Good Morning! The glory of the Lord surrounds us this day, and we are blessed by God’s love and forgiveness.
Yesterday I preached a sermon on accepting God’s blessing. God intends for us to be the bearers of God’s love to the world, but you cannot tell others about God’s love until you have gratefully accepted it for yourself.
In today’s Gospel reading the people gathered around Jesus when he was walking through the great Temple in Jerusalem. It was the festival of Dedication, and he came to worship God and observe the rituals. “Dedication,” also called the “Festival of Lights” and perhaps known best to us today as “Hanukkah,” was an 8-day celebration commemorating the reclaiming and rededication of the Temple by the Jewish people. It was both a religious and a nationalistic holiday. Many of the people were seeking a Messiah who would restore the nationalistic strength and pride of the Israelites.
It was already known that Jesus had been performing wonders and miracles, and that he was preaching a return to God that differed from the guardians of the religious status quo and those who sought a new political order. They approached Jesus and asked: “’If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe.’”
What expectations do we bring when we think about Jesus? He offers us His love, and with it the sacrifice of His life. Is that what we want? We sing, “Jesus loves me! This I know….” Do we really? Do we really KNOW that indeed He loves us? We sing, “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” Do we really know what He has given to us? Do we want what He has given to us? Deep down, beyond all the discouragement and bravado, have you been able to grasp that “Jesus loves me”? He does! He really does! And your life will change the moment that you grasp that fact: “Jesus loves me!”
When you grasp and embrace and accept in your heart the love that God has sent to you in Jesus, then you’ll be able to sing the Sixth Century Celtic prayer:
Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart
None other is aught but the King of the seven heavens.
Be thou my meditation by day and night.
May it be thou that I behold even in my sleep.
Be thou my speech, be thou my understanding.
Be thou with me, be I with thee
Be thou my father, be I thy son.
Mayst thou be mine, may I be thine.
With some versification and modernization of the text, we sing it as “Be Thou My Vision.”
“’If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe.’” He is the Messiah, and all that He asks you to believe is the earth-shattering news that God loves you. God loves you. If you start with that, everything else will fall into place.
Prayer: Almighty God, Lord of all creation, help us to know and embrace in our hearts that You stooped to earth to bring us Your love. Strengthen us that we may live our lives in gratitude, loving You and loving one another as You have commanded. In the name of Your love, our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Job 32:1-10,19-33:1,19-28; Acts 13:44-52; John 10:19-30;
Psalm 41, 52 & 44.
You are blessed by God’s love.
Pastor Jim
Comments
Post a Comment