20 October 2024 - whatever we ask

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 

Jesus would teach his followers to seek, ask, and knock for things they desired, and to be persistent in prayer. There was a way in which prayers would always be heard (see Matthew 21:22, First John 3:22). But there was a way in which one's intentions and the way he asked could prevent the fulfillment of prayer, at least in the precise way that he imagined and intended it (see James 4:3). 

They answered him, "Grant that in your glory

we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." 

The request of James and John was good insofar as it indicated a faith in the coming glorification of Jesus and the desire to be with in close proximity to him. But it also seemed to stem from a desire to have an authority that was like that of the rulers of the Gentiles. They wanted recognition and a power they could use to lord it over others. Their fellow disciples seemed to pick up on the competitive nature of this request when they became indignant.  James and John wanted to become the greatest of the disciples according to a worldly paradigm of greatness and this inevitably led to strife and division. 

Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. 

Can you drink the cup that I drink

or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 

They said to him, "We can." 

Jesus did not entirely reject the petition of James and John. He instead explained that they didn't understand the true nature of what was good in what they requested. They thought that they desired leadership and greatness according to a worldly model. But the actual good that was drawing them was genuine, but different from what they thought they wanted. Jesus wanted them to discover and desire greatness according to the model of the Kingdom and as imitators of him. He wanted them to learn to desire to be leaders who came not to be served but to serve, just as he had done.

The cost of embracing the paradigm of Jesus and his Kingdom was to share in his chalice and his baptism. The naive confidence James and John demonstrated when he asked them if they could share his chalice and his baptism was not a bad thing. But they would have to endure much before they would be able to truly understand or participate in the salvific suffering of Jesus. And yet Jesus did not discourage them since it was precisely through participation in his own saving death that the ego and pride that were contaminating their request would finally be overcome in them. It was united with Jesus that they could discover the true glory that could be found in giving their own lives for the sake of others.

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,

he shall see his descendants in a long life,

and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

One reassuring aspect of today's Gospel is how Jesus is willing to work with our imperfect desires, reinforcing what is good, and encouraging us insofar as we're on the correct path. He will also help us to see where we go wrong, just as he did for James and for John. But this means we should not be afraid to approach him with our desires just because we don't have one hundred percent confidence that they are pristine. We can draw near to him because he deeply understands us and wants to give us that which is truly good even more than we ourselves desire it.

So let us confidently approach the throne of grace

to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

Hillsong Worship - To Be Like You

19 October 2024 - acknowledged before the angels

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I tell you,

everyone who acknowledges me before others

the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.

If we will acknowledge Jesus before the people in our lives in this age then Jesus will reciprocate in the angelic realm in the age to come. It isn't a matter of quid pro quo. Rather, he takes our willingness to be associated with him seriously. If we deny him before others he takes that as a sincere signification that we don't really want to be with him. Then when it is time to see if we belong in his kingdom with his angels we will have demonstrated whether or not we desire it. After all, if we live a life here below in which we give no sign that we have met Jesus or been touched by his grace, what hope do we have to discover that in his kingdom we belong or feel at home?

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven

Jesus did understand that there would be pressure to speak against the Son of Man, such as the pressure Peter felt during the trial of Jesus before the cock crowed. He knew that even those who did desire his friendship and who would, at most times, broadcast their association with him from the rooftops, might also cave under pressure. But this did not necessarily define the ultimate trajectory of their lives just as it did not for Peter. In many cases it would be possible to be forgiven as Peter was, somehow made an even more believable witness precisely because of his demonstrated human weakness. It was in some ways precisely because Peter had failed that he was suitable to strengthen his brethren once he had been restored (see Luke 22:32). Peter's life before his hour of trial was one in which he tried to respond to the grace of God, not always succeeding, but learning from his failures. This disposition helped him have a heart that was ready to hope again even when he denied him during his hour of greatest need.

but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit

will not be forgiven.

Mercy was possible for Peter. This was something that the Holy Spirit led his heart to realize. He had failed beyond his human capacity to hope again. But led by the Holy Spirit he did once again embrace his hope and his trust in Jesus himself. No doubt this same grace, to repent and be forgiven, was offered even to Judas. But Judas apparently rejected that grace as impossible, denying that even the Holy Spirit could have any effect on a heart such as his. And such a denial became a self-fulfilling prophecy. By refusing to believe that there was hope or the possibility of help for him that very possibility was excluded. Judas thus serves as a cautionary tale of our very real capacity to reject the mercy of God. If we refuse to believe that he can reach us in our situations we may prevent him from doing so. But if we will allow ourselves to hope in him then mercy is certainly always possible.

When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities,

do not worry about how or what your defense will be

or about what you are to say. 

If we have a defense that is planned in advance we risk sounding lifeless and unpersuasive. We may sound like a textbook, well sourced and researched, but without human warmth or connection to real life. It is good, as Peter said to always be "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (see First Peter 3:15). But we can't force this reason to fit into a preplanned speech or a flowchart. We must be sufficiently well acquainted with the Gospel message that the Spirit is able to dynamically lead us to share it with specific emphasis as appropriate for a given situation. We aren't meant to go in unprepared. But we aren't meant to be so over prepared that we give the Holy Spirit no room to move.

Paul understood the hope that belonged to God's call and for this reason could not resist speaking about Jesus and encouraging others to come to know him. If we too open ourselves to this spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we come to have our hearts enlightened then we too will find ourselves filled with the grace to acknowledge Jesus in all of the circumstances of our lives.

Elevation Worship - Here As In Heaven

18 October 2024 - marching orders

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples

whom he sent ahead of him in pairs

to every town and place he intended to visit.

Jesus knew he was sending out these disciples as lambs among wolves, that they were going to face active opposition and hostility in the world. We might tend to imagine these earlier missionary trips as consisting of mostly successful encounters with audiences interested to hear the Gospel. But Jesus gave so many precautions in the event that the disciples would not be welcomed that we must assume that this too was a common occurrence. No doubt it was part of the reason that he sent them out in pairs. Alone they might have been tempted to think that they were the crazy one and that the world around them was altogether reasonable to criticize or ignore them. But since they went out together they could rely on one another for stability and solidity in the face of whatever hostility they encountered. They could minister Jesus not only to the world around them but to one another.

Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;

and greet no one along the way.

There were a variety of ways that the disciples could have become distracted from the primary purpose of their journey. Rather than providing a detailed list of rules and priorities Jesus simply removed the temptations entirely. In some ways this made the mission more challenging. The disciples would need to rely more on providence than on planning. But it made it much less likely that they would compromise along the way or seek to subvert their missionary purpose to some other end. It was clear that there was an urgency to the proclamation. There wasn't time for idle chitchat along the way. They had, as it were, marching orders, and they were meant to keep those as their primary focus.

Into whatever house you enter,

first say, 'Peace to this household.'

If a peaceful person lives there,

your peace will rest on him;

but if not, it will return to you.

The disciples were taught a way to offer the Gospel to others that didn't put their own emotional integrity at risk. If others didn't want what they offered they would not for that reason lose their own peace. The peace they had to offer was not their own but rather a gift from Jesus himself. And if others didn't want what they had to offer they did not need to interpret it as a personal rejection and become distraught. If others chose to reject the peace of Christ it would simply return to them and they would continue on their journey. It is probably the case that if we learned to offer peace in this way we would become more effective evangelists ourselves.

Luke is the only one with me.

When we learn the lessons Jesus desired to teach the seventy-two disciples we become not only better evangelists but also better partners in evangelism. We can then became reliable in the way that Luke was for Paul, present and ready to help even when it seemed the world was against him.

Newsboys - The Mission

17 October 2024 - in memorial

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets 

whom your fathers killed.

It is rather easy to celebrate the lives of saints with icons and images. It is rather more difficult to actually live as they did. We say we respect Padre Pio. But would we go anywhere near the line for his confessional? We may claim to love Saint Francis. But would we actually be as happy to hear him tell us about our unhealthy materialistic attachments? Saints seem safe as long as our appreciation for them remains to be merely aesthetic. Are we in fact building their memorials to keep them confined and lifeless in the past? This seems to be the criticism Jesus leveled at those who built memorials to the prophets in his own day. They claimed to honor them. But they were actually aligned with those who had acted against the prophets throughout history. And they would themselves demonstrate this opposition by acting against the one who would sum up in himself all of the prophets. Prophets had spoken in varied and partial ways. But in Jesus, God spoke to humanity through his Son (see Hebrews 1:1-2). Because Jesus was rejected by the generation to which he came they would not only be charged with his blood, but with the blood of all the prophets, since he summed up all of them in himself. This would be true of those who were obviously implicated in the death of Jesus at the time. But no one, excluding Mary, lived so completely without sin as to never act in a way that represented a rejection of Jesus and the line of prophetic voices he fulfilled. We too have done things for which justice would require that we were charged for his blood. But fortunately, even while we were enemies, Christ chose to die for us to free us from this guilt (see Romans 5:10).

In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,

the forgiveness of transgressions,

in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.

Christ received in himself the summed up form of the hostility of humanity against God. But he also summed up himself something better. All of the promises that were more or less explicit throughout the history of creation were fully realized in him. He was the one in whom every promise found its 'Yes' (see Second Corinthians 1:20). He put death and sin to death on the cross. And a new possibility of life, in union with him, was born from his resurrection.

Woe to you, scholars of the law!

You have taken away the key of knowledge.

You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.

Because of what Jesus has done for us we must do better than adorning our houses with memorials of saints. He has given the keys to his Kingdom to Peter and his successors. So we should make sure that the saints actually influence our lives and not just our decor. We should make sure that we don't just sit and look at the Kingdom but that we actually enter and invite others to do the same.

Hillsong Worship - To Be Like You

16 October 2024 - the big picture

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Woe to you Pharisees!

You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,

but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.

It was and remains possible to major in the minors, to fixate on fine points of minutia while forgetting about the big picture. Pharisees made sure their tithing extended even to small things which would be easy to neglect. But this action wasn't motivated by a big picture love for God, or even concern about judgment. It was more likely that it was done for the sake of appearances, since it would seem likely to others that one who was that concerned with the fine points of detail wouldn't miss anything anywhere else either. And even for the sake of their own self-image as professionally religious individuals this tithing seemed to them to be proof that they were in fact 'doing the thing' since this was something that was actually fairly easy to control and didn't really demand much of them. Which is not to say they were wrong to be concerned about the details. But they ought not have let that concern make them overlook the other more important things.

Woe to you Pharisees!

You love the seat of honor in synagogues

and greetings in marketplaces.  

The Pharisees were more motivated by the respect they garnered from those who highly regarded them than be any sincere desire to please God. If a Pharisee could do what he ought with no need to be recognized by others because he knew it was pleasing to God this would be a sign of maturity. But if he couldn't find motivation to act unless it led to these places of honor and greetings from others it proved he was seeking an earthly reward rather than a heavenly one, and that he was not acting for God but rather for himself. This desire to make a good showing before others made such Pharisees particularly dangerous. They avoided the appearance of impurity and yet were fundamentally motivated by selfish pride. For us, in order to avoid this trap, we must ensure that we are content to do our duty to God and neighbor whether or not we are recognized for it.

And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!

You impose on people burdens hard to carry,

but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

We can imagine teachers like this in our own day and even in our own Church, pleased to tell the world what must be done, but failing to point to the grace by which the difficult becomes possible and the heavy becomes light. Some such teachers even seem to delight in the fact that people fail to live up to their words, and secretly savor their imagined eventual condemnation. Their teaching is motivated, not by the desire to make a difference, but by the desire to broadcast their superiority. They make it sound as though they are perfectly compliant with the heavy burdens of the law precisely in and through their own strength and competence. They imply that others are failing because they simply don't try hard enough. But it is not the case that we are meant to carry our burdens on our own strength or imply that others must do so. For our burdens and those of others we know that there is no better solution than to bring them to Jesus in order to share his yoke and his burden. We see in Jesus the exact opposite of the behavior of the indifferent scholars of the law:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (see Matthew 11:28-30).

Maranatha! Music - I Will Delight

15 October 2024 - inside or out?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Pharisee was amazed to see

that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

Jesus did not participate in a ritual that amounted to little more than virtue signaling. The original idea behind such a ritual may have been a good one, indicating the acknowledge of the need for cleansing. But from a heartfelt desire to be pure before God it seemed to devolve, first into a merely external practice devoid of devotion, and finally to a badge of honor by which people could indicate their religiosity. 

The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!

Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,

inside you are filled with plunder and evil.

The outside of the cup and the dish are easy to clean and are the actions likely to elicit praise from others. The inside is more hidden, more difficult to address, but more essential. A dirty exterior may cause surrounding individuals to criticize. But a dirty interior might make one and those with whom one shares his life to be actually sick. Cleaning only the outside is fundamentally dishonest since it seems to promise that the inside would also be clean. And yet people can come to a place where they are only interested in what is external, in what they can easily control, and what is readily visible to others. A large part of the reason for this is likely because the inside of a human heart is much harder to manage than rituals and other externals. Fortunately, Jesus knew a solution that would work in the case of the Pharisee who invited him.

But as to what is within, give alms,

and behold, everything will be clean for you.

This idea, that giving alms had anything to do with what is within, must have been surprising. It should still be surprising. It seems like a very external action, visible, and within the scope of one's control. But it is precisely because it takes the focus off of oneself and one's performance that it can actually help. It is as though Jesus said that in order to address what is within people would need to stop thinking about themselves and think more about others. It was an action that had the possibility to short-circuit the loop of ego and pride that was filling the Pharisee with plunder and evil. 

Jesus knew that it was even possible to make the giving of alms and egotistical performance. But done properly it was a way to store up treasure in heaven. It was actually a way to be free from the need to impress and to be always right. In our day, when so much of our focus is on ourselves and our appearance, it is an escape hatch from the narrow confines of self to a larger world defined by love.

Mark Schultz - Give Us Clean Hands

14 October 2024 - demand for a sign

Today's Readings

(Audio)

This generation is an evil generation;

it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,

except the sign of Jonah.

Some people genuinely seek to know the truth and actually stand to benefit when a sign is given. Ahaz was not one of these. He was told to ask for a sign from the Lord, even one which was "deep as Sheol or high as heaven" (see Isaiah 7:11). The reason he refused to ask was because he didn't want to see such irrefutable evidence. But in spite of one stubborn individual God promised to give the sign anyway because his plans would not be derailed by one individual's lack of faith. There were other times when a sign was part of God's plan. The charismatic gifts functioned in such a way as to be signs, sometimes for people who are already believers, and sometimes for nonbelievers (see First Corinthians 14:22). And it was clear that the apostles "regularly" performed "many signs and wonders" as the early Church was built up (see Acts 5:12). There was, therefore, a context in which signs were not only valid but useful. 

There was also an unhealthy desire for signs that was demonstrated by the "evil generation" who refused to receive Jesus. They claimed to want and in fact demanded a sign. But they gave no indication that any sign would be sufficient for them. They were more than ready to contradict the apparent power of Jesus as being derived from the devil. In their case, asking for a sign was really a way to avoid listening to Jesus. Once one sign was given they would find reasons why it didn't meet their criteria and then request another. It was a way for them to keep Jesus safely under control and prevent the power of its word from reaching their hearts. It had the pretense of being rational and cautious, but it was really rebellious, just as the generation that escaped from Israel refused to listen to God or to Moses. This ability to never be convinced was not unique to the Jewish people. They were unique in that they preferred to require endless signs. But Greeks at the time of Paul similarly preferred to engage in endless disputes about wisdom and philosophy, not to arrive at the truth so much as to avoid it. What was God to do in the face of such a hard hearted response to his Son?

At the judgment 

the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation

and she will condemn them,

because she came from the ends of the earth

to hear the wisdom of Solomon,

and there is something greater than Solomon here.

The queen of the south and the people of Nineveh were surprisingly able to hear the word of the Lord and repent. The people of Nineveh heard the not terribly impressive preaching of Jonah and repented almost immediately. The queen of the south was drawn from the ends of the earth to her the wisdom of Solomon. These outsiders readily accepting the word of God when insiders were rebellious functioned as a sign. It was meant to make everyone stop and take note. They could then realize there was more what God was saying than they had guessed and hopefully break out of their defensive patterns of thinking. Jesus had already suggested it ought to have worked that way for those who heard John the Baptist:

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him (see Matthew 21:32).

Jesus was greater than Jonah, Solomon, or John the Baptist. This meant there were even greater stakes in the choice to believe in him or reject him. It meant that the temptation to close one's mind and heart to him would be even greater than in the case of past prophets and wise kings. But it meant the reward for recognizing him would be greater still. And we have seen that God would find those who would recognize his word wherever they might be. However unlikely those who did recognize him may have been, however unimpressive, they would still function themselves as signs pointing toward the power of Jesus, calling all, even people who initially rejected him, to repent.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (see First Corinthians 1:27-28).

Let's open ourselves to what Jesus wants to tell us, to signs he may in fact want to show us, so that, unlike the evil generation to which God sent Moses, we may at last come into the promised land.

John Michael Talbot - Exodus 15