Day 14: Matthew 27-28; Romans 10-12

Judas realized Jesus was doomed, and he realized he couldn't take back what he'd done. He killed himself. The authorities didn't care. I read an article this morning about the number of military suicides in the last 10 years. It's always been an issue, but has seemed to escalate. Do the authorities have any responsibility? Or since the "30 silver coins" have been received, are they off the hook? Judas couldn't handle his part in the executions. Seems there may be a parallel...

"Are you the king of the the Jews?" If you say so. He knew it was through sheer spite that they had turned Jesus over to him. Sheer spite: "a malicious, usually petty, desire to harm, annoy, frustrate, or humiliate another person; bitter ill will; malice." Sounds a little like what's been going on in leading to suicides of gay teenagers and young people lately...spiteful. My heart is heavy from the news, and it affects what reading scripture does to me.

Pilate's wise wife: "Don't get mixed up in judging this noble man. I've just been through a long and troubled night because of a dream about him."

"Nail him to a cross!" "For what crime?" Was there even a crime? Crowd: "We'll take the blame, we and our children after us."

Earthquake, tombs opening, dead people walking, temple curtain torn in two. "Surely this has to be the Son of God!"

New tomb. Large stone. Mary and the other Mary stayed, watching the tomb. Tomb sealed to avoid body snatching by the disciples.

Another earthquake the first light of the new week.

Fear of the Lord--a cultivated awareness that I am not lord of my life, not the center of my existence, that I'm not the sum total of what matters, that I don't know what will happen next. It's an all-consuming response to God that keeps us from acting presumptuously and taking center stage. It places God at the center and keeps God there. It's a place of awe and reverent submission. Angel: "There is nothing to fear here."

Women deep in wonder and full of joy. "Go. Tell." The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.

"God authorized and commanded me to commission you: 'Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

Romans 10-12

Israel reduced to religion. Interesting headline. Salvation, nothing less for Israel. They are doing everything exactly backward. Don't seem to realize that salvation is God's business. They set up their own salvation shops and kawk their wares. What an indictment on that day and ours! Don't want to deal with God on God's terms, so make up their/our own.

"Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers that it's not so easy-every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape right living is a different story-no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly is Moses saying?"

"It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us...You're not doing anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting God to do it for you. That's salvation."

"Simple. Not complicated. But also not easy. It involves a lifelong struggle to trust and obey. Because it's not easy, sometimes we think it's complicated. It's not. It's as simple as, 'Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead, and do you confess that Jesus is the Master of your life?' If a creed is the master of your life, it will change some things. If Christ is the Master of your life, it will change everything. Or, more accurately, Christ will change everything." EP

With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"

No one who trusts God like this will ever regret it! It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help.

Before you trust you have to listen. But unless Christ's word is preached, there's nothing to listen to. Why didn't Israel understand it had no corner on the message? (And how does that speak to Christians today?) Isaiah 65:2--God has reaching out to a disobedient people and has nothing to show for it.

But God doesn't give up on Israel. God won't wash his hands. There's a fierce minority, holding on. Am I part of it--of the real minority who believes and shares this irrational truth?

The chosen ones of God were the ones who let God pursue God's interest in them, and as a result received a stamp of legitimacy. Not self-interested.

My personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders. I hope the insiders wake up to what God is doing in their midst. Holy, God-planted, God-tended root. Bound to be some holy fruit.

Pruned because they were deadwood. Ruthless with deadwood; gentle with the grafted shoot. Don't get to feeling superior to those pruned branches. If they don't persist in remaining deadwood, they could get grafted back in. So is there a time when we should be without hope for ourselves or another?

Effect of Israel's hardness is to open things up to all the outsiders so we end up with a full house. Even "them"? Jews aren't God's enemies, but God's oldest friends. "God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty--never rescinded , never canceled....In one way or another, God makes sure we all experience what it means to be outside so that God can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out."

2 types of mystery: The mystery of darkness and the mystery of light.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday ordinary live-your sleeping, eating, going-t0-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for God."

"Dear God, help me place my life, all of my life, before you as an offering. Let me be a living sacrifice, knowing that it's the most worshipful way I can live my life. I realize, though, that the tendency of living sacrifices is to crawl off the altar. Keep me there, Lord. On that altar. Keep me totally surrendered to you. May that sacrifice provide daily nourishment to the body of Christ, giving a blessing in place of a curse, forgiveness in place of revenge, peace in place of strife. And my those small, sacrificial acts of worship change me from the inside out."

God brings out the best in you, developing well-formed maturity in you.

It's important that you not misrepresent yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness of God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what God does for us, not by what we are and what we do for God.

Romans 12:4-8--great words for the church and how we allow the interrelated parts to function together.

Love from the center of who you are. Don't fake it! Run for dear life from evil. Hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

What extraordinary commendations! How might the world, both large and small, change if we who follow Jesus would read Romans 12 every day?!
Prun