In 1971 John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Swartz introduced us to Godspell, a musical that they suggest is based on Matthew’s gospel, but falls more in line with Mark’s gospel. The musical begins, like Mark’s gospel, with a player gathering a crowd as he sings:

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

A messenger goes before Christ (Mark 1:1-3):

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ "

A sower went out to sow, and along the way … (Mark 4:4, 15).

Jesus feeds the four thousand so they will not faint (Mark 8:2-3).

[Jesus said] "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way–and some of them have come from a great distance" (Mark 8:2-3).

Continue reading “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord (Year B – Advent 2: Mark 1:1-3)” →

Your response to the following song written in 1967 will put you on one side or the other of America’s cultural divide.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind (Bob Dylan, 1962).

Continue reading “Blowing in the Wind (Year B – Advent 1: Isaiah 64:1-9 & Mark 13:32-37)” →

Paul writes the following words as a
testimony to a church that had it all together … they were the
model for the surrounding churches.

We always give thanks to God for all of
you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our
God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, NRSV).

Paul challenges us to abide in faith,
hope and love abide.  When we live into these challenges we learn
that poverty, destitution, and failure are not in God’s plan for
humankind.  Remember Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly” (John 10:10).  Today as we come to talk about a
difficult topic of money I encourage us to rest in the eternal
dynamics of faith, hope and love, remembering that the greatest of
these is love. 

Continue reading “Faith, Hope, and Love – 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3” →

My
son has a great teacher.  She knows and appreciates his greatness.  I
don’t say that just as the proud father, I am.  I say it because
she says it.  She pays attention to his progress with the long-term
in mind.  She is not unconcerned about the short-term, but she does
not allow William, or his parents to be trapped in the immediate. This requires wisdom. God’s Wisdom requires us to step back from the immediate and to pay attention to the eternal.  Let’s hear God’s Word:

Christ
the Power and Wisdom of God

For
the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For
it is written,

"I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the
discerning I will thwart."

Continue reading “God’s Wisdom – 1 Corinthians 1:18-31” →

Or “No One Is Perfect, So
Why Bother?”

According
to Marcus Buckingham the “prevailing wisdom” of the social
sciences is that good is the opposite of bad.  If this is true, then
to understand what is good, determine what is bad, and invert.  So,

• Study
  depression and neurosis to understand joy.

• Study
  children on drugs to figure out how to keep children off drugs.

• Study
  truants to find out how to keep kids in school.

• Study
  unhappy marriages in order to discern how to avoid divorce (see The
  One Thing You Need to Know, Free Press: 2005, pages 16-17).

A
funny thing happened when scientists began paying attention to the
positive rather than the negative.  The data did not always work out.
In one study 105 couples married an average of almost 11 years were
asked to score each other on qualities like “kind and
affectionate,” open and disclosing,” “patient,” “warm,”
and “sociable.”  They then also were asked to rate whether their
relationship was satisfying.

Do
you know what was the greatest predictor of how satisfying and
rewarding a relationship was?  How couples graded each other.
Couples that were in good relationships always scored their partner
higher on every quality than the partner scored them self.
Buckingham suggests the couples almost sound delusional – so wildly
in love they can ignore all evidence to the contrary.  What is the
one thing you need to know about marriage?  “Find the most generous
explanation for each other’s behavior and believe it.” (pages
18-22).

Today
we close our reading of A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader with Bishop Job
challenging us to go onto perfection.  I will be inviting us to consider paying attention to the best that God sees in us rather than where we rate ourselves.  Let’s listen to Jesus:

[Jesus
said,] "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of
your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not
even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your
brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not
even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48).

Continue reading “The Father’s Standard – Matthew 5:43-48” →

When I got my driver’s license I did
not realize the costs, but I was clear about the privilege.  I woke
up on March 22, 1978 saying “I get to drive today” and my world
has never been the same.  So it is with God.  John suggests in today’s lesson that those born of God through faith in Jesus Christ see their lives changed forever (and the world is changed as well).  Let’s read:

See what love the Father has given us
that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been
revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be
like him, for we will see him as he is.  And all who have this hope
in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.  Everyone who commits
sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.  You know that he
was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.  No one
who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known
him.  Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what
is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  Everyone who commits
sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the
beginning.  The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy
the works of the devil.  Those who have been born of God do not sin,
because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have
been born of God.  The children of God and the children of the devil
are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not
from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters (1
John 3:1-10).

Continue reading “How Full Is Your Bucket? – 1 John 3:1-10” →

I had a conversation earlier this week
about how Christian effect change in the world.  As we talked I
realized that this week’s lesson from A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader
provided a good answer.  In the past century we have seen two broad
movements from the church that sought to impose its principles on the
world.  In the first half of the last century forces that we
disparage as liberal sought to impose a Christian Century.  It
failed.  Now a movement from conservative circles embarks on a
similar quest … history is not on the side of its success.  Why?
In part it’s because a living relationship can never be imposed on
individuals.  A moment of personal decision must be met and a
decision made to persevere with the saints in a holy life.

In John’s gospel this shows up in a
pronounced shift between John chapters 12 and 13.  One moment Jesus
is in conflict with Jewish authorities and the next he is ministering
to his disciples.  They withdraw with Jesus from the world as he
prepares them for his death.  John’s letter to the church
functioned as a kind of as a kind of commentary on John’s Gospel
and in today’s lesson we see a shift from the first portion of the
letter centered on dealing with hostility from the world and now the
focus is how we are to live together.

Continue reading “The Way Methodists Live – 1 John 3:11-24” →

Today I want to remind us that the relationships created in baptismal water are thicker than our
family blood relations.  This week in A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader we will be paying attention to "The Ministry of All God’s People" (Chapter 22, pp. 177-183).

While [Jesus] was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him.  Someone told him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."  But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"  And pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:46-50, NRSV)

William Barclay suggests that true friendship and true love are founded on certain things without which friendship and love cannot exist in relationships.

(i) Friendship is founded on a common ideal. …

(ii) Friendship is founded on a common experience, and on the memories which come from it. …

(iii) True love is founded on obedience.  "You are my friends," said Jesus, "if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). …

For all these reasons true kinship is not always a matter of a flesh and blood relationship.  … even if a Christian finds that those who should be closest to him are those who are most out of sympathy with him, there remains for him the fellowship of Jesus Christ and the friendship of all who love the
Lord (William Barclay, “True Kinship,” The Gospel of Matthew: Volume 2, Daily Study Bible, 1975).

Continue reading “Who Is Your Family? – Matthew 12:46-50” →

In our time, in this country,
Christians I know come up to me and talk about the threats they see
to our nation.  They see problems:

• When someone says that the Ten
  Commandments should not be posted in the public square.  (Of course,
  we ask which set of ten, numbered differently in the Judaic, Roman
  Catholic, and Protestant traditions are we to post in a “Christian”
  nation?)

• When someone says re-instituting
  prayer in school would return the nation to better climate.

• When we find it difficult to meet
  as Christians in the public square or find it difficult to gather
  publicly in a church.

In seasons of stress many of us
remember the “good old days” and become frustrated with the here
and now.  Perhaps the greatest problem with reflecting casually on
the “good old days” is that we tend to remember a season of
comfort and complacency as good, rather than as a season of rest
before further exertion.

Continue reading “Blessed Are the Persecuted? – John 15:18-27” →

Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress in
1846, and he faced a formidable opponent: Peter Cartwright.
Cartwright, a raw-boned, circuit-riding Methodist preacher, was known
throughout Illinois. During his sixty-five years of riding the
circuit, he baptized nearly 10,000 converts.

During the intense Congressional
campaign, some of Cartwright’s followers accused Lincoln of being
an “infidel.”  In response, Lincoln decided to meet Cartwright on
his own ground and attend one of his evangelistic rallies.  Carl
Sandburg, in Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, tells
the story this way:

In due time
Cartwright said “All who desire to lead a new life, to give their
hearts to God, and go to heaven, will stand,” and a sprinkling of
men, women, and children stood up.  Then the preacher exhorted, “All
who do not wish to go to hell will stand.” All stood up—except
Lincoln.  Then said Cartwright in his gravest voice, “I observe
that many responded to the first invitation to give their hearts to
God and go to heaven.  And I further observe that all of you save one
indicated that you did not desire to go to hell.  The sole exception
is Mr. Lincoln, who did not respond to either invitation. May I
inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where are you going?”

And Lincoln slowly
rose and slowly spoke. “I came here as a respectful listener.  I
did not know that I was to be singled out by Brother Cartwright. I
believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity.  I admit
that the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great
importance.  I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did.
Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I desire to
reply with equal directness: I am going to Congress.” 

He went..  (As
quoted in “The Untold Story of Christianity & The Civil War,”
Christian History, Issue 33, 1997).

Continue reading “The Far Country – John 14:1-7” →