Celebrating Wholeness as We're Yoked with Jesus

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15). Does the Apostle Paul speak for you here? Do you weary of a world full of complications/contradictions/compulsions that enslave you?

Read Romans 7: 15-25a and Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30.

Jesus too seems to despair of a world where children call us to dance and we don't respond - where children call us to wail and mourn and we don't hear. We react to John the Baptist as an extreme ascetic (who wants to eat locusts?) and people call Jesus a glutton who eats and drinks with sinners. We live in a world where confusion seems to reign - where the wise and the intelligent don't seem to see or hear God's wisdom and guidance. Yet the little ones (could that be us?) have the truth revealed to them through Jesus Christ.

We weary of the competing dualisms of the world: left vs right; conservative vs liberal; right vs wrong; moral vs immoral; and on and on. As we prepare to celebrate the founding of our country with patriotic celebrations and fireworks, let us remember that there have always been fireworks and fiery words in the face of conflicting dualisms. Christianity didn't spring fully formed out of the words and deeds of Jesus. Our country's founding documents didn't spring fully formed out of a unanimous consensus of our founding fathers. Today's free flow of combative speech is no different from the generations before us - although it appears to me to become increasingly uncivil.

Jesus invites us to take upon our weary backs his yoke which is easy and light. When we yoke ourselves to God's Word and to service in Christ's name, we'll continue to be challenged, but we will be yoked to our Master who will guide the way and provide the rest we need.

Hospitality for Disciples

Because I think Matthew 10: 40-42 (June 26 scripture) is confusing about who's talking & who's he talking to, I offer my adaptation of the NRSV translation: Jesus says, "Whoever welcomes you (disciples) welcomes me (Jesus), and whoever welcomes me (Jesus) welcomes the one who sent me (God). Whoever welcomes a prophet (someone who speaks God's truth) in the name of a prophet (Jesus) will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person (someone who walks with God) in the name of a righteous person (Jesus) will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones (disciples) in the name of a disciple (Jesus) - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

After a long chapter (10) of describing the hardships of the discipling life, Jesus switches to the hospitality offered to disciples who go forth and share their faith. If we are the ones welcoming or receiving someone sharing their faith with us, how refreshing a simple cup of cold water will be in the desert tradition of hospitality. For those of us who can so easily turn a faucet for water, we mustn't take for granted the gift of cold water. For those of us who have pre-conceptions about what a visitor in Jesus' name might look like (ie. like us), we might want to be careful about those upon whom we turn our backs (the shabby, the homeless, the needy) & instead turn toward them & receive their witness - their stories.

For those of us who are being received, how wonderful it is to be received after a long day in the desert of life - a long day in the office or on the crowded highways. When we are thirsty, a cup of cold water is exactly what we need.

For all of the above, the reward offered is a place & a part to play in the kingdom of Gd.

June 19th Scripture and Reflection

If you were your class valedictorian, what would you write for your graduation speech? If you had only a few days to live, what would be the most important things you want to tell your loved ones?

Read Matthew 28: 16-20 and 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13.

In Matthew 28, appearing to his 11 disciples after his resurrection, Jesus has a few last words to say to them to propel them forward to life without him physically present. In 2 Corinthians, Paul offers his bits of wisdom as his farewell address to the contentious church in Corinth. With little time left, it's instructive to see what Jesus and Paul choose to say. They both focus on a good ending with their charge and benedictions as they send their people forth - as they "commission" them. They both essentially summarize what discipleship looks like.

Make disciples might be better phrased as "disciple others." Teach what Jesus has taught us. Put things in order. Live in peace with one another.

What does it mean to go forth without our teacher or mentor? Do we really know how to do whatever we've learned from our teachers? Are we paralyzed with our doubts?

Because some of the disciples in Matthew 28 doubt as they worship, it's helpful to note that Jesus knows his disciples haven't gotten everything figured out yet about how to disciple others. Because Paul leaves the Corinthian church still in disarray, he must count on God's grace to enable them to sort things out.

In spite of doubts and disarray, how are we too commanded to go forth? Let's remember that Jesus leaves us with the trinitarian reassurance and comfort that we are disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and that Jesus will be with us to the end of the age.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

God's Wild, Wonderful Word is WOW for Pentecost

Acts 2: 1-21 is our Pentecost story. Open your Bible & read it. It's a story of wild rushing gale force wind; tongues of flames on the disciples' shoulders; worldwide languages spoken by Galilean peasants with no schooling in languages, but understood by all those visitors present in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks (50 days after Passover). And Peter interprets all these signs with a blockbuster sermon in which 3,000 come to believe. God will pour out God's Spirit on all people.

Sitting out on my back deck these last few weeks watching the strong winds whirl my tall mature trees reminds me of the strongest winds we've been experiencing: tornadoes & their especially destructive force in Reading, KS & Joplin, MO. Usually when we think of the Holy Spirit coming, we yearn for the peace, comfort, & healing presence that Jesus promises. I have a disconnect if I equate the Holy Spirit with tornadic winds or the devastation of forest fires, such as those currently in AZ.

Where do I see God in all this? I'm reminded that while God can certainly speak in the quiet of silence, perhaps it's appropriate to tremble when we say, "Come Holy Spirit, Come!" How might God challenge or push or pull us when the Spirit is strong enough to un-moor us from our comfortable & usual ways of doing things?

I look forward to hearing your stories of how you are called to prophesy or see visions or dream dreams.