February 12, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Indeed, this is what the LORD says:

‘Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all humankind will know that I AM, the Lord, your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.‘” (Isaiah 49.25-26)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

Have you ever thought to yourself as you read God’s word, “That is extreme“? We know of gospel scriptures where some of those who had decided to follow Jesus began to turn back and go home because His teachings on the life of righteousness asked “too much.” Even the disciples themselves asked on one occasion “If a rich man cannot follow the Master, then what chance do we have of entering the Kingdom?” When Jesus teaches again and again about how His earthly life would end with an arrest, conviction and crucifixion, the disciples think out loud “Never!” If we would be honest about the message of God’s Word from beginning to end, the call of extreme believing and responding is heard time and time again. Impossible! Miraculous! Horrible! Wonderful! We can go on with further descriptors. Even in today’s passage we read “I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.” This sounds more barbaric and grotesque than loving and pleasing. Are these examples of those storied “Scare people out of hell, scare the hell out of people” moments? By the time we get to the Revelation of John our minds are blown with image of those “days.” From the rapture and capturing up of the faithful to the beasts swallowing up the world to pestilences and global tragedies to the New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem set against the Lake of Fire where death never ends, we are invited to consider and accept “extreme language.” Do we also consider rejecting it because it just doesn’t fit our imagination? Yet we watch video productions which attempt to mimic and exceed those very images.

Why such extremism? Could it be because we are not currently living in the normal and natural world? Could our present reality actually be the extreme presentation because of sin and faithlessness? Could the images and promises of God sound extreme because we are so far away from the truth? Isn’t this what Satan desires and uses sin to accomplish? Isn’t his purpose to distance us from God? He cannot move God. God will not be moved. He will not be shaken. He will not be deterred. Satan knows this. He once was part of the normal way of life which we would call “the Kingdom of Heaven.” “The Kingdom of Earth” is born out of it. It is an extension of it at the very first. It is wonderful, beautiful, magnificent, awe-inspiring and ultimately “It is good and very good!” And we capture glimpses of that goodness in a sunrise or a sunset, in a mountain vista or rolling plain, in an act of kindness or expression of charity. We see those moments and hold on to them with all the feeling and emotional memory we can. They stand in stark contrast to the instances of wind, flood, fire and quake which seem to be happening more and more. It is so extreme. But, we are called to balance it all out with two truths and they both come from Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ.

In His earthly manifestation and ministry, we know Him as Immanuel, God with us. God is not distant. God has not removed Himself from the earth nor the world of humanity which lives on it. He is every present and a reality of power which is a force to be reckoned with. Even now the conflict between good (that which accomplished the will of God for the benefit of humanity and the glory of God) and evil (that which seeks to deter, distract and destroy the will of humanity to accept the will of God) rages on. It does so physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritual on earth and in the heavens. It is a fierce battle of extreme measures which then trickle down, and sometimes in downpours, upon the earth and into our lives. Yet, there is Jesus, in the flesh in the days of the disciples and the First Century world. He demonstrates the power of goodness and our ability to grasp it and perform it. Since that time following His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, Jesus remains with us in “spirit and in truth.” His presence is no less real and no less powerful now than it was then. What is more, we are blessed with the very promise that “…you will do greater things than all of this that I have done.” Talk about extreme! And yet, it is a promised reality because of Immanuel, God with us.

The other truth of which I speak is that which the resurrected and glorified Christ reveals to John the Beloved Presbyter. In a teaching intended for the community of faith in Christ which existed in Laodicea (Revelation 3.16f), He said “Be hot or cold but never lukewarm in your faith, lest I spew you from My mouth.” If this is not an example of extremism as a way of life, then I must be missing something. Jesus reveals to John to reveal to Laodicea (and to the other six churches in Asia Minor for whom John had responsibility for as presbyter; and thus to us as we all are intended to hear the words from Christ) three realities. Two of the three realities are not good opportunities. Only one is preferred and sanctified. Jesus said “Be hot!” The intent was to be passionate, convicted and fervent in one’s faith and living out the life of righteousness. It is a part of the “purifying fire” of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the heart, mind and soul of the world. There is, in stark contrast, “cold and lukewarm.” Cold we can understand as set against with heartlessness the very will of God and the promise of goodness which it represents. The end result of such a choice will be far from cold in the burning lake of fire in the pit of Hell. What of “lukewarm”? The satisfaction of tepidity and middle ground where the conviction is to have no conviction especially anything that would offend another. It is a world of “just get along; I will leave you alone and you will leave me alone.” The problem is that no one really leaves anyone alone because the choice to not choose is still a choice. So, what happens to lukewarm? It grows cold. Its bitterness is fomented out on the world and becomes as nothing. Ultimately there are only two realities: hot and cold, good and evil, right and wrong. They are opposite ends of the spectrum of reality existing in extreme measure. And then it happens as I already alluded to. In the end, as it so often happens in extremism, there is a switch. Those who are cold become hot, burning hot, consuming hot but never consumed. Those who are hot become regulated and normal and calm and cool and collected. It is the difference of day and night, Heaven and Hell, peace and chaos. The question is not of “why” extremism but “which” extremist view do you want to hold.

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

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.