by Lowell
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 45 (morning) 47, 48 (evening)
Genesis 37:12-24
1 Corinthians 1:20-31
Mark 1:14-28
It is easy to become discouraged, even despairing. We humans seem such a stupid lot. Over and over we fail to see clearly and to act wisely. We have the capability to wipe out extreme poverty globally, to extend health benefits to every American, to offer education and digital connections to virtually everyone on the planet, and yet we squander our potential in self-centeredness, greed and silly distractions.
God intends good for us, however. No matter how difficult we make it for God, the divine love and wisdom is working to overcome our stubborn hearts and to bring us blessing.
Jealous brothers plan violence against their kin. They will tear the sign of privilege away from Joseph, the coat with long sleeves (or many colors), and will throw him in a pit to die. But God will use their evil plot to bring them eventual blessing. Before the blessing comes, Joseph will have to endure slavery, however.
Paul bemoans the fact that nearly everybody missed the coming of God's anointed one. The religious Jews demanded signs that fit with their religious expectations -- expectations grounded in the Biblical prophecies of political domination and military triumph. Jesus wasn't that kind of leader. They wanted that kind of leader. They wanted their nation to kick butt and take names, and so they missed the opportunity when God sent them a different kind of leader. Jesus' triumph over Israel's enemies was his own cross.
The Greeks demanded a wisdom that fit with their philosophical traditions. They wanted to debate in the abstract the virtues that create honor among the wise. Jesus wasn't that kind of leader either. He was counted among the peasants, condemned as a state enemy, and executed not in a noble way as a hero, but in a disgusting death as a criminal-traitor.
Jewish fishermen from Galilee. It's like the pipe-fitters' union from Springdale. Not the place you would look for God's revelation. The Gospels never mention the two significant cities in Galilee, Sepphoris and Tiberias. Can anything good come out of Galilee anyway?
In and through it all, God is working. God uses our jealousy and violence to open new ways for life. God takes our blindness and pride and moves below the surface to bring life out of death. God takes the unlikeliest people and opportunities and turns them into blessing.
We need God to work right now. There are so many opportunities to extend community and peace, opportunity and health. Every time we try to do so, the demons scream. When Jesus taught love of neighbor and when he extended healing to where it was lacking, the demons screamed, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" Yes. Jesus intends to destroy all demonic systems that deny the values that would connect all of us together into one human family, bringing nurture and care, empathy and hope, to encourage individual and social responsibility to make ourselves and the world better. The demonic voices of self-interest and pride, of greed and division, continue to bluster with their threatening rhetoric, just as the demons did to Jesus.
But somewhere there is a Ruben who is quietly working behind the scenes to rescue Joseph from the pit, somewhere there is a Paul holding up the path of the cross, somewhere there are the fishermen doing their humble work -- to save the vulnerable, to soak up evil with non-violent love, to gather people gently into nets of love.
Faithful hearts pray for God's hidden work, and we seek to be the quiet instruments of God's accomplishment. Are you today's Ruben? Are you today's cross follower? Are you today's fisher of love? God doesn't need very much, to do so much.
Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 953)
Psalms 45 (morning) 47, 48 (evening)
Genesis 37:12-24
1 Corinthians 1:20-31
Mark 1:14-28
It is easy to become discouraged, even despairing. We humans seem such a stupid lot. Over and over we fail to see clearly and to act wisely. We have the capability to wipe out extreme poverty globally, to extend health benefits to every American, to offer education and digital connections to virtually everyone on the planet, and yet we squander our potential in self-centeredness, greed and silly distractions.
God intends good for us, however. No matter how difficult we make it for God, the divine love and wisdom is working to overcome our stubborn hearts and to bring us blessing.
Jealous brothers plan violence against their kin. They will tear the sign of privilege away from Joseph, the coat with long sleeves (or many colors), and will throw him in a pit to die. But God will use their evil plot to bring them eventual blessing. Before the blessing comes, Joseph will have to endure slavery, however.
Paul bemoans the fact that nearly everybody missed the coming of God's anointed one. The religious Jews demanded signs that fit with their religious expectations -- expectations grounded in the Biblical prophecies of political domination and military triumph. Jesus wasn't that kind of leader. They wanted that kind of leader. They wanted their nation to kick butt and take names, and so they missed the opportunity when God sent them a different kind of leader. Jesus' triumph over Israel's enemies was his own cross.
The Greeks demanded a wisdom that fit with their philosophical traditions. They wanted to debate in the abstract the virtues that create honor among the wise. Jesus wasn't that kind of leader either. He was counted among the peasants, condemned as a state enemy, and executed not in a noble way as a hero, but in a disgusting death as a criminal-traitor.
Jewish fishermen from Galilee. It's like the pipe-fitters' union from Springdale. Not the place you would look for God's revelation. The Gospels never mention the two significant cities in Galilee, Sepphoris and Tiberias. Can anything good come out of Galilee anyway?
In and through it all, God is working. God uses our jealousy and violence to open new ways for life. God takes our blindness and pride and moves below the surface to bring life out of death. God takes the unlikeliest people and opportunities and turns them into blessing.
We need God to work right now. There are so many opportunities to extend community and peace, opportunity and health. Every time we try to do so, the demons scream. When Jesus taught love of neighbor and when he extended healing to where it was lacking, the demons screamed, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" Yes. Jesus intends to destroy all demonic systems that deny the values that would connect all of us together into one human family, bringing nurture and care, empathy and hope, to encourage individual and social responsibility to make ourselves and the world better. The demonic voices of self-interest and pride, of greed and division, continue to bluster with their threatening rhetoric, just as the demons did to Jesus.
But somewhere there is a Ruben who is quietly working behind the scenes to rescue Joseph from the pit, somewhere there is a Paul holding up the path of the cross, somewhere there are the fishermen doing their humble work -- to save the vulnerable, to soak up evil with non-violent love, to gather people gently into nets of love.
Faithful hearts pray for God's hidden work, and we seek to be the quiet instruments of God's accomplishment. Are you today's Ruben? Are you today's cross follower? Are you today's fisher of love? God doesn't need very much, to do so much.
Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Comments