RENEWsletter for June 20, 2010 - 12th Ordinary

Dear Renewed Friends--
Next Sunday is Father's Day. I remember my old dad who passed away about this time of year several years ago. So there's some sadness to this day for me, but I know Dad is up there in Heaven, no doubt banging away on the ivories of a celestial piano and jazzing up some old hymns with the angels singing along. So there's some rejoicing too in God's loving plan for us all.

The readings for this Sunday, the Twelfth Sunday of the Numbered Sundays, give an insight into what the fountains of God's love can accomplish. These readings are available at http://www.usccb.org/nab/062010.shtml on the web, and in your Bible at:

Zechariah 12.10-11, 13.1
Psalm 63.2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Galatians 3.26-29
Luke 9.18-24

The First Reading describes a scene of mourning. Zechariah has foreseen a day when the inhabitants of Jerusalem are devastated by the tragedy of their self-inflicted loss. They have pierced one whom they later realize was as a firstborn son to them (Zech. 12.10). The reference to the mourning of Hadadrimmon at Megiddo (v. 11) is obscure. Hadad and Rimmon are two names for the Syrian god of storms, or combined into one word could be the name of the place near Megiddo where King Josiah was killed. Megiddo was a fortified city on the main pass in the Carmel mountain range on the coastal trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Whatever it means, to the Israelites it painted a picture of pitiful, remorseful mourning.

How unbearable it is when we suffer irreparable loss at our own hand! Yet the LORD says he will "pour out... a spirit of grace and petition" (v. 10), grace to accept the loss, and encouragement to petition the LORD for hope and strength to move through it. Not only that, but he supplies "a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness" (Zech. 13.1). He is eminently capable of turning our "mourning into dancing" (Psalm 30.11).

In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist thirsts for God the way a parched desert, lifeless and dry, thirsts for water (Ps 63.2). His thirst is quenched: "As with the riches of a banquet, shall my soul be satisfied" (v. 6).

In the Second Reading, Paul speaks of our baptism in Christ which has lifted us up above the differences among us that the world sees and gets hung up on. We are beyond nationality (Jew or Greek), beyond social status (slave or free), beyond gender (male or female) (Gal. 3.28). We are one in Christ as we bathe in the fountain of his saving, cleansing blood, and become heirs of his promise.

The Gospel Reading puts forth a truth I have come to call the "Principle of the Paradox". We have seen in the First Reading how mourning is turned into joy by the fountain of God's grace. In the Psalm, a thirsty soul is watered with rich blessings from the Lord. In the Second Reading, our differences, divisions, and short-comings are washed away in the baptism of Christ. Here we see that the one who wishes to save his life will lose it (Luke 9.24). Jesus warns his disciples not tell anyone that he is the prophesied Messiah... his time hasn't arrived yet. But when it does, he tells them, he will suffer greatly, be rejected, tortured, and killed. Yet, as verse 24 also says, "whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Come the third day after his death, Jesus will rise from the dead triumphant, and the mourning of his disciples will be turned into dancing.

What do we want from life? Mourning? Or dancing? I think dancing beats mourning all to pieces, don't you? But to join this heavenly conga line (with Dad providing the accompaniment!) what does Jesus say? "If anyone wishes to follow me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me" (v.23). It's the Principle of the Paradox in action.

Take up your cross with me this week and watch what fountains of blessing come our way.
--Randy

Randy Jones
"Those who don't think they're thirsty miss the fountains of blessing!"