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Obedience: I Don’t Think This Word Means What You Think It Means!
Thoughts which carry this broken believer to Jesus, and to the cross:
“Then the LORD spoke his word to Jeremiah: “This is what the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Jeremiah, go and tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem: ‘You should learn a lesson and obey my message,’ says the LORD. ‘Jonadab son of Recab ordered his descendants not to drink wine, and that command has been obeyed. Until today they have obeyed their ancestor’s command; they do not drink wine. But I, the LORD, have given you messages again and again, but you did not obey me. I sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, “Each of you must stop doing evil. You must change and be good. Do not follow other gods to serve them. If you obey me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you have not listened to me or paid attention to my message. The descendants of Jonadab son of Recab obeyed the commands their ancestor gave them, but the people of Judah have not obeyed me.’” (Jeremiah 35:12–16, NCV)
“LORD, your word is everlasting; it continues forever in heaven. Your loyalty will go on and on; you made the earth, and it still stands. All things continue to this day because of your laws, because all things serve you. If I had not loved your teachings, I would have died from my sufferings.” (Psalm 119:89–92, NCV)
It is of design that the apostle does not term the two dispensations “law” and “gospel,” but names them according to the respective effects produced. For it is impossible to keep the law without Christ, though man may, for the sake of honor or property, or from fear of punishment, feign outward holiness. The heart which does not discern God’s grace in Christ cannot turn to God, nor trust in him; it cannot love his commandments and delight in them, but rather resists them.
As I said before, we have merited nothing. Before God called us, there was nothing more than personal wretchedness. Let us realize that the lights shining in our soul (faith), the love wherewith we love (charity), and the desire sustaining us (hope) are all free gifts from God. Were we not to grow in humility, we would soon lose sight of the reason for our having been chosen by God: personal sanctity. If we are humble, we can understand all the marvel of our divine vocation. The hand of Christ has snatched us from a wheat field; the sower squeezes the handful of wheat in his wounded palm. The blood of Christ bathes the seed, soaking it. Then the Lord tosses the wheat to the winds, so that in dying it becomes life and in sinking into the ground it multiplies itself.
As I have meandered through the various parts of God’s church, I have often been encouraged to “obey” God.
Sometimes, I have wondered whether the goal was to live like Christ, or to live within the expectations of those who were encouraging/demanding submission and obedience. Let me be clear, I am not just talking about legalists on one side of the church. Those that want to control behavior exist on both sides. And many of them, are truly sincere, even as they lack the patience and grace that I need to develop the life they have desired.
But more than once, this demand for obedience left me shattered–absolutely convinced that I would never be holy enough to meet the standards they (and therefore?) and God set in my life. It made me wonder about even going to church, never mind being a shepherd of God’s people.
But Biblical obedience isn’t about trying to re-create myself into a clone of Jesus. The words for “obey” come from two words in both Hebrew and Greek. The first concept is to hear- to perceive a message in the sound made, and to give it attention, and the concept of letting those words mold one’s life is inherent in them. The second concept is to treasure something (for example – the Great commission includes the idea to “treasure what I have commissioned/established.)
You see this in Jeremiah’s prophetic message to Israel, as they refuse to hear and act within the guidelines of the relationship established. They won’t have it, they won’t listen! They will, as Luther points out, pretend they are holy, for a variety of reasons–and then take it s a step further–and make others “fake it til they make it.” This gets us nowhere, except for feeling like a failure, hating our failures, and knowing how empty our lives are…
The descendants had a different look to them. They treasured their ancestor’s words, they heard them, and they gave up having homes and pleasure, iin response to the wisdom and love they knew. This is what the Psalmist so clearly points out, over and over in Psalm 119. The very words, the teachings are loved, because they point the psalmist to what life is. (Remember why in John 6 Peter and the 12 don’t leave is because Jesus has the words of life?) All of this revealed about God, including His presence, becomes our priceless treasure. What we hear promises real life, promises real hope, comforts and lifts us up.
That is what St. Josemaria describes, as we are given a life we don’t merit, that we don’t deserve. God does all this work inside us, as He promised in His word, and the more we hear it, the more the blood of Christ forgives, reconciles us to the Father and restores us, the more we treasure it, the more we love Him, the more we realize His role in our lives is not something distant, but is concrete and real.
It is our reality now.
Treasuring it shapes us, as the potter shapes the clay, and obedience becomes natural, the default way of life. For we are able to love because we are loved, we can have faith in God, because He is revealed to be completely dependable.
This is true obedience, not some sacrifice given to placate God, or those who claim to represent Him. This is love…reflected back opn the One who loved us from the beginning.
Hear Him, treasure His words…
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Luther, Martin, and John Sander. 1915. Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year. Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern.
Escrivá, Josemaría. Christ is Passing By (p. 21). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Will the Church Really Hear Their Cries?
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. 14And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:11-17 NLT
811 Do you remember? Night was falling as you and I began our prayer. From close by came the murmur of water. And, through the stillness of the Castilian city, we also seemed to hear voices of people from many lands, crying to us in anguish that they do not yet know Christ. Unashamedly you kissed your crucifix and you asked him to make you an apostle of apostles. (1)
“You shall not kill.”10 What does this mean? Answer: We should fear and love God, and so we should not endanger our neighbor’s life, nor cause him any harm, but help and befriend him in every necessity of life.
It was just before noon, as I sat on a fountain, waiting for my ride.
The man in the picture showed up, folded out his sign, put in his ear buds and began to be a light in the darkness, a missionary sent to bring heathen musicians to.. hmm – that’s a good question.
I think he symbolized the church in so many ways…. standing there, his sign doing the proclaiming, but his heart and soul focused on what he was hearing. It wasn’t the people passing him by.
Maybe it was a podcast of the latest apologetic guru, telling him how to cause people to submit to his logic and reason.
Maybe it was someone telling him how to be an entrepreneurial apostle.
Maybe it was someone teaching him how to defend his Bible translation or his style of worship, or trying to provide comfort in his failing outreach, because after all, he’s supposed to be in the world, but not of it. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, he didn’t try to pray with anyone. I want to jump on his case, to make him see what he’s missing, buy am I any better?
This man isn’t a wacko, or a fanatic, he simply is the church today.
We are so caught up in our own agendas, our own words, that we fail to hear the cries of those who have lost hope, of those who have been broken. We might even get into a dialog about how they were broke, was it their sin, their parent’s sin, the sin of the world? We might read books and listen to the greatest speakers, read the greatest blogs, find the best consultants, and grieve over the fact that they don’t hear us.
But do we hear them?
Do we hear their cries? Do we go beyond their polite statements to find their pain? Do we let them know we won’t abandon them in their brokenness, because we are broken as well? Do we stand there, oblivious to the individuals, overwhelmed by the thousands, yet unable to see them? Do we take our ear buds out of our damn ears long enough to hear them?
To help them understand God hears them?
Do we try to help them know God wants to hold them in His hands, cherish them, bring about their restoration and healing so that all will understand He finds great delight in their presence, that all heaven parties with great joy when they “come home”
Luther wrote that we should do everything we can to help and befriend our neighbor. Most hear him speaking physically in the commandment about not killing. But is it not applicable to our neighbor’s spiritual life as well? St Josemaria talks about us hearing the cries and praying to God to send us, will we do that, and if sent will we hear them? Or simply lament their not hearing us? ( Or worse, will we rejoice that it proves we are on the narrow path and they are not?)
These are hard thoughts to hear, and they may be convicting you, they certainly are convincing me. But I know this as well. As I left that day, a man walked up to me and started talking about his journey. ( he thought I was a Catholic Priest) He talked of how God was helping him stay sober after 27 years. He talked of how great it was that I was there, to remind him of God’s grace. His name was Dave, and hearing him say my presence there was important as it reminded him of God’s love? That made my day. I wanted to go back, and see who else I could encounter, or maybe realize that I had, and was too blind to see it. But for once I was able to stop, and hear, and see what God was doing, by sending me to that part of the sidewalk, just for that man to encounter.
God is good, open your eyes and ears, see Him and know His love for you, and all whom you encounter. ALL whom you encounter. And rejoice, the Lord who is delighted in your presence, He is with you! Amen!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 1867-1870). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Tappert, Theodore G., ed. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959. Print.
