High Stakes - September 1 2010

Daily Lectionary for September 1, 2010Psalm 92
Job 12:1, 14:1-22
Acts 12:18-25
John 8:47-59

Job 12:1, 14:1-22
Couple of random thoughts out of the Job 14 passage related to sayings of Jesus.  First Job 14:4, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" reminds me of Jesus discussion of the harmful things not being the external things, but that which is within.  Second, Job 14:7, "For there is hope for tree, if it is cut down that it will sprout again, and that it's shoots will not cease." brings to mind Jesus direction to cut down that which does not produce, perhaps with the second part of this statement in mind - cut it down and let it begin again.

Acts 12:18-25 and John 8:47-59
Both of these passages feature some of the risk and danger that seems to attach itself to Jesus and the journey of faith.  In Acts we have the aftermath of Peter's deliverance from prison.  While cause for joy for Jesus and the believers who had been praying for his release it turns out to be bad news for the guards who were supposed to be watcing him.  Herod has them executed.  The powers that be feel threatened by these people of the Way and someone must be made to pay.  In the John passage Jesus is debating with some of the Jewish leadership.  They suggest he is possessed of a demon.  Jesus denies this and talks about his relationship with his Father.  The scene turns fron discussion to ugly and concludes with v.59, "So they picke up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.  Again the powers that be feel threatened, this time by Jesus' words that they do not understand; the means to deal with this seems to be not further discussion, but finding a good size rock.  Faith is no smooth ride once can infer.  Following Jesus is no guarantee of days of ease.  And I've not even brought Job into the discussion - he surely would have a few things to say about hardship.  Important for me to keep passages like these before me when I feel like things are unneccesarily difficult.  I haven't begun to have anything approaching this type of difficulty in life and sometimes, apparently, when we follow Jesus this is the sort of thing that will be part of the journey.  The stakes are high - this is important stuff.