Everyone is reevaluating their priorities. With all the upheaval in society, we have to ask, “What matters most?”
For us, Jesus Christ is the paramount priority. Our first desire is to know and be known by him. “To live is Christ . . .” Paul says (Phil. 1:21). In a time of resignation and reluctance, we enter a season of Recommitment in November.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, you said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). I know, and you know better, that my love for you has faltered. My heart and soul are bent toward self. My mind is easily distracted and my strength fails. But I know you are gracious. Forgive me. Show me loving kindness. Reform my heart and soul, mind and strength, that I may be fully devoted to you. Amen.
Word: Mark 13:6, ESV
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”
Meditation
People seem to get deceived in one of two ways. Either the deceiver has done a very good job imitating the real thing; or the deceived forgets the real thing, or had never really known the real thing at all, and so he can’t tell the difference when the trick comes on. A great example of the first is conniving Jacob, wrapped in wool like his hairy brother Esau, to steal Esau’s blessing from Isaac (Gen 27). He must have been convincing, but then again, that story has a little bit of the second way, too: after all, Jacob’s ruse never would’ve panned out had Isaac been able to tell the two apart. Isaac’s blindness was key in his own subversion.
More people than can be counted have and will continue to take on “messianic” deceptions of the most epic proportions. It’s a safe bet: political heads and activists, mystics and celebrities and popular designers have always created a miraculous and watchful stir. Today, with online communities like Instagram and Twitter, casual messiahs gain “followers” in minutes with opportune tweets or tags. It cannot be denied that we have more (and, frankly, more boring) shepherds today than we have flocks, and the flocks are as fleeting as they’ve ever been.
If we are deceived for the first reason—that our deceivers play a really convincing messiah—then we’ve got the wrong Jesus Christ. Jesus, the real one, never seemed to like the limelight much. It seems instead that we fall more into the second category: either we’ve never heard of the real Jesus, or we’re incorrigibly bent on forgetting him. Who wants a hero that contradicts our inclinations, who wins by losing, who gains strength by forfeit? Not me, not you, and no one else for that matter. He is our people’s messianic antitype—and you know what? This is good news. It means that there will be deceivers, but their ruse will always reach its end at the impossible litmus of death and resurrection. Only one has done this—and he is the real McCoy.
We pray: O Lord, open our eyes to see your Son Jesus Christ and guard our hearts from being led astray from the many false Messiahs in this world and grant us your Spirit of discernment. Amen.
Prayer
Gracious God, be with me today. Teach me to do your will, not in words but in power. Help me to desire your will and your ways. With you I begin, and with you I continue and end. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Benediction
May the blessing of the eternal God be upon us and upon our work;
His light to guide us,
His presence to strengthen us,
His love to unite us;
Now and always. Amen.