Wednesday Wondering - April 24, 2024

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 7

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13: 14

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

John 3: 16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Reflection

Can you guess what I have been wondering about lately? Yes, love! I have been wondering about this thing that we call love. So many of you might not know but I love love. I love, love songs. I love watching romantic movies. To be honest I know that many of these movies are not great movies, but I just really enjoy watching them. I guess some might call me a softy, but I think for me it goes deeper than that. It is all about our attitude in the world today, and trust me I know that the world is challenging, but I believe that we have a role to play in the world, an important role.

I was asked once if I could distill my entire theology (for those of you who might not know this word it simple means how we talk about God) in one sentence. This was a huge challenge, but I eventually, after much pondering and consideration, came to John 3: 16. In this one passage I see my belief about God summed up. God is love. God is present with us, through Jesus, because of this love. God, in Jesus, because we are loved desires relationship with each of us. This is my theology of God in a nutshell. God loves us, God came in Jesus because God loves us, and God desires relationship with us, through Jesus. It is easy for me to understand this and yet what does it mean to me, what might it mean to you. 

The readings from 1 Corinthians speak to love as well. They speak to all of these wonderful attributes of love and how love allows us to carry on through times of strife and struggle. This can be so comforting, but again I wonder what does this truly mean to us. What does it mean for us to love? I know that the love that we are called to is not the love that is portrayed in those movies that I watch. I know that the love that we are called to is more that that, but what might it be?

Author A.R. Lucas speaks to love in the following way, “We’ve been infected with this idea that love is an emotion only felt between two people. But love is universal. An energy. A contagious force. To offer money to a homeless man is to love. To save a worm from the sun is to love. To smile at a stranger is to love. To be grateful, to be hopeful, to be brave, to be forgiving, to be proud is to love.” To love is an attitude. It is an understanding that our actions matter, not just to ourselves, but to others as well. To love is to see that even when things are difficult we need to know that the words we use, the actions we take are important.

As Christians we talk a lot about love. We speak about of love of God and our love of Jesus, but in so many ways that love is easy for us, what about the challenging love in our lives? I would like to pass along this uncredited reflection today, “Hours before the death of Jesus, Judas ate too. Jesus fed Judas too. Jesus prayed for Judas too. Jesus washed Judas’ feet too. I struggle to fathom what kind of love this is….. A love that would feed the mouth that deceived you. A love that would wash the feet of the traitor. A love that could forgive the vilest of betrayals. Honestly I struggle to comprehend it. And then, suddenly, I realize..that I’m Judas too! And in that moment, I’m so thankful and altogether overwhelmed that, Judas ate too. The true test of Christianity is not about loving Jesus, but loving Judas. Showing love to someone like Jesus is so easy. But loving someone hard to love, a sinner like Judas is difficult. That’s what following Jesus is all about.” To love is to see ourselves in Judas, and still love ourselves. To truly love is to love, not only when it is easy, but when it is difficult. To love is to know that each of our actions and every one of our words have consequence. To love is to know that in following Jesus we are called to love Judas, as Judas ate too. To love is not just a fuzzy warm feeling, but a decision that we make each and every day, many times a day, to live in love with all others and with the world. Love is not easy, it takes work, but to love is truly the greatest gift of all. 

Prayer

God of infinite love, we ask that you teach us to love as you love. Give us courage to love, not only when it is easy, but also when it is challenging. Help us to never forget that we are Judas too and yet you continue to love us. Give us the strength to love each day as you call us to love, making the decision to choose love each and every day. We ask this in the name of Love Incarnate, your son, Jesus. Amen.

Peace and blessings,

Rev. Patrick Woodbeck

Gordon-King Memorial United Church/ The Bid Red Church

to view our live streamed services, please click on the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/@thebigredchurch7408/streams

Wednesday Wondering - April 17, 2024

Scripture

Isaiah 49: 9a, 15 - 16

9 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”

    to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”

15 Can a woman forget her nursing child

    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?

Even these might forget,

    yet I will not forget you.

16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;

    your walls are continually before me.

Matthew 5: 14 - 16

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Reflection

I have been wondering this past little while about how we identify ourselves and how these understandings of our identity affect how we see ourselves in the world. In many ways we are identified and take on roles around those identities. We often identify ourselves with our primary relationships, whether that be husband, wife, partner, father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, or any other familial title. In some ways each of these comes with their own set of expectations and responsibilities. In many cases these are imposed upon us by how society believes we must act as we find ourselves within each of these identities. But if I really think about it, this is not the only way that society imposes specific roles and identities upon each of us. There are many different ways, from our work, to our gender, to our community involvement, even our friends will place identity expectations upon each of us. As I have been pondering this I have wondered how do we find ourselves in the midst of all of the expectations, expected identities, that we each navigate in our lives. What does it mean to truly find ourselves? Do we actually have to find ourselves, or is there something else that might be even more productive?

The readings that I chose for today speak to this idea that we have been created, as we are, not necessarily as the world sees us. In being created to be who were actually are, not who the world says we need to be, we have been created in light, to be light, to bring light to the world. Writer, illustrator, speaker, and teacher, Emily McDowell, speaks to this idea of finding oneself in the following way, “‘Finding Yourself.’ is not really how it works. You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. ‘Finding Yourself’ is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.” To be who you were created to be, and not who the world tells you you have to be, that is what I believe God wants for all of us.

Now that is not to say that when we take on specific roles they are always negative, it is to say that those roles we take must always allow us the space to be who we truly were created to be, rather than demanding that we change to fit those roles. This has been a very challenging lesson for me to learn. I was raised with many expectations about who I needed to be in the world and in living into those expectations I found that I was not being true to who I understood myself to be, so I hid that part of me. It became easier, in the world, to put on the mask of expectations and live as the world demanded than to make waves and be authentically me. Yet, in doing so I know that the light of who I was, was dimmed. How often have we dimmed our lives, who we truly were, so that the world might accept us, or so that the world might not deal with our uniqueness? We each have been created as individuals, as unique and wonderful creations of light and love. Our scriptures today remind us that we were created in all our uniqueness and as such when we live into who we understand ourselves to be, we become light in the world and the world needs all the light it can get at the moment. So let us all reclaim who we are and if we have reclaimed who we are, let us celebrate who we are, and shine for the world to see. Let it be so, amen.

Prayer

God of infinite diversity and love, help us to live as you created us to live. Let us shine as you created us to shine. We ask for the courage to reclaim ourselves from so many imposed expectations that society imposes on us. We ask for the wisdom to discern what is truly us and what we have built in ourselves to hid and protect ourselves. We ask that you guide into being more fully us and show us how to shine for the world to see. We ask this all in the name of the one to who came bringing light, your son, Jesus. Amen. 

Peace and blessings,

Rev. Patrick Woodbeck

Gordon-King Memorial United/ The Big Red Church

to view our live streamed services please use the following link;

https://www.youtube.com/@thebigredchurch7408/streams

Wednesday Wondering - April 10, 2024

Scripture

Matthew 28: 5 - 6

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.’"

Mark 16: 1 - 4

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?' But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”

Reflection

Since Easter Sunday I have been wondering more about this idea of resurrection. As I spoke to on Easter Sunday it is really difficult in our modern world, a world in which everything needs to be provable, quantifiable, measured, and known, to consider this idea of resurrection. Yet, resurrection is one of the cornerstones of what we say we believe. I have been wondering about how one is to speak about resurrection in a world where resurrection is tough to believe. What does resurrection mean to us today? It is a challenging question, one that has made me stop and think these past few weeks. The scriptures from today are, each, a small part of the resurrection stories from Matthew’s gospel and Mark’s gospel.

In Matthew the very first words that are spoken by the angel are, “Be not afraid.” Be not afraid, in our world this might just be a challenging thing to live out. There is so much fear in our world. There is fear for the future, there is fear of others, there is fear of the unknown, and the first words are ‘be not afraid.’ How often in our lives have we allowed fear to stop us from doing something? How often in our lives have we allowed fear to keep us from seeing God in the world? How often has our fear stopped us from seeing moments of new life, of resurrection in our lives and the world around us? For Matthew the resurrection is about seeing it even in the midst of our fear.

Mark has a different take on the resurrection, as we see in his version of this story. By the time the women arrive at the tomb the stone has been rolled away and resurrection has happened. I wonder if this means that they missed resurrection, but I don’t believe that that is what Mark is saying, I believe that Mark is reminding us that God has been working, is working, and will continue to work in our lives, even when we can’t see it, or don’t see it. God has been working in our lives and the world throughout our entire lives and not just when we notice it. The stone being rolled away is not an indication of missing God’s miracles in our lives, but rather the reminder that even when don’t see it happening God is working within and around us. It is a comfort in knowing that even when we are not aware of it, God’s grace is working. But what does this mean in our lives and in our world, I wonder about that today, given the way that world currently exists.

American Lutheran Pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber speaks to the resurrection in the following way, “The Christian faith, while wildly misrepresented in so much of American culture, is really about death and resurrection. It’s about how God continues to reach into the graves we dig for ourselves and pull us out, giving us new life, in ways both dramatic and small.” Yes, we speak of resurrection in terms of Jesus and how love conquers death, how new life comes, how renewal is ongoing in the world. But when we begin to view resurrection as a personal experience it becomes something more. Resurrection, when viewed personally, speaks to the new life found in overcoming our own fear, in living into new life now, in the midst of our fear. Resurrection, when viewed personally, begins to see the grace of God in our lives from the moment we were born. Resurrection allows us to become aware of the new life that has, and continues to exist within our lives as a result of God’s love. Resurrection, when viewed personally, helps us to know that in those graves that we have all dug for ourselves God is always reaching in to pull us out. It is recognize that our faith is a gift that should, can, and does, impact our whole life, if only we allow ourselves to live into resurrection each and every day.

Prayer

God of resurrection and new lift, help us to hear those words again, ‘be not afraid’ and help us to know that the power of your love will help us through our fear. Give us the wisdom to look for you in our lives and to find those places where you have been working, in our lives, to bring us to you, so that we might live more fully into who you call us to be. Give us the courage to know that when we find ourselves in those graves, that we have dug ourselves, to reach out to you, as you are already reaching out to us. Help us to see that resurrection is something that we are called to live each day, so that we might live into the new life you have promised. We ask this in the name of the one who has risen, your son, Jesus. Amen.