Good Morning Friends,
This morning I am considering the work of some scientists who recently recalculated the possibility that we on Earth are the only intelligent species in the universe. Here the math is clearly based on what we know about the universe from a scientific viewpoint. For many have come to believe that life exists in other places because it seems so abundant here on Earth. But the reality is that there is a 50% to 95% chance, based on the math, that in all the billions upon billions of stars and planets, we are alone in the Universe when it comes to a place that sustains intelligent life. Friends we are very, very special. In today’s Gospel text it becomes clear that Jesus, like His creation is very special as well. The text claims that Jesus is greater than Jacob, Jonah and Solomon. But friends, that is only the beginning. Unfortunately, people with religious power were reluctant to acknowledge Jesus. The spiritual blindness of the people opposed to Jesus is demonstrated in their reaction to His good works. Their refusal to hear His message is echoed in their speaking out against Him. Even our Old Testament passage echoes this judgement from a higher court with God the challenger and the wayward people Israel challenged with five questions of prophetic insight. Maybe we need to consider how we treat this place we live and begin with how we treat each other. The journey begins inside. Do You See The Signs For Reform?
Scripture: Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:1-4, 6-8 (NRSV)
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!
Matthew 12:38-42 (NRSV)
Message: Today the court of God is in session and here we explore how to approach God in a relationship as we seek to discern what God desires from us. Today we pose the most important question of religion. And in raising it up some might think we could breathe easier, but such is not the case, for what God wants for an answer is truth itself, and that is so hard to pin down even in a court of law. Those who should know the truth seem to be those who are last to see it. Even the relatively ignorant Gentiles believed the prophet Jonah, and the Queen of Sheba sought out the wisdom of King Solomon, yet the Scribes and Pharisees failed to recognize Jesus as their expected Prophet and King. After all the trials and lessons of the wilderness, the judges, the Kings, and the exile, Israel had at last come to realize that there is just one God, and that the worship of idols is nothing less than demon worship. However, having swept away the evil spirit of outwardly false religion, the scribes and Pharisees represented a legalistic form of religion which still, by their own denial of Jesus, excluded the true and living God. They were blind to the truth, deaf to the message of Jesus, and their voices spoke blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. These were the ones who thought so much of themselves before God that they were enticed to exhibit enmity against God. And a wicked generation is sentenced because it did not reform. A lot is at stake here…we need to be reformed and seek to continually reform our ways from the inside out.
And So, the sign that Jesus gave to the Pharisees and Sadducees is a sign to us as well. For those who believe, this becomes the bedrock of our faith and confession. We can with full confidence be assured that we are included. It does not matter where we came from. What matters is whose we are and where we are going. But to the skeptics, it serves as a sign also. To those who reject the resurrection as well as miracles, it is a sign that they are blind to ultimate reality. They see things totally in a scientific matter with no allowance for God. They can predict the weather, at least some of the time. But they cannot interpret the signs of the times. Their philosophy is in the process of bringing ruin upon the world which serves as a precursor of the final judgment. There is global decay everywhere. They can see things going wrong, but they are blind to both its cause and its cure. They think they can solve these problems through their own efforts without God. By now, everyone should see that our effort to fix humanity scientifically it is not sufficient. Be careful what you put your faith in hoping it will lead to a better world. If God is forgotten, it is leading to our utter destruction. Jonah serves as much as a warning to us today as it did to the people in Jesus’ day. Neglect this truth at your own peril.
Pray we realize what a special gift we have been given to be alive in this time and place. Pray we realize that the God of all creation wants our love more than our sacrifices. Pray we seriously focus on continual improvement in the work we have been called to serve. Pray we act like God’s people, joyfully praising, purposefully witnessing, powerfully living and plentifully giving. Pray we believe in Jesus and seriously seek to do the will of God in the Spirit of Christ. Pray we are not only reformed but transformed. Pray we go beyond our prejudices. Pray we are commissioned to proclaim not doom as Jonah but the good news of God’s favor as we repent. Pray we see the sign of reform in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Pray we realize that loving acts are genuine to the degree that they are not done begrudgingly.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 