22 Oct SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2023

In our first reading, “The Lord grabbed Cyrus by the hand, went before him opening doors, subduing opposing powers and removing barriers,” so that he and others would see God as the agent, the active doer who accomplishes things with purpose. The reason for the arrangement was so Cyrus and others might acknowledge God as the reason for success, the one at work making gain, advantage, or victory possible. 

God took one influential person of status by the hand and opened doors for them, subdued powers that would oppose them, and removed barriers so that not only that one individual, but everyone who went along for the ride, who witnessed the successful trajectory of that important person’s life would acknowledge God, rather than the person for all that was achieved. 

That was very ambitious of God, wasn’t it? Imagine God trying to convince the editor of Forbes magazine that the wealth and success of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Alice Walton, Bill Gates, or Oprah, were attributable to God alone and not economic good fortune, individual genius or business savvy. 

A second thing we learn through the first lesson is how God is personal in nature and identifies himself by name, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of Israel.” In other words, “This is what you can call me. Here’s who I am and how you can know me. God goes on to explain why he chooses to get involved in the affairs of humanity. The reason given: for the sake of God’s servant and those whom he calls his chosen. 

We learn that God also calls individuals personally by name in spite of the fact they don’t yet know God, even giving them a surname. All these things add up and make sense once we realize that: 

Connecting with and knowing who God is always the goal of God’s activity in the world.

So many places in the Bible state that God’s goal is for people to know that “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god.

I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know. So, “they may know,” not just you personally, but they, the observers and outsiders, that from the rising of the sun and from the west, there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal, that is, happiness, health and success, and create woe, that is, misfortune, affliction and grief; I the Lord do all these things.”

Why was it important for people to know that God formed light and created darkness from east to west unlike any other? So that people back then wouldn’t become as we are now: distracted by a million and one things that the surrounding society promotes. Because, like us, if they paid attention to other options, they might mistakenly place their faith in false deities, or chase after power, wisdom, wealth, or comfort elsewhere in an attempt to relieve stress and tamp down the hardships of everyday life. 

All those things listed were things back then that people attributed to the work of gods. The passage was not intended to suggest that God is the author of evil, but that anything that happened in God’s purview was part of God’s domain. Everything that is or ever happened was subject to God’s influence, part of God’s realm of thoughts and included in what is genuinely experienced by God firsthand.  

Even in the first letter written by Paul, faith in God has one purpose: for God to become known so that lives become changed forever. Brothers and sisters in the faith are reassured that they are chosen by God. Therefore we are assured that God works on our behalf in the very same way he did for his servant, Jacob and the Israelites. 

Faith, labors of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ define us. The gospel has been delivered not only in word form, but in power and the Holy Spirit. Imitation following the example of Christ and other believers will make God known without us needing to speak about how we serve a living and true God and wait for Jesus to come from heaven and rescue us from wrath to come. 

Yes, fear has always been a tremendous motivator for human beings. Anyone seriously trying to influence our behavior will usually default to it. Although we seem hardwired to respond to fear about anything and everything, God tries very hard in the form of Jesus to help humanity shift our mindset to one of trust instead.

Mindset is everything. Consider the mindset of the Pharisees who plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. They schemed among themselves and devised a plan. “Let’s send regular guys rather than go ourselves. Round up some of our disciples and gather some Herodians to go with them as witnesses.”

Like lobbyists sent to a state or national capital assembly, the Pharisee’s disciples and Herodians were sent to the temple in hopes of informing, persuading and pressuring the policymaker Jesus to support the sending group’s objectives. Instead, Jesus offers the lobbyists an answer that amazes them so much that they stop talking altogether and give no argument in return. 

Instead of falling for their attempts to do the bidding of the Pharisees through flattery or distraction, Jesus informs, persuades, amazes and impresses them with his own original form of genius logic. The Pharisees’ mindset was one of malice: ill-intent with a desire to do harm. Their efforts were bad things gift wrapped in bitter-sweetness. 

I’m now going to share a story told to me by a friend who lives in WV. A groundhog came to live on his property among stacks of wood waiting to be turned into something else on his lathe. He tried catching it in live traps baited with watermelon and cantaloupe, but the groundhog preferred to rather eat all of his green tomatoes as each grew large enough in turn on the vine. 

The groundhog stood staring at my friend at the door to his woodshop knowing full well that he wouldn’t take aim and shoot lest he damage the entrance to his favorite structure on the property. So, as a last resort, my friend buried a few steel traps within his garden near the groundhog’s entrance and exit holes. Sure enough, in no time, the groundhogs were caught and dead. By the end of the story, I was fairly convinced that he considered pesky animals disposable. 

Yet, in practically the same breath, he starts talking about a woman he knows who calls him everytime she catches a skunk in the live traps she sets. My friend then describes how he puts a rubber mat or sheet slowly over the skunk in the cage, carefully loading it onto the bed of his pickup truck. 

He drives it to his house, bouncing gently as can be through potholes along his road until finally he carries the trap down the hill in his backyard, lifts up the rubber mat, opens the door to the cage and invites the skunk to enjoy its new home. She’s called him three times lately and repeated the same scenario without incident, that is, being sprayed, bitten or otherwise inconvenienced. 

Of course, I was happy to hear of him showing compassion to both types of critters wanting to share living space with human beings. I understood his frustration and ultimate intolerance for the groundhog. He was angry at that point and felt it was laughing at him as it stood in front of his woodshop or ate tomatoes when he wasn’t looking.

“Live and let live,” I said. Then my friend pointed out the difference between the two varmints. Skunks eat grubs that damage the grass and shrubs. They don’t bother you if you don’t mean them any harm. 

There’s gospel truth in there. God is compassionate and does everything to tolerate our desire to benefit from what he provides: places to live, things to eat, safety and security. But we go overboard and take advantage of God’s kindness. We don’t acknowledge his hard work that benefits us. We forget that everything at our paws is the result of God’s generosity and design. 

Tolerance increases as we prove to work cooperatively with God and aren’t afraid of his actions toward us. In fact, we come to realize that God has our best interest at heart and aims to only relocate us in a better place, not kill or destroy. 

The Pharisees aimed to trap Jesus in a steel trap from the get-go. They never tried to allow him to thrive on their property or relocate him elsewhere. They just wanted him gone because he threatened their way of life. He stole their tomatoes and stood in the doorway of their temple mocking them with his teachings and temple talks. They were insincere when approaching him, disingenuous when asking questions, and downright tricky. 

Jesus’ approach is calming. He places the rubber mat over their cage and transports them elsewhere, defusing the situation by plainly pointing out that whoever’s head is carved on the coin is the ruler of the people and deserves to be given what currency belongs to that ruler accordingly. 

God is not threatened or diminished by giving to the emperor what originally came from his treasury or coffers. Likewise, Jesus reminds whoever’s asking that what belongs to God belongs to God and is therefore owed to him, like green tomatoes growing on the vine in a man’s garden, not to mention the flowers his wife planted that the groundhog ate up. 

How are we to know what is ours for the taking or to claim as ours versus what belongs to God? That’s the point of getting to know God in the first place. Learning to trust the outcome of our lives to one who aims to calm us down the moment we understand we are trapped and have no escape; who calls friends of his to come to our aid now that our fate is in our captor’s hands. 

Are we more like a groundhog or a skunk?

The questions are these, “Are we more like a groundhog or a skunk? Are we willing to cooperate and trust the intentions of God in the first place? Will we allow ourselves to accept the sweet fruit initially offered that would have saved our lives or will we try to outsmart God and mock his repeated efforts to trap and relocate us to a much better place? Or will we drive him mad which may result in final death rather than new life? 

I don’t know about you, but I’m the wary type. Most likely, I wouldn’t have eaten the watermelon and cantaloupe, nor gone for a ride without spraying the dude who tried to lift me cage and all into his truck bed. Let us pray. 

Lord, may we never doubt your efforts nor trouble you by asking questions aimed at disproving your trustworthiness. We hate to think of ourselves as varmints, yet like them, we benefit from much of your hard work and live on land and in property that ultimately belongs to you. 

Teach us what portion of things belongs rightfully to you so we render what we claim as our own to you freely without resistance or regret. Thanks for sharing all that you have with humanity, for helping us to find our value and place in this world, for discovery of meaning, and everything worthwhile. In your holy name we pray, Amen.