Trouble shooting our troublesome brothers & sisters!

Mat 18:15-20

“If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.

“Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

Food for thought!

In many ways this is one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to grasp and to apply in real life. By and large, Jesus is saying, "If anyone sins against you, spare no effort to make that man admit his fault, and to get things right again between you and him." Basically it means that we must never tolerate any situation in which there is a breach of personal relationships between us and another member of the Christian community.

Suppose something does go wrong, what are we to do to put it right? This passage presents us with a whole scheme of action for the mending of broken relationships; how to trouble shoot our our troublesome people.

(i) If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should immediately put our complaint into words. The worst thing that we can do about a wrong is to brood about it. That is fatal. It can poison the whole mind and life, until we can think of nothing else but our sense of personal injury. Any such feeling should be brought out into the open, faced, and stated, and often the very stating of it will show how unimportant and trivial the whole thing is.

If we feel that someone has wronged us, we should go to see him personally. More trouble has been caused by the writing of SMS than by almost anything else. Marriages have gone sour and sometimes ended because of SMS. The reason is that an SMS may be misread and misunderstood; it may quite unconsciously convey a tone it was never meant to convey. And as you know from your experience, many times we send our SMS to the wrong people at wrong times.

Jesus is saying that if and when we have a difference with someone, there is only one way to settle it, and that is face to face. The spoken word can often settle a difference which the written word would only have exacerbated.

(ii) If a private and personal meeting fails of its purpose, we should take some wise person or persons with us. Deut.19:15 has it: "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained." That is the saying which Jesus has in mind.

But in this case the taking of the witnesses is not meant to be a way of proving to a man that he has committed an offence. It is meant to help the process of reconciliation. A man often hates those whom he has hurt or who has hurt him; and it may well be that nothing we can say can win him back. But to talk matters over with some wise and kindly and gracious people present is to create a new atmosphere in which there is at least a chance that we should see ourselves "as others see us."

(iii) If that still fails, we must take our personal troubles to the Christian fellowship. Why? Because personal quarrels are never settled by going to courts, or by Christless argument. Court merely produces further trouble. It is in an atmosphere of Christian prayer, Christian love and Christian fellowship that personal relationships may be righted. The clear assumption here is that our Christian communities judge everything, not in the light of a book of practice and rules, but in the light of love.

(iv) It is now we come to the difficult part. JESUS says that, if even that does not succeed, then the man who has wronged us is to be regarded as a Gentile and a tax-collector. The first impression is that the man must be abandoned as hopeless and irreclaimable, but that is precisely what Jesus cannot have meant. He never set limits to human forgiveness. What then did he mean?

As we know, whenever Jesus speaks of tax-gatherers and sinners he always does so with sympathy and gentleness and an appreciation of their good qualities. It may be that what Jesus says was something like this: "When you have done all this, when you have given the sinner every chance, and when he remains stubborn and obdurate, you may think that he is no better than a renegade tax-collector, or even a godless Gentile. Well, you may be right. But I have not found the tax-gatherers and the Gentiles hopeless. My experience of them is that they, too, have a heart to be touched; and there are many of them, like Matthew and Zacchaeus, who have become my best friends. Even if the stubborn sinner is like a tax-collector or a Gentile, you may still win him, as I have done."

Seen this way, what Jesus says is not an injunction to abandon anyone; it is a challenge to win him with the love which can touch even the hardest heart. It is not a statement that some men are hopeless; it is a statement that Jesus Christ has found no man hopeless, and neither must we.

(v) Finally, there is the saying about losing and binding. What it means is that the relationships which we establish with our fellow-men and women last not only through time but into eternity; therefore we must get them right NOW.

Unless you make a U-Turn!

Mat 18:1-15

1 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, "Who gets the highest rank in God's kingdom?" 2 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, 3 and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. 4 Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. 5 What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. 10" Watch that you don't treat a single one of these childlike believers arrogantly. You realize, don't you, that their personal angels are constantly in touch with my Father in heaven? 12 "Look at it this way. If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders off, doesn't he leave the ninety- nine and go after the one? 13 And if he finds it, doesn't he make far more over it than over the ninety- nine who stay put? 14 Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn't want to lose even one of these simple believers.

Food for thought

Here is a very revealing question, followed by a very revealing answer. The disciples asked who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus took a child and said that unless they turned and became as this little child, they would not get into the Kingdom at all. The question of the disciples was: "Who will be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" and the very fact that they asked that question showed that they had no idea at all what the Kingdom of Heaven was. Jesus said, "Unless you turn." He was warning them that they were going in completely the wrong direction, away from the Kingdom of Heaven and not towards it.

In life it is all a question of what a wo/man is aiming at; if s/he is aiming at the fulfilment of personal ambition, the acquisition of personal power, the enjoyment of personal prestige, the exaltation of self, s/he is aiming at precisely the opposite of the Kingdom of Heaven. So long as a wo/man considers his or her own self as the most important thing in the world, his / her back is turned to the Kingdom; if s/he wants ever to reach the Kingdom, s/he must turn round and face in the opposite direction.

Jesus took a child and said that in a child we see the characteristics which should mark the wo/man of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, as we grow older, many of us aren't growing towards the Kingdom of heaven, but away from it; the more we grow up, the less we become childlike; and the more unchildlike we become the further away from heaven we get.

Many of us have lost the child within; we have to relearn looking at life as a child does, with a beginner's mind; we must free our mind of all expectations and learn to expect the unexpected. We have to make a U-Turn and learn to be childlike again, otherwise we are going to a wrong direction. We do well to turn and accept and embrace the child within, for as Jesus taught us today, receiving this child within is like receiving Christ himself. And the more childlike (not the more childish) we become, the greater we become heaven bound. Happy the childlike because they behold the face of the Father in heaven, and are beheld by the Father in heaven.

In order not to upset them needlessly, Go and Work!

Matthew 17:22-27

As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him—and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt terrible.

When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay taxes?” Peter said, “Of course.” But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. “Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays—his children or his subjects?” He answered, “His subjects.” Jesus said, “Then the children get off free, right? But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”

Food for thought!

This incident is very didactic; Jesus is teaching us something important. Jesus did not make any miracle that day, but instead told Peter to go and catch a fish, and that he would find money in the fish's mouth which would be sufficient to pay the tax for both of them. And this was in order not to "upset them needlessly". What's this, if not another way of saying, "Yes, even Christians, we must pay our just and lawful taxes. How? Well, through just work. So, Jesus is indeed saying to Peter, "Get back to your profession of fishing for a day. You'll get plenty of money in the fish's mouths to pay your dues! A day at the fishing will soon produce all you need."

Jesus is saying, "Use your profession, use your talent, use your mind, use your knowledge, use your experience to earn a living. That is the normal way to earn a living; the way to help yourself and your people." So the typist will find money in the keys of her typewriter. The motor mechanic will find food for himself and his wife and family in the engine of the motor car. The teacher will find money to pay his way in the blackboard and the chalk and the books. The clerk will find enough to support himself and his dear ones in the ledger and in the account sheets. The shopkeepers will find their living from behind the counter. Jesus was not telling Peter literally to get coins in fish's mouths. He was telling him and you and me that in the day's work we can get what we need for a living.

He was telling him that we all have what it takes to pay our bills, we have what it takes to make a living, to be successful. God gave everybody talents enough to make us be somebody in life. So, this gospel is about us all, not just Peter. Use what God gave you to make a difference in life. Use what you know to get to where you want to be.

He was telling Peter that being my disciple is no excuse for work. Everybody must earn a living; nobody should live on hand outs. Work is normal for everybody, including followers of Jesus. We must all work, even when we work for Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 3:10

"For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."

Genesis 3:19 Helpful?

"By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground."

1 Thessalonians 4:11 Helpful?

"Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands."

Proverbs 13:4

"No matter how much a lazy person may want something, he will never get it. A hard worker will get everything he wants."

Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!

Luke 12:32-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

“Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!

“You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”

Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”

The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

“The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!

Food for Thought:

This passage has two senses. In its narrower sense it refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; in its wider sense it is a call for every living person to prepare for the meeting of God. In either case, there is praise for the servant who is ready. None of us can tell the day or the hour when eternity will invade his or her time and summons will come. How, then, would we like God to find us?

(i) We would like him to find us with our work completed. Life for so many of us is filled with loose ends. There are things undone and things half done; things put off and things not even attempted. Many of us are servants of procrastination. Let us be like Jesus, who said, "I have accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do" (Jn.17:4). As a rule, we should never lightly leave undone a task we ought to have finished, before night falls.

(ii) We would like God to find us at peace with our fellowmen. It would be a haunting thing to pass from this world at bitterness with a fellow. No man should let the sun go down on his anger (Eph.4:26), least of all the last sun of his life. As we don't know which sun will our last, we do well to live each day as if it is the last day, the only day we have.

(iii) We should like God to find us at peace with himself. One day, aw we lay dying, it will make all the difference to know that we are going out to a stranger or an enemy, or going to a loving God. Make every going to bed at night a rehearsal of death, and when the real death comes, you will have practiced enough. Remember, Practice makes perfect!

Jesus draws a picture of the wise and the unwise steward. The unwise steward made two mistakes.

(i) He said, I will do what I like while my master is away; he forgot that the day of reckoning must come. We have a habit of dividing life into compartments. There is a part in which we remember that God is present; and there is a part in which we never think of him at all. We tend to draw a line between sacred and secular; between Sunday and the rest of the week; between holy places and secular places. But if we really knew what Christianity means we would know that there is no part of life when the master is away. We are working and living forever in our great task-master's eye.

(ii) He said, I have plenty of time to put things right before the master comes. There is nothing so fatal as to feel that we have plenty of time. Jesus said, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night comes when no one can work" (Jn.9:4). One of the most dangerous days in a man's life is when he discovers the word "tomorrow." Tomorrow never comes; yesterday never comes back; only today matters. Live it well.

The passage finishes with the warning that knowledge and privilege always bring responsibility; our privileges, our opportunities, our riches, our money, all is responsibility. To whom much is given, much is demanded of him. Sin is doubly sinful to the person who knew better; failure is doubly blameworthy in the person who had every chance to do well.

Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!

Life's Paradoxes!

John 12:24-26

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

“If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

Food for thought!

Jesus is talking of the paradox of life. And Jesus is the first paradox. His death is his glorification. And he explains: "Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal."

What is this amazing paradox which Jesus is teaching us? He is saying two things, which are all variations of one central truth.

(i) He is saying that only by death comes life. The grain of wheat is ineffective and unfruitful so long as it is preserved, as it were, in safety and security. It is when it is thrown into the cold ground, and buried there as if in a tomb, that it bears fruit.

It is always because some people have been prepared to die that other people have lived. It is when mothers accept to risk their lives that we are born; it is when mothers embrace the possibility of their own death that the possibility of new life comes. By death comes life. That is the rule, the universal rule. It is sometimes only when a man buries his personal aims and ambitions that he begins to be of real use to others. By death comes life.

(i) Jesus is saying that only by spending life do we retain it. The man who loves his life is moved by two aims, by selfishness and by the desire for security. Not once or twice but many times Jesus insisted that the man who hoarded his life must in the end lose it, and the man who spent his life must in the end gain it.

We have only to think of what this world would have been if there were no people living out this rule. What would this world be if there had not been men and women prepared to forget their personal safety, security, selfish gain and selfish advancement? The world owes everything to people who recklessly spend their strength and give themselves for others' sake.

(ii) Jesus is saying that only by service comes greatness. The people whom the world remembers with love are the people who served others with love. People like mother Theresa of Calcuta. People like our mothers.

And that is what many of us are missing out. So many people are in business only for what they can get out of it. They may well become rich, but they will never be loved, and love is the true wealth of life.

No pain no gain!

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

“Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”

Food for thought!

Jesus is straight. Life is not a joke; every kind of life has a price tag; there's no cheap, easy, feel good kind of Christianity, that is being offered to many people in these days. If a person is going to be a follower of Jesus Christ, there is a very high price to pay.

Jesus is honest; very honest. He did not come to rescue us from the way life is; He came to strengthen us to face life the way life is. He did not come to do away with problems and sufferings and pain; he came to lead us thru all of those things. He did not and cannot take away child birth pains for pregnant mothers, or crying for a dead dear one, because that's how life is. He came to invite us face life the way he did.

God gave us life to spend and not to keep. If we live carefully, always thinking first of our own profit, ease, comfort, security, if our sole aim is to make life as long and as trouble-free as possible, if we will make no effort except for ourselves, we are losing life all the time. But if we spend life for others, if we forget health and time and wealth and comfort in our desire to do something for Jesus and for the men for whom Jesus died, we are winning life all the time.

What would have happened to the world if doctors and scientists and inventors had not been prepared to risk experiments often on their own bodies? What would have happened to life if everyone had wished for nothing but to remain comfortably at home, and there had been no such person as an explorer or a pioneer? What would happen if every woman refused to be mother or refused to take the risk of bearing a child?

The very essence of life is in risking life and spending life, not in saving it and hoarding it. True, it is the way of weariness, of exhaustion, of giving to the uttermost; it is better to burn out than to rust out, to risk than hide from risk, to give than to get, for that is the way life is.

"Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

Tell Jesus who he is and Jesus will tell you who you are!

Matthew 16:13-22

13 Now when Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? 14 And they answered, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15 He said to them, But who do you [yourselves] say that I am? 16 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 Then Jesus answered him, Blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) are you, Simon Bar- Jonah. For flesh and blood [men] have not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek, Petros —a large piece of rock], and on this rock [Greek, petra —a huge rock like Gibraltar] I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold out against it]. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven. 20 Then He sternly and strictly charged and warned the disciples to tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. 21 From that time forth Jesus began [clearly] to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and the high priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised from death. 22 Then Peter took Him aside to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You! 23 But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.

Food for thought!

Jesus is the key that opens each one of us. We are all mysterious, and without Jesus we never come to know ourselves, we never come to know life, death, suffering, loving. We are sealed people, we are closed books, and only Jesus has the key to unseal and open us.

Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. The scroll had writing on both sides. It was sealed with seven seals. 2 I saw a mighty angel calling out in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll. No one could even look inside it. 4 I cried and cried because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, «Do not cry! The Lion of the tribe of Judah has won the battle. He is the Root of David. He is able to break the seven seals and open the scroll.» (Rev. 5:1-4)

  

When Jesus had heard the verdicts of the crowd, he asked the all-important question: "But who do you say I am?" At that question there may well have been a moment's silence, while into the minds of the disciples came thoughts which they were almost afraid to express in words; and then Peter made his great discovery, not only of Jesus but also of himself.

Like Jesus, we all want to know who we are. We want to know what others think of us. One thing is certain, NO ONE KNOWS WHO WE ARE, EXCEPT JESUS. All the others call us many things, many names; I am many things for many people, you're many things to many people. If you asked your friends who you're, like Jesus did, you would here all kinds of answers, good and not so good; it is all guesswork because no one can tell you who you are except the Lord. 

But to know who you are, you have to know who Jesus is. This is what happened. When Peter came to know who Jesus is, when Peter told Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus told Peter who he is: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth must be what is already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth must be what is already loosed in heaven."

This means that the road to ourselves goes through Jesus; he is the key that opens us. Peter never knew himself nor his career until Jesus told him in all details. And Jesus never told Peter who he is until Peter knew who Jesus is. So, you too, to know yourself, you will have to know who Jesus is. The more you know Jesus the better you know yourself, the less you know Jesus the less you know yourself.

"Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? The Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the Root of David. He is able to break the seven seals and open the scroll."

It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in need of prayer!

Matthew 15:21-28

21 From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. 22 They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Lord, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." 23 Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." 24 Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel." 25 Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Lord, help me." 26 He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs." 27 She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table." 28 Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

Food for thought

Is Jesus testing you and your faith? It is strange. Very strange, that Jesus should ignore someone's prayers. Why would Jesus ignore us? He ignored the woman in the gospel! What is it that Jesus is teaching us this time? What is he trying to tell us? What is the lesson?

To Jesus came a woman who had a daughter who was grievously afflicted. She must have heard somehow of the wonderful things which Jesus could do; and she followed him and his disciples crying desperately for help. And Jesus paid no attention to her; he ignored her. Or did he?

Let's notice something: the woman came to Jesus BECAUSE of her daughter, not because of her own faith. "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." It is as if she said, I have come because of my sick daughter. If my daughter was ok, I wouldn't come to you. If I had no problem I wouldn't come to you, she seemed to say.

Like this woman, some of us don't come to Jesus or to church or to prayer by faith, but because of our problems; some people don't need Jesus except when earnestly hard pressed by a situation or a problem. Many people pray really hard when they are pressured by life's pressures.

This woman WAS BROUGHT TO JESUS; she didn't come on her own. Under such circumstances, Jesus had only one option: to awaken true faith in the heart of this woman. Thus, the apparent ignoring. (Mt 7:6) "Do not give that which is holy (the sacred thing) to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before hogs, lest they trample upon them with their feet and turn and tear you in pieces." Jesus had warned us.

And the woman got the message. She understood that Jesus was cultivating her faith. It was a faith which grew in contact with Jesus. She began by calling him "Son of David"; she came to Jesus the man, she ended with Jesus the Lord. She came begging for her daughter, "My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit", she ended begging for herself: "have mercy on me." She came talking to Jesus standing, she ended talking to Jesus on her knees. Many of us are yet to make this woman's faith journey; we deal with Jesus as if he was another human. JESUS IS GOD.

Jesus, as it were, compelled the woman to approach him, not in terms of her daughter but her own. Like this woman, some of us think that it is the others that need the Lord, that are sick, that must pray; many a wife thinks that the problem is with her husband, and the husband thinks it is with his wife. But Jesus knows the truth in us; he knows that we are all sick, we are all wounded, we are all struggling. 

Jesus wants us to know what he knows about us. That is precisely what Jesus wanted to awaken in the woman before he could grant her request. He wanted her to know what he knew about her: that she is as sick as her daughter. When this happened, her daughter too got well. If and when we stop pointing the finger at our daughter, our spouse, our neighbour, our colleague, as being sick, and instead say, IT'S ME LORD, HAVE MERCY ON ME, Jesus will say to us, "Oh, wo/man, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted."

It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

It's me, it's me, it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my brother or my sister, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my brother or my sister, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my mother or my father, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my mother or my father, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my stranger or my neighbour, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

Not my stranger or my neighbour, but it's me, O Lord,

Standin' in the need of prayer.

When and where do you show your glory?

Luke 9:28-36

About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.

While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”

When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

Food for thought!

The Gospel says, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves. And He was transfigured before them. In other words, the Jesus changed forms on the mountain. The glory that was concealed within Him was revealed on that mountain. You see, this was not the first time Jesus had experienced a transfiguration. When He was born in Bethlehem, Jesus concealed the glory of His deity behind the veil of His human body. On this occasion, the glory on the inside burst forth to the outside.

Jesus had twelve disciples, so why just these three? Why did Jesus choose to show his glory to a few and not to the many? Jesus showed his glory not before a crowd, not even before the twelve disciples, but before only three people. It means that Jesus was at his best before just three of his twelve disciples. As you know, many of us are at our best away from home; we show our true colours at our place of work, at the church, at where there's a gathering, and never at home, never before the spouse and children. Unfortunately, our dear ones never come to see our glory, but the outsiders. Jesus showed his glory to three people.

Some people are very good as professionals, they're very good people at work, but at home, they shout at and harass, and sometimes beat their spouses and children. If you smile all the time at your place of work, but frown all the time at home, please, do change. Your Peter and John and James are your spouse and children; show your glory first to them before you show it to the rest of us. Have you ever noticed the kind of clothes you use at home and at work? 

(Home work: when and where do you show your glory? When and where are you at your best? When you're with the twelve or when you're with the three? When you're at work, or when you're at home? When and where do people say that it is good to be in your company? At home or at work? WHO SEES YOUR GLORY?)

We normally say, charity begins at home. I go further: love also begins at home; forgiveness begins at home; our glory also begins at home. But does not end there. It only begins at home but does not end at home.

Peter and John and James were chosen on this day to experience something special and later to witness; they were especially chosen to go thru an experience and later witness to others. The Gospel says, "he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along."

As you know, the Lord continues to choose us for special experiences; He selects us to make and have special experiences. Your kind of experiences, your kind of life, your kind of problems and joys and suffering, all you are going thru is what the Lord has chosen you to experience AND witness. So next time you wonder and ask yourself why you're going thru that experience, next time you wonder and ask, but why me, why this one on me again, remember that Jesus carefully chooses us for special experiences in order to witness, in order to tell of our tale, in order to, when it is all over, tell others of our ordeal.

Pray to God & Play your part!

Matthew 14:13-21

When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.

Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.” But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.” “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.

Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.

Food for thought !

This is a very special miracle. So special that it is the only miracle of Jesus which is related in all four gospels. It is special also in that it shows the TWO ingredients of every miracle. There’s God, and there’s man; there’s praying to God, and there’s playing our part. The two ALWAYS go together.

When the disciples were asked to give the people something to eat, they insisted that “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said. Notice that they are saying, "All WE have". They can only think of themselves; not of God.

This is how many of us deal with difficulties; we think of everything and everybody except God. We look at problems through our eyes and our efforts and our wages, etc., just like the disciples did: "All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish." With such false start we cannot end with correct solutions; we are like the disciples:  “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.” This is the human solution!

After listening to their human solution, Jesus taught them and us a lifetime lesson. For a miracle to happen, two things must concurrently occur: praying to God, and playing our part. Prayer alone is not enough; playing our part is not enough. We must pray to God, yes, but also, we must play our part. This is what Jesus did:  Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them (he prayed to God). But Jesus demanded that the disciples play their part: "Bring them here" he asked. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill.

All this means that whenever we have those humanly speaking impossible situations, whenever we seek a miracle from God, we must do two things: pray to God, and play our part. As you play your part pray, and as you pray, play your part.