December 19, 2023 — Love Has Anger?

“Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.” Matthew 21:12 – 20

Why would Jesus be angry at a fig tree? It makes us wonder at the inclusion of this encounter. Jesus is angry at the money changers who are trying to turn the house of prayer into a den of robbers. The business of changing money, exchanging a coin that is not acceptable in the Temple, for a coin that is acceptable, well this business was rife with corruption. When you have someone who desperately needs an item being taken advantage by the only person who can supply that need, it is clear to see why the sin of corruption would permeate this business. Jesus is angry.

But Jesus has the opportunity to spend the night away from the business of the Temple and to calm down. But it seems to me he is not calm at all. Yes we can assume he is hungry. But is this the fault of the fig tree that it is not bearing any fruit? Here is some insight for all of us. The fig tree was a popular symbol for the nation of Israel. In his encounter with the Temple money changers, Jesus sees the barren fig tree as a microcosm of the whole nation of Israel –it had become barren from the business of G-d just as the fig tree was barren. When Jesus says “May no fruit come from you ever again”, is he cursing the nation of Israel, or simply stating their future if they do not turn back to the business of G-d?

Pastor Dave

December 18, 2023 — The Weak and the Small

“…the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Luke 3:2 – 6

It is easy to fall into the belief that G-d only works through the powerful, the popular, and the precise. The scriptures are filled with all kinds of broken and sinful people through whom G-d does amazing things. But somewhere along the line we started to believe that G-d only speaks through the prophet and priest, and not through the homeless and the imprisoned. Some of my most G-d-filled moments have been sitting with people who are just trying to get through life. The amount of faith they display in their lives will outdo many of the frequent flyers we see in our pews today.

John, the son of Zechariah, was as ordinary as they come. Yes, he wore outrageous clothing, and yes his diet was unusual, but let me reassure you, in the first century, there were a lot of “interesting” people out and about. There were zealots trying to convince people to fight against the Roman occupation. There were others living out in the desert, hoping to find G-d in their own way. And there were those who claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah. The people ask John if he is the One they were hoping would come to save the people. He made it clear he was not; he was just there to prepare the way of the Lord.

Throughout the scriptures, G-d has selected ordinary people (like Amos, a dresser of Sycamore trees; and Joseph, the dreamer) to be G-d’s messengers. You and I, we are part of a Great Cloud of Witnesses – a long line of ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s called to share the story.

Pastor Dave