Readings: Zecharia 9, 9-10;
Psalm 145, I will praise Your Name forever, My King and My God (Plus the great line, 8-9, The Lord is Gracious & Merciful, slow to Anger & abounding in Love);
Romans 8, 9-13;
Matthew 11, 25-30.
Zechariah: Zechariah is the 11th of the 12 Minor Prophets and lived just when the Hebrews were released from the 70 year long Babylonian Captivity, in other words around 535-520 B.C. In Jerusalem he encouraged the people to rebuild the temple.
He is called a minor prophet only because his little work has simply 14 chapters, unlike the Big 3, Isaiah, Jeremiah, & Ezekiel, who have many chapters.
He was a favorite of the N.T. writers because he is rich in messiah predictions. Today we have one of those visions. You might picture how this message is coming across. The people have been crushed, they have been slaves in Babylon, and the Jerusalem they have returned to is nothing but a mess.
Psalm 145, 8-9: here it is again, The Terrific line: "The Lord is gracious & merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness."
July 4, Independence Day
July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence signed.
50th anniversary, July 4, 1826: two signers of the Declaration died, the only 2 to serve as presidents, mutual friends, Thomas Jefferson & John Adams (excellent source, David McCullough’s John Adams).
You Call This Burden Light?
It was a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, a beautiful day. Rosemary & I left the house about 8:30 to come to Vines. We drove down Royal Lane to Central. As always at that corner, we caught the red light. A guy drives up behind us in a silver or gray Mercedes.
The light turned green and we drove left up the on ramp to the northbound lane of Central. The Mercedes is behind me, right behind me, like I can see the color of his eyes in my rear view mirror.
I get up on the freeway and move to the left to get into the first lane. The Mercedes guy whips to the right as I move left, he floors it, and with a roar and a friendly hand sign he races by us and up Central.
How did I react? Actually, I feel fortunate because I didn’t. I even felt a bit sorry for the guy. A beautiful Sunday morning, no traffic and he has already lost it. Who knows? Maybe it was somebody from the community in a hurry to get here.
This poor guy exemplifies what is not being talked about in today’s readings. Unfortunately, he exemplifies the obsessive behavior of a lot of people, especially on weekdays and probably especially on Central.
These folks are not rejoicing or shouting for joy, they are not peaceful or restful, and certainly they don’t seem to have a light burden even if they are driving a Mercedes.
I grant, maybe he is unemployed now for six months or a year, like people we know. Maybe he’s like the 30 year old divorced mother of a 10 year old boy, a mother in Medical City right now taking heavy doses of chemo because of the bad kind of leukemia. Maybe he is the father of the 15 year old boy who hung himself this past week.
Are these burdens light? I must respectfully disagree with you, Jesus, not all your burdens are light! Some pain and some stress can be unbearable.
So how do I handle this in the light of the observation? Do I pray and it all goes away? Not according to my experience. So what would I do? I can offer only two ideas to people with great pain or suffering, and at the time the ideas can seem pretty lame.
First, the biggie, acceptance. This is not the acceptance of give up. If I am unemployed, for instance, I continue to muster up the courage each day to make contacts and search. This acceptance is surrender to the state of things in my life, ultimately the surrender to death, my own death and the other deaths that take place in my life.
Secondly, contemplation. Contemplation of the beauty, the physical beauty, the people beauty, the Spirit-God beauty. The psalm line that says so much to me might touch you, gracious, merciful, never angry, abounding in love.
I don’t know what pain or stress was pushing the man in the Mercedes. Obviously he was not peaceful. What might help him?
How do you handle pain & stress?
Picture 1: Leo with Wendy & Shonda & Ray
Picture 2: Offertory with Sir Charlie & Cliff
Picture 3: Alesia with some of her grand kids
Recent Comments