Keeping the Door Open
Is my zeal a door for someone, or a wall?
The scribes and Pharisees were zealous enough to travel over land and sea. Yet they shut the door of the kingdom in the very faces of those trying to enter. They would not go in themselves, and they stopped others from going in.
There are people standing at the door beside us today: someone visiting church for the first time, a neighbour from another country, a family member for whom faith is still unfamiliar. The way we speak, the order of things we are used to, the atmosphere we take for granted can all be a high threshold for them. Even a sincere wish to share something good becomes a wall when we fail to see where the other person is.
This week: After the Sunday service, go up to someone you have not met or do not yet know well. Ask their name, and listen to their story rather than teaching them.
Lord, let my zeal be not a wall that keeps people out but a door that leads them to you. Help me to see the face of the person at the door first.
Re-weighing the Scales
Do I count weighty what God counts weighty?
The Pharisees counted out even their mint leaves for the tithe, yet they let go of the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith. They strained out the smallest thing and swallowed the largest.
We too can attend carefully to the order of service, the way we serve and the jobs that need doing, and still miss the troubled face of the person sitting next to us. When we spend our time and money, when we work and study, the light things can quietly take the place of the heavy ones.
This week: Choose one evening and, before bed, write down: “What did I give most of my time and heart to today?” The next day, set aside ten minutes for justice, mercy or faith. A good place to start is getting in touch with someone you have lost contact with.
I will not let small obedience stand in for greater obedience. Lord, help me carry what you count weighty.
Handing Over the Inside of the Cup
How closely does the person I am when no one is watching resemble the person others see?
Jesus told the “blind Pharisee” to clean the inside of the cup first. He had polished the outside with great care, but he could not see his own heart. And in Gethsemane, Jesus took in our place the cup we deserved.
We too can polish the outside, but we cannot wash the depths of our hearts by ourselves. So what we need before any resolution is to stop hiding what is inside and hand it over to the Lord just as it is.
This week: Each morning as you fill your tumbler, pause for a moment and tell the Lord honestly about one feeling you have been hiding, whether resentment, greed or worry.
My stains do not define me; the Lord who washed me does. Because he took that cup first, today I hold out my cup to him again.
Prayer
Gracious Father, have mercy on us, who are so used to polishing the outside. We confess the moments when our zeal became a wall, and the days when we carried what was light and let go of what was heavy. We admit that we cannot fully see, nor wash, what lies within us.
Yet we praise you, Lord Jesus, for not setting down that cup in Gethsemane, and for bearing on the cross the judgement we deserved. Wash us by your grace, and make our church a door flung open to all who stand outside it. Tip our scales back towards justice, mercy and faith, and help us, even when no one is watching, to live with our inside and outside made one before you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, who loved us first. Amen.