May 13-19
A WORD IN SEASON
“Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:3
READ: John 9
Recently I visited a home I’ve never been to before. The well-written directions included specific signs to follow that would bring me to my destination. Had I been paying attention to the signs, instead of talking on my cell phone, I would have driven directly there. As it happened however, I drove around in frustration until I was able to hang up the phone, then I back-tracked to the first confirmed sign, and started over from there. Lo and behold, when I followed the signs in order, I quickly arrived at my destination. In his version of the gospel, John describes seven miracles of Jesus. However, he does not refer to them as miracles. Instead, he uses the tantalizing term, “signs.” These signs reveal Jesus, and who he is. When the disciples saw this sign, they saw his glory, and as a result, they believed in him. Signs are not particularly valuable in and of themselves, but they point to something we desperately need. A sign may be made of metal or wood, or stone, and can be replaced without much trouble – but they are indicators that, when followed attentively, will lead us to reality, something believable. The Apostle John is a guide who knows what we’re looking for, even if we don’t. His well-written directions provide signs that will take us to our objective. We have only to trust the signs. They lead us to Jesus, our heart’s true home.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of May 13, 2012
Seeing the Signs
Find five to ten minutes each day to turn off the cell phone, computer, and all other distractions. Use these few minutes to open your eyes and see God’s glory. You may want to take this little break on your back porch each morning, or in a quiet spot in your home, or down the hall in the storage closet at work. When we eliminate noise, audio and visual, we begin to see the signs of his glory.
April 29 – May 12
A WORD IN SEASON
“For not even his brothers believed in him.” John 7:5
READ: John 7:1-31
To believe or not to believe: according to the Gospel of John, that is the question. In John’s own words, his purpose for writing his gospel is this, “But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) John places Jesus before us as the Messiah, and then simply asks us to choose. What will we do with the evidence? How will we arrive at the decision that each one of us will eventually have to make, to believe and receive eternal life, or to reject his offer of friendship, forgiveness, and acceptance into the very company of God. We see here in chapter seven that Jesus’ own brothers didn’t believe in him. We don’t know how many children Mary and Joseph had after Jesus was born, but I would think that it would be hard for them. To them, he was their big brother, and until he chose to reveal himself, he was just like other big brothers. We know that at least some of them come to believe after they witness the resurrection. Both James and Jude, who later make contributions to our New Testament, are brothers of Jesus. But at this point in their journey – they did not believe. What will it take for you to not just believe that he existed once, but that he is, as Peter declared, “the Holy One of God?” Let believing deepen, mature into a full out trust in him as a competent leader. If you’re not sure if you’re there yet, try the following exercise.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Weeks of April 29 & May 6, 2012
Life Coach
If you were to hire a “Life Management Coach” – someone who would literally manage your calendar, check book, and circles of friends – what would that job description look like? How would you go about finding appropriate applicants? What kind of qualifications would you demand of the person who holds such a position? Would Jesus qualify?
If you really believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then you must believe that he is capable of running the universe. If he is capable of running the universe, he is capable of running your life.
April 22-28
A WORD IN SEASON
“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” John 6:27
READ: John 6
We know the difference between perishable and non-perishable food items. Let’s say you’re packed for a seven-day vacation, the perishables are the items you gorge yourself on as you are leaving for the airport, or else they spoil in the fridge or pantry while you’re gone. In chapter six of John’s Gospel, Jesus performs two of his famous “seven signs.” He feeds 5000 by multiplying fish and bread, then departs from there across the sea of Galilee – on foot. When the crowd pursues him in boats to Capernaum, Jesus discerns a teachable moment. He instructs them, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life…(6:27).” You can almost see these folks scratching their heads. You mean there’s a difference? There is such a thing as food that endures for eternity? Just yesterday, these very same people witnessed an impressive miracle. They believed, not only by sight but their senses of taste, touch, and smell fully received the unmistakable benefit of bread, genuine, grainy, and satisfying, along with fish for protein. They had received the full benefit of Jesus, the Son of Man’s complete authority over the created order – and they wanted more. More food, more signs, more exhibitions of the wonder of God. Jesus offers the softest form of rebuke – the reminder that their work, their efforts and attention, should be turned to that which is eternal, not the matters of the moment. This is very much like Paul’s subsequent message to us by way of Colossae, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Soon, Jesus comes right out and says, “I am the Bread of Life.” Just as he described “living water” to the woman at the well as the kind from which you will never return to thirst, so he describes himself as the ultimate satisfaction. The meal from which you will never hunger again. We must learn to nourish our souls on the “bread that comes from heaven” and to drink deeply of the “living water” if we want to live in the deep satisfaction that only God can provide. There is such a thing as non-perishable nourishment. As we learn to incorporate it into our diet – we finally find health, rich, robust, Christ centered health.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of April 22, 2012
Non-perishables
Taking a quick inventory of your life, isolate the elements that will follow you into eternity. The list is short, and is summarized in a word, “relationships.” As a spiritual exercise, ask yourself a couple of good questions.
- What am I doing to nurture my relationship with God?
- What am I doing to nurture my relationship with my family?
April 15-21
A WORD IN SEASON
“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
READ: John 6
When we ask our friends, “What did you do for Easter?” most of us know that we are referring to a meal – Easter Dinner. The answer is usually a description of the food that was served and the company of family or friends with whom it was shared. Food is central to life. Not only do our very lives depend upon it, but our society revolves around it. When we gather around tables, we share what is most basic about being human. While we eat, we talk and laugh as stories are repeated and shared memories planted more firmly in our narratives. I’m becoming convinced that the centrality of mealtime is no accident. In the gospels, we find that Jesus reveals himself profoundly at shared meals. In his book, “Living the Resurrection” Eugene Peterson describes a “liturgy of life” found in biblical stories of meal times. Whenever Jesus acts as host, there are four profound verbs used to describe his role with the bread. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.” (Matthew 14:19) The four verbs are take, bless (or give thanks), break, and give. This pattern is repeated when Jesus is feeding 5000, at the Last Supper when he instituted communion, and in Emmaus after the resurrection. Dom Gregory Dix refers to this pattern as “the shape of the liturgy.” Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took the bread and blessed it, then he broke it and gave it to his disciples, indicating the profound implications of his death. “This is my body…take and eat.” This liturgy continues to this day. As Jesus was taken, blessed, broken and given, so he does with each of us. He takes whatever we offer him, our talents, our time, our gifts. He blesses us with his love and friendship. Then he breaks us so that we are not relying on our gifts, but on his gift. Then he gives us – blessed and broken, redeemed and renewed – back to ourselves. But the giving does not stop there. We receive our redeemed mess, recreated into something beautiful, and we watch him use it for the benefit of others. As we offer our lives to Jesus, regardless of how meager the offering, he takes us, blesses us, breaks us and gives our lives back to us – to be used for the nourishing of those around us. In this liturgy, we find our purpose.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of April 15, 2012
The Liturgy
Take these four verbs one at a time, and consider their implications in Jesus own life. Then explore your memory for ways in which you’ve seen God working this way in your life.
How was Jesus taken, blessed, broken, and given?
How have you been taken, blessed, broken, and given?
April 8-14
A WORD IN SEASON
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1-2
READ: John 20
Years ago on a trip to Israel, I visited the Garden Tomb, a lovely garden within the city of Jerusalem that could be the burial place of Jesus. There is a tomb, hewn from stone at about the time of Jesus, which appears to have been under construction, but never finished. The guide took us inside and read John’s account of the resurrection, offering an explanation of an odd note in John 20:7 about which I’d always been curious. John tells us that the grave clothes were lying there empty, but the cloth that covered his head was neatly folded in a place by itself. Our guide explained that it was the practice of carpenters to keep a towel with them at all times while they worked. Each day when they finished their work, they would take the rag and toss it on, or alongside the project in process. Others in the household could see and enjoy the progress of the work as day by day, something beautiful and useful took shape. Finally, when the carpenter stood back and approvingly surveyed the finished project, instead of tossing the rag, he carefully folded the same rag, and set it down, indicating to the family that the project was completed. Although I’ve never read this explanation in one of my scholarly journals or commentaries, I think about it every time I read this account of the resurrection. I can just see Jesus in those few moments after he had been raised back to life, carefully folding the cloth he had just removed from his own head. Setting it aside as an indication to all who would see, my work here is finished.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of April 8, 2012
Re-Setting our Hearts and Minds
Although the work of Jesus on earth is finished, ours is not. He is not physically here, but we are. So we are compelled to seek the best way in which to live the life that he died to ensure. The Apostle Paul give us some guidance in his letter to the Colossians. He tells us to set our hearts and our minds on things above. Take a quick and honest survey by answering two questions. First, recently, I have set my heart on __________. Or, What is the current object of your desire? And secondly, I have set my mind on ___________. Or, what has occupied my thoughts recently? If your heart and your mind has been set on earthly things, material things, consider ways to occupy your thoughts with things above. For example, soak yourself in scripture, find 5 minutes of silence each day to listen to God’s voice, or ask a friend to pray with you daily, in person or on the phone, for the capacity to see the work of Jesus in your life, and celebrate it.
April 1-7
A WORD IN SEASON
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:17-18
READ: John 12:12-19
Palm Sunday was one of my favorite church events as a child. It always came as an unexpected alteration of Sunday morning routine. Arriving at church on this day, instead of being ushered into our Sunday School classes, all of the giggling children would be lined up in the hallway and handed green palm branches. Yes – this was the day we would parade through the aisles of the sanctuary, waving our palm branches among the worshipers. It was the one and only day I was allowed to shout in church, and so I did with gusto, “Hosanna! Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The powerful symbolism of the events would not have been lost on the Jewish crowd in Jerusalem. They had gathered there for Passover, the annual festival commemorating the exodus, and celebrating their freedom from slavery in Egypt. They gathered to remember that God had indeed blessed their nation, and promised to send the Messiah to lead them to their ultimate destiny. Suddenly – there he was, an unexpected alteration to their Sunday routine! The Messiah, riding a donkey, as the prophet had said. The crowd grew vigorous with excitement on that first Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, truly believing that their Messiah had finally come. The palm branches were a national symbol of victory over enemies. The cloaks they took from their backs to blanket his path were a sign of their submission to him as the “King of Israel.” They finally had their king, and according to their expectations, he would lead the revolt that would defeat their oppressors, and once again, they would be free people!
Only…he didn’t. And, the crowd’s enthusiasm turns into disdain as Jesus failed to meet their expectations. He did not trade the donkey for a war horse. Instead, went to the temple and caused a scene, overturning tables. He continued to teach those who would listen. Then, he gathered his closest friends and washed their feet. By the middle of the week, the crowd had changed its fickle corporate mind – and he was despised. Thursday night he was arrested, and the same voices who had shouted, “Hosanna” on Monday, cried “Crucify him!” on Friday.
As followers of Christ, we are encouraged to identify with Christ, not in his moment of public adoration, but in his suffering. His suffering, or passion, illustrates his love for us. As you read this week, acknowledge the formative work that God has done in you through suffering – and show him your gratitude.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of April 1, 2012
The Passion
This week, saturate yourself in the story of Christ’s Passion, which is the term used to describe the final week, particularly the final day of Christ’s earthly ministry from the upper room to the crucifixion, including the resurrection. Consider these two options. Read the Gospel of John 12 – 21. Reading two chapters a day will allow you to see the unity of the story, but also allow for time to listen deeply to the story. Another option is to watch the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” It takes a little over two hours. As you read or watch, try to imagine yourself as one of the crowd in Jerusalem that weekend. How would you have responded?
March 25-31
A WORD IN SEASON
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” John 15:5 (MSG)
READ: John 15:1-12
My niece has a new baby girl. They do not live around here, so my exposure to this little bundle of joy is limited to Facebook updates. Still, I am amazed at the changes that are taking place! Most healthy babies double their birth weight by 4 months and triple it by their first birthday. This is a dizzying rate of growth. My 12 year old daughter seems to be a on a similar path. She complains of aches in her arms and legs, and no wonder, every time I look at her I have to adjust the angle of my neck! Parents have oohed and ahhed like this since the very beginning, I can only assume. Except when they don’t – when children don’t grow, when signs of healthy development do not show themselves, and milestones go unmet. Pediatricians have a disheartening term for this condition, FTT, or “failure to thrive.” Kids who fail to thrive do not receive, or are unable to use the nutrition needed to sustain normal growth. When we perceive FTT in a child, we are deeply disturbed. Physicians immediately begin examining, testing, and tirelessly seeking a treatable diagnosis. Parents fret and weep and most assuredly pray. I have often wondered why we aren’t similarly alarmed about the “spiritual failure to thrive,” a far more common malady. As a baby Christian begins their life with Christ, rising from the waters of baptism – we celebrate the kingdom’s “new arrival.” But who checks in one year later to test for “normal growth?” And what do we say when one, or two, or three years go by and nothing, in fact, has changed in terms of lifestyle, level of joy, or milestones of spiritual growth? We say nothing, and we look away. We know something is wrong, but “far-be-it-from-me to say anything!” This is exactly what Jesus said would happen the one who “does not abide in me.” (John 15) In order to thrive spiritually, we must abide, or remain connected to Jesus, the True Vine. If we lose that connection, we are cut off from the life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit. Soon our souls begin to shrivel. We become self-centered and easily find fault in others. Our world becomes small and dark. However, if we maintain that connection, we receive regular infusions of everything we need in order to live well and bear fruit. It’s like being hooked up to a constant IV drip of a fundamentally nutritious fluid injected directly into our blood stream. Health courses through us, and soon love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control (among other good fruits) begin to blossom in our lives. Soon we are organically involved in the orchard of life-giving fruit. Life nourishes life, and we are part of it, and it’s normal, healthy and good. How about you? Are you feeling fruity?
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of March 25, 2012
Annual Health Review
Using a calendar or journal to jog your memory, start from one year ago today, and gauge your growth in three areas. Soul: How would I describe my spiritual journey over the last year? Moving closer to God, or farther away? Mind: what have I learned and retained in the last year? Strength: Where is my health as related to one year ago? Better, or worse? To what do you attribute these changes? For the duration of this year, what would it look like if you determined to love God with all of your soul, mind and strength? What kind of fruit could you expect to enjoy?
March 11-17
A WORD IN SEASON
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” John 15:5 (MSG)
READ: John 15:1-12
The Facebook phenomenon has stretched the meaning of the word “friend.” According to my profile, I currently have almost 500 friends. Clearly, the word has lost its original significance. When Jesus was preparing his disciples for his departure, he told them, “I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.” (John 15:15) By the designation friend, Jesus is referring to those who choose to “abide” with him, even after he’s physically gone. He has told them how this works. It simply means that, even though Jesus is not physically here, we can maintain the life-giving friendship. We access the company of Jesus by simply paying attention to him, acknowledging his presence (worship), listening to his word (the Bible), and talking to him (prayer). By simply spending time with Jesus, we keep regular company with the best friend we will ever know. In sharp contrast to my 500ish Facebook friends, I have a dear friend whom I call Al (not really her name, but sort of). Al and I were very close when we were both single. We shared disappointments, triumphs, our spiritual journey, and all other conceivable topics that two girls can share. Then I fell in love and got married. This changed our friendship dramatically. Then she fell in love and got married, and the friendship changed again. These kinds of transitions often terminate friendships. How has this friendship survived the many and violent turns in the road? By discipline. We have chosen to meet for lunch once a week to maintain our friendship. This has not always been easy – for both of us have become busy, preoccupied with husbands, kids, job changes, and other major upheavals. We have encountered those things together because, with discipline, whether it’s “convenient” or not, we meet, pray, eat, and talk. In this very same way, we maintain our friendship with Jesus. Whether it’s convenient or not, we meet with him, talk with him, receive his strength and direction, and move into our day revived by the sheer power of his company.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of March 11, 2012
Abide from Head to Toe
Read John 15:1-12 two or three times. Note the repetition of the word, “abide” sometimes translated “remain,” meaning to dwell, or live in, or connect with. Jesus is using the metaphor of the branches of a grapevine when he said, “I am the vine, you are the branches…abide in me, and you will bear much fruit.” Imagine yourself connected to the vine, and imagine the life giving sap flowing from the vine all through your body. Start at the top of your head, and imagine the sap flowing over your brain, and while you do, dedicate the powers of your mind to the Master’s business. Ask him to direct your thoughts. Then move down your body, through your arms, hands, right down to your toes, dedicating every part of you to the service of the master. Do this regularly, daily, or weekly – and then – watch for fruit! It will come.
March 4-10
A WORD IN SEASON
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1
READ: John 13
Jumbo shrimp, intuitive logic, fast casual, civil litigation; these are a few examples of the oxymoron – a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms. It is the grammatical equivalent of the intellectual discord I experience every time I read the Gospel of John, chapter 13. In the somber narrative, I watch my Master and Lord, the creator and sustainer of the universe, of all things visible and invisible, (see John 13:1 & 3), as he deliberately takes a wash basin and a towel, and washes filthy grime from the feet of twelve grown men. The disciples, too, must have wrestled a deep sense of inner conflict as their rabbi, on his hands and knees, made his way around the table with basin and a towel. In truth they would not understand it for some time to come. The following day would likely be remembered as the worst one of their lives, and in it’s wake, these men (minus Judas, of course) would be entrusted with the foundation of the Church. This odd assortment of fishermen and other regular guys would lead a movement that has changed more lives than any other enterprise in western history, conservatively, maybe the world. For this particular lesson of their apprenticeship, the Master is teaching by doing. Jesus explains, “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” Jesus was laying out the leadership model of the church – that is to say, servant leadership. He had told them that if they wanted to be great, then they must become least and the servant of all (Mark 9:35). He has just shown them what it looks like. And yet, tonight’s demonstration, as shocking as it was, is nothing compared to what they would witness tomorrow. Servant leadership, there’s an oxymoron for you. But if you find yourself in a church that does not operate under this kind of leader, please understand that your leader is not following The Leader.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of March 4, 2012
Follow the Leader
This week, plan a conscious act of service for another person. It may mean performing a menial household chore that is normally someone else’s to do. Or it could be something more time consuming, like taking a home cooked meal to a shut in, or cleaning house for someone who is ill or incapacitated. But don’t stop with the act of service. Record the experience, and the results. Test Jesus’ statement, “If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
February 26 – March 3
A WORD IN SEASON
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” John 12:13
READ: John 12:12-19
This morning I met a fighter pilot. This does not happen every day. I immediately saw Maverick (Tom Cruise) and his partner, Goose high-fiving in my imagination. (Specifically, the volleyball scene. Ladies who had a pulse in the 80’s know to what I’m referring!) The fighter pilot I met this morning was probably not even born in 1986 when that movie came out, but he recognized the reference, and graciously tolerated my moment of nostalgia. It put me in mind of a thousand other things that came and went in the 80’s. Parachute pants, Milli Vanilli, bi-level haircuts, “gag me with a spoon,” and my trusty Trapper Keeper, to name a few. Do you remember Cabbage Patch Dolls? They were all the rage. It can be a little disheartening to consider the sharp turns of public opinion. Crazy how a crowd can turn on a dime. In John chapter 12, we see Jesus at the height of his earthly popularity. He entered Jerusalem like a first century rock star, people waving palm branches and throwing their cloaks in the road ahead of him. But when he failed to meet their expectations, when he failed to raise an army and rout the Roman soldiers back to Rome, they turned on a dime. There would be only a few days between palm waving and finger pointing. As Christ followers, we choose to follow him every day of the year. But during this holy season of Lent, we pay particular attention to the last week of his earthly life. Today we sing with the crowds, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of February 26, 2012
Enter the Story
Read John 12:12 – 19 slowly and if possible, aloud. Imagine yourself in the crowd. If you had not witnessed Lazarus, the man from Bethany, literally raised from the dead, you had heard about it. Your own belly may have been filled at the largest ever picnic lunch, where Jesus took five little loaves of bread and two fish, and multiplied them to feed more than 5000 people. You’d heard of these and other miracles, but could you allow yourself to believe that your Messiah had come? Read the passage two or three times. Each time, imagine yourself from a different perspective in the crowd. As a believer, as a doubter, as one of the twelve. Enter the story of scripture.
February 19-25
A WORD IN SEASON
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
READ: Psalm 51
“From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.” These words will be spoken over those who receive the mark of ashes on Ash Wednesday. In the early history of this practice, the ashes were imposed only on notorious sinners whose moral failures were a matter of public awareness. Over time, people began to understand their own guilt. They identified themselves in Paul’s statement, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In the light of falling short, the entire congregation eventually joined the line once a year to stand among the penitent. From ancient times, ashes have been used as an outer demonstration of an inner sense of remorse or deep sorrow. To this day, on Ash Wednesday, Christians around the world gather in churches to share the heavy burden of our collective sin. Together we stand, our heads marked with ashes, knowing that because of all that soot, Jesus, our precious Master, came among us to die a horrible death. So with the ashes, we begin a season of 40 days during which we dedicate ourselves to brutal honesty with regard to our falling short. We acknowledge that with his sacrifice, he bought us, and we are his. Sometimes we choose a source of comfort or joy, and we refrain from it for the duration of the Lenten Season, stretching from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday. In so doing, we experience some level of discomfort in order to identify with Christ’s discomfort with which he paid for our sins. We “re-up” our submission to the One who rightfully reigns over us. We recognize the purpose of his sacrifice, “so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of February 19, 2012
Observing Lent
Choose an exercise to practice from now until Easter Sunday that will provide a daily reminder of Jesus’ costly payment for your sin. For example, I might choose not to drink coffee for these 40 days. To refrain from coffee will provide a daily “stab of pain,” and serve as a reminder of the pain that Jesus endured on the cross. 101 Ideas for Observing LentI will live with that discomfort in gratitude to Christ, and commit myself daily to his sovereign leadership over my life. If you’d like ideas for practicing Lent, peruse this list.
February 12-18
A WORD IN SEASON
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:17
READ: John 5
According the story of creation, God worked for six days, and rested on the seventh. God himself demonstrated the holy value of rest. Number four of the Ten Commandments directs us to “Honor the Sabbath.” But what does that mean, exactly? The Jews did not relish the inherent ambiguity of this, and other laws, so they created ancillary rules to serve as a hedge to protect the core of the law. For example, it was against the law to carry a load of any weight on the Sabbath. By healing a man on the Sabbath, and then telling the just-healed man to “pick up his mat and walk,” Jesus was defying not the core of the Sabbath Law, but the traditional rules that surrounded it. He was making a bold statement. He is standing, in his humble way, above the Pharisees and religious leaders and proclaiming authority over their long held and treasured traditions. In all three of the other gospels, Jesus said it this way, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was God’s idea, and it was good. So good in fact, that he mandated it for his children. But left in the hands of mankind for several hundred years, we had colluded it with nit-picky rules, like not walking more than ¼ of a mile, no cooking, no writing. Soon the Sabbath became a burden – the exact opposite of what God intended, which was rest. We rest in honor of our creator, who taught us the value of rest. We acknowledge that we are finite, and we dedicate one day to rebel against the culture that insists that our worth is defined by what we produce. So today, our problem is almost exactly reversed. Rest is counter cultural, and when we insist upon it, we must be prepared for our friends to mock us. Jesus stood in the face of his counterparts by “working” on the Sabbath, let’s take a stand in ours by choosing to honor the fourth commandment.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of February 12, 2012
Sabbath Keeping
If possible, plan a day to keep Sabbath this week. Reject your impulse to be essential. If at all possible, put the cell phones away and avoid e-mail, or any medium through which demands may arrive. Arise without an alarm clock, and determine that you will spend this day aware of God’s presence. If your family is willing to join you, plan leisure activities with them, playing games indoors or out. Plan meals so that preparation is enjoyable and mealtimes are leisurely. Watch wholesome movies, read good books, and refuse to do anything that feels like work.
If you cannot dedicate a whole day to Sabbath rest, find unplanned sections of the week, and block 3 or 4 hours at a time to rest. Beware, the world will not honor this effort, but God certainly will.
February 5-11
A WORD IN SEASON
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. John 4:50
READ: John 4:43-54
By the encouragement of Eugene Peterson, a mentor through his books, I have taken up the practice of reading the Gospels with a higher view of Jesus as God. Whenever anyone is speaking to Jesus, I frame their words to him as prayer, and see what, if anything I can learn about prayer from those interactions. The official in this passage was probably a higher servant of King Herod, whose beloved son was ill. He had probably tried every resource available to a wealthy member of current culture, doctors, priests, medicinal options, and all to no avail. When he heard about Jesus’ power to heal, he found him and begged him, “Please sir, come and heal him before he dies.” This is a healing prayer. The one who speaks the prayer is deeply concerned, so he simply asks Jesus for a miracle. When Jesus assured him that he would live, even though his son was a day’s journey away in Capernaum, the man believed – and there is the key. Belief. Jesus said that it would be so, and he believed that it was so. This simple prayer, spoken from a heart of concern, and bolstered by faith, was answered in the way that he had hoped. I would like to think that my faith is strong enough to trust Jesus, even if the answer doesn’t line up with my hopes. Faith trumps hope, is deeper and more real. My heart is burdened by many whose bodies are not well. I pray for them, and believe that God, in his goodness and grace, will answer – every time. And I leave the precise definition of “healing” to him.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of February 5, 2012
Healing Prayer (by Mary Fairchild)
Gather in your mind those friends or family members who are ill or injured, and pray this simple prayer over them each day this week.
Dear Lord of Mercy and Father of Comfort,
You are the One I turn to for help in moments of weakness and times of need. I ask you to be with your servant in this illness. Psalm 107:20 says that you send out your Word and heal. So then, please send your healing Word to your servant. In the name of Jesus, drive out all infirmity and sickness from his body.
Dear Lord, I ask you to turn this weakness into strength, suffering into compassion, sorrow into joy, and pain into comfort for others. May your servant trust in your goodness and hope in your faithfulness, even in the middle of this suffering. Let him be filled with patience and joy in your presence as he waits for your healing touch.Please restore your servant to full health, dear Father. Remove all fear and doubt from his heart by the power of your Holy Spirit, and may you, Lord, be glorified through his life.
As you heal and renew your servant, Lord, may he bless and praise you.
All of this I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.Amen.
January 29 – February 4
A WORD IN SEASON
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7
READ: John 4:46-54
Scrolling through Facebook the other day, I read these words from a friend, “It finally happened! I forgot to pick my daughter up at day care today!” I’m sure many, if not most parents have known that sick-in-the-stomach feeling of realizing that a child has been forgotten at church or school. More memorable, however, may be the feeling of having been forgotten, or left behind. In the lovely song of Psalm 42 and 43, the writer expresses his longing for a distant God. He wonders out loud, “Has God forgotten me?” We know theologically that God will never forget us, but we have probably all felt as if he did. Abandonment, the grief of loss, or maybe the loneliness of illness has isolated our heart from others. In silence we wait to be remembered, to hear a familiar voice calling us home to the rejoicing of those who love us. This waiting period can be very difficult. St. John of the Cross coined the term, “dark night of the soul” when he endured just such a season. So often these dark nights come when a loved one is hurting. Their pain causes us to wonder about God’s idea of care. As you entrust your friends and family to him in prayer, allow him to embrace you, too, assuring you of his love. Offer your request, and believe that, whether you see it immediately or not, his answer is the result of all power and love.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of January 29, 2012
Prayer Album
Create an album of prayer by collecting photographs or other scraps of memories, like movie stubs, or coffee shop napkins, that remind you of the people who hold a regular place on your prayer list. Use a format that is easily altered so that progress can be marked and dated. Flip through the album, covering the people, and pages, in prayer.
January 15-28
A WORD IN SEASON
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” John 4:32
READ: John 4:27-42
I quote Winnie the Pooh when I describe my current condition, “there is a rumbly in my tumbly.” I have already passed my deadline to submit this short devotional, and have committed that I will not eat until it is finished. John chapter 4 reinforces my hunger, as I read of Jesus who was worn out, thirsty and hungry after a long journey. He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, thus began one of the most famous conversations recorded in the gospels. After Jesus turned the conversation from the physical refreshment of well water, to the spiritual renewal of living water, the disciples returned to find him speaking with the woman. They had gone into the village to buy food. They were startled to find him speaking to a woman, and further amazed when he refused the food they had brought to him. He explained, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” While they were speaking the Samaritan woman had rushed back to town and began to share the Good News of what had just happened to her. She had met a man who might just be the Messiah. She invited them to “come and see” for themselves. Soon, the people of her village came streaming to Jesus, and they invited him to stay with them, so they could get to know him better. Re-read John 4:39-42. Many believed because of what the woman said. At the very same moment that she believed in Jesus, she received her commission. Her God given work, or calling, synonymous to vocation (from the Latin vocare, to call) was to tell others about Jesus. She left her water jar (still thirsty) in preference of doing her work, just as Jesus refused a meal in preference of “finishing the work” that God had given him. Many of us have experienced this – a sense of fulfillment that results from doing exactly what God has called us to do. This week, let’s turn our attention to finding, and fulfilling our vocation.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of January 15 & 22, 2012
Hunger for Vocation
Use hunger to name your calling, or vocation. Most of us have jobs by which we support our families and lifestyle. Your vocation supersedes your job. Your vocation is the distinct contribution that God is calling you to make to his kingdom. It may be, like the Samaritan woman’s calling, to invite others to consider Jesus as master, and to follow him. Your calling may be to mentor, or disciple young people. It may be to pray in faith for those in need. You may be called to full time Christian ministry, but most of us aren’t.
If you do not know what your calling is – commit to a program of fasting until it is clear to you. You might give up lunch one day per week, or choose to spend a day without food, using meal times to seek God in prayer asking, “What do you want me to do?” Jesus and the Samaritan woman experienced a fullness in doing their God-given work that was deeper than their appetite for bread and water.
God has not saved you for decorative purposes only. He has work for you to do. Name it, and then get busy.
January 8-14
A WORD IN SEASON
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
READ: John 4:4-26
In writing Psalm 63 (quoted above), David spoke of a desert season of life. For him, it was literal. David knew the wilderness. He knew what it meant to be dry and parched, and to live in a land without water. The discomfort of his physical thirst perfectly illustrated his soul’s thirst for God, and he wrote about it in song. When we read it today, most of us immediately relate to both physical and spiritual thirst. Every person’s deepest spiritual longing is to live genuinely connected to God. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said to the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Living water is a rich metaphor for the steady presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the seed of faith from which a tender plant sprouts, but it is the enduring stream of living water that brings it to blossom and finally, fruit. Just as our bodies need a steady supply of water in order to thrive, our souls need the constant company of God to maintain life, and to produce fruit. Jesus was speaking to a desert people, who lived their entire lives within the context of thirst. When he described life with God, he said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38) The truth is that we live in a spiritual desert, where thirst is a constant threat. Just as our bodies know that water is the best remedy for thirst, may our souls come to recognize, and crave the presence of God as the only cure for spiritual thirst. The Holy Spirit is holding out a cup overflowing with refreshment, if we will but receive it from his hand.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of January 8, 2012
Keeping Well Hydrated
The key to maintaining hydration in the body is to keep a cup or bottle of water handy, and sip from it throughout the day. Likewise, attention to God’s presence will quench your spiritual thirst by small draughts throughout the day. For one week, concentrate on stopping at regular intervals throughout the day to direct your attention to God’s presence. For centuries of Christian practice, it has been customary to stop and thank God for his presence at four intervals through the day.
- In the morning before the day’s activities begin “God, direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose today.”
- At noon over lunch, “Help me Lord, to see your grace in all things.”
- After work, “Lord, bless the day’s efforts to the glory of your name.”
- Before retiring, “Almighty Father, forgive me of my sins, and give me and those I love a peaceful night and a perfect end. Amen.”
January 1-7
A WORD IN SEASON
Jesus said, “Follow me.”
Here we stand at the outset of a New Year, 2012. Twelve months stretch out before us, and the only thing we know for sure is that we will not come through them unchanged. The Greek word for this change is metamorphous – which may sound familiar if you passed middle school biology. It is often translated “transform.” This is certain – we will be changed this year. Not changing is the only option we do not have. So the only question that remains is, do we have any power at all over what kind of changes we experience. The answer – yes indeed. In fact, the purpose of a life in Christ is to change over time so that we become more like Christ. Yes – by this time next year, you can be more like Christ.
The Apostle Paul became a Christian after many years of being a Pharisee. After his conversion, he became the first missionary to take the good news outside of Israel. He traveled around the Roman Empire preaching Christ and planting churches. He wrote these beautiful letters to the baby believers in these various churches, urging them to Follow Christ – to enter into this process of Spiritual Formation. Listen to his urgency as he exhorted others to also Follow Jesus. The church he had planted in Galatia was doing really well for a while after he left them until some false teachers came along and distracted them from Jesus. Paul wrote “you were doing fine, running along great – who distracted you? Who got you off track?” “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” To the young believers in Rome he said, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:29) And to the believers in Corinth, All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. By keeping our gaze fixed on Christ – by following him, we begin to resemble him.
Respond: Spiritual Exercise for the Week of January 1, 2012
Follow the Leader
In order to follow Jesus, we must observe his life. The best way to do that is to read the Gospels, the four great copies of his biography that have been preserved for us in our Bibles. You may choose from hundreds of “bible reading plans” this year, but start with a careful reading of the four Gospels. As you read, make observations of Jesus Christ. Pay attention to the way he treats people, and when he speaks (red letters might help) what are the main topics of his conversation. Keep notes in a journal – when you’ve completed Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, write a list of Top Five Things Jesus Cares About. Create a similar list of your own (your calendar and check book will be helpful here). What adjustments need to be made to your list?