Passion Week

There is a moment in the St. John Passion by Bach when, after Christ has been arrested and Peter has denied three times that he even knows Christ, the Evangelist (narrator) says that Peter went out and wept bitterly. This is sung in a hauntingly beautiful tenor voice, with a long, slow melody on the German word for "wept".

Who does not know the same kind of wretched despair that Peter felt at that time? We do things wrong. We fail again and again. We resolve to do better, and yet we find ourselves repeating our mistakes. Well we know what this music expresses. If not literally, then figuratively, we weep and weep and weep. We are trapped in our human failings. Even Peter, who has just been with the living Christ, repudiates him. How can we ever do better?

Miserable sinners that we are, who can rescue us from this body of death, from this pattern of repeated failure?

But there is one who can. It is for this that God became man in Jesus, came to earth, and took upon himself the punishment for all our failings, endured the denials, the mocking, the pain, the weight of all of everyone's sin. Who can rescue us from this body of death? Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! May we never take this lightly!

(Romans 7:24-25a)

(from my other blog)

Guidance

Readings:
I Chronicles 20
Acts 12:1-17

Focus:
Acts 12:10b:"They came out and had walked the length of one street when suddenly the angel left him."

Peter has been in jail because Herod, the king, has begun persecuting members of the new church. The populace doesn't object, so the authorities feel bold enough to make this move. But God helps Peter escape through miraculous means.

Yet Peter's angel guide does not stay with him all the time after the escape. In fact, the angel only goes a little way, and then abruptly disappears, leaving Peter on his own to figure out what to do next.

God didn't suddenly give up on Peter. Rather, God gave him the help he needed, and then left him to deal with the situation with the gifts that he was already prepared with: his intelligence, his knowledge, and his experience, among other things.

This is the way that God may help us, too. Perhaps he will nudge us towards some sort of solution, but he won't do it all for us. He will leave a lot of the "working it out" to us. It makes life an interesting mystery to see how God helps us and what he expects us to do!

How Can We Stand in God's Way?

Readings:
I Chronicles 19
Acts 11

Focus:
Acts 11:17b:"How could I stand in God's way?"

Peter told the other disciples that he had clearly seen that God wanted to have a saving relationship with the Gentiles (the non-Jews) just as much as he wanted to have a saving relationship with the Jews. This was outside of Peter's initial comfort zone. It wasn't what he had learned about how God was to be worshipped. But God showed him that the old ritual law was no longer operative; after Jesus, only the moral law remained constant. Even if Peter and the other disciples weren't comfortable with that at first, how could they stand in God's way?

This can happen to us, too. Maybe in order to reach out to people we have to endure different types of activities or music while spending time with them than we would really prefer. Or we may end up moving somewhere we hadn't at first thought we would like, in order to take a job that we feel God wants for us. These things may not be what we thought we had in mind, but in each case, we may see that it is clearly God's will for us to do those things. How can we stand in God's way?

Like Peter and the other disciples, we will find that once we let God have his way, we will benefit from it too. It will turn out that there will be surprises of blessings that we never could have foreseen.

It Is Not for You to Call Profane What God Counts Clean

Readings:
I Chronicles 18
Acts 10

Focus:
Acts 10:15b:"It is not for you to call profane what God counts clean."

For those of us who are not Jewish, this is one of the greatest passages in the Bible. This is because it is here that Peter and the other apostles truly first understand that the good news of Jesus is not only for Jewish people. Here Peter begins to see that God loves all people in the world, no matter what their race.

God prepared Peter for this by showing him a vision, a symbol of how he was now telling Peter to ignore the former ritual law of what was clean and what was unclean, and instead only obey the moral law. (This reminds me of something I referred to a little while ago, of how God showed me how intimately he cared for me just before I got my cancer diagnosis. God may use this technique regularly; he prepares people by showing them something ahead of time!)

Because Peter was ready, he was able to accept the conversion of Gentiles (non-Jews) and baptize them as Christians. This was exciting! From this came the possibility that people like me could become Christians. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't now have the greatest hope and security and peace that a person could know, because I have put my faith in Jesus Christ. I hope this is something that everyone who reads this has.

Suited for the Job

Readings:
I Chronicles 15
Acts 9:1-9

Focus:
Acts 9:1-2:"Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, went to the high priest and applied for letters to the synagogues at Damascus authorizing him to arrest any followers of the new way whom he found, men or women, and bring them to Jerusalem."

It's interesting to me that throughout the Bible, people's personalities remain the same. It's another detail that proves the reality of what we read. These weren't just invented characters; these were real people. Peter, for example, was always ready to throw himself whole-heartedly into things: when he saw Jesus walking on the water, that made him want to do it, too; when he understood why Jesus wanted to wash the disciples' feet, he asked Jesus to wash not just his feet but his whole body; when he was on a boat and he saw Jesus on the shore, he jumped out of the boat and plunged to shore.

Saul (Paul) also shows a consistent personality. What he believes, he believes firmly, and he is so convinced that he wants to go not only to people where he lives, but also to people in other towns, and carry his message there as well. So, before he was a Christian, he was so committed that he got permission to go hunt out the Christians there so that he could destroy this belief that he found to be wrong.

Of course, as we see, God had other plans for Saul: he had chosen him to be his apostle to the Gentiles. And this is another thing that I love about seeing Saul's personality. God picked a person with a perfect personality for the job he had in mind. Saul was a person driven to carry his message far and near. That's exactly the kind of person God wanted, because he wanted his message carried to lands far and near. God didn't pick any person and then mold him into the kind of person he needed. God picked the kind of person he needed and converted him--molded him into the kind of believer he wanted.

God does this with us, too. When he has a job for us to do, he doesn't pick out a job we'll hate. He picks out jobs for us that are things that we are already suited for. Or rather, I should say, he has jobs that need to be done, and he picks us to do them because we are the kinds of people who are suited for those jobs. Or probably even more likely, God planned us and the jobs for each other. And so we will not have to grit our teeth and take on some task that we hate for God. In order to serve God, we will find that we will end up doing something that is just up our alley, like Saul did after he became Paul.

We Must Obey God Rather than Men

Readings:
I Chronicles 8
Acts 5:11-32

Focus:
Acts 5:29:"Peter replied for the apostles: 'We must obey God rather than men.'"

Just a few days ago we read that Peter and John had been cautioned by the authorities not to teach in the name of Jesus, and they had replied that it would not be right for them to obey men rather than God. So they continued to teach about Jesus, and the community of believers grew. The power of the Holy Spirit among them was so strong that many people were healed from various sicknesses.

The reputation of the Christians and the power of the Holy Spirit became so well known that it eventually became too much for the authorities, and they had the apostles arrested again. But when the apostles were miraculously freed through God's power, they continued to teach out in the open in the temple. They did not hide in fear. So it was easy for the authorities to lay their hands on them again.

The authorities then said, basically, "What on earth is this? We told you not to teach in this man's name, but you're just doing it all the more, plus you're blaming us for killing him!" But Peter and the other apostles, although they had reason to fear, because they had just been shown that the authorities meant what they said about trying to stop them, had equally just been shown, by their miraculous freeing from prison, that God was going to be with them no matter what. So they were able to again boldly proclaim, "We must obey God rather than men."

This is the confidence that we can gain the longer we build our relationship with God, and the deeper we make it. It was something I found out when I had cancer. We know God will be with us. So we too can boldly proclaim, "We must obey God rather than people."

Is It Right in the Eyes of God for Us to Obey You Rather than Him?

Readings:
I Chronicles 5
Acts 4:13-31

Focus:
Acts 4:19a:"But Peter and John replied: 'Is it right in the eyes of God for us to obey you rather than him?'"

After Peter and John had brought about the healing of a man over 40 years old who had been unable to walk since birth, they were arrested and put in prison overnight. The authorities did not like it that this healing had been done in the name of Jesus, but did not feel they had the power to punish Peter and John, since the people were favorably impressed by the healing. So they just told Peter and John not to speak in the name of Jesus again.

Peter and John were not intimidated. Their loyalty was to a greater power. They said, basically, "Do you think God would like it if we ignored him in order to do what you say? Would he approve of what we were doing if we behaved that way?"

That kind of choice is before us all the time. People or circumstances ask us to behave in ways different from what God asks of us. But is it right in the eyes of God for us to obey the world, society, our friends, our family, rather than him? Would God like it if we ignored him in order to do what our friends, our family, our culture says we should do? If we really believe that God is real, we must consider this. If God is more to us than a nice idea, then is it right in the eyes of God for us to obey anyone rather than him?

Why Be Surprised?

Readings:
I Chronicles 2
Acts 3:1-16

Focus:
Acts 3:12a:"Peter saw them coming, and met them with these words: 'Men of Israel, why be surprised at this?'"

A man who has been crippled from birth has been begging next to a well-known gate for years. He himself is well known because of this prominent position by the gate. When Peter and John come by and he draws their attention, instead of giving him a gift of money, they heal him so that he can walk.

Naturally the crowd becomes aware of this healing and comes running up astounded, but Peter greets them with the words that they are not to be surprised. It is nothing less than what God can do.

We are so often like that crowd. We expect too little of God. Miraculous healings are not commonly seen now, and possibly were used more by God at the time that Jesus is on earth. But God is capable of doing anything that he wants to do. He is, after all, God. We should not be surprised when God does something unexpected, answers a prayer in a seemingly impossible way, or changes circumstances in a way that we might have thought impossible. God can do whatever he wants. Why be surprised?

Redo

Readings:
II Kings 21
John 21:15-19

Focus:
John 21:17a:"A third time he said, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?'"

In this famous passage, John recounts how Jesus gives Peter (Simon Peter) a chance to start over. Earlier, before the crucifixion, as Christ had predicted, Peter had denied three times that he knew Jesus. When he realized that he had done this, he had been miserably disappointed in himself, and had gone out and wept bitterly. After doing such a thing, he must have felt that Jesus could never trust him again.

But when he sees Jesus several days after the Resurrection (having plunged enthusiastically through the water to greet him), when the two of them have a moment to themselves, Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do you love me?" By the time Jesus asks him a third time, Peter feels hurt; why would Jesus ask him three times? Wasn't once good enough? It must not have been until later that it dawned on Peter that Jesus had given him three chances to undo Peter's three denials. And Peter did; he affirmed three times that he loved Jesus.

This is the kind of Savior, the kind of God, that we have. Even after we have done the worst that we can do, he is willing to give us a chance to undo that, to erase our past misdeeds and start over again. All we have to do is turn to him, be sorry, and ask for help making a new start. It's an awfully good deal.

Throw the Net This Way

Readings:
II Kings 20
John 21:1-14

Focus:
John 21:6:"He said, 'Throw out the net to starboard, and you will make a catch.' They did so, and found they could not haul the net on board, there were so many fish in it."

There are so many things to think about in this passage and the following verses, sometimes it's hard to know what to concentrate on. For example, I love the image of Peter just throwing himself into the lake in order to get to Jesus as fast as he can. That's how Peter always was--he plunged in wholeheartedly.

What strikes me about this passage at the moment, however, is how the disciples had been fishing all night, and had caught nothing, after all their hard work. What they had done on their own had been fruitless.

But when they follow the directions of Jesus for what they are to do, everything is different. Suddenly the results of their work are incredible and overflowing! Giving Jesus control makes an amazing difference.

It may not always be so obvious and overwhelming in our lives. But when we let Jesus be in charge of what we do, the results, whether long-term or short-term, will always be better, more satisfying, and more fruitful, than anything we could achieve on our own.

Confessing Christ

Readings:
II Kings 13
John 18:1-27

Focus:
John 18:27:"Once again Peter denied it; and at that moment a cock crowed."

I often wonder what I would do if I were in a situation of danger, and safety depended on my denying that I was a Christian. What I really hope is that I would be true to God. But I fear that I would be a coward. After all, when it came to the crunch, Peter himself denied that he knew Jesus.

But later Peter went on to do bold things for Christ, defying authorities and receiving punishments. That is the kind of example I hope to emulate. It is my frequent prayer that I would remain strong.

P. S. It is interesting to be reading about Jesus' death and resurrection at Christmastime, but that is where my daily readings have taken me. Perhaps God will have something to teach us through this juxtaposition.