16 July 2021 - I desire mercy, not sacrifice

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I desire mercy, not sacrifice

The Pharisees were looking for reasons to condemn the disciples rather than to be acting from a deep concern for the holiness of God. To protect the sanctity of the sabbath would be a truly noble purpose. But the Pharisees insisted on a legalistic, rule first approach, and put no consideration on the purpose of the rules. They wielded those rules as weapons, using them as a bludgeon to beat down those with whom they disagreed and therefore to build themselves up. Had they desired mercy more than sacrifice they might have been open enough to see things in a new way. 

I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

The Pharisees, had they desired mercy, would have able to remain open to the idea that Jesus was what he claimed to be, the Messiah. Maybe God really did indeed desire to reveal his mercy through Jesus. This possibility, if true, could explain fundamental claim being implicitly made by Jesus, that he and his disciples were a new priesthood, and that their ministry was an essential service to God that was, if anything, even more appropriate on the sabbath than the other days of the week. If Jesus was indeed the promised Son of David, then he, like David, was priest, prophet and king. 

For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.

Jesus not only came to restore man's relation to man and the world, symbolized by his acts on other six days of the week, he also came to restore man's fundamental relationship to God, and this was appropriate work for the Sabbath, which was always meant as sacred time wherein man would be given time and space to come into harmony and alignment with God. Man had twisted the Sabbath in such a way that God's purpose in it was obscured. So Jesus took it firmly in hand and reshaped according to its original intention, which was always to be an occasion or mercy.

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.

Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;

thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,

no destructive blow will come upon you.

The feast we celebrate on our Christian Sabbath is similarly meant to open us to the mercy of God. It is meant to help us to surrender of hearts more fully to God himself and to be more open in turn to love of our neighbors. We recognize immense holiness in the mass. We sense that it is only by mercy that the we are permitted to come forward and receive God himself without being struck down, as the firstborn of Egypt were struck down. In the mass it is our heart that is the door on which the blood of Christ is sprinkled. We are thereby spared from judgment, given new life in the Spirit, with new, God-given purpose and direction.

When we protect the sanctity of the Sabbath, the mass, and the other holy things, we are doing what Jesus instructed, and not throwing pearls before swine (see Matthew 7:6). Yet we must never use this as an excuse to lord it over others whose faith and practice we perceive to be deficient in some way. If we judge them and imagine ourselves to be superior it is we who are deluded. We are what we are only by the grace of God (see First Corinthians 15:10). It is only because Jesus had the mercy to call us that we are permitted to enter into the mysteries, because he is the Lord of the Sabbath, and we his disciples.

How shall I make a return to the LORD

    for all the good he has done for me?

The cup of salvation I will take up,

    and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Vineyard Worship - Refiner's Fire

Enter In

15 July 2021 - is this a yoke to you?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus said:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

When life seems too hard, when the call to follow Jesus seems too difficult, when he seems to ask too much of us, we can find solace in these words. Jesus was moved to speak in the first place because he saw that we were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Like a shepherd he spoke to us telling us that, as sheep, we would need to put him first if we wanted to live in safety and security. It is true that his call might mean we would need to separate from people who did not desire to live under this shepherd, who would not put him first in their own lives. Choosing anyone else other than him would be a danger to us as his sheep. We would be at risk of wolves and of falling in pits. We would be as blind being led by the blind. 

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

We are called by Jesus to take up our cross any follow him. In considering this, we remember that our shepherd did not come to us for his own profit our gain.  Neither then is anyone in his flock is permitted to live only for oneself. Our shepherd is our exemplar, as he himself is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We too are called to lay down our lives in service of one another. This talk of the cross seems heavy, overwhelming, and potentially impossible. And it would be if we had to do it alone. But we do not have to do it alone. Jesus allows us to share his own yoke, and to do by his grace what we could never do alone. The path ahead, considered apart from this grace will never seem appealing, will always seem beyond us. But it turns out that all other yokes are in fact heavier than his, no matter what they promise. Only when we take him at his word and share his yoke, by which we mean letting him live out his life through us, loving and sacrificing for others, do we discover the one path in which peace is found.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

There is no way to follow that doesn't include a yoke, no matter what the world promises. Let us trust the one who knows us, who cares about us more than we care about ourselves, who made us and formed us, to guide us in the way we are meant to walk. He proves himself once more in the fact that he does not merely call us to follow him, but he himself shoulders our burdens together with us.

casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (see First Peter 5:7).

The Lord does not want us to stay under the yoke of the Egyptians. He is calling us out from that slavery into the freedom that, paradoxically, only comes once we surrender to him. In order to receive this truth we must receive the revelation of who he is, self-sufficient, standing in no need of anything, acting from his abundance for the sake of his creatures. We can then learn, little by little, to trust him with our freedom until we are completely his.

Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel:

I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel:

The LORD, the God of your fathers,

the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,

has sent me to you.

Peter and Jessica Greedy - My Soul Finds Rest

Will Reagan & United Pursuit - Set a Fire

14 July 2021 - knowledge puffs up, love builds up

Today's Readings

(Audio)

you have hidden these things

from the wise and the learned

Saint Paul also celebrated this fact, writing "in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom," because God preferred and was pleased to save believers through the "folly" of the Gospel (see First Corinthians 1:21). But why would God do things this way? Why would he hide himself from those who, apparently, strove after wisdom and after knowledge? The problem Paul seemed to have in mind is that "knowledge puffs up while love builds up" (see First Corinthians 8:1). 

Wisdom and learning apart from God have been used to attempt to pierce the mysteries of being, to build a bridge back from the frail world of humanity to the realm of the divine. The destination and desire isn't so much the problem as is the way in which we imagine we can attain it by our own effort, skill, and greatness. Wisdom according to the traditions of men can only become a tower of Babel, which, yes, reaches to the heavens, but which is not valued for that purpose so much as it is valued as a sign of the greatness of the builders. Not only does such egotism miss the point, it actually prevents the very attainment it is attempting. Rather than leaving the world to wallow in doomed attempts to find him by our own strength, God frustrates the designs of the wise and the learned.

For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow (see Ecclesiastes 1:18).

On the one hand, this is a corrective to a world with too much pride. It is protection to prevent the spiritual pride of those who believe they have attained knowledge of God by their own efforts. Such a sin twists individuals such that they tend to lord their knowledge over others, seeing themselves as superior because of their learning. Yet because of it's spiritual guise it can be difficult to weed out. So we can be thankful for that Jesus let us know that was not the right way to go, and that he would even frustrate attempts to do so. On the other hand, there is a deeper existential reality to the need to be childlike, even without regard to whatever our temptations to pride may be. For God reveals himself in his Son Jesus, and it is only in him, as sons and daughters in the Son, that we can truly come to know the Trinity.

No one knows the Son except the Father,

and no one knows the Father except the Son

and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

It is of this sort of knowledge that we read when Jesus told Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (see Matthew 16:17). Paul too did not come to know God as revealed in Jesus Christ because of his impressive background as a Pharisee. It was not until Jesus knocked him to the ground and revealed himself that Paul came to know him. It was for this reason, that, by comparison, all of his previous accumulation of wisdom seemed to him to be now no more than rubbish.

We too are called to be childlike and humble. This is not the same thing as mere naive ignorance. It means that, as children, we are open, that we expect and receive God's own self-revelation, and that this revelation is the basis on which we build, or better, on which we ourselves are built.

you have revealed them to the childlike.

Perhaps it was to inculcate this humility and simplicity in his servant Moses that God chose to have him tend sheep for forty years after having been a prince of Egypt, and only after that God chose to reveal himself. But notice, although Moses did respond to God's revelation with humility, it was not so much so that he refused to receive it. He was humble enough to let God decide if, when, and how that revelation should happen.

As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,

though on fire, was not consumed.

So Moses decided,

“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,

and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,

God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

He answered, “Here I am.”

God said, “Come no nearer!

Remove the sandals from your feet,

for the place where you stand is holy ground.

I am the God of your father,” he continued,

“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

Songs In His Presence - So Bless the Lord

Chris Tomlin - Good Good Father

13 July 2021 - woe purpose

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus began to reproach the towns

where most of his mighty deeds had been done,

since they had not repented.

The point of his mighty deeds was not to entertain. Even the proximate ends of those deeds, to heal and set free, was not their main point. They were meant to make credible the primary proclamation of Jesus. They were meant to led to a change of life. 

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (see Mark 1:15).

Jesus knew that not all of those in the crowds that surrounded him did so because of a true desire to follow him. He knew that many were interested so much in the deeds themselves as to miss the more profound call to leave behind former sinful ways and embrace a new identity rooted in the Spirit, beginning with a transformation of the heart, but affecting every aspect of life.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst

had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

Jesus did not hold back his mighty deeds just because they were not immediately efficacious for the conversion of those who saw them. The reason for this was that his deeds were not merely evidence, but were also and especially the result of deep compassion for those who were suffering. He cared so much about the crowds, troubled and abandoned, that he did all he could to help them at whatever level they would open themselves to receive his help. But the fact that he revealed his love in this way ought to have opened them to a more holistic response of repentance. It was really as though those who did not receive him instead simply chose to use him for their own ends and then move on with their own plans. No wonder he was hurt. His love was meant to do more for them.

But I tell you, it will be more tolerable

for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

Jesus did not hold back his mighty deeds even though they would make those who saw them but did not respond liable to a greater judgment than those who had never seen them. He did what he could even in the face of the stubbornness and hardness of heart that he encountered and left the choice of how to respond in their hands.

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more (see Luke 12:49).

Even in his reproaches Jesus did not preach merely to condemn. He was not sent to condemn the world (see John 3:17). He came that we might have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10). He shared his Father's heart, desiring that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:4). Rather, he preached because there was still hope for these crowds, hope that they could realize the greatness of a gift they had already been given and come to respond with the depth and intensity that such a gift deserved. An initial hardness of heart was permitted because, by overcoming it, an even deeper repentance and more profound commitment to God could result. He preached these reproaches precisely because he did not want to see the consequences of prophesied come to pass.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first (see Second Peter 2:20).

We should take these reproaches personally, because none of us has fully realized the magnitude of the gift we have been given. Few of us have responded with the intensity befitting such a gift. And these are the ones we call saints. Yet this is the very same response to which we are called, which Jesus himself has empowered us to make by the gift of his Holy Spirit. He wants to convict us of this truth, not to condemn us, but because he loves us enough that he doesn't want us to be content with the merely superficial.  He has more that he wants to give us, more that he desires us to be.

Our life was preserved from spiritual death in baptism just as Moses was drawn from the water in which he was intended to be drowned. We should therefore leave our former ways behind, realizing that we have been purchased with a price (see First Corinthians 6:20), and that we should therefore cherish and walk in the newness of life that we have been given (see Romans 6:4).

Huron Hills Church - Mea Culpa

12 July 2021 - not peace but the sword

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.

I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

We tend to think primarily and first of the Messiah's mission to bring peace. It was said that in his day he would judge nations, decide disputes among many peoples, and that "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (see Isaiah 2:4).

Jesus came, suffered and died to save us, and ascended to the Father. The Spirit was sent to breathe life into the Church. And yet peace, at least between peoples and nations, has remained elusive. Indeed, in spite of the promise from Isaiah Jesus tells us that we are not meant to avoid conflict at all costs, if those costs include being silent about the message of Jesus.

For I have come to set

    a man against his father,

        a daughter against her mother,

    and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

        and one’s enemies will be those of his household.

Because we have free will in how we respond to the message and invitation of Jesus it is necessarily the case that some will decide for him and others against. More to it, he is a polarizing individual precisely because the choice we make when we choose for or against him is such a deep and fundamental choice.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live (see Deuteronomy 30:19).

When we choose Jesus we are not merely choosing a subjective expression of spirituality that happens to appeal to us. We are making a choice to be for or or against the source and origin of all things, of whether or not we will align ourselves with the intended purpose and destiny of the creation that exists in the mind of he who made it. It may, stated thus bluntly, sound like an obvious choice. But as the world crowds our field of vision with alternatives it becomes less clear and more obscure. Yet Christians throughout the ages continue to insist that we must not neglect or ignore this invitation. They ask us to imagine just what it would mean if it were true, in which case it could only be as great and important as they claim. And if it were an illusion or lie, then Christians would be the most pitiable of people (see First Corinthians 15:19), and Christianity itself would need to be opposed, for the countenance such a fabrication would not be kindness.

The decision for or against God as revealed in Jesus Christ is precisely the sword that Jesus came to bring. It is the point and the cutting edge of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (see Ephesians 6:17). In order to reach the promised Messianic age of peace this sword must first cut, separating those who want the true peace that only God can bring from those who demand the false and illusory peace that the world promises, yet cannot provide, a peace which they imagine to be on their own terms.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (see Acts 4:12).

It is not just a choice of whether the world or Jesus is first in our lives, even we ourselves must take a second place to him. It is a choice between what we imagine to be our freedom and autonomy in seeking life on our terms on the one hand, or taking up our crosses in a way that puts the love of God even above our own lives. Surrender is necessary if we are to truly believe that losing our lives for his sake will lead to life in a deeper sense. Only when God is on the throne of our individual hearts can we hope to follow this path, for it will otherwise seem to us as nonsense.

Whoever finds his life will lose it,

and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The nonsense of the cross is actually the deepest truth of sacrificial love which we are all meant to embrace, in which we can find meaning. It is only in a gift of ourselves that we truly find ourselves (see Gaudium et Spes 24).

At this point many of us will have resigned ourselves to grit our teeth and embrace a hard life now for the promise of a future reward. And there is something valuable in this resolution. Yet Jesus did promise peace only in the life to come. Compared to eternity this life is just a single night in a bad motel, as Teresa of Avila reportedly said. Even so, there is a peace that we can know here and now that surpasses all understanding (see Philippians 4:7). We can face the challenges of a hostile world and even the treachery of our own hearts with a deeper underlying peace by hearing Jesus speak his word of "Shalom" to us (see John 14:27).

It is this peace which comes from God alone that will make us powerful and effective even when the world tries to hold us down and oppress us, just as Egypt oppressed the children of Israel. It is by having this peace in our hearts that we can wield the sword of the Spirit to free others from oppression unto the promised land of peace that God also desires for them.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,

    who made heaven and earth.

Kutless - I Lift My Eyes

Hillsong Worship - No Other Name

11 July 2021 - a plan to prophet

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

and gave them authority over unclean spirits. 

They were sent, having left behind the leaven of their former way of life (see First Corinthians 5:8). They were directed, like the ancient Israelites leaving Egypt to go with their staff in hand and their shoes on their feet (see Exodus 12:11). 

Just as those leaving Egypt could not be dependent on provisioning from Egypt for the journey, so too would the disciples need to unencumbered by attachment to their former ways of life. They might have preferred to prepare with food, sack, and money in their belts. Who wouldn't? But Jesus wanted them to learn to trust that they would always have what enough if they followed his direction.

They were equipped for that which was specifically designed for the journey, but nothing superfluous that could be received en route. Their feet were shod with sandals, just as ours our shod with readiness to proclaim the Good News (see Ephesians 6:15). They were to take walking sticks, just as the prophet said that the Messiah would slay his enemies with the rod coming forth from his mouth (see Isaiah 11:4). The Messiah's enemies, however, were not people, but rather the sin and unclean spirits that held the people in chains. His disciples were therefore not instructed to take an earthly weapon, but to be equipped with the word of God.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron (see Revelation 19:15).

The disciples, we have seen, were like those leaving Egypt, who had to leave much behind to be sufficiently unencumbered for the journey. Yet to leave Egypt the gods of Egypt had to first be defeated. Again and again in the wilderness those same idols resurfaced in the hearts of the people. Time after time the Lord had to show himself alone to be God and to defeat those false gods on the battlefield of the hearts still held captive to them. His disciples were not leaving on an Exodus only for themselves, but were called to lead others, just as the Exodus was not a journey meant for Moses alone but all of the twelve tribes. This meant that the disciples would also need to contend with those idols and false gods as they proclaimed freedom to the Israel. 

Jesus ... gave them authority over unclean spirits. 

We see that though the disciples weren't permitted to provision for their journey in a conventional way, they were permitted to prioritize the spiritual realities that mattered most. They went with the word of God, the readiness to proclaim the Good News, and the authority over the spiritual forces opposed to their progress. And there was one additional thing which is easy to pass over but was a crucial element of their mission.

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two

They did not go alone, without support. They had each other. This ability to confide in and rely on a friend and partner in the Gospel was not merely a negligible addition to the narrative, but mentioned precisely because it was essential. Because they did not go out alone they were able to do as Saint Paul admonished his own readers:

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (see Colossians 3:16).

When their own fear, weakness, and human frailty seemed to overwhelm them they were not meant to rely only on their own connection to God, which at such times might feel very tenuous. They could rely also on God working in their friend and fellow missionary.

At first blush it might seem like they did not go forth to mission with much at all, but we have come to see that they had an abundance for the task at hand. The thing we should realize is that so too do we.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us in Christ

with every spiritual blessing in the heavens

The disciples have found us and called us out of the world on the grand pilgrimage to the Kingdom of heaven. God himself has given us everything we need for the journey. The controlling nature of the flesh may make us wish that we had been permitted more control over our circumstances, but we too can learn that the Gospel and the authority of the Kingdom are all we really need to be faithful, and therefore successful, on this mission.

In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,

were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,

Like Amos, this is not a path we would have chosen for ourselves. If the plan had been our own we would have probably done things quite differently. If we had been the ones choosing who would be called we may not have picked ourselves to be prophets. But the Lord has called us, and whether or not we can see it, he has a reason for having done so.

“I was no prophet,

nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;

I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores. 

The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,

Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Carey Landry - Companions on the Journey

Hillsong Worship - This Kingdom

10 July 2021 - more than many sparrows

Today's Readings

(Audio)

No disciple is above his teacher,

no slave above his master.

As our great Teacher was persecuted and suffered to bring about our redemption, we should not be surprised that we are called to face the same challenges. 

It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,

for the slave that he become like his master.

We can't follow Jesus unless we take up our own crosses and follow him. At least, not very far, for that is always the direction he is leading us. There is a subtle temptation when we are faced with a choice between a path which appears difficult and a path which appears easy to choose the easy one because we imagine we deserve it. We imagine a Christianity where Jesus did all the hard work and we are now called to a life of comfort. We sometimes reject the paths that would make us more like Jesus, that would conform our identities to his. But we are not supposed to seek an identity "above" our teacher, but rather in him. 

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,

how much more those of his household!

We do not choose to bring suffering on ourselves. But we must not be afraid to make the choices to follow and become like Jesus because of the fear suffering or persecution. If we are truly trying to follow Jesus it will be at times provocative, at times divisive. They said Jesus was working by the power of Beelzebul, and they will say it of us, provided we do not hide in the shadows.

Therefore do not be afraid of them.

Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,

nor secret that will not be known.

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

In a world where the right to define oneself according to one's subjective impulses and desires is seen as absolute, the idea that there is a higher, objective, external, and absolute reference to which we must be conformed will naturally seem threatening. We speak of the reality of wind to a world that has built a house of cards. Yet there is freedom to be found in our message for those who will receive it. For no one said that a house of cards was needed. God himself is always willing to provide us with the rock on which to build identities grounded in him. We need not go forward, tenuously, experimentally, threatened at every stage by anything that transgresses the boundaries of our self-construction. We need not even, when we are following Jesus and being conformed to him, fear death itself.

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;

rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy

both soul and body in Gehenna.

Our fearless does not come from ourselves. It is not a construct which we build. It is rather the gift of the experiential knowledge of the love and providential care of the Father.

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?

Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.

Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

God does let sparrows fall, on occasion. Realizing this is part of learning not to be terrified by the threats of the world, by the possibility of difficult and even dire circumstances. He even let his only Son be crucified for the sins of the world. But unlike the sparrows, his love for his Son did not end there. The Son was able to overcome even the fear of death because of his trust in and reverential fear of his Father. We can learn this same courage. We can base our lives on this same trust. We'll never find a self-definition that will give us the peace we desire. But as we learn trust in the Father's plan more and more we will find our fears giving way to faith, our cowardice to confidence. Conformed to the master, courageous because of the Father's love, we will be able to "proclaim on the housetops" the good news which we ourselves have experienced. We will have a trust that even death itself cannot keep us from the promises of God for us.

Joseph said to his brothers: “I am about to die.

God will surely take care of you and lead you out of this land to the land

that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom