Rip off the bandage

My daughter took the dog out for a walk earlier. Nothing unusual, since we all try to take turns. But when she came back in, she was carrying a Walmart bag. "Look what I found on the front porch!", she exclaimed. Oh yes, I knew where that had come from, and quickly explained it to her, as she unpacked its contents. But my mind was not on the items in that bag. In my mind, I was seeing bags of groceries, that I was unpacking, 21 years ago.

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

-Psalm 143:5

Twenty-one years ago, I was standing in my kitchen, crying as I was unpacking three grocery bags that had been left on my porch. You see in these bags were powdered milk, tea bags, sweetener, and dry cereal, like generic Cheerios. There had to have been other things, but I can't remember what they were. i just remember thinking the same thing over and over. i'm living out in the country and never heard a car, much less my front door open for someone to put those bags just inside the door. Sure I was upstairs with the baby, but the staircase opening is five feet from the front door on the first floor and right beside the baby's door upstairs. And for Pete's sake I was changing the baby's diaper, on the changing table, RIGHT BESIDE THAT DOOR. I would have, should have heard them. Right?

But why would I be crying over those four things? Ridiculous! Nope. Those four things were like manna straight from heaven. I was living in the empty parsonage of the church I attended, in the country. This was necessary because I had quite literally moved out of my house into this one, in a clandestine move. I didn't want my alcoholic abusive husband to find us. So I waited until he was not around and left. The move I had thought out, and planned rather well. But I never even thought of our bank account. Until the morning the bank called and said he'd just cashed out everything. EVERYTHING. I had nothing. That's when I got creative. I was able to return the wedding china and get enough money to pay the next mortgage payment on the house I'd just left. The church was letting me stay for free, just paying utilities. I was able to qualify for WIC and receive food stamps, and I was able to go to the food bank in town. But on this day, when the groceries arrived, I was out of money and food stamps and it was the weekend, so no food bank, and no way to get the baby milk or food. And we were completely out of everything. OUT. Until I walked down the steps and discovered the bags that held exactly what I needed. And so sign of who left them. An angelic delivery? You better believe it. Nothing to feed the baby or myself and powdered milk and dry cereal shows up with tea bags and sweetener?

"Look at the birds in the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" -Matthew 6:26

Jesus says these words while seated on a mountainside at the Sea of Galilee, as part of what we call "The Sermon on the Mount". I think this part is so cool. Most of us have read it and moved on, missing the significance.

"Now when he saw the crowds he went up to the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him" -Matthew 5:1

Sure its the sea where he will calm the storm (Mark 4:35-41), soon be walking on water (Mt 14: 22-36), preaching from the boat in the near future (Mark 4:1) and will be helping Peter catch fish after his resurrection on the sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-14). But that's not what I'm referring to here. Now let me say that I have no doubt in my mind that Jesus had a sense of humor and maybe even was a little teeny, tiny bit mischievous. He was human. Yes I know he was perfect, after all he was the Almighty on earth, but he was "in the flesh" not a robot. I'm just picturing him finding a nice spot on the mountainside to rest and be able to think, while looking over the sea, enjoying a few minutes of peace. The crowds had not found him yet. The disciples had not finished their errands and had yet to arrive. So he had a few minutes to gaze at the sea and think...think about the future maybe...think about the sacrifice he would soon make. When suddenly he was hit by the reflection of the sun bouncing off of the sea. His thoughts of the future turned toward the events that were going to happen right there.On the very waters of that sea. A smiled crossed his face when he thought about the storm yet to come. That grin turned into laughter thinking about the looks on the disciples faces seeing him walking on water: thinking, who knew facial expressions could change from fear to disbelief to awestruck wonder so quickly. Then thinking about Peter. His own laughter giving over to concern. Peter didn't trust enough to walk on water with him. after he'd just calmed the storm. But I know a way, thought Jesus (maybe), maybe the Sea of Tiberias is more Peter's style. As he imagined preaching to the multitudes from a boat in the sea in front of him, his thoughts returned to this mountainside where he sat. And what he would soon tell the crowds.

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. -Exodus 19:20

Moses went to the mountain to meet God to receive the law. Jesus went to the mountain "affirming the complete validity of the Law and the Prophets" (p. 175, A Summary of the New Testament, Robert H. Gundry), and taking it to a new level by giving us moral and ethical rules for all Christians to live by. However, taken literally, they are impossible to live by: "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown in hell." (v.29) Let's face it, everyone with functioning hormones would be blind. But even the blind can lust. Obviously, Jesus doesn't want us to destroy our physical bodies, but he doesn't want sin to destroy our chances to join him in heaven. Admission of sin and redemption for that sin may be painful (losing a body parts: admission=right eye, redemption=left eye) but it is better to enter the kingdom of heaven without them than to go to heaven with one eye. Temporary pain is a lot better than eternal pain. Its like ripping the bandage off. It is going to hurt for a second, and there might be a scar, but in five minutes you won't remember what that pain felt like. Go to Jesus now, and rip off that bandage.