Scripture: Psalm 55:1-855 Listen to my prayer, O God,And do not hide Yourself from my plea.2 Listen to me and answer me;I am restless and distraught in my complaint and distracted3 Because of the voice of the enemy,Because of the pressure of the wicked;For they bring down trouble on me,And in anger they persecute me.4 My heart is in anguish within me,And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.5 Fear and trembling have come upon me;Horror has overwhelmed me.6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!I would fly away and be at rest.7“I would wander far away,I would lodge in the [peace of the] wilderness. Selah.8 “I would hurry to my refuge [my tranquil shelter far away]From the stormy wind and from the tempest.”
Observation: It's the words "restless, distraught, and distracted" from verse 2 that stand out for me today. Now, I'm not facing the kind of adversity that David sounds like he is facing. I don't feel actively persecuted or set upon. I have experienced such times, and in those times I have always been surprised and grateful to perceive God clearly with me, guarding my steps and preparing a path for me. Those times of great difficultly are not ones I long to repeat, but I will say this about them - they have been times that sharpened my focus upon what God was doing, cleared my vision to see the Divine direction beckoning and strengthened my resolve to do what I understood to be required of me. By contrast, I find myself at present in a period of relative ease and comfort. My focus has drifted and I found myself now navigating through a thick fog of white-noise. I feel "restless, distraught, and distracted". Ironically, though I know God to have been present with me in times of struggle, I am finding it more tempting now in this time of relative ease to imagine that God is "hiding from my pleas".
Application: I just came back from a time of holiday that was very renewing. The opportunity to rest was much appreciated and needed, but our family chose to do (or rather, not do) something that made the vacation all the richer. We turned off our cell phones and computers for the whole week. (Well, that was the goal, at least. I'll admit we didn't completely adhere to it. Imagine what might have happened if we had?) The result was similar to the limited experience I have with snorkeling: The stiller I am, the less sand and silt is stirred up, and the more clearly I can see the miraculous evidence of God at work all around me.
In the midst of this Kairos, I hear God saying to me:Phil, you have my undivided attention. Phil, imagine what I could do with your undivided attention. I'm still working on what God would have me do in response to this word of abundant grace.
What do you think? What helps you to deal with feelings of
restlessness or distraction? What activities or social pressures make it difficult for you to focus on God's love and plan for us?
Prayer:
God, I believe you are here. I am coming to realize that many of my own choices are creating the cloud that make it difficult to see and hear You clearly. Jesus, be my centre. Calm my anxious brain. Hold my erratic heart. Grant me grace to be still and to exult in knowing that you are God. Amen.
The hymn “We Are
Called” (by David Haas) is a favorite of mine.
The chorus goes like this…
We are called to act with justice.
We are called to love
tenderly.
We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.
It’s a favorite hymn, but today this line bristles…
“We are called to love tenderly.”
Though it is surely true that we are called to love tenderly, that sweet lyric
doesn’t seem to do justice to the breadth and depth of the invitation and
challenge we receive by way of the “new mandate” Jesus charges us with in John
13.
There are at least two ways in which we are tempted to misunderstand today’s
Gospel reading:On the one hand, we might
sentimentalize Jesus’ command to “Love one another!”making it out to mean that we ought to be
nice to everyone in a way that makes us feel good while demanding very little
of anyone – this approach is high on syrupy, greeting-card affirmations but
woefully low on substance.Then again,
we might succumb to the temptation to seek to justify ourselves to God through
works of well-meaning, but misdirected love: of ourselves, and our neighbours-as
ourselves.
In order to avoid these pit-falls, it is important for us to begin, not with
Jesus’ command to “love one another!”, but with his statement to the disciples
on the eve of his execution.
“Where I am going you cannot come.”
What does Jesus mean by this?The
setting is an Upper-Room in Jerusalem where the disciples and their teacher
have gathered to partake of the Passover meal.Jesus has just finished washing his disciples’ feet and predicting his
own betrayal at the hands of Judas.Immediately after the passage we read today follows the prediction of
Peter’s denial of Jesus.
Today we encounter Jesus, poised at the decisive moment of John’s Gospel. Until now, Jesus has often remarked that his
“appointed time” has not yet arrived.As
Judas leaves the intimate and warmly lit upper-room, fleeing into darkness, the
pivotal moment has arrived.His path to
the cross is now assured, and yet he declares this to be his moment of
Glory.As Jesus is “lifted up” on the
cross, His Father will be “lifted up”, magnified, glorified, exalted, honored.For The Son and The Father are one.A few verses later in John 14:10, 11 Jesus
will make this explicit:“I Am in the
Father and the Father is in Me.”
Jesus and the Father are one.But from
long ago, they have been separated from their beloved human creatures by a gulf
of sinful hard-heartedness and willful disobedience.Now, as “the appointed time” arrives for Jesus,
the Son of Man, He rejoices in the pending completion of what Father and Son
have so longed for…the re-establishment of right-relations with their
creatures.
[Reading John 13:31-32 … standing at altar, elevate
bread, indicating two sides, one loaf… slight pause, then read verse 33.]
31When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now
is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him,[a] God will glorify the Son in
himself, and will glorify him at once.
33"My
children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and
just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
It is clear in Jesus’ mind where he is
going, even if it is a mystery to us and the other disciples.The Son is going to the cross … to an
encounter with death.Jesus is on the
road that is descending into Hell…hell being absolute “apartness” from the
Father.
[Rip bread in two]
This one body is broken into two, and separated as in two hands spread wide on
a cross…So that You, and I, and all others who would trust in and follow Christ
might be joined once more to the Creator who longs to be known by us.Jesus said, “Where I am going you cannot
come.”The Son went into absolute
“apartness” from the Father, AND returned so that we all could become
absolutely and permanently connected.So
that we might all have a place at the Lord’s Table.
And now that we have been accepted into this wonderful community, this glorious
communion, we have been invited to respond by sharing that which we have first
received…by loving one another as Jesus has loved us.For God desires that our active, suffering,
servant love for one another be our witness to the world regarding what God is
doing.As we love one another with the
love we have so freely received all those who long to experience such life-giving
love will be drawn in.
Lawrence O.
Richards put it this way:
“Within the Upper
Room, the vision of a new community was being shaped. In the last few hours of
His life on earth, Jesus sketched for His friends a picture of a future that
they—and we—are to experience. It’s important to realize that this revelation
is for us. Here is a picture of your life and mine as Christians, a picture of
our experience in Christ. The key to this experience is relationship: relationship
with each other as members of a new community, and relationship with Jesus, the
Enabler of the new community. … The foundation of Jesus’ new community is a
unique relationship. Here is how Christ explained it: “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All
men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.” These are familiar words, yet
strange ones. Love is nothing new; the Old Testament speaks often of love and
reminds us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (LEV 19:18)…
[But] there
is a new standard by which to measure love. Love of neighbor was to be “as you
love yourself.” But here we are told to love each other “as I have loved you.”
Love as Jesus did? Love with a love that gives self? Yes, this is new.
My [community] becomes more important to me than I am!”[1]
Family, this Love
of Jesus which we have been immersed in cannot be summed-up by such a timid
word as “tender”.Rather, to adequately
describe the depth and breadth of this Love defies dictionaries full of
adjectives.This Love is Glorious in its
largess, magnificent in its nuanced richness.
Jesus’ Love Is:
Incarnate, Embodied, Flesh and Blood, Material.It is experienced through the real smiles of
greeters and the physical sharing of the peace with one another.Jesus’ love is tangible when we visit the
sick, care for an aging parent or spouse, and when we provide counsel and
encouragement to those who are hurting.
Jesus’ Love Is:
Expensive, Costly,
Lavish, Precious, Rich.It is
experienced through the pain that being in meaningful relationships brings when
those among us are called away in life or death.Jesus’ love is expressed through the
sacrificial putting to death of our sinful impulses to “look out for number
1.”It is made known among us by those
who offer their time, talents and money to build up the community at Our Savior.
Jesus’ Love Is:
Obedient, Dutiful,
Humble, Intentional, Deliberate, Intricate.At OSLC it is expressed in the ongoing production of sandwhiches by the ICPM
volunteers and by the behind-the-scenes work of those who labour at the
unglamorous work of maintaining and cleaning the building.
Jesus’ Love Is:
Courageous,
Powerful, Challenging, Agitational, Transformational, Reconciling.Where this love shines, darkness abates and
lives are changed.We see it at work in
our joint efforts with PALN churches to Sponsor a Refugee family and the Kids
On Track After School Program at Ormsby School.It is perhaps most visible in our midst among those who have experienced
conflict with one another and yet have found a way to share in the life of Our
Savior.
Jesus’ Love Is:
Unconditional, Preferential, All Inclusive, Invitational,
Indiscriminant.This love accepts all
who desire to come to it.It is embodied
in the physical accessibility of OSLC’s building and the warmth of her
people.Jesus’ demonstrated preference
to dwell among those who were shunned or held to be worthless is born out in
the welcome shown to the Ormsby food share group, and The Tuesday Night AA
group.
We have been loved
substantially, lavishly, dutifully, transformationally, unconditionally.
And so we are invited and empowered to Love one another - and the world - generously.
May our love for
one another be sufficiently Glorious that all might be drawn to its light.Amen.
[1]Richards, Larry ; Richards, Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary.
Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1987, S. 740
