http://www.cotcboston.org/Reflection.html On this page we post brief, weekly reflections that are intended to encourage us as disciples of Jesus in the city. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:30:00 GMT en-us http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection7 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection7 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:30:00 GMT Isolation - keeping to myself and remaining detached from others - flows from a dead heart, a heart of stone. Our needs fill our horizon and we pull back, take care of our own, and hoard what we have. Incarnation - coming among and lovingly dwelling in the lives of others as servants - flows from love, from a new heart, a heart of flesh. We engage, care for others, and live generous lives even at great cost to ourselves. Why? When Paul writes that “the love of Christ controls us,” he gives the answer. Beneath the surface of the counter-cultural, incarnational, missional life is the overflowing, life-giving spring of love deep within the heart. It is not duty nor fear nor guilt that fuels the missional life. It is love.... mlbooker@cotcboston.org (Mark Booker) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection6 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection6 Mon, 12 Mar 2010 14:30:00 GMT Ever since I was five years old I remember reading and hearing about Noah, Abraham, Elijah, David, Daniel, Jesus, Peter, Paul and a host of other bible characters. My mother bought a children’s bible for me and I remember reading it with my brother when I was a kid. By the time I got to college I thought I had this Jesus character down. I took a course on the New Testament with a professor at college and I remember walking out of class one day thinking that I had got Jesus wrong. I read the Sermon on the Mount for the first time with new eyes. I saw a Jesus who preached generosity instead of greed, peace instead of war, dying to self instead of selfishness. I saw a Jesus who purposefully spent time with the unpopular and marginalized. I saw what the death and resurrection of Jesus really cost him. Suffice to say I met Jesus in a new way and I have never been the same.... brey@cotcboston.org (Ben Rey) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection5 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection5 Mon, 5 Mar 2010 14:30:00 GMT Our parish took a day retreat together last Saturday. While looking at the book of Acts, we talked about being a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered mission on the frontier. Naturally, this raised questions about what this actually looks like in Boston. Certainly, the specifics will look different in each of our lives, according to our gifts, callings, vocations, etc., but in Jesus’ mission to the world we find an answer that pertains to all. Though he is certainly more than this, Jesus is our model and Jesus’ mission was incarnational. This is the primary test of the missional life. To be incarnational is to embrace (to dwell among) the particular and local - which is often the unspectacular and mundane - and to resist generalities and abstractions. The frontier where risks are required and where sacrifice is necessary is not somewhere else, perhaps somewhere exotic, but rather in the midst of the people, neighborhoods, workplaces, and cities in which God has planted us. Your neighbors, your spouse, your kids, your co-workers, your classmates, your city, your campus: these are the frontiers that require bold and daring faith. Jesus came and dwelt among. Are we coming among and lovingly dwelling in each other’s lives and the lives of those in the world around us? The incarnational way is relational and people and life-oriented, and therefore quite messy. It is always a movement toward and not away. This way is marked by faith and great love. The opposite of incarnation is isolation, keeping to myself, staying neat and tidy and task-driven, and remaining detached, detached enough so that I can hold on to my advantage instead of advantaging others. This way is marked by fear. Any mission in Jesus’ name will entail messy involvement with real people and real places on Monday mornings and Saturday afternoons. Do we resist and remain detached or lovingly, sacrifically embrace and dwell among? mlbooker@cotcboston.org (Mark Booker) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection4 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection4 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:30:00 GMT We all have longings. Many of us long for that special someone who will love us for who we are. Others of us long for success and to be recognized as an accomplished person in his or her field. These longings in and off themselves are not bad. However, when we put all our hopes, energy and being toward that single longing, we quickly realize that we are loving, trusting and obeying these longings as if they were God. In essence we are doing whatever we need to, to realize those longings. It is in these moments that these longings become counterfeit gods and we have forgotten the one, true God... brey@cotcboston.org (Ben Rey) http://www.cotcboston.org/Reflection.html http://www.cotcboston.org/Reflection.html Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:30:00 GMT Few of us delight in being corrected. We may claim to be teachable, but we really glory in not needing to be taught or instructed by others... mlbooker@cotcboston.org (Mark Booker) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection Wed, 3 Feb 2010 14:30:00 GMT My friend explained to me as we sat together in a cafe on a busy Boston street. "Our relationship with God is just like that Michelangelo painting. We stretch out our hand to God and he stretches his finger out to meet us, but there is a gap. There is always a gap between us." brey@cotcboston.org (Ben Rey) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection1 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection1 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:00 GMT The pace of modern, urban life can be overwhelming. For most of us, our schedules - filled as they are with work, studies, family, meetings, grocery shopping, cleaning, relationships, etc. - are enough to consume us and our thoughts... mlbooker@cotcboston.org (Mark Booker) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection2 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection2 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:30:00 GMT In our Neighborhood Group we have been gathering to share our life stories. All throughout the Bible, the People of God retell their story. In the Psalms we find poem after poem retelling the story of the Israelites; the story of their enslavement to the Egyptians and the working of God to set them free and give them a land of their own... brey@cotcboston.org (Ben Rey) http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection3 http://www.cotcboston.org/reflection/reflection3 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:30:00 GMT While there is nothing wrong with properly placed confidence, the temptation to overestimate our "power" is ever present, particularly after something we do goes well. It’s for this reason that Andrew Bonar, a well known Scottish preacher who lived in the 19th century said: "Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle."... mlbooker@cotcboston.org (Mark Booker)