Being Right or Being Human?

“… one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:34-37

Being right is easy. We have a lot of lawyers in our church, so some of you probably live with people whose job is to be right. For a Lawyer in Jesus day, Jesus probably appeared to be an easy opponent. He flouted the rules quite often, eating with outcasts, touching the unclean, healing on the sabbath and being friends with all kinds of outsiders.

His conversation partners in this scene were sure they were going to get him when they asked him, “Which law is the greatest?” If he came down on one side of some issues, he would anger their opponents (who would come after him). If the angered them, well, they could take care of getting him thrown in jail or executed.

What a surprise, then, that his answer defeats them by actually quoting the same scriptures they are claiming to live by. In fact, in Leviticus it actually appears right after the 10 commandments- “You must not take revenge or hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself…” (19:18). In their move to show Jesus just how unlawful he  was, they are convicted by their own laws. They forget to be human beings in their desire to be right.  

When I hear people  say that  we are a “nation of laws," I think of this scene. We are  a nation  governed and kept in order and in (mostly) good standing by laws, for sure, but we are much more. We are a nation of people striving to become fully- human beings . Our laws, when they are at their best, empower and enable us to love other people more fully and (as a result) be more fully human ourselves. Anything else is counter to God’s ultimate purposes for us, if we pay any attention to what Jesus (and Leviticus 19:18) says.

What would it look like if we, as a community and nation, sought to obey the law upon which Jesus says hang “all the law and the prophets?” Whatever your politics, I am sure you will agree that our world would be radically different (and probably better) wouldn’t it? Open room in your imagination to think about this world, rather than one in which we are always “right.” Jesus reminds us that being “right” often has little to do with loving God and other people or being the fully human, blessed creations God made us to be. 

Tim

Trial and Error and Repentance

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:19-23

Being human is all about trial and error, isn’t it? I mean, we know that many things are not worth trying because they are too dangerous or that they usually will lead to bad things happening to us. (In the south, such things are often proceeded by “hey ya’ll, watch!”). We try stuff, and sometimes it hurts us or other people or God’s world. We need to “repent” sometimes, because we make mistakes. Making mistakes and learning from them is how we grow up. Making the same mistakes, over and over, is no way to lead a life. Repentance, then, is a gift.

How this is extra good for us, then, is that “repenting” can be about (as the Greek word for it- “metanoia” – suggests) simply changing directions, or trying something else. Sure, it is healthy sometimes to feel remorse, or even guilt, but even those things are meant to push towards something better for ourselves and others. Repentance is about much more than feeling bad.

God’s kindness and compassion extends to us as individuals, so we ought to show compassion towards ourselves when we repent. One of the reasons the world can be so lousy sometimes, I believe, is because we are terrible at the last half of the great commandment (“love your neighbor as you love yourself.”) Many of us have problems loving our neighbors precisely because we have a hard time loving ourselves.

Maybe, then, repentance is the ultimate act of self-love? Maybe the stupid things we do separate us from our love for fellow humans, God, and ourselves? If God is not beating us up when we make mistakes, it follows that we should take it easy on ourselves, too! Repenting is not about feeling bad or moving away from “the seven deadlies,” -it is about trying something else with God’s help and living into a new path. After all, Jesus promises us that when we do repent, God’s kingdom is near!

Tim

Pray About Everything

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians  4:4

“In everything by prayer and supplication give thanks, because it will help you not be as anxious,” might be a good way of rephrasing Paul’s instruction to his friends in Phillipi. If I were to ask many of you when you prayed, it would probably be limited to meal times and/or bedtime. I pray then. At bedtime I think of 10 people and pray for them. At mealtimes, if it is just me or I am eating out somewhere, I pray, “God bless it and put it to work.” I don’t like long dinnertime prayers.

If you stop and think about it, eating certainly is a time when we should always give thanks. Each meal is a miracle. The food got grown via an infinite number of biological processes beyond most of our comprehension. The food got picked or slaughtered (if you are into the whole meat eating thing), preserved without getting damaged or spoiled, lovingly prepared in a way you like, and served to you in a safe, cool, comfy spot. So many good things happened so you could have the chance to eat your cheeseburger, so the least you can do is say, “Thank you!” to God.

Paul says to pray in everything, though. We should tell God what we want (supplication). We are to share openly and honestly with God our goofiest and deepest desires. Praying in everything connects with the reality that we can communicate with God in ways that reach far beyond what pops in our conscious minds. “Everything” prayer moves beyond our limited view of life and our narrow view of reality.

Anxiety is a complicated thing, I know. I will not say that prayer cures anxiety or even treats it.There is nothing too small, too petty, too goofy or juvenile for God’s healing grace found in prayer. Even so, if you are anxious, make sure that a part of your self-care is also sharing your anxiety with another person around the same time you pray about it. At the very least, my experience has been that prayer leads me to finding a new path or new way of living with, (and sometimes leaving behind)

Whatever you do, dear ones, pray in all things because, after all, God is with us in all things.

Darkness Doesn't Extinguish This Light

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. John 1: 1-5 CEB

So much surfaced for us all when we read the news about Las Vegas and later watched the footage. Some of us found ourselves newly anxious about being in crowds or more suspicious of strangers out in public. Some  may be having nightmares and feeling depressed and reasonably frightened. All of these responses are a function of the fact that we are, in fact, human beings.

I have no answers for why some folks store up guns and then use them on innocent people in acts of random violence. The best I can do, if you want to be all cosmic, is muse upon the fact that “the world is a broken place.” You don’t need any reminder of that, though. Scroll through your news feed on any day and you can find evidence for that aplenty.

Even so, as people of faith we believe and live as if evil, even in a display as powerful as what happened Sunday, cannot ever stop good.We are a witness to this  truth about the Gospel of Christ. Countless acts of love and light are happening in each moment as we live together in the aftermath. Goodness will continue to grow (and will never stop!) 

Goodness will continue to put evil in its place when we start talking with one another about  about guns and their place our lculture We have to truly begin to see the other- the enemy- the pain the neck person – the person who might even hate us- as a brother or sister. We have to have serious, difficult, family talks about our addiction to violence and our deeply-held belief that it ever really works for anything. 

If we are people of this light, we are challenged to begin acting as if we believe what John told us. We can live as children of this light- even as we weep and continue to ask, "Why?" 

Schadenfreude

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” Jonah 3:10-4:11 

Good news here. God is big enough for us all. Jonah has been asked by God to go and tell the Ninevites (the arch enemies of the Children of Israel) to repent. He tries to escape God on  a boat, gets thrown in the sea, swallowed by a whale and then washed up on Nineveh. THEN- he gets a meeting with the King and tells him God's message- "REPENT OR ELSE" and the King says, "OKEY DOKE!"

Jonah, all along, didn't want to go on what he thought was a suicide mission. Also, he hated the Ninevites and figured they would not listen, and God would blow up their city. They not only repent by smearing the men with ashes and having them wear sackcloths- the women, children and even animals got in on the gang. THEY HEARD HIM.

So now, at the end of the story, we see him upset about this and even grumpier that the shade he was enjoying dried up. He is so upset about the shade that he says to God "Take me now." God says, "Let me get this straight. You are upset about not having shade, but you do not give two hoots about a city full of human beings?" The story ends on this cliffhanger.

Who among us has not had what is called schadenfreude- or "pleasure at someone else's pain"? How great it was that a King decided to repent of being a jerk. How great it was that he heard God's message of mercy. Yet, who among us cannot relate to taking more pleasure out of seeing someone "get what they deserve" versus someone else experiencing mercy? We are all guilty of this, to some degree. 

Take this in:
The story of Jonah means for us that God is not a God of a tribe or a people but a God for everyone whose love extends to everyone (even our enemies). A life's work for us, then, is working on repenting of our hatred and being curious about how we can love our enemies. For starters, we can try not to feel happy when something bad happens to them. We can be curious about why the enmity exists. 

Later, in the person of Jesus, then, we get an example for how this works. We can look to his example of love and the multitude of ways that love can be played out when we let go of our ancient hatreds. Jonah couldn't let go. We can.

T 

Not Fair!

“…When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:12-16

Jesus’ parable of the workers is a good news-bad news kind of parable. 

First the bad news:

What we notice about the parable is the unfairness of it all. Jesus plays into our  all-too-human tendency to think, first off, that the universe is arranged with us in the center (it isn’t).  Good people die when they don’t deserve it, cheaters win the match, and people do not get what they deserve. At some point, all of us will be the worker who worked all day and then watched someone who walked on in the last hour get paid the same wage. A fundamental truth is that life is not fair.

Now, the good news:

If we make his parable even more cosmic, though, Jesus is reminding us that God’s love does not work within human equations of what is fair. God loves us all— equally— without measure— regardless of how good we are, how much Church we attend or what religion we follow. God’s love works beyond our comprehension of being merited or evenly given out. 

We will never deserve anything God gives us because we were made to be loved by God, not to earn that love with any kind of work. Whether you show up late or early, you will be loved. 

Control Yourself

Happening, New Beginnings, and DYC are diocesan retreats that can be life-changing. I went to each of these weekends while growing up as an “Episcopal Kid”  as an attendee, a team member, a chaperone, and a babysitter. We are taking groups to all of these weekends, so sign up. While many of the details of the experience might have faded, the relationships I formed with people from all over the Diocese of Atlanta continue. You will learn on the weekends that “you are now a part of a welcoming and loving community.” Whenever I’ve needed a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen, I’ve relied on friendships formed on a Diocesan retreat at Camp Mikkell. If you’re feeling unsteady or unsure in your faith, want to explore your many questions, or just want to try something totally different, join us at Happening, New Beginnings or DYC. (Look for details in the weekly email for signing up, etc.) Take the first step and register at eycdioatl.org

Thinking about how grateful I am for making the choice to be a part of these experiences reminds me of something interesting we learned in my Psych class called “Locus of Control.” LOC refers to the extent to which people believe that they have control over their lives. So, if you have an internal locus of control, you would likely believe that you have free will and that most things that happen to you are due to yourself. Someone with an external locus of control, however, would believe that things that happen to them are mostly due to fate, or to luck, or maybe God.  Statistical studies have shown that people with an external locus of control are more likely to get injured or die in natural disasters. Sometimes, during natural disasters, for instance, people with an  external locus of control are more likely to stay put, refuse help, and just ride out them out because they may have a “whatever happens- happens” sort of outlook on life. But people with an internal locus of control would tend to take action and get out of harm’s way. (This is, of course, a generalization and may not always be true for everyone).

Yet, there were many people in the path of Irma who had no choice about being able to get out of the way. Certainly, none of the folks who lost their homes had any control about where the storm landed. (And God certainly did not direct Irma towards any particular place).  Paul, in his letter to the Romans, recognizes that , in the end, there are many things we are not always in control of. He says, “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. “ Whatever the outcome, he says, we all belong to God, and we should act as such.

Which leaves us with this: many of us have more control than others. We who have  electricity, for instance, might find room in our house for someone who has been in the dark for days. We might take some of our money and send it to Episcopal Relief and Development or even help an older neighbor clean out her yard. When we are the ones who have some control over our environment or lives we are called to direct ourselves towards being the hands and feet of Christ to those who (their fault or not) have not been so fortunate. Wherever we are in our “locus of control” we belong to God.