Surprising Things that Happen When Jesus Heals You

John 4:7-30

I love books and movies.  Ever since I was a child, no matter how satisfying the ending, as I got to the last page or to the end credits, I wondered, "And then what happened?" The gospels are full of Jesus' short encounters were he heals strangers.  I always wondered, "and then what?"  How does being healed by the Savior in the flesh change the rest of your life?

One of the women I always wonder about isn't even named.  We simply call her the woman at well.  We know she was avoiding all the other women in the village because she comes to draw water in the heat of the day at the worst possible time.  She'd rather sweat, puff and pant in the heat, not to mention loose some of the water to evaporation, rather than face the whispers and stone faces of the other women.

Then Jesus shows up.  He asks her for simple water and when she is surprised, offers her water she'll never have to replenish.  He gives her a chance to confess wayward choices and when she wonders where God wants her to go to begin to worship again, Jesus simply asks her to worship in spirit and truth and trust him as the Messiah.  

Most of us who have been believers for a while have heard this story.  There is nothing new here.  But I'm fascinated by what she does next.  She is forgiven her sins, completely healed of the longing that caused those sins and invited back into a relationship with God.  What is the first thing she does?  Instead of running away or asking to come with Jesus, she runs back to the town, to the very people she was trying to avoid and tells them, "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the  Messiah?"(John 4:28-30). Notice how she runs toward the very people she was avoiding.  She risks further criticism and isolation (Can't you just hear them saying, "So what, we know everything you ever did too?"). She risks their further scorn.  She even leaves the water jar, forgetting the chore that brought her there in the first place. 

Stop and think about the people in your life you would gladly rearrange your daily schedule to avoid.  Whether their judgement of you is fair or not, think about the people whose criticism feels like it can never be healed no matter what you do.  A co-worker?  A sibling?  Some one-time friends?  Now what would make you want to walk into their homes or call them up and tell them God has healed you from past mistakes and you want them to have the same joy?  What gave this woman that courage?  Maybe their labels and judgements no longer mattered?  As right as their opinions of her were, now only God's forgiveness and healing matters.  She needed a reminder of who she was to God and an invitation to make God the center of her life again.  This forgiveness and calling make up her new identity, and she boldly walks into it.  So boldly that the possibility of rejection doesn't matter.  This new identity fuels her compassion that asks her former tormentors to see the Messiah for themselves.  

When you truly, completely feel the forgiveness, love and acceptance of God, nothing else matters.  No one's opinions, rejection or even approval can possibly compare to leading others to the healing and acceptance she's found.  

We don't know what the rest of woman at the well's life was like after she met Jesus.  But if it was anything like her first reaction to Jesus' offering her healing, we know she lived life bravely focused on who God said she was without any fear of rejection.  May we all be so courageous. 

This time Jesus' healing brings people together.  The townspeople come out to meet Jesus and encourage him to stay for three days.  In my next blog entry, we'll talk about times when being healed by Jesus brings isolation.

~ Denyse Blasdel

Do Nothing

This Lenten season, our church has been spending each Sunday focusing on one day of Holy Week.  I realized that I knew each day by heart: Spy Wednesday, when Judas decided to betray Jesus, Maundy Thursday when Jesus gave his followers the command to love one another.   But what happened on Holy Saturday, when Jesus was still silent in the tomb?  Nothing.  This must have been the worst day of the week, if not for all of history.  

The disciples are drowning in sorrow and grief with nothing but ruin looking back.  This is a particularly heartbreaking for Judas and Peter.  Both men have betrayed Jesus and are sitting in a mess of their own making, desperately needIng to do something, anything, to repent.

Judas tries to do the right thing.  He gives the money back and confesses to betraying innocent blood.  He looks for forgiveness and restitution from the religious authorities. But when regret is swallowing you whole, never trust someone who does not know Jesus.  Finally, Judas has no other way to show God he is sorry but to hang himself.  The one thing he cannot do is wait for God to step in and clean everything up.  Why would God do that?  

Peter has also sinned just as much as Judas and can't do anything about it.  Scripture is silent about how Peter spent this Saturday.  All of the gospels leave him crying bitterly alone on Friday night. We know that he only has 36 hours to go until Jesus finds him and sets him free.  But Peter doesn't know this.  In his mind, he has the rest of his life to live with the shame.  

Sometimes, truth be told, we find ourselves in exactly the same spot.  We've smeared our entire lives with selfish, cowardly sin, and a step in any direction, even if it's to show God we're sorry, will just make everything worse.  Like a seagull coated in crude oil stumbling along the beach, we can't do anything but wait for God to step in and clean us.  If, indeed, He is willing.  Because truth be told, we really couldn't claim God is unfair if He chose not to clean us up this time.  This mess is so big and so completely our fault, God would still be a fair and just God if He chose not to bring out the sponge.  It's pushing the limits of mercy, even for the creator of the universe.  

So we sit and wait and see if God will bail us out because our only step in faith is no step at all.  Our only act of faith is to wait and do nothing.  We have no more moves left on the chess board. 

This is the heart of Easter Sunday.  Jesus comes to us, dies and rises for us, gladly without any help on our part. Our only act of faith is to wait through silent Saturday until Easter Sunday.  

May God grant us all the courage and patience to do nothing but wait.  Jesus is coming for you and me.  He is risen!

Lent: Pressure on Purpose

Lent:  Pressure on Purpose

Let me ask you something.  When was the last time you woke up on a Saturday morning, the entire day before you with no commitments and decided to clean out your garage or closet?  Pull absolutely everything out, get rid of what doesn't belong, and organize what remains into useful systems?  Yeah, me neither.  

In today's world, nothing just happens without first having a slot on the calendar.  Even the things we enjoy doing like date night and time with our children don't happen without a plan.  That goes doubly for the things we don't want to do.  Think about it.  How overdue is your dental cleaning?

The ancient church knew this would be a temptation.  That's why our spiritual ancestors designated the 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays) as Lent. I know,I know your eyes just glazed over in boredom, but stick with me. I am going somewhere with this.  It's a time staked out on the calendar for reflection, prayer and fasting.  It's a time for a spiritual closet cleaning.  We ask God to show us our blind spots or those habits and thoughts that are holding us back from maturing.  

No, you won't find the word "Lent" in the Bible and maybe you’re afraid I've lead you down some rabbit hole of tradition worship, but all throughout scripture leaders earmarked time for prayer, fasting and reflection.  In Exodus, when God led the Israelites out of Egypt and through a process of becoming an independent nation, He specifically commanded them to observe times of remembering, fasting and praying.  The Day of Atonement found in Leviticus 23:26-32 was set aside as a time of facing one's sin and recognizing how much we need a savior.  During the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:33-34, Israelites spend a week living in tents to remember how God delivered them from hopeless circumstances.  

Commands to repent, fast and prayer continue all over the New Testament.  But we come back to the problem of having no sacred time to make these happen.  Throw in a culture that will not rearrange it's schedule for our spiritual needs, and I wonder sometimes how we ever get around to growing in our faith.  

This is especially important for long-term believers.  We hear words like "sin" and "repentance" and think of what life was like years ago when sin stained everything we did.  Or worse yet, we thing of our friend who really needs to spend time U-turning from a sin costing her dearly.  Observing Lent every year forces me to look at my own life through a microscope and see where the spiritual cobwebs have taken over.  

Forty days of dedicated prayer and reflection have an unwelcome way of reminding us we still have a lot of maturing to do.  If reading a 5 minute devotion every morning seems like an impossible burden, how close is my relationship to God?  If going without sugar for 40 days has me tumbling in temper tantrums, is this a sign I've created an idol?  If I'm unwilling to rearrange some time to lead devotions for my family, is God really my first priority?  

Are you wondering how this looks in day-to-day life?  Christians going through Lent typically give something up that we suspect has become an idol, or we incorporate a new habit to strengthen our walk with Christ.  I went through a similar period this last winter.  I love getting my nails and hair done.  I'm at an age where I'm having to decide between letting the grey slowly take over or getting what used to be my natural color out of a bottle.  But slowly I began to wonder where my confidence was coming from.  Could I boldly pursue my callings in life with ragged nails and outgrown roots?  I decided to go a few weeks to find out.  It was definitely a time of reevaluating the source of my strength.  After a time, I was still able attend meetings, meet new people and write about God's goodness no matter the state of my manicure.  I know it sounds silly, but we humans can make an idol out of anything.  Point is, purposefully removing habits out of your life will quickly let you know how dependent you've become on them.  

The flip side of the coin is adding a healthy practice into our daily lives.  Adding in a 5 to 15 minute devotion first thing in the morning seems simple enough, until you have to find a way to dust the morning fog out of your brain to understand what you are reading.  Then you realize the mindset that goes behind putting God first.  

Are these practices necessary for salvation?  Of course not.  Any Christian who tells you that if you don't observe Lent then you are not a true Christian is woefully wrong.  God loves us with absolutely no qualifications.  You could go your entire life never having set aside concentrated time for prayer and fasting and still go to heaven.  But taking time to examine your spiritual life will give you such a deeper understanding of who Christ is to you that you will want to do it again.  

So where is grace in all this?  Ironically, in every day of Lent.  The more we try to clean ourselves up, the more tangled we become in our sin.  Soon we realize we can never be good enough, strong enough, self disciplined enough to save ourselves.  Jesus' saving grace is there in every moment of failure.  When I come to the end of my willpower, I realize how little I can do. I need Jesus to cheer me on when I succeed and pick me up when I fail.  No one else can love me through all the struggling and triumphs.  

If you've never set aside a specific time to concentrate on prayer and reflection, this Lenten season is a great time to begin.  You will find out some less that flattering things about yourself, but you'll also discover how strong God is and how much Jesus fights for you. By Easter you will know where you need to make some changes, and more importantly just how precious Jesus' resurrection is to you right now.  

~Denyse Blasdel

Beauty and Hope

This YouTube video was actually banned in France... and it is one of the most beautiful and tender things I've seen this week. Glorious! I'm saving it to show to my family tonight:

The Transgender Debate - A Christian Response

This past Monday, President Obama described new federal guidelines on school bathrooms that were recently unveiled. Designed to prevent bullying of transgender students, these new federal guidelines require public schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom and locker rooms that correspond to their chosen gender. And by invoking the sex discrimination law known as Title IX, the new rules carry with them the threat of federal enforcement — including a loss of federal education funds, USA Today reports.  

Lining up in opposition to these new guidelines are state officials who feel their rights as states are being trampled.  Additionally, religious and conservative leaders are concerned that these guidelines will lead to abuse and a less safe environment for all students, regardless of their gender.

Sadly, overreaction on both sides prevents helpful conversation. No matter what your political or religious leanings, most of us want to prevent bullying. Most of us want our children to feel safe from discrimination and fear. Most of us want dignity and protection for the rights of others, even if we don’t fully understand their point of view.

Transgender, Transsexual, or Transvestite? 

Personally, I’ve been trying to understand these concerns from both sides to better serve those in my care. One key mistake both sides seem to be making is confusing “transgender” with “transsexual” or “transvestite.”   These words, though similar, describe very different realities.  

Transvestite persons are those who choose to dress as someone of the opposite sex, in doing so, they are choosing to behave and look as someone of the other gender.  Transsexual persons are those who, while they have no chromosomal abnormalities, choose to have either gender reassignment surgery and/ or hormone therapy to help them more fully feel and appear like someone of the opposite sex. Both of these choices are described by Scripture as sinful; done willfully (like any willful, repetitive, unrepented sin) they threaten to eternally separate us from our Creator.

Genuinely transgender people, I’ve come to learn, are generally embarrassed by all this discussion.  They deeply desire privacy concerning this intimate and personal issue. Apparently, about 0.3% of all babies born today are born without fully formed sexual organs. Often, delivery doctors in the past have made surgical changes based upon which was the easiest surgical “fix” without first conducting a chromosome test. This can lead to individuals whose sexual organs do not match their XX or XY chromosomal makeup; this is not a matter of individual choice or sin. These individuals are also not threats to others in the bathroom, as some suggest; there is a 0% correlation between pedophilia and true transgenderism. Frankly, as a matter of personal dignity and equality, I would suggest that we as Christians should be among the first to seek protection, dignity, security, and equality for the 0.3% of genuinely transgender students seeking to use the bathroom without bullying or embarrassment.   

On the other side of the issue, those who have highly valid concerns about bathroom safety. Men — with sinful and deviant understandings of their sexuality — have taken advantage of younger children even in public bathrooms; there are numerous examples of this happening, even while watchful parents waited for their children outside. To dismiss these concerns seems short-sighted, unsafe, and even dangerous; one can understand why some states are even attempting to pass laws in this regard to safeguard what they rightly understand to be the safety of all children.

Useful Verse

There’s a useful Bible verse I’ve been turning to more frequently whenever I’m challenged to grow in a new direction. It’s this one:

“Perfect love drives out fear.”   (1 John 4:18)

Looking back on my life, some of my worst decisions have been made in anxiety or fear… both of which seem very common today. As we become more aware of the needs and concerns of those around us, in Christ — who first loved us — our first reaction can also be love. This means a loving desire to understand those who have a different point of view… and loving and respectful opposition should we completely disagree. This is certainly not easy, but nothing is gained by demonizing and marginalizing others. Just like Jesus, we are invited to still show love with boundaries, having real, difficult, and messy conversations with everyone.

As I wrestle with these issues in a broken and fallen world, I’ve found myself, in moments of confusion, stress, or pain “editing” my words and actions more and more, asking the Holy Spirit, “Is this the most loving thing Christ wants me to do?” I’ve also found that more I reflect on Jesus’ love — a love that took God Himself to the cross and the empty tomb for you and for me — the less and less I tend to respond in anxiety and unhealthy fear to the things of this life. 

Compromise

Being wise people of peace in times of anxiety is one of the best ways that we can — by the Spirit’s power — demonstrate God’s gracious and generous love for all.  Thankfully, in this area there appears to be an area of unity and compromise, should both sides choose to take it. 

Single-use bathrooms with a lock easily secure privacy and security for all, regardless of their personal choices, gender, or age. Here at St. Philip Church & School we even have a single-use locking bathroom on our campus that we could voluntarily and easily adapt with proper signage, should anyone in our community or school request or require it. Perhaps that would even be the generous and loving thing to do, even if it is never requested.

Hopefully, mature leaders on both sides of this issue will work towards healthy compromises like this instead of seeking to stir up fear for political or religious gain.

Grant this love, Lord, unto us all.  

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