Lenten Reflections – Easter Sunday

Leading up to Easter as part of Lent Salvos For A More Inclusive Church have invited you and I to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

Today I’ll be posting both the Good Friday & Easter Sunday reflections separately for you to use as a devotion, and to be reminded of the lengths that Jesus went to win our hearts.

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Easter Sunday)

Today we finish our series on the seven “I am …” statements of Jesus. Please welcome Captain Belinda Cassie (Australia) who is our guest presenter today. We’d also love to have you share your Easter reflection with us today as you respond to the question, “What does the Easter story mean to you as you share the inclusive love of God?”

Belinda writes. “Whosoever. It’s an interesting concept really, whosoever. If you’ve spent any time around churches or church folk you’ve heard it said over and over, in sermons, in readings, in songs. Usually with gusto. But I wonder sometimes how much we really mean it. Or does our whosoever really mean, whoever looks like me or speaks like me, whoever dresses like me and behaves like me, whoever believes as I do or loves like I do, or comes where I’m from?

 

John (John 11) tells us the story of one of Jesus’ friends Lazarus’ death and resurrection. There is a moment as the story unfolds in which Jesus comforts Martha, the sister of Lazarus. I like Martha, I kind of like to think I’m a bit like Martha myself. She’s been cut a fairly raw deal over the years, painted as the whingy woman from the kitchen, but I don’t think we’re telling Martha’s real story when we see her as such. Martha is the one who fronted Jesus when it seemed he arrived too late, four days too late , four days after her brother had died and she asked him why.

 

Why were you late Jesus,
why weren’t you here when we needed you?

We’ve loved and supported you,
we’ve believed in you, so where were you?

 

And I can’t help but think that if we were all completely honest with ourselves, we’ve all had those kind of moments. The moments when we want to ask Jesus why.

 

Why did that happen?
Why did I experience that?

 

In the middle of my darkness where were you Jesus? Martha was just brave enough to ask the questions that we often don’t allow ourselves to. Jesus’ initial words fall a bit flat with our friend Martha. Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.” Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

 

Basically, Martha, I imagine with a sigh, is saying ‘yeah, yeah, I know’. And Jesus replies, “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

 

Other versions quote Jesus as saying ‘anyone’ or ‘whoever’. I like that. Because the thing that stands out to me is that there is no caveat. It’s that whosoever that we speak of. See the thing that I noticed about Jesus is that he never left anyone out. It’s almost as if he intentionally reached out to those that the religious folk of the day decided didn’t belong. The ones they would have kept out of the collective whosoever.

 

Today as we gather in churches or homes, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the Christ we may well recall those words again, ‘I am the resurrection and the life – whoever believes in me will live’.

No hoops to jump through, no boxes to tick, no rule book you have to follow, just an acceptance of the grace of God that means in Jesus we are each the whosoever, and we find life and a new beginning in him. It doesn’t matter what you might have heard elsewhere. Maybe someone told you that the way you live, look, or love leaves you out, and dear one I am sorry if someone spoke that over you, because that’s not from Jesus.

The Jesus I know, the crucified Christ, who defeated death and the grave, the one who rose again, did so that you and I and the whosoever would have life, and have it to the full. Here, and now, and for eternity.

 

Captain Belinda Cassie, Australia

 

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Lenten Reflections – Good Friday

Leading up to Easter as part of Lent Salvos For A More Inclusive Church have invited you and I to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

Today I’ll be posting both the Good Friday & Easter Sunday reflections separately for you to use as a devotion, and to be reminded of the lengths that Jesus went to win our hearts.

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Good Friday)

In the past few weeks we have considered the “I am …” statements of Jesus from John’s gospel. Each writer has challenged us to examine the words through an inclusive lens. Today we pause briefly before looking at “I am the resurrection and the life” on Easter Sunday. How appropriate that we join with Christians around the world on that day to remember the risen Christ.

But today there are some words from Gethsemane and the cross that remind us that Christ hears and remembers us. How often like the criminal in Luke 23:32-43 do we ask God to be included. “Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” and Jesus answers us each, “Truly I tell you, … you will be with me in paradise.”

But what about the present? We may struggle with the pain of not being accepted, not being seen, not being heard and not being loved. Jesus knew what it was to be alone even with his friends around him. He experienced the pain and anguish of knowing what was about to come and he expresses this to his father. Jesus is in no doubt that God is able to take away what he is facing. But there is also a moment of recognition that God has it all under control. Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

How often do we pray, “Lord make me straight” or “Lord may I be cisgender” in the belief that this is what God requires. Sadly this is so often because of the expectation that church lays on us.

But like Jesus, there may come a time of submission where we can understand that God has a plan for us each which may require a different outcome. Let us not forget what the next verse, Luke 22:43 tells us. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.”

We are not alone when we experience the anguish of facing a painful outcome.

 

In Philippians 4:19 we are reminded “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

 

We can have hope in what this promise means.

1. We will have more than enough,
2. Not only does God supply our needs, but prepares us to face anything and everything
3. We are not only equipped for what we need to do but also for who we need to be.
4. We have the privilege as followers of Christ to be present in the situations of those we encounter even when we are in isolation.

And with that assurance we can sing,

Thank you for the cross, Lord, Thank you for the price You paid,
Bearing all my sin and shame in love You came
And gave amazing grace

 

Thank you for this love, Lord. Thank you for the nail pierced hands,
Washed me in Your cleansing flow. Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

 

Worthy is the Lamb, seated on the throne,
Crown You now with many crowns, you reign victorious.
High and lifted up, Jesus Son of God,
The Darling of Heaven crucified, Worthy is the Lamb …”

 

Thank Lord that we are a people of hope, who don’t only see a man on a cross, but look to the empty tomb and celebrate your resurrection and conquering of death, pain and anguish.

 

I invite you to join with me and Wellington City corps to sing,
Crown Him with many crowns

 

 

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Lenten Reflections – Week 6

Salvos For A More Inclusive Church invite you to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

This weeks reflection, which I was privileged to be asked to contribute, looks at Jesus’ declaration that He is “the good shepherd”

To this he adds that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. John 10:14 (New International Version)

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Week 6)

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the ‘I Am’ statements that Jesus declared about himself and this week we turn our attention to potentially the most controversial of them all; “I Am the Good Shepherd” – The reason why I say this is that at the close of the discourse that happens in John 9:35 – 10:21 we find that Jesus’ “teaching sets off another heated controversy among the Jewish leaders.” John 10:19 (The Passion Translation).

Now this discourse happens immediately after a man has been healed of his blindness and because he cannot give a plausible rationale around why he was deemed suitable to be healed of his ‘sins’ he is thrown out of the assembly, in affect thrown out of the church for believing in – Jesus. [Refer back to week 1: I am the Light of the World’ for more on this story].

We won’t go into the reasons why the Jewish leaders were so divided about Jesus’ teachings fully as we don’t have the time nor space to explore that for now – but it does lend itself into the whole issue of exclusiveness and inclusiveness, and maybe that is why it was so divisive.

The Jewish people understood that they were the chosen people, the people who had been set apart by God – so they were safe and secure in the knowledge that God loves them and that they were destined for great things.

They had the writings of old that spoke of a good shepherd that would look after them and that they, the chosen ones, would one day live triumphantly over, all. But Jesus’ declaration that He was the good shepherd rocked the religious leader’s world. For they had set preconceptions of what the coming Messiah was going to be like, and Jesus didn’t fit the bill.

How could this carpenter’s son from a backward place be all he claimed to be?

He had just finished saying that He was the Gate, the one way into salvation. Now He is saying that He is the Shepherd and that His sheep will know Him.

Surely as God’s chosen people they would know the good shepherd, they should know Him – But they don’t know Jesus, he is a nobody.

What’s more He goes on to say that there “are other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.” John 10:16

They are the chosen ones, they are God’s special people, a holy nation and Jesus is saying that He is going to bring others into the flock. How can that be? Where does that leave them? How can others measure up? These other people don’t know our ways, they don’t follow our rules and they are not like us!

The questions and statements were no doubt swirling in their heads making them angrier and angrier as Jesus continued and they would have debated what He had been saying long after He had gone. Trying to understand from their perspective and drawing conclusions that fitted within their framework of what it meant to be holy people, set aside by God.

But this hits right at the heart of the trouble with so many of our churches, corps, denominations, and religions today – They are not like us!

They (these other people) don’t believe what we believe and are living lives counter to what our expectations are, and what we hold on to as truth, therefore they (any other people) don’t fit within our framework of what we believe and so they are either cast out, or not accepted for who they are.

We could take this so much further and unfortunately, we do – constantly, as churches split often over the minor of things – or at least that is from God’s perspective, I’m sure. We tend to hold on to stuff that we may just need to set aside and allow God to do something great in our midst by allowing a rich diversity.

Jesus was always speaking to the whosever; the people on the fringes of society, people on the side-lines, the tax collectors, and religious misfits, the whosoever!

He said at one stage; “I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.”

In the Salvation Army expression of God’s church our founders prided themselves on going for the least amongst people. We as a movement would constantly draw all manner of men, women and children into our centres to hear the Good News of the Good Shepherd.

A message that drew people in from the byways and highways, from the street gutters, pubs and clubs – it didn’t matter what they had done, where they have been and what little they knew of church, traditions and how to behave – they were accepted for who they are.

Have we drifted so far that this is no longer the case in many of our settings? We are no longer inclusive but have become what all the other churches of the day were – exclusive communities, that find it very hard to let in the whosoever, let alone anyone that is not like us!

The thing is, God is continuing to draw all men, women and children to His side, those that want to hear His voice and truly listen. And for those that hear His voice and follow then they will know Him and be brought into His flock.

Are we ready to embrace them (these other people) regardless of their ethnicity, cultural background, even their sexuality? Or are we going to continue subliminally scaring people off from ever experiencing the love of God through our words and actions?

I pray that we would do all that we can to welcome the outcasts, the outsiders, the whosoever into our fold for we were all at one stage outsiders, we were all outcasts.

The reality is there are no outsiders, to His love – We are all welcome, and there is grace enough for each and every one of us regardless.

 

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Lenten Reflections – Week 5

Salvos For A More Inclusive Church invite you to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

This weeks reflection looks at Jesus’ declaration that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life!“

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Week 5)

Missionsteam Hamburg

The year was 1997. I was completing my practicum for my Master’s Degree while living in Hamburg, Germany. I was with The Salvation Army’s “Missions Team,” which was made up of a group of young people who were trying to either do a year of social work (if they were male to avoid the compulsory military service), or they wanted to do the German equivalent of a Gap year.

 

When people who know Germany find out you have been to Hamburg, the next question usually is: “Did you go to the Reeperbahn?” The Reeperbahn is the main thoroughfare in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district, which is the notorious Red Light District of Hamburg. The Salvation Army was located right in the heart of that district. Appropriate, in my eyes.

 

The Red Light district was also the poorest neighborhood in town. Not only is prostitution legal (and regulated in Germany), but this area was filled with erotic cinemas, gambling, etc. The stench of urine and feces permeated the area. Our Missions Team would feed the homeless, distribute clothing, and for some odd reason they made me a barber (even though I had NEVER ever had any experience cutting hair).

Once a week we would hold what The Salvation Army called an “open air” meeting. It was like a street church service. We would form a half circle and do skits, sing songs, and give a short message on a Scripture passage.

I recall one time when we were having one of these Open Air meetings, we were being filmed by a local news crew who was doing a report on us. With the added cameras there, this brought about more attention from the local populace. Along came a large bearded man. You could smell the alcohol and body odor on him. While the cameras were rolling, he yelled out in German: “Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben! Niemand kommt zum Vater dann durch mich!“

 

For those of you who cannot speak German, he said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No one comes to the Father except through me!”

 

This man then charged through our circle. He knocked over some of our team members, turned around and shouted again: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No one comes to the Father except through me!” Needless to say we were all shocked by this performance.

 

This, of course, was not my first experience with those words. This sentence, spoken drunkenly by this German, was something that Jesus was recorded as saying to his disciples before he was executed for treason (John 14:6). The disciples were celebrating the Jewish festival of Passover and Jesus was giving them what I would consider his last final instructions. I imagine it as if he was trying cram all of his knowledge and comfort to them before leaving them.

 

I sometimes think that the disciples here were confused. They were young people who had triumphantly followed Jesus through a whirlwind of miracles, speeches, and a flagrant flaunting of religious authority. I can only think that they might have thought they were invincible. Suddenly Jesus was saying that he wasn’t going to be with them. He was going to leave them, but he was also preparing a place for them.

 

I would be perplexed. Apparently, Thomas was, too. He asked the question I would have asked: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5 CEB). Jesus answered him with the answer given by that drunk German.

 

Jesus was giving comfort to his disciples.

 

Too often Christians use these words of Jesus as some sort of exclusionary tactic or litmus test for people. They especially use it against non-Christians to make it an “Us versus Them.” This type of dualism can lead to unnecessary strife.

 

OnlineCorps

When I was a Salvation Army officer, I was invited by some officers in the USA Western Territory to participate in some online Bible Studies. We then started a course for comparative religious studies. The goal of the studies was not to show how Christianity was somehow “better” than other religions, but rather to give people an understanding of other religions and how we might engage with them. We jokingly called it: “Let’s Talk About Sects.”

 

Everything was going great until we came to Islam. During our discussion, I was asked by one of the participants (who was a Salvation Army soldier (layperson)) to denounce Islam as a false religion. I refused to do that. To denounce Islam as a false religion would be to say that Christianity is better than other religions. Christianity should be a religion of humility and putting others first, not of denouncing others as being wrong.

 

This soldier then asked what I did with Jesus’ statement that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. My answer is what I gave above. Jesus was attempting to comfort his disciples, knowing that he would be dying soon most likely. He was trying to reassure them that by following his example of living, they would never be apart from Jesus. To follow Jesus is to be with Jesus. To be with Jesus is to be with God. In that sense, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

Well, my answer displeased them. Some others who had listened to my statement started a protest letter which they sent to the Territorial Commander (somewhat like a cardinal). It resulted in OnlineCorps being immediately suspended and then eventually cancelled. It had the also unfortunate effect of an employee being fired and another officer being transferred. Since I was not under their direct supervision, a protest letter was sent to my personnel secretary. When I was terminated as an officer, one of the reasons for my termination (besides being bisexual and advocating for LGBT inclusion in The Salvation Army), was this whole incident.

 

Wow. To put it mildly, I was flabbergasted.

I still believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

However, I stand by what I said those years ago: Jesus is not a litmus test to see who is a Christian and who is not. He is not the Way to Heaven.

By following Jesus, we are building Heaven now, not later, here on Earth.

 

• How is Jesus the Way?
• How is Jesus the Truth?
• How is Jesus the Life?

In pursuing Jesus, in following Jesus, we can find the meaning we are looking for.

It isn’t one of exclusion. It isn’t one where Christianity is superior to all other religions. In following Jesus, we can experience that life in abundance.

Timothy McPherson (US Central)

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Lenten Reflections – Week 4

Salvos For A More Inclusive Church invite you to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

This weeks reflection looks at Jesus’ declaration that He is the vine.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 (New International Version)

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Week 4) “I am the vine”

Eighty-five. That’s where I’m at right now. My phone battery is 85% as I type this. It will probably hold its charge all day. I might stream some music or podcasts with it. I’ll check social media, snap a few pictures, check the weather, text my sister. I’ll probably call my mom and chat. I might have to check my schedule, set a timer, do some shopping, or use the calculator to figure out a tip. By the time I get ready for bed tonight, my battery level will be in the teens and I will need to charge it.

 

Whether you have a simple flip phone or the latest generation of the iPhone, one thing remains consistent across the board–you have to keep the battery charged. All the fancy apps in the world won’t do you any good if your battery is dead.

 

You know, us humans are the same. Constant productivity will wear you down. We’re told to do better, be better, produce more, create more, be more in almost every area of our lives. Jobs give us goals to work toward, outcomes to reach, and quotas to fill. The church expects us to read our Bibles, pray, tithe, and show up to enough programs.

 

Friends expect us to respond appropriately, offer comfort, assuage boredom, help them celebrate or grieve. Family members expect us to provide, nurture, support, and pay the bills. Everyone expects something and all the work you do for others will chip away at your soul. Little by little, your battery drains and you, too, need to be recharged.

 

Jesus knew this about humans. We can’t keep doing, and giving, and being without staying connected to the source. He expresses this in gardening imagery “I am the vine, you are the branches, my Father is the gardener.”

 

My dad has kept a garden every year since long before I was born. Beginning midsummer and continuing well into the fall, he harvests vegetables and fruit, filling his basement with canned tomatoes and frozen corn. But long before the harvest comes, my dad puts long hours into planting, weeding, watering, and tending his garden.

 

Just as a gardener takes great care to nourish his plants, God nurtures us. But we can’t receive that tender care if we’re not connected to the source.

 

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:7-8

 

You are on the frontlines doing the hard work of inclusion in whatever sphere you find yourself in.

• Some of you are educators and you’re influencing an entire generation.
• Some of you are ministers or lay leaders, opening wide the doors of the church from inside.
• Some of you have stepped out of the church and have found a place to welcome the whosoever outside of religion.
• Some of you are fighting an uphill battle with your peers.
• Some of you are living unapologetically in your own bodies, fully embracing your intersectionality of identities.

You are working ceaselessly to find new paths of inclusion, to open your arms and your hearts to the marginalized. And some of you are tired.

Your work is hard. Your work is necessary. You matter.

 

And that’s why it is so important that you stay connected to the source. You can’t keep working when your battery is dead. As Christians, our source is Jesus. He is the true vine that connects us to the love and life of God.

 

Our work of inclusion, the fruit we bear, comes from our own inclusion in the life of God.

 

Plugging into the source may look different for all of us.

 

One of my favorite television gags is a line from the show The IT Crowd. The show centers on the IT department of a large corporation and wherever anyone called the department, the IT guys would answer “Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

 

Anne Lamott says “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes. Even you.”

 

Maybe what you need to do to connect to the source, is to disconnect from everything else. Turn off your phone. Stop checking your socials.

 

For others, staying connected might mean checking in with friends, ones who will encourage and uplift you. Perhaps you connect best with a walk outside, a quiet night at home with a book, a game night with the family, art, music, writing, reading your Bible, time in meditation.

 

Whatever it is that keeps you connected to the all-inclusive love of God, do that. And do it regularly. The world needs you, but you can only give what you are receiving.

Ruth Sellen (US Central)

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Lenten Reflections – Week 3

Salvos For A More Inclusive Church invite you to join them each week as they share a Lenten reflection.

This weeks reflection looks at Jesus’ declaration that He is the door / gate to the sheep pen. “In very truth I tell you, I am the door (gate) of the sheephold”. John 10:7

Lenten Reflections 2021 (Week 2) “I am the gate”

There are all sorts of barriers to inclusion in the church.

Some of them are ritual – circumcision, baptism, enrolment, ordination, commissioning – each of which come with both enriching qualities and yet also significant limitations and restrictions.

 

Some of them are physical – where the design of the building does not allow for people of differing abilities to actually get into the building, for example.

 

Some of them are programmatic – where churches only serve up discipleship programs, social engagement, access to assistance, pastoral care or worship on their terms and not in ways that are conducive or supportive to their community.

 

Some of them are historical – such as denominational boundaries.

 

Some of them are theological – whether it’s election, limitations on who could be considered among the ‘whosoever’ (how ironic is that!) or definitions of ‘sinner’.

 

Some of them are structural – such as instances where international regulations, hierarchical, patriarchal or racial impositions occur.

 

So many God-damned barriers!! (Words deliberately chosen) And many of us could actually live with these unjust barriers if they were not also barriers to life. To salvation. To God.

 

While we are not conflating church and God as the same thing, the church is God’s mission to the world and, as such, barriers created in and by the church become barriers to God. Barriers to the life in fullness he offers.

 

Jesus reminds his people, his sheep, however, that he is the gate. Not the church. Not the rules. Not the man-made barriers.

 

“So Jesus spoke again”, because he obviously needed to keep reminding people, “In very truth I tell you, I am the door (gate) of the sheephold”.

 

Gates in scripture have a number of functions. For the statisticians out there, there are 350 of them in the Bible, mostly relating to accessing cities.

 

The gate was a point of protection. This meant a few things. If you were on the inside, you were safe. It bears reflection that those that build the barriers are often on the safe side of the gate and have little consideration for those that would want to join them. If we recall that Jesus is the gate, however, then being on the ‘right side’ of Jesus, rather than a church rule, provides much greater safety.

 

It’s also worth remembering that the protective gate was the point at which the city took the most beating from an invading force. This was the point in the wall where they thought they’d be able to get in and take over! If we let him be the protective gate, Jesus takes the brunt of the crap that people would throw at us.

 

The gate was the place of meeting and legal transaction. It was where officials would meet and deliberate. It was the place with the greatest traffic and therefore the greatest of public audiences so was quite often the appropriate place for both public pronouncement and demonstration.

 

If Jesus is the gate then the legal transaction required for our salvation, in most theories of atonement, is with him – not with the church. If Jesus is the gate then the place for pronouncement, for teaching, is from him – not from the church. If Jesus is the gate then the place for social justice protest is also through him. Where the church does make rules, make pronouncements, make social policy statements, it should be tested against what we have been taught by Jesus.

 

Figurative gates in Scripture were also places of lament, wailing and mourning. “Her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground” (Is 3:26). “Wail, O Gate; Cry, O City” (Is 14:31). While the above scriptures were discussing the need for Jerusalem to mourn and grieve its own sin and judgement, we can see that if Jesus is the gate he mourns alongside them.

 

It’s worth noting that Isaiah also looks with promise to the day when such a gate will no longer be necessary: “Your gates shall always be open; day and night they shall not be shut” (Is 60:11). John applies this in his revelation where he reminds us that the gates of the new Jerusalem “will never be shut by day and there will be no night there” (Rev 21:25).

 

So if Jesus is the gate, the way in to protection, the legal means of our salvation, the source of good pronouncement and he came for all….

 

If Jesus mourns with us, praises with us and looks towards the day when such a gate won’t even be necessary… What of all those barriers I mentioned earlier?

 

Jesus actually addresses them also, in Matthew 23 when he pronounces his ‘woes’ on the Pharisees. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door (gate) of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matthew 23:13)

 

May we be people of inclusion that point others to Jesus the gate.

May we be people that enter by his grace, live in his life, follow his teachings and bring his kingdom rule so that no barriers exist to others experiencing this life also.

Major Brad Watson (Australia)

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