Give your heart to what you value most

Morning: Psalm 87, 90; 2 Kings 11:1-20a; I Corinthians 7:10-24

Evening: Psalm 136; Matthew 6:19-24

As a hospital chaplain in Critical and Palliative Care, I was privileged to be at the bedside with many dying people and their families. None of them talked, at the end, about the importance of their wealth.  The people they loved were their precious treasure. What is it to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”?  When everything and everyone fulfills their purpose … isn’t that what “heaven” is?  Aren’t loving relationships the greatest “treasure”? Jesus may simply be saying: “Give your heart to loving relationships and play your own unique part in this amazing Creation.”

Graham

Rumours of Angels

Morning: Psalm 8, 148; Job 38:1-7; Hebrews 1:1-14

Evening: Psalm 34, 150; Mark 13:21-27

Today is Michaelmas, St. Michael and All Angels’ Day. Michael was a warrior, but “angel” means, literally, “messenger”. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, angels are sometimes ‘heavenly beings’ who act as messengers of truth, revealing uncommon knowledge.  They are often pictured as ethereal and awesome.  I have never met one of these. Much more real for me is how the Letter to the Hebrews says that to extend hospitality to strangers is like “entertaining angels unawares”. We all know lots of these angels … they are the people who carry good messages that help us understand the world and ourselves.

Graham

Be yourselves – give, pray, fast – but quietly

Morning: Psalm 116, 117; 2 Kings 9:1-16; I Corinthians 6:12-20

Evening: Psalm 85, 86; Matthew 6:1-18

Jesus assumes all human beings who want to live well – which is most – will be generous, pray and make sacrifices. (He says “whenever” you do these things, not “if”.) But these are best done secretly. Your ego can get so pleased with your efforts that it gives you a proud pat on the back. The trouble with that is: you may begin to think giving, praying, or fasting make you good, or prove you’re good. Secrecy, though, allows you to receive the grace that comes from quietly being yourself. Because generosity, devotion and sacrifice are just normal human qualities, right?

Graham

Practise non-violent resistance to evil

Morning: Psalm 119:97-120; 2 Kings 6:1-23; I Corinthians 5:9-6:8

Evening: Psalm 81, 82; Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus teaches to not resist; but he is recommending non-violence, not subservience.  “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek,” it’s a demeaning backhand slap; experiment with it. When you “turn the other cheek,” you are saying, “I will not use violence, but I will not be demeaned by you.”  If someone sued you for your coat and you gave your cloak too, you brought shame on him for leaving you naked.  Any Roman soldier could force you to carry his pack one mile; but two miles, and he would be punished. Resist, but non-violently, and with your dignity intact.

Graham

‘Sin’ is the trouble that breaks relationships

Morning: Psalm 78:1-39; 2 Kings 5:19-27; I Corinthians 5:1-8

Evening: Psalm 78:40-72; Matthew 5:27-37

The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is full of wisdom; challenges too! Jesus’ hyperbole – “cut away an eye or hand that causes you to sin” – shows how important right relationships are for him.  ‘Sin’ is anything that breaks down right relationships. In Jesus’ day, men used divorce to escape their responsibility to women, treating women like chattels, and leaving women very vulnerable. So, for Jesus, adultery was a serious disordering of human relationships.  Swearing oaths in God’s name puts people’s relationships with God in jeopardy too. Why? Because people forget their oaths, and, when they do, other people stop trusting God.

Graham

Make peace with your opponent, soon

Morning: Psalm 80; 2 Kings 5:1-19; I Corinthians 4:8-21

Evening: Psalm 77; Matthew 5:21-26

In university, I had two posters that summed up Jesus’ teaching on reconciliation.  Two ugly, toothless dragons with eye patches fought, with the caption: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth … that way the whole world will be blind and toothless” (a quote attributed to Goethe, Gandhi, King, and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof!).  And two angry dragons, each standing on his own tiny island, threw mud at the other … the caption: “Mud slung, is ground lost” (words of Adlai Stevenson, US ambassador to the UN, 1961-63). Make peace with your opponent, soon.

Graham

Hope is the opposite of yearning

Morning: Psalm 93, 96; 2 Kings 4:8-37; Acts 9:10-31

Evening: Psalm 34; Luke 3:7-18

Hope is, I think, the opposite of yearning.  It is confidence … confidence that life springs from and depends on a power greater than our own. Life flourishes independently of me.  John Baptist taught that Jesus had the power to help me sort out my priorities. When I do, I am generous, not hoarding stuff, but confidently sharing and satisfied. When I hang onto stuff, it’s a sign that I trust things more than I trust Love, and I am probably afraid of something.  When I live in the confidence that all will be well, I need only the essentials.

Graham