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Posts Tagged ‘disciple’

Witnessing a Miracle

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Acts 3:15
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. [Peter to the crowd in Solomon’s Colonnade]

There is some responsibility that comes with witnessing a miracle. A miracle is not a particularly private matter. It is most powerful and amazing for the beneficiary of the miracle, of course, but there is also power in the story. The witness must tell what he/she saw, heard, or felt. This testimony spreads the wonder of that miracle.

Miracles are not accidental. They are intentionally divine.

How can we know why a miracle occurs one day and not the next? We cannot. It’s not our job to figure that out. It’s just our job to report.

When the disciples witnessed the living Christ after Calvary, they could not stop themselves from telling the story. They told everyone they encountered and eventually, those stories cost them their lives. After some years, all of those firsthand witnesses were gone and the next generation of followers were telling the story second and third hand and on into the hundreds of thousands of retellings. We will never know how embellished the stories have become … or worse, what fantastic elements of the story have been lost. In any case, the essence remains the same: Christ died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

One of the reasons the Jews continued their traditions of feast days and holy days was to relive, retell, and remember the miraculous stories of their own captivity and salvation.

If we don’t speak the stories, they are lost. We forget. Even a great miracle, over time, can become lost.

In my own life I have survived automobile accidents inexplicably; I have seen dramatic healings; I have received money “in the nick of time” to meet a financial need; I have heard prophetic utterances that revealed truths out of my past that could not have been known otherwise. In most of these cases, I confess, I have stopped telling the stories.

Forgive me Lord. From this day forward, I accept the responsibility of the witness. And when the next miracle blazes across my path again, I will remember. I will tell the story. I will be faithful to your trust.

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Gone Fishing

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , on September 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

John 21:3
“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Here’s what I think: Simon Peter was impatient and uncomfortable with his new role. This mission stuff was foreign on his own. Besides, things were not happening the way they had before with Jesus. And where was Jesus? Why wasn’t He leading them? Why wasn’t He telling them what to do?

Like so many of us, Peter back-peddled. From his perspective, the mission mandate was not working out. So, he went back to what he really knew how to do: fish! In this arena, he was much more confident. This was what he had always done before. This was much more comfortable.

Only one problem: no fish!

When we are given a clear mandate from God and we actually hear it and understand it and head out in that direction … warning: going back doesn’t work.

I had a friend who felt a strong call to go to London (from Atlanta, Georgia) and work with the poor, particularly prostitutes and other street people. He obediently packed up his family and left. And the Lord blessed them. But into the second year, he became discouraged. And after several disappointments and dead ends, he and his family packed up again, returned to Atlanta and went back to the coffee shop business.

Only one problem: no coffee… no customers… etc.

Don’t get me wrong. God is merciful and full of grace. Even if we mess up and go back to fishing, God is there. But be prepared, once we willingly enter the Way of Jesus, He will continue to call us back to the path… one way or another. The old comfort zone will no longer be comfortable. The old way of doing things will no longer work. The old projects will fail. The old pew will be rough sitting.

“…no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.” [Luke 5:37]

Lord, give me courage to stay on the new path today.

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Accused of Lying

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

John 19:7
“We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

The gospel of John is all about identity. Is Jesus who he said he was or not? This is the ultimate question.

The priests who brought Jesus before Pilate were very clear about his claims. They accused him of intentionally misleading people. They accused him of breaking the law, the law given to them from God through Moses and the prophets. They called him a liar.

There are really very few choices when confronting the identity of Jesus: either he is who he says he is, he’s stark raving mad, or he’s lying.

In today’s world, we don’t have anything similar. If a regular “Joe” was to claim he was God or just claim he was the President, all would assume he was crazy as a bedbug. Even if we determined the person was a consummate liar, his mental stability would be suspect. We don’t ever entertain the idea that he might be the “real deal.”

The priests were no different. There was simply no way that Jesus (of Nazareth) could be telling the truth, it had to be trick. From their perspective, the guy was a sinister, manipulative, liar who had duped the people by healing them, eating with them, feeding them, and teaching them about the kingdom of God being available to them… right from where they were. He was way outside their comfort zone. That couldn’t be God.

And isn’t that what many way today?

When I became a follower of Christ, I made it quite clear that I didn’t want to be a “Christian.” I had no good memories or experiences with the people who claimed to be his disciples. But I did see and believe in the One. And this is where my journey began, with my eyes on Christ alone. I trusted the rest would fall into place along the way. There were tons of things I couldn’t understand or agree with in scripture, but I could not call this Jesus a liar.

When I prayed that first prayer, there was no one leading the way. I simply asked Jesus if I could follow him and become more like him. I confessed. I believed he was who he said he was. That’s all. Because I knew, if that was true, then there was more truth to be uncovered. This is the way of Jesus… from truth to truth, from understanding to understanding.

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First We Must Choose

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , on June 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

John 6:28b-29
“…What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Before we can change, we must choose to make the change. Before we can believe, we must choose to believe. Before we can follow, we must choose to go. Before we can “work for God,” we must choose to believe in the plan which has been outlined in the scriptures.

Ultimately, before anything can happen, there is that moment of personal choice: go, stay, believe, reject, yes, no, wait… these are the simple words that are transmitted from our inner self to the mind. The more connected we are within, the more likely we will make authentic choices. Unfortunately, we are so bombarded in our world by opinions, information, media, images, teaching, etc … we often don’t even know what is our idea or the choice we feel compelled by others to make .

So many times, believing people say, “If you don’t know what to do, ask God and you will get your answer.” I don’t doubt this is true, but I do struggle with hearing that answer. My guess is, I don’t know in the first place because I’m disconnected inside. I’m not hearing God. It’s too noisy in there.

Now that graduations are over, guests are gone and life is slowing down a little, I’m going to start looking for the quiet place…. what I used to call the secret place. This is where hearing takes place. This is where choice is born.

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Finding Messiah

Posted in Time Up to Pentecost, tagged , , , , on May 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

John 1:41
The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).

We have lost the wonder of discovery. Unlike us, the disciples as well as all of the Jewish people of that time, were waiting for the Messiah. It was prophesied that he would come and each generation looked for the signs of his coming.

In some ways, I am reminded of the personal joy and even ecstasy that many African-Americans felt about Barack Obama. The wonder of it all when it finally happened: an African-American lifted to the highest office.

John describes Andrew as the first disciple to follow after Jesus. After spending a day with him, he runs to his brother with his news of finding the Messiah, the one foretold, the beginning of something unknown and the transformation of their world.

When we find Messiah in our own lives, we are changed forever. There is wonder in that message, our personal story of discovery. Who will you tell today?

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