2533AFC081525 – The Struggle in the Mud
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Hebrews 12:1 a-b – 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight* and the sin that clings so closely
* ὄγκον onkon – hindrance, distraction, besetting sin, a bulky mass of useless burdens
Psalm 40:2 –
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
Jeremiah 38:4 a 5-6 – 4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people […] 5 King Zedekiah said, “Here he is; he is in your hands; for the king is powerless against you.” 6 So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. Now there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
Luke 12:49-50 – 49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”
May the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! And welcome to Post #1031. This blog site usually gets updated – rented, paid – at the end of September, and so far things are going great! Well, mostly. I bought a new keyboard and mouse and my typing errors have increased because I have to sit up and use all of it properly. Otherwise the keys get stuck like my old Royal Typewriter. Well, not really exactly like that, but it does slow me down when I have to go back and correct something that happened because I was being careless about how I use my tools. Well, sort of. Another part of it is because – like the Tin Woodsman – my parts are a little rusty. The osteoarthritis in my fingers, back, and feet slow me down, and I really should not spend hours sitting at the keyboard because my feet swell up and fire off the peripheral neuropathy pangs. Most of these are hindrances that get in my way because I didn’t do the right things when I was younger. Remember that song, “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger.”? Ditto.
There are things I can do to lessen or ameliorate those limitations which can bring some relief, but the bottom line is some of it I just have to accept as “the new normal,” and then just keep on truckin’ until I get Home. I get plenty of help, though. Crucita puts up with a lot of baloney from me with my moans and groans, slow walk, cane falling over all the time (and so many times I hobble off on my own and forget it). She helps me with Salonpas, does my haircuts (since 1972!!), and we share the kitchen and household duties. I’m not much good outside though, so she still mows the lawn, and trims the trees and bushes at age 81. In a way, I am a burden for her because of my disabilities, BUT we do have a handicap parking card so, there’s that. Even so, she is true to her vows and sticks with me for richer or poorer (got the latter kinda worked out), in sickness and in health (not much of the latter in that one), and quickly points out when I am wrong or unhelpful (which, I have learned, is often). These are all things old, married, and patient couples deal with in some way or another. We have to work with the cards we’re dealt; but we all know some folks who have to cope with more glitches either by their own actions or by the actions of others. There’s some insights in today’s Key Verses we can use as glitch cleaners.
In our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah – who is always in some sort of fix because of God’s messages through him – the Prophet is tossed into a cistern by his enemies who are hoping he will die. The cistern was full of mud – the water it had to held had been used up and all that was left was silty, gooey mud; some might even liken it to quicksand. Raise your hand if you can remember someone else who was left to die in a cistern. Right! Well done, scholar! Joseph got tossed into a cistern and then sold into slavery. This was done because his older brothers did not appreciate their little brother telling them they would one day bow down to him.
Joseph was speaking a Prophecy given by God which later came true. Jeremiah was speaking a Prophecy given by God that Jerusalem would be Captured and burned down if King Zedekiah, and the people in and around Jerusalem, did not surrender to the Chaldeans a.k.a. the Babylonians. Four bigshots in the government complained to the king that Jeremiah was demoralizing the soldiers and frightening the people. He was a traitor and must be punished. Zedekiah was a wicked, crooked, conniving 32-year-old creep. He was carted off to Babylon and died there. He should have listened to Jeremiah. Instead he chose to hold onto his lifestyle and his baggage. It killed him. And thus, Jeremiah’s Prophecy came true.
Jeremiah had compared the people of Jerusalem to a cistern carved and paved inside by humans. This metaphor was used to tell them their “do-it-my-way” form of religion was displeasing to God. It was full of idolatry and disloyalty, The Law was ignored – even scoffed at – and the “cisterns of their souls” were broken and empty as compared to the cisterns of God’s Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation where were gathered the Springs of Living Water. It seems that they preferred living in the muck and mire of an empty cistern under siege by a far greater power and without the assistance of the God who took them out of slavery in Egypt. The result of their obstinacy was that they became slaves in Babylon instead. “God we know what you want, but we don’t want that. We want what we want when and how we want it.” And that right there, Belovéd, is one very clear definition of sin with a capital S.
This idea of a cistern, or pit, is frequently used in the Old Testament. “Going down into the pit,” for example, is symbolic of dying, or being imprisoned, or enduring great hardship and oppression. King David had down-days like that – lots of them. Even though he committed several whopper-size sins, he had sense enough to repent and return to God. He was smart enough – and faithful enough – to know it was better to jettison whatever was displeasing to God and to proceed only with his God-given Gifts, not the heavy, chunky, junky burdens he grabbed on his way through life. All that sort of trash just gets in the way when we’re trying to play those cards we’ve been dealt – it’s like carrying 30-pounds of wet rags while trying to win a foot race. It gets worse when we’re spiritually out of shape and short of breath – the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul is using this metaphor of making a journey or running a race when he talks about getting rid of the things that hold us back, wear us down, or betray our trust (as all idols do). When he says we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses,” he is referring to the previous long list of Israelites whose faith kept them squarely in obedience to God’s will. From Enoch to Abraham to Moses, and many others he states that “By faith” they achieved God’s will and received God’s promise.”
The letter of James (See James 2, particularly vv. 18-26) also makes reference to some of these heroes who gave God the Glory for their lives rather than take idols unto their graves. The Apostle Paul uses this word ὄγκον onkon to describe that 30-pounds of wet rags as the worries and sins we carry. Do we really, really need that sort of hindrance? During Eastertide back in 2012 I told a story about 1218AFC050412 – 127 Degrees (← JIC). It involved seeking shelter in a desert while it was 127°. The “shelter” was the winter coats we wore to a Halloween party when I was in Junior High in Denver. We were instructed to “get rid of one article of clothing you don’t need in the desert when it’s 127 degrees.” Apparently we weren’t very smart at that age. Click on that link for the story to learn how it turned out. Sometimes the things we least need are the things we cling to most tightly. We have a very broad array of idols to cling to these days – some of the most obvious are drugs, alcohol, pornography, abusive relationships, and other forms of carnal desires. We are indeed idolators when we carry these in our lives instead of devoting our hearts to giving primacy and preeminence to Our Almighty Everliving God.
When we still fail to get rid of those old, wet rags – or when our enemies – spiritual or physical – throw us into a muddy hole, or under the bus, we have a consistently available recourse in Psalm 55:22 (↔ Music Link) –
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
The Apostle Paul put it in this Sunday’s passage from the Letter to the Hebrews this way:
Hebrews 12:2 (GNT) [1] – 2 Let us keep our eyes fixed (↔ Music Link) on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God’s throne. What The Apostle Paul is telling us here is that it’s easier to win the race if you keep your eyes on the finish – and the prize. (↔ Learning Link) “Eyes forward” as the saying goes; we’ll probably never get where we’re going if we keep our eyes trained on the review mirror. And when our inevitable Cross looms ahead, that is not the time to give up! The human man, Jesus, could have said, “That’s it, I’m outta here” at any point in his Passion by calling upon his Divine Nature. HE DID NOT, but instead suffered human pain and died a human death. That is what he was talking about in our Gospel Key Verse: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” It wasn’t just the nails that held him to the Cross. It was his persistent Obedience to Love. Every single one of us has a Calvary in our future, and that is where each of us crosses the Finish Line (unintentional pun there). That leads us to an important – albeit not too obvious – question:
Do we want to cross the Finish Line with an armload of wet rags, or would we rather do that with empty hands? St. Augustine wrote – “It is good for the rich man to acknowledge his poverty. If he thinks himself full, this is mere puffing, not abundance. Let him recognize that his hands are empty so that God can fill them.” [2] Now think of this: What if we could fill our frail human hands with God’s hands? God always initiates contact with us – not the other way around – and he always meets us more than halfway. What if we reached UP to him from the muck and mire, or from the rocky crag, or from the mountaintop, standing on our tippy-toes and reaching out with our fingers and yelled (or whimpered) “Abba, help me.” What do you think? Consider these as you decide:
Matthew 11:28-30 – 28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 – 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
1 Corinthians 15:58 – 58 Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
And what is our “labor?” To Love and Glorify the Lord, to do his will, to be just and merciful, and to love justice. All of these things are simpler without toting a pile of wet rags or struggling to run while up to our necks in mud. Do you see that key in the clouds up there? The clouds are the witnesses who have proven that F.A.I.T.H. is essential. The Key represents the F.A.I.T.H. of each of us. What do you think? Might it also be the Key to the Home of Eternal Light?
Lay that burden down adelphos. (↔ Learning Link) Reach up to God’s hand and get out of the cistern’s mud. Get rid of what is unneeded. Go to God with your hands empty and leave it all behind, because we know with absolute surety that` there’s something far better ahead.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
[2] (Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings. 1988, Mahway, NJ. Paulist Press. 244.)
