I want to see

Scripture:  Mark 10

They spent some time in Jericho. As Jesus was leaving town, trailed by his disciples and a parade of people, a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting alongside the road. When he heard that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!” Many tried to hush him up, but he yelled all the louder, “Son of David! Mercy, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped in his tracks. “Call him over.”
They called him. “It’s your lucky day! Get up! He’s calling you to come!” Throwing off his coat, he was on his feet at once and came to Jesus.
Jesus said, “What can I do for you?”
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
“On your way,” said Jesus. “Your faith has saved and healed you.”
In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.

Observation:

Here, we see a man who is not treated with dignity.  We see a blind beggar, Tim's son, known by reputation.  I get the impression he had a reputation as a loud mouth public menace.  Why else would the people be so eager to shut him up when he calls after Jesus?  He's a disruption!  I wonder if people thought that he was faking blindness in order to beg for money?  I wonder if they maybe thought he was a charlatan?  (If you've been in the city you've passed by men with cardboard signs that read "Homeless vet.  Broke.  Need money. Anything will help. God bless.") Most of the time we ignore them, don't we?  
But Jesus invites him over to himself.  And when Jesus asks him what he wants him to do for him, he says he wants to see!  Jesus says, "your faith has saved you." And his sight is restored.  (How had he lost his sight?)  The man's faith in Jesus as 'merciful son of David' saves him.  He trusts that Jesus is the one chosen and appointed by God to bring about God's Kingdom, God's shalom.  He's also willing to give up the life of a beggar to see again---a sign to Jesus that his request was authentic.  He didn't want to live as a beggar with a reputation as a nuisance.  He wanted to see. He wanted to be whole.  He wanted to regain the ability to work and play and take part in community life more fully. 

Application

Healing miracles happen.  Tina has been struggling with eye problems for over two years.  She's been a nurse for 40 years and has been somewhat forced into retirement because of her eye problems and a recent back surgery. Tina has seen many specialists about her eyes because of severe double vision.  She's had multiple eye surgeries and no one has helped her.  When she went to a specialist with an article that described her condition, the cause of it, and the surgical cure, the doctor laughed at her.  But the doctor recommended another doctor, who he thought might help.  Unbeknownst to him, that doctor was the author of that article.  When she saw him, he believed her and told her he could fix her double vision!  She came into my office this week with tears of hope and thanksgiving.  She told be that before she went to see that doctor, she came into the church and prayed for God to heal her.  And God sent her to a doctor who could restore her sight!  And he did.  She had surgery on Thursday and has immediate restoration of sight.  Now she'll be able to resume the life she wants to live as a volunteer, a grandmother, and a nurse.  Thanks be to God.  
What blindness do we suffer from?  Who are we failing to see, acknowledge, encounter?  What do we need Jesus to do for us?  What miracle would we like Jesus to do for you, so that you might follow him with greater faith? 

Prayer:
Lord, healing miracles happen everyday.  Help us to see and announce your mercy, Jesus son of David, when they do.  Amen.  
Lord, healing is real. 

serving church

Scripture: Mark 10:32-45
Back on the road, they set out for Jerusalem. Jesus had a head start on them, and they were following, puzzled and not just a little afraid. He took the Twelve and began again to go over what to expect next. “Listen to me carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem. When we get there, the Son of Man will be betrayed to the religious leaders and scholars. They will sentence him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Romans, who will mock and spit on him, give him the third degree, and kill him. After three days he will rise alive.”
James and John, Zebedee’s sons, came up to him. “Teacher, we have something we want you to do for us.”  “What is it? I’ll see what I can do.”
 “Arrange it,” they said, “so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory—one of us at your right, the other at your left.”
Jesus said, “You have no idea what you’re asking. Are you capable of drinking the cup I drink, of being baptized in the baptism I’m about to be plunged into?”
“Sure,” they said. “Why not?”
Jesus said, “Come to think of it, you will drink the cup I drink, and be baptized in my baptism. But as to awarding places of honor, that’s not my business. There are other arrangements for that.”
 When the other ten heard of this conversation, they lost their tempers with James and John. Jesus got them together to settle things down. “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around,” he said, “and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”

Observation:

This is the second time Jesus has told his followers that their trip to Jerusalem is a mission that ends with his death.  He knew the danger he was in.  He knew that his work and words and way of living had attracted a lot of negative attention and resistance from the insiders--both political and religious.  They do not like his use of power to lift up the outliers, the poor and dispossessed.  They do not like that he uses power to empower and set free those who are the victims of injustice.  Or that he accuses the ruling class of misusing their power for selfish gain and oppression.  Maybe because empowering a large majority is threatening to the privileged minority.  When the 99% realize their potential, their value, and their own power to claim justice, the 1% will fall. 
But the disciples still don't understand that his mission involves his assassination.  They are dreaming of corner offices and seats of power and privilege.  They are vying for elite status as his campaign team, anticipating royal treatment.  Jesus response is that those who want to be great and first must become servants and slaves.  His own status and power were put to use to serve others.  He puts himself in the place of the victim, receiving the unjust treatment he seeks to destroy.  Maybe by doing so, he mocks them and reveals their weakness.  When one goes willingly to the cross, your oppressors have no power over you.  He is the example for them and for all who might follow.

Application:

The first mark of discipleship is service.  Disciples of Jesus, Christians, do not use their power for selfish gain or for recognition.  We use power to serve others, to heal and feed and endure suffering alongside our neighbors.  Christian witness is not first about worship or prayer or or sacraments or doctrinal belief systems or morality.  It is service.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  This is the commandment by which our love for God is made known in the world. Churches that do not serve the poor in their communities, that do not tend to the sick, the incarcerated, the underprivileged, they do not follow Christ.  They follow their own lord.  American Christianity has ignored the call to service on the streets and neighborhoods around us. We have isolated, insulated, and preserved ourselves while our neighbors suffered.  No wonder churches are dying.  The pulse of Christian community is service.  Without exercising our heart, the heart of Jesus for the poor, we die.  
The church of Jesus is first a serving community, characterized by humble hospitality.  That's what Peter's Porch strives to be---a community of servants offering hospitality to our neighbors. We offer it freely, generously, without expectation or reward.  We do it because it is right to share God's abundance with others. We do it because serving is its own reward. We do it because Jesus came as a servant and not an Emperor. 

Prayer:

Lord, you came not to be served but to serve.  Raise up a serving church with humble hearts and healing hands and hospitable arms reaching out with generosity.  Amen. 
  
 
    

one thing you lack

Scripture: Mark 10:17-27

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ¹⁸Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ ²⁰He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money^* to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ ²⁴And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is^* to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ ²⁶They were greatly astounded and said to one another,‘Then who can be saved?’ ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

Observation 
This seems to be a brief encounter between Jesus and this nameless rich man.   
Notice Jesus first words: "Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone."  Doesn't the man suggest that Jesus has somehow earned his respect as a teacher and is therefore worthy to respond to a question?   What does Jesus seem to think about that?  Notice the rich man's question; "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  Another way to ask it is this:  How much good am I required to do in order to earn both worldly and heavenly blessings? An inheritance, after all, is bestowed by the deceased on a worthy loved one.   What am I required to do to obtain the best possible life, now and for the future?
"I have kept all these since my youth":  The man has decided that he has more than fulfilled his duty and can therefore expect to be rewarded.  Also, his wealth is confirmed as a blessing or acknowledgment of his good character, right?  Do the right things and you will be rewarded.
"You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." :  A man with wealth is lacking one thing.  What is it?  Humility?  Dependence on God alone?  Compassion for the poor? Love? 
Do we think of the poor as people who have done the wrong things and are, therefore,  getting the life they've earned?  Do we see the economy as a system in which everyone starts at 0 and you either go up or down based on your choices?   

Application:

This man's greed, his insatiable appetite for more good stuff for himself, his deep inner selfishness is contrasted by Jesus' love.  The rich man didn't come for transformation or to make amends.  He came to be affirmed in his self-righteousness and his privileged prosperity.   He wanted to be told that he earned God's favor and blessings by his goodness.  He wanted to feel like he was entitled to his life.
Jesus invites and challenges this man, and us,  to a changed life, a gospel life, a humble life, a generous life.  And the man can't stomach it.  He walks away.  Not everyone can be a disciple!  It's hard, says Jesus, for people addicted to prosperity, comfort, wealth, and privilege to be part of God's alternative economy---in which there is enough for all and no one is poor because everyone is rich.  (In the way real love makes one rich!)  It's hard because we feel that we've earned it.  I have a masters degree, damn it. 
I spent an hour at the Lancaster County Assistance office this morning with Mike and Jenna.  There were a lot of people there. And the crowd was diverse.  There were African Americans and Latinos, speakers of languages other than English, young adults, white senior citizens, and disabled people.  I began to feel self-conscious.  What more should I do for these neighbors? What am I lacking?  I felt inadequate and ineffective.  I was reading Shane Claiborne's book "The Irresistible Revolution" and thinking, "I'm no radical Christian. I'm too comfortable."  So I invited Mike and Jenna to dinner church.   Maybe God will save us all around that common table. 
   
Prayer
Lord, teach us your way of love. You love rich and poor alike and invite all of us into your alternative world---in which the hungry are all fed, the naked are all clothed, the sick are healed, and the prisoners are truly set free.  Help us to build that world one relationship at a time Amen.    

   

burning bushes

Scripture: Exodus 3

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ ⁴When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ⁵Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ ⁶He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ ¹¹But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ¹²He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’

Observation:

Before this, we have not heard God's perspective on the plight of the Hebrew slaves.  Now we know.  God has heard their cry.  God "knows their sufferings".  God intends to deliver them out of Egypt and into a good land.  AND, God has come to Moses in the wilderness.  God has interrupted Moses' ordinary life and work with a message.  This is Moses' Kairos moment.  It's the burning bush moment, in which Moses sees and hears God.  Here's the thing about it:  Moses has not seen, heard, or known this God before.  He has not been a faithful Jew all his life.  He has not read the bible. There was no bible to read!  He is not a religious man, though his father-in-law was a priest.   (That meant he offered sacrifices to a god in order to secure household blessings and avoid curses.  It is not relational, but transactional religion.  "If we do these rituals, the god will take care of us").  Moses teaches us that God will invite anyone into God's work---religiously faithful or not!  
Now Moses has a new, spiritual experience---a vision and a voice.  It is about the Israelites (an ancient tribe of people known in Egypt as the Hebrews.)  These Israelites have a God who listens and speaks! And this God has chosen Moses to go to Pharaoh and orchestrate the Exodus!  To which Moses says, "Why me"?  He is denying his own story, a Hebrew with direct connection to Pharaoh's house.  He is, of course, the ideal person to advocate on their behalf.  But God does not convince him that he is the right man for the job, only that God will be with him until the Exodus is accomplished.  In fact, God does not tell Moses HOW he will accomplish it, only that the people will worship their liberating God on that very mountain afterward.

Application:    

Kairos is about finding yourself at the right place at the right time.  It is the surprising intersection of your life and God's mission.  That mission is to embody liberating love, setting people free from whatever prevents them from experiencing the goodness and joy of life.  The Jews called it 'shalom'.  The Christians called it "grace and peace".   It is to live in a complete and healthy relationship with God and others.  We call it justice---to set the upside-down world right-side up. 
We see that there are many barriers, injustices both personal and systemic that prevent people from living.  We could name them, but instead we need to name the burning bushes, the kairos moments.  We need to pay attention, tune in, to the God who shows up and speaks to us. Someone reading this is Moses today.  God is calling you out of your life to join in the greatest mission ever undertaken:  A global revolution to restore humanity and all of creation to its right relationship to itself and the creator. How are you becoming aware, hearing the cries of the suffering, hearing the call to serve them?  We are a Church that seeks to embody that liberating love together.  If you're asking, "Why me"?  I would say, "Why not you?"  If you've noticed any burning bushes, then know that you are God's choice.  Ready or not. 

Prayer:
Lord, keep my eyes and ears open to your interrupting presence in my life.  Show me the way to love those you love, and especially those who suffer. Amen.
  

who am I?

Scripture: Exodus 2
 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?’ ¹⁴He answered, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’ ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. ¹⁶The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defence and watered their flock. ¹⁸When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’ ¹⁹They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ ²⁰He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ ²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. ²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien^* residing in a foreign land.’

Observation:

Moses, born a Hebrew slave, is raised in the house of pharaoh's daughter, raised in privilege and wealth.  Despite these circumstances, he identifies with the Hebrews and their plight of suffering.  So much so that he defends a slave and kills an Egyptian.  He is not accepted as a fellow Hebrew either, but seen as another violent abuser of power by the witnesses of the killing.  So he flees and settles in a foreign country.  He finds employment, marries, and has a child.  His extraordinary life in Egypt is transformed into an ordinary life of herding in the mountains and tending a family.  He is avoiding his life, ignoring his responsibilities, and forgetting his own people.  Will he have a role to play in the drama between Pharaoh and the Hebrews?  It seems inevitable, and yet he spends years as a resident alien far away from the problems of Hebrew slaves in Egypt. 

Application :

Moses has privilege and power but identifies with the powerless and underprivileged.  Who will Moses be?  Hebrew or Egyptian?  Will he retain his adopted status or will he accept his lot as a slave?  Will he use his power and privilege to help the Hebrews?  Or will he hide in Midian among the flocks and hills?
Vocation is an important part of the human experience.  We ask ourselves, "What am I meant to do with my life?"  It is an essential aspect of faith, too. Vocation comes from the latin 'vocare' to call.  Moses' life points to a higher calling.  For what or whom has Moses been born?
It is temping to ignore injustice, to choose comfort and safety over struggle and resistance. I am a white male and, as such, I experience invisible privilege.  I can choose to ignore racial and economic injustice.  Or I can accept my role to confront it.  My life and yours are meant to be extraordinary.  In the midst of ordinary callings, as spouses--parents, professionals---a higher calling awaits. Like Moses, we are free to choose whether we will live God's call or avoid it.  Sometimes shame and our own sense of inadequacy stand in the way of embracing your true self and divine calling.  Our flaws and failures tell us we're not good enough.  Moses was a murderer.  God calls broken, flawed, messed up people to embody God's liberating love.  There are people depending on us to express our faith by surrendering to a calling to live justly and mercifully for others. To find out what God has made you to be and do, this is an essential act of faith.  We took the five-fold survey (http://fivefoldsurvey.com/) to begin thinking about ourselves as called and sent by God with a mission or purpose.  I'm still learning what God is calling me to do and be.  Its a lifelong journey. 

Prayer:  
Lord, you have called us to an extraordinary life of public ministry with your children who suffer injustice.  Help us to discover and embrace our calling to confront evil and give hope.  Amen.

mothers, sisters, daughters and God

Scripture: Exodus 2
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months. ³When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ ⁸Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,^* ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out^* of the water.’

Observation:

Fearing a growing population of Hebrews, Pharaoh ordered that all firstborn male infants be destroyed at birth.  The midwives of the Hebrews, Shiphrah and Puah by name, refused to obey the order.  When questioned by authorities they said that the Hebrew women gave birth before they arrived on the scene.
In another family, a priestly family, a baby boy was born. After three months of hiding, the mother sealed the baby in a basket and placed him along the Nile river bank.  Pharaoh's daughter found the basket and the crying baby and felt pity.  Knowing he was a Hebrew child, she asked her servant to find a nurse mother.  Moses' own mother was summoned to nurse the child and was then paid by Pharaoh's daughter to do so. Eventually she adopted Moses and brought him into Pharaoh's own household.  A Hebrew enters Pharaoh's own household, not as a servant, but as an adopted son. 

Application:
 
The bible is not the story of a male deity.  God's will is revealed through women as often as through men.  Exodus is the story of the liberation and empowerment of an oppressed people.  Moses was never supposed to take a breath.  He was supposed to be killed at birth, by order of the Pharaoh.  Ironically, Pharaoh's own daughter rescues Moses and raises him as her own son.  Moses' mother and sister were even allowed to care for the baby until he grew.  Patriarchy and the power of a male ruler is undermined by these women---Hebrew midwives, mothers, sisters, and daughters.  Their collaboration with the creator and each other seems to transcend their obedience to male authorities.  This story shows how resilient and resourceful oppressed women are by showing them exercise the power to give life and nurture children. The God of the bible understands the role and importance of women in the ordering and nurturing and multiplying of life.  Sometimes their resistance to patriarchy reveals the very will of God.  Moses is drawn out of the water, a kind of second birth, from Hebrew slavery to Egyptian royalty.   The implications of this plot twist will be significant. God's rescue plan needs these disobedient women, whose innate desire to save a baby will save Israel.  I read this with thanksgiving for all the faithful women and mothers, doing God's will every day. 

Prayer:

Thank you God for faithful women, who give and protect life.  We pray for women in childbirth, for adopted children and their mothers, and for women who live in abusive households.  Show mercy and bless them with your creative and nurturing powers. Amen.    

Prayer