Tag: new life

The Way of Love (Song of Songs 3:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Song of Songs III, by Marc Chagall, 1960

Night after night on my bed
I looked for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and roam around the city,
in the streets, and in the squares.
I will look for the one I love.
I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen making their rounds in the city found me.
I asked, “Have you seen the one I love?”
I had just left them when I found the one I love.
I held on to him and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
into the bedroom of the one who conceived me.

Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me
by the gazelles
or by the does in the field,
that you will not awaken love
or arouse love before its proper time.

Who is this young woman coming up from the wilderness
like clouds of smoke?
She is perfumed with myrrh and incense
made from the merchants’ scented powders.
Look! Solomon’s sedan chair!
Sixty soldiers from the army of Israel surround it.
All of them are skilled in using swords,
experienced in combat.
Each one has his sword at his side
and guards against the terrors of the night.
King Solomon had a carriage made for himself
from the wood of Lebanon.
He had its posts made out of silver,
its top out of gold,
its seat out of purple fabric.
Its inside—with inlaid scenes of love—
was made by the young women of Jerusalem.
Young women of Zion, come out and look at King Solomon!
Look at his crown,
the crown his mother placed on him on his wedding day,
his day of joyful delight. (God’s Word Translation)

Song of Songs III, by Marc Chagall, 1960

Eastertide is a celebration of new life through exploring the implications of living a resurrected life. A significant dimension to that life is a new awakening and awareness of love. Being raised to a new life of love means that we can dispense with old ways of looking at love that were unhealthy for us.

King Solomon’s Song of Songs has been viewed throughout the history of biblical interpretation in various ways. It’s been seen as a celebration of sexual love between a man and a woman. Others view the Song as a description of the mutual love between God and Israel or Christ and the Church.

With whatever approach we examine this unique book of Holy Scripture, I believe it’s helpful for us to avoid looking at it too literally, as if it were a sex manual for spiritually minded newlyweds.

For most of church history, the book has been viewed allegorically and metaphorically, not literally. So, it seems to me, this warrants the interpreter to walk mindfully and wisely through its wonderful prose, and not like some arrogant and supposed Romeo who believes they are God’s gift to scripture interpretation.

The Song of Songs, at its heart, is really an ode to Love itself. Love is the force that binds us together as humans, and comes from the One who is pure Love. As such, Love is perhaps the most potent strength in the universe. Thus, Love needs to be respected. Love must be handled with care, because its power can harm us if we are careless with it.

Longing for love is a universally understood feeling. The need for love is so great that the woman in today’s Old Testament lesson will put herself at considerable risk in order to seek and find her beloved in the middle of the night on the city streets.

“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet

Love, however, is not to be awakened before its proper time. Certainly, to love is to risk, for we choose to put ourselves out there for the sake of giving and receiving love. Yet, there are to be limits on that pursuit. Seeking love can put one in a hazardous situation. It’s best, therefore, to allow some patience with love, to not rouse love with blind desire.

Love will have its way; we need not force it before its true readiness.

The woman longs for her beloved. The pain of separation is almost too much for her to bear. Love hurts. There is, however, good pain and bad pain. The pain of waiting and wondering has a purpose which we need to submit to, and follow. It is an opportunity for careful reflection, mindful contemplation, and healthy introspection.

Without these spiritual disciplines, the problem of fear arises – not love – and begins to gnaw at us, that perhaps we are unloved. Thoughts and feelings of insecurity can creep in and dog us with incessant and obnoxious barking.

But we must trust in Love. Love cannot be domesticated, nor fully defined, and that is a good thing – because Love is much bigger than any of us. And it’s also good that we cannot precisely interpret nor explain all of the contents within the Song of Songs. The book is a good reminder that Holy Scripture stands above us, and not the other way around.

God is Love. And Love is God. True human love serves as a symbol of divine love. We not so much come to understand the ways of God and Love, as we discover it, describe it, and then determine to live it.

People never fully connect to God, at least this side of heaven, in much the same way as the desired rendezvous of the lovers in the Song never explicitly occurs. The God we seek is the God who corresponds to our needs and desires, our loves and our fears.

And yet, God is also wholly other than us; God is revealed to humanity by means of Scripture. God issues decrees and commands that may not seem as if they sync with our perceived needs. From this perspective, people must obey, regardless of any feeling.

God is, therefore, both approachable to us and completely apart from us, at the same time, all the time. God engages with us in intimate personal spiritual experiences; and God also reaches out through Scripture in human/divine encounters. Both ways are approaches of love, initiated by the One who loves us.

No matter what the question is, Love is always the answer. This is the way.

Creator God, by the mercies of your son, our Lord, Jesus, compel us to turn our hearts to the way of Love, so that we may follow Christ as your faithful people. Guide us, we pray, to Love. Amen.

Raised Into a Spiritual Body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 

Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. (New International Version)

We have so far experienced, in this Christian Year:

  • Advent and the anticipation of Christ’s birth; a celebration of that birth in the Christmas season
  • Epiphany with it’s light shining on the salvation we enjoy for all kinds of people
  • Lent, as we moved slowly and silently toward the cross and practiced spiritual disciplines
  • Holy Week, by walking with Jesus in Jerusalem, to the Garden of Gethsemane, up the hill to where he was crucified

But that is not the end of the story. Christ is risen! On Easter Sunday we celebrated Christ’s resurrection from death. Now, we are in the season of Eastertide, an extended time of celebration in which we revel in new life. Life is possible and real because the resurrection of Jesus from death is real.

The resurrection is crucial and central to the entire Christian life. That’s why the Apostle Paul concluded his letter to the Corinthians with a long defense of its truth.

Today’s lesson zeros in on a particular point in Paul’s argument for the importance and place of resurrection in Christianity. He insisted that the resurrection – the spiritual body – is unique; it’s not like any other sort of body. And this is the body that believers will have in the future. Just as Christ was resurrected, we too, shall experience a resurrection.

We shall be transformed from being like Adam, the original person with a physical body, to being like the risen Christ, the first with a spiritual body.

Sometimes the Apostle Paul’s arguments can seem thick and hard to get through. So, allow me to put his line of thinking in a context which I deal with every day. In my work as a hospital chaplain, I visit patients on the cardiac units. The following is the sort of conversation I sometimes have:

Patient: “Ever since I had my heart operation, I don’t feel close to God. I’ve always had a good relationship with the Lord. But I don’t sense it. It’s as if God is distant. Did I do something wrong? Maybe God is punishing me.”

Chaplain: “Sounds like you really love God.”

Patient: “Yeah, I do. I don’t get it, why I’m like this now.”

Chaplain: “Think about this with me for a minute. Your body was just traumatized. Somebody opened up your chest and messed with your literal physical heart. And that doesn’t only affect your body. It messed with your spiritual heart, too. The two hearts are different, in some ways. But there’s a close relationship between the physical heart and the spiritual heart. Trauma is trauma. It impacts your whole person, not just part of you.”

Patient: “So, am I always going to feel this way?”

Chaplain: “It’s going to take a long time to physically heal from what your body has been through. It won’t take near as long for your spiritual heart to heal – but it will heal. You’ll be close to God again. But it probably isn’t going to happen today. What’s more, it’s possible that when you heal, you’ll actually feel even closer to God than before; after having been through this, it will be like you have a new lease on life.”

Paul’s understanding of the resurrection is not far off from these sort of interactions I have with hospital patients. We live the Christian life in the tent of this body, not knowing anything different. But we will eventually die. And when that happens, we never go back to the way things were when we were living on this earth.

We don’t just get resuscitated; we eventually get resurrected. We don’t become disembodied people after death, and at the end of the age when Christ returns. No, instead, we get a body – it’s our body, but it’s different, it’s changed, because it is a spiritual body. And it’s likely to be like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.

Life on this old fallen planet of ours is sometimes characterized by adversity, trouble, hardship, and even sometimes traumatic situations. But it will not always be this way. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from death changes everything.

Death will give way to life. There will be a spiritual body. We shall be healed in the complete sense of the word – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – without any more death, disease, and destruction. Suffering will lead to glory.

This is a Christian perspective on resurrection. Since Christ is risen from death, and now has a spiritual body, so too, will his followers be raised to life with just such a body – so that we can be with the Lord forever, as it was intended when God originally created people in God’s image.

Resurrection means hope. We have the confident expectation that promises of an eternal spiritual body is coming. Just as a tiny seed is transformed into a plant, so we will be changed. For those who have had to struggle with the constant debilitations of the body, this is truly good news. And it’s no April Fools.

Lord Jesus, You suffered death but conquered it. You laid in the tomb, but on the third day, You rose again. You are the resurrection, our hope and our life. O glorious and victorious Redeemer, help us not to be afraid of death, for we must pass through it to see you face to face. And on the last day we will rise again because You said so. Amen.

Hang In There (1 Corinthians 7:17-24)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. (New International Version)

Whenever a person converts to Christianity and becomes a follower of Jesus, they experience new life. They don’t, however, experience reincarnation. They’re still the same person – not a different one altogether.

If the convert was married, it doesn’t matter if their spouse is a convert, or not; they’re still married and need to hang in there and remain married, albeit with a new way of being with them.

There is no magical wiping away of situations, circumstances, jobs, family, and relationships with becoming a Christian. Hopefully, a new orientation of grace, truth, and love begins to permeate it all. But all those people and situations are still there, and need to be dealt with.

So, the Apostle Paul gave some very practical social instruction to the Corinthian converts to Christ. He was rather pointed in communicating to them in not using the occasion of conversion to go someplace else and/or be with someone else. Nor is it proper to daydream of a reincarnated life; stick with the new redeemed life you have received.

The place where you became a Christian is the place to start living the Christian life. Obey God, follow the Lord’s words and ways, live out your redemption right there. Why? Because your new identity as belonging to God – not your marital status, vocation, or anything else – defines your life and determines how you are to live. And Paul was consistent on that instruction in all of the churches he established.

For the Jew in Paul’s day, circumcision was the defining mark of religion and identity. To marry an uncircumcised non-Jewish person was unthinkable; it defiled a relationship and made it impure. But the Apostle insisted that Jewishness (or non-Jewishness) isn’t actually the point of living the Christian life. What’s really important is obeying God’s call and following Christ’s commands, period.

Therefore, the convert ought to stay where they are – no matter what their marital status or social position is. Believing in Christ and following Jesus transcends all of it. Whether one is a slave, or not, faith obliterates any and all obstacles to God. If a person comes to faith and converts to Christianity, they still might be in human bondage; but they have freedom in Christ.

Hopefully, the slave’s spiritual freedom will work itself out in actual physical freedom. The point, however, is that – whether slave or free – the person belongs to God and neither bondage nor freedom will ever hinder the individual from realizing spiritual redemption.

In many different ways, we are all both slaves and free persons. The best situation is to be a bondservant of Christ and a slave to no one else. Yet, if circumstances are not ideal, the reality is that one’s union with Christ can never be severed by any human institution or authority.

Once we convert, and enter into a life-giving free relationship with God in Christ, Paul exhorts all believers to be vigilant: Don’t slip back into old ways of spiritual bondage and capitulate to a shameful society. After all, Christ – whom the convert serves – has paid the true ultimate sacrifice of himself on the cross for the sake of all humanity.

So, hang in there, stay in the place and position where you were called by God, and reorient your life with Christ in the middle of it. In doing this, every believer can persevere through adversity, hold onto the gift of faith, and make a difference in the society to which one belongs.

Blessed and holy God, grant us the Spirit of wisdom and discernment so that we may know Christ better and love you more. Give us an understanding heart so that we may be open to hear your divine voice, and the courage to walk in the way of your commands.

Use us, your people who belong to Christ, to be your hands and feet – your voice and heart, so that we may be a channel through which you pour out your grace to help others – may we decrease and Christ increase, so that Jesus is seen in our lives, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Follow Me (Mark 1:14-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Come Follow Me, by Jorge Cocco Santángelo 

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. (New Revised Standard Version)

For all the talk of leadership, developing leaders, and being a leader, there is precious little conversation these days about becoming a follower. Perhaps we have such a dearth of leadership for this very reason, because one can only become a good leader if they experientially know what being a follower is.

The Call of Jesus

The call of Jesus is to pursue him, and he will develop us. Follow Jesus, and he’ll show you how to fish for people. All of Christ’s original disciples listened to Jesus, dropped everything they were doing, and immediately followed him.

I am wondering what would make you drop literally everything you are presently doing to pursue an entirely new life. I am curious what would cause you to follow Jesus without any conditions attached whatsoever. 

I am impressed that Peter and Andrew immediately responded to Jesus. They didn’t question Jesus as to whether this was a short term project or a long term assignment he was calling them to. They did not seek a contract with Jesus or ask how he would impact their stock portfolio. 

The first disciples simply dropped everything and left with Jesus.

I suspect they followed Jesus for the same reason I originally decided to follow him – because Jesus is such a compelling person, so gracious, interesting, and loving, that it was really no decision at all. Everything else pales in comparison with Jesus.

Read all four Gospels and the book of Acts and you will find that believers in Jesus follow Jesus; and those who do not follow Jesus are not believers. Followers follow, and those who do not follow are not Christ’s followers.

Jesus still calls people. He calls us to follow him and he will make us fishers of humanity. Maybe you are concerned about this and say, “I have no idea how to fish for people.” The good news is that Jesus said he would make us fishers of people. Jesus is not looking for people with skills he can use; instead, he calls, then develops people into fishers.

Christ always forms people with the ability to follow his call. Jesus will train us; we only need to answer the call to follow. 

When I was five years old my Dad took the training wheels off my bike and told me to ride it. I told him I couldn’t. He told me to get on the bike and he would run beside me. I got on the bike and started to ride with him holding it. When I began to panic, approaching a tree, I started talking to my Dad. But he didn’t answer… because he wasn’t beside me. He dropped out from shagging me a long way back.

We are not called to follow Jesus based on our skills, but on the lack of them so that Jesus will do in us a work of total allegiance and loyalty to the kingdom of God. 

Jesus will make sure to develop the skills we need in order to do what he has called us to do. We only need to hear and answer the call of Jesus to follow. The following is a parable about the church and being fishers of people: 

“Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. Week after week those who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. They discussed the importance of fishing and that fishing is the task of every fisherman.  They listened to special speakers talk about fishing and they promoted fishing and looked at all the latest equipment for fishing. They built large buildings called ‘Fishing Headquarters’ so that they could tell as many people as possible about fishing. They organized boards of people to send out fishermen to other places. They offered teaching and classes on how to fish and the best and latest fishing methods. With much training a good many persons got their fishing licenses and became upstanding members of Fishing Headquarters. There was just one thing that they did not do: They didn’t fish. When one person dared to suggest that those who do not catch fish are really not fishermen, the group became angry and kicked that crazy person out their group.”

The Message of Jesus

Jesus said the kingdom of God is near, so repent and believe the good news. For Jesus, the word “kingdom” means God’s intentions and will for this world to come true. Jesus was saying that he is creating a new society – which meant Caesar was not Lord and that people’s loyalty was not ultimately to the Roman Empire. 

The kingdom of heaven, God’s dream society, will eventually spread across the entire earth so that the whole world is God’s sacred space, devoted to love, shaped by justice, living in peace, and abounding with wisdom.  Jesus encouraged us to pray consistent with this idea saying, “May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

If we find ourselves not really working toward Christ’s idea of kingdom, then we need to “repent and believe the good news” that God is working toward restoring all things to their original beauty and luster. The word “repent” means a change of mind which leads to a change of behavior. And “believe” means to put all your eggs in God’s kingdom basket.

None of this is a suggestion, but is rather a straightforward call to follow Jesus in his kingdom building enterprise on this earth. It would, therefore, be a travesty to simply think about the message for a while and follow Jesus if we feel like it, or get around to it.

Jesus wants to make fishers within family systems, workplaces, neighborhoods, and all the places within a typical sphere of living: This requires the following:

  1. Go where the fish are. Fishing would be easy if we could put a basket by the water and have the fish jump into them! But that is not how it works. Rather, it takes intentional activities that connect people together.
  2. Cast the nets. Peter and Andrew did more than take their boat out to the middle of the lake. To catch fish, they threw their nets into the water. Here is what I believe this means for us: We do what is fair and just to our neighbors. We extend compassion to them and are steadfast in our love, even when others are unlovely. And we do not take ourselves too seriously.
  3. Obey Jesus and walk with him. After Christ’s resurrection, Jesus came to some of the disciples, who had fished unsuccessfully all night. He told them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat – which seemed like nonsense, but they did it anyway. It resulted in a great catch (John 21:1-14). During the three years of Christ’s earthly ministry, the disciples did everything with him – they walked, talked, and ate with Jesus. And when he ascended to heaven, they acted on the Great Commission given to them by Jesus to make other disciples.

May God cleanse our lips and our lives so that we might proclaim the good news of Christ’s kingdom with glad and sincere hearts to the glory of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Eternal God, the refuge and help of all your children, we praise you for all you have given us, for all you have done for us, for all that you are to us. In our weakness, you are strength, in our darkness, you are light, in our sorrow, you are comfort and peace. We cannot number your blessings; we cannot declare your love: For all your blessings we bless you. May we live as in your presence, and love the things that you love, and serve you in our daily lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.