Contemplative Bible Reading

Galatians 1:7b (New Living Translation)

You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.

The writer chides the Christians in Galatia. They are falling for a twisted version of the truth. So sad. What truth was twisted? The truth about Christ.

What was the truth about Christ? See a couple of sentences earlier: “Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.”

Please note: the twisted truth was not about church buildings, what songs to sing, how to give money, how to spend money, or how to do all sorts of things that we often argue today. The truth twisters denied that Jesus died to rescue us. That’s a big deal; that’s a big thing.

Let us try to remember that the little things are the little things. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Ephesians 2:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

Do you want to see “incredible wealth?”

Look in a mirror.

I don’t have to watch “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” or “Extreme RVs” or anything like that. I just look in the dingy mirror of my poorly lit bathroom.

Christians are examples of the incredible wealth of God’s grace and kindness. WHOA! Let that sink in. We’re all incredible wealth walking around. Look about us: see all that incredible wealth? In the right setting, we’re surrounded with incredible wealth.

Thanks be to God.

Ephesians 2:4-5 (New Living Translation)

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

The writer is addressing a group of Christians. The writer states a simple fact that is complex beyond understanding:

We are dead; we are alive.

We are dead in our sins; we are alive in God’s Son. We are dead AND alive—at the same time.

I don’t understand how that works. I believe that it works. I cannot explain myself. Thank you God that I am not required to explain myself. I only need to accept God’s words.

2 Peter 1:1 (New Living Translation)

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

Peter opens his second letter discussing the precious faith we have in Jesus Christ. This precious faith was given because of a couple of attributes of Jesus Christ. Those attributes are:

Justice and Fairness (?!?!?!)

Huh? This must be some mistake in translation or a typo or something. Surely the precious faith stems from something else like, well, uh, er, maybe power and glory or majesty and honor or something.

Justice and Fairness?????

Yes, Justice and Fairness. These words are found throughout the Bible. We might as well chisel these in marble or titanium or something permanent and place them at the door of our homes and our churches and across the bottom of our Zoom meetings in this year of the virus.

Justice and Fairness.

Amen. There is much grey area in these words. They are neither measurable nor black and white. To be just and fair means I have to extend myself beyond the reasonable. “Half way there” is not just and fair. Far over 50/50 brings me closer to just and fair.

God, please help me in my unbelief.

1 John 5:21 (New Living Translation)

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

John ends his first letter with a simple bit of advice.

Keep away from that stuff.

That stuff is anything that might take over our hearts. Well, certainly John could be a bit more specific than “anything.” How about a list, huh? No, times change. Things change. This is hot, that is not. One year its a Polaroid camera (some readers may need to look that up on Wikipedia), another year its an MP3 player (another thing to look up), another year its an iPhone.

Am I thinking about something much of the time? Am I thinking about some person much of the time? Yikes, we can also fall into that one. Are those things and those persons taking God’s place in my heart?

Let’s stay grounded in God. Stop. Breathe. Reflect. Do this daily or hourly or every minute or two. That old “what would Jesus do?” idea wasn’t such a bad one.

1 John 1:4 (New Living Translation)

We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

John writes a letter to fellow Christians. Why? Well, to teach, I guess. That is what all these writings in the Bible are about, right? Yes. To some degree, but look at the above sentence.

John is full of joy. John wants the reader to have this same joy. John is a “joy writer.”

Hmmm. Ever know someone who walked in the room and the room changed from whatever to laughter? The person “livened up the party?” Well, this is the letter from John. Not happy? Read the letter from John.

What is so “happy and joy” about the letter from John? Simple. God is in the light. We are in the light with God. We aren’t slowly and fearfully feeling our way in the dark. We aren’t stubbing our toe on that chair that someone didn’t put under the table where it belongs.

John is a joy writer telling us of the joy of running around and enjoying a life in the light.

Matthew 27:1 (New Living Translation)

Very early in the morning the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death.

This verse is from the (hi)story of the crucifixion of Jesus. We look back on those who had Jesus arrested and executed with all sorts of emotion and labels—mostly bad emotion and labels. They were callous, mean, stupid and just plain wrong.

Were they?

Here we read that “the Elders of the people” planned how they would kill Jesus. These were not “fill-in-the-blank extremists” as we say today. The Elders of the people were well-respected persons chosen by the people for wisdom in life and living.

These well-known and highly respected persons were just plain wrong. How did that happen? How did the people choose these Elders who were supposed to be wise and decide wisely and be right? And here, they were just plain wrong.

Experts? Just plain wrong? Yes. Nothing much has changed in a few thousand years. Our experts and ourselves are still often just plain wrong.

This is the human condition. Sin and failure. Still, God redeems us, God accepts us. Thank you God for your grace. Grant me humility as I am often just plain wrong.

Zechariah 7:8-10 (New Living Translation)

8 Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: 9 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. 10 Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

God tells the prophet Zechariah what to tell the people. Does God provide a cure for a virus? Does God provide a method of better life through better science? Does God provide strategy for national defense? Stable currency? Investments? Anything?

Simple instructions: judge fairly, be kind, don’t cheat others—don’t even think about cheating others.

Well, I don’t “scheme” against others, I’m just trying to … well, uh, you know, just get by or something. It’s a dog-eat-dog world or something. It isn’t fair out there so, why do I have to…

No. That is wrong, we know it is wrong, and we know what is right. God has given us simple instructions for daily living.

Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Mark 6:49-51 (New Living Translation)

49 but when they saw him (Jesus) walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. 50 They were all terrified when they saw him.

But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” 51 Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped.

There was a storm on the water. The followers of Jesus knew they were powerless in such a storm. They looked at the raging waters and saw something walking on the stormy waters. It had to be a ghost or something supernatural. Then they recognized that it was Jesus walking on water in a storm.

Their reaction? Terror! Fear!

This is a Sunday school story. We heard it as kids. Those silly disciples. What was wrong with them? Sorry. This is much more than a Sunday School story for little kids.

Remember that Twilight Zone episode where a man saw a gremlin walking around on the wing on an airliner? Insane fear. This is what the men in the boat felt.

What did Jesus do to calm them? Jesus came to them and joined them in the boat. Notice, this is something we can do for the terrified today. Come near them. Join them in their situation. Love them deeply from close distance.

Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus did miracles (like walk on water in a storm). Jesus also did simple things that any of us can do at any time. Join a terrified person in their situation and love them deeply from close distance.

Amos 5:15 (New Living Translation)

Hate evil and love what is good;
turn your courts into true halls of justice.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Amos. The people have been living corrupt lives. They stole from one another. They went to court for justice. The judges were bribed. They rich stole from the poor.

What is justice? Simple, “Hate evil and love what is good.”

“I don’t like so and so. So and so is sick. Good. I hope so and so dies.”

That’s just plain wrong. That’s just plain evil. We all know that as we settled that argument a few thousand years ago.

“Yeah, but so and so has done me wrong. So and so and done lots of people wrong. So and so deserves punishment.”

That’s just plain wrong. So and so may be evil and mean and a lying, low down, dirty, rotten, something or other. And Christ died for so and so just like Christ died for me.

“Fun” is over. The love and grace of Christ extends to all. There are days when it is difficult to accept that. Please God, help me in my unbelief.