10 October 2013 - think different

10 October 2013 - think different

What difference does it make that we are believers?  If we don't say anything can people still see a difference in us?  Today's readings are all about the difference belief makes.

It makes a difference even in the short term:

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

The weather is often really bad.  The winds are often cutting.  Without proper nutrients our leaves will fade and we will not bear fruit.  But we are planted in streams of grace because of our faith.  This flow cannot be interrupted.  It guarantees true and constant growth toward our destiny for all of us who drink it.

Although the wicked might seem to do well enough at present...

Rather must we call the proud blessed;
for indeed evildoers prosper,
and even tempt God with impunity.”

...they are building upon sand, as time will reveal:

Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
The blessed delight in the law of the LORD even now.  They meditate on it constantly.  The wicked even now experience emptiness.  All of their efforts are at fleeing from it.  But the world often confuses the blessedness of the just with deprivation and the fleeting pleasures of the wicked with happiness.  Yet the end is coming.  It draws near inexorably.  And the distinction then will be clear.

Then you will again see the distinction
between the just and the wicked;
Between the one who serves God,
and the one who does not serve him.

We have both the just and the wicked within us.  We do sometimes think, "It is vain to serve God" and wonder, "what do we profit by keeping his command".  Are we moving toward the day that will set us on fire leaving "neither root nor branch" because we don't recognize how important God's grace is for us?  Or are we watching for the rising of "the sun of justice with its healing rays."

We desire the healing rays that come from the Son of God.  But we do not have to wait until the end times to feel them on our souls.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.

God is not our employer.  We are not working hard now to buy eternal life later.  He is our "Father in heaven" who delights to "give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" both now and at the end.  The world is convinced that God is a villain who gift wraps Scorpions.  But we know better.

"Blessed are they who hope in the Lord."  These blessings are both now and in eternity.  There is continuity because the blessings flow from the One Spirit who already lives in us.  He is the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and we experience him giving life even now to our mortal bodies (cf. Rom. 8:11).