January 7, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4.1-6)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I have written a, as of yet unpublished, book on the call to being an authentic Christian leader using the framework of Psalm 23 as the template for “fighting the good fight.” For those familiar with Psalm 23, fighting the good fight is more than just fighting, especially as we are inundated by examples of fighting in today’s world. Paul was correct when he wrote about “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6.12) to the Christ community of faith in Ephesus. Even when we assume the posture and posturing of “going to war” in even the most conventional sense of the word, we are not fighting against mere flesh and blood. It might be easier if we were and we could justify it with the “True Lies” logic proposed by the character played by Arnold Schwarzeneggar, “Yes, but they were all bad.” Oh, if it were so easy to determine who is “all bad.” We could assume the Pauline logic, “For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory intended by God” (Romans 3.23) and thus include fighting even against ourselves. In fact, we find ourselves in such a battle perhaps even on a daily basis. I say that now as we are seven days deep into the new 2024 year and many of our resolutions (if we made any at all) are already being set to the side because the battle is too great for our meager resources of strength, courage, discipline and time. Is that the best we can do?

Of course, it is not the best we can do when we consider that “our battle is not merely against flesh and blood.” So, when our resolutions are losing weight, saving money, cleaning house, reaching out to those we have neglected for one reason or another in the past year or years, finding a new job or car or house or significant other, finding our true identity and the appropriate environment in which to foster and encourage its “coming of age,” etc., those seem to be more of the flesh and blood initiatives we call New Year’s Resolutions. Our real battle should be at the root of our problems and not the manifestations of the root problem which is far easier to choose and then cast aside because it is impossible to throw off manifestations than address the real problem. As mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, the real problem is “sin.” But, even then “sin” is more of the manifestation of the problem than the real problem. Or is “sin” easier to talk about because we have assigned its presence in the world and in our lives to those manifestations instead of calling it what it is. What is the root problem and what is the authentic identity of “sin”? I would suggest it is rebellion against “trusting and believing in God.” There is another word for that rebellion and that is “unfaithfulness.” I started to say it is “faithlessness,” but that would be more wrong than right. If we stop to consider the difference between the two (unfaithfulness versus faithlessness), then would see that are similar but not really the same.

Faithlessness points to a state of existence where faith is lacking or in short supply. When the man brings his troubled son for Jesus to heal, he first encounters nine disciples gathered around a campfire surrounded by a multitude of people. They all want to see Jesus, They all have a need for Jesus. They all want something from Jesus. The problem is that Jesus (along with Peter, James and John) is not there. He has taken those three disciples up Mount Tabor for one of the most strategic object lessons of their lives, if not the most strategic, thus far. Jesus reveals His true nature as the Son of God on the mountaintop. It is validated by the presence of Moses and Elijah who are the anticipated prophetic entities to precede the coming of the Messiah. Akin to Moses encounter with the “presence of God” in the burning but unconsumed bush out of which God speaks and casts His ordinance of righteousness on tablets of stone hewn from the very mountain in Sinai which God raised up from the plain of the wilderness of Sin, this is hallowed ground. Moses became shoeless in that place. Peter wanted to build tabernacles (which may give us a sense of when this particular revelation occurred as to time of year which could have been in the fall when the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated in connection with the Day of Atonement.) In either case, the mountaintop experience was never intended to be a permanent situation. Moses put his sandals back on and carried the Decalogue (Ten Words) back down the mountain to the people below. Jesus gathered the three disciples after they were instructed by God to follow Jesus’ words and went back down the mountain. In both instances, chaos was found at the foot of the mountain. In the absence of Moses, Aaron lacked the faith to withstand the peer pressure and fell back to the expressions of god from Egypty and fashioned a Golden Calf to worship. In the absence of Jesus, the disciples became like sheep without a shepherd and were as ineffective in ministering to the people as they had been effective previously when Jesus sent them out “two by two” with the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

In comes Jesus, I dare say He may have been shaking His head, and takes hold of the situation. Imagine the frustration of the three disciples who were with Him excited and encouraged by what they had seen just hours before. Now they were overcome with the lack of clarity and glory in this “valley of the shadow of death.” The man, among others, approached Jesus and pleaded for the life of his son. He even through the remaining disciples under the bus saying “they couldn’t do it.” The disciples would make a similar confession. Jesus asked a simple question, “Do you believe I can do this?” The man replied, “I believe but help my lack of believing.” The translation into English says “…help my unbelief.” In actuality it is better translated, “…help fill in the gaps of my faith because it appears not to be enough.” Jesus then declares, “If you believe, then it can happen. By your faith, he will be made well.” And it was so. It was when the man confronted what he thought was a lack of faith on his part which brought the condition to his son to Jesus that Jesus affirmed his faithfulness was sufficient.

So, let us then consider that “sin” is not faithlessness or a “state of less faith.” Let us address it as unfaithfulness. Unfaithfulness brings us to a level of understanding of what we have and then what we did with it…that is, cast it to the side or refused to believe it was ever there in the first place. I believe this is what Paul was speaking to with the Ephesian community of faith in Christ as he told them “live worthy of the calling as those humble and obedient.“ He is not saying they should be weak and powerless, mindless and thoughtless, illogical and easily swayed by the doctrines and philosophies of the day. He is calling them to grasp their faith and be like “people of God’s pasture and sheep of God’s hand,” to use the phrasing of David the shepherd of Israel. David himself had proven to be unfaithful when he took Bathsheba to bed and then killed her husband to justify the relationship and cover “his sin.” It was Nathan the prophet who confronted David with the truth that he was neither humble nor obedient. David had become arrogant and obedient to the desires of his flesh. The illustration of a raiding shepherd taking the sheep of other flocks brought David to his senses. He confessed his unfaithfulness to God to whom he had been truly unfaithful to. He addressed the root of his problem and not merely the manifestations of the problem. What was that problem? Not be humble and obedient, not be trusting and faithful. Just like in the Garden of Eden and just like in our lives.

So, mighty ones of God, let us pause in our own lives as we consider the days ahead and how we should live them being worthy of the calling by which and to which we have been called. We are disciples and shepherds, sheep and teachers, sons and daughters of the Most High God in union with the Son of God and Son of Man who is Jesus the Christ, Lord and Savior and friend. Let us endeavor to be more and more like Him as we go into the wilderness of sin called 2024 and let us find the promised land of God’s kingdom in the midst of us where we shall plant the seeds of faith and faithfulness, humility and obedience, loving one another as we love God.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.