Category Archives: Biblical Reflection

Leading the Blind

2 Replies

Readings: Psalm 80:1-7, Isaiah 42: 10-18, Hebrews 10: 32-39

I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These things I will do, and I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16

There’s a difference between being lost and exploring a new place without a clear idea of my current position. I’ve been both in Boston. If I stray off the ever popular Freedom Trail, with its line of bricks to guide me, I end up who knows where. With a bit of faith and luck, I’ve ended up eating a delicious meal in the North End, finding the Museum of Fine Arts by way of the Fens, and standing in Cambridge and Boston at the same time in the Museum of Science. I’ve also ended up on dead end streets lined with dumpsters, the Charles River Esplanade in plain sight and no way to get to it. Lost or exploring new territory? For me, the difference is mainly emotional. Lost feels anxious and not quite safe; exploring feels exciting and confident.

But what if I walk in blindness? How would I know where I stood? How could I tell someone else how to find me? If my eyes cannot see, an unknown pathway means I am lost. Would I have the courage to walk such a path in the dark? Staying put or walking, I am afraid if I am alone.

The same could be said for this journey that is my life. In times of blindness, I am afraid to walk and afraid to say put if I am alone. But I am not alone. I have a guide who loves me and brings me home. Not only that, this guide turns my blindness into light. No longer blind, held fast, brought home.

Guide me, Lord, in life and in life beyond death. Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Rules and Hearts

2 Replies

Readings: Psalm 80:1-7; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 10:10-18

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34

The temptation is to think that Christians have it made on this one. That somehow we’ve moved beyond the law to a relational faith based in Jesus. Because it is relational, we reason, it’s not about rules and regulations, but truly is a covenant written in our hearts.

Not so fast!

People are by their very nature, it seems, rule makers. So we good Christians who have been offered the gift of relationship with Jesus Christ have just as many rules, regulations and laws about faith as anyone else. Depending upon your theological orientation these “laws” are about prayers that need to be said, practices that need to be engaged, good deeds that need to be done, or beliefs that need to be held. These are what provide entre into the relationship or prove that the relationship is genuine. It’s all rational, cerebral and in almost all cases can be quantified. Even churches do it, keeping detailed accounts of the number of programs offered, pastoral visits made, baptisms perform, attendees in worship, and the size and growth of the budget. This, we assume, is a sign of faithfulness and provides assurance of God’s blessing. But it’s not about the heart.

Faith based in the heart is relational in the truest sense. It is fostered in love and shows itself in love. It dismisses rules and quantifiable criteria and lets go of the need to prove anything to anyone. This is the relational love we celebrate in the Incarnation. And the truth is it is so foreign to the way the world operates, we need to take significant time to prepare ourselves to receive it. That’s what Advent is about. It is a time to let go of the law that governs our existing and embrace the love that give full, abundant and eternal living possible. This is the covenant that is within, the gift that is offered to us at Christmas.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered by Jeff Jones, writer, teacher, pastor, child of God.

The Stump

2 Replies

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-9, Micah 4:8-13, Luke 7:31-35

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. Isaiah 11:1

IMG_1616

This image uses twigs from the artist’s family home; she is living in Virginia, attending college.

Offered by Riley Anderson, artist, seeker of wisdom, child of God.

Seeing Jesus and John

Leave a reply

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-9, Micah 4:8-13, Luke 7:31-35

“To what will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

Do I see only what I want to see? Without wisdom, certainly.

When I seek the face of God, there’s nothing that can’t reveal it.

When I seek my own reflection and call it God, everything and everyone disappoint.

If I try hard enough to avoid the holiness around me, I’ll turn even John and Jesus into a hippie and a low life.

Gracious God, Open my eyes.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Advent Hope

2 Replies

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-9, Numbers 16:20-35, Acts 28:23-31

The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said
through Isaiah the prophet:

“’Go to this people and say,
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.”
Acts 28:25-27

As I read these passages, I cannot help but think of the state of our world today. It is easy to lose faith, let fear take over and give up hope. It is easy to close our eyes and our hearts. Yet Advent asks us to remain full of hope, and hope is what these passages are all about to me.

As Isaiah tells of the glory of the future of Christ’s kingdom on earth, where peace shall cover the earth and where the wolf will live with the lamb, Paul works to break down the barriers between Jew and Gentile, between slave and free. He speaks to everyone. Some do not listen. Some do not understand. But he continues as an apostle for Jesus completely trusting in God regardless of his circumstances.

We are the ordinary people filled with the Holy Spirit that Paul called upon to spread the Word. Over the past three years I have traveled to Africa, Honduras and New Orleans to use my hands and my feet, my eyes and my ears to serve. I have spent time at schools, churches, villages and homes. I have sat with both young and old, and have worked alongside strangers. And even though I do not speak Swahili or Spanish (nor did many speak English!) I have felt what it is like to understand with my heart.

May the words of Isaiah and the actions of Paul give us hope this advent. May we see each day with new eyes, hear each word with new ears and open our hearts to God and one another.

Offered by Heidi Marcotte, living in hope, working in this world.

Let There Be Peace On Earth

1 Reply

Readings: Isaiah 11:1-9; Numbers 16:1-19; Hebrews 13:7-17
“They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9

The time is 740 to 689 BCE and the Middle East is in turmoil. At various times there are wars between Assyria, Babylon, Syria, Israel, Southern Mesopotamia and so on. Sound familiar? The situation is so dire that the prophet Isaiah is called by God in words so intense that he is compelled to speak God’s words to the people.
The prophecy begins with the promise of a messiah to bring back the “good times” of the Davidic dynasty. The ruler to come will be full of wisdom and understanding and of “the fear of the Lord.” But the leaders of Isaiah’s time are not following God’s plan for His people. They ignore the poor and needy and have forgotten justice and righteousness.
As we watch the terrible news and events that encompass our world today, we long for the same kingdom that God revealed to Isaiah so many centuries ago. We see the terrible pain and suffering of the innocent as leaders seek power and drive people from their homes. We watch children and their parents dying of starvation and disease and others with no hope for a future. We want to help. We want to live in a world where there is no more hatred or poverty and where we live in harmony with each other and all God’s creation: where “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the calf and the lion and the youngling together, and a little child will lead them.”
How are we to bring about the promise of the Kingdom that was part of Isaiah’s prophecy? Edward Hicks, an eighteenth century American artist, painted a much loved picture, “The Peaceable Kingdom.” And in that picture is the answer:

Edward_Hicks_-_Peaceable_Kingdom

Let There Be Peace On Earth

Offered by Marge O’Brien, worker and pray-er for peace, child of God.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Home

Leave a reply

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

I will save the lame and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.
At that time, I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you. Zephaniah 4:19

Shame is that awful experience of not being enough. It’s the heart’s acceptance of cruel rejection. When someone we love shames us, we break. Delight is that wonderful experience of being more than enough. It’s the heart’s acceptance of being worthy in the eyes of someone we love.

Shame and delight are often inherited, passing from fathers and mothers to sons and daughters. Shame makes us lame in spirit, outcast and homeless at heart. Delight makes us flexible and lithe in spirit, with hearts feeling welcome and at home in this world.

It is a great gift to walk into our homes, knowing that we are liked, loved, and welcome. It’s a tragedy to live in a house where we aren’t liked, loved, or welcome. Such a place isn’t really our home, and it isn’t our final residence.

Advent is walking to a stable in Bethlehem, welcoming God into our world. But it’s about something else, too. It’s walking through this life knowing that the path we are on leads us to God, our true home.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

The Coming(s)

1 Reply

Readings: Isaiah 12: 2-6, Amos 9:8-15, Luke 1:57-66

Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 12:6)

We are well into our Advent journey by now and perhaps getting a little tired of the darkness that surrounds this season. Not only are the days getting progressively shorter, at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, but the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is all too often fraught with sadness and loss. Clergy know to prepare themselves for the onslaught of funerals that often accompany this time of year.

Every one of us knows someone who is struggling to find joy and peace at this time of the year, someone who is trapped in the darkness of the Advent season figuratively looking east with great anticipation for the dawning of the light. Perhaps this is why so many of us can’t wait to put the Christmas lights up and decorate our Christmas trees the weekend following Thanksgiving, so we can be captivated by the festive lights and perhaps even skip through Advent altogether.

I for one am grateful for the reading from Isaiah today that finishes so powerfully. “Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” This scripture text can be understood in so many different ways, but to me it is best captured in a sermon written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). In his sermon Bernard wrote, “We know that there are three comings of the Lord…. In the first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in Spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty…. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in the middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.” (The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 1, Advent and Christmas, Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York, NY: 1975, pp. 169)

I find this to be a life-giving revelation that is often overlooked or misunderstood. The truth is, Christ does come to each one of us not just in the incarnation (Christmas) or the parousia (the end of time), but in every moment of our lives. You and I live in the midst of this sacred truth with every breath that we take. The present moment is infused with hope and meaning, with light in which no darkness can stand, but we need to seek it, even when the darkness seems impenetrable to us. In our midst is the Holy One of Israel and the truth is, there isn’t a thing that we can say, do, or even experience that can change this.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are in our midst, right now, as light banishing the darkness. Help us to first seek and recognize you and then help us to welcome you into every moment. Amen. 

Offered by Dave Fredrickson, spiritual director, priest, seeker of the face of God, child of God.

 

How Would You Like It?

2 Replies

Readings: Isaiah 12: 2-6, Amos 8: 4-12, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
They shall wander from sea to sea, from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it. Amos 8:4-6, 11-12

When I was acting less than neighborly to my siblings, friends, or schoolmates, my parents would turn the Golden Rule into a question: how would you like it? These five words were often followed by if he/she/they did that to you? I didn’t like that question because it showed me how my behavior hurt someone else. It also taught me a basic truth: I am connected to those around me.

Our sacred writings move the Golden Rule beyond behavior: Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Neighbor and God cannot be separated because the word of God to me is also and always the word of God to my neighbor. We are both children of God.

When all my thoughts are on making an extra buck by any means available, I become spiritually anorexic. If my greed forces my neighbor to go hungry, I become blind to the word of God only my neighbor can reveal to me. Who I am, who God is, and who my neighbor is are all related. If I pretend I can’t see the hunger and thirst of my neighbor, especially if I am part of its cause, I suffer a famine of the soul. No self help manual or mindfulness exercises will cure such a willful blindness. Either I see both God and neighbor, or I see neither.

I suspect the same is true for my neighbor.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Song of Isaiah

3 Replies

Readings: Isaiah 12:2-6 Amos 6:1-8 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Isaiah

Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.

In that day you will say:

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
This advent, let us use our voice to sing of His glory as we await the day of God’s peace on earth.

The Song of Isaiah, artist unknown

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

Offered by Heidi Marcotte, congregational leader, listener, child of God.