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Lectio: John 20:19-31
April 9, 2010
John 20:19-31 (Today’s New International Version)
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus [a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe [b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Fear, peace and joy
Forgiveness
Locked doors, presence
Belief
These are the words that I find captivating in this passage. In lectio, I know that I’m supposed to settle in one theme, one word or phrase, and let that continue to speak to me. But this passage doesn’t feel that way to me. Jesus’ friends arrive in the scene behind locked doors, desperate for their own safety, rightly terrified that the authorities will implicate and kill them next. The sense of tension and terror in that room are palpable.
Jesus arrives, through locked doors. Immediately, that tension and fear turns to love and joy, and that love and joy is focused on forgiveness; their own forgiveness at first, but then Jesus’ mission to them to go out and forgive.
The scene is repeated for Thomas (more like us and our culture than we usually admit): Prove It To Me! Thomas isn’t just “my atheist friends”; Thomas is me even at my best moments; I want and need to experience God tangibly. Jesus arrives again, through locked doors. Thomas (and I) again believe, and the entire story concludes with a call to belief, in the form of action.
I pray, thinking about the many locked doors in my life, the areas in which I have hurt or been hurt, or just don’t want to go. Those locked doors are no match for the presence of Jesus the Christ. Come, Jesus, appear behind those doors, and bring me joy and peace, that I might once again forgive, receive forgiveness, and believe.
Listening as a Sacred Calling
April 8, 2010
Lectio: Luke 19:28-40
March 26, 2010
Lectio: John 12:1-8
March 21, 2010
John 12:1-8
Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. ” It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
This is a story of gratitude. Jesus enters Bethany where, at Lazarus’ house, a dinner is thrown in his honor after having previously raising Lazarus from the dead. Whatever your favorite and finest meal may be, Martha’s cooking was the finest, the house was no doubt all together and everything just right. Mary also poured out extravagantly to Jesus, her brother was dead but now alive. They didn’t think twice about how much the dinner cost, or how much the oil cost, it was nothing at all in comparison.
This is a story of paradox. Jesus, who’d raised Lazarus from the dead, would soon go to his own death, which Mary anointed him for, wiping his feet with her hair. They poured out love and respect to Jesus this day, in a few days he would be mistreated and abused, even the disciples would run away or deny him.
We have a choice to react like Judas, considering ourselves the first priority in all things. But if we remember the things Christ has done, pouring his love on us like a sweet perfume, how can we react any other way but to desire to reciprocate like Martha and Mary?
Cultivating and Sustaining Authentic Discipleship
March 15, 2010
The following an excerpt from my friend Tri Robinson’s new book, Rooted in Good Soil: Cultivating and Sustaining Authentic Discipleship, which will be released in Spring 2010. I first met Tri when we were both joining the Father in combating the wickedness of human trafficking. What I love about Tri is the authenticity and embodiment of discipleship that his life has witnessed to in terms of sustainable faith. He not only teaches about living faith in a sustainable long-term way, but in classic Wimber-ism, Tri is a small-”e” e-pistle, and his life and faith journey witness to how sustainable living is part of a sustainable faith. He and his wife Nancy have just built and moved into a Green ranch outside of Boise, Idaho. Tri is the founding senior pastor of the Boise Vineyard Christian Fellowship and a leader in the environmental justice movement of creation care. In November 2009, Tri and Ken Wilson were invited to Windsor Castle in the UK by Prince Phillip and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as part of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, which is a secular body that helps the major religions of the world to develop their own environmental programs, based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices. They help the religions link with key environmental organizations – creating powerful alliances between faith communities and conservation groups. This is the first of several guest-posts that we will feature from Tri over the next few months.
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Knowing how to grow a healthy bumper crop for harvest on a plot of land isn’t so much a matter of science as it is an art form. Farming demands a passion to create as much as the know-how to grow things. It requires a love and willingness for hard work, gratitude for God’s provision and a love for the gift and miracle of the earth’s soil. Maybe I’m wrong, but sometimes I think working the land somehow taps into and touches a hidden strand of ancient DNA that God placed in the human spirit for a purpose greater than growing fruits and vegetables. I believe successful farming requires not simply the rooting of various plant species, but more so, getting in touch with the very roots of human existence, realizing that all of humanity began with a lone working couple who were called to tend a garden that God had established. Genesis records, “Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. – The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen. 2:8-15) Mankind was created with a built in love and even a drive to participate in the thrill of harvest; it has been in us all from the very beginning of time. My conclusion is that everyone has been called to farm and harvest in one form or another and because of it, bearing fruit in our lives is the only thing that really satisfies the authentic need for human fulfillment.
I’ve watched Nancy come alive this past summer as she has labored in our vegetable garden. She and Lily, our small golden lab, spend hours together day after day planting, carefully cultivating between rows, watering and pulling undesired weeds with an anticipation of a fruitful future harvest. Our garden is now becoming bountiful and beautiful and it is having the same effect on her. It is medicine to her soul and a sedative of peace to her fears and emotions. It is more than a plot of dirt but a place of healing, renewal and expectant vision. A garden is not only a picture of the Kingdom of God, but is a tangible means of learning about it.
The Bible tells us that the natural speaks of the supernatural, and because of it I believe the things we experience in a natural garden is characteristic of the things He desires for you and I. He wants us to become rooted and established in His (the Fathers) love, he desires for us to mature and grow in strength under the warmth and in the light of His Son, and to experience the refreshing and empowering of the Spirits’ rain. God made us for His spiritual garden, a garden that would one day be used in the process of producing a great harvest of human souls.