Category: Religious

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Religious

Brush Strokes

“Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.”

Romans 12:2 (Common English Bible)

Gilbert “Dibo” Doran holds the Curacao’s 2019 title as the King of Tumba, Curacao’s Carnival anthem. A music genre indigenous to this area of the Caribbean, Tumba has its roots in the history of slavery and remains popular for ending parties on a high note. “Nowadays, the Tumba Festival is the biggest music festival on the island. Local composers and musicians compete for living their culture to the max.”[1] Doran self-identifies as a “patriot to the bone” asserting that one’s culture and tradition are part of your identity. It’s your roots. Through his original music compositions, Doran desires to leave his mark on the music genre, to be an example, and contribute to the longevity of the cultural imprint of the Tumba Festival. Perseverance is key, adds Doran.

Gilbert Doran is a man whose life is organized around a central purpose. Raised in a single-parent home, Doran neither ran away from life nor ran along with life. He set himself apart from other children by intentionally directing his life around a core passion—a passion for the culture, folklore, and tradition of Curacao, particularly as expressed in music. “Instead of a bike or a Nintendo, I would ask for drums, a piano, or cymbals as a gift.”[2] Doran stands proudly among women and men who have done the most for the world precisely because they are nonconformists. He has elevated the level of life for ages to come for the people of Curacao because of a driving passion to contribute positively to his corner of the world.

This is precisely what the Apostle Paul is asking of those who would follow Jesus Christ. Be a nonconformist! Don’t go along with life, drifting wherever the flow of life may take you, becoming shaped by whatever forces surround you. Set your mind on God. Learn of God. Seek to know God’s will and discern all that is good, pleasing, and mature. As Doran held, perseverance is key. The distinguished preacher from another generation, Robert J. McCracken once observed, “The reason why so many people are at the mercy of circumstance is that they have neither discovered a faith by which to live nor a cause to serve.”[3] The “patterns of this world” exert a powerful shaping influence upon each person. The Apostle Paul provides another way. Draw on spiritual resources greater than your own. Fix your eyes on God.

Many people today take the path of least resistance. Without a driving conviction to mature in the faith through regular time with God by prayer and reading the Bible, they are caught by the flow of life and carried along paths and channels they have not chosen. The usual result is that their life begins to reflect the standards and practices of their environment. The people they meet and the things that happen to them likely shape who they become. It is as though they surrender the brush strokes that paint their life portrait to an unknown hand. Here, in his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul urges that we submit the brush strokes that will paint our portrait to the hand of the Master, Jesus Christ.

Joy,

[1] Rosa, Nelly, “I Want My Legacy to Live On”, Caribbean Beat, January/February 2020. 85.

[2] Rosa, Nelly, “I Want My Legacy to Live On”, Caribbean Beat, January/February 2020. 85.

[3] McCracken, Robert J., “The Peril of Conformity”, Best Sermons: 1951-1952 Edition, New York: McMillan Company, 1952, 24.

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

A Thankful People

“The peace of Christ must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people.”

Colossians 3:15 (Common English Bible)

There is an unsettling moment in the novel, Girl with A Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier. Set in the Netherlands in the mid-1600s, a family that struggles to have enough grieves the loss of a young daughter, Agnes, from a plague that griped their residential quarter of Delft. With a despairing shake of the head, the mother laments, “God has punished us for taking for granted our good fortune. We must not forget that.”i The loss of a young daughter is tragic, particularly a loss due to a plague that outruns us. Yet, the loss is made even more tragic when one is gripped with a flawed notion of the character of God. A lack of gratitude does not stir the wrath of God; it does not move God to punish. Continuing from one generation to the next is a failure to grasp what God is up to into the cross—God’s movement toward our brokenness is one of grace, not vengeance.

A theme of Paul’s correspondence to the church in Colossae is gratitude—one captured three times in three verses! But this theme is not generated as a warning to the church. Rather, the invitation to gratitude is promised as an opportunity to break, and finally diminish, a culture of ingratitude that permeates our lives. Ours is a culture that seeks to grasp more and more as though there exists a scarcity of resources. Hidden deep within our consciousness is a fear that failure to acquire good things now will result in our missing out. The result is a growing hunger to acquire more. Fear grows that we may not have enough, exhaustion in our striving diminishes appreciation—even joy—in what we presently have, and a competitive spirit shapes a heart that results in dissatisfaction. Finally, we are consumed by this endless striving, our hearts are emptied of peace, and we become an ungrateful, even unhappy, people.

Paul’s antidote is gratitude—generating intentional thankfulness for God’s good creation, for the gift of our lives and the opportunity to love and be loved, and for the gift of redemption from brokenness and sin. Cultivation of gratitude for the ordinary as well as the extraordinary moments available each day will break the culture of ingratitude that tightly secures us in chains. A simple lunch shared with friends, the laughter of children at play, and taking notice once again of the beauty of the earth—the seashore, lush mountains, or flowery meadows—grows upon our consciousness, and we question how we failed to enjoy them before. More, we realize a movement away from a lonely and competitive pursuit of new riches and a movement toward a strong sense of community cohesion that marks us as part of something so much more than our individual lives—members of the body of Christ.

David L. Bartlett shares that in Decatur, Georgia, there is a church that might have been named with Colossians in mind: The Thankful Baptist Church. “Colossians claims that, as with Thankful Baptist Church, when we dress up for each day’s work, we dress ourselves in Christ, with thanksgiving. In a religious marketplace that pushes happy Christianity, Colossians speaks a word for thankful Christianity.”ii Bartlett advances his observation here that thankfulness is harder to come by than happiness but is immeasurably better. Vibrant churches—as well as vibrant disciples—understand the need for gratitude to guard from self-absorption and, finally, despair. Jesus’ own prayers sparkled with expressions of gratitude. Each prayer cultivated, strengthened, and reminded him that God is the very center of our life. Bartlett suggests this prayer, “You have given me so much, O God—I ask but for one thing more, a grateful heart.”iii

Joy,

i Tracy Chevalier, Girl with A Pearl Earring (New York, New York: Penguin Books 76.

ii David L. Bartlett, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, Volume 1: Advent Through Transfiguration (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press) 163.

iii Ibid, 163.

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

Borrowing Time for Prayer

“Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged.”

Luke 18:1 (Common English Bible)

Near the beginning of my present ministry, I placed a brass plaque on the pulpit positioned just above the Bible. It reads, “The pulpit must be the grave of all human words” by Edward Thurneysen. We don’t come to worship for human advice. If we did, a church service would be no different than a Ted Talk. I need to be reminded each week that people come not for an expression of my opinion; they come for the Word of God. Here in this teaching from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is telling a parable about an opportunity to pray continuously. Jesus believed in prayer. Jesus prayed often. Jesus now wants us to know that prayer is nothing less than approaching the presence of an infinitely holy God. It is an invitation received from God. We must sense the gravity of that invitation and not be relaxed about prayer. Thought, preparation, and intentionality are a more responsible response to God’s invitation to prayer.

A shared difficulty with this approach to prayer is sheer busyness. A man I admire in my present congregation once told me that Jesus’ invitation for regular, daily prayer was a “tall ask.” He owned a business with nearly nine hundred employees. Regular demands upon him rarely left time for reading the Bible, a helpful daily meditation, and prayer. I sympathized and tried to understand. Yet, I also hear that God’s claim upon us—God’s claim upon the life of my friend—isn’t negotiable. Jesus asks that we pray continuously. That isn’t advice from the pastor. It isn’t the opinion of a human. It is all Jesus. A hit-or-miss casualness toward prayer is simply unacceptable. Close attention to Jesus’ life discloses that Jesus remained busy healing, teaching, and proclaiming God’s Kingdom. It would be an interesting debate between my friend and Jesus, which one of them worked harder.

What my friend failed to grasp is that the time borrowed for reading Scripture, a brief meditation, and prayer will not be lost from his work. The poise, and steadiness, and increased wisdom granted from time with God each morning will be recompensed to him many times over. That great leader of the early church, Martin Luther, understood this. He commented that the busier he was, the more time he took in the morning for prayer. There is simply no substitute for the value added to each day after being steadied and strengthened by God. Bruce Larson, a Presbyterian pastor of another generation, once spoke at a conference I attended on the value of prayer in his life. He said that if he missed a day of prayer, he noticed the difference. If he missed several days of prayer, his family noticed the difference. If he missed three days, his friends noticed the difference. If he missed for a week, his congregation noticed a difference.

Bryant Kirkland shared in a sermon before the faculty and students of Princeton Theological Seminary something he once found on the wall of an army chapel. It said, “Nothing happens here unless you want it to.”[i] Naturally, the question for each of us is, what do we want to happen by prayer? What Jesus found in prayer was less a power to effect miracles and more a presence—God’s presence—that brought in generous measures of strength in weakness, encouragement in discouragement, and inspiration to reach for greater heights. More, Jesus found someone who would never abandon him. Anne Frank wrote that she was prompted to keep a diary simply because, “I don’t have a friend.”[ii] Jesus doesn’t want that to be our story. Rather, Jesus desires to introduce to us, through prayer, a God who not only desires to draw close to us but will create in us a transformative story. Confidently, Jesus asks, “Pray continuously and not to be discouraged.”

Joy,

[i] Bryant Kirkland, God’s Gifts, The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, Volume VII, Number 3, p.268.

[ii] Anne Frank, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (New York: Anchor Books, 2001) 6.

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

Profit, Loss, and Gratitude

The following meditation was written by Doug Hood’s son, Nathanael Cameron Hood, a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

(Mark 8:36 KJV)

In 2018, Michael Norton, a professor at Harvard Business School, co-led a study where over 2,000 people with a net worth of at least $1 million were interviewed about their personal happiness. Two of the questions which produced the most revealing answers concerned his subjects’ self-satisfaction with their personal wealth. First, Norton asked them to rate their happiness on a scale of one to ten. Second, he would ask them how much more money they would need to get that happiness rating up to a ten. As Norton explained in an interview with The Atlantic: “All the way up the income-wealth spectrum basically everyone says [they’d need] two or three times as much.”1 One would imagine that at a certain point when money stops being an issue, when private planes become as negligible an expense as a morning cup of coffee, enough would be, well, enough. But, as Norton discovered, human psychology doesn’t always work sensibly—or rationally.

The idea that wealth can’t buy happiness isn’t a particularly new or novel revelation. After all, one of the most famous and enduring stories of the last few centuries—Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—centers on a miser whose insatiable hunger for wealth left him so miserable, lonely, and despised that it took an act of God to save him from himself. Or consider J. Paul Getty, the infamous founder of the Getty Oil Company who was once listed in the 1960s as the richest man on earth. He was so single-minded in his pursuit of wealth and so paranoid in clinging to it that he once famously forced his kidnapped grandson to pay him back the ransom money he spent—with interest!

There are many ways that the stories of Scrooge and Getty could (and perhaps should) be read as cautionary tales, but one of the most glaring involves their common lack of gratitude. Was Scrooge thankful as a young man with a successful job and a beautiful fiancée? No, he traded both for loneliness, a gloomy apartment, and a bigger bank account. Was Getty thankful for his grandson’s recovery from kidnappers? No, he saw it as yet another business transaction. There have been scientific studies proving that cultivating gratitude results in improved mental health and personal happiness, but perhaps equally important is the idea that gratitude protects us from losing our very humanity in the search for wealth and success. Put another way; gratitude keeps us from becoming a Scrooge or Getty.

Shortly after he predicted his death for the first time in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus Christ gave a brief sermon to his disciples about the importance of taking up one’s cross and following him. It’s only a few verses long, but it contains one of Jesus’ most startling teachings, namely that anyone who seeks to save their lives by their own power will lose it. What use is gaining the whole world, Jesus asks, if you lose your soul in the process? And indeed, looking at the lives of Scrooge and Getty we see two men who leveraged their souls a long time ago. Imagine how much a little gratitude could have changed the lives of Scrooge and Getty. Let us give thanks that there is still plenty of time for the rest of us to make the change.

Joy,

1Pinsker, Joe. “The Reason Many Ultrarich People Aren’t Satisfied With Their Wealth.” The Atlantic, February 13, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-people-happy-money/577231/.  

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

God of the Mundane

The following meditation was written by Doug Hood’s son, Nathanael Cameron Hood, a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.’”

Mark 14:22-24 (Common English Bible)

Something I’ve discovered as I’ve gotten older is that few things make me sound crazier than trying to explain social media trends and memes to people who don’t have or use social media. Therefore, I usually try to avoid mentioning things I see on those sites, but recently I stumbled across a post that stopped me in my tracks like a sudden thunderclap. The post in question was from a young woman explaining how she lost her faith and stopped going to church. Roughly paraphrasing, she wrote that she believed in God as a child because she felt moved by her megachurch’s worship music. However, one day she went to a pop concert, felt the same emotions, and realized it wasn’t God that moved her but live music. As of my writing this article, the post has been viewed and liked over two million times and received over three thousand comments, many from other young people proclaiming similar experiences and disenchantment with organized religion. There was, however, one exception. One of the many comments asked a simple question: “Well, are you sure it wasn’t God you felt at that pop concert?”

Reading this comment, my mind immediately flashed to many of the stories I’d encountered in my church history classes at seminary. Entire wars were fought between different Christian groups and denominations over the “correct” ways to worship and know God. With music, without music. With strict liturgy, without strict liturgy. With lavish decorative artwork, without lavish decorative artwork. My point is that Christians take these things very, very seriously—in many cases, to a dangerous fault. One need scarcely imagine the horror many fellow believers might feel at the idea that you can experience God not in a church but in a concert venue and not with religious hymns but secular pop music.

But is it really that extraordinary to imagine? Time and again in the Bible, we find God deliberately working with the ordinary and the mundane. In Genesis, God uses dust from the ground, not gold or jewels, to form the first human. Many of the miracles in the Hebrew Bible display God’s power not in wealth and physical might but in simple provisions for the poor, needy, and desperate: water from a rock, manna in the desert, and jars of oil in a widow’s house. Jesus himself chose to teach in parables which used common, everyday images familiar to even the poorest of the poor: a farmer sowing seed, a shepherd keeping their sheep, and an attacked traveler. When he wasn’t healing or exorcising demons, Jesus’ miracles seldom strayed far from the table: jars of wine at a wedding, loaves and fish for hungry crowds, nets of fish that threatened to capsize boats.

And then, of course, there is the Last Supper. When Jesus made his everlasting covenant with all humanity on that fateful Passover night, it wasn’t with choice meats and oils, expensive fruits, and imported spices. It was with bread and wine. And with which bread and which wine? The fine, processed white loaves and opulent wines of a king? Almost certainly not. When Jesus broke bread and said, “this is my body,” it was with the tough, grainy loaves of a peasant. When he poured wine and said, “this is my blood,” it was with the watery swill of the poor. Taken together, the Bible doesn’t seem to just approve the search for God in the mundane, it demands it. After all, a God that can only be felt and known in a church is no God at all. Ours is a God who can be found in all facets of creation from the stars in the sky to smell of fresh bread in an oven. And, yes, ours is a God who can be found even at pop concerts.

Joy,

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

Facing the Big Move

The following mediation was written by Doug Hood’s son, Nathanael Cameron Hood, a recent graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.

“They should make me a sanctuary so I can be present among them. You should follow the blueprints that I will show you for the dwelling and for all its equipment.”

Exodus 25: 8, 9 (Common English Bible)

There are few things I dislike more in life than moving. It’s not just that I dislike the boxing and the unboxing, the lifting and the sweating, the stress and the worry—although I very much do. For me, what I dislike the most is saying goodbye to old comforts and habits. Let me explain. During my last year at Princeton Theological Seminary, I lived in a wonderful room on the third floor of Brown Hall, a beautiful recently renovated dorm built in 1865. Located at the heart of the campus, the dorm was a fifteen-second walk from the cafeteria, a thirty-second walk from the main classroom building, and a ten-minute walk from Nassau Street—Princeton’s answer to New York City’s Time Square. I quickly became accustomed to these short walks for their convenience and beauty. In truth, I came to love them.

The room itself was small but large enough to accommodate an overworked student like myself. There, too, I became accustomed to its dimensions and came to love them—I loved how it was exactly seven steps from my bed to my private bathroom and less than one to my large wooden desk. I put an electric kettle for tea on the left side of the desk and sometimes—when deadlines were particularly brutal—a coffee pot on the right. Many were the days (and nights) when I would wrap myself in a blanket, sit in my chair, fire up the kettle and coffee pots, and read, study, and write for hours. Especially when soft rains or snow danced outside my window, my room became an introverted seminarian’s paradise.

But eventually, I had to say goodbye to Princeton, to the short walks I’d loved, the dorm room that became a hideaway, and the desk I’d whiled away so many afternoons and long weekends. I traded them all for an apartment in Brooklyn, where I would be spending the next year of my ministry. The move was stressful, but the hardest part was getting used to my new surroundings. Now, I had no desk, a bathroom down the hall, four roommates, and a twenty-minute walk to my new job. Small complaints, but for an introverted creature of habit like myself, they mattered.

The Book of Exodus also recounts the story of a significant move—the moving of the Hebrew people from Egypt to the Promised Land. Despite having escaped literal slavery, Exodus tells how the Hebrews quickly came to mourn their old habits and surroundings. Remember when we used to have meat and fresh vegetables, they whined. Remember how life was in the old days? There are many stories of God and Moses dealing with these complaints, but one of my favorites is the unusually specific instructions God gives for building the tabernacle, the holy ornaments, and the new priestly duties. Read in a certain light, it’s like God was giving a final response to the Hebrews’ mourning of their old lives with literal instructions for a new one. In time, the Jewish people would look back at this tabernacle as instrumental to their identity as God’s chosen people. The new had replaced the old. They just needed the courage and conviction to trust God and let go of the past. I can relate. Though I miss my old dorm, I’ve come to make my new apartment a home. I have new rituals for how I go about my days and nights, ones that I now dread leaving behind in a future move as much as I dreaded leaving my Princeton ones. And what’s more, I’m comforted knowing that I’m exactly where God needs me to be at this exact moment in my life. What could be better than that?

Joy,

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

Our Greatest Gift to Another

“I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth.”

John 17:19 (Common English Bible)

Jim Rohn writes, “The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, ‘If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.’ Now I say, ‘I will take care of me for you if you will take care of you for me.’”[i] Rohn seems to have captured wisdom from Jesus’ playbook. In a tribute to his nature and character, Jesus makes the statement, “I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy.” Here is Jesus’ secret for maintaining intimacy with twelve irritating men who were his companions. Each disciple pledged their life to the purposes of Jesus. Yet, in one measure or another, they disrupted their fellowship with angry contention as to who came first or who was the most loved. Petty prejudices were evident in their ministry, and they fiercely attacked men who had caught the spirit of Jesus but who did not belong to their select circle.

Abandonment of such a divisive, arrogant, and argumentative bunch of men seems the most reasonable course for Jesus to take. Yes, Jesus loved them. But they also drove him crazy. Certainly, there were stronger candidates that Jesus could trust to care for his divine purposes. But right here, with this statement captured in John’s Gospel, Jesus purposed to lift them, “I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth.” Jesus’ technique is to lift himself closer to God, on the disciples’ behalf, so that as he is changed by God’s presence, he might change the disciples. These foolish, deficient colleagues that Jesus loves are made useful by Jesus’ decision to draw closer to God. As Jesus is changed, the disciples are changed by their proximity to Jesus. There is something intensely practical here for us. Every individual is affected by a relationship they establish with another personality.

Instinctively, we become like those persons we keep company with. This becomes evident in the fashion that dress us, the amusements that entertain us, and the values we embrace. Parents know this. That is why the company their children keep becomes such an important consideration. We spend an hour with a friend, and we come away different. If the experience is less than satisfying, we are conscious of a weakening within our psyche. We question why we entertained unsavory gossip or indulged in humor that inflicts pain upon another. Then we spend an hour with another friend, and we come away with indescribable joy. The world takes on a different complexion than before, and we feel good about ourselves. The world is a beautiful place, more welcoming, more gracious, more inclusive of differences. The dynamic is the same in both cases. We are under a spell of influence.

If we do not have a satisfactory relationship with those who are closest to us, Jesus shows us what we can do about it. We can take care of ourselves—we can lift our own life closer to God until we experience a change in our own character. That change is inevitable. Moses experienced it on the mountain with God. The apostle Paul experienced it on the Road to Damascus. One life rubbing up against another results in change for both. But a life that draws near to God—and remains there for a considerable period—experiences transformation by the divine. If those who are nearest to us seem to disappoint, and seem to have lives marked by the trivial and shallow, we cannot wave aside the blame for such conditions. As Jim Rohn might say, that is the life we inspire by who we are. Take responsibility for spiritual growth and watch the change in those who are closest to you. That will be our greatest gift to another.

Joy,

[i] Jim Rohn, The Treasury of Quotes (Dallas, Texas: SUCCESS Enterprises, LLC, 1994-2021), 88.

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

In the Face of Defeat

“When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger. They rose up and ran him out of town.”

Luke 4:28, 29 (Common English Bible)

Defeat is a single, devasting event. We do not experience defeat—a loss or failure that is potentially injurious to our sense of self-worth—without strenuous effort to succeed. Defeat follows intentional activity to advance forward with some worthwhile goal, some accomplishment that attracts notice from others. Yet, it is most important that we accept that defeat is a single event, not one that defines our life. Defeat is inevitable for everyone who lives purposefully. To put it more simply, defeat is nothing more than a single event in the span of a lifetime. Lives lived richly, lived with a strong drive to achieve, and add value to the world we live in often experience multiple defeats. But each defeat is a singular event. And, as has often been said, each defeat moves one closer to success.

The life of Jesus stands as the supreme example of successful living. And yet, if one pays close attention to that life, it is astonishing to find how often Jesus experienced personal defeat. Jesus did not walk along easy paths that were free of difficulty or opposition. Again and again, Jesus absorbed into himself the anguish of retreat, saw his most noble efforts crash down into ruins and knocked on the door of opportunity only to have that door remained closed. If the life to which we look to for inspiration, encouragement, and hope had to contend with reversal after reversal, defeat after defeat, perhaps we have reason to conclude that such misfortune is woven into the very fabric of life. Defeat in the pursuit of noble ends is not unusual. Defeat—even if one follows another—is not evidence of a defeated life.

Here, in this teaching from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. I have sat through the teaching of many wise professors. The response of the students follows along a continuum of disinterest to applause. But not once have I observed anger as Jesus does here in Luke. Not just an expression of rage, Jesus’ students attempt to throw him off a cliff! My study Bible has placed this passage of scripture after the heading, The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth. Jesus, the most successful life in history, receives rejection, anger, and an attempt on his life. At the end of the day, I imagine that this experience would not be placed on a resume. How did our Lord cope with this failure? Luke tells us that he escaped, went on his way, and resumed teaching. Obviously, a step in the successful treatment of defeat is to simply accept it.

It is not freedom from defeat that characterizes us. Jesus experienced defeat again and again. But rather than be classified as a loser, Jesus accepted defeat and moved on with the single purpose of his life. Undoubtedly, each defeat brought with it a sting of disappointment and discomfort. And most people probably take immediate steps to ensure that defeat is never repeated—at least not in the same fashion. Like a child that experiences pain from some activity, we learn not to repeat the same activity. Unfortunately, defeat is unavoidable for anyone who strives forward. It was unavoidable for Jesus. But Jesus’ behavior amid defeat demonstrates that defeat is not all loss. If we have the same purpose of mind as Jesus, failure and defeat cannot break us. We need only to look at Jesus.

Joy,

To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

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Religious

When Our Self-Worth Stumbles

“Dear friends, now we are God’s children.”

1 John 3:2 (Common English Bible)

A major challenge faced by most of us is a preoccupation with what other people think of us. Sensitivity to the opinions of our friends and our enemies may sway from one moment to the next. Yet it remains a constant consideration. Politicians are not the only ones who have an ear to the ground or eyes on the polls. The rumblings of popular sentiment about how we are perceived are always on our radar. We crave approval and shrink from disapproval. Our mood for days is often determined by favorable or unfavorable commentary on our character, ability, or accomplishments. We form a mental picture of ourselves through the comments and opinions of those in our orbit. Our self-worth hangs upon what others think of us. The gravitation pull of even the most trifling uncomplimentary remark can result in an emotional collapse.

There may be something of value in paying attention to what others are saying about us. We live in community with one another. We are responsible for one another. Every decision, every behavior impacts the larger community in which we live and work. Most of us want to positively impact our own little portion of the world. We cannot ignore what others may say about us, nor should we. Unfavorable responses that come in our direction may provide insight for a course reset. Negative feedback can be a catalyst for rethinking our approach, our approach to friendships, work colleagues, and family. As we move forward from this day, a constant factor in life is that our yesterday does not have to be our tomorrow. We have the capacity to reflect upon favorable and unfavorable feedback and make a change.

A more fundamental question that we ought to concern ourselves with is what we think of ourselves. That question is answered by our thoughts, habits, and how we deploy our natural talents and gifts in the service of others. We form a mental picture of ourselves through our education, experiences, and fortitude to delve into challenges regardless of the perceived obstacles—real or imagined. Each one of us has limits of knowledge and ability. Yet, with desire and determination, new limits can be put in place of old ones—knowledge and understanding, and ability continually stretched. That is the power and value of attitude. But no one can surpass the limits of one’s current self-image. The mental picture of ourselves either releases energy for continued growth or imprisons us within our present ability.

For people of faith, the Bible helps those whose self-image is stuck for those moments when self-worth stumbles. John, the beloved disciple of our Lord, reminds us that “we are God’s children.” We are unable to fully comprehend God and God’s work in our lives and in the world. We are unable to know “what we will be.” (1 John 3:2b) But John reminds us that the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who raised Jesus from the dead, claims us as God’s own children. Recalling our glorious nature as God’s own child is enough to strengthen a self-image that is weakened by the judgments of others. There is a deep tendency today to become like what we imagine ourselves to be. The one who claims us ought to matter. Since we are claimed by God, shall we not dare to think well of our value and to live by the highest thoughts?

Joy,

Categories
Religious

Religious Dropouts

“At this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him.”

John 6:66 (Common English Bible)

It is now fairly common knowledge that Christian churches across the United States are experiencing decline—a decline in membership, decline in worship attendance, and decline in financial support. Diminishing interest in the church has resulted, in many congregations, a shift from full-time pastoral leadership to part-time, reduced opportunities for spiritual nurture and growth, and a smaller impact on the local community. As congregations grow smaller they are faced with difficult decisions such as merging with other churches or closing their doors permanently. Causes for the decline of the Christian Church across our nation have been studied and solutions have been scarce.

What has received less attention is a phenomenon I will call the “religious dropouts.” These are the people who are regularly present in services of worship, engaged in personal spiritual growth, and participate in the church’s mission to feed the hungry, house the homeless and care for the broken. Vibrant and robust churches are built upon their dedication to Jesus and Jesus’ work through the local congregation. It is not difficult to see that the church is stronger for such people. Then, they simply aren’t present anymore. The place they once occupied in worship is empty. It is a phenomenon that dates back to the earthly ministry of Jesus: “many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him.”

The primary reason for the “religious dropout” remains the same from Jesus’ day until ours: frustration and disappointment. There are present in every faith community people who turn to religion for some things the Christian faith never promised to provide. They expect in religion a kind of magical solution to their problems, anxieties, and illnesses and it hasn’t worked out. Some expect that faithfulness to the church will protect them from job loss, marital discord, and safety from the violence in the world. Others look to the church to shelter their children from everything that is unpleasant and distasteful in the dominant culture. When they fail to receive what they were looking for, they are cool to religion and simply drop out.

After many who followed Jesus turned away, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, “Do you also want to leave?” It is a good question for each one of us to ask. People who come to our churches expecting only to “get something” or find easy solutions will be frustrated and disappointed. Somehow they have missed that Jesus was betrayed, beaten, and crucified. As William Willimon once commented, why do the followers of Jesus expect to get off any better? What is required is a return to the promise that the faith has always made available: In Jesus Christ, God walks with us through the storms, difficulties, and struggles of life, strengthening us along the way. Life will take us to the depths. When we arrive, Jesus will be there. We are not alone.

Joy,

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To read more meditations by Dr. Doug Hood and Nathanael Cameron Hood, you can purchase Nurture Faith: Five Minute Meditations to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ from your favorite book seller.

Any royalties received support the ministry and mission of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.