Cleaning house at Easter

To hear Brandi read this instead, click here: https://youtu.be/ATB818q76gU

Here we are, walking through Holy Week. I hope this week is full of long pauses as you contemplate all the ways our Maker has gathered you from far away places, held you in intense pain, and loved you when shame blocked you from seeing the good. Our God is better—I think—than we think God is. I pray this week you find yourself pondering that very good God, enjoying God’s presence, believing God’s large love for you.

There are lost of reasons not to believe any of it. Some of us have survived horrible pain, lived through unspeakable loss, and our suffering is so overwhelming that thoughts of God’s goodness feel mocking and thoughts of heaven’s healing feel too little, too late. If you are there then I am so sorry. I pray the pain lifts, that it doesn’t bare down in the same crushing way forever. But I hear you.

For others of us, the behavior of Christians and church folk has caused us the worst pain we have endured. We feel confused and baffled by the hate, the apathy or the selfishness of church leaders and their friends. We wonder how a religion based on forgiveness, on a God who responds to pain with compassion and with-ness, who creates a welcoming community for those overlooked and rejected by powerful people, turned into the churches that now line our streets. We wonder how we got here, so far from the words, ethical vision, social sacrifice and practical theology of Christ.

Here is the beautiful thing my friend Russ, a writer, reminded me of today: between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, Jesus confronted abusive hypocrites in the temple. In the week that would become Holy week, a few days before he died, Jesus brought his outrage to the public eye, telling religious abusers that they were blaspheming the name of God, and had no place in God’s kingdom. That reminder brings me profound comfort this week. I am not crazy. You are not alone. Jesus is also disgusted by the way religious folk often ignore the pain of others, or actively cause harm by blaming wounded people for their wounds. Jesus was for survivors, and rejected the abuse of oppressors. When his time was short and fleeting, he used part of it to name the status quo of the synagogue as evil, and reminded us instead that God’s church is meant to be a place of refuge, care and healing.

If you wonder inside the church, asking how much longer you should stay or be aligned with systems that protect those who wound, I see you. If you wonder outside the church, unable to go back because your body and soul tell you it isn’t safe, I see you. Jesus cleaned house back then, and I take comfort in knowing Jesus will again. In the meantime, I pray none of us will confuse our Messiah for those who seem uninterested in our stories. Jesus cares, gathers us, defends us, creates spaces of belonging for us. I pray you see that this week. Jesus goes into every place that harms you to make a place you can belong. Happy Easter.

Week Seven: God, restored in you

“Jesus is not some impossible horizon in the distance, far removed from the realm of possibility or your everyday life. He is very near. This is the nearness that union with Christ brings; you are in Christ and Christ is in you…Christ now set you free to be your true self: the self you are by grace, not the self you are by nature…Jesus came from heaven in order that the image of God might be restored in you.”                                                                                                         -Rankin Wilbourne

“When we walk with God, all things become new.”                 -Mary Wineinger

“There must always be remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.”                                -Howard Thurman

“Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not meant to be a crumb.”    -Mary Oliver

4/13 Isaiah 54:1-8; Mark 12:10-11

4/14 Ps 18:25-36; 20

4/15 Isaiah 55:1-12

beautiful ugly, all

To hear Brandi read the essay instead, click here: https://youtu.be/AeNGFIxkeRo

I spent nearly a decade of my life on staff with Young Life. As a result, I have an irrationally large brain-file of absurd games meant to help kids connect, laugh, get out of their own heads, and stop taking themselves so seriously. Ever convinced a teenager to feed another teenager chips and salsa using only their toes? I have. Ever wondered how many clothespins can dangle unassisted from your husband’s face? I know, and it is more than you would think.  Ever Saran-wrapped a cup to the front of your body so someone can throw hotdogs across the room while you try to catch them with no arms? I could go all day….

As I’ve aged, I observe a similar use of such “mixers” among adults. Having invested far too much in our serious-adult-selves, we no longer play with hotdogs. However, we absolutely need help getting out of our own heads to really see the people around us. Some gatherings begin with a confession of our favorite show or podcast to binge. I tend to go a little darker, and often ask dinner guests when they last knew they were just the worst. When did you lose your temper at the worst possible time? When were you sort of a jerk for no reason? (I know, I know, I’m not for everybody!)

I like these kinds of questions because, like the toe dipping salsa game, they force everyone in the room to not take themselves so seriously. My humorous public confession invites us to admit we are beautiful ugly. As my friend Patti says, “We are all mixed bags.” Naming our worst, even in jest, bears fruit. In the Bible, Jesus’s cousin and womb buddy John the Baptist, urges others to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” I love his admonition because it reminds me that when I confess my worst and name my troubles, I often see the fruit of connection with others, of safety in failure, of a humble welcome into a community of people trying to find their way.

This week’s readings remind us to live as people on the way. We are not people on strictly linear journeys, but we are folks designed for eternity living in the here and now. Immortal mortals. We live knowing that all we see is not all there is, and that gives us hope for the redemption possible when we take the mysterious love of God seriously. If we know that one day, every sad thing will come untrue when God redeems the world to life, then we also have to patiently offer hope and possible redemption to those around us.

This week, show up for others, knowing they are a mess and they are also holy, being transformed in ways we cannot see. My friend David often reminds me that “to love a person is to love a process,” and this means I get to love the people around me like they are gorgeous disasters who are learning a whole lot about their place in the world every single day. Live into the reality that God is with us and promises to do more for more than we could possibly imagine. Ponder it, believe it, and see it. For yourself and others.

Week Six: Live as people on the way

“The future orientation of Christian time reminds us that we are people on the way. It allows us to live in the present as an alternative people, patiently waiting for what is to come, but never giving up on our telos. We are never quite comfortable. We seek justice, practice mercy, and herald the kingdom to come.”                                                                               -Tish Harrison Warren

“The incarnation, the concrete, powerful, paradoxical, even scandalous engagement of God in history, changes forever our perception and reception of one another…For his cross teaches us that conversion of life is not merely something about which we speak; rather, despite whatever consequences, the living out and living out of that transformation is the subject of our daily struggle.”  -M. Shawn Copeland

“We spend too much time trying to fix the things we don’t like rather than simply reconciling everything to God….But I’ve come to understand that true justice is wrapped up in love…God’s love and justice come together in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and we can’t be about one and not the other. They’re inextricably connected.”                                               -John Perkins

4/6 Ps 9:7-14; 17:6-11

4/7 Ps 3:1-5; 21:3

4/8 Micah 7:18-20

4/9 Ps 28:1-2; 40:1-11

4/10 John 14:1-7

4/11 Ps 102:1-4

4/12 Isaiah 54:1-8

we belong to each other

To hear Brandi read the essays instead, click here: https://youtu.be/I7zfMAhGvbc

I am an American, and I am wired to be independent. I resonate deeply with the ideal of rugged individualism we celebrate here in our country, preferring not just to work alone, but, often, to my dismay, to go it alone. I have had to unlearn patterns of withdrawal, fueled by preferences for efficiency over relationships, and control over collaboration. The truth is that I lie to myself when I pretend I don’t need others. I need people, and I am made to flourish when I respond sacrificially to people’s needs.

This dependence on community is present throughout the Holy Scriptures, and is a necessary part of God’s design for our flourishing. In the Garden of Eden, God claims it isn’t good for man to be alone, so he takes action to create a partner for him. Throughout the early heroes of Israel, we see God calling each leader to care well for their community. As the Biblical record continues, God continually calls individuals into relationships so they can lead, protect or rescue their communities. Finally, Jesus, the God Man who came so we could more intimately know God, consistently surrounds himself with others. He imbeds himself in communities, talking, eating, napping, arguing, praying, crying and doing miracles WITH others. He needed and wanted a community. He was utterly content in his own skin, fulfilled with his own company. AND. He chose to collaborate in making meaning, bearing each other’s burdens and navigating systems of injustice, exclusion and abuse with his friends.

In short, the Bible does not celebrate rugged individualism. When asked about what matters most, Jesus says that two things are required of us all: love God and love others. Period. We are to keep each other, to hold our cares together, to take each other—and our pain—seriously. The American protestant church has a history of theological misalignment in our emphasis on individual salvation and piety at the expense of elevating or investing in caring for our communities. We need to realign ourselves with the Word of God, teaching each other to care deeply for neighbors near and far as an expression of our love for God and our understanding of how God designed us. We are not our own, but belong to our Maker. Our individual abilities have limits, and the simple truth is that we are not enough alone. We need each other.

This week’s readings remind us that God made us to thrive in interdependency. As we enter the longest days of Lent, raise your gaze from your own intentions and feels in order to see the people around you. Ask God to reveal the many ways you belong to others, and commit yourself to explore how love of neighbor reflects and reinforces your love of God.

Week Five: Love your neighbor

“The kind of peace shalom represents is active and engaged…Shalom is communal, holistic and tangible.  There is no private or partial shalom.  The whole community must have shalom or no one has shalom…Shalom is not for the many, while a few suffer; nor is it for the few while many suffer.”                                                                                                                                  -Randy Woodley

“The Son of God becoming human in Jesus Christ…demonstrates the truth that all reconciliation is relational…There is a divine morality that compels us the build or restore relationships with one another.”                                                                                                                 –Jemar Tisby

“We never get to the bottom of ourselves on our own. We discover who we are face-to-face and side-by-side with others in work, love and learning.”                                                     -Robert Bellah

3/30 Ps 101:1-6; 119:9-20

3/31 Micah 4:6-7; Luke 6:20-27

4/1 Ps 22:1-11; 24-31

4/2 Prov 3:1-12

4/3 Matthew 14:13-33

4/4 Song of Sol 8:6-7; Isaiah 41:3-13

4/5 Ps 116:1-9; Ps 127:1-2