Faith Venture

The teacher was doing some audacious things. He healed people from a variety of illnesses. Taught with an authority not heard in centuries. Challenged the ruling elite. Word was circulating that he was crazy, out of his mind. So his family, mother and siblings, rushed to find him and bring him home for rest and healing.

So the teacher used this as yet another teaching example. When told his family was outside the building and had come to take him home for healing, Jesus told those gathered around, “Who is my family? Those who do the will of God are my family.”

A little later in the story as told by Mark, a woman of great faith who was unclean, that is, outside the family of faith, touched him thinking that by merely touching his clothing she would be made whole and restored to the family of God. Jesus said, “My daughter, your faith has made you whole.” In other words, he welcomed her back into the family of God.

Jesus’ choice of words was certainly meant to shake up the preconceived ideas of his listeners. Get them thinking in a new, God-filled way about life. Think of the spiritual life as a life as part of a family composed of all who are doing the will of God. We watch out for family. We “have their backs” as the phrase goes. We do things for the family. But unlike a biological family, this family can grow. By seeking people outside the family and doing good for them, we can bring them into the family. Indeed, God wishes us to go outside the family and bring others in. Hence the parables about great harvest and others about bearing fruit.

One of my favorite contemplatives is St. John of the Cross. He not only wrote two great books on the contemplative life–“Dark Night of the Soul” and “Ascent to Mt. Carmel”–he also worked tirelessly to reform the Catholic monastic movement in the Middle Ages.

I thought of this while reflecting on Jesus’ early ministry. Mark uses an economy of words to report “just the facts.” He has Jesus on the move constantly either healing or teaching. As he teaches in Chapter 4, he says “the measure you give will be the measure you receive.” Jesus did not want a bunch of passive followers who just sat around feeling needy or wanting someone to make them feel good. Jesus wanted followers who were “not hearers of the Word, but doers, too.”

Linus in George Schultz’s “Charlie Brown” once said, “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.” That’s the prototype attitude of a philosopher, professor or sometimes preacher and teacher. But Jesus turns that statement around. You need to love individual people. Love isn’t a feeling, it’s an action. You actively love individual people by acting–doing something for them with no expectation of return. The paradox is by not expecting a return, you actually get one. You get life with God. Forever.

In the same story about giving a measure, Jesus asks if a light should be hidden. And he says that in the light the hidden will be made open. In this way, when you do acts of love for others, you don’t need to boast about it like the Pharisees, but God’s light will make the acts known and God will know.

So, pay attention to what is happening around you. Then help out where you can.

Sometimes when you are deep in study of the details of a book, you need to mentally step back and remember the big picture. We just celebrated Easter. We celebrate the life, death, resurrection and ministry of Jesus. I put ministry at the end of that list for a reason. Jesus spent 40 days on Earth after the resurrection in constant ministry to his followers. He taught them how to really see and interpret the Scriptures and the meaning of his life.

Jesus ministry can be summed as the Shema “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might;” and what he added later as the sum of the rest of the commandments to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He defined the latter commandment with the story of the good Samaritan.

Liz Straus writes a business blog called Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. She reflected on the celebration of Easter and the example of Jesus’ life, and asked, “How will you change the world by noticing someone else?” It’s a good question. As we live in the post-Easter time, we need to notice others in order to do good. Our first task is to love God. The second is to reveal that love through the things we do for others. And through that, you will be given life.

Happy Easter. As Paul said, if Jesus were not resurrected, then our belief is nothing but foolishness. The more I contemplate God’s Word and get the foolishness of the theologians and philosophers from whom I was taught in university out of my system, the more I understand. Jesus did not teach a philosophy. The prophets, the foundation of Jesus’ own spiritual formation, did not teach a philosophy, either.

The prophets taught and showed by example a life with God. Jesus taught that since the example of the prophets wasn’t enough to persuade people to abandon their old way of life and live a life with God, then he would offer a more stunning example. He showed the way–probably why the earliest Christ followers were called followers of the Way. It’s a way of life and the way to God.

Philosophers and theologians are quite certainly serious. And reading them can be entertaining (for some of us anyway). But those paths lead to pure rationality. Rationality is important in your life. But first comes the person. We follow Jesus, not because he was rational, but because he showed The Way. Trying to figure him out can be fun intellectual pleasure. But the task of life is to simply follow his example. We follow a man, not a philosophy.

How is your walk going? I know I’ve sinned this week (if the word gets in your way, think of it as doing things that are not what Jesus would do) and drifted from the Way. But the cool thing is that we can always find the path again thanks to Jesus. So today we cheer him, because his example finally broke the barrier to life with God.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus would rise early and “get lost” to spend time in prayer and meditation. After he had gathered some people around him and begun preaching and healing in earnest, he would still take time to get away alone. Evidently this was as strange a practice back then as it is now for many. His disciples looked for him during his first public teaching. Couldn’t find him. He was out praying.

Then at the end of his physical ministry, he still took time to go off alone and pray. This time, he took his inner circle to pray with him. He still went off alone, but left them just down the hill in the Garden. After three years of learning from him, these men still didn’t get it. Jesus prayed, they slept.

Not an early riser? You can become one. Go to bed a little earlier and then get up earlier. It’s a perfect time to read and meditate and pray. I’m writing this on an early Saturday (I get up about the same time every day–between 5:30 and 6–no matter what time zone I happen to be existing in at the moment) and spring is here. Spring bird calls greet the sun’s very early light still dimly brightening the Eastern horizon. Starting the day like Jesus is a good way to focus and then try to live like him. Easter is tomorrow, where we remember the resurrection. There’s no better time than then to contemplate on the thought “God is good.”

She is depressed, withdrawn, always sad. She does not interact with friends, neighbors or anyone at church anymore. In fact, she has disappeared from her usual society. Who knows why. Could have been a death in the family, a seemingly insignificant slight, a bitter disappointment, spouse throwing her aside for another. She needs help, but she has no idea she needs help–or that it is even available to someone like her.

Then someone enters her life, their paths cross perhaps quite unexpectedly for a moment in time. She takes the time to draw out her story and listen carefully. With understanding and perhaps some guidance, perhaps suggesting a medical examination to probe for internal chemical imbalances, this new person helps get her on the path of becoming a whole person again.

Sometimes an entire society seems to be fractured. The people as a group have lost their way. Are not a whole people as they once were.

It was into a society that was fractured and apart from God, with many people hurting and in deep need of being made whole again, that Jesus came. We have a hundred years of psychology where researchers put names on every little and big ailment and compile them in the huge bible of the trade – the DSM. In Jesus day, they would call it an “unclean spirit.” We sometimes use similar phrasing in everyday life. We’ll say someone is depressed (not in a clinical way) or troubled or even crazy. But these troubled souls possess a spirit within that is “unclean” that is not whole with God.

The first three chapters of Mark describe many instances where Jesus healed people such as these. He also restored physical wholeness to people with severe skin disease (leprosy) or a birth defect (withered hand) and to many more that Mark doesn’t describe in detail. Mark says that Jesus taught. What he describes in detail is that Jesus made people whole.

And then he assembles a smaller group–the twelve–so that he can teach them to do the same thing. After he left the earth, that is after the resurrection, the remains of this group did just that. And in turn taught a new generation. We are many generations removed from those days, but we, too, can be disciples of Jesus and bring wholeness to people we meet. You can do this by giving attention to someone else, listening to their story and offering guidance. You can also pray over someone with a physical ailment and bring wholeness of various kinds.

In my life, I’ve been with a small group of people who lay hands on an ill person and I could feel the healing flow. People who had cancer and then were checked and it had disappeared. I have no idea why them and not others. Or why maybe the cancer returns later sometimes. I guess we’re a little less than Jesus who was pretty much 100%. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, though. Where in your world today can you bring wholeness to someone who is broken?

After the temptation and after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

You’ve had your “high” moment when you feel totally “at one” with God. There is just no higher feeling you could possibly have–and you know it. But then come the temptations when evil tries to divert you back to your former life. Emotionally draining, sometimes you begin to wonder about the reality of that experience with God. But you work through it with the help of God’s word and friends. Now what?

Well, you do what Jesus did–you get to work. What is your message? What talent or talents do you have to get on with living with God every day? Do you have the ability to heal other people’s emotional wounds? Can you uplift others with song or music? Can you teach? Can you speak? Can you make friends with someone who needs God in their life?

There are many ways to go to work. Remember the message–turn your life around by recognizing where you have gone wrong and deciding to walk with God (repent) and believe the Good News that Jesus has overcome evil and death and will share his victory with us. Then go to work helping others realize this and learn their walk with God.