automatically

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Daily Office Readings (ESV)
(I will put this link in most days. It is all the readings for each day. You can navigate to different days, or use the search / browse tab to look up any passage. You can also listen to the passage being read and read along.)

Ps 37; Isaiah 45:5-17; Eph. 5:15-33; Mark 4:21-34

"the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself..."
(Mark 4:27-28)

Another translation of the above could be "the earth (land) brings forth fruit automatically." Of course, only if the seed has been scattered on it - but we know not how. It is "by itself," or "without evident cause," or "automatically," that is, without the help of me or you or any other human or human invention. That is we can, and must, let it go and trust in the God of life, and the king of the kingdom. There's power and life in the seed.

There's no formula, no program, no class that will bring true, godly growth in me or our church and community, unless God is in it. There are no hoops to jump through, no "A+B=C" that automatically will bear kingdom fruit. Only absolute, hands-off gospel, good news.

Isaiah prophesies that one day the nations will plead with Israel, "Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him." Wow. God so evidently in the midst of his people. Let it be so, Lord. If God is in us, and among us, we will grow, we will bear fruit - as we trust in him, love him and yes, even fear him who so graciously, so generously, so amazingly, so mysteriously has come to us in Emmanuel - and who "automatically" works in us and in our midst as we break bread together, break open the gospel word together, break open our hearts and lives with one another, and are broken with him for the life of the world...

In the deepest core of my being, am I trusting? Is the weight of my existence resting on God in Christ, or am I still holding on to control some of it? Are my hopes and dreams, my security and significance, finally left to the majesty and mystery of a crucified and risen (a dead seed, planted in the ground, that springs up to new life) redeemer? Will I believe that this life and power and presence and dynamic is in me and among us to function "automatically"?

be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18)

5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
(Ps. 37)