September 23rd, 20

WHOSE SONG ARE YOU SINGING?

Today’s readings are Ezra 1, Psalm 84 – 85, and Luke 7.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

Whose song will you sing?  Whose dance will you join.  Jesus quotes a familiar children’s folk song:

‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t weep.’ (Lk 7:32 NLT)

The song and dance of this world is the song of Self.  So many are joining in on this song.  And religion seems to sing it the loudest.  Religion seems to demand that you sing its song and dance to its tune. Religion’s song will draw you into a trance of self-justification.  

In the Garden a serpent came and and sang a tune and offered us a dance.  It was a song that insisted on a life apart from God.  We’ve been moving to this song, ever since.  The serpent has used the power of religion, ever since, to play its tune.  But we don’t have to sing this song or join this dance. All the prophets have been shouting down that music. They’ve been crying out to all  who will listen, that God is our song – not religion, not the self, not a life apart from God.  God, in his great love, offers us his Life, his love, and his song.  He offers it to all who are willing to trust him, come to him in faith, see, and believe, that they are loved by God.  Jesus has come to offer all the broken ones – all those ruined by the world and by religion – a new song – and time to dance.  It’s a song of life, forgiveness, and hope.

The woman in Luke, kneeled down and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, her perfume, and her kisses, because she had experienced the love of God.  Somehow , a new song broke through, through the noisy chaos of the world and religion.  God’s love created something new in her.  The Prophets saw it.  And now, Jesus is here, offering it not only to her, and the Prophets, but to you and to me.

Choose to sing only His song today- like the woman at Jesus’ feet.  Today, choose to join in His dance of Life.. Let’s all sing this song of life, and forgiveness, and love, and hope, joining in together, in His dance of Life.  We have been forgiven much.  May we love much.

You are loved!