Is This Truly Possible for you and me?

⁷ but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, 
⁸   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.

This Holy Week has been one of the strangest Holy Weeks I have ever experienced. My mind was full of all kinds of emotions, this week, thinking about what all of this ritual and tradition is truly all about. 

I was reading all of the texts, I've read for many year; and yet my heart was  bumping up against questions with no answers. 

The Wisdom of God verse the wisdom of the human mind.

The character of Jesus' call to love against the ugliness of war.

The claim that love wins, that faces the truth of world military power.

And I am reminded of an assignment I gave to my confirmation class during a national presidential election years ago.  They were to campaign for Jesus as President of the United States.  Comparing Jesus to the other candidate

After months of working and debating their concludion was: "Jesus didn't have a chance, he was too nice." 

And I am thinking about the man Jesus the Christ, who entered the world as a tiny boy, born in a messy stable surround with less than clean farm animals.

The famous star shining, in the dark winter sky, as a bright form of direction to the entire world -- this amazing occurrence  of great change that was to come.  Had indeed  come.

And I am wondering about this child's full impact on a world, such as ours. in the year 2022 and beyond.

I am wondering if the people of today actually know the change that began with that tiny manger scene.  What this baby, embodied by the Creator God himself, was to bring to this earthly people?

I am wondering if the people of today really know what they are celebrating on  Easter morning so many centuries later?

That baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, grew up to be an exemplary example of what the human creature -- created in the beginning of time called "very good."

What this Jesus did, said and modeled where offensive to most who listened and watched.  The changes he requested were too opposite of what they where use to.

This perfect example of the true character of God's intentions, born in a manger, was crucified for what God wanted most for all of his people.

These few line, from Philippians, give us clear and concise details of Jesus' true character; and why he did what he did and said what he said. 

⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 
⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited, 
⁷ but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, 
⁸   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. 

⁹ Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name, 
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.  

"This is why he can serve  as exemplar for the rest of us.  "Let the same mind be in you." Paul writes, apparently believing that this is within our reach....We (can)  witness the kind of self-emptying that we too are capable of....we are as free as Jesus to decide how we will spend our energy; on self-protection or self-donation, on saving ourselves or driving ourselves away......"  (Barbara Brown Taylor  Feasting on the Word pages. 173 and 175 Year C, Volume 2)

Because of the presence of the Holy Spirt in us, in our world, we too have the ability to: Empty ourselves, Humble ourselves and become obedient...  

Emptied ourselves 

        Humbled ourselves

            and become obedient .... 

"The Light Shines in the Darkness.."

 Through the years I have taken great comfort in the word’s of Isaiah:  “A light shine in the darkness and the darkness has not over come it.”

     

There is a truth in those words that helps me have hope in the impossible -- the darkest of times.

In my eighty some years I have live through the Korean War, Vietnam war, the destruction of divorce, our unfortunate four years with a destructive president in our own country, and now the Russian atrocity in the Ukraine.

In all the darkness I have held close to the truth of this Light that overcomes the evil that lurks in an otherwise good world.  This morning I read Isaiah 42:1-9, the assigned reading for the Monday of Holy Week.

And my mind is struggling with all kinds of wondering.

^{Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.} 

^{5 Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations,
7   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
   my glory I give to no other,
   nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
   and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
   I tell you of them.}

The one who came to transform the world did not speak against the powers to be.  He didn’t cry out in opposition.

^{I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.}

I read that passages and thought — how can anyone bring justice?

And then I remembered  how Jesus stood silent, before Pilate, when asked to defend his case.  He said nothing to change his fate.

As Willian Goettler writes: ".... Jesus, the one who would not cry out with a warrior's call, the one who would not grow impatient with a people who failed to understand, the one who would refuse to harm those he knew to be weak....the Servant will be a witness, a light, to the nations. Light to a people who have grown accustomed to the gloom...." (p. 187 Feasting on the Word Year C, volume 2)

And now I sit silent wondering about it all and how it is all suppose to work. 

Does the Light shine thorough the darkness of awful? 

And how much good does that light do in the midst of power like Russian troops who disregard any form of human need?

^{9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.} 

Has God done a "new thing?"

Craziness is messing with my faith here.

Then I stopped my crazy making mind and tried to look away from larger picture.  A picture that doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of Light shining through all the crap going on in our world today -- a truth that cannot be ignored

I am thinking, I -- we -- need to stop looking at the larger world view and start noticing the way God is working in the more ordinary daily picture.  

About all of those men women and children who bravely face the terror occurring in their country.  The strength God has given them to fight back.

I am thinking about all of those silent servants that move about our world doing silent kindnesses without notice.

Or the small tiny way that justice happens without riots and loud yelling on the TV.

I am thinking about strangers, sitting around the dinner table, sharing a meal, having Communion together; then talking about their faith in an easy comfortable  manner.  In some way brave enough to share their hope and confessions.

All little ways that ordinary people share the Light with each other.

And, know the Spirit's Light still moves all these centuries later. 

It is just that we aren't able to perceive how God is moving about is such awful. 

The Prodigal Son Continues

"Dream God's dream Holy Spirit help us dream of a world where there is justice and where everyone is free. To build and grow and love and to simply have enough.  The world will change when we dream God's dream."

This refrain keep going through my mind the last day or so.  It is a song that was introduced to me about ten years ago.  The song, in total, sends a powerful message to the world today. 

In a world where there is so much hatred and tension and waring the parable of the Prodigal Son is a perfect example how the world is suppose to be.  

Which is not at all like the world we live in.

The parable is about what God meant the world to be like.  

Jesus uses this story to tell us the truth about human tendency to move away from Gods intention.  To rather seek immediate gratification at any cost. Even if you break your father's -- and most certianly your mother's --  heart in the doing.

Even if you break the social custom and religious rules.

Even if you leave your brother to do your part of the family business.

You just disregard it all for your own happiness and gratification.  

And the only one who seems to be bothered about it all is your older brother. Who react in the typical manner of any human ego.  Who calls for "fairness."

The real world spelled out in one little story with so many implications.

The focus of this dream is the father's action.

God's dream was alive right smack in the middle of it all the messiness.

Just like God's dream is living right smack in the middle of all the crap we face every minute of each day right here in the year 2022.

I share with you Michael B. Curry"s word about the dream in his commentary:

"As this story unfolds, it is clear that the parable is more about the determined, compassion, infinite providence of God than it is about the ways of God's prodigal children."

Such a vision of the vastness and depth of the love, grace, compassion and justice of God lies behind Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son.  This parable points to God’s deepest desire, greatest yearning, and passionate dream for all pf God’s children and the whole of God’s creation…..It is God’s dream to renew, reconcile, repair, and restore the creation;  that is the magnetic power in the parable of the Prodigal Son pulling the prodigal back home.....(Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol. 2)

I believe that God is constantly moving about in our world situations today making the changes needed.

But our simple -- limited -- minds are not able to take it all in.

The best news is God understands us and loves us despite ourselves.