Had a great conversation with friends last night about the readings we've been doing. We're provoked and prodded and hungry for more! Must go back and look at Romans 7 together, and perhaps all of Romans. Excited at how God is stirring us a desire to receive more and more of the Word, so that in us the Word might become flesh and move out into the neighborhood! Giving thanks for all who are on the journey with us! Hope you are finding unexpected joy and hope!
Mark 9 & 10
What we call in theological terms, the Transfiguration. A transformation that is thorough, renewal from the inside out, and visible-a change in outward form or appearance, producing glory. Shimmering. Glistening white (white as redeemed, pure, help to solidify racism against people color--after all, "its biblical", even if metaphor. Still used today). Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking. For me, this illustrates that the OT folks who were before Jesus were in the same salvation line from God that all who came after the birth of Jesus receive. But they never "named the name" of Jesus...and yet they could speak from the heavenly realms to Jesus?! In the beginning was the Word...before all else was created, God's plan of salvation, of eternal life, was enacted.
"This is my Son, marked by my love. Listen to him." My tendency is to think that if I'd been there, I'd have gotten "it", with no further doubts or failures...ever. But wait, there's more! If these three "top" disciples who witness this intense revelation don't get it and totally change their lives and belief, what makes me think that my faith must be infallible? Not that I neglect it or walk away, but expecting perfection...not so likely.
"After the Son of Man rises from the dead, you're free to talk." Sure suggests that we ought to be flapping our gums telling folks the story...which is what the disciples finally did when they burst out from the Pentecost room...and since then, our charge has been to tell the world...
What on earth does "rising from the dead" mean?
The man with the demon possessed son, whom the left behind disciples couldn't help. "What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here."
"If you can do anything. Have a heart and help us." "If? There are no ifs among believers. Anything can happen." Do you believe that? Can God work beyond our comprehension and disbelief? "Then I believe. Help me with my doubt." Remember that God accepts the faith we have...it doesn't have to be huge--parable of mustard seed--that small amount of faith can produce great things. Imagine if we gain more faith! Don't we sell God short a lot of the time?!
"There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer."
"The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God." That stuck on me this morning, especially as I place myself in the crowd of the crucifixion. I'd like to think otherwise, that I'd have courage to speak against the crowd...maybe. But if not, then I am in the company of those who "want nothing to do with God."
Disciples argue on the road about who's best and brightest...especially arguing are those who'd been on the mountain with Jesus. "Be a servant. Embrace these children as I do."
"Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn't in our group." 'Nuff said. Isn't this the story of all of the "tribes" of religion who have "the" way", the formula, the remedy, and the only way? Who are we to limit when and how God will act? And therefore to limit who and how God will save?! Sticks in my craw...can you tell?! "Don't stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful and in the next breath cut me down. If he's not an enemy, he's an ally. Why, anyone, just by giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice." And don't abuse folks like that guy, who simply believe and trust, but don't subscribe to all of what you do. You'll wish you hadn't. Don't get in God's way! "Everyone's going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you'll be well-preserved, protected from the eternal flames. Be preservatives yourself. Preserve the peace."
Divorce. Again. Such a hard teaching for those who have been through divorce, especially women, as they had no rights in the day the Bible was written. Should they have rights today? What if they man and woman are two individuals, not in unity, perhaps not ever in unity, in genuine love and kindness? And especially what happens today if the man has been an adulterer? Does the woman have the same right of leaving as he does?
EP: "The people were interested in appearance, not righteousness. They wanted to do things so they would look good. Moses gave permission. Didn't command it, but gave permission. God provides ways for us to get out of situations that are intolerable, so that the tragic consequences can be limited. Divorce is one of those situations. We're never abandoned to struggle hopelessly. God provides wisdom, guidance, and merciful exceptions to help us. The permission Moses gave regarding divorce was, in the context of the moral law, a means for realizing mercy so that we aren't forced to live forever with our mistakes or the mistakes of others. Jesus' focus was on God's design for marriage. That's the structure from which we must work. Divorce isn't part of the design, but it is a detail of its maintenance. Like so many of us, the Pharisees took that detail and turned it into a means of justifying themselves. By asking the divorce question-"Is it legal?"-they were trying to find the minimum they could do and still remain in good standing with the law."
"Don't push children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are the very center of life in the kingdom. Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Children had no worth or value in that day. Jesus pulls the worthless into the center of kingdom life, as Jesus always does.
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Is this a call for testimony? For telling the truth of what Jesus has been doing? Do you know what sorts of things this Jesus can do? Got a story? "I've kept all those commandments from my youth." What's with Jesus looking him "hard in the eye--and loving him?" Seeing to the center of his being, and knowing where the stumbling block will be...let me tell you what it is, and see if you're willing to make the sacrifice to follow me. This is not a gentle Jesus look, even though he looked with love. This is a challenging, life altering look, penetrating to the marrow of our bones. Get rid of all of the things that give you life security...and from now on, trust only me for your security. "He walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things , and not about to let go." Sounds a little like some talk from Wednesday night.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" We talked about that Wednesday night. Don't we all, for the most part, have it all? Multiple layers of security systems in our lives, physical and social networks that keep us from falling, keep us from having to depend on the supernatural.
EP: "Jesus looked him hard in the eye--and loved him." Jesus saw into the heart of the man and decided to do what was needed to make him whole. He offered to extricate him from the clutching tentacles that were strangling his life. He offered to rescue him from the wasteland of self-righteousness that was impoverishing him and to make it possible for him to receive God's love and return it. That's what Jesus does for each and every one of us. He looks as us hard in the eyes, discerning exactly what's required for us to be saved, and then he extends a hand of grace to save us. He doesn't say the same thing to all of us, but he does the same thing. Looking us hard in the eyes, Jesus understands all the ways that things have gone wrong in our lives; then he isolates the particular sin that has entrenched itself in our hearts and touches it. And with that touch comes the offer of salvation."
"Who has any chance at all?" "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it."
"Anyone who follows me and sacrifices people, place, things, will get it all back, multiplied many times, but also in troubles." So much for an easy road of faith. Bonus of eternal life. The Great Reversal: many who are first will end up last, and the last first.
James and John still arguing about who's best, worthy of the highest places of honor. "Can you drink the cup I drink, or be baptized in the baptism I'm about to be plunged into?" "Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave...the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and then to give his life away in exchange for many who are held hostage."
Blind Bartimaeus. My call story. "Jesus, have mercy on me!" "What can I do for you?" "I want to see (again)." "Your faith has saved and healed you." He recovered sight and began to follow Jesus down the road. Thanks be to God!
1 Corinthians 5-7
Improper sex acts-adulterous. Bring them out into the open. Cast him out if he doesn't stop. OT and Gentile law forbade such unions as a violationg of community standards. Not a small thing. A little yeast works through a batch of dough. I am challenged here, and will want to do some more reading and study...How does this square with Matthew 18? What's the context of the situation? There are worldview differences from now to then, different thinking patterns, etc.
We are to be the passover bread, the body of Christ, broken and given for the world. simple, genuine, unpretentious.
Not an isolationist approach to the world. Don't act as if everything is fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy or predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. God decides on the outsiders, but within community, we have some responsibility. Chewing...Chapter 5 is devoted to correction that insists we face up to our sin, whether indolence, idolatry, or immorality, we must face it squarely and deal with it decisively.
Followers of Jesus shouldn't sue followers of Jesus. Wonder what about governments and churches?! Practice for the big leagues and solve these things yourself! It's not as if you trust the judges and authorities anyway!? "And here you are taking each other to court before people who don't even believe in God? How can they render justice if they don't believe in the God of justice?" What's it say about our court system and what we can expect? Realize would be real easy to infuse context, but what's the deeper wisdom here?
"Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean it's spiritually appropriate."
"There's more to sex than skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever--the kind of sex that can never "become one." There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belong to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body."
EP: "The body puts love into action, by satisfying longings of pleasure, showing mercy, and demonstrating what is true and real. We never become more spiritual by becoming less physical. Love that doesn't find physical expression is practically invisible; mercy that doesn't find physical expression is merely sentimental; pleasure that doesn't find physical expression is purely fantasy. Some say the body is bad and sex is dangerous. Paul didn't agree. he saw the body as good and sex as good. They're dangerous and distructive not when they're used but when they re misused."
Sex and marriage. Paul is responding to questions he's received from folks via letter, or memo, or email. He's gotten reports and is trying to clear things up. Clearly Paul's marriage context is male-female. Culture. Time. Exclusive for all time? Marriage bed as a place of mutuality; not a place to stand up for your rights, but a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining is OK, if you both agree. Get married if you can't otherwise abstain. Stay single if you can abstain. God gives the gift of either. "The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single." How do these marriage values, including divorce and remarriage, same-gender, and other more contemporary settings read in our context nearly 2000 years post? Paul took seriously the actual conditions of people's lives, in that day and time and what he'd heard, adn gave the best counsel he possibly could. He worked hard at helping them. Paul was clear to tell that his counsel had no divine authority...so should it have divine authority for us? He was writing out of his own experience and reasoning, without any direct word from God (his own words-v.6,12,17,25,40). Trying to be authentic, not authoritarian. Most importantly, God is in our lives, and the invisible God is more real than our visible problems (v.19). Our married status doesn't make us who we are, nor give us our identity. It's not of central importance. It's part of what God uses to shape God's life in us. God defines our life.
Don't try to remove the evidence of who you were before you were called. Obey God's call. Follow God's commands. You are now free. Be it. Clearly Paul is writing in response to what he's heard from and about the people. This is a situational conversation, filled with details from the other side, other writer, other story teller...and we've got to assume them as we read Paul's side and response. "All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions."
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