31 March 2015 - traitors and trailblazers

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

We're at a loss. We don't understand our own weakness and we don't understand what following you really means. We say things like:

“Master, why can I not follow you now? 
I will lay down my life for you.”

But we say this more out of self-image than self-giving. We want to appear a certain way. We want the image of one who will go with you to the cross. We would prefer to be seen as people who would never betray you.

To follow you is to the way that only love can go. This is why, right after you tell us that we cannot follow you now, you say:

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is the secret to enduring the shame of the cross where all of our self-image and false pretense is shattered. The secret is love! And so you tell us:

“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”

We are weak. We deny you. We betray you. We run from the way of the cross. But you endure the shame for the joy set before you(cf. Heb. 12:2), the joy of saving us and glorifying your Father. The joy set before us is to love one another and to glorify God. It is to lay our lives down in love. Man "cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself" (Gaudium et Spes 24).

Only you can make us realize this, LORD. Only you can change our hearts to love so completely that we can follow you. They say love is its own reward. But you are the only one who can make this true enough in our own lives that we can endure the cross for you and our neighbor.

You blaze this trail first when you give your life to glorify your Father and save us all. It appears to be toil in vain. It appears that you are uselessly spending your strength. You reveal that it is not useless or vain. We see that the joy set before you is a real thing. It is a physical force. It is the power of the resurrection. You recompense is with God. He shows his glory through you. You blaze this trail so that we may follow.

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

We cannot follow at first, because you must blaze the trail. But you assure us that we will follow. We will go the way which only love can go. You make it possible for us.

For you are my hope, O Lord;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother’s womb you are my strength.

30 April 2015 - pour in spirit

Jesus, you are the light of the world.

You are our light and our salvation.

You not only open our eyes but you penetrate every obstacle that keeps us from seeing the light. You bring prisoners out from confinement. You bring us out of the dungeons in our lives that keep us from the light.

We need your light! We are smoldering wicks on our own, not doing much good for ourselves or the world. Yet even in your infinitely greater light you do not quench us. You bring us out so that we can join you in shining. You do not quench us but make us lights for the world (cf. Mat. 5:14).

You shatter the prisons that hold us. But we need not fear the walls as they collapse around us! Even if we are our bruised reed you bring us out to safety.

We get so used to the darkness. We get so comfortable in our prisons and dungeons. We begin doubt that there is supposed to be more than this. We are blind but forget that we are meant to see.

Jesus, you do not my forget. You have a plan for us and you will not let us sit in darkness any longer. This is the fullness of time. This is the day of salvation. You have a plan since the first moments when you "created the heavens and stretched them out" and you never forgot it. You gave us breath and never forgot why.  It is time for the victory of justice.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?

Fear? Yes, fear. We are afraid. We get so used to it that we almost don't notice how so much of what drives us is fear. We are caught up in the need to preserve and protect ourselves. We become like Judas. Even our almsgiving becomes tainted and selfish.

He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.

As we taste the light of your freedom we become like Mary. Our hearts become filled with love and devotion for you.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;

In your light fear has no place. With fear gone we are free to pour ourselves out just like this genuine aromatic nard of Mary. In our devotion we can think of no better use for our hair than to simply dry your feet.

the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

Let us fill the house of the Church and even the world with this fragrance!

Evildoers do come at us to devour us. Principalities and powers really don't want us to give ourselves to Jesus so completely. But in your light we are not quenched and we are not broken. In your light we they cannot stop us.

When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.

In your light we see light (cf. Psa. 36:9). Even when we do see darkness teach us to wait for the light to dawn with steadfast trust in you. Even when the darkness has its hour this Friday and the sun's light is hidden teach us to trust yo with stout hearts. At this darkest moment in all of human history salvation is not far off!

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

29 March 2015 - lay it down

Jesus, as you enter the city we rejoice. We cry out Hosanna in the highest. We call you blessed and lay our leafy branches before you.

We hear the words of prophecy, "Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see, your king comes, seated upon an ass’s colt." and we rejoice still more loudly."

Help us to rejoice even when the crowds turn away from you. When you reveal that you will not give us what we want in exactly the way we want it help us still not to turn away or rebel. You are not an earthly king. You do not come to perfect the earthly kingdoms we each build in our own lives. Once the crowds catch on to this they start to pluck your beard and assail you with buffets and spitting.

But you, Jesus, have a well trained tongue. You can help us to follow you into the city. As we walk toward Calvary we grow weary. Our initial enthusiasm quickly drains. But you yourself never rebel or turn back. You know how to keep us going, too. You know the words that will rouse us.

When the crowds take back their own garments from your path and even take your garments from you and cast lots give us the strength to lay down our very lives before you. You cleanse us and make our garments whiter than snow in baptism. In thanksgiving help us now to offer you all that we are along this path of suffering you trod.

So many abandon you LORD. So many surround you with mocking and persecution. We ourselves are not innocent. We too abandon you when we can no longer bear to endure the way of the cross. Even so, you do not turn back. You endure for our sake. You are still able to perceive the joy set before you (cf. Heb. 12:2), the joy of reconciling the world to yourself.

If we recognize that you give your life freely, that it is not taken from you (cf. Joh. 10:18), we love you more and follow you more closely. You are in the form of God but in obedience you accept even death on a cross for our sakes.

So help us to stay with you. Help us to follow you. Guide us even unto the cross with you. Somehow, amidst the suffering teach us who you truly are. 

that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Teach us to recognize that you are the true king even as you die for us. With the good thief help us to say, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Help us to anoint you for burial with the tears of contrition for our sins which made all of this necessary.

Help us not to deny you or abuse you or run away from your cross.

Teach us to embrace you and to kneel before you with profound silence. Our words fail to express the gratitude and love your cross inspire in us. True king, yet do you bear the cross for the sake of us all. The power of your love is perfectly displayed in this restraint of your power. May your Spirit, pouring out from your wounded side, fill us until we say:

Truly this man was the Son of God!

28 March 2015 - idtimwytim

I don't think it means what you think it means, Caiphas.

“What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”

As if there could be a feast without you, Jesus. The Passover approaches. But your Passover is the true Passover. You are the true lamb of God. These other lambs which are slain merely point to our need for you.

Caiphas was correct when he said "that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." He probably thought he was talking about the threat of Rome. He thought he was just sacrificing an overly zealous countrymen for the good of the people. But it is was true nevertheless. In your goodness, Jesus, you die so that we don't have to die. You are not executed as a mere criminal, though. You are offered as the most pure sacrifice, of which every other lamb is a mere symbol.  You are offered, not to Rome, but to the Father not just for the good of some but for the good of all.

This is why you come to the feast even though "From that day on the planned to kill" you. You, LORD, are fearless in the face of them. You set your face resolutely toward Jerusalem (cf. Luk. 9:51). You and you alone can deliver us from our idols, our abominations, and our transgressions.

Only you can address the root cause of which the subjection of Israel by Rome is a mere symptom. Only you can address the division of man from God and man from man of which even the fracturing of the nation of Israel is only a symptom.

I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all. 
Never again shall they be two nations,
and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

Now that we have one prince we can truly be united. This prince is no earthly tyrant. You are the prince of peace. You are the one shepherd who gently guides and makes us "live by the statutes and carefully observe" your decrees. Pretenders to this throne try to unite by power and domination. Rome tries to unite in this way. All such human efforts fail. You offer us the Holy Spirit so that we can live this way. But it is always an invitation. We are always free to accept or refuse. It is not just a one time thing. You are constantly inviting us to come closer. You want to be our prince of peace more and more.

Only with you as our prince do we discover the true unity which only love can ensure. Rome eventually falls but we live on the land you give us forever. This is the power of your covenant of peace. It has this power precisely because you yourself have this power. You put your sanctuary among us and make your dwelling with us. This is not merely external. You and you alone have the power to dwell in our hearts (cf. Joh. 14:20, 15:4).

The greatest Roman emperors and the greatest Jewish leaders are all still under the domination of sin. Until you come to us we are too. The selfishness that sin engenders makes all of our efforts at unity, peace, and love, fail because they are all intermingled with our selfishness. They are external, imposed, forced, and tainted.

This is why there can be no feast without you. Only the lamb can put away sin. Only the prince of peace can guide us to the unity and blessing which sin had locked away.

Never again shall they be two nations,
and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

You are the lamb of God! We can pass from bondage to sin to freedom in the promised land only because you ransom us. You are the prince of peace. We can dwell secure in the land only because you reign over us.

The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion,
they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings:
The grain, the wine, and the oil,
the sheep and the oxen.

The feast is coming, Jesus! Prepare our hearts!

27 March 2015 - shield, fortress, stronghold

Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

Jesus, there is nothing they can do to stop you from completing your mission. They are completely powerless. You lay your life down freely and no one takes it from you (cf. Joh. 10:18). They have no power over you at all except the power given from above, the power they are allowed to have (cf. Joh. 19:11).

You say:

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.

Even when the hour of darkness arrives and you appear to be utterly defeated you say:

Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.

Jesus, we cannot imagine speaking words of praise and trust from the cross. But you call us to take up our crosses and follow you (cf. Mat. 16:24). Please teach us to have this same trust you have. The Father protects us from everything which keeps us from fulfilling our mission in this world. But that mission is the cross. We are not sheltered from evil just for a life of comfort and ease. We are protected so that we are free to give ourselves away in love.

How can we learn to trust you, LORD? We see the cross and move toward it reluctantly, begrudgingly, seeing in it defeat more than victory. We decide to do it but feel like we deserve a lot of pity for it. Instead we should move forward boldly, victoriously, in the power of your grace. All of the little moments when you protect us help us to trust you when you do call us to lay down our lives for our friends.

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

After all we don't face the cross alone. "Praised be the LORD" we exclaim even from the cross. We exclaim it and somehow we are safe from our enemies. When we take up our cross with this attitude of praise we find that the yoke is easy and the burden is light. We bear our cross, yes, but when we bear it in your presence we find rest for our souls.

Jesus, you are God and yet you take on flesh. You are I AM yet you bear the cross. It is almost impossible to accept. Fortunately, the works you do vindicate you. We see all of the ways you might turn away from the cross. You could easily be an earthly king if you want. But that is not the goal. You are delivered at every moment before you hour comes. But you do not hide from the hour for which you come. Instead you say to the Father, "Glorify thy name!"

And many there began to believe in him.

Jesus, let us come to believe as well. May it penetrate from our heads to our hearts. Believing, let us come to trust in your protection in our own lives, our own struggles, and our own crosses.

In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears. 

26 March 2015 - new and eternal covenant

I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Thank you for your promise, LORD. You offer us life, hope, and a future. We thank you for the plans you have for us, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (cf. Jer. 29:11). You guide us to the promised land to give it to us "as a permanent possession". You remember your covenant forever.



But you do say:

On your part, you and your descendants after you
must keep my covenant throughout the ages.

Uh-oh. You have this wonderful plan to bless us which you promise to never forget no matter what. But we have a part to play. It is contingent on our action. And we aren't good at this. We fail constantly. We all sin and fall short of your glory (cf. Rom. 3:23).  We try to "seek to serve him constantly" but we find "another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me" (cf. Rom. 7:23). What can we do? We want to live up to the covenant but we find that we do not have the strength.

Jesus, your promise to us is greater than the promise to Abraham. You make the new and everlasting covenant in your own blood (cf. Mat. 26:28). You absorb all of the failures which mar the old covenant and block its blessings. Your own obedience unleashes and ensures the blessings of this covenant.

Abraham himself rejoices to finally see the one who can keep the covenant through the ages. Where the best of the human race fails the one who is both true man and the great I AM succeeds. These blessings are no longer tethered to our efforts but are now offered as gift.

Yet you say:

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.

But what is it that you ask of us? "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me" (cf. Joh. 14:1). You tell us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (cf. Mat. 5:48). Yet you yourself, because you are I AM, give us the power to do this. You say, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God" (cf. Mar. 10:27). And you are true God. With you all things are possible. Through you, because you strengthen us, we can do all things (cf. Phi. 4:13).  "And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (cf. Mic. 6:8). And now those of us who walk by the Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:16) can fulfill the just requirements of the law (cf. Rom. 8:4).

Abraham receives the promise but he has no power to keep his end of the bargain much less to help anyone else keep it. You yourself keep the covenant in perfect obediance and offer that very obediance to us as a free gift. Even if we fail to avail ourselves of the grace you freely give you invite us to simply repent and try again.

You remember your covenant for ever, LORD. Help us to put all our hope in your promise. Help us to stake our entire lives on it. If we do, we will live and never see death. You, the great I AM, will be our God, and we will be your people. We receive the promised land as a permanent possession.

Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

25 March 2015 - sign us up

Jesus you draw our attention back to a specific moment of our salvation this morning. You ask us to receive the sign that you are born to set your people free.

We are reluctant to ask for a sign at the best of times. We say "I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!" not out of reverance. We say it because we don't believe either that you can work or sign or that you want to work one. You say that it can be as high as the sky or as deep as the netherworld but the greater the sign the more we are afraid to ask. 

You yourself are the highest and deepest sign we can imagine. You want us to have the strength to comprehend "what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (cf. Eph. 3:18-19). For this reason you yourself are the sign for which we are the most afraid to ask. You are simply too good to be true. It is Lent. We are focused and even fixated on sacrifice and offering, holocausts, and sin offerings, but these should all be secondary. We get wrapped up in what we're doing and become unable to welcome what you are doing. We become paralyzed, unable to ask for new signs and wonders.

But you insist that this sign be seen. As we risk turning inward and doubling down on our own efforts you remind us along with Mary that all is grace and gift.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.

How can it we give ourselves to you in complete obedience? We keep working at these sacrifices which don't work. We keep trying so hard on our own and failing.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Jesus, your Spirit is ready to fill us. You bring true virtue to birth within us. You make impossible obediance possible (cf. Mat. 19:26).

It is a little strange at first to be so close to the cross and look back to the infant in the manger. But this is just the reminder we need. We remember that all of our sacrifices have meaning only because the one who says "behold, I come to do your will, O God" gives them meaning. The sign is given! Help us to thank you for it.

I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know

24 March 2015 - pole vault

Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.

Jesus you take the saraph sting of death and mount it on the cross. You save us from this curse. You "redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole"" (cf. Gal. 3:13).

We cannot follow you as you do this. We belong to what is below and we only see things in terms of the world as it is. We only see things discolored by the curse because we have never known anything else. But as you take this path you are not going to kill yourself. To those of us who belong to this world it looks that way at first. The cross looks like defeat. But you reveal something beyond the curse of sin and death. Only you can do this. It has to be you.

When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.

It has to be you Jesus. You are the one whom death cannot hold.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him (cf. Act. 2:24)

It isn't just that we see the curse lifted up and paraded before our eyes. It isn't just that the cross reveals a death. It shows forth the death of the one on whom death has no claim. It shows forth the curse upon the one who by rights is free from the curse. It is an "indestructible life" that dies on the cross (cf. Heb. 7:16). We see the one whom the curse cannot best. We see the one whom death cannot defeat. We realize that you are indeed the great I AM. You are the one with the power to say, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:55).

Even while you are still hanging on the cross in agony we can see your victory. Something about the freedom and obedience with which you accept this suffering shows that you can only be who you say you are.

This empowers us to say to you, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" (cf. Luk. 23:42). It helps us to say, "This man truly was the Son of God!" (cf. Mat. 27:54).

Jesus, help us to look upon the one whom we have pierced (cf. Joh. 19:37) and recognize the one that belongs to what is above. Teach us to see that you are I AM, doing only what the Father taught you.

Help us to believe this so that we do not die in our sins. This is why you are here. This is why you are lifted up. This is why you draw us to yourself.

Lord, we believe that you are I AM. We believe you are greater than the curse even as you endure it for us. We begin to see beyond what is down below on this world to the things above. We begin to hope in the things above to save us from the curse of sin and death.

The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.
.

23 March 2015 - look up to heaven

Jesus, you sustain us in the dark valley.

Whether we are as innocent and upright as Susanna or as guilty as the woman caught in adultery help us to still trust in you wholeheartedly. Let us look up to heaven even through tears.

You delight to save us. You keep the innocent safe. You stir up your Spirit in people like Daniel to protect the daughter who is trained by her parents according to the law of Moses. You protect her from those who "suppressed their consciences" and "would not allow their eyes to look to heaven".

Let us not give in to temptation because of the pressures of the world. When they press upon us let us say, "it is better for me to fall into your power without guilt than to sin before the Lord." You want to guide us in right paths like this even when the valley is at its darkest.

You give us so much help, LORD. What happens when we squander it? What happens when we give in to the pressure and commit sin? Even then we should turn to you. Even if we are caught red handed in our sin we can still entrust our cause to you. You do not only help the perfect. When we are accused we hear you say:

Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.

Only you are in a place to judge us. Only you are without sin and fit to condemn anyone. Even the best among us are impure in your sight. All have sinned and fall short of your glory (cf. Rom. 3:23).

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (cf. Eph. 2:4-6).

You are like us in all things except sin and this makes us nervous that you won't understand our weakness. Yet even though you do not fall as we do you are still tested in the same ways. You still sympathize with our weakness (cf. Heb. 4:15). You do not throw the first stone.

You lift us up and restore us when we fall. You say, "Neither do I condemn you." After all, you did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through you (cf. Joh. 3:17).

You say, "Go, and from now on do not sin any more." But you do not send us away without help. You yourself give us the grace to walk in your ways. You yourself shepherd us when the valley is dark. You send angels to defend us. You send angels to guard us. You give us defenders like Daniel to stick up for us. If we hear you say that go and sin no more we might despair on our own. But your grace makes it possible. Your grace is sufficient for us (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9).

Jesus, teach us to entrust ourselves entirely to you when we are tempted. And even when we sin teach us to throw all that way are on your mercy. You save those who hope in you. We join the assembly and cry:

The whole assembly cried aloud,
blessing God who saves those who hope in him.

22 March 2015 - from the heart

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; 
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jesus, you want to change our hearts this morning. You are not satisfied with superficial change where we say one thing and do another. You want to make us not only holy but wholly holy. We have a hard time imagining what this would be like. As we try to be holy we experience what Paul describes. "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." He says, "the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." There is a struggle within. There is a battle between two natures which we cannot win. But it is winnable if we pray "Create a clean heart in me, O God."

If we try to will ourselves into holiness we experience all of the futility and struggle which Paul describes. We break the LORD's law just like Israel in Egypt. We know better. On some level we desire better. But we just don't succeed. Fortunately God does not leave us on our own or abandon us. He comes with a new covenant that actually changes us from the inside out. And the basis of this covenant, the reason it can do what it does, is because of how close to us God promises to be.

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, 
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

And so when we pray, "Create a clean heart in me, O God" we take joy to realize how close he comes to do it. He does not stand in some distant workshop and then ship us a new heart via FedEx SmartPost. He comes to us to wash away the guilty and sinful parts of our hearts by the power of his Spirit. He sustains us to live this life because the Spirit himself is steadfast and he remains within us just as we now remain in the presence of God.

This steadfast Spirit makes us holy by giving us the power to follow the one whom we serve. The steadfast Spirit within is the only way we can lose our lives for the sake of God and neighbor and therefore preserve them for eternal life. Jesus himself reveals the steadfast Spirit in his perfect obedience. He himself becomes the source of this power in us. He enables our own obedience as we follow him on his journey to the cross.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; 
and when he was made perfect, 
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

The Father glorifies his name in Jesus because Jesus is willing to be the grain of wheat the falls to the ground and dies to give life. As he does so he unleashes within us a Spirit of power to do the same. He makes his own holiness possible in us. And it is not simply superficial. It goes deep, which is why it can say "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Cf. Joh. 15:13). The Father wants to glorify his name in us as well. If we come to him for the clean heart he wants to give us he will be able to display his love in our loves. He will glorify his name again!

21 March 2015 - shields up

Never before has anyone spoken like this man.

No one speaks like you do Jesus. You have the words of eternal life (cf. Joh. 6:68). Only your word is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword (cf. Heb. 4:12). We begin to realize the difference between the normal words of men and your word which alone is the word of God. Only this word can actually work in those who believe (cf. 1 The. 2:13). This is the word which does not return to you void but instead accomplishes your works (cf. Isa. 55:11). This is the word that made the world (cf. Gen. 1:3, Joh. 1:3). This is the word which sustains it (cf. Heb. 1:3).

Let us not harden our hearts to your word as do the Pharisees. They feel important because they know the law. It makes them think they are better than the crowd whom they consider "accursed". They harden their hearts to the words of Jesus. They don't want to acknowledge that even though they know the law their hearts are just the same as the rest of the crowd. They don't want to acknowledge that they need saving just as much as anyone. Jesus, you strip them of their apparent competitive advantage but only so they can find the only truly advantage this life has, the advantage of knowing you (cf. Phi. 3:8).

Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?

Keep our hearts open, Jesus. Help us to find out what you are doing. You want to show us that you are the Christ. The thing you are doing is not simply shaking us out of our comfort zones although you do this. It is not simply striping from us our false pride although you do this. What you are doing is saving us. 

Let us avail ourselves of this salvation. Help our hearts to say, "O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge."

We take refuge in you rather than our own knowledge of the law. We take refuge in you and not in any strength we possess. 

The world wants to keep you silent, Jesus. The world is challenged by your word and hardens to it. It wants to destroy you so that your name will be spoken no more. And if we entrust ourselves to you the world wants us to silence us as well. When we entrust ourselves to you we can't help but stick up for you. We have to tell the world that your words are different from any other words. We have to insist that the world wait and see who you are before condemning you.

No matter the opposition we face help us to trust in your desire to save us. Help us to trust in the power of your word within us. Help us to let this word overflow until we fearlessly proclaim you as the Christ.

Help us to say, "to you I have entrusted my cause!" We find in you all the strength we need.

A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;

20 March 2015 - not from around here

Jesus, help us to be humble in your presence.

You yourself are so good that it is hard not to feel inadequate when you are near us. Your presence is a censure to our thoughts because we know that they are unworthy of you. We do selfish things but your life is not like ours. You hold aloof from our paths as from things impure. You refuse to join in the behavior by which we tear ourselves and one another down.

But you do not come to condemn us. 

Jesus, you come to save us. We so need saving. We need to listen when you call "blest the destiny of the just". God is your Father and your words are true. You want the blessedness of the just for us. You want to tell us how to get it.

So help us not to rebel, Jesus. Help us not to put you to the test. You come to us in great mercy. You come to save us. But your goodness calls us to account for all the darkness of our hearts. We so identify with this darkness that we feel our very identities threatened as you draw near. We risk being blinded by wickedness.

The destiny of the just is blessed, LORD, but if we find ourselves on the defensive before you we do not "count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls' reward." We become so invested in defending the broken and failed means by which we try to find happiness that we don't hear you telling us where genuine happiness is found.

So come to us, Jesus. Help us to be humble as you come. You come that your light may shine into our hearts and lives. You come because it hurts you to see us remain in darkness. Help us to let go of the darkness. As your presence challenges us to change you yourself are the light and power which makes that change possible.

We try to write you off, LORD. When you call us deeper we say, "we know where he is from". We tell ourselves that we already know you, who you are and everything which your power can do. We excuse ourselves from the challenge you bring at this moment because we let our own flawed past shape our expectations.

Help us to be humble, Jesus, when you come before us. Help us to realize that there is far more to you than we have guessed thus far. Help us "have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (cf. Eph. 3:18).

We don't understand where you are from. Not really.

“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

If we understood we would be more interested in following you to that kingdom. We would stake everything on a recompense of holiness and the innocent soul's reward.

We do tend to harden our hearts. We do close ourselves to you so that we can be comfortable and ignore the challenge of holiness. But you want to come to us again this morning. You want to come right now. You are willing to create the humility in us that you need to come to us. We need only ask.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.

Come, LORD Jesus.

19 March 2015 - not a regular joe

For this reason, it depends on faith,
so that it may be a gift

Does it depend on faith to make things hard for Joseph?

By faith he trusts in the word of the angel who tells him, "do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home."

By faith he trusts in the word of the angel who tells him, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt."

He becomes the father and guardian of Jesus by faith. By faith he protects him.

But why faith? God certainly could have set things up so that Joseph could fulfill his roll without being challenged like this. We can imagine an alternative life without pivotal choices, with ease instead of radical trust.

But Jesus, do you call us to faith just to challenge us?

No!  It is "so that it may be a gift". It is precisely to make it obvious that it is blessing and grace. The requirement of faith is meant to reveal that it is only because your own strength is in play that it is possible to live this faith. It reveals that we are entirely out of our depth. But it does this only to show us that you are holding us in your hands.

Jesus, help us to be like Joseph. He doesn't doubt. He doesn't question. He hears your promise and obeys.

When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.

Joseph, you give Jesus his name. Jesus means God saves. You, blessed Saint Joseph are the first to call the word of God savior. Help us to call Jesus our savior. There is no other name under heaven given by which we may be saved. And you, Saint Joseph, give us this name (cf. Act. 4:12).

Joseph, the promise made to David is made even more perfectly to you.

I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.

You are the father of the child who also says to God, "You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior." You are the father of the one who shall be a son to God. You are the father of the one whose kingdom and throne are firm forever. Jesus " will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (cf. Luk. 1:33).

This is all through your faith, Joseph. It does not tire you out or weary you. Instead, it allows you to receive Jesus as a gift from the Father.

Your faith allows that "the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants". If it was dependent on your effort it could not. Even though you are a righteous man it could not. It depends on God's gift. It is his power that makes this throne and kingdom firm. It is his power that makes you the father of many nations just as it does Abraham.

Saint Joseph, teach us to have the faith that you have. Teach us to receive what God offers as gifts which he himself ensures instead of as trials which we alone endure.

Saint Joseph, thank you for a Te Deum in Lent. Thank you for the joy you have in Jesus which you want to share with us this morning.

Jesus, bring us to your Father's house by teaching us to spend time with your earthly father. Through him, teach us to receive all that you have for us.

The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness,
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.

18 March 2015 - never forget you

Today is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2).

Today, Jesus, is the day you answer us. Your help is not only in fluke in our past history. It is not merely an unrealized hope for a distant future.

Today, Jesus, is the day of your help.

Yes, even today LORD. Even though we are on the way, these promises are for today. We are still moving from prison to freedom and from those in darkness into light. Yet along the ways we find pasture. With you as our shepherd we find rest in these pastures. Even on heights that look barren we find green pastures with you as our shepherd (cf. Psa. 23).

We hunger and thirst along this way LORD. We are plagued by these cravings and desires which we can never fully satisfy. They lead us to assume that the acceptable time and the day of salvation must be remote and distant. But even along the way you guide us "beside springs of water."  These are living waters which flow from you and give us life. When we drink from this stream it is still. Living and yet still. This is fullness of life and yet it is quiet and gentle. This is the still small voice with which you speak. Yet in heaven you thunder (cf. Psa. 18:13). We drink of this stream easily, quietly, and in peace. Yet we are not filled with stagnant water. We are filled with the fullness of life.

We don't believe you when you say that today is the day of salvation because we aren't coming to you to quench our thirst and sate our hunger. Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Jesus, you see this state we are in when we chase after earthly cravings which cannot satisfy us. You see us actually blame you for this! And yet you do not hold even that against us. Instead, you ensure us of your love.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

You are slow to anger and of great kindness, O Jesus. You are good to all! We are falling, LORD. And you lift us up today! You do not wait until we crash and hit the ground. We are bowed down but you invite us to come instead to the yoke that is easy and the burden is light. This invitation is open today!

You want to do these great works so that we will be amazed. The Father gives you these works to amaze us so that we can trust you not just to fulfill our desires here and now but to bring them to ultimate fulfillment. The fulfillment we find in you is not something shallow and transient. It is amazing! It needs to be in order to build our trust to the level you desire.

Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.

This is the road you cut through the mountain. This is the stone rolled away from the tomb. We taste it even now when we believe your word to us.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.

You continue to prove just how much you love us. We have no cause for fear at the judgment if you believe your word. Your love casts that fear away (cf. 1 Joh. 4:18)  If we hunger and thirst for you you give us more than we can ask or imagine (cf. Eph. 3:20).

We taste this today, LORD. And so our praises begin anew today!

Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
and shows mercy to his afflicted.

17 March 2015 - pooling our resources

Do you want to be well?

Jesus, we need you. LORD, we want to be well.

Or do we?

Have we been ill for so long that we are used to it?

One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

Do you want to be well?

We should just say yes. But instead we dwell on the sickness. We dwell on the familiar series of hopes and disappointments, the years stretching back and back.

Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me

Jesus, we can't let ourselves want to be dwell. We can't allow ourselves to desire healing. Our ability to hope is beat down and wounded by the circumstances of life. We defend ourselves from further disappointment by refusing to hope again.

But you see us, LORD. You understand the condition of our hearts. You know our past.

When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time

And you ask us, "Do you want to be well?" The question itself reminds us that we once hoped for that. The question itself leads to a thrill of hope in our hearts that we has been thus far need not be always.

We don't need the pool of Bethesda, LORD. We might not be able to make it to that pool before the rest of the world gets there first. Your healing power is not dependent on any conditions. It is not offered on a first come first served basis. It is not just for those special individuals who can make it to the pool. Nor are those of us who can't quite make it to the pool denied your touch.

Rise, take up your mat, and walk.

Your living water pours over us. You yourself are the true source of living water which heals and gives life.

Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.

You are no stagnant fountain. You are the river of living water. You give us life and allow us to multiply. Our hearts were once fresh and living but circumstances have worn away at them. You alone are the fresh water which makes the lifeless sea of our hearts fresh rather than being contaminated. You are the source of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which never fail or fade. You are the source of the true medicine our souls need.

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God

You are the stream, LORD. In you the city of our lives shall not be disturbed because we know that you are in our midst. You will help us at the break of dawn. We hear you say, "Do you want to be well?" Finally, trusting in you, we cry out, 'Yes, Jesus, make me well!'

God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever-present help in distress.
Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.

16 March 2015 - laetare monday

Jesus, teach us to hear you and believe.

Help us to believe at the sound of your voice even before we see signs and wonders. We have all of these issues that we want to entrust to you. We say, "Sir, come down before my child dies." But we don't need to make things contingent on that whole journey where we pull you away from the path you are on. We don't even need to be there ourselves when the wonder happens. Your signs and wonders are not relative to ourselves as observers. They can happen whether or not we witness them. Healing can flow even if we aren't the instrumental agent that brings you into the situation. But while you don't ask our participation or even our immediate awareness you do ask for our faith.

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

Jesus, you ask us to believe you enough to leave everything in your hands. You want us to trust you enough to take our hands off of these situations. If the official insisted you came with him to his son it would be an act of fear. It would be an act that couldn't fully entrust his cares to you. But you call us to cast all of our cares on you. You care for us, and we need to trust that (cf. 1 Pet. 5:7).

Your signs and wonders are just the prelude to the new heavens and the new earth that you want to create. Things are going to be so good that we won't even remember the sufferings which we now have such trouble letting go.

Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.

We need to understand that this is the desire of your heart. Only then will we really be able to cast our cares on you. Only when we do so can you truly rescue us and draw us clear.

"Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

We need to trust in your love for us, Jesus. When we believe this that love breaks into the world and begins building the new heavens and the new earth even now in our midst. For each and every care we entrust to you we hear, "Your son will live," and not only we, but our whole household, and even the whole world, come to believe.

At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.

15 March 2015 - leaving babylon

Jesus, teach us to prefer the light to the darkness. 

Help us to come out from hiding and come to the light.

You have compassion on your people and your dwelling place. Your upward call (cf. Phi. 3:14) calls us higher and higher. You seat bring us to life and raise us up to sit with you in the very heavens themselves.

But for every degree that your invitation calls us higher we mock the messengers and despise the warnings. We are way too content where we are. Going higher means putting you at the center of our lives more and more. It means being delivered from our transgressions for the good works you have ready for us. We'd rather focus on our own plans. We gladly and readily ignore the plans you have for us. We prefer the comfort of the darkness even if it is gloomy and dismal. Even if we can't really thrive here at least we aren't exposed.

But you call us onward and upward. We are still in exile here until you are finished with us. How can we take full delight here when you have such better things in store for us? How can we be content with the darkness of Babylon? How can we rejoice and sing our songs here?

For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?

To that end, you may have to tear down some walls, set palaces afire, and destroy precious objects until we are willing to lift our eyes from this earthly kingdom. And what are all these if not your own body, the temple which you will rebuild in three days (cf. Joh. 2:19).

In your very flesh you yourself destroy the ordinary for us. You are lifted up on the cross that our eyes may see you and our hearts may believe in you so that we can have eternal life. We lift our eyes from the darkness of exile to the light of the promise we find in you.

You call us, LORD, from darkness into light. You call us out from the land of our exile to a homeland which we have never seen but have always known, somehow.

Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, 
let him go up, and may his God be with him!

Shine on us, Jesus! Lift our gaze to you! Bring us before you with songs of joy!

14 March 2015 - demistified

LORD, bring us back to you.

Our piety is like the morning cloud. It is thin and superficial. It is the sort of piety that exists to be seen. We go to the temple and thank you about how much better we are than everyone else. We have piety because we think it is some sort of competitive advantage. Sure we fast and we tithe. We do it because we want the boost to our self-image. We don't act greedy, or dishonestly or commit adultery. But we avoid these things in spite of ourselves. We avoid them more out of a motivation to not be seen a certain way than from a motivation to actually be a certain way. Our motives are never entirely selfless. 

Instead of focusing on ourselves, "Let us know, let us strive to know" you Jesus.

Let us return to you LORD. You strike us because you want to bind up these wounds of pride. You blow the morning clouds of our superficiality away so that you can heal who we are underneath. This is frightening, of course, exposing who we really are.  It is true that you strike us but only insofar as we are in union with you. You do not deal arbitrary punishment so that we avoid evil based on behavioral conditioning. You strike us when you yourself are stricken for us, crushed for our iniquities, but in three days your resurrection will give us life. You endure this wound in order that your obedience and unquenchable life can be our bridge and latter to the Father and his kingdom.

Let us return to you, LORD. You blow away the morning cloud of our piety but your coming is as sure as the dawn. The morning cloud is blown away but only to give way to your judgments, which shine forth like the light of day.

You teach us to ask you for mercy. We are sinners and need your mercy. But we do not ask out of fear so much as a desire for the blessings that your mercy brings. We ask because we want to be close to you and sin keeps us trapped in ourselves.

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;

If we exalt ourselves we become an exalted prison of selfishness. If we humble ourselves we open our hearts to the joy of seeing you exalted on high.

This is the sacrifice you want, LORD. When we offer you our hearts like this you are finally able to give us the blessings you long to pour out.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Be bountiful, O LORD, to Zion in your kindness
by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem;

13 March 2015 - can we handle the truth?

Which is the first of all the commandments?

Jesus, you call us to love God with our heart, mind, and strength. You call us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But we need your help to accept these commandments. We don't ask what is the most important because we actually want to know. We already know that you should come first. We already know that we should love our neighbor. We hear you remind us, and we agree, "You are right in saying" so. We know it is "worth more than all burnt offerings". But perhaps we hope to hear something different. We wish you would give permission to worry more about the details, about the burnt offerings and sacrifices, about the tithing on "mint, dill, and cumin", about "the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze." We wish you would let us worry about anything else, really. Anything would be less challenging than the call to love. These other things keep us busy. They let us get lost in the details. And they don't run in to resistance in our hearts. But love does. Love runs into the resistance of sin and concupiscence within us.

We know the truth, and so you say "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." But help us, LORD. That response frightens us. We aren't able to embrace it.

And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

We don't want to have our fears confirmed. We don't want to find out that we need to change. But we must.

If we can embrace this we will take with us words and say to you, "Forgive all iniquity and receive what is good." The idols that we serve instead of loving you and our neighbor are revealed. But they are revealed only to be healed.

We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion.”

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;

It is a fair trade. We acknowledge that we are not yet where we should be so that you can get us there. You have big plans for us. Don't leave us in fear and silence. We bring our words, "Forgive all iniquity" because that forgiveness is the door to life:

I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

You want to relieve our should of the burden and to free our hands from the basket. You want to rescue us from distress. But you will only do this if we call to you and ask. Yet, this is the longing of your heart. So don't let fear keep us where we are, Jesus. We welcome your truth this morning. Even if it challenges us we welcome it because we known that the truth can set us free (cf. Joh. 8:32).

If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.

12 March 2015 - pure light

Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.”

Jesus you are light. You have nothing to do with darkness. In you there is no darkness at all (cf. 1 Joh. 1:5). Yet you are so good as to be threatening. On the way hand, we delight to see how good you are. On the other, that very goodness exposes us and calls us to change. It is the same in your saints. If we can only infer some impure motives we feel we let ourselves off the hook. But if we have something to be exposed help us not to flee from your light. "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open" (cf. Luk. 8:17). It does not shine to destroy us but that we might have life. 

When you speak to us LORD, we always have a choice. We can hear you or we can harden our hearts. We can let you gently reveal the areas of our hearts where you are not yet LORD. Or we can flee from your presence. You can draw us to come before you in worship. Or we can tempt and test you in spite of all the grace and blessings you do for us.

You want to be close to us, Jesus. You want to be our God. You want us to be your people. You want us to walk in your ways, not because you are capricious, but so that we may prosper.

Since you are so patient with us help us to learn how to bring you patiently to our brothers and sisters who are also stubborn and slow of heart just as we are.

When you speak all these words to them,
they will not listen to you either;
when you call to them, they will not answer you.

But you still call us to go to them. You still call us to extend to them the invitation. You call both them and us before you. You want us to come and sing joyfully to you. Soften our hard hearts to acclaim you as the Rock of our salvation. Put songs of praise and thanksgiving on our lips and bring us to worship you.

There are times when you speak to us and we hear you and know it is you and yet don't want to listen. How can we accuse you of using the power of Beelzebul when such great good is accomplished? When a mute man has a demon driven from him it must be the finger of God. But if we don't want to listen we might insist on "a sign from heaven". We just saw a great healing! But our hearts are hard and no sign is enough for us when our hearts are too hard.

But no matter how hard are hearts, no matter how well guarded they are by the fully armed strong man, they are not safe from your mercy.

But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.

So break into the hardness of our hearts! Let us hear your voice today, LORD Jesus. Let us listen and then respond with all that we are in worship!

Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

11 March 2015 - that you may live

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

Jesus, we were sort of hoping that you would abolish the law and the prophets. It is law and therefore it all seems so legalistic, so unbending and even oppressive. We wish you would just inaugurate the era of trying our best and accepting ourselves. We would prefer the focus shifted from what we ought to do to accepting the brokenness we find in ourselves and the world. We hear your law as condemnation, either to fail, or, at best, to constant struggle and effort.

But you do not leave the law as it is, Jesus. You come to fulfill it. The law has a meaning more profound than we guess.

Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees
as the LORD, my God, has commanded me,
that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.

You want us to take possession of the promised land. You want to teach us a wisdom and intelligence that is evident to all who see us. If we follow it the world can't help but say, "This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people."

We fear that your law means that you are far from us. It is as if you could mail us this law and then not talk to us because we can just read it.  But it is only because of how close you are that you speak this law to us.

For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?

Really? We don't feel particularly close to our Congress or any branch of our government. But their motivation is not yours. Our ways are not yours. Our law is a teacher in limited and general ways. But with your law you want to bring your wisdom and insight to bear in our lives. This is not distance.

One problem we have is that we feel like the law doesn't take account of our individuality because it is unchanging and unyielding and applies to everyone. You reveal that it is unchanging because your presence to us is unchanging (cf. Mat. 28:20).  It is unyielding  because your mercy is unyielding. In you we recognize the lawgiver as a friend who will never abandon us when you see us make bad choices and destructive decisions. And you are not one who ties up heavy burdens for us and then do not lift and finger to help us (cf. Mat. 23:4). Instead, you invite all who are burdened to come to you for rest (cf. Mat. 11:28). Jesus, you reveal the true purpose of the law. Only you can bring it to fulfillment for each of us individually.  It is to make us fit and able to live in the promised land. It is to make us worthy citizens of the Kingdom of heaven. It does not condemn us to failure or to constant effort because you yourself give us the strength we need to fulfill it. You bring it to fulfillment in us by the power of your Spirit.

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6).

You want us to move from the letter to the Spirit today. You want to bring us from condemnation to life. You want to fulfill the law not in the abstract but for each of our hearts today.

Fulfill the law in us by your Spirit, O LORD!

"The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Ten Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden." 

- G.K. Chesterton

10 March 2015 - without limits

Lord, if my brother sins against me,

how often must I forgive him?

As many as seven times?

Lord, it gets harder each time. It becomes less and less reasonable to forgive when nothing changes. Seven times already seems like a lot. The people we forgive really ought to change by the seventh time, hadn't they?

I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

Lord, you say to forgive without limit. We are not to forgive in to the end that we mechanistically achieve a change in others. We are to forgive because we have no right to hold anything against anyone. We ourselves are debtors to you far more than anyone is indebted to us. 

a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.

We come before you owing a huge amount. We are have no way to pay this debt that we owe you. And without you our debt continues to spiral out of control. We go well past seventy-seven times for which we need your mercy. But even so, while we are yet sinners you love us. In spite of our debt you die for us (cf. Rom. 5:8). While we crucify you you plead to the Father for us. You ask him to forgive us (cf. Luk. 23:34).

If we were in your place, LORD, we might be willing to forgive the first lash of the whip. We might be willing to forgive the first time we are mocked. We might turn the other cheek one time. But as the weight of all sin bears down upon you we would quickly harden our hearts. We secretly believe that our forgiveness at those early stages ought to spare us this suffering. But it may not. Yet only forgiveness can make this suffering meaningful. If the cross is suffered by a heart in wrath and set against us it only condemns. But the cross endured by your heart of mercy brings forth mercy for us.

You call us to see past our superficial approach to forgiveness. You call us to have our hearts truly transformed. You call us to a forgiveness from the heart that is pure of selfish motives.

When we are caught up in the fire of passion and the heat of the moment we have a hard time forgiving from the heart. Let us pray like Azariah.

Azariah stood up in the fire and prayed aloud

When we are caught up in the fire we need humility to dampen the flames.

But with contrite heart and humble spirit

let us be received;

This is our defense against the flames that can otherwise consume us. This is how we can forgive even from the cross. We don't have the strength for this forgiveness in ourselves. But you delight to give your strength to those who trust in you.

So let our sacrifice be in your presence today

as we follow you unreservedly;

for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

And now we follow you with our whole heart,

we fear you and we pray to you.

These are the ways you long to teach us Lord. You insist that we have mercy on our brother so that you have no obstacles preventing you from remembering your mercy for us. 

Good and upright is the LORD;

thus he shows sinners the way.

He guides the humble to justice,

he teaches the humble his way.

You want to show us your way, Lord. It is a way of unreasonable forgiveness and unquenchable mercy. We are trapped in superficial notions of forgiveness. "Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord."

9 March 2015 - watershed moment

Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.

LORD Jesus, we seek healing today. Help us to come before you without our horses and chariots. Help us to lower our defenses. Help us to lay down our prideful pretense. You want to heal us. But at the same time and even more importantly you want to reveal yourself to us. 

Let him come to me and find out
that there is a prophet in Israel.

If our defenses are up and we are too busy trying to impress we will not be open to encounter you. We have all of these preconceived notions that you need to strip from us. We have ideas about the way you work which prevent us from actually seeing you.

I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.

We have these ideas about who you are. We say, in some sense, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?" (cf. Joh. 6:42). Are you not the Jesus with whom we are familiar. Are you not the one we think we know and understand already? You are that, but you are much more. You want to truly connect with us and encounter us. You want us to see, not just our old ideas about you, but your very self. You want to show us your heart, filled with love for us.

Jesus, you might be calling us to find healing in a place we do not expect. You may be calling us to go and wash seven times in the unimpressive Jordan. You promise that our flesh will heal and we will be clean. But we are hoping for more drama, more beauty, and more exultation. After all, we set out with horses and chariots. Our pride has a hard time coming back to the ordinary to find you. We think we deserve novelty. We become fixated on this sort of thing in a way that makes you hard to see. We begin to confuse our thirst for healing and for you with a thirst for something else. We try to drink from the wells of worldly fulfillment. We even try to frame our brokenness and healing in these terms.

Help us to learn to recognize that for which we truly thirst.

Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?

Help us not to miss you in the ordinary and day to day. If you are calling us to acts which do not seem sufficiently grand to matter let us lay aside our preconceived ideas.

But his servants came up and reasoned with him.
“My father,” they said,
“if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”

If we can just lay aside our ideas and let you work the way that you want to work we encounter something greater and more grand than any healing narratives we imagine for ourselves. We encounter you and all of the joy that you bring.

Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!

8 March 2015 - spring in our step

You come to the well in the heat of the day LORD Jesus. It is about noon and the sun beats down upon our lives. We are dry and thirsty. This isn't the best time to come to the well. The morning hour is more pleasant. The world prefers to gather then. But you come now to meet those people whom the world will not welcome. Their water, perhaps, is too easily attained. Their thirst, perhaps, too easily quenched. Even though "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again" they may not realize it if they can quickly attain the next hit to satisfy their cravings. But here at noon the outcasts can harbor no such illusions.

The heat is intense O LORD. Even if the weather is winter outside of our walls this morning our spirits still suffer. They are dry. They are unresponsive and lifeless. You draw near and they don't rejoice. Your body suffers and they don't weep or grieve. We doubt your ability to change us, LORD. We say "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep" because we think you want to give us worldly fulfillment. But the water you give is from an entirely different source. 

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; 
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

It is because it is from a different source that it can satisfy. The wells of the world are arduous, tedious, and ultimately unsatisfying. The water you give is the only water which truly quenches thirst. From whence does this water come?

Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it 
for the people to drink.

And Paul tells us, "They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ" (cf 1 Cor. 10:3-4).

You indeed are the rock. Your side is struck and you pour out this living water (cf. Joh. 19:34).

On the cross, just as to the Samaritan woman you say that you thirst (cf. Joh. 19:28). But your thirst is that not that you yourself drink but that we do. You say to us, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink" (cf. Joh. 7:37).

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (cf. Joh. 7:39)

If we hope in the wells of this world for fulfillment we are inevitably disappointed. But if we hope in your promise we not.

And hope does not disappoint, 
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts 
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

And so, again, we hear you say, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink." Let us respond:

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

Let us drink deeply from the fountain of life which we find in you alone (cf. Psa. 36:9).