Tuesday, March 3

Lessons from the Daily Lectionary – Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Psalms 28, 46; Deuteronomy 9:1-12; Hebrews 3:1-11; John 2:13-22

Meditation: There is some shaking and quaking going on in our readings for today. God isn’t backing down from that. In fact, the shake-ups become God’s venue for change. Don’t be afraid. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea. . . (Psalm 46:1-2).

A couple of books come to mind as I read today’s scripture passages – John McCain’s testimonial called Why Courage Matters and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s must-read Team of Rivals, the story of Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency (showing his genius at making bonds with former political rivals to the end of saving the nation even as he made big, big changes in the way we lived). Both books speak to how amazing courage arises in the moments of greatest danger, leading to feats of not only heroism, but hope. The hope also grasps hold of a moment as an opportunity for change and newness. Although there’s some shaking going on, it ain’t necessarily such a bad thing.

Jesus is the master of such courage and change. The writer of Hebrews is claiming this crown for Jesus, highlighting his leadership as one who leads us beyond the wayward reception of change that characterized the Hebrew people in their Exodus through the wilderness. Deuteronomy has something to commend to us in its comments that the gift of the Promised Land to the Hebrews did not come as due to their own righteous deeds. Quite the contrary, their trust in God was pathetic. They were receiving what they did not deserve. Yet, God is good, nonetheless. God keeps at us to gives us what is good.

We see some of the frustration of God in the spectacle of Jesus’ overturning the tables of the moneychangers, in the reading from John. This story too often becomes a stumbling block because we focus so much on the indignation. What we ought to see instead is Jesus’ passion for what fulfills God’s good purposes for us. Jesus sees prayer not as a bargain made with God that is bought and paid for at the Temple. His passion is for the kind of prayer where in presenting ourselves before God, we might be made different.

In our national economic life, we find ourselves in a shaky situation. Let us take courage from today’s scriptures, that the moment of danger might be seen for what God may make of it – an opportunity for change, hope and newness. Let us see prayer as the activity where we ourselves can be transformed into those who find a way to be better children of God and better stewards of God’s blessings of the land, of the earth.

Prayer: God, Ground of our Being, let us plant our feet firmly upon the foundations of your good will for us. Let us take strength in our faith, while we also open our eyes wide to the opportunities for living in right ways before you, for living rightly in the land that you give as a blessing and promise. Let our prayer today, echo what wise Ghandi said, that we must be the change that we wish to see in the world. Bless you Lord, for the earthquake and for the courage to trust you in the midst of it. Amen.