When Love Shows Up: Weekly Reflections about God’s Presence

Render Unto Caesar - Part 1 - Non Partisan Jesus - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

In any case, it’s certainly not a straight answer, as centuries of varied interpretations attest.  
This anecdote is often seen as Jesus refusing to engage in politics. He declines to clearly answer an explicitly political question, and his riddle of an answer has the whiff of separating church from state. This text then is often used by Christians as a way of discouraging the mix of religion and politics. It is especially used by Christians when another Chrisitan is espousing a political perspective that makes us uncomfortable. 
Please understand that the question posed to Jesus is not asked genuinely – and I will say/write more about that next week. But it is worth saying here that the question is not asked with a desire for understanding Jesus’ perspective: It is a trap. Whichever way Jesus answers is problematic. Not because it is political, but because it is partisan. For Jesus to answer in either direction would put him in a category with a specific existing political constituency. To radically oversimplify things for our current context, the ones asking the question are doing something akin to getting Jesus to tell them if he is a Republican or a Democrat. Those who confront Jesus aren’t seeking his wisdom, aren’t interested in learning from him: They want to know which group to put him in so that he can be more easily classified, managed, and dismissed.  
 
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The Profits of Outrage - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

This week's episode of When Love Shows Up explores the role of outrage in media consumption, tracing its evolution from the days of Howard Stern’s controversial radio show to the present era dominated by social media. Rev. Phil reflects on how media companies profit from keeping audiences engaged through provocative content. He examines the addictive nature of outrage and its implications for our social interactions and mental well-being. Drawing on Christian principles, he advocates for a community centered on love and human connection as an antidote to the divisive and profit-driven nature of current media practices.
 
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Sorrow and Hope and Chicken Jockey - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

While we were memorializing our beloved, millions of people were marching and demonstrating in cities across the country. Every record of this event I saw showed grieving and laughter in potent coexistence. Homemade signs that embody rage and humor. Sorrow and hope - neither strangers nor enemies. For these millions, disillusionment with our present reality has not undermined a belief in what can be, in what we can be. It is a mighty love that produces such sorrow and hope. A hope that does not acknowledge sorrow is all artifice and denial. But a sorrow without hope? I don’t want to know it and neither do you. We are built for hope. 
The next day, we drove through 6 hours of rain to get home to our children. I reached the front door exhausted and held onto them for dear life. It is such a cliché to say my children give me hope. But clichés are clichés for a reason, aren’t they? It is not my kids’ innocence I love – in all honesty I don’t consider them all that innocent. Children experience anger and shame and fear and sorrow and joy and all sorts of what we call “big feelings” just as much as adults do. They’re clueless and naïve and idealistic and wholehearted, but I do not worship or idealize them.  

To Be a Blessing - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Blessing does not exist in a vacuum. Blessing does not exist solely as a reward for good behavior. Blessing is a calling. Blessing is a vocation. The reason Abraham is blessed is so that he will be empowered to bless others. The land he is given is meant to provide a homeland for a whole people. His name is meant to be great so that he can use it to help others. His children and children’s children are meant to facilitate and embody God’s love and blessing  to the whole world – to all the families of the earth. 
I often struggle with the temptation to make myself the center of my own life. I am thinking about how my life will turn out. What will come my way, what will I accomplish. I want to be blessed in practical ways like Abraham, and like so many others I’ve known. Who wouldn’t want that? But I am not the center of the universe, and I should not be the center of my own life. As a Christian, I am supposed to place God at the center of my life – but I have to tell you that doesn’t mean I’m supposed to be a holy roller who is, as one old song goes,  so heavenly minded that I’m no earthly good.  
No, the Christian is commanded to center God by serving God’s people – which to be clear is everyone. 

Abusive God - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

This is not Christian education. It is abuse.  
You know it’s abuse in your heart. Because if anyone – a spouse, a partner, a sibling, a friend - ever loved your best friend the way we are told God loves us, you’d tell them to run, and you’d be right.  
Spiritually abusive Christianity, however prevalent it may feel in today’s world, is not reflected in the life, words, and ministry of Jesus. If you are a Christian who is being taught you were born dead and undeserving of love, you are in an abusive relationship. If you are someone who has left the church because you could no longer digest such a violent, toxic message about yourself, your leaving was not apostasy: It was an act of love – it was you recognizing something sacred within yourself that deserves to be nourished. That is exactly what Jesus wants for you.  

Political Violence - The Re. Philip DeVaul

Jesus was a victim of political violence. But the real political violence against Jesus began before he was ever beaten, whipped, or killed. It began long before the night he was arrested. From very early in Jesus’ public ministry there are accounts of people plotting to silence him by force. The first time he preached at his home synagogue, he outraged his neighbors such that they sought to throw him off a cliff. The narrative of his ministry is laced with the threat of violence against him.  
But the political violence against Jesus goes further back than that. Shortly after his birth, his parents were forced to take him and flee the country: Herod, then the king of Israel, sought to kill the baby he saw as a threat to his power. The violence against Jesus went further – as Jesus was born into an occupied country; his safety and the safety of his family contingent upon the whims of the Roman Empire, subject to their ability to accept their systemic oppression without resistance.  
I’ve been thinking more and more about how Dr. King said, “True peace is not merely the absence of some negative force—tension, confusion or war; it is the presence of some positive force—justice, good will and brotherhood.” He observed repeatedly that one does not need to strike or stab or shoot in order to be violent: Violence exists in the threat of violence; violence exists in the creation and perpetuation of a system that maintains the status quo through the threat of violence.  
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For Charlie Kirk - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

I am a Christian. This means I have committed my life to following Jesus, to love like Jesus loves, and, for lack of a more attractive term, to obey Jesus. Jesus is crystal clear in his command that I love others the way he has loved me. It’s a good time to remember that the command to love is not a command to feel a certain way about someone. It is impossible for us to control all our feelings, and I don’t believe Jesus would give us impossible commands.  
To love Charlie Kirk does not mean to ignore or rationalize the things about him I find objectionable or harmful. To love him is to honor the dignity of his humanity – to recognize that he and I are both creations of the same God. To love Charlie Kirk is to be for him – and this is tricky, I acknowledge. I do not mean it means to accept or go along with everything he says, or to hope he gets what he wants. No, to love him is to hope for his heart to be filled with love, for him to experience liberation from hatred, for him to know true joy.  
This is a non-starter for a lot of people I love and respect. Because we are all caught up in the condition of believing love, liberation, and joy are only for people we think deserve it – that love, liberation, and joy are rewards for good behavior. But what if true love, liberation, and joy are the things that enable us to let go of hatred in the first place?  
 
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No Exceptions - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

Jesus did not take issue with this. For a people to understand themselves in relation to the God who made them, and to believe they have a purpose on this earth is empowering and beautiful. But Jesus noticed that certain people among him thought this relationship and purpose made them better than others – made their people somehow more worthy of God’s love and acceptance. They believed that they were an exceptional people.  
That didn’t work for Jesus. He told parables highlighting the faithfulness of people outside their culture. He uttered prophetic warnings to the effect that if they weren’t interested in creating communities that authentically recognized the dignity of every human being, God would gladly find others to do it. Jesus’ point again and again was simple: Just because we matter to God, just because God gave us a purpose, does not make us exceptional. We are all people – and every person has the capacity to glorify God in ways you can’t even imagine. 
I need to pause here and make it very clear that I do not believe the exceptionalism to which I refer is somehow a characteristic unique to the culture of ancient Israel, or of Jewish people. In our current times, we are seeing a horrifying surge in anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence in our country and across the globe. Christians in particular have an abysmal track record in terms of anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence. Of course there are and always have been Christians who have been supportive and respectful of our Jewish siblings. But some of the gravest threats to Jews throughout history have come from Christians, been condoned or undertaken by Christians.
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You're Not Special - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

I remember sitting next to my dad in a hospital room in Maine many years ago. He had accidentally overdosed on pain meds during his cancer battle and was in a coma. I sat in stillness next to his unnervingly quiet body in that unnervingly quiet room – helpless and useless. And, because I’m a religious guy, I pulled out my Bible. I turned it to the Book of Job. Maybe when you’re sad and scared you want something happy and hopeful: an inspirational Bible quote or cheery encouraging song. Not me. I want the saddest music possible. Music was not allowed in the ICU, so I read through the Biblical story of the man who lost everything he ever had and never got a good explanation for it. Nobody ever told him why his life fell apart, and no amount of faithfulness made it clearer for him. Job was simply miserable and clueless, and at the end he hadn’t learned a thing.  
It made my day. Because in that moment I realized not that I should be hopeful or happy or positive or cheery: Instead I learned I was not unique in my misery. I was not alone – even in my pitiable pilgrimage. What a gift. 
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Two Guys Without a Car - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

By the time we got back to the parking lot we were beat. Our wives were nowhere to be seen. So we called them, and it turned out the appointment they’d made wasn’t done yet and they were 3 miles down the road and wouldn’t be ready for a while.  
Martin and I looked at each other, and just started walking again. But we were no longer on the trail. We were on a sidewalk. Walking towards the wives and the minivan. Instead of creeks there were mini malls, instead of trees there were power lines and cell towers. Martin sighed, “Well I guess the hike continues.”  
I shook my head emphatically and said, “No, Martin. The hike is over. Now we’re just two guys without a car.” 
Intention matters.
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