Aug. 30, 2020 13th of Pentecost

 

Matthew 16:21-24 (The Message)
21 "Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised up alive. 22 Peter took him in hand, protesting, "Impossible, Master! That can never be!" 23 But Jesus didn't swerve. "Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works." 24 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how."

Peter wanted suffering eliminated from Jesus life.  We all would like to see the same.
Suffering is so costly.  It hurts so much, demands so much, takes so much.

Helmut Thielicke has said the problem for Americans is that we don’t know how to deal with suffering.  We regard it as something “which is fundamentally inadmissible, distressing, embarrassing, and not to be endured.”

What Peter and we do not understand is that suffering belongs to the very nature of this world and to the very nature of Jesus - the suffering servant who emptied himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)

As Douglas John Hall reminds us in “God And Human Suffering”, “there are forms of suffering which belong, in God’s intention. to the human condition.  Not all of what we experience as suffering is totally absurd, a mistake, an oversight, or the consequence of sin.”  Some of it is a part of what it takes to give us deep appreciation for what life is really all about.

How would we discover the power of love without suffering loneliness?
How would we experience wonder, surprise, or gratitude without the experience of limits.  Of not having everything we want, when we want it, without ever going without anything.

How would we know what was good if we never experienced the pain of what is bad?

become more truly whole, unified, and centered.”

Life without limits, without a purpose beyond having it bigger and better; without struggle, commitment to something beyond my own happiness and economic security; without denial, without the struggle which comes in loosing oneself in being an instrument of love in a world of hate; life without integrity and responsibility, servant hood and compassion IS NO LIFE AT ALL!  IT IS INDEED VERY THIN!

The challenge for all of us is not only to try figure out what God’s will really is.

It is also to be willing to suffer rather then lose our integrity.  Suffer to discover the deeper truths of life.  The secret of life is that it has to be lost to be found; it has to dare suffer to be real and have integrity.

“A pain-free life would be a life-less life.”                

“Becoming is suffering…through it we 

become more truly whole, unified, and centered.”

Douglas John Hall

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, you suffered for me and you suffer with me.  Help me to accept suffering as a part of life and transform it into goodness and joy.”

August 23, 2020 12th of Pentecost

Matthew 16:13-20  (The Message)

13 When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?" 14 They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets." 15 He pressed them, "And how about you? Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus came back, "God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn't get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. 

“The genius of the poet is that he says more than he knows.”

The genius of faith is that it says more than it knows - always!

God is unsearchable and incomprehensible;  grace goes beyond human understanding and logic.  Faith is believing more then we can ever know.

Peter was saying more then he knew when he confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The words came strangely to his lips from beyond his own understanding.  It is so also with us,  as Luther wrote long ago: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him...”

Faith is not having all the answers to the riddle of life;  not never having to doubt again; or be perplexed about things; or afraid; or confused; or ever having to feel lost again.  It is not a magical formula which takes away all the hurt, pain, and fear out of life.  

Faith is the God given capacity to hope when all looks hopeless; laugh when much is heavy; dance when there is little reason to dance; pray when God seems far away and not tuned in.  It is the God given capacity to list all the reasons why there is no God, and yet...and yet believe in God!

It is the sure and certain hope that God is for is, not against us.  No matter what!

Prayer thoughts for the week: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief...help me hold on when I feel there is seems to be nothing to hold on to.…help me remember and dare believe that when all seems lost, You are still with me.…keep me mindful of your awesome grace: that You are always with me, for me, by me, in me.  Never against me!

August 16, 2020 11th of Pentecost

 Matthew 15:21-28  (The Message)

21 From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." 23 Jesus ignored her.  The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." 24 Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel." 25 Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me." 26 He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs." 27 She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table." 28 Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

Jesus ignored her.  She was a Canaanite, a nobody.  How unlike Jesus that is.  How unlike the God who came to be among us.  But she did not let this push her away.  She hung in there - with the silence, perhaps waiting, hoping for a different answer.

When the disciples put on pressure to get rid of her she took action.

She put on her own one person protest as to the unfairness of what Jesus was saying, for even the lowliest get some scraps, some attention, some goodness.  And He heard her - blessed her - and fulfilled her quest for the healing of her daughter.  She got the full doss of goodness and grace!

Sometimes protest works.  We are seeing a lot of it in our country today and it is mostly good people asking for goodness in their lives too.  Asking that they be treated as a part of those who have been created equal and deserve the same inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We who seek to walk with Jesus are called to help fulfill their dream and show the same fairness as Jesus did.  This is our calling.  We are not to continue to send them away again, and again, and again as the disciples wanted to do with the Canaanite woman.  We are to welcome them with open arms as Jesus did, and included them as equal with us in all things!  All things!  

For indeed, ALL LIVES MATTER!      

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, give me the courage to follow you even if it means I have to repent of my lack of caring for the ‘Canaanite woman’ in my midst.”

August 9, 2020 10th of Pentecost

 Matthew 14:22-23  (The Message)

22 As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. 23 With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night.

Jesus finally is alone.  Finally he has a moment to catch his breath, gather his wits about him, and just be with God in silence, praying.

This is no game he is playing.  He needs this time away in prayer.

It takes silence to ‘see who we are’, for it is in silence we touch the deepest part of our humanity as well as God’s divinity.

Thomas Szasz, an American psychiatrist has said; 

“(Humans) cannot long survive without air, water, and sleep.  Next in importance comes food.  And close on its heels, solitude.”

Faith cannot exist without solitude either.

“Only in silence, in the space between noise, speech,  and activity, is there room for a person to become focused, to achieve gravity and centeredness.  Only in waiting before the mystery of existence itself, in brooding upon the world and eternity, does one become endowed with true worldliness and true everlastingness.”   John Killinger

“(Humans) cannot long survive without air, water, and sleep.  Next in importance comes food.  And close on its heels, solitude.”  Thomas Szasz

Prayer thoughts for the week:

Lord,  …help me to find the “sound of silence” in my daily noisy life.

           …give me “spaces in my togetherness” where I can be still, and find solitude.

   …help me to remember that You often speak in a still small voice which can only            

be heard by being quiet and listening.

Aug 2, 2020 9th of Pentecost

Matthew 14:13-21 (The Message)

13 When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully - someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. 14 When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick. 15 Toward evening the disciples approached him. "We're out in the country and it's getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper." 16 But Jesus said, "There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper." 17 "All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish," they said. 18 Jesus said, "Bring them here." 19 Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. 20 They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About five thousand were fed.

“A miracle is any event, natural or supernatural, in which one sees a revelation of God.”
The miracle here could have been that once the people saw what Jesus was going to do with a small boys small lunch, they opened their hearts and their lunches for all to share.

If this is how it happened, it is still a miracle!  In fact, this would be the a more difficult miracle for it meant many hearts being changed, opened to sharing.

“Jesus risked his entire ministry on the sufficiency of the infinitesimal.”
“Every social change can be traced to a few determined individuals.”
Walter Wink, “The Power Of The Small”




“When God seeks to turn      
the world around,
one person is usually enough.”
Walter Wink







Prayer thoughts for the week:
                 Lord: keep me humble so I can be helpful.
help me be a miracle in ways I never dreamed possible.
open my eyes to see how much you can do with so little.
help me do what I can to make life better for someone.