Stop! Collaborate and listen.

Today's readings: Psalms 104; 149, Isaiah 61:10 - 62:5, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Mark 10:46-52

Today in Mark, we read the story of a blind beggar who was sitting by the roadside when Jesus passed by on his way out of Jericho. When he realized it was Jesus, he began to cry out to him, but many people tried to silence him. Mark doesn’t identify these people who “ordered him to be quiet” (Mark 10:48), but the implication is they were followers of Christ. The blind man’s persistence paid off when Jesus stopped to wait for him, then healed him saying: “Go; your faith has made you well” (v 52).

Have we ever been one of the silencers? For example, during Sunday worship as we follow Jesus down the road from the first hymn to the eventual benediction and dismissal, we aren’t generally fond of interruptions. How would we react to a blind beggar shouting out in faith in the middle of that journey? To a crying baby and exhausted mother? To a grieving widower who sobs when the joyful song we are singing reminds him of the wife he just lost? We might actually shush them, or we might rely on the pressure of the group to do so, or we could ignore their obvious need. In any case, the message is clear: don’t interrupt.

Sure we could dismiss them as inconsiderate: why can’t they wait for an appropriate moment? Yet what moment could be more appropriate than a gathering of the followers of Jesus – the man who knew he was on the road to crucifixion but stopped in his tracks when someone cried out? In worship or in everyday life, following Jesus means stopping where he would stop. We can’t expect need and pain to wait until a convenient break in the scheduled activities to express themselves; otherwise we’ve marched Jesus right out of town.

While we can’t reasonably run down every side street searching for blind beggars, let’s be careful not to ignore or silence the needy right in our path because we have a well-crafted agenda that doesn’t involve them. Worship is more than formal prayer and praise; it is any expression of love and gratitude for God and his creation. Sometimes an interruption is an opportunity to do our most meaningful worship.

Evening readings: Psalms 138; 98

Broken Relationships

Today's readings: Psalms 89:1-18; 147:1-11, Isaiah 59:1-21, 2 Timothy 1:15-2:13, Mark 10:1-16

Time after time, Jesus taught his followers love, mercy, and justice supersede any technically correct but unjust applications of the law. He ate with "unclean" sinners (Mark 2). He violated the Sabbath laws to heal (Mark 3 and elsewhere) and declared the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. He declared all foods "clean" (Mark 7).  He criticized religious leaders for their hypocrisy (chapter all-of-them). It must have felt like he was tossing out the rulebook. Until the Pharisees asked about divorce.

Suddenly Jesus was proposing stricter standards, saying Moses permitted divorce only because his people were stubborn and those who remarried committed adultery (10:2-10). Does this seem like an unexpected turn? Not if we understand that Jesus also calls us to integrity. A man could divorce his wife regardless of his wife's wishes. After that he owed her nothing, and she could easily end up a beggar in the street. Consigning someone to such a fate because someone else caught your eye was the opposite of merciful and just.

While modern day divorce does not generally result in such extreme circumstances, it is always unfortunate. Society expects (insists?) divorcing parties to be antagonistic, or even vindictive. Yet as we do in all situations, we have the choice to act with integrity. For ourselves and our children, we should do our best to remember the other person is a beloved child of God, whom we once professed to love as well.

Relationships of all kinds strain and break, but as members of the body of Christ we remain united at some level. Even when we can't stand each other - maybe especially then - the route of mercy and justice leads us home to wholeness.

Evening readings: Psalms 1; 33

Dropping Our Stones

Today's readings: Psalms 42; 146, Genesis 26:1-6, 12-33, Hebrews 13:17-25, John 7:53-8:11

Today’s story from John about a woman caught in adultery is the source of the saying: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” One of the best known stories about Jesus, it is ironically considered one of the least authenticated. Early manuscripts of John don’t include it, and in later ones it varies slightly. Perhaps the story persists because its message is so essentially Christ-like.

Under Mosaic law, punishment for women committing adultery was death by stoning. The scribes and Pharisees brought such a woman before Jesus and tested his observance of the law by asking what should be done with her. Jesus initially responded by stooping and writing on the ground. Some apocryphal versions of the text say he was writing the sins of everyone present. Others have theorized it was a stalling tactic. Either way, this action teaches us a valuable lesson: Christ has little interest in hearing us recount the shortcomings of other people.

When he instructed the person without sin to cast the first stone, the crowd of course dispersed. Christ knew an honest examination of our own lives generates humility and mercy. When he and the woman were left alone, he declined to condemn her and instructed her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Whether this event is historical or not, it illuminates truth that transcends fact: Christ is more interested in freeing us for the future than in chaining us to the past.

“Sin no more” does not excuse past actions – it is a call to repentance. True repentance doesn’t mean feeling guilty and sorry, but going in a new direction. Punishing others through guilt only hitches them to the past, and prevents them from moving in any direction. Allowing ourselves to be punished by guilt – even self-inflicted – is just as counter-productive. Following Jesus’ example means trusting others and ourselves to acknowledge mistakes, change direction, and do our best not to make them again. Jesus loves everyone enough to leave the past in the past, and to let everyone move toward a future of endless possibility. First, everyone needs to put down the stones.

Evening readings: Psalms 102; 133

And Justice For All

Today's readings: Psalms 72; 145; Isaiah 49:1-7; Revelation 21:22-27; Matthew 12:14-21

The Gospels cite many passages from the Old Testament, particularly the prophets. Today’s reading from Matthew cites four verses from Isaiah which describe the humble way in which Jesus undertakes his mission of justice and mercy. The words originally applied to the exiled nation of Israel, similarly called by God to be a light to the world.

This call to justice is interesting, because it can be applied both internally and externally. Internally, Jesus is reminding the Jews that God desires mercy above sacrifice (he has just been condemned by religious leaders for committing the “sin” of performing a healing on the Sabbath). Externally, his message of justice for everyone is a thorn in the side of the Roman empire. No one is blameless, but all are worth redeeming.

It’s good to keep that thought in mind as we navigate through the modern world as well. When we perceive ourselves as the victims or the oppressed, it can be easy to overlook our own shortcomings. For evidence of this we can look to Washington, where each political party, once it takes power, attempts to justify behavior it has recently condemned in the other. Or we can look to the Christian church in America: as Americans become more diverse in belief and unbelief, many Christians mistake someone else’s free speech for an erosion of their own rights, and - ironically - attempt to clamp down on religious liberties. When the oppressed eventually find themselves in the position to oppress, our lesser nature usually asserts itself.

How can we avoid that trap? One way is to always focus on justice for others while we are seeking justice for ourselves. Martin Luther King famously said “"if one of us is not free, then none of us are truly free." Being oppressed by the Romans didn’t make the Jews more merciful to their own widows and orphans, so we should not assume that because we are oppressed we must be in the right, individually or as a group.

When Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies it is not just to adjust their attitude towards us, but equally to soften our hearts toward them.

Evening readings: Psalms 100; 67

Justice or Just You?

Today's readings: Psalms 50, 147:1-11; Isaiah 6:1-13; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12; John 7:53-8:11

Today's readings contain a lot of words about justice. In Psalm 50, God is portrayed as a devouring fire and a mighty tempest delivering judgment (v 3-4). Smack in the middle of the verses of praise from Psalm 147, God is casting down the wicked (v 6). In Isaiah's vision cities are laid to waste and the land made desolate and reduced to stumps as a result of God's wrath and justice (6:11-13). In his letter Paul tells the Thessalonian church that "it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you" (v 6).

Then we get to one of the most famous stories in the Bible, the story of the woman who is about to be stoned for adultery. She gets to walk away when Jesus challenges anyone without sin to cast the first stone. Before he speaks that famous line, he squats down and starts writing on the ground. The Bible does not explain what he wrote, but several theories are floating around: he was stalling to collect his thoughts; he was cataloging the sins of her accusers; he was writing their names as a subtle way of displaying his supernatural knowledge. There's an intriguing case to be made that, per the prophecies of Jeremiah, he was the only one present actually interested in delivering justice as prescribed by the laws of the temple (which also required the presence of her conspicuously absent male cohort) and writing in the dirt was part of the ritual.

Whether any or none of those speculations is true, there is a powerful message in the uncertainty. Any one of us could think of something we would prefer Jesus not know about, let alone write down for the world to see. Thinking about our own shortcomings shifts our focus from justice to mercy. Too often justice is what we want to happen to other people, while mercy is what we hope for ourselves. Of course justice is important, but without mercy it is only revenge. When we stoop to pick up a rock, we're in a perfect position to read what's written in the dirt at our feet. Justice may be blind, but Jesus restores sight.

Evening readings: Psalms 53, 17

The Doctrine of Mercy

Today's readings: Ps 37:1-18; Job 16:16-22, 17:1, 13-16; Acts 13:1-12; John 9:1-17

Once there was a devout man who wanted very much to follow Christ. Every Sunday he arrived early for worship, closed his eyes and prayed for a heart full of mercy. One week a family with a four-year-old girl began sitting near him in church. The little girl had never been to church before, and asked many questions in a not very quiet voice. After several weeks the man asked his pastor to talk to the family: the girl was interrupting his prayers to be more patient and forgiving.

The confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees over his healing of a blind man on the Sabbath is essentially a story of the same age-old conflict in the faith community. Jesus was constantly on the move. If he had observed the letter of the Sabbath law, the opportunity to heal the blind man would have passed. Given a choice between mercy and doctrine, Jesus chose mercy. Reaction from the Pharisees was confused: on one hand he’d broken the prohibition against work by kneading spit and mud together, but on the other – how could anyone not from God have performed such a sign? They launched an investigation.

Two thousand years of Christian perspective help us discern the misguided actions of the praying man and the Pharisees. Are we as perceptive about our own lives? Does our sense of propriety ever preempt an attitude of mercy? To some degree, we all rely on a framework of religious, cultural and/or self-imposed doctrine to structure our understanding of the world. Otherwise we’d spend an inordinate amount of time rebuilding that understanding in response to every new situation and piece of information. For example, most of us know whether or not cursing is acceptable in a given social situation without thinking too hard about it. One Sunday minister Tony Campolo told a congregation thousands of children died of starvation every day and nobody seemed to “give a sh*t.” He correctly noted more people were upset by his word choice than the number of starving children. If he got the attention of anyone who then helped a single hungry child, did social doctrine matter? If on Monday morning we are dwelling on the foul-mouthed minister and not the starving children, it’s time to re-examine our hearts.

Comfort: We choose mercy because God chooses mercy.

Challenge: Make a list of doctrines/rules that guide your behaviors.

Prayer: God of life, create in me a heart that is more than a rulebook.

Evening readings: Ps 37:19-42

Tomorrow's readings: Ps 31; Job 19:1-7, 14-27; Acts 13:13-25; John 9:18-41