Seeing and Believing

John 10:19-42
There’s an interesting question raised in our reading from the gospel today. In John 10 we read, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10:21b). How we answer this question could have significant bearing on our spiritual lives. First of all we should note that query is rhetorical, that it concerns the words that Jesus was speaking when set over and against the works that he was performing. Those who did not accept him as the Son of God doubted his sanity and wondered if he was possessed. But others wondered how someone who was plagued by a demon could perform miracles as Jesus did.

This is the point where the passage becomes particularly relevant for our lives, for in the midst of our spiritual blindness, in the groping about that we sometimes do, seeking a way through the challenges of life, to what do we cling as a source of help? When we become lost or disoriented, what steps do we take to find the way toward home? “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” Or to put it another way, can an idol of our own creation really help us to have life and have it abundantly? Can a self-help formula give us the means by which to fulfill our truest humanity in God’s image? Can self-centeredness or a “me first” attitude really lead us where we need to go for health and wellbeing? No, only God can cure this sort of blindness, for only God offers us the truth we need as well as the strength we need to accept it.

This is not to say that God is limited in means by which to help us. God can and does work in innumerable ways to accomplish the divine will. But by the same token, it is this divine will that we must seek if we are to be cured of the spiritual blindness that clouds our living. Only when we allow God to open our eyes will we truly see.

Prayer: Lord, give us eyes with which to see your work in our world and in our lives, that we may respond in faithful obedience to the call you have set before us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How Am I Poor and Needy?

Psalm 86

Psalm 86 is one of the evening psalms for today, and I have to admit that I have some trouble with it; I’m not sure how to read the words of verse one. “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy,” and right there is where I have a problem. I’m not really sure I can claim to be “poor and needy,” especially if the psalmist is speaking in purely economic terms. It’s all relative, of course. I mean I have more money than some and less than others. But when we take the rest of the world into consideration I must be in the top, well, maybe 25% certainly of wealth. Even as a paperboy back in junior high school I remember being told that I was earning more money than the majority of the world’s population. So in economic terms I don’t feel right claiming to be poor and needy.

There are other ways of reading these words, I know, and that is what I do. Some days I am bereft of spiritual well-being, feeling disconnected from God, most out of step with the church, confused and concerned about where the world is headed. Other days I may not be in peak physical condition but in need of God’s healing touch in my life. Sometimes I find myself running out of patience with my family, not communicating well, being way too sensitive to what other folks say to me. And boy do I make mistakes! As a minister I don’t always get all of my work done, don’t always get my phone calls returned or my visits made. I don’t always make the right choices, don’t always spend money as wisely as I could, don’t use my talents fully to the glory of God. In all of these ways I am very poor and needy, wanting in what only God can give me, the healing, patience, and focus that I am missing.

So maybe Psalm 86:1 is for me. Maybe I can read the worlds of the psalmist in fresh and exciting ways, looking for its meaning in my life even as I seek to share its meaning with others. In truth we are all poor and needy because we stand in constant need of God’s abiding grace. And in mercy and love God provides that grace to us, opens us to the possibility of lives restored and blessed, allows us to move beyond verse 1, on to the richness of God’s love as found in the fullness of God’s word.

Prayer: Lord, give us what we need so that we may serve you faithfully. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

You Are a Spiritual Animal

Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:3

When our children were little one of their favorite video tapes was a Disney sing-along that included the song, “You Are A Human Animal.”

You are a human animal,

You are a very special breed,

For you are the only animal

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

There is an interesting parallelism to the song at work in our reading from Ecclesiastes today. “I said in my heart with regard to human beings,” we read, “that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:18-20). The writer of Ecclesiastes would likely concede that people can read and write and think, but would then point out that their end is the same as that of animals. “All is vanity."

John Macquarrie might disagree. In his essay, “Spirit and Spirituality,” Macquarrie makes the point that “’spirit’ names a kind of being that is somehow shared by [humanity] with the Spirit of God. Spirit is present in and constitutive of [humanity], as well as God…Thus [humanity], alone among all the beings on earth, was granted a share of spirit.” In his article, “Spirituality in the Recovery Process,” F. A. Prezioso makes virtually the same point. “Spirituality is a quality that belongs exclusively to the human animal,” he writes.

What then are we to say about these things? The writer of Ecclesiastes believed that humanity is but a facet of creation, a part of the bigger picture with a role to play in relation to God but with no real advantage within the realm of history. When we consider the presence of the spirit in human life, though, and the relationship between God and humanity in the creation narrative and elsewhere we find a much different image. We alone among all forms of life have a claim on God’s image and God’s presence for we alone have been filled with the divine breath which is our “inspiration.” We may be human animals, but there is much more to it than that.

Prayer: Lord, it is you who have breathed life into us. Help us to honor your presence in all that we do, for it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.

By the Spirit

2 Kings 5:19-27

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

There is an interesting factor that binds together two of our readings today. In both the 2 Kings and 1 Corinthians passages there is reference to being present in the spirit. “But (Elisha) said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when someone left his chariot to meet you?” (2 Kings 5:26); “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit…” (1 Corinthians 5:3).

The community of faith is essentially boundless in these passages. Neither the prophet Elisha nor the apostle Paul were limited by distance in their ability to know and participate in what was going on. Spiritually they were very much present to those from whom they were separated. Pardon the pun but each of them “were apart from the action, but at the same time a part of the action” as God allowed them to be. Their spiritual awareness and their authority gave them the ability to bridge gaps, to discern truths, to offer guidance, and to hold others accountable. In our world of instant communication we may believe we have the same opportunities to reach out to one another, to bridge all gaps, to be in all places as once. But it was a spiritual focus that gave Elisha and Paul insight into what others were doing. We may use all the technology at our disposal but unless we use it according to God’s will we are, as Paul says elsewhere, “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1) whey it comes to interacting.

Elisha and Paul were very much attuned to the spiritual life and allowed that spiritual aspect of their lives to guide their work to the glory of God. May we do the same.

Prayer: Lord, help us to reach out in love to one another, offering encouragement and support according to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.