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 Faithful - December 20, 2021

O Come, All Ye Faithful - December 20, 2021

 

Luke 2:15

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 

Probably my second favorite Christmas Carol of all time, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is one of the older hymn texts we sing at Christmastime.  These verses were originally composed in Latin with the earliest texts found dating to 1640.  Most likely though, it is even older than that and we don’t have a way to know who actually penned the first version.  The lyrics have been paired with many tunes over the centuries, but the one we sing today dates to the mid-nineteenth century.  Again the authorship of the tune is often disputed. 

 

No matter who wrote it, I love it.  It is the hymn that I most associate with Christmas Eve.  I have fond memories of standing in church singing this song at the 11:00pm Christmas Eve Service at Mandarin United Methodist Church in Jacksonville with the pipe organ blaring full volume. You could actually feel the music in your bones!  I actually have a specific memory of singing this song and as we sang the title opening line, I had the thought, “I am one of the faithful.”  I was “joyful and triumphant” because Christmas was the next day and I got to stay up after midnight.  I would have to linger in my bed waiting for Christmas morning for a few less hours.  Score!  Fond memories.

 

My experience of this song is different now.  I’m not quite as confident about my faithfulness and sometimes it is the very singing of this song that helps me be joyful and triumphant.  It’s been years since I heard a good pipe organ.  I look forward to getting some sleep Christmas Eve and I pray that my kids are old enough now that they don’t wake me up too early.  The joy and triumph of Christmas is still there sure enough, but it has changed.  It feels less intense than it did as a child, but it also feels less fickle and self-centered.  The joy of Christmas for me now is more about seeing the joy of others.  The triumph of Christmas seems less about getting what I want and more about seeing others joy expanded.  I think about the difference between my childhood and adult experience of Christmas and I am grateful to God for the journey of faith He’s allowed me to have. 

Spend some time today reflecting on how your experience of Christmas has changed over the years.  What does that first line of “O Come All Ye Faithful…” stir in you? 

 

Prayer:  Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning; Jesus, to thee be glory given!

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!  We come and adore you! Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you will invite to worship with you on Christmas Eve Service later this week.

 

Song:  Westminster Abbey - O Come All Ye Faithful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wHyMR_SCA 

Matthew 13:24-30 - "Triggered!"

 

Triggered!

 

Matthew 13:24-30, CEB - Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like someone who planted good seed in his field.  While people were sleeping, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat and went away.  When the stalks sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.

“The servants of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Master, didn’t you plant good seed in your field? Then how is it that it has weeds?’

“‘An enemy has done this,’ he answered.

“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’

“But the landowner said, ‘No, because if you gather the weeds, you’ll pull up the wheat along with them.  Let both grow side by side until the harvest. And at harvesttime I’ll say to the harvesters, “First gather the weeds and tie them together in bundles to be burned. But bring the wheat into my barn.”’”

 

                Today, we have another parable where Jesus intends for us to see another facet of the kingdom of heaven.  We always need to pay special attention to the object of Jesus’s phrase “the kingdom of heaven is like…”  In this case, Jesus suggests that the kingdom is like a someone who planted good see.  Jesus is instructing us to pay attention to that “someone,”  not the seeds, the enemy, the weeds, or anything else.  To see the nature of the kingdom, we watch the seed-planter in the story.

                The planter plants good seeds.  This is the work of the kingdom.  But there are enemies working to sabotage our good seed-planter.  They plant weeds in hopes of choking out the new seedlings as they begin to grow.  But the enemies obviously aren’t good planters themselves, for if they were, they would know that their plan won’t work.  The wheat and weeds will grow up together.  At harvest time, separating the weeds and wheat is a nuisance, but the harvest is not lost.  The plan will not work, unless…

                The plan will work if the planter over-reacts to his would-be saboteurs.  If he has his servants remove the weeds before harvest time, at least some of the wheat will be lost.  Jesus is saying that the kingdom is like a seed-planter who doesn’t over-react when enemies try to disrupt good growth.  Instead of getting “triggered” by the enemies, the kingdom remains focused on the good growth, not the activity of the enemies’ schemes, for those schemes will come to nothing more than a nuisance at harvest time.  Preserving the harvest is the focus, not reacting to enemies. 

                This wisdom is easier to explain than it is to live out.  When someone seems to be trying to sabotage us, our outrage and frustration often drive our response.  We often get distracted by a desire to “undo” the work of our enemies instead of remaining focused on the good work we’re called to do.  But if we can resist getting triggered, the results of our good work will lead to good results while the work of those who would see us fail will come to nothing useful.  The “wheat and the weeds” will be seen for what they are.  The vindication is the harvest, but that vindication never comes if we allow ourselves to get triggered. 

                Almost all the time, when we’re doing something good, there will be “weeds.”  Just accept that now, so when the weeds start shooting up, we won’t overreact.  We can acknowledge the weeds while remaining committed to helping the intended crop grow.  If we get triggered and “pull up the weeds,” the enemies win and our good work suffers.  The kingdom is like a good (and patient) seed planter.

 

Questions:  When was the last time you got “triggered” by some resistance to something good you were trying to do?  How did you reaction affect the result?

 

Prayer:  God, your call is to plant the seeds of the kingdom, not to pull weeds.  Help us live out this wisdom in our daily lives.  Help us be aware of our “triggers” so we can avoid getting distracted by our enemies.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Today is All Saints Day.  Spend some time thanking God for the people who are in heaven who helped you have the faith you have today.

Song:  Visiting Hours – Ed Sheeran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHpRYt6kuWg