AfterWords: “A Story of … Love”

Would we like to change the word with one order, one command? We hear commands and orders all our lives—small attempts to change the world around us, perhaps: “Make your bed;” “Eat your veggies;” “Be at work by 10am.” In Matthew 22, we hear more commands: “Love God;” “Love your neighbor.” How in the world can someone—even God—command us to ‘love’?!?

First of all, for us English-speakers, ‘love’ is a feeling. Second, we love so many things in so many different ways: We love pizza, the new Marvel movie, that fancy car, our girlfriends/boyfriends/ spouses, our mothers, and our country. We do not have a clear understanding of ‘love’ because we use the one word to indicate our very different relationship to things, people, and country!

The Greeks of the 1^st Century used different words to describe or indicate their different relationships. Greek has four words that we usually translate as ‘love’—but maybe we shouldn’t . Eros is a feeling of attraction, physical desire, associated often with visible beauty. Phileo indicates the camaraderie among friends, a positive brotherly/sisterly relationship. Storge reveals a familial connection and commitment, that “blood bond.” And, agape is selfless behavior; putting others first; showing kindness not based on feelings; giving of oneself without expectation of anything in return. This agape is the word that we find in Matthew’s Gospel.

When we realize that we are not commanded to have a feeling but to act in a particular way—selflessly, putting others first, with kindness (in spite of feelings), self-giving—then we begin to wrap our minds around these words…and we can begin to live them out. We’re commanded to act, not to feel. I deny myself and give part of my time, part of my day, to God in prayer, devotion, Scripture reading, or worship. And, I act with kindness towards my neighbor regardless of how I feel. We do these things because when we do, we take another step towards being fully human as God intended. Wesley (founder of Methodism) says that living into these commandments is moving towards “Christian perfection”—being who and what God created us to be, living into the “image of God” (Gen. 1:27).

So, back to changing the world with a command. When we give ourselves to God, when we agape God, when we say ‘no’ to ourselves and ‘yes’ to God for just a few minutes each day, we are allowing God to change us. Each encounter with God—through prayers, worship, Scripture reading—changes us somehow, shapes our lives in so way. Likewise, every time you and I speak with grace, do any small act of kindness, allow someone else to have priority, they are changed. Through agape, you and I become conduits of God’s grace and instruments of change in this world.

When we live into these commandments, you and I begin to change this world. Living out agape in our lives—towards God and neighbor—changes the world. Be a world changer today.

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Watch or listen: "A Story of ... Love"

AfterWords – “A Story of … Discipleship”

 While much of the Christian life is ‘doing,’ at times we are called to change our thinking. “Let this mind be in you…,” Paul writes. In this Sunday’s reading (Matthew 16:24-26), Jesus is calling us to think differently. After all, this is a call to discipleship, and a disciple is a student. So, time to learn to see ourselves and the world differently.

“Deny yourself.” This is a conscious decision because our natural tendency is to think of ourselves. Whether our lives are difficult (‘Woe is me…’) or we think we’re king/queen of the world (‘Woah! It’s ME!), we tend to think about ourselves. Jesus is calling us to think outside of ourselves. While the world calls us to ‘be true to yourself,’ Jesus calls us to be true to him. One way to deny ourselves is to ‘flip’ this call: affirm others. When we get outside of ourselves, what is rotten in our lives doesn’t look so rotten; our self-absorption is replaced by the joy of tending to others.

“Take up your cross.” This clause is so misread today. While we think of Jesus and his decision to go to the cross, the disciples heard something very different. When they heard these words, they were reminded of the brokenness of their world—a world where crosses were part and parcel of daily life. One school of wisdom teaches that we should see the world from the perspective of “the glass is already broken”: Everything we have or own will break, will fail, will fade, will be scratched. How freeing to realize this so that when the moment comes, we aren’t surprised. Jesus calls us to see that “our lives are already over.” When we own our own mortality, we can let go and enjoy the reality of here and now. We are set free, in a way, to live life with joy and enjoy the people and world around us.

“Follow me.” Following Jesus today is different from how the disciples did this in the 1^st Century. Today, we follow Jesus by aligning our lives with his, with his words and actions, with his way of being. Another way to think of following Jesus is to really internalize his teachings and his life by reading Scripture, participating in worship, fellowshipping with other followers of Jesus, praying, and by serving and teaching others.

All of this—denying self, taking up the cross, and following—are a way to know and lay hold of life. In doing these things, we really begin to live life as God intended. Affirming others, recognizing the transience of this life, and internalizing the life and teachings of Jesus provide the foundations for seeing the world from a truly Christian perspective. Let’s determine to think these ways….

 

Sunday, July 21, 2024

A Story of…Discipleship

AfterWords - "A Story of ... Following Jesus"

Often, when we see or hear about something, what we saw or heard becomes the standard or the pattern. If we go to a particular Thai restaurant a few times, that becomes the standard for all Thai restaurants for us. If we hear that a friend or family member has a particular experience at a new store we’ve never been to, their experience becomes the standard or pattern for what we think we should expect when we go there.

In the same way, we’ve made some of the Biblical stories patterns for the Christian life…and we may have done people a disservice in doing so. Paul’s “Damascus Road” experience, his dramatic conversion complete with ‘sound and lights,’ has become for many the pattern for how to come to Christ. But, Scripture does not bear that out. In fact, we don’t see anyone else coming to Jesus in such a dramatic way. If they had, I’m fairly confident they would have told that story somewhere along the way.

Likewise, in the Gospels, we see the dramatic response of Peter and Andrew, James and John, as they drop their nets, their work, their families—everything—and follow Jesus. While some certainly have “Damascus Road” experiences and some do leave everything to follow Jesus, the vast majority of us have relatively “tame” conversion experiences, and we follow Jesus in a very different way.

What does it mean “to follow Jesus”? For the first disciples, it meant getting in line physically behind the Master and walking the roads of Judea. For 21^st Century disciples, it more often means getting up in the morning, breathing a prayer of gratitude and asking God how we might live as Christians in our families, at work, in the classroom, at the park, or wherever it is we find ourselves that day. Following Jesus is not so much about walking a geographic path as it is aligning ourselves with Jesus and all he showed us through his life and teachings. For us today, following Jesus is living daily lives of goodness, kindness, and gratitude; speaking words of hope, grace, and peace; taking time to listen, help, and serve others.

How will you respond to Jesus’ call today: “Come, follow me”?

Sunday, July 14, 2024

A Story of…Following Jesus

AfterWords – “Writing New Stories”

 

    Our lives are stories. Some chapters move and flow; some chapters seem stuck or slow. We write characters into our lives, and we write characters out of our lives. Our parents wrote the early chapters of our lives, taught us how to write along the way, and by the time we moved into adolescence, we were taking the pen from their hands and beginning to write our chapters. Once we had the pen in our own hands, our lives were our own…for better or worse.

     We have written some really nice scenes or chapters into our lives—some things we did well, some conversations that were fun, thoughtful, life-giving. We discovered some good characters to include in our stories. But, we also have chapters of regret. We have woven some damaging scenes into our lives, and we have written some bad characters into our lives. Inevitably, we come to points in life when we realize that past scenes and actions have captured us and hold us back. We recognize that some of the characters we’ve written into our lives need to get out, and we don’t know how to write them out. All is not lost.

     The writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as “the author and finisher of our faith” (12:2). Could it be that now is the time to invite the Author into our lives again, to share the pen with him, to allow him to guide us into writing new and better scenes, fresh conversations, and to write the bad characters out of our lives? We already know what kind of tale we get when we do all of the writing ourselves. Now, today, let us invite Jesus, author and finisher of our faith, to join us in our life-story, to help us write new stories…stories of meaning and purpose and direction, stories that others can watch unfold and can celebrate when we’re gone.

"Writing New Stories" 
 Sunday, July 7, 2024