A Faithful God i

•March 16, 2014 • Leave a Comment

John 3:1-17 (CEV)

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. 2 One night he went to Jesus and said, “Sir, we know that God has sent you to teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you.”

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God’s kingdom!”

4 Nicodemus asked, “How can a grown man ever be born a second time?”

5 Jesus answered:

I tell you for certain that before you can get into God’s kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. 6 Humans give life to their children. Yet only God’s Spirit can change you into a child of God. 7 Don’t be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. 8 Only God’s Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 Jesus replied:

How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things? 11 I tell you for certain that we know what we are talking about because we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. 12 If you don’t believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?

13 No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there. 14 And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as that metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert. 15 Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life.

16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!

Being born
isn’t something you do for yourself.
Being born is the work of others,
hard work.

To be born again
is not my work,
but the work of God.
He is the one that gives life,
birth to his Spirit
to live
and breathe
afresh in me.
Nothing is required of me
than to allow it to happen.
The hard work has been done,
in creation,
in crucifixion,
in resurrection.

But why would God want
to live in me?
This broken vessel?
This wanderer from the way?
This person
who so often
fails to understand,
and when I do
often fails to do it?

Yet God whispers those magic words,
“I love you”,
you are important,
special.
You alone are worth everything
I have given,
the work I have done.

Yet it is not just for me.
That depth of love,
that care,
that work
of creation
and re-creation
is for every person on this earth.

Such is the faithfulness of God
to each one of us.
May I
allow it to be born,
grow
and live
in me.
May I show it
to those who need to know,
those who need love,
those who need life,
to every person
in this world.

Such Love

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, lent, love, Religion, theology
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What About Me? The Real Me?

•March 15, 2014 • 4 Comments

All week, this song has been going round my head:

I’ve Never Been to Me

Not because it’s a one-hit wonder of the early 80s, but because it speaks of our avoidance of ourselves.

We cram our lives with ‘experiences’ and ‘things’, but we rarely spend time with ourselves, or allow ourselves to think through where we are and who we are.  So often we avoid ourselves – the truth of ourselves.

Part of Lent, I believe, is to take time to be apart, not just from things, but with ourselves.

Lent is about being in the wilderness and self-examination.  In the desert there is little to distract us, we are left alone with ourselves.  In the silence and the space there is nothing to drown out the voice inside. It is also a place where there is nothing to fall back on, we have to rely on our own resources and we very quickly discover what they are.

Then this morning, I read this:

God wants us… to face our inner reality and bring it to God in prayer, because if we deny our pain and failures, if we try to hide our anxiety or pride, if we don’t face our addictions to work, pornography, substances or power, if we are out of touch with our emotional life, if we can’t accept our sexuality, if we won’t admit it when our spiritual life is boring and barren, we are avoiding the truth about ourselves, and denying God the chance to meet us in our present reality.

God will not force wisdom and transformation upon us, but waits until we acknowledge our need… we cannot receive God’s help until we face our weaknesses and vulnerabilities and offer them to God (p123)

by Sue Pickering in Spiritual Direction

The challenge, I believe, is can we do that, or do we keep running?  Do we want to know ourselves that we might sort through the things that are there?  Or do we want to keep avoiding ourselves and the God who longs to be with us in our reality and take us to a new place, a less scary place, a place where we can face the truth in us, and know his affirmation and love of who we intrinsically are.

Self-knowledge is a powerful thing.  Some things in our lives may panic or worry us, but there may also be undiscovered gems hidden deep, just waiting to be found or noticed.  It is only what we do not know that is scary.  Once we know the reality of anything we can begin to learn to live with its truth.  The truth of the things we wish we weren’t and the joy of the things we realise that God and others delight in.  We can only sort out which is which by stopping running and taking time to look.

So, in all the meditation of Lent, the point is to look at our lives, honestly, before God.  To acknowledge what is there, and to work with him on what is to be delighted in and honed, and what is better left behind.

Jesus Take Me As I Am

Posted in faith, God, lent, Rants and Ramblings, Religion, theology
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Prayer in Temptation vii

•March 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Matthew 5:43-48 (CEV)

Love

43 You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” 44 But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. 45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. 46 If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. 47 If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? 48 But you must always act like your Father in heaven.

I can do love.
That warm,
generous
feeling;
that filling
of compassion
and care;
the willingness to sacrifice,
put someone else first,
meet their needs
above mine.

I can do love.
when I feel love,
know security,
bask in the wonder
of another’s care
of me.

I can do love,
love those around me,
those like me,
those I understand,
those,
if I am honest,
I approve of,
those who love me.

And yet

You ask me
also to love those
who I don’t get,
those who I don’t understand,
who don’t understand me,
those who hurt me
and make me feel bad.

Can I do that kind of love?
Let in those I am afraid of,
open myself up to them?
Long to care for them,
even though,
apparently,
they care so little for me?

To love only my friends,
my kind,
my supporters,
costs me little.
It is no real sacrifice,
for I get so much from it.

But your way
is to love without barriers,
to love without
ever hoping to get anything back,
to give,
and keep on giving.
because it is not about me,
but about you.

Lead me not into temptation.
Not to take the easy route,
but to love those who really need loving,
who may have no one else,
who find it hard to be loved;
then I am loving your way.

Give me your strength
and your love.
Because the most amazing thing
is that you love me.

Teach Me To Love

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, lent, love, Religion, theology
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