Today’s Scripture Reading (July 18,
2013): Psalm 100
I think all
of my life I have heard the idea that it is time for the church to rise up. The
image seems to me to be very much a military one. And the scenario often seems
to be that when things are not going well that the church militant will rise
and set things right. And the military image is intentional. One Christian man recently
reminded me of how many Christians in North America own guns. The time has to
come when the Christians will start to use their guns to force the nations into
the moral condition that God desires. And nobody seems to recognize the problem
– that the use of guns to force morality is like evil being united with goods –
and the thought does not seem to reflect the character of Christ who told us
that if someone asks us to walk one mile, we should walk two. The imagery being
used is that a Jew could be conscripted into serving the Roman Army and could
be asked to go one mile, but that they should go beyond what was being asked. The
response of his listeners was probably – “Jesus, do you not understand that we
are the enemies of the Romans. They have invaded our country and what we need
to do is pick up arms against them and refuse when they want us to serve them
and their purposes.” But then again, Jesus also said that if someone was to
strike us on the cheek, we should offer the other cheek for them to strike as
well.
By the way,
I agree with the idea that it is time for the church to rise up – but I am not
sure that I am talking with the same military imagery that some inside the church
community seem to want to adopt. Paul in Ephesians 4 makes the admittedly awful
assertion that we are not to “let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,
but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that
it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29.) The command seems to be
totally against the way that we live. How often do we complain about something
and speak words that are only designed to tear down rather than build up?
This psalm
is a Psalm of Ascent - a psalm that is intended to be spoken as the people
entered a holy place of worship, often the temple although it should not be
restricted to the temple – it should be spoken wherever it is that we come to
worship. And the central idea is that when we come to worship we should do so
with an intense feeling of gratitude rather than with complaints. The problem
is that the complaints will only tear down – the only power that a complaint
has is to focus us on the negative and make the world just a little bit of a
darker place. But an attitude of thankfulness has the opposite effect. It
reveals all that is good and worthy that exists around us. When we are thankful
when we enter a place of worship – we recognize all of the ways that God has
blessed us rather than all of the ways that we still do not have all the things
that we desire. And when we enter a relationship with another person with
thankfulness, we are being given the power to help that person recognize what
is good and right in their lives, things that can be built on, while complaints
only remind them of all the ways that they still do not measure up. And in my
life I have to admit that this is my
kryptonite – I am a natural complainer.
Enter the
places of worship in your life with thankfulness. But do not let it stop there.
Let the thankfulness overflow to every relationship – every person that you are
involved with. If you can do that, you will begin to lay the foundations for a
better world.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
102
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