Tag Archives: Good

Evil and Good

Advent

December 17, 2019

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

How and when do we learn to refuse the evil and choose the good? What does that even mean? Does being made in the image of God mean that we innately have the capacity to recognize the difference between good and evil? What is good or evil anyway?

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines good as something that possesses desirable qualities, promotes success, welfare, or happiness, or is otherwise beneficial*. Evil is defined as the totality of undesirable, harmful, wicked acts, experiences, and things and something that is injurious to moral or physical happiness or welfare**.

Strong’s describes good as used in Isaiah 7 as moral and evil as ethically bad, evil, wicked**.

It seems to me that goodness begets more goodness; evil begets more evil. Jesus made it simple. Loving God and loving are neighbors as we love ourselves grows more love. Failing to love in either instance smothers love. We all are gifted with the ability to love and we are all required to be intentional about loving ourselves and loving one another. Alas, we are also all capable of choosing evil.

Prayer: Lord write on our hearts the knowledge of how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/good

**https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2896.htm;  https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7451.htm

http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/evil

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

What is Good?

Jesus’ Ministry
February 11, 2019

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
   and make mere flesh their strength,
   whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
   and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
   in an uninhabited salt land. –Jeremiah 17:5-6

Jeremiah does not paint an attractive picture of life without the Lord. If hunger and drought and disease is all we know we may not recognize relief when it comes. I saw a poignant scene on TV recently. A starving child from Yemen in the arms of a relief worker trying to feed the child a tube full of nutrients designed to alleviate starvation. The little one shut his mouth tightly and pushed it away because every time he had swallowed it earlier it made him vomit. His stomach had not functioned properly for so long it did not react appropriately when fed.

Of course, Jeremiah is addressing adults who have chosen to stray from the Lord and in the final verse of this scripture he writes,
I the Lord test the mind
   and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
   according to the fruit of their doings.

What did the child in the relief workers arms do to deserve not knowing what was good for him? All of us stand guilty when we do not take care of the little ones as Jesus said in Matthew 18:6 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Doing justice means going the extra mile for those who never learned of God’s good.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we have blinders on regarding the needs of others who may have no knowledge of your love including being loved in real terms such as food and health care. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

 

Kingdom of Heaven

Living in the Spirit
July 26, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ —13:31-33

What Jesus doesn’t point out in his parables about the Kingdom of Heaven is that evil spreads in very much the same way. Like a cancer that starts as what appears to be an innocent mole, melanoma grows above the skin but the worst damage is not so visible. It is cancer’s tentacles reaching and spreading beneath the skin that are so deadly. We humans have finite capacity for both good and for evil. Unless we actively pursue the dominance of good, evil will soon fill the void. On the other hand, when even the smallest bit of love is nurtured, it will grow and grow leaving no room for evil.

Carl Jung says, People tend to believe evil is something external to them – yet it is a projection of the shadow onto others. As one who projects the principle for absolute and unresolvable evil onto others – it is to the degree that one condemns others and finds evil in others, that one is unconscious of the same thing within oneself, or the potential of that within oneself. It is a projection of one’s own shadow. What Carl Jung does not say here is that our projection of good on the other, loving them as they are, projects our own God-authored love for ourselves.

The foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven is loving God and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is as old as time as old as God and it is upon this rock that we must do our part of living into the Kingdom of God right now and every day forward.

Prayer: Ancient of Days, fill us with your love so that we can love others as you would have us to love them seeing past what we perceive as evil and seeing your image in everyone. 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.