Epiphany 3
Devotional
Streams of Living Water
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle B
Object:
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Now the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
-- Jonah 3:5
Despite all the programs developed to alter people's behavior, there is still a mystery as to why people suddenly change. The setting for this tale of the infinite expanse of God's grace and mercy is the sudden change of heart among the Ninevites. The tale confronts believers with a challenge to their normal assumptions. Nothing is said about a conversion of the Ninevites that took place. All that is suggested is that the Ninevites believed that God would punish them if they did not repent and therefore they repented. While there is much to be said for faith-based programs to change people's lives, this tale suggests that change might come about in the lives of people who have not decided to join the community of faith. It also suggests that God is responsive to behavioral change and shows mercy to nonbelievers who want to turn their lives around.
While the scripture is clear that we are saved by faith and not by works, there is still a hint that God is responsive to pure behavior. The Ninevites are very pragmatic in their decision. "Who knows? God may relent and change his mind ... so that we do not perish" (v. 9). Are we too quick to demand that people must conform to our way of believing before God will help them? Perhaps God is more complex than that.
Psalm 62:5-12
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
-- Psalm 62:5
In our noisy world, too often we overlook the power of silence. It is almost impossible to find a place in which we can experience absolute silence. If we are to discover the depth of silence, we are going to have to practice coming to silence within ourselves. We are going to have to move beyond words, even words formed in our thought patterns, and reach for God beyond all images, thoughts, and noise. There is a powerful healing that can take place when we set aside all attempts to form words or listen to sounds and simply rest in the mystery that is totally beyond our comprehension. Here, outside of any thought pattern, is the God who is our rock and our refuge. After all the doctrinal disputes are done, all the arguments about ethics have grown stale, and even the worship patterns have grown cold, there is still God who is there for us. This is the God that we can go to in all honesty and vulnerability. "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" (v. 8). That may be the hardest promise to trust of all.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
For the present form of this world is passing away.
-- 1 Corinthians 7:31b
This is a strange set of verses that seem to be based on Paul's assumption that the end of the age is very near. What is about to happen is so critical and contrary to the ordinary that it calls for a whole new response. We get some understanding of this if we think about how we respond to a crisis. Say you had a set of appointments and responsibilities laid out for the day and then suddenly a member of your family was in a serious accident. Immediately what is important and how you order your time is drastically changed. This does not devalue what you originally had planned, and you will likely return to it eventually. But for the moment, there is a different set of priorities.
With the impending coming of Christ, our domestic priorities and our personal feelings no longer dominate, and our commercial and economic activities are viewed from an entirely new perspective. And later, when we do return to those other activities, we view them differently. We recognize that what we may have given top priority before is really of useful but only secondary importance.
In a mild way, you might get some feeling for this by reflecting on what you have been focusing on as vitally important for the past year and then asking yourself, "If I knew that Christ was coming tomorrow, how would I view these concerns differently?" From that perspective, you may get a better sense of what God wants you to consider as of primary importance. The rest can still be enjoyed but must be seen as secondary.
Mark 1:14-20
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."
-- Mark 1:17
While we normally read Jesus' calling his disciples as a change in their vocation, there may be a sense that the real change was in the perspective with which they engaged in their vocation. It would be possible to continue to fish after you became a disciple of Jesus, but the purpose of your fishing would be altered. Before, you may have been fishing to see how many fish you could catch and, therefore, how much money you could receive for them. Now the purpose of your fishing is to feed people.
As will be clear as we continue to read about the ministry of Jesus, the focus of the life that he offered was never to secure wealth, security, or status.
It was always about reaching out to others, especially those who may have felt excluded, and healing their wounds. Our vocation or calling might cause us to be engaged in any number of ways to exercise the gifts that we have been given. Yet the true measuring stick is not what we do but how other people are affected by what we do. As we go throughout the day or as we reflect on the accomplishments of our work, are people's lives being enhanced? Are people discovering that they, too, are children of a loving God and therefore of value in the unfolding of God's story in this universe? Jesus' call shapes how we do what we do, and we all discover that we are called to "full-time ministry."
Now the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
-- Jonah 3:5
Despite all the programs developed to alter people's behavior, there is still a mystery as to why people suddenly change. The setting for this tale of the infinite expanse of God's grace and mercy is the sudden change of heart among the Ninevites. The tale confronts believers with a challenge to their normal assumptions. Nothing is said about a conversion of the Ninevites that took place. All that is suggested is that the Ninevites believed that God would punish them if they did not repent and therefore they repented. While there is much to be said for faith-based programs to change people's lives, this tale suggests that change might come about in the lives of people who have not decided to join the community of faith. It also suggests that God is responsive to behavioral change and shows mercy to nonbelievers who want to turn their lives around.
While the scripture is clear that we are saved by faith and not by works, there is still a hint that God is responsive to pure behavior. The Ninevites are very pragmatic in their decision. "Who knows? God may relent and change his mind ... so that we do not perish" (v. 9). Are we too quick to demand that people must conform to our way of believing before God will help them? Perhaps God is more complex than that.
Psalm 62:5-12
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
-- Psalm 62:5
In our noisy world, too often we overlook the power of silence. It is almost impossible to find a place in which we can experience absolute silence. If we are to discover the depth of silence, we are going to have to practice coming to silence within ourselves. We are going to have to move beyond words, even words formed in our thought patterns, and reach for God beyond all images, thoughts, and noise. There is a powerful healing that can take place when we set aside all attempts to form words or listen to sounds and simply rest in the mystery that is totally beyond our comprehension. Here, outside of any thought pattern, is the God who is our rock and our refuge. After all the doctrinal disputes are done, all the arguments about ethics have grown stale, and even the worship patterns have grown cold, there is still God who is there for us. This is the God that we can go to in all honesty and vulnerability. "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us" (v. 8). That may be the hardest promise to trust of all.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
For the present form of this world is passing away.
-- 1 Corinthians 7:31b
This is a strange set of verses that seem to be based on Paul's assumption that the end of the age is very near. What is about to happen is so critical and contrary to the ordinary that it calls for a whole new response. We get some understanding of this if we think about how we respond to a crisis. Say you had a set of appointments and responsibilities laid out for the day and then suddenly a member of your family was in a serious accident. Immediately what is important and how you order your time is drastically changed. This does not devalue what you originally had planned, and you will likely return to it eventually. But for the moment, there is a different set of priorities.
With the impending coming of Christ, our domestic priorities and our personal feelings no longer dominate, and our commercial and economic activities are viewed from an entirely new perspective. And later, when we do return to those other activities, we view them differently. We recognize that what we may have given top priority before is really of useful but only secondary importance.
In a mild way, you might get some feeling for this by reflecting on what you have been focusing on as vitally important for the past year and then asking yourself, "If I knew that Christ was coming tomorrow, how would I view these concerns differently?" From that perspective, you may get a better sense of what God wants you to consider as of primary importance. The rest can still be enjoyed but must be seen as secondary.
Mark 1:14-20
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people."
-- Mark 1:17
While we normally read Jesus' calling his disciples as a change in their vocation, there may be a sense that the real change was in the perspective with which they engaged in their vocation. It would be possible to continue to fish after you became a disciple of Jesus, but the purpose of your fishing would be altered. Before, you may have been fishing to see how many fish you could catch and, therefore, how much money you could receive for them. Now the purpose of your fishing is to feed people.
As will be clear as we continue to read about the ministry of Jesus, the focus of the life that he offered was never to secure wealth, security, or status.
It was always about reaching out to others, especially those who may have felt excluded, and healing their wounds. Our vocation or calling might cause us to be engaged in any number of ways to exercise the gifts that we have been given. Yet the true measuring stick is not what we do but how other people are affected by what we do. As we go throughout the day or as we reflect on the accomplishments of our work, are people's lives being enhanced? Are people discovering that they, too, are children of a loving God and therefore of value in the unfolding of God's story in this universe? Jesus' call shapes how we do what we do, and we all discover that we are called to "full-time ministry."
