outWORD by Matte Downey

One of the more obscure parables which Jesus tells is found in Luke 13:6-9. "A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’” (Common English Bible) This story comes after a discussion on the connection between oppression, suffering, and right living. Jesus dismantles the idea that those who suffer are more sinful than others, but then tells his listeners that unless they change their hearts and lives ( metanoia ), they will die just like those unfortunate ones who were slaughtered by Pilate or were killed when a tower fell. It is a mixed message in some ways, but J...

When people contacted Mother Teresa to find out more about her and her work among the poor in India, she was often known to reply with the words of Jesus:  come and see . Mother Teresa knew that no amount of explanation could adequately communicate the nature of the world in which she lived and laboured. A person had to experience it for themselves. Come and see. Come and see is a favourite phrase of children. I am often invited to come to a child's room to see something. I know that the child is not asking me to stay at a discreet distance and observe as if collecting data for a report. The child is inviting me to get up close and personal, to sit on the floor and hold each precious toy that is handed to me. The child is inviting me to enter into their world, to join in their experience. I am expected to press buttons that make noises. I am expected to hug a plush animal. I am expected to join in a silly song or dance. I am expected to smell yellow candies in order to tell...

When you search for images of someone praying, you see a lot of this: person with hands folded, head bowed, eyes closed, on their knees, with a Bible. Interestingly, their mouths are usually closed. However, conversing with the Creator is so much more than the standard pictures suggest. I recently finished Eugene Peterson's book, Tell It Slant . In the latter half of the volume, he deals with the prayers of Jesus. As I was reading, I realized that for much of my life, I have seen prayer as a task, a responsibility, a job, a burden, a required discipline for all who claim to follow Jesus. But Jesus never presents prayer like that. When his disciples make the request, "Teach us to pray," Jesus starts off with, "Our Father..." He makes use of the inclusive pronouns "us" and "we." Instead of giving the disciples a task, Jesus invites them to join him in what he is doing: communing with the Father. Perhaps prayer is not so much a spiritual di...

William Blake's illustration of Job 40:15 Image from wikipedia.org These days I am spending a lot of time in the book of Job. It is not as depressing as it sounds. There is a compelling story, a cast of interesting characters, a lot of impassioned and honest dialogue, some amazing poetry on the subject of creation, and a good number of philosophical and theological questions to ponder. Readers of Job looking for solutions to the problem of suffering or seeking to justify God's goodness in the face of unexplained tragedy are inevitably disappointed. This is not a book of answers; it is a drama. And it is a good one. I don't know about you, but if I were to read a book or watch a movie about someone whose life was easy and everything worked out well, time after time, I would toss that boring book in the corner after the first chapter or two, and I would walk out of that trite, simplistic movie. Because life is hard, we know it is, and a story with nothing but innocence a...

Image from paradigm-shift-21st-century.nl These past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. Two weeks ago I was in Toronto at Wycliffe College for a symposium. Last week I flew to Edmonton for another symposium at King's University and stayed an extra few days to visit friends. On the way home, I got stranded in Toronto overnight, but I arrived back in Montreal on Sunday morning just in time to give the talk at our weekly faith gathering. After a day or two at home, I got on the plane again and flew to the East coast for some meetings with church leaders. I have enough boarding passes to wallpaper a small room. Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement, but you get the point. In all of these travels, I have been privileged and extremely grateful for the opportunity to see different parts of the country, explore various institutions of higher learning, meet many new people, and spend time with old friends. We are made richer by our wanderings. Some of the people I met had tal...

There are some books that I take a long time to read. One of those is The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by James Martin S.J. It is filled with stories, advice, quotes, and wisdom on a wide range of spiritual topics, all offered within an Ignatian framework. Though it is a very accessible read, I find myself not rushing through it; I want to stop and think, stop and pray, stop and work out the things I read about. This morning I read something in Martin's book which hit very close to home. The author has a condition which has been diagnosed as repetitive strain injury. Since his theological study days, he has suffered shooting pains in his hands and wrists which affect how much he can type and write. While working at a magazine, he became increasingly frustrated at the situation. He asked: "Why would God do this? What was the sense of a writer who couldn't write? What was the point? ... Why would God prevent the work that I was missioned to do?" He tried e...

our faith community praying for each other (mosaic effect) Part of what we do in our church community is pray for people who are sick.  I have prayed for people for many years regarding all kinds of physical, emotional, and circumstantial problems. I still find it difficult.  Usually I manage to ask the Holy Spirit to come, invite Jesus to intervene in the specific problem, and blubber something about the goodness of God being all-pervasive.  Sometimes I feel a sense of God's nearness, but many times I just feel lost.  Over the years I have heard many people pray for healing. Some command different parts of the body to be made whole and sound. Some claim healing based on Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Others pray by referencing various scriptures which imply that healing is available if one just asks. Some invoke God's supernatural healing power while others ask for an awareness of God's presence and everything that goes along with that. Some touch the ill one; o...