Faith

Unmatched love nailed by unmatched hate – Wednesday, 4th week in Lent – Isaiah 49:8-15/ John 5:17-30

A life of sin, when confronted, can make one contrite or arrogant. The first attitude may lead you to the gates of heaven (you may not get in, but you at least get there) the second delivers you to the fires of hell. Well, you might see this as judgmental but then again you would do the same had you bent forwards and backwards multiple times to accommodate an errant child; and in this case, the child was an entire nation.

The people of Israel were marched into Babylon because of their bad choices. Yet they blame God for their mistakes. Did God not send them messenger after messenger, and did they not disregard his word? So, when the people of the Southern Kingdom comprising two of Israel’s twelve tribes, were marched into Babylon in 587 BC, they had it coming.

Yet you could be the arrogant thief who died unrepentant besides Jesus or the one who in humility asked but to be ‘remembered.’ Judah had learnt nothing in captivity except to blame God. Verse 15 of the text today tells us that Judah accused God of abandoning them while they were in captivity, “the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has abandoned me.” In reality, they had abandoned his love time and time again.

But read the text of today and you are left perplexed. In the face of their resentment and unapologetic behaviour, Yahweh is making promise after promise to his people. “At the favourable time I will answer you, on the day of salvation I will help you.” (verse 8). “Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget yet I will not forget you.” (49:15)

Compare the constant disobedience of Judah in the Old Testament to the loving obedience of Jesus to his Father. It is the love of the Father revealed in and through the Son that shines forth in the ministry of Jesus. Yet the sin of disobedience and arrogance runs through the blood of the Jews. He has healed a man who was ill for 38 years and all that the Jews could see was a law broken and not the lawmaker (verse 24) the life-giver (verse 21), who stood before them.

If anything, the readings of today reveal our stubborn refusal to respond to the love of God in Christ Jesus. This is not just a loving God but a passionate lover, a devoted mother, a dedicated father, and a doting brother. Like the Jews, we want proof and signs of this love on demand and when it does not come the way we want it we have murderous thoughts. Remember that the line preceding our text of today tells us that the Jews did not just persecute Jesus (verse 16) but were seeking to kill him (verse 18)

Unmatched love was nailed to a cross driven by unmatched hate.

PS: A big thank you to Jerry who detected a malware on this site and brought it to my attention. It is now fixed. Thank you to all of you who leave your comments, thoughts and encouragement. It may take you ten minutes to read this but takes me much more to write it. Your kindness is much appreciated.

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Faith

See that nothing worse happens to you – Tuesday, 4th Week in Lent – Ezekiel 47:1-9,12/John 5:1-3,5-16.

Post the fourth Sunday in Lent and the readings don’t seem to entirely have the ‘doom and gloom’ of the first three weeks. I am not diminishing or making light of the scripture texts of the first three weeks in Lent, they are essential for the spiritual moulding that shapes us for Easter, but clearly, the readings from now on have messages of hope written all over them.

Take the first reading of today from the prophet Ezekiel. At first glance it is confusing, and I won’t blame you if you skipped it entirely. But like the season of Lent, the prophecy of Ezekiel, a captive in the Babylonian exile himself for 25 years, can be divided into ‘doom and gloom’ (chapters 8-11) and hope and revival (chapters 40-48). The text of today offers us that hope even in the face of our exile. There is a river that will flow through our lives and even though Jerusalem never had a physical river as a source of water, THE source of living water, Jesus, came to the city as promised by God in the prophet Ezekiel.

It is not always easy to see and acknowledge the promises of God. In the gospel of John, the focus of the Gospel is the belief in his word over his works. The Gospel tells us that Jesus made his second trip to Jerusalem. We read of his maiden appearance as the Messiah in chapter 2 when he cleansed the temple. His works (not his words) won him a ‘warm welcome’ in Galilee (4:45). His words had ‘many more’ Samaritans believe in him (4:41) and now he is back in Jerusalem for the ‘festival of the Jews.’

Reading this text, you will tell me it is a miracle narrative (in the Gospel of John we call them signs and not miracles) and yet it is not the work that is the focus but his word. The narrative has a dialogue between Jesus and an unnamed man who sat by the pool of Beth-zatha (House of Mercy) beside the seep gate, one of Jerusalem’s’ seven gates. He has been here 38 years waiting for a WORK from the hand of God and yet when God comes to him it is not with a wave of a hand or a physical spectacle that he is healed but with His WORD, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” Earlier, to the royal official he said, “Go, your son will live.” (4:50)

Interestingly, Jesus asked the man at Bethzatha, “Do you want to be made well?” What an odd question for a man suffering for 38 years (we don’t know his illness) but what if Jesus was offering him more than physical healing? Yes, he obeyed the word and got up and was healed but it is only later that he re-encounters Jesus, this time to be told by Jesus, “See you have been made well, do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.” Jesus offered him physical and spiritual healing.

Many of us live in sin and maybe like the man in the narrative we have lived in sin for the last 38 years. Christ asks us if we want to be made well. By God’s grace, many of us are physically well but not spiritually. Jesus offers us salvation but he warns us to sin no more lest we bring something worse on ourselves. Do not read this line for what it is not; it is not a threat but a warning. You warn your children to be careful, you don’t threaten them if they are not. God does not threaten us but warns us. God does not bring evil into our lives but sadly we invite it right back.

Having returned to the Lord this Lent let us not lose our merits and graces on Easter Sunday. Write these words and paste them on your refrigerator as a reminder lest you forget. (that’s where we go more than to the altar). “See, you have been made well again. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you. “

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Word or works? Monday, 4th week in Lent – Isaiah 65:17-21/ John4:43-54

By way of Introduction

Laetare Sunday which we celebrated yesterday ushered in the hope of the season of Easter to come. It is for this reason that the vestment at mass were rose or violet and not purple (that’s if the sacristan was instructed by the priest). In any case, it ushered in a joy that has clearly spilt into the first reading of today in which God promises a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ and the city of Jerusalem will be know as ‘joy’ while her people will be known as ‘gladness.’

Also, for the next two weeks, till we being the Holy Week, the Gospel that will be proclaimed at mass will be taken from the Gospel of John. We begin with John 4:43 today and over the next two weeks we will cover several texts up to John 11:56

By way of explanation

The Gospel of today is a wonderful reflection of the joy that is ours, if we believe. In the Gospel of John, the word ‘believe’ is found 98 times and is indicative of the faith that we are called to have in Christ’s word over the works of his hand.

Looking around today, we see a rejection of faith in God. Christ faced that disbelief in real time from those who were his own. Belief is not a prize you receive as a virtue of your baptism it is a gift you claim each day as you renew your discipleship in prayer.

Jesus has just left Samaria in the preceding text of today’s Gospel. An entire village of Samaritans believed in him because of the woman’s testimony and mind you she had little social standing among her people (John 4:39) but ‘MANY more believed because of his word’ which he shared with them over just two days (4:41). It is interesting to know that Jesus did not turn water into wine or any of the many spectacular works that he performed in his hometown of Galilee and yet they believed.

 Christ testified that “a prophet has no honour in his own country” (4:44) and though he was ‘welcomed’ in Galilee it was because they had ‘seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival.’(4:45) They were enamoured by his works not his words! Could the same be said of us today?

Contrast his own people to an official from the ‘royal household’ (verse 46) who comes to plead for his son’s life. Christ, we are told, is in Canna and the official has made a fifteen-mile journey to ask for a healing for one who was at the point of death. Jesus uses the occasion to make a point! This generation wants signs and wonders.  (And I am WONDERING if that generation is ours?)

We come to Christ with our prayers that range from simple petitions to those dripping in perspiration. If it is how words we seek and not his works then accept what Christ said to the official of the royal household, “Go, your son will live.” “Go, you situation is taken care of.” Would we go? Would the faith of the royal official resonate in our faith story when written or recounted? Can we claim that we “believed in his word and started on our way?”

If you answer yes, then where is the testimony? Are the details so vivid that you remember your lunch time miracle? Has your household been converted? The scriptures tell us that Christ worked this miracle at one in the afternoon and the official remembered it. We have all had our lunch time miracles, but we rarely memorialize them?

The season of Lent now takes a twist… watch this space….

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God’s APP has many APPlications – 4th Sunday of Lent – 2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-23/ John 3:14-21

The readings for the fourth Sunday of Lent revisit the love and mercy of God who desired deeply to save the world. His love reached its pinnacle when he sent his only begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ, not to condemn the world but to bring it out of darkness into His light and life.

Yet condemnation and wrath are ours to bear when we willfully choose to alienate God from our lives. The second book of Chronicles records this legacy of scornful indifference towards God till such time that He took a Sabbatical for seventy years (2Chronicles 36:21). These became days of desolation for the people of the Southern Kingdom and we know it as the Babylonian exile.

God made us to be ‘hAPPy’ and to do that he gave us his APP but we rejected its APPlications. How does God’s APP work? Look through salvation history and it seems that God has a standard operating procedure (SOP)

1. God APProached humanity with his law; we know them as the Ten Commandments. This was not some temporary contract but rather a permanent covenant. He would be our God; we would be his people. God could have been up there in his heavens, distant like the other gods but he chose to be involved in our lives. He is a God with us who loves the world. (John 3:16)
2. We on the other hand APPended his law to suit our convenience if not disregard it completely. We chose not to be his people.
3. God could have been wrathful but rather he APPealed through the prophets. Verse 15 of the first reading tells us that he “persistently sent his messengers.”
4. In the fullness of time, he APPointed his Son. This was his only begotten son whom he so loved, just as he loved the world. The purpose of sending his son was not to condemn the world but to lead it to life and light. But we crucified the Son of God
5. God was APPalled by our response especially in the Old Testament when they tried his patience and “mocked the messengers,” “despised his words” and scoffed at the prophets.” (2 Chronicles 36:16)
6. It is then that God APProved the destruction of his people. He “brought up against them the King of the Chaldeans who killed their youth with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young men or young women, the aged or the feeble. The Chaldeans burned the house of God, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem and took into exile those who escaped the sword. “

Then God took a SABBATICAL for 70 years ((2Chronicles 36:21) from his people whom he had loved. He was done and dusted. Will history repeat itself?

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My Merit or God’s Mercy? Saturday, 3rd week of Lent, Hosea 5:15-6:6/ Luke18:9-14

When read together (and that is how the liturgy for Lent must be read) the Gospel and Prophet Hosea ring out the theme that God desires true repentance for His mercy that is available to all who seek it with a genuine heart. Within the Lenten season and the pairing of these texts, the Gospel may be misunderstood by many as a condemnation of the ‘holier than thou.’ This is not a finger-pointing Gospel that seeks to identify the ‘religious hypocrites’ among us but a ‘gentle arm around the waist’ that nudges us to the source of mercy.

The First reading is based within the context of the Syro-Ephramitic war which took place in the years 735-733 BC. While Assyria (modern-day Iraq) had allied with the Southern kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem, Syria had allied itself with the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom of Israel/ Ephraim with its capital in Samaria.

God would have nothing of this fratricide; of brother killing brother. His efforts to dissuade their reckless and ungodly behaviour met with indifference and pride. Chapter 15 is God’s judgment on the nations. Now that they have heard his wrath, now that they know that their sacrifices are worthless, they intend to ‘return to God.’ (16:1)

The Gospel picks up the theme here by comparing true contrition (the tax collector) with superficial repentance (the people of Israel and Judah). The anger of God seems very harsh in the Old Testament, yet even those who experienced the worst end of God’s wrath knew that in his core he is a merciful God, but don’t push your luck on that one.

We can end up taking advantage of the knowledge we have of God. This season of Lent may become for many of us another superficial act of repentance that wins us the favour of everyone but not the merits of heaven.

Interestingly, the merits of heaven are not won by those who, “pride themselves on being virtuous and who despise everyone else.” This lent, you may pray and fast, you may have avoided sin and given alms to the poor and yet not won the mercy of God simply because you relied on your merit. It is mercy not merit that wins us heaven.

Leave a comment below and add to the narrative above…..

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