-Tim Holm- Jesus replied: Philip, I have been with you for a long time. Don't you know who I am? If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you ask me to show you the Father? – John 14:9 Perhaps nothing is so frustrating as straining to be understood and the person you want to connect with just doesn’t get it. Several months ago, a dear friend and I got into an hours-long disagreement about how we perceive the world. Eventually we uncovered that we didn’t even mean the same things when we used even basic words. This week we are spending time together again, and he brought up that conversation. “I’ve thought of that conversation many times,” he remarked, “and I still don’t get how you could possibly see the world that way.” The distance such basic missed connections creates can be enormous and painful. Today, I visited a black history museum in a small Southern city. Its exhibits included receipts for poll taxes, photos of civic leaders who battled segregation, and clippings from black-owned newspapers. I was reminded again that this community of hope and strength which endured – and endures – pervasive systemic and personal oppression is one that I may learn about and appreciate, but that I still do not know, do not understand from the inside-out. I don’t “get it.” God, in Jesus Christ, identifies with all of us from the inside-out. Jesus is the exalted one who took the form of a slave and was willing to suffer a humiliating, painful death. The Spirit of God not only sees all of us but participates with all of us, grieving in our suffering, mourning for our sin, rejoicing at our feeble but brave efforts to resist evil and follow Christ. The folks least like me, God sees and knows them, from the inside-out. Unlike me, Jesus “gets it.” Maybe that is why it is so hard sometimes for me to get Jesus. We can spend years at his feet, but until we join Jesus as he feasts with the ones we don’t get, we will never get him either. Let us pray: Unknown God, guide us into a more perfect knowledge of you as you guide us into a more perfect love for our neighbor. Give us grace that we may know you and one another inside-out. Amen. Tim Holm is a former high school teacher and pursuing an MDiv from Duke Divinity School. He has only had to bribe his way through a Russian airport twice.
-Rev Melissa Fain- 2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Exodus 20:2 CEB The problem with self-help gurus is their lack of negative results. Yeah, I get it. No one wants to hear the a person talk about about their failures. People pay the big bucks to hear about success. The want a step by step process in how one succeeded. But, if you are paying the big bucks to hear someone's success story there are a list of failures to tag with that achievement that's at least twice as long as the successes. Part of life is failure. That's how we learn. Before we learned to walk, we fell over and over again. Before we learned to write, we scribbled, sometimes on our parent's wall. Failure is always an option because with failure we honed our skills just a little bit more. Failure makes us stronger; better. God can be found in the struggle. Without the struggle, nothing can change. No one's saying it, and it's what we need to hear. God is struggling. Pray with me:
Dear Lord: I weep, I ache. I feel out of breath. Help me continue. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- Job responded: 2 Oh, that my grief were actually weighed, all of it were lifted up in scales; 3 for now it’s heavier than the sands of the sea; therefore, my words are rash.[a] 4 The Almighty’s arrows are in me; my spirit drinks their poison, and God’s terrors are arrayed against me. 5 Does a donkey bray over grass or an ox bellow over its fodder? 6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or does egg white have taste? 7 I refuse to touch them; they resemble food for the sick. Job 6:1-7 CEB No! No. No. No.. Nono. I don't want to go here! Tell me I don't have to go! I'll tell you what. You go ahead and I'll meet you at the next devotion. Can't do that? Fine! Every minister has that topic. You know, the one they clearly avoid at all costs. The one that when you ask it, their eyes grow wide for a millisecond and their face freezes. Apparently I'm really good at bringing up other minister's topics, because I've seen it. That petrified stare, as the cogs in their mind is whirling as their mouth is rusted shut. This is mine. I can discuss the previous uncomfortable topics because we have answers. Sure, many of those answer are far from easy, but we still have them and they are in our control. I can be angry over these issues, and ultimately understanding in the human failure of it all. I understand why a person froze to death in the streets of Atlanta, or why a person died of starvation in the streets of Calcutta. It's our failure. Humans did that. I can have those discussions knowing we could do better. Serious illness is where my ability to have these discussion fill me dread. Job knows. We read how he wants to say what I dread most. He wants to say what we condemn when others say it. God is guilty. God is the failure. We are not supposed to be comfortable with that statement. It's supposed to gnaw us, and remind us that difficult questions without easy answers will always exist. More than that, God doesn't punish Job for wanting to ask those questions. Yet, neither does he give him the answers he seeks. Jesus' talk about care of God's "least of these" has a solemn duty to those who are sick: "When I was sick or in prison, you visited me." It's important to stress, it doesn't say, "You cured me." Unless we are a doctor of that specific ailment, we are called to be present, a gift worth more than empty words, or impossible promises. Job's friends were ultimately in the wrong. They couldn't be present with Job in his mourning, and it made the situation worse. They had to seek forgiveness at the end of the book, while Job (wanting to hold God accountable and all) gained a full life in return. It sucks, because sometimes I just want to be like Job's friends. Sometimes I want to talk cures and solutions into being, when that kind of action is the very last thing we are called to do. Nothing is comfortable with illness- as it should be. We are called to be present and available. God is sick. Let us pray:
Dear Lord, teach us to stop saying things to make ourselves comfortable, and teach us to simply stop and be present. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 48 He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored 49 because the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is his name. 50 He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. 51 He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. 52 He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. Luke 1:48-53 CEB James Cone turned the theological world on its head with his book, "God of the Oppressed." Before him, theology was almost exclusively the field of white European males. That's only one type of life experience. It doesn't speak to the immense cultural diversity of our planet. It's the reason Uncle Tom's Cabin is so offensive. A white man thought he understood the American Slave experience.It was an appropriation of someone else's culture. Keven Purger did a great job telling the history of the book, and it's direct connection to Six Flags over Georgia and Disney World. In our modern context we explore cultures, not by telling a white guy to write them for us, but by bringing in voices of those cultures. Disney's Coco worked so well because they brought in Hispanic voices to explain the cultural significance of the Day of the Dead. It could be summed up in one sentence: Understanding one's culture requires giving the participants of that culture a voice. James Cone, a minister and professor, was a voice in the African American church. He was able to make Black Culture a valid discussion point in theological circles, and turn the focus away from High Church, hoity toity language, to the desperate need of the poor- many of whom were black. God of the Oppressed throws it on the table: Jesus is Black. It wasn't said because we know Jesus was literally born black. It was said, because Jesus shared something that was sadly understood by the African-American: oppression. It wasn't an appropriated message. It was real and raw. God is for and is oppressed. God is Black. Let us Pray:
Oh God! The least of these cry out. Let us not only hear them, but also meet their need. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 13 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to your son and you must name him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many people will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the Lord’s eyes. He must not drink wine and liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. Luke 1:13-15 CEB "Do not be afraid" is not in the Bible 365 times. Let me just say that for what has now been the, I believe, fourth time. It's there around 115 times. That's a decent amount of time people are being told, "Don't fear." No matter how many times it is said, fear is all over the Bible. While we fear a mortgage payment, or missing a meal, the Biblical fears were plague, starvation and war. If there were a people who had a right to be afraid, it was them. In reality, people take advantage of fear. It's a very effective tool to get what you want. Middle schoolers like to tell other students, "Snitches get stitches." That is a phrase meant to scare bullied kids, and kids who see bullying, into not outing their bullies. That's scary, and the fear does not end until the situation is no longer dangerous. Let me change the story. When I was eight years old I knew I wanted to be baptized. Church was my haven in a very disruptive world. I asked my Dad if I had permission, and he responded it was my choice. (Dad was not the type to pull me into decisions. He made himself present, and allowed me to act of my own free will.) I knew, if I wanted to be baptized, I had to walk up to the front of the church during the Hymn of Invitation. I was terrified. Those who know me know would not realize just how seized I often was by public attention. It was arresting. Now I had to do something that required me to break up the routine of singing the song, and getting out of church in time for the Chiefs game. I asked God for the first step. Give me the first step, and I'll take the rest. That was one of the absolute hardest step of my life. In that terrible fear, there was God. In every fear lives a potential action that brings justice to a broken world. God speaks to fear in order for us to step out of it and do what's really right. No child deserves to be afraid at school. No people deserves to be persecuted. Every trauma deserves a voice. God is afraid. Let us Pray:
Dear Lord, help me bring voice to a voiceless world. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 8 Before the spies bedded down, Rahab went up to them on the roof.9 She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land. Terror over you has overwhelmed us. The entire population of the land has melted down in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lorddried up the water of the Reed Sea in front of you when you left Egypt. We have also heard what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites on the other side of the Jordan. You utterly wiped them out.11 We heard this and our hearts turned to water. Because of you, people can no longer work up their courage. This is because the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. 12 Now, I have been loyal to you. So pledge to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal loyally with my family. Give me a sign of good faith. 13 Spare the lives of my father, mother, brothers, and sisters, along with everything they own. Rescue us from death.” Joshua 2:8-13 CEB Sex trafficking is real, and happens right under our noses. In 2012 there were 20.9 million victims of human trafficking world wide, with many of those being pushed into the sex tracking business. A business, I might add, that brings in 150 billion dollars a year. If your immediate thought is "not in America," think again. In 2012 there were over 4,000 cases of sex trafficking in the U.S. Our daughters have been coerced and kidnapped into prostitution. It's forcing someone to work without their permission or monetary gain. It's modern day slavery. Many years ago, prosecutors and police were struggling to put a stop to it When stings would go down everyone was being punished. Prostitutes would go to jail along with their pimp. Punishing everyone made it easier for gangs and pimps to keep these girls under control. They could simply tell them they were breaking the law. They would go to jail too if they ran away. Then they would take away their ability to communicate. No phones. No Facebook. In more recent years something changed. Language. The girl went from being accused of prostitution, to being the victim of rape, kidnapping and pandering. It gave these girls a voice, and a way out. Rahab was a prostitute in the land of Jericho. Jericho was the Promised Land, the land promised to the Israelites after leaving Egypt. The Israelites had to take it, but they needed help. (We're coming back to this scripture on another day. There is so many uncomfortable things happening, and I can only focus on one uncomfortable piece a day!) Prostitution was not a choice in the Ancient Near East. If a woman didn't have a husband or family, selling their body was the only option left. Rahab was a slave to the Ancient Near East sex trafficking business. That's why it's important God worked through her. More than that, she would be a root in the line of Jesse. She is the mother of Boaz, who would marry Ruth, whose grandson was Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David. Besides the fact that the Bible points David directly to Jesus, Rahab becomes part of God's Chosen, a Grandmother to royalty. We must listen to the voice of those that appear guilty, but are actually victims. From them, the voice of God could rise and change the world. God is a prostitute. Let us pray:
God of the victim, help us see you when we only see the sin. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 1 So a person should think about us this way—as servants of Christ and managers of God’s secrets. 2 In this kind of situation, what is expected of a manager is that they prove to be faithful. 3 I couldn’t care less if I’m judged by you or by any human court; I don’t even judge myself. 4 I’m not aware of anything against me, but that doesn’t make me innocent, because the Lord is the one who judges me. 5 So don’t judge anything before the right time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring things that are hidden in the dark to light, and he will make people’s motivations public. Then there will be recognition for each person from God. 1 Cor 4:1-4 CEB Let's get this out of the way first: God isn't sin. God isn't lying, but God most certainly exists in all places at all times. God is most assuredly in the places where sin is second nature. That out of the way: Sometimes, as a society, we punish the truth. We do so because the truth is a statement of admitting failure, or past sin. This is why so many hide in their sin. It's not so much "getting away with it," as it is knowing they don't want to be punished for something they may not be doing anymore. I mentioned on day 0 this was an exploration of God naming Godself as "I Am." I said when people speak the phrase, "I am..." we are seeing God. What I didn't explain is one of the key reasons why this is true is truth. When someone uses this phrase, they are speaking to the world their truth. The Truth is God. When someone admits to lying, it is the truth speaking beyond the sin. It doesn't take away the lie(s). Our past shall remain. It does, however, add potential to the future. It allows us the ability to change the way things have been done incorrectly and now do them correctly. We can celebrate the course correction, while weeping for the previous failure. Every time someone speaks truth to their lie they are showing the face of God. God is a liar. Let us pray:
Dear God, help us walk the thin line of human grace and human justice, and let us not veer too far in either one. Amen. 18 While this messenger was speaking, another arrived and said: “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 when a strong wind came from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young people, and they died. I alone escaped to tell you.” Job 1:18-19 CEB It's amazing how casually we talk about Jesus' death as Christians. It's almost as if it's an inconvenient footnote, that must be read so we can get to Easter Sunday. We can't sit in the statement, "Jesus died," unless we can stick a "but" right after it. When Jesus actually died, no one said "but." There were no "buts." Jesus died. Period. More than that it means God's family died. When we sit in that statement, we realize there are phrases that don't work anymore. "It'll be okay." Well, no. In some way it won't. Saying it will be okay is a lie, and one said to make yourself feel better, not to better the feelings of the person you're talking to. Would you say that to God? It'll be okay. Job, blameless before God, couldn't say it, and called his friends out for sharing similar feelings. Sitting in mourning everything was anything but okay. More than that, God is okay with us not being okay. Not that God wants us to suffer. Just that God gives us space to mourn. The Israelites wrote some pretty difficult words about being a displaced people in their oppressors land. God gave space for that. Weep. Gnash teeth. Mourn. It's allowed. God's family died. Let us pray:
Holy God, I'm filled with sorrow. Be with me as I weep. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ 45 Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.” Matthew 25:44-46 CEB How often do you stop yourself and wonder about those who hunger? Many don't. And why would you? Out of sight; out of mind is a very true phrase. People don't see hunger. Hunger doesn't rip apart houses like a tornado. It doesn't mold the streets like a flood. It exists, whether you see it or not. Starving people so very close, and so far away. Until we are personally feeling the need ourselves, it's difficult to see the need for others. That's where God is. Those who are hungry. Feeding them, is feeding God. "I assure you that when you did it for one of the least of these, you have done it for me." It's difficult to meet God in the places where our mind doesn't easily dwell, yet those are the most fulfilling connections we can make with God. Those are the places God calls to us to help. Feed God. God is hungry. Let us pray:
Dear Lord, from my full belly, may I help others find the same fullness. Amen. -Rev Melissa Fain- 20 As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21 CEB There's a huge difference between talking about babies and having them. Some things just can't be understood until you're living it. There's this sheer terror at first realizing an innocent life has been placed in the care of you! When the nurses pack the new family in a car, and tell them to go home, do they realize the parents are completely unqualified? Everything about life has now changed; things will never be the same again! Is that why God did it? Our collective voice cries out to God for salvation. "Save us!" we pray. Only God took the form of a baby. It's a statement which cries back, "Save me." We are called to serve God in the most vulnerable place, where God needs to be served. Where God dies if not served. Does God realize we're completely unqualified for such an important job? No. God realized and realizes giving up power is the only way we learn to be something more. We care for God. God is a baby. Let us Pray:
Dear Lord, Help me take the role of parent when your need is great. Amen |
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