Wednesday, April 24, 2024

“But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God.  I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.” (Psalm 52:8, New Living Translation)

               Last week, the City came along and chopped down our ash tree on the front lawn. We didn’t receive any notice that they were planning to do so. It was not a healthy tree. It was the last to leaf in the Spring and the first to drop its leaves in the Fall.  They had been treating it for ash borers over the last few years.  But, every year, more and more of its branches did not leaf and it was a sorry sight.

                It was a good-sized tree but it took the workers less than a half hour to fell it, chop it up in the wood chipper and be gone, leaving little trace of its existence, but for the stump and some sawdust. Susan commented on how long it takes to grow a tree and yet how quickly it is chopped down and gone. It was situated right beside the front sidewalk and was a very popular tree for dogs to leave their pee-mails. I’m sure they will miss it, too.

                We’re hoping that the City will plant a new tree or two to replace it.

                In the Creation stories of Genesis, God takes great delight in planting trees. “The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit.” (Genesis 2:9) Throughout scriptures, trees are a symbol of prosperity, abundance, health, vitality. “But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.” (Psalm 1: 2 -3) Trees are a place of refuge and safety. “The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees.” (Psalm 104:12) They can be symbols of longevity, strength, hope, renewal and blessing. “I will plant trees in the barren desert— cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fir, and pine.” (Isaiah 41:19)

                Yet a unhealthy tree is a wasted and forlorn thing, good only for the woodpile. “The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy.” (Isiah 27:11)

                Jesus said, “A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.  Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” (Matthew 7: 17 -20) In a puzzling but prophetic action, he once cursed a fig tree for its lack of fruitfulness. He told a parable about a barren fig tree which owner wanted to chop down until the gardener persuaded him to allow the tree to be fertilized and nurtured.

                Fruitfulness is Jesus’ expectation of us all. What does that look like? “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Ephesians 5: 22 -23) Good works, good deeds, good words, good actions – all are part of a hale and healthy faith. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

                We are nurtured by the life of Jesus Christ so that we may indeed be fruitful. “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 4 -5)

                Perhaps we all can’t be mighty oaks or majestic pine trees or fruitful apple trees. But we can be straight and tall like a maple tree or well-rooted and offer our shade like a chestnut tree. “But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.” (Psalm 92:12)

Dale

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15: 13 -17, New Living Translation)

                 With my deepest apologies to Joseph Scriven…
                        What friends we have in Facebook, All our moods and cares we share.
                        What a privilege to carry every thought everywhere.

                Every week, I get many, many requests to add someone to my Friends’ list on Facebook. It’s not that I am all that popular but this blog has a wide audience which I deeply appreciate. I also deeply appreciate the requests. Each person would like a response. They seem like nice people. But I don’t often “accept” them, mainly because I could never keep up with the conversations which they so richly and understandably deserve. I am also a private person and feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with strangers which is itself a sad statement about this day and age of identity theft and the like. Once, one of the people, whom I did accept, relentlessly tried to sell my bit coins. I also have a few people whom I do know but whose accounts have been hi-jacked by AI or something and they too, under the phony guise of friendship, try to sell me stuff.

So, apologies to all of you, I seldom go too deep into the Facebook catalogue of Friends. But thank you for asking! It is great to hear from you! Blessings on you all!

Jesus was into choosing friends long before Facebook. In our text from John’s Gospel, Jesus describes his friendship with the disciples. He has confided in them the plan of God to save the world. He has shared with them the Good News of God’s Love and Mercy. He has broken bread with them, washed their feet, and given them the keys to the Kingdom. His friendship has embraced them even in their worst moments as disciples, offering second chances and complete forgiveness.

All friendships are two-way relationships. Just as there is certain responsibility if I accept someone on Facebook as a friend, Jesus seeks the disciples’ reciprocity in their relationship with them. Jesus asks them to do as he has taught and commanded them under the most important of commandments: Love each other. But more than just that (and that alone would be amazing), Jesus’ disciples are to go out into the world and bear fruit. They are to show that they are friends with Jesus through their compassionate deeds, good works and sharing of the Good News.

                Real friendships are not as easy as a click on Facebook. They are not casual. They are not flippant. When we unfriend someone for real, it is hurtful and harmful. Sadly, I have done that. Real friendships should be able to accept the ugly along with the good with our friends. Jesus knew these twelve men were far from perfect. Their friendship didn’t carry them through to the Cross. They betrayed him; they denied him; they abandoned him. Yet, they were among the first to experience the Resurrection and to encounter him in deeply personal ways. He prepares a breakfast for them and once again, creates new bonds of friendship and fellowship. All is forgiven! Amazing grace, indeed!

                Let’s be careful here, though. Jesus isn’t our pal, our buddy, our BFF (well, maybe he is our BFF but not in some frivolous way). But Jesus is a friend who understands us and accepts us as we often are, who encourages us to better than we often are, and speaks honestly to us when we are less than what we should be.

I have found Jesus to be a great conversationalist at times, but he expects me to listen and pay attention. He speaks his mind, shares his expectations, holds me accountable, demands my best, seeks my welfare, knows my heart, mind and soul. I can talk to him about anything and everything. “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Romans 5:11)

            So, thank you, Joseph Scriven for these words:   

                What a friend I have in Jesus,
                All our sins and griefs to bear.
                What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
                O what peace we often forfeit.
                O what needless pain we bear.
                All because we do not carry
                Everything to God in prayer.

Dale

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.” “What things?” Jesus asked. “The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people.  But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago. (Luke 24: 17 21, New Living Bible)

                “Ain't no sunshine when she's gone/It's not warm when she's away/Ain't no sunshine when she's gone/And she's always gone too long/Anytime she's goes away” (Bill Withers)

                How was your eclipse watching?  I was interested in this unique phenomenon, but not absorbed as some. I didn’t purchase any appropriate eyewear. But at the peak time here in our city, I did venture out into the backyard into the eerie, radically reduced daylight. Being the philistine that I am, I didn’t have any spiritual experiences or epiphanies as some have claimed. Nevertheless, it was a cool interaction with the cosmos. I can’t wait for the next one in 2044!

                Only Luke tells the story of the two friends walking back to the town of Emmaus from Jerusalem. We don’t know their names but the sadness was written across their face.  There is no sunshine for these two, no warmth – Jesus is gone away. His tomb is empty but there is no comfort in that fact. They are hurting, confused, forlorn, shocked, their hopes dashed. What happened threes days ago was a total eclipse of the heart (as the Bonnie Tyler song goes).

                “Ain't no sunshine when she's gone/Only darkness every day/Ain't no sunshine when she's gone/And this house just ain't no home/Anytime she goes away.”

                Sadness was written across their faces. The stranger who came along side them could sense their broken hearts. The Message Bible tells us, “They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend.”

                We can totally identify with these two men. We all have gone through eclipses in our lives where the shadows and eerie light have blocked the sunlight of love, hope, security, peace and harmony. We can become lost in the dark. Jesus said, “But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.” (Matthew 6:23) In other words, when hopelessness, despair, unending anxiety, paralyzing fear threaten to take over our lives, we are lost to the darkness, we are lost in the darkness.

                But wait, at the very beginning of the Greatest Story Ever Told, we were promised, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.” (Matthew 4:16) That Light boldly came forth out of a cold, dark tomb as the Risen Saviour. He is the One who declared, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.” (John 12:46)

                The two men did not recognize Jesus. He would be the last person on earth whom they would have expected ever to see again. We’re told that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Their grief and disillusionment eclipsed the presence of Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t give up on them  or go to find more amenable company. He stays on the path with them, engages them in conversation, interprets for them the significance of what is happening. The critical moment came in the breaking of bread with the stranger – a simple, normal, familiar custom. Now we’re told that their eyes which had been blinded to his true identity were suddenly opened and they recognized him. “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” (v.32)

                The Living Lord is with us every step of the way whether we know it or not. We may find him on the roads of life or in the simple moments of fellowship and friendship when we realize we are never alone, never abandoned. “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.” (Psalm 23: 4)

                I can see clearly now the rain is gone
                I can see all obstacles in my way
                Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
                It's gonna be a bright (bright)
                Bright (bright) sunshiny day. (Johnny Nash)

Dale

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 – Easter: Jesus asks! Tough Questions for a Resurrection Faith

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20: 15, New Revised standard Version)

               It had been a very long, hard, trying, upsetting, mournful weekend for people like Mary, those who had followed Jesus, right up his crucifixion. Nothing much else could go wrong.  Yet now, to Mary’s dismay, the tomb is empty, Jesus’ body not there, no clue as to what had transpired. For Mary, it is the last straw to a miserable experience.  She is already broken-hearted and now she cannot even pay her last respects to her friend and teacher. She does what many of us might do in the face of great sorrow – she breaks into tears. Under the circumstances, it is understandable, reasonable, necessary, unsurprising.

                Then a voice from behind her speaks to her and asks, “Why are you weeping?”

                What causes us to cry out in hurt, sorrow, loss, bereavement?  Do we weep in the face of war, brutality, children’s deaths, crimes against humanity itself?  Do we weep for lost opportunities, broken relationships, personal failures, moral failures, or broken promises? Do we weep because of illnesses and diseases, infirmities, frailties of mind, body and spirit? Do we weep for those we have lost but can never forget? Why are you weeping?

                Some might ask, in light of what we see and read on the news, why are you not weeping?

                Like Mary, in the face of grief and sorrow, disappointment and disillusionment, we look for the logical reasons, the simple explanations, the obvious choices to justify our tears. The voice belongs to a mere gardener, Mary assumes, and he has taken the body away. “Let the dead bury their own dead,” Jesus once said. Mary is dead in spirit and she wishes to deal with Jesus’ death in her own way. As some say, no one has ever seen a dead person come to life. Mary had no illusions that this time was any thing different.

                But it was different. Radically different. Transformatively different. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’” (20:16)

                He called her by name and her world was turned inside out and upside down. Previously, Jesus had made the commitment, “So you have pain now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22) Mary was the first to experience the total reversal of loss and sorrow which the Resurrection brings to us. “Your pain will turn to joy.” (16:20)

                Because Jesus knows each of us, by name, then he also knows what makes us weep, what makes us sad, what causes our griefs. But because he knows each of us by name, he interacts with our lives and lifts - raises us - out of our despair and despondency. The Risen Lord offers us an alternative to sorrow. The Risen Jesus offers us a life-line tethered to hope and God’s compassionate, comforting Love. The Risen Christ reveals himself as One wo conquers even death on a cross and thereby frees us all from deadly sorrow and suffering.

                Jesus gives us a foretaste of the future in which there will be no more weeping, no more tears.

                “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?...  No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 35 -39)

             I come to the garden alone,
            While the dew is still on the roses;
            And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
            The Son of God discloses.

            And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
            And He tells me I am His own,
            And the joy we share as we tarry there,
            None other has ever known. (C. Austin Miles)

 Dale