With All Due Respect…

Posted on April 1, 2013 by themondayprayer

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and Lutheran minister who openly spoke against Hitler and the Nazi regime, executed in 1945.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, AMEN.

SCRIPTURES: (from the Lectionary)

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 150
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

PRAYER FOCUS: With All Due Respect (Confronting Authority)

Peter and the Apostles had started the night in Jail. Again. They had been in jail before—and recently (see Acts 4:1-22, then Acts 5:17-21). But this time an angel had appeared and let them out, instructing them to “go and stand in the Temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

To obey the angel would get the good news to the people, but it would put the Apostles in direct conflict with the Sanhedrin, the governing religious authority. The Sanhedrin was a powerful council of more than seventy Jewish religious leaders, flanked by three times that number of clerks. They could have the Apostles flogged and imprisoned, or they could petition the Romans to have them crucified, as they had just demonstrated with Jesus a few days before.

The Apostles had run away in the face of that danger then. They could run now.

But this time things were different. They were different. The Apostles had lost something they never thought they’d lose, and they’d found something they’d never thought they could have. They had changed. And they were about to start changing the world.

The Angel had instructed the Apostles to “Go…Stand…Tell…” So they went to the Temple. They took their stand. They were telling the gathering crowd about the good news of Jesus’ resurrection when the members of the Sanhedrin arrived. The temple guard promptly arrested Peter and the Apostles and brought them before the Council. The High Priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.”

But Peter and the Apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Note that Peter and the Apostles were not sent to challenge the Romans, but rather, at least indirectly, to challenge the church leadership. Peter tactfully acknowledges the Sanhedrin’s authority and treats them with all due respect, even though they are wrong. But he doesn’t back down from the truth.

Note also that the High Priest doesn’t dispute either what Peter is saying or what he is doing. This is extraordinary, because the easiest way to discredit the Apostles was to call them liars and dismiss their stories as wild ramblings. But there was already indisputable evidence of Jesus’ resurrection—so much that the Sanhedrin tried to bribe the soldiers who were sent to guard Jesus’ tomb (Matt. 28: 11-15). So instead of authoritatively responding to the Apostles’ witness of resurrection, the High Priest was reduced to complaining that Peter and his friends weren’t doing what they were told.

The Sanhedrin wanted to silence the Apostles as they had Jesus. Like some church leaders in modern times, the members of the Jewish High Council were deeply invested in the status quo, more concerned about preserving their own position than about God’s will. By obediently spreading the gospel message Peter, John and the others were standing into serious danger. As it was, they emerged from this confrontation with a flogging and a little jail time.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who lived in Nazi Germany. During the 1930s and 40s, very much like the Apostle Peter, Bonhoeffer challenged the German religious leaders for sacrificing their moral principles for the sake of political expedience.

In the economic depression that followed World War I, German Christians had become divided between doctrines of legalism and what American author Tim Keller calls formalism. Proponents of legalism believed that salvation comes through good works and by clean, disciplined living. Formalists only wanted to hear about how much God loves and forgives everyone—how you lived didn’t matter. Legalists first began to develop holier-than-thou attitudes towards the formalists, then gravitated towards the notions of national and racial superiority promoted by Adolph Hitler. The formalists may have noted the fundamental immorality of Hitler’s politics, but saw no need to risk their safety to publicly oppose them. The consequence of Germany’s divided church was that Hitler enjoyed a meteoric rise to power with little moral opposition.

Bonhoeffer spoke out against the church leaders of his day for compromising their theology in order to accommodate Nazi political agenda. They, like the Sanhedrin, preferred the trappings of position and the prerogatives of power to the consequences of confrontation. The Nazi Gestapo eventually arrested Dietrich Bonhoeffer for sedition, and executed him three months before the end of WWII.

Today the Western Church is similarly divided. On one side we have those who at least tacitly subscribe to a doctrine of salvation-by-works, who try hard to live “good” lives that are at least “better than” those “other” churches, and they’re proud of that. On the other side are libertine formalists who can’t seem to bear any unpleasantness of how Jesus suffered and died on a Roman cross to satisfy God’s wrath against us, and who fixate only on good feelings about God’s love, love, and more love.

Somewhere in between is the costly reality of God’s grace, and what that means. Both sides are in danger of losing this core of the Christian faith.

With the church thus asunder, pop culture has predictably turned increasingly immoral (never mind the political culture). False beliefs such as the prosperity gospel and liberation theology have corrupted the Body of Christ. Abortion—the killing of an innocent unborn child—is actually promoted as good and classified as “health care.” Traditional, biblical definitions of sexual morality and immorality are now ridiculed—even inverted. With very few exceptions, church leaders have run away from controversy rather than risk being offensive to an anything-goes culture.

What will it take to raise up preachers who have been changed by grace the way the Apostles were? Where are the men and women of God who will obediently confront both church leaders and cultural icons? Is the gospel message any less necessary, any less powerful today than it was then? For us, is God’s grace somehow less sufficient?

Yes, obeying God’s messenger may put us in the same danger that the Apostles stood into. And yet we must go and stand in the Temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.

Yes, we might collide with church leaders with opposing agendas, and we must treat them with all due respect. But we must never run away from the truth, because we must respect its authority most of all.

As Peter explained to the Sanhedrin, We must obey God rather than any human authority…we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

It’s Monday morning. Today we prayed that we may “show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith”. That means: Let’s get out and change the world. May it be so, by God’s grace.

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Come Awake!

Posted on March 30, 2013 by themondayprayer

Happy Easter Morning to you!

May this be a day of great rejoicing.

We cannot stress this point too strongly: the women who went to the grave of Jesus that morning (Mary the mother of James, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene) did not start the day believing in his resurrection. They weren’t checking to see if the tomb was empty. The fact that they carried spices to anoint a decaying corpse shows what they expected to find…

Luke 24:1-8 “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

He is RISEN!!! (He is risen, indeed…)

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

― Timothy Keller, author of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

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In the Thundering Silence

Posted on March 29, 2013 by themondayprayer

It’s Good Friday. For centuries this day was known as Black Friday, and with good reason. Today we commemorate the darkest day in all of human history. It’s a good day for prayer!

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, AMEN.

SCRIPTURES:

Matthew 26:57—27:61
Mark 14:53—15:47
Luke 22:54—23:54
John 18-1—19:42

PRAYER FOCUS: Our Silence

“He said he was the Son of God. How could he be dead?” #Shock.

“They’re saying he was a false prophet. What if they want to stone us?” #Fear.

“He was our friend, our teacher. We loved him.” #Pain.

“We ran away when he needed us.” #Shame.

The followers of Jesus were thunderstruck. Their world was rocked. They were in hiding. None of them had stood by the one they called Lord. Not one had so much as raised his voice.

Except Peter–ha! Brave Peter the sword-wielding fisherman had shouted “I never knew him”.

The only bright spot in their litany of failure was that John had somehow found the gumption to accompany the women—including Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene—to Golgotha for the end.

The bravest men Jesus had in Jerusalem that day were members of the Sanhedrin—Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The two of them had risked their lives, fortunes and families to take his dead corpse away from Golgotha. They buried him nearby, in a new tomb Joseph had made for himself. The vile Romans had promptly placed a large stone in front of the tomb’s entrance and ordered a detachment of armed guards “to protect the grave from looting by his followers.”

As if! You mean the same Disciples who were with him when Judas brought the Temple Guard to arrest him? The ones who fled silently into the night?

Who were his followers among the Sanhedrin when he stood accused falsely of blasphemy? Ah, the silent ones.

Where were his supporters in the streets of Jerusalem while others in the crowd cried “Give us Barabbas!” and “Crucify him!”? Silence there, too.

And we—yes, we who would so quickly judge them in their day, how many times have we stood silently while the mockers mock and the liars lie about the One we know is Faithful and True? Where were our voices?

Somewhere in the thundering silence hangs the answer.

It’s Good Friday. Thank God.

TMP NOTES:

1. The Catholic Church treats Good Friday as a day of fasting, as does the Eastern Orthodox Church. Adult Orthodox Christians are expected to abstain from all food and drink the entire day to the extent that their health permits. As Protestants ourselves, we admire and agree with this church tradition. We pray you will consider it.

2. In observance of Good Friday, we will have our header photo blacked out until Easter morning.

3. With the end of Holy Week, The Monday Prayer will resume publishing only on Mondays. We hope our journey through Lent has proven insightful. Holy Week is difficult, but we have to go through it to get to Easter. Thank you for your diligence to see the journey to completion. We pray that you will have a wonderful, blessed Easter.

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Not My Will

Posted on March 27, 2013 by themondayprayer

It’s Thursday morning of Holy Week. If this week is comparable to walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, we are approaching the deep, dark and dangerous part. We are close to the end of our Lenten journey.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, AMEN.

PRAYER FOCUS: Let Not My Will, But Yours Be Done

It was just three hours. But for the rest of their lives they would regret them.

Peter, James and John were his best friends, his most trusted Disciples. They had been with Jesus since the beginning. They were sometimes slow to get what the Master taught; and they were prone to pride—jockeying even tonight for “Who is greatest among us?” But they had never before failed him like this.

And the night was just getting started. Before the rooster crowed on the next morning it would get much, much worse…

The Gospel accounts of Jesus at the Last Supper and in the Garden of Gethsemane illuminate our Lord for all eternity. They provide us with a moving, compelling and accurate record of the last hours of Jesus of Nazareth. They tell a story of strength and weakness, light and darkness, faithfulness and failure, and ultimately, glorious victory on a scope we haven’t the capacity to imagine.

We encourage you to spend a few minutes today reading at least one of them.

Matthew 26:36-56
Mark 14:32-52
Luke 22:39-53
John 18:1-12

Let’s focus on our Lord and his prayers in Gethsemane. We see Jesus praying like a man who means it. He expresses great dread over what is about to happen. He confesses to his most trusted friends, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

These are not the words of a man who thinks he has it all in the bag. These are more the words of a man who is struggling to hold it all together. And why not? Jesus knows exactly where this is all heading.

Jesus prays:

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew)

Jesus pauses–and finds his friends asleep. He asks, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Disappointed, he returns to his prayers.

“Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark)

He finds them sleeping again. He returns to his praying for the third time.

“Father, not my will…” (Luke)

These are not only not the words of a man who thinks he has it all in the bag, these are the prayers of someone who needs help. Jesus wants another way. He asks his Father-God to let this cup pass. He gets silence in reply. He calls out “Abba”—Dad—and he prays like even the Messiah has never prayed before. He knows he needs more strength, more power.

Jesus is crushed by anguish. So he prays with such great intensity, such great fervor, that his sweat falls to the ground like drops of blood. Luke later records that an angel from heaven appears to him and strengthens him.

But the cup remains. And the obedient Son would soon drink every bit of it.

“Not my will…”

When Peter, James, and John awaken it is too late. Judas is arriving with the temple guards, armed and wearing the full mantle of their authority. He greets Jesus with a kiss. Nothing the Disciples could do would alter the terrible course of events now in motion.

But they might have prayed with their Master, their Lord, their friend, just one more time. If only…

The Disciples would flee. Every one of them. Peter would run away AND deny even knowing his Lord and Master–not once but three times. We know that kind of failure. Perhaps you do, too?

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

It has ever been thus. All of us have weak flesh. Like Jesus, all of us need strengthening to meet the tasks our Father-God sets before us. Like the Disciples, we can all seek and receive forgiveness when we fail. And that, dear friends, is why we need to pray.

It’s Thursday of Holy Week. The events commemorated on this day are somber at best. But we are not without hope. And we are not without help. Let us pray, with our Lord and Savior, “Not my will…”

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Amazing

Posted on March 26, 2013 by themondayprayer

“You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:35)

It’s Wednesday morning of Holy Week. We are nearing the end of our Lenten Journey. Lent is, without a doubt, a long and difficult trek. Passage through Holy Week has been fairly compared to a walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death that David describes in the 23rd Psalm. And, like the Psalm, this journey ends very well. The joy in the dawn of Easter morning makes it all worthwhile.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, AMEN.

PRAYER FOCUS: Being Amazed at Jesus

How do you respond to a miracle? What do you say? What would witnessing a mighty miracle—or being its recipient—make you believe?

When Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem he didn’t just come to argue with the priests and scribes. He did what he always did…

Jesus taught: He related the Parables of the Two Sons, of the Tenants, and of the Wedding Banquet. (Matt. 21:28-22:14, Mark 12:1-11, Luke 20:9-19)

Jesus performed miraculous healings: “The blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them.” (Matt. 21:14-15)

He did these great things because he loved greatly.

Jesus was, in a word, amazing.

(Music by Phillips, Craig & Dean. Footage from the movie “Jesus of Nazareth”. Presented under license from IgniterMedia.)

It is clear from the four gospels that wherever Jesus went, people were amazed. Whether they were rich or poor, young or old, sick or well, friends or enemies — people were amazed at Jesus. As an interesting footnote, in the Bible (NIV) the word amazed is mentioned thirty-nine times, always referring to how people were amazed at Jesus.

What is not commonly known is that there was one occasion where Jesus was also amazed. In Mark 6, Jesus returns to his hometown only to discover that many were opposed to him. In this context Jesus too is amazed — amazed at their lack of faith.

The choice is ours.

With all the terrible things that are about to happen starting on Thursday, we thought it appropriate to remind our readers what a wonderful human being Jesus was, and how much he loved people. All of the ones he healed and encouraged and forgave and reached out to and stood by and touched–he loved them with a pure, powerful, and utterly amazing love.

This is Wednesday morning of Holy Week. The Scriptures are silent about the events of this day in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. We assume he spent the time enjoying his closest friends, and preparing for the darkness that would fall the next day. We pray you will take time to simply be amazed. May God bless you and give you rest.

TMP NOTE:
In Western Christianity, the Wednesday before Easter is sometimes known as “Spy Wednesday”, as a reference to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, indicating that it is the day that Judas Iscariot first conspired with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus for thirty silver coins.

In the Orthodox Church, this day is called “Holy and Great Wednesday.”

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The Come to Jesus Talk

Posted on March 25, 2013 by themondayprayer

“See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” —Jesus of Nazareth (Matt. 23:38-39, Luke 13:34)

Human Resources Professional speaking to employee on the edge: “Our goal for today’s session is to make you either a performing associate or a former associate. We don’t much care which.” In professional circles, this is also called “The Come to Jesus Talk.”

It’s Tuesday morning of Holy Week. Yesterday on the way to the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus cursed a fig tree for being full of rich green foliage, but having no fruit. What do you think it looks like today…

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER FOCUS: The Come to Jesus Talk: Are We Bearing Fruit—or Not?

On their way to Jerusalem for a second day of confrontation with the Jewish Religious Leaders, Jesus and his Disciples passed the withered fig tree he had cursed the day before. As usual, there was a corresponding lesson. Jesus taught them about faith and about bearing fruit (Matt 21:18-22, Mark 11:12-21).

Did Jesus curse the fig tree yesterday because he was hungry? Did he just not like figs? Was he in a bad mood? Or was Jesus making one of his final points to his Disciples?

Like that fig tree, from a distance the Jewish people showed all the signs of abundance. Israel was in full leaf; they had been blessed greatly, and in return had promised great things to God. Their leaders went to great lengths to appear holy. Only they weren’t. The people were not just, nor true, nor faithful towards God. As we saw yesterday, neither were they loving towards their neighbors. The Jewish synagogue, and the magnificent Temple itself, were barren of spiritual fruit.

The Priests, Scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees all followed the letter of the law, and were careful to be seen doing just that. Only yesterday, Jesus walked into the Temple and denounced it as a den of thieves. He very publicly and very pointedly condemned the Jewish religious structure—their church—to remain a lifeless, fruitless thing. So it was, and so it would be.

Their synagogues remained open, but their teaching became a dead form of what it had been. As a nation, Israel had no further influence. The Hebrew people became, for centuries, a withered tree. Jesus did not destroy the religious organization of the Jews—he didn’t have to. He left them as they were, rotten and decayed from the root, until the Romans came and with the axes of their Legions hacked away the fruitless trunk.

Renowned Evangelist Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon in 1889, observed:

Persons whose religion is false are frequently prominent, because they have not grace enough to be modest and retiring…they do not walk in secret with God, they have little concern about private godliness, and so they are all the more eager to be seen of men. This is both their weakness and their peril. Though least of all able to bear the wear and tear of publicity, they are covetous for it. This is the evil of the whole matter; for it makes their spiritual failure to be known by so many, and their sin brings all the greater dishonor upon the name of the Lord, whom they profess to serve. Better to be fruitless in a corner of a wood than on the public way which leads to the temple.

(from The Withered Fig Tree, Sermon #2107)

There are three lessons to take away from this event, and none of them have to do with figs or whether Jesus was really hungry:

1. A lesson for nations. A nation may be founded on good and godly principles, and may profess to be a faithful people. Its laws may be modeled after the great truths of Scripture. It may build an empire that spans the globe. And it may display all the foliage of civilization, and art, and science. But when it fails to exhibit the righteousness and faithfulness that exalt the nation before God, if there is no inner life of godliness, that nation will become barren and then wither away.
2. A lesson for churches. Throughout the ages, the church has included congregations that have changed the course of human history. But it has always proved a transient victory. Because even in the best congregations, the disciplines required of true faith, love and holiness were not maintained. And the Spirit of God left them to their vanity, fruitless, until they destroyed themselves.
3. A lesson for individuals. There are consequences for not bearing fruit. Jesus was condemning those whose promise is great, but who yield no fruit. They may seem impressive in the sanctuary or Sunday School room, very loud, very authoritative. Given their impressive foliage, you’d expect many baskets of the best figs from them. We may actually envy them and seek to emulate them. But when their hypocrisy is discovered, we are apt to despise our faith as well as the pretenders to it.

From the beginning of time as we know it, there has been a contest between good and evil. Participation is not optional. We win when we bear fruit. The enemy wins when we don’t. Our Captain, our Lord and Savior, has every right to expect our first and best fruits.

This is Tuesday of Holy Week. It’s time we had a come to Jesus talk. Are you going to bear fruit—or not?

TMP NOTE: In the Eastern Orthodox Church today is referred to as “Great and Holy Tuesday.”

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Angry Jesus!

Posted on March 24, 2013 by themondayprayer

A man is about as big as the things which make him angry. —Sir Winston Churchill

It’s Monday morning. We hope and pray your Palm Sunday worship was inspiring. We are now in the last few days of Lent.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find in it the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, AMEN.

SCRIPTURES:

Jesus clears the Temple: Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45-48

PRAYER FOCUS: Angry Jesus!

Some people never seem to get angry. Nothing disturbs their even keel. They are never visibly upset, much less indignant. This is often seen as a marker of virtue or strength. It is neither.

In our modern day, children, especially boys, are repeatedly given the message that anger is bad, that acting out brings disgrace and discredit. But this message can be extremely harmful. It allows no room to deal with things that do—and should—make us angry.

“What makes you angry?” is probably the most revealing question asked in any job interview. The answer provides clear and deep insight to the person’s priorities, where their boundaries lie. It can also reveal the person’s capacity to misrepresent the truth.

The Monday before he was crucified, Jesus Christ gave some crystal clear demonstrations of what made him angry.

Jesus enters the Temple and confronts the merchants and moneychangers inside what was known as the Court of the Gentiles. He loses his temper. He raises his voice–overturns tables, scatters money and merchandise all over the place. He raises his fist–makes a whip of cords and physically drives both man and beast out of the Temple. Jesus has insulted these people before and now he insults them again. “Den of thieves (and robbers)” he hurls at them.

It is safe to say almost everybody in Jerusalem heard about this violent, spectacular confrontation. Religious leaders of first century Jerusalem were no different than many religious leaders of today: they (claim to) disavow violence, they dislike spectacles (especially at their expense), and they avoid confrontation (unless they control all the parameters of the situation).

The events of this Monday stand in sharp contrast to what is usually preached about Jesus in most pulpits. Angry Jesus? Well, we’d just rather talk about how much he loves us. Anger is so, so…negative. (wring hands for effect)

What made Jesus angry to the point of violence?

1. Defiling what is holy (set apart for God). The Court of Gentiles was the outermost enclosure of the Temple of Herod, where non-Jewish believers worshiped the God of Abraham. But instead of being a quiet place, a clean place, a holy place, it was where animals were penned, where religious merchandise was sold and money exchanged. Would it make you mad to walk into your church and find all this in the back half of your sanctuary? Jesus roared, “Make not my Father’s house into a marketplace!” (John 2:16).

2. Disenfranchising God’s children. Mosaic Law kept Gentiles separate from the ethnic Hebrews in the Temple (hence the outer court). But the Jewish religious leaders were callous towards the Gentiles in ways that far exceeded that requirement. How do you think it made the Gentiles feel to have their spiritual brothers shunt them into a smelly, noisy stockyard to pray? God is offended when we make it difficult for any group (or any one) of his children to worship. Jesus exclaimed, “My house is to be called a house of prayer for all people!” (Mark 11:17).

3. Exploiting and/or cheating the faithful. The Temple levied a tax on all visitors equivalent to two days’ wages. Most people used Roman coins engraved with the image of Caesar. This was offensive to the religious leaders, so pilgrims had to exchange them—for a small fee (~15% commission). Animals brought to the altar for sacrifice had to be without blemish. Of course, the Temple had quality control inspectors and, of course, they usually found something wrong. Conveniently, the worshiper could buy a beast that had already passed inspection—for a small fee (10x the normal price). Not surprisingly, the Temple priests were in on the racket. Dishonesty takes many forms, and God hates them all.

What makes Jesus angry? The same things that make our Father-God angry: Sin. Impurity. Injustice. Dishonesty. Unbelief. Rebellion against God’s authority.

Yes, God is slow to anger and abounding in love (Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 86:15, 103:8, 145:8, Joel 2:14, Jonah 4:2, Nahum 1:3, etc.). And he is deeply, keenly interested both in keeping his house clean and his children safe from abuse. Just because God is slow to anger doesn’t mean he will never respond in it.

Look at what Jesus did and did not do:

• Jesus didn’t form a committee or ask anyone’s permission. He just got to work making his Father’s house clean again, and challenging those who had let it become defiled.
• Jesus didn’t ask nicely, and he didn’t worry about what anyone thought. He made a whip and he made a scene. There is a time for diplomacy, but this was not it.
• Jesus did have the courage of his convictions and was prepared to seriously offend those in power. He hit them right where it hurt—he assaulted their pride and their money flow.
• Jesus did show restraint even in the heat of anger. With a word he could have called down fire from heaven, or caused the earth to open and swallow up the recipients of his anger–but he didn’t. The whip of cords would sting but not wound. He drove the cattle and sheep out of the temple where they could be retrieved. The scattered coins could be picked up. Jesus did not release the doves, but rather admonished their owners to “get them out of here.”

The cleansing of the Temple shows what controlled, righteous anger can do. The correction of social injustices in the 19th and 20th centuries happened because people got angry about the conditions of the working poor, the plight of women and children, the unequal exploitation of minorities. There are times remedial action needs to be taken in our churches, and it is rarely the placid, passive man or woman who undertakes the task.

Jesus was angry, and for good reasons. We should mark those reasons well. There is enormous, eternal comfort in knowing our Lord and Savior understands anger and allows a place for it.

It’s Monday morning. What would Jesus drive out of your church? What might he ask you to drive out of your life?

NOTE: In honor of Holy Week, The Monday Prayer will publish every day until Good Friday. As the week progresses, we will follow the daily activities of Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded in the Scriptures, along with observations and prayer.

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Palm Sunday Prayer

Posted on March 24, 2013 by themondayprayer

This beautiful and powerful prayer was posted this morning by Bishop Bill McAlilly (UMC Tennessee and Memphis Conferences) on his blog “Greater Things Are Yet To Be Done”. We wanted to share.
Peace be with you. Have a blessed Palm Sunday.

wtmcalilly's avatarGreater Things Are Yet To Be Done

1.jpgO God who has known the clamor of a thousand Palm Sundays and the disappointment of a million crucifixions, we bow in your presence as those who have both affirmed and denied you, and ask your forgiveness.  Give us your grace that we may learn to live in affirmation and not denial.

Let the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus our Lord be in us that we may say, Abba, Father and walk in your righteousness. Deliver us from false values, from selfish desire and the worship of things, that we may not waste our lives on goals and objects without eternal significance.  Guard us this week from betraying our Christ as Judas did, and for a few pieces of silver or a promotion at the office or a quick thrill or a cheap victory over an enemy. Lead us daily to the garden of prayer, that we may empty…

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Hero to Zero

Posted on March 18, 2013 by themondayprayer

It’s Monday morning. Thank you for starting it here, in a prayerful mood. And what a beautiful day! As we face forward we can see the end of our Lenten Journey approaching. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Christian Holy Week. Good Friday and Easter follow. It will be a busy week, full of celebration and contemplation. Between now and then we pray that you will continue your daily prayer and Bible reading.

PRAYER:

Almighty and Eternal Father, we welcome your Son as our King and Savior. We cry “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD.” On this Palm Sunday, we pray that you will illuminate your word and your will for us through the Scriptures, and so strengthen our faith. Give us the grace and the courage to follow you from life through death to resurrection, from light through darkness to the fullness of eternal light. Come Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Hosanna in the highest heaven! Amen.

SCRIPTURES: (from the Lectionary)

Luke 19:28-40
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

So they brought the (donkey) colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on. As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!” But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” Jesus replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

QUOTE:

“When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we profess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord. I would like that all of us, after these days of grace, might have the courage – the courage – to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward.” —Pope Francis I, in his first homily (14 March 2013).

PRAYER FOCUS: Hero to Zero

Palm Sunday is a crowd-pleaser.

We very much enjoy Palm Sunday. It is perhaps the only Christian holy day that remains undiminished by distractions like candy bunnies and colored eggs, or evergreen trees and commercialized greeting cards. And who could disagree with the liturgical procession of the cross, children skipping through the aisle waving palm fronds, the air of festivity and triumph? The Scripture readings of our Lord Jesus are all so positive—he’s entering Jerusalem to heal multitudes of broken people and finally straighten things out with the Jewish religious leaders. Almost everybody is happy. There is this pervasive sense of impending victory.

How interesting that Jesus rides into Jerusalem, not on a mighty war horse or holding the reins of a great big chariot, but on the back of a donkey. Nevertheless, the crowds went wild. Here, certainly, was the Messiah, the Son of David, the Promised One. At last. Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

At this point, to the observers of Jesus, his life isn’t very different from the lives of other charismatic leaders. Some people are watching him out of curiosity (mostly the Romans), growing numbers follow him (although many with wrong reasons), others oppose everything he’s doing (Jewish religious leaders). A few know him well and have heard his expressed intentions (his Disciples), yet their minds can’t go to the place where this story has to end.

Jesus didn’t come to Jerusalem to hear shouts of hosanna. Nor did he seek some previously unsought theological common ground with the Sadducees and Pharisees, or some political compromise with the Sanhedrin so they could all just get along. One of the first things Jesus did in Jerusalem was to raise his voice, grab a whip, turn over tables and violently drive out those who had sullied his Father’s Temple. Jesus came to Jerusalem not for the first part of the week, not for Palm Sunday. No, Jesus came to Jerusalem for the Cross.

Much of what happens next was predictable. Three years into a ministry of miracles and other demonstrations of supernatural power, Jesus had what you might call a regional reputation. The crowds simply adored him. Consequently the Romans were watching him. The Jewish religious leaders were, too, and they had already identified him as a threat. Jesus of Nazareth was the talk of Jerusalem. Everyone thought they knew what he was there for.

What amazes us is how quickly the crowds turned against him. Apparently, the distance from hero to zero can be covered in a matter of days.

We suppose it has ever been thus. In our modern time we turn on celebrities with the same mercurial malice. We do ourselves no favors by tearing down our heroes because they walk the earth with clay feet. But we do it anyway.

• A gifted young golfer who captures the imagination of the world. He seemed unstoppable, unbeatable. He married an elegant young wife; they had beautiful children. He lived a life that seemed perfect in every way, as expected. Suddenly, news about countless affairs and infidelity punctures the image of perfection. With dizzying speed, his fans and the media turn on him. In disgrace, the golfer becomes widely mocked.

• A photogenic young cyclist who races to victory time and time again, making headlines and history. He dominates his sport, as expected. He is cheered as well for beating cancer. He devotes his time to promoting the virtues of personal health and fighting disease. Then hard evidence emerges of his long-term use of performance enhancing drugs. The applause and cheers turn into jeers and jokes. The champion cyclist becomes the object of mockery and late-night TV skits.

We do not mean to suggest a comparison between any human sports figure and the Son of God. Rather, we use the illustration to underscore that our human nature today is no different from that of the people who lived in Jerusalem then. They looked at Jesus in terms of “What can he do for me?” The Romans sought a device to tighten their grip over politically restive Palestine. The Jewish religious leaders wanted to use him to extend their own power and to validate their pretense of righteousness. The Hebrew people wanted him to bring down biblical judgments upon their vile Roman oppressors and drive them out of Israel. Besides, isn’t this the guy who dispenses free health care and feeds thousands of people at one sitting?

Everybody held some expectation of Jesus that day. Only the Romans would remain undisappointed.

The frustrated Sanhedrin would sentence Jesus to death. The disciples would abandon their master and flee in terror. The same people who waved palm branches and sang “Hosanna to the Son of David” would soon shake their empty fists and shout, “Give us Barabbas.”

The events surrounding the last days of Jesus of Nazareth are some of the best documented in all of history. The four Gospel accounts of Scripture, the independent written accounts of Jewish historians and the Roman archives of Palestine all tell the same story through different eyes. We can effectively apply a modern historical standard to these ancient events.

• A popular young preacher with a message of restoration and redemption, with a reputation for supernatural feats and miracles of healing, rides into the holy city of Jerusalem on a donkey and is greeted as a king. People lay their cloaks down in front of his path. They shout “Hosanna” (Aramaic for “save us”) and wave palm branches in the air. Expectations run sky high. After all, this is the man for whom the impossible is possible. Why, he was even seen walking on the water…

We celebrate Palm Sunday with open eyes. Because from this point forward, the majestic arc of Jesus’ life would bend sharply towards rejection and a humiliating, painful death on a Roman cross.

But on this day, our Lord and Savior rode among men, as a man, in triumph. On this day we gave him praise for his achievements, for his miracles and his teachings. On this day we accepted him. We gave him the cheers and applause he deserved. This day we gave him our acclaim and adoration, sang our hope and hosannas. This day was different.

This, dear friends, is Palm Sunday.

So let us pray that we are different from them. Please Lord, let us be different. Lord, save us, indeed.

It’s Monday Morning. Holy Week begins in a few days. Are we ready to greet the King of Kings?

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A Not-So-Perfect Past

Posted on March 11, 2013 by themondayprayer

Happy Monday to you. We have passed halfway through Lent, leaving behind the distinctions of culture, personality and denomination to take our place among the disciples following the lead of our Lord and Savior. Our Lenten Journey is an exercise in Christian discipleship; it is both demanding and challenging. But the course is well-traveled and well-marked. Followers of Jesus have traveled together along this path since the early fourth century.

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

SCRIPTURES: (from the Lectionary)

Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness… (Is. 43:18-19).

Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves (Ps. 126:6-7).

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14).

QUOTE:

“But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in Him but in myself and His other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.” —St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), from Confessions, 397 A.D.

PRAYER FOCUS: A Not-So-Perfect Past

Today we pray—sincerely and with fervor—that with God’s help, we may overcome our “unruly wills and affections,” that we might love God’s ways more than our own, that our wandering hearts might be “fixed where true joys are to be found.”

Why?

Because, one of the greatest sources of human suffering is wishing that something in our past was not so.

We’re not talking just about our mistakes and shortcomings—all of us have done things we regret (and our personal list seems to grow longer with each passing day). We’re not talking about lessons in living with (or overcoming) the consequences of our errors. We are talking about the long-term inability to get over a hurt, failure or disappointment, having our attentions so fixed in the past that the pain remains alive. We are talking about a persistent, willful, highly painful, very human tendency to return to past ways, sins, and patterns. Such a backwards focus can become a crippling and disruptive force that wreaks great havoc in our lives. God doesn’t want that for His beloved children.

The clear and strong theme in this week’s Lectionary scriptures is: Leaving your past behind.

Robert Robinson lived and died in the 18th Century. Like so many of us today, Robert had a wandering heart and a past he couldn’t quite let go of.

Robert’s father died when was he was eight. As a teenager, Robert was sent to London as a barber’s apprentice. Before long he became a juvenile delinquent. He especially liked to harass preachers, until the day he met George Whitefield, a contemporary of John Wesley. Robert’s salvation and conversion were actually quite profound. He himself became a Methodist preacher and a lettered theologian. He wrote music and hymns. In his early 20s he composed the Christian classic “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

Then Robert’s faith began to waver and his heart began to wander. He lapsed into the softer “feel good” theology of Unitarianism. Success left him. He slid into a lifestyle of self-destructive behaviors and sin. Years passed.

In this “spiritually backslidden condition” Robert found himself one day traveling in a stagecoach with a young woman who was humming the tune to his most famous hymn, which he himself had written many years before. She became quite enthusiastic, bubbling on about what an encouragement this song had been to her. Robert politely tried to get her to change the subject. But the woman wouldn’t leave it alone. Turning to him, she asked if he knew the hymn that had meant so much to her.

Robert Robinson broke down in sobs. He confessed, through flowing tears, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who composed that hymn, many years ago. And I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I then had!”

The young woman replied, gently, “Sir, the ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing.” And they were.

How do you go from writing such powerful and soul-stirring words as in this hymn to a place where you would give a thousand worlds to know and experience what you once had in the Lord? The authors of The Monday Prayer imagine that many, if not most of us can testify to that answer in very personal terms. Perhaps a more important question is: How do we overcome the unruly wills and affections that caused our hearts to wander in the first place?

The answer is–not by accident, and not without effort.

Robert Robinson’s story ends well. His fellowship with the Lord was restored through the ministry of his own hymn, and through a fellow Christian’s willing witness. But he had to put his past behind him. And thereafter he had to keep a tighter rein on the wandering heart we still sing about.

St. Augustine (quoted above) wrote about living incurvatus in se (Latin for living “bent in” on ourselves). Such is the sad state of our natural human condition. In order to be bent away from our human selfishness and back to our Father-God we need to be discipled.

This is not a one-time event, but a long-term intentional process requiring deliberate and repeated corrections, much like learning to fly an airplane. You see, we are not born knowing how to fly, either. But it is not impossible to learn, and the freedom gained is worth all the investment cost of the lessons.

God very much wants us to be free. Perchance you’ve noticed He’s deeply invested in our freedom. None of us can change what’s happened to us. But we can receive healing in “streams of mercy.” And we can—indeed we must—learn to master our unruly wills and affections.

So let us pray. (Repeat Lectionary Prayer above…)

It’s Monday Morning. Isn’t this a good week to let go of your not-so-perfect past?

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

[Fourth stanza to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, by Robert Robinson (1735-1790).

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