Make Up Your Mind Already!

Matthew 11:16-24

Jesus’ frustration is obvious on a number of occasions in scripture. Our reading from the gospel today is one example. Jesus said, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Matthew 11:18-19). How slow we are to accept that which does not fit our own view of things! As I look at the church today, including my own denomination, I see conflict and confrontation on all sides. It is not enough to acknowledge “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…” (Ephesians 4:5-6). Even a cool form of civility would be better than the disdain we have for one another.

“What do you want?” Jesus wonders. “What more can God do to earn your faithful obedience? You said that John the Baptist was crazy, but then you say that I am promiscuous. Make up your minds! Which way is it going to be?”

When I read Jesus’ words I am convicted: I am more a part of the problem than the solution. I carry grudges, assign blame, make excuses, and find ways to avoid God’s call for unity. May God both forgive me and lead me to change. In the mean time I feel a strong sense of call in my ministry to hold myself and others accountable for the blessings we have received, for the responsibilities that we share, and for the unity that God—what’s a good word here?—demands. If you feel that there is far too much finger pointing and too little responsibility-taking, if you feel that it has become too popular to break covenant with one another instead of praying with and learning from each other, if you feel that Jesus’ lament has been too long ignored, then you and I, whoever you are, must acknowledge that we have something in common. Then we must listen seriously to Jesus’ words again and again and again until it all sinks in.

Faith really isn’t about what we want! It is about what God wants!

Prayer: Lord, forgive me when I fail you by failing your people. Help me learn to obey your will. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Who Would Wash a Sow?

2 Peter 2:17-22

Matthew 11:2-15

Our reading from 2 Peter today includes an odd proverb. “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud” (2 Peter 2:22), we read. My immediate thought was who the heck would bother to wash a sow? Surely that’s not standard operating procedure, any more than putting lipstick on a pit bull. But I guess it get a certain point across. There’s no reason to wash a sow precisely because it is just going to wallow in the mud again anyway. The writer of 2 Peter was warning readers against returning to the bad behavior of their earlier lives. Yet, what would you expect to see a sow do?

And what about the Messiah? John the Baptist seems to have needed some clarification from Jesus. Are you the one who is to come, or are we supposed to keep looking for someone else to show up? Jesus answered him saying, “Go tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:4-6). In other words, there is no sow washing going on here. What we have is the will of God being carried out. And while Jesus may not have met all of John’s expectations of the Messiah, he certainly was doing the things the Messiah should do.

Maybe I’m forcing the issue a bit (or a lot!), but it seems to me that we spend too much time in our lives scrubbing hogs, and not enough time watching for Jesus and the signs of God’s coming reign. Besides that, we are called to tend to the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, those needing good news, not to wander after tasks that accomplish little if anything. So I’ll go out on a limb here and say that worrying about the relative expense or size of Christmas presents is sow scrubbing. So is getting caught up in human definitions of success and accomplishment. To paraphrase Jesus, we should leave the sows to wash the sows, and instead should be about the work of God.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to do what is important and necessary according to your will and not to chase after the wild schemes and silly distractions that so often plague us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.