you are blessed if you do them

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already decided that Judas son of Simon Iscariot would betray Jesus. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from supper, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had reclined again, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, slaves are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. (John 13:1-17, NRSVue)

“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” If you know you are to serve and you serve you will be blessed.

Jesus, knowing he was going to be arrested, tried, beaten, and killed, washed the disciples’ feet. All of them. Judas was included. Judas gets a bad wrap in all of the gospels, and especially John, but Judas is included in the foot washing. I have seen memes that say you only love Jesus as much as you love your Judas. Judas did what was needed to fulfill the plan. He and Jesus were tight and they probably talked about the plan and they might have equated it to the binding of Issac. Where the ram was given at the last moment so Abraham did not have to sacrifice Isaac. And Judas was distraught and did not stick around to see the fulfillment of the plan, where Jesus died, but did not stay dead.

We are called to serve. Serve everyone. Even those who might seem to not deserve it.

Blessed are you who know service is the way, and being served is not.

What is your advantage?

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much, in every way. For in the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,
“So that you may be justified in your words
    and you will prevail when you go to trial.”
But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Their judgment is deserved! (Romans 3:1-8, NRSVue)

The advantage of lineage is not what is important. Jew or not Jew is not the thing that saves you. Nationality does not matter. Being circumcised in the flesh does not matter.

We are judged by doing what God has called us to do or not. We are not included because of who we are or how we have mutilated our flesh. We are included because God includes us and calls us to love like Jesus.

Our advantage is God being our creator. And They want us to actually live out the love of God.

Suppress

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those who by their injustice suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Ever since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been seen and understood through the things God has made. So they are without excuse, for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:18-25, NRSVue)

They know God but rather than spreading God’s love, they use God to keep power and control. They do not honor God but use the name of God to maintain the status quo where people are denied basic needs and some are made to be who they are not.

They make the image of God out of mortals and do not honor God.

Sounds like current times in the US.

When power is used to hurt, manipulate, or hold people down it is not power but corruption and when people look out for themselves or h the ode who can help them that is not godly but dishonors God and makes a mockery of Their name.

Love God and love people. And use the love of God to change lives.

What do you want?

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.
“For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.” At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:16-30, NRSVue)

What do you want?

Do we want people to notice us? To do what we want them to do?

We played and you didn’t dance.

You didn’t partake and are a prude.

You overly partake and are a glutton.

We want people to be who we want the to be.

But Jesus says, “Don’t worry about others. And let me take away your burdens.”

Focus on me. And not others.

Focus on the lightness of my relationship and be burdened no more.

Focus on me and you.

see as a child

At that very hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:21-24, NRSVue)

“You have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”

Infants need others to help them; they rely on their parents to care for them.

This is how we should be. Relying on God and seeing things as a child.

Jesus will provide for us, when we trust in him over our own power and desires.

Be childlike and trust in Jesus.

sinful beyond measure

What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin that was working death in me through what is good, in order that it might be shown to be sin, so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:7-20, NRSVue)

As I read this passage, this stood out to me: “so that through the commandment sin might become sinful beyond measure.” Sin might become sinful beyond measure.

We do not know sin until we are told what is sin, and when we hear something is sin, we have a really hard time unlearning it is a sin.

Sometimes we make things sinful that are not sin. Sin is what separates us from God. It is not what we think separates others from God.

Do not make sin sinful beyond measure.

Keep your relationship with God central and do not worry about others.

Bound

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress. In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6, NRSVue)

Who or what are you bound to?

The law is only binding on us as long as we are not in Christ. When we belong to Christ we are bound to Christ and freed from the law. We are freed to live live out loud and share God’s grace in all we do.

So who are you bound to?

What makes you be who you are?

Who frees you to share love?

Sodom

Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?
    No, you will be brought down to Hades.
“For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.” (Matthew 11:20-24, NRSVue)

Many still think Sodom was destroyed for sexual immorality. But that’s not it. Sodom was destroyed because they were not hospitable and were on a power trip they wanted to maintain.

Want to follow Christ? Humble yourself and give up any power you think you have. Humble yourself and be love to the world.

Power will not save you. Love will always set you free.

who is this from?

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6, NRSVue)

This is important to test the spirits and to discern the will of God.

Many now say this is Biblical. I want a church that preaches and teaches the bible. Well, stoning children who talk back to their parents is biblical. But that is not loving or what God calls us to be. So, which is the right answer?

We are known in the world by our love, Jesus said. Love is biblical. Love is what God calls us to live out. Love is the thing that should be the basis for everything we do, not if it is biblical.

The Bible is a collection of books and stories that points us to who God is and how God is in our lives and working in the world. The Bible is not the end-all, be-all for deciding what we do. It is a book given by men for the purpose of connecting us to God and telling God’s story. It is not the end of God speaking in the world.

Discern what God is leading us to and follow God.

Not a book or a set of guidelines to maintain a power structure and power.

God is love and calls us to love.

love

Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, NRSVue)

Love.

Mind your own affairs and behave properly towards others.

Love.

In all you do, give grace and mercy and love.

Love.