The Way of Love: Bless and Go

The scriptures referred to are in the text.

You don't hear the word “bless” outside church unless somebody sneezes. Or a Southern lady softens her criticism of someone by adding “Bless her heart!” When we use the word “blessed” what do we mean? It depends on whether you are using it as a verb or as an adjective, as what a person does or what someone or something is.

Altogether some form of “bless,” “blessing” or “blessed” is used 78 times in Genesis, more than any other book in the Bible. Even the Psalms fall short of that number. And the verb “blessed” shows up twice in the very first chapter. After God created the birds and all the inhabitants of the sea, he blessed them. (Genesis 1:22) And after he created humans in his image, he blessed them. (Genesis 1:28) To bless in this sense is to bestow divine favor on something or someone. A blessing is a divine gift. It has a purpose and an effect. When God blesses his creatures it is so that they are fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. It is the only thing God has told us to do that we have done wholeheartedly.

In Genesis 12 God tells Abraham that he will make him a great nation and bless him “so that you will be a blessing...In you will all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3) We often get wrong the idea of God's people being chosen. They are not chosen because they are inherently better than others. (Deuteronomy 7:7) They are chosen and blessed so that they may be a channel of God's blessing to others.

There is a difference in what the verb “to bless” means is when we bless God. Here we touch on the root of the Hebrew word “to bless” which is “to kneel.” We are not bestowing divine favor on God; we are humbly acknowledging his greatness and graciousness. It also reflects the Greek word for “to bless” which means “to speak well of.” Again we are not bestowing divine favor on God; we are praising him.

When the word “blessed” is used an an adjective, it means the person or thing is considered valuable by God. Being blessed is also good for one's well-being, if not now then in the future. It is in this sense that “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” (Acts 20:35). It is a good thing to be a generous person. It is also in this sense that being poor in spirit, or in mourning, or meek, or hungry and thirsty for righteousness, or merciful, or pure in heart, or peacemakers, or persecuted is blessed. (Matthew 5:3-12) These things do not feel as if they are good for us at the time. It takes a real shift in perspective to see these as blessed states of being. You have to see them from God's point of view.

I have met inmates who came to see their time in jail as ultimately a good thing. They see it as God pulling them out of a bad situation or taking them off of a path that was leading to a terrible and perhaps fatal end. It gave them time to rethink their life and start anew. As with things like surgery or physical therapy, not everything that feels bad at the time is bad for us. It can be a blessing in disguise.

As we said, blessings have a purpose. They are given for our good and for the good of others. God blessed his creatures with fertility, so they can be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. God blessed humans not only with fertility but also with agency. We are guided not merely by instinct but by knowledge and wisdom. Furthermore we are to rule over the creatures of the earth. (Genesis 1:28) We are told that humans were to be gardeners in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:5) But instead of taking care of the earth and its creatures, we used our position, given to us as a blessing, to destroy the earth and to destroy each other. The reason given for the flood and the rebooting of creation is that “the earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:11) One definition of evil is the misuse, abuse or neglect of the good gifts God has given us.

But God doesn't give up on us. After that first disaster, he gives Noah and his family the same blessing he did to the original humans. In addition we are not to murder each other. (Genesis 9:1-7) And though we don't keep that one commandment very well, God still doesn't give up on us. God goes on to bless Abraham and works through his descendants until he enters human life himself in Jesus. Jesus blessed the world through his teachings, life, death and resurrection. Although even for him, death on the cross did not feel like a blessing at the time. Still he went through with it. (Luke 22:42; Mark 15:34)

Luke's gospel is the only one that takes us right up to Jesus' last moments on earth. He writes, “Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. Now during the blessing he departed and was taken up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-51) So the last thing Jesus did was bless his followers.

And he expects us to pass on the blessings he gave us. One way is by telling others the good news of what God has done in Christ. When Thomas sees Jesus after the resurrection and calls him “My Lord and my God!” Jesus says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) But, as Paul asks, how are people to believe in Jesus if they haven't heard the good news? (Romans 10:14-15)

Unfortunately, a lot of what passes for preaching is not proclaiming the good news. In the latest Batman film it begins with him telling us he uses fear as a weapon in his fight against criminals. But in the end he finds that if he is only an object of fear, he cannot help the victims of crime. They won't trust him. He must become a symbol of hope. And some so-called Christians think that the gospel is just about condemnation and fear. But the good news is, as Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) And he says, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) And 1 John says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” (1 John 4:18) God is love (1 John 4:8) and it is because of his love that he has sent Jesus. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.” (John 3:17) God is not interested in destroying bad guys but in saving them by turning them into good guys.

God is the lifegiver, the healer, the rescuer, the redeemer. And Jesus, who raised the dead, healed the sick, rescued the lost and redeemed a world of sinners, is God Incarnate. You want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. That is the good news. And that is a blessing we can share with a sick, dying and lost world.

But just as a faith that doesn't result in actions is dead (James 2:17) blessings are meant to have an effect. If I give my granddaughter a gift, I mean for her to use it, not leave it in its box untouched. As we said, evil can come from abusing or misusing God's gifts but it can also come from neglecting them. We are to share our blessings. In his parable on the last judgment, Jesus focuses on sins of omission. He says “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was an alien and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” (Matthew 25:42-43) Now obviously you cannot be expected to share food or water or clothes or a home if you do not have them. So Jesus is talking to those who have been blessed with these things and yet do not use them to help others. Blessings are meant to be shared, even material blessings. In God's eyes, he who dies with the most toys definitely does not win.

In speaking of what we are to do while waiting for his return Jesus says, “Who is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his household servants, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is the slave whom his master finds at work when he returns.” (Luke 12:42-43) He contrasts the servant who feeds and helps others with the one who instead gets drunk, indulges himself and abuses the other servants. That person is not blessed by Jesus. In other words, we are not merely to preach the good news to others, we are to be good news to others.

After hurricane Irma, people were glad to see the Salvation Army and Lutheran Disaster Response and Episcopal Relief and Development and Catholic Charities and the United Methodist Committee on Relief and all the other groups that came to help. But even in everyday life, people ought to be glad to see any Christian, knowing we are going to be a blessing to them. If they don't see us that way, it means we have not been doing what Jesus clearly wants us to do. Worse, it often means that we are feared as just more people who ruin and destroy lives and who condemn those who need help.

There is another explanation of why people may not see us as folks who bless others: they just don't see us. We don't identify as followers of Jesus outside the confines of the church. What happens in church stays in church. After all, we don't want to look like fanatics out there.

But before leaving Jesus told us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Remember how we talked last week of how Christians didn't have sacred spaces in which to meet and worship for the first 300 years of Christianity? Now we have had church buildings for the last 1700 years and we have gotten a bit too comfortable about that. We have adopted an “if you build it they will come” attitude. But that is no longer true. People are not coming to churches as they used to and the pandemic has made that worse. According to one study, more churches are closing than opening these days. Maybe this is our Father's way of saying “Leave the house, go outside and make friends.” We need to go spread the good news, not merely by words but by deeds as well.

I don't think as many people would have sought Jesus out if he just preached. They came for the healing and the feeding and stayed to hear where his goodness came from. We need to do the same. Unfortunately with the church “when all is said and done, there's a lot more said than done.” We need to be doers of the word, not just hearers or speakers. And we need to go to where people don't usually hear the good news or see it in action.

In his book The Way of Love Scott Gunn points out that following someone implies movement. To follow Jesus is to go like Jesus to those whom society rejects or ignores. Gunn writes, “In our time we are meant to go and share God's love with prisoners, migrants, the poor, the desperate, the lonely, and so on. If there is an imaginary line that we might hear ourselves saying, 'We should not go there,' then it is quite possible Jesus' call is for us to go exactly there.”

Gunn quotes Lelanda Lee on how to go into the world as a follower of Jesus. She says, “When you are out in the world, notice when someone appears to need a word or gesture of kindness. Be the one who says or does something comforting or affirming. Ask: 'Would you like a hand with that?' Empathize: “I'm glad we don't have to stand in this line everyday.' Affirm: 'You were patient with that customer.' Appreciate: 'I count on your helpfulness here.' Comfort: 'I'm sorry things are so tough right now.'”

Because the disciples followed Jesus' command to go, they saw the church grow. And that's still true today. We can't wait for people to stumble across us and discover us. We need to go out and meet people and introduce them to Jesus. A recent survey found that while a lot of people are disillusioned about churches, the vast majority hold Jesus in high esteem. So we need to think, speak and act in a way that people see in us not Lutherans, or Episcopalians, or Baptists, or Catholics, or Methodists, or Orthodox or Presbyterians, but Jesus. If people see Jesus in us, they might hear his call to follow him.

And another thing: if we go, not only will the church grow, but we will grow spiritually. If we keep the faith bottled up in a building or a group, it will stay largely abstract and theoretical. When we follow Jesus into the world and apply the commandments to love our neighbors of whatever class, race, religion, ethnicity, or orientation, and when we apply the commandment to love even our enemies, things get real. How do we love other people, real people, with real problems and real differences and real experiences that we have not had? That's why God gives us his Spirit. Because he couldn't put every detail and variation of how to love others in his book. We need to learn how to apply his principles in every situation. One size does not fit all. We need to expand the number of tools in our spiritual toolbox and grow in our skills in using them to help others.

God gives us blessings and he bids us go and share them with others. But the world never stops. God knows we also need rest. We will talk about that next Sunday.

The Way of Love: Worship

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 63:1-8.

Some animals are basically solitary most of their lives. Bears, leopards, sloths, koalas, wolverines, the platypus, spotfin lionfish and, perhaps not surprisingly, skunks. Except when they mate or are raising their young, they tend to live alone. Humans, however, are social animals. We live in families; we gather not just for work but to play and to worship. At the site of the world's oldest permanent human settlements is the world's oldest worship site, Gobekli Tepe. Located in what is now southern Turkey, it goes back to the dawn of the Neolithic period, about 9000 BC. Here at the beginning of village life and agriculture, humans erected the world's oldest known megaliths, 6000 years before Stonehenge. Moving the pillars from their source 9 miles away would have been a massive undertaking. The people at Gobekli Tepe decorated their megaliths with carvings of animals and abstract designs. Butchered bones of game animals show that large numbers of people gathered there, perhaps at feasts that coincided with the peak hunting seasons. It is estimated that people would have come to worship from as far as 90 miles away.

A computer simulation of the development of civilizations shows that religion is a necessary step. Indeed the word “religion” comes from the Latin word for “to bind.” As we can see from Gobekli Tepe, as well as other ancient stone circles and worship sites, people's beliefs bring communities together in activities that take a lot of time and work. These sites are compelling evidence that worship is not an occasional quirk of some humans but an ancient and widespread communal desire.

Christianity is a social religion. After being expelled from synagogues, and classified as illegal by the Roman empire, Christians did not have sacred places for worship. So they gathered in houses and, during times of persecution, in catacombs, mazes of burial chambers. It was literally an underground movement. It also looks as if the churches did not have too many sacred times, aside from Sundays and Easter. The oldest sources we have tell us that followers of Jesus met before dawn. They prayed, read the Old Testament, and preached. Thus far they behaved very much like a synagogue service. But next they would celebrate the Eucharist. Public buildings and a fuller church calendar came about after Christianity was made legal by Constantine in the 4^th century. But you can see in the accounts from the late 1^st and mid 2^nd centuries that the core of our worship has endured: the service of the Word followed by the service of the Eucharist.

Of the 3 elements that make up religion, we tend to focus on beliefs and behaviors more than belonging. Part of the reason for this is the Western emphasis on the individual. But humans need connection: connection to other people and connection to God. And we are drawn to connect to both at the same time. We are drawn to worship together.

In fact, almost all the studies that have found that religion has both physical and mental health benefits have been tied to how often a person attends worship. It's very hard for scientists to determine how religious an individual is so they take weekly attendance as a measurable indication of it. And because scientists are loathe to attribute benefits such as lower blood pressure, less illness, faster recovery from illness, and longer life to a supernatural cause, they tend to chalk it up to being part of a caring community.

Yet, despite the benefits to those who attend, the focus in worship is not on us but on God. In fact the word “worship” means “acknowledgment of worth.” We are celebrating God's worthiness. In Revelation 4:11 we are told that in heaven those before God's throne sing, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because by your will they existed and were created!” And in the next chapter, they sing of Christ, our Passover: “Worthy is the lamb who was killed to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12) Because God made us and Jesus died for us, the Triune God is worthy of everything we can offer.

Just as you would owe the person who bought you out of slavery and saved your life, so we owe God for giving us redemption and salvation. And in worship we are offering God not just praise but offering our attention to his Word and ourselves for his service.

Ideally worship should include as many senses as possible. We see the beauty of the setting and the service; we hear song and speech; we touch as we pass the peace; we taste the bread and wine; and in some churches, we smell the incense. All serve to bring us out of our ordinary lives and into the sphere of God and his goodness. Let's look at the elements of worship.

Some of the most beautiful music in history has been written for worship: Gregorian chants, the sacred works of Palestrina, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, the entire corpus of Bach, hymns by Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Isaac Watts, and more. Anthems and hymns glorify God, adore the infant Jesus, mourn his death and joyously proclaim his resurrection. We use God's musical gifts to offer him evocative songs of thankfulness and praise.

In reading and hearing God's Word, we learn about him and receive wisdom about how to live and how not to. We receive God's commands, his promises and his comfort. In preaching we receive insight and encouragement. These in turn help us serve him with enthusiasm and intelligence.

In prayers we ask for forgiveness, healing, and guidance, not merely for ourselves but for others: for the church, for the nation and for the world. Thus we bring our spirits into alignment with God's Spirit.

We offer God a portion of what he has given us to be used in his service. Not only do our gifts help pay the bills and the people who work at the church, they also help those outside the church through our ministries.

In Communion, we come to his table where we, the body of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment in the form of the body and blood of Christ. As we hold out our hands to receive him, we simultaneously offer him our whole selves, body, mind and spirit.

As we close, we thank God and receive his blessing that we might bring his blessings to those we encounter in our life outside these doors. Spiritually nourished, we take what we have received here to share with others. As we used to say at Lord of the Seas, the worship is ended; the service begins.

In his book The Way of Love Scott Gunn writes of how worship incorporates all the spiritual practices we are discussing in this series. He says, “we turn when we make our confession, we learn when we hear scripture and the sermon, we pray throughout the service, we bless the world as we make our offerings, we rest in the knowledge that God's power working in us can do more than we can ask or imagine, and then, in the end, we are sent out by the dismissal to go into the world.”

Even what happens after we go from worship, the results of our communing with God, is vitally important. In many of the creation myths of ancient religions, humans were created to serve the gods, often by feeding them through sacrifices. But in Psalm 50 God tells us he does not need or want animal sacrifices. Instead as David says in Psalm 51:16-17, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit—O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.” It's not the physical sacrifice but the moral state of the worshiper that counts. Again in Isaiah God says he takes no pleasure in worship—unless it is accompanied by just and compassionate behavior. In the very first chapter of Isaiah, God gets specific about this: “Wash! Cleanse yourselves! Remove your sinful deeds from my sight. Stop sinning! Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! Take up the cause of the fatherless! Defend the rights of the widow!” (Isaiah 1:16-17) In Isaiah 58:7 he says, “I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don't turn your back on your own flesh and blood!” These actions are the result of a humble and contrite heart. We serve God by serving others who are made in his image.

And rather than us feeding God, in Jesus he feeds us. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life...The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me and I in him.” (John 6:48, 56) We are both physical and spiritual creatures. And so God uses the medium of bread and wine, blessed by him, to impart spiritual benefits to us, namely communion with Christ. He becomes part of us and we become part of him. And it is through this connection that we are able to do what he commands. As being fed physically gives our bodies the ability to act in the physical world, so being fed spiritually gives the body of Christ, his people, the ability to act in accordance with God's Spirit. When we neglect worship, we find ourselves running down, like phones that haven't been charged recently. As the old pun goes, 7 days without worship makes one weak.

Apparently neglect of worship was even becoming a problem in the 1^st century. The author of Hebrews cautions his audience about “not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other...” (Hebrews 10:25) As social animals, when we gather together we encourage and energize each other. It is not the same energy one gets from a rock concert or a football game. That kind of energy has caused people to do destructive things afterwards. The divine energy we get from coming together in the Spirit of Christ leads to constructive acts of sharing his love with those we meet outside this circle.

But going outside this circle does not mean leaving God behind. People came to the tabernacle and to Solomon's temple before the exile to experience the presence of God because the Ark of the Covenant was there. There was no Ark in Herod's temple, which was destroyed in 70 AD. We Christians do not have a single sacred space. But we don't need one. As Jesus said, “But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such persons to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24) Again Jesus said, “For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.”(Matthew 18:20) So we don't need to be anchored to something external like a physical temple. As Paul said, “...you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22) We are the temple of God's Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16); we are to be Christ's presence in the world.

While we can practice the disciplines of the Way of Love on our own, worship is optimized when we do it together. We come out of worship blessed. But we are not to keep that blessing to ourselves. We will talk of that next week.

The Way of Love: Pray

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 and Psalm 27.

Babies are born with a number of reflexes. For instance they will instinctively grasp things put in the palms of their hands, like your finger, but this reflex fades at 6 months. Which means they have to learn to grab things intentionally. And if you hold them under the arms, support their heads and let their feet touch a flat surface they will put one foot in front of another as if walking. This reflex goes away after about 2 months. You may have heard that babies also have a swimming instinct. You may even have seen videos of infants holding their breath and moving through water. This primitive reflex does not amount to actual swimming, though. They can't hold their breath intentionally and they can't keep their heads above water. Which is why the most common fatal injury for children ages 1 through 4 is drowning and why it is the second leading cause of death for toddlers. Hence we fence off pools and watch kids like a hawk when they are in water. Real swimming has to be taught.

Prayer is probably the most primitive and instinctual of spiritual behaviors. Especially when we find ourselves in trouble and there is no human around who can aid us. As Anne Lamott has written, the most common prayer is simply “Help!” The other basic prayers are “Thanks!” and “Wow!” And prayer, particularly of the last two varieties, does seem to fade out as people get older unless they develop it and make it into a habit.

Prayer is simply talking to God. But people often ask how to pray. Even Jesus' disciples asked this. There are two possible and even overlapping reasons for this concern.

First, people often treat prayers like magic incantations. They think if you say the wrong words it won't work; say the right words and it does. The problem is that the power is not in the words. The power is in God. The most eloquent prayer will not force God to do anything against his will or nature. Mark Twain once wrote a short story called “The War Prayer.” A country goes to war and the people in a church pray for victory for their side. An aged stranger comes forth with a message from God. He tells the people the unspoken part of the prayer they have just uttered: that the soldiers of the other side be torn to shreds, that they suffer pain, wounds and death, that their homes be destroyed and their wives and children be made widows and orphans. That's what they are really asking God to do. And of course so is the other side.

We can ask God anything. But he in his wisdom can say “No.” Jesus in Gethsemane asked God to let the cup of his suffering and death on the cross pass. “Yet not my will but yours be done,” he says. And God does not take that cup away as his Son asked. (Luke 22:39-42) Prayer is not magic.

But another reason people want to know how to pray is because when addressing God, we can get tongue-tied and even go blank. How does one address the Creator and Ruler of the universe?

In the model prayer Jesus gives his disciples, he starts, “Our Father...” On occasion Jesus addresses God as Abba, Aramaic for “Papa.” We are not coming before some impersonal force but our Father, who is responsible for our existence and who loves us.

But he is “Our Father, who is in heaven...” He is not simply another person. He is God. There is a moment in the TV series The Crown, where Prince Philip is reminded that his wife is also the Queen and his Sovereign. She has authority even over him. And as children of God it helps to remember that he is also our King and we are his subjects.

Then comes the first petition. And it is not for us but, “May your name be sanctified.” In the third of the Ten Commandments we are told not to misuse God's name. The Hebrew of Exodus 20:7 literally reads, “You shall not lift the name of Yahweh your God in emptiness (or falsehood).” So this petition in the Lord's Prayer means “May you name be used properly, as holy.” And in the Ancient Near East, it was important that your name be honorable. Again we are reminding ourselves of God's morally pure nature.

Then we are to pray, “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is parallelism, a feature of Hebrew poetry we see all the time in the Psalms. We are saying the same thing in two different ways. We are praying that God's kingdom come to earth. And the result of that is that we will see God's will being done in the world just as it is done in heaven. The Greek word we usually translate “kingdom” also means “royal reign.” When God reigns, his will is carried out. This is pretty much the same as Jesus saying, “Not my will but yours be done.” This should be part of every prayer or at least understood as an underlying condition. Again, unlike a magic spell, you are not trying to make the universe do your will. You are submitting to God's will.

Then we are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We are asking God to supply the things we need every day. Notice it is our bread and not our donuts. We are asking for our needs, not our desires. It's not that we can't ask him for things other than what is absolutely necessary. But our priority should be to put what we actually need before other things. People do get them mixed up, putting luxuries and lesser things before food, shelter or even their health. And they can get angry or disappointed with God over unfulfilled desires. We often ignore the fact that at least we have our basic needs met, for which we should be thankful.

Next we are to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” In Luke's version the word “sins” is used in place of “debts.” Because the debts are the moral duties we owe God and owe others and which others owe us. As Paul says in Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything but to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” In other words the two great commandments—to love God with everything we are and have and to love our neighbor as ourselves—are not suggestions but actual moral obligations. Knowing we will not always love God as we ought, we ask for his forgiveness. And in turn we forgive others for not loving us as they ought. This is not optional as the parable of the unforgiving servant makes clear. (Matthew 18:21-35) God's will is that we love him and each other and ask for and give forgiveness.

Finally we are to pray, “Do not lead us into temptation but rescue us from the evil one.” The Greek word for “temptation” also means “testing” or “trial.” Temptations can test your trust in God and his ways. And the word I translated “rescue,” which is usually rendered “deliver,” literally means “to draw or pull to oneself.” So we are praying that God draws us to himself rather than let us be drawn to the evil one.

Now as we said, this is a model prayer. It is not the only way we can pray. Just as babies grow up and get better at things like grasping and walking, Scott Gunn says in his book The Way of Love that we are to develop and become more mature at praying. He writes, “We start by praying to God and asking for things. Then we learn to give thanks for those blessings we have. Then we learn to praise God and ask for the well-being of others. Then, finally, we learn to ask God for guidance.”

I don't know about you but I feel good when thanking someone for what they do. And it is nice to have someone acknowledge what you do for them. Furthermore people love complementing or praising people or things they love. Think of how folks in love spontaneously write love letters and love poems to their girlfriends or boyfriends. A segment on StoryCorps related how one man wrote his wife a love letter everyday of his life. So it should be with God. When we don't thank and praise him, we deny ourselves the enjoyment of expressing our gratitude for and delight in him. He created the world and the universe. He created animals and plants and people. He sent Jesus to us. He loves us and wishes for us to live with him forever in joy and peace. There are plenty of opportunities to say “Thanks!” and Wow!”

We can also share our concerns with him. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast “all your cares on him because he cares for you.” Even if we cannot articulate what we want to say to God, we should still pray. Because, says Paul, “...the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God's will.” (Romans 8:26-27) God's Spirit sees what is in our hearts—our needs, desires, hopes and fears—and he knows what we are trying to say, better than we do.

And we don't always know what to do with the gifts and skills God gives us. So we can pray to him for guidance. Remember that his answer may not come in the form of a supernatural sign. It may come in the advice of other Christians, friends and family who see your gifts, possibly more clearly than you do. It may come in the form of an opportunity to use those gifts for God and to help others. Usually your vocation is found at the point where what you are good at, what you enjoy, and what the world needs overlap. And if you can make a living at it, however modest, that is even better.

God doesn't call everyone to the ordained ministry. He calls individuals to be singers and teachers and artists and nurses and mechanics and fishermen and scientists and cooks and writers and farmers and cleaners and factory workers and builders and administrative assistants and lawyers and even people in government. He calls people from every walk of life and every part of society to serve him and plant the seeds of his kingdom in every corner of the world.

God answers all prayer. Sometimes it is “Yes,” as when Samuel was looking for a new king and saw David. (1 Samuel 16:6-12) Sometimes it is “No,” as with Jesus at Gethsemane. Sometimes it is “Not yet,” as when Abraham asked for a son and heir. And sometimes his answer is “I've have something else in mind for you,” as when Saul was going to Damascus to arrest followers of this new movement that proclaimed some dead carpenter as the Messiah and he was bowled over by a vision of Jesus. At the end of 3 days of praying, God told this Pharisee that he would proclaim Jesus to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:1-19)

Just remember that God is not merely the King of the universe but also our loving heavenly Father. We can ask him anything but we must also listen for his loving and wise response. He will not give us blessing to play in the pool unattended when we are not ready or do what is not good for us. But he will give us challenges so that we learn how better to walk with him. And his hand is always there for us to grasp if we need his guidance or just his comfort.

To pray is a vital part of the Way of Love but it is not simply something used in isolation. It is also part of a bigger practice: to worship. And next Sunday we will look at that.

The Way of Love: Learn

The scriptures referred to are Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13.

When they released the first Lord of the Rings movie I saw it with my son and some of his friends. Most of us really enjoyed it but one of my son's friends did not. It wasn't the acting or the cinematography or the plot or the action he took issue with. It was the fact that they had completely eliminated a character he loved: Tom Bombadil. Years later, when I was watching the DVD and listening to the commentary, the director and screenwriters addressed this. They were big Tolkien fans but in adapting the first book of the trilogy they realized they had a film that was already nearly 3 hours long without Tom Bombadil. And while he is a wonderful character, he does not advance the plot. So, regretfully, they cut him from the script.

But they didn't cut him from the original book. My son's friend didn't lose anything...except the ability to enjoy the film for what it was, a great adaptation of a massive epic. The purpose of the film was not to include every single person, event and detail. The purpose was to entertain. And maybe entice some people to get the book where they would have the delightful surprise of meeting Tom Bombadil.

A lot of people fail to discern the purpose of material presented in media. For instance, anyone who has posted a humorous meme on social media knows by now that some folks will post long serious dissections of its deficiencies in the comment section. Sometimes after one of these diatribes that totally missed the point I will post a Gif of comedian Craig Ferguson saying, “It was a joke. It was a joke. It was a joke!” The purpose was to make you laugh, not make you launch into a 25 page white paper on the subject.

People do this with the Bible. They take it for a science book, though it was not written to explain how the physical world works. They take it for a treatise on economics or politics, though those are not its chief concerns. They see it as a minutely detailed look at the end of the world, though these passages are full of obvious symbolism. Some take it as a code book in which God has hidden messages that can only be decoded by some elaborate system, though that goes against the whole idea that God wants to reveal his message to the world.

Some see the Bible as a massive rule book. During his final illness the comedian W.C. Fields had a visit from a friend. And the friend found him reading the Bible. The friend, who knew Fields to be a drinker and a womanizer and a miser, expressed surprise. To which the comedian said, “Relax. I'm looking for loopholes.” And sadly there are so-called Christians who look at the Bible as a legal text and read it to see what are the minimum requirements they have to meet to keep God off their backs, not to mention what they can get away with and how far they can go.

So what is the Bible? It is a collection of histories, stories, poetry, prophesies, parables, sermons, letters, apocalypses and accounts of what Jesus said and did. The common theme is the on and off relationship of God and humans. It tells how humans have repeatedly turned away from the God who created and loves them and what God has done to bring them back. The purpose of the Bible is to bring us closer to God. Which is why the second practice in the Way of Love is to learn. Specifically it is to reflect on the scriptures daily, with special focus on Jesus' life and teachings.

When you read the Bible with its purpose in mind, you start to pick up on its insights into both humans and God. For instance, rather than try to make some current crisis fit a specific interpretation of prophesy, instead you can see how what is going on in the world offers examples of what the Bible says about human nature. Such as when scholars or eyewitnesses reveal that someone you thought was a thoroughly good person did some bad things as well. Instead of getting angry with the people who reveal this or trying to cover up history, you can acknowledge with Paul that “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10) Aside from Jesus, no one in the Bible, not even the “heroes of the faith,” are without sin—some of it pretty bad. Why do we expect anyone else to be perfect? Jesus said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22) That covers just about everything in the news. And it reveals why people need to turn and get closer to the God who is love.

If you look at the story of the first humans and the snake in Genesis, not as some “Just So” story from the ancient past, but as a paradigm of every temptation, it becomes relevant to your life. Do you ever disregard what God says? Do you sometimes doubt his goodness or wisdom in saying some things are off limits? Do you start looking for reasons why some condemned action is actually good for you? Do you feel that any experience is a valuable way to learn about some aspect of life? Do you ever go along with something you shouldn't because someone you cared about was involved? Did you ever do something against your better judgment only to find you did not realize all the negative consequences of it? Then you can see yourself in Adam and Eve.

In his book, the Way of Love, Scott Gunn points out that there are 2 basic ways to study and learn the Bible: one is for facts and the other is for meaning. If you only learn the facts, you can miss out on the meaning behind them. For instance, the Wizard of Oz is about a girl who is responsible for the death of one woman and then she and her friends go after and kill the woman's sister. Those are the bare facts, but robbed of all meaning they don't make much sense. In Christianity the central fact is that Jesus dies on the cross. Someone once asked me why did God send Jesus to die? To them that was so brutal and cruel it contradicted the idea that God is loving. I said: Look at it as a suicide mission. God loves us so much he wants to save us. And he sends Jesus to tell us that and demonstrate that in all he does. But God knows that Jesus will meet fierce opposition and that it will get violent and will result in his death. Jesus knows this, too. Yet Jesus takes on the mission and accomplishes it. And God, who created order out of chaos, creates something unimaginably good out of the worst thing his creatures can do. Jesus' death saves the world. If you felt it was beautiful and noble when Iron Man did it in the movies or when Aslan did it in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, why isn't it beautiful and noble when Jesus, who is not fictional, does it? The meaning behind the fact that Jesus dies is that it shows how much God loves us and what he'll do to save us.

Of course the meanings need the facts to illustrate them. If I say “I love you” but otherwise do nothing to show it, my statement is meaningless. So we need to learn facts from the Bible as well. I don't know what's more distressing: to read critics attack the faith without actually knowing the facts or to read Christians try to defend the faith with a similar lack of knowledge. People keep putting words in Jesus' mouth while apparently ignorant of things he actually said. And there's no reason for it.

Not only are there excellent study Bibles and reference works you can buy, but there are numerous wonderful apps you can put on your phone or device that give you access to several translations, the original Hebrew and Greek, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, subject indexes, concordances, and more. I use the Logos Bible app, the Bible Hub app, the Touch Bible and others. And they are free! There are also websites with a wealth of books online for studying the Bible. The Great Courses offer lots of lecture and video series on the Old and New Testaments, the archeology of Israel, the history of Christianity, the development of the Bible, historical theology, etc. Look for their numerous sales and you can get a series of 24 or 36 audio lectures for the price of a book. Remember what the word “disciple” actually means: student. We are to be students of Jesus.

But don't miss the forest for the trees. Don't let the facts, the details, cause you to lose sight of the big picture, the meaning and the purpose of the Bible: to help us get closer to God. Which means putting what we learn into practice. God never meant for our knowledge of his word to stay in our heads. Jesus applies scripture to his temptations in today's gospel. As his brother James says, “But be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22) On one of the occasions when the two great commandments came up, to love God with all you have and to love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus said, “Do this and you will live.” (Luke 10:28) What you learn is not meant to remain theoretical. As James said, “So also faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead being by itself.” (James 2:17) If I say I trust God but don't act like it—don't change my life, don't turn away from sin and turn to him, don't even try to love the people I encounter—how authentic is that trust? It's like taking the instructions your doctor gives you to avoid having another heart attack and sticking them in a drawer. Real trust or faith results in actions.

And this does not contradict what Paul says in today's passage from Romans about being saved by faith. In Galatians 5:6, Paul says, “...the only thing that matters is faith working through love.” In Ephesians 2:8-10 he says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.” (Emphasis mine) We were created to do good works but our sin has broken us and impaired that function. We can't repair ourselves; only Jesus can. Once he does, we can do what he created us to do.

However, not everything in the Bible is prescriptive, something you should do. Some of it is descriptive, saying, “This is what some people did.” You need to use discernment as to whether that is an example to emulate or to avoid. David did a lot of good things. He also committed adultery and murder. It's pretty obvious that God doesn't want us to imitate those 2 last things. But when confronted with these sins by Nathan the prophet, David, though a king, did not, like some people, deny it or shift blame or diminish the seriousness of what he did. He admitted it and asked God for forgiveness and he took the consequences. That is something we all need to learn when we sin.

And some bits of the Bible are meant for our enjoyment. There is a lot of beautiful poetry in the Bible. The Psalms cover just about every emotion you can think of. There are psalms of praise and psalms of lament. There are psalms in which the writer questions God's timing or worries about rampant injustice and psalms that express confidence in God's way of doing things. The Song of Songs is a beautiful love poem and perhaps a wedding liturgy. Ecclesiastes has the ruminations of a jaded king who sees the futility of a life lived only under the sun and not with regard to heaven. Satire is seen in parts of the prophets and in Jesus' pictures of things like hypocrites filtering gnats out of their drinks and then swallowing camels or his parable of a dishonest steward who somehow receives his cheated master's admiration, a swipe at the way the Pharisees served God.

I have been studying the Bible since my teens and more than a half century later I am still learning new things about the Bible, about God and about Jesus. But it's a poor relationship if the communication only goes one way. God not only lets us talk to him but encourages us to do so. We'll talk about the practice of praying next Sunday.

The Way of Love: Turn

The scriptures referred to are Joel 2:1-2, 12-17.

This Lent we will be discussing the Way of Love which came out of a meeting in Atlanta years ago with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Scott Gunn and others. It developed into 7 basic spiritual practices that help us walk with Jesus, the God who is love incarnate. They are Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go and Rest. We will be discussing one each Sunday in Lent and on Maundy Thursday. If you go to the Episcopal Church website and click on the The Way of Love, you will find a wealth of materials to help you enrich your spiritual life and assist you in creating a Rule of Life, a set of spiritual practices. I highly recommend you go there.

C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity began as a series of radio talks on the BBC during the Second World War. To explain the 3 categories of ethical behavior, Lewis used the metaphor of a naval convoy. Personal ethics are like maintaining and properly operating one of the boats. If you aren't conscientious about taking care of your boat, you could find yourself dead in the water or even sinking. The moral equivalent is treating your body, mind, and spirit in a way that you are physically, mentally and spiritually healthy.

Social ethics are like the tactics the crews on the boats take in order to stay in formation, not run into or cut off each other and not get lost. The moral equivalent is observing the commandments not to steal, not to kill, not to lie, not to commit adultery, etc, These actions can wreck the lives of not only ourselves but others.

Theological ethics are like making sure the whole convoy is heading to the right destination. It's no good making it safely to New York if you were supposed to go to Sydney, Australia. The moral equivalent is keeping the direction of our life going towards God and not veering off after some other goal. This last category is essential. A Nazi could be a clean living individual who treats other Nazis well but since his purpose would be to further the goals of Hitler, which includes killing others and taking over their countries, you could not ultimately call him moral. To go back to the picture of the convoy, if they found out they were going in the wrong direction, the right thing to do is to turn.

The Bible often talks about turning away from sin and turning to God. In fact, one of the Hebrew words translated “repent” means “turn back” or “return.” It's used in today's passage from Joel. The prophet urges us to return to the Lord. We've gotten off course. We have drifted from our true destination and we need to get back on track.

And indeed Mark tells us that Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!” (Mark 1:15) In other words, It's time; the kingdom of God is within sight. But things are heading in the wrong direction; turn your lives around and put your trust in the good news.

And when we think of repentance we often think of the really big turn we make when we initially turn to God. That's an essential first step. But as Scott Gunn says in his book The Way of Love, the Christian life is made up of not only big turns but medium and even small ones. An example of a big turn would be what happened to Moses. He's out tending sheep when he sees a lone bush on fire but not burning up. We are told, “So Moses thought, 'I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up?'” (Exodus 3:3) Moses put on hold whatever plans for that day—take the sheep to a watering hole, find some fresh pasture, etc—so he could turn and investigate this weird phenomenon. As it turns out Moses will be making a bigger turn after this. God will tell him that he has heard the cries of the Hebrews who were slaves in Egypt. And God has chosen Moses to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let his people go. Moses had fled from Egypt, married and settled into the life of a shepherd. This was going to be a big U-turn for him. But he had to for things to turn around for the Hebrews.

Big turns for us could take the form of choosing to marry, deciding to have kids, changing your career, and, of course, deciding to follow Jesus. We usually sense that these things are major turning points in life. But even medium-sized or small decisions on our part can end up being a big thing to someone else. Let's say that someone at work appears to be in distress. You've noticed this before but you were busy and didn't feel you had time to talk. This time you decide to stop on the way to the breakroom and ask them how they are. And they open up to you about a problem they are dealing with. You listen, you empathize with them, you offer to help. They might say, “No, you've done enough just by letting me vent.” Turning aside to hear them may not be a big thing for you but it was for them. They needed to unburden themselves. They needed to talk about it and, in explaining things to you, they may have realized something they hadn't considered before.

Or perhaps you were walking down Duval and you encounter someone who's obviously homeless asking for change. You ask them if they've had anything to eat. They say “No” and you change direction and take them into the Wendy's and have them order whatever they want. You pay for it, and you two talk while they eat. They thank you profusely and you both go your way. It was a small detour in your day but it may be huge to them. Gunn says something similar happened to him and his wife. And afterwards he realized he fed Jesus. In Matthew Jesus says whatever you do to the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, etc, you do to him. (Matthew 25:34-40) It wasn't really a detour; it was an important part of the journey.

The Greek word for repent means “change your mind.” It means to rethink things in your life and change the direction of your thoughts and consequently your actions. The National Weather Service is trying to make people rethink driving into flooded areas. Sometimes people don't realize how deep the water covering a road actually is or they don't consider that there may be a strong current. They go, “Ehh, I can make it!” and they try to just plow through. But as little as 6 inches of water can cause you to lose control of your vehicle and as little as 2 feet of water can carry your car away. 58% of flood fatalities involve people in vehicles. And while we have all seen videos of people being rescued from cars stuck in floods by brave first responders in helicopters, we have also seen footage of a truck or SUV being swept away only to learn that the person or family inside were found dead later on. So the National Weather Service has been telling people to “Turn around; don't drown!”

That goes for the spiritual life, too. Sometimes we decide to plunge into some kind of behavior or situation that on second thought is going to get us in over our heads. It's better to turn around when we see danger up ahead than to find yourself swept up in something over which you have no control. God can and has rescued people from such situations. But as Jesus told the devil when tempted to throw himself off the top of the temple so the angels could catch him, “You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.” (Luke 4:12) Don't ask God to enable your sinful or foolish behavior. We are to be fishers of people; we are not to plunge into whirlpools of stupidity and expect God to fish us out.

And yet if we turn from our folly and sins and turn to God we will find him there for us. And it doesn't stop when we make that big decision to come to Jesus. When you follow Jesus, you can't simply “set it and forget it.” There is no cruise control in the Christian life. Returning to that image of the convoy, along the way we will encounter changing winds and strong currents. Even when things seem calm, we can drift off course. So everyone has to regularly check their position and make sure they haven't gone off course. And if they have, they need to do a course correction. Daily we need to check in with Jesus and make sure we are following his lead. If we aren't, we need to repent—turn away from what has changed our direction and turn back to him.

In aviation they have a 1 in 60 rule. It's a rule of thumb that if you are one degree off, after 60 miles you will miss your destination by one mile. And the longer you go without correction, the farther off course you will be. So you need to check and do course correction periodically.

In the same way you must set aside time each day to evaluate where you are in your journey with Jesus. If you are doing things that Jesus would not want you to do, stop. Rethink what you are doing and why. Is it a habit that you need to change? Is it motivated by some fear you have? Is it a desire for something you know or have learned isn't good for you? Do you need help changing it? Will it work if the help comes from a good and trustworthy friend or would it be better to contact a professional? There is no shame in getting help. Sometimes a band-aid from a friend will do and sometimes you need a doctor. Be realistic about how much and what kind of help you need.

Or perhaps the problem is you are not doing what Jesus wants you to do. They've found that sitting around all day is just as bad for your body as smoking. So the change you need to make may not be to stop a negative action but to start a positive one. A lot of Christians are more concerned with not doing the wrong things than they are about doing the right things. For instance, if you see someone drowning, don't ignore them and go full speed ahead to church. Stop, turn and help them. The journey with Jesus is not a race. The experience you get along the way helps shape you into a more Christlike person.

And that is our destination: to be like Jesus. The God who is love created us in his own image. If you don't see a lot of people who remind you of God, it's because we have marred and distorted that image through our sins, our knockoff inferior versions of goodness. Christ became one of us to show us what the image of God in human form looks, sounds and acts like. And then on the cross Jesus did what only he could do to make it possible for that image of God to be restored in us. But for the possible to become actual we need to work with God's Spirit. It's like how after the doctor gives you a new knee, if you want to walk again you must follow the doctor's orders and work with the physical therapist. Jesus saves us and the Spirit applies that and puts it to work in our lives. He wants you to walk straight, not crooked. If you wander off, you need to turn and go back.

Repentance has been confused with remorse. Of course, that can motivate you to turn your life around. But so can sober reflection on where you are heading and where and who you really want to be. The emotion isn't as important as the motion: to turn.

Of course turning is not the only practice we need to follow the Way of Love. We need to learn as well. We'll talk about that Sunday.