Good Morning Friends,
The Bible uses many illustrations and flawed characters like Sampson, David, and Gideon to explain the deep truths of how God’s grace relates to our lives as Christians. Biblical stories of how people fail are more interesting and instructive and more honest than tales of heroes slaying dragons in myths. Still, it is a fight we must see to the end whether we are considered heroes or not. Paul encourages the Christians to put on the whole armor of God in our storyline as he compares the Christian life to that of a soldier in this regard. Paul knew that some battles we would lose and some win, but that the war could only be won with God. At other times Paul uses the image of a wrestler when he advises Timothy to fight the good fight of faith because he knew it would be a struggle. And the writer of Hebrews likens the Christian life to a runner when he exhorts his readers to run with perseverance the race that is life. These are all decent images that imply value and virtue. Then in chapter four of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses an image that is surprising. The Christian life, he writes is like a mundane, clay pot with noticeable imperfections… something made more by man than by God. The word that Paul uses is not exactly something of value at first sight. But here we can learn a lot about ourselves and our flawed lives as Christian by viewing our lives from the perspective of what is inside our clay pot and how God uses us anyway and how God reforms us into something new. You see God redeems the clay pots that we are, and the struggles associated with them that we wish would go away to demonstrate divine love and grace that draws us into a relationship…a Baptism of Holy Spirit fire. It is in the ordinary and the everyday that God’s greatest revelations are manifested in the symbols of scripture that last.And so, this morning as I contemplate the life and death of my younger brother James on this Saint James’ Day we ask, Have Our Relationships Been Fired In A Way That Will Glorify God For The Kingdom To Come?
Scripture: After he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars, he said to them, “Look at me, and do the same; when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets around the whole camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’” So Gideon and the hundred who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. So the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars, holding in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow; and they cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Judges 7: 16-20 (NRSV)
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—”I believed, and so I spoke” —we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:7-15 (NRSV)
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:20-28 (NRSV)
Message: On the heels of Jesus announcing his coming suffering and death we have a request that seems a bit self-serving from the mother of the Sons of Thunder, James, and John. It seems a bit incredible that she would be preoccupied with the glory and honor of a crown for her sons when Jesus is talking about pain and suffering and humiliation and perhaps even knowing that James would have his head cut off. It is likely the disciples were thoroughly bewildered, not being able to digest the words spoken by Jesus, even though he had told them that they were to be part of new family with new bloodlines. Perhaps they knew that servanthood was a key feature of the life of Christ and that Jesus called himself gentle and humble. But the disciples and their families have a problem with an overactive self-interest. They had great faith in Jesus, but that faith was born out in ignorance and missed the mark with their carnal thinking. They were looking superficially on the outside not a transformed inside made functional for the Kingdom. The thing is that the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks inside at the heart and what must be broken to reveal what is inside. That is why Jesus emphasized the Law’s purpose was not to make us perfect, so we could get to heaven by good works, of being perfect pots, but to show how our hearts and our hands are unclean and that God loves us anyway. Today’s text from Matthew is primarily about this problem of us choosing power instead of grace. That is why Jesus calls us to have a holy heart. That is why we need to believe differently. If we do not, we diminish God’s importance in our lives and aggrandize our own self-importance. Every day God is molding us, so whether you consider yourself a cracked pot or a reformed vessel, or both, know that you can carry the message, the light, and the living water wherever you go. God’s glorious message is to be carried and delivered from such jars of clay as you and me. And sometimes it can come in the mundane and at others with a little shock and awe as with Gideon or the reality of a place in Spain that is purported to be the grave of the Apostle James.
And So, I would like to persuade you that every Christian has been given a gift that needs to be revealed and that we are rewarded when we use it to respond to the needs of the Kingdom of God to the glory of God and that means helping others to discover their gift too. But to do this sometimes means we have to be willing to go with the crowd on the pilgrimage and at other times against the crowd, especially when the crowd is taking the wrong path. Now it may feel like we are standing alone for what is right on these occasions, but we are never alone. James’ ministry to Spain did not appear as successful until centuries later perhaps so too with my brother James. To be all in with commitment, faithfulness and integrity is indeed rare but some have by the grace of God fought the good fight. So, it seems to me that experience alone teaches us that each has a gift and that we are responsible to use them for God’s glory and the good of other people as best we can.Each person has been given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. And by this, I mean we are to be ministers of the new covenant, and in the process experience spiritual power. This is what Jesus meant by servanthood becoming the path of greatness shown in the fullness of time. And the beauty is that our ordinariness is no reason not to serve. There is treasure in our clay pots designed to show us that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. God’s concept of ministry is so different from the world’s concept. The world stresses the classy container, not the glory of God in human weakness. And so, no matter what your condition, you have a gift, and the humble use of it in reliance on the Spirit will bring glory to God and make people thankful as well. That is thankful to God too. So, whatever our affliction, and we each have them, in the use of our gift, if we accept the gift and the situation, we encounter it will only serve to enlarge our joy in the glory of God for the Kingdom of God. Friends we are part of Holy History and will be swept by the Spirit into the great river of redemption and are not left to your own sufficiency but immersed in the abundance of God. A crown awaits but it is different from the one expected by the world and more a matter of the heart as a test of time. Here success is not the same as significance. If you have any aspirations to godly greatness, find your gift and use it. This is how you will be remembered. As the people in Santiago de Compostela are celebrating the life of the Apostle James today, where I walked a couple of years ago in Galicia Spain, it dawns on me that James’s mother’s wishes were honored by Jesus. Who knows… the hopes and dreams of each of our mothers might in time be honored as well.
Pray as my Catholic friends are celebrating the life of Saint James today that God would come close to us. Pray that we would realize that self-confidence and self-interest can only take us so far on the journey. Pray we look on the inside for the purpose God would have us to serve to the Glory of Jesus. Pray that we overcome our doubts about our duty. Pray we do not fear. Pray that peer pressure for us is no pressure at all. Pray we realize that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the provision we seek. Pray we are faithful to God and yield to the Holy Spirit fire to transform us into the image of Jesus. Pray we are all in. Pray that we are living proof of goodness and forgiveness with a mind that is not divided, living in a house that is in unity and a community of love that never disappoints. Pray that we teach with consistency, confidence, and clarity. Pray we have love in our hearts. Pray that though we are perplexed and even cracked that we can still be useful to God. Pray that we realize that spiritual fruit requires sacrifice but that our afflictions can be converted into glory. Pray we realize that Christ gifts us with a finished work having fulfilled the law for us. Pray God triumph in our lives. Pray we see more deeply into life realizing that we are not necessarily advanced by the external progress of civilization if our hearts have not embraced Jesus’ Kingdom of love. Pray our pain turns to gain for God’s glory. Pray we be both molded and broken by God. Pray we realize that God uses us if we but have the heart to Glorify Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson the brother of James
Daily Devotionals 