please take away the pain

As Brené Brown puts it in her video "Jesus Wept"

“I went to church thinking it would be like an epidural, that it would take the pain away . . . But church isn’t like an epidural; it’s like a midwife . . . I thought faith would say, ‘I’ll take away the pain and discomfort, but what it ended up saying was, ‘I’ll sit with you in it.’ ”*

Everyone has suffering in their life.  If you haven't by now, just wait because someone you love will die, someone you know will be caught by a deadly disease, someone you know will have their job disappear or their marriage dissolve.  To be human is to suffer because our bodies are time stamped and our psyches are fragile and our will power is often used to consolidate our advantages rather than choose for the greater good.

So I believe that the question of higher powers and divine intent and human culpability and just plain luck are always lurking on the corners of our attention.  Is someone to blame?  Could it have been avoided?  Could someone have stopped it?  We relentlessly ask the question, "Why?" which will often turn us to the question of "Who?"  For people of faith, the answer is God (whom we call by different names).

In the 11th chapter of the gospel of John, a friend of Jesus' named Lazarus dies.  He was 'sick unto death' and Jesus tarried a bit too long on the road and in the end, Lazarus was dead.  Wrapped in a shroud dead.  Four days dead.  Dead.

And his sisters, also good friends of Jesus, each in turn cried out, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."  It is the cry of the recently bereaved.  Then Jesus asks to be taken to the cave like tomb where Lazarus had been laid to rest.

And at the tomb he wept.  He wept even though he had known Lazarus was already dead.  He wept knowing that he would call Lazarus back into life in just a few moments.  He wept knowing that the Divine Father offered Lazarus a place at an eternal table that exceeded all expectations.   Even though he knew the end of the story, he wept. He wept because he loved and he could not ignore the pain that surrounded him.

There are many powerful stories told in the scriptures, and they speak to me at different times in my life.  But for me, there is no more stark image of incarnation than Jesus standing before a tomb that he would soon empty, weeping.  From this I know that Jesus weeps with me, and my friends whose lovely daughter took away her own life, and the anonymous mothers whose children were caught in a war zone, and the myriad of others who this day will confront a tomb and weep.

It is the sound of love.  God for us in Jesus.  Us for our beloved.  It is the sound of all humanity.

*“Brene Brown: Jesus Wept,” video, 6:00, The Work of the People, www.theworkofthepeople.com/jesus-wept (accessed 13 October 2014). as quoted in Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday (p. 209). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

The hard work of compassion

"As Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd" Mark 6.34


No matter where Jesus went, there they were.  People flocked to him, pressing upon him and trying to get just a touch, just a word, maybe a crust of bread, maybe a miracle.  It was enough to wear a person out.

Yet, Jesus saw the great crowd and had compassion for them, and in spite of his hunger and fatigue, he began to teach, to touch, to heal.  You can picture Jesus walking among the demanding crowds, like a shepherd walking in the midst of his milling flock of sheep: the sheep crying out in their confusion turning this way and that, packed together for a sense of security.  There is Jesus in the midst of them, within an arm's reach, working the crowd for the sake of the Divine Creator.

Compassion requires up close and personal commitment.  The word itself means 'to suffer with' and 'suffering with' cannot be done from afar.  Compassion doesn't ignore or circumvent or even turn a blind eye to the suffering before them.  Compassion walks into the crowd, staying within arms' length, hearing and smelling the needs of others.

God's great act of compassion was to be present among us in Jesus.  Thus is the power of the incarnation = God taking on human flesh.  In Jesus, God walked among us, within arms' reach, up close and personal.  This was no virtual reality; Jesus was no hologram.  As we suffered so suffered Jesus; as we die, so Jesus died.  Compassion - to suffer with another.

Mark records no special miracle performed that day, but of course, having the Savior of the Cosmos within arms' length comes amazingly close.

A Community of Faith

First, a community.  A gathering which experiences a connection amongst the members; a group of people who are intentionally gathered for a shared purpose.

Congregations can be corporate entities or they can be communities (who have corporate/legal structure).  When a congregation is a community, people know that they are a part of something bigger than themselves - which is capable of things beyond the individuals' capacity.  They know that they contribute to the bigger whole.

Here is the take of one 'de-churched' individual (once active, now not) speaking especially about church leaders:

“What I value now is proximity. The only leaders I care to hear are those willing to know me and be known. Not in some official capacity over Starbucks with their church credit card in hand. But with a friend, a person living honestly in their own right with no agenda or ‘line’ to keep--but possessing the strength of character to have their own voice, doubts and convictions.”

All of which leads to the second word, faith.  Faith is not a destination but a journey, and for us it is a journey empowered by the Holy Spirit in the discipleship of Jesus Christ.  We have folks all along the road: at different points, with different motivations and different understandings, but what we share is the trust that this God in Jesus Christ is the way.  So when we gather as a community, we share our stories of faith, we seek ways to incarnate our convictions and help others, we confess our shortcomings in the presence of others who believe.

We are a community of faith, by God's calling in Christ Jesus and powered by the Holy Spirit.
For this we continually give thanks.  

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

When Jesus approaches the city of Jerusalem in his last days (according to Matthew) he weeps, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"  Mt.23.37

As we approach the celebration of the Christ child's birth in Bethlehem, we must also keep a picture of Jerusalem in the background, for the import of one is dependent on the events in the other.
In 2012, we are challenged to keep a realistic picture of Jerusalem (in all its political, historic and religious depth) on our mind as well lest we make the incarnation of God in Jesus as sentimental picture of familial warmth. 

That is, if Jesus is in fact at the center of God's plan for all creation, then that ancient city of Jerusalem, still wracked by political agendas and religious extremists, continues to be a part of God's plan for the world.

A good friend has been traveling with an official Lutheran delegation and has had as conversation partners speakers from Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, from the far right to the far left on both sides.  His trip has drawn to a close and here is his final post, a quote fromYossi Klein Halevi, a  journalist in Israel

              "When I become too immersed in the political work of a journalist, I sometimes hear
              the words of Sheykh Ibrahim: 'There are enough politicians in the land of the prophets.
              But where are the prophets in the land of the prophets?' I tell myself that it is precisely
              in times like these that the beautiful teachings of faith become either real or mere
                    sentiment. More than ever, the goal of a spiritual life in the Holy Land is to live with  an open heart at the center of unbearable tension."

We are called to just such a life, lived on the razor's edge of reason and trust, clarity and mystery, and a hope that passes all understanding.  Shalom

Let's talk about God....

The true God, the God who creates and gives life.  The God who loves first, unconditionally, always.  The God who is active in this world, today.

Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem.  In his crucifixion he will be revealing a dimension of God's interaction with this world that is mind boggling even today.  At the cross, we will encounter God.  Not an academic God.  Not a God who is far off.  But God who is one with the suffering of human life, in God's own body......and for the sake of the world.

The time is running out.  The cross is ahead and Jesus knows this.

So it is crucial to Jesus that our conversation shift from what we are doing, what we need to do, what we want to obtain......to what God is doing for us, how God is at work in this world, and the grand invitation God extends through Jesus for us to be a part of this adventure.

This is the focus of the text on divorce (Mark 10.1-15) and the story of the rich man (Mark 10.17-31) and now this request of James and John to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus in his glory (Mark 10.35-45).  Jesus pushes us to engage in a new conversation, a new possibility of who God is and how God is at work in the world. 

It's all about God; once you grasp this you are set free to live generously, graciously, with forgiveness, and joy.  This is the challenge we face these next several weeks: to make it about God and not us.  We are along for the ride and thank God that God has invited us in Jesus.