Day 158: Active Faith

"He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like his father and mother, for he removed the sacred pillars of Baal his father built.  But still he persisted in the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin; he did not depart from it."  4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 3:2-3

I don't know why I don't see passages like this used to explain how faith and actions work.

This passage shows that faith isn't just about a one time confession, and it also shows that one action doesn't make a person faithful.  Perhaps another example I can think of is how the gym works.  I can go to the gym every single day but not do exercise.  Of course, there's the simplest explanation: I just walk in and talk on the phone or to others the whole time rather than exercise.  There is, though, another, and that is I can go into a gym and do exercises, but I might not be doing them correctly or in a constructive/productive manner.  One can spend hours in the gym and come out no different or worse, even.

In the same way, we can walk into church and come out unchanged.  We can go through the motions and not engage with God.  I see this with many musicians who work in churches.  I know many people who do church music just to perform and/or just to get a check.  Those people can spend hours upon hours either in the church for rehearsals or even just with the music and still come out not having taken a single word to heart.  King Jehoram is an example of this apathy to faith.  He removed the idols in Israel, but was still evil.  If this took place today, I'm sure many of us would accuse him of having done so just as a publicity stunt.

As Christians, we are called to action at every moment, and our goal is the same one as always: show love to all of those who need it.  Jesus came into the world to show us love, and he has called all of us to show that same unconditional love to each person.  We can't just live our life on the sidelines.  We need to be active in our faith to love. 

Day 144: Taking the First Steps

"But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?  My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him."  1 John 3:17-19

This is where we need to start.

We know what love is, but we don't choose to show it.  Instead, we prefer to comfort ourselves by making up stories and trying to qualify our lack of love as a sign of our true love.  That's not what we are taught, though.  As Christians, we are called to show love to every single person.  We need to take down all of our barriers and start loving those around as God has taught us.

Love starts with action, not with words.  Jesus even said, "If you love me, then keep my commandments."  It all starts with living a life where we show love for others.  If all we do is sit around in front of a computer screen, typing everything about loving and not doing a single thing that we teach, we aren't loving others around us.  That's it, plain and simple.  We have to live what we have learned.

Living a Christian life involves lots of self reflection and self evaluation.  If we do not look at our lives through the lens of love, then we aren't looking at our lives in the purest way.  We have come up with systems of mathematics that require precision: taxing, interest, transactions, rent, and even work.  That's what love does for us.  It shows us everything very precisely.  We might not like how our lives look after we look at them through love, but that is the only way we will be able to change.  Our change, our journey, will only start when we get honest with ourselves (for how could we be honest with anybody else if we can't be honest with ourselves?).

When we find ourselves in a situation where someone in need is talking to us, we shouldn't look for a way out of it.  That's not showing love.  Instead, we should look at the opportunity as the greatest gift for us, for through that opportunity, we can express the love that God has shown us for that person.  We can give both a gift to that person, and, even better, give ourselves the gift of knowing that love, the Kingdom of Heaven, is spreading.  We need to be excited to love and to show our love.  We need for that to be just as exciting as our favorite praise song from church!

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 057: Instruments

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."  1 Corinthians 13:1

After reading this article, I have come to understand this verse a little differently.  Basically, the sounding brass and the clanging cymbal are both tools to help one's voice project in a hall.

Here are two more modern examples that might help to explain the metaphor a little further:

The grand piano is indeed quite grand.  It's a large wooden instrument that can look like an obscenely large table, especially if you put a tablecloth on it rather than an actual cover.  It makes no sound when it's all closed up.  However, when you look at it, you can think about all the different possibilities, from Bach and Beethoven to Thelonious Monk to Queen.  Still, it makes no sound without a player.  If you want to think even further about it, the instrument could be significantly lighter and smaller if you did not have a large resonating chamber built into the instrument.  Again, that whole chamber, the big black box holding all the keys and strings, can't make any sound on its own.  It needs the soul of music and of the musician to make it come alive.

Another example is of a church building.  You can design it with all the fancy windows, parallel walls, wood, marble, arches, or gold you want, but it's just a building.  It's something that can be used for any number of purposes besides being a worship space.  In Boston, there are many church buildings that were converted to apartments because they no longer had congregations.  Imagine that: a condo with a bell tower all for yourself, or play tennis in the sanctuary, or have your king sized bed where many a Eucharist were celebrated.  Closer to my house, there was a large grocery store that moved to another location before being bought out entirely by another company.  In the building left behind, half was converted to a gym, and the other half was converted into a church.  It's the congregation, the Holy Spirit moving, that makes the church.

When we understand that we can recite bible verses, recite prayers, keep our mouth shut for about five minutes with our eyes closed, or even sit in a church for about an hour and come out without having been transformed, we can see that we can become mere resonating chambers.  When we go about our lives without love, we are nothing more than vessels on the sides of the room, doing absolutely nothing but standing there.  It's when we start to spread the love, both to ourselves and to all those around us that we can begin to make the music, to resound with the Gospel.

Make this Lent count.  Make this Lent be the one where everything you do has a purpose: love.

Day 056: Recognizing and Using Spiritual Gifts

"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."  1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Isn't it interesting that in nearly two thousand years of the ministry there still looms the same problem?  I find that this issue has been growing from two different angles: a failure to recognize spiritual gifts, and a failure to accept our own gifts.

What I have come across quite a bit lately (and this is probably an offshoot the collective frustration and anger with the political landscape in the USA) is people talking down other people or other practices as not being good enough or not being "correct".  A church that uses an iPad for the Gospel is unholy.  This kind of singing is detrimental to the congregation.  The use of this language deters a certain population.  This liturgical activity is not liturgical.  I could go on, but that would bring much more negativity into this post than there needs to be (if you haven't figured it out yet, there is plenty negativity out there to satisfy your needs).  But what does Paul say?  He explains that there are so many different gifts out there, and that they are all out there for the benefit of all.  And that's how we can understand what is a spiritual gift and what isn't.

Think about this: if a congregation does the Eucharist in Rite II with Prayer C every Sunday, and the entire congregation is participating, how does that affect you, who come from a different congregation where you use the 1920 BCP?  Obviously, one prayer works for one group, and another for the other.  On the contrary: if a worship team has an organ and a choir of six singers where you can only hear the six voices during a congregational hymn, there might be a slight discrepancy.  The same can be said for the converse, with a worship band of soloists and no participation from the congregation.  In the end, though, the things that benefit the congregation are the ones that are bringing more and more people to God.

The other issue is that there are many of us who are too lazy to recognize our own gifts.  In the Episcopal Church, especially, we like to use the formula, "I'm discerning..." as an excuse not to put our gifts to work.  Even more of us like to complain that we aren't good enough to bring forth our fruits to the altar.  We like to compare ourselves to many saints who we say have lived perfect lives.  But, what does Jesus say?  Does the phrase "Follow me" ring a bell?  Jesus is ready to use us.  God is ready to work all in all.  The Spirit is burning within us in a way that will drive us to do great things.

Make Lent be a season where you can use your gifts.  If you have any fears our doubts about your gifts, practice them, and do it sincerely.  It is one thing to show off the same riff on the guitar that you've played for ten years, but it is another to listen to more music, practice diligently, and cultivate your musical skills.  If you have doubts about how you could use your gifts, consult your priest, or any other outside opinion.  The main thing, though, is to go out and do.

Day 020: Hearing

ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω 

ho ekhon ota akuein akueto

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 13:43

This is an interesting phrase that Jesus repeats throughout the gospels, and I find it to be particularly poignant.

Greek had this interesting feature where there was a third person imperative conjugation, which doesn't exist in English or Spanish today.  The imperative mood in a language is one used for commanding.  So, when one says "go there," the verb "go" is used in the imperative.  However, in English and Spanish, that mood is reserved for the second person, the "you" or "tú/vosotros" form. There isn't really a way to direct it to the third person (he/she/it/they; el/ella/ellos/ellas).  In Greek, on the other hand, a person could very well tell someone "go" in the second person, or "(let him) go" in the third person.  *In my Greek class, my teacher told us to translate this form as "let him/her verb"

The reason I find this phrase to be special, though, is because of the fact that Jesus already had disciples all around him.  Jesus had people he could have commanded, "You who have ears to hear, hear."  But he didn't.  Jesus didn't want to restrict his message just to those around him.  Jesus wanted to make sure that his message was going out to all of those who wanted to hear.

The gospel was never meant to be reserved for only a select group of people.  It was meant to be spread.  It was meant to be proclaimed.  Jesus calls us to serve so that we may bring others into the love of God.  Jesus called us all to find those who have ears to hear so that they could receive the message.  Jesus calls us today to be the ones who plant the seeds and water and tend the garden.

Jesus didn't command us to be lazy.  He did say that he would do everything for us.  He commanded us to act.  He commanded all of those who weren't in his circle, all those who were ostracized, all those who were oppressed, to act, to receive the message, and to live the message.

Today's Readings:
Genesis 39-40
Psalm 17:1-16 (18:1-15)
Proverbs 10:1-2
Matthew 13:18-43
Acts 20

Day 018: Fruits

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.  Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things."  Matthew 12:33-35

Jesus calls us to do many things.  He calls us to go out and preach, bring more people to God, baptize the outsiders, donate, pray, fast, give alms, support the poor, and many other things.  I know that all of this sounds too overbearing.  But, at the same time, I find that Jesus gives us good advice, even if it sounds like an admonishment at first.

Imagine a machine designed to make automatic phone calls.  It can greet you and direct you to the services it needs to, but once you start asking for it to talk to you, it can only say, "I'm sorry, may you please repeat that," or, "I didn't understand. What would you like?"

Is that how we are going to be in the face of Jesus?  We need to be prepared.  Think about a fruit.  An apple comes from a tree.  How much larger is the tree than the apple?  The tree has to prepare so much just to bear one apple.  It has to form a trunk so it can protect itself, it needs to grow tall so it can get enough sunlight, it needs leaves to sustain it, and then it makes flowers so that they can attract pollinators to help the process of making an apple.  Couple that with the many years it takes for a tree to even consider bearing fruit and you have a lot of effort - a lot of preparation.

So, what are we to do?  Can we even bear fruit without preparation?  Most certainly not.  Can we prepare?  We most definitely can.  We have so many resources around us, and if you are reading this, you probably have access to the entire internet, which has even more resources than you could even imagine.  Take some time to prepare.  Prepare by reading the Bible.  Prepare by consulting spiritual leaders or friends.  Prepare by meditating and praying.  Prepare by practicing the fasts.  Prepare by trying to make new friends.  Prepare by learning about other people.  God will help us with our preparations, but we have to be willing to take on the challenge.

 

Day 016: Value

"It is better to enjoy my fruits than gold and precious stones, and my fruits are better than choice silver." Proverbs 8:19

One of the things I find unsettling is how we as humans have assigned values to certain materials. When it comes to precious stones, some, of course, are rare, but others, not so much.  Diamonds, which are mostly regulated by a select group of people, are distributed so sparsely that they seem to be much more valuable than they actually are.  If the entire supply of diamonds were made available, they'd probably be worth no more than quartz.

Going further, we have many devices today that are made quite cheaply, whose materials only add up to so much value, and, yet, we have to pay fortunes for them.  Look at phones, computers, cars - they are all priced at such a higher value than their raw materials.  But, what gives them their value is their function.  Phones, especially the latest ones, can connect you not only by voice, but also by face and personality.  Computers help us to produce documents, connect to many other individuals in countless ways, both good and bad.  Cars help us get from one place to another.  Also, if we are so inclined, these all can be used to show off some semblance of worth, with the more expensive products raising more eyebrows. But, when one doesn't know how to use these things, or when a pig finds a truffle in the yard, or a dog a diamond, these materials mean absolutely nothing.

For me, the above verse tells me that action is what is needed these days.  We spend our times debating on Facebook and Twitter, making blog posts, writing long essays, compounding pictures, and making our presence known.  However, it is only whenever we go out into the world and act that we can ever get anything done.

The pursuit of wisdom and knowledge are what add value to a person because it requires the person to think and to put all of these things into practice.  Otherwise, they are just like precious stones - stowed away in a box.  All of the greatest knowledge can be stored in books and placed on grand shelves in an extravagant library in the middle of the city, but if their contents are not being applied, they serve nothing more than kindling for a fire.  It is even safe to say that the vast majority of the world's knowledge and wisdom is stored on the internet, but if they are not being accessed or taught or applied, they are nothing more than pages that we want to navigate away from, pop-ups we want to delete, banners we wish to ignore.

So, rather than find a bible to place on our shelves, prayer beads decorate our wrists, rosaries to hang from our rear-view mirrors, icons to adorn shelves, let's live their examples.  Read about these things.  Live the prayers.  Live the faith.

Day 009: Divine Command

But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel." Acts 9:15

Go.
This is a recurring command in the Bible, and it usually means to leave one's comfort zone.  God told Abraham to go from his home.  Jesus commanded the disciples to go and preach.  Here, Jesus commands Ananias to go and finish a conversion of one of the most terrifying men in the early church: Saul/Paul.

Now, the Bible is also quite clear that many who are called will talk back to God, will have some sort of resistance.  Ananias, though, makes an argument that sounds quite weak, for he says "I have heard about that man."  Hearsay.  That's a very troubling thing that we as humans like to rely on.  We love to add fuel to our judging engines whenever we can.  Despite the fact that there are records of all the trouble Paul had done, Ananias says that he relied on what he heard.  I find this as an opportunity for us to learn to trust in God.

If we are to assume that God is our Father, then how should we treat God?  Shouldn't we obey?  I'm sure many of you have experienced the chastising from your parents, whether physical or verbal or both.  Eventually, we children learn to obey without talking back.  And, most of the time, things go the way they are supposed to when we listen and obey.  Doing that homework assignment got us through school well; not eating too much candy helped us feel better in the long run; sleeping on time for school made it that much better for us.  If that's how our relationships with our parents are, how much better would God's plans be for us?  Why must we talk back to God?

God has a history of challenging us, and that only makes us better people.  God challenged Abraham and Sarah to have faith in their future progeny.  God challenged many scholars to devote themselves to wisdom.  God challenged Joseph and Mary to accept the gift of bringing up Jesus, the Christ.  God challenged Ananias essentially to walk into the den of lions so that the church may grow in an unimaginable way.

How is God challenging us today?

God Provides

"Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large."
Mark 16:1-4

"Ugh! There's no way I'm going to get through the entrance."
Imagine that: three women are ready to perform a funeral rite of purification, but there's a large stone in the way - three women who were probably told that they were weak; three women who had only one thing to do.
We live our lives every day, going through many different issues.  I'm pretty sure that everybody who reads this has some sort of issue s/he has to face every day.  And, yet, we all get through them.
There are things that are difficult for every other person.  Perhaps my going to the gym every weekday is something that another person would think of as being impossible.  On the other hand, though, I think that getting up at four in the morning to report to work is impossible for me to do.  Dealing with taxes of many clients is something else that I see as impossible for me to deal with, yet one of my best friends does that day in and day out with the greatest joy.
We all have our own issues, and that's the situation here.  A woman's job would have been to anoint a dead body.  A soldier's job would have been to roll the stone in front of the tomb and away from it.  Yet, I'm sure that a soldier would not have known how to deal with anointing a dead body, just as the women would not have known how to deal with the large stone.  Add in the stereotypes - that the men were muscular brutes, and women were delicate homemakers - and these extremes become impossible to overcome.
But, today's Gospel is very clear about what happens: the stone will be rolled away.  God provides us with ways to overcome all of our trials.  This is something we need to believe in all of our tasks.

The women could just as well have chatted in this manner after buying the spices, "I forgot there's a huge stone in the way...let's not go".  But, it is with their dedication to complete their task that they saw the glory of God before them: a miracle of God providing.  For God provides us a way, and sometimes that way is something that we won't perceive until we get to the supposed "impossible stone" of our tasks.

Not Losing Ourselves

"τί γὰρ ὠφελεῖ ἄνθρωπον κερδῆσαι τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ;
τί γὰρ δοῖ ἄνθρωπος ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ;"
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Mark 8:36-37


Today's Gospel reading has inspired me to bring this blog back up after quite a long hiatus of inactivity.  I have not lost my faith, and, in fact, in the past few weeks, I feel that I have gotten closer to God.

The idea of gaining the whole world is one that can seem distant from us.  "Of course it wouldn't apply to me, for I only make a small salary and have a very small savings account, if any at all."
However, gaining the whole world, even in this context when Jesus is talking to the crowd, is an ideological gain.  This is a gain of people.  Why not just make life easier so I can fit in?  Why not just tell people what they want to hear so I can be their friends?  Why not just have friends of the table and not of the truth? Friends of the internet and not of reality?


I've slowly been learning that many of us just like to put on different faces in front of different people just to satisfy them for the moment.  I learned a lot about it when I was in a summer program, Freedom Ride, just a few weeks ago.
The message here, in the gospel, is that we need to be ourselves.  In fact, the word that gets translated into "soul" in Greek also means "self".
"What help comes from gaining the whole world and losing one's self?


Alongside learning about different aspects of the history of civil rights in the United States, South Africa, and Botswana.
The idea of "separate, but equal" really spoke to me when I saw every single example, with living spaces, schools, public spaces, and even laws.  Different people in power (or claiming power) were lying to themselves and to others just to gain the world: a following.  Even today, we still have people who do this on a daily basis (I shall avoid politicians, for it is, in fact, the beginning of the presidential race).  I have some acquaintances that I know who will tell one person one thing and another another (in fact, it becomes entertaining for me when the different people from completely different circles come together before me so I can witness these differences).  I am guilty of the same thing.
However, we also have people doing the opposite as well.  I have met some great people who have taught me that I do, in fact, have a voice and that I do have the same power that some whom I may see as my enemies wield.  One of my new friends taught me to get in touch with different emotions when I write.  Another told me to speak out at any given moment.  Different people told me that I have many different ways of becoming active for the cause of unity and love among all of our people, our community, our church.
As a result of finding these abilities, I wrote two poems in the program.  In the first one, I decided to reinterpret a memory.  In the second, I stated my feelings about events that have transpired in the past two months regarding marriage equality in the United States and in the Episcopal Church.  

What will a person give in exchange for her/his self?"
Jesus tells us that he loves us just the way we are.  We do not need to judge others or to put others down.  What we need to do is to follow Jesus in all that we do.  Through all of our challenges and struggles we will get even closer to him.

The Fire

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49)
These are the words of Jesus himself.  I just read an article where the author desired for the reader to know that Jesus was indeed a radical.  Jesus calls us to action against all that is wrong in our society.  However, the real kick is made once He introduces the very poignant "judge not, lest you be judged."  So what is this fire?
This fire is the Holy Spirit, which lives in each one of us.  The Holy Spirit guides us in all facets of our lives.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to work though us, we will be able to accomplish all that is going on in our lives.  Indeed, Jesus reminds us that we have a hard life ahead.  We will face persecution from our best friends and even from our families.  So long as we have the Spirit, the fire, within us, we will have nothing that will take us away from the will of God.
So, let us remember to live as Jesus did, forever being guided by the Holy Spirit and forever in contact with our Father through prayer and meditation.