A Page from Vitaljournal - Matthew 25

Some of us have been reading through Matthew's Gospel using You Version's Lent for Everyone  reading program.  In the reading for today Jesus tells the  parable of The Ten Virgins.

The Ten Virgins is always an odd one for me.  Not only because of the rather archaic use of "virgins", but because ... well it's just odd and old and on the surface unrelatable to most anything else in our culture.  Be that as it may, something new that came up for me was how I (and I think lots) tend to focus on a the "tarrying" of the bridegroom (God in the parable).  We get hung up on that and miss the point.  My mistake is to make the bridegroom, and therefore, God the focal point of the parable.  But in fact Jesus tees up the parable by likening the kingdom of God to ten virgins.  Jesus draws our eyes and ears to the ten virgins and their preparation (or lack thereof).

Jesus' point is not to shut down the honest questioning of God's absence that many good people raise, good Christians notwithstanding.  Jesus tells this parable to his disciples who have only just before asked him to tell them what will be the sign of your coming, and of the close of the age. (24:3).  I'm open to the thought that this can refer to any great day of the Lord's coming - such as the end of an illness, or the end of a period of suffering, or the end of a conflicted relationship.  I'm open to that because I have experienced such great days, where at "the close of the age", God's redemption comes.  The disciples will experience their walk with Jesus after the resurrection in part as a long and difficult hope that isn't realized in their lifetime.  Jesus prepares them for that period with this parable.

Jesus' point is not to shut down honest questions, but to - on this occasion - point his disciples to living life prepared.  As human beings we have a burning need sometimes to know.  But sometimes, maybe often, we have to walk without knowing.  I imagine that the journey for Abraham and Sarah to a place God would show them (Genesis 12) was long not only because of the number of days, but because of the not knowing.

Jesus tells his disciples that some things simply lie in God's hands.  And that as disciples we make sure that we have enough oil to see in the dark.

A Page from Vitaljournal - Psalm 130

Psalm 130 is one that I always remember is important, but one that I never can remember why is important.  Reading it again, I am reminded of verse 3-4

"If God truly knows who I am and what I've done, there's no way I or anyone else can remain.  And so, thank goodness that as much or more as God knowing who I truly am and what I have really done, God is also forgiving." (Psalm 130 - my translation).  

The writer says, and I should imulate, we wait and we trust in God's word.  What does it mean to trust in God's word? 

I take it to mean that God's word, that all God "says" is surely "to be."  In the Faithwalking community of which I am a part we talk about integrity.  Integrity is about keeping and honoring our word.  I think I project my own inability to keep and honor my word, my own lack of integrity onto God in whom there is only integrity. 

N.T. Wright says,

No matter how deep we have sunk, no matter what sorrows or tragedies we may encounter, the Psalms have been there before us. Not only do they encourage us to believe that we have not, after all, fallen off the map. They give us words so that, when our own words fail to do justice to our misery, they will do instead.

My prayer in this moment is not only that I would keep and honor my word, but that I would deeply trust in God's.  Click on the link, if you want to connect to the Facebook Vitaljournal community.

A Page from Vitaljournal - Psalm 23

Let me be honest with you.  I've missed several days now of my Bible reading, the daily workout I committed to do for the season of Lent.  This is a clear integrity gap - not doing what I said I would do, when I said I would do it, in the manner in which it was intended.  I want to acknowledge this and say that it has had an impact on me.  Most of the impact has come in the form of feeling less connected to God and to others.  In Faithwalking, I've learned to be honest about my habitual disobedience and do that without self-condemnation and judgment.  But it doesn't end with that;  I am recommitting to this daily workout.  Thanks for the grace and room.

And so as I re-engaged my daily spiritual workout, YouVersion's reading plan through Matthew's Gospel called Lent for Everyone with a commentary by N.T Wright, I wasn't expecting that today's reading would be from Psalm 23.  I was expecting a passage from Matthew.  When I saw it, I was thinking "boring!" and I know this Scripture already and can quote it by heart. Anyone else?  I had just shared this with a family at the memorial service of their loved one.  But in reading NT Wright's comments in the additional material, I found something I'd never heard before: 

"And now, many generations of Christians have prayed the Psalm in the same way, in the light of the many passages where Jesus picks up the shepherd-promise and applies it to himself. In fact, the gospel story is not unlike the picture of the shepherd and the sheep: Jesus leading his disciples around Galilee, teaching them, healing people as he goes. And as the story moves us forwards towards the valley of the shadow of death, we look on in awe and wonder as the Good Shepherd goes ahead of us into the darkness. His rod and his staff, two poles of wood, come together in a new pattern, a shape which will etch itself on the heart of the world. We look at the cross and we are comforted."

That insight gives me a different line of sight to the cross - one I've needed and am delighted to add.  Just goes to show...

Lent Wednesdays with Sister Roselle

This Wednesday we were blessed to have Sister Roselle from the Catholic Retreat Center The Cenacle.  We have invited Sister Roselle to share with us about spiritual practices in light of our community's deep commitment to engage spiritual practices as a way of life.  Sister Roselle had us explore our earliest memories about and experiences with prayer.

She also gave us two very nice definitions of prayer;  one very succinct and the other a bit longer, but both quite enlightening and life-giving.  The first is that prayer is "anything that helps you pay attention to God."  For lots of people nature does this.  For others it may be a piece of music, or a conversation.  Even tragic things like disasters can draw from us an awareness of God as we are drawn out from a place of compassion.

Her second definition ran like this:  It is not what we do;  it's a relationship between the core of me and God's true self, with reflection.  Sister Roselle spent some time talking about how our true selves get layered over by years of different colored "paint."  As we experience hardships from birth to about 5-6 years old, a new layer of "paint" covers over the "diamond" that is the core of us.  Also, our view of God is impacted by lots of other experiences that only give us a partial view of God's true self.  So, prayer is the getting of our core selves connected to God's true self over a lifetime.

Others who were there...add to this things that you heard and thought!

Join us for the remaining Lent Wednesdays - for a light supper and more time with Sister Roselle.  Here's the link to more information

Jesus Through the Centuries

Today I completed a book by Jarslov Pelikan (I love saying that name) entitled, Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture.  It is a book that I heard about in seminary in a Church History class (Pelikan was a Church Historian) and a book I actually bought in a used bookstore way back then.  It sat on my shelf all this time.  Plan white, the dust jacket long since lost and forgotten.  I'm glad I pulled it off and read it.

Pelikan basically sets Jesus in the context of each century from the time he walked the earth to now.  He explores not only the theological writings of the time, but the popular writings as well, which in most ways are the more revealing.  There are eighteen cultural images of Jesus.  The writer of Hebrews proclaimed, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).  Yet, historical, theological and cultural interpretations of Jesus depict a Christ that is eclectic and diverse, not homogeneous and static.  For instance, Constantine's Jesus was a conquering king while most first century believers saw him as a Jewish "rabbi," unlike any other.  Jesus the "Cosmic Christ" who compels humanity to question their universe paves the way for Jesus "The Teacher of Common Sense." 

What I find really interesting looking at this book as a whole, and Jesus throughout the centuries, is that the historical Jesus forges a common link for a host of unlikely fellows ranging from the Apostle Peter and Tertullian to David Hume and Thomas Jefferson to Fyodor Dostoevski and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I also find it interesting how scholars, writers and poets in every age so easily create Jesus in their own image.  The tendency to do so, and to do so so easily, should be a caution to us all.

Pelikan writes well.  Read him.  You'll enjoy!

Believing and Following

Here's a page from the Vitaljournal from the reading plan for Lent from Matthew's Gospel.  Today the reading is from Matthew 9:1-13 and includes the calling of Matthew the Tax-Collector:

I'm struck by The Message version's translation of what the religious leaders say when they see Jesus hanging out with Matthew the tax-collector, this Jew who is in league with Empire Rome for his own benefit.  They say, "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?"  It kind of makes me wonder that if the religiously "in" AREN'T making comments like this about you and the way you live Christ, then you may not be living Christ well. 

I'm struck by another thing:  The fact that Jesus did NOT get Matthew "all cleaned up and turned from his tax-collecting ways" BEFORE he called him to follow.  It really - at least for me - reinforces the notion that we have been focused on in worship;  that Christianity isn't about a system of belief as much as it is about a way of life.  And until Christians rediscover their faith as a way of life, people will continue to leave the church or never have any interest.  What Jesus calls Matthew to - this "disreputable character" as he's described - is not to believe something so much as he calls Matthew to follow a way that Jesus embodies. 

Lord, hear this as my prayer for me and FCC.  Amen!

PS:  If you want to join up on the reading plan and the Facebook Group Vitaljournal, check out the earlier post which gives all the details about how!