Wednesday, April 17, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Even the Samaritans
Come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
To whom does this Psalm 66 belong? I hear the words being sung by faithful Jews, and then I hear it sung by renegade Christ-followers. If we were all to join voices the choir’s song would throb through the trees, rise up above the wind, and bring joy to all who hear.
But how are we supposed to do that, with all the fighting and fear?
Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name!
I guess you could say this isn’t an option. All of us wait for each other to invite them to sing. I have been fingering Christ-ians for days now, and hearing their protests when they’re hauled away. I haven’t sung a song in weeks. Inside me, hate is winning.
And yet there are more Christians rather than less. Three thousand, four thousand, five thousand. No one really knows.
He has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot; therefore let us rejoice in him. He rules by his might forever.
I have been taught that God’s in charge, and my duty is to follow his law. It’s simple, until it’s not. Far be it from me to listen to the words of Jesus, but I can’t help but hear them echoing inside the wretched quarters of the people I’m arresting and turning over to the scribes and elders.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But although you have seen me, you do not believe.”
Not only does Jesus offer food and drink that do not spoil, but he also offers official protection. Protection from whom: from me? From the leaders of the Jews? Jesus says this protection keeps me safe with God, and he promises to provide it to anyone.
I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me: that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.
I am caught every day thinking about the negative side of things. Why should I say I need protection from God? If anything, I need protection from myself! But it is true, I struggle being loved, I struggle even believing that God is a lover. He is transcendent, but how can he be close to me at the same time, to love me while he reigns over his entire creation?
This is the will of my Father, Jesus says, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.
Hearing things like this ties me up in knots. Of course it can’t be true. I must do all I can to silence those who preach this way. I must, I must!
A severe persecution broke out within the church in Jerusalem. Stephen was buried and mourned. Saul, meanwhile was trying to destroy the church, dragging men and women from their house and handing them over for imprisonment.
True. But every time I fall into this kind of thuggery, I am devastated inside, whether or not I ever show it. I haven’t eaten any meat in days. I can barely get down a few olives and some fruit. I feel no triumph, only emptiness, when I look into the eyes of those men and women singing songs together from the psalms, with joy in their hearts that they are certain has come from their savior, their Jesus, their hero, the Son, so he says, of God.
There is only one God. There is no Son of God, except as that applies to all of us. And that’s all there is to it. I hope I can eat a little tonight. Get some sleep. And survive my awful dreams. I dreamt I have a ring in my nose, and I’m being led naked through a market square by a very strong man on the end of a thick rope, who keep hustling me along. No one else is noticing me at all. They don’t even know my name.
Unclean spirits crying loudly came out of many possessed people. There was great joy in that city, the city of Samaria.
(Isaiah 7, Psalm 40, Hebrews 10, John 1, Luke 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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