Speck and Plank Removal

Today's Text: Luke 6:37-42

This parable offers worthy advice even when taken literally.  Of course, most of us would have no trouble following this advice in a literal situation.

Thinking literally we identify the parable's "surprise" easily.  Someone moving through their day with a plank extending from their eye defies our concepts of normal pain tolerance, physics, and even social safety.  A basketball player with a small cut over the eye has to leave the court until the bleeding stops.  We certainly wouldn't allow a player on the court with a plank swinging around them every time they turned their head.

But Jesus prioritizes the individual's responsibility to improve themselves over their desire to improve their neighbor.  He discourages us from raising an army of one-eyed speck removal agents.  Rather, he encourages us to examine and improve our own selves for the benefit of the community.  We neither judge nor condemn.  Instead we give liberally.  And, we train under our Master Teacher in order to become a leader by example.

Lenten self-examination opens the door to personal healing and preparation for leading.  The remaining universal question: "Why do we find it so easy to ignore the planks in our own eyes?"

Buying Friends & Influencing Heaven

Friday's Text: Luke 16:1-9

The Prairie Home Companion radio show did a comedy bit called The World's Oldest Jokesters.  They told jokes from pre-history and early history and (sounding like New England Jews) included several jokes tied to Bible stories.  They claimed they'd even heard Solomon, the first comedian to write down his material.  The theater audience chuckled as they quoted dire verses from Ecclesiastes and explained they were hilarious as Solomon said them.  They just lose something in the translation.

Today's parable may lose something when it's stuck in print. It can be funny if we hear the punch line delivered through laughter.  "The Master commended the dishonest manager... ppphaw-haw-huh... because he acted shrewdly." Ok, maybe something is still lost in translation.  But how else do we explain the crazy circumstances of this story.  The manager wastes the master's money.  He's given a pink slip.  The manager cooks the books, robbing the master of still more in order to buy his way into people's homes.  The master, impressed with the dishonest manager's creativity, gives his approval. In our culture the punch line might sound more like, "DOH! Why'd I fire him? That crook knows how to take care of business!"  Wait... does Jesus want us to be dishonest?

No.  He wants us to be creative.  He wants us to figure out how to use money (actually mammon which means wealth and includes our possessions) to build friendships rather than buy them.  He wants us to stop and think.  Some of us are tempted to make money the goal.  Jesus wants us to use money and love people and not the other way around.  When we understand that, the "Welcome" sign lights up in Heaven.

Are You Ready?

Today's Text: Luke 12:41-46

Without Lent or something like it, our attraction to happy, uplifting passages of Scripture distracts us from sober reflection.  Many Christians today find themselves far removed from the regular practice of self-examination, confession and repentance.  Such a process seems medieval and dark or depressing.  "What's the point in beating yourself up?" they ask.  "We should walk in victory and joy?"

What do those folks do with parables like this one?

Let's be honest.  Jesus gives an example that rings true even in today's work environment.  As one wise business leader said recently, "Excellence on the job comes from work that is inspected, not work that is expected." And, in our personal lives this principle proves true. Too many of us wait for a heart attack to alter our fat intake and start walking regularly.  When we evaluate ourselves, talk to others who want us to do well or be well, and make the necessary changes, we put ourselves in a better place.

In the bigger context of Luke 12:35-48, three parables warn us to ready for the master's return.  After the first one, Peter questions whether Jesus broadly warns everyone or aims specifically at the apostles.  In our text and the parable that follows, Jesus explains that both the manager (a servant with recognized authority, vis a vis the apostles) and the servant (everyone else?) must be ready for the return of the master.  Peter, everyone includes you.

So, can we accept the warning?  Can we admit our human tendency toward letting things slide?  And more importantly, will we expose ourselves to the Holy Spirit's mirror, admit our shortfalls, and repent?

unworthy servants

Today's Text: Luke 17:7-10

Unworthy servants?  Did Jesus really ask us to call ourselves unworthy servants when we've been fully obedient and done our duty? Was he having a bad day?  Did Peter make him mad?  Some Christians around us today might respond, "I struggle with feeling unworthy already.  And I don't do everything I've been asked.  How am I supposed to handle this?  What happened to grace?"  That last question might surprise us.

Go back and read this parable in context. Luke 7:1-10.

Jesus gives the parable as part of a response to a request from the disciples.  They want Jesus to increase their faith.  Notice that Luke specifies the area of faith growth: the Disciples want faith to forgive.  They express their honest view of forgiveness.  It scandalizes them.  How can one forgive someone over and over and over; even seven times?  How can one uproot and send flying a mulberry tree over 30 miles into the Great Sea?  Faith?  Help us out Jesus.

Listen to this simple story.  Servants serve their masters.  They plow fields.  They shepherd sheep.  They wait on tables.  They don't expect masters to be pleasantly surprised they obeyed. 

Consider the implications. 
God is our Master. Forgiveness plows hearts for God's mercy.  Forgiveness shepherds people in God's care. Forgiveness serves basic human needs. And, only forgiving those who come back and repent, seems unworthy of the gracious Master we serve. 

Now, what happened to grace?

A Most Agreeable Child

Today's Text: Matthew 21:28-32

Profound. With crystal clear simplicity Jesus brings truth up from the bottom of the pile of human deception. Lent asks for careful self-examination.  This parable functions like a long needle piercing us to take a biopsy of our motivations.

Eddie Haskell developed the vocabulary and manners to manipulate the adults in his world.  His friends saw through the lies.  The adult egos stroked and soothed by his compliments preferred to believe in the facade.  But enter Eddie's head.  What did Eddie think about himself?  What if we find Eddie tendencies influencing our relationships?

The parable centers on the question of obedience.  Many times in Christian conversation we hear someone ask something like, "...but doesn't God look at our hearts and care more about whether we love him than how perfectly we obey him?"  It depends.

The Father may not be concerned with how perfectly the sons pruned the vines. However, the parable implies that the Father prefers rebellious words and grudging obedience to agreeable words and rebellious actions.  In Isaiah, God says "the people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me."  James asks us what good it is to just "claim" faith without obedient deeds to back our claim.

In relationships with God and people each one of us must ask, "In what ways do I try to maintain favor with affectionate words and hope to avoid the consequences of disobedience?"

Falling Towers and Felling Trees

Today's Text: Luke 13:1-9

How do you respond when Jesus speaks harshly?

Stand in the crowd gathered around Jesus to hear him teach. Gasp out loud as some interrupt Jesus with news that Pilate has executed faithful Galileans in the very act of sacrificing.  Join every eye fixed on Jesus but ask yourself what you expect him to say.

"Enough injustice!  Rome's rule must end!"
"Pilate stands in authority.  They shouldn't have defied him, but sacrificed only with his approval."
"The whole Temple system oozes corruption.  Come away with me to build a holy community that God will approve and deliver."

No, Jesus responds more like this, "Tyrants are killing and towers are falling. People are dying, but none of you are innocent.  Repent."  It seems the tragedy is not in their death, but in their unrepentant life.

The parable teaches us to repent.  The prophets use the barren fig tree to symbolize God's judgment on Israel  (Joel 1, 2; Habakkuk 3; Haggai 2). And the fruitful fig tree symbolizes God's delight in and restoration of Israel (Hosea 9; Micah 4; Zechariah 3).  The care given by the vineyard worker symbolizes the repentance that will move us from being barren to being fruitful.

Lent focuses on these metaphors of repentance.  Remove the plants and weeds that steal spiritual nutrition from the base of your life .  Feed the soil of your heart with spiritually rich nutrients.  Then you will bear fruit and be pleasing to the master.  We exist to produce good fruit for the master, not to stand as ornamental shrubs in his garden.

Why do we often think of repentance as an act of contrition for being caught in sin, as opposed to regularly needed spiritual maintenance?

wink, wink

Today's Text: Mark 4:30-32

If you have to explain a joke it isn't funny.  It takes more than the right combination of words to create humor.  Physical movement, facial expression, voice inflection, all contribute to humor.  Some jokes, if only read from a page, simply miss the mark. This parable suffers that fate.

This parable will teach a lesson in a Bible class.  The analogy clearly transfers.  Jesus, the small seed, begins a Kingdom movement that grows to fill the whole earth.  The idea isn't new.  Many Kingdom builders began with a small militia, grew an army and established empires.  Mark wants us to understand Jesus' Kingdom differs from those empires.

Do the research.  The mustard plant grows large enough for a small bird to perch on, but you would not find a flock of crows enjoying its shade.  Jesus certainly knew of smaller seeds.  When we just read the parable, we miss the wink, wink . We miss the exaggerated inflection.  "Smallest seed," said Jesus with a high pitched voice and his thumb and forefinger held close to his eye.  Then with his arms spread over his head in a deep voice he said, "the LARGEST of all garden plants."

The Kingdom of Heaven grows contrary to the natural order.  It surprises you.  We repeat the story about our little league team that won the championship against all odds.  An Olympic skater amazes us when she gives a medal winning performance through overwhelming grief.  The room falls silent when a child offers a simple but profound answer to a question the adults have been discussing at length.  The Kingdom of Heaven grows like this.

You may write something in response to this blog, that dramatically changes the course of someone's life.  The Kingdom of Heaven grows like this.

4 Soils, Big Questions

Today's Text: Mark 4:1-9

Jesus never suggests a proper response to this parable.

One can read all three synoptic versions of this parable and still come away wondering. (Mt. 13:1-23; Lk 8:4-15)  Jesus just seems to state the facts.  People respond to the gospel in one of four ways:
1. with indifference;
2. with short lived enthusiasm;
3. with half-hearted allegiance choked
    by distraction and worry;
4. with full surrender that produces
    surprising amounts of fruit.

We read the parable and, like the disciples, begin asking what it means.  Yet, that question actually wonders,

"What do we do with this information?"

Do we encourage each other to break-up the worn paths and try to make them fertile gardens?  Do we stress and strain to sink our roots deeper so we will endure the heat of persecution?  Do we weed our hearts and seek counsel for removing worry and lust?  Do we check our fruit production as a sign of whether we are good soil or not?

Or do we assume Jesus is teaching us to be liberal sowers, not concerning ourselves with the harvest only the planting?  Do we settle on this parable as some sort of Biblical support for predestination and God's sovereignty?

Or perhaps, Jesus exercises great wisdom by opening our hearts to these and many more questions with one simple farming story.
Enjoy your Lent reflection.  Share your thoughts.