Week 41—Monday Luke 15:3-7
Luke 15:3-7
THE GOSPEL IS DIFFERENT: IT IS GOD
TAKING THE INITIATIVE
We are meditating upon the fact that the gospel is different—it is God taking the initiative. God offered himself up for us all and now offers God’s all to us—for the taking. “For the taking”—provided we take it—the whole person. You cannot take it with your hand and leave your heart, your very life out. The whole person must take. Like produces like. God’s was a whole offering and it produces a whole taking in us.
But what do we do? We conceive of God’s promises as beautiful promises—to be framed and put on a wall. A man was given a check and he was so grateful, for he was very poor, that he framed it and put it on a wall. Framed it instead of cashing it! Another man was so grateful for a check that he set it to music and sang it. That is what we do with the promises of the Bible—we set them to music and sing them instead of cashing them and living by them. We make the Word become flesh into the Word become rhythm—rhythm instead of realization.
A man said to me, “My whole family swims, but I don’t.” I asked him why, for he looked robust. “Well,” he replied, “I am afraid of water, so I fight it. I don’t trust myself to it.” That was the point of failure. He didn’t trust, therefore, he didn’t entrust. We have to trust and entrust.
A little red hen sat on a barrel of wheat and starved to death. All she would have had to do would have been to turn and eat and live!
A Hindu woman lost her husband by an accident. She said to a Christian friend, “If he had only come home alive I would have fought with the gods for his life.” Some Christians “wrestle” with God, some bargain with God, but some know that we do not have to overcome God’s reluctance—we have to lay hold on God’s highest willingness. The Word has already become flesh. It becomes flesh in us when we take it.
Blessed Lord, this must be your greatest hurt—the hurt that we do not take. You have given your all and we take little driblets. You are giving with both hands and we take with two fingers. Help me to take with both hands, with open heart. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: God’s two steps toward me will be met by my two steps toward God.