Invitation to a Journey - Session 5: Creation Gifts

Invitation to a Journey

Session 5: Creation Gifts

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith. If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching.  If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful.

Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.  Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other.

Romans 12:3-10 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 5 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 5 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 5: Creation Gifts

Finding Ourselves in Holy Week: Part 1

Finding Ourselves in Holy Week: Part 1

Welcome to the height of Holy Week…

Over these next few days, I invite us to consider Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday as metaphors for the wide range of human experience, from suffering to despair to hope, or from death to grief to new life.  When we fail to live and communicate the message of Emmanuel, the God who is with us in the in-between, we tend to get stuck on Good Friday or on Easter Sunday.  It has been said that Christians can be so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.  It is equally possible to become so earthly minded that we can offer no hope of heaven.  While we wrestle with the darkness of Good Friday and proclaim the hope of Easter, perhaps what the world needs most in this in-between time is the message of that often-forgotten in-between day: Holy Saturday…

Jesus as Presence

Jesus as Presence
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 6
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 15:4-5, Matthew 28:19-20

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)


Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 15:4-5 (CEB)


Listen to this week’s sermon here:

___________________

Presence is a challenging word in our culture.  On one hand it seems simple enough.  When we were in school, the teacher called our name and we said “present” or “here.”  We are present by virtue of the fact that we are physically located in a particular place.   On the other hand, we have all been present in places or situations when we were physically there but our thoughts or feelings seemed a million miles away.  We’ve also likely been talking with someone only to realize that their mind is somewhere else and despite their physical proximity, they are not really present at all to the conversation.  Being fully present in a moment or with another person requires intentionality and paying attention.

In a spiritual sense, the word presence is even more complicated.  There is an element of mystery, uncertainty, and perhaps even fear involved with the idea of a spiritual presence.  Some describe feeling a “presence” in ghostly terms, like a chill up the spine.  Others find comfort in sensing the “presence” of a loved one who has passed away.  Any spiritual presence, particularly the presence of God, is impossible to fully describe or define. 

Even through all the mystery, Jesus promises to be present with us, to abide in us, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s love.  He also invites us to remain present with him in the same way he is present with us.  If we find it difficult sometimes to be fully present with another flesh and blood person, how can we abide in, remain in, or be fully present with Jesus?

Prayer is one of our primary means of connecting with or remaining present with Christ.  Esther DeWaal writes...

Absolute attention is prayer… If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.  Something is given…

That “something” is nothing less than the grace of God and the gift of awareness that God is with us.  We need not live in a monastery or isolate ourselves from the world to pay closer attention to a God who is always near.  We only need to carve out those moments in the day where we intentionally turn our attention to God.

Just as with any other relationship, intentionality and paying attention is necessary to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  The question is not, “Where is God?”, but rather, “How is God inviting me to open my eyes and pay closer attention to Christ’s presence already with me?”

No matter how busy our lives may be, we can all learn to be more attentive to God’s presence in everything we see, everything we do, and in everyone we meet. 

What steps will you take this week to pay more attention to the presence of Jesus who is already with you, inviting you to be fully present with him?

 

 

Invitation to a Journey - Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

Invitation to a Journey

Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world. God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan 6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 4 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapters 3 & 4 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

Jesus as Way

Jesus as Way
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 5
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 13:33-14:7

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

John 14:5-6a (CEB)

Apologies that we do not have an audio recording of the sermon this week. Please enjoy the reflections below on Jesus as Way.

___________________

John 14:6 is likely among the most quoted verses in the Bible.  There is only one problem.  It is rarely quoted in the context in which Jesus spoke these famous words, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Typically this verse is used as a way of bolstering Christian exceptionalism or exclusivity, often condemning those outside of Christianity to hell.  Interestingly enough, people are more willing to use this verse to condemn someone born and raised in another religion with minimal or even no access to the Christian gospel than they are to challenge those who call themselves “Christian” while living in a way very much opposed to the way of life Jesus taught and modeled for us. 

The truth is, Jesus did not have Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Atheists or Samaritans or even his own Jewish people in mind in this moment.  There is no indication in John’s presentation of the Last Supper (John 13—17) that anyone is concerned about the fires of hell or eternal punishment.  The disciples are not worried about eternity, they are worried about losing their friend and teacher right now.  They are grappling with the fear of the unknown as Jesus’ tries to prepare them for his own imminent death at the hands of the religious leaders and the state.  What will become of them when their leader is gone? 

Throughout these chapters, Jesus emphasizes the way of love and service.  It is in this way of life that his disciples must continue on.  As John would later write, “perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment” (1 John 4:18).  We must remember, Christianity did not even become a religion until well after Jesus’ death.  It is unlikely that Jesus, the disciples, Paul, or any other good Jew at that time would have threatened the whole world with the fear of eternal punishment if they did not convert to a new religion and subscribe to creeds and doctrines that would not be firmly established for another 200 to 300 years.

Jesus is not setting up a barrier between us and God.  Rather, he is reminding the disciples that through the way of life and love he has modeled for them, they have already seen and known the Father’s heart.  “No one comes to the Father except through me” is simply away of saying that except for Jesus, they would never have known the deep love and mercy of God and would have remained in fear.  Except for Jesus, or to put it another way, “if it were not for Jesus,” we would continue to live in fear.  We would continue to fight and scrape our way to the top through violence, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy and every other vice that turns us against one another in a desperate effort to protect ourselves and our own interests. 

But Jesus showed us another way.  We have nothing to fear from our enemies, not even death, because we know how much we are loved by God the Father and we are invited and called to live out the truth of that love in the way we give ourselves for the sake of others.  As the Mandalorian says, “This is the Way.”

 

 

When Every Space Is Sacred...

When Every Space Is Sacred...

Chapter 1:
Surely the Presence

 

Then he said, “Come no closer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Exodus 3:5

 

Thursday, May 10, 2018 - 6:00 AM: I packed up my small basement Airbnb in Raleigh, NC, stopped off for a coffee, and pulled into the church parking lot for the final day of a spiritual writers’ conference.  The preceding days, as is true for most conferences, felt like drinking from a fire hydrant.

I am not a morning person, but my mind had been racing with ideas that kept me up much of the night and I had to get it all on paper before the next wave of information and inspiration washed over me.  I intentionally arrived at the conference with more than enough time to spend an hour in the quiet sanctuary with my journal before the morning worship and keynote session began. 

To my surprise, I was not the first one there, or even among the first twenty.  The presence of other people was not a concern, but their choice to turn that quiet sanctuary into a social hall quickly put a damper on my quiet reflection time, particularly since the church also had a large fellowship area and entry hall available outside the sanctuary doors.  Had I known the sanctuary walls would be reverberating with the chatter of a half-dozen other conversations, I would have stayed at the coffee shop to write and process my thoughts.  Instead, it was all I could do to keep from unintentionally eavesdropping on those who had gathered early for fellowship.

While I wasn’t able to write down anything that had been on my mind through the night, I did have nearly an hour to reflect on a new thought, specifically, what has become of sacred space? …

Jesus as Lord

Jesus as Lord
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 4
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:21-23; John 13:12-17

 (based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)


Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 7:21-23 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

___________________

We don’t use words like “Lord” very often today, but the truth is that lords were pretty common in Jesus’ day and throughout much of history.  A lord is simply a master or ruler over a kingdom or even over a household.  In some contexts, lord was simply a title for a landowner.  Generally such a title implied having slaves or servants in some form.  Diana Butler Bass puts it this way:

In a world where millions were held in slavery  and millions of others lived in poverty and powerlessness at the bottom of a rigid social hierarchy, claiming Jesus as “Lord” announced one’s liberation from oppression.  “Jesus is Lord” made sense in an empire of slaves, as submitting to his lordship amounted to spiritual freedom, especially in the new community called the church where, apparently, female slaves held leadership positions and Roman social status was upended

Freeing Jesus, 120

Rome would have been perfectly fine with Christians claiming Jesus as “a” lord, as one among many.  There was always room for a new god or two in the roman pantheon.  The problem was that all other lords or gods must submit to “the” lord, “the son of god” who was Caesar himself.  Such titles were common in Jesus’ world, but they refereed only to the emperor who held absolute power and divine authority.  Any challenge to that fact was considered high treason.  This is why Jesus’ supposed title, “King of the Jews,” was written above the cross as a statement of his crime; threatening the sovereignty of Caesar. 

The point was that people could worship or serve whomever they wanted, so long as they maintained their place in the Roman hierarchy.  Paul’s declaration to the Galatians that there is no more slave nor free (Gal. 3:23), does not sit well in such a system.  Empires built on the backs of the poor, the oppressed and the enslaved cannot stand when those on the bottom begin to see themselves as free and worthy of equal treatment or justice. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we still have many “lords” in our lives today.  We do not live as free people who live into the divine image in which we were created.  Consider the things we spend most of our lives obsessing over: money, politics, health, appearance, social status, possessions, comfort, etc.  We are all “lords” of our own lives, “masters” of our own destinies, and we fight each other to get to or to remain near the top of the social pyramid.  In the absence of a single “Caesar” at the top, we spend our lives fighting for that coveted position of absolute power and prestige.

What would it mean today to truly say that Jesus is Lord? 

At the very least it should mean that all of those things which consume our time, our energy and our resources have no control over us.  We shout that our “freedom” is threatened, for example, when the opposing party takes control of the government, but if Jesus is Lord, our freedom is found in Christ, not in the capital.  If Jesus is Lord, nothing except Christ has power over us, and we have no right to lord power over others.

 

 

Invitation to a Journey - Session 3: Being Formed

Invitation to a Journey

Session 3: Being Formed

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Matthew 4:1-11 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 3 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 2 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Jesus as Savior

Jesus as Savior
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 3
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Luke 2:10-11; John 4:39-42; Mark 10:17-22

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)


As Jesus continued down the road, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Mark 10:17 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

___________________

“If you were to die tonight, do you now beyond a shallow of a doubt that you are going to heaven?”

This was the question asked of me by a well-intentioned Sunday School teacher shortly after my first visit to a Baptist church in 5th grade.  At the time, such an imminent death had not even crossed my mind, but such an urgent question will strike fear into even the most healthy young teenager.  I was later trained to ask this question of others, along with the crucial follow-up, “Do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”

Obviously the only right answer was “yes,” a “yes” I was more than willing to give when they told me that saying yes to that question meant that I never had to go to confession in my old Catholic church again.  This was once and for all.  Come to the altar, pray a simple prayer, get dunked in a hot tub in the front of the sanctuary, and all was forgiven.  If that’s all it took to know for certain that I wouldn’t burn in hell for eternity, no matter what mistakes or sins I would inevitably commit in my life, the response was easy - “Sign me up!”

It took a long time for me to realize that while believing in Jesus is important, the real question Jesus was concerned with was whether people would become his disciples and follow him, learning to live and love as he did.  This issue of discipleship was a life-long journey, not a one time prayer, and while it was a far more difficult call, it seems to me much more aligned with the gospels than a magic formula prayer which Jesus never actually asked anyone to pray. 

“What must I do to be saved?”, people would ask him.  Jesus responded to one wealthy man by asking if he obeyed all the commandments and then told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor (Mark 10:17-22).  There’s a lot to unpack in this scripture, but I want to focus just a moment on what Jesus does not say.  He never says anything about believing in him.  He never says anything about dying and going to heaven.  He never offers a prayer to be prayed or invites the man to be baptized.  All of the things that I were taught were absolutely essential for my eternal salvation are simply not in the text.  How could Jesus miss such a major life and death point when asked explicitly how to get saved?

Throughout the gospels, salvation comes to people in a number of ways.  People who encountered Jesus were “saved” primarily by being restored, healed or made whole.  They were given welcome, acceptance, freedom, justice and reconciliation with God here on earth, as it would be in heaven; not just promised a ticket to heaven when they died.

Salvation is not a transaction to get to heaven after death; rather it is an experience of love and beauty and of paradise here and now.

Diana Butler Bass, Freeing Jesus, 98  

It is hard to love as God so loves the world when all we care about is escaping to heaven. 

On the other hand, when we fully experience, participate in, and share God’s love in this life, we need not worry about the next.  The same God who walks with us on earth walks with us through the veil of death. 

Salvation is not for our future alone, it is a new life that begins here and now.

 

 

Invitation to a Journey - Session 2: The Process

Invitation to a Journey

Session 2: The Process

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others.  Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ,  who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.

Ephesians 4:12-16 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 2 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 1 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

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