Tuesday, July 14, 2020 (today’s lectionary)
Dangerous business
Ahaz and Isaiah are getting into it again. Unlike the short in stature General Ulysses Grant, King Ahaz panics at the threat of danger or impending battle. Isaiah insists he stand up, straighten his back, and be still.
Take care that you remain calm
Oh sure, Isaiah, calm!
Let not your courage fail before these two stumps
The blazing anger of your foes will burn itself out. They will turn toward each other instead of you. BUT!
Unless your faith is firm
YOU shall not be firm.
In the Netflix series Messiah, the US president meets the Messiah. They talk and the president is told to seek peace rather than war and retribution against Russia. When he returns to the White House everyone thinks he is crazy. What is he going to do?
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth …
On Sunday our pastor Rick spoke of dangerous aspects of the Lord’s Prayer. And he quoted our new father Scott Barber, who quoted Frodo when he said in Fellowship of the Rings, “The world is indeed full of peril … but still there is much that is fair.”
Then Rick hearkened farther back in the book (book one, chapter three) to Frodo’s memory of Bilbo’s words before his sudden departure. “It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
If today you hear his voice
Harden not your heart.
Jesus did mighty deeds, but no one cared beyond the day. He wrapped his robe around him and spoke the Woes.
Woe unto you on the day of judgment!
Will you go to heaven? NO! You will descend into hell.
I imagine myself in the crowd. I feel the breathless hot air all around me. We are spellbound.
What shall we do, Jesus? Is this anger of God that you are showing?
Jesus has plenty to say about what we should do. But right now, I think we better just keep our hands out of the fire. Jesus is alone right now. Maybe he misses his disciples.
I know, though that he’s right about one thing. We (OK, I should only speak for myself) … I forget yesterday’s mighty works and fail to see my sin today. My emotions are centered entirely on myself, and Jesus is sick and tired … GOD is sick and tired … of my forgetting to turn toward others. There’s just no getting around it. He won’t stand for this ethical laziness. It’s bad for everybody and everything.
(Isaiah 7, Psalm 48, Psalm 95, Matthew 11)
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