29 February 2012

 29 February 2012

"[T]he people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast"

They were quick to believe. He was only a day into the city but they were so sincere that Jonah's word outpaced him and converted them all. The king did not use his greatness as an excuse to exclude himself. Words of repentance are hard to hear, especially if we think ourselves great but Nineveh was humle and so heard God's word for what it was.

"A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn."

But our hearts are proud and resist humility.  We are unlike the people of Nineveh. If we were truly humble we would see the fast you proclaim as a great gift and mercy rather than a challenge or burden. We would be so eager that we would encompass all of the material order in our response even as the king involved "[m]an and beast".  Therefore "clean heart create for me and a steadfast spirit renew within me."  Bring us to the place where we can offer the sacrifice that will please you, a "contrite spirit".

Don't let us fail to notice true greatness in you. In seeing this in you we can find the humility which you desire in us.

"at the preaching of Jonah they repented,

and there is something greater than Jonah here."

The LORD is greater than Jonah.  He is greater than Solomon.  His wisdom is unmatched.    He says he won't give a sign to that generation but it is because he is the ultimate sign to every generation in himself.  Change our hearts, LORD, so that we might see you clearly.   

28 February 2012

28 February 2012


"In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words."

The LORD desires sincerity in our words.  He desires truth spoken from the heart.  Our words are often superfluous.  It isn't so much that there are too many as that they are often to no purpose.  We should instead strive to be like the LORD.  This is why he says of his own word that "[i]t shall not return to me void".  His words aren't superfluos.  They always express his love.  How very unlike our words these are.  The more our words multiply the less we seem to be speaking of love.

Let us begin, then, with how we cry out to him, "Our Father".  Let his name be hallowed in us.  If this word is not hallowed then no wonder the rest of the words we speak fall short.  Let us be just, forgiving and asking forgiveness.  Then we shall say with the psalmist that we  "sought the LORD, and he answered".  He will deliver us from all of our fears.

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves."

The broken hearted no longer care for extraneous words.  They no longer care about pretense.  They cry to the LORD from their hearts.  He saves them from all their distress.

27 February 2012

27 February 2011


"Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy."

That just seems out of reach so we mitigate it.  We read it as: be a little holy for the LORD is holy beyond limit or compare.  Yet it is not mitigated in the text.  Nor is it abstract:

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

I am the LORD."

Yet we don't.  And we don't love ourselves enough to begin with.  He asks of us honesty, justice, and mercy.  Simply don't lie, don't defraud, don't take advantage.  Help when help is needed.  Yet still we don't.  We constantly gauge our response. We measure it.  We are looking for reasons to hold back and to not love fully.  We are looking for excuses to turn inward.  We are looking for rationale to put ourselves first.  

We need Jesus to recontextualize this for us.

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."

Finally we can see beyond our games of balancing giving and getting.  We can see the one who has given himself completely in spite of what he has received from us.  For who has received worse at our hands than him?  His absolute love can now be discovered in the faces of those from whom we used to turn away.  Woe to us if we turn from that.  Not simply because our eternity is in peril, though it is, but because we are missing so great an invitation.  

"Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Not just at the end but now.  The kingdom comes when love reigns.  Reign in me, LORD, "my rock and my redeemer."

26 February 2012

"[H]e remained in the desert for forty days"

The desert is the one place where one might wish for a flood. Imagine the thirst. Imagine the dryness everywhere. A moment passes in struggle and suffering and then another. Why does he come here? Why does the Spirit drive him here?

"[A] few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now."

Insofar as we need the waters of Baptism there is a sense in which we need the flood. Only in the desert can we realize this thirst. But with Jesus we aren't completely cutoff. The angels who minister to him will minister to us as well.

"Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit."

If we stay with him the living water which flows from him can do this for us as well. If we keep his covenant we will know his love and truth. Look to the rainbow! Look to his promise of life and mercy! This is the good news. Repent of hearts that are slow to believe. Let us follow the path he sets before us as the Spirit drives us on.

25 February 2012

"And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house"

So did he give up everything? In the next line he still has his house. In what sense can he have given up everything if he still has what is likely his chief possession? He now sees it as the LORD's rather than his own, used for the LORD's purposes. The banquet is really the work of the LORD, calling all of Levi's friends from his former life to come and discover what Levi has discovered.

Levi is no longer following his own pursuits. He is no longer seeking his own interest. He counts what he had as loss and puts it in the service of Jesus. He old life was definitely "parched land" but now even here the LORD will give him plenty. Now that he has turned from a life of oppression, malice, and greed light shall rise for him in the darkness. In the presence of his LORD the gloom shall be as midday.

24 February 2012

"The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."

But he tells us elsewhere that he is with us always, until the end of the age.  Is he truly?  Yes, he is.  Is he is close as he can be to us?  Actually, yes.  But he is only as close as we let him come.  And often, we let the world take him away from us.  The only way back is to turn from the world toward him.  This is true fasting.  This is what he desires.

He wants a fasting that is an outward turn, not an outward show.  He wants fasting that sets aside the ego.  One that frees us to love.  Fasting could become selfish, all about me.  It easily could.  But what he wants is "[a] heart contrite and humbled."

But then, hear the promise:

"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!"

Though we may allow him to be taken from us he provides the way back.  He waits.  He stands at the door and knocks.  He longs to say "Here I am" and to embrace us once again.

23 February 2012

"Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him."

God sets a choice before us.  In his love he wants us to choose life, but he won't force us.  It wouldn't mean anything if it was forced.  We are called to love.  We find fulfillment in love.  Love cannot be forced.

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

The words of Jesus almost sound like a contrast with the first quote.  But they aren't.  Not really.  In both, we are called to abandon ourselves to love.  Only in Jesus can we see the full meaning and implications this choice implies.  Not only is the price much steeper than we might have feared so too is the reward greater than we ought to have hoped.  The cross is before us.  So too is the resurrection.  Divination and limitless love await.

Can we truly be a people who "delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night[?]"  We may sing that psalm, even joyfully, but shouldn't we admit that the law seems to be a burden at times?  Doesn't it seem oppressive when we think about it sincerely?  Let us turn to the LORD and ask for his strength to make the hard choices to love.  This is the true meaning of the law.  It is not just oppressive without his help, it is impossible.  How can there be freedom in the law?  How can we truly delight in it?  In the same way that the cross leads to Easter.  In the same way that the death of self is the condition of the birth of true freedom.  In him we can do all things.  In his Spirit is freedom.

The LORD invites us to choose life.  Let us follow that choice to the cross and beyond.