Some Sundays, the readings are a delight to explore, research, and wonder about. On others, the puzzle seems too hard, especially when the Gospel includes a parable, like today. The parable of the shrewd manager left me perplexed the first few times I read it, and there is little commentary in the many bible versions I use to research. So I will circle back to it in a bit, but for now, let’s enjoy the simplicity of Paul’s message to Timothy.

“First of all I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

Take a deep breath because today’s readings are far from quiet and peaceable. In fact, Jeremiah’s experience is anguish over the exile and suffering of his people: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.” His words resonated deeply with me as I read them again and again this week. With all the unrest and suffering in the world around us, my heart aches, and I am longing for a quiet and peaceable life. I want to close my doors and shut out the world and all its turmoil. And yet my awareness of this turmoil and my relationship with God means I cannot.

I could easily relate to Jeremiah, who was separated from his people and yet identified with their pain. He knows they have provoked God’s anger, and yet he weeps for them. Jeremiah lived with a deep awareness of God’s love and grieved for those who did not, regardless of their actions.

Jeremiah’s grief is a prophetic activity; his tears are the prelude to an openness to new possibilities.

A quiet, peaceable life is not the experience of our psalmist either, as angry complaints pour out

“Look at what they have done.

Pour out your wrath upon the heathen!

But, God remember not our past sins;

let your compassion be swift to meet us.”

The psalmist has a different outlook than Jeremiah. Heathens are heathens, the faithful are the faithful, and the differences between them are outlined clearly. Those who know God deserve God’s mercy, and those who do not know him deserve his wrath.

How did we come to this in a world where a loving God created everyone?

In our children’s Godly Play program this week, we told the second story of creation found in chapter 2 of Genesis. I wasn’t supposed to be the storyteller. Still, in my absent-minded calendar-keeping, a serendipitous moment occurred because the beauty of this creation story made today’s scriptures clearer to me.

God created everything in love, and it was good.

He placed the first person in the garden, who was Adam, which means “everyone.” Eve was with Adam and part of Adam; they were together like one person, Adam-Eve. Adam-Eve was together with the garden and with God.

There were two mysterious trees in the garden. One was the tree of knowledge. If you ate the fruit from this tree, you would begin to notice differences like the difference between good and evil and up and down. The other was the tree of life. If you ate the fruit from the tree of life, you would live forever.

God told Adam-Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge.

Of all the creatures in the garden, the serpent was the cleverest. The serpent convinced Adam-Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge and they did.

And everything fell apart. Adam-Eve became Adam and Eve.

And they began to notice the differences like the differences between close and far, Adam and Eve, high and low, people and God, good and evil, near and far.

God looked for them, and they hid.

They no longer knew how to be close to God or each other as they had been before.

They longed to return to the way things were, but they could not; they could only move forward. God placed a flaming sword and a fierce angel at the edge of the garden so they could not go back and eat from the tree of forever.

They came from dust and would return to dust. But God gave them a gift when things fell apart. They could now take the differences they saw and put them together in new ways. They could not make something from nothing like God, but they could sometimes make something good from what they now knew and what they remembered from the love in God’s garden. God was with them always, and he is always with us.

It is not likely that it was Adam-Eve’s intention to separate from each other and cause creation to fall apart when they chose this course of action.

But here we are in a world clearly full of differences, wondering how to move forward and how to create something new from what we see.

Can we return to a quiet, peaceful life that includes everyone?

As I revisit our parable in Luke. I return to trying to puzzle it out.

What is it trying to tell us? Is it good to be shrewd?

When the manager was let go from his position due to his behavior, he chose, in self-preservation, to cut a deal.

Mosaic law prohibits collecting interest from fellow Jews. It is speculated that the manager had originally been overcharging as a means of circumventing this law. And commentators suggest that to win the favor of those indebted to the master, he simply removed the interest.

This clever move ingratiated him with those in debt and also with his master, as he created a reputation of generosity for the master.

The shrewd manager took a financial mess and made something new.

Inadvertently, he made things better for everyone. Now, we cannot really commend him on this because it appears to be purely motivated by selfishness. But we cannot really make him the villain either.

The manager may have helped others for entirely selfish reasons, but he helped them nonetheless.

We cannot villainize the serpent for being in the garden, because God created the garden and everything in it, including the clever serpent.

We cannot decide that Adam and Eve are villains either, even though they made a decision that caused division and all of creation to fall apart.

We cannot villainize the master or the manager because of their role in life, any more than we can villainize Jesus’ friend Judas.

Judas, like Adam and Eve, teaches us about differences. The difference between leaning into love and pulling away from it.

We often think of the good as being first because in our story of the garden, it is.

But we don’t live in the garden, and what if shrewdness, self-serving, and survival came first and was all that was known to us until now?

What if this is the first time we can see the differences from the other side, and now we can choose something new?

The life we are born into and the life we live both affect our ability to see the beauty of holiness and feel the touch of love.

Our psalmist doesn’t sound like he is feeling the loving touch of God. He wants justice. He is pleading with God while still holding onto the differences. He is not ready for the healing that can come from creating something new.

Jeremiah, with his heart broken wide open, holds truth, without blame, grieves a societal disaster, and pleads for healing.

He would weep all day long, a fountain of tears, for those who have fallen apart.

I am still quite puzzled by the parable told today. The message will take some more sorting out for me. But that is the nature and beauty of the parable of Jesus.

And, I don’t need to understand it all at once.

I believe that though we may not be able to return to the quiet, peaceable life of innocence, we can move forward in godliness and dignity as we remember to pray.

Like Jeremiah, we can remember that God does not abandon us because of our mistakes, and we can choose not to abandon others because of theirs. We can let our hearts be torn open for all who are suffering and pray.

We can learn from the psalmist to give our anger over to God, and let go of our desire to hold onto differences and pray.

Pray for our leaders both in our country and the world.

Pray for our neighbors and friends who are exiled from their homes and separated from a quiet and peaceable life.

And when opportunity arises to ease the burden of others, we can be both shrewd and a child of the light.

May we find within us a quiet and peaceable life as we seek to bring peace to others in the midst of our differences.

And may we remember…

There is one God;

There is also one mediator between God and humankind,

Christ Jesus, himself human,

who gave himself a ransom for all.

Amen.

A moment of hunger

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+14&version=NRSV

Psalm 14:4 reads, “Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon the Lord?”
And I wonder.
Who are these evildoers? I am inclined to say they are other people, not myself or people that I know.
But verse three tells us, “there is none who does good; no, not one.” So maybe it is me, at those times when I forget to seek God or when He seems out of my reach.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+11%3A1-15&version=NRSV

In the Old Testament story, there is no doubt that the evildoer is David as we enter into a dark moment in the life of a great leader.

Instead of going into battle against the Ammonites himself, David stays back and sends Joab to do a job that was meant for him. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t tell us why he made this choice. Perhaps David was tired and needing some respite, this poet shepherd/king. Whatever the reason, David wasn’t where he belonged, which put him in a situation he wasn’t supposed to be in, which exposed him to temptation he would not have had, which led him to some awful decisions.

I believe there is a longing or hunger that runs through the scripture readings this morning. David, who has lost sight of God and forgotten himself, experiences a hunger. He is hungry and not sure how to have his hunger satisfied.

Hunger plus temptation is a dangerous combination and today’s reading tells a disturbing tale. David has reached a low point where God seems very distant from him. This David is “the David” who, in the service of the Lord, is a musician, a shepherd, a giant slayer, a conqueror, and a King. This is the David who God called “a man after my own heart.”

And David, being where he wasn’t supposed to be, with a feeling of emptiness, sees Bathsheba, another man’s attractive wife, and attempting to satisfy this emptiness takes her for himself. Bathsheba becomes pregnant. Bathsheba is the wife of Uriah, one of David’s loyal and steadfast top commanders. David, in his guilt, is desperate to cover up his terrible choice and sends Uriah home to his wife. When Uriah refuses to leave his men, David sends him to the front ranks of a planned assault to die. Uriah was a good and loyal man who, though he was not born into them, embraced the values of the people of God. Unfortunately, Uriah, a good man, was devoured like bread.

David was hungry but not hungry in the physical sense. Instead, he was spiritually hungry and couldn’t see what he needed, so as soon as temptation presented itself in his weakness, he sought to fill the longing with a woman that did not belong to him.

Think for a minute about the last time you were hungry, so hungry that you could feel it in the pit of your stomach.

Hunger, in the physical sense, is a signal that the body needs fuel. When we eat, we have more energy and more stamina to carry on the activities the day requires.

What David was experiencing here is another type of hunger. A spiritual hunger that sometimes we can also feel in our gut. It is an unsettling indicator that something is missing, but it is less clear what that might be.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+6%3A1-21&version=NRSV

In the Gospel reading, five thousand plus people gathered around Jesus to fill this type of hunger. This large crowd had been and continued to follow Jesus, hungry for knowledge and understanding. But, as time passed, Jesus recognized that physical hunger would also need to be addressed.
He chose this opportunity to teach Phillip how when looking to God and trusting, what you need to be satisfied in hunger, will be provided.

Remember David as a boy, too small to wear armor, defeats Goliath with five smooth stones. So we look now at a small boy with five loaves of bread and some fish and whose contribution feeds five thousand in the hands of Jesus. It says that the crowd was satisfied, but this satisfaction did not last long. They were fed spiritually and physically, but now they wanted to make Jesus king.

Wanting is another form of hunger. This hunger is similar to a longing for food and spiritual nourishment. But unlike spiritual and physical hunger, it is not true hunger and cannot be satisfied by the acquisition of what we want.

We, in our weakness, are easily moved by temptations and can find ourselves making poor choices to satisfy these pangs of hunger, especially when we lose sight of who God is and who we are in Christ.

What are you hungry for?
Peace, love, nourishment, understanding?
What are you wanting?

Something to think about, When was the last time you took something that you wanted but did not necessarily belong to you? This question is tricky because we can often justify the taking by convincing ourselves of our need for a particular thing. Understanding the difference between want and need can come from clues that our body gives us. When you have acquired the thing you wanted, did you feel satisfied, are you still uncomfortable, or did your discomfort increase?

I imagine David’s discomfort increased as long as he continued to pursue his wants instead of looking to God for his needs. We all experience wilderness times where our pursuit of God seems unnoticed by him; however, we must remember God is with us and remains with us. Jesus takes the weight of our hunger, reveals to us where our strength comes from, and carries the burden when we give in to our weaknesses and act as an evildoer.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians+3%3A14-21&version=NRSV

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tells us that our hunger will be satisfied when we remain in the presence of Jesus. When we know the fullness of God’s love, and we act from a place of abundance. We are enough, and we have enough when we allow Christ to fill our hearts.

And in the words of Paul,
“I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Amen.

A moment the heart hears

Often I wonder, as I pray, where do prayers go? Can anyone hear them? The words, “When we pray from the heart, the heart hears.” came to mind and has been with me all week.

At this time, when many of us cannot be together to pray or offer support and encouragement face to face, I would like to share these reflections with you.

I believe that prayer is a conversation of the heart. With the power of the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ, and an omnipresent God, our prayers are invisible threads that tie us all together. God both hears and responds to the heart, with his heart, by speaking to our hearts and to the hearts of those for whom we pray. Though I cannot visibly attest to God’s presence, I am assured, by the words speaking to my heart, how much we are loved. I pray that these words may reach your heart and give you hope.

Many of us are praying for the sick who are far away. We are praying for the dying who cannot have loved ones at their bedside. We are praying for the lonely and shut-in. And we wonder, does it matter at all?

Yes! When a heart speaks, another heart hears.

We pray from our hearts:

Genesis 24:45–“Before I finished praying in my heart,
Prayer of Manasseh 1:11–And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness.

Our hearts connect to God’s:

Genesis 8:21–The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart:
Luke 7:13–When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, “Don’t cry.”

God speaks from His heart to ours:

Proverbs 2:10–For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
2 Thessalonians 3:5–May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

Our hearts hear:

Song of Songs 5:2–I slept, but my heart was awake.
2 Corinthians 3:2–You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts.

Praying for each other is a conversation of the heart:

Romans 10:1–Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
Colossians 2:2–I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself.

Conversations of the heart make a difference:

Psalm 21:2–You have granted him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.
Philemon 1:7–Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

The apostle Paul, in his ministry, knew the pain of being separated from those he cared for deeply. He did not lose heart and continued to offer prayers for the hearts of others.

1 Thessalonians 2:17–As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.

He prays:

1 Thessalonians 3:13–And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Perhaps the thread of prayer is felt as a tug connecting one’s heart to God’s and God’s heart to another’s pulling us all closer together.

“Wherever a person is in their life’s journey, there may come a time when the longings of their heart ask, ‘Is this it? Is this all there is?’ In these moments, someone could have a tug in their heart that says, ‘Maybe there’s more. I want to take it to that next stage .”- Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

May your heart, in this moment, hear the promise of God’s heart hearing.

A moment of loneliness

54290500901__E807589F-930E-42CA-8359-3DF3C2778C29 — by Shelby Cruse

Genesis 2:18 the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

There are 7 billion people in this world, and yet loneliness is becoming more and more common. It has been reported that the average number of close friends Americans share has dropped from 3 to 2. And the number of people in America with no close friends has tripled since 1985. If you are one of these people, who suffer from loneliness you are not alone.

Interestingly loneliness is not a term used in the Bible, although the word alone occurs 195 times in the NRSV version. Being alone is often a good thing and does not imply loneliness. Jesus had 12 close friends, and of those 12, Peter, Andrew, James and John were held even closer. Even with this intimate group of friends always around he still often chose to be alone with God, which is still not alone and would not be lonely. These 12 men were called to friendship and set out to bring others into this fold.

Isaiah 41:10 do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Improve social skills–Practicing social skills can be very scary especially for the introvert. But practice anyway. Speak to at least 2-3 people a day if possible. Smile, make eye contact and say ” Hi, how are you?” They may reply with a simple “fine.” However, it is the smile and the eye contact that will have the real impact on your loneliness level. Asking others questions takes the focus off of you and offers it to the other person. You are now thinking of someone else, and loneliness is moved aside even if only for a moment.

Increase social interaction–Put yourself in places where you can meet other people. Even the seemingly superficial act of asking “How are you?” as I have said can have an impact. If you can find ways to increase the questions, you will have more interaction. Ask for help finding something in a store. People love to be helpful, and you are offering them a chance to feel needed, and show they care.

Avoid negative thinking–Not all of the conversations you open will have a positive impact but keep your feelings neutral. The smile and the eye contact you offer will be the thing most remembered and what you said will be forgotten very quickly. Unless by chance, you said something very positive to a lonely person and made their day. That they will remember and you have done a very good thing! Try to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter today. It is a win-win!

Seek support systems–Look for groups that share your interests and join them. I once said to someone, “Close friends aren’t made they just are.” It did not take me long after to realize that was not even close to accurate. Friends are made, by seeking people with whom you have commonality. By taking an interest in them and what interests them. By noticing their low times and offering encouragement. By sharing in their joys and laughter. When you do this for others, you just might find that it comes right back to you.

Remember you are never alone–We were created in Love, by Love, for Love. Open your heart to the Love of God and offer it to others. It is the Love I feel from God and for God that pushed me to write. It is my Love for His people that prompted me to send it out. When I have moments of loneliness, I think of you. You warm my heart.