Devotion – Sunday, 3 January 2021
Dear Readers, Friends in Jesus Christ
Our watch word for today, The Second Sunday after Christmas Day, is taken from Isaiah 58: 10, “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness,”(NRSVB). Isaiah teaches God’s words and God’s expectations to those who “inquire, and require Me (God) daily and delight to know My ways,” Isaiah 52:2 (Amplified Bible). Isaiah demonstrates that God requires that one helps where one can, with what you have. When help is delayed, the spirit faints. Jesus, in his ministry, delighted to give people what they needed. His deep compassion was the hallmark of his teaching. He was moved by the cries and the plight of the people. He cared first for their physical needs, inviting the people to be seated on green grass, then he fed them bread and fish. Once, when they were fed, he took care of their spiritual needs (Matt 15:32.) Both Isaiah and Jesus warned regarding worship practices: worship must come from the heart, not only from the head. The heart sees a person in need and reacts with compassion and action. The head sees the person as a problem and reacts by investigating the problem. As good as collective plans are, their delivery date is too far in the future to make an immediate difference in the condition of a person in need. When the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, and the urge to be thanked disappears, then we are truly starting to walk the road of compassion and mercy. Bringing food to a hungry person will change that person’s situation for that day, and give them a ray of light in their dark day of hunger.
Our added watch word for Sundays is taken from the lectionary and links the various watch words in a beautiful string of pearls, serving to enrich our lives with wisdom from the Old and New Testament. The Apostle Paul shows us God’s unlimited grace achieved on the cross for each individual. “In him (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,” Ephesians 1:7 (NSRVB). We have fallen into the trap of criticising ourselves and others mercilessly for not getting “with the program.” Nobody knows exactly what “the program” is, but it implies helping oneself, not being a burden on society, or the state coffer! It is quite a sad situation; people who are sick, trying to heal themselves; people who are homeless, trying to build a shack; people who are alone, trying to improvise a state of “togetherness”. No one wants to be seen as being a “burden”. Jesus never saw people as burdens. He saw the false ideas that they were carrying on their trembling shoulders. He saw how it dragged them down, and he said: Throw your burdens on me! I will carry it for you, (I Pet 5:7). God sees us where we are. He knows what we need. He sees us as we come at the beginning of this year, utterly exhausted. He does not ask us to fill in another time sheet, or host another Zoom-meeting, but He calls us to the table that He prepared for us. There He serves us with his love, and says to us: Abide with me my child. I will give you strength so that you will be able to have compassion and mercy on all.
If our Father is so merciful and gracious towards us, should we not be merciful towards ourselves and those around us? Those who can only stand and wait, those who can only sit and wait, they also serve. Jesus never called out and shamed exhausted and disappointed people. He came to them and lifted them up, out of the bottomless pit.
Father, we thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your words teaching us to be merciful and receive mercy. We wait on you to renew and strengthen us. We pray that we will be compassionate and full of loving-kindness. This we ask in the name of Jesus, Amen.
