Love Makes a Difference, Imagine That

Reflections
July 26, 2009

In defining love as a noun, Webster's Dictionary writes, "1. strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (maternal for a child) 2. attraction based on sexual desire, affection, and tenderness felt by lovers 3. affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest..." When defining love as a verb Webster's writes, "1. to hold dear; cherish 2. to feel a lover's passion, devotion, or tenderness for 3. to like or desire actively..."

The Gospels record that when pressed on the greatest commandment of God, Jesus responded with two above all others. "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Mt. 22:35-40

For Jesus, the law of love is clear. People of faith are people of active devotion. We are to love God in a demonstrative manner. Our inner most selves are to be set toward the One who created us. The thoughts, hopes, and dreams we have are to actively reflect the love we have for God. Likewise, we are to love those in our midst as we love ourselves. This is a little more difficult. First, because self love and self indulgence share a continent with common borders. Self nurture and narcissism can be cruel partners. Furthermore, we live in a time of comparisons which can lead to self loathing more readily than self liking. Advertisements drown us with stark reminders of our imperfections. We see perfect models in perfect clothes in perfect surroundings enticing us to be uncomfortable with who we are, and perhaps loathe those who seem so perfect, or ourselves because we are not.

The Law of Love to which Jesus pointed is perfect because it is rooted in the Holy. God did not create us to be perfect. We are who we are, cellulite, spare tires, warts, and all; God's creatures. The object of God's desire created in love to be creatively loving. The difficulty, of course, is getting it through our delicate psyches that if God loves us that we might consider loving God back, and perhaps love ourselves and those around us. However, defining love or contemplating it is much easier than acting on it.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601

Does Jesus Twitter?

Reflections
July 19, 2009

There is a saying that when we talk to God it is considered prayer, however, when we find God talking to us we are considered addled. I can say with some confidence that most mature people of faith have a few stories to tell around these issues. In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is dealing with new believers who are receiving a great deal of spiritual information all at once, and not all of it from reliable sources.

Paul set out first to remind the community at Ephesus that they started out not knowing God, and it is only through the way of Jesus that their minds and hearts have been opened to another possible way to live. The phrasing he uses is almost poetic, “Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise... but now you who were once far off have been brought near by his love. So then you are no longer strangers or aliens, but citizens along with the saints and also members of the household of God..” vv 11-12, 118-19

There was a great deal of consideration and argument over who belonged in the Christian community; on who was in and more importantly who was out. Determination of those belonging was at that time left to those who worshiped legalism wherein the many laws of Judaism were used as a matrix for the early followers of Jesus as the Christian tradition was emerging. Another common pattern in the early Church was for believers to attempt to carry their Native religious practices into the early Christian Church. Their validation was often said to come from the leading of the spirit. In Ephesus Paul is dealing with such an issue. The people believed they understood the word of God and the way of Jesus better than Paul and the early Church leaders, and Paul seeks to set them straight. Because Paul has first hand experience with answered prayer along with an active understanding of what Holy dialogue sounds and feels like his hope is to get the good people to listen a bit more before they speak. To we who live in a time of instant text messaging, and know first hand the power of the blog, this can seem a bit humorous.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601

The Currency of Grace

Reflections
July 12, 2009

What are we willing to spend to have some sense of holiness in our lives? The question, of course, deals not with monetary values, but with theologic investment. Frederick Buechner, author and theologian, puts this in his writing about the concepts we find in faith. For the act of believing he writes, “Eternal life is not the result of believing in. It is the experience of believing.” He says of the term grace. “A good laugh is grace, so is a good cry. To witness a sunrise or a sunset is to experience grace. However, in the end what is remarkable with regard to grace is, there is nothing we can do to earn it. There is, nothing, we can do to earn it. There is nothing, we can do to earn it.”

Grace is the unmerited gift of God’s love we experience in relationship with Jesus. We cannot earn it. We cannot buy it. We cannot claim it. It comes because God’s love for us is greater than our ability to comprehend. It is a dividend we receive with our own investment. Something we earn without working for. At some basic level the best way we can hope for, in terms of understanding, is to seek to know the natural relationship God has with creation, especially human creation. God creates in the name of love. God loves in spite of disobedience, not because of obedience. Finally, God loves us because it is God’s nature, rather than our ability to will God’s love.

Throughout the letter to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul writes about the claim and cost of discipleship. In chapter three, he offers a prayer that the people will be blessed by grace to receive the wisdom of Christ which will lead them into an effective life of faith.

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew something of this experience. He escaped Germany as Adolph Hitler came into power in the late 1930's. He came to the United States with the offer of a teaching post. However, in the safety of academia he felt God leading him home to confront the threat of hatred and totalitarianism. He returned to Germany and was among the last executed by the Third Reich before their defeat. His actions illustrate one of his most famous statements about faith. “Grace is free, but it is never cheap”. What makes it valuable is the courage to act in the name of love.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood , CA 91601

Self Centered Faith Won't Work

Reflections
July 5, 2009

Here we are with a year half gone. For some this is a time to pause and reflect on the long lists made in January. For others a time to access the work done thus far, and for others still there remains a need to rethink, even perhaps regroup in light of the time.

In spiritual matters this process is no less complicated. People who strive to improve in the ways and means of faith move on a path fraught with the frailty of human existence. Paul in his letter to the Romans then expresses his own struggle in the midst of theirs. I know that all of God’s commands are spiritual, but I am not always. Is this not your experience as well? I decide to act one way then, I act another doing things I absolutely despise...this is why the love and command of God is necessary.” vv12-13 The Message

Like so many of us Paul struggled with personal limitations. Most of the chapter deals with his deep sharing of regret over, in his words, doing those things he did not want to do, and doing the very things he wanted not to do. There is an old Communion liturgy based in part on the Anglican Book of Common Prayer which uses similar language, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.” At the end of the chapter the Apostle, nearly beside himself with frustration over his limitations, says, “I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I am at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions...” The Message

Any of us who move thorough life with a plan deliberate or otherwise stop from time to time to get our bearings and evaluate. The danger in this behavior rests between the areas of profound critical thinking and deep self criticism. While there is great value in critical thinking, for it can correct flawed thought and action, self criticism taken too far can paralyze the heart, mind, and soul. A couple of years ago, I was relating a frustration to one of my adult sons about a personal failure of some import at the time. After listening for a bit my son looked at me and said pop it’s time to turn the page. I said, “What? I don’t understand.” To which my progeny licked his index finger and turned an imaginary page. After a fashion this is what Paul is saying. In Christ we are given a fresh start from whatever blocks our path spiritually or impedes our progress as we endeavor to be and do good. In the days, weeks and months ahead of what is left of this year may we keep our wetted index fingers poised and ready.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601