Empowerment

The teacher already had quite a following.  The powers that be noticed that.  It made them nervous.  People followed him because great things were happening in their lives and they wanted to see what was coming next.  The people had been occupied by the oppressive empire for years and they felt the harassment, control and injustice that empire brandishes.  The felt beaten down after generations of occupation and oppression.
Any isolated protests and demonstrations were quelled, severely.  This hope, any hope would be a welcome thing.  It came to the end of the day and the crowd was hungry after following and learning from the teacher.  The teacher felt compassion for them because they were like "sheep without a shepherd", as their religious and political leaders were in collusion with empire.  They had nowhere to turn.  The teacher told his students to feed the crowd, but they objected, claiming they did not have enough food or money even for themselves.  He told them to have the people sit in groups of 50 and 100.  Then the teacher took the little bit of food they had collected, looked into heaven, blessed, broke and distributed it through his students.  Everyone ate their fill and there were 12 baskets full of leftovers - more than what they had at the beginning.  The chronicler of the story specifies that there were 5000 men, not including women and children.
This took place outside the city, in little towns and villages - not where the larger population lived.  They were all fed.
In a scene like the Passover, when the people of old had gathered together awaiting their freedom from oppression and bondage, they shared this hasty meal in hospitality in the hope of deliverance from oppression.  The taking of food, blessing it, breaking it, giving it is straight from the yearly celebration of that Pesach.  Here again, they were fed together as a community - an intimate act of sharing not done with just anyone, but reserved for loved ones.  And in the sharing of food was the first miracle.  It represented ENOUGH for a people deprived of ENOUGH by empire.
I maintain that the second miracle was their empowerment.  You see, there were around 3500 soldiers occupying their nation at the time.  A full Legion would be 5500 professional soldiers, but these 3500 were mostly area conscripts led by Roman military leaders of the occupying empire.  The teacher raised 5000 men, almost twice that many men in a single day.  A Roman Army Cohort of 500 was usually broken into Centuries of 100 and Half Centuries of 50 for occupation and battle purposes.  The teacher knew and mimicked their tactics and strategies.  What the teacher did, in the face of Rome, was to raise an army in a single day in front of their faces.  He let Rome know that they were up against an organized, unified people.  They did not arm themselves and did not do violence.  They just gathered before them.  The king noticed.  The Military leaders noticed.  Pontius Pilate noticed.  The people also noticed.  It brought them hope - finally, hope.  They stood with one another - stood up to the occupying empire.  (Mark 6:30-44)
This was written in 67A.D., when the tension between the people and their king with the Temple Cult leaders and Occupiers was growing.  It was three years later, in 70A.D. that the Temple was destroyed during an uprising of armed citizens.  After that, a Roman Legion was stationed in Israel for 150 years.  The armed uprising failed, but the hope of the teacher in the people continued and grew, as many of them chose to live what the teacher taught in their world.
This teacher unified them, organized them and taught them a better way - it was empowering.  Like in Birmingham and Selma, Ferguson and Standing Rock and nationally.  They were fed and empowered to empower others in hope, even knowing in the face of overwhelming odds, that they had more power together than they ever imagined, knowing what they could do was empowering and hopeful, and ENOUGH.
No mention of weapons or violence.  In 1940's India, 1960's America, 1980's South Africa and at other times and in other places the most profound progress was made specifically by those who did NOT become like the Occupiers, the Oppressors, but chose the opposite path in different tactics.
And it continues...
     Civil Rights Movement
     Women's Movement
     Peace Movement
     LGBTQ Equality Movement
     Black Lives Matter
     Me Too
     Times Up
     Never Again
People are fed and empowered to empower others.  We come together and stand in the face of empire, speak truth to power and demand change toward justice and peace.  Empire with its normalized Greed and lust for power and based on status is not a sustainable way for the people, so we must stand together and resist empire, not participate in its values and live by a different set of norms and rules.  Even within our own nation, we must recognize that Empire occupies and oppresses most for the sake of the few.  We must also stand together - stand up and stand against empire together.
There is no question that people are oppressed by empire values and practices.  The few benefit, some others collude in the hope of personal gain and the majority under them suffer greatly.
The question is - WITH WHOM WILL YOU STAND, AND FOR WHAT?
I will stand for Jesus' Way in the world - the way of Agape Love, Grace, Justice and Peace.
Pastor Jamie

Let the same mind be in you...

Agape Love is a tall order.  It is easy to understand, just not easy to practice.
This active commitment on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable that Jesus COMMANDED, Jesus also modeled for us, according to the Gospel witnesses.
Paul got it very right in the letter to the Philippians, in one of the most elegant and powerful theological expositions on Agape Love that we have, or could ever need.

Though Agape has nothing to do with feelings directly, Paul wrote about consolation, compassion and sympathy because the readers of this epistle are very often motivated by feelings.

When Jesus gave us His new commandment (a new iteration of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18), as we have that offered to us in Matthew 22:34-40, it was with one's whole heart, soul and mind that Jesus commanded we love God, and that we love neighbor as we love ourselves.

With a nod to the heart here in consolation, compassion and sympathy, and acknowledging that this is a spiritual exercise in our soul's loving relationship with God, still it seems to be the LOVING GOD WITH OUR WHOLE MIND that is neglected most often.

If we rely on our passions, our actions will be inconsistent at best, and at worst radically polarized according to our emotional state, especially in reaction to the words and actions of others.

We are very adept at turning our mundane thoughts, words and actions into spiritual activity, at least in our minds and in front of others around us.  "Radical Christianists", in fact, spiritually justify all manner of evils to others.  We also practice "spiritual escapism" when we don't want to be bothered by anyone else's problems or "supernatural rescuism", offering prayers when our active commitment is needed.  In all these things, we believe ourselves to be quite clever, though by practicing these we have not engaged our minds faithfully in the loving command.

Jesus lived Agape Love.  Paul uses in Philippians 2:1-11 Jesus' example of how to fulfill this commandment of our Lord in our lives. 

We must be of the SAME MIND -  have the SAME LOVE (Agape, which is not a feeling), be in FULL ACCORD with one another in our active commitment to each other and of ONE MIND, all in agreement that Agape Love is a better way for us to live as followers of Jesus - People of the Way of Jesus.

Beyond that, we must have the SAME MIND IN US that was IN CHRIST JESUS...
   Loving God with our whole mind,
      Knowing that Agape Love is a better way than fear, hatred, apathy, complacency or selfishness.
   We do nothing from Selfish Ambition that would allow us to hurt or neglect sisters and brothers
      around us for the sake of our own gain in wealth or power, and thus destroy the world in which
      we all live together.
   We do nothing out of conceit, the desire for Status over others because it leads to divisions and
      a lack of well-being in community which is not sustainable in the long term.
   We must be humble and live Agape - even to self-sacrifice for the sake of the other, unconditionally
      committed to his/her/their well-being, even recognizing that our own well-being depends on
      theirs being intact.

Jesus is our example, according to Paul.
We must follow Jesus in how we live in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now.
We must love God, not just with our hearts and souls, but with our MINDS, exercising wisdom and
    sound judgment in how we live with one another AS our expression of love for God.
It will lead us where Jesus has gone - to the Cross, to self-denial and sacrifice.

Oh, I know you have skipped ahead to verses 9-11, to see what we get for all the trouble.
But the Glory is reserved for God.  Our glory is in the Cross, going to it willingly by living the Agape Love that Jesus COMMANDED us to live, and being with God in the Kingdom, here and now.  The redemption and salvation of God is a gift.  The living of Agape Love is our RESPONSE to the gift.
 
When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God; all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a tribute far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my SOUL, my LIFE, my ALL.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus - that led the Son of God to empty Himself for us, humble Himself for us and even die for our sake.  To follow Jesus means to do the same for one another - THAT is loving God with all we have, by loving Neighbor as Self.

ALL the Glory belongs to Jesus because of it, not to us - we are already recipients of His Grace!
Seek not glory for yourself, but faithfulness in following the Lord of Agape Love and Grace.
Love God with all your heart, soul and MIND.  God gave it to you to be used here and now, in THIS PART of God's Kingdom.

Pastor Jamie

believe it

In the face of Empire - the elites taking it all off the backs of the rest, when all power seems to be in the hands of the unscrupulous who make up their own rules and exploit everyone else - a new message arose in the 1st Century - even a new genre of message.

In the lived witness of Jesus and His Good News of Agape Love and Grace, a writer wrote an account of what happened when Jesus' message was lived by people who followed Jesus.

It is Gospel.  Good News in the face of bad news.  It is hope in the midst of despair and light in the midst of darkness. 

And it all starts, this first Gospel written, in the first chapter, reporting the first public words of Jesus, with an Imperative - a command -
    "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; Repent, and believe in the Good News."  Mark 1:15

"Repent" (metanoia) means to change one's thinking or mind, in order to turn around - to go in a different direction.

It was empire thinking that brought people to the darkness in which they sat.  It was the greed, lust for power and desire for status of elites that drove the empire to exploit, abuse and oppress the people.  It was the collusion of the King and the Temple cult leaders of the time that further rendered the rest of the people without much hope.  But now God was calling them to repent.  Now, anyone who aspired to be like them rather than oppose them was called to repent.  God wanted different thinking, different acting - a different way.  Jesus came commanding it.

And what was the alternative?  "Believe in the Good News."  What Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us as witnessed to in the following pages would be THE opposite of what empire stood for.  Kingdom of God values bring Good News instead of despair when people live them.  The Good News was that people could resist empire and its ideologies, philosophies and normative practices that divided, conquered and destroyed much of the world.  People who live a different way, even AS resistance to empire and then as a better way that the world might adopt and live.  Instead of believing in a way that divided, exploited, oppressed and destroyed, people could believe in Jesus' way - God's Way for the world that would restore justice, peace and hope.  It was Good News.

It was centered on the opposite of empire values - in Agape Love that calls one to actively commit to the other and not just the self or those just like oneself.  It was centered on the teachings of Jesus around graciousness and humility in a culture that valued ruthlessness and hubris.  It was centered on the example of Jesus in lifting up, making whole and empowering, even liberating those around Him out of that Agape Love, rather than exploiting, oppressing and destroying others for the sake of oneself. 

It is about sharing resources so that none go without what they need, rather than hoarding what one has in order always to have more.
It is about sharing power with others so that all have what power they need, rather than overpowering others in order to promote self at their expense.
It is about being secure enough in oneself that one need not be perceived as being "better than" or "more blessed and highly favored than" anyone else, and lifting up others.

This Good News of God in Jesus is a different value.  It is not easy to embrace and live in the face of empire values.  But it is life sustaining, peace producing and love generating by its nature - the opposite of what is produced by empire values.

We are in a new age of darkness.  The darkness of lies (some call "alternative facts") has overcome the light of truth.  The few have all the wealth and power and the many struggle to survive, exploited and destroyed by the greed, lust for power and desire for status that that the few wield like a sword.  Empire values dominate the culture and threaten the world, just like in the 1st Century.'

And in the first Gospel written, in the first chapter, witnessed as the first public words of Jesus -
"Repent, and believe in the Good News."
Can you?
Will you?

Pastor Jamie

Being Sick

I have had bronchitis and a sinus infection for a week.
I have been miserable.
My arms, legs and other body parts have been fine but because of my sinuses and lungs right now, I have been wholly miserable.  I have had sleepless nights of wheezing and coughing and it has rendered my whole body weak.

I have had a chronic issue with sinusitis for most of my life, and sinus infections have often been the result.
I had bronchitis and croup a lot when I was a child, and it would seem that it has returned.
I tried to treat the symptoms with home remedies and over-the-counter products and I kept working instead of taking time off to rest.  Finally, I have had to take three days off and go on antibiotics.

Isn't that just how it is with the body?
If one part is miserable, it negatively affects the whole.
If you have not directly suffered for a while, it is easy to ignore the symptoms of impending illness.
You can only ignore it for so long, until it get so bad that you have to do something to heal it.
And once it has you, it has you and it must be addressed.

And it is the whole body that must rest.
It is the whole body that must be healed.

I cannot live without my sinuses or have them removed.
I cannot live without my lungs or have them removed.
They are a part of my whole body and I must deal with them in a healthy way.

The illness of our society must be addressed.
A part of our body is infected with Greed.  It affects the whole body.
A part of our body is swelling up with hatred and it affects the whole body.
It has rendered the whole body sick and has weakened us.

We have tried the age-old method of ignoring the symptoms for as long as we could.  It did not help, but rather made it worse.
We have tried the cheaper, easier to get and topical remedies but they have  not been effective.

It is time to shed our denial of the illness.
It is time to get a real treatment after a careful inventory of the causes and symptoms.
It is time to deal with this internally, intentionally and fully.
It will take a potent medicine and treatment over a long period of time.
And while we would like to go on with our lives as usual, we will have to stop rather and address this so that we can return to living in a healthy way.

Agape Love restores well-being to the body.  Until it permeates the body, the illness will continue to grow and render the body sick and weak.
We must take the time necessary and inject Agape Love into the whole body for a restoration (or initiation) of health in our society.

Pastor Jamie