Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Monday, January 31, 2005
Blessing By Surprise
Jesus sat down with his disciples, began to speak, and proceeded to shock their sandals off.
He seems to have had a knack for that. It's one reason I never grow tired of reading his stories. This one comes from Matthew chapter 5.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," he said. And those who mourn. The meek, too. And the ones who want something better from God so badly they can taste it.
I visualize among the disciples the schlemiel face of Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof." He raises his eyes to heaven and grumbles, "If this is the kind of blessing you give your chosen people, dear God, maybe you could choose somebody else for a while?"
Jesus' surprising blessings can be taken at least two ways:
1. If you want God's best blessings, then try to be like this.
But that sounds too much like saying we should grovel around, find something to worry about, give in to others at all cost, and wear ourselves out in the name of spirituality. And, oh yeah, please come join our Church of the Divine Flagellation. Offering envelopes provided free. Such a totally univiting picture.
Let's try door # 2. Even if your life is this bad, God has a blessing for you.
In other words, when you feel utterly helpless -- God bless you! Same thing when your heartbreak feels like forever. When you've got no choice but to grin and bear bad circumstances. And when you'd give anything in all the world to know you're right where God wants you to be. God knows; God cares; and so will we if you'll let us. What totally unexpected blessings.
One more blessing I get from these surprising words...
I'm so glad Jesus smiles on spiritual hunger, instead of spiritual attainment. How many of us would ever get blessed if the prerequisite was spiritual perfection?
The 12 Steps people got it right, I think. Before anything else, admit you are totally powerless to change on your own. Now you're ready to take eleven more steps toward recovery -- because you want it so bad you can taste it. In the end, no matter how long you've been clean and sober, you know you're always still recovering -- sharing the life-long process with people just as surprised as you are to be so blessed as this.
Sounds a lot like church to me. Let me know if you'd like to hear more.
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:40 AM
Monday, January 24, 2005
Who's Calling?
They were fishermen, all four of them. Doing their usual stuff with nets and gear after a long day's work.
Then along came Jesus, who put it plain and simple to them: "Fishermen, eh? Follow me and I'll turn you into fishers for men and women."
That's called a "call."
They answered it immediately. Just dropped their nets and never looked back. (Read the story in Matthew 4:12-23.)
Now, I'm a church pastor. I answered Christ's call before I had enough life experience to know what I was getting into. Young, energetic, idealistic. College, seminary, then off and running into who knew what. Sure only that I'd heard in my heart a similar calling to serve the Lord full-tilt.
All these decades later, I remember just one short season in mid-life when I thought maybe I'd made a mistake. Counseling and personality testing only proved I was a textbook case of ministerial material.
Onward and upward I went, on the path of clergy calling.
Wait a minute! I really don't like this clergy/laity divide. Makes it sound too much like only minister types are called to serve God. Or at least have a higher calling than everyday believers.
But that's not how the Bible puts it. Instead, every person is uniquely gifted with some special abilities, temperament, opportunities to serve God and serve people.
For example, "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit... varieties of services, but the same Lord... varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone." (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-6)
In other words, each of us contributes something special for the common good. And it's not so good when any of us drops out or gets left out in the process.
Church people know from experience that it's volunteers who make the whole thing work. As a pastor I'm privileged and responsible to do church work full-time. A large part of my time involves training, supporting, and managing gifted people who do their part for the common good.
And outside the church, in "real life," each person's privilege and responsibility is to put their gifts to work for society's greater good. True, we all have to make a living. But much more than that, our work is meant to produce satisfaction for us and improvement for the world.
How interesting that we call one's work a "vocation." That's just Latin for "calling." So any work -- unless it's illegal, immoral, or fattening -- is what we're called to do.
Fishermen or fishers of men -- there's no difference as far as ultimate value goes. But all the difference in the world if you're called to one and try the other instead.
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:43 AM
Monday, January 17, 2005
Come and See
If our dream wish of knowing the future ever came true, I suspect we'd spend a lot of time hiding under the covers tucked in a fetal position. Who really wants to foresee all that life has in store?! Simple hindsight is rough enough on the ego and conscience.
So I think the two men who tentatively trail behind Jesus in John 1:35-42 are blessed not to know all that lies ahead. For now, it's enough to be intrigued by this new prophetic personality and want to see where he'll lead them.
He turns, looks them in the eye, and asks, "What are you looking for?"
Stopped short by surprise, they blurt out, "Where are you staying?"
Not the most eloquent theology in the Bible. Truth be told, it's disappointing -- to us and most likely to this pair as well.
But a closer look suggests it's a profound exchange.
First of all, everybody some day or other has to answer Jesus' question. U2 cried out for many of us, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Far from a romantic lament, this one is spiritual. (That's transparently clear in the version on "Rattle and Hum," backed up by a Harlem gospel choir.)
And then, in St. John's vocabulary the verb "staying" isn't about an address -- like, "Can we find you tonight at the Motel 6? Holiday Inn? Maybe Embassy Suites?" No, for John it always means "abiding" -- settling in, residing, staying for the long haul. (See John 15, where Jesus is the vine, his disciples the branches; to bear spiritual fruit they must abide in him and he in them -- the life juice of God's Spirit free to flow uninterrupted.)
So I think these two guys were on the right track. They needed to know where the center was for Jesus. They also needed to know it was he they were searching for more than anything else in all the world.
Once that was settled, they were off and running. So was the whole gospel story according to John, as well as Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. A preacher's son, he knew from childhood that he was called to follow Jesus wherever the road would take him. And he couldn't have had a clue about the worldwide impact his discipleship would have. Or about his own martyrdom. All he knew was he wanted to see and stay with Jesus Christ.
Mother Teresa, growing up a nice Catholic girl in Albania or wherever it was, had no way of anticipating she'd one day win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Calcutta with the poor dying lowest of the low. All she meant to do was to see and stay close to Jesus.
Like the two men in John's gospel, like these two contemporary saints, you and I have the capacity to transform countless lives. Doubt me, do you?
Then think about the stories we love to tell. Of a Sunday school teacher when we were six. An English professor in college. That uncle or aunt who made us know we were important even if little, shushed or ignored by the rest. Each of these good folks did their part to change our lives for the better.
So, two short questions. Who knows or wants to know all the details packed into their answers? But each one demands our close attention.
Taking the time to hear them now could change the contours of human history. If that's too grandiose, try this: It will definitely change the course of your one life -- and every life you touch.
posted by Jack Buckley at
1:05 PM
Monday, January 10, 2005
With God on Our Side
People of a certain age remember Bob Dylan's musical rant "With God on Our Side." Verse after verse, he ironically nailed the smug self-confidence of people and nations who assume heaven smiles down on their every endeavor. Too bad for the other guys.
It's complicated enough when a Texas football game begins with a prayer for God's special blessing. Which team gets God's vote? And why?
The stakes shot up sky-high when chaplains for Allied and German troops each led their soldiers in prayer. Germans and Russians too. Christians all, they fervently hoped God would give them victory over -- well, whom exactly? Other Christians. Offering up the same simultaneous prayers.
Makes you even gladder you're not God, doesn't it.
In Matthew 3:1-17, John the Baptist does his prophetic thing, warning people they'd better get on God's good side or else. They could do that by repenting and being baptized. If they'd just turn back to God, instead of putting their own desires and ambitions first... Then they could take John's ceremonial spiritual bath and begin a whole new life.
Hundreds and thousands lined up to do just that.
One day John was stunned to see next in line his own cousin Jesus. "Whoa! I can't baptize you. You should baptize me!" John felt about knee-high to Jesus when it came to spiritual things. He knew the family stories.
Angels. Virgin birth. God-With-Us. Jesus was over-qualified for baptism.
But Jesus set him straight. "It's the right thing. Just do it!" Then and there, he sided with the sinners who really needed John's baptism.
Amazingly, according to this little story, when God chooses our side it turns all the predictable tables.
For one thing, Jesus demonstrates that God isn't into scolding us or beating us up spiritually. No, God meets us just as we are, right where we are, to take us toward all we're meant to be.
And then, when Jesus was baptized two other remarkable things happened. A dove flew down to sit on his shoulder, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And a voice thundered in the sky, "This is my Son, and I'm well pleased with him."
Those words are lifted from an old prophecy (Isaiah 42:1-9). About God's chosen leader, who'd never break a bruised marshreed or snuff out a dimly glowing candle.
In other words, he comes to protect, encourage, empower the people -- not to scold or beat them up.
The same prophecy quotes God, "I take you by the hand."
So God doesn't take our side to baptize our ideas and actions. Fat chance. No, God comes alongside people like you and me to guide us, to protect us, every step of the way on life's long journey.
That's the way God chooses sides. Undeserved, unasked for, and totally unexpected.
Amazing grace!
posted by Jack Buckley at
9:37 AM
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Out of the Depths -- A Blessing
Our holiday joy was tragically overshadowed by news of last week's undersea earthquake and the resulting tsunami's widening circle of destruction.
We struggle to shake off the horrifying shock of it all, compounded daily by pictures and reports of thousands dead and millions of survivors at catastrophic risk.
Through it all, we give thanks for countless relief organizations now laboring to stem the tides of death, disease, and destruction. And we give what we can where we believe it will be most helpful.
Our theology has no quick answers for the questions that cry out in times like this. Just a sturdy assurance that God has no stake in any kind of evil. That God's heart breaks even more thoroughly than ours do, when bad things happen to the people he made and loves.
Among the reports and appeals for support, I received the following benediction from Steve Goodier at Life Support Systems Publishing, Inc.
I pray it will strengthen and settle your spirit amidst the terrible turmoil.
A TSUNAMI BLESSING
Blessed are those who mourn for the tsunami's victims; May they find comfort in their pain and hope in their helplessness.
Blessed are those who found a way to survive; May they now find sufficient strength and healing as they reassemble the scattered pieces of shattered lives.
Blessed are those who tirelessly strive to give relief; May they be amply encouraged in their valiant efforts.
Blessed are those who generously give money and supplies; May they know the deep satisfaction of having made a difference.
Blessed are those in every nation who unite now in compassionate service and love; May they show us what it means to be the human family.
P.S. A man stood before God, his heart breaking from the pain and injustice in the world. "Dear God," he cried out, "Look at all the suffering, the anguish and distress in the world. Why don't you send help?" God responded, "I did send help. I sent you."
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:01 AM
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