A Personal Word

The purpose of this blog is not about me.  It never has been and is not now.  It has from the beginning been about reflections on our common spiritual journey and encouraging us all to stay the course on the way toward Home.  Today I veer from that purpose for personal reasons.  Today I finished a twenty eight day radiation treatment for prostate cancer.  It is also a time for remembering the death of my wife to leukemia one year ago (April 26, 2023)  after sharing 53 years of marriage.  This journey has brought me into countless contact with some fellow sufferers, some who have become survivors, but many more who never rang the bell marking a completed treatment.     

To older men like myself, please accept my encouragement to get a PSA test in your next blood work.  We may not like what could be found, but finding it early is always better than doing so too late.  My treatment was remarkably empty of any side effects other than some occasional discomfort and fatigue.  The end result being sought as any treatment begins is healing and elimination of the cancer.  The probability of that result is higher with early discovery so do not put off with dread something which can bring healing and added years with those whom you love and who love you.   

Finally, to those who are still fighting what seems to be an uphill and impossible battle, let me encourage you to not give up.  One of the things discovered on this journey into cancer treatment rooms is that new and better methods of treatment really are coming out of the labs.  It is not just a line offered to raise money.  Don't quit.  Hang in there.  There are people who love you and there are people who know that caring for you is not their duty but an expression of their love.  In this blog, I often write about the way God is revealing Himself and making Himself known to us by making what has been invisible visible in our lives.  It is surely true of treatments for cancer.  There are means of healing out there which will soon become visible even though invisible to us in the present moment.

The Brown Woodchuck

I was halfway into one of those winding mountain roads when I saw something brown and fuzzy standing on the side of the asphalt.  I have seen a thousand squirrels so I knew it was some other little critter.  And then the picture registered.  I had spotted my first woodchuck.  As quickly as I could find a place wide enough to turn around, I headed back down the way I had come hoping to see that never before seen creature once again.  Of course, he was gone.  He did not wait for an encore performance.  For a moment it was there, revealing himself to me, and then he was gone.    

I have learned over the years of living on the farm immersed in creation that what the creation reveals to us is of the "now you see it, now you don't" category of revelation.  Nothing seen once is ever seen again.  No tree, no stream, and no sunrise is ever the same.  Everything is constantly changing.  What is seen in the now is gone in the future.  One of the things which this reality causes is an awareness of the value of paying attention to the present moment.  The present moment is the only moment that woodchuck revealed himself and it is also the only moment God chooses to reveal Himself.    

As surely as God was prowling around the Garden when the first couple were its residents, so is He still prowling around this ever changing, always unfolding creation in which we all live.  It is not only full of things like woodchucks, rivers, and trees, but it is also full of divine revelation.  To pay attention is to see what is mostly missed by those who live looking at where they want to be instead of where they are.  God is not the bush and the tree, but they both bear the essence of the divine creative hand just like each one of us.  If we can only live paying attention to where we are and who is with us, we will see the brown woodchucks on the side of the road and the God who has put everything around us in its place. 

A Strange Question

It is surely one of the strangest questions asked in the whole of Scripture.  The gospel writer, John, tells the story of Jesus being in Jerusalem at the pool called Bethzatha.  Many invalid people, "blind, lame, and paralyzed," (John 5:4) waited there for the waters to be stirred.  Each hoped to be the first one in the water to receive the blessing of healing.  An ancient verse often missing in some translations explains the gathering of the broken: "...for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred up the waters; whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well..." (John 5:3).  

Jesus saw a man there who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and asked him the strange sounding question:  "Do you want to be made well?"(John 5:6)  The paralyzed man never answered the question, but instead said, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the water when the water is stirred up..." (John 5:7)  As odd as it seems, there is no immediate "Yes" coming from the lips of the paralyzed man.  What he does is blame others for his continued infirmity!  

The question of Jesus brings two things to the surface.  Jesus is not going to force His blessing on anyone.  Secondly, not everyone wants to be healed.  Implicit within the question Jesus asked are questions like "Do you want to take responsibility for your life? Do you want to cease being dependent on others?  Do you want to get a job?"  What seems rather obvious to us is not always as obvious as it might seem.  When we ask Jesus for an act of healing in our life, He might ask us, "Are you willing to turn loose of a sedentary lifestyle and start walking?  Are you ready to change your diet to a more healthy one?  Are you ready to spend less time at work and more time with your family?  These are some of the prerequisites for the healing I am ready to give.  Do you want to be made well?" 

Unfolding Faith

It is a story which might begin with the words, "Meanwhile back in Cana of Galilee where Jesus had changed water into wine..."  (John 4:46).  John, the gospel writer, seems to take us on a long extended journey with Jesus as He goes from Cana of Galilee, to Jerusalem, to the Judean countryside, to the Samaritan village of Sychar, to the countryside of Galilee again, and then back to Cana of Galilee.  Cana of Galilee is remembered as the place where the water was turned into wine and as the 4th chapter comes to an end, it is described as the place where Jesus did a second sign which revealed His glory.    

This second sign involved a government official whose son was dying.  The official went to Jesus begging Him to come and heal his son.  In response to his plea, Jesus said, "Go, your son will live."  (John 4:50)  The faith of this Gentile is made more amazing in that Jesus had not according to John performed any healing miracles.  What he was asking of Jesus was beyond anything he had seen, and yet, he believed.  "The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started his way." (John 4:50).  When he arrived home to see his son alive, the Word says, "So he himself believed, along with his whole household." (John 4:53)   

Some may come to belief so suddenly it is like the experience of Saul of Tarsus, but so many others discover that faith unfolds in the heart like the first glow of light on the eastern horizon each morning.  It seems faint but sure, and finally becomes bold and bright, overpowering all the darkness and doubt.  Such was the experience of this brokenhearted father whose son was thought to be dead, and such is also descriptive of many of us whose eyes are slowly opened to the possibilities within the unfolding mysterious realities which are always around us. 

God's Tool Shed

When I remember my Columbus pastorate at the St. John Church, I often remember a young man who came calling himself an agnostic.  He came because his wife said it was time to get back to church and so out of love for his wife, he went.  As one who liked music, he joined the choir.  As one who liked to discuss with others things being thought, he joined a Sunday School class.  He got so immersed, he found himself at the altar one Sunday professing faith in Christ and wanting to be baptized.  But, it did not stop at the altar.  He then went to his housebound non-believing Mother, told her about Jesus, and she, too, was baptized before she died of cancer.     

I cannot help but remember Burley when I come to the end of the story of the Samaritan woman.  She came to the well that day not figuring on meeting Jesus and when she did, two things happened.  Jesus changed her life and she went to tell others about Him.  Because of her witness to them about Jesus "many from that city believed in Him." (John 4:39)  I have heard some powerful and persuasive preachers in my time, but I am convinced that one person sharing about Jesus with another is one of the most powerful tools in God's tool shed.  When I was in college, I participated in many Lay Witness Missions and saw early on the  power of shared faith.    

It remains so today as well.  People expect the preachers to talk about Jesus.  They are not surprised to hear those known as the pillars of the church declare their faith, but when the folks who sit in the pew and work in the world start talking about a personal relationship with Jesus, people listen.  Not only do they listen, but their lives can be changed just as it was in those days when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well.

Being Connected

During my forty three years of preaching, I did very little visiting other churches on Sunday morning.  The reason is obvious enough.  I had a pulpit from which to preach and it was where I wanted to be when the sun rose of Sunday.  This last year has taken me to a different place.  Instead of being a one church guy, I have been to twelve different churches in the last year.  I have worshiped in eight Methodist churches, two Baptist churches,  one Presbyterian church, and one Episcopal church.  I am not planning to write a book about my experiences in different churches, but is has been an interesting journey.   

One of the things this game of ecclesiastical hop-skip-and-jump has caused me to remember is something I have known for a long time.  Everyone needs a church which can be called home.  I heard a woman this morning offering a personal testimony of her spiritual journey and she spoke of my Sunday choice for the day as her spiritual home.  When this old worn out Methodist preacher heard her word, it resonated in my spirit as something once again needed in my life.  This is not to say that visiting around is no longer an option, but it is to say that a connection is needed somewhere that speaks of more than just a casual see-you-when-I-can relationship.  

I think the thing missed most is something called community.  When we are a part of a church community, we covenant with others to share in serving Christ.  We commit to working through the messy stuff of being in relationship with people who do not always have to agree with us.  Being a part of a spiritual community is declaring myself accountable to others who are called to life in the community.   It means being connected.  I have been coming to terms recently with my own personal need for that kind of connection.  Maybe I am not the only one.

How Can I Not Love Him?

I have always liked the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  It is a very detailed account of an encounter of Jesus with another person considering the fact that the one who wrote the account was not at the well, but in town at the local grocery store. (John 4:8) To remember the story is to remember the way the woman was led from the superficial responses that pushed people away to the heart within her that was longing for acceptance and love.  I have preached many a sermon from this story and remember it as one which was mostly marked up and underlined in the Bible I carried to college long years ago.   

 

The thing I remember most about this story is that it is about a woman who by her own choices had messed up her life.  Most of us have walked too many steps on that road.  Of course, the other part of the story which can never be forgotten is the way Jesus responded to someone with a messed up life.  His response was one of gentle leading toward self-realization.  He did not judge her.  Too many had already judged her back in the village.  Instead, He offered her love and acceptance, grace and mercy, and a sense of self worth and value.  She was radically changed from that moment she spent with Jesus.   

 

There are so many things I have grown to appreciate about the spirit of Jesus and many of those things are found in the way he treated this messed up woman at Jacob's Well.  Like her, I have showed up in His presence more messed up than put together, more filled with things I did not want Him to see than I wanted to show Him, and the awareness that I no longer needed to keep judging and condemning myself when He was freely offering me grace and forgiveness,  How could that woman at Jacob's Well not love Jesus?  And, how can I not declare my love for Him as I rise each morning in the new day He has given me?