A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 46

Chapter 46 – Ask, Seek, Knock

 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew (7:7-11)

 

Ask, and you will receive. This is one of the many lessons we learn from Jesus in this sermon. Want something from God? Pray, ask, and you will receive it. We are told to pray without ceasing as a way to maintain our relationship with God.

 

But praying in this manner isn’t just asking for things and hoping to receive them. Praying to God is about building up your relationship with God, and also with yourself. Praying it about learning how to recognize that a relationship with God means that you can ask to leave your burdens in God’s hands, thus receiving relief from stress, sadness, and anger. Asking and receiving isn’t always about material goods. In fact, most of the time, it’s about spiritual and emotional needs.

 

Seeking out a relationship with God means that you’re ready to receive all of what it means to be in relationship with God – grace, mercy, forgiveness, and, most of all, unconditional love. Ask, and you will receive all of this and more. Ask and seek, and you will receive an abundance of love that you’ll hardly know what to do with it all. Ask and seek, and you will receive the gift of being able to lay your burdens down, even if only for a while.

 

Everyone who asks, everyone who seeks, will receive. No if, ands, or buts about it.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 45

Chapter 45 – Casting Pearls

 

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.” Matthew (7:6)

 

 Of all the verses in the Sermon on the Mount we’ve covered in the last 45 weeks, this one is so far toe most difficult to examen. Is Jesus calling people dogs and pigs here? What pearls are we talking about here?

 

As Christians, our “pearl” would be the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ that we are called to share to all people. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to be cautious about who is at the receiving end of our message? Seems counterintuitive, though, to the fact the Jesus has told us the Good News is universal and for all people.

 

Dallas Willard talks about forcing our religion on to others, or considering our “pearls” being “offered with a certain superiority of bearing that keeps us from paying attention to those we are trying to help.” (p. 288) Now this seems more Jesus-like. Jesus never asks us to consider ourselves superior to anyone. He only asks that we share in our love. And while the metaphor seems a little odd, the second half warns us that if we try to act superior to others, we will be trampled upon and left behind.

A Review of the Book "Bad Girls of the Bible:

Title: Bad Girls of the Bible

Author: Liz Curtis Higgs

Publisher: Waterbrook Press

Year: 1999

238 pages

From the Back: "For ten years I studied bunches of biblical role models and finally realized what we had in common: zip. Sarah was so faithful. Esther was so courageous. Mary was so innocent. I was so none-of-the-above.

    Then I happened upon Jezebel, and something inside me clicked. I identified with her pushy personality, I understood her need for control, I empathized with her angry outbursts, and I began to wonder. Could those Bad Girls from the past teach us how to be Good girls in the present? I'm here to tell you  - yes! Whether they were "bad to the bone", "bad for a moment", or " bad for a season but not forever", these infamous sisters show us how not to handle the challenges of life." ~Liz Curtis Higgs

Personal Thoughts: Bad Girls of the Bible was an interesting way to explore some of the characters we don't often focus on during bible study. Higgs creatively turns a biblical narrative into a fictional story so as to give the readers a different perspective of the story. For example, Delilah becomes a hairdresser named Lila from Dallas. Higgs follows the story up with an almost line by line review and commentary using humour that brings new light to these characters. Each chapter ends with some life-lessons and some follow-up questions for the reader to ponder.

    Overall, it was a fun book to read. The fictional stories were fun new ways of reading familiar narratives, and the author is quite humourous in her writing. If you're looking for someone willing to examen some of the seedier characters in the bible, especially the women who often don't get a first look let alone a second one, this is the book for you.

A Review of the Book "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi

Title: Helter Skelter

Author: Vincent Bugliosi

Publisher: WW Norton and Company

Year: 1974

670 pages

From the Back: In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LaBlanca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his "family" of devoted young women and men. What was his hold over them? And what was the motivation behind such savagery? In the public imagination, over time, the case assumed the proportions of myth. The murders marked the end of the sixties and became an immediate symbol of the dark underside of that era.

    Vincent Bugliosi was the persecuting attorney in the Manson trial, and this book is his enthralling account of how he built his case from what a defense attorney dismissed as only "two fingerprints and Vince Bugliosi." The meticulous detective work with which the story begins, the prosecutor's view of a complex murder trial, the reconstruction of the philosophy Manson inculcated in his fervent followers...these elements make for a true crime classic.

Personal Thoughts: As I read through this book, I had to keep reminding myself that it was true crime, not a fiction novel. This could have been a really dry read but Bugliosi was able to tell the story without drowning the reader in facts and timelines. He wrote it almost like a detective novel which actually made it an enjoyable read, until you remembered the subject matter. Helter Skelter and the story of Charles Manson is not for the faint of heart, but it certainly wasn't boring.

A Review of the Book "The Next Person You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom

Title: The Next Person You Meet in Heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher; HarperCollins Publishers

Year: 2018

210 pages

From the Back: The accident that killed Eddie left an indelible mark on Annie. It took her left hand, which needed to be surgically reattached. Injured, scarred, and unable to remember what happened, Annie is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew.

    Bullied by her peers and haunted by something she cannot recall, Annie struggles to find acceptance as she grows. She feels everything she does is a mistake. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness.

    But, as the novel opens, Annie is marrying Paulo, and her wedding night ends in an unimaginable tragedy. Annie is whisked into her own heavenly journey - and into an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of five people who will show her how her earthly life touched others in ways she could not have fathomed.

Personal Thoughts: I really love Mitch Albom's writing. His stories are very easy to read and are so relatable. In this particular book, Albom uses Annie's story to help the reader consider what it might be like to exist in the moment between life and death. How do you think it will feel? Who do you think you would meet? Albom is very gentle in his writing, pulling at your heart-strings with every word. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven is the sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven. You don't need to read them in any order, but I do recommend them both.

A Review of the Book "Fatty Legs" by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton

Title: Fatty Legs

Author: Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton

Publisher: Annick Press

Year: 2020

136 Pages

From the Back: Eight-year-old Olemaun Pokiak sets her sights on learning to read, but even her father's dire warnings can't prepare her for the reality of residential school. At school Olemaun is made to answer to the name Margaret. She soon encounters the Raven, a cruel nun who forces her to wear bright red stockings when all the other students wear gray ones. Margaret becomes an instant laughingstock. But she will not let herself be worn down - even in the face of torment.

Personal Thoughts: As with any book about residential schools, this was an emotional story. You can feel the tension between the child's desire to learn to read and her father's need to protect her from an education system that was built to destroy Indigenous people. Jordan-Fenton does an incredible job of sharing her mother-in-law's story, giving it honour while also making the read feel the emotions being experienced by Olemaun. Yes, this is a children's book but sometimes it is from children's stories that we learn the biggest lessons.

A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 44

Chapter 44 – Judging Others

 

“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” Matthew (7:1-5)

 

I enjoyed Anthony de Mello’s contribution to this chapter. De Mello talks about the possibility that when we judge others, we are actually judging something about ourselves. He states, “Every time you find yourself irritated or angry with someone, the one to look at is not that person but yourself.” (282) De Mello reflects that perhaps the irritation we see in others is something that we find irritating about ourselves, therefore we project that irritation back to the other person.

 

No matter what, it is not our place to judge. People make their own choices in life and who are we to judge what they do. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t call someone out when they are being harmful or hurtful to another person, or if they are breaking the law, or are about to find themselves in danger. Not judging does not mean not confronting sin.

 

However, the speck and the log in our eye that Jesus talks about certainly comes into play if we deem ourselves better than another for whatever reason. A better person. A better parent. A better Christian. It is not our place to determine what is “better”. Only God will be our ultimate judge. In the meantime, our job is to live in the best way we can, love as much as we can, and do all that we can to take care of our neighbours.

 

In these verses, Jesus is calling us to worry more about removing the plank from our own eye than from the eye of others. As they say on airplanes, put your own mask own before trying to help others.