Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

He is in Control when Things Seem Most Out of Control

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Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time

 Matthew 20

17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. 
On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 
18 “We are going up to Jerusalem,
 and the Son of Man will be delivered over 
to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. 
They will condemn him to death 19 
and will hand him over to the Gentiles
 to be mocked 
and flogged
 and crucified. 
On the third day he will be raised to life!”


 A nuclear emergency in the life of Jesus. 


He will be betrayed, unjustly accused and condemned, 
mocked, brutalized and tortured to death.

He goes into this calmly, surrendering control, 


because he know who is in control beyond the chaos.

The still point of the turning world.

beyond shifting shadows.

He knows on the third day, he will be raised to life.


His Father, the lighthouse on the rock, steady and immovable

When everything else seems most crazy and out of control

Is actually in charge. 

 

 

He is in Control when Things Seem Most out of Control

By

Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time

 Matthew 20

17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. 
On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 
18 “We are going up to Jerusalem,
 and the Son of Man will be delivered over 
to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. 
They will condemn him to death 19 
and will hand him over to the Gentiles
 to be mocked 
and flogged
 and crucified. 
On the third day he will be raised to life!”

A nuclear emergency in the life of Jesus. 

He will be betrayed, unjustly accused and condemned, 
mocked, brutalized and tortured to death.

He goes into this calmly, surrendering control, 


because he know who is in control beyond the chaos.

The still point of the turning world.

beyond shifting shadows.

He knows on the third day, he will be raised to life.


His Father, the lighthouse on the rock, steady and immovable

When everything else seems most crazy and out of control

Is actually in charge. 

A Super-Generous God, Parable of the Vineyard, Matthew 20 1-16. Blog Through the Bible Project

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The Parable of the Vineyard: The Planting of the Vine
Daniel Gabriel Rossetti

Matthew 20

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

   3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
   “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
   7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
The workday ended at 6. It was divided into 4 3-hour increments from 6 to 6. The workers were desperate enough to continue waiting for work near the end of the workday.
   “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
   8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
   9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
   13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
   16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
A parable of the Kingdom. Everyone who turns to Jesus gets Jesus, whether they work much, or work little. 

Their reward rests upon the mercy of the King, not their deserts.
The sinner who humbly repents at the eleventh hour, on the cross, gets the same reward as the one who followed Christ from his youth.

Why?

Because the King is generous.

But as David said, “You are indeed just, Lord, if I contend with thee.” Those who have followed Christ for longer have known him for longer. And Christ is the reward.

It was not the fault of the workmen who have stood around all day that they were not hired. Perhaps they were older, weaker, less pushy, less attractive. They were however willing to work, and so they were rewarded for their willingness.

Those who come to faith later are rewarded just as much as those who have followed Christ from their youth. 


NIV The main point is the sovereign graciousness and generosity of God extended to latecomers (the poor and the outcasts) into God’s kingdom. It is addressed to the grumblers who just cannot handle this amazing expression of God’s grace. They almost certainly represent the religious leaders who opposed Jesus. 


Jesus is affirming that God’s generosity is more abundant than anyone would expect. All the workers except the first got more than they deserved. 

Japan: Cool and Disciplined in a Crisis

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I am really impressed with the calm way Japan has continued functioning despite calamities of Biblical–and the Book of Revelation–proportions–earthquakes, floods, and now nuclear explosions.


See this video of supermarket worker trying to keep goods on the shelves DURING the earthquake!!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/24491323/7805482/


Roy’s post-doctoral advisor, Gene Golub, used to say that he found there were striking similarities between the Japanese and the English (and the Chinese and French. He preferred the latter nations.) I would like to think that the English could deal with these triple threats with similar sang-froid–well, partly because I live here.


Given similarities in the psyche of the both nations, it is not surprising that Remains of the Day, an examination of upper-class 1930’s British society was written with astonishing pitch-perfect ventriloquism by Japanese Kazuo Ishiguro.


Pray for the people of Japan. 


And not to be evangelistically opportunistic, but pray for a foothold for the Gospel among these decent, hard-working, disciplined, family-oriented, honourable and honouring people.


My husband loved Japan, and spent his final year of high school there on a Rotary Scholarship. We visited Japan together in the 90ies, stayed with Japanese families, and travelled around the country. Much kindesss, decency, generosity and hospitality.  I was impressed. 

What’s your Six Word Love Story?

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Can you summarize your love story in six words? Here are people’s attempts at The New York Times.

I guess a love story evolves, and you see and tell it differently at different times. My attempt would be

 “Opposites attracted. Fierily. Happily. 21 years”

 Here are some others.
      Warning, love: I blog my breakups.

 

“ Dog approves; maybe this guy’s good?”

— Selma

Love hurts. Choose vodka or valium.

You lost me at hello “ma’am.”
Life’s like chocolates. Picked, processed, pooped.
Hearts clubbed by diamonds in spades.
Passion, fireworks, good loving. He’s gay.
But our domestic partnership was notarized….
Your new wife is too friendly.
There’s nothing sex can not fix.
Finally found love, at age 41.
Note to self: avoid head cases.
He wasn’t worth the panic attacks.
Chocolate is the coward’s bad apology.
Pet-sitting for ex-husband describes amicable divorce.
Loved her madly — then went mad.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/whats-your-six-word-love-story

Spirit speaks to Spirit, Heart to Heart and Mind to Mind.

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This is true of bloggers as well as preachers. That which comes from the heart and spirit speaks to the heart and spirit. That which comes from the mind and intellect speaks to–at most–the mind and intellect.


“That which comes from the heart will most likely go to the heart, though I know God can take that which comes but from the lips and carry it to the heart when he pleases, yet ordinarily that which comes from the heart goes to the heart, therefore ministers when they come to speak the great things of the gospel should not seek so much for brave words, and convincing ways of man’s wisdom but let them get their own hearts warmed with that grace of the gospel, and then they are most like to speak to the hearts of their auditors…. 


Otherwise they speak with the tongues of men and angels, yet become like the sounding of brass and the tinkling cymbal. You must be desirous of such kind of preaching as you find speaks to your hearts, not that comes merely to your ears: how many men love to have the word jingle in their ears, and in the mean time their hearts go away and not one word is spoken to them? But when you find a minister speak to your hearts, close with it, bless God for it, and count it a sad day when you go from a sermon and there is not one word spoken to your hearts in that sermon.”
JEREMIAH BURROUGHS ON HOSEA, P495.
H/t Dave Bish,
who further quotes Jeremiah Burroughs


Christ as soon has he is married to the soul takes it as it were by the hand and walks to the Galleries and there opens his heart to her. There is many a sweet tune that a gracious heart has with Christ in his Ordinances, where Christ opens even his whole soul to it… Here is the fruit of our union with Christ. Oh that our hearts were inflamed with desire after further conjugal communion with him!” 


Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7

Spring is Coming! Start to be Happy! “Coming,” a poem by Philip Larkin

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Coming
On longer evenings,
Light, chill and yellow,
Bathes the serene
Foreheads of houses.
A thrush sings,
Laurel-surrounded
In the deep bare garden,
Its fresh-peeled voice
Astonishing the brickwork.
It will be spring soon,
It will be spring soon –
And I, whose childhood
Is a forgotten boredom,
Feel like a child
Who comes on a scene
Of adult reconciling,
And can understand nothing
But the unusual laughter,
And starts to be happy.
             Philip Larkin

Why people continue to live where they live

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Getty Images, Fire in Natori City, Japan today
Debris at Sendai
Natori

If I were Japanese, would I continue to live there given the high probability of earthquakes, tsunamis and maybe consequent nuclear distasters? No, I think I would emigrate, if I could.


On the other hand, would I continue to live in Oxford, England, where I have spent a total 9.5 happy years if an earthquake struck us?


Yes, because I love it so much.


And that’s probably why people continue to live in Japan, or Christ Church or San Francisco despite the risks.