Acts 28:23-31
Scripture speaks often about hardened hearts and spiritual blindness. Either of these terms describes someone who refuses to acknowledge spiritual truth. They have heard, but they have rejected. It doesn’t usually happen overnight. Maybe it is a little like freezing to death. First the extremities go and then little by little other parts get cold numbed until the whole body is frozen. Many mountain climbers are not even aware that they have lost fingers or toes. I believe that at some point in life everyone has been exposed to some glimmer of the light of truth. Some receive it and seek more; others either ignore or reject it. For those who accept and live in the light they have been given, more becomes evident. This is a promise that Jesus made to his disciples. For those who reject the light of truth (for whatever reasons) a light layer of resistance forms around their heart (or spirit) and the next time the truth is a little easier to ignore or reject. The ears are filled with a little wax and the eyes gain a little film and sight and hearing are impeded. The process continues until one is spiritually deaf and blind. There is nothing that stirs the heart. Psalm 95 says “Today if you hear the Lord, harden not your heart.” If our hearts are hardened, it is not because the Lord stops trying to communicate, it is because we stop hearing/seeing/responding.
The people who came to see Paul, under house arrest in Rome, had heard about the troublesome sect. They were curious. They had one of the most knowledgeable leaders available to teach, dialogue, and demonstrate what it means to be a follower of Christ. For two years Paul had an open door policy. They could “know Christ and the power of his resurrection” but they hardened their hearts to the truth. Paul becomes frustrated with them and bluntly tells them that if they refuse to hear there will be others (the gentiles) who will open their hearts. Christ will have followers, they just won’t be the Jews who were privileged to hear the good news first.
In this day and age we are continually bombarded with words. (In the middle ages only the few had the written words of scripture. Stained glass windows were not only for ornamentation, but were to tell the stories of Jesus without words.) It is easy for the important words to get lost in the midst of repetitious advertising, continual music, constant texting, etc. But more importantly it is easy for us set aside those words to attend the urgent but unimportant.
Lest we get hung up on thinking that truth is only presented in words, I remind you that truth also comes by seeing, by being aware and observant of what is around us. Too often we look without seeing. We don’t take the time to ask ourselves what the meaning is in what we are seeing. We look at gray hair and make an appointment with the hairdresser. Instead of seeing that time is passing and there are things to be accomplished before time on this earth ends. We see pollution in the air and remind ourselves to get the car serviced rather than think about what our passion for gas-guzzling trucks SUVs, and motor homes do to the environment.
It is an awesome thought that if we ignore truth of the moment that there will come a time when we are no longer able to detect truth at all. God does not refuse to communicate. The world is filled with his truth. It is we who no longer have any sensitivity left. As Paul told his visitors, God is not dependent on you or me. If we refuse to hear, Jesus said that even the stones could ring out in praise. It is we who need the life-saving truth of Jesus Christ. Today if we hear the voice of God, if we are given sight to see let us not harden our hearts. Amen.
No Shrinking Allowed!
Hebrews 10:32-39
The author of Hebrews is writing to a group of Jewish Christians who are wavering in their faith. These men and woman have been in the middle of the persecutions visited on the new Christian sect. They had suffered much. They had stood by their fellow Christians in prison and joyfully let go of confiscated property because they had believed that their new-found faith was worth whatever it cost. But now they were growing tired and all that they could see ahead was more of the same. They began to wonder if perhaps they had been wrong. Maybe their old way of life was better after all. Their ability to persevere was being tested.
Perseverance is an old fashioned word to this generation. We don’t really expect things to last. Our products are made to wear out (built-in obsolescence) so that we can support the economy by spending more money to buy newer models. We don’t take our small appliances to a repair shop. We don’t even bother to darn our socks or get our shoes shined, we simply toss and replace. We are not much better with our relationships. The divorce rate continues to increase, and like our products, if a marriage is not working, we toss it and look for another. (The divorce rate among Christians equals that of non-Christians.) We engage in church shopping if the music or ministers don’t meet our expectations. We move from one thing to another never staying with anything long enough to master it. You get the idea. We are impatient people with little endurance for things that do not have an immediate pay off.
The Jewish Christians in the first flush of faith were prepared to take a stand and endure whatever came their way. Now they were beginning to think that faith was overrated. The author pleads with them not to give up the fight. He points out that Christianity in not a short-term faith. He encourages the believers by saying they will receive their reward if they do not give up or shrink back. He tells them to hang in there and “fight the good fight.”
The ancient monks knew of this tendency to become discouraged, to grow tired or get bored with the things of God. They referred to it as “the noonday devil.” It was an inner temptation that attacked after the morning burst of energy, when the day was at its hottest. It was the temptation to let down, seek the shade. They felt so strongly about this temptation that they named it one of the seven deadly sins called sloth or acedia.
Our author quotes Habakkuk. 2:3-4. “But he who is coming will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” He then goes on to say “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” He is coming! That is the word of Advent. You will not want to get caught napping or running in the wrong direction. Continue in diligence and passion for the things of God. Do not shrink back! Persevere!
The author of Hebrews is writing to a group of Jewish Christians who are wavering in their faith. These men and woman have been in the middle of the persecutions visited on the new Christian sect. They had suffered much. They had stood by their fellow Christians in prison and joyfully let go of confiscated property because they had believed that their new-found faith was worth whatever it cost. But now they were growing tired and all that they could see ahead was more of the same. They began to wonder if perhaps they had been wrong. Maybe their old way of life was better after all. Their ability to persevere was being tested.
Perseverance is an old fashioned word to this generation. We don’t really expect things to last. Our products are made to wear out (built-in obsolescence) so that we can support the economy by spending more money to buy newer models. We don’t take our small appliances to a repair shop. We don’t even bother to darn our socks or get our shoes shined, we simply toss and replace. We are not much better with our relationships. The divorce rate continues to increase, and like our products, if a marriage is not working, we toss it and look for another. (The divorce rate among Christians equals that of non-Christians.) We engage in church shopping if the music or ministers don’t meet our expectations. We move from one thing to another never staying with anything long enough to master it. You get the idea. We are impatient people with little endurance for things that do not have an immediate pay off.
The Jewish Christians in the first flush of faith were prepared to take a stand and endure whatever came their way. Now they were beginning to think that faith was overrated. The author pleads with them not to give up the fight. He points out that Christianity in not a short-term faith. He encourages the believers by saying they will receive their reward if they do not give up or shrink back. He tells them to hang in there and “fight the good fight.”
The ancient monks knew of this tendency to become discouraged, to grow tired or get bored with the things of God. They referred to it as “the noonday devil.” It was an inner temptation that attacked after the morning burst of energy, when the day was at its hottest. It was the temptation to let down, seek the shade. They felt so strongly about this temptation that they named it one of the seven deadly sins called sloth or acedia.
Our author quotes Habakkuk. 2:3-4. “But he who is coming will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” He then goes on to say “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” He is coming! That is the word of Advent. You will not want to get caught napping or running in the wrong direction. Continue in diligence and passion for the things of God. Do not shrink back! Persevere!
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