Who do you serve?

Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager.’ “The household manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses. “One by one, the manager sent for each person who owed his master money. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your contract, sit down quickly, and write four hundred fifty gallons.’ Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ He said, ‘Take your contract and write eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted cleverly. People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much, and the one who is dishonest with little is also dishonest with much. If you haven’t been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? If you haven’t been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No household servant can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:1-13, CEB)

As I typed the title to this devotional I sang in my mind the song Who do you love?

But this is an interesting passage where a business manager cheats the land owner and is commended for it. And then Jesus says you cannot serve God and wealth.

So who do you serve?

Do you serve God or wealth?

If you show me your checkbook register I can tell you who you serve. We need to live but when we serve God our needs are provided for.

So share the love you have been given and serve God.

Loving People. Loving God.

Model or slave

Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44, CEB)

This passage is used all the time for stewardship. Look at this woman and how she has given everything but the others aren’t getting close to what she is giving. It could be moving.

But is she giving because she wants to or because she has to? Is the system set up so that if you are not giving you are not a part of the system? The reading says, “Many rich people were throwing in lots of money.” Those who had money were throwing in large sums because it was expected you would give. So this woman only having two small copper coins has to give. She could have given one, but then she probably doesn’t have enough to live on and she has to give even though she needs both copper coins to live, so now I will just give it all. And we read it as she is a great steward. When in reality the system of religion is making her a slave.

Let us liberate the world with God’s love. Share it as you go.

Loving People. Loving God.

If

So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us. Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created. (Romans 8:31-39, CEB)

Anytime I see an if in a translation I look to see what the word is in the Greek text. And this if, “if God is for us…” is εἰ. εἰ means if, but I was taught in seminary that εἰ also can mean since. So which is a better word to use here? If God is for us or since God is for us?

I honestly like Since God is for us, because it is not a question of if God is for us. God is for us, even when we turn on backs on God, even when we wander away, even when we are stupid, God is always for us. And since God is for us who can be against us? Even if they are against us what will it matter with God for us?

Know that God is always with you and for you.

Go into the world and share love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Let’s do…

So what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Or what’s the benefit of circumcision? Plenty in every way. First of all, the Jews were trusted with God’s revelations. What does it matter, then, if some weren’t faithful? Their lack of faith won’t cancel God’s faithfulness, will it? Absolutely not! God must be true, even if every human being is a liar, as it is written: So that it can show that you are right in your words; and you will triumph when you are judged. But if our lack of righteousness confirms God’s justice, what will we say? That God, who brings wrath upon us, isn’t just (I’m speaking rhetorically)? Absolutely not! If God weren’t just, how could he judge the world? But if God’s truth is demonstrated by my lie and it increases his glory, why am I still judged as a sinner? Why not say, “Let’s do evil things so that good things will come out of it”? (Some people who slander us accuse us of saying that, but these people deserve criticism.) (Romans 3:1-8, CEB)

God is faithful, so even when we are evil, God is still faithful.

We aren’t going to break the promise God gives us by what we do. No matter if we are good or evil God’s promise will still be faithful.

So then should we go and do evil things so that good things will happen? I mean maybe not. But when we do evil it doesn’t change God’s faithfulness but it does not help others understand God’s love. So no, Let’s not do evil so good will come.

Let us do good things and share love.

Loving People. Loving God.

A Psalm of Despair

O Lord where are you,
          I feel all alone as if you are not here
I'm straining under the load of life
          Struggling to take care of myself and my family
Wondering why you are not here to help me
          Wondering where you are to guide me
I wonder if the way Paul discussed would be better
          To leave this world and be with you
But if I left this world would I be with you 
          Or is there another option?
Help me, Lord!
          Pull me from my despair and show me you are here.
Help me, Lord! 
          So I know I'm not alone.

Might

No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:13-17, CEB)

We have all seen the signs at sporting events and other gathers.

John 3:16.

We all know John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. My version here is a little different than above because I typed this from memory. A mix of NRSV, KJV, and others. Which is really what we all do with this verse. But honesty I do not think John 3:16 is the most important verse out of the lectionary passage above.

When I have classes on the passage I always ask for people to say 3:16 from memory and then after someone does I ask if anyone can do 3:17 from memory. 3:17 is way more important in my thinking than 3:16. Now don’t get me wrong, 3:16 is important, especially when we look at the language. ἠγάπησεν – Agape is in the third person aorist active indicative. This means it was an action that happened at one point in the past and has reoccurring influence on the future forever. At one point in the past God so loved the world and that love continues forever. So that is pretty important. But I digress. Do you know John 3:17 without looking above?

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. And again my version is a little different as it is from memory and a mash-up of NRSV, KJV, and others. And something else about this passage, the might is not in the Greek. The Greek says, “οὐ γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα κρίνῃ τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ.” Literally, this is “not for sent the God the son into the world in order to condemn the world but in order to save the world through him.” Or in more proper English, For God did not send the Son into the world in order to condemn the world but in order to save the world through him.

God loved the world at one point in the past so much that God sent Jesus and God sent Jesus not to judge and condemn but to liberate the world. Not to judge or condemn but to love and liberate.

That is really what we all should do.

Loving People. Loving God.

Patient

Don’t let it escape your notice, dear friends, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise, as some think of slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will pass away with a dreadful noise, the elements will be consumed by fire, and the earth and all the works done on it will be exposed. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be? You must live holy and godly lives, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God. Because of that day, the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. (2 Peter 3:8-13, CEB)

When I was in seminary a few of us looked at the passages in the bible that talk about the end and time and figured out a date for when Jesus was coming back. It was all in jest and I do not remember what year it was.

But Paul talked a lot about how it was going to be soon, and some of those alive would not see death but Jesus would be back before then.

But God is patient not wanting anyone to perish but all to change their hearts and lives. So God is waiting for all of us to get it and change our hearts and lives and live like Jesus came to show us how to live. At this rate, Jesus will never come back!

If God is waiting for all of us to get it we need to be setting better examples of what it means to follow Jesus and be a disciple, because a lot of people are not attending Christian worship because they think Christians are hypocrites.

So let us be people of integrity that talk the talk and walk the walk and set an example that people will change their hearts and lives.

Loving People. Loving God.

Spiritual practices

Discuss your experience today learning about and trying some spiritual practices. What practices made you comfortable or uncomfortable (learning about or practicing), and why? How can you incorporate some of these spiritual practices into your daily life?

So today in class we discussed the book Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson which lays out spiritual practices for those who have never heard of them, and yet does it in a way that is not only for the novice but the expert and the teacher as well as one of my classmates said.

Practices discussed in Soul Feast are reading the word, prayer, worship, sabbath, fasting, self-examination, confession, Spiritual Direction, and hospitality.

Marjorie Thompson explains Lectio Divina, which is Divine reading, a way of reading scripture that focuses us on words and phrases. In the past, I have done Lectio Divina in a group setting where different voices read the scripture to us. Doing this individually is a little strange for me as my internal voice is usually always the same and one of the things I love about Lectio Divina is to hear the scripture and not read it. And to hear it from different voices with different inflections and emphasis. It opens the scripture in new ways and helps me to see passages from a different point of view than I have before. However we get into scripture it should be a daily thing. I have found myself reading the scriptures as I prepare my devotional. This allows me to freshly engage the scripture and see it from a different point of view given the circumstances of the world around us.

Prayer as explained by Thompson is communication with God. Good communication is both talking and listening. I know a lot of my prayer time is spent talking and not listening. When I lead prayer at Treehouse and we have extended silence I feel like people are looking at me, maybe to see if I have fallen asleep, or have lost my place when actually I am leaving space, but I feel self-conscious about what is happening and don’t leave a lot of space. But we need to fight the urges of pleasing others and allow God to speak to us. Thompson talks about journalling as prayer. Writing down our intimate thoughts between us and God is a way of communicating. And we can then go back and read those thoughts and see how God has influenced our lives and how we have grown and changed. Another form of prayer that Thompson spoke about, which I dearly love, is centering prayer. Centering prayer is where you choose a word or simple phrase as a way to bring yourself back or focus, and then you sit in a comfortable place and sit in silence, and if your mind starts to wander you just focus on the word or phrase to bring yourself back. This is a way I get to be silent with God but I do not do this as often as I would like. I have led spiritual practices workshops at Treehouse in the past and centering prayer is one of my favorite things to lead. And I think the students enjoyed it as they commented about sitting in silence being hard before we do it and when we finished they wanted to do it again. Other forms of prayer Thompson touches on are writing your own psalm or paraphrase a psalm, write a conversation between you and a Biblical character.

Worship is a form of spiritual practice as it helps us see how God lives in relationship and we need to be in relationship too.

Sabbath or rest is a practice I think we find hardest to do today. We are always in a hurry to get somewhere to do something. And yet, God created the sabbath for us. And Thompson says it best I think when she points out that the sacred rhythm of our lives starts in Sabbath and goes to our vocation or calling in the world (Thompson p. 72). Do we rest?

There are so many ways for us to connect with God. I have done worship, Lectio Divina, centering prayer, prayer of presence, and I try to do sabbath. These practices sometimes seem forced and other times seem freeing. It is in the moments they are freeing that we actually connect to God. I think if we start with something that is easy for us to do and then build after repetition we will see these habits form in our lives.

I am going to try and do a walk, at least, 3 times a week where I pray and focus on what God has to say to me. I have also intentionally taken Fridays off and do not read or respond to emails, on my work account, or to apps that pertain to work. I try to focus time on that day on my family and not doing work, however, this Doctor of Ministry has proven to be a bit overwhelming right now so I do do class work on Fridays.

I honestly believe we need to work on getting a spiritual aspect back into our daily routine. I know I continue to write my daily devotional blog because I know there are people who read that and I do not want them to not have that so they can stay engaged with God’s word. I know getting us over the fact that religion is not just gathering for worship, but also us daily connecting to God we will all deepen our faith and grow into the community that God has created us to be.

I will focus on my walks and writing my devotionals as well as continuing to make pocket roseries.

Giving

Timothy, my child, I’m giving you these instructions based on the prophecies that were once made about you. So if you follow them, you can wage a good war because you have faith and a good conscience. Some people have ruined their faith because they refused to listen to their conscience, such as Hymenaeus and Alexander. I’ve handed them over to Satan so that they can be taught not to speak against God. (1 Timothy 1:18-20, CEB)

You can wage a good war because of your faith and good conscience.

Do not follow after those who seek to puff themselves up and follow their own ways. Do not follow those you do not follow after what God is calling them to.

Speak love in everything you do and share love as you go in the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

Lost things

All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives. “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.” (Luke 15:1-10, CEB)

This is the beginning of chapter 15 of the gospel of Luke which most would say is about repentance, because the rest of the chapter is the story most of us know as the Prodigal Son. And that story is about the son repenting and coming home. But these three parables go together. And if it is about repentance how do the sheep and the coin repent?

So bad joke time, how does a sheep repent? I’m sorry I’ve been baaaaaaad.
And how does a coin repent? I promise I’ll change.

But these stories are not about repentance, yes it is there in the last parable but that isn’t the focus. It isn’t about the sheep or the coin here either. It is about the shepherd and the woman. The people who lost something and went looking for it. And when they found the thing that was lost they rejoiced and had a party.

Luke 15 is about Lost Things. As in Tinkerbell, where lost things are things that are lost from the mainland and come to the land of the fairies and Tinkerbell uses them to create wonderful new things. It is about the searching and not giving up until the thing that was lost is found. It is about the love the of thing by the one owning it.

It is about the love God has for you and the lengths God will go to have you home and a part of the kindom.

There is always rejoicing in heaven over you.

Loving People. Loving God.