Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. – Luke 6:21

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 7, 2020): Luke 6

Mahatma Gandhi argued that "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." I hope that we who are fed attempt to understand the plight of those in our midst who go hungry. And when you are hungry, there is not just a lack of food; there is no God. The hungry can have no concept of faith when security is absent in their lives. Food and shelter become the allusive gods for which they are searching. And empty words that leave them hungry and scared will never lead them to believe in a God that they cannot see. Evangelism starts with bread. Only when they have been fed can it continue with a message of forgiveness and acceptance that heals the hurt that exists long after the hunger has been satisfied.

But hunger can also be a blessing. I know, not when you are hungry, but the truth is that food doesn't satisfy someone who is not hungry as much as it does the one who is starving. To the hungry, a plain piece of bread tastes like a meal prepared by a top chef. And there is nothing like laughter to the one who has lived for a long time in sorrow.

Jesus promises that the hungry will be fed and that those who mourn will laugh again. In the short term, I think this is the work of each of us. In the process of loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves, we will find ourselves set to the task of feeding the hungry and bringing smiles to the faces of those who mourn. We have the assurance that something better is just around the corner. No one is too insignificant to be essential to God, and therefore, no one is too insignificant to be important to the church that bears his name.

But there is also a hint of longer promise. That there is a place where hunger and weeping simply no longer exist. For those who die in hunger because of our (meaning the world's) failure, this problem-filled existence does not carry over to the next. We (again indicating the world) need to commit ourselves to end hunger on the earth and comforting those who mourn. And the Christian Church should be leading the charge against the problems of this world; the issues that threaten all of us living here because there is needless hunger and death on this planet, which is a problem that we can fix. But there is also a promise of a place where hunger and death don't exist anymore. A place –

          Where the streets pf gold welcome weary souls

          All the grateful drink from the crystal stream

          Peace forevermore, troubles disappear

          And the only thing that's missing there is tears (Tony Wood, Michael Farren, Dan Dean).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 11

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. – Mark 3:4

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 6, 2020): Mark 3

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 – They have the same middle name; the. 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 limerick, 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 even to 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 legal to save and give life 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 legal 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. In contemporary culture, we could ask if it is okay to pay attention to God or ignore him on the Sabbath. And again, it is never okay to ignore God, but even more so on the Sabbath. It is why churches meet every Sunday, and the reason Christians make the sacrifice to gather every week – it is the observable result of a community committed to following God. But the community is dedicated to following God all of the time – not just on the Sabbath.

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

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 6

See Also Luke 6:9

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. – Matthew 12:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 5, 2020): Matthew 12

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November." These are the openings words of the childhood rhyme that commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The plot was orchestrated by a group of Catholic conspirators who wanted to assassinate King James I. The plan was to blow up the English Parliament, killing the King and the rest of the government, and replacing King James I with his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth who, with the guidance given to her by the conspirators, would lead the nation from being governed by Protestants, to a country of Catholics.

But on the night of November 4-5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was found guarding a pile of wood not too far from thirty-six barrels of Gunpowder intended to be blown up the next day. Whether Fawkes was one of the key conspirators or just an unfortunate scapegoat, his name is probably best remembered in association with the plot. Fawkes was executed on January 31, 1606. And the children's rhyme was born;

          Remember, remember!

          The fifth of November,

          The Gunpowder treason and plot

          I know of no reason

          Why the Gunpowder treason

          Should ever be forgot!

Walking through the grainfields picking heads of grain is not quite the equivalent of blowing up parliament and killing the King, but the offense has some common ground with the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and his conspirators seemed to oppose the King on religious grounds. The fundamental problem was that the King was Protestant, and they were Catholic. The perceived reality, and the perception was likely right, was that the King was undermining the Roman Catholicism in England. And they desperately wanted that to change.

As Jesus's disciples picked the heads of grain as they walked through the grainfields on the Sabbath, according to Jewish Law, they were working. Regardless of how inconsequential that work might be, work was prohibited by the Law on the Sabbath. The result was that as the disciples walked through the grainfield, they were destroying the underpinnings of the Law of Moses and Judaism. And that they were doing so with the blessings of a popular rabbi only made their actions more troubling. There might as well have been a gunpowder bomb under the grainfield because all of Judaism, a religious belief system that hinged on the keeping of the Mosaic Law, was in the process of being destroyed. And it wasn't going to take a bomb to destroy the Jewish faith, just a few heads of grain.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 3

"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. – John 5:28-29

Today's Scripture Reading (November 4, 2020): John 5

N. T. Wright sometimes comments that he really doesn't understand Matthew 27:51-53. The passage tells the story of the moment of Jesus's death. And at that moment, the earth shook, the rocks split, and the tombs broke open. And the bodies of many holy people were raised to life. It is a story that is told only by Matthew, and part of the reason for Matthew's inclusion of the tale was that this story would be necessary for his Jewish audience, who had a different view of resurrection than the one authored by Jesus. The story of raising holy people at the death of Jesus would be vital if they were going to believe that Jesus could be resurrected just a couple of days later.

Some have criticized Wright because he refuses to support the historicity of Matthew's tale of the resurrection of the dead at Jesus's death. Still, he also refuses to declare that the story is just a made-up tale that Matthew includes in his Gospel. Wright and several other scholars' problem is that it seems to be such an important event to be included by only one witness. And therefore, the story is hard to understand.

I am not nearly as smart as N. T. Wright, but I do have a theory. Suppose the story is accurate, and I have no reason to discount the story's historicity. In that case, I wonder if it is possible that as Jesus dies, he was released from any limitations placed on him by his human form. It might have been on Sunday morning that his disciples realized that Jesus had been resurrected, but is it possible that the transformation began at the moment that Jesus died on the cross. Suddenly, the human Jesus gave way to the unfettered presence of God, and nothing, not even death, could stand up to his unlimited presence. The very fabric of death is destroyed in the presence of Jesus. As his body is taken down off the cross, those gathered were confronted with something more.

It is the same process that Jesus speaks of to those gathered around him here. Jesus is speaking of the authority of the Son, his authority. And he says that a time is coming when not even death will be able to exercise its power over the human race. Because when his bodily presence replaces Jesus's physical absence, a moment we call the Parousia, even death yields up its control over those who are mortal. And at that moment, everyone, not just the holy, will walk out of their tombs to meet the power against which even death cannot stand. And at that moment, we will either live or be condemned. And the choice of which is really up to us. If we do not want to live in the presence of Jesus, he won't make us. But if we accept his presence, we will go on to live forever with him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 12

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins." – Mark 2:22

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 3, 2020): Mark 2

Star Trek has been credited with the rethinking of our technological advances and applications. Examples of real-life technology that came out of the Star Trek franchise include 'communicators' (we call them cell phones), 'computer music storage devices' (Spotify and other music application software), the ability to read a book on a 'tablet,' and even the idea of a voice interface with our computers and tools. The writers of Star Trek imagined all of this, and our first exposure to them came as we watched the various Captains and crews of the Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager go about their tasks on our television screens. And I can't wait for the holodeck to become a reality; we are close, but not quite there yet.

But the idea of Science Fiction stimulating future invention is almost an expected one. The first dime store novels help us dream about trips to the Moon or Mars, and these stories were almost a necessity before the actual journey could 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 models; Science Fiction is released to reimagine how the new paradigm might look. Because of this paradigm shift, Science Fiction is allowed to break the rules – every one of them. The genre's restructuring currently includes ways to break the speed barrier at the speed of light. As far as we know now, mass approaches the infinite as the speed of something approaches the speed of light. The result is that the light speed barrier cannot be passed (however, 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 traveling, constructing other jars to contain these ideas. Some of these ideas include mass dampeners, folding space, wormholes, or even traveling outside of our dimension. These are the new containers designed to contain our latest thoughts about the speed of space travel. And, who knows, one of them might be right.

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 could not be held within the old jars. It needed a new container.

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

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 5

See also Matthew 9:17

Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." – Matthew 8:4

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 2, 2020): Matthew 8

German-American poet, Charles Bukowski, commented, "there's nothing like privacy. You know, I like people. It's nice that they might like my books and all that...but I'm not the book, see? I'm the guy who wrote it, but I don't want them to come up and throw roses on me or anything. I want them to let me breathe." For those who have never achieved any sort of fame, the comment might be hard to understand. After all, we want to be recognized for something. Most of us would like to possess a modicum of fame. But the truth is that more than a little fame tends to take over our lives, and it drives privacy out of our lives. And, sometimes, fame can stop us from doing what it is that we need to do. Being famous for being famous is a modern phenomenon, as well as a rather useless one.

The words of Jesus are almost weird. Jesus does a fantastic miracle, one that would add to his fame, yet he asks the man not to tell anyone. What the man was supposed to do was go and do the things that were demanded by the Mosaic Law. Part of the reason behind the instruction was that Jesus knew that the miracle originated with God the Father, and all of the publicity should return to the God of Moses.

But the other side of the equation was that Jesus's focus was on the person, not on his personal ability to perform miracles. Becoming famous as a miracle worker, which eventually Jesus would become largely because those he healed just couldn't remain silent about who Jesus was, would eventually interfere with Jesus's ability to minister to the person. And the person was always the focus of Jesus. Jesus was not a magician who trained at his craft to do magic, entertaining the people. Jesus was not the Penn Jillette of the ancient world. The miracles were not the primary purpose of Jesus's ministry. The person was the focus. Always.

A friend once remarked, after becoming infatuated with miracle performing ministries, that all Christian organizations should do that. My reply was that we do, each in our way. Miracles happen among the churches of the world all the time. But that is not where our focus is supposed to be. Our focus is always on the needs of the people in our midst.

And some ministries in the process become famous. Maybe that can't be helped. But it can't change our focus. As soon as public relations become the focal point of our ministry, at that moment, when we begin to do things because of the attention that we will get, rather than because it is what the person needs, we cease being reflections of Jesus and become something "less than."  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 2

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. – Luke 11:35

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 1, 2020): Luke 11

Plato remarked, "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." We live in an era when we seem to love the dark. None of us seem receptive to having our beliefs questioned. And that is a problem. Historically, a resistance to outside the box thinking and an unwillingness to have discussions around faith matters has led us into heresy. Honest conversations can be challenging, but they can also be enlightening if we want to let light into our lives. But we have to be willing to admit that the light is important to us no matter how uncomfortable.

The Protestant Reformation was a moment when new light was needed in the church. And regardless of which side of the Reformation your faith tradition might stand, the Reformation had a positive impact. But there was also a negative side to the protest. It introduced an unnecessary division in the Christian Church. In some areas, the Reformation went too far, throwing things away that should never have discarded, making the church weaker in the process. But in others, it didn't go nearly far enough. We kept things that needed to be discarded. But the biggest problem with the Reformation was that the lines became finalized, and the conversation stopped.

We still need to have a conversation in the church. We need to examine what we believe about violence and resistance to our culture's beliefs with the light that shines strongly from the words of Jesus. We need to re-examine our behaviors regarding same-sex attraction and abortion with the light that shines out of the scripture, pleading with us to love those who are different from us. We need the conversation. It is not necessarily that our beliefs are wrong, although they might be. The lack of conversation shuts us off from a truth that might be trying to make an impact on our lives. We are afraid of the conversation.

One scenario that I like to consider is asking the simple question, "what would Jesus do?" Yeah, I know it is simple advice that belongs to a past generation. But for a moment, consider this. I have an extended family member that likes to protest abortion clinics. He is Pro-Life and is angered by the presence of abortion clinics in his neighborhood. I want to ask where Jesus would be standing, outside holding a protest sign or chained to the equipment of the abortion clinic. Would he be screaming about the evil represented by the clinic or crying with the little girl making one of the hardest decisions of her life? I am not asking if Jesus is Pro-Life or Pro-Choice. I think he is Pro-Life. The question is, how Jesus to the situation. And is there a reason why we don't want to stand where he would stand? And just for the record, I think Jesus would always side withholding the scared girl or even the woman who thinks she is doing nothing wrong, over protesting with the religious elite.

We need to leave the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice conversation and begin to consider what our response should be in a Pro-Choice world. I believe that, if love is our methodology, our Pro-Life message would be more easily heard by those on the other side. But we have not been reacting with love, and so a fight has resulted, one that concentrates on a woman's right to choose. And whenever we begin to respond to the things about which we disagree without love, whenever we refuse to be involved in the conversation, it is then that our light becomes dark.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 8