up or down…

Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” (Luke 18:9-14, CEB)

God have mercy on me a sinner…

Do we lift ourselves up or put others down, or neither?

One person prayed that he does everything right, which if he is human we know is a lie, and said he is glad he is not like the tax collector. Actually in reality none of us is any better than the next person. We are all sinners and we all put our pants on 1 leg at a time. And we all have no place to boast because we all fall short.

Pray for God to forgive you a sinner and to forgive all sinners rather than heap on big words and platitudes that do you, your neighbor, or God any good.

Loving People. Loving God

Magnificat

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
        because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
    He shows mercy to everyone,
        from one generation to the next,
        who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
    He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
    He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
        and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
        remembering his mercy,
    just as he promised to our ancestors,
        to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55, CEB)

The great song of Mary praising God for her being chosen along with her cousin to be the mothers of the cousins that would help the world see how we should live.

Mary tells of the great wonders of God and how God has always been with her and will always be with us.

Know you are never alone and that God is always with you.

Loving People. Loving God.

harassed

But you have paid attention to my teaching, conduct, purpose, faithfulness, patience, love, and endurance. You have seen me experience physical abuse and ordeals in places such as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I put up with all sorts of abuse, and the Lord rescued me from it all! In fact, anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed. But evil people and swindlers will grow even worse, as they deceive others while being deceived themselves. But you must continue with the things you have learned and found convincing. You know who taught you. Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:10-15, CEB)

If you follow after Christ and live the life he has called us to you will be harassed.

If you love as Christ loved, you will be called out and made fun of and told you are wrong.

But stand firm and do not be deceived. Help others see God’s love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Does this sound familiar?

Understand that the last days will be dangerous times. People will be selfish and love money. They will be the kind of people who brag and who are proud. They will slander others, and they will be disobedient to their parents. They will be ungrateful, unholy, unloving, contrary, and critical. They will be without self-control and brutal, and they won’t love what is good. They will be people who are disloyal, reckless, and conceited. They will love pleasure instead of loving God. They will look like they are religious but deny God’s power. Avoid people like this. Some will slither into households and control immature women who are burdened with sins and driven by all kinds of desires. These women are always learning, but they can never arrive at an understanding of the truth. These people oppose the truth in the same way that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. Their minds are corrupt and their faith is counterfeit. But they won’t get very far. Their foolishness will become obvious to everyone like those others. (2 Timothy 3:1-9, CEB)

I read this and just thought wow. Is this describing now? And you could say yes.

People are selfish and love money and things more than people.

People brag about who they are and what they have and are proud.

People slander others to make themselves look better.

People are ungrateful, unholy, unloving, contrary, and critical.

This could probably be said for every time in history. So this doesn’t mean we are living in the end times, but we really shouldn’t be worried about what time we are living in because the same holds true regardless of the time. We need to love and share God’s love as we go. Love neighbor and love God.

Loving People. Loving God.

your will

Jesus left and made his way to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.” He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. He said, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” Then a heavenly angel appeared to him and strengthened him. He was in anguish and prayed even more earnestly. His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he got up from praying, he went to the disciples. He found them asleep, overcome by grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation.” (Luke 22:39-46, CEB)

“if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me.”

Have you ever asked God this? Now remember that in the reading above this is Jesus asking God to not send him to the cross. And Jesus doesn’t ask just once, he asks three times for this one thing. It is not wrong to ask God to change God’s mind. Moses did it, Jesus does it.

But here is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus says after this, “However, not my will but your will must be done.” Do we follow up our requests with this?

You see it isn’t wrong to ask God if something else can happen, as long as we are prepared to follow through with whatever happens. Jesus didn’t want to suffer the physical pain but knew if that was the only way, it was the only way. And we need to be ready to follow through with whatever the will of God is.

So ask for something different, but always be ready to go through whatever comes.

Loving People. Loving God.

wait

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the coming of the Lord. Consider the farmer who waits patiently for the coming of rain in the fall and spring, looking forward to the precious fruit of the earth. You also must wait patiently, strengthening your resolve, because the coming of the Lord is near. Don’t complain about each other, brothers and sisters, so that you won’t be judged. Look! The judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of patient resolve and steadfastness. Look at how we honor those who have practiced endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job. And you have seen what the Lord has accomplished, for the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Most important, my brothers and sisters, never make a solemn pledge—neither by heaven nor earth, nor by anything else. Instead, speak with a simple “Yes” or “No,” or else you may fall under judgment. (James 5:7-12, CEB)

It is always interesting to me when we get passages from the New Testament that are talking about the coming of Jesus and how we need to be patient.

Can you imagine Peter, Paul, James, and the apostles knowing that we would make it to the year 2022? We are almost 2000 years after the death of Christ. And they were telling people to be patient and not to make pledges because it is imminent that Christ will be here again.

it is important to be patient, take that from one who usually isn’t patient, and especially now when we have instant everything and we can’t wait for that.

Learn to slow down and take deep breaths.

God’s timing is perfect and Jesus will return when the kindom is ready to be fulfilled. Until then we wait.

Loving People. Loving God.

Contemporary Christian Spirituality Person

Tonight in class we had group presentations over zoom. This was an interesting twist on group projects but was very well handled by the whole class and was a wonderful time of learning in my humble opinion.

We were asked to write about which person and their spiritual emphasis did we most relate to and why.

Well the five people who were presented were:

Nadia Bolz-Weber
Henri Nouwen
Otis Moss III
Renita J. Weems
Oscar Romero

Henri Nouwen was the person my group presented and he is not the person I most related to. Henri has struggles with his sexual identity which led some recent groups to say we should not listen to him, but his writings have had a huge impact on the psychological impact of faith. Helping us all to understand that if we are to be healers of the world we need to come from a place of needing healing to know how to help others heal. And the struggle in my opinion makes this even more profound of a statement.

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a person I have followed over her career and have watched give a new face to pastoral leadership. She has in some ways made it ok for pastors to be who they really are, even though we all know that God calls us as we are and doesn’t want us to act. Nadia shows the world her down-to-earth saltiness while being 100% orthodox. Nadia you might think is who I most resonate with but she is not.

Oscar Romero is a saint of the catholic church who was martyred for his faith. He is one who is said to be one of the fathers of liberation theology even though some history shows that he really didn’t believe in some of the things liberation theology espoused. He was known to “soak his life in prayer” praying for many hours of the night after consulting with others about current events. This is something I feel we all should do. Oscar Romero while a spiritual father is not who I most resonate with.

That leaves us with two people: Otis Moss III and Renita J. Weems.

Renita J. Weems is a beacon of hope and fire in the womanist biblical interpretation movement. She has written many books and is known for her speaking engagements. I had not heard of her until this evening and I will definitely be doing more reading and learning about who she is and how she is impacting the faith. One thing we heard tonight was about her asking which Renita did the people she was speaking to want. Did they want the preacher Renita, or the biblical scholar Renita, or the author Renita because sometimes she would think it was one and that one would be there, but they wanted a different one. And yes all of her personas are one person, but much like the Trinity, we experience people in different ways depending on the circumstances. And that is something Renita brings to us in the understanding that we are many different people all in one and through that, we can help others experience God and their faith in various different ways.

Otis Moss III was another person I had not heard of before tonight. He is the son of a preacher and was given the opportunity to take over for his father or move to Chicago and become the pastor to follow Jeremiah Wright and be the pastor at the church where the Obamas were members. He was a film major and used modern film and music to preach from and with. He wrote a book about the Blue Notes of Jazz and how we live life sometimes in the blue notes. This really resonated with me, being a jazz musician myself, and I can see and clearly understand how improvisation is something we do on a daily basis, and understanding the notes to use is kind of like understanding how our faith works in our lives and the things from our faith that give us the strength and the will to move forward. Otis Moss III also spoke about going on pilgrimages to see how others in faith lived and to understand our history. He led groups every year to South Carolina to learn about slavery and the history of our country and the way slavery impacted faith. He talked about how a pilgrimage was a journey of the heart and that any trip could be a pilgrimage if your heart was focused on how God could help impact your life here and now.

Otis Moss III is the person that most impacted me this evening, because he incorporates current media and trends, with film and music, bringing God into focus in our daily lives, God is already there, we aren’t putting God anywhere. We are using the tools around us to help others see God more clearly. That is what I want to do and strive to do. Using music, films, and daily life to show where God already is and how we can join God in the ministry that is already happening around us.

Can this happen? I hope so. Otis Moss III does it, so maybe we all can too.

settle your arguements

When someone in your assembly has a legal case against another member, do they dare to take it to court to be judged by people who aren’t just, instead of by God’s people? Or don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial cases? Don’t you know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary things? So then if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint people as judges who aren’t respected by the church? I’m saying this because you should be ashamed of yourselves! Isn’t there one person among you who is wise enough to pass judgment between believers? But instead, does a brother or sister have a lawsuit against another brother or sister, and do they do this in front of unbelievers? The fact that you have lawsuits against each other means that you’ve already lost your case. Why not be wronged instead? Why not be cheated? But instead you are doing wrong and cheating—and you’re doing it to your own brothers and sisters. Don’t you know that people who are unjust won’t inherit God’s kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Those who are sexually immoral, those who worship false gods, adulterers, both participants in same-sex intercourse, thieves, the greedy, drunks, abusive people, and swindlers won’t inherit God’s kingdom. That is what some of you used to be! But you were washed clean, you were made holy to God, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:1-11, CEB)

As believers, we need to learn how to settle our arguments in house. Meaning we do not air our dirty laundry before those who are not a part of the body of Christ but work out the issues among ourselves.

When we take believers to court we have already done wrong and will not help others see God’s love, but when we work for a mutual understanding and grounding without lawsuits in public courts we might show the love of God to the world.

So work it out.

Loving People. Loving God.

Help

Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8, CEB)

Help! I need somebody
Help! Not just anybody
Help! You know I need someone
Help!

Why do you help people?

The story tells us of a judge that helps a woman because she keeps coming to him and asking and he tires of her wearing him down, so he gives in and helps. Is this a good reason to help someone?

We do not help to get something.

We do not help to get the marks we need to get to heaven.

We do not help for any selfish reasons.

We help because it is to love the other and God asks us to love God and love people. So we help because in helping we are loving.

So help those around you.

Loving People. Loving God.

I want to see!

Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!” Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him forward.” They called the blind man, “Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you.” Throwing his coat to the side, he jumped up and came to Jesus. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Teacher, I want to see.” Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way. (Mark 10:46-52, CEB)

What would you say if Jesus asked you, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Interesting the man who is blind is Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son. That is actually what Bartimaeus means. Bar means son of. So Bartimaeus is literally Timaeus’ son. Seems a little redundant and I wonder what the man’s first name is. Because Bartimaeus would have been his last name. Like Jesus would have been Jesus Barjoseph. Interesting when we get to the story of the crucifixion and the crowd says give us Barabbas. Bar – son of, abba – father…

But what would you do if Jesus asked you, “What do you want me to do for you?”

We would probably do what Bartimaeus did and focus on what we think we lack. For him it was sight. But what would it be for you? I honestly am not sure what I would ask Jesus to do for me.

Jesus has already done so much for me, I would want him to heal someone else.

That is what I try to do by telling others about Jesus. Share his love. Heal the masses.

Loving People. Loving God.