November 5, 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)

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5.31,32)

“They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command that one could give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?’  He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Because of the hardness of your heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you [again]: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.‘” (Matthew 19.7-9)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

You have to embrace the conviction which Jesus offers in His teaching. In every word Jesus speaks, it is with the “bigger picture” in mind. Yes, it is easier for Jesus to see the big picture because He came from the perspective of “seeing it all from start to finish; the beginning (even before the beginning) to the end (that which comes to an end at the close fo the age and then all eternity which follows.) Just imagine, if you can, how easy it is to see the beginning which existed before Creation and all Eternity after the “House of God” has been swept clean and filled with all goodness and righteousness. We still can’t actually imagine it but it is so much easier than trying to trace out and understand everything that happened after that (Creation) and before that (Eternity in Heaven and in Hell). But, Jesus can and did. In fact, Jesus could envision the myriad pathways for each and every person, community, nation and world. Every possible turn in its exponential variances was visible to the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Every nuance was just as tangible and real as the very nose on our face (like it or not.) There were good paths, bad paths, best paths and better paths. We each are born with a destination in mind which is best and better for us. We are equipped with the means, the knowledge and the resources to complete the task and the journey from before we were born and fashioned in our mother’s womb. This is how God intended it all to be. His caveat was, out of His great love, freewill.

We cannot see what Jesus sees. Our vision is not nearly so clear and focused as that of the Christ who was, is and is to be. While He is the “one and the same,” His appearance to us is altered to meet the need of the moment which serves the will of God perfectly. Yes, some of those appearances (literally and figuratively) are inevitable. This we have to know for ourselves and put our trust in Him without leaning so heavily on our own cognition and the aching of sin-fected hearts. One of those images is that of the Bridegroom. In the bridegroom, the union of two people becomes a reunion of spirit and flesh as one the first moment of God’s conception of all creation. I love to say in answer to the question “Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg?”.… the concept of a chicken and the egg.” Before we were, God was. We cannot see that far back and we cannot see that far forward. It isn’t a physical reality as much as it is a “glory reality.” Jesus demonstrated that in His resurrection appearances. His “glory body,” the doxa soma, had physical properties which defy our reality of the earth as it is now. He does what we can only imagine (like walk through walls, transport immediately from here to there and remain calm in the tempest of vile battles which the enemy is bound to put against the people of God.)

That means, He is aware of our frailties and our foibles. They were anticipated, expected and rued. Remember in the days of Noah, when the wickedness of the people polluted the world and the earth, God said, “I repent that I ever made humankind.” It doesn’t mean that God was wrong in making human beings. Nor does it intend to insinuate that God lamented the gift and blessing of freewill. It does suggest that God considered “if there was a different way to do it all over, I would.” Except, there wasn’t. This isn’t the “potter’s house” in Jeremiah 18. There Jeremiah envisioned the potter continuing to “throw” pots and molding the clay in his hands until it was no longer marred and became perfectly shaped. God was telling Jeremiah that He was like that potter whose greatest desire was to make of His creation the model of success and perfection. It didn’t happen automatically but with effort and commitment to excellence. The people of Israel, indeed every person of God, is a lump of clay in the potter’s hand spinning as the world goes round. The day comes when the clay is perfect and “fired” for all eternity to reflect the glory of the creator and to serve its purpose without end. Imagine that.

Imagine this, too, however. We are more than a lump of clay. We are flesh and blood, spirit and word. We have a mind, a heart, a soul, a body, a spirit and a will that we are allowed to assign its direction. We are “self-shaped” people. We are, without question, a people out of shape by our own choosing for the majority of us. And I am not speaking of our physical bodies for they shall one day cease and return to the dust from which they came. We shape our days according to our understanding of who we are, where we are, what we are, how we are, when we are and whose we are. We are not without guidance nor instruction nor living examples. We learn best by doing and that in great part by trial and error. We can be told. We can be shown. We can be manipulated with molding hands to do what is right. Yet, until we make that decision for ourselves, it is never right. And many times we do it wrong.

We pollute our thinking with a polluted mindset that flows around us like air we can breath, water we can drink, steps we can take and decisions we can make. Should we? Oh that we would say “NO!” Do we? Oh that we can confess “YES!” And so, we are given each day the renewed opportunity to do it correctly and objectively with an eye set on being who we were intended to be. So, the question came back to Jesus “But, didn’t Moses say it was okay to get divorced?” If Moses is our legal ancestor and guide, he who experienced the very presence of God and spoke with Him in person, then shouldn’t we be able to follow after him? Jesus replies with all certainty and seriousness, “He allowed it because your hearts were hard, stubborn and set on doing things your way and not God’s.” In other words, “The fruit of the labor you are bearing today is harvested by the way you wanted it for yourselves and not for God.” “But,” you say, “Jesus never said that! No where in the Bible do we read these words to see with our eyes and hear with our ears.” Didn’t He? How many times already in the Sermon on the Mount(ainside) have we “read,” “You have heard it said [some quotation from the Law of Moses and the Prophets]…but I SAY to you….” Yep, there it was, there it is and there it stays. When we don’t do it the way God has shown us, revealed to us, demonstrated for us and made possible for us to be and to do…then something else other than God’s will for goodness prevails in the moment. It also means something else has to/had to intervene to get God’s people (Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, young or old, rich or poor, of this philosophy or that) off the wandering trail and back on track. No one knew it better than David in his day. He penned it in his “Shepherd’s Psalm.” In Jesus’ day, no one may have known it better than Peter, Simon bar Jonah. In the days of the early Church, no one may have known it better than Paul, Saul of Tarsus. In today’s world, we all should know it and “repent, be baptized and prepare the way for the Lord who is coming to gather His bride for their forever journey through all eternity.”

Let’s get it right. Let’s getter dun!

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.