Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection from Leawood, Kansas, United States for Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection from Leawood, Kansas, United States for Tuesday, 17 May 2016 - "Peter was not the only one"

Tuesday, 17 May 2016 - "Peter was not the only one"
Daily Scripture: Matthew 26:55 Then Yeshua addressed the crowd: “So you came out to take me with swords and clubs, the way you would the leader of a rebellion? Every day I sat in the Temple court, teaching; and you didn’t seize me then. 56 But all this has happened so that what the prophets wrote may be fulfilled.” Then the talmidim all deserted him and ran away.
Mark 14:48 Yeshua addressed them: “So you came out to take me with swords and clubs, the way you would the leader of a rebellion? 49 Every day I was with you in the Temple court, teaching, and you didn’t seize me then! But let the Tanakh be fulfilled.” 50 And they all deserted him and ran away. 51 There was one young man who did try to follow him; but he was wearing only a nightshirt; and when they tried to seize him, 52 he slipped out of the nightshirt and ran away naked.
Reflection Questions:
Because he was so outspoken and boastful, we sometimes only remember that Peter denied knowing Jesus. The other disciples didn’t even give themselves a chance to say they didn’t know Jesus. They simply ran away! (Many scholars believe the curious detail Mark included about the young man leaving his garment and running way naked was either Mark’s own experience or told to him by the eyewitness source who described Jesus' arrest for him.)

Jesus never advocated armed rebellion against Rome or the Temple authorities. He actively moved away from efforts to force him to lead an insurrection (cf. John 6:15). What do you think caused the authorities to so fear him that they sent a large group of armed men to arrest him? In what ways do Jesus' teachings still challenge (and sometimes threaten) established human ideas of power and strength?
Jesus questioned the armed men who came to arrest him. He had taught publicly all week in the Temple. When Luke reported Jesus' words, he added one significant line: “Day after day I was with you in the temple, but you didn’t arrest me. But this is your time, when darkness rules” (Luke 22:53). If the authorities really believed arresting Jesus was right, why were they going about it when most people were asleep? When you want to keep something out of sight, do you try to assess how legitimate your wish for secrecy is?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord of all, you already know all of the secrets I try to hide from others. Help me learn to live in the sunshine of your love, to value honesty and transparency more than secrecy or manipulation. Amen.
Insights from Courtney Felzke

Courtney Felzke is Chaplain of Silver Link, providing Pastoral Care to many within the Silver Link Ministry as well as doing work behind the scenes in the ministry, including: coordinating care for those served by the ministry and recruiting and training new volunteers.
Jesus disciples ran when things got hard. I wonder: how many of us might run from God when things get hard in our lives? Maybe we’ve turned from God when job loss occurs, when we’ve receive a hard diagnosis, or when we’ve lost a loved one. At times it may seem tempting to run from God; to think God caused this awfulness; to blame God for the hardships.
However, I truly believe God doesn’t cause these hardships. Our gracious and merciful God never wants to see us hurting, suffering, or sad. I love this quote from grief author Julie Yarbrough: “Intellectually and spiritually we believe that God does not cause violence and terrorism. God does not plot against us, plan our harm, or punish us. When we pause to pray and reflect, we discern that, gently and lovingly, God moves us beyond the unanswerable ‘why did this happen?’ to the tentative hope of ‘how will I go on?’ This is God at work–God for us, especially when we suffer unimaginable loss and grief.” (pg 16 of Grief Light: Reflections on Grief).
As Julie reminds us, God is the constant presence who gives us hope for tomorrow. God walks with us through the hard times. In fact, when all else in our world seems shaky, God is our constant. Psalm 71 reminds us of this trait of God: “From the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more.” (Psalm 71:20b-21). God is our continuous source of comfort, offering us comfort again and again and again if we will simply turn to God and allow God to work in our lives.
Run towards God with all you have, for it is God who can help you through the hardest times!