Praise the Lord!"  

I'm in my house after being away from it for nearly two days after the "ice event" that hit us in Southeastern PA.  Already this has been the worst winter in my memory, but the last couple days really took the cake.  Others are still without power, water and heat, which tempers my own happiness at being able to be home again.

We are so fortunate that we have friends who were willing to take us in for the last couple of days, especially as I think of those who weathered the situation in their freezing cold houses.

And I am reminded of those who always struggle for heat, water, and any form of comfort and I am humbled.

Isaiah describes the righteous here as those who are gracious and merciful; who deal generously; who conduct their affairs with justice and who distribute freely to the poor.  As one who has just been only a little bit homeless with a safe place to lay my head at night, my thoughts go to those who aren't and wonder what justice is available for them and how I can delight in the commandment to show them mercy myself.

God of home and family, you will all your children to have a warm place to lay their head at night, yet so many do not.  Remind me always of your call to be of service to them.  Amen.

Memory

Deuteronomy 4:1-14 (NRSV)

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what the LORD did with regard to the Baal of Peor - how the LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.

See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!" For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children - how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so"; you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 

"But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children"

Moses is preaching to the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land.  It's a speech of both remembrance and one of preparation for the new.

We've all gotten speeches like that in our life.  At times in life where we are transitioning to something new:  college, a new job, moving to a new place.

And there was a time when at church that was how we learned.  We passed our faith to our children through lessons, and stories, and Confirmation, and Sunday School, and they took that faith and made it their own, and when the time came to embark on their adult life of faith, they stayed close to their denominational home.

But now increasingly, those remembrances are not part of the faith life of many.  More and more are coming to church for the first time - seeking, hoping.  Coming without the grounding of a denominational faith life.  Or perhaps coming after being hurt or turned off by a denomination and looking for something new.

The promises of hope however remain.  Whether we come from a life grounded in a belief passed down by our parents, or whether we are searching because our memories of faith are new or perhaps cloudy, God is still waiting to show us the Promise of hope and life.

For those of us who have been grounded in the faith for our whole lives, we are the ones who are there to help those who are new find their way into the unfamiliar land they have entered.  We are there to be hope for them as they find their own memories in the promise.

God of memory, remind me always to trust in your promises and to share those promises with others.  Amen

Light of the World

John 8:12-20

 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ Then the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgement is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.’ Then they said to him, ‘Where is your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’ He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus loves to talk in twisty, windy, puzzle-y ways. It's easy to get lost down in them.

Except it's really the first line that says it all, isn't it?  There isn't much puzzle-y about that.  Light I think is my favorite metaphor for Jesus.  It's the one that visually makes the most sense to me, and it is one that is made even stronger by it's multiple meanings.

It's also an image the Gospel of John starts using right at the beginning:  "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."  When I think of Jesus as light I imagine the image of a a door or a window casting light into a blackened room.  When the door opens or the sun rises through the panes of the window and light streams in, which is it that is overcome?  The light doesn't fade by the darkness, but instead the darkness is illuminated.  

Darkness illuminated.  Jesus comes to cast it out.  To shed light on the darkness so that we can't hide in it.

And the other metaphor for light works too.  Jesus in Matthew tells us that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  He lightens our load.  He does the heavy lifting.

Of course that doesn't mean following Jesus is easy.  Even when things are illuminated or burdens are lifted, we find ways to pull the familiar darkness around us, of put the yoke of sin right back on our shoulders.  We try to creep back into the corners of our darkness, hiding in the shadows, trying not to see the truth.

Truth.  That's the other word for that Jesus claims for himself.  The way, the truth and the life.  That's what the light offers us.  Truth and life.  Casting out the darkness so that we can see ourselves plainly and know the way to abundant life.

Light of the world, shine on me and cast out the darkness that I stubbornly cling to. Amen

Family

Ruth 1:1-18 (NRSV)

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband.

Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had had consideration for his people and given them food. So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.’ Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. They said to her, ‘No, we will return with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.’ Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

 So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God. 
Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried.
 May the Lord do thus and so to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’ 
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

What was going on in Ruth’s head I’ve always wondered?  It’s no small thing to leave your country – and family – and go with your mother-in-law to another land.  The women are left with literally nothing in a time where widows, especially widows without sons, had no future at all to look forward to and were for all intents and purposes, destitute.

Of course, it really seems that it isn’t Ruth’s head I should be wondering about.  It is her heart.  “Where you go, I will go…” She is already part of Naomi.  She is part of her family and her trust lies in that relationship. 

Why does God so earnestly desire our faith and our trust?  Because it is about relationship. 

Ruth’s prospects were grim whether she stayed or went with Naomi.  All she had was faith and courage.  A faithful and a courageous heart.

And a relationship with one who had become her family.

Families come in all types, and aren’t always by blood.  Where there is courage, and faith, and heart, a family is born, regardless of biology.

God of relationship, thank you for all the types of family you have given me: my family of origin, as well as those who have become my family through trust and heart.  Amen.

It's a big tent

Psalm 15 (NRSV)

O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
and speak the truth from their heart;
who do not slander with their tongue,
and do no evil to their friends,
nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
but who honor those who fear the LORD;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
who do not lend money at interest,
and do not take a bribe against the innocent.
Those who do these things shall never be moved.

That's a tall order, isn't it?  Yet all things we'd of course expect ourselves from people we "abide" or stay with: friends and family we hang out with.  You expect truth and loving words and commitment.

Yet we know we all fall short here.  Over and over we are betrayed by our own hurt and anger to say and do things we know we shouldn't, yet in that moment of passion, feel oh-so-right...

Until they don't.

Until we feel like we've strayed from the tent.  

The good news is that this isn't the end of the story.  We stray from the tent and yet someone is pulling us back - expanding the tent so that more can abide in it.

What does it feel like when you know Jesus is pulling you back in?  Some moment after you've said or done something - gossiped, judged, fought, lied - that left you feeling cut off from God only to feel that mercy spread over you, pulling you back...

Did it compel you to seek forgiveness?  Did it leave you in tears?  Did it give you a sense of peace?

Martin Luther reminds that through baptism the old creature in us is drowned and dies daily to sin.  For me, that "daily" is an important word.  The moment I think I've got it all together, is usually the moment it all falls apart.  That "old creature" in me is in its death throes but each day I begin again on this journey toward being the new creation I am in Christ: pulled back under the tent when I stray through repentance and forgiveness over and over again.

And the thing is Jesus isn't just doing that for me.  He's doing it even for those that I don't agree with or make me mad or don't live up to my standards.  He reminds me that the standards aren't mine.  They are his.

It's a big tent.  A tent that is wide enough and strong enough and full of enough hope to hold more than a few stragglers.

Jesus, pull me back in when I stray from your tent.  Forgive me and remind me daily of my baptism, that I am clothed in you and that your mercy works ever wider than I can even imagine. Amen

Set free

Please note:  I'll be away at a Conference for most of this week and without my computer so won't be updating again until Friday morning!  Peace!

Judges 6:11-24 (NRSV)

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior." Gideon answered him, "But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian." Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you." He responded, "But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them." Then he said to him, "If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay until you return."

So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, "Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. 

Anything can happen when you are just minding your own business beating out wheat in the wine press!  Or sitting at a baseball game...or driving to work.  Or vacuuming the house.

Just living your life.

God can come calling (note here how the text moves back and forth from the Lord to an angel of the Lord).

It doesn't matter if you consider yourself small. Or weak.  Or from a family that is dysfunctional or in your eyes small and inconsequential.  It doesn't matter if you don't think you can speak in public or if you don't know scripture all that well.

Maybe then God has the most use for you.

We see God call the unexpected all the time:  Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Mary.  God's not interested in the limitations we put on ourselves.  That we have them is a given.  For each one of us.

What is it that God's calling you to?  Calling me to?  Service.  Yes.  But relationship and community is what it's all about.  The Kingdom of God.  The community of God's people set free from their limitations to show God's extraordinary love to the world.

God of extravagant love, you seek us out over and over, setting us free from the limits that we and others put on ourselves.  Remind us constantly that in you we are freed from those limits to love as extravagantly as you do!  Freed to be your people!  Amen.

Whom Shall I Fear?

Psalm 27:1-6 (NRSV)

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh -
my adversaries and foes -
they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD,
and to inquire in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.
Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD. 

It's been said that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather it is fear.  It makes sense in a lot of ways.  How many of the terrible things of this world are born out of fear?  Fear of losing power or money.  Fear of another race or ethnicity.  Fear of difference or the unknown.  Fear of change.  Love gets squashed under such circumstances.

And since God is the ultimate source of love, it makes sense then that fear is the enemy.  "Do not be afraid" is the spoken by God over and over in the Hebrew Scriptures  as well as in the New Testament through Jesus.

And here Psalmist/David through faith takes up the call not to fear.  Why should he fear when the Lord is his light and his salvation?

We might have a hundred different responses to him.  There are scary things in this world.  

And yet those scary things are not meant to have the final word.  As a parent, I know one of the lessons I most tried to teach my daughter was that no matter how scared she was of something or even of life in general, when she saw a news story where something terrible had happened, she had to have faith to keep on living.  Fear wins when we allow it to.  When we choose fear over living.

God is a God of love, but also of life and so the Psalmist, through faith, not only lives rather than fears, but celebrates the life that God has given.

The world can be fearful.  But life can be full of joy and love when God, and not fear, is allowed the final word.

God of strength and compassion, I get scared sometimes and ask that in your love, you help me to find the courage to move from fear into life. Amen