Lent 4, Tuesday (Day 28)
Jeremiah 17:19-27
FINALLY. A tiny glimmer of hope appears. The people of Judah are given a chance to make some sort of amends for their transgressions. Granted, there is a catch, but for Jeremiah to have ANYthing positive in there at all provides me with some much needed relief. I was speaking with my spiritual director (SD) today and I told her that I was having issues with Jeremiah. She acknowledged that Jeremiah is one of the toughest books in the Bible, but said that sometimes we do need fire and brimstone in order to catch our attention, to make us snap out of living life on autopilot and actually live out the Gospel. I agree, but I told her that for me Jeremiah was TOO negative. I tend to view myself as a worthless human being on a daily basis--I don't need Jeremiah to make me feel worse. Now, I know deep down that I am not worthless. I really do. I just feel like I need to keep myself down, keep myself in check so that I don't get too arrogant. My SD said that to think that we are worthless is kind of an insult to God; after all, we were made in God's image, and if we actually were completely worthless, why would God have sent God's Son to save us? She also said that so often we have the view of Jesus as a complete "wimp." But Jesus was no wimp, he was a revolutionary. I mean, he is constantly throwing everything we know and take for granted in the air, flipping the world upside down. After more than 2000 years his words and witness still can touch our lives today. I can feel him reaching out, trying so desperately to get us to see his vision for our world. It's our job to help make that vision a reality.
Romans 7:13-25
"I do not understand my own actions...I can will what is right, but I cannot do it...Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
At last we have a more humble version of Paul. I can actually relate to him here. How many of us try to do what is right but keep failing miserably? I don't know how many times I try to talk myself out of doing something wrong or talk myself into doing something right, and I end up just sitting there. My SD called it "living in the neutral." We are so afraid of making the wrong move that we remain stationary, and how many problems does that solve? None. I have a bag that I got from the Natl. Holocaust Museum that has a quote from Dante: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." We must be the prophetic voices. We must be God's hands in the world. We must feed the hungry, care for the sick, comfort the lonely, rescue the oppressed, forgive the unforgivable. We have the ability to end world hunger. We do. There is so much hope, so much potential for the human race--and for the world. I look around, and even though we are a mess, even though we are hopelessly screwed up, I still love life, I still love people. There really is a lot to love out there.
John 6:15-27
"Jesus answered them, 'Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.' "
This made me think of a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." I wonder if the people Jesus fed on the hilltop were starving. I know that they were hungry for some Good News, but maybe they were so hungry that they couldn't concentrate on anything until their basic needs were met. It's so simple, really. Find people who are hungry, thirsty, and sick. Give them the food, water, and medication that they need. If they ask why you are going out of your way to help people you don't know, explain to them that your God calls you to do that. Jesus calls us to love one another, to take care of each other. Perhaps, once their needs are met, they will find that they have a hunger for spiritual things instead of just physical. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (a theory of personality) illustrates this perfectly:
This is how we should evangelize, in my opinion: by following God's New Covenant (love your neighbor as yourself) we will be sharing the Good News with the world.
FINALLY. A tiny glimmer of hope appears. The people of Judah are given a chance to make some sort of amends for their transgressions. Granted, there is a catch, but for Jeremiah to have ANYthing positive in there at all provides me with some much needed relief. I was speaking with my spiritual director (SD) today and I told her that I was having issues with Jeremiah. She acknowledged that Jeremiah is one of the toughest books in the Bible, but said that sometimes we do need fire and brimstone in order to catch our attention, to make us snap out of living life on autopilot and actually live out the Gospel. I agree, but I told her that for me Jeremiah was TOO negative. I tend to view myself as a worthless human being on a daily basis--I don't need Jeremiah to make me feel worse. Now, I know deep down that I am not worthless. I really do. I just feel like I need to keep myself down, keep myself in check so that I don't get too arrogant. My SD said that to think that we are worthless is kind of an insult to God; after all, we were made in God's image, and if we actually were completely worthless, why would God have sent God's Son to save us? She also said that so often we have the view of Jesus as a complete "wimp." But Jesus was no wimp, he was a revolutionary. I mean, he is constantly throwing everything we know and take for granted in the air, flipping the world upside down. After more than 2000 years his words and witness still can touch our lives today. I can feel him reaching out, trying so desperately to get us to see his vision for our world. It's our job to help make that vision a reality.
Romans 7:13-25
"I do not understand my own actions...I can will what is right, but I cannot do it...Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
At last we have a more humble version of Paul. I can actually relate to him here. How many of us try to do what is right but keep failing miserably? I don't know how many times I try to talk myself out of doing something wrong or talk myself into doing something right, and I end up just sitting there. My SD called it "living in the neutral." We are so afraid of making the wrong move that we remain stationary, and how many problems does that solve? None. I have a bag that I got from the Natl. Holocaust Museum that has a quote from Dante: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." We must be the prophetic voices. We must be God's hands in the world. We must feed the hungry, care for the sick, comfort the lonely, rescue the oppressed, forgive the unforgivable. We have the ability to end world hunger. We do. There is so much hope, so much potential for the human race--and for the world. I look around, and even though we are a mess, even though we are hopelessly screwed up, I still love life, I still love people. There really is a lot to love out there.
John 6:15-27
"Jesus answered them, 'Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.' "
This made me think of a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: "There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread." I wonder if the people Jesus fed on the hilltop were starving. I know that they were hungry for some Good News, but maybe they were so hungry that they couldn't concentrate on anything until their basic needs were met. It's so simple, really. Find people who are hungry, thirsty, and sick. Give them the food, water, and medication that they need. If they ask why you are going out of your way to help people you don't know, explain to them that your God calls you to do that. Jesus calls us to love one another, to take care of each other. Perhaps, once their needs are met, they will find that they have a hunger for spiritual things instead of just physical. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (a theory of personality) illustrates this perfectly:
This is how we should evangelize, in my opinion: by following God's New Covenant (love your neighbor as yourself) we will be sharing the Good News with the world.