14“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.” (Matthew 25:14-15, NIV)
When Michaela was in the fifth grade, her teacher would redo the seating chart once every couple of months. When she did, she would reward good behavior by sitting you next to your friend. And, as long as you kept up that good behavior, you’d get to keep sitting next to your friend. It was positive reinforcement at its best! Now, Michaela was the kind of kid who mostly listened to the rules in elementary school. She raised her hand and engaged when the teacher asked questions. She did my homework and helped clean up after class. So, when it was time for a new seating chart, she’d wait with anticipation to see where the teacher would place her, hoping of course that it’d be next to one of her friends. But her teacher never placed her next to her friends. Instead, every single time, she was assigned the seat next to Stephen. Stephen was not her friend in the way fifth-graders define friendship. Steven had a hard time paying attention and was loud and was always in trouble with the teacher. Stephen sat alone at lunch and didn’t have anyone to play with at recess. A few years later, she started to look back and wonder if maybe her fifth-grade teacher had entrusted her with Stephen. Entrusted her to care for him and help him, to notice him and be with him. But, a few years after that, she started to wonder if perhaps she had gotten it backward. Perhaps, their teacher had entrusted her to Stephen, helping soften her rule-abiding heart and teaching her to love people who don’t always fit in. Teaching her about the messy, lovely, out-of-sorts way of God’s Kingdom and how to think about friendship beyond the lens of fifth-grader. All these years later, she said that she suspects it was Stephen who left more of an impression on her than the other way around. And, so this passage that’s about investing money, also invites us to think about how we invest in relationships. Who has God entrusted to our care? And, whose care have we been entrusted to? By the way, this language of “entrusted to our care” is a big part of how we define leadership; encouraging us to hinge our work on listening to the longings and losses of people entrusted to our care. Do you have Stephens in your life? People you felt were assigned to but were also assigned to you? In life, we have people who God trusts us with and people who God trusts with us. Our investment in each other truly can pay dividends in God’s Kingdom. In this season of your life, who has God trusted you to care for? Who has God has trusted to care for you? Gracious God, God, you are Lord of relationships. Thank you for the gift of investing in one another and for the ways that our lives can impact one another for the good of your Kingdom. Amen. 19But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:19-21, NIV)
There is a kind of improvisation that happens in jazz and blues from the African American culture. Jazz and blues are the music of a philosophy of life and pain. There is usually no sheet music, one just gets a key signature from the pianist or keyboardist and the rhythm from the bass player. The settling-in is brief. You need to ready to quickly adjust to abrupt changes of rhythm or chords. Or worse, the musicians may decide to stop playing without a warning. Perpetual shifts and changes in the music can make things feel rushed. New experiences can be difficult. There is no time to catch life’s music because things seem to be moving too fast. All we have are brief dreams of what it could sound like. But the more familiarity we have with the ensemble, the more we begin to recognize what is being assembled. It would be nice to have the sheet music directing what is coming next in life, but there is no script when the music is being written live; only the anticipation that the completed work will be good. Joseph must have had some of this improvisational angst when his brothers dropped him in a basket and sent him off to new opportunities in Egypt, or perhaps as an immigrant in a foreign land; or maybe in his engagement with the authorities or other workers. There is irony in this masterpiece of Joseph’s life that gives a crucial reminder that occurs when we see God’s presence. When things fell apart for Joseph, he didn’t check out. Joseph did not punch his brothers or overthrew the government of Egypt or performed a coup deposing Potiphar on account of the pain that he received. Somewhere along the line Joseph caught on to the fact that there will be minor key changes and dropped notes and a lot of improvising that will be necessary in life. There is no sheet music in a basket while you’re on your way to slavery. Why would he hold back the brotherly beat-down his brothers expected in Genesis 50? Because Joseph had had some dreams that reminded him that God was involved and present. Joseph addressed that their intent did not supersede God’s intent: “Even though you intended to harm me.” The irony is that the worst of circumstances are meant for good when God’s presence is more than a doctrine. When we recognize the presence of God wandering through relationships, we find that reconciliation is occurring. God changes the rhythm or the sound but it is always the same score. The good work God began in the garden after the fall will continue – and He will continue it until Christ Jesus comes, looking at a bad, painful, humiliating cross and turning it into something cosmically good for all who believe. Joseph dreams of God’s presence and knows the diminished and flat circumstances will be for major good. Gracious God, when our urgency and anxiety press us to push for change, remind us of Joseph who clearly show us that Your timing is best. 8Then they remembered His words. 9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. (Luke 24:8-9, NIV)
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women had prepared spices and perfumes to care for the body of Jesus, but the women could not find the body of Jesus at the same tomb where they had seen Him laid. They had followed Him throughout His years of ministry from Galilee. They continued to be faithful unto Him even after His death. Death had not impeded their discipleship. They rested on the sabbath of His death and went to the market to purchase the spices for burial. However, what they did not expect was to see two men in dazzling clothes ask them not to look for the living among the dead. Needless to say, it scared the living daylights out of them. The angels reminded them: Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that He would be betrayed, crucified and raised again. It was all they could do to remember the spices in their grief; how could they remember what their spirits had heard? Then they remembered His words. To remember was the first step in their resurrection. To remember the words that had been told them by their greatest Friend. After we have lost someone, we remember their words with more weight than ever before. But these words? These words always sounded altogether unbelievable. They may have encountered an empty tomb, but these had not been empty words. And returning from the tomb. After remembering comes the returning. Returning to the rest of the words. Returning to their bodies. Returning to their memories. Returning to look at that empty tomb one more time. Returning to the thin place of belief and unbelief. Wait; so He really meant that? Returning from somewhere is half the journey. They retold all this to the eleven and to all the rest. After remembering and returning comes the re-telling. They retold what they remembered and what had been revealed. They re-membered with the grief-stricken: the eleven and all the rest. As bodies came together, excited words re-telling the encounter sounded too unbelievable. So much so that the rest thought this was an idle tale. How can we blame them? Denial is the first stage of grief. May you find yourself in the company of those who remember, return and re-tell this story, over and over again, be it in times of great belief in a strong resurrection or times of dis-belief in slow or non-existent resurrections. May you return to Jesus’ words, time and time again, as the grounding force of all our fears. And may you return to the bodies who give witness to His with-ness, time and time again. What are the words of Jesus that you need to be reminded of today? Who do you need to retell today of your encounter with Jesus? Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me as Your friend. Thank You for pruning me so that I can bear fruit for You and carry the Gospel to all those whom You love, everywhere. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in My name the Father will give you. 17This is
My command: Love each other. (John 15:16-17, NIV) John 15 is one of my favorite Scripture passages. In this passage, Jesus is calling us to bear “fruit – more fruitful – much fruit” (John 15:2, 15:5). Jesus’ desire is for us to produce much fruit. Jesus’s mission statement for us, in John 15:16-17, builds on His earlier metaphors in John 15 about the pruning of plants in order that they can bear “fruit – more fruitful – much fruit.” Now, I do not have a green thumb, as a matter of fact, I have the opposite of whatever a green thumb is. Plants seem to die under my care. But this much I know. I know that in order for a plant to produce fruit most efficiently, the branches must be pruned and cut back. I don’t know how plants feel about this, but I know – from personal experience – that the pruning people experience in order to bear fruit for the Kingdom can be painful. But pruning is not enough. The plant still needs to be watered and nourished, and so Jesus moves on to our need to abide in the vine (John 15:4-6). Again, I am no gardener, but I know that a branch or a flower cut from a tree or bush – though you may help it along for a while by putting it in a vase of water – will eventually wither and die. So, it is with people. We may be able to sit around in a vase of (metaphorical) water for a while, subsisting on memories and old habits, but eventually, we need to return to the Source. The reason we go through the pruning, the watering and the nourishing, the reason we need to keep drawing on Jesus’s life and power, is because He has a job for us to do. We are not His servants, but His friends (John 15:12-15). And as His friends, He commissions us to go bear fruit that will last: “fruit – more fruitful – much fruit.” And as His friends, He welcomes us with arms open wide. Many years ago, I read a passage from Henri De Tournville's classic book, “Letters of Direction.” It’s worth repeating here as we contemplate the relationship between the branches and the Vine: The essence of the matter is that our Lord loves you dearly......Come then, show a little deference to our Lord and allow Him to go first. Let Him love you a great deal, a very great deal, long before you have succeeded in loving Him, even a little, as you would wish to love Him. That is all I ask of you, and all our Lord asks of you. On this Mother’s Day, as we remember our moms who have pruned, watered and nurtured us so that we could bear much fruit, let us go forward willing to be pruned, rooted and refreshed in the Source, and ready to bear fruit that the world needs so badly. Where does Jesus need to prune you further? Where can you abide more fully in the Vine? Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me as Your friend. Thank You for pruning me so that I can bear fruit for You and carry the Gospel to all those whom You love, everywhere. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. -Nehemiah 1:4-7
As I’ve been reflecting on the book of Nehemiah and reading the message behind it, I feel that we are in a similar season of “rebuilding the walls” of our church. My time in meditation with the Lord have been filled with calling on the promises of God and trying to be attentive to His Word, confessing of sins and asking Him to lead and guide our church to come back to Him. How are we seeking God’s attention, how have we led our families to the foot of the cross, and how do we actively live with the Spirit of God inside of us? We recently celebrated Easter and remember the truth of Jesus’ resurrection as we call on His name. We are raised to life with Him and are called to continue living out the truth of the Good News of Christ. The challenge of coming back before the Lord and obeying His commands and gathering those farthest away and bringing them back to the presence and dwelling place of God, we ought to have this intention in how we live. What areas in our hearts and lives do we need to rebuild? Within our broken world, walls are used to isolate and confine, but in our life of faith, walls are used to fortify and protect the things we hold dear and cherish. Let us hold fast to the truth of Jesus Christ, we pray and gather as one body, let’s reflect on the grace of God and rebuild the walls of our hearts and fortify the church together. |
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