Where we rely on Scripture to justify our lack of generosity and empathy, Jesus shows us the generosity and mercy in the Law. In the Law: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” where we want to put the emphasis on “neighbor” and debate its meaning so we can limit our own responsibility, Jesus maximizes the word “love” so that it overshadows all the limits we try to set on it. Emphasizing neighbor and finding out everything we can about the nuance there is met with the challenge to emphasize love and find out everything we can about how to love.

It’s never been easier to wander off into myths. And when we do, we sadly lose our appetite for the truth. And we eventually lose all spiritual sight. So seek the truth. Seek the Lord while he is able to be found. Don’t give your heart free reign, but aim it towards Him. Align your heart with his Word. Point it to the Cross of Jesus. Your Good Shepherd has made his love for you easy to find. Don’t wander from it for whatever delights you think might await you in the myths of this world. But look up and find him and draw near to him. Ask him for help. Ask him to restore your sight. Let the Cross of Jesus be your North Star, the fixed point you use to find your bearings and navigate life. And the promises of the good, eternal life found in Ezekiel will be yours at the end of the age, and Lord willing even now. 

One way to identify any idol, but this is especially helpful when looking at church-related idols, is to ask the question, “Is this person, place, thing, or practice something that helps me draw close to Jesus, or is Jesus becoming the thing that justifies my association with the person, place, thing, or practice?” Do we value Anglicanism because it helps us draw close to Jesus, or are we infatuated with various aspects of Anglican faith and practice and make those our main focus, with Jesus thrown in to make it noble and right, to baptize it? And we can ask the same thing about anything at any church. Idolatry is everywhere, including church.

When you sing a song to Jesus, it matters if you think you are singing a song to someone who is fully God, or to a created undergod. Right? It matters if you think the Holy Spirit is a person or just a force like in Star Wars. And the doctrine of the Trinity helps us get our understanding right, and stay away from wandering into thinking Jesus was a created undergod. It helps us keep our imaginations on track. It helps us get the WHO of God right. Our worship of God is worthship: the act of ascribing worth to God. If worship is more about God than about us exercising our worship reflexes, than it is important to get it right. Right worship of God starts with having the right object of worship.

God’s building project will go through the line of Abraham, not broken human ambition. And in Acts, we see  a new fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. It takes elements of the story of the Tower of Babel, but reworks them into a happier and better ending. Instead of seeing the languages of humans that were confused and separated at Babel so they would stop building the wrong thing that glorified themselves, in Acts we see the Holy Spirit enable communication between humans who speak different languages so they could start building the right thing, the church, which glorifies not themselves, but God. 

Jesus himself opens up the Scriptures, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms and connects the dots from the Old Testament to what happened at the events of his death and resurrection. When he does this, he gives the basis for what they need to do. I bring this up because it’s worth noting that the risen Jesus still cares about what’s in the Bible. And we should too. He could easily say, “Cast those old scrolls into the fire and listen to me. I’m the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms now.” But he doesn’t. The written words of Scripture, in their particular phrasing, in the original languages, rightly matter to Jesus. The history of Israel and God’s relationship to Israel matters to Jesus.

I do want to say that I’ve been enjoying watching yard work videos. Far more than I can say I’ve been enjoying yard work. In these videos, a guy gets his weed whacker and his lawn mower and finds some abandoned property and fixes it up. And it’s sped up! Like 3 or 4 times the normal speed. It’s amazingly satisfying. It is offering a different view of humanity’s relationship to nature. One where the whole job gets done in 90 seconds instead of 3 hours. It’s kind of a reversal of the cursing of the ground that happened at the Fall. And I think it’s a good picture of the hope we find in the prophet Joel, who sets the stage with war and famine.

From the hopeful moment in the garden after the fall, where we’re told the serpent’s head will be struck, crushed; to the picture of life after the end of all things in the book of Revelation, new creation is a bold and hopeful thing to set your imagination on. It’s the ridiculous idea that failures everywhere daydream about. What if God were to hit the reset button? What if, to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien, everything sad is going to come untrue?