Category Archives: Biblical Reflection

The Luck of the Draw

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Daily Readings: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Isaiah 4:2-6; Acts 1:12-17, 21-26

They nominated two: Joseph Barsabbas, nicknamed Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed, “You, O God, know every one of us inside and out. Make plain which of these two men you choose to take the place in this ministry and leadership that Judas threw away in order to go his own way.” They then drew straws. Matthias won and was counted in with the eleven apostles.

Acts 1:23-26, The Message

They got it down to two, then they drew straws to decide who would be the apostle to replace Judas. Shouldn’t there have been another round of interviews, perhaps some quiet time to reflect on this rather important decision? Why leave something so important up to chance?

For many years, I thought it was because they didn’t want to be responsible for making the final decision – better for Justus and Matthias to see it as the luck of the draw rather than a judgement on their abilities and souls.

As I’ve gotten older, I think it might have been something different. Matthias and Justus were both deemed capable and worthy. Had the draw gone to Justus, the path would have been different – not better or worse, just different.

Aren’t there times when we face that same thing – a fork in the road with both directions looking equal in worth? Perhaps, at that point, we should just flip a coin and fully embrace the outcome…and trust that the Spirit will bless the road we take.

Freed

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Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Isaiah 54:1-10; Matthew 24:23-35

If God hadn’t been for us – all together, now, Israel, sing out! –

If God hadn’t been for us when everyone else went against us, we would have been swallowed alive by their violent anger, swept away by the flood of rage, drowned in the torrent;

We would have lost our lives in the wild, raging water.

Oh, blessed be God! He didn’t go off and leave us. He didn’t abandon us defenseless, helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs.

We’ve flown free from their fangs, free of their traps, free as a bird. Their grip is broken; we’re free as a bird in flight.

God’s strong name is our help, the same God who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124, The Message

Breaking Free by Riley Anderson

Have you ever felt this: pinned down, unable to move or free yourself? It’s awful to be tangled in a snare, unable to escape into safety.

Have you ever experienced this: someone freeing you so that you can fly again? It’s miraculous when freedom comes instead of pain and death.

Freeing the captives of their snares so that they can take flight. It’s as good an explanation of why God chose to enter human life as any I can think of…

Image by Riley Anderson, in whom God delights (reposted from 2016).

Responsible

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Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 9:1-17; Hebrews 11:32-40

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Genesis 9:1-2, NRSV

God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature – birds, animals, fish – will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. Genesis 9:1-3a, The Message

The living things we claim also claim us. We are responsible for the animals in our lives. When we bring home that new puppy or kitten, when we buy the tank and the goldfish, we take on the responsibility to feed them, keep them healthy, and offer them our love and attention. Because they depend on us, we must be dependable. It takes time and resources, and a lot of affection, to be responsible.

Franklin

The same holds true for the animals who feed and clothe us. We are responsible for providing them with good lives, with adequate food, shelter, and space to live well before they end up on our tables. This, too, costs – either a price tag at the grocery store or the effort and resources to raise them ourselves.

The animals that nourish us – emotionally or physically – are connected to who we are in a spiritual sense (As are the plants and other humans). We are part of a great, sacred whole. When we act responsibly, we bless creation. When we do not, we harm not only the animals we treat poorly: we harm creation and our own lives. Let’s not do that.

Ebbtide

But God Remembered…

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Daily Readings: Psalm 124; Genesis 8:1-19; Romans 6:1-11

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:1-3a, NRSV

But God Remembered…

That word but confronts all those times we feel forgotten and forsaken, all those times our spirits are low and our hope is all but gone. There are those times in life when it is hard to gather the energy we need to keep on going, all but impossible to endure the tribulations that confront us. It is then that the word but is important. It means despite what we have endured, regardless of how we feel, there is another possibility for us.

But God remembered…

That possibility rests in the remembering of God. God remembers the care with which our world and everything in it—all creation—were formed. God remembers that it was good. And God remembers us. That is good, too. What makes it even better is that God’s remembering isn’t just about the past. It also leads to the future—and a promise. God’s promise was a promise to care. That caring came in a pledge that As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).

It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent reflecting on Genesis. But there is a thread that ties the two together, a thread that runs through the entire Bible. Advent is a time for us to remember—to remember that God remembered and still does. God remembered Noah; God remembered people in need of a savior; God remembers us and our need for a savior. Advent is a time for us to remember God’s remembering. It is only when we do so that we can prepare ourselves to fully receive that great gift of Christ.

Remember.

Offered by Jeff Jones, in whom God delights.

Fill or Fulfill?

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Daily Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

But make sure you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Romans 13:11-14, The Message

[The Message, Translation by Eugene H. Peterson, NavPress, 1993]

What am I doing with the days (weeks, months, years, decades) I’ve been given? Do I waste time on imaginary arguments and petty grudges? Do I forget to look into the eyes of the people I love most in this world, mumbling hello or goodbye as if I have an endless supply of comings and goings? Am I sleepwalking through life, unaware and uninterested in the sacred something more on offer every minute of every day?

My yearly wake-up call begins today: Advent. The time to get up, get dressed, and set out on the road to Bethlehem is now. Not tomorrow, not when it’s more convenient. NOW.

Am I going to settle for filling up my time, or do I want to live into the fulfillment of God’s love? Fill or fulfill?

Lord, give me enough sense and enough courage to step onto your sacred path and keep walking. Amen.

A Proverb to End On…

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Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the Lord,” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God. Proverbs 30:7-9, NRSV

It’s so tempting to embellish, fail to correct a false assumption, or misrepresent myself. It’s not often over something important, just a few little adjustments here and there to the real and the true. Is this life I’ve been given not enough? Of course it’s enough. Then why the temptation to lie?

Am I wise enough to ask God for a life that brings my daily bread – enough resources to sustain and nourish but not enough to waste? Maybe, maybe not.

Years ago, I found this in a bookstore in Newburyport. It’s been hanging in my kitchen ever since. I suspect the proverbial request is a plea to God to be on the good side of this sentiment…

Like a Hair in the Throat

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Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies; for like a hair in the throat, so are they. “Eat and drink!” they say to you; but they do not mean it. You will vomit up the little you have eaten, and you will waste your pleasant words. Proverbs 23:6-8, NRSV

A host’s generosity is a gift of time and effort as much as it is the cost of the groceries. Soup and bread on a cold November evening; Mac and cheese with a simple salad brought over by a neighbor during convalescence; coffee and warm muffins put out for an early morning meeting. It’s not the price at the register, but the thoughtfulness that makes such things nourishing for body and soul. It’s a pleasure to eat these meals.

A host’s lack of generosity makes even favorite foods hard to choke down. The feeling that the cost of every mouthful has been calculated and weighed against the value of the guest (and that the guest just isn’t worth the meal) does the opposite of nourish.

We know hospitality when we receive it, whatever is on the plate. It is life-giving. We also know stinginess when it’s offered – it turns whatever is on the plate rancid.

Time and Money

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Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist. When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for it suddenly takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle toward heaven. Proverbs 23:4-5, NRSV

Churches and libraries pay enough for a good life, but not a fancy or frivolous one. The two bedroom Cape we purchased when our children were young is the house we still own; we’ve had Toyotas, Subarus, Mazdas, VWs, and Smart cars over the years – the smaller ones with good gas mileage. Since I never wanted a big house or a luxury car, I don’t consider it a sacrifice of life quality to do without them.

Time, on the other hand, is precious to me. The luxury of not needing a full time/beyond full time job to pay the bills meant more time to spend with those I love, doing meaningful work that didn’t come with a paycheck or title, and the slower life pace helped me enjoy the years rather than just get through them.

Time does take wing, flying away never to return. Spending it well means having less in my wallet to spend. Money and material things – I can’t take them with me. The memories and life time brought – who knows if I can take them with me when I die. But that’s not the point. Leaving them behind for others is.

What Loss?

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Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss. Proverbs 22:16

It happens in every time and place, this making the rich even richer at the expense of those who can least afford it. It’s happening right here and right now, in our time and place. The rich get richer while the poor stay poor. This refusal of generosity, of the bare minimum required to live a good life, is what spurs revolution. Sadly, most revolutions only change the roles – people on top end up on the bottom, and a few end up in their place. The system stays the same.

So what is this loss, what do the oppressors lose? Financially, not much. Social position, not necessarily. On the individual level, at least on the surface, no loss. And the surface is usually the only level we give more than a glance.

But look again. On the communal level, robbing those who can least afford it to give more to the ones who don’t need it (and may not even notice it) drains away the very life of all involved. Such unfairness fractures the bonds that connect individuals to each other, the bonds that create community. It’s loss, sometimes unto societal death.

There’s also a spiritual cost. Harming the defenseless for personal gain leaves its mark, invisible to the eye but there in the heart and soul. It surfaces in the sleepless nights spent worrying that what was taken from another will be taken by another. It’s never being able to trust another’s word – because what goes around comes around. More than anything else, the loss is in the sure knowledge that no amount of money can buy a minute of time. A life was wasted robbing others for gain when it could have been spent seeking beauty, love, and holiness.

Keeping Out of Trouble

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To watch over mouth and tongue is to keep out of trouble. Proverbs 21:23, NRSV

I can’t say I noticed it until now how often it comes up in Proverbs – this ongoing admonition to watch what I say. All these warnings to watch what I say point to a very big truth: the words I choose and the tone of voice I use matter because I can’t take them back once I’ve released them into the world. I can apologize for harsh words hastily spoken, but I can’t unsay them. What I say holds something true about who I am and how I feel about another person – at least in a particular moment in time.

I keep myself out of trouble when I watch my mouth, but I’m not the only one. By refusing to strike out at others verbally, I save them a troubling of spirit – not a physical cut or bruise, but a blow just the same. Minding my words is also following a wise and ancient commandment: first, do no harm.