Weekly Reflection - 12 February 2012

-
2 Kings 5:1–14

This is a very familiar story. We've heard it all before. But, is there anything that stood our? Anything that surprised you?

God uses "common" people
There are a couple of things that stand out to me. First, God did not go through the "leadership" to get this done. This is a pattern we see over and over both in Scripture and history. And for some reason we still don't get it. We still think that God must work through those in charge to get things accomplished. But, as we can see in this lesson, a lot of times, those in charge may actually hinder what God wants to do. God worked through the servants to guide others to reconciliation. Each servant spoke God's word to their "masters" or for their "masters." And, on more than one occasion, those in power didn't see the working of God - first the king of Israel and then Naaman himself.

Participatory reconciliation
Second, there is participatory reconciliation. That is, God uses the same means to heal the issue as to what caused the issue. Ecological issues, familial concerns, economic problems, etc., usually are not fixed by some great instant miracle. The healing and forgiving and reconciliation takes time. And, God does all of this through people.

We hear this in the stories Jesus tells about the Realm (or Kingdom) of God. Each story - the yeast in the dough, the mustard seed, etc. - show that God's part has been done (the coming of Christ) and now it takes work to make that seed grow or that yeast to spread. It takes people working the land, pruning the tree, watering the plant, protecting is against the extreme elements for it to grow and mature. It takes people kneeding the dough, adding the other ingrediants, preparing the oven, watching the bread so it doesn't burn. All of this is done through the participation of people. God doesn't just snap God's fingers or wiggles God's nose to fix things. God works through people, most of the time, through ordinary "lowly" people, to bring about the reconciliation of all life.

Questions
  • What relationships need to be healed, individually, as a community of faith, in our neighborhoods, in our nations?
  • Do we put too much emphasis on those in power to "fix" these issues - to "heal" these hurts?
  • How is God leading us to be the healing agents in bringing in God's Realm?
  • How can we be involved in the reconciliation of all things?
  • Do we even believe that this is our responsibility; our calling; our vocation?


Valentine's Day
Valentine's day is on Tuesday. It's usually a time of cards, flowers, candy, and perhaps even jewelry. But the story of St Valentine is more about a Christian person standing up against those in power even to the point of torture and death. He lived Christ's command to "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15.12; CEB). The story says that he helped all who came to him, whether Christian or not. He saw no difference. He simply loved as Christ loved. He didn't wait for someone else to do it. He didn't look to the leaders of the church for permission. He just did it; he helped everyone. And he did this during a time when it was unlawful to do so. His love for Christ compelled him to love all people; to help all people. Can we do the same? Can we dare to love Christ with our actions and help everyone - even those who don't agree with us? Even those who aren't followers of Christ? Can we stand up to the powers that be - whether government or church - and bring God's Realm to the hurting places in our world?




~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,

Br Jack+, LC

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linux Mint 5

-
Image
It's been a while since I did a technological (read: geek) blog, so I thought I would update you on what's going on. As you are aware, I am a full-fledged geek by trade and passion and I have gone from Windows to Mac to Linux.  My Linux evolution went from Linspire to Mepis to PCLinuxOS to Ubuntu .  I stayed with PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu for the longest.  However, I have always read good things about another distribution called Linux Mint .  It's based on the latest Ubuntu release but with a lot of add-ons.  The latest version is called Linux Mint 5, Elyssa.  So, at the office, I downloaded the latest iso and tried it out to see how it all worked. First of all, there are always some things I keep in mind when trying any new Linux distro, the primary thing being, 'How would the average user feel about using this OS?'  'Is it (very) simple to install?  Is it easy to use?  Is it easy to get help?  Is it easy to add or remove applications?  Is the terminal (command ...
Read more

The OS Problem

-
I recently purchased a new laptop.  It's a Gateway M-6843 .  It's wonderful!  The very first thing I did, of course, was install Ubuntu 8.04.1 .  I plugged in the laptop and booted from the Ubuntu CD and clicked the install icon.  After about a week, I saw this blog detailing how this person got a refund from HP because he didn't want to use Windows Vista.  So, I started the process with Gateway.  It's been about a week and it's going to be a long process.  Customer Support at Gateway gave me the run-around so I am in the process of writing a letter to the Corporate Office. The reason for all of this is because of the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) from Microsoft.  According to the EULA, if I choose not to use Vista, I should contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM, in my case this would be Gateway) for a refund or credit.  But this begs the question: Why don't people get this option before buying the system?  That is, instead of having the cust...
Read more

Series: New Testament Eschatology

-
Image
From time to time, I hear a lot about the early church’s understanding of the “end of the world” or their belief that the “Second Coming of Jesus” would take place within their generation. And it’s usually not in a very good light. “They were obviously mistaken,” is often the remark I hear most. I know it’s hard to imagine but what if we’re mistaken? What if we’ve misunderstood what they meant? I’m hoping that this series on some of the major statements from the New Testament about the “end of the world” will show that they weren’t mistaken in their understanding of the “signs of the times.” Before we begin, however, let’s look at some terms that will have to be used. As most of you know, I try to refrain from using big “church” words. My reason for this is because those words are like suitcases where ideas and thoughts and understandings are packed into them. To explain the words would mean a long time spent unpacking the suitcases and explaining their contents. While such a pil...
Read more