{"id":3094,"date":"2020-05-10T15:46:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T20:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2020-05-10T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T21:08:09","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-be-alive-by-doug-bennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=3094","title":{"rendered":"“What Does It Mean to Be Alive?” by Doug Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 10, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…….It turns out we aren\u2019t so different from the virus.  It can\u2019t exist by itself\/on its own.  But neither can we. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one lesson we\u2019ve all been learning as we have been shut up in our homes, distancing ourselves from one another: that we need one another.  But it\u2019s more than that: we need each other in a relationship of love that connects us with God because that is what gives us life.  The Gospel of John expresses this in a powerful metaphor:  Jesus says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.<\/em>5 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 <\/sup><\/strong>If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is another lesson, harder, but at least as important about \u2018being alive.\u2019  In this time of virus, in this time of dying, it is easy to fall into thinking that \u2018all living things are good.\u2019 What lives is all part of God\u2019s glory, all to be nurtured, all to be celebrated, all to be saved.  It\u2019s easy to think that \u2014 especially easy as spring blooms around us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we gather here separated from one another, however, we know this is not so.  There are bits of creation that are not so good, and this virus is one of them.  The cancers that afflict too many of us: they are another.  Murder wasps: we\u2019ve just started hearing about them.  Black flies.  Typhus and typhoid and smallpox.  I mean all these things, but there\u2019s more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also bits of ourselves that live all too commonly within us, things that are not good:  selfishness, pride, envy, greed, wrath \u2013 things like that.  These things become a part of us all too easily, and they are things that should not live within us.  We might think of them as like a virus.  They live within us, become a part of us, even take over our lives.  They infect us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are little bits of us \u2013 within us \u2013 that should not be living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus asks us to let these things die within us so that we can live a new and transformed life.  Some of the hardest parts of the New Testament are about this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Paul in Colossians:  5 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Therefore put to death the parts of your earthly nature.  <\/em> In his letters to the Romans, Paul says:  13 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Ephesians, Paul reminds us:  22 <\/sup><\/em><\/strong>You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 <\/sup><\/strong>to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 <\/sup><\/strong>and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we think of these things, our \u201cdeceitful desires\u201d that too easily become a part of us, as like a virus, having life only because they latch onto us and work their own purposes?  Can we think of these things as parts of us that must die so we can truly live?  Can we think of them as infections \u2013 even infections we carelessly pass from one to another?  If we can, we know the cure:  to love one another in the vine.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we find ourselves a new life by ridding ourselves of these, by loving one another?  This is the transformed life to which we are called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire message can be found on Riverview Friend<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 10, 2020 …….It turns out we aren\u2019t so different from the virus.  It can\u2019t exist by itself\/on its own.  But neither can we.  This is one lesson we\u2019ve all been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-NU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3096,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions\/3096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}