The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 9 January 2015 "Jesus' clear teaching: what God does and doesn’t do"Daily Scripture: Matthew 5:43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
Luke 11:10-13 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”
Luke 13: Unless You Turn to God
13 1-5 About that time some people came up and told him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, “Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die. And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think they were worse citizens than all other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die.”
Reflection Questions:
In Jesus’ day, as in ours, many people were inclined to see tragedy and suffering as a divine punishment and/or object lesson. Jesus consistently said they “got it wrong.” He recognized the randomness of some tragedies, and the role of evil in creating others. He was not much concerned with assigning blame, but in bringing healing. He taught that, like a good father, God takes delight in giving his children good gifts, not awful, hurtful ones.
• Even much of our legal language calls many different kinds of disasters “acts of God.” If, as Jesus suggested, collapsing towers and killings by foreign soldiers are not “acts of God,” divine punishments for wrongdoing, what does cause them? What do you think Jesus would tell a grieving relative of someone killed in tragedies like those?
• Pastor Hamilton wrote, “God does not inject cancer cells into people or cause other diseases—or take babies away from their mothers, or send cars careening into one another. Much of what we blame God for is the result of … the realities of an imperfect world … God accepts these realities, but God does not initiate them.” What makes it important to you that Jesus pictured God as a kind, loving, merciful parent, not a monster?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you came to teach us, and to show us in action, what God is like. When you met sinners, you loved them rather than attacking them. Ingrain in my heart your picture of a God I can trust and serve. Amen.
Insight from Phil Antilla
Phil Antilla serves as the program director for Young Adult and College Ministry. Before coming to Church of the Resurrection, Phil served as an associate pastor at a local church in Shawnee. www.cor.org/youngadults
This past weekend the daughter of a friend of mine passed away in a car accident. She was 20 years old. This same weekend, two years ago, some dear friends of mine gave birth to two very premature twins. They both passed away within minutes of being born.
Terrible things happen every day, and this is not a new development.
The Bible is filled with tragedy.
From Cain & Abel, to Jesus, to the death of witnesses like the Apostle Paul.
Being mortal means that we are capable of death, not to mention failure, persecution, trials, and all sorts of painful maladies and embarrassments.
Why?
Couldn’t God have created a world without suffering?
This may be an easy question to ask, but it is a difficult one to answer.
We have been created with a freedom to know and experience the fullness of life, in both good times and bad. Our freedom makes us capable of truly responding to God’s gift of grace instead of being coerced. However, such a freedom must also mean that we maintain our capacity to go in the other direction – to fall away from the God who loves us. Or to experience the effects of a world that has turned from God.
Simply put, love takes a great amount of risk.
Could God have created a life without the risk of suffering? I think the answer is no. Because what kind of life would that be?
Is the risk of divorce enough to keep you from the joy of marriage?
Is the risk of death too much to keep you from becoming a parent?
So too must God take risks.
Even in difficult times, I am reminded that God is not one willing to give up on creation.
Look no further than the cross of Jesus to see how much God is willing to risk in the name of love.
So, how shall we respond to tragedy?
I often feel that it boils down to one question:
Do I believe that things are getting worse and worse?
Or…
Are things actually getting better?
I believe that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, things are getting better. You may not be able to see it in the moment, but sin and death are being reversed. Creation is being restored.
The Apostle Paul described it like this in Romans 5 (my paraphrase): “If one man’s trespasses were able to cause this much death and sin, how much MORE will everyone experience the free gift of life through Jesus Christ?”
Yes, bad things happen. Even to God.
But even in midst of tragedy, it still seems that we, God and humankind, are willing to go to great risks in the name of love.
Simply put, love is worth the risk. Thanks be to God.
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