17 January 2011

17 January 2011

Psalm 25; Isa. 44:6-8,21-23; Eph. 4:1-16; Mark 3:7-19a

The Lord calls out any who would say that there is a God like Him. His claim is to be one-of-a-kind in the universe, nothing before or after Him, nothing greater than or equal to Him and He is calling the Israelites to Himself and themselves. He is telling them to remember their history, that He is indeed their redeemer, always has been and always will be. He redeemed them from Egypt and He has redeemed them from all their enemies, even from exile. They have been the recipients of His gracious loving-kindness, His mighty hand and outstretched arm. They have needed Him far more than He has needed them and yet they have continually gone astray after these false gods who have done nothing for them. Do we worship at the altar of any false gods? Has capitalism saved us, or communism, socialism or any other “ism”? Have any social or economic constructions actually been responsible for provision or is all the credit due to Him?

The crowds come after Jesus to be healed and to hear his teaching. They have heard of Him and all He has done and He is concerned about the crush of people who will come for healing. Were there any other “teachers” in Israel at the time who had this problem? He was more than a teacher and He was more than a wonder worker. The people knew it and the demons knew it. The people were attracted to Him and the demons feared Him. They gave testimony to Him and yet He forbid them to tell. He did not need their testimony, it wasn’t helpful and He also demonstrated His power over them in this way. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have seen all these things and then be chosen as one of His disciples? It had to have been the proudest and most exciting moment of their lives to be called out and into His inner circle. Is it still the most exciting thing that ever happened to you?

Unity in the body of Christ is found only in its confession of Him. Any other unity is secondary to this. Paul knows that the future of the church depends on this unity. We use the Nicene Creed in our worship each week in order to express this unity of belief. We use the Apostle’s Creed as the standard by which we receive candidates for baptism. If you can’t confess these basics we don’t baptize you. The church needs to be clear and confessional if our mission is to be successful. We know who we are because we know whose we are.

To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.