Walking with Jesus through Lent: Week Two
Rev. Vera I. Bourne
2nd Wednesday in Lent - Do we seek a miracle?
Luke 11: 29-30: This is an evil generation! It looks for a sign and it will be given no sign except that of Jonah. Just as Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign to this generation.
Are we sceptical or cautious when we demand proof before we will accept some of the claims we hear? On the other hand, how many times do some people need to prove themselves before we are satisfied with their credentials? It is an age where a CV is as important as a wallet or purse. It's a lot easier to check the various employment or academic records than it was when job applicants needed only a handful of references. Those were the times when family friends would carefully accentuate the positive and greatly diminish, if not ignore, the negative qualities in one's life. Employers even found innocuous phrases to describe workers who were leaving their employ.
The oath taken in court demands that we tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth regarding incidents about which we are being examined. In fact everybody wants to know just how things lie and whether people they meet, in person or via the media, are genuine. "Seeing is believing' we claim and yet, having heard the differing accounts of the same accident by various eye-witnesses, we know what we see varies from person to person.
The crowds Jesus addressed were not massed around him because they wanted that little extra proof so they could believe he was who he claimed to be. Rather, they were there for their own entertainment, to see what the miracle worker would do that day. Jesus had, to many of them, become a sideshow freak, someone to entertain the kiddies, and be discussed over drinks at parties. Family groups packed their lunches and went off to find Jesus for their day's entertainment. They weren't interested in the truth he came to preach, just the miracles. It was those same crowds who cheered his progress into Jerusalem and who, just a week later, gathered on Golgotha to see what trick the miracle worker would perform to get himself out of that predicament. The crowds who gathered to watch Houdini's final attempt to escape from a locked chest were also profoundly disappointed when the impresario was injured and the Water Torture trick failed.
Not too many crowds gather in today's world to hear Jesus speak. It is true that those desperate for physical healing will travel the circuits of faith healers hoping one has a miracle for them. Nowadays when we come as individuals to Jesus what are our expectations? Have we come because we too need a miracle? Is our life so out of control Jesus is our only hope? Are we plea-bargaining with Jesus in the hope that somehow God will solve our problems? We certainly did that when we were of school age. Are we like the crowd, out to see what Jesus will give us, or do we come because of the irresistible drawing power of his love?
Many have cried out to Jesus in the blackness of their soul's night, seeking answers to unfathomable events. Often these have stayed, not because Jesus provided a "quick fix", but because from Jesus they received the courage and strength to carry on. Many who have come weeping have found joy springing from the depths of their spirits, as Jesus has become their loving shepherd. How did we meet Jesus, was it in a time of crisis or a time of joy? Were we hoping to see a miracle, as were the crowds that followed Jesus? Perhaps this Lent we could take time to discover just why we are walking with Jesus and exactly what Jesus means to us.
Prayer: Gentle Shepherd, open my eyes so I may clearly see the reasons I have chosen to be a disciple. Strengthen my faith so I seek no more miracles as proof that you are indeed the Christ, God who walked this earth as I do. Amen.
2nd Thursday in Lent - The Charter of Prayer
Matthew 7: 7-8: "Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for you. The one who asks will always receive; the one who is searching will always find, and the door is opened to those who ask."
Most of the people who came to Jesus had no ideas what matters were appropriate to bring to God's attention, in fact they had no real understanding about the nature of God. With all the prescribed sacrifices to be offered at the Temple, and the formal daily prayer requirements for every due, there seemed little scope for spontaneity. In fact when it came to addressing God face to face, why only the High Priest could do that and then only on one day each year. So terrified of God were the priests that they tied a rope around the High Priest's waist so that, if he should take ill or die, they could haul him out bodily from the Holy of Holies. Yet this was the same God that Jesus called "Abba" - "Daddy".
Those times seem far removed from us in our technological era, and yet there are still people in religious circles that espouse a judgemental and vengeful God. You can pick these people easily for by their own admission they belong to the very few who are right in God's sight, and therefore they are empowered to deliver this message of damnation. Worst of all, some people believe this teaching and live in fear of God. Awe of God is one thing, fear is another.
Jesus opened the understanding of his listeners to the true nature of God by revealing the Creator as a God of love. Furthermore he declared God was intimately concerned with every area of our lives. God, he said, knows all our needs. Why then does God not automatically equip us with all we could desire? Like all good parents God knows we grow only as we stretch ourselves to achieve new boundaries, and that to overindulge us would be to thwart our progress. Then, as Jesus told James and John, there is the problem that we haven't really thought through the consequences of having some of our requests granted. After all, would you turn your car keys over to an enthusiastic fifteen year old who had a burning desire to drive, but no experience or training? God's a lot like that, wanting to keep us from the consequences of outlandish desires.
Yet when we, having chosen to follow Christ, have real needs Jesus counsels us to bring these needs to God. Think how uncomplicated our lives would be if we had enough confidence in God to hand over our problems rather than fretting and worrying about them. After all, if God can't help us, who can? On those rare occasions when God, who sees further than our immediate situation, has to refuse our request, as we accept God's decision our faith needs to grow enough to embrace the fact that some good will arise from these circumstances.
Does it sound a bit unreal, a bit "pie in the sky"? Maybe so, but at one stage God's care was demonstrated on such a day-to-day basis that we accepted it as the ordinary rather than an exceptional state. This is until a dying man I cared for, a chap who had lost his own faith somewhere along the way, demanded each week that I relate all the miracles God had poured into my life. That made the difference; and it's strange how when you look, expecting to find miracles, you discover you are surrounded by them. It really seems that as we have various needs God always has those needs covered, even before we have asked. Actually, I believe we have one indisputable example of this action of God's in the forgiveness Jesus offers. For when we start to think about those times when our self-indulgence, our words or actions, have harmed others and in our remorse we attempt to make amends, we find that Jesus has already forgiven us. Forgiveness, like all those other answers to prayer, has always been waiting for us to step forward in faith and claim it. All we need is simply to ask, to seek and to knock. God is that close.
Prayer: Abundant God to you all things are possible. Increase our faith so we may bring all our needs to you. As your children we confidently ask, seek, knock and find. Amen.
2nd Friday in Lent - Putting First Things First
Matthew5: 23-24: So that if, while you are offering your gift at the altar, you should remember that your brother has something against you, you must leave your gift there before the altar and go away. Make your peace with your brother first, then come and offer your gift.
Here is a hard teaching of Jesus. You can sense his eyes scanning your soul as he warns that while ever your actions have caused harm to another, your relationship with God is also harmed. The breach between you and God cannot be healed until the breach between you and others is healed. It is no use putting on a false front to the world, a pious mask to hide the hurt you have caused. God knows, and waits for you to recognize your error and make your peace with those you have wronged. It's no good appealing to God that your words and actions were justified, for God will demand to know under whose jurisdiction they are justified. Every time we attempt to justify ourselves we set ourselves in God's place, for only God can judge fairly and accurately. While ever we classify ourselves as Christians we place ourselves under God's jurisdiction. No matter how moral or reasonable our views we too will be judged by God, just as surely as those we believe have harmed us or those we love.
How many people would suddenly exit any church service if they looked up and discovered it was Jesus preaching or presiding over the Eucharist? Remember the effect Jesus had on the crowd gathered to stone the woman who had been found in a sexually compromising situation? Faced with Jesus every one of these self-righteous men slunk, shame-faced, away. God does know, as we sit quietly in our pews, exactly the persons we are. If on Sunday while we engaged in worship, Jesus stood at the end of our pew and beckoned us out, how would we feel? Comedian Lenny Bruce ended up spending time in prison having been found guilty of obscenity (it appears blasphemy was not an indictable offence) for his descriptive piece "Jesus and Moses." Actually it cuts right into the heart of today's reading, for it suggests the scene that would occur if Jesus and Moses suddenly appeared at the back of one the pews of St Patrick' Cathedral in Fifth Avenue, New York while Bishop Fulton Sheen was presiding. He suggested in the ecclesiastical panic that would ensue, there was even a phone call made to the Pope. For, you see, Jesus was concerned about the suburbs of absolute poverty they had travelled through on their way to the service, and at the lavish ring the Bishop wore - remembering what could be done with the money such richness would bring.
It really is time, during Lent, to take stock. We need to be brutal as we examine our lives, and perhaps even ask God to help us recall and recognise our failures. Perhaps we need to pray that God will expose all those areas in our lives with which our Creator needs to deal. Are we willing to turn ourselves over totally so that God can remake us?
Jesus' statement was not meant as a judgement or a threat. It emphases dramatically just how crippled our lives are when they are cluttered with unresolved conflicts. No matter how much we try to push them to the back of our consciousness, or how carefully we rearrange our lives so we can step around these people and events, we are as crippled as if we had lost a leg. We cannot be ourselves, the whole and loveable persons God planned us to be, while ever we cling to guilt, for it will surely strangle us. Each time we attend a worship service we know deep within our spirit that we are not right with those we have harmed by our words and actions. Until we are prepared to rectify these situations we cannot expect to make our peace with God.
Prayer: We have heard, without really applying it to ourselves, the words of admonition uttered as part of our preparation to receive the Eucharist. Search us, God, so that we may see where we have harmed others, and give us your courage to put things right. Amen.
("Jesus and Moses" is contained on The Midnight Concert, United Artists record UAS 6794.)
2nd Saturday in Lent - Not Liking, But Loving
Matthew 5:44-45: I tell you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
These lectionary readings are proof in themselves that God is indeed with us as we make our pilgrimage through Lent. When we joined Jesus as disciples we turned ourselves over to the Master Potter, asking that he would make of our lives not just something beautiful but something that he could truly use. Having made that commitment it is no surprise that we hear his teaching on our attitude to those we consider enemies.
This passage that seems to be central to the Sermon on the Mount gives us an accurate description of Christianity in action. We know how easy it is to cultivate as friends those who share common interests, or those who make us feel good. Sometimes it is difficult to venture into friendships with people who are different or whose opinions challenge our own, for this is a journey into unchartered seas. But Jesus was not discussing making friends of those who differ from us; instead he urges us to love those people who have harmed us, our families or friends, our jobs or even our possessions.
He asks that no matter what a person does to us, we will not let bitterness against that person take root in our hearts. To love as Jesus demands requires a deliberate act of will on our part for such love asks that we genuinely love those whom we do not like. Of course at times there will be those who attempt to violate such loving, and those who mock us as immature and unworldly. When this happens it's a great relief to acknowledge that it is to God and not these others we are answerable. We, by love such as this, do not allow people to do what they will to us, for loving never encourages undisciplined conduct. Even if we need to avoid those persons, we continue to pray for them. There may even be times when we need to take action, including legal action, to restrain others from abusive treatment. In even these extreme incidents our eyes should be fixed on a remedy rather than retribution, an opportunity for healing rather than vengeance.
Jesus recommends we pray for those who have damaged our lives, and indeed the very act of holding such people up before God in prayer causes us to let go, even for an instant, of the resentment with which we previously regarded them. As we pause with God, we have the opportunity to see that God loves them no less than we ourselves are loved. Knowing that, how then can we hate one that God loves?
I do not believe Jesus bids us to pray for only our enemies, rather that this commandment governs all our personal relationships, with family members, friends, those we meet in the street and those who serve us in supermarkets and garages. It is so easy for friends and family members to rub us up the wrong way, for petty irritation to become enlarged until we are no longer able to see the person because of the imagined offence. Sometimes shop assistants, ticket collectors, bus drivers and other drivers become tired, perhaps they are carrying more than a reasonable load of burdens, but for whatever reason their behaviour is a little less than generous or courteous. How easy it is for us to respond in like manner, and what a waste of energy this is. It's far healthier for both our bodies and our souls to take a deep and gentle breath, and as we exhale commit the person and situation to God in prayer. This choice will eliminate any tension and stress from building in our own bodies. We will be freed of both the situation and the consequences of our own otherwise inappropriate response. And that's basically what being a disciple is all about, experiencing the freedom that Christ offers hour by hour. That our Saviour loves us enough to point out those things that will make our life more pleasant and our witness attractive is proof enough that he truly walks with us. Love our enemies, how can we withhold such love?
Prayer: Each day, Jesus, on our journey you continue to teach me only those things that love accords. Remind me when I am hurt that you too could love those who hurt you. Amen.
2nd Sunday in Lent - Becoming The Beloved
Mark 9:7: Then came a cloud that overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, "This is my dearly-loved Son. Listen to him!"
Whenever we meet strangers, be it at a social occasion or in work-related circumstances, we rely on being introduced to them. Not many of us bowl up to a stranger and ask their name. We do expect that those conducting telephone polls or collecting for charities will identify themselves. In fact we can demand these details before we proceed.
That day on the mountain top God affirmed to Peter, James and John the identity of Jesus. Through the weeks and months they had journeyed together these disciples had heard Jesus' claim that he was sent from God. Now they heard from God such identification, such a divine reference, as placed Jesus in a category without equal. Though Jesus commanded them not to discuss this incident with the others, these three disciples must have shared many private conversations about this day. So often the Gospels provide the mere skeleton of events and we are left to fill in the human gaps from our own experience and understanding. Yet even such a revelation, the sight of Jesus immersed in glory and God speaking of him as "the beloved", was not enough to alter these men permanently. For at the time of Jesus' arrest they fled in case they too were facing capture.
When people formally introduce us, what do they say? Do they list our accomplishments, or are we known simply by our occupation? Maybe we are introduced simply as our spouse's significant other. Some of us have heard ourselves described as someone's son or daughter, someone's parent, or perhaps even grandparent. However we are known our introduction is dependent on the amount of information available to our referee. So today, as we remember various introductions, let us contemplate how God introduces us. For it is surely true that God does speak about us to people we are about to meet, to others as we meet them and to those whose needs God believes we can supply.
Henri Nouwen in "Life of the Beloved" challenges us with the statement that we are the Beloved of God. So often, as he points our, we let the voices of the world belittle our status. We accept opinions that classify us as selfish, worthless, no good, ugly or destructive. Because of our conditioning we begin to believe that for all our faults we deserve to be punished, or at the very least overlooked by people we love or admire and by God. We forget that God provided times when we have been cocooned in tenderness and care, times when we were encased in love. Perhaps we have forgotten who we truly are, that before our birth God knew us. Perhaps we have never before realised that the irresistible urge that draws us closer to God is our soul's response to being known as Beloved of God.
As we let this fact sink into our consciousness we discover that new vigour runs through our veins, new energy into our impetus and new joy springs from those store-places within our soul. Did we not know, or had we forgotten how much God loves us? Being aware that we are the Beloved of God changes our perspective on life and on our fellow travellers, for just as we are beloved of God, so too are they. We need to encourage them, just as Christ encourages and enables us, to peel away the tattered perceptions with which they have clothed themselves and accept the garments that befit those loved by God. On that mountain as Jesus spoke with God, his appearance was transformed by God's glory. Accepting our rightful position as God's Beloved we will discover that we too are transformed. Our relationships with one another and our relationship with God are transformed. We become aware that eternity does not commence some time in the future, but that we are already living our eternal life. Beloved of God, what a revelation this day on our journey with Christ through Lent!
Prayer: Almighty God, we have, by our own insecurities, separated ourselves from your blessings. Today humbly we accept your claim that we are indeed Beloved of God. Amen.
2nd Monday in Lent - Errors in Judgement
Don't judge other people and you will not be judged yourselves. Don't condemn and you will not be condemned. Make allowances for others and people will make allowances for you.
While yesterday we were reminded that we are Beloved of God, today we are faced with the responsibility of being God's Beloved. We are asked to suspend judgement on folk who have either broken our laws or who have violated our personal relationships and beliefs. Does Jesus demand that we curtail our right to defend what we believe? Have we the right to denounce evil wherever we find it entrenched? As we reread Jesus' words it becomes clear he is referring to people and not situations. We are not asked to stay our hands when we encounter situations that are cruel or brutal. He does not expect us to remain silent when corruption and discrimination become evident in politics. Jesus asks us to postpone our judgements about people while we consider our licence to judge. What do we know about the person or the matter in hand but what we have been told or what we have witnessed ourselves? What about motivation - are we sure we can assess this accurately? How about the incidents that provide background to the person and the offence? Where are our witnesses, where are the witnesses for the accused, or do we presume to be judge and jury? Who but God knows the whole truth regarding any incident?
We are all a product of our upbringing - family mores, spiritual teaching and cultural customs. Our values have been shaped by these and by our own experiences in childhood and adulthood. Yet for all this wisdom, because we are human and capable of error, we are flawed, we cannot be relied upon to give unbiased, rational decisions on subjects which affect us emotionally. Too often we have over-reacted, or have been among those who have closed their eyes to repressive and damaging situations.
Jesus asks only that we suspend judgement on two counts. In reminding us that God alone can accurately judge each of us, Jesus takes the weight of such heavy decision-making from us. If we are to serve him we must not be loaded with the burden of weighing another person's behaviour. By turning the whole situation over to God, and leaving it in God's hands, we are able to step back and resume our lives. In effect we are proving that we trust God to deal with the matter. Who better than the Creator to deal with one of God's creations?
The second reason is that by rejecting any human tendency to judge we stop these individuals from becoming a focal point in our lives. While we concentrate on those behaviours with which we disagree in other people we develop in our own personalities a festering sore. Each time we return to these incidents it is as if we scratched the sore and reinfected it. Like all sores that are constantly reinfected it spreads and poisons our beings. Sleep becomes fragmented, our appetites are affected, and little by little we withdraw from people who do not share our opinion until we become isolated in our "just" anger. We are a time bomb whose fuse is waiting for just one spark to touch the wick.
Jesus has seen too many people destroyed by emotions that have become out of control. He does not want this to happen to us, and so he reminds us time and again that God alone can judge. To suspend judgement on another not only frees us from the consequences of judging them but also allow us to pray for them. "Prayer changes things", it's true, but most of all prayer changes us. When we start praying for those whose words or actions seem to violate every code we know, our codes of ethics become far removed and our focus is centred on the wellbeing of the person for whom we are praying. We ask God's blessings on them, for this is the utmost expression of Christ's love we can bring to any person or situation.
Prayer: Creator God, in our hurt we forget that you alone may judge all the people of this world. Enable us to encompass with your love all those we are inclined to judge. Amen.
2nd Tuesday in Lent - Walking the Talk
Matthew 23:3-4: You must not imitate their lives! For they preach but do not practise. They pile up backbreaking burdens and lay them on other peoples' shoulders - yet they will not raise a finger to move them.
What would Jesus say if he looked at our lives today? Would he include us among those who fail to practise what they preach? Though he was advising his listeners not to adopt the behaviour of the Scribes and Pharisees, he may well have been discussing the behaviour of all in public life, for too often do those who acquire power abuse that power. The necessity for commissions to investigate corruption within various layers of government and law enforcement agencies is testimony to such abuse.
The Talmud confirmed Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees, for it listed seven kinds of Pharisee. These are the Shoulder Pharisee, the Wait-a-While Pharisee, the Bruised or Bleeding Pharisee, The Pestle and Mortar or Hump-backed Pharisee, the Ever-reckoning or Compounding Pharisee, the Timid or Fearing Pharisee and, lastly, the God-fearing Pharisee. Although this categorisation is ancient, it is pertinent today for it may also be used to delineate the behaviour of all who claim to love Jesus. Which of these descriptions accurately reflects our attitudes and actions? Do we fit into more than one group?
Do we deliberately advertise those acts of love we perform in Jesus' name? Do we constantly need praise for even the most basic courtesies? Are we forever interrupting conversations to promote our own ideas or experiences? Do we expect the world to hold up a looking glass so that we may admire our reflection? A Shoulder Pharisee displaying good deeds for praise?
We've all met the Wait-a-While person. That's the one who tells a meeting that the church lawn is due to be mowed, that more volunteers are needed for Meals-on-Wheels, or that the number of homeless people on the streets has increased. Then they sit back and wait for others to volunteer until finally all positions have been filled. At that stage they sit back smugly; after all, there is no longer a place for them to fill on any roster.
How often have we come across Christians who are so busy dotting i's and crossing t's that they have no time to do anything but criticise all those whose lives encompass much more freedom. They, like the Scribes, are more interested in formulating rules and regulations to contain Christian behaviour than they are in freely sharing Christ's love. How often we find them gossiping about the lives of others. Bruised and Bleeding Pharisees who would rather bump into buildings than glance up in case they catch sight of a woman in public? Luckily there are not too many Christians who suffer from false humility. Somewhere they forgot they are truly children of God, loved unconditionally and awarded a place at God's table. We were never meant to assume such an outward position of humility that we could qualify for the title of Hump-backed or Mortar and Pestle.
Do we fit the category of Ever-Reckoning Pharisee? Do we believe we must work our way to God by our own efforts, our own good deeds? Somehow the awe-provoking truth of the price Christ paid for us has not penetrated. We belong to God because we returned to God. Nothing we can do will force God into loving us more, let alone be in our debt. Or are we the Timid ones who stay close by Christ, simply because we are too terrified of an ultimate divine judgement? Finally we come to the place where all true disciples are gathered. They serve Jesus simply because they love him. They are so filled with his love that it, and not them, has performed the miracle of remaking them. Who are we really, those who merely talk or those who practise what they preach?
Prayer: Loving God, on our journey with Jesus, save us from stumbling over obstacles we have created. May we pay attention to Christ and not be voices whistling in the wind. Amen.
These meditations may not be copied, reformatted or reproduced in any form or manner without the written permission of the author.
