Friday, July 7, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Now, now, be born again
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And Matthew got up and followed him.
In that moment Matthew died. In that moment Matthew was reborn.
Matthew’s life underwent the difficult baptism of God’s faith, hope and love. In this struggle, just how did he die? My friend Sheryl shared wisdom from James Finley’s book Palace of Nowhere about this with me yesterday:
God’s faith comes in the death inside me of “understanding”
God’s hope comes in the death inside me of “past achievements”
God’s love comes in the death inside me of “my own self love”
And these deaths are most necessary within the citadel, where we seem safe from poverty, threats, and ignominy. Our humbling is the most important task before us. We too are those who labor and are heavy-laden.
In this way all of us are poor, and the Lord hears the cry of the poor. Hear my cry, O Lord! Within my fortress I am weak and dying. Let me open the gates, walk out, and throw myself before you.
What do you want me to do for you?
Jesus asks with a pure heart. He really wants to know.
Let me die, and live again.
Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the Lord blessed him in every way.
Abraham went through many deaths, and always the Lord pulled him back from the brink. Abraham waited on God’s promises, and they were fulfilled. In his ripe old age he understood how thoroughly he had been reborn. O death, where is your sting!
Here’s a short poem from Steve Garnaas-Holmes. It’s got a little Rumi to it:
God reaches into the dark
and through the chaos pulls out light.
God reaches into the pit
and through the walls of fate pulls out Joseph.
God reaches into the slave colonies of Egypt
and through the sea pulls out a people.
God reaches into the dank despair of the tomb
and through the pain and loss pulls out Jesus.
God reaches into the soil…
into the broken heart…
into the wound…
Like a magician God draws out
what we didn’t know could possibly be there,
through the struggle draws out new life.
This tugging at you, this pull you feel—
listen to the midwife’s gentle voice.
What if I could be born again out of my mother’s womb? What if you could? Would I like to life my life again? I hardly think so, once is enough I think. But …
This tugging at you, this pull you feel—
listen to the midwife’s gentle voice.
For this … tugging? From what fears I have, I turn away. God’s invitation is into the Patient Kingdom, the Peaceable Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven. Always just beneath the surface is God-skin, and God’s heart beats inside the skin, and he is beckoning for us to come, to come, to come. There is nothing for it but to say, “YES!”
(Genesis 23, Psalm 106, Matthew 11, Matthew 9)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
