Category: Meditations

Meditation 261

John 19: 23-30

Today is the day that we remember that Jesus was crucified. He was put to death in a way that that was reserved for political or religious agitators, pirates, slaves, or those who had no civil rights. Crucifixion was more than a punishment for wrong doing, it was a way to humiliate and cause extreme suffering for the accused.

As Jesus was on the cross some of his followers were standing nearby. We know that his mother Mary was there, as well as his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas , Mary Magdalene, and the beloved disciple (who is understood to be John.) These faithful ones are there to be with Jesus until the end, even though it was potentially dangerous for them. They could have been accused of being in league with Jesus who was charged with being a political agitator, and they could have been arrested themselves. These followers of Jesus were devoted to him, his love had transformed them, and they had the courage to be identified as those who loved and served Jesus.

Even though Jesus was in agony, he still was concerned for others, and at the end of his life, when he saw his mother, he was concerned to be sure that she had a protector. In that day, a woman was under the protection and care of her closest male relative. Jesus was not going to leave it to chance as to who would care for h is mother. As the eldest son was giving his mother to the care of the beloved disciple, thereby showing great compassion for each. Jesus said “here is your son” and “Here is your mother” to Mary and the beloved disciple respectively, and those who were nearby would have herd in that care for his mother and affirmation of the role of the beloved disciples.

Jesus then said he was thirsty, he was given sour wine, and then he said “it is finished” and gave up his spirit. Those words are so final. He gave up his spirit. Today, if you go to a worship service, this is where it will end. Jesus had died and he was taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb. It was a sad and lonely time.

The disciples would have been bereft. Jesus was the one that they thought would be the leader of Israel, but here he was laid in a tomb. We know that the story does not end here. We know that it will be three days and Jesus will be alive again. There are times and occasions in our lives when it feels as if something has died. We may have lost a loved one, we may have lost a relationship. We are overcome by the sadness and lostness and it seems as if there is no tomorrow. When we are in such a place, we can know that others have been here too. And we can know that Jesus will walk with us in that path. Jesus was/is so loving that in his last hours he cared for his mother, and he cares for us too.

Good Friday is a somber day, it is a day when Jesus breathed his last, but it is not the end.

Meditation 260

John 13: 1-17 31b-35

Today is Maundy Thursday. The word “maundy” is derived from the Latin word for command, and it refers to the new commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples at the last supper before he was arrested. The new commandment is found in John 13:34 when Jesus said “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

In John’s gospel we are not told of the institution of the Lord’s Supper as we are in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Instead, John tells us of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and by this action Jesus does two things. He symbolically acts out the laying down of his life, and he elevates the actions of service.

First the laying down of Jesus’ life. The action of Jesus laying down his clothing can be a reminder of his words in John 10: 17 where he says he “lays down” (tithem) his life “so that [he] might take it up again” (hina palin labō autēn, see also 1 John 3:16). “In John 13:4, Jesus “lays down” (tithēsin) his clothes, washes his disciples’ feet, and then “takes” (elaben) them back again in verse 12. Jesus’ washing thus symbolizes his death and resurrection that he endures on behalf of disciples and the world.” (Alicia D. Myers. Working Preacher) In the gospel of John it is clear that Jesus knows that his hour had come (John 12:23, 13:1) He is heading toward his crucifixion and resurrection, and he is trying to include his disciples in this knowledge. At the time of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, they do not understand what is going on. Jesus gives them teaching in word and action that they can recall later.

When Jesus preforms the act of foot washing Peter is again the one who speaks out and says what the others are probably thinking when he says “you will never wash my feet.” Jesus gives Peter the words he needs to be able to allow Jesus to wash his feet. Jesus says “Unless I wash you, you will have no share with me.” Sharing in Jesus involves being served by Jesus. When we are disciples of Jesus we obey and follow, but we are also nurtured and helped.

Jesus goes on to encourage his disciples to care for one another as he has cared for them. Jesus, the Messiah, the one sent by God, was willing to do as humble as job as stoop down and wash his disciples’ feet. Jesus said “For I have set you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you.” (verse 15) We are encouraged to care for one another as Jesus cares for us. Sometimes when we see need and hurt, we withdraw in fear. One of the ways this fear has been manifested has been in the aggression shown to those of Asian descent in the face of the pandemic. With the fear of COVID 19 bearing down it seems that there are some who allow fear to make their choices. However, when we stop to think, we do know that all people are equally vulnerable and need the same protection of the community. If we accept the love of Jesus, which has been shown in service us, then we can reach out in love toward others.

Meditation 259

Hebrews 10: 16-25

In the gospels we are told that at the Last Supper Jesus told his disciples that his blood was the blood of the covenant poured out for many. This passage in Hebrews describes that covenant. We are told that the laws of God will be put in our hearts and on our minds. This is not like the way the law was given to Moses. Moses was given the commandments of God that were written on stone tablets. The law in this case was a standard by which people could measure their behaviour. The law instructed people to put God first and the requirements of the law were not harsh. The law that Moses brought to the people could be thought of as not a part of oneself, but rather as a code that needs to be followed.

God knew that more than an external code of behaviour was needed to draw people into the Kingdom of Heaven. The prophets Ezekile and Jeremiah had promised that the law of God would be written on the hearts and minds of the people, and in Jesus this was accomplished. Jesus taught us about God in a way the other prophets did not. All of the prophets reminded us that God was loving and just, that the people of God were to care for the sick, the widowed and the orphaned, that God was just and would bring about consequences for sinful behaviour, but the prophets before Jesus were as human and frail as the people to whom the message was given. Jesus was a different kind of prophet.

We believe that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. As such he experienced life in a human body with all of its limitations, and he knew what it is to be tempted. Jesus in being fully God, was able to “offer for all time a single sacrifice for sins [and sit] down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). There was an element to Jesus’s work as a prophet that no other prophet was able to accomplish. The other prophets were as human as their hearers. Jesus in being divine is the one who brings us close to God in a real and final way.

At this point in Holy Week, we are still on our way to the events of Good Friday. If we are following Jesus through this week, he is getting ready for the Passover and he is mixing with people. He is getting ready for difficult days so that by his resurrection, he will be able to accomplish for us the best gift of all. We will have the God’s laws on our hearts and our minds and our sins and lawless deeds will be remembered no more. We are brought into the family of God by Jesus.

Meditation 258

Exodus 12: 1-4; 11-14

This passage is part of the story of how the Israelites were by God from slavery to freedom. The people were in bondage to another nation, and God led them away from oppression and servitude to become an independent nation. As the nation Israel, the people were to be led by God so that they could be a witness for God to the world. God loved the people and they were invited to love God in return. God saw their distress and led them away from what was confining them to the wilderness. Here they would learn to rely on God. After the lessons of the wilderness had been taught, the people were brought to the Promised Land.

The Passover was one of the events that shaped the identity of the people of Israel. They were the ones who had been delivered by God, and they had a ritual to remind them of God’s goodness. This is what the people were told “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.” (Exodus 12:14) Each year there was to be a remembrance acted out of what God had done. Such a remembrance was intended to keep people’s hearts close to who God is. They could turn to God who had proved to be faithful, and trust that God would help them, just as God had brought them safely from Egypt.

That last week of Jesus’ life he observed the Passover with his disciples. They gathered to share in the feast where they remembered that God had brought the people to freedom, and that God had been their God for generations. The last Passover Jesus ate was to be different from the others. When we read Matthew, Mark and Luke we read that during the meal Jesus took bread and wine and gave them a new meaning. He told he disciples that the bread was his body and the wine was his blood of the covenant. (Matthew 26:26 &27) Jesus was giving his followers a new act of remembrance that would be a reminder of the covenant between God and humanity. This covenant would ensure the forgiveness of sins so that people could be close to God.

That last week of Jesus’ life was probably one where his human nature needed the reminders that God cares, and that God is strong. Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem because he knew it was where God wanted him to be. Jerusalem was not safe. There were people in the city who were determined to misunderstand Jesus, and who would take his message of love for God and love for people, and turn it into a message of self-promotion. Jesus had been loving to the outcast, who told stories that stayed in the heart of the hearers, and who healed those who were sick or disabled. Our Messiah who had done nothing wrong, and who stood up to lies, was about to be arrested on false charges. Jesus knew that, and I think that as he went through the days leading up to his arrest, that he needed to draw upon the strength of God as it had been shown in the Passover.

Meditation 257

Psalm 31:9-16

This psalm is the one for the passion readings from Palm/Passion Sunday. We have a choice for the readings on the Sunday before Easter, and my choice is usually to read the Palm Sunday lessons. The passion readings lead us into the suffering of Jesus in the time we call Holy Week. Verses 9-16 of Psalm 31 are a description of the psalmist’s distress, which could easily have been a description of Jesus’ anguish, or the suffering and sorrow of a person living today. The psalms lend themselves to being an expression for the feelings of anyone.

The psalmist in this case is believed to be David who asks for God to be gracious because he is in distress. David then goes on to describe that distress. His eye, soul and body waste away from grief. His life is spent with sorrow and his years with sighing, his strength fails because of his misery, and his bones waste away. The suffering and sorrow that David feels is so deep that it affects both his soul and body. He is utterly dispirited. We have all had times that we felt like that, at the loss of a relationship, or the death of a loved one. We feel so sad that we feel it in our body. When David experienced distress that was so deep that he felt that his bones wasted away, he prayed for God to be gracious to him. Out of his grief David turns to God in confidence because he knows that he can trust God (verse 14)

This deep sorrow, that we might call depression today, that David is experiencing seems to be the result of the plotting of his enemies. When human forces are closing in on him, David calls to the Lord. It may have been that when Jesus was riding into Jerusalem, knowing that authorities were looking for him, that he may have felt some of what David described in this psalm. Jesus was the scorn of his adversaries, and he may well have “heard the whisperings of many- terror all around! – as they schemed together against [him]” (verse 13). Still, Jesus went forward to meet the worst that the authorities could throw at him. Like David, Jesus would have known that he could trust in the Lord and he could say “You are my God” (verse 14)

This psalm describes in a few verses what can take a longer time to achieve. When our sorrow or depression is as great as David describes, it will take more than the few minutes it takes to read this psalm to go from being wasted away (verse 9) to being confident that you will be saved by God’s steadfast love (verse 16). If we use the words of a psalm as a prayer, one of the reassuring things is that we can use the same psalm over and over. God, who shows us steadfast love, will hear our prayers for as long as we need to bring the same prayer forward. We may be sure that Jesus who walked the path of Holy Week knows what we are experiencing in our faith lives, and Jesus will accompany us on our entire walk toward wholeness.

 

Meditation 256

John 12: 12-16

Why is it that people seem to be more likely to repeat mistakes that have happened in the past rather than learn from the past and make a new plan? One source that I checked this week said that it is because we interpret the past, and the meaning we take from it become the story we tell, and it becomes the story we live by. The story we live by is subjective, and it can be a story of why things go wrong. (David Lose. Working Preacher) The challenge to preachers is to bring together a group of people on a Sunday morning who have lived their lives through the week, and to share the gospel story with them in such as way as to bring hope for the week to come. We try to share the gospel story in such as way as to give people a new story by which to live their lives.

Where is the hope in the story of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem? We know what will happen to Jesus when he gets to Jerusalem. He will be accused, tried and unfairly condemned. He will suffer publicly and die, but in the end, Jesus will triumph over all of the evil and he will be raised from death to conquer the power of sin and death. It seems like such a long way to go get to the truth we hold of new life. Why, we might ask did Jesus suffer so, and what good comes of dwelling on it?

In studying the scriptures some have made suggestions as to why Jesus lived as he did. Jesus came to earth to identify with people, to be “born in human likeness, and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient.” (Philippians 2: 7b-8a) Jesus is a Messiah who we can turn to as a friend and a mentor as well as our Saviour and God. Jesus is the one that will understand the prayers of those who are humble as much as he is the one who will understand the prayers of the confident and the strong. When Jesus lived on the earth, he was the friend of sinners (and still is), he welcomed children, he touched the lepers, he respected women, and he spent time with outcasts like Zacchaeus. He was not a reverse snob either. He spoke to Nicodemus the Pharisee, he told the truth to the rich young man, and he told the story of the Good Samaritan, who was wealthy enough to care for a beaten and discarded man. It seems that part of the reason that Jesus suffered as he did was to be a Saviour who we could trust to understand our lives.

It may also be that even in the bad parts of the story of Jesus heading to Jerusalem we see hope. We see in Jesus someone who would face reality and not flinch, thereby setting a good example. The people in the crowd were overjoyed that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem.  Earlier some of the people had wanted to make Jesus into an earthly ruler after the miracle of feeding the 5000. Jesus knew this was not his purpose and he slipped away. Maybe some of those who were greeting him on the day we call Palm Sunday had tried to promote him before. Regardless of who the people were in the crowd, they recognized that in “Jesus is the location of God’s glory and presence.” (Alicia D. Myers. Working Preacher). They are celebrating the presence of God in their midst. They are not completely right in their understanding, and they will not be brave to stand up to the authorities in the week to come., regardless, we see that Jesus allows the celebration. Maybe from this we can take that it is good to celebrate what we can, and to keep following Jesus always.

The stories of Jesus are stories that we can incorporate into our lives, so that we can see that in our lives, by the grace of Jesus, we have hope and we have the possibility of not repeating the mistakes we have made. The gospel gives us a new story to live.

Meditation 255

John 12: 12-16

The crowd that greeted Jesus on the day he rode into Jerusalem wanted him to be their king, not only that, they wanted him to be their kind of king. Earlier in John’s gospel, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, the crowd wanted to make him king, and Jesus knew that their idea of Messiah and his idea of Messiah were not the same. Jesus withdrew. (John 6:14-15) (Craig A. Satterlee. Working Preacher)

When people get hold of what they think is a good idea, it can be hard to get them to change their minds. Many who had seen the miracles of Jesus were under Roman rule, and they wanted to be the independent people of God again. A Messiah who would save the nation Israel was just what they wanted. The leaders of the Israelite people, that is the religious leaders, knew that this was a bad idea. If Jesus continued to draw crowds as he had been, this would attract the attention of the Roman authorities, and the result would be unpleasant. The chief priests and the scribes had determined to kill Jesus to put an end to this potential disaster. When Jesus came out of private living and rode into Jerusalem, he knew he was facing danger. The crowd did not know this and they shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The king of Israel.” (verse 13b) The people were determined that Jesus would be their kind of king.

This desire to make Jesus our kind of king is one that stays with us. We want to follow Jesus and to be open to what God has planned for our lives, but it is easy to make our prayers of supplication more like a list of our hopes. We may pray for the strengthening of the mission of the church, while really meaning that we want our congregation to grow in terms of numbers of people who attend. We can pray for racial tensions to cease, but really hope that those who are asking for equality will stop rocking the boat and learn to fit in. We can pray ‘thy will be done” when in fact our hope is that God will bless our plan.

Jesus is the kind of king who was the theme of the hymn we read in Philippians 2 yesterday. The one who humbled himself and was obedient to God. Jesus is the one who did not avoid the authorities when he knew he had to stand up to power and speak the truth. Jesus, who was present at creation, and who would have witnessed the fall of creation, was willing to be the way that creation could be restored. In Jesus, who was obedient to God, we have a king who shows us by example that greatness and earthly power do not always go hand in hand. Jesus is the king of kings, but he is not the kind of king who does our bidding. Jesus hears our prayers, walks with us day by day and gives us the grace to be humble as he is.

Meditation 254

Philippians 2: 5-11

This passage of scripture begins with a beautiful invitation, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” It is not just be like Jesus, but have the same mind. This implies that there is a transformation that happened to those who know and follow Jesus, we are united to Jesus.

One way we observe this union with Jesus is in the celebration of the sacrament of communion, this rite where bread and juice (or wine in some cases) are set aside from all common uses is practised by those who love and serve God. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ and the juice symbolizes his blood, and we partake. We remember in this sacrament that Jesus gave himself for us, or as our passage today says “…being born in human likeness, and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (Verse 7). Jesus was humble and obedient to God. All of this was done in order to make God’s grace real to humans who needed more than just words to begin to glimpse the amazing truth of God’s love, and saving purpose. When we observe the sacrament of communion we are “showing forth the Lord’s death” or remembering what Jesus has done for us.

Sometime ago a friend shared something that he had been reading about the sacrament of communion. The source that he read (that I cannot remember right now) suggested that if we are what we eat, then when we take communion, we become the body of Christ. The sacrament is one of the ways that this transformation takes place, by which we are untied to Christ. There is mystery in what happens, because we still are who we are, our features do not change, and our talents remain the same, yet we are more than we used to be. We are united with God in Christ.

We often speak of the church as the body of Christ, by which we mean that the people who are called by Jesus’ name are the body of Christ in the world. When believers worship and work together they are endeavouring to do the work of Jesus. The invitation to have the same mind as Christ Jesus could be understood to be both an individual and a corporate invitation. We take the body of Christ in the sacrament of communion, and we are part of the body of Christ as one of the many who believe in Christ Jesus. As the body of Christ, we are endeavouring to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, and in many congregations, there will be the celebration of the sacrament of communion. We will gather to remember that Jesus invited us to share in this sacrament to remember him. We will gather and we will remember that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient [even to] death.” (verse 8) We also remember that God “highly exalted [Jesus,] … so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (verse 9b& 10a)

Meditation 253

Isaiah 50: 4-9

In the book of Isaiah there are four poems known as the Servant Songs, which are written about a certain servant of Yahweh who is called to lead the nations. The first of the Servant Songs is found in Isaiah 40, which is read during Advent. We are told that a divine summons cries out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord, and. someone (the Servant?) responds with “what shall I cry?” A case can be made that the one who responds to the divine summons in Isaiah 40 is the same one who speaks in Isaiah 50. The servant is bringing a message of comfort “[sustaining] the weary with a word. Isaiah 50:4”  (Christopher B. Hays. Working Preacher)

The Servant tells us that he has been given “the tongue of a teacher” (verse 4), and he goes on to say “Morning by morning he (God) wakens – wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” The servant is both teacher and learner. Those who are fully invested as teachers are usually those who have learned well, and have been taught by those who have a passion for the job. In this case the teacher is God and the Servant will teach what God has taught. The Servant is so in tune with the teacher that he listens morning by morning for what God has to say.

The Servant in Isaiah was serving in a time when it was not popular to be bringing a message from God to the people. Nevertheless, the Servant is so aware of the calling from God to be both a teacher and a prophet that each morning is begun with the ear being awakened by God. What kind of wonderful faith the Servant must have had to turn to God each morning in confidence that God had a hopeful message for the day.

We often think of hope as the optimism that leads us to believe that things will get better. In the case of the hope that God gives, hope is the recognition of what is good in the midst of how we are living now. Twice the Servant says it is the Lord who helps me (verse 7&9). The Servant looks to the Lord in the midst of his life and he knows he will find the truth that will sustain the weary. In spite of the way the world was unfolding, the Servant knew that God loved the people, and that God was faithful.

In the same way that the Servant in Isaiah was able to begin each day with the ear being wakened to listen to what God has to say, so we are believer are able to do the same. When I think of someone who starts the day listening with hope for God, one of the people I think of is a friend I met in high school. She is always full of the joy of the Lord. She greets life with a smile that comes from the deep joy of knowing she is a child of God. Through her life there has been sorrow, challenge in perusing the calling God gave to her, worry in family and stress for health reasons. She has been given her share of challenges, and yet she is not bitter. She has drawn on the message that God brings each morning to inspire her living for that day, and as she grows in faith, she blesses those around her.

May we, like the Servant in Isaiah, begin each day with our ears wakened to the truth God has for us.

Meditation 252

Psalm 118: 1-2; 15-29

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good his steadfast love endures forever. This psalm of thanksgiving pours out praise of God for God’s steadfast and enduring love. When the psalmist recounts the deeds of the Lord (verse 17) there is evidence to back up the faith statement that begins the psalm.

We usually read this psalm on Palm Sunday. The early Christians, most of whom were steeped in the traditions of the Jewish faith, would have understood that God’s life-giving work was continued in the life, teaching and resurrection of Jesus. (J Clinton McCann Jr. Working Preacher) When they read “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” they would have seen the rejection and resurrection of Jesus as the continuation of the loving/saving action of God toward people.

The psalmist is confident that God will deliver, saying “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly; the right hand of the Lord is exalted.” (verses 15b-16) The reference to the right hand of God is a reference to a song of praise sung by the Israelites after they were saved from Pharaoh’s army, where they sing that the Lord’s right hand was glorious in power when it was stretched out to save them. (Exodus 15: 6,12) In Jewish liturgy, Psalm 118 “concludes the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118) which is used at Passover, a celebration that recalls and recounts the deliverance from Egypt.” (J Clinton McCann Jr. Working Preacher)

As the psalmist recounts the deeds of the Lord there was the exodus to be remembered when God led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, across the wilderness to the Promised Land. When the Israelites traveled through the wilderness the right hand of God protected and guided them, and their identity as a nation was formed as they learned, through experience, to rely on God. They were no longer slaves owned by the Egyptians, but they were the loved people of God, who were led by God’s right hand. Generations later the Israelites would be taken into captivity for a time, and even while they were in exile, God was with them, and when they returned to their homeland, they again had reason to praise God. And so, the prophet Isaiah wrote “See I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone. A precious corner stone, a sure foundation.” (Isaiah 28:16) When the psalmist recounted the deeds of the Lord, there was reason to rejoice.

When the right hand of God guided the Israelites across the wilderness, they learned that they were no longer slaves owned by the Egyptians, but they were the loved people of God. The people learned to trust God and they began to see themselves as those who could choose to follow the covenant that God had made with them. They were no longer slaves whose choices were made by someone else. While most of us have not been owned by another as the Israelites were owned by the Egyptians, we may struggle with habits or attitudes that cause us to behave in ways we do not like. Just as the right hand of God could deliver the Israelites from slavery, so the right hand of God can deliver us from being controlled by that which we know to be unhelpful. We like the psalmist can say that God’s steadfast love endures forever.