Contemplative Bible Reading

John 9:32 (New Century Version)

Nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a man born blind.

This simple statement is part of the (hi)story of Jesus giving sight to a man who was born blind. Jesus made mud from dirt and spit, put the mud on the man’s face, and told him to go wash it off. Note, Jesus did not tell the man that he would have sight by washing; Jesus just told him to wash his muddy  face.

I think the key to this miracle is the man’s statement shown above. Jesus performed miracles. Some prophets performed miracles in the Old Testament. None of the old prophets had ever given sight to a person born blind. Not Elijah, not Elisha, not Samuel – none of them. Jesus raised people from the dead; that had been done before. Jesus healed crippled people; that had been done before. Jesus gave sight to this man born blind; that had never happened before.

The man here is speaking to the Pharisees. They knew the old scriptures, they knew this miracle was a first. The Pharisees didn’t want to believe that Jesus was from God. Jesus didn’t fit their notion of what the Messiah would be. This healing, among others, occurred on the Sabbath, and that just didn’t fit with someone sent from God.

The Pharisees couldn’t retort the man here. The man knew the scriptures. Everyone present in his hearing knew the scriptures. Note how simple, honest, and powerful was the man’s testimony. There has always been something powerful in simplicity and honesty.

Deuteronomy 4:15-18 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁵ Since the Lord spoke to you from the fire at Mount Sinai, but you did not see him, watch yourselves carefully!¹⁶ Don’t sin by making idols of any kind, and don’t make statues—of men or women,¹⁷ of animals on earth or birds that fly in the air,¹⁸ of anything that crawls on the ground, or of fish in the water below.

I had never thought of it this way before, but it makes so much sense.

The LORD spoke to His people as a spirit from fire. If the LORD is a spirit, how can we make a physical thing to represent him? Well, we can’t. The LORD tells His people not to make idols for worship that represent physical things.

Funny how we draw near to physical things. It sort of makes sense to do so. The physical is familiar, and we are often most comfortable with things that are familiar. And then there are several times in the Old Testament when common sense is spoken. Are we going to take a tree trunk, worship part of it but burn the other part to keep warm on a cool night? Are we to take a rock, chisel a figure out of it for worship, but then discard all the fragments that we chipped off?

We can be logical and silly at the same time. We can worship a God who is greater than the universe, but we like to make a pocket size likeness of him to carry around.

Numbers 11:23 (New International Version 2011)

²³ The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

Here we are with the people wandering about in the desert. There are probably a couple million people here who want to eat meat – something that is sparse in the desert. The LORD tells Moses that He is about to provide plenty of meat for all these people for a month.

I can understand that the people were a bit skeptical on this one. We are discussing a lot of meat, folks. This is not a trivial task even for a LORD who has brought them through a sea and performed several mass-scale miracles. So, the LORD asks Moses,

Is the LORD’s arm too short?

I love the image that these words bring. Sometimes my grandson will push a toy under the furniture. He will squeeze his body under the furniture as far as he can and then stretch his arm. He can’t reach the toy, so he calls for his granddad to do it. His granddad, that’s me, has longer arms and can retrieve he lost toy.

I can see the LORD reaching out to gather sufficient quail to feed these millions of people. The LORD can reach as far as he needs to reach.

And I can sit here and move my head from side to side and “tsk tsk” about these people who just don’t believe in the reach of the LORD. A moment later, I can despair about how the problems I have are unsolvable. I can grieve about a person who will just never get it and never turn to the LORD for salvation. I can grieve about someone whose illness prevents them from hope for a better tomorrow. I can reach the point where I say, “That situation will never improve. It is beyond hope.”

I light of everything I know and believe, I can still convince myself that the LORD’s arm is too short.

God thanks for bringing me back to the reality that your arm is never too short to perform the unreal.

Exodus 25:1-2 (New International Version 2011)

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.

In this part of the (hi)story of God’s people, the people are about to build the Tabernacle – the place where they will offer sacrifice to God. The Tabernacle was a substantial structure made more impressive (from an engineer’s perspective) because it was portable. It was a large complex surrounding a tent. Even the “walls” to the courtyard around the tent were made of fabric. The entire area would be disassembled, packed, and carried.

The Tabernacle comprised a huge amount of materials. The source of these materials? Gifts.

There were about 600,000 men in “the camp” of God’s people. I guess there were several million people when we add all the women and children. These people left Egypt with possessions given to them by the Egyptians and other objects accumulated in families over the centuries.

Now the people are about to contribute their items to construct the sanctuary. Note, this is not a tax where everyone is required to give according to some formula. This is an offering, where Moses is to

receive from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.

This is a model for Christians today. We are not “taxed” in our churches. I believe that we are not required to give by some formula. Some people bring forward the “tithing” of the Old Law to today and ask for ten percent. I don’t believe that tithing is applicable to us today. I do believe that everyone is to give as their heart prompts them to give in response to the blessings of God.

1 John 4:19-21

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

A recently popular thing to say in one form or another is,

I love Jesus, but not church

I understand this recent sentiment and I suppose it isn’t that recent. Then I read the above verses. Who is the church but a group of brothers and sisters? Not loving the church means not loving those brothers and sisters or does it mean that? Now things become complicated or maybe they become clear.

• I can love brothers and sisters, but not like how they are organized.
• I can love individual brothers and sisters, but not like how they act as a group.

These two points point at some sort of group dynamic that the brothers and sisters experience and manifest. That reads like gobble-dee-gook. Perhaps I can explain it better.

I worked for the U.S. government for 28 years. I met plenty of smart people working there – really smart individuals. I experienced plenty of stupid decisions coming from groups of people – really stupid decisions from groups of really smart individuals. The poster from Despair, Inc. about meetings summarizes this thought:

Meetings: none of us are as dumb as all of us

Cynical? Yes.

True? I have seen it to be true many times.

Conclusion? I believe that one of the reasons that God puts us here is to love one another and not just as a nice cliche, but to deeply and sincerely love one another. I also believe that God wants us to even love how we behave when we are acting as groups, not just as lovable individuals. That means sometimes we love churches, which are merely groups of brothers and sisters, even when the church is acting pretty stupid.

And for me, that means love the church enough to step into the middle of it and try to point to some of the stupid and convince people that God made us all much better and for a much higher purpose than to sit around and act like a government committee that does inexplicably stupid things. God, please give me the strength and the love you desire of me.

1 Peter 4:3-4 (New International Version 2011)

³ For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. ⁴ They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.

I “grew up in the church.” I guess those words in the quotes are accurate. My parents attended church services every Sunday and worked in many areas of the churches we attended. In grades 1 through 5 I attended a small, private school operated by a group of churches. The friends of my parents were all attending church services regularly and doing pretty much the same things that my parents did.

I never met any adults who lived in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

Still, I attended elementary school in the 1960s. Looking back on news video of the 1960s, the drug culture was born and the sexual revolution took place, so there seemed to have been a bunch of debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. I, however, never knew any of these people.

I attended a small high school in a rural area of southeastern Louisiana. Some kids I knew got drunk on the weekends, and some girls I knew got pregnant. That means that some of the debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry was occurring, and I knew some of the people involved. But they didn’t seem to be terrible people. If you pinned them down long enough to have a real conversation, they would say that they believed in God and in that light they really couldn’t explain what they were doing.

Detestable idolatry? No, I really have never met anyone who did that.

This little contemplation must be leading somewhere, so let’s try this path: Peter was writing to a group of people who actually did all the stuff in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. That was the way of life in the time and place they lived. Then Jesus the Christ entered the scene and their world changed. Their world changed so much that it is difficult for me to comprehend it.

I can’t find a way to read these words of Peter to anyone today who is “growing up in the church.” The words just don’t apply. They aren’t in a struggle to move from a world of debauchery and idolatry to a world of light and grace. Sin? Yes, they have sin. They are jealous, they hate people now and then, they lack good judgment in some situations. I guess pride and ego take hold more than anything else.

I think these grown-up-in-the-church kids will encounter situations where

They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.

That challenge remains for them. It remains for me from time to time these days. I pray for them and for me to have strength in those times.

1 Peter 2:21-23 (New International Version 2011)

²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²² “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

It is a gross understatement to write that Jesus was treated badly by some people. I find it difficult to describe how badly Jesus was treated. In the face of His mistreatment, however, Jesus did not retaliate. Verse 23 tells us that Jesus did not even judge those who mistreated Him. He didn’t say anything. Instead, Jesus trusted God the Father to be the judge of events and persons.

I find it easy to judge other people. I can put them in little categories, classifications, taxonomies, and the like. I know what kind of people they are and how I should act towards them. I am just so smart when it comes to these things.

Oooops, I am not doing as Jesus did. I am not entrusting my life to God as the judge.

God, help me to do as your Son. Help me to entrust my life to you who judges justly.

Genesis 35:2-2 (New International Version 2011)

² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. ⁵ Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

This is just, just too odd. Let’s begin in verse 3: Jacob will build an altar to God because God has saved him in a day of distress. God has also been with Jacob wherever he had gone. Jacob is worshipping the LORD God.

Now let’s surround verse 3 with verses 2 and 4: Jacob’s large family is carrying foreign gods, and Jacob knows it. Carrying foreign gods? What? Don’t they…? Didn’t they…? This is amazing.

Maybe Jacob’s family knew that these gods were lumps of clay, stone, or wood. Maybe they didn’t worship these gods. Maybe the gods or idols were decorative. The gods could have been polished, adorned with stones, colorful – something decorative and pretty in a time and place where few things were like that.

My guess is the family  had collected these souveneirs while traveling. The little gods were momentos. My guess may be far too charitable.

So let’s fast forward a few dozen centuries. Do we have foreign gods hanging around in the house? I don’t think so. Could someone claim that I worship Winchester (the old gun company)? I do have recreations of Winchester posters hanging on the walls of my office. Does it appear that I worship Winchester? I don’t think so.

My earlier guess about the foreign gods probably was too charitable. Why else would Jacob co

Psalm 51:16-17 (New International Version 2010)

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.

I have contemplated on parts of Psalm 51 before. Looking at it again this morning, I find that I could write about almost every part of this Psalm. Such is what David was inspired to write in his sin asking for forgiveness.

In these two verses, David gives the sacrifice that God wants – not lambs, cattle, wheat, oil, and all those things mentioned in the law. No, God wants us to sacrifice our foolish human pride. God wants us to give Him that burning in our hearts that drives us to achieve and succeed in our modern lives here on earth.

I don’t think God wants us to be bums or pushovers or slackers (whatever noun we choose). Still, God doesn’t want us to have the pursuit of excellence or the pursuit of achievement or the pursuit of anything but God first in our lives. The pursuit of all else is what God wants as a sacrifice. I believe that pursuit is what David is sacrificing to God. David brings a broken and contrite heart to God believing that God will accept it as a true sacrifice.

God, help me to know which pursuit to keep first in my life. Help me to put righteousness above all other pursuits.

Genesis 28:6-9 (New International Version 2010)

⁶ Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷ and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. ⁸ Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; ⁹ so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

Esau knew how his father disliked Canaanite women. So what did he do? Of course, he married a Canaanite woman. This is spite:

spite: noun – a malicious, usually petty, desire to harm, annoy, frustrate, or humiliate another person; bitter ill will; malice.

Sometimes children will do the one thing that we despise the most in an effort to gain our attention the most.

• if my son ever wore an ear ring, I would rip it right out of his head
• if I ever caught my kid smoking, I would shove those cigarettes down their throat
• the ugliest thing in the world is a yellow car
• kids who drop out of school are the laziest animals on earth