5 June 2010
Psalm 55; Eccles. 5:8-20; Gal. 3:23-4:11; Matt. 15:1-20

Do what is in front of you to do and be content with what you have. If we work for gain and increase and asset growth, Solomon says it is all a waste of time and energy. We store up that which can be lost or stolen, not things of true value. The beginning of contentment and joy is thanks to God for what we have, that we have enough. In the Lord’s prayer we are taught to ask for our daily bread, if we can truly give thanks for that daily provision we can begin to be thankful in all things. It is important for us to recall that all things come from Him and delight ourselves not in all things but in the One who provides all things. It should almost be a glad surprise to us to sit down to a meal, to open the refrigerator and pull out food and drink, to be able to pay for our food, clothing and other material needs, to lie in a bed at night and sleep and to wake, to walk and talk, hear and see. In all things give thanks.

What are the weightier demands of the law? The Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus on the washing of hands, a huge matter in the writings on the law. To read the Mishnah on washing would indicate a serious problem with obsessive compulsive disorder and here it is clearly an important issue for these others. Jesus, however, sees the command to honor your father and mother as more important, an issue with which no one could disagree. They have things out of order both in their question here and their practices concerning the commandment. Jesus here agrees with Solomon concerning that which comes out of the mouth being that which defiles a person. Idle words destroy the witness of our lives.

For Paul to write that there is no longer Jew nor Greek and that they are all children of Abraham through faith requires a complete transformation of heart and mind theologically. All that has gone before, all that he has believed, has been overthrown in Jesus and he is now able to share the hope and the promise that had belonged only to the Jews with the entire world as a free gift of God. Paul’s entire worldview has been transformed by this encounter. He has no truck with those who would return to the law of sin and death when Jesus has come and we have been given the Holy Spirit and the spirit of adoption with which we cry out to God as Father. Our relationship with God has changed and our relationship to others has changed in Jesus’ work. That spirit of thankfulness should pervade our lives.

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down towards your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
for you have exalted your name and your word
above everything.
On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.