26 March 2013

Psalm 6, 12; Jer. 15:10-21; Phil. 3:15-21; John 12:20-26  

Jeremiah is called to be faithful without promise of ease of life, prosperity or popularity.  In fact he is called to a life that will be filled with hatred towards him, but he is not to be a pleaser of men.  He calls out to the Lord to be his defender and the Lord's response is that he is going to have to suck it up, that is the way it is going to be.  It is not Jeremiah that is being rejected, but the Word of the Lord.  He is a contrarian voice against them and they will have none of it.  This is the definition of what Paul is speaking of when he says to not despise prophecy.  The Lord promises to be with Jeremiah and preserve him if he will be faithful no matter the cost to him in terms of popularity or persecution.  He is to preach a simple message of repentance to all and sundry whether that message is popular or not.  Is that a popular message today or is the popular message something else?

Jesus says that the path to glorification passes through death.  The Greeks who come are the spark for this statement, Jesus knows that word about Him has gone out beyond just Judaism and so the world is watching.  Early on He told Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up and now is the time for that.  I wonder how the disciples processed Jesus' words?  I have no doubt that after the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and now the world coming to him that they surely believed they were about to see something truly wonderful in their eyes and they would ride on His coattails to the top.  What, however, was all this about hating your life and seeds falling to earth and dying?  What has that to do with being king?  It would seem that Jesus was at the height of His popularity and now He speaks of being glorified so what is the rest of this about?

If it were easy or popular to walk in the Way, Paul would have had no reason to encourage the Philippians to do so.  Jesus had already promised that if we follow Him it is like taking up your cross, it will be a way of suffering, of persecution, reviling, etc.  If we aren't arousing opposition or admiration we aren't getting it right.  Paul says there are those who are enemies of the cross, and if we are walking in the way of the cross then we will be their enemies also.  He gives reassurance that these will find their end so the Philippians need not concern themselves with these others, they need concern themselves only with getting to the place where they are truly citizens, heaven.  Our call is to hear and heed one voice alone, the voice of the One who saved us, just like Jeremiah.

25 March 2013

Psalm 51;  Jer. 12:1-16; Phil. 3:1-14; John 12:9-19  

Jeremiah asks a simple question, "Why do the wicked prosper?"  He sees the truth about those around him and the Lord's response is to essentially say, you see well Jeremiah, but you don't see completely.  The Lord's anger is so fiercely expressed it is breathtaking.  One verse in particular is horrifying, "My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest; she has lifted up her voice against me; therefore I hate her."  Can you imagine hearing the voice of God say that to you about the church today?  Jeremiah had to feel completely overwhelmed by this response.  The only thing comforting was that there was hope of restoration after His anger was poured out, but that restoration was contingent on their act of turning.  Repentance is always the requirement for restoration.

Most scholars agree that the reason the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the most dramatic miracle and sign Jesus did in His earthly life, is not found in the other Gospels is because of the plot to kill him revealed here.  It wasn't safe to tell Lazarus' story until after he had finally died and John's Gospel is the last one written.  The donkey, as opposed to the horse, is a sign of peace, so Jesus comes not to bring war to establish His kingdom but to bring it about peaceably.  It could have been established then but the choice was to reject Him.  Can't you just see the leaders gathered apart from the people whispering among themselves about this crowd and its reaction to Jesus, knowing that they dare not speak openly against Him?  They know that something must be done, they are losing their grip on the people.

Under the Law, Paul felt that he could put confidence in his flesh.  He had all he thought was necessary by birth, upbringing, study and to legal righteousness.  Now, however, he has seen true righteousness, a righteousness he could never have imagined and never have achieved under the Law and he considers all his righteousness to be nothing more than filthy rags in comparison.  We must lose all confidence in the flesh in order to gain salvation.  We have to come to the end of ourselves, realize that we have no hope at all before we can come to faith in Him.  The sooner we realize that we have nothing and need mercy, the better off we are.  The only thing to do is confess and repent but put your entire trust in Him who knew no sin.

24 March 2013

Psalm 24, 29; Zech. 9:9-12; 1 Tim. 6:12-16; Matt. 21:12-17

The restoration of Jerusalem is promised.  There will be peace in the kingdom, she will be secure from her enemies, chariots and war horses will be unnecessary.  The king is coming to take the throne.  Zechariah was written during the time of the reconstruction of the city after the Babylonian exile.  The temple was being rebuilt and the city was becoming again the city of God.  People were moving back, business was returning to the city, but truly the most important thing was the rebuilding of the temple.  Now, all that was needed was the Davidic king to come and rule over the nation.  The promise is that the restoration for the prisoners of hope, those who had only hope but their hope was in the Lord, will be double.  We celebrate in our liturgy today the coming of Jesus to the city, in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, four hundred years later, and the people acclaim Him and hail Him as king, shouting Hosanna, which means Lord save us.  The coronation will, however, look a bit unusual.

His first act on entering the city this day was to go to the temple in order to drive out the moneychangers and sellers of sacrificial animals, particularly, we are told, sellers of pigeons, which were the sacrifices of the poor.  Apparently the prices and exchange rates were extortionate, requiring the poor to pay a price more dear than the rich, and the purpose of the temple was to be a house of prayer.  Those who needed healing streamed to him and the children cried out "Lord save us."  The leaders, however, were indignant with him and this rabble.  Are our churches open to anyone who comes or are we intolerant of those who don't look like us, act like us and dress like us?  I don't think Jesus had a special affinity for the poor and the unhealthy, it is the other way round, they were prisoners of hope and they saw in Him the fulfillment of the hope.  Where are our hopes or are we satisfied?

Our hope is in Jesus, "who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion."  Paul says we are to fight the good fight of the faith and take hold of the eternal life to which we are called and keep the commandment free from reproach.  We are to live in such a way as to not bring dishonor on the Name of Jesus.  Our desire should be to glorify Him in all we do before men that nothing should bring reproach on Him or His bride, the church.  Our hope is secure in the resurrection, now we have a job to do.

23 March 2013

Psalm 137, 144; Jer. 31:27-34; Rom. 11:25-36; John 11:28-44

The promise is that they will be numerous and prosperous, He will "sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast."  They will multiply and their flocks and herds will increase.  Not only, however, will they prosper, there is something more important announced.  They will not only have the written Law, they will have the Law written on their hearts.  Their desire will be to do the Law, it will no longer be an external thing, it will be who they are.  We need a change of heart in order to desire the good.  Our hearts are indeed corrupt and unable to do God's will, our desires are too great and we live too often at the level of the gratification of those desires.  What needs to change is that we need to see properly in order to desire properly.  We need to see the kingdom as the pearl of great price, that thing which is desired above all else.  That is the promise here.

Yes, He must have loved Lazarus but that doesn’t mean Jesus is immune to their criticism.  Surely, they say, He could have prevented this death, why does He now weep when He failed to come when we called Him.  Sounds like some of my prayers.  Yes, He could certainly have prevented this death but they have no faith at all now that He can do anything.  They don't want to roll away the stone, as the King James version says, "he stinketh."  Decay has set in, there is nothing left which can be brought back to life, but Jesus calls Lazarus forth from the grave and behold, the man.  We, likewise, were dead and now that life is within us.  Do we realize that or do we think He saved us from dying?  Grace is more amazing if we realize that we were already dead and restored to new life than if we simply allowed Him to be our rescuer.

Mercy is the way we all get in.  No one gets in on merit.  Paul says there is a "partial hardening" of the Jews in this time but that will be changed, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, there is no rejection of the Jews.  That mercy is meant to change us, to cause us to see that the old way was the way of death and the new creation (2 Cor. 5) is intended to have a new set of desires, the desires of life.  In our liturgy the most common term for God refers to the quality of mercy.  In more recent Prayer Books and in the church we have replaced that expression of God's character which also points to us as "miserable offenders" with "no health in us" with some vague sense that God has done something for us because we just needed His assistance to get over the hump, that He simply lowered His standards a bit.  That change leads to less extravagant praise and worship.  We need to be made new and not simply accepted.

22 March 2013

Psalm 22; Jer. 29:1,4-13; Rom. 11:13-24; John 11:1-27

Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles in Babylon saying, settle in, don't live in tents, you're going to be in Babylon a while.  In fact, most of you aren't coming back.  You will be there nearly twice as long as your ancestors were in the wilderness.  They are to seek the welfare of Babylon, a bitter pill to swallow, but as it prospers, so will they.  How difficult to seek the welfare of this hated place, the capital of the nation that had destroyed the city of God, taken them into captivity and held them we honestly cannot imagine.  There is no analog in our lives for such a thing.  Jeremiah gives the exiles absolutely no hope of return in their lifetime.  There is a promise, however, a promise of hope and future.  The promise is the same as in 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 7, if they turn He will hear and they can be reconciled.  What an amazing covenantal God!

Martha's faith is quite strong, she believes Jesus to be Messiah, the one coming into the world, and she believes that if Jesus had come her brother wouldn't have died.  He, however, asks if she believes that He is resurrection and life, and that it is true that if you believe in Him you will live, even though you die.  That is an enormous step of faith that she surely didn't understand.  That wasn't what anyone actually thought about the Messiah, that belief in Him would be the key to eternal life.  Jesus is asking for something no one was prepared to give.  Martha, however, confesses extraordinary belief in Him, He is more than healer, He is the Christ.

Paul sees the situation with the Jews, their rejection of Jesus and the harvest of Gentiles coming into the covenant community in much the same way Jeremiah saw his words to the exiles.  This is terrible but the Lord has a plan, it is all, somehow, working for good.  We think of a new covenant introduced in the Gospels but Paul says it isn't new as in "de novo", it is new in that the way to enter the covenant has changed, it isn't through birth or circumcision, it is through Jesus.  It is the same covenant and we, the Gentiles, are grafted into the original stock.  God has not rejected the Jews and Paul clearly expects there will be a time when the nation turns to Jesus and he sees his ministry as part of that process.  All they have to do is turn to Him, just like always.