May 30, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. Where are your ancestors now?.” (Zechariah 1.2-5a)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

For nearly two months, I have been reflecting on Paul’s call to the Community of Faith in Christ Jesus in Ephesus to “find out what pleases the Lord.” (Ephesians 5.10) That journey took on the rest of chapter 5 and all of chapter 6. The discovery was not something new but reiterating what we have known and perhaps set off to the side. In our own minds, we choose specific verses in those two chapters to hold on to and to discard. We hold on to what is pleasing to us and gives us an air of confidence about being a Christ follower. We set aside or discard mostly those things which are challenges to us. In some ways, we will deny those challenges in our lives and deny the call of God to accept those challenges and be transformed. In other words, some are making their own decisions as to the image in which they were made. Doing so impacts then the understanding of the “image of God” in which we all have been made. Truthfully, we are seeing in today’s culture and climate the fruit of such an undertaking as we view the “images of God” all around us. I have to pause again at this point and remember Jesus’ words to Philip (John 14.9f), “How long have we been together now and still you have trouble with seeing God? I say to you, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father; and that is enough.” Breathe. Taking in that last phrase based on common vernacular which those of us as parents have often used with our children as we “lay down the law,” that is enough is the period at the end of our sentence after which there is no more discussion. I can’t help but wonder how that plays out in the Aramaic, Jesus’ language of the day, or in Greek, the language in which John wrote his gospel. (I accept that as my personal assignment and will report back later.) What if that is what Jesus meant? What if Jesus had come to the point with the Philips and Thomases and Peters in His life where “the conversation on this ends here!”? What it would mean would generally be silence in those next breathes. Both sides of the argument considering their plans of actions. It is an interesting thought that does not hurt us to consider. We, too, face such moments with our own Philips, Thomases and Peters. We, too, come to the end of our patience in explanation when weightier matters are at hand. There are those times when we say, in word or in actions, “Enough is enough!”

But, my understanding of Jesus’ words to Philip and the rest of the disciples, don’t think some of them weren’t thinking what Philip said, was “sufficiency.” Our spiritual journeys to wholeness, fulfillment and peace take us in many directions. We are influenced by the words, opinions and teachings of others to blend with our own in order to make sense of what would make sense to us in our desire for wholeness, fulfillment and peace. And they don’t always provide that. Even our concepts of God, His sovereignty, His will and our place in the midst of that are colored with a multiplicity of ideas and concepts that are both theological and quite human. What Jesus offered, and we can glean for ourselves in today’s world, was a simple (not simplistic) and practical embrace of a reality that redefines who we are and where we are in each of our own “time and place.” When conflict, trial, tribulation, confusion, disillusion, disinformation, misinformation, manipulation and down to the bone challenges mental, physical, emotional and spiritual surround us and attempt to overwhelm us: return to the sufficiency of Jesus’ teaching. What is that teaching I am alluding to? It is a return to the basics of faith, hope and love from God which Jesus encapsulated saying “You have seen Me, that is enough.” Actually, it is more than enough. Whether everyone will admit it or not the visualization of “that power greater than all of us,” regardless of what faith stance we may hold to, is what we are looking for and hoping to find. While we are called to “believe without seeing,” which is true faith, we know the hope of seeing what we believe; especially when it comes to God.

Speaking of current culture and climate, I believe we are seeing the fruit (as I had mentioned previously) of human desire to define ultimate realities based on personal need. Jesus warned of signs of the end times saying “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24.6-13) This most certain end is inevitable but how we proceed from there is equally assured: “Those who stand firm to the end will be saved [from it.]” Jesus did not mean that we would not experience it. In truth, we are experiencing it exponentially even today around the world. There are those calling for the Rapture to “save” them from the evil that is more and more apparent and present. The truth is whether we understand our “salvation” or not. We are saved from the penalty of sin which is the grave in the world and hell in the next if we are truly believers seeking to “please God” and not humanity. This is what Paul was directing the Church in Ephesus about and what John was sharing from Christ in His Revelation. We must be confident of our faith in Him. We must stand against the enemy who only has the power to kill the body. God has authority over the body and the soul. We have the power of choice as to whom we shall believe. Zechariah spoke in the word of God to the survivors of the exile. He shared God’s call to them to avoid the anger which consumed their ancestors. God’s anger ruled against them because they failed to “see God in their midst.” Yes, they didn’t have Jesus as the Christ yet. He would not be born for another 550 years. But, they did have the Law and the Prophets. They had the witnesses of those who walked by faith as in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. They had seen with their own eyes how God had intervened and brought an end to their exile as He had their ancestors who were bound in Egypt in the days of Moses and before. They were “saved” and brought into the Promised Land. However, their failure to keep the view of God clear in their own heart, soul and mind let to their utter destruction first in the wilderness and then in that Promised Land which they corrupted for their own device. Now they were given a new opportunity to walk by faith and not by sight.

Mighty ones of God, it is not easy to do but do it we must. Our salvation is from the Lord. We have been saved by grace through the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth whom God had sent from Heaven to Earth as the Messianic Prophet and Deliverer like Moses and Elijah. He has shown us the Father and that should be enough. There should be no further discussion on how we should live nor why. We know the truth and have been given the shining example of righteousness with God’s faith, hope and love invested into each of us who believe. Now the time has come for us to truly believe and submit all our ways to God, trusting Him with leading and guiding us to the Promised Land and the fortune of Heaven which is all the riches we will ever need.

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 brought 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.