31 July 2022 - grains and losses

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”

The disciples of Jesus would later "testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead" (see Acts 10:42). So, in a sense, this man was correct to go to Jesus about his concern. But his concern appears to have been motivated to some extent by greed. He went to Jesus more for what he insisted on having rather than what Jesus desired to give. He did not truly desire the judgment of Jesus but rather desired Jesus to enforce the judgment he had already made. Hence, the response of Jesus echoed the Hebrews who were dissatisfied with the judgment passed on them by Moses (see Exodus 2:14). The judgment of Jesus would not leave this man from the crowd unscathed while coming down only against his brother since "God shows no partiality" (see Romans 2:11). His judgment would instead cut through every human heart dominated by greed, that is, all of our hearts to some extent.

Take care to guard against all greed,

for though one may be rich,

one’s life does not consist of possessions.

Having much is not a problem to the degree that one can remain poor in spirit. But it is not easy to have wealth and remain detached from it, for the very care required to keep it incentivizes us to work to protect it with anxious concern. For those of us in blessed with much, decidedly rich by any ancient definition of the term, guarding against all greed is important. If we do not guard actively and attentively we risk coming to see our lives as consisting in possessions. Considered more broadly, we can consider possessions as everything that is only temporary, including all the temporary pleasures of this life and all of the troubles that we try so hard to avoid which are also only temporary. These are things which, when sought for their own sakes, are "vanity of vanities". Jesus shows us the proper attitude toward such possessions. In his parable he answers the request of the Psalmist to God, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart."

He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,

for I do not have space to store my harvest?’

The man did not even consider whether he actually needed more, whether the additional work of upkeep on a second silo would actually even provide any noticeable benefit. He did not consider whom he might have helped with his surplus. Other people did not even enter into his calculus. Rather he had succumbed to the temptation to seek grain and other goods for their sakes and no longer in relation to any higher purpose. He had experienced some benefit and comfort from having a little. He wrongly assumed that with more he could protect that experience indefinitely. He sought to insulate himself from the fact that he only had a limited number of days and to try to forget the troubling fact that he had no higher orientation than the merely earthly, the temporary, that which must finally pass away. But all that he achieved was that the end of his life took him by surprise. It did not matter how many silos he had, they could no longer help. He hadn't want to acknowledge that such a moment would come. But in failing to do the only result was that he failed to prepare.

You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;

and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?

By contrast, Paul calls us to put to death the parts of us that are earthly now, since we can't keep them anyway. We are to take off the old self that made of greed an idol that sometimes even took the place of God in our lives. We are instead to put on a new self, with a new and spiritual way of thinking that seeks what is above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. This renewed mind isn't seeking heaven so as to escape from earth or the things of the earth. Rather, we seek what is above to correctly orient our lives here below. One consequence of this is that we will have a correct relationships with our possessions, treating them as blessings which are only temporary, and which cannot take the place of God. Then, when our time comes to stand before the judge we won't be taken by surprise. Rather, the hidden life we have already begun to live will be revealed.

When Christ your life appears,

then you too will appear with him in glory.

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 95: If Today You Hear His Voice

Kutless: I Lift My Eyes

30 July 2022 - guilty conscience

Today's Readings

(Audio)

John and Jesus were both regarded by the people as prophets. John was the forerunner of Jesus, the one who would prepare his way. Just as John insisted to Herod on the necessity of propriety in relationships, telling him that it was not lawful for him to have the wife of his brother while his brother was still alive, so too did Jesus insist on the inviolability of the marriage bond. They both issued a call to repentance. There was some ground, therefore, for confusion, at least at a superficial level. 

Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,

for they regarded him as a prophet.

Part of Herod did desire to silence the voice of John the Baptist by killing him, since with that voice he condemned Herod's immoral behavior. But another part of him, without fully understanding why, "liked to listen to him" and he couldn't entirely shake the feeling that he was  "a righteous and holy man" (see Mark 6:20). 

the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests

and delighted Herod so much

that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for.

Things might have continued indefinitely with John imprisoned, Herod listening to him, half hating him, half entertained by his words, but for the scheme of Herodias. Herod's hatred for John alone did not push him over the edge of killing him. Neither did his interest in his words, superficial as it was, impact him enough to make him change his life. But because he was not deeply rooted in the truth he was susceptible to the influence of others. Temptation came, and there was no greater good for the sake of which Herod might resist it.

He even swore to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” (see Mark 6:23).

We may read about Herod promising to give away half of his kingdom for a dance and look on him with contempt. And it was contemptable. But how ready are we to give away half of our kingdom in the face of temptations? Mere interest at the level of curiosity about the words of John or Jesus is insufficient when the temptation is sufficiently persuasive. If we analyze and try to identify Jesus on the basis of what others say about him the question will never hit home enough to change us. We will remain only superficially related to him. It will indeed be as though he is in our lives, speaking, as it were, from a prison cell from which we don't let him leave to spread his influence. As this condition continues we may eventually decide that his words are not to our taste. Or, if not motivated from within, some outside temptation might come along like the dance of Herodias's daughter and, lacking root and losing ourselves, we may finally eject Jesus from even the small corner of our heart where we had confined him.

It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.

Herod saw in John and in Jesus little more than the voice of his own guilt. What he did not see, but what was truly there, was the possibility of change, of forgiveness, and of new life. Silencing John could not silence the voice of his own guilty conscience, leaving him haunted like Macbeth by the ghost of Banquo. He did not engage with either John or with Jesus deeply enough to hear anything but condemnation. Had he engaged them personally he could have heard the voice of mercy rather than condemnation calling to him. Unfortunately, Herod tried to understand Jesus through his reputation with the crowds. He only attempted to answer who others said Jesus was, rather than answer the question himself. Herod's options were therefore much the same as when the disciples answered that question, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets" (see Matthew 16:14). He never risked a closer consideration, of asking what he himself had to say about Jesus. And yet to do that, though dangerous, though almost certainly disruptive to the life of anyone who asks it, is the only way to the truth.

The people managed to recognize the mission and authenticity of the prophet Jeremiah before they carried out their plans of putting him to death. What led them to realize it? It seems to have been the fact that there words were spoken for their sakes, so that they could be saved. 

“This man does not deserve death;

it is in the name of the LORD, our God, that he speaks to us.” 

 To recognize the voice of a prophet we must engage them personally, willing to actually listen attentively and with hearts engaged. This is important because we need more than mere superficial interest in Jesus if we are to be rooted and grounded in him in the face of temptation. We need to know that he is for us and not against us if we are to respond well to his words when those words challenge us. Only if we see in Jesus the treasure beyond price will we be able to resist every deception tempting us to give away our kingdoms for sensuality and sin. It is the Father himself who draws us to give Jesus a hearing. And he desires to give us the grace to know him and to respond.

to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name (See John 1:12)

Chris Tomlin - Kyrie Eleison ft. Matt Maher, Matt Redman, Jason Ingram

29 July 2022 - something better

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,

she went to meet him;

but Mary sat at home.

They were both convinced that if only Jesus had come in time he could have done something for their brother Lazarus, who had died. They were both crushed that he did not come. They experienced an emotion to which we too often give voice when Jesus does not come to us in our way and according to our time table, saying, "Lord, if you had been here". And while it was true that Jesus was absent it seemed as though it deeply grieved him to delay, but that he did so that God might be glorified in a more profound way than by merely preventing the death as Lazarus as Mary and Martha had asked.

Mary remained at home in mourning for Lazarus, but the active faith of Martha refused to sit still, or to give up entirely. She did not lose her faith in Jesus because his apparent negligence allowed this tragedy. She still had hope, even though she herself could not define that hope precisely.

But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,

God will give you.

It was as though some part of her realized that Jesus could still fix this situation, could still put the broken pieces back together. But she didn't have a paradigm for how it could be so, and couldn't make the leap on her own. 

“Your brother will rise.”

Martha said to him,

“I know he will rise,

in the resurrection on the last day.”

She knew the resurrection on the last day wasn't the answer she sought, could not answer her present grief. She knew Jesus could somehow do more. But she needed Jesus himself to draw her into the new horizon of life and possibility that existed only in himself.

Jesus told her,

“I am the resurrection and the life;

whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?”

She did believe this. In the face of deep tragedy she made a strong profession of faith in "Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world". But she did not yet know how this applied to her grief or to Lazarus. When Jesus called for the stone to be rolled away she was still concerned about a smell. She was willing to give some assent to the fact that Jesus was spiritually the resurrection in the here and now, but that didn't seem to change the literal fact of the death of Lazarus. Initially, her belief that Jesus was the resurrection and the life gave her comfort and spiritual solace about the way the death of Lazarus fit into the divine plan, the fact that he would live again and in some sense still lived in Jesus himself. But the body was cold and the tomb was sealed and Martha did not dare make the leap to conclude that the the power of the resurrection could even now break through and do the seemingly impossible, restoring Lazarus to them. And yet, neither, in the light of Jesus and her faith in him, could she give up. It was precisely this sort of active faith, pressing, but without presumption, that prompted Jesus to give her the desire of her heart.

It is not difficult to merely repeat the profession of faith made by Martha. But what happens when Jesus doesn't respond to us immediately? Do we give up and wallow in grief? Or do we continue to hold out hope and expectation for the surprising ways in which Jesus might act? We should try to be a combination of Mary, who sat it the feet of Jesus, absorbing his teaching, and Martha, going out to meet him in the circumstances of her life. Our time at the feet of Jesus is meant to be the still center point that will fuel our stability in the face of crises, and will allow us to receive the grace to profess our faith even in the face of disappointment as Martha did. The key thing is the proximity to Jesus himself. It was his presence that kept Martha's hope alive, and it can be so for us as well. No matter what happens we will be able to say, "even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you".

Faith in Jesus can allow us to patiently endure difficult circumstances God permits, receiving them as the discipline from a loving Father. If he does not satisfy our immediate desires it is because he longs to give us something better. He wants us to realize that he himself is what our desire for life and fellowship is all about, and that it is in him that those desires find consummation and fulfillment. He doesn't want to let us go down with the sinking ship of desires that are only for this life and the temporary things it contains. His prophetic voice, like that of Jeremiah, calls us to turn more fully to him so that we can be spared his judgment and receive the mercy he desires to give.

Chris Tomlin - Resurrection Power

28 July 2022 - net gains

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,

which collects fish of every kind.

The approach of the Kingdom is to throw a net a broadly and with as little discrimination as possible. We don't follow this paradigm as often as we should. We prefer to all but wait until fish swim into our hands. We try to sort out the good from the bad long before we catch them and then only try to go after those who seem good to us. Our way strategic spearfishing tends to leave many fish that are actually good uncaught and delays us with those which only seemed superficially appealing. As with weeds and wheat, where the growth period was not the appropriate time to discern the good from the bad, so too here, where the time when the fish are still beneath the surface is the water is not the time for us to be making ultimate judgments about them. So too with life. We ought never consider anyone so holy and righteous as to be a sure thing for the Kingdom nor anyone so foul and rancorous as to be certainly lost. We ought not assume that only those fish that seem very close to cleanliness might turn out to be good after all. Nor is it the case that those who just barely seem good enough are the only ones that might turn out rotten in the final analysis. Our judgments are superficial and the what really matters is mostly below the surface in this life. This means our cautious and limiting approach to fishing must be tossed overboard in favor of the big net method recommended by Jesus. Jesus himself said, "whoever comes to me I will never cast out" (see John 6:37). This is the attitude we must learn to share.

When it is full they haul it ashore

and sit down to put what is good into buckets.

We tend to try to clean the fish before they are caught, to encourage moral perfection in others even before they are gathered into the Kingdom. But this is a flawed strategy. We do it because we think it makes things easier for us, make fishing less risky by making it less likely that we encounter smelling, rotting, or otherwise shocking samples among the many kinds we catch. But it actually deprives the Kingdom of many fish that might have turned out to be good, covered, perhaps, with a layer of the grime of the sea, but which could have been cleaned by the chief fisherman himself once they were safely ashore. Cleaning fish still swimming in the world is emphatically a doomed endeavor. And if we insist on attempting it many good fish will remain uncaught.

every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven

is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom

both the new and the old.

Jesus was training his disciples and is training us in order to bring forth things of value, treasures about which we learn in both the Old and the New Testament. He showed us how the Old points ahead toward what he himself came to reveal and how the New was prefigured by what was present in the old. The Old, for instance, set strict limits and barriers designed to isolate the people of Israel from the nations. But this was not as an end in itself. The purpose was to prepare a people for the coming of the Messiah through whom all nations would be blessed. Seeing this fulfilled in Jesus we can now bring forth nets that welcome "Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free" (see Galatians 3:28). This is at once something old, that being the Kingdom of Israel, but also made new in Jesus, now transformed into the Kingdom of heaven. Is it fair of God to transcend the apparently literal bounds of the Old Testament with this new and spiritual reality? Jeremiah helps us with a partial answer. God himself has been gradually refashioning the clay into that which will please him perfectly.

Can I not do to you, house of Israel,

as this potter has done? says the LORD.

Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,

so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

Hillsong - The Potter's Hand

27 July 2022 - x marks the spot

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field

Heavenly treasure is less obvious than earthly treasure, which is more superficial. Earthly treasures abounds at the surface level and therefore many set about collecting it. Earthly treasures, however, are not worthy of the exchange of everything one has. It is not a bargain anyone would make consciously. Yet in order to make up for their comparative lack of value we sometimes spend our entire lives accumulating it to make up for the deficiency. Unfortunately for those who do so, such treasures of earth, "where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal" (see Matthew 6:19), will never add up to the value of the treasure in the field. We can't let ourselves be content with what is merely superficial and appears obvious. This perspective fails to sound the true depths of the person of Jesus and the reality of his Kingdom. It stops at human appearances and cannot fathom the treasure that is hidden but luminous within. The invitation to look deeper comes by grace, by the Father drawing us. Our response is meant to be one of faith, for it is by faith is "the evidence of things not seen" (see Hebrews 11:1).

which a person finds and hides again

When we begin to possess the treasure we ought not be superficial about it. This means we shouldn't be like the path from which the seed of the word of God is easily lost. This does not mean that we selfishly horde the treasure for ourselves. But it does mean that we don't wear it as an adornment of our vanity, nor use it to seek praises of others.

That he hides it, does not proceed of envy towards others, but as one that treasures up what he would not lose, he hides in his heart that which he prizes above his former possessions.

- Saint Jerome

and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

It is not the case that all of the man's possessions are worth the price of the treasure. Indeed, he clearly regards himself as lucky, as though if anyone else knew about it he never get away with it. This sort of response is a sign of someone who has truly discovered the Kingdom. It reminds us Zacchaeus whose response to Jesus was that he "came down and received him joyfully" and said "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold" (see Luke 19:6, 19:8). The treasure we find really is beyond price and the opportunity to acquire it is pure grace. When we experience this ourselves we can't help but make a similar response to Zacchaeus. We divest ourselves of all that we have to the degree those things are obstacles to appreciating the treasure we have found. Compared to the treasure they are no longer worthy of our attention so we are happy to be free of them.

When he finds a pearl of great price,

he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

If we were asked, 'What is the treasure?' or 'What is the pearl of great price', we would know how to give the correct answer: Jesus and his Kingdom. To be sure, and emphatically, yes. But has the reality of the value of this treasure really hit home with us? Is it really something so valuable to us that we would dig and search in order to find it, and, having found it, give everything to possess it? Is Jesus for us a treasure that relativizes all earthly treasure as it did for Paul, or do we see it as only one among many goods to pursue?

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (see Philippians 9:8).

Because we keep the treasure hidden even, in some sense, from ourselves, we may sometimes forget its true value and become once again charmed with the passing delights of this world. It is therefore necessary to continue to use our faith to remember and to value the treasure we have received, and to let go of other treasure competing for our attention. In other words, this experience of finding the treasure is not meant to happen to us only once. Rather, it is a realization that should take deeper hold of us throughout our lives.

Jeremiah was an example of one made rich by the treasure that comes from God alone. His worldly circumstances could not have purchased what God himself provided as a gift. He had to trade his old and limited ways of thinking of himself as alone and pitiful for a new mindset given to him from above.

And I will make you toward this people

a solid wall of brass.

Though they fight against you,

they shall not prevail,

For I am with you,

to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom

26 July 2022 - the same picture?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.

The disciples may have had some sense of what Jesus meant by the parable of the weeds and the wheat. But they may have been hoping that he would explain away the difficulties with what the parable taught. How did this enemy get into the field in the first place? This was a similar question to what Adam might have asked in Eden. What was the snake doing in paradise? Could not the Lord have hermetically sealed off the garden from the dangers outside? Rather than explaining directly, Jesus assured the disciples of the good will of the gardener.

He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,

the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.

The Evil One was allowed to act, but in a way that was constrained to this age only, which would be definitively ended at the time of the harvest. It probably seems to us that it would have been better for him to be excluded entirely, for the wheat to not have needed to contend with the weeds. But perhaps this was not so. Perhaps the wheat was made stronger by this exposure. As those who hope to be counted among the good seed we clearly recognize the ways in which the weeds in our own lives help us to exercise virtue that we would not have otherwise needed. The presence of the snake in the world can be an excuse for us not to trust in God, but when we recognize the way that even his efforts are made to work for the good of those who love God, even his presence can lead us deeper into trust in God himself.

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,

so will it be at the end of the age.

It is actually a wonderful thing that God doesn't destroy apparent weeds immediately. Had he done so after the fiasco in Eden that would have been the end of things. The human race might have seemed to have lost its ability to bear good fruit at many and various times throughout history. But the Lord remained patient. He desired that the good seed of his Kingdom would be able to be vessels and channels of this same sort of merciful love that bore with sinners patiently in hope that hearts would eventually change. This result could not come on the basis of force or instance gratification. It required willingness to let the life of the seeds fully play out, to see finally and for sure which were those of wheat and which those of weeds.

The Son of Man will send his angels,

and they will collect out of his Kingdom

all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.

They will throw them into the fiery furnace,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

There is strong incentive not to presume on the mercy and forbearance of God. There will come an end to this period of freedom, a period when the commitments of our will toward which we have been heading will be finally and forever set in stone. The harvest will only reflect back to us our own choice about how to respond to the grace of the seed of the word of God. The righteous will find in their own persons proof of the constant care of the gardener. Evildoers, and especially those "who cause others to sin" and who do not repent will find only the withered lack of life that is the inevitable result of selfishness and prideful self-reliance.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun

in the Kingdom of their Father.

How ought we respond to a parable like this? By growing in our likeness to the one who first showed us mercy, who was first patient with us when we ourselves looked more like weeds than wheat. We can profitably receive the advice of Peter, who wrote, "love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (see First Peter 1:22-23). If we do this we will be able to respond like Jeremiah, with deep sympathy, even in the face of hostility and opposition.

For your name’s sake spurn us not,

disgrace not the throne of your glory;

remember your covenant with us, and break it not.

Matt Maher - Shine Like The Sun

25 July 2022 - laying down our rights (and lefts)

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons

and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.

The exchange followed immediately upon Jesus predicting his passion for the third time, explaining that his entry into Jerusalem will not be to conquer and to reign, but rather to suffer and to die, and only after to be raised. James and John were not outliers in not understanding these predictions, and probably they did not wish to understand. Probably they still desired for Jesus a throne like the other kings of the earth, and for themselves the chief places of honor on his right and on his left. That the request, which originated in their own desires, came through their mother could only have reflected her concern and solicitude for her children. They probably knew that Jesus had a soft spot in his heart for mothers. And perhaps they had some sense of the way their request would look in the eyes of their fellow disciples and thought having their mother ask would soften the edge somewhat.

She answered him,

“Command that these two sons of mine sit,

one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.”

These places at the right and the left of Jesus were not what James and John had imagined. It was actually as though they unknowingly asked to be crucified on his right and his left, drinking the chalice of the Father's will. Rather than positions of honor and pride and power they actually asked for ignominy, suffering, and death, together with Jesus. They did not realize this. They were thought they were referencing the promise made earlier by Jesus, who told them, "you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (see Matthew 19:28). They had already heard indications of the primacy of Peter and sought to protect and promote their own self-interest before the available positions were filled by others. But in truth the positions of honor in the Kingdom were given not given to those obsessed with authority like the rulers of the Gentiles. Authority in the Kingdom was only given to those who had already been purified by the partaking of the chalice of Christ.

You do not know what you are asking.

Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”

They said to him, “We can.”

James and John did not let their mother speak for them here. They were full of confidence and self assurance, no doubt misunderstanding precisely to what chalice Jesus referred. Nevertheless, Jesus did not flatly contradict them or tell them no. Their aspirations lacked perfect understanding, but nevertheless desired something fundamentally good: to be near to Jesus in his Kingdom, to have pleased him enough to be worthy of honor. That this intention was still mingled with pride was a reality that could be purified over time as they more and more completely embraced the chalice of Jesus.

My chalice you will indeed drink,

but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give

but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.

The positions at the right and the left of Jesus would not be given arbitrarily on the basis of a system of favoritism. Rather, they would be given to any and to all who abandoned themselves to the will of the Father as Jesus did. They could not be had by seeking them but only by surrender, following in the footsteps of Jesus himself. The ten should have interpreted this as good news, that those thrones might still be open for them. But instead, perhaps unsure at this point if those thrones were worth the price, they took offense at James and John for trying to take them for themselves and to be honored above the others.

When the ten heard this,

they became indignant at the two brothers.

The cross and the chalice are realities in the lives of all Christians. Often they make us consider what there will be for us, what we can get out of it, or how it is worthwhile to embrace such realities. Even our imperfect understanding of the rewards in store for us is enough for the Lord to draw us on. But let us learn, if we can, to seek the rewards found in servanthood rather than in greatness, to seek to be first by first seeking to be last, just like Jesus himself who "did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,

that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.

We should learn that we too are earthen vessels and that it is not ultimately all about us. We have all sorts of defects and difficulties, but it doesn't matter as long as we allow the surpassing power of God to manifest in us. This happens when we don't insist on the importance of the vessel so much as the quality of the content.

always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

Like Saint James, we may even experience being "given up to death for the sake of Jesus". But if we embrace the reality that we are merely the vessels for the surpassing power of God we too might embrace this fate in a way that makes "the life of Jesus" to be "manifested in our body". When this is how we follow Jesus we discover a reward that is no longer limited to only a few but is available for ourselves and, without being diminished, for all people.

Everything indeed is for you,

so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people

may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.

Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows

24 July 2022 - teach us to pray

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him,

"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

There was something about the prayer life of Jesus that was deeply compelling. It was not mere dry recitation of memorized formulae. It was not, as so often with the Gentiles, a heaping up of empty words. The disciples could tell even from a distance that their was something powerful happening in the prayer life of Jesus. John the Baptist was the greatest to be born of women prior to the Kingdom and he had taught his disciples to pray. But with the advent of the Kingdom in Jesus it seemed a new form of prayer would be necessary, and the disciples therefore had reason to hope that he would teach it to them.

He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,

What made the prayer of Jesus so fundamentally unique was the unique way in which he was related to the Father. He had come forth from the Father and was the perfect faithful child to whom the Kingdom belonged. In the Old Testament there was a vague sense of the fatherhood of God over Israel corporately and of kings particularly to some degree. But there was nothing like the intimacy of the relationship which Jesus claimed for himself with the Father, so close that he would even use the Aramaic word "abba", or "daddy", to address him. To give some sense of the scope of the difference God was referred to as our Father 13 times in the Old Testament whereas Jesus himself called God his Father more than 150 times in the Gospels. In teaching his disciples to pray he was inviting them into the relationship which he himself had with the Father, to which only he himself, through his Spirit could give access.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (see Galatians 4:6).

Even at the beginning of the Our Father, in this terrain that seems so mundane and familiar, we are invited into a participation in a supernatural and spiritual reality. We are invited to transcend our limited understanding of the reality of the Father and allow the Holy Spirit to wash over us and hallow that name in our hearts. When this happens our prayer will be anything but routine for it will be in the presence of one who is truly listening, who loved us into being, and who is absolutely worthy of our trust. Our prayer life will have an utterly different character when God is hallowed as Father in our hearts rather than, as often happens, when we address ourselves to a deity we perceive as distant and disinterested.

your kingdom come.

Experiencing the Fatherhood of God allows us to pray for a Kingdom which is not first an earthly Kingdom, for we are then able to acknowledge and to trust that the one who made us knows what will fulfill us. It allows us to pray for the ever increasing manifestation of the Kingdom which is found in the pearl of great price, Jesus himself, and then in and among his disciples. It is therefore a petition which asks for the spiritual fulfillment of humankind and of the deepest desires of the human heart. We realize that our hearts are restless and unfilled anywhere except in the fullness of the Kingdom and so we pray for that Kingdom in its fullness. It is not just a prayer for individuals to find some subjective fulfillment, but rather a prayer for the history to reach the culmination which it can find in Christ alone.

Give us each day our daily bread

In the petition for our daily bread is contained the entire hierarchy of goods which we ought to desire. At one level, it acknowledges that it is appropriate to depend on God for our basic material needs. Beginning on this basic level we learn how to trust God for the necessities of the day while leaving the future in his hands, since "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (see Matthew 6:34). But this petition for bread also orders our material desires to the higher goods of the Kingdom, since man cannot live by bread alone (see Matthew 4:4). And so we ask also for the bread of the wisdom (see Proverbs 9:5), which was the hidden food that Jesus possessed (see John 4:32), and also the daily bread of the Eucharist, fulfilling, as it did, the daily manna in the desert.

We go on to pray that God would help us order our relationships in this world according to his priorities, chiefly according to his desire for mercy, which is why we ask to forgive and be forgiven. We end the prayer remembering our dependence on God, on the necessity of him preserving us in temptation, lest we be left only to our own strength and therefore succumb by necessity. Testing will come, but when we place ourselves continually under the watchful gaze of our Father as faithful children it need not overtake us.

From the Old Testament reading about Abraham and from the parable Jesus told about the neighbor coming at midnight we learn the importance of persistence in prayer. We learn not merely to ask, to knock, and to seek, but to ask and keep asking, to knock and keep knocking, to seek and to keep seeking. We are able to do this appropriately and without anxiety when we remember that the one we are petitioning is both our Father and also also are friend. Indeed it is the case that this persistence itself is his gift, drawing from us something good, itself contributing to the hallowing of his name and the coming of his Kingdom.

If you then, who are wicked,

know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will the Father in heaven

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

With the world on our day looking increasingly similar to Sodom and Gomorrah it is essential for us to learn this way of prayer Jesus taught so that we can plead for the mercy which God himself first taught us to desire, both for ourselves, and for the world.

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

Matt Maher - As It Is In Heaven

John Foreman - Your Love Is Strong

23 June 2022 - no weed maps

Today's Readings

(Audio)

While everyone was asleep his enemy came

and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.

What is the endgame of the enemy in this plot of planting weeds? Certainly an aspect of it was to sow the doubt which the slaves of the household did in fact experience, saying, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?" and leaving them to wonder at the presence of weeds in the field just as we often wonder about the presence of evil in a world created to be good, and of the presence of sinners in the Church that was meant to be holy.

He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'

The man himself did not sow the weeds in the garden. In some sense his sleep that allowed this may reflect God giving his creatures space for freedom of will. But at a deeper level we know that God "will neither slumber nor sleep" (see Psalm 121:4). If God allowed weeds among the wheat, it must have been because he could make a greater good result therefrom. 

He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds

you might uproot the wheat along with them.

Until the harvest there would not be sufficient clarity to distinguish the weeds from the wheat. Human attempts at inquisitions to completely purify the field of all weeds would have leave it scorched, with many weeds remaining, and many genuine plants destroyed. While they were yet growing it was as though wheat plants might yet even become weeds and so too weeds become plants of wheat. Only God could see the final destiny of the field. The slaves were not in a position to know exactly what good or damage they might do in attempts to remove all weeds from the garden. For his part the master chose not to act immediately, but to reserve time for mercy, to ensure a bountiful harvest. 

Let them grow together until harvest;

In growing together in a world also containing weeds we experience opportunities to exercise virtues like patience and courage. Weeds, when patiently and loving endured, sometimes experience conversion that makes them wheat. This sort of thing doesn't happen in the fields of farmers. But it is common in the Kingdom for those who were once sinners to become saints. The saints in turn grow to rely on their roots in God himself, and become hardy and resilient in ways in which, untested, they might never have reached. 

Do you want us to go and pull them up?

What about outright heresy and public scandal in the Church? Does she have nothing to say in such circumstances? Must all be allowed on account of this parable? It would seem that the problem in the parable is one of similarity, of the fact that our judgment is often insufficient to tell weed from wheat. This is often the case with people, since we can't see into their hearts. But it is not often the case with heretical teaching itself which must be immediately contradicted and condemned. Heretics and other instances of public scandal are extreme examples that bear little resemblance to the wheat and may therefore be extracted without as much risk. Although even in this example where the sin is obvious and evident the disruption may confuse and cause anxiety for those who witness it, especially those who did not know better but were charmed by the words of the offender. So the risk is not nothing. And even heretics, although they appear to be weeds, may yet turn out to be wheat before the end. But at a certain point the risk to the wheat is so great that the stewards of the field must act. Yet because it is not yet the time for harvest even here the destiny of the plants is not yet set in stone. Hence even in her discipline, even in excommunication, the goal is always that they might repent and return. 

This is the temple of the LORD!

The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!

It would seem that there have always been sinners mixed in with the saints. Even among the disciples there was Judas the traitor. Jesus chose his disciples intentionally, knowing that it would somehow mysteriously result in the optimal harvest if the grew together. Hence for us we should not be surprised in our Church and in our world if we encounter those who appear to be weeds. We should not therefore long for a Church or a world that is tyrannical in its opposition to the weeds. After all, their destiny is not yet set. Neither, more too it, is our own. We ourselves may sometimes very much resemble weeds more than wheat. Let us be grateful, then, that we still have until the harvest to change. Let us put our roots down more deeply into the stream of life, for only God himself can make us bear good fruit.

Robin Mark - Days Of Elijah

22 July 2022 - whom my heart loves

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.

Mary Magdalene may or may not have been the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus at Bethany (see Luke 7:46-48). But she was certainly was one who knew herself to be forgiven much, one from whom seven demons had gone out (see Luke 8:2), and who therefore loved much in response. Her love for Jesus made her an embodiment of the archetypal response of the Bride to the Bridegroom described in Song of Songs, and an example for everyone seeking the presence of Jesus in prayer and contemplation.

On my bed at night I sought him

whom my heart loves–

I sought him but I did not find him.

The path of Mary Magdalene was not one of easy and immediate gratification. She stood by the cross as darkness covered the earth and all hope was seemingly extinguished. This impacted her on a human level as much as anyone short of the mother of Jesus himself. She was broken and traumatized by this ultimate manifestation of the realities of suffering and sin in the world. Yet, though she could not understand how or why to hope, she demonstrated a stubborn refusal to give up entirely. She came to the tomb even while it was dark with a darkness that was more than physical. She remained there, pouring out tears that could not now anoint the feet or the one whom her heart loved.

I will rise then and go about the city;

in the streets and crossings I will seek

Him whom my heart loves.

Mary Magdalene continued to focus on Jesus even when there was no human hope of seeing him again. She did not do what we often do in the face of difficulty, which is to go and seek other consolations elsewhere. She truly entered into that space of sorrow, but with an almost irrational desire that she could somehow see him again.

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,

and I don’t know where they laid him.”

She didn't realize that his body would rise again. But her love for Jesus himself made her want to remain connected to him in whatever way she could, even if it was to ensure a proper burial, even if it was to be near him in his stillness and death. Her love for him therefore enabled her to transcend what would have been possible by her considering the situation rationally. Her love brought her close, in spite of the darkness of faith, in spite of the difficulty of emotion. And although her love itself was powerless to change the situation, it put her in the perfect place for Jesus himself to comfort her.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

Jesus was in some way different now that he had risen, in some way like the gardener in the garden of a new Eden. Mary had to learn to see beyond the ultimately hopeless confines of her old ways of thinking to recognize Jesus. It was the voice of Jesus himself recognizing Mary, comprehending and knowing her so completely, that was the key for her to see in Jesus the same one whom she knew before. 

I had hardly left them

when I found him whom my heart loves.

We can learn from Mary Magdalene to seek Jesus with our loving desire even when everything around us seems dark and hopeless. She shows us what a true response of gratitude to the work of Jesus in our lives can be. She demonstrates for us the ways in which our old and earthly ways of thinking need to be replaced, and how this can only be the result of the voice of Jesus himself. We will face dark times on our own path, but if we continue to seek him whom our hearts love, if we don't run because of fear, or turn aside because of sadness, it can result in a new and deeper encounter with Jesus himself. She was truly impelled by the love of Christ and now lived no longer for herself but for him. May we also experience the full transformational power of his love and resurrection in our lives.

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:

the old things have passed away;

behold, new things have come.

Audrey Assad - Even Unto Death

21 July 2022 - below the surface

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?

This is a reasonable question. Why not be more straightforward about his message and use language which left no room for ambiguity? Why leave open the possibility that he will not be understood or that he will be understood wrongly? Why specifically conceal the meaning beneath the surface?

Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven

has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

The parables were not barriers to learning from Jesus for his disciples. They possessed the one thing necessary, they key that was able to unlock all of the parables: Jesus himself. Because they had him, his teachings would be "more" which was given to them to make them grow rich. But trying to interpret their parables without the key would leave one frustrated. One like that may have heard, but he did not understand. He may have looked but he did not truly see. Because his hearts remained closed to Jesus even these experiences of his teaching and of his miracles would not make any difference for them. Rather, they were the little they had that would be taken away.

Gross is the heart of this people

Our response to the parables, our ability to understand them, is predicated on our response to Christ. We might imagine the parables as mysteries to be solved that would then give us confidence or compelling reasons to follow Jesus. But the parables are not like this. They are the treasures of the Kingdom given to those who are already in relationship with the King. This was the case for his disciples. First he called, then they came to him, and the parables and other teaching came after. Christianity was not to be conversion to a teaching so much as conversion to a person. 

they will hardly hear with their ears,

they have closed their eyes,

lest they see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts and be converted

and I heal them.

Jesus proclaimed the parables to all because he desired his riches to be available to all. But he would not force anyone to receive them. Hence the mode of communication was not one which was filled with unanswerable knockdown arguments. It was something which hard hearts could quickly and conveniently set aside. 'Aren't the parables too simple, too mundane, to really matter?' they may have asked. 'The meaning of these is obvious and not that big of a deal' they may have asserted. To the degree that we only penetrate the letter of these parables and not the Spirit we might be tempted to feel the same way. The parables leave our free will entirely intact. They do not overwhelm us. They allow a fearful freedom of response. 

The parables of Jesus spring from him as from the fountain of life, the deep well of living waters. May we receive them as the treasure they are meant to be, and not forsake them in favor of other options. However those options gleam on the surface they inevitably fail to satisfy.

Two evils have my people done:

they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;

They have dug themselves cisterns,

broken cisterns, that hold no water.

Are we grateful that Jesus has given us access to living water, to the fountain of life, to the light which gives light to all we see and experience? Do we even realize it? The disciples were thus privileged, but Jesus still had to call their attention to the truth of it.

But blessed are your eyes, because they see,

and your ears, because they hear.

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

longed to see what you see but did not see it,

and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

In Jesus we receive what all of humanity, Jews and Gentiles both, longed for at the deepest level of their being. Yet we scarcely recognize it. We often prefer the cisterns of the world, empty though they are, to the true living water found in Christ, veiled in the simplicity of his teaching, but available for hearts that will open themselves to him. Let our hearts and those of the whole world be converted, that he may heal us.

Songs In His Presence - In Your Light

20 July 2022 - go deeper

Today's Reading

(Audio)

A sower went out to sow.

We contain in ourselves in varying percentages all of the types of ground, the path, the rocky ground, the thorns, and even also rich soil. If we reflect we can identify all of the different possibilities for the seed as things we ourselves have experienced.

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,

and birds came and ate it up.

These birds can describe what happens when we encounter the word but it does not penetrate us at all. We may feel as though we heard or read something profoundly spiritual and then moments later forget what it was. An encounter at the most superficial level does not provide and space for the seed to grow. And the seed is not permitted to simply sit on the path hoping to work its way down into the soil. Rather, the world is hostile to the word, and with myriad distractions and counterarguments it quickly makes us lose track of what we saw in the seed in the first place, if, that is, it never penetrates the surface of the soil. We must not become a path that proudly imagines itself to become a garden just because of the number of seeds it has received.

Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.

It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,

This seed sprang up at once. At first this might have made it seem strong or healthy. Rather, it did so precisely because it lacked what it was meant to find in the depths of the soil. When the ground of our hearts is too hard the seed will not be able to put down roots into our depths where God himself can nourish it. It will instead seek the nutrition it needs from above, from the world. If consolation can't come  from God consolation will be sought in other ways. Those consolations may still be masked in the guise in spirituality, but in reality the leaves of the plant will actually be growing up toward the comfort that the light of vanity, the breeze of pleasure, and the self-asserting power of an imposing presence. All of these are more readily at hand for the seed than what it might find deeper in the earth. But only that which is deep is sustainable. The false promises of the world will leave the plant scorched because of the fundamental absence of the nourishing moisture in the soil, and the winds of every doctrine (see Ephesians 4:14) may well uproot it due to lack of roots.

Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.

Thorns are perhaps the most obvious danger of which Jesus warned. Thorns are other conflicting priorities that prevent the seed from having the space it needs for growth. But for being obvious, these thorns are no less dangerous. For many of us are all to ready to try to cultivate both thorns and seeds in our own lives. We assume that the seed is all but invincible and therefore force it to contend with all sorts of hostile influences. And yet we have the temerity to complain when this results in a dry and unrewarding spiritual life.

But some seed fell on rich soil

It is possible for us to be rich soil in which the seed takes root deeply. It means we can't be content with any of the alternative scenarios. We need more the mere surface level contact with the word. This means prayer, study, and putting it into practice in our lives. It means we must address the hardness of our own hearts so that we are able to engage with the seed in the deep interior way God desires. Above all this means an openness to change and conversion that can only be a supernatural gift of grace. We all have rocks in our soil, and we are in need of the gardener himself to break them so that the seed might thrive. If we see ourselves reaching above the soil too soon to compensate ourselves, because we deserve it, or because we feel we need it, we should be cautious that perhaps we are missing some key nutrition that is meant to feed us. We must show no quarter to the thorns that compete with the Kingdom seed. They will be threat enough even if we don't make it easy for them. It is precisely in presumption that they are most free to grow. Our continued desire to be the good soil is what calls out to the gardener, what invites the seed deeply into our hearts, and makes us free to engage with it in a way that leads to true transformation. One thing is certain. If the seed doesn't grow in us it won't be because of lack of generosity on the part of the sower, or because of lack of care on the part of the gardener.

What more could have been done for my vineyard

than I have done for it? (see Isaiah 5:4).

We are all of the kinds of soil. But we are most fully identified with the type of soil where our attention is focused. This focus in turn is possible only by our graced response to the call to conversion, to take on a new and supernatural way of thinking. We are all free to make this response. The call is to whoever has ears. 

We can learn a lesson from Jeremiah about some of the excuses we might make and why they are insufficient.

But the LORD answered me,

Say not, “I am too young.”

To whomever I send you, you shall go;

whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Have no fear before them,

because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

Jeremiah was tempted to engage only superficially with the seed of the word that came to him. It might have been nice for a moment to hear, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" and then get back to the business of the life he already had. But the Lord himself desired something deeper and so the Lord himself created the conditions for the seed to grow.

Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying,

See, I place my words in your mouth!

John B. Miller - Speak Lord I'm Listening

Kutless - Word Of God Speak

19 July 2022 - family plan

Today's Readings

(Audio)

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds,

his mother and his brothers appeared outside,

wishing to speak with him.

Jesus demonstrated his focus on the primacy of the Kingdom of God. Just as he told would be followers that he could not wait for them to bury their dead or say farewell to their family (see Luke 9:59-62) so too did he himself place the criteria of the Kingdom above natural bonds of blood. He had said that whoever "loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (see Matthew 10:37) but in this way he demonstrated that he himself made the same sort of sacrifices that he asked of others. We might well imagine that the work of preaching, healing, and casting out demons was exhausting and that Jesus might have found time with his mother and his cousins to be a restful reprieve, but he did not indulge in it.

But he said in reply to the one who told him,

“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

The new level of interpersonal relationships possible for followers of Jesus transcended those on only a natural level. Jesus certainly had nothing against family bonds. The commandment to honor one's parents was his idea. But he knew that simply being related by blood to another did not assure that the resulting relationships would be good. He desired to give a new basis of solidity to our relationships with one another, one which would transcend our bonds of blood, making it possible for us to become brothers and sisters of one another and of Jesus himself. 

Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father

is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Although on a natural level it seemed like a slight to Mary his mother, seen through the eyes of faith it actually elevated her. For she and she only perfectly accepted the will of the heavenly Father when she said yes to the message of the archangel. It was her acceptance of the Father's will that made her the mother of Jesus both naturally but even more so by faith. And so what Mary did can become a model for us, for how we can say yes, and bring Jesus more and more into our world and circumstances, how we too can in some sense be mothers to the word of God.

It is by faith in baptism that we are able to join the family of God. From this we understand more what Paul wrote when he said that "it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham" (see Galatians 3:7). We see a deeper truth in what Jesus said when he warned, "And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham" (see Matthew 3:9). Our hearts, then, were the stones. Before faith we could do little but grind against one another, crushing others or being crushed ourselves, "hated by others and hating one another" (see Titus 3:3). But by faith we experienced the promise made through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, "I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh". (see Ezekiel 36:26). God raised up children of Abraham from hearts of stone. 

Jesus did not privilege natural relationships because these were limited, and could not be shared. He required of his mother that she do the same. Because their relationship was supernatural it was something that could be imitated and something into which we ourselves could enter. Bonds of blood might have had a sentimental appeal but they were ultimately limits that the Kingdom itself had to transcend if it was to become an international Kingdom for Jew and Gentile alike. Mary may have had to remain outside while Jesus continued to teach that day, but as a consequence she became Queen Mother to the entire Church. She is now supernaturally poised to teach and to help us to give birth to Jesus in our own lives. She not stands ready to teach us what she herself first demonstrated, that when we prefer the Kingdom to all else we really will receive all else besides.

Who does not persist in anger forever,

but delights rather in clemency,

And will again have compassion on us,

treading underfoot our guilt?

To the degree that we have chosen selfishness over the Kingdom we can take comfort in the fact that God shows clemency not grudgingly, but with delight. He desires to restore us even more than we desire it for ourselves. Our hearts may be drying out, seemingly reverting to the stone from which they came. But he himself desires to be the dewfall that makes us live again.

Matt Maher - Hold Us Together