Accountability is often a dirty word--or a nasty requirement--for some people as they don’t like, or want, to be held accountable for their words or actions. And yet, it is something fundamental to our lives as Christians. All of us, whether for good or for ill, will sometime face the judgment of God and, seeing as the outcome is largely dependent on how we live our lives in the here and now, it behoves us to think seriously of how we behave right now. It is an awesome and intimidating prospect, but one that we should all take seriously.

I think that most of us have had times when we were assailed with bouts of serious doubt. I know that I have, especially when it comes to God restoring or enlivening the church, bringing the Gospel to all nations and people, or bringing peace, healing, and justice to our world. But such hesitations should not impede us or stop us from carrying out God’s Great Commission, bringing His message to all the world, and making disciples and teaching and baptizing them. God wants us to carry this out regardless of our hesitation or doubts or questions. And, after all, it is not we who are expected to produce the results, but God. We are simply called to be faithful. God will do the rest. Thanks be to God.

The incredible news is that Jesus has conquered sin, death, the grave and Satan, and is alive forever more. This means that He is alive and available for each and every one of us. I used to think that Jesus was ‘so heavenly minded that He was of no earthly good’, simply because He was now in heaven and absent from earth physically. But now I realize that He is there, and available, to each and every one of us. What glorious news that is. Thanks be to God.

Our meditation for today raises a profound and important question, namely, how do we keep in step with God? In my meditation, I suggested several ways, but here may I suggest several others as well:

-making sure that we have a daily time with God, a time for prayer and the reading, study and meditation of the Scriptures.

-making a habit of public worship.

-limiting our time with the media, whether public or social, asking God to speak to us through them, and asking Him how we might pray

for the person or situation described therein.

-asking God in prayer how He might want us to live our day and then ‘testing’ those thoughts using His standards. There are two tests

that I have found helpful:

a) one of these came from the parent organization of AA. It asked two questions of the person:

-what might I do today to help someone or something or minister to them?

-how might I make amends today or help resolve some issue or problem?

And then evaluating those thoughts using Four Standards:

-is it truthful or honest?

-is it loving?

-is it unselfish?

-is it pure (in the sense of motives)?

b) A somewhat similar thing is found in the 4 Way Test of Rotary International:

-is it the TRUTH?

-is it FAIR to all concerned?

-will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

-will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

In our much beloved prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, we pray ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’. The above ideas provide us with some tools as to how we might participate in this prayer in practical ways and make it more of a reality in our lives and in the life of our world. Anyway, there are some ideas.

I don’t know about you, but I found today’s Scripture passage and meditation to be profoundly challenging--and disturbing, for far too often we have failed to pass on our faith to succeeding generations, just as Joshua and his colleagues didn’t. So, what did they do wrong, and what have we done wrong? And how can we correct this? Some very searching questions, ones that I think we will need to take some time and thought in considering, and get some help in doing it.

Today’s Scripture reminds us of the old saying, 'No man stands alone’--here ‘man’ implying both men and women. It reminds us that each of us stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. It means that we owe a debit to them, but especially to those who have impacted our lives for good. It is a good and beneficial thing to pause every so often and remember, and not only to remember, but also to say thanks in whatever way we can and also to try to imitate their contributions in our own lives in whatever way we can.

Scriptures, especially the Psalms, implore us to continually render to God our praise and our worship. Here, in today’s psalm, David enumerates some of his own reasons for doing so. But, what about us? Why would we, you and I, want to praise God? What has He done in our lives? Something to think about.

I have often thought about how Jesus has fully ‘stood in our shoes’ in every way possible, meaning that He fully understands exactly what it is like for us. Today’s passage underscores one of the more difficult and gut-wrenching times, namely, those times when we feel let down or betrayed by others. These are difficult times to deal with, but fortunately, Jesus is there for us, able to understand, and even more fortunately, able to help us. Thanks be to God.

Let’s face it: when it comes down to the bottom line, most of us, most of the time, are pre-occupied with our own affairs and ambitions. Our ambitions may not be as obviously self-serving as James and John, but, to be honest, they are still ‘looking out for number one’, that is, ourselves. Serving others willingly and whole-heartedly as Jesus did, especially when it comes to people that are, to put it bluntly, undeserving and just plain nasty, isn’t always our ‘cup of tea.’ Nevertheless, it is what Jesus calls us to, to which I can only say, ‘Lord, help me.’

Years ago--I’m sure that folks thought ‘I’d lost it’ as I was in the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer at the time--I was momentarily spellbound, struck silent, by something I’d just read. There, one page 82, two phrases struck me. The first was the phrase ‘didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him.’ So, at the Father’s bidding Jesus took upon Himself our nature, everything that we are as humans, everything that we experience or go through. That truly was humbling and a cause for thought.

The second phrase was ‘who made there, by his one oblation [offering] of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.’ The ‘sins of the whole world’ obviously meant all of my sins as well. So, not only did Jesus understand, understand from being there Himself, He also had the power, and the will, to do something about it. Wow. No wonder I was momentarily ‘stopped in my tracks’, speechless, during that Eucharistic Prayer. It just underlines just what God in Christ Jesus has done for us.

Today’s passage from Romans hits us with a double whammy: firstly, we ourselves don’t like to be criticized or held accountable, and secondly, we often feel quite free to do the same thing with other people. Paul, however, lets us off the hook on both counts. He says that we are accountable to God and to no other. What a relief!

The Eucharist or Holy Communion is a powerful reminder of just how much God loves us and just how far Jesus was willing to go in His love for us. Let us, therefore, never take this act of worship for granted or take it lightly for it cost God His very life.

It is no small wonder that the Scriptures continually call us to remember, for we fallible humans are much too prone to forget, to forget in particular what God has done for us. It is this remembrance of God’s past deeds that informs and encourages today’s psalmist in his continued faith and trust in God. God has ‘been there for him’ in times past, so he is confident that He will continue. May the same be for each of us as well.

Over the centuries there have been some terrible ‘dogfights’, theologically speaking, in terms of certain doctrines or beliefs. One of these has to do with whether a believer can ever lose his or her salvation. Those who say ‘no’ point to Scriptures such as John 6:37, that says ‘that he who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out'. Those on the other side of the argument point to the example of Judas Iscariot and to today’s text from Romans. Today’s text, a warning written to Gentile believers, certainly holds out the possibility that they might be removed from the olive tree, therefore signifying, I think, that they are no longer part of the Church, no longer believers. And so, the jury is out.

My suggestion therefore, is not to be dogmatic about this in either direction, but simply to be careful and diligent in keeping close to Jesus. Like any relationship, it needs to be fostered and developed, so why would we ever want to allow it to wilt or go dormant? So, best to do whatever we can to nourish it.

Sometimes faith appears in the unexpected people and places, which is exactly what we find in today’s story of Rahab and the two Hebrew spies. Who would have ever expected a Canaanite, and a woman of her trade and reputation, to have such an ardent and practical faith in God, and who was willing to put it into practice in such a foolhardy way? But then, we never know, and so we should always be on the lookout for it, and then foster it and expand upon it the best we can.

The apostle James uses the image of a mirror, the mirror of God’s word, which is supposed to help us see how we really look. And here, in today’s passage from Amos, we have another image, that of a plumb line to show us how much we do or do not deviate from God’s standards. The sad truth is that we probably deviate a great deal and probably don’t see very well either. Jesus uses a rather apt image to describe this act of seeing, saying that it is like having a log in our eye. But then He offers some hope in that He suggests that the log can indeed be removed, so that we can see. And here God can be of great help. In Amos, and in many other passages, we have some advice about how to do so