"It is true that we might do a vast amount of good if we were wealthy, but it is also highly improbable; not many do; and the art  of growing rich is not only quite distinct from that of doing good, but the practice of the one does not at all train a man for practicing the other." Thoreau. 

  "My life is but a travesty and slander on myself. I have lived to belie my nature. All men do; all men are better than this disguise that grows about and stifles them. You see each dragged away by life, like one whom bravos have seized and muffled in a cloak. If they had their own control -- if you could see their faces, they would be altogether different, they would shine out for heroes and saints!" R.L. Stevenson 

  "When you give a banquet invited the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Lk. 14:14

    "There once was a wise teacher who would go to the temple every evening to pray with his disciples. By the temple there was a stray cat who would wander in every evening during these prayers and disturb the peace. So, each evening before prayers the teacher would tie the cat to a tree outside before entering. The Teacher was old and passed away a few years later. His disciples continued to tie the cat to the tree each evening before prayers. 
  Eventually the cat died and so some of the disciples purchased a new cat so that they could continue the ritual. After a hundred years the tree died and a new one was quickly planted so that the cat (by now the eighth-generation cat) could be tied to it. Over the centuries learned scholars began to write books on the symbolic meaning of the cat." Peter Rollins

Finding a church can be very difficult, the following parable is a good example why.

  "The idea of affirming a church as true includes the idea that you think that church is true for all, and to think that one church teaches the truth implies that you necessarily judge any church which contradicts its teaching as incorrect. Yet this need not be the case, as we can illustrate via the parable where two camels are being led to market. 
One camel is loaded down with salt while the other is weighed down with cotton. On the way to the market they encounter a river which has burst its banks from a rainstorm the night before and has flooded the road. At one particularly deep part the camels are almost completely submerged. When they finally get to the other side, the camel with the salt on its back has gained a renewed sense of strength, as the water has largely dissolved the salt. However, the camel with the cotton collapses in exhaustion, for the cotton has absorbed much of the water.
  In this parable we see how the same stream was experienced in two markedly different ways that depended upon the burdens that each camel brought to it. In the same way, one church may help one person to become more Christlike, while oppressing another; the idea of a single congregation being judged right or wrong in some universal way is naive." Peter Rollins 

  I met a woman at the jail this week that looked a lot like this woman; she was about the same age and had been an addict for all of her adult life and she also shot up in her neck. She kept raising her hand during the sermon with questions: all good questions like, 'is that in the Bible?' She was itching to say something so after she had raised her hand about six times with questions we just let her talk. I can't recall hearing as many swear words per square inch as she used in her 'matter of fact' speech. But somehow she wove those swear words into the most beautiful testimony of how she, for the first time in her life, after repeatedly saying she truly thought she had sold her soul to the devil, caught the vision that God loves her and wants to forgive her and restore her life. It all happened unawares as Miles, our guitar player, spent a few minutes talking with her a week ago, something in his words or prayer for her, absolutely caught her soul on fire, and it was beautiful! 

  "People generally say what they have been taught to say." - 

The English Admiral.

  I think no truer words have ever been spoken. Unique thoughts from our own inspiration are few, and especially when we are young men and women; we adopt and mimic our friends, mates, authors we read, movies we see and professors we listen too. The greatest sadness and folly is, we have no concept of how many more influences will come to us as each decade passes. The myriad of voices we will hear, the enlightening experiences, as well as great sorrows we will have, each one leaving a mark so that as we stand at midlife there are few traces of who we were when young.

 "How does one interpret the Bible? Once we recognize that all our readings are influenced by such things as cultural context, church traditions, psychological make-up and educational background we recognize that none of us merely 'translates' the Bible, but we interpret it in a variety of ways, so it's hard to decide which reading is good and which is not. 
  In order to answer this, we need to reflect upon two important concepts - the 'transfinite' and the 'infinite'. 
Infinity is a term used to describe the set of numbers that never ends. 
Transfinite signals the infinite range of numbers that exists between finite numbers. 
For example: between the numbers 1 and 2 we have 1.1 and 1.2 and 1.3 and so on. 
While we must acknowledge that the Bible holds such a wealth of meaning that it can be read in a never-ending number of ways, this does not mean that it can be read in an infinite number of ways. 

To give an example consider artwork: a painting can be read in multiple ways, but there are limits to the range of legitimate interpretations one can have. For instance, an image of two people embracing cannot be legitimately thought of as an image of war. 
In this way a piece of art has a transfinite set of interpretations rather than an infinite set of interpretations. The same goes with the Bible. While people will understand the phrase "God is love" differently, depending upon their cultural context, it cannot be legitimately understood as a call to hate or do violence to others.

  With this in mind, we must grasp that the central interpretive tool that Jesus employed when interpreting the Scriptures was the prejudice of love: He exhibited this prejudice when interpreting them in relations to His concrete interaction with those who were poor, weak and marginalized. He thus remained faithful to the text by reading it with the poor, weak and marginalized in mind. 
Failure to engage in this loving prejudice towards the poor can result in readings from power, reading in which we legitimate our own desires over and above the needs of those around us. 
  At there best, our traditions provide us with appropriate ways to engage with the various commonplace situations that arise in daily life. However, there are a myriad of situations that arise in life which have not been directly faced in the past. These events often require a response which cannot be discerned via reference to our already existing interpretive maps, and instead demand a step of creative and loving interpretation. 
For instance, the advances in life-saving technology in the late twentieth century have cast up numerous problems in medical ethics to which no Bible passage can give a definitive answer. When thinking of this Christlike prejudice of love, I am reminded of the Buddhist story in which a disciple plucks up courage to point out to the Buddha that some of the things he taught were not in the scriptures. In response the Buddha replied, "Then put them in." after an embarrassed silence the disciple spoke again: "May I be so bold as to suggest, sir, that some of the things you teach actually contradict the scriptures." 
To which the Buddha, without hesitation, smiled and said, "Then I suggest you take them out."  Peter Rollins from his book, "How (Not) to speak of God" 

Forgiveness - How does the abused forgive?

I'm preaching on forgiveness tonight and I've heard many who approach it like a "One Size Fits All" topic. But I think this is a more scriptural approach. So if you have been abused this lengthy piece may give you some comfort. I'll start it with the verses we all know.

  ¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matt. 6:14

"For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged." Matt. 7:12

 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. ³¹ Do to others as you would like them to do to you." Luke 6:27-31

Yes, we are to forgive, but does that mean forgive capital crimes? If someone cuts you off in traffic, it's a slap, if they purposely run into you, it's a capital crime.

When Jesus was slapped he didn't offer his other cheek as we read in -

Jn. 18:22 "When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?” He didn't turn his other cheek, he questioned the person.

 We have a promise that comforts the abused, as well as all of us, and it is --

"Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Ro. 12:19

Wrath is God's settled anger against sin expressed in the repayment of suitable vengeance on the guilty. (never too strong, never too weak)

God's wrath is a vehement, boiling fury, But it is a wisely directed rage -  Meaning: it is considered, directed and applied but never without control, a wisely directed rage. Perfect justice with the intent of bringing to repentance, not punitive. Ro. 12:19,  Deut. 32:35 This kind of justice is, I'm afraid, beyond our abilities. Which is why it must be left up to God.

 For a peak into God's methods of bringing the capital offender to repentance, this passage in Micah gives some insight into a few of the tools in His toolbox. Some are very effective.

God's vengeance

“For the rich men of the city are full of violence,
Her residents speak lies,
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

“So I will make you sick, striking you down,
Desolating you because of your sins.

You will eat but never have enough.
    Your hunger pangs and emptiness will remain.

And though you try to save your money,
It will come to nothing in the end. 
You will save a little, but I will give it to those who conquer you.
¹⁵ You will plant crops but not harvest them.
You will press your olives but get no oil.
You will trample the grapes but get no juice to make your wine." Micah 6:12-15

We can begin to forgive ourselves when we begin to forgive those who have sinned against us, but for those who have grievously sinned against us it is a process that begins with their repentance as Jesus describes here --

Mat. 18:15-17 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. ¹⁶ But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. (A person of disgust)

Now if our perpetrator denies the crime we are not required to forgive them but we are required to pray that they will, number one - STOP! And number two, repent, lest they be damned. That is the most loving thing we can do, and it may be all we can do.

But our mental health and well being will never be whole unless we follow Paul's advice as described here --

 ^"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."  Eph. 4:31

This requires much grace and with most of us it is impossible, but with God all things are possible, so we have to ask ourselves this very important question --  Do we want to hate? Are we willing to allow the Lord to heal us and remove our bitterness or do we want to cling too and nurse our hate?

Are we willing to let God show us how to heal and leave bitterness behind? He can and will bring light into even the deepest darkness, but we must begin the process by deciding we want to give up our hate.  

This certainly doesn't exhaust the subject, but it is a good starting point. 

The following poem was quoted by a Psychologist's patient who wrote it for her mother on Mother's Day. 

"You never tucked me in at night or sang a special song,

You never kissed my boo boos or told me I belong.

You never sat down on my bed to help me get to sleep

or came and dried my tears when you would see me weep.

You never held me close so I could feel your heartbeat next to mine,

Or ran your hand across my face memorizing my design.

You never took the time to read a bed-time story so I could dream

of a far off place and land where the good was as it seemed.

You never cared that I couldn’t eat the food upon my  plate

or that I could hardly swallow from the throat sores that would not abate.

You never shielded me from ugly, in fact, you are the one that I struggle with the most and fear that I will become;

The little girl that you gave life, who never left you side,

You took her and you ruined her and did nothing while she died.

I remember now, though I would rather forget

How you twisted things and kept me in fear,

How you never put me first

And I remember ugly things you said that no one else should ever hear.

It's taken all these years to put together what you did

To try and understand the things but I can assure you you've nothing to really fear, because I will never tell,

The words you used and you abused and caused my life to feel like hell.

Where do I start? How do I say Happy Mother's day, to the one who used me for herself, in such cruel and disgusting ways?

Happy Mother's day to you mother, the monster that you are,

-->

The one who never saw me and made my life bizarre."

  This is Winnie Harlow, a popular model; and one can't help but think that her skin color must drive the racist crazy! I think the Lord designed this beautiful blend of black and white just to show how foolish it is to judge a person by their skin color.  

  Oh the drama of life! How little we know of the struggles people endure! Behind closed doors where threats and oppressions thwart the very lives of some. The courage and tenacity it takes for them to hang on to a frayed thread! To continue in the face of interminable assaults to your very sense of being!
Oh Jesus, you take us to these battles of woe, in these hidden places of the soul sufferers. Daring to draw back the curtain where abuses immeasurable strike and slay what once were vibrant and hopeful spirits. We are led into the deepest sorrows, the darkest corners of human misery, and with our mustard seed faith, hope to bring a draught of healing, some degree of remedy where whelming storms of desperation flood. Oh what a heart rending venture to enter the souls of the downcast with His yearning to bring hope and aid, where despair and anguish have claimed days, years!
But we press in, armed and hopeful with the compelling love of Christ: we venture where hope's been abandoned, life no longer holds meaning or promise: dreams abandoned, life drained of its life blood.
Lord, you have taught us it is good to be in the house of the mourning, it is there we commune most closely with your healing Spirit and witness your resurrection power displayed today.