Isaiah 8:11-10:19
Isaiah must have been royally confused by this one. He must have realised that his ecstatic temple experience would change his perspective, but by this much? Galilee was a grotty northern town that had had its day. It had gone bad and gone over to the yobs (the Gentiles). To say that Galilee would be honoured and that a great light would come from it required serious belief in the redemptive power of God. As Isaiah wrote those words he must have felt like he was really going out on a limb. But then, as he is stood on this limb wobbling and trying not to look down the Lord calls him to take several strides further out. The Lord urges him in whispers to write of a child yet to be born who will be called, among other things, Mighty God and Everlasting Father. This is pretty much blasphemy. If not for religious Jews then at least for the human brain - it is absurd to suggest that a child could actually be God and last for ever as the Father of all others, including his mother. Isaiah must have physically recoiled at penning such a phrase. And yet that is the way of faith. That is the call on us too. We walk to the very extremities of our understanding, our concept of God pushes us to the absolute margins of our capacity and we feel vulnerable and scared. And then God shows us more. He shows us Jesus is more magnificent, more lofty, more brain-meltingly beyond us than we ever could have imagined. This great light that shines in the darkness is so bright that we can’t look at him direct. But he has been given to us. Unto us a child is born.
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
This is a challenging passage. If we could each play a joker and chop out one passage of the New Testament that didn’t have to apply to us then I think I might choose this one. Paul desires that there will be material equality between the churches. He doesn’t want any believers to be financially hard pressed while others have plenty. And yet around the world today there are many many believers who are very hard pressed. And I can’t help feeling that I have plenty. And I’m not sure that I excel in the grace of giving. Part of me thinks that I have stuff I need to spend my money on but then that annoying bit about the Macedonian churches prods me in the side. They were richly generous even during extreme poverty and gave beyond what they were able to give. Another part of me thinks that people being hard pressed is just how the world is; that if I was to try to do something about it I would just end up impoverished myself. And that’s when my mind cruelly turns to that verse about Jesus. I try to skip it out by my brain just won’t let me - though he was rich for my sake he became poor. If he had used my logic I would still be hopelessly lost. So I guess I better get serious about giving. And I better start praying too. As Paul says later in this letter, ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. O God would you change my heart...
Proverbs 21:27-22:6
“Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” That is a proverbs I cling to. Every day I pray this would be true for my boys.
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