28 February 2010
Psalm 24, 29; Gen. 41:14-45; Rom. 6:3-14; John 5:19-24

Joseph interprets another dream, Pharaoh’s. The ruler has two dreams which Joseph says are actually the same dream and the fact that it was doubled means it is certain to come to pass. His ability to interpret the dream gets him a significant change of life. Whereas he was formerly head of Potiphar’s house, he is now to have the same position over Pharaoh’s house, he is to be second in the kingdom, all because he spent time in prison on a phony charge. In all of this, he continues to ascribe everything to God, it isn’t Joseph who can interpret dreams, God alone has that power. God continues to be faithful, using all the circumstances of Joseph’s life to bring him to the place the Lord wants him, both physically and spiritually.

Jesus speaks of the symbiotic relationship He has with the Father. They move as one, think as one and indeed, are one. His claims here are extraordinary. His claim is that He is to be honored at the same level as the Father. Is it any wonder that they didn’t understand who He meant when He used the word Father? Who would possibly make such a claim and yet we see exactly that honor in heaven in Revelation 5 when, after the worship of the one on the throne in Revelation 4, we see that same praise directed at Jesus, the lamb looking like it was slain. We must realize that we can only worship Jesus as that one, not some great teacher or Zen master or avatar with a higher god-consciousness. If we fail to recognize Him as co-extensive with God the Father then we fail to have faith at all, whatever we may do with our lives.

Paul says that our baptism is a baptism into the death of Christ, death to the old self and new life in Him. He says that this new, post-baptismal life is intended to be Christ-like, not characterized by sin but rather by living to Him and for Him. We, in the Anglican tradition, believe in two sacraments and the second, Holy Communion, differs from the first, baptism, in that it is meant to be repeated. Baptism, like circumcision, is a one time sacrament and Communion, like the old sacrificial system, is repeated as often as there is sin. We also believe that one is no less meaningful or important than the other. In the old covenant, circumcision was the entrance rite of the covenant while sacrifice was the way you remained in the covenant. In the new covenant, communion is not necessary to the maintenance of the covenant relationship, we have direct access in prayer to the Father and He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. Covenant is a community practice, we do not make sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all, communion is the gathering of those believers who understand that their lives do not fully measure up to God’s standards, but who believe Jesus’ made atonement for those sins, and who have gathered together for the purpose of mutual fellowship in Him, for worship, discipleship, ministry and mission. Communion is the visible expression of our unity with one another and with Jesus in His sacrifice. It is our recognition of the final truth of this passage, that we are under grace and not law, we make no sacrifice as the law requires, the only atoning sacrifice for sins has already been made and our communion is a celebration of that sacrifice.

The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
May the LORD give strength to his people!
May the LORD bless his people with peace!

27 February 2010
Psalm 55; Gen. 41:1-13; 1 Cor. 4:1-7; Mark 2:23-3:6

Two whole years pass with Joseph in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Pharaoh’s dream becomes the catalyst for Joseph’s release when the cupbearer remembers, “Oh yeah, that guy in prison interprets dreams, I had forgotten all about him.” At least we hear that he recalled his shortcomings. I wonder how Joseph would have described this recollection. The time has come when knowing Joseph has some benefit and he suddenly remembers him. We tend to forget those who helped us on the way up until we believe they can help us in the present. Joseph, it seems, didn’t bear a grudge.

It is amazing how quickly opposition formed against Jesus and for what reasons. He and the disciples were walking through a field and they reached out their hands, plucked the grain, and crushed it in order to extract the edible portion and the Pharisees want to talk about laboring on the Sabbath. Jesus gives the Biblical example of David eating the showbread in response. The sustaining of life is the important part, not the legalism of Sabbath regulations. In the synagogue He heals a man and because it is the Sabbath the Pharisees and Herodians determine to destroy Him. There were exemptions in the law for getting an animal out of a ditch if it presented a danger to life and there was an exemption for circumcision but they drew the line at this healing as unnecessary. What if He taught other people to be lawless?
They couldn’t see the greater good He was doing and to what it pointed, they were only concerned about their law.

Paul is playing against type here. He will say in other places that he was a Pharisee with respect to the law, and we know that they judged everyone all the time. The work Jesus has done in him has pointed him to grace and because of that he has lost his appetite for judgment of himself and others, preferring to allow the Lord to judge. There is an innate tendency to judge ourselves and others, it requires the spirit of God to overcome that tendency. Those who think of themselves in a secular way as non-judgmental are typically those who judge Christians as non-thinking simpletons who like rules unlike themselves who don’t judge anyone and believe in the complete freedom of the individual. There are some things we must judge, but the intentions of the heart are generally hidden from us and it is there we need to have grace with one another.

Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
Attend to me, and answer me;
But I call to God,
and the LORD will save me.

26 February 2010
Psalm 40, 54; Gen. 40:1-23; 1 Cor. 3:16-23; Mark 2:13-22

Joseph interprets the dreams of the cupbearer and chief baker of Pharaoh. They are upset because they have both had dreams that they believe to be meaningful or prophetic and in the prison there are none who can interpret the dreams such as would have been available to them in the palace. Joseph begins his offer by telling them that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God not to those magicians or diviners who claim the power. Joseph has had his own dreams and God has been faithful to give him also the interpretation of those dreams so he has confidence that he will be able to do so here, and he does. Sadly, when the cupbearer is restored to his position, he does not remember the one who interpreted the dream in prison, and Joseph languished there.

The opposition to Jesus continues. The call of Matthew has always intrigued me. Bringing him into the group has the potential to divide them completely. As a tax collector, he would have been questionable at best and most likely they would have wanted no part of such a person and the Pharisees know it and seize on that reality to try and divide the group. Matthew has invited all his tax collector buddies to a feast with Jesus and the disciples and the Pharisees are there to listen to this teacher. Their question isn’t addressed to Jesus but to the disciples, “Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” The unspoken questions are, do you have some reason to doubt his judgment now and also don’t you like the new class of people you get to spend time with. Jesus is setting Himself apart from the other teachers of the law both in the company He keeps and, in the second part of the reading, in the way He lives. His answer to the fasting question is a clear indicator of who He is, the bridegroom, and both that answer and the behavior in contrast to other Jews makes clear that He is making certain claims about His identity.

Paul keeps it simple by pointing to Jesus. We are the temple of God because the Holy Spirit lives in us and where God’s Spirit dwells is the temple. He is calling them to live by that Spirit, given by Jesus alone, not by any man. Like Joseph, Paul says that wisdom is the province of God and that they can rely on Him alone. We have a tendency to ascribe too much honor to those who preach and teach and they attract followers to themselves and not to God. Interestingly, in denominations where no one would call their pastor by the title, “Father”, there is frequently more hero worship of the sort Paul is speaking of here than in denominations where that is more common. The problem with the title is that people begin to put their trust in the man and lose the direct connection with the Lord that Jesus made possible, and the relationship becomes mediated through those of us who are but clay or sheep as well as shepherds.

As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
May all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, "Great is the LORD!"

25 February 2010
Psalm 50; Gen. 39:1-23; 1 Cor. 2:14-3:15; Mark 2:1-12

The Lord was with Joseph in Egypt in all that he did. He was taken captive and yet ended up landing on his feet as the head of Potiphar’s household and all that he did prospered until the day that Potiphar’s wife decided that she wanted a dalliance with him. The day that he fled her presence and left his garment behind in her hand she knew she had to cook up a story to explain things before Joseph had to explain them. The result is that he is thrown into prison (which in itself is interesting because Potiphar could have had him killed if he fully believed his wife’s story, suggesting that perhaps he had some doubts) and the Lord continued to bless him and prosper him even in prison. Again, we have no idea what he thought of the situation or his prayer life in the prison, only the facts of the story. It certainly looks as though the Lord isn’t with him, Joseph seems to be spending all his life enriching others during this time while nothing except his stature among men.

This is a beautiful story of true friendship, bringing your friend to Jesus. More than that though, it is the first time there is opposition to Jesus and He provokes it. Instead of simply healing the man He forgives his sins. I don’t believe that Jesus said this in order to provoke the scribes (who were typically Pharisees). I believe that He said it as part of the healing. We don’t know what brought on the paralysis, but I believe that the most important thing Jesus could say to the man at that moment was the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins and that the proclamation made the healing possible and complete. It seems most likely that the paralysis was a result of sin and the sin was the part that had to be dealt with first. The scribes don’t like it because the nature of sin is that it is against God and He alone can forgive sin and for Jesus to speak this word it far out of line for them.

If jealousy and quarreling are indicator of immaturity, God help the church. We struggle with these issues too often rather than the church being about mission. From the beginning issues of power and position have preoccupied the church, both clergy and laity alike. The religious leaders struggled with Jesus because he threatened their position (see particularly John 11 and 12). Jerusalem often struggled with Paul over his work as the center of the church was moved away from Jerusalem by his mission activity. Paul says that we need to get back to the basics and build from there. The church today is not doing a good job of establishing the foundation and we are paying a price, many who consider themselves Christian don’t believe in the Jesus of the creeds, the one who insisted that no one comes to the Father but through Him. We are worried about fleshly things rather than spiritual things and when we do we become stagnant pools.

The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!

24 February 2010
Psalm 119:49-72; Gen. 37:25-36; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; Mark 1:29-45

Judah figures they might as well turn a profit on the deal, so Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver. After that there has to be a story for dad’s sake. In an ingenious bit of what goes around comes around, they decide a bit of trickery is just the thing, trickery involving a goat, just like dad had done to fool his own father to get his blessing. Jacob/Israel cannot be comforted by all his other children as he grieves the loss of his favorite, and he never will get over this loss.

Jesus’ ministry continues at a breathless pace, look how many times in these few verses Mark says something happened either at once or immediately. The one thing that doesn’t happen, however, is that Jesus doesn’t simply move with the flow and respond to the demands of the moment. He rises early before anyone else and goes to be alone in prayer and from that time He can say to them that they must move on, as satisfying as it would be to remain and receive the adulation. As He cleanses the leper, He sends the man to the priests as a testimony to them. A priest had to inspect the formerly leprous area in order to certify the person was clean and could be in society and also enter the temple, how this man was cleansed would have been the testimony. The other thing to note here is that Jesus doesn’t hesitate to touch this man, who, under any other circumstances, would have rendered Jesus unclean by that act. If, however, he is cleansed, then there is no uncleanness to transmit.

Paul continues to speak of the wisdom of God and in this story from the Old Testament, the story of Joseph, is one of those which show the wisdom of God defeating the wisdom of man (as we shall see). Paul says, however, it wasn’t just words that attended his proclamation, but also acts of power, the same as Jesus’ ministry. Such works of power demonstrate that the message is true. Paul teaches now a greater wisdom than he had previously taught and yet it is counter-intuitive in that God displayed His wisdom in what looks like foolishness, by thwarting our own wisdom. He is pointing them to the source of true wisdom and knowledge, to God.

The LORD is my portion;
I promise to keep your words.
I entreat your favor with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.

23 February 2010
Psalm 45; Gen. 37:12-24; 1 Cor. 1:20-31; Mark 1:14-28

The last time we are told Joseph is with his brothers among the sheep he came back to dad bearing tales. They have every reason to suspect he is up to the same mission this time. Their reaction to seeing their brother tells us that their hatred of him was not hyperbole but was deadly real. For the third time in the book of Genesis (and potentially the fourth depending on what we make of the situation with Ishmael and Isaac that caused Sara to demand that Ishmael be driven away) we see a potential fratricide over jealousy. Fortunately, Ruben steps in and saves Joseph from his brothers’ murderous intent. We know nothing of Joseph’s reaction to any of this, what he thought or said, nothing at all. The text is strangely silent on this issue.

Jesus calls the first disciples and does his first miracle in Capernaum in Galilee. As I mentioned, Mark’s readers will never be bored as the action moves swiftly. Here in the healing in the synagogue we see another characteristic of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus telling someone or something (like demons) not to divulge what they know, His identity, the Messianic secret. The time has not come for that to be openly spoken and demons are not the bearers of that testimony. If Jesus said He didn’t need the testimony of men, how much less the testimony of demons. His power over them is testimony enough.

Paul’s argument is interesting, since philosophers and other wise men could not see or understand God, God chose what was foolishness in the eyes of the world to reveal Himself, the foolishness of a man dying on a cross. As he says, it is foolishness to Greeks that the God of the universe is said to have died on a cross but a great stumbling-block to Jews as the Scripture says, “Cursed is the one who hangs on a tree” and this was applied to those who die on the cross. At the end of that argument, Paul points to the Corinthians themselves and asks if they are not also the foolishness of God, not being an impressive lot. He isn’t saying this to embarrass them, but rather to build them up, God has used them to point out the foolishness of the world.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness

22 February 2010
Psalm 41, 52; Gen. 37:1-11; 1 Cor. 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13

You would think after seeing the results of favoritism in his own life Jacob would have avoided it when he became a father in order to have peace in the family, but we see here that Joseph was his favorite of all his children. Joseph makes his entrance on the scene by being a tale-teller on his brothers, certainly not a way to endear yourself to your older brothers. His brothers already hated him for the favoritism shown him and now he tells these two dreams to them and I can’t imagine how they must have felt when they heard them. The arrogance of the young man is amazing. He had to have known how they would have received him as we were already informed they “could not speak peaceably to him” even before the dreams. While Jacob rebukes his son for the telling of the dream when even he would bow before his son, at the end of the story the brothers hate him but Jacob “kept the matter in mind.” Is that like Mary pondering prophecy of her son in her heart?

Mark’s Gospel begins abruptly and gets things moving. He tells us this is good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no mystery about his perspective. He moves right into the story of John the Baptist and his mission, Jesus’ baptism and the Holy Spirit impelling Jesus into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and temptation by Satan, all in 13 verses. In Mark’s telling of the Gospel, everything is in a hurry, get used to the pace and the language itself will hurry things along, everything seems to happen immediately in the Gospel. Remember that John had already established himself as an important person with his urgent message of preparation for the imminent coming of God in judgment, and now Jesus breaks onto the scene and John is willing to take a step back from the spotlight and allow Jesus to ascend. Both he and Jesus show infinitely more grace than Joseph and the brothers,

Just as Jesus prayed for the unity of the disciples and us, so here Paul encourages the Corinthian church to be in unity as well. The way in which he begins this letter tells us something about the divisions that potentially exist among them. He extols Jesus and centers the community around all that Christ has done for them. In the first few verses he has identified the following benefits: their sanctification, their calling to be saints with those who call on Jesus’ name, the grace given them through Jesus, He has enriched them in every kind of speech and knowledge, they do not lack in any spiritual gift, they will be strengthened to the end as they wait, and in the end they will be found blameless. Paul says that it is foolish to identify yourself with the preacher of Good News and ultimately meaningless. It is the message not the messenger that is important. Again, we see that grace in pointing to Jesus and away from self. In this season of Lent, let us seek to become less while He becomes more in our lives.

I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.

21 February 2010
Psalm 63, 98; Dan 9:3-10; Heb. 2:10-18; John 12:44-50

Daniel’s prayer is instructive for us in how to pray, confession first then a plea for mercy. Often, we have to be in a difficult place before we truly are sorrowful over our sins. The words of the confession from the Book of Common Prayer in the old form reflect what should be our attitude towards sin: “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine Majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable.” That should sound much like Daniel’s confession here and in our worship those words of contrition are followed by Have mercy on us, have mercy on us most merciful Father. We are able to make such an honest confession of our sinfulness because we make it to our merciful Father. There is no longer a need to hide in our sin or to attempt to justify sin or defensiveness over sin like Adam’s blaming Eve, we know Him to be merciful to sinners.

Jesus here explains that as He has done signs, so is His very life a sign pointing to the Father, the one who sent Him. He, in His mercy, calls us out of the darkness, out of hiding, and into the light that our sins might be dealt with, we might not be alone, and that we might be reconciled to the Father. His coming into the world was not to judge the world but that through Him the world might be saved. We have the assurance of forgiveness which leads to eternal life in Christ but only to the extent that we receive His word as truth and life. He also says the one who rejects ME and does not receive the word has a judge. It is not only the words but also the person of Jesus who we must accept.

Jesus was made perfect through sufferings and yet some preach a Gospel today that says that Christians should not suffer, be ill, have financial hardship, etc. What kind of spoiled children are we if that is the case? Why would He allow the only sinless one ever to live to suffer and us to have a life free of trouble? We are the ones who need to grow into Christ-likeness, Jesus didn’t need to grow and mature in His faith and life at all. He took on sufferings in order that we might know His sympathy with us in ours, He can say to us, I know how this feels when we hurt, when we are rejected, betrayed by friends, spoken ill of, etc, He took on all this in order that we might be able to have eternal life in a kingdom without any of the above.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.

20 February 2010
Psalm 30, 32; Ezek. 39:21-29; Phil. 4:10-20; John 17:20-26

The people went into exile for their “treachery” but the Lord will bring them back. What reason does He give for the mercy? None. He simply chooses to bring them back, for the sake of mercy, not because of their righteousness. This is to display His holiness, to proclaim His Name, first given to Moses as "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." The prime characteristic revealed was mercy and yet it wasn’t the only characteristic revealed. Nothing in that self-description has changed.

Jesus continues to pray for the unity of the disciples. Their unity among one another is to be the same as the unity of the Father and the Son and their unity is to be their confession of Jesus and in that confession they will share in the unity and love of the Father and the Son. Not only does He pray for those gathered that night but also for those who will believe because of their testimony or their word. That would be us! Jesus prays that we will share in all that the disciples shared with Him, we don’t have a lesser degree of love and unity with Him simply because we were born, as Paul says, “out of time.” The fellowship they experienced is available to us via the Holy Spirit living in us. Not only does Jesus ask the Father that we have unity, He also asks that we be with Him, “where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” Do we believe that the Father said yes to that prayer?

Paul gives thanks for the financial support he had received from the Philippian church. It seems Paul never liked asking for help. The work of missions deserves our support, in fact it requires our support. In that support we are connected with not only the missionaries but also the people served. The church is meant to be one throughout the world. Even where we have no immediate physical contact with one another, we can share in the joy of those who are being evangelized as brothers and sisters. Just as we are physically separated from Jesus yet together in Spirit, so do we share unity and love with those who are distant from us when we share our abundance to relieve their need.

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

19 February 2010
Psalm 31; Ezek. 18:1-4,25-32; Phil. 4:1-9; John 17:9-19

No longer will the children be punished for the sins of the parents. By the same token, no one gets credit for the righteousness of another. We all need a savior. Death is not the way of the Lord. It is not His desire that even one would die, but that doesn’t mean everyone will live. There is a condition in that passage that is plain, “repent and turn from your transgressions…get yourself a new heart and a new spirit.” He has provided the means by which we can live if we will simply accept it. We have no right to complain that it is unfair that people must turn to Him, turn from sin, turn to Jesus as the only way to eternal life. If He is creator and then offers to redeem us and give us eternal life as a gift, what right have we to demand alternatives. If we reject the sacrifice of Jesus, does it make sense to give us other choices?

What is the protection of God in this life? It can’t be keeping us safe from bodily or emotional harm, Jesus and all the disciples surely experienced that. It has to relate to keeping us from losing something more precious, eternal life. The key is those last couple of verses of the Gospel passage, sanctifying us in the truth. The protection of God is in order that we may be one in truth. The church is struggling with the idea of oneness and what are the boundaries of oneness. Jesus here is clear that those boundaries are set by truth. We can be as postmodern as we like and question whether there is such a thing as truth, but Jesus spoke of it often as though the category existed. I will, in faith, accept His word that there is truth and it can be known and that He has made it known and it takes in all of the Jewish Scriptures otherwise it makes no sense that the one time He came, He came as a Jewish man, sent to the Jews and affirmed to a Samaritan woman that salvation comes from the Jews. If He had simply wanted to win her He could have and should have left out that bit because it made it much harder for her to accept His offer to swallow her pride and accept that the ones whom she had always believed to have corrupted the pure faith were the ones in possession of truth and the true Israel.

Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Is there any better advice anyone could give us in any realm of life? Paul here is also concerned about the unity of the church, beginning with an admonition to two to agree in the Lord and continuing through this sentence. He begins this with whatever is true and everything else flows out of that one concept. Unity is important but the source of our unity is equally important, it must be our confession of Jesus, not some other bond.

You are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
you take me out of the net they have hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.

18 February 2010
Psalm 37:1-18; Hab. 3:1-18; Phil 3:12-21 ; John 17:1-8

Habakkuk’s prayer recounts his knowledge of the Lord’s vengeance and judgments and yet ends in praise. How is that possible? One simple word, but an enormous concept, answers that question, righteousness. God is utterly righteous, He is consistent in all that He says and all that He does. He has made a covenant with humankind and more particularly with His people and what He has done in the past is completely consistent with both His nature and His words spoken. We tend to hear the question, “How could a good God…” when a disaster happens, and the answer to the question is in the word good. We must see and understand that as sin abounds, the earth cries out on behalf of a righteous and holy God for judgment. This prayer recollects the natural disasters and the reaction of nature to the working of its creator. Paul says that all creation groans in anticipation of the revelation of the sons of God. That groaning is for its own release from the grip of human sin and depredation and for the true image bearers to come and care for the earth as they were intended. In the end, Habakkuk is able to praise God and rejoice in Him as His salvation and strength.

Jesus is prepared for the end. It is amazing to think that God Himself came to earth and there were 12 men chosen to receive Him and His message from whom the world would be evangelized. With these 12 rested the responsibility of proclamation of the message and now 2000+ years later the Christian faith reaches nearly every corner of the globe and the future is with us. The glorification is certainly not what the disciples would have expected, the trial, beating and death on the cross that lay ahead in the next 24 hours. Nothing in this prayer could have prepared them for what was to come, what looked like God not hearing this prayer.

Paul urges the Christians at Philippi to press on, keeping their hearts and minds set on eternity. As Jesus saw beyond the cross and the tomb, so are we to see beyond the end of this life and begin living for eternity. As Christians we do not deny the essential goodness of creation and this life, they are both gifts from a good and loving God, but our decision-making isn’t defined by getting more of the things of earth, it is defined by doing God’s will no matter the cost. As Christians we need to show the world there is both something amiss in the world and that there is another way, even in the midst of all this. Lent is a time to show that the things of earth aren’t our primary concern.

I will trust in the You, and do good;
I will dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
I will delight myself in the LORD,
and he will give me the desires of my heart.

17 February 2010
Psalm 32, 143; Amos 5:6-15; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14

Lent begins. Today, Ash Wednesday is a call to keep a solemn fast in preparation for Easter. It is a call to examine our lives, our values and our habits and to see the sin in our lives and the crutches on which we rely that keep us from seeking the Lord. It might be a diet that we choose for Lent but only for the purpose of being thankful for what we have to eat. It might be alcohol which, even in moderation, can become a crutch to us for overcoming the day. In addition to what we give up we need to consider what we might add to our lives as an aid to seeking the Lord, whether that is an extension of our quiet time, the discipline of praying at set times during the day, or reading God’s Word instead of what we might normally read. The purpose of all these disciplines is to focus our attention on Him, to give up an earthly pleasure for the sake of knowing Him more and coming closer to Him.

The parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee is told to those “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” We tend to think more highly of our righteousness than we have any right to. Primarily it is because we have poor standards for measurement, one another. The only standard of righteousness that matters is God’s standard and if we fail to meet it, we are under the penalty of death. That is, unless we have faith in Jesus who is our righteousness. In this parable, Jesus illustrates this truth that our prayer life needs to be more like the tax collector’s than the Pharisee who would have represented the epitome of righteousness for most Jews. Justification depends more on confession than works.

We don’t like discipline primarily because we don’t see that we deserve it. We don’t feel we deserve it because we compare ourselves with those around us in the world who we don’t see suffering it and we are certain they deserve it. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus underwent discipline so how could we complain about it in our own lives if our goal is Christ-likeness. Anybody there yet? Discipline is for our good, for our growth, and yet we see no advantage so we complain and become bitter, demanding God explain Himself to us. At least Lent allows us to choose our own discipline at the human level, but who knows how He will use it in our lives.

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.

16 February 2010
Psalm 26, 28; Prov. 30:1-4,24-33; Phil. 3:1-11; John 18:28-38

The prayer to be given neither poverty nor riches seems to me to be the petition for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer. In the history of the people in the Old Testament we see that both these conditions are dangerous for God’s people. They didn’t handle the “poverty” of the manna well, craving meat, and they didn’t handle prosperity well at a later time, they honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him. Learning to be satisfied with and thankful for our daily bread is the beginning of discipleship in many ways. In the wilderness God tried to teach them to be thankful for that daily bread. If He didn’t miraculously provide for them there they would have starved to death. That time was to be the preparation for living in a land of milk and honey, provided by Him. The goal was a people that understood that it is important for us to recall that all things come from Him either directly or indirectly.

The leaders manage to maintain ritual purity to eat the feast while at the same time rejecting Jesus’ real righteousness. The irony in the first verse of this Gospel passage is thick. When Pilate asks of the charge they engage in circular logic, failing to offer a real explanation and simply arguing that if he weren’t a criminal we wouldn’t have brought him to you. Is it any wonder that Pilate’s initial response was to send them away? Pilate’s question of “Are you the king of the Jews?” is curious as we have no idea where he had heard that. As the conversation continues, Pilate asks what many would now say is the great question of postmodernity, “What is truth?” At least he is honest enough to admit he doesn’t know what truth is, and Jesus provides no verbal answer in spite of his declaration to the disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

Paul says that his value system has been turned upside down by Jesus. All that he had dedicated his life to prior to his encounter with Jesus he counts as loss and rubbish for the sake of knowing Jesus. Is that our attitude towards Him? Paul would say that he has found the truth and has now devoted His life to knowing and proclaiming the truth to the world, whatever the cost to him personally. The riches that we are to seek are heavenly treasures, not earthly ones. Paul seems to have known the true value of Christ in a way that should make the rest of us hit our knees and ask the Lord for hearts like Paul’s.

Blessed be the LORD!
For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.

15 February 2010
Psalm 25; Prov. 27:1-6,10-12; Phil. 2:1-13; John 18:15-27

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Could the disciples have ever imagined how dramatically their lives were going to be thrown upside down? We live as though tomorrow were guaranteed to us and we have no such guarantee at all. Wisdom for daily living is truly important to us and the book of Proverbs is there for us to learn from in order that we might truly keep the commandments of God but also that we might have wisdom for the journey of life.

Peter and the other disciple (presumed to be John the Gospel writer), have an up close and personal view of the trial before the high priest. We know this as Peter’s betrayal of Jesus after Jesus had prophesied it at the dinner table, and the memory of this night must have been one Peter replayed time and again. Wisdom here says to do exactly what Peter does, save your own skin, for what good would it do Jesus if Peter aligns himself with Him? The measure of love, however, is entirely different from that of worldly wisdom. Jesus’ identification with us, persevering all the way to the cross, is the way to which we are called, the way of love.

This great passage from Philippians is the perfect example of love triumphing over self-interest. Paul calls us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” Culturally, this was against the grain for the times, and it isn’t much different now. Clearly it requires us to be born again to act in this way, selfish ambition is who we are, who we have always been, if you doubt that re-read the first four chapters of Genesis or the story of Jacob that we have just been through. Jesus showed us the way to live in a sinful, fallen world in order to reveal God’s true way. He is our example and our guide for the journey.

Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

14 February 2010
Psalm 148, 149, 150; Ecclus. 48:1-11; 2 Cor. 3:7-18; Luke 9:18-27

In today’s Eucharistic lessons we look at the Transfiguration of Jesus and there we see Moses and Elijah with Him until the voice from heaven proclaims Jesus to be the Son to whom the disciples should listen and then the other two are gone, Jesus stands alone. The readings from the daily lectionary relate to those Eucharistic lessons.

This first passage in praise of Elijah tells us that there was no prophet like him in Israel and recounts many of the events of his life. The belief was also (and is today in Judaism) that Elijah would return prior to the coming of Messiah and at Passover meals a chair is left empty at the table for Elijah should he choose to come. The prophetic words here that he will turn the hearts of parents to the children is an echo of Malachi 4, the end of the Old Testament canon. Elijah’s end, you will recall, is shrouded in mystery. We aren’t told that Elijah died, only that he was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and the belief is that, as he has not died, he is able to come again in bodily form.

Peter gets the question right. Others, the world, has always had opinions about Jesus and it was the same in His time, believing that He was one of those prophets, either Elijah or John the Baptist, come back to life. It is hard to understand the confusion with John since their ministries overlapped in time, but not so difficult to understand why they thought of Elijah or the prophet like Moses who some seemed to believe Him to be. The Messiah of God is Peter’s answer here and Jesus affirms the truth of his confession yet warns them not to tell anyone. He is Messiah but they are not going to see the fulfillment of their understanding of Messiah restoring the earthly kingdom to Jerusalem just yet, that will be fulfilled in the end of days and that time is not yet. In the interim, disciples must take up crosses and follow Him, there will be no thrones to share in the short term.

The glory of Moses was more like a sunburn and the glory of Jesus shone from within. When Moses met with God in the tent of meeting He caught some of that glory but it didn’t remain but faded. In Christ, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and yet we often veil that outward manifestation for other reasons. We are called to be different from the world, Jesus promised the world would hate us just as it hated Him, but we don’t like to be different and we definitely don’t like to be hated, so often we hide the glory. We are called to live into our calling and grow from one degree of glory to another but that glory isn’t to be hidden under a bushel basket, it is to be shown to the world in need of the savior.

Praise the LORD!Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

13 February 2010
Psalm 87, 90; Gen. 29:1-20; Rom. 14:1-23; John 8:47-59

The story of the love between Jacob and Rachel sounds very much like the story of Abraham’s servant finding a wife for Isaac. The difference is that Jacob gets to choose his own wife and Isaac had no wariness of sending his son to do the work on his own. Abraham knew better but Isaac has no idea of the dangers. Whereas the servant returned immediately with Rebekah, Jacob is enticed to stay for a long season of time in order to get his wife. His desire for Rachel is like that of a new home buyer who makes the mistake of telling the owner how much he loves the house and has to have it. Now is the time to make a deal.

Jesus continues to dispute with the Jews. The things He is saying to them here are incredibly difficult to imagine hearing without arguing with Him. They believe themselves to be children of Abraham and heirs to the promises made to Abraham by virtue of two basic things, circumcision and the worship of the temple. Jesus is telling them what He told the Samaritan woman, this is about worship offered in spirit and truth, it is about knowing the Father, a term the prophets used again and again in rebuking the people who were offering worship but only by keeping the rules, not with the heart. His final answer here to their objections of his being older than Abraham is truly offensive to them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” In those final two words He has used the name of God given to Moses and used it to refer to Himself. No wonder they picked up stones. He didn’t leave them the option so many today avail themselves of, that He was a great teacher.

This passage can be used in a passive-aggressive way by those who abstain from something to force others to their way of life. I have seen those who do not drink alcohol and vegetarians attempt to impose their will on others and yet that is not what this passage says. Paul is encouraging the community to focus on the majors, those things that truly matter to salvation and not to make those peripheral things the mark of the community. Whatever we do let it be from the conviction that there is no sin in the thing. Legalism comes in many forms, worship style, worship music, eating and drinking, dancing, sleeve length, hem length, make up, piercings, tatooings, etc. All these can be bad things certainly but whether they are bad or not is a heart matter not a legal matter. Those kinds of things are what caused the Jews of Jesus’ day to make wrong judgments about Him.

Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!

12 February 2010
Psalm 88; Gen. 27:46-28:4,10-22; Rom. 13:1-14; John 8:33-47

Rebekah uses a slight deception to entice her husband to bless Jacob on his way to get a wife. Her motive is largely to ensure his safety but she doesn’t share with Isaac what Esau has said. The blessing Jacob receives from his father certainly holds back nothing from him and clearly makes his the beneficiary of the blessing of God that had been given to his grandfather, a blessing he will receive directly from the Lord on his journey. More than the blessing of fruitfulness and possession of the land, however, the Lord promises to be with him wherever he goes and will remain with him until he returns to this place. The promise of presence was certainly a promise Jacob would need to remember to console himself during the next 20 or so years.

The statement about being Abraham’s children and thus never having been slaves is an odd one to say the least. The entire story of the Exodus is the story of their deliverance from slavery. Jesus’ words here in John 8 are powerful and offensive in calling them children not of Abraham or of God but of satan. What would Abraham be doing that they are not? Believing, the work Abraham did that was credited to him as righteousness. Jesus is calling them to believe in Him as the one sent by the Father. What they have seen and heard should convince them of His identity but they are neither seeing nor hearing the truth and in that they prove not who He is but who they are, children of the father of lies.
Paul tells the Romans that they are to be good citizens of both heaven and earth. They have a responsibility to the state, believing in the sovereignty of God that no ruler has that power unless God wills it. They have a responsibility to heaven as well, to not bring dishonor on the name of God by their actions, and to love one another in fulfillment of the commandments. There are certainly some things in this passage that beg understanding. If the government commands you to do something immoral, how could we comply? Certainly we are not to confound the state and God, one is fallible while the other infallible. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had to struggle with this passage in his decision to join the plot to kill Hitler, which ultimately led to his own death, just days before Hitler himself died. We must all prayerfully determine what is meant by civil obedience in order to determine our witness to our Father who is in heaven and His will for His creation.

O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!

11 February 2010
Psalm 146; Gen. 27:30-45; Rom. 12:9-21; John 8:21-32

The scene between Isaac and his favorite, Esau, is full of emotion. Isaac trembles violently when he realizes that he has been deceived, Esau cries out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and lifts up his voice and weeps in begging for his father’s blessing. There are parallels with the Cain and Abel story that are unmistakable and yet the tragedy of fratricide is averted. Rebekah’s fear of losing both her husband and her son in one day is actually realized though not in the manner she fears. It seems she never saw Jacob again, effectively losing him by sending him away in her fear. This, again, comes down to an issue of trusting the Lord to do as He has promised. Do we trust God to be able to do what He has promised or not? Jesus going to the cross is the ultimate act of trust, that the Father will be able to overcome death and the grave and that the plan will succeed in spite of appearances to the contrary.

Jesus speaks things to the crowd that they cannot understand because they are only thinking in categories that make sense to them. The renewing of the mind that Paul spoke of in yesterday’s lesson from Romans is required in order for us to understand and accept spiritual truths. For the second time He speaks of being lifted up as the key to knowledge and it is surely not possible that they could have understood this figure of speech, much less what it would mean when they saw Him indeed lifted up on the cross. To the disciples He tells the key to truth, remaining in His word. He speaks of this as the way to know the truth that will set them/us free. This truth is that this life isn’t all there is, there are truths we can see with our eyes and truths that relate to the unseen yet greater realities of God.

This passage from Romans tells us something of what it means to have been transformed by the renewing of the mind. Almost all of what Paul tells them to do is counter-cultural and at odds with what we think of as human nature. Pride, for instance, was seen as a virtue and humility was seen as ridiculous in this culture, so associating with the lowly, not claiming to be wiser than you are, and even loving one another were not cultural “goods.” His admonitions to be patient in affliction and not returning evil for evil work against our own nature, at least the fallen nature. Above all else, this call is to live as new people, living the life of Christ who most certainly associated with the lowly, loved others, was patient in affliction, persevering in prayer, and did not return evil for evil. All of these things speak of that other country for which we are living, our lives are meant to be lived for something other than what the world lives for in order that it may see that there is a better way of being human, a truer humanity.

Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

10 February 2010
Psalm 119:97-120; Gen. 27:1-29; Rom. 12:1-8; John 8:12-20

All the bad things that happen in Genesis begin with someone obeying the voice or command of someone besides the Lord. Adam obeys the voice of Eve and Abraham obeys the voice of his wife in the situation with Hagar which brings about Ishmael. Here, Rebekah has received the promise from the Lord regarding Jacob and Esau but it seems that promise is being jeopardized so she takes matters into her own hands. Isaac isn’t innocent here either, he is listening to his stomach which desires some game and because Esau can provide what he craves he is promised his father’s blessing. Everyone is playing favorites and no one seems to be listening to or trusting the Lord. In such instances, deception is necessary and the price for this deception is a family torn asunder more or less permanently.

Jesus says that both his testimony and his judgments are valid and that theirs are not. We know that His Father is not the man Joseph and we know that He does not actually come from Nazareth, so their judgment about Him, based on wrong information, is truthfully not valid. He, however, makes no effort to correct their information, again because they have other information on which to judge which should be the primary evidence. The images of light and darkness can here be thought of as truth or wisdom and the lack thereof. If we follow Jesus and seek to know truth through Him, we will indeed walk in the light, if we reject Him and seek truth elsewhere we will continue to walk in darkness. Obeying His voice is important.

The admonition to not be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds is so that we may discern the will of the Lord. It is Paul’s eloquent way of saying get rid of the other voices that want to tell you what to do and how to think in order that you can hear the one voice that matters and do His will. We have to learn to stop allowing the world to dictate how we live and think in order to see real transformation. There is a difference between conformation and transformation. Conforming is the fitting to a pre-determined mold and transforming results in something entirely new. Conforming sees ourselves as in need of change in order to fit that mold, transforming sees us as in need of a complete make-over and that the mold itself is the problem. Transformation as the goal sees the reality of original sin and total depravity (there is nothing about our nature that hasn’t participated in the fall) and begs to be new creation.

Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
Hold me up, that I may be safe
and have regard for your statutes continually!

9 February 2010
Psalm 78:1-39; Gen. 26:1-6,12-33; Heb. 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11

Isaac begins to experience the blessing of the Lord but, like his father before him, does not completely trust the Lord in at least one matter. A famine comes which requires a relocation but the Lord tells him not to go to Egypt (that will come in two generations), but like his father, the Lord will show him the land where he is to settle and the promise is renewed with Isaac. The Lord protects Isaac and Rebekah from their own foolishness and blesses them abundantly, to the extent that Abimelech notices and says, “You are now the blessed of the Lord.” We don’t know whether he knows the Lord specifically, but he sees that God is with Isaac due to his continued blessings in material wealth and that everywhere he dug seems to turn up water. The people of the land were not without a witness to the Lord. Their sins that eventually have them ejected from the land are not simply sins of ignorance.

Where is the man with whom this woman was caught in adultery? The whole thing smells. There almost certainly was a set-up in order that this group might catch her in the act, someone must have known where to be and when to be there. She is guilty and Jesus doesn’t shy away from that fact. If these men had known what was going to happen, they too are guilty as they failed to do anything to stop it although they have a duty under the law in that regard. Jesus shows great mercy here as there is one without sin in the crowd, Jesus, and instead of throwing the first stone he forgives her.

Here at the end of the epistle, the writer encourages the people to obey their leaders, pray for him and then prays that the Lord may make them complete in everything good so that they may do His will. In the first instance of leaders he does not use the term shepherd but speaks of them in language “they are keeping watch over your souls” that is intended to bring that image to mind. In speaking of Jesus he calls him that great shepherd of the sheep. The work of a leader in the church is at least partially to watch over the souls entrusted to him or her. Sometimes that requires confronting sin in order to restore someone to the Lord. It is always, for me, the most difficult thing I have to do. In these first two lessons we see Abimelech confronting the sin of Isaac who lied about his wife and Jesus confronting the sin of the woman as well as the mob. Sin needs to be confronted and dealt with in the community and yet we tend to be defensive and self-justifying. If we understood the motive of love behind the confrontation and the desire for forgiveness, reconciliation and personal growth it would all be easier.

Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers;
praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed are thou for the name of thy Majesty;
praised and exalted above all for ever.

8 February 2010
Psalm 80; Gen. 25:19-34; Heb. 13:1-16; John 7:37-52

The story of the birth of Jacob and Esau begins well, Isaac prayed that God would do something about Rebekah’s barrenness and Rebekah prayed for understanding of the struggle within her. In both cases their prayers were heard and answered. The birth of the two was simply a continuation of the wrestling match they had begun in the womb and in which they would be engaged for much of their lives. Jacob, in particular, was a wrestler his entire life. While Esau might have been a skillful hunter, Jacob was equally cunning in his own way. He may have been a quiet man who lived in tents but we see here that he knew how to bag the game he coveted. God had promised his mother that he would be ruler over his brother and yet they seem to have not had faith in Him to bring that about, always taking matters into their own hands. The price they paid for that was steep in terms of relationships. The story, by the way, doesn’t speak well of Esau who is said to have despised his birthright given his actions here in selling it on the cheap.

Jesus makes an extraordinary offer. At this festival they are celebrating their trust in God to provide the rains for the crops to come. Part of the festival is the ritual pouring out of the water in the temple in faith that God will soon provide more. Jesus speaks into that ceremony with an offer of living water, the fulfillment of the spiritual desire that stands behind the ceremony, the same offer he made to the woman at the well in John 4. His approach here to their questions and unbelief is different from that time. Their argument is that he comes from the wrong place, a common problem for them in the Gospel. Jesus makes no effort to correct them and makes no further offer to them. It all must turn on faith and they have seen and heard enough to make right judgments yet they judge based on something they didn’t see, no one seems to have cared about his birth, either at the time or now in this scene. Provincialism seems to have been the barrier to belief in spite of the evidence of their ears and eyes.

Remember the people to whom the letter is addressed are wavering between Jesus and Judaism. The writer is calling them to see Jesus as a superior sacrifice but also the fulfillment of the entire sacrificial system. Just as the animals for the sacrifices were not sacrificed inside either the tabernacle or the temple, so was Jesus crucified outside the walls of the city. The community is enjoined to literally think outside the city, the city of God to which we are pointed is not Jerusalem, but a city that will last through eternity, in the same way Jesus, in our Gospel lesson, is pointing beyond the water for which they are praying to the water which is eternal. The sacrifices offered in that city are sacrifices of praise and worship, confessing the name of Jesus.

Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

7 February 2010
Psalm 93, 96; Gen. 24:50-67; 2 Tim. 2:14-21; Mark 10:13-22

We begin to see Laban’s modus operandi here, trying to get the servant to allow Rebekah to stay perhaps ten days longer with them, but the servant won’t hear of it. Abraham has provided lavishly for his new daughter-in-law and her family. Their blessing of Rebekah partially echoes the blessing of God on Abraham, but they could hardly have imagined how great her offspring would be. It is also difficult to imagine this demure and compliant young woman becoming the woman we will later see.

How do we receive the kingdom of God “as a little child.” I think it has to do with our attitude and Rebekah’s attitude towards going with the servant is a good example. She didn’t know anything at all about the servant or Isaac, her future husband, yet she knew that the servant revealed the master to her in a way that made her decision to go with him quite simple. His testimony concerning the goodness of the master and his story about answered prayer convinced her to take the step of faith. Here, we also see another who comes seeking eternal life but isn’t willing to give up what he has in order to receive that which he cannot see with his eyes. Faith is, at some level, childlike in its innocence and trust or it isn’t faith at all.

We are called to cling to truth and not idle talk. There is much speculative theology in our world and often that becomes the thing that divides people and leads them astray. There are, however, simple, settled truths such as those things we confess in our creeds. The creeds are an important part of our worship as they remind us that we stand in line with the early church as well as the church throughout history. Sometimes we need to be reminded that our faith has particular content that was established long ago and yet we also need to remember that these are statements of faith not “fact” in the way that the world establishes fact. Saying that God created it all, that Jesus was born of a virgin, that his death was for our sins, that he was resurrected on the third day, that we believe in the Holy Spirit, and such, are indeed statements of belief that the world doesn’t validate, they are truths by which we live but which the outside world doesn’t affirm as true.

Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!

6 February 2010
Psalm 75, 76; Gen. 24:28-51; Heb. 12:12-29; John 7:14-36

The servant is determined to tell his story and complete his mission. In this one passage we hear the story of how Rebekah came to be the wife of Isaac two more times. It is important that she is an answer to prayer, that as God has provided a son for Abraham, so has He provided a wife for that son. Now, Abraham and all those who read this story will know that God’s will was being done in all the events of the lives of the patriarchs. It was not only important to Abraham that his son not marry one of these Canaanites, it was also important to God. The story is remarkable in that the servant’s prayer was decisively answered in Rebekah. Even her brother Laban cannot find a word to speak in response to the story, a truly remarkable thing as we will see later.

His teaching gets their attention but their questions continually relate to his origins. Where did He get this learning since we know He didn’t study with any of the rabbis? How can he be Messiah when we know where He comes from and His parents? What Jesus was saying and doing should have been their focus and it appears that some did see these things and believe, but the leaders and many others miss what is in front of them. What they know or think they know is the problem. Jesus is clear that His purpose isn’t to make a name for Himself here but to glorify the Father. It continually amazes me that Jesus doesn’t bother to correct people when they assume they know something that is wrong. He doesn’t defend Himself against their mistaken assumptions, He simply continues the work.

Jesus is the firstborn, the only begotten, and like Abel, was put to death because His sacrifice was found acceptable by God in a way that Cain’s was not. God told Cain to deal with the sin that was crouching at his door as it wanted to have him and in the end sin won out. The writer here tells us that we are not passive in our spiritual lives either, he encourages action in order to grow and it is clear that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We must resist sin and temptation but we have the Holy Spirit in us to enable us to resist. He also speaks of the tension between God as consuming fire and also in the love of God in sending His Son to die for us. We must not lose that tension in our understanding of Him, His holiness remains unapproachable, we must continue to treat Him with fear and awe but know that His love also desires us to come near the throne, but only by virtue of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.

We give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We recount your wondrous deeds.

5 February 2010
Psalm 69; Gen. 24:1-27; Heb. 12:3-11; John 7:1-13

The story of a wife for Isaac is a wonderful story of God keeping faith with Abraham and answered prayer for his servant. It is interesting that Abraham does not want his son to go back to the land of Abraham’s family. His grandson will go there himself looking for a wife and will not return for twenty years. Abraham seems to have a particular fear and aversion to his son going back. He was in the land of the promise and yet he owned none of it other than the cave in which he had buried Sarah and it would surely have been tempting for Isaac to go back to the land where they had ownership and never return to claim the promise.

If Jesus goes to the festival in Jerusalem as his brothers suggest it is for the wrong reason, to make a name for himself. His purpose in live was to make the Father’s name known, his name spoke for itself, the Lord saves. It seems strange that He goes anyway and “in secret” and yet we have to assume that the Father told Him to go in much the same way that Nehemiah went up to the city several hundred years earlier and surveyed the ruins of the city in order to determine his next move in rebuilding. The motive for the action needs to be right in order for the will of God to be done.

The issue of discipline is important. We have too many preachers and teachers who would say that becoming a Christian is a ticket to health and wealth. Jesus said we were to take up our cross and follow Him, He told the disciples that they weren’t above their master, if the world hated Him it would equally hate them. When He sent them on mission He told them to take nothing for the journey to provide for their own material comforts, instead requiring them to trust God to provide all they would need. Paul speaks of the privations he suffered for His work. The writer of Hebrews speaks of discipline as though it should not only be expected but also welcomed in that it will lead to growth and maturity in their Christian walk. Indeed, discipline is painful in the moment but often we look back and see that it was for our good. It is important that we experience the frustration of our own wills in order that we can more gladly seek His.

I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them.

4 February 2010
Psalm 70, 71; Gen. 23:1-20; Heb. 11:32-12:2; John 6:60-71

The story of Abraham and Sarah comes to a close. It is an amazing thought that so many people on earth today trace themselves to these two people wandering about in the middle east several thousand years ago. The connection with the God of creation comes through this line, this faithful man who nonetheless wavered in faith from time to time persevered and saw the blessing of God in his life. Clearly the people around him knew him as a prince and one whom God had indeed blessed greatly. As he goes about finding a place to bury Sarah we hear them acknowledging his greatness and blessedness. The story tells so much that is contemporary in our world. Their wavering faith and his obedience to the voice of his wife in the episode with Hagar has repercussions in our day with the struggle between Islam and the rest of the world. Abraham’s faithfulness, however, was rewarded by God’s faithfulness to the covenant promise of descendants as numerous as the stars.

Now that the crowds have gone, Jesus is speaking only to the disciples and even they are struggling with this teaching. Jesus is pointing beyond the vagaries of this life into eternity, away from the temporal things to the eternal verities and they aren’t getting it. Sometimes He spoke so far over their heads it seems they are dense and yet the things He was saying and teaching were and are actually incomprehensible to us without the eyes of our hearts being enlightened. Just as the promises to Abraham were beyond the imagination so were the words of Jesus here. Peter shows the depth of his faith with his reply to Jesus, he knew that what he had seen and heard were words of life and even if he didn’t presently understand their full meaning he was staying the course.

We are encouraged by those who have gone before and lived by faith. They have done great things for God and yet some of them have also experienced great difficulties and surely had their times of doubt. We are called to run the race of faith not looking for the easy life or the simple life, but rather using Jesus as an example of persevering in the call in spite of the obstacles set before us. Our rewards are eternal, our pain is temporal, therefore let us live for eternity and be willing to risk everything on what we know to be secure. That is the call of faith and the proof of faith.

I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.

3 February 2010
Psalm 72; Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:23-31; John 6:52-59

This passage is frustrating to me because I always want to ask why God felt it necessary to test Abraham after making him wait 25 years for the fulfillment of the promise of a child. The reality is that He is never done with us, we always are able to receive more of Him, we are never filled and He is never fully revealed to us. Growth is His desire for us and here Abraham’s faith is tested to see if it is in the gift of God or in God Himself. The language should not be hurried through. Abraham speaks of Isaac as the boy when he speaks to his servants before he and Isaac go up the mountain but on the way Isaac begins speaking to him with the word, “Father” which begs the response “my son.” There will be no avoiding the relationship, no distancing himself from the pain. Abraham’s faith is proved and in the process one has to think that Isaac exhibits faith in his father and then sees that God is the one who has saved him, faith is passed from one generation to another here in what Abraham referred to as worship. Isaac had to have reflected on this incident many times in his life, marveling at the faith his father showed and the action of God in saving him.

Jesus was clear that we must share in Him or we have no share in the kingdom. In order to be born again, we must partake of His sacrifice of Himself. In our tradition, believers partake of the bread and wine representing the body and blood of Jesus on a weekly basis. We believe that the sacrament is an important part of worship because it is our way of constantly reminding ourselves that we live and hope because of the cross. In partaking of the sacrament we connect not only with the death of Jesus on the cross, however, we participate in the hope of the resurrection through taking in the eternal Spirit of Jesus. We don’t believe that the bread and wine are more than bread and wine, we take the elements in the spiritual way Jesus speaks about his body and blood here in this passage.

Faith is the key to life. We believe that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine but all of that is built on the last words of the Genesis passage, obedience to the voice of God. In this Hebrews passage we see Moses’ obedience to God’s voice in leading the people, keeping the Passover, and at the Red Sea and we see Joshua marching around the city of Jericho by faith in keeping with the word of the Lord. In attempting great things we must be certain that God is calling us to those things. Faith, however, sees beyond the signs or the dangers to the heart of the matter and beckons us to obedience. At communion we receive the elements by faith believing that spiritually we are obedient to the commandment of the Gospel and in that faith we leave in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!

2 February 2010
Psalm 61, 62; Gen. 21:1-21; Heb. 11:13-22; John 6:41-51

We skipped the end of Genesis 19 and all of chapter 20. At the end of chapter 19 we have Lot’s daughters deciding that they have no hope for the future of the clan and decide to get their father drunk and sleep with him in order that they might have children of their own. They have clearly been corrupted by their time in Sodom. One of the daughters is the mother of the Moabites, who continue to be a thorn in the flesh of the Israelites through the conquest of the land. Baalam’s advice to his kinsmen on how to destroy the Israelites is true to their origin, send your good-looking women to them to marry them and entice them after other gods. It is amazing that a Moabite, Ruth, is a faith hero and in the line of Jesus. In chapter 20, Abraham and Sarah again play the game of pretending she is his sister with yet another king, rather than trusting God to protect them and fulfill His promise.

In Chapter 21 the child of the promise is finally born! Sarah, surely recollecting the meeting with the men at their tent when she laughed at the promise, responds to the birth with a wry irony, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ The episode of Ishmael playing with Isaac is strange and difficult to see what is going on that has upset Sarah. The word for play could also mean mocking and it is the same word that is used in Exodus when the people got up to play after the golden calf was made. It isn’t entirely clear what it means but it isn’t fun and games. Abraham, for the first time, has to let go of a son and give Him to God. There are some parallels between this story of sending away Hagar and Ishmael and the next chapter. In both cases, God provides a way out of what looks like certain death for Abraham’s son. Hagar has once believed in the God who sees her and now she finds that He is also a God who hears.

The people murmur about Jesus, just as did their forefathers in the wilderness. They murmured about the manna and here they murmur about Jesus claiming to be bread from heaven. Belief in Jesus is the key to eternal life and here He says that belief is not from us, only those whom the Father draws will believe. Jesus presses the metaphor of His body a little too far in the end and the people now are disgusted and believe He is speaking of cannibalism. There is much here that looks and sounds like the conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus is speaking of heavenly things and they are thinking of earth, the fulfillment of their earthly desire for food in this case.

The life of faith is the life of recognition we are strangers and aliens on earth, on a pilgrimage towards our true home country. That recognition allows us to pass through and enjoy the country where we are but also to always be pressing on, never quite settling in here on earth.

CS Lewis makes the argument from desire to explain this life:
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, "Hope")

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

1 February 2010
Psalm 56, 57; Gen. 19:1-29; Heb. 11:1-12; John 6:27-40

Lot immediately offers hospitality in the same way his uncle did, in contrast to the rest of Sodom. Lot has moved from outside of Sodom into the city itself and his daughters have seemingly married men from that city. The wickedness of Sodom is so great that a crowd gathers demanding that Lot send out the men who are visiting him in order that they may “know” them. The word “know” is clearly here a euphemism for sex, they don’t want to have a friendly chat. The passage makes plain the frenzied nature of their demands and their insatiable desire to have their way. Lot is willing to give them his daughters to appease their lusts but they are unwavering. Lot lingers when told to leave and the men forcibly press him out of the city, his wife can’t bear not to have one last look and meets her end. This is a terrible story but also a warning to us to not accommodate ourselves to the world. Sin is a powerful thing, it has great allure for us and it requires an act of God to change us in order that we can see things aright.

Jesus calls them to faith and they call Him to feed them as Moses did in the wilderness. He speaks of heavenly bread and they ask for it always, just as the woman at the well responded to Jesus’ offer of living water, but they weren’t truly hungry for that spiritual bread. There are connections here with Isaiah 55 - "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Jesus is offering what they need, the bread of life. They want a sign and He offers reality, that to which the sign points.

Faith is believing in that which cannot be seen and living in the world as though it were not all there is. Materialism says that this is all there ever is or ever will be so either eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die or walk about in mourning for tomorrow we die. Hebrews 11 tells the stories of those who lived by faith, believing that the unseen or invisible is greater than the visible but that the visible matters. We can’t make the mistake of being anti-materialists because God created those things that are visible out of the invisible things and He pronounced them “good.” It is ungrateful to treat what God has said was “good” as though it were “evil.” We have already proven that we really don’t know the difference? How we relate to things of earth matters to God. We have been given stewardship of earthly, created things but often we live as though they have dominion over us.

In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!