Caught in the Trap?

~~~ 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30 ~~~ Psalm 84 ~~~ Mark 7:1-13 ~~~

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

The Pharisees and some scribes became
increasingly caught up in the letter of the law.
The rules and rituals became more important than God.

We must keep up our guard so that
we do not get caught in the very same trap.
If we get caught in being too vigilant in following the rules
we may lose sight of the truly loveliness of God.

Our worship space is a reminder to me of the loveliness of God.
This is why we design our churches in such a manner
 to lift up our hearts to God.

The dwelling place of God is one of love and acceptance.
The dwelling place of God is not about where you stand,
how you walk, or is the book in exactly the 'right' position.....

Many times I feel for our sacristans because their
role in every liturgy is to make sure that all is in
place and ready for the service.

I often wonder if they have the chance to just be...
to be fully present to the Lord.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.

Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees and the scribes.
We do want everything to be perfect.
It is imperative that we also preserve the spirit
of our Christian calling.

As we count down the hours until Ash Wednesday
I invite you to consider worrying less about the rules,
laws, or rituals and more about deepening your relationship with Jesus.

Let this Lent be a time of complete
abandonment to the loveliness of the Lord.

Allow him to bring out the best in your heart.

Let God plump up your soul with his unconditional love.
Ask God to show you how to love like him.
If we can love more like Jesus the
laws and the rituals will pale in comparison.
We will not get caught in the trap of the letter of the law.

Blessings through the loveliness of God.

~~~Peace~~~

Fury in the Temple

St. Gregory the Great, pray for us.

~~~ 1 Cor 2:1-5 ~~~ Psalm 119 ~~~ Luke 4: 16-30 ~~~

 

Paul acknowledges his weakness as a human,

"...I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling..."

Even though Paul was convicted in mission to preach

he was careful not to assume credit for his messages.

Paul knew without a doubt that he was speaking the words from God.

 

He writes about his preaching

 "...with a demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God..."

 

Sometimes I am envious of Paul and others

who were confident that they were being 

directly inspired from God himself.

Each day I just write from what comes into my heart

and can only hope that it is a tiny piece of God's inspiration.

I certainly attempt at being open to whatever he has to reveal.

 

The Gospel reading for today from Luke is the beautiful passage

of Jesus at home in the temple.

He is in the town of Nazareth where he grew up as a young child.

He went with the other men into the temple as was the custom.

He stood to read and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

 

His eyes were drawn to this section...

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

 

While those present were impressed with his eloquent manner

of speaking they could not get past his background.

"Is this not the son of Joseph?"

 

We do not know much about Joseph the men of Nazareth

most likely knew him well.

Perhaps he had done carpentry work for them.

Why was he not with Jesus in the temple that day?

Could Joseph read?

There is so much about Joseph that we do not know.

But the comments filled with doubt about his abilities

indicate their surprise.

 

Jesus did not try to change their minds or argue with them in his defense;

he simply stated this fact...

"Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place."

 

Jesus accepted this truth.

He did not let it stop him in any way.

I have often thought how sad it was for those who

lived with Jesus as he was growing up to not be able to believe

that he was the one.

He was the one the prophets had so frequently written about.

There he was standing, living in their midst and

 they were trapped by their traditional thinking.

 

I think we suffer this same entrapment more often than we realize.

That day Jesus goes on to give them numerous examples

of similar situations the prophets had experienced in years past.

 

For some reason this infuriated them. They were filled with fury.

Fury? What a strong word.

We think of fury being used to describe the mighty

ocean waves churning up the ocean waters.

Fury is extreme anger...wild and violent unrestrained anger.

Why did his words incite them so much that day?

What exactly did he say that struck such a strong response?

 

In fact they were so incensed that they were not only going to run him out of town. They were intending to force him over the cliff.

Their desire was to kill him that very day.

They had transitioned from being in awe of how he spoke

to believing

they would be better off if he were dead.

 

As it turns out we actually are better off with his death.

Of course they had no idea what his death

would cause for all of eternity.

 

 

Does it frighten you how quickly humans can change?

One minute you can be the 'golden child' and in the next

breath you can be banned from all contact with others.

We are so fickle at times.

When things are going our way God is great and all is well with the world.

When the tides change and things are not going so well

it takes real commitment

to keep believing that God is great.

It takes strong faith.

 

Some even resort to fury against God

for the unpleasant events in their life.

Dear Lord, help me to see you at work in my life

in spite of not having my way.