Mark 13: Keep Alert!

Mark 13: 23 - Be alert!
Mark 13: 33 - Keep alert!
Mark 13: 35 - Keep awake!
Mark 13: 37 - Keep awake!

 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’ 
                                                                                                                         Jesus, Mark 13: 32 - 37
Great passage of scripture. This chapter used to confuse me a lot. I actually think I understand it now. For us, the most important thing is to remember that we "each have a work to do." Amazing and scary responsible. We each have a work that I think God will ask us about. He has given it to us. Now are we going to party to suit ourselves, or are we going to take seriously our status as co-workers with God in his new creation, doing what we has delegated to us to do? We are not supposed to worry about all the American standards of success that permeates our thinking: "Are we good enough? Are we successful? Are we effective?" I think that we will simply we judged by our self-evident response to this question: "Have we been faithful?"

In these words Jesus is giving us the key to faithfulness: STAY AWAKE, STAY ALERT.,

Jesus' Identity

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” just say this, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately."


Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 
   Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
                                              Mark 11: 1 - 3; 7 - 10


Jesus understood who he was. The scriptures had said that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Jesus knew that his time had come - he needs a donkey! So he sends his disciples on this trip so that everyone who hears this would know that this was no accident, that Jesus was not caught up in the current of events but was fully aware of who he was, what he was doing and what was to come. He knows that he is Messiah and what is waiting for him in Jerusalem.

Every Day

Seek good and not evil,
   that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
   just as you have said.
Hate evil and love good,
   and establish justice in the gate....
                                                     Amos 5: 14 - 15


Every day, hate evil and love good. It isn't so difficult to understand, is it? Just not that complicated.

This is what it means to seek good and not evil. I have not run across anything like this in other ancient writings although it may exist. It is a beautiful, righteous message that God gave to the Hebrew people and then to us:

Hate evil and love good,
   and establish justice in the gate....


Every day.

The Way of Peace and Blessing: Matthew 14: 13 - 21

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 

I think that this is how it always it: Jesus gives to us, then we turn and give what we have been given to others. It is the way of peace and blessing.

Who's in Charge? Mark 4: 35 - 41

Reading again the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat and his response to his students when they wake him up, terrified by the storm, I think that Jesus is telling us, simply, if we trust God, fear should have no part in our lives, no matter how bad things look. I know that this is an incredibly facile thing to say, sitting in my nice, comfortable house, insulated from weather by central air and heat, living in a peaceful neighborhood, served  by a local police department, in good health and having a relatively sound mind. But it still seems true to me. We have God as our father. Jesus is in our boat. There is nothing that is going on or will go on that he does not know about and that he cannot handle. His love and provision is perfect. The world may be ruled by the evil one, but we live in the kingdom of God where He reigns.

But there's more. When Jesus is awakened, he sees and hears not only the terror of his students, he sees and hears the storm. The storm is incredibly fierce. The waves are huge, and they are swamping the boat. So what does Jesus do? He COMMANDS the wind and the sea is cease and desist. There is something to do, and he does it. This shows his students then and his students now, the way things are done in the kingdom. When we find ourselves with reason to fear, we meet the situation with faith and confidence that we are children of God who have a Father who loves us and is in control.

I know that it is natural to protest, "Well,  Jesus is the Son of God. He has power that we do not have; he can do things that we can't." True - but, didn't Jesus say that his students "anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father"? (Yes, he does - Jn. 14: 12). 


I believe we are called to a life of faith that has this firm confidence in God's love, wisdom, provision and competence. It is not that "if we just have enough faith" we can stop every harm. It is not that we believe that there will be no tragedies. In fact, we believe that God let his son die one of the most awful, "unjust" deaths imaginable. It is not that we believe that no harm will ever come to us or our loved ones. God's saints have died every possible way that people die - except, they have never died without hope. But we do believe that Jesus has shown us and made possible for us the way of the kingdom: we know who is in charge. We know Emmanuel, He is with us. We do what we do, call on who we call on, because we live in a new creation where all the old rules no longer apply.

Daniel 3

I read from chapter 3 of the book of Daniel this morning. This was a morning of random reading: my Bible was open to that spot; I thought about how Jesus had obviously read Daniel, almost certainly, in fact, had memorized this book along with the rest of the Old Testament (I know people who would point out that he, actually, wrote it all), and it made me feel a little closer to him, knowing that this was something that we shared together with God's people across the centuries: we were reading the same scriptures "together." I want to "hear" the scriptures as Jesus heard them.

I soon was drawn into the familar story: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - men of God living in a foreign land among people who worshipped other gods. They had "positions" in society where their faith would make them "stand out" among their peers. Maybe, their distinctive faith would not always be noticeable, but there are times when it was painfully obvious. This was one of those times.

I am especially intrigued - excited, even, when I read their response to their boss' edict to worship the idol "or else:" They are not sure what God will do - "If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us..., let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you. O king, that we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up." Apparently, they have had no special revelation from God, no vision, no word, no dream that gives them audio/visual proof that God is going to work a miracle. From the wording of the NRSV translation, it sounds like they have never experienced what we might call God's "miraculous" intervention in their lives (maybe he can deliver, maybe he can't). But, miraculous intervention or not, they are going to serve and worship him and him alone.

Our job is not to be a God-predictor, a God-defender or a God-apologist - just serve him, call on him and accept the consequences.

It will turn out well.

Psalme 17: Spirit and flesh

A friend of mine whom I have not seen for a long time came to my house, and we talked for hours. Actually, we talked some, and he preached a lot. I don't think that he thinks that I am any more of a sinner than him or anyone else, but I may be one of the relative few who willingly listens and who agrees with most of everything that he says. Last night, he preached a lot to me about the importance of realizing that we are "two-part beings, spirit and flesh," that we have to understand our identity and origins and respond accordingly. Instead of realizing this, most of us live as though we are flesh only. All of our plans and all of our actions are based on an understanding of ourselves as merely fleshly beings. We live only for this world and in this world, taking only account of what we want for our sensual, physical, flesh-related needs and desires.

We never stop to consider that we are spirit, too - that our spirit needs to be fed, that if we neglect our spirit that it will shrivel and die. Instead, we need a resurrected spirit: we need to be born-again; we need a God who is Spirit to quicken ours, that with his help and ministry to us our spirit, we will thrive, not die. We need to make provision for our spirit, feed it, nourish it, and most of all humbly and sincerely ask God to come to us, because we need him - our spirits need him.

This morning my Bible was open to Psalm 17. I read it. In verse 14 the psalmist speaks of the wicked who are "mortals whose portion in life is in this world." They are the wicked ones who are seeking to destroy him. But the psalmist says in contrast, "As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness, when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness." The psalmist is saying that there are those whose concerns and rewards are all centered around this world; he, on the other hand, lives for his Father - his concerns and rewards centered around God. In the end he will wake and see the beautiful face of the one who is Spirit.