December 13, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9.6-7)

“Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves, but Jesus was sleeping.” (Matthew 8.24)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the Second Week of Advent 2024:

Have you ever been so tired that nothing could wake you from your sleep, not even a storm? Jesus has been there. On a hillside overlooking the city of Capernaum and the sea of Galilee, Jesus had gathered with His disciples to teach them the foundations of living according to true righteousness. Let’s be perfectly clear on this. Jesus was teaching the disciples a “new” way, truth and life as opposed to the how it had been presented to them by the teachers of the Law, the Scribes and the Pharisees. What is unique about this “new” teaching was that it wasn’t new at all. It was the Word of God as in the beginning but now crusted over with centuries of misunderstanding and false applications. Simply put, the humanness of our lack of understanding had shaped and formed how we perceived the word of God according to the world. Remember how this all started in Eden. God’s helpmates, His servants to steward, cultivate and prosper creation, were introduced to two specific “trees.” The fruit of these trees granted special dispensations: eternal life with God (who wouldn’t want to stay in Eden all the days of their lives) and the knowledge of good and evil as God Himself knew it (sometimes too much of a good thing is too much and only God can handle all things.) We are introduced to a new revelation in the Garden which appears in the form of a Serpent. Now, after the fact, we know the identity of the Serpent. His name was Satan, the former Lucifer who was the worship leader of Heaven. Lucifer had been gifted with the ability and the opportunity to lead all creation in the worship of the One True God. However, because of free will, Lucifer was the first of many worship leaders who became so in tune with his own ability that he lost sight of the meaning and purpose for which he had been created. His own music, which God had made in him, sounded so good that he decided to claim it for his own. Maybe another way of looking at this is “he wanted to take his show on the road.” Lucifer no longer needed God nor God’s audience. Lucifer wanted all the glory and the honor. Before long, that desire became so unbridled and unsubmissive that he wanted dominion and authority, too. He wanted God’s authority and dominion. Knowing, however, that he couldn’t take God head on, he decided to sing a new song. It was a song of alternative music which cultivated a mindset of opposition. It worked. Millions of angels began to sing this new song. They were caught up in the frenzy of a “new” freedom and a different way of living which focused on what they could get instead of what they could give. What became of them? God sent them on the road which lead out of heaven and into a world of opportunity. As God would do at other times, He let the “people” have it the way they said they wanted. He had given them all they would ever need. He had shown them all they would ever need to know. He would be with them in a way that would never disappoint. Yet, it just never seemed to be enough because they never grasped what real peace meant. They had a picture of what peace looked like as do we. However, they never grasped the purpose and function of peace. Let me offer this perspective as a means of contemplation: “Why is it that if God is a good God, then why do bad things happen to good people?” There is a corollary to this perspective which says: “If bad things happen to good people, then why would I want to be good? It seems bad people get all the breaks and get away with ‘murder.’ So, it seems that being bad is good and good is bad.” All of that works in theory as long as the test case is always “in the present, here and now, in the moment and nothing further down the road.” It had to be a similar song that Satan, the expelled Lucifer, sang to Adam and Eve. Eve was seduced by the song to consider that “other life.” Adam was induced into a trance of compliance to allow anything to happen. He wasn’t merely helpless to stop what was happening, he was hopeless. There must have been a sense of euphoria in this new song, at least it was new to them. Hear the lyrics again: “Good is bad and bad is good. Right is wrong and wrong is right. Life is death and death is life.” It all sounded perfectly harmless and perfectly reasonable. They were swept up in the moment and convinced that the bliss of Eden was actually a threat to their well-being. What they didn’t know was the purpose and intent of Satan’s song. Satan was wrestling control, as if he really could, out of God’s hands. What Satan didn’t want Adam and Eve to do was to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. He wanted them to be time-bound and finite. He wanted them to be something other than what they were created as and for. He didn’t want them to be innocents in the Kingdom of God. He wanted them to become guilty and cast out from God. Satan was a cultist of castaways.

Wow. The choices in life today are really not any different. Think of all the “tunes” that are being sung today which carry the same promise and sublimate the real intention. It creates chaos of the heart, mind and soul so that we are more caught up in “the storm” than we are in our ability to ride the storm out and be truly at peace. Jesus was at peace that evening in the stem of the boat. We can identify why Jesus was as tired as he was. He was so tired that not even a tempest storm could wake Him. He had been through forty days and nights in the wilderness. Near the end of that sojourn, He had been sorely tested by Satan himself who came to sing his “new song” of liberating lies. Though physically exhausted from His desert fast, His spirit remained strong enough to weather that storm. Immediately, Jesus went to work doing what His Father had called Him to do. He went about the countryside preaching the Good News. If you need a reminder, then remember the “Call to Jubilee” which Jesus declared in Nazareth to those who had known Him since he was a boy, the son of a carpenter and a good woman with a secret she kept locked in her heart. He searched out twelve men to be His disciples. He had His own song to sing. It sounded strangely familiar to them, rooted in the very Word and fabric of their lives from days gone by. He showed them the validity and veracity of that Word with signs and wonders. It appealed to more and more. It required more and more effort. And one day, the crowd was so large that Jesus went for a walk uphill to a place that was like a natural amphitheater. It was like Hollywood Bowl or Red Rocks but only in reverse. He put the people on “stage” below and He delivered from above the words of life they wanted and longed to hear. They didn’t even know what it was they truly wanted. Jesus’ words framed it, defined it and then exponentially expanded it so that all would be fed to overflowing. So powerful was the Word that they hungered and thirsted for righteousness. Jesus left them “wanting more.” He was exhausted. Doing God’s work is satisfying but it is exhausting. It requires effort. And Jesus was “at peace” with that. He understood what it meant and what it took to be a child of God. Just as we are familiar with Jesus’ compassion for Jerusalem as it was, as it had become and what it was destined to be recorded in two simple words, “Jesus wept,” (John 11.35) so we ought to hold on to two equally simple words which express Jesus’ confidence and surety for the future of the disciples and all followers: “Jesus slept.” (Matthew 8.24b) He was captured not by exhaustion, it was a part of His calling, but by His trust in God His Father who “sang” Him to sleep with the wind and the waves, even in the tempest. How?

There are three elements we can consider to answer that question. In real estate it is said “Location, Location, Location.” I would say the same thing here:

Location 1: Jesus declared, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus could rest more easily because He knew His destination was guaranteed. As a good shepherd, He had already been to where He was going. He had travelled the paths many times before. He was aware of the surroundings, the dangers and the blessings of the journey He would take His flock on. Interestingly enough, Satan knew it as well. This is such a sadness for me as I see it in so many people. Satan knows his fate. He knows his destiny. He knows his defeat. What he refuses is humility and the joy of his salvation. He knows what’s coming but believes he can somehow change it with a “numbers” game. The more people and angels believe in his viewpoint, the more he convinces himself he is right. At least that is his hope. Ultimately, the choice is his. I even believe if Satan would repent and come to God alongside Jesus Christ and say “I believe, please, forgive me,” God would. How I ache knowing he, and so many others, won’t. Jesus, however, is humble and knows the joy of salvation. He understands sacrifice and is willing to endure even death, total death on the cross, to demonstrate His faith and faithfulness for our sake and for God’s glory. He does so never saying or asking “What’s in it for me?” Jesus is motivated by “What’s in it for us!” Why, because His Kingdom is not of this world but it is in this world because God is with Him…always. Even in the midst of the storm, Jesus is at peace and is the very presence of peace because the Father and Son are as one (yes, the Holy Spirit is there as well.)

Location 2: We are told in Matthew that Jesus was asleep in the stem of the boat. You have heard of “from stem to stern,” I am sure. The stern is the rear of the boat or ship. Sometimes our parents were “stern” with us and our educational “upbringing” came from behind. (I think we have too many generations alive today who suffer from a lack of “sternness.” Of course, such sternness must come from those who take their comfort at the front end of life- the stem.) The stem of the boat, you guessed it, is the front. Some call it the prow. The prow, however, is just the visible part of the front of the boat. The prow is part of the stem. The stem is where the left and right sides of the boat meet at the front. It is the “joint” or joining of the two sides from top to bottom. It is actually the strongest part of the wooden boat providing structural support for the most critical aspect of travel: confronting the battering waves of a storm. (Remember that the Titanic did not ram the iceberg but side-swiped it so that the edge of the hardrock ice cut into the more vulnerable side.) While the disciples were clinging on for dear life to the side of the boat, to the nets tied to the boat, to the rudder or the mast of the boat, Jesus slept. He slept because he knew where His strength came from even in a storm-tossed boat. He put Himself figuratively as the crossbar of the boat believing in its integrity of purpose and construction. On Golgotha, figuratively the stormiest of spiritual seas, Jesus put Himself literally on the crossbar where east met west and Heaven met earth. The cross was the sign of how to be at peace even when things seemed the darkest. It would be good for us to remember, Jesus survived the cross and the tomb. Both are empty except for the message they proclaim “Death cannot hold Him. Death cannot overcome Him. Be at peace!”

Location 3: It may seem obvious to believers, at this point, but perhaps not so to non-believers or unbelievers. The disciples should have been at peace even in the midst of the storm because of Location 1 and Location 2. No, this is not a Dr. Suess story like The Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Still, it is the truth that if the disciples really believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God and their new-found and faithful friend, then knowing Jesus was at peace with God and the world as well as His mission and purpose alongside His promise to be with them should have given them the same confidence and surety. He was their “stem.” As I mentioned before, we have the testimony of the cross (and the empty tomb and the eyewitnesses themselves) to validate our assurance “Jesus is Lord.” On another “dark and stormy” night, the disciples found themselves in troubled waters. Jesus was not with them. He came to them during the fourth watch (between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.) At first, the disciples believed they were as good as dead and a ghost was coming to take them away. As Jesus drew nearer, He was recognized. Peter called out into the storm “If it is really you, Lord, call me out to you on the water.” (Matthew 14.29-30) So, Jesus did. Peter did. Things went well when Peter practiced the confidence of focusing on Jesus. He was at peace and fully capable of walking on the water. Until….he wasn’t. Taking his eyes off the Master of the wind and the waves, Peter lost faith and confidence and buoyancy. In other words, Peter sank. Jesus saved. Jesus saves.

Where is this going? Our peace is not passive. We assume peace is dormancy (a long winter’s nap.) We assume peace is tranquility (no conflict to disturb us.) We assume peace is prosperity (nothing to stop us). “Assumptions” are dangerous. Assumptions are not signs of faith. As James, the brother of Jesus declared, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2.17) How do we know we have faith unless we put it into action. And faithful action is not fear or dread; nor being reticent or hesitant; nor is it passive, tranquil or a barrier. Faith is “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.” Faith is putting our hope in Jesus who put his hope in God who put his hope in us. Sharing that kind of faith allows us to “see the Father because you have seen Me.” Isaiah declared “Peace and salvation is accomplished by the zeal of the Lord.” It doesn’t happen just because God said so. When God speaks, things happen. It is my response to those who say “I love you” but the only demonstration of it is a tolerance of your present existence in their world. God SENT His Son into the world because He LOVES us. Jesus is the evidence of God’s love in action. It is God’s zeal which empowers our Advent. We are called then to “prepare” for His coming. We are called to “prepare” for His leading. We are called to “prepare” for His instruction to “Be not afraid, for I AM with you always, even to the close of the age.” Believe it: location, location, location. Or, peace, peace, peace.

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.