The View from the West Mesa

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...

“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...

I n a disturbing turn of events, after declaring his fidelity and wielding a sword in defense of Jesus, Peter denies even knowing Jesus not once, but three times. It is curious that Peter will attack a member of a mob with a sword, but when confronted by a servant girl, he nearly swears his denial. I guess in the heat of the moment, brave (even if ill-advised) action is easier than after we’ve had a chance to cool off and seemingly face the reality of defeat. But I digress. This thrice denial by Peter is one of the most famous stories from Sunday School and it is somewhat confusing because Jesus says that whoever denies him, he will deny before the Father. But Jesus welcomes Peter back and commissions him with a teaching position for the people of God. What’s going on? Is this just an example of forgiveness for a guy who we all know was a little rash in his behavior? Peter’s denial was a denial under pressure and resulted from a concern for his personal safety. If he hadn’t felt so...

The Great Commission in Matthew’s Gospel charges the Apostles and the church to make disciples. Have you ever wondered why the Commission is worded this way? Often I think we equate “disciple” with “Christian” and then equate “Christian” with “churchgoer.” We think we have “made a disciple” when we have made a convert. This often passes as making a disciple in the modern world, but it isn’t what Jesus meant. Jesus told his disciples that he is the way, the truth, the life - not just for them but for the whole world. If any would come to the Father, they would do so by the way which is Jesus. The idea of the Way apparently gained traction outside the Bible as a name for the Christian movement. Paul in his defense in Acts 24:14 refers to his beliefs and teachings as the Way. Luke then uses the term as though it is a normative title in verse 22 when he tells us that Felix had “a rather accurate knowledge of the Way….” There are definitely critical doctrinal points that Paul and the earl...

12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. 13 Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. 14 Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, 15 if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. ...

Christianity has over the centuries often been distracted by various things, different aspects of the supposed life with God, that we have repeatedly lost track of just what God is doing in the world—in the Creation. In the tradition I was raised in, we spent a lot of time arguing against “the denominations,” and “returning to the old paths.” The idea was that God wanted us to worship and conduct our assemblies just like the first-century church and we spent a lot of time ferreting out the divine rules for “church.” The result for many of us was a sort of catechesis of Bible passages on various topics, normally focused on those things that made us different and others wrong. One of our proclamations toward those who didn’t “do church” the way we did was that they were “worshiping in error.” This was such a convenient phrase that we could use it about denominations and even those of our own groups if they did something in their assemblies or even structured themselves differently as a c...

"We don't believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as though it is true." D.Willard, Renovation of the Heart "A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It “consents,” so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree….Therefore each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now, in the circumstances ordained for it by His love and His infinite art." T. Merton, Silence, Joy "The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity it is, but as the fulfillment of the highest human pos...