17 March 2016 - think bigger

[ Today's Readings ]

Your promises are so good, LORD. They are so good that when we try to understand how you fulfill them in advance we run the risk of missing them entirely. We actually set our expectations too low.

You make an amazing promise to Abraham...

I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
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.

...and you yourself are the fulfillment of that promise.

The Jews in today's readings expect a physical descendents and a geographically distinct nation state.

But you are thinking bigger Jesus.

You intend to bring together not just one nation but all nations including Jews and Gentiles.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (see Ephesians 2:13)

You do more than exult a single group. You bring us together.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (see Galatians 3:28).

You make of both of us more than either of us ever were alone.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (see First Peter 2:9).

But are we so fixated on the what we assume you mean that we fail to see what you actually do? Are our minds so earthbound that we fail to see the power of the resurrection and of heaven which is even now transforming our world through the Church? That is to say, do we look at you Jesus, and see a mere human when there is true divinity at work?

Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.” 
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

LORD free our minds. Help us to see that you do more for us than all we can ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). Help us not to limit your power in our lives by bad expectations. You remember your covenant forever. You answer every prayer asked in faith. Help us to see and be thankful for all the wondrous deeds you have wrought, your portents, and the judgments you have uttered. Only when we see how you continually over-deliver can we be in anyway prepared for what comes next.

He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.