Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-12 Have we ever really considered this passage? Today as I was reflecting and meditating it, I began to think about how many times I have added a stripe to the back of our wounded savior just today. I find it quite easy to add stripes since it is an election year and I am a product of a very passionate family. I love my family and would not change a thing about them, to be fully honest. I have not seen a group so passionate about their stance, speak so boldly about it, and yet act so loving when it comes down to living out their faith even around people that disagree with them. It is probably why I have so much trouble listening to many of the political ads. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.” By a perversion of justice our Lord was lead to His death. Have we ever really considered what this means? I have several passions: history, political science, theology, and spirituality to name a few. Which is a very odd combination. Over the recent years my passion for politics has decined as I began to recognize that historically we keep fighting the same fight. Which means that the same problems have been around for centuries. For centuries…in every nation around the world…which means there is a perversion of justice still. This tells me something very significant. We as Christians have a great opportunity. If we would look at the world around us we will see where we have an opportunity to provide justice. I know that some people would say that social justice is a code for liberalism, but social justice is what we are encouraged to do in scripture. Social justice means changing the world we live in, and to make it better. Opening a facility to provide care to elderly is social justice, because it is providing a better world for those that are helped. Educating the youth is social justice if it is in a public school or a private religious based school. These are things we should be doing. Yet we make them political talking points and pervert justice. Jesus died for our people and all people because we pervert justice. We use justice for personal agendas. In the process people do not receive what they need and we add stipes to the back of Christ. He said that what ever we do to the least of these you have done for me. Scary thought, what have we done for the least? Not what has the government done or some ministry but what have we done personally? These political issues are issues because we have failed as a people to bring justice to our communities. I often wonder if we did more justice if maybe we would be less likely to speak so passionatly about how bad a canidate is. If we were to be just in our community maybe some of these problems would just go away. Every Meeting of worship or church has what they need to minister in the way God is calling them. This is a bold statement but it is coming frm a pastor of a Meeting with less than 30 people, and we are ministering. We are actually considering things that we have not thought possible, like opening a school, because we were focused in the wrong areas. Our community needs a good school not because they need a Christian based education, but because our schools have been proven to be failing. The just thing is to educate the youth. The perversion of justice is to use this for control. We are passionate people and thank God for that! Let us take some ownership of our communities and bring real justice. Let us help the people God love become the people He created them to be, even if it means we lose the power we seek.
Scripture: Mark 10:17-31
What must I do? What must I do? Have you ever caught yourself asking that question? If you are human, which I am pretty sure each of us is we have asked that question a few times. We ask it after or during an argument. We ask it when we are trying to figure out life in general. What must I do?
It does not matter who you are, what your salary is, where you were born, or where you live each one of us has an idea in our heads of cause and effect. If I do it then a specific result will happen. In most cases it is the truth. If you steal at Wal-Mart you run the risk of getting arrested. If you fall in love a relationship will follow. Cause and effect, what must I do to obtain what I want?
The young man in this story not that much different from most of us. He is a good man, rising up in his community. By every indication he is just the type of person we would want to teach our children or to be a chairman of a committee. This man by every indication pursued God with a religious fervor that would turn the eyes of everyone around.
Jesus was leaving the area, taking the gospel to yet another community and this man has thought that he might have missed his chance. He came running to Jesus. When he arrived he fell to the ground in front of Jesus and asked, “What must I do?” This activity speaks volumes. We have all seen passionate people. There are people that will take up arms in support of a cause. We have seen this over the past 10 years. We see people passionate about a cause standing along the streets with signs protesting for multiple causes. Passion is good but even with all that passion we are left asking, “What must I do?” There are always causes to become passionate about, but passion can only take us so far. Passion leaves us running, constantly running, and seeking what to do next.
What must I do good teacher? Jesus looks at this young man full of passion; he knows the desire that this man has to do good works. He loves the man’s passion, but He is also aware that passions can be misplaced. His first response is one that is odd if you ask me. “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” It is odd theologically more than anything, which is why it catches my eyes. Imagine the scene for a moment, there is a young man looking up at Jesus in a state of supplication and worship. He is kneeling before Jesus, longingly asking Him to give him direction and purpose. His cause is to be the essence of goodness; he wants to be seen as being a good, respectable member of the community. But Jesus asks why are you coming to me seeking goodness, only God is good. Then Jesus rattles off a list of good things to do: don’t murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or defraud, and honor your parents.
This is a list of good things to do. I can imagine this man shaking his head up and down in agreement, making mental notes about how good he is. The smile on his face is growing because he knows that even Jesus thinks of him as being a good man, a moral and upright man. Jesus gazes down at this man with great love; he knows the passion that has driven this man. It is a passion that drives most people, to live a good life so that they can benefit. Jesus looks at him in love but also with sadness because through all his passion this man has missed the point. “One thing you lack,” says Jesus, “go sell all you own and give the money to the poor…then come follow me.”
He is given the opportunity of a lifetime! Right here before our eyes we may actually be witnessing the calling of the thirteenth apostle. What an incredible story to see flashing across the bottom of our TV screens as we watch the news. “Young millionaire sells all he owns, giving it all to the poor and follows Jesus.” Jesus knew this man; his passion was focused on himself. It was not that he was opposed in helping the poor, I’m sure he was very diligent in providing funds for benevolent purposes, but it was to gain honor for himself. Jesus is not asking him to give money to the Salvation Army at Christmas, which is a great thing to do. What Jesus is saying is take your life in the community and hit the delete button, take everything get rid of it now, and walk away not turning back.
The man’s smile instantly leaves his face. Scripture says that he is grieved because he had many possessions, but it goes deeper than that. Jesus ultimately rejected everything this man lived for, he was saying that that passion you have to be good, to do good, to make your own way to God, is pointless. He says to this man, your ways are not mine. What you are living for has absolutely no place in the kingdom of God. You call me good, but you do not even know what good is.
Harsh. You may be thinking that I am putting words in the mouth of our loving savior, but at times truth does come with a cost. It is not that Jesus is rejecting the man, what he is trying to reveal to this man is that God does not care about our actions unless our faith is in the right place. In the same breath he does not honor our faith if our actions are not reflecting the same intent. This man is focused on the cult of personality, he wants to be associated with people that will bring more honor to himself. This man is taking part in an activity that is very common in our culture. It is often stated that it is not what you know but who you know. Networking, is a part of our culture, it is how we in today’s world get ahead, get promoted, and stay employed. Many of the most successful people in areas of wealth, have achieved their status through a good idea and a lot of help from others. Networking in itself is not a bad thing, as long as it is honest. Pride is what drives this young man, he is seeking honor for himself and he realizes that his selfish ambition, is in opposition to the ways of Christ.
Before you get too comfortable Jesus continues to say, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” This is a statement of extremes. I have heard commentators say that Jesus was talking about a small gate where camels would have to get down on their knees to crawl through before entering the city. The eye of the needle would be a defense mechanism to keep out the undesirables, but all in those willing to struggle through. That is a great picture and I agree it probably would not be easy for a camel to do this, but that does not fit with the context of the passage. The initial question was “what must I do to inherit eternal life.” A crawling camel can do something to get inside, yet the man went away in grief, turned away from the kingdom. This is along the lines of a beam sticking out of your eye. It cannot happen literally, it is stating something beyond the realm of possibility. Jesus is saying that a rich person is like a camel trying to get through the tiny eye of a needle.
Jesus’ disciples are beginning to question their own eternal security at this point. I hope that we are all questioning our eternal security. We each have many possessions. Some of us more than others, but in the larger view we are all wealthy. In our nation people considered to be impoverished live better than most of the world. I say this not to guilt us, or to minimize the plight of our nations poor. They really are poor, they really do live with the constant threat of losing everything they have in an instant, and people in America really do go to bed hungry. I realize that we cannot simply say that we are all rich either, because most things require the same amount of work to obtain. To attend a movie in the United States and in Ukraine working in similar jobs, would both require one hour of work per person, just for entry.
Jesus is speaking not about how much money we have but what we treasure, what we find important. The wealthy often idolize and treasure their wealth and are proud of their ability to create wealth. This is easy to do because if you can afford what you want, you can depend on yourself more easily than trusting in God. But there are other types of idolizations that are just as dangerous spiritually. Many nations have economic safety nets, which are great and I am glad that we have them, but a safety net is not a place to stay. It is there to prevent total loss and to encourage us to get back on our feet, but we can place too much trust in our nation as well.
Both situations put someone or some organization above God. It is not to say that the activities are not good, or even done with goodness at heart. But where is God? Where is our place and where is faith? To God wealth or poverty does not matter, He wants us to devote all of our mind, all of our heart, and all of our strength t
Scripture: Psalm 22:1-15
I sit trying to pray today. I say try because I am grieved. I have never liked death, I hate hospitals, and this is the aspect of ministry that just makes life suck. It is because mourning is not fun, I do not like sheading tears. Death is a part of life.
I have a heavy heart today because someone in our Meeting has passed beyond the veil. I won’t mention names, those that are close enough to me will know, and those that are not will understand in their own ways. There is a darkness that surounds death, we do not know how to handle this milestone of life. Should we even label it as a part of life? I do believe we should.
The thing about death is that we very quickly realize that what we have been focused on in our life may not really mean much. If we are focused on our jobs, money, or countless other things that take our time and energy what do we have to show for it? Not a whole lot. But what if we invest our lives in relationships? What if? See that is the darkness surrounding death. So easily we are distracted by countless idols in this world. We lose tract of what is really important. We miss out on the building of relationships because we would rather build a legacy or empire, but in the end our empire is nothing without the love and respect of the people around us.
So often our minds are focused on the short term goals of life. The short term goals that in the end when all else is stripped away mean nothing. Scripture often speaks of judgement at th end of life, it speaks of it as a raging fire that will consume all that we have done. Burning everything that we have build, leaving only the things built of materials of lasting value. The things of stone and metals…
Even this sounds damning. Because stone can break in the flames, and metals can melt leaving us with piles of something we cannot recognize as our lives. But there is something that will remain. When stone and metal burn and melt there is a blending of materials, it can be formed into the most beautiful rocks imagined. Rocks that become priceless to people seeking them out. In life, people would die to get their hands on the rocks made in the fires of the earth that blend the elements of metal and stone. We have mines dedicated to their discovery, and population shifts revolving around the adventure of the find. That is what we all want. We want to find that most precious ore that will give us meaning. It is a cycle of life, one that continues throughout history, the seeking and finding of the most precious things of life.
But in the end we find that the metals we all saught were not found in the ground but in the lives we shared with along the way. The most precious aspects of life…are life. The psalmist in this passage speaks of his ancestors, as well as his future. He realizes that his ancestors have already passed through the fires of life and in the end it was revealed that of all they did the only thing that mattered was the family and the faith they left behind. It was in that place that this poet finds comfort. He faces a sure end, his mouth is so dry that his tougnue is sticking to the roof, his bones are so weary that it is as if they will melt like the wax of a candle. But he holds onto the faith and the family that he has had from the beginning, and that he will leave behind.
We are not self made people. We are a product of the cycles of life that connect us back to the very origin of our humanity. That cycle continues well beyond our last breath as we ourselves have lived among mankind. The problem of sin is that it breaks us off from that rich heritage of our past, our present, and future. When we focus on the idols of our culture we stray from the path of life and we lose some of the preciousness of what we were given. Eventually what is left is just the dust of weathered and beaten stone known as dirt.
That is what we came from in the beginning, according to the ancient Hebrew poet. We are just dust without life, then God breathed into our forms and gave life to us. We, at that moment, become something more, something precious. Because of that moment we were given a responsibily to be caretakers of everything that was created. To care for the earth, to tame the earth to produce what was good. In the end what do we pass on? All we pass on is our faith and our families. Both are encompassed around relationships. Where is our faith and who are our families? With one breath, God made dirt more precious than all the gold in the mines. With one breath God made us more than we truely are. In one breath we can return back to being the dust of the earth, unless we pass on a faith and linage of precious stone and metals.
As I pray today, I pray with a heavy heart because I know so often I am using the breath God has given me not to build up his kingdom with precious worth while materials. So often I build my life with the empty things that will only last a short time in the fires of judgment. But I know that there is Grace, there is always time, until that last breath, that God can use me to create something of value. God kept the linage of David through all the trials facing him. He came, born through that line connecting the history of Israel and all of mankind with the divine. He lived a total and complete life with us, for us, and through us. God is the gold and precious stones that builds precious life. Let us today be the bearer of Life so in the end those that live after us will have something more than dust to inherit.