Do you want to be made well...

John 5:1  After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2  Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3  In these lay many invalids--blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5  One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 7  The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." 8  Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." 9  At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. 10  So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat." 11  But he answered them, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Take up your mat and walk.'" 12  They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take it up and walk'?" 13  Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there. 14  Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you." 15  The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

This bears all the signs of a well crafted – and often told – story: 

Here we have a sick man who desperately holds onto the forlorn hope of finding healing in the magically stirred water.  We are told that he had been there ‘a long time’. And just when he feels himself giving up hope – Jesus crosses his path with these words “Do you want to be made well?”  What a question! Of course he wants to get well. But this question asks if he wants to be well badly enough to trust Jesus.

Following Jesus is more than a curiosity to occupy a few spare moments - following Jesus is an absolute commitment to trusting his ways.

Ordinary 24 / Pentecost +17

46 Beyond Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 282.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

A Better Way

Luke 17:1  Jesus said to his disciples, "Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 2  It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3  Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 4  And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive." 5  The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6  The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

Matthew 18 & Luke 17 both carry this message: “you must forgive”  Matthew asks for this to be “seventy times seven times”, while Luke only refers to “seven times”.  Either way the intention seems to be that we are to be a forgiving people. This is a core value of being a follower of Jesus. While the world we live in thrives on hatred, anger and revenge, Jesus asks us to trust him (even if this is only a very small bit of trust) that there is a better alternative: to be forgiving.  

    

"Forgiving love is a possibility only for those who know that they are not good, who feel themselves in need of divine mercy, who live in a dimension deeper and higher than that of moral idealism, feel themselves as well as their fellow men convicted of sin by a holy God and know that the differences between the good man and the bad man are insignificant in his sight."
—Reinhold Niebuhr,  An Interpretation of Christian Ethics

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

Believing in other people’s goodness

Luke 6:37  "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;38  give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." 39  He also told them a parable: "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40  A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41  Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42  Or how can you say to your neighbour, 'Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.

This is an invitation to live generously. Based on the premise that “the measure you give will be the measure you get back" the followers of Jesus are invited to live without the need to put other people down.  The challenge for today is for us to believe the best of those around us.

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

Raising the bar

Luke 6:27  "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30  Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31  Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32  "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33  If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34  If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35  But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus is unapologetic in insisting that his followers were expected to show more love, more compassion, and more mercy than anyone else. The central thrust to this is that his followers were to reflect the quality of God:  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  Jesus invites his followers: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

Clearly the teachings of Jesus are easier to read in the Bible than they are to practice in our lives.  A case in point is Barak Obama’s desire to bomb Syria: We watch how a Jesus-following President of the United States of America flat-out ignores Jesus’ injunctions to find an alternative to violence.  It is disturbing how easily we Christians choose violence as the answer to the problems of our world. The greatest challenge of being a Jesus-follower is to have the will and stamina to relentlessly pursue non-violent ways of securing peace and justice in our world.  Jesus asks us to go further than anyone else – to raise the bar on our practice of love and mercy.      

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

Leadership

2 Corinthians 2:3
And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours.

Paul visits Corinth for the first time, spending about 18 months there (Acts 18:11). The second time he visited the Corinthian church this was a "painful visit" (2 Corinthians 2:1). Paul reassures the people of Corinth that they will not have another painful visit because of the love he has for them.

Here is a leader who cares for his people enough to visit them, write to them, and when necessary - speak bluntly to them about difficulties. We all can learn from his combination of compassion and straight talking.

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

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Believing and Doing

1 John 2:1  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2  and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3  Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. 4  Whoever says, "I have come to know him," but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; 5  but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: 6  whoever says, "I abide in him," ought to walk just as he walked. 7  Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8  Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9  Whoever says, "I am in the light," while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 10  Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. 11  But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

Sometimes it feels like following the Christian faith has been reduced to the same level as believing in Father Christmas – that no matter how bad you have been, Father Christmas will still pat you on the head and bring you presents.  This passage of Scripture is a timely reminder that Christian faith is not simply a matter of “believing in Jesus”.  Those who follow Jesus are also bound to obedient living: “Whoever says, "I have come to know him," but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist”  

Our lives as followers of Jesus are informed by the teachings of Jesus – to both believe and do that which is loving. Belief without action is hollow.

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.

Love without discrimination.

Acts 10:34  Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35  but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36  You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. 37  That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39  We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40  but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41  not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42  He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43  All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

A Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius has upset Peter’s carefully ordered world. This was a world where Peter (and most of his Jewish culture) believed that God only loved the people of the covenant of Abraham and Moses. The  non-Jewish goyim (גוים or גוי) were beyond the love of God and were to be tolerated if necessary, but preferably avoided.  Then Peter met Cornelius and discovered that God had already blessed him before peter had opportunity to object. And so Peter exclaims in amazement:  

"I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

The truth is that God does not belong to any religious creed or grouping. The love of God is available to all - irrespective of culture, religious belief, gender, or sexual orientation. So let us love with the love of God – indiscriminately!

Ordinary 23 / Pentecost +16

45 Forgiveness

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 276.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.