"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."

I am in the midst of preparing for a funeral for one of our oldest members.  We will be listening to this passage from Paul's second letter to his disciple Timothy who was a pastor to community of faith.  Paul was in prison and the only way he was leaving was to travel to the executioner.  Thus he writes.....

"I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day....."  2 Timothy 4.6-8

I often recommend this passage. It reflects the truth for many: those who have battled long and hard against an unseen enemy and those who have lived very long lives. "I have founght the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith...."

When folks have faced the pain and loss and exhaustion of fighting against forces which are robbing one of health or happiness this passage can be a moment of release - a blessing on the deep truth that it is a gift that the end has come.  Loved ones have been 'poured out' as a libation (which is an offering to God), drained of strength and often they have lost their very sense of self.

For those who have lived a long life, it speaks to the endurance needed to cling to God over long distances and through multiple obstacles.  They are ready to rest in the arms of their Savior, to be received into the heavenly places in ways only God can know.

"I have kept the faith......"  These are the words that capture my attention.  I'm in the faith business and sometimes it is a challenge for me to keep the faith.  The ethereal business of faith is practiced in the rough and tumble world of sin; the demands of discipleship are layered over the demands of making a living and keeping afloat.  When one recognizes that being a person of faith means bringing the teaching of Jesus out of the clouds and into the present, the work gets harder.  Sin is not an abstract concept; we run into it everyday and it often makes our days more than difficult.

Faith in Jesus is a relationship, and a relationship with Jesus will transform.  With each authentic encounter with the truth of God's love for the world in Jesus, we are opened to newer vistas: new ways of thinking, new ways of being, and new content for our confessional conversations with God.  Authentic relationship with Jesus brings peace, while at the same time, it brings every part of our lives into a bright light/

Trusting that God is in charge, that Jesus reigns, that tomorrow can and will be different than today because it is all in God's hands - the God who through the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead - to trust that promise is no small feat.  To trust in that God while experiencing chemo or watching a loved one disappear to dementia, or commending our 21 year old grandson into God's hands.....that is hard work.  Allowing God to push and pull us into a deeper faith life, allowing ourselves to be open to the Spirit's call to both action and repentance, listening for God today when you are in your 90th year of todays is also hard work.

What can we do?  How can we be strengthened for this difficult journey?  We can come to the table to encounter the risen Jesus.  We can study and listen to God's Word in the old stories of faith in the modern examples of it.  We can travel among the lost and lonely so to be God's hands at work in this world.

I need to do this again and again and again.  Otherwise I will lose sight of the Jesus who has claimed me for life.  Otherwise, I would become one of the lost ones.

What about you?

Where is God? Part 2

Lots of folk ask this question.  There are a good number who believe God is no where - just doesn't exist.  If they ever feel anything like a connection with the divine they call it something else.  Although I have a very limited experience of atheists, I'd expect they do not conceive of a life force larger than the individual.

So, I'm not talking about those folks...the ones with a consistent, thought out approach to the truth of God.  They do not change their tune when they get cancer, or their child crashes the car in the early hours of the morning or when they are mugged at gunpoint.  None of this has anything to do with God and they would not take their complaints to any God nor expect some kind of explanation.  This is not to say that these folks have no interest in justice or mercy because that's just not true.

I'm talking about the folks who are closet 'experts' on God.  They are in the closet because you'd never guess they had any serious thoughts about God until one of the above disasters enters their life. They have pretended that your faith or faithfulness are better left undiscussed.  They have not sought enlightenment from any of the world's religious teachings about God.  They have not participated in a faith community who gains its identity from God.  They have no relationship with any God beyond the requisite "you are in my thoughts and prayers" (even when they don't pray) or the famous icey road prayer, "O God deliver me!"

Then comes disaster and they become experts.  God should have....where was God when.....what good is God if this happens....   On and on it goes, often concluding with "I can never believe in a God who allows ....to happen."

So, it's just at these moments, when 'the cross' is so unavoidable, when the darkness of this world threatens to overwhelm, that we who are children of this God are critical.  We are God's presence in the midst of their loss.  We carry the light of God's tomorrow into their prison cell of fear and sorrow.  What we say and do at these moments reflects powerfully on the God in whom we believe.

So, think twice, pray three times and most of the time say nothing.  Don't make promises you cannot fulfill.  Don't claim to know what God is thinking, or doing.  In word and deed, let them know that Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb and God weeps with them.  No self-righteousness allowed.  No trying to soften the sting of death.  Just the truth of God's deep love for them especially in this time of loss.

Because, you see, that is when your relationship with God began: when the darkness threatened to devour you and the love of God gave you something to which to cling.  Bring that God into their presence and then depend on the Holy Spirit to lead you and them into new life.  Be a little Christ to the other so that the other may seek Christ through you.

Learning to pray

"Lord, teach us to pray."

Jesus' answer to this request was The Lord's Prayer.  Memorizing its lines has been a rite of passage for Christians for a couple centuries at least.  Even though different denominations use slightly different wordings, it is one part of any service where you are able to participate.

But don't allow that to be the end of your prayer life.  God doesn't need such formal or stylized talk; God is ready to listen to those ill-formed mutterings and half uttered cries.  God watches as we struggle with our own covetousness or lust or greed, and would love to talk with you about it - to help you find a way past these temptations and to move to the light.

The apostle Paul writes in Romans that all creation cries out to God and the Holy Spirit prays for us with moanings too deep for words.  So when we are tongue tied, God's is at work, for our sake out of love.  Talk to God.  Talk about your day, it's highs and it's lows.  Talk about your dreams and disappointments.  Talk about your joy

belonging.....

It is what we want most, ahead of money or status.  Belonging.  Community.  Or to quote Cheers, 'a place where everybody knows your name.'

We want to experience being a part of it - and this includes our spiritual longings as well.  What a religious community says is secondary to how it 'is' with and for one another.  When I look at the group here gathered, do I want to be one of them?  Do I want to grow into one of them?  Do I want to live my life as they live theirs?  Do I experience good in this group so that I see it at work and trust what I see?  Is this where I could belong?

For those who gather around the Christian cross, the question then becomes, 'Who am I when I belong to Christ?'  This question marks the beginning of a rich and vibrant spiritual life - for the individual and for the community at large.  You can translate that into: How have I experienced Christ?  How has Christ changed my experience of the world, and the world's experience of me?  What might it look like if Christ was in, with and under each of my words, thoughts and deeds? We might ask as a community:  How do we reflect the life we have experienced in Jesus to the world?  How does it change how we act and what we decide to do as a community? 

In fact, our life of faith together should go beyond community (which could easily define Buffalo Bills fans) to communion - a set of relationships that both reflects our passions and shapes them at the same time.*  That is, we belong because of who they are.  We are who we are because of where we belong.

All too complicated for you? I get it.  It comes down to this: folks who are spiritually seeking are looking for a community where those who belong reflect the very values they espouse.  They have seen something they want to imitate. 

They aren't seeking answers to questions; they are seeking a place where they can belong.  They expect that the answers to complicated questions are to be discovered way down the road.  First they want to trust the folks with whom they are making the journey.

Be attentive to your own imitation of Christ.  Invite others to walk with you as you grow and learn.  Don't feel pressed to have the big answers.  Belong and invite others to belong as well.

That's what Jesus did. 

*Once again, I acknowledge the writing and wisdom of Diana Butler Bass in her book, Christianity after Religion, from which I took inspiration and a quote or two.  Do read it.

All or nothing at all

All of us want to be in relationship with the God of love and mercy: whose arms are always open, whose heart has room for us (we are ambivalent about some other people) and who, when we are lost will come to find us.

We are not so enamoured of the God who calls us to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus can have some drastic consequences.  Like death.  And a tomb.  And a resurrection.

All things considered, we'd just like to have the God of mercy and not the God who expects anything of us.

Yet, I think, it is 'all or nothing at all.'  One half of a god is no God at all.

You are my beloved.....

 

Where do you have to go to remember that you are someone's 'beloved'?   A parent's lap?  A spouse's embrace?  A cup of coffee with a friend?  In your grandmother's kitchen?

Jesus was down in the water of the Jordan River the first time he heard God's blessing, 'You are my beloved.'  The second time he was on the top of a mountain.  I suspect that when he was on the cross he strained to remember those moments when God's love and embrace held him close. 

No matter our age, each of us faces a moment when knowing that we are beloved of someone calms our soul.  Never forget: you are always God's beloved.  Listen for God's voice calling you home.

Obey = to hear deeply

Wonderful insight can be gained, I have found, when the origins of a word are researched.  Take the word 'obey' for example. 

Obey is a word that is much out of fashion these days.  We live in a world that foolishly (at least from my perspective) has attempted to erase the borders between those who hold positions of authority and power and those who are expected to respond - dare I say, obey - the directives of such persons.  Whether we are talking boss/employee or parent/child or teacher/student, somehow in the name of equality we as a society have pretended that true differences do not exist.  We pretend that all things are collaborative.  Have you ever tried to collaborate with a testy two year old or a cranky teen?

Which gets me back to 'obey' from the Latin obe dire or 'to listen deeply'.  As a person of faith, this insight points me to my relationship with God where if I 'listen deeply' I will obey.  But it also works with a parent and child.  When the child listens deeply to the parent, they obey - not just by definition, but as the response to the parent.  We 'obey' not because the other is bigger or more powerful, but because, at the heart of how this world works, we enter into a deep relationship based on listening and then allowing that listening to turn to action.  When leadership works at its best, this deep listening/relationship is fostered at every level and 'obeying' loses its negative spin.

Perhaps we have removed 'obey' from our lexicon because we are fairly poor at listening as well.

Too clever by half

This was one of my mother's favorite sayings.  I cannot be sure exactly how she meant it, but I always heard it with a bit of disdain - and my mother really wasn't one for disdain.

What it comes down to is this: it doesn't pay to be too clever - especially in the US where we insist we are egalitarian and no one is better than....well, me.    Somehow this has evolved into a lack of recognition of anyone's position of authority, whether earned or by title.  We don't like folks to appear to be too clever by half.

Apparently the folks in Nazareth didn't either.  Jesus taught and spoke with authority and that amazed them.  It was only when Jesus applied that authoritative teaching to them that their nose got a little bent.  Wasn't he just the carpenter's son?  Who does he think he is?

Well, the Son of God actually.  But they couldn't or didn't want to see it.  Perhaps their own cleverness got in their way.  I think recognizing that Jesus as Son of God speaks and teaches with authority - over our lives and for our benefit - is a good place to start in this relationship.