You Make Me Want To SHOUT!

A dialogue follows but if you are reading this, I invite you to ask yourself these questions.

When was the last time you really shouted out?
What about? Stubbed toe, we've had a few banged elbows lately.   You don’t have to tell me WHAT you shouted...
     What makes you want to SHOUT?

A closer look at Bart's shouting: (which he can’t do. .)
      What made him want to SHOUT?   
    What do you notice about the story?

1. He's blind
2. He raises a 'fuss'
3. Who hushes him?    “Silence in the Library”   “Hush”  “Be Quiet”
4. Does it remind you of any other stories about Jesus? (Let children come)

 What does Bartimaeus do?   It makes him want to SHOUT! And he does!  and
He Jumps up, he discards coat.

What was his coat to him?   Song: All that I have..my will are thine..
Only possession, He doesn’t even think twice about leaving his only protection behind.
Likely laid out to collect coins from passers by.

What happens next?
Jesus ASKS: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Wouldn’t such an offer be enough to make YOU want to shout?)
Bart: “Teacher, I want to see.”
Jesus pronounces him healed (spit-free healing unlike last one)

What does BART do?
Bart is not afraid to answer the question,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Then he is granted what he asks for and is he Able to see
Begins to follow Jesus, WHERE?
On the Way

On The Way

Bart has moved, from sitting beside the road begging for alms to walking “ON THE WAY” the Jesus’ Way! From along side, to BE-Side Jesus. (Boring & Craddock, People's NT Commentary)
How does this story speak to us?
    perhaps: No guts no glory?

"Bart refuses to be defined by his circumstance - or the expectations of others" 1  Especially the expectations of those who are able to see, yet are really blind to WHO Jesus is and WHAT he is about.

What kind of story is this? - Is it About the Disciples?

If this is just a story about Bartimaeus and the disciples,
Then WE can 'see' some obvious parallels or contradictions.

 Bart the one who recognizes Jesus as God's Messiah - the One who brings mercy.

 Bart is willing to risk ridicule - even shame (a bigger deal then than we can imagine) While the disciples want ‘NO FUSS’ made.

 Bart is ready to be persistent in seeking what he wants - in spite of being actively discouraged by those who are so close to Jesus they assume the right to speak for him.2 (Galloway)
 Bart recognizes Jesus, risks ridicule, and is ready. Bart is genuinely willing to follow Jesus. He Gives up ALL he has to do so (compared to the man with many possessions..)

THESE ARE THE QUALITIES OF A FAITHFUL DISCIPLE3

 
Recognize Jesus, Risk for Jesus, be Ready

IN the context of the Good News of Mark’s story, we have a stark contrast between the blind ambition of two brothers, James & John from last week AND the CLEAR-SIGHTED BLIND man

    Can you see it? What else do you see?


But what if this story is about more than the disciples?        
      
Edward Schillebeeckx wrote, "in Jesus' concern for suffering humanity  HE is the living parable of God.. (what does that mean?)
Jesus shows that THIS is the way God looks on humanity.
    (How did Jesus LOOK ON Bartimaeus?)

    
This is more than a story of the past, even more than a story about Jesus. This is the way God delivers an incredibly important message about Godself;       The story of God is SEEN in the STORY of Jesus.4
    That’s why disciples have always said in Jesus, we can SEE..God!!!

In the ‘Jesus’ (Life) Parable’ - a story with deep meaning and many layers,
    Jesus is victorious over the physical brokenness of the world.

Because God cares so much, Jesus sought, and continues to seek, to cure the spiritual blindness of ALL his disciples.5
    Even us.  . .
We are often tempted to give up on humanity, give up even on ourselves, but God doesn’t.
Jesus invites us, CALLS us to come, as blind as we are, and ASKS “What do you want me to do for you?”

        Do we have the courage to ask to SEE? . . .
We have many definitions of blindness.
    Who is blind? (not proper names, but categories, go ahead and name those who seem blind to you,
    Those you can’t understand...(answers)
        What if we ARE given the ability to SEE? To see them as God sees them, as beloved children. Would we even ask for that kind of sight?
Jesus is victorious over the brokenness of people, which means God can heal those WE’VE given up on. . . AND

God can heal US. EVEN our most persistent blindness.

    We who continue to be blind to Jesus mission and priorities, even after years of hearing his story.
    We who are blinded by our possessions, like the rich young man
Who are worried about are position in life, like James and John,
We who are BLINDED by our settled lives,
set in our ways,
Satiated with all we have.
We who are content to merely make it thru tomorrow, . . .yet in truth we are somehow discontent with life too. . . But we just can’t quite SEE why.

God has already granted victory for us!
    And is waiting only to be asked to give us the SIGHT we need.
That means there's hope -even for you and me. ..

And THAT HOPE “makes me want to SHOUT!” . . .
    How about you?
1 Lincoln E. Galloway Feasting On The Word, Homiletical (Louisville, WJK:2009)215
2 Galloway ibid
3 Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm Preaching Mark (Louisville:WJK,2008)189-190
4 Edward Schillebeeckx, God among us (London:SCM press,1983)31 quoted in Resources for Preaching and Worship Yr. B, Ward and Wild, eds (Louisville:WJK,2002)246
5 Victor McCracken Feasting On The Word, Theological (Louisville:WJK,2009)214

"Adventures In Missing The Point" thanks Brian McLaren

Nine years ago, Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo published a book entitled, “Adventures In Missing The Point”. These two famous evangelical authors take on complex ideas from Christianity presenting their positions over against the ways our culture has corrupted the Christian message. - or to use their words, “neutered the gospel”. Yet even here, the two men do not always share the same point of view. The book is formatted so they take turns presenting their ‘point’ and the other one offering a ‘counter-point’ as to where they agree and disagree. At times each one thinks the other has ‘missed the point’ of the gospel. Even if they say so in very polite terms.

It is easy for us to be sure someone else is missing the point, whether we are reading scripture, or deciding about priorities for church and community service. When we are honest we often admit that it is far too easy for US to miss the point too.



Disciples James and John had an ‘adventure in missing the point’ in today’s story in Mark’s gospel. Whether they were ever able to really ‘get it’ is not part of our story. But we have an idea from Jesus’ words to them that in the future their lives, (or the cup they will drink) will mirror his own fate. Their problem was the same as ours. We are conditioned by our culture to accept what is important and what (and who) should come first.    
Jesus turns our priorities on their head putting 1st last and last first.

Anyone whose attended church more than a couple times, knows that Christians are to put Christ first. . .But it is easier said than done. Think about the typical priorities we live with.

 Job priorities - Along with potential advancements
 Family - often includes children’s priorities
 Entertainment - sports (participant or spectator) shows: movies & TV, books
 Social - dinners, coffee’s, get togethers with friends
 Church - worship, education classes, along with commitments; committee work and
 Service - which may be church-related or community service
 SELF - self-care, time away for renewal, rest, exercise

Family, Job, Social, Entertainment, Church, Service, Self, are all large items on our calendars that tend to fill to the point of conflicts. When you get pressed with too much to do, Which of these things drops off your list first?
Do you Skip work? Or Cancel dinner plans with friends?
     Maybe skip your volunteer stint this week at the hospital or AFAC? 
Perhaps you’d prefer to Skip the gym or miss that regular manicure and hair cut?
Are you willing to Tell your kids the family ISN”T going away this weekend because your schedule is over-full?
Or
    Would you skip church?
. . .
What we skip first is at the bottom of our priority list and what we’d NEVER skip is at the top. It is our cultural way of putting LAST, first! How much has YOUR list been determined by culture’s expectations compared to how you list is prioritized based on Jesus’ expectations?

Today’s focus is on serving others.

We’ve thanked our volunteers, recognized the work of each other. We would agree that Jesus showed that people were very important on his list. . Yet, remember, Jesus’ FIRST priority was always God, “Love God with heart, soul, mind & strength...THEN love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus’ priority was God. That meant attending synagogue and going to the Temple on ‘high holy days’ - even when doing so put him in danger. We often recall Jesus confrontations and arguments with religious leaders but those disagreements didn’t turn him away from his faith. We may forget that he followed regular Jewish practices of worship and offerings because this was and IS one of the ways to show love for God.
If we think that Jesus came to dispose of worship practices WE’D be ‘missing the point’.

Mark’s story about James and John is meant to open our eyes to Jesus’ priorities, especially as they compare to culture’s priorities or more to the point, - to help us see how Jesus would rearrange OUR priorities.

So far (by chapter 10) in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has said three times that his way of life is leading him towards suffering and death. In fact he has just finished saying, “ Look! ” - “ We’re going up to Jerusalem. The Human One w will be handed over to the chief priests and the legal experts. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles. 34 They will ridicule him, spit on him, torture him, and kill him. After three days, he will rise up. ” (ch. 10:32-34) 
How incredible is it that James and John follow these ominous words with their request to sit on either side of Jesus in his glory? 
One commentator1 wondered if the other disciples laughed before they got mad, thinking James and John had to be cracking a joke... ... then they realized the brothers were serious. .

But we also have to look at their conversation in the context of Mark’s entire story, which was written as a persuasive story of GOOD NEWS, for all people.

As I said earlier, in Mark, Jesus tells of the extreme probability of his suffering and arrest as ‘predictions’ of what will come. In Mark we are meant to note that just before the first prediction and just following this last prediction, Jesus opens the eyes of 2 different blind men. These are not insignificant details but are meant to illustrate a larger truth.2

Our eyes CAN be opened beyond the priorities of the world when we allow Jesus to touch us. . . His Touch is what we need to be ‘healed’ of the blindness that infects us when we spend day after day immersed in what the world says is important. Without him, we will miss the point - of our lives!

Charles Campbell, a commentator, suggests the Jesus’ words about James and John, “that you WILL drink the cup I drink..” is not a threat or a prediction but an “extraordinary promise”.  What if Jesus meant, “You, James and John, will not always be driven by your fears and your need for security. Rather, you will be empowered to take up your cross and follow me - faithful disciples even to the end.”3

What will it take for US to hear Jesus’ words as a promise? What touch from Christ, what encouragement from this Christian body do you need? What companionship in service will help you turn the world’s priorities for your life - RIGHT-SIDE-UP?

You know the story of Dirk Wilhelm? He was a 16th century Dutch Anabaptist who was kept in prison because he wouldn’t give up his specific christian faith that valued believer’s baptism and non-violence. Anabaptist style Christianity wasn’t acceptable to the early Christian reformers in Europe and so he and many others were persecuted by other protestants.

Dirk Welhelm was arrested, but he managed to escape by making a rope from cloth and slipping thru the prison bars due to his emaciated state from being imprisoned. He slid down the prison wall, but was spotted as he ran across the countryside. A guard followed him. “Dirk’s path of escape was an ice-covered pond. HE risked it and crossed the thin ice safely. - after all he didn’t weigh much, but the better fed prison guard who was chasing him, broke thru the ice into the frigid water.
Dirk could’ve asked,
Was this God's rescue? Had God indeed delivered him from his enemies? For Dirk it was a call to help someone in need. He dared to believe Jesus's teaching to love even one's enemies. He turned back and rescued the guard- his enemy. Dirk was arrested again and placed in a more secure prison. He was later burned at the stake near his native village, Asperen, in 1569. (jes)4

    What would the world, his culture or ours have told him to do? In a movie we see a “YES” and he’d run off the the cheers of the audience as the guard disappeared under the water. But the Jesus’ Way called for Dirk’s action of saving service, ‘another cup, he had to drink’ a different kind of ‘baptism to receive’ - as Jesus said.

    Most of us will never be asked to make such a severe choice about our priorities. We won’t be arrested for our faith. We won’t have to face our enemy drowning in a frozen pond. Our choices are much simpler.
- choices about our money and how we will spend it
- choices about our time and how we will use it
Simple, non-life-threatening choices.

    But for US, baptized into a culture of ‘self first, it is a hard choice to put OTHERS 1st.

I sometimes think it is even harder to put God first - above all. . Yet that IS the central message of the Jesus’ Way.
Loving the Lord, our God with all our heart, all our being, all our mind, all our strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.

“Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant.” Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be first among you will be the slave of all, 45 for the Human One x didn’t come to BE served but rather TO serve and to give his life to liberate many people. ”

1 Charles Campbell Homiletical Feasting on the word Bartlett & Taylor eds, (Louisville:WJK, 2009)193
2 Rolf Jacobson of Luther Seminary writing at workingpreacher.org
3 Campbell Feasting p.193
4 http://www.mcusa-archives.org/Features/DirkWillems.html

Boldness Before God

Psalm 22:1-15  Meditation #1- Pentecost Proper 23; 10 14 12

Perhaps what we most hear in these words is the echo of Jesus who used them from the cross to express his feeling of abandonment by God. 

They are hard words, aren’t they? . . And yet we immediately know how real they are. Perhaps you have felt like the psalmist. Maybe you can personally identify with the pain and sorrow expressed in this psalm. If so, then you understand completely what is going on in his words or cries. You also understand the abruptness of the end of today’s reading, for when you are in such pain, there is no satisfactory resolution. LIfe doesn't wrap up nicely, it just trails off and leaves you hurting. . .Such is the pain of this psalmist who expresses abandonment on behalf of ALL humanity.

The fact that the reading for today leaves off the ending of the psalm tells us we shouldn’t rush to reach a conclusion. (which in this case returns to the hope of praising God again) We shouldn’t deny that life often, if not usually, includes pain. 

I often pray the psalms and advise others to do so, especially in times of great distress. The stark expression of pain in a CRY to God is the reason why people turn to the psalms to find comfort in knowing we are not alone. 

Somehow, In this raw expression of feeling directed to God, we find assurance that our emotions matter, that it is even OK to complain to God -or even yell AT God.

Yet, We are still left looking for ‘whatever kind of relief, if any, can this psalm provide?”

1. First we must notice that Prayers like this are intimate - they are not prayed by strangers but by those with a long history of positive interaction w/G-d. says, OT scholar Walter Brueggemann. (ibid) He makes a point that if you don't have much of a relationship with God, you aren't likely to be sharing on such a deep level.

 Boldness before God

1.  Not everyone is comfortable with such Boldness before God. But I believe this psalm offers us ‘permission to speak freely.’ Even when it’s a complaint.
2. Clearly this honesty encourages us to be honest in saying that we ... really do feel pain, whatever it is. LIFE IS HARD. We need Not deny it or make little of it. 

• This psalmist also encourages us NOT To give up, no matter how bad it gets. . ..
• 
  

1. The call is a reminder of covenant between humanity and God.

• It's Not a bargain with God, but a reminder to God of who God is. 
• It calls on God by laying guilt at God’s feet saying, That for God to not answer shames God. 
• Being this bold also means remembering who WE ARE. We are creatures NOT on the level of the Creator, and not able to understand all the happenings in the universe.

By reciting all the times God HAS been there in the past, we remind ourselves of the covenant. And this makes calling on God an act of faith! 

IT reminds us as much as God that we are partners in life and death

Sometimes all we can do is to draw closer to others who suffer also. 

“Shared suffering connects us to a larger world at the very time we are most at risk to feel isolated and alone.”

• Grieving mother to other grieving mothers
• Victim to other victims
• Laid off person to other unemployed   

Even as we suffer can we reach out and be present to others who share our plight?..

When we are the ones surrounded by bulls or lions, as verse 12 describes life's trouble,

and we cry out for help, can we rest ourselves in God's hands and make our deepest request merely "Be Not Far From Me” 

If so, then we will be ready to pray the rest of the psalm with the assurance that God WILL be near, - - -even when we don’t feel it -- just yet.

Job 23:1-17 Meditation #2  Proper 23

It sounds like Job and the Psalmist we heard earlier were best friends!  

Actually, this passage is from a time when Job was with his 3 “friends” if you could call them that. 

Scholar Kathryn Schifferdecker

 describes the scene saying, 

these friends sat with Job in complete silence for seven days but now they can’t shut up. Job was better off in silence because they accuse him of terrible things.

At this point in the story, Job has lost his family, his wealth, his home. He’s covered with painful sores and his ‘friends’ say it’s all Job’s fault...some friends!

But I imagine you have heard people doing the same. Prof. Schifferdecker reminds us, “When tragedy strikes our gut reaction is often to reason to ourselves why it can’t happen to us.”   Which often results in ‘finding’ some reason why our ‘friend’ brought this on themselves.

But thru all this abuse “Job holds to his integrity. He knows that he has done nothing to deserve his suffering.”

He certainly IS miserable. He has wished he’d never been born, now in this passage - he moves on and cries out for justice. ‘if ONLY I could get an audience with God to plead my case.” he says. He even turns the tables and accuses God of lying in wait to destroy him.

Yet like the psalmist, Job - continues -  to talk - to God. 

He doesn’t give up, doesn’t walk away. 

Even when he’s despairing and complaining to God, his words are an act of faith. --Faith that God; the God who is beyond human understanding, hears him and eventually will answer.

What we learn from Job’s lament is the WAY OF FAITH. 

• It doesn’t deny the reality of suffering, 
• it doesn’t make sick excuses for theology like, “God needed your sister in heaven.” or 
• “Everything happens for a reason.” 

The way of faith acknowledges God’s sovereignty by complaining to the God who CAN do something about it. Even when we can’t understand WHY no relief comes.

The way of faith (eventually) stops trying to make sense of suffering and feeling divine abandonment and instead learns to sit with it. .

*Sit with suffering like Job, in a very active way.

*Sit with abandonment like St. Teresa of Avila 

who didn’t feel God for 18 years, but kept on praying everyday.

*Sit without comprehending like the Jews in Death Camps who never accepted how God could allow evil to continue in the world.

Sitting with the pain is not the same as accepting it as punishment. 

Job NEVER accepts his suffering. He continues to say he does not deserve it. But instead of making excuses for God, . .(how ridiculous is that anyway?) 

. .Job comes to recognize the God who is FAR Beyond our understanding - even when it requires him to remain in darkness far longer than he’d like.

BELIEVING when we can no long see God or find God or FEEL God IS ACCEPTING what we DON’T know .. .. ..while we petition God because we WON’T accept injustice.

Faith - particularly when we are faced with Job-level suffering- (Faith) is the willingness to WRESTLE with God. It is then that we find out if our devotion is sufficient for real human experience.

We can learn from Job. We can learn from him how to lament. We can learn from him how to bring our anger, pain, grief and despair directly to God, even when we feel only God's absence. 

We can learn from him how to have hope, even if only a little HOPE, holding on to God with a fierce faith, 

trusting that God is God, trusting that God will hear, trusting that God will answer. 

And that answer will come, not one that Job (or we) could ever imagine, but an answer nonetheless.

¹ Walter Brueggemann in Feasting on the Word, Exegetical Bartlett & Taylor eds, (Louisville: WJK, 2009) 153

² Jason Byassee in Feastong on the Word, Theological Bartlett & Taylor eds., (Louisville: WJK, 2009) 156

³ Kathryn Schifferdecker at workingpreacher.org

⁴ ibid Schifferdecker

⁵ J. S. Randolph Harris Feasting On The Word - Theological Bartlett & Taylor eds, (Louisville:WJK,2009)151

⁶ adapted Paul Capetz Feasting on the Word - homilectical Bartlett & Taylor eds, (Louisville: WJK, 2009)148

⁷ Schfferdecker

MIndful

Hebrews 2:5-12

“Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9

When I began my study of this text I encountered an acquaintance’s confession in a scholarly publication. She said, 

“For most of my preaching life, I have avoided the book of Hebrews - somehow taking offense at what I perceived to be its exclusive and bloody interpretation of atonement theology.” Susan B. Andrews Feasting On The Word, Pastoral Bartlett and Taylor, eds. (Louisville:WJK, 2009) 134

My first thought was, “Amen, SISTER!”  I knew Susan Andrews as a Presbyterian minister from suburban Maryland before she was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church-USA a decade ago.

She went on to write about finding new life and healing in some of the chapters of this long sermon called the book of ‘Hebrews’.

I understand that my ‘problem’ with Hebrews boils down to my concept of Jesus. I have a LOW Christology and the author of Hebrews has a very HIGH Christology.

Before your eyes glaze over at these terms, they merely mean what and how you think about Jesus.

I tend to focus on the life and teaching of Jesus; the Jewish man who was also the anointed one, which in the Hebrew language means the Messiah and in the Greek language translates as ‘the Christ’. What Jesus said and did has more meaning for my life than what theologians four, five, and even 12 centuries later, interpreted his death to mean.

Hebrews, likely written around the same time as most of the gospels, has a bit different perspective. One that comes from the generations after the people who knew and walked with Jesus. Interpretation of what and who Jesus was didn’t really begin until years after the resurrection experiences when followers tried to make sense of Jesus’ death. 

I imagine a repeating sermon title in those days had to be, “Why did Jesus have to die, or did he?” 

Hebrews answers the question with, “Yes, Yes he did!” and this book, really a sermon, relates a HIGH Christology, explaining how Jesus existed before time and the earth itself. How he lives still ‘seated at the right-hand of God’.

In fact Hebrews echoes the church confessions of the 4th and 5th centuries, like the Apostles and Nicene creeds, that “move directly from incarnation to the passion’. ² John P. Burgess Feasting On The Word Theological Bartlett and Taylor, eds (Louisville:WJK, 2009) 134

“Born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried...on the 3rd day he rose again to judge...” 

If you have attended churches other than those of the Anabaptist tradition, these words may be familiar from weekly reciting of one of the creeds.

It’s not that early Brethren didn’t believe the statements within the creeds, they just refused to live by the least common denominator of words and instead chose to live by the entire NT, even the places of contradiction and tension.

Dirk Wilhelm, Anabaptist martyr

Other than our lack of familiarity with the creeds (If that is true), have you ever thought about YOUR Christology? 

It is a discussion more common at the seminary refectory table than at a fellowship hall luncheon. Yet it IS important to think about. What you believe about Christ determines the kind of Christian you are.

When you don’t KNOW what you believe, you are left at the mercy of those who would distort what Christ taught and did. One has only to watch a few campaign season ads from religious affiliated citizen groups to hear plenty of distortion and discord from what Jesus said (and how he lived).

Today, I want you to be ‘mindful’ about what you think, what you believe and what you struggle with when you hear Christ proclaimed, whether from New Testament texts like Hebrews or from TV ads, . . or even around the water-cooler at work.

. . .

This week I spent time with Father Stan and Pastor Kristen as we prepared and led the Senior Adult Day Retreat. Stan shared a water-cooler story with me. He is a bi-vocational pastor. His weekdays are spent working for the federal government and his weekends spent in ministry. The lines blurr often so many people at his ‘work’ know that he is a priest. 

One woman came up to him and said, “You are so brave to ‘come out’ at work.” Not ‘out’ about his sexual preference, but about being a Christian and a PRIEST! 

It turns out that she too is ordained and only this past week, thanks to encouragement from Fr. Stan, ‘came out’ to her co-workers, as an ordained Christian minister. 

Is your Christianity ‘OUT’ at work or among your friends?

What would you say if someone pointed you out and asked, “Are YOU a Christian?”

The most common answer today is, “Yes, but not THAT kind of Christian!”...and almost everyone knows what you mean.

As you’ve heard me say before, when we can’t articulate what we feel in our hearts and think in our heads, we are at the mercy who those who define Christianity with hate, prejudice and exclusion.

...I don’t think any of us want to be identified with THAT kind of ‘christianity’.

I do want to give you permission to not be sure what you believe. 

It’s OK not to be able to voice eery detail of your Christology but it’s not OK 

to NEVER think about it. . .

It’s not OK, to ignore decisions about what you believe, 

it’s not OK to let others define Christianity for you,

It’s not OK to remain silent, when others destroy the work of Jesus with acts of hatred.

. . .

This is why I am calling us to be ‘MINDFUL’ today. . On this World Communion Sunday. . .A day when Christians celebrate the life they share rather than argue about the places they disagree.

Sue McNiel Jacobsen

This is also why words from Hebrews are so relevant today. Because it was written to weary people who hadn’t know Jesus personally. People who were burned out by long frustrating exchanges with the world and who were having trouble keeping their churches alive. They had become apathetic believers with a lethargic faith. Susan Andrews called it the spiritual version of ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’. If it sounds familiar you know why I am concerned.

We have a vibrant congregation here, but we are influenced by a world filled with apathetic Christians who remain silent about their faith and whose only Christian ‘confession’ is “I’m not THAT kind of Christian.”

I have to confess I’ve said it too.

So I was surprised to find Hebrews a place of encouragement.

I think I needed to be reminded that the lowly Jesus I follow ‘sits’ with the Holy One, Master of the Universe, Giver of life.

I need to recall the Spark of the Divine that is within me..and you..and in all God’s children.

Can the ‘electricity of Hebrews reignite our faith’?

Will we let the lofty language “remind us of the amazing grace of God’s very imprint in Jesus. . which is at work in us, 

Sustaining us so we can endure suffering

Gifting us with joy from the inside out and 

Empowering us to be as Christ to someone else?

Bouvere Last Supper

I want to be ‘mindful’ of WHO Jesus is, today as I take these elements from His table and am reminded of all He is to me.

I invite you to mindfulness too. 

Both now as we enter a time of ‘Table Fellowship’ and in the days ahead. 

I invite you to recall the ‘tough and tender’ grace of a God who loves us unconditionally.

And will you commit and re-commit your life to following Jesus, the Christ, MINDFULLY for all your days.

Susan B. Andrews Feasting On The Word, Pastoral Bartlett and Taylor, eds. (Louisville:WJK, 2009) and

John P. Burgess also in Feasting Theological