practice the Presence | John 10.37-42
FRIDAY
Reflection 130 of 240
REFLECT
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there. John 10.37-42 | ESV
“Deeds are so important to you, so why don’t you just look at mine! Look at my track record! If I don’t have a track record of works clearly demonstrating my Father’s beauty and goodness, then, fine, don’t take me serious for a moment, just write me off as a nobody, a heretical windbag. But if I have the deeds, then even if you can’t handle what I say and how I say it, trust what I actually do so that you can recognize and experience this fundamental reality: Abba in me, me in Abba.”
Forget the rocks, they went for the throat, to throttle and seize him right there on the spot. But he walked right through their grasping hands.
So it was time to leave. Again. This time across the Jordan, not too far from where John was dunking people at the start of all this. Jesus decided to hang tight there for a while. News spread about where he was and crowds once again began gathering. They kept saying, “You know, John never had a resume of miracles and divine healing, but everything John said about this man was spot on!” And in that desert place filled with so many echoes of John, many laid it all on the line for Jesus.
MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
I have several key mentors who, being dead, still speak. Brother Lawrence is one of them. 
When I am asked about prayer, I reach for Brother Lawrence.
When people want to know how they can hear God and experience his lead and direction in their lives, I turn to him.
Mother Tessa Bielecki describes him as “a great awkward fellow who broke everything.”
At age eighteen, he experienced a profound conversion when he saw a bare tree in the middle of winter “standing gaunt and leafless against the snow.” But what for others was just another lifeless tree in the dead of winter, Brother Lawrence saw a sign of hope as he was suddenly seized with anticipation of the miracle of this same tree burgeoning with new life the following spring. He was overwhelmed by “a high view of the providence and power of God” which never left him and which kindled in him an intense love for God. He entered a monastery of the Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites in Paris where, as a lay brother, “he worked for fifteen years in the kitchen, though he had a natural aversion for it, then as the monastery’s doorkeeper.”
Great awkward man who broke everything.
Not even a real monk.
Cook.
Dishwasher.
Doorkeeper.
And popes came to sit at his feet and learn about his practice of the Presence.
Funny how often such practice of the Presence ends up happening on the other side of the Jordan rather than in holy vaulted halls.
The religious in-crowd were so sure they were in tune with God and so they not only turned their noses up at Jesus but were ready to stone and throttle him.
But poor pilgrims in nowhere land on the other side of the Jordan saw the Glory in his Face.
John had no impressive track record of signs and wonders – shoot, he didn’t even have a decent wardrobe or a respectable “church.”
But he was spot on about Jesus.
They could see it for themselves in his face.
And they could hear it in his words.
“Eyes that see and ears that hear: both are a gift from God” says ancient sage.
Lord we would have both.
RELATE
Is the presence of God something you “practice” or is it more something you sporadically experience? Why?
RESPOND
Abba, make Brother Lawrence’s prayer mine, from deep in my bones: “Lord of all pots and pans and things…make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates” – and let me hear your voice in the clatter and chatter of it all. Through Jesus.
I said, “Ye are gods” | John 10.34-36
THURSDAY
Reflection 129 of 240
REFLECT
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
John 10.34-36 | ESV
Jesus nearly snickered. “Why does such a statement have you so riled up? Your own Scriptures, right there in your own law book, say the same thing, ‘I said (God speaking here to human beings!), ‘You are ‘gods’ – awesome beings clothed with immense power!” What, are you going to stone the Psalmist now? If we find that kind of language used about human beings receiving a divine charge right there in Scripture – and Scripture is unbreakable, is it not? – then why freak out about the same kind of language being used for the unique Entity that the Father set aside and sent into the world to accomplish his unique task? But no, all I have to say is ‘I am the Son of God’ and accusations of ‘blasphemy!’ start flying right and left – with stones not far behind the accusation. MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
They were using the wrong organ.
They needed ears, but all they could do was keep sniffing at Jesus.
He didn’t smell like their system or their assumptions, so it mattered precious little what they actually saw or heard from him.
So Jesus tries again to engage their ears with one of their own Scriptures frequently heard chanted in synagogue and temple. It was a Psalm directed to the judges, the “movers and shakers” on the human scene, the power brokers, the string pullers, the “gods.” Human powers entrusted with the divine responsibility of governing in this world.
The basic Hebrew word for God we transliterate into English as “El” and “el” is essentially power. The plural is “elohim.” Used of the Ultimate Power through whom heaven and earth and all that is within them were made, it is “Elohim” – God. Used of lesser powers in heaven (angelic/demonic) or powers on earth (kings/presidents) it’s “elohim.”
Jesus’ point to his detractors who are ready to stone him to death, again, is simply “If human judges can be called ‘sons of God’ or ‘gods’ – awesome beings clothed with immense power,” then why balk at such a label on me – the One and Only from the Father?”
I suspect that thought makes us chew a bit too.
And while we’re at it, how about we chew on the whole Psalm, not just to get the context for this one statement, but to get the point of the entire Psalm – a Psalm that could easily be addressed to all of us in this powerful, wealthy nation of ours:
God calls the judges into his courtroom,
he puts all the judges in the dock.
“Enough! You’ve corrupted justice long enough,
you’ve let the wicked get away with murder.
You’re here to defend the defenseless,
to make sure that underdogs get a fair break;
Your job is to stand up for the powerless,
and prosecute all those who exploit them.”
Ignorant judges! Head-in-the-sand judges!
They haven’t a clue to what’s going on.
And now everything’s falling apart,
the world’s coming unglued.
“I commissioned you judges, each one of you,
deputies of the High God,
But you’ve betrayed your commission
and now you’re stripped of your rank, busted.”
O God, give them their just deserts!
You’ve got the whole world in your hands!
No more head in-the-sand judges. Lord, we would hear.
RELATE
When have you really been impacted by hearing the voice of God? How did you hear it? What happened?
RESPOND
Abba, you do have the whole world in your hands, so when I see everything falling apart and coming unglued, let me not sit clueless like a head-in-the-sand judge. Let me see and hear and engage in this world defending the defenseless and standing up for the powerless. Empower me to do what you do. Through Christ.
ears you have dug for me | John 10.25-30
TUESDAY
Reflection 127 of 240
REFLECT
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” John 10.25-30 | ESV
Jesus coolly replied, “I already did – and you wouldn’t hear a word of it. I showed you my credentials: every deed I’ve done with the Father’s blessing and authority speaks plainly enough, but you aren’t going for it – not a bit. Why? Because you’re not one of mine – you’re not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice, and I recognize them right back, and there they are, following right on my heels – and talk about green pastures, their pasture is life to the full forever! And never in a million years will they lose that – no prowling predator will snatch them away while under my care! And it isn’t just my care. Every last one of them is a gift from my Father who is unequaled, unrivaled. No one messes with my Abba – and no one can lay a finger on one of his sheep while under his care. To talk about me is to talk about him. We are one.” MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
“Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.”
It’s Psalm 40:6.
And it’s our most desperately needed divine surgery because it’s what must happen before anything else can.
We need God to dig us ears.
That’s the literal rendering of the Psalmist’s word.
It’s not that he has ears that are just plugged with wax.
They were non-existent.
Big, ear-less, blockhead.
But then “ears you have dug for me.” The word means to dig, dig through, excavate, as in digging a well or a pit. That’s about what we need, isn’t it? We need ears dug for us. This is an operation we can’t perform on ourselves. We need such self-surgery like another hole in our head.
We can only wait for it.
Receive it.
And as you contemplate that, receive this reading from Psalm 40:
I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.
Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
ignore what the world worships;
The world’s a huge stockpile
of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
comes close to you!
I start talking about you, telling what I know,
and quickly run out of words.
Neither numbers nor words
account for you.
Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
so I can listen.
So I answered, “I’m coming.
I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
became part of my very being.
RELATE
What would you identify as your greatest challenge in hearing the voice of God? In what ways do you feel that deep need to have God “dig you ears”?
RESPOND
Yes, Lord. Do this. Dig us ears so we can listen. It’s the one thing that sheep have going for them. It’s the one thing we desperately need to have going for us. Dig me ears. Through Jesus.
elusive God | John 10.22-24
MONDAY
Reflection 126 of 240
REFLECT
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” John 10.22-24 | ESV
Fast forward.
It’s now three months later. In Jerusalem. Mid-December. The winter “Light Up the House!” celebration. Jesus is walking in the temple through Solomon’s long colonnaded porch (a hot-spot for teaching rabbis to gather a crowd). Suddenly he found his way blocked in each direction as the local religious crowd closed in and began prodding him, “Enough is enough! Stop playing games and holding us in suspense. If you’re the Messiah, just say so plainly already!” MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
Receive
Several months have passed, though what we read in the second half of John 10 picks up the same “shepherd thread” from the first half.
The occasion is the Jewish winter celebration we know as Hanukkah, also known as the “Feast of Dedication.”
This celebration didn’t have its origin in ancient Levitical law and tradition but in more recent events during what we call the “Maccabean Revolt” nearly two centuries before Jesus was born. The Jewish people successfully threw off the yoke of foreign oppression, liberated their holy city and rededicated their holy temple (circa 165 BC).
The story goes that when the Temple services were restored, the oil for the lamps in the temple was found to be unfit for use – except for one container that was sealed with the High Priest’s ring. There was just enough oil there to feed the holy lamp stand for one day – but to their surprise and delight, much like Elijah’s cruse of oil, this container was found filled with just enough oil for the next day, and the next, and the next – for eight days – until a fresh supply of oil was brought from Tekoa.
In memory of this miraculous supply, it was ordered in the following year that that temple be illuminated for eight days on the anniversary of its “Dedication.”
And so it continued for generations.
And so Jesus during that winter celebration of light and life and liberty found himself strolling through those illuminated courts. And then he found himself surrounded, pressed, prodded.
“Stop the games. Stop being so elusive. Just spit it out. Tell us plainly who you are!”
I so hear my own voice echoing in their question!
How I long at times for God to come out of hiding, to stop being coy or downright silent. Just one moment of clarity, please!
It was said by ancient rabbis that God had to have his people take a three day journey into the wilderness to meet with him, just to get away from the noise of Egypt so they could hear the voice that is always speaking. They said the only remarkable thing about the Sinai experience was that for that one moment the world without and especially within was quieted enough (at least for Moses!) that the voice of God that is always speaking could actually be heard.
What an excruciating irony.
Turns out we’re the ones who are elusive and in need of learning to listen plainly.
RELATE
When has God seemed elusive and difficult to pin down? How have you handled that? What would you say is the key to hearing God’s voice in our world today?
RESPOND
Abba, thank for your grace that pardons me when I surround you with my insistent demands for clarity, demonstration, and proof. Still my heart long enough to hear what you have been singing over me since the day I was ushered into this world. Ears to hear. Yes. Give me those. Through Christ.
REFLECT | RECEIVE | RELATE | RESPOND 