What Would YOU Say if Asked This Question?

Mark 10:46-52, CEB - Jesus and his followers came into Jericho. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, together with his disciples and a sizable crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, Timaeus’ son, was sitting beside the road.  When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!”  Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, show me mercy!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him forward.”

They called the blind man, “Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you.”

Throwing his coat to the side, he jumped up and came to Jesus.

Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man said, “Teacher, I want to see.”

Jesus said, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way.

 

                Poor Bartimaeus crying out to Jesus as the entourage passed him on the road out of Jericho is perceived by most as an annoyance, the cry of a crazy fool who the people of Jericho had learned to ignore.  They try to silence Bart but this causes him to shout even louder.  He gains the attention of Jesus who doesn’t ignore him.  Jesus calls Bart to come to him.  Though this seems like an insignificant detail, what it signifies is that this is not only a healing story; it is a call story.  Mark confirms this when he reports that Bart “began to follow Jesus on the way.”  The first takeaway from this story is that God sees potential and value in people the rest of us often wish would be quiet and fade into the background.

                The question Jesus asks Bart is the same one that he has just asked the disciples in the preceding story – “what do you want Me to do for you?”  Mark puts these stories together to draw a distinct contrast between the vainglorious request of the “insider” disciples and the deeply personal and heartfelt request of the “outsider” Bartimaeus.   While the disciples ask for elevated status, Bart asks for the chance to see.  As we notice this contrast, we could consider the same question from Jesus, “what do you want me to do for you?”  How would you answer?  What is the deep desire of your heart?  This story invites us to consider what we would ask Jesus for more than anything else?  Further, the story invites us to examine the nature of that desire – does it represent a deep need or is the desire more shallow? 

                As we have heard Jesus say before in this gospel, He proclaims to Bartimaeus, “your faith has healed you.”  Jesus doesn’t do anything special like touch Bart’s eyes of say some special prayer.  He proclaims that Bart’s faith has enabled him to receive healing from God.  Returning to your answers from the last paragraph, do you have faith that God can provide the needed response to your deepest need?  Your faith IS the most important ingredient in the equation. 

                And finally, we return to the reality that this is a call story.  Bartimaeus is healed and immediately follows Jesus.  It may be assumed that Bart is present for the events that occur over the next week, the last week of Jesus’s life before being crucified.  Bart has a new life and mission upon being healed by Jesus.  This is signified by another easily overlooked detail in the story, something that happens even before Bart is healed.  When Jesus called for Bartimaeus, the text says, “throwing his coat aside, he jumped up and came to Jesus.”  People who were disabled like Bartimaeus in Jesus’s day were often given “a beggar’s coat” that gave them permission to beg for their livelihood.  When Jesus calls for him, Bart throws his beggar’s coat aside.  He has faith that this call from Jesus means that his begging days are over.  He now has a new mission.  He is a new man. 

 

Question:  Of all the possible insights from this story, which one strikes a need in you in this moment?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, thank you for the call that you have for each one of us.  Help us be clear about our deepest need right now.  Gove us the faith to trust you with that need and expect that you will provide in a way that strengthens our ability to follow you more nearly.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know with physical challenges today.

 

Song: El Shaddai – Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJMl95lb9k

“Concerning the Sabbath. . . and Way More Than That”

Mark 2:23-3:6 - One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?  In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

 

These two Jesus teaching stories that Mark groups together are, of course, about the Sabbath.  But they are also about more than the Sabbath.  Let’s talk about the Sabbath first and move out from there. 

There were many rules/laws governing the Sabbath.  It was to be a regular day of rest where one would refrain from working for a day.  Over the centuries since the Sabbath was a law, hundreds of thousands of pages have been written to further elaborate on the particulars of this day of rest. What constitutes work?  Exactly when does the Sabbath start and end? How do necessary things get done on that day without working?  What if an emergency requires you to work on the Sabbath?  These are just a small fraction of questions covered by the countless volumes of commentary on the fourth of the Ten Commandments. 

Don’t get me wrong; these questions aren’t insignificant.  But it is easy to get so bogged down and distracted by the endless questions about the Sabbath that one can lose sight of the very core purpose of the Sabbath. In the first story above, Jesus points out that this is exactly what has happened.  Jesus and disciples are simply feeding themselves on the Sabbath and what the Pharisees see is that they have violated one of minute interpretations of what constitutes work.   

Jesus points out two problems with this accusatory question.  First, the Sabbath was intended as a lifestyle structure that would benefit the people who followed it, not a law that would require unquestioned obedience to the point of going hungry until the next day.  Building a time of regular rest and renewal into the weekly grind is a healthy practice and part of that practice should include worship of the God who is Lord of All.  To worship is also a healthy practice that benefits those who do it regularly.  Neglecting regular rest and worship has natural consequences that ultimately diminish a person.  But Jesus and his disciples were not neglecting rest and worship.  They were hungry and so they ate. ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”

The second problem is pointed out in the second story.  It’s clear that the Pharisees are looking to use the Sabbath rules to actually cause harm to Jesus and His ministry.  They are more concerned about catching Jesus “breaking the rules” than they are about a man being healed of a horrible malady.  Mark doesn’t have to include any commentary here to show how ridiculous it is that the Pharisees are planning to use the healing of a man against Jesus.  The commandment to observe the Sabbath was never to be used to persecute others; that is evil and Jesus slyly suggests that in his rhetorical question. 

If you’ve read any number of my gospel reflections, then you know that my encouragement is to always put ourselves in the place of the Pharisees in these kinds of stories.  It’s much too easy to simply make them the “bad guys.”  When Jesus exposes pharisaical misgivings, He is also exposing universal human tendencies to misunderstand, misuse, and even mistreat others using the very guidance offered by God for our benefit.  I’ve gotten into trouble for breaking a rule in order to help someone, but I’ve also quietly judged others for doing the same.  I, too, have gotten so distracted by the need to find fault in another’s actions that I was willing use a “technicality” to malign someone with good intentions.  I don’t like admitting that I can be like that, but my observation is that most people I have ever know can be like that.  The first step toward becoming better is awareness of the need to be better.

 

Questions:  In what ways am I guilty of misunderstanding, misusing, and mistreating others with the guidance of God gives me for the benefit of myself and others?

 

Prayer:  God, show me the things in my spirit that are keeping me from the life you want for me, the life that truly is life. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Continue to pray for the people in SW Florida, particularly Pine Island and Matlacha.   Pine Island does not get the media coverage that places like Sanibel and Captiva do.  The island will be mostly uninhabitable for at least the next several months.  There are still many people missing and feared dead.  The situation there is dire.  Pray hard.

 

Song:  Lord, Have Mercy – Michael W. Smith (ft. Amy Grant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjPrIVKlvsM

David Unfiltered

 

Psalm 142 – A Psalm of David

I cry aloud to the Lord;

    I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.

I pour out before him my complaint;

    before him I tell my trouble.

When my spirit grows faint within me,

    it is you who watch over my way.

In the path where I walk

    people have hidden a snare for me.

Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;

    no one is concerned for me.

I have no refuge;

    no one cares for my life.

I cry to you, Lord;

    I say, “You are my refuge,

    my portion in the land of the living.”

Listen to my cry,

    for I am in desperate need;

rescue me from those who pursue me,

    for they are too strong for me.

Set me free from my prison,

    that I may praise your name.

Then the righteous will gather about me

    because of your goodness to me.

 

We couldn’t leave David without at least talking about one of his Psalms.  David was a prolific writer of these songs of comfort, lament, joy, and wisdom.  No one knows for sure how many he wrote, but most scholars are pretty sure he wrote Psalm 142 above when he was in a cave hiding from Saul, who was trying to kill him.

I find it compelling that David thought to write down his thoughts to God all the while knowing Saul could show up with soldiers to kill him at any moment.  For me, that’s one of the powers of the Psalms; they capture raw emotion and stream of consciousness in the heat of a moment.  This psalm above reads like a pity party – “no one is concerned for me. . .I have no refuge. . . no one cares for my life.”  Poor David.  Poor David indeed.  He’s not holding anything back.  I would submit to you that’s a good thing.

How often do we try to “clean up” our prayers before we utter them to God?  I’m sure David did that from time to time, but the Psalms show us that David and other Psalm composers mostly just let God have the unfiltered version.  I honestly believe that God prefers it.  God prefers the real cry of our heart, not the “prettied up” version as if we would impress the Almighty with our prose.  What God wants is a relationship with you… the real you.  David knew that so he just laid his soul bare before God.  Maybe we should do that too.

 

Prayer:  God, I want to tell you about the real condition of my soul today. . .

 

Prayer Focus/Challenge:  I challenge you to write your psalm today.  What are the unfiltered thought and feelings swirling around inside of you today.  Write them down and offer them to God.

 

Song:  Amy Grant – Better Than a Hallelujah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm5kx3xqmg0

Abram, A New Name?

 

Genesis 17:1-8, CEB - When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai.  Walk with me and be trustworthy.  I will make a covenant between us and I will give you many, many descendants.” Abram fell on his face, and God said to him,  “But me, my covenant is with you; you will be the ancestor of many nations.  And because I have made you the ancestor of many nations, your name will no longer be Abram but Abraham.  I will make you very fertile. I will produce nations from you, and kings will come from you.  I will set up my covenant with you and your descendants after you in every generation as an enduring covenant. I will be your God and your descendants’ God after you.  I will give you and your descendants the land in which you are immigrants, the whole land of Canaan, as an enduring possession. And I will be their God.”

 

                When you make a covenant with God, it changes who are.  You begin living not just for yourself, but for God and the people God has called you to serve.  And make no mistake;  you ARE called to serve God and you ARE called to serve specific people.  My simple message today is that you consider how you are different (if indeed, you are different) because God called you to serve.  Do you know clearly what specific people God wants you to serve?  If not, pray for God to give you clarity about that. 

                Abram’s name changed because God invited him into covenant.  Abram means “father of many” whereas Abraham means “father of many nations.” 

 

Questions:  What is your covenant with God and how has it changed the trajectory of your life?

 

Reading Further: Genesis 17-21

 

Prayer:  God, help us understand more fully what it means to be in covenant with You.  Put on our hearts the specific people You have called us to serve.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for Annual Conferences throughout Methodism who are meeting throughout Methodism in the month of June. 

 

Song:  El Shaddai – Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJMl95lb9k

If You Want Something Done Right…

 

If You Want Something Done Right…

January 25, 2022

Matthew 19:16-26, NIV - Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

                                               

 

Looking at this passage, I am drawn to the last statement of Jesus.  “Nothing is impossible with God.”  This saying of Jesus has been quoted by many in many different situations, but it occurs to me now that, at least in this case, Jesus is talking about something very specific that is possible for God and impossible for man – eternal life.  The disciples’ minds are blown when Jesus says the bit about how hard it is for rich people to get into the kingdom of God.  That’s because in Jesus day, being rich was equated with being divinely blessed.  Hence the disciples’ question, “who then can be saved?” is understandable. 

These days, we generally don’t have a problem separating the categories of rich and “divinely blessed.”  However, Jesus statement is no less true today than it was when he first uttered it. I like the way Frederick Buechner says it:

“The trouble with being rich is that since you can solve with your checkbook virtually all of the practical problems that bedevil ordinary people, you are left in your leisure with nothing but the great human problems to contend with: how to be happy, how to love and be loved, how to find meaning and purpose in your life.  In desperation the rich are continually tempted to believe that they can solve these problems too with their checkbooks, which is presumably what led Jesus to remark one day that for a rich man to get to Heaven is about as easy as for a Cadillac to get through a revolving door.”

It was not a transaction Jesus was looking for as if the young wealthy man could buy salvation.  Jesus knew that the man would never be able to receive the kingdom unless the tie to that which he truly trusted in (wealth) was severed.  Our connection to eternal life has nothing to do with what we can do for ourselves, but everything to do with what God can do.  Although I know mentally that this is true, the challenge has always been for me to live like I know this is true.  How about you?

 

Question: In what ways do you keep trying to earn some kind of “divine credit” by things you do?

 

Prayer:  God, help us move toward truly trusting you for our salvation and away from somehow trying to earn it. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to show you the things you are truly trusting in right now.

 

Song:  Lord, Have Mercy – Michael W. Smith (ft. Amy Grant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjPrIVKlvsM

Grown-up Christmas List - December 21, 2021

Grown-up Christmas List - December 21, 2021

 

Luke 4:18-19 - “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

As one that is always looking for the scriptural truth in unexpected places, I also have an affinity for many “secular” Christmas songs.  Today is one of those.  David Foster, the prolific songwriter wrote today’s “Grown-up Christmas List” Linda Thompson-Jenner and released it on his 1990 Christmas Album “River of Love.”  Amy Grant covered it on her second Christmas Album, “Home for Christmas” in 1992.  She composed and added a verse to the song and it was her version that became wildly popular.  Kelly Clarkson and a score of other artists have kept new versions coming ever since.

 

                The song is written to Santa Claus, but I prefer to see it as a prayer to God.  The heart of the song is the actual grown-up Christmas list:

                No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end…

To me, the list seems uniquely akin to Jesus’s statement of the purpose of His coming in Luke 4 above.  It’s instructive to remember that Jesus is literally reading Isaiah 61 when utters these words in a synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown.  He rolls up the scroll and then states, “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  The message given to Isaiah hundreds of years earlier is now becoming reality as Jesus begins to fulfill His mission.  If you read the rest of Luke’s gospel, you can see that Jesus goes about helping the poor experience good news that they’ve waited for all their lives.  He sees the afflicted and oppressed free.  He gives sight to the blind, heals the sick and proclaims the favor of God to people who never expected such a blessing. 

 

                To put it another way, he goes about fulfilling the aforementioned grown-up Christmas list.  Beyond that, he creates a community that he charges with continuing that work with the anointing of God’s spirit and the backing of God’s power.  You and I are charged with binding up the wounds of those whose lives have been torn apart.  We are called to be the peacemakers that keep conflicts from escalating into wars.  We are called to aid in God’s healing processes for those who have wounded by disease, violence, and cruelty.  We are the friends to the friendless.  We are champions of what’s right when all those around us seem swept away by what’s wrong.  All of that is summarized by the last item on the list – we are the people who NEVER STOP LOVING! 

                It can tempting to give on this list at times.  It seems like a silly pipedream most of the time.  But so did the idea that God would become a helpless baby.  Christmas reminds us that we are the community of the impossible.  We are those who claim that Jesus is Emmanuel – that in our striving for God’s kingdom, God is WITH US!

 

Question:  What is one tangible thing you can do today to keep yourself committed to loving the world even when it might seem like a drop in the bucket?

 

Prayer:  God, you are the fulfillment of the most grown-up of Christmas lists;  we believe that.  Help us in our unbelief.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those whose lives have been torn apart this year.

 

Song:  Grown Up Christmas List – Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF2rsDHOZc

Breath of Heaven - December 9, 2021

 

Breath of Heaven - December 9, 2021

 

Luke 1:26-38, NLT -  In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,  to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.  Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.  “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God!  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.  And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.  What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month.  For the word of God will never fail.”

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

 

Every year, when I hear this song again, I am taken back to the time when I heard this Amy Grant classic for the first time as young man in my twenties.  The song helped me see the Christmas story from Mary’s point of view in a way I hadn’t before.  To this day, the song connects me with the awe I felt for a teenage girl who said yes to a preposterous proposition – that the very Son of God would be born from her womb. 

 

“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

 

By that time in my life, I too had said yes to God’s call on my life and had just started seminary.  However, it had taken me six years to say yes to that call that I, like Mary, had heard as a teen.  I had said “no” many, many times before I said “yes.”  Mary heard the plan for the first time, asked a couple of questions, and then simply said “yes.”  This was back then, and still is today, astounding to me.  While I do not subscribe to the extent of the Catholic Church’s elevation of Mary, I still revere her in a way that defies words.  And this beautiful song, released in 1992, always connects me with that reverence.

 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the original song, “Breath of Heaven” was written by Chris Eaton who was a pianist for Amy Grant at the time.  Grant, who was pregnant at the time, heard Eaton’s song and asked him if she could record it for her upcoming Christmas album.  She further asked if she could rewrite the verses to be from the perspective of Mary.  Eaton not only agreed but helped her produce the finished product.  Because he said “yes,” millions have been moved by the result. 

 

This is the heart of our response to God’s action.  Will we say, “yes?”  God wants to guide our lives in a particular way and he asks for our agreement to go in that holy direction.  It’s not a once and for all “yes.”  Mary had to keep saying ten thousand yes’s until she found herself standing at the foot of a Roman cross watching her child be crucified.  And even after that, there were thousands of more yes’s as she became one of the leaders in the early Christian movement.  She kept saying yes.  This is the crux of our response to the Gospel.  Will we too keep saying “yes” to God.

 

Question:  What does continuing to say “yes” to God mean for you in this moment?

 

Prayer:  Thank you God for your patience with all of our no’s.  Prepare our hearts to say yes. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are currently in the process of pursuing a call to full-time ministry.

 

Song: Amy Grant - Breath of Heaven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8_475FKJWQ&feature=youtu.be

 

Bonus:  Chris Eaton’s original version of “Breath of Heaven” has become even more dear to me than Grant’s Christmas version.  Here it is if you’re interested:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUSS7sC0ps

Matthew 11:20-26 - A Jesus That Makes Us Uncomfortble

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 18, 2021

A Jesus that Makes Us Uncomfortable

 

Matthew 11:20-26, CEV - In the towns where Jesus had worked most of his miracles, the people refused to turn to God. So Jesus was upset with them and said:

You people of Chorazin are in for trouble! You people of Bethsaida are in for trouble too! If the miracles that took place in your towns had happened in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have turned to God long ago. They would have dressed in sackcloth and put ashes on their heads. I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Tyre and Sidon will get off easier than you will.

People of Capernaum, do you think you will be honored in heaven? You will go down to hell! If the miracles that took place in your town had happened in Sodom, that town would still be standing.  So I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than you.

At that moment Jesus said:

My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people.  Yes, Father, that is what pleased you.

                 

When we began this study of Matthew, I initially thought that it we would take selected passages of Matthew and move at a steady pace through the Gospel.  You might have noticed (since we are only on Chapter 11 two and half months later) that I was led early on to deal with every passage and skip none.  My primary reason for making this decision was that I did indeed feel that God was leading me to do so.  Along with that though, was a recognition that I needed to resist a tendency I have to skip over passages that are hard to comment on and uncomfortable to hear.  The above passage for today is one of those.  Reading and hearing this particular passage is important because it speaks directly to the resistance in us that tends to only pay attention to Jesus when his words are comfortable to hear. 

As Jesus traveled the Galilean countryside preaching, teaching, healing, and performing other miracles, some places were very receptive to his ministry and they turned wholeheartedly toward Him and the Kingdom He proclaimed.  This turning toward also implies a turning away from the way things were – this simultaneous turning away from and turning toward is the core definition of repentance.  The people who embraced Jesus’s kingdom saw their lives transformed.  This was Jesus’s intention for them and, by the way, it is still Jesus intention for us. 

But there were other towns, like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, that may have enjoyed Jesus’s miracles, had their ears tickled by His teaching and may have even believed that Jesus was who He said He was, but there was no substantive change in their lives as a result.  They did NOT turn away from their old lives and they did NOT turn toward Jesus’s kingdom.  They may have enjoyed Jesus’s performance, but they were unchanged in any significant way. 

It's here where Jesus’s words get uncomfortable.  Judgement is coming for the those who do not turn away from their wickedness and lest we think that judgement is no big deal, Jesus recalls three cities whose terrible fates (Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom) will be better than the unrepentant cities he visited.  Tyre and Sidon were conquered and destroyed; Sodom was completely burned to the ground and wiped from the face of the earth.   All three cities were implored by the prophets to repent but did not prior to their destruction.   Like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, they were unchanged by God’s word and works towards them.  Jesus emphatically proclaims there are dire consequences for making that collective choice.

My pastoral instinct is to try and soften Jesus’s words here – to offer some explanation for this harshness from the mouth of our Savior.  But to do so would be an attempt to “domesticate” Jesus, to make Him and His message something less jarring.  But the truth is that Jesus intends for His message to be jarring.   People do not change their ways when they are perfectly comfortable with their present ways.  There is no repentance (a simultaneous turning away from what was and a turning toward what is coming) in people who like what was just fine. 

So instead, my invitation today is “sit with” the discomfort of Jesus’s words above (and elsewhere).  Let that discomfort permeate your defenses and unsettle that in you which needs to be unsettled – those things in you that need to change.  Because Jesus proclaimed these warnings to whole cities (large groups/systems of people), I also invite us to let Jesus’s words unsettle in our own groups/systems of people that which needs to be unsettled – those systemic changes that need to happen in order for our cities to be aligned with the Kingdom of God. 

Tomorrow, we will hear the Jesus we like to hear, a Jesus who is “humble and gentle at heart” and who offers to lighten our load.  But today, we need to sit with the Jesus expects us and our cities to be changed by His words and warns us of the dire consequences coming if that change/repentance never comes. 

 

Question: What is something that would have to change if you were to turn toward Jesus even more than you have at this point in your life?

 

Prayer:  Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me, Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life. (Psalm 139:24-25, The Message) Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for specific places/situations of injustice that you are aware of right now in our world.

 

Song:  Lord Have Mercy - Michael W. Smith ft. Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0Mpy6zfts