We Can’t Miss Him

Luke 19:41-44 NRSV

“As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”  

 This was as Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives on that day of triumphal entry into the city. People were cheering for the king that comes, but there was something else going on. They couldn’t see what Jesus saw when he looked out over Jerusalem. He cried.

There are two times recorded in scripture where Jesus wept. One when he heard that Lazarus was dead and here where he cried over Jerusalem. His tears for Lazarus was sorrow. His tears for Jerusalem was pity.  

He came to offer peace and they refused. Because of their spiritual arrogance and ignorance they missed what Jesus offered. And they would suffer. They missed the time of God’s visitation, and there would be no peace.

They were spiritually blind, but we must be. They missed an awesome opportunity, but we can’t. We start by understanding what God requires- Micah 6:8 spells it out. 

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NRSV)

We start there. We seek him out. We listen and wait on his guidance. These things illumine our spiritual blind spots. Spiritual disciplines help us to walk closer with. We don’t want to miss what he is doing in our lives. We celebrate today because we know what he has done, we know that he is doing something now, and that he will do something. His something is always greater than our best try. We celebrate his love for us, in spite of ourselves. We don’t want to miss our time with him. enough for now.

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We Can

Phil. 4:13 NRSV

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

Paul appealed to the people a way of achieving contentment as they would have understood Stoic and Cynic doctrine that regarded contentment as the essence of all virtues. Contentment was the cultivated attitude of a wise person who had become independent of all things, and all people, relying on self alone because of his or her resources or of what was given by the gods. The Stoics saw Socrates as the prime example of one who had achieved this self-sufficiency, this contentment because of his own resources.  

But Paul’s contentment was a different kind, the source of his contentment was not himself but from God through Christ. Can you see how that place of contentment would mean so much more as it not from what we have, or what we do, or what we can do, but from God, because of who we are in Christ? That’s a peace that passes all understanding.

We have to get to the core of our being.  God is where our strength comes from. Our story is wrapped up in God’s story. That is our core, that’s our being, that’s where our strength comes from. And that is how we must view everything- from being wrapped up in God. It is there that we can recognize God’s truth and receive God’s peace.

Listen when my grandson Trey was small in my son Marq’s arms, my dog Tuesday came into the kitchen where we were talking. Trey immediately leaned down to follow Tuesday and I panicked. My kitchen floor was stone and if that baby fell, he would be hurt. 

But Marq had such a grip, and he said “Nette, I got him.” I still think about that. And I started to watch children in their parents’ arms. You see, many will they will grab an arm if they are trying to see something. But Trey didn’t do that. He just leaned over to watch Tuesday. He had no fear. 

It’s that same place of no fear that we need. We need to be so comfortable with that we have no fear because God has us. That lack of fear enables us to explore, to see differently through him, we not only have no fear, but have a strength from him. 

It’s in that place that we recognize the power of ‘now’, of being in the present moment with God. 

We must get still in order get to that space- in the present moment. We slow down to get on his time which is God time and it moves so much differently from than our time. God operates is Kairos time, his divinely appointed time. We are bound by Chronos time.

Our slow down is not for him to catch up. Our slow down is our ‘wait’ on him. It is out of that moment that we have peace, that contentment from him. And then we are, we can, we will, all because of his strength. more later.