The Book of Luke - Laura

So…the book of Luke.  I like Luke because he’s authentic.  He was a doctor and the only non-Jew to pen one of the gospels.  I think that’s important because he is writing to his Greek friends, people who don’t necessarily know all about the Jewish religion, people who are probably skeptical about the whole thing.  And he just tells it like it happened.  I love that Luke doesn’t pull punches; he doesn’t leave out or gloss over the hard and crazy things Jesus said.  (Check out Luke chapter 11 where Jesus curses the religious leaders with six woes for being “like unmarked graves which men walk over without knowing it”!!!) 

Jesus is inviting us to take off our masks!

In twenty-first century America, we are used to having everything sold to us.  We expect everything, including our breakfast cereal and toilet paper, to come to us in neat packages with brightly-colored pictures on the front.  I am bothered by the fact that we want Jesus to come the same way.  We want a story from the Bible that goes down easy, that we can pour milk over and eat with a spoon.  But Jesus doesn’t need a PR representative.  Jesus isn’t selling.  He told some rich religious people, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.  What is highly valued among men is detestable to God.” (Luke 16: 14-15)  Jesus sees through the masks and invites us into the kingdom of God where we learn to play by different rules and value the things that God values.  There are a lot of lessons from Jesus about taking off masks.  We can’t hide our hearts from God.  He knows how messy and needy we are.  Jesus words are heavy; they don’t go down easy.  So, whether we are “expert witnesses” who’ve been following along with Jesus for years or, like Luke’s Greek friends—new to the whole thing, we’ve got to peel off the masks of self-justification and cynicism and recognize Jesus.  In Luke chapter 4, a demon recognizes Jesus, saying, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”  It’s pretty crazy that demons know the truth that religious people are blind to. 

            God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear you, and hearts that are courageous enough to follow you into the radical life you call us to!

-Peace,

Laura Cottrell

Haggai - Laura

The Book of Haggai is about building houses.  It's about priorities.  God tells his people that he wants them to rebuild his house, the Temple, and to stop being so focused on building up their own houses.  He spends chapter 1 reminding them of this discrepancy; he even reminds them that the work they are doing isn't satisfying them (Haggai 1:6).  They need to check their priorities.  They need to see the bigger picture:  God's house is more important than my little house; God's kingdom is more important than the little kingdom I spend so much time trying to build.  Through the prophet Haggai, God is reminding his people that his kingdom is a big deal.  He chose them (2:23), he was with them (1:13 - so huge!!!), and he even went so far as to stir their hearts to motivate them to do what he was asking (1:14).  

God says: 

"I will shake the heavens and the earth.  I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms."  And so he does.  

Peace,

Laura

Picture: "The Kingdom" by Laura Cottrell, pencil on paper

Jude - Laura

The book of Jude doesn’t get quoted all that often; it’s only a page long and some of it is fairly obtuse (see verse 9 about the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses…sometimes I’m surprised by what I find in the Bible! Isn’t God mysterious?!). However, the last section, entitled “Doxology” in my NIV, is epic. The word Doxology is a Greek word which literally means “glory word”. I think that’s a fitting title for Jude’s last section, which invokes God’s blessing on the reader in a powerful way. As you read this “glory word,” may the glory of God be spoken over you:

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24-25)

Peace,
Laura
 
Photo: The Gloria Patri - Traditional Latin Doxology

Colossians – Laura

Paul knows about dying. He talks about dying a lot in his letters (Paul uses the words “death”, “die”, “died”, “dead”, and “crucified” almost 150 times in his letters!!!). He’s not trying to be morbid…he’s trying to follow Christ. Paul understands the intrinsic part that death plays in the life of the believer. Not only are we dying, physically, even as we live, but we are born spiritually dead. We must be made alive.  These forces of life and death are at work in us, even as we go about the very normal thing we think of as life. We tend to think that to live, we must go on breathing, talking, and walking around. But Paul knows that Real Life is so much more than that, in fact, it has nothing to do with physical life at all. “You died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3-4) We think death is something that is coming, one day, hopefully not too soon. But Paul knows that life, as we have known it, is over… “having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12) We just can’t think about life the same way anymore. Life is over, death moves in, but only for a time. New life is coming!

Peace,
Laura

(Photo by Massimo Catarinella, some rights reserved)

Jonah - By Laura

I feel like I got gypped out of the REAL story of Jonah during my years of attending Sunday School as a child.  I knew all about the whale and the fact that Jonah decided not to obey God, which was the move that landed him in the belly of said whale.  But there are a few plot points I believe are worth noting, that didn't make it onto the flannel board.

1. Jonah didn't run from God simply because he didn't want to serve God or "do mission work." He didn't disobey because he wanted to stay home. No, Jonah heads off to Tarshish, wherever that is, because, as he says, "I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."  Jonah knows God.

2. Just because Jonah knows God, his character, and what he's likely to do in a given situation, doesn't mean Jonah likes it!  He has a reason to dislike the Assyrian's, whose capital city is Ninevah.  The Assyrians violently destroyed the Kingdom of Israel in 720 BC and deported many of it's people.  Jonah's life is dated around the 8th century BC, just in time to put him in the middle of that mess.  He's bitter, he's scarred, and he's holding out for godly retribution.

3. Jonah is not a liar; he tells the men on the ship exactly where he's going and why.  He's not trying to hide anything.  He knows God has tabs on him.  He's not spineless either.  He's dead asleep in the hold of a ship in the middle of a raging storm.  And, he seems fine with being tossed overboard in order to save the ship.  However, getting swallowed by a whale seems to be too much for him.

4. Jonah prays.  He believes in God and knows Him intimately.  He is learning lessons about grace.

5. God screws around with Jonah, provoking his already angry, fed-up heart with His little vine stunt.  I would be pissed off too.  Sometimes, obeying God looks like trekking through the desert to preach good news to your worst enemies...and God has mercy on whom he will have mercy.  Fortunately, God seems to have mercy on Jonah, taking time to explain His motives and give Jonah a little bit of perspective.  "Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4:11)
6. Jonah gets used as an example by Jesus, or rather, the faith of the Assyrians of Ninevah is contrasted with the unbelief of the Israelites of Jesus' day.  Read Matthew 12: 38-45 for some hard words Jesus spoke to hard hearts.  


Having taken a closer look at the story of Jonah, I realize that I'm a fan.  He has guts and he knows God.  Apparently, agreeing with God about all the fine print isn't a prerequisite to being used by Him to fulfill his purposes...thanks be to God for that!!! 

Matthew 21-25. thoughts from Lee

Between the Triumphal Entry and the Last Supper, Jesus was busy teaching. His words to me in these five chapters can be summed up pretty succintly: It's not like you thought.

You thought it was about efficient worship. It's not like you thought.

You thought that your service to God was of primary importance. It's not like your thought.

You thought that you deserved your wages. It's not like you thought.

You thought that right behavior leads to "good" results. It's not like you thought.

You thought that you know what "good" means. It's not like you thought.

You thought first was first and last was last. It's not like you thought.


God, you are violently removing assumptions from my heart. You are ruining my system of theology and how I live my life. Help me to receive your Word.

Thoughts on Holy Week

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part;

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But to remind of our and Adam’s curse

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire,

Wherein, if we do well, we shall,

Die of that absolute paternal care

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,

The fever sings in mental wires.

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

Of which the flame is roses and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,

The bloody flesh our only food:

In spite of this we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—

Again, in spite of that we call this Friday good.

-T.S. Eliot, from East Coker

I love Eliot’s take on Holy Week, the reason for it, and our response. 

Last Thursday, Lee and I went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I wanted to see the work of a German artist named Gerhard Richter, who I had read about in the most recent issue of Image Journal.  His work is incredible, much of it is so realistic, it looks like a photograph.  But the piece that struck me the most, was a piece called Blood Red Mirror.  This painting was created by applying red paint to the back of a piece of glass and the result is a colored yet highly reflective surface.  When you stand in front of it, you see yourself and your entire world tinted blood red.  For me, it was a great gift to be reminded on Maundy Thursday of the way that Christ’s death color’s my life.

And somehow, “in spite of that we call this Friday good.”

Spiegel, blutrot, 1991 by Gerhard Richter.

Photo Credit: http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/paintings/other/detail.php?6876