Daily Dose of Hope

November 6, 2024

Day 4 of Week 32

Scripture:  Hosea 11-13; Matthew 19

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan.  Tonight is Recharge so I hope you will join us at 6:30pm in the Garage for amazing worship, prayer, and small community.

Today, we are starting with our New Testament passage, Matthew 19.  Jesus and his disciples have begun to make the journey to Judea; they are heading to Jerusalem. And Jesus is using this time to teach about what it means to follow him. Jesus is turning everything upside down in his teachings: to follow him means renouncing the things that the world values.

In this chapter, we see Jesus touch on how following him will affect how we behave in the most fundamental parts of our lives. He starts by teaching on divorce, making the point that marriage is not simply a contract, but it’s a creation of God and both men and women are equal partners in the marriage. Jesus is saying in God’s Kingdom, marriage is a covenant between the man, the woman, and God. The commitment is sacred. Here he is-turning things upside down.

Jesus goes on to teach about children–parents were bringing children to him to be blessed and the disciples scolded them. Jesus intervenes and says to let the little children come to me and then makes this stunning point that we all must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Children, in those days, weren’t seen as having any value. But Jesus places tremendous value on them. Jesus’ point is that to follow him, we have to become like little children–vulnerable, powerless, needing someone else to provide safety and sustenance. Again, he is turning things upside down.

Then, we come to the part I want to particularly focus on. A man comes up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus says, “Well, you need to follow all the commandments.” He then lists out the various commandments and the man simply says, “Yes, I’ve done all those things since I was a boy.” Then, Jesus looks at the man and says that to be perfect, he must go and sell everything he owns and give it all to the poor. The text says that the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. This is the irony. The children in the former story who possess nothing are not told that the kingdom of God is theirs; yet this man who possesses everything still lacks something! Only when he sells all he has—only when he becomes like a vulnerable child—will he possess everything. But he isn’t willing to do that. He decides to walk away from Jesus.

The man wasn’t expecting to have to make that kind of sacrifice. He had no idea following Jesus would be so hard. The disciples are really confused by this. At that time, most people believed that being wealthy was a sign of God’s blessing. Here, Jesus is saying that this man has to sell everything and give it to the poor. And that’s when Jesus says the really, really hard thing...It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

And the disciples ask “then who possibly can be saved?” Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” I don’t know about you but I find it very unsettling to read this passage. Let’s go deeper: Jesus could look at this young man he loved and see that what he cherished most were his possessions.

I think there is a warning in here for us. Jesus is not condemning having resources. There are others in the Gospels with great wealth that Jesus doesn’t tell them to do the same thing. But he is making it clear---having wealth can get in the way of our relationship with him. When we have resources, our tendency is to rely on ourselves, to hold on to our money, to not fully submit our lives to him. It’s hard to approach God as a vulnerable little child (think about how children totally depend on their caregivers for everything), when we don’t feel so humble and vulnerable. The greatest enemies to faith and obedience are self-satisfaction and pride. And live in a culture where these things are held up as ideals.

Jesus is saying, being a disciple, is not about following a list of rules. If that were the case, then the rich young ruler would have been a shoo-in. He is saying, it’s about denying yourself, picking up your cross, and following me. And we don’t like to deny ourselves. We don’t like to be uncomfortable. It means looking at your life and renouncing any part of it that gets in the way of your walk with Jesus. That means that following Jesus isn’t one part of our life; following Jesus isn’t simply one activity in a busy life filled with lots of great stuff.

No, following Jesus means radically reorienting our life. Jesus comes first and our devotion to Jesus as Lord and Savior affects every other area of our lives. Our dedication to Jesus affects how we treat other people, it affects how we spend our money, it affects how we spend our time, it affects how we behave. Following Jesus means a radical adjustment to priorities. It means worrying less about what the world values, and focusing on what Jesus values.

And then there is our Scripture in Hosea.  It’s truly poetic justice.  Chapter 11 begins with how much God loves Israel but then begins to walk through their disobedience.  He speaks to the specific tribes and how they have turned from God.  The words may be poetry but we know the consequences won’t be.  It’s only a matter of time before God lifts his hand of protection and allows the Assyrians to conquer the Northern Kingdom. 

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

November 5, 2024

Day 3 of Week 32

Scripture: Hosea 7-10; Matthew 18

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that goes along with New Hope Church’s Bible reading plan.  On this beautiful Tuesday morning, let’s get right to our Scripture.

We start with Hosea 7-10.  I don’t know about you, but reading these chapters in Hosea is hard.  The Northern Kingdom, Israel, on the surface acknowledges God.  They do all the religious things.  But their hearts are far from God.  Some of these lines are truly painful.  Listen to these words in chapter 8, Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning...Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins...  In chapter 9, we read, The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great...  Maybe it’s because we know what it going to happen that it is hard to keep reading.  We know there isn’t repentance in Israel and by this point, there is no going back.  We know they will be punished and we know it’s going to be ugly.  Sin has consequences and we are going to watch it go down.

With that, let’s head over to the New Testament.  Our chapter for today is Matthew 18.  There is lots of great substance in this chapter, but I want to focus on verses 15-20.  This is what we might call Jesus’ conflict mediation model.  If you have a disagreement with someone, you go directly to that person and try to resolve it.  You don’t immediately pick up your phone and share your frustration with your closest friends.  You don’t post something rude on social media.  You don’t decide to quit the church.  You actually go to that person and have the hard conversation.  Most of the time that works.

But if that doesn’t work, Jesus has more wisdom to share.  Go find some other trusted believers and bring them in to help resolve the dispute.  That should certainly take care of things but just in case it doesn’t, take it to the church.  Do keep in mind that these were pretty small house churches so taking a dispute to the church would have looked differently than it does today.  Today, it probably would mean bringing it to the pastor or some church leaders, but ONLY after you have done the other steps. 

We use this model in our own leadership teams here at New Hope.  That’s why if someone brings me a problem that involves another church member, I always ask, “Have you talked to that person already?”  Conflict is inevitable in the church because we are all humans.  However, we need to be very intentional and respectful about how we handle conflict.  But we do need to handle it.  Avoidance, denial, gossip, and/or projection onto others never turns out well and isn’t how Jesus intended his people to behave.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

November 4, 2024

Day 2 of Week 32

Scripture:  Hosea 4-6; Psalm 58; Matthew 17

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope! 

In our Scripture for today in Hosea, we see both judgement against Israel and an unrepentant people.  Remember, they don’t see anything wrong with how they are living.  In their minds, there is no need for warning.  Things are going well.  There is food to eat.  The land is flourishing. 

At the same time, the people’s hearts have turned from God.  While they go through the religious motions, they are wandered far from God.  They are not keeping the covenant, they are oppressing to poor, and they are worshiping other gods.  They are prostituting themselves and there is no remorse. God seeks to call them back but they are in denial that there is even a problem at all.  Y’all, this is a really scary place to be.

In Matthew 17, we join Jesus, Peter, James, and John, on the mountaintop. This text is referred to as the transfiguration. They all trek up to the top of the mountain and Jesus “transfigures” right before their very eyes. For just a moment, put yourself in the position of these three men.  They had only known the flesh and blood Jesus. We know Jesus as risen Lord and Savior.  Thus, I think we would expect Jesus to wear dazzling white robes and be all shiny and glorious. But they didn’t.  Then, right before their very eyes, they get a glimpse of Jesus’ glory, as they had never seen it before.  Jesus was radiating the very presence of God and these three disciples got to be witnesses to it. 

Then, Moses and Elijah appeared before them and they were talking to Jesus.  We don’t know why Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain with Jesus except that they were two Old Testament figures who anticipated the coming of Jesus, the final prophet to come and deliver God’s people once and for all.  Their work, their ministries, are basically fulfilled by the person of Jesus.  They were servants of God but they weren’t God.  Jesus, on the other hand, is God and the disciples get a glimpse of that right here.

But there is something about being confronted by the power and glory of God which can make us uncomfortable and even fearful.  In awe, yes, but also frightened.  Maybe you’ve been there. Peter is there.  He struggles to simply rest in the presence of God’s glory.  He doesn’t know what to do or say so he blurts out, “let’s set up three shelters–one for you, Jesus, and one for Moses and Elijah.”  Now, Peter is referring to the festival of booths or tabernacles which faithful Jews participating in every year.  They make structures in their yards as a sign of when God will tabernacle with his people.  Thus, this might seem like a weird thing for Peter to say to us but it wasn’t too off the wall.  He is like, “umm...I think God is tabernacling with us and we need to make the shelters.”  He is kind of panicky.  It seemed like a good thought at the time.  What Peter doesn’t quite understand yet is that before his eyes God’s dwelling with humanity is present, for Jesus is the new tabernacle of God dwelling with humanity. The shelters aren’t needed.  God is present with his people through Jesus Christ. 

There is something about mountain-top experiences–times in which we get a glimpse of the glory and presence of God in our lives.  I’m hoping you have each had some kind of mountaintop experience in your walk with Jesus, times in which the veil is removed and you’ve gotten a taste of the presence of God.  These are times in which we are confronted with God’s power and it can’t help but change us. You realize that Jesus wasn’t just a good, wise man who walked the earth 2000 years ago but rather was God himself, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

November 3, 2024

Day 1 of Week 32

Scripture:  Hosea 1-3; Matthew 16

Welcome back, everyone, to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan. 

Today, we begin the book of Hosea.  Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom, probably active from about 750-721BC, when Jeroboam II was king of Israel until the time that the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom. Like Amos, Hosea is considered a minor prophet – not because his message was less important, but simply because his book is shorter than the major prophets (such as Isaiah and Jeremiah).  There are twelve minor prophets, including Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Similar to Amos, things were going well for the people of Israel during Hosea’s time and they didn’t want to hear any kind of message of warning. Yet, this was a time in which the people were incredibly rebellious against God. They broke the 10 commandments, they oppressed the poor, and they worshiped other gods. They still worshiped Yahweh, they still went through the motions of worshiping in the temple, making sacrifices, and looking outwardly religious (theme in most of these minor prophet books) but they were hypocrites. They pretended to be faithful to Yahweh but their hearts were far from God.

Hosea is the longest minor prophet book in the Old Testament and this book is a collection of his sermons and prophecies over the course of 25 years serving God obediently. Fair warning: It’s mainly in the form of poetry and it’s filled with metaphors. I’ll be honest, it’s kind of a weird book. In the first few chapters (what we read for today), God tells Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer who is a prostitute. Hosea’s life becomes what we might call a living parable. They have three kids together and Gomer cheats on Hosea repeatedly. When she does, God tells Hosea to go find her and seek reconciliation. This whole dysfunctional marriage is intended to be a metaphor for how Israel is behaving. God is the faithful husband and Israel is behaving like Gomer, the wife who continues to betray her spouse. The people of Israel continue to betray God over and over again but he will continue to seek them, continue to try to draw them back to him.

Our New Testament passage for today is Matthew 16.  Jesus has taken his disciples on a retreat of sorts, and they have traveled away from Judea, further north into Gentile territory.  It could be to get away from the crowds or so they can speak more freely.  But Caesarea Philippi is pretty far north in Israel.  It was a quiet place at the headwaters of the Jordan River but also a place filled with idol worship and signs of Roman occupation everywhere.  And it’s here that Jesus decides he is going to settle his identity with these men.  He asks each of them, “Who do people say I am?” 

Over the two years that the disciples had been with Jesus, people had all kinds of thoughts about who Jesus was.  Some thought he was the precursor to the Messiah, others (like King Herod) thought he was John the Baptist reincarnated, and others thought he might be one of the prophets returned.  But Jesus presses them, “Who do you say I am?”  Now, it doesn’t matter what the others say – who is it you say I am? 

That’s really the question for all of us, isn’t it?  It doesn’t matter who others say Jesus is.  If I were to do a man on the street interview right now, I’m sure I’d get all kinds of answers to who is Jesus?  A teacher, a healer, a crazy person, Son of God, the Savior.  But it doesn’t matter what others say, what matters is what you believe and what you say about Jesus.  And that’s what Jesus is asking his disciples.  What do you say about me?  What are you willing to confess about me?  This was really a rubber meets the road question for them, as it is for us.  What are you willing to confess about me, to others, publicly?

Jesus asked all of them but it was Peter who spoke up.  And he says, “You are the Messiah, Son of the Living God.”  The word Messiah means anointed one or God’s anointed.  And the term “Messiah” was the Hebrew word for God’s anointed, the term “Christ” was the Greek word for it.  Messiah and Christ mean the same thing, just in different languages.  I know this might come as a surprise to some of us but Christ is not Jesus’ last name.  It is a title.  And Peter is giving Jesus this title, you are the Messiah, the anointed one.

In ancient Israel, when someone was given a position of authority, oil was poured on his head to signify his being set apart for God’s service. I Samuel 10:1 is an example, Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, "Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?  Kings, priests, and prophets were anointed in this way. Anointing was a symbolic act to indicate God’s choosing.  Although the literal meaning of anointed refers to the application of oil, it can also refer to being chosen or set apart by God, even if oil is not literally used.  So, Peter is saying you are the anointed one, chosen, set apart by God, the Messiah.

But there is more to this.  Throughout the Old Testament, there are many, many verses that point to the Messiah delivering the Hebrew people from captivity, from pagan kings.  The Jews expected the Messiah to deliver them from Roman occupation via military might.  That was the expectation.  The Christ, the Messiah is the one who God sent to deliver his people, to make things right for them – the one they had been waiting for hundreds of years.  Thus, when Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah, he probably doesn’t quite understand how Jesus is going to deliver them.  No one really got it that the Messiah would be the one to deliver people, not from the Roman occupiers, but from their own sin. 

Peter says that Jesus is Messiah but then he says that Jesus is the Son of the living God.  Just to clarify something, in the Old Testament, there are a number of men, particularly prophets, who are called a son of God.  That was not an uncommon title for a Godly man.  But that is not what Peter is saying, Peter says that Jesus is THE son of the living God. 

Let’s clarify something here because I think we can get confused - Jesus is not God’s Son in the sense of a human father and a son. God did not get married and have a son. God did not mate with Mary and, together with her, produce a son. Jesus is God’s Son in the sense that He is GOD in human form – John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Keep in mind, the term “Word” is referring to Jesus.  Jesus was there in the beginning.  Jesus was there with God in the beginning.  Jesus was there with God and Jesus is God.  Brain cramping yet?  Let’s read v. 14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  So, the “Word”, Jesus, became human and lived among us.  Of course, that is the Christmas story, Jesus became a human being, was born to a woman named Mary, who became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.  When the angel comes to Mary in Luke and explains the situation, he tells her that this holy one you will give birth to will be called the Son of God.

This clearly separates Jesus from the prophets. He is not a son of God but the Son of the living God.  Jesus walks with a very distinct, specific authority.  I mean, look at his miracles.  He heals people with a word or touch.  He rebukes a storm and it listens to him.  He could read people’s minds.  He raises Lazurus from the dead.  He doesn’t argue with demons.  Think about it – when Jesus encounters a demon, they tremble.  Colossians 1, The son is the image of the invisible God…  He walks in a distinct, divine authority because he is the Son of the living God – the second person of the Godhead. 

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

October 31, 2024

Day 5 of Week 31

Scripture:  Amos 7-9; Matthew 15

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  This Sunday is our Celebration Sunday at New Hope.  We invite everyone to bring their commitment cards to church and we plan to take some time to lay them on the altar and dedicate them to Jesus.  We also will have a time of celebrating baptisms at the close of the service.  Please try to attend in person.  This will be a Spirit-filled morning!

To switch things up a bit, let’s start with the New Testament today.  We are looking at Matthew 15.  In this Scripture, we are talking about handwashing and cleanliness but it has nothing to do with germs. In fact, germ theory didn’t really become a notable thing until the 1800s. So what was the hand-washing ritual discussed in the first half of Matthew 15?

To go deeper, we need to talk a little about 1st century Jewish life. Certain groups of Jews, such as the Pharisees and the scribes, affirmed two types of law. There was the written law (the first five books of the Bible) and the oral law (the traditions of the elders/rabbis). Basically, the written law didn’t have specific details so the rabbis, over the years, filled in those details with oral traditions.

In today’s chapter, there were Pharisees from Jerusalem who sought out Jesus. We don’t know why these Pharisees had traveled some 80 miles from Jerusalem (a long trip in those days) but there is some speculation that they had come to check out this Jesus character, this man who was healing, teaching, and saying things that were questionable in their eyes. They were suspicious. Remember the Pharisees were a strict sect of Judaism that believed in following the law in the fullest sense. There were different standards for following the law for different groups of people (i.e. a day laborer would not be expected to follow the law in the same way that a scribe could do so.) But certainly, it would have been expected that a rabbi and his followers would follow both the oral and written law.

The Pharisees noticed that Jesus’ disciples were not going through the ceremonial hand-washing rituals that were required before they ate. They asked Jesus about this. This was a dig, it was more like, why aren’t you properly teaching your disciples? Jesus has this interesting reply, he quotes Scripture from the prophet Isaiah: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me...” On the surface, there wasn’t anything wrong with what the Pharisees were trying to do. They had purity laws which they thought were very important in following God. But Jesus could see past their words, past their ritual, and into their hearts. He saw their insincerity, hollowness, and hypocrisy; it was all a facade. Thus, he sees this as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Just as in the times of Isaiah, the Pharisees were giving lip service to following God but their hearts were far from him. They were concerned about the Sabbath being followed to the tee but they would cheat people in the marketplace. They were concerned about following specifics of the handwashing but they weren’t at all concerned about the widow and the orphan. Something was truly skewed here. They were all about piety but they had neglected compassion, justice, and love.

But this issue goes even deeper. Being unclean and being defiled was a big deal in 1st century Judaism. If you couldn’t be clean (and let’s be real, a lot of regular people worked jobs or had lives that meant they couldn’t meet all the various regulations to stay clean). If you were unclean for whatever reason, then you were ostracized from the temple. You were basically shunned from religious life. So Jesus is making a huge point here. Jesus is saying, “You are shunning people, you are telling them they are unclean, you are ostracizing them from the community, based on the rituals they have done or haven’t done to be clean. But what you are missing is this: the things that really matter, the things that pose the greatest danger, are not external. They aren’t hand-washing. They aren’t meticulously keeping Sabbath. The things that matter most to God are internal.”

What Jesus is saying to them is that God cares most about the heart. I think we will all should admit that, at times, the church has looked a lot like these Pharisees. We’ve been all about religious activity and less about trying to be like Jesus. We’ve been about the external and not the internal. We’ve cared about appearances. We are putting up this great religious front but then being horribly judgmental, angry, or bitter. Friends, God could care less about your religious busyness. He wants your heart. He doesn’t care about our ceremonial handwashing---he cares about if we are treating others with the love of Christ. And if we aren’t, then all the ceremony, all the church stuff, it’s kind of a farce. Why? Because God looks on our hearts.

Part of the reason I wanted to start with Matthew is that we see this same issue in Amos.  The people were tolerating injustice and maltreatment of the poor, while claiming to be religious and pious.  In chapters 7-9 of Amos, we begin to see what God will allow to happen to his people.  We like to simply focus on God’s mercy but it also comes with God’s justice. 

God has a standard for his people and they haven’t come close.  Of course, neither have we.  I hope we don’t embody the injustice of the Jews in Amos’ day, but we certainly fall far from God’s standard. Not a one of us can meet God’s standard.  We will fail over and over again.  But we have Jesus.  We are only clean because of Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

October 30, 2024

Day 4 of Week 31

Scripture:  Amos 4-6; Psalm 55; Matthew 14

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan.  Tonight, we have a special worship night!  We will have Recharge groups at 6:30pm and then gather in the sanctuary at 7:30pm for a time of praise and worship.  Please consider joining us.  This will truly be a recharge for the rest of your week.

Today, we are continuing in the book of Amos.  Remember, things seemed to be going well for the people but Amos was called to bring them a warning.  God was rejecting their worship.  Let’s read a portion from Amos 5:21-24,“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

God rejected their worship. He was disgusted by it. It was the people who came to worship who allowed great injustices against the poor. Whether they were actively involved in the oppression or just allowing it to happen, not caring enough to do something about it, we don’t know. What we do know is that God is not simply annoyed, he is truly angry. And then we read this famous line about justice – let justice roll on like a river...

Justice in the Old Testament is often used when describing four groups: widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor---the absolutely most vulnerable people in that society, people with no safety net, no protection, and no one to help care for them. The just and righteous person is the one who helps take care of these groups. And justice, according to this definition, includes lifting up the oppressed. A just person is one who uses their own resources for the good of the community. Keep in mind that Israel was originally an egalitarian society. The Torah, the covenant God made with his people, made provision to ensure that all people are cared for and that no one was taken advantage of. What we are seeing in Amos is that the people saw their resources as theirs and theirs alone. They felt no compassion and no responsibility to be agents of justice and righteousness, they felt no need to follow the covenant. 

Yet they would go through all the religious motions. They did their required festivals, they gave the required sacrifices and offerings, they sang religious songs. They worshiped, they did small groups and Bible studies. But there was no connection between what went on during worship and what happened the rest of the week. This is truth: What we believe about God is demonstrated not by how often we come to church, not by the number of Bible studies we attend, but by how we live the rest of the week, by how we treat our neighbor.

Jesus certainly taught this. What was the Great Commandment? This comes from Matthew 28: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Amos taught this, Jesus taught this–we need to pay attention to this: Love of God and Love of Neighbor cannot be separated. Justice, righteousness, and how we treat others flows out of our worship of God. We may try to disconnect our worship/our church life from the rest of our life and we may actually do a good job convincing ourselves this is possible. But what God is telling us in Amos and what Jesus teaches is that it isn’t. It just isn’t possible. We can’t worship God on Sunday and neglect the poor on Monday. We can’t go to bible study on Tuesday and gossip about our church friends on Wednesday. Why? Because Amos’ unpopular truth is that what we believe about God is demonstrated not by our religious busyness, not by the church stuff we do, but by how we live every other day of the week.

With that, let’s move on to our New Testament reading, Matthew 14. There are three very different but powerful narratives in this chapter. Be sure to read through all of it if you haven’t done so already.

We start with John the Baptist’s murder in an incredibly gruesome way, specifically a beheading. We can see there is little value placed on human life in the Roman Empire; rather, Herod is far more concerned about how he looks in front of his guests than how he looks in front of God.

Then, we read about Jesus feeding the 5,000.This is a beautiful miracle that gives us a great picture of the Kingdom of God. In God’s Kingdom, there is no hunger so Jesus feeds. But he doesn’t do so in any kind of conventional way. He makes sure that everyone there knows that God provided the meal. Every part of the feeding experience is intended to demonstrate the power and glory of God. My very favorite part is that there is an abundance left over (twelve basketfuls!) Our God is a God of abundance. He doesn’t skimp on his miracles. He demonstrates to us that he is a provider.

Finally, the chapter closes with Jesus walking on water and this fascinating interaction with Peter. Jesus had been off praying, as he was apt to do, and he goes to find the disciples. They see him walking on water and at first, think he is a ghost. Peter, in his normal partly bold, partly impulsive way, asks Jesus if he can walk on the water too. Specifically he says, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” So Jesus says to come and Peter steps out on the water. Can you even imagine what must have been going through Peter’s head at the time? For a while, Peter does fine. He is actually walking on water. But as soon as he takes his eyes off Jesus, he sinks. Think about that–the very minute he looks away, gets distracted, and begins to doubt–he starts to sink.

Think about your own life. How often have you taken your eyes off Jesus and begun to sink? The author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12 to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we have confidence that we aren’t alone, that God is present, and that there is a purpose to all of this. The very minute we begin to look away, the sinking begins. We become stalled. We falter. We forget who and whose we are.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Daily Dose of Hope

October 29, 2024

Day 3 of Week 31

Scripture:  Amos 1-3; Matthew 13

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope!  I want to extend a huge thank you to Pastor Roberto who helped with this devotional while I was traveling in Mozambique.  I’m back but still jet-lagged so forgive me if today’s post is not polished.  I should mention that our trip to Mozambique was amazing.  Zoe Empowers is the best poverty alleviation model I have ever seen and we witnessed the resilience of young people who will become leaders in their communities.  Most importantly, they walk closely with Jesus and rely on his strength just to get by.  To learn more about Zoe Empowers, be sure to check out their website at zoeempowers.org. 

With that, let’s move to our Scripture for today.  We start with Amos 1-3.  Amos was an unpopular prophet. He prophecies to the Northern Kingdom in the 8th century when Jeroboam II is king of Israel. This was a time of relative peace and prosperity for the area so the people thought this must mean that they had God’s blessing. Things are going pretty well, the upper crust are living the good life and here comes Amos with this message of warning. Financially, the northern kingdom was doing great. The land was producing well. There wasn’t any war. When Amos brings this warning of impending destruction, people thought he was crazy.

Why did Amo’s bring this warning to the people of Israel? Well, because while some people were living quite well and enjoying the bounty of the land, many others were not. The first part of the book of Amos, the prophet is proclaiming judgment against the nations around Israel. You can kind of picture the people cheering him on at this point...But then, it gets personal. In chapter 2, God, through Amos, gives a running list of the sins that Israel had committed.

Amos 2:6-8,This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. (While some were doing quite well and living a good life, others weren’t. In fact, there was gross income inequality. Many people were so poor, they were going into debt to buy small items. In fact, the good religious people were living quite well while many in their community were literally selling themselves into slavery to feed their family or being sold into slavery because they could not pay a debt. Amos is emphasizing the low value placed on human life.

The prophet continues in 2:7...They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Again, those who are poor and vulnerable are being oppressed. The powerful landowners stepped on the poor by using the courts to twist justice. The poor were literally being treated like dirt. As the book continues, we see this theme woven throughout–those who are religious, those who profess faith in Yahweh, are either actively engaging in this oppression or apathetic to the suffering of those around them. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. (They misuse female slaves and break covenant with God)

The Scripture continues in 2:8, They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their God they drink wine taken as fines. (Garments taken on pledge would be clothing or items taken from the poor to pay a debt, the wine also would have been collected on late debts...) All of these accusations had to do with oppressing the weak, the poor, the most vulnerable of society.

God is saying that the injustices that the people commit repulse him. Thus, he rejects their worship. What does it mean when God rejects our worship?  More on this tomorrow. 

Matthew 13 is our New Testament chapter.  It includes quite a few of Jesus’ most famous parables.  I thought today that I would focus on the parable of the wheat and the weeds.  It’s powerful and it isn’t one we talk about a lot.

In this parable, the owner sows good seed but the enemy comes in the dark of night and sows weeds. The workers are understandably upset and ask the owner if he caused this. This is actually a theodicy question–God, we thought you were good, why did you allow the “weeds” to grow in our lives? As believers, it is okay to question God and ask why the horrible occurred. This theology of protest doesn’t demonstrate a lack of faith, but actually is an expression of faith.

Jesus also addresses the source of the weeds–the enemy has spread them. God is not the source of evil–God does not cause evil to occur so that we might grow spiritually or to perpetuate some grander divine plan. Rather, God’s enemy is the source of all evil. Matthew 13:39 refers to the devil as God’s enemy. Evil (Satan, the devil, whatever term you prefer) is a real force which both inhabits and transcends individuals, families, communities, nations, cultures, and economic structures. Why doesn’t the owner in the parable want the workers to pull the weeds? Because in doing so, both the weeds and the wheat would be pulled out (Matthew 13:29). God can’t just do away with all evil because, whether we like it or not, we are all are a complex and confusing mix of both good and evil.

Furthermore, this isn’t how God deals with the world. Although God has the power to eliminate evil using brute force (the way humans might deal with it), this goes against God’s character. God instead acts through the loving and yet “weak” power of the cross. God’s answer to evil was sending Jesus Christ, the one who truly understands what it means to suffer and also the only one through which true and complete healing can occur.

But the parable doesn’t end there. In Matthew 13:41-43, Jesus explains how in the end, evil will be vanquished; it will not have the final word. Although I firmly believe this is true, it fails to offer much comfort in the midst of counseling someone who is grappling with the death of a baby or a sexual assault in the here and now. What is helpful, however, is to point out how God’s work in the world is often difficult to understand (think about the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast). We might not always see God’s power at work, but it’s there in the smallest and most unusual ways, changing and transforming us, guiding us, and leading us closer to Jesus (power in the form of “loving weakness”). God is waging war on evil, just not necessarily in ways we see or understand. When this seems insufficient, I lean on 2 Cor. 12:9, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness...”

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki

Week 31, Day 2: 2 Kings 13-14; 2 Chronicles 25; Psalm 53; Matthew 12

WEEK 31 DAY 1: Jonah 1-4; Matthew 11

Week 30, DAY 5: Joel 1-3; Matthew 10