A Fresh Perspective

According to Mark’s Gospel, the disciples say to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us” (Mark 9:38). Simply substitute “preaching” or “teaching” or some other common present day Christian activity for “casting out demons,” and we could well imagine a modern day Christian saying something similar. These days, it seems that Christians are having more and more difficulty uniting around common endeavors, let alone with other religious traditions and social groups. In John’s Gospel Jesus prays that we all will be one, and in the Synoptic Gospels Jesus is always expanding the borders of God’s kingdom, including those that the religious establishment had marginalized and disenfranchised. In response to the inquiry of the disciples, Jesus says, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:3...

In a go-go world, what could be worse than silence, being still, doing nothing? It is the “doing nothing” that engenders guilt and anxiety, that evokes fear.  This is precisely why we so desperately need stillness. Stillness strips us of our illusions that we are so important life can’t go on without us. It can and will easy enough, and stillness helps us come to terms with our smallness. Stillness often reveals and exposes the spiritual and moral emptiness of our lives. Instead of fishing in the shallows for approval, applause, and accolades, which is what we do in our busyness and constant activity, stillness sends us out into the deeper water, where we must explore the depths of our souls, where we must face the mass of contradictions we all are, where there is both terror and beauty. Only here, in the depths, can real healing and liberation take place. In learning to accept and forgive ourselves, we are able to accept and forgive others.   In stillness we lea...

When we open our lives to the Spirit and the Spirit finds a home where the Spirit can express herself freely, we discover the joy, beauty, power, and meaning of community. Unfortunately, we often read the letters of Paul from a post-enlightenment, westernized mind-set, which means that we tend to privatize and individualize much of what he says. In actuality, Paul is addressing the community corporately and should be interpreted and applied to the whole body, the church, not to individuals privately. Yes, much of what he says can and should be applied to our individual lives, but it’s important to first read Paul in a communal context. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about singing psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit “among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts” (Eph 5:19). The emphasis here is on community—“among yourselves.” The dominant emphasis in this letter is on encouraging, uplifting, growing, and edifying the body (the commun...

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul instructs: “Do not get drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit” (5:18). He compares the Spirit’s fullness to drunkenness. One who is intoxicated is under the influence of alcohol and that influence impacts and affects one’s thinking and behavior. By way of analogy, the one who is filled with the Spirit comes under the influence of a different Reality, a Divine Reality, and that Reality impacts and influences one’s thinking and behavior. This command is an active-passive command. Paul exhorts the faith community to be filled with the Spirit, yet the filling of the Spirit is not completely within the community’s control. In John’s Gospel, the Spirit is compared to wind that blows where it will. It’s beyond human coercion and manipulation. Yet, there are things we can do to set our sails in the direction that the wind is blowing and live within the flow of the Spirit’s power. A River Runs Through It  was a book from which a mo...

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is approached by someone in the crowd who says, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Jesus responds, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” Then Jesus says, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:12–15). Jesus refuses to get involved in a family dispute, but then sets the whole affair in a larger context. The point is made that discipleship to Jesus involves a shedding of stuff, a letting go of things. Jesus tells “a certain ruler”: “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” With this particular individual, Jesus makes the relinquishment of his possessions the condition of his discipleship. Did Jesus sense an idolatrous attachment to money, power, and position? (See Luke 18:18–25). When Zacchaeus, the wealthy tax collector, experiences the healing fr...

Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek and other works, once wrote about a time when he came upon a cocoon resting in an olive tree. The infant butterfly was just starting to break through. The young Kazantzakis moved ever so close and breathed on it. The warmth of his breath caused the butterfly to prematurely emerge from the cocoon. The butterfly’s wings, however, were not adequately formed. Unable to fly, it soon died. Kazantzakis had impatiently intervened and interrupted a process he didn’t understand, thus preventing life from adequately forming. Sometimes our lack of tolerance, understanding, and patience prevents life and character from adequately forming, thus doing great damage. I can think of relationships in my past that have been damaged and ruined because of my impatient interventions. A healthier result would have ensued had I pursued the proper course of exercising patience and restraint. In writing to the church at Ephesus , Paul says, “Live worthy of ...