As they get to the edge of the Promised Land, Moses, knowing
he won't get to enter the Land, reviews their history and looks to their
future. He begins by going all the way
back to the mountain where they received the Law. From there they were told to go forward to
the land of the Canaanites, the land that had been promised to Abraham and his
descendants and to enter the land. They
went, but they didn't enter. You can
hear that coming can't you? We were told
to go from there and it is a journey of about eleven days and now it is forty
years later, so that begs an explanation.
Again, Jesus is giving counter-cultural instructions to
those gathered to hear Him. As I
mentioned earlier this week, self-promotion was important in Roman
culture. If you wanted to move up in the
world, and who didn't, the way was to invite those just above you on the social
ladder and leverage those contacts to go higher still. Humility was scorned and no one would have
considered it wise or appropriate to invite the sort of people Jesus counseled
them to invite. Jesus says the rules
that govern life in His kingdom are different from the world, and He proved it
time and again by the company He kept, eating with tax collectors and
sinners. In response to a toast regarding
the wonder of eating at the heavenly banquet Jesus says don't be too quick
there either. Some who you would expect
to be there won't come and a surprising lot of people will be impelled to come
in. How many church planters set out to
reach the people Jesus speaks about here?
Most of us want that first lot, the ones that look good, have good
manners, some money, etc. Jesus says go
to those who will receive the invitation.
Not too many of us flee riches do we? Paul says, however, the pursuit of riches
leads to temptations and not many can stand up to those temptations. Knowing that, we should be careful, Paul says
be so careful as to flee, not just turn around, flee. Those who are wealthy are especially charged
to use their wealth not for this life but for the next, for good works,
generous and ready to share, not storing up for this life but investing their
wealth in God's kingdom so to prove that their hearts are not set on this
life. Our time horizons are nearly
always too short when we think about life.
Ours is eternal, or at least it is meant to be. Let us not lose eternity for either the
concerns of this day as the Israelites did in failing to enter the Land or for
the pleasures of this life that money can buy.
No comments:
Post a Comment