Learning to Pray, May 14. 2012

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JOHN 17: 6-8 
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;
for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.”
These verses from the Gospel of John are part of what’s been called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer”. In praying for the disciples, with the disciples he is teaching them how to pray as well as saying goodbye. In praying these words aloud Jesus conveys his own faith and reliance on God, his experiencing of belong to both God and the disciples and his faith in the disciples. Even though they would struggle with pain and doubt, they would in fact become the apostles they’ve been called to be. They would become the ones to bear the Good News story to the world. It strikes me that Jesus’ prayer is not only modeling how to pray but in these moments he is ministrying to the disciples themselves. Naming them as God’s beloved and speaking on their behalf to God.

Praying aloud is a particularly vunlerable way to pray isn’t it? It’s self-revealing and imperfect. I remember my first few months as a hospital chaplain. I learned so much about prayer. I learned that folks didn’t care so much if I could wax poetic words of prayer but they needed me to listen and to reflect their deepest needs and their stories; to weave those stories into words of prayer — requests that God rememember and attend to them in their darkest moments. My words were often clumsy and awkward, but when we pray aloud for one another we stand in solidarity with them. It’s comforting when we hear our own fears, our deepest desires and our joys reflected in prayer, spoken aloud to God and our personal prayers become corporate prayers. Out-loud prayers to God acknowledge our common humanity.

May God be in your head and heart as you listen for the stories of others that need lifted in prayer,
May you know the peace and healing of hearing your own needs and hopes spoken aloud.
And may God hear your prayers.

AMEN

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Reclaiming Love, Friday May 11, 2012

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JOHN 15:12-13
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” 
This chapter that captures the Gospel of John’s story of Jesus’ final words of instructions and teaching prior to his arrest is overwhelmingly about love. Loving God, loving Jesus, the love God has for us, the love we are being asked to embody and to share with one another. Love, love, love….

It’s a word that in our culture has been overused and commercialized and trivialized. I’ve used the word love to describe a great meal, a nice day or my favorite sweater. At times we use the word love selfishly and manipulatively. If we’re experiencing the euphoric feelings of being in love then we tend to appreciate a bit more the commercial attention it garners. On the other hand, if we’ve experienced a broken heart or deep loss we might sneer at the hallmark and gooey romantic comedy versions of love.

Many of the ways we’ve known, experienced or come to describe love make our understanding of it confusing. But there are some ways we’ve known and experienced love that will give us insight into what Jesus means when he tells the disciples (and us) to love one another in such a way that we would lay down our lives for one another. Where has love like this been revealed in your life? When have you encountered love that is unselfish and life-giving? When have you experienced grace in the midst of your own foolishness? Forgiveness when you’ve been hurtful? Later in this same chapter Jesus tells the disciples (and us), “You have not chosen me, I have chosen you.” He is describing a love that is bigger than the confusion and complexities that we often feel lost in the midst of attempting to love one another well.

He’s describing a love that does not hinge on behavior, perfection or approval. Can you believe that? Love that does not hinge on behavior, perfection or approval?
Love that chooses us?

May your energy for love be renewed in the knowledge that God loves you,
Loves you in all your imperfection and flaws,
Loves your friend, neighbors, even your enemies in all of theirs as well.
May you work towards this perfect love that does not hinge on perfection in your own life and relationships.
AMEN

 

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Familiarity in Christ, May 10. 2012

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JOHN 15:15
I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing;
but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 
Consider the relationships that you’ve fostered in your life, the ones that have sustained you and challenged you. The people you’ve grown to trust with your whole self an your whole story. Jesus calls the disciples his friends. Making sure they understood the distinction. He didn’t say you’re my students or servants or even my colleagues. He described them as the ones with whom he’s shared the depths of his faith and ministry with. The ones who have traveled with him and whom he loves. I’ve made everything I have heard from my father (Abba) known to you.Friendship is about being known. It is the relationships that we commit to laying aside our power and self-centeredness and to sharing our lives with. Sometimes I joke about how we know when acquaintances have become friends in our own lives. That milestone when we don’t scurry around cleaning house before they arrive for dinner. The moment I let my perfectionist tendencies around making a perfect meal go and invite them to share in the preparation instead (even if they don’t seem to know how to cut the vegetables very well). And you really know you’re one of us when you come for dinner and then get roped into our ridiculous table manners and after dinner games.Jesus is doing more than inviting the disciples to dinner and few board games. He’s inviting them into the mystery of a life long relationship with God. He’s shared all he knows and revealed in himself over and over again the promise and wonder of God’s love and compassion. He’s washed their feet and invited them to touch his wounded yet risen body. And now he’s inviting them to pursue their own ministry and their own journey with God.

May your deepest friendships be living reminders of the abiding love of Christ,
May you hear his invitation to know God,
May your faith continue to develop like the trust of beloved friendship,
And may you seek to know one another and love one another sharing your lives of faith and doubt,
Trusting that God will go with you in every time and place.
AMEN

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Daily Reflection, May 9th

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JOHN 15:4

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abidesin the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 

I’ve been thinking about this word abide. What does it mean to abide in someone? To abidein Jesus? The word has several meanings. It can mean to dwell in or to sojourn, which are words I gravitate to. I imagine dwelling in Christ to be an act of centering. Of being reminded of who and whose I am. But as I thought about the word abide I realized that it has other meanings as well. It can mean to follow the rules, to stay put, to stick it out, to wait patiently.There times that we can sit in the quiet space of prayer or even in the chaos of our lives and remember with joy that we are grounded in the goodness of God. Other times the chaos doesn’t seem so joyous and the quiet can be oppressive and lonely. There are moments in which we don’t feel particularly connected to God or one another and in this scripture from the Gospel of John Jesus invites us to hang on — even when the connection seems tenuous at best, he promises a mutually life-giving relationship. Stand by me Jesus tells us. Stand by me and I will stand by you.What does it mean to stand by Jesus in our own time and place? To dwell in and go with Christ?May God be your dwelling place,
and your companion as you sojourn,
May you abide in Jesus in the midst of this complex world
And know that Jesus abides in you,
May your life in God bear the fruits of this connection,
And may it connect you to the world.
AMEN

Peace,
Shawna

Ben E. King, Stand by Me

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