October 25, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“First, go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5.24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you ever wondered who Jesus was really speaking to when He espoused what is now titled “The Sermon on the Mount”? Have you ever looked through the crowd of hearers that day and caught their eye? Usually, eye contact is perceived among humans as it is among the animal kingdom. Makes sense, right, because humans are, after all, animals. A quick glance across the battlefields of the world today will provide enough evidence to confirm that statement. It doesn’t have to be the terrible and cruel executions of assumed justice in the Middle East playing out between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah with innocents being crushed in the middle that captures our eye. Take the lead from the Apostle Paul who shared with the community of faith in Christ Jesus which was in Corinth. In that great chapter mighty ones of God, and sometimes others without laying claim to its Judeo-Christian faith-based origin, call “The Love Chapter” we find the call to accountability. He says in 13.12, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I AM fully known.” It is that call to look into the mirror for self-reflection and see what part in the tragedy, the ecstasy and the truth we are playing. Jesus said it this way, “Judge not unless you are planning to be judged. What good does it do the take tweezers to pluck out the splinter of a wrong-doing which exists in the eye of another when all the while you are operating with a piece of lumber protruding from your own?” Shouldn’t we first take out the lumber and apply the balm of Gilead to our eyes? Shouldn’t we approach the healer of Nazareth with honesty and like the blind man ask for mercy? Jesus knelt before him and took some of the dust of the earth from which God has made us all and spat upon it in His palm to make a salve. He applied it with prayer and great intentionality over the man’s eyes. Then He told those who were attending him to take him to a pool of water, or a basin perhaps, and let him wash his face. When the mud was washed away, his vision had been restored. Then he had the opportunity to “see things clearly.” How clearly are we seeing things when they are tainted by our own wrongdoing and unrepentant sinfulness? Jesus said to the Temple elite and the rulers of Israel who had established a court of justice in the marketplace to judge both Jesus and the woman associated with them by “adultery,” “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” But, He did not do this until He had scripted in the ground evidence of their own wrongdoing. We do not know what He officially wrote in the dust of the earth gathered in that place. But, whatever it was clearly was seen by all who leaned in to see. Did you lean in to see it as well and wonder what it was? I know I did and still do? And did He write in such a way that for every “eye that could see saw” what was germaine to them personally? Did He do it in such a way that every “ear that could hear heard” what was intended for them to listen to? What they wanted to see was condemnation! What they wanted to hear was execution! What they saw was personal accountability before God alone apart from Jesus of Nazareth whom they desire to condemn and execute. What they wanted to hear was affirmation by Jesus of their self-righteous interpretation of the Law and the Prophets or the ambiguity of Jesus’ teaching in order for Him to condemn and execute Himself in blasphemy before all the people. What did the people see? They saw compassion on Jesus’ part as He spread His cloak around her shivering body to hide her nakedness as God had done for Adam and Eve in the Garden. They had exposed themselves and confessed their wrongdoing. They received mercy in their truthfulness and grace to live another day albeit not in Eden. They also saw the stones which every accuser of the woman held in their own hands to their side, behind their backs or beneath their robes fall to the dust from which they came. They may have also seen sympathizers of such legalism without authentic righteousness who stood among them drop whatever weapon of choice they chose. All faded away into the darkness from which they came leaving the woman in the light of God’s glory and grace. What did they hear but the definitive thuds as each implement hit the ground and the footfalls of the truly guilty turn to walk and hurry away murmuring among themselves as if their secrets were now made known in disbelief. They also heard the gentle words of Jesus ask “Where are your accusers? I see none so there is no testimony to stand against you. Therefore, I cannot accuse you either. Instead, rise up and go your way…and sin no more!”

What was her sin? Was it like the Samaritan woman at the well to whom Jesus said, “You have spoken correctly when you confessed you are not married. In truth, you have been married many times and the man who keeps you now under his roof is not your husband.” Wow! The truth hurts and reveals the awful consequences of how we strive to survive. What lengths have we gone through to compromise our faith and call to righteousness in order to make our way instead of “walk in the way, truth and life” which God has ordained? So, those battlefields are in Israel, Syria and Gaza. But, they are also on the west side of Louisville (as if there alone), or in malls, schools, government buildings, churches, affluent neighborhoods, highways, sidestreets and in houses that no longer resemble a home. The battlefields are on the airwaves of broadcast news, motion-picture screens and televisions, multi-media, print media, political debates for “gentile ruler mentality” offices and in our own heart, mind, soul and spirit. We are in war with ourselves when we are at war with others. We see what is familiar to us that we would rather not see. And until we can confess what is wrong, put feelings and emotions under the rein and rule of objectivity, recognize our own part in the problem by being a part of the solution and not merely dictating one, then we are polluting even the good which we seek to do.

And we do seek to do good! In Jesus’ teaching on this matter, He speaks of bringing tithes and offerings to the Temple. He is fully aware of the ill-gotten gain that has become the industry of the rulers of Israel (Jewish and Roman.) He speaks knowing that all who are in the crowd on that mountainside take offerings and make offerings. The offering and tithe is not bad. God prescribed it as a means of service to others and a glory to Him. But, it is the intentionality of giving them that He calls into question. They are polluted offerings which then do not glorify God even if they can serve others in a time of need. But, what good is that offering if it is not fulfilling its full purpose and falls short of the true expected and anticipated goal? And what would that goal be? To support, sustain and prepare a people in readiness for the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords! No, instead, they let their feelings and emotions toward others and the knowledge of such by others toward them to go unattended. Function does not manifest purpose unless the purpose is to be dysfunctional. Jesus intimates that unhealed feelings and emotions begat violence which leads to murder of the innocent and the guilty. It allows the “playing of god” on the part of one against another to become the norm, commonplace and the reasonable expectation. It places people against people and turns their eye away from the God who loves; especially those who say “God is love” but they themselves are not the best evidence of it. What is in secret will be exposed. If you don’t believe it, ask those who turned and walked away that day empty-handed. Look again at those faces as you hear that story and tell me if you happened to see yourselves standing there as Jesus works the will of His Father in heaven to lead in righteousness for His name’s sake.

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.