"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in God's name! Blessed the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" The triumphant entry into Jerusalem that we remember each Palm Sunday. Jesus is revered, perhaps idolized, celebrated and respected...no doubt the contagion of crowds influences his welcome, just as the contagion of crowds will influence events later in the week...
Fig tree bearing no fruit. But it wasn't yet the season for figs. We are to bear the fruits of the Spirit, signs of our being with Jesus. What are the fruits? Galatians 5:22-23.
Tossing tables in the temple. Hm. Just made me think of fundraisers...though I suppose our fundraisers are typically to fund ministry, not for personal gain as these likely were.
"The entire crowd was carried away by his teaching." So the authorities plotted how to get rid of him. Happens today with characters short of Messiah. Power detests ceding power.
They see the shriveled fig tree. Jesus to Peter: "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain for instance, Just say, 'Go jump in a lake,' and it will. That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all about asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive--only then will your heavenly father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins."
More questioning by authorities, about Jesus' credentials, and he answers with a question to them about John's baptism.
Vineyard. Foretells the opening up of the kingdom of God and the message of hope. The ones who were originally designated to receive denied, destroyed, even killed the messenger. The message will go on, now to other folks who perhaps were not previously designated. God will find a messenger. The unlikely will become foundations upon which God's kingdom is built.
Give coins to Caesar. God wants so much more. As Woody said last week, God wants it all.
I am, not I was...The living God is God of the living, not the dead.
Most important commandment. Hebrew Shema: "Listen Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy. And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these.' better than all the offerings and sacrifices put together. Love trumps law. That was the question and answer that quieted the rest of the authorities.
Jesus warns against religion scholars. Offering. Widows mite. "The truth is that the poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford--she gave her all." How 'bout me? How 'bout you? I can tend toward Pharisaic, counting my tithe-making certain to do the math and be faithful, keeping solid accounts...even giving beyond, but not in a way that alters my security. Does alter my living and recreation, but sacrifice...not so sure...
1 Corinthians 8-10
Freedom with responsibility. Great headline. "Sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds." well..."We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all...Need to be sensitive that we're all not at the same level of understanding in this... God doesn't grade us on our diet...God does care when you use your freedom carelessly in a way that leads a fellow believer still vulnerable to those old associations to be thrown off track...it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly. Sometimes the folks with the "right" answers just want to throw their weight around, so we've got to be discerning.
EP: "The church isn't the place where we know all the right answers and insist that others do, too. If we focus only on getting the right answers in church, we become stuffy and arrogant and look down on people who don't have it straight yet. We're in the love business, not the knowledge business. If we feel that our primary obligation in church is to get people to know the right answers and behave in the right way, then freedom is destroyed, the freedom to be in relationship with God at our own pace and in our own way. Don't interfere with other people's freedom, not even when your motive is to make them more free. If you do, you violate the capacity for a free response in faith and love that God is shaping in them. Our task as we live together as a community of faith is not to make everyone thing alike or act alike but to see one another as brothers and sisters for whom Christ died, and then clear some free space for one another in the struggle of faith. Every time we do that, we develop freedom; every time we don't, we diminish freedom."
What controversial concerns are you wrestling with? What principles have helped you become a person of conviction and a person who strives to live at peace within the various communities that you're a part of?
Paul was a self-supporting missionary, bi-vocational, not dependent upon those he served for support. However he points out that being in that situation goes against scripture. But he decided to do that, in freedom. But just because I'm this way doesn't mean you can get away from providing support for others who'll come after me. I have voluntarily become a servant to reach a wide variety of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized--whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ-but I entered their world and triec to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it."
"Run to win. Run hard. You're after the prize that doesn't tarnish. Giving it everything I've got.
EP: "You would think that by immersing ourselves in the Scriptures, discovering God in Christ, realizing that we are saved by grace, and living under God's mercy, we would be considerate, courteous, understanding, friendly, energetic, grateful, and motivated. But it isn't so. It wasn't so in the early church, it wasn't so in Corinth, and it isn't so in your church or mine. The church will always have critics in the pews. And even though they may need to be answered, they don't need to be endlessly answered...There's a race to be run and we all need to be in it. Where we're going requires all of our attention, all our discipline, all our energy. We're not spectators watching what other people do and commenting on it; we're runners. And if we're running the race, we don't have breath left over to talk about the other runners. Quit complaining and start running."
Remember our history--salvation history--back through the decades. "We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus like they did. We must not be sexually promiscuous. We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. DANGER!"
"We are just as capable of messing up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence. No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you through it."
EP: "Temptation is the pressure to take our own way, to indulge ourselves, to spurn God, to plunge into doubt or despair, lust or anger, to give in to our own feelings and let them draw conclusions about our worth based on what other people say about us or what we say about ourselves. Temptation is an ever-present pressure. Sometimes it's pressure from others-the insistence that we go along because others are doing it. Sometimes it's pressure from ourselves. Sometimes it's an energetic attack. Temptation is everywhere, and we're no match for it. But Paul says we don't have to worry. For God will never let us down, never let us be pushed past our limit. God will be there. Always. Not as a lecturer but as a helper."
"So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can."
"Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes oneness--Christ doesn't become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in Christ. We don't reduce Christ to what we are; Christ raises us to what he is." We enter into God's action.
"Christ wants us--all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less? The point is not just to get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well."
"I'm going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said."
"Do everything heartily and freely to God's glory. Don't be callous in your exercise of freedom. Be considerate of everyone's feelings in these matters."
Oh, if only we could more closely live by these words. Such power. Such truth. Such potential for changing the world. How is God calling you beyond where you are? It's 10-10-10, a day many organizations have designated for impacting local communities, our nation, and the world. How is God calling you...today? May we be faithful. May we be courageous. May we be followers of Jesus in action, word and deed.
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