Tuesday, March 15, 2022                                          (today’s lectionary)
Learn through the practice of humility
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as now.
If you are willing and obey … if you refuse and resist.
Lord, I believe … help my unbelief!
The Bible writers know us and themselves well. They know we swing back and forth like a broken compass between good and evil, between belief and unbelief, between obedience and refusal. The writers also hear God saying, “STOP!” But we don’t, not for long.
When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it? Or do you think that I am like yourself?
God sent the flood, now he sends a rainbow. But his distress at our foolish selfishness doesn’t end; the rainbow is a sign of his constancy, not his approval.
I will correct you by drawing up your sins before your eyes.
What can we do? God is clear about this. In order to move toward a place of more consistent obedience, we practice gratitude, generosity, and above all praise.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me, and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God … Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
After five nights in different houses and different beds, Margaret and I are finally home in Urbana. We’ll be here awhile, which is good, because yesterday we were alternating between hugging and scratching at each other’s throats. Romans 7 speaks volumes to us: what we do not want to do, we do.
On the good days, when we are rested, when I don’t have a miserable cold, when … when … when … on the good days, as I said, we are more consistent, more loving, more grateful and more generous toward each other (and toward ourselves for that matter). We need a few of those days this week, and I trust God to provide them for us.
Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called “Master;” you have but one master, the Christ.
I think over time we have become less unpredictable with each other, learning at least sometimes to keep our mouths shut when we have nothing good to say. But the situation is probably different between me and God. John and Julie Gottman predict the end of a marriage when the spouses become indifferent to each other. I am far too indifferent to my relationship with God. I don’t want it to wither away, but I so easily forget God when I am not in trouble or filled with joy.
So I conclude that along with moments of joy, times of despair and hopelessness are crucial to our relationship. That may be obvious to you, but for me it seems like a matter of life and death. I just don’t willingly become the “least,” the “servant,” the “humbled.” I hear Jesus tell me this truth, and I believe it. But then … I don’t.
I don’t think of myself as a scribe, or a Pharisee. But!
Do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but DO NOT follow their example. For they preach but do not practice.
I don’t think I’m so obvious about it, but that’s my problem too. Jesus’ antidote?
The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
(Isaiah 1, Psalm 50, Ezekiel 18, Matthew 23)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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