Ronnie McBrayer

The Backwater Blues: God Was Not in the Storm

"Hurricanes are the result of low-pressure systems moving across warm tropical wasters. Earthquakes are caused by the normal release of energy from the movement of tectonic plates. Sickness and disease are as old as the ecosystem that sustains humanity, and we are frail beings. Evil people - with twisted minds and monstrous intentions - will always live among us. This is the natural world - the natural state of affairs. To ignore it or to explain it away is a travesty that only compounds suffering, it does not alleviate it. And as utterly shocking as this may sound, in the face of this suffering, don’t look to the heavens to find God! Look to your suffering neighbors!
"Because God 'was not in the storm,' if I might borrow a line from the prophet Elijah. God is in and with the storm-blown, now homeless family in Steinhatchee, Florida. God didn’t cause the rising waters - God is in the evacuees who lost everything to the flooding of the French Broad River. God is in that child who cannot escape the abuse of her of stepfather. God is in innocent children dying in today’s wars. Don’t look for God up there or out there - look for God down here. Don’t look for God in your answer-all theology books - look for God in the question marks and confusion. Don’t look for God in the explanations of religion. Look for God in suffering people. Because that’s where Jesus said God would be - Christ would be there in the 'least of these.' An act of God is not some disastrous calamity - no matter what your insurance policy says. You are an act of God - you can be - when in hope and faith you act to lovingly heal the world."
(See Psalm 19 and Luke 13.)
 
 

Fool Around...Find Out

"There is a discernment, a knowing, that goes beyond - and exceeds mere intellect or intelligence. I’ll state what we all know: A person can have the highest of IQs, advanced degrees, technical proficiency, and have no common sense whatsoever; no problem solving ability. You can be intelligent - and still be stupid. You can have knowledge - more than most people around you - but still be a clueless chucklehead about life. What I'm talking about is wisdom. That is the precious commodity, and it is in desperately short supply these days."
 

Hush...Puppy...

"What are we to make of this strange and wonderful story, this encounter Jesus has with a foreign woman, this talk of dogs and outcasts? The story is told, once again, to reinforce a constant and primary theme of Jesus’ ethic and ministry: He is breaker of boundaries; literally and figuratively. He intentionally moves into the foreign places; into the marginal places; out to the borders; out to where we his followers are often incredibly uncomfortable. Jesus is always pushing the religious limits, always critiquing the institutional rules, always expanding the horizon, always making space for those regarded as incompatible or unacceptable. Jesus has a soft spot for fools, drunks, little children, for starving puppies begging under the table; the poor, the rejected, for those whose noses have been bloodied by a hundred slamming doors; for the weak, the down and out, the stained, the marked, the failures. Jesus is always out there hanging with the crowd we wouldn’t be caught dead with.
 
"For the life of me, I can’t figure out where today’s church came up with this prim and proper, tame and courteous Jesus, who is little more than a mascot for middle and upper class respectability. This man was a revolutionary in the truest sense of the word, come to welcome all who would come, even if it alienated those who thought that they were the ones who had cornered the market on faith and belief in God; even if his words and way was seen as an affront to the religious establishment" (See Mark 7:24-29).

Hands...and Hearts

"How often does a religious authority figure become the actual authority? How often do human-made regulations get inflated and inflicted as God-given commandments? How often do ancient traditions - traditions that may have worked very well for those who first conceived of them - outlast their usefulness - and grow into monstrous, shame-inducing, fear-mongering, finger-pointing, soul-crushing, heart-breaking machines of spiritual abuse and destruction? Be distrustful of - run away from - groups, denominations, churches, and movements that crush the people under their care; that place heavy burdens on people’s backs; that coerce, intimidate, manipulate and malign. That might be religion. But that just can’t be Jesus.
"You see, religious rules can’t protect you. They can’t keep you holy. They really can’t help you. Sure, they might work to get you started; but eventually - sooner or later - external, religious, behavior management can only keep you caged, withdrawn, fearful, suspicious, and judgmental. It can’t set you free. To borrow commentary from the Apostle Paul: 'Christ has set us free…The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love…For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Neither we nor the world need more religion. We need changed hearts. We need transformation from within. And that is possible - as we surrender to the Spirit and direction of Jesus - who makes all things new."

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad

“The journey ahead will be too much for you! God says to Elijah (See 1 Kings 18 and 19). For those who have been champions, for those who have felt like nothing but losers. For those disappointed, discouraged, despondent, confused, misused, and abused: The journey will be too much for you! Enough with the lie that 'God will never put more on you than you can stand.' That’s nowhere near an accurate statement and will not hold up under thoughtful, theological, or experiential analysis. Sometimes life will collapse on you with the weight of multiple lifetimes; there will be too many challenges; too many burdens; too much tragedy. It happens with the news of a single, solitary catastrophe - or with the slow, accumulating of day to day weariness like silent, falling snow. Either way, sometimes it is all more than you can take. Sometimes life will break you.
"But I know, as I read the history of our ancestors here in the Scriptures, and as I review my own life and the lives of those who kept faith to the end and beyond, is that God has a way of showing up and picking up his children when they have reached the very end of themselves. There is something about coming to the absolute end of strength, when another step cannot be taken; when another war cannot be fought; when another threat cannot be answered; when another precept cannot be believed; when another creed cannot be recited; when another day cannot be faced: Only then does God become God to the one who desperately needs God." 

Wonder Bread

"Come to me,” Jesus said, "I am the bread of life…Come to me and you will find what you need….Walk with me…learn from me,” he said. He offers his way, his words, his ethic, his very life to each of us. And in taking it, we find our daily bread to face each and every day: Not as a kind of spiritual vitamin; not a little pep talk for us when things are down; not a puffy, air-filled, processed bag of junk food. This is real, solid strength. It’s food for the soul. Or hear it this way: “I am to you what you need, to do what you must do.” Nourishment. Fuel. Power: To live your life. To meet the demands of the day. To finish your race. To be alive, sustained, and fortified for whatever the future may hold.

Repeat After Me

Ronnie says, "I only have three sermons. So I will be repeating myself again today. One - The only God I know is the one revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. Ask me who God is; what God is like: I will point you there. Two - This God loves you with an infinite, incredible, inexhaustible love. And three: It’s those people who have a profound sense of being loved by God; who have this internal, soul-washed awareness that they are the recipients of grace: These are the people who truly live; and who can truly change the world." 

In Green Pastures

From Ronnie's latest talk on the 23rd Psalm: "He 'maketh me to lie down.' The Shepherd gently - but deliberately - compels me to be still. It is the lying down; it is the quiet; it is the stillness that leads to restoration. The best translation from the Hebrew is: 'Bed down in the lush green grasses. Sip the cold, quiet, deep waters -of rest.' Cold drinks and nap time sounds like heaven! But most of us have to be forced into stillness. We must be made to lie down. We can’t turn off the monkey-mind. We can’t even turn off the television or put down our phones. We feed ourselves on the breaking news of the moment; we gorge on incessant information and activity; we are surrounded by the loud, the unnecessary, the fearful, and the obnoxious. Our senses are continually assaulted by those things, situations, and people that can do nothing but leave us angry, thirsty, hungry, and unsettled. Lord knows, oh the Lord knows, we must be made to lie down." 

What's So Famous About Amos?

In this exploration of the biblical prophet Amos, Ronnie talks about what launched Amos' vocation, why the prophet's voice is one of such doom, and how to interpret and apply his words today. Ronnie says, "Amos, for lack of a better turn of phrase, invented the apocalyptic category. All the Hebrew prophets to follow - even the great ones like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel - are standing on the shoulders of Amos, as he in real time processed the events that he witnessed and drew interpretive conclusions as to why these things were happening..."

The Prophet, Persistence, and Progress

Speaking of Ezekiel (Chapter 3) as an example for us all, Ronnie says, "Ezekiel persisted in his vocation for two decades.  Persistence more than progress. Stubbornness over success. Twenty years his hand is at the plow. Twenty years with hardly a convert. Twenty years among the thorns and scorpions of resistance...That is the pattern, but I think also that is the point. When one takes up the Christian vocation; when one commits to following Christ, to serving others, to loving neighbors; there is no quick or easy pay off. There are often few signs to see if you are actually doing any good. You will need persistence, resiliency, and patience. You will surely need a great big dose of the 'keep on, keeping on.' It is a great act of faith and hope - defiantly so - to keep being a true human being, made in the image of God, living out the love of Christ in a world that will likely conspire against you."