Daily Reading for Friday (12/11)
Matthew 11:16-19 [M] [NRS]
Will this generation heed God’s wisdom?
Click the [M] link for The Message version, [NRS] for New Revised Standard version
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Let’s face it — we like to pick and choose our obedience.
Sometimes we hear the call to live simply, or Jesus call to drop our nets and follow, or John’s call to “Repent!”, and we say — that’s too hard!
Other times we Jesus’ counsel to receive God’s love and care, like the birds and flowers, and we say — that’s too hard!
What is easy to miss here is that, by focusing on what we “can’t” do, we are like the children in Christ’s parable. By whining at each other that no one wants to play “our” game, we end up not playing at all!
These people of Jesus’ time clung to the status quo because John’s call was too much, his behavior out of the box. At the same time they used Jesus’ breaking of the norms — eating with the unacceptable, for example — to brand him as out of the box. They neutralized both Jesus’ and John’s challenge in order to stay safely where they were already comfortable.
I can play this game, too. But heeding God’s wisdom might by figuring out what God’s call means in my life, and then going out to “play,” just as I am, with what I have, rather than figuring out why I can’t be one of the spiritual greats.
Are there ways that you dismiss the challenge in Jesus’ words and miss the dance that he invites you into?
Your “pick and choose our obedience” line is too accurate and a hard pill to swallow! We rationalize ourselves out of obedience when convenient.
Recognizing it is the first step to doing something about it.
There is a persevered security and safety in doing things the way we are most comfortable. For some that is just part of there nature. I think for others, like John the Baptist, doing things outside the box is the only way they can be. One has trouble understanding the other.