October 10, 2021 20th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 10:17-22 (The Message)

17 As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?" 18 Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. 19 You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother." 20 He said, "Teacher, I have - from my youth - kept them all!" 21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye - and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me." 22 The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.

I know of only one person who took the words of Jesus to the Rich Young Ruler literally.

He was a young, self-made millionaire at age 29.  But as his business prospered, his health, integrity and marriage suffered.  When his wife left him the shock led him to re-evaluate his life’s values and direction.  He reconciled with his wife and then took a drastic step:  they decided too sell all of their possessions, give the money to the poor and begin searching for a new focus for their lives.

 

They went to Koinonia Farm, a Christian community near Americas, Georgia where Clarence Jordan had established what he called 

“A demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God.”

They  worked on the farm for some time, feeding the pigs, harvesting the crops and spending time in contemplation prayer and conversation with Clarence Jordan,  looking for practical ways  to apply Christ’s teachings - to follow Jesus as Jesus tells the RYR to do.

The result today is known as Habitat For Humanity which has provided housing for millions of people around the world and is still going strong.

A ‘heavenly wealth” indeed!

What could the RYR have done had he followed Jesus advice?

More important, what can we do to follow Jesus advice and not let anything be more important in our lives then walking with Jesus in the face of life’s  challenges and opportunities?  

“I see life as both a gift    

and a responsibility. 

My responsibility is to use 

what God has given me to 

help his people in need.”

Millard Fuller

 

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord help me to surrender what keeps me from following you and take up the responsibility to be Your presence in my world.  Making a heavenly difference in someone’s life.  Amen

October 3, 2021 19th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 10:13-16  (The Message)

13 The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. 14 The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. 15 Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." 16 Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.

The Kingdom of God is ours as a gift - all we have to do is accept it,

openly, freely, confidently, joyfully, like a child. 

It isn’t difficult for a child to accept a gift - it is a natural response, often with joy.  The child doesn’t think about deserving the gift; the child just accepts the gift.

A child also has a great capacity to trust.  When we trust we believe the offer of a gift, and  accept the gift without thought to why or how or why me?  The gift doesn’t depend on me.  It is freely given out of love; like a child I can accept  it, in  love.  And live in confidence knowing no matter what, I am loved!

Prayer thought for the week:

“Lord, keep me mindful today and every day that I am loved as a child and can trust in

your never ending grace.”

September 26, 2021, 18th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 9:38-41  (The Message)

38 John spoke up, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn't in our group." 39 Jesus wasn't pleased. "Don't stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. 40 If he's not an enemy, he's an ally. 41 Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.

No one can bottle God up and keep God contained.  God manifests God’s self in unexpected places and people;  God’s spirit blows where it will and we know not where it comes from or where it goes.

Any effort on our part to try contain God is futile.  God is with those who know not God as well as those who claim to be for God.  In fact, they may well be some of God’s best servants!

This is part of the mystery and miracle of God’s spirit at work in our world.  We can be  astonished by the irregularity of God.  It is not ours to judge others; it is ours to recognize the love of Jesus at work where ever it happens in whom ever it comes.  

  

“It has been my experience that what     

 makes us the saints of  God is not our 

ability to be saintly but rather God’s 

ability to work through sinners.”  

         Nadia Bolz-Weber

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to remember that there is something of Scrooge in me too, and you can still use me in ways beyond my daring to believe.”

September 19, 2021 17th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 9:33-35 (The Message)

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was safe at home, he (Jesus) asked them, "What were you discussing on the road?" 34 The silence was deafening - they had been arguing with one another over who among them was greatest. 35 He sat down and summoned the Twelve. "So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all."

 We all have a desire hidden within us to be a celebrity.  We would like to do our thing in a big way.  Yet it is as a servant that we have been called, to do our thing in a small way, often unnoticed but by God, and maybe those who are on the receiving end of our serving.

We are called to be servants and to get lost in doing good, without keeping score.  It isn’t easy.  It doesn’t come naturally.  It is almost contrary to our basic nature - self-preservation, taking care of #1.

Yet it is what Jesus reminds us we are to be.

To be a servant is to place oneself last and not worry about what I am going to get out of it.

It is to be like Jesus who “did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.”  Phil. 2:6,7 

Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, help me be a servant of your love and get lost in doing good.”  Amen

Sept. 12, 2021 16th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 8:27-33

27 Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”

28 “Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say ‘Elijah.’ Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”

29 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”

Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”

30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.

32-33 But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”

34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “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. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

Peter blew it as soon as he made it.  He didn’t have in mind the things of God.

His vision fell short of what God intended when he sent his Son to call us to live in his kingdom.

What do we have in mind in when you go to church?

To be comforted or disturbed?

sedated or shaken?

assured or challenged?

Are we open to what God wants for us or just what we want?

Too be sure God seeks to comfort us, quiet us in our fears, and assure us of God’s amazing grace.  

Jesus, speaking on behalf of God, also calls us to a life of servitude not self satisfaction; sacrifice not comfort.  And the mystery is,  we find our true selves as we serve and even sacrifice.

Life is not found in consumption; it is found in denying oneself, taking up the cross and following Jesus. 

To pray and actually mean        

“Thy Kingdom come,” we 

must also be able to say 

“my kingdoms go.” 

Richard Rohr 

Prayer for the week:  “Lord, may your kingdom come indeed on earth as we strive for peace among all people. Open our eyes to see that our kingdoms may well have to go so your kingdom of love can come.  Amen

Sept. 5, 2021 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:31-37 ( The Message)

31-35 Then he left the region of Tyre, went through Sidon back to Galilee Lake and over to the district of the Ten Towns. Some people brought a man who could neither hear nor speak and asked Jesus to lay a healing hand on him. He took the man off by himself, put his fingers in the man’s ears and some spit on the man’s tongue. Then Jesus looked up in prayer, groaned mightily, and commanded, “Ephphatha!—Open up!” And it happened. The man’s hearing was clear and his speech plain—just like that.

36-37 Jesus urged them to keep it quiet, but they talked it up all the more, beside themselves with excitement. “He’s done it all and done it well. He gives hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless.”

They couldn’t keep quiet about it; but they didn’t say all there was to say about it.

They missed the most important point - that this miracle, as with all miracles, means that salvation has come to our earth!  God has come to dwell with us in human from, in the man Jesus to heal ALL our infirmities, not just of the body but of the spirit as well!

There is a healing and a wholeness which is deeper then the physical.  Jesus has come that all might be saved (be made whole from within) and come to the knowledge of the truth.

To be so saved is to be open to God’s love moving in our lives and through our lives into our world.  It  is to be able to smile, no matter what, and to be a beautiful, healing person for others.  Physical handicaps cannot keep a ‘whole person’ down.  They simply radiate joy and love, and bring healing into living.  This is Christ in us, the love of God making us whole! 

God has come to dwell with us                    

in human from, in the man Jesus;

 to heal ALL our infirmities, 

not just of the body but of the spirit as well!

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me too radiate joy and love, and bring healing into my living.”

Aug 29, 2021 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:1-8 (The Message)

1 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples weren't being careful with ritual washings before meals. 3 The Pharisees - Jews in general, in fact - would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, 4 with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they'd give jugs and pots and pans). 5 The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, "Why do your disciples flout the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?" 6 Jesus answered, "Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull's-eye in fact: These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn't in it. 7 They act like they are worshiping me, but they don't mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy, 8 Ditching God's command and taking up the latest fads."

The best way to be religious is to not try to be religious.  The best way to be religious is to be spiritual:  more open, loving, sensitive, kind, gentle, compassionate, etc.  To be religious is to be a warm caring human being who lifts life up for others.  It is to have a secret - God loves me and everyone - and it is to live out that secret in the ordinary affairs of life. 

“We have enough religion 

to make us hate, 

but not enough to make 

us love one another."  

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to not be so heavenly minded (religious) that I am no earthly good.  Help me to love, even when it flies against my religious certainties.”