An Incredible Response

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year C

Acts 11:1-18                                                    
Psalm 148                                
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35
 
The disciples had gathered with Jesus for their last earthly meal together.  At one point during this meal, for a brief moment, tension and great evil surrounded Jesus.  He looked into the heart of Judas, and saw what Judas was about to do.  Then Jesus looked into Judas' eyes, and said, "What you are going to do, go do quickly."  Without another word, and unable to look at Jesus any longer, Judas got up and walked out of the room.  He went to meet with his co-conspirators.
 
The greatest betrayal in history was now set in motion – and Jesus was the target of it.
 
It's at this point that we enter the Gospel reading for this 5^th Sunday of Easter.  The reading begins, "When he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said..."  If we had to turn the page at this point, or reading a contemporary Hollywood movie script, we would have reasonably expected some response from Jesus like this on the next page: "Well, boys, that scoundrel Judas did it this time!  He set me up, and now I'm in really big trouble.  Probably you guys, too!  If I ever get my hands on that snake I'll tattoo his face with my fist!"
 
Normal human responses to such a betrayal would probably include things like anger, fear, hatred, or revenge.  To be betrayed, especially when one's life is involved, is a highly grievous assault.  And it seems only natural to want to "get even."
 
But instead, Jesus took this incident to drive home the whole point of his ministry.  He said nothing more to Judas; he didn’t yell at him, or strike him or gossip about him.  Instead, he turned to his disciples and said two important things: first, that he [Jesus] was now glorified in God as God was glorified.  And second, he gave the disciples a new commandment: "Love one another, just as I have loved you.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
 
Thomas Merton wrote that for a person to glorify God meant that that person would become who God made them to be.  That person would grow into who they truly were, and they would live the way that God would want him or her to live.  Since God is love, and Jesus and God are One, it was Jesus' destiny to live a life of pure love regardless of what happened to him.  He glorified God because he knew that his earthly life was soon to be over, and that he would face the events of this next day in total love, just as he conducted himself throughout his ministry.
 
God did not send Jesus to earth just to die on a cross.  He sent Jesus to earth to demonstrate to us the meaning of love in the face of any of life's challenges, even if it meant that he would die on a cross.  This is what St. Paul meant when he wrote, "And [Jesus] became obedient to the point of death – even if it meant death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8)   Jesus maintained his love for the world even in the face of the greatest injustice – the murder of the Son of God.  Even with his last few breaths he was able to say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
 
So there he was, sitting around the last supper table with the remaining disciples knowing that at that moment Judas was arranging to have him killed, and yet he gave his disciples a new, overarching, commandment of love.  "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
 
And now, we are faced with this deepest of Christian principles – to love in the face of whatever befalls us.  What does this mean?  How do we do this?
 
It has to start within each person, and gradually spread outward.  So, start with yourself – Jesus said earlier to love your neighbor as yourself.  Don't forget this last part – it's key to the whole thing!  We need to deal with ourselves in a loving manner regardless of the mistakes we make, or the decisions that may lead us astray.  How would a loving person treat you in these matters?  This is how you need to treat yourself.  This will give you practice in loving someone else, too.  And eventually, this will cause us all to reach out with love into the community and eventually into the world.
 
Psalm 148 expresses the joy one finds in this loving approach God takes toward us.

Reflection Questions
 
1. What does it mean to you to glorify yourself in God?
 
2. Think of some issue or concern you are faced with right now.  How can you respond to this in love?
 
3. How can we, as the Church, respond to the world's issues in love?
 
4. How can we, as a country, respond to the world's issues in love?
 
5. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

Seeing Clearly

Third Sunday of Easter – Year C
 
Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)                                                        
Psalm 30                                   
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19
 
Easter is the season of awakening – the risen Christ awakens us to the proof that God's love can't be compromised by anything, even as humanity stoops to its lowest point.  We become aware that we are, indeed, children of God, and that we are really all one family, all loved by God.  God yearns for our companionship, wanting us to be one with this unity.
 
But seeing the truth about this love is less likely if our minds are pre-occupied with something else, something false, something sinister.
 
The readings for today show several examples of this.  Paul (then Saul) could not see the loving truth about Christ because he was filled with a misguided hatred for the new Christians.  He was "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord," and was actively persecuting them.  Who could think clearly with all this on his mind?
 
Even Peter and some of the disciples initially failed to recognize Christ standing along the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.  Why couldn't they see clearly through to him?  Perhaps their minds were still reeling from the events of the past Easter weekend as well as reflecting on their whole experience of Jesus' ministry.  They were still somewhat confused and uncertain about what to do.  Filled with grief and lack of direction, they returned to the things with which they were most familiar.  Peter finally said, "I'm going fishing."
 
Even today, we don't often see clearly.  We often miss the presence of Christ in our lives because we have our minds focused on something else we think is important.  Our awareness of his presence in our lives is often clouded in varying degrees by things that have been given birth in our false selves; things like fear, worry, shame, prejudices, self-pride, power-lust, or even lack of self-esteem.
 
Luke (the presumed author of the Acts of the Apostles) describes the inability of Paul to see clearly as having "scales" over his eyes. After he had been helped by a man named Ananias, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, "and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored."  He could now see clearly because the scales of his hatred fell away.
 
From this point on, Paul had an understanding of God's love, the interconnectedness of all people under God's family, and the truth about life itself.
 
When the disciples listened to the man on the shore trying to help them, they suddenly realized who it was.  "It is the Lord," they shouted.  And when they finally recognized Jesus in their lives, they went to him, and were renewed.
 
The scales in our lives are usually things that have attached themselves to us from the shadows of our past, or are pulling us into the illusions of the future.  The only place we can see clearly is in the present moment.  One of the first things we can do to remove the scales from our eyes is to recognize these visitors from the past, or these tempters of the future.  They will all rob you of life today.  Awareness of them, seeing them for what they are, is 80% of the victory.
 
Then, work with your spiritual support team to shed more of God's Light on these scales.  The more of this Light that shines, the fewer of these shadows can survive.  None of these scales are from God – they do not belong to you as part of your true self.  The full Light shines in the NOW, the portal to the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
Leave the past to God's mercy, and the future to God's providence.  God's love is in the Present.
 
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. What scales are blocking you from seeing "straight," from seeing how much love God has for you?
 
2. Who can help you bring Light to the scales in your life?
 
3. How can thinking about the past help you in the Present Moment?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

On Forgiving and Retaining Sins

Second Sunday of Easter – Year C

Acts 5:27-32                                                    
Psalm 118:14-29                                  
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31
 
In the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Easter we encounter the passage:
 
"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  (John 20:23)

The first reading of this passage leaves one with the impression that Jesus is giving the disciples (and the Church) the power to either forgive sins, or to retain them and not forgive them.  It seems to make sense – either you forgive sins, or you do not.
 
But something about this approach goes against what I understand to be Christ's underlying theology of the forgiveness of sins.  It troubled me that, on the one hand, Christ spent much of his ministry healing people and forgiving sins – even dying on the cross for the redemption of sins – and then giving the option to "retain sins" right at the end of the Gospels.  What's up with that?

I reflected on this for quite some time, and eventually realized that what may have happened here is that Christ was offering his disciples, and his Church, more than one way to heal someone's "sins."  Perhaps at this point Jesus felt that his disciples were ready to understand the healing of relationships at a higher level.
 
Jesus forgave sins, and taught us how to forgive them.  He even included this all-important act in the Lord's Prayer – "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."  And how often should we do this?  Not just 7 times, but 70 times 7, he instructs. 
 
But he was also suggesting to us in this passage that our sins, and the sins of others, can be handled in another way – by "retaining" them. 
 
Our western mind is quick to assume that "retaining" means to "hold against" in the sense that we do not forgive the person whose sins are retained.  But if we explore the original Greek word used here, κρατητε, we can see a slightly different sense of the word is possible: to hold, or to hold fast, almost an embracing.
 
Paul describes this well in his first letter to the Corinthians when he uses the analogy of the body to explain how the family of Christ works.  "For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts - all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body - so it is with Christ." (I Corinthians 12:12) 
 
We are baptized into one body in a single Spirit, he goes on to explain, and are all given the same Spirit to drink.  The key point is then laid out in verse 26: "If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain."  This is a unitive way of looking at life, an inclusive way, a way that Jesus tried to emphasize so many times in his parables and teachings.  It is counter to our individualistic way of living life, a way that Jesus often criticized.
 
If one of us is hurt, then we all share to some degree and in some way in that pain.  Sharing in the hurt and pain diminishes the effects of that hurt or pain, because it's spread out and received by the rest of the body.  It is 'retained', or held fast, by the entire body, and not just one of its members.  It is shared, and as a result, it can be remedied more effectively.
 
Jesus' appearance to the disciples included the marks of his crucifixion: pierced hands and feet, and a spear mark in his side.  These are marks of his sharing in the problems and shortcomings of the human race.  By absorbing these, by taking them on as part of his body, he diminished them for all of us.  This is vicarious assumption of our shortcomings as a whole.  Jesus appeared with these marks to remind his disciples that as a family, we all share in human shortcomings.  We are not to segregate or separate those who are "sinners" from those who are not, because as a body, we are all what each one of us is.
 
Jesus was reminding us that there are two ways to deal with sin – to forgive or to retain.  To forgive is to simply release from blame; to no longer carry the anger or need for remembrance, and to open the way for renewed relationships.  To retain a sin is to bring it in, to know it, to understand it, and to dissolve it in the Light of God's love.  We help those in trouble to understand the impact and consequences of a wayward thought, word, or deed.  We use friends, and counselors, and therapists, and pastors, and guides; we join together to absorb the pain and sorrow of the trouble, and then place it at the feet of Jesus. 
 
Forgiving or retaining doesn't necessarily mean that there are no restitutions or amends offered.  It simply opens new collective avenues for dealing with our troubles in this world. We listen, we help where we can, we pray, we stay aware and alert, we forgive, we understand, we remember that when one of us hurts we all hurt.  We remember that we are all imperfect, and yet we are all One.  Therein is our strength.  We are the Body of Christ.
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. Does this perspective on dealing with sins help you forgive others?
 
2. Does this perspective on dealing with sins help you forgive yourself?
 
3. What might still be keeping you from forgiving someone else or yourself?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

Outer Cloaks

Palm Sunday – Year C

Liturgy of the Palms:
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-20
Luke 19:28-40

Liturgy of the Passion:
Isaiah 50:4-9a                                                  
Psalm 31:9-16                          
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
 
Two themes seem to dominate the liturgy for me today.  The first is the fact that Jesus wanted to make sure people understood that his ministry, his messianic message, was not one of a military conqueror, but a conqueror of the heart. To emphasize this message, he made a "grand entrance" into Jerusalem the last week of his earthly ministry on the back of a donkey, a small colt, and not with a band of soldiers in chariots brandishing weapons.
 
Psalm 118, the processional psalm, stresses over and over that the Kingdom of God is based on love, and not on a vindictive God seeking to punish and torture.  Again and again, the message in this psalm is "God's steadfast love endures forever!"
 
God's love is unconditional and unbroken.  When humanity sinks to its lowest point and gathers together to execute the very Son of God later in this week, even then God's love doesn't falter.  Instead, God embraces the depth of humanity, and conquers death, coming back again on Easter morning to prove that nothing can separate us from the love of God. 
His love is undeniable, and invincible. 
 
The second theme has to do with how we are willing to receive Christ into our lives.  An ancient tradition is to lay down one's outer cloak at the approach of royalty as an act of homage and respect.  As Jesus approached Jerusalem, it was reported that some of his followers "kept spreading their cloaks on the road." 
 
The symbolism of this act can be linked to another of the readings for this day, Paul's letter to the Philippians, where he writes about how Christ "emptied himself," taking on the mind of a servant, and not exploiting his equality with God.  Paul was urging us to do this very same thing, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..."
 
In today's terms, this means letting go of what is often called the earthly self, the outer  self, the small self, or the dysfunctional ego.  This is part of the public image we project out to others; it's how we want other people to see us, even if it's not always the truth of who we really are.
 
This outer self creates a shell that resists wisdom and instruction from God.  It's the part that nurtures unhealthy personality traits like prejudice, fear, shame, bias, greed, envy, and the like.  It filters facts to fit want the ego desires, but not what the soul needs.
 
In the presence of God in Christ, we don't need a public image.  Our own soul-self, when projected outward, will do just fine.  Christ accepts us as we are, regardless of our past or current condition.  He only asks that we lay down all the false outer shell so that he can be with us and raise us up in love.
 
That's what the people on the road to Jerusalem were symbolizing.  They took off their outer cloaks, representing their false selves, and laid them at the feet of Jesus.  What remained was the true self, the self that God made, the self that is interconnected with everyone else.  It is the self that can learn about love from God, as Isaiah wrote, "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious...he wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught..."
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. What was God's entrance into your life like?
 
2. Can you accept that He is a loving God, and not "out to get you"?
 
3. Are you willing to lower your outer shell, to lay down your outer cloak, and let Him into your life?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

Passionate Giving and Receiving

Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C
 
Isaiah 43:16-21                                                
Psalm 126                                
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8
 
It was now only six days before the Passover celebration, and Jesus' earthly ministry was coming to an end.  He knew his time was short, and perhaps he wondered whether or not those around him truly understood what the Kingdom of God was all about.
 
Isaiah understood the Kingdom.  He knew God's presence would bring an end to armies and warriors; God's Kingdom would be a new way of living together; rivers would flow in the desert – even the wild animals would honor Him; and His people would praise Him by becoming who they were made to be – children of God.
 
The goodness and power of the Kingdom even found its way into the writings of the psalmists.  "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy..."  As we pass from this earthly life into God's Kingdom, tears and pain will turn into shouts of joy: "[They] shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves."
 
St. Paul knew what it was all about, too.  All his achievements and righteousness in this world compared poorly with what richness Christ brought to him: "I regard all these things as nothing compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... I regard all these things as rubbish."  Something touched him deep in his heart, bringing to light a soul connection with the love of God.  he recognized the loving truth within.
 
And that brings us to Mary, who, caught up in the exuberance and passion of this Good News, pours out some costly perfume unto Jesus' feet, and wipes them with her hair, filling the house with the fragrance of her act.  The righteousness of economics, however, cries out indignantly, "Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor?"  Others present at the meal agreed – it seemed to be a more sensible thing to do.
 
Jesus defended what Mary did.  He instructed those present at the meal by saying, "Leave her alone...you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."  Jesus was not saying to stop giving to the poor – because this is, in fact, something that must be done. But he was trying to draw attention to something very important happening in this moment – he was trying to affirm and emphasize the very thing that keeps the reason for giving alive.
 
Mary was passionate about what she knew of God's Kingdom.  Like Isaiah, the psalmists, and St. Paul, she knew that there was nothing that equaled its love and goodness.  Jesus knew that Mary's affectionate heart was full of thankfulness, and she gave of what she had without thinking of its cost.  Jesus said, "She has done a beautiful thing." (Matthew 26:10)
 
It's the passion we have for God's Kingdom that will lead us to give without measure (not only of our treasures, but also of our time and talents!)  Oh, that Mary's gratitude infected the world!  Jesus knew that without this passion, reason may prevail and diminish the desire to give of ourselves.  God has given to us passionately, and this sets an example for us.
 
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks,
and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
 
You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
                                                                - from Kahlil Gibran's, The Prophet
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. When you give something to others, do you know why you do it?
 
2. Are you able to receive gifts graciously, so that you affirm the power of giving in others?

3. What do you understand the Kingdom of God to be?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

Lost and Found – Two Prodigal Sons

Joshua 5:9-12                                                   
Psalm 32                                  
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

prod·i·gal  [ próddig'l ]

1. extravagantly wasteful: spendthrift or extravagant to a degree bordering on recklessness

2. producing generous amounts: giving or producing something in large amounts

3. wasting parental money: spending parental money wastefully, but returning home to a warm welcome

 

Synonyms: wasteful, reckless, dissolute, profligate, extravagant, uncontrolled

 
Psalm 32 does well in summarizing the all-familiar story of the Prodigal Son: "Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit."
 
This well-known story draws attention to a young son who squanders his inheritance in dissolute living. Having lost everything, and now in great need, he finds himself in a worse position than when he was back home, back under his father's wing.  The text goes on to say that eventually "he came to himself," which best means that he came to full realization of what he had done, and was now truly repentant.
 
Returning home, he planned to make a confession in hopes that he could salvage something of his previous place in the family.  But as he approached his home, his father ran to him, and brushed aside the son's confession, just being filled with joy that his son had returned to him.  A celebration ensued, and the younger son was honored.
 
While we are glad that there was this family reunion, we may feel a bit cheated that this prodigal son, who wasted an inheritance, was honored instead of punished for his misdeeds.  "Where is the justice in this?" we may ask.  He was wasteful and reckless, and yet he was honored!
 
But if we look more closely, we see that the instant forgiveness of the father his huge merit.  Did the son really go unpunished?  First of all, he lost all his inheritance.  This would impact his future for quite some time.  Next, he was shamed into doing things that he would normally not have done.  He also feared that his family ties were destroyed; he was out of contact with his family, and didn't know if this could be restored. 

Finally, there was the pain of awakening.  To finally come to the realization that others were harmed, who shouldn't have been, will cut deep into one's soul.  This is a burden on the shoulders that has to be dealt with in some way, or it will never leave.
 
People who do things that hurt others are often suffering and in trouble themselves.  They may have already been punished greatly in ways that we can't see. No, of course, that doesn’t give them the right to hurt others (and it doesn't mean that there should be no restitution, either),  but it does provide a basis for understanding the entirety of the situation.  Knowing what the other person went through might open the door for the possibility of forgiveness.  The father of the prodigal son, like Our Father who made us, could see into the pain and suffering of each person, and is ready to receive anyone who truly wants to come back home.
 
The young prodigal may have been disobedient, but he restored the heart connection to his father.  This was most important to the father, as it is to Our father. The second half of the story deals with the opposite situation, where the older son was strictly obedient to his father's rules and wishes, but never was able to make the heart-to-heart connection.  Pure obedience without love is also a prodigal squandering, not of material wealth, but of spiritual riches. 
 
The father was perhaps strongly hinting to the older brother when he explained why they were celebrating the return of the younger son, "...We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead (spiritually disconnected) and has come to life; he was lost and has been found."
 
Paul sums it all up well in his letter to the Corinthians, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. Has someone hurt you in the past that you are having trouble forgiving?  Could you move closer to forgiveness if you gained a deeper understanding of how that person suffered in his/her life, too?
 
2. Do you think the older son understood his father's message?  Do you think he changed his ways, too?
 
3. How has this lesson changed your view of obedience to God?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.

Not to Condemn, But to Save

Third Sunday in Lent – Year C
 
Exodus 3:1-15                                                 
Psalm 63:1-8                            
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

Some commentators on today's passages feel that they allude to what is commonly referred to as the "Day of Judgment."  Perhaps this position is based on the repeated phrases in Luke which read, "...but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did."
 
There is a natural desire to want ultimate justice, of course, where the good guy wins the battle and reaps the rewards, and the bad guy is duly and severely punished.  Many of our cowboy westerns and modern day action films are based on this archetype.  After all, it seems only fair.  So when we read such verses, it's easy to assume that there must be a heavenly system that will uphold our human concept of justice, sending good souls to eternal bliss, and bad souls to eternal damnation.
 
God's system of justice, however, may have a much different objective.  Instead of separating the "good guys from the bad guys," He is more interested in separating the good parts of us from the bad parts of us.  In other words, the focus is to restore each and every person to wholeness, removing those things that are not of God, so that what remains is what was intended to be.  The separation is not one person from another, but the removal of the bad parts from the good.  It's spiritual surgery at its finest.
 
When Jesus warned his listeners that "...unless you repent, you will all perish as they did", he may have been describing what we do to ourselves apart from God, rather than what God would do to us as punishment.  The symbolism found in the story of the Exodus supports the idea that God's love for us is unconditional, and that He will work with us to remove the things that oppress us and keep us from His grace. 
 
The Exodus reading reminds us of how God had "seen the affliction of [His] people in Egypt, and have heard their cry..."  Clearly God knows the people's sorrows and sets in motion plans to help them through Moses.  The oppressors of the Hebrews in Egypt kept them in physical bondage, but the symbolism of the story could include any oppression that diminishes our own souls, particularly the impact of a misguided, dysfunctional ego. 
 
God frequently works through other people to help those in need.  Moses was His instrument of choice for the Exodus from Egypt.  For us today, "Moses" may be our spiritual formation team, counselors, therapists, doctors, pastors, or friends.  The Exodus journey for us is our spiritual journey back to wholeness.  It may be a long journey through a wilderness that seems to have no end.  For some, it may even be a 40-year trek through a dry desert with stony paths.

But along the way, we gradually begin to understand that God is trying to show us how to get rid of the things in us that are not of Him, so that what's left is pure and good.  It's not a test to see if we qualify as "good" or "bad" as a person, but to recognize that there is good and bad mixed together, and we have to sort it out. 
 
That's what happened to the people during the Exodus.  They had to learn what works, and what doesn't.  If they went too far away from God, they generally imploded – they self-destructed.  This is a story repeated many times in history – people or nations who turn their backs on the love, compassion and mercy of God will eventually collapse under the pressure of illusion and deception.  Accurate translations of scripture don't say that God destroys these people or cities, but that they end up destroying themselves. 
 
Paul writes to the Corinthians that many people of the Exodus displeased God, "and they were struck down in the wilderness."  They were not struck down by God, but decayed from the inside out.  They fell to idolatry, immorality, bickering, doubt, and lack of contentment.  They gave up their higher standards of love, unity, community, family, purpose and direction, only to settle for selfishness, illusion, and idolatry.  Individuals, and societies, can't survive in this state.  By the time the people reached the promised land, they had a lot of this figured out.
 
Anyone's spiritual journey can be challenging.  So we should not expect the journey to be easy.  But the extent of God's love for us makes it impossible for Him to give up on us.  It just can't happen!
 
So Jesus' warnings in Luke to repent were pleas to choose a life following God, or we may risk losing the richness such a life offers in the way of love, inner peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and unity as a human family.  He does not want us to lose these spiritual gifts.  Let Him "dig around your roots," to nurture you and help you grow – to bear fruit of His love, compassion and mercy. 
 
Reflection Questions
 
1. Did you have a "Moses" in your life that helped you get out of a physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual prison?  How did he or she do it?
 
2. What tools does the psalmist offer us in Psalm 63 to help us on our journey?
 
3. Can you accept the fact that even though you sometimes mess things up in life, God is still there for you?
 
4. Read through the scripture lessons for this Sunday again, and spend some time journaling your thoughts.