They did not believe

1Maccabees 10:46 When Jonathon and the people heard these words, they did not believe or accept them because they remembered the great wrongs that Demetrius had done them in Israel and how much he had oppressed them.

These Maccabees -- it's just battle after battle! This little turn of events interested me, however. The Israelites have just received an amazingly generous offer from one of their enemies seeking an alliance. He wants no tribute, will free all captives and offers to pay for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. But the Jewish people don't buy it. History tells them they can't trust these honeyed words. And it turns out, they are absolutely right!

How often am I taken in by sweet words, promises about the future that don't reflect the reality of past behavior? Or just by stuff that sounds too good to be true? It's not that people can't change; they can, but it's hard and incremental, and until you can see the changes in someone's behavior, even the beginnings of changes, all the promises in the world are just smoke.

And am I guilty of the same behavior? Making promises, even with the best of intentions, that I can't deliver on? Saying what feels good, or makes me looks good, or appeases others, but not what I really mean or believe or can actually make happen? I know that I believe too easily in others' good intentions, but perhaps I also believe too easily in my own. Can I be straightforward and honest at times it would be easier just to go along with the momentum? Or do I set other people up to be exploited, or disappointed, by my too glib promises?

Prayer: Dear God, Help me discern a person's genuine capacity to follow through on their commitments. At the same time, make me more honest in my own promises and commitments. Help me resist the easy promise that doesn't fit with my actual desires or intentions. Make me fearless in speaking the truth, the truth tempered with compassion. Amen

But I will weep

Jeremiah 48:30-31 “I know” God’s decree, “her rooster-crowing pride, the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab. But I will weep for Moab, yes, I will mourn the nation of Moab.”

Jeremiah is calling down the judgment of God on Moab because it failed to respond to His call and worshipped the gods of the fertility shrines. In a sense, these are God’s enemies, and the judgment against them is just, and yet God weeps, God mourns and has compassion for them in their fate.

In this heated election season, it is easy to fall prey to the demonizing of those who oppose us. Negative ads abound, accusations fly, sometimes from the campaigns themselves, sometimes from the self-appointed pundits of the 24-hour news cycle. It’s easy to forget in the back and forth that we are all Americans, we are all striving for what we think is best for our country. We are all human beings with faults and challenges, but touched by the same divine spark. Like a couple on the edge of divorce, battling over what’s best for our child, we need to recognize that all of us are needed to make this country the best it can be. We need conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, business people and artists, what the prayer book used to call all sorts and conditions of men. Longfellow said, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies we would find sorrow enough to disarm all hostility.” Jesus said, “Love your enemy.” Our very future as a country depends on our willingness and ability to do just that.

Prayer: Dear God, I know I harbor judgment and anger against those who oppose my views. Cleanse my heart and clear my vision so that I can hear their valid concerns, see their best intentions, and know them as an expression of Your Divine Love.

Amen.

I'm Not Through With You

Jeremiah 46:10 But it's not your day. It's the Master's, me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies--the day when I have it out with my enemies.

This verse caught me up, aroused in me such a sense of vulnerability, of being out of control, at the mercy of such powerful forces. In Jeremiah's time, it was the Babylonian army being used as God's instrument; today, it's the economy, as well as so much else that is going on in the world and my life. And there is this aspect of judgment, here, too, unforeseen consequences to deregulation, improper mortgages, obtuse investment instruments, the heady greed of prosperity which never satisfies but keeps people striving for more, more, more. I get it. I get caught up in it, too. I love the see the numbers go up in my stock accounts--and now I have to watch them plummet and seesaw. All that lust for money turns to panic that I won't have enough. My economic chickens are definitely coming home to roost!

So what keeps me grounded? I remember the last time the stock market took such a tumble. On October 19, 1987, the Dow dropped 25% (it was at 2000 at the time) and I remember this, not because I was paying attention to the stock market, but because that was the day my beloved husband, father of my only son, was diagnosed with lung cancer. That day was the beginning of his 6 month journey into death and the tearing apart of the family I had waited so long and eagerly for. I couldn't have cared less about the stock market. I knew what was important: him and our fragile family. And when I look back and see all that I lost -- and gained -- through his death, and remember how Jesus carried me through that difficult time, I know I can get through whatever these difficult times have in store for me because God is with me. As long as I walk His Paths, I can deal with whatever happens. As long as She is my foundation, I can withstand the storms. And if I have any doubt, Jeremiah has these words of encouragement: "But I won't finish you off. I have more work to do on you"

Prayer: Dear God, You have given me so many blessings. Open my heart in compassion to all who suffer during these disastrous times and lead me to a new way of living Your call that I may embody Your loving Presence in the world in a transformative way. Amen.

Deathly and deadening silence

Isaiah 16:9b – 10 The joyful shouting at harvest is gone. Instead of song and celebration, dead silence. No more boisterous laughter in the orchards, no more hearty work songs in the vineyards. Instead of the bustle and sound of good work in the fields, silence—deathly and deadening silence.

This is god’s judgment on Moab, once arrogant, self-important, insufferable. These are hard passages to read. My heart hurts to think of all the people gone, the laughter silenced and replaced by mourning. I think of the many places in the world where such wholesale slaughter goes on, where people are suffering such terrible losses – due to tsunamis, earthquakes and floods, but also due to human conflict, violence and ethnic “cleansing”. It’s hard to even begin to take in all the human suffering this represents, the particular families and individuals who mourn the loss of family members and friends, of home and country, of health and physical wholeness.

There’s also, though, another, more prophetic word that speaks to me here: this is the fate of all empires, eventually to decline, their place taken by whoever arises next. Pride and arrogance can lead societies, just as it can individuals, into unsustainable relationships with both other cultures and the environment, as Jared Diamond so carefully documents in Collapse. It can take us out over our heads, past the point of no return – too far, as in the commercial about an SUV which can go “anywhere”, till it’s on a raft headed for a waterfall. Will we heed the call to mend our ways, to address the circumstances that threaten us – the growing gap worldwide between rich and poor, our unsustainable exploitation of the environment and natural resources, and the violence which erupts in so many parts of the globe, displacing and destroying whole communities? Or will we remain silent in the face of suffering, as did the false prophets of old?

Prayer: Dear God, It is overwhelming to contemplate the suffering in the world, and to wonder what I, one individual, can do about it. Give me the courage and the vision Mother Theresa talks about when she admonishes us to act anyway, even if our actions cannot change what we see, to love anyway, even if our love cannot be enough. Help me step out in faith, as Abraham did when he left his home to wander, with no vision of his future but God’s word. Amen.

With the measure you use

One from the archive:

Matthew 7:1-2

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

I was with a group of friends and we were talking about how hard it is to deal with critical people. What I’ve noticed, though, is that people who are critical of me are often that much more critical of themselves; maybe the only letup they have in their relentless self-persecution is when they are persecuting someone else! And the things they criticize about me are probably the things they feel most critical of themselves about – or most defensive about. So the measure they are using to criticize me is the same measure, only worse, that they use to criticize themselves. So maybe I just have to let it go, and recognize that they are suffering under something much worse than they have inflicted on me. Then, one of the group threw a whole other spin onto it. She said we don’t judge others not just because we don’t know what they’re suffering themselves, but because judgment, whether of self or other, puts us in God’s place. So it’s not my job to judge others – or to judge myself. I need to take responsibility for my behavior, seek forgiveness or make amends when necessary to make up for mistakes I make, but never to judge. Only God judges.

Prayer: Dear God, When someone is critical of me, help me not to take it personally. Help me recognize that they may be struggling, that I don’t know the whole story, and that it is not my place to judge others but only to extend kindness. And help me to treat myself in the same way. Amen.

Blessed be God who stood up for me

1Samuel 25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, “Blessed be God, who has stood up for me against Nabal’s insults, kept me from an evil act, and let Nabal’s evil boomerang back on him.”

Nabal has repaid David’s kindness with brutish irresponsibility. David and his men, on the run from Saul, have protected Nabal’s sheep and shepherds, and now that it is sheering time, David’s men approach Nabal with proclamations of peace, asking respectfully for some hospitality, food and drink to sustain them in the wilderness. Nabal refuses in a most vicious and callous way, yelling and calling them names. Naturally, David is angry. How dare this idiot (Nabal means “fool”) treat him and his men so badly! After all they’ve done for him! And so David intends to wreak revenge, which would mean killing everyone in sight. (The customs of the time dictated that revenge was wrought on the whole family of the evildoer. It was in this context that “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was a statement of mercy. It meant you could only do damage on a par with what was actually done to you. Life for life, but no more.) But Nabal was lucky that he had a very clever wife named Abigail, who collects bread, wine and meat ready to roast, rides out to meet David, and basically appeals to his better instincts. He shouldn’t stoop to Nabal’s level by wreaking this revenge, and add a blot to his honor, she tells him. She gets David to stop and think and recognize what a mistake this would be. And he honors her request. Next day she tells Nabal what happened, he has a heart attack, and dies a few days later. So God did for David what was wrong for him to do for himself. It is God’s role to judge, not ours.

There’s another interesting little piece to this, this notion of Nabal’s evil boomeranging back on him. Today we would call that experiencing the natural consequences of one’s choices. I think the deal is that I don’t have to retaliate for an injustice done to me because God will take care of it. I may not see the results, but fools inevitably fall into their own traps, people reap the consequences of their own behaviors, it’s almost a natural or spiritual law. I need to stand up for myself, stand up for justice, but I needn’t retaliate in kind because then I am just as bad as the other person was. Then I’m not living in the kingdom of God, I’m living in the kingdom of the world. Vengeance is the Lord’s, it is often said, which is to make the point that it’s not my job! So I need to steer clear of it because it will only bring down bad consequences on me!

Prayer: Dear God, It’s hard not to retaliate when I am treated unfairly, not to want to make the other person experience what I have. But I know it only makes things worse, leads me away from who You want me to be and, even worse, puts me in Your place as judge of all. Give me patience and wisdom to take the right path, to stick with You and not get pulled into behaving wrongly, that I may bind my will to Your perfect one and become the person You call me to be. Amen