Jesus defies your expectations

Morning: Psalms 101, 109; Hosea 4:11-19; Acts 21:15-26

Evening: Psalm 119:121-144; Luke 5:27-39

Jesus defies your expectations ... like the mistaken idea that he only associates with ‘good people’. For him, all are good. Yet, none are perfectly good; all need refinement. Jesus is ever new, always bursting containers where you try to confine him. The way you think about Jesus is probably too narrow. He will usually defy your expectations and give you a more complete perspective, if you are ready for it. Like a moving target, when you think you have him in your sights, Jesus moves on unexpectedly to touch the life of another imperfect person, someone like you.

 

Touched by the better angels of our nature

Morning: Psalm 8, 148; Job 38:1-7; Hebrews 1:1-14

Evening: Psalm 104; 2 Kings 6:8-17; Revelation 5:1-14

Today is Michaelmas, the Church’s day to celebrate angels, whom tradition believes are spiritual messengers, or mystic spiritual forces, which act mostly for our good. Yet, one of the 7 archangels (along with Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and the rest) is Lucifer, or Venus, the morning star who got too full of himself and was cast down to the depths (Isaiah 14). When Abraham Lincoln hoped, at his inauguration, that Americans might be “touched by the better angels of (their) nature,” he implied our common spiritual battle. May Lincoln’s hope for America be our prayer for ourselves, and our real experience.

 

When Jesus calls, you go

Morning: Psalm 89:1-18; Hosea 2:14-23; Acts 20:17-38

Evening: Psalm 89:19-52; Luke 5:1-11

You are an expert fisherman who knows his profession. You are quite sure ... you cannot catch fish on Lake Galilee in the daytime, only at night. But this new teacher tells you to throw out your nets. You think, ’Yeh right!’ but he seems like a decent man, so you humour him ... and you catch more fish in one net than you could ever have imagined. Now he invites you to follow him; he wants you to learn how to attract people to a whole new way of life. What can you do but go with him?

 

God’s dream of joy for us and for the earth

Morning: Psalms 66, 67; Hosea 2:2-14; James 3:1-13

Evening: Psalms 19, 46; Matthew 13:44-52

The Bible is the story of God’s desire for the earth. Clearly, all is not entirely rosy just yet. But there is enough goodness in the Creation for us to catch glimpses of God’s dream. Jesus helps us to realize the joy we will experience when things are the way God intends them to be (the ‘Kingdom of God’) ... It will be like finding treasure, or like a merchant who finds the most amazing and precious pearl, or a fisherman whose net is full of fish. Beyond our present troubles, God is bringing joy.

 

 

Signs that God is nearer than we know

Morning: Psalms 87, 90; Hosea 1:1-2:1; Acts 20:1-16

Evening: Psalm 136; Luke 4:38-44

When Jesus speaks, by his own awesome power he heals people, just as he promised ... release to captives, sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed. In his life, Jesus reveals the awesome power of God. Nobody has ever seen anything like this, and millions still make pilgrimage to Capernaum to celebrate him.  A church stands where Peter’s house was, and a ruined synagogue where Jesus healed the man possessed. People flock there to celebrate that they, too, have seen signs - right where they live - that God is nearer to all of us than we know.

 

Healing of Body, Mind and Spirit

Morning: Psalm 88; Esther 8:1-8, 15-17; Acts 19:21-41

Evening: Psalms 91, 92; Luke 4:31-37

After experiencing rejection in Nazareth, Jesus goes to Capernaum, 40 kilometres away on the Sea of Galilee. There is a man that Luke says has “the spirit of an unclean demon”, which is how mental illness is explained back then. Mental illness really is like being possessed by forces beyond your control.  Jesus addresses this ‘demon’, which leaves the man without harming him. Not shrinking from mental illness, nor denying it, Jesus’s particular ‘talk therapy’ is effective in healing it. Jesus’s healing power is wholistic, touching our whole human personhood - Body, Mind and Spirit.

 

Good News - release, sight, freedom

Morning: Psalms 116, 117; Esther 7:1-10; Acts 19:11-20

Evening: Psalms 85, 86; Luke 4:14-30

Jesus describes his mission by reading from the prophet Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Those held captive by blind ideas, poverty and violence will become free! Jesus’s mission - carried forward by us - was never more relevant for the world than it is today. His is Good News for a troubled world.