Lent 2016 (C) 2016-03-14: Reading the Lectionary with my family
(I encourage you to read the full text. Hold me accountable if you feel it has not been handled well. It is what Scripture means when it says to wrestle with the Bible and mentally struggle with it and inwardly digest it.)
Today Scripture draws us into considering just how far from God we have strayed. God has provided perfectly for us, so today we ask how have we ended up in such a mess?
God loves - God is the ultimate Love. God created us from His love and for His love. Even when we responded to God's love with reproach God did not abandon us, He provided a path for us to return to Him. God wants us back - He loves us.
Sadly, one effect of our sin is that we are unable to accurately assess value. The Bible often refers to our blindness, our deafness and the ignorance we call wisdom. Consistently across the ages, we have allowed people and things to usurp God's preeminent place in our hearts. We confess with our lips that God is ultimate, paramount and supreme yet the truth is our hearts are far from Him. Our profession of faith is inconsistent with the facts evident in our lives and through our behaviors. The evidence of this fact is the condition of humanity. The symptoms of our alienation from God surround us every day - they convict us of our sin and depravity. How can poverty, disease, greed and hate exist within a people who worship God in spirit and truth? It is not possible. God has supplied overflowing abundant provision for us - yet we horde for ourselves rather than love as Christ loved. We love ourselves infinitely more than we love others. The conclusion is thus inevitable: our hearts are indeed far from God.
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| White tombs surrounding the Temple mount. |
Today the Bible provides an example. We read of the provision God made for His people to be near Him; a place for us in His presence - the tabernacle. And what did we do with this gift? Jesus will declare the place corrupt (a den of thieves) and the people putrid (whitewashed tombs). The temple, temple ritual and temple authority have usurped God and His authority in the hearts of His people. The place is corrupt and the people do not know God. Our history continues to be littered with our corruption of God's gifts and the atrocities of our God-less hearts.
God provides the Bible to shape and direct us. By knowing Christ we are transformed into the likeness of Christ - in this likeness we are commissioned to bear witness of Christ around the world. So how are we doing? Are we worshipping God by living as obedient Christ followers or are we just preserving our temple churches? Are we accepting every opportunity within our grasp to sacrificially bear witness of Jesus Christ in all the world? Or not?
In the Hebrews passage today we are encouraged to confess our hope, know God's faithfulness and to live God's Love in the world. In short we are encouraged to authentically live as Christ followers in the Love of God.
Will we truly live as God's people? Is it yes or is it no?
For today's full-text click here
