God does not prevent, God heals.

I love psalm 34.  It reads

The Lord confronts the evildoers, 
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

I think that is the kind of Lord most of us want, someone to confront those who do evil, and destroys their memory.

But in my experience, the Lord does not do that. At least, not that often. Not as often as I would like.

And so, the other part of psalm 34 comforts me:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just person,
but out of them all the Lord delivers.

It seems even the psalmists, who desires that the Lord would confront all those who would do us evil, realizes that it does not always happen. That we become broken, crushed, and troubled.

I love this psalm precisely because it gives us what we would like, and the reality of life. We would like a  God who delivers us here and now.

But the reality is, God delivers us gradually. God does not save us from brokenness. God does not keep us from getting crushed.

And yet, God is there for us, to raise us up, to heal and renew.

And in time, we realize that God is far more powerful to heal than to prevent.

Knowing God in mercy, not sacrifice

I like to look at the life of one of the Gospel writers, Matthew. As I read the Gospel according to Matthew, I can see a mirror of how Jesus thinks and how Jesus acts.

According to the gospel account, Matthew was a tax collector, a profession considered traitorous by his own country men. Strict Jews of Jesus time would have banned any contact or communication with such a person. Jesus, always one to break away from customs steeped in human origin, walks over to Matthew and says not "Hi. Howya doin?" but, "Follow me" (Mt 9:9). And Matthew rises up and leaves everything to follow.

I've often wondered at certain passages of the gospels, those that deal with the righteous being cast out and those considered "sinners" or "least worthy" being made friends of God. Matthew certainly fits in this category, but so does Mary Magdalen (Lk 7:36-50), the Centurion (Mt 8:5-13), and most especially, the story of the pharisee and the publican (Lk 18:9-14).

Jesus chose these people because he saw something humble, something honest, something authentic in these cast-outs of regular religious society.  According Matthew (9:9-13) Jesus response to those who questioned his association with Matthew and his friends were simple, Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

Swiss mystic Maurice Zundel writes As long as we have not met God...God is like a false god. Maybe this is the answer to the puzzle. All of the good works or piety or just deeds we do have no real meaning if they do not bring us to the true God. We meet that God not in the religious customs and ceremonies that we create, but, as Jesus said, when we have learned the truth of the words I desire mercy, not sacrifice.