How Are You Holding Up Against The Challenges Of The World?

How Are You Holding Up Against The Challenges Of The World?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Jeremiah had been put in the stocks by the chief priest, for having the audacity to prophecy bad things coming to Jerusalem! Even then, there was no stopping Jeremiah from telling it as he saw it. He kept speaking forth the words of God. Then the text lets us overhear the praying prophet wrestling with God from the fall out as a Christ like character.
Both Jeremiah and Jesus faced the mocking, reproach and derision and defaming of the religious leaders.
So, How Are You Holding Up Against The Challenges Of The World?

 

Scripture: For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.

 

Jeremiah 20:10-13 (NRSV)

 

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ —and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.

 

John 10:31-42 (NRSV)

 

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah. Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince.” Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!

 

Psalm 82 (NRSV)

 

If a prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer and the punishment of the prophet shall be the same—

 

Ezekiel 14:9-10 (NRSV)

 

Message: Like Jeremiah, we can get bone weary and feel abandoned. We can begin to doubt. In the pain of uncertainty Jeremiah cries out to God for help. Then he complains that he has been enticed by God and consequently fallen afoul of the law concerning false prophets noted in Ezekiel. So Jeremiah questions his own integrity and loses his assurance but then he reasserts his faith in the trust that God will prevail. His petition is to see things as God sees them. Interestingly as Jeremiah emerges from his ordeal he invites the faithful to join him in singing praise to the one who delivered him. Here he is as a representation of not only Israel’s relationship with God but a very real and personal reflection that anticipates the coming and suffering of Jesus. In the Gospel reading Jesus gets the same kind of treatment as Jeremiah. He heals a blind man but even so the religious leaders do not believe He is the Messiah even though the Jewish people do. Those in religious power have done everything they can to prove Jesus wrong but they have not had any luck. They want him to be clear about who he is and then he quotes Psalm 82 that he is one with God. That pretty much gets them picking up stones to kill him. In Christ we see one who experienced the greatest challenges of life and lives to give us new life. Rather than moaning to one another, grumbling about our plight, we should believe in the LORD, and lay out our challenges before Him and believe differently. Jesus has seen it all and knows the way to live a life that glorifies the Father.

 

Pray we show forth the heart of God for the poor. Pray we have a passion for compassion. Pray we address the challenges of life by asking God for help. Pray we express our concerns and fears and doubts. Pray we join the Lord and trust God’s will to be done. Pray we petition God to see things as God sees them. Pray we praise God for calling us children of God. Pray we do not consider it a disgrace when we suffer as a Christian, but instead use it as an opportunity to glorify Jesus and believe in the strength of the Father though faith in the Holy Spirit.

 

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson