Eucharistic meditation

2 Kings 13:23: But Yahweh was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now.

As we say in the sermon this morning, this is a striking, an amazing statement of the Lord's grace. The Lord had compassion on Israel because of the covenant with Abraham, even though Israel had ignored that covenant, disobeyed the Lord’s commandments, served other gods and devoted herself to other husbands. His compassion and patience with Israel is, in the true sense of that debased word, awesome.

And we should manifest the same compassion and patience with on another. We are often ready to write off a fellow believer because he commits a grievous sin. We are uncomfortable around him, we exclude him from fellowship, we think he's gone over the deep end and is no longer worth our time or attention. But this hardness is not evident in the Lord’s dealings with Israel. He becomes angry; he is not indulgent or tolerant of Israel's idolatries. Yet, at the same time, He has compassion and He intervenes to help and to save. He does not keep Israel at arm's length, even when she becomes a defiled bride, but draws near to woo her back to the wilderness where He can renew His marriage vows. Our mercy and longsuffering and patience with one another should model the infinite longsuffering and patience of God.

We often have the same kind of harsh reaction to other Christian churches. They sing silly songs, they have puffy sermons, they tolerate sin, they believe in transubstantiation, and so we write them off and treat them as if they were not Christians, as if they had set themselves outside the covenant people. We shouldn't endorse their silliness and sin. But we also should conform our reactions and relations to them to the Lord's. They are His children, His family, and therefore they are our family.

This table dramatizes the patience of God. You have sinned against him repeatedly, you have ignored the "prophets" he sent to correct you, you have listened to other voices and served other gods. Don't look down with sniffy superiority at Israel's idolatries; their sins are a mirror of our sins.

And yet, here you are, at the table of the Lord. Here you are, once again receiving the Lord’s invitation to draw near and feast in His presence. The Lord has been patient with you beyond your imagining, and demonstrates that patience at this table. And as the compassionate, gracious, patient, long-suffering God invites you to His table, He also says to you: Go and do likewise.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 08:27 AM

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