Links for today’s readings:
Jun 4 Read: Malachi 3 Listen: (3:13) Read: Psalm 91 Listen: (1:39)
Scripture Focus: Malachi 3.13-18
13 “You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Reflection: The Dissonant Notes of Hope
By John Tillman
Micah’s audience of exiles didn’t have a rosy, happy homecoming to Jerusalem. They met opposition and oppression, financial problems, political problems, and threats of violence. They were disillusioned, discouraged, and doubtful.
They noticed that those “winning” in life were arrogant evildoers. Two groups responded differently to these observations. God said one group spoke “arrogantly” and called the other his “treasured possession.”
One group spoke to each other, asking, “What do we gain by obeying God? What’s the ROI?” If cruelty wins, why be kind? If crooks prevail, why follow rules? They concluded that character was nice but winning was better and morality was negotiable if tradeoffs accomplished their goals. They called the arrogant blessed. God condemned the arrogant group.
Another group “feared the Lord.” They spoke to each other, but did so “in his presence” through prayer and scripture. The Lord listened and heard their prayers. They studied and remembered those who feared the Lord and honored his name, writing out a “scroll of remembrance.”
God answered this “remembrance group” with a promise that they would see a distinction between those who were “winning” now and those who followed God’s ways.
In every age, God’s people experience the dissonance of hearing the promises of righteousness and seeing the payouts of wickedness. Corruption blooms. Integrity wilts. The arrogant gloat. The humble are shamed. We don’t resolve this dissonance by modulating our morality to modes fitting the key of corruption. We don’t give in.
In the film, Casablanca, Nazi soldiers sing a German anthem in a crowded bar. Spurred by Victor Laslow, the band plays, “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. The Nazis were winning the war at that time. But the bar patrons, with tears and defiant hope, out-sing the group of soldiers.
Today, we watch this scene knowing the outcome—the Nazis lose. But in 1942, when Casablanca was produced and in 1938 when the play it was based on, Everyone Comes to Rick’s, was written, no one knew. They wrote it anyway, filmed it anyway, and sang it anyway.
When wickedness seems to be winning, and singing loudly about it, God’s people don’t sing along. We sing the song of the kingdom to come. We remember the promises of the past and anticipate joyous victories to come.
Hold out a dissonant note of hope. Sing, even through tears, and remember.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. — Psalm 51.16
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Bearing Reproach
Bearing the gospel will also mean bearing reproach.
May we be faithful in both.
Read more: God’s Feathers
The psalmist portrays humans as fragile birds…easily ensnared by grift, infected by filth, or broken by force.
