Scripture Notes: Speaking Up (Luke 2)

Anna has been waiting a long, long time when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus into the Temple. She is 84 years old, dedicated to prayer and fasting, determined to wait in faith, hope, and love for the coming of the Messiah. Her heart is open, her mind clear, her spirit attuned to truth. And she recognizes Jesus the moment she sees Him. This is the One Who is at the heart of her life, the One for Whom she has been waiting, finally the One Who will redeem Israel.

When she sees Jesus, Anna goes straight to Him, giving thanks to God. We can imagine her excitement, her smile, her gentle touch. Perhaps she, like Simeon, holds the Baby, cuddling Him close to her, looking into His eyes, experiencing the connection, the joy, of this intimacy with God. Then Anna speaks up. She tells everyone about Jesus. She may focus on those who have been waiting with her for the redemption of Israel, but most likely, she spreads the news to anyone who can hear. 

But do these people listen? Do they believe Anna’s message? Perhaps some merely smile and condescendingly think what a sweet, silly old lady Anna is. Others may scoff, still others ignore. But some probably listen, caught up in Anna’s enthusiasm. These would be waiting to see what happens next, what this little Baby might grow up to be. Anna does not live to see Jesus’ return to Jerusalem during His public ministry or to witness His salvific death and resurrection, but she knows the truth. The Redeemer has come, and she never hesitates to speak up.

Scripture Notes: Choose (Joshua 24)

As the conquest of the Promised Land progresses and the people begin to take possession of the heritage God is giving them, Joshua calls together the twelve tribes. They have an important decision to make, a critical decision, one that will affect the rest of their lives and even eternity. 

Joshua reminds them of God’s care and the great favor He has given His covenant people. Then he tells them, “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if you be unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:14-15). 

Here is the choice. The people must make it right now. They can serve God and keep the covenant He has made with them, renouncing all other “gods” forever. Or they can abandon God and rely on the “gods” they served in Egypt or in the homeland of their ancestors. It must be one or the other. They cannot do both. Joshua gives the people an example by clearly stating his choice. He and his house will serve God. 

The people respond, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods” (Josh 24:16). After all, God is the One Who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and led them into the Promised Land. He has shown great signs and wonders in their midst and fought their battles for them. So, they conclude, “we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God” (Josh 24:18).

Joshua warns them that it will be no easy task to serve God. He sets standards. He has laws that must be obeyed. He will not tolerate idolatry even for an instant. And He punishes people when they sin. The people firmly maintain their choice to serve God, and Joshua ratifies that choice with a ceremony. 

Of course, the people soon do exactly the opposite of what they so vigorously proclaim. They do not serve the Lord, nor to do they obey Him, and they even begin to worship other “gods.” Their words and their actions do not match, and when times get a little tough, their good intentions melt away, and they forget that they have chosen God. 

Scripture Notes: Taming the Tongue (James 3)

We all know that James is right. The tongue is an untameable little beast, “a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). We all know the power of words. We have all said things we wanted to take back. We know what it is like to use our tongues to hurt others, and we know what it is like to have others hurt us by their words. Yet we continue to struggle to tame our tongues, to keep our mouths shut, to think before we speak.

James compares the tongue to the rudder of a ship. It is so small, yet it can guide a large ship wherever the captain wishes it to go. He also compares the tongue to a little fire, just a spark, that can set a whole forest ablaze. If the rudder goes bad, the ship can crash into rocks and sink. If the little fire gets out of control, things burns, lots of things.

So what are we to do? James says that “no human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8), but God can. He can and will give us His grace to help us control our tongues, to mind our words, to think before we speak. But we have to want it and accept it and use it. With God’s grace, we can fix the little rudder and direct it on the right path toward speech that will truly help and build up others and ourselves. With God’s grace, we can keep the fire under control so that it provides a beautiful light and a nourishing warmth to all those around us.

Scripture Notes: Tested or Tempted? (James 1)

In his New Testament letter, St. James makes a critical distinction between testing and temptation. Apparently some Christians of his day were getting confused, thinking that God was tempting them to commit sin. No way, James responds; God does not tempt anyone. God never deceives anyone or leads anyone into sin. God never wills us to do evil. When we are tempted, the problem is ourselves, our concupiscence (that tendency we all have toward sin), our disordered desires, our out-of-control passions. Sometimes the devil tempts us, too, nudging us toward something we know is wrong, making it look really good, prodding us to take just one more step (and then another and another) down a path we should not go. But the choice is ours, and God gives us the grace to resist temptations that come from ourselves and from our enemy.

While God does not tempt us to sin, He does test us at times, and He does so because He loves us. James tells us that God sends us trials, but He has a very good reason for this. We need to grow. We need to understand ourselves better. We need to strengthen our faith. All of this happens with God’s help of course, but it does not tend to happen when our lives are smooth sailing. It is then that we get complacent, flabby, lazy. Everything is going great, and we forget we need God. We forget we are supposed to be on the path to Heaven, and the world looks pretty good as it is.

So God wakes us up. He tests us, challenges us, sends us some difficulty to work through so that we discover how small and weak and sinful we are and then turn to Him, embrace His grace, and grow stronger by it. We learn how to endure, how to have patience, how to rely on God. We find out that we are not as independent as we thought we were; in fact, we are completely dependent upon Him. And when we work through these trials, these tests, with God’s help, they lead us to deeper faith, deeper hope, and deeper love and, as James says, to the “crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.”

Tempting and testing, then, are fundamentally different. Temptation can lead us away from God, but only if we choose to give in to it. Testing can lead us closer and closer to God, but only if we understand what is happening and reach out to God in our need, relying on Him to give us the grace to pass the test and keep on strive for the crown of life.