Sunday, August 30, 2015

September 6 2015 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:31-37

 31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

   33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

   36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”


“The Power To Open”

Life is full of interesting and exciting possibilities.  We have to be motivated or inspired to seek them.  Our spiritual lives also need to be opened to all the possibilities God has in store for us.

Faith opens our hearts and minds to the love of God at work for  and in us.
Faith in Jesus Christ opens our senses to the deep stimuli of life.  We see what we could never otherwise see; hear what we could never hear; speak what we never dared utter.

Jesus words of forgiveness and love open us up to all the possibilities of life.
Faith is giving God permission to have at us.


“Be Open”

They couldn’t keep quiet about it; but they didn’t say all there was to say about it.

They missed the most important point - that these miracles, as with all miracles, means that salvation has come to our earth!  God has come to dwell with us in human from, in the man Jesus to heal ALL our infirmities, not just of the body but of the spirit as well!

There is a healing and a wholeness which is deeper then the physical.  He has come that all might be saved (be made whole from within) and come to the knowledge of the truth.

To be so saved is to be open to God’s love moving in our lives and through our lives into our world.  It  is to be able to smile, no matter what, and to be a beautiful, healing person for others.  Physical handicaps cannot keep a ‘whole person’ down.  They simply radiate joy and love, and bring healing into living.  This is Christ in us, the love of God making us whole!


Sunday, August 16, 2015

Aug 23 & 30. 2015 13th & 14th Sundays After Pentecost

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
   5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
   6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips, 
   but their hearts are far from me. 
 7 They worship me in vain; 
   their teachings are merely human rules.’
   8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 “Living From the Heart”

Words can be cheap and deceiving.  We often sound different then we are inside.  This is what makes communication so difficult and hypocrisy so easy, for all of us!

No one sets out to be a hypocrite.  We too easily become one when we let our greed, jealousy, pride, folly keep us from being congruent from the inside out.

When our hearts are right with God, our words and deeds are going to be right for others.  Such is the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Hypocrisy is anything in our lives which is not right for others, but only for us, no matter how we try to cover up what is in our hearts by words and pious platitudes.
This is not pleasing to God, nor is it of the Kingdom of God.


“A Call For Deep Things”

 “The most apparent meaning of this (text) could be summarized as a criticism of surface things and a call for deep things.” (Source unknown)

Religion is not meant to be something we play at; it is not meant to be superficial, mechanical, ritualistic. It is meant to be something which comes from the heart - a heart touched by the love and grace of God.

Observing the traditions of the elders is not what is important.  Living as one who has been touched by the love of God is.

This means we need to see the spiritual quality of everything we do and I mean everything!

God is in the business of changing us and deepening us.  Opening us up and making us real. To be truly religious is to let God have my heart.  When God has my heart, God is going to change things and rearrange my priorities and cause me to do things I otherwise would never do.

A man once said to Mother Teresa,“I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.”   To which she replied, “Neither would I. But I will for the love of God!”

To worship is to open our hearts to change from the inside out.  It is to be challenged to be sensitized over and over again as to what it is God really desires - justice rolling down like waters and human kind truly loving one another, seeking to understand, accept differences, and live in peace.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

August 16, 2015 12th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:51-58

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
   52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
   53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”


This is a troublesome text.  As one theologian said of it -
“The language in this text is raw and probably ought to shock our sensibilities.”

Because of these words more then one person has accused the church of advocating cannibalism.  And nothing could be further from the truth!

What ever we do with these words, we dare not take them literal - for then we will miss the point of what Jesus is saying - as is often the case when the Bible is take literally.  We end up with a distorted, disconnected message which leads to distorted and disconnected living.

Perhaps this is why Karl Barth said, ”I love the Bible too much to take it literal.”

These words have to be taken in context and they have to be understood in  a deeper way - a way which goes beyond our rational capacity to understand and grasps mystery.

So what is it Jesus is trying to say to us today?

Robert Kyser, a Biblical scholar of today makes a good point as to what Jesus might be getting at here. in his book, “Preaching John”.  He suggests that Jesus is telling the hearers that they literally need to take Jesus into themselves, make him “part of their essence”

“No arm’s-length relationship here, no safe distance between us.  As (those) who long for the abundant life, we have no other way to such a life except by taking Jesus in, having him become so intermingled with our own being that we cannot separate one from the other. “  Adele Resmer, Proc. B,’06,p.179


Then, in the words of the great preacher of the past, P.T. Forsythe, faith will become “a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life” - our lives.
We will no longer be able to live indifferent to callings of the spirit to place faith, hope, and love at the center of our living and let nothing take its place.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

August 9 , 2015 11th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:35, 41-51

35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst...
 41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

“The Offense Of The Incarnation

Jesus was too human for the people of his day.  He was Joseph’s son who lived in their midst.  He was too human, too real, too common for them to believe he was God’s son.

We want God to be something other then human.  We are not inclined to see God in the common.  We don’t think of God being  “ in, under, and with”  everyday activities.

We want God to be a miracle worker who does things in unnatural ways.
Who takes care of the tough stuff so we don’t have to deal with it.
This is a subtle form of idolatry.

One writer called it “the offense of the Incarnation.”

We believe Jesus was spiritual; we struggle with him being human.  The truth is, as a friend often said, ”To be spiritual is to be human; to be human is to be spiritual.”  The most spiritual things we can do are also the most human.  We dare not be afraid to be human for that is the essence of what it means to eat of the Bread of Life - it is to be humanly open, honest, compassionate, intimate.

God became so human we can’t separate God from that which is human.  Every time we touch intimately, lovingly, compassionately in the midst of the pain and joy of being human, God is there with life giving bread to impart eternal life.  This is a miracle beyond all miracles!