That empty feeling

•April 1, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Micah 7:1-20

1I feel so empty inside–

like someone starving

for grapes or figs,

after the vines and trees

have all been picked clean.

2No one is loyal to God;

no one does right.

Everyone is brutal

and eager to deceive

everyone else.

3People cooperate to commit crime.

Judges and leaders demand bribes,

and rulers cheat in court. 4The most honest of them

is worse than a thorn patch.

Your doom has come!

Lookouts sound the warning,

and everyone panics.

5Don’t trust anyone,

not even your best friend,

and be careful what you say

to the one you love.

6Sons refuse to respect

their own fathers,

daughters rebel against

their own mothers,

and daughters-in-law despise

their mothers-in-law.

Your family is now your enemy.

7But I trust the LORD God

to save me,

and I will wait for him

to answer my prayer.

The Nation Turns to God

8My enemies, don’t be gladbecause of my troubles!

I may have fallen,

but I will get up;

I may be sitting in the dark,

but the LORD is my light.

9I have sinned against the LORD.

And so I must endure his anger,

until he comes to my defense.

But I know that I will see him

making things right for me

and leading me to the light.

10You, my enemies, said,

“The LORD God is helpless.”

Now each of you

will be disgraced

and put to shame.

I will see you trampled

like mud in the street.

A Bright Future

11Towns of Judah, the day is comingwhen your walls will be rebuilt,

and your boundaries enlarged.

12People will flock to you

from Assyria and Egypt,

from Babylonia and everywhere else.

13Those nations will suffer disaster

because of what they did.

Micah’s Prayer and the LORD’s Answer

14Lead your people, LORD!Come and be our shepherd.

Grasslands surround us,

but we live in a forest.

So lead us to Bashan and Gilead, and let us find pasture

as we did long ago.

15I, the LORD, will work miracles

just as I did

when I led you

out of Egypt.

16Nations will see this

and be ashamed

because

of their helpless armies.

They will be in shock,

unable to speak or hear,

17because of their fear of me,

your LORD and God.

Then they will come trembling,

crawling out of their fortresses

like insects or snakes,

lapping up the dust.

No One Is Like God
The people said:

18Our God, no one is like you.We are all that is left

of your chosen people,

and you freely forgive

our sin and guilt.

You don’t stay angry forever;

you’re glad to have pity

19and pleased to be merciful.

You will trample on our sins

and throw them in the sea.

20You will keep your word

and be faithful to Jacob

and to Abraham,

as you promised our ancestors

many years ago.

Feeling empty, hungry, longing for what has been, yearning for the good times.

Looking around and seeing the wrong things that are happening all around.

Twenty-first Century England, or Judah in The 700s BCE?

Micah is sitting in the dark. He recognises that he too has fallen.  He is part of the amorphous “us”.  He is part of all the wrong he sees around.  But he doesn’t see that as God being helpless – but people going wrong.

However bad things are now, Micah sees the hope and promise of where God will lead them.  He knows that he freely forgives sins, tramples on them and throws them away.

God is faithful.

People are not always so faithful.  But God is loyal and merciful.

I trust God, and I SHALL wait for him to answer my prayer.

Lord

you are faithful,

but we are unfaithful.

We sit in the dark,

when you offer light.

We go hungry,

but you offer us food.

Lord we trust you to save us

and we wait…

 

Posted in God, Lectionary, lent, Uncategorized
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Failing to see the obvious

•March 31, 2011 • 3 Comments

In which Jesus heals a man born blind, and the Pharisees try to find out what happened…

The first thing in this encounter is that Jesus states quite clearly that this man is not blind because of something either he or his parents have done.  That was really important to the people of Jesus day.  They lived by the understanding that bad things did not happen to good people.  Bad things happening to you had to equal that you had done something bad.  I think sometimes in our so-called sophisticated society, we still sometimes have a suspicion of that.  We like things neat and tidy.  We like to know who or what to blame.  But from Jesus’ response it seems quite clear that these things sometimes just happen for no reason.

The sad part about the whole episode is that knowing that this mas has been healed and his sight restored, the Pharisees want to use it to make some point about Jesus.  The only thing that seems important to them is that the Sabbath Law has been broken – or at least their interpretation of it!

Having got nowhere with their first argument, they then try a different tack.  Perhaps this is some set up.  This man was never really blind at all – Jesus was just using him to try to make it look like he was a prophet.  They are beginning to get worried that there are those who are thinking that Jesus might be the Messiah.

The leaders want to keep the lid on all this.  But it very soon becomes clear who the blind ones are.

The one who was blind meets Jesus and finds he can see.  The one’s who believe they have the understanding of everything meet Jesus, and it turns out they can see nothing because of their prejudices.  They need to open their eyes – and who knows what they might discover.

If you go on a journey with your eyes closed you will miss a lot.  As we journey through Lent, are we doing it with our eyes closed, or are we open to what we might see?  Are our eyes and minds shut to God and what he can do?  Do we think we’ve got it sorted and have nothing more to see?  Or are we open to new experiences?

Let’s open our eyes to God, and see what he has to show us.  Favourite views that restore us, things we’ve never seen before, new routes there may be to take.

Lets reach out to him and watch him work – in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Lord

may we open our eyes to you.

May we see

the things you have to show us.

May we not be closed-minded

but wanting to discover more of you.

May we never think

we know everything there is to know,

or have you sorted,

but be open to new possibilities.

Surprise us Lord

we pray

Posted in Jesus, Lectionary, lent
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Shedding some light

•March 30, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Ephesians 5:8-14

8You used to be like people living in the dark, but now you are people of the light because you belong to the Lord. So act like people of the light 9and make your light shine. Be good and honest and truthful, 10as you try to please the Lord. 11Don’t take part in doing those worthless things that are done in the dark. Instead, show how wrong they are. 12It is disgusting even to talk about what is done in the dark. 13But the light will show what these things are really like. 14Light shows up everything,  just as the Scriptures say, “Wake up from your sleep

and rise from death.

Then Christ will shine on you.”

One of the best things about Spring is the longer days.  More light in our lives, both morning and evening.

Of course the problem then is that the light shows up all kinds of things that you had never noticed or managed to ignore in the darker days.  Our windows always look terrible when the sun shines on them, showing up all the dirt that has accrued.

The presence of God brightens up lives and gives clarity to see.

People who walk with God, no longer live in the darkness.  He brings light to our lives.

That light peers into all the corners, shows the dust, the cobwebs, the smears that have appeared.  But it also gives you the light to be able to see to do something about it.

Clean surfaces reflect light, dusty ones not so well.

What does God ask of those who live in the light?  Honesty and truthfulness.  Christ is shining on us, does that light also reflect from us?

Lord

shine on me,

that I may reflect your light.

Help me to live my life

in your honesty,

truth

and goodness

Posted in Lectionary, lent, Uncategorized
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