What's in a Name? - Genesis 35:10

Genesis 35:10

God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he was called Israel. 

The fourteen year old (or there about) girl, sighed into her hand on the balcony, bemoaning her fate. To love someone with such a terrible, and yet wonderful, name.

Montague.

"What's in a name?" she asks. "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

What is in a name indeed! To have a name be so contentious is quite a thing, whether you are a young maiden or a shepherd and aspiring patriarch who has a tendency to trick people.

Jacob was such a man. And in the end, after wrestling with God, his very name came to mean exactly that: Israel means "God contended."

On the surface, such a terrible name.

A name that bespeaks fighting with God.

And yet such a wonderful name. Wonderful enough that an entire nation took that name from the trickster formerly known as Jacob.

Because that is what we do, is it not? We wrestle each and every day with this path that is before us. With this identity that God has given us. With our names being written on God's heart.

It is not easy, God tells us. And shows us.

We struggle.

And yet through each struggle, our name - who we truly are in God - becomes clearer and clearer.

What is in a name? What is in YOUR name?

Who has God called you?

Who is God calling you to be?

Lord of all, my name is written on your heart. Show me who I am. Amen.

Just getting started: Mark 1:1

Mark 1:1

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The gospels all have ways of beginning that are thrilling in their own unique ways, and the Gospel of Mark perhaps most thrilling in it's simplicity and brevity.

And yet in its expansiveness as well.

Because Mark's story is still going on.

He says so right there. Right in "the beginning."

Like the gospel writer of John, he begins at the beginning. But Mark's beginning is still in progress.

His short gospel he is telling us is just the beginning of a story that's still happening.

The ending of the gospel tells us that. The original ending of the Gospel of Mark is this: 

"When (the women) looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

What an ending! Talk about a cliff-hanger.

And maybe that's the point. We are living in the cliff-hanger. 

The good news is still happening. WE are in the story.

God is just getting started.

And that can and should bring us terror and amazement.

Lord, you have made me part of your story. Lead the way! Amen

Live: John 15:1-5

John 15:1-5

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Why does a branch bear fruit?

Because it's alive.

It is alive because it is connected to the source. It is connected to the rest of the tree, and that great sap of life running through it. It can tap into the water it needs and the minerals from the soil.

I'm no botanist. Biology was not even one of my best classes in school. So admittedly, I may not know the exact way trees provide life to their branches. 

But I know what it means to be connected to the Source of life.

I know because I know what I feel when I am not connected to the Source. I know what it feels to be isolated, cut off.

As a New Year dawns, perhaps it is a good time to ask yourself what are the ways in which you are connected to the Source of Life? What are the ways you sometimes isolate yourself from it?

This goes beyond simply going to church. Being in a church community can be life giving and is certainly a way to connect to the Source of Life.

But even going to church every Sunday may not mean we are connected. We may not be getting the sustenance only others on their own faith journeys can give us. Or being a source of sustenance for them...

Just as sometimes we may find ourselves connected to the Source of Life in other ways: through service at a soup kitchen; in an intimate relationship with our spouse; coaching our child's soccer team; or experience God's glory in creation.

So, as you begin this year, ask yourself if there is something that can connect you to life - that can help you tap into something that can show that you yourself are a Source of abundant life.

Lord, help me to truly be alive. Amen

Merry Christmas from me and Matthew 1

Matthew 1:1-17

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,fourteen generations.

As I end for 2016, I'm finishing with a funny Christmas reading.

Before Matthew gives us Jesus' nativity though the story of Joseph, he does something else. He introduces us to Jesus through his human family. He connects Jesus through Joseph to King David and to Abraham.

Generally in Matthew we get Joseph's version of the Nativity, and in Luke we get Mary's. Yet we also get something interesting of the feminine persecutive here in Matthew's lineage.

In the midst of all these men of Jesus' ancestry, we have four women listed: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary.

- Tamar: disguised herself as a prostitute to get her father-in-law to impregnate her.

- Rahab: A prostitute who assisted the Israelite spies to allow the Israelites to sack her home city of Jericho. She and her family avoided the massacre of her people.

- Ruth: A foreigner from Moab, an neighbor and sometimes enemy of Israel. 

- Mary: pregnant, unwed mother.

These are the women Matthew thinks are important to list among Jesus' ancestors.

So perhaps when he is born not in a palace.

Not part of the empire,

but in a backwater town,

as an enemy of the King of Israel,

making his home eventually in Nazareth (where nothing good comes from)...

We won't be surprised.

We will remember that the birth of Jesus does not come in the shiniest, cleanest way.

It doesn't come to a family dressed in their Sunday best with 2.5 children and a dog.

It doesn't come with ribbons, packages, and bows.

Or even with Christmas Carols.

Or feasts.

It comes in as surprising a way as possible.

This is where Matthew starts. This is where Jesus starts.

This is where we will start.

Our greatest blessing comes to us in a way we would never predict or expect.

Or choose for ourselves.

May your Christmas be blessed and may the unexpected capture you this season with the fullness of God's love.

Come Lord of All. Come and show us the true joy of your gift of love. Amen.

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

What does it mean to you that we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian?

Does that feel true for you? Does that feel real?

For me this is one of Paul's most important writings. It captures me every time I begin to fret about "us" and "them" or "who's in" and "who's out."

Or even fret for myself that God is mad at me.

Or that I'm not doing or being as I ought.

In this time of waiting, we are able to begin to practice living into this idea of there being no more human made distinctions. We can begin to practice the idea of being one.

These days it might feel like we are as far from free and being one as we can possibly be.

We are imprisoned still by differences and polarities and genders and racism and just plain needing to be right rather than united.

We are slaves still in so many ways to those things that separate and divide us not just from each other, but from God as well.

And yet, at the same time, we are clothed in Christ. Free from those same divisions that out of fear we still cling to.

And so we wait. We wait for a time when those distinctions are no longer of use to us. But as we wait and and we hope, we also learn to begin to live into that true freedom that is offered to us. That freedom that unites us as one.  We practice it until its truth is revealed in its fullness to us.

Come Lord Jesus and help us to see the reality of your freedom and unity in your name. Amen.

Matthew 8:14-17

When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

I will admit that for years, it was easy to make a feministic joke out of this text: Jesus just healed Peter's mother-in-law because the rest of the disciples weren't capable of feeding themselves.

And joking aside, there are many women (myself included) who find it difficult to read this without thinking of all the times a woman in our life has served her family while sick or unwell. And it is easy to read into this that she is healed simply to serve the men in this group.

And yet...

Is this not the model for discipleship that Jesus offers all of us? To heal us - in essence to serve us - so that we can then serve others?

There are little things in this text that jump out as worth noticing for me.

First, how intimate this act is. Jesus touches her hand. This tells me that this healing is one of compassion, not simply expedience - to get her back to doing what she's supposed to be doing.

For a man to even touch a woman was a no-no. So Jesus here is valuing her as a person, more than healing her for the sake of tradition or expedience.

He is bringing her back to the life she is called to and undoubtedly loves.

Her first act, as she is healed, is to serve Jesus himself. It isn't to whip up a big meal for the crew. It is to serve her Lord.

This Advent perhaps you are waiting for some kind of healing in your life.

Perhaps you feel you have been stuck - prevented from fully serving as you have felt called to serve.

As we wait for the Light to come into the world, may you find that calling within and may the healing that comes, prompt you forward into a full and abundant life of service and love.

Come Lord Jesus! Come with healing hands and heart! Amen

 1 Samuel 2:1-8

Hannah prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord;
    my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies,
    because I rejoice in my victory.

“There is no Holy One like the Lord,
    no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
    let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
    and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
    but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
    but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
    but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
    he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
    he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
    he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
    and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
    and on them he has set the world.

Long before Mary praised God for looking with favor on the lowliness of servants, and for lifting up the lowly, Hannah - another mother of strange circumstance - exalted God similarly.

Hannah was the mother of the prophet Samuel, and unlike Mary - a teen who had no expectations of being a mother - Hannah had been hoping and praying for motherhood for years.

One woman young and unmarried. Another older and barren despite being married.

Both, however, finding the surprise pregnancy something worth the wait.

And something that spoke to God's topsy turvy work in the world.

No one expects the single teen to have a child.

Or the barren woman who has been married for years.

Just as we don't expect the powerless or weak to gird on strength.

Or the powerful to fall and fail.

Like Mary, Hannah reminds us to expect the unexpected where God is concerned.

And to sing praises for that.

To be hopeful that our expectations are not always the same as God's.

That God's way will exceed everything we can hope for.

Lord, we wait for you to come in ways that will always surprised us and exceed every expectation we can have. Thank you! Amen