Rev. Eric Anderson What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: Recognizing Truth

People didn’t know what to think about Jesus or John the Baptist. How do we recognize those who tell us the truth?

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30).

As Jesus himself observed, people didn’t know what to do or what to think about him and about his predecessor, John the Baptist. Jesus compared it to children in a village square singing, “We played the pipes for you and you would not dance. We wailed for you and you would not mourn.” Because John the Baptist, well, he was an ascetic and they said he had a demon. Jesus came along and he met with people. He ate and drank with them. And they said that he was a glutton and a drunkard and the friend of sinners.

What is one to do? How is one to meet expectations which are never quite defined, but mostly seem to come down to if you’re not behaving just like me, then you can’t possibly be somebody with a legitimate message from God. Isn’t that the case today? For this person and for that person, if the message doesn’t sound like something that they might say, well then it probably isn’t from God, now, is it?

I’m pretty sure that’s the case from me. I suspect it’s probably the case for you as well.

In a prayer, just a little further down the chapter, Jesus actually thanked God for the revelation coming to those not who were powerful or educated, those that you would expect to recognize the incarnation of God. Instead, the truth had been revealed to people like Simon Peter or James and John, day workers, fishermen, people who had not spent a lot of time learning and studying people who probably could not read at all.

The message of the good news in the end comes not to those who have prepared for it necessarily, but to those who are willing to embrace it. The message of the gospel comes to those who are willing to listen for truth and to accept it into their spirits when they do. The blessings of the gospel come not to those who have set themselves out as the arbiters of truth, but to those who can recognize it when it comes.

May that be said of you and of me.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Rev. Eric Anderson What I'm Thinking

What I’m Thinking: Signs of the Times

What happens when people claim to speak for God and have radically different views? Ask if they can read the signs of the times as well as the signs of God.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28:5-9).

Things were not good in Judah. The Babylonians had sent an army which had conquered its capital city Jerusalem. They had taken away the king, a number of the king’s advisers, senior leaders in the city, the nation, the Temple. They had looted the city, including removing at least some of the sacred appointments of the Temple itself.

Now, some prophets in the city had declared that God would keep the Babylonians away. They had been wrong. Among them was one named Hananiah who declared that within two years, God would reverse the judgment, restore the nation and even return the sacred objects to the temple.

Jeremiah, who had opposed Hananiah, said that no, no, the sins of the leaders were still working themselves out. And indeed, they would live under Babylonian domination for some time to come. “But Hananiah, may it be as you have said, may it be that this different proclamation, unlike the prophets of before, who had observed the conditions of the day and said that there were consequences for them, the consequences sometimes from God and sometimes consequences of the behavior in itself. If peace comes, then we will know that you are a prophet. And if Babylon maintains its dominion, we will know who the prophet is.”

Jeremiah, in addition to hearing from God, could read the signs of the times. Babylon was not going away. And indeed, it would be more than seventy years before the people who had been taken into exile were able to return home. And if you think about it, that’s not the people taken into exile. That’s their grandchildren and their great grandchildren.

Jeremiah could read the signs of the times and would not be swayed by words that promised what he wanted. He wanted the restoration of the nation. He wanted the Temple’s sacredness to be restored. But that was not going to happen. The nation’s leaders had taken them down terrible paths, and the nation as a whole had suffered the consequences.

Not all that many years later, the king that the Babylonians had installed tried a little rebellion of his own, resulting in the destruction of the city walls and the burning of Solomon’s Temple.

Jeremiah could read the signs of the times. May we read the signs of the times and make the changes that are necessary to restore the fortunes of the most vulnerable and the most needy in our society, and to hold accountable those who oppress and impoverish them.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.