Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:38-40

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Three days after Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried, He arose and lived again.

Three days after descending into the earth, Jesus returned, left His tomb, and walked on earth once more.

Three days after descending into the belly of a whale, Jonah returned, was cast up on the shore, and walked on earth once more.

This was the sign Jesus promised the scribes and Pharisees. This was the only sign the “evil and adulterous generation” would receive.

Why this sign? What is significant about the prophet Jonah that his ordeal of being swallowed whole by a fish is relevant to the story of Jesus’ Resurrection?

There is the obvious similarity between Jonah enduring three days in the belly of a great fish and Jesus enduring three days in the grave. Is that the only similarity? Did Jesus choose the ordeal of the Prophet Jonah simply because of that easy parallel with His crucifixion and resurrection?

Consider the story of Jonah.

Ordered by God to travel to Nineveh and preach against their wicked ways, Jonah rebelled against God, fleeing in the opposite direction from Nineveh, taking passage on a ship bound for Tarshish. Yet Jonah could not escape God, could not evade God’s watchful eye, and could not avoid God’s judgement.

When the sailors on the ship cast lots to see who among them was accursed by God after a terrible storm threatened to sink the ship, the lot accurately fell on Jonah. Outed as the cause of the ship’s distress, he had the ship’s crew throw him overboard, giving himself up to the deep ocean in hopes that God would calm the storm, and allow the sailors to live. Jonah thus sank into the waters, offered up by the sailors that they might live.

But Jonah did not drown. Instead, he was swallowed by a “whale” (many translations will say “great fish”), which then dove down into the deeps, taking Jonah down and farther down into the ocean. At the bottom of the ocean, in the belly of a whale, Jonah prayed to God for deliverance. He submitted himself to God’s will, praying that he might yet be returned to dry land, even if he had to go preach to the city of Nineveh.

After three days and nights, God had the whale vomit Jonah back onto dry land. After three days and nights, God delivered Jonah from the consequences of his rebellion.

This ordeal is the sign Jesus promised to the “evil and adulterous” scribes and Pharisees.

After eating the Passover supper with His disciples Jesus was given over to the Romans to be crucified. Yet Jesus had not rebelled against God—quite the contrary, He was carrying out God’s Will. As the culmination of His ministry here on earth, Jesus gave Himself up to crucifixion and death, shedding His blood that Mankind would be redeemed, saved from sinful death, and given new and eternal life. After dying on the cross, Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, sealed in the belly of the earth.

After three days and nights, God rolled back the stone in front of the tomb, and Jesus emerged. After three days and nights, God delivered Jesus from death.

The “sign” that Jesus promised the scribes and Pharisees was that He would endure an ordeal like that of Jonah.

Yet this was not merely an ordeal meant to “prove” Jesus was the Messiah. It was an ordeal with a purpose.

Jonah rebelled against God, and for this a storm lashed the ship on which he was traveling. The sailors, upon realizing that Jonah had grievously sinned, offered him up to the deep ocean. The scriptural account does not show them repenting of their own sins, but they very clearly rejected Jonah’s rebellion against God and wanted no part of it.

Jesus was not rebelling against God. Quite the contrary, He was fulfilling the purpose given to Him by God. It is Mankind who has rebelled against God. It is Mankind who rebels against God even today.

Jonah accepted being sacrificed to the storm as consequence for his sins. He accepted that he had rebelled against God and went against God’s Will. He understood that there was consequence to be paid for his disobedience, consequence which came to Jonah in the form of a storm threatening a ship.

Jesus accepted being sacrificed as consequence for our sins. He accepted that Mankind has rebelled against God and went against God’s Will. He understood that there is a consequence to be paid for our disobedience, consequence which came to Jesus in the form of Crucifixion and Death.

Jonah took the penalty for his sins upon himself, accepting the consequences of his rebellion against God.

Jesus took the penalty for our sins upon Himself, accepting the consequences of our rebellion against God.

Jonah paid the penalty for Jonah. Jesus paid the penalty for us all.

After three days in the belly of the whale God brought Jonah back to dry land, back to earth. After three days in the belly of the whale God delivered Jonah from his sins.

After three days in the belly of the earth—after three days of death—God brought Jesus back out of the earth. After three days in the belly of the earth, God delivered not Jesus—who is without sin—but all of Mankind from our sins.

Jonah’s ordeal is a dramatic testament to the futility and self-destructive nature of rebellion against God. Sin at its core drives us away from God. Sin deprives us of freedom and ultimately of life. That most precious gift which comes only from God can only be sustained by turning to God.

In that deep, dark, belly of a whale at the bottom of a deep dark ocean, Jonah repented of his sin and turned to God for forgiveness. God granted him forgiveness and delivered him back into life.

Jesus went into the depths of the earth, into death itself, seeking not deliverance for Himself, but deliverance for us all. God delivered Jesus back into life, and all who will but believe in this Miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection are likewise delivered back into life, redeemed from the penalty of death that is the consequence for all sin.

On this Easter Sunday, I pray we may all ponder the sign of Jonah, its ordeal, and final deliverance from sin. On this Easter Sunday, I pray we may all strive to understand how Jesus, by enduring Jonah’s ordeal, redeemed and gave us all final deliverance from our sins. On this Easter Sunday, I pray we may all recognize and give thanks for the true Miracle of Jesus Christ, His Resurrection, through which the penalty for all our sins is paid.

After three days in the belly of the whale God brought Jonah back to earth. After three days in the belly of the whale God delivered Jonah from his sins.

Jesus went into the depths of the earth, into death itself, seeking not deliverance for Himself, but deliverance for us all. God delivered Jesus back into life, and all who will but believe in this Miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection are likewise delivered back into life, redeemed from the penalty of death that is the consequence for all sin.

Jesus is Risen, and we are saved. Thanks be to God.

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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on an ass,
on a colt the foal of an ass.

Zechariah 9:9

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Palm Sunday is the celebration of Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, Israel’s ancient capital and the center of Jewish religious life.

In Matthew 21, we read how Jesus sent two of His disciples ahead, searching for a colt, the young offspring of a donkey, that He might ride it into Jerusalem.

As Matthew highlights, this act fulfilled the prophecy from Zechariah, and established that Jesus was meant to be King of the Jews, and the Government of Israel was meant to be on His shoulders.

The prophecy itself says much about what sort of King the coming Messiah would be: triumphant, victorious, and yet humble, riding on a colt, a foal, the young offspring of a donkey. For all the Messiah’s successes and glories, the prophecy indicates as King He would be on the same level as the people of Israel.

With this imagery, the prophecy itself recalls the ancient Mosaic commandments for kings of Israel found in Deuteronomy: the king was to be from among the people of Israel, and no foreigner not of the nation of Israel was to rule; the king was to keep his own copy of the Law, and study it daily; the king was to remember he was as much under the Law as the rest of the people.

A king who failed in these duties would soon be removed as king.

King Saul was chosen by God to be King of Israel, and when his heart hardened and he turned away from God, God withdrew from him and he lost his throne to David.

David’s son Solomon at the end of his reign turned away from God, and while God had promised not to rend the kingdom during Solomon’s reign, as soon as he passed away his son Rehobo′am was confronted with civil war and the secession of ten of the Twelve Tribes.

Kings who are arrogant, who are hard of heart, who turn away from God’s Law, do not reign long as king over God’s chosen people Israel.

The prophecy in Zechariah also comes in a passage where Zechariah is detailing the redemption of the people of Israel: how God will strike down Israel’s enemies, and restore to Israel all the blessings promised to an obedient and faithful nation.

The coming of the Messiah is thus a moment of restoration and redemption for the people, a moment when the darkness is beaten back and the light of God’s Truth illuminates everything.

The coming of the Messiah is thus also a reminder that God has not forsaken His children. He will redeem. He will restore. He will gather us back to Him in His appointed time.

The prophecy from Zechariah is rich with promise and hope. As with earlier prophecies from Isaiah and Jeremiah, it stands as a reminder that, while God will punish unholy and unrighteous behavior, when the punishment is done, the transgression is wiped away.

When the King comes, we will be forgiven.

Jesus has come, and we are forgiven.

There is another subtle truth we can glean from Jesus sending His disciples ahead to fetch the colt: Jesus was deliberate and intentional in fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah. Jesus apparently walked most everywhere He went during His ministry here on Earth; He could just as easily have walked into Jerusalem. Yet He chose to ride into Jerusalem, and to do so specifically on the young offspring of a donkey, the precise description of the animal given in Zechariah.

As Jesus was intentional in choosing to fulfill this prophecy from Zechariah, it necessarily follows He was intentionally choosing to signal to the people of Israel that He was indeed the Messiah, and He was indeed coming as the triumphant yet humble King. Most Jewish people, and certainly all with more than a passing familiarity with Hebrew Scripture, would have recognized the prophetic implications of Jesus’ choice, even before Matthew highlighted it in his Gospel account.

By riding into Jerusalem on a colt, Jesus was telling the people of Israel that He was choosing to be the Messiah. Not only was He choosing to be the triumphant yet humble King prophesied in Zechariah, He was also choosing to do what needed to be done to redeem God’s children.

By riding into Jerusalem on a colt, Jesus was telling the people of Israel that He would triumph over the greatest enemy not just of Israel but of all people everywhere: Death itself. Jesus would go to His death on the Cross at Calvary, and after the appointed three days would arise again, fully restored to life.

Through Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus would defeat Death. On the day of His Resurrection, Jesus Christ would save God’s children, just as Zechariah foretold in his prophecy.

By choosing to fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah, Jesus was choosing to tell the people that the moment of their salvation was come at last, that the Kingdom of Heaven was finally at hand.

Much as the days of Advent are rich in anticipation of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, Palm Sunday is rich in anticipation of Jesus’ ultimate triumph—His Resurrection and our Redemption. The people of Israel knew their moment of Redemption was at hand; they knew because Jesus told them the moment was at hand. Jesus told the people of Israel the moment of Redemption was at hand when He rode a colt into Jerusalem, to the praise and adoration of the people.

On this Palm Sunday, I pray we may all be mindful of the momentous miracle Jesus Himself says is coming, the Miracle of His Resurrection we celebrate each Easter Sunday, just one week from today. On this Palm Sunday I pray we may all reflect upon Jesus’ clear intention not merely to be a triumphant yet humble King of Israel, but one who would confront and defeat Death itself, ensuring eternal life for all those who will but believe. On this Palm Sunday I pray we may all appreciate the meaning and the message of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a colt, that the moment of our salvation is here at last, that the Kingdom of Heaven is truly at hand.

Jesus was intentional in choosing to fulfill this prophecy from Zechariah. He was intentionally choosing to signal to the people of Israel that He was indeed the Messiah, and He was indeed coming as the triumphant yet humble King. Not only was He choosing to be the triumphant yet humble King prophesied in Zechariah, Jesus was also choosing to do what needed to be done to redeem God’s children.

Through Crucifixion and Resurrection, Jesus would defeat Death. On the day of His Resurrection, Jesus Christ would save God’s children, just as Zechariah foretold in his prophecy.

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This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering—since indeed God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

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We know that consequence comes for us all. All that we do rebounds back on us, for better or for worse.

Anyone who has accumulated any life experience at all can surely attest to the truth of this.

If we have done well, if we have worked to obey God’s Law and to be an instrument of His Will, we are promised good things in the hereafter.

Jesus assures us of this in the Judgement of the Nations recounted in Matthew 25.

Revelation tell us that only those whose names are inscribed in the Book of Life shall enter the New Jerusalem.

God promised the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28 that He would bless them for all time, so long as they obeyed His Commandments.

These same passages promise trial, torment, and tribulation for all who disobey God, who reject God’s Commandments, and whose names are not inscribed in the Book of Life.

Nor do we necessarily need to wait for the hereafter to see consequence visited upon wicked and wise alike.

As we are reminded in Ecclesiastes 5, those greedy for money always lust for more, and are never at peace with what they have. Surely we have seen this play out in front of us many times over. Every person convicted of fraud, of embezzlement, of larceny, always sought to have “more”—more money, more wealth, perhaps more power, more fame, or more influence.

Is the man who always is restless for “more” able to pause and be grateful for what he has? No, he is not. At least he usually is not.

Is the man who constantly lusts after women able to be at peace in the company of just a single woman, in the fashion God ordained at the beginning of the world? No, he is not, and for much the same reason as with greed—eternal dissatisfaction with what he has, and constantly pursuing that (or whom) which he does not have.

Many of us were told as children that “virtue is its own reward”. A case can be made that vice is its own punishment.

Are such punishments “justice”? Are the evils men endure as a consequence of their greed enough suffering for the evils they have likely inflicted on others?

Most who have suffered at the hands of another are unlikely to say “yes”. When we are wronged, we want vengeance. We want to see the wicked among us suffer for their wickedness—and it is human nature that we magnify the suffering we endure while minimizing the suffering endured by others.

Certainly God decreed the standard of justice among the Israelites should be “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” This was the law they were to administer amongst themselves. In adjudicating matters they were to repay suffering with suffering in kind.

Yet not all evils are brought before the courts of men for adjudication and punishment. Greed, selfishness, and lust all lead to mistreatment and wrongs endured, yet such wrongs often remain outside the realm of human justice. Do they therefore go completely unpunished?

What we are told by God is to leave such matters to Him. In Leviticus 19:17 God commanded the Israelites not to hate one another, and in verse 18 He further commanded them to forswear vengeance, issuing what Jesus would later identify as the corollary to the Great Commandment, that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

This teaching is reiterated in Ecclesiastes 3, where we are reminded that judgment and the future of all men are entirely in God’s Hands, and never our own.

Whatever consequences a person receives, be they in the herenow or in the hereafter, are what God has decreed is the right and just measure for whatever they have done, be it good or evil.

If a man does what is right and suffers adversity apparently as a result, is that therefore justice? We must accept that it is.

We are not only told time and again that God will mete out whatever consequences He deems appropriate, but we are told specifically by Jesus that doing the right thing frequently means embracing the cross and crucifixion. If we do what is right before God we will frequently be persecuted by men. Not only does life experience tell us this happens, Jesus all but guarantees this will happen.

Is this justice?

Yes.

It must be, for regardless of how we apprehend the consequences we see befall good and evil men alike, we are compelled to realize that all consequences are whatever God hands down to further His purposes. We will not know what those purposes are, neither for our lives nor for anyone else’s. God does not give us all the details, nor does God give us His reasons for not giving us all the details.

We are reminded of this in Isaiah 55, when the Lord reminds Isaiah God has His own thoughts and His own intentions, which are not our thoughts nor our intentions.

Job’s friends, in their arrogance, reminded Job of this before hypocritically presuming to know God’s intentions for Job and the sufferings Job endured.

Thus we are counseled in Proverbs 3 to put our trust in God, and let His Will unfold however He chooses. We will not know the “why”, and we may only know a portion of the “how”, but we are to have faith that there will be a “what”.

We are to have faith, and in truth we have no other choice. With or without faith in God’s ultimate divine justice, we do not control the lives of others. We do not control the choices of others. We do not control the consequences which come down upon others.

We do not even fully control our own lives. We at most control our choices, and through our choices we have some say in what consequences will come down on us. That is all the control we have, and that is all the control we will ever have.

With faith in God, without faith in God, that is all the control we can possibly have.

Is this justice?

Yes. It is the justice God has ordained for the world. Consequences, both in the herenow and the hereafter, are God’s ultimate divine justice for us all. It matters not if we perceive them as just or unjust, because the choice of what consequences will come down on anyone is never ours to make.

My prayer this day is that I will always be mindful that judgment and the future are choices that belong only to God. My prayer this day is that I will maintain the grace and the presence to accept that God’s justice is whatever consequence God selects for any choice made by men. My prayer this day is that I will focus my mind on the choices that belong to me—choices about what I will do in my life—that I may make better choices for my life, so that I may live a better life.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will always be mindful that judgment and the future are choices that belong only to God. My prayer for you this day is that you also will maintain the grace and the presence to accept that God’s justice is whatever consequence God selects for any choice made by men. My prayer for you this day is that you also will focus your mind on the choices that belong to you—choices about what you will do in your life—that you may make better choices for your life, so that you may live a better life.

Whatever consequences a person receives, be they in the herenow or in the hereafter, are what God has decreed is the right and just measure for whatever they have done, be it good or evil.

All consequences are whatever God hands down to further His purposes. We will not know what those purposes are, neither for our lives nor for anyone else’s. God does not give us all the details, nor does God give us His reasons for not giving us all the details.

Is this justice?

Yes.

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Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

and the scant measure that is accursed?

Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales

and with a bag of deceitful weights?

Your rich men are full of violence;

your inhabitants speak lies,

and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

Micah 6:10-12

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We are called by God to do the right thing.

We are called by God to do the right thing when we are at work, dealing with customers, clients, and coworkers. We are called by God to do the right thing when dealing with our neighbors. We are called by God to do the right thing when raising our children.

We are called by God to do the right thing—and all too often we do not do that right thing.

We only need to turn on the evening news to see the poverty, war, suffering, and injustice that abound in the world. If we are honest with ourselves we must admit we have been called by God to rise above such evils, to make decent provision for the poor among us, to make peace and not war, and to end injustice by treating those who are suffering with mercy and compassion.

That such evils persist in the world is the measure of our failure to do the right thing.

As people, as communities, and as nations, humanity has failed to do the right thing.

I have failed to do the right thing. You have failed to do the right thing.

This is the fundamental reality of the human condition. This was pointed out by the Apostle Paul in Chapter 3 verse 9 of his Letter to the Romans, that humans are flawed, that humans are imperfect, that humans make mistakes.

We want to think of ourselves as good people living good lives, but if we step back and look at our lives honestly and unsparingly, how many mistakes might we find?

How many moments of anger have we had, where we have said something cruel or unkind to another person? If we accept Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount such moments expose us to judgement and the “hell of fire.”

How many moments of lust have we had, where we have looked desiringly on another human being, reducing their humanity to the bits with which we might find our own physical gratification? Again, Jesus taught that was no different from actual literal adultery.

How many moments of greed have we had, where we have served Mammon rather than God?

We are imperfect. We are flawed. We are fallen.

This is what it means to be human.

We also live in a world where desire begets choice, where choice begets action, where action begets reaction, and where reaction begets consequence.

There are consequences which arise from doing the right thing. There are consequences which arise from not doing the right thing.

Jesus gives us some idea of those consequences in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, in which He describes the judgment to come down upon all nations. Those people and those communities who have cared for their poor, tended to their sick, and had mercy to those who were suffering, will be received joyously into the Kingdom of Heaven. Those people and those communities who have ignored the poor, abandoned their sick, and had no mercy for those who were suffering, will be cast out, tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity.

Consequences come for us all, whether we have acted righteously or unrighteously, whether we have chosen wisely or unwisely.

There should be no surprise about this. When we fail to do the right thing, God is hardly likely to be pleased by our failure. Just as we are not pleased when our children are disobedient, God is not pleased when we are disobedient.

Nor is God likely to be pleased if we permit disobedience to exist in our midst. As we are called to do the right thing, we are called to not stand silent when others do the wrong thing. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians Chapter 8, if we are tolerant and permissive towards the sins of others, our forbearance becomes a passive validation of those sins, and thus an encouragement for such sins to continue.

God does not want sin to continue, and we should likewise not want sin to continue. We should not only desire an end to our own sinful choices, but should encourage others to make an end to their sinful choices.

We are called to do the right thing, we are called to seek out a path of righteousness, and so we are called to encourage all around us to join us on that same path. Righteousness should beget righteousness.

As God will not overlook the merchant with wicked scales and deceitful weights, so we should not overlook that same merchant, but should call out his wickedness, and put ourselves apart from his wickedness. While there must always be grace for those who repent of their wickedness and aspire to rise above it, there must never be tolerance for those who are hardened in their hearts and persist in their wickedness.

Whether we are righteous or unrighteous, saintly or sinful, one reality will always persist: our communities will always be a reflection of who we are as individuals, and what manner of people we keep around us. If we tolerate bad behavior, our communities will be rife with bad behavior. If we insist on good behavior, we will on balance obtain good behavior.

We are called by God to do the right thing. We are called by God to call on others to do the right thing.

My prayer this day is that I will not only hear God’s call to do the right thing, but that I will inspire others to do the right thing as well. My prayer this day is that I will, in all righteousness, guide people onto their own path of righteousness. My prayer this day is that I will not only rise above my own sins, but that I will succeed in encouraging others to rise above theirs.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will not only hear God’s call to do the right thing, but that you will inspire others to do the right thing as well. My prayer for you this day is that you also will, in all righteousness, guide people onto their own path of righteousness. My prayer for you this day is that you also will not only rise above your sins, but that you will succeed in encouraging others to rise above theirs.

God does not want sin to continue, and we should likewise not want sin to continue. We should not only desire an end to our own sinful choices, but should encourage others to make an end to their sinful choices.

We are called to do the right thing, we are called to seek out a path of righteousness, and so we are called to encourage all around us to join us on that same path. Righteousness should beget righteousness.

We are called by God to do the right thing. We are called by God to call on others to do the right thing.

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Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

Daniel 10:12

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Do you pray every day?

Do you pray in moments of crisis or doubt?

I don’t pray every day—but I should. I know I should pray, and I know that prayer makes living life easier in ways large and small. I know I should pray, but too often I allow myself to be distracted, to get caught up in the moment, and to be too undisciplined to keep my focus where I know it belongs—on God, and on what He wants.

Why should I pray? Why should you pray?

We know prayer is a good idea because Jesus Himself took the time to teach us what a good prayer looks like and sounds like in Matthew 6. Jesus reiterates the importance of prayer in Luke 11. There is no doubt but that Jesus wants us to understand that prayer is a good thing, something we should do often.

Jesus also reminds us in these same passages that prayer is our communion with God. Prayer is how we turn our hearts and our minds to Him. Prayer is how we open ourselves up to hearing—sensing, perhaps just feeling—what it is He wants from us in any given moment.

Prayer is not so much us asking for forgiveness, or blessings, or bountiful things, but an answer to a simple yet important question: “Lord, what should I do?”

If we are sober and serious in how we live our lives we already know we should “do the right thing.” We already know we should seek to uphold God’s Law and carry out God’s Will.

Knowing that is the easy part. The hard part is translating that—translating God’s commandments to us—into discrete actions. The hard part is figuring out specifically what we should do, specifically what we should say, and specifically where we should go.

So we must pray. We must pray to focus our minds on God. We must pray to calm the chaotic voices and thoughts which swirl around inside everyone’s head, that we might hear God, that we might listen to what He has to say—and if we take the time to listen we find that God always has something to say.

There have been many times in my day job where I have felt an oppressive weight of conflict, where I have had to have awkward and unpleasant conversations with either clients, or colleagues, or supervisors.

In many of these awkward moments, I have stepped back, bowed my head, and prayed.

When I have stepped back, bowed my head, and prayed, I have heard a small voice in the back of my brain telling me what I must do, and even what I must say.

When I listen to that small voice in the back of my brain, the awkward moment becomes less awkward.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? Certainly there is not something so supernatural as a burning bush, nor as terrifying as a voice from the clouds, nor as dramatic as a lightning flash to accompany that voice from the clouds. There is not a chorus of angels amplifying the message and giving it a divine majestic feel.

Yet that small voice gives good counsel. That small voice puts my mind at ease and helps me function better in difficult moments.

That small voice is always there. I don’t always listen—I don’t always even try to listen—but when I do listen, that small voice has something to say.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? I believe that it is.

That small voice does not tell me what I want to hear. Usually, what that small voice tells me to do is something that is difficult and challenging. Perhaps that small voice reminds me to be diligent in grounding myself in the facts surrounding a particular problem. Perhaps that small voice instructs me to take a clear stance on principle. Perhaps that small voice reminds me to be sober, judicious, and above all professional in my choice of words, so as to avoid saying something for which I will need to apologize later.

That small voice is always reassuring. That small voice is constant. That small voice is reliable.

Is that small voice God speaking to me? I am sure that it is.

That small voice is how I know that, when I pray, God will hear. That small voice is how I know that, when I pray, God will answer.

Why should I pray? Why should you pray? We should pray that we might hear that small voice. We should pray that we might listen to God answering.

We should not look for God to answer our prayers with either a “Yes” or a “No.” We should not look for God to deliver a miracle, or to give us whatever it is we think we want. We should not pretend that God will attend upon our wants, or our desires.

Rather, we do well to remember that we are to attend upon what God wants—that we serve God, and not the other way around.

We do well to remember that God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do what He wants us to do.

We do well to remember that God commands and we obey. That is how God created the world, and that is how God created mankind.

We should understand that if God puts a task before us, He means for us to accomplish that task. He means for us not only to finish, but to succeed.

If we will but listen, God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do all that He has put before us, that we might achieve all that God wants us to achieve.

If we will but pray, God will hear. If we will but pray, God will answer.

My prayer this day is that I will always hear that small voice in the back of my brain. My prayer this day is that I will always heed what that small voice has to say. My prayer this day is that I will listen when God is telling me what I must do, and that I will actually do it.

My prayer for you this day is that you will always hear that small voice in the back of your brain. My prayer for you this day is that you will always heed what that small voice has to say. My prayer for you this day is that you will listen when God is telling you what you must do, and that you will actually do it.

We should pray that we might listen to God answering.

We should not look for God to answer our prayers with either a “Yes” or a “No.” We should not pretend that God will attend upon our wants or our desires.

We should understand that if God puts a task before us, He means for us to accomplish that task. He means for us not only to finish, but to succeed.

If we will but listen, God will tell us what we need to hear that we might do all that He has put before us, that we might achieve all that God wants us to achieve.

If we will but pray, God will hear. If we will but pray, God will answer.

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I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
“Smite the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and what are left of them I will slay with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away,
not one of them shall escape.

“Though they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search out and take them;
and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
And though they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them;
and I will set my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”

Amos 9:1-4

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If there is one ironclad law by which the universe operates, it is that for every action there will be reaction, there will be consequence.

For all that we do, we will eventually answer. Consequence will come for us in its time. Consequence always comes for us in its time.

Yesterday, the United States and Israel visited consequence on the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a coordinated series of air strikes, several of Iran’s major cities were severely damaged.

Most significantly, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was apparently killed.

Khamenei’s leadership of Iran was marked chiefly by one phrase: “Death to America”. For most of his 35 years in power, his hatred and opposition to both the United States and Israel was implacable.

The man who made “Death to America” his country’s policy found “death from America” the consequence of that hatred.

Iran had built bunkers and bomb shelters to protect their leaders when attacked. They did not keep Khamenei alive.

We do not know if Khamenei attempted to hide in one such shelter, but we do not need to know. As he is dead we can conclude that Iran’s bunkers and bomb shelters were of no use to him. After 35 years of virulent hatred for America, there was no hiding place for him when American consequence rained down on Tehran.

We should ponder what Khamenei set in motion by his hatred: funding Islamic fundamentalist terror militias, under his leadership Iran helped Hamas carry out their barbaric and genocidal attack on Israel in 2023. That brutal act, tantamount to a declaration of war against Israel, had the direct consequence of Hamas’ leadership being hunted down and exterminated.

There was no hiding place for Hamas when Israel visited consequence on them.

Israel’s zeal in that quest, and what some would call their excesses, has had the direct consequence of Israel receiving a considerable measure of condemnation in many parts of the world. Whether the condemnation is appropriate or not, it is what Israel has received for prosecuting its war against Hamas. There has been no hiding place for Israel when the world visited consequence on them.

Yet it is in no small part that because Iran has played a role in Israel’s wars with Hamas, with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, and even the Houthi rebels in Yemen, that Israel came to see Iran as an existential threat.

It is in no small part that because Iran has sponsored terrorism around the globe that the United States government came to see Iran as an eternal threat to global peace and security.

It is in no small part that because Iran inspired these fears and concerns in Israel and the United States, Israel and the United States concluded now was the time to deliver proper consequence to Iran, while also encouraging the Iranian people to rise up and topple the Islamic Republic regime of Ayatollah Khamenei.

This is exactly what the prophet Amos warned the Israelites would happen: there would be consequence for their wickedness. There would be no defense to shield them. There would be no means of escape. There would be no hiding place.

When God decided it was time for Israel to receive consequence for its actions, for turning away from God and wallowing in sin and depravity, consequence would come—and did come. As the immortal first verses of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 remind us, everything has its time, including God’s wrath.

Does this mean the US and Israeli attacks on Iran are akin to a holy war—a crusade? No. There is nothing holy about war, and this war, brief as it has been, is no exception.

It does mean that the US and Israel are but instruments of the consequences God has decreed for Iran.

It also means that consequence will eventually come for the United States and Israel as well. No matter how righteous the intent, no matter how certain each nation is that its actions against Iran are right and righteous, the United States and Israel will each receive its due measure of consequence in its time.

There was no hiding place for Khamenei. There will be no hiding place for Israel. There will be no hiding place for the United States. As consequence came for Khamenei, consequence will come for Israel in its time. As consequence came for Khamenei, consequence will come for the United States in its time.

Whether that consequence is to be an expression of God’s Wrath or God’s Mercy only God will ever know—and God never lets us know.

We can see consequence at work also in the fratricidal war which nearly eradicated the Israelite tribe of Benjamin in the final chapters of Judges. From the questionable behavior of a Levite to outrageous behavior by a group of young Benjaminite men, sexually assaulting the Levite’s concubine until she died, to the war of vengeance sworn by the other tribes of Israel against the Benjaminites, at every turn there was consequence for actions taken.

When that war was over, and the tribe of Benjamin all but extinguished, the other tribes of Israel were faced with more stark consequences, horrible and bad no matter which path was chosen. They could allow the surviving Benjaminites leave to kidnap their daughters, that they might have wives with which to replenish the tribe of Benjamin, or they could cut off the tribe of Benjamin from the nation of Israel for all time.

Such were the consequences of fratricidal war, a war marked as much by excess as by martial prowess and valor.

As consequence came for the tribes of Israel, consequence came for Ayatollah Khamenei.

As consequence came for Khamenei, consequence will come for you and I, in its time.

For all that you and I do, consequence will come for us, always in its time.

If we are wicked and sinful, and turn away from God, God’s wrath will come for us in God’s time.

If we are mindful and righteous, and turn towards God, God’s mercy will come for us, again in God’s time.

Whether we are sinful or righteous, this much is certain: we will have consequences. We cannot shield ourselves from consequence. We cannot run from consequence. We cannot hide from consequence.

For all that you and I do, there is no hiding place. There is no hiding place from consequence. There is no hiding place from God.

For all that you and I do, we will answer. Of that there is no doubt. From that there can be no escape.

My prayer this day is first and foremost for the ordinary people of Iran, that the consequence which comes to them will be freedom from oppression. My prayer this day is also with the Israeli and American soldiers charged with bringing war and consequence to Iran, that they will all come home alive.

My prayer this day is also that I will be forever mindful and watchful, always apprehensive of consequence, always seeking the consequence of God’s Mercy rather than the consequence of God’s Wrath.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will be forever mindful and watchful, always apprehensive of consequence, always seeking the consequence of God’s Mercy rather than the consequence of God’s Wrath.

Whether we are sinful or righteous, this much is certain: we will have consequences. We cannot shield ourselves from consequence. We cannot run from consequence. We cannot hide from consequence.

For all that you and I do, we will answer. Of that there is no doubt. From that there can be no escape.

For all that you and I do, there is no hiding place. There is no hiding place from consequence. There is no hiding place from God.

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Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its eternal glory.

2 Timothy 2:8-10

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We are called to bear true witness to the world in all things. Of this, there can be no doubt.

The Ten Commandments include an explicit prohibition against lying.

Moses celebrated God as the God of Truth in his final message to the Israelites.

We are reminded of the importance of truth multiple times in Proverbs and again in the Psalms.

The prophet Zechariah reminded the Israelites of their obligation of honesty.

Long before Jesus came into the world, God's Will and God's Law were plain for all to see: always bear witness to the truth.

When it comes to what we say and how we say it, there is no more important quality than that our words be true.

When it comes to what we say and how we say it, there is no greater challenge than ensuring that our words are true.

Truth very often means telling people things they do not want to hear. Truth very often is greeted with anger rather than joy. Truth very often triggers retribution and violence, unjust though it may be.

People rarely want to hear the truth, especially when it is not good news for them. How often do we hear responses like “Don't say that!”? How often do we cringe when we sense someone is bearing us less than glad tidings?

Despite that challenge, we are still called to bear true witness in all things.

Why does truth matter so much? Why is it imperative that we bear true witness in all things?

Consider: What else could God be but the culmination of all Truth? What else would we make of our Creator but that He is, above all, the God of Truth?

God made the Heavens and the Earth. God created all the living things on this Earth. God is by definition the author of our past, our present, and our future.

God created all that we call “reality”. To apprehend the world around us is to apprehend God. By definition this must be so.

How can reality be anything but true? It cannot. Whatever is real by definition is true.

As God is the author of reality, He is therefore the author of Truth. As a simple matter of forms, He cannot be anything but the author of Truth.

If we are to serve God well, we must therefore be diligent in our honesty. We must bear true witness in all things.

Fail to do that and we fail to serve God. Reject truth and we reject God.

It matters not what consequences we endure. It matters not that we may suffer as a result of being true in our witness to the world. The Apostles Peter and Paul were assaulted and imprisoned for preaching the truth to the world. All of the Apostles endured martyrdom, all but John of Patmos dying in cruel and horrific ways, in direct consequence of their insistence on preaching the truth to the world.

Truth is no guarantor that our lives will be easy or comfortable. If anything, Truth is a guarantor that our lives will be neither easy nor comfortable.

Yet when we preach the truth to the world, we shine God’s Light into the world. When we preach truth to the world we give to all who listen a measure of hope, a promise of future goodness.

We cannot do that if we are dishonest. We cannot shine God’s Light anywhere if we reject Him by rejecting Truth in anything.

If we are sincere in our desire to love God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls, we will strive to be true in all things.

If we are sincere in our desire to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we will strive to bear true witness in all things.

We owe God no less than this. We owe our neighbors no less than this. We owe ourselves no less than this.

My prayer this day is that I will rise to the challenge of bearing true witness to the world. My prayer this day is that I will not let fear of pain or privation deceive me into being less than truthful before the world. My prayer this day is that through true words I may lift up those around me, filling their lives with hope and promise of future goodness.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will rise to the challenge of bearing true witness to the world. My prayer for you this day is that you also will not let fear of pain or privation deceive you into being less than truthful before the world. My prayer for you this day is that through true words you also may lift up those around you, filling their lives with hope and promise of future goodness.

When we preach the truth to the world, we shine God’s Light into the world. When we preach truth to the world we give to all who listen a measure of hope, a promise of future goodness.

If we are sincere in our desire to love God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls, we will strive to be true in all things.

If we are sincere in our desire to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we will strive to bear true witness in all things.

We owe God no less than this. We owe our neighbors no less than this. We owe ourselves no less than this.

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The saying is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and no lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way; for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil; moreover he must be well thought of by outsiders, or he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

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Christians are, as a rule, disposed to thinking of priests, pastors, deacons, bishops, and all those involved in church governance and administration as being especially devout and particularly pious.

Church scandals—of we we have seen many—are notorious in large measure because they put the lie to this notion. In every church, in every denomination, those who lead are every bit as sinful, every bit as fallen, every bit as human as those who sit in the pews come Sunday morning.

Leaders are people, and it follows that good leaders are generally good people, and bad leaders are generally bad people.

How can that be if leaders are as imperfect as followers, if leaders share the weaknesses of followers?

As with all things in life, it comes down to the choices we make. We are all sinful, we are all fallen, we are all imperfect, but we all still make every choice in our lives. When we sin, it is through our choices. When we rise above sin, it is through our choices.

Good choices move us away from sin and closer to God. Bad choices move us closer to sin and away from God.

When we speak of people being “good”, we do well to apprehend that we are ascribing to them a tendency to make more good choices than bad, and when we speak of people being “bad”, we are ascribing to them a tendency to make more bad choices than good.

It really is as simple as that. Read through any text on leadership, dissect all the models and modalities proposed for leadership, and at their core the basic premise remains: good leaders are good people who make generally good choices, and bad leaders are bad people who generally make bad choices.

If one wishes to lead, practice making good choices. If one wishes to lead, make good choices a habit.

This is a challenge I suspect we too often overlook in evaluating the leadership potential in people. Do they exhibit the signs that good choices are truly a personal habit of theirs?

The Apostle Paul lays out the signs of a habit of making good choices in his listing of qualifications to serve as a bishop within the early Christian church: A man must be “temperate”; he must be “sensible”; he must have only one wife and not be greedy or gluttonous. Taken together, these qualities in a man’s personal life show discipline, restraint, and deliberation. A man who maintains an orderly household is a man who is providing a safe and healthy environment for all who dwell within that household.

A man who exhibits such traits is a man who may be said to have chosen a good path for his life, a path leading to righteousness and closer communion with God.

From Paul’s list we may also discern something else about the habit of good choices: it cannot be confined to any one part of a person’s life. As with all habits, the habit of good choices permeates the entirety of one’s life or it does not exist.

I like to think of myself as a rational man. In all my writings, even my sermons here, I lay out the reasons for my thinking, and invite people to agree or disagree. I bring such facts as I have at my disposal to support my reasons.

This is true even in my day job as an accountant. I am frequently asked questions about a variety of things, and in every instance I make a point to respond with facts, with details, with documented evidences of things. If there is a question about prior communications, I will present what I have said and what others have said in response.

This habit of factual responses has won me a measure of respect as a source of factual information. My knowledge not just of accounting facts but also of where to find vital information has let to my being asked to mentor others, and share bits of that understanding, to strengthen others in the course of their work. Even my supervisors will come to me to cross check their own thinking.

That is not a boast. That is merely what happens.

This habit of factual communications has won me my following here, and it has won me a measure of acclaim in my regular day job. It is the same habit, built on the same principles of striving for honesty and bearing true witness to others.

I will not claim to be a paragon of virtue, for I am not. I will not even claim to be an ideal choice for leading anything. I will claim that, any time I am tapped to lead anything, the quality of my leadership will be the direct result of the habits in choosing that I already possess.

Nor is this a novel teaching from Paul or anywhere else, for when God instructed His People Israel on how they were to choose a king for themselves in Deuteronomy 17, His formulation was structurally not much different from Paul’s: a would-be king must not seek after horses, or wives, or gold. A would-be king must be restrained, disciplined, and pious, daily studying God’s Word and always seeking to understand God’s Law. The Mosaic formulation is not of a king who is mightier than his subjects, or morally superior to his subjects, but merely a man who has risen to leadership because of the quality of his choices.

We can see in the errors King Solomon committed at the end of his reign what happens when a man fails to make good choices. Solomon choose to seek after wives, and had multiplied considerable gold for himself over the course of his reign. He gave in to greed and gluttony, and those choices led him away from God, leading him to erect altars to the foreign gods of his foreign wives. Solomon’s private errors led to wars for the Kingdom of Israel, and ultimately produced civil war when his son Rehobo′am ascended the throne, thus beginning Israel’s slow decline.

Good leaders are good people who make good choices. Bad leaders are bad people who make bad choices. People who start out making good choices and being good leaders can succumb to making bad choices and becoming bad leaders.

This is not to say that all who attain positions of leadership and authority do so because they make good choices. The downfall of Israel, and the fall of nations and empires since, contain ample proofs of people who secure positions of leadership for themselves despite their proclivity for bad choices.

This is to say that all who attain positions of leadership and authority will turn out to be good or bad leaders according to their habits of making good or bad choices.

This is to recommend to all who aspire to positions of leadership, be it in their church, their job, or elsewhere, to cultivate a habit of making good choices. This is to recommend to all who aspire to positions of leadership to be worthy of leadership by first cultivating a habit of making good choices.

This is to recommend to all who are already in positions of leadership to be worthy of that leadership by cultivating even now a habit of making good choices.

My prayer this day is that God will always strengthen my own habit for making good choices, and that I will make far more good choices than bad ones. My prayer this day is that whatever leadership I will be called upon to show will be defined by my good choices, that it may survive my bad ones. My prayer this day is that I will always be worthy and ready to lead because I have succeeded in making more good choices than bad ones.

My prayer for you this day is that God will always strengthen your habit for making good choices, and that you will make far more good choices than bad ones. My prayer for you this day is that whatever leadership you will be called upon to show will be defined by your good choices, that it may survive your bad ones. My prayer for you this day is that you will always be worthy and ready to lead because you have succeeded in making more good choices than bad ones.

All who attain positions of leadership and authority will turn out to be good or bad leaders according to their habits of making good or bad choices.

All who aspire to positions of leadership, be it in their church, their job, or elsewhere, do well to cultivate a habit of making good choices. All who aspire to positions of leadership do well to be worthy of leadership by first cultivating a habit of making good choices.

The foundation of good leadership is simply this: If one wishes to lead, practice making good choices.

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Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean. If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

Romans 14:13-15

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Is a Roman Catholic more “Christian” than a Protestant?

Are Evangelicals more “Christian” than Presbyterians?

Perhaps the better question is “who decides?”

Who on earth today is qualified to decide whether a person is a genuine follower of Christ or not?

I am not speaking of people whose words, actions, or stated beliefs clearly contradict what is clearly stated in Scripture. People who revel in hatred can hardly claim to be following Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” People who put things like wealth, or a career, ahead of doing what is right and righteous are indisputably serving Mammon and not God.

A person who rejects or ignores Christ’s teachings by definition cannot claim to be any sort of “Christian.” There is no real debate to be had on that point.

What about those who claim that women should not be pastors or lead churches, and can argue the point with Scriptural support? Are they “Christian”?

What about those who make a point of using “Yeshua” rather than “Jesus”, arguing that such a transliteration of the original Hebrew name is more respectful than the anglicized version of the Greek transliteration of the original Hebrew name? Are they “better” Christians than those who use “Jesus” to refer to the Son of Man?

My honest answer to such questions is simply this: I don’t care.

I really don’t care about abstract theologies. Debates over ideas such as “dispensationalism” do not interest me in the slightest.

My priorities are how to live out God’s Law and God’s Will in real life. The description I give “Peter’s Proverbs” is exactly that: one man’s thoughts on Christian living. There is especial emphasis on “living”.

I do consider myself to be a Christian, although there have been more than a few people who have told me I am not, usually in a fit of self-righteous indignation. Frankly, I also don’t care about their opinions of me.

As a Christian, my goal is simple: I want to live a good life. I want to do the right things, focus on the right things, aim for the right things. When the Son of God comes again to judge the world, as Jesus foretold in Matthew 25, I want to be among those placed on His right hand and not on His left. I want to inherit the Kingdom of God. I want to enter Paradise.

Does that make me a “good” Christian? Does that make me a hypocrite?

I have no idea. I know I have been called both by people firmly convinced they were in the right.

I also know that other people using “Yeshua” rather than “Jesus” has no bearing on how I pray, how I worship, or how I make moral choices about my life. I know that people who will not attend a worship service led by a woman have no involvement in my choice either to attend or not attend such a worship service.

What other people believe is simply not relevant to what I believe. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree, what I believe is what I believe, neither more nor less. The lessons I take from Scripture are what I take from Scripture, neither more nor less. My ideas on how people can put those lessons into practice are my ideas, neither more nor less.

The same holds true for others. Their beliefs, their apprehensions of Scripture, and their ideas are theirs, neither more nor less. If someone presents me with an idea that resonates, I will incorporate it into my own view of things in whatever manner seems fitting, but that choice of mine neither alters nor validates their ideas. It merely means I choose to embrace an idea. I might just as easily choose to disregard that idea.

No matter what any of us believe, it is incumbent upon each of us to decide how to act on our beliefs. It is incumbent upon each of us to make choices, to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. As the closing verse of Judges poignantly reminds us, no one can make our choices for us. We might make good choices, we might make poor choices, but we are required to make our own choices. There is no second option in that.

As everybody has to choose for themselves, it is inevitable that we are going to disagree with each other’s choices. No two people will always agree on everything.

What should I do when someone makes a choice with which I disagree? At what point does that disagreement command me to call out their choice as evil, and to publicly oppose that choice?

What should I do when disagreement does not command me to call out their choice as evil?

In all cases, I have to choose when doing the right thing means calling out other people’s evil choices and when doing the the right thing means remaining silent and refraining from unnecessary conflict.

At work I may encounter people’s lifestyle choices I personally believe are sinful. In spite of what I believe I still have to work with those people. There are those at work I find superficial and even annoying, and while I would not choose to be around them outside of work, at work I have an obligation to work with them in order to do my job.

In or out of work, in or out of church, I am called—as we are all called—to love my neighbor as I love myself.

In or out of work, in or out of church, I am called—as we are all called—to show mercy, grace, and compassion to others.

Even when we disagree with someone, we are called to give them grace. We may not like their politics, their lifestyle, or some particular of their religious practices, yet we are still called to give them grace. Giving grace is not an option. Giving grace is a duty, a duty we owe both to God and to ourselves.

While we are called to choose right over wrong, and good over evil, we are also called to choose peace over war. So long as we are not being compelled to accept that which is morally wrong, we are called to be reconciled to one another.

This is where we should draw the boundary: so long as a person’s choices do not seek to coerce bad choices from us, we should not seek conflict with them. So long as we remain free to choose right and wrong for ourselves, there is little cause for war. To retain that freedom, we must allow others the opportunity to choose right from wrong, and to do right or wrong.

So long as we are not being ourselves compromised, we are well advised to look for compromise and cooperation.

That is the only way people can ever come together to form healthy and sustainable communities. That is the only way people can ever build a healthy and sustainable society. That is the only way people can ever honor God and put God’s Law into daily practice.

My prayer this day is that I will always find ways to give others grace despite our disagreements. My prayer this day is that I will not let disagreement become a stumbling block to extending mercy and compassion to everyone. My prayer this day is that I will always look for peace rather than war.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will always find ways to give others grace despite disagreements. My prayer for you this day is that you also will not let disagreement become a stumbling block to extending mercy and compassion to everyone. My prayer for you this day is that you also will always look for peace rather than war.

So long as a person’s choices do not seek to coerce bad choices from us, we should not seek conflict with them. So long as we remain free to choose right and wrong for ourselves, there is little cause for war. To retain that freedom, we must allow others the opportunity to choose right from wrong, and to do right or wrong.

So long as we are not being ourselves compromised, we are well advised to look for compromise and cooperation.

That is the only way people can ever come together to form healthy and sustainable communities. That is the only way people can ever build a healthy and sustainable society. That is the only way people can ever honor God and put God’s Law into daily practice.

People will believe as they will believe. I believe as I believe. We will not always agree with one another, but we are always called to give grace to one another.

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Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 1:20-21

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I like to think of myself as a knowledgeable man. I am quite proud—even unjustly proud—of the facts and figures I have stored between my ears. I am even a little bit arrogant when it comes to what I can do with those facts and figures.

As an Accountant, as a Voice and Data Network Engineer, and as an Independent Journalist, Analyst, and Commentator, I have been chewing on facts and figures all of my adult life.

For me, it’s fun. I enjoy it.

Yet there is a question to be asked: what good is all that knowledge? What purpose does any of it serve?

What good do I accomplish with any of the things I do? What value does it hold?

As an Accountant, I help people understand their financial situation. I help them make sense of balance sheets, income statements, and all the reams of documents that lie behind such things.

Certainly that work is valuable to the extent that my employer is willing to pay me for my work.

As a Voice and Data Network Engineer, I built communications systems that made business possible for clients and employers alike. I diagnosed problems and made broken networks whole again.

Certainly that work was valuable to the extent that I was well paid for my work.

As an Independent Journalist, Analyst, and Commentator I communicate some of the facts and figures which describe the world around us. I strive to present that information within a narrative that is both honest and coherent. I tell people that my goal is to inform them—I do not tell people what to think, but I give them plenty about which to think.

Certainly that work is valuable to the extent that I have subscribers who value my work.

Yet in all of this, there have always been times when I have told people things they do not wish to hear, or with which they disagree. I have found that, with some regularity, if I am faithful and honest about my work, I am going to offend at least some people. I will earn scorn, contempt, outrage, and even threats of violence.

My defense is always a simple one: I am giving the facts and figures that I have at hand. I am telling the truth.

Is that defense enough? Would it be sufficient to claim factual honesty while leading people towards conclusions which are perhaps not true? Would it be sufficient to claim factual honesty if my work resulted in people being harmed?

If I am manipulating people and leading them towards false conclusions, am I being honest? No. If I am attempting to persuade people to believe a lie then I am lying by definition.

If I am seeking to put people in harm’s way with my words, I might not be lying, but neither am I showing them the love, compassion, and grace which we are all called to show one another.

That, however, is the rub. How do I know that what I believe is true? What assurance do I have that I am not putting people in harm’s way with my words?

I have no such assurance. Whatever words I speak, whatever actions I take, whatever actions I persuade others to take will carry their own consequences. I do not choose what those consequences might be. My only influence over consequence lies in my choice of words and deeds.

What guarantee have I that my words and deeds will turn out well? I have no guarantee—and all too often my words and deeds do not turn out well. Sometimes that is because I have made a mistake. Sometimes it is just not what people want to hear.

With no assurance and no guarantee, how shall I choose either my words or my deeds?

With no assurance and no guarantee, all that is left is faith. Faith is the assurance and the guarantee we are given.

This the Apostle Paul taught in Hebrews, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is what we have to guide us when we seek to come closer to God. Faith is all that we have for a guide. Knowledge, as my own personal experience has shown repeatedly, is no guide at all.

Knowledge does not decide if my words are true and wise.

Knowledge does not decide if my actions are right and righteous.

My words are true and wise if they illuminate the world as God created it. My words are true and wise if they reveal a path of love, respect, and compassion for people to follow, a path which leads them closer to God.

My actions are right and righteous if they are in accordance with God’s Law. My actions are right and righteous if they are in acceptance of God’s Will.

Knowledge brings precision to word, thought, and deed, but that is all it can do. Knowledge cannot make evil thoughts good. Knowledge cannot turn cruelty into compassion.

To distinguish between good and evil, between sin and righteousness, I must rely on faith. It is by faith that God reveals His Will. It is by faith that we receive God’s Law. It is faith that elevates the Bible from a compendium of Jewish and proto-Christian texts into Scripture.

For all the knowledge in which I take unseemly pride, my choices are ultimately dictated by my faith. As valuable as knowledge is in the execution of all that I do, the choice to actually do this or that is made not through knowledge, but through faith.

My faith is not perfect—far from it. My faith is all too frequently clouded by anger, fear, and doubt. I wish my faith were perfect, for then there would be no anger, no fear, no doubt. If my faith were perfect my choices would be far better than they often are.

Yet for choosing, my faith is all that I have. Imperfect as it is, imperfect as I am, my only guide in navigating right from wrong is faith. My knowledge only comes into play after I have made a choice.

Without my faith, my knowledge is worthless.

Without my faith, I cannot distinguish right from wrong, or good from evil.

Without my faith, I cannot make good and moral choices.

My prayer this day is for faith. My prayer this day is that God will always strengthen and deepen my faith, that I might choose better, speak better, do better. My prayer this day is that through faith God will show me what I must do, that I may bring my knowledge to bear in actually doing it.

My prayer for you this day is for your faith. My prayer for you this day is that God will always strengthen and deepen your faith, that you might choose better, speak better, do better. My prayer for you this day is that through faith God will show you what you must do, that you may bring your knowledge to bear in actually doing it.

No matter how much knowledge we possess, our choices are invariably dictated by faith. As valuable as knowledge is in the execution of all that we do, the choice to actually do this or that is made not through knowledge, but through faith.

Without faith, knowledge is worthless.

Without faith, we cannot distinguish right from wrong, or good from evil.

Without faith, we cannot make good and moral choices.

We need knowledge to bring precision and skill to what we do. We need faith to know what it is that we must do.

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All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured your bars.

Nahum 3:12-13

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As a rule, we prize strength and power. From the myths and legends of antiquity to the comic book heroes of today, our heroic images have invariably been images of physical strength and physical power: Gilgamesh, Samson, Achilles, Heracles, Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Rambo, Rocky, James Bond, Jason Bourne…we celebrate those who not only do, but who win.

As a rule, we want our political leaders to project strength and power. Donald Trump’s supporters cheer his flexing of American power on the world stage, while his detractors cast about for those who will summon the power and strength to defy him. Russian President Vladimir Putin long cultivated an “alpha male” image by being photographed shirtless and engaging in “manly” pursuits such as judo competitions.

We value strength. We value power. We generally desire both, but do we truly understand what they are?

Is Russia more powerful than Ukraine for having massed troops to invade? How strong are the Ukrainians for having held Russia to a stalemate seemingly against all odds?

Is America stronger because President Trump ordered Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro seized and brought to stand trial in an American court?

Is the Iranian government of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei more powerful for having suppressed once again the demonstrations and protests of Iranians? Are the Iranian people strong for having dared to protest against Khamenei?

What of the people currently protesting—and rioting—against ICE enforcement actions in Minnesota? Are they strong for standing against law enforcement? Are the law enforcement officers strong for persisting in their efforts in spite of the heated and even violent public opposition?

Narratives abound which argue the strength and power of all of these figures and peoples. Narratives abound which argue that all of these figures and peoples are, at their core, weak and feckless.

Which narratives are true? How would we tell?

How do we accurately apprehend the sources of strength and power, that we may summon them into our own lives?

We can rationally apprehend Ukrainian strength by one very obvious reality: they are still fighting Russia. Whatever else we might say about the country, the people, or their cause, they are still fighting, still holding Russia to a stalemate, still persisting against a foe which on paper is larger and stronger in almost every way.

How is that not strength?

We might be similarly be tempted to apprehend the Iranian regime as being strong by virtue of their continued existence. Yet we must also apprehend the consequences of their chosen responses to Iranian protests: having chosen to violently suppress the uprisings, they have little choice but to maintain a virtual stranglehold on the population. Their burden of governance is demonstrably heavier today than it was when the protests began.

It is a curious sort of power that can be held hostage to what others might do.

Many might be tempted to view the protesters in Minnesota as “speaking truth to power”. Yet there seems little indication that ICE is being at all dissuaded from pursuing their law enforcement duties, despite the increasing intensity of the protests as they turn into riots.

It is a curious sort of strength that fails to make much impact on others.

One thing we can see, whether we are looking at Ukraine, Iran, or Minnesota, is who is persisting, despite the forces arrayed against them.

Ukraine is certainly persisting.

Anecdotal reporting coming out of Iran certainly suggests the Iranian people are still protesting the regime despite a brutal crackdown which has claimed thousands of lives.

Iranians, it would seem, are persisting.

It is too soon to tell which side will persist in Minnesota, although the cadres of ICE agents sent to Minnesota have certainly shown no sign of holding back. They are still pursuing their investigations and detentions, despite the growing violence from the protesters-turned-rioters.

At the very least, ICE is so far persisting. Whether the protesters in Minnesota match their determination remains to be seen.

How are these various groups managing to persist even in the face of determined opposition?

Certainly one obvious answer is that they are convinced they are in the right. If what they are doing is the right thing, failing to persist must also be understood as the wrong thing.

The strength to persist can therefore easily be said to be found in doing the right thing. Strength comes from following God’s Law, and acting in accordance with God’s Will.

We can see in the tale of Samson in the Book of Judges, that when he acted unrighteously and allowed himself to be seduced by Delilah, his strength was taken from him. We can also see that, at the end, even though blinded and enslaved by the Philistines, Samson, by remaining faithful to God even after failing Him, found his strength restored, allowing him to visit one final defeat upon that constant enemy of Israel.

David was a successful King of Israel when he obeyed God, and found trouble and chaos when he disobeyed God. We can also see that, because David, sinful and imperfect though he was, never lost faith in God, his reign over Israel persisted. He sinned, but his repentance was genuine, and so God sustained him as King for forty years.

The strength to persist for David was unquestionably found in doing the right thing, and in repenting when he failed to do the right thing.

At the end of Solomon’s reign, we see Solomon turning away from God, being seduced by his many wives and concubines. In direct consequence, rebellion soon racked the Kingdom of Israel, and Solomon’s son Rehobo′am ascended to a throne as king over a land primed for chaos.

While Solomon began his reign powerful and wise, when he was led astray his kingdom suffered. His power waned when he ceased seeking the righteous path.

When we seek that righteous path, we are made strong. The conviction that what we do is right, that what we do is in accord with God’s Law, also assures us that to do otherwise would be wrong. Within that certainty we find persistence, and as we see in Ukraine, in Iran, and in Minnesota, the foundation of strength is persistence.

We have also seen how the opposite is true. When Syrian rebels launched a final strike at Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria at the end of 2024, he had no choice but to flee. His fortresses absolutely were like fig-trees whose fruit was easily shaken off. His troops quite clearly did not put up the fight that one would expect of “manly” fighting forces.

Assad’s reign over Syria, which was unquestionably despotic and evil, simply crumbled and fell away. There was no strength, no power to sustain Assad further.

This is not to say that evil men and evil governments tumble and fall immediately. They clearly do not.

Yet even when evil gains a momentary victory, righteous strength like Samson’s can rise up again. Khamenei’s regime has squashed numerous protests, yet the Iranian people rise up time and again.

When Assad’s regime finally fell, it fell for good. It will not be restored.

Should Khamenei’s regime finally fall, it will fall for good. It will not be restored.

If Ukraine should prevail against Russia, it is difficult to see how Russia would be able to threaten Ukraine again any time soon. If Russia fails in its efforts against Ukraine, it will likely fail for good.

This is the strength that comes from righteousness. This is the strength that comes from following God’s Law.

When we do the right thing we will still face a long struggle against evil adversaries. Doing the right thing does not make anything easier.

Doing the right thing does mean that, once we are victorious over the evil adversary, that adversary is defeated for good. The evil adversary, by comparison, can never be completely successful. The evil adversary might win one hundred battles, but if he loses one he is finished.

Through righteousness we can persist to the very end. Without righteousness we cannot, not in the end.

So my prayer this day is that I will always be guided towards righteousness. My prayer this day is that I will find that strength of persistence in the assurance that I am striving to obey God’s Law. My prayer this day is that my strength of persistence will endure even as I repent for my all too frequent sins and failures.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will always be guided towards righteousness. My prayer for you this day is that you also will find that strength of persistence in the assurance that you are striving to obey God’s Law. My prayer for you this day is that your strength of persistence will endure even as you are called to repent for your various sins and failures.

Strength comes from following God’s Law, and acting in accordance with God’s Will.

When we do the right thing we will still face a long struggle against evil adversaries. Yet once we are victorious over an evil adversary, that adversary is defeated for good.

Through righteousness we persist to the very end. Without righteousness we cannot, not in the end.

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Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

1 Peter 2:13-17

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When people submit to God's Law, man's laws are superfluous.

When people reject God's Law, man's laws are irrelevant.

Any rational understanding of how man's laws relate to God's Law begins with accepting these two principles.

No law made by man can establish moral right or moral wrong. No law made by man can make the actions of men right or wrong.

Moral right and moral wrong are established by God’s Law and by only God’s Law. Only God’s Law can make the actions of men right or wrong.

If we scorn God's Law, our obedience to man's laws is no defense of our conduct before God.

If we embrace God's Law, our obedience to man's laws adds nothing to our righteousness or virtue.

Every choice we make, every action we take is either right or wrong according to God's Law. For every choice and every action, there is no third option.

For every choice and every action, there is a consequence. That is indisputably God's Will. Even right choices and right actions come with consequences, and not always pleasant ones. Sometimes suffering the unpleasant consequence is what God has ordained even when we do what is right.

So it is that while man's laws are morally superfluous and irrelevant, those who enforce man's laws are generally extremely relevant. Regardless of whether our actions are right or wrong, moral or immoral, those who enforce man's laws will frequently be the agents of consequence.

We have seen many examples recently of people scoffing at man's laws, and even flagrantly disobeying those laws, going so far as to confront with violence those charged with enforcing those laws.

We have watched a young woman, a mother, be shot and killed while accelerating her vehicle towards immigration officers, striking one of them.

We have watched the people of Iran defy the authorities of the Islamic Republic to protest deteriorating conditions in that country. We have watched those same authorities respond with bloody brutal violence, killing more than two thousand.

We have seen government officials complaining bitterly that they are being investigated for having possibly lied under oath, for having committed the crime of perjury.

In each case, we see people defying man's authority and rejecting man's laws. In each case we see people enduring the consequences—or apparent lack thereof—for daring to challenge man's authority.

What do we say to such people? How shall we apprehend their actions?

This much is certain: no matter what we choose to do with respect to man’s laws, the righteousness of our choices will always be governed by God’s Law. Whether we choose to obey man’s laws or defy them, if we yet thirst for righteousness we are obligated to adhere to God’s Law in every choice.

Whether we choose to obey or defy man’s authorities, we are still obligated to do so in accordance with the Great Commandment of loving God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. Whether we choose to obey or defy man’s authorities, we are still obligated to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, for such is the inseparable corollary to the Great Commandment.

All government officials, all officers of the law, all agents of human government are indisputably among our neighbors. They are people even such as we, and we are called to love them even as we love ourselves.

Likewise all government officials, all officers of the law, all agents of human government are called to love their neighbors even as they love themselves. Government service does not exempt a man from God’s Law. Government service does not give conscience carte blanche.

Can there be love of neighbor when a person attacks an officer of the law, seeking to do that officer bodily harm?

Can there be love of neighbor when agents of human government meet peaceful demonstrations and protests with lethal violence?

Can there be love of neighbor when government officials object to officers of the law investigating when an accusation of crime has been levied? Can there be love of neighbor if such accusations are made falsely?

If we are considering these things rightly, no great insight is needed to see that there is no love of neighbor when people propose violence against those who are discharging their sworn duties. There is no love of neighbor when agents of human government respond with violence to peaceful objections to government miscreance. There is no love of neighbor when government officials feign outrage that an accusation leveled against them would occasion an investigation, but neither is there love of neighbor should said government officials be accused falsely.

If there is not love of neighbor, there can be no love of God.

How does one demonstrate love of one’s neighbor when that neighbor works for the government? As the Apostle Peter reminds us, we do so by honoring them. The Apostle Paul taught a similar reminder in Romans 13, encouraging us to “pay all of them their dues.”

The government official who carries out their sworn duty honestly and conscientiously should be accorded the respect due anyone who proceeds uprightly about their daily tasks.

The law enforcement officer who faithfully and conscientiously enforces the law, aspiring to sobriety and professionalism while carrying out their daily tasks absolutely deserves respect and even a bit of deference, for theirs can be a dangerous profession.

Those who investigate when accusations are levied should be understood to perform an invaluable service, for only through their efforts can we ever learn the truth of a matter.

Honoring those who faithfully carry out their sworn duties is always the right and righteous thing to do.

But what about those who are faithless in discharging their duties? What of the Iranian paramilitary member who shoots unarmed protesters? What of the police officer or investigator who seeks to use the law as a weapon against personal or political opponents?

Certainly if they are violating the laws they are sworn to uphold, they have forfeited any honor or deference. If they are seeking to use the law as a weapon to hurt people, they have forfeited any honor or deference. The moral obligation to love our neighbors as we love ourselves translates into exactly what the Apostle Paul taught: give that honor that is due. A person acting dishonorably is clearly due no honor.

Yet whether a person is acting honorably or dishonorably, they are still a person. Whatever sins they may be committing, we are still called to act towards them with righteousness. We are still called to bear true witness to the world around us. We are still called to adhere to God’s Law.

Honoring that call may mean opposing human authority, and standing in defiance of it. Circumstances may offer no alternative to challenging authority, and even rebelling against it. As we can easily see in countries such as Iran, that can and does happen.

Honoring that call may even lead us down a path of violence. Insurrection and rebellion may be the moral choices to make.

Yet we must understand that no matter how we honor that call, there will be consequences. If we oppose authority, authority will surely mete out those consequences, and they are not likely to be pleasant. There may be violence. There may be arrests, detentions, confinements.

We may even be killed.

All these things can be the consequence of choosing to oppose authority. All these things are outcomes we must understand may happen if we choose to oppose authority.

There is but one way to avoid the consequences which attend on a particular choice: do not make that choice. Do not defy law enforcement if one wishes to avoid being arrested. Do not resist arrest if one does not wish to be violently treated during an arrest. Especially do not seek to use lethal force if one wishes to avoid being in turn the target of lethal force.

Whatever choices we make, whatever consequences we accept, we can only be righteous if our choices are reconciled to God’s Law. Whatever choices we make must be the right choices before God, or they are the wrong choices. If we cannot be reconciled to God in our choices, that is the surest sign of all that our choices must change.

And so my prayer this day is that all people will have their eyes and their hearts opened, that they may be reconciled to God in all their choices. My prayer this day is that those who choose to stand against human authority especially may choose those actions which are still in obedience to God’s Law even as they are in defiance of man’s laws. My prayer this day is that people will have the clarity of thought to understand the consequences arising from their choices, and the strength of purpose to accept whatever consequences arise from their choices.

The moral obligation to love our neighbors as we love ourselves translates into exactly what the Apostle Paul taught: give that honor that is due. In every situation giving exactly that honor which is due is always the righteous choice.

Whatever choices we make, whatever consequences we accept, we can only be righteous if our choices are reconciled to God’s Law. Whatever choices we make must be the right choices before God, or they are the wrong choices. If we cannot be reconciled to God in our choices, that is the surest sign of all that our choices must change.

This much is certain: If there is not love of neighbor, there can be no love of God. If we do not choose to love our neighbor in all things, we cannot love God in anything.

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We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

1 John 4:19-21

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Jesus teaches us the Great Commandment is that we are to love God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul.

Our commitment to God is to be total, all-encompassing, and even all-consuming. Whatever we think, whatever we say, whatever we do, is to be thought, said, and done with God uppermost in our mind.

As a commandment, this is easily apprehended. We can easily grasp what is required, even though many will fail to follow through on that requirement. In any given moment, we will be forgetful of God. We will be vain, selfish, arrogant, even greedy.

Yet Jesus does not merely teach us that we must love God with every part of our being. He adds another commandment that is like it, co-equal in importance: we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

I have commented before that we cannot love each other or ourselves unless we first love God. We cannot build each other up, encourage each other, guide each other, unless we are committed to that which is right. We cannot inspire each other to holiness if we do not understand what it means to be holy. Before we can do any good to one another, or be good for one another, we must first seek out God, seek out what God wants, and seek to obey God’s Law.

Unless we do that, we can not have even the slightest clue about how to love either our neighbors or ourselves.

Yet if we do not love our neighbors even as we love ourselves, we cannot love God. If we do not put uppermost in our thoughts that we must be good to one another, and do right by one another, we are not seeking God and we certainly are not seeking to be mindful of God’s Law.

We must remember that the commandment to love our neighbors even as we love ourselves was not created out of whole cloth by Jesus. As was always the case, Jesus was citing God’s Law as it was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Jesus’ teaching was not an innovation or a novel understanding of God’s Law, but a reminder of what God’s Law has always been, and that God’s Law has not changed.

God’s Law has not changed, and God’s Law does not change. People change—people come and go, kings rise and fall, but God’s Law remains, fixed and constant for all time.

God’s Law has always been that people are to care for each other and be good to each other. God’s Law has always been that people are to show compassion towards each other. God’s Law has always been that people are to inspire each other to holiness and righteousness in all things.

When God lamented the wickedness of the world in Genesis 6, He lamented how men’s thoughts were constantly directed towards evil—directed towards ways to hurt and harm their fellow men. Before the Flood, the people of the world sinned grievously, but it is clear from Genesis 6 that these grievous sins in large measure involved mistreating others, and engaging in misconduct involving others.

Before the Flood, men became wicked and turned away from God by not loving their neighbors as they love themselves.

When God determined to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, He sent two angels to warn Lot of Sodom’s impending doom. When the people of Sodom saw the new arrivals, they immediately pressed hard against Lot’s door, demanding he send the two angels out for what is generally understood to be serial rape at the hands of the Sodomites.

Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, men became wicked and turned away from God once again by not loving their neighbors as they love themselves.

The greatest evil men can do before God, it seems, invariably involves mistreating each other.

Even today, the greatest demonstrations of evil we see in the world involve people doing hateful things to other people. The proof of that fills the evening news on a daily basis.

Even today, the most heart-warming stories we see either on the news or across social media involve people doing kind and generous things for other people.

If we genuinely wish to care for other people, if we genuinely wish to show love and compassion towards other people, we absolutely must begin by seeking out God and striving to be mindful of God’s Law. If we do not do that, we will never succeed in caring for other people, and we will never be able to show love and compassion towards other people.

If we genuinely wish to seek out God and strive to be mindful of God’s Law, we must begin by caring for other people, by showing love and compassion towards other people. If we do not do these things, we are not seeking out God nor striving to be mindful of God’s Law.

Perhaps this is why Jesus presented both commandments as being co-equal in importance when asked to state the greatest of God’s commandments. God’s Great Commandment to mankind comes in two parts: one part is that we love God, and the other part is that we love each other. We cannot separate the two parts, and so we cannot love God if we do not love each other, and we cannot love each other if we do not love God.

Straight away this challenges many of our common approaches to right and wrong, our apprehensions of good and evil. Most significantly, we cannot simply write off other people as irredeemably evil:

If we do not strive to bring the vilest of sinners back to God, we are ourselves drifting away from God.

If we do not strive to shine God’s light upon all who are suffering in the darkness of sin, we are neglecting them even as we are joining them.

If we do not practice forgiveness towards all who do wrong, we reject the forgiveness God has promised us.

If we do not accept the forgiveness God has promised us, we cannot truly forgive others.

The love of our fellows is the love of God, and the love of God is the love of our fellows. The two are not merely inseparable, they are one and the same.

God’s Great Commandment is without a doubt God’s greatest challenge to us!

My prayer this day is that I will daily be inspired to rise up to this challenge. My prayer this day is that I will cultivate within myself the capacity to love others by loving God, trusting that my capacity to love God by loving others will likewise be increased. My prayer this day is that I will move into God’s Light by shining that Light upon all who are suffering in the darkness of sin.

My prayer for you this day is that you also will daily be inspired to rise up to this challenge. My prayer for you this day is that you also will cultivate within yourself the capacity to love others by loving God, trusting that your capacity to love God by loving others will likewise be increased. My prayer for you this day is that you also will move into God’s Light by shining that Light upon all who are suffering in the darkness of sin.

God’s Great Commandment to mankind comes in two parts: one part is that we love God, and the other part is that we love each other. We cannot separate the two parts, and so we cannot love God if we do not love each other, and we cannot love each other if we do not love God.

The love of our fellows is the love of God, and the love of God is the love of our fellows. The two are not merely inseparable, they are one and the same.

God’s Great Commandment is without a doubt God’s greatest challenge to us!

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Their hands are upon what is evil, to do it diligently;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.

Micah 7:3

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When people do something wrong in private we call that sin.

When people do something wrong in public we call that corruption and crime.

Yet when people do something wrong in public it is still sin.

If it's wrong, it's a sin. Whatever else we choose to call it, if it's wrong, it's still a sin.

Whether we do what is wrong in private or in public, when we do what is wrong, we sin. There is no escaping that very simple reality.

Nor is there escaping the consequences of sin. When we sin, we separate ourselves from God. We put distance between ourselves and God. That distance becomes death—death of the soul, and eventually death of the body.

When we sin in public, we risk another death as well—the death of our communities.

We only have to look at neighborhoods blighted by crime to see that this is true.

We only have to look at countries run by evil and perverse dictators.

In every such neighborhood, in every such country, hope—the lifeblood of every person and every community—is steadily draining away, and in some instances has disappeared altogether. Instead of a belief in a better future, people in such circumstances struggle merely to endure the present.

Yet it should be simple to revitalize such communities—simply arrest the criminals and remove them from the community. That gives people back the chance to make good choices and live better lives—and that can be the spark that reignites hope.

Only time and again we do not see that happen. In city after city, country after country, we see government officials make excuses. In city after city, country after country, we see leaders and magistrates seduced by corruption, selling their offices for bribes.

The criminal who violates people in his community sins by his serial assaults on others. The police officer who gets paid to look the other way, the prosecutor who would rather not prosecute so as to have more voters on his side come election time, the mayor or governor who treats the public fisc as a personal slush fund—all of these people sin as well.

Whether a robber, a fraudster, an elected official, or a bureaucrat, whenever they do wrong, they sin.

There is, of course, nothing remarkable in that observation. Sin is the essence of corruption, and corruption is always the equivalent of sin. There is no part of public or private life for anyone where that it is not true.

Yet there is something we do well to recognize in public sin: in the corrupt official especially, we rarely see any true understanding that their misdeeds are in fact wrong. For many caught up in corruption and crime, the only thing they perceive themselves as having done wrong is getting caught.

This tells us something about the corrosive nature of sin—it erodes our ability to discern right from wrong. We may fairly surmise that by the time a person is caught behaving badly in public, their discernment has been degraded almost to the point of nonexistence.

The more we do wrong things, the more we sin, the less able we are to perceive how our wrong actions harm other people. The more we do wrong things, the more we sin, the less able we are to love others even as we love ourselves.

Even if our wrong actions at first are confined solely to our private lives, the inevitable corrosion within us is sure to over time impact our public lives as well. Our private wrong actions eventually lead to public wrong actions. Our private sins become public ones.

Sin is thus a true disease within society. Sin is what blights our communities and steals hope from our children’s futures.

None of us lives in total isolation. All of us are connected in some way to the rest of humanity. Even the most introverted of souls has some interactions, some interconnections with others.

As none of us live in total isolation, everything we do has some impact on others.

If we take care of ourselves, we are better able to be caring and compassionate towards others. If we fail to take care of ourselves, we are forced to lean on others, and make them shoulder burdens they would not otherwise carry.

If we do wrong things, we are harming others. When those around us do wrong things, we are harmed by them.

Sin never damages just one person. As with a stone tossed into a pond, a sinful act ripples outward, touching everyone to some degree, harming everyone to some degree.

There is but one antidote, one cure—stop doing what is wrong and start doing what is right. Stop making sinful choices and start making righteous ones.

The more each of us strives to make good and righteous choices, the less those around us are harmed by our poorer choices. There is not one person on this good earth for whom this is not the order of things.

So my prayer this day is that we may all be mindful of how our choices touch the lives of others. My prayer this day is that we may all be inspired to recognize that the truest way to love each other even as we love ourselves is to above all else make good and righteous choices. My prayer this day is that each of us can take the one step we all can take to heal our communities and our societies, the step of choosing righteousness over sinfulness.

Sin never damages just one person. As with a stone tossed into a pond, a sinful act ripples outward, touching everyone to some degree, harming everyone to some degree. There is not one person on this good earth for whom this is not the order of things.

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Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

Matthew 2:13-15

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In the Catholic tradition, the first Sunday after Christmas is known as The Feast of The Holy Family. Within that tradition, the focus of this first Sunday after Christmas is on the family of Jesus—on Joseph and Mary as they fled Bethlehem with the infant Jesus to escape King Herod’s murderous rampage.

The Flight to Egypt is a remarkable image within the Nativity story. Even superficially, the juxtaposition of Herod’s degenerate, psychopathic solution to a perceived threat against Jesus' innocence and Divinity is striking. To modern sensibilities, even to ponder what Herod was willing to do to maintain his throne is to recoil in disgust and even horror. No good man, nor even most evil men, would even think to do such a thing.

We are challenged by other dimensions of this portion of the narrative as well. It is one thing for Herod to order such a categorically evil act. It is quite another for his soldiers to carry it out, which the text in Matthew suggests that they did.

When we pause to consider the obvious narrative parallels with the oppression of the Jewish people under Pharaoh and the circumstances of Moses’ birth, we can see that we should by no means presume Herod’s soldiers would blindly follow the order to kill all male infants. We see in the first chapter of Exodus that Hebrew midwives, given a similar order to kill all infant males as they are born, refused the order, recognizing it for the abomination that it is.

If the Hebrew midwives at the time of Moses’ birth could see the pure evil in ordering the killing of children, surely Herod’s soldiers could see that also. That Herod’s soldiers apparently opted to go along with such evil is a further stark comment on the spiritual state of the people of Israel. When Jesus was born, the narrative makes it clear that Israel was suffering spiritually as well as politically.

There is a temptation to infer from Matthew’s silence that the parents of Bethlehem did not put up much resistance to their sons being slaughtered. Such is purely speculation, but while we do not know if any families in Bethlehem sought to hide their infant sons from Herod, that Matthew recalls the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15, of Rachel weeping for her children, carries the inference that any such efforts were unsuccessful.

We know from later in Matthew that the people of Israel saw Jesus as merely the son of the carpenter Joseph. That he had survived the carnage in Bethlehem does not appear to resonate with the people—at least, Matthew is silent about whatever thoughts they may have had about Herod’s slaughter of innocent infant boys.

What does it say of the people of Israel that Herod’s great evil apparently had faded from common memory? Much as with great evils in our time, evils which prompt us to proclaim “never forget”, it seems the people of Israel had forgotten about the slaughter of innocents, a lapse of memory which can only be to people’s shame.

We do not need to delve deep into Scripture to understand why Herod wanted Jesus dead. Herod saw Jesus as a threat to his throne, and Herod was determined to keep that throne. He would do whatever he must, kill whomever he must, to maintain his monarchy.

Herod was not entirely wrong to fear Jesus. Herod’s power rested on the corruption that was the status quo in Israel, and Jesus was the sign the status quo was about to fall. Change was coming to Israel, and that put Herod’s crown into the hazard.

Herod should have contemplated Jeremiah further, however, and we do well to recall Jeremiah ourselves. The slaughter of the innocents is indeed a prophecy Jeremiah makes, but further down in that same chapter, God makes a promise of a new covenant to the people of Israel. No longer would God’s Law be merely a thing of tablets and inscriptions, but God would write the law directly on the hearts of men. Our sins will be forgiven, and God will think of them no more.

This was God’s pledge in Jeremiah to mankind. Jesus came into the world to fulfill that pledge. Herod was seeking to thwart God’s pledge to mankind. Unsurprisingly, he failed.

Why would God allow His Son to be put mortal danger this way? Ultimately, we do not know. God does not share His plans with men. We are not given all of God’s designs, and we will not be given all of God’s designs.

Yet the Apostle Paul makes a striking observation in Hebrews 4:15: Jesus can empathize with the struggles men face—struggles with sin as well as struggles against evil—because Jesus has lived as men live. Jesus has experienced the weight of oppression. Jesus has lived what it is like to flee in fear for one’s life.

In those early years of His life here on earth, Jesus was protected and nurtured only by the love and determination of Joseph and Mary. We know from the Flight to Egypt that Joseph and Mary were determined that Jesus would at least have a chance to grow into manhood. They refused to be passive observers to their own child’s life.

We do not know what the journey to Egypt was like, but it could not have been an easy journey. Nor was it likely to have been a safe journey. A wrong encounter on the road could have quickly ended the entire family at the hands of bandits looking to steal whatever they possessed. That Joseph was willing to take that risk rather than subject Mary and Jesus to Herod’s cruelty is another silent testament to the kind of man Joseph must have been—in the moment of crisis Joseph rose to the challenge, making the difficult choices necessary to preserve his young family.

In the Flight to Egypt, we begin to see what must happen for God to write His Law upon the hearts of men. People have to change. People have to take chances—leaps of faith the likes of which we can never anticipate. People have to grow.

Through the hard choice to risk that journey into Egypt, God began in Joseph the transformation of writing His Law upon the hearts of all men.

It is not enough for Jesus to merely preach the New Covenant to the people of Israel. It is not enough for Jesus to tell men that their sins are forgiven. It is not even enough for Jesus to have suffered and died on the Cross at Calvary, becoming the perfect sacrifice to redeem all of mankind’s innumerable sins.

Salvation comes when people rise to the challenge of faith. When people dare to believe, dare to make the hard choices to do what is right and not merely what is easy, dare to grow, that is when people can accept God’s forgiveness. That is when people can accept that Jesus has redeemed us all. That is when people can truly be transformed, born again into a new life embracing God, seeking righteousness, striving always to rise past our human weaknesses and imperfections.

By making the hard choice to risk the journey into Egypt, Joseph acted to preserve the infant Jesus, to sustain Him until the time of His ministry was at hand. By making the hard choice to risk the journey into Egypt, Joseph made possible Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary, and His Resurrection.

If Joseph does not act, Jesus’ ministry on Earth does not happen. If Joseph does not act, Jesus’ Crucifixion does not happen. If Joseph does not act, Jesus’ Resurrection does not happen.

On this first Sunday after Christmas, I pray people everywhere can be inspired by Joseph and Mary, and the love they must have had for the infant Jesus. On this first Sunday after Christmas, I pray people everywhere can find strength and courage in the example of Joseph and Mary to rise to the challenges within their lives, making the hard choices necessary to stand for what is right. On this first Sunday after Christmas, I pray people everywhere find the faith to act boldly and righteously, trusting in God for the outcome, that God may write His Law upon their hearts.

Joseph acted to preserve the infant Jesus. By making the hard choice to risk the journey into Egypt, Joseph made possible Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary, and His Resurrection.

Through the hard choice to risk that journey into Egypt, God began in Joseph the transformation of writing His Law upon the hearts of all men.

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Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:7-12

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God placed a star in the heavens to guide the wise men of the world to where Jesus was born.

God sent angels to simple shepherds announcing Jesus’ birth, and to sing praises to God the Father, and God the Son.

This much is certain: the whole universe—the whole of God’s creation—celebrated the arrival of the Messiah. This was no ordinary child. This was the only begotten Son of God. This was God in human form, come down into the world to grow and live as people grow and live, that He might at the appointed time take our sins upon Himself, redeeming us all on the Cross at Calvary.

That first Christmas is truly a moment to be celebrated. That first Christmas is the moment when the prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 was fulfilled. Jesus is the child born unto us, the Son given unto us. The government is placed on His shoulders, that Jesus—Emmanuel—is rightly called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

The wise men of the east, the Magi, had studied the stars all their lives. So familiar were they with the heavens that when the time of the Messiah drew near, they could see the signs in the heavens announcing Jesus to all perceptive enough to understand.

The shepherds tending their flock outside Bethlehem likely knew little of stars. Yet God did not forget them, sending angels to inform them of the momentous birth the Magi saw in the stars.

Wise man and simple man alike, they came to Bethlehem, came to where the infant Jesus, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lay in a manger. Wise man and simple man alike, they worshiped the infant Jesus, seeing in His tiny form God’s promise to the world—that God was indeed with us, that God had not forsaken us, and that God would not forsake us.

While wise man and simple man alike worshiped Jesus, His human parents, Mary and Joseph, surely welcomed Him with the love only new parents can have for a child. God placed the infant Jesus into their charge, to raise Him up into manhood, not just as the Son of God, but as their son. Mothers and fathers even today can no doubt imagine the power of that moment for Joseph the carpenter, and his young wife Mary.

Yet while Jesus was worshiped and loved, He was also feared. Unlike the Magi, unlike the shepherds, Herod did not receive news of the Messiah with reverence and awe, but with fear. Herod rather liked being a king, ruling over the Jewish people. When Herod heard of Jesus’ birth, he feared Jesus would take his throne from him. Like Saul feared and was jealous of David, Herod feared and was jealous of Jesus.

Looking back at that first Christmas, we can easily understand why Jesus was worshiped. Looking back at that first Christmas, we can easily understand why Jesus was loved.

Looking back at that first Christmas, we can also understand why Jesus was feared.

The infant Jesus was the message of hope. The infant Jesus was the sign that change was happening in the world. The infant Jesus was the light that would beat back the darkness of a cynical, sinful, fallen world.

Herod, like all who aspire to power over men, reveled in that darkness. Shine God’s light into the world and men like Herod are quickly revealed to be powerless, impotent charlatans, ruling through lies crafted to deceive men and lead them away from the Truth.

Herod feared Jesus, and sought to destroy Him. Yet because Jesus was worshiped, because Jesus was loved, Herod was doomed to fail.

Today is Christmas. We are right to rejoice, for this is the day God set a new direction for men, a new path to lead mankind back to God.

Today is Christmas, and while the world celebrates the birth of the Messiah, there are those in the world still who fear the change the Messiah promises. There are those in the world still who revel in the darkness, and seek to lead men down dark paths. Yet because the Messiah is worshiped and loved still, such men are doomed to fail.

This Christmas day I pray men everywhere rejoice in God’s great gift to the world. This Christmas day I pray men everywhere rejoice that, unto us, a child is born—unto us, a Son is given. This Christmas day I pray men everywhere give thanks that the government has been set upon His shoulders, that He should be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

This Christmas day I pray men everywhere have the hope and courage to realize that, through the worship of God and the love of Jesus, those who revel in darkness, who seek to lead men down sinful paths, are, at the last, doomed to fail.

To all men everywhere, Merry Christmas!

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And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:8-20

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The shepherds guarding their flock that first Christmas were obviously quite affected by their angelic visitation. They abandoned their flock for a time just to see the infant Jesus—a risky move for any shepherd, as the loss of the flock would be ruinous.

We can easily understand why the shepherds were so moved. At least, we think we understand. If a luminous being descended from the night sky and spoke to you or I, “moved” would be the mild description of how we would likely react! Such things just don't happen, nor did they happen routinely even in ancient Judea.

Yet we should ask ourselves why the sign told the shepherds by the angel seemed so remarkable? Why was it a sign from God that Jesus would be laying in a manger?

We are accustomed to viewing a Nativity scene with a certain reverence. We know the child in the manger is the Christ.

Strip that knowledge away. How remarkable is the Nativity scene then? How much awe would we have if we came upon Mary and Joseph, with the infant Jesus, in the present day? If we saw them, not in a barn, but huddled under a bridge in a homeless encampment, would we think to ourselves that the child was King of Kings, and Lord of Lords?

We would not. We would probably think poorly of Joseph and Mary, for being “homeless”. We would likely look down on them, to our eternal shame.

One can argue that Jesus laying in a manger was an eternal shame to the people in Bethlehem. Mosaic Law commands, in Leviticus 19:34, hospitality and generosity to the traveler.

How much hospitality did the people of Bethlehem show the very pregnant Mary? Not much. They did not make room for her. We do not read in Luke of the women of Bethlehem coming to assist Mary with childbirth. Luke mentioned the women attending on the birth of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist, which makes the silence regarding who attended Jesus' birth disturbing, if not damning.

Can there be a clearer depiction of a society consumed with itself than Mary having only a manger in which to place the infant Jesus? How much hardness of heart is needed to tell a woman going into labor “we’re full, we have no place for you”?

Is that a society we want for ourselves, not just as Christians, but as human beings? For myself, I do not want to be in such a society.

Is that the society we have? We need only turn on the evening news to see that it is.

The shepherds could not turn on the evening news, but they could certainly see the state of the world around them. They could see the corruption of the Pharisees, the arrogance of the Romans, and the cynicism of ordinary people.

Jesus laying in a manger captures all that in a single tableau. Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem because of a Roman edict. The Mosaic Law regarding how to receive travelers had become twisted and discarded, as the Pharisees did time and again with the Law. People were too wrapped up in their own lives to make space for a young pregnant woman about to deliver her first child.

The shepherds that first Christmas would have at least been aware of such things. They would have seen Jewish society was not heading in a good direction.

Yet the angels presented Jesus in a manger as a sign. From that manger, the Jewish people would be shown a better path. From that manger would come hope, redemption, salvation.

Jesus in the manger was a sign that the low point had been reached. A change had started, one which would culminate in Jesus’ death on the Cross at Calvary and subsequent Resurrection.

Did the shepherds realize this? That would have been unlikely.

Yet the shepherds would have needed a message of hope then, just as people need messages of hope today. A sign that the world was about to get better would have been as welcome to the shepherds as it would be to people today.

That first Christmas, an angel descended from on high to deliver just such a message of hope, with a chorus of angels singing praises to God the Father and God the Son. That first Christmas, an angel told those shepherds that message of hope was a child, wrapped in swaddling cloths, laying in a manger.

Were the shepherds eager to receive such a message of hope? It takes no great stretch of imagination to believe that they were.

Are people eager to receive such a message of hope today? Certainly some are.

We need no signs, no prophecies, no revelation from Scripture to see that the world is not on a good path. People are angry, cynical, divided, and not doing at all well. Our youth are too often not thriving. Our elderly are too often abandoned. Our vulnerable are exploited, and our strongest made weak.

Today, as on that first Christmas, the world needs a message of hope.

Today, as on that first Christmas, the world has that message—a child, wrapped in swaddling cloths, laying in a manger.

My Christmas prayer is that people everywhere hear that message of hope. My Christmas prayer is that this night people everywhere hear God's call to us. My Christmas prayer is that people everywhere will experience the turning point in their lives, and a rebirth into new and everlasting life.

Today, as on that first Christmas, the world needs a message of hope.

Today, as on that first Christmas, the world has that message—a child, wrapped in swaddling cloths, laying in a manger.

Merry Christmas.

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Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:18-22

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Priests and pastors often have much to say about Mary, the mother of Jesus. A virgin, she conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, giving birth to the Son of God in human form.

This is the central narrative arc in the Nativity story. For this alone, Mary is an important figure within Christian religious traditions.

But what about Joseph? What shall we say about the man God selected to be the human father to the Son of God, the man who would raise Jesus from boy to man? With Mary, his parenting surely plays a part in setting the stage for Jesus’ ministry here on earth.

We are told in Matthew that Joseph was a “just man.” We do well to take note of that, for while we can look back on the circumstances of Jesus’ birth knowing who He really is, the friends and family of Joseph and Mary would have had no such knowledge. Those who were prone to notice little details might easily have figured out that Mary's pregnancy preceded her marriage to Joseph.

In ancient Judea, that would have been scandalous.

Even now, for the Christian, the premise that Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and is thus the human form of the only begotten Son of God is something we necessarily take on faith. In early Christian creeds such as the Apostle’s Creed, this is one of the central declarations of faith. This is what we explicitly say we believe.

How much faith must Joseph have had? He did not have the benefit of millennia of Christian traditions and history to bolster his faith. He had only a visitation by an angel, and that visitation came in the manner of a dream. That was the only assurance Joseph had that his raising the child Jesus was what God had planned.

Could any man in that time have faulted Joseph had he followed through with his initial plan of quietly divorcing Mary? Would he not have been seen as well within his rights according to Jewish custom and Jewish law?

There is no doubt here. Joseph absolutely would have been seen as justified in divorcing Mary. Jewish society would indisputably have supported him in that decision. As we can see in Deuteronomy 22, Jewish law was quite clear on the matter.

Yet Joseph did not divorce Mary. He accepted her and Jesus. He took her with him to Bethlehem when summoned by the Roman census. He took her and the infant Jesus into Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous rampage. He took them eventually to Nazareth, where Jesus would grow to manhood.

We may fairly surmise that Joseph remained a key figure in Jesus early life, for when the people marveled at Jesus and His teachings, they spoke of Him as Joseph's son. Despite knowing that Jesus was not his child, Joseph willingly raised Jesus, presenting Him to the world as his child.

Joseph did all this with only the assurance of a visitation during a dream that he was following God's plan for him.

How much faith must Joseph have had to do all this?

The Nativity story is for obvious reasons centered on Jesus. The Son of God is the figure animating the entire Nativity story.

Yet just as with the Old Testament prophecies, within the Nativity story we see also number of important human figures: Elizabeth, Zechari'ah, Mary, even John the Baptist. From the prophecies in Isaiah to the moment of Jesus’ birth, the narrative is populated by important human figures who help shape and advance the narrative.

One quality uniting all these individuals is their faith. Even Zechari'ah, who was rebuked by the Angel Gabriel for questioning God's ability to make his previously barren wife fertile, found favor with God because of his faith.

David became “the stump of Jesse” from which would blossom the Messiah because of his faith.

Joseph became the human father to the Son of God because of his faith.

Joseph was not merely a “just man”. Joseph was indisputably a righteous man, and one who had found favor with God.

Yet Joseph was also indisputably just a man. We do not know what sins he may have committed, but we would not be unreasonable in presuming he was guilty of at least a few sins. We do not know what imperfections he may have had, but we would not be unreasonable in presuming he was imperfect.

Joseph is a striking figure of a man precisely because so little is said about him. Joseph is simply there, supporting Mary, supporting Jesus, doing all that a husband and father should do. Joseph advanced God’s plan simply by being a man—being a husband, and a father. We can see that from all that is not said about him within Scripture.

Ponder that: Joseph fulfilled God’s plan for him simply by being a man. Being a man and doing what men do was what God needed from Joseph to bring Jesus’ ministry to life here on Earth.

Jesus, Emmanuel, the Son of God, came down to Earth to be the salvation of all mankind. That was His ministry, and that is His mission. As part of that mission and that ministry, Jesus surrounded Himself with ordinary men—sinful, flawed, imperfect men. Jesus elected to communicate His message of redemption and salvation to the entire world through those sinful, flawed, imperfect men.

God could have used angels to communicate His message—but He did not.

God could have sent signs to inspire the people of Israel—but He did not.

God chose to use men. God chose to send His only begotten Son Jesus down to Earth as a man, to live as a man, grow as a man, and ultimately die as a man on the Cross at Calvary.

God chose Mary to be the Mother of Jesus. God chose Joseph to be the Father of Jesus.

God chooses men to work His plans here on Earth. That is what God does.

This has been the theme of my Advent sermons this year—that God chooses men, that God empowers men, that God works His will through men.

Men are fallen, corrupt, and sinful. God is still with us.

Men make mistakes, time and again. God does not measure our righteousness by our deeds, but by our faith.

Men are not angels. God chooses men and not angels to carry His message to the world.

Joseph, standing firm as husband to Mary and father to Jesus, was called by God to shepherd Jesus into this world. Joseph, guided by nothing but faith, thus played his crucial role in fulfilling Jesus’ ministry here on Earth.

This is how God’s plan invariably unfolds. God, who is capable of working any miracle He desires, reveals His greatest plans through men. God, who can imbue men with great strength and superior wisdom, calls men to simply be just and righteous men.

On this the final Sunday of Advent, I pray we can all draw inspiration from Joseph, the Father of Jesus. On this, the final Sunday of Advent, I pray we can see in Joseph how each of us, by standing firm in justice and righteousness, fulfills God’s plan not just for ourselves but for the entire world. On this, the final Sunday of Advent, I pray we realize from the example of Joseph that when we are guided by faith, out of our ordinary lives can come extraordinary things.

Joseph fulfilled God’s plan for him simply by being a man. Being a man and doing what men do was what God needed from Joseph to bring Jesus’ ministry to life here on Earth.

This is how God’s plan invariably unfolds. God, who is capable of working any miracle He desires, reveals His greatest plans through men. God, who can imbue men with great strength and superior wisdom, calls men to simply be just and righteous men.

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Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechari′ah after his father, but his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” And they said to her, “None of your kindred is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

Luke 1:57-66

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How should we approach John the Baptist?

We know from Luke that his mother Elizabeth was a cousin to Mary, the mother of Jesus. We know that the angel Gabriel told his father Zechari'ah Elizabeth would conceive and bear a son. We know Zechari’ah was rendered mute for doubting the power of the Holy Spirit to make Elizabeth fertile, for she was believed to be barren.

We know that John had a natural gift of perceiving when he was in the presence of Jesus, for we are told that John “leapt” in his mother’s womb when Mary, while pregnant with Jesus, came to visit.

We know that John would grow up to become an itinerant preacher, walking the length and breadth of Judea preaching the imminent arrival of the Messiah.

This last is important, because John occupies a special place in the Gospel narrative. Long before the Apostle Peter blurted out that Jesus was the Christ, John would herald Him as the “Lamb of God”. John would then baptize Jesus to mark the start of Jesus’ ministry here on Earth.

While Jesus is of course the essential figure in the Nativity story, John the Baptist is hardly insignificant. John was significant enough to warrant the angel Gabriel visiting his father in the Holy of Holies. John was significant enough that God chose to make the barren Elizabeth fertile that she might give birth to him.

John himself declared that he was the “voice in the wilderness” foretold by the prophet Isaiah, the one calling the nation of Israel to repentance, and to make ready for the coming of the Messiah.

Isaiah is not the only Old Testament prophecy about John the Baptist. In Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, God warns the people of Israel that He will first send a messenger, and then He will come to His temple in Jerusalem. In the closing verses of Malachi, God expands on that by stating He will send Eli′jah the prophet to the people just before the Messiah arrives.

The Old Testament quite literally ends on a prophecy of John’s eventual coming.

It is perhaps a fitting bookend that Jesus would begin His ministry by going to John to be baptized.

We do well also to note that John is the first figure in the Bible to perform baptisms, instituting them as a ritual of the repentance to which he called the Jewish people. Jesus commanded His disciples to carry on the ritual in the Great Commission, but the ritual comes into the Gospel narrative through John.

John tells the Jewish people that the Messiah is coming, and that the Kingdom of God is at hand. John warns them about the dangers of hypocrisy, of agreeing to baptism and the rituals of repentance while continuing to lead wicked and sinful lives.

John is not Jesus, and his followers could not be given the authority Jesus would give to His disciples, but John nevertheless stands as the prologue, the literal introduction to Jesus’ message and ministry here on Earth.

John’s place in the Gospel narrative, and the way his birth runs in parallel with that of Jesus, illustrates how the tapestry of God’s plan unfolds. Jesus is not abruptly thrust center stage among the Jewish people. Rather, His time on Earth is prepared. Mortal men such as John do important work in that preparation. Just as prophets such as Isaiah and Malachi would carry the word of God to the nation of Israel, John calls Israel to “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

John therefore also stands as a reminder that God works through people. Even Jesus did not rely solely on His own sermons and teachings to spread His ministry, but sent His disciples out to carry His message to the whole of the Jewish people.

God calls people to be the instruments of His divine Will. Just as God called Isaiah and Malachi to be prophets, God chose John to be the preparation for Jesus.

Why does God choose to work His will through mortal men, with all their flaws and imperfections? We do not know. We only know that God chooses to work His will through mortal men.

God certainly did not need John to announce the coming of the Messiah. Angels such as Gabriel could easily have brought that message. Angels could have delivered the prophecies of Isaiah or Malachi—but God chose men.

God’s Will is that God’s plan involves men. Angels have their place, but so did Isaiah, so did Malachi, and so did John.

Angels have their place in God’s plan, but so do you, so do I, so do we all.

Jesus came into the world to save mankind from our sins. First through His ministry, and finally through His sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary, Jesus redeems us all.

The sacrifice was all Jesus. The message was entirely of Jesus. Yet the messengers were His disciples, and the prologue was John. Ordinary men were chosen by God to serve extraordinary roles in the greatest story of all—the salvation of mankind.

On this the third Sunday of Advent, I pray we may all enjoy continued insight and wisdom into the powerful role John the Baptist played in the Gospels. On this the third Sunday of Advent, I pray we may all see in John the Baptist a reminder that God works His Divine Will through people, even moreso than angels. On this the third Sunday of Advent, I pray we may all be inspired by the figure of John the Baptist, that we may rise to whatever role God has for each of us in His plan for the world.

God certainly did not need John to announce the coming of the Messiah. Angels such as Gabriel could easily have brought that message. Angels could have delivered the prophecies of Isaiah or Malachi—but God chose men.

Angels have their place in God’s plan, but so did John. So do you, so do I, so do we all.

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There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.

Isaiah 11:1-5

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David was not the first King of Israel. From what we are told of his son Solomon, he might not even have been the greatest King of Israel.

Yet he was without a doubt “the” King of Israel.

It is his name that became the name of a royal family. The “stump of Jesse” became the House of David.

It was David who slew Goliath armed with only a stone and the might of God.

It was David who conquered the city of Jerusalem, and made it the seat of government for the nation of Israel.

In every respect, it was David who forged the Israelite people into a kingdom.

Yet David was also an adulterer who stole another man's wife, and then murdered him in order to keep her. David's behavior regarding Bathsheba would be considered appalling even by modern standards. Sending Uriah into battle specifically to be killed would be considered criminal in most parts of the modern world.

David as king made many mistakes.

He failed to guide his son Absalom well. Absalom attempted rebellion and tried to overthrow his father.

He failed to respect his army, and succeeded in creating dissension within the ranks.

David was in so many ways a flawed, sinful, fallen man.

Despite David's sins, God chose to make the House of David the royal lineage that would define Israel as a nation. David won for the Israelites a capital at Jerusalem. His son Solomon built the First Temple.

Despite David's sins, God pledged to him that the kingdom would remain whole and at peace during Solomon's reign. God of course kept that promise even after Solomon strayed from the Lord, appeasing his many wives and concubines with altars to false gods.

Despite David's sins, it was through his lineage that God would send His only begotten Son into the world to redeem the whole of mankind.

The “stump of Jesse” has put forth some very remarkable roots!

How is it that God continued to find David worthy, despite David repeatedly stumbling, falling, and sinning? What was it about David that God regarded favorably?

One thing we should note about David is that he never denied his sins. He knew he was wrong in taking Bathsheba and killing Uriah. He did not attempt to deflect blame or deny accountability. He endured the punishment God decreed and remained faithful.

The same cannot be said of David's predecessor Saul. Saul sought to kill David rather than allow his crown to pass to him. Saul ended up dying ignominiously by falling on his sword after a bitter defeat.

What set David apart, what distinguished David from Saul, was not a roster of good deeds, but a humble and faithful heart. Even when he was in the wrong David trusted God. Even when he endured God's sanction he continued to love God.

David was a sinful man, but he always looked to God. David stumbled and fell off the path, even as king, but always he returned to the path, returned to the ways of God.

Yet this has been the manner in which God’s plans unfold. Time and again, we see God choosing imperfect, sinful, fallen men to do His work.

He chose Peter to be the rock upon which His church would be built. Yet Peter denied Jesus not once but three times.

He chose Paul, once a persecutor of Christians and one who struggled with sin his entire life, to carry Christ’s message to the Gentiles of the Roman Empire.

From the stump of Jesse came a branch that blossomed with righteousness in spite of David’s sin and corruption. That branch would graft on new branches—Peter, Paul, James, and all the Apostles—to spread the seeds of that righteousness across the earth. Sinful, fallen, corrupted men were called to be the instruments through which God transmitted His message of grace, forgiveness, and redemption to a sinful, fallen, corrupted world.

Sinful, fallen, corrupted men are called even today to continue to spread that righteous message. Jesus, when He completed His ministry here on Earth, charged all of His disciples to in turn make disciples of all nations, and we are still called to that ministry. Despite our sins and many flaws, despite all our many thorns in the flesh, we are still called to spread God’s message of hope, and to be God’s light into a darkened world.

Despite our sins and many flaws, we are still called to righteousness, called to holiness. We are called to be transformed, reborn into new and eternal life. We are called to put aside the perishable and put on the imperishable. We are promised that God will wipe away our sins, and blot out our many imperfections.

Despite our sins and many flaws, we are called to be new branches, grafted onto the One which grew out from the stump of Jesse. Despite his sins and many flaws, David was called to be that stump of Jesse.

God calls us, despite our sins and many flaws, to do holy, righteous, and remarkable things.

My prayer, on this second Sunday of Advent, is that we may all be reminded by the example of David that righteousness is not measured by deeds but measured by faith. My prayer, on this second Sunday of Advent, is that we may be reminded by the example of David to nurture our faith, that it may give us both strength and hope. My prayer, on this second Sunday of Advent, is that we may look to the blooming of the stump of Jesse who is David and rejoice that, through David, through the stump of Jesse, God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that all who come to Him in faith might be saved.

God calls us, despite our sins and many flaws, to do holy, righteous, and remarkable things.

Despite our sins and many flaws, we are called to be new branches, grafted onto the One which grew out from the stump of Jesse. Despite his sins and many flaws, David was called to be that stump of Jesse from which Jesus would come into the world.

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