Wednesday, January 16, 2013
With all the cooking and eating in the Genesis chapters today, it seems that I should be providing my favorite lentil stew and venison recipes. However, Matthew today gives a compelling recipe for spiritual health. I'm not certain whose original "recipe" it is, but someone once said that the recipe for joy is found in prioritizing proper relationships, based on the acronym J-O-Y: Jesus,Others, You:
JESUS calls new people, fresh people. He doesn't wait until they've got it all right before he calls them into relationship. He puts "new wine into new wineskins." It's like God using Jacob despite his failings. Jacob, seemingly deceitful from before he was born, grabs at his twin brother Esau's heel as if he wants to pull him back into the womb so he can be the firstborn. Similarly, Matthew, in the midst of his questionable occupation as tax collector, is called by Jesus. How often am I putting God off, thinking that I'm not ready or worthy yet?
OTHERS' faith can be the impetus for our own healing. Just like Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, and she conceived, Jesus heals the paralytic, not because of his faith, but because of the faith of the people carrying him. Likewise, the daughter of the synagogue leader is healed because of his faith in Jesus. How much credence am I giving to the effectiveness of intercessory prayer? How much value are we attaching to its ministry in our parish? (Thank you Daughters of the King and Brothers Andrew -- we need you!) How are we celebrating the miracles of healing that God is accomplishing in our midst through the prayers of others? We add to our prayer lists at the first sniffle of a cold. Are we adding to our "miracles of healing" thanksgiving as often?
YOU cannot reach out to Jesus without the value of your life being affirmed, because "You have not forsaken those who seek you (Psalm 9: 10b)." How many quacks had taken advantage of the hemorrhaging woman over those twelve years before Jesus treated her interruption as if she was the most important person on earth? How many people had tried to convince the two men that they were blind, or the demoniac that he was mute, because of sin in their lives before Jesus acknowledged their faith and healed them? Am I attaching enough importance to healing as a true evangelism ministry? (Thank you Order of Saint Luke and Stephen's Ministers -- we need you!) Is there enough margin in my schedule to prioritize those striving to just touch the cloak and be healed?
May we continue to go out with J-O-Y as laborers into his harvest.
The Rev. Marty
With all the cooking and eating in the Genesis chapters today, it seems that I should be providing my favorite lentil stew and venison recipes. However, Matthew today gives a compelling recipe for spiritual health. I'm not certain whose original "recipe" it is, but someone once said that the recipe for joy is found in prioritizing proper relationships, based on the acronym J-O-Y: Jesus,Others, You:
JESUS calls new people, fresh people. He doesn't wait until they've got it all right before he calls them into relationship. He puts "new wine into new wineskins." It's like God using Jacob despite his failings. Jacob, seemingly deceitful from before he was born, grabs at his twin brother Esau's heel as if he wants to pull him back into the womb so he can be the firstborn. Similarly, Matthew, in the midst of his questionable occupation as tax collector, is called by Jesus. How often am I putting God off, thinking that I'm not ready or worthy yet?
OTHERS' faith can be the impetus for our own healing. Just like Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, and she conceived, Jesus heals the paralytic, not because of his faith, but because of the faith of the people carrying him. Likewise, the daughter of the synagogue leader is healed because of his faith in Jesus. How much credence am I giving to the effectiveness of intercessory prayer? How much value are we attaching to its ministry in our parish? (Thank you Daughters of the King and Brothers Andrew -- we need you!) How are we celebrating the miracles of healing that God is accomplishing in our midst through the prayers of others? We add to our prayer lists at the first sniffle of a cold. Are we adding to our "miracles of healing" thanksgiving as often?
YOU cannot reach out to Jesus without the value of your life being affirmed, because "You have not forsaken those who seek you (Psalm 9: 10b)." How many quacks had taken advantage of the hemorrhaging woman over those twelve years before Jesus treated her interruption as if she was the most important person on earth? How many people had tried to convince the two men that they were blind, or the demoniac that he was mute, because of sin in their lives before Jesus acknowledged their faith and healed them? Am I attaching enough importance to healing as a true evangelism ministry? (Thank you Order of Saint Luke and Stephen's Ministers -- we need you!) Is there enough margin in my schedule to prioritize those striving to just touch the cloak and be healed?
May we continue to go out with J-O-Y as laborers into his harvest.
The Rev. Marty
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