Thanks be to God that our weather has cooled! Now let’s pray that the war in the Middle East cools down.
Sadly, it is being waged by governments who claim to be blameless, but who can see precisely what is happening, and why. So a quick cooling off seems unlikely.
In last week’s Reflection, Margaret noted that Jesus’ giving sight to a man who was born blind caused some to claim that he was born blind because he was a sinner, and avoid accepting the simple truth of what had happened; because the man believed in and worshiped Jesus, he can now see.
The Pharisees said the Jesus could not have come from God, because he was healing on the sabbath.
But Jesus points to their spiritual blindness in saying: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” Thanks to Margaret’s research, that translates: “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
So the fighting continues.
This week’s readings continue the lesson in faith, using God’s power to resurrect the dead. In the reading from John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and in Romans we are told that: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the Spirit that dwells in you.”
We humans gravitate to the familiar and want to believe in things we can “know;” that can be proved by our methods. But that’s not how faith works.
I first attended 12 Step meetings here at St. Alban’s in 1992, and, as we say, have been coming back to those meetings ever since. For many years I struggled mightily to find a conception of God that I could “understand,” since the 12 Steps speak of “God as we understood him.”
A former mentor finally got through to me that if I, as a finite human, could fully “understand” God, God would not be God, and another member told me that I should “act as if” there were a God, and see what happens.
That suggestion really upset me, and I stormed out of the room, jumped in my car and headed home. At a stoplight on the way home I suddenly had a clear thought go through my angry mind: “what have you got to lose?”
So when I got home, I knelt down next to my bed and said what I could remember of the 23d Psalm that I had learned in Sunday school and we read last week here in church. That started what has become regular prayer and meditation throughout the day; lately, some days its minute to minute!
Each 12 Step member is allowed to have their own conception of God, and my current, firm belief is that there IS a God, and it is NOT me. I keep it that simple so that in virtually any situation, I can call on God’s help by simply reaching outside of myself.
I know there is a God because events have happened in my life right when I most needed them, that are not explainable in any other way; not often, but often enough for me to believe. I call them “God things.”
The reality is that I am required each day to act on faith, because I cannot know for sure how those around me will act. Some days are more predictable than others, but on no day am I able to say I did not act on faith.
So, just like I can’t say there isn’t a God, I can’t say that God cannot have resurrected the house of Israel, or that Jesus did not, or could not have, made the bind man see, raised Lazarus from the dead, or be resurrected.
I can take those, and many other things, on faith, as “unlikely” they may seem to me today. Others believe, so why not me?
Recently, I’ve been dealing with a surgery which removed a growth from my scalp, and something I read that was written by a surgeon has helped me with the daily care of the wound that is part of the healing process.
He was recounting thanks he received from the family of a woman he had operated on, for curing her, and he concluded that, although he performed the surgery, her tissues were healed by what he referred to as the “Great Physician,” saying “All I do in a very simple way is to help [God] cure my patients.”
This reminds me that each day we do the “hands on” work, but God is in charge of the results.
In prior Reflections, I have referred to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where he concludes: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14)
He also said: “There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:24-29)
Paul speaks of action, telling us to treat our neighbors the way we want to be treated; those who act as if they truly love their neighbors, have kept the law fully.
When he was asked by a Pharisee who was a lawyer: “what is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus responded: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37)
On a recent episode of Rick Steves’ Europe on PBS, he was in Turkey, explaining how that country became a secular Republic that restricts religious expression in government affairs. He interviewed a Muslim Imam at a mosque that had once been a Christian church, and asked him how he and his followers relate to Jesus.
The Imam said that they see Jesus as a Prophet, like Moses, Abraham and Mohammad, with Mohammad being the most recent Prophet.
Since they believe that Christians are, like them, offspring of Abraham, there is hope that we can ignore the current hyperbolic commentary about terrorists, and do our best to treat our Muslim cousins as Jesus has said we should treat all of neighbors; as we would like to be treated.
Since we worship God (Allah), if we do our best to treat Muslims, Jews and all others as we would like to be treated, we will be following “all the law and the prophets.”
