31 August 2022 - for this purpose

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,

they tried to prevent him from leaving them.

One might have expected that Jesus would have desired to stay longer in Capernaum. It seemed as though he had a good thing going. The response recorded was entirely positive, and in that way entirely opposite of what he encountered in Nazareth. In Nazareth the lack of faith made it so that "he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief" (see Matthew 13:58). At Nazareth they "drove him out of town" (see Luke 4:29) but in Capernaum "they tried to prevent him from leaving". Had Jesus been operating in a merely human mode, like a fleshy person or infant described by Paul, he probably would have settled in and enjoyed his success. But just as Paul insisted that his audience show no favoritism to teachers Jesus himself showed no favoritism to audience. 

But he said to them, “To the other towns also

I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,

because for this purpose I have been sent.”

There was something greater at stake, something which compelled Jesus to travel widely, scattering the seed like the sower in his parable, in places where the reception to his message was warm and welcoming but also in places where the response was hostile. What Jesus sought was not the validation of a job well done. Nor did he seek to avoid uncomfortable encounters and negative responses. He sought rather to spread the Kingdom. This was what he had accomplished in Capernaum.

Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,

and they interceded with him about her.

He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.

She got up immediately and waited on them.

Simon's mother-in-law was just one example of the ways in which the kingdom of darkness was forced to withdraw, was in fact expelled from the strongholds it once enjoyed in Capernaum. Neither disease nor demons were any match for the authority of the word of Jesus. His rebuke could chase away fever and demons with equal ease. No storm was a match for the peace with which he spoke. His healing hands claimed for the Kingdom of light many who had previously been captive in the kingdom of darkness. Demons fled screaming at his touch, for they could not withstand him.

And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Jesus desired more than mere worldly success, and had little interest in the adulation of his followers. He was, however, utterly intent on establishing the Kingdom on earth. His life was synonymous with the petition, "Thy Kingdom come". The coming of that Kingdom implied the destruction of the kingdom of darkness, and so it was also said that the "reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (see First John 3:8).

How can we learn to keep our priorities as perfectly straight as Jesus held his own? How can we learn to yield to what seems humanly successful, to not fear what seems humanly difficult, in favor of the mission to which we are called? Jesus left us an example. We must follow him to "a deserted place" and pray. We must step away from the influence of the crowd, whether that is positive or negative, and open ourselves more completely to the influence of the Father, just as Jesus himself demonstrated.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.

Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,

but only God, who causes the growth.

We tend to imagine we're important in the wrong ways and to downplay ourselves in the ways that we are actually important. We focus on the importance of seeing good results and fear bad ones. But our importance is not about what we can or cannot bring to completion, as though everything depended on our own strength or abilities. Our importance is precisely for the part of the mission that is uniquely our own. It may be hidden or it may be public. It may seem impressive or trivial. All of that is inconsequential. What matters is that we remain open to the dynamic call of the living God, that we remain free to go wherever he calls.

Our soul waits for the LORD,

who is our help and our shield,

For in him our hearts rejoice;

in his holy name we trust.

Randy Rothwell - For This Purpose

30 August 2022 - get your mind right

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”

Jesus did not need lengthy formulas or incantations in order to command demons to obey him. His word was different from the words of others. Others spoke much more and yet the results were by no means guaranteed. Jesus simply spoke, and what he said would then be. 

“What is there about his word?

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,

and they come out.”

There was something utterly unique about the words of Jesus, different from any exorcist they had ever seen or any teacher they had ever heard. This was part of what made his message at once so compelling to the crowds and so offensive to the religious establishment of his time. He himself did not even need to pray to cast out a demon. All he needed was the power of his word. 

When Jesus he taught he did so with an authority that was greater than Moses, greater than Solomon. He was not limited to saying only what he could prove by quoting the Scriptures. He was not constrained even to what Moses taught. Hence his sermons often began, "You have heard it said", citing what God himself revealed through Moses, and then continued, "But I say to you". He was doing more than adding another layer of nuance or interpretation to their deposit of divine revelation. He himself was the divine voice speaking, revealing the culmination and fulfillment of what had been before only partial and fragmentary. No mere human, with merely human authority, could ever speak in this way. 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (see Hebrews 1:1).

Human wisdom could not penetrate into the divine mystery. Even with the entire Old Testament it was beyond the wisdom of creatures to guess or calculate how God himself would bring his plan to completion. As Paul said, no human ever knew the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him. Only Jesus himself could reveal it to us. But reveal it he did.

we have the mind of Christ.

Jesus not only revealed his mind to us, he allowed us to have a participation in it, to receive from him a new and spiritual way of thinking. This gift was given to us when we received his Spirit in baptism. It allows us to understand what he taught in a way that natural intelligence cannot. It reveals to us the wisdom of the cross, which is foolishness to the world. This spiritual mind transforms us, making us like Jesus himself. His own words, taught to us by the Spirit, become not only our own words but even our own thoughts. We can, when the Spirit leads, speak with an authority that transcends anything we could claim for ourselves. This is an important way in which we manifest the presence of Jesus to the world, in all his capacities, including as both teacher and healer. 

we have the mind of Christ.

We do in fact have the mind of Christ. But we often still choose to use the foolish natural mind with which we were born rather than this amazing gift. Let us pray that we might realize the gift we have received, when the word of Jesus first transformed us, so that his word at work in us can now reach out to others.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (see Romans 12:2).

Kutless - Word Of God Speak

29 August 2022 - preparing the way

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,

and kept him in custody.

This fear Herod had of John was a strange sort of fear. It was not a worldly fear that John was somehow a threat to Herod's throne. What was it, then? Herod would not have been able to articulate it, but it was John's holiness that made him afraid. Yet this fear was not a fear of the Lord that would lead to wisdom. The proportions were all wrong for that. It did still have some aspect of wonder in it, in the sense that "he liked to listen" to John. But the overarching concern was self-protection. Rather than fear moving Herod to adapt himself to the presence of holiness, his fear motivated him to try to tame and adapt the situation to himself. He desired to measure and control where and when John could speak, to dose and titrate his words only up to the point that he desired, leaving Herod free to walk away at any moment. 

When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,

yet he liked to listen to him.

Does our own sense of the holy motivate us to humble ourselves in the presence of God? Or do we too try to tame holiness when it begins to threaten us, particularly, when it indicts our behavior as in need of change? Do we seek only the good feelings that the Word of God does in fact produce in us? Or do we allow the Word to sit in judgment over us? This is precisely what Jesus promised was meant to happen with the coming of his Spirit.

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (see John 16:8).

When we try to tame the situations in our lives such that we don't encounter too much holiness all at once the greatest risk is that we succeed. We then remain more or less unchanged by the Word, at least at a deeper level. For a while this may not seem like a big deal, as our lives proceed much the same as always. But then, when bigger temptations come we are not equipped to face them.

Herodias’ own daughter came in

and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.

The king said to the girl,

“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”

If we don't let holiness convict us and call us to change the world will grow more powerful in its ability to seduce and ensnare us. We, like Herod, will find ourselves giving in to temptations which were initially repulsive to us.

“I want you to give me at once

on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

Without the change John the Baptist could have guided Herod to make, Herod's lust and his pride outpaced his superficial interest in the truth. He found himself making a decision that saddened him. He was "deeply distressed". But he had already made clear his relationship to sin, righteousness, and judgment. His opportunity for freedom had been too frightening so he kept it in a cell. With only that limited venue it was unable to be any help. This king, who was apparently among the most free from a worldly point of view, found himself a slave to sin, sadly obeying as a young girl was enlisted to make a mockery of that freedom.

Brothers and sisters, there is a better way for us. We too are likely to push back when holiness convicts us and threatens our status quo. But if we recognize what is happening we can still respond well, to give it a wide birth to bring us the fullness of the revelation we need. We can avoid the temptation to try to tame the Word of God. We can resist the urge to confine it so that it can only speak to us on our terms, for instance, about matters that we imagine are specifically spiritually.

I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you

except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The example of martyrs like John the Baptist and the cross of Jesus himself have the power to wake us from our slumber of sin, to shake us out of our complacency in our palace halls. If we learn from John and not from Herod we will recognize the bridegroom and rejoice. Even though we ourselves may decrease, it will probably not be as extreme an decrease as that which John the Baptist suffered. But however extreme it may be, we can learn to have peace in the fact that Jesus himself will increase. This is the miraculous power of the cross at work, as it indeed already was in the life of John the Baptist.

my message and my proclamation

were not with persuasive words of wisdom,

but with a demonstration of spirit and power,

so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom

but on the power of God.

DC Talk - Jesus Freak

Newsboys - Lead Me To The Cross

28 August 2022 - assigned seating

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,

do not recline at table in the place of honor.

When we try to judge which seat at a banquet we deserve we often deceive ourselves. The Pharisees assumed that they deserved the positions of honor at the table, and were intent on those positions so others could see them there and recognize their imagined greatness. But they were so focused on themselves that they ignored a more distinguished guest that had been invited, Jesus himself. For his part, Jesus had no need to jockey for position at the table. He knew that God "brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (see Luke 1:52). He himself always sought the lowest place, from his baptism too his cross, because "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (see Philippians 2:6). And because he humbled himself even unto death "God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" (see Philippians 2:9).

A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,

and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,

'Give your place to this man,'

If we are too intent on our place at the table we are apt to be upset when we are required to move. How quick are we too claim what we believe ourselves to deserve and imagine ourselves to have earned? How much does it hurt our pride when someone with a more holistic view reveals to us that we are not as exalted as we thought? Rather than trying to judge our own merits with our own limited perspectives it is far safer to entrust ourselves to the mercy of the host. 

Some of us may not feel strongly about the seats of honor described by Jesus. And yet none of us is likely so humble as to demonstrate complete indifference to the opinion of the other guests. After all, it affects how they treat us, and the rights and privileges accorded to us. Typically, the tables closest to the bride and groom are allowed to eat first, for instance. How patient are we as every other table is called before our own? Yet, being comfortable at this last and lowest place is the key. For when we are not deserving in our own eyes it is then that we begin to become worthy of higher places in the feast of the Kingdom.

Rather, when you are invited,

go and take the lowest place

so that when the host comes to you he may say,

'My friend, move up to a higher position.'

Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.

Jesus is the host, and we need him to help us become more concerned with his perspective than that of those around us, and ultimately, even our own. Our minds struggle against humility, insisting that we deserve a noble position, producing endless arguments about why it is fitting or necessary for us to try to do all we can to take one for ourselves. But our minds are trying to trap us in an unwinnable struggle to somehow earn what can never be earned. Existence itself was already a gift, and life in the Kingdom even more so. As Paul asked, what do we have that we were not given (see First Corinthians 4:7)? If all was gift to begin with, how can we boast, or see ourselves as better than anyone else at the wedding feast?

My child, conduct your affairs with humility,

and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

It seems to our ego that when we don't assert ourselves we end up used, abused, and empty in the end. But it is just the opposite for those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God (see First Peter 5:6). Those who do so have a kind of riches, an ability to be a blessing to others, that transcends anything the ego can hoard for itself. And the humble are actually free to use what they do have to be a blessing to others. They are the ones who are free to bless without the need of repayment, just as Jesus taught.

Rather, when you hold a banquet,

invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;

blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.

When the humble care for those who cannot repay them they imitate Jesus who himself invited the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, to join him in the wedding feast of the Kingdom of God. It was especially such as these who were free and open to receive the invitation as a gift, whereas the Pharisees, intent on seeking their own honor, missed the presence of the host entirely. Jesus did indeed make "a home for the poor" in his Kingdom. It is into this same home, and this same banquet, which we ourselves are invited. But it is a place where worldly honors hold no meaning, where position cannot be earned by effort, where everything is in fact a gift of grace. But let us pray that we learn to prefer it to anything we can provide for ourselves, for only within is any exaltation worth experiencing.

No, you have approached Mount Zion

and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,

Matt Maher - Your Grace Is Enough

27 August 2022 - ROI

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A man going on a journey

called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.

To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one–

to each according to his ability.

We have been entrusted with blessings from the Lord, each according to our ability. If we trust in the Lord's judgment and put our blessings to work in the service of his Kingdom we will produce an impressive return on his investment.

Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,

and made another five.

Likewise, the one who received two made another two.

We do not always trust the Lord as the one to judge our ability. We sometimes receive his blessings, but then, like the man who received one talent, bury them out of fear. This is not a healthy fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom. It is rather a fear about ourselves that comes when we ourselves dominate the focus. Perhaps we see ourselves as less deserving than our fellow servants who may have received a larger number of talents. Rather than being honored to be entrusted with a share of the master's possessions we may begin to focus on our apparent lack of worth compared them, to give in to self-pity, and to give up before we even make a first effort.

But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground

and buried his master's money.

A light is not meant to be hidden under a bushel basket. But if we are afraid of what we be revealed about us when we let that light shine we might do exactly that. We are called to trust that it is better for the light to shine than to continue to stumble in the dark. Yes, we will encounter our own limits and liabilities. But only in the light can these be addressed. Receiving one talent is not meant to be a condemnation. It is meant to be a starting place. This could have been a beginning in which one who had would receive more and grow rich. But for the man in the parable, fear prevented him from really receiving the talent. He kept it distant where it was unable to do its work. When it was buried it was as though he did not have it at all. In the end, there was nothing for the master to do but to reclaim it so that it could be put to better use, although he certainly would not have preferred that outcome.

Master, I knew you were a demanding person,

harvesting where you did not plant

and gathering where you did not scatter;

so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.

The master is described as someone who can derive a result that is disproportionate to the initial circumstances or investment. The servant given one talent knew about this reputation for the miraculous that surrounded the master, but regarded it only with fear. We sometimes see a similar response when we consider the impressive holiness and miracles that filled the lives of saints, a response of fear rather than imitation. Rather than rejoicing that we have received some measure of what the saints have received we believe ourselves to be cut from different cloth, unable to be anything like them. We impose limits based how we judge ourselves and how we think we compare to others instead of believing that the only limits on us are those by which the master himself judges our abilities. 

If only we would believe more in the master whose divine riches make possible any return on his investment. We would then no longer see receiving only one talent as a condemnation, but as infinite possibility. That one talent invested with faith, hope, and love, could in fact produce a larger result many talents invested only casually and half-heartedly. One seems like too little to make a difference. But if we are attentive to the one that we have been given and not the five which were for another we can yet hope for a miraculous return, just as the master himself harvested where he did not plant, because it is then that we allow the master's own riches to do their work in our lives.

Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,

and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,

and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,

those who count for nothing,

to reduce to nothing those who are something,

so that no human being might boast before God.

It might well be God's will to do more with one talent, with a small act of great love, than anyone would expect. It is in keeping with his character that he would delight to show that the faithful response of an apparently under equipped servant was worth more than the investment of many others whose abilities seemed much greater on the surface. We may need a little holy foolishness to trust the Lord when he invites us to go out into a competitive market with only one talent. But it is not our own wealth that we put to work when we do so, it is his own. When we remember that fact we can grow in confidence, not in ourselves, but in him.

Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.

David Crowder Band - Undignified

26 August 2022 - lit

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins

who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

We want to go out to meet the bridegroom with lamps that are lit. But we sometimes make the mistake of the foolish five and assume that because our lamps are lit when we leave that they will still be shining brightly when we arrive. What if the interval between when we light our lamps and when the bridegroom finally comes is longer than we first suspected? Is our light only good for an initial burst of enthusiasm at the idea of the wedding but then too little for endurance over the long haul?

Since the bridegroom was long delayed,

they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

Everyone in the parable was overcome by sleep, lulled by the world, when the bridegroom did not come at once. But there were five who managed to make themselves ready in spite of this. All ten succumbed in some sense to weakness. But for those who were wise it was not catastrophic. By contrast, those who were foolish found that sleep stole from them the time they would need to fix the flame in their lamps and ready a good response to the bridegroom. The oil that the wise brought with them let them recover so quickly it was as though they had not been asleep. The lack of oil of the foolish so cast them back upon their own resources, or lack thereof, that sleeping itself was only part of a delay that proved too long.

Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.’ 

While they went off to buy it,

the bridegroom came

and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. 

Had they not fallen asleep in the first place the foolish ones might have noticed the dimming of their lamps and taken corrective action in time. But if they had at least made the effort to prepare as the wise did, to have oil on hand for if things didn't go perfectly as planned, their story might have ended differently.

Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 

What is this oil, that makes our lights shine and makes us ready and recognizable to the bridegroom, but which cannot be shared with others no matter how much we might wish to do so?

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (see Matthew 5:16).

At a basic level, the oil is our good works. For these not only shine to glorify our heavenly Father in the moment, but they establish in us habits that help us to wake up from sleep with hearts that are ready to love, and therefore to receive and celebrate the bridegroom. Those practiced in good works can quickly begin to shine again even if there is a momentary lapse during a long delay. 

It would be wrong, however, if we simply regarded ourselves as the source of our good works. Preparing extra oil is not simply a matter of working harder. Even more than our works, then, the oil must be the Spirit who underlies our works, who makes us able to love and to live as lights in the world.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (see Galatians 5:16-17).

...

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (see Galatians 5:22-23).

Prudence and wisdom therefore call us to remember our own lack of sufficiency in ourselves, our own weakness, and to remain constantly open to the work of the Spirit within us, seeking more and more to receive the love he himself pours into our hearts, to let he himself be the flame that shines in our works which are then his own fruits in us.

The wisdom to which we are called seems foolish to the world who is unaware of the spiritual realities that underlie those which are merely physical. We are called to depend on a God who himself suffered death out of love for us as the source of our own light and strength. But when we really begin to live by faith in this truth, faith in "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" the results speak for themselves.

The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;

he foils the designs of peoples.

But the plan of the LORD stands forever;

the design of his heart, through all generations.

TobyMac Ft. Hollyn - Lights Shine Bright

25 August 2022 - posture of praise

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

We must remain spiritually awake rather than hoping that we will identity some last minute signs and make ourselves ready then. Putting off our repentance is a bad plan, because tomorrow is not guaranteed, either to any of us individually, or indeed to the world as a whole.

if the master of the house

had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake

and not let his house be broken into.

If we insist on sleep, on putting holiness off until another day, on indulging ourselves with drunkards, then we will experience the coming of the Lord as though he were a thief coming to take what is ours. This isn't something we usually formulate as our plan and then carry it out point by point. It is rather a gradual drowsiness that creeps upon us as we entertain the thought that, "My master is long delayed". This thought makes us gradually forget that we are but stewards, that what the master will eventually return to reclaim is rightly his own to begin with. We then begin to usurp the role of the master, but end up only as caricatures of him.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’

and begins to beat his fellow servants,

and eat and drink with drunkards,

So then, we want to avoid the entertaining the idea that our master is long delayed. But this is the way things look from a merely human perspective. In order to remain awake and alert we need supernatural help to remember that "he is actually not far from each one of us" (see Acts 17:27) and that he promised, "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (see Matthew 28:20). He comes to us in many ways each day, speaking to us through others, appearing to us in the guise of our neighbors and the poor, and ever offering, not to steal from us, but to pour out blessings upon us. This fact was what Paul called on the Corinthians to remember.

as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,

so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift

as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To the one who has more will be given, because the one who has is open to receive the Spirit from the Son more and more. To the one who has not even what he has will be taken away by the thief in the night, for it was never truly his to begin with, and he had invested in things that were passing away. 

We might say that remaining awake is almost synonymous with remaining thankful, with an attitude and a posture of praise, like that demonstrated by the psalmist.

I will praise your name for ever, Lord.

Obviously half-hearted thanksgiving and praise will not do. We need more than words that can be spoken while we yet indulge in drunkenness and abuse of our fellow servants. Our praise must be genuine enough to drive away the lies about our master, ourselves, and our fellow servants. And this praise is itself a gift from our master, one to which we must be open, and to which we are free to neglect, or, hopefully, to respond.

Every day will I bless you,

and I will praise your name forever and ever.

Praise, empowered by the Spirit, can keep the lies of the enemy at bay. Thanksgiving can help keep us safe from the temptations to indulgence and presumption. May the Spirit himself teach us the sober intoxication that is the antidote to the drunkenness that holds the world in its sway.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (see Ephesians 5:18-21)

Ike Ndolo - Awake, O Sleeper

24 August 2022 - can anything good come from ______

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,

and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

To Nathanael, Nazareth didn't seem like a likely place to bring forth a Messiah. The temptation people faced was often to see in Jesus only the product of the place and family to which he was born. Those from Nazareth were themselves the most likely to agree that nothing of the magnitude about which Philip spoke could come from among them. 

"Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?" (see Matthew 13-53-58).

This sense that a son of Nazareth could only be the sum of what was found there was a roadblock to those from that city. But Nathanael, though aware of how unlikely such a place seemed to be the place from which the Messiah came, was nevertheless still willing to listen to Philip, at least to the extent that he would himself, "Come and see". Maybe it was the enthusiasm with which Philip spoke that made him hard to resist. And what Philip invited Nathanael to do was simple and straightforward and bespoke Philip's own conviction. What Philip saw, he asserted, was there for Nathanael to see as well, if he would but go and investigate himself. 

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

We live in a world that is ready to dismiss what they believe Christianity to be and to teach. Can anything good, they ask, come from that? Let us be like Philip, ourselves fully convinced enough to invite others to see for themselves. There are yet many who are sincere in their misgivings, people with no duplicity, who are ready to receive correctives to their misunderstandings and accept the truth. They are only waiting for the invitation.

Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” 

Jesus answered and said to him,

“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

Jesus knows all of us even more deeply than we know ourselves. He sensed in Nathanael the Messianic hope that he held in his heart, the hope the fig tree represented symbolically in the prophets. And because Nathanael was not duplicitous, not presenting one face here and another there, as did the Pharisees, he was able to recognize it when Jesus so deeply read his heart. Jesus spoke to him desires that he only half realized, longings he did not yet know how to express, and expressed them. He was himself the fullness of the expression of those desires.

Nathanael answered him,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus has the power to touch hearts so deeply that words which to others seem simple and insignificant can immediately and irrevocably alter lives and the course of history. If Nathanael's response seems to us like too much too fast it can only be because we don't fully see what the words of Jesus meant to him, the way he was comprehended entirely and yet experienced only love and acceptance from Jesus himself. He did not hear that his hope was too high, or that he ought to be more realistic. Rather, he was told to raise his hopes even higher, and to center them even more completely on Jesus himself in whom he had just begun to believe.

“Do you believe

because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?

You will see greater things than this.”

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you,

you will see heaven opened and the angels of God

ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Much more than the ladder about which Jacob dreamed, Jesus was himself the bridge that united heaven and earth, the way by which God himself spanned the gap created by sin, which was by men an uncrossable chasm. What Jacob said of Bethel was far more true of Jesus himself, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven" (see Genesis 28:17).

It was the destiny of Nathanael not only to see such an awesome place before him, but to himself be made one of its very foundation stones.

The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation,

on which were inscribed the twelve names

of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

How glorious a destiny to be made a part of the bridge between heaven and earth, part of the only hope of man to fulfill his deepest desire for union with God! Yet this hope is not only for Apostles, but for us as well, if we will but come and see, and then invite others to discover what we have found.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (see Ephesians 2:19-22).

"Come and see!"

Songs In His Presence - The House Of God

23 August 2022 - inside > out

Today's Readings

(Audio)

You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,

and have neglected the weightier things of the law:

judgment and mercy and fidelity.

We tend to prefer specific details, nuances, and minutia, as ways to demonstrate our competence and our fidelity to the faith. In some ways Catholicism encourages us in this because there is a seemingly endless array of details to choose from. There is nothing wrong the the myriad of devotions and fine details in themselves. As with the tithes of the Pharisees, "these you should have done", but without neglecting the bigger picture: "judgment and mercy and fidelity". The difference between this big picture and the details is that the big picture requires from us genuine conversion. We can get our tithing percentage correct down to several decimal points and still be without love (see First Corinthians 13:3).

Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

We tend to narrow our focus so that we don't have to look more deeply at ourselves. We use the errata of religion as a distraction from the many ways in which we still need conversion. We could, for instance, because so intrigued by the words or metaphors in this very gospel reading as to not hear Jesus challenging us about our own lack of justice, mercy, and faith. But he spoke not to the Pharisees alone. His words were also for every subsequent generation, and for us.

You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,

but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.

Jesus isn't really all that concerned with how we appear to others. He is concerned with the truth of our hearts. And he knows that truth is a mixed bag at best. The result of acknowledging this ourselves is that we will no longer appear as experts who have all of the details correct. We will recognize ourselves more in the tax collector who stood at a distant, beat his breast, and said, "be merciful to me, a sinner!" (see Luke 18:13). It is precisely this attitude that opens our inner world to the healing touch of Jesus. It is by this sort of humility that the inside of our cup may first be cleaned. This is typified by our words in the acts of contrition we use in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And such is finally our choice, to continue to pursue the details so that we ourselves can remain in control, or to instead come in humility to the one who alone can heal us. Jesus tried to help the Pharisees at least to have a sense that all was not well with them. They therefore for the moment had to hear more woes than blessings. But the point was that if they did truly hear they could then desire change. And if they desired it God would not abandon them and could himself make them worthy of his blessings.

Another way we tend to become distracted is by all of the apparently apocalyptic happenings going on all around us all the time, as though the "day of the Lord is at hand". But for us these are often not so different from being overly concerned about details in that both are distractions from the life we are supposed to live here and now. There may be much chaos all around us, but none of it has the power to interfere with our relationship with Jesus himself (see Romans 8:35-39). This is why Paul suggested as an antidote to end times speculation a simple principle:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm

and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught,

either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.

In the most important sense Christians already know what we need to know, because we know Jesus himself. If we hold fast to him we too will find "everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace". We won't stop at appearing pious but will have strength for "every good deed and word".

Nichole Nordeman - You Are My All In All

Tom Booth - The Jesus Song

22 August 2022 - foolish oath

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.

You do not enter yourselves,

nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

Unlike Jesus himself, who was himself the gate for the sheep (see John 10:9), who himself possessed the keys to Kingdom and entrusted them to his Church, the Pharisees were actually roadblocks to entering the Kingdom. They could be zealous after a fashion, but that zeal didn't come from God. Their own hearts were closed to the Messiah, prevented from perceiving their need of a Messiah. And what was true of them became doubly true of their converts.

You traverse sea and land to make one convert,

and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna

twice as much as yourselves.

It was really as though the Pharisees were converting others to themselves and to their way of thinking more than they were helping others turn to God. It was not the Torah as a living word that was at issue, but their supposed expertise and mastery over the Torah. But by not letting the Torah speak they ended up substituting their own ideas for the true meaning of the words that they analyzed and interpreted.

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say,

'If one swears by the temple, it means nothing,

but if one swears by the gold of the temple, one is obligated.'

Blind fools, which is greater, the gold,

or the temple that made the gold sacred?

The Pharisees wanted to understand the perfect hierarchy of everything in the law so that they could understand exactly what would be the obligation in each case. But again, their motive was not to hear the law. For the law would call them to conversion and point to their need for a savior. Their motive, although not necessarily conscious, was to find the wiggle room within the law were they could remain proud and unconverted. They could then swear oaths with nothing on the line. They could then, as well will see, fulfill their obligations to tithe in such a way that they themselves were still the chief beneficiaries. 

Jesus had no patience for the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He cared too much about the living word of the Torah for that, too much about the intention behind the text, to tolerate such misrepresentation. After all, he was himself in some sense the fullness of this intention incarnate, since he himself was the living Word of God. At another time Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (see John 5:39). 

Why was Jesus so impatient this fault of the Pharisees? It was precisely because it was his desire for all, from north, south, east, and west, to enter the Kingdom, to be saved, and to come to knowledge of the truth. He hated the lies that the Pharisees believed that made it impossible for them to come to him for life, and felt even worse when others took them at their word about those lies because of their supposed expertise. It was the lies and not the Pharisees that he hated because he so desired that they all come to him to find life.

yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life (see John 5:40).

Oaths were not trivial because oaths invoked God himself to ensure a promise were an individual was too weak in himself to guarantee it. Treating them casually was therefore dismissive of God himself. It failed to acknowledge that oaths were designed to be part of a remedy for human weakness, not a work around to cover it up. The Sacraments themselves are oaths of a certain sort whereby we call on God to enable us to promise what we could never promise on our own. No wonder Jesus cared so much that the Pharisees not mislead people about things which would prove so important.

On our own we would have no recourse but to look for oaths that we could make with no risk when we failed.  But with the help of the grace of God we become increasing able to promise to live out the faith we have been given, to fulfill every good purpose and every effort of faith.

We always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of his calling

and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose

and every effort of faith,

that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,

and you in him,

in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

Maranatha! Singers - I Will Delight

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 45: The Queen Stands

21 August 2022 - the way of the few

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Someone asked him,

"Lord, will only a few people be saved?"

Jesus redirected the man from a question about an intellectual curiosity to something with immediate practical questions. Because God wills that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4) Jesus did not simply respond with percentages about who would in fact experience it, facts that would have no bearing on the one who questioned him. He responded instead with what the man himself must do if he desired the salvation Jesus offered.

He answered them,

"Strive to enter through the narrow gate,

for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter

but will not be strong enough.

The man would need to strive to enter through the narrow gate. Jesus affirmed by this that there was a wrong way to go about it, that many would not achieve it, not in order to satisfy the man's curiosity about few or many, but to add incentive for the man himself to heed the words of Jesus. It was not any gate whatsoever that would lead to salvation, but only one specific and narrow gate. Neither was it by any sort of striving whatever that one could enter, for many would attempt it but fail. The way was narrow because salvation belonged to God, not any idol we might choose. Jesus himself was the gate, himself the concrete offer of salvation from the Father to the world. He himself was the only source of the strength by one who sought to enter would be strong enough to do so.

And you will say,

'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'

Even if we have spent time in churches and listened to teachings it is not a given that we will be able to pass through the narrow gate. We must strive to enter. This means we must commit ourselves to the process by which God, through his discipline, makes us the right shape to enter, by conforming us to Jesus himself, who is the gate. 

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord

or lose heart when reproved by him;

for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;

he scourges every son he acknowledges.

We need to realize how foolish it is to strive by our own strength to enter the gate. And it is not only foolish, but offensive to try to force our way past Jesus himself as though we were stronger than he. The point is not to push our way past our around him, but to endure as God himself helps us to become like him so that we can pass through him who is himself the gate. To fit we must ultimately "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (see Hebrews 12:1). This is precisely what the discipline of our loving Father helps us to do. On our own strength we do not tend to choose discipline, which at the time seems painful. Discipline is therefore the grace for which we do not often dare to ask, but which we desperately need. Our need is in fact so desperate that Jesus acknowledged that for men salvation was not merely difficult but ultimately impossible, the gate too narrow, our strength too feeble. But what was impossible for men was not impossible for God. All things were possible for God (see Luke 18:27). Therefore, in contrast to trying to be strong in ourselves, Paul exhorted, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might" (see Ephesians 6:10).

The Lord's discipline is meant to enable us to enter by the narrow gate. His strength can do in us what we cannot do ourselves. But we have a part to play. Our striving means that we "do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him". These are two temptations we face in response to his divine discipline. We might be tempted reject his discipline entirely, disdaining it and walking away. But the second and more insidious temptation is that we might lose heart and simply allow ourselves to give up. We might still regard the salvation on offer as desirable, but not possible for us. If we give in a give up salvation then seems too distant, lofty, and difficult. In such a state we become easy targets for temptation, and no longer avail ourselves of the Lord's remedies when we do fall. Confession is often a part of the Lord's discipline. But if we lose heart we will not seek it out.

The Lord invites those who know him to enter will the way is still open. It is not necessarily the case that we will be permitted to investigate every other option and then give in to the way Christ offers when we discover it is our last resort. If we choose to live lives apart from Christ it is not a given that we will be willing to accept his mercy at the last. We may well die as we lived. It is true that even at the last the discipline of the Father is willing to shape us as sons and daughters that Jesus himself will recognize and grant entrance. But the point is that we should not rely on that contingency, for if we truly desired it we would begin here and now. We should do what Jesus said at the beginning of his response and "strive" by the grace of God, both to enter ourselves and to help others to do the same. The end result, the far side of the narrow gate, is worth it. It leads to a pasture that is anything but narrow.

Thus says the LORD:

I know their works and their thoughts,

and I come to gather nations of every language;

they shall come and see my glory.

Performed by Tom Farmer - Written by Donald Fishel - Proclaim His Marvelous Deeds

20 August 2022 - the burden of the letter

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The scribes and the Pharisees

have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,

but do not follow their example.

The temptation is often to, as the saying goes, throw out the baby with the bath water. In this passage, Jesus was going to reveal the depths of the corruption of the Pharisees. But in doing so he was careful to assert the legitimacy, not only of the law, but of the Pharisees themselves as legitimate interpreters of the the Jewish tradition. The chair of Moses was authority established by God, the law was immutable, and the traditions of understanding it and interpreting it were necessary. One should not therefore use the bad example of the Pharisees to justify rebellion against God. But neither should one wholehearted embrace the character of the Pharisees as a model to emulate.

For they preach but they do not practice.

To preach was easy, and rewarding. To practice, well, when one tried to do so it seemed frustrating at best. The Pharisees therefore did what we are all wont to do. They used their knowledge of the law as a substitute for living it out. They then used their own imagined superiority to assert their dominance over others.

They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry

and lay them on people’s shoulders,

but they will not lift a finger to move them.

The law was meant to ensure the freedom of a people set free from slavery in Egypt. But when we subvert the law to merely human purposes, using the law to aggrandize ourselves, it does the opposite. It becomes endless rules and restrictions that oppress us because we cannot consistently live by them. In some sense, this happens to all of us when we discover that we are fundamentally unable to practice what we preach on our own strength or ability. Even Christians can forget that we are not meant to carry our burden alone and succumb to the temptations of the Pharisees. We ought not, and should remember that Jesus has done more than lifting a finger to help, he has invited us to share his own burden, the weight of which he himself bears. Without God to help us we too can be no more than Pharisees When we try to teach we can do no more than laying burdens on the shoulder's of others that we ourselves could not and did not bear. But Jesus himself received the culmination of these burdens, the ones given by the Pharisees and the ones we ourselves contributed, as the cross was laid on his own shoulders. This was the heavy yoke he bore for us, and which he now invites us to share as something which we can experience as easy and light.

For they preach but they do not practice.

Could the Pharisees have done otherwise, before the giving of the Spirit, before Jesus himself first bore the burden too heavy for humanity? How might they have responded better to their station and the challenges they faced? When they discovered that they could not embody the law to the degree of perfection required by God they might have responded with humility rather than pretense and bravado. When they saw that the burden was too heavy for them they could have become empathetic for those whom they taught. They could have taught the law from the perspective of humility and not from pride. Humility and empathy for those whom they taught could have allowed the law to be received by their hearers as something ordered toward freedom as it was meant to be, rather than a burden imposed from on high. They might have even lived a sort of inchoate faith that anticipated Jesus himself, prophetic signs that pointed the way to freedom.

All their works are performed to be seen.

We take comfort in the authority of the chair of Peter, the knowledge that we, unlike the Pharisees known the correct doctrines of the fullness of revelation. But are we not still very much like the Pharisees? When we are concerned primarily about how we appear, when our Christian life is merely a performance to be seen, we realize how inadequate is our ability to live that life. That is meant to make us turn toward Christ who bears our burdens. But it often makes us double down on appearances. This, in turn, makes us dangerous when we try to teach others. We impose burdens on others with no regard for them, because doing so makes us feel better about ourselves. We are meant instead to be less concerned with appearance and more with truth. When we experience our own limitations we are meant to turn to God with whom all things are possible. It is from this perspective of humility that we become effective in mission, able to imitate Jesus, and to bear one another's burdens as he first bore our own.

In short, we must not try to sit on the throne of our own lives as though we ourselves are master and king. We must regard ourselves as stewards, and give the throne to God himself. When he is at the center we will understand the law in context as a blessing and not a burden. We will not need to impose ourselves on others for the sake of a feeling of superiority. We will willingly decrease that he himself may increase. Our inability and limitations will therefore also shrink as we make room more and more for his power to shine through us.

The voice said to me: 

Son of man, this is where my throne shall be,

this is where I will set the soles of my feet;

here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.

Don Moen - Jesus, We Enthrone You

19 August 2022 - second helping

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Pharisees were confident that they were masters of the law, that there knew the exact hierarchy of order and proportion among the commandments, and that they insisted on rigid conformity with what their mastery had derived from them, for themselves and everyone. They thought only of the letter as something that could be controlled, and when controlled, wielded as a weapon against their opponents.

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

In some ways this seemed like an obvious question with an obvious answer. If this was the case then either Jesus would have given that answer, and been revealed as no different from other teachers, with nothing original to say, or he would have deviated from the expected answer, and replied with something inevitably false. 

So then, was Jesus merely saying the same thing that everyone was saying, or was it something else which must, according to the way of thinking of the Pharisees, be wrong? 

He said to him,

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Jesus began with what the Pharisees may rightly have expected as the obvious answer. But he began, interestingly, by addressing it to them. The quotation from Deuteronomy includes the word "You" but Jesus quoted it as though he himself was the one speaking, the lawgiver himself. He addressed those who profess to obey the law, to care about the chief commandment, but who were at that very moment putting God himself to the test, who were clearly loving themselves and their own wisdom more than God himself, either as revealed in scripture, or in the flesh before their very eyes.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The Pharisees asked for one commandment, and in this way they sought to limit or constrain the law. For if this was greater it could be set against the lesser as they liked. But Jesus refused to let this commandment stand alone. It was first and greatest, but there was more implied that also needed to be clearly stated. 

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The attempt of the Pharisees to neatly categorize and control the law was thus summarily thwarted. What Jesus expressed here was later expressed by John the Evangelist:

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (see First John 4:20).

As we cannot properly do anything at all that is a benefit for God, who is perfectly happy and joyous in himself for all eternity, we are meant to show our love for him by loving his image in our fellow creatures. This was a recurring theme in God's revelations to Catherine of Sienna.

So she loves every person with the same love she sees herself loved with, and this is why the soul, as soon as she comes to know me, reaches out to love her neighbors. Because she sees that I love them even more than she does, she also loves them unspeakably much. 

– Saint Catherine of Sienna, from the “Dialogue” pg. 164 

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Asked one question, Jesus taught at least three lessons. First, that to know the greatest commandment was different from living it, and he desired and commanded that it be lived. Second, that love of God and love of neighbor could not be set against each other, and that either one when it was true implied the other. And third, that the law was not something that could be tamed or controlled. It depended not chiefly on mastery or expertise, as the Pharisees thought, but on love. The competent interpreter of the law was not the one who knew much but the one who loved much.

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

It is easier to focus on the understanding of the law than the doing of it, the speaking of it than the acting. But to do so dries up our bones and destroys our spirits. When we neglect the Spirit behind the law we neglect our own spirits as well, to our detriment. But God stands ready at every moment to restore us to life. We will not then be individuals jockeying for position. We will be a vast army for the Lord.

I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;

they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.

Bob Fitts - One God

the second is like it

Newsboys - Love One Another

Much recent inspiration is from the following:

Leiva, Erasmo. Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, Vol. 3 (p. 583). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition. 

Mitch, Curtis; Sri, Edward. The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 289). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.