May 28, 2008
Colossians 4:2-6
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should. Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.”
We had a dominoes game in our home when I was growing up, but I am embarrassed to tell you that I never learned to play it. Instead, I took the dominoes and lined them up to see if I could make them fall with each domino hitting the successive domino in the line. It was only moments ago that my friend, Peggy, educated me in the game. After hearing her instruction, it struck me that the Christian life is like dominoes. Some of us have the game—we say we are Christian—but we never play it—we don’t really live the life. We fail to prove by our living and our relating to others that we are living out of a spiritual relationship with God.
Then it dawned on me that this passage is very similar to my way of playing with the dominoes. There is an effect that each “spiritual” domino, if you will, has on the next one. Let’s say we choose to engage in prayer. We begin, then, with the prayer domino. Paul says that we should devote ourselves to prayer. We have to be intentional about making time to pray and listen to God. If we invest in that prayer domino we find that it falls naturally into the “Source relationship” domino.
This second domino is the place where because of our dedication to prayer and listening to God, we begin to recognize that we have a relationship with God, who is our Source. We develop a new connection that engages both the mind and the spirit. This Source relationship domino then naturally taps the transformation domino.
At the stage of the third domino, we have committed ourselves to prayer, have a relationship with God and come to look honestly at ourselves. When we look in the spiritual mirror we see that our hearts are experiencing positive transformation. We are beginning to become gracious among other positive qualities. This domino falls then toward the thanksgiving domino.
When we reach the fourth domino of the spiritual life, not only do we have a committed prayer life, a growing relationship with God and are seeing the effects within ourselves, now we realize how very grateful we are for what God is doing in our lives. This puts us into a new and right disposition of love. We find that we are exhilarated by our growth and by the things that are happening in our lives. With that experience, our domino falls toward the “other relationship” domino.
At this fifth stage, we realize that our personal transformation is not only affecting us, it begins to affect the way that we interact with others. Our relationships begin to improve because some things have changed within us that allow us to respond to others less out of self and more out of love. We suddenly are able to utilize tools that in some cases might be new to us and in other cases might be things we understood only intellectually. Now, thanks to our rooting in prayer, we understand them experientially. This in turn causes our domino to tap the domino of someone else.
At this last stage, someone else becomes the beneficiary of our transformation and wants to know how we have claimed such peace. How have our lives been transformed? They too begin to want to play this came of spiritual dominoes and so they set up their prayer domino and the cycle begins for them.
This is Paul’s message of the passage: that Christ transforms the lives of others when we allow ourselves to be transformed by Christ. We begin to see that we aren’t separate from each other—that at our core—we are all spiritual beings—we just have to claim that status. Life is easier for us and for everyone around us when we choose that status.
Today, Paul asks us to take a hard look at our lives and determine if they are flavorful. If not, then all we have to do is start to play the spiritual domino game. Even if we’ve been Christians in name for a long time, we can begin to play at any moment by simply starting to pray.
Today, I would ask, are you willing to look honestly at your life? Are you able to discern places of growth—both where you need to grow and where you have allowed God to transform you? What are those places for you? Where on the cycle of the spiritual domino game to you need to invest effort? There is always room for growth for each one of us. We simply have to choose to play the game. This day may we find joy in the experiences of our Christian living! Amen.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Choosing Love
May 21, 2008
Colossians 3:18-4:1
“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back from whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”
Yes, the feminist in me freaks out with this passage but there is good news for those of us who tend toward defining ourselves in such a fashion! This passage is wrongly translated in most versions of the Bible. The actual text suggests that wives should “subject themselves” to their husbands. It is intended to suggest that wives are to arrange their lives in ways that honor God and that maintain relationship with others. It is also an admonition to all people order their lives with that perspective. Husbands are encouraged to love their wives. This is not to suggest that wives are not to love their husbands. On the contrary there is mutualism intended in the whole passage.
In the days of this writing, the author would have been adopting Hellenistic codes and speaking about them through a Christian lens. So a lot of what the author was saying to the people of the day would have been very radical. Children were treated in those days as servants. They were there to wait on their parents. The idea that they would have “rights” themselves would have been an astounding thought. Fathers (and mothers) should understand the value of their children and not take advantage of their authority over them. Slaves were called to work hard and honorably and masters were to understand the value of their slaves as human beings who were working hard for them. While we no doubt wish Paul would have condemned slavery he at least does call for treating others with respect.
These codes for living are really guidelines for all of us. Whether we define ourselves in any of these roles or not, there is something to be said for having the ability and confidence to order our own lives, to love and encourage others, to work hard had whatever we do and to treat others with respect.
When I was a little girl, my mother would sing a song to me that said, “Be careful what you do little hands, be careful what you do little hands, ‘Cause the Father up above is looking down in all his love, be careful what you do little hands.” That perspective seems to exist beyond this passage. We must be careful how we live and how we treat others. We want to honor God by our living and the best way is to choose to live in love.
So as challenges go, it would be easy to end our contemplations at that point but if you really want to grow spiritually—if any of us do—we must have the courage to ask whether we live that way! Do we? Surely we must miss the mark sometimes? Much of the challenge of this passage seems to rest in being able to train ourselves to observe how we react to others and to make the choice (sometimes admittedly a difficult one) to love. May we rise to the challenge! Amen.
Colossians 3:18-4:1
“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back from whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”
Yes, the feminist in me freaks out with this passage but there is good news for those of us who tend toward defining ourselves in such a fashion! This passage is wrongly translated in most versions of the Bible. The actual text suggests that wives should “subject themselves” to their husbands. It is intended to suggest that wives are to arrange their lives in ways that honor God and that maintain relationship with others. It is also an admonition to all people order their lives with that perspective. Husbands are encouraged to love their wives. This is not to suggest that wives are not to love their husbands. On the contrary there is mutualism intended in the whole passage.
In the days of this writing, the author would have been adopting Hellenistic codes and speaking about them through a Christian lens. So a lot of what the author was saying to the people of the day would have been very radical. Children were treated in those days as servants. They were there to wait on their parents. The idea that they would have “rights” themselves would have been an astounding thought. Fathers (and mothers) should understand the value of their children and not take advantage of their authority over them. Slaves were called to work hard and honorably and masters were to understand the value of their slaves as human beings who were working hard for them. While we no doubt wish Paul would have condemned slavery he at least does call for treating others with respect.
These codes for living are really guidelines for all of us. Whether we define ourselves in any of these roles or not, there is something to be said for having the ability and confidence to order our own lives, to love and encourage others, to work hard had whatever we do and to treat others with respect.
When I was a little girl, my mother would sing a song to me that said, “Be careful what you do little hands, be careful what you do little hands, ‘Cause the Father up above is looking down in all his love, be careful what you do little hands.” That perspective seems to exist beyond this passage. We must be careful how we live and how we treat others. We want to honor God by our living and the best way is to choose to live in love.
So as challenges go, it would be easy to end our contemplations at that point but if you really want to grow spiritually—if any of us do—we must have the courage to ask whether we live that way! Do we? Surely we must miss the mark sometimes? Much of the challenge of this passage seems to rest in being able to train ourselves to observe how we react to others and to make the choice (sometimes admittedly a difficult one) to love. May we rise to the challenge! Amen.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Blossoming Trees
May 14, 2008
Colossians 3:12-17
“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Maybe you are like me. Maybe you wake up each morning aware of your proclivities toward anger, malice and abusive language that easily floats from your lips. Maybe you awake with such an awareness that is immediately countered by the understanding that you are a child of God—that you are called to a higher plane of living. Maybe you know that there is no way on earth you will be able to live as you have been called without God’s help. And so, maybe, you find yourselves awaking with a prayer that God will help you be love in this day.
After having spent a few verses telling us how we should not behave, the author of Colossians turns to let us see the positive means of behaving as those who have been chosen by God. We are to be holy, compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient. That’s a tall order for those of us who awake with completely opposite leanings. Being asked to be other than we are is next to impossible, it seems. It’s so much easier to complain about others—to acknowledge how others are not doing what we want them to do—how they fail to live up to our expectations. It is so much more fun to get exercised over things and to live in a state of unforgiveness.
But the higher way—the better way—the way that leads away from heart attacks and high blood pressures—is the way of love. The way of love is the way of peace. But to get to that way we have to first be willing to forgive others for not being the way we want them to be and to realize that there is not a human who exists that can live up to our desires for them. We have to let people be who they are. We have to look at what we like about them and celebrate that. We celebrate that by offering gratitude for those things in that person and the more we major on those celebrations the more our perspectives change from negative to positive.
Once we’ve begun that practice, all we need to do is to focus on our inner selves. When we put our spirits in the right disposition, everything else will flow into place. Frederick Buechner has said, “And deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome some day, by God's grace, by helping the seed of the kingdom grow in ourselves and in each other until finally in all of us it becomes a tree where the birds of the air can come and make their nests in our branches. That is all that matters really."
Maybe you can see the tree blossoming in you has you seek the kingdom of God within your own heart. Maybe you can see the seeds sprouting forth as even in small inklings to extend God’s love and maybe one day, if we all commit ourselves to living as Paul encourages, we might just be a forest of beautiful spiritual life where the world is a better place because we are here. May we strive for that! Amen.
Colossians 3:12-17
“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Maybe you are like me. Maybe you wake up each morning aware of your proclivities toward anger, malice and abusive language that easily floats from your lips. Maybe you awake with such an awareness that is immediately countered by the understanding that you are a child of God—that you are called to a higher plane of living. Maybe you know that there is no way on earth you will be able to live as you have been called without God’s help. And so, maybe, you find yourselves awaking with a prayer that God will help you be love in this day.
After having spent a few verses telling us how we should not behave, the author of Colossians turns to let us see the positive means of behaving as those who have been chosen by God. We are to be holy, compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient. That’s a tall order for those of us who awake with completely opposite leanings. Being asked to be other than we are is next to impossible, it seems. It’s so much easier to complain about others—to acknowledge how others are not doing what we want them to do—how they fail to live up to our expectations. It is so much more fun to get exercised over things and to live in a state of unforgiveness.
But the higher way—the better way—the way that leads away from heart attacks and high blood pressures—is the way of love. The way of love is the way of peace. But to get to that way we have to first be willing to forgive others for not being the way we want them to be and to realize that there is not a human who exists that can live up to our desires for them. We have to let people be who they are. We have to look at what we like about them and celebrate that. We celebrate that by offering gratitude for those things in that person and the more we major on those celebrations the more our perspectives change from negative to positive.
Once we’ve begun that practice, all we need to do is to focus on our inner selves. When we put our spirits in the right disposition, everything else will flow into place. Frederick Buechner has said, “And deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome some day, by God's grace, by helping the seed of the kingdom grow in ourselves and in each other until finally in all of us it becomes a tree where the birds of the air can come and make their nests in our branches. That is all that matters really."
Maybe you can see the tree blossoming in you has you seek the kingdom of God within your own heart. Maybe you can see the seeds sprouting forth as even in small inklings to extend God’s love and maybe one day, if we all commit ourselves to living as Paul encourages, we might just be a forest of beautiful spiritual life where the world is a better place because we are here. May we strive for that! Amen.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Self Denial Equals Love
May 7, 2008
Colossians 3:5-11
“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry.) On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”
Mecklenburg Ministries is an organization here in Charlotte whose mission it is to bring interfaith collaboration, foster understanding on racial and ethnic issues and address social needs of our county. This morning I represented St. John’s at a breakfast of supporting churches where 82 congregations of innumerable denominations and religious affiliation were represented.
As I watched and listened this morning, I could see how easy it is for us, as humans, to focus on the differences and to see ourselves as separate. Our culture has been given, as long as I can recall, to the celebration of differences. The “look how different/special I am mentality” says that I matter more than you. There is no humility in that perspective. There is no appreciation of the other in that perspective. Those who live out of such a mentality (probably all of us, if we are honest) are people who easily criticize others and believe that things should be a certain way. Have you ever been the recipient of someone’s criticism and especially someone’s unjustified criticism? When you receive such criticism there is a moment as humans that it is so very hurtful. What makes it hurtful is that the person is not appreciating you for who you are but trying to play God and shape you into who they want you to be. How often does that happen to you?
The good news is that we don’t have to accept the hurt. In that moment we can choose to love. We can choose to let that other person be as they are and we can make a conscious choice to extend our compassion to them.
A man who was honored at the meeting today talked about needing to acknowledge our differences in order to find our commonalities. I think that must be true especially for those who start from a place of being human but I would challenge us to start from a place of being spiritual. I think that is the challenge of this scripture.
When we understand ourselves as spiritual beings we automatically have a commonality that binds us in love. We have no need to engage in separatist emotion such as anger, etc. We practice unity. We have no need to criticize others. We just appreciate them for who they are. We are able to humble ourselves and in so doing we find joy.
Paul understands that the old life stems from a human place where the self is cherished but the new life stems from a spiritual place where we find richness in focus on the other—where we find unity—where we find love.
This week, my challenge for all of us, is to conquer the fear that it takes to really be honest with ourselves and to take a self-evaluation. How many people have I rendered any judgment upon? How have I separated my self from others rather than reaching out in unity? What will it take for me to live a life that denies the self and embraces true love?
Mecklenburg Ministries is putting feet to the challenge of embracing our commonalities, may we find ways to do the same. Amen.
Colossians 3:5-11
“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry.) On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”
Mecklenburg Ministries is an organization here in Charlotte whose mission it is to bring interfaith collaboration, foster understanding on racial and ethnic issues and address social needs of our county. This morning I represented St. John’s at a breakfast of supporting churches where 82 congregations of innumerable denominations and religious affiliation were represented.
As I watched and listened this morning, I could see how easy it is for us, as humans, to focus on the differences and to see ourselves as separate. Our culture has been given, as long as I can recall, to the celebration of differences. The “look how different/special I am mentality” says that I matter more than you. There is no humility in that perspective. There is no appreciation of the other in that perspective. Those who live out of such a mentality (probably all of us, if we are honest) are people who easily criticize others and believe that things should be a certain way. Have you ever been the recipient of someone’s criticism and especially someone’s unjustified criticism? When you receive such criticism there is a moment as humans that it is so very hurtful. What makes it hurtful is that the person is not appreciating you for who you are but trying to play God and shape you into who they want you to be. How often does that happen to you?
The good news is that we don’t have to accept the hurt. In that moment we can choose to love. We can choose to let that other person be as they are and we can make a conscious choice to extend our compassion to them.
A man who was honored at the meeting today talked about needing to acknowledge our differences in order to find our commonalities. I think that must be true especially for those who start from a place of being human but I would challenge us to start from a place of being spiritual. I think that is the challenge of this scripture.
When we understand ourselves as spiritual beings we automatically have a commonality that binds us in love. We have no need to engage in separatist emotion such as anger, etc. We practice unity. We have no need to criticize others. We just appreciate them for who they are. We are able to humble ourselves and in so doing we find joy.
Paul understands that the old life stems from a human place where the self is cherished but the new life stems from a spiritual place where we find richness in focus on the other—where we find unity—where we find love.
This week, my challenge for all of us, is to conquer the fear that it takes to really be honest with ourselves and to take a self-evaluation. How many people have I rendered any judgment upon? How have I separated my self from others rather than reaching out in unity? What will it take for me to live a life that denies the self and embraces true love?
Mecklenburg Ministries is putting feet to the challenge of embracing our commonalities, may we find ways to do the same. Amen.
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