Luke 13:31-35
The gospel reading for today shows Jesus in a moment of great candor. Using the city of Jerusalem as a metaphor for the people of God, Jesus laments their failure to accept what God is doing in their midst. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34).
I think singer/songwriter Paul Simon has done a masterful job of capturing Jesus’ obvious emotion with the song “Silent Eyes.”
Silent Eyes
Watching
Jerusalem
Make her bed of stones
Silent Eyes
No one will comfort her
Jerusalem
Weeps alone
Ultimately, however, the responsibility to recognize and accept Jesus for who he is rests on all of us, a message that Simon seems to convey in the final stanza of the song.
Silent Eyes
Burning
In the desert sun
Halfway to Jerusalem
And we shall all be called as witnesses
Each and every one
To stand before the eyes of God
And speak what was done
Jesus wanted so desperately to comfort and to care for the people, yet he knew and accepted the role he was called to play. What about us? We should hear and share the good news of the gospel. We should gladly welcome Jesus as Lord and Savior. We should live as though the gospel really means something to us, really makes a difference. The tragedy is that all too often we are unwilling to take up our crosses and to follow Jesus. In this way we have become citizens of Jerusalem and witnesses of what has been done. The good news is that Jesus continues to challenge us to hear and to see. Now, how will we respond?
Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to your grace that we may share the good news with others even as we reorder our lives to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Showing posts with label Paul Simon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Simon. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Monday, May 9, 2011
Not Just a Theory Anymore
Luke 4:14-30
As Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth he made an audacious claim. According to Luke, Jesus read from the book of Isaiah promises of good news to the poor, of freedom for the captives and those oppressed, of healing for the blind, of the year of God’s favor. And when he had sat down Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus was not inviting his listeners to join in the effort to bring the prophet’s words to reality, nor was he promising to do it himself. Jesus’ claim was that in that time and place the words of the prophet had come to fruition. They had moved from theory to practice, from possibility to fact. This is why these verses from Luke are sometimes called the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.
I look around the world today and I see plenty of poor people, all sorts of captives and entire nations being oppressed. I know many people who long for healing but seem to find none. Is this really what God’s favor is all about? Has anything really changed? And then I remember the man, who spoke in the synagogue that day, and I think about what he was willing to do on behalf of God’s people, and I realize that in this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, God was in fact bringing the divine reign into our midst, not as a hope or a wish, but as a rock-solid reality. Despite all the evil in the world, despite the hardship and the oppression, God’s grace continues to flow, sometimes in ripples of kindness, and sometimes in profusions of generosity. For every act of anger or hatred there is still someone willing to step forward and to say, “I believe in the reign of God, that it is fact, that it is now.” And every time a person of faith makes this audacious claim the power of evil is reduced.
This is not a theory. This is not a promise. This is fact. We are living through what Paul Simon called “an age of miracle and wonder” because we are witnesses to the dawn of God’s reign as it creeps across the sky touching all of creation with its radiance and lighting the path forward. Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Lord, may the light of your new day light the path we tread that we may walk in your way all our lives. Amen.
As Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth he made an audacious claim. According to Luke, Jesus read from the book of Isaiah promises of good news to the poor, of freedom for the captives and those oppressed, of healing for the blind, of the year of God’s favor. And when he had sat down Jesus said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus was not inviting his listeners to join in the effort to bring the prophet’s words to reality, nor was he promising to do it himself. Jesus’ claim was that in that time and place the words of the prophet had come to fruition. They had moved from theory to practice, from possibility to fact. This is why these verses from Luke are sometimes called the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.
I look around the world today and I see plenty of poor people, all sorts of captives and entire nations being oppressed. I know many people who long for healing but seem to find none. Is this really what God’s favor is all about? Has anything really changed? And then I remember the man, who spoke in the synagogue that day, and I think about what he was willing to do on behalf of God’s people, and I realize that in this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, God was in fact bringing the divine reign into our midst, not as a hope or a wish, but as a rock-solid reality. Despite all the evil in the world, despite the hardship and the oppression, God’s grace continues to flow, sometimes in ripples of kindness, and sometimes in profusions of generosity. For every act of anger or hatred there is still someone willing to step forward and to say, “I believe in the reign of God, that it is fact, that it is now.” And every time a person of faith makes this audacious claim the power of evil is reduced.
This is not a theory. This is not a promise. This is fact. We are living through what Paul Simon called “an age of miracle and wonder” because we are witnesses to the dawn of God’s reign as it creeps across the sky touching all of creation with its radiance and lighting the path forward. Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Lord, may the light of your new day light the path we tread that we may walk in your way all our lives. Amen.
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