Lent
March 8, 2015

Scripture Reading: John 2:13-22

The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. — John 2:18-22

Discernment of God’s will has always been a challenge. The ancients often look for a sign as do we today. I am afraid though that we sometimes look for any sign that shows the easy way out. As I review the history of God and God’s people, it is rare to find any instance that could be classified as easy. Perhaps the story of feeding the 5,000 might be considered easy, but then if you have ever tried to feed even 500 people at one time when there is already an abundance of food, you know that feeding 5,000 people would never be easy.

In actuality, my experience has been that dedicated attempts to carry out the work of the Body of Christ in the world today is usually down right hard. There is always something or someone blocking progress. It rains the day of the Habitat build, the contractors didn’t show up to fix the leak in the baptistery, or the biggest marathon in the city is on Sunday morning and just getting to church is a major undertaking. Of course, there are far more serious obstacles to overcome: terrorist closing off the way to get humanitarian services to hungry, homeless, and sick refugees; or local people just simply wanting to bury their dead when their loved ones are the source of contagion.

The only sign we need to prove we are doing God’s will is Christ reflecting back to us through the faces of our neighbors that we love. We have already received the only sign that matters, the resurrected Christ.

Prayer: O God of Wonder and Grace, run the race with us every step of the way helping us meet and overcome any obstacle on our path that is keeping us from doing your will. Amen.

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.