16 December 2015 - restored

[ Today's Readings ]

Jesus calls us to recognize him this morning. How can those who live in bible times find if if Jesus is the one who is to come or if they should look for another? It isn't his appearance for he appears in the likeness of man. How do we answer the same question? How do we distinguish Jesus from all of the other religious leaders that vie for our attention? How do we distinguish the thoughts he sends to us from the thoughts that come from other spirits or from our own minds? 

In short, we all need to be able to recognize Jesus better. Today the sign he gives us to recognize him is restoration. He does not abandon his plans for creation when sin corrupts it. Nor does he abandon his plans for us. He doesn't flee from corruption to some purely spiritual world. Instead he rebuilds, he renews, and he restores.

The designer and maker of the earth
who established it,
Not creating it to be a waste,
but designing it be lived in:
I am the LORD, and there is no other.

God is not powerless before the problems we see. Nor is he indifferent. He knows in advance how sin will taint the world. In advance he knows how to fix it. Just as rain allows for the natural cycles of growth so too does God's salvation renew the spiritual order.

Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
let justice also spring up!

If we see a god who is powerless, a god who abandons his initial goals as hopeless, we do not see our God. Let us invite the true God to show us the ways in which he renews the earth.

Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior.

Let us behold the healing he wants to bring.

And Jesus said to them in reply,
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, 
the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 

What of those times when God doesn't bring healing? We know that the cross is a part of this Christian life. Is that God turning his back on creation? Just the opposite. In the cross we see a God who refuses to let go of his initial goals in creation in the face of pain, suffering, and death. He only dies in the body so that the body may be restored.

being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (cf. Philippians 2:7-8).

So, rather than being inconsistent with his renewal of creation, it is precisely at the cross that we see this renewal in its most profound form. We realize recognize Jesus more in the paschal mystery than anywhere else.

To me every knee shall bend;
by me every tongue shall swear,
Saying, “Only in the LORD
are just deeds and power.

This is why Mel Gibson's "The Passion" places the line from Revelation, "Behold I make all things new" precisely in the heart of the passion. It is the same in daily life. The cross can be distinguished from worthless suffering because the cross is not a surrender. The cross is renewal and life.

And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.

Let's look for Jesus today. Let us look for the ways in which he wants to renew our bodies, minds, and spirits. Let us look for him even in the hard places of suffering to see if there is something deeper beneath the surface, his "just deeds and power" waiting to be revealed.