Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. – Matthew 10:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 31, 2014): Matthew 10

Garry Unger was my favorite hockey player when I was growing up. I started to cheer for Garry when he was playing with the Detroit Red Wings, and then he was traded to St. Louis Blues. To be honest I had never really liked the Blues, but all of that changed on the day that Garry was traded and became a part of the franchise. And then he went to Atlanta and the Atlanta Flames became the Calgary Flames (and I grew up in Calgary) but Garry was traded to Los Angeles, and then traded to the hated (at least from my perspective) Edmonton Oilers. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride at the end, but I never lost my respect for him as a hockey player. When I was a kid, Garry usually showed up in my church for a Sunday in the summer. He would sit in the back of the sanctuary with a couple of his friends and for that service all of us boys seemed to think that the sanctuary had been reversed, because we were not looking forward at the preacher, but backward at the hockey player sitting in the pew at the back of the church. I have never had any problem in acknowledging that Garry Unger was my favorite hockey player. (On a side note, Hockey Hall of Fame, what’s up? The former NHL Iron Man belongs in your ranks, it is time to do something about it.)

I also grew up in a church where to accept Jesus Christ meant walking the long aisle to the altar rails at the front of the church. And often it was this verse that was quoted as the reason for the walk. If you do not acknowledge God by walking to the front of the sanctuary, then when you get to heaven Jesus will not acknowledge you. The argument has some merits, but I really don’t think that that was what Matthew was meaning. The unfortunate side effect of the argument that I was acknowledging Jesus as I walked to the front of the sanctuary is that it frees me from the responsibility to acknowledge Jesus anywhere else, and I think that it was the anywhere else that Jesus (and Matthew) were really meaning.

The bottom line is that I should be as comfortable acknowledging Jesus in my life as I was (and am) in expressing my admiration for Garry Unger. I should be as willing to seek Jesus out in the various areas of life as I was as a child compelled to seek out the hockey player sitting in the back row of the church. Acknowledging Jesus does not mean that I need to take special courses to learn how (after all, no special courses were needed on how to acknowledge my favorite - anything), it just seems to happen.

And maybe that is really the point. Jesus said that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). That is why it is easy to talk about sports stars or movie heroes. Our words are nothing more than the overflow of the heart. But as Christians, the overflow should be Jesus. The idea of acknowledging him is not a task that we need to gear ourselves up for, it is the natural result of a heart that is overflowing for him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 14

Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” – Matthew 9:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 30, 2014): Matthew 9

Star Trek has been credited with the rethinking of technology. Examples of real life technology that came out of the Star Trek franchise include ‘communicators’ (we call them cell phones), ‘computer music storage devices’ (the ever present I-pod), the ability to read a book on a ‘tablet,’ and even the idea of a voice interface. All of this was imagined by the writers of Star Trek, and our first exposure to them came as we watched the various Captains and crews of the Enterprise (and Deep Space Nine) go about their tasks on our television screens.

But actually the idea of Science Fiction stimulating future invention is almost an expected one. The first dime store novels about trips to the Moon or Mars is almost necessary before the actual journey can be attempted. The reason why Science Fiction has such an innovative potential is simple; Science Fiction gets to reimagine the future without feeling that is tied to the past. It is freed from the old paradigms and released to imagine what the new paradigm might look like. Because of this paradigm shift it is allowed to break the rules – every one of them. Future Science Fiction restructuring will probably include a way to break the speed barrier that exists at the speed of light. As far as we know now, mass approaches the infinite as speed approaches the speed of light. The result is that the light speed barrier cannot be passed (however, at one point we also believed that the sound barrier could not be overcome.) But Science Fiction writers are already hard at work imagining how the light speed barrier might be broken by imagining a different way of travelling – a different jar to contain the ideas. Some of these ideas include mass dampeners, folding space, or even travelling outside of our dimension. These are the new containers designed to contain new ideas about the speed of space travel.

Jesus begins to teach about the things that he has been saying and one thing becomes quickly apparent; the new teachings simply will not fit in the old containers. What Jesus was teaching would ruin the sacrifice driven Laws of Moses. A new container was needed to hold the teaching. The gospel of love that Jesus was speaking of simply could not be held in the old jars. It needed a new one.

If the idea of salvation through sacrifice is the old wineskin, then the idea of salvation through the cross is the new wineskin. Jesus teaching could not be contained in anything other than his death on the cross. Only the cross was capable of holding the gospel of love of that Jesus now taught.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 10

Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” – Mark 5:36

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 29, 2014): Mark 5

A recent article espousing ways to build self-confidence placed ‘dressing sharp’ at the top of the list. (The full list included 1. Dress Sharp, 2. Walk Faster, 3. Good Posture [maybe your mother was right all along], 4. Personal Commercial [listing all of your good points], 5. Gratitude, 6. Compliment other people [strangely enough this is something that I find people lacking in self-confidence rarely do], 7. Sit in the Front Row [that one surprised me], 8. Speak Up, 9. Work Out, 10. Focus on Contribution.)  The reality of our lives is that self-confidence is incredibly important to what we are able to achieve in life. Without it, some things we will never do because we will never even try to attempt it. I know I have a list of things in my life that I have not done partially because I lack the self-confidence to even attempt to complete the task. There are people that I have avoided and not met because of a self-confidence issue. If I am honest, I routinely find that those around me often have more confidence in my abilities than I do. More than any other single factor, including drive, it is a lack of self-confidence that prevents tasks from being completed. A lack of self-confidence is a problem that will ultimately shape my life. And I don’t think that I am alone.

Jairus, the leader of the local synagogue comes to Jesus. He has a problem, his daughter is sick. And as Mark tells the story, there is an interruption. Jesus seems to lose focus on Jairus as he attends to a sick woman, and by the time Jesus returns his attention to Jairus, the girl has died. And now Jairus has a decision. Part of the decision is definitely how much faith does he have in this teacher, but it is also how much faith has he placed in himself to make the right decisions. His friends encourage him to walk away, to not bother the teacher. The word bother would seem to indicate a critical lack of self-confidence, he no longer feels worthy to approach the teacher. But he has also pushed himself to the front row when he probably would have rather faded into the background.  

Jesus hears the conversation between Jairus and his friends and his words in return to this conversation are “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” The object of that belief is left open ended. Yes, it definitely would have included belief in Jesus, but it also would have been directed at Jairus himself. Jairus could walk away now underscoring his own lack of importance in the world of Jesus, or he could place the impossible task at the feet of the teacher to see what he might be able to do.

Jairus summons every bit of his own self-confidence and gives his problem and his sorrow to Jesus. It is a task that each of us has to do at some point in our lives. And it is often a lack of self-confidence as opposed to a lack of faith in Jesus that stops us from laying our problems at the teacher’s feet. We have great faith in God, but we have no idea why he should care for us. So we stop, never even bothering to bring our troubles to Jesus. And our questions are never answered not because there are no answers, but because our own lack of self-confidence has stopped them from being asked.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 9

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. – Mark 4:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 28, 2014): Mark 4

George Orwell wrote in his dystopian novel, 1984, that “if you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” Orwell’s comment seems to indicate the difficulty we humans have with keeping a secret. And there are many people that would seem to agree. Even Benjamin Franklin once humorously commented that “three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” The truth about us that secret’s bump up against is that knowledge – any knowledge – is power. It is the reason why so many people in our culture pretend that they know everything that there is to know, including all of the secrets of life. Knowledge is power, and we all want to feel that we are powerful. And that power is displayed in the act of sharing the secrets that we know with others. For a fleeting moment, and it does not last long, we are powerful.

And we seem to be able to add Jesus to the list of people who question our ability to keep secrets. Some have argued that Jesus is strictly speaking about the content of his parables and the elements of spiritual truth that he came to share with humanity. But there is some evidence that suggests that Jesus is simply speaking about the human condition. Secrets can only be kept for a short period of time unless, as Orwell suggests, we are successful at keeping the secret from ourselves. As long as we know, and as long as feel compelled to share the secret with even just one person, then the secret cannot be kept. It is designed to be disclosed and brought out into the open

In human relationships, no true bond is possible as long as there are secrets. In counselling it is always getting beyond the secrets that seems to be the first line of offence. And in marriages, it is always the secrets that act like a time bomb threatening to blow up our lives. Secrets have a tendency to destroy, both us and the people around us. They are a festering sore that threatens the healthy tissue of our lives. And secrets tend to spread and multiply.

The only way we will ever develop a society where we all get what we need is if we can somehow get beyond the secrets. And the revealing of secrets destroys the power structure that tends to separate us from each other. Health happens when we can be honest with each other – and that is also the time when we can get all of the help from others that we need.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 5

… and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; - Luke 8:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 27, 2014): Luke 8

Some people are known simply by where they are from. I have had a few friends from Newfoundland. And if Newfoundlanders are not known to you, let me tell you about them. Newfoundland is an island province in Canada. They are a great, generous and loving people, and their island is a rugged place, but also a very beautiful place. Newfoundland throughout much of its history has also been an isolated island. The result is that Newfoundlanders have developed their own customs and, in many ways, their own language. They speak English, but often English with a twist. From my experience, a Newfoundlander speaks very good and understandable English, unless they get excited. If that happens, good luck. With both of my buddies this was often the time for me to plead with them to slow down so that I would have a chance of understanding what it was that they were saying. Negatively, because of all of this people of Newfoundland often find themselves as the subject for some unkind – and undeserved – jokes, the result of which is a caricature of what the people are really like.

Luke introduces us to a new character. Her name is Mary and Luke says that she had seven demons cast out of her. We are also told that she was called Magdalene which we have assumed meant that she was either from or identified with the coastal city of Magdala. And this is where things begin to get complicated for Mary. The problem is that we just don’t know enough about her.

The common image of Mary was that she was a reformed prostitute. But the Bible image comes from a few pieces of evidence. First, right before this introduction of Mary is a story of a young woman who we are told was sinful and Simon the Pharisee seemed to be surprised that Jesus would let a woman guilty of this sin touch him. It is likely that the sin was prostitution. We are not told or this woman’s name, but John tells a very similar story and identifies the woman as Mary of Bethany.

It is at this point that Luke mentions this Mary from Magdala. Magdala was a coastal town and it was, therefore, a place that sailors would frequent. Throughout history this has also meant it was a place that would have been frequented by prostitutes. It was a caricature of the people of Magdala, but it was a caricature that could have been used by people who wanted to advertise their profession covertly. And so we now have a reason for Mary’s name.

And on top of this, we are told very clearly that Mary had seven demons cast out of her. We have no idea what effect the demons had on Mary, but it is an educated guess that they manifested in Mary’s behavior in some way. Her behavior would have been the reason for the diagnoses of demonic possession. So with all of this in hand, the concept of Mary Magdalene, Prostitute, is born. But the bottom line is that we just don’t know. The only thing that we can say for sure is that Mary of Magdala had seven demons inside of her, and after having them cast out she became a pivotal character in the story of Jesus.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 4

Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” – Matthew 13:30

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 26, 2014): Matthew 13

The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS seems to be picking up steam.  (For those wondering how Star Trek’s Captain Picard might respond to the challenge, you can find the video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty6-Ug1wk-0.) By the way, Captain Picard really has got the ice bucket challenge right. Originally the challenge was to either donate to ALS research or pour a bucket of ice water over your head. The idea was that it is easier to donate money than put yourself through the discomfort of having a bucket of ice poured over you. But instead of a challenge, what has resulted is people with a desire to do (hopefully) both. We see the ice water part on our computer screens, the donating of money is a much more private function.

But as with anything that gains popularity, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has its detractors. Recently there have been a few celebrities that have spoken out against the Ice Bucket Challenge because of some ALS research is conducted on animals even though, according to the protestors, there is evidence suggesting that animal research will never help us in finding  cure for the disease. And so we have the classic dilemma of life, how do we do good without also doing evil?

However, I do recognize the problem. ALS is a horrible disease that robs a person of so much of their life. Having said that, we have been given the responsibility of caring for creation, which would have to include the life on which we do our medical research. Sin properly understood would seem to be the wanton disregard for the creation that is around us. The care of the planet and all of the animals of the earth is really up to us.

So does that mean, as some have asserted, that we should stop this Ice Bucket Challenge thing – or at least the donating to ALS part. And that would seem to be the point of this parable of Jesus. Jesus talks about a field that is planted with seed, but at the same time an enemy comes and plants weeds. The problem was that to pull the weeds too early meant the possibility of destroying all the good that was in the field. So the solution that the farmer comes to is to let both the weeds and the wheat grow in the field side by side, but at harvest time the weeds should be burned while the wheat is taken to be stored in the barn. For our Ice Bucket Challenge, we need to be able to separate the good in medical research from the weeds that may have crept in. We need to continue to support ALS research while protesting the indiscriminate use of animals in that research. It cannot be either or, it has to be both.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 8

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” – Luke 11:46

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 25, 2014): Luke 11

The tropical rainforests have often been called the lungs of our planet. As lungs, they play a major role in reducing the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Like our lungs process oxygen releasing carbon dioxide and the rainforests simply reverse the process. In fact, the tropical rainforests of the world are frontline tools in our fight against climate change and in decreasing the effects that greenhouse gasses have on our planet. And if you were wondering how bad all of this carbon dioxide could be for the planet, we actually have an illustration of the effects of a runaway greenhouse effect next door. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, hotter than even Mercury which is the closest planet to the sun. But the probability is that originally Venus was very similar to earth – except that Venus had a natural disaster which resulted in a runaway greenhouse effect. The reality of watching the greenhouse effect in action on Venus has stressed how important it is for us to prioritize our fight on our own greenhouse effect – but unlike Venus, our greenhouse effect seems to be almost entirely man made. We have the ability to stop it.

To fight our planets climate change, the preservation of our planet’s rainforests are essential. But that creates our second problem. The rainforests exist in nations where the only access to wealth is found by harvesting the rainforests, or by destroying the rainforest to get the valuable minerals that can be found just beneath the surface of the forest floor. Either way, wealth for these nations means degrading the lungs of our planet.

Until now, it would seem that the plan of the world has been to heap rules and regulations on the nations that are in possession of the rainforests. And the plan has not worked. Somehow the reality of life seems to intrude. So it might be time for a radical approach. Maybe rather than heaping rules on those living within the rainforests, we need to recognize that the living and healthy rainforest is an essential mineral in itself. Maybe it is time that we in the developed nations started to pay the countries in possession of the rainforests for the value that they are giving to us – the more rainforest a nation is in possession of, the higher the remuneration. Keep it healthy and payments keep on coming. Allow the rainforest to die, and the payments stop. Because the resource that our world needs more than oil, gold or precious stones is a healthy and functioning rainforest – and the rainforest has the potential to be the gift that keeps on giving.

And it just might be the Christian response. Jesus tells the experts in the law that they are guilty of heaping rules and regulations on the people. But for the people, the weight of these rules was more than the people could carry. And to add to the sin, they are also not willing to help them. For a people who barely survived and lived in poverty, the experts in the law just demanded more. And the poor of Israel had no chance of proving themselves holy, even if they wanted to do so. This left them with only one response – to give up.

Maybe the same dilemma applies to our rainforests dilemma. The practice of simply adding rules to those in possession of the rainforests is inadequate. To succeed in keeping the rainforests, we have to help the owners of the rainforests succeed by keeping the rainforests healthy. The future of our planet just might depend on it.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 13

And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. – Matthew 11:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 24, 2014): Matthew 11

Life is often more about what we are willing to accept than we may think. I am becoming convinced that even our morality is more about what we will accept than it is about wrestling with a Biblical standard. Let me stress this: it is not that I do not believe that a biblical standard exists. In fact, I am positive that one does. Our problem lies in what it is that we are willing to accept of what the Bible tries to tell us. Unfortunately, any biblical elements that exist outside of that level of acceptance are ignored or written off as not important. But the bottom line is this; the ruling expression in our religiosity is not the Bible, it is formed in a morality that we have come to believe that we can accept.

I have often heard Christians wonder how the Jews could have missed the coming of their Messiah. I mean, we make it sound so easy, and in the process I believe that we have devalued Jewish belief and not give to them the honor that they deserve. But the reality is summed up in this one simple principle – we see what we are willing to accept, and absolutely nothing more. For our Jewish brothers and sisters, the idea of a Messiah willing to die on the cross is just simply too much for them to accept, so they can’t see it. Our Islamic brothers and sisters have a similar view of what they can accept with regard to Jesus and that has left them with a picture of Jesus as a great prophet but not the Son of God – that he might be the Son of God is just beyond what they feel they can accept. But for those of us who accept Christ as Messiah, we have a different standard. One that allows us to see the Messiah in the one that died on a cross for our sin.

The people of Jesus time were expecting the prophet Elijah to reappear. After all, Elijah had never died, he had just disappeared as a chariot had taken him up to heaven. The thought seemed to be that Elijah would one day come back just as he had left, this time announcing the coming of the Day of the Lord and the Messiah. And so John makes it clear that he is not Elijah returned in the way that the people expected, he is John Bar Zechariah, the only child of Zechariah and Elizabeth and a man born into this world in the usual way. But Jesus simply comments that for those willing to accept it, John is Elijah. And for those willing to accept that John is Elijah, it is a small step to accept Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.

What those of Jesus day were willing to accept defined their reality. And what we are willing to accept continues to shape our religious expectations. And it is not that we need to stop listening to the biblical story, but rather that we need to allow the Bible to speak, even of things that we find hard to accept.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 11

When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said “Don’t cry.” – Luke 7:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 23, 2014): Luke 7

There is a feeling of reality in the old pop song “It’s My Party.” The song, recorded in 1963 by Leslie Gore, describes perfectly the breaking of the teenage heart. Music Critic Jason Ankeny has been quoted as saying that “’It’s My Party’ remains one of the most vivid evocations of adolescent heartbreak ever waxed.’ But while the song does center on the breaking of a teenage girl’s heart, the emotion crosses generation gaps with the chorus’s emotional outburst “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. You would cry too if it happened to you.” There is a point in our emotional depression where the only proper response seems to be to scream at the top of our lungs that no one has any right to tell us how to feel. I will cry if that’s what I want to do. And the reality of the song is that we have all, regardless of age or stage of life – and really (surprisingly) regardless of gender – been there. (Men just seem to have a little more difficulty in admitting that.)

So it would seem that Jesus steps into this emotional quicksand as he speaks to this mother and tells her not to cry. I can almost hear the emotional backlash. Her only son had just died (burials at this time were usually performed on the very day of the death) and there was so much that was truly not fair about this situation. This truly was “her party,” and “she would cry if she wanted to.”

But Jesus would also understand in a very real way that same kind of mourning. A little later in the gospel story Jesus would once again come upon another funeral time, this time it was a funeral mourning the passing of someone that Jesus had loved. And it is part of this story (told in John 11) that Jesus found himself weeping over the one who had died. The depth of emotion in both of these stories seemed to demand nothing less than tears.

And in both of these stories Jesus had no intention of just leaving the people gathered in mourning alone in their grief, not when he could do something about it. In both cases, and as a reaction to the tears of Jesus in the case of Lazarus and the tears of this woman, the impossible was about to become a reality – the dead were about to be raised.

Maybe it’s time for the church to stop crying over the way things have changed, and how the church is no longer at the epicenter of the world and started to attempt the impossible. In some way, and I am not really sure how, maybe it is time that we started to ask God to raise the dead.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 11

Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. – Matthew 8:34

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 22, 2014): Matthew 8

There is a struggle in the church regarding the movement of God. For some, there is no expectation that God is capable of doing anything. In fact, it is less than an expectation. It is a fervent hope that God will not move in our midst. One reason is that God moving is weird. It is okay if God is our servant and does precisely what it is that we want him to do, but we know that the reality is that God seldom limits himself to precisely what it is that we want. The contemporary church simply works too hard at not being weird to let God spoil the agenda.

There is another section of the church that seems to want to serve a God who is weird on steroids. They want to magnify the weirdness not only of God but of the church. If it is not weird, then it cannot be God. For this section it seems that God is designed expressly for an episode of the Twilight Zone or of the Outer Limits.

But the problem on both sides of the story is that God seldom follows our agendas, whatever they might be. God simply is. And ultimately God defines this world the way that he wants to define it and does whatever pleases him. But, to our understanding, there are questions throughout this story with regard to Jesus. Among the first of these questions is the why’s surrounding the events. Why were the men tormented with demons (in our modern culture we would be more likely to assess the situation as having to do with mental Illness)? And why did Jesus allow the demons to go into the pigs – killing the pigs. To be honest the whole story seems – well, weird.

But I was reminded recently that the story also stresses three truths. These truths have to do with the spirit world that we sometimes struggle even believing really exists. The first is that the men had a demonic problem, and not a mental one. Once whatever was inside of them was cast out, the men returned to a more normal state of mind, and whatever was cast out did not make the animals neurotic and paranoid – it did not fill the pigs with a mental disorder – rather, it filled them with a violence that until now had been evident in the men. The first truth that is reflected by the story is that the demonic world would seem to have a real impact on our physical world. (However, a note of caution. Too often we begin to think that all mental illness is demonic possession – it is not. And we need doctors and mental health professionals to help us with mental issues, and we need to work hard to remove the stigma attached to mental issues. But in this case, the underlying cause of the mental issue was demonic in nature.)

The second thing we need to note is that Jesus very definitely had power over the demons. They did whatever it was that Jesus commanded them to do. And the people did not like it. They wanted Jesus to go away – to not be a part of the things that they did. With everything that God could do, all they wanted him to do was leave.

We would never say it, but I think we often feel the same. We don’t want God to cast out our demons, we actually have grown to like them. Jesus is okay as long as he stays powerless. A powerful God is dangerous and weird, and we don’t want him around – even if all he wants is to change our lives for the better.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 7

 

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. – Matthew 7:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 21, 2014): Matthew 7

I recently read an article on leadership issues that maintained that our politicians are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Before we get too excited, the charges are not that politicians are failing to make the obvious corrections to our economies or healthcare that are required, and it has nothing to do with sending soldiers into harm’s way in foreign lands. In fact, it has nothing to do with our politician’s reticence to do exactly what it is that we want them to do. The problem is exactly the reverse. The article asserts that “making unpopular decisions to lead effectively is something that has become all too rare in our country, especially within our political institutions.” The article then continued to try to remake the political landscape. Politicians should “lead by focusing on what is right for our country rather than what we want. After all, we elected them to make tough decisions, not guarantee their own re-election” [Lt. Col. Todd Henshaw (Ret.)]

I wish that I could argue that Henshaw was wrong, but he isn’t. The truth is that the people we elect are not there to do our bidding – they are there to make the hard decisions that we need made. The last thing that I want are politicians in office who are more concerned about their popularity then they are about doing the right thing. We have elected them to make the right decisions that we are often incapable of making or unwilling to make. And that is exactly what we have elected them to do.

Often these words of Jesus are applied to our salvation, toward the issue of where it is that we will spend eternity, but they could just as easily be applied to the entirety of our lives. Right decisions are usually not the easy ones - they are the hard ones – and therefore few people are willing to make them. If making the easy decisions had the ability to make us successful, then we would all be successful. But making right decisions is hard. And so we often simply don’t make them. In the words of Jesus, the right decision means entering through the narrow gate.

Success follows the narrow gates of our lives. Entering through the narrow gate will lead us to success, regardless of whether we are talking about our eternal salvation, or just being successful in the business, relationship or any other endeavors of our life. Few are really successful in life because few have the discipline to enter through the narrow gates of their lives. But it is there that success lies.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 8

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:34

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 20, 2014): Matthew 6

Part of the process of growing up incudes developing the ability to delay gratification, to not need to immediately purchase something that we want, but rather to be willing to wait for it. We learn to be willing to save our money until we can afford the item that we want, we can save for the day that we will eventually retire, and all of this is part of what means to mature – to grow up. Admittedly, there are many forces that conspire in our society and tell us that this part of growing up is simply unnecessary. We can buy things that we want on credit – often with nothing down and with little or no interest on our payments (by the way, if you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you. Nothing is free and the costs of borrowing are simply buried somewhere else. In the end you are still going to pay.) We are convinced that it is somehow not important to save up for our retirement; that cashing in those RRSP savings so that we can afford something now is a good and proper move. And we are wrong. All that any of this means is that we are still children and that we still have a lot of growing up to do.

But the other side of the story is also not healthy. Sometimes we get so obsessed with the future that we miss the present. We spend every waking minute worrying about what might – or might not – happen. And the result is that we never get to enjoy the life we are living. The truth is that neither ignoring the future or obsessing over the future are proper responses to life.

So Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow. The instruction is not that we should ignore tomorrow. Growing up demands that we do in the present whatever it is that we need to do so that we are prepared when tomorrow arrives. But there is also no need to obsess over tomorrow. If we do the things that we need to do, tomorrow will be well taken care of when it arrives.

Another way of phrasing this saying of Jesus is that we should not worry about the trouble of tomorrow that may or may not come true. Each day comes with trouble of its own, and today is no exception. Live in the present and attend to the trouble that comes our way. And if we are willing to do that, well, then tomorrow will be ready to take care of itself.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 7

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. – Mathew 5:44-45

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 19, 2014): Matthew 5                        

New reports are still coming out of Iraq with regard to the killing of the Yazidi people, a minority Muslim group, by a group that is made up of more radical Muslims. The Yazidi continue to be killed despite the best efforts of the United States to save them. And not far away from this human rights tragedy another one is brewing as Palestinian Arabs and Israeli forces continue to face off against each other with guns and rocket launchers, not only killing each other, but also killing anyone else who might be standing in the way. The names of the dead continue to be added to what is already a very long list. And for those of us who are separated from these conflicts by both space and ideological understanding, the conflicts and the deaths are incomprehensible. And yet people are still dying.

I realize that in both of these cases (in Iraq and Israel) there are long standing disagreements, and there are lists of pains that have been inflicted and actions that have been taken that the participants feel cannot be forgiven. But it is because the actions cannot be forgiven that the lists of the dying continue to grow. At some point it would seem imperative to stop and try to start again with a fresh slate. It is the only way to get around the things that keep bringing us back to the need to inflict pain and death. If we cannot stop the momentum, then the snowball of actions will simply continue to roll down the hill leaving hurt and death in its wake.

In some ways, this is one of the stupidest things that Jesus taught. At the very least it is one of the things that he taught that is extremely hard to put into practice. We all know what it is like to have someone in our lives that just doesn’t get us and makes our lives a lot less joyful. We all have people that we know that have inflicted pain on us. In some ways, our churches are filled with people that left someplace because someone committed some kind of wrong against them. And if we are honest, these are the people who are hard to love – in fact, we see no reason why we should love them. Yet in our world no one has died. How do we love someone who has inflicted that kind of permanent pain on us, totally changing the direction of our lives?

Yet this is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. To take the hate and wrong that has been directed by others onto ourselves and return love. The hope is that maybe, if we can do this, we can stop the snowball – and end the death and destruction. Nowhere would this seem to be more imperative than in the areas of our world where the hurt is so deep and so long standing. The future of our world as we know it may depend on our ability to learn to exchange hate for love – it may depend on our ability to do exactly as Jesus instructed us to do.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 6

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” – Luke 6:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 18, 2014): Luke 6

I have some people in my life that like to ask me trick questions. You know the kind. How many of each animal did Moses take on the Ark? Answer – None. Moses wasn’t on the Ark, Noah was. Or maybe what do Henry the Eighth and Kermit the Frog have in common? Answer – The same middle name. Or one of my favorites, why did Cinderella get kicked off of the Football team? Answer – because she ran away from the ball. The questions all have one thing in common. They are a confusion in either terms or people, and they all depend on language to make them funny. One more - I met a man on London Bridge. He tipped his hat and drew his cane. in this lymric I've said his name. Okay, on the surface is this a little harder. And it might be easier to hear than to see. But the answer is that the man’s name is Andrew, coming from the combination of the words ‘and’ and ‘drew’ in the line “and drew his cane.” Admittedly, you have to have a bit of a warped mind to even find the jokes funny.

But before we get too critical it might be important to realize that Jesus may have had that kind of a sense of humor. It comes through a few times in his teachings. And one of the places is here. Jesus asks the question - is it lawful to do good or do evil on the Sabbath? Is it lawful to save and give live on the Sabbath, or is it more right to take away and destroy life on that sacred day. To understand Jesus correctly we have to ask the same question without the word ‘Sabbath.’ Is it lawful to do good or do evil? Is it lawful to save life or destroy it? The word Sabbath is ultimately unnecessary – except that Jesus was trying to make a point. It is always lawful to do good, and on the other side of the coin it is never lawful to do evil.

The point that Jesus was trying to make is that if it is always lawful to do good, then it is even more so on a day dedicated to the worship of God. The day actually heightens the purpose, it does not lessen in. For our culture we could ask if it is okay to pay attention to God or to ignore him on the Sabbath. And again, it is never okay to ignore God, but even more so on the Sabbath. It is the reason why churches meet every Sunday, and the reason why Christians make the sacrifice to gather every week – it is the observable result of a community that is committed to following God. But the community is committed to follow all of the time – not just on the Sabbath.

God is our priority – and the reality that Jesus was trying to get across is that God and good must always our priority. And our commitment to worship God should never lower our commitment to do good. Never!    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 5

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. – Mark 3:33

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 17, 2014): Mark 3

For the past few decades we have been mourning the death of the extended family in the cultural west. Increased mobility has made it possible for people to move away from the places where they grew up. But there is a cost to that movement – as we leave our homes we also leave our extended family and the support structure that is present in that place. The problem, which we are just starting to realize, is that we seem to be designed to live within the extended family structure. We need not just our parents but our grandparents and aunts and uncles if we are going to be well adjusted and healthy people. Researchers long ago noticed as the extended family began to break down, the nuclear family (husband, wife and children) started to show serious signs of stress. It seems that one cannot exist without the other.

For health reasons, my parents, sister and I became one of the family groups that left the ancestral breeding grounds and the support structure that had been present in that place. Most of my family can be found either in the Southern portion of Ontario, Canada (where I was born) or in the far east of the country (especially in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). But my family when I was young left Southern Ontario and moved 3400 km (2100 miles) west. The result was that the support system for the family was removed. We now had to make it on our own. And as a result, we had become vulnerable.

Maybe one of the healthiest things that my family was able to do was to adopt new family members that lived close to our new home. I still have fond memories of adopted grandparents who were of no relation to me, but who I called Grandma and Grandpa anyway. As well, we had a host of new aunts and uncles. And they did not replace what we had lost, but they did provide more immediate support structure than was possible from our now distant extended relatives.

This is one of the true strengths of the Christian Church, especially in a highly mobile society. Together we become the support structure that is often missing but desperately needed in the lives of those around us. We become father and mother and sister and brother to a host of people in need of just that. Jesus was speaking directly into the needs of a mobile nation when he asked the question “Who are my mother and my brothers?” It is not (as some have tried to argue) that the church literally replaces family. No one can do that and we continue to be in need with our blood relatives, but the church can replace the damaged support structure and, if the church is working well, can be the support to the Nuclear family that is essential if the family is going to survive.

The truth that Jesus knew was that focussing on the nuclear family would be an activity that was doomed to failure. If the family was going to survive, it would only survive because the church was successful in replacing the support structure that had been stolen away. This is the community of Christ. This is how we successfully move into the future.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 6

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. – Matthew 12:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 16, 2014): Matthew 12

I am disturbed by the number of Christians who seem to believe that they are doing well if they are hated by the world. Yes, I know that Jesus himself told his disciples that they would be hated by the world because they were his followers, but too often the disdain the world holds for the Christian Church has absolutely nothing to do with who we follow and everything to do with the fact that we tend to act foolishly; often with selfish pride and hate for those who are not like us.

The bottom line is that if we bear the name of Jesus (found in the word we use to describe ourselves - Christian) it should mean that we are becoming more like Christ – reflecting more and more the personality of the one that we follow. I love the way Matthew picks up on the prophecy of Isaiah to describe Jesus. The image of Jesus according to Matthew is not that a boisterous gate crasher sticking his nose into everyone else’s business (which is probably the predominate image that people outside of the church have of the Christian Church.) It is of a gentle man who is careful not further hurt whose who are injured; a man who refuses extinguish the light in the eyes of the downtrodden. Matthew’s image of Christ is one of a man who is willing to spend his life loving those who are unlovable and caring for the very ones who refused to live according to the message he proclaimed during his life. The image is of a man who is desperately working toward the ideal of justice for everyone.

If we are to pursue our calling as Christians, this is who we must be. We are the ones who love those at the edges of society. We are to be the ones who love the other regardless of the social distinctions that mark them as different from us. We are the ones for whom the color of the skin means absolutely nothing. We love people of other religions and belief systems because we know that they are worthy of the love of God. Even differences in sexual orientation is not held to be a reason for the refusing of love by those of us who carry the name of Christ – because Jesus loved them all.

We love. That is what it means to be a Christian. And if the world hates us because we are daily becoming more like the one whose name we bear, then so be it. We know that the world will hate those who willingly choose to follow Christ, who actively choose to love instead of hate, and that’s okay. But we need to make sure that we are hated for the right reasons; that we are hated because we are committed to love everyone – even those who seek to harm us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 3

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

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 15, 2014): John 5

I unplugged for a while this summer. I didn’t worry about my cell phone (to be honest I often seem to forget my cell phone somewhere and have to go looking for it and check the messages, but this summer I didn’t carry it or worry about who was trying to get hold of me.) I refused to be a slave to my e-mail. I even left my blog for a while (for those who have been reading my blog every day, the truth was that I stockpiled a bunch of entries and then scheduled them to go out daily as if I was still here on a daily basis. Sorry for the deception, but I’m back now.) But I just needed some time to do something different, and different for me included sitting on a beach and reading some Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Dean Koontz. Koontz especially continually amazes me with regard to his deep spiritual insight in the midst of his Stephen King like thrillers. And I rode a bike, walked along waterfronts, and spent time alone with my family. I needed the break. We all do. It is part of the Sabbath and Jubilee cycles that is proclaimed in the Bible. And the basis for our cycles is that even God rested. The opening story in the Bible clearly says that on the seventh day, God took a break.

While we accept that God took a break, what we sometimes miss is exactly what the Sabbath break means for God. For me, it was simple. I stopped carrying my cell phone and answering my emails and social media requests. In this way, I was able to get some time away. I assumed that for a little while the world would turn without me. It is these exact words that Mary Magdalene uses in trying to get Jesus to sleep for a while in “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” Mary tells Jesus “we want you to sleep well tonight, Let the world turn without you tonight, If we try, we'll get by, So forget all about us tonight.” (Everything’s Alright – Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice).

But the ancient belief system seemed to disagree. God was the force that held everything together. The Sun rose and set because God said so. Gravity worked and things were attracted to the ground for no other reason than God thought it was a good idea. In essence, the world turned because God was at work. If God suddenly took a break, none of the things that we take for granted would happen. This was all evidence of a God who was at work caring for creation. Okay, we know that God has set laws in place that work, and that in essence God could step away and everything would carry on, but that was not what the ancients believed.

Maybe for us the question could be formed this way – is there any use praying on Saturday (the traditional Sabbath) or Sunday (the Christian Sabbath). Maybe God is resting and has walked away from his cell phone; maybe on the Sabbath God takes a much needed break from us. But Jesus argues that that line of reasoning is flawed, because God is always at work. In the care for creation there is no rest in God. And according to Jesus, the same holds for us. Whatever the Sabbath rest is, it is not the cessation of caring for people – or for creation. God never walks away from his cell phone and takes a break (further proof for those that need it that I am not God.) Jesus says that God’s work of caring continues, and that he never rests from it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 12

Personal Note: Happy anniversary to lovely wife of 33 years, Nelda. 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 14, 2014): Mark 2

A couple of days ago the world found out about the untimely death of Robin Williams. We echo the words of Henry Winkler as he speaks of the dramatic genius of the man, often forgetting or not even being aware of the tormented soul of the man. We have heard of his multiple battles with substance abuse and his battle with depression, but what is foremost in our memory is the Robin Williams that we watched on the stage and on the screen – both big and small. In “Good Will Hunting,” Williams character talks about our imperfections, what he called our peccadilloes or small sins, as being the really interesting thing about us all. We aren’t perfect, and that is what makes us special. But it is also our peccadilloes that have a habit of tormenting us in those moments when we are alone – often binging us to the point where life no longer seems to be worth living.

Four men bring their friend to Jesus. The problem is obvious; their friend can’t walk. It would be impossible for their friend to bring himself to Jesus, he is at the mercy of those who are willing to carry him. And so the friends carry him to Jesus. But when they arrive at the place where the healer is staying, they can’t even get close to the door. There is no way that they would ever get close to Jesus. Yet, the friends were sure that Jesus is the answer to what their friend needs – Jesus is the answer to the question of healing. And since they can’t bring their friend to Jesus through the door, they decide to climb up to the roof and then dig through the roof so that they could finally lay their friend before Jesus.

And there were a lot of ways that Jesus could have responded to the men. It was not the fault of the one who needed the healing. None of this could have been accomplished by the friend – it was the four men that bore close scrutiny. Jesus could have chastised the men for their wanton destruction of property. He could have extolled them on the merits of patience and waiting their turn. But he chose to react in neither of these ways – he decided to point at the faith of the four men. Again, it is not the faith of the one who needed healing, but of his friends. But in the eyes of Jesus, the faith of the friends could be applied to the one who needed the healing.

But there was something else going on in this story. Jesus saw something beyond the obvious. Oh, the man needed to be healed so that he could walk, but that was not the most important thing this man needed. He need to be forgiven of his sins, his peccadilloes that were tearing him apart and causing him more pain than all of his physical limitations put together. And so Jesus spoke the words the man needed to hear – your sins are forgiven. Those things that have been tearing you apart in the middle of the night, those triggers for your depression, the peccadilloes which have caused you so much shame, all of that is forgiven.

I was recently challenged that in the protestant church, the words that we so badly need to hear are exactly the ones that we never speak – your sins are forgiven, you are absolved of all of the wrongs that you have committed in your life. Inside the Roman Catholic Church, these words are spoken in the confessional, but for those of us who never enter into confession never hear the words. So they continue to attack in our most vulnerable moments.

So let me say the words – You are forgiven. Everything that you have confessed to your God you have also been forgiven for. Everything. And the next time the peccadilloes attack, remember that you are absolved before God. They no longer have any power over you.

And Rest in Peace to the genius and the tormented man that was Robin Williams. What Robin may not have realized is that all of our lives were enriched because he lived - and he will be greatly missed.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 5

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. – John 4:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 13, 2014): John 4

Things change. This might be the single unchanging truth of our time. Everything is in flux. We used to say “that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but even that time worn saying is being replaced. It may not be broke, but there still might be ways to make it better and more efficient. The truth of the major pop makers of Pepsi and Coke is that they are constantly fiddling with their recipes, striving to make their product even better. There was a time when the idea of change for the sake of change was a bad one. Now, anything that remains consistent over time is simply boring – and change is needed.

For those of us who are tired of the pace of change in our world, this is not good news. We want things to slow down, to be like it used to be. But there is very little hope of that becoming a reality any time soon. “The times, they are a changing’”

But in Jesus day, this was not as true. The world that Jesus grew up in was very similar to the world that his father Joseph had grown up in, which was very similar to the world that Joseph’s father Jacob had grown up in. And as much as this was true for lives, it was even truer for the religious life cycle of the culture. There, everything went like clockwork. The festivals were observed, sacrifices were made, pilgrimages to the Holy Places were planned – and when the year ended, we would simply repeat the process all over again one more time. Year after year, everything would stay the same.

And the conflict over the religious structure would also stay the same. Jesus meets this Samaritan woman at the town well. To be honest, she was hoping that this Rabbi, whoever he was, would just let her get her water and go home. But he insisted on talking to her. And the battle lines between the Samaritans and the Jews was a long one. The Samaritans were the mixed blood descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And almost a thousand years earlier, Jeroboam and the North separated from the descendants of David in the South. But Jeroboam was worried that if he allowed his people to continue to go to Jerusalem to worship God that he would lose his power over them. And so he set up his own holy sites – and his own gods who he had declared to be the true gods of Israel. And ever since that time, Jerusalem had worshipped on their holy mountain inside the city gates while the northern people worshipped on their holy mountains. And nothing had changed for a thousand years.

But now Jesus was announcing a very different reality. The time was coming when there would be a real change and God would not be worshiped on either mountain. A time was coming in fulfillment of the Hebrew prophesies when God would write his law on the hearts of the people – and God would be worshipped everywhere. Any place where we decided to gather to worship God would become a holy place – and more than that, these many places would experience the presence of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 2

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 12, 2014): John 3

In 336, the theologian Arius travelled to Constantinople. Arius had had a trying time over the past few years preceding his visit. The various councils seemed to be confused about what it was that Arius was teaching. At some church councils he had been soundly denounced and removed from his positions inside the Christian Church only to be re-instated by his friends at the next council. At Constantinople, Arius hoped to be reinstated once and for all by the Emperor Constantine himself. But while he was in Constantinople, Arius died. The description of his death is gruesome. It has been said that his intestines and other organs were simply expelled out of his body as he went to relieve himself. For the Christians in the post-Nicene Creed World the death of Arius was the vengeance of God on a man who refused to stop spreading false doctrine. Contemporary researchers openly question if it is possible that Arius was poisoned – that someone in the fourth century simply took matters into their own hands in order to finally stop the heresy.

The heresy that Arius was spreading was simply that Jesus had a beginning –that he was not always co-existent with God. An examination of the Bible during many of the early councils left the framers of the Christian faith convinced that Arius was wrong. Jesus was involved with the creation of the world, he had always been present and he had always co-existed with God the Father. According to the Church Fathers, Jesus left his throne in heaven to be born of Mary. Part of the wonder of the incarnation is that God would willingly step out of heaven and come to earth – giving up in the bargain his existence in heaven to born in a forgotten manger on the earth. Arius seemed to believe and teach that Jesus existence started in the manger of Bethlehem. For the early church leaders, this was a teaching that had to be denounced.

And so the NIV phrases this verse using the words “one and only son” instead of the King James Version’s “only begotten son.” And part of the reason heralds back to the controversy that the church had with Arius 1600 years ago. For many, the phrase which has found its way into modern Christian thinking is that the assertion that Jesus was the “only begotten of the Father” comes way too close to the heresy of Arius – that there was a time when Jesus wasn’t.

Maybe it would be better to say that Jesus was the “only unbegotten of the Father’ – although the convoluted meaning of that phrase is somewhat contradictory. But the truth that the church has attested to down through the ages is that no matter what has happened throughout the long corridors of time that Jesus – as well as the other members of the Triune Godhead – has always been there. And maybe even more comforting to us is the related thought the Jesus always will be there. He will prevail through whatever it is that you are struggling with today.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 4

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” – John 2:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 11, 2014): John 2

In my office I have two pictures hanging on the walls. Both have an overt message and a hidden one. For one, it is a picture of a man sitting under a tree reading a scroll. But if you look a little longer, you can see the image of another man (the author intended this man to be a depiction of Jesus) staring down and looking at the man. And across from this drawing is another one. This one is a scenic picture of a waterfall in a forest. But again, if you look a little closer there is another image in the drawing. This image is of a man (once again the artist intended this to be an image of Jesus) riding on a donkey. For both of these paintings, one image is dominant while the other is a little harder to see. But, for both of these paintings, once you have seen the hidden image, you can never not see it again. The recessive image becomes more dominant once you know that it is there.

There is a definite double meaning in Jesus words. Standing inside of the temple he is asked for the authority for the things that he says and does (in this case the clearing of the temple itself of those who were trying to sell things within its gates.) And the answer that Jesus gives is that if the temple was destroyed, that he could raise it – or rebuild it – within three days. The obvious meaning was that Jesus meant the physical temple, this place made of stone and filled with precious artifacts. But the idea of rebuilding of the temple in three days was almost as unthinkable as ever letting anyone destroy the holy place again.

And while that was the most obvious meaning, it was not the one that Jesus intended. As he spoke of the destruction of “this temple,” it was not the temple that he was standing in that he meant – it was the temple that he was. What the original hearers missed, and what we can never lose sight of again, is that Jesus was possibly making his first assertion that he would die and rise again. (It is the first assertion of his eventual death and resurrection if we accept that the clearing of the temple in John is an earlier version of a similar event that is described in the synoptic gospels. The synoptic version of the clearing of the temple takes place during the last week of Jesus life.)

But maybe even more disturbing is that Jesus might have also been saying that when he rose again, he would erase the need for the temple in Jerusalem. The time would come when once again the temple would be destroyed, but this time it would not be rebuilt. And there would be no need for it to be rebuilt, because the Messiah had made the whole world the temple of God.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 3

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” – Luke 5:31-32

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 10, 2014): Luke 5

On February 15, 1977, M*A*S*H aired its 118^th episode. The episode was entitled “The General’s Practitioner.” The main storyline of the episode was about a General (General Korshack played by Edward Binns) in search of a personal doctor. For the surgeon, it would be easy duty, far from the front line and the fighting. But the doctor that the General has his eyes on is none other than Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce. And Hawkeye wants absolutely nothing to do with the job – or with the General. Alan Alda plays the part of Hawkeye Pierce to his insolent best. But in the end, the General is not going to be deterred. Hawkeye Pierce will become the new doctor and will be assigned to the staff of General Korshak. But in the climax of the episode Hawkeye asks the General if his motto has any truth in it – that the men on the frontline deserve the very best. And if that is true, and Hawkeye has to be spending time away from his Dad and all the things that he loves, then he might as well be left at the M*A*S*H unit – at least there he has a chance to save some lives and serve the fighting men that the General says deserve the best that the army has to offer. Reluctantly the General agrees. Hawkeye remains at the M*A*S*H doing what he does best and the General returns to Tokyo without a personal physician.

Jesus is criticized for spending time with the lowest segments of society. But his answer would have been one that Hawkeye Pierce could have very easily spoken – he had not come to spend his time with the elite of the society. He had come to spend his time with sick – those who realized how much they needed him. If he was going to spend his time on earth away from his Father and the throne that was his, then he might as well make a difference – he had come to save lives.

But maybe the saddest part of the story was that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were in as much need of the saving work of Jesus as the people that Jesus was spending his time with. But they refused to acknowledge their need – so there was absolutely nothing that Jesus could do. With the tax-collectors and the prostitutes, there was no pretending. They knew exactly who they were and how much they needed grace.

We still stand in need of the one who came to heal the sick. We need Jesus – if we can only come to understand how great is that need.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 2

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. – Luke 4:28

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 9, 2014): Luke 4

Jim Collin’s, in his book “Good to Great,” uncovered the secrets of taking a good company and making it great. Often, it seems, that our culture is simply willing to accept what is good and we do not seem to want to stretch ourselves toward what is great. But even if we do, there is an inherent problem. Great often requires something very different out of us than good does. Growth in any endeavor is often hard because it take the ability to re-organize and to think in a different direction. And the truth is that the people we have in key positions might be good enough to take us to where we are, but to go beyond takes the ability not to do what we do better, but rather to move in a totally new direction with our actions.

So Collins surprised himself with the kind of leader that was consistently needed for a company to make the leap from good to great. His expectation was that the leader of a good to great company would be a charismatic powerhouse. He would end up calling these leaders Level Four leaders. But these leaders were inadequate to lead a company from being good to being great. What he found a Level Five leader was necessary to take a company from being good to being great. And Level Five leaders were servant leaders – leaders who refused to allow their egos and the way things had been done in the past to impact the way things needed to be done in the future.

Jesus goes home. He meets with his own people – some people he had known all through his growing up years. And they came to see him with a set of expectations, expectations that were set in the past. And in the past he had been a carpenter, the son of a carpenter. He had been heavily involved in the family business – he had been trained by his father, Joseph, and he had probably been involved in the training of his younger brothers. But now it was time for him to go in a different directions. But Jesus also realized that moving in a different direction would be hard for those who knew him. So using the example of Elijah and Elisha, neither of whom were accepted in their own time, he explained that he understood that he would not be accepted, either by the people of his hometown or the people of his time.

And the people got angry. There are probably a couple of legitimate reasons for their reaction. The first was that somehow this child of their town seemed to think that he was more important – and smarter - than they were. But he was also comparing himself to two of the great prophets of the Hebrew Bible – Elijah and Elisha. And he was neither. The people of Nazareth, and really of all the people of Judah, were locked in to a certain expectation of the future. It was that expectation that Jesus was about to break.

Often to move with God means that we need to be willing to change. The idea of the church was never intended to be a fixed organization grounded in concrete, but rather fluid – flowing with the changing times. We move with God through our culture. And our success depends on our ability to be servants, to move with God – and without ego – through all of the changing circumstances of life – recognizing that even as things change, God is still in control.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 5