March 26 2017  Fourth Sunday in Lent

John 9:1-3, 6-7The Message)

  

1 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" 3 Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. 6 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man's eyes, 7 and said, "Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam" (Siloam means "Sent"). The man went and washed - and saw. “

The man born blind was healed.  It was a miracle.  No one could take that away from him.  His eyes were opened not only to the beauty of the world around him but also to the beauty of the world within him.  He saw not only a sunset;  he also saw the Son of Man, and he worshipped him.  He saw life anew through the eyes of faith and he was indeed born anew in the Kingdom of Heaven.

To stand with him is to dare believe in miracles and to dare confess that we are often blind and cannot see...that we need “light in the darkness of our hearts” .

Is this not our challenge not once but over and over again in our lives.

To see beyond the moment to that which is eternal and to see in the moment that which is truly joyful and joy giving?

The movie “The Bucket List” portrays this truth in what was for me a powerful way.

It is the story of two men - Carter, played by Morgan Freeman

and  Edward, played by Jack Nicholson,  who meet in a hospital room where both of them find themselves with terminal cancer.

Carter , an intellectual who was forced by family obligations to become an auto mechanic is making out a list of what he wants to do before he" kicks the bucket".

It contains such noble things as “witness something truly majestic, help a complete stranger for good, laugh until he cries, and even drive a Shelby Mustang.”

Edward sees the list and wants to join the fun.  He adds skydiving, seeing the Taj Mahal, getting a tattoo, sitting on top of the Egyptian pyramids, and kissing the prettiest girl in the world.  

So they start out together with Edward’s money, and it is wild ride.  Especially for Carter who hasn’t done anything this wild in his life.  And as they go about all the exciting things Carter shares with Edward some of his inner self.  Like, on seeing the brilliant stars in the black night he says, “This is one of God’s most amazing wonders.”  Edward sneers at it and they enter in a discussion which ends up with Carter asking, “What do you believe?  To which Edward replies, “We live, we die and the wheels on the bus go round and round...unless you think you know something I don’t know?”  And Carter responds. “No, I just have faith.”

They also talk about their families and it becomes apparent that Edward is divorced numerous times and estranged from his only daughter.  Somehow, in the subtleties of the time spent together - and there only hints of this in the movie, like when Carter asks Edward as they sit on the top of the Egyptian pyramid, two questions:  “Have you found joy?” and “Has your life brought joy to others?” -

somehow Edward begins to see his blindness - his failure in spite of his great financial success and he ends up going to his daughter to seek reconciliation and it is there that the miracle of the story happens. He discovers he has a granddaughter and she, perhaps 2 years old, gives him a hug and he kisses her cheek.

The next scene shows him scratching off the bucket list the item - “to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.”

The miracle has happened again.  The blind see!  Life is given joy!  Salvation has come to his house!

“Have you found joy?”

 “Has your life brought joy to others?”

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, open my eyes to see by faith what cannot be see 'by my own reason or strength'.  Help me to see the miracle of that which is eternal.”

March 19, 2017 Third Sunday in Lent

John 4: 5-11, 13-18, 27-29 (The Message )

5 He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. 7 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" 8 (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) 9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water." 11 The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? 

13 Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. 14 Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." 15 The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!" 16 He said, "Go call your husband and then come back." 17 "I have no husband," she said. 18 You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough." 

27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it. 28 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, 29 "Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?" 

The Samaritan woman did not expect Jesus to speak to her.  And especially about something as intimate as her life with men.  Yet in this exchange something changed deep within her and she became openly honest with herself and others.  It was a very human and deeply spiritual moment; she became a new person.  For us too, to be truly human (honest and open) is to be deeply spiritual.  It is a fresh drink of water - living water!



“To be human is to be spiritual; 

to be spiritual is to be human.” 

 Ron Henrichs

Prayer thought for the week:  "Lord, help me to be spiritual in a human way - as you were."

March 162 2017 Second Sunday in Lent

John 3:1-3, 14-17 (The Message)

1 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. 2 Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." 3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to - to God's kingdom." 14 In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up - 15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. 16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

Nicodemus wanted to believe Jesus,

but his head got in the way of his heart.

His heart said, “Go for it!”

“Follow Him!”

“This is the One!”

but his head asked, “How can these things be?”

He tried his best but he couldn't figure Jesus out.

Not yet anyway.  He did become a secret believer and he was with Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus body was buried.  But today he is wondering what it is all about, and asking “How can these things be?” 

How can it be that we have to be born again...and again...and again...and again, again, again?  Born from above;  of the Spirit;  of the one God sent?

It can be because we never get it all the first time, or the second, or third, or more.

We have to be born many times, over and over again as it slowly sinks in that God’s “love never ends and dazzling grace always is’.  And it is for all!  All!

God’s love never ends 

and dazzling grace always is.

Prayer thought for the week:   "Lord, be patient with me;  I find it so hard to dare believe how endless is your grace and love.  And let it infiltrate my every moment."

March 5, 2017  First Sunday in Lent
Matthew 4:1-11  (The Message)

 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. 2 Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, 3 which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: "Since you are God's Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread." 4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: "It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth." 5 For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, 6 "Since you are God's Son, jump." The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: "He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone." 7 Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: "Don't you dare test the Lord your God." 8 For the third test, the Devil took him on the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth's kingdoms, how glorious they all were. 9 Then he said, "They're yours - lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they're yours." 10 Jesus' refusal was curt: "Beat it, Satan!" He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness." 11 The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus' needs.
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Jesus had limits; his limits were that he was not to use his divine sonship as a way to get out of being human when the going got tough.  Not turn stones to bread - jump off the temple, do what best serves himself even it it means worshipping the devil!  Give up on good and give in to evil - take the easy way out.  Have no limits.  Just do what has to be done to get the best we can get.

We would like to live without limits, thinking this would be paradise. But would it?

“Imagine a life without the experience of limits.  You could have wild strawberries whenever you wanted them!  Nothing would be inaccessible, nothing forbidden, nothing out of reach, no unfulfilled dreams or wishes, no ‘thus far and no farther!’.  But how could human beings under such conditions ever experience wonder, surprise, or gratitude?”    
“And where would life be without wonder, surprise or gratitude?”
(Douglas John Hall, “God and Human Suffering, p. 58)







Where would life be without
wonder, surprise or gratitude?
Douglas John Hall








Prayer thought for the week:  "Lord, help me to remember that there are limits to where I can go and what I can do.  Keep me from trying to have it all, no matter what it costs."