You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday’s gospel reading is here. 

The handlers were getting edgy. The candidate was on a tight schedule, with influential people to meet, speeches to give, a movement to advance. There was no time for kissing babies and picking up kids. Security risk, germ risk, not to mention the danger of being upstaged…  “Keep the kids away!” they muttered into their walkie-talkies. But the candidate had other ideas:

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

This is how Jesus’ disciples might be depicted if we updated this story to today. (In fact, something like this has happened with Pope Francis… here is a similar moment, and another here). It does make for great copy – the high and exalted stooping to the lowly and insignificant.

But Jesus was up to something bigger than a great photo op. He didn’t only say to let the children come – he said that they, in fact, have the highest status of all: to them belongs the Kingdom of God. That makes them owners, these little ones who by law could own nothing, earn nothing, achieve nothing, who were completely dependent upon others. These are the owners of the Kingdom.

What does that say about other insignificant kinds of people? Is Jesus saying the Kingdom also belongs to the destitute, the diseased, the depressed, the disowned – and to us, on our worst days? Or is there something peculiar to children that elevates them to this status? Is it in fact their very dependence that makes them so important?

Is Jesus inviting us to lay down all our products and projects so that our hands are open to receive the whole thing, the fullness of God-Life? Is that why he wants us to relinquish all the things we think we own, which keep us from being fully open to owning the whole Realm of God? Jesus told a little parable about that, and counseled a wealthy man…

It is one of Jesus’ most difficult challenges to us, this call to lay down something in order to receive everything. We spend our lives living into that work, so that when we come face to face with Love in its purest form, our hands will be open and empty, ready to receive it.  Our children already know this; if we could only keep them from unlearning it as they grow up, they might lead us into the joy and un-anxious wonder of God-Life.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday’s gospel reading is here. 

When Jesus is asked whether or not divorce is permissible for the faithful, he goes to the Scriptures, quoting Genesis:  “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.”

Sounds simple enough. It’s the ideal of what marriage is. Much more than a change of life status and condition, marriage in the Judeo-Christian view is the creation of a new person, if you will, an entity crafted from the union of the two partners entering into this covenant. It’s a beautiful ideal, and maddeningly difficult to live into, especially in a culture that understands marriage as the consummation of romantic love. And to the question of whether only two people with different genders can become “one flesh,” the bible is silent, as it is on abortion, medical ethics, labor laws, and so many other issues that vex us today.

What Jesus is not silent on is the sanctity of the union once made. He answers the Pharisees in a fairly general way –  “…Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” But Mark tells us that in private he has a different answer for his disciples: Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” 

Harsh words. I wonder why Jesus didn’t define it so starkly in public – did he know it might drive people away, as it once did a parishioner when this passage was read in church? And why does this statement allow no room for situations like abuse, infidelity or neglect that might warrant dissolving a marriage? And what do we make of our times, in which so many marriages suffer estrangement, unfaithfulness and often break down completely?

In the Episcopal wedding liturgy, the congregation is asked, after the two parties have declared their intent, whether they will do all in their power to  uphold these two persons in their marriage. This is where we have a chance to enhance the “holy” in matrimony. Whether or not we are present when a couple made their vows, we can pray for them, talk with them, tangibly support their ongoing emotional and spiritual connection. And we can counter the cultural messages about marriage with the Christian narrative – that God has made a new creation out of two distinct persons in order that they reveal Love in the world. That new creation is fragile and vulnerable – it needs nurturing and protecting.

It is not up to each couple to save their marriage – it is up to their community to support and to love them, even when they fail to stay together. If we want to see marriage upheld as holy, let’s pray and support the couples we know, for the holy comes from God, through God’s people.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday’s gospel reading is here. 

I don’t have a clue what Jesus meant by this:  “For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?

Since he’s just talked about the fires of hell as a consequence of sin, I’m guessing that has something to do with it. Is he saying that each of us has a taste of sin’s consequences, both the immediate personal outcomes, and the separation from God that results? Jesus has freed us from that last, more eternal consequence, but sometimes we feel the heat of those fires. Is that what it means to be salted with fire?

And what does that have to do with the qualities of salt? How do we maintain the saltiness of salt? (And how do we read this metaphor in an age and culture all too aware of the dangers of consuming salt…)

It is all too inscrutable to me. So I will focus on the last sentence, which is something we can connect with:  “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”  More than once Jesus commends “saltiness” in his followers and warns of the dangers of salt that has lost its flavor. Might we link “salt” with the power of the Holy Spirit at work in followers of Christ? Trying to live as a Christian without the active participation of the Spirit can make us dull and flavor-less, adding little to the world around us beyond vague talk of love and ordered worship in pretty buildings. Is Jesus condemning the Spirit-less religiosity he so often saw in the religious leaders of his time?

What does it mean to have salt in ourselves? It means, in part, that we feel the flow of God-Life in us; we know we’re part of an enterprise bigger than ourselves. It means we confront discouragement with prayer, and defeat with hope, sorrow with a joy borne not of circumstances, but of faith.

When do you feel the most “salty,” alive, full of flavor as a Christian? Is it in works of service or giving? In worship or prayer? When you’re reading the bible? Organizing ministries for others to live into? Talking about God’s involvement in your life? Pay attention to where you most come alive – chances are that’s where you have salt within yourself. And when we have salt within ourselves, it’s not so hard to be at peace with one another.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday’s gospel reading is here. 

Sunday’s gospel passage is really several different teachings put together – or it reads that way. How otherwise to account for the abrupt change in mood from Jesus’ conversation with his disciples about how to respond to people outside the faith community to his stern warning against blocking children – and maybe also the poor and powerless – from believing in him: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”

By “these little ones” he didn’t necessarily mean children. He may well have been referring to simple folk, plain, uneducated, unimportant in the eyes of society’s leaders. Who would dream of putting “stumbling blocks” in the way of such people? Not, we hope, his disciples, though more than once we see them trying to hush beggars or lepers calling out for Jesus.

He may have been targeting the religious leaders, Pharisees and scribes, whom he so often accused of laying burdens on people, making them feel they could never measure up to the demands of the law, forgetting the breadth of God’s mercy. Any insistence on the “right way” to believe, to act, to think, to worship can serve as a stumbling block to someone who has not been raised that way, or has another way of celebrating the love of God.

Are we snared here? Are there people whose spiritual progress toward Christ we impede? Do we create barriers in the way we organize ourselves or worship – not saying, “You need a decent suit/a certain color skin/ a college degree/a love for 19th century music to enjoy worship here,” but subtly conveying it? Maybe we don’t impede – but neither do we facilitate.  Do we celebrate people’s belief in Christ wherever we find it, even if the packaging is different than ours? Are we out there creating easy on-ramps to faith by being open about our faith in Christ and the Good News?

There are people with a simple and natural faith in Jesus. I’m sure you can think of a few if you try. We need ask nothing of them but that they show us how to love our Lord so simply and so fully, for sometimes in our complexity we create stumbling blocks for ourselves.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday’s gospel reading is here. 

I used to lead a large regional interfaith organization in Southwestern Connecticut. Now I chair an Interfaith Commission which is part of my county’s government. God has a sense of humor, I guess – I was never much interested in interfaith work, being more focused on helping Christians become more connected to Christ, and much more involved in what he actually taught and did.

Yet I have discovered that people of other faith traditions often recognize the power of Jesus, and live according to the values of the Kingdom, even if they don’t acknowledge him as the Son of God. Evidently this is not a new phenomenon: John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”

That’s a far cry from “whoever is not for us is against us,” which is the kind of rhetoric you hear from those who claim that “Christianity is under attack in this country.” Jesus makes a radically open statement here – that those who honor him, even if they have not made the choice (or been offered the choice…) to follow him as Lord, are to be honored as allies and co-laborers.

I have a Muslim friend with a powerful ministry of healing prayer. That challenged me at first – I think of Christ as the one who heals. And maybe He is healing through the prayers of this very faithful, very humble, very devout Muslim. I have a Jewish friend who loves to worship Jesus. I have Sikh friends steeped in peaceful anti-violence work, and Baha’I friends who offer hospitality beyond measure. I know countless people who claim no faith or religious affiliation whatsoever doing amazing work to restore people and communities and generously give of their resources. In a time when highly visible Christians in our country vocally support hatred, racism, misogyny, discrimination, violence, xenophobia and a bias against the poor, we need to look beyond labels to words and actions.

I am not saying there is no distinction between religious traditions – I don’t subscribe to the “all religions are the same” view. As a committed follower of Christ, I believe he is Lord, Messiah, Redeemer, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and I seek to introduce people in my life to this Lord who is the source of peace, power, presence and purpose for me. Yet I also affirm the goodness and love present in many of the world’s religious traditions – and recognize that God is bigger than the categories in which we try to contain him. Big enough even to work through people who don’t know Jesus as Lord, but work in his name.

Who do you know like that? How can you support their work? People will more likely see something of value in the Way of following Christ when we start celebrating love wherever we find it.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.