Thursday, May 26, 2005
Daily Office, Year A, Proper 3, Thursday
Today's Readings:
The word that sprung to mind today is Patience. Psalm 37:17: "The little that the righteous has is better than the great riches of hte wicked." Proverbs 22:4: "The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor in life." Pauls' letter to Timothy tells us to be patient and focus on Godliness. Matthew tells the parable known as "the parable of the weeds among the wheat." A man sows good seed, an evil man comes after and sows weeds. When the servants see this they ask if they should pull up the weeds, and are told not to, because wheat would also be uprooted. When the time comes the weeds will be pulled away first and burned, then the good wheat will be harvested.
I think there's a lesson about evangelism here. First, it starts with "the kingdom of God is like..." and describes what's happening in the present, not in the future. We think of evangelization by getting people to buy in to our way of thinking, we want to replace who they are with who we are, or think we are. I disagree. It was important for the desciples to go out and teach about Jesus, since Jesus didn't have mass media or the force of history to spread his message. Today, we don't really need to tell people about Jesus. Most people know about Jesus in some form. I'm afraid we've popularizd the "tripumphant judge" aspect of Jesus, which isn't found in the historical texts, just the hopes of the future.
In America, we see religion as a personal thing. The litmus test has become "do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?" Then we see people going out and praying in public to try to convert, or bully people into conversion.Jesus taught us to pray privately, but He also told us to be a light to the world (Matthew 5:15). Evangelism should be about bold patience, proclaiming our Faith that God is in charge, and the weeds of humanity will be stripped away on God's terms.
We should be living in the Kingdom of God. Be patient. ¶ 10:26 AM
- Psalm 37:1-18
- Proverbs 21:30-22:6
- 1 Timothy 4:1-16
- Matthew 13:24-30
The word that sprung to mind today is Patience. Psalm 37:17: "The little that the righteous has is better than the great riches of hte wicked." Proverbs 22:4: "The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor in life." Pauls' letter to Timothy tells us to be patient and focus on Godliness. Matthew tells the parable known as "the parable of the weeds among the wheat." A man sows good seed, an evil man comes after and sows weeds. When the servants see this they ask if they should pull up the weeds, and are told not to, because wheat would also be uprooted. When the time comes the weeds will be pulled away first and burned, then the good wheat will be harvested.
I think there's a lesson about evangelism here. First, it starts with "the kingdom of God is like..." and describes what's happening in the present, not in the future. We think of evangelization by getting people to buy in to our way of thinking, we want to replace who they are with who we are, or think we are. I disagree. It was important for the desciples to go out and teach about Jesus, since Jesus didn't have mass media or the force of history to spread his message. Today, we don't really need to tell people about Jesus. Most people know about Jesus in some form. I'm afraid we've popularizd the "tripumphant judge" aspect of Jesus, which isn't found in the historical texts, just the hopes of the future.
In America, we see religion as a personal thing. The litmus test has become "do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?" Then we see people going out and praying in public to try to convert, or bully people into conversion.Jesus taught us to pray privately, but He also told us to be a light to the world (Matthew 5:15). Evangelism should be about bold patience, proclaiming our Faith that God is in charge, and the weeds of humanity will be stripped away on God's terms.
We should be living in the Kingdom of God. Be patient. ¶ 10:26 AM
