Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Psalm 121

“I lift up my eyes to the hills - 

from where will my help come?” (Psalm 121:1, NRSV)

Today’s reading, Psalm 121, is from a collection of Psalms called Songs of Ascents. Many figure that they were said or sung while people were on pilgrimage up to Jerusalem. Others think that the “ascents” refers to the way in which the Psalms tend to be built up through the repetition of certain words, such as “keep” in today’s passage.

One curious aspect of this Psalm is that the meaning of the first verse can vary radically, depending on what translation you are using. Most contemporary translations render it as a question, such as the New Revised Standard Version, as quoted above. My New Jerusalem, New King James, and Jewish Publication Society Bibles all end the verse with a question mark. 

Interestingly, the King James Version translates verse one as a statement: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” This translation would be consistent with the idea of it being recited while on pilgrimage. God’s presence is closely linked with Jerusalem. The majestic sight of the mountains inspires confidence in the Psalmist, who is looking for safety and reassurance.

However, the more common translation of the first verse as a question changes things. Verse two’s recognition that “my help comes from the Lord,” and the elaboration that follows, is perhaps a rejection of the hills as a source of help and hope, as they were often the site of pagan shrines. It is an acknowledgement that Israel’s God is the God of everything (we might say “of all things visible and invisible”), and not some household idol of localized deity with one specific function. 

This brief glimpse into some issues around translation may or may not be interesting or spiritually edifying for you. I think it is helpful to be mindful of some of the complexities of translation. There are a lot of things at play, and questions to ask. Here are a few:

• when and where was the passage written, and what was going on at the time (i.e. what was the context?)

• is there agreement of disagreement between the original language manuscripts?

• do the translators have a bias or mandate?

• am I honouring the original intention of the author, or bringing my own worldview, and other theologies into my reading? This isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s good to be conscious of this. One of my professors says that to really appreciate a text, try to read it as if it were the only part of the Bible we had. That shouldn’t have to be the only way of reading a text, but it is a helpful exercise.

- Matthew Kieswetter

Monday, June 30, 2014

June 30, 2014 

Romans 6: 12 - 23

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.  This is a quotation that I remember hearing from a very young age in church and Sunday School.  I thought I understood it - with my head at least.  But rereading this passage has made me think a bit more about what Paul is getting at. Is it that unforgiven sin lands us in hell (whatever that might be), but accepting Jesus results in God forgiving the sin and welcoming us into heaven (totally undeserved)?  Both of these being after our life on earth is over. That is certainly the main thrust of what I remember being taught.

This time, I read a different translation (The Message) and found that the emphasis shifted.

Paul seems to be talking not so much about what happens after this life is over, so much as about the quality of life here and now.  Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death.  But God’s gift is real life, eternal life (23).  A pension is received while still living.  Earlier in the passage, when talking about choosing how to live, which “boss” to obey, he says that a life that only considers self and ignores God is no life at all; it is a dead end.  But, he says, if we listen to God and follow his way of doing things, we shall be surprised by a whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! (22) 

Paul says that real freedom is in obedience to God.  That seems to be a contradiction.  Sounds like I have to do things I don’t want to do.  However, Paul reminds us of our own experience:  some acts of so-called freedom...destroy freedom...your last free act (16).  A drug addict certainly knows the truth of this!  But I’m not a drug addict, so does this still hold true?  I think it does.  For instance, if I hold on to anger or hurt, refuse to forgive, don’t share generously .....  who suffers most?  I do.  Those negative emotions and behaviours are crippling, making it difficult to experience the life that God wants for each one of us.  

The challenge then is to throw [myself/ourselves] wholeheartedly and full time ... into God’s way of doing things....living in the freedom of God.(13-14)  We can experience the rewards of our choices here and now, not just in the future.  We don’t have to wait for the life God offers.  Live in God’s freedom,...lives healed and expansive in holiness. (19) Sounds good!!

Blessings

Ann Kelland

Sunday, June 29, 2014 (ST. PETER & ST. PAUL)

Sunday, June 29, 2014 (St. Peter & St. Paul)

Galatians 2:1-9

This famous passage from Paul’s angry letter to the Galatians provides precious and rare information about various aspects of the fledgling church. In particular, one of the most contentious issues amongst the apostles was what was the status of the Jewish Law for Gentiles? Here, the apostle Paul, who unlike Peter had never known the historical Jesus, had a novel idea in that he did not think that Gentiles had to observe the Law in order to follow another Jew, namely Jesus. This made Paul, a Jew himself, a rather radical person. The verses, which form part of his backdrop for the overall argument Paul makes in his letter to the Galatians, describes how he met with the other leaders in Jerusalem, including the “pillars” such as James, John and Cephas (Aramaic name for Peter) and points out that they agreed to his proclamation of a Law-free gospel to the “uncircumcised.” By rehearsing this scenario, Paul is defending his mission and his authority as an apostle, making it clear that what he had preached to the Gentiles in Galatia was consistent with what was agreed to by the Jewish leaders, including Peter, in Jerusalem. Paul needs to defend his legitimacy before he launches into an impassioned argument throughout the rest of the letter about why the Galatians should not follow the Law. 

It is important to remember that Paul’s position on the Jewish Law was a minority view in the first few decades after the death of Jesus. The Jesus movement was a movement within Judaism. In a sense, Paul is trying to expand the notion of “Israel” to include Gentiles. In addition, because Paul did not think that Gentiles had to follow the Law does not mean that he thought that the Law was bad, or to be rejected summarily. Unfortunately many subsequent Christians have read Paul’s letters in this way, which has contributed to the long and horrible tradition of Christian anti-Judaism. Paul did not reject his Jewish identity, nor did Peter, and according to tradition, they both suffered martyrdom in Rome.

- Alicia Batten

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Ezekiel 3:4-17

Ezekiel lived at a traumatic time for his nation.  The northern kingdom of Israel had been permanently destroyed by the Assyrians more than 100 years earlier; now the southern kingdom of Judah was defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans.  Jerusalem and much of the country were plundered; God’s temple was ransacked and, with the whole city, was soon destroyed.  The king and all the prominent people were marched as prisoners to Babylon, where they lived as dispossessed captives, confused, hopeless, and yet full of the stubborn rebelliousness that God’s prophets had long warned would bring their downfall.

Ezekiel was one of these exiles taken captive to Babylon.  He was a priest [Ezek. 1:3].  In his time, the work of a priest was to govern the temple in Jerusalem, to help people offer their sacrifices, and to lead worship in the temple.  All this was now impossible: The temple was no more; the sacrifices were stopped; the rebellious exiles did not want to worship God – they likely blamed God for all their trouble, although God through the prophets had long been urging them to turn from their stubborn sinfulness.

Ezekiel was a very unusual person, who had strange and wonderful visions of heaven, of God’s throne, and of immeasurable glory.  In today’s passage, God commissioned Ezekiel to be a prophet of a particularly hard-headed sort, with the daunting task of declaring God’s word fully and faithfully to the rebellious exiles, hard people to reach at this traumatic time.  Ezekiel was to speak in a strong and forthright way whether the exiles would listen to him or not.  If God had sent him to foreigners with huge language and cultural obstacles to communication, they would have listened to him, God said, but his own people would not.  So Ezekiel was to be hard-headed, harder even than the stubborn exiles.  Perhaps, by faithfully declaring God’s message to almost total rejection, a few people might listen and change.

In all this, Ezekiel was still a priest.  Verse 3:15 shows this:  When Ezekiel joined the exiles where they lived, he was so overcome that he just sat with them, stunned and overwhelmed, for seven full days before he said anything.  A good priest, you see, needs to be soft-hearted, compassionate, sympathizing with and caring for people, understanding their heartbreak and reaching out to God on their behalf, listening much more than talking.  Ezekiel was both a hard-headed prophet and a soft-hearted priest, quite an unusual combination.  Soft-heartedness and hard-headedness don’t often go together, but both kinds of ministry are needed to meet the desperate needs of people whose world has collapsed for them.

It’s the same today.  When their world falls apart, people need soft-hearted understanding, comfort, and support, but they also need hard-headed concrete advice and direction on what to do.  As followers of Christ, are we ready to provide both kinds of ministry to people in need? 

May God make us faithful in this calling.

-- Robert Kruse

Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday, June 27, 2014
 Matt 20:29-34    

 Jesus heals two blind men: 

 Interestingly this incident is reported twice by Matthew not only here, but also earlier in 9:27-31.. Peakes Commentary notes that Matthew did this to have all miracles exemplified. In the first reporting, the healed men were told not to report this, but in this later reporting, the healed  men were not admonished: the emphasis was the compassion of Jesus, and moved by it all, the men then followed Jesus.

Where are we in regard to miracles today? Jesus himself didn't want to have people following him for the wrong reason: he didn't want who he was and about, to be seen as a superman.That's what his  40 days in the wilderness and the temptations he rejected were really  about. No, for him  his ministry was to be living a life and a way, that was accessible  for every-person. So in his encounter with these two blind men, as with others too, the significance was in the human encounter , and the compassion... that resulted in the healing touch. 

This type of interaction is something each of can do, and  the fruits of this is that both participants are richer for it. Whether the two blind men actually physically saw or not, there was a healing that took place, and that's what ultimately counts. Through his concern for them, they became changed and more complete  persons. For me, this is part of the nature & spirit of God at work, working in & through us with one another: This was and is the Christ flowing in and through us, with each other and the cosmos, around and within  us.

- Archdeacon Ken Cardwell

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday June 26

Romans 5:1-11

This excerpt from Paul's letter to the Romans is a helpful reminder of faith being a culmination of belief and action.  Paul is speaking to a crowd gathered, and we can assume from the text that they have experienced recent challenge or persecution.  Paul emphasizes the gifts of faith to be hope, rejoicing and peace; through faith we have peace with God who gives us hope. 

Yet Paul also explains that part of our active belief is suffering.  And suffering is a messy and complex process.  Suffering is not something I know that I happily engage at all times.  It has such a negative connotation, and understandably so in a culture that values convenient solutions and success.  However, Paul reminds us that since Christ died for us, we are ultimately able to rejoice in that suffering through the gift of hope through faith.

~Eric. John, Rachel, Julia

Psalm 119:121-144

Listening and acting and listening and acting . . . 

The Psalmist praises God's words and actions in the past; the Psalmist implores God to to listen and act again.

The Psalmist describes how he has listened for God's words (statutes, commandments, decrees, precepts) and asks God for understanding so that he might walk in their way with steady steps and live!

I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. 

  
Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.

Redeem me from human oppression, that I may keep your precepts.  

Listening and acting and listening and acting . . . 
It is a process that can be a path to wisdom and to justice.

It is a process used intentionally for decades by Christian Base Communities (known as Comunidades Ecclasiales de Base or CEB's) in Latin America.  Some of us experienced a taste of the way Bible Study is done in CEB's at the Diocese of Huron Synod last month under the leadership of Bishop Saulo de Barros from the Diocese Anglicana do Brazil (our new Partner-in-Mission).

Groups gather to listen and reflect on obstacles and issues they and their neighbours face; they listen together for what light Scripture can shed on the issue; and together they act with other groups and movements, supporting and cooperating with one another, to create change.  And as they act, they continue to listen and reflect.

Listening and acting and listening and acting.

Spend some time listening and observing today - in the midst of Scripture, the land, art, city streets, workplaces, conversations.  

What do you see and hear and sense in your context?  
What light is shines on your understanding?  
What call to action do you hear?

Marilyn Malton 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 (The Nativity of John the Baptist)

Today is a feast-day in the Christian Church, remembering the birth of John the Baptizer.  The story of John's birth is a dramatic one, involving angelic proclamations, doubt, forced silence, and a climactic naming - "He shall be called John!"

The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures appointed for today is more general in nature, involving a telling forth of the birth of a messenger.  This is one of those passages that Handel used in his great oratorio, Messiah.  I hear it as music more than I do as spoken word.  "Who shall abide the day of his coming", "For he is like a refiner's fire" - phrases that speak of the one called to proclaim.

John's vocation was to prepare the way for the ministry and message of Jesus.  John functioned in a time when people longed for a new era, a new beginning - freedom from oppression, a time of renewal.  John proclaimed that the one who was to come would bring that new life.

We, too, are called to be messengers - proclaimers of the good news we find in the gospel of Jesus, the Christ.  How do you make that proclamation?  What is the good news you feel called to share?

- Rev'd Paul Kett

Monday, June 23, 2014

June 23rd 2014 

Romans 3:21 - 31

            One of the core documents to which we turn to time and time again for

guidance and direction, is the Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul uses correspondence

to convey his message of the Gospel. He uses letters to build relationships, to provide

for and to nurture the faith of the early church and to speak to those elements of faith that

were the cause of discussion and debate.

            In the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul grapples with the challenge

of helping those who were receiving his message to think through some very foundational

elements of the Christian faith. How does the grace of God enable a right relationship with

all who believe in Jesus as God's Son ?

            Paul writes to individuals who felt themselves defined by their work, or place

in society.  How well they did their job, how well they followed God's Law, helped to

frame how they viewed themselves and how they were seen by others.

            Paul's message clarifies and highlights the simple reality that,"...all alike

have sinned....". (3:21) This definition of equality challenged the barriers that

divided races and genders and slaves from their masters. It was a statement that indicated

that everyone was starting from the same starting point as they faced the challenges

of each day.

            Trying to live up to the full expectations of their interpretations of God's Law

provided a level of expectation around which many people built their lives. The results of their attempts were not always successful. To renew a right relationship with God, people

of faith offered sacrifices in worship, with the desire to make amends, to start afresh and

have a new beginning.

            Paul points to the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross as that which, once and for all time,

is an offering made on behalf of everyone. By placing their personal trust, and by having

faith in Jesus, Paul declares that everyone will experience Divine forgiveness and Divine

acceptance.....God's Grace.

            "For our argument is that a (person) is justified by faith quite apart from success in

keeping the law." (3:28)

            The transitional presentation that Paul makes is that God's Law is no longer to be

experienced as a burden to be borne, but rather as a framework upon which life may be

lived and experienced in all its fullness. God's Grace, is that which enables, and empowers faithful followers of Jesus to live life with joy and hope, not in fear and oppression.

            How do you approach life ? Is each day a heavy burden to be carried, or do you experience

each day saturated by God's Grace to be a divine gift to be savoured ?  

   

- The Reverend Canon Christopher B. J. Pratt

[Note: Scripture quotations from Romans, Chapter 3, are from the New English Bible.]

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Acts 15: 1-12

Today’s passage concerns the dispute within the early church in which the church’s leadership was reported to have accepted the Gentiles into the church without demanding that they be circumcised. This is an important concession because according Acts a number of individuals were taking issue with the position of Paul and Barnabas, and maintained that Gentile converts would not be saved if they failed to be circumcised as dictated by the Jewish legal tradition or “the custom of Moses”. This episode in the early church’s history demonstrates that the church was moving in a direction that would allow more peoples of various ethnic and social origins to be included in a growing church. We might meditate on this implication when today’s church faces issues of exclusivity and inclusivity.

- Terry Rothwell

Saturday, June 21, 2014 (NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY OF PRAYER)

Saturday, June 21, 2014
Psalm 90 (National Aboriginal Day of Prayer)

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,   

 and for as many years as we have seen evil.  

Let your work be manifest to your servants,    

and your glorious power to their children.  

Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,    

and prosper for us the work of our hands—    

O prosper the work of our hands! [Psalm 90:15-17, NRSV]

Today we mark the National Aboriginal Day of Prayer. I am not an expert on Aboriginal traditions or issues, but I have had the chance to visit the Six Nations Reserve on two occasions, including the site of the residential school. I have been warmly welcomed by parishioners at the reservation's Anglican churches, and by their priest, Father Norm Casey.

As our Marks of Mission call us to respond to human need and to transform unjust structures, I am going to try to make a more deliberate effort in becoming more aware of issues that affect Aboriginal communities, and also to learn about Aboriginal contributions to our Church. A good starting point, if you too are interested, is on the New Agape section of the Anglican Church of Canada's website.

Norval Morrisseau [http://www.morrisseau.com/viewPhoto.php?fileID=1501]

The website highlights some National Film Board videos that might be of interest, such as Seventh Fire and Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle. A number of other videos are available for your perusal on the NFB Aboriginal Peoples channel.

Creator God,
from you every family in heaven and earth takes its name.
You have rooted and grounded us
in your covenant love,
and empowered us by your Spirit
to speak the truth in love,
and to walk in your way towards justice and wholeness.
Mercifully grant that your people,
journeying together in partnership,
may be strengthened and guided
to help one another to grow into the full stature  of Christ,
who is our light and our life. Amen

- Matthew Kieswetter

Friday, June 20, 2014

Friday, 20 June, 2014

Romans 2:25 – 3:8 

The Letter of Paul to the Romans contains some of the most profound theology in the whole Bible.  Scholars who spend their whole lives studying it realize they can never plumb its depths.  N. T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and now Research Professor of New Testament at the University of St. Andrew’s, is one such scholar.  He is perhaps the most prolific New Testament scholar of our time, and he is certainly one of the most influential experts on Paul.  Last year, Wright published Volume 4 of his magnum opus on the New Testament.  This Volume 4, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, is in fact two books, 1700 pages long, with a bibliography listing  about 2000 scholarly books and other sources on Paul.  Much of this is concerned with Paul’s Letter to the Romans and comparing old and new perspectives on its interpretation.  Wright says in summary (from his book Justification), “Never mind the old and the new: how do we keep Romans in any kind of perspective?  It bestrides the narrow worlds of scholarship and church like a colossus, and we petty exegetes [interpreters of the Bible] walk under its huge legs and peep about ….”  “All roads led to Rome in the ancient world, and all roads in biblical exegesis lead to Romans sooner or later.”  

[http://store.fortresspress.com/store/productgroup/634/Paul-and-the-Faithfulness-of-God]

Yes, studying Romans is quite a challenge, but necessary if we are to start understanding the basis of our faith.  Picking out a few verses here or there (such as our passage for today) doesn’t even touch the scope of Romans and may be misleading by its failure to engage with the full text.  So let’s try for some context instead.

In the first few decades of the Church (when Romans was written), one of the most important questions was to decide, when Gentiles (non-Jews) became believers in Christ, whether they also needed to convert to Judaism.  Did they need to adopt Jewish customs and religious practices in order to be saved, or could they be Christian believers without becoming Jewish?  For Paul, there was no doubt as to the answer, and establishing this answer is one of the most important objectives in Romans.  As Paul writes at the end of his introduction (Rom 1:16-17), “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith.”  Paul insists that salvation is by faith – not by becoming Jewish – through the good news (gospel), God’s power for salvation.  It is faith in Christ, not adherence to Jewish customs, by which all are saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

Paul has a huge and comprehensive vision as he writes about God’s one and unchanged plan of salvation – all the way from the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden falling into sin, through God’s gracious promises to Abraham, God’s deliverance of his people in the Exodus and provision of the Torah (law, celebrated so wonderfully in Psalm 119), through the captivity to the coming of Christ, his redemptive death and glorious resurrection, through the work of the Holy Spirit both in the believer and in the Church, all the way to the majestic return of Christ, who will judge all people and establish his reign of righteousness and justice for all eternity.

Paul presents this in Romans in a grand sweep, from the sinfulness of all humanity, under God’s righteous judgement and wrath (ch. 1, to God’s great mercy leading us to repentance and to doing (not just teaching) God’s righteous requirements (ch. 2), to the position of Jews who were entrusted with God’s law but are sinners like the rest of humanity (ch. 3), to faithful Abraham who received God’s promise by faith (ch. 4), so all of us (Jews or not) can share by faith in Abraham’s promise, fully realized by the coming of Christ and his death for us sinners.  In Christ is life and righteousness for all (ch. 5).  We must not continue in sin but become obedient to righteousness (ch. 6).  It is by God’s righteous law that we know what sin is and probe the depths of our sinful nature, which brings death, but God through Christ our Lord brings life (ch. 7).  Thus we come to the great climax of salvation, Romans chapter 8:  “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Read all of Romans 8, read it again and again, go on and read the rest of Romans, which is just as wonderful in its way, and teaches much about the people of God and the Church. 

Learn and experience the wonderful work of God’s Holy Spirit from Romans 8:  “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”  The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Keep on praising God always!

-- Robert Kruse

Thursday, June 19, 2014 - CORPUS CHRISTI

Thursday, June 19, 2014

John 15:4-17

Today, in some Christian calendars, is called Corpus Christi - the Body (and Blood) of Christ.  It is a day set aside to give thanks for the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of grace God has given to God's church.  In our calendar it is celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, and, in the worship life of the church, may include an outdoor procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

The church's understanding of the Eucharist, called also Holy Communion, Lord's Supper, or Mass, varies from denomination to denomination, and indeed, even within denominations.  But the truth of God's grace, which is always present and freely given in the Eucharist, is constant.  We gather week by week to participate in the Eucharist, which word itself means "thanksgiving."  We gather - that means with others, not alone.  We are a community of faith, giving thanks for God's love and mercy and grace.

[http://luminousdarkcloud.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-road-to-emmaus-their-eyes-were-opened-in-the-breaking-of-the-bread/]

The words of today's gospel describe our community's commitment to each other: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."  

[http://blogs.nd.edu/oblation/2013/04/03/the-eucharist-and-the-sacrifice-of-love-a-homily-from-holy-thursday/]

I am writing this reflection from my home for the next five weeks at the Ecumenical Community of Chautauqua.  This is a wonderful community of clergy and lay folk from many different spiritual backgrounds and communities throughout the US and Canada.  Originally founded as the Ministers' Union by a caring family who believed that church workers deserved to have access to affordable housing so that they could participate in the rich life of the Chautauqua Institution each summer, it has expanded into a truly ecumenical and accepting community of people who share space in community kitchens, living simply while respecting each others' thoughts and feelings.  Conversations are rich and varied, and civil discourse abounds.  We look forward to our time here each summer, a time to reconnect with old friends, and to make new ones; a time to be restored and renewed with stimulating conversations and numerous acts of kindness.

How do you experience community in your daily life?  How are you able to show your love for others, as God loves you?

- Rev'd Paul Kett

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

John 6:27-35

This passage follows two miraculous accounts - the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water to enter the fishing boat and cross to another area.  The crowd that had been fed realized Jesus had mysteriously got from one shore to the other and want him to explain:  “How did you do that?”  Jesus answers that they are not responding to him out of a recognition of God being among them (and wanting God) but because they like the miraculous being looked after (food for free!)  (John 6: 1 - 26)

So Jesus goes on to tell them to look for real security not in the necessities of this physical life (food that perishes), but to seek eternal security.  He says that they need to commit themselves to him in order to get in on God’s works. They reply: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on?  When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves.” (John 6: 30-31)

What is that like for me now?  In many places in the world, lack of daily food is a very real issue, so like the people of Jesus’s time, knowing someone who could feed a crowd from 5 loaves of bread and two small fish would certainly give a feeling of security.  In other places, the promise of water would do it.  In our situation, both food and water are plentiful and available.  So what makes us nervous about the future?  Financial resources to provide what we feel/know we need for the years ahead (retirement).  A health care system that will be able to look after us when we get sick, age, become dependent.  Our concern about those things might make us anxious, might sometimes make us reluctant to use our “limited” resources to help those in immediate need.  

I think Jesus is telling me here not to pin my hopes and put my faith in the way the world economy works.  That is not where God’s action with us is to be found.  We too are afraid to commit ourselves, the risks are so high and the consequences of wrong choices look so grim.  That anxiety can be crippling and take so much time and energy away from really living the life God offers.  He says that He is the real, the eternal security that I need and really long for. (I am the bread of life.)

I know God is not asking me to be irresponsible with the resources I’ve been given, but rather the use them wisely and to seek first Him and the life He offers.  I need to keep my priorities straight.  First things first. 

Easy to say, often hard to do.

Blessings

Ann Kelland

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Matthew 17:22-27

We could go in a few directions with a reflection on today’s Bible passage: something about Jesus’ prediction of his death, or something about Jesus’ relation to the Temple. As I read the passage, though, I was struck by an annotation to verse 22. “As they were gathering in Galilee” might also be translated “As they were living in Galilee” (New Revised Standard Version translation). 

For some reason this stuck out to me today. It has me wondering what it might have been like to have been a follower of Jesus. 

• How did people receive his message and actions (within his inner circle, or in the larger crowds)? 
• How did Jesus talk? Like an old preacher quoting the King James Bible? Or in a soft voice? Or crudely? In social situations was he an introvert or extrovert?
• How did the atmosphere in the room (or countryside) change after he’d speak about his impending betrayal and death? 
• Did the big events and miraculous happenings recounted in the Gospels happen all the time, or did they come about every few months, punctuating a more mundane existence? 
• What was the primary way in which people saw Jesus? As a teacher? A social activist? A wonder-worker?

Someone recently mentioned a view, I’m not sure how well-researched, but a view nonetheless, that all of Jesus’ apostles (other than Peter, whom we know was married), were adolescents. What an interesting thought! Kind of reminds me of Jesus Christ Superstar, with all the hippy kids who can’t sing (but do they ever!). 

Some questions we have about the world of the Bible can be answered by digging into the text or by studying the culture of the day. Other questions remain partially answered or quite mysterious. Sometimes it’s beneficial to just sit with the reading and imagine what it was like to be there in it, or even in there between the lines.

- Matthew Kieswetter

Monday, June 16, 2014

Monday, June 16, 2014

Psalm 80

“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.”

Do you struggle with the Psalms? I do because they so often present a worldview that contradicts my own. Today’s reading is one such example:

“O LORD God of hosts,

how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

You have fed them with the bread of tears,

and given them tears to drink in full measure.

You make us the scorn of our neighbors;

our enemies laugh among themselves.”

I don’t connect with the image of a God who punishes and abandons. It doesn’t quite work for me to think of every negative life circumstance meeting me as the payment for some past wrong.

And yet, I do connect with the feelings of God’s absence. There are times when I long for “God’s face to shine” because I don’t feel particularly loved or when circumstances are going every way but mine. And there are times when I witness injustice or another’s intense suffering and question the very goodness of the universe. At times like these, the Psalmist and I can sit down and have a heartfelt conversation over coffee.

I called a friend the other day to wish her happy birthday. She was overwhelmed by all the people who remembered her. “I know intellectually that I am loved,” she confessed, “but many times I don’t feel it. Today, I feel it!”

Today, we peek into the Psalmist’s journal and witness a time when he or she didn’t feel God’s love. And yet the very act of writing uncovers a deep faith and a profound trust that God is still there despite all evidence to the contrary. Today, we may not believe that God will save us from every unfortunate circumstance, but we can often get a glimpse, however brief, of God’s shining face that assures us of God’s presence nonetheless. It’s then that we have the strength to be that presence for others.

-David Shumaker