2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

Observation: Even though 2 Timothy is a disputed letter (many scholars believe it was written by another writer in Paul's name) in this chapter we read what feels like a very personal goodbye from Paul to Timothy, a younger pastor whom he has mentored.

Application: I had an odd moment in NRG stadium last night. On the screen came a prompt: "Raise your hand if you were born after 2000." And of course the vast majority did, because this was a high school youth gathering. I felt old. But when I got past the ego factor of realizing I was already a college student when these kids were born, I started to realize that the years coming up will be their time. It didn't make me jealous or fearful---believe me, they'll handle it just fine--but I just had this sense, that one day I will be passing the torch to someone born after 2000.

Someone born after 9/11 will one day be my pastor, and my bishop. Someone who has never used a pay phone, maybe someone in that very stadium, will teach and mentor my grandkids with the faith they learned here. Someone born in the third millennium will bury me and provide pastoral care to my family. And they will do just fine.

To know ahead of time that the Church is in good hands is a blessing. I haven't finished my race just yet, but this gives me energy for the next lap.

Prayer: God, thank you for this present season of discipleship. Thank you for those you have given me to mentor. Give me grace to the day you call me to follow them. Amen.

Lamentations 1:16-22 Holding Despair and Hope in Tension

Observation: In the wake of the Babylonian invasion and exile, a national disaster affecting generations of Judahites, the author does something modern readers are uncomfortable with reading in a religious text. He laments. He despairs. He let's himself feel what he feels: that hope is gone. It's not about pointing fingers...in fact twice the author himself (believed to be the prophet Jeremiah) says this has happened because "I was rebellious".

Application: As I write this I'm in a pretty good place for hope. I'm in Houston, Texas with 31,000 high school students and leaders for the ELCA youth gathering. There's a lot of energy, a lot of faith, a lot of hope here. But I know there's still a lot of despair in the world. A lot of people are feeling as Jeremiah did, that hope is losing and injustice is prevailing. As a Christian believer, trained to "welcome the stranger" (Matt. 25:35) it would be wrong of me to rejoice, dance and sing without remembering those who are in despair because our nation has turned legal refugees away.

But I have to say, being here in a time of despair, while strange, is a reminder that God is still writing this story, and if you think this generation of young people in Houston isn't going to be a big part of that, think again. We hold despair and hope, the cross and Resurrection, in tension as believers. It's a huge part of what faith is: lamenting in what we see yet believing in what we don't yet see. Houston is a good place for that.

Prayer: God, be with refugees. Be with people in despair. Be with my neighbors who weep. And be with my neighbors who hope. Make us a people who can hold both despair and hope in our hearts. Amen. 

Acts 13:13-25 "If You Have Any Word of Exhortation For the People, Give It."

Observation: In a synagogue service in Antioch, Paul is invited to give "a word of exhortation" to worshipers. Paul gives a wonderful primer on what theologians call "salvation history", or the history of God's presence and gracious actions on behalf of the people of Israel, all through the Hebrew Bible and culminating with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Application: It's been a while since I updated this blog. I've been on vacation. And I may not get much time in the upcoming week since I'll be in Houston with our young people for the ELCA Youth Gathering. I feel grateful that a text like this came up on my "free day" when I can update my blog. When Paul is asked for "a word of exhortation," Paul tells his listeners a story they already know intimately: the story of God's saving acts. (By the way, if you're cramming for an Old Testament exam, [ahem Confirmation students ahem] you could do a whole lot worse than Acts chapter 13).

There are a couple of different traps Christians can fall into when we interpret the Bible. The first is to assume that "only the Jesus stuff counts." This is not especially helpful. In fact, the Church has been down that road before. There was an ancient heresy called Marcionism that proclaimed that the "Old Testament God" was bad and the "New Testament God" was good, and therefore the Hebrew scriptures should be scrapped in favor of the New Testament. The Church did not ultimately go that route. Jesus did not just touch down in a UFO completely outside the context of human history. He was a guy, with a family, and a nation, all of which were an important part of God's plan to save the world.

The other trap we get into is what I call the "every verse gets a vote" trap. This tends to come from a place of good intentions. If the Bible is God's Word, then every little word or phrase is inspired, which means it's all equally useful for our lives, and we should build our worldview in such a way that every last word of scripture has equal influence. The problem with this for Christians is that, by volume, the New Testament, and the Gospels within it, are whole lot shorter than the Hebrew scriptures, and the God we end up with when we give "every verse an equal vote" will be a stranger most modern-day Christians and even modern-day Jews, and most importantly, to Jesus and his first apostles. As Christians, we have to center our reading of scripture on God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ. It is his life, death and resurrection that gives shape to our whole way of telling our story.

When Paul is asked for "a word of exhortation for the people," he falls into neither trap. For his fellow devout Jews (and by the way, Paul considered himself a devout Jew his whole life, and actually continued to go by "Saul" among some Jews to his dying day, but that's another story) Paul tells a story of faith that centers on Jesus, but that reminds them that the God Jesus reveals is the God they have always known. I loved going through the verbs in this text. They all belong to God. God does everything for our salvation. Paul's sermon is the same "old, old story" that has given shape to their lives for centuries, but with a central character revealed in a new way: Jesus, heir of David's line, Messiah, our Lord.

Prayer: God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for revealing to us Jesus Christ. Help us always to open our Bible asking, "where can I find Jesus here?" Help us to ask the same question as we observe the lives of those who follow him, most importantly our own lives. Amen.   

Psalm 130: More Than Those Who Watch For the Morning

Observation: Psalm 130 is my favorite. It begins in the depths, and stays there, yet continues to hope in the Lord. Just as surely as morning is coming, God's deliverance is coming too.

Application: This week, I can't read this psalm and not be thinking about those who have died by suicide. The world has lost both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. And coincidentally, this week a report has been released showing a sharp increase in suicide across our nation. We are a people badly in need of hope. 

Mental illness is a terrible thing. Millions struggle with it, and it's not because they are weak or defective; it's often simply an issue of brain chemistry or trauma. If you struggle with thoughts of suicide, know it's not your fault and you NEED to reach out to loved ones and medical professionals who can help. 

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Please call. 

As I read this psalm, it reminds me that when I'm in the depths, I'm not alone. God will deliver me. Waiting on God is hard, but even the fact that you're waiting is a sign that there's hope. 

My friends, I just want you to know. You are God's child, and God loves you. God made you on purpose. God weeps with you when you hurt. God, who did not withhold God's own Son, God's own life, that we might live, will deliver us from any other trouble we may be facing. Just as sure as the sunrise, God's presence and love is something we can count on. God wants abundant life for you. And so do I. And I'd be glad to call you and tell you that any day of the week. 

Prayer: God, help us wait for you. Be with those who suffer. Open our eyes and ears to be ready to be your presence for those who need you today. Amen. 

1 Peter 4:7-19 Sharing in Christ's Sufferings

Photo credit: Becky Fetters

Observation: As the letter draws to a close, the author of First Peter makes some moral exhortations. The first few make perfect sense, the last one, less so. "Maintain constant love for one another" and "serve  one another" are pretty standard fare. We have heard the same from Jesus and from Paul many times. But then comes the curve ball: "Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you...but rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings..." It's not completely out of place in Christian teaching. Jesus says something very similar in the Beatitudes. But the idea of rejoicing when we suffer is still a strange concept.

Application: My friend Becky (also a Lutheran pastor) found a very bizarre gift at a local box-store. It's a ceramic cross--the symbol of Jesus' suffering to redeem the world--and on it is written "do more of what makes you happy." What a weird juxtaposition...

I hate to say it in the self-help, personal fulfillment, positivity culture in which we live, but our number one mission in life as Christians is actually not to be happy. It's to follow Jesus. We will certainly find joy on that journey. It's clear that Jesus and his disciples often did. But we'll also find some inconvenience, some grief, some harassment, and yes, some suffering, that if we were not followers of Jesus, we might have avoided. 

Again and again, I hear from people that their first priority for their kids or their grandkids is that they grow up to just be "happy". I want to push back on that a bit, from a Christian perspective. Mind you, OF COURSE I want my kids to be happy too. But if being happy means being less able to understand and empathize with the pain of others, then maybe "happy" shouldn't be the goal line. If being happy means pursuing things that will not ultimately satisfy, then maybe "happy" isn't all that great. 

What I'd like much more for my own life, and for my kids' lives, is to be able to rejoice when God's will is done, both in their own lives and in the lives of others. That doesn't always feel the same as "happy", because there exist forces in our world that resist God's will, and are willing to inflict a lot of pain on those trying to make it happen in the world. 

My idea of a good life is to be unhappy sometimes. To be unhappy with how things are, to be unhappy with whatever causes harm to my neighbor, or whatever devalues the image of God in my fellow human beings. To be unhappy about those things which make Christ unhappy, yet to rejoice at the chance to give up some level of comfort if it could make things better. That, to me, is what sharing in Christ's sufferings means. 

Prayer: God, I pray for my family, for my wife, my kids, and myself, that we would sometimes be unhappy. Help us to mourn with those who mourn, yet rejoice when your will is done on earth as in heaven. Amen. 

John 5:1-18 Do You Want to Be Made Well?

Pool of Bethesda Archaeological site. Credit: Guy Davis

Observation: Near the pool of Beth-zatha (Bethesda or Bethsaida in other manuscripts) a man is sitting there who has been ill for thirty eight years. Even with today's life expectancy, that could easily be most of his life. Jesus asks what should be an obvious question, but takes him utterly by surprise: "Do you want to be made well?" 

Application: Sometimes we deal with a problem for so long it seems to become a part of us. Like the man lying at the pool, the idea of healing has become almost intimidating, because it constitutes radical change. It requires us to live and move differently than we have for most of our lives. 

Unlike two thousand years ago, many people living with disabilities today live fairly full lives. For many decades it has been slowly dawning on our society that it's not always those whose bodies and minds are different from most who need healing. It's also our attitudes, our ways of assigning value, and acceptance of different ways of being. 

My son has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism. We've known for a long time that his approach to the world is unique, but this concrete understanding of how his mind works is still new for us as his family. He's still trying to figure it out himself. But the thing is, if Jesus came to him and said, "Hey, do you want me to rewire your brain so you'd be neurotypical, and experience the world the way most of your class does?" I don't know what he'd say. I know for sure what I'd say: Not in a million years. My son's way of seeing the world doesn't need to be healed. 

But if Jesus were to come to the rest of the world and say, "Do you want to be healed? Do you want to start getting to know people whose bodies and minds are different, the way I know them? While we're at it, what about those who love differently than you do? Do you want to be healed, and know them as I do?" Are we ready for that? 

I wish we could say "yes". But I'm not sure. The kind of healing Jesus offers would require a lot of change. It would change our public spaces. It would change the way we talk, and the way we think. But it would give so much more dimension to the way we experience God's good creation. God created us good. All of us. 

So what do you say, America? Do you want to be healed? 

Prayer: God, change my heart and my mind. Help me get to know new aspects of your good creation, and to love them as you do. When I mess up and say or think hurtful things, give me strength to ask forgiveness. Be with people today who are getting to know themselves, especially those who are different in their bodies, minds or hearts from most people. Help them to love themselves as you love them. Amen.