Monthly Archives: October 2009

Reflecting on Jeremiah 31:7-9

There have been some very bad times throughout history to be one of the “chosen people,” but to be a resident of Jerusalem between 597 and 587 BC. certainly ranks as one of the most terrifying.  By the time Nebuchadnezzar completed his destruction of the city he had killed a third of its citizens by the sword, a third by fire, and the last third were taken to Babylon―the “land of the north” hinted at in Jeremiah’s oracle today.  

But they came back!  They departed in tears, but sixty years later they returned rejoicing.  And their return became the great healing moment for the broken Jewish people, who clung to this memory as they were hounded and murdered throughout the world in centuries to come.

When the Lord brought back Jaycee Dugard, and Elizabeth Smart, and POWs long feared dead, and soldiers safe on both sides of the battle, and a friendship that was lost, and a child who was estranged, and a leg or an arm or a heart that was broken, or a  faith that was on life support but then came roaring back, we thought we were dreaming.  But now, even in the midst of joblessness and insecurity, we remember how God has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What experiences of joyful return can you remember?

Reflecting on Mark 10:35-45

My husband Ben and I had a little windfall last week.  We always buy a raffle ticket for the Boys and Girls Club House contest.  Of course we wouldn’t know what to do with the winning million dollar house, but we love dreaming about it and of course we support the good work of the sponsors.

I did not come to be served, but to serve

Wonder of wonders, they pulled our ticket out of the hat for one of the second prizes!  We won $2500.00 just like that.  We danced around the house and then I went off to my doctor appointment.  When I told my Orthodox Jewish doctor about our astonishing good luck his response was typical of him:  And so, Kathy, are you sending the money down to Ben’s mission in Juarez or are you going to spread it around locally?  Because, as I tell my kids, God gives us wealth so that we can serve, not be served.

James and John, those thundering Zebedee boys who did in fact suffer martyrdom in the years following the resurrection, wanted to sit at Jesus’ side when he came into his glory.  And I’m sure they do, now, in the eternity set aside for all who have learned, on this side of the grave or the other, that God’s understanding of power and glory is all about emptying oneself and taking the form of a slave.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What experience of service have you had that was more fulfilling than being served?

Reflecting on Mark 10:17-30

Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were a wealthy man? That’s Tevya from Fiddler on the Roof, pondering the idyllic life of leisure and prayer and study that he and his family would enjoy if only he could somehow strike it rich.  I think that temptation must touch us all from time to time as we adapt to the stresses of the workplace.

Jesus and the rich young man

The rich young man who had observed all the commandments since his youth was simply trying to stay content with the wealth into which he had been born.  He wasn’t trying to extort or defraud, but just to maintain his status quo.  Jesus, as usual, turns the status quo on its head.

Could it be that Jesus was inviting this young man into the adventure of his life by challenging him to a preview of heaven, where the securities of this world fall away and we see the world, with its astounding abundance, as God sees it?  When Jesus multiplied the loaves he showed us that there is plenty of bread, and when he told the exhausted fisherman to cast their nets on the other side of the boat he showed us that he knows where all the fish are.  Maybe that’s why it’s hard for “the rich” to enter the kingdom.  When we cling to the status quo we can’t step into God’s status quo, and Jesus promises that that’s the only one we really want.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

Have you ever stretched yourself out of your comfort zone and then been really glad you did?

Painting by Heinrich Hofmann, 1889

Reflecting on Mark 10:2-16

My friend Celia is getting married next Saturday.  It’s going to be a very crowded church.  Along with her wonderful groom Jack, her mother, her children and their children, the sanctuary will also hold five men and one woman:  Celia’s deceased father, her two brothers and one sister who were felled, one by one, by Cystic Fibrosis, her fourth brother who was killed in a car accident years ago, and her funny, handsome first husband Ricky, who died of an unknown cause while they were jogging on the shore of the North Sea on Good Friday, 2007.

They’ll all be there, these beloved family members who loved Celia and whose deaths taught her, through her agonies,

to open her heart to love again and again.  She is who she is because they loved her.

I often miss the former spouses of my friends who contracted marriages that couldn’t hold.  I see their wedding pictures, so long ago, smiling out at me from old scrapbooks, and I silently thank them for the friendship they extended to me during the years that our lives intersected.  I also grieve for my friends who promised priesthood and vowed Religious life, and yet, for reasons that broke their hearts, couldn’t continue in that way of life.  Most of all I long for my many single friends to find the great love of their lives, as I did.  Someday God is going to heal us all.  That’s the promise of that first Good Friday.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

In what ways do you think you could love more perfectly?