22 March 2016 - unstoppable love, unquenchable mercy

[ Today's Readings ]

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

Teach us to honestly look at ourselves. Yes, LORD, we know you. Yes, we love you. And yet we still betray you at times. We still choose lesser things when we should choose you. We prefer thirty pieces of silver to your friendship. It happens, LORD, if we're honest.

So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.

Do we receive your body and blood and then run off after our own pursuits? These are pursuits which may be opposed to the kingdom of love, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit which you want to build in this world. At times we are all guilty of this.

Even so, you somehow use our failings for your glory.

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.

You somehow reveal yourself even when we betray you. Your weakness is stronger than the strength we show in our obstinate disobedience.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (First Corinthians 1:25).

We see that following you means carrying our own cross and going to die with you. We aren't willing to go all the way with you. We are not yet all in.

Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.

Even Peter betrays you LORD. Yet with that betrayal too you reveal your glory. You reveal an unstoppable love and an unquenchable mercy. So too for us. We betray you. But you reveal yourself even more deeply to us and invite us back. You keep calling us back until we turn to you as sincerely in our own hearts as Peter does when he says, "LORD, you know that I love you" (see John 21:17). You make Peter strong enough even to die for you. And you will do so for us.

Help us to recognize and learn from the times when we betray you so that we may eventually receive strength to follow you with our whole hearts. Help us to see that your own strength is not uselessly spent because of the world's betrayals. Your reward is with God. Because of this, you are a light for us and for all nations.

I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Teach us to sing with the psalmist of your salvation. When the cross would make us turn to run by our rock of refuge.