Month: November 2024

Truth.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Presence

In the gift of this new day,
in the gift of the present moment,
in the gift of time and eternity intertwined,
let us be grateful,
let us be attentive,
let us be open to what has never happened before,
in the gift of this new day,
in the gift of the present moment,
in the gift of time and eternity intertwined.

~ John Philip Newell, A Celtic Psalter.

John 18:33-37

33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Who are you?  That’s a great question.  Who are we?  I know you’ve heard me say this before, but I don’t like to be labeled.  I like running, but I don’t want to just be known as a runner.  I want to be healthy.  I’m a spouse, parent, friend, etc…but I want to also be known as a someone that cares, is open, loves well, is inconsistent at times, but always willing to go deeper in who I am with others and with myself.  Same thing about being a pastor.  Love it.  And, quite honestly, being at Westwood First Presbyterian has rekindled my love and deepened my call of being a pastor.  But, I want to be known for deeper things as well…a friend first as Christ was/is a friend…but even more, I want to be Rich Jones, authentic human.

You can go down the line:  politics, theology, associations, etc.  I want to be something more than the things that I may engage in…I think we all do. 

This morning’s gospel lesson is about getting to the truth of who we are.  

It is also full of drama.  The writer in John is attempting to tell a beautiful story about “truth”.  In our culture today, people are always talking about biblical truth.  It’s interesting to me on how many things people say is biblical truth, while others say the exact opposite as biblical truth.  It’s one of those dead end arguments, if you say something is biblically true, it’s like you are trying to shut down an argument.

But, the writer of John is trying cut through the distractions and point to Truth.  I’d say truth with a capital “T”.   A truth that isn’t convenient, but is deep and lasting, and requires courage to live into.  A truth that has much more to about relational reality than facts or figures.  

The dramatic fashioning of the story is interesting.  The actors in this drama leading to Jesus’ crucifixion have all left the stage (except for Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and John the Beloved)…the disciples, the religious rulers, the mobs, all have left and its just Jesus and roman governor, Pilate.  

Pilate is intrigued by Jesus.  He has some doubts on Jesus’ guilt.  He is not resolute and he wants to be practical, but he’s curious and he’s searching for an answer.  Jesus was just before a mob demanding his crucifixion.  I’d imagine that the crowd there that day was filled with tension, fear, anxiety.  They were under roman rule, they were enslaved to a religious system that was propping itself up by they’re going along with the system.  They did not want to give up on what they had lived under because it was familiar and they could not see beyond to what Jesus exemplified.  

The religious leaders also needed a distraction to maintain power.  Jesus was challenging their system, their way of living, and they needed to show the crowds they were still in charge.  

They all needed a scapegoat if you will, someone to blame their issues on, someone that they could punish for their own sin.  And, Jesus seemed like a good one to scapegoat.  

Yet, they could not kill Jesus without Roman approval.  But, Pilate wasn’t convinced.  He wanted to appease the religious leaders in Jerusalem, and he also did not want civil unrest.  So, he pushed the pause button and questioned Jesus in private.  

He starts with some probing questions, “ are you the king of the Jews”.  The “you” in Greek is emphatic, are YOU the king of the Jews.  Jesus is also curious; he wants to know if Jesus is being prompted to ask or if it’s his own question.  Jesus asks, is this your idea?  Pilate responds, that it’s his own people who have betrayed Jesus, and wants to know what it is he’s done.  

Then Jesus talks about his kingdom.  His kingdom is not of this world.  The kingdom of this world is about power, prestige, hierarchy, status, enslavement of the masses, and fearful individualism where the focus is on some type of survival, scarcity of resources that pushes one towards selfishness and violence. All the things, the truth if you will, of what it means to be the anti-Christ or not of Christ.

Yet, Jesus’ kingdom is not about any of those things, its power comes from humility, confidence, and service.  It is non-hierarchal, relational, and collaborative.  It frees up everyone from slavery to whatever is keeping them from growing towards a deeper truth of who they really are.  It is not based on fear or anxiety but brings peace, presence, and abundance.  It gives us loving community and friendships with others, and it is marked by non-violence.  All the things, the truth if you will, of what it means to be the Christ.

Jesus goes on to say that he has come into the world.  That’s a huge statement.  Jesus is saying that the Truth is embodied in the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.  Jesus says that he is the truth and the truth will set us free elsewhere in scripture. And, that truth, present in the Christ, is also present with all of us. We hold the truth in our hearts, yet we have allowed, over so much time, to create an anti-truth, or “alternative truth”, that divides us and enslaves us. We see it all around us in the messages that we received from so many folks and platforms with their desire to dominate and destroy.

Yet Jesus came into the world to testify to the truth, to testify that there is a better way to live and find our being.  Friends, as we go into the world around us, as we listen to our neighbors, we will find God active, we will find so many things that will point us towards a loving God.  And we will grow.  

If we have any chance of growing closer to God, of seeing our church not only survive, but thrive, then we have an opportunity, just like Pilate, to ask Jesus what is truth.  But, unlike Pilate, we can have courage to live on the side of truth, to know the Jesus that embodies truth and to follow his example of going into the world and finding the places and people where God is at work and invite them into our fellowship, even as we join them in friendship in the world that we live in.  

If we can dare to risk this, we will move from death into the resurrection, life filled with Jesus, filled with Truth.

May it be so with us.  

Threshold.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge.

It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is emerging.

This becomes essential when a threshold opens suddenly in front of you,

    one for which you had no preparation.

This could be illness, suffering or loss.

Because we are so engaged with the world,

    we usually forget how fragile life can be and how vulnerable we always are.

It takes only a couple of seconds for a life to change irreversibly.

Suddenly you stand on completely strange ground

    and a new course of life has to be embraced. 

Especially at such times we desperately need blessing and protection.

You look back at the life you have lived up to a few hours before,

    and it suddenly seems so far away.

Think for a moment how, across the world, someone’s life has just changed –

    irrevocably, permanently, and not necessarily for the better –

    and everything that was once so steady, so reliable, must now find a new way of unfolding.

Though we know one another’s names and recognize one another’s faces,

    we never know what destiny shapes each life.

The script of individual destiny is secret;

    it is hidden behind and beneath the sequence of happenings

    that is continually unfolding for us.

Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind’s light or questions.

That we are here is a huge affirmation; somehow life needed us and wanted us to be.

To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart.

It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives

    to become voyages of discovery, creativity, and compassion.

No threshold need be a threat, but rather an invitation and a promise.

Whatever comes, the great sacrament of life will remain faithful to us,

    blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace.

We merely need to trust

~ John O’Donohue, “Benedictus” (To Bless The Space Between Us)

Mark 13:1-8

13 As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2 Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

Endgame was a Marvel movie that Brennan, may son, and I saw together a few years ago.  It was the culmination of several Marvel movies depicting the end of the world.  In this movie, the villain, Thanos, had grabbed all six of these powerful stones that enabled him to destroy half of the universe and 1/2 of its population.  But, the Avenger superheroes find a way to reverse time and restore the universe and its population…including many of the Avengers who had vanished.  

Now, that was a movie, and as good it was, it’s still fantasy.  Yet, and we have heard this before, we live in “apocalyptic” times.  That doesn’t mean the end of the world, but it does mean the end of some things so that new things can emerge.  It also means that things are being revealed that were hidden, or not recognized before.

Friends, as we read the gospel story, can we not see that this was not only true 2,000 years, but so true today!  

Jesus makes a statement, that the temple, this grand building in Jerusalem that was built by King Solomon, was one of the most amazing structures in antiquity, and made a huge impression on the disciples.  The disciples kept on falling into the same patterns, going after surface things, wanting to be great, wanting to be a part of a system that kept them from realizing their full humanity.  

Jesus literally goes after them with a blunt statement meant to cause them some dissonance, to make them think, to shake them out of their comfortable status quo and visions of grandeur.

You see this temple that you are so impressed with?  See how powerful it looks?  How permanent?  Well, nothing is permanent, these stones, large stones, will all fall down, this building will be destroyed…and, so will all of your notions that have been created to give you some sense of control, when in reality, those notions control you and keep you from becoming the person that you have always wanted to be.

It’s interesting though, the disciples stick with Jesus.  They know his words and actions carry meaning.  It often happens that when Jesus makes these statements in public, there’s a sidebar conversation with the disciples where he explains further.  After three of the disciples ask in private the meaning of his words, Jesus goes on to say that there will always wars, rumors of wars, human conspiracies, and all sorts of disasters, but something deeper is going on.

Friends, look around!  We see this today, everything is being exposed.  We see our political structures exposed…both sides, all sides.  There are some good people in government in different seasons, yes, but we have a system that is collapsing from lack of trust, greed, and a lust for power…and everyone blaming others rather than working towards the common good.  The church universal is complicit at times with this empire and being exposed as it became complacent and sold out to being an entertainment center, a walled fortress, or a sales pitch.  We have become a society based on business, on transactions, of living above our places, or locations, and zipping around like ants marching towards a slow death,  rather than a community of people, in a location, living in place, being transformed and transformational, and growing into life, the abundant life that Jesus came to show and to reveal to us…and give to us freely without condition!  

Yet, apocalyptic times are necessary, and a part of the deal we call life.  It happens in culture as we build and live into systems that, honestly, need to be exposed…sometimes destroyed, sometimes reformed, and often let go of in order for something new and more humane to emerge.  

They are actually a threshold time.  A time where we are crossing a doorway from one room to the next, from one season to another, leaving things behind and going into the unknown.  St. Brigid, the Celtic saint and abbess, was also the patron saint of thresholds as she helped to bridge the span between the pre-Christian and Christian Celtic worlds.  

Anthony Murphy says this:  Brigid stands at the threshold of the old and the new and refuses to budge. And we should be glad that that is the case.

She was born at the threshold of a home and that is a significant metaphor for what she represents.

She is a woman of two worlds, of two states of mind, of two ways of seeing the world. 

Who among us shares her holistic vision?

The world needs that right now.

This is true in our personal and corporate lives.  We go through the throes of life holding on to things, notions, bias, image, and relationships.  They all have to be brought into the light, because often we try to hide behind them and present an image to the world that is so much work.  

God wants us to give us life, real life.  God wants us to live freely and in love with ourselves, others, and to be experiencing God’s movement, God’s love, in every aspect of our lives.  

But, giving birth to life requires pain.  Jesus compares apocalyptic or threshold times in our life as “birth pains”.  I have not given birth, but as I’ve shared before, I’ve watched it happen…and I did experience pain when Debbie punched me while giving birth to Brennan.  Birth is hard, we don’t want to leave the comfort of the umbilical cord, the womb, and enter into this crazy, painful, sad, joyful, wonderful world.  Yet, we can’t stay in the womb, that will eventually kill us and kill the mother…we have to leave, we have to grow, we have to trust, and risk.  We really do not have a choice, yet, we also do have a choice to how we live and respond.

Friends, apocalyptic times, threshold space, are all around us, we can accuse, scream, take sides, put others down, live in despair, or we can lean into them, grow and learn, and become more aware.  Our world, and our own personal worlds, will end and are dying, but it’s not the end of the world, or our own worlds…no, it’s actually the beginning of a new world, a new birth.  

May we live into the possibilities as we embrace the changes in and around us.  

May the power of Brigid inspire you,

The grace of Brigid attend you,

The flame of Brigid enliven you,

The story of Brigid engage you.

May the God who provides her all these gifts

Provide them also to us,

That we may go into the world

With her lavish generosity

And her creative fire.

–Jan Richardson

Good.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

For Love In a Time of Conflict 

When the gentleness between you hardens
And you fall out of your belonging with each other,
May the depths you have reached hold you still.

When no true word can be said, or heard,
And you mirror each other in the script of hurt,
When even the silence has become raw and torn,
May you hear again an echo of your first music.

When the weave of affection starts to unravel
And anger begins to sear the ground between you,
Before this weather of grief invites
The black seed of bitterness to find root,
May your souls come to kiss.

Now is the time for one of you to be gracious,
To allow a kindness beyond thought and hurt,
Reach out with sure hands
To take the chalice of your love,
And carry it carefully through this echoless waste
Until this winter pilgrimage leads you
Towards the gateway to spring.

By John O’Donohue from To Bless the Space Between Us

Micah 6: 1-8

Hear what the Lord says:
    Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, you mountains, the case of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has a case against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
    In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
    and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
    Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
    what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord
    and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago what sermon I would preach this Sunday after the election if a certain person won.  I responded that I would probably preach the same sermon even if the other person won.  It is a sermon today that I am preaching from the Old Testament.  I don’t usually do that, but I think it gives us hope and also a reminder of the goodness that we all share in our humanity.  Micah is a part of the prophetic writings in the Old Testament like Amos, Hosea, Jonah, etc.  These prophets were speaking bold to the religious and political power structures of their day that they had gone astray and were not pleasing to God who wanted them to remember that power is not something to use over folks, but to use for the common good.  

I was also reminded of something this week that I shared with Bill Ringshauser when we met to plan out Diane’s memorial service.  I had shared with him and his sister a quote from my friend Cormac Russell, which I think is VITAL for us at Westwood First Presbyterian, and the world really:  “It’s better to be connected than correct”.  If we are connected, and not worried about having correct arguments or opinions with can be dehumanizing to others, lead to identity politics and religious dogma, etc. then we we will continue to be unified and come together to work for the common good of everyone.  I believe that’s what we are about at Westwood First, amen?!  

What is the common good?  That’s a great question isn’t it?  The term “good” can be defined from the world wide webs as:  

“better or best…having admirable, pleasing, superior, or positive qualities; not negative, bad or mediocre: a good idea; a good teacher. morally excellent or admirable; virtuous; righteous: a good human.”

And, of course, the word common has a connotation of what is best for everyone in a community.  

This is the gist of our passage today, that if we live lives of awareness in the universal presence of Christ, then we will want to know what God requires of us, our what being and living for the common good looks like.  

Our passage this morning is a conversation between three different groups of folks:

  1. God (verses 1-5)
  2. Worshippers of God (verses 6-7)
  3. Micah (verse 8)

It seems like God is wanting to convey a message about being upset that folks aren’t getting a message in verses 1-5.  God’s making a statement that folks are not listening or being what they were created to be.  God’s telling them that God’s brought them out of slavery, out of the empire that was telling them that they were less than human.  That’s been the story throughout history really, God created us to be free and to live in equity and love with all of creation…and not stuck in a system, or an empire way of thinking that dehumanizes us and others and reduces us to simply being cogs in a wheel…or living in the proverbial rat race…  

So, God is a bit frustrated.

In verses 6-7, folks are asking, what do you want God?  Sacrifices?  I mean, look at what they are offering!  Their firstborn, the fruits of their body?  All sorts of things.  

Talk about missing the point.  God is frustrated, and I think that frustration leads God to a deep sense of sadness.  We try to make it up to God, but God simply wants us to be a better version of ourselves…to be persons who love ourselves and others well.  

It reminds me of a time when I was a kid.  I was in Canada on vacation.  Our family would vacation with my best friends family, Rob Waddles!  Loved Rob.  One day were playing and I accidentally gave him a black eye.  I felt horrible.  I did not know what to do…I asked him if there was anything I could do to make it up to him.  He simply replied in his 10 year old self, it hurts.  Trying as hard as I could, I could not make it right on that level.  I think God can relate to Rob…it hurts, but God is still our friend and is committed to us.  Rob stayed my friend throughout his life…beyond this one episode.  And, Rob just wanted me to be his friend, warts and all!  God is saying the same thing…you can’t make it up to me, and those no need to be…just be YOU, the authentic you.  As you do that, or be that, goodness will flow out of you.  

Here’s the good news though, in verse 8, Micah, the prophet, reminds folks what God requires.  Oh human, mortal, I have told you what is good…it is to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God.  God is not interested in our sacrifices, but wants us to be good.

When you meet folks who love kindness, do justice, and walk with humility within themselves and with others…with God and the Universe in which God resides, you know it.  God wants Israel, and wants us, to simply do that…to be human as God intended, which, if you remember when God created humanity, and creation, he said it was good from the beginning…Micah is telling us what “good” looks like.

We just had our All Saint’s remembrance.  We remember folks that have passed, and their memories and presence in our lives…even after their death.  It’s actually an ancient practice that goes back thousands of years…our ancestors, like God, actually, in communion with God, are calling us to be the people were created to be as described by Micah.  As it says in Hebrews, there is a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we run this race of life, to be the people that we are called to be, not identified by a political party, a religious dogma…but to be human.  And, I know when I’m running a race, I’m not concerned with my image, I just want to finish!  

I have been remembering many folks this week, especially my best friend Robbie who died of either suicide or an overdose of opioids that were prescribed to him by his doctor for a back issue several years ago.  In his life, he had that humility, that kindness, and a deep sense of justice for all people, which he expressed through music in a beautiful way…  He demonstrated that with me in so many ways over the years…and, it’s made me a better human and the desire to do the same.  He believed in me and still does.  Today, and most days, I remember Rob, and his spirit, his essence is still with me in amazing ways as he encourages me on my journey.  

God’s spirit is also with us on our journeys.  God is giving God’s self to us constantly, throughout history…God gets frustrated, but does not stop loving us and believes in us…just wanting us to be simply us…to be good.  And, we can’t help but being good at our core because God lives in us from our core, our deepest, truest Selves…and all around us and God is good.  We just have to live in that recognition and let that love flow.  We can get into places where we get stuck from time to time…but, God is constantly working to get us unstuck and to remind us that we are connected with all things and people, we are in in communion.

That’s good news to me, and I hope good news for you.

Love.

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PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives,
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of color.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being,
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.

We look toward each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Besides us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.

By John O’Donohue

Mark 12:28-34

The First Commandment

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

While reading this passage the past week, I was reminded of a conversation that I had with a fellow pastor who worked for Vida Joven in Nicaragua.  We were talking about the concept of doing ministry in a certain way, we had a phrase for this way that probably comes from the business world:  “quality of excellence”.  This means that we want to do ministry at a high level, we want to do it well, pour in resources, and make it attractive.  There is some good to that, but it’s not what they strive for with Vida Joven in Nicaragua much anymore…they don’t have all the resources that we have in the states, so they strive for something better:  “beauty”.  It’s beautiful to see teenagers sitting on a hill at a camp sharing life, laughing and crying together.  It’s beautiful to see folks believing in each other and giving and receiving grace.

I believe that this beauty is demonstrated in this morning’s scripture passage.   Our passage in Mark 12:28-34 finds Jesus in the midst of four debates with Jewish religious leaders.  Jesus had been doing well, so the religious leaders were going to try a theological question, “Teacher, what’s the greatest commandment?”  This passage is also found in other gospel narratives.  They were asking a question with the intent of trapping Jesus, they wanted to put Jesus in some sort of religious box.

Jesus takes this question and gives a beautiful answer in two parts.  The first part is this:    “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 

These words have power and intimacy.  We are to love God with all we’ve got, everything.  God is not supposed to be number one our list, God is supposed to be everything on our list.  All of our lives are interpreted and have meaning through this love for God and God’s love for us.  God created us out of love.  In God’s very nature of being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…the Trinity, there is deep relationship bonded by love that created us, saved us, and sustains us…this God loves us so much, and the love that God has for us and has placed within creation, believes in us and gives us the capacity to love others and love God.

Jesus also says that the Lord is ONE!  That’s powerful. God, three persons, one…and this same God is one with us.  We are bonded together into the Trinity!  

This love also gives us the ability to love ourselves and to see the beauty within ourselves.  We cannot truly love our neighbors until we begin to see how valuable we are within ourselves.  God created us good and in his image.  Read the first couple of chapters of Genesis, God is pouring himself into his creation, into us.  We are works of art.  Oftentimes we let circumstances and decisions in life diminish us.  As it says in John 10:10, there is a thief who comes to steal and destroy our lives, yet Jesus wants us to have life, abundant life.  

Yet, we were created for beauty and when we grow to understand the beauty that is our true selves and that God created and animates our very being, we can then begin to love God and to love our neighbors.

Of course, that begs the question then, who are our neighbors?  Well, everyone really.  The folks we live next door to, the folks on the other side of town, folks across the world really.  We are called to see everyone as being made in the image of God.  That can be hard sometimes, folks are different, have different tastes, cultures, personalities, mannerisms.  I get that we simply don’t get along with folks at times.  We have former friends or even family members who may have wounded us deeply.  Yet, God calls us to simply love, which requires a lot of hard work of self-reflection, cultivating our identity with God, and wisdom in how to deal with the persons around us.  We become true neighbors when we practice what the good Samaritan did by simply reaching out to those around us and loving them well.  

When we practice this, beauty happens!  We are able to see God’s Presence in amazing ways as we love our neighbor and experience God’s love and attempt to love God back!  God is glorified by us when we simply live in God’s glory for us in relationship with each other and with God!

So, where do we start doing this as a church?

  1. Know that God has placed you where you are in your neighborhood and church.  All that God needs for beautiful things to happen, for community transformation, is present in this room.  So often in church we talk in terms of scarcity, not enough money, not enough people, not enough vision, etc.  Yet, I believe in a God of abundance!  There is a universe of talent present right here in this room right now!  You are all beautiful people with so much to share and to learn and to grow!  It’s exciting!
  2. Practice gratitude.  Don’t create more programs or committees or look for the latest church growth technique.  Just look around, invite folks over for a shared meal, sit on the back porch or deck and share life together.  And be thankful for the folks around you.
  3. Listen to yourself honestly.  Don’t be afraid to look into the darkness of your own life.  You won’t be alone there, God is present everywhere.  Get a spiritual director that will listen to God with you.  Find others to hold your hand as you do this.  I have a spiritual director and a group of guys that meet regularly.  These guys know me and I know them.  We love each other well and they hold me up without trying to fix me.
  4. Listen to your neighborhood.  Get involved in the local school, ask local business leaders what they see or need, open the doors of the church to civic groups, meet for coffee with folks from other churches.  Don’t have an agenda other than building relationships and being curious about what God may be up to in your community.  Then, get behind what God is already doing and get into that sweet spot where God’s Spirit will carry you.  

Know that seeing beauty and being a part of the beauty of God’s relational and community work is simple, yet it’s also the hardest thing that we’ll ever do.  There is a lot of darkness in this world, we do have a lot of distractions.  Yet, God is with us and the time is now to be faithfully present with each other and with God and to be a part of God’s kingdom presence and transformation in our lives and communities.  

There is a growing conversation within Cincinnati that is globally connected to see communities transformed in simple, deep, and beautiful ways.  I also have to report how excited I am to be a part of this conversation in our Presbytery right now as we explore where God is at work in and through the church, not just for church numerical growth per se, but for community transformation.  Westwood First is in the middle of a sea-change within Cincy and really across the US and world!  Really!

So, friends, I’m looking forward to seeing more beauty in our neighborhood and in this church.  

My good friend Bart Campolo a few years ago summed up this Mark passage with this phrase:  “Love God.  Love others.  Nothing else matters.”  Friends, you are loved and you have loved.  May we continue on and grow deeper in our understanding of what it means to see beauty in each other, in ourselves, and in God’s vibe throughout our city.