Hope

Hope

Reading

First Thessalonians 5:5-11

But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. 

Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do.

Reflection:

We are asked to put on a helmet that is the hope for salvation. What is the helmet Paul is referring to that is hope? It is our faith in the knowledge that God did not mean for us to die a certain and final death but that we are to be saved to eternal life. The better news is that all of us, whether we are living now or have died, will live with Him. All of us.

We are children of the light and day and not of night and darkness. We know light is good and is of God. The first words of Genesis teach us this when God said to let there be light and there was light and God saw the light was good. He then separated the light from dark. Eventually he created us to give the light purpose.

We also have a purpose. To be children of the light with hope for salvation does not come without obligation and challenge. We are told to encourage one another and build one another up.

That is why we are here today and this weekend. God has spoken to you through us. We invited you to be here to learn for yourselves what it means to be a child of the light and the day. Our challenge to you will be to become one of us. We pray that you will also become a reflection of light of God. We pray your voices will also call out to others to learn and be reminded of what it means to be in the light of God’s salvation. That is our hope and our hope, sustained by God, is in you. Today is about hope.

Faith

Faith

Mark 10:46-52

They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.”  He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

Reflection:

Imagine, if you can, the drama of the moment for Bartimaeus. He was a man who spent his life on the fringe of society. In this time those afflicted with physical disabilities were considered to have been cursed with infirmity or disability because they were sinful. Today we know this is not true. The blind of Jesus’ time were targets of scorn and survived only through the compassion of a few who pitied them.

Bartimaeus had no reason to have faith but he did. Through his exercise of faith he was given the gift of sight, the ability to see the world.

How did Bartimaeus respond? He did not run into town celebrating his new found vision or head to the nearest pub to make merry or chose one of many other choices he could have made. Recall that Jesus told Bartimaeus to go his own way. Instead Bartimaeus followed Christ. Why? Because Bartimaeus knew that Jesus had done more than give him sight – Jesus had saved him.

We know the miracle Jesus would work on us this week end is not to restore our sight. We all, in varying degrees, can see just fine. The gift he would have us accept is more than just vision. He wants to save us. In our Creed we profess to believe not just in things that are visible but also what is invisible. Our faith is what leads us to believe in what is not visible and that same faith allows to begin to see what had previously invisible to us.

Faith grows within us the ability to see our wives as partners and soul mates and not just someone who cooks, cleans and care for children. Our children become gifts to cherish and nurture rather than objects to endure. The people around us become brothers and sisters of Jesus and in each person we see the divinity of Christ revealed to us. Once we begin see the people around us as unique gifts to the world from God we are driven to reach out to those in need and to serve them as Christ served Bartimaeus. Faith gives us the ability to see the image of Christ and motivates us to become more like him. Faith will become our sight.

The Fifth Commandment

The Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

The Ten Commandments have set forth instructions on how to behave. We are taught while each commandment does not bear equal weight with the others, we should try live in accordance with the moral compass they provide us.

Jesus, however, taught to us to approach our moral compass differently in the Sermon on the Mount. Each of the beatitudes revealed to us in the sermon should motivate us to behave as though we are called to not just avoid what is wrong but seek to do what is right.

So why is the 5^th Commandment on my mind? It is because of a posting my cousin Rusty placed on the blog he and his wife maintain about their own going life in Christ and their ministry. The posting, which can be reached by this link, http://jonathanministry.wordpress.com/author/jonathanministry/is beautifully, poignantly, and precisely crafted. He tells the story of what has happened to my aunt, his mother, since the day before New Year’s Eve Day last year when she went out to get her mail and went down with a stroke by the mailbox at the street curb. What he said was not a surprise to me because we spent several months caring for her until it became clear she needed to relocate to Reno where Rusty and his family could assume care for her. He described the changes in far more detail with greater compassion and eloquence than I could muster and I thank him for taking the time to put down in writing what we all observed so starkly over the course of the year.

Rusty and his family have defined for me the commandment to honor your father and mother. There is, however, a difference between observing a commandment as proscribed than living it as an opportunity return God’s love by sharing it.

This leads me to my comments about the beatitudes. The 10 Commandments are stark, jolting and sterile. There is no inspiration to suggest they arise or result in loving behavior. They are simply instructions. The beatitudes go beyond this and as I scan Matthew 5 in the context of Rusty’s posting, I see many of the beatitudes differently.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Rusty paints a picture of what has happened to my aunt with great sadness but without anger or regret. What has happened has happened and while we would never say what has happened to her is God’s will, it is part of His plan. He is mourning the changes in her we longed to see diminish but have only become more predictable and defined. We who know and love Joann mourn with him. Because we are sharing our mourning with our world without despair and hopelessness but with faith and hope, God will comfort us. Mary gave us example of how to mourn as she witnessed the suffering and death of her son and we continue to look toward her for inspiration. We share burdens of sadness and grief because in the sharing the burdens are halved. That is the nature of God’s comfort. He has taught us how to mourn. We are comforted. I am comforted.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. I am not talking about righteousness that is rigid, condescending and judgmental. I am talking about seeking to live in accordance with God’s will. Perhaps it would be easier to say we called to live rightly. Rusty and has family have reordered their priorities to become caretakers for the one person who has cared for all of them for so many years. I include myself in the group she cared for with such great love and now she is so far away. They are doing the right things for the right reasons and I am grateful. Despite the sadness in the letter, I also hear the strength of his faith coming through. God is providing the strength they need and Rusty and his family can be assured they can enjoy satisfaction.  They are living rightly.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. This is really the meat of what I am trying to say. To be merciful means we have to reach out, to touch, to console, to comfort … to love. We can’t just avoid wrong acts; we are called to embrace the right ones. We are to seize opportunities to be merciful gladly and not just because we are obligated to be merciful. Motivation and intent count for as much in God’s eyes as outcomes for only he can control how things turn out. We are challenged to bring our best selves to the service of mercy. God will take care of the rest. That is how he shows us mercy.

There is another element to this blessing. Not only are we called to live in accordance with God’s will but we are called to live it joyfully. Even though my aunt is a prisoner of her rebellious body and mind, she is seeking to do things that have brought her joy and allowed her to share her joy all her life. Christmas is a time of joy and the things we do are meant to be done with joy, for joy and to share joy. A Beatitude is a blessing and to be blessed is to be happy. Read this beatitude again but this time say “Happy are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”

God, I think, organized us to live in families to give us the opportunity to learn out to love and be loved in accordance with his desire for us to love one another as we love ourselves. We can’t do this perfectly or even consistently but we keep trying even as we know are bound to never be able love perfectly on this side of eternity. Sometimes, though, we get it right. Even we get it right we don’t make bad things right, we can’t always overcome the inevitabilities of age and illness but we make things better. Things are better. God has blessed our family.

Thank you Rusty.