Scripture: Luke 13:31-35
So often times as we move through our bible reading plans we zoom through passages and forget to really take the time to think about what they are saying. We read the words but can often fail to let the words soak into our hearts. The form of prayerfully reading scripture and meditating on it, called Lectio Divina, is a practice that takes time to read. You pray, read, and sit with the words. The difference between the one-year bible reading plan and Lectio Divina is like the difference between snow and rain as forms of precipitation. Our environments, ecosystems, farms, and lawns need water. I grew up in an area where our lives depended on precipitation. We would pray for rain, but if you would as any farmer they would have a preference in the form of precipitation they would ask for. In the spring they would pray for slow gentle rains, but most of all in the winter they would pray for snow. This week as much trouble as it has been for many of us in the city, has been an answer to prayers for the farmers in our area.
Snow is an amazing form of precipitation; it actually protects and waters the crops from harsh weather. Snow reflects heat. When a layer of snow covers a field of wheat it will often protect the fragile plant from the subfreezing temperatures of the air. While the snow is protecting the plant it gently waters them as well as it melts, the water goes directly into the soil. Snow is actually the most efficient watering system of nature. Slowly melting and shielding the plants it surrounds. Where the torrential rains of spring will often run off of the soil and down the hillside to collect in a valley where it forms streams, rivers, and in some cases it will even form a canyon as the water erodes the rock and soil. The difference between the slow prayerful reading of Lectio Divina and the rushing plans that push through scripture. Both are needed without the running streams and rivers Kansas City would be without water, but without the snow we would be without food.
I urge everyone to read scripture in both ways. Download the YouVersion App to your smart phone and tablets and start a plan to read through the bible in a timeframe you are comfortable with, but also slow down and practice the divine reading of prayer. The plan will give you a quick rush of biblical knowledge cleansing and watering the dry soul, but the prayerful reading of scripture will provide the protection and fulfilling nourishment we need to survive.
I begin this way to yet again remind us all of the three things Jesus did frequently. The disciplines of Christ: the practice of prayer, worship, and ministry. These three things are not only good but also vital for us to build a healthy spiritual life; each of these three disciplines builds and feeds on the others. Our ministry or service to others drives us to our knees in prayer and it also gives us reasons to celebrate and worship God. Our worship can encourage others to minister and also reveal to us that we need to seek the face of God in a deeper way. Our discipline in prayer provides the energy and direction in both our worship and our ministry. These three things keep us each centered on what is most important in our community, and in our spiritual lives.
Over the past few months if have noticed some things. It is easy to get caught up, in my own life I have gotten caught up in work, politics, church business, and several other things. Not that any of this is bad, but none of them are central. I get caught up and I allow an area of life to take over, and as a result I neglect another area. Suddenly what I have been caught up shoots roots into my soul and it begins to dominate my outlook, it can even be found in areas of life that it should not have influence. I learn this by taking the snowy approach at reading scripture.
This passage is all about what is central in our lives. It is about who or what controls life. If we quickly read over this passage we may miss that point and just get caught up in the idea of Jesus playing the role of a chicken and the people missing the point. This passage is very deep. If we let it seep into our souls it very well might change our outlook in life.
We first meet with Pharisees meeting with Jesus. I am glad that last week we had the privilege to hear a message from a Jewish Rabbi because he did highlight a fact that we often forget, Jesus was a Pharisee. He was a teacher within the Jewish faith and the teachers were Pharisees. When we take the quick approach to reading scripture we see that Jesus and Pharisees were often at odds, but this is not the full picture. They were religious leaders that had a different understanding of how best to approach the teaching and leading of people. In this passage Jesus and the Pharisees are on the same side. They are concerned for his well being, they are giving him a legitimate warning. They were telling him leave because they want to kill you. The problem was that the government was beginning to find the religious leaders, namely Jesus as a threat.
Herod is mention by them. Herod the Roman appointed leader of Galilee and Perea the lands in northern Israel, was tuned into Jesus’ ministry. This is important to us for a number of reasons but mainly because Jesus was being seen as a political threat. Politics is all about control of people. When a new idea begins to divert attention from those in power it threatens the ability of those people to control the populous. Herod wanted to control his people, it was his job to control, and without control he would not have a livelihood. But who governments only control when people allow them to control, it does not matter if the Government is a monarchy, democracy, or an oligarchy those being controlled give that governing body the power to control, and when they lose the people they lose and the power is given to another. Herod is nervous because in his courts he is hearing the name of Jesus more often, and suddenly he is losing the control of people. Jesus is healing, feeding, and giving people a new life.
“Go and tell that fox.” is Jesus answer. He calls Herod a fox because is sly. He can twist and manipulate things to go in his favor. Jesus says, “tell that fox, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow…’” Jesus is saying I am ministering not seeking power. It is not any of his concern. He says that He will be doing this for a time and that Herod can come get him if he wants. The Government and national politics has no place in ministry of a church. No matter how sly and cunning a politician is it should not affect what we do as a church. If we are called to cast out demons, heal the sick, or feed the hungry we should precede. The ministry is more important that any nation, any politician, any government. Governments no matter how powerful cannot stop God; ask those Soviet Union how that works. All of our concern for what our government does in the world outside these walls should have no bearing in what God calls us to do inside them.
Now Jesus gets to the heart of the issue. “It is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.” This is a cryptic portion of scripture. Is Jesus talking of Jerusalem proper or Jerusalem the idea? Cryptic words can only be deciphered with discipline and understanding. Jesus is speaking not of the city but of religion. Jerusalem is the center of the faith tradition. Religion is about influence of people, much like government. It seeks to influence people to act in certain ways. Now before we get to far off remember that Jesus is telling the Religious leaders to tell this to the governmental leaders. Jesus is telling Herod that the government has less power than religion. It is religion that can silence the prophet not the government. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Religion can get it wrong if the religion is focused on controlling and not guiding. “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, and you were not wiling! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the times comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
God does not desire us to be divided into religions and governments. He does not desire us to divide into political parties or denominations. These things are about control over people; Jesus spoke often against lording it over people. Those that desire control will be given just what they want. They will gain the house…but the house will eventually be found empty. This is contrary to everything that Jesus promoted. Jesus gathered by offering people something different then a leader to follow. He offered life. To the blind man he offered a life of sight, which lead them out of the life of begging and gave them the opportunity of a different life. To woman with a bleeding condition He offered a life without shame. To the leper he offered acceptance into a community instead of a life of rejection. To the woman caught in adultery he offered an alternative to the constant giving and seeking of lustful desires but one of respect and forgiveness. How He wanted to gather the religious into the brood but they were not willing.
Control…Who is in control…What is in control? Do we want to control? To exert control over other is not godly even if it is done in the halls of the most pious organization. Those that seek to control are not leaders of God but the murderers of prophets. I want to ask a hard question to each of us, one I hope we all will consider, do we want to control our community or do we want to gather? The hen does not seek to control her brood but to protect, direct, and encourage them into their next stage of life. Eventually all of the chicks become adults who will live their own. Jesus wants to gather us. He wants to protect, encourage, and direct our lives not to control our every movement but to transform us into a people that are less concerned with control and more concerned with transforming the earth to be as it is in Heaven. He wants us to offer life, hope, and opportunities to people so that they can move from being a brood and into disciplined people living a life of prayer, worship, and ministry. To gather a community Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the Love of Christ with other.
Today as we join together in this time of communal prayer and open worship, let us remember the difference between snow and rain as well as control and gathering. I pray that we will allow the Spirit of God to let us release those things in our lives that we have allowed to gain control over us, and that we will move under the wings of the God that loves us and let Him guide us into Life.
Scripture: Luke 9: 28-43a
I am one of those types of people that comes to believe that every story about Jesus, what he has done in the past, and really in the present and future quickly become my favorite. I would have to say that it is not because of the events but how I read scripture. I love to read, I love to hear people tell stories. When I read and listen to the stories my mind is somehow transported into a different time and place. I guess I am really the kind of person that could still spend a day in a library just surrounded by books.
A child reads and listens to stories differently than most adults. They do not just hear the story they visualize and become part of the story. They tie a cape on their back to become the characters, and they begin to carry the story on in their play. They not only hear the story they often become the story. Well maybe that was not the way you interacted with a book when you were younger, but it is how I did, my mom had video evidence of it. Miraculously that evidence went missing before she could use it against me.
How often do we read this story of Jesus, and just sit and ponder the theological implications of the situation? Come on everyone…Jesus was GLOWING; let your imagination get the best of you. He went up to the top of a mountain, started praying and began to glow. Scripture can be fun sometimes. Just think about it for a bit. What would you think about Jesus if you saw him standing there glowing before you? It’s probably best that he only brought Peter, James and John up there with him, I don’t know if Thomas could have handled it. He’d probably want to poke him with a stick or something.
The imagination is an amazing tool that many adults have let atrophy as they begin to mature. God gave us this mind and this ability for a reason. It is in the imagination that he can give us the greatest inspiration. Einstein began his theory of Relativity on a bus in a daydream, the author James Barrie was inspired to write one of the greatest plays, Peter Pan, watching children actively imagine as they played. And oddly enough some of the greatest theological and inspiring writings have come from using the imagination to visualize and interact with scripture.
I have often asked you to imagine the scene in scripture. To meditate on a character or what you might do if you were hearing the words directly. Today is no different. How could I not ask you to imagine this scene? Jesus was GLOWING! So I want you all to imagine this, make it as fantastic as you can, and answer one question: Would you want to stay?
Jesus withdrew often to pray. I have been saying this for the past few weeks. This is what is going on in this scripture. This time He takes three of his closest friends with him as he prays. In this time of prayer something amazing happens. This is not something that Jesus found strange but his friends were shocked. Have you ever really thought about this? Of course we can quickly say, “he didn’t find it strange he’s God.” I do not think that that answer is acceptable. It basically leaves out the reason for bringing the three friends up with him. Of course if he was trying to show them that he was God it might be a descent answer. But I think he was trying to prove a point that went beyond, I believe he was trying to prove to his disciples just how important and powerful prayer is.
Prayer is more than lifting our requests up to heaven to try to twist God’s favor to sway our way. Prayer is transforming. Remember Jesus started to GLOW! Prayer is where we join together with God, it is in prayer that God’s spirit begins to transform our lives and renew our minds. It is in prayer that we learn to hear the voice of God, where we discover who we are created to be. It is prayer where we become Children of the Light.
I love that phrase from our older Quaker vocabulary, Children of the Light, along with another phrase holding in the light. I really think it gives a wonderfully visual concept that connects this story with the power of prayer. Being held in the light means we take that concern of our friends into our hands and lift them up to God and somehow pass our hands beyond that veil that separates the realms of reality and place that concern before God. It also attaches us with the concepts of God presented by the writer of John when he speaks of the true light, which enlightens everyone, and the light shining into the darkness and the darkness not overcoming it. That in the light there is life. The light John speaks of in the beginning of his Gospel is filled with imagery that links right into this story. Jesus was Glowing.
Another man also known to have a radiant skin condition met Jesus on that mountain. Moses would also withdraw often to pray and when he did he would return to the camp and people would be afraid of him because his face would be shining, and as he stayed in the camp it would gradually fade. It happened so much that he would put a veil over his face, because the people began to notice the fading more than the shining. Moses was transformed. He too would glow after he spent time in prayer with God.
Then another man was seen, a man who spent most of his time running away from people out to kill him, because when this man went into prayer fire would come out of the heavens, and one time the fire that came down lifted him up carrying him beyond the veil. Fire and light, both have an illuminating property. These two pillars of faith were right there with our glowing Jesus.
The discipline of prayer is something similar between all of these figures. When we read about the prayers of these men they are not often eloquent like a politician’s speech, but are more likely simple words uttered out of a deeply intimate relationship. These men were drawn to pray, not out of duty but they found that the time they spent in prayer was where they drank the drafts of life. And when these men prayed it was as if the very laws of nature were held in suspension.
Prayer is powerful but it is not magical. These men of ancient Hebrew history seemed to control God through prayer but that is not the truth. These men knew God. When Elijah prayed for the fire to come down on the alters of Carmel he did not command God but simply acknowledged that that moment was a good time for God to do what He had already told Elijah He was going to do. When Moses pleads before God for the sake of Israel, he did not change God’s mind but God was actually revealing to Moses what He was already doing and would continue to do. The same is true today. We say that we believe in the healing power of prayer, and I do believe, but I do not control God but instead we converse with God about a shared concern and He reveals his plan. I believe that Prayer changes things, like some many of our Christian authors claim, but I believe that that change is more often in our own perspective as we grow closer to the one that holds the world in his hands and places the stars in the skies with his finger tips.
So have you encountered the incredible Glowing Jesus? Have you experienced that time in the light, in a place where it seems as if everything around you just stops as you enjoy time in prayer? All to often we rush through prayer jumping in and out before the light even gets warmed up. But there are other times where it seems as if God was sitting in a chair waiting for us to stumble in. I have been in the light, no I am not saying that I glowed, but I have been in a place where the intimacy with God real. In that place I knew the mind of God for the situation that I held in the light. More often than not the conversation revealed that what I was asking was wrong and that God had something else in mind.
The disciples wanted to build shelters and stay there on that mountain because they like many of us were not accustom to hanging in that suspended state where the past, present, and future can all meet. They had a taste and they failed to realize what the true power of prayer really is. Prayer is where we talk with God. To talk with God means we tell Him what our needs are but also wait so He can tell us what His needs are. He may let us know that He is going to act in some supernatural way, He may tell us to just leave that concern for Him to worry about, and He may tell us to do what is right. There are even times where there is no concern we carry but we just go to spend time with our Friend. It is good for us to be there, just as the disciples said but we cannot stay. We cannot stay because the power of and in prayer is that it transforms us, it illuminates us and strengthens us to be the laborers God requires to extend his kingdom. In prayer we begin to see how His will can be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. In a sense prayer is where our imagination and God’s imagination meet and we can see and learn what it is God wants to do. We hold the concerns in the light, but we must then turn to walk back down that mountain to carry the answer and love of God back down to the people to whom we have been called to serve.
The very next day the incredible Glowing Jesus and his three disciples walked down the mountain and into a crowd to minister yet again. They immediately were met with agents of the adversary trying to leach the joy of that mountain radiance away. Yet the crowd knew that there was something about Jesus, something attracted them to him something drew them in. The darkness shall not overcome the light. And all were astounded at the greatness of God. We meet God in prayer, He illuminates and transforms us to do what he created us to do, and he sends us back out. We do not have to know exactly how everything will work, we just need to go and do what we are called to do, to shine in the darkness.
Prayer, Worship, and Ministry. The three things Jesus taught his disciples to do. Love God, Embrace the Holy Spirit, and Live the Love of Christ with Others are the three things we as Willow Creek Friends are called to do. They are the same, it is the journey of faith boiled down to the purest form, but often things in the purest form are also the most powerful. If we were to actually live this pure faith what would happen? I asked earlier as we imagined this scripture being played out before us if we would want to stay? I now ask as we join each other in Holy Expectancy and open worship will we be willing to go?
Scripture: Luke 4:14-21
Often times in our journeys of life we can get distracted. Things come up like work, a meeting, school, or kids. I say distracted but I do not mean that they are bad things necessarily. I was distracted while driving home from the elders board meeting in a positive way, I love driving down I-35 and seeing the vast rolling prairies. When I drive that stretch of highway my heart begins to sing, which is funny because it is not often that my heart goes to singing. But the song it sings is “these thousand hills, roll ever on footprints of a mighty God.” Unfortunately distractions can be negative as well, often work demands are calling us to action and we begin to make sacrifices. Maybe we head out to attend college and we are on our own for the first time, our friends and social lives distract us and we make sacrifices. We work hard, we study hard, we have chores and laundry to do, and we just want to rest. We are caught in a culture of dis-ease.
Life happens. Life has been happening for a few years. Since the dawn of humanity there have been distractions both positive and negative that have been demanding attention from individuals. There has always been this constant quest to find some sort of equilibrium in life, to ease the dis-ease. History is filled with these things. People were hungry so the found food, and create tools to make the obtaining easier. The climate changed and suddenly they had to adjust, moving to different locals or making new clothing and accommodations. They found that living together in groups made it easier to hunt and gather food, but then the groups would often get too large so they would begin to fight amongst themselves and new groups formed. Then someone found out that if you let some of the fruits and grains spoil a bit and if you run water through this a drink could be formed that would relieve some stress. So the groups then began to focus their attention on those plants, and eventually they would gain enough knowledge to begin to farm. These farms needed care so the wondering tribes began to settle into areas where they could grow the plants, and they began to domesticate animals, and villages began to form. As the villages grew people began to specialize in skills, and these non-agrarian skills grew and out of that economies began to develop where people would trade produce for tools or services. From these economies civilization emerged, governments formed, and eventually we have found ourselves where we are today. Still searching for ways to make our lives easier, still distracted and trying to find that place where we can exist in comfort.
Life has changed in many ways, and in most ways for the better. I would rather live today than in prehistoric times. There is still an ever-present quest for a life of ease that continues to speak volumes about the human condition. We live in cultures of dis-ease. Our ancestors invented flint spears because they needed them. They sailed the oceans because they sought a better life. We invented computers and cell phones to fill a need in our culture, we were seeking to ease the dis-ease. It is like the history of civilizations and Garden of Eden seem to meet in the same story line; we fail to ease the dis-ease and are forced to toil and struggle in our quest for paradise.
I know it is an odd way to start this message, but there is something about looking at a large picture that seems to open scripture up. This scripture begins with Jesus going to his hometown on the Sabbath and attending the synagogue, which was his custom. There are very few things that scripture tells us that Jesus did regularly. In fact of the disciplines that we know for certain that Jesus actually did frequently. One is he withdrew often to pray, and another is he attended worship. Of all the disciplines and traditions of religion the writers of the gospels tell us that Jesus in His own life withdrew frequently to pray and attended worship, as was His custom.
I mention this because these are the things that basically form the expression of faith in the Friends Church. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we are a distilled form of Christianity, our ancient leaders were on a quest to boil faith down to its purest and most essential form. They sought to get to the simplest expression of faith, and what they came up with was worship and prayer. These are the two things that Jesus is recorded as doing most frequently in His own personal life. These are also the two things most frequently sacrificed in our personal quests to ease our culture of dis-ease, only to further complicate our lives.
Withdrawing to pray and attend worship, if I were to ask you to rank the importance of these things in your life where would they be? If you are human I am guessing that there are probably many items on the list before these, if you are actually sitting in the pew then I am glad that at least worship has made the list. If we were to actually divide up our time and keep track of each activity would the programming on TV rank higher, would Facebook or Twitter hold greater importance? Have we made it our custom to place our career before worship and prayer, or let’s get even closer to home do our families rank higher than our relationship to God?
All these things are important in varying degrees. Our family is important because God has blessed them to us and we should do all we can to care and encourage them. Our careers and our hobbies are vital to our existence and our ability to cope with our lives, but they can cause dis-ease if we are not careful. Jesus, found it very important to withdraw often to pray and to make it a custom to worship.
The passage goes on telling us that Jesus read scripture in the synagogue; he not only attended worship but participated in it. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus was proclaiming that He was the anointed one sent by God, the Messiah, but there is more. In reading this verse He is proclaiming the Gospel. He is in essence saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here!”
Which leads us to a third thing that Jesus did frequently in his journey through life, ministry. He speaks of the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed. These are the people society marginalizes. These are the signs of a culture of dis-ease. To be a captive means that you are bound, you lack freedom and do not have ease in life. A captive is a prisoner. The blind are lost in the darkness, unable to find their way constantly struggling just to find their next step. The oppressed are people discriminated against for some reason and are seen by the culture as being less than human. And the poor cannot provide the things necessary for themselves or their families. All of these people are living lives of constant distraction. They cannot have a life of ease for some reason. Maybe it is because of bad choices, or maybe it is because they were just born in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Jesus says that he is anointed to minister to these people. The year of the Lord’s favor is to be proclaimed to them. His mission and purpose in life is to ease the dis-ease of humanity.
Worship, Prayer, and Ministry; these are the three things that Jesus participated in while he walked on the soils of Israel. These three things all tie together. If we were to devote 100% of our time and resources to social justice or ministry, we would quickly find ourselves overwhelmed. There are always poor, there are always people living in some form of captivity, and being oppressed. We could work our entire lives to ease the dis-ease of our society and feel like we were a complete failure. We can work hard every day and never see the end of need. This is why Jesus withdrew often to pray. To show us that we need to get away to restore ourselves to rest in the arms of God, to cry out to Him, to express our frustrations and anger that there is still need all around us. We cannot spend 100% of the time in prayer either. If we were to only pray, we would never see the answers to our prayers. If we were only to pray we would never be of service to others, never see the good news being proclaimed to the poor, never seeing a captive set free. We would be stuck in a continuation of the dis-ease that continues to plague humanity. We pray so that we can release the negative energy and absorb new life from the Spirit so we can reengage ministry. We pray so we can release our burdens into the hands of God and be listening to His voice to redirect our efforts. We pray so that we can become and to be open to the answers to our prayers. If we were to only pray and only minister we would still have dis-ease. We will still only see need all around us, but this is where a custom of worship is important.
Worship is where each of us can encourage each other to continue in the ministry that God has called us to. It is where we as a larger fellowship of people walking along in our own journeys can join together in ministry and bring our gifts together to intensify our ministry capabilities. Worship is where we praise God for the blessings He gives, where we come together to express needs beyond our own capability, and share the signs that God has worked in the lives that we have ministered to. Worship is where those captives testify to how God has set them free, it is where the oppressed can proclaim their freedom. We participate in worship because we need it, not because God needs us to sing His praises. He created the birds to sing, and the wind to whistle through the trees, and the grass to dance over the rolling hills. God has all the earth to praise him, with or without us, but we have the privilege to worship and we benefit from it. When we worship we are encouraged to do more and to see more. Worship is more than singing and listening to a message, it is coming together to encourage and support each other as we each are sent back out into the world to continue the ministry of Christ. Which did not start with Christ but has existed since the beginning.
Worship, Prayer, and ministry, these three things are the simplest expression of faith. These are the things that allow us to continue on the journey of life with God and are our primary tools. This can be expressed in another way: Love God, Embrace the Holy Spirit, and Live the Love of Christ with others. The three customs of Jesus, the three disciplines of Christ, the three distilled tenants of Christianity in the most pure form. Without loving God or worship, we have no encouragement to serve and we give up and are in dis-ease. Without embracing the Holy Spirit or prayer, we have no direction, no hope, and no relief from the dis-ease. Without living the love of Christ with others we are without ministry and we are distracted and are in a world in dis-ease. With these three, we can see and participate in the year of the Lord’s favor. We can be anointed with Christ, saturated with Him to be instruments of ease in a dis-eased culture. With these three disciplines of faith we can see the kingdom of God emerging all around and in each one of us. It is the year of the Lord’s favor and he is calling us join in.