Accentuate the Positive

I have been thinking about Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world” in John chapter 8. This comes between the story of the woman caught in adultery and the healing of the blind man. Jesus says that he is the light of the world, and if you walk in the light there will be no darkness. When we hear this we think about light in the sense of turning on the light, which is I am sure one meaning of the text and it is the most obvious because Jesus said he was the light of the world. So the darkness will fade, yet I can not help but think this is not the only meaning to this text. I mean the woman caught in adultery followed by the healing of the blind man to me says this means more than just light and dark/black and white.

I believe it has all to do with attitude, and our perception of things. When we see something that is wrong, say a little black spot on a white sheet, we focus on the negative. We focus on the little black spot rather than the whiteness of the sheet. Why is that? Jesus said to the Pharisees who caught the woman in adultery, “let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” Interesting there was one among them that had no sin, yet did not pick up and cast a stone. He was not focused on the sin, the negativity, but loving the person, the positive, in the one caught in the negative act. We focus on the negative, and then can not see the beauty around us. Let us focus on the positive, and see the beauty of the white sheet, rather than the blemished black dot. Do not cover up the negative, just do not accentuate it, instead in the words of the Mercer/Arlen song, “You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.” And here are the lyrics to help you sing a little bit.

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE (Mister In-Between)
Johnny Mercer / Harold Arlen)
You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?
Taken from http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/paul/lyrics/bingcrosby/accent~1.html

Looking the wrong way?

Are we going about this the wrong way. We will not let people into the assembly until they fix this or that behavior…
We are very quick to point out what is wrong in the others life and not dwell on our own sin…
Jesus spent time with those that the Pharisees did not see as people we should associate with, because they were not accepted by God. Funny though God in Jesus accepted them right where they were. He did not stop at the door of the party and say, “All right all of the tax collectors must give back all the money the took over and above the tax they were to collect plus 10%. And all of the drunkards must now give up drinking and never drink again, and give a speech before each party on the evils of drinking. And all of the prostitutes must stop selling them selves to make a living, sex is a gift and can not be exploited like that.” Jesus entered the party and accepted the people as they were.
Jesus loves us just the way we are, and is loving to us to bring us out of our sin. Jesus was the only one with the woman who committed adultery who was not prepared to throw a stone, and according to his thoughts on who could throw a stone, he was the only one, yet he did not. Why not? We think well of course he did not, because that would not be how Jesus would act/react. However this is exactly what we hope Jesus will do to those who are so far in sin that they can not be welcomed into our assembly, when we tell them that Jesus will cast them into hell. If you do not turn from your sin, you will be condemned. Jesus did not condemn this women, but he loved her where she was and told her to do it no more. He spent time with her, and knew her.
We do not want to get to know people to see where they are, but just convict them of their sin.
A few years ago some wrote a book, No Perfect People Allowed. This is exactly how we need to be. No one is without sin, and Jesus welcomes us all.
Jesus entered the party, and sat with the sinners, we should do the same. Accepting them as people, and loving them in relationship .

Why do we say what we say…

I have started reading The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. He says on page 33 “Or else he was a teacher whose words would be quoted to condemn people our church or denomination didn’t approve of.” He is of course speaking of Jesus here, and I can see what McLaren means about using words of Jesus to condemn people our church or denomination does not approve of, I just came from the synod assembly of the denomination I am a part of. I wonder if we follow Jesus or if we do what we think Jesus wants us to do, living in the history of the church we were raised in. I have not made it far into the McLaren book, however he has already spoken about how he was raised in the church and the Jesus he was shown in this raising is one of meekness and mildness, one who would not question anything, but just love.
I believe Mark Galli hits it on the head in Jesus Mean and Wild The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God. Galli says on page 166, “We are functional atheists most of the time. We jump out of bed, gulp down coffee, and sprint into the day, immersing ourselves in all its petty and large concerns. We barely give God a thought and pretty much live our days as if he is away on a trip.” I had to stop and read this again when I read it the first time. I thought wow, that is it. We pay our homage on Sunday, give God the hour of our lives on Sunday morning to put in our time and we live the rest of our lives as functional atheists. We live as thought Jesus has no effect on us at all. We live our lives to look out for the only one that really matters, us. We live thinking only of oursleves, and not worried about our neighbor. I heard that Mark Allen Powell spoke on the good Samaritan text at our synod assembly. He commented that Jesus asks at the end who is the neighbor? Well to the Jew who was lying in the ditch, he would probably say the men who left him for dead were his neighbors, while the Samaritan was a no good waiste of flesh. Even though the Samaritan was the one who gave him care, the Jew would still see him as the enemy. We do not live the way Jesus calls us to live, but only the way that causes us the least amount of pain.
I believe as many others, that we need to follow Jesus and do what he has called us to do. That is not to be a church, or a religious group of people, but people that claim the kingdom, the place that is now, the reign that is now taking place, to walk in this new reality. This is what Brian McLaren speaks about in his book, this is what Jesus called us to do, and is calling us to do.

What is the opposite of love?

It seems there is a lot in this world that pulls us away from love. But what is the opposite of love?
As one of my friends said to me recently the easy answer for this question is hate, but that is not truly the opposite of Love. He said the opposite of love is indifference. I believe he is right.
As the video below from Desperate Housewives shows, hate is not the opposite of love, because love like hate takes work, it takes commitment, it takes involvement. Indifference is a slide away from any commitment to the other. If I am indifferent towards you I do not care if you are well, or if you are hurting. I could not care less if you are in my life at all… Indifference is the place we can not be.
Some would say that fear is the opposite of love. And love can lead us to fear what might happen to those we love, but that is not the opposite of love. Fear is a byproduct of love, but a 1 John says, perfect love dispels fear. God has no fear in what will happen to us, as he already knows and loves us inspoute of how we will hate him and turn our backs on him. God is never indifferent to us. He always had and always will love us, but that does not mean there is not hardships or pruning. God loves us, but loves us enough to not leave us the way we are. He is always molding us into the person he calls us to be, the person his unfailing love is bringing us to be.
Live in the love that we have, because he first loved us, and share that love with others. Being the person to speak the words in truth to the person who is sinning and acting like nothing is happening. To the person who seems blind to the way they are headed. Love is kind and patient, but it is also something that can not let others destroy themselves. Love can be tough, as intervention, and helping others become who they can be. Love.

Who keeps you intentionally focused on God?

Is it not interesting that we are drawn to a community if believers by a need to find a higher power, by the need to find God. We are drawn into the community because of our desire to seek out God and find how he can have significance in our lives. We are usually drawn to the scriptures to study and prayer, to a life that exemplifies the life of Christ. We search with all of our being to be like the one we are seeking after…

But then we join the community and the fire seems to go out of our souls…
We start to read our Bible less and less…
We stop praying all the time…
We lose the connection we fought so hard to get with the God who never stops fighting for us…

What is it that we do to keep our selves intentionally grounded in the Word and in God?
Go to church on Sunday? Take communion weekly? Listen to the Bible being read to us, and only the portions picked by those who devised the Revised Common Lectionary? Is this really keeping us intentionally grounded in God or a ploy used by the Devil to make us think we are being disciples, when we are really no where close to sitting at the feet of Jesus?

We all need a way to be intentional about sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning from our Lord and Savior. We all need a way to keep us grounded in the Word of God. We all need to be reading our Bible daily, not weekly or weakly as the case may be, or just listening to someone read the passages for the week while we gather with the community to do our weekly job of being a christian. Jesus did not come to make us christians, He came to help us see the way to live, to redeem us to the relationship God created us for. He does not want us to live one way Sunday morning and another all week long. He is calling us to a deeper relationship, a discipleship.

We have to be intentional about changing our lives to match what Jesus calls us to be. We have to intentionally enter relationships with others around us that we can trust to keep us grounded in the Word and in God. We need a group of people, that will be there to lift us up in prayer, to read the scriptures with, to hear our confessions and give us absolution, to confess to us to get absolution, to support one another in our daily lives and walk.

Do you have this group? Do you have 2 people who are always there that you can open your soul to? Do you have 2 people that can look at the blackness in your being and still say that God forgives you and loves you and so do I and I will walk with you and journey as we strive to sit at Jesus’ feet and be the disciples that will change the world? Are there 2 people you can call on and meet with weekly, to read and discuss the scripture?

If not I challenge you to find these people. Start a weekly meeting, and read the scripture, pray togehter and open your souls up to each other. Create the relationship that will bind you together and lead you to be the disciples that God has called you to be. This group will guide you into a deeper relationship with your creator that will enliven your life.

I am taking up this callenge and I challenge you to do the same. Relationships take work, and it takes more than 1 day a week. And sometimes you need support. Live in the relationship that Christ has called us to, and do not fear, but know that love will abound.