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Monday, June 29, 2020
“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.” —Daniel 6:22
Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, God’s chosen people suffered a traumatic experience. For many generations, the nation of Israel, and later the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, had been struggling in a variety of ways with antagonistic nations and empires beyond their borders. As large empires rose, the political independence of God’s people was threatened. Eventually, the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire. Later, the ascendant Babylonian Empire defeated the southern kingdom and took God’s people into exile.
The Jews in exile in Babylon were faced with the complicated and heart-wrenching decision of how to respond to this exile. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God called the people to work for the good of the city of Babylon. Even though they were in exile, in the capital city of their conquerors, the people responded by working for the well-being of those they might consider enemies, trusting God that the good of their neighbors/enemies (or “neighnemies”) would work out for their own good as well.
In this context, Daniel prospered as he worked with diligence and integrity for the Babylonian Empire. He ended up in a position of great authority and power. But this did not exempt him from the difficulty of being a Jew living in a foreign empire. Jealous enemies of Daniel set him up and sold him out. Daniel had continued to worship the one true God, even after a law was put into place outlawing such worship. Despite his service to the empire and the king, Daniel was sentenced to spend a night in a lions’ den.
What was intended to be a death sentence instead ended up pointing to the power and faithfulness of God. The plots of Daniel’s enemies were no match for the power and faithfulness of Daniel’s God.
Our faithful God calls each of us to faithfulness. We’re called, like Daniel, to be diligent. We’re called to have integrity. We’re called to work for the good of the places we live and the people we live alongside. We’re called to have single-hearted devotion to our God.
And God promises to make a way for us through all the schemes of the enemy. God promises to make a way through the wickedness of the human heart. God promises to make a way and to remain faithful even when our own faithfulness falters.
To be sure, we cannot always see the way through when we’re on this side of the grave. Many of God’s faithful people have lost their lives, martyred for their faithfulness and devotion to the Lord. But in Christ we know that even then—even in the very worst this world can throw at us—we are not beyond the scope of God’s faithfulness. And so we, like Daniel, rejoice because our God has claimed us, has led us, has protected us, and has made a way for us.
Friday, June 26, 2020
Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right. — Psalm 106:3
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. — 1 John 2:17
One time, when I got the flu as a kid, we rented The Music Man on VHS and I watched it over and over and over…and over. In middle school, I spent a summer in the cast of a community theater production of the same show. And a few years after that, it was my high school’s spring musical. This play followed me around in my youth, and it sort of weaves its way into my thoughts now and again. Today, something called “The Think System” is on my mind.
In The Music Man, The Think System is the phony band director’s fraudulent approach to teaching kids how to play instruments. The idea is if you just think enough about playing a tuba or a trumpet, then you’ll be able to. Of course, you don’t have to be a skilled musician to know that the way to learn an instrument isn’t only to think about playing it, it’s to do it.
I believe I sometimes approach my own discipleship in a manner akin to The Think System…as if growing as a disciple is simply a matter of doing the right interior work. But a life of a discipleship isn’t only thinking about how to love God and neighbor, it’s doing it.
Today’s passages each share that common verb: do. God cares about our behaviors. God calls us to be active and participatory. These particular passages remind us that disciples act in ways that promote justice and the will of God.
Why might action be such an important attribute of the life of a disciple?
- First off, the world benefits from our actions. A musical instrument that’s never played doesn’t do anyone any good; it doesn’t bring any enjoyment to a listener. Likewise, a person who has all the knowledge of how to love God and neighbor, but doesn’t act on that knowledge, doesn’t do anyone any good. God invites us to work with God in building God’s kingdom. When we get out of our heads and do the things God calls us to do, the world is better for it.
- Secondly, we grow by doing. Learning is both an intellectual and experiential process. There’s a reason field work, internships, and apprenticeships are a part of most professional training programs. Our learning is reliant on being able to try, apply, assess, reroute, reflect, repeat. The life of a disciple needs to be one of action, because it’s through experience that we grow.
None of this is to say that our interior life is irrelevant. As Christians, we’re most certainly called to attend to our thoughts—to study, ponder, ruminate, meditate. The life of our minds and hearts is important…but it’s one side of a coin. We’re also called to serve, act, behave, demonstrate, and give—that is, to do this life of discipleship.
When it comes to your life as a disciple of Jesus, do you lean more heavily toward thinking or doing? Trusting that both of these things are an essential, what might God be calling you to incorporate more of in your life in order to grow and to benefit the world?
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,…so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise spring up before all the nations. – Isaiah 61:11
One of my favorite parts of the Bible is in Luke 4. Shortly after Jesus’ baptism and time spent in the wilderness, he returns to his home town of Nazareth and Luke reports that the following happened…
…on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
– Luke 4:16b-21
The passage that Jesus reads from Isaiah is a description of the Messiah that the Jewish people have been waiting for. So right in the middle of his hometown, in front of a bunch of people who know who he is, Jesus reads the description of the Messiah and says…the wait is over, this is talking about me.
I always imagine Jesus’ sat at the optimal distance from where he read so his walk back to his seat would elicit the perfect amount of tension before the “today this scripture…” bit.
So…why am I talking about Isaiah 61:1-2 by way of Luke 4, when today’s verse is from Isaiah 61:11? Good question!
Between the description of the Messiah in Isaiah 61:1-2 and Isaiah 61:11 (today’s verse), is a description of what God’s people will be able to do because of the Messiah. There is language of rebuilding, freedom, and transformation. The Messiah will make God’s people into who they cannot be on their own.
We see what Jesus came to do in Isaiah 61:1-2, let’s respond to that with what Isaiah promises God’s people will be able to do in response. Let’s allow Jesus to uproot the sin in our lives so that the goodness God has planted within each one of us is able to grow. Let’s embrace our place as God’s true children, resembling our heavenly Father, giving praise to God, and inviting each person we encounter to take their place within this family.
