Healing Rays of Righteousness

GOD’S HEALING PRESENCE

“Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27).

As I reflect on these words, I hear them to be an invitation to enter into a human connectedness more fully with the compassionate, healing presence of the risen Jesus, who is the Supreme Healer of all wounds.

I am challenged and encouraged by the thought that Jesus wounds are not only to be seen but also to be touched and entered into. Most certainly there is an intimate power, a healing connectedness present as we with Thomas put our hand, heart, and mind into the wounds of Jesus, for this leads us directly to the compassionate heart of God.

It is not enough for us, living within the arena of worldwide pains, merely to know of a God who is compassionate and sympathizes with us.  It is not even enough to know of a God who heals.  We need to know of and be connected to God who experiences with us each grief, each wound we suffer.  We need to be love-bonded to God who had nails pierce his hands and a sharp spear thrust into his heart.

It is only as we enter into the sufferings of Jesus that we are more fully connected to God. And as, with our trembling hand, we touch his wounded side, will the wounds we suffer become healed wounds, as Peter knowingly wrote, “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24).

And, most amazingly in turn, when we touch another wounded person with compassion and comfort, the healing presence of Jesus Christ encompasses us and His healing love is transmitted to the other through our touching, making us “wounded healers” of God’s healing presence in our world.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

My notes on this invitation remind me that we cannot do healing presence, instead, we become a healing presence as we strive to be more aware of those around us, and humbly move toward them with compassionate concern for their welfare. And we deepen God’s healing presence by gently listening, holding the other’s pain, and with God’s gracious love and forgiveness comfort them.

Can we consider our own healed experiences of suffering to be a calling from God to physically incarnate his compassionate healing presence whenever and wherever we encounter the pain of others? I think the answer from apostle Paul would be “Yes.” I pray that you and I will be enabled to be such.  Amen! 

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – September 27, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Laboring in God’s Kingdom Business

The Labor Day holiday is a good time to be reminded that “the work of God happens when the people of God work.”  God has chosen to work in this world through us. God daily awakens us to the new day, and graciously invites us to busy ourselves in his Kingdom business of loving and serving others.

The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, is repeated every Sunday by millions of Christians around the world. And in that prayer, we petition God that his name be made holy and that “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But how do we know what is his will and how it will be done?

In Luke 4:16-21, we read that Jesus returned to his hometown, Nazareth, and on the first Sabbath, went to the synagogue where he read Isaiah’s prophetic listing of the Messiah’s work credentials, and to the surprise and chagrin of his listeners, he claimed these work credentials as his own.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 And later, in response to the disciples of John the Baptist asking him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” he again listed the same work credentials.

Undoubtedly, this is God’s Kingdom business. And the whole of biblical scriptures affirm that these same social concerns continue to be the authentic work credentials for all God’s people living today.

To follow Jesus is to commit to daily participation in God’s transforming, redemptive work in the world, so that God’s will is made evident “on earth as it is in heaven” by our actions (labor) and conversations.

Followers of Jesus, being rooted in Anabaptist-Christian theology, strongly believe the New Testament scriptures teach that Christian faith is made visible in Jesus-like acts of compassionate love and material generosity. We believe that Christian faith is more than our worship and verbal commitment to the Lordship of Jesus on a Sunday morning. We must make our faith visible with a living performance of that commitment in our daily work, conversations, and activities from Monday through Saturday.

As evidence of our walking with Jesus, we strive to cultivate the practice of participating in opportunities for helping, sharing, and serving others in their time of need, because this is the example of Jesus and God’s second greatest command for all who accept his Kingship. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is often described as “walking the talk” of Jesus’ lordship, or as Jesus would say in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” 

Truly, God’s Spirit is at work wherever social concerns and human needs are responded to with authentic love and practical efforts. This is what identifies us as followers of Jesus Christ.

During this Labor Day week, let us rethink how much we believe that serving others and making sacrifices in their behalf is normal behavior for those who allow Jesus to be Lord in their life. May we deepen our commitment to laboring in God’s Kingdom business of loving and caring for the world through us. May we become more thoughtful and sincere in praying “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?

Indeed, the biblical prophets and Jesus’ himself, repeatedly challenge us to fully invest ourselves in God’s Kingdom business of bringing life, light, joy, and peace to our churches, towns, nation, and world through us, his people who “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8).

And in doing so, may we be encouraged by Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  Amen!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – September 6, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

The FOOLISHNESS of BIGGER BARNS

“Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” These are the words of Jesus in response to a request that he intervene in a family squabble regarding the dividing of an inheritance. (Lk. 12:15). 

Jesus then reinforces his warning with a story of a rich man who experienced an abundant harvest and due to insufficient storage space decided to “tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I will say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’” (Lk. 12:18-19).         

The “rich man” of Jesus’ parable was concerned with no one’s life and opinion except his own.  His only point of reference was himself and his crops, his barns, his pleasure, his supposedly unlimited future.  As the center of his own universe, he gave no thought to any ethical responsibility toward others or accountability to God.  He had little concern for anything but himself and his possessions.  He was blind to all that happened around him and blind to the needs of others.

It is because of this blindness that Jesus’ words are relevant to both the man who came requesting Jesus’ intervention and to us claiming to be Jesus’ followers. “But God said to him, ‘You fool!’ This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”                                                                                         

Jesus is not condemning possessions, nor prudent preparation for the future. Many other scriptures would such efforts.  Rather, Jesus is condemning the spirit of covetousness which concludes that meaning in life and joy in life are the result of having things. 

Covetousness is more than just wanting something.  It is the deep-seated belief that accumulating things is the way to life and happiness.  But Jesus teaches that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.  And other teachings of Jesus tell us that neither does it consist in an abundance of accomplishments, applause, or self-indulgence. 

Jesus addresses the rich farmer who decided to build bigger barns “You fool.”  Why? Because he lived life, made decisions, as if there were no God.   

To conclude that there is no God leaves one to their own resources and blinds the person to any recognition of their blessing’s source or responsibility to share with others. In both Psalms 14:1 and 53:1, the psalmist writes, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, their deeds (ways) are vile; there is no one who does good.” 

The hurts and needs of others are shut out of the fool’s mind and heart because they compete for what the fool desires for him/herself.  Such people lay-up treasures for themselves, rather than becoming rich toward God, and the consequences are very grim.

Remember the story recorded in Matthew 19:16-22.  “Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ …….  ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”  

The bigger barns for accumulating earthly things/treasures being built by so many who call themselves Christian reveals a serious failure of understanding Jesus’ call to lay up heavenly treasures.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21). 

The ultimate truth is that all we are and have ultimately belongs to God, and as stewards, we need to give God a daily accounting of the use of our time, gifts, and energy. 

To become “rich toward God” followers of Jesus, we must learn to think of ourselves as laborers in our master’s fields, rather than as private landowners answerable to no one.  The harvest belongs to Christ, not to us, and he calls us to use the resources given us to help in caring for others, and in this way glorify Him in this world.  May God help us to do so!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – September 1, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley