Wednesday Lenten Journey of Justice, “God’s Prerogative”

Reread Mt 20:1-16

Devotion:

Jesus’ teaching paints a picture of how God recruits people to serve his purposes. While some labor with their short sighted view of the scope of a day, marking its time and toils, God is still on the pursuit–still on the lookout for more help. There is much work to be done and more workers are needed, even if only for one hour. And so God continues the pursuit of more laborers for the harvest.

This picture of radical equality in an upside down kingdom goes against so much of our predilections about how a community should function. We want to make it about merit, and when we make it about merit we are simply making it about ourselves. It is all to easy to think in terms of us being the heroes of our own story, and by extension the heroes of God’s story. In this scripture we can readily see it is more about the work than the worker, the work is so important God is willing to take even those who have been out waiting around and are only available for a few hours here or there. But  we can also see it is about the worker, for God rewards the workers who have come late the same as those who have been out in the field all day. As was mentioned before it is God’s prerogative to be generous, but one thing worth noting is that we know this is what God is like.

In your group discuss or reflect on these queries:

• What does this story tell us of the heart of God who keeps searching for willing workers?
• How do we see the worth in the work of the harvest?
• What fears/jealousies are at work in us as God brings new workers alongside us?

It seems clear to me that the work of God transcends, even defies, things like pecking order and merit. The obvious analogy in light of the work of the church is bearing the gospel, something I believe we all equally share in the rewards of. As we harvest with God it seems right to consider how much more could be done for God’s kingdom if it could be free from jealousy, and be free to share the work with new people God has called alongside us. We lose much in comparing ourselves to one another. We gain much by letting the rewards part go, resting assured that our rewards will be enough, and seeing others around us not as competition  for God’s resources, but as co laborers in a work greater and more important than all of us. We lose much in making it about merit; making it about us instead of the one who pursues us, who calls us by name to a great harvest.

In closing share one story of being included in to the work of God, and one way you have helped others to be included into a life of worship.

 

Sunday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Beyond Good Intentions”

*I apologize for getting this out so late, dear Reader. The following is an excerpt from my sermon Sunday.

Reread Luke 10:25-37

If one would truly seek after the fullness of life with God it will take sacrifice… Jesus’ teaching reminds us it will take all you got, your full self. It will take ALL your mind, all your soul, all your strength… it will take the outworking of God’s love that connects with one’s neighbor, that prioritizes others at least as much as one’s self. That Jesus tells us. This is how to find our true life, our true selves…
This passage puts one of the primary ethical teachings of Jesus about loving God and your neighbor into the mouth of one of Jesus’ testers, and one thing this really illustrates is that even when we know of the connection between how we treat our neighbor and how we treat God in our heads, the short journey that truth faces between our heads and our hearts and out to our “hands” can be quite daunting. If we are honest I think we all know we fall short, that we often desire to an integrity that goes beyond were we are with how what we believe and what we live are connected.

A few devotions back put up a video by a guy named Daniel Goleman. He asks the question, “Why aren’t we all good Samaritans?” One interesting experiment he did was get seminarians from one of his preaching classes to prepare a sermon on this text in one place, and make them walk a short distance to deliver it. Along the way he had it set up that they would encounter a man pretending to be in need of help. He wanted to see if someone who had been thinking and reflecting on this story, internalizing it even in preparing to preach about it, would act differently than most people. He was largely disappointed. Most people in his class would pass buy just like the people in the story… he would ask them questions later to try to understand this phenomenon and what he found was that the real deciding factor of whether or not they would stop to help had to do with how much of a hurry they thought they were in on their walk.

Don’t think for one second that I–because I am a pastor–am ignorant of my own struggles to live this stuff out. That I am not conscious of this disconnect between how we want to be and how we actually are in practice, which–if we wake up to its reality–can often be the start of God giving us eyes to see God Himself in our neighbors and in our neighborhoods.

Becoming aware of this same disconnect of integrity in my life has really helped me to realign my actions to what–in my heart of hearts–I already knew to be God’s truth in this area. As Christians we can sometimes find ourselves wanting compassion more than exercising it; we may genuinely want to help homeless people for instance but if we are honest it turns out that we want our own comforts and predictable patterns more. We may see someone clearly in a roadside jam but think, “I need to just get to where I am headed.”

I am not trying to provide extra ammo for legalism here, just trying to acknowledge the reality that good intentions undefined hardly ever become tangible actions. If for instance I only “intended” to show love for my wife, but did not back up that intention with some concrete follow through, someone would be right to be suspicious of what was meant by the word “love.” Love is a verb, an action word after all.

If we are truly going to take seriously this understanding of a connection between one’s love for God and one’s love for neighbor, and truly want to see that at play in Jesus’ example of the Samaritans’ mercy, we must start by learning to see “God” in the man lying on the road. Quaker’s believe there is “that of God in everyone” and that is a good place to start making this God/neighbor, love/action connection. We need to learn to silence the voice within that seeks to justify, that only knows intellectually, but not experientially, the truth of loving one’s neighbor.

Friday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Worship Without Walls”

Reread Luke 10:25-37

Devotion:

In Oregon they have these old blimp hangars that line the coast that housed the blimps that patrolled the coastline looking for Japanese submarines. They are truly enormous buildings, and one has become the Tillamook Air Museum. I went on a trip one time and was almost as impressed with the building as the planes inside. The door to the hangar that let the blimps out is an impressive feat of engineering, something like 80 feet high and twice that wide. As I admired the door I looked up an noticed that someone had a great sense of humor; in the middle above the door on the inside, some joker had hung a basketball hoop! This hoop was so far up and so far out that the odds of making that shot, even with an air cannon, were hilariously laughable. Yet there it was, daring someone to try…

The justifying question which kicked off Jesus’ teaching, “And who is my neighbor?” is a question for those looking for the easier softer way; a “path of least resistance” kind of faith. Perhaps even a path of “least persistence” kind of faith, as once we feel justified… we feel justified to stop moving forward with God because we feel we have arrived. Yet in Jesus’ many teachings the standard He gives is one that raises the bar impossibly high. It is a standard we could never arrive at on our own, without grace. In connecting loving God to loving others, Jesus made a standard that was impossibly high. There is no place outside the bounds of worshiping God. No place we can divide our holy actions from our profane ones.

There are two ways we can approach living this teaching out: we can look at this impossible standard and–trusting in our own ability and power–decide whether or not taking the shot is worth the risk, and either give up without ever trying or give up after failing mightily. Or, we can put radical trust in God: we can trust that God will help us reach the goal and will be with us “scaffolding”  our growth as we learn to listen and obey.

Loving God through our neighbors is risky business. We are bound to make mistakes and fall short. But the standard is there like that basketball hoop, daring us to suspend our disbelief at the impossibility of the task and be obedient to take our shot. The truth is, it is only in recognizing our need for God that we would ever make it. It is only in knowing we cannot do it alone and knowing that it will take God continuing to call us out beyond ourselves–beyond the limitations of our strength and the limitations of the love we have in our hearts. But when we recognize this, we also get the opportunity to see the glory and majesty of God… we also see with new eyes, how radical a transformation He is calling us to experience. And we find the hope required to make that shot, despite our fears and limitations.

For this Friday Fool’s Challenge prayer, take a few minutes for thinking about the victories and struggles of loving God through our neighbors. Remember a time you fell short and God helped dust you off to get back on your feet for a fresh start. Remember a time you, through faithfullnes, experienced a victorious change in your life; making a small baby step toward closer Christ-likeness in your dealings with other humans. As you watch the video, feel free to close your eyes and make this song a prayer for God, recognizing both the utter need you have for God, as well as the simple majesty of who He is.

Thursday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Rough Neighborhood”

Devotion

A story is told of John Wesley that as the church of England grew more and more dissatisfied with the new things he was doing–such radical things as preaching outdoors to large crowds and helping bring theology to the coal mines through popular hymns–that the established church like Jesus’ opponents of old, began looking for reasons to discredit this fiery upstart young evangelist. Like Jesus, Wesley was reaching out to the poor, adapting the church methodology to engage the regular folk. Wesley had experienced a turn around in his “strangely warmed” heart, and he wanted other people to experience the same sort of dynamic relationship with God he had found.

Anyway, the story goes that Wesley was given an invitation to come preach at the most prestigious venue in England, before a great crowd, many of whom were extremely educated and critical of what Wesley was up to. Wesley had good reason to suspect that they wanted him to preach before them to strain what he would say through a fine toothed come and find something “wrong” with his theology so they could denounce him and get things back on track with the status quo.

Wesley took the invitation, despite the many warnings of his closest family and friends. As he mounted the pulpit he openly told the crowd that they were about to hear the greatest sermon anyone had ever preached. “How arrogant!” thought his hearers, thinking they were seeing evidence of the “pride that comes before the fall.” But rather than preaching in his typical evangelist style a sermon of both great length and theological depth, geared toward persuading people to put their trust fully in the Lord, Wesley opened up his Bible and read verbatim Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It took less than ten minutes, and when he was finished he closed his bible and sat down. Wesley’s opponents knew that they were going to miss an opportunity to find fault that day. Criticizing what he was preaching would be to criticize the ethical teachings of Jesus himself!

We have been focusing on the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37 and God’s ethic of mercy exemplified by this seemingly dubious ne’er do well. The ethic of mercy taught in this parable is the same as one might find in the beatitudes, it is a thread that runs through the bulk of Jesus’ teachings, and not in subtle ways either: Jesus calls his followers to love even their enemies, to stamp out even the roots of hatred hiding in one’s heart.

Instructions for Fasting:
Fast one meal and spend the time you would normally be eating reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapters 5-7.  Let your hunger or even boredom be reasons to connect with rather than disconnect with God. As you read these radical teachings about the mercy and justice we are to strive for as Christ’s followers, consider the broad movement of Jesus’ message: Jesus starts with virtues, not prohibitions, but at the end he calls those who would follow after Him to literally build their lives on his teachings. Consider the thread of mercy found throughout, and then reread Luke’s parable on the good Samaritan. How does the example set by the Samaritan connect with what Jesus teaches about mercy in the Sermon on the Mount? How is this contrasted with the man asking Jesus “but who is my neighbor?”

Wednesday Lenten Journey of Justice: “The Voice Within”

Wednesday Gathering Instructions:
This exercise is best done in a group, but since many of you are following this as individuals it is designed to be accessible in either context.

Read Luke 10:25-37

Though this passage puts one of the primary ethical teachings of Jesus about loving God and your neighbor into the mouth of one of Jesus’ testers, one thing this really illustrates is that even when one knows of the connection between how we treat our neighbor and how we treat God in our heads, even the short journey that truth faces between head and heart can be quite daunting. A Daniel Goleman pointed out in the video in yesterday’s devotion, even seminarians on a trip to preach about this story who feel they are in a hurry can walk on by someone who needs help. This disconnect between how we want to be and how we actually are in practice which–if we wake up to its reality–can often be the start of God giving us eyes to see God Himself in our neighbors and in our neighborhoods.

Becoming aware of this same disconnect of integrity in my life helped me to realign my actions to what–in my heart of hearts–I already knew to be God’s truth in this area.  As Christians we can sometimes find ourselves wanting compassion more than exercising it; we may genuinely want to help homeless people for instance but if we are honest it turns out that we want our own comforts and predictable patterns more. We may see someone clearly in a roadside jam but think, “I need to just get to where I am headed.” I am not trying to provide extra ammo for legalism here, just trying to acknowledge the reality that good intentions undefined hardly ever become tangible actions. If for instance I only “intended” to show love for my wife, but did not back up that intention with some concrete follow through, one would be right to be suspicious of what was meant by the word “love.” Love is a verb, an action word after all. If we are truly going to take seriously this understanding of a connection between one’s love for God and one’s love for neighbor, and truly want to see that at play in Jesus’ example of the Samaritans’ mercy, we must start by learning to see “God” in the man lying on the road. Quaker’s believe there is “that of God in everyone” and that is a good place to start making this God/neighbor, love/action connection.  We need to learn to silence the voice within that seeks to justify, that only knows intellectually but not experientially the truth of loving one’s neighbor.

Directions for Group/Solo Experience:

Assemble chairs in a circle, grab a washcloth and a bucket of warm water and take turns wash one another’s feet. It is often just as humbling to let another do this for you as it is to give this sort of service to another. As you wash the feet of one person, do not think only of the person but the representation of Christ’s likeness they also are. As you let another wash your feet, pray that God would help you show this same kind of humility to one person this week in loving service. As you watch others do this for each other, pray that God would help both have their eyes opened in a new way to the humility and mercy of Jesus. If you are not following along in a group read John 13:1-17 and ponder the connection between Jesus’ example of loving God and neighbor in the interchange between Peter and Jesus.

Tuesday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Opened Eyes”

Reread: Luke 10:25-37

Devotion: 

Blindness can seem such a black and white category to us. One thing about our eyes is that the way they were created has such a spot, which we would notice more except our brains automatically tune it out. So much of our lives can be this way, we often do not explore our assumptions and biases. We use stereotypes and labels to simplify our world, or even to reject others before they reject us. The truth is despite being religious people seeking to make the love of God known in the world, we still have blind spots. We still get in a hurry and miss moments we might best show the world the compassion of the Savior. I am sharing two resources, both have been powerful to me personally and for opposite reasons. The TED Talk my Daniel Goleman explores the internal obstacles we all have to truly seeing the neighbor’s God puts in our lives. Lastly, Phillip Fletcher’s adaptation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan to our time unleashes a bit of the punchiness and power of Jesus’ teaching in the words and images of our time. If you have time to partake of both please do so, if not, pick the one you think might be the most helpful and meaningful to you. Close your time in a prayer asking God, in your own words, to help you to slow down enough to truly “see” the needs of your neighbor

Watch “Why Aren’t We All Good Samaritians”

 

Read “The Good Muslim” by Phillip Fletcher

One day, a Christian of America made up in his mind to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, remind me on how I am to inherit eternal life.” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the New Testament? How do you read it?” And he answered, “I must have faith in him whom God has risen from the dead. It is a living faith which leads me to love God and my neighbor.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But the Christian of America, didn’t fully appreciate the answer. He straightened his back. Cast a smirk of a smile and said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied, “A man was going from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia, and he was car-jacked by several persons, who stole his clothes, seized his smartphone, broke his ribs, cracked his skull, leaving him unconscious on the side of the road. Now it happened to be the time of a great conference and a pro-life group was passing by, and when they saw the man, they passed on by. Likewise a missionary group who just returned from India, when they came to the exact same location, they too passed on to the other side.

But a Muslim, as he traveled to work, saw the man on the side of the road, and when he saw him, he entered into his suffering. He pulled out his first aid kit, tended to the man’s injuries and then called 911 for emergency assistance. He followed the ambulance to the hospital and sat over night with the man in ICU. Next morning he told the hospital billing office, “Here is my credit card. Take care of him and whatever he needs.”

Jesus looked at the Christian of America and with strong eyes asked, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man carjacked?”

The Christian of America clenched his fist. He looked around fumbling with the keys in his pocket. He finally looked up to Jesus and said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

And Jesus says to the Christian of America,

“You go, and do the same.”

This retelling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) was inspired by my friend Jared Wilson who tweeted on Monday December 7, 2015:

“If Jesus were telling the parable we call The Good Samaritan to many evangelicals today, it might be known as The Good Muslim.”

This year has proven we need to revisit this parable and others like it to recover how we are to live as Christians in this current climate. We are seeking to justify ourselves and how we treat others on the basis of our citizenship, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. Such justifications lead us only to love those who are like us. This parable demonstrates the power of transformative love when those who are in conflict share in each other’s suffering. This parable is spoken to those who ask the question, “What must I do to inherit life?”

Jesus is speaking to us today.

Jesus is telling us a old story in a new way.

Jesus who has showed us mercy now says,

“You go, and do the same. It will cost you time. It will cost you resources. It will cost your life. But because I have give you the power of an indestructible life. You go, and do the same. Show mercy as an act of gratitude for the mercy you have received.”

Prayer

Close your time in a prayer asking God, in your own words, to help you to slow down enough to truly “see” the needs of your neighbor.

Monday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Have Mercy”

Devotion:

Few of Jesus’ parables had the shock value of the parable of the Good Samaritan. In 722 B.C. Assyria conquered Israel and took most of its people into captivity. The invaders then brought in Gentile colonists “from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim” (2 Kin. 17:24) to resettle the land. The foreigners brought with them their pagan idols, which the remaining Jews began to worship alongside the God of Israel (2 Kin. 17:29-41). Intermarriages also took place (Ezra 9:1-10:44;Neh. 13:23-28 ).

Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to Babylon in 600 B.C. Its people, too, were carried off into captivity. But 70 years later, a remnant of 43,000 was permitted to return and rebuild Jerusalem. The people who now inhabited the former northern kingdom—the Samaritans—vigorously opposed the repatriation and tried to undermine the attempt to reestablish the nation. It was the Samaritans who heckled the Jews of Ezra, and tried to undermine the Jewish efforts to rebuild the wall and get the people back upon the road to faithfulness. For their part, the full-blooded, monotheistic Jews detested the mixed marriages and worship of their northern cousins. So walls of bitterness were erected on both sides and did nothing but harden for the next 550 years.

Samaritans were considered half breeds of the Jewish people. It was not racism necessarily that was at the heart of their hatred for one another, it was competition for the land, competition for theological orthodoxy, and competition about the theology of Temple; the place the very presence of God was to dwell–that was at the heart of this struggle. As you read the text imagine who might be a bitter adversary in our world today in areas of theological purity, nationalistic visions of how to make the world a better place, and even those across the racial divide from you.

Lectio Divina Instructions
Lectio Divina (or divine reading) is a spiritual reading of scripture. We come to the scripture not
for study only, but approach the text in a sense with openness to receive from God. The traditional lectio framework has four distinct stages outlined in the instructions below.

Reading God’s word (Lectio)
Read Luke 10:25-37 slowly twice (this is the larger reading from a physical bible). If you are doing this in a group have the listeners close their eyes to help them focus on hearing. As you read listen for a word or phrase that seems “illuminated” for you. Sit in silence a couple minutes.

Reflecting on God’s word (Meditatio)
Read the passage again. During the silence reflect on how the passage speaks to your life today.

Responding to God (Oratio)
Read Luke 10:25-37 again. During the few minutes of silence consider how God is calling you to
respond. Pray and tell Jesus your intended response to what you have heard. It might be praise or action of some kind, or something to think further on etc.

Resting in God (Contemplatio)
Read verses Luke 10:25-37 one final time. Rest in the words in silence for a few minutes. Close in prayer.

Friday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Dead to Rights”

Read Luke 4:1-13

Devotion:

There is a difference in the English words “Tempted” and “Tested.” Both represent a sort of trial, but the expectations are different. In our understanding of tempted, it seems to convey the expectation that the subject might fail. A temptation is a test where the goal is to entice someone to sin. On the other hand, in our understanding of testing, it would seem that there is a hope that the subject would pass the test, be proved worthy in some way. There are these moments in our lives that come along and bring with them a time of testing, moments that in our weakness we either turn toward God and be led to victory, or moments that in our weakness turn away from God and stumble. How we see them, as either a temptation or a testing, comes largely from what these moments revealed about us… The Greek word here, peirezein, it is more about testing. I am not saying the devil doesn’t want Jesus to fail in the story, I am only pointing out that Luke does not see this as the temptation of Jesus, but the testing of Jesus. This is a test, the moment Jesus was at his weakest. The moment that would reveal who he really was underneath it all.

There are a couple ways to see Jesus’ testing in the wilderness theologically. For example Paul in 1st Corinthians points to the reality of Christ as a New Adam figure. In this way of seeing the story, the Desert contrasts the Garden of Eden, perhaps emphasizing the rebellion that forced Adam and Eve out of that garden. Christ was tempted in every way that we are, and yet was without sin. Others see the Spirit leading Christ into the desert more through the lens of an Israel figure, reminiscent of the people wandering through the wilderness on their path to the promised land. Whatever you make of that, it is clear that God is up to something here, that the Spirit had a clear purpose for drawing Christ into the desert. I think it pushed Jesus to the very edge of His humanity, to the point of His greatest weakness. I think it reveals that even at His weakest, Jesus is stronger than the devil. Unlike Adam who fell under temptation, or the Children of Israel who kept failing and being led around in circles, Jesus passed the test. Jesus did not resort to exercising His divine authority to cheat the tests either, He did it as we would, relying on God’s strength to make it.

The scholar William Barclay puts Jesus’ answer in the words of our time: He writes of Jesus meaning “the only true way to satisfaction, is the way that has learned complete dependence on God.” When we get our identity from other places we will never be satisfied. Popularity might make some aspects of our lives better, but popularity as an end to itself it can never complete us. If we live our lives seeking the approval of others, it can destroy us. We might get all the physical bread in the world, but physical food without spiritual nourishment falls very short of what God offers us through Jesus. I have been reading a book about prayer that references the Desert Fathers and Mothers a lot. If you are unfamiliar, these were fairly radical Christians in the early church who, when Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, they fled off to the desert because they were afraid the church would be watered down. There are all manner of interesting hermits and groups of Christians from this time, and many interesting stories. These people chose a hard life on purpose… they wanted to go a place no one would go to willingly be tested on a daily basis.

In one story, a man seeks out one of these hermits and asks him how he might grow spiritually. The hermit gives him some unusual instructions, he says go to the nearby graveyard and spend the rest of the day cursing every grave. The man comes back the next day and says “I did what you asked.” The hermit sends him back to the graveyard. This time to bless every grave. The man comes back and the hermit tells him, “if you want to grow spiritually you must be like the dead men of the graveyard, unaffected by the praises and curses of people. Live your life only as affected by God” (my paraphrase) God calls us to be a people with a message beyond the moment. In order to respond to this temptation like Jesus did we must prune our lives of those voices that seek to draw us away from the bigger picture of eternal life with God.

Jesus is not a magician who has come to entertain the world. He does not redefine himself to chase the approval of the world. He does not follow the faulty reasoning of instant gratification that the devil offers us. But he does offer us a path through the desert of the moment. He invites us to have a relationship with Him that can put the world back into perspective. A trip through the desert can help us see that “the only true way to satisfaction is the way that has learned complete dependence on God.” Jesus points us beyond our own needs. He points us beyond the meaningless quest for relevance and the approval of others. He points us toward the God who is far above these things and can guide us around the traps they can represent for us. God calls us to a God-first life. A life where we are sustained by God, we seek God, where we search His word and we strip away what pulls us away from that. A life of justice is also a life of fidelity and obedience to the radical call of Christ. To pursue justice, no other voice besides that of Christ can be entertained.

Friday Fool’s Challenge Prayer:

John Woolman experienced a profound moment when he wrote in his journal about feeling the Lord tell him, “John Woolman is dead.” There comes a time in following Christ where we simply must choose to be “dead to rights”; choosing to lay down all reservations, making no claim on even a “bucket list” that could distract us from God’s purposes. For this challenge, lay down in the traditional position of a dead person. Place a coin over each eye and fold your arms across your chest. Pray silently, asking God to reveal the marionette strings that need to be severed to follow God even in the unforgiving places; the dry deserts of coming to the ends of ourselves.

Thursday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Releasing with Joy”

Read John 3:22-36

Devotion:

John the Baptist was considered by Jesus to be the greatest man “born of women.” This would be quite radical to a Jewish ear for whom patriarchs like Abraham, or the great receiver of the Torah himself, Moses, would have been the heavyweights of obedience to God. No doubt, despite our mental picture of John the Baptist as a wild eyed firebrand, this scripture points us toward a person who was also tempered by a great humility. John knew his place, he was the forerunner who prepared the way for the one who would now be eclipsing his work and ministry. Yet John also rejoiced in fulfilling his God given purpose. He was not sad when Jesus came on the scene, he was elated. But he also understood the nature of this new epoch. John knew that he must get himself out of the way of what God was doing. As he wrote,  “He must become greater; I must become less.”

To work toward justice with God is not even a remote possibility without humility and boldness, just as John exemplified. It takes boldness to speak truth to power and call out hypocrisy. It takes boldness to to do new works of ministry like preaching and baptizing. Especially work that departs from the traditionalism of religious practice. But while many would see arrogance as a shadow side of the prophetic role, there is a certain humility to being a herald of the gospel, and there is humility to holding  loosely the momentum of a nascent movement, and even letting Jesus take over your role as the discipler of the best and brightest God has brought your way. The reason John the baptist was so great is because he did not mind being made small. He let the plans and purposes of God have their way in his life so completely that he fully lived into his role as coming in the spirit of Elijah. He was more than ready to simply accept the testimony of Jesus; he was ready to let the Spirit work unencumbered. This is justice is to be sought in the Kingdom of God. It is a justice in tune with the Spirit of God whose ministry is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It is a justice that is only possible if one follows the example of God of  loving the Son and placing everything in his hands.

Instructions for Fasting:
Fast one meal. Let your emptiness or even boredom be reasons to connect with rather than disconnect with God. During the time of the meal 3:22-36 considering John’s example with your own struggle navigating the tension of boldness and humility, truth telling and telling the truth in love. Close in a prayer asking God for help in one area of your live you need to decrees so that Christ may increase.

Wednesday Lenten Journey of Justice: “Breaking the ‘Found’ Barrier”

Wednesday Gathering Instructions:
This exercise is best done in a group, but since many of you are following this as individuals it is designed to be accessible in either context.

Read Luke 3:1-21

Devotion

The two most important bridge people between the Old Testament story and the New are Mary and John the Baptist. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, a voice –like many of Israel’s former prophets– that called the people to repent and come before God ready for a fresh start. Repentance is where the rubber meets the road between those who are serious about letting God’s will be done in their heart, and those who only like to tell others what they want to hear. Metanoia, the Greek word for repentance, surprisingly had its start as a money changing term. When a person left one kingdom and entered another, money needed to be converted to the currency of the new kingdom, it needed to be exchanged. Repentance has the idea then of “turning” one thing into another–one thing that no longer works for one that does– and in light of Jesus’ proclamation  about the kingdom of God this speaks of exchanging the “currency” in our lives for what works in the economy of his kingdom.

Repentance and forgiveness are not exactly the same thing. Forgiveness could be envisioned in light of the previous example, as granting someone’s request to help make this exchange happen. When someone does wrong, damage is done. And just as if someone came from a rival kingdom that had been an enemy of our own, if they came into our bank where we hold all the rights to all the legal tender contained there, and where we hold all the cards–when someone wrongs us we have the choice before us as to whether we will let them complete the transaction they seek, or whether we will take advantage or refuse to help.

God’s example, as demonstrated in John the Baptist’s ministry, is to take all sincere comers and give them the fresh start they desire. John takes them down to the river and helps their outsides become clean to match the new work God is doing within them. In Jewish culture, this would be the opposite of say someone tearing their outer garments and putting on sackcloth and ashes to show the world how they were feeling by making their outsides match the brokenness in their hearts. John helped the crowds that came seeking a fresh start to realize physically and externally what God was doing with them spiritually and internally. And John’s baptism was one that looked forward to Jesus and the ultimate baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit to come at Pentacost. Wherever God’s Spirit is at work walls of division are broken down, whether that means socio-cultural and language barriers as was realized at Pentecost, or the barriers of repentance and forgiveness that were crossed on the banks of the Jordan.

At the last group activity we broke some ground on the importance of repentance. Repentance is important for justice to be realized, but so is its counterpart: forgiveness. Sin causes relational damage to the individual and to the individuals relationship with God, but also the direct recipients of our wrongs and even echoes out into the community. Forgiveness is often accepting this exchange and letting it happen, but it is also about providing the grace of a way back to restoration. Repentance without forgiveness by the community is not what God desires, nor is forgiveness without repentance that undermines justice and cheapens grace. Yet no one can force forgiveness. We have the choice to cling to our unforgiveness, or let go of our claims for bounty in the currency of another kingdom. As we stand, like a banker before a person from a former rival kingdom seeking refuge, by God’s grace we can learn to see them as human and accept their “exchange” with humility, fairness, and grace. We can choose like John the Baptist, to aid God’s work that had led them this far, and give them helpful advice about how to live in the Kingdom of God. Some damages cannot be undone, but as those who walk the path of restoration through the 12 steps know, sometimes the only way you can make amends for the past is to break the cycles of the past, and walk a new direction in freedom with God’s help.

In your group of on your own, share/reflect on a time you received forgiveness after coming to that place of repentance. If you can, share briefly one story of your experiencing mercy and grace from another. Afterwards, if you have time, share one experience of forgiving someone who has wronged you. If anyone is still resistant to choosing forgiveness in some are of their life, pray for the Holy Spirit to break down this barrier and bring about restoration. Close in prayer.