Saturday, August 16

Today’s Readings: Psalm 58; Exodus 4:10-20; Luke 10:17-24; Romans 10:5-9; Psalm 48

We live in a day and time when a sense of pervading satisfaction or completion always seems just beyond our grasp. So often we think to ourselves, “Things would be great if only I got that promotion (and the accompanying salary increase) at work”, or “I would be happy with myself if only I could lose that last 15 pounds”, or “All my problems would be solved if I just had an extra 3 hours a day to get all of my work done”. Over time, we grow increasingly comfortable with the notion that we’ll never get a taste of satisfaction or completion in the context of our lives as we currently know them. Thankfully, we have Paul’s words from Romans with us today to challenge that assumption. In today’s passage, Paul reminds us: “It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us... That’s it. You’re not ‘doing’ anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting [God] to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: ‘God has set everything right between [God] and me!’” What I spoke of earlier as satisfaction and completion, Paul speaks of differently – Paul calls that sense “salvation”. The next time you find yourself thinking “My life would be perfect if only [and you can fill in the blank here for yourself]” stop and remember Paul’s words. Remember that sense of satisfaction and completion you seek – that sense of salvation – isn’t something that was created only for the future; that sense is something that we as people of faith can claim in the present as well. Then say aloud Paul’s wonderfully reassuring phrase: “God has set everything right between [God] and me!”. Now let your soul rest peacefully in that awesome assurance. Til next time…

Friday, August 15

Today’s Readings: Psalm 75; Exodus 3:16-4:12; Luke 10:1-16; Romans 10:1-4; Psalm 64

If you are anything like me, sometimes you feel called to do things that seem totally beyond your ability. My call to parish ministry was a lot like that. When I first began opening myself to that call, I was living 1,100 miles from where I currently live - in the area in which I was born and raised. I was so close with my family that I could not imagine living any distance from them! I was also very much of a political activist and had established a life that involved constantly projecting my agenda onto the world. I had a hard time relating (or perhaps I should say “wanting to relate”) to folks who were different than myself. I could go on and on with reasons why I felt totally unequipped to answer my call to ministry, but I would probably bore you. The long and short of it was that in many ways I felt like Moses did in today’s passage from Exodus when he received his call to lead God’s people. Moses first response to God’s call was exactly like mine – he responded by listing all of the reasons why it was absurd for God to expect him to answer his call. And yet - as we all know – Moses ultimately did respond. The beauty of today’s story is that it reminds us that God prepares and strengthens for the things to which we are called. Nine years after answering my call to parish ministry, for instance, I’ve learned how to be in relation with my family from 1,100 miles away. Nine years later I’ve learned that there are more important things to project on to the world than just my agenda – I’m more about projecting God’s agenda. Nine years later I’ve learned to embrace my ability to connect with folks who come from radically different places than myself by focusing on the things we share rather than emphasizing our superficial differences. In other words, nine years later I have realized I was equipped to do the unthinkable – answer my call. Maybe you have been wrestling with your own sense of being called by God in some particular way and you have been quick to dismiss that call. If that’s the case, follow Moses’ example and spend some time talking with God about your call. Be real in that conversation – lay out all of your reservations. God can take it. It very well could be that through that process you realize that you are more ready to respond than you ever realized before! The most important step in answering your call is always the most difficult: the first step – the step where you finally express a willingness to answer that call (even though you have no idea how it will ultimately play out). Once you take that first step, you’ll be surprised at how quickly the other steps fall into place. Til next time…

Thursday, August 14

Today’s Readings: Psalm 52; Exodus 2:23-3:15; Luke 9:51-62; Romans 9:28-33; Psalm 82

One of the things I love about living in an increasingly post-modern world is that labels have come to mean very little. Several years ago, for instance, when people would first meet a stranger, they would invest a lot of time and energy trying to draw a variety of labels out of people. They’d ask folks a question like, “So, what do you do for a living?” – in hopes of eliciting a label like “doctor”, “factory worker” or “teacher” out of the stranger. Others would try to draw a label out of someone in regards to their politics so they could label them “Republican” or “Democrat” or “Independent”. Still others would try to find a label to attach to people’s spirituality – labels like “evangelical” or “liberal” or “conservative”. Over time, however, people began encountering Pro-Choice Republicans, rigidly dogmatic liberals, and Pro-Voucher public school teachers. As a result, they began to realize that labels didn’t work since they never really captured the full essence of a person. People aren’t the only ones folks have been trying to define using labels; folks have been trying to do the same thing with God for thousands of years. In fact, in today’s passage from Exodus there’s a wonderful moment when Moses asked God bluntly what label he was supposed to attach to God in order to get the people’s buy in. God’s response? The wonderfully ambiguous phrase: “I-AM-WHO-I-AM”. One of the challenges of pastoring in these tumultuous days is that some folks come to us pastors and expect us to attach a label to God that would help them wrap their minds around God’s enormity. Sadly, some pastor’s give in to these demands and settle for handing out clichés in an attempt to appease the request. In the process, however, they take the immeasurable and incomprehensible Source of all being and stuff God into a tiny box. Hopefully today’s passage from Exodus will give all of us the encouragement we need to resist the impulse to oversimplify God and allow for the best possible outcome: let God speak for Godself. Til next time…

Wednesday, August 13

Today’s Readings: Psalm 11; Exodus 2:1-22; Luke 9:37-50; Romans 9:19-27; Psalm 4

Some folks in progressive faith communities have great difficulty maintaining an active prayer life. And why is that? It’s because many of them were taught early in life that there was one (and only one) way to pray: a type of prayer known as intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer was originally based upon a theological belief in a transcendent God; a transcendent God is a God who is w-a-a-a-a-a-y up there. Given such a theological starting point, many folk’s prayer lives were then spent bringing God up to date on what’s happening down here and requesting particular outcomes. As many people’s theologies evolved during their lifetime, they moved away from a belief in a transcendent God and toward the belief in a more imminent God; an imminent God is a God who is present right here and right now. As individuals moved toward a belief in an imminent God, they no longer knew how to communicate with God since they no longer felt the need to update God or ask God for things since God was already present in the midst of events and needs. I was reminded of this theological shift (and the resulting difficulties that shift presents when it comes to our prayer lives) as I read the opening words of today’s second Psalm. That Psalm began with the words: “When I call, give me answers…” (Psalm 4:1 – The Message). And how was I reminded of those words? Well, given many of our initial theological belief in a transcendent God, it was easier to understand what it meant for God to “give me answers” – for when you asked for stuff, people considered it answered prayer if they got what they wanted (some folks even felt that not getting what you asked for was a prayer answered with a resounding “No!” – but that would be the stuff of a different blog entry). It’s a little more difficult for many to understand what answered prayer looks like given a belief in an imminent God. If God is already here and already active in a situation (even those situations that might seemed messed up at first glance), what does answered prayer look like? I suppose the answer would look different from person to person. For me, answered prayer, is no longer linked exclusively to an external outcome; for me answered prayer is more of an increased internal awareness on my part. Today, I would invite you to examine your own prayer life and ask yourself, “What does answered prayer look like for me? May God be with you as you explore those important question. Til next time…

Tuesday, August 12

Today’s Readings: Psalm 3; Exodus 1:6-22; Luke 9:28-36; Romans 9:14-18; Psalm 74

As I look back over the course of my first 40 years, there are some things that I feel good about and other things of which I’m ashamed. One thing that I feel good about is my work advocating for the rights of all people. Little did I know that this positive action – when taken to the extreme – could become the source of something of which I became ashamed. Let me tell you how this happened. You see in the course of my advocacy for the rights of all people, I often found myself at odds with leaders of the Religious Right. The lack of humility and self-righteousness I often experienced in the leaders from the Religious Right drove me absolutely nuts. So how did I handle my feelings of frustration? Did I follow Jesus encouragement to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44)? Absolutely not! I’m embarrassed to admit that I would wait for something to happen that would expose their hypocrisy (i.e. Jimmy Swaggart’s dalliance with a prostitute and the exposure of Jim & Tammy Bakker’s extravagant lifestyle) and gleefully gloat in their downfall. When someone would challenge my response as being un-Christian, I would say, “Why should I feel sorry for them? They brought it on themselves.” Thankfully, God has a MUCH better response to such situations. In today’s passage from Romans, Paul reminds us how God responded to Moses’ attitude regarding the Egyptians. “Not so fast, please. God told Moses, ‘I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.’ Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy” (Romans 9:14-15 – The Message). My earlier response to the downfall of the leaders from the Religious Right reminded me it’s a good thing I am not in charge of mercy or compassion because I would do a terrible job dispensing those things. Today, I give thanks for the One who generously dispenses mercy and compassion to the one who needs it most – me. Til next time…

Monday, August 11

Today’s Readings: Psalm 54; Genesis 50:15-26; Luke 9:18-27; Romans 9:6-13; Psalm 68

I was a child during the late 1970’s, so I don’t remember exactly what those times felt like (at least from an adult’s perspective). As a student of history and pop culture, however, I vaguely remember hearing about something called the Misery Index. As I remember, the index charted the general discontentment with the circumstances of the time: high gas prices, soaring inflation, increased unemployment – and the list went on. Thirty years later, it would seem, we are pretty much in the same circumstances: soaring gas prices, increased cost of living, and a home-foreclosure crisis. The only difference is that now we’ve added things like an awareness of global climate change and record budget deficits to the mix. Just thinking about things today makes me want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head. Having few personal recollections of what it was like to live through the earlier period in the 1970’s, it’s been interesting for me to live through this period of misery. What strikes me is how completely overwhelming the sense of challenge is – how easy it is to begin wondering if we’ll ever be able to turn things around! Thankfully, we have words like those from the psalmist from today’s second Psalm to remind us that it is not our sense of misery that should define our lives but something else. In pointing toward the most important way of perceiving reality, the psalmist said: “When the righteous see God in action they’ll laugh, they’ll sing, they’ll laugh and sing for joy. Sing hymns to God all heaven, sing out; clear the way for the coming of the Cloud-Rider. Enjoy God, cheer when you see him!” (Psalm 3-4 – The Message). That all sounds well and good, but how do we get ourselves to the point of being able to laugh and sing for joy during these challenging times? The psalmist tells us: we LOOK for God in action. The psalmist reminded me of an old adage I frequently use: “A person usually finds what he/she is looking for.” My question for you to consider today is this: “What are you looking for?” Are you looking for reasons to feed your sense of misery so that it can take over your life, or are you looking for signs of God’s presence and activity all around you – a sense of presence and activity that would help you do the unthinkable in these most difficult times: laugh and sing for joy! There may be many indicators around you that would suggest it’s easier to find reasons for a sense of malaise; luckily, there are ten times the indicators around you that would point toward God’s presence and activity. All you have to do is look for those indicators. May you spend some time today doing just that: looking for indicators of God’s presence and activity in your life. Til next time…

Sunday, August 10

Today’s Readings: Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b; Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33; Romans 10:5-15

As someone who considers himself to be a recovering perfectionist, I’ve learned that lots of folks have misconceptions about perfectionists. One of those misconceptions is that the primary motive of perfectionists is to maintain control at all times and in all places. I’m sure that there are some perfectionists out there who are driven primarily by their need for control. My perfectionism, however, was driven by something else – the need to earn others approval. So what’s another misconception about perfectionists? Another misconception is that they want to run everything. While that may seem true on the surface, there’s another dynamic at work within perfectionists if you watch very closely. And you have to watch VERY closely because most perfectionists are extremely skilled in hiding this. Perfectionists always try to play to their strengths. Doing so allows them to maintain the façade of perfection. When it comes to areas of weakness, however, they avoid them like the plague. After all - weaknesses would expose their (gasp!) imperfections. So what’s all of this talk about perfectionists have to do with any of today’s readings? Well, today’s reading from Romans presents a real challenge for those of us who are perfectionists/recovering perfectionists because it talks about two things we have little if any experience with: (1) letting go, and (2) allowing someone else to take over. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Paul’s words to the Romans as follows: “Say the welcome word to God – ‘Jesus is my Master – embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what God did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not doing anything [side note here: this statement represents heresy to perfectionists]; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting God to do it for you. That’s salvation.” So where are you in terms of incorporating this concept into your own spiritual life? Have you arrived at the point where you are trusting “God to do it for you”, or are you still trying to get there on your own? My hope for you (and certainly myself!) is that we’ll continue to grow in our ability to let go so that we might get the full taste of this wonderful, grace-filled thing called salvation! Til next time…