OBEDIENCE ENABLES MANIFESTATION OF GOD

 

By James Wilson

            I received a wonderful e-mail from a colleague of mine a few days ago.  The last time I saw her was at a church convention; she asked me to pray for both feet and one knee as she was having chronic pain in each location.  She experienced relief in her feet at once; the knee less so, but coming along.  I found myself telling her to tell Abba God she receives her healing each day as the enemy of all life tries to steal it by introducing doubt into the process of progressive healing.  I say “found myself” because this is not something I typically pray or say.  Yet our God has a habit of getting glory for Himself whenever we obey His promptings – even when stepping outside our comfort zone to do it.  My friend announces her feet felt better each day until now fully healed.  The knee is still proceeding.

            The span from January 6 to the first (movable) day of Lent is traditionally known as Epiphany season.  The Greek word means to manifest or materialize in practical reality.  The events associated with this season in Christ are the visit from the Wise Men, Jesus’ baptism, and the Wedding at Cana.  In each case God does something big-time to announce Himself but the irreducible human element is obedience against a preposterous backdrop.

            For example, pagan astrologers follow a moving star hundreds of miles – on instructions from a God they do not recognize – to a stable where they instinctively recognize the Son of the Father.  They receive the revelation only after obeying the “totally out there” instruction, and their next obedience – avoiding Herod – saves their lives and the Baby. In another instance Jesus’ cousin John is asked to baptize One he knows outranks him in the heavenly hierarchy by a factor of infinity.  John demurs until Jesus personalizes the request to “fulfil all righteousness.”  When John obeys the heavens open and the voice of God is heard. Finally we find Jesus attending a wedding – nothing wrong with that – but hardly the setting for a grand manifestation of power.  He even declares it – when asked – to be neither the time nor the place; yet His mother instructs the servants to do whatever He commands.  When they obey by presenting Him with thirty-gallon jugs of water He transforms water into wine.  By the way, this is not ordinary wine, but the best they have ever tasted.  Only those guests who have obeyed long standing commandments from God to avoid drunken-ness are sober enough to recognize and enjoy what has been held until the end of the feast.

            Obedience to God is not complex, just nerve-wrackingly outside the box.  It requires suspension of judgment.  It calls us to evaluate circumstances through the God we know rather than judging Him through our circumstances.  It commands response to a counter-intuitive directive.  (You want me to what?)  But what have we to lose; are we doing so well on our own?  Our democratically produced efforts give us riots and assassinated cops, an economic system in continued disease, a lawless government, and the crises and disintegrations within our own families.  Our God promises to teach us plainly and on the spot (Matthew 10 and Luke 21) what to do and say; we need only obey clearly understood directives.  What have we really got to lose by letting Him work in us?

            And what may we gain when we say, “Go ahead, Lord, manifest yourself in response to my obedience?”   

            Diana and I celebrated our anniversary at Disneyland a couple of weeks back.  I planned a late flight home so we could spend our last day on impulse, but the flight was repeatedly postponed; arriving home at two in the morning after a long drive from Sacramento was downright dangerous at my age.  I followed my own advice and thanked God for His blessing before I had any clue what that blessing might be – that is the essence of a Eucharistic/Thanks-filled heart.  Having given thanks I heard and obeyed His word to check in early even though expecting a four hour wait at the airport. Having checked in we were given a much earlier flight – at no charge because ours was delayed.  We arrived home before Midnight and I got to introduce a Buddhist man to the Lord because I “happened to be” in line one space ahead of him for that earlier flight.  We had a wonderful time and God manifested Himself – not because of our obedience but through it.

            A blessed Epiphany to those who know God and to those who need to meet Him.