Cleanse Ourselves

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said,
“I will live in them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
Therefore come out from them,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch nothing unclean;
    then I will welcome you,
and I will be your father,
    and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God. Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one; we have corrupted no one; we have taken advantage of no one.(2 Corinthians 6:14—7:2, NRSVue)

Cleanse ourselves and be free from defilement.

Is it possible to be free from defilement? Is it possible in our humanness to be completely in the sacred?

We are to be separate from the world and yet we still have to live in the world.

We are God’s temple and God is always with us. We are the love and mercy for God in the world.

Live in the world and share God’s light in all you do.

Do not concern yourself with be free from defilement, but live love out loud and share light in all your life.

Mercy. Not Sacrifice.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.
And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined, but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district. (Matthew 9:9-26, NRSVue)

What do we need to do to make God happy?

Allow people to be in the presence of God and be made well? How do we do this?

Do we need to give until we can’t any more. Sacrifice our very beings. Make sure we are in worship every Sunday and bible study every week?

Is it about us doing the things we feel are seen as necessary so people see us doing what needs to be done. So we are not seen with the wrong people or seen doing the wrong things?

Jesus plainly here says to the Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”

Jesus desires mercy, not sacrifice. As my new Bishop said to me today, God doesn’t care how often you are in worship, God cares how much mercy you show.

Be merciful. God will handle the rest.

What we don’t understand…

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you have faith that I can do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly ordered them, “See that no one knows of this.” But they went away and spread the news about him through all of that district.

After they had gone away, a demon-possessed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees were saying, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.” (Matthew 9:27-34, NRSVue)

What we don’t understand is of the devil, or done by demons.

Jesus cured the blind and the mute man. He set them free according to the people of the time and restored them to commumity.

When we don’t understand how this happens we say it is unnatural, but what if we say it as the working of God and expected it?

What do you want to expect God to do?

cured

After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The local people showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it. Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the local people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

Now in the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him. After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed. (Acts 28:1-10, NRSVue)

Many people came to Paul and were cured. All those on the island that had diseases were cured by Paul. After he survived the viper attaching to him.

We see weird things and assume that people are possessed or unnatural.

Sometimes God does things we do not understand and through that brings others to healing.

Who can you cure by your witness to love of God?

bombastic nonsense

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.” (2 Peter 2:17-22, NRSVue)

They are people who lead others astray.

I get called this all the time because I point out to those who use the 6 clobber texts to hold those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community as outside God’s love they are interpreting the texts incorrectly. I am told I need to repent and do what God has called us to do and live by the word.

I have read those texts and looked at the meanings of the original texts and will say again here those texts are about power and control and men in power using that power to take what they want from anyone. It is not about homosexuality or who someone loves.

People espouse bombastic nonsense. They lead people astray.

God shows us all love.

We are called to love.

Do not speak bombastic nonsense. Speak love.

Remind

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26, NRSVue)

The Holy Spirit will be with us always to remind us what Jesus taught us. To love all the s what we are to do.

Reminded by the Spirit to love.

We see and hear and are led to love and be love in all we do.

one body

Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4-13, NRSVue)

We are all one.

We are not all the same.

We do not all need to be the same.

We need to be the part we were created to be.

Do not try to be someone else.

Be you. Be your part. Include all the other parts.

No matter our nationality, economic background, or anything else, we decide should separate us, God made us one. Our divisions do not mean anything in the kingdom of God.

Include all, because DEI is part of Imago Dei!

by the spirit

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1-3, NRSVue)

No one can ever say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Spirit.

OK, Paul, is it possible for the Spirit to give utterance to a person who does not follow the teachings of Jesus to say that Jesus is Lord?

I see a lot of people who will say Jesus is Lord and then work to do the exact opposite of what Jesus commanded us to do. They can say Jesus is Lord, but their actions tell a different story.

So who is leading to idols, even if the Spirit gives utterance, does your life show that Jesus is Lord?

Martin Luther said we can not by our own understanding come to believe in God except through the leading of the Holy Spirit, so yes, the Spirit can speak through and work in one who is not following God. So follow the Spirit and not the utterance.

Live Love Out Loud.

They doubted…

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20, NRSVue)

I love how the NRSVue gets the meaning of this passage correct. In the NRSV and other translations, the verse about the disciples doubting reads, and some doubted, or but some doubted. But the word some is not there. There are other places in biblical literature where the some is there. I believe translators were thinking the disciples could not have possibly all doubted this, and it was only some. Yet the text reads, they met Jesus on the mountain, and they worshipped him, and they doubted. They doubted, they questioned what it was they were seeing. It did not keep them from worshipping, yet they could not understand it.

This passage gives me hope. Because if the 11 disciples who walked with Jesus for three years and saw everything he did and heard every word he said doubted and questioned, then there is always hope for you and me.

Question or doubt, but hold to hope.

Love

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (John 14:15-17, NRSVue)

This sounds like it starts with a conditional statement. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. But Love is an action it is something we do, and the word for if here can also mean when. When you love me, you will keep my commandments. And what are the commandments?

Well, just the chapter before this in John, Jesus is having dinner with his disciples, and he takes off his outer robe, ties a towel around his waist, and washes the disciples’ feet. When he sits back down, he says to them, “A new commandment I give to you, love one another.”

Love. It is that simple. We love Jesus by loving others.

And the Spirit will help us do that.

Love out Loud.