Day 159: Who Sinned?

And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."  John 9:2-3

 Jesus has told us the same things in many different ways, yet we still fail to accept the message.

This above passage talks about judging.  We are called not to judge.  We should accept this as the end of the story, but we always want more.  At least, the actions that I observe both around me and even in me show that we all want more.  We want a better explanation on how not to judge.  We want things to be made plain and simple enough.  Or so we say.

In this event, Jesus adds an important detail: our judging prevents us from seeing the works of God.  When we judge, we start to place ourselves on a pedestal constructed of pride.  In fact, we attempt to build a throne that equals God's with our own pride.  However, we end up being the blind people whenever we do so.

Whenever we decide to judge, we put our minds and our whole bodies' resources into judging rather than helping and loving.  The disciples, rather than trying to heal the blind or help him at the very least, decide to judge, forgetting everything else that they had been taught.  In the same way, we abandon everything good, everything loving, when we focus our attention on judging.  Rather than going out and helping others, we end up hurting both ourselves and those in need.  Whenever we don't show love to those in need, we divide the Kingdom of God and destroy it.  That's not what we are called to do.

We are called to unite.  We are called to love.  We are called to be God's Kingdom on earth.

Day 157: Witnessing God

Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  John 8:19

Although this response is quite negative and condemning of the Pharisees, it's a great revelation to us as Christians.

I have just finished reading From Sin to Amazing Grace by Dr. Patrick Cheng and have been starting to take many of his ideas into my own understanding of the scriptures.  One of the things that Dr. Cheng writes about is the Out Christ, who serves as our revelation of the Godhead.  The Old Testament God is difficult to understand many times, and that particular manifestation of God was never seen face to face.  Jesus, on the other hand, came down to earth so that we can see God face to face and live (I love that song, "Come O thou traveler unknown").  In one sense, God came out of the heavenly closet in the form of Jesus Christ.

And this is where things are important with the above response.  The Pharisees refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah for many reasons, but none of them explained away their intentions.  They hated Jesus.  And Jesus was honest (if not blunt) with them.  He told them like it was.  What Jesus told them is what he tells us all, that God is love.  We are being called every day by God to show our love for one another.  That's where our understanding can get to be difficult.

God will never be what we envision.  God is so amazing, so transcendent, so great that we can never truly fathom or comprehend God.  Yet, we don't need to be doing that.  Despite the fact that we as humans are creatures of patterns and habits, we don't have a need to be putting God into a box or a drawing or a writing.  God's love transcends all of that.  What's even better is that we have all that we need in order to understand right in front of us.  Jesus has spoken to us in so many different ways to explain all that we need to know.  When we read the Gospel, we will come to understand love just a little bit more.

Yes, Jesus might make us uncomfortable because he calls us to come out of our closets made of prejudices and selfish pride, but to come out and embrace love is so much better!  When we make that step to receive and internalize love, we will see that the world all around us will become a better place.  When we learn to embrace one another, seeing the image of God in each person, we will be able to see God and know God better than we ever have.

Day 156: Putting down the Stones

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."  John 8:7

I always find this story to be one of the most intense in the bible.

I'm sure there are many LGBT people who have heard this same accusation placed on them, that "the sin for this punishment is death by stoning."  The idea of stoning to death is so heavy for me as a gay man, and it's something that I fear every day I live.  I fear that my expression of who I am is threatening my very existence here in the United States.  We can talk all about those other countries, the ones where they speak differently, believe differently, and look differently and how they have so much intolerance, but I find much of that hatred to be mainstream here in a country I'm sometimes reluctant to call home.  On top of there being this sort of animosity from the outside, I also feel uncomfortable (although not as much as to fear for my life) among people that I would love to call family: gay brothers and sisters, transgendered, non-binaries, people who don't fit in with the rest of the mainstream culture.  Yes, as a Christian, I have felt much animosity, such as the questions, "Why do you associate with them?" or, "Why do you pray to their God?"  or, "Isn't that just contradictory?"

I feel pelted, at the very least, by pieces of gravel on a constant basis.  Sure, I'm not being killed nor tortured physically, and I pray that I never will be.  Yet, I find the contradictions to be the same from two (supposedly opposing) sides: love is all, unless you're different.

If we look to the beginnings of Christianity, we find ourselves a man who was radical and odd.  He opposed the teachings of the day, challenging the highest teachers.  In fact, he would end up teaching them, and many would even be foolish enough (seemingly, at least) to follow after him.  He claimed to know more than all the teachers from before - a man who doesn't even seem to have left us a written book.  Yet, his message was the same: love one another.  Jesus teaches us every day that we need to love one another as he loves us.  He teaches us that we need to be there for all those in need, not just the ones who look and act as you do.  He teaches us that we need to build up a community with love at the center.

As I have been getting more familiar and involved with the LGBT community, I have learned a few mantras that keep the community together, and the biggest one is: love.  Yet, on the inside, I feel that many of those in the community have forgotten the first days of our revolution, the riots at Stonewall Inn.  Trans women cried for all of us to love one another without judgment.  But, today, gay Christians cannot be trusted nor respected.  The color of your skin determines where you belong, whether top or bottom, masculine or feminine, skinny or fat, young or old.  I find that our own community is hurling stones towards one another rather than making the world a better, more welcoming place.

This change, of course, doesn't happen instantaneously.  In the story above, the people leave gradually, not all at once.  I wonder how long the departure must have taken.  How awkward was the situation?  Where was the pile of stones?  We may never know, but we do know that love prevailed in the end.  Loving unconditionally requires each one of us to reexamine our lives, figuring out what things we have learned and/or taught ourselves are harmful to our community.  It's only whenever we get rid of all those prejudices that we actually start to build up a meaningful community.  When we focus our lives on love and not on judgment we start to forge strong relationships with one another, for those are manifestations of our love that we have.

Day 153: The Sweet, Good Words

"Good words are a honeycomb, and their sweetness is a healing of the soul."  Proverbs 16:22

This metaphor is so full of imagery.

The honeycomb is something that represents many things, and in the wisdom literature of the bible, it represents God's word.  Today, in my reading plan, I just so happened to read "How sweet to my taste are Your teachings, more than honey and the honeycomb in my mouth." (Psalm 118(119):103)  And, whenever I come across this metaphor, I have to wonder, why is it used?  I mean, in the developed world today, we have rampant obesity, especially in the United States, and sugars are a major cause (I would dare to say the leading cause).  So why would God's word be like a sweet that spurs more lust than discipline?

To start, as I think about honey, I can't help but remember all of those "nature doctor" posts that make their rounds on Facebook, the ones that say that honey can cure any disease, even cancer.  Perhaps honey was seen as something more medicinal in the biblical age, but, then, the metaphors talk more about the taste than the healing properties (although the verse I want to talk about has both).

What I think about the most for this metaphor, though, is that the honeycomb is a result of so much work.  If you ever study or read things about bees, you'll come to know that they are hard workers.  The hive is an intricate layout of a home for the queen and the larvae, so that there can be more bees.  We have also come to rely on bees to pollinate our plants, which also help to nourish the bees.  Yet, after all that hard work, the bees lose their honeycombs to whichever consumers are brave enough to extract them.  Whoever ends up being able to take those honeycombs and extract honey from them has to face the bees.  I know that I could never become a beekeeper for fear of getting stung even through protective wear.  But, the end result is quite delicious.

In the same way, many wise people have pondered over so many concepts.  We have the fortune of having many words that have been dictated or said by God in our bibles, and we can continue to meditate and feast on them whenever we'd like.  The best part of this is that we can be healed by all the good words that we read and learn.  Whenever we learn all of the things that Jesus has taught us well, we will be healed.  We will become better people.  We will make the world around us even better, for the good words of Christ come down to one command: love.

Day 151: Feeding on the Word

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."  John 6:27

This is a great command, but it does require us to think a bit.

Of course, we need food to live.  We get hungry and need to fulfill that need on a regular basis so that we can continue to be healthy.  However, we can't let that pursuit take over our lives to the point we can't do anything else.  When we devote our lives just to the pursuit of money, we begin to lose our soul.  We no longer have the time to contemplate the beauty of God, and we start to turn towards other riches in order to fill up our spiritual hunger.  We will turn to other speakers, other books, other gods, other idols, just to satiate our hunger for the moment.

So, Jesus is telling us to follow him at every moment so that we can continue to mature spiritually.  We need to grow stronger by nourishing our souls with the good bread that comes from Jesus.  And what is that bread, exactly?  Well, to start, it is feasting on every word that Jesus proclaims, since he is, after all, the word incarnate.  Now, that can seem to be quite a bit for us to do, since we would have an entire bible to keep up with, learning every single word.  When I was pursuing my English degree in particular, I had to spend lots of time with the pieces of literature I had to discuss and/or write about.  I had to make sure that I understood what the author/poet was communicating to me, and I had to be sure that I was aware of all the things that were going on, particularly with the language.  This took quite a toll on my ability to focus on other things, particularly my music, which was my other degree I was pursuing simultaneously.  I can't imagine how hard it must be to learn all of the bible well enough to say that one is full off the word.

But this is where the earthly and heavenly food come together.  Just as Jesus united both the heavenly and the earthly through his incarnation, he does the same in his preaching.  He has taught us all about the Kingdom of Heaven, and he has even told us what it's like.  The neat thing is that it's something that we can bring about on earth, today, right now.  When we dedicate our lives to following Jesus, we learn how to become more loving towards God and towards everybody that's around us.  Each time that we learn to grow in this love, every piece of scripture will serve as a reinforcement rather than a new command.  As we continue on our journey towards Jesus, we will be able to focus our whole lives towards him, not abandoning all of those around us.  We will be the ones to prepare the world for the Kingdom of Heaven.  By feeding on the word of Christ, we will be able to serve that same word to so many others, so that they can start joining us in the greater community of heaven on earth.

Day 142: Examples of Light

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."  1 John 1:5-7

This passage should give us all hope.

It first defines how we are to live our lives.  We need to make sure that our faith manifests itself in our lives through our actions.  We teach the best and spread the Gospel the best through our actions, for that is how others can conceptualize things.  Over the past week now, I have made many Chinese dumplings (餃子 and 小籠包).  I'm a guy who likes to learn things from books, and that works quite well with most recipes I've encountered.  However, the trademark of dumplings is their pleats.  I have read countless instructions on how to perform them, but they all turned out to be disastrous and plain odd.  But, after watching one video, I was able to understand how to fold them properly.  After a few dumplings for practice (and eating, of course) I feel that I have made quite some progress.

The way we live our lives becomes a light for many who are around us.  If we demonstrate our faith, just like a video, people will be able to understand all that they have heard from Christianity.  In fact, we too will begin to understand the bible and teachings better when we live our faith.

The latter part of this passage is what should give us all hope.  It says that when we live our lives faithfully, we will have fellowship not just with God, but with everybody around us.  Now, it is amazing enough to have fellowship with God, but it must be reassuring to be in the company of the many faithful who are walking in the light.  People who live around us, going through many of our same challenges, should make us feel closer to God.  The reason why we'll be in good company is because we will all be heading in the same direction, albeit from different starting points.  When we wander without God, we will end up in so many places that are unfulfilling.  Many will actually find themselves heading backwards towards destruction.  But, when we walk towards and in the light of God, we will find all of those who are walking in the same direction.  Those people will be able to dust off your shoes, provide you with water, hand you a coat if you need one, and will welcome you to the glory of God.  We need to provide that fellowship, because it is our duty as Christians.  The light of God is God's unconditional love for all of us.  When we provide that fellowship, we will see the light grow not only around us, but also in us.

Day 138: Leading with Love

"The ways of righteous people are acceptable before the Lord, and through them even enemies become friends."  Proverbs 15:32

This proverb is inspiring to me, and the first thing that comes to mind is: lead by example.

We are to lead by example because that's the way to establish a way or a path.  Paths are formed by lots of effort.  It can be over the span of ages, with the feet, hooves, and paws of many trodding on the same path, or it can be made with the effort of one or more workers making the path.  The important thing to remember, though, is that all our examples should be things that will bring others towards God.

Indeed, the proverb says, "through them even enemies become friends," which means that there is a clear path that leads to righteousness.  And, in Godly terms, we understand that our notion of righteousness involves transforming our lives to bring us closer to becoming manifestations of the unconditional love that God has for all of us.  This means that we need to put aside all our prejudices along our journey of purification.  It's not enough just to confess with our mouths and words.  We need to live our faith.

Leading by example will involve lots of effort on our part, especially because we have to know where we ourselves are going.  We can figure this out with our prayer and our bible reading.  We will find out that God is always calling upon us to love our neighbors.  And, when we truly adopt this principle of love, we will start to bring others into our community purely by our example of love.  Leading by example doesn't just mean to teach others about our ways.  Leading by example means that we will lead ourselves forward with this example.  It'll be a process, but it will be rewarding for us and for all those around us.

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 136: Being of One Mind

"Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous."  1 Peter 3:8

Don't we need more of this today?

We live where we emphasize the self much more than the community.  We emphasize getting our way before we start thinking about everybody around us.  But that's not what we're called to by God.  Instead, we are called to build up communities.  We are called to live with love.

The interesting thing about the above command is that it implies that love is the way to be of one mind.  Things would be so much easier these days if everybody were with one mind.  One does not need to look far to understand what a privilege it is to have people of one mind.  Aside from a family (which itself might be divided), there are political parties that are doing just that - parting people.  In a party, people will side with one another in a concerted effort to demonize the 'other'.  That's not what we're called to do.

The good thing about this command is that it already gives us instructions on how to go about being of one mind.  We need to have compassion for one another.  We need to love as sisters and brothers.  We need to be tenderhearted.  We need to be courteous.  In other words, we need to be nice people.  That's it!  Just be nice to one another.  We have learned how to be nice to one another as children.  In fact, it is as we grew up that we started to learn about all the exceptions.  Be nice only to people who have the same color of skin as you do.  Be nice only to the people who like things exactly as you do.  Be nice only to those you find attractive.

Instead, we need to erase all those exceptions from our minds and start to unite as one community of love.  It doesn't take much effort.  We can pray and meditate and look through the bible for answers to questions that we feign, but the only way we'll accomplish this is if we actually do.  Do be nice to everyone.  Do love everyone as you did when you were a child.

Day 133: Building up a Community

 "Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  Let him sing psalms.  Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."  James 5:13-14

I feel like this is something that we've distanced ourselves from in recent times.

We look at church like a place that exists far away from home that is only open on Sunday mornings.  It loses its spirituality over the week and becomes just a building.  We also become divorced from everybody at church once we leave on Sunday.  Yet, that's not what the point is.

When I read the above passage, I think about how important a church was to the community.  All of the activities that are listed above (and even after this passage) are things that we normally associate with church.  The thing is, though, that there isn't any fine print.  There's nothing that says, "If anyone is sick at church," or, "If anyone feels cheerful at church," or "If anyone is suffering at church."  It's plain and simple.  We are the church, and we take it everywhere we go.

The other side to consider is that we need to make sure the church is a community, not just a bank, where transactions happen between a teller and a customer.  Instead, we attend church as a community.  We should be willing to join hands in prayer and healing at any given moment.  We should feel as if the church is our second home, if not our fist.  We need to have camaraderie between all the members.  If there are issues, then we should make sure to go forward and solve them.  Rather than let evil break into our communities, dividing them and infecting every person, we should be guarding all the good that comes from our community.

Our faith is not something that we just say.  Anybody can crack open a prayer book or (in that case) look up the Creed page on Wikipedia and recite the words with no faith.  That's easy.  It's living our faith that we are called to do.  When we read the bible and learn what to do, we can build up our communities to become stronger.  It takes a great effort to build up a community, but when we do, it will benefit us, healing us, and celebrating with us.

Day 128: Love in a Community

"Let brotherly love continue.  Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."  Hebrews 13:1-2

This is plain and simple: look after one another.

Don't we all have stories to tell one another?  We can talk about how we each have different challenges to face every single day.  One person can describe the pains of work.  Another can describe the pain of not having work.  Another can talk about loss.  Yet another can talk about the stresses of marriage.  We all have troubles.

When I read this, I thought about how important it is to stick together.  It's so important to make sure that our communities only get stronger and greater as the days go on.  We cannot allow for petty fights to divide us in this life.  Why entertain strangers, though?  I mean, we can never tell if they are going to be kind or rude.  We can't determine if they'll repay us.  In context, it almost seems that the second half of that verse was more of a concession.  Of course, we should always be prepared to entertain angels or people of the Lord.  But, at the same time, we shouldn't think of such a reward (a blessing) to be the sole purpose of our hospitality.  Instead, we should be thinking about what we need in this life.

I thank God for my family and friends, because they are all faithful to me, and I try my best to be faithful to them.  I have people who want to see me succeed, and I want to see all of them succeed.  My mom is the best example, who always looks out for me and always offers her help in so many different forms.  I hope that I can be the same way back to her. 

I appreciate that kind of support.  It might be contained within a small circle, but it is incredibly magnificent.  Now, I can't even imagine how much better life would be if everybody started supporting one another.  I know of so many different people who work in fields that I'll never be interested in or even knowledgeable of.  And, I appreciate when they can help, just as how I feel a joy in being able to offer my own services to people who need help in things that I am quite knowledgeable in.

Let's think more about the Kingdom of Heaven rather than our own personal gain in our lives.  Let's build up the Kingdom by circulating the brotherly love that we are all capable of giving.  Let's be more Christ-like.

Day 124: Change that Saves

"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation."  Hebrews 9:11

This is a message that is so pertinent to today, especially for those who wish to see the Church continue to grow.

To start, this passage refers specifically to the new tabernacle that Jesus brings about with his coming to earth.  He instituted something that was drastically different: one sacrifice for all eternity, a complete forgiveness of sin, love of God.  That's quite a change from the older Mosaic tabernacle, but it was necessary for the spreading of the Gospel.

Today, there are many churches that are dying everywhere, and those congregations are turning to many different consultants from different places.  Some are even looking to consultants for large businesses so that they can make the best business decisions.  But, I would say that there is a fundamental issue: we hold onto our old customs, even if they do lead us straight to complete failure.

We want to be comfortable.  We know that things that have sustained us for long stretches of time should still work.  At the very least, those things are comfortable.  When I was a little kid, I loved eating fried foods as my main source of food.  However, over time, I gained lots of weight because of my decisions, and, even more recently, I'm finding that fried foods make my stomach upset for quite a long time after enjoying.  Yet, I want to be able to eat them because they are so good!

I am sure that we all have issues that we could talk about.  Maybe you can't run as far as you used to.  Maybe you shouldn't see that one ex lover who used to be great in the past but now only serves as a temptation to you.  Maybe you can't sit in front of the TV all day because of the threat of debilitating weight complications.

We need this same sort of mentality with our churches.  The churches are not ours; they are God's.  As such, we need to remember to listen for God's advice on all matters.  That might mean that you will have to start playing different music.  That might mean that you will have to incorporate more modern language, or even an entirely different language.  That also might mean that you will have to dissolve a community and embrace another.  I cannot speak for every church that is out there, but I do know that there are always difficult decisions to be made.  And that's where we need to start remembering what Jesus has done.

Jesus has come into the world to bring us all closer to God via change.  Jesus wants to change us all for the better.  That means that we need to be going back to God every chance that we get (which is, of course, all the time).  Jesus is showing all of the good things that are in existence.  Most of all, we need to remember that Jesus is going to be working in our communities, even when that means that our hand prints will be supplanted by his.

When we allow for Jesus to renew us, we will be able to change for the better.  We need to open up our arms that were once crossed in front of us so that we can welcome Christ's embrace.

Day 122: Welcoming Others

"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  Luke 18:14

Perhaps something that I come across quite frequently is this: I'm too messed up for church.

As I read the bible, I learn that this is never a valid excuse.  All throughout the bible, there are countless stories of people whose names get to be associated with holiness who lived lives that are quite far from being perfect, let alone "holy" in our eyes.  In fact, you can look at all your church leaders who stand up before you, but you may forget that they are all humans.  Every single one of them.  I have to say that I am quite blessed to be part of a family that has two priests in it because I have been able to understand that God calls any kind of person to the ministry.

However, the excuse of being to messed up for church has one other factor that is not quite as easy to debunk.  That factor lies in the congregation.  We have done a pretty decent job as Christians at bringing the message of Jesus to many people, even if it doesn't seem like it.  The bible is easy to publish and distribute.  So many verses have come into common parlance in the West, and some have even made their way outside of the Western world.  There are churches on every inhabited continent, and there are Christians proclaiming the Gospel through countless media.  But, to be frank, we have also done a good job at bringing the same issues that were plaguing the communities in Jesus' time.  I have heard way too many times from many of my friends that they were turned off by church because of how one person spoke.  People try to spread their gospel by invoking hatred and fear from the start.  Yet, that's not what Jesus did.

Jesus never missed an opportunity to remind people where they belonged.  He even told his disciples whenever they thought that they were doing everything perfectly that they had it all wrong.  Jesus reminded all of his followers about the same message, that God has come into the world in order to gather all the people in a warm embrace of unconditional love.  Anything outside of that message was not right.

Think about a rose.  We think of that flower as being one of the prettiest flowers in existence, and we produce so many of them that they are commonplace.  Two days ago was Mother's Day in the USA, and, of course, there were many roses.  When you look at a bouquet or even a rosebush, the first thing you'll probably notice is the actual rose.  It's not until you try to pick it up or look much closer that you'll find the thorns.  I find that many Christians out there today are doing the exact opposite.  We have people showing off their own thorns rather than the beauty of the flower.  What's worse is that in reality, there are no thorns in the Gospel.  Jesus took care of the thorns of sin and death with his crucifixion.  Now he just calls us, with a flower of love, to come closer.  Rather than project our own internalized hate towards all those around us, how about we learn to project our love to everyone? 

Day 121: Building up with Love

"nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  Luke 17:21

If there isn't any other reason to come together as one church, this is the one.

Jesus says this in response to the Pharisees, who were people who did a pretty good job at isolating themselves from everybody else.  They considered themselves the purest of Jews, alienating the rest of the ethnically Jewish people who were in the area.  They came up with so many different interpretations of the law so that only a select group of people would be able to become true Jews.

I don't have to say much else in order to bring this same issue up to today's world.  At the highest levels, we have many bishops, pastors, and other major leaders calling for discrimination of anybody they feel should be taken out: women, the ill, any LGBT person, single parents, orphans, people of different races, non-English speakers.  If we delve even deeper into supposedly united denominations, we can see issues that break communities apart.  Even at the parish/mission/church level, there will be people who want to tear the congregations up.  The worst is that now, with the availability of social media, everybody has a platform they can stand upon to shout and make their points, bringing out their own poison and breeding weeds among the wheat fields.  They will all spread their hate with the same conclusion: See here! This is how the Kingdom of God will be, once we clean it up.

But that's not what Jesus preached.  Jesus made the image plain and simple: the kingdom of God is within you (or y'all, the Greek is plural).  I'm sure we all know what happens whenever teams break up, or when people decide to go their own way, deviating from a great team project - failure.  When we decide to take on the role of a schismatic in a community, we cannot lie that it will be a way to build up a community.  If we are going to maim the body of Christ, that's exactly what we will do.  Rather than build up the Kingdom of God by uniting all the many residents, we will be taking it apart, brick by brick, and, ultimately, execution by execution.  There will be no kingdom to speak of when we finish up our goal of dividing people up.

We are called to learn how to live with each other.  And why is that, exactly?  The Kingdom of God relies on one thing: the abundance of love.  If we do not have love, we cannot be builders of the Kingdom.  Before we start to take construction into our own hands, we have to take a moment and think, are we acting with love?  If not, then reevaluate what you're doing.  God has worked through all of our lives, showing us what the miracles of love are.  How about we start bringing love into our communities to build them up?

Day 087: Community

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself."  Philippians 2:3

This is a message that we seem to forget many times.

Why go to church if we aren't there to help build up the community?  We have been called to go to church and participate in corporate worship in order to build up a community.  We are called by Jesus to present a perfect offering of a Church before God - one without blemish or defect.  We are going to church in order to unite ourselves to God.

When we do things just for our own benefit, everybody suffers.  We are all born with gifts from God, and we are to use them to bring others to God.  Yet, if we go about using our gifts just for ourselves, we end up isolating ourselves from the greater community of people who thirst for your gift.  We find ourselves wandering without any direction, and we no longer experience the love that God wants us to experience.  When we do things for selfish interests, we are no longer living a life of godly love, but a life of hate.

Everybody out in the world is longing for something.  Many times, it is difficult to figure out what, exactly.  In fact, that's when people will turn to self destruction, for they will be pleasured in the moment, but they will continue searching for what they truly need.  We can help alleviate this issue by going out and presenting our gifts in ways that will build up strong communities.  It's all about making sure there is a constant dialogue in a community.  When we communicate, we will figure out what needs to happen.  Usually, when there is communication, we will understand that the answers and solutions are much simpler than we had ever thought.

Day 052: A Call to Love

"Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge.  Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.  And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.  But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him."  1 Corinthians 8:1-3

This statement is at the core of Christianity: that to love is to have a connection with God.

Just imagine this: we can wander all over the place with our books, our fancy language, our writings, our pens and pencils, our markers, our gilded pages, but we cannot be faithful without being loving.  And, just as Paul explains a little further down this chapter, we need to show our love not only to God, but also to all those around us.

We are currently living in the aftermath of schism after schism, dogmatic disagreement after another.  As humans, we have made great strides in fracturing the body of Christ.  The only way we can bring it all together is by acting in God, acting in Love.  And that's exactly what love does: edify.

Politicians, out of fear of losing votes, separate themselves from their fellow politicians by using hateful rhetoric.  Even in the United States, where two parties dominate the political landscape, different candidates for different offices will attack each other in very nasty ways just to bring in more votes, or to take away votes from another person in the same party.  Hate divides us.

Let Lent be a season for reflection on how to bring love back into the church, because God only knows how much we need it.  We need to reach across the aisles, as some churches do during the Lord's prayer or during the peace.  We need to be the embodiment of God's love in this present world.

Day 039: Sustenance

"Do not boast against the branches.  But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you." Romans 10:18

Through Paul's harsh wording, I see an image that is very telling: God is a master gardener.  This also reminds me of one of my own gardening feats.

Perhaps my favorite kinds of plants are succulents, particularly cacti, because of their relative simplicity for care (in terms of watering) and their sheer, alien beauty.  Among my favorites is the Ruby Ball Cactus because of the fact that it's a red cactus.  However, the interesting thing about the plant is that it can't really grow on its own.  It doesn't get all the necessary nutrients, so it needs to be grafted onto another plant, which is why the cactus can normally be found grafted on top of another cactus.

One time, when I had one of these plants, the bottom plant was dying.  So, I took another cactus that I had and attempted to graft the Ruby Ball onto another plant.  I have so many books about how to grow and tend these plants, so I figured it shouldn't be so difficult.  After having the two plants attached with yarn holding the two together, I was sure that the plant would grow.  Unfortunately, both of the plants died very soon after.

Grafting one plant onto another is quite difficult to do.  But God can do it, and you better believe that God has done it among our communities this day.  God is the one who goes around, helping attach new members onto this growing olive tree of faith.  Alongside that, God is the one who makes us shine our brightest, making us bear the best of fruits, so they can be used for greater things.  God is the reason why we succeed.

However, we like to take all the credit for our successes.  We like to deem ourselves as the sole purpose behind everything we do, when, in reality, it is God's grace that allows us to shine.  We think that just because we have the red glow and the perfectly trimmed white spines we are the greatest of plants, but, in reality, we are dead plants without the stability that God provides in our life.

God gives us life.  Let us continue to live it in a godly way.

The Greatest Commandment

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”Mark 12:29-31

We are one.  We believe in one God.  The Lord is our God, and the Lord is one.  This is how the greatest commandment begins.  It's a statement about unity, and it's something that perpetuates throughout the rest of the statement.  Jesus preaches to us in every single word he says.  So, then, what is our issue?

Today, we have so many divisions in our churches, our congregations, and even our separate communities.  When we come together, we like to bring our prejudices and hatred into the sanctuary.  You know, the kinds where you look at that one lady from the corner of your eye because you know of what she has been doing.  It's that decision you make to avoid participating in the church just because of a petty argument one morning.  It is holding a grudge against that one person who disagreed with you before breakfast.  It's running away because there was that one musician you don't like.  But, we supposedly believe in the one God.

Jesus was always aware about the different issues among Jews and outsiders.  He commanded us many times to remember the more important issues, such as our devotion to God, as opposed to our personal opinions on matters of ceremonies or rituals.  In the same way, Jesus tells us about the greatest commandment in the best way possible.

In the middle of all the 'do nots', Jesus commands us to do one thing:

Love

Love the one God who unifies us, and love the ones who are already loving God.  Bring God to every single person around us in the best way possible: love.

After Jesus tells us this, the scholar who was talking to Jesus went on to explain that this love is far greater than any offerings or sacrifices.  The love for God and the love for our neighbors is one that is greater than just our 10% every week (or so), or our one hour and a half (depending on what time we wake up), or our (sometimes mindless) recitations of prayers.  And this is very important for us, for it takes our personal devotion to God into one that creates a community.

Even though Jesus retreated many times throughout the gospels to pray and meditate, he always commanded us to live in community with one another.  He tells us to go out and make disciples/students/friends of other nations.  He tells us to welcome those we may not feel so comfortable about.  He tells us to break down our walls to each other and find some common ground.  And, he gives us the common ground: the love for God.

When we truly love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, there is no room for anything else:

• When we give our whole heart to God, we begin to understand the complete love that God has for us.
• When we give our whole mind to God, we begin to understand what God is telling us through the living word.
• When we give our whole soul to God, we feel the Holy Spirit drive us in ways we could never have imagined.
• When we give our whole strength to God, we pick up the tools and stones, bricks, wood, and metal to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

We love ourselves in the best way possible when we give ourselves to God, for there is no greater solution to all of our problems we face on this earth.  After we learn to love ourselves through the nourishment that God provides, we can express our love and fellowship to each other, thereby strengthening us all into becoming a community.  For we are one in Christ.

Plants

"He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" (Luke 13:8-9)
Jesus has come down into our lives to put in new fertilizer and other vitamins so that we can grow and bear fruits.  The only way we can bear fruits is by taking all that Jesus teaches us in and applying it in our lives.  In this parable, in particular, Jesus mentions that we are given a chance to become better.  In fact, God is always working within us to make us better.  When we allow God to dictate what happens in our lives, we will grow to bear great fruit.
Another note is that Jesus preaches against judging.  Therefore, He considers this to be of such a great importance, for He speaks of it before teaching us that we need to live in Him.  Thus, by making peace with our neighbors and becoming a unified family of God, we shall live and breathe the gospel.

Lord of the Harvest

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." (Luke 10:2)
The harvest means that there is already a community out there.  There are already plants with fruits and vegetables waiting to be picked.  There are plants waiting to be seen.  One image that comes to mind with this is the entire concept of coming out.
Coming out is (currently) our lifelong task.  We have to come out to every new person we meet.  We have to discern whether it is worth us coming out at certain times or not.  How scary it is to come out when we have preconceived notions about a person.  How even scarier, though, when we actually know a person's beliefs see us at fault.  However, what joy it is to come out to an ally or another member of our queer family! We find another being just waiting to be seen and understanding what tribulations we have been going through.
Unfortunately, it is another uncomfortable experience to come out as Christian to someone in this same family.  It is an even greater joy and relief when we find another queer Christian.
That's what Jesus is telling us.  The harvest is plentiful.  Our LGBT family is strong and proud.  Our LGBT family is thirsting for God.  The laborers (right now, at least) are few.  Not only must we pray for more laborers, we must also bring out new queer Christians to become laborers.  We need to proclaim the Gospel that there is One who listens to us when we are beat up right in front of our house.  There is One who listens to us when we are being damned by everybody else.  There is One who loves us at all times in all areas.  There is One who forgives us.
Yes, the Lord of the harvest is providing the workers in these harvest fields today.