7 June 2023 - you are greatly misled

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,

came to Jesus and put this question to him

The Sadducees "say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit" (see Acts 23:8). Like many modern materialists they attempted to prove their point by showing the absurdities that would apparently follow if their was a resurrection. They relied on a sort of Scriptural minimalism, accepting only the five books of the Torah and not any of the subsequent Scriptures, books in which the truth of resurrection becoming increasingly difficult to deny.

There was a twofold and related problem with the way the Sadducees reasoned. They did not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Their approach to Scripture caused them to only engage with the parts of it where God seemed to play by their rules. And their approach to his power was to close themselves to hearing about it in their interpretations of what they did read in the Torah as well as their unwillingness to hear any new word from God beyond those books.

Last of all the woman also died.

At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?

The modern version of this would be like someone who was willing to see in the Scriptures only good stories of positive moral value but who was ready to regard anything apparently supernatural as subject to ridicule and scorn. One with this approach to the Bible might well reject the idea of the resurrection of the body using what is in our day a common argument. That argument is to ask where everyone would fit if each generation was simultaneously alive on earth. But this clearly succumbs to the same problem, resulting from the same inability to realize that God's power might have consequences so far reaching that our conventional ways of thinking about life might be insufficient. It results from a disordered desire to tame or to disarm God, to keep him out of his creation entirely, or else to limit him to one moving piece within the creation.

But it is not only the Sadducees nor their contemporaries who are misled. Rather, all of us are limited in our apprehension of the Scriptures and the power of God. All of us tend to slip into categorizing God as one among many created things, subject to the apparently immutable laws of the universe, and therefore limited or impotent in his ability to solve dilemmas which seem to us to be intractable.

Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled

because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

Jesus invites us to see beyond any particular instance of imposing imagined limitations on God by inviting us to come to know the Scriptures and the power of God. This is actually an invitation to come to know Jesus himself who is the Word of God who was in the beginning with the Father, and who is himself the power of God and the wisdom of God (see First Corinthians 1:24).

As for the dead being raised,

have you not read in the Book of Moses,

in the passage about the bush, how God told him,

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob?

Jesus is inviting us into the eternal now of God. This is the same eternal vantage point that Jesus occupies, which allowed him to say, "before Abraham was, I am" (see John 8:58). The living God is still in relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they are related to this eternal present in which God dwells. When we realize the surpassing power of God, and the way he has related himself to us, we can infer that whatever happens in the age to come when the dead are raised, it need by no means be subjected to any limits we might imagine. This God who is beyond all time and space desires us to share in his own transcendence. The only cost to us is our preconceptions and habitual ways of thinking. What the Sadducees needed was to repent and have their minds renewed. And we too need to avail ourselves more of the renewed spiritual minds that Jesus desired his followers to receive.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (see Romans 12:2).

The story of Tobit and Sarah demonstrates that even in our conventual categories before the age to come God is more than able to intervene and bring conclusions of surprising joy where there was previously only hopelessness and despair.

So Raphael was sent to heal them both:

to remove the cataracts from Tobit's eyes,

so that he might again see God's sunlight;

and to marry Raguel's daughter Sarah to Tobit's son Tobiah,

and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.

Phillips, Craig, and Dean - The Great I Am

6 June 2023 - blind spots

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion.

You do not regard a person's status

but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

The Pharisees and the Herodians weren't concerned with truth. They did not really believe that Jesus was truthful but still said it in an attempt to provoke Jesus to say something he would regret so that they could ensnare him in his speech. By their false flattery they demonstrated their lack of concern for truth. We know too that they were eminently concerned with the opinions of others, and that it was Jesus lack of concern for their opinions about him that was a significant factor in their disliking him. They wanted him to regard their status and to subject anything he might say about the truth to their judgment. They were so opposed to Jesus that even rival groups like Pharisees and Herodians could find common ground in the desire to silence him. 

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?

Should we pay or should we not pay?

They thought that if Jesus was truly truthful he would insist that the tax not be paid. They thought he would at need to insist on this to keep his favor in the opinion of the crowds. They knew that if he denied that it should be paid he would be running afoul of Roman authority and putting himself at risk. They assumed their trap would work because they believed Jesus was primarily concerned with keeping favor with the crowds and that he would be afraid of arousing the ire of the authorities. Yet Jesus did not choose either horn of their dilemma, but rather cut through it with a truth invisible to them because of their hypocrisy.

They brought one to him and he said to them,

"Whose image and inscription is this?"

They replied to him, "Caesar's."

So Jesus said to them,

"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

Notably, they themselves had these coins of Rome ready to produce when Jesus asked, already demonstrating that they themselves were not above reproach in this regard. Jesus asked them about whose image was found on the coin, to which they correctly answer "Caesar's". But in asking about the image Jesus also brought to mind the one in whose image and likeness all every person was created (see Genesis 1:27). Even Caesar himself was not a deity as was claimed, but a creature created in this image. Understanding this, one could engage with Caesar and even play by his rules using his coins to the degree that such participation did not transgress the true origin of this image. The answer of Jesus did not create an isolated sphere of politics where God was not involved but rather demonstrated that at every level of human life everything needed to be referred back to its divine origin and destiny in order to be used rightly. Thus, to truly repay to Caesar what was his could only be done when it also at the same time was a repayment to God of what was properly his. This was because anything that Caesar had and was he had or was on loan from the God in whose image he was created. Therefore there was indeed some level of legitimacy to paying taxes, but not a space or arena apart from God were the merely political could unfold. 

They were utterly amazed at him.

Jesus did in the end demonstrate that he taught the way of God in accordance with the truth. It was a truth that was so utterly independent of concern for the opinions of others and so entirely committed to God at every possible level that it amazed, perhaps terrified those who heard it. They were so concerned with pretense and opinion that such unvarnished truth was shocking to hear. We may hope that it shocked them enough to open themselves to something more than that to which they had heretofore been content. Jesus did not answer as he did to show off or to boast, but to cut through the prejudices and preconceptions. His reply was like a Zen koan that was an invitation for his listeners to wake up and be converted. 

"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

Brothers and sisters, the thing is, we do tend to segment our lives into the specifically religious as distinct from other categories such as entertainment and politics. But Jesus won't abide by such human distinctions. We live in a world that is nothing but interactions of creatures created in the image of God. And it will only function as intended when we respect that reality. So let us not try to trick Jesus into letting us have these spaces remain isolated from his influence, but instead surrender them to him, and to remember that everything finally belongs to God and must be repaid. Let us be amazed enough by these words of Jesus to be ourselves awakened and converted.

So she retorted: "Where are your charitable deeds now?

Where are your virtuous acts?

See! Your true character is finally showing itself!"

Where do our charitable deeds disappear? What causes us to close in on ourselves and to ignore the truth of the way of God? Is it pride, or perhaps self-pity? Whenever we find ourselves succumbing as Tobit did we should look closely at ourselves to try to determine what part of ourselves we have not yet fully given over to God. We may briefly feel blinded as we undergo such trials but it is only so that we might see more clearly when healing comes. 

Matt Maher - Canticle of Zechariah

5 June 2023 - fruit in due season

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it,

dug a wine press, and built a tower.

This was a man that truly loved his vineyard, who did everything he could to provide for its success. 

What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? (see Isaiah 5:4).

In spite of his love for this vineyard a journey took precedence and required that he lease it to others. In these others he no doubt hoped to find individuals who could love the vineyard as he loved it, whose chief reward would not be the fruit itself, but seeing the vineyard being fruitful. Love at its best loves to see others thrive. It does not only delight in their success when it itself is the one that benefits.

Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.

At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants

to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.

The journey is also a motif in the parable of the talents. In both parables we have a period of time when the master is away and the servants are given the opportunity to demonstrate their fidelity to the master and to grow in maturity. They are invited to become competent investors or talented vintners, enriching the world around them by using the resources entrusted to them. Another theme is the way the master desires to share the task that is properly his with others. It reminds us also of the parable of the vineyard workers where the master spent his whole day in the market eagerly looking for those with whom he could share the task of working in his field.

But they seized him, beat him,

and sent him away empty-handed.

Again he sent them another servant.

And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.

How was it that those to whom the master entrusted his vineyard ended up behaving with such shameful violence? Did they never have even a trace of the concern for the vineyard that marked the heart of the owner? We might wonder if they did at first but then gradually succumbed to selfishness as difficulties arose. 

When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? (see Isaiah 5:4).

The Lord himself admitted that his vineyard Israel could be difficult to maintain, that everything that might be done could be done, and still yield poor results. What if the tenants produced such meager results and were afraid to admit it? What if their chief problem was that they were afraid that they didn't have enough to show for their time in charge of the vineyard? Or perhaps in their care the vineyard did yield bountiful fruit but they insisted that the fruit be their reward for the effort they put in. Either attitude was tied to forgetting that the vineyard was not their own, and that the fruit was not meant to be their reward for tending it. Had they remembered it they would have been able to turn results either good or bad back over to the master when the proper time arrived. The master himself was familiar with both cases, and did not require his tenants to be masters over nature. He only required that they be faithful.

He had one other to send, a beloved son.

He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'

But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'

The Lord of the vineyard demonstrated great care in the way he established the vineyard and in the way he himself saw to the fruit. Not only that, he treated the tenants as a special kind of vineyard themselves, visiting them again and again with his messengers hoping that this time they would give their fruit in due season.

The Lord has given us talents, perhaps a vineyard to tend, perhaps work in his field. How do we respond when he seems to be away on a journey? Do our fears about our weaknesses and limitations cause us to shortchange him on his return? Does the work we put in make us demanding and unwilling to share our fruit with others? Do we forget, in the end, that the vineyard belongs to God and that his concern for it is much greater than our own? He understands the difficulties we face in this life, and does not ask the impossible. What he asks if finally faithfulness and trust in him. We can trust that what he has given us to work with will yield what he desires, though perhaps not what would gratify our egos to see. 

May we remember whose vineyard this is, and that it is a privilege to be part of something that is so dear to the master's heart. He himself wants this fruit not simply to gratify himself but precisely to enrich the entire world and if we entrust it to him we will find that it will be more than sufficient to do so.

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Vine

4 June 2023 - undivided unity

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,

"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,

slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."

The God of Israel always desired to make himself know. He was not a disinterested or elusive deity to be found only at the end of a long search when his efforts at hiding or evading detection by humans were finally overcome. He was not such a deity as man often imagines in the context of our so-called search for God. The God of Israel was indeed said to be found by those who seek him (see Proverbs 8:17), but this precisely because he always sought them first. It was God who took the initiative and established covenant relationships with Abraham, Moses, and David. It was he who spoke first to the prophets, giving them their own commissions to speak in his name. Those leaders whom he chose, when they were at their best, reciprocated the desire for this relationship, a relationship that was first and above all to be about being together with one another.

Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.

Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,

do come along in our company.

There was however an obstacle to God's desire to be in relationship with mankind, for since the fall they were a stiff-necked people given to wickedness and sins. The hearts of his creatures were meant to be given over entirely to him but instead were divided in their allegiance to many created things and pleasures which could never provide lasting satisfaction or joy. We were meant to find all of our joy in our relationship with God, in such a way that created things too were sources of joy because they were properly ordered to him, but chose instead lesser things and inevitable unhappiness. For a time God overlooked such sins in mercy as he prepared a remedy that would finally address the issue. Only such a remedy could unlock the depths of relationship with him that he had always intended for us. 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

God had always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But sin made God appear to us to be too distant to fully reveal himself in this way. He appeared as the Father of Israel but not so much as the Father of individual members of Israel. He often appeared stern and aloof as his creatures misread his intentions through the lens of our their selfishness. This is why much of what Jesus did in bringing the Father's salvation to us was to make known the true face of the Father, the face of love.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (see John 14:9).

I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (see John 17:26).

Those who would not accept the truth of the love of the Father and the Son remained in the state of condemnation that they were already in, the state into which any human life devolves when connection to God is lost or damaged. But this was the very opposite of God's desire for us. Thus Jesus himself would go extremes, to the very depths of God forsakenness, to persuade us to trust the Father as he did..

The Father sent the Son into the world as a sacrifice to save the world from sin and thus open the way for us to return, together with the Son, to the Father. The Father and the Son were always united in love, and desired that we ourselves partake of  that love. The outpouring of this love into our hearts is what we celebrated at Pentecost. It is this very love, which could not indwell hearts given over to sin, that now fills us and makes us sons and daughters in the Son, teaching us the true nature of the Father's heart, helping us cry out "Abba!" (see Romans 8:15). It is no coincidence that we celebrate Trinity Sunday only after Pentecost, only now that we see that the Father and the Son have together poured out their Spirit upon believers.

There is great consequence to the fact that our God is Trinity, a living exchange of love. It is not merely a doctrinal fact, but a living, healing reality that is meant to transform our lives.

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Mend your ways, encourage one another,

agree with one another, live in peace,

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

When we embrace the reality of relationship with the Triune God we begin to take on the attributes of individuals united to God and neighbor by a living bond of love. We come to possess a joy and a peace of which we ourselves are not the origin. And this precisely because our lives are no longer self-enclosed islands, but now are ourselves received from God and offered back to God through the Spirit. We still stand in this world of created things, but somehow also above it, directing and ordering it all back to God as our song of praise and thanksgiving.

Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,

praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

Audrey Assad - Holy, Holy, Holy

Matt Maher - Run To The Father

We The Kingdom - God So Loved

3 June 2023 - by what authority?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“By what authority are you doing these things?

Or who gave you this authority to do them?”

These leaders wanted to know who authorized Jesus to do the things he had been doing, especially cleansing the temple. They sought to drag the question of Jesus legitimacy down into the realm of politics, swallowing up his popular momentum with questions about human hierarchy and chains of command. They were not open to a genuine answer to this question, as Jesus would demonstrate.

Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question.

Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”

They were afraid to commit to an answer, any answer, that would have genuine spiritual ramifications. We can see this in the fact that they weren't so dedicated to the idea that John's baptism was of human origin as to be willing to take a righteous stand against him. They feared his crowd of supporters too much for that. Most likely, they did believe the baptism was of human origin, but they did not believe it deeply enough to act as that belief implied they ought to act. Perhaps some of them were among those who went out to witness the spectacle of John the Baptist, who got caught up in the excitement, and, while not knowing entirely what to make of him, didn't reject him entirely. Yet such an ambivalent position was one that did not produce "good fruits as evidence of your repentance" (see Luke 3:8). They demonstrated that they were unwilling to fully commit to either position.

The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, appeared to be among those whose chief value was the status quo. Their appeals to authority were not so much concerned the one who is the source of all true authority, but with conformity to the existing systems of human authority in which they had a privileged role. 

I shall ask you one question.

Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Jesus was not merely trying to stump them with an unrelated question. He was attempting to demonstrate to them that they weren't really open to the truth of the answer to the question that they asked. No doubt this was news to them. They didn't realize the degree to which their hearts were hardened, their lack of ears to hear a genuine answer. They needed an interruption to the otherwise impenetrable cycles of thought that had no room in their concepts of authority for Jesus, because they ultimately had no room for God himself.

So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”

Then Jesus said to them,

“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

How wonderful it is when Jesus can bring us to admit that "We do not know". If we think about our own modern world this is the last thing any of us seems to want to admit. We've done our homework, found experts worthy of trust, and created an elaborate framework of certainty about everything we consider worthy of considering. But for ourselves as well as those religious leaders that challenged Jesus this can become a closed loop with no reference to God. As long as he allows us to continue circling this track uninterrupted we tend to entrench ourselves in a world that is finally not interested to hear the answer to the question of the identity of Jesus, lest that answer force us to change directions. When we begin to descend into such a rut the best thing he can do for us is to give us obstacles that make us admit that we don't know everything, and compel us to open our lives outward toward Jesus and the answers that he alone can give us.

The religious leaders in the time of Jesus took some pleasure in their closed systems of authority. But such systems left their adherents immobilized and lifeless, unable to respond to the the presence of God in their midst. Jesus invited them to find a deeper pleasure in wisdom, wisdom that would never be content with the status quo. The gateway to such wisdom was the willingness to acknowledge that one did not have all the answers. So then, may we too being willing to forego the comfort of imagining we know all things already to the joy in that can be found in Christ, the wisdom of God (see First Corinthians 1:24).

I met with great instruction.

Since in this way I have profited,

I will give my teacher grateful praise.

Brandon Lake - Son Of Heaven

2 June 2023 - fruitful

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf,

he went over to see if he could find anything on it.

When he reached it he found nothing but leaves;

it was not the time for figs.

Jesus was the one who above all others hungered and thirsted for righteousness. He came to Israel looking for this fruit but was met with disappointment. They were meant to "give him the fruits in their seasons" (see Matthew 21:41) but instead hoarded the fruit and heaped up wealth for themselves. It might be objected that it was not the time for figs. But insofar as this referred to Israel no such objection can be countenanced because they were never meant to be the source of their own fruit, for the Lord had said "from me comes your fruit" (see Hosea 14:8).

They came to Jerusalem,

and on entering the temple area

he began to drive out those selling and buying there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers

and the seats of those who were selling doves.

What Jesus found in the temple was a concrete representation of what he cursed in the fig tree. He desired to find "a house of prayer for all peoples" as the choice fruit that would sate his hunger but found instead "a den of thieves".

What does Jesus find when he comes to each of us for fruit? It is he himself who desires to give us this fruit through his Holy Spirit, including "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (see Galatians 5:22-23). Because our fruit comes from the Lord we ought not to fear the change of seasons or even our own insufficiency. When we draw our life from the stream of the Spirit we become the very opposite of the cursed fig.

He is like a tree planted by water,

that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

for it does not cease to bear fruit (see Jeremiah 17:8).

The key to ensuring we don't squander or hoard God's gifts to us is to ensure that what is happening within the temple of our hearts is in better condition than was the temple in Jerusalem as Jesus found it. Instead of concern with profit we ought to be concerned with praise. Instead of colluding in the exclusion of others for the sake of our greed we ought to make room in our hearts for all others to join us in worship. When we get these most basic relationships right our external actions will tend to fall into line and our fruit will be ready and waiting when Jesus comes to call. Then, even if we ourselves are ultimately forgotten by this world, we will leave a legacy that is more lasting than ourselves.

Yet these also were godly men

whose virtues have not been forgotten;

Their wealth remains in their families,

their heritage with their descendants;

Through God’s covenant with them their family endures,

their posterity, for their sake.

Maranatha! Singers - I Will Delight

1 June 2023 - that I might see

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,

sat by the roadside begging.

Bartimaeus was blind and thus had no recourse but to resort to begging in order to meet his daily needs. He was not permitted by his circumstances to entertain any notion of self-sufficiency. He was thoroughly acquainted with the limits imposed on him by his condition. Thus he was opposite of the Pharisees who asked Jesus, "Are we also blind?", to whom he replied "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains" (see John 9:40-41). Their perceived wholeness and independence prevented them from recognizing and calling out to Jesus. But their was no such obstacle to poor blind Bartimaeus.

On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,

he began to cry out and say,

“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

It was thus that the disabled beggar became a model of Christian prayer while the attitude of the Pharisees became only a cautionary tale. His words gave shape to the famous Jesus Prayer that has been so important particularly in Eastern Christianity. In his request to Jesus Bartimaeus was the first in Mark's Gospel to call Jesus the Son of David. This was no mere allusion to ancestry, but rather a claim that Jesus was the Messiah. It was no coincidence that this was first stated by one who superficially appeared blind even while so many sighted people had heretofore failed to recognize him. He called out to Jesus, with faith in who he was, begging for mercy. But he did not, could not have conceivable demanded anything of Jesus or pleaded on any merit of his own. Instead everything was left to the merciful heart of Jesus, which Bartimaeus seemed confident could not pass him by.

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

We all encounter such rebukes when we try to pray, though more often they are from our own internal monologue. We hear things like, 'Don't bother Jesus with something as trivial as a physical healing when he has spiritual things to do' or, 'You aren't worthy of his attention', or 'He really doesn't care about you enough for that'. But these are not the voice of truth but rather lies that fail to do justice to the vast mercy to be found within the heart of Jesus.

But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”

It was not enough for Bartimaeus to ask once. We see that he had to "Ask and keep on asking" (see Matthew 7:7, Amplified). In this way too he became a model for all future prayer. We can imitate him by the way he calls out, not vaguely to an unspecified power, but to Jesus, the Messiah, confident, not in himself, but in Jesus own mercy. We can imitate him by refusing to yield to any voices that try to keep us apart from that mercy. May we too cry out all the more, confident that Jesus will not pass us by.

He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

May we be as ready as Bartimaeus to heed the call of Jesus, to leave behind our past, to spring up, and to go when we are called. Jesus has already done a miracle within us by teaching us to call out to him. How can we doubt that he will also defeat our darkness and grant us the salvation that will finally culminate in the vision of his glory.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (see Second Corinthians 3:18).

One thing this gift of spiritual vision will allow us to do is recognize in a new and deeper way the goodness of God as expressed in his creation, and in all his creatures, just as did the author of Sirach.

How beautiful are all his works!

even to the spark and fleeting vision!

The universe lives and abides forever;

to meet each need, each creature is preserved.

All of them differ, one from another,

yet none of them has he made in vain,

For each in turn, as it comes, is good;

can one ever see enough of their splendor?

Can we ever see enough of this splendor? Then may we too cry out to Jesus who alone can give us, from his abundant mercy, the ability to behold such beauty.

For upright is the word of the LORD

and all his works are trustworthy.

He loves justice and right;

of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.

Tom Booth - The Jesus Song