Monday, March 12, 2012

1 Corinthians 1 vs. 20

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? NRSV

Let us not think too highly of ourselves. God is the repository of wisdom. He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Our wisdom is not wisdom until we know the heart of God. Wisdom is knowing God; serving Him and keeping His commandments. Wisdom is making the best of each and every day knowing that it is a privilege and not a right. Wisdom is fulfilling the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ following the example he left us; for how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Sunday, March 11, 2012

John 2: 13-15

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. NRSV

Contrary to the picture portrayed of Jesus in movies of a feeble, gentle, goody-two-shoes Jesus, the Jesus of the gospels was a radical. He must have been hardy to go up against Jewish leaders, religious giants and public officials. The turning over of the tables in the temple was no small matter. In his book Politics of Jesus Professor Obery Hendricks, Jr. writes, ‘As we have seen, in his own time Jesus was a strongly political figure who had a deep commitment to the economic, political and social well-being of his people. Yet in our time he has become meek, mild, and decidedly nonpolitical. How exactly did this remarkable transformation take place?’ You see, Jesus was not all words and no action- to the contrary he followed up his words with actions and sometimes vice-versa. He was always among the people, feeding them, healing them and helping them solve issues that were pertinent to them. The Jesus of the gospels was radical! To say we are conservatives, to say we do not want to rock the boat, to say we do not want to overturn any tables is not only a copout but is downright ungodly! We must, like Jesus seek justice and freedom and peace for the oppressed of the earth- to do less would be to renege on our promise to follow Jesus Christ. So, in your own small way, do some good today; because as the old folk would say, ‘every stream brings down the river’.