CAN YOU SEE?

June 12, 2016

Pentecost 4

Luke 7:36 - 8:3

Back in 2009, how quickly the TV talent show judges judged Susan Boyle - they saw her appearance and wrote her off.  This will be good for a laugh; that is all.

You can see the embarrassment for her in the judges’ eyes as she shook her hips and laid claim to the dream of being a professional singer (well, not Simon, he was ready to pounce on her audacity to waste his valuable time).

And then the she sang...

//

Susan Boyle (and others like her) gave rise to a new twist on the TV talent competition which began with “The Voice of Holland” in 2010, with US and UK versions to follow.  There have been versions of The Voice now in 59 counties or regions.

What makes The Voice different from the “Got Talent” or “Idol” franchises is that the celebrity judges do not look at the contestants as they audition - they only listen.  They don’t get to “see” them until they have already said yes to the person continuing in the competition.

They don't judge the book by its cover.

//

//

Luke tells us that Jesus had been invited to the home of a pharisaic leader, named Simon (not related to the TV talent judge, as far as I know).

You heard the story.

A party crasher came in and went straight to Jesus and started rub his feet.  It was a deeply emotional moment for her.  Her tears fell on Jesus feet and she had to use her hair to try and dry them.  She kissed his feet.  She rubbed ointment on them.

In Simon, the host’s eyes, it was a disruption.  That would have been true, not matter who she was.  But it was worse because she had a ‘bad’ reputation in that community. 

No one in the story tells us what the nature of her sins were, but clearly, she was not someone anyone of any social standing would invite into their circle.

The fact that Jesus accepted her attention - in Simon’s mind - said more about Jesus that it did about her.

Reading between the lines of the story, we can presume that Simon had invited Jesus to diner because Jesus had developed a reputation as a prophet - one who speaks and acts with authority.  Seeing Jesus allow this sinner to touch him and kiss him made Simon second guess his original assessment of Jesus.

He whisper (to himself - the text says - but obviously, Simon wanted others to hear him as well):

‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’

Jesus was not intimidated.

In fact, he welcomed her and defended her all the more, praising her for the act of welcome - comparing it to the lack of attention Simon had paid to Jesus.

//

I don’t know what ‘sin(s)’ this woman committed, but clearly Simon was not interested in her ability to find renewal, restoration, pardon, assurance.  All he saw was her sin, which he had decided was permanent.  She was not worthy of anyone’s compassion - at least not in his house.  And if his guests thought differently, then Simon wondered if they belonged there as well.

//

Jesus looked at this person in an opposite way.  He saw a woman.  Maybe she was a legitimate sinner (the text seems to assume this), but Jesus ignores the sin and embraces the person. 

Jesus declared her many sins, forgiven.  Her slate was whipped clean in Jesus’ eyes. 

Her faith was justification enough.

//

There is not one of us who does not have a history of behaving like Simon.  In fact, I suspect that most of us do it every day, in one way or another.  I count myself in that number!

Without knowing anything about someone’s life story, we make judgements about who they must be.  We might give them more credit than they deserve, or (like Simon), less.

Often we catch ourselves and keep those quick assessments to ourselves. 

Maybe - the best of our faith learning kicks in and we fight against those urges to ‘judge and dismiss’ and try to approach things the way we imagine Jesus might.

In those moments, we have opened more than our eyes - we have opened our hearts.

For God so loved the world

that Jesus was given,

not to condemn it but to save it.

God does not (so much) look at the world, but into the world.  Condemnation is easy.  We set the criteria in our heads and decide who’s in and who’s out.

As my go-to-folk-singer said (in a concert one time):  we build this religion around this [wily, crazy carpenter] and suddenly the gates are all closed and the fences are high and we look around and... he’s outside the fence.

The goodness (the Gospel) is that the Holy Way is one of welcome, forgiveness and renewal.

Jesus not only taught this.

He lived it.

//

The author of Luke added the notation to the end of this story that the group that travelled with Jesus through the various villages and towns were both women and men - some of them with fairly checkered pasts.  Luke points out that among Jesus’ closest followers and travelling companions were those who benefited from his gifts of healing and his forgiving heart.  One of the women that was mentioned specifically might have raised eyebrows - Joanna, was the wife of King Herod’s steward.  Herod was seen by his people as a sellout to the Romans - a person who’s claim to leadership was a tenuous family history and a lot of empire butt-kissing.

Why would Jesus want to welcome someone with such close ties to Galilee’s puppet king?

Jesus saw past her reputation and she served Jesus’ gospel and ministry.

There was also Mary, who at one time was so ‘not herself’ that she was said to have been dominated by seven demons.  We don’t know what physical or mental impairments she had, but it is fair to assume that at her worst, she must have been judged harshly by passersby - not given much hope of offering anything to society other than her ability to scare and annoy because of how different she was.

I will not perpetuate the horrid notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.  That reputation is NOT biblical and needs to leave our minds and sense of church history. 

Mary was ill.  Jesus healed her.  And she responded in gratitude and service - eventually becoming one of the central figures in the Jesus’ movement.

Jesus saw beyond the surface and got to know the person inside, as often as possible.

//

My goal in life is that if someone is going to have a bad reputation is my eyes, they are going to have to earn it.  I will assume the best about them, until then.

I struggle with this sometimes, but I work on it.

//

//

God’s passion for justice is a powerful thing.  When we rely on our best hope and faith, we are guided by God to see with hearts of compassion, not eyes of judgement.

//

It is so hard to watch how negative the political discourse is this election season south of the border.  Insulting nicknames based on heritage or physical characteristics.  Pre-judging people based on their gendre, their race, their ability. 

Where is the compassion?

Where is the humility?

//

I remain hopeful that what makes entertaining TV is not the final word.

//

I am a firm believer that in democratic societies, we always deserve the leaders we vote for.  And we have survived bad choices and been surprised by good ones.

Politics always divides - which is why faith is always superior to politics - not always as much fun, but superior.

//

//

If you have seen the news today, you know that there is a new record holder for the largest single location mass shooting in the United States.  Fifty people were killed in the Pulse Orlando Night Club in Florida last night.

It is early.  Too early to know why this shooter felt justified in doing this.  A couple of obvious theories are being bandied about based on demographics of the gunman and the victims.  One theory not getting a lot of traction yet is that this was the act of a deranged individual who didn't understand what he was doing.  The early assumption is that this was a deliberate act of carnage.

What kind of thinking goes into planning this kind of deliberate death.  Sadly, the victims may have been targeted - not as individuals - but because of a surface assumption of who they are.  Sadly, pundits are making similar assumptions about the shooter.

Judging books by their cover is not only a problem of rhetoric.  Hateful rhetoric espoused on blogs, on campaign trails, in houses of worship, on street corners is part of the environment that leads to acts like this.

//

Our faithful proclamations and actions do not have to be part of the problem.  They can be the alternative that Jesus showed us at the home of Simon the pharisee. 

Let us follow Jesus' Way!

//

// end //

Faith can remind us of what we hold in common - that (each of us) are created in the image of God. 

That God loves the whole world and the result is our redemption not our condemnation.

Can we see this?

Can we follow this?

The early followers of Jesus had his example to watch and follow. 

We have the stories of that example to inspire us.

//

Jesus welcomes us along this Way.

//

Thanks be to God.

//

Let us pray:

God of grace and power, open our hearts to know your care.  Open our arms to show your care.  Amen.

#371VU  Open My Eyes

THE REASONS WHY

June 5, 2016

Pentecost 3

Luke 7:11-15

Galations 1:11-24

(prayer)

If you were here at St. David's last week, you would have heard me speak about how each of us faces many limitations (beyond our control) that require us to make decisions of what/who is worthy of our time, energy and resources.

I spoke about the scriptural example of Jesus stretching the envelope of care beyond those who shared his cultural and religious and political heritage some 20 years before the Apostle Paul would pen the famous words that (in Christ), there is no slave or free, jew or greek, male or female.

I pointed to the idea that Jesus' decision to heal the centurion's servant provided a glimpse into the unlimited compassion of God.

Last week, I briefly mentioned that a very common means by which people prioritize their decision-making is based on the goal of achieving a 'comfortable amount of contentment' in their lives.  The variations in how this is lived out for different people depend on how widely an individual is concerned that contentment and comfort is extended beyond themselves.

My main message last week was an open one:  each of us is invited to consider (for ourselves) how wide we want our circles of care to be - given the natural limitations we all face as finite beings.

//

I feel the prescribed lectionary readings for today are inviting me to take a step back and explore more deeply what it can mean to be content and comfortable.  And ask... is there some encouragement from our scriptures and the history of faith that might pull us in a particular direction?

So, here it goes!

//

I think we seek to advance comfort and contentment for basically three reasons:

1.    our own safety and self-preservation;

2.    to advance ourselves and our place in society - which may include a campaign of looking good to others;

3.    out of compassion for others - to varying degrees of how we define "others".

Numbers one and two are not wrong in and of themselves.  We all - for good and fair reasons - care about our own comfort and well-being.

And... I will claim that even the most self-focused person makes some decisions for the well-being of others.

I suggest that we can begin there.

We all make decisions...

-to protect ourselves,

-to advance our own happiness, and

-to (sacrificially) build others up.

It is the proportions we assign that define us and distinguish us.

//

Let's explore the examples of Jesus and Paul from today's readings.

//

//

The very next story included in the 3rd Gospel after the cross-cultural healing we read last week is another healing tale, this time in the hebrew village of Nain (about 50km SW of Capernaum).

As we heard this morning, Jesus and his disciples arrived in town as a large funeral profession was in progress.  It was for a relatively young man.  His mother was the focus of the mourners.  She was a widow and this was her only son.

Culturally, after her husband died, the duty of care for this woman rightly fell to her son.  But, on his death, she would be teetering on the edges of the cracks of first century cultual social services.

Widows without family support needed to rely on the charity of others for their sustenance.  Very few peasant women in Jesus' time had opportunities to work and provide for themselves without a lot of support from the community.

//

There are three groups that the Hebrew Torah dictates special care for: orphans, widows, and immigrants.  There are specific laws in Deuteronomy that stated that:

²  every third year there was to be a special offering to support these people in need (Dt 1:29); and

²  at harvest time, the field workers were not to go back and clean up the produce they missed the first time over - this was to be left for the widows, orphans and aliens to collect (Dt 24:20).

//

Unless, the mother in Nain re-married, she would spend the rest of her life relying on scrounging for forgotten grain and going to the first century equivalent of food banks.  Hardly a life of dignity.

This woman's future, in the shadow of her only son's death, was to live meal-to-meal in hopes that people would be faithful to the Torah most of the time.

Given the size of the funeral crowd, it does appear that she will have support within her community... at least in the short term.

//

Everyone of us who has experienced grief, know the reality that - for understandable reasons - the visits and explicit support from fellow mourners wanes, as time progresses.  People move on with other priorities in their lives.

But often the needs of the family endure beyond the intial that everyone felt.

//

And she would have to hope and worry that there were not too many others who might need to draw on the limited charitable resources.

//

The gospel of Luke tells us that not long after Jesus expanded his circle of care by healing a gentile slave in Capernaum, he made it clear that this was not a move away from the needs in his own people.

The story goes that - out of compassion for the mother - Jesus interrupted the procession to the cemetery.  He transformed tears of grief into tears of joy, when (at Jesus' command), the dead man sat up and embraced his mother.

Amazing.

Wonderful.

Unexplainably miraculous.

//

//

In the story last week, the impact of renewal went beyond the life of the healed slave.

The centurion who owned this slave maintained a valuable relationship.  He would not need to feel the grief (or inconvenience) that the slave's untimely death would have brought.

And... the synagogue elders were poised to continue to benefit from their cosy relationship with the local roman authorities.

//

The same is true today as a result of the events in Nain.

Beyond the longer life for the son, the future for the mother is transformed. 

And... the benevolent resources of the community would be available to serve other pressing needs.

//

In summary.

One of the side messages that go with these tales of miraculous hearings is that acts of renewal (focused primarily on one person) can enliven a culture of care that reaches much wider.

//

//

//

The first time we meet the Apostle Paul in the chronology of the New Testament is at the execution of Stephen, one of the second wave of early Christian leaders who joined the original disciples after Jesus' death and resurrection.

Acts, chapter six describes Stephen as a person "full of grace and power" who performed great signs and wonders among the people.  But... Stephen's words and actions didn't please everyone.  Some people from the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called) led a movement to have a Sanhedrin Council investigation into whether Stephen had committed blasphemy by speaking against the Temple and the Torah.

Stephen's opponents got their way and the Christian leader was dragged into the street and stoned to death.  The legend goes that Stephen kept proclaiming the gospel of Jesus right up to the end. 

Paul (Acts tells us) was there and approved of the execution.

Acts then tells us that Paul took an active roll to bring more of the followers of Jesus to justice.  He sought and received authorization from the Temple leaders to arrest "Followers of the Way" (as the Christians called themselves) wherever he found them.

//

Then something happened.

//

In his NT letters, Paul never described the previse event that forced a change of heart, but twenty-plus years later, the people of the church could read in the Acts of the Apostles (a sequel to the gospel of Luke) about a dramatic vision of the Risen Christ that left Paul temporarily blind and needing to rely on the very people he was persecuting for his well-being (cf. Acts 9).

//

As we heard from Paul's Galation correspondence today, he admitted that he was (by nature) a very zealous person - who (when committed to a course of action) did not hold back.

When Paul became convinced that he was on the wrong side of the Jesus issue, he became as fervent a promoter of 'The Way' as he had been a persecutor.

//

//

Why did Jesus choose to heal the centurion's slave and the widow's son?

Why did Paul decide to become an active follower of The Way?

//

It may very well be that they were prepared to be guided (in the moment) by the Spirit and Mystery of God.

Why these two specific healings for Jesus?  For the same reason, people climb mountains.  Because they were there.  Jesus didn’t seek them out especially.  He just happened upon them as he was going about his day's business,

When the centurion's slave and widow's son entered into the sphere of Jesus' influence, his heart was moved and adjusted his schedule to include them... not only by their particular need but the impact the healing would have on others in their lives.

//

When Paul became convinced that the Spirit of the Risen Christ had invited him to join The Way (and to take a lead role in sharing the Gospel to the gentile world), that was enough for him.  Paul sought no further affirmation - it wasn't until years later that he even went and met with the established leaders of the Jerusalem Christian community.

Paul's efforts were not motivated by schmoozing with the right people to build himself up.  Rather, he wanted to take his sphere of influence directly out into communities that were totally unfamiliar with Jesus, his traditions or the movement that evolved in his name.

To Paul, that is where the Spirit was leading him - to be an apostle to the gentiles.

//

//

How do we prioritize our mission and ministry?

//

To me, the answer begins with focusing on the what is in our midst.  What opportunities do we encounter in the course of normal living.  We practice the practice of ministry in the places we already are.

Then, as the Spirit guides, we move out as our abilities and opportunities increase:

Our St. David's motto says it well... welcome in and reach out.

//

Why? 

Because the Spirit of God is in our midst and we serve Jesus with the aid of the Holy Mystery.

Just as Paul was not alone as he blindly made his way to Damascus into compassionate arms of his enemies, WE ARE NOT ALONE.

We will say that together in a few minutes as we gather around this table of community blessing.

Let those words ring true for you.

//

//

We are within the sphere of God's influence... and that empowers us to be courageous and faithful agents of Jesus' Way with those within our circles of care.

//

//

Let us pray:

Holy One, may our experience with your compassion transform us so we can make you known through acts of justice and kindness in the world.  Amen.

***offerings***

A WORTHY DISCUSSION

May 29, 2016

Pentecost 2

Luke 7:1-10

(prayer)

Last Monday, when I found my seat in Commonwealth Stadium for the annual provincial high school all-star football game ("The Senior Bowl"), I noticed that all around me were small shiny pieces of plastic paper (about half an inch by two inches). 

I figured out pretty quickly that it was confetti left over from the Beyoncé concert a few days earlier.

Queen B's tour was in town to promote her newest album - which is called Lemonade.

Okay, other than watching her perform in the Super Bowl halftime show, I haven't listened to the music on the album (my car radio is usually tuned the oldies station... oldies now-a-days being defined as the music of the 70s and 80s)... but the all-knowing internet tells me that the concept theme of Beyoncé's Lemonade record is "every woman's journey of self-knowledge and healing".

The album title owes itself to the 100 year old proverb - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

I am not going to get into the tabloid speculation of what Beyoncé's lemons have been, but I am quite sure that none of us needs to be pop-music royalty to relate to optimistic invitation to make lemonade of life's lemons: to create a sweet option to a bitter situation

//

//

We don't exist in a utopian paradise devoid of pain, or difficulty, or struggle.

Even though there are texts at the beginning and end of our Bibles that claim such a paradise as our 'metaphoric' earliest past and our long-hoped-for future promise, they are not any lasting experience anyone has yet known in any lasting way.

//

Although, every life has experiences of wonderfully sweet bliss (that we wish could last forever), we also lay claim to times of miserable bitterness (that we must -at best - live though).

//

Last week, I noted that our best observations tell us that our species has only been around for 0.0014% of the Universe's history (only about two hundred thousand of fourteen billion years).

Given that the worldwide human life expectancy is 71.4 years (82.2 in Canada), on average, each of us will make up only 0.0000005% (five, ten millionth of one percent) of the span of creation.

Limiting it just to human history, each of us holds only 35/1000th of a percent of our species' story.

Feel small, yet?

//

However you do the math, we are limited by the time we have been graced with.

The potential impact that each one of us has in this world is finite.  The simple truth is that we - all - will leave more on the table, when we breath our last.  No one leaves this world having done it all.

//

It is a simple reality to existence that we are hostages to the scarcity of time.

//

We all know this.

//

And because we all know this, every person - at some point or another - struggles with what is truly important to them.

How will we use the time graced to us? 

//

//

The most common guide that people use... is to make choices that can result in inner joy and comfort over the long haul. 

To varying degrees people want this not only for themselves but for a circle of those around us.  The social question (that each person decides for themselves) is.. how wide will this circle be?

//

In an environment of scarcity, some choice-mechanism needs to be used to decide how best to use what we have available. 

With zero judgment in my voice, I believe that, in an environment of scarcity, we learn to feel comfortable with tests of worthiness - what/who is worthy of my time, energy and resources?

And... I will say again, that even the most generous among us will leave good possibilities on the table at the end of this life.

//

//

Although, Jesus spent most of his life in the land-locked village of Nazareth, as we read the New Testament, it makes sense to assume that the seaside fishing village of Capernaum served as Jesus' home base for later-life career as a travelling teacher and healer.

It was on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus is said to have begun to accumulate a group of committed disciples.

Today, we heard a story from Luke chapter seven of an encounter in Jesus' adopted home.

//

I must admit that there is much in today's reading that doesn't sit easy with my 21st century mindset.

Similar to last week's reading from the book of Acts, the story centres around the entitled value that someone placed in their indentured servant (slave).

It bears noting that - although the theme of spiritual liberation is raised throughout the New Testament - the institution of human slavery is not challenged.. not even by Jesus - as we see in Luke 7 today.

The best the early church leaders could do is to proclaim that slavery might divide people in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of God. 

And the goal was that people of the church would view all of the faithful as 'one in christ'.

The Apostle Paul put it the most clearly in a letter he wrote to the Christians of Galatia:

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are

one in Christ Jesus.

(Galations 3:26-28)

//

Paul needed to write these words because, decades after Jesus walked the earth, people (proclaiming a faithfulness to Jesus' Way) were still making worthiness judgments towards other members of the church based on things like gendre, social status, religious background, nationality.

If that was still a growing edge for the early Christians 20 years post-easter, we should not be surprised to see worthiness debates in stories from the life of Jesus.

//

We can infer from the passage today, that Jesus was relatively new to Capernaum at the time of the story.  He had been around long enough to have earned a reputation as a skilled healer, but short enough that the town's jewish elders felt the need to share the local history about roman soldiers at the Centre of today's story.

//

Jesus was being asked to come to the aid of a person-in-need who (although from a very different cultural community than Jesus) was held in high esteem by the Hebrew leaders in Capernaum.

//

As I said, there are contextual things about this passage that bother me.  Like the fact that the centurian's unnamed slave was not really the focus of the conversation.

Ironically, it was not the person who was ill that Jesus was asked to help.  The focus was entirely on the respected Roman soldier - who was bothered that he would lose the services of his highly valued slave.

To be fair, the text does not explain why the slave was so valuable to the centurian.  It could be that he performed services that would be hard to replace.  It could be that a real friendship (as much as is possible) had developed between master and slave.  The cynic in me is drawn toward the end of the spectrum where the impending death of the centurian's slave was more an issue of inconvenience than a broken heart.

//

Sadly, through my 21st century glasses, the issue of whether a sick person was worthy of healing is never brought up.

And it is not really even the Centurian's sake that Jesus is asked to act.

The elders' motivation based on their own selfishness desires.  They have benefited from the philanthropic attitude of the centurian.  He put up the money to have the local synagogue built.  In an era of foreign occupation, the Hebrews living in Capernaum were very fortunate to have an advocate among the ranks of the occupiers.

"Jesus, you have to help this guy... for our sake!"

//

Even though the core of this story - to me - seems to be centered on questionable motivations, I do believe that Luke 7 can point us to to helpful reflections for our lives today.

//

//

I think that it is good for us to be thinking about what it might mean for our spirituality today to see how the boundaries of worthiness were stretched in today's bible reading.

I am going to try and make some lemonade out of the lemons.

//

Paul's well-articulated boundaries had not yet worked their way into the Christian lexicon, but in this story we see Jesus challenge the assumed boundaries that serve to divide people.  These boundaries were one of the first considerations when faced with limited resources.

Jesus was just one person - there were innumerable needs for healing in every community.  Jesus only had so many hours in a day in which to share his talents.

It just wasn't practical for him to meet every need.

He needed to set some priorities.

If you had to choose between his own people and the foreigners (if you could only help the master or the slave), people will come to their own conclusions of who is most worthy of your attention.

//

The assumption was that Jesus, the Jewish mystic rabbi and healer, might be reticent to getting involved with people outside his own cultural and religious community.

But this centurion held a prominent place in the lives of the people of Capernaum - Jesus hadn't lived there long enough to have learned that for himself.

On the surface, it might look like helping the centurion would be crossing that boundary between Jew and Gentile, but the elders wanted to make the case that Jesus would be really helping out his own people by helping their wealthy and powerful benefactor.

"He is worthy", the elders pleaded.

//

As Jesus approached the centurion' home where the ill slave was, Jesus got a different message from the benefactor - through his messengers.

"I am not worthy to have you in my home."

I never know how to take this part of the passage. 

If we take it on face value, it is a high compliment towards Jesus and an unusual self-condemnation by the soldier.  But it seems counter to the centurion's original request.  Remember it was he who approached the Jewish elders about asking Jesus to heal the slave. 

If that is where the message ended, it would sound like the centurion was backing out.

But... it was a challenge for Jesus to perform the healing in a non-conventional way.  There would be no physical exam, no balms or herb tonics.

"Heal my valued salve with the power of your will alone, Jesus."

Here is where the centurion changes tune.  No longer is he too lowly to have great Jesus in his midst.  Now they are peers.

"I am a commander.  I don't need to go to the front line of a battle to wage war.  I simply have to order my soldiers to go and do my bidding.  Because, I have power over them, because I control them, they do what I say."

"Jesus, you don't need to come to the front line.  Order your spirit of healing to do your bidding from out here in the street."

Was this deep humble faith on the part of the centurion or was it a test of Jesus' authority?

As the early Christians reflected on this story over the years, they told it as a story of faith that ignored the boundaries between people.

This story supported the reality of the time when Luke's gospel was written that the faith movement centred in Jesus included but Jews and non-Jews.

//

It still bothers me that the actual person who is in need of healing is all but a footnote to the story, but I do like the fact that Jesus' chooses to bring a wide healing to more than just one person.

By ignoring the wall between people, Jesus shows that God's love and compassion are not as limited as we might be prone to assume.

The lemonade I see in this lemon of a healing story is that - in the end the focus is on the impact on the people most affected... and how they are immersed in the life of the wider community.

//

//

//

As I pointed out earlier, during the story time, you can't make lemonade with only lemons.

Somewhere along the way, life has to have given you some other ingredients that when mixed in the right proportions to transform the bitter into sweet.  Or more accurately bitter into bittersweet (part of the enjoyment of lemonade is its tartness).  The harshness of the lemons remains, but it is tempered.

//

So it is with life and ministry.

We are limited in our time... that is the bitter truth... so the challenge is to use our time as well as possible - consistent with our best hope and desires for ourselves.

One of the other things given to us in this life is a faith that God limited by human divisions.

Jesus invites us to stretch our circles of care outward.  When we think it can't stretch any further, Jesus lovingly whispers... push harder... you can go a little further.

//

//

Yes, we are finite beings.

We have limits and limitations.

We are NOT God with the capacity to express and live out a practical compassion to meet every lonely need in the world, each of us, on our own.

And yet we are gifted with as much of the loving resources of our God that our limited hearts and minds can hold.

In our mind, we are invited (as Paul wrote to the Galations and as Jesus demonstrated in Capernaum), the barriers of unworthiness are to be brought down and ignored by the people of Christ. 

So, intellectually,  emotionally, we are challenged to see no one (any where) as unworthy of our concern, worry and care... to love as we profess that God loves.

The limitations of time and energy means that - as individual people of faith our circles of influence will always feel as if they are not wide enough.  We may believe that everyone is worthy of our care, but only a portion of that 'everyone' is within our personal influence.

We can approach that two ways:

We can lament that our circle is never wide enough and see ourselves as less than worthy followers of Jesus; or

We can stretch the circle of our influence to the limit gifted to us AND trust that - there are others doing the same.

As our circles intersect, the worthiness of the whole of God's creation is upheld.

//

Let us pray:

God of Grace, the Good News is clear: there is no one who is unworthy of your compassion.  Nothing we do or think stops you from loving us with all your heart.  We pray that your love is contagious and that we will shine that light to the world.  Amen.

#145MV  “Draw the Circle Wide”