Today’s Scripture
Reading (January 3, 2014): Isaiah 60
So much of
the Bible is counter intuitive. It is what causes a lot of people to doubt the
Bible, and others to believe in it but ignore many of the instructions that the
Bible seems to give. We make excuses not to obey. It does not make sense. For
example, if we were to consider Jesus’ Beatitudes, maybe we understand that
those who mourn will be comforted; after all, it is those who mourn who need to
be comforted. But somehow in North America we have interpreted a time of
mourning to be a time of weakness – and the last thing we want to do is to be
considered weak and so we resist the temptation to mourn (and therefore never
feel comforted.) But, while we may understand that those who mourn will be
comforted, we definitely do not understand that the meek will inherit the
earth. Even inside of the church, our actions betray us – we believe that meek
will be forgotten. Just about any church that I am aware of seems to believe
that the assertive will inherit the earth – and we have learned to be very
assertive in all of our relationships.
We have a
similar problem with the idea that the peacemakers will be called the children
of God. Our critics unfortunately have a very valid point when they label the
Christian Church as the warmongers of the earth. While the early church were
very definitely peacemakers, as soon as the church gained power they seemed to
stop reflecting the needs of peace. We became the persecutors and began to
chase after war. And if we accept what Jesus said as truth, at that point we
stopped being the children of God. By our actions we seem to want to proclaim
that Jesus was wrong – the kingdom does not belong to the weak, the meek and
those who want to chase after peace. Rather, we seem to believe that the
kingdom belongs to the strong, the assertive and those who are willing to go to
war with those who do not believe like we do. To us, this is what makes sense no
matter what it is that Jesus said.
But Isaiah
would seem to agree with Jesus (not surprisingly, Jesus quotes from Isaiah more
than any other prophet.) We are members of the upside-down kingdom. A kingdom
where an old man (Abraham) and his barren elderly wife (Sarah) becomes the
parents of many nations. A kingdom where a group of slaves (Israel) are led to
a position of prosperity. It is a kingdom where a little shepherd boy (David)
would become the most successful king that the world has known. And as Isaiah
speaks these words, a kingdom where those who are stranded in exile still has a
purpose that has been given to them by God himself.
In his time
- when the time is fulfilled - God says this will happen quickly. And history
has proven that true. When God has moved, the change has not taken long. And it
often could have never been foreseen, except by a Prophet that really
understands the ways of God.
But to
understand the ways of God, we need to be committed to the ways of the meek, be
those who are willing to mourn and be the ones who are committed to peace. In
the short term, the ways of the assertive may work, but in the long run the
world belongs to the meek. It really does – and this is exactly who we are
created to be.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah
61
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