Bearing Reproach—Epiphany

  • December 30, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Malachi 3.1-5
1 I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. 
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years. 
5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

John 20.17-20
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 

Reflection: Bearing Reproach—Epiphany
By John Tillman

“Don’t shoot the messenger” is a cliche based on the fact that messengers may be treated badly for faithfully stating the truth.

This is perhaps especially true of the Lord’s messengers. They are criticized and laughed at. Words like “crazy,” “out there,” “heretics,” “unrealistic,” and “mad,” are tossed around.

Malachi’s prophecy is often tied to John the Baptist. Jesus said that John was mocked for elements of his Nazarite vows. John was discounted as crazy by the religious establishment and was murdered by the government for his sexual ethic. (Matthew 11.18-19; Luke 7.33-34)

All four gospels (especially Mark and John) name Mary Magdalene as the first messenger of the gospel of the resurrection, (Matthew 28.1-10; Mark 16.9-10; Luke 24.5-11; John 20.11-18) yet she is disrespected both within the Bible and in church history.

Mary’s testimony, and that of the other women, is not believed and is referred to in a dismissive fashion, implying their report is considered unreliable. (Luke 24.22-24) In addition, Mary was falsely slandered centuries later by church leaders’ poor teaching. Three biblical women (none of whom are called a prostitute in scripture) were amalgamated into one false picture of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. (Who is Mary Magdalene?, by Mary Ann Beavis) 

John was dismissed as a madman and beheaded for his moral stance. Mary was slandered as a prostitute. Even the Magi, to whom Christ is revealed on Epiphany, were under threat by the angry king Herod, who, unable to reach them and desperate to kill Christ, slaughtered innocent children. 

We must not be surprised at our mistreatment as the Lord’s messengers, whatever form it takes. 

When Christ appeared to his disciples, he brought peace for us to share with the world. The next time he comes will be different. John the Baptist says Christ will wield an axe. Malachi promises fire and harsh, burning, launderer’s soap that will wash away the filth Malachi described in the previous chapter. 

May our offerings be brought in righteousness. May we testify of the gospel to sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers. May we stand against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and who deprive foreigners of justice. 

By these things, we are the Lord’s messengers, preparing the way, carrying the gospel to all around us. We must be willing to bear any reproaches that come because of it. It is not we who are being attacked but the precious cargo we carry and the precious lives of those who are yet to be saved. 

Bearing the gospel will also mean bearing reproach.
May we be faithful in both.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. — Psalm 85.9

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Malachi 3 (Listen -3:13) 
John 20 (Listen – 4:17)

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As the world investigates Jesus in our lives, we can expect the same treatment that Jesus received.

Truth Unwanted :: A Guided Prayer

Priests of Life and Peace

  • December 29, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Malachi 2.5-7
5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. 
7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.

John 19.35-36
35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” 

Reflection: Priests of Life and Peace
By John Tillman

From the moment of his birth to his death and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies concerning the awaited savior and faithful witnesses recorded these events.

Jesus proclaimed that the promise of a savior to come and a light to dawn in the darkness was fulfilled in himself. (Luke 4.17-21) He told the religious leaders that Moses wrote about him. (John 5.46-47) He gave Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus a walking masterclass about himself. (Luke 24.25-27, 32) He promised his disciples the Holy Spirit would teach them how all of scripture testified about him. Here in Malachi, we see some shadows that pointed toward the Christ to come. 

The Levites had a covenantal, priestly role. They were to be light to the people and the people were to be light to the nations. They were to have words of life (Malachi 2.5-7) on their tongues and in their teachings. But the Levites failed to honor God.

Their ministry was so corrupt that God set out to reverse their work. The God who had promised to “Bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you,” (Genesis 12.2-3) reversed course, telling the corrupt leaders that he will “curse their blessings.” (Malachi 2.1-2) 

God also promises to smear “dung” on their faces. This feces is from the skin, intestines, and waste of sacrificial animals. (Exodus 29.11-14; Leviticus 1.11-13) This waste would normally be carried out of the camp and burned. This is another reversal. In their commissioning, Levites had the blood of the sacrifices daubed on them to represent holiness. (Exodus 29.19-20) Their faces, smeared with feces rather than blood, graphically showed that they would be discarded and replaced.

God’s purpose is not to end the priesthood. Instead, through Christ’s sacrifice, he instituted a new priesthood for all who follow Jesus. (Genesis 14.18-20; Psalm 110.4; Hebrews 7)

As Christians and priests, may we maintain the new “covenant of life and peace” in Christ’s blood. 
May we “walk in peace and uprightness” so that our blessings may never be cursed by God.
May we be covered in the righteousness of Christ, not the dung of our own sins.
May the gospel of grace speed our feet toward the ends of the earth.
May acts of generosity and justice be wrought by our hands.
May words of life and light be on our lips.
May we be faithful witnesses of Christ, our high priest.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. — Psalm 36.5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Malachi 2 (Listen -3:12) 
John 19 (Listen – 6:23)

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Making Him Known :: A Guided Prayer

How He Loves Us—Epiphany

  • December 28, 2020
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Malachi 1.2
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. 
“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ 

Reflection: How He Loves Us—Epiphany
By John Tillman

It is notable that the word of the Lord from Malachi begins with a declaration of God’s love for Israel. God declares his love because he knows his people have doubts.

Malachi ministered about 100 years after the first exiles returned to Israel and about 430 years before the birth of Jesus. The temple had been rebuilt by Ezra. Jerusalem’s wall had been rebuilt by Nehemiah. But, after a brief period of exuberant celebration, the people’s dedication to God was still a crumbling mess. 

Unlike the exodus from Egypt, the return from Babylon was not a sudden, dramatic exit. It was slower, political, methodical. God worked in the second exodus by softening, rather than hardening the hearts of kings. There were no plagues, no pillars of fire or cloud, no miraculous deliverance through the sea. 

Israel was slowly learning again how to be the people of God. They had experienced generations of oppression and suffering caused by the sins of their fathers and mothers. Now, like the former Egyptian slaves in the desert, they doubted the love of God. They showed contempt for the sacrifices of God. They showed selfishness in both worship practices and social policy. Doubting God’s love, they showed little love for him in return and little love for the poor and needy around them.

We, too, have passed through many traumas this year. Our exodus from many of 2020’s traumas is incomplete. The COVID-19 vaccine has been called a “medical miracle,” but we still haven’t crossed the Red Sea, out of danger, much less the Jordan, into a land of promise. We languish in the in-between—in the desert of deferred hopes.

Malachi’s audience was about to enter a different kind of desert—a desert of silence. Malachi’s message would be the last prophetic message or vision until Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to announce the birth of John the Baptist, followed by the birth of Jesus.

Jesus is the ultimate declaration of God’s love and, in Christmastide and Epiphany, we celebrate this love’s manifestation. May God’s love made known to us be made manifest in us and through us.

As we exit this year, let us dispel our doubt of God’s love so that we may dispense the love of God to others.
Let us ensure ourselves of God’s generosity so that a spirit of generosity may inspire our giving of both tangible and intangible gifts.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Set a watch before my mouth, O Lord, and guard the door of my lips; let not my heart incline to any evil thing.
Let me not be occupied in wickedness with evildoers, nor eat of their choice foods.
Let the righteous smite me in friendly rebuke; let not the oil of the unrighteous anoint my head. — Psalm 141.3-5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Malachi 1 (Listen – 2:47) 
John 18 (Listen – 5:16)

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In a World of Trouble, Peace :: A Guided Prayer

Recalling the Failures

  • December 31, 2018
  • /
  • John Tillman

John 21.17-19
He said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep….Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Reflection: Recalling the Failures
By John Tillman

There are many meanings of the word recall.

Industries recall products that are flawed, defective, or dangerous. Employees and representatives can be recalled from their positions when they have an embarrassing failure.

At this reflective time of year we, individually and collectively, recall both good memories and bad. We tend to focus on the bad.

Christ sees more failure in us than even we know, yet he re-calls us—he calls us to himself again, and again, and again. Christ re-calls the failures.

It is not just Peter who is reinstated in the last chapter of John’s gospel and our last reading of this year. Other disciples who failed famously are there—Thomas who doubted, Nathanael the cynical elitist, the power-hungry sons of Zebedee. These confused and doubtful disciples are going back to the familiar when they are met by a familiar face on the shore.

Once in a parable, Jesus said, “they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead,” and he meant it. One thing that rings so true about the gospel accounts is that the disciples are slow to believe and understand what has happened, even after seeing Jesus alive.

The resurrected Jesus is patient with them, staying around, appearing to the disciples over and over. He slowly and lovingly works to overcome their doubts and fears and reissue his call on their lives. And he is lovingly patient with us as well.

Christ’s message of reinstatement is for all of us. He doesn’t see our failures as the world sees them.

The world calls us a bad debt. Jesus redemptively reinvests in us.
The world sees us as the sum of our shortcomings. Jesus adds himself to our equation and calls us to our eternal future.
The world wants to put us back in our place after failure. Jesus comes to us with a second (third, fourth, fifth…) calling.
The world wants us to compare our calling to others. Jesus rejects comparisons and personally invites us to a unique path.

The failures of the past year, or any year, are not our end, but our beginning. Jesus brings hope to our aftermath. Hope amidst our confusion. Jesus speaks calm and welcoming words to the anger prone. He feeds the weary and hungry. He comforts the hurting and troubled. He washes away the doubts of the disbelieving.

Jesus has a following—a following of failures. Join us, won’t you?

*When looking back at your year, do so with insight into your failures from the Holy Spirit, but also with his redemptive grace and love. The Prayer of Examen is a wonderful tool of reflective prayer. We recommend it daily or weekly. But the practice can be adapted to review this year in the light of God’s grace. For more information about the prayer, follow this link. Take your time in an examen prayer, especially when reviewing a long period. Set aside time this evening or tomorrow to spend in this practice.

Prayer: The Greeting
Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there! They will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple. — Psalm 65:4

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Malachi 4 (Listen – 1:06)
John 21 (Listen – 3:58)

Tomorrow’s Readings (Happy New Year!)
Genesis 1 (Listen – 4:55)
Matthew 1 (Listen – 3:29)

Additional Reading
Read More about Prayer for Busy People
Central to the practice of healthy, gospel-centered prayer is the awareness of God’s presence in and around our lives. The Prayer of Examen, was designed to be prayed even when the necessities of life made other forms of prayer impossible.

Read More about The Beautiful Feet of Lepers
This is the gospel—that terrorists can be healed and saved and the rejects of society can bring the news of salvation and the testimony of victory unimaginable to their city.

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Where will a journey through the Bible take your faith in the coming year? Jesus calls each of us, saying, “Follow me.”

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Truth Unwanted :: A Guided Prayer

  • December 28, 2018
  • /
  • John Tillman

John 18.23
“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”

Reflection: Truth Unwanted :: A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Making Jesus known will lead to suffering and rejection. As the world investigates Jesus in our lives, we can expect the same treatment that Jesus received. May we do so, knowing that he is with us in all our suffering.

A Prayer for the Truth

“Who is it you want?” — John 18.4

Jesus, you are the king, the gift, and the truth that the world does not want.

When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. — John 18.5

The simple revelation of who you are causes even your enemies to fall to the ground.

You refuse to be who politicians want to make you.
You refuse to be who the religious elite want to make you.
You refuse to be who even your closest disciples want to make you.

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” — John 18.11

“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” — John 18.23

We must not expect, Lord, better treatment than our master. We will be struck for speaking your truth.

“The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. — John 18.37-38

The world’s powers reject even the existence of truth. Much less your truth, Lord.

“My kingdom is not of this world…my kingdom is from another place.” — John 18.36

Remind us, Lord, that we are not of this world.
Its systems are not ours to run.
Its wealth is not ours to spend.
Its power is not ours to grasp.
Its wisdom is not ours to claim.
Its kings are not our sovereigns.

We are sent into the world, Lord, as you were.
Not to join it. But to confront it.
Not to lead it. But to serve it.
Not to enslave it. But to liberate it.
To call out from it those who will come to your truth.

We need your protection, Lord…
So that we may do as you commanded Peter, and put away our swords.
We need your power, Lord…
So that we may overcome evil not with the evils of corrupt power, but with the goodness that comes of taking up our cross and following you.

Remind us, Lord, that this world is not our home to defend, but it is the world you died for and we can expect to do no differently.

*On December 28, Christians around the world remember with sorrow the slaughter of the male infants of Bethlehem. They were killed for the same reasons many children die today. They were killed that those in power could remain in power—for economic and political convenience. They were killed to prevent justice and truth from coming.

Justice came to Herod anyway. And justice will come to the powerful who remain callous to the deaths of the innocent, in no matter what age they live. As this weekend’s reading from Malachi testifies: “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.”

Prayer: A Reading
Herod was furious on realizing that he had been fooled by the wise men…a voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping betterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are not more. — Matthew 2:16-18

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Malachi 1 (Listen – 2:47)
John 18 (Listen – 5:16)

This Weekend’s Readings
Malachi 2 (Listen – 3:12) John 19 (Listen – 6:23)
Malachi 3 (Listen – 3:13) John 20 (Listen – 4:17)

Additional Reading
Read More about What is Truth?
Christ’s kingdom does not depend, as earthly kingdoms too often do, upon craft, policy, and duplicity. The Master tells us that the main force and power of his kingdom lies in the truth. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Read More about The Trap of Being Offended
There’s no gunshot like conviction,
There’s no conscience bulletproof,
There’s no strength like our own weakness,
There’s no insult like the truth. — Charlie Peacock

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