Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Monday, April 06, 2009
"Not since 1999 has a Reds season arrived with so much potential, so freighted with Ifs."
"The Reds aren’t just turning a page. They’re trying to re-write the whole book."
Paul Daugherty gives Reds fans reason to hope for the 2009 season which, for us, starts today. He says that this year's team is hungry and dedicated, devoid of the "sense of entitlement" he observed in past teams.
Read the whole thing. Daugherty's writing is always a treat.
[ADDED: A rundown of what's planned for Cincinnati's opening day festivities. Cincy is the only place I know that has an opening day parade. Some parents let their kids take the day off from school to go to the parade and other events, even just to watch them on TV.]
[UPDATE: Reds lost their opener 2-1.]
Paul Daugherty gives Reds fans reason to hope for the 2009 season which, for us, starts today. He says that this year's team is hungry and dedicated, devoid of the "sense of entitlement" he observed in past teams.
Read the whole thing. Daugherty's writing is always a treat.
[ADDED: A rundown of what's planned for Cincinnati's opening day festivities. Cincy is the only place I know that has an opening day parade. Some parents let their kids take the day off from school to go to the parade and other events, even just to watch them on TV.]
[UPDATE: Reds lost their opener 2-1.]
Sunday, April 05, 2009
The Unexpected King
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
Mark 11:1-11
Father Andrew Greeley tells the story of a sixth grade social studies teacher who decided to have her students go through an election process, the object being to teach the kids about democracy. The students, it turned out, were enthusiastic and got into it. Even though the their parents had fostered a highly competitive atmosphere, especially as it related to academics, the kids got past the jealousies and resentments that can go with such circumstances, and elected a young woman who happened to be the smartest one in their class as the president of their mock country. Everything went well for the whole school year.
But the next year, things changed. By then, the parental pressure for good grades was so intense that the kids began to turn on their former president. They resented her superior academic performance and the respect she'd garnered from them. They began to spread untrue stories about how she studied all the time, pinning the nickname of ‘The Computer’ on her. The message they were sending her was clear: Dumb down and be the way we want you to be!
This is a story that gets played out in many different ways in our world. And not just among young people. The crowd may love us as long as we’re doing what they want us to do, as long as their egos are boosted, as long as we do their bidding. But if something we say or do displeases them, they’ll vote us off the island in a hurry.
This, folks, is the real story of Palm Sunday. Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem. Everybody was happy. Yet amid the Palm Sunday celebrating was an atmosphere of implied violence, of threatened rejection. The actions and the words with which the crowds welcomed Jesus were fraught with ambiguity.
Their words seemed to speak of submission and surrender, taken as they were from Psalm 118: “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!...give us success…” But in this context, the crowds also seem to be telling Jesus, “Take the lead in a rebellion against the Romans. Be the king we want you to be!”
The leafy branches or palm leaves used by the crowd convey a similarly mixed message. They may have just been a convenient way of welcoming Jesus, broken off the trees that set outside the city walls of Jerusalem. But palm leaves and branches were also traditionally used by God’s people to celebrate some victory in war. The message seems to be, “Jesus, be our general. Lead us as an army to destroy Roman power over us. Give us what we want: the plunder of war and victory.”
These crowds, itching for war and conquest, must have scratched their heads at what Jesus did that evening. He simply stepped into the Temple, looked around, and went back to Bethany for the night. It would be a bit like someone being elected president, showing up at the Inaugural ceremonies three months later, stepping up to the podium, looking around, and then walking away.
The crowds and Jesus’ many followers must have been further mystified by what he did the next day. He didn’t confront the Romans, demanding their surrender or removal from Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean territory. Instead, he went to the Temple where, appalled by how the place was being misused--not as a place of prayer and worship, but as a place for price gouging and injustice--he threw the extortionists out of the place. Rather than confronting their foreign enemies, Jesus turned on His fellow Judeans and said that there was something rotten in their religion, their spirituality, their souls.
On Palm Sunday, the crowds welcomed Jesus because they thought He had come to do their will. What they came to realize in the days after that is that He had really come to do the Father’s will. He really had come, as He had already said, “to serve, not to be served and to give His life as a ransom for many.” He hadn’t come to confirm them in their sense of moral superiority, but to confront them with their need of a Savior and to be that Savior!
And so, like the students at that school in Greeley's story, disappointed and shown up by the girl they had voted for the year before, the Jerusalem crowds turned on Jesus. On Thursday night, just four days after His triumphant entry, Jesus was arrested and the next day, the same crowds cried for His blood. They cried too that the Roman governor release a murderous thug, Jesus bar Abbas be set free. (This man was otherwise known as Barabbas; whose name in English is Jesus, son of the Father.) Barabbas was a terrorist. The crowds may have thought that he had the stomach they felt that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t have for revolution. The people were desperate for a leader who would follow them. They were sure now that Jesus, the son of Joseph wouldn't do it. Maybe Barabbas would.
Now here’s the question that Palm Sunday forces all churches and all Christians to confront: Will we be like the crowds or will we learn to be disciples, true followers of Jesus?
I know that too often in my own life, I’ve followed the crowd or followed the world's way of doing things, instead of following Jesus. (After all that's the easy way to go!) But how exactly do we make the choice of discipleship over crowd-following?
Above all, it entails praying and striving to live by the words, “Your will be done,” not, “God, do my will.”
This has been and remains a hard lesson for me. I have a vivid imagination. I can imagine all sorts of wonderful things God could do in my life. “Lord,” I’m inclined to pray, “if you’d bless me in this way or that, imagine all the good I could do!”
But God says, “I’d rather you imagined how much good you could do with the blessings I’ve already given to you.”
The Palm Sunday crowds probably thought that their lives would be so much better if the Romans were toppled and sent home. Then, they could be good believers in God, people with the freedom to love and serve their neighbors, as God commands His people.
Today, we might think, “If only we could win the Lottery...”
“If only we could get a big tax refund...”
“If only the kids weren’t involved in so many activities...”
“If only I had my health…”
“If things weren’t so uncertain financially…”
If a thousand other things were just so, then we could be really good followers of Christ. We could take up a ministry of service. We could teach Sunday School. We could invite a nonchurchgoing friend to worship with us. We could give more to the causes God cares about in the world.
But Jesus calls us to follow now on our current schedules, with our current incomes, under our current circumstances, just as He loves us now.
There are no perfect times for following Jesus.
The crosses Jesus calls us to take up are heavy and almost always inconvenient.
But taking them up is how we take up Jesus and take up the eternal life with God He offers free.
Our call is to turn from sin and surrender to Jesus Christ now. We’re to experience Christ’s presence in our lives today, even in challenging times. Our call is to love God and love neighbor now, today, just as God loves and blesses and cares about us in this moment.
Four nights after the first Palm Sunday, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed, “Abba [an Aramaic word that literally means, Daddy], Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup [of death on the cross] from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Through His death and resurrection, Jesus won new and everlasting life for all who follow Him.
In thankfulness, we can submit to God’s will for our lives. We can become servants who by lives of active love for others God uses to do a world of good.
The great nineteenth century evangelist Dwight Moody’s life was changed when he heard a preacher say words like these: “The world has yet to see what God might do in the life of someone wholly devoted to Him.” Moody prayerfully asked God that night to let him be a person wholly devoted to the Savior Who went to a cross for him.
May that be our prayer, too.
Mark 11:1-11
Father Andrew Greeley tells the story of a sixth grade social studies teacher who decided to have her students go through an election process, the object being to teach the kids about democracy. The students, it turned out, were enthusiastic and got into it. Even though the their parents had fostered a highly competitive atmosphere, especially as it related to academics, the kids got past the jealousies and resentments that can go with such circumstances, and elected a young woman who happened to be the smartest one in their class as the president of their mock country. Everything went well for the whole school year.
But the next year, things changed. By then, the parental pressure for good grades was so intense that the kids began to turn on their former president. They resented her superior academic performance and the respect she'd garnered from them. They began to spread untrue stories about how she studied all the time, pinning the nickname of ‘The Computer’ on her. The message they were sending her was clear: Dumb down and be the way we want you to be!
This is a story that gets played out in many different ways in our world. And not just among young people. The crowd may love us as long as we’re doing what they want us to do, as long as their egos are boosted, as long as we do their bidding. But if something we say or do displeases them, they’ll vote us off the island in a hurry.
This, folks, is the real story of Palm Sunday. Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem. Everybody was happy. Yet amid the Palm Sunday celebrating was an atmosphere of implied violence, of threatened rejection. The actions and the words with which the crowds welcomed Jesus were fraught with ambiguity.
Their words seemed to speak of submission and surrender, taken as they were from Psalm 118: “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!...give us success…” But in this context, the crowds also seem to be telling Jesus, “Take the lead in a rebellion against the Romans. Be the king we want you to be!”
The leafy branches or palm leaves used by the crowd convey a similarly mixed message. They may have just been a convenient way of welcoming Jesus, broken off the trees that set outside the city walls of Jerusalem. But palm leaves and branches were also traditionally used by God’s people to celebrate some victory in war. The message seems to be, “Jesus, be our general. Lead us as an army to destroy Roman power over us. Give us what we want: the plunder of war and victory.”
These crowds, itching for war and conquest, must have scratched their heads at what Jesus did that evening. He simply stepped into the Temple, looked around, and went back to Bethany for the night. It would be a bit like someone being elected president, showing up at the Inaugural ceremonies three months later, stepping up to the podium, looking around, and then walking away.
The crowds and Jesus’ many followers must have been further mystified by what he did the next day. He didn’t confront the Romans, demanding their surrender or removal from Jerusalem and the surrounding Judean territory. Instead, he went to the Temple where, appalled by how the place was being misused--not as a place of prayer and worship, but as a place for price gouging and injustice--he threw the extortionists out of the place. Rather than confronting their foreign enemies, Jesus turned on His fellow Judeans and said that there was something rotten in their religion, their spirituality, their souls.
On Palm Sunday, the crowds welcomed Jesus because they thought He had come to do their will. What they came to realize in the days after that is that He had really come to do the Father’s will. He really had come, as He had already said, “to serve, not to be served and to give His life as a ransom for many.” He hadn’t come to confirm them in their sense of moral superiority, but to confront them with their need of a Savior and to be that Savior!
And so, like the students at that school in Greeley's story, disappointed and shown up by the girl they had voted for the year before, the Jerusalem crowds turned on Jesus. On Thursday night, just four days after His triumphant entry, Jesus was arrested and the next day, the same crowds cried for His blood. They cried too that the Roman governor release a murderous thug, Jesus bar Abbas be set free. (This man was otherwise known as Barabbas; whose name in English is Jesus, son of the Father.) Barabbas was a terrorist. The crowds may have thought that he had the stomach they felt that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t have for revolution. The people were desperate for a leader who would follow them. They were sure now that Jesus, the son of Joseph wouldn't do it. Maybe Barabbas would.
Now here’s the question that Palm Sunday forces all churches and all Christians to confront: Will we be like the crowds or will we learn to be disciples, true followers of Jesus?
I know that too often in my own life, I’ve followed the crowd or followed the world's way of doing things, instead of following Jesus. (After all that's the easy way to go!) But how exactly do we make the choice of discipleship over crowd-following?
Above all, it entails praying and striving to live by the words, “Your will be done,” not, “God, do my will.”
This has been and remains a hard lesson for me. I have a vivid imagination. I can imagine all sorts of wonderful things God could do in my life. “Lord,” I’m inclined to pray, “if you’d bless me in this way or that, imagine all the good I could do!”
But God says, “I’d rather you imagined how much good you could do with the blessings I’ve already given to you.”
The Palm Sunday crowds probably thought that their lives would be so much better if the Romans were toppled and sent home. Then, they could be good believers in God, people with the freedom to love and serve their neighbors, as God commands His people.
Today, we might think, “If only we could win the Lottery...”
“If only we could get a big tax refund...”
“If only the kids weren’t involved in so many activities...”
“If only I had my health…”
“If things weren’t so uncertain financially…”
If a thousand other things were just so, then we could be really good followers of Christ. We could take up a ministry of service. We could teach Sunday School. We could invite a nonchurchgoing friend to worship with us. We could give more to the causes God cares about in the world.
But Jesus calls us to follow now on our current schedules, with our current incomes, under our current circumstances, just as He loves us now.
There are no perfect times for following Jesus.
The crosses Jesus calls us to take up are heavy and almost always inconvenient.
But taking them up is how we take up Jesus and take up the eternal life with God He offers free.
Our call is to turn from sin and surrender to Jesus Christ now. We’re to experience Christ’s presence in our lives today, even in challenging times. Our call is to love God and love neighbor now, today, just as God loves and blesses and cares about us in this moment.
Four nights after the first Palm Sunday, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed, “Abba [an Aramaic word that literally means, Daddy], Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup [of death on the cross] from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Through His death and resurrection, Jesus won new and everlasting life for all who follow Him.
In thankfulness, we can submit to God’s will for our lives. We can become servants who by lives of active love for others God uses to do a world of good.
The great nineteenth century evangelist Dwight Moody’s life was changed when he heard a preacher say words like these: “The world has yet to see what God might do in the life of someone wholly devoted to Him.” Moody prayerfully asked God that night to let him be a person wholly devoted to the Savior Who went to a cross for him.
May that be our prayer, too.
40-Days to Servanthood: Day 40
We worship God through our servanthood.
When I served on the church council of my home congregation in Columbus, our pastor once told us, “You can worship God by serving your neighbor.” One man reacted negatively. He felt that we expressed our worship only by our expressions of love for God--our service of praise--on Sunday mornings.
But that man was wrong. The apostle John writes, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (First John 4:20) Jesus Himself paired love for God and love for neighbor into a single “great commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38).
There is an inextricable link between worship and servanthood. This is why worship gatherings are often called “services.” In them, God teaches us how to love Him and to love others, to live with a focus upward to Him and outward to our neighbor. But unless our services of praise are matched by service to our neighbors in Jesus’ Name, our worshiping is nothing more than lip service.
In the book of Genesis, we’re told that one of Adam’s and Eve’s sons, Abel, offered God “the firstlings” of his flock. His brother, Cain, gave God the leftovers from his crops. When Cain noted God’s pleasure with Abel’s offerings and the displeasure with which his own offerings were met, he was resentful and killed Abel. When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain responded angrily, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:1-16)
Centuries later, Jesus was asked another question: “Who is my neighbor?” He responded with the story of a man who was mugged by bandits and left to die on the road. Two religious officials, a levite and a priest, each having duties associated with public worship in Judea, passed by the dying man. But, in Jesus’ story, a Samaritan man stopped and took care of the wounded victim. By serving his neighbor, the Samaritan was the one who truly worshiped God. (Luke 10:25-37)
If our love for God is authentic, it will be seen in active service to others. Of course, we won’t always express this authentic love for God and neighbor. Christians, like other human beings, are infected with the disease of sin. But God is willing to help us when we fail. “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (First John 1:9). All who believe in Jesus Christ are to live, as Martin Luther reminds us, in “daily repentance and renewal,” seeking God’s help as we strive each day to love God and to love others.
This coming Sunday, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, I hope that you’ll make a personal commitment to God, a commitment that the God Who calls us to a life of active love is anxious to help us fulfill. I hope that everybody who has been reading this series will approach their (your) call to service with prayer and attentiveness and ask God to help you undertake a renewed and joyful Christian servanthood. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
We worship God through our servanthood.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “...those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (First John 4:20)
When I served on the church council of my home congregation in Columbus, our pastor once told us, “You can worship God by serving your neighbor.” One man reacted negatively. He felt that we expressed our worship only by our expressions of love for God--our service of praise--on Sunday mornings.
But that man was wrong. The apostle John writes, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (First John 4:20) Jesus Himself paired love for God and love for neighbor into a single “great commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38).
There is an inextricable link between worship and servanthood. This is why worship gatherings are often called “services.” In them, God teaches us how to love Him and to love others, to live with a focus upward to Him and outward to our neighbor. But unless our services of praise are matched by service to our neighbors in Jesus’ Name, our worshiping is nothing more than lip service.
In the book of Genesis, we’re told that one of Adam’s and Eve’s sons, Abel, offered God “the firstlings” of his flock. His brother, Cain, gave God the leftovers from his crops. When Cain noted God’s pleasure with Abel’s offerings and the displeasure with which his own offerings were met, he was resentful and killed Abel. When God asked Cain where Abel was, Cain responded angrily, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:1-16)
Centuries later, Jesus was asked another question: “Who is my neighbor?” He responded with the story of a man who was mugged by bandits and left to die on the road. Two religious officials, a levite and a priest, each having duties associated with public worship in Judea, passed by the dying man. But, in Jesus’ story, a Samaritan man stopped and took care of the wounded victim. By serving his neighbor, the Samaritan was the one who truly worshiped God. (Luke 10:25-37)
If our love for God is authentic, it will be seen in active service to others. Of course, we won’t always express this authentic love for God and neighbor. Christians, like other human beings, are infected with the disease of sin. But God is willing to help us when we fail. “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (First John 1:9). All who believe in Jesus Christ are to live, as Martin Luther reminds us, in “daily repentance and renewal,” seeking God’s help as we strive each day to love God and to love others.
This coming Sunday, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, I hope that you’ll make a personal commitment to God, a commitment that the God Who calls us to a life of active love is anxious to help us fulfill. I hope that everybody who has been reading this series will approach their (your) call to service with prayer and attentiveness and ask God to help you undertake a renewed and joyful Christian servanthood. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29)
We worship God through our servanthood.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “...those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” (First John 4:20)
Saturday, April 04, 2009
40-Days to Servanthood: Day 39
Servants see the big picture.
An oft-told story has it that a man walked by a construction site one day and asked a worker, “What are you doing?” “I’m laying bricks,” the worker said gruffly. The man could see that, but he wanted to know what the bricks were to become.
So, he asked a second worker what he was doing. This laborer said, “I’m helping to build a great cathedral. Just imagine it: Hundreds, maybe thousands of people, will praise God here!” That man understood the big picture.
Unless you understand the bigger picture of which you’re a part as a servant of God, you may become like the first laborer or worse yet, you could give up on servanthood.
What is our bigger picture as servants? After reminding us that every believer in Jesus Christ is a priest whose life and service is meant to “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” the apostle Peter says that we’re really “aliens and exiles” in the world. Our real home is with God. Then, Peter says: “Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.” (First Peter 2:9-12).
When we serve others in Jesus’ Name, they see the goodness of God and will want to know more about the Savior Who gives everlasting life with God to those who believe in Him (John 3:16-18). Our serving and sharing Christ will give others reason to welcome the day when Jesus returns to establish His everlasting kingdom. That is the very big picture of which our Christian servanthood is a part.
If we remember that each of us has our own indispensable roles to play in God’s plan, we’ll serve God, Church, and neighbor with enthusiasm, energy, and fulfillment our whole lives.
Servants see the big picture.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “...let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
An oft-told story has it that a man walked by a construction site one day and asked a worker, “What are you doing?” “I’m laying bricks,” the worker said gruffly. The man could see that, but he wanted to know what the bricks were to become.
So, he asked a second worker what he was doing. This laborer said, “I’m helping to build a great cathedral. Just imagine it: Hundreds, maybe thousands of people, will praise God here!” That man understood the big picture.
Unless you understand the bigger picture of which you’re a part as a servant of God, you may become like the first laborer or worse yet, you could give up on servanthood.
What is our bigger picture as servants? After reminding us that every believer in Jesus Christ is a priest whose life and service is meant to “proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light,” the apostle Peter says that we’re really “aliens and exiles” in the world. Our real home is with God. Then, Peter says: “Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.” (First Peter 2:9-12).
When we serve others in Jesus’ Name, they see the goodness of God and will want to know more about the Savior Who gives everlasting life with God to those who believe in Him (John 3:16-18). Our serving and sharing Christ will give others reason to welcome the day when Jesus returns to establish His everlasting kingdom. That is the very big picture of which our Christian servanthood is a part.
If we remember that each of us has our own indispensable roles to play in God’s plan, we’ll serve God, Church, and neighbor with enthusiasm, energy, and fulfillment our whole lives.
Servants see the big picture.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “...let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
"What's a sweetheart like you...
...doin' in a dump like this?"
(You can also listen and read the lyrics here.)
Dylan sings a praise song.
(You can also listen and read the lyrics here.)
Dylan sings a praise song.
Friday, April 03, 2009
The Best New Books on Lincoln?
This is a list from American Heritage.
I'm most intrigued by the Kaplan book because Lincoln was, primarily, whether as a lawyer or a politician, a writer. He was, from what I know, the best writer among our presidents. His ability to use language to, by turns, convey and interpret information and then, inspire, among other things, is incredible.
I'm most intrigued by the Kaplan book because Lincoln was, primarily, whether as a lawyer or a politician, a writer. He was, from what I know, the best writer among our presidents. His ability to use language to, by turns, convey and interpret information and then, inspire, among other things, is incredible.
More on Robert E.A. Lee
40-Days to Servanthood: Day 38
Servants tackle what they’re not good at doing.
After an evening Lenten service, which included conversation about Christian servanthood, a friend approached me. “Mark,” he said. “I should have mentioned that one of the best things we can do is get out of our comfort zones and try things we think we can’t do or that we’re not interested in doing.” He went on to explain that in his experience, serving outside his comfort zone caused him to see how faithful God is in helping His servants. He also found God-given talents he didn’t know about.
When Moses was an eighty year old shepherd living in Midian, God called him to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt toward a promised land. It was a frightening job, one that would start with confronting Egypt’s king, the Pharaoh, the world’s most powerful man. Moses was a reluctant servant. He offered God one reason after another for why he wasn’t the right person for the job. First, Moses said, “I’m a nobody. Who am I to do this?” Then he said, “God, I don’t really know Your Name. I wouldn’t know what to say if people asked who I was speaking for.” Then he asked God, “What if they don’t believe me? And how about my speech impediment?”
To each of Moses’ objections and questions, God had an answer. “You may be a nobody, but I will be with you,” God said. “And, My Name is Yahweh, the great I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If the Israelites or the Egyptians don’t believe that I sent you, there are some show-stopping signs that I can do through you. And as to your deficiencies as a speaker, I made your mouth. I’ll make it work like it should or sometimes, I’ll draft your brother Aaron for the task of speaking my message.”
After hearing all this, Moses finally said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” The bottom line was that Moses didn’t want to go outside his comfort zone. He eventually did, however. And though Moses was far from perfect as the earthly leader of the Israelites, history shows he did a pretty good job. (Exodus 3:1-4:17)
Servants tackle what they’re not good at doing.
Bible Passages to Ponder: “It's criminal to live cautiously...” (Matthew 25:26, The Message). “I will be with you...” (Exodus 3:12)
After an evening Lenten service, which included conversation about Christian servanthood, a friend approached me. “Mark,” he said. “I should have mentioned that one of the best things we can do is get out of our comfort zones and try things we think we can’t do or that we’re not interested in doing.” He went on to explain that in his experience, serving outside his comfort zone caused him to see how faithful God is in helping His servants. He also found God-given talents he didn’t know about.
When Moses was an eighty year old shepherd living in Midian, God called him to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt toward a promised land. It was a frightening job, one that would start with confronting Egypt’s king, the Pharaoh, the world’s most powerful man. Moses was a reluctant servant. He offered God one reason after another for why he wasn’t the right person for the job. First, Moses said, “I’m a nobody. Who am I to do this?” Then he said, “God, I don’t really know Your Name. I wouldn’t know what to say if people asked who I was speaking for.” Then he asked God, “What if they don’t believe me? And how about my speech impediment?”
To each of Moses’ objections and questions, God had an answer. “You may be a nobody, but I will be with you,” God said. “And, My Name is Yahweh, the great I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If the Israelites or the Egyptians don’t believe that I sent you, there are some show-stopping signs that I can do through you. And as to your deficiencies as a speaker, I made your mouth. I’ll make it work like it should or sometimes, I’ll draft your brother Aaron for the task of speaking my message.”
After hearing all this, Moses finally said, “O my Lord, please send someone else.” The bottom line was that Moses didn’t want to go outside his comfort zone. He eventually did, however. And though Moses was far from perfect as the earthly leader of the Israelites, history shows he did a pretty good job. (Exodus 3:1-4:17)
Servants tackle what they’re not good at doing.
Bible Passages to Ponder: “It's criminal to live cautiously...” (Matthew 25:26, The Message). “I will be with you...” (Exodus 3:12)
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Two Quotes: Statements of Faith
"Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are not sure that we are doubly sure." (Reinhold Niebuhr)
"I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I’m getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady
Out from under your beds
C’mon ye people
Stand up for your love" (from Stand Up Comedy by U2)
"I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I’m getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady
Out from under your beds
C’mon ye people
Stand up for your love" (from Stand Up Comedy by U2)
40-Days to Servanthood: Day 37
Servants need never burn out.
Servants can burn out, of course. But why do they? I can cite two major reasons.
First, there’s the 80-20 rule. It says that in any organization, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. Conversely, 20% of the work gets done by 80% of the people. Servants burn out when they shoulder more than their share of the responsibility for serving in the church, at home, at work, or in the community. All Christians need to see that the call to faith in Jesus is also a call to service (First Peter 2:9-10) and that every Christian is gifted for service (Romans 12:1-8).
But there’s another reason that servants burn out. The apostle Paul writes in Second Corinthians: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (Second Corinthians 9:7). The attitude Paul describes relates to more than just our financial giving, helping us to see several things:
(1) Burnout can be the result of wrong motives. When our giving--whether it’s of our money or of ourselves in service to others--is rendered “reluctantly or under compulsion,” it will burn us out. There's nothing more wearing or destructive to our spirits than "have to" religion.
(2) Burnout is avoided when our giving and serving result from having “made up” our minds to be givers and servants because of what Christ has done for us. Our minds are the filters through which we look at life and by which we gauge our experiences. If our minds are renewed in Christ (Romans 12:2) and we’re intent on being servants of God and of others, our whole experience of service will be positive, in spite of whatever difficulties we may encounter (Philippians 4:5-11).
By surrendering ourselves to Christ in “daily repentance and renewal,” we’ll become willing servants. We’ll become what Paul literally calls “hilarious” givers (Second Corinthians 9:7).
Servants need never burn out.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)
Servants can burn out, of course. But why do they? I can cite two major reasons.
First, there’s the 80-20 rule. It says that in any organization, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. Conversely, 20% of the work gets done by 80% of the people. Servants burn out when they shoulder more than their share of the responsibility for serving in the church, at home, at work, or in the community. All Christians need to see that the call to faith in Jesus is also a call to service (First Peter 2:9-10) and that every Christian is gifted for service (Romans 12:1-8).
But there’s another reason that servants burn out. The apostle Paul writes in Second Corinthians: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (Second Corinthians 9:7). The attitude Paul describes relates to more than just our financial giving, helping us to see several things:
(1) Burnout can be the result of wrong motives. When our giving--whether it’s of our money or of ourselves in service to others--is rendered “reluctantly or under compulsion,” it will burn us out. There's nothing more wearing or destructive to our spirits than "have to" religion.
(2) Burnout is avoided when our giving and serving result from having “made up” our minds to be givers and servants because of what Christ has done for us. Our minds are the filters through which we look at life and by which we gauge our experiences. If our minds are renewed in Christ (Romans 12:2) and we’re intent on being servants of God and of others, our whole experience of service will be positive, in spite of whatever difficulties we may encounter (Philippians 4:5-11).
By surrendering ourselves to Christ in “daily repentance and renewal,” we’ll become willing servants. We’ll become what Paul literally calls “hilarious” givers (Second Corinthians 9:7).
Servants need never burn out.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
How Can We Keep From Serving?
[This, the last of a series of midweek Lenten sermons for 2009, was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier this evening.]
Ephesians 2:1-10
Each year, Jewish believers celebrate something called the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Festival of the Booths.
It remembers the forty-year period during which the ancient Hebrews, freed by God from slavery in Egypt, wandered in the wilderness before finally arriving in the land that God had long ago promised their ancestors.
During those forty years in the wilderness, they mostly lived in temporary booths or huts. (Another word for these structures is tabernacle, which basically means tent.) The purpose of the annual Festival of the Booths is to remind modern believers that God cares about aliens and strangers and that for people of faith, our only home is with God. To this day, many Jewish believers erect tents or huts in their yards to celebrate the Festival of the Tabernacles.
A prominent German scholar of the New Testament, Joachim Jeremias, once visited a Jewish friend in Israel during this festival. The friend led Jeremias to his backyard to show off the family’s festival tent. There was nothing distinctive about it except for two signs, one posted on the left and the other on the right side, of the opening. One sign said, “From God.” The other read, “To God.”
Those two signs, with just four words, describe the wilderness wanderings in which you and I and everyone we know are living right now. The Bible says that we were formed by God in our mother’s wombs. It also tells us that one day, every one of us will stand before God. We move from God to God.
The Bible affirms that you and I are on that same journey. That could fill us with fear. The New Testament book of Hebrews affirms that, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Even those certain of their places in eternity and of God’s love would agree that only a fool or a misinformed person wouldn’t be a bit weak in the knee about coming face to face with the omnipotent, perfect God of the universe.
Yet, fear need not have the last word in our relationship with God.
In our Bible lesson for tonight, the apostle Paul writes to the first century church in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus. Before coming to faith in God, many of the Ephesian Christians had little notion that they were on this journey from God to God. Ephesus was a place with lots of idol worship and especially heavy-duty worship of the world's favorite god, the almighty buck.
At the beginning of our lesson, Paul reminds them of their former life, when they were mired in sin, ignorant of God, and going nowhere.
But Christ changed all that. When they’d heard the Good News of new and everlasting life for all who renounce their sin and entrust their lives to Jesus, God enacted a midcourse correction in their eternal journey, turning their lives around, back to God and eternity with God.
“By grace you have been saved through faith,” Paul reminds the Ephesians, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Christians should never be blasé about God’s passionate desire to change the courses of our lives and eternal destinies. We always have reason to celebrate and to wonder!
Just this afternoon, I got a telephone call from a woman who was a member of the first parish we served in northwest Ohio. I’m presiding at the wedding of one of her daughters this summer and she asked if, at the rehearsal, I could also baptize her two grandchildren.
We also chatted. “You know,” she told me, “God is hard to understand sometimes. I never considered myself a great Christian. I believed and I tried my best. But I always thought my husband was the committed one and I was sort of along for the ride. If you had told me seven years ago that I’d start and own a Christian bookstore, I would have told you that you were crazy. Yet God led me every step and opened every door.”
And then she said, “But sometimes, I ask God, ‘Why?’”
You see, God’s grace and the way of life he made for this woman beforehand were things she never would have guessed. Now she's walking in the life that God had in mind for her, a gift more fulfilling than she could have ever imagined. And all she can do is offer back a life of service in Christ’s Name.
And this is where servanthood, the topic of our Lenten midweek services begins and ends: In the God from Whom we first received life and in the God Who gives us new life in Jesus Christ.
I don’t know why God loves me. I find myself much less lovable than God apparently does. And yet, God does love me and you.
Once our lives were going nowhere. But, in Christ, God claims us as His own and changes us for all eternity. As Paul writes later in Ephesians, “now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
In the face of such undeserved love, grace, and favor, how can we not be servants?
Ephesians 2:1-10
Each year, Jewish believers celebrate something called the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Festival of the Booths.
It remembers the forty-year period during which the ancient Hebrews, freed by God from slavery in Egypt, wandered in the wilderness before finally arriving in the land that God had long ago promised their ancestors.
During those forty years in the wilderness, they mostly lived in temporary booths or huts. (Another word for these structures is tabernacle, which basically means tent.) The purpose of the annual Festival of the Booths is to remind modern believers that God cares about aliens and strangers and that for people of faith, our only home is with God. To this day, many Jewish believers erect tents or huts in their yards to celebrate the Festival of the Tabernacles.
A prominent German scholar of the New Testament, Joachim Jeremias, once visited a Jewish friend in Israel during this festival. The friend led Jeremias to his backyard to show off the family’s festival tent. There was nothing distinctive about it except for two signs, one posted on the left and the other on the right side, of the opening. One sign said, “From God.” The other read, “To God.”
Those two signs, with just four words, describe the wilderness wanderings in which you and I and everyone we know are living right now. The Bible says that we were formed by God in our mother’s wombs. It also tells us that one day, every one of us will stand before God. We move from God to God.
The Bible affirms that you and I are on that same journey. That could fill us with fear. The New Testament book of Hebrews affirms that, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Even those certain of their places in eternity and of God’s love would agree that only a fool or a misinformed person wouldn’t be a bit weak in the knee about coming face to face with the omnipotent, perfect God of the universe.
Yet, fear need not have the last word in our relationship with God.
In our Bible lesson for tonight, the apostle Paul writes to the first century church in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus. Before coming to faith in God, many of the Ephesian Christians had little notion that they were on this journey from God to God. Ephesus was a place with lots of idol worship and especially heavy-duty worship of the world's favorite god, the almighty buck.
At the beginning of our lesson, Paul reminds them of their former life, when they were mired in sin, ignorant of God, and going nowhere.
But Christ changed all that. When they’d heard the Good News of new and everlasting life for all who renounce their sin and entrust their lives to Jesus, God enacted a midcourse correction in their eternal journey, turning their lives around, back to God and eternity with God.
“By grace you have been saved through faith,” Paul reminds the Ephesians, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Christians should never be blasé about God’s passionate desire to change the courses of our lives and eternal destinies. We always have reason to celebrate and to wonder!
Just this afternoon, I got a telephone call from a woman who was a member of the first parish we served in northwest Ohio. I’m presiding at the wedding of one of her daughters this summer and she asked if, at the rehearsal, I could also baptize her two grandchildren.
We also chatted. “You know,” she told me, “God is hard to understand sometimes. I never considered myself a great Christian. I believed and I tried my best. But I always thought my husband was the committed one and I was sort of along for the ride. If you had told me seven years ago that I’d start and own a Christian bookstore, I would have told you that you were crazy. Yet God led me every step and opened every door.”
And then she said, “But sometimes, I ask God, ‘Why?’”
You see, God’s grace and the way of life he made for this woman beforehand were things she never would have guessed. Now she's walking in the life that God had in mind for her, a gift more fulfilling than she could have ever imagined. And all she can do is offer back a life of service in Christ’s Name.
And this is where servanthood, the topic of our Lenten midweek services begins and ends: In the God from Whom we first received life and in the God Who gives us new life in Jesus Christ.
I don’t know why God loves me. I find myself much less lovable than God apparently does. And yet, God does love me and you.
Once our lives were going nowhere. But, in Christ, God claims us as His own and changes us for all eternity. As Paul writes later in Ephesians, “now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
In the face of such undeserved love, grace, and favor, how can we not be servants?
40-Days to Servanthood: Day 36
Servants understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them.
Jesus once asked rhetorically: “Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it?” (Luke 14:28, The Message) People who want to be servants in Jesus’ kingdom deserve to know all the facts, even the unpleasant ones.
Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. You might have expected him to be grateful. But, knowing that the religious authorities had it in for Jesus, the healed man went out of his way to finger Jesus for the sabbath day healing he knew so outraged them. The man took advantage of Jesus’ power to heal, betrayed Him, and ignored Jesus’ admonition, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:1-14)
If people took advantage of Jesus when He served them, you can be certain that people will take advantage of your servanthood, too!
A woman I know used to work in downtown Cincinnati. Often, as she walked to the parking lot for her nightly commute, she passed people begging for money. “I always give them something,” she told me. “I know there’s a good chance they’ll use it to buy a drink or some drugs. But I’d rather err on the side of mercy than on the side of judgment.”
It isn’t easy to be a servant of God. In a very real way, it means bearing the cross with Jesus. “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” Jesus said (Luke 14:27). But Jesus’ cross also comes with a promise: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25). Jesus’ followers can afford to give themselves away, serving in Jesus’ Name; Christ has already given them eternity.
Servants understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25).
Jesus once asked rhetorically: “Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it?” (Luke 14:28, The Message) People who want to be servants in Jesus’ kingdom deserve to know all the facts, even the unpleasant ones.
Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. You might have expected him to be grateful. But, knowing that the religious authorities had it in for Jesus, the healed man went out of his way to finger Jesus for the sabbath day healing he knew so outraged them. The man took advantage of Jesus’ power to heal, betrayed Him, and ignored Jesus’ admonition, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:1-14)
If people took advantage of Jesus when He served them, you can be certain that people will take advantage of your servanthood, too!
A woman I know used to work in downtown Cincinnati. Often, as she walked to the parking lot for her nightly commute, she passed people begging for money. “I always give them something,” she told me. “I know there’s a good chance they’ll use it to buy a drink or some drugs. But I’d rather err on the side of mercy than on the side of judgment.”
It isn’t easy to be a servant of God. In a very real way, it means bearing the cross with Jesus. “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” Jesus said (Luke 14:27). But Jesus’ cross also comes with a promise: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25). Jesus’ followers can afford to give themselves away, serving in Jesus’ Name; Christ has already given them eternity.
Servants understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them.
Bible Passage to Ponder: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live” (John 11:25).
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