John 17:9-19

John 17:9-19

I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. (NRSV)

"I sent them into the world." We have been "sent into the world" sanctified in truth by Jesus. As his prayer continues today, I can't help but think about the mission he was on and how he invites us to participate in his mission. He prays for protection as we navigate the horror of this life. 

This near the end of the longest prayer that Jesus offers and one can't help but notice the angst in his tone. Not that he hasn't prepared his followers, but that he loves them and doesn't want harm to come to them. As a parent this evokes feelings of concern that I have for my children. I want them to be successful in what they set out to do. I hope and trust that I taught them the difference between right and wrong and how to make good decisions. Like Jesus, feel that I have but there is that lingering worry that hangs over us rooted in love for the ones entrusted to us.

Our joy is in knowing that we have a loving God who like a parent has tended us with care and nurtures us to continue on our life of love. It's the truth with which we are sanctified. Our response is to follow in the way of Jesus and go into the world and care for others like we are taught.

John 17:1-8

John 17:1-8

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. (NRSV)

I can't imagine the stress that Jesus is under. This is a prayer offered by Jesus near the time prior to his arrest and crucifixion. This is the first part of the longest prayer that Jesus offers. To me, I hear his humanity coming through, and it is heart wrenching. We can't ignore that the word "glory" in different forms is used over and over again. Jesus longs for God to show the world who God is through him. In the prayer, Jesus recounts the ways that he has made God known to his disciples, showing them the "Father" through the "Son." For Jesus, this has been an undoubtably difficult task.

It makes me wonder. How often have I been into something and then I wish it was already finished. Through his prayer, I think Jesus conveys similar feelings. To me it seems like a prayer of desperation, mixed with frustration and conciliation. This is a tired Jesus that is getting close to the end of his time on earth. He is very conscious of his weariness and is ready do be done.

I feel a call to patience today. Patience with purpose, patience with understanding. I'm not good at being patient. When we think we are done, we are done. It takes real effort to keep going and finally (faithfully)  finish. Being patient takes dedication. Today I pray for patience and strength to be able to do the things that God has given me to do.

Luke 18:9-14

Luke 18:9-14

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner." These words resonate with me as I feel more "broken" than usual this year. The COVID virus trudges on, life is different, and I am tired. Today, in the context of this Ash Wednesday 2022, we are confronted with Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Both are broken in their own right. The difference between them is that the Tax collector knows he is broken. 

Tax collectors were the scoundrels of society that "took a little off the top" of the taxes they levied. It was even considered worse because they were often defrauding their own people. On the other hand, Pharisees were considered the "religious elite" with strict observance of the law (Torah). They often felt they were superior to or "holier than" others.

How we pray makes a difference. During the season of Lent, we are encouraged to look down deep into our brokenness, ask for forgiveness, and begin to let God heal us. With humble hearts and sometimes tears, we come before God looking for answers to the hurts in our life, hoping somehow to be restored and told everything will be ok. The scriptures assure us that God hears our cries for mercy and helps us. Eventually, everything turns out well.

Second Monday in Lent

John 4:27-42 (NRSV)

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

"Come and see a man who has told me everything that I have ever done!" That could be good and bad. Obviously, for the Samaritan woman with a sordid life, this encounter was probably quite embarrassing. Nonetheless, she was so excited that Jesus might be the messiah, she ran back to town and told everyone about him.

We pick up the story from Saturday's reading and learn that regardless of what Jesus told her, she invited the whole town out to meet him. John uses the time the woman has gone to the city for the disciples to encounter Jesus and ask him if he has been able to eat something. We should remember that they are in Samaria, and Samaritans do not share things with Jews and vice versa. Jesus takes the opportunity to explain to his disciples about the place they are in and how there is ample opportunity to share the message that "the fields are ripe for harvesting."  

The passage tells us that many in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. After that, the Samaritans, who don't share things in common with Jews, invited Jesus to stay with them. Many more came to believe by spending time with Jesus, and they proclaimed him, "savior of the world." 

I would be a little freaked out if a man came up to me and told me "all that I have ever done." Especially if I was trying to hide it in some way. We should realize that God knows it all, our good and our bad. During the season of Lent, it's our opportunity to admit the sin in our lives and turn to God for forgiveness. We are to go deep and go to God will ALL our demons, not just the ones that are evident to the world. Yes, even the hidden things that we are afraid of even admitting to God. It's ok; God forgives. God cannot save us unless we acknowledge that we need to be saved.

Second Sunday in Lent

Mark 3:31-4:9

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching, he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

Mark doesn't waste any time changing gears. It feels like he forgot to put in the clutch as he quickly goes from questioning who is in the familial relationship to how Jesus' teaching is propagated. I think there is a correlation here, but it's going to take some reflective gymnastics to get there.

Jesus says, whoever does God's will is my family (my mother, brothers, and sisters). So the more profound question is, "how do people know God's will without being taught or without listening so closely that we hear it?" So, Jesus teaches them that folks only hear what they want to hear. That some with ears don't even listen, so how can they hear and respond to God's word, let alone become Jesus' family?

I've always loved the parable of the sower so much because I think it tells us not to worry too much about where you cast the seed. Some seeds will fall on good soil and grow up to be healthy plants that produce good fruit. This plant grown on good ground will also increase the yield and help others grow good fruit. While the cultivation of good soil is essential in agriculture, that's not the point. Jesus shares this teaching to show us our responsibility is to cast the seed! Share the message! Nurture the relationship and become the family!

The gap between Jesus explaining who has been grafted into his family is not far-fetched from those who scatter and grow seed. If we listen to God, we are then supposed to go out and propagate God's message. The message of forgiveness and reconciliation. The message of becoming family and among those who do the will of God. 

It's not an easy task. In fact, it takes us being indiscriminate about who we invite (where we scatter our seed). It's about us not getting a say in who is in and who is out of God's family, just because we don't think their soil is good enough. So, what are the implications for us this Lenten season? One of the questions we could use for self-examination is, "do we feel like we are a connected part of God's family in Jesus?" If we don't, then "how might we listen a little more closely and scatter seed a little more recklessly?" If we do, then "what might we do to grow closer to Jesus to carry out his mission of reconciliation?" 

Remember that we are children of God, and our purpose is to live the message of love and reconciliation of in Jesus... and we listen closely so that we can live as part of his family that follows God's will with our message and our actions.

First Saturday in Lent

John 4:1-26 (NRSV)

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee.

But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

"Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep." The Samaritan woman and Jesus have a conversation at Jacob's well. Jesus is obviously out of his territory, in Sychar, a city in Samaria. Even though Jesus is not a Samaritan and the woman is not a Jew, Jesus crosses many social barriers to speak to the woman at the well. 

One social barrier is that there is such a difference between the Samaritans and Jews that they didn't even talk to one another, let alone share anything in common. Jews (inhabitants of Judah, which is the southern kingdom) thought Samaritans (part of the northern kingdom) were dogs, and the same thought was reciprocated by the Samaritans. Arguing over the proper place to worship was just the tip of the iceberg. Samaritans worshipped and made sacrifices on the mountain, and Jews worshipped and made sacrifices in the temple. The evangelist, John, saying that "Jews do not share things in common with the Samaritans" is an understatement. The Samaritans were half Jew and half gentile and came about after the northern kingdom was in captivity in 721 BCE. 

Another social barrier that Jesus crosses is sexual. Jesus is a man and is openly speaking to an unaccompanied woman in public. This is a little beyond a simple faux pa but goes directly in the face of cultural practice. By Jesus doing this, he puts himself in grave danger if anyone wanted to go after him for violating a social norm. I am struck by her curtness of "sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep!" reply to his request for water. But, understanding the dichotomy between them, her response makes sense.

Jesus did not commit a sin by crossing the social barriers. Jesus decides not to follow the prejudiced attitudes of his day regarding gender and ethnicity. And by doing so, the Samaritan woman and Jesus have an in-depth theological exchange. She learned the good news, and through her, the entire village came to believe. More on that part of the story Monday (John 4:27-42).

This is the most extensive conversation of this type in the Gospel, according to John. It is an important story that tells how Jesus is reaching others to reconcile them to God. It is essential to point out that he and the woman didn't quibble over the right way or wrong way to worship (something Christian brothers and sisters could learn), but he says that true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth.

In reflecting through this passage, what might be some questions we could use for this season of Lent? One that comes to mind is; "do we let the social norms keep us from engaging those who need a drink of water (or anything else for that matter)?" Another might be; "what are the barriers that exist in our lives that prevent us from having meaningful relationships and discussions with those that differ from us? In the recent political and racial turmoil, these might be good self-reflections this lent.

First Friday in Lent

 John 3:22-36 (NRSV)

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized— John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’ John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.” He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.’

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

"He must increase, but I must decrease." To me, this is the most significant phrase in this pericope. I've written about John before and his efforts to point to Jesus with everything that he does. This is another prime example of John playing a good second chair. John must decrease so that Jesus can increase.

Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and were across from where John was baptizing. The scripture says that Jesus and his disciples were baptizing. John's disciples were obviously thinking that Jesus was trying to take John's followers. So, they rushed to John and told him that Jesus is baptizing and "all are going to him."

John is quick to remind them that Jesus was first and will always be first. He reminds them that he was sent ahead so that he might prepare the way. John compares what he is doing to "the friend of the bridegroom," (John) who rejoices at the bridegroom's (Jesus) arrival. And now that the time has come, John tells them that Jesus must increase, but he must decrease. John must do his part, and in all things John does, get out of the way of the mission that Jesus has.

Today's scene is mesmerizing to the point of watching John, who is highly regarded by his followers, give up his power and position to Jesus. John knows that this is his purpose, and it doesn't worry him that people are going out to be baptized by Jesus. He knows that Jesus offers them life beyond life, in the presence and in connection with the creator. 

John is a model for us today of what it means to give glory to God. In his case, his followers seem to see Jesus as a threat, but not John. John sees it as an opportunity to point others toward God's grace and glory. Today, my lenten questions are: how often do we give up our glory for the glory of God? Do we see ourselves as loved by God so much that we want to share that love with others? Do we think we will lose something if we point others in a direction away from ourselves and toward God? How do we decrease so that Jesus can increase?