Scripture: Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38
Life is messed up. I don’t know if you noticed it or not. In my job I observe people, and I have to tell you the choices people make are just weird. I do not want to sound judgemental but it is pretty hard not to sound that way. People engage in numerous activities that are harmful, illegal, or both and then they wonder why things happen to them. Then on the flip side people do everything “right” and they still end up on their butts. life is messed up.
It makes us wonder what is going on. The only conclusion that I have is things happen to teach us something and we are supposed to learn. Things happen that we cannot really explain, and even then we wonder what lesson we were to learn. To be honest I do not know and many people that claim to know all of life’s anwers do not either. I want to tell you that that is hard for me to say. I like to know things and I get upset if people challenge my knowledge. I guess that’s a lesson in pride that I need to learn. No one really knows why children endure abuse or exactly why a robber chose your house to rob instead of the others on the block. I could go on but there are too many questions and I am sure that you can fill in your own blanks.
This passage does not really answer life’s questions. But it speaks of parables. A parable is a story. A story that has some nugget of knowledge that can help us down that journey of life. What we endure has some meaning even when we do not know what it is. “When he killed them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.” What a hard thing, a hard lesson, in fact it is messed up. People wonder if God did it why would they love him. I will not defend God in this area, He can do whatever He wants. The one that created everything has that right.
This story harkens back to the wandering tribes in the wilderness where they complained against God and as a result vipers started killing people. The question is did God send the vipers or did God just let them live on their own? The desert is a pretty dangerous place so draw your own conclusion. But as you do consider your own life. How many people sleep around and then pray that they did not contract an STD or get pregnant? How many people consume a controled substance, drive, and pray that they do not get caught? What happens when the “worst” happens, well usually we blame God. We blame Him because we chose to neglect the parables of life, and then wonder why God allowed things to happen.
He kills us! That’s messed up, but it is really ourselves. We expect a lot out of God, but we do not want to take the blame ourselves. We also do not want to admit that possibly those around us might be to blame.
Life is messed up because we are messed up. We live in messed up homes, in messed up communities, in messed up nations, in a messed up world. We go to wars, killing hundreds of people and then wonder why they don’t like us. Our corporations are focused so deeply on profits and then wonder why people consider them greedy. We seek our own selfish desires and we wonder why our spouses are upset at us. We are messed up, we raise messed up kids that grow up to continue messing up the world.
Eventually we need to realize that we need to turn around and try something different. What would happen if corporations repented? What would happen if our nations would repent? What would happen if we ourselves would turn around and try something different? What would happen if we would actually try to live with God instead of against Him?
It begins with one person. That one person starts to change directions, in the process others follow till eventually the messed up world gets just a bit better. As you pray today I encourage you to ask God what area in our corner of this mssed up world you should start. Then if you get some leading of the Spirit let’s see just what would happen if continued down this new path.
Scripture: Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Are you rich, poor, middle-class, or somewhere in between? I am not wanting to get political but I’m sure everyone is going to go that direction. What I want us to reflect on is the second verse in this passage. “The rich and poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.”
Of course, you say, we know this God made the heavens, the earth, and everything that fills them. But do we really KNOW this? I ask in total honesty not to condemn or judge, but to actually try to encourage each of us to think deeper on this. Do we treat those around us as equals in humanity? Just saying this is causing some of you to squirm a bit, not because you are racist but because politically speaking, I’m sounding a bit liberal. Which is good because we should squirm a bit. Humanly speaking we are all equal, maybe not financially but we are all human. That means there is no room for the “ism” of society when we are dealing with people.
I grew up in a Quaker family, one of our greatest testimonies is equality. Those of African ancestory are human and loved by God. This is evident to the very beginning of the Friends movement, when George Fox ministered to the American Indians, he did not treat them as “heathens” but as equals. You can read about this in his journal. Women were also treated equally, again from the start women were recorded as ministers among Friends. This equality message was taught to me from an early age. I have female grandparents that were recorded, and some of the most influential people in my journey of faith have been women. Friends opposed slavery and worked to stop the trade, and we continue to promote the rights of various Indian tribes. There are several examples that you can look up on your own.
Living our lives honoring the humanity of those around us should cause us to stop and think of how we are treating them. How are we treating those that have come into America “illegally,” how are we treating those of different faiths, or even economic class. Are we honoring them as equals under God or are we expecting them to honor us? When we travel over seas do we attempt to speak their language or do we expect them to honor ours? How are we treating the people that provides the various services we enjoy?
Honor humanity by treating them with dignanty. Do not belittle them because they do not have what we have but treat them with respect. Enjoy the different perspective of life. We may just find out that those people we thought we had little in common with, may become our greatest friends.
As you pray today, pray that we will be more open to honorng all people.
Scripture: James 1:17-27
Why do we do what we do? Why do good people do rotten things? Why do some people that are basically rotten en up doing something good?
One of the greatest images I have read comes from CS Lewis his book The Last Battle, it speaks of a very devoted and honarable man from a land that worships Tash instead of the Great Lion. Those that entered the barn where it was believed to be the dwelling place of Aslan three things happened. For those that believed in Tash were met by the demon and either scared witless or eaten. If they rejected the demon and Aslan found themselves sitting in a dark barn with only dirty water and donkey feed to eat. Yet those that devoted their lives to Aslan found themselves in the most remarkable place, they were in Narnia but in a better Narnia. What is intresting in this story is that there was this one man who devoted his entire life to Tash yet there he was walking in Narnia. They were all confused because to everyone involved it should not have happened.
The answer Lewis gave was that this man who thought he was devoted to Tash was actually worshiping Aslan because he was doing good, one cannot do good without having a spark of Aslan in their life. On the flip side those that do evil in the name of Aslan were actually worshiping Tash, the evil vulture demon.
Lewis wrote in such a creative way, a way that speaks deeply to children and adults alike, a truth that theologians still struggle with today. Who is good and who is evil? And how do we know what and why we are doing things?
In the passage above James, who most believe was the brother of Jesus, says to the readers, “every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no varitaton or shadow do to change.” Basically James and Lewis are saying the same thing if you do good thing you are doing them because the spark of God with in you is speaking through your actions. Now that may make some of you very upset because some very bad groups have done some good things. I am saying that even those people are acting in accordance to some direction from God.
Now not everyone knows this. The will take credit for the good deed and receive the honor to themselves. Sometimes they do the good deed to get a tax break, or a more positive public image. They believe that they are doing good appart from any divine being, some even refuse to believe in the existance of a divine being. But good is done: poor children get libraries, schools receive computers, medical care is given to the sick.
Then there are those that do terrible things in the name of their God. Many of us in American hear stories of religous groups that are sending people to their death bombing trains and busses and are shocked to hear that there are willing people lining up for the their chance. Why do they line up, because they are told that they are doing something good. After the terroist attack on New York and Washington DC many young people joined the military freely because they thought they were doing good. And in their minds they are doing good, but the result of their devotion is evil.
One cannot say that the killing of humanity is good, we can justify it in many ways, but in every case to kill is wrong, it is evil, it removes from life a son, daughter, mother, brother, father and sister. In that removal there is the loss of a parent or child, the loss of income, and hatred. There is much evil even in the most justifiable war. Those that are involved have emotional, physical, and spiritual issues that they may never be able to over come.
James tells us to be slow to anger, because anger does not produce rightousness. Those devoted to anger are not honored by God. Hate is not a rightious activity. Just as the doing of good is not ever demonic.
This is a very difficult thing. To know the truth you have to wade through layers of lies. Often the worst offenders are also the most generous, and some of the groups that talk the loudest about generosity are the least likely to give.
How do we not get caught in this web? We need to know who we are, who we serve, and why we do it. If all good gifts, come from God, ad everything else is from other places, I want the good stuff. I also want to be a conduit of good. To do this one must be able to discern evil in all areas, especially in oneself. As you pray today, I pray that the shadows of evil will come over you and that you will be able to be conduits of good.