Where is God?

•March 29, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd;

I have everything I need.

There are things in life that we lose. Some of them very precious.   It is part of life that there is death.  This verse doesn’t mean that they are not important, that they are not missed.  It means that somewhere, somehow, we can know all can be ok, because we have God with us.  Things may seem awful, but we are not alone in them – God is with us.  He is everything, and holds us in our pain, our anguish, our despair.

2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass

and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.

When we are weary and exhausted, God gives us rest.  He holds our burdens, he gives us somewhere to rest, he gives us refreshment.  When all around is frantic, God takes us to a place where we can rest in him – a place of peace – deep peace.  A place to get the strength needed.  Strength for today and tomorrow.

3 He gives me new strength.

When we cannot cope – God can.  He renews us, and leads us.  When we don’t know where to go, what to do, he does…

He guides me in the right paths,

as he has promised.

God takes us.  We are not alone.  We are not lost.  God is there.

4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness,

I will not be afraid, Lord,

for you are with me.

Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me.

When we are afraid, when we feel so alone, God’s protection is there.  A shepherd would normally carry a rod. This rod would be used for protection and a weapon against wild animals.  The staff to hook sheep out of trouble.  Comfort here stands for protection, peace, preservation, strength, and assurance in the hard places of life.    The sheep follow their shepherd, believing that he will look after them.  In God is the courage.

5 You prepare a banquet for me,

where all my enemies can see me;

you welcome me as an honoured guest

and fill my cup to the brim.

When things are bad, God gives us in abundance.  It’s not just a sandwich and a drink, but a banquet and an overflowing cup.  And he does it in a way to give us honour.  Where our enemies can see how much God loves us.  We are God’s honoured guests.  He is so glad to welcome us and care for us.

6 I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;

and your house will be my home as long as I live.

God’s promises are for every day.  For good day and bad days.  For sad days and happy days.  For easy days and difficult days. For mountain tops and valley bottoms.  And we are welcome to live with him – our place is with God – now and always.  Nowhere we go – nothing we go through is without his love and goodness there with us.  His house is our home – anytime.  We can trust in him always.

Thank you God

for walking with us

every step of our life’s varied journey.

Thank you that you let us rest when we need it;

take us along the right paths;

go with us through life’s dark moments;

you feed us abundantly.

Posted in God, Lectionary, lent, love
Tags: , ,

Strange choice?

•March 28, 2011 • Leave a Comment

1 Samuel 16:1-13

The LORD Chooses David To Be King

1One day he said, “Samuel, I’ve rejected Saul, and I refuse to let him be king any longer. Stop feeling sad about him. Put some olive oil in a small container and go visit a man named Jesse, who lives in Bethlehem. I’ve chosen one of his sons to be my king.” 2Samuel answered, “If I do that, Saul will find out and have me killed.””Take a calf with you,” the LORD replied. “Tell everyone that you’ve come to offer it as a sacrifice to me, 3then invite Jesse to the sacrifice. When I show you which one of his sons I have chosen, pour the olive oil on his head.” 4Samuel did what the LORD told him and went to Bethlehem. The town leaders went to meet him, but they were terribly afraid and asked, “Is this a friendly visit?”

5“Yes, it is!” Samuel answered. “I’ve come to offer a sacrifice to the LORD. Get yourselves ready to take part in the sacrifice and come with me.” Samuel also invited Jesse and his sons to come to the sacrifice, and he got them ready to take part. 6When Jesse and his sons arrived, Samuel noticed Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab. “He has to be the one the LORD has chosen,” Samuel said to himself.

7But the LORD told him, “Samuel, don’t think Eliab is the one just because he’s tall and handsome. He isn’t the one I’ve chosen. People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts.”

8Jesse told his son Abinadab to go over to Samuel, but Samuel said, “No, the LORD hasn’t chosen him.”

9Next, Jesse sent his son Shammah to him, and Samuel said, “The LORD hasn’t chosen him either.”

10Jesse had all seven of his sons go over to Samuel. Finally, Samuel said, “Jesse, the LORD hasn’t chosen any of these young men. 11Do you have any more sons?”

“Yes,” Jesse answered. “My youngest son David is out taking care of the sheep.”

“Send for him!” Samuel said. “We won’t start the ceremony until he gets here.”

12Jesse sent for David. He was a healthy, good-looking boy with a sparkle in his eyes. As soon as David came, the LORD told Samuel, “He’s the one! Get up and pour the olive oil on his head.” 13Samuel poured the oil on David’s head while his brothers watched. At that moment, the Spirit of the LORD took control of David and stayed with him from then on.

Samuel returned home to Ramah.

 

 

Reworked by Marsyas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

How do you go about deciding what to buy when you need something new?  By how it looks, or how it does the job?

Obviously if your buying clothes or shoes, how they look is a large part of it, but they have to be fit for purpose too.  Fantastic looking shoes are no good if you want them for hill-walking, what matters then is comfort and being weather-proof.  We might initially look at a car because of its design, but what really matters is reliability, fuel consumption, ease of servicing, and other rather boring, but essential, features.

God sends Samuel to anoint, mark out, the one he has chosen to be the next king.  Jesse presents him with what are obviously a fine array of sons, but none of them are the one God has chosen.  Then youngest son David is sent for, and he is the one.

It seemed clear-cut which one of the sons would be chosen to be king.  Surely the strong, tall, handsome one?  The eldest and most experienced one?  But none of the obvious candidates was the right one for God.  For God chooses not by looks – but by the heart.

God looks, not at our exterior; whether shiny and fashionable, or battered and worn; he looks at our heart.  He worries not about where we’ve been, or what we’ve done, but what our motives impulses are today.   That is what matters, that is the part of us that will dictate if we will follow his ways, or be more worried about our own.  We should worry, not about what others think, but what God himself thinks – his is the only opinion that matters.

God can, and will use you, if your heart is in it.  He calls you to step out from the shadows, let him touch you and equip you for the task that he has for you

Lord

I know you see my heart,

that is all that concerns you,

how I react,

where my intentions lie.

Others may cast me easily aside because I don’t look right

or don’t seem to fit in,

they may chase after those who make most noise and stand most proud,

but you see me,

the heart of me.

May my heart be what you need it to be.

Posted in calling, God, Lectionary, lent
Tags: , ,

Turning the tables

•March 27, 2011 • Leave a Comment

John 2:13-22

Jesus in the Temple

13Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.16Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”

18The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?” 19“Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”

20The leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”

21But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

Jesus goes to church.  He goes to the place of worship, what does he find?  People praying?  People listening to God’s word?  People reaching out to the poor and the disadvantaged?  No, none of that.

Jesus comes to the house of God, and finds a money racket going on.  The main activity seems to be not worshipping God, but supplying the animals for sacrifices that everyone would need, and the means for those from far and wide to change their money to buy one.  We can assume from Jesus reaction that they were not providing a helpful service, but that there was some extortion going on.  Jesus is not happy with what he finds.  And he reacts very strongly.

This leads me to reflect on what Jesus would think of what he found if he turned up in our churches one day (not that he doesn’t anyway, but you know what I mean – I hope!).  What would he find us doing?  What would our focus be?  Would he be happy?

And even more scarily, what about our lives?

Lent is for reflection.

What is there in our lives that should not be there?  What is stopping us – or others – from getting to worship God?

Perhaps today is the day that we invite Jesus in to show us?

And then ask him to overturn our lives.

 

Jesus casting out the money changers at the temple by Carl Bloch

 

Lord,

I am scared to let you look closely

into my life.

I know some of what is there.

I am not proud of all that I have let happen.

But I know that the only way forward

is to ask you to overturn my life.

And so today

I ask you to come,

to look,

to chase out what is getting in the way,

that my life may be clean

and doing what you ask of it…

 

Posted in Jesus, Lectionary, lent
Tags: , , ,

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »