Good Morning Friends,
The Gospel reading today is about the witness of the love of God being in Jesus and his disciples and the sad reality that the religious elite would reject that love. Jesus makes the case for the work of the Holy Spirit in him and many people were surprised for they did not in the least imagine that God would do such a thing. Learning from history we should take note of our own resistance to what we think God should be and what God should look like and what God is doing. The amazing claim of Jesus is about the importance and authority of Christ being in us as part of the promise. The testimonies about Jesus come from God the Father, John the Baptist, Jesus’ own works, the Old Testament scripture and Moses. And here is where it gets serious for we expect Jesus to come through our door and for lack of love we fail to see him at our very side in the form of the Holy Spirit. Friends, you have heard the song You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, by the Righteous Brothers. Tom Cruz sang it, although poorly, in the movie, Top Gun. It is really about something dying in us when we fail to accept Jesus. And I guess that can happen with all types of relationships, but What Do You Do When The Perceived Presence Of God Is Gone But Not Forgotten?
Scripture: The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!< The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Exodus 32:7-14 (NRSV)
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
John 5:31-47 (NRSV)
Message: I am not exactly sure what prompts people to lose the presence of God. Maybe it happens when leadership does not honor God. Maybe it happens when people look with the eyes of sight and not the eyes of faith. Maybe it happens when people see comfort and guidance from other sources than God. Maybe it happens when people rely on their latest logical thought and not their promise of obedience. Friends, this and the taking of some bad advice is what happened to Moses and the Hebrews and the presence of God faded. And there would come a time when the Hebrews wanted the presence to dissipate for, they feared God. Today in churches we face similar problems and sometimes we need to separate ourselves from those that would tempt us to sin, but we still need social contact. Jesus practiced social distancing in the desert for 40 days and was tempted. And so too for us there is a problem in isolation. For apart from God and apart from each other we can do nothing. The witness we need to be for the faith is one of action that produces results that honor God. And that the Christian faith is still practiced after 2000 years is the best testimony of all. But we are not always recognizing what God is doing for our own lack of love. Friends, God has not abandoned us, but it is us that have failed to recognize that God is with us. See God at work through the eyes of life and love. Open your hearts to the possibility of the presence of God.
And So, we need to open our hearts and to abide in Christ and obey the Spirit and keep walking in the faith contrary to the voices that would lead us astray. We need to confess our sins and claim forgiveness offered in the life of Jesus. We need to honor Jesus in our life as a testimony to the love of God with us. Maybe we have to practice physical distancing, for the term social distancing is the wrong idea. We can reach out and touch someone by phone or Facebook. We can still open the Bible and pray and share the experience with others.
Pray we keep praying even if our prayers go unanswered. Pray we persevere through disastrous events. Pray we not backslide into sins of the past. Pray disappoint with people who call themselves Christian not prompt a disappointment with God. Pray we keep growing in Christ. Pray we keep seeking God. Pray we realize that God knows our hearts and excuses. Pray we learn to experience God though acts of love that witness to the glory of God. Pray we never lose that loving feeling. Pray we never evade God but remember the promise that Jesus will never leave us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 