Love Salt Water

I've been visiting around Massachusetts with long time friends after spending quite a bit of time in Maine. The ocean here is very different from the ocean in Myrtle Beach. I love them both. The south has water that is really easy to swim in, both because it is warm and because the beaches are perfect sand with hardly a pebble or shell to interfere with walking or lying in the sand. In the north the ocean has a distinct smell. I can remember when I lived away from the shore that we would all smell the salt water as we went through a town abouy 10 miles from the ocean. Iy is a very subtle but appealing smell that immediately brings up that feeling of being at the beach. You don't smell the ocean like that in the south. I miss that when I'm down in Myrtle Beach. I went out fishing with a friend the other day and I caught a number of striped bass, the biggest was 30 inches. I watch the people fish in Myrtle Beach and my friend Dave and I would look at those fish that make the people so happy and say "Bait!!" Up north we would use 10 inch herring as swim bait to catch the big stripes bass in the late spring. It doesn't really matter though north or south. I'm just so glad that God gave me the ocean. I love the ocean. I love salt water.

Away I Go

Spent two nights on Cape Cod with friends and as usual the time was good but short. They feed me the most delicious food and the company is always great. Had dinner last evening with my hosts and another couple who have been friends. Always nice to reconnect. Today I'm off on another leg of my journey up to the town where I was born to spend two nights with another couple that were very close friends for Marsha and I and ultimately important in our Christian journeys. It still never ceases to amaze me how many people  I have in my life that in a single moment it is like we have seen each other every day for years. It is almost as if time has been suspended since the last time we were together and yet we are sharing about all the things that have happened since our last visit. Less than three weeks now until my 50th class reunion followed by my return to my Myrtle Beach home. Very much looking forward to my reunion and seeing folks I haven't seen in years and spending time with others that have had a real place in my heart all these years although our lives have been separated by time and events. Headed back to Maine in a few days for the final push in helping to prepare for my departure, Forrest departing with me and Dan & Jess departing for their move to Alaska. Busiest time is yet to come in those final two weeks. God continue to give me strength, and wisdom.

Paths Crossed

I will always say that I have been and in fact continue to be a lucky man. I can hear one of my long time friends now saying, "What is this luck of which you speak?" He both sees our own responsibility in directing our lives and knows that God's hand is also working along the way if we let Him. In line with that thinking perhaps I would be more accurate if I said I am a fortunate man. I have been spending time with family and friends this summer as many of you know. The family part, including my daughter, my son and my grandadults are a given they as a natural progression of my family line. I am no less fortunate in this area than the other in that they all make me happy and I enjoy being with them. It is the non family group that surprises me every time. I should not be surprised but I am. I am fortunate that my life continues to cross paths with some extraordinary people. I will end this week sleeping in four different beds and spending time in four different homes. Among the many people with whom my path has crossed these four are very special ones to me, but so many others are as well. In these four homes, in our relationships, God has created a unique place for all of us. God is clearly in the midst of our time, sometimes in what we say, sometimes just in what we know, often in our shared memories of events where we have seen God's hand move powerfully. We walk into a room together after a year or so and we are not just flooded with the memories of happy times together of ball games and parties, but the added memories that remind us of all God has done and all God can do. Relationships that continue to build our confidence in a God who never fails, who was and is and is to come, who sits in our midst always sometimes when we're unaware. I will go back to Myrtle Beach after having really spent time with a select few of those lives that have crossed paths with me in this way, where God's hand would be remembered as well as sharing life. That's what makes me such a fortunate man. I go back to Myrtle Beach knowing that God has opened the door in a new arena in my life where my life is already crossing paths with more people. A life where we share not only warm positive happy times but added to that the obvious hand of God at work in our lives. And on it goes, I am a fortunate man.

On The Road Again

My blog may be a little different and sporadic over the next week because once agin I'm on the road living out of a suitcase and visiting friends for a couple of nights here and a couple of nights there. I have had some adventures though. On Wednesday of this week I got up at three to take Dana & Jessica into the deeo north woods of Maine to begin their 16 day 100 mile wilderness canoe adventure. We drove for four and a half hours from highway to byway to smooth dirt to narrow smooth dirt to narrow unsmooth dirt to rough even narrower roads. We stopped at the gate of a carry trail to reach Alligash Lake and the start od their adventure. Well the short easy carry turned out to be long and hilly and not so easy, and anything that could go wrong did go wrong but exhausted I managed to help them achieve their goal before I left for home. By this time I was hot and sweaty and tired and I had seen more bugs than I care to mention. The bud spray helped a lot but they still buzzed around your head even if they didn't land to bite.
I started toward home on those same road but while I was helping them a grader had rough up about four miles of one of the dirt roads. which are made for logging trucks. I no sooner got into this graded area where about four inches was loosened rocky soil then one of the famous Maine chisel stones took out the left rear tire. Once again anything that could go wrong did go wrong. I sprained two fingers trying to get the back hatch open on the Jeep Cherokee because I didn't watch close enough when Dana hit the vehicle in various place as he lifted the latch to open it. I gave up in frustration. Now I'm leaning from the back seat to get the spare tire and I hoped a jack, but when I got the tire loose no jack. I went to glove compartment and found out where the jack was located and the started to remove the flat tire placing the jack under the rear axle in the position recommended by the manual. I got the tire off with some difficulty but as I retrieved the spare tire from the back seat the car fell off the jack from the loose soils in which it was sitting, and now the jack won't fit under the axle. The whole time I am being swarmed by bugs and in my frustration they are driving me nuts as I'm trying to figure out what to do. I did survive the bugs but I had to take frequent respites in the car to restore my sanity. I was so far out not a single vehicle past me in the more than an hour it took me to finish the job with a lot of effort, much prayer and God's help. I then got back in the Jeep Cherokee and prayed I wouldn't pop another tire before I got out of that newly graded section, and then the other four hours home with no cruise control and cramping achy legs. So if your one of my facebook friends and read my status you now have some understanding of my day and the hurt that still follows. The worst part I still can't bend my fingers well enough to hold a golf club, oh no, poor me!!! Good thing I'm on the road and wouldn't being playing golf for a week anyway.

Hypocrites

Luke 10:15-17  Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.


That word so often pointed at people in the church. I've heard so many young people say that word in relation to people they know in the church, but I want to just clear something up. They tell me that the church is full of people who don't live by what the church proclaims. I would say that is true. As humans we struggle to live our highest ideal, and we can get caught with our words and actions not matching. As a priest I used to wonder how to change this impression of the church, but when I realizes that they were right I had to think about the issue again. It's clear to me that we do not have an intention to act contrary to our proclaimed beliefs. We are not hypocrites by plan but by weakness.


I have ended up now confronting those words about the church when I hear them. I point out that the rest of the world as as much hypocrites as those in the church. All of us humans fail at matching our words and actions. I don't get a single argument when I make that statement. I then talk of how many in the church do improve at keeping their highest ideals as time goes on and they allow God to help them achieve  God's ideals. So let's admit that we are all hypocrites in one way or another and face our need to make our words and actions match. And if your one of my church folks let the Holy Spirit help you reach those highest of ideals.

How Long

Luke 13:6-9  And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”


I hear Jesus saying, give me something, just something, you don't have to be the whole grove but give me something please. Fruit trees usually don't produce much fruit at first. Both the amount of fruit and the quality of fruit improve as time goes on. It is important that the tree gets good care, with fertilizing and watering and protection from attack by parasites and other pests. They also need pruning to allow the most productive areas to get the maximum nutrition from the roots.


Jesus will quench our thirst, protect us from the evil one, point out what needs to be pruned from our lives, and provide all the SON we need to bear fruit. I hear many people speak as though they are not ready to bear fruit; they need more time to develop as Christians. Jesus is patient beyond belief, at least he has been with me, but I have to think he is often saying, give me something, just something please. You must be mature enough by now to give me at least the first small deformed apple, give me something please. 


The image in this story and the story about Jesus as the vine with us as the branches provide haunting images of threes cut down and branches burned. I think Jesus is saying that he has provided all we need to grow and develop. Producing fruit is the sign of our really being part of Him, of knowing Him. Those who produce nothing are pretenders who really haven't known him at all. People often ask of God, "How long Lord?", but they don't see that God is asking the same question of us. God has been providing and providing and providing for us and he wants to know how long he should wait for something just something, please.

Big Deal Over Nothing

Luke 12:54-56  He also said to the multitudes, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?


I was just reading about the concern in France over mass suicide because of the predictions about the apocalypse. Europe is in a clear rapid decline in religious involvement of the population and yet they fear the second coming enough to commit suicide. It just doesn't make sense to me. I even know Christians who get hung up in that worry about the final days. The sad part is that for many they face the idea with an attitude of dread. Death has no sting for me, and the end times holds no dread for me. I focus on Jesus and no that my redeemer lives and that his death holds within it my death, and his rising has already raised me to eternal life with him if I don't allow this world to distract me or take my belief in him away.


Some people say what if your wrong? Well if I'm wrong I'm dead and there is no resurrection. I'm just dead and I still have nothing to worry about. I'm just in the grave like everyone else and life is over but I'm not in pain or suffering. If I'm right in my faith in Jesus then I worry for those who have denied Him. 


You know I just don't see the big deal. The signs I see don't call me to worry more, they call me to love more, to give more, to pray more for others, and other responses that Jesus would want. Yes the world turns away from God, it has from the beginning. Is that a surprise to someone? Yes it seems the same old story plays again and again as greed and selfish desires become the desired traits of a world gone mad. I don't see the big deal because to me it is just the same old story waiting for a happy ending. It's just a big deal over nothing.

Where's Your Treasure

Luke 12:32-34  “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.


Like yesterday's passage Jesus does not leave us room to desire wealth on this earth. Every time we settle back into the accumulate money and stuff mode he seems to hit us again with a different demand. Sell he says, not even stop accumulating, but sell. Wow we need to get rid of stuff so we can give our wealth as alms. I have certainly struggled with Jesus teaching about our possessions. I think the fear not little flock part aims right at me. I don't want to be poor. I grew up somewhat poor and although I can't say life was ever bad, I can say I don't want to be poor. I'm not rich so sometimes I hold myself out of this picture because I can avoid what I accumulate by comparing myself to others who have so much more. It is easy to lull yourself to comfort when we should feel like you're sitting on pins and needles. 


I was watching "Slumdog Millionaire" the other day and although India is making strides to emerge from poverty, only the upper casts are really given that opportunity. The lower casts still live in complete poverty. I sit in my easy chair watching my HD flatscreen TV with cable and DVR and eat three full meals a day. In a couple of days I will be dropping off my son and his Jessica for their 100 mile wilderness adventure through the Alligash ending near the Canadian border. They have planned carefully and the food will not be scarce on this trip even though it is a hardship trip by canoe through the great wilderness. I wonder where my treasure is and I wonder where I've taught my children to find there's. Where's your treasure?

Covetousness

Luke 12:15  And he said to them,“Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”


Abundance seems to be everything to most Americans, even those who don't have anything. Even the poor covet being rich. I've always thought that covetousness, the tenth commandment, was the one we humans almost all have trouble with. Sometimes I think people put Jesus words in the context of wanting something that someone else has in their possession, but read it again. Life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. It is not just wanting what others possess, it is in having what others should possess. As I sit here going back and forth between my Ibook laptop, and my Ipad, soon to be in the car heading for the golf course listening to my Ipod, I feel that conspicuous listen to yourself Boynton voice of God stabbing at me. I knowI'm one of the almost all humans are covetous people. I have more than I NEED while others have less than they NEED. I could say I worked hard for this, but that doesn't solve the God problem. I was lucky to be born with smart genes, does that mean I should have a life of abundance. Jesus in the parable of the talents did not let the servants keep the results of their labor, he required that they be given to the master and then they received the reward. We want the reward when we keep the benefits of his generosity for ourselves, as if we are entitled to so much more because we deserve abundance.


I didn't even spend time on the word before covetousness in the gospel. That three letter word all. He didn't excuse a little or expect that we would be entitled to some. He said all covetousness. Jesus never let's us rest in comfort if we take his words seriously.

Eggshells

Luke 11:53-54  As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say.


Have you ever felt like someone was examining every word and just looking for the an opportunity to pounce on anything you said? I can relate to that for sure. That old saying when you get the feeling your walking on eggshells. That feeling like the ground beneath you is fragile and danger is everywhere. Marsha loved me more than any other person in my lifetime, but at times I was walking on eggshells in my house. I could feel it in the air sometimes like I haven't done anything yet but she is looking for something today. 


I felt thta way at times in my church ministry. I would be with a couple with marital issues and feel like I was just backed into a no min corner where no matter what I say it is a trap. The reality is we are, like Jesus, meant to face those situations with honesty and integrity no matter what the trap. We can lose ourselves in fear of everyone else's reaction to what we say or do. I have two goals that I probably will never be able to completely achieve. First I need to be myself not the person everyone else thinks I should be. Second I need to be the real me, the one God created me to be, the one more like Jesus, the one who hears his word and keeps it. At my best, no eggshells for me.

Alms For The Poor

Luke 11:37-41  While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you.


Practicing internal alms giving was a strange idea when I read this. Jesus said, "Give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you." In general alms are given to the church and to the needy. Usually I would think of those alms in terms of money or needed material items. Sometimes it is food for the poor or coats for the clothing drive.  It sounds like Jesus is saying we can give those alms and not be clean. He points to the inside and wants our gifts to come from there in order to be clean. 


In another passage of scripture Jesus takes the opposite position saying that it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. He seems to minimize the outward physical manifestations while enhancing the importance of the internal provocations. I do know this much from listening to Jesus, I need to have my insides in the right place but the outsides can just be for show if my heart is not right. Alms given from empathy and compassion are very different to Jesus from alms given from obligation, fear or pride. What do we invest the most in cleaning, the outside for appearance or the inside for holiness? Where do your alms come from?

Keep It!

Luke 11:27-28  As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”


Blessed for hearing AND keeping. It is so easy to be smug when we spend time to hear the word of God. For some that means attending church on Sunday and listening to the sermon. For others it might include church and reading the bible every day. Still others might mean that they add to those prayer time listening for Jesus voice and feeling his affirmation as they pray. All those approaches are somewhat admirable, but they don't necessarily complete the desired process. The KEEP IT part, that is the most difficult part isn't it.


Jesus is the word, the Logos, of God so hearing the word is his verbal words but also his example, what he did. We need to hear what he said about prayer, we need to listen to the sermon on the mount, we need to listen to his speaking to the crowds and to his disciples, we need to hear what he said the those he challenged and those he chose. At the same time we need to see all the things he did, he fasted, he prayed, he healed, he served, he commissioned others, all these and more are his word as well. He even said that what he did was as an example so that we might do likewise. He didn't say his mother was not blessed exactly, but clearly wanted the focus on those who acted on his WORD. I am challenged by this every day, are you?

Who Scatters?

Luke 11:23  He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.


Perhaps another question is what do we gather and scatter? This line sits in the middle of a passage about the authority to cast out evil. I do however take seriously anything Jesus says that might imply that I could be against him. I don't want to be a scatterer. I choose to be with him as a gatherer. The message of Jesus is that the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We are to gather others into this kingdom and if we don't gather than we scatter. If we don't think it is important enough to gather others into this kingdom than we are scatterers, sending them away from the Kingdom of Heaven. He doesn't have seats for observers. He does have room for indulgers who seek grace for themselves but not to help them gather in others. Gather or scatter, for or against, such important choices.

Pentecost

Today is the celebration of Pentecost. I did not say that today is Pentecost although I am writing to say that that is probably more accurate than the former. I define Pentecost as the day the Holy Spirit was sent, poured out on the believers. The celebration of that day in Jerusalem is important. The power displayed that day was to introduce a power for the ages. The many languages spoken was important to show that this power was meant for the world not for a single place. I'm not trying to minimize the celebration aspect of Pentecost. In the church at times we do too much remembering of events, and not enough living of their continuing reality. It seems like we go Christmas check, Epiphany check, Ash Wednesday check, Lent check, Easter check and so on through the year. As events pass by we check them off and move on. Each of those events however are really continual. Their reality is present not past and they are every day realities not one day a year realities. Today is Pentecost you see but so is tomorrow and the next and all the others through the years. Pentecost has been the reality every day since that first Pentecost day. Easter has been every day since that first Easter. Christ has forever taken on human flesh since his incarnation that first Christmas. They may have happened chronologically in the life of Jesus but they happen eternally in ours. I see Pentecost moments almost every day, and I know that the days I don't see any is because of me not because the Holy Spirit has stopped acting trough human hands and hearts and minds. Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to say Happy Pentecost, it might help us and others to get the message.

Distracted

Luke 10:40-42  But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”


Mary recognized who was with her. She was not going to wait on tables and miss the greatest opportunity in the world. Martha was caught up in conventional thought, she was busy doing the socially right thing. She , according to Jesus, was distracted from the most important thing in order to perform the right duties. This has always been a hard one for some people because Martha was criticized for doing the right thing. I'm afraid however that is a warning for us all. Every morning I get up and spend time in prayer, but at times I think I am just doing the right thing. At times I think I'm distracted by forms and rituals and old practices and doing the right things. My heart may even be in a place where the right thing wants to praise or honor God, but all the while Jesus is right there waving his hands and jumping up and down and yelling here I am here I am, and I'm missing the greatest opportunity ever. I could be with Jesus and instead I'm distracted by my forms and formulas and good things and right things. Mary cast aside convention to just sit with him and listen. She recognized who was with her that day. Lord help me recognize that you are with me today. Do you see him over there waving and jumping up and down saying your name and wanting you to spend time with him?

To Justify Ourselves

Luke 10:29  But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”


I find in my life that human nature leads to most people giving a justification for their mistakes. You might hear, "I did it, but" and you can fill in the blank for the but part. Even with the big but people would tell you that they accept responsibility for their actions, but listening carefully you know it isn't true. We humans hate to be wrong about anything and when we are or think we might be we try to squirm one way or the other to spread the blame around. It is never the fault of one person as an explanation for a divorce is one example. What that means is that neither one of them will accept the responsibility for their part.
In the gospel the young man in order to justify himself wants to narrow the definition of neighbor, but Jesus widens the definition with the story of the good samaritan who saves the beaten man on the road. It widens the definition because for a Jew a bloody man would be avoided, but Jesus wants to point out that even the outcast is our neighbor. You can't justify a lack of accepting responsibility because they don't fit your definition of neighbor, Jesus doesn't allow it. So who is your neighbor and how do you show it? 

Blessed To See

Luke 10:23-24  Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Blessed are we when we see God. I think people all look at the same things. We look at creation and we see beauty in different things. I live in South Carolina now and continue to love the ocean and the beach. I was saying last night when my son was talking about the specialness of the first snow, that for me it is the first odd day in January or February when it is still winter but for one day it is warm and I go to the beach in my bathing suit and lay out in the sun. We view beauty differently looking at the same world. I think we look at ourselves and other people and we see things differently as well. I know people who don't trust anyone and people who trust everyone. They view people very differently indeed. I think we view God differently, some can't see God in anything while others see God in everything. I think we all look for things that will give our lives enjoyment, meaning, and purpose and we see those intangibles in different things. Jesus states in this gospel that many powerful and intelligent folks looked for what the disciples see and did not see it. I have a wooden sign on my counter at home which many of you have probably seen in one place or another. The sign says Jesus but the word is in light color and the background dark. Because we are used to reading dark letters on a light background people can look and look and not see the word. Once however you have seen it, you will always see the word in the future. For me that is what I experienced in really seeing God clearly for the first time. It was not with my physical eye but with a more important spiritual one that I first saw who Jesus is. Indeed my life has been blessed to have seen it, I was looking and looking for something to make sense of everything else I see, and finally I saw it. I'm a lucky guy who caught a glimpse of the right thing, still luckier that Marsha saw it too. Blessed beyond measure that the clarity of the view has gotten better and better through the years as God works at making my spiritual eyes 20/20. I pray you too will be blessed to see.

Just Go!

Luke 10:17  The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”


I love being a priest, did I ever tell you that. I've held newborns before their fathers and grandparents. Imagine that, a baby handed to me because I'm invited into lives at precious moments just because I was their priest. I didn't have to pay the normal dues to join the club of trusted family and friends, I was just admitted free of charge again and again into precious personal times both fun and challenging. I've learned a lot about myself and people and God in those moments and like the disciples returning I have rejoiced at the power of God I've seen in those moments. I too was sent two by two not into every moment of my journey but I always had Marsha to share the road with me. Often I couldn't even tell her what I'd experienced in the privacy of those moments, but I always knew she was praying for me and sharing our journey. I think our prayer so often put me in the right place at the right time. Many of God's little miracles in my ministry happened as God changed my day in the middle of life and brought me at the exact moment I should be there to the right place. I've always had the feeling that without Marsha's part in that journey I wouldn't have been so perceptive of where God wanted me. This trip started long before I was ordained and blessed us all along the way, even before I thought of being ordained. I really do value all that I've learned about myself and people and God along the way. It all happened because were sent two by two, but also because we said yes and went. Have you gone? Will you go?

Easy?

Luke 9:57-60  As they were going along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But he said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”


How easy it is to say that we will follow Jesus anywhere? The man in the gospel probably even meant it, but he probably also thought that following Jesus would be such any easy road.  I had a friend who used to say it was so much easier when she wasn't a Christian, and I always disagreed. Perhaps in light of this scripture I was premature. I was confusing a better life with an easier life. I would not trade my life following Jesus for any other and yet, I think too often I'm still looking for the easier life in this world. If Jesus is our model and is speaking of his life when he says "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”  How can we expect anything different?  


I'm sitting here this morning in my prayer time aching a little from torturing my own body with 54 holes of golf yesterday. I slept real good last night and feel much better this morning than I did before bed last night, but I was a little whiny last night. Meanwhile some people actually hurt from lack of shelter and a lack of food, and I'm not speaking of the ones like me that torture themselves with bad choices. Life is not easy for any of us, but it is much easier for some of us. The problem is my lack of ease is meant to come from my effort on flowing the master not from striving to indulge myself with more. Silly me.

Have No Fear

Matthew 10:26-28  “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, utter in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim upon the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.


What do most people fear? Poverty? Illness? Loneliness? We fear other people and wat they might do to us so we protect ourselves by grabbing on to things we hope will keep us safe. Without even recognizing the motivation we limit our lives by our lack of trust. The youth retreat called happening has a talk called masks which is close to the starting point of the weekend. The speaker gives examples of their own life putting on masks by pretending to be something their not. If we can't be ourselves it is a sign that we don't trust someone. The Christian group "Casting Crowns" has a song called "The Stained Glass Masquerade" that asks if we are tiny plastic people in our tiny plastic steeples or if we could take off our masks and be real. You can see the most dangerous to pretend to be without fear or to be in control, like drugs alcohol, sex and violence. Many people use those to cope or control so their fear is put asleep for awhile. Can you imagine yourself proclaiming from the housetop what God has whispered through scripture or prayer? What prevents you? Perhaps you could even think of a less dramatic expression of your faith to the world, what prevents you from expressing it? If we can't share our faith with others because we fear what might happen to our bodily lives, we endanger our soul.

Masterful Servant

Luke 9:46-48  An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But when Jesus perceived the thought of their hearts, he took a child and put him by his side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me; for he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”


How do you measure greatness? What is it that makes you think someone is great? Is it some particular ability? Perhaps greatness is their intelligence, or power, or fame or fortune. I don't know your answer, but I think you can miss who Jesus meant. The term translated child here could mean a young person, but it could also have been anyone from what we might call the underclass. It could have been a homeless man. It might have been the person he just healed of a demon. It doesn't matter all that much because I believe Jesus is saying it is himself who is the greatest. We get a hint in the gospel of John with the foot washing at the last supper. Jesus washes their feet and then speaks of their calling him master and he says so he is, but he came to serve and showed it again in their midst by doing the slaves task. The master is the one who serves, the greatest is the one who serves the underclass, the lowliest in society, the outcast.

Again and again the disciples who saw Jesus ministry first hand, seemed to want power or fame or some other reward for following him, even after he said to them if you want to be my disciples pick up your cross and follow me. They were looking for an advantage for themselves and a better life when Jesus said die to self and you shall live. Often we pick and choose the parts of the gospel that suit our life and our desires and miss this importance of serving the outcast and the underclass. Who in that situation was the greatest, Jesus the Christ. master of all and servant of all.

Mountains & Valleys

Luke 9:35-36  And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.


Once again here comes the mountaintop experience. I had many of them and during most of them I heard God speak in one way or another. I'm not saying I saw Jesus transfigured or heard an outward booming voice from heaven or anything. That must have been simply unbelievable for those few disciples. Like most mountaintop experiences however it's like the old saying about the rich man's money, "You can't take it with you." The disciples seemed to forget quickly. Instead of listening to him they sought to control him. When he spoke about his coming death Peter rebuked him and Jesus said that famous line, "Get behind me satan." to Peter. Or the brothers trying to get the seats at his right and left in his kingdom. The mountaintop didn't seem to have all that much effect when it came to listening to him. I stopped chasing mountaintops a long time ago. That doesn't mean they stop happening. It just means I take what I can get from them, but no the valley is where the listening to him is most important. Pursue Jesus daily and he will surprise you, amaze you, inspire you, shock you with mountaintop moments, but more important guide you and strengthen you for valley life.

For Them Or All

Matthew 28:16-20  Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”


Today is Ascension Day and we remember the day that Jesus ascended to heaven before the eyes of the disciples. This day is a day of triumph for Jesus as the resurrected one returns to heaven and picks up the divinity he set aside to be born human. W could find enough meaning for the day in just this wonderful note of triumph. God wins. But today is also the day we hear the last words of Jesus resounding through time. The words of what the church calls the great commission continue to be the timeless words of Jesus partly because they were his last earthly words. The words spoken to the disciples during the night we call the Last Supper are others that for me leap out in importance. I'm not minimizing all the other words and teaching that was given by Jesus during his ministry, but I have always thought certainly he would say only important words when he knew his time was very short. On this occasion Jesus gives instructions to the disciples about what they are now commissioned to do. I think even among these words we sometimes misplace the emphasis. I think the church has put the focus on "baptizing all nations", and neglected the "teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you". He didn't want just a body count of how many people have been baptized, but rather to make disciples who follow his teaching and his commands. I don't think he thought the those few disciples were going to make disciples of all nations. That would be the context if those words were only aimed at the disciples present with him on that mountain in Galilee. No I believe he wanted those words to be the commission for all of us as well. Not just words for a few but words for all believers. In order to fulfill Jesus last words we must first be willing to learn all he taught and commanded, and then to teach others all he taught and commanded, so they too can be disciples. He wants everyone to be included, the whole world. Are you ready to hear and live by his last words? Well start or continue learning and teaching!!