Dare We Take The Hand That's Offered?

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, 
and to give more than we either desire or deserve….       The Book of Common Prayer, p. 234.

The first line of Sunday’s Collect begins, “God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray,” and that’s got me thinking. 

God is always ready to hear us; always listening and available to us. 

Do we do our part to nurture that relationship – or do we relegate God to the shelf except during times of distress or on Sunday mornings?

God’s ongoing desire for us is for us to be in relationship. Rodin’s sculpture called “The Cathedral” (pictured) encapsulates this idea. God has offered the hand. Do we take it? Because to be drawn into what we call “life in Christ” is to take that offered hand and to allow its grip to take hold of our hearts and minds and spirits.

Dare we take hold of it?

Pouring Ourselves Out

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.                                                                                                                                                                      Philippians 2:5-7

I am struck by this passage from Philippians:  That Christ Jesus, being “in the form of God” came to us not as God, but in the form of a human – and in “the form of a slave.”  

What kind of an entrance is that?  Wouldn’t he have had better luck if he had arrived in a golden chariot?  But he didn’t. He came to us as a defenseless baby, and emptied himself; emptied all the godliness out of himself and took the form of a slave. 

Paul exhorts us to be of the same mind as Christ Jesus; to drop our quests for power and success and “stuff” and, instead, to move about in the world like Jesus did, as servants.  

I wonder what we’d look like if we allowed the same mind be in us as was in Christ Jesus?               

What does emptying ourselves entail?        

                How does it feel to pour oneself out?

And why, do you think, did Jesus do it?

     A chariot might have been easier.                                              

Murmurers

The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."   Exodus 16:2

Murmuring ---

Are we murmurers?  Grumblers? Complainers?

On Sunday, we will hear the story of the Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and toward the Promised Land. We will hear them complaining to Moses and Aaron about their plight.                                                                                                 

      “Oh, if only we had died in Egypt as slaves. At least there we had bread to eat.”  

Had they utterly forgotten the daily whippings? The ridiculous quotas of bricks Pharaoh demanded of them each day? Had they forgotten the armed chariots chasing after them as they entered the Red Sea?   Mankind, it seems, has a short memory.

“Oh, if we’d only died in Egypt.”  Seriously? 

What a bunch of complainers! Did they think they could not call out to God?              

Of course, it’s easy to criticize others, isn’t it?                                                            

So, that’s what I’m thinking about as we head into Sunday.

See you in church!

Liz+

Stop Counting

Peter came and said to Jesus,when a member of the church sins against me,  

how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?"

Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.     Matthew 18:21  

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Jesus isn't asking us to forgive our brothers 490 times, or 70 times, or 77 times.  He's telling us we should always forgive those who have sinned against us.  He's telling Peter to stop counting! Simply forgive and move on. Always! 

God has forgiven all of us for all of humanity's sins through Jesus’ crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension.                    

How stingy of us to hold onto grudges in human matters when God has so lavishly forgiven all of us.                           

Why would Jesus want us to so generously forgive those who have wronged us?And if forgiveness is an essential practice for us as Christian people, why is it so hard?

These are the things I am wondering about this week as I head toward Sunday.