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.
Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
How do we determine the value of a person? I doubt any of us have really thought about this question, yet we each have our own system to determine it. Is it the amount of education that one has, or possibly what they do or can do for us? Is it as shallow as their attire or as deep as their philosophy? Along with this question could be how do we measure success? Every situation holds different criteria for us to answer. My other job has a measure based on the amount of apprehensions I make in a month. It is really the only real way to measure the success of someone in my position, but there is a drawback to this measure. I could have fifty stops in a month and only save our company $100 or I could have two stops and save the company $1000. The value and the measure do not always show the measure of success or worth of a person.
So how do we value those around us? In this scripture we are introduced to a couple of different people: the scribe and the widow. To fully understand this passage we should probably have some back ground information on the culture. Firstly, a widow in this culture is probably the most impoverished person in the ancient Jewish culture. Unlike today women had a very specific role in society, they were to manage the home. This basically meant the rearing of children, meal preperation, clothing manufacturing, and many other household duties. Women in this point of history did not work outside of the home, if they earned an income it was only through domestic service. A woman’s value to the society was determined by her husband and adult children, I am not saying that this is the correct view of women only that it is how history tells the story.
A scribe is the exact opposite of a widow. Only men could become scribes and they had a very specific role in society. They could read and write, so they were well educated. They were employed to read and compose documents for others. Because of this they were often regarded as legal counselors or lawyers. These were the highest-ranking secular office holders in a culture. Not to say that they were secular only because many of these men were very religious, but they were not of the clergy or priestly order. They were teachers and interpreters of the law. Scribes were found among the Pharisees as well as the Sadducees in the Jewish culture. There were also scribes among the Romans, and in the Herodian dynasty. Any official office or order had scribes.
So we have in this scripture a view of two opposing sides of the social spectrum: the educated and the ignorant, the wealthy and the destitute. As you consider this passage I want you to again consider how we value the people around us as well.
Jesus says, “Beware of the scribes…” Beware! Beware? I just said that these were respectable members of society, not just respectable but necessary. They were the teachers, legal consultants, and leaders within the culture, yet Jesus says beware of the scribes.
“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplace.” Jesus begins with a warning but goes on to clarify the warning. The scribes are people of high status and rightfully so. They deserve their wages and respect because they have earned their positions. Jesus is not demonizing the wealthy in this passage, though I have often heard it interpreted as such. He is warning us about pride. It is not wrong for people to earn wages, it is not even wrong for them to have power within a group, nor is it wrong to have influence over people. What Jesus is saying is beware of the scribes, those wealthy people, who flaunt their success for all to see. Those people that walk around the dingy, dirty streets in long flowing robes of fine fabrics. Clothing is a necessity in most cultures, and is often a sign of status. When I was a student the brand of jeans one wore would sometimes determine who would interact with tem. If I were to wear wranglers then I would fit in with the cowboys and the FFA crowds, but was not widely accepted among other groups. If the jeans were purchased from the mall then a different group of peers found someone acceptable. I did not fit in either group, even though I purchased my jeans at the mall it was not because I wanted to accepted in a group I was just a weird size and Wal-Mart never carried it, and I thank God that I am finally average. Cultures have not really changed that much. The long flowing robes of this first century culture were the name brand jeans of their day. The scribes that Jesus spoke about were the ones that wanted people to view the tags of their clothing and realize that they had money, enough money that they could freely spend it on designer garments.
This goes one step beyond clothing. These people, Jesus warns, also demand respect. If you were to come across them on the street you were to treat them with honor. I do not know how these first century greetings would have been, but today there are people who have special titles. If you are a judge, you have the title of your honor. Many cultures have an aristocracy with titles of nobility like Lord, Duke, Prince, or Queen. There are doctors who have obtained that title by virtue of education and then there are people who have been given titles like President or Governor. Titles set people apart from others; many titles elevate people over others. Some deserve the title because they obtained it through hard work; others gained the title because they were born into it. Either way the title in some way says to everyone around, “I am better than you.”
“Beware of the Scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!” There is a reason Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Pride gets to people. And other people want to be close to someone famous. It does not matter what the title is to be honest. We want to impress our managers at work and we often treat them different than our other coworkers. If we were to go to a dinner where a certain celebrity was going to attend we would dress differently than if it were just a meeting with friends.
“They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance they say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” There are people that demand honor and people that have earned respect. They devour…this speaks of how people obtain their wealth. Those that devour gain what they have by unjust means, and have been unsympathetic to the needs of others. Devour is a term of consumption. It speaks of greed and selfishness. The widow is the most vulnerable person in the community; they have no say or ability to change their status and are living at the mercy of others. As a result they are taken advantage of. They sell what they have so they can survive another day, taking whatever is offered because they have little choice. Yet those that devour their houses, or purchase the property for a devalued rate, stand before the community saying long eloquent prayers even though they themselves are rotten to the core.
How do we value people? How do we measure success? How do we measure? “Beware of the Scribe, who…” Not every scribe in Jesus’ day was like this, many were quite the opposite. They deserved honor because they were gracious to people. In the Old Testament book of Ruth we meet an honorable “scribe” named Boaz who saw the widow named Ruth and made sure that she had plenty to gather in the fields. In the New Testament we meet people like Joseph of Arimathea who was a wealthy man yet gave his property to honor Jesus. What Jesus is speaking about is simplicity and humility.
To be an educated person requires some responsibility to society. A medical doctor has earned their title but to receive the honor they must apply what they learn to the helping of others, and they receive wages. Not all medical doctors are the same. Some serve graciously and others devour. An attorney is similar they rightly deserve honor for their position in our society; they earn a wage for their service to others, yet some devour. Jesus does not condemn the pursuit of knowledge or honorable careers but we need to be honest about who we are and live simply within our place.
To live simply is to be honest about who we are and from where our value comes. In many societies the measure of success is found in the amount of currency one can earn. But do you know what the true value of currency is? The true value of a twenty-dollar bill and a ten-dollar bill is actually equal. The true value is the amount of heat it can produce when it is burned. Currency is only a tool to operate within a society. It makes the exchange of goods and services easier and more uniform, but it actually has very little real value. If we are determining the value of a person based on the amount of money they have we are misplacing honor. Currency can be gained in many ways, honorable and dishonorable, but the value of that person is ultimately found inside.
Jesus took his disciples to stand across from the temple treasury and they watched as people gave their offerings. They observed the wealthy and the poor placing their offerings into the collection. Some put in vast amounts of currency and they observed a widow place in two copper coins. I learned that these two coins amounted to around an 1/8th of a day’s wage. The stewards of the community were probably observing this as well, making note of the larger sums and overlooking the small ones. But Jesus said that the true value of the coins was greater than the others. We wonder about this but it comes back to value and honor. Who do we value and what do we honor?
The widow had nothing she lived at the mercy of the community. She did not know what she would be able to eat or how she was even going to survive. And the wealthy gave out of their abundance. Who is more important to the community as a whole, the scribes or the widows? How we answer that question tells us a lot about who we are and what we value. The money we earn through our labor is a tool of trade. It can be traded for goods and services in our nation. Currency does not determine our value, because the trade value changes and can ultimately become worthless. With that being said, the basic needs for survival are the same for everyone. We all require similar amounts of food to survive; we all require shelter, and transportation. The cost of these are the same no matter what income we earn, so in that sense we are equal no one is better or worse than another person. Yet the amount of our income that these consume differs dramatically.
Simplicity and humility is required by God, what Jesus was showing his disciples is that the scribes were full of pride because they had the ability to earn a better wage. They thought of themselves as better than the widow because she did not have the means to earn or contribute as they did. As a result they demanded from their society honors that were greater. They wanted everyone to know that they were important. But in God’s economy every human is equal, we are made of the same stuff, from the dust we were created and to the dust we will return. Your value is not based on what you earn but on who God is. The widow knew this better than anyone else. She knew that it was God that provided her with what ever she was able to do, just as it is God that provides us with our minds to think, our abilities and temperaments to earn tools of trade. Our incomes are blessings from God. The widow gave all she had and was honored because she recognized the truth and humbly submitted to God, where the scribes hypocritically demanded honor for their contribution and as a result receive condemnation.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist denomination, is a name that many of us know. John lived most of his life as a single man, and lived a very simple life. He determined the cost of all his basic needs and that is all he lived one. John however was not a poor man, he made a significant income from the books that he published, but even as his income increased he still lived on the same amount. He gave everything else to the expansion of the ministry of the Church. He died with very little to his name, and God honored him because he had a humble and simplistic view of life. He knew that it was God that provided everything so he gave it all to God.
The widow gave all she had. The scribes devoured and gave only some of their large amounts. God honored the widow, and it was through her gift that the kingdom was expanded. It was through her witness that God will provide for her needs no matter what that the kingdom advanced. It is her witness to those struggling that encouraged them to carry on in their faith. Not the vast offerings of the wealthy.
It is a hard lesson to learn. I am sure that most of us do not want to listen to the lesson because we work hard for what we have, and we feel like we should enjoy it. The truth is what you have is a gift from God. That gift was given not so we can devour it but so that we can become a blessing to others. If we are not willing to bless others with what we are given God will take that blessing from us. This is true for our personal lives as well as the life of our Meeting. I encourage each of us to honestly look at what we have and what we need. Let us take our needs to God and trust that He will provide for us and let us step out in faith, as we become blessings to others.
Scripture: Ezekiel 17:22-24
Ezekiel to me is one of the weirder books of scripture. I do not know why I feel that way, probably because the ancient alien folks use it so often. If you believe in ancient aliens do not be offended, aliens just FREAK me out so I would rather call them angels.
As I reflect on this scripture I contemplate spirituality. We all know there are various spirtual practices drawing from Celtic, Arab, Hebrew, and Oriental roots just to mention a few. Even Christian mysticism or spirituality draws from various backgrounds to bring us our practices today. The point is not from where the practice originated but if it is bringing us closer to God.
This pasage speaks about God bringing about something new out of something that already existed. In various horticultural practices we see this happening. If you have ever planted a rose you have most likely planted a hybrid rose. These hybrids graft two different varieties of roses together to gain the benifit of both. One may have a better root system another disease resistance. They will breed the plants naturally to form the best color, fragance, and resistance they need then they will carefully cut the flowering portion off of one and physically join it to the root system of another, they tape these together so that the roots of one plant will grow together with the stock of the other. It is very technical and beautiful. They use this same practice in many different types of ornimental and fruiting plants.
There is much research and disipline going into these practices, people invest their entire careers to perfect just one rose bush, and in the case of a vinyard or orchard many lifetimes have been invested to gain the prized product. Our spiritual lives are much like this. We must be careful not to haphazardly bind practices together that do not complement each other. It would not work well to combine the ritual sacrifices of Hinduism with Christian mystism because the theological bases do not mesh. However yoga could be grafted into our spiritual lives. Another concept that has been grafted into Christian discipleship throughout history is the labyrinth. In ancient times people would travel to Israel to walk the paths of Christ. Today people still gain incredible spiritual encouragement from these trips. Eventually due to hostlity and economics it became nearly impossible for many to visit the Holy sites, especially during the Crusades. As a substitute many Medieval cathedral began to incorporate the sacred pathway of a labyrinth into their design so that people could travel to places like Chartres to reflect their spiritual lives on Christ while they physically walk a path. If you want to know more the use of the labyrinth in Christian spiriuality I encourage you to read Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool, by Lauren Artress.
Of course many people will question the incorporation of spiritual practices from other traditons into Christianity, and rightfully so. We must be careful what we do and only do things that direct our mind, body, and spirit toward our goals (in the Christian view this would be closer to Christ). You may ask why I’m going on a rant about these practices? Well I write what comes to mind, and as I consider God taking the top of a ceder and planting it down in the ground to grow something new, I think of the continual emergance of Christ centered spirituality in the world. In our various practices, denominations, and orders we have a multitude of different traditions, yet in the end we are pressing for the same goal. These practices have emerged from various backgrounds and for various reasons. Mainly because what one group was focusing on others found to be dry and dead. For them to stay doing the same thing they were faced with spiritual dry rot. Their lives looked good to everyone around them yet inside under the facade they are filled with dust that is barely holding together. God needs to bring new life into the dry tree. At times in history we see movements rise up quickly and the fall away almost as quickly. In those cases God may have needed to dry out the green tree because it had gotten off track or possibly the world was not yet ready for that type of expression in the mainstream.
The point is that God wants you to have a growing, green spiritual life that will grow branches to provide comfort and saftey to others, and bear fruit. You may be feeling a bit dry in your walk right now, this may not mean that you are doing anything wrong, but it may also mean it is tim to look for a different way to encourage spiritual growth. It may not be anything more than trying out a different type of music for a while, or maybe incorpating excersise, gardening, or art into your prayer life. You may find that your traditional style is right where you need to be and go back, you may also find that there was something detrimental to growth in the faith community you were in. As a disciple of Christ our goal should be to continuously grow into His likeness. I encourageyou to explore some of the various methods used throughout Christianity. If you are unsure or unaware of other aspects of spiritual practices there are people that are eager to help you explore. Many of the are members of Spiritual Directors International, which is a group dedicated to help people like you and me deepen our spiritual lives.
I personally have spent time exploring many aspects of prayer and discipline, some of them I have added to my own spirtual journey others I have found little growth with but the experience was intresting and enriching. I have also spent time consulting a spiritual director to assist me in my own personal walk. To prevent dry rot in your spiritual lives be adventurous. The journey should be challenging, trying, and fun but ultimately it will help you find who you were meant to be.