The View from the West Mesa

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Wineskins

Jesus comes from the Wilderness where the Spirit has driven him for testing, announcing the imminent coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. His message to the crowds calls them to repent because the “Kingdom is at hand.” The kingdom or the effective rule of God has come upon Israel and Israel’s expected response is to return to her God. A number of passages tell us the sorts of things God has against Israel or at least her leaders. They have the form of the People of God, but not the substance. He will call those opposed to him “white-washed tombs” to describe their religious and moral corruption. They look good but are dead. He calls these people to repentance, to return to “their first love,” to actually live as though they are the People of God. In another place, he will tell them that while they do well to tithe mint and cumin, they have missed the larger point of caring for people. In the judgment scene, he describes sending into a place of gnashing of teeth those who failed to give a

Forgiveness

“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matt 18:35, ESV) This phrase, this warning, this admonition comes as the conclusion or the point of the parable about the unforgiving servant. This servant has been forgiven a huge debt rather than being put in jail and having his family given in payment. This servant then goes out and finds someone who owes him a smaller amount and assaults him to gain the payment owed and has that person thrown in jail. Jesus explains this parable by the statement we began with—if you don’t forgive other people, you cannot expect God’s forgiveness for you. But there’s more here. Look at the last phrase: “from your heart.” Throughout Scripture and even though God provides a number of rules, we find that what God is after is not first of all, a keeping of the rules. So we have a wrinkle here. Sometimes we will hear something like, “I forgive you ‘because God’ forgives you.” For immature discip

Humility and Mercy

In Matthew 23:11-12 Jesus says for at least the fifth time, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (ESV) Sometimes the phrasing is a bit different with masters and servants taking the place of exalting and humbling but the point is the same. We have heard echoes of these ideas from the beginning of the Gospel too. Jesus’s responses to his temptations in the wilderness require that he set his pride aside, reject the power and the wealth offered him, submitting himself to the Father. The Beatitudes reflect one who is humble and who seeks the things of the Kingdom even in the face of power and oppression. We see it when we are told to be righteous but not to practice righteousness to be seen doing it. We can feel it a bit in the statement “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” and how that flows from the teachings on forgiveness. Forgiveness requires humility because, without it, our egos would not

Saging

I have mentioned Lauren Winner’s Mudhouse Sabbath before. The book has a number of poignant and insightful observations. The following is appropriate for our community because many of us share the reality of being older than the average American. In the chapter on aging, Winner writes this: The elderly are asked to age well, and the communities that support them are asked to help them do just that. (Rabbi Zalman Schecter-Shalomi has dispensed with the gerund “aging.” He speaks instead of “eldering.” I’ll admit a certain squeamishness with the term—it strikes me as a little twee, and every time I think of it, I have to adjust. But there is something vigorous about it too. To age is to be passive, to sit like a bottle of wine—you just sit there and time passes and age happens over you. To elder—or, in another of Reb Zalman’s clever infinitives, “to sage”—is to try to shape the last years of one’s life with intention.) Aging is not just a process of physical decline. It can also be a

Just Ask

J esus meets the woman while the disciples are off getting something to eat. She is there to get some water for the day and stumbles over him. You know the story from here most likely. They have a conversation, and we learn that she has had several husbands and was currently living with someone to whom she was not married. As his part of the conversation, Jesus tells her (and us) that if she would just ask, he would give her refreshment, springing perpetually in her. Then she goes to tell her community what has happened, and they come out to see who this man is. These are Samaritans which underscores a bit the significance that Jesus spends days with them. Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash One thing we do not see in this story is Jesus telling this woman to clean up her act before he will talk with her. The woman caught in adultery he tells to go “and sin no more,” but this woman he does not. He simply offers her this spring of perpetual refreshment. We often want people to go

They Had Been With Jesus

“And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” [1] Peter and John have been arrested and are being interrogated by the Jewish leaders. They have healed a lame man and have drawn the attention of the crowd. The commotion eventually gained the attention of the authorities. During their interrogation, Peter replies with one of his speeches which apparently was pretty well done. He rehearses the recent history of Jesus and Israel in these words: 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation