Invite Jesus to Your House!--by Linden Malki

Jesus collected several groups of people who thought they knew everything God had said. Unfortunately, they all missed the main point. Jesus had recognized their problem at the beginning--one of His first public appearances was at Passover, and He was not pleased.  He was not surprised that the Temple establishment had turned it into a marketplace, and He let them know what God thought about it. This was not a temper tantrum; it was a coldblooded judgment. John finishes the story of this day by commenting that Jesus did not trust them, for "He knew all men and did not need anybody to testify about man, for He Himself knew what was in man."

He begins His teaching with being specific about what we, human beings, need most. When He is faced with a paralytic on a mat coming down through a roof, his first words are "Son, your sins are forgiven." The experts on God respond with "You can't do that!" Jesus' response is essentially "Yes, I Can." And then He completes the lesson by healing the paralytic.

The next thing we read is Jesus calling an social and political outcast as a disciple. I suspect that Matthew/Levi was more than he appeared. We know that he appears to have a better than average education (all Jewish men of that day had a basic Yeshiva education, at least till  12 or 13), and from the name, was possibly of the tribe of Levi. His response was a typical Middle Eastern one: dinner!  His guests included his professional collegues, which brought a response from Jesus' growing gang of busybodies, who made snitty remarks about Jesus associating with the riff-raff of Matthew's social circle. Jesus response: You think you don't need help; the ones who can be helped are the those who recognize what they are missing.

The next incident is even more dramatic: Jesus is at dinner with a fine upstanding Pharisee, when a local street person quietly comes in with a jar of perfume. She comes up behind Jesus, washes his feet with tears and wipes them with her hair, and pours perfume on them. The Pharisee makes the snide comment that a real prophet would recognize such a sinner and not let her near him. Jesus then tells a story about two debtors who are facing their lender with the bad news that they cannot pay. The lender decides to forgive them both their debts, one much larger than the other. Jesus asks which one is the most grateful? The obvious answer: the one who had the larger favor.  Jesus then points out the favor shown by the woman, compared with stingy hospitality from his host, forgives her sins, and sends her on her way in faith.

I see one more story in this series: another tax collector. On Jesus' last trip up to Jerusalem, he sees a small man in a tree by the road, getting above the heads of the collected crowds. Jesus calls Zaccheus down, and invites himself to dinner at his house. I find it interesting that the first thing we hear from Zaccheus is his description of his earnest commitment to honesty and ethics in a notoriously dishonest profession, and hearing Jesus promise salvation to a true son of Abraham, seeing in this man what He was about to die for.

Recognizing the Weeds--by Linden Malki

The most scary symptom of the disease of leprosy is that you develop nerve damage under the skin which means that you don't feel injuries.  You'd think that not feeling pain would be a blessing, but it's not--we don't realize how often we bump into things one way or another that if not noticed, will damage your body.  Sufferers need to constantly watch for damage that could easily cause more injury.  

I suspect that "evil" is something like leprosy. It's not something we like to see or sense, but it can be a warning of worse to come. We all live with some level of evil, and it's easy to complain about it, and blame God (or everybody and anybody). When we as people were blessed with intelligence, that should come with the understanding that we are responsible for ourselves and each other.  If we all lived by the Book, we would avoid a lot of trouble we can get into, but there are surprises as well.  (God loves doing this for us!)

We can't always recognize evil for what it really is.  Jesus, however, knew exactly what was up. One of my favorite verses is John 2:23-25:"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.  But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." Jesus lived in interesting times; His hands-on experience of human society was that of the Roman provinces of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.  What is interesting about this is that everybody who lived there was familiar with the Jewish Scriptures and other related writings of the era. He didn't have to convince these people that God exists and has rules for them to live by; people varied in the amount of attention they paid, but even the "sinners" who were not observant knew what it was that they didn't observe. Jesus was dealing with two major groups of people: those who listened and liked what they heard, and those who thought they knew it all and Jesus was not only wrong but dangerous.  These were the religious experts, mostly Saducees and some Pharisees, who were expecting a military Messiah that would drive out the Romans. Meanwhile, they were on a tightrope of keeping enough order to placate the Romans and keep them in power until this Messiah showed up. When Jesus showed up, they were upset that he hadn't come to them first, and then that he told them that they were getting a lot of it wrong. 

There is an interesting parable in Matthew 13 that came to mind when I was thinking about the evil in the world. The story is about a farmer who sows a field with wheat, and then an enemy comes at night and sows weeds in the field--and these are a weed that looks very much like a wheat stalk until they are pretty well grown. When the owner is asked if they should pull the weeds out, the answer is No, because it would damage the good wheat. The time to separate them is at the harvest, where their true nature will be obvious. We usually think about this in terms of unbelievers, but Jesus wasn't talking to pagan audiences, he was talking to his own people, which included both his friends and enemies.  And often it was difficult to tell the difference. Looking around our own "'good people", there are people who look good, talk good, but the roots are not what they claim to be.  There are preachers who have their own message, teachers who are offtrack in their teaching; people, even in churches, who do things behind closed doors that damage both their victims and the church's reputation, parents who should not be raising children.  We, as resposible Christ-followers, need to make sure we are the true wheat, and try (carefully! very carefully!) to isolate the weeds until they can be judged. 

How Gracious Is Your God? by Linden Malki

One of the earliest situations that mankind faced was our relationship with our Creator. It started out as perfect, but it didn't stay that way; mainly because our ancestors wanted to be in charge. There is a constant theme of wanting things our own way; there are mentions of early patriarchs who did follow instructions: Enoch,who  'walked with God', and Noah, who listened to God's instructions and built a boat. After the flood, Noah was given a very simple list of commandments:  Do not eat meat with the life-blood in it; do not murder, remember that the promise to never repeat the Flood was given by God, who demands obedience.  (Jewish tradition expands the list to seven instructions that are binding on all mankind.) Unfortunately, what we see is a growth of images that become a rival to God throughout Biblical times in many parts of the world, some of which are still being worshipped.

The current major worship practices are fairly simple in theory (although complex in practice): the Asian religions whose ideal is the loss of personality and becoming part of the Universe, and the three "Abrahamic" traditions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, all of which are based on a God who does interact with His creation. 

Judaism is the "parent" of the other two; it is primarily based on a system of Divinely given Laws that if followed, will provide a good life, and if  not followed, will bring disaster of both physical and political dimensions, which may follow generations for good or evil. Included are stories of people who have had special relationships with God, and literature that includes conversations, and responses to the overwhelming greatness of God. Over the years, the emphasis on law has expanded, and when challenged by Jesus and His message, became the primary interaction with God. The traditional fast of Yom Kippur is based on confessing and repenting for the sins of the past year. 

Islam is the youngest of the three traditions, and it is based on the "revelations" to Muhammed, who lived in the Arabian peninsula in the 600's. It also includes a large body of Law, which is very specific and literal, and is the key the eternal judgment of "Allah", the Arabic name for God. There are only three ways to satisfy the demands it places on its adherents: total obedience to the Law; to take part in a extensive ritual of forgiveness which is part of the the "hajj", the pilgrimage to Mecca that is recommended for every Muslim at least once in their lives; or to be a martyr, to die in the process of killing an enemy of Islam.

Judaism and Islam depend on you: you are responsible for obeying the required laws in order to achieve the promise of fellowship with God.  Christians also have a tradition of law, and many people consider them the most important of the part of the tradition. The problem with this is that it becomes more important to follow the rules in one's own strength than to admit that we can't do it on our own and submit to the power of God. This then opens up the real glory of our God: to recognize that God has already provided the means for us to be forgiven: and in a more powerful way than we could ever do it on our own.  It is when we stop trying to be perfect and are willing to accept the power of what God did through His Son--which is the infinite power of God Himself--the total cleansing of our souls and the willingness to give up everything that is not fit for the presence of God.
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The Book of Books--by Linden Malki

The Bible is a truly amazing book! We are used to it, so don't realize all the really interesting things about it. We know that it has been in its current form for at least 2200 years, which is astonishing in inself, but is the result of a process that takes us back to the beginnings of history itself.

The beginnings of Hebrew go back into the early days of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, which spoke several related languages.  A real breakthrough in these civilizations was the development of the "alphabet". It is believed to have originated in Lebanon, in Byblos, by the Phoenicians, with probable borrowing of hieroglyphic characters from the Egyptians. There are ancient inscriptions (that word itself is significant) dating as far back as 2000BC that are recognizable as alphabetic. The Phoenician alphabet is pretty well developed by 1050BC, and is considered the ancestor of most alphabets, including Hebrew, Greek, Latin and their descendants.

It is amazing how many alphabetic inscriptions have been discovered in this part of the world, most of which are in ancient languages which were lost and some have been recovered. The one exception is Hebrew, which was never lost. It was in continuous use until after the second Roman conquest of 132AD, but still retained as religious and literary language. It has been recovered again as a living language in Israel. (There were some indications that Aramaic was widely used in Roman days, but the Dead Sea Scrolls had many more documents in Hebrew than Aramaic, indicating that Hebrew was still in widespread use.)

The importance of this is that the Bible has been a living document for at least 2500 years, and much of it dates earlier. One thing that is interesting is that has been talk of it being a fake, and when claims are made that incidents are described that did not happen where or when they are described. It is amazing how often it is found that the problem is the dating at this end,  but it is too easy to make pronouncements on archeological guesses. There is some fascinating work being done in Biblical and Israeli research; we should not be too fast to pronounce something "impossible."

It is incredible that we still have a readable Book that goes back to the earliest mists of history. What I find interesting is the number of people that are mentioned: if I were writing a story, I would not have made these interminable geneological lists and civil service lists--there are thousands of individuals mentionen by nam, including hundreds of women. In all the other archeological information that has been found, there are practially no women. And they are real people--they have all the personalities we would expect. There are all kinds of interesting tidbits about people--what they looked like, who their parents and/or kids were. The Bible is a treasure--there is nothing like it anywhere, even in other religious writings. It has grown from an ancient language to one that is still with us, as well as translations in the hundreds. And still, whenever we pick it up, we find something new.

Choose Your Battles! by Linden Malki

Daniel and his three friends had a choice to make, and there is more to their story than meets the eye.  They were faced with an opportunity to be educated in the palace of Nebucadnezzar, and given the food and wine the King got. For the Jewish boys, the problem was that the palace food was not "kosher" and from questionable sources, and unacceptable to them.

We know the deal the boys made with the King's steward, but there are several points that we don't usually think about.  There are several attitudes that that they could have had, which from the outside would look basically the same.  They were obedient in following the dietary rules they had grown up with.  They could have seen it as something comfortable and familiar, and not thought about it overmuch. How much of what we do is habit and routine--what we see our families do as a matter of course. Many of these things are valuable in themselves and keep us out of trouble, but do we actually think about what we're doing and why? There is the classic story of the mom who always cut the ends off of the roast when she put the pan in the oven. Finally her daughter asked why she did this, and her answer was "because my mom always did it." Then they went to grandma, and her answer was "Because my roasting pan wasn't big enough."

 They could have  nagged the other boys from other places about eating "impure" food and winding up sick, or in an uncomfortably hot place. We can--with the best of motives--be a pain in the neck. There are some things we see people do that need to be dealt with--somebody walking into oncoming traffic, for example.  Some things are in the category of advice, but we need to be very careful.  I might say "That might not be the best idea";  but if that gets no response or a negative response, drop it. Anything you say from that point on is going to harden the resistance; but I've occasionally heard something that I offered as a suggestion being quoted by the recipient later.

They could have made a big deal about doing something special, which would give them "points" for their obedience.  The problem of this is that the credit they are fishing for is social or religious credit, which is what Jesus dealt with in Matthew 6 when he described things, even prayers, done for a human audience.  The problem with this audience is that it can't offer anything more than human credit. We hear people say "But I'm a good person; I help people; I take care of my family.." but that's the credit that you get.  I suspect that there are too many people--in and out of churches--who worry more about what people think than what God thinks.

From what we read, those boys were willing to offer their obedience to God, which is what the Lord requires: To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.