Jer. 13:1-11
Rom. 6:12-23
John 8:47-59
John 8:47-59
47Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.” 48The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. 51Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” 52The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ 53Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” 54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ 55though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. 56Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” 57Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Jesus says, “Whoever is from God hears the words of God.”
How can we hear what God is saying in our hearts and lives? It can be hard to do, perhaps even more amid the modern clamor of Facebook and IM’s and texting when the goal is to ‘stay connected’ with our friends. Some say we are perhaps looking in the wrong places for community.
I think there is another side as well, for it is often within our relationships with one another that we find God. In our interaction and service to each other we find our Lord. We can forget to be in relationship with the One who is completely and forever on our side when we become immersed in technology and deafened by the clamor around us or we can hear and respond to the needs however we connect with them.
Jesus says, “Whoever is from God hears the words of God.”
How can we hear what God is saying in our hearts and lives? It can be hard to do, perhaps even more amid the modern clamor of Facebook and IM’s and texting when the goal is to ‘stay connected’ with our friends. Some say we are perhaps looking in the wrong places for community.
I think there is another side as well, for it is often within our relationships with one another that we find God. In our interaction and service to each other we find our Lord. We can forget to be in relationship with the One who is completely and forever on our side when we become immersed in technology and deafened by the clamor around us or we can hear and respond to the needs however we connect with them.
I am reminded of The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke. First published in 1896, it is usually called a Christmas classic (but it’s more than a Christmas story). If you have never read it, I suggest you go to http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10679 and read it online. It’s a very short book—only 86 pages in the copy I have.I have loved this short story of the fourth Magi, who got left behind because he stopped to help a sick man and missed finding the Christ child, since I first read a copy that belonged to my great-grandfather. I still have that copy, although I had to replace it with a newer one after a puppy chewed one corner.
Artaban spends his life searching for the Christ and helping the poor, sick, imprisoned he meets along the way. On Good Friday he finds himself in Jerusalem. His plan to rescue Jesus from the cross by using his last gift is thwarted when he must use it to ransom a girl being sold into slavery to pay her father’s debts. It is then that he understands:
“He had given away the last remnant of his tribute for the King. He had parted with the last hope of finding Him. The quest was over, and it had failed. But, even in that thought, accepted and embraced, there was peace…He knew that all was well, because he had done the best he could, from day to day. He had been true to the light that had been given him.”
Artaban learned that his gifts were accepted because they were given, in love, as to the Christ child. He gave of himself in his search and ultimately, “the Other Wise Man had found the King.”
Can our social networking help us to hear God in each other’s needs and hopes and fears? Is this a new way to hear and share the word of God and our relationship with our Lord?
For your journal: Artaban had difficult choices to make. He had to decide whether to follow the “expectation of faith or the impulse of love”. Can you think of times you were faced with that choice? What are some of your ‘expectations of faith’ and how do they conflict with the ‘impulse of love’?
