Judges 15:1-16:31
John 2:1-25
Psalm 103:1-22
Proverbs 14:17-19
Our Lord understood that. From today's NT reading, one might be excused for thinking he hated the vendors and money changers defiling the temple. I prefer to think He loved them so much that their sin distressed Him, and chasing them out of the temple, away from the desperate supplicants they sold their wares and services to, away from the sinfulness of the transactions, was His way of keeping their paper, the paper He loved, from burning up in flames.
Samson - so physically strong, so mentally weak. He seems to have been the person described in today's proverb - the one who inherits folly, not the one crowned with knowledge. If his story weren't so tragic, he would remind me of Moose in the Archie comics. I mean, seriously - what idiot goes back to a woman when he finds himself in the conditions meant to sap his strength not 12 hours after he described said conditions to her? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...fool me thrice - well, I lose my strength, have my eyes gouged out and get taken to prison. You'd think that after he'd woken up once, twice even, bound in ways he'd described to Delilah would take away his strength, he'd have learned his lesson - stay away from her! She's bad news! But no...
I am Samson. And, I suspect, so are many of you, reading this. We suffer from persistent sinfulness, putting ourselves at risk, because we persist not so much in the sin, but in putting ourselves back into situations that will tempt us to the sin. The sin is almost just an aftereffect of our actions, of the times we delude ourselves into thinking "it's ok. This time I won't succumb to the temptation; this time I won't commit the sin." In that way, I am a fool - because the truth is, it doesn't matter what my intentions for them are, when I put match close to dry paper, the paper will ignite. Every. Single. Time. And the only way to keep the paper from catching fire is to not approach the flame in the first place.
Our Lord understood that. From today's NT reading, one might be excused for thinking he hated the vendors and money changers defiling the temple. I prefer to think He loved them so much that their sin distressed Him, and chasing them out of the temple, away from the desperate supplicants they sold their wares and services to, away from the sinfulness of the transactions, was His way of keeping their paper, the paper He loved, from burning up in flames.
How to respond, then to our persistent sinfulness? Despair is tempting, hopelessness seems the only logical response. But we are not Spock. We are children of the Almighty, Whose love for us, manifest in the suffering, death and resurrection of His Only Son, is far more powerful, far more persistent than any and all of our sins. And so we are able to pray with the psalmist today - "Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion..."
Thank You again, God. But could you please please please teach me to keep away from the flame?
No comments:
Post a Comment