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When you refuse to love people because they're hard to love, you forget the fact that God always loves you, even though you're not always easy to love.

Rev. Charles Lehmann + Fifth Sunday after Trinity + Luke 5:1-11

 In the Name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 Most of the time we don't know what we're saying when we pray.  We ask for all sorts of things, but we don't have any idea what would happen if the Lord gave us what we ask for in the way that we ask for it.  We don't know how it would affect us, our families, or our communities.  Though we might have an opinion on the matter, most of the time we don't even have any idea if what we're asking for is even a good thing.

 This is why we pray as the Lord has taught us to pray.  We ask for His will to be done.  All of our prayers are tempered this way.  We do not know what is best.  We do not know if what we are asking for is for our good.  We don't know what the Lord has in mind for our day to day life.  But we trust Him.  We know that our Lord is good.  We know that He will give us what is best.  We know that even if what we receive doesn't match up with what we ask for that we'll still be getting the best that we could possibly receive.

 But it's even better than that.  You see, sometimes we sin in our prayer.  Sometimes God has made it clear in His Word that what we are asking for is not for our good.  These prayers are frightening.  What if God were to say “yes” to those prayers?  The answer, dear Christian friends, is the same.  God is good.  He will give what is for our good.  Even when we are evil, God is not.  Even when we are asking for the worst possible thing, God gives us the best possible thing.  Even when we don't trust Him, don't believe His promises, and spit in the face of His good gifts, He has only our good in mind.

 It is only because of this infinite love and mercy that Jesus has for Peter that He does not do what Peter asks in the way that Peter asks it.  After the boat is so full of fish that it begins to sink, Peter cries out to Jesus and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinner, O Lord!”

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1 John 5:7 (King James Version)

Current Mood: fascinated

12:1¹ Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against ²  Moses because of the Cushite ³  woman he had married ⁴  (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). 12:2 They ⁵  said, “Has the Lord only ⁶  spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” ⁷  And the Lord heard it. ⁸ 

12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, ⁹  more so than any man on the face of the earth.)]\


The Response of the Lord

12:4 The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: “The three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went. 12:5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent; he then called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.

12:6 The Lord ¹⁰  said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, ¹¹  I the Lord ¹²  will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream. 12:7 My servant ¹³  Moses is not like this; he is faithful ¹⁴  in all my house. 12:8 With him I will speak face to face, ¹⁵  openly, ¹⁶  and not in riddles; and he will see the form ¹⁷  of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 12:9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed. 12:10 When ¹⁸  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ¹⁹  leprous ²⁰  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ²¹  Miriam, and she was leprous!

x-posted to my journal.