Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25-26

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 31, 2017): John 11

Five hundred years ago today, a monk named Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of Wittenberg University, an act that is remembered as the start of the Reformation and one of the initial movements toward a split that developed within the Roman Catholic Church. It was that split that eventually resulted in an independent Protestant Church (because we “protested”) that existed outside of papal authority. In popular thought, the cause of Luther’s “95 Theses” was found in his conflict with Johann Tetzel, a popular preacher who promised that souls of the deceased could be forgiven of their sins through the monetary gifts to the church on behalf of their loved ones. According to Tetzel, these payments or indulgences came in two varieties, one for the living and one for the dead. Indulgences paid for the forgiveness of the sins of a living person existed in a complicated relationship with repentance and acts of contrition. But repentance and contrition were impossible for the forgiveness of the sin of the one who had already died. So Tetzel preached that offerings for the dead were all that was needed to guarantee the entrance of the pre-deceased person into heaven. And payment of an indulgence could be applied to any person guilty of any sin. (Just think of the evilest person that you can imagine and, according to Tetzel, even that person could find his or her way into heaven as long as the appropriate offering was made on their behalf.) The following couplet is thought to have originated with Johann Tetzel.

As soon as the gold in the casket rings
The rescued soul to heaven springs.

Martin Luther disagreed, and several of his Theses took direct aim at the practice of indulgences, but maybe three of his Theses, Theses 27 – 29, took immediate issue with the teaching of Johann Tetzel. Here Martin Luther argues that (27) Tetzel’s doctrine was merely a human one and contained no divine wisdom or authority, (28) that it is only greed that is increased by the ringing of a coin in the money-box, and that the result of any intercession lays in the hands of God, and (29) some souls might not want to be brought out of their purgatorial existence. But in all of this, it is God who knows, and God is the judge.

But the heart of Martin Luther’s argument with the Roman Church really focused on the idea of Salvation by faith. This is the same argument that Jesus is making with Lazarus’s sisters. It is a belief in Jesus that is ultimately important, even in the worst moments of life.

As we read this passage, the question that should ring out in our minds is “do you believe this?” Because if you believe this, then nothing else matters – and that includes the payment of any sort of indulgence.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 19

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. – Luke 17:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 30, 2017): Luke 17

Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) said that “Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.” We recognize that we all experience those moments when we just want to give up. A desire to give up and stop chasing our goals is not unusual. Failure is a normal facet of life. The fear that we will never succeed is not something that only a few of experience. It is a constant reality that we all know and understand. What is different with each of us is our response in the face of our fear and discouragement. As far as Carlyle was concerned, it is the strong soul who is able to push through the discouragement, and it is the weak soul is more likely to give up in the face of obstacles.

Jesus never tries to tell us that we will never face discouragement and failure. No biblical promise says that everything will always go right “for those who trust in the Lord.” After all, he faced his own obstacles throughout his ministry, and then his disciples faced more during their lives after Christ. Our biblical role models could never have been accused of following a path that left them with an easy and trouble-free life. In fact, Jesus promises trouble and discouragement for all of us. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). The words that Jesus uses are “you will” experience your own share of discouragement and defeat; there is no option here.

But what Jesus underscores is that while discouragement is bound to exist in this world of ours, we should not be the cause of it. Finding a reason to continue, especially in matters of faith, is hard enough without us making it even harder. Our role in this world is that we are commanded to be a people of encouragement for all of those who journey through life at our sides. We are the ones who find ways to be an encouragement to those around us. We are the cheerleaders of their lives.

It has been Paul’s words that I am reminded of often in the past few years. Paul wrote them to the church in Ephesus.  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29). This is our identity and who we are in Christ. Anything less just does not measure up.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 11

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” – Luke 16:31

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 29, 2017): Luke 16

Melania Trump has been replaced with a body double. The nose on the new Melania is different, and the face is a little shorter. Or, at least, that is what the latest conspiracy theory is trying to sell. The “Melania has been replaced” theory reminds me a little about the “Paul is dead” theory regarding “The Beatles” left-handed bassist back in the late 1960’s. (What is amazing about the “Paul is Dead” theory is that the Beatles were able to find someone who looked like Paul, sounded like Paul, played the bass like Paul, and wrote Beatles-like songs just as good as Paul, all so that Paul could be replaced and no one, except the most observant, would ever know the difference.)  Or, maybe, the replacement of Melania Trump is the extraterrestrial visitor’s way of taking over the world. They are starting with Melania. In fact, that might be the how behind Donald Trump’s electoral win. It wasn’t the Russians who conspired to sway the election; it was the extraterrestrial influence that swayed the election because they already had an extra Melania hidden away in “Area 51” (because every good conspiracy theory needs an Area 51 connection).

As people, we seem to fluctuate between the “ever-so-skeptical” and the “we will believe anything.” The truth is that we will believe whatever is in our interest to believe, as “fake news” and “click bait” articles on the internet prove. If successful marriages offend us, we will believe that Dr. Phil has divorced his wife. If we believe that Hillary Clinton is evil, then her involvement in selling human beings from the back of a Pizza place is believable. But first we believe, and then we consider the evidence. We interpret facts according to the beliefs that we already hold. If something supports our point of view, we accept it. If it violates what we believe, then we become skeptical. But the condition exists inside of us, and not outside.

In Jesus story of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man is sure that his family could be saved if only Abraham would send Lazarus to his brothers. Abraham responds that his brothers already have what they need to believe, but the rich man pleads that sending a dead man to them would be all the proof his brothers would need to change the way that they were living their lives.

Abraham responds that even rising from the dead is not enough. Scrooge, in “A Christmas Carol,” is atypical. Most would not change their behavior even if someone from the dead were able to rise to meet them. If they did not believe already, rising from the dead would not do anything to change their mind.

Of course, the words of Abraham foreshadow Jesus’s rise from death, and yet still people, both then and now, have found a reason not to believe. Most often we just dismiss the risen Jesus as just another conspiracy theory – one that makes no sense and, so, we refuse to believe.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 17

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. – Luke 15:28

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 28, 2017): Luke 15

Robert A. Heinlein in “Stranger in a Strange Land” wrote that “Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.” The bottom line is that even when we think we are acting because of love, often our response finds its origins in jealousy.

The character of the older brother in the “Parable of the Lost Son” is often more complex than we realize. He only garners a couple of lines in the whole story, and yet it is the older son that is more to the point of Jesus message than either the Prodigal Father or the Prodigal Son. The older son is really the only one of the three main characters to which the word “prodigal,” which means wasteful, does not apply.

The older son has been the business manager for dad. He has taken care of the business, probably for a long time now, but the management load of the family enterprise has definitely landed on him since the untimely departure of his younger brother. While dear old dad pined for what was lost, the older son has worked hard to ensure the profitability of the family farm.

That the older son worked hard is not in doubt. What is in doubt, and what the contemporary ear often misses, is whether or not the older son has been busy doing appropriate things. Specifically, it would have been the elder son’s job to take care of whatever it was that was bothering his father. In this case, it was the elder son’s job to go and find his brother, and if he could not bring him back to dad, at least he could tell dad that his son was well cared for and that he was safe. But this is a task that the older son has left undone.

If it was possible for us to conduct an interview with the older son, it is likely that he would tell us that his younger brother had been a drain on the family resources for a while now; that the day that the younger brother decided to leave was a good day – both for the family and the business. It is also quite likely that the older son’s protestation would be that he is reacting because he loves his father and he does not want his younger son to take advantage of patriarch again. But as dad comes out to speak to him, the real situation emerges. The older son is jealous of the younger one. This has nothing to do with dad and everything to do with the advantages that the older son feels that the younger son has abused – the elder son wishes that he had had the opportunity to live his life in a way similar to that of the younger son.

Jesus’s point? There is no doubt in the mind of Jesus that we are the older son. And our jealousy often gets in the way of our ministry. Rather than realizing that we are all equal, in the eyes of the father, with those to whom we minister, and instead of sharing love with the world, we try to place ourselves on a higher plane of existence. We give ourselves the illusion of privilege in God’s world, rather than just recognizing that we are all just fellow travelers on this journey of life. And that reaction is based on jealousy and not love. And we are called to love!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 16

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? – Luke 14:34

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 27, 2017): Luke 14

The English phrase “Worth his (or her) salt” sounds a little strange to the modern ear, even though the saying remains prevalent in our conversations. For most of us, the most common use of the word salt might be when we are speaking to our doctors about lowering our blood pressure. In contemporary society, salt has taken on a negative connotation. Like cigarettes, salt is something our physicians wish that we would avoid.

But it has not always been that way. During the time of Jesus, soldiers were often paid in salt instead of gold, and both were extremely valuable. Our contemporary word salary comes from the Latin word meaning “salt.” Salt is one of the most basic spices, one of our fundamental tastes, and was essential for the preservation of food for later use. Salt is necessary for life. Having said that, once used, salt was worthless. The supply of salt needed to be continually renewed. Salt was and still is, mined or obtained through the evaporation of salt water. Salt production doesn’t just happen; it is something toward which effort had to be directed.

It isn’t an accident that Jesus called his followers “the salt of the earth.” And I am convinced that it was not just one aspect of salt that Jesus meant with the comparison. We often seem to point toward the fact that the Christian Church is to add “flavor” to the world, probably because that is the most prominent role of salt in our society. But In Jesus mind, that was likely the least appropriate comparison between salt and the church. The Christian Church was designed to be a preservative for the nations, and essential for life. Everything that the Church does should be life-giving. Unfortunately, that is not a role that those outside of the church would attribute to us. And that is our fault.

Part of the problem is that we have lost our saltiness. It has been removed and watered down as we have bickered and gossiped about each other. We have lost our saltiness as we seemed to fixate on what is fairly unimportant in our societies. We have not loved as we should. We have criticized when we should have remained silent. (And for those of you who might question that statement, I really wish we could post Ephesians 4:29 on our desks, laptops, refrigerators, bathroom doors, and any other surface that we confront during our day. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”) And once we lose our saltiness, how can we become salty again?

The answer is to the question is that we can’t, but God can renew our saltiness. I think this is one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit and one of the benefits of his presence in our lives – to keep us salty. The Spirit makes sure that we are the life-giving presence that we are designed to be and also allows us to be the preservative that our culture needs. In the mind of Jesus, this is what is meant in being salty, and this is what it means to be a follower of Christ. And it is not something that just happens, but something toward which effort has to be directed.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 15

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” – Luke 13:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 26, 2017): Luke 13

The Beatles released “I Saw Her Standing There” as the first track to their 1963 album “Please, Please Me.” The song was credited to McCartney-Lennon, as opposed to the later formula of Lennon-McCartney. “I Saw Her Standing There” was principally written by Paul McCartney. But that does not mean that John Lennon had nothing to do with the song. The historical rumor is that Paul had written the first lines of the song as “She was just seventeen, never been a beauty queen.” John looked over Paul’s shoulder and howled with laughter, finally responding with “You’re joking about that line, aren’t you.” Together they changed the line to “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean.” They liked the line because nobody knew what they meant. It is doubtful that even John and Paul knew what they meant.

“I Saw Her Standing There” is a typical song about teenage love. The unnamed boy sees the girl at a dance, and that was all that it took. He knew from that first glance that he would fall in love with her. To be honest, I think that I prefer McCartney’s original lyrics, “never been a beauty queen.” While admittedly sexist, the original lyrics do take the boys like of the girl past the arena of appearance. “You know what I mean” seems to have a creepy feel to it. The song ends with a profession of everlasting love. “Now I’ll never dance with another, oh, since I saw her standing there.”

While, admittedly, “I Saw Her Standing There” follows an accepted formula for The Beatle’s Music early on in their career, before the Fab Four realized that they could use their music to speak up on other societal issues, the song does touch on a fundamental problem. What do you see? How is it that you interpret the world in which you live? For the anonymous boy of the song, life changed because of what it was that he saw. (It is an interesting contrast between The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There, ” and Trooper’s “Three Dressed Up as a Nine” which contains the line “You looked a whole lot better to me from twenty feet away.” Both songs essentially “saw her standing there” but reacted differently to the revelation.)  

The truth is that all of our lives are influenced only by what we metaphorically see. And much of what we see is heavily influenced by our worldview. Most upper and middle-class people do not see poverty, and so they don’t do anything about it. We don’t see rampant drug use from our suburban palaces, so it doesn’t affect our lives. We do seem to see the great divide that exists between Islam and Christianity, and that produces much fear in our lives that is generally unwarranted. I am a little tired of conversations around Muslims bringing Sharia Law to North America, which most North American Muslims I am acquainted with don’t seem to want. I wonder what kind of cultural coloring it takes to rage against Sharia Law and yet somehow sanitize Mosaic Law which we profess to follow and has some of the same offensive aspects to it as other ancient legal systems. But it all starts with what it is that we see – and how we see it.

Jesus saw the woman, bent over with sickness, standing there. Jesus saw her with eyes that other people didn’t seem to possess. To the Pharisees, she was a bother. It was evident that sin had caused her sickness. She was one of the unfortunate ones, but her illness was either brought on by her own sin or that of her parents. She was disregarded, a case study in how not to live your life. The Pharisees saw sickness, but Jesus saw her – the person. She was a daughter of Israel, and she deserved better, and because Jesus saw her, he was about to make a difference in her life.

As we live our Christians existences, our prayer should always be that we would see the world the way that God sees it – the way that Jesus sees it. We need to be willing to see beyond the cultural understanding, beyond color and religion, beyond sex and sexual orientation, and just see the person who is standing in front of us. Because that is all that ever seemed to matter to Jesus. Person always trumped sin – and every person, even you and me, were of extreme value to the one who sees us standing there.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 14

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. – Luke 12:2-3

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 25, 2017): Luke 12

When George Orwell wrote “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” a dystopian novel he published in 1949, he probably never dreamed that his vision would, to no small extent, come to pass. In contemporary society, we have almost become accustomed to the fact that our picture is being constantly taken. It is hard to walk into a store and not realize that we are on video or to drive down a street and not realize that overhead cameras are watching us. We speed and run red-lights only to find out a week later that a camera caught our mischievous act and some entity has notified us with a fine sent in the mail. Or maybe he would have guessed that this where we would find ourselves. You have the right to fly on an airplane, but by exercising that right, you give up the right privacy over your own body. The act of flying comes with the reality of body searches and sometimes even photographs taken by invasive cameras. The internet is a vast reservoir of information, but not all of it is true. And we are, maybe more often than we realize, being watched as we log in. Satellites circle the earth; Google sends vehicles around the world taking pictures of where it is that you live (just take a look at your address on Google Earth if you doubt that).  There is no doubt that “Big Brother” is watching.

But maybe what would surprise Orwell the most is how voluntarily we have surrendered some of our deepest and darkest secrets. Blog posts, like this one, are often written without consideration for the kind of information that we are surrendering. We leave critical social media posts that are there for anyone to read. I still run into people who seem to believe that their Facebook posts are private, and yet the reverse is true. I was reminded of that fact the other day as people who were not friends of mine responded to one of my personal posts. As friends and then friends of friends post, the circle of people reading our Facebook posts gets wider and wider. Texts messages are recorded. Emails are forwarded. Our most embarrassing comments, often written in a moment of profound emotional angst, laid bare for the world to see. We are even willing to publish our most personal thoughts on social media in the hope of receiving a “like” or a “share” or a comment. “Big Brother” is watching, but we are the ones who are volunteering the information in unprecedented ways.

It almost seems that Luke was writing these words with us in mind. Everything done in secret will be known, and no acts committed in the dark will be hidden. And while Jesus may have been speaking of the fact that God knows what it is that we do in our most private moments, increasingly we volunteer that information anyway. And maybe it is time that we stopped.

I believe in the value confession, but not confession on social media to an indiscriminate public in a wild desire to find someone – anyone – who cares. God knows so there is no use in trying to hide things from him, and sometimes it helps to confess to a flesh and blood friend who we know will love us in spite of our shortcomings. But beyond that, some things are not meant to be shared. And no one beyond God really needs to know.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 13

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. – John 10:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 24, 2017): John 10

A recent article suggested that maybe the time has come for Canada and the United States to consider redrawing their borders. Similar reports in the past have suggested the division of Canada into four different countries, separating the land along cultural lines. This traditional understanding cedes the Atlantic Provinces to the United States (maybe becoming the 51^st State), Quebec becomes an independent country with French language and a French cultural understanding central to the identity of the nation. Ontario becomes Canada, and the Western Provinces bind together becoming another independent nation, with some models suggesting that the Pacific Northwest area of the United States might join with this new country forming a country that would rank among the top ten wealthiest countries in the world.

The model is based on a cultural understanding of our world. Both the United States and Canada are culturally diverse nations, and so these discussions occasionally come to light, but the most recent suggestion comes as more of a division of the United States rather than Canada. The argument is that the people of New York have more in common with Toronto than Arkansas and the Pacific Northwest has more in common with British Columbia and Alberta than with the rest of the United States. So doesn’t it make sense that the new North American nations reflect some of these realities?

In our contemporary world, there continue to be examples of this kind of cultural redrawing of borders. The nations of Eastern Europe following the fall of the Soviet Union immediately began to redraw country borders on cultural lines. The continuing struggle between Spain and Catalonia reflect cultural differences. The conflict in Northern Iraq with the Kurds reflects a cultural difference between the people. But there is also an incredible strength that exists in the cultural diversity of the nations if we can begin to understand each other.

However, a diverse cultural understanding seems to be lacking in our world. Too often, we seem to believe that everyone sees the world in a similar way. I think deep down we know that that is just not true. Just looking at the rural-urban difference in voting records tells us that we understand the world differently. And sometimes we need to be reminded of that fact.

Jesus shares an agriculturally based parable, and John notes that the Pharisees didn’t understand. What we are not sure of is where the difference in understanding existed. Part of the difference may have indicated how far separated the Pharisee's existence was from the ordinary life of the average person of the nation. Jesus shared an everyday illustration of sheep and the shepherd, and the Pharisees just could not cross the cultural divide and understand Jesus words.

Another way of interpreting the Pharisees lack of understanding is that they missed Jesus point that they were not the Good Shepherd. The Pharisees understood that they were shepherding the nation toward God, but Jesus talks about the Good Shepherd, whose voice the sheep recognize, who was not a member of their group. The idea that the Good Shepherd was not a Pharisee may have been inconceivable to them.

But both interpretations indicate that the Pharisees were culturally out of step with the people. And one of the historical problems of the Christian Church is that we echo this same lack of understanding. Jesus came to save all cultures, but the message of the church has to cross cultural boundaries. The Gospel message must be spoken culturally and in a way and language that the people can understand. And that means that it has to be expressed differently in different nations, but also needs to be communicated differently within culturally diverse countries. The message is important enough for us not to assume that everyone understands the message the way that we do. And that takes some effort, but the news is worth it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 12

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. – John 9:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 23, 2017): John 9

The fight over the idea of the Sabbath continues. I grew up in an era when Sunday laws meant that most stores were closed on Sunday, a decision that was based on the idea of Sabbath. But, for various reasons, that law slowly began to change. Today, it is almost the reverse of what it was like a short fifty years ago. In many malls, the contract between the various stores and the owner of the shopping space specifies, not that it is permissible to open on Sundays, but rather that you must be open on Sundays.

In the church, our argument is whether we have the day right for the celebration of the Sabbath. The legalists who walk among us, and I am not trying to be unkind, insist that the Sabbath of the Christian Church must match the Sabbath of Judaism – Saturday, not Sunday. On the other side of the argument, there is an understanding that of the Ten Commandments, the Commandment regarding the Sabbath was the only one that Jesus did not reinforce. And maybe we should take a level of comfort from the fact that the charge against Jesus is the same one that is leveled against this part of his Church, he (they) do not keep the Sabbath.

I need to stress that the reason that Jesus did not keep the Sabbath was not that the Sabbath was unimportant. We need the Sabbath. It is not a rule that is arbitrary to our existence. We are created in such a way that we need to a day of rest. But the religious establishment of Jesus day had changed the focus of the Sabbath from rest to obligation. And in doing so, they had broken the Sabbath away from the day that God had imagined when he commanded us to take a Sabbath.

For the Christian church, early on the Sabbath was exchanged for the Lord’s Day and a weekly celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It is still a day of rest, the day that our health requires. But it is also a celebration of the risen Christ.

And maybe the question that we need to ask is similar to the one that was asked of Jesus. Is the Spirit of God moving today in the church that celebrates its Sabbath on Saturday or one that celebrates the Lord’s Day on Sunday? And I think that the surprising answer to the question is both. Because Sabbath was never about the day, but about the presence of God. And where two or three are gathered, he is here in our midst. And today, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, every day is holy and worthy of worship.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 10

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 22, 2017): John 8

The next installment of the “Star Trek” saga arrived this fall (2017), and it has proven to be a beacon around which Star Trek fans can once again rally. And if you have been following “Star Trek: Discovery” you might note that “beacon” is a word that is now heavy with Star Trek meaning. Specifically, early in the first season of “Discovery,” we are introduced to the “Beacon of Kahless.” Kahless is a Klingon messianic figure who has played an important spiritual role for the Klingons throughout all of the incarnations of “Star Trek.” But the “Beacon of Kahless” has been put in place to quickly spread the news to the twenty-four warring “Klingon Houses” that their Messiah has returned. And when the Messiah comes, he will bring with him Klingon Unity.

The person with the responsibility of lighting the “Beacon of Kahless” is whoever the Klingon is who wears the suit of the “Torchbearer.” In Star Trek Mythology, when Kahless returns the “Beacon of Kahless” is to be lit and then Kahless the Messiah will unite the Klingon Tribes. And on the dagger that is wielded by the torchbearer are engraved the words, “There is honor in death.”

All of this should sound a little familiar. Kahless is based on the Christian belief regarding Jesus, although admittedly a more violent version. But watching Christians squabble with each other it is entirely possible that the community of Kahless is based on the Christian community who often seems at odds with the peace taught to us by the one that we profess to follow. If Kahless ever returns to the Klingons, he may tell them that they had missed the point. I am pretty sure that when Jesus returns, it is likely that the first words he speaks to his followers will be something like, “I taught you to love your enemies, who deceived you?”

And the Beacon of Jesus is, well, Jesus. His church serves the purpose of being his “torchbearers,” but instead of lighting the Beacon upon his return, our only job is to point toward him. He promised that his followers would never walk in darkness, unlike the disciples of Kahless, because Jesus is the beacon – he is the light.

In the biblical Book “The Acts of the Apostles,” the opening scene tells the story of the disciples standing around watching as Jesus ascends into heaven. I can just imagine them watching that spot where they last saw Jesus in the clouds. I do the same thing every time I drop my wife off at the airport. I watch that spot where I last saw her until well after the moment when she has disappeared from my sight. But in the case of the disciples, two men appear and speak to them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Don’t worry about missing the time of his return. He is indeed the light of the world, and any beacon that we could light would be pale in his presence. When the light returns, the universe will know. Hiding the brightness of his beacon is impossible. But until that time, we have work that we need to do – together.

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 9

For even his own brothers did not believe in him. – John 7:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 21, 2017): John 7

In 1992, the Canadian band “The Arrogant Worms” released a self-titled album. Among the irreverent choices on the Album was a song called “Jesus Brother Bob.” (Just so you are aware before you try to listen to the “Worms” on YouTube or Spotify, irreverence is their trademark.) “Jesus Brother Bob starts” off with these words -

If you haven't heard of me
I wouldn't be surprised
I bet you know my relatives
Their names will never die
My mother is a saint
And my brother is a God
But all I am is Jesus' brother Bob

Jesus' brother Bob, Jesus' brother Bob
A nobody relative of the Son of God
If only I'd been born just a little sooner
I'd be more than the brother of God Junior.

                                    The Arrogant Worms

“The Arrogant Worms” take us through the fantasy life of Bob who complains that the has to pay for a ferry to cross the Sea of Galilee while his brother walks across for free, and then the relief that Bob experiences when Jesus dies. People will finally get to know Bob for who he really is rather than just somebody’s brother and later, of course, Jesus rises from the dead crushing Bob’s dreams of independence.

Yes, the song is irreverent. But it also contains just a little truth. Maybe one of the most critical questions that we can ask ourselves is what it would take to convince us that our brother is the Son of God? And why would we believe that it would be any different for Jesus’s brothers? The truth is that if “Jesus Brother Bob” was written 2000 years ago, some of the biggest fans of the song might have been the brothers of Jesus.

No, Jesus did not have a brother named Bob. But he did have brothers named James, Joses, Simon, and Jude, as well as two unnamed sisters. There are some who believe that Jude might have been the apostle who bore the same name, but if that is true, he would have been the only spiritual follower of Jesus among Jesus’s immediate family. The rest just did not believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be. They probably thought that their older brother was a little mad and a stain on the family name.

It wasn’t until after the resurrection that James, at least, began to see his older brother in a different light. Eventually, James became the leader of the Christian Church in Jerusalem, and he was executed for his faith in his brother in 62 C.E. But his belief in Jesus did not begin until after his brother’s death. Until that time, James, and most of his brothers were unbelievers who probably couldn’t wait to get rid of the black sheep of the family – this Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 8

When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. – Luke 10:5-6

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 20, 2017): Luke 10

To be considered a people of peace, peace must be our priority. Even more than that, peace must be our first action. I believe that Christians are to be a people of peace. But, to our shame, other faiths often seem to be much better at promoting peace than Christians. And the problem is that peace is neither our priority nor our first action. Peace is simply our response, sometimes, to peace. But more often than not our priority is to preserve a particular way of life – even if we have to accomplish that through the use of violence. There are so many things that I do not understand about the contemporary Jesus movement. I have no idea how the Christian Church has become more related to war than peace. From the point of view of the world, Christians are warmongers. For some, there is a belief that there is no path to peace as long as we are present. But that was never the ideal set before us by the founder of our movement, Jesus Christ. I have no idea how the “right to life” protestors, most of whom seem to have a Christian outlook if not a Christian lifestyle, think it is okay to take the life of those on the other side of the debate. The lives of the abortion clinic employees and mothers considering abortion as a response to an unwanted pregnancy are just as important as the life of the baby that we are trying to save. If we are faithful to our belief system, peace and love can be our only response to the violence that is continually present in that world.

As Jesus prepares his disciples to go out and spread his message without him, his instructions are about peace. When you enter a house, first say ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace dwells in that house, then peace will reign – in fact, peace will be multiplied. But if there is not a person of peace that dwells in that house, then peace would return to them. Absolutely nothing would be lost. It costs zero to offer peace first. And a person of peace never loses peace when peace is rejected. We just try to offer peace again. Noticeably absent from Jesus instructions is any mention of sanctions or punishment that should be poured out on the house that lacked a person of peace. Just allow peace to come back to you and rest on you as you move on to another house.

It might be that Jesus’s words here are a reaction to James and John’s suggestion that Jesus’s followers should be allowed to “call down fire from heaven to destroy” anyone who threatened the Jesus movement (Luke 9:54). Then Jesus rebuked his disciples for thinking in that way, here he goes a step further and instructs them positively to be a people of peace, offering peace wherever they go, even in the face of opposition and violence.

We are still called to be a people of peace whose only priority is to offer peace. If peace is rejected, there is still no reason to react with violence, just move on repeat the process. When peace becomes a core part of who we are, we will never lose it, and we will always agree with the teachings of Jesus.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 7

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? – Matthew 18:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 19, 2017): Matthew 18

I have to admit that the American Second Amendment to the Constitution confuses me. The Amendment, as it is written, says this - "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I understand that I am treading on dangerous ground, but in everything, I like to get to the reason behind the words. In the case of the Second Amendment, the idea is clear. The defense of the United States, at the time that the amendment was passed (December 15, 1791), was almost solely dependent on the people. The American War of Independence was not quite a decade in the past. If Britain, or Canada, which at the time was an extension of Britain, was to come knocking again, then the people needed to be equipped to fight off the invaders. All of that made complete sense – in 1791.

As we flash forward to 2017, the United States has one of the best equipped standing armies in the world. No sane nation is going to try a frontal attack on the U.S. Even at the beginning of the Second World War, the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to be a sucker punch that kept the U.S. out of the war. The strategy failed miserably. The enemies of the U.S. now know that any damage that they can inflict on the nation must be conducted through terrorist means. And the reality is that too often the Second Amendment is used against the people. We have taken an amendment, which was initially meant to keep the nation secure, and used it to hurt, not the enemies of the United States, but the citizens. Attacks like the one in Las Vegas, the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Sandy Hook, and Columbine High School, just to name a few, were carried out with the very same weapons that the Second Amendment guarantees to the citizens of the nation so that they can defend themselves from foreign aggressors, maintaining the freedom of the country. The weapons, intended to be aimed outward, have begun to be pointed inward. What is to be done with that fact is up to the American Public, but we, at least, need to understand that the original conditions that demanded the Second Amendment, no longer exist.

Jesus parable of the one lamb who wanders off is essentially the churches second amendment. Only, in this case, the church seems to want to abolish the amendment. The basic idea of the Jesus story is that if one lamb wanders off, it is proper for the shepherd to leave the ninety-nine to go out and find the one. A church member once commented that he never understood the story. Numbering himself as one of the ninety-nine, he argued that he was more important than the one who had wandered away. He missed Jesus point. The church is to be always pointed outwards. We are designed to be an organization who is still trying to find the one. The difference between reality and Jesus story is that, in the church, the ninety-nine are commissioned to go out and find the one – the job is not just left up to the shepherd. The ninety-nine are equipped (armed) and given the responsibility of finding the one.

But pragmatically, we have rejected Jesus instruction. In fact, we want him and his employees to abandon the amendment and to stop looking outward. We don’t want to be empowered (armed) to go and look out for the lost, and we wish that Jesus would just look after us and forget about those who he might consider to be lost. We appear to be very content just being us. After all, the ninety-nine are more critical than the one. We only wish that Jesus would see the world that way.

After all, the world is all about me, and we are disturbed that Jesus doesn’t view our world the same way that we see it. We are upset that Jesus keeps sending us, the ninety-nine, out to find the one. And that he keeps making sure that we are equipped for the task.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 10

And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” – Mark 9:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 18, 2017): Mark 9

On October 25, 1989, the Soviet Union exchanged the “Brezhnev Doctrine” for the “Sinatra Doctrine.” Under the terms of the “Brezhnev Doctrine,” the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact nations, all of whom were under direct Soviet control, were required to fight against any threats in the member states against the Socialist ideal. If there was a rebellion against Socialist doctrine, then the Soviet Union had the right to send in its troops and restore Socialist order in the offending nation. The “Brezhnev Doctrine” was used as Soviet soldiers moved into Hungary to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and justified the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

But in October 1989, with the introduction of the “Sinatra Doctrine,” all of that changed. The “Sinatra Doctrine,” jokingly named after singer Frank Sinatra and his popular song “My Way,” allowed the Warsaw Pact countries to do things “their way.” No longer would the Soviet Union step in to boost up floundering socialist regimes. The nations had to find their own way forward.

On October 25, 1989, the change introduced by the “Sinatra Doctrine” was theoretical. A change in philosophy had been made, but no one was sure of the practical results. But we didn’t have to wait long to find out what was going to happen as a result of the philosophical revolution inside the Soviet Union. East Germany needed the Soviet Union to bolster its Communist Party and keep Communism the law of the land in the country. Once they realized that no help was coming, the communist government of East Germany, as well as the governments of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and, a short time later, Romania, were all removed from power in their respective nations. The Cold War was finally over. Real change had come to Eastern Europe.

We trip up over words like those used by Jesus in Mark 9:1. These words appear to be standalone instructions that Mark has placed here. It would be incorrect to try to connect the words with those that have gone before or those that come after. But the message is that the Kingdom of God is on its way and that the time frame is short. For us, reading the words on our side of the crucifixion and resurrection, we think of the return of Jesus and the all that the End Times people seem to be warning us is just around the corner. But apparently, that is not what Jesus is speaking of with these words. No one is still alive among the group who first heard Jesus speak the words. So what was Jesus saying?

The most natural solution is that Jesus was not talking about his second coming, but the end of his first coming. Jesus would die and be resurrected, and then, on the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on his followers, the Kingdom of God would come with power. Everything would change, but it would only be a theoretical change. We would finally have the ability to engage this world with the power of God, but only if we wanted to engage it that way. Like the coming of the “Sinatra Doctrine,” life could continue the way that it always had, we could continue to fight the world on our own, hanging on every law, or we could walk through the door and be change agents in the world.

The decision was up to us. It still is.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 18

But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” – Matthew 17:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 17, 2017): Matthew 17

“Beware the Ides of March.” William Shakespeare wrote the words in his play “Julius Caesar.” The message is spoken by a soothsayer to the great King of Rome. There is nothing special about the day. Ides is just another way of saying the 15^th. Thus, the Ides of March is March 15, just another day in a month that has thirty-one of them. But, in the case of Julius Caesar, the Ides of March was the day that death would come looking for him. The soothsayer’s words foreshadow the death by assassination of the King.

I am not sure that a soothsayer ever spoke those words, but I know that there were warnings that Julius Caesar may not have heeded. The surprise in the death of Julius Caesar was not that death came to Caesar, but that it came at the hands of Caesar’s friend, Marcus Junius Brutus, on March 15, 44 B.C.E. Ever since the writing of “Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare, the Ides of March has filled us with a sort of dread and the sure knowledge that death is looking for even us.

In fiction, foreshadowing is one way that the plot moves along. The words of the soothsayer early in Julius Caesar alerts the audience that something terrible is coming on the Ides of March. It is easy in fiction, and maybe primarily historical fiction, to foreshadow the events that have not yet happened and, therefore, to prepare the audience for the climax of the plot for which we are all waiting. Rarely do we see the same plot device used in historical events.

That is precisely what Jesus is doing here. The well-worn understanding was that the people of Israel were actually waiting for the arrival of two people. They want the Messiah to come and to restore Israel to all of her brilliance. But before the Messiah would come, the people believed that Elijah would arrive. So as the disciples begin to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, they also began to wonder about the coming of Elijah.

Jesus responded that Elijah had come, but the people had missed his coming. Instead of honoring Elijah, they had made him suffer, doing to him all of the evil that they had desired with the core of their beings. And as Jesus talked of Elijah, as he told the story of the second coming of the great prophet, the disciples began to understand that he was talking about John the Baptist. Some had been disciples of John, and they all knew that the Prophet from the wilderness had suffered much before Herod had stolen his life from him.

But Jesus took it one step farther. The way that the people had treated Elijah was foreshadowing of how they would treat the Messiah. Essentially, what Jesus is telling his disciples is very similar to the message that the Julius Caesar’s received from the soothsayer,  beware of the Ides of March. Something bad, and unexpected, was now coming their way.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 9

His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” – Mark 8:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 16, 2017): Mark 8

G. K. Chesterton wrote, “To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” What all of these things have in common is that they are easy in the abstract. It is amazing how often I ask questions with regard to loving those outside of our societal understanding, forgiving those that have deeply wounded us, having faith in the most unbelievable circumstances, or hope for a future that seems so bleak, and the people respond with words that seem to come straight from the interaction between Jesus and his rich young man - “all these I have kept since I was a boy” (Mark 10:20). And then something happens, and everything changes. Questioning replaces faith and fear replaces love. Forgiveness and hope belong solely to yesterday as we try to move into an uncertain future.

I have to wonder what was going on inside of the minds of the disciples as Jesus came to them to ask them to feed the four thousand. What was the difference between the feeding of the five thousand, and the feeding of the four thousand? Maybe the disciples were rubbing their hands together with glee as they asked Jesus where they were going to find enough food to feed the people, but I don’t think so. Even though Jesus had fed the five thousand through their actions, I don’t think that they had enough faith to go out and feed the four thousand. Something has happened, and everything has changed.

There are some differences between the two events. The most obvious difference is the number of people fed, four thousand versus five thousand. With the feeding of the five thousand, the initiators of the miracle had been the disciples, but here it is Jesus idea. The situation seems to have been much worse with the feeding of four thousand than the five thousand. While the five thousand had been with Jesus for a day, the four thousand had been with Jesus for three days. Two interesting thoughts arise out of this understanding. First, the disciples were apparently unwilling to bring up the subject of feeding the people with Jesus as they had when he was with the five thousand. Instead, they waited two extra days and even then it was Jesus who announced the people’s need for food. Second, one of the humanistic explanations for the feeding of the five thousand was that the people had brought food with them for their day with Jesus. They shared that food with each other, placing food into the baskets rather than taking food out so that in the end there were twelve baskets of food left over. But with the four thousand, the people had been with Jesus for three days. Any food that they had brought with them was long gone. The amount of food left over also changed, twelve baskets versus seven.  

And so Jesus asks his disciples to feed the people, and the disciples who have already lived through this miracle once still do not have enough faith to believe in the unbelievable. And neither do we. We struggle with faith; I know that I do. But luckily for us, it doesn’t take much faith to do some incredible things – if we truly want to.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 17

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” – Matthew 16:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 15, 2017): Matthew 16

On September 13, 2009, at the MTV Video Music Awards, the award for Best Female Video went to Taylor Swift for her song “You Belong to Me.“ It was an evening that few watching the award show are going to forget easily. Swift took the stage to accept the award, and then Kanye West took the stage, grabbing the mic from Taylor, to insert his commentary into the award. His words are infamous. “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!” The crowd booed Kanye while some seemed to try to cheer on Taylor, but by the time that Kanye had handed the mic back to Taylor, her time was up.

No one was overly impressed with West. President Obama had some unkind words for the singer, as did Katy Perry tweeting “Kanye, It’s like you stepped on a kitten.” Al Roker would later suggest that Kanye West needed to “re-evaluate his place in the universe.” For the night, the world seemed to sympathize with Taylor and Kanye was stuck wearing the proverbial “Black Hat.”

Who do people say that you are?  Or maybe the better question might be who do you want people to say that you are?  In a lot of ways, this is the real question of our lives.  In the Taylor Swift/Kanye West debacle, the bottom line of the whole thing was who people were saying that the principal characters in the story were.  Did Beyoncé make an incredible video – yes.  But at some point, someone chose Taylor’s video for the award.  Both had tried hard, and Kanye disagreed with the results.  In Kanye’s mind, someone made a mistake – and being who he is, he told the world what it was he thought.  This shouldn’t have been much of a surprise – it informs our opinion of who he is and confirmed who we believed him to be.

At some point, we have to make decisions in our lives that will influence how people see us. Yeah, I have made a lot of wrong decisions – but they were my decisions – and I (and Kanye) have to be responsible for the wrong choices that we make.  And how people perceive us will influence what it is that we can do in their presence.  If people think I am a fantastic guitarist (I’m not), then I will probably be asked to play guitar.  If it is a speaker, I will be asked to speak.  If I am seen as a fantastic sanitation worker – well, you know, I will be the one taking out what you have thrown away.

It is interesting to me that it was this question that Jesus asked.  Who is it that you say that I am? The answer effected what it was that the disciples would allow Jesus to do in their midst. Our answer to the question will change what it is that we will let him do in our midst. If we believe that he is a great teacher, then we will let him teach.  If we believe that he is the great healer, then we will allow him to heal.  If we believe that he is the Christ, then we will allow him to lead – no matter the circumstances.

So – what is your answer to the question?  Who is it that you say that he is? Or maybe, who do you need him to be.  Let him be precisely that. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 8

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ – Mark 7:6-7

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 14, 2017): Mark 7

Apparently, in Illinois, a car must be driven with a steering wheel. And that is disturbing for all of us who would rather drive using a computer joystick. I am not sure of the reason behind the law. I have driven for several years, and I have always used a steering wheel, adhering to the Illinois law even when I am not in Illinois. But at some point in time, something happened that caused the State of Illinois to pass the legislation. So if you are driving in Chicago, make sure that the steering wheel is correctly installed on your car.

Cultures often have laws that make no sense. Sometimes the law is simply badly written, or they are given without adequate explanations. Often, laws are simply outdated, and the reasons for the law have been lost in the fog of the past. Or maybe the laws seem to be too obvious, like a law that says that a car must be driven with a steering wheel. But for whatever the reason, we look at these laws and are at a loss to explain why anyone would take the time to pass them. They simply seem out of place in our society.

At first blush, Jewish cleanliness laws do not seem to belong to this set of regulations. In our modern society, the concept of washing your hands before eating is clearly understood. We know that germs can crawl on our hands and we understand how sickness is transferred from one person to another. But the cleanliness laws of Judaism had been divorced from the idea of remaining clean. The idea that had pervaded the culture was that sin could be committed and then washed from your hands through a ritual cleansing. The problem is that this was never God’s intention. God had always wanted those who followed him to be different in nature, not just different in ritual.

And that was the point that Jesus was trying to make and that Isaiah had made centuries earlier. There was no ethical difference between the people of Israel and those from other countries. They were worshipful with their lips, but not with their lives. When they entered the Temple, they pretended to be something that they refused to be outside the temple walls. And the reason why all of this was okay in the society is that the people were willing to wash their hands.

God’s demands on us have not changed. He wants something different for us. We are a people who believe in grace, but not a cheap grace that comes with the idea of frequently washing our hands. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Cost of Discipleship” wrote about that kind of grace. Cheap grace is grace that allows us to stay the same as we were before. Instead, Bonhoeffer advocated for a costly grace.

Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Cleanliness laws had become absurd because they were separated from the life that God intended us to live – a life of following him which never leaves us the same, but instead prompts a change in us into a people of love and light, which is precisely what our world needs right now.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 16

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? – Matthew 15:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 13, 2017): Matthew 15

Muslim Philosopher Al-Ghazali (1058-1111 C.E.) instructed his followers to “Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see - egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be ready to fight the enemy you can see.” Al-Ghazali has been described as the single most influential Muslim after Muhammad. And it is not just on Islam that he has left his mark. Through his influence on Christian figures like St. Thomas Aquinas, his wisdom has crossed over dividing religious lines into various areas of human existence.

Al-Ghazali’s words of jihad threaten to put off any contemporary Christian listener. We regard jihad as something that does not pertain to us. But I would argue that we need to hear the words of this Muslim philosopher; that the world would be such a better place if we could just live out Al-Ghazali’s instructions. Too many Christians do battle with the world without first doing battle with themselves. What would happen if we did declare our fight on the thirteen unseen enemies of our lives? What if we treated things like egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering as the enemy of our souls and committed ourselves to their eradication from our lives before we decided to criticize the lives of others?  

Okay, if we were to declare jihad on the thirteen unseen enemies, we might not get around to ever declaring jihad on anything or anyone else. The battle against these thirteen enemies would be enough to fill a lifetime. And the reality is that it is the same thirteen enemies, declared by Al-Ghazali, that stop the Christian from genuinely being the loving force in our world. Our power is usurped by our thirteen unseen enemies.

Jesus declaration is that we are stopped from accomplishing the will of God because we give a higher place to tradition than to God. The actual Greek word that is used is παράδοσις (paradosis), a teaching from tradition. We ignore what God directly instructs us to do because it does not measure up with the precepts we have put in place in our own lives. And those tenets are often a direct result of our thirteen unseen enemies. It is our ego that sets what we believe or want to believe above God’s instruction. Our arrogance and our conceit and the strong desire that exists within us to slander and gossip that stops us from being a force for the positive in this world.

Specifically, it is this tradition of the thirteen unseen enemies that stop us from loving others the way that Jesus loved. And until we declare war against our thirteen unseen enemies, we will never be able to love each other the way that Jesus instructed us to love. Instead, we will continue to allow tradition to modify the commands of God – and in the end, we will accomplish nothing.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 7

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. – John 6:33

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 12, 2017): John 6

Following the Las Vegas massacre, Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” asked this question.

When is the time (to talk about guns)? If you say after a mass shooting is never the time, then you'll never have the conversation in America because there's a mass shooting almost every single day. When a plane crashes, we talk about plane safety immediately. When a bridge collapses, we talk about infrastructure immediately ... we seem to do everything to avoid talking about guns. So, just to keep track of the argument: Mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting...'We have to take care of this hotel check-in issue.'

I am tired. I am tired of hate. I am tired of reading about gun violence. I am tired of passive-aggressive social media entries that assume facts, not in evidence and slides toward hate. I am tired of division around the things that we seem to think is important, and even if they are important, I am tired of the negative feelings that are given life because of our division. I am tired of the way that we treat each other, berate each other, and bully each other. And every time it happens, every word that we speak in order to tear someone else down, we move closer to the next “worst ever domestic mass murder in history.”

I am for at least some kind of gun control. We don’t want North Korea to possess nuclear weapons, at least in part, because we don’t trust them with the technology. They haven’t proven that they are part of the global community and that they want to work with other nations toward peace. North Korea has not proven themselves to be a responsible nation, so keeping nuclear weapons out of their hands seems to be a very appropriate response. I believe that gun ownership is a right, but with all rights come responsibilities. And looking at the track record, we have not proven that we are responsible enough to own guns. So maybe someone needs to take our toys away.

Of course, someone should also take our social media accounts away as well, because we haven’t proven that we can be responsible there either. Social media has just become one more avenue for us to spread our hate and our fear. And in the church, the issue is magnified. We are the ones charged with the task of supplying “the bread of God” to the world. Jesus left us with a clear mandate, go and be a force in favor of life in everything that we do and with every word that we speak. While the rest of the world might want to suck the life out this world, we are the life givers. Jesus’s church will be a force for good.

I am not sure that that is the way that the world would describe the Christian church, but it isn’t too late to change the narrative and become the force for love that we were supposed to be. It is time that we left hate and fear behind, and that we began to measure all of our actions according to the life that we bring. Because “the bread of God” is inside of you, and it is time to let it loose among the people with whom you rub shoulders. It is time that the Christian Church brought life.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 15

Personal Note: Happy Birthday, Mom.