Eastertide
May 14, 2014
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-8
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. — Jeremiah 23:1-4
Churches that identify with Jesus Christ are terribly divided today. We take sides and fight bitterly claiming that what we perceive to be truth is truth and all others are false prophets. Pilot was stating this same quandary at Jesus’ trial when he said: What is Truth?* We all believe that we are in the remnant, about which Jeremiah speaks in our scripture today, but the “others” are not. We need to be very careful about judging our own righteousness.
Another of the scriptures for today was the story form Matthew 20 where James’ and John’s mother comes to Jesus and ask him to elevate to positions of authority her two sons in the kingdom that he is planning. Jesus tells her that is not his decision to make and later to the other disciples’ complaints about the mother’s request Jesus says ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave;**
We are called to be doers of the word not power brokers or tyrants forcing our interpretations on others. Our task is to live like Christ; God takes care of the rest.
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Amen.
*John 18:38
**Matthew 20:35b-28
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.