PENTECOST • 33

Are we really familiar with God’s love?

This week’s readings invites us to look at different aspects of God’s great love.

reading for: 23 June

Mark 5:12-43

Part 2 of ‘Who is this man?’ (Mark 4:41) The discovery journey continues this week!

  • READ

Today’s reading shows a typical ‘Markian Sandwich’, a literary structure frequently used by the writer of this book. This is when the writer Mark takes a story and ‘sandwiches’ in between another story. In this case, the story of Jarius’ sick daughter sandwiches the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Suffice to say for the purposes of this light reading, Mark likely wanted for us to see both these stories in the context of one another and intended for the similarities and differences of the two stories to accentuate certain points.

For the similarities, we find both subjects were female and in need of healing from Jesus. They were also both ‘unclean’ according to the Jewish customs of the day (one was dead and the other had an issue of blood). They both had physical contact with Jesus (regardless of who initiated it). This is noteworthy because this would mean based on Jewish Law that Jesus would have been deemed unclean too (i.e. touching the dead or people labelled as unclean). However, Jesus did not deem them a bother nor was He concerned about these things. And they both received healing from Jesus. They were both treated with respect and with endearment through the terms use. ‘Daughter’ being a familial form of endearment, and ‘taitha’ (‘little girl’) in Greek having its root term related to a ‘little lamb’.

The differences are important as well. The highlighted women were both young (child) and old (grown-up) and of different social classes. One from a well-known and respected family and the other, unknown and poor having spent all she had on treatment (not to mention that her issue of blood meant that she was constantly labelled as unclean and by necessity socially isolated as well).  One approached Jesus on her own volition and touched Him, while the other had Jesus brought to her and is touched by Jesus. One had a very public encounter with Jesus while the other had a very private one.

I would like to suggest that these accounts were carefully chosen not just because they captured Jesus’ power to heal but so that we may begin to consider “who is this man…?” (Mark 4:41) and perhaps grasp the heart of the Healer and those He deems worthy of love. Jesus’ love, compassion, posture of endearment (both in a familial and shepherding sense), and His restorative power is meant for and available to all, even the unclean and the least among us. I believe that a woman and a child was also highlighted because they were considered of lesser importance in that time compared to the men who had prominent positions and were more publicly visible.

Today’s reading accentuates the extent of God’s proximity, power, and love that reaches way beyond our definitions of worthiness, societal and cultural standards. His love is gritty, powerful and yet also gentle, near, sensitive and intimate. It is a kind of love and power that is willing, able, readily available, attentive, and not afraid of getting into the thick of things for us. Who is this man? “Oh how great the love. How strong the hand that holds us. Beautiful. So beautiful…”

  • REFLECT

Just as Mark artfully leads us to process and consider the type of Messiah Jesus is through this Markian sandwich, let us make space to let these beautiful revelations of Jesus and His Lordship sink in for us.

Just as Jesus’ life and actions left a mark and challenged people then to reconsider what they knew of God and His Kingdom, we ought to humbly allow the Holy Spirit to challenge our familiarity with God.

What do your biases, worldviews, and values (usually revealed in our choices and actions) tell us about who is Jesus to you?

Do we have something that we need/want to come to Jesus for in our own lives? Or do we have needs of others that we should be bringing to Jesus (i.e. from our life groups, families and friends)?

Or perhaps, you are like me and have grown laughingly skeptical of God in our own lives.

Let us repent and allow today’s scripture challenge us afresh about the kind of God we are approaching. Share about where you are in your journey of faith with your cell group or a brother/sister in Christ. Let us come to Him together as a church afresh in reverence, faith, and expectation according to His Word and promises for He cares for us.

reading for: 24 June

Lamentations 3:22-33

A love that provides a firm foundation of hope in the midst of pain and suffering

  • READ

    The book of Lamentations is a poetic reflection on the siege Jerusalem by Babylon and the subsequent exile. It serves as a memorial to the pain and confusion of the Israelites that followed this traumatic event in history. Jerusalem had been ransacked and completely destroyed and the people that survived scattered and brought into exile under their oppressor’s rule. Emotions were high (or very low), with much confusion and grief. And it is in this space that Lamentations was written with today’s scripture right smack in the middle of this biblical poem of lament; forming an anchoring point in their lament.

    With the above context one can now better capture the tone of this beautiful portion of scripture. To be hopeful in God’s character amid all the very real pain and suffering experienced. Suffering tends to cause us to ask questions about God’s character and promises. It can often be unraveling and causes us to reconsider what we think we know of God and life. The book of Lamentations articulates this space in a way that holds in dignity this real place of pain, doubts and tension in our relationship and interaction with God.

    Of note, our portion of scripture also tells us that it is the Lord that laid this affliction, suffering and disgrace on them (v28) and that he is the one that brought them grief (v32). In our everyday profession of God as a loving God, passages like these challenges us to reconsider the way we think of God’s love. We like to think of the warm and fussy side of love but find it hard to reconcile that with pain and suffering. If we allow ourselves, we may find ourselves wondering along the lines of ‘if God is love then why did that good person have to die?’ ‘Why did this have to happen to me?’ ‘Why am I in so much pain and suffering?’ ‘Why is there sin in this world?’ ‘Why expose us to evil in the first place?’ What’s more, here we see a God who is not beyond afflicting us and exposing us to very real shame, guilt and disgrace. How can a loving God afflict His people? How can a loving God allow the destruction and capture of His people? Surely that is too much!

    While the topic of sin and suffering is way beyond the confines of this write-up, today’s reading invites us to re-examine our understandings of God’s love so that we may find a much deeper, wider, longer and higher kind of love. One that holds as a firm anchor even amid difficult and turbulent times in our lives. One thing that the author does remind us of is that the Lord does not take joy in bringing affliction and grief (v33). And most of all that despite of the crazy things going on, they will not be consumed (v22).

    While we often shun or repress our doubts, shame, pain, and ugliness, today’s reading actually encourages us to own them (Lamentations 3: 25-30) and be unashamed about working it out authentically before God. Just as God is righteous and consistent to judge sin and exact his judgments (read Lamentations 2), He is also unfailing in His mercies and compassion (Lamentations 3:22-23). Hebrews 12:6-13 informs us that God disciplines and afflicts us because He loves us as His precious children.

    It is then no wonder that today’s scripture leads in with ‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for your compassions never fail’ (v22)! This provides the bedrock for the writer’s invitation and encouragement to bear one’s yoke (v27), to repent in dust (v29), to allow guilt and shame run its course (v30), and to wait expectantly for the Lord’s deliverance and salvation (v26). It is on foundations like these that 1 John 1:7 invites us to walk in the light just as God is in the light that the blood of Jesus can cleanse us of all sin and that we can have true fellowship with one another.

  • REFLECT

    Listen to the lyrics of the song ‘Blessings’ by Laura Story (I have included a portion below). Take some time to think about difficult things that you or someone you know is dealing with. Meditate on today’s scripture and spend some time in prayer. How does today scripture interact with the situations or circumstances that came to mind? Share with your cell group or a brother/sister in Christ who can journey with you in this personal or intercessory process. Let us continue to remain anchored through ‘Eating, Praying, and Growing’ with one another and allow the Spirit to take us deeper in Him. Borrowing the words of Paul in Ephesians 3:16-19, my prayer for each of us is this:

    “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God... to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

    Lyrics from ‘Blessings’ by Laura Story

    ‘What if our blessings come through rain drops?
    What if our healing comes through tears.
    What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near?
    What if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise? When friend betray us, when darkness seems to win we know the pain reminds us that this is not, this is not our home.  
    What if our greatest disappointments and the aching of this heart is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy?
    What if trials of this life, the rain, the storm, the hardest nights are your mercies in disguise?’

reading for: 25 June

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

A love that charges us to partake in Jesus’ life

  • READ

    Today’s reading sits within a letter written to the Corinthian church to address certain problems; primarily that the Corinthians had forsaken following Jesus and had began to be swayed by ‘more successful and well-to-do’ leaders and ‘apostles’. In short, as a dear father to his children, Paul wanted their faith to be anchored on Jesus and bear fruits evidenced in transformed lives.

    Within such a context, in chapter 8 Paul addressed the issue of their generosity which had been sidelined. The Corinthians had previously eagerly committed to giving in order to help the Jewish Christians who had been struggling with poverty due to a famine. Unfortunately, in their conflict with Paul, they had not saved up for it. Paul challenged them in this aspect not because of money per se but rather because it showed they had not been transformed by the Gospel, the good news of Jesus’ generous heart towards us.

    Paul explains this using a financial metaphor (v 9), “For you know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, that even though He was rich, for your sake became poor. So that through His poverty you may become rich!”. In other words, Jesus our heavenly King emptied Himself entirely to die for us on the cross as a poor rejected slave so that we who are impoverish by sin and death may be made ‘rich’ by God’s grace. It is in pointing them to follow in Jesus’ example that Paul challenged them to let their eager willingness be completed in their giving (v11). He makes it clear that it is not even about the amount, for a gift is acceptable to God based on what they have and not what they do not have (v12).

    Today’s passage reminds us that being a Christian is to be someone who allows these truths to take deep roots in our hearts and mind. So that by His Spirit our lives will be transformed into Jesus’ likeness. God’s love cannot and should not lay dormant but should work its way to completion, with evidence in our transformed lives.

  • REFLECT

    Did you know that the early church never called themselves ‘Christians’? They simply lived out a certain kind of life that caused people around them to note their exemplary existence and impact especially amongst the rejected, marginalized, poor and needy in different communities. Observers called them ‘followers of the way’ because their lives reflected how they followed Jesus Christ. I cannot help but find myself thinking that it maybe helpful for us if we stopped calling ourselves Christians and see if people can figure that out themselves; or at least ask us for an account of the way we live our lives. Perhaps then we would also get an accurate reflection of who is it we follow.

    Take time today to take stock of your own life and if you can your family and cell group. What kind of testimony does it give? While I sincerely hope most of us can say that our lives and the lives of our community fully reflects that of our Messiah, the truth is that we all probably have many misalignments.

    That is why it is important for us to stay connected as Christ followers in this time to eat, pray and grow in the outworking of our faith. That is why we do not slack in our Christian disciplines to meditate on the Word day and night, to pray without ceasing, to be discipled, to gather in life groups, to come together on Sundays to hear the Word, to worship, and to fellowship. In fact, I would encourage all of us to be involved in some form of discipleship groups or mentoring relationships with the heart to stay accountable in our journey of following Christ. This was one thing that I learned early as a young Christian and am happy that have kept to it. I shall end of today’s reflection with the words of Paul from 2 Corinthians 7:8-12 as I hold this space for us to have some Spirit-led reflection. Shalom and God bless!

    “8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12 So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are.”

reading for: 26 June

Psalm 30

A love that is intimate

  • READ

    The book of Psalms was arranged to encourage and instruct a people in their prayer life while striving to live faithfully. Faithful living as they hoped and waited for the promised Messianic King and His Kingdom. As it was for the people of God then, the Psalms continue to fulfill that same purpose to guide our prayer life even now as we hope and wait for the return of Jesus our King. It is no wonder that the book contains so many poems that capture such intimate and personal details of the poets’ interactions with God.

    What is amazing about these poems is that they actually describe very real experiences that could have been anyone. While the specific individual circumstances and stories many vary, what is consistent is God character, His posture, His attitudes, and the way He deals with us. Though Psalm 30 was composed by David as he described a very personal experience with God, this Psalm could well have described the woman with the issue of blood or Jairus’ child in our Mark reading this week. In fact, it would not be unusual if some of us reading this Psalm may feel like David was speaking for us and our circumstances as well. As I am writing this, I am reminded of a precious brother and sister from our church whose wedding verse was Psalm 30:5. This could very well have been their Psalm!

    Such is the complex dynamics of such poems in that while it is personal and intimate, it is also communal. That is why David can call his fellow ‘faithful ones’ to praise God with him. And as he gives reasons of why they should praise him (v5), he was not trying very hard to convince those around to praise God because of what God has done for him. Rather, David was simply welcoming them to praise God with him because these realities are true for them too. As he shared deeper details of his personal journey with God (v1-3, 6-7), his personal prayer interactions with God (v2, 8-10), as well as God’s response to him (v11-12), these too were likely things that people would identify with or could at least look forward to because that is just who God is! So yes, let me end with this invitation from Psalm 30:5 itself.
     
    ‘Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
    For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime;
    weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.’ – Psalm 30:5

    “Oh let us exalt His name together forever, Oh sing His praises and worship the Lord!”

  • REFLECT

    What can we recount in our journey with God? Whether it is in lament or in praise let us take time this weekend to do this personally, with our friends, family, and life group as we eat, pray, and grow together. It is beautiful for His people to come together to testify, praise, and worship Him together. He is truly a wonderful God that is worthy of our worship and praise. Let us exalt His name together!

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