Invitation to a Journey - Session 5: Creation Gifts

---

Invitation to a Journey

Session 5: Creation Gifts

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith. If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching.  If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful.

Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.  Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other.

Romans 12:3-10 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 5 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapter 5 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 5: Creation Gifts

• A brief introduction of Lectio Divina

• Notes for Session 5

Jesus as Presence

---

Jesus as Presence
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 6
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 15:4-5, Matthew 28:19-20

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 15:4-5 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

___________________

Presence is a challenging word in our culture.  On one hand it seems simple enough.  When we were in school, the teacher called our name and we said “present” or “here.”  We are present by virtue of the fact that we are physically located in a particular place.   On the other hand, we have all been present in places or situations when we were physically there but our thoughts or feelings seemed a million miles away.  We’ve also likely been talking with someone only to realize that their mind is somewhere else and despite their physical proximity, they are not really present at all to the conversation.  Being fully present in a moment or with another person requires intentionality and paying attention.

In a spiritual sense, the word presence is even more complicated.  There is an element of mystery, uncertainty, and perhaps even fear involved with the idea of a spiritual presence.  Some describe feeling a “presence” in ghostly terms, like a chill up the spine.  Others find comfort in sensing the “presence” of a loved one who has passed away.  Any spiritual presence, particularly the presence of God, is impossible to fully describe or define. 

Even through all the mystery, Jesus promises to be present with us, to abide in us, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s love.  He also invites us to remain present with him in the same way he is present with us.  If we find it difficult sometimes to be fully present with another flesh and blood person, how can we abide in, remain in, or be fully present with Jesus?

Prayer is one of our primary means of connecting with or remaining present with Christ.  Esther DeWaal writes...

Absolute attention is prayer… If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.  Something is given…

That “something” is nothing less than the grace of God and the gift of awareness that God is with us.  We need not live in a monastery or isolate ourselves from the world to pay closer attention to a God who is always near.  We only need to carve out those moments in the day where we intentionally turn our attention to God.

Just as with any other relationship, intentionality and paying attention is necessary to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  The question is not, “Where is God?”, but rather, “How is God inviting me to open my eyes and pay closer attention to Christ’s presence already with me?”

No matter how busy our lives may be, we can all learn to be more attentive to God’s presence in everything we see, everything we do, and in everyone we meet. 

What steps will you take this week to pay more attention to the presence of Jesus who is already with you, inviting you to be fully present with him?

Invitation to a Journey - Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

---

Invitation to a Journey

Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

based on the book Invitation to a Journey, by: M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world. God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan 6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (CEB)

Welcome to Session 4 of Invitation to a Journey.

Before watching each video session, I encourage you to read the corrosponding chapters in the book which you can order here. I also invite you to have a pen and journal handy as we will begin each week with a contemplative Lectio Divina exercise using a related passage of scripture for each week. You may want to pause the video at various points to journal and reflect on your own spirtual journey as it relates to the themes we are discussing. I also invite you to use the comments section on this blog post to share any of your own experiences of how this material is resonating in your own life.

Below the video you will find a PDF of the notes, lectio reading, reflection questions, and next steps for each week. Feel free to download them as you follow along with the video.

Be sure to read chapters 3 & 4 before watching this session.

May God richly bless you as you enter into this journey toward a deeper relationship with Christ.

_____

Watch video session on YouTube here.

Resources for Session 4: The Image of Christ for the Sake of the World

• A brief introduction of Lectio Divina

• Notes for Session 4

Jesus as Way

---

Jesus as Way
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 5
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 13:33-14:7

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

John 14:5-6a (CEB)

Apologies that we do not have an audio recording of the sermon this week. Please enjoy the reflections below on Jesus as Way.

___________________

John 14:6 is likely among the most quoted verses in the Bible.  There is only one problem.  It is rarely quoted in the context in which Jesus spoke these famous words, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Typically this verse is used as a way of bolstering Christian exceptionalism or exclusivity, often condemning those outside of Christianity to hell.  Interestingly enough, people are more willing to use this verse to condemn someone born and raised in another religion with minimal or even no access to the Christian gospel than they are to challenge those who call themselves “Christian” while living in a way very much opposed to the way of life Jesus taught and modeled for us. 

The truth is, Jesus did not have Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Atheists or Samaritans or even his own Jewish people in mind in this moment.  There is no indication in John’s presentation of the Last Supper (John 13—17) that anyone is concerned about the fires of hell or eternal punishment.  The disciples are not worried about eternity, they are worried about losing their friend and teacher right now.  They are grappling with the fear of the unknown as Jesus’ tries to prepare them for his own imminent death at the hands of the religious leaders and the state.  What will become of them when their leader is gone? 

Throughout these chapters, Jesus emphasizes the way of love and service.  It is in this way of life that his disciples must continue on.  As John would later write, “perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment” (1 John 4:18).  We must remember, Christianity did not even become a religion until well after Jesus’ death.  It is unlikely that Jesus, the disciples, Paul, or any other good Jew at that time would have threatened the whole world with the fear of eternal punishment if they did not convert to a new religion and subscribe to creeds and doctrines that would not be firmly established for another 200 to 300 years.

Jesus is not setting up a barrier between us and God.  Rather, he is reminding the disciples that through the way of life and love he has modeled for them, they have already seen and known the Father’s heart.  “No one comes to the Father except through me” is simply away of saying that except for Jesus, they would never have known the deep love and mercy of God and would have remained in fear.  Except for Jesus, or to put it another way, “if it were not for Jesus,” we would continue to live in fear.  We would continue to fight and scrape our way to the top through violence, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy and every other vice that turns us against one another in a desperate effort to protect ourselves and our own interests. 

But Jesus showed us another way.  We have nothing to fear from our enemies, not even death, because we know how much we are loved by God the Father and we are invited and called to live out the truth of that love in the way we give ourselves for the sake of others.  As the Mandalorian says, “This is the Way.”

Jesus as Lord

---

Jesus as Lord
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 4
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:21-23; John 13:12-17

 (based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 7:21-23 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

___________________

We don’t use words like “Lord” very often today, but the truth is that lords were pretty common in Jesus’ day and throughout much of history.  A lord is simply a master or ruler over a kingdom or even over a household.  In some contexts, lord was simply a title for a landowner.  Generally such a title implied having slaves or servants in some form.  Diana Butler Bass puts it this way:

In a world where millions were held in slavery  and millions of others lived in poverty and powerlessness at the bottom of a rigid social hierarchy, claiming Jesus as “Lord” announced one’s liberation from oppression.  “Jesus is Lord” made sense in an empire of slaves, as submitting to his lordship amounted to spiritual freedom, especially in the new community called the church where, apparently, female slaves held leadership positions and Roman social status was upended

Freeing Jesus, 120

Rome would have been perfectly fine with Christians claiming Jesus as “a” lord, as one among many.  There was always room for a new god or two in the roman pantheon.  The problem was that all other lords or gods must submit to “the” lord, “the son of god” who was Caesar himself.  Such titles were common in Jesus’ world, but they refereed only to the emperor who held absolute power and divine authority.  Any challenge to that fact was considered high treason.  This is why Jesus’ supposed title, “King of the Jews,” was written above the cross as a statement of his crime; threatening the sovereignty of Caesar. 

The point was that people could worship or serve whomever they wanted, so long as they maintained their place in the Roman hierarchy.  Paul’s declaration to the Galatians that there is no more slave nor free (Gal. 3:23), does not sit well in such a system.  Empires built on the backs of the poor, the oppressed and the enslaved cannot stand when those on the bottom begin to see themselves as free and worthy of equal treatment or justice. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we still have many “lords” in our lives today.  We do not live as free people who live into the divine image in which we were created.  Consider the things we spend most of our lives obsessing over: money, politics, health, appearance, social status, possessions, comfort, etc.  We are all “lords” of our own lives, “masters” of our own destinies, and we fight each other to get to or to remain near the top of the social pyramid.  In the absence of a single “Caesar” at the top, we spend our lives fighting for that coveted position of absolute power and prestige.

What would it mean today to truly say that Jesus is Lord? 

At the very least it should mean that all of those things which consume our time, our energy and our resources have no control over us.  We shout that our “freedom” is threatened, for example, when the opposing party takes control of the government, but if Jesus is Lord, our freedom is found in Christ, not in the capital.  If Jesus is Lord, nothing except Christ has power over us, and we have no right to lord power over others.