WARNING

The edification value of this blog cannot be guaranteed. Spiritual vigour may go down as well as up and you may not receive back as much as you put in.


I expect you may disagree with at least of some of what I say. I pray that I don’t cause you too much offence and that somehow the gracious and dynamic Spirit of God will use these words to increase faith, inspire hope and impart love.


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Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Wednesday 16 February

Exodus 19:1-20:26
Don’t point your penis at the Lord (vs 20:26).  That, along with a ban on using chisels, seems to have been one of the 12 Commandments that didn’t quite make the cut to the final 10.  But, joking aside, it is quite a strange idea that the Lord would be offended by that particular part of the anatomy as we know both that he made it and that it featured heavily in his preferred method for identifying his own people.  What seems to be going on here, I think for the first time in the post-Eden narrative, is that the Lord is directly addressing the consequences of the Sin of Adam.  We read it time and time again in chapter 19 that the Israelites have to take every precaution to avoid the Lord breaking out against them.  Now, after the Fall, there is something inherently impure about people and it is everything that the Lord can do to prevent his presence from exterminating them.  That is the best context for understanding the 10 commandments.  They are not 10 principles for how to live a good life (although they can be used in that way) but rather are the hazard warning signs that sit above the door leading to the covenant relationship with God.  They are a siren blaring out the dangerous unapproachability of God and they are the head-to-toe protective clothing that might, if you are lucky, prevent you from suffering instant death at his hands.  And yet, once this first level has been appreciated, you can perceive amidst the warnings some drops of His forbearance and His mercy, of His desire to show love for a thousand generations and to see His people live long in the land.  You see, dumbfoundingly, that although people stink, the Lord wants to have us around and that, although we are wicked, the Lord wants to call us his own.  How on earth he restrains himself from destroying us is a wonder and a mystery, at least until the cross unveils his glorious solution to the conflict between his love and his justice.
Mark 1:29-2:17
Mark’s short, sharp anecdotes create quite a wild and chaotic feel to Jesus’ ministry.  He seems like he is constantly darting from one thing to the next, dynamically reacting to the swarming mass of need that surrounded him.  But, looking a second time at today’s reading shows that while Jesus may often be surrounded by mayhem, he nearly always instils upon that situation some harmony and order.  It is like he is putting into practice the Isaiah verse quoted at the start of the gospel - he is making straight the crooked paths.  Whether healing a fever or casting out demons or walking away from crowds or forgiving a paralytic’s sins or calling a tax collector Jesus interacts with broken, misdirected people and he snaps them chiropractor-like into a new pattern of wholeness.  Indeed, I think we might be onto something in believing Mark saw Jesus in this way as we see him, at this formative stage of proceedings, describing Jesus as the doctor who has come to call sick sinners to leave their mess and be healed by him.  With this primary image established, we see Mark, tomorrow, moving on to tackle the next aspect of Jesus’ activity.
Psalm 22:12-21
The continuation of the prophetic worship which we started yesterday and, in it, a couple of predictions of the future that are so accurate it is like someone has put your head inside Big Ben and turned the hands to 12 noon.  It is positively dizzying to see God unfolding his plans to his people so far in advance of him fulfilling them.