Today's readings: Ps 22, 148; Ez 18:1-4, 25-32; Phil 4:1-9; John 17:9-19
In the days before GPS and MapQuest, it was common for people embarking on a long car trip to visit AAA or another travel agent to get customized route maps (AAA still calls them TripTiks). An atlas could only get you so far before you needed additional city and street maps for the local details. Today we just click on “zoom.” But past or present, we need to know the end point of our journey to get directions. Our Lenten journey doesn’t work quite that way.
Our Lenten journey ends with resurrection – Easter – and we know the annual stories and readings that act as signposts throughout the season. But if our end point is a living, contemporary, present Christ, simply retracing 2000 year old steps – no matter how sacred – won’t get us there. Plenty of us are intimately familiar with Christ’s journey, yet stuck spinning our wheels. Without knowing direction resurrection may take in our own lives, how can we know in what direction to start our journey?
Ezekiel knows. The prophet advises his listeners the way forward is to repent – literally, to “turn around” their lives. A journey can begin because we have somewhere to go to – or somewhere to leave from. Even if we don’t know where we will end up, we generally know what in our lives we need to walk away from. Of course knowing is much easier than doing. Abuse, addiction, anger – if these things were easy to leave, Ezekiel could have kept his day job. It’s easier to stay in a bad or even dangerous yet familiar situation than to walk the unknown road. Rather than following a prescribed map, we find ourselves in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” scenario, where each choice leads us down an unknown path. We hope for a happy ending, but if things don’t work out, we can retrace our steps and begin again. And God will travel with us every time.
No matter how much we might like it to be so, faith is not a matter of following someone else’s maps, no matter how beautifully they’ve been drawn. God calls us to the uncharted territory of broken places – our own and others – and to the kingdom of wholeness waiting beyond.
Comfort: All steps taken in faith are in the right direction.
Challenge: Start a “travel journal” to map your Lenten adventures.
Prayer: God of the journey, thank you for trusting me to go new places.
Evening readings: Ps 105, 130
Discussion question:
Is there anywhere you both desire and fear to go?
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Friday, February 24, 2012
Friday, June 3, 2011
Eat it: it's good for you!
Today's readings: Ps 96, 148; Ezek 1:28-3:3; Heb 4:14-5:6; Luke 9:28-36
Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced heavenly beings was vivid, but not something we can really relate to. On the other hand, the image he presents in today’s reading, while less fantastic, may pack more punch because we can actually picture it. God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet by presenting him a scroll and telling him to eat it. The scroll was covered with words of lament and mourning, and Ezekiel was commanded to share those words with the rebellious nation of Israel.
The image of consuming a scroll is simple, but it is rich with meaning. When God tells Ezekiel “eat what is before you,” (Ezek 3:1) he is confirming Ezekiel’s obedience, in direct contrast to the rebelliousness of the people. Scrolls in Ezekiel’s time were not made of paper, but either papyrus (the same basic material as sandals and baskets) or parchment (the skin of a kosher animal); neither would have been an appetizing proposition. Yet the scroll was sweet as honey in his mouth (v 3). Like Ezekiel, we may find the tasks to which God calls us less than appealing, but in the end we may find they provide us with a sweet fulfillment only discovered when following God. A popular riddle asks: “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: one bite at a time. The stumbling block for most efforts is motivating ourselves to take the first step. If we can bring ourselves into obedience and choke down that first bite of scroll, who knows how sweet the rewards might be!
Wouldn’t it have been easier for Ezekiel to hold onto the scroll and read it to people? Probably. Yet as a prophet, Ezekiel was called to literally internalize the word of God, to let it nourish and become part of his very being. Do we consume scripture and let it become part of us, or are our scrolls lying around collecting dust? The answer is the difference between a living relationship with God and scripture that we can’t help but share because it’s part of us, and devotion to an eternally external text that is an object of study but not sustenance.
God does not offer us a mere recipe, but the bread of life itself. Let’s devour it with gusto!
Comfort: Faith is lived, not just studied and kept to ourselves.
Challenge: At each meal, offer a prayer of thanks.
Prayer: Holy God, let others see your spirit filling me up!
Evening readings: Ps 49, 138
Discussion question: Have you ever been reluctant to "eat" a task God has handed you? (please comment)
Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced heavenly beings was vivid, but not something we can really relate to. On the other hand, the image he presents in today’s reading, while less fantastic, may pack more punch because we can actually picture it. God commissions Ezekiel as a prophet by presenting him a scroll and telling him to eat it. The scroll was covered with words of lament and mourning, and Ezekiel was commanded to share those words with the rebellious nation of Israel.
The image of consuming a scroll is simple, but it is rich with meaning. When God tells Ezekiel “eat what is before you,” (Ezek 3:1) he is confirming Ezekiel’s obedience, in direct contrast to the rebelliousness of the people. Scrolls in Ezekiel’s time were not made of paper, but either papyrus (the same basic material as sandals and baskets) or parchment (the skin of a kosher animal); neither would have been an appetizing proposition. Yet the scroll was sweet as honey in his mouth (v 3). Like Ezekiel, we may find the tasks to which God calls us less than appealing, but in the end we may find they provide us with a sweet fulfillment only discovered when following God. A popular riddle asks: “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: one bite at a time. The stumbling block for most efforts is motivating ourselves to take the first step. If we can bring ourselves into obedience and choke down that first bite of scroll, who knows how sweet the rewards might be!
Wouldn’t it have been easier for Ezekiel to hold onto the scroll and read it to people? Probably. Yet as a prophet, Ezekiel was called to literally internalize the word of God, to let it nourish and become part of his very being. Do we consume scripture and let it become part of us, or are our scrolls lying around collecting dust? The answer is the difference between a living relationship with God and scripture that we can’t help but share because it’s part of us, and devotion to an eternally external text that is an object of study but not sustenance.
God does not offer us a mere recipe, but the bread of life itself. Let’s devour it with gusto!
Comfort: Faith is lived, not just studied and kept to ourselves.
Challenge: At each meal, offer a prayer of thanks.
Prayer: Holy God, let others see your spirit filling me up!
Evening readings: Ps 49, 138
Discussion question: Have you ever been reluctant to "eat" a task God has handed you? (please comment)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Miaphysitism? YOU a physitism!
Today's readings: Ps 47, 147:12-20; Ezek 1:1-14, 24-28; Heb 2:5-18; Matt 28:16-20
This Thursday many churches celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, or the bodily ascent of the risen Christ into heaven. This story challenges the modern and scientific mind. Its accompanying readings are no less difficult. Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced beings and a god of fiery metal are highly symbolic and almost incomprehensible to anyone who’s not a dedicated Bible scholar. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews explains the human and divine interplay in the person of Jesus, part of the study called Christology. Heady material that for many of us is simply inaccessible.
In contrast, the Matthew reading is short and clear: Jesus asserts his authority and commissions the disciples to spread his commands and teachings to make and baptize more disciples. We should note his teachings did not include theories like hypostatic union or Miaphysitism: Christ’s nature in both the human and the divine, versus a nature which is of both. Clearly different… right? Yet centuries ago these semantics, which matter not one iota to loving as Christ instructed, caused schisms that last to this day. Passages like the one in Hebrews fueled the debate. What do we imagine Christ – who brought together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles – might say about his followers dividing over such distinctions?
Such discussions have their place; after all, why follow Christ if we do not believe he is a unique confluence of the human and the divine? But sometimes we get so wrapped up thinking or talking about faith we become like people who believe reading a child psychology book equips them to be parents; being able to quote theories does not help us touch a human life in a loving way. Maybe we don’t denounce Monophysitism (don’t ask) on a daily basis, but based on mere opinion we do make “religious” distinctions of the kind Christ worked to overcome. Even our choice of Biblical translation may decide whether we are “in” or “out” with a specific clique, congregation or denomination.
Christ’s nature – human or divine – was radically inclusive. Any effort spent separating us from others, rather than loving them, betrays that nature. Christ tells us to love God and our neighbor. Why add more?
Comfort: Christ’s commands are simple.
Challenge: Look up “Christology” on Wikipedia or another reference.
Prayer: Holy God, may your love live in my heart and not just my head.
Evening readings: Ps 68, 113
Discussion Question: Does your head ever get in the way of your heart? (please comment)
This Thursday many churches celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, or the bodily ascent of the risen Christ into heaven. This story challenges the modern and scientific mind. Its accompanying readings are no less difficult. Ezekiel’s vision of four-faced beings and a god of fiery metal are highly symbolic and almost incomprehensible to anyone who’s not a dedicated Bible scholar. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews explains the human and divine interplay in the person of Jesus, part of the study called Christology. Heady material that for many of us is simply inaccessible.
In contrast, the Matthew reading is short and clear: Jesus asserts his authority and commissions the disciples to spread his commands and teachings to make and baptize more disciples. We should note his teachings did not include theories like hypostatic union or Miaphysitism: Christ’s nature in both the human and the divine, versus a nature which is of both. Clearly different… right? Yet centuries ago these semantics, which matter not one iota to loving as Christ instructed, caused schisms that last to this day. Passages like the one in Hebrews fueled the debate. What do we imagine Christ – who brought together Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles – might say about his followers dividing over such distinctions?
Such discussions have their place; after all, why follow Christ if we do not believe he is a unique confluence of the human and the divine? But sometimes we get so wrapped up thinking or talking about faith we become like people who believe reading a child psychology book equips them to be parents; being able to quote theories does not help us touch a human life in a loving way. Maybe we don’t denounce Monophysitism (don’t ask) on a daily basis, but based on mere opinion we do make “religious” distinctions of the kind Christ worked to overcome. Even our choice of Biblical translation may decide whether we are “in” or “out” with a specific clique, congregation or denomination.
Christ’s nature – human or divine – was radically inclusive. Any effort spent separating us from others, rather than loving them, betrays that nature. Christ tells us to love God and our neighbor. Why add more?
Comfort: Christ’s commands are simple.
Challenge: Look up “Christology” on Wikipedia or another reference.
Prayer: Holy God, may your love live in my heart and not just my head.
Evening readings: Ps 68, 113
Discussion Question: Does your head ever get in the way of your heart? (please comment)
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