Bryan Sherwood

A Lesson On Love

I've been reading in the gospel of Luke this week.  I finished chapter 7 tonight.  I've also been reading Tom Wright's little book called Luke for Everyone.  Although it's a fairly compact book, it's packed full of great stuff.

In Luke 7, Jesus heals the centurion's servant and a few verses later, we read about Him raising the widow's son from the dead.  Healing a servant who is ill is one thing but raising someone from the dead, that is quite something else!  It would be a mistake, as Wright reminds us, to read these miracles of Jesus without considering Luke's larger narrative.  Just the chapter before, Luke tells us of Jesus spending the night in prayer and then calling the 12 apostles.  He gives a powerful sermon in the Beatitudes.  Jesus teaches about this new way of living which we quickly learn is a way of love.  It's not warm, mushy, flaky love - no, it's extravagant, outrageous love for others.  That's what the people of the Kingdom are like.  Jesus reminds them and us to love your enemies . . . to bless those who curse you . . . to give to everyone who begs from you . . . and to be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.  I can only imagine how strange those words must have sounded.  They seem backward or upside down.  Those same words must have been fresh on the minds of the disciples when Jesus heals the centurion's servant and raises the widow's son from the dead.  Jesus makes sure his disciples catch a glimpse of what this kind of love looks like on the ground.  As N.T. Wright puts it, "with God's love going out in new, unexpected healing generosity."  

I think there's a lot for all of us to learn from Jesus in Luke 6 and 7.  The mark of the Christian is love.  It's a love that permeates regular life.  It's a love that turns people's heads and makes them to want to know more about Jesus.  This passage in Luke begs the question:  Who am I loving?  How am I showing outrageous love to those in my day to day life?

I'm convinced that by loving others, we'll see more people become disciples of Jesus.  The way I see it, that's a pretty good thing.

Peace.

  

Heaven Is Not Our Home

Heaven Is Not Our Home. Seriously.

Liturgy is Freeing

Bishop Tom Wright does a good job talking about the role of liturgy in real life. I hear people regularly describe liturgy as something that's boring, "dead," rote, etc. I used to think that myself until a few years ago when my experience of liturgy drastically changed my viewpoint. Instead of liturgy being boring, I found myself comforted by its familiarity. Take prayer for an example. Liturgy was freeing to me because it provided me a way to pray when I often didn't feel like praying. I discovered a simple structure that didn't get in the way of prayer but instead, gave me words to pray. It didn't hurt to learn that Christians have turned to liturgical prayer down through the centuries! Liturgy isn't new. It's not a fad. It's been around for a long time and will be around for a long time to come.

I hope that more people will give liturgical prayer a try. I agree with Phyllis Tickle who writes:

It is important to remember, as pastors frequently remind us, that it is not the prayers we do not say, but rather those we do say, that matter to God.

For those who struggle with spontaneous prayer, fixed form prayer provides a way to pray which is far better than the alternative--not praying at all.