Yearly Archives: 2015

Understanding the Beginning to the End

Reading for Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-4

John 12:20-33

Devotion

Peace be with you!

During their time wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites made a strict covenant with God. The prophet Jeremiah has the unfortunate task of revealing the way the Israelites have failed to live up to their covenant with the Lord. Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry is to a nation who became involved with idol worship for decades under the rule of Manasseh and Josiah’s father. Since the sins of the Israelites run deep, Judah and Jerusalem are facing destruction.

In the wilderness, God gives Moses a covenant for the Israelites to live by and to be in a relationship with him. The covenant outlines how the Israelites can remain holy in the Lord. However, the Israelites live in the world where they face temptations by Satan every day. Since they are not perfect like God is, the Israelites fall short of his expectations and become unholy. This separates the Israelites from God and breaks their relationship with him.

God understands that the covenant that he made with the Israelites in the wilderness no longer reflects the kind of relationship he wants to have with them. He realizes that the covenant that he currently has with the Israelites is too unforgiving and too destructive to his relationship with them, especially since his children live in the world where Satan reigns. The Israelites struggle every day to uphold the Ten Commandments and to beat Satan at his deceptive ways. Darkness surrounds the Israelites as they try to live in the world according to God’s ways.

God makes plans to create a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:32) to reclaim his relationship with the Israelites. The new covenant will reclaim the Israelites as his people (Jeremiah 31:33) and bring them back into a relationship with the Lord. The Lord promises to be their God, and to make the Israelites his people again (Jeremiah 31:33). The Lord desperately wants to be their God by being in a relationship with them. However, God knows the current covenant will never allow this to happen. A change needs to occur to allow this to happen.

Instead of having the laws written on tablets, God wants to write them on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). In the Old Testament, “heart” does not reflect an emotional attachment, but rather it reflects a cognitive reaction. The Israelites will know and understand the laws and be able to follow them to their best ability.

And there is more: God promises to forget the Israelites’ shortcomings by forgiving them. God will no longer remember the Israelites’ sins or hold their sins against them (Jeremiah 31:34). Both we and the Israelites will be freed from our sinful pasts through God’s forgiveness.

These changes allow us to be in a more stable relationship with God the Father. Forgiveness gives us the opportunity to really know God and to be able to carry out his plan.

Allow God to create a clean heart in you and to make a new and right spirit within you (Psalm 51:10). We need spiritual cleansing in order to know the Triune God.

With a clean heart, we must allow our old selves to die to give way to a new life with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (John 12:24). When we do this, we receive the promise of eternal life in God’s kingdom. However, we must despise the world and the actions of Satan, because they stand in opposition to God (John 12:25). When we follow and serve Jesus, God the Father honors us (John 12:26). This is why we share the good news with everyone who will listen to us. We want to be in a community with our friends, family, and the Triune God.

We know the beginning of the ending: Jesus came to walk on earth beside us, to feel our pain and joy. Then he does something incredible: he becomes God’s living sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus suffers at the crucifixion, dies on the cross, goes to hell for three days, rises again, and ascends to heaven all for our sins. Jesus does all of this out of divine love and to express the truth in order to draw us closer to God the Father.

And still God’s promise is not fully fulfilled. Jesus is coming back for us—those who believe in the Triune God—to take us to heaven to be with God the Father. Can I get a social media AMEN? So as we look toward Holy Week and eventually toward Easter, remember this is not the end: it is just the beginning.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the new covenant to extend forgiveness to us in order to be in a relationship with you. Help us to understand that this is just the beginning of the end. You have greater plans for us than we can imagine. You have claimed, continue to claim, and will claim us as your children by redeeming us from our sins. Thank you for creating a clean heart in us. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the behavior covenant by commenting on it.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.

Where do you see God’s divine love?
What does the cross mean to you?

Change is in the Air

Reading for Fourth Sunday of Lent

Numbers 21:4-9

John 3:14-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Every new beginning starts with a struggle, even if you are excited. Going off to college requires you to learn discipline and to create good study habits. Starting a serious relationship makes you evaluate your habits, including your ability to compromise and to work with your partner. These examples are usually met with excitement. However, some new beginnings are just plain scary and require finding and redefining yourself as an individual. Getting a divorce or breaking up with a long-time significant other causes you to question everything in your life and requires you to do a lot of soul searching. Losing a loved one to cancer creates an empty place in your heart. Both of these examples leave you wondering where life is taking you. It takes all of your energy to perform the simplest tasks, such as changing bank accounts and simple social exchanges. You feel lost and incomplete.

God has led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, yet they are still wandering in the wilderness for what seems like an eternity. The Israelites have nothing exciting to eat or drink—just manna and water—in the wilderness. If they knew there would be such monotonous food and drink for forty years before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites might have thought twice about leaving Egypt. Although the Pharaoh made them work as slaves and do hard labor, the Israelites always had plenty of food and drink (or at least that’s how they remembered it). They could eat and drink anything they wanted—especially leeks and onions! But—in the wilderness?—all the Israelites have is manna and water. What were they thinking?

When the Israelites complain about only having manna and water, God becomes angry and sends poisonous snakes to bite them. As a result, many of the Israelites die from the bites. Although this seems cruel, when that first generation dies, it does move the Israelites closer to the Promised Land. However, Moses pleads with God not to kill off the first generation all at one time (Numbers 14:13-19). Moses eloquently says in Numbers 14:19, “In accordance with your great love, forgive the sins of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now” (NIV). God is responsive to Moses’s intercession. God tells Moses to make the image of a poisonous snake on a rod and to have anyone bitten by a snake look at it. By this act of obedient faith, the sick person would be healed from the snakebite.

Despite his anger, God provides a way for the Israelites to be healed—and tries to have a personal relationship with them. God wants the Israelites to start a new life in the Promised Land by living as his chosen people, people who are in a relationship with him.

When Jesus enters the world, the Israelites (now called Jews) have had great political influence in the Roman Empire and have their religious center in Jerusalem. The Jews have done well to stand out as God’s people, but there is also corruption among the chief priests and scribes who do not always do things God’s way and have interpreted the Torah though their own eyes instead of God’s. Jesus comes to bring change once again to the identity to God’s people. Jesus’s message is not new, though it challenges the chief priests’ and the scribes’ ways of thinking. The change of interrupting the Torah calls out the sins of the Jewish people. No longer can the Jews justify the exclusion of Gentiles and Samaritans, because God includes everyone. Jesus shares God’s love with all the people, not just the Jews, in the world, because God wants to be in a relationship with all people.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17 NRSV).

God sends Jesus into the world to save everyone from their sins and to give them eternal life. How is this possible? God witnessed how impossible it was for the Israelites to keep his laws and commandments as long as Satan has power in the world. God expresses his love for us by sending his only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for our sins. Jesus is crucified, dies, and rises again to overcome the power of death. With God the Father, Jesus Christ makes the impossible possible by taking away Satan’s power of death through his resurrection.

Through Jesus Christ, you are able to have a relationship with God the Father. Jesus made the ultimate price by dying on the cross for our sins. The chief priests and the scribes have difficulty accepting Jesus’s teachings on God’s forgiveness, grace, and love for all people, not just the Jews. Jesus spreads God’s message of inclusion throughout the world. Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles are all included in God’s family.

Taking the first step to changing a situation is the most difficult. However, the good news is God takes the first step in repairing your relationship with him by sending Jesus to die for your sins. Nothing else has changed. His love lasts forever. Will you take the next step?

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for leading the Israelites through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Help us to understand the depth of your love for us. Lead us to welcome everyone who will believe in the good news. Lead us to extend your forgiveness, grace, and love to others. Thank you for paying the ultimate price for our sins through Jesus’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Amen.

Reflective Questions

How have you experienced God’s love?
How do you help to create inclusive faith communities?

Challenging the Sacrificial System

Reading for Second Sunday of Lent

John 2:13-22

Devotion

Peace be with you!

In John 2:13-22, Jesus challenges the sacrificial system, which is centered around the temple. A marketplace had grown up in the outer temple courts so travelers could buy animals to sacrifice. Since the temple was the only place sacrifices could be made, people traveled from all over the country to offer sacrifices to God in order to demonstrate their repentance. The sacrificial system was the way individuals pleased God and were made right in his eyes.

When onlookers ask Jesus what gives him the authority to destroy the marketplace in the temple, Jesus tells them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (verse 19 NIV). This cryptic remark, John goes on to show, actually refers to the temple of Jesus’ body. When Jesus challenges the need for the marketplace in the temple, he also challenges the Jews to accept a new way to worship. For the Jews, the temple symbolized the presence of God; they went to the temple to encounter and see God.

Jesus is pointing to a deeper, more personal relationship people can have with God. Two chapters later in John 4, Jesus will say to the Samaritan woman, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem….a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (4:21, 23 NIV).

Do you go to church to be close to God? We often forget the sermon once we leave building—or at least I do. We live in the world where Satan dwells, where corruption lives, where kids show up at school and shoot other kids, where people do not help their neighbors, where terrorist groups are beheading Christians, where people do not even know their neighbors—and the list goes on. Where is God in all of this? Does he stay in the church building?

No! Jesus comes into the world as God to walk with us. He comes to feel our pain, to suffer alongside us, and to walk with us in the world. This makes God relatable to the human experience. We have never been so close to God before; we can touch and feel God now. Jesus’s death on the cross becomes the last sacrifice so that we all might be forgiven. The promise of the resurrection gives us hope for the future.

You may be saying, “Well, that is all fine and dandy, but Jesus died two thousand years ago. We cannot see, feel, or hear him now.” And I say, “We can’t?” True, Jesus died two thousand years ago, but he continues to be with us through the body of Christ. Jesus feels our pain and draws us to him through the Holy Spirit. And there is no place the Holy Spirit cannot reach us.

Jesus invites us to be in a community with him and with other Christians. Paul even described all of us together as God’s temple (I Corinthians 6:19, 12:12-14) We are able to worship as a community where people share a connection with the Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And with the community, the promise of being in a relationship with God now and in the future is shared and honored. I feel closer with God when I am in fellowship with other people who share my faith. Fellowship, even in a bar or in an airport, allows us to challenge each other and to lift each other up in prayer. The temple is no longer a physical location; instead, the community of two or more believers becomes the tangible way we can connect with God (Matthew 18:19-20). And so we can worship God wherever we are!

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for sending Jesus Christ. Help us to express our faith outwardly in order to share the blessing of your community with others. Guide us as we become your living temple. Thank you for making us your temple. Amen.

Reflective Questions

How do you worship God every day? Where do you feel God’s presence?
Where do you create community?

Being Open to the Impossible

Reading for Second Sunday of Lent

Mark 8:31-38

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Pain seems to be a part of life. Even if you never suffered from physical pain, you have probably experienced psychosocial pain from ending a difficult relationship, rejection, grief, financial stress, or [whatever “it” is] keeping you up late. Every decision requires you to make a choice and to walk away from something else, even for a short time. Consequences, good and bad, follow any decision, which can affect other people. You may take a new job which takes you away from your friends and family. Your decision to move away may cause others to pick up the responsibilities within your family and at work. Your new job may pay better but require more hours, which can impact your marriage and other relationships. Important decisions require labor-intensive thought processes and may cause pain no matter what you decide.

Jesus informs the disciples of the end game: “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31 NRSV). What a difficult statement to hear about a close friend and leader! Peter rejects the thought of his dearest friend suffering, being rejected, and being killed (Mark 8:32). Anyone with good sense would say, “No! That is ridiculous. There has to be another option.” It is the natural reaction.

However, the decision has been made, and now Jesus has to carry it out. Jesus rebukes Peter, because Peter is thinking about earthly things, not on divine things (Mark 8:33). Sometimes I think we hold the disciples to too high of a standard. How could the disciples understand a theory theologians take a lifetime to understand? Peter is just speaking of what he knows and understands, though Jesus comes off being stern with him. When we keep our minds on earthly things, we deny the divine power. We need to keep our minds and hearts open to the impossible taking place.

Jesus goes on to explain how we have to let go of earthly things; the only way to be saved is to take up our cross and follow him (Mark 8:34). Having faith means you believe in the impossible and are willing to deny yourself of anything that Satan puts in front of you. Satan tries to tell you the impossible cannot be done, and his way makes the most sense.

The difficulty of letting go of earthly things is that we have no concrete concept of the heavenly things. We understand to a degree how earthy things work. We understand our need for food, water, and shelter. We understand that when someone dies they go away, and we can no longer talk to or see them. We can grasp the concepts of the world, hbecause we experience them.

Yet Jesus calls us to let go of what we know for sake of divine things, which will set us free from the bondage of sin. We need to let go so we can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in the world. When we deny the power of Satan, we let go of the things that keep us from God. When we deny ourselves of what we think we need to do, we open ourselves up to the possibility of the impossible happening.

According to Satan, death is the final say—the end-all. However, Jesus is crucified, dies, and rises again to overcome the power of death. Jesus experiences great pain to prove God loves us. Therefore, the message of the resurrection is that death is not the final say. God promises us eternal life in his kingdom when we let go and follow Jesus. This makes it possible for us to be in a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We make the impossible possible by giving up what Satan has to offer and looking toward the heavens. By doing so, we give God the power over our lives to use us to carry out his plan. In return, we get to meet God in his kingdom.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for Jesus showing us your love. Help us to understand why Jesus had to suffer so much on our behalf. Help us to let go of the earthy things that hold us back from knowing you. Amen.

Reflective Questions

When have you experienced pain?
How do you let go of earthy things?
Describe a time when you have witnessed something impossible happening.

Where does Jesus get his Credibility?

Reading for First Sunday of Lent

Mark 1:9-15

Devotion

Peace be with you!

It is difficult to understand what another person is going through until you go through a similar situation. I never understood why my parents are bitter toward one another until I got divorced. Now I understand why my dad changed how he told stories to exclude any mention of my mom. Now I understand why my mom hates seeing pictures of my dad. My perspective changed when I got my own divorce and gained insight as to the pain it causes.

Jesus comes into the world as the Son of God who never sins. Jesus is perfect in every way. After his baptism, in order to gain insight into our emotions and thoughts, God sends Jesus into the wilderness (Mark 1:12) as a crash course in pastoral care. Jesus has to feel the raw emotions we go through every day in order to have the compassion for his ministry—to heal the blind man, to converse with the Samaritan woman, to raise Lazarus, to share meals with sinners, to preach the good news, and to die for our sins on the cross. This is why God the Father sends Jesus Christ into the world.

God does not make Jesus face Satan alone in the wilderness; he sends angels to wait on him (Mark 1:13c). Like Jesus, you are never alone. God is with you in the good, the bad, and the ugly times. God feels your pain when ending a relationship, when you are sick, when you are faced with an impossible decision, when you feel alone, and when you are lost, and he is with you through it all. When you are lost in the wilderness (faced with a difficult decision or starting a new journey), God is with you, even if you feel alone.

It amazes me that God went through so much trouble to understand our pain by sending Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus takes on our pain, despair, suffering, sadness, and more to gain credibility to preach the good news to us. Without the credibility, why would we listen? How would Jesus even understand our emotions? The wilderness gives Jesus moral authority. He has felt our pain and has an alternative: repent and turn over our lives to the Lord. With the Lord by our side, with the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, we can conquer anything.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for being with Jesus Christ in the wilderness. Help us to feel your presence in the world as we go about our daily lives. Comfort us in the wilderness and deliver us from the devil. Lead us to share the good news in the world. Thank you for the good news. Amen.

Reflective Questions

When have you felt lost in the wilderness?
When and how have you felt God’s presence?

How to Live Out the Christian Identity

Reading for Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Devotion

Peace be with you!

My life—how I act and what I say—evolves around my identity as a Christian. Sometimes I play a game inside my head to see how long it takes for strangers to learn I am a Christian. Usually it only takes a few minutes since my career as a Biblical scholar is centered on my faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. My identity as a Christian is strangely connected to my success as a scholar.

The Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday is a difficult one for us to hear. It is one that calls us to repentance. Jesus warns us about being like the hypocritical religious leaders of his day. He gives many admonishments: Do not announce to others how much you put in the offering plate (Matthew 6:2). Do not pray loudly so others can hear you (Matthew 6:5). Do not disfigure your face when you are fasting (Matthew 6:16). We are not supposed to make grand proclamations regarding our personal faith journey.

Then what does Jesus want us to do? Hide? He says, “Do not tell your left hand what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3 NRSV). How is this even possible? My right hand always knows what my left hand is doing, especially when they have to work together. (But then again, with cerebral palsy my muscles fight each other just to perform daily tasks!) I do not believe that Jesus means that he wants us to make such subtle movements that we barely notice them ourselves. Jesus does not want us to be put on a performance for the whole community. He doesn’t want us to tell everyone we donated the money for the church’s new oven, but to do it because we are able and willing to. It does not have to make a noticeable dent in our savings. The act just has to serve God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in order to further his mission.

Jesus’s point is that the acts of faith in our lives should be for an Audience of One, ultimately. Offering is to be something we give to God; it comes from him, and we give back what belongs to him. In Mark 12:43-44, Jesus praises a poor widow for giving all she has while the wealthy elite only give a tiny portion of their riches. The poor widow gives more than the others, because she entrusts God with everything she has to live on. God wants all we have to give, not so we can proudly announce our earthly accomplishments, but so we can share our very being with him. We cannot just give a portion of ourselves to God and think it will please him. God wants our all, even if it is not as much as the next person. God desires our personal best.

Then Jesus tells us to pray alone behind closed doors. This is a difficult for me since I am spiritually strengthened when praying in an intimate group. I will even be bold to say I pray better out loud in a group setting than when I pray quietly or alone. There is something amazing about hearing believers pray together, because prayers grow in depth as they wind together in a labyrinth web.

To contentedly pray alone–to be alone with God–is a bit scary. What do I even say? Most mornings and evenings when I lay in bed God must think I am a whinny three-year-old pleading to get her way: please Lord, take away so-and-so’s cancer or other ailment, or please, Lord, allow me to have a good day with so-and-so since she will be with me all day. And do not be mistaken that my prayers during my shower are much better: please, Lord, make me anew and give me the strength to do your work. Even though he knows exactly what I am thinking (the good, the bad, and the ugly), God wants to have a personal relationship with me through that special one-on-one time together. God wants to hear my pleas; he listens and wants to know I trust he will provide an answer in the future.

We can lose our thoughts in a large group. To sit alone with God allows us to quiet our minds and to speak honestly with him. Our God is a loving God who does not judge but offers love, hope, joy, and grace. We do not need to tweet incessantly about our undying love for God the Father. All we need to do is spend a few moments with God each day as we go about our busy routines.

The last spiritual ritual Jesus speaks about is fasting. In Jesus’s days, Jewish leaders would make their facial features look withdrawn when they were fasting so that they would appear more pious to everyone (Matthew 6:16). Jesus tells us to tend to our features in order to keep our fasting a secret. Again, we do not need to gloat about our fasting to prove our love for God the Father to everyone. God is the only person to whom we need to show our loyalty and love.

Most of us do not fast on a regular basis. If we do fast, it is usually for a medical reason, such as blood work or surgery. I believe this passage applies to more practices of faith than literal fasting.

My first thoughts go to pastors and mission leaders who work long hours to answer their callings but forget to take care of their own physical health or tend to their families. They and their families are left running on empty because of the idolatry of workaholism. Workaholism is the idea that you are irreplaceable; it’s ultimately all about you and what others think of you, not about God. God wants our work to be all about him; when we take the time for rest and family, we fast from workaholism. In doing so, we honor him and remind ourselves that he is the Center of it all.

We do not have to boast about our faith to get rewarded on earth. God sees our quiet acts of faith and will reward us in heaven. The Holy Spirit works through us in these acts of faith, grounding us in the love of the Triune God–God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As Galatians 5:22-23 states, the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, because the Spirit places God in our hearts. Holy Spirit makes it possible for our quiet acts of devotion to become second nature and to be in our hearts.

On this Ash Wednesday, I challenge you to work on doing quiet acts of faith, even if it means spending more time with family and friends. Do these acts of love and devotion without expecting fanfare; simply do them for God and God alone. Lent is a time where we can grow closer to the Triune God.

Take time this Ash Wednesday to make a plan to strengthen your relationship with God the Father. Your Lent practice should be something you want to add or give up beyond Easter. I have decided to give up online shopping for Lent to practice self-control and to resist the urge to buy whatever I want on the spot. To avoid binging after Easter, I will only buy one or two items that I really want and then force myself to answer, “Do I really need [whatever “it” is]? This way it becomes a practice in my everyday routine, not just for Lent. It will make more time to read books and articles, more time to write, and more time to spend time in prayer, because I will not be going on Amazon everyday or going to the post office to ship something back every week. I will also be forced to be content with what I have, especially in the clothes department. What will you add? What will you give up?

Do not be like the hypocrites by doing what rewards them here and now, focusing on themselves and their image before others. But act according to God’s will and God will reward you in heaven. Whatever you do: just do it for God and God alone. You are a star in a brand new universe, being formed by the Holy Spirit; shine bright, then, for God the Father alone.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the promise of our reward in heaven. Help us to be little stars in the universe that you are forming through the Holy Spirit. Remind us to do subtle, quiet acts that tell our faith journey. Thank you for having a relationship with each one of us as your children. Amen.

Reflective Questions

What will you add or give up for Lent?
How do you have a private and personal relationship with God?

How does Glory and Suffering Go Together?

Reading for Transfiguration Sunday

Mark 9:2-9

Devotion

Peace be with you!

Stories and pictures capture moments in time, so we hold onto the memories in the future. Some people hold onto the past to avoid change, to avoid ending a relationship, or to avoid admitting someone has left. Some are afraid of what the future has in store for them. Still others are afraid of being controlled by forces outside themselves. And for yet others, the motivation is positive: they get stuck in a moment when things are going well, and they resist any change.

In Mark 9:2-9, Peter, James, and John witness Jesus conversing with Elijah and Moses, both important figures in the Old Testament. After fleeing the Pharaoh in Egypt, Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and others laws for the Israelites to live by. Moses transformed the Israelites into living as God’s chosen people. Elijah challenged the King Ahab of the northern kingdom when they allowed the people to worship Baal and Yahweh simultaneously. True to the first commandment, Elijah believed Yahweh was the one true God who should be only god worshipped—not Baal. Elijah spent his fifteen years as a prophet transforming the way the northern kingdom worshipped. Both of these prophets work tirelessly to keep God’s people faithful to him.

When Peter sees Jesus with Elijah and Moses, he wants to build Elijah, Moses, and Jesus each a tent (Mark 9:5) to preserve the moment, because he doesn’t want things to change. Peter is enjoying listening to Jesus preach and wacthing him perform miracles. Why does it have to change? Yet the moment ends with God saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (Mark 9:7c NRSV). God the Father confirms Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ (Mark 8:29) and the demonic voices’ recognition that Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 1:34; 3:11). What does God mean when he tells the disciples to “listen to” Jesus? What is the context? The Greek verb for “listen” (ακουω) should be translated “hear.” In the previous chapter, after Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus told Peter he would suffer, be rejected, be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31-33). Peter had rebuked Jesus for saying this, mistakenly thinking that glory and suffering do not go together. When God says, “hear him,” he is saying Jesus’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection must happen—it is the divine plan. Glory will come through the cross. God affirms Jesus’s authority and instructs the disciples to do as Jesus says. God uses Jesus to transform the people who follow him and to set them free from their sins. Jesus has work to do and will be drawing many people to God the Father—not just the chosen few.

The transfiguration is a time to reflect and give glory to God for what Jesus has accomplished, a time to look forward into the future for what has to happen. Jesus has healed the sick, raised the dead, and rebuked demonic voices. Now Jesus has to endure a difficult journey to the cross in order to conquer death and to free us from the bondage of sin. This is why we Christians give glory to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, we are transformed from sinners to saints every day.

The pictures and stories of Jesus healing the sick, comforting those who mourn, and helping the poor make it easy to give him glory. These snapshots give us the “warm fuzzies” and make our hearts glad. However, without Jesus dying on the cross, we would not be able to worship the risen Lord. We would not know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We Gentiles would not be a part of the community of the “chosen”; Jesus makes it possible for us all to be in community. No matter how much Peter wants to freeze the transfiguration in time, Jesus must move forward with the plan. Jesus has to go to the cross—a painful snapshot to view—in order to conquer death. This is whaty God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world to do. Who are we to stop him?

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for transforming us through Jesus Christ. Help us to let go of the past and move forward into the future. Guide us with your grace and love into the unknown. Help us to understand why Jesus’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection has to happen. Thank you for your wisdom to know our needs before we do. Amen.

Reflective Questions

Which memories do you hold on to?
How have you been changed by Jesus?

Being Restored to your Purpose

Reading for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 1:29-39

Devotion

Peace be with you!

From time to time, you need a healing—physical, psychosocial, or spiritual—because, for whatever reason, you are not capable of being your usual self. You feel as though your lack of health is keeping you from doing what God calls you to do. Feeling hindered like this is very difficult.

A few summers ago, I got a spider bite that became infected and turned into MRSA. I was put on two strong antibiotics and ended up developing an allergy to them. Since the antibiotics made my insides vibrate whenever I would move, I was confined to my couch for a week. I also had a dressing on my knee, which did not stay on well and therefore limited my movements. It was a lonely week; because the MRSA was highly contagious, no one could come over. A week on the couch turned into a month while this active person struggled to recover.

In Mark 1:30, Simon’s mother-in-law is in bed with a fever. This seems to be have been a life-threatening illness, given the urgency with which the disciples ask Jesus for help. When Jesus sees the mother-in-law, he takes her hand and lifts her up, and the fever is gone (Mark 1:31). Jesus’s healing restores Simon’s mother-in-law to her normal self, allowing her to go back to serving her household. This gives Simon’s her back her sense of purpose and productivity in life. Some people use Mark 1:30-32 to explain gender roles:women should serve men. Although that may have been true for the time, this text’s real point is to convey it feels to have Jesus restore us. No one enjoys being laid up in bed and not able to do what they want and need to do. We feel helpless, because we need others to help with our basic needs. When Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, her self-esteem is also restored because serving others gives her a sense of accomplishment. Restoring her physical health gives her freedom from her bed and the willingness to serve.

I remember being excited to be able to shower independently again after six weeks of feeling weak from fighting the MRSA infection. I could shower without feeling unsteady or worrying if I would fall. I felt like I had control back over my body. I could even go out of the house and not worrying about spreading the infection. I no longer felt like a leper.

When I was restored to my normal lifestyle, I could go back to my work as a writer and community builder. As a writer, I spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I also write as an advocate for other people with disabilities. I work hard to be a voice for those who are unable to communicate for themselves. As a community builder, I work to include those who would otherwise be left out. It takes time to spread the word and to build relationships with people who have been taken advantage of in the past and who do not trust easily. My work is important to me, and when I am too sick to do my work, I feel incomplete. This is why I get so excited when I feel better, and I am able to do my work again.

Simon’s mother-in-law is excited to be able to serve again. Serving Jesus and her household is what gave her purpose in life. This is what being healed by Jesus means: being restored to fulfill your purpose in the world.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for restoring us when we are sick. Help us to find our purpose in the world. By your Spirit, lead us to build community wherever we go. Thank you for hearing the urgency in our prayers, even when we think they go unheard. Amen.

Reflective Questions

What gives you purpose in your life?
How has Jesus restored you?

Be Silent and Come Out

Reading for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 1:21-28

Devotion

Peace be with you!

The world’s negative emotions and messages cause us to do some weird stuff sometimes. Satan plays on these emotions and messages to attempt to divide us from God the Father. Anger, jealousy, bitterness, addiction, rebellion, and spite all cause negative emotions inside us and cause us to act differently than what we would do otherwise. The toll on those you love is often great. For example, my brother did drugs growing up and lost trust among many family members and friends. He would steal things and sell them at pawn shops so that he could buy drugs. When my brother hit rock bottom, he decided to go into rehab where he was forced to examine what he did to others and make amends for his past actions. Over the past four years, my brother has worked hard to repair his relationships with family members and friends and has maintained stable employment as well. My brother changed his lifestyle and became a positive message to others.

In Mark 1:21-28, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue when a man with an unclean spirit comes in. The man with the unclean spirit yells, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24 NRSV). We are not told the man’s story or what kind of unclean spirit possesses him. The man could be the local drunk, prostitute, or [whatever “it” is] that caused his outburst. However, his questions and statement alert us that Jesus is a threat to the unclean spirit–and Satan’s—power in the world. Before Jesus comes into the world, Satan rules the roost and has the authority in the world; because God is a distant figure in heaven, whom no one on earth has seen. But now God is in the flesh and exhibits his full authority through Jesus who. God is invading Satan’s territory and reclaiming what is his to begin with.

Jesus commands the unclean spirit, “Be silent, and come out of him!” (Mark 1:25 NRSV). The unclean spirit obeyed and came out, yelling and convulsing the man (Mark 1:26). The man was given a new life through the work of Jesus who comes into the world as God’s Spirit. My brother’s addiction was an unclean spirit that caused him to hurt his family and friends. Finally, when he hit rock bottom and entered rehab, the unclean spirit got scared and was evicted. Rehab yelled at my brother’s addiction, “Be silent, and come out of him!” Rehab helped my brother to heal old wounds and repair relationships with family and friends. Rehab caused my brother to examine his life and to see what is important.

The crowd from the synagogue is amazed by Jesus’s new teaching and by the way unclean spirits seem to obey him (Mark 1:27). The world is changing. Unclean spirits are no longer safe in the world because God’s Spirit is here. God gives Jesus and the Holy Spirit the authority to release us from unclean spirits. We are no longer Satan’s captives and are freed by God’s Spirit.

In a world full of rebellion, revenge, hatred, and addictions, God’s Spirit comes to stop these threats and replaces them with love, forgiveness, and grace. God cries out to the unclean spirits in the world, “Be silent, and come out of him!”—and we are made whole. Jesus coming into the world changes everything.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for releasing us from unclean spirits. Help us to fight against our addictions. Lead us through your Spirit to overcome the unclean spirits in our lives. Hold us close and never let us go. We commend all of these things to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Reflective Questions

What kinds of unclean spirits try to claim you?
How does God release you from the unclean spirits?

An Immediate Action is Required

Reading for Third Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 1:14-20

Devotion

Peace be with you!

It takes courage to answer Jesus’s call [whatever “it” is], because it often involves an immediate action. In such cases, there is no luxury of getting things in order or making plans. Jesus does not use strategic planning to execute the best possible plan of action, whether he encourages us to be lead by the spirit. There is no “maybe” or “not at this time, but maybe later.” Jesus does not give you time to think it over. He wants immediate decision to follow the spirit.

In John 1:43-51, Jesus calls Nathanael to follow him. We discussed how difficult it is as American to follow Jesus; our culture pressures us to be leaders and not followers. America’s virtues are built upon individualism. Yet leaders build onto to the ideas of those before them. In Mark 1:14-20, we learn what it means to follow Jesus: “Repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15c NRSV).

First, we must repent of our sins and confess our need for Jesus. We heard the call to repent before from John the Baptist (Mark 1:4; John 1:31). We repent because we are not worthy of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins; we are not worthy to be in a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. By repenting, we admit our need for Jesus, and we commit our lives to him.

Second, we must believe in the good news: the Kingdom of God is near (Mark 1:15b). Jesus comes into the world spokesperson for God the Father and his Kingdom: to tell us he hears our cries, frustration, laughter, and every other emotion. Jesus is the Son of God and knows we need him. We have to succumb to the fact that we need Jesus and believe he comes into the world for the benefit of our souls. We have to let go of the world’s pressures and believe God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will never leave us hanging nor let us drown in our sins but will give us eternal life. Nothing else matters. The world could end tomorrow, and we would join God in his Kingdom, because that is what he promises us through Jesus’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Nothing else matters.

Third, we are called into action: to spread the good news (Mark 1:17c). Jesus calls Simon and Andrew and says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” (Mark 1:17). When we follow Jesus, he leads us where we need to be and gives us the courage, the wisdom, and the words to carry out his plan. You do not need to hold a master’s degree or to be a pastor to spread the good news—all you need is Jesus Christ and everything else will fall into place. Jesus calls us to be teachers, doctors, personal caregivers, writers, speakers, models, and [whatever “it” is] you do to share the good news. As longer as you lift up God in your work, you are fulfilling Jesus’s call.

Even on days we are sub-par, Jesus calls you to carry out your vocation. When I was going through my divorce, the last thing on my mind was writing these weekly devotions. A few colleagues filled in for a month, because I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I barely had the energy to get the basics done—eating, showering, cleaning, and tending to the pups. The next month I wrote as I was able, with raw emotions and insights as to how God was helping me through that difficult time. I continued to answer Jesus’s call by giving what I could—knowing God would fill in the gaps. Over time, God healed my wounds and gave me the courage to continue my work. God showed me the way through the darkness and showed me the light.

Following Jesus is not easy. Satan gets in the way and makes us question the “what” and the “where” of Jesus’s call. Our vocations come with tears, frustration, and exhaustion—not because God sends us to do the impossible but because Satan wants to stop us. However, God has done the hard work by sending his only begotten son to die on the cross and to conquer death through his resurrection. This is what makes our work to spread the good news in our given vocations possible.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for calling us to follow Jesus Christ. Lead us to answer your call to spread the good news within our vocations. Remind us that we are here to carry out your plan, not our own agendas. Give us the strength to resist Satan’s temptations. Thank you for giving us each unique vocations through which to spread the good news. Amen.

Reflective Questions

How do you spread the good news within your vocations?
What do you do to resist Satan’s temptations?