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Lectio: Luke 13:1-8
March 7, 2010
Luke 13
1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8” ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ “
***
Repentance.
My view of repentance was dramatically altered several years ago when I read The Challenge of Jesus by NT Wright. I used to think of repentance in purely moral terms and cutting bad behaviors out of my life. Repentance was a fresh commitment to NOT drink, smoke or chew or go out with girls who do. You’ll have to read NT Wright for yourself if you want the fuller explanation (and it would be WELL worth the time and effort, I promise) but the short version is that repentance has more to do with changing allegiances and cutting ties from anything anti-Christ - and the original context was very political and military - and putting all your eggs in the “Christ is King” basket. So repentance has to do with our loyalty and where we pledge our allegiance as much or more than it has to do with changing a morally questionable behavior…. although that comes as part of the package… its just not where Christ and his original audience would put the emphasis. And here’s why. If we change our allegiance and where we trust then all the rest comes with it. If we simply change a behavior our heart can still be far from Christ.
So that brings into focus what Christ is saying here in this passage and how it hangs together. Christ is saying to the people standing there that if they don’t give up their agenda and alter their allegiance to him they will literally die when God comes in judgement… and God did exactly that shortly after Christ’s departure as Christ had foretold on several occasions (but that is a much longer, theological discussion for another time).
Last week I began asking myself: What would my life look like today if I were to live in complete loyalty to Christ and align with his agenda? And of course there is no one right answer to that but a lifetime of turning to him and shifting all my loyalty, pledging all my allegiance to him alone as areas of my life are uncovered and new idols to turn from are discovered. Repentance is the work of a lifetime not a simple event.
What allegiances need to be broken in your life so you are more free for loyalty to Christ?
+++ Lord, help me become a great repent-er! I know there are areas you want me to turn from so I can more fully be yours. Will you show them to me and help me know how to cut ties with them so I can follow you more fully, more faithfully in the days and years ahead. I am yours, all yours. Amen. +++
living the questions
March 2, 2010
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1
When I was in 4th grade (Miss Logan’s class! Go locomotives!!), I volunteered to be one of several students to be ‘blind-for-a-day’. We were blind-folded as soon as we got to school and paired with a classmate with sight, who would be our guide. This experience left quite a lasting mark on me. I vividly remember having to ask my guide for everything and about everything, and through our interaction, I learned that I could trust my guide. I learned it through asking and then living the questions I was asking, like:
- where is my pencil (like I could actually write anything?!)
- where exactly were we in the hallways? (and where was the restroom?)
- what was for lunch? (I trusted them to help me sit down in a seat at lunch time and that the seat was there…and that it was my lunch in front of me.)
…but probably my most vivid memory is of my other senses coming alive in Miss Howell’s music class as I experienced music without eyes and only with my auditory and feeling senses…I could feel the music! It made me realize that something that I could not see even with my eyes open had substance and verve and delved deeper inside me than merely my ear-drums. And while I was utterly dependent for almost everything from my guide to live this one day in a disoriented fashion without sight, I discovered something: there was substance to things I could not see, like music and fresh air and even closed air inside the building felt different than outside at recess; I could live by faith (trust) only as I allowed myself to risk trusting my guide and then actually step into the experience that hobbled some of my senses but activated others.
“…for we walk by faith, not by sight…”
2 Corinthains 5:7
The eternity in that teachable moment in my life has had a formational effect that echoes in my journey of faith. As I have reflected on it since that time, quite possibly because of that profound experience, I am comfortable with mystery and living out questions that I may not fully answer completely. I love this quote from Henri Nouwen:
“…we need to live the questions of our lives, both alone and in community, as we seek our mission in the world…frequently, we are restlessly looking for answers, going from door to door, from book to book, or from church to church, without having really listened carefully and attentively to the questions within…Without a question, an answer is experienced as manipulation or control. Without a struggle, the help offered is considered interference. And without the desire to learn, direction is easily felt as oppression.”
Pat answers are seen for what they are: unreal and unloving. Instead, as we interact with people who are truly struggling, I find this piece of advice from the prophet Jeremiah– as translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message at Jeremiah 23:25 – to be essential: “Instead of claiming to know what God says, ask questions of one another, such as ‘How do we understand God in this?’ But don’t go around pretending to know it all…”
Having studied and practiced spiritual direction for a few years, I have come to realize not only how important being non-manipulative is, but also how important the questions are – and following those questions by living in them, toward them in a centered-set kind-of-way; this means I need to trust Jesus. I think we need to trust God in our endeavours to live the questions. The advice the poet Rainer Rilke once wrote to a younger poet seems to ring true for us today:
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
Lectio: Luke 9:28-36
February 26, 2010
Lectio: Luke 4:1-13
February 19, 2010
Luke 4
The Temptation of Jesus
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’ ”
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
” ‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
12Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
The season of Lent, at its core, is very much about seeking God.
The desert fathers understood this very well, and understood Jesus’ example of going into the wilderness to do battle by prayer and fasting- following Jesus in example and heart.
What can I learn from Jesus here?
1) Jesus set the example for us not to do this in our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Following the Spirit’s leading is our best course of action.
2) Books could be written on Jesus’ answer to the temptations, however, today I will just suggest that though Jesus was the Son of God, He did not serve Himself. By denying the temptations, we see over and over that He denied Himself to ultimately serve others, to serve us.
3) Jesus’ answers “Man does not live by bread alone…Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only…Do not put your Lord to the test…” guide us in our seeking. He gave simple yet profound answers to the distractions that come when we seek.
Jesus also taught us to seek, ask, and knock. God, Our Father, wants to be found!
Lectio: Matt 6:1-6
February 12, 2010
Matthew 6:1-6
The World Is Not a Stage
1 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. 2-4“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—’playactors’ I call them— treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
Pray with Simplicity
5“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?6“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
- Matthew 6:1-6, The Message
“When you’re trying to be good”
“When you do something for somebody else”
It seems clear, on first read, that Jesus’ starting point for this reminder is that he assumes that we are trying to live our faith, to wrestle with the implications of grace and of our engagement in the mission of God. But there’s a subtle element at play here: ”acting compassionate”, not “being compassionate”. ”Playing to the crowds”, rather than being content with our task.
“Just do it - quietly and unobtrusively”. Do it, but do it without fanfare - whatever the “it” of “trying to do good” is.
I’m writing this in a coffeeshop after visiting a nonprofit organization that I volunteer time with. I’m helping them use social networks to spread the word about the agencies they’re partnering with to help eradicate global poverty. I’m proud of their work, and I’m happy to be able to help. In fact, because I’m heading to a concert tonight, I’m wearing their logo t-shirt and hoping that other concertgoers notice the logo and I can share the story. I’m not quiet or unobtrusive, at least in my t-shirt choice.
And so I wonder, isn’t it good to tell people what we’re doing to help the less fortunate in our world? To give our friends opportunities to reach out beyond themselves?
If Jesus is consistent in His message - and I hope that He is - this is the same thing he’s saying when he says that murder is sin as much as being angry is. The attitude of my inner life matters as much as my actions; the meaning matters.
How I do what I do matters as much as what I do. And so, my life must be a constant purging of inappropriate behaviors and motivations, an ongoing challenge to center myself in my identity in Christ rather than my identity that I construct from my activities.
So, I must be in constant prayer, with a heart open to pruning and reshaping and corrective action. I must pray, simply and honestly, so that I may grow to be simple and honest.
The focus of my prayer must move from me (and my words) to my God, so that the focus of my life may move from me (and my actions) to my God.
“Just be there, as simply and as honestly as you can manage.” In my prayer, and in my actions.