Hey Fellow Faith Travellers
How was the Christmas season for you?
My local walkway was awash with bright red blossoms from the Pohutukawa Trees (NZ’s Christmas Tree). I intentionally took the time to feast my eyes on their beauty as they only last for a week or two. Now they are fallen and a red carpet of blossoms cover the footpath. It’s a good reminder to intentionally enjoy each season and what it brings us.
As I do at the end of each year, I review my writings and pick out the ponderings that stick out and share them with you all.
I would love to hear your response to them and learn from your ponderings also - feel free to comment…
1. God’s Plan in 1 Verse
There’s a little verse tucked away in Ephesians which has stayed with me throughout the year. It nicely summarises God’s plan for all creation.
“At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ - everything in heaven and on earth.”
Eph 1:10 NLT
With all the noise of End Times theology and memes on Facebook it pays to grab hold of this little verse and remember God’s end game.
God’s plans are not to torment people he has created in a fiery dark pit for eternity.
Nope, his plans are for total restoration of all things.
Nature, the economy, relationships with each other and with him, peace, hope, joy and a fullness of love. He is restoring them all.
2. God is Always in a Good Mood
God.
is.
Always.
in a.
Good.
Mood.
So what do you think about that?
3. The 3 Parables That Rocked My 2023
Jesus told 3 stories that Luke recorded one after the other in Luke chapter 15. These 3 little stories have been turning over and over in my mind all year.
The Lost Sheep.
The Lost Coin.
The Lost Son.
People tend to forget what lead Jesus to share the 3 ‘lost’ stories even though Luke tells us right at the beginning. The religious leaders were getting very annoyed about who Jesus was hanging out with.
The NLT version calls them - “tax collectors and other notorious sinners”. The people that were “out” according to the religious of the time.
Interesting. Two thousand years later, it is still the same.
Here’s a couple of learnings from these packed-full-of-wisdom stories (there are so many layers to these stories that we could spend our lifetimes gaining fresh insights from them!).
God does not stop searching for the lost! It may take eternity but everything will be restored.
God never NEVER gives up on the wild ones OR the self righteous ones. Both need his love and are invited and are accepted.
All three (sheep, coin and son) were already part of the family - the shepherd left the 99 for the 1, the 1 sheep was part of the fold before he was found. The coin was already owned by the women before it was lost. The son was already part of the family before he wandered away. This is good news! …..Okay I feel I need to really spell this out — while the sheep, coin and son were ‘lost’ they were still part of the fold, money pouch or family. They were accepted and fully included before they wandered, while they were lost and when they were found.
4. Here’s a Great Daily Question to Ask…
Where have I seen God today?
In 2023 I worked out how to answer this question….
…wherever I see or experience love — that is where God is
Dios es amor — God is love.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8
There are people who are incredibly generous with their love but according to the religious among us, are quick to judge and call ‘sinners’. But according to John and Jesus, those who show real love is born of God and knows God.
Who is born of God?
Is it the person who has said the sinner’s prayer and is acceptable by the righteous?
Not according to 1 John 4 - it’s the person who shows love to all people.
Who knows God?
Is it the one that attends church on Sunday morning? Not according to 1 John 4.
Is it the one who reads the Bible every morning? Not according to 1 John 4.
It is the person who loves people. Full Stop. Or as my American friends say - period!
5. Reframing How to Read the Bible
In 2023 I took off my Inerrant Lens for reading the Bible and picked up the Ancient, Diverse and Ambiguous Lens. What a relief!
God is now like Jesus who loves to restore people and not a violent deity ready to punish.
I am now beginning to view the Bible as a book of wisdom and not a book of rules.
“The Bible is a tool book for gaining wisdom NOT a rule book for gaining certainty”
Jared Byas
Instead of asking “What am I supposed to believe?” I am asking “How might I live?”
Instead of asking “What is this text telling me I should do? I am asking “What am I inspired or motivated to do based on this text?”
Instead of asking “Is my behaviour wrong or right?” I am asking “How does story challenge me to live in community?”
Instead of asking “What is the timeless truth in this passage?” I am asking “How does this passage inspire me to love God and others?”
If you want to learn more I highly recommend the Rethinking God with Tacos podcast.
6. Two Last Quotes…
So, my friends, I will leave you in 2023 with these two last quotes…
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
This quote brings to my mind images of the disciples and the crowd trying to understand everything Jesus was imparting to them in his stories and teaching. It all seemed unsolved and the questions were endless. I think the quote is saying - don’t worry about having all the answers - just live out what you know now and you will find yourself living the answer.
Loving people is always the answer.
and the last quote/learning for 2023…
“God’s way of dealing with us becomes our way of dealing with life and others.
We eventually love others, quite simply, as we have allowed God to love us;
if we all allowed this love, imagine what a loving world we would create.”
Richard Rohr
Boom! Mic Drop!
Here is the answer to everything - to poverty, to violence, to war, to dysfunctional relationships ….receiving God’s love.
Let’s pray that 2024 will be a revolutionary awakening throughout the whole world to the love of God.
Amen and amen.
Now it is your turn — what were your learnings in 2023? or what is your responses to my learnings?