Materialism: An Accuser

“If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday.” Isaiah 58:9b-10

            Materialism has been at the forefront of my mind recently, and it seemed only appropriate for me to reflect on it when the reading in the Lectionary was the one above. Materialism has been showing its face to me in so many different ways lately, and I noticed that when I look into it, I see both the face of a menacing, demonic gargoyle and an attractive, well-crafted idol.

            For pretty much as long as there has been a Judeo-Christian culture, there has been materialism. It’s been something that comes up in so many writings, from Exodus and the Ten Commandments, all the way through Jesus’ teachings. In fact, it is such a common issue, yet, judging from the number of treatments of the issue, it has not gone away.

            In secular society, materialism is brought to the fore, with advertisements, product placements, jobs, and so many other aspects of our lives being governed by it. Even our relationships with one another are dominated by materialism: what’s the shiniest gift to give to my crush; what’s the best restaurant to take my family to; how can I impress my friends this time? However, even when we walk into our churches, we find the same problem. We have churches closing their doors to the communities of the poor, the sick, and the needy surrounding them. We have committees voting to buy the “newest trends in evangelism” while refusing to serve the person begging at their door. We have church staff members who have paychecks so much larger than the incomes of congregations combined, making me wonder if there is even enough there to support a community in need.

            In addition to the tangible manifestations of materialism, we also have an ideological issue in our churches as well. At the surface, we have people preaching a “prosperity gospel,” where all of God’s blessings are material blessings. Going deeper, we will even ignore what the Bible tells us about materialism. We shy away when Jesus says to get rid of all of our belongings to follow him. We try to reinterpret what Isaiah means when he says if we draw out our souls to the hungry and the afflicted then we will become light. We downright ignore the laws of Moses regarding the harvest, where leaving a bit of our crops for the less fortunate and travelers was mandatory, not just a thing to do if we happen to have a large enough plot of land to sustain a miniscule community garden next to our towering, gothic building. We have tolerated greed and materialism so long that we grow uncomfortable looking at what life would be without it. Going further into this notion of institutionalized materialism in the Church, we have people who start to look at congregations as small businesses. Rather than consider what it means to reach people who need to hear the Gospel, we look at the specific number of people in pews as figures in graphs. We turn down programs that are for spiritual enrichment in favor of events that serve solely to bring income into the church.

            Now, what happens when we look at the world through the lens of materialism? Our place in society becomes a competition. One day we are at the bottom; the next day we are above a few other people; and then a few days later, we are back down again. When we are at the top, we start looking at those who don’t have the same car, the same house, the same job, the same skill, the same talent with contempt and/or shame. We point fingers at them. We fabricate stories about them. They no longer are human. Instead, they are creatures who have failed their duties to God. The artist working for non-profits is blind and silly, unlike our careers in the sciences, which is filled with the culmination of intellectualism and wisdom. They are reaping the wrath of an angry God, and we, at the top, with our precious belongings, are near angelic in our existence. This most certainly is not the life that we are called to as Christians. For, when we propagate this sort of society, we end up hurting ourselves as well. Rather than giving ourselves a community of compassion and love, we turn into a society of ridicule and competition, one where, once we fail, we can no longer exist as functional beings in the world. When we bow down to this idol, when we bring our souls, our talents, our time to its altar, we descend into the darkness. Our vision vanishes, and we are left with a devotion filled with greed and selfishness until we too are consumed by all the negativity, unable to fulfil the necessary offerings needed to continue this cycle.

            Instead, we are called to follow Jesus, to show love to all of those around us. We are called to use our talents to glorify God, to show the world what the unconditional love of God is. We are called to bring the light into the world as it continues its flirts with darkness. We have to look around us and listen to the cries and groans from all of those around us, including our own souls. We have to realize our talents and how they fit into the Kingdom of God. We have to take our treasure and use it to bring others closer to God rather than distance ourselves from God. We have to heal the world around us from all of its wounds.

This Lent calls us to action. Let us follow Jesus; no turning back.

Day 163: God's Control

When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."  John 11:4

Here's a message that we need to hear in every struggle in our lives.

One thing about illness is that it always brings about the prospect of death.  As soon as we hear about any ailment, be it cancer or a boil, we start to think about death and what it means to us.  We might start to think about what will happen to our family and friends when we depart.  We might think about our own faith, is there life after death?  Does death hurt?  Now, John is not explicit about the illness that Lazarus had, but it definitely was something that assured his family and friends that his death was eminent.  As a way to reassure Martha and Mary, Jesus tells them the above quote.

For me, death is a rude idea because it means that everything comes to an end, whether things are finished or not.  Taking this into consideration, I can think about how to apply Jesus' reassurance to other aspects of my life.  As I grow up, I see that things start to settle into routines.  I have observed different people among my family and friends who have jobs that they stick with for so long, doing the same things every day.  I find people doing the exact same exercises, never gaining or losing weight.  I see people playing instruments but never seeming to get better or worse.  I find many people looking at things that must have been their dreams at first and finding those same great feats to become mundane and even annoying or boring.

Anytime that I read through the Gospels, I quickly realize that Jesus was not one for stagnant routines.  Jesus calls us to take up our things and continue to work preaching the Gospel.  Jesus demonstrated this by being on the move, never settling in one place, and working constantly.  In the same way, we have to be prepared to continue on with our lives, learning new things, going into new environments to preach the Gospel.  The reassurance we need for these situations is that Jesus is going to be glorified in everything that we do, so long as we believe.

Taking on a new job or learning something new, or going through a new struggle is something that we will face, and it will be frightening.  However, when we know that God is in control, we will succeed, for God will be glorified through our courage.

Day 162: Knowing God's Voice

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."  John 10:27-28

This is a message of reassurance, and I am sure that many of us need this message this very day.

This reassurance comes with instructions, though, and we cannot avoid those instructions.  Jesus says My sheep hear My voice...and they follow Me.  Easy enough, isn't it?  When I was in grade school, as soon as the bell rang, I knew it was time to change classes.  I followed the sound of the bell.  Following Jesus should be just as easy, right?  Of course it can be that easy!  We just have to make it easier for ourselves.

As I'm on the way to the Viola da Gamba Society of America Conclave, I remember when I was at another historical music festival a few years ago, the Texas Toot.  I took a lesson with a professional, and I played in an ornate way that I thought was impressive.  She replied, however, that what I had done was not in good taste.  It was good playing, but not tasteful.  From then, I sought to understand what good taste in Baroque music was, and I feel now, especially after receiving guidance from many teachers and performers, that I have somewhat of a sense for this good taste.

What did it take?  Well, it took, and still takes, lots of listening.  I listen to many different artists and many different pieces to understand what is going on.  I read countless pages by teachers of the time period and modern commentators just to get a sense about the style of music from back then.  I have sifted through many do nots just to start doing.  Any profession will require this sort of dedication, and we all have a certain calling that we pursue with all our time and attention.

However, the good news is that we have a simple way of getting in touch with God.  We have the Bible with many quotes from great people and from God.  We can only understand the sound of God's voice when we surround ourselves with God's voice.  We can get a sense for it by sitting in church, where we all hear the word of God being read to us.  Even easier is just to grab a Bible and start reading.  Nowadays, we have an even easier step: listen to an audio Bible.   When we get connected with the Bible, we start to understand that God is calling us constantly.  We will learn that God reassures us more than scares us.  Rather than listen to the loud voices that are trying to scare us into voting one way or another, to scare us into killing ourselves, to scare us into killing and hating all those around us, we will find comfort in all that Jesus has to say.  Jesus tells us that times will be tough, but he reassures us so many times more than just telling us to be afraid.  As Christians, we are called to be brave and bold in all our tough situations.  We shall know God's voice, and we shall receive eternal life.

Day 161: Following the Prime Example

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."  John 10:1-3

This passage spoke to me while I was reading today.

It made me think about all the different scams that we encounter these days.  It reminded me about the adage: it's too good to be true.  Just at its base value, the above passage can be applied to almost everything in life.  When we take shortcuts, we will not get what we want.  When we steal and lie to get to a position of power, the people under us aren't going to listen.

As I read further, I started thinking about how this passage applies to our churches today.  It reminded me of the fact that a life of faith isn't meant to be easy.  It's not about self-harm, but at the same time, it's not going to be a walk in the park.  But, at the same time, we have many out there who preach that everything is going to be easy, that to have money is to be blessed and to be poor is to be cursed.  There are some who have continued the rude tradition of preaching that to be sick or to be disabled in any way is to be cursed by God for any number of reasons.  Once again, the above passage shows us that it's not about breaking through the window or going through the open back door that will bring us to salvation; it's finding our way to the door that will.

Again, I realized another important fact by reading this above passage: we have a savior who is our true shepherd.  For the longest time, I didn't feel much whenever people would repeat the phrase, "Jesus is the good shepherd."  What does that have to do with me?  I certainly don't work on a farm, and I don't see myself doing that anytime soon.  Even more, nobody would care to explain that to me.  I'd just hear that same phrase over and over again.  In my reading today, I learned that Jesus is our good shepherd not because he rules over us and oppresses us with his supreme authority but because he has gone through everything that we will face in life, and he continues to go through all of that with us today, right now.  This passage is a great explanation because it uses a metaphor that is so good for us.  Jesus, the shepherd, walks through the same door that we walk through.  Jesus walks with us.  Rather than just appearing out of nowhere in the sheepfold, Jesus walks the same way we do, and he leads us.  It's up to us if we want to follow the person who has gone through that door and knows what lies beyond or the ones who just appear there for a moment and then jump the fence to escape.

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 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 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 155: Living Waters

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  John 7:37-38

I feel like these days there are people who are walking around with earplugs when they go to church or listen to the Gospel.

While we are in the midst of praising God and proclaiming God's name, Jesus invites us to come and drink.  The next part of the invitation is key, though.  Those who come to Jesus to drink will themselves become fountains of living water.

Of course, when we read this statement, we need a definition.  What are living waters?  John gives us a good answer, saying that this is the Holy Spirit.  But even then, we can have issues with understanding this because of the fact that we might not know what the Holy Spirit is.

When we think of the Spirit, we should always remember the breath of life, for spirit and breath are one and the same word in Greek and Hebrew.  And the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life.  And what is life?  Life can be anything that we make of it, but Jesus has been clear from the beginning that eternal life comes from our faith in him.  Therefore, life is following Jesus.

So, if we are coming to Jesus for a drink, should our fountain of living water look like an outpouring of judgment based on the law of Moses?  Certainly not!  As Paul has said, the law reveals death.  Jesus, on the other hand, shows us life.  Jesus, the preacher and manifestation of love, is life.  We cannot forget that fact.  Jesus is the fulfillment of everything we do.  All of our worship, all our prayers, our reading, our preaching, our listening, our learning, our understanding points to Jesus.  Everything points to God's unconditional love for us.

When we go to Jesus for a drink of water, we will begin our transformation, much like a detox diet.  We will start to drink of this life giving water which will cleanse us both inside and out.  Then, through our transformation, we will start to become a fountain of love.  We will know that we are drinking of this fountain, for that will be when we are showing our love forth throughout all of the pain and suffering that exists in the world.  As Christians, we can only claim to be followers of Jesus Christ if we are becoming fountains of Jesus' love.  Otherwise, we are just pedants, proclaiming and sealing ourselves in hatred that closes in on us until we die both in body and spirit.  We need the Holy Spirit.  We need life.  We need love. 

Day 154: Using the Light of God

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths."  Psalm 118:105 (119:105)

This is an important message that many of us prefer to ignore.

I will admit, the bible as a whole is pretty scary.  There are so many books, and there are so many versions (even in the original languages).  There are so many different authors, so many different theories and interpretations, and so many words.  The book is quite heavy to hold, not only in physical weight but also in terms of ideas.

It's a testament of God's word revealed to people over a long expanse of time.  It is also a reflection of which people thought which books were important enough to consider truly sacred versus apocryphal or heretical.  In it, we can find a constant thread of meaning, expounding upon God's love in its many manifestations.

This metaphor of light is important for us to consider, for it suggests much more than just illumination.  When I think about a light for a specific purpose, I think of the many lights in our lives that have directions: flashlights, headlights, camera flashes, lamps.  These all have a light source, but then they are directed and magnified by mirrors or other tools.  The important thing about this, though, is that each of these lights serve their purpose, and they need to be put to that purpose specifically.  When we use flashlights, we need to point them to wherever there is darkness.  Headlights point directly ahead.  Camera flashes are directed to wherever they need to go in order to make a picture more clear.

In the same way, we need to learn to use the bible.  It is a bright light for the darkness that covers our lives.  One caveat, though, is that we don't know where the darkness is in everybody else's lives.  We can only point the light of the bible effectively towards wherever we need it to point.  It will guide us as we walk closer to God.  We need our light to be pointed forward always.  We don't need it to be pointing left, right, or even behind us.  We need it to be pointing us straight to God.  When we put the bible, our light, for the purpose of revealing God's love in our lives, then we will find God on our paths.

Day 152: The Real Deal

"As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven - not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  John 6:57-58

As Jesus explains the concept of feeding on him, the imagery becomes more poignant.

Aside from the direct command to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood (which is quite shocking enough in itself), he also begins to draw the connection to the consuming of manna in the wilderness.  And, when he describes that, he says that all of their ancestors died regardless.  That's quite harsh.

The thing is, though, that the manna was given to the Israelites almost as a concession.  The Israelites were complaining to Moses about being in the desert, so God sends down manna for them to eat.  And, although they ate the manna, they continued to complain against God, and they even turned away from God.

But now, Jesus comes into the world on his own divine accord, offering us this heavenly bread of life.  Jesus comes to us in peace, offering us this life, offering us his love.  We have a choice.  Either we can take the offer or leave it.  When it's like that in plain words, it can seem ridiculous for us to turn it away, just as how the Israelites were ungrateful for food that had appeared miraculously in the middle of the desert.

Yet, we allow for many other things to get in the way and blind our view of Jesus.  Rather than seeing Jesus' love for us, we start to see our own lives, which are marred by things such as doubt, pride, anger, and hatred.  When we reexamine our lives, we start to think, in our pride, that we don't want to lower our guards.  We don't want to give up our grudges to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus means to leave our own lives behind, the lives that were defined by society and not so much by God.  We've become so attached to our society-dictated lives that we think that anything that is simply divine is not real.  We start to think that it's too good to be true.  So, we feel comfortable pushing Jesus' hands aside.

We need to listen to Jesus in our lives, and that will only happen whenever we give Jesus our time.  We need to pray in silence, where we hear neither the sounds of the outside world nor of our minds.  We need to listen to God in our prayers and in our bible reading.  We need to see Jesus before us.  When we do that, we will be able to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Of course, once we taste that perfection, we will never want to turn it away.  We will forever feast on the good, life-giving bread.

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 150: Calming our Storms

"Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum.  And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.  Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.  So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.  But He said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid.'  Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going."  John 6:16-21

This is a story that works quite well as a metaphor for us today.

I can't imagine going out on a boat into the sea when it is dark, in an age with no electricity to produce flashlights or motors.  Yet, that's what these disciples did, and it's apparent that it was dangerous, since the detail of darkness is included.  Even more, the sea was an unexplored world, and it still is today, for the most part.  So, anything could have sprung up in front of them.  How scary!

At the same time, there is so much symbolism in this story.  The hearers of Jesus wanted to take him and proclaim him as king, kind of the way how the Jews did in the past, against God's will, by proclaiming Adonijah as king rather than Solomon, who had been appointed.  So Jesus went away from them because of their misunderstanding, and it even seems that the disciples went out to sea to look for him, continuing in their seemingly selfish ways.  But, as their ways start to become like the sea that begins to rage, Jesus comes and meets them, walking on the water as if it were still.  They were afraid, not recognizing his face or form, as if they'd never seen him before.

That's what Jesus does for us.  Even though we stray from following him, letting our lives get so messed up that waves are about to break our firm ground and drown us, Jesus will come to us and make himself known.  Jesus will remind us what our duties are as he calms the seas for us.

While the followers wanted to have somebody who would end up killing all of their oppressors, someone who would end up stirring up the waters and storms even more than they already were, Jesus came to change their views.  We stray from Jesus when we turn to ways of hate, following the very evil that scares us.  And as things get so terrible around us, Jesus will remind us that love is the way.  Jesus, in his unconditional love and abounding mercy and forgiveness, will calm the storm, turning us from hate and bringing us to firm land, so that we can continue our journey spreading peace and love.

Day 149: Searching for Jesus

"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."  John 5:39-40

This reprimand from Jesus is pretty harsh, but there is an important message that will bring us closer to him.

A page from the Cordúa cookbook

This reprimand reminds me of how cooking works.  There are countless cookbooks in circulation.  Even some high end restaurants will put out books full of their own recipes, some of which must seem to be secret.  And they'll even be in plain sight, where somebody could turn to a specific page and take a picture and have the recipe, for free!  But, no matter the number of resources available, there is still a thriving restaurant industry, and many restaurants that have their own recipes out there are still in business.  Why is that?

Well, none of us are using those recipes!  None of us are taking the time to actually cook them.  Even worse, we don't even know how to do half of the things that are described in them.  Blanch a chicken?  Stir-fry?  Julienne carrots?  Sous vide cooking?  If we learned how to do all of these things, we would no longer need cookbooks.  We would be chefs, rendering both restaurants and cookbooks useless.

But that's where Jesus' reprimand comes in.  We can comb through every single page of the bible, read every single commentary on the bible, learn about every single tradition, but we'd be nothing if we don't go to Jesus ourselves.  The bible testifies of Jesus.  We have so many things to learn about Jesus.  And, all the scriptures point out a focal point of Jesus: Jesus is love.  We have to love if we are going to follow Jesus.  We can talk all we want about the bible, but if we don't put any of the words into practice, we're going to have to keep going back to the same chapters, the same verses, hoping that maybe another time we will learn ourselves.  Our bible is our recipe, our instruction manual.  And there is a lot in there!  We might not be able to put every single thing into practice in our lifetime, but if we continue to put more and more of it into practice everyday, then maybe, just maybe, we will start getting closer to Jesus.  It will be difficult, but Jesus has shown that every step of the way will be glorious.  We will see miracles happen, we will see joy, we will see the Kingdom of God materializing in our midst.  When we love, we will have the eternal life that is promised us by God.

Day 148: Doing Good

"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.  He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God."  3 John 11

From our earliest days of childhood, we have learned what is good and bad.  And, for the sake of childhood, it was pretty straightforward: treat others nicely, for that is good; anything else is bad.  In the same way, we should look at things that are good versus evil.

Perhaps a great starting point is the golden rule, or the second greatest commandment: treat others the way you want to be treated.  We want to spread good into the world, because that will help build up a better world out there.  We won't have to face so much hate when we spread the love around.

As Christians, we have heard so many times from Jesus about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, the chief being to love.  When we love, we are showing God to everybody around us.  When we love, we live our faith.  When we love, we are accepting God into our hearts.  When we spout hate, though, we stray from God.  When we hate, we do evil, which is a sign that we have not seen God.

In fact, people will only know that we our Christians by our love, as the song goes.  We will only be able to claim to be followers in the light of God when we love.  When we love, we unite our wills with the will of God, for God is love.  When we do good, when we love, we begin to understand that we are of God.  It gets pretty difficult to be part of God when we choose to hate or put down other people.  It gets really difficult to understand everything that Jesus talked about whenever we hate, especially because Jesus corrected his disciples and followers so many times whenever they wanted to show hate.

The Devil has made many attempts to stray us away from our path of love.  The Devil has also shown us that his way is one of hatred, one that will trip people up from following the light.  Rather than imitating the Devil by causing others to stumble because of our willing ignorance or our prejudices, we need to continue to do good, to love.  We need to follow God in every situation, and we need to minister God to others by means of our love.  We can only introduce God to others when we show God's nature acting in us - by love. 

Day 147: Reaching Out

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath.  The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."  He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'"  John 5:8-11

This story is filled with so many ugly details that it fits right into today.

There's a pool with healing powers only for the first person who makes it in.  One paralytic has been waiting thirty eight years to get into the pool, but is always too slow.  Jesus sees him and heals him.  The Jewish leaders tell the man that he is sinning because he is able to walk and take his bed.

When this story is written down on paper, or even read aloud in church or even on our phones (or whatever audio device), we can see how things are messed up.  What gave the leaders the audacity to call out that man from walking with his bed, which was probably stained from his underside and all of that sweat, smelling and probably falling apart?  They had come up with different interpretations of the Law of Moses to the point where things were getting ridiculous.  A man who wanted to celebrate that he was made well, a man who went straight to the temple to worship God after having encountered God Godself, was accused of breaking the Sabbath.  That's just messed up!

Yet, what do we do when we're walking around on the streets, or driving around, and see people begging for money?  The people walking around with their shopping baskets filled with empty cans or clothes or blankets?  The people who shout Alleluia in church?  The person not dressed up enough for an occasion?  What do we tell those who aren't making as much as we are?  What sort of rhetoric do we use when we're talking about the politics in our countries?  How do we treat the people of different genders, race, sexual orientation, creed, or anything else?

We can judge people as soon as we see them, making our decision based off a second of an encounter.  Yet, each person has her/his story.  We can't just dismiss everybody into our own boxes.  What if they had encountered Jesus for the first time that day?  What if they are Jesus?  What if we are Jesus for them?

We have no right to judge.  We only have one thing that we must do, and that is to show love.  We can show everybody around us love, for that is what God has shown us.  God is healing us every day.  We should be thankful for that by showing that same love for those around us.  We need to get excited when the family of God grows, when a new piece of God's Kingdom is built.  Instead of judging those around us, we must always be thankful.

Day 146: Avoiding Idols

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen."  1 John 5:21

I have always found this verse to be one of the oddest things in the bible.  It's the closing of a letter, but it seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the book.

John, as I said yesterday, writes all about the Antichrist and about God's love.  Idolatry doesn't really get all that much attention in the first letter of his.  The last two chapters talk all about Jesus and how to follow him, so I'm surprised that it doesn't end with a doxology (glory be...) or some sort of closing blessing.  Instead, the letter ends with a brief note.  It's as if John wanted to write a P.S. before the custom was popular (I'm not sure how letter writing conventions of the first and second centuries AD were).

But, when I think about it even more, the note at the end had to be important enough for him to include it.  I remember when I was in high school, playing in an orchestra rehearsal, the guest conductor was not happy with how somebody was playing Mozart.  In fact, he stopped and said, "You know, back then, paper was expensive.  Ink was expensive.  Writing music was tedious.  So, if there is a dot on each one of those notes, you'd better play each one."  Perhaps the same logic can be taken here, where paper was scarce, and literacy was low.  This note seems to be important.

The other thing about this note, though, is that John assumes that the readers know what exactly he's talking about.  And, if we as modern day readers think about it, we know exactly what he's talking about.  It seems that following Jesus does require some explanation, and the explanations that John has given us reiterate everything that Jesus has taught us: to love unconditionally.  But ridding our lives of idols, now that's an easy one for us to understand.  We don't need an explanation for that because we know what idols are.  We know that our faith is being stretched just as our attention span is.  We are drawn to money, to beauty, to celebrities, to many other things besides God.  Those idols tempt us each day.  The same thing has been happening all throughout history.  Read any two chapters in 1 or 2 Chronicles and you'll see that.  Look at the wisdom books in the bible and you'll see so much about not straying from idols.  Yet, we always need a reminder.

Perhaps, John is giving us an answer to a question that we'd have after hearing his statement.  It's a summary of the entire letter.  We have a way out of our temptations of all those other idols.  When we devote our lives to idols, we no longer have the time or the energy to love.  So, when we love as Jesus taught us, as John reminds us, then we will draw ourselves ever closer to God.

Day 145: Being Loving Children of God

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."  1 John 4:7

The first letter of John shows two extremes: the love of God, and the deception of the Antichrist.

As I've been reading through this book, I feel like I'm reading the writing of a bipolar author, scaring people about the impending coming of the Antichrist and then comforting them with the discourse of God's unconditional love.  Perhaps that serves to make the parts about love more comforting than they already are.  At the same time, though, this is the sort of thing we encounter every single day, and John is equipping us with the necessary tools to make it through this troublesome life.

I must admit, I enjoy the fact that John doesn't dwell on the Antichrist problem.  If anything, he writes too much about love, but we need more of that anyhow.  We need to know more about God's unconditional love because it is what is saving us.  That love comes down to us in the form of grace of salvation from all the evils in the world.  On the other hand, there are many out there who claim to be Christians, using the bible to promote their doctrines of hate, and using God as an excuse to kill others by going on murderous rampages or ascending to power to kill countless people.  That is what we are facing each day: people using the bible for its physical weight rather than it's weight as wisdom.

As we encounter more and more of this hate, we can become comforted by knowing that all our Christian faith can be summarized in succinct verses, as opposed to ramblings of hate, exceptions to love, and discrimination.  Think about it: Jesus told us that there are only two commandments to follow - love God, and love each other; we read in John 3:16 that Jesus came into the world as an act of love; and right above, we have yet another verse - that those of God are ones who show love.  We know God because we can love.  That's just knowing, though.  We are of God because we 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 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 134: Purification through Love

"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart."  1 Peter 1:22

This command implies an important message.

Today, there are so many Christians out there who turn their setting apart for the Lord into a show of utmost pride and arrogance.  They will say, "Since I am holy, I can no longer associate with anybody else who isn't holy in the exact way that I am."  Obviously, this becomes a problem for building a community, for there will be a separation of us vs. them, rather than looking out and seeing potential new members.

Some people out there will even turn that arrogance into pure hatred, continuing to separate them from the outside world.  They will deceive themselves, thinking that because they are holy, nobody else can possibly be.  They think that with their purification through Jesus, they are entitled to become judges of everybody around them.  But that's completely in contrast with what we have been told.  Jesus has commanded us many times to love not only our neighbors, but our enemies, those who are strangers, the sick, the poor, and even those we don't even understand.  That's what the above message gets at as well.

We have been saved through Jesus.  We have been made whole because of Jesus.  We are loved because of Jesus.  How does anything else besides love make sense after this purification?  Because we have been purified with the God of love, we too should show our love towards everybody else out there.