{"id":16410,"date":"2021-03-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion3rd-march-2021"},"modified":"2021-03-03T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-3rd-march-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-3rd-march-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion\u00a03rd March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Mark 11: 27 – 33<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him  and said, \u2018By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?\u2019 Jesus said to them, \u2018I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.\u2019  They argued with one another, \u2018If we say, \u201cFrom heaven\u201d, he will say, \u201cWhy then did you not believe him?\u201d  But shall we say, \u201cOf human origin\u201d?\u2019\u2014they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.  So they answered Jesus, \u2018We do not know.\u2019 And Jesus said to them, \u2018Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all encountered those people who ask questions, not because they\u2019re interested in our answers but because they want to pick a fight, shout the loudest, get their point across. It\u2019s often hard to know the best way to respond. Sometimes we simply need to hear them, let them know they have been listened to – \u2018Allow them their thoughts\u2019 as I read recently, and then go our way in as much peace as we can manage.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am impressed that Jesus kept on engaging with people who were simply trying to trip him up, entangle him, get rid of him. And I am grateful. The endlessness of his patience reassures me. <\/span><\/p>\n

These past months, we\u2019ve all been challenged by authority telling us to stay home, stay away from friends and family. We\u2019ve been overloaded with conspiracy theories, some significantly  loopier than others but still believed in by some. Truth and authority matter. We have seen what happens when people do not accept authority, the results of democractic elections, scientifically based guidance. We\u2019ve had to choose who we will  believe and what, as a result, our responses will be. And then live – or die – with those results.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus offered the Sanhedrin a step in the right direction – towards recognising God at work in John the Baptist and in Himself. That they had to ask the question revealed their blindness to the God they claimed to serve. Bound up with jockeying for power, position, all the administration of Temple worship – so much busy busyness – had they simply lost sight of a God who preferred kindness and mercy, truth and justice to any amount of barbecued meat?<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Open our eyes to see where You are at work. Challenge us when our traditions, politics, vested interests stand in the way of what You are doing. Give us courage to accept Your authority for our lives and wisdom to test all other claims against Yours. Amen.<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Mark 11: 27 – 33 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him  and said, \u2018By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?\u2019 Jesus said to them, \u2018I will ask you … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion\u00a03rd March 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}