Tag: christian faith

“Your Faith Has Made You Well” (Luke 17:11-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Jesus heals ten lepers, with one returning to give him thanks

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Ten persons seeking healing called out to Jesus. And they got it. Yet, those persons were much more than passive receivers of healing. And Jesus was more than simply a giver.

Even though the lepers had heard about Jesus, they did not personally know him. It seems that – from their perspective – they had a chance encounter with Jesus. When they least expected a healing, a healing happened.

They called out to Christ, recognizing who it was that had entered their village. There was enough faith present for the diseased persons to make themselves known to Jesus – to expectantly put themselves out there and cry out for a healing to happen.

If you think about it, the power of any healing is really in the connection of being seen and heard in crying out to Jesus.

Although the healing of a person can come through a wondrous miracle, healing most often happens by the beautiful act of mutuality and participation. That is, the healer and the one in need of healing encounter each other with the willingness to both give and receive.

It’s in real human connection that healing happens. And it’s more than a physical cure; it’s also a healing reconnection of persons who were once isolated from the community. In other words, the healed person no longer needs to be on the outside of society, but can once again be a full participant in neighborhood and community.

Faith is central to what happens in the healing process. We all have some agency in realizing our own healing. We need not be passive spectators just wishing for things to be different.

Our anxiety and/or discouragement of present circumstances can move to a different place. We can discover relief through participating in social activities, taking walks in nature, and other modes requiring us to actively make a meaningful connection.

It requires faith.

Where faith is present, relational interaction and participation happens. In this context, a healing can occur. Rarely, if ever, does healing happen in complete isolation from others.

The fact that Jesus declared to the cleansed leper, “your faith has made you well,” indicates the mutuality of the healing encounter.

Let’s keep in mind that it takes at least two in order to have a healing: the healer and the healed one. Both participate together in the healing.

What’s more, when Christ heals, he heals without prejudice or favoritism.

In my front yard is a large ash tree with broad and expansive boughs. It is the ultimate shade tree. The tree’s name is Bob (I have a tendency to name trees, especially the ones I enjoy daily). Bob and I share the similarity of being created by the same Creator; and we both glorify God by simply being who we are created to be.

For Bob, he provides shade to people and animals without prejudice or favoritism. Anyone who comes under his great limbs can enjoy his shade. All that is needed for the protective and enjoyable experience of Bob’s boughs is a person under him.

Although it is appropriate to highlight the need for gratitude and praise in today’s story, the narrative itself builds to the climax of faith, of a participatory experience between Jesus and the leper(s).

And it did not matter if the persons healed were lepers, Samaritans, or even miscreants. What mattered was the faith-dialectic of the healer Jesus and the ones to be healed. All may enjoy the grace of divine shade if they move to becoming participants together with Christ by merely coming under his mercy.

I find that many people get hung-up about faith. We often make faith either too simple or too difficult. We create an overly simplistic faith when it becomes a completely passive affair of just waiting on God, or expecting someone else to heal me. We make faith a great difficulty whenever it becomes all about our level or amount of faith through the strenuous effort of intense prayer and contacting umpteen prayer chains.

But more or less prayer, more or less work, more or less of anything misses the point – because even a puny amount of faith will do, if it moves toward Jesus and seeks the participatory experience of a divine/human relation.

There is a cost to healing. It requires participation, relationship, and most of all, the humility to be seen and heard, instead of trying to control some sort of process to get the healing I want.

We call this genuine participation faith.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

Your faith has made you well. (Luke 17:19)

In your love, O God of all, your people find healing. Grant that the pains of our journey may not obscure the presence of Christ among us, but that we may always give thanks for your healing power as we travel on the way to your kingdom; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Healing of the Demoniac (Luke 8:26-39)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Mosaic of the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac from the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, 6th century C.E.

Then they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on shore, a man from the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me,” for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding, and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd stampeded down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they became frightened. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then the whole throng of people of the surrounding region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 

The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. (New Revised Standard Version)

Jesus exorcising the Gerasene demoniac, from the Hitda Codex

Jesus came to this earth to deliver people from all obstacles that gets in the way between us and God, so that humanity may freely connect with the divine, each other, and creation.

Whether it was in the synagogue, in public, in private, in a Jewish community, or in Gentile territory, Christ’s ministry was marked by healing people. He did this so that people could (re)attach themselves to the neighborhood, to God, and even to themselves.

Today’s Gospel story has Jesus take an unexpected trip across the Sea of Galilee to a foreign place full of non-Jewish persons. It was a place marked by all sorts of ritual impurity, and sorts of Gentile practices which a good Jew would have nothing to do with.

So, it’s no surprise, in a heathen setting, that Christ encountered the demonic in the form of a man riddled with demons to the point of being named “Legion.” This confrontation became a type of wild west shootout between the superhuman tortured man and the divinely filled Son of God.

The confrontation was intense. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation that someone wasn’t going to walk away from this shootout. But Jesus knew what he was doing: Christ was about to breakout a man from a demonic prison; and it would not go well for the demons.

In this remote western town, Jesus ended up performing a most extraordinary miracle. It would take a miracle to free this demonized person from his satanic jailcell. The legion of demons, however, were no match for the singular Son of God. Christ had no problem using his authority to exorcise the demons from the victimized man.

The demons exited the man and entered an entire herd of pigs. The herd then proceeded to destroy themselves in a powerful scene of what the demonic is all about. Yet, rather than acknowledging a divine miracle, those who were tending the pigs went and told the people in the area of how this interloper came along and upset the status quo. Instead of seeing a delivered man, the pig herders could only see dead swine.

As a result of the pig herders report, the folks in nearby towns wanted nothing to do with Jesus. The people begged him to get out of town. Christ purged the region of a significant presence of bad guys, and all the townspeople could do was fear for what might happen.

But despite the townspeople’s and pig herders’ disturbing lack of faith, there was one man who became a committed disciple of Jesus on the spot. The demoniac, now turned new citizen of God’s kingdom, saw Christ for who he was, and immediately discerned to whom he belonged – not the demonic world but the kingdom of heaven.

Although the newly delivered man begged to remain with Jesus, the Lord had another plan for the new disciple. Christ sent him back to his home to proclaim what God had done for him. In doing so, the man would become a powerful witness to God’s power. And, important for the man, old broken familial and community relations could be renewed and restored. The healing would come full circle.

If we bear witness to the works of God, where we are, it will bear fruit – even if it is among folks who may be in opposition to it.

Not even a legion of demons could keep Christ from restoring a tortured person to himself, his family, and his community. And it all happened on the demons’ turf. Nothing can stop the kingdom of God from expanding it’s good reach over all that is evil.

The good news of Christianity is that Jesus has the power to bring life from death. Christ has the ability to put us in a position where we can reconnect with both the human community and the divine realm.

The satanic in this world is not nearly as powerful as God; and the demons are under Christ’s authority. In fact, there is no power on earth (or under the earth) that can overcome the strength of the almighty God. This can be a comforting thought for every Christian.

Anyone afraid of Jesus has not yet discerned that he is inherently good. Ultimate power needs to be seen in the light of ultimate good. Otherwise, a person will walk around much like the demoniac, oppressed in their soul.

Instead, deliverance from the evil which vexes us is possible. For nothing is impossible with God. Whenever and wherever the healed person becomes a healer to others, then we know that the kingdom of heaven is among us.

Hear our prayers, God of power and might. Through the ministry of your Son, free us from the grip of the tomb, so that we may desire you as the fullness of life, and proclaim your saving deeds to all the world in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Blessings or Woes?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
The Sermon on the Mount, by Miki de Goodaboom

There are many persons who currently feel angry and powerless in the face of recent and contemporary political events. All of this has large implications, especially for workers.

I admit to being one who is frustrated and saddened by the U.S. government’s unwillingness and inability to simply care about all of its citizens (as well as the citizens of the world). Along with their spirit of the age, they are failing to ensure the common good of everyone.

What’s more, there are large swaths of American Christianity who are either complicit or actively involved in establishing and perpetuating a system of governance which is fundamentally out of sync with biblical norms.

The Church and the Christian have a responsibility and a call, based in the words and ways of Jesus, of whom we purport to follow. In some of the first words uttered to his disciples, establishing what is of upmost importance for us to know, Jesus said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
    for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh…

“But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
    for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
    for you will mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:20-21, 24-25, NRSV)

Jesus was building and upholding an alternative kingdom to the political systems of the time. Christ came to this earth to set things right amidst a corrupt world whose authority was held in the hands of evil.

But change would not come through the typical means of worldly power such as coups, revolutions, or economic exploitation of some persons over others.

For those who feel helpless and without power, Christ brings a liberation which transcends all other powers and authorities. He brings blessing.

What this means for those who are enamored with worldly aspects of power (money, wealth, resources, political authority, etc.) the words and actions of Jesus brings woe.

An evil grip of the world cannot be loosened with practices and responses of hate, class warfare, verbal and physical violence, and economic takeovers. For those with spiritual eyes to see, and ears to hear, the sandy and shifting foundations of this present government administration are being, and will be, washed away. (Luke 6:49)

It’s important that people of faith participate with what is good, right, and just – that they are concerned with the public good of everyone; and are attuned to a social and economic vision for humanity that is concerned for all citizens, and not just some or a few of them.

For the past few hundred years, much of the church has made spiritual deliverance and socio-economic freedom a matter of only the individual. As long as one embraces a personal salvation in Christ, well then, all is well, right!?

Wrong. Holy Scripture is filled with concerns for the whole of humanity because of the exploitive powers of this world. We have stories in the Bible replete with such powers as the Pharaoh who enslaved and exploited workers for his and Egypt’s own wealth, power, and benefit.

Jesus came not to the religious leaders and the kings of the earth, but instead made it his purpose to spend time amongst the least in society, those for whom the rich and powerful had no inclination to pay attention to and help.

“We have for much too long settled for a gospel of private other-worldly possibility.”

Walter Brueggemann

Even amongst God’s own ancient people, King Solomon built an empire on the driving force of both slavery and cheap labor, exploiting a large class of persons in order to feed the behemoth of structural wealth.

Economic systems which exploit workers do it so that they can maintain cheap labor. They seek to keep those persons invisible and outside of any safety net of security which might cost the system money.

Unfortunately, there are extremely rich persons who rely upon workers remaining on the underbelly of their companies and of society. Embracing unrestrained individualism and unbridled capitalistic practices make for a permanent class of exploited workers who remain poor on purpose by those wishing them to remain there.

Such extremely rich individuals become political players only because of their wealth. They know little about statecraft and how a politics concerned for the common good really works. And, frankly, they don’t seem to care.

I bring up these things because many Christians have been complicit in the injustice and exploitation; and because many churches and church leaders try to operate like the super-rich, instead of trying to follow the words and ways of the Lord Jesus, whom they purport to follow.

The Apostle James minced no words in addressing the rich within the church:

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure during the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. (James 5:1-6, NRSV)

Meanwhile, the poor and exploited are suffering. Christians are not to kiss-up to those in power, nor try to be like them. And, for God’s sake, we are never to get into the game of systemic evil, like those who mistreat us.

Instead, we learn to practice patience and endurance in the face of suffering, while we work toward a better society. We strengthen one another’s hearts through faith. We do not grumble and turn against each other, like a pack of wild dogs, but pray continually and practice forgiveness, so that we can be compassionate and merciful.

Since we are all connected on this planet, any time an individual shows unmitigated kindness toward another, chooses to love the enemy, expresses gratitude, or offers sincere forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it, we shift the balance of the world back toward the axis of grace.

Unless we all work together to embrace our collective poverty of spirit and acknowledge our grinding emotions (and sit with them), we will eventually go the way of the already condemned who spend, eat, and laugh with sinister abandon.

Life is not a 100 meter sprint; life is a marathon. We are in the long haul of life, and do not live for the pleasures of the moment. So then, let us live up to who we are in Christ, created in the image and likeness of God, and possessing divine light and living water which will nourish us through our time of need.

For humanity does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I, for one, want to be blessed by Jesus, and not experience a woe from him. That means paying attention to the people and the matters of importance to Christ.

His Resurrection Is Ours

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Pastor Tim's PonderingsLeave a comment
The Resurrection, by Andrea Mantegna, c.1458 C.E.

The story of Christianity, the very heart and essence of the religion, is a tale of transformation from all the obstacles, impediments, and barriers which confine or cripple. The person and work of Jesus accomplished this. In his earthly ministry, Christ continually called people to transformative change into the reality of God’s gracious and benevolent realm.

“I have come to give the good life, a life that overflows with beauty and harmony.”

Jesus (John 10:10, First Nations Version)

Christ’s resurrection made possible our own transformative new life. This is both exciting and scary. Resurrection is frightening because it’s a call to live a life without any of the walls which have defined us and/or imprisoned us.

The massive stone covering the tomb of Jesus Christ was rolled away. He walked out of the grave by the power of resurrection. The cave of death was changed into the place of liberation.

That place is a powerful image of moving aside any and all obstacles to our own faith and freedom. The prison doors have been opened. Our self-contrived inner prisons, as well as the unjust shackles placed upon us, have dropped away.

As a result, those who have been exiled, excommunicated, and treated as expendable are visited by the luminous healing presence of God’s great liberating force: resurrection.

I want to fully know the Chosen One [Jesus] and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to know what it means to participate in his sufferings and to become like him in his death, living in the hope that, like the Chosen One, I will also rise from death to life. (Philippians 3:10-11, First Nations Version)

All of these words may either seem strange and/or compelling. If this is the case, it is a sad situation. Because it’s quite necessary that we become familiar with such language. Unfortunately, the gap between the world we are presently living in, and the world our hearts yearn to know, is quickly coming to an unsustainable place of high stress.

There is now a profound disconnect between the love deep inside us, and the way in which we are living our day-to-day lives on this earth. The issue has become so great as to warrant the need for resurrection.

And I am not simply addressing Christians. In his earthly ministry, Jesus was not only talking to his own Jewish people; he came for the whole world. Jesus is for everyone – whether we acknowledge him according to Christian dogma and doctrine, or not.

The evil gaslighting sort of person wants you to believe that you are alone, bereft of any help – that somehow you need to assert yourself aggressively into the dog-eat-dog world. Wickedness always looks to chaos and war as the path to gaining the life one wants.

But Jesus is the bridge to another kind of thinking, another sort of life. He is the guide to the greatest power which exists in the world: Love. And Love is why resurrection is a reality.

Although we suffer from systemic evil and all kinds of structural “ism’s” in this world, our shackles and chains have been largely forged by ourselves, through spiritual ignorance and misunderstandings of who we are and why we are here.

Resurrection opens us to new life. It provides identity, purpose, and passion to live the good life. Even though we live in this world below, our answers to living in the here-and-now are found in the world above.

Since you have been raised up to a new life with the Chosen One [Jesus] then keep looking upward toward him into the spirit-world above, where he sits in the place of greatest honor at Creator’s right hand. Keep your thoughts and desires centered on the spirit-world above, not on the things from the earth below. (Colossians 3:1-2, First Nations Version)

All of us have experienced walking a dark path in life. But now it is high time to walk away from uncontrolled emotions and evil ways. There are plenty of lying spirits who intend on deceiving you and I for their own selfish purposes. Instead, we can refuse and resist such evil.

We can live in ways that represent the good, the right, and the just. We can experience living a resurrected life. Let us choose the pure path of the new person in Christ, the person you and I were created to be.

The telltale signs of the person living into resurrection are a deep feeling for the pain of others, kindness, humility of heart, a gentle spirit, and long-suffering patience with others. Such persons wear forgiveness like a well-worn pair of jeans.

This is the path of resurrection, the way of unity, peace, and harmony. And these qualities will always guide us and inform us in helpful and sacred ways.

Our current global decline comes from an accumulation of greed and sheer lovelessness. But the possibility of rebirth, of resurrection, rises from our deep universal yearning for the good and the true. It comes from our radical willingness to change and live a different counter-cultural life.

Resurrection does not occur because of lofty thoughts; it comes from a humble, and contrite heart which yearns for a better and more sacred existence.

Only until we find our present life on this world as intolerable with its injustice and persistent carelessness, will we see that we must put love where love is not.

The great lesson of resurrection is that Love makes all things right.

Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. (1 John 4:7-9, Common English Bible)

May resurrection move from being merely a theological concept, to a powerful reality that permeates and fills your life with meaning, power, and love. Amen.