Ep.126: Resurrection.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In John 20, Mary Magdalene was first to see the empty tomb and the risen Lord. Early Sunday morning when she went to the grave site, someone had opened the tomb. She hurried to tell Peter and John and they ran to see what had happened. They found the burial clothes in the tomb but no body. Peter and Mary were mystified, but John saw and believed.

The men left and Mary stayed at the tomb weeping. A man she thought was the gardener asked, “Why are you crying?” and Mary recognized him as Jesus.

That evening, Jesus showed up where the disciples were gathered and said, “Peace be with you.” Thomas, who was absent, doubted their report. A week later, Jesus showed up again and said to Thomas, “Touch the nail scars on my hands and the wound in my side. You too can believe.” Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus said, “You are blessed because you have seen and believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Thus begins the story of Jesus’ new life, and the new life of Christianity. Mary and Peter were mystified, struggling to understand what it meant. Thomas was doubtful and unbelieving, wanting more evidence. Only John came quickly and decisively to believe what had happened.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, when Peter saw your empty tomb, he didn’t know what to make of it. When you spoke to Mary, she thought you were the gardener. When Thomas heard the news, he said, “I won’t believe unless I see for myself.”

And here we are 2,000 years later, mystified like Mary and doubtful like Thomas. Though we have not seen you, we have heard you call our name. You speak to us through the stories in scripture, you call us in the quiet of our hearts, you whisper our name by your Spirit, you are present with us in the community of Christians.

Jesus, we feel the weight of our modern western religion. A closed universe with no room for God. An evolutionary story with no room for miracles. A morality of independence and freedom, with little space for goodness and virtue. A scientific explanation for everything, with no place for mystery. O Jesus, this modern religion is shrivelled and cramped.

We look again to you. We see with Mary the empty tomb. We believe with John that life has invaded the stronghold of death. We touch with Thomas the nail scarred hands that point us to a new way of life. We believe with Peter that God’s kingdom has come to our time and space.

Jesus, you share your kingdom with us, in all its mystery and faith and hope and love. Though we have not seen you, we love you, and though we do not see you now, we believe in you, and we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.125: Psalm 54: Good Lord Deliver Us.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 54 follows a familiar trajectory. The poet has been attacked by his own enemies and God’s. So he asks God to remember his covenant, to deliver and protect Israel, to implement justice, and to crush the enemy. The poet combines his request with a strong affirmation that God hears him, and that God sees his pain and will deliver him.

Is your response to this psalm like mine? I ask, “Haven’t we heard this psalm before? Hasn’t the poet prayed this prayer of desperation and deliverance many times? Why pray it again? Perhaps the poet’s life, like mine, is a recurring cycle of despair and hope, fear and courage, doubt and faith.

In this part of the psalms, the poet repeatedly feels the weight of frustration and evil and opposition. Like living through a Canadian winter. The weather is cold, the days short and cloudy-dark, the nights long and frigid. Though I sometimes see a beautiful winter sunset or sun glistening on hoarfrost and snow, the dark and cold still provoke lethargy and dreariness. But I choose to live in hope. Each new day of winter is one day closer to robins and daffodils. The gray and featureless skies of February are a forecast of the sunny skies and white clouds in June.

So we continue praying through the psalms, knowing that these dark days of Psalm 54 are but days on the journey to the psalms of praise that lie ahead.

Today, in the spirit of Psalm 54, let’s begin praying for deliverance from the seven deadly sins, which are our enemies and God’s.

Our father, we know the sins that so easily entangle us (Heb. 12:1). They are not just behaviors we exhibit but the motion of our hearts; they are attitudes of our life; they are deeply held perspectives we do not question. Free us from our sins.

We pray against lust. Save us from views of sexuality that disguise themselves as personal freedom–freedom to define own sexuality, freedom to be unfaithful to relationships we have vowed, freedom to create and view all manner of pornography, freedom to define sexuality as an amoral human activity that no one has a right to judge. Jesus, what we call freedom you call the slavery of lust. Deliver us from this web of sin.

We pray against the sin of gluttony. Two-thirds of adults in Canada and the U.S. are overweight or obese. Because of our emotional attachments to food, we are unable to eat in moderation. We love our junk food, the pantry is our closet of worship, the fridge our favorite solution to loneliness and depression. Our deepest comfort is that cup of coffee or that bite of chocolate. Lord, help us grow up, help us exchange our obsession with food for what the psalmists had–a rich emotional life with you.

We pray against the sin of greed. We are lovers of money and hoarders of things. When we try to declutter, we fail because of our emotional attachment to stuff. O Jesus, help us lose our dependence on money and things, to grow in our love for you.

We pray against the sin of sloth or laziness. How often we prefer our quiet comforts in front of TV or computer to the challenge of working creatively, helping a neighbour, or spending more time with family. How much of our life is wasted when it could be invested. O Jesus, deliver us from our laziness and from justifying our inaction. Help us exert ourselves in your service and the service of others.

Bring us to a place where we can say with the psalmist,
You delivered me from all my troubles,
My eyes look in triumph on my foes (Ps 54:7).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.124: Crucifixion Day.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

When John 19 tells the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, it does not focus on the details of his torture. Nor does it interpret the meaning of his death. Instead, it quietly emphasizes four moments of revelation in the story.

First, Pilate put a sign on Jesus’ cross that said, “King of the Jews”. The chief priests objected, “Don’t write ‘King of the Jews’–write that he said he was king of the Jews.” Pilate dismissed them, saying, “What I have written, I have written.” For John, the sign on the cross was not just a Pilate-sign, it was a God-sign because it stated in three languages of the Roman Empire that the man being crucified was king.

As the soldiers shared out Jesus’ clothes, and as they cast lots for his cloak instead of ripping it into equal pieces, John saw another revelation. In his gospel, he quoted Psalm 22:
They divided my clothes among them,
and cast lots for my garment (John 19:24, quoting Psalm 22:18).
For John, the crucifixion was not merely an unhappy ending, perpetrated by Pilate at the insistence of the Jews. It was part of a greater story that started in the Old Testament and continued on crucifixion day, even as the Roman soldiers distributed Jesus’ last possessions.

The third revelation John noted followed Jesus’ complaint on the cross, “I am thirsty.” The watchers responded by using a sponge on a stick to give him wine vinegar. John quotes Psalm 69 which says: “They gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps 69:21). There it is again: the story of Jesus’ torture is not a random event, it is part of a larger narrative predicted long ago, working itself out unexpectedly in Roman times.

Earlier in John’s gospel, John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God. One of the rules for sacrificing a passover lamb was “Don’t break any bones” (Ex. 12:46).

On crucifixion afternoon, the Jews asked the soldiers to break the legs of the crucified, to hasten their death so the bodies could be dealt with before the Passover holiday started that evening. When the soldiers saw that Jesus was already dead, instead of breaking his bones, one of them speared his side, releasing a flow of blood and water. John describes this moment of revelation by quoting the Old Testament again, “Not one of his bones will be broken” (Ps 34:20), and “They will look on the one they have pierced” (Zech 12:10). It was important to John that the Jesus, the new Passover lamb, was killed without breaking his bones.

With Jesus dead and pierced, the Romans let some compassionate Jews bury him in a borrowed tomb.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, John’s gospel invites us to believe that behind the story of your unjust and untimely death, God was telling a different story. Pilate’s cynical sign, “King of the Jews” was God’s sign that he was preparing a kingdom for you, Jesus. As the soldiers divided your clothes and the watchers gave you vinegar and your bones were not broken, we hear echoes of God’s hidden story. In your death as a passover lamb, God was preparing a passover feast for Jews and Romans and Greeks–for the whole world. Teach us to be welcome guests in the passover meal you serve.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.123: Psalm 53: Is There a God?

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 53 is exactly the same as Psalm 14, except for two words. Twice where the earlier Psalm calls God “Yahweh”, Psalm 53 calls him “Elohim.”

The Psalm opens with a striking assertion:
The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God” (v. 1).

Nearly 40% of Canadians don’t believe in God or a higher power. Is Psalm 53 calling them fools? Let’s take a brief look at atheism today and consider whether it is just foolishness.

Charles Dawkins, the popular British evangelist for atheism, says that as human thinking and civilization mature, superstitions and religions fall away. And we are left with a rational, empirical, evidence-based view of life, free from primitive notions of gods and demons and angels.

Charles Taylor, the well-known Canadian philosopher from Montreal, describes this as a “subtraction theory”. and says it doesn’t work that way. If you subtract superstition and belief in God from a worldview, what is left is not the rational system Dawkins describes. Rather, the modern western worldview has replaced belief in God with a belief that human reason and science and initiative are all we need to give meaning to life. The new belief can no more be proved than the old one.roved than the old one.

I think of it like this: if belief in God is a swamp you can drain, does draining the swamp leave you with a tidy bit of land where good stuff grows? Or has the subtraction of the swamp left a muddy and uneven place where new creatures and plants take over? Does draining the swamp of American politics create a just and reasonable society?

Charles Taylor describes today’s culture as “cross-pressured”. By that he means we have many options for belief. For example, fundamentalist Christians believe in God and in six literal days of creation. Fundamentalist atheists profess certainty that God is just a myth. The rest of us live in a cross-pressured space where sometimes it feels like faith in God doesn’t make much sense, and at other times we feel that science and modern culture have excluded the most important aspects of life.

Here’s what Apple founder Steve Jobs said near the end of his life:

“I’m about fifty-fifty on believing in God . . . For most of my life, I’ve felt there must be more to our existence than meets the eye.
“I like to think that something survives after you die,” Jobs said. “It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures.

“But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch: Click! and you’re gone.”

Then he paused . . . and smiled slightly. “Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices.” (Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011), pp. 570-571, as cited in Smith, James K.A. How (Not) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), p. 13.)

Let’s pray.

Our father, it is a modern invention that we can choose whether to believe in God. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” But we modern thinkers try not to think with our hearts. We try to weigh the evidence and form logical conclusions. But all of us–Christians, atheists, and agnostics–are subject to doubt that we have concluded rightly. And we are never sure how much our heart and our hidden motivations influence the conclusions we draw.

Jesus, king of truth, touch our minds, touch our hearts, touch our souls, until we know and feel your presence, until we lose our endless speculations and doubts. Teach us to be still and know that you are God (Ps 46:10)

We conclude with Psalm 53:

When God restores his people,
we will rejoice and be glad (Ps 53:6).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.122: Pilate’s Predicament.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Other than Jesus, the Apostles’ Creed mentions only two humans: the Virgin Mary and Pontius Pilate. It says, “Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”

Each Sunday in church, it strikes me as odd that I name a Roman politician in my statement of faith. What does Pontius Pilate have to do with faith? Wouldn’t it be more helpful to focus on people who contributed to faith instead of those who undermined it? Mary, for example. Or Peter who founded the Christian church. Or the apostle Paul, who spread the faith westward to Rome.

Instead of defending or criticizing Pilate’s appearance in the creed, here’s how it impacts me as I repeat his name each Sunday.

The first thing Pilate does is connect my faith to a real place at a real time in the real world I live in. Much of the Apostles’ Creed deals with big and invisible beliefs–God the creator of heaven and earth; the Holy Spirit, the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body.

But when I repeat that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate”, it grounds my faith in the world I know. In Pilate’s system, politics trumped kindness. The empire he served dispatched worldwide suffering and injustice. Individuals like Jesus counted for nothing if they questioned the empire or rocked the boat. Pontius Pilate, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, Boris Johnson–all are pragmatists using their power to further their own interests, freeing some people and crucifying others. They take a convenient course, not a principled stand, as they work their way through conflicting demands of lawyers and lobbyists, fundamentalists and indigenous people, special interest groups and business. Pilate had a complicated job in a conflicted world. Just like the confusing world I live in today.

Pilate’s situation also brings out my sympathy with human weakness and short-sightedness. The Apostles’ Creed and the Gospel of John do not overtly criticize him. Instead, John presents him as a conflicted politician who found no basis for a charge against Jesus (John 19:6). He was worried about Jesus’ claim to be Son of God (John 19:7-8). But he was also worried that if he let Jesus go free, the Jews would complain to Caesar that Pilate was disloyal to Rome, that he permitted alternative claims to kingship. I sympathize with Pilate’s predicament and I don’t envy his choices.

And Jesus is inexplicably silent before Pilate. When Pilate says, “Answer me please. Tell me who you are. Don’t you understand I can have you crucified?” Jesus only replies, “You wouldn’t have any power over me if God didn’t give it to you.” That’s not much help to Pilate the judge. He has nothing in his toolkit to tell him whether Jesus’ claims are religious fantasy or truth. Like Pilate, I often I come to a crossroads in life–feeling that behind the Jesus I speak with there might be an invisible kingdom and a world-changing power. But it often seems unreal and I’m not sure what to do.

Pilate’s place in the creed also warns me each Sunday about the danger of living by pragmatism instead of faith. Pilate didn’t have patience to sort out who Jesus was; he just wanted the Jews to shut up with their absurd religious arguments, to go away, and to quit bothering him. He ignored his unease about Jesus’ claims to be Son of God and king of truth. I face a similar risk: that I will ignore my unease about relationships and faith and duty, that I too will protect my comfort by letting the innocent suffer. Perhaps some day I will stand beside Pilate in the Guinness Book of Records as one who made the most pragmatic, the most opportunistic, and absolutely the worst decision ever.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, how easy it is for us to believe that Pilate has the last word, or that the American empire has the last word. But when you suffered under Pontius Pilate you proved that God has the last word. The worst sins of empire, the most short-sighted political decisions, the most unjust judgement rates only passing mention in God’s history of salvation and in the statement of our faith. Jesus, you suffered under Pontius Pilate, and that suffering began the healing of the world.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.121: Psalm 52: A Message to Liars.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

In Psalm 51, we looked at the confession of a contrite sinner. In Psalm 52 today, we look at an arrogant deceiver. The poet says to the liar:
Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?
You who practice deceit,
your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharp razor.
You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth (vv. 1-3).

If the psalms are prayers, this is an odd one. The poet is speaking directly to his enemy, not to God. Would you say the poet is praying to his enemy?

I think this psalm is a prayer because the poet brings his situation into God’s presence. Prayer is not just asking God for stuff, it is not just conversation with God. It is also presenting to God our experiences and feelings and listening for God’s response. Here in Psalm 52, the poet composes a speech to his enemy, and recites that speech before God.

After accusing his enemy, the poet announces that God will judge him:
Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
he will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at you, saying,
‘Here now is the man
who did not make God his stronghold’. . . (vv. 5-6).

The righteous will laugh at the evildoer? Laughter is often a response to humor, or a way of mocking someone. But it is also a much broader expression of emotion. Here the poet’s laughter probably includes deep relief that evil is not as important as it pretends to be, it is not as powerful and world-changing as it advertises. God will mow down the weeds of evil and pluck up the trees, leaving the righteous standing like an olive tree in the house of God.

Let’s pray, following the poet’s model:.

Our father, we speak to the evil of our society.
Why do you drug dealers sell destruction and sorrow?
Why do you sex addicts oppress women and children?
Why do you preachers love money more than God?
Why do you video game makers delight in murder and violence?
Why do you Christians go around judging people?
Why do you nations pursue war and oppression?

God is watching.
God is waiting.
God is recording your actions.

Soon he will rise up on behalf of the addicted, the entrapped, the poor and oppressed. He will show his great power against evil, he will destroy the powers of evil, he will install his son as king, he will heal his creation and create a world of peace and justice.Then we will be like the trees of Psalm 1, planted by the stream of God’s water, bearing fruit in season, praising God for his great and lasting victory.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.120: What is Truth?

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

After Jesus’ prayer in John 17, the action moves quickly toward his crucifixion. Judas betrays him, the Jewish high priest interrogates him, Peter denies him, and Pilate, the Roman governor, tries to figure out what it all means.

Consider Pilate’s conversation with Jesus in John 18.

Pilate opens with a contemptuously ironic question to the lone prisoner who had been deserted by friends and hounded by countrymen, “You are the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replies in a suitably ironic fashion, “Did you think this up yourself or did someone tell you?”

Pilate replies, “I’m no expert on Jewish politics. It’s your people who want me to judge you. What did you do?”

Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

“Ahh!” thinks Pilate. “He has a fantasy kingdom.” So he plays along with the fantasy, saying, “Then, you are a king.”

Jesus replies, “You’re right. I was born to speak the truth. Everyone who cares about the truth listens to me.”

Pilate looks at the the unlikely prisoner. Is this man king of the truth? Is this man king of the Jews? He shrugs and says, “What is truth?”

Pilate’s truth was the Roman truth–the truth of power to conquer ancient nations, to suppress news he didn’t want to hear, to grant pardons to friends and crucify those who annoy him. He saw no truth in Jesus’ religious arguments with Jewish leaders. He saw no truth in Jesus’ claim to kingship. He had no time for this fantasy kingdom, a kingdom not of this world. To Pilate, Jesus was the king of fools, living in a country of foolish Jews. Someday Rome might have to crush all this foolishness.

Meanwhile, Pilate had to respond to the Jewish leaders who brought Jesus to him for questioning. “I find no basis for a charge against him,” he said. “But it’s time for your passover festival. I can release one prisoner for you.” And then with ironic scorn that he knew would nettle the leaders, “Shall I release the King of the Jews?”

Let’s pray.

Jesus, you said that whoever cares about truth listens to you. But we are pragmatic like Pilate. Our truth is things that work. A democracy with good leaders and a Christianity that grows through conversions. Our truth is medical technology that heals bodies, psychology that heals hurts, and a military that protects us and buries our enemies with shock and awe. Our truth is scriptures that tell us what to do and how to do it, and a God who rewards the good in us and punishes the evil in others.

But you did not give Pilate a pragmatic truth. You did not explain the truth to him. You only said that you tell the truth, and that those who care about truth listen to you. O Jesus, give us ears to hear what you say. Give us eyes to see the truth of your kingdom. Give us courage to leave the kingdom of Pontius Pilate, the kingdom of the Jews, and the kingdom of this world. Make us citizens where you are king, in the kingdom of your truth.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.119: Psalm 51: I Have Sinned.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today, we look at Psalm 51, King David’s penitential psalm. Here’s the back story: While a soldier named Uriah was posted to a war zone, David got Uriah’s wife pregnant. So David arranged for Uriah to get killed in battle. With Uriah out of the way, David married Bathsheba. The problems were nicely solved. Except that the prophet Nathan visited David and rebuked him in God’s name for adultery and murder. Psalm 51 is David’s response to Nathan’s stinging rebuke.

I find Psalm 51 is remarkable for several reasons.

First, David does not name the sin he is confessing. Is it adultery? Murder? Abuse of power to weave a web of lies around his failure? Is it ignoring the covenant relationship with God and acting like an arrogant oriental despot? The psalm doesn’t say.

Psalm 51 is also remarkable because David does not identify the individuals he sinned against. He says his sin is against God, and God only (v. 4). And he says nothing about the human relationships he has damaged through adultery, murder, and abuse of power.

Another remarkable feature of the psalm is its vivid images of sin. Listen to them:

I know my transgressions
my sin is always before me
against you O God and only against you have I sinned
I have done what is evil in your sight (vv. 3-4).
I was born guilty
I was a sinner when my mother conceived me (v. 5).
deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed (v. 14).

David presents no comforting metaphor of sin as sickness. He does not attempt to justify his actions. He does not hide behind excuses or reasons. All he can offer is a clear confession that evil is present in his person and actions.

Now listen to the poet’s powerful request for cleansing from sin, for relief from guilt, and for a restored relationship with God.

Have mercy on me, O God
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash away my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin (vv. 1-2).
Purge me with hyssop.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow (v. 7)
Hide your face from my sins (v. 9).
Create in me a pure heart (v. 10)
And deliver me from guilt (v. 14).

And finally, hear the poet’s remarkable assessment of what God really wants:
     You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it (v. 16).
     My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit.
         A broken and contrite heart
         you, O God, will not despise (v. 17).
There on the altar of his life David places his broken spirit and his broken heart. What other offering can he make for his sin?

Let’s pray the psalm.

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love.
According to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions.
My sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done evil in your sight.
You are right when you sentence me
and justified when you judge me.

Indeed, I was born guilty.
I was a sinner when my mother conceived me.
You desire truth in my inward being.
Teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,
blot out my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not fling me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior.
My tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, O Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God,
you will not despise.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.118: The Hour has Come.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

The day before he was crucified, Jesus prayed the prayer in John 17. He begins, “Father, the hour has come…. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” Jesus announced that his work on earth was finished. He had a clear sense of God’s to-do list for him, and he did it all.

I’m more like Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, who said, “God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind I will never die.” For Jesus, dying the next day was part of the work God gave him to do. Oddly enough, in the whole gospel of John, Jesus never said clearly he was expecting to die. He left it to the gospel writer John, to explain his puzzling predictions. For example, when Jesus said he would be “lifted up from the earth,” John explains that he was describing death on a cross (John 12:32-33).

Let’s look briefly at three requests in Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

First he prays for himself saying, “Glorify me, God, so I can glorify you.” On meaning of “glory” is “beautiful” or “majestic” as in “a glorious sunrise”. It is also used of fame or success, like when a sports star “covers himself in glory.” Or more commonly with the teams I support, the commentator says, “They sure didn’t cover themselves with glory today!”

I think the glory Jesus prays for is the success of the work he plans to do by dying and rising again. Jesus wants this great finale of his ministry to cover himself and God in glory. And then he wants to return to the glory he came from, a place of beauty and majesty and splendor in God’s presence in heaven.

Second, Jesus prays that God will protect the disciples from the evil one and sanctify them by the truth. He recognizes how dangerous the evil one or other enemies will be as they try to subvert the disciples’ mission or kill them. Failure may come from discouragement, unbelief, or moral failure within, or from persecution without.

Jesus prays for his disciples: “Father, they are not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth.” The disciples will live in the world as Jesus did, but he prays that their strength and identity will come from outside the world, from the truth that resides in God.

Third, Jesus prays for future believers–those who will receive the disciples’ message. He prays they will experience complete unity, in the same way Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus. Given the disunity in the worldwide Christian church today, it seems to me this prayer has gone unanswered for 2100 years. I hope the answer will come during our lifetime.

Let’s pray.

Our father, we pray for our mission as Jesus prayed for his. Our lives and work look small and mundane and unimportant. When at last we bring them to your judgement, may we hear you say, “Well done.” May we be covered in glory.

We pray for all your servants as Jesus did. Protect us from the evil one. Sanctify us by your truth, for your word is truth.

We pray for the church using the Anglican liturgy:
“Remember, Lord,
your one holy catholic and apostolic Church,
redeemed by the blood of your Christ.
Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace” (The Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada. Toronto: ABC publishing, 1985. 195.)

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep.117: Psalm 50: Cattle on a Thousand Hills.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

There’s an old Sunday school song that begins “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” It goes on to say, “He is my father so they’re mine as well.”

Clearly the songwriter was inspired by Psalm 50, in which God says he doesn’t desperately need all the animal sacrifices the Israelites offer him because he already owns the cattle on a thousand hills. However, I’m not so sure that these cattle are “mine as well” I’m not heading out to the hills any time soon to bag a heifer for my freezer.

Psalm 50 begins with God summoning all the earth to a meeting. There he addresses his people, those who have agreed that they will live their lives in relationship to the God who provides for them. This agreement was formalized in the covenant Moses negotiated with God at Mount Sinai. It was ratified with an animal sacrifice–the blood of a bull from one of those thousand hills (Ex. 24:8). This covenant implemented a social economy to care for the Isarelites and a system of animal sacrifices to express their continuing relationship to God. In Psalm 50, God gives messages two groups of covenant members: those who honor their relationship with him, and the wicked who ignore the terms of the covenant.

God starts by reminding the Israelites that he is not their average local deity who depends on sacrifices to keep his table supplied with good quality meat. In God’s economy, sacrifices are not commercial transactions or bribes that manipulate God into producing what the people want. Instead, God offered the Israelites a relationship in which he looks after them as they honor him and create a human community in the pattern he suggests. While the sacrifices are acts of worship that God accepts, what he values most is the heart-felt thanksgiving that accompanies sacrifice (v. 14).

God also speaks to the wicked In Psalm 50. He points out they they try to use the covenant to manipulate him. They go by the book, they have memorized all of God’s laws. Because they bring the prescribed sacrifices at the right time, they imagine that God is obligated to take care of them. But God complains that they don’t value the covenant relationship. They ignore God’s words, they partner with robbers, adulterers, and slanderers. God promises that the wicked will be destroyed, torn to pieces like the sacrifices they offer on his altar (v. 22). God is not rewarding their sacrifices, he is responding to their hearts.

Let’s pray.

Our father, we understand a law of contracts–a clear set of requirements that specifies and limits our obligations. Much like the system of sacrifices that gave instructions for exactly what to bring at each new moon or feast day or harvest.

But in Psalm 50, you say that our duty is not limited by a contract, it is expanded by a covenant. Whenever we bring something to you, you want a heart of thanksgiving, a joy in relationship, our welcoming of your presence and goodness. Is it not enough for you that we attend church and sing in the choir and complain about the sermon and talk with a few friends after? Is your desire that we build a community where we love each other and you?

The sermons tell us to abstain from evil. But what you want is not mere abstinence, but growth in love and giving and relationship. That is a high standard, God. Perhaps we’re not capable of it.

We invite you then to come to us and change us. As Thomas à Kempis prayed more than 500 years ago:
“Let your love dissolve my hard heart. Let your love raise me above myself. Let your love reveal to me joy beyond imagination… And let me see your love shining in the hearts of all people, that I may love them as I love you.” (Thomas à Kempis, Christ for all Seasons, ed. P. Toon, quoted in Harper Collins Book of Prayers compiled by Robert Van de Weyer. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. p. 359).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.