Category: Meditations

Meditation 241

John 4: 5- 42

The best known phrase that comes from this passage is “living water.” Jesus was at Jacob’s well outside of Sychar waiting for the disciples who went into the city to buy food. While he waited he asked a woman for a drink of water, which led to a discussion that has him offer living water to the woman at the well. When she began to grasp who Jesus was and what he was offering she went into Sychar to share this with the people of the city where she lived. Meanwhile the disciples had returned to the well and they talk with Jesus about food.

The conversation the disciples have with Jesus about food follows the same pattern as the conversation with the woman at the well. There is reference made to a usual activity and Jesus puts a metaphorical spin on it. The disciples urged Jesus to eat something and he said “I have food that you do not know about.” The disciples took this at face value and began to ask each other if someone else had brought Jesus food. Jesus then said that his food was to do the will of God. Sometimes as I read this gospel, I wonder how much the disciples paid attention to what Jesus was doing. It seemed usual for Jesus to make comparisons to teach about heavenly things. When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus in John 3, he spoke of being born from above, and had a talk with Nicodemus about being born from above not being a physical birth, but being born of the Spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well about living water, and as he talked it was clear that living water was another metaphor. Jesus used metaphors all the time, and yet his disciples, those 12 men who spoke with Jesus every day, needed to have the metaphor of “other food” explained to them. In this chapter of John, as in other places in the gospel, Jesus simply explained what he meant.

The application of the truth Jesus taught seemed to be hard for the disciples. This allows us to be able to take heart. If the disciples needed to be told things more than once, we are in good company when the same is true for us. Jesus taught the disciples well. He used examples from everyday life to teach the truths about who he really is. Jesus is the lamb of God, the one who gives eternal life, the one who gives living water and the one whose food it is to do the will of God. Throughout his ministry Jesus would tell parables and perform acts of power to show that he was/is the Messiah, the promised one, the one who would bring us into the kingdom of God. Just as the disciples needed to be told things more than once, so do we. Jesus reaches out to us through the words of scripture, through the time of prayer, through the love of other believers to remind us of the truth that we need to hear.

In our reading today Jesus said that his food was to do the will of God who sent him to complete God’s work, which was to gather fruit for eternal life. Jesus also likened the work of God to the gathering of a harvest, and said that “one sows another reaps.” We are invited to work with Jesus to do the work of God, and to do the part of the work that we are able to. As the reaper and the sower need each other to grow and harvest a crop, so we as believers need to work together to do the work that Jesus gives to us.

Meditation 240

John 4: 5-42

How interesting that Jesus speaks to a woman at Jacob’s well as the beginning of his time in Sychar. Because of the customs of the day the woman was less powerful than Jesus, and it would have been normal for Jesus to overlook her, to simply allow her to go about her business and not speak to her at all. However, Jesus, the one who is the giver of living water is thirsty, and so he asks the woman for a drink. The woman has less importance in the societal structures of the day, but she is the one with the water jar to draw water. “The scene is paradoxical. Here is the giver of living water, thirsty himself. A thirsty Messiah and a resourceful woman will find out that they need each other, a wonderful metaphor for how God and humanity are intimately interconnected.” (Osvalda Vena. Working Preacher)

The way that Jesus and this unnamed woman need each other goes beyond the giving of a drink of water at the well. This woman is the one who invites the people of Sychar to come and meet Jesus. Jesus stayed in Sychar for two days at the invitation of the people, and the initial introduction of Jesus to the people happened because this woman left her water jar at the well and went back to the city to tell people of the man she met who she believed to be the Messiah.

In the action of this woman, we see acted out an amazing truth. God is all powerful and yet God chooses to work through people. The sharing of living water is up to us. That is a rather sweeping statement, and I am in no way suggesting that God is not able to reach people without the intervention of other people. It is true though that most of us learn about the source of living water by the sharing of others. We probably learned to pray by the example of another, we learned to worship partly by worshiping with others, we probably first heard the stories of Jesus from other believers, and we in turn pass on what we hold in our hearts.

How do we as believers engage those outside of the congregation where we worship and fellowship? The woman in this story went into the city where she lived, and invited the people she met to come and meet someone who knew all about her, someone who might be the Messiah. We are told that the people followed her to go and meet Jesus. I have never had that experience of people rushing to follow me to find out about who Jesus is. There are some things in this story that are particular to that experience. This woman had come face to face with Jesus and she couldn’t help but go and tell everyone she met. We may not have had this identical experience of having met Jesus in person, but those of us who love and follow Jesus have a story that is every bit as worth sharing. In my own experience I have been astounded to hear from others what they have seen of God in my life, as I said I have never had the experience of this woman in John 4 who had a crowd follow to find out about faith. I have though been able to pray with those in hospital, to sit with those who grieve and to share food with the hungry. God relies upon us to share the living water that we have in as many ways as possible.

Meditation 239

Romans 5: 1-11

Paul must have been having a good day when he wrote this part of the letter to the Romans. He is boasting in the hope of sharing in the glory of God. Not only is he boasting in sharing in the glory of God, but he boasts in sufferings because of what they can lead us to hope, and our hope in God is well founded. Paul is able to rejoice at what God has done for him by giving him abundant life.  I don’t think that this passage in Romans is encouraging us to seek out suffering in order to have our endurance, character and hope increased, but it is a reminder that God is present in everything.

One of the ways we may be experiencing suffering these days is through the challenges brough to the life of church congregations. At the Life and Mission Agency meeting I attended via Zoom this week, we looked at a model to help us plan how to help congregations in these changing times, and to do so there was a graph made that contrasted church culture with the culture in which we live. One of the descriptions of some congregations is that they are in quicksand. That is, they are at best maintaining without being able to make the church seem relevant in an increasingly secular society. As we looked at this image, I thought of books I had read in which the main character gets caught in quicksand. The way out is to lie back and relax, like floating on the water. The more a person kicks and thrashes the more he or she will be pulled down into the quicksand. It occurred to me, that for those of us who find our congregations suffering to be relevant in these secular times, that the solution is for us to rest on God. Another observation that was made at LMA was that some congregations that have limited resources and few newcomers are NOT in quicksand mode, because they are sharing their faith with the community at large, and finding joy in ministry.

There are other sufferings that we experience in our personal lives, and when we bring these circumstances to God, God will walk with us through the suffering. We live in a world where things go wrong. We heard in the news this week of a beautiful teenage girl who took her own life because of the depression she suffered, we know of poverty that grinds people down, and personally we feel our own grief and worry at what life brings to us. If we suffer alone and rail against the suffering, we can be overcome by it, but if we ask God to help us cope, the experience of suffering can produce endurance. Paul tells us that endurance produces character and character produces hope. It is a process that is being described. When we come to God in prayer about the suffering that has come to us, God will be with us as we go through the stages that bring us to hope.

We are told that hope does not disappoint because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Our hope is grounded in God’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

Meditation 238

Exodus 17: 1-7

Yesterday I was part of a two day Zoom meeting for the Life and Mission Agency of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Before the meeting began those of us on the committee were catching up with one another, and remembering meetings in the past. We remembered that a year ago we had been able to meet face to face. Last March there were concerns being raised about coronavirus, we had more hand sanitizer bottles distributed in the meeting room, and those of us who flew to the meeting had noticed some people at the airport were wearing masks. I think if you had asked any of us if we thought we would spend a year living under quarantine like conditions we would have been doubtful. This year has been full of surprises for sure.

If you were able to speak to the Israelites in the story we read in Exodus today they might have said something similar. When they followed Moses out of the land of Egypt, they were thinking that they would be going to something better. They were being taken out of the land of bondage and they were told that they would be taken to a land flowing with milk and honey. Instead, they found themselves in the wilderness with no water. They asked Moses why he had brought them out of the land of Egypt to kill them with thirst, and Moses turned to the Lord for help.

Now, if God was like the people, then God might have told the people to stop whining and go find a water source. God might have said “there have been generations of people who have survived in the desert and they didn’t do it by belly aching! Go find some desert plants and get water from the leaves. Go look for the source of a spring and start digging!” But God does not, because God is gracious and trustworthy. God listens to Moses and tells him where to find water. God is the God of covenant, which means that God has promised to care for the people in a dependable way. In contrast, we see in the Exodus passage today that the people are limited in their ability respond to God. As soon as there is a problem, the problem becomes their focus.

In the stories of God’s dealings with humanity we see over and over that God loves people, and that God can be depended upon to keep the covenant promises that have been made. During Lent we are reminded of the way God made promises to Abraham, Noah, and Moses, and that God was and is always faithful.  Not only is God always faithful, but God knows that we will need help over and over to remember that. Just as the Israelites began to panic and lash out when there was no water, so we can question, panic and fret when we are faced with challenge. God does not leave us in this place of fear, instead we are given more messages of grace and hope.  We know that the people in the desert were given water, but were they maybe also reminded of the truth Miriam had shared with them a month or two ago when they fled Egypt?

When the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and escaped the Egyptians, Miriam, Moses’ sister who was a prophet led the people in song. She sang” Who is like you, O Lord among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders? In steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” (Exodus 15: 11 & 13) From time to time the Israelites would be shown the strength of God in amazing acts of power. For always they would have the witness of the prophets who shared the truth about God. Regardless of what we face, whether we face the challenge of pandemic or desert, we do so with God who leads the redeemed people.

Meditation 237

Psalm 95:1-11

In preparing to write today’s meditation I read an article at Working Preacher written by James Howell, in which he explored this psalm’s invitation to worship God with song and joyful noise. Howell also reminded us that in worship we need to listen for God’s voice as much as we need to raise our own voices, (verse 7b) and further that those who heed the words of God will enter God’s rest, which is deeper than merely resting from labour. God’s rest is the rest that allows us “to be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

Psalm 95 is a beautiful invitation to sing praise to God. When we take time to sit with God and to let our heart rest in God the response can be nothing less than praise. As the psalmist says For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
⁷ For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

We praise and we also need to listen, because God will bring us a message of warning or correction when we need it. God is the one who shepherds the people, which means that God will warn us of the consequences of our actions when we make mistakes. The psalmist makes reference to times that the people of God had tested God and quarreled when they were living in the wilderness. (verse 8 – Massah which means testing and Meribah which means quarrelling. At these places in the desert the people had complained because of lack of water, and their complaining attitude kept them from resting upon God). The rest that God gives allows the people of God to be equipped to trust so that they will be part of the plan God has for the world.

In Psalm 95, the psalmist has both elements of joyful praise and repentance. This was usual in the worship of ancient Israel. After the lovely invitation to worship the Lord there is the invitation to listen to God’s voice. The word translated as listen, “shamah” carries with it the sense of obeying the word to which you listen. God is holy, as verses 1-7a in this psalm remind us, and this holy God is asking of us to listen and obey.

As we listen to God’s voice we may sing:

“We are God’s people, the chosen of the Lord, born of the Spirit, established by the word;

Our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in him we stand:

Oh let us live transparently, and walk heart to heart and hand in hand.  Book of Praise #472)

Meditation 236

John 3: 1-17

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to talk about what Jesus was doing. Nicodemus knows that Jesus was sent by God, but somehow, he needs some 1:1 time to make sense of Jesus ministry. Being a part of the crowd, and witnessing the message that Jesus both enacted and shared in speech, was not enough for Nicodemus, so he came to Jesus by night. Commentators are hard on Nicodemus for coming to Jesus by night when he would not be seen by others, but I think we don’t need to be so hard on poor Nicodemus. Some of us need to process new things that way, to ponder what has been heard, and then to come back to the source, and raise some questions. Some need to be able to ask the presenter what he or she meant, and maybe take the idea a step further. This sort of thing does not happen in a crowd, and it may have been that Nicodemus needed to look Jesus in the face and have a heart-to-heart communication about Jesus’ teachings.

What Nicodemus hears that night that he comes to talk to Jesus was the beginning of something new. Later in the gospel of John Nicodemus will speak up to ask that Jesus get a fair trial, (John 7: 50-51) and when Jesus is crucified Nicodemus provides the embalming spices and also helps with the preparation of Jesus’ body.  (John 19:39-42) Nicodemus is not a believer like Peter who is bold to speak out, rather it seems that Nicodemus is one who kept the words of Jesus in his heart. and who lived a quiet life of faithfulness.

On that night that Nicodemus came to Jesus with his questions he is told that he must be born from above. Our friend Nicodemus takes this quite literally, and asks how he can be born a second time. Jesus, being a good teacher take this question and builds upon it. He shows Nicodemus that he is speaking metaphorically, that one who is born from above can be said to be born of the Spirit. Nicodemus may not be quick to move from the literal to the symbolic meaning of words, but when Jesus begins to lead Nicodemus in this way, he is able to keep up. Jesus speaks of being born of water and the Spirit, and he plays with differing meanings of pneuma which has been translated as “spirit” in John 3: 5, and which may also be translated as “breath” and “wind.” The Spirit is the breath of God that gives life, which is what we are told in the story of creation in Genesis 2, and the spirit is like the wind that blows where it will. Jesus tells Nicodemus that those born of the Spirit share the Spirit’s mysterious freedom. (Judith Jones. Working Preacher)

Nicodemus it seems is enabled to live in way that shows the Spirit’s mysterious freedom. He remained a Pharisee, and within that role he spoke up close to the end of Jesus’ life to try to ensure a fair trial. It may well have been the Spirit that gave Nicodemus the freedom to speak against his colleagues to try to prevent injustice. Nicodemus was still a “leader of the Jews” (verse 1), and in this role his spirit was free to speak and live the truth of being born of the Spirit .

Meditation 235

John 3:1-17

This is one of the best known and loved passages in the gospels, the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night to ask about the things that Jesus was teaching. Nicodemus knew of Jesus and his teaching and he was impressed. He recognized that the signs Jesus performed could only be done because God had sent Jesus. He said “no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Nicodemus needed a trusted spiritual leader to talk out his questions, and so he went to Jesus. It seems that while he could tell that Jesus had the presence of God, Nicodemus also had confidence that he could come to Jesus with his questions and be helped.

We all find ourselves in the place, from time to time, where we have questions about faith. We can find that we need to talk to someone about the ideas we have to get them sorted out. We may have doubts, or we may simply be looking at things from a new point of view. In either case, we, like Nicodemus need to talk things out. There are times that talking to God allows us to get things sorted out, we pray, either in spoken words, or in writing things down, or using music, whatever the means, prayer can be a way to sort out our queries. There are also times that we look to another member of the family of faith to help us sort things out. In the Celtic tradition such a person is called a soul friend, someone who is a companion or guide in matters of faith. Today we might have a spiritual director to guide in such a way, or one’s pastor or a Christian friend can be a companion in faith.

When I was a student at Ewart College someone who helped me in my faith walk was Rev. Dr. Garth Wilson. He was my field education supervisor in my last year of study at Ewart, which was the college in the Presbyterian Church in Canada where one prepared for ministry in Christian Education. We met at a luncheon at Ewart when all of the field education supervisors were invited to the college. He told me to call him Garth, rather than Dr Wilson, and said that he hoped that he would be able to be a pastor to me in the coming year, as well as be my supervisor. That introduction showed him to be approachable and, through that year there were times that I would meet with him to talk about the spiritual questions that came to me. I do not remember the content of those conversations, but I remember being in the presence of a caring man who listened to what I had to say, and gave helpful insights.

Nicodemus was in a similar place when he came to Jesus. He had queries to raise and he was confident that Jesus would care and listen and teach. Sometimes people can feel that the raising of questions denotes a lack of faith. There may be a sense that those who know Jesus should not falter or question, but simply accept. Jesus showed himself to be understanding of Nicodemus, and if we have questions, he will be understanding of us too. It may be that as we bring our questions to Jesus that he will send us a soul friend to be our companion, or we may find ourselves playing the role of soul friend to another.

Meditation 234

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

The letter of Romans was written by the apostle Paul to be sent to a variety of communities, so he would be addressing those of varied backgrounds. In the target group there would be those who had grown up as Roman citizens, and who had been taught to sacrifice to various gods. There would also be those who were Jewish people who had been raised in the synagogue, and taught the stories of Moses, and to keep the law of God. To these Paul was saying that none of what they had done in the past would make them right with God. He told them that like Abraham that they could come to God by faith.

There was going to be some spiritual relearning going on for those who wanted to follow the way that Jesus had taught. As much as those early believers in Rome needed to relearn how to live lives of faith, so we on our Lenten journey find ourselves wanting to change, or give up, spiritual practices that do not being us closer to God. For example, we may have been taught that only prayers that we make up ourselves are the proper way to talk to God, that written prayers are vainglorious repetition, and then we find a beautiful prayer with beautifully written petitions that helps us to meditate on the qualities of God. Or conversely, we may be been raised in a tradition that favoured lovely organized worship with pageantry and use of visual symbols, only to find joy in the spontaneous worship at a campfire. During Lent we are encouraged to find ways to draw closer to God, whether they are part of our tradition or not.

The professor Lucy Lind Hogan, who wrote for Working Preacher, tells the story of a change of behaviour that can be lifesaving. She said that those of us in North America were taught as children to look left then right to check for traffic before we cross the street. This is because drivers drive on the right-hand side of the road here. In Britain children are taught the opposite as cars drive on the left-hand side of the road there. Checking for traffic in the right way can save your life. Out of concern for tourists, she says, at some intersection in London the words “look right” are stenciled in large white letters on the road. New habits are not easy to learn, and we need reminders, such as the caution to “look right” to be able to incorporate new practices in our living.

One of the things that was new for all of the first readers of Romans was the role of Abraham. Paul wrote that by faith we are all children of Abraham and therefore we are recipients of the promise given to Abraham that rests on grace. To the Jewish believers this would be ludicrous because they knew that they were part of the genealogy of Abraham and took pride in how this set them apart from others. They were children of Abraham by birth not by faith. For the Roman believers this would be equally ludicrous because they were proud of their heritage which followed other traditions. In the letter to the Romans, Paul says that we are all part of the same family by faith. We are given life in God and are part of the heritage that was promised to Abraham.

In our Lenten journey we would do well to “look right” to be able to learn something new to help us in our walk of faith.

Meditation 233

Genesis 12: 1-4a

Yesterday’s psalm described the life of the people who fears God. They are steadfast, they are not afraid and their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. The bible lesson for today is the story of the call of Abram. The Lord spoke to Abram and told him to leave the land where he lived to go to another place that the Lord would give him. Up to this point we know very little about Abram. He is introduced at the end of chapter 11 in Genesis. We are told that Abram is the son of Terah, the husband of Sarai, he brother of Haran and the uncle of Lot. Terah was going to take his family to Canaan, but when they got to Haran they settled there.

Some time later, after Terah had died the Lord spoke to Abram and directed him to go to the land of Canaan (verse 5). For Abram to have acted so decisively he must have been one who feared the Lord, whose heart was secure in the Lord. Those of you who know the story of Abram know that he didn’t always act with such strong faith. Sometimes he tried to take matters into his own hands. Abram was like any other believer in that he had times he could rely wholly on God, and times when his faith faltered. Some might feel that Abram would be a better example of faith if he had always gotten it right. I feel that when we look at Abram, we can have hope because we see that God did not abandon Abram. Abram’s heart could be secure in God because God is dependable. In today’s story, Abram is given a big direction to follow and he does that.

In my own life I hope to live as one whose heart is secure in the Lord. I know that God hers my prayers and that God is just and all powerful. In spite of that at times it can be hard to wait for the answers to my prayers. A number of years ago I was quite concerned about one of my sons. I had shared this with my spiritual director more than once. She finally said, “What would it be like to trust your son to God?” My reply was, “as arrogant as this sounds, God is not his mother!” I didn’t stay at this place though. I realized through that conversation that my son was a young man who had been taught well and given support, and now he had to make his own choices. Several years later things have worked out. The time God has in mind for things to unfold is not always our time. A steadfast heart helps us to look to God  for confidence and guidance as we live our lives.

As we used to sing at camp:

Lead me Jesus, I will follow,

Down the dusty pathways all along the sea

Teach me Jesus to be loving, your disciple I will be.

Meditation 232

Psalm 112

This week I am not following the lectionary readings for my meditations, because for the season of Lent I am using a book “Onward Through the Fog!” that has ideas related to Lenten worship that follow scriptures that are not identical to the readings in the common lectionary. I hope the reflections this week are still a blessing to those of you who are reading.

Psalm 112 gives a generous description of those who fear the Lord, and are therefore both those who receive blessing and those who are a source of blessing to others. We are told that those who fear God take delight in God’s commandments. A lot of time could be spent reflecting on what that means. To take delight in God’s commandments is a familiar theme to those who are used to the lessons of scripture, and the messages of spiritual songs. The commandments of God are more than a list of what is allowed and what is forbidden. The commandments of God give us insight to what God is like. We know that the commandments of God tell us to be kind and fair, they tell us to follow God faithfully and to worship God alone. If we choose to follow God, there is a need to worship only God. In the twenty-first century we are not likely to be tempted to worship idols as the ancient people were, but we can be tempted to put concerns for self-advancement over the concerns God has for humanity and the care for creation. The commandments of God that invite us to a life of faith, nurture, and obedience can indeed be the main source of our delight.

 After the description of those who fear the Lord being the ones who delight in the commandments of the Lord, we have a list of the good things that will come to those who fear the Lord. They will have mighty descendants, they will be blessed, have wealth and righteousness. Then we are told that they will be a light for the upright. We are not told if they will be a light in a physical darkness or a metaphorical one, but we are told that in the darkness those who fear the Lord will be a light for the upright. I believe we can take hope in this. As we fear the Lord and take comfort in the commandments of the Lord, that we will be a light to the upright. It seems those who fear the Lord are gracious, merciful, righteous, generous and they conduct their affairs with justice. That is a pretty tall order, most of us would be happy to be called one of those things. Yet, in our walk of faith, we know that following God’s good way will help us to be like God and so we can be a light to others who are trying to follow God.

During Lent we are getting ready to celebrate Easter, which is the highlight of the Christian year. During Lent, many people follow dedicated observances spending more time in prayer and meditation, fasting from certain practices to be able to give more time to spiritual things or to have more money for offering, or choosing to do some extra good deed for Lent. The way you observe this time should be the way God leads you to do so. We want our spiritual practice to be a light to others, not a burden to ourselves. Yesterday I read a devotional shared at “Presby Can Daily Devotional.” It was written by a friend Rev Kenn Stright, who encouraged us to show thankfulness to those who perform essential and unnoticed jobs in our communities. There are so many, from school bus drivers, to custodians, to front line medical people, to teachers* who are keeping our communities safe right now. How would we view the pandemic if we looked about for those to thank as we progress through this time of challenge? Maybe this could be one way to be a light in the darkness.

*This list is far from complete, there are so many in our communities who are faithful and helpful.