I’ve been pondering lately how people can hear the same information, or the same piece of music, for instance, and get totally different things from it.  We comprehend concepts, works of art, or literature, on different levels, perhaps due to our background, education, or life experiences.  For example, I think back to my introduction to the recording studio and the process involved in making a track come together.  After I had heard how instruments and voices are added, layer upon layer, I began to listen to music differently, hearing each instrument more distinctly and thinking about how it was mixed into the whole.

People go to church and absorb the same message, the same music, and some are moved, while others remain stone cold, indifferent.  We can’t underestimate the Holy Spirit’s role in revealing truth to us and drawing us to God, but our own free will and engagement of the heart and mind certainly plays a role in how we connect to worship experiences.

 In Mark 4, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower and seed falling on different types of ground.  In his story, a Sower went out to sow.  The first seed fell on the path, and the birds come and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil, and it immediately sprang up but was scorched by the heat, since it had no root and it withered away.  Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.  Finally some of the seeds fell into good soil, and produced grain, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. 

He then had to explain the parable to the disciples, who were sometimes slow to understand.  He told them (paraphrasing), the Sower sows the Word.  For the ones on the path, Satan comes and immediately takes away the word.  The ones on rocky ground receive the Word with joy when they first hear it, but they have no root.  They endure for a little while but when challenges come, they immediately fall away.  The ones among the thorns hear the word, but the cares of the world – their desires for riches and other things- choke the word, and it is not fruitful.  But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty fold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.

Where the seed falls would appear to be, in the main, a metaphor for the heart of an individual.  Do we come to worship and approach Bible study with an open heart, and an attitude of humility? Is your heart and mine a place where the Word can flourish and grow in a medium of love, kindness, and grace, or are our hearts closed up to new life, perhaps because of bitterness or pride?

The condition of the heart must be right to receive the Word, but the environment, which includes people and places, also plays a role.  Are we around people who help us cultivate “good soil?” Are the places we go and the activities we involve ourselves in, helping us to grow? We must be careful about who and what we let into our inner circle, and whether or not they help us to grow in the Word, and live out the things we learn, so we can produce the fruit that is pleasing to the Lord. 

Receiving the Word is not just for our own sakes, or our own personal fulfillment, but just like the seed in the parable, it’s meant to produce results in us.  Ultimately if it bears no fruit, it is a wasted seed. 

Hebrews 4:12 says, “…the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”  It does its work in and through us. 

Maybe for some reading this, you don’t even have “the seed” yet – you are not in a place where you seek to receive the Word.  Or maybe you see yourself in one of the scenarios above, where the trials or pleasures of the world distract and prevent you from focusing on the more important thing. 

Sometimes we need to take stock and evaluate our lives and make changes if necessary.  We can be intentional about creating an environment where the Word can be sown and cultivated, so we can be fruitful people, fully alive and growing in Him. 

“The glory of God is man fully alive.” 
St Irenaeus
 “Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei”

I have a good friend who I normally decorate a table with for special occasions at church – Valentine’s banquets, Ladies’ Christmas Gatherings, etc.  We each bring things we have at home and try to create something beautiful! Sometimes when we are trying to determine what will go on the table, one of us will say, “Is it too much?” And the other normally returns, “More is more.”  

The old phrase, “less is more” is meant to convey that sometimes less is more elegant, more appropriate, more pleasing to the eye.  But in the case of these banquets, going “over the top” can be a good thing.  

“More is more” can be true in other areas of our lives as well.  In our spiritual disciplines- prayer, meditation, and spending time with God’s word, which philosophy do we employ?  “Less is more,” or “more is more?”

Do we take a minimalist attitude- a barely scraping by attitude – or do we saturate ourselves with His word in various ways throughout day?  Do we worry and fret, or breathe prayers of thanksgiving and praise?  Do we participate in few things that feed our spirits, or do we involve ourselves in acts of service, of study, and of worship? 

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” 

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). 

Notice the words “always,” “without ceasing,” and “all,” in those verses.  

I think the apostle Paul was telling us, “More is more.”

“Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, …” (2 Peter 1:1)

I once heard a seminary professor say to “always look at the greeting” in the Epistles of Scripture.  How the apostles addressed their audience was important.  Reading the Apostle Peter’s second letter recently, I noticed this – he identified himself first by name, then identified himself a servant, then an apostle.  To truly understand what a revolutionary idea this was, we need to first look at the context and the culture of that day.  Human beings were not considered of equal value in the Roman culture in those times. 

Women and children had virtually no rights, and as such were often used and abused.  Men had all the rights, and within the men themselves, there was a class structure and strictly adhered to hierarchy.   Men even decided whether children lived or died.  After the birth of a baby, the midwife would place the baby on the ground.  If the father picked the baby up, it signaled that the baby was accepted into the household, but if he did not pick the baby up, the baby was taken to the outskirts of the town and left to die.  This frequently happened to female babies or a baby with some type of deformity.  Early Christians would often rescue these children, reinforcing the idea that every life had value, every life was made in the image of God. 

The thought that in the matter of salvation, there is “no male or female in Christ” was also quite an unorthodox concept (Galatians 3:28).  The idea that husbands were commanded to love their wives “as Christ loved the Church and gave his life for her” (Ephesians 5:25), would have been a belief that was totally contrary to ideas about marriage, where men had all the power. 

It is into this culture that Christianity seeped and then began to percolate.  The Christian idea of equality and value of every human being began to spread, eventually becoming “baked in” to the foundations of the West.  So, back to Peter – who identifies himself as a servant first.  Over and over in Scripture we are reminded to humble ourselves, first before God, and then before each other.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1Peter 5:6).  

The Apostle Paul instructs us to, “Submit yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).

“The greatest among you shall be your servant,” says Jesus (Matthew 23:11).

When Peter began his letter the way he did, I wonder if he was thinking about the time Jesus took on the role of servant and washed his disciples’ feet.  When you are at someone’s feet, you are in the lowest possible position before them.  Feet are also the part of the body that come in contact with the earth, the part of the body that presumably gets the dirtiest.  When we take on the role of servant, sometimes we have to get our hands dirty, to be exposed to the muck and the mire.  Being a servant is being willing to do that. 

With the title of Apostle came power – the power that Jesus gave the twelve to heal and cast out demons and care for “The Church,” his Bride.   

Peter chose to put the “servant” descriptor before the Apostle title.

May we follow his example. 

“And they worshipped him, but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17).

The Bible tells us that after the resurrection of Jesus, his appearance was changed.  We can imagine a glorified body that had been through death and then resurrected victorious by God the Father would have been transformed from its former state. 

Whatever one believes about the Shroud of Turin, the relic many believe to be the burial cloth of Christ, exactly how the image came to be imprinted on the cloth continues to be a mystery.  Some scientists conclude that only intense radiation of billions of watts, could have created the image, with its particular qualities.   A source of intense power but one that did not incinerate the cloth, a source of power unknown on the earth – could this be the power that transformed Jesus’s body? 

We’re told in Matthew’s gospel that after Jesus’s resurrection, after the disciples were told, they “went to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had directed them.”   
Matthew gives us precious little detail about this encounter, but includes this line, “And they worshipped him, but some doubted.” 

I wonder why he included that line and why anyone would have doubted Jesus when he was there in front of them.  Was it all too much for their senses, having seen him in agony three days before, having seen him seemingly defeated, that he would be standing before them?  Was his changed body too much to take in?  Even though he had told them several times what would happen, was it all too incomprehensible?

“And they worshipped him, but some doubted.”

Even in their doubt, they worshipped him.

Then Matthew says, “And Jesus came and said to them..”. 

As they worshipped, Jesus came to them. 

And as if to answer their doubts, before he gives them the Great Commission, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” 

He was telling them his position, confirming his power in all of Heaven and earth. 

He then gives them their charge and a promise, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). 

We can doubt and still worship.  In fact, without doubt, we don’t really have faith. 

But when we worship, He comes to us.  When we worship, our faith is strengthened as we honor the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. 

When we worship, we are reminded that he is with us, to the end of the age. 

Why Don’t You Ask?

I suppose my love of pen and paper and notebooks began in early childhood.  I was reminded the other day of a notebook I wanted when I was about 4 or 5 years old.  This notebook resided on an aisle at Rose’s department store, and I would look at it each time we went in the store.  It was pink with purple flowers on it – very ‘70s.  I even remember the “plastic-y” smell that things in that era sometimes had.  I wanted that notebook so badly, but for some reason I never asked for it.

I was not in elementary school at that point, and in my mind, I guess I thought I had to be older to have something like that.  But finally, one day, I sheepishly told my mother how much I loved that notebook.   “I’ll get it for you.  I didn’t know you wanted it – you should have asked sooner!” she said.  I could have had it from the moment I first laid eyes on it, but I never asked.

How like our relationship to God I thought, as I recalled that instance.  We have access to things – peace, purpose, joy, contentment – if we would only ask.  But often we don’t reach out and claim what could be ours.

“Why don’t you ask?” is perhaps what our Heavenly Father is saying to us, because he longs to give His children good things. 

Predictive text – do you love it, or hate it?  Sometimes I am thankful for it, but sometimes it’s annoying. It often tries to correct you when you are purposely spelling something a certain way, like a name, for instance.  And sometimes it won’t give you the right choice for the word you are actually wanting to use. 

I was thinking about how we humans are “predictive” too.  Part of it is just a matter of learning, taking in information from our environment and making assessments based on prior experience.  This is part of how we make sense of the world around us. We know how things operate in the material world, so we can predict what will happen when we interact with them in a certain way.  We know how a person has behaved in the past, so we make assumptions about future actions the person may take. 

But just like our phones, sometimes we can be totally off base.  Have you ever made a judgement about someone initially, and then found out your assessment was wrong?  I sure have. 

1 Samuel 16:7 says,
“Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.”

We must be careful about making snap judgments and coming to a conclusion based on limited information.  This is part of the problem with today’s “soundbite” society, in my opinion.  People make a judgement about a person based on one statement, often taken out of context, and the person may get “cancelled” or otherwise relegated to the trash heap of irrelevancy.   It seems those who report to us or write, have lost the ability to synthesize information and come to a reasonable conclusion.  Everything has to be sensationalized, everything is click bait, everything is predictive,  based on personal bias.  This is especially true in a political season, where emotions are high and reason is often hard to come by.

But James 1:19 tells us to, “…be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.”

We need to become less like the devices we stare at for much of the day, less “predictive”and more filled with the love, kindness, and gentleness of the Holy Spirit. 

May it be so.