If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean.
"See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them." Isaiah 42:9
Eat right. Exercise. These are most everyone's New Year's resolutions. (Which most of us have already broken, by the way. Stupid butter cookies.)
But what if you lived where you were told what you could eat and not eat all the time. What you could do and not do. And how to do it, and when to do it. That's the Old Covenant in the Bible. It had to do more with taking care of ourselves than being holy. They could only eat certain things. They had to behave in certain ways. Rules and regulations governed everyday lives.
We all know we don't do a good job of taking care of ourselves. But the last thing we want is for someone to tell us how to do it!
God tried to tell the Jews how to live. And they rebelled. Time and time again. So, God decided to do something new. Something unexpected. God tried grace. Because God knew that we can't take care of ourselves -- no matter what our intentions are.
So God sent Jesus as the Suffering Servant. That's the imagery that the prophet Isaiah uses when talking about the Messiah.
There had been a lot of people who described themselves as "servant" in the Bible. Moses did. As did Joshua. David as well. Job was described as servant and even Nebuchadnezzar. The nation of Israel was often described as "servant." Many Biblical scholars say that Isaiah was actually talking about the nation of Israel when he wrote about the Suffering Servant. Which is good for Israel. Every nation wants to know that they are blessed by God. But for me, Isaiah was a prophet. And as such, he talked about a Suffering Servant who would come and change the world. That could only be Jesus.
But we still have the same problems the ancient Israelites did. We like to rebel.
The Israelites didn't like being told how to live their lives so they rebelled against God.
And today, we don't like having guilty consciences so we rebel against the forgiveness the Suffering Servant brought us.
So we continue to fight and argue with each other. Sometimes over politics. Sometimes over religion. Or the color of our skins or the places we live. But each time we fight we rebel against the love that Jesus brought.
I once saw a cartoon of two people standing opposite each other on a sidewalk. In between them was the number "6." One of the characters said in a mean voice, "6." The person opposite him said, "9." The caption said that just because we're both right, it doesn't mean that I'm wrong. When we argue with each other, we may both be right. But it doesn't necessarily mean that one of us is wrong. In today's world we've become a right and wrong society. It seems like our lives revolve around proving other people wrong. Isaiah says that God's teachings will not rest until the whole world hears about grace. Maybe instead of proving each other wrong we should start giving each other grace.
The best intentions in the world mean nothing if we continue to rebel against God's love.
Let us pray,
"Our Good and Gracious Lord. We've made all kinds of promises for the New Year. Most of which we've already forgotten. But we can be assured that You don't forget Your promises. You promised to do something new for the world and You kept that promise through Jesus. We pray today that the love of Christ will spring forth in our lives and in this world so that Your Kingdom will be complete. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
The blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you.
PASTOR TROY CONRAD IS MINISTER OF THE FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. EMAIL: [email protected]. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Religion on 01/18/2017