Romans 15:22-33 "One Last Job" for Paul

Observation: Paul is writing to Christians in Rome about his future travel plans. Paul has taken a collection from mostly Gentile churches throughout what is now Turkey, to offer famine relief to Christians in Judea. This will both meet their material needs and hopefully cement a bond between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Paul promises, once this delivery is made, that his next trip will be a missionary journey to Spain, and he will make his first visit to his fellow Christians in Rome on the way. What we know from the Book of Acts (ch. 21) is that Paul never does get to Spain. He is arrested in Jerusalem, and ultimately martyred in Rome. 

Application: Paul says Gentile Christians owe a huge debt of gratitude to Christians in Judea (modern-day Israel and Palestine). Therefore, he gives Gentile Christians an opportunity to support them in their time of need. 

I was blessed to travel to Palestine and Israel in 2015, to visit many Christian holy sites, but also to meet with Christians who have lived their entire lives in Jesus' homeland. Our tour guide was a devout Catholic, who was born in Bethlehem and married in the Church of the Nativity. Every morning, he got up early enough to make it through a checkpoint in Jerusalem, be picked up by our bus driver, and meet with our tour group by 9am.

I was able to visit with the pastors at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem, a congregation who worships every Sunday in English, German and Arabic, mere blocks from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Redeemer's pastor at the time, Rev. Ibrahim Azar, is now bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. 

I visited Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, which is run by the Lutheran World Federation, and provides some of the only specialized cancer care available to Palestinians. I was able to participate in their olive harvest, on the mount of olives, which goes to support their vocational training programs for youth in the city. 

My short time in that country reminded me that I was not simply in a "holy land" visiting "holy sites," but I was also surrounded by "holy people." The people of God, in the land of Jesus' birth, are like people anywhere else. They need what anyone needs: safety, a way to pursue their livelihood, access to medical care when they get sick, and most of all, hope. And even a passing familiarity with that region should let us know that it has not been easy for these Christians, or for people of any faith, in our lifetime. 

So today, as I'm reflecting on Paul's words, I'm taking them rather literally. He wanted Christians in the west to remember and offer support to their siblings in the east. That's what I'm feeling called to do today. If you'd like to learn more about Augusta Victoria Hospital, and support their work, there is a link below. 

Prayer: Jesus, you are the Son of the Most High God, and yet you were born in a particular place at a particular time. Help me see your presence everywhere, everyday, and also offer care and support to those who live where you lived, and safeguard the places where your story unfolded. Amen. 

https://jerusalem.lutheranworld.org/content/financial-support-91  

 

Zechariah 9:14-10:2 My Wandering Mind

Observation: I'm struck by the poetic beauty of the images Zechariah puts forth. God's people are like a flock of sheep, and like the jewels of God's crown, shining on the land. Yet, in a time of anxiety, when the Persian empire is waning and the Greeks are getting set to charge through, people are turning every which way for guidance--except to the Lord who has gotten them through so much worse already.

Application: To whom or what do I turn when I really need guidance? Can I honestly say that when life gets confusing or stressful, that my first instinct is to run to God's word, to prayer, to conversation with other people of God? I would like to say I'm getting better with that. But the reality is that too often my first counselor is my own anxious mind. I'll play out a hundred worst-case scenarios before I lift any of them to God. My mind is like a sheep without a shepherd, yet God never tires of running after me. Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me, chase after me, get me on track, again and again, all the days of my life.  

Prayer: God, my shepherd, help me turn to you first instead of last. Help me check in with you regularly, and listen for your voice daily, not as medicine for a life-threatening illness, but as daily bread. Amen.  

 

Amos 9:1-4 You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

 

Observation: The Lord speaks a warning to the prophet Amos. He is fed up with the people of Israel and intent on destroying them. There is no place--not even Sheol, the land of the dead, or at the bottom of the sea--where they can escape God's punishment. Yet a few verses beyond today's appointed reading, to the end of Ch. 9 and of the book itself, God promises to rebuild and bring to prosperity the very nation God has destroyed for its unfaithfulness.

Application: I always struggle with texts about God's wrath. I know God gets angry, but  the idea of unrelenting punishment that chases people down to the ends of the earth seems so different from the God I know in Jesus. I don't think this is how God usually interacts with God's people. What I do take away from this text, however, is humility. Amos warns proud sinners, who say, "evil shall not overtake or meet us," that they shall die by the sword. In our relentlessly optimistic, positive-thinking culture, I worry that sometimes we each think of ourselves as special. Especially good, especially fortunate, especially deserving of God's love. I have to admit that I sometimes have an innate sense that things will work out for me, because I have been so fortunate in the past. Like in Garrison Keillor's old stories of Lake Wobegon, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average," I worry that sometimes I carry with me a certain complacency toward God's grace. Maybe I need a text like this to remind me: I do not deserve it. I never, ever will. What I deserve is to face the consequences of my sin, and to be fully on the hook for the ways I have hurt others, or failed to help them. And in that scenario, if I were to get what I deserve, there would be no place to hide. Not beneath the sea, not below the earth, not in space. I am forever grateful that God's love and forgiveness are just as relentless. 

Prayer: God, your sight and your presence are everywhere, and there is no escape from you. Thank you for your mercy. Help me be changed and transformed by it to live for you. Amen.    

James 5:7-11 Patience

 

Observation: James is the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, but he’ll always go down in history as “the Lord’s brother.” I have to say, something I appreciate about his writings is the “family resemblance” in his writing. Just in this little snippet we have a parable about agriculture, a warning about coming judgment, and a promise for those who are suffering, that theirs is the same lot as the prophets. It does feel wonderfully familiar.

But even by the time of James’ writing, a new theme has emerged: patience. I think one of the first seismic shifts in the early church was coming to grips with the reality that Jesus might not come back in their own lifetimes. And in the meantime, life is hard for Christ-believers. “Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near…” even if it feels so far away.

Application: I think we’ve learned more about patience this past seventeen months than we ever thought we’d have to. We’ve spent a lot of time obsessed with the return of a status quo that will likely never come back. At the same time, some religious leaders have had to be the “patience police” for others, pumping the brakes on the drive to get back in our sanctuaries, get back to communing the way we knew, singing the way we knew, worshiping the way we knew…

Something I’ve learned about patience during this time is: we tend to have a never-ending well of it when it comes to familiar things, but precious little of it when it comes to new things. We’re hard pressed to try something new more than twice if it’s not an astonishing success, but when it comes to something we know how to do, we’re all too happy to keep at it for years after it’s been proven ineffective.

We’re going to have to work on that going forward: being a little more impatient with the familiar, because as we’ve seen, it could evaporate at any moment. But being a little more patient with the new things God may be doing among us. If God calls us to try something once, maybe we shouldn’t be afraid to tweak it, and try it twice. Like those crops James talked about, maybe it’ll take an early and a late rain to make a new thing grow, which will bear fruit for God’s world.

“strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” I believe that. But it probably won’t look the way we picture. So right now, maybe patience means following Jesus’ lead, and letting new things grow.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, give us patience. Help us water the crops in our souls we know the world needs, even when they are slower growing than the weeds we are used to. In your name we pray. Amen.