Category Archives: Biblical Reflection

Same Old, Same Old

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Readings: Luke 1:68-79; Malachi 3:5-12; Philippians 1:12-18a

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterer, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O Children of Jacob, have not perished.

Malachi 3:5-6 NRSV

The message of the prophets doesn’t vary: stop mistreating my neighbors, especially those in need. Honor the God who created the whole universe (including you and me). Do these, and I will live a holy, blessed life – not necessarily an easy life, but a blessed and holy one.

To do more than half-listen to such words, I’ll have to start with God (that’s what fear the Lord means). When I recognize that God holds me fast, that I can’t possibly be lost to God even when I’ve managed to lose myself, I just might be able to see through illusion, be a steadfast friend, speak the truth, pay my fair share to those who earned it, help those in dire straits, and welcome strangers into the community. I might just have enough about me to see in others the holy face of Jesus.

God will always be God, no matter what mess I make of my life and the world. I will always have a home with God. And so will everyone else – the holy truth that can turn us and this whole world around. As it was, it shall ever be.

Same old, same old. Thank God!

May my life be yours, O God, and a blessing to everyone I meet. Amen.

Along came Jonah

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Readings: Psalm 90; Isaiah 1:24-31; Luke 11:29-32

[One of the reasons we read the same Advent passages every three years is to give us a chance to give them more than a cursory glance – and to remember that what was true of human nature two thousand years ago is still true today. Jesus isn’t speaking only to his contemporaries; he is speaking to us, to our generation. So it is to us that the sign of Jonah is given.]

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.” Luke 11:29-30 NRSV

Nineveh was a whole city of the bad part of town: dodgy, dangerous, difficult to navigate for strangers and natives alike. Swindlers, crooks, and con artists were on every street corner, taking advantage of anyone who came their way. It was to this city that God sent Jonah, a prophet who wanted to be sent anywhere else. He preached “repent or die!” with a vengeance. To everyone’s surprise, repent they did. They turned away from the life that brought them only death and began a new life that honored God. If that wasn’t a miracle, what else could be?

Every city has its dark corners, as does every human heart. Flashy special effects that claim to be miracles but are really just entertainment can’t make much of an impression in these dark places. A true miracle is required: someone who loves this world so much that a prophet arrives, the living sign of God’s love and concern.

Just such a person came into the world, and is present in ours even today. Miraculous.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Who Am I, O Lord God?

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Readings: Psalm 90; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Revelation 22:12-16

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come.”

2 Samuel, 7:18-19a NRSV

David wasn’t raised to be king of anything. For reasons beyond his ken, he was chosen by God to rule – and he was honest and humble enough to know it wasn’t out of his own strength. Well on his way to being the greatest king of Israel, he sits himself down before God and asks the question that reveals his true nature: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

Without God, David can do nothing. His house isn’t great because he is great: his house is great because God holds him and his family. David knows he lives before the Lord and because of the Lord. Who David is, his life and his being, cannot be understood in isolation; he is God created and God related, and he is wise enough to know it.

The same is true of you and of me. We cannot answer the “who am I” apart from God because we are just as God created and God related as David. For reasons beyond our ken, we are chosen by God to live our particular lives. And who knows what those lives may offer to this world? If shepherds and carpenters end up as God’s royal messengers and children, who’s to say we won’t end up being the same?

Time is Relative

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Readings: Psalm 90; Numbers 17:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-8

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

From everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”

For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past,

Or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; they are like a dream,

Like grass that is renewed in the morning;

In the morning, it flourishes and is renewed;

In the evening it fades and withers.

Psalm 90:1-6, NRSV

Young children don’t have much use for clocks or calendars. For them, time is how long it takes to get from breakfast to play time, or to walk from the front door to the playground. Time is how it is experienced.

From elementary school on, we are very aware of clocks. Time becomes the distance between the 12 and the 12. Seasons aren’t measured by the activities that we do in them as much as they are noted by where they fall on the calendar. But there’s something unreal about the clock-and-calendar concept of time that gets us to appointments on time: it’s not how time works in the largest sense. Post-Einstein, time is relative to the physical universe – much closer in reality to how children experience it. Perspective matters; where you are in the universe (or how fast you might be traveling) affects time. That simplistic version of time we left behind with diapers and naps turns out to be the simple truth of reality at its most profound.

Psalm time is God’s time: Real, related to how, where, and when we experience it. The decade that seems endless for a twenty-something and a passing fancy for a ninety-something, is just a blink of an eye for God.

I think this psalm is meant to remind us that our time is limited. There are a few precious days in even the longest life, and none of them are repeatable. This would be a bleak reality if it weren’t for the first line: God is our home, our dwelling place. We only last for a short period of time, but we return to the love that created us. We go home. And if we are wise, we realize we never really left in the first place…

Gracious God, grant us the wisdom to fill our days with love and our lives with your holy presence. Amen.

On Our Knees

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Readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all… I Thessalonians 3:12

As we begin our new Advent adventure,  there is much strife in the land just as there was amongst the young church in Thessalonika, the capital city of Macedonia (today’s Salonica). In this letter, the earliest extant Christian literature, Paul responds to a crisis in the local church concerning behavior in response to the expectation of the return of Jesus-an eschatological crisis.

Today we struggle with the expectations we have for our governance. The political scene is awash in strife with warring factions, 24/7 news cablecasts, name-calling—not much love showing through. Max Lucado writes in The Applause of Heaven:
“A small cathedral outside Bethlehem marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus.  Behind a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You can enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave…there is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop.
The door is so low you can’t go in standing up.
The same is true of the Christ. You can see the world standing tall, but to witness the Savior, you have to get on your knees.
So at the birth of Jesus…
while the theologians were sleeping
and the elite were dreaming
and the successful were snoring,
the meek were kneeling.
They were kneeling before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.”
May this first day of the new Church year find us on our knees in expectation of the coming of Messiah, and may the above blessing from the apostle Paul be ours as well.
Offered by Bill Albritton, writer, teacher, seeker of the Christ Child. 
[Lucado, Max; The Applause of Heaven (Thomas Nelson, publisher,1990) ISBN#0849937523]

Help Yourself

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Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies;

for like a hair in the throat, so are they.

“Eat and drink!” they say to you; but they do not mean it.

Proverbs 23:6-7 NRSV

Hot coffee fills the urns. Pitchers of juice and water are surrounded by paper cups. The table holds cookies, crackers, cheese, and veggies with dip. There are pretty plates and napkins on either end. Sometimes there’s a centerpiece. Someone went to a lot of trouble and no little expense to provide the refreshments. It could be the reception at a PTA meeting, snacks for the school concert’s intermission, coffee hour after worship, or a neighborhood open house. Everything is lovely, until someone violates an unspoken rule. It might be kids must wait for adults to take food, or two items only until everyone has gone through the line, or you must eat everything on your plate before taking anything else. The rule breaker is served a pointed look, a roll of the eyes, or a cutting comment about the lack of manners to go with that extra cookie. If the rule breaker is a child, it might be a harsh word and a plate taken away. Whatever the consequence, the stinginess of the host is a far greater problem than the ill manners or ignorance of the guest.

I believe in teaching good table manners; I believe rules of etiquette evolved because they make communal life easier and more fair. Eating what’s on my plate rather than wasting food makes a lot of sense – it honors the bounty of the earth and the work it took to create the food on the table. But begrudging an extra cookie or an uneaten apple slice? If my generosity as a host is tied to a specific set of rules, I’m not really giving the food freely – I’m trading it for orderly behavior and obligatory thanks.

I don’t want to be an ill mannered or inconsiderate guest. Even more, I don’t what to be a stingy host. Whether host or guest, I want to be grateful for the food on the table, the hands that prepared it, the mouths that enjoy it, and the God who delights in true hospitality given and received.

God, grant me a grateful heart and the ability to be generous to everyone who finds himself or herself at my table. Amen.

Like it or not…

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Twenty-six days ago, a stranger in a truck turned left across two lanes of Route 6 to pick up his dinner at Kool Kone. He didn’t see the white corolla coming the other way – the one my son and husband were in. In a flash of air bags and squeal of brakes, the truck gained a huge dent and the corolla became a total loss. Everyone walked away – just some stitches between fingers that might or might not leave a light scar. But the story didn’t end there. Insurance claims, paperwork, removing plates at the tow yard, and getting a rental car came in the accident’s wake. Once the settlement check arrived a few days ago, car shopping online turned into test drives and signing papers on a black 2016 Mazda. There will be a few inconvenient days until we can pick it up, but then life should return to its usual routine. But it won’t ever be the same.

The insurance check will pay about two years of car payments, and the Mazda’s slightly better gas mileage and lower odometer reading will save us some money at the gas station and garage. But we will spend thousands more than we would have done if the accident had never happened – if the truck driver had taken an extra few seconds to make sure there was no oncoming traffic or if my son and husband had driven past Kool Kone ten seconds earlier or later. One person’s error in judgement affects others; fortunately for everyone, the cost is only in dollars and inconvenience rather than debilitating injury or loss of life.

I think about it when I get behind the wheel. What I do as a driver connects me to the other people behind the wheels of every car I see and the one in the blind spot that I can’t. They are my road neighbors, God’s beloved in the traffic. I may not be responsible for their lives, but I am responsible to order my driving life in a way that doesn’t put them at risk unnecessarily.

Am I my brother’s keeper? Like it or not, every time I drive down the road I am.

Harsh Startup

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A harsh startup occurs when a discussion starts with a critical, sarcastic, or contemptuous tone.

William Smith wrote these words in How the Other Half Lives [Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2010 p. 107], referring to John Gottman’s research into what strengthens and what weakens marriage relationships.  The gist of it: a negative beginning leads to a negative outcome. Resolving conflicts and keeping a positive relationship rely on partners approaching differences of opinion with affection and respect. It makes sense that this applies to all kinds of situations and relationships – positive regard for others, even when there is disagreement and conflict, fosters progress and preserves the dignity of everyone involved.

Why is it so hard to approach disagreement with respect for the person on the other side of the issue? Why is it so easy to move from disagreement to personal attack, especially since it doesn’t end well for anyone involved? Avoiding the harsh startup makes so much sense, but it can be difficult to do when discussing important points of disagreement and conflict.

I’d like to say that I never begin discussions with my husband, family, friends, and acquaintances with a harsh startup, but I can’t. Just a few days back, I opened with harsh words  in a discussion about what kind of car to buy and where to buy it. This wasn’t exactly a life-or-death issue, just a question about a possible auto purchase. Fortunately, neither of us chose to continue down a dark verbal path because of my thoughtless words.

Gottman wasn’t the first person to realize that cutting remarks lead nowhere good for anyone. Sarcasm didn’t start with my generation and contempt has been around for thousands of years. But so has the solution, and it was vital enough to be included in our sacred writings:

 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1, NRSV

[For more on Gottman’s research in marriage studies, see Gottman, J. and Silver, N.; The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004). For more on this subject by William Smith, see Fredrickson, J and Smith, W; How the Other Half Lives: the challenges facing clergy spouses & partners (Cleveland: The Pilbrim Press, 2010), chapter six]

What you can fix…

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Today has been a day of getting things done. I spent time in my library’s learning garden, dividing perennials for families attending story time. After that, I was on to prepping and painting the bathroom ceiling and closet. Both of these activities have been a lot of work, and will require many additional hours of work to complete. But there’s something immensely satisfying about seeing the changes that my work brings – changes that will last well beyond this season. The garden is much improved for the weeding, pruning, and dividing; the new paint on the walls and ceiling refresh the whole room. Such tangible results for a day’s work!

But there are changes that will come from today’s efforts that are well beyond what I will see. The perennials I dug up today will grace many yards in this town and beyond – who knows how many times they will be divided in the coming years, growing out of a few plants hundreds more. The new bathroom paint is likely to last for years, providing a clean and bright space for family and guests.

Perhaps that’s why Proverbs was included in our holy scripture: to remind us that our daily actions and choices affect the world around us in ways that just may go beyond our own little communities and life spans. It’s not the only message that helps me honor God, self,and neighbor, but it certainly reminds me to do improve what I can through work and action as well as through thought and contemplation…

None taken…

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Fools show their anger at once, but the prudent ignore an insult. Proverbs 12:16, NRSV

 

I’ve known a few people over the years who would say nasty things just to get a rise out of someone. For whatever reason, they enjoyed upsetting their friends, relatives, coworkers, and the occasional stranger. The person on the wrong side of their remarks usually responded in one of two ways: strike back with angry words or keep a hurtful silence. Either way, they gave the instigator the satisfaction of a response, a reward for his or her bad behavior.

Ignoring an insult isn’t the same as taking it in hurtful silence; ignoring is acting outside of direct engagement, leaving the insult with its speaker. This isn’t an easy thing to do, but there are two very good reasons to give it a try. 1) If insulting behavior isn’t rewarded, it will cease (this may take some time, but it will work). 2) Once the bad behavior stops, a positive relationship becomes possible. To do this takes strength and patience – in other words, prudence.

It’s something I’m hoping to grow into…