Hark! Good News!
11 Dec 2011 4 Comments
in Advent, Isaiah, Jesus, John, Luke, Thessalonians Tags: Advent, Biblical essay, Isaiah, John, Luke
There aren’t many people who can’t tell you exactly how many days there are left before Christmas. That’s because time is running, and there is still so much to do. Menus to be finalized, food to be bought, baking to get done, presents to be bought and wrapped, cards to address, decorating to finish.
And so we limp into our places of worship this Sunday, and what an uplifting message we get. Just exactly when we need it.
And it comes, with a fanfare of trumpets blaring.
Listen. You can hear them.
Just like in movies of the times of merry old England, and certainly in those times in Rome when the Emperor was about to arrive, the trumpets were heard upon the ramparts.
The Good News is on its way! Rejoice, we hear again and again. Rejoice. We have been blessed with a God who listens and who responds to our call.
From Isaiah we are told that glad tidings come to the poor, the brokenhearted will be healed, the prisoners will be released. In the Magnificat, Mary rejoices that God will fill the hungry with good things and will have mercy on every generation. Paul says we all will be made perfect because our God is faithful and it will be accomplished.
John reminds us that we may believe all this because John the Baptist told us so. He told us that he was the one coming to announce the coming of the Light.
Such an important word “the Light.”
Such a word was known to Jews. Light was knowledge of the Lord, yet here it is used in a new way. Light is God and that God is coming among us to perfect us, and to heal and to have mercy. God as Light will teach us.
John the Baptist may indeed be a prophet of the Good News. But Paul warns, “test everything, retain what is good”. Paul is of course speaking after the fact, and is reminding us that we know what Jesus taught. Examine all that is given by so-called prophets in that light. Retain what is good. In other words, lay everything that is preached to you alongside the teaching of the Light, and keep only that which aligns with the Master’s teaching.
Would that that occurred today.
Today, we unfortunately have a plethora of spokespersons for the Light. And too many of them, sad so say, have messages that in the end serve to further other agendas. They seek to serve political parties or perceived ingrained beliefs that may have little or in some cases, nothing to do with what our Master taught.
When someone tries to tell you that Jesus would be for a certain economic ideology, by twisting a parable or taking a sentence all too literally, beware. Test everything. When someone attempts to tell you that Jesus would be of this or that position in regards some sexual moray, beware. Test everything.
Prophets abound even today. And some are indeed listening to God, but some are not. Retain what is good.
Test against what the Light proclaims. What is warm and life-giving? What opens up for all to see? What offers hope, healing, mercy? What on the other hand is dark, divisive, and fearful? Reject it as not light.
Indeed, this is GOOD NEWS!
It is this good news that will carry us through the days and hours to come. It is this which sustains us through real and perceived obstacles and the dark. A new day is dawning. Come to the Light!
Amen.
Is 61:1-2a, 10-11 Lk 1: 46-48, 49-50, 53-54 1Thes 5: 16-24 Jn 1: 6-8, 19-28
Related articles
- 12/10: Weekend Readings/Reflection (unitedbyfaith.wordpress.com)
- 3rd Sunday of Advent (johnmsfs.wordpress.com)
- Guadete Sunday 2011 – Gospel Reading at Mass (catholicglasses.com)
Cleansing the Temple
04 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in 2Peter, Advent, Bible Essays, Isaiah, Jesus, Mark, Psalms, Seasons Tags: Advent, make straight the path, Mark
In reading through the texts for the second week of Advent, I came upon the familiar lines of Isaiah, echoed in Mark:
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”
As I often have, I wondered exactly what that meant.
To me at least, I pondered that directed me to not get caught in many of the twists and turns of life, but rather to keep my eyes and heart locked on the goal–making myself and my life a fitting example of Christ’s teachings.
We are reminded in Isaiah that God has dealt generously with Jerusalem and thus with us as well. We are promised that God is coming!
Yet, in our second reading from Second Peter, we get a quite different message. It is one of chaos and fire, of destruction and upheaval. All that we have done here on this earth is to no account, it will be destroyed and replaced with a “new earth”. We apparently have so ruined this one, that the only recourse is a cleansing.
But look a bit deeper. The writer of 2Peter is writing in perilous times for his community. While Jesus himself, and Paul thereafter spoke of his return in terms of years, now perhaps as much as 70 years has gone by. And few if any eye-witnesses remain. Hardly anyone has even heard an eye-witness speak.
The community is disheartened, distressed, and persecuted.
“What have we done wrong?” you can hear them ask.
The one writing assures then that God gauges time much differently than they. God so loves his people that he gives them this time to make of themselves that perfect being, worthy of the Kingdom. And so the delay is not out of anger or disgust, but rather out of love.
In effect we are told that as we cleanse ourselves of sin, so we bring forth the day we long for.
We do not sit passively, tending the fire, waiting for salvation. No we participate in the Kingdom now by our very actions as Christians. If we do our jobs, living lives worthy of the Kingdom, then we hasten the return of our King, we make the fire unnecessary.
We cleanse the Temple in a literal sense as our way of making straight the path of the Lord.
Come Lord Jesus!
Amen.
Is 40:1-5, 9-11 Ps 85: 9-14 2Pt 3: 8-13 Mk 1: 1-8
To The Watch Towers!
27 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in Advent, Bible Essays, Corinthians, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Mark, Psalms, Seasons Tags: Advent, Gospel, Kingdom, Mark
As an adult, Thanksgiving has come to be my favorite of holidays. Although I spend hours and hours buying food, preparing it, and setting up the table, finally the moment arrives and we sit down to a feast.
But more glorious to me, is the fact that I have no cooking to do for the next three days. When we feast, we feast. We eat Thanksgiving dinner for four days, enjoying it anew each time, and leaving little in the way of leftovers.
But I admit, that around Saturday, I start to lose my contentment. It has nothing to do with the cooking. It has everything to do with the looming specter of the holidays to come and all the work that that entails.
There is of course more buying and cooking of food, but there is the addition of decorating, holiday cards, gifts, and all the sundry events and parties and so forth. And it seems overwhelming.
In my thirties, it seemed nearly impossible. I seem to never have a moment when I wasn’t shopping, decorating, baking, or obsessing. As I’ve aged, and our lives have settled down, frankly little of this troubles me now. But I remember it quite well.
Advent comes as an island in the chaos. It tells us to slow down, stop our obsessing about things that don’t matter much at all, and to concentrate on what truly is. The LORD IS COMING!
And we are reminded that instead of all this unnecessary busy work, we should be concentrating on what is truly valuable–doing our best to usher in the kingdom that we so long for.
Believe me, we can be at our worst during the hustle and bustle of holiday times. We can be rude and pushy, arrogant, and down right mean to those who we see as getting in our way or obstructing our plans. And Advent reminds us, that that is not what we should be about at all.
It is a time of shared love and charity. It is a time of community, and caring for each other. It is a time when we join together in our hope for the future that we know to be ours.
Mark reminds us: “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
And Paul tells us that we have been given all we need to be at the watch: “in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,. . . “
We take a pause in our busyness, and contemplate these things.
We realize that we get caught up in the Madison Avenue of it all, and we lose sight of our need. Our need is great. It is the need for our God:
”Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
We need with a deep yearning to recall that we are fashioned as God would have us. We are not consumers. We are not Italians, or Irish, or Puerto Ricans. We are not Presbyterians or Catholics, Baptists or Lutherans. We are not lawyers, or mechanics, teachers or real estate agents. We are not parents, children, aunts, or cousins. We are not old or young, rich or poor.
We are God’s creation. We are gifted with love and compassion and humility. We are awaiting our Savior’s return to bring glory to God in the Kingdom. We wait. We watch. We hope.
Is. 63:16b-17, 19b, 64: 2-7 Ps 80: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19 1Cor 1: 3-9 Mk 13: 33-37Related articles
- 11/26: Advent Reflection (unitedbyfaith.wordpress.com)
- God Comes To Man (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
- 1st Sunday of Advent OTB (johnmsfs.wordpress.com)
What More Was There to Do?
02 Oct 2011 4 Comments
in Bible Essays, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Matthew, Social Justice Tags: essays, Isaiah, Matthew, parables, vineyards
We are all of us fairly familiar with the parable of the vineyard owner who leaves his lands in the hands of tenants only to have the tenants attempt to hold the land for themselves and not return the profits to the owner.
We learn early on in our religious lives that the owner is God, the tenants are the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day, and the servants who come to collect the harvest are the prophets who have throughout the years warned Israel to turn from its wicked ways. Finally of course the Son goes to collect from the tenants and is murdered. It is not lost on the listeners that the Son is none other than Jesus himself.
The climax is announced in the final sentence:
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
Simple isn’t it. We, the Gentiles or modern-day Christians, are the recipients of the Kingdom, given to us when God “gave up” on Israel.
We can nod with a smile, and go home from church feeling pretty darn special.
We would do well not to rest on our assumptions too long however.
If parables are living words to us today, as I believe all scripture is, then we must stop and think. Are we the Pharisees and Sadducees of our day?
Jesus wisely related this story back to its source in Isaiah:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
And we must ask ourselves? Not what more should God have done but what more we should have done. If we look upon the kingdom and find it full of wild grapes, who is to blame? God? Or ourselves? Are we unworthy tenants as well as so many of those early Israelites were? Or are we the wild grapes themselves?
Neither prospect is particularly enjoyable to contemplate.
Rather than feeling self-satisfied as the new “inheritors” of the vineyard, we should examine our lives and works most carefully. When Jesus returns to take back his Kingdom, left in our hands, lo those centuries ago, what will he find? How will he find us?
Will the books balance? Will we have cared for the land and kept it fertile? Will we have made sure that the workers are healthy and strong, able to raise future generations of good workers?
These are important questions, and no doubt not a single one of us can feel secure that we will pass the test.
But if we have read scripture with care, we know that all is not lost if we find ourselves short of our goal. God is loving and forgiving and forever calls us to begin again, to get up and try once more. If we do that with sincerity and with good heart, we can be assured that Jesus himself will join us with clippers and baskets and together we will create God’s kingdom in perfect glory.
Amen.
Readings from Isaiah 5: 1-7
Matthew 21: 33-43
Related articles
- Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (prepareformass.wordpress.com)
- October 2nd, 2011 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (catholicjules.net)
What God are We Talking About?
18 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in Bible Essays, God, Isaiah, Theology Tags: God, Isaiah, theology
How do we define God? Humankind has been asking that question since the first human entertained the thought that there was some entity beyond himself.
No doubt Christians are directed to an answer in the first creation story, where the writer announces that God has made man in “our” image.
We took from that, simplistically, that God must look like us, and certainly if one looks to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, one would agree. God indeed is just a “super” man.
And one thing generally leads to another and in this case, we naturally found it easy to conclude that God thinks as we do, and well, wants what we want.
Given that as humans, we all want a lot of things, I suppose that once in a while some of us hit the mark.
Isaiah reminds us that when we try to make God think as we do, we are surely in trouble.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
Sadly, we seldom remember that warning. We all too often assume that God is understandable in the same way that we understand our spouse, our children, or our boss at work. We think that God not only thinks in the same manner that we do, but we ascribe the same emotions and psychological motivations to the Godhead.
We may not always do this consciously, for we do remember Isaiah, but subconsciously, we almost always forget. We think God is rooting for us to win the tennis match, and that God is pulling for us to get this job. We tend for forget, that at the other end is our tennis opponent, and someone else in need of a job, and that they are operating under the same assumption.
So is God choosing between us? Hardly.
God has no favorites, according to Jesus. God only uplifts and calls us to become the greatness that has been present within us from all time.
According to Jesus, God is about love and justice. He is for raising all of his children to their perfect potential. In infinite wisdom, if we each perform to our best ability in all things, then naturally all will work out for the best. The more physically capable on a given day will win the match, the most qualified, the job.
There is nothing unfair in this. If we lose, we can practice more, or we can seek more training. Or we can find a more suitable recreation or job, one that we are most qualified for.
God is about global, or intergalactic things, not our silly preference for this team or that to win a contest this Sunday. Of course it’s just not a matter of “the just thing will win out.” There are plenty of other variables that sometimes must also align. That is part of life. Bad things happen to good people.
Still, by not expecting God to grant our “righteous” request, we don’t place upon God that which is not his burden. We don’t declare ourselves still “too sinful” to succeed and redouble our prayers and spiritual regimen. We seek the true reasons for our failure and do what we can, if we can, to correct them.
Are you seeking the superman God or some other? ” What God are you talking about?
**Isaiah 55:8-9
It’s Always a Process
10 Jul 2011 4 Comments
in Bible Essays, Faith, Fundamentalism, Isaiah, Matthew, Romans, Spiritual Growth Tags: Faith, growth, Isaiah, Matthew, parable of the sower, Psalms, Romans, spirituality
Readings:
Is: 55:10-11
Ps: 65:10,11, 12-13-14
Rom: 8-18-23
Mt: 13:1-23
What these readings have in common is process. We sow seeds, rain falls, crops grow and are harvested. Even the reading from Romans suggests that process is the key. Creation is a process that is being worked out in time.
Typically, what is garnered from Matthew’s parable of the sower, is that we must be the fruitful seed. We must take the Word, let it enrich us, grow in us and we must then use it to facilitate the creating desire of God. And that is perfectly true.
Yet, it also bespeaks something about our faith and how it prospers or not. I often wonder how a fundamentalist reads this parable. Surely they don’t see themselves as seed that has fallen on rock or the path. They see themselves as seed that fell into rich soil. They do not let the cares of the world, or the vicissitudes of life interfere with their dedication to Jesus and the Gospel. They remain committed to their understanding of the Word.
But I suggest there is another way to look at the parable and the readings in general. They don’t necessarily relate to one’s tenacity in committment to “spreading the Word” but rather to the process of being in faith.
And what we see here is change. There is a process being announced. Seed, rain, soil, each is needed. The seed bursts forth, becomes a plant, sets seed, produces its fruits, and then is harvested. It’s not simply a matter of sowing day in and day out. It’s not merely a matter of reading the same passages again and again and reminding ourselves of the standard meanings.
Growth and change signify each of these readings, and that means ourselves as well as our duties to spread the “good news.”
To cast in iron the meaning of any parable or any passage is to stop growing. And to stop growing is death. We can wave the banner of faith, but if it is a faith that is stagnant, unyielding in its interpretation, then we are failing quite simply to honor Jesus’ words.
Faith is messy as some have suggested. It is, and should be full of starts and stops, turns, flips, inquiry, doubt, doubling back, and throwing up our hands in confusion. We should get angry sometimes, we should find deep peace at others, joy often, confidence–in other words, faith involves the entire panoply of our emotions.
Faith is a living thing. For we are in the process of a creation, one that is still ongoing, still unfolding. And we are deeply a part of that process. The very evidence that our world is not as it should be is all the evidence we need. It is not complete because we are not complete.
Faith is work. It’s not easy nor always pleasurable. Talk to those of advanced spiritual growth and they will explain all the months and sometimes years of deep meaningless agony that must be fought through. To the degree that we attempt to avoid that, but painting a picture of faith as steady and unchanging, we contribute to the stalling of creation unfolding from us. We become the rocky soil, the path where fruitless sowing has occurred.
It is like walking along with a handful of seeds and each step turns to concrete before us. We can sow seed all day long, and we will produce nothing. The vessel is sterile, and can generate no life.
That is what seems to me is the fundamentalist. The fundamentalist has deeply erred in concluding that any question, any confusion about what the Word might mean, is not faith and thus must be avoided at all costs. Fear becomes the stick that guides the fundamentalist.
We must realize that we are in process as believers. It is okay to say, I don’t know. It is okay to say, I can’t agree with that this seems to say, therefore, I must dig deeper to uncover its meaning. It is okay to conclude that perhaps the writer was wrong! But it is right to seek answers that satisfy one’s heart, because that is the truest location of good judgment.
It is all about growth. Jesus called his disciples to grow out of their old thinking into new thinking, and in doing so, he shows us how to as well. Remember, on more than one occasion Jesus made clear that there was ever so much more to tell and to learn, more than he had time for in his short time in our world. So he taught us a method–simply love your God with all your heart, mind and soul, your fellow human being as yourself, and be servant to all.
That is how we grow: by each day making a new effort to proceed throughout that day mindful of those directives.
Amen.
Related articles
- Audio Readings July 10, 2011 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (sacredheartcatholicchurchcrosbytexas.wordpress.com)
- 7/10/2011 Bear Good Fruit (richbrownforewords.wordpress.com)
- Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (prepareformass.wordpress.com)
Like this:
All is Holy Ground
18 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Isaiah, Jesus, John, Lent, Social Justice, Spiritual Growth Tags: cross, Easter, Holy Week, Jesus, Lent, service
“I, the Lord have called you to serve the cause of right. I have taken you by the hand and formed you. I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.” [Is 42:6-7]
We have come up out of the desert and into the City. We know the awful days ahead, filled with foreboding and pain. We are also aware of the breaking open of the heavens in joyous jubilation which awaits us on Easter Sunday.
It is a time of deep holiness. All about seems sacred. We are quieter, we smile gently, laughter feels unseemly. We give attention to our daily chores; we do all with care. Our world is filled with the fragrance of the ointment that anointed our Lord.
We tread softly. We take seriously our appointment to serve the cause of right. Jesus tells us that the “poor you have with you always” and we feel that sadness of that statement. For we have done little to alleviate the plight of the poor over the centuries. We have not well served the cause of right.
Jesus assuredly did not mean that poverty was a normal state. He merely acknowledges that it was the state of his world in his time. Truly, most of the world lived in want. Given the earthly power of Rome, there was no way to attack that evil except in his admonition to take care of all in need, without reference to judgment as best as the community could. “For as you care for the least of these, you did it to me,” he reminded us. We cannot know who is worthy or not, we are to serve all without evaluating.
We serve this week, but our eyes see in the distance, and there we see the cross. That is our earthly goal, to ascend the cross, to die to ourselves, to live in Christ.
Amen.
Are You Ready?
17 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Isaiah, Jesus, Lent, Spiritual Growth Tags: Isaiah, Jesus, Lent, Palm Sunday
“The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the wearied he provides me with speech. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear. For my part I made no resistance, neither did I turn away.” [Is 50:4-5]
The days and nights of Lent have been long. We have struggled, we have wept, we have prayed.
We have offered penance in sincerity. We have humbly walked with our Lord in the desert.
We sing his praises as he enters the City, waving our palms of joy. We yearn for a glimpse of his face.
And yet, we know the awful road that lies ahead, the pain and sorrow that this next week brings. We choke on the words, CRUCIFY HIM! We reject the words in our hearts. We want with all our minds, souls, and hearts, to hear when Pilate asks: “Who shall be spared?” the sweetest of all words: JESUS!!! But we know the awful truth.
Yet, the time is not yet here. We stand poised at the gate.
Are you ready to enter into Jerusalem?
An Offering of Peace
27 Feb 2011 2 Comments
in Bible Essays, Corinthians, God, Isaiah, Matthew, Spiritual Growth Tags: Being Present, bible essay, worrying
We live in an information era in case you missed it. That’s both good and bad. Good in that we can share information with disparate people and save ourselves a lot of duplication and research time.
Bad in that, well. Consider this:
There is a commercial the subject of which escapes me (that is fairly normal, many ads grab your attention but never quite tie their message to the product). Anyway this particular one is about the linking problem.
The daughter says, “I need to get new shoes for the dance,” and the mother, repeats, “shoes? Menolas, designer pumps,” and the father repeats, “pumps? gasoline pumps, need to refill the car.” And this goes on and on as people finally go into a loop and just stand there mesmerized, their brains in lockdown.
That’s what can happen in our information craze. Go to read a post, and start following the links, and follow those links, and soon you are 42 subjects from where you started, and none the wiser usually.
My mind seems a constant whirl of thoughts, but I guess the Internet has nothing to do with that. It’s the way we are. If you are a meditator, you certainly appreciate what I’m saying. How to clear the mind, and remain simply present?
Our readings today reflect advice that most of us should take to heart. Stop thinking so much!
Isaiah reminds us that we need not spend time worrying about whether God is and will remain faithful. That is like asking a woman to forget her baby. It’s just not gonna happen. (Isa 49:14-15)
Paul reminds us in 1Cor 4:1-5 that we shouldn’t be worrying about whether other folks are doing what they should either. It’s not up to us to judge, so why spend the time even thinking about such things. If you’ve ever sat in church and looked around, and casually thought, “my but that person seems interested in everything but worship today” you know what I mean. Of course, I guess we weren’t thinking much about worship either, but somehow that thought seems to escape us.
Jesus, really makes this very clear in MT 6:24-34. He reminds us that the birds of the air do absolutely nothing to warrant their food, yet God takes care of them. And why should we worry about what to wear? The flowers of the field are made resplendent, with nary a lifted leaf to warrant their beauty.
The readings today tell us, in total, to stop worrying about ourselves and others. God will take care of all. And it’s good advice, for the most part. Again, anyone who meditates knows this. If you pay attention to the thoughts that float across your mind when you are sitting in silence, you will find that mostly ninety percent of them have to do with worrying about things past or fears of what may come. We simply don’t live much in the moment.
In the moment. So easy to say, so very hard to do. To stay present to our loved ones, to the activity at hand. No doubt most “accidents” are caused by inattention to what is at hand. We’re busy texting, or talking, or thinking of something else.
Reflect back to something twenty, thirty years ago. Remember a time when your hours were filled with worry about X. Remember the emotional agony you endured. Painful hours spent worrying. And X never happened. If you are like most of us, you’ve done this enumerable times throughout your life. We all have.
If we only knew the value of the present moment, that ephemeral moment that as soon as you recognize it, is past. The ever-changing moment. Yet it is here that God is. It is here we meet the transcendent. It is here we live and have our being. It is the only thing that we can claim as “ours.”
Yet, as important as this is. There is need to think of the future. It would be imprudent to not make plans. I mean is it not intelligent to save money for our old age? Is it not prudent to study hard with a view to good grades and better college prospects? Do we not plan for vacations, our children’s health, and myriads of other things?
Yes, as Shakespeare would say, “there’s the rub.” Some thinking about the future is essential to live practical lives. We have to plan shopping trips lest there be no food in the house. Prudence dictates a certain amount of forethought.
So, where is the dividing line? For Jesus suggests that we need not worry about our food or clothing, God will take care of us. Well, perhaps we take that too literally. Perhaps what Jesus was saying is that we should not spend our time worrying about such things. Worrying and planning are not the same. Peter and Andrew and the others planned for their livelihood by going out to fish. They didn’t expect the fish to beach themselves on shore for them to scoop up.
Jesus’ admonition seems more along the lines of our tendency to obsess about the future. When we read further into the passage, he reminds us to:
Set your heart on his Kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well.
In other words, do your normal jobs of life, but do them with an eye to living as God would have you. Good things come when we love God, and our neighbor. Being present to God enables us to do that “good job” and grace results. We are fed.
Who Will Answer?
16 Jan 2011 4 Comments
in Bible Essays, Corinthians, God, Isaiah, Jesus, John, Spiritual Growth Tags: biblical essays, Corinithians, God, Isaiah, Jesus, John, preaching
One of the fun things about belonging to a liturgical church is that one can try to figure out why the particular readings each day and Sunday were placed together. Sometimes it’s easy, other times, it’s really hard to figure.
I puzzled about today’s readings:
Isa 49: 3, 5-6 1Cor 1: 1-3 Jn 1:29-34The first reading is commonly called the Second Song of the Servant. The reading from Paul letters is simply an introduction and greeting, and the gospel reading from John refers to the Baptist’s recognition that Jesus is indeed to “one who is to come.”
The story of the Baptist is well-known, and frankly it is in some contradiction to the other accounts, especially as to the circumstances of Jesus’ baptism and John’s recognition of Him as the Chosen One. But exegesis is not the point here. As always, we believe that the Scriptures are alive and speak to us in every generation. Therefore, we contemplate what these passages mean to us today.
The key is in the Gospel. John is very clear that his purpose is to proclaim the coming of the Chosen One. He is to prepare people for that time. And John spends his adult life doing just that, and he relates that this command from God was true, for indeed he met the Chosen One, and as God said, the Spirit came down upon him. We may trust John.
In Isaiah, the Servant is Israel, the ideal spokesperson. Israel will be the “light to the nations” so that “salvation can reach the ends of the earth.” In other words, Israel is called to preach, and teach all nations, everyone about this God, this one and only One God.
Paul speaks as a preacher, called by God to be apostle to the world, but as he realizes, most especially to the Gentiles. Yet Paul points out in this short introduction to the Corinthians, that these “new” holy people in God, are to “take their place among all the saints” for Jesus is “their Lord no less than ours.”
What does all this mean? I see it as a message to us all, that we, the people of God are a priesthood, called to be witness to the Truth. As John was witness, as Israel was called to be witness, as Paul was, and as he calls the Corinthians to be. Witness to the message of Jesus.
And exactly how do we do this? Ah, the rub.
Some of course spend years in seminary, and college classroom learning the intricacies of scripture. They learn Hebrew and Koine Greek, they study under theologians and biblical experts who have spent a lifetime studying the texts from various means and ways.
Thus, we can teach by teaching the historical truths of Scriptures, we can explain how the Bible was put together, when each writing was written, by whom, (if known), for what purpose. We can put things in context, and give deeper meaning to the literal words.
Others study for the purpose of leading congregations and attending to the spiritual needs of the people of God. Surely they attempt to explain scripture, but the primary focus is perhaps to “bring it home” –what it means for us today, in our ordinary mundane and often painful lives.
Others are simply gifted, and without much formal education in the niceties of exegetics or pastoral care, seem to have a flair for it. They perhaps read widely on their own, but they intuitively seem to “get” the message of love and compassion, of care and support, and can translate everything through that lens.
Some perhaps think that scriptures are simple of reading and understanding and perhaps do more harm than good with their unknowing but self-serving analysis.
But we need not all “preach” by words. We do not all need pulpits or soap boxes. Most of us can witness in an arguably better and easier way.
Easier? Well perhaps not easier. Perhaps it’s the hardest way of all.
It is by living our lives in ways that make people sit up and take notice.
“What makes Mary or Joan or Eddy so happy? What makes them so serene? What makes them so helpful and calm in every trouble? The first to volunteer, the first to be at bedside, the first to lend a sympathetic ear.”
People seek out such people and gravitate to their world. They seek to learn the secrets to their life. They see that such people suffer setbacks and heartache fully as much as everyone else, yet they rise ever up, peaceful and ready to move on.
This is hard work, make no mistake. For the internal work required to be Christ like is no small thing. Few are highly successful, many are quite successful. Yet, I think that such people stand as the greatest “witness” to God’s love and grace than a bushel full of preachers ever can.
We are called to embody our God. We are called to witness.
This is what I found in scripture today. How about you?
