12 July 2014 - from the rooftops

12 July 2014 - from the rooftops


What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

If we are going out into a world under the dominion of darkness we must become more like our teacher.  If their master is Beelzebub we absolutely have to become like our master, Jesus Christ.  The devil holds the world as slaves through fear.  Jesus comes to "free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life" (cf. Heb. 2:15).  Those enslaved in this way invariably contribute to keeping the system in place.  As slaves, we fight for the temporary against the certainty of time and the inevitability of loss.  There is always collateral damage.  And so Jesus reminds us:

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.

We need a change of perspective.  We need a kingdom perspective.  We need an eternal perspective, one which considers the things that last forever over and above temporary things, good though they may be.  We aren't there yet, are we?  We build houses on sand all the time.  If we look at how we spend our time and how we use our words we realize that we are men of unclean lips among people of unclean lips. 

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

We need this purification, even though it can be terrifying.  It implies that all the temporary things for which we fight so hard might be gone in an instant.  But it also implies the one thing necessary (cf. Luk. 10:42), that which endures forever.  We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (cf. Heb 12:2).  We need to remember that "our citizenship is in heaven" (cf. Phi. 3:20) and start to live like that is true.

Ultimately, the LORD wants to loose our tongues to proclaim what the kingdom in the light and from the housetops.  He sends a seraphim to us with a hot ember that removes the wickedness from our lips.  He himself removes the servitude to the temporary which enslaves our tongues to idols of money, of health, or whatever else.  But it is a hot ember.  It is very hot.  Part of the heat is purification, which can be painful.  Yet if we remember that it is the Holy Spirit himself who purifies we will welcome him.  And he does not just burn away the old words of idolatry.  He himself empowers us to speak new words for the kingdom.  In the languages of men and angels we say:

“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Do these words not yet spring to our lips?  First, we need to look to the LORD. 

The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.

We need to realize who he is in order to give everything else proper context.  And then we need his strength to fix this revelation in our hearts so that all our thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by his decrees.

Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.