Luke 1:46-55 The Veil of Time, and Magnifying God

 

Observation: Mary announces God's justice before it is even born. She speaks in the past tense about things that she anticipates happening, but haven't happened yet. Jesus hasn't even been born, but she already declares, "The Mighty One has done great things for me...he has scattered the proud...he has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly." In Mary's consciousness, steeped in the Holy Spirit, all of this has already taken place. 

Application: I think when our soul is magnifying the Lord, our sense of time is different from when we are magnifying other things. If we take a magnifying glass to our own problems, or much more so to the world's problems, it seems utterly impossible that anyone, even God, could do anything to help. But if we are magnifying the Lord, we see patterns in salvation history. As we dig into the story of God with God's people, it makes sense to be so confident that God will take action in big, liberating ways, because that's what God has done so many times before. To magnify God is to stand at every point in God's story, all at once. Our feet are in the dry soil at the bottom of the Red Sea. Our hair is blowing with the wind of the great chariots that caught Elijah up into the heavens. Our fingertips feel the coldness of the stone, newly rolled from Jesus' empty tomb. Our eyes look up to see him returning, riding on the clouds. And we are also fully present in our own lives, realizing that all this has happened, is happening, will happen to us. Nobody can magnify God in every minute of every day. But we can dwell in the Word, we can lift each other in prayer, and we can take time for silent pondering, like Mary did. When we do that, the veil of time grows very thin indeed. Jesus will come to us, is coming to us, and already has, all at once. 

Prayer: With the creation and your faithful people, we cry out, Amen, Come Lord Jesus!   

 

Psalm 125 (NRSV)

​¹Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
²As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people,
from this time on and forevermore.
³For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might not stretch out
their hands to do wrong.
⁴Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts.
⁵But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
the LORD will lead away with evildoers.
Peace be upon Israel!

Observation: What I hear in this text is something we desperately need: stability. Comfort. Protection. Love. God protects God's people just like the mountains that surround Jerusalem. (They're not big snow-caps like the one in the photo, but they are majestic nonetheless!) Any earthly form of security can be shaken, but God will not.

Application: In a time of so much turmoil, God is our foundation. A theology professor in seminary used to correct us when we talked about God as a "being" or an "entity". He said, "It's not just that: God is the ground for ALL being!" If the whole universe is a mountainside, God isn't just one boulder among many, or the most majestic peak. God is the bedrock holding up the whole mountain! God is so much bigger, more ancient and more unshakable than any of our fears. There's no comparison! That doesn't mean the problems of our lives, or of our world today, aren't important and worth our attention. But at the end of the day, the mountain remains. And that mountain is love.

Prayer: God you are our rock, our foundation, our mountain range, even amid the storms of our lives. Protect us, Lord, in mind, body and spirit, that we may continue to walk your way and share your love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Philippians 3:7-11 "I Love Trash"

 

Observation: Paul has just laid out a long list of religious credentials. He's from a good religious family, he's been through all the right rituals at all the right times, he's gotten the best religious education and followed religious laws to a T. Yet compared to knowing Jesus as Lord, and trusting in him, it's all trash. Indeed, the Greek word translated in NRSV as "rubbish", in fact means an even more unattractive waste product...but I digress. 

Application: It's kind of weird to have a religious career. We use a fancy word for it: "call". Though I do believe God has called me to be a pastor, and I also have a fancy letter that confirms the people of Advent Lutheran Church have called me, the fact remains, a professional call is also a job. A career. Just as Christians of any career should view their career as part of God's call for their lives, I recognize that my calling is also my job. 

Where I'm going with this is: when your religious calling is also your job, sometimes you tend to do your job "religiously," as in assigning spiritual value to how good a job you do, how many hours you work, how many tasks you get done, and how well your church is doing by various measurable metrics. That, to quote the distinguished Apostle Paul, is "trash." And yet we love to do it. We feel a deep need to do it, to establish our value, for God's kingdom. Not just we. I. I catch myself a hundred times a day judging and assessing my worth based on what I can or can't do for God. I love trash. And it makes me grouchy.  

I came to a very hard-won realization a couple years back, and it has stuck with me, even though I need to continually be called back to it. I am a child of God first. Other stuff comes after that. My job is important, and I've done it almost all my adult life, but it's not who I am. My church is important to this community, but how well people are reflecting Christ's love in the world, how many lives we are touching, is not who I am. The value of my job or our religious institution, compared to the surpassing value of just knowing Christ, who is a thousand times better at loving this world than I'll ever be, is trash. And it's time to crawl on out of the dumpster and accept some love and grace.

Prayer: Jesus, help me fall out of love with the trash of this life, and the trashy way I treat myself. Help me prize knowing you above all things. Amen.     

Psalm 27 One Thing I Ask of the Lord

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—
they shall stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.

One thing I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they are breathing out violence.

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

Observation: Psalm 27 is a cry for God's help from enemies, but it's also an announcement of confidence in victory with God's help. What strikes me most today, though, is the longing, "to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."

Application: Like everyone else in the midst of this health crisis, I have good and bad days, spiritually speaking. Some days I feel God's presence strongly, and other days I feel a little empty. I know it's not because God is any less present on the bad days, it's just my own inability to notice and celebrate God's presence that gets in the way. 

On the hard days, a text like this hits extra hard: the longing to dwell in God's house, the promise of gathering together in worship and offering "shouts of joy." Those days will come again. But in the meantime, the advice I glean from this text is in verse 8, "Come, my heart says, seek his face! Your face O Lord do I seek." And in verse 14, "wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage." It's easier said than done, of course, but what I do know is: when I least feel like praying, or turning to God's Word, or reflecting on ways God has shown God's face to me in recent days, that's when I most need to do it. 

Prayer: God, today is a day when I need to seek your face. Help me find you in the faces of others. Amen. 

Luke 21:34-38 Alert at All Times

 

Observation: Jesus teaches his disciples about the need to be alert at all times and ready for his return. I notice that he lists three distractions together: "dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of this life." 

Application: "High alert" is a difficult state of mind to maintain. The way our brains work, adrenaline will only get us so far, and then something has to give. We start out in "fight or flight" and then, over time, we get exhausted and complacent. Nine months into a deadly pandemic, I'm not the first one to make the observation that fatigue is setting in. How then does Jesus expect us to "be alert at all times" for his return? 

How this shakes out for me is there's a big difference between "alert" and "worried." In fact, in this very passage Jesus compares "the worries of this life" with being drunk, as an obstacle to alertness. We tend to think that worrying about something that might happen prepares us for it. Usually, it doesn't. It's just a waste of precious mental space and spiritual energy. These days, due to gathering restrictions,  we may have a less cluttered calendar, but our minds are as cluttered as ever, if not more so, with worry, and it's not helping us actually be prepared for the future. So, what if alertness looked less like dwelling on bad things that may or may not happen, and more like intentional time of clearing our minds, sitting with God's Word, letting it sink deep into our hearts, and letting tomorrow's worries take care of themselves? That would sober us up real quick, and in the best possible way. 

Prayer: God, sit with me until I sober up. Let worries fall away. Let me fix my eyes and my heart on you, not in anxiety but in full trust in your presence. Amen.    

Micah 4:6-13

 

Observation: God promises to take a remnant of those in Israel who were cast off and driven away, and make a strong nation of them. God continually reaches out to those on the margins of society, who are excluded or ignored by human systems of power. 

Application: It's too easy to immediately identify with the "good guys," the "chosen", or at least the people getting the good news in any Bible passage. If God promises to make a remnant of "the lame," and those who are "cast off", my mind starts to go to my own obstacles, my own perceived limitations, ways I don't fit "the norm", or ways I've felt pushed out or cast off in the past. That's too quick and easy of a way to read passages like this. What if I'm not actually part of this special "remnant"? What if my job is to look for ways God welcomes in people not like me? What if it's time for me to step back, and share the voices of those whose experience has been all but ignored up to now? 

Prayer: God, you gather remnants, and make strong communities and nations by lifting up those we reject. Remove from my heart any barriers to accepting people who are different from me. If I am part of their "casting out," help me repent and welcome them as I would welcome you. Amen.