Looking around at them with anger

Mass Readings: January 22

First:	1 Samuel 17:32-33,37,40-51
Resp:	Psalm 144:1-2,9-10
Gospel:	Mark 3:1-6

Mark 3:5 Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored.

Todays readings just kind of got my blood flowing. David's stubborn passion for God's reputation and His people and land, and then Jesus' anger with his accusers.

There is this kind of image that Christians are apparently supposed to present, where we are at peace and kind and gentle, but today the readings don't really show that side. It is a mix of zeal and contempt that fill the hearts of our subjects here.  A zeal for the Lord and contempt for those that would mock Him. 

I know that anger is generally not a good thing, but there are times when the enemy is in our face and, well, there we are, angry.  Or call it passionate if you like, but if we care about our faith and our God, you can't help but be angry.

The thing we need to do though is to check ourselves and see if this anger is a "righteous" anger, or if it is rooted in our own pride or fear.  David and Jesus were not operating out of fear or pride here.

Today the church is divided over many things, but if we are angry with each other, then I suspect we are working from fear or pride.  If we are angry with the enemy, then maybe we might have a righteous anger.  But if it is a fellow Christian and their political views, we are quite possibly motivated for the wrong reasons.  David's anger wasn't towards his brothers, and Jesus' anger wasn't directed at his followers.  It was those that would mock or accuse brothers and followers that were the ones they were angry with.

Heavenly Father, please guard my heart and lead me in ways of peace and forgiveness, but when I get angry Lord help me to see whether it is selfishly motivated or in the rare case actually on your behalf. Amen

You have done nothing ...

Todays Reading:  Exodus 5:10-23

Exodus 5:23  Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.’

It is hard to find a message of mercy and grace in this passage.  You can't help but identify with Moses here.  Who hasn't said, at least in their heart, to God "you have done nothing".
But we know the rest of the story.  God does deliver them from their bondage. But that is not all.  He delivers them even though they complained, even though they had a lack of faith.  Now, this doesn't have the same result in the wilderness after they have been delivered.  Then their rebellion is met with disaster. Though, God still hears their complaints.
Even our Lord Jesus on the cross cries "why have you forsaken me". Sometimes we get to a place where that is all we know how to do, because we can't see the future, and because the time is hard to endure.
I guess the lesson I see here is that we need to give God thanks when we can, because there may be times when we can't find it in ourselves to trust Him. But that is the greatness of God.  He delivers us anyway.

Heavenly Father, thank you for delivering me, for my past, and for my future. Forgive for the time when I don't trust you, even those I have not encountered yet. I thank you now for your deliverance then. Help me to always see your grace, and when I don't see it, please help me anyway.   Amen

Wash and be clean?

Todays Reading:  2 Kings 5:1-14

2 Kings 5:13 - But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’

A very challenging passage. "Wash and be clean?" That is too easy, right? We have, of course, heard the expression "you get what you pay for". I think on a concious level we readily believe in miracles and God's Grace, but on a deeper level I am not so sure we totally accept it.  I think there is still a tendency for us to equate our efforts with the results.  The problem with this is it undermines God's mercy and grace. And maybe that is the point.  Maybe we have too high of a self evaluation.  Maybe we think that God has to do something really fantastic in order for it to count as a miracle.  Maybe we think that we have to do just the right thing.  We have a vision or an idea of what God's role in our lives should be and when it doesn't match reality we begin to doubt, or even rebel.
But while God does have expectations for us, and calls us to live lives that are worthy to be identified with Him, there is also the challenge of letting God do the real work and letting God set the rules and letting God get the glory.  Those are the tough ones.  We want to think that we are an important part of the solution, but that takes away God's glory.  While we do have to live and work, we need to let God be God and trust in that.

Heavenly Father, help me by your Holy Spirit to trust you to set the rules and do the real work and of course get the glory. Help me always to give you the glory. Amen.

If your eye is healthy ...

Today's Reading: Luke 11:33-36

Luke 11:34  Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.

I am assuming that "your eye" is not referring to our physical eye, but rather how we see the world. It could refer to what we lust over, or desire, but for today it strikes me that it is more about how we look at things.
In today's culture there is this kind of hysteria over being offended by others.  We have become a culture of judgement.  We spend too much of our time and energy accusing others of offending us.  What we see is not healthy at all.  What we see is threatening and offensive.  
But, Jesus didn't say that what we see is the problem.  Jesus puts it on our eye. It is how we see more than what we see.  He didn't say the world was full of darkness, but rather our body is full of darkness when our eye is unhealthy. For that matter, he didn't even say our body was full of darkness by itself.  Only when our eye is unhealthy.
I think we need to spend more time and energy on the way we see rather than what we see. It was said in our Sunday School class this last Sunday that more Christians killed other Christians during the Reformation than there were Christians killed by the Romans in the first century.  Is this because Christians need to be killed?  Or is it because they didn't see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ?  Isn't it because of how they see?  And you have to ask yourself if we aren't on the verge of that today.  The way we attack and accuse each other, looks a lot like the days of the Reformation.  The difference is the issue is not religious conformity as much as it is political.

Father, help me by your Holy Spirit to see with healthy eyes, that I may see my brother and sister and not get hung up on what they say and do as an excuse to attack and accuse.  Amen

All things are wearisome

Todays Reading:  Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Ecclesiastes 1:8  All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.

All things are wearisome.  Yes, there are days that I feel that. That is why reading Ecclesiastes is so rewarding.  There is a sense of justification as Solomon expresses his lament.  Yes, I feel that too!  In a way it even brings a sense of joy or peace when the Word of God reflects my own feelings. 
With all the stuff going on these days, Ecclesiastes rises to the top, being so profound with it's insight. This book pierces through the noise and nonsense and calms my anxious heart with words of truth. There is nothing new under the sun, yet, people clamor for position and power and influence because they think they have the "new" way.  There is no new way!  When people tell you that there is a new order, or we have progressed and matured by embracing new ideas and mores. It is not new, just wrong.
But, the realization expressed in Ecclesiastes gives me a sense that I can see through it, though I have failed to.  I hope that I can internalize the peace that comes with the realization that there is nothing new under the sun and that it is all vanity.  Then maybe I can have peace.

Heavenly Father, by your Holy Spirit, guide me to see that it is all vanity and I need not fear, but only rest in your peace. Forgive me for my anger, and my lack of faith, and fill me with the vision of your glory.   Amen

Today's Reading: Philippians 1:21-18

Philippians 1:18 -What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice.

This is a very interesting passage given todays politically divided climate. In the Church there is a tendency to question each others "Christianity" based on the particular candidate or ideology they support. There are those who are perhaps not sincere in their self-identification as Christian, but Paul here, as the one who is supposed to defend the Gospel, rejoices in both the sincere and the not sincere, as long as Christ is being proclaimed.  But wait ... What?
If we are not sincere, then aren't we doing great harm to the cause of Christ?
Well, if that was possible, maybe, but I think we think too much of ourselves.  First, Christ will be victorious with or without our support.  Second, we are probably over estimating our own sincerity. Yes, I think that we are probably more concerned with the spec in the other's eye and missing the plank in our own.  Paul rejoices when Christ is proclaimed.  It is our own folly that suggests that we are exclusively worthy to be the ones to proclaim it.
The reality is we are all sinners and Christ died on account of the sin of each of us.  So none of us is really "worthy".  So next time we question a Christian brother or sister's Christianity, maybe we should take a step back and realize that we are with them, and then rejoice that Christ is being proclaimed.

Heavenly Father, by your Holy Spirit, guide my thoughts and actions such that I learn to rejoice with Paul and not think more highly of myself that I should.  Amen

Unless you ..., you cannot be saved.

First:	Acts 15:1-6
Resp:	Psalm 122:1-5
Gospel:	John 15:1-8

Acts 15:1 Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’

Wow!  This is a loaded issue.  It was in Paul's day as well.  It demanded the "church" make a call on this.  The first council, in Jerusalem, had to decide what was necessary for the gentiles to do to be saved.
I can't help but think about how this cry is echoed today, especially today, even though it has already been decided, sort of.  How many times do we hear " you can't be a Christian if you ..."? Now, that might refer to behavior, or belief, or whatever.  But we still, to this day, put burdens (as Peter calls them) on others that we can't even bare ourselves. We say if you vote a certain way you can't be a Christian. We may reluctantly consider others to be Christian, like "right wing" or "evangelical" or "liberal", but in our hearts we question their true faith.  Or we think that Roman Catholics aren't really Christian.  Everybody that is not like us can't be Christian.  Now the issue in the text was being saved, I know, but it is basically the same thing.
Jesus says that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Yet we resort to dividing ourselves every chance we get.  Sometimes I wonder who really is not the Christian?  The one that isn't like me, or me for dividing the body of Christ according to my own distorted and limited view of the truth?
The reason Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden is not just that they disobeyed some rule of God, directly.  The stated reason in the Bible is that now, having eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in other words having a heart of judgement, they must be kept form the tree of life so that they will not live forever as they are.  It was a judgmental heart that was the issue. By judgmental, I mean the desire to be their own judge of what is right and what is wrong, their desire to be like God, or to be their own God. One of the meanings of god is ruler, or judge.
As we accuse our brothers and sisters of not being Christians because of how they vote or what church tradition they belong to, I think we need to consider that we may be like Adam and Eve all over again.  
Will we then be kicked out of our garden as well?

Father, please, by your Holy Spirit, humble me and help me to keep my eyes on you and to realize that you are God and it is wrong for me to call bad, what you have blessed and called good.

Amen