Engage Your Spirit...In the Pursuit of Truth

John 4:21-27  The Message

^21-23"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. 

You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews. 

But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

^23-24"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. 

God is sheer being itself—Spirit. 

Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

²⁵The woman said, "I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story."

²⁶"I am he," said Jesus. "You don't have to wait any longer or look any further."

²⁷Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. 

No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

I love the end of this passage:  "no one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it."  

Classic!  

My face tends to always betray what's spinning in my mind.  No matter how much I like to believe I have a poker face, plenty of folks over the years have told me otherwise.  

What does our face say about our encounter with Jesus?  

Peace?  Laughter?  Shock?  Gratitude?  

The disciples were shocked.  Jesus was smashing boundaries.  

He was talking...with a WOMAN.  He was talking with a SAMARITAN woman! 

If they had heard they content of the conversation, their shock would have been so much greater.  He actually tells her that the time has come when where a person worships doesn't matter.  

In that time, it mattered, greatly.  Jerusalem was, and still is, the epicenter of the Jewish faith.  

Jesus says what matters in our worship, is our heart.  

Does our worship show that we love God?  Do our faces show it too?  

Worship that engages Spirit...in the pursuit of Truth.  

One of the best ways, perhaps, to embrace God in Love.  

Grace & Peace,

Adam 

Nail it to the Doorpost

Deuteronomy 6:1-9  The Message

^1-2 This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you're about to cross into to possess. This is so that you'll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I'm commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

 ³ Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you're told so that you'll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.

 ⁴ Attention, Israel!

   God, our God! God the one and only!

 ⁵ Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!

 ^6-9 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. 

Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. 

Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. 

Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

Tefillin.  Mezuzah.  

These are not words that we American protestant folks are too familiar with.  

Both come directly from this passage of Deuteronomy 6.  I got to see both in action during my trip to Israel, a few years back.  

"Tying tefillin" is a practice of devout, Orthodox Jews the world over, and I witnessed Jews with scripture tied to their wrists and heads as they prayed at the Wailing Wall.  

Every hotel room I stayed in had a mezuzah on the doorpost.  I even brought a Christian hybrid mezuzah home.  It has the icthus symbol for Jesus, and it's on the doorpost of my office at SOTH.  

By Jesus time, some had begun this practice, primarily as a display of outward holiness.  They took pride in who could outwardly observe the law with the most piety.  This is always a human temptation for the religious.  

Jesus did not remove the intent of Deuteronomy 6.  Instead, he reminded us that letting the word of God live in our hearts is always of critical importance.  

Yesterday, on facebook, our discussion led to a question:  How do you hug God?  

Maybe scripture is a primary way.  Maybe it's the main way that we can hear and communicate with the Almighty.  

Maybe...certainly...let's try it, together.  

Grace & Peace,

Adam 

Like a Tree Planted by the Water

^{Psalm 1}       

¹ Blessed is the one 

   who does not walk in step with the wicked 

or stand in the way that sinners take 

   or sit in the company of mockers, 

² but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, 

   and who meditates on his law day and night. 

³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, 

   which yields its fruit in season 

and whose leaf does not wither— 

   whatever they do prospers.

 

⁴ Not so the wicked! 

   They are like chaff 

   that the wind blows away. 

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, 

   nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, 

   but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Water is pretty vital.  It can give life, or it can destroy.  Just ask my friends in Memphis about that right now.  

Yesterday morning, I started the day by watering the plants that are newly in the ground at our house.   I knew that one day of 90+ degree heat had the potential to damage their baby roots.  

Psalm 1 gives us a wonderful image.  We can be "a person who is like a tree planted by streams of water...yielding fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither..."  

What is that life-giving water?  

"The Message" version says that it's "chewing on God's word day and night."  The NIV quoted above says that it's a matter of continually "meditating" on the word.  

Try it out.  Go to http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/   and spend the next 15 minutes chewing on the word.  

It's one of the best ways to "Love God," the first part of the Royal Commandment.  

It's refreshing, just like a cool drink of water on a hot summer day.  It keeps us from drying up and blowing away like chaff.

Grace & Peace,

Adam 

Let Your Love Flow

^{Matthew 22:34-40}

^34-36When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. 

One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: "Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?"

 ^37-40Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. 

But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' 

These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

They were going to get him.  That was their goal. 

Isn't that the goal we all have sometimes, if we're brutally honest?  

Let's trap Jesus.  Let's put him in the corner, in a box, in a jar up on the shelf, and just take out the parts and pieces we want.  

Surely it's not hard to ask him questions that he can't answer, right?  So the Pharisees thought.  But his answer was devastatingly simple, and beautiful, and hard.  

What's most important?  

Love God, love everyone else.  That's how it all hangs together.  

Simple.  Yes.

Easy?  No.  

How can love flow that completely when I am such a sinner...and so are the people I'm called to love?  

It takes a miracle...to let the love flow.  But with God, nothing is impossible.

Grace & Peace,

Adam 

The Kingdom: What do you make of this?

From Matthew 13  The Message

He told another story. "God's kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

 ²⁷"The farmhands came to the farmer and said, 'Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn't it? Where did these thistles come from?'

 ²⁸"He answered, 'Some enemy did this.'

   

"The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?'

^29-30"He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"

 ^31-32Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it."

 ³³Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises."

His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field."

^37-39So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.

^40-43"The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

   "Are you listening to this? Really listening?

 ⁴⁴"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

^45-46"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

 ^47-50"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."

 ⁵¹Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"

   They answered, "Yes."

 ⁵²He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."

The kingdom is like...

• thistles in a field, sewn by an enemy, growing right beside the good wheat
• a tiny seed that grows into a loblolly pine
• invisible yeast cells that cause many loaves of bread to rise
• like a treasure accidentally found buried in a field, and secretly bought
• a faultless pearl, for which the jeweler sells it all
• a net crammed full of prize fish and trash fish, fit only for the garbage

"Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"  Jesus asked.  

"Yes," they said.  

I think they might have been lying.  

The kingdom is a mystery.  It is a gift.  It is the goodness, and reign and presence of God himself.    It is high stakes.  When glimpsed, it should be pursued.  It is not worth ever losing.  Garbage of any kind can't live within it.   If we don't look closely, we won't miss it.  It's tiny, and it's huge.  

What do you make of this?  

Grace & Peace

Adam 

What do you make of this?

Matthew 13:3-9

"What do you make of this? 

A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. 

Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. 

Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. 

Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"

It's seed planting season.  

Confession:  I wish I was more optimistic when I put seeds in the ground.  The truth is, I'm never really convinced that I'll see a harvest.  

I've got good reason.  Lots can happen along the way to maturity.  The seed has to germinate.  The plant has to grow.  It has to fend off diseases and predators.  It could be killed by too much rain, or heat and drought.  

Planting a seed is really an absolute act of faith.  

What if no one had faith enough to plant?  

We would starve.  God has so ordered this world, that seed-planting is essential to the human condition, and to our continued survival.  

Faith.  Seeds.  Kingdom.  

What do you make of this?  

Grace and Peace,

Adam