“The Milky Way from the Sahara Desert” – Photo by Valentin Armianu, Dreamstine
“Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
In this passage from Daniel, the universe, in all its glory, stretches out like brightness of the sky. In the night sky, the darkness is pierced by the brilliant sparkling light of countless stars.
When I look up at the sky, I feel insignificant, a tiny and fleeting bit of life that exists but for a moment of infinity.
The writer of Daniel, though, saw in the sky a vision of the possibilities for our own lives now, and throughout eternity. The brightness of the sky reminded the writer of the people who in this lifetime attain wisdom. The stars reminded the writer of the ones who lead others to righteousness.
The ones who are wise and righteous on this earth are the ones who have learned to open their hearts to God and to their neighbor and to keep their hearts open, even in the times of anguish that we all must face in our lifetimes.
We keep open hearts by the consistent and diligent practice of loving God and loving our neighbors, especially when we most desire to slam the doors of our hearts shut because we’ve been hurt, or when we feel threatened, or when we are angry.
And yet Jesus shows us how to continue to love God and to love our neighbors even in the most challenging of situations—his own crucifixion.
Even as he was dying on the cross, Jesus kept his heart open.
Luke reports that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing,” as men bound Jesus to the cross on which he would die. Luke also reports that Jesus welcomed the repentant thief who hung on the cross beside him when he told the man, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus kept his heart open to the people around him.
And even as he suffers and endures an awful death, Jesus keeps his heart open to God. Matthew and Mark report that, as he is dying, Jesus calls out to God, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In Luke, Jesus prays, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Even in his forsakenness, Jesus never doubts God’s presence with him. He calls on God and questions God, knowing that he is eternally with God, both in life and in death.
“Great,” you may be thinking, “but what about the person who has been hateful to me, has disrespected me, or has mistreated me? I can’t forgive that person. Why would God ask me to do such a thing? I refuse to be a doormat. Where is God in all of this anyway?”
God hears our cries. And in response, God does not ask us to be doormats. God asks us to be open doors.
If we are wisely practicing the love of God and our neighbors, and we are doing our best to lead righteous lives, then our hearts will be open to others and we will want to invite others in.
Jesus gives us an example from his own life about inviting others in.
When Jesus looked with great love on the rich man and invited that man to sell all his possessions and to follow Jesus, the man went away in great disappointment. He couldn’t part with the possessions that took up so much space in his life. His focus on his wealth kept him from going through the door that Jesus was holding open for him, the doorway into the righteous life of a disciple who focuses on God. So the man turned and walked away, not because Jesus slammed a door in his face, or because Jesus didn’t love him, but because the man decided for himself not to enter the door that Jesus held open for him. He decided not to take Jesus up on the invitation to become a disciple.
And that’s the trick—for us to be right with God and our neighbors, leading righteous lives ourselves, so that we can invite others into righteousness. Whether or not others want to accept the invitation into righteousness is up to them.
The tricky part to this is that often, even subconsciously, people expect us to compromise our own righteous lives to make them feel welcome. And we get tempted to compromise in order to seem more welcoming.
Here, the wise words of African American theologian Howard Thurman are particularly helpful.
Thurman says that that “There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get those questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.”
Along those same lines, Thurman says that “Anyone who permits another to determine the quality of his inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to his destiny.”
Now what if you have slammed a door shut for some reason against another person, maybe out of anger?
Thurman says that “If a man knows precisely what he can do to you or what epithet he can hurl against you to make you lose your temper, your equilibrium, then he can always keep you under subjection.”
As Christians, we strive to be subject to God before anything or anyone else. The first commandment says, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.”
So when we become subject to our own pride, and our own self-righteous anger, or we let the anger or demands of another take away our joy and take over our minds, that means we have put ourselves or that person who has made us mad ahead of God, and we have probably slammed some doors shut in the process.
God knows that we misplace our allegiance to God all the time, and slam doors all the time because we are human beings. That’s why we confess our sins against God and our neighbor every Sunday, and we must also include the sins we commit against ourselves.
In the prayer of confession, we confess that “We have not loved you, God, with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”
And when we are truly sorry and we humbly repent, laying down our pride and hardheadedness, then we can accept God’s mercy and forgiveness and once more delight in God’s will, and walk in God’s ways to the glory of God’s name.
Accepting God’s mercy and forgiveness frees us to be wise and righteous, to be merciful and forgiving to others. And that means that if you have some doors that you have slammed shut against others, part of walking in God’s ways is to figure out how to open those doors again, letting those on the outside know the door of your own mercy and forgiveness toward them is once more open.
None of what I’ve said is easy to do.
But remember that Jesus says to his disciples that we are to make sure that no one leads us astray, for others will tempt us to believe in someone or something less than Jesus, and this includes believing in our own wills rather than in God’s will. We will get pulled this way and that, tempted to take sides, tempted by anger, and then to engage in wars and rumors of wars.
But Jesus says, “Do not be alarmed.”
Disciples, we are not to be alarmed, not to be sucked in, not to be maddened, not to compromise, not to give in to anger, but to focus on being wise and leading the righteous lives as followers of Jesus that will light the way for others.
Today’s psalmist gives us guidance. Jesus himself knew these words and practiced them.
“I will kneel before the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night.
I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand I shall not fall. My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope.”
God shows us the path of life. In God’s welcoming, merciful and forgiving presence there is fullness of joy. In God’s hand are pleasures forever more, the pleasures of living wisely and righteously with God and with one another.
When we walk in God’s ways, the way of wisdom and righteousness, we too can shine like the brightness of the sky and sparkle like the stars forever and ever, and maybe even lead many to righteousness.
Resource: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/56230.Howard_Thurman