Kingdom Hope for the Weak

Sunday 26-27

1 Kings 3:5-12     Ps 119:129-136   Romans 8:26-39   Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

We all remember Martha’s complaint to Jesus, “Tell my sister to help me.” Paul uses that same Greek word when he says. “The Spirit of God helps us in our weakness.” In Genesis 1, the wind of God hovers over the chaos in creation, and in Genesis 2 God breathes His breath into the dust to make a human. Wind, breath, Spirit—ruah in Hebrew—refers to the life-giving power of God. Humans were created to rule the earth, but sin and corruption have literally made us (asthenia) “not strong.” We are so weak that we do not even know how to pray. Paul uses the word “weak” to describe our human condition, more than any other author in the New Testament, but he has hope that the Helper, whom Jesus promised, has come. Paul says the Spirit sanctifies our groaning and makes it prayer! Think what that means!

Paul sees God’s redemption in the midst of—our sin, guilt and shame, the hardships, violence, poverty and persecutions, the material and spiritual powers which would destroy us—and he declares that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom will come.

Yet, the Kingdom of Heaven is already manifest among us and within us. Jesus says it like the tiny mustard seed, just a speck, yet it grows into a large bush. It is hidden, like leaven in fifty pounds of flour—a direct references to Abrahams huge lunch feast for the Three Visitors! Remember, that meal ended with a laughable promise of a son, but Sarah is the great-grandmother of the twelve tribes of Israel. The impossible happens in the Kingdom!

God is secretly ruling in places even now, while some stumble across it by accident, like a buried treasure, others seek and find it, like the man searching for the pearl. But it comes at the cost everything. Why? Because whatever is not given to God remains a servant of sin and death. Remember, our earth is ruled by rival monarchs. Jesus says, choose your King.

In Genesis 1, God creates by speaking and separating: light from dark, land from water, day from night… In the same manner, the Torah separates righteous from sinner, clean from unclean. Jesus says the final separation will be the last judgement, where God will divide out His friends from His foes.

Let us be the wise man, treasuring both the Ancient and the new. Learn the Scriptures and tradition even as you study the arts and sciences. Jesus contains all truth, and the Spirit will help us in our weakness to pray and live as His disciples each day.