Wednesday Reflection, March 25, 2020

In the Potter’s Hands!

On your redeeming name we call,
Poor and unworthy though we be; pardon and sanctify us all; let each your full salvation see.
-J Montgomery

Greetings friends! Today’s watchword comes to us from Isaiah 29:16 ‘You turn things upside down! Shall the Potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing made say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, ‘He has no understanding ‘?

Isaiah 29 may be separated into several parts. The chapter on a whole looks at the cause and cure of spiritual blindness but as with all stories, there are sub topics/ headings.

First, Jerusalem is warned of a siege, there’s a divine promise of relief; then came a prophecy of spiritual unconscious, a repetition of Israel’s warning and then the restorative promises made to the people are renewed.

Brothers and sisters,
today we are reminded of the fact that Jerusalem, a great city was warmed by the prophet Isaiah that it would be brought to abject humiliation and extreme supplication. Now imagine that. Friends, all of us can attest that when our parents punished us or we now punish our own children that it is always from a place of love and purpose.

Jerusalem and the Israelites were and are still very dear to the Lord however, pride and boastfulness and ignorance of heart, lip service and all those things are not what the Lord requires of us. In our context, we have all experienced pride and have had reason to boast but what and whom do we boast of or about? 1 Corinthians 1:31 states that, “those who boast, boasts in the Lord.”

If we have gotten to a place where we are only offering lip service, speaking and doing things expected of us but our hearts are not bowed before the Lord, God is not pleased! And He is not to be mocked. Culture now dictates who some things can happen to and has caused many of us to believe we are and will always be exempt from judgement and the wrath of the Lord.

We’ve read of many battles recorded in sctipture, said Isaiah 29 gives the account of the Prophet’s warning of an impending siege. Although eons ago, I’d like to liken our current situation to that time. We, you and I, and the world all over have become besieged by covid-19. Some may have heeded warnings , others may have not.

Brothers and sisters, amidst the chaos and uncertainty that plague our minds. May we be reminded that sometimes the only way God can show us He is in control is to put us in situations that we can’t control.

In thinking of ourselves and how inconvenienced we have been, may we turn our focus toward praying and helping in whatever ways we can, those who have been quarantined,those who are fighting this virus, the patients, doctors and other medical practitioners, their loved ones, members of governments all over and even those among us who appear to be in denial.

In St. Luke 22:31-32 Jesup said, “Simon, Simon (Peter) listen! Satan has demanded permission to sift (all of) you like grain; but I have prayed (especially for you Peter) that your faith and confidence in me may not fail; and once you have turned back again (to me) strengthen and support your brothers in the faith.”

Finally my, brethren, I pray that our hope in God will be renewed, our faith will grow and we will humble our hearts before the Lord our God, our Maker.

Amen!

Kerone Lamoth

Tuesday Reflection – March 24, 2020 A Just and Kind God

As the world scrambles to respond to the spread of COVID 19, many stories have been surfacing of persons using unjust ways to profit from the misery of others. One such story is of two brothers in Tennessee who mass purchased hand sanitizers, stored them in different states and when it became scarce, began to sell at an astronomically high profit margin. This caused public outrage as their practice was decried as unjust and therefore unkind. Today’s Watchword describes a character of God which is opposite to human injustice. Psalm 145: 17 The Lord is just in all His ways, and kind in all His doings. This is a potent reminder in a world where profit at any cost is king and where kindness is seen as weakness. Contrasting this world view or practice is the God we serve who is just and kind. 

To say that God is just is to say that God is perfectly fair in all his dealings. None of His creation is treated with partiality over another. Think of Adam and Eve, the crown of creation. When they disobeyed God by eating the apple, the sentence of death was passed on them but they were allowed to live and humanity was given ordinances to remind us of our sinfulness and our need for repentance. The sentence of death was carried out when God became flesh, lived among us in the form of His only begotten son who made the ultimate sacrifice of himself in our place on Calvary’s cross. God’s justice tells us that sin will not escape God’s punishment no matter how long it takes. Note that the text says that God is just in all His ways, not some of His ways. Human justice is laced with favoritism, bribery, nonchalance, and a flawed sense of right and wrong. God’s justice is completely pure and holy in every way. Life for us wouldn’t be the same if God was not just. Thoughts of a just God causes even those at the highest levels of societal leadership to act with justice. That is what gives us hope in an unjust world. Thomas Jefferson said: ‘My heart trembles when I think that God is just’.     

We cannot speak of God being just and not also add that God is kind. In the same way that God is just to all creation, the text tells us that God is kind in all that God does. His kindness extends beyond those who are loving and obedient even to those who are ‘ungrateful and wicked’ (Luke 6: 35). It was this kindness of God that sent Jesus to the cross in Adam’s place, in your place in my place. It was this kindness that David experienced when he penned Psalm 34: 6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. David had run from the frying pan into the fire as we say. He had escaped Saul who wanted to kill him, only to be brought before Acish King of the Philistines at whose hands he also faced death. As he later reflected David knew that only the kindness or the mercy of God had saved him from both. God does not treat us as our sinfulness demands but tempers justice with kindness. As a result we who deserve the wages of sin which is death, are allowed to choose the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ. For St. Francis of Assisi nothing is more humbling than knowing that in spite of what we have done against God, God still extends His kindness to us through the gift of eternal life attained by the sacrifice of His Son. This, friends is kindness, it is mercy, it is grace. John Piper says that it is a sin not to cherish the grace (or kindness) of God. Psalm 103 reminds us that God is merciful and kind. Vs 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve  or repay us according to our iniquities. He is indeed a just and kind God. As we reflect in the midst of this crisis I have heard many theories including some that says that God is punishing us for our sinfulness with this disease. This is not true as everyone is affected and God is merciful to all, not some. What we can say with certainty is that God is in the midst of all that is happening. He is leading the medical field as the search is on for a vaccine. He is in the neighbor who has noticed the others around them for the first time. He is present in acts of love and kindness that has increased because of this pandemic. He is present as the worshipping community finds creative ways of gathering together for worship without being physically together. I pray that we may praise God for being just and kind even as the world experiences that just and kind God through us.  Amen
Bevon White