Jesus often takes the ordinariness of life and brings it into our conscious awareness…and as we live life, everything is not fireworks and sparklers rather it is about a persevering faithfulness.
The Lord is going to change our lives, He is making us new, even as He makes all things new but in His changing us we will be dealing with pretty much the same people, the same routines, the same temptations, the same culture pressures, the same children, the same parents as we deal with every day. Everything will be changing and yet nothing will have changed. I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it, “Jesus is preparing us to live a crucifixion and resurrection life patiently and without fanfare…obediently and without recognition.”
And in most of our lives, although the way of the cross is paramount, Jesus isn’t speaking crisis language, He isn’t raising His voice, and He really isn’t concerned about systematic theology. He is concerned for his people, He is concerned for you and for me living faithfully in the mess, faithfully in the everyday and it is there that we find overwhelming joy, peace, comfort and contentment, because we find Him.
One author compared this cross-filled life of the ordinary, as the life “between Sundays.”
What he means is that the Jesus life is commonly preached and taught in Sunday worship. The sanctuary is the appointed time and place for giving attention to what it means to worship and follow Jesus in the company of the baptized. Here we will set the end before us and rejoice in the finished victory of the Messiah. It is a protected time and space and we pretty much know what to expect, it is glorious, it is foundational, you know how important worship is, but other than the computer messing up and getting the wrong words on the screens, there are few surprises.
But as we live our ordinary lives, “out there”, anything might happen and usually, anything DOES happen. And the Lordship of Christ is not simply a Sunday experience, in fact the Sunday experience is to prepare us and encourage us for all that happens “between the Sundays”.
Joshua 15-17 is saturated with land divisions, borders what we might call all the stuff between the Sundays, or in Israel’s case, between the Saturdays. But this is where they will live, this is where their ordinary days will take place and it is in the ordinary life of faithfulness that we learn to follow our King. So, for the next couple of days, let’s talk about the ordinary life, life between Sundays.
For example: How often do you stop to simply thank the Lord for what He has given you? I am speaking about common, everyday kindnesses. Is it easy for you to live day in and day out without much thought of the blessings and gifts that our Father has lavished upon you? It might be the laughter of your children, the love of your spouse. The fact that the time around your family table reminds you of how the lines have fallen for you in pleasant places. You have friends, good friends who help you walk faithfully with the Lord…you are…well…blessed. It all seems very ordinary…and yet…when we stop to think of it all, it is loaded with gifts without which we wouldn’t know who we are.
Hidden amidst the dividing up of the land are the responses of God’s people to His gifts and they are not always what they should be. But as we read and take note of those responses, we find that we too, often, can be tempted to receive the blessings of God without thankfulness and dare I say, even without faith.
Joshua 15:13-19: According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher. And Caleb said, “Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and captures it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.” And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she got off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 19 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Caleb, remember, followed the Lord wholeheartedly, without a divided heart and he followed the Lord this way, all his life, even in the midst of a faithless people. Here we find that Caleb was not merely a man of words but of action. His faith, his undivided heart, was that of acting on what God had promised, reaching out and taking hold of that for which God had taken hold of him.
Often we have good intentions, especially on Sundays. We speak boldly when there is no threat, we speak loudly when there is no adversary. But what do those intentions and words produce between the Sundays? We profess and speak boldly about what we would do, what faith would require and how we would never let the Lord down.
“Why, if I were in that place, I would…” But of course faithfulness is not merely a profession of words, but a profession of how we live our life; It is action and reaction, it is speaking and doing. Knowing the faithful answer is not always the same as living faithfully. It would have been quite revealing if Caleb, after making the claims of faith he made in chapter 14 would have run to Hebron and after looking around at the giants decided that maybe Hebron wasn’t such a good idea after all. In fact, maybe Bethel would be better.
We are often like Peter; Lord I will follow you even unto death! Oh, how we boast of things our faith is too weak to act upon. All of a sudden, something happens and…well…we are not so sure any more, things are cloudy, at least from our vantage point. And what God has called us to, what He has promised, what He has commanded, just isn’t as certain as it was when we were at church.
I am sure there were plenty of excuses Caleb could have come up with and probably would have been quite convincing. But that is not what whole-hearted Christians do. The apostle James tells us pretty bluntly that we are not to be hearers of the word but doers of the word and another epiphany: Maybe the reason why we are inundated with bumper sticker Christianity is that it is an easy cover up for not being doers of the word.
Perhaps we use bumper stickers, Christian clichés, theological Band-aids, to cover up the time between Sundays…the times where faith comes under fire, the times where we are forced to react to life…Maybe the kitty cat poster with the words hang in there, is a cover for not finding our peace and contentment in the mystery of God’s sovereignty when the winds are blowing…I am just saying.
Our faith is to be one of confident action…but our confidence is never in ourselves but in the One who has made promises that He has and will always keep. Caleb’s faith was one that took God at His word…what about yours and mine?
Prayer: Father, I pray that my life would not be one of words only but of humble action. Help me to believe You, trust You and obey You with full confidence and joy. As I live between the Sunday’s may my life be a testimony of the great love of God for sinners and evidence that You are making all things new! In Jesus name, Amen.
Gospel Song: Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
