Bryan Richardson

Feign

Re: Verse reading—1 Samuel 9 & 10 (day three)

Is not my clan the least of all the clans?

Self-abasement is not the same thing as humility. The former stems from a deep-seated despair that one’s inner defectiveness relegates him to a status of low regard in the eyes of others. The latter comes from a wisdom that knows that one’s inner beauty will arouse impulses in him to use that beauty as a manipulative tool or an excuse for self-seeking, and that those impulses will be checked only by a regard for the welfare of others. Self-abasement masquerades as humility for a while. But humility will always welcome others. Self-abasement will eventually blame others for one’s own despair. The more power a person has, the deadlier the blame becomes. Witness the life of the son of Kish. There is no substitute for humility.

Priest

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 7 (day three)

“Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us.”

Samuel stood in a place of agency on behalf of the Lord and in behalf of the people. This is the essence of priesthood. When people are weak, they seek out another who is stronger. In the fellowship of disciples of Jesus Christ, we will each take our turn in the weak seat. And we become like priests for one another, announcing God’s provision, proclaiming God’s forgiveness, telling the truth when it’s hard, pointing out his presence. When one who is weak approaches you for help in seeking God, will you rise to the occasion?

Lamp

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 3 (day three)

“The lamp of God had not yet gone out.” These words refer to an actual lamp with an actual flame—the lampstand at the curtain on the other side of which sat the ark of the covenant. It was to be kept burning from evening till morning. This detail of dimly burning fire serves to mark the time as the wee hours. But it marks something else, too. It signals to us that God has not given up on saving the human race. We know that these words indicate God’s intention because we can look at the entire witness of scripture in a way that the people living it at the moment could not. In every night dimly-lit, in every church persecuted, in every incident of God’s supposed slowness, there rises the providence of God.

Say

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 1 (day three)

“O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me…” Is it wrong to haggle with God? Would we even consider an “if-you-do-this-I’ll-do-that” arrangement? Have we decided to place ourselves above such dealings? Do we believe it would even make any difference? It’s interesting to consider that from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from people to demons and back to people, such conversations with the Lord have been common: Abraham, Moses, Hannah, David, Legion (!), Peter, Paul. Maybe we would see the power of God more if we would tell him what we want. That’s not the same as demanding what we want. Even the demons knew that. God will take care of his own responses to us. Just speak to him.

Believe

Re:Verse reading- Luke 24:1-12, 33-49 (day three)

“They did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Did people back in the (ancient) day more readily believe claims of supernatural occurrences than people now? Is the Bible full of the accounts of gullible people? Thank God for the doubters. Peter and his peers-and later the wider Greek culture-had to burrow their way through doubt and skepticism in order to arrive at a faith strong enough to face suffering death. If you’re using your energy running away from doubts rather than facing the questions that doubt raises, how will you grow strong enough to stand?

ACT

Re:Verse reading–Luke 23:1-27, 32-49 (day three)

“If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” It’s never the right moment, is it? You’ll wait till things settle down, till your courage wells up, till your money runs out, till your ship comes in. Are you allergic to now? You’re not going to trust him now, you won’t go with him into the unknown at this moment, you’re not ready to re-orient your confidence from the temporal to the eternal at once. That is your decision. But the present has a short shelf life. Your heart’s not getting any softer. Jesus is near now, not then; here, not there; to you, not to that other person you’re competing with. When this moment passes, hearts get hard, and doors close.

Perseverance

Re: Verse reading–Luke 16:19-31 (day three)

“Send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them.” If we’ve gotten it into our heads that one’s post-death circumstances after a life of selfish disregard for God and others will result in regret for a life poorly lived, this story Jesus tells should disabuse us of that notion. The narrative clearly shows us a man who is just as self-centered and self-important now as he ever was before: “Grant me a favor; send Lazarus to serve me; accord my family special status,” etc. Privilege is his only language. But that was a way of thinking and living he had learned long before now. All the years of his mortal existence had steadily formed his character, and so the way he lived life was now the way he lived death. Is it somehow different for you?

Gone

Re:Verse reading–Luke 15:1-2, 11-32 (day three)

“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” As it turned out, Jesus would do even worse than that. But that’s because he understood people were lost. In the days before that word denoted a demographic or a class of persons who don’t subscribe to a particular version of theology, Jesus felt the giant wound of the human race. He sensed acutely, agonizingly, that people were missing. You can hear it in his story of the two brothers. You can hear it in his metaphor of the lost sheep. You can hear it in his parable of the banquet. Jesus is grieved at a great absence. What do you think about that?

Start

Re:Verse reading–Luke 7:36-50 (day three)

“He who has been forgiven little loves little.” So. Love demonstrated is a function of forgiveness received. That would explain a lot. You want to love, but you just can’t get there. Your workaround is to settle for an appreciation of the idea of love, which most of the time looks like our definition of niceness. Or, it takes the form of fondness for the collective—humanity, people groups, “the lost”, etc. But the daughter outgrowing your expertise, or the boss emailing you, or the colleague besting you—these are problems you’re left with solving. Good luck with that. How about this: If nobody can love like a person forgiven, start there.

Favor

Re:Verse reading—Luke 6:17-45 (day three)

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The getting of our goat consists in the favor that God lavishes on other men—that we cannot be the arbiters of the Lord’s grace. Those without any learning, any power, any influence were esteemed by God? Surely this was novel theology. Jesus repeatedly declared, however, that his detractors hadn’t listened to the very prophets they accused him of misrepresenting. Even Jesus’s own disciples boasted that they had shut down others who acted in the name of Jesus because they weren’t part of the Twelve. But God’s grace will not be held hostage to our spiritual poll taxes. The disenfranchised are right at the center of God’s attention, and should be at ours. If the lowliest aren’t blessed in your presence, in whose presence will they be?