The best way to be grateful for what you have is to remember
where you came from and how you got where you are today. No one appreciates the journey like the one
who made it. If you pulled yourself up
by your bootstraps, worked hard and made sacrifices you can look back and
appreciate all you have gained for yourself.
The story of Jews and Christians is different. We know the truth, without Him, I am
nothing. All that I am, all that I have,
is because He gave me the gifts, talents and opportunities to be this
person. Even before I knew about the
cross, God had given me everything I needed.
Without the raw materials of my life what would I have? The Jewish people, in the land, are to remember
their story just as we do at Communion.
Their story is that their father was “a wandering Aramean” who wandered
into Egypt, a small family of people and they found themselves slaves there
until the Lord rescued and redeemed them, and has now brought them into the
land He promised those fathers. No
amount of hard work would have brought them to this place, only the Lord. Forgetting that, taking credit for it all, is
a great danger to our lives.
The Pharisee, unfortunately for him, is not only self-righteous,
he is a self-made man. He has
accomplished many religious things, fasting twice a week and tithing for
example. The tax collector has
accomplished one thing that he will bring to the Lord, sin. Who is justified before the Lord, the
self-made man or the sinner? Right
action with wrong motivation is not even interesting, much less acceptable to
the Lord. Why has the Pharisee done the
things he does? To justify himself, to
make himself acceptable to the Lord and better than the tax collector. Those external things don’t justify him, they
just make him a religious man. When we
come before the Lord we need to first discern Him before we begin touting
ourselves. If we see Him as holy, the
creator of all, the judge of all, in other words, with a sense of fear, we lose
our sense of self-righteousness. When we
recognize that all we are is a result of His creation of us in His image, we
lose the sense of self-made”ness.” We
can now stand in humility and walk away in joy because we know grace was what
we really needed.
How do we commend ourselves to others? Paul commends Titus as having the same
earnest care for the Corinthians as he himself has for them. He was asked to go to Corinth but he wanted,
in fact, earnestly wanted to go of his own accord. He is not simply fulfilling a duty imposed on
him, he desired to go before he was asked.
Three times in this reading Paul uses the word for “earnest” or “diligence”
to describe Titus’ feelings towards this church. It tells us the depth of his love for these
people, that his desire to come to them is based in love and longing to be with
them, not simply to come collect some money.
What is your motive for prayer and worship? The motive of our hearts needs to always be,
I once was lost, but now am found.
No comments:
Post a Comment