John 6:60-71

John 6:60-71
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 Some time ago, Rachel and I were driving along the road in Kona where they do the bicycling portion of the Ironman.  For 112 miles, they cycle along a barren stretch of road in a landscape devoid of warmth, surrounded by hardened volcanic rock.  To complete such a feat successfully (and then, by the way, run a marathon after), you have to train.  You have to sacrifice, and you have to work for years, but I imagine most of the people who finish say that it is worth it, no matter how hard it is.  They could never have experienced the exhilaration of finishing without the work.
  In the same vein, Jesus doesn't pretend that discipleship is easy, but he also paints such a compelling picture that the disciples believe it is worth it.  To who else would they go?  He, and He alone, is the path to eternal life.  There is no other way, and if one wants eternal life, they must go through the Son to the Father.  It is not easy, and anyone who says it is will be lying to you, but it is ultimately worth it to experience the joy of eternal life that comes through Christ the Son.  We have faith, and we persevere, because the prize is worth the price.

John 6:52-59

John 6:52-59
Contemporary English Version (CEV) 

  Ever catch the tail end of a story and not quite understand what was going on?  Or maybe you walk into a room where everyone stops laughing, and you just assume they were talking about you, because that's the easiest assumption to make?
  When we take passages out of the Bible and read them without context, it can be dangerous, because you can twist things to make it sound like they mean things they really don't intend to mean.  For instance, some early Christians were persecuted because people thought they were cannibals, and if you take passages like this one out of context, it's easy to see why they might have thought that.
  But Jesus is always shifting our vision to the whole story.  We aren't meant to simply read bits and piece, to isolate any one part of the Biblical story.  No, we're meant to read it all, to understand that the entire witness of Scripture is pointing us to a God who is always reaching out, to a God who runs to our mess, rather than away from it, to a God who loves and is radically inclusive.  All of Scripture sings the song of this God, and we are wise to read it all, rather than just bits and pieces, because in only reading part, we miss the bigger picture.

John 6:41-51

John 6:41-51
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

   When we don't grasp things, we often grumble about it.  We assume that if we can't wrap our minds around it, that there must be something wrong with the idea.  We rarely accept that the problem might be within us.
  When we approach God, we must do so with humility, willing to accept that the answers are all beyond us, bigger than us.  We come as children approaching an infinite mystery, one to which we might not dare draw near were it not for the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  If we come with certainty that we already know what we need to know, then we shut our eyes to the greatness of God that dwarfs what we can see or understand.  If, however, we are willing to sit and listen, to be taught and led by Christ, and to be patient when Christ is pointing beyond what our minds, limited by time and space, can understand, then we will discover that the greatness and love of God truly will be a bottomless treasure in which we swim.
  When we begin our prayers with adoration of God for who he is, we properly assume the right position and let our hearts get carried away by the awesome  and amazing love of God.

John 6:30-40

John 6:30-40
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  Did you ever have a teacher in school that seemed eager to punish you?  You had the feeling that you were walking on eggshells, because they seemed to watch you so closely in the hopes that you might slip up so they could punish you.
  We often have the same impression of God -- this is the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon preached so long ago.  We get this idea that God is out to punish us for our sins, that God gets bonus points for each soul condemned to suffer.
  Instead, Jesus paints a picture of a God eager to save, willing to feed us and nourish us, body and soul.  He comes as bread, and while we're trying to figure out how this means we won't have to go to the grocery store any more, Jesus points to the eternal realities present in God.  Jesus is trying to teach us that God wants us to be saved, that God wants to make sure Jesus doesn't lose a single one.  God wants us to experience the salvation that is a free gift in Jesus Christ, and he sends his Spirit to change hearts and minds to receive the eternal truth of God's free gift of salvation.  God is eager to save, and my we release our guilt and relax into that joyous truth.

John 6:22-29

John 6:22-29
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  Sometimes, Jesus gives a straight, direct answer.  Someone asks him a question, and he answers.  When someone asks exactly what God wants us to do, we hear the good news -- have faith in the one he sent.  Trust in God.  Don't place your faith in yourself or your stuff or your situation -- trust in God, place all of your faith in him.  That's your primary task.  We tend to peak around the curtain, to try and figure out what else there is, what else God wants, as though there might be some celestial bait-and-switch where we are tricked into giving God more than we should.
  No, it's simple and straightforward, and to commit oneself to it takes a lifetime, but our first task is to believe, and let the rest come as it will.  First, believe.  Put your faith in him.  He will lead us forward from the place of believe, but it is all rooted there.

John 6:16-21

John 6:16-21
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 On Sunday mornings, I go to church, expecting to have my attention directed towards God, to be challenged by the Word, to spend time in worship with a community.  When I leave church, my attention often wanders, and sometimes I forget that Jesus can show up whenever and wherever he likes, often working beyond the realm of my expectations.  Do you know that strange feeling you get when you meet a work colleague at the grocery store, or an old friend in an unfamiliar place -- you often have trouble placing them at first, because they're not where they should be?
  Jesus surprises us.  He surprises us through the miracles he performs in the Gospels, and he surprises us by pouring out unmerited grace and favor upon us.  He surprises us by reminding us that he is Lord of all, and that our work life and our home life and everything we do should be done in submission to his Lordship.  He surprises us by calling us to build relationships with unlikely people, or encouraging us to think about how our work or our play can be used to build his Kingdom.  He surprises us because he is teaching us that our world is not as we perceive it, but rather it is all a part of his kingdom, and he will be Lord of all -- opening our eyes to his wondrous work helps us see and engage in that.

John 6:10-15

John 6:10-15
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  I love how Jesus proves a point here -- there is more than enough.  Even starting with something meager, Jesus ends with abundance.  We're often proud if we can stretch something just to cover the need, but Jesus goes so far beyond the need that there are 12 baskets left over -- what he started with was multiplied, so that through the presence and work of Jesus, there is more at the end than there is at the beginning.
  And that's the story of creation, right?  What once was is now greater through the work of Jesus Christ.  His ministry is not to simply 'get us through the tough spots', but rather it is to shower abundance upon us and lead us forward into a place far greater than we can ask or imagine.  There is life in Jesus that goes beyond your wildest expectation.
  Here, the people misunderstand Jesus' ministry.  They want him to be an earthly king, always providing for their earthly needs.  He flees from this, because he knows that our minds cannot quite grasp all that he means to us.  We want the immediate, but what is to come is much, much greater.  We have to be patient and accept this on his terms, but he promises us that our patience will be rewarded if we dedicate ourselves to a life of discipleship.

John 6:1-9

John 6:1-9
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 One of the things that I think is really cool is the divine economy.  It works completely differently than our own economy.  Here, you eat what you kill -- you work hard, you earn money, you eat.  If you don't earn it, you often don't get it.  (Now, I could write 1,000 pages on how this isn't always the case, about how there are massive sections of our population trapped in systemic poverty, about how many people are born into wealth and don't earn it, about how if often doesn't matter how hard you work if you can't escape... but I'm generalizing here.  Work with me.)  In the human economy, a year's wages might buy a meager amount of food for the crowds gathered to see Jesus.  They would experience scarcity.
  In the divine economy, it's not merit based.  It's grace based, and there is wealth enough to lavish gifts upon all.  In the divine economy, it doesn't matter how much money you have or whether or not you have earned your reward -- Jesus gives it out of the depths of his heart.  In the divine economy, we receive what we cannot buy, we treasure what we did not earn.  In the divine economy, we are blessed because God loves to lavish gifts upon his children.  I'm not talking about God giving money to some that he loves -- I'm talking about God welcoming in those who believe and offering them grace and peace and eternal life and love beyond measure.  God gives these great gifts because he is the great giver, and our money will do no good in this economy.

Before the Fall

  Before the Fall, Noah Hawley's gripping tale begins with a plane crash and then winds its way through the lives of the participants, both illustrating how the passengers and crew ended up on the same fateful flight and how the two unlikely survivors waded through the tangled web that awaited them on dry land.  The book points toward the premise that the final descent of the private jet, containing two wealthy and powerful men, was not mere accident but perhaps some nefarious deed directed towards a victim and their unlucky fellow travelers.

   I walked down to the library to pick it up, and spent the walk back with my head buried in the book, and for the next 24 hours I did little other than read.  It captured me, both through the element of suspense and curiosity as well as the raw humanity of the characters.  They were all flawed, each with a unique path to the flight.  Life has its wonderful ways of re-directing us.  Little events alter the course of our lives, and so often we live in the shadows of events, relationships that have long since passed under the bridge.  We are so heavily controlled by our past that we often do not realize how much freedom we have to shape the present and steer our future.  We find ourselves in ruts, and its so easy to keep our heads down, focused on the next step.

  Hawley also didn't shy away from the reality of the power of money.  Some of the characters in the novel had more money than they could spend in a lifetime.  Several had grown up without assuming such riches would ever be a part of their lives, and now that it was they were sometimes unaware of how it changed them.  But money, like gravity, is a force that clumps, drawing in more and more of itself, eventually creating the black hole that we know as wealth.
  Isn't this what Scripture warns us about?  Money isn't bad on its own.  It's our attachment to it that gives it power, our greed for more that gives it control over us.  Money is a tool, but when it claims territory of our heart and refuses to let go, it begins to reshape how we see the world, how we see the people around us.  It insidiously creeps, altering our relationships and demanding more of our attention.  We grant those with money deference, thus elevating money to the role of kingmaker.  We believe that those with more money deserve more influence, more attention.  We let money define value.

  Hawley's novel is a suspenseful page turner, although I will admit to being a bit disappointed at the end.  What I found most interesting, however, was the role wealth played in defining and shaping the lives of the characters, granting me an opportunity to reflect on money's prominence in my own life.

 

John 5:39-47

John 5:39-47
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  How many books have you read about prayer?  One?  Five?  Ten?  I've read quite a few of them.  If I'm being honest, there are times in my life where I spend more time reading about prayer than I do actually praying.  It's as though I'm hoping to find some secret that means I get to skip the hard work and head straight to my heavenly rewards.  The day-to-day work required to build a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ can seem overwhelming at times.
  Jesus has invited us into a relationship that is dependent completely upon grace.  He calls us to come and die, to submit to his Lordship and learn from him.  He promises us that it will be ultimately worth it, but he never promises it will be easy -- he challenges our suppositions and our comfort, and he calls us to change.
  The people in Jesus' day treated him with scorn and contempt.  Today he is often met with indifference.  The hard work of discipleship is seen as too challenging, even though it leads to a place of eternal comfort, rest and security.  We put our hopes in worldly things and earthly people, although Christ promises us the security and peace our souls long for.
  Faith isn't easy, Jesus teaches, Jesus demonstrates, but his power over life and death is complete, and there is a place for us in his eternal kingdom if we will choose to follow him.

John 5:31-38

John 5:31-38
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 It seems as though the world has gone mad.
  There are too many mornings where I wake up to the news of terrorist attacks in some part of the world.  Some are more publicized than others, but it seems as though there are countless attacks, in Iraq or Turkey or France or California.  One after another they come, and each one leaves me grasping for words, having run out of things to say.  I haven't heard many practical solutions, and I certainly don't have any to propose.  How does one counter the threat of terror that seems to emerge here and there, without pattern or warning?  It is exhausting to think of all the things there are to fear.
  Humanity has been filled with violence since Cain slew Abel, and Steven Pinker's excellent The Better Angels of our Nature detailed how we are now dramatically less violent than we have been in our past.  And yet there is still too much violence, too much warring.
  I believe in a peace that transcends this chaos, in a Savior who will one day defeat our warring ways to institute his reign of peace on earth.  I cling to this, and while I don't know what to say in the face of such pain and heartache, I do believe in bowing my knee, in submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  His is a way of peace, and one day, when we all bow before him, there will be peace that passes understanding, that guards our hearts and minds.  I believe that dedicating my life to such submission is worthwhile, and my prayer is that our community of faith will live that out, day by day, and slowly influence the world to Christ's ways of peace.

John 5:19-30

John 5:19-30
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

   I read this and hear myself encouraging my kids to do things on their own.  We want them to learn independence, to develop their own skills and learn that they are strong and capable kids, able to do many things.
  But I also think of my own desire for independence -- in a way this is good, but it also has some streaks of pride in it, as I resist being completely dependent on my heavenly Father.  God is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine, and yet I want to do things on our own.  It is good to depend on God, because he is completely reliable and will never disappoint us.
  There is certainly a balance -- we learn independence in this world, and yet we lean constantly on God, knowing that there is more to this world than what we can see.  There is more to life than what we will grasp in this life, and if we are willing to depend on the Father as Jesus does, then we will catch glimpses in this life the glory that awaits us beyond the veil.

John 5:10-18

John 5:10-18
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  We were at the zoo the other week and happened to be in the African area when the cheetah run was.  It's amazing to watch the cheetah run -- they contrive a rodent on a wire and then use it to lure the cheetah into chasing it around the pit.  It could be frustrating, but they do let the cheetah catch it at the end.
  At times, that's what Christianity feels like.  Just as it feels like you're getting close to understanding what Jesus is calling you to do, it feels like the world often shifts beneath your feet and you're called deeper, once again reaching to grasp the ineffable.  Here, this man has been healed, and yet Jesus still has a charge for him, still challenges him.  Jesus isn't finished.
  And so we press on, seeking faithfulness, thankful for the moments that affirm us, always struggling to see and understand how Jesus is calling us to grow, and confidant in the love of the Father that one day we will reach the end of the chase and rest in his grace and amazing love.

John 5:1-9

John 5:1-9
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  38 years.  The man suffered, sick, for 38 years, and then Jesus heals him just like that.  He thought he had to make it into the pool first, but what he really needed was a miracle from Christ.  Can you imagine waiting 38 years for something, only to discover that what you thought you needed most wasn't it at all?
  We all get hung up on things.  We think that achieving this, or getting that, will make everything better.  We think things will be better when...  We believe that a certain level of income or relational status or object will improve our lives, and if we manage to acquire it, we usually discover that it can't live up to its promises.  If we are not careful, we are constantly disappointed by the things we thought would bring us what we wanted.
  It's what makes the wonder of God so enchanting -- God is so much bigger than we are.  We can spend eternity plumbing the depths of God, and we will never reach the bottom.  There is always more, higher and deeper love, that is so worthy of our wonder and praise.  The love and grace of God cannot disappoint us, we will not outgrow them, and we will always be humbled by the grandeur of God.
  God is eternally and always good, and he calls us into a life that is lived in awe and amazement of his grace and love.  We should be so amazed at how God gives us what we need that we are motivated to find our neighbors and our enemies and love them with the same unceasing and unconditional love with which we are loved.
 

John 4:43-54

John 4:43-54
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  Can you imagine the reaction of the father to such a miracle?  He must have been thrilled beyond belief, overjoyed at the news that his son would live.
  At that point, he had a choice.  He could suddenly re-immerse himself in his life as it has always been, grateful for the miracle but not changing anything.  Or he could recognize that Jesus' power to heal and deliver miracles is a sign of a far deeper power, and that what happened with his son is an invitation to a new way of life, one which is bigger than life and death.  The miracle was an opportunity for the official to decide what kind of life he wanted to lead.
  The official and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus.  They looked beyond the miracle into the deliverer, and their gratitude drove them to change their lives.
  It's vital for us to be grateful for our blessings, lest we begin to take them for granted or assume that they are simply things we deserve.
  And when we remember to be grateful, this should shift our attention from the blessings to the giver of every good gift, and may our gratitude drive us to worship, to put our faith in Christ and follow wherever he may lead.

John 4:39-45

John 4:39-45
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Some may believe because of our testimony.  Others, however, come to believe because they have an encounter with Christ.  They hear our invitation and they respond, coming to a new understanding of grace, of peace, of what is possible through life in Christ.  At our best, we are windows to the cross, living in such a way that our actions and words are transparent, painting a picture of love so compelling that others seek out the source of such love.
  Think about how powerful such a witness can be in the world today.  It seems as though each morning we wake to hear tragedies anew, violence ripping apart lives, families, communities.  As a society, we long for peace, and yet each day seems to draw us farther from that.  Our viewpoints on issues often divides us, and we crash into one another, ending up angry, frustrated, hopeless.
  In the midst of such a time and place, we can invite others to come and hear about a Savior who offers grace, who comes to bring peace, who selflessly serves all.  He runs to our chaos, embracing us and then sending us back into the world, so that we might transform our communities, day by day, as we seek to be ambassadors of Christ's selfless love, as we invite others to hear the Gospel of peace.

John 4:27-38

John 4:27-38
English Standard Version (ESV)

  What drives you?  What is the one thing you would do if you could only do one thing? What moves you?
  Here, Jesus is trying to tell the disciples about his relationship with his father.  The love is so deep that it is as food for Jesus.  He needs it to nourish him.  Jesus sees the mission of God before him, reaching the lost, and he is focused on this.  He is connected to the Father.
  We are always grasping for this connection, to learn how to love the Father, how to let that relationship be the defining one in our lives, to live in the center of God's will and be led by the Spirit.  We strive to be driven primarily by God's will.
  I take comfort in knowing the disciples had a hard time with it.  It didn't come easily or naturally to them -- they had many questions for Jesus.  So we join their struggle, trying to understand how Jesus is calling us to live, striving to put God first, day by day.
 

John 4:16-26

John 4:16-26
English Standard Version (ESV)

 It's been an interesting few days around here.  You may be wondering why this is going out in the afternoon.  Well, the router died this morning.  When I got home today, I discovered that the yellow jackets we tried to kill last night did not die.  I'll study these while waiting for the A/C repairman to come fix our dead unit.
  Life and death have always been a mystery to us.  We can understand why a router might die, and repairman exist to fix many mechanical things that do die.  What lies beyond our own life and through the veil of death, however, is beyond our capacity to know.  We can only have faith.
  For thousands of years, we wondered if death was final, or if the promised rest that existed beyond the grave was true.  When the Messiah came, he came to deliver us from death, and he demonstrated his power over death by dying and rising again.  He gave us knowledge that true and eternal life is possible through him, and so we follow.  The long awaited Messiah has come in the person of Jesus Christ, and so we worship, we follow, we serve, and we love because of all that he has done.  In Christ, we have new life, and we can start to revel in that gift now, because we have seen and heard and we do believe!

John 4:7-15

John 4:7-15
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Imagine a young kid who doesn't realize what an ice cream truck is.  He walks up, knowing nothing about what is inside, and has the wisdom to ask only for a glass of water, thereby not receiving any of the deliciousness inside, because his experience can't grasp the wonders of a truck full of ice cream.
  This is what this story is like -- Jesus Christ, God incarnate, the Savior of the world, is standing before this woman, offering her the gift of eternal life, but her mind and experience cannot grasp what he is offering.  Her experiences blind her to who and what is before her, and so she is only able to ask for water to quench her physical thirst.
  When we come to Christ, we must open ourselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we can set aside our preconceived notions of what God can do for us -- because God is seeking to do more for us than we can ask or imagine.  God's vision is so much bigger than our own, but we need to submit to his Lordship and humble ourselves, so that the riches and fullness of God's grace might wash over us and transform every part of our lives.