Contemplative Bible Reading

Ezra 7:26 (New Living Translation)

Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.

This is part of a letter from a Gentile ruler to Ezra, a Jew. Note the last word, imprisonment.

God’s law, what we call the Old Law for which The Ten Commandments are the core, did not have a prison. Persons were not punished by removing them from society, holding them in a place, and hoping they saw the light or had some stroke of genius that told them to behave once they returned to society.

God’s law had harsh punishments that were roughly equivalent to the offense. This is the “eye for and eye” concept. Steal an animal, you give back another animal. Kill a person, you die. Commit adultery, you die. (Wait a minute, how is that equivalent? A topic for another day.)

God’s grace today: commit a crime in society, pay the penalty in that society as its rules dictates. That is what the ruler was writing to Ezra—the penalties of that society in that place at that time.

Oh, and then there is the rest of God’s grace: treat another person badly—not just commit a crime, but don’t fully love that person—you are guilty enough to die and suffer eternally. God, however, will cover that with the blood of His Son. Sounds like a pretty good deal. Sounds like something I don’t fully comprehend.

Luke 1:34 (New Living Translation)

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

This is a familiar verse and a familiar (hi)story. This little phrase summarizes much of our relationship to God.

Really, God. You can do that?

Yes, God can. Yes, God has, over and over. Yet, we continue to ask, “How can this happen?”

Can God cure my mother’s dementia? Can God remove mental illness? Can God stop cancer worldwide? Yes to all the above.

Let us, however, consider the big things. The really big things.

Can God have me look upon a stranger and see a loving, caring person? Can God have me look upon a, well, you know, one of those people at work who just grate me the wrong way everyday, and see a loving, caring person? Can God help me realize my blessings?

Those are some of the really big things. And I wonder, how can this happen? It can happen through God. God has given me what I need for these things that just can’t happen.

John 10:24 (New Living Translation)

The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

The people didn’t know—for sure. The people wanted to know—at least they claimed to want to know.

Hey Jesus, hit us with a baseball bat (again, did they have baseball bats in Judea 2,000 years ago?). Spell it out. Draw us a picture. We are a bit dense.

Jesus’ reply was sort of, “What do you think of these miracles I’ve been doing? What do you think about the prophecies and my life? A little coincidence?”

Today? We aren’t any better. We look back on those folks and shake our heads. How could they have been so dense? But, really, what do we do? We have good days where we believe and we live like we believe. Then we have other days. That is why I often conclude these little writings with something like, God, help me in my unbelief. God, end the suspense and really get me to live always like I should, like I really believe.

Suspense, it is still with us.

Genesis 6:11 (New Living Translation)

Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence.

Just before the flood, the earth—the whole place—was in bad shape. God was sorry, some versions say “heart broken,” about His creation. Corrupt is one word used in most translation. That means depraved or immoral.

Note the word that comes with corrupt. Here it is—violence. Of all the descriptions of the bad state of affairs, God chooses violence. I have the feeling that God is heart broken when He sees his creation beating itself to a pulp.

Now consider world history or the history of man in this world. Violence? War? Yikes. We have a scant few years here and there when someone is not smashing someone else in a war. Now consider the condition of God’s heart.

This is not a good picture, folks. What have we done? And yet God came here to be with us and save us. Praise God for his unending grace.

Isaiah 40: (New Living Translation)

1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone
and her sins are pardoned.
Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over
for all her sins.”

3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5  Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”

The glory of the Lord will be revealed. The Savior is coming. Prepare everything. The time of punishment is over.

It was all predicted. How did the world react? Not so good. Those stupid people. Hmm, they acted just the same way we would act today. Not much improvement over a few thousand years of civilization or however we describe ourselves.

Notice that the Lord is coming from the wilderness. Why? Why not from Manhattan? And where is “the wilderness” today? How would we recognize someone coming from that place? Lots of questions, few answers. I guess that shows how much “smarter” God is.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Fundamentalist Christians (that’s an old term, but I guess it still fits some of us some of the time) talk about how Jesus really wasn’t born on December 25th and all that stuff that is true but sort of ruins the spirit for a lot of folks. Sigh.

Here is something I find good about the Christmas season: I can look at someone I don’t know, smile, say something kind, and people won’t think I’m a nut. There is some good in that, so let’s enjoy it.

James 5:1 (New Living Translation)

Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.

Boy, I wish I were rich. Uh, well, read the above verse. Terrible troubles haunt rich people.

The not-so-rich (loads of money) don’t worry about the stock market, the prime rate, the price of gold and other precious metals, trends in real estate, who is head of the Fed, and a host of other things that affect the bottom line.

The poor can have a bottom line as well. I guess the middle class has a bottom line, too.

I suppose if any of us worry about money or other measures of “richness,” we are in for trouble. Please God, help me be content and neither rich nor poor. Help me to use a different measure of “richness” than most of us use.

Mark 2:17 (New Living Translation)

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

There are several (dozen) things I could write about these couple of sentences. Let’s consider the attitude of the listener and with whom the speaker will spend His time.

There are persons (1) who think they are righteous. There are persons (2) who know they are sinners.

Is it worth time trying to convince persons who think they are already right? I can answer, “Well, they have never heard my wonderful speech. I can convince them!” Here is Jesus, a pretty darn good speaker, passing on those folks.

Is it better to spend time with persons who know they have problems? Of course it is. They are searching for something better.

But who will go to the others? No one—at this time. Tomorrow is another day. Next year is another year. There will probably be time. Me? Pay attention. Be ready when the listener is ready. Don’t turn off the listener when they are not ready.

Rats! I want to believe that no matter what the circumstance, everyone wants to listen to me. Silly me.

Mark 2:4 (New Living Translation)

They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.

In this (hi)story, “they” are friends of a paralyzed man. They have faith that Jesus will heal their friend. The crowds prevent them from coming close to Jesus by a normal route, so…they tear up the roof of the house.

Let’s pause here a moment and consider that one again. They tore a hole in the roof of the house. The hole was large enough to lower a man through it on a mat. That is a big hole.

Someone had to notice these fellas’ while they were destroying the roof of the house. I’m guessing the owner of the house had to notice this. Why didn’t the owner do something? Hey, they are destroying his house! And these men who were digging through the roof, well, that isn’t an easy task. There was a lot of picking and digging and chipping and sweating.

Faith. That is called faith. Work that hard to destroy a house. Allow some strangers to destroy the roof of your house.

When we read this (hi)story, we tend to focus on the miracle and the idea of forgiving sins. Let’s not ignore everything and everyone else. I can’t imagine a cripple being healed by the word of a person. And I can’t imagine people digging through a roof and the owner letting them do it.

John 2:19-20 (New Living Translation)

19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”

Some very important persons were upset with how Jesus was behaving in the temple—something about telling crooks to stop being crooked. These VIPs did what most VIPs of the day did, they demanded Jesus do something miraculous.

Jesus’ response was, “Okay, you do something, and I will do a miracle.”

The VIPs response was, “Ha! You can’t do that!”

Pause a moment to reflect. Jesus told the VIPs to do something first. The VIPs, however, skipped their step and jumped to what they wanted Jesus to do. How could they skip their step?

Jesus asked them to destroy the temple. They couldn’t do that. Note, it wasn’t that they wouldn’t destroy the temple, it was that they didn’t have the ability to do it. They didn’t have the dynamite or the bulldozers or the manpower.

Instead of discussing their shortcomings, they jumped over those and attacked Jesus.

Hmmm, consider that one for a moment. Hey, uh, God, let’s not consider my failings. Let’s, uh, jump to what I want from you. How often do I say the same? What’s wrong with me. Can’t I learn from their example here in John’s Gospel. God, please help me in my unbelief.