It is sad to say, but unfortunately true, that for many people today their sense of kindness and compassion has waned or diminished somewhat. I’m not sure just why that is, but can think of several possible reasons. One is that there now seem to be so many problems and issues facing us as individuals, churches, societies and the world. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by them, bewildered by them, and fatigued with just thinking about them, much less doing something about them. There seem to be just so many demands today: they seem to never stop. And, then there is the increasing polarization and just plain nastiness, the evoked sense of guilt or shame when one isn’t adopting a particular stance or adopting a particular cause or project.

Maybe, we need to recover some of Jesus’ compassion, and maybe we need to take a page from His playbook. In today’s Scripture lesson, the teaching and feeding of the 5,000, He tackles a big problem, but does so in a very limited way and in a very focused space. He could have gone around teaching and feeding myriads of other people, but He focused on just this one ‘lot.’ And, He did so with just the resources at hand, His own words, and the meagre food resources that His disciples could scrape up. So, maybe that’s a lesson for us: focus locally and on the present localized needs, spiritual and physical, take a look at what you have on hand, and then make use of that--and, of course, let God be your guide. Chances are that He has already laid something on your heart, just as He did with those first disciples.

Many things might be said about God’s faithfulness and loving care towards us, but nothing compares--at least to me--with two sentiments that David records in today’s psalm, the facts that God recorded, kept track, of all his wanderings and that God saves up and even counts his tears. To me, that says a great deal about just how dearly God loves us, and just how sympathetic He is of what we go through-two very good reasons for loving, trusting and obeying Him.

Sometimes I am sorely perplexed as to what God might want to say to us through a particular passage of Scripture. Today’s reading from Genesis was such a passage. Of course, one might take from it the old saying, ‘what goes around, comes around.’ In other words, what you say or do, might eventually come back to bite you. That certainly happened in this story: the perpetual trickster, Jacob, gets tricked himself. So, was that God’s intended message to us? Maybe. However, I choose to take from it another lesson, namely that the ‘fall guy’ (or gal) in the story, the one who was misused and shamed, namely Leah, falls under God’s loving concern and is blessed by God. I happen to believe that God has a special concern for those who are mistreated or oppressed by others and often takes their side and helps them. Anyway, that was the message that I took from today’s passage.

Something that has just recently come to mind is something that school systems routinely have, something that they add to year by year and pass on, something called ‘accumulative records’. These records follow a person all through his or her school career, and, one would hope, are reasonably sympathetic, understanding and balanced, taking into account one’s own particular struggles and circumstances. One would hope so, but then, that cannot be guaranteed.

God, in one sense, has His own accumulative records pertaining to each one of us, and, not just for our school careers but for all of our lives. However, His is understanding and loving and fair in ways that no human evaluation could ever be. He is able to take into account and weigh all the factors that go into how we have behaved throughout our lives, and so we can trust Him far more than we could any other living being. Thanks be to God.

It would seem that troubles are an inevitable part of life, so the question is about how we will respond to them. Today’s passage relates how our ancestors in the early church responded, albeit in two very practical ways, namely in taking up a collection and in abiding in prayer. How often it seems, today at least, that we do the former but neglect the latter. It is as if we really don’t believe that prayer is in any way practical or that it makes a difference. Well, if you read further in today’s story you will discover that it did make a difference. God intervened by frustrating the plans of those in the leadership of the nation and keeping Peter safe, by sending an angel to rescue him from prison. So much for being ‘impractical’. It therefore challenges us to be more frequent in prayer and more intentional and persistent in it.

Today in the church’s calendar of saints we celebrate the life of one of my favourites, St. Mary Magdalene. Often maligned and falsely represented over the years, she is notable as being the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. As the first person to tell the story and spread the good news, she should be the patron saint of all evangelists--and indeed, for all of us.

So, then, that poses a couple of questions for me: firstly, what does it mean for each of us to be an evangelist? And, secondly, how do we go about doing this? Most of us are pretty tongue-tied, pretty reticent about speaking to others about Jesus and what He means to us, much less about what He has done in our lives. So, what is it that can make a difference for us, to help us do this more readily? Or, put another way, how can we, you and I, become more like the one we remember today?

There is something that I have had to wrestle with repeatedly as a pastor, namely the question of whether to help someone who is ‘supposedly’ in need. It is something that pastors and churches are confronted with often, but I am sure that all of us are confronted with it from time to time. The priest that David met up with had this issue, and gave David what he wanted, with dire consequences to himself and his family. Now, David used lies and misinformation to get it, but is this necessarily something that doesn’t happen with us as well? Often we simply don’t know all the fact either. So, should we say ‘yes’ to these appeals for help, or not? I’m not sure that there is a ‘one size fits all’ answer that fits every situation. Nevertheless, it is probably a question we all have to face at one time or another.

To me at least, it is quite incredible, all the variants of Christianity that co-exist out there. There are the dispensationalists, who assert that the ‘time’ for all kinds of signs and miracles ended with the rise of the early church and no longer take place in our world today. And there are those who totally disavow any idea of conversion or evangelism--as being insensitive and pushy, judgemental and non-inclusive. And there are those who dismiss any sense that God can work in any way other than what can be scientifically proven, that is, is purely rational and naturalistic ways. Probably then, in most senses, this is a gutless Christianity and an ineffectual God. However, this is not the God that I believe in and trust in. The problem is, however, that I don’t see a lot of evidence of His being at work in peoples’ lives or in our world or our churches today. I pray that this will indeed happen, and that our eyes will be open to be able to see it--and be part of it.

Today’s meditation and Scripture passage both speak to me on a subject that, to me at least, is rather challenging. I am a creature of habit who doesn’t like to change my ways very much. And so, venturing out into something new, taking a risk, trying out the new wine skins, is not exactly something that I’m comfortable with. However, sometimes that is exactly what God is calling us to accept--and even embrace. Sometimes that is exactly what He demands of those who ’say’ that they trust Him in everything. Anyway, to do that is something that I struggle with. Maybe you are ‘in the same boat.'

Sometimes there are pieces of Scripture which, though they give us a bit of history and explain partially why things turned out as they did, do not really seem to have much meaning or significance for us today. One of these pieces is today’s passage, which relates some of the ongoing rivalry between Jacob and Esau, and gives us a clue as to where it led, but doesn’t seem very relevant for us today.

However, New Testament writers say it differently. They saw it as an instance of God’s sovereign choice, His choice in not choosing as we might do--looking at things like appearance or intellect or social standing--or, in this case, birth order, but choosing the most unlikely--indeed the one who least deserved it. After all, Jacob was the cheat, the scoundrel, the supplanter, not a nice fellow indeed. Even so, God chose him--and He chooses us as well. Go figure.

Today’s meditation raises a rather important and contemporary issue and question: with people’s opinions these days often so firmly entrenched and immovable that they can’t even hear each other, much less change or modify their views, how in the world can God ever get through? I’m presuming that He does, as division, especially in the church, is ‘not His thing’ and often within the church world the divisions are just as pronounced as elsewhere. So, then, how can God get through? And is there anything that we can do?

In a sense, the apostle Peter was already one step further in the process than many of his contemporaries. He was away from his home territory, which sometimes is a help. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is always a help. And, he was stayed with Simon the tanner, which may have been one of the prohibited occupations. And furthermore, he had been in prayer when he received the vision of the unclean beasts.

Anyway, I, for one, find these divisions depressing, but then am very fearful of ‘wading into’ some of the contentious topics for fear of what I encounter. So here, then, is why I pray for God’s intervention.