John 11:1-45 When so many things seem to be happening so fast we begin to lose our ability to gauge the passage of time. Something that happened a week ago may as well have been two months ago, because it feels like forever ago. How long have we been “social distancing?” It feels like forever. At the seminary I attended, every student was required to participate in a cross-cultural trip. The destination varied from year to year but the length of the trip was always the same: three weeks. When we asked why three weeks, the answer was this. During the first couple of weeks it just feels like a vacation. You feel like a tourist abroad; you are a foreigner in a strange land, observing the natives in their habitat. But when you get into that third week, you begin to push past that barrier and something shifts. You […]
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Heart to Heart Talks, Part 3: Real Connection
John 9:1-41 I read a story in the news recently about a woman named Marion who has lived all her life with a severe hearing impairment. Then, in her 40’s she began losing her vision too. At first, she was devastated, but then she decided that since she was still alive, she would start dancing. And then she started teaching other visually impaired people to dance. She leads classes of blind people, like herself, where they learn to do line dances. Most of them are over the age of 60. Like their teacher, Marion, they began losing their vision later in life, so they have memories of seeing. Like Marion, they have learned to find other ways of seeing. Dancing together is one. For anyone who was born blind, like the young man in this gospel story, other ways of seeing are the norm. I wonder if that is why this young […]
Continue readingHeart to Heart Talks, Part 2: In the Light of Day
John 4:5-42 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus spoke to her, JESUS: “Give me a drink.” WOMAN: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” JESUS: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” WOMAN: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank […]
Continue readingHeart to Heart Talks, Part 1: Not Today, Satan
Matthew 4:1-11 Many years ago Kim and I introduced an exciting new game to our young children. We called it the quiet game. It’s simple: when we say “go,” everybody has to be quiet and the first one to break the silence loses. The kids never won that game. Maybe you have played this game with your own children? Because sometimes a parent wants some peace and quiet. But I learned later that it isn’t just kids who seem to have a burning need for chatter. One day I had a study date with my grownup daughter. We invited her grandmother along with us. We explained to her we were going to a coffee shop to work, and if she had a book to read, maybe she would like to join us. She said she’d love to. It sort of didn’t work out very well. We sat together in a […]
Continue readingJesus Preaches, Part 4: Perfect Love
Matthew 5:38-48 Have you ever asked Google how to be perfect? This is how you know that you are not the only person in the world who has ever wondered the things you are wondering, you ask Google. Because there are answers out there, my friends. Google has answers. If you google “How can I be perfect?” this is what you will find: There are lists of 25 ways to be a better person. There are lists of 52 simple ways to be your best every week. There is an article that says being perfect, or as close to perfect as possible, can be broken down into three basic areas: taking care of the outside – that is how you appear to others; taking care of the inside – how you feel both physically and mentally; and finally, carrying it all out, things like learning new skills, setting goals, treating […]
Continue readingJesus Preaches, Part 3: Rules & Relationships
Matthew 5:21-37 The farther we get into Jesus’ sermon on the mount, I begin to imagine how the scene around him might have been changing, reacting to the things he was saying. Remember he was amidst a large crowd of people who had been following him. And he went up to the top of the mount, a little distance away from the crowd, to teach his band of disciples. But assume, also, that the crowds below could hear what he was saying. He begins his sermon with some jarring statements – the strange blessings – lifting up all the qualities that the world tends to find embarrassing, or even shameful. So maybe the people in the crowd raised their eyebrows in surprise, but they would continue to listen. Then he starts calling them salt and light, whatever that means. And he says they must exceed the Pharisees and Scribes in […]
Continue readingJesus Preaches, Part 2: Salt and Light
Matthew 5:13-20 There is an old English folktale that I have always loved, The Three Sillies. A young man is courting a farmer’s daughter and is invited to their house for dinner. During the meal, the daughter is sent down to the cellar to fetch the beer for supper. As she is drawing the beer she notices a mallet stuck in one of the beams overhead. And she thinks, “Suppose one day he and I get married and we have a son, and our son comes down to the cellar to get the beer and the mallet falls on his head and kills him!” and she is so overcome with grief she can’t move. Soon her mother comes down to look for her. “What is the matter with you?” she asks. The girl points to the mallet and tells her mother this imagined scenario – and the mother collapses […]
Continue readingJesus Preaches, Part 1: The Blessed
In the practice of Zen Buddhism, there is something called beginner’s mind. It doesn’t mean someone who is just beginning the practice, though. For practitioners of Buddhism, the challenge is to keep that beginner’s mind constantly. It is about keeping an open mind, letting go of preconceptions, practicing the curiosity of a child. Beginner’s mind is a way of life. To have a beginner’s mind is to let go of what you already know so you might learn something new. Years ago, I spent some time with a Chinese student at the university where I worked. She wanted to practice her English. She wanted to learn about the Christian faith. She came to me knowing nothing about Christianity. She and I agreed to meet up and read the Bible together. It turned out to be an enlightening experience for me. We began with the gospel, because it seemed to me […]
Continue readingThe Call
Matthew 4:12-23 Last weekend I watched a film with members of our session – a documentary about churches. There was one conversation that struck me as funny. One of the pastors interviewed described what his congregation was like whenever he suggested something new. He said if it wasn’t really different from what they were used to, they were usually willing to give it a try. And if it was different, well, then they would usually be willing to call a committee together to study it further, for a period of time. He seemed to think that was pretty good. This was not a Presbyterian church, but it could have been, because Presbyterians are also fond of forming committees. We rely on committees to make decisions and get work done. Committees are a very “churchy” thing. Church people love committees. Presbyterians, in particular, love committees. In fact, I have heard that […]
Continue readingBehold the Lamb
Isaiah 49:1-7 John 1:29-42 There is a new film on Netflix called The Two Popes. It’s a dramatization about the relationship between the Popes Benedict and Francis. Pope Benedict, who was elected after Pope John Paul died, and Pope Francis, who was elected after Benedict resigned. Or retired. Or quit. I’m not sure what to call it. It was something that has no precedent in modern history. Popes don’t usually resign – they die. The film portrays how during the conclave when Benedict was elected, the cardinals were not initially all of one mind. Many wanted Francis instead. But Benedict eventually received the required number of votes and so that was it. Francis (although he wasn’t called Francis at that time. He was Jorge) went home to Argentina and continued serving as a cardinal. Some years later, Francis, or Jorge, sent a letter to the Pope asking for permission to […]
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