Daily Scriptures March 2 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 22:1-31; Deuteronomy 10:12-22; Hebrews 4:11-16; John 3:22-36

Enter God’s rest. Resting in God, from all our own ways and worries. Yes indeed. But resting is also an active thing, an act of obedience and pursuit of commandments for love and justice.

²So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being (Deut. 10).

Our own well-being. Our well-being is directly related to the well-being of the community. The well-being of widows and orphans, the poor and hungry. The afflicted, as exquisitely described in Psalm 22. The distressed in body or spirit. The lost. Those who do not know Jesus, who loves and saves and heals and provides. John’s gospel affirms that Jesus had the afflicted in his heart and hands also, as given to him by the Father through the Spirit:

³⁴He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God's wrath. Heart AND hands serve God, for the well-being of all. Saving faith ain’t just about a cozy place in heaven. (John 3).

As we enter into our saving relationship with God through Christ, we enter into God’s rest and God’s peace. But we also enter into the work of peace and justice on earth, where God will place the needy in our hands. Peace without justice is no peace. Therefore let us enter God’s rest with hope for our won well-being as we seek the fullness of God’s intentions for salvation for us and the stranger, lest we forget:

¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs. ¹²Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account (Hebrews 4).

Who are the widows and orphans among you today? The entrance to their rest is through a cup of water, a bag of groceries, a hot meal. A hospital visit, a phone call, an act of forgiveness. Enter in with your heart and your hands today.

Daily Lectionary March 1 2007 First Thoughts

Deuteronomy 9:23-10:5; Hebrews 4:1-10; John 3:16-21

Rest in the Lord. John 3:16-19. ¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned…Overworked scripture? Indeed not! In this truth is our rest.

Our rest comes by faith alone in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone. Our rest comes in obedience to the holy laws and guidelines for life given to Moses and passed on to us, that would draw us to God and protect us from ourselves, but not condemn us anymore. Rest comes from assurance that Jesus has interceded for us when no one else could or would. Rest comes in hearing we are loved, no matter what. No matter when. For Israel, for you, for me. For all people, for all time. For today. God’s rest is for eternity.

As the writer of Hebrews beckons us: ³For we who have believed enter that rest… "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." ⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. ⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.

Rest in the Lord.

From being perfect.

From kicking and screaming through life.

From worry and anxiety.

From striving for more.

From discouragement and loneliness.

In sickness and in health.

From self-loathing,

From guilt.

From making your own way,

having your own way,

forgetting your way,

Rest in the Lord.

From the futile labor of saving ourselves,

of being good enough to enter in,

from wondering about our purpose.

Today, from disbelief in the power of Jesus to love us and save us and equip us and unite us,

may you rest in peace.

Daily Lectionary February 28 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 5; Deut 9:13-21; Heb 3:12-19; John 2:23-3:15

Thank God for intercessors – those people who are always looking out for my hard heart, who catch me letting my eyes linger over the bling in life, who bring me back when I want to run. Intercessors, who care for me and my ministry, who love me and encourage me, pray for me. Thank God for Moses who pleaded Israel’s case when they would be doomed, and God listened. Thank God for Jesus, who continues to stand between me and God, ready to intercede and defend and take on my waywardness and ignorance. And thank God for those who pray for me, in Jesus’ name. I know who you are, and I am humbled for it.

The psalmist in psalm 5 was left to plead his own case: ¹Give ear to my words, O LORD;give heed to my sighing. ²Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray. ³O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.

Without Jesus and without intercessors who pray in the name and power of Jesus, we’re left with pleading our own case. That is if we come to our senses at all about what we’re doing, how we’re going so wrong. We need prayer for that too. Selling trinkets in the temple, storing up treasures on earth, cramming our schedules with busyness, tolerating all kinds of evil, prayerlessness, indifference, immorality – stubbornness and unkindness, impatience…you name it. Every day, even this partner with Christ, takes her eye of the Master, and every day, I rely on intercessors to help bring me to my senses. Now I know it is the Holy Spirit who does the work – that God is sovereign over my life and my sin and my response and the prayers of my intercessors. God is sovereign over the world. But the mystery is this:

God has called for intercessors to partner with God in the salvation and in the sanctification of God’s people. In coming to faith, and in living by faith. God does not leave us to plead for ourselves. And as I am prayed for, as Moses prayed for Israel, as Jesus prayed for us, I also am called to pray for others: for encouragement, for their peace and for their comfort in this life, but most assuredly, for their salvation in Christ, that others will be “born from above” rather than doomed to live for only what is below. Prayers for others to come to their senses, for spiritual understanding and repentance. To break through stubbornness and pride. And for the journey, prayers for heavenly perspective and earthly good works. For courage and perseverance.

We have a lot to pray about. We have many to pray for. Pray the psalms for someone else today. God is waiting to hear and answer.

Daily Lectionary February 27 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 34: 1-22; Deut. 9:1-3;4-12; Hebrews 3:1-11; John 2:13-22; Psalm 25

These texts today humble me. I am so thankful for God’s protection on my life, for God’s provision, and for God’s calling on my life. The psalmist cry has often been my hope:

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. ¹⁶The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. ¹⁷When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. ¹⁸The LORD is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. ¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all.

But reading on in Deuteronomy, God protects and prospers me not because I am righteous and worthy – deserving, holy. But because God hates evil and desires justice above all else, for all people, and keeps promises to those who still screw up. God ran off Israel’s oppressors because God hates oppression. God defeated our enemies for the same reason: not because we deserve freedom, we who are the oppressed and also the oppressors, in one way or the other. God saves us because God can, and because this act reflects God’s unconditional love, which is God’s glory. Psalm 25 says it like this: For your goodness sake, O Lord, do not remember my sins…” Not for MY goodness sake does God act to save. It’s is always for God’s glory and God’s Kingdom ways that God saves and protects and calls us. And in response and humility, we serve this just God as holy partners. Holy because God is holy.

The writer of Hebrews refers to us as “holy partners in a heavenly calling”, again not because of our righteous behavior, but because of our faith in Christ, the most holy, the perfectly righteous One. Our faith in Christ makes us righteous, our belief in the One who has overcome all evil and oppression with his death. Disobedience then is not just forgetting the commandments, screwing up again, going our own way in our day to day lives. The hard hearted are those who do not believe in the only One who crosses over before us to defeat the enemies of our souls (Deut. 9:3).

⁹He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. ¹⁰All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. ¹¹For your name's sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great. ¹²Who are they that fear the LORD? He will teach them the way that they should choose. ¹³They will abide in prosperity and their children shall possess the land. ¹⁴The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them (Psalm 25).

Daily Lectionary February 26 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 119:73-80; Deut. 8:1-20; Hebrews 2:11-18; John 2:1-12

“Do whatever he tells you.”

My first reaction to Jesus’ mother’s words to the wine stewards in Cana, if I were them, would be to ask her, “Why? And why should I do whatever this carpenter apprentice tells me? I know my business. What does he know about wine? What does he know about me? What does he know about anything?”

This would be what I’d wonder. This is what I confess I wonder myself. Sometimes I have trouble trusting God in the moment, with the things I believe I understand more about than anyone: like my relationships, my preaching, the care of the flock, my family, my pain and my experiences with life. As I hear Mary’s words, I can say I believe, but do I trust? Do I trust that Jesus knows absolutely everything about me and the world and pain and joy – about whatever - that I would do whatever he tells me?

In our society, we don’t like those words, “Do whatever he tells you.” We don’t trust anyone absolutely. Well, our only hope is to trust only God, not the gods of this life. It is a trust and obey issue. Not just to follow all the laws and commandments, but first to enter into a relationship with God, by faith in Christ. How do we enter in?

It begins as I consider God’s promises to all God’s people, and I remember, with them, God’s fulfilled promises of rescue, provision, protection, faithfulness, wisdom, belonging. As I consider the miracles and signs and wonders when people encounter Jesus. I first need to listen to the other stories – in the Bible, at the weddings and classrooms, offices, prisons, and neighborhoods about the mystery of the Holy Spirit’s power. And then, consider my own life. Do I really know everything there is to know about my life?

I thank God for Mary, who on that day in Cana was proud as punch of a son the servants thought only a mother could boast about. I thank God they obeyed him and gave me the witness. As he entered into his ministry, so we can enter into his life. God promises that we shall be complete in Christ – fully human, loved, known, equipped and empowered, by faith in this carpenter who could change water into wine. This carpenter is my brother, my Savior, my Lord.

And I will try to do whatever he tells me. Today, he tells me Come to me all you who are weary going it alone, thinking you know it all, carrying the burden of pride, seeking rescue or wisdom or peace… come to me and I will give you…whatever you ask.