Day 137: Strengthening a Community

"Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.  As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.  If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.  If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.  Amen."  1 Peter 4:9-11

One of the underlying themes of 1 Peter is the teaching about building a community, and the means to build up a community is love.

Perhaps, though, the idea of love being thrown around so many times in one letter gets to be too abstract.  Indeed, as I learned in writing school, love is an abstraction.  My idea of it might be very different than another's.  But, fear not, for Peter has given us an example of how to show love.

The love that is used in this letter is the word agape, which gets translated into Latin as caritas, which is where our word charity comes from.  In fact, in some older texts, charity comes closer to meaning a love that builds up a community, as opposed to our modern meaning of doing things for the less fortunate.  And that concept is important to understand, because it helps us to imagine how we can accomplish building up a community of love, the Kingdom of God.  Peter shows us that it comes about with using our unique gifts.

Think about how a church is run.  There's a priest who teaches the congregation.  There are lay ministers who also take on the role of teaching.  There are musicians who lead the congregation.  There are people who take to writing announcements in the bulletin or in social media platforms.
There are fellowships of people who devote their time to using their crafts for the less fortunate, such as knitting shawls for those who need them during the winter, or cooking and serving food for the homeless.  There are many things that can serve the community all around.

So, this is where we all can come in.  None of these things works without people actually giving their time and talent to these ministries.  The only way to build an effective community is by using one's gifts for the common good.  A community grows when each person grows individually.  We have to figure out how we can provide for the bettering of our communities.  If we have questions, there are plenty of people we can ask.  We show our love for our community when we not only speak about the love we have for one another, but when we actually show it with our actions, putting all of our gifts to good use.

Day 130: True Faith

"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."  James 2:15-17

Here is a sharp way of putting this message.  Unfortunately, this same issue still applies today.

With the rise of social media becoming platforms for people to project all their feelings, including support and denunciations, there have been some ideas that have become quite popular.  One of these that has been getting lots of backlash from secularists is the notion of stating, "Pray for ___", where the blank is usually a country/city in the West.  I must admit, I agree with the secularist argument.  In fact, James even agrees, as he has written above.

For many, church has become something more of a habit rather than an act of devotion.  There's nothing ever planned on Sunday mornings, and there are many places that don't even open on Sunday, so what better to do than to go to church?  And that's all that happens.  Crowds fill up the pews in churches all over the world on Sundays, but that's all that happens.  So many people will show up on Sundays, but when it comes to volunteering for charities or giving time for other things, nobody shows up.  You can wear the cross around your neck, but are you ready to pick up the cross that is still lying in your room?

The truth of the matter is that our faith should be producing works.  Our faith is not something that just stays stagnant.  I mean, there are countless examples that remind us that our faith is not dead.  Jesus never says, "Say you believe in me, but stay seated."  No, in fact, Jesus says, "Follow me."  We have the Holy Spirit guiding us to do many great things in our lives.  The word Spirit comes from a word meaning breath/wind.  If it's still, it's no longer a breath or wind.  In this same way, we should be looking at all of our aspects of our lives in faith.

Why do we read the bible?  We should be reading for answers and for a strengthening relationship with God.  Why do we pray?  It should be so that we can keep up our communication and have a moment to breathe in between living our tough life and continuing with more works.  It should also be a chance for us to receive strength to continue.

So, when it comes to praying, it shouldn't just be a post on Facebook.  It should be a true meditation, one that gives us strength to do all that we can to help out those around us.  Our prayers should be our calls to action.  God calls us to action during our prayers.  Our faith calls us to action.  Our faith calls us to lead, to follow, to act, to love.

Day 125: Our Faith in God

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."  Hebrews 10:22-23

This is a message that relates to another that James writes in his own letter, which is one of my favorites.

Faith is hard.  For a strictly logically focused mind, faith can be counter-intuitive, with there being little to no instant, tactile rewards for faith.  But, the epistle writers in the New Testament made sure to encourage all of their readers to continue in faith.  This is because faith is the most important requirement for our relationship with God to strengthen.

I like that the word faith really only occurs in two places in common English parlance: religion and relationships.  I don't think this is a coincidence at all, and I think there are many things we can learn about how to live religiously through the lens of a relationship.  In American culture, one of the most celebrated, if not the most celebrated, things in life is the romantic relationship.  I will admit that I put such an importance on romantic relationships almost immediately after coming out of the closet.  Sure, my family joked about the necessity for them, specifically so that we could have new babies in the family, but I will say that most of the emphasis has been of my own doing.  It was something that I strove for, going on countless dates, engaging in countless social meetups, and praying to God for.

Now that I am in a committed with a great boyfriend, I am learning more about myself.  There are, of course, many things I need to learn in order to have our relationship continue to grow.  However, the way that I learn about these things is by keeping up a constant communication between my boyfriend and me.  Communication is the only way I'll be able to learn anything about him.  Communication is also a great foundation for faith because it's an expression of interest in the other person.  It shows that I am willing to learn more and get even closer.  It also helps me keep my boyfriend in my mind.

Faith is much more important in our relationship with God, for God is the ultimate expression of love.  We learn so much about how to treat those around us through the ways God has transformed us.  However, we can allow for many different temptations to seize us at anytime, leading us away from our relationship with God.  Perhaps the strongest factor leading to such an overwhelming attraction to temptation is a lack of knowledge of the beloved.  When we wander around, knowing little to nothing about God, we start to find the things that we are looking for in other entities.  When we find ourselves seeking to make ourselves better, we will look for the instant gratification that comes from money rather than God.  When we look for satisfaction in our lives, we will look for self-destructive activities rather than edifying ones that we could find in God.  In other words, we lead ourselves astray from God by our desire to remain ignorant of all the good that God is.

This passage from Hebrews reminds us that we have been transformed by God in ways that only make us better.  God has cleaned us from every impurity that has infiltrated our lives.  God has promised us love, life, success, and so many other things.  And God is delivering on each of those promises every single day.  We need to be listening to God speaking to us and answering our questions rather than our own voices that lead us astray.  We need to ask God with the intent of seeking God out as opposed to just asking just for the sake of asking.  We need to make God a part of our lives so that we can continue living in a faith that is rewarding for our life.

Day 076: Total Devotion

"Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.' So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham."  Galatians 3:7-9

This is a revelation to us about how to live our lives.

On the one hand, Paul is clarifying the fact that the Gospel is not restricted to those who are related by blood line to Abraham.  In fact, the only way to become children of Abraham is through faith.  On the other hand, this is actually an explanation about how we can be true Christians.  Just as the Jews could only claim heritage to Abraham through their faith, in the same way we can only claim discipleship to Jesus through our faith.

We have all been called to become followers of Jesus through our faith.  And what does that entail?  It entails a total dedication of our lives to Jesus.  The neat thing about being followers of Jesus is the fact that we have lots of his teachings written down in the Gospels.  We know how Jesus wants us to live.  He calls us to put aside all of our judgments, our prejudices, our discrimination, and instead show our love for one another as signs of our love and devotion to God.  We have so many invitations to follow Jesus that you would think that more people would decide to become followers.  Again, it seems that it is because of the simplicity of the Gospel that we can scare ourselves away.

This Lent, take some time to read one of the Gospels (I'd recommend Mark because it's the shortest) and find out how you can become a closer follower of Jesus.  Point all of the things you do in your Lenten devotion to God.

Day 041: Walking in the Light

"See, I have told you beforehand." Matthew 24:25

Some of the eschatological passages in the Gospels (or anywhere in the Bible, really) can sound quite harsh because of their idea of eternal destruction and/or death to all the unfaithful.  I know I have trouble accepting many of their messages, but at the same time, there are messages like this one above, in the middle of all the images.

As Christians, I am sure that we feel entitled, many times, to a smooth and good life.  We feel entitled to a grace that means that we will just float around in this world and not have to do a single thing.  Of course, when we encounter tough times, we then blame God for all the issues.  We feel entitled to all of our own petty wishes, and we feel damned when we don't have them our way.  In our selfishness, we see ourselves as not being blessed enough.

But we are blessed.  We have an entire earth given to us.  We are given a life where we can do whatever we want.  We are blessed enough to have the will to deny everything that God has given us and all that God offers.  We are blessed with the free will to decide whether we will accept the message that Jesus has told us beforehand or not!

During Lent, we have the opportunity to celebrate our relationship with Jesus.  We have the opportunity to invest even more into our relationship.  We have the opportunity to draw closer to God.  The Bible is right there for us.  We have all the information we need in order to live a good life.  It is our choice, though, whether we will accept it as a gift - a glorious revelation - or push it away as an unwanted burden on our lives.  However, our decision whether we accept it or not will not affect the turn of events.  Jesus has told us beforehand all that is going to happen.  A long line of prophets has also revealed so much more than we can imagine about what events are supposed to happen.  We must accept the grace that God gives us in this life.  Make today the start of a journey in the light. 

Day 032: Signs

"And Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also."  Romans 4:11

One of the defense mechanisms that we have evolved to have is one of classification.  We can classify those who are with us and those who aren't in order to maintain our own safety.  However, we have allowed this classification to go too far, where we are considering other human beings, other people who are living the same life with all its challenges, to be the other.

Even worse so, we isolate people from our faith communities.  We turn our churches into social clubs, where people have to come in with a set of prerequisites in order to participate, but they can only participate with a certain set of ideas.

But Paul is telling us about something else.  Despite the fact that the Jews of the time discriminated against those men who were uncircumcised, calling them faithless or heathens, Paul says that the Gospel was not restricted by that specific ritual.  In fact, faith itself transcends all signs.  He states that there were those who were circumcised who were faithless and/or wicked.  In the same way, there are many out there today who are baptized who are wicked; and, there are those who are not baptized who are faithful.

God doesn't require signs from us.  God gave us these signs so that we would have something tangible to represent a difficult concept.  Faith is not that easy to grasp, but it is something that we can grow.  And what's the only way to grow a good plant than to take care of it?

We need to tend to our faith so that it may grow and prosper.  God calls us to live our faith, that all things we do are in good faith, living the Gospel at all times.  We need our faith to become something so great that we no longer need a sign to represent it.

Day 001: God's Transcendent Love

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  Matthew 1:20-21

This new year, I really like the message that I get from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, for it gives a long explanation for a central truth: that God's love is transcendent.  God's gift, our savior, Jesus, is something that transcends all of our boundaries:
that it is for us regardless of our pasts,
that it is something that might not even make sense for us,
that our social constructs may not permit us to have it,
that it is just weird.

The chapter begins with the ever famous genealogy, with all the "begats" that we just love to make fun of (who even uses that form anymore?).  However, the interesting thing about the list of names is that many of the names are of men and women who were sinners, and even the most despicable, at that!  Kings drove God's people away from God's ways, people who were deceptive.  But, from this complicated family tree came Jesus.
To make matters even thornier, Jesus was conceived before Joseph and Mary were married, which is a taboo even today.  But, God takes care of things.  Sometimes, we like to think that God is far away from us and that we are alone in all of our tests and troubles.  God sent an angel to calm Joseph down, and it worked.  Though things were getting out of hand, God reassured Joseph that things were supposed to go just that way.

And so, as we might like to think that all the torments of the past year are behind us, some that we hope never to have to revisit, we must remember that God has our lives under God's control.  God's love, which is perfect for each one of us, has no boundaries.  We can push it away as much as we want to, but God has an angel waiting to tell us to keep calm.

Pure Devotion

Today's gospel is about Martha and Mary and what Jesus cares about.  It tells of Martha becoming so obsessed with cleaning that she forgets that Jesus is already there with them.  I really enjoy this story because it puts a great issue into perspective: ceremony.  Sometimes we would prefer for there to be pictures of thousands of saints in our bedrooms.  Sometimes we would prefer to have a grand altar with incenses and candles and books all around.  Yet, at the end of the day, the only thing God asks for is our heart.  God asks for our devotion.  The pictures and candles and incense can be helpful for our devotion, but if our belief becomes the candle, then we need to take a step back and reevaluate our devotion to God.

Devotion

"Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:60)
Jesus never stutters when He commands us.  He says, "love your neighbor," meaning every one.  He says, "proclaim the kingdom of God," meaning always.  We like to place our attention elsewhere, but to what reward?  God provides us with everything.  The Kingdom of Heaven is perfection for all of us.  Why would we want to go away from perfection? God loves each and every one of us.  How about we show that love to each other?