Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:14-22

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Jesus praying

Matthew 21:14

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 
The silver lining in our sorrows is that they are more likely to impel us to turn to Jesus, and to receive his healing.


15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
They were indignant when they saw the wonderful things he did. Do not be surprised to find yourself punished for your excellence, your spiritual giftedness, for anything which makes you stand out, and threaten the less gifted.

 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
   “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
   “‘From the lips of children and infants
   you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
The natural response to the glory of God comes forth more easily from children.

 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
In line with the parable of talents. Gifts not used wither.
Since, the fruit of the fig tree begins to appear about the same time as the leaves, the appearance of leaves in full bloom should have indicated that the fruit was already growing. Jesus’s actions are symbolic, indicating the hypocrisy of those who have the appearance of bearing fruit, but in fact are not. 
 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Jewish teacher’s use of hyperbole.

If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. 
1) How can we have faith and not doubt?
 Pray to.

2) How can we tell if we have the faith that ensures we “receive whatever we ask for in prayer? 

We pray for something, and then? 

Are we building up a lot of contingency plans for what to do if God does not come through? Is our prayer simply another string to our bow?

Are we prepared to let our own plans, schemes and subterfuges rest once we have prayed?

Sometimes, when I pray, it’s as if I see Jesus in front of me, see him nod, and I just know that God has heard my prayer and will grant what I have asked. 

And other times, more often than not, I pray half-heartedly, with hope rather than shining faith.

Even though prayer is all gain, and we just get to ask God for anything we want, how feebly and half-heartedly we pray so often. With so little faith, almost as if we don’t want to embarrass God with our requests. 
                                                 * *  *

It is recorded that at the Transfiguration, And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.’ 

One secret of effective prayer is simply “seeing” Jesus with the eyes of faith, and chatting to him rather than sending our earnest requests into the void.

Learning to “see Jesus” has been transformational in the spiritual walk of many heroes of the faith.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:21-22

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Jesus praying

 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Jewish teacher’s use of hyperbole.

If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. 
1) How can we have faith and not doubt?
 Pray to.

2) How can we tell if we have the faith that ensures we “receive whatever we ask for in prayer? 

We pray for something, and then? 

Are we building up a lot of contingency plans for what to do if God does not come through? Is our prayer simply another string to our bow?

Are we prepared to let our own plans, schemes and subterfuges rest once we have prayed?

Sometimes, when I pray, it’s as if I see Jesus in front of me, see him nod, and I just know that God has heard my prayer and will grant what I have asked. 

And other times, more often than not, I pray half-heartedly, with hope rather than shining faith.

Even though prayer is all gain, and we just get to ask God for anything we want, how feebly and half-heartedly we pray so often. With so little faith, almost as if we don’t want to embarrass God with our requests. 
                                                 * *  *

It is recorded that at the Transfiguration, And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.’ 

One secret of effective prayer is simply “seeing” Jesus with the eyes of faith, and chatting to him rather than sending our earnest requests into the void.

Learning to “see Jesus” has been transformational in the spiritual walk of many heroes of the faith.


Matthew 21:14

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 
The silver lining in our sorrows is that they are more likely to impel us to turn to Jesus, and to receive his healing.


15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
They were indignant when they saw the wonderful things he did. Do not be surprised to find yourself punished for your excellence, your spiritual giftedness, for anything which makes you stand out, and threaten the less gifted.

 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
   “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
   “‘From the lips of children and infants
   you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
The natural response to the glory of God comes forth more easily from children.

 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree
 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
In line with the parable of talents. Gifts not used wither.
Since, the fruit of the fig tree begins to appear about the same time as the leaves, the appearance of leaves in full bloom should have indicated that the fruit was already growing. Jesus’s actions are symbolic, indicating the hypocrisy of those who have the appearance of bearing fruit, but in fact are not. 
 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 

22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

 

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To look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room,

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Close up of cherry blossom from the paddock. 





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Part of the row of cherry trees we planted in our paddock in the winter of 2006



Luther famously was asked what he would do if he knew the world would end on the next day. Looking out of his window at the apples trees in bloom, he replied, “I would go plant a tree.”


Sensible man. We’ve just planted 10-15 fruit trees in the five years we’ve lived here–are planning to plant many more this year!!–but how glad we are that we planted those we did.


And here’s a poem from A. E. Housman, “And since to look at things in bloom, fifty springs are little room, about the woodlands I will go, to see the cherry hung with snow.”


And so will I!! 

LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,         5
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,         10
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A.E. Housman

The Blessing on the Patriarchs Persists, Gen 47, 48, Blog Through the Bible Project

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The blessings on the Patriarchs: being fruitful and increasing, and being a blessing to the nations are worked out in the life of Joseph.

Genesis 47

 1 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” 2 He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
 3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?”
   “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” 4 They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
 5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
 7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
 11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Joseph and the Famine
 13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
 16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
 18 When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
The gradual process of impoverishment of the poor (and improvident? Perhaps they too could have stored grain in the years of plenty.) They lose their money, then the means of making money, then their land, and finally “sell themselves”, and are indentured in perpetual debt.

 20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
The people are reduced to serfdom.

 23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
 25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
 26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
He sets a base rate of taxation as 20 percent, higher than the US, lower than the UK.

 27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
While the Egyptians struggle to survive during the famine, Jacob’s family is portrayed as growing and prospering. 
The theme of being fruitful and multiplying is mentioned throughout Genesis, usually in association with divine favour.

 28 Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
   “I will do as you say,” he said.

 31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.


Genesis 48
Manasseh and Ephraim

 1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
Manasseh means God made me to forget. Pray for the grace to forget.

 3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’
 5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
Jacob elevates his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh to the status of sons. Thus Joseph is now elevated to the status of first-born, in place of Reuben, who has disgraced himself and is given a double portion of the inheritance
 8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”
 9 “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.
   Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”
 10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
 11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”
The goodness of God must have seemed astounding to Jacob!

 12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
 15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
   “May the God before whom my fathers
   Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
   all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
   —may he bless these boys. 
May they be called by my name
   and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
   on the earth.”
What a lovely blessing!

 17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
 19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” 
Jacob, the younger son, who struggled with this older brother for the birthright and blessing, and preferred Laban’s younger daughter, and his own younger sons, now preferentially blesses Joseph’s younger son. 



20 He blessed them that day and said,
   “In your[c] name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
   ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”
   So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
The Ephraimites later become one of Israel’s leading tribes, with Joshua guiding the people into the promised land. 
 21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you[e] back to the land of your[f] fathers. 22 And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

Elevating Joseph to the status of the first-born.

A New Name

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To the one who is victorious, I will also give a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17


And so we fight the good fight, 

And we overcome temptations and trials we never dreamed we could. 

And somehow we change. 

We are different.


And Jesus sees, 

though no one else might. 


Though everyone else may see the failures, 

Jesus sees the hidden victories.


And he gently opens our palms,

and places in them a stone, 

which has engraved upon it a new name.



And that new name, I believe, 

will astound the one who receives it.


“Moi?” we’ll say in astonishment.

And Jesus will smile, and say, 

“Yes, you!”



What will be written on your stone?

It will surprise you.

It will name the victories you have won,

the way your name has changed

 without your even being aware of it.


What would I like to be written on mine? 

The Loving One, perhaps.

The Gentle One. 

Steady, Strong, Unshakable. 


Names which would surprise me now.
                               * *  *

Thank you to Emma Scrivener for her meditations on A New Name.

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The Blessing on the Patriarchs Persists, Gen 47, 48, Blog Through the Bible Project

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T

The blessings on the Patriarchs: being fruitful and increasing, and being a blessing to the nations are worked out in the life of Joseph.

Genesis 47

 1 Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.” 2 He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.
 3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?”
   “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” 4 They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
 5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, 6 and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
 7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, 8 Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.” 10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.
 11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed. 12Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.
Joseph and the Famine
 13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. 14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. 15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
 16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” 17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
 18 When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
The gradual process of impoverishment of the poor (and improvident? Perhaps they too could have stored grain in the years of plenty.) They lose their money, then the means of making money, then their land, and finally “sell themselves”, and are indentured in perpetual debt.

 20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, 21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
The people are reduced to serfdom.

 23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. 24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”
 25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
 26 So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
He sets a base rate of taxation as 20 percent, higher than the US, lower than the UK.

 27 Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.
While the Egyptians struggle to survive during the famine, Jacob’s family is portrayed as growing and prospering. 
The theme of being fruitful and multiplying is mentioned throughout Genesis, usually in association with divine favour.

 28 Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.”
   “I will do as you say,” he said.

 31 “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.


Genesis 48
Manasseh and Ephraim

 1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.
Manasseh means God made me to forget. Pray for the grace to forget.

 3 Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almightya]”>[a] appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’
 5 “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
Jacob elevates his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh to the status of sons. Thus Joseph is now elevated to the status of first-born, in place of Reuben, who has disgraced himself and is given a double portion of the inheritance
 8 When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, “Who are these?”
 9 “They are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father.
   Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”
 10 Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.
 11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too.”
The goodness of God must have seemed astounding to Jacob!

 12 Then Joseph removed them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground. 13 And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel’s left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them close to him. 14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
 15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
   “May the God before whom my fathers
   Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
   all my life to this day,
16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
   —may he bless these boys. 
May they be called by my name
   and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
   on the earth.”
What a lovely blessing!

 17 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 Joseph said to him, “No, my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
 19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.” 
Jacob, the younger son, who struggled with this older brother for the birthright and blessing, and preferred Laban’s younger daughter, and his own younger sons, now preferentially blesses Joseph’s younger son. 



20 He blessed them that day and said,
   “In yourc]”>[c] name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
   ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”
   So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.
The Ephraimites later become one of Israel’s leading tribes, with Joshua guiding the people into the promised land. 
 21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and take youe]”>[e] back to the land of yourf]”>[f] fathers. 22 And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”

Elevating Joseph to the status of the first-born.

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Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. Paul Tillich

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“Do we know what it means to be struck by grace? It does not mean that we suddenly believe that God exists, or that Jesus is the Saviour, or that the Bible contains the truth. To believe that something is, is almost contrary to the meaning of grace. Furthermore, grace does not mean simply that we are making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in our relationships to men and to society. Moral progress may be a fruit of grace; but it is not grace itself, and it can even prevent us from receiving grace. For there is too often a graceless acceptance of Christian doctrines and a graceless battle against the structures of evil in our personalities. Such a graceless relation to God may lead us by necessity either to arrogance or to despair. It would be better to refuse God and the Christ and the Bible than to accept them without grace. For if we accept without grace, we do so in the state of separation, and can only succeed in deepening the separation. We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stroke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And certainly it does not happen if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it.

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!’ If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed. In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance,” – Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations.

Jesus angry

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A friend of ours has a daughter who is disabled, autistic, and has a fiery temper. When asked to chose a Bible story, she asks for the “Jesus angry” stories.


In the past, when I have been angry with another Christian, and told them what I think of their behaviour, a third Christian has often asked me, Well, what would Jesus do? And sometimes, a likely answer is, “He would be angry.”


Matthew 21:12


Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’[f]”


Jesus was obviously a strong, physically power man, with charisma. One man, single-handedly chasing away those who were buying and selling, overturning the tables of the money changers, and the benches of those selling doves. The buying and selling took place in the large outer court of the Gentiles, which covered several acres. Jesus was probably particularly annoyed that this took place in the area set apart for the Gentiles to pray.


What chaos, what a hubhub!


Because increased money gives power, and the power to fulfill fantasies, and to boost one’s profile, church, in the hands of the less scrupulous will be accompanied by requests for money, sometimes legitimate, sometimes to fulfill private visions, dreams, and ego-boosting plans and fantasies.

Thieves used caves to store their loot, and plan future crimes!