November 17, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1.15-17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

There is little doubt in my mind that James was versed in the works of Isaiah and verse 1.17 is one evidence of it. In James 1.27 we read, “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.” I have used this verse numerous times in defense against “religion bashers.” You know the ones I am referring to. They are the ones who have made “relationship” their religion while denying they have any relationship with “religion.” They tout that Jesus is not a religion and that is true. Jesus is no more a religion than God is. Turning religion, the practice of one’s faith in the world and adhering to the necessary tenets which define its design, into a “god” or worse into “GOD” is idolatry and expressly forbidden to true believers. There is only one GOD and He has ordered and designed our lives. He has also given us the truth by which we can choose to maximize our living into that life in the fullest. To attempt to do so on our own, by prioritizing religion over right relationship with God and thus becoming dependent on “works righteousness” is an exercise in utter failure. It is the heart and construct of the temptation which Satan uses to turn God’s people from the truth.

What is that truth? Ultimately, the truth is that “we are not God.” We are OF God. We are WITH God. We can walk in the WAY of God. We can learn the WAYS of God. We can be IN God and God can be IN us. But, there can only be one “GOD.” I don’t even have to refer to that truth by calling on the name of “GOD” for it to be true. It is like the truth of listening. No matter how functional our brains are, we can only listen to ONE thing at a time giving it our fullest attention. Why would we give it our fullest attention? The object of our listening is to be prepared to respond to the message in the most proficient and effective manner. In doing that we will experience “mutual benefit.” If we only give partial listening attention then we are allowing other messages to be brought in. We can hear them but we cannot “listen” to them all. It is almost as if we can attempting to glean from all the messages what suits us first. There is no real mutuality, it is more “hunting and gathering” which closely resembles scavenging for the purpose of survival. In that regard, there is revealed the principle of “there can only be one” and the one is “me.” Going back to the principle of “mutual benefit” which defines our listening we can find the principle of “oneness” working in defining our relationship with God. Many have argued that God has no need of anything. In terms of relating to creation, including humanity, is God purely selfless? I have had to wrestle with that statement for a long time and I continue to be flustered by it. If God has no need of us, then 1) why did God create us all and 2) why did God sacrifice His only begotten Son to save us from ourselves. In the grand scheme of things is there that sense of mutuality where the pure joy and love of God is experienced? To think that the creator cannot be devoid of passion and ownership for the created may simply be my own human thinking on the matter. Is it that God needs us not for the sake of deriving anything more and nothing less than being in relationship? Dare we think that God is “just playing” and was bored of satisfying self? I mean, if we think about a God with no needs being totally self-sufficient then “why us?”

Let’s complicate the question more, and by doing so bring some clarity to the thrust of the prophecies in the Advent of the Messiah, and ask “If God is love and there is no need for love to be expressed or shared, then is it truly love?” We, as mighty ones of God and followers of Christ, hold on to the truth that there are different types of love (good and bad; or good love which has been perverted to bad love) but that they greatest love of all is, to use the Greek term, agapao. What is that kind of love? Is it a selfless love meant only for the benefit of those who are loved by it? No, I believe what is missing is the “intention” of love. If the intention of love is to gain for one’s self then it is selfish love. Any benefit to others is collateral and unintentional. What then if in such selfless love (as we believe God is and Christ is as the example of it) we know that it is not God’s intention that He be loved back but that creation be loved most? Does that have to mean that God doesn’t need our love? Could it be that God is blessed by us as we love Him and others without the intention of being loved in return. You have to hear the bargaining for love in this line of thinking. It is built upon “conditional” love instead of fostering “unconditional love.” In other words, I love you no matter what because that is what is best for you. So how is it mutually beneficial and how is it “focusing on only One.” Perhaps it is resolved in that fact that we are able to love the God in this one or that one and that is our true object of desire. It is not to put God into a conditional relationship with the purpose of gaining for ourselves by pleasing a God who may, or as we falsely believe at times, without His love from us. The truth is that in understanding God’s perfect love we are exposed to the justice element in love. It is not an entitlement love. It is not an enablement love. It is a just love which points out the direction intended for our eternal welfare and away from the absence of our eternal welfare. Do we really want to live in a place where it is all about us and nothing else? It seems we are moving in a world directive where that is the case. That is not a world without God. It is a world where the full effect of God’s “just love” will be exhibited and exposed on the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, the selfless and the selfish. The awful truth then is the overwhelming number of people whose intentions is just self-love and at the cost of all others. That is not God. That is not supposed to be God’s people. But, in the days of the prophets, it was. Because of that perverted view of love, Israel was missing the mission and purpose of their lives as defined by the Shema. The consequence of that misguidance was “justice” for all and “grace” for some (with the hope that it would be grace for as many as possible.)

Could this be what our Advent celebration and preparation for the coming of the Infant King Jesus is all about? Could it be why we can be so philanthropic and yet so frustrated? We are bound in works righteousness calling it acts of love and compassion without fully communicating the meaning and the hope of the work which has been done for us. Hear the proclamation of the Angel(s) in the heavens that night above Bethlehem when just before sunrise they appeared to the appointed and anointed shepherds in the fields. They sang “Glory to God in the highest. Peace and goodwill to all. This night the Savior has been born to you on whom His favor rests. You will find Him wrapped in swaddling cloths laying in a manger.” God has done it for us. It is a selfless act of redeeming love which He performed. Does He do it without thinking about anything in return? Is it true unconditional? I would say definitively and defiantly “NO!” He knows the benefit of doing what is right and good. He knows that not everyone will respond equally to the gift. Yet, He does it anyway because He is love and He loves His creation. The Psalmist David sang “Let the heavens and the earth declare His glory.” God won’t demand we love Him back but He won’t defer our love. He revels in it as surely as a parent who has given his or her all is humbled and gratified when love returns and their need to be loved is not just a word but a reality. It is hard to love without expectation of being loved in return. We certainly can’t do it on our own especially on this side of heaven. But the day will come when mutual love will abound and abide and such thoughts will never have to be considered again…at least for those whose love for others is their first priority.

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 in order that others 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 so we would know we are Your people and 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.