[i]
Mark 10:14 Good News Translation
14 When Jesus noticed this, he was angry and said to his disciples,
“Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God
belongs to such as these.”
Jesus is seldom described as becoming angry. When He saw
someone preventing seekers from seeing Him, as in this instance, His divine nature
flashed forth through His human nature, and in pure love He stopped the
preventing party.
On two other occasions, temple officials were desecrating
the temple by profiting from peoples’ desire to worship the Lord as had been
prescribed since the time of Moses. When Jesus walked in, He understood clearly
that they diverted worshippers’ devotion to God by their cheating. These
worshipers were no longer seen as seeking a spiritual blessing but were reduced
to secular mercantile considerations. Not only were they robbed of their hard-earned
possessions, they were also robbed of a love experience with the Almighty. Their
much-anticipated joy was displaced by disgust and resentment.
Again, the divine nature of God in Christ flashed forth with
irresistible force. The perpetrators fled in terror for their very lives. They
felt a tiny hint of the forth coming judgement when they will no longer be able
to flee.
In the first mentioned occasion, the disciples were trying
to protect the Savior’s serious business of establishing the Kingdom of God
from childish interruptions. In the second mentioned occasions, the clergy was
attempting to maintain the sacred purity of temple sacrifices and thus prevent
divine retribution as happened when someone brought an unacceptable offering—like
Cain had (1 John 3:12), or like Nadab and Abihu who offered unholy fire in their
censers (Leviticus 10:1). One is also led to think of Uzzah, who was struck dead
when he tried to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant, that appeared about to fall
(2 Samuel 6:6,7).
In our Liturgical Service at the La Sierra Church, we have
been promoting the biblical principle of the equality of all people in the sight
of God. In particular this refers to racial equality and gender equality. We
have been discouraged at how slowly this principle of equality is accepted by
our own generation. In a recent service where I was liturgist, the liturgy
included the following song:
The cantor and people sing “Welcome Our
Sister-Brother Creator[ii]”
(to the tune of Hymn 44, “Morning Has Broken”)
Come, let us
join our Sister Creator,
Birthing a new world more than we know.
With Her revealing all of our fullness
We create healing where’er we go.
Come, let us
join or Brother Creator,
Bringing forth freedom for every race.
All of earth’s colors dancing together,
Celebrate beauty in every face.
Welcome our
Sister-Brother Creator,
Into our spirits’ life-giving wombs.
Glad expectation grows from our labor
For new creation’s glorious blooms.
As I
sang and listened to these words, my thoughts were deflected from the love and
grace of Christ and his eternal sacrifice for my soul to the unfortunate conflict
within the church over the ordination of women. Are we not as guilty as the
priests who promoted the sanctity of offerings in Christ’s day or as Uzzah when
he went to stabilize the Ark of God?
Lord, give us wisdom
to know how to promote what is good without distracting ourselves from You.
[i] https://zimfieldguide.com/matabeleland-south/cyrene-mission
A mural from the Chapel at Cyrene Mission in Zimbabwe
[ii] Words by Jann Aldredge-Clanton (2009)
No comments:
Post a Comment