October 1, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Pay them back what they deserve, Lord, for what their hands have done. Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them! Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.“

(Lamentations 3.64-66)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

As one last thought before moving on in reflection to these words of Jeremiah against his accusers, abusers and enemies of God and humankind (especially the people of Israel), I am carried back to the conversation Jesus had with James and John concerning the “unhospitable” ones. (Luke 9) This is an eventful chapter. I urge you to read it carefully as it was carefully preserved to bear witness to the truth about discipleship. The story in this chapter begins with the sending out of the disciples to do ministry. It was a part of their training. They received specific instructions indicative of Jesus’ desire that they “trust the process.” In essence, they were to “depend upon the kindness of strangers.” (to borrow Tennessee Williams line spoken by Blanche Dubois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”) Jesus specifically told them that if anyone refused the word they preached or to offer assistance (acts of kindness and hospitality), they were to move on without a word, shake the dust off their feet at either the doorway or the gate of the city and leave that as a final testimony against them. There is a lot more that happens after that including the feeding of the “20,000” and the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. Peter, James and John were the only disciples to have witnessed what happened there. It must have felt like an extreme privilege and honor. To borrow from yesterday’s reflection, the disciples “forgot themselves.” Yes, not only the three with their mountaintop experience but the other nine as well who were keeping watch over the gathering flock at the foot of the mountain. Having just experienced tremendous success in their foray into the cities and villages between Capernaum and Jerusalem, having seen the feeding of 20,000 people inspired by a boy’s gift of his family’s lunch and having witnessed the confession of Peter professing Jesus as the Christ and Jesus’ positive response, you would have thought they would have been able to hold fort at the foot. They forgot themselves.

It was at the head and the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration where the disciples revealed how far they had yet to go in their discipleship training. Peter, James and John so overwhelmed by the vision of the Messiah in all His glory simply wanted to hold that moment in time. They wanted to camp out there so it would last forever. (I would add, they had fallen asleep while Jesus went a short distance from them which is a foreshadowing of the night when Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss.) As for those at the foot “in the real world” experience, they were so full of their success that they failed miserably in providing ministry to those who came to see the Master. The story of the father whose son was possessed by demons causing him jump in fires is the evidence of their simple failure. When Jesus and the three returned to see the debacle (not as bad as Moses when he came down with the Ten Commandments to find the worship of debauchery), He asked what the problem was. The man explained the disciples’ failure to heal his son. The disciples tried to disappear in the crowd. Jesus found them with his eyes and said, “This kind can only come out by prayer.” (Mark 9’s description of the event.) I am not sure what else the disciples had tried but apparently Jesus knew they had not prayed about it, on it and over it. Prayer delivered the boy back to his father. The most basic and most foundational practice of discipleship had been forgotten (or weakly presented.) No doubt, they had threatened the demons (or at least the boy and maybe his father) with “You don’t have enough faith.” They may have even kicked the dust off their feet at the man and his son but there was nowhere to go after that; especially seeing Jesus come down from the mountain. What a powerful message it speaks to us in today’s possessed and frothing world.

Now that leads me back to James and John and their tirade against the Samaritan village they came upon after all of that. The people of that village were not receptive to Jesus or the word proclaimed by the disciples. Forgetting themselves (their initial training to “just walk on by” and being full of themselves because they witnessed the Transfiguration), they went back to their old ways. They flexed their immature spiritual muscles and decided to “force the situation” by judging the people there who didn’t know with a death sentence. This was not Sodom and Gomorrah. We do not hear of vile debauchery as in Sinai or near the Dead Sea. The people were not receptive. We don’t really what their issue was, but the response was the same. At least Jesus’ response was the same, “Shake the dust off your feet, ignore them and know that in your walking away you have left an enduring testimony.” Oh, that Jeremiah would have had such a reminder, too. Instead, at the end of his lament he did not continue to build on the statement of patient faith (as mentioned in verse 3.22) but returned to wailing and railing against “those people” who refused, abused and set themselves up as enemies of God and God’s people. So many times, the Old Testament stories point to the need for a Savior, a Messiah, a great Teacher, a strong leader and a powerful ruler to, let me say…”save them and save them from themselves.” Mighty ones of God, they lived before the cross. We live after the cross. We have seen the transfiguration of the Resurrected Christ. We know it is the affirmation of His promise to return and gather all believers into the safety of the True Shepherd’s sheep pen. Yet, how are we responding to the current situation? Have we continued to “forget ourselves”? Isn’t it time we remember who we are and whose we are? There are so many others in the world who need to hear about Jesus. Why do we spend so much negative energy on those committed to refusing the gospel. Let us learn from the lesson He taught: shake the dust off your feet, walk away and pray… in many cases the only means of healing and reconciliation is prayer. We are called to “pray over people” and not “prey” on them.

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 but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.