The Gift We Would Never Ask For

1 Peter 1:3-12, The Message - What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.

I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!

 

                Peter writes to gentile Christian communities all over the Roman empire who were being persecuted for their faith.  He wants to encourage them with three important reminders.  First, he reminds them that they now have a “new and living hope.”  They have an eternal future that God has promised to those who believe.  God will heal their brokenness and make them whole.  These promises lead to the second reminder; through Jesus, they are given a new identity.  As we talked about last time, they now part of God’s chosen people.  Thirdly, they now a part of a new family, God’s family.  They are adopted sons and daughters of God.  These three reminders provide the core of the message of the entire letter.

                These reminders are important for people who are suffering.  They need to know that they are not alone, they are not forgotten, and their suffering is not in vain.  In the passage for today, Peter makes a bold claim. He tells them that there is a gift in the midst of their suffering.  Through fire, metals are purified and refined, and through suffering, faith is purified and refined.  The salvation available through Jesus is made available through Christ’s suffering. Likewise the salvation received by those in Christ is deepened and strengthened though adversity. 

                All this truth is our truth as well.  We too have been given a new and living hope, a new identity, and a new family.  Take some time to reflect on that today. 

 

Questions: What is the state of your hope right now?  Does it align with the truth of what you have been given because of Christ?  What does it really mean to you that you will be made whole and healed because of the Holy Spirit at work in you?  What value do you maintain in the fact that you are now part of the family of God?  How does all of this change how you view your difficulties, pains, and challenges?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, thank you for the hope I have because of you; help that hope sink even more deeply into my soul.  Thank you for my new identity as a chosen child of God;  help me see the unique way I can live out that identity wherever I find myself.  Thank you for including me in Your family;  help me see my brothers and sisters as You see them. Help me see my trials as an opportunity for You to purify and refine my faith.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the leaders of our local government today.

 

Song:  Living Hope - Phil Wickham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2FXxDVO6w

Awake, Full of Faith and Hope

1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 - But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

 

Some of you might be familiar with Paul’s description of the “Armor of God” in Ephesians.  If you were, you would notice that the version found here is not the same.  This is the value of reflecting on these letters in chronological order.  Here in the first letter to Thessalonica, we see the origin of a metaphor that Paul will develop further and, ten years after this letter was written, we will see that the armor is more than just faith, hope, and love.  When we reflect on Ephesians we’ll talk about the full armor of God.  But as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 (a letter that falls chronologically between Thessalonians and Ephesians)  faith, hope, and love are all that remain, so let’s stay with those for now.

Paul asks to “build each other up” in these three core virtues.  We are to that instead of belonging to the darkness.  The trouble is, it’s really easy to be drawn into the darkness – the darkness  “The hope and love when it seems the whole world, as the saying goes, is going to hell in a handbasket.  That kind of resolve is not unlike a reluctant soldier strapping on armor for a battle she’d rather not fight but she does it anyway because she knows it’s a battle that has to be fought.  Holding each other up in faith, hope, and love in a time of social media rancor, endless death, and multiplying hardships is precisely that kind of struggle.  But Paul is teaching us that that is who we are – we are children of light and not darkness, eternal life and not death, faith and not skepticism, hope and not despair, love and not hate or fear. 

A few years ago, at our current president’s inauguration, a young lady, at least for me, stole the show with her incredible poetic talent and even more impressive poise when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”  It was for me a beautiful expression of what I was talking about above. . .hope in the midst of despair, brave living in the midst of a lot of death, and faith instead of skepticism.  I substitute that reading of Amanda Gorman’s poem for our song today. 

 

Prayer:  God, arm us with all we need to be children of light in the darkness around us.    Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to instill faith, hope, and love in your family in the midst of this 2023 Holy Week.

 

Link: Amanda Gorman – The Hill We Climb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Rn5WULjmc

About Those Who Have Died. . .

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.  For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

The people of Thessalonica who had become followers of Jesus had concerns about those who had died in their community.  To understand this concern, we have to remind ourselves that the first generations of Christians sincerely believed that Jesus was coming back any day.  I know Christians today say they believe that still, but honestly it does not compare.  The early Christians did not make future plans because their future plans were to welcome Christ when he came back.  There is believing that something is possible or even probable and then there is knowing that something is going to happen.  The fact that it didn’t happen as soon as they hoped was a big concern as we will see in Paul’s later letters.

 

So in that climate of great expectation, people wondered what was to become of those who died in the in-between time, the time between when Christ ascended and when he came back.   So Paul’s words here are meant to be pastoral.  He reminds us that people who follow Jesus grieve differently than those who don’t.  We grieve WITH HOPE.  Paul comforts the Thessalonians further that those who have died will join the rest of them when Jesus returns.  They will share eternity together.

                We’ve had a crash course in death over the last few years.  The coronavirus pandemic killed millions most of those deaths occurring in the space of one year.  Natural disasters are claiming more lives than ever before.  I will confess that the grief feels especially personal to me as my family has experienced several deaths in the last few years, more than in any previous season of my life.  I recall their lives and I shed tears for them now as I write this. I look toward the day that I will see them again.  Paul does not say that those who follow Christ do not grieve – quite the opposite.  He says that we do grieve, but we grieve WITH HOPE.  Those who we have lost will rise as Christ has risen and we will rise with them.  Thanks be to God..

                One of the things I chose to do in my grief is attend a 13-week experience called GriefShare. I am so glad that I did.  Even as a pastor with three decades of experience dealing with people in grief and loss, I have to confess that I learned a lot.  More importantly, I found sojourners who are experiencing grief as well and we found that the journey is much more bearable and even productive when you are not traveling alone.  What was amazing to me was how all of my fellow sojourners’ experiences with grief are different, yet we found so much common ground that gave us strength together.  This class is offered in most areas multiple times a year.  If you have experienced a loss sometime in the past, I highly recommend this resource.  Here is a link where you can find a GriefShare group near you. 

https://www.griefshare.org/s?center=&date_range=&day=&distance=&location_type=&query=&sort_by=&type=

 

Reflection:  Instead of a question today, take a few moments to remember those we have lost most recently.  Take comfort in the HOPE that we will be with them again.

 

Prayer:  God thank you for those we love and have died.  We hold them dear in our hearts and we hold on to the hope that they and we share – the hope of resurrection in Christ Jesus. Lord, come quickly. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the families you know who are experiencing loss right now.

 

Song: Josh Groban – To Where You Are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8CWGq8e3Bo

Optimism vs Hope

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.  For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”    Jeremiah 29:10-14

 

This was a message to the Israelites who had been forced from their homes and exiled to Babylon. It was a strategy of the Babylonians to weaken the nations they conquered by spreading them our across the the empire.  It was intended to keep them from revolting.   These people who have lost everything are the people to whom God says, “ For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” 

 

This point out that hope is something way more powerful than simply positive thinking.  The best thing I have ever read about that is a piece written by Jim Collins about Admiral Jim Stockdale.  Stockdale had spent 7 ½ years as a captured prisoner in Vietnam.  Here is the excerpt from the interview.

He [Collins] read the autobiographical In Love and War, written by Stockdale and Stockdale's wife, before the meeting and wondered how Stockdale had found the courage to survive.

"I never lost faith in the end of the story," he said, when I asked him. "I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade."

I didn't say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, "Who didn't make it out?"

"Oh, that's easy," he said. "The optimists."

"The optimists? I don't understand," I said, now completely confused, given what he'd said a hundred meters earlier.

"The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

That is a good description of hope.  And it is our opportunity to forge this kind of hope right now. Hope is not wishful thinking or optimism.  It is holding on to known Truth in the face of circumstances that would suggest otherwise.  Our known Truth is Jesus (John 14:6). 

 

We often confront circumstances that suggest no reason for hope.  But as Admiral Stockdale would remind us, we will prevail in the end.  We don’t know how, but we know the Ultimate Prevailer, and that’s enough to inspire hope.  We can feed that hope and make it stronger. 

 

 

Prayer:  Lord lead us in to a deep and abiding hope, one that is not shaken by temporary circumstances but holds on to the promise that your ultimate plans for us are good.

 

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray specifically for your family and extended families today. 

 

Song: Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DKWlrA24k

 

The Source of Our Hope

Romans 15:13

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

 

I often ask children, “where does Jesus live?”  I used to do it at the beginning of Chapel at a church I served that had a preschool.  They would always answer by putting their hand on their chest and shout, “in our heart!”  It still warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye when I think about it.  I want to give you a little of my history with that little phrase.

When I was a kid attending Sunday School, VBS, and the like, I must have heard “Jesus lives in your heart” a billion times.  I have to admit that I never liked it.  I’m not quite sure why.  Maybe it had something to do with the sense I had even as a child that sometimes, even adults who are supposed to be teaching you something use phrases like that without really knowing what they mean. Maybe it seemed to me to be overly sappy and sentimental. In any case, I didn’t like it.

So when I became a pastor, I tried not to say that to children for years. I would find other ways to talk about faith with children.  That changed early in a Chapel service for the preschool and I have no idea why, but for some reason, that phrase, “Jesus lives in your heart,” came out of my mouth. 

I was thinking about it later and as I was, the words were impressed into my mind, “I do live in your heart.” It was like Jesus placed it there.  That moment changed my mind and I’ve been using that image to talk to children ever since. And it didn’t hurt to see some of those children’s parents posting videos of their little ones saying “Jesus lives in my heart.” Watching them say it, it is obvious that THEY know what means. 

What it means to me is that the source of our hope lives IN US.  It’s closer than your next breath.  Pay attention to it because even though it’s in us, it is easy to ignore or forget.  And the way we pay attention to it is another hope-producing habit – Worship.   The way I envision this working is that when I worship, the Hope that lives inside me connects with Hope that lives inside others and the Hope that is bigger than all of us.  And then, we “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Worship is a powerful habit. 

For some of you worship is a habit and I am so glad.  For some of you, it was a habit at some time in the past but is now a neglected practice.  For some of you worship has never been a habit.  My hope for all of us is that it is a habit we will practice now and for the rest of our lives.  You can join me for worship every Sunday at 10:00 (or watch the recorded livestream anytime our YouTube channel (on YouTube, search “Hernando UMC FL”).   

 

Prayer: God of hope, fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in you, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who feel far from God right now.

 

Song:  Selah – Come Into My Heart/Fairest Lord Jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBR0QpQYKdw

A Living Hope

1 Peter 1:3-9

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,  who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

“He has given us new birth into a living hope.” I really like the term “living hope.” Hope is something that lives in us and does stuff.  It works. It builds. It makes other things possible.  Hope is more useful when it is put to use.  That brings me to the next hopeful habit – work.

We talked about prayer and active learning as hope producing, but hope expands even more as we work.  I was sharing with my Dad a while back that work I did over 30 years ago has come full circle.  When I was 15, I got a job mowing church lawns.  It was something my Dad had helped me do and he did it with me for a while until I was ready to take it over.  Fast forward 30+ years and I was able to do the same thing with my son Paul a couple of years ago.  I couldn’t have known that would happen when I was 15, but whenever you work at something, it prepares you for something else in the future -  especially if you try to do it well.  Starting my own business at 15 installed a hope in me that I could do other things as well.  That is hope at work.

The work we do now, especially if we try to do it well, will prepare us for what’s next.  I really do believe that. I hope you will too.

 

Prayer:  God give us love and care for the work we have in front of us. May it become a “living hope” at work in our life. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus: Ask God to show you what hope-producing work you could be doing during this season of life.

 

Song:  You Make Beautiful Things - Gungor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spkhp41ig4

An Often Overlooked Critical Life Skill

Several quick scriptures today:

2 Chron 15:7 “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

Gal 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

2 Cor 4:1 “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.”

 

Religions have always talked about the importance of hope, but now science is confirming it.  People who express hope fight disease more effectively, endure suffering better, stave off depression better, and are more effective at maintaining relationships.  In short, hope is more than an ideal; it’s a critical life skill.  Also, hope isn’t just something we have or we don’t. There are things we can do that regularly produce hope in us.

Prayer - Praying about my daily struggles and concerns helps me realize that God is at work in all of them and that gives me hope.

Reading/Learning – You all know that I read a lot.  I try to read 50 books and countless magazines, blogs, and other publications every year.  I tell you that not to brag. I read so much because nothing helps produce hope in me like learning new stuff.  I get that not everyone likes reading like I do, so if you’re one of those, there are other ways to learn new content – TED talks, YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.  The point is to be always learning.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about some more hope-producing habits.  I HOPE you all will start conversing some more about these.  I, personally, love hearing your comments. It helps me to feel more connected now that we’re separated.  If nothing else, at least hit a reaction button to let me know you read it.   I love you all.

 

Prayer:  Dear God, You are our ultimate source of hope, but help us develop habits that cooperate with the hope-building in us.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people going through big life transitions right now.

 

Song:  Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz3vyyy01aw

As One With Authority. . .

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.    Matthew 7:24-29

 

As promised, we talk about how Jesus leads us into hope.  The scripture above is a wonderful explanation of that.  Let me give you the more traditional rendering of those last couple of verses:

 

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,  because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (v. 28-29, NIV)

 

“As one who had authority.”  You know when you encounter someone who has natural authority.  My Father-in-law was one of those people for me.  Many tales are told of his seemingly inherent authority that most people never questioned.  He was once in an airport taking a huge box with a dental chair inside through customs in order to take it to Haiti on a mission trip.  When the customs official went to stop him, he simply raised his hand toward him and said aloud, “it’s okay.”  The official let them through without inspection.  That doesn’t ever happen. I know.  But it did for my Father-in-law.  That’s just one story. Our family has dozens more.  But I won’t bore you with them.

Ok, you talked me into one more.  When Bob, (my Father-in-law) was a little kid, he was riding in a car with his mother and two aunts.  Bobby, as he was known then, decided that everyone was in the wrong seats in the car and they needed to stop.  Unbelievably, his mother stopped the car, they all got out and Bobby told them all where to sit.  This actually happened.  Bobby was “one who had authority.” 

As one who knew and revered Big Daddy (what everyone called my father-in-law after he had grandkids), I can only imagine the disciples experience of Jesus that day as he experienced His teaching.  I revered Big Daddy because he was usually right, but Jesus was ALWAYS right.  I followed Big Daddy’s advice because it was practical and down to earth.  However, no one’s instruction has ever been more down-to-earth and practical than the advice Jesus gave.  You can build a life on that kind of instruction.  Of course, that was Jesus’s teaching that very day.  You SHOULD build your life on that teaching, because Jesus teaching is a solid rock on which to stand.  If you’re going to build your hope on something, it should be that.  Hey wait. I think that’s a song.  More on that in a minute.  But right now, Jesus leads us into hope when we build our lives on His teaching.  There….my promise is kept.  See you tomorrow.

 

Prayer:  Jesus, our hope is built on you.  To the extent that it isn’t, help us rebuild the foundation.  We want to weather the storms.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to raise up leaders who lead “as one with authority.” 

 

Song: 2 songs today:  Phil Wickham (Living Hope)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-1fwZtKJSM

My Hope is Built

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p4OrSEPGvI

Can’t Live Without It

 

Romans 5:2-5 The Voice

“Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory.  And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance,  which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness.  And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love.”

 

Hope is hard to describe. I think even the biblical authors struggled to describe it.  But I’m going to try to say at least a few things about it this week.  Today I say this:  we can’t live without it.  People who are fighting disease die when they lose hope.  I believe people who commit suicide often do so because they lost all hope of something better.  When we give up hope, we lose our will to keep moving forward.

 

To put this more positively, hope keeps us living a life that is really life. It helps us endure hard and painful times. It helps us keep trying when we just can’t seem to get it right.  As we keep trying, keep enduring, and keep holding on the vision of something better, something significant happens.  Our character is strengthened.  Our faith expands.  Our trust increases.

 

And Jesus leads us into hope.  More on that on tomorrow.

 

Prayer:  God who is the only infallible source of hope, lead us into that “place of radical grace” that causes our hope to increase.  Help us keep going when “the going” is tough.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for all kinds of people who are losing hope today. 

 

Song:  Dennis DeYoung (Show Me the Way)  Dennis is the former lead singer of 70’s/80’s rock group Styx (one of my favs) and he is 74 now.  This is a song he wrote back in the 70’s, but his voice is still captivating.  I hear this song as a prayer for people who have lost hope – a prayer that God WILL answer.  If you like this one, you should also listen to his recent recording of “The Best of Times.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ckoiCJPYU

Isaiah 9:2 - "In The Bleak Midwinter"

 

"In the Bleak Midwinter" - November 28, 2021

 

Isaiah 9:2  The people walking in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

    a light has dawned.

 

Most scholars believe that Jesus was not born in December.  Some of the most compelling arguments are for March or April.  The bottom line is that we just don’t know for sure.  Despite that uncertainty the church eventually co-opted a previously pagan holiday and set the yearly celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25^th, in the bleak midwinter.  After hundreds of years of tradition, it seems most fitting to celebrate God entering the world during the harshest of seasons, a time when we would long for such a celebration.  And this year, it seems especially well timed in the bleak midwinter where we find ourselves still in the midst of a global pandemic.

I love today’s song for at least a couple reasons other than it is sung by one of my favorite artists.  It paints the picture of the dark and bleak time that Jesus entered the world.  The Word of God had not been definitely heard for four hundred years.  The people lived under the thumb of the ruthless Roman Empire.  Factions within Israel fought for influence but were mostly corrupt.  Poverty was widespread.  This is why I like it to be bitterly cold at Christmas.  It reminds me that the world did not offer Christ a warm welcome.  This tone, lyrics and Taylor’s voice singing this song captures that truth so beautifully. Listening to this song often elicits tears for me.

 

But in spite of its sad tone, this song offers hope.  It does so not by suddenly changing the tempo and tone to one that it joyous and upbeat, but by uttering powerful words of hope in the midst of minor chords and tear-jerking notes:

 

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.

 

Hope often comes not in the contrived “don’t worry, be happy” way.  Often it comes as a quiet divine “I’m here” in the midst of the harshest times of our lives.  I am thankful for that because that is the kind of hope we need this year.

 

Question:  What darkness do you need Christ to shed some light into this season?

 

Prayer:  God, you are welcome here.  Bring light to our darkness.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people struggling with depression and/or grief right now.

 

Song:  James Taylor - In the Bleak Midwinter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=278y1yTr83w

Matthew 12:14-21 - The "Secret" Ambition of Jesus

 

The “Secret” Ambition of Jesus

 

Matthew 12:14-21, NRSV - But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.  When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them,  and he ordered them not to make him known.  This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,

    my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him,

    and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not wrangle or cry aloud,

    nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed

    or quench a smoldering wick

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

 

As we have noted before in our study of Matthew’s gospel, one of the things that Matthew wants to emphasize in his telling of the Jesus story is how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan prophesied throughout the Old Testament.  In the passage above, we find the largest single quote of Old Testament prophecy in the book of Matthew.  Matthew cites Isaiah 42:1-4 as a confirmation of what Jesus has just done.  What Jesus has just done is run from the Pharisees (who are plotting to kill Him), attracted a large crowd, healed all the sick and broken among the crowd , and then instructed the crowd not to make Him known.  It should also be noted that Matthew has already eluded to Isaiah 42 in chapter 3, when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.  As Jesus is baptized, a dove (a symbol for the Holy Sprit descends upon Jesus and God speaks, “ this is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is a paraphrase of Isaiah 42:1 spoken by God.  Matthew wants us to notice this.

Isaiah 42 is a prophecy first given to the Israelites who are in exile.  Their nation has been conquered, their resources seized, and their people scattered across the vast Babylonian Empire.  Spend some time thinking about what it must have been like to have experienced this kind of trauma.  Imagine the hopelessness that might set in over the course of multiple generations of Israelites who lived in exile for decade after decade.  Then, imagine how the words of the prophet might provide hope that someday, God will send a special “servant” to restore justice to the people of God.  In Isaiah’s day and in the hundreds of years after Isaiah and before Jesus arrived, leaders came along that folks thought “well, this might be the Servant for whom we’ve been waiting.”  Matthew is making it clear that, no matter who people thought that prophecy was about before, Jesus is the one for whom Israel and the whole world has been waiting.  Jesus will not only restore justice and hope for Israel, but for “the Gentiles” as well. 

But Matthew is pointing out something else here as well.  Jesus heals all the sick and broken in the crowd, but instructs them not to make Him known.  Jesus is not trying to create a buzz of become famous enough to eventually be made King.  Isaiah speaks of a humble Servant who resists “wrangling” and “crying aloud.”  This Servant goes about the mission quietly and without fanfare.  He doesn’t fan the flames of conflict (breaking bruised reeds), but keeps nurturing hope (smoldering wicks).  His mission is justice for all nations and He will not stop until it is accomplished.  Matthew will continue to develop this notion throughout the rest of the gospel, but it is here that He signals strongly that Jesus is not the next conqueror.  His kingdom transcends all earthly kingdoms. 

This message is important for us to hear today as well.  The Kingdom we are invited to be a part of is not nationalistic.  It doesn’t pit one nation against others.  It is for ALL nations.  It is about healing, justice and hope, not an engaged conflict to usher in an earthly King.  The Servant that comes from God doesn’t choose sides for the mission is to bring all to one side.  The politics of division have no place in God’s kingdom.  Healing, Justice, and Hope – that’s the Servant’s mandate and it is our mandate as well.

 

Question:  Do you ever find yourself hoping God will take your side over against others? 

 

Prayer:  God, help us to view the world through your lens of healing, justice, and hope.  Empower us to serve faithfully as Your Servant Jesus did.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for peace to take hold in the world’s fiercest conflicts today.

 

Song:  Secret Ambition – Michael w. Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTji0JRMDDs