There are a
lot of people who think that the Old Testament is a little scary; lots of fire
and brimstone, people being wiped out, people dying horrible deaths, etc. Then there are also a lot of people who like
the “You’re OK, I'm OK, it's all OK”, that they perceive to be the New
Testament. I hope my reflection today
can point out how far off base both of these views are, and why God chose to
give us both the Old and the New to complement one another.
In
Deuteronomy, Moses reminds us that everything is a gift from God. That our goal in life should be to love and
serve God. We should keep God's
commandments on our hearts, and we should teach them to our children every
opportunity we get (Deuteronomy 6:4-13).
What wonderful truths and lessons.
And this Scripture was incredibly reaffirming to me. I’ll bet all of us have at least one rote
prayer that we say daily. It's so
automatic that sometimes we don't even remember if we've said it or not? I have several and sometimes I'm quite
critical of myself for them. “Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, Amen”. It seems sometimes that family and work can be
all consuming and there isn't time for God.
Maybe that's when God will use a little, rote prayer to get His foot in
the door and ask you for some quality time.
Always time well spent.
Psalm
18:2-51 echoes the lesson of Deuteronomy.
"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my
deliverer". Everything comes from God, and He is where we
can take our refuge.
Then comes
Matthew. What happened to I'm OK, you're
OK? A father brings a boy to Jesus
saying that His disciples couldn’t heal the child. Jesus explodes, showing anger, frustration
and exasperation. Jesus heals the
boy. Later the disciples approach
Christ, I would guess with some timidity, and ask why they couldn't heal the
boy. "Because you
have so little faith." (Matthew 17:14-20)
I can’t help
but think back to over 40 years ago and a scene from “Star Wars: The Empire
Strikes Back” where Luke is studying under the Jedi master Yoda. Yoda strives to help Luke master the force so
he can use it to combat evil. After a
period of time practicing the use of the force – moving objects, anticipating
what another will do, analyzing thoughts and motives of others – Yoda
challenges Luke to move a spaceship.
Luke is unable to do so, and then Yoda demonstrates he can do it
easily. In awe Luke exclaims “I don’t
believe it.” And Yoda replies “That is
why you fail.” The disciples failed in
their quest due to their lack of faith – they didn’t believe they could do what
was asked of them. Jesus reminds them of
the power of faith with a visual they could understand – faith the size of a
mustard seed can move a mountain.
Are we
called to move mountains? Probably
not. But are we called to believe in the
face of difficulties? Yes, precisely in
those times and those difficulties that might seem like mountains. It is easy to believe when things are going
well. It is easy to be faith-filled when
we aren’t challenged. But when things
happen that shake our faith, we have to dig deeper and find a core from which
we can draw strength. For each of us
these situations are different – one person’s molehill is another’s
mountain. But for all of us we can take
strength from knowing (believing, having faith) that a loving God is there to
be with us when times are difficult.
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