9/15/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, His enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.”

(Numbers 24.17-19)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Here is the thing about Messianic prophecies: What will you believe? As we read the gospel and open ourselves to feel the angst of the culture and climate of Israel, the lands surrounding it from Syria to Ethiopia, Babylonia to Libya, the Jewish leadership and the Roman Empire, we must confess there is some confusion as to who Jesus is supposed to be. We were introduced to the beginning of that dialogue when Jesus gathered with His followers in the mountains above Caeserea Philippi. It was there, remember, that He asked them all, “Who do people say I AM?” And with that question, Jesus wasn’t asking simply, “What does the current social media trend when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth?” He wasn’t checking how many “likes” or “followers” were adding up. He had plenty of those who experienced upclose and personal or in a casual manner the wonders of Jesus’ words and works. Like those who were hungry and thirsty, but not enough to work for it, and were fed by the thousands, thousands more clamoured for that “socialized gospel.” Don’t get me wrong, there were many who were legitimate beggars because of their destitution and debilitation. Charity was included as the business of the Temple: first to the people of Israel and then to others. However, it had become a confined outpouring based on “who was a true person of Israel.” There is reason why the authors of the gospels named for Matthew and Luke included geneologies of Jesus through Joseph and Mary. There was a need for some semblance of accountability to disprove He was merely the appearance of a man. Jesus was from Nazareth. Yet, His own “people,” those with whom He spent nearly twenty years of His life with in community, rejected Him. It was said by outsiders with prejudice, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” The question for most of those who lived in the Jesus era, “What have YOU done for ME lately?”

We know that many were looking for the Messiah to be, as one would read the prophetic declaration as from God to Balaam, “A mighty warrior and ruthless in dispensing with a justice that obliterated those who opposed the people of God.” It was a line of thinking which seduced many as they thought of themselves as those who “dwelt in the valley of the shadow of death.” They saw life through the lenses of capturing “this world as my home.” Jesus was the hired gun sent by God to meet the needs of the people of Israel (and those who would be like them) by eliminating all others. It was not thought of being a “beat back and establish a perimeter” that the Messiah would come. It was a scorched earth desire so that those of Israel were the only survivors. It didn’t mean that they were the best people in the world. It meant they were the only people in the world. [Strange how that kind of thinking was introduced and broached in the story of Noah and the flood! But, that’s a different story.] Yet, those who were wise enough to listen to God’s commissioning and calling understood that the true liberation came from within the heart, mind and soul of the people of God and that human community. Violence becomes the card played when there are no other cards left to play. We must have a lot of people left holding “that last card.” The problem is that no one on earth holds that last card. God does and He will play it only when He deems it necessary. He alone is the Lord of all life. He alone is the Judge of all living things. Until that day when He lays the “card” on the table, we are called to be the true Messianic community. And that community is intended, commissioned and called to emulate Jesus of Nazareth. To the enemy, He (we) will always seem to be a curse. Words and actions of the faithful will be perceived as “last days and high noons.” To the faithful, He (we) should always seem to be a blessing. Words and actions of the faithfull will be communicated as “this day and high hopes.”

Of course, each day is filled with the angst of perception as to hope or hopelessness. Hopelessness is the game of “last card.” Hope is the putting all hands on the table and showing ourselves for who we are. There can be no confusion as to whose hand we are playing. It is not our own hand but the hand of Jesus. Recently, I took an inadvertant fall on uneven and crumbling concrete. In trying to stop my fall, I put my hands out to catch myself and to attempt to roll and limit injury. The consequence was no serious injury. However, the heels of my hands were torn up as was my left forearm just below my elbow. It was a bloody mess. As I was being tended to by someone from a local establishment with a first aid kit, the comment was made, “That looks really painful.” I looked at my bleeding hands as blood dripped to the floor from my arm wounds and thought, “Not nearly as much as the hands and arms of Jesus!” His dying and death was contrary to what they hoped for in the Messiah as the purging hero. He was the victim of the enemy both foreign and domestic. He didn’t even “fight.” Sure, He skirmished in the Temple courtyard throwing over the tables of the servants of the Sanhedrin the High Priest. He jousted with words of wisdom, interpretation and spiritual matter of fact against those who “knew better.” But, He never took up a sword. He never tossed a lance. He never pulled a bow. He never slung a stone. He didn’t even head butt an opposing combatant in close combat. Instead, He spoke the words that were given to Him by God, His Father. He went where the enemy wanted to go to convince Him of desperate situations requiring “last card” solutions. He spoke the truth and that with the blessing of love for God alone. He never surrendered to the will of human beings. He also, when it was all said and done, went home. As for the rest, those who would not believe and receive the truth of God, they went on their own way. Mighty ones of God, which way are you going? Are you on track for home or is your theme song “Going My Way“? Home is intended to be where God is, God is worshiped, God is served and God is glorified. Pretty stout benchmarks, to be sure. And while we may not always be up to the task, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are more than conquerors. We are victors in life believing and obeying God’s call on us and over us. And we must hold as true as possible to this reality in confessing who we say Jesus is because one day will come when “the last card” will be played and house will be cleaned and the enemy will be perimetered and isolated and imprisoned forever and ever. Where do you want to be?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.