Menacing Windshields Advancing With Intent - October 14, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 14, 2010
Psalm 119:73-96
Hosea 13:9-16
Acts 28:1-16
Luke 9:28-36

Hosea 13:9-16
"I will destroy you, O Israel, who can help you?
Where now is your king, that he may save you?
Where in all your cities are your rulers, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and rulers.'" (v.9-10)
Hosea is pronouncing God's judgment on Israel.  Things are about to fall apart in the northern kingdom of Israel.  God's words remind the people that on the other side of all of the things they would confer power upon (kings and princes for instance) there is ultimate power in the hands of God alone.  I've read in various places about the concept of the "tyranny of the urgent". Typically the idea is that we rush through life from thing to thing that demands our attention, paying attention to the urgent at the expense of stepping back and leaving a moment or several for long term thinking and considerations.  It's a recipe for a non-reflective life, the life of a bug desperately trying to avoid menacing windshields advancing with intent.  This passage gives another dimension to the tyranny of the urgent idea - we pay attention and homage to the most immediate power on the horizon.  Be it king or prince or boss or celebrity.  We encounter what appears to be a repository of power and we are drawn in for a closer look.  They can be magnetic and irresistible.  And they are close by, right here, right now.  Like the folks in Hosea's Israel we can forget that the power of this world is illusory.  When pushed to the brink we may remember this and cry out to God for help.  How much more depth might we find in our lives if we could more regularly remember the power resides now and always with God and live our lives and make our decisions with that reality in sight?

Acts 28:1-16
The Acts passage echoes the above point.  The storm threatens to destroy the ship and kill everyone on it.  The storm strips away the difference between the caste system of the ship, between crew and prisoners, at this point they are all people whose lives are in danger.

Luke 9:18-27
And finally Luke weighs in with this - "What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?"(v.25)  Gain the power of the kings and princes and CEO's and national leaders and at the end of the day who is in charge?  Still God who is still looking at the faithfulness of our response to whatever gifts and resources have been placed in our path.