For God, there are no backwaters

Morning: Psalms 16, 17; Job 9:1-15, 32-35; Acts 10:34-48

Evening: Psalm 22; John 7:37-52

Today is St. Aidan’s Day.  An Irish monk, Aidan was sent from remote Iona in Scotland as a missionary to the English.  In April, Mona and I were privileged to stay on Iona. Afterwards, we visited barren, windswept Lindisfarne island, where Aidan founded a new Christian community.  From Lindisfarne, Aidan gently taught the English the message of Jesus. Jesus’s contemporaries once wondered how he could come from such a humble place as Galilee.  It is a pattern in Christian history – Highly influential people (Aidan, Jesus) often work far from the centres of secular power.  For God, there are no backwaters.

Will you examine your deeply held convictions?

Morning: Psalm 18:1-20; Job 8:1-10, 20-22; Acts 10:17-33

Evening: Psalm 18:21-50; John 7:14-36

The authorities call Jesus an impostor when he reveals truths that contradict their version of reality.  Some observe the letter of the law, but would rather not explore the spirit of the law.  By pointing this out, Jesus threatens the whole edifice of their power.  It’s safer, in the short term, to deny the truth than to have it turn your life upside down.  Jesus always challenges, if we are not afraid to listen: … Are your convictions reasonable?  Do they serve the common good?  Or are they simply unexamined, habitual, and possibly mistaken, ways of seeing the world?

When you suffer, are you sustained by hope?

Morning: Psalm 102; Jeremiah 38:1-6; Revelation 7:13-17

Evening: Psalm 86; Judges 16:28-30; 1 Peter 3:13-18

We don’t usually choose to suffer (who would?) but hope helps us endure it – for healing; for someone we love; for country; for the world. Suffering for faith needs hope too, unless it comes from blind, pathological obedience to twisted ideals.  But when we suffer in the cause of Love, can we say what we hope our suffering might accomplish?  Perhaps the way we confront our own suffering will help others learn courage?  Suffering without hope is meaningless.  With hope, we accept suffering as one inevitable part of our being made for Love in a still imperfect world.

God in the flesh

Morning: Psalms 5, 6; Job 6:1-4, 8-15, 21; Acts 9:32-43

Evening: Psalms 10, 11; John 6:60-71

Last night, someone wondered why it’s difficult to spark people’s interest in being Jesus’s disciples.  According to John, many stop following Jesus because he stirs up such controversy … people always find Jesus challenging. What people balk at in every age is the belief that, in Jesus, the actual Word of God takes flesh in a human life.  You can spiritualize this, but that just makes Jesus a good man and strips him of his awesome importance for humanity.  He is much more, John is saying, so shockingly and tantalizingly all at once … Jesus is God in the flesh.

Drink my blood … What’s this about?

Morning: Psalms 1, 2, 3; Job 4:1, 5:1-11, 17-21, 26-27; Acts 9:19b-31

Evening: Psalms 4, 7; John 6:52-59

King David refused to drink water brought by his 3 bravest warriors from the well in occupied Bethlehem: “Can I drink the blood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.”  In saying we must drink his blood to be fully alive, Jesus echoes this story of David … So, if we ‘drink’ Jesus’s blood, we accept what he does, not only risking, but giving his life.  We accept that his suffering and death actually overpower the power of death.  But don’t expect anyone to explain this in 100 words … or in a lifetime!

Faith recognizes grace for what it is

Morning: Psalms 146, 147; Job 4:1-6, 12-21; Revelation 4:1-11

Evening: Psalms 111, 112, 113; Mark 6:1-6a

In Nazareth, Jesus could do no deeds of power; the handyman’s son could not convince his own townspeople.  Today’s Gospel is about how faith influences not only healing but all human experience.  I don’t mean, “Ask for anything in faith and you’ll get it.”  That’s too simplistic.  But faith does entrust life to a power greater than our own.  Unbelief excludes anything that lies beyond my understanding.  Belief consents to Divine possibilities.  Of course, God often acts whether we consent or not; all the everyday miracles are pure grace, unbidden and free.  Faith simply recognizes grace for what it is.

Drawn to Jesus

Morning: Psalms 137:1-6, Psalm144; Job 3:1-26; Acts 9:10-19a

Evening: Psalm 104; John 6:41-51

I did not one day decide to follow Jesus; I was ‘drawn’ by him.  C.S. Lewis says he was “decided upon”.  What attracts me is that Jesus so often befuddles me – saying things like ‘I am bread’.  Then I must decide … try to make sense of it, or judge it to be nonsense.  I am glad I was drawn to Jesus … he doesn’t make things simple, nor give me everything I want.  His life is, in many ways, a mystery, but, oddly enough, a mystery that makes sense to me … Does that make sense to you?