Awake, Full of Faith and Hope

1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 - But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

 

Some of you might be familiar with Paul’s description of the “Armor of God” in Ephesians.  If you were, you would notice that the version found here is not the same.  This is the value of reflecting on these letters in chronological order.  Here in the first letter to Thessalonica, we see the origin of a metaphor that Paul will develop further and, ten years after this letter was written, we will see that the armor is more than just faith, hope, and love.  When we reflect on Ephesians we’ll talk about the full armor of God.  But as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 (a letter that falls chronologically between Thessalonians and Ephesians)  faith, hope, and love are all that remain, so let’s stay with those for now.

Paul asks to “build each other up” in these three core virtues.  We are to that instead of belonging to the darkness.  The trouble is, it’s really easy to be drawn into the darkness – the darkness  “The hope and love when it seems the whole world, as the saying goes, is going to hell in a handbasket.  That kind of resolve is not unlike a reluctant soldier strapping on armor for a battle she’d rather not fight but she does it anyway because she knows it’s a battle that has to be fought.  Holding each other up in faith, hope, and love in a time of social media rancor, endless death, and multiplying hardships is precisely that kind of struggle.  But Paul is teaching us that that is who we are – we are children of light and not darkness, eternal life and not death, faith and not skepticism, hope and not despair, love and not hate or fear. 

A few years ago, at our current president’s inauguration, a young lady, at least for me, stole the show with her incredible poetic talent and even more impressive poise when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”  It was for me a beautiful expression of what I was talking about above. . .hope in the midst of despair, brave living in the midst of a lot of death, and faith instead of skepticism.  I substitute that reading of Amanda Gorman’s poem for our song today. 

 

Prayer:  God, arm us with all we need to be children of light in the darkness around us.    Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to instill faith, hope, and love in your family in the midst of this 2023 Holy Week.

 

Link: Amanda Gorman – The Hill We Climb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Rn5WULjmc

1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 1 - To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you.  We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.  We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.  You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  And so, you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

 

We move from James, the earliest of the New Testament letters, to 1 Thessalonians, the earliest of the Apostle Paul’s letters.  He writes approx.. 52-53 AD to the church in Thessalonica, a church that he and Silas started and a church that grew quickly in the short time they were there.  The new church drew suspicion from the local authorities and a persecution by those authorities intensified to the point that Paul and Silas had to leave.  This first letter from Paul is his attempt to reconnect with a church he loved dearly.

 

The church has actually thrived under the persecution and in the opening passage above, Paul celebrates the community’s inspiring faith.  Paul lets them know that as he visits other Christian communities, before he can brag on the faith of the church in Thessalonica, people tell him how much they have already heard about the extraordinary faith of the Thessalonians.  They have not only survived the intense persecution; they thrive because of it.  Even though this is only about twenty years after Jesus’s resurrection, this has proven to a trustworthy principle; persecute the church and you can expect it to only grow in numbers and strength.

 

What’s truly inspiring about this strength is that Paul was only in Thessalonica for less than a month.  They largely develop this strength after he has left.  This is why Paul says “our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.”  Paul is in awe of their faith because he knows that it because of what God did, not what he did.  Not only Paul admires their faith; their faith has inspired faith in other communities throughout Macedonia and Achaia. 

 

This first section in the letter is about faith; the next two will be about love and hope.  Where have we heard those three pillars of Christianity before.  Oh wait . . .Paul talks about those same three in his letter to the church at Corinth.  Maybe this could be a theme for Paul?  We’ll see.  In the meantime, let’s review what Paul says about faith here:

 

1)      Faith thrives under pressure

2)      It is more about what God does than what we do.

3)      Faith in action inspires more faith.

 

Questions:  Thinking about your own faith: How has it grown through adversity?  How has it been more of a gift of God than a personal accomplishment? Do others have faith because of your faith?

 

Prayer:  Lord, grow our faith in this time of great adversity.  You can do anything. Be glorified in us in a way that helps others to have faith in you. Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the growth of your church.

 

Song:  Paul Baloche - We Will Hold On

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-UYtYX3M0

Show Me What You Do and I’ll Show You What You Believe

James 2:14-26 - What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?  Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.  And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.  You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

 

Today, we encounter the heart for which the book of James is known – the importance of action over against faith.  James is obviously responding to someone or a group of someone’s that have pontificated on the importance of faith alone.  James believes there is a danger in taking that idea to the extreme and seeks to offer a corrective.  However, I don’t believe James is trying to denigrate the importance of faith as he talks about works.  In my opinion (and I’m not alone), James is actually trying to make an important point about faith itself.  Genuine faith in someone or a certain belief will naturally inform what you actually do.

I’m sitting in a chair right now at my desk.  When I sat down in this chair, I was acting on a belief that I have that this chair will hold me and will not dump me on the floor.  I’m sitting at this desk writing this devotional because I believe that you and others will read it (If I didn’t believe anyone was reading this, I wouldn’t waste my time).  I am currently working to prepare for our worship service this week.  I have faith that others have been preparing as well (PowerPoint, communion, music, etc) so that we will have a meaningful worship service Sunday morning.  So you see, my faith directly informs what I do and what I don’t do.

James is simply trying to get us to think more carefully about what we actually believe and he believes the best way to do that is to look at what you do.  If you believe God is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of the entire universe,  it makes sense that worshipping God would be a priority.  If you believe Jesus taught and showed us how to lead a life of abundance and impact, it would make sense that you would actually work at living into the ways He did.  If you believe sin is not just something that God doesn’t like but is actually harmful to you and others, then it would make sense that you avoid what God has clearly identified as sin.  If you only say that you believe those things and those “beliefs” never change the way you act, James is simply being bold enough to suggest that you might not actually believe those things.  I would agree.

There is an equal danger of overemphasizing action over against faith.  The apostle Paul argues that case eloquently, but that message is for another day.   For now, I encourage us to take a look at what we do each day and what we choose not to do each day.  This leads us to our questions for the day.

 

Question:  What do our daily actions and inactions say about what we actually believe?  Is there any gap in between what we say we believe and how we are willing or unwilling to act on that belief?

 

Prayer:  Lord, we believe in you. Help us in our unbelief.  Show us where we lack integrity between our proclaimed faith and our daily decisions/actions.  Amen.

 

Song:  Screen Door – Rich Mullins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJgpU-43CD4

Condemnation, Snake-Handling, Drinking Poison, Healing, and Faith

Mark 16:15-18, CEB - He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to every creature.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned.  These signs will be associated with those who believe: they will throw out demons in my name. They will speak in new languages.  They will pick up snakes with their hands. If they drink anything poisonous, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

 

There are a handful of things that I wish Jesus did not say and a couple of them are in these few verses above. However, Jesus did say them and so I have to take them seriously.  I’d like to ignore them, but to do so, I would have to be the kind of person that only hears what he wants to hear.  That leads to the first thing above that I wish Jesus did not say; “. . . whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned.”

                We face condemnation when we don’t believe.  I wish Jesus didn’t say that because there have been times when I didn’t believe.  Some of those times, I was mad.  I encountered realities that I did not like and I held them against God.  I turned away.  I encountered suffering that seemed impossible to look at, much less bear, and I held it against God.  Of course, there were other times when what I came to discover about God made me uncomfortable, so I resisted the invitation to believe.  I remember those times of my life as the worst seasons of my life.  So I can tell you from these experiences that despite wishing Jesus had not said it, we are indeed condemned by a refusal to believe.

                We are created by God wired for belief in God.  We thrive when we live in belief and, like a car without a battery, we become stuck and unable to function in the way we were created. To be accurate, we condemn ourselves when we don’t choose to believe.  It is not God being offended and turning away from us, but vice versa. 

                Now for the other thing I wish Jesus didn’t say:

                 “They will pick up snakes with their hands. If they drink anything poisonous, it will not hurt them”

                This has led to people dying from snake bites and/or drinking poison.  This has led to people turning away from the church when they see Christians doing stuff like that.  It seems so obvious that Jesus did not mean for His followers to tempt God by brazenly handling snakes and drinking poison, but that hasn’t stopped people from taking these words literally.  Christianity cults have emerged sporadically since the time this passage was published that build their whole existence upon doing dangerous things like picking up snakes to prove they are among the people who believe. I shouldn’t have to say this, but this practice was not what Jesus had in mind when He said the above words. 

                I have witnessed many miracles when I or others should have died or at least been seriously injured, but they were somehow saved.  I believe that God does protect believers in ways that I cannot describe or explain.  But that does not mean that we should carelessly put ourselves in danger so as to “show off” God’s protection and healing. 

                The point Jesus was making was that, since we are wired for faith, we can accomplish amazing, sometimes even supernatural things when we live with implicit belief that God is with us.  When we cut the faith connection, we live in the condemnation of a life with God’s power at work in us.  Miracles are often the blessing of those who choose to believe, but you don’t have to demonstrate miracles to prove that you believe.  Christianity is not magic show.  It is simply faith-filled living. 

 

Questions:  How does it make you feel when you see others “showing off” their faith?  Have you eve found yourself doing that?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, forgive my moments or even seasons of disbelief.   Help me to trust you for protection and healing without me ever becoming boastful about it. Keep me humble Lord. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for other Christians whose beliefs seem very different from yours today.

 

Song:  House of Miracles – Brandon Lake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26C02Xb9_vI

More Endings to Mark

Mark 16:9-14, CEB - After Jesus rose up early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.  She went and reported to the ones who had been with him, who were mourning and weeping.  But even after they heard the news, they didn’t believe that Jesus was alive and that Mary had seen him.

After that he appeared in a different form to two of them who were walking along in the countryside.  When they returned, they reported it to the others, but they didn’t believe them.  Finally he appeared to the eleven while they were eating. Jesus criticized their unbelief and stubbornness because they didn’t believe those who saw him after he was raised up.

 

                These additions to Mark read like summaries of other works, which is why most scholars believe that they are indeed summaries from other gospel accounts and the book of Acts.  Today’s selection above likely is a combination summary from multiple other sources.  The editor was faithful to themes found earlier in Mark, most notably the highlight of the disciples tendency toward disbelief.  In the Gospel of John, Thomas is the resident skeptic, but here all of the disciples are confronted, eventually by Jesus Himself.  To the extent that we identify with the faltering disciples, we hear the intended message of this editor of Mark.  It is also seems likely that Mark would approve. 

                There have many times in my life where it seemed easy to believe.  In the wake of a miraculous healing, which I have witnessed multiple times, it even seems silly NOT to believe in the power and plan of God.  When everything is going my way, I feel sure that God surely is actively blessing me.  When evil is defeated in dramatic fashion, faith is a natural posture.  Mountain-moving faith is such times seems way more attainable.

                Unfortunately, such times do not represent the whole of our experience.  Relationships fail and it seems God is nowhere to be found.  It’s quite difficult to see the activity of God in earthquakes where tens of thousands of lives are lost and many more have their entire lives torn apart for the foreseeable future.  When the disappointments keep coming one after another. . .when children precede their parents in death. . . when the unthinkable personal tragedy strikes. . . in all these times, even a mustard seed’s amount of faith seems like a tall order. The disciples were having one of those moments.

                Even when they are given the news that what Jesus promised has indeed happened, they are stuck in their fugue state of disbelief.  I have to confess that I can relate.  Part of what happens here is human tendency to want to confirm and justify our current feelings.  Psychologists call this confirmation bias and it can be very powerful.   We want to confirm that we are right to feel the way do, even when we are confronted with evidence to the contrary.  This phenomenon is the reason why conspiracy theorists don’t let go of their false beliefs even when clear facts should convince them to do so.  This has happened to me more times than I can count.  None of us are exempt.

                The disciples are forced out of their disbelieving bias by the resurrected Jesus in the flesh.  It would awesome if Jesus would do the same thing for us, but at least for me, it hasn’t happened yet.  So how do we snap our of it when we find ourselves stuck in unbelief.  One of the practical suggestions from psychology to combat confirmation bias is to develop the habit of questioning your assumptions when you are assuming you are right.  The spiritual term for this is humility.  Further, as followers of Jesus, we should have a strong bias towards hope.  This is why Jesus scolds the disciples for their faithlessness.  They of all people should have had at least a healthy active bias towards belief because Jesus had never let them down before and He promised them that He would be raised. 

                While it may not seem like it sometimes, we have no less reason to have a hopeful bias.  We, the Christian church, stand in a line of two thousand years of God’s faithfulness and kept promises.  Through the severest of persecutions, through long periods of decline and darkness, and through impossible challenges, God keeps delivering the church and its people to new life and vitality.  Empires, dynasties, and seemingly unstoppable tyrants have come and gone, but the church keeps finding itself sustained and renewed.  God is always faithful, so our bias should be hope in all circumstances.  More on this next time.

 

Question:  Have you ever been the victim of confirmation bias?  How does it interplay with your faith?

 

Prayer:  Holy Spirit, install a bias of hope within our souls that persists in all circumstances.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who do jobs we could never see ourselves doing. 

 

Song:  The Blessing – Angelica Bias

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wUlFCe-55A

It’s Okay to Be “Salty”

Mark 9:49-50, NLT - “For everyone will be tested with fire.  Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”

 

                Jesus finishes this difficult teaching session with a summary statement; “everyone will be tested with fire.”  In other words, following Jesus will involve difficulty and unpleasantness.  No one gets through this life without their faith being tested.  Other translations say, “everyone will be salted.”  The common quality of fire and salt is that they change that with which they mix.  The path that God lays out for us means that we will come through the process changed.  As some have said, change is the only constant.  If, as a Jesus follower, you aren’t being transformed, something is wrong.

                Jesus then flips the salt metaphor and further teaches that we must have that same transformative effect on each other.  This is Mark’s parallel teaching to Matthew’s “you are the salt of the earth.”  (Matthew 5:13)  Not only is something wrong if we aren’t individually growing in our faith, there is something wrong with the Christian community where the transformation of people isn’t happening.  In fact, it’s nearly impossible for the former to happen without the latter. 

                I think back to my life as a Christian teenager who was just beginning to own for myself the faith of my parents before me.  As I do, I am at once both amazed and disappointed with myself.  I’m amazed at how strong my faith seems now when compared the shakiness of my teens.  I’m amazed at how my understanding and experience of God has expanded and deepened from the narrow-minded faith of my youth.  I’m absolutely blown away by all the difficulties and trials God has brought me through and how those very trials brought the strength and expansion of my relationship to God.  It has been an incredible journey.

                But I’m also disappointed in the fact that I still have some of the bad habits and attitudes that have persisted since I was a boy.  I still struggle to show as much of the fruits of the Spirit as I think I should by now.  There are still people I really struggle to love.  And there are still moments when my faith seems as shaky as it was when I was twelve.  I note these disappointments and it seems that I have farther to go now than when I started.  Ironically, for someone who has been invited by God to embrace eternity, this is exactly how it should be.  The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know.  The more you grow, the more you become aware of your need to grow even more.  Everyone will be salted/tested with fire and the Christian community is the very place where that salting/testing is supposed to take place.

Question:  How has your faith changed/grown since you first decided to follow Jesus?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for the way you have brought me through my life to this moment.  Thank you for loving me through the joyful and sorrowful times.  Show me my growing edges and teach me to trust You and Your community to accomplish that growth. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are homeless right now facing extreme temperatures. 

 

Song:  I Have Decided to Follow Jesus – Lydia Walker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OWWqS1jnOw

O Come All Ye Faith-FULL. . .

Mark 9:14-29, CEB - When Jesus, Peter, James, and John approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them and legal experts arguing with them.  Suddenly the whole crowd caught sight of Jesus. They ran to greet him, overcome with excitement.  Jesus asked them, “What are you arguing about?”

Someone from the crowd responded, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, since he has a spirit that doesn’t allow him to speak. Wherever it overpowers him, it throws him into a fit. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and stiffens up. So I spoke to your disciples to see if they could throw it out, but they couldn’t.”

Jesus answered them, “You faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”

They brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a fit. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.  Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been going on?”

He said, “Since he was a child. It has often thrown him into a fire or into water trying to kill him. If you can do anything, help us! Show us compassion!”

Jesus said to him, “‘If you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”

At that the boy’s father cried out, “I have faith; help my lack of faith!”

Noticing that the crowd had surged together, Jesus spoke harshly to the unclean spirit, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you to come out of him and never enter him again.”  After screaming and shaking the boy horribly, the spirit came out. The boy seemed to be dead; in fact, several people said that he had died.  But Jesus took his hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

After Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we throw this spirit out?”

Jesus answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.”

 

                Of the three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) that include this story, Mark’s is the longest account.  That can create the temptation to get bogged down in the details (which is actually kinda fun for me).  The danger in that is to miss the forest for the trees.  The thread that runs through the entire story is faith vs. unbelief.  The story opens with Jesus and his inner circle of three (Peter, James, and John) returning to the other disciples who are arguing with the experts in the law.  The argument seems to concern the disciples inability to cast out a demon in a boy brought to them.  When Jesus finds this out, he is obviously frustrated and He says exactly why.  They are faithless.  Let me say this another way to be clear.  The boy’s demon was not exorcised because they didn’t have the correct interpretation of the law (which is what they were arguing about).  The demon continued to torture the boy because they lacked faith. 

                The next conversation takes place between Jesus and the boy’s father.  This conversation also leads to the issue of faith.  The father is pleading to help his boy, “if you can.”  Jesus is much more compassionate in His response here, for the father here has not been witness to the hundreds of miracles that Jesus’s disciples have.

                “‘If you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”

The father’s response is one of my favorite statements in the entire bible.

                “I have faith; help my lack of faith!”

                The father did have some measure of faith.  After all, he took the time to bring the boy to Jesus’s disciples and then to Jesus, even after Jesus’s disciples were unable to help.  What is particularly striking about the father’s faith is that it is faith that recognizes that more faith is needed.  It is faith seeking more faith.  It is after this faith is expressed by the father that Jesus commands the demon to leave the boy never come back. 

                This leads us to the closing conversation in this story – the private conversation later between Jesus and His disciples about why they could not cast out the boy’s demon:

                Jesus answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.”

The word “prayer” here, in the larger context of the story, means much more than uttering some words in God’s direction.  It is a way to talk about the same “faith looking for more faith.”  We pray, not simply to get God to do something, but more to intentionally express our dependence on God for all that is beyond our power and/or control.  We pray to connect with the God is already doing something about the situations for which we pray.   

                There was a saying that was used quite often when I was growing up to describe the deeply spiritual saints among us.  We would say something like, “Oh Dan, he’s a man of great prayer” or “Judy is certainly a prayerful woman.”  We didn’t say this to describe the beauty of their public prayers.  We said to speak to their deep dependence on God that was evident in how they approached everything in their life.  It is this kind of living that demons flee from, for they know they are outmatched.  It is this kind of faith that sees miraculous things happen.  May we all aim for that.  We believe. . .help our unbelief!

 

Question:  Can you point to tangible ways that you are working to grow your dependence on God right now?

 

Prayer:  Lord we believe! Help our unbelief! Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for political prisoners held in prisons all over the world right now.

 

Song:  O Come All Ye Faithful – Third Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsqNCWOycNw

Pharisee Virus

Mark 8:11-15, CEB - The Pharisees showed up and began to argue with Jesus. To test him, they asked for a sign from heaven.  With an impatient sigh, Jesus said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? I assure you that no sign will be given to it.”  Leaving them, he got back in the boat and crossed to the other side of the lake.

Jesus’ disciples had forgotten to bring any bread, so they had only one loaf with them in the boat.  He gave them strict orders: “Watch out and be on your guard for the yeast of the Pharisees as well as the yeast of Herod.”

 

Mainstream Christian theology asserts that Jesus was at the same time fully human AND fully divine.  Millions of pages have been written attempting to explain this paradoxical concept, but ultimately, it is best to work to accept it on faith.  Unless Jesus is fully human, He cannot fully bridge the gap between us and God; unless Jesus is fully God, He cannot save us.  Much of the miracles described in the gospels point to the divinity of Christ, but in the passage above we catch a glimpse of Jesus’s humanity.  Mark recalls Jesus’s “impatient sigh.”  Jesus is finding it hard to remain composed in the presence of the impetuous Pharisees.   

Most of us have been there and understand that kind of exasperation.  Someone or a group of someone’s questions our right to be doing what we are doing.  They ask us to prove ourselves even though they have already seen proof.  It seems they are being confrontational simply to tear us down.  We recognize that impatient sigh because it has rushed from our mouths on multiple occasions.

“No sign will be given,” follows Jesus’s sigh. 

Jesus refuses to play their game for He knows that it is a losing proposition.  If a sign was given, it would only be followed up with a request for a further sign.  Signs do not result in authentic faith in those who receive them.  They only placate until a desire for another sign arises. It is faux faith at best.  It is unhealthy dependence on constant “proof” that our trust in God is justified. 

I believe this is one of the reasons Jesus often tells those He has healed to not talk about it too much. Even miracles do not produce a healthy faith.  The high experienced when one witnesses the miraculous is short-lived.  It will take another miracle to sustain it.  Right before this passage in Mark 8, the disciples clearly don’t have faith in Jesus’s ability to provide food for the four thousand even though they witnessed Jesus feed five thousand just days earlier.  They too needed proof that Jesus could do it again. 

The yeast of the Pharisees is this constant questioning and demand for proof.  This is the basis for Jesus’s scolding of his disciples to avoid this yeast.  When Jesus includes “Herod” as part of this yeast, He is referring to the Sadducees, another group of religious leaders who were constantly testing Jesus in the same way.  They were often called Herodians because they supported Herod Antipas.  Jesus refers to them as “Herod” to imply that they were no different than the oppressive ruler himself. 

What Jesus is implying by referring to the Pharisees and Sadducees as yeast is somewhat lost on many modern readers who aren’t bakers.  Yeast is used by bakers to cause dough to rise and expand.  A miniscule amount of yeast is needed to infiltrate the entire loaf and make it grow exponentially. What Jesus is saying is that faux faith quickly spreads.  A particularly current metaphor that could convey the same meaning is to call this imposter faith a virus. 

As we’ll see in the next reflection, the disciples are still not getting the message.  Mark is hoping that, by telling the story, the reader will get it.  Strive for a faith deeper than “faith” that requires constant proof.  Authentic faith in Jesus based on a relationship with Jesus Himself serves as “a vaccine” to protect against this Pharisaical virus. 

This is still true today, although the “virus” has many variants.  Faith that requires answered prayers (defined as getting what I want), success, or any other condition to be met for that faith to be sustained.  The invitation offered to the disciples and to us is to trust that God will give us what we need when we need it.  It is the invitation to trust Jesus’s shepherd-like compassion for us, knowing he will provide for us.  This is hard and all of us seem to catch the Pharisaical virus sometimes. Hence, Jesus issues the warning to watch out and guard against it. 

 

Question:  Have you ever caught yourself placing conditions (ie…seeking a sign) on sustained faith in Jesus?

 

Prayer:  Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who will be alone on Thanksgiving tomorrow. 

 

Song:  Oceans – Hillsong United (Cover by Hannah Davis)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Q1WuWpulY

Ephphatha

Mark 7:31-37, CEB - After leaving the region of Tyre, Jesus went through Sidon toward the Galilee Sea through the region of the Ten Cities.  Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged him to place his hand on the man for healing.  Jesus took him away from the crowd by himself and put his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.  Looking into heaven, Jesus sighed deeply and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Open up.”  At once, his ears opened, his twisted tongue was released, and he began to speak clearly.

Jesus gave the people strict orders not to tell anyone. But the more he tried to silence them, the more eagerly they shared the news.  People were overcome with wonder, saying, “He does everything well! He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who can’t speak.”

 

We encounter yet another healing story today, but with some peculiar details.  As we have journeyed through Mark, we often seeing healings take place passively.  That is, the power goes out from Jesus almost without His participation and people are healed.  In this story, Jesus takes the deaf and mute man aside and performs some odd actions that invoke the healing.  He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears. Jesus then spits in His hand and then touches the man’s tongue.  He then speaks the word meaning “open up,” and the deaf mute can immediately hear and speak clearly.  It seems a bit strange if not unsanitary to our 21^st century ears. I do wonder why sometimes Jesus heals people actively (performing specific actions) and sometimes he simply allows the healings to take place passively.  I’ve read a couple of ideas from various commentators, but none of them seem compelling to me.  If you have thoughts, let me know. 

 Jesus’s use of his hands and spit recall for me multiple occasions when my mother would take a napkin, lick it, and then use the napkin to wipe off dirt on my face.  Sometimes, when she didn’t have a napkin, she would just use her finger.  I remember hating it at the time, but in my mind now, it is a tender memory.  This seemingly unsanitary detail in the story above also recalls an article I just read about saliva (spit).  Apparently, saliva contains many anti-microbial properties and can actually promote healing of small wounds in specific situations.  Maybe Jesus knew this before anyone else.  Go figure.

                My mom would generally not use her spit to clean my face in public and I am grateful for that.  That, for me, connects my own experience with my mother to this story.  Jesus takes the man away from the crowd to perform this healing.  Jesus is doing this to care for a single human being with tender care, not perform a miracle for public consumption.  He didn’t want the healed man to become a public spectacle; Jesus desire was simply that the man’s need be met.  Afterwards, he even tells the people to not make big deal about it.

                Of course, the crowd was not able to comply; they told everyone they knew.  I’m thinking Jesus knew this would happen, but out of concern for the healed man, he tried to keep a lid on it.  This concern for the man as a human being is what runs through the story from beginning to end.  I mentioned a few reflections ago that I have personal knowledge of more than a few healings in my years.  The interesting thing to me as I recall them now is that only a couple of them occurred publicly.  In most of those cases, only a couple people witnessed the miracle personally.  In a few of them, only the person healed knew that it happened.  It seems that God prefers to heal people in response to their suffering, not so people will hear about the healing and be impressed or even have faith.  In my experience as a pastor, I can confirm that miracles are an unreliable basis for lasting faith.  I know way too many people who have witnessed and acknowledged God’s power to do the miraculous who no longer have no active faith.   Faith that requires a constant “feeding” of miracles fails quickly.  Lasting and resilient faith is built on the basis of an ongoing relationship with God that based on personal interaction with God through the spiritual disciplines.  In the context of such a faith, miracles are welcomed and celebrated, but not required. 

 

Question:  What role do miracles play in your day-to-day faith?

 

Prayer:  Lord, heal me of my brokenness, blindness, and sickness.  Make me whole again.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Take time to pray for people who have wandered away from their faith in God.

 

Song:  Even If – MercyMe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fA35Ved-Y&t=2s

They Think They Know Him

Mark 6:1-6, NIV - Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?  Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.  He was amazed at their lack of faith.

 

 I am not known as a “crafty” guy.  By crafty, I mean “good with craft projects. My family often teases me about this.   However, on a couple of occasions, I have tackled a craft project and done an admirable job.  On those few occasions, my family has had a hard time believing that it was me that created the project.  I share this, not to complain about my family, but to illustrate a harmless example of what happened with Jesus in Nazareth.  Our brains tend to categorize people in ways that allow us to operate in our relationships with ongoing assumptions about them.  This creates relational and mental shortcuts that, for the most part, make relationships easier.  The downside is illustrated in this story. 

 These assumptions that we carry about others tend to “pigeonhole” them into expected behaviors.  When they behave differently or do the unexpected, it throws the relationship out of balance.  When we’re talking about whether I’m crafty or not, it is of very little consequence.    But when we’re talking about whether the “carpenter’s boy” is a prophet or even the Messiah, it tends to throw people into relational disarray.  In the original Greek, “they took offense at him” can also be translated “they stumbled because of him.” 

 The people of Jesus’s hometown could not place their faith in Him because they were not able to abandon their carried assumptions about Him.  This has an effect on the situation that still baffles me:

                He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.”

Jesus could not do any miracles because of the lack of faith in those present?  Why does our lack of faith have any effect on Jesus’s ability to do miracles?  The only clue that comes to mind is the story that immediately precedes this story – the healing of the woman with the flow of blood.  In that story, Jesus proclaims to the woman “your faith has healed you.”  Her faith, combined with the power that Jesus felt “go out from Him,” heals her.  Without the power of Jesus, miracles cannot happen, but our current story takes it a bit further.  That power is made efficacious by faith.  The power AND the faith are required. 

 And here’s why assumptions that we carry are so potentially harmful.  They can “block” the flow of faith and actually prevent good things from happening that would have been possible otherwise.   Relationships, including our relationship with God, can be robbed of their power by faulty assumptions. 

 

Question:  What assumptions do you carry about God or other people that may need to be questioned?

 

Prayer:  God, forgive us for our false assumptions about You and others.  Help us see the ways in which good things could happen if we begin to question some of our assumptions.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the orderly and safe running of our elections process in our country next week.

 

Song:  I know I have used this song a couple of times before, but it is the best song I know about questioning faith assumptions.

Praise the Lord – Crowder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0s1kIXmFdQ

The End of the Story is Not the End of the Story

Mark 5:35-43, CEB - While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”

But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.”  He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother.  They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly.  He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.”  They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was.  Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.”  Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked!  He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

 

“Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.”  Jairus, the man to whom Jesus addressed these words, had just previously heard, “you’re daughter has died.”  As one who has three daughters, I’m not sure I would be able to hear the second message, much less heed it, after hearing the first.  Nevertheless, this is Jesus’s instruction to the father of a dead girl; “just keep trusting.” 

As a pastor, I’ve sat with a woman who just laid the lifeless body of her 11-month-old son in funeral home van and watched it drive away.  I’ve tried to provide comfort to a father who had to cut down his son’s body after the son hung himself.  I’ve held a two-year old all night long in the hospital while he cried “Mama.” Over and over, all the while knowing that Mama was never coming because she had drowned the previous afternoon saving his life.  I haven’t always said the words that Jesus spoke, but I’ve always wanted to convey the same message.  Just keep trusting.

I do that with the full knowledge that sometimes the ask is impossible.  How is someone is Jairus’s place suppose to keep trusting?  That knowledge comes from personal experience of occasions when I have been unable to just keep moving, much less trust.  So I know and have seen in others just how huge an ask trust is in such situations.  But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  He asks for the trust and then he motions to Jairus to follow Him.  It’s almost like Jesus is saying, “follow me and I’ll show why you can keep trusting.”

He does the same for us.  In those moments when trust seems about as possible as the titanic rising to the surface, Jesus invites us to follow Him more closely.  Watch what He does next.  The “end” of the story is not the end at all.  As many a writers have said, “the worst thing is never the last thing.”

 

Question:  When have you come to an “end,” only to find out later that it was not the end at all?

 

Prayer:  God, in our moments of hopelessness, help us to keep our eyes on where you are leading. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the family of one of our longest duration members at Hernando UMC, Frank Smith.  He and his wife Doris have been members since 1962. 

 

Song:  Give Me Faith – Elevation Worship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNwt7LQiYck

Stuff Just Got Real

Mark 5:21-24a, CEB - Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore.  Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.”  So Jesus went with him.

 

We’re going to spend a few reflections on this story because there is a lot to unpack in this dual-healing story.  Today, let’s talk about Jairus.  He was a leader in the local synagogue in Capernaum.  We don’t know much more about him except that Jesus and religious leaders generally experienced at the very least, a tense relationship.  We don’t know how Jairus felt about Jesus, but like other religious leaders, he was probably at least skeptical about what Jesus was all about.  But Jairus had obviously heard stories that Jesus was a healer.  And Jairus’s little girl was dying.  When your little girl is in trouble, your personal feelings about someone take a back seat to the fact that maybe, just maybe that person can help her.  In fact, it’s situations like this that put our personal feelings about someone in proper perspective.  Someone you love is dying and someone you have access to can help her.  Stuff just got real.

When my oldest daughter, Emily was 8, she had a life-threatening brain bleed.  I’ll spare you most of the terror of that day, but I’ll just say that I know how Jairus felt.  I would have sought to enlist the help of anyone, even my worst enemy, if I thought they could help my little girl.  Emily was taken by helicopter across town to get the care of pediatric neurological surgeons.  We made our way by car to that hospital as fast as we could.  My associate pastor at the time began to organize a prayer meeting at the church for Emily and I was thankful for that.  Emily had not been conscious for most of the day and the prayer meeting began about 7:00pm.  Shortly after the praying began, Emily woke up and greeted her grandparents like nothing had ever happened.  They did a brain scan the next day and they found no evidence that the brain bleed had ever happened!

I had been a Christian most of my life and a pastor for several years when this happened.  I had often preached on the power of prayer, but that day, what I had preached about became real in an intensely personal way.  It was life-changing moment for me. Prayer for me has been different ever since that day.  As I said before, we will talk more about this story in the coming days, but for now, I want to highlight this truth.  When we encounter crisis, it is an opportunity to see our beliefs “take on flesh.” It’s hard to remember that in the crisis itself, so today I seek to reinforce the truth so it’s embedded before crisis arrives.  If you happen to be in crisis right now, please accept this as a voice in the whirlwind. 

 

Question:  What experiences have you had that made your faith more “real?”

 

Prayer: Lord, thank You for the moments where Your truth becomes more tangible and powerful.  Reinforce that truth in us so that it is accessible when crisis comes.  Amen,

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for parents you know who are having a hard time with their children.

 

Song:  Stand In Faith – Danny Gokey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIREaGBN4Jw

Does Jesus Shame Us for Our Fear and Lack of Faith?

Mark 4:35-41, CEB -  Later that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.”  They left the crowd and took him in the boat just as he was. Other boats followed along.

Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?”

He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “Silence! Be still!” The wind settled down and there was a great calm.  Jesus asked them, “Why are you frightened? Don’t you have faith yet?”

Overcome with awe, they said to each other, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

 

One of the details of this story that has always amused me was how Jesus was asleep in the back of a boat in a storm with gale-force winds.  I know He was tired because they were in the boat to try and get away and rest.  But how tired do you have to be to do that?  In 2017, with eye of Hurricane Irma forecast to go right through Pine Island (where I was serving as a pastor at the time), I began to really worry.  I worried so much that I did not sleep well for two days before the storm arrived.  We evacuated to Orlando, the storm turned, went well south of Pine Island, and came much closer to where we were than it did to Pine Island.  Two trees fell around the house we were in and the roof was damaged badly enough that it was replaced later.  I, however, slept through the whole thing.  I had gotten so exhausted with lack of sleep and worry that I slept through a hurricane. But I was not in a boat in the middle of the storm. No wind and water touched my person.  So I repeat . .  .how tired do you have to be to sleep in the bow of a boat in the middle of a large lake in a bad storm? Or perhaps, how completely unworried and confident do you have to be?

The other detail that has me puzzled concerning this story is Jesus’s questions about being frightened and having faith.  After just confessing the worry and fear that I had with the threat of a hurricane, those questions sound rather condescending and unhelpful.  After hearing first-hand reports from my friends in Pine Island concerning their experience of riding out Hurricane Ian, I certainly don’t fault them for the fear and uncertainty they felt.  But I sometimes wonder if Jesus does. 

I don’t think so.  The response of the disciples to Jesus’s question is not one of people who have just been shamed.  The text describes their feeling as being “overcome with awe.”  Not shame or humiliation. . . but awe.  Jesus calms the storm before he asks these questions.  If He were condemning them, he would have asked them before He calmed the storm.  To me, the exchange reads a bit more like this:

The disciples wake Jesus and scold him, “Don’t you care that we are drowning?!”

Jesus, after silencing the wind and waves, asks “How’s your fear and faith NOW?

Reading it like this, the disciples’ awe-filled response makes more sense. 

Jesus doesn’t shame us for our fear and lack of faith.  He invites us to see His ways and gradually let go of our fear and see our faith expand.  Later in the New Testament, these same fearful disciples go fearlessly to their deaths because their faith was built up tremendously by seeing first-hand all that Jesus did.   As I look back over my life, I am much less fearful than I once was and my faith is stronger than it was when it began.  This is because I have witnessed dozens of miracles, been delivered through multiple storms (actual and figurative), and I have seen God show up in crisis in ways that leave me in awe.   

The invitation is look for God to show up.  And when God doesn’t seem to be showing up, we might even, like the disciples, get a little cheeky and question whether He cares that we are being threatened.  But at least we know who to go to when there’s trouble. 

 

Question:  How’s your fear and faith right now?

 

Prayer:  God, we confess that our faith is not what it should be and our fear often gets the best of us.  Help us in our unbelief.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people in SW Florida who are just now getting to begin to try and figure out what to do next after Hurricane Ian. 

 

Song:  If You’re Going Through Hell – Rodney Atkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l50L4GYhpLc

The Very Thing You’re Trying to Avoid. . .

Romans 8:26-28 - And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.  And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them

 

I quote this scripture quite a bit.  I own it.  I don’t apologize for it.  Anything can grow your faith – anything.  Those who know me well know that I love music –including some that seem downright irredeemable.  But I have heard God speak through songs by Eminem, Disturbed, and even Ozzy Osbourne. Not that any of them were trying to speak for God.  In fact, they are often trying to speak against God.  But our God can use anything to communicate truth.  To say that I don’t believe that would be to say that I think God is limited in some way.  Are you willing to say that?  Me neither.  God can use anything.to grow your faith

 

My faith has grown more through making big mistakes than having success. My deepest experiences of the presence of God have come in my darkness moments.  Romans 8:28 is so true, but you have to be looking for the good from God to see it.  And sometimes you don’t see it until after the moment has passed.  But my friends, it’s true.  God’s intentions in EVERYTHING are good towards us all the time, and all the time God’s intentions in EVERYTHING are good towards us. 

 

So let’s work with this concept a bit today.  What is it that’s going on for you that you are working really hard to avoid – avoid doing, avoid seeing, avoid even thinking about?  I know.  I made you not avoid it by mentioning it.  I’m sorry – but not really.  You see, it’s not only possible; it’s pretty likely that that matter that you are avoiding is matter where there is some truth God wants you to hear, see, or experience.  At the risk of meddling, let me ask you this;  how’s the avoidance project been going?  I’m guessing not so well.  So instead of leaning away from the matter, how about trying leaning IN it?  There’s faith to be gained here BECAUSE . . . let’s all say it together. . .  God intentions in EVERYTHING are good towards us all the time, and all the time God’s intentions in EVERYTHING are good towards us. 

 

Tomorrow, we move from faith to hope. Until then . . .

 

Prayer:  Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer God, help me to trust your goodness towards me in all circumstances.  Help me see your good intentions even in _______________.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for “irredeemable” people today.  It will help you see that God has no use for that word.

 

Song: Word of God, Speak – MercyMe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JK_6osCH74