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Are you free? I'm freeTuesday, March 14, 2017
From Matthew 23 Everyone ignored him. He apologized. His friends forgave him. By the next week all was well. Lesson learned: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Jesus and his disciples slept on the ground and only ate what they were given. Even the foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The scribes and Pharisees did not exactly open their homes to him. Matthew 23 records Jesus' most angry words about those leaders of the Jews: "They preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen." And then Jesus cries out in a litany of accusation, "O scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! ... Blind guides, fools, whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth, brood of vipers ... o Jerusalem, Jerusalem! ... Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." My desire to serve, so pure in youth, gradually fades away into the cheapness of power and entitlement. Jesus' words arrest my thoughtless forward motion. It would be good, I think, to sleep out on the ground with him and feel the fire on my face. Some of us naturally sidle to the end of the line, and others rush for the front. What matters more is that we know ourselves, what we'll do without thinking, and then ... think. Pray. Review and repent and ask God for forgiveness. And I mean ASK, not expect. God's love, unconditional as it is, is a gift given, not something I can ever take for granted. Lord, we can be together, and end the day, and sleep. And I imagine the joy of waking up beside the fire, nothing now but embers, realizing that you are praying on the rock just outside the camp. Another day ahead, what will happen next? I want to be with you every moment, Jesus. Getting filled and pouring out. |
I remember an episode of the BBC comedy "Are You Being Served?" The oldest of the plebes, Mr. Grainger, became King for a Month when the boss went on vacation. Suddenly he was smoking long cigars and looking down his nose at his former peers. But when Mr. Rumbold's hotel flooded and he returned early, Mr. Grainger fell quickly from his exalted position.