 |
 |
Devotions Archive
Archive:
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
Friendly fireFriday, February 19, 2010
Matthew 9:14-15
Jesus told them, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!"
Is that what Jesus meant by "later," for us to pull together, tighten up the circle, and sleep till spring? Maybe that isn't so necessary anymore. Maybe the bonfire is still burning? Is the fire friendly? Yesterday Scripture calls me to stand, to embrace, to receive suffering into myself. Fire that looks dangerous may not be. Fire that would burn me to death might result in Phoenix rising. Death then resurrection requires something like fire, doesn't it? Together we have watched death on battlefields since Vietnam. Television brings my eyes (and brain) near while the rest of my body sits a thousand thousand miles distant in my old brown Lazy-Boy. Those sweetly simple words, "friendly fire," have taken on nasty new significance as we name something rarely even acknowledged before. Since we see, we ask harder questions about who is right, who is wrong, what is my responsibility as a fellow human being? Answers are few, strangely incomplete and far from satisfying. No wonder I am so grateful for the simple songs of Christmas, when it seems OK to settle into peace like a river, and let it flow with us all in tow toward the baby Jesus. I think I want to live my life that way, and celebrate ... in February too. Is that the Kingdom come? Jesus brought his gift and left it with us always? This "celebration" of Lent breaks down barriers in me, and I know Jesus' presence. I close one "exit" or two, some minor idols given up for forty days, and Jesus offers me this wedding feast. What a good God He is. Turn again and again, I do, toward Him. Generous in love, oh God, give grace! Huge in mercy, oh Lord, wipe out my bad record. Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down. And you're the One I've violated; you've seen it all, the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life. --- Psalm 51, The Message |
Suddenly this sounds like Christmas to me. Joy to the World, the Lord has come, let heaven and nature sing. But this is February, cold and raw. Let heaven and nature sleep, and wait for spring. Then we will sing again.