Scripture: John 12:20-33
Adam has a hobby. Some might say that it is a worthless pursuit but he enjoys it. When he engages in this activity it seem to possess him totally the people around him find him more pleasant, more alert, more open. It is as if this Adam is the true expression of who he is. Yet Monday rolls around and Adam again is transformed into the serious business man, the logical, calculated man.
What makes the difference? The one version of the man is experimental, risky, takes a chance. The other will only advance and act under careful consideration. One even questions if the two aspects of the man can be united. One man lives by the heart the other by the wisdom of the world. One man lives by dreams the other by the knowledge of the world.
This passage brings to light a very interesting aspect to the life of Christ. Maybe I see it because that is what I do. The world in ancient times was a diverse place. People moved around much more than we tend to think. This is evident because throughout the world there are Jewish communities centuries old. And for those who study language they can find influences from areas that looking on a map seem impossible. Even in the native American cultures, which many assume to be descendants of Siberian Asians, they have found influences of extinct cultures originating in France. Humans are mobile. They look to explore the world around them, and they find a way to survive. Israel is an example and testimony of the mobility of humanity. When one looks at the empires of history they grow out of obscurity rise in power and influence, and grow toward other empires to eventually dispute. Israel emerged as a nation on the highway connecting the empires. They themselves were never the superpower but they held the land that controlled the definition of true power. They controlled the highway of ancient trade. They connected the east to the west and the north to the south. there were other routes but this one had the greatest profit.
This means that Israel has always had a diverse population. Groups of people were constantly moving through on their journies. They brought with them goods to trade, as well as cultural knowledge. This led them to want a king, this led them to seek alliences with other nations, this ultimately lead them to become controlled by Rome. Yet through all of this they have kept a unique culture of their own, no matter where they live or who controls their homeland. They have always been a light to the nations, but never the empire. Gentiles, or the nonJewish person has had a curiosity with this group of people. At times it has been positive and other times negative. Their influence has been seen in every major empire around the world, with a few exceptions. The Greek culture tried to spread their influence to the ends of the world yet they held the Jew in curiosity. They allowed them to remain to some degree. Many Greeks even embraced the Hebrew life. The Romans and Persians were annoyed yet intreged by these people. These conquered people that seemed to never seemed to be assimulated.
The Gentiles of Jesus’ day were curious, they wondered what drove these people, there was something that both attracted and repeled them. Jesus’ popularity was growing among the Jewish community, it was growing among the Sumaritan population. Both have a history as Israel. Now those outsiders of the Gentile populous were curious.
The Greek culture is one that takes pride in the pursuit of knowledge. They had schools of philosophy, where they studied the ideas of knowledge and how to come to a conclusion. They taught students how to make a case, how to argue and debate. They heard the stories about Jesus now they wanted to sit at His feet to listen to the teacher.
I find this story interesting in many ways. It shows the openness Jesus had as well as the invitation he provided to all people from the very beginning. Of all the disciples there was one who had an 100% non-jewish name, Phillip. This is who the Gentiles went to to gain an audience with the great Rabbi. Phillip was not just a back ground disciple either. He was the third disciple called to follow, and he quickly found his friend Nathaniel, saying ” we have found the one spoke about by Moses and the prophets.”
This man though Jewish had a foot in the gentile world, through him the door was opened for all to come to Jesus, and he was the third to be called. Very early the choosen one of Israel was to be the light to the world. And as soon as the Gentiles sought Christ the message took a different tone.
Until this point Jesus said not to speak because His time had not yet come. Now the Greeks want to talk and Jesus says now it is time. Now it is time for Him to be glorified, for the fullness and purpose of His mission to be set into motion. Now the attention of the world has been gained, now the message of the kingdom has extended beyond the temple courts and has found its way to the university of the Greeks.
Then he speaks about life and death, love and hate. Passion. I began today with a story of Adam, a man, who lives a double life. His hobby life and his business life. Both consume him. The businessman consumes the creative man, while the hobby life consumes the rational man. He is fully engaged in each sense. Jesus speaks of this. Unless a grain of wheat dies it won’t produce fruit. Unless you are all consumed in your task you will not produce. This is not just a spiritual commitment it matters in everything you do. If a member of our local hockey team isn’t all in, they will not make the cut, but when each player is fully engaged all consumed by the game, it is a beautiful and exciting game. When my coworker and I are fully focused on the task we get things done quickly without, mistakes, and usually have fun too. An artist is probably the greatest example of someone totally consumed by a project. When they get a taste of inspiration they start to create with such a ferver that they lose track of time, they forget to eat. At times they may not even realize you are in the room. until fruit has been made they are totally focused. Are we all in for God?
Historically speaking when people fully engage in their pursuit of God they attract attention. When Francis of Assisi’s father said he was a freeloader never to amount to anything Francis gave his father everything even his clothes and pursued God, he started a movement that still survives today after hundreds of years. When Fox fully pursued God in the English countryside he attracted thousands. If we fully engage fully serve we will see results. Why don’t we? Why do we fully engage our lives in work, or hobbies yet only spend a few minutes with God? I think we are afraid. We are afraid that maybe God may direct us into something we couldn’t control, that growth would be so rapid we couldn’t anticipate it.
To live passionately make us vernable. to live passonatly we fully invest all of our mind, body, and spirit. This sort of investment consumes us entirely we are lost in it, we cease to exist apart from it. This is what God calls us God, in all that we do. God created us to have passion to get excited and to go all in. I often wonder if we miss read this passage, I believe we mix up the charactors.
He is speaking to the Greeks, these men are filled with Greek philosophy, much of which says that we should not worry about our bodies because our bodies are just prisions of our spirit. This idea entered into Christian thought through the gnostic herises This concept pushes the idea that aslong as I do spiritual things I will inherit eternal life, and what I do with my physical body doesn’t matter. Jesus engages this idea he calls it what it is, an unproductive, uncreative, shell of existance. If we live a life of hating this world and only wanting to get through it so we can get on to heaven, we miss the point. Life is important. Life is so important that God came to this world just as we all do through the womb of a woman. He developed from a single cell, into an embryo, to a fetus, passed from the womb to become an infant, grew to be a boy, and finally a man. He lived life fully, he celebrated weddings, cried at funerals, he got angry, and told jokes. This is not a man who hated life. He loved life he invented life. He did not create us to as spiritual prisons but living humans created to glorify God in life. Those that hate life on this world will keep it for eternity. They will keep the empty, purposeless existance forever. The Greek idea of the human shell was invading humanity and keeping the truth from becoming fully realized. Life does matter.
This life does matter. But living a hollow shell of a life is unacceptable. Living life devoted only to worldly pleasures are unacceptable, living passonatly for a cause to promote life, to promote life more fully is a life lost in the one who created us. We were made to live. Created to enjoy life and to glorify God in the process. I want to do that as much as possible. I want to live my life in such a way that everyone around me will love life and praise the giver of life. I want to enjoy life so much that I can cross over to the other side and know how to act around those saints already sitting at the Lords banquet table. I want to lose myself in the passion of living a life for God.
What does this life look like? I can’t fully discribe it, it is a existance were the rational man and the creative man are joined together it is where the artist and the business man strive together to lose themselves in each others passion for life. It is a place where the weapons of war are made into tools of creativity and growth.
The message of Jesus was that the kingdom of God is at hand, the kingdom of Heaven is around us. He said this multiple times. So much that it got the attention of the entire world. He lost himself in that message which is filled with love and life. The world did not like that message. It spoke against their ways. They sought to silence the message because their ways promoted darkness and death, not light and life. If life was not important, if our actions and how we live are unimportant why did Jesus live a full life? If God did not love all people both Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female why did he engage every aspect of Life?
We are bearers of light in the darkness promoters of life in a culture of death. As we enter our time of open worship let us consider our own lives are we embracing our life fully and glorifying the giver of life? Or are we living as shells empty of life and empty of hope? My prayer is that we will lose ourselves in life and passionately love God, embrace the Holy Spirit, and live Christ’s love with other.
Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34
The prophet says that a new day is coming. A new day with a new hope. The anticipation of such an event was probably high. This new day was one where God would write his commands on the hearts of His people.
This concept is pretty extreme when you consider the expression of faith known at that time. The systems of faith revolved around the priests and their rituals, and various teachers also taught those in the community the correct ways to participate with the priests. There were laws and rules to learn. Rules about clothing, molds, food, and pretty much every other aspect of life. For people to understand the correct ways o live according to the rules they needed help.
A New Day is coming. The people of God were loved, but often in strict expresions of faith people get wore out. They carry a burden of keeping track of everything to assure that the law was being fulfilled. If only there was an easier way! The prophet says a new day is coming, a day when God will write His commands on the hearts of His people.
The heart is and intresting concept. Spiritually it means much more than a mere organ at the center of our circulatory system. It is the center of your essence the place from with we truely live. This central esence is where Go is going to write you the letters of hope to encourage you to pres on to the journey’s end.
The prophet is literally saying, the day that you can have direct and personal access to God is at coming. This day is also the day preach about by John the baptizer, as well as Jesus. They stood and cried out the Kingdom of God is near, or in some cases at hand. Meaning it is here, now, all around you.
Imagine the implications of this. If the law of God is written on your heart, how would that affect your decisions? How would that affect your relationship with God? The implications are vast. Jesus said that the kingdom is at hand this means that God’s influence is right here all around, He said that the new day had come and to assure us He gave us a sign. The curtain seperating the holiest area of the temple was ripped from the top down. This symbolizes that God has left the room, and entered into the world.
The Kingdom of God is at hand, a new day is at hand, something new is just ahead of you in life. What will your new day look like? Will you enter into the light embracing God, joining with all the saints to participate in the worship of God? Or will you skirt away into the shadows? A hard question I know. How can we possibly know for sure what we will do in future? We can, however, know what we can do today.
To have the law written on our hearts we first have to seek God and open our hearts up to Him. As a Quaker, I fully believe that God does this, I believe that God Himself will encourage you in all areas of life to advance and spread His kingdom. This is why those in our expression of faith go to meetings of worship, and listen for the voice of God in the silence.
The biggest issue then is how do we know the difference between our voice and God’s? This comes through practice. To recognize the presence of the divine we must draw closer to the divine. We should read and listen to others that exerience deep relationships with God. One thing we learn is God doesn’t change, humans do. We should read the scriptures, because in them countless generations have embraced it as a reliable witness to the Word of God to be written in our hearts. We should also listen to the testimonies of other in our present day and in the near and ancient past. This basically boils down to one thing. We need to discipline our souls just as we do our bodies.
Just as it is in athletic training having a teammate helps. If you want to learn more about the expressions of Christian devotion, encourage you to read some books by Richard Foster. And also find a Meeting to Worship, these men and women can all be and encouragement.
God wants each of us to have a new day, He wants us to see something great emerge. Let us listen for his calls and when since Him leading us in activities let us join in quickly.
Have a great Day!
Scripture: Hebrews 5:5-10
Jesus the priest. How often do you think of Jesus in that light. I’m gussing about as often as you consider getting a root canal. Not to say this is a bad thing. We don’t think of Him as a priest often because for most of us a priest is something we have never seen. Even pastors that are called priests are not the same as the old testiment style of priests.
Jesus is the priest. A priest in he historic Hebrew faith I one that stands in as te representative of the people before God. They are the ones that can assure that the sacrifices were ok, or if you would have to visit a seller to find an acceptable offering. The priest assured the people that their prayers were heard, and if necissary passed on some prophetic message to the patitioner.
To simplify it even more the priests participated in worship while those that came to woship just witnessed the Levites worship for them. It almost sounds odd, yet often this is how we ourselves approach worship. Do we really expect significant spiritual growth in that manner? You would think not, but this is how we worship. We do not know how to approach God, how could we? I the closest thing to this in our human existance would be to just walk up to a king and start to chat. We have to be taken into the presence of our heavenly Father. This is why Jesus our priest is so important. He took on full humanity, he worshiped for us, he prays for us, and he died in our place. He did this so that we could once again have a relationship with our Creator.
He worships for us, but we do have a part. We participate by imitating Him, and listening to his direction. The problem with this is too often our lives are so busy we can’t seem to find the time. Let alone find the words to say. This is why I have grown to love using scripture to facilitate prayer. I read a portion of scripture and allow the Spirit of God to direct me into prayer. By doing this I have grown closer to my God, savior and teacher. I become more able to folow his comands, and I can love others in His love more easily. Jesus is our priest, He offered a scarifice once and for all humanity, he directs us into worship, and whe we do not know what to do he even prays the words for us.
Today I encourage you to listen to your eternal worship leader!