Showing posts with label humility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humility. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Tuesday, November 01, 2022
Wednesday, October 09, 2019
Humility
[This was shared this past Sunday during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Luke 17:1-10
The whole idea of humility, of being humble, is taking a beating these days.
Snapchat and Instagram are full-up with selfies.
We revere athletes, actors, and politicians who arrogantly look down their noses on the rest of the world.
We celebrate and retweet the posts of those who specialize in unkindness and vindictiveness.
And every day, you and I are tempted whenever we go shopping to judge and deem ourselves superior to those we see along the aisles and at the checkout.
Of course, our penchant for arrogance goes back to the garden of Eden. There, the serpent tempted the first human beings with the idea that, if they broke free from God, their loving Creator, they could create their own life apart from God: they could be their own gods.
We’ve been mesmerized by this fiction ever since, inflicting a world of hurt on each other and on ourselves.
All wars,
every instance of child and spouse abuse,
all the feuds between families and among families,
all the prejudice and discrimination, petty egotism, snobbery, and gossip,
every case of murder, thievery, adultery, covetousness, not to mention every time human beings bow down to false idols they think they can control by their sacrifices or piety or good works,
every time we think that our race, ethnicity, nationality, or financial condition makes us better than others,
every time a person looks on the vast cosmos and dares to say that there is no God,
and every time a Christian thinks that God’s gift to them of faith in Jesus somehow makes them better than others,
every time any of these things appear, we cave into this delusion that we can be like God which we inherited from Adam and Eve.
It is our original sin.
We keep trying to ignore, deny, or live around the simple truth that God’s Word teaches: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18)
And why is pride so destructive?
Because pride violates the first commandment. The proud have a false god: themselves.
But we can only find life through repentance and faith in Jesus. So, when we worship at the altar of ego, we place our hope in a god that will die.
A Christian songwriter put it simply: “Pride kills.”
We will either die in pride or we will live in humility.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus talks about humility as an essential element of Christian discipleship. Take a look at the lesson, please: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’”
The “little ones” Jesus refers to here seem to be the outcasts, those hated and disdained by society’s so-called “good people” with whom Jesus so readily interacted: People like prostitutes, extortionists, foreigners, beggars, the lame, and notorious sinners.
Jesus is warning those of us who call ourselves Christians to take care that instead of inviting and welcoming society’s “little ones” into fellowship with Christ and with us as He tells us to do, we turn them away or cause them to sin all the more unrepentantly.
This past week, several of us were talking about how often restaurant personnel hate working the Sunday afternoon shift because they know that the Christians taking in lunch after worship are going to treat them like garbage and leave either no tips or miserly ones. A disciple of Jesus understands that a Christian saint is no more than a recovering sinner undergoing reconstruction by the Holy Spirit. But an unbeliever will look at the parade of hypocritical church people eating lunch in their restaurant on Sunday afternoons and think, “If that’s what Jesus does to a person, I want nothing to do with Christian faith.”
Jesus says that when Christians act arrogantly toward non-Christians, we might as well put millstones around our necks and sink into hell. Proud Christians block the grace of God given in Christ not only to those they treat disdainfully but to themselves as well. “So,” Jesus tells us, “watch yourselves.”
Then, in verses 3 and 4, Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Refusing to forgive those who have genuinely apologized and sought our forgiveness is the height of human presumption and pride. And we will never be free until we set those who have apologized to us free from the debt they owe us.
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The word that Jesus uses for forgive in this passage is, in the Greek in which Luke wrote his gospel, aphiemi, literally meaning I release. When we forgive others as Christ forgives us, we not only release them of their debt to us, we also release ourselves from our bondage to sin. We let the forgiveness of God given in Christ flow into our own lives.
Skip down for a moment to Jesus’ words, starting in verse 7: “‘Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat”? Won’t he rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink”? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
These words of Jesus may seem cryptic to us. But again, the theme is the essential place of humility in the life of a Christian.
As is often true in His parables, the short stories with deeper meanings He often tells, Jesus here creates a scenario which, to his original first-century hearers, would have seemed outrageous.
In that top-down society, no wealthy land-owner would tell his servant to take a load off his feet and eat with him. And he wouldn’t thank the cook on his payroll for doing his job.
The obvious conclusion is that if a follower of Jesus loves a neighbor, or sacrifices for a fellow believer, or shares the good news of new life through repentance and faith in the crucified and risen Jesus, she or he does so not for applause, recognition, or thank-yous. They do these things because Jesus so lives inside them that it doesn’t even dawn on them to not love their neighbor, to not sacrifice for the fellow believer, to not share the gospel of Jesus with someone in need of Him.
For them, such expressions of faith aren’t planned events. They’re simply the supernatural outgrowth of a life lived with Jesus in daily repentance and renewal.
Humility, you see, is not an acquired life skill, it’s something that happens in the lives of those who seek each day to walk with Jesus.
Our motives, our values, and the way we view everything get changed as Jesus takes up residence in the center of our lives when we take our gaze off of ourselves and fix our eyes firmly on God the Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus.
And that leads us back to the middle two verses of today’s gospel lesson. The apostles hear Jesus’ words and realize that, because of their (and our) inborn sinful nature, the kind of humility that Jesus commends in these verses is impossible. So, they make what seems like a reasonable request.
Verse 5: “Increase our faith!”
This may not be a pious request at all. It may be what can be called the “increase our faith dodge.” You hear it all the time.
Christians who don’t want to heed Jesus’ call to follow or be servants in His Church or share their faith in Christ, will say things like, “My faith isn’t strong enough” or “Everyone else knows more than I do or can do more than I can do.”
I suspect that people don’t really believe these things as often as they say them.
And I suspect that they’re really not that interested in having more faith or following Jesus or sharing Him with others.
I think that often, these are the expressions of a false humility. People figure they sound pious and Christian when they speak of what they can’t do, can’t give, can’t try. And so they keep right on, not doing, not giving, not trying.
Jesus’ response to the apostles is direct. Verse 6: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
To follow Jesus, to heed His call to love and serve our neighbor, to get our minds off of ourselves and onto the God Who creates, gives us faith in Jesus, saves us from sin and death, and empowers us to live more selfless lives, is not about waiting around for God to give us more faith.
It’s acting on the little faith the Holy Spirit has given to us in the big, loving God of the whole universe we meet in Jesus Christ, then daring to live the life of love, joy, and connectedness to others for which He has set us free.
It’s only in those who respond when Jesus says, “Follow Me” that God grows faith: Only when we refuse to look at other disdainfully, only when we dare to forgive those who seek our forgiveness, and only when we heed His call to believe, to love and share Christ’s gospel with others in our lives.
C.S. Lewis observed that, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.”
Without our consciously realizing it, humility becomes part of us as His Word works in us to create faith and we think of Jesus more and of ourselves, less.
When we turn to Jesus, humility begins to break through.
And when humility breaks through, we not only know joy for ourselves, we will share it with others.
We become the conduits of God’s grace for everyone we know.
Turn to Jesus each day and the pride that can kill us will meet its master.
Turn to Jesus each day and He will fill you love for Him instead of pride in yourself.
Turn to Jesus and live. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Luke 17:1-10
The whole idea of humility, of being humble, is taking a beating these days.
Snapchat and Instagram are full-up with selfies.
We revere athletes, actors, and politicians who arrogantly look down their noses on the rest of the world.
We celebrate and retweet the posts of those who specialize in unkindness and vindictiveness.
And every day, you and I are tempted whenever we go shopping to judge and deem ourselves superior to those we see along the aisles and at the checkout.
Of course, our penchant for arrogance goes back to the garden of Eden. There, the serpent tempted the first human beings with the idea that, if they broke free from God, their loving Creator, they could create their own life apart from God: they could be their own gods.
We’ve been mesmerized by this fiction ever since, inflicting a world of hurt on each other and on ourselves.
All wars,
every instance of child and spouse abuse,
all the feuds between families and among families,
all the prejudice and discrimination, petty egotism, snobbery, and gossip,
every case of murder, thievery, adultery, covetousness, not to mention every time human beings bow down to false idols they think they can control by their sacrifices or piety or good works,
every time we think that our race, ethnicity, nationality, or financial condition makes us better than others,
every time a person looks on the vast cosmos and dares to say that there is no God,
and every time a Christian thinks that God’s gift to them of faith in Jesus somehow makes them better than others,
every time any of these things appear, we cave into this delusion that we can be like God which we inherited from Adam and Eve.
It is our original sin.
We keep trying to ignore, deny, or live around the simple truth that God’s Word teaches: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18)
And why is pride so destructive?
Because pride violates the first commandment. The proud have a false god: themselves.
But we can only find life through repentance and faith in Jesus. So, when we worship at the altar of ego, we place our hope in a god that will die.
A Christian songwriter put it simply: “Pride kills.”
We will either die in pride or we will live in humility.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus talks about humility as an essential element of Christian discipleship. Take a look at the lesson, please: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’”
The “little ones” Jesus refers to here seem to be the outcasts, those hated and disdained by society’s so-called “good people” with whom Jesus so readily interacted: People like prostitutes, extortionists, foreigners, beggars, the lame, and notorious sinners.
Jesus is warning those of us who call ourselves Christians to take care that instead of inviting and welcoming society’s “little ones” into fellowship with Christ and with us as He tells us to do, we turn them away or cause them to sin all the more unrepentantly.
This past week, several of us were talking about how often restaurant personnel hate working the Sunday afternoon shift because they know that the Christians taking in lunch after worship are going to treat them like garbage and leave either no tips or miserly ones. A disciple of Jesus understands that a Christian saint is no more than a recovering sinner undergoing reconstruction by the Holy Spirit. But an unbeliever will look at the parade of hypocritical church people eating lunch in their restaurant on Sunday afternoons and think, “If that’s what Jesus does to a person, I want nothing to do with Christian faith.”
Jesus says that when Christians act arrogantly toward non-Christians, we might as well put millstones around our necks and sink into hell. Proud Christians block the grace of God given in Christ not only to those they treat disdainfully but to themselves as well. “So,” Jesus tells us, “watch yourselves.”
Then, in verses 3 and 4, Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Refusing to forgive those who have genuinely apologized and sought our forgiveness is the height of human presumption and pride. And we will never be free until we set those who have apologized to us free from the debt they owe us.
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The word that Jesus uses for forgive in this passage is, in the Greek in which Luke wrote his gospel, aphiemi, literally meaning I release. When we forgive others as Christ forgives us, we not only release them of their debt to us, we also release ourselves from our bondage to sin. We let the forgiveness of God given in Christ flow into our own lives.
Skip down for a moment to Jesus’ words, starting in verse 7: “‘Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat”? Won’t he rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink”? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
These words of Jesus may seem cryptic to us. But again, the theme is the essential place of humility in the life of a Christian.
As is often true in His parables, the short stories with deeper meanings He often tells, Jesus here creates a scenario which, to his original first-century hearers, would have seemed outrageous.
In that top-down society, no wealthy land-owner would tell his servant to take a load off his feet and eat with him. And he wouldn’t thank the cook on his payroll for doing his job.
The obvious conclusion is that if a follower of Jesus loves a neighbor, or sacrifices for a fellow believer, or shares the good news of new life through repentance and faith in the crucified and risen Jesus, she or he does so not for applause, recognition, or thank-yous. They do these things because Jesus so lives inside them that it doesn’t even dawn on them to not love their neighbor, to not sacrifice for the fellow believer, to not share the gospel of Jesus with someone in need of Him.
For them, such expressions of faith aren’t planned events. They’re simply the supernatural outgrowth of a life lived with Jesus in daily repentance and renewal.
Humility, you see, is not an acquired life skill, it’s something that happens in the lives of those who seek each day to walk with Jesus.
Our motives, our values, and the way we view everything get changed as Jesus takes up residence in the center of our lives when we take our gaze off of ourselves and fix our eyes firmly on God the Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus.
And that leads us back to the middle two verses of today’s gospel lesson. The apostles hear Jesus’ words and realize that, because of their (and our) inborn sinful nature, the kind of humility that Jesus commends in these verses is impossible. So, they make what seems like a reasonable request.
Verse 5: “Increase our faith!”
This may not be a pious request at all. It may be what can be called the “increase our faith dodge.” You hear it all the time.
Christians who don’t want to heed Jesus’ call to follow or be servants in His Church or share their faith in Christ, will say things like, “My faith isn’t strong enough” or “Everyone else knows more than I do or can do more than I can do.”
I suspect that people don’t really believe these things as often as they say them.
And I suspect that they’re really not that interested in having more faith or following Jesus or sharing Him with others.
I think that often, these are the expressions of a false humility. People figure they sound pious and Christian when they speak of what they can’t do, can’t give, can’t try. And so they keep right on, not doing, not giving, not trying.
Jesus’ response to the apostles is direct. Verse 6: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
To follow Jesus, to heed His call to love and serve our neighbor, to get our minds off of ourselves and onto the God Who creates, gives us faith in Jesus, saves us from sin and death, and empowers us to live more selfless lives, is not about waiting around for God to give us more faith.
It’s acting on the little faith the Holy Spirit has given to us in the big, loving God of the whole universe we meet in Jesus Christ, then daring to live the life of love, joy, and connectedness to others for which He has set us free.
It’s only in those who respond when Jesus says, “Follow Me” that God grows faith: Only when we refuse to look at other disdainfully, only when we dare to forgive those who seek our forgiveness, and only when we heed His call to believe, to love and share Christ’s gospel with others in our lives.
C.S. Lewis observed that, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.”
Without our consciously realizing it, humility becomes part of us as His Word works in us to create faith and we think of Jesus more and of ourselves, less.
When we turn to Jesus, humility begins to break through.
And when humility breaks through, we not only know joy for ourselves, we will share it with others.
We become the conduits of God’s grace for everyone we know.
Turn to Jesus each day and the pride that can kill us will meet its master.
Turn to Jesus each day and He will fill you love for Him instead of pride in yourself.
Turn to Jesus and live. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
God, Arrogance, and Humility
"When [Jesus] noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 'When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, "Give this person your seat." Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, "Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11)
In a world in which arrogance is celebrated, Jesus' words are both Law and Gospel.
They're Law because God's condemnation for the unrepentantly arrogant is plain.
They're Gospel because inhering in them is God's promise that those who humble themselves in surrender to Christ will have a place especially prepared for us by God in His Kingdom, now and in eternity.
As the psalmist puts it, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." (Psalm 84:10)
[Reflections from my quiet time with God this morning. I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
In a world in which arrogance is celebrated, Jesus' words are both Law and Gospel.
They're Law because God's condemnation for the unrepentantly arrogant is plain.
They're Gospel because inhering in them is God's promise that those who humble themselves in surrender to Christ will have a place especially prepared for us by God in His Kingdom, now and in eternity.
As the psalmist puts it, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." (Psalm 84:10)
[Reflections from my quiet time with God this morning. I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, November 23, 2018
Why God Humbles Us
In my quiet time with God today, I read the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapters 4-6.
Daniel, living as an exile in Babylon, which had conquered God's people, is an adviser to the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel interprets a dream for the king, telling Nebuchadnezzar that, although he is powerful and rich at the moment, his kingdom will soon be taken from him. Because of his arrogance, Nebuchadnezzar will be driven from his throne, forced to live like a wild animal.
A year passes and the king is still in power...unchastened by the dream. Then, one day while walking on the roof of his palace, Nebuchadnezzar observes with self-satisfaction, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30)
Just then, a voice came from heaven and told the king, "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times [seven years] will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.” (Daniel 4:31-32)
After seven years of God's humiliation for his arrogance, Nebuchadnezzar repented for his sins and confessed his faith in God. As he tells it, his sanity is restored. (The abiding insanity of the human race is the notion that we can "be like God," masters of our own lives and fates. Nebuchadnezzar apparently had followed this insane line of thinking to the nth degree.)
Eventually, his advisers and others sought Nebuchadnezzar out and his kingship was restored, although he approached it with a different attitude. His kingship and all of the other gifts God chose to bestow on him weren't his due, nor the result of his goodness or power: They were only trusts given to Him by God to be used with faithfulness, diligence, and wisdom.
In Daniel 4:37, the king says, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble."
"And those who walk in pride he is able to humble."
We may sometimes resent or question the ways in which God humbles us. But maybe God has to humble us in order to restore our sanity, to help us to acknowledge the fundamental fact of the universe, that God is God and we're not. He needs to humble us so that we will turn back to Him and live.
The way of self-centered pride may gain us the whole world. But eventually, it will cost us our eternal lives. When we insist on worshiping at what Carolyn Arends has called "the altar of ego," we aren't walking with the God we know in Jesus Christ.
Jesus asks, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36)
Nebuchadnezzar's answer to that question was, "It doesn't profit anyone at all to gain the trophies of this dying world and lose our life with God for all eternity."
I try to spend time in God's Word each day. I don’t do that to earn brownie points with God. God doesn’t give brownie points. He gave Himself on the cross for sinners like me. I spend time in God’s Word each day so that I don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this world or this human being is all that. I need to be reminded of how gracious, loving, powerful, and righteous God is. I need to reconnect with the only Source of life there is: the God revealed in Jesus.
I don't want to be my own man. I want to be God's man. I want to be a man who belongs to the One Who bought my soul out of sin and death by His death on the cross. I want to belong to Jesus.
I don't want to be my own man. I want to be God's man. I want to be a man who belongs to the One Who bought my soul out of sin and death by His death on the cross. I want to belong to Jesus.
I don't need the kingdoms of this world--prominence, popularity, power, property. I just need the God revealed in Jesus. I ask that God would remind me of that each day, to keep me sane.
"One thing I have asked of the LORD, this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple." (Psalm 27:4)
That’s how I feel when I’m sane. And I'm not always sane. Sometimes I let my ego, my thoughts, my emotions, or my desires take control. I need to be humbled to see God, the world, and me aright. That's why I keep coming back to God in His Word, the God I know in Jesus, the God Who has established His Church as a fellowship of healing for recovering sinners like me: So that His sanity will penetrate my life and so that I will believe in Him and live.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Remembering a Gracious Professor
I learned last night that one of my favorite professors from seminary, Merlin Hoops, died yesterday afternoon. It is hard for me to measure the impact that he had on me as a Christian and as a pastor, but it was enormous.
Dr. Hoops taught New Testament. But more than anything, he was a Christian encourager. He saw the best in others, even when they (I) did less than their (my) best.
My first class with him as the professor did not go well. In fact, I flunked and had to repeat the course. I thought that I'd never take another class with him.
But my final year of seminary, there was a New Testament option requirement I needed to fulfill and a seminar class led by Dr. Hoops was all that would fit my schedule. It was on the New Testament book of 1 Peter.
Dr. Hoops' passion and insight into the book was tremendous. First Peter is a book written by Peter the apostle to encourage Christians in their suffering. Without saying a self-pitying word, Dr. Hoops' own experience of suffering gave the class and his words about it particular power. I realized then that he wasn't just a scholar, he was also a humble disciple of Jesus, a pastor in the best sense of that word.
Amazingly to me, I passed the course with flying colors and as we were registering for classes for the next quarter, Dr. Hoops asked if he could speak with me. "Mark, I was wondering if you would take a class I'm teaching next term, 'Theology of the New Testament.' It's a seminar too and will have underclassmen in it. I find that having some upperclassmen like you in a class of this kind helps get the discussion going. And you're good at that."
I was honored. Though I didn't need the class to graduate, I, of course, enrolled in the class and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that, although my GPA was mediocre at best, Dr. Hoops urged me to do graduate work in New Testament studies. That was not to be. But I appreciated the encouragement...especially from a man whose first impression of me had to have been that I was lackadaisical about my work and downright disrespectful to him. But the man, so grateful for the grace of God given to him in Christ, always treated others with incredible grace.
I have many other wonderful memories of Dr. Hoops. One summer while I was in seminary, my brother Marty and I had a lawn-mowing business. Dr. Hoops was recuperating from surgery and asked us to include his lawn in our work. He and his wife were so gracious to us. I remember the two of them bringing out lemonade for us as we worked.
In the decades since I got my Master of Divinity degree and became a pastor, our paths would occasionally cross and, as I'm sure is true of all his former students, Dr. Hoops was always gracious and encouraging, always full of questions about my ministry and my life. That's just who he was with everyone.
A high school classmate of mine who knew Dr. Hoops through her work in the field of developmental disabilities has occasionally given me reports on how he and his family were doing. We would pass greetings to one another through her. He was just a dear man, a wonderful example of Christian faithfulness. I loved and respected him. His insights, stories, passion for the gospel, and witness for Christ have shown up repeatedly in my sermons, Sunday School classes, and Bible studies over the years.
But it's his compassion, his forgiving spirit which I experienced so directly, and his unflagging encouragement that I cherish most. Once, he said to us as we sat in that class on 1 Peter, "I shudder when I think of the sacrifices some of you will be asked to make for Christ." And then he made it clear that he prayed for every one of us.
Knowing something of his prayer habits, I'm sure that he prayed for hundreds of people regularly. Those prayers offered by a righteous man in Jesus' name most certainly have made a difference in hundreds of lives. His prayers for others were the ultimate act of self-denial and encouragement from a man whose life was characterized by these expressions of faith in Christ.
I look forward to seeing him again one day in eternity. May God grant comfort and encouragement to his family and friends as they mourn his passing.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Dr. Hoops taught New Testament. But more than anything, he was a Christian encourager. He saw the best in others, even when they (I) did less than their (my) best.
My first class with him as the professor did not go well. In fact, I flunked and had to repeat the course. I thought that I'd never take another class with him.
But my final year of seminary, there was a New Testament option requirement I needed to fulfill and a seminar class led by Dr. Hoops was all that would fit my schedule. It was on the New Testament book of 1 Peter.
Dr. Hoops' passion and insight into the book was tremendous. First Peter is a book written by Peter the apostle to encourage Christians in their suffering. Without saying a self-pitying word, Dr. Hoops' own experience of suffering gave the class and his words about it particular power. I realized then that he wasn't just a scholar, he was also a humble disciple of Jesus, a pastor in the best sense of that word.
Amazingly to me, I passed the course with flying colors and as we were registering for classes for the next quarter, Dr. Hoops asked if he could speak with me. "Mark, I was wondering if you would take a class I'm teaching next term, 'Theology of the New Testament.' It's a seminar too and will have underclassmen in it. I find that having some upperclassmen like you in a class of this kind helps get the discussion going. And you're good at that."
I was honored. Though I didn't need the class to graduate, I, of course, enrolled in the class and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that, although my GPA was mediocre at best, Dr. Hoops urged me to do graduate work in New Testament studies. That was not to be. But I appreciated the encouragement...especially from a man whose first impression of me had to have been that I was lackadaisical about my work and downright disrespectful to him. But the man, so grateful for the grace of God given to him in Christ, always treated others with incredible grace.
I have many other wonderful memories of Dr. Hoops. One summer while I was in seminary, my brother Marty and I had a lawn-mowing business. Dr. Hoops was recuperating from surgery and asked us to include his lawn in our work. He and his wife were so gracious to us. I remember the two of them bringing out lemonade for us as we worked.
In the decades since I got my Master of Divinity degree and became a pastor, our paths would occasionally cross and, as I'm sure is true of all his former students, Dr. Hoops was always gracious and encouraging, always full of questions about my ministry and my life. That's just who he was with everyone.
A high school classmate of mine who knew Dr. Hoops through her work in the field of developmental disabilities has occasionally given me reports on how he and his family were doing. We would pass greetings to one another through her. He was just a dear man, a wonderful example of Christian faithfulness. I loved and respected him. His insights, stories, passion for the gospel, and witness for Christ have shown up repeatedly in my sermons, Sunday School classes, and Bible studies over the years.
But it's his compassion, his forgiving spirit which I experienced so directly, and his unflagging encouragement that I cherish most. Once, he said to us as we sat in that class on 1 Peter, "I shudder when I think of the sacrifices some of you will be asked to make for Christ." And then he made it clear that he prayed for every one of us.
Knowing something of his prayer habits, I'm sure that he prayed for hundreds of people regularly. Those prayers offered by a righteous man in Jesus' name most certainly have made a difference in hundreds of lives. His prayers for others were the ultimate act of self-denial and encouragement from a man whose life was characterized by these expressions of faith in Christ.
I look forward to seeing him again one day in eternity. May God grant comfort and encouragement to his family and friends as they mourn his passing.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, October 20, 2017
Staying Focused
[Most days, I try to spend quiet time with God. Below is my journal entry for this morning. I hope that you find it helpful. To see how I approach my quiet time with God, see here. It's all about seeking to listen to what God is telling us through His Word as we meet Him each day.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You're invited to be with the congregation for worship on Sundays, either at 8:45 or 11:00 AM.]
Look: [Jesus asked] “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44)
Jesus is speaking to those scandalized by His Sabbath day restoration of the once-paralyzed limbs of a man unable to walk.
All of Jesus’ words in this chapter are interesting. But today, I’m especially taken with these in verse 44. A paraphrase might be: “Since being acceptable to the crowd is so important to you, how could you possibly care about the glorious acceptance that only the one true God can give to you through faith in Me?”
Jesus underscores His own indifference to the accolades (or glories) that human beings may give to Him in verse 41: “I do not accept glory from human beings...” By this, Jesus means that He refuses to allow the opinions of Him--good or bad--to turn His head. He will do what He must do and what He has been called to do, popular or not, easy or not. In Luke 12:50, referencing the suffering He will undergo, calling His crucifixion and death His “baptism,” Jesus says: “But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!”
In the wilderness, of course, Satan had tempted Jesus to grab for the glories offered Him by Satan and the world. Luke’s account of the wilderness temptations of Jesus says:
“The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’” But Luke says that Jesus responded: “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” (Luke 4:5-8)
Listen: If I’m to walk with God, if I’m to have life with God through Jesus, I can’t worry about having the accolades of the crowd. Nor can I concern myself with what’s easy, safe, or comfortable. Nor can I worry about the possibility of being deemed “weird” or “different” from everybody else.*
Some people, of course, wear their “distinctiveness” as Christians like badges of honor and pride. This is not what Jesus is commending when He says that we should focus on being considered “glorious” by God instead of the crowd. There is no place for being puffed up for the person who genuinely seeks to follow Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds Christians: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” And 1 Corinthians 13:4 says: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
To be set apart or holy for God is to be so focused on following Jesus that I am willing to ignore what the crowd or what my own internal preference for comfort say I should do.
In this, Jesus isn’t just the One Who saves us for life set apart for God, He’s also, as we say in the liturgy, “a model of the godly life.” Luke 9:51, a turning point in Luke’s narrative of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, says: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”
Jesus was so sold-out to glorifying God the Father that He “resolutely” went to Jerusalem, knowing what awaited Him there. He didn’t flinch.
*Weird or different are two words that could readily translate the Bible’s term, holy. The best translation is probably set apart for God.
He calls us to similar resolve. In Luke 14:27, Jesus says: “...whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus isn’t here saying that Christians should look for trouble.
And “their cross” here doesn’t refer to the troubles, adversity, and pain to which every human being is subject because we live in this fallen, imperfect world.
Taking up our crosses involves acknowledging the sin in us--both our sinful natures and the sins we commit because of those natures--and following Jesus as the only One Who can set us free from their power over us.
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57)
Those who follow Jesus daily submit to the crucifixion of our old sinful selves so that the new creation Jesus died and rose to make us become can rise.
We daily remember our baptisms as the time of our crucifixion and death so that can Christ can daily raise us up: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
The only way I can follow through on a life marked by humble acknowledgement of my need of Christ is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to forget about the affirmations offered by the crowds or the comforts offered by the world so that I can follow Jesus Christ alone.
This isn’t easy. I like to be liked. I don’t like disappointing or offending people. I want to fit in.
On top of that, I’d like to be comfortable.
But while some Christians may be comfortable, materially or socially, none of that is promised by Jesus.
He promises us eternal life. He promises His constant presence with us. But, as I often remind others, so I now remind myself, Jesus also promises: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
So often, the discouragement I feel over the lack of discernible “progress” in my spiritual life can be attributed to one simple thing: I’ve taken my eye off of Jesus.
Real spiritual progress comes, I suspect, when I’m not even conscious of questions about my “spiritual progress” and I set my face toward Jesus. As C.S. Lewis puts it: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.”
Respond: Father, today, by the Holy Spirit’s power, free me of concerns about the estimation of others or the standards of this world or my own sin-warped personal standards. Grant that the only accolade I care about is Your Words at the Judgment, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Help me to focus on Jesus alone. May I revere Your name today. May Your kingdom come to me today. May Your will be done in my life today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You're invited to be with the congregation for worship on Sundays, either at 8:45 or 11:00 AM.]
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
More on humility
"...all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for 'God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6)
God really spoke to me in these verses during my quiet time with Him today. Praying that God will help me to subordinate my ego and my wants to Him and His will.
God really spoke to me in these verses during my quiet time with Him today. Praying that God will help me to subordinate my ego and my wants to Him and His will.
Monday, October 03, 2016
Sunday, October 02, 2016
The Need for Humility
Luke 17:1-10
A prominent New Testament scholar jokes about the man who wrote a book titled, Humility and How I Achieved It. Of course, a truly humble person would never be so wrapped up in themselves as to identify themselves as exemplifying humility.
And yet, for the Christian, cultivating humility is both central to our faith in Christ and reflective of Christ living in us because, despite being God, Jesus was always humble.
Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Zechariah, wrote of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly [or humble] and riding on a donkey...” [Zecharaiah 9:9]
And, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” [Philippians 2:5-7]
Jesus humbled Himself, making Himself our servant, going to the cross to bear the condemnation for sin we deserve, then rising from death to open God’s eternity to all who repent of sin and believe in Christ.
It was humility that set Jesus free from allowing the certain horrors of the cross to keep Him from fulfilling His mission of saving the human race.
Humility can set us free to be the people God made us to be.
C.S. Lewis once observed that humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves, it’s thinking of ourselves less.
In true humility, there’s true freedom. When we follow Jesus Christ and know that we have God’s forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing us God’s presence with us now and in eternity with God, we’re set free from operating out of the pathetic human desire to be our own gods. Since we know that God is already looking out for us, eternally, we don’t need to “look out for number one.” We’re set free to live out of God’s love and truth revealed in the crucified and risen Jesus.
The call to humility is a common thread running through the seemingly disconnected set of sayings from Jesus that make up today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 17:1-10.
Unlike the parables of Jesus that have absorbed our attention over the past few weeks, which were addressed to people who followed Him and people who didn't, Jesus’ words in today’s lesson are spoken only to His disciples, followers of Jesus like you and me. Jesus is telling us how we disciples should live each day. Let’s take a look at what Jesus has to tell us this morning, starting at verse 1.
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’
“[Jesus goes on] “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
I once spoke with a man who told me that he couldn’t put any symbol of His Christian faith--like a fish or a cross or a bumper sticker saying something like, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”--on His car for fear that if he cut someone off in traffic or engaged in a fit of road rage or failed to forgive someone who had wronged him, people would think less of Christianity. “That’s too much pressure,” he told me.
I appreciated his honesty. It’s not easy being a Christian. As Christians, we know that we’re sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, not because we’re such great and holy people. (I know that I’m not.) Sin still lives in us and a big part of the Christian life involves daily enlisting God’s power to overcome our sin. “Daily repentance and renewal” is what Martin Luther called it.
Because we know how unchristian we can be in our thoughts and actions, we might well think, “Who am I, an ordinary, garden variety sinner, to represent Jesus Christ to the world? Who am I, someone who muddles along in life, sometimes with only the tiniest wisp of a faith, to be, in the words of 2 Corinthians, an ambassador for Christ?” The truth is, it probably only makes sense to Jesus that we should be His representatives in the world.
And if we find fulfilling that role daunting, so did Jesus’ first disciples. After hearing Jesus say that if they led others into sin and away from God, it would be better to be deep sixed with a millstone around their necks and that, if they were going to bear His name, they needed to forgive those who apologized to them without keeping score, they reacted as maybe we react. Verse 5: “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”
The disciples thought that they could be better Christians if they had bigger faith. We're inclined to think that too.
But Jesus’ response to the apostles shows us that the size of our faith should never prevent us from faithfully seeking to do His will. Verse 6: “[Jesus] replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
We can do the big things that Jesus commands of us as individual Christians and as a Church, whether our faith is large or small. We can love God. We can love our neighbor. We can make disciples. We can forgive those who have hurt us. We can share the good news of new life for all who believe in the crucified and risen Jesus. We can reach up, reach in, and reach out.
We can do all of that with just a little faith in a great, big, omnipotent, omniscient, compassionate, loving God.
With a little faith in a big God--no matter our age, our training, our gender--we can do the will of God and bring God’s kingdom to the people in our lives. It all begins with the humble recognition that God is God and that, by God's grace, we are His people.
When I first came to faith in Christ, I was hesitant about sharing Him with others, especially my old school friends and classmates. In my imagination, I could see them rejecting the message of Christ coming from me because they remembered what a big-mouthed, overbearing loser I was.
Through the years, I’ve prayed for the opportunity to share Christ with the people with whom I grew up and I’ve asked God to get my brain off of me, onto Him and onto others.
In recent years, I’ve had the chance to share Christ with many members of my graduating class. And when we had our most recent reunion, after we’d all gotten our food and sat at our tables, one of my classmates approached me and asked, “Mark, would you say grace for us? I think it would be a really good thing to do.”
There’s no way self-absorbed Mark ever would have been asked to do that. When we let God set us free from worrying about how little we are and trust in how much He can do, God can use us for His good purposes. A little faith in a big God can accomplish a lot!
This is why Jesus commends humility. “Get out of the way and let me work through you,” Jesus is saying.
Christians know that our single mission in life--the mission of the Church of making disciples--is only accomplished when we recognize that it’s about God and not about us!
That, I think is why Jesus wraps up this section on humility in the way that He does, starting at verse 7: “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Listen: Every disciple of Jesus Christ lives in the daily assurance that by God’s grace through our faith in Christ, we are saved from sin and death and are living in an eternal relationship with God. It doesn’t get any better than that! But there are no personal bragging rights in that. Christians aren’t better than other people, just freer than other people, more alive than other people, because of what Christ has done and our faith in Him. With Paul, we can say: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” [2 Corinthians 11:30] Like Paul, we know that when we are weak, the strength of Christ empowers us and is visible to others. God’s power is perfected in our weakness, our humility. [2 Corinthians 12:10]
And when we strive to live out of our faith in Christ, to trust in Him and heed the Bible’s commands, weak though we are, we do it only in the power of God.
Once, I singled out a person at a church I served as pastor for having undertaken some particular act of service. The congregation applauded. But after worship, the person told me, “I appreciated your words. But don’t ever do that again. Whatever good I do comes from the Lord and He’s the one who deserves the applause.” I didn’t entirely agree with that person: Holding up faithful examples to others can help the faith of us all. But I appreciated the humble reliance on Christ and the fact that she refused to take credit for what she knew God had done through her.
James writes in the New Testament: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” [James 4:10]
Peter says something similar: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” [1 Peter 5:6]
Humble reliance on Christ is essential to being a faithful disciple.
Jesus tells us that “with God all things are possible” [Matthew 19:26]. The fact is, there is no limit to what impossible things God can do through those who lose themselves in Christ’s grace and make themselves His servants.
May Christ teach us humility. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during worship earlier today.]
A prominent New Testament scholar jokes about the man who wrote a book titled, Humility and How I Achieved It. Of course, a truly humble person would never be so wrapped up in themselves as to identify themselves as exemplifying humility.
And yet, for the Christian, cultivating humility is both central to our faith in Christ and reflective of Christ living in us because, despite being God, Jesus was always humble.
Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Zechariah, wrote of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly [or humble] and riding on a donkey...” [Zecharaiah 9:9]
And, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant…” [Philippians 2:5-7]
Jesus humbled Himself, making Himself our servant, going to the cross to bear the condemnation for sin we deserve, then rising from death to open God’s eternity to all who repent of sin and believe in Christ.
It was humility that set Jesus free from allowing the certain horrors of the cross to keep Him from fulfilling His mission of saving the human race.
Humility can set us free to be the people God made us to be.
C.S. Lewis once observed that humility isn’t thinking less of ourselves, it’s thinking of ourselves less.
In true humility, there’s true freedom. When we follow Jesus Christ and know that we have God’s forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing us God’s presence with us now and in eternity with God, we’re set free from operating out of the pathetic human desire to be our own gods. Since we know that God is already looking out for us, eternally, we don’t need to “look out for number one.” We’re set free to live out of God’s love and truth revealed in the crucified and risen Jesus.
The call to humility is a common thread running through the seemingly disconnected set of sayings from Jesus that make up today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 17:1-10.
Unlike the parables of Jesus that have absorbed our attention over the past few weeks, which were addressed to people who followed Him and people who didn't, Jesus’ words in today’s lesson are spoken only to His disciples, followers of Jesus like you and me. Jesus is telling us how we disciples should live each day. Let’s take a look at what Jesus has to tell us this morning, starting at verse 1.
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’
“[Jesus goes on] “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
I once spoke with a man who told me that he couldn’t put any symbol of His Christian faith--like a fish or a cross or a bumper sticker saying something like, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”--on His car for fear that if he cut someone off in traffic or engaged in a fit of road rage or failed to forgive someone who had wronged him, people would think less of Christianity. “That’s too much pressure,” he told me.
I appreciated his honesty. It’s not easy being a Christian. As Christians, we know that we’re sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, not because we’re such great and holy people. (I know that I’m not.) Sin still lives in us and a big part of the Christian life involves daily enlisting God’s power to overcome our sin. “Daily repentance and renewal” is what Martin Luther called it.
Because we know how unchristian we can be in our thoughts and actions, we might well think, “Who am I, an ordinary, garden variety sinner, to represent Jesus Christ to the world? Who am I, someone who muddles along in life, sometimes with only the tiniest wisp of a faith, to be, in the words of 2 Corinthians, an ambassador for Christ?” The truth is, it probably only makes sense to Jesus that we should be His representatives in the world.
And if we find fulfilling that role daunting, so did Jesus’ first disciples. After hearing Jesus say that if they led others into sin and away from God, it would be better to be deep sixed with a millstone around their necks and that, if they were going to bear His name, they needed to forgive those who apologized to them without keeping score, they reacted as maybe we react. Verse 5: “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”
The disciples thought that they could be better Christians if they had bigger faith. We're inclined to think that too.
But Jesus’ response to the apostles shows us that the size of our faith should never prevent us from faithfully seeking to do His will. Verse 6: “[Jesus] replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
We can do the big things that Jesus commands of us as individual Christians and as a Church, whether our faith is large or small. We can love God. We can love our neighbor. We can make disciples. We can forgive those who have hurt us. We can share the good news of new life for all who believe in the crucified and risen Jesus. We can reach up, reach in, and reach out.
We can do all of that with just a little faith in a great, big, omnipotent, omniscient, compassionate, loving God.
With a little faith in a big God--no matter our age, our training, our gender--we can do the will of God and bring God’s kingdom to the people in our lives. It all begins with the humble recognition that God is God and that, by God's grace, we are His people.
When I first came to faith in Christ, I was hesitant about sharing Him with others, especially my old school friends and classmates. In my imagination, I could see them rejecting the message of Christ coming from me because they remembered what a big-mouthed, overbearing loser I was.
Through the years, I’ve prayed for the opportunity to share Christ with the people with whom I grew up and I’ve asked God to get my brain off of me, onto Him and onto others.
In recent years, I’ve had the chance to share Christ with many members of my graduating class. And when we had our most recent reunion, after we’d all gotten our food and sat at our tables, one of my classmates approached me and asked, “Mark, would you say grace for us? I think it would be a really good thing to do.”
There’s no way self-absorbed Mark ever would have been asked to do that. When we let God set us free from worrying about how little we are and trust in how much He can do, God can use us for His good purposes. A little faith in a big God can accomplish a lot!
This is why Jesus commends humility. “Get out of the way and let me work through you,” Jesus is saying.
Christians know that our single mission in life--the mission of the Church of making disciples--is only accomplished when we recognize that it’s about God and not about us!
That, I think is why Jesus wraps up this section on humility in the way that He does, starting at verse 7: “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Listen: Every disciple of Jesus Christ lives in the daily assurance that by God’s grace through our faith in Christ, we are saved from sin and death and are living in an eternal relationship with God. It doesn’t get any better than that! But there are no personal bragging rights in that. Christians aren’t better than other people, just freer than other people, more alive than other people, because of what Christ has done and our faith in Him. With Paul, we can say: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” [2 Corinthians 11:30] Like Paul, we know that when we are weak, the strength of Christ empowers us and is visible to others. God’s power is perfected in our weakness, our humility. [2 Corinthians 12:10]
And when we strive to live out of our faith in Christ, to trust in Him and heed the Bible’s commands, weak though we are, we do it only in the power of God.
Once, I singled out a person at a church I served as pastor for having undertaken some particular act of service. The congregation applauded. But after worship, the person told me, “I appreciated your words. But don’t ever do that again. Whatever good I do comes from the Lord and He’s the one who deserves the applause.” I didn’t entirely agree with that person: Holding up faithful examples to others can help the faith of us all. But I appreciated the humble reliance on Christ and the fact that she refused to take credit for what she knew God had done through her.
James writes in the New Testament: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” [James 4:10]
Peter says something similar: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” [1 Peter 5:6]
Humble reliance on Christ is essential to being a faithful disciple.
Jesus tells us that “with God all things are possible” [Matthew 19:26]. The fact is, there is no limit to what impossible things God can do through those who lose themselves in Christ’s grace and make themselves His servants.
May Christ teach us humility. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during worship earlier today.]
Monday, July 04, 2016
Freedom Through Christ's Indispensable Family
Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of Christian life today in North America and western Europe is this: Whenever and how we profess our faith in Christ, we are saying, “I am not in this alone. I’m part of the Church. I care about other believers. I’m accountable to other believers. I need other believers to live in the freedom Christ died to give me.”
We chafe under this kind of thinking as Americans. We like to think we’re self-sufficient.
But the fact is, we’re all dependent on countless other people. They produce the food we eat and guarantee its safety, give us running water and electricity, make the cars we drive and the computers we use, and provide the medical care we need, and so on.
The notion that any of us is self-sufficient is a dangerous lie, dangerous because it makes us think that we don’t need God, when in fact, everything--even safe food, running water, cars and computers and medical care--ultimately comes from God.
The lie of self-sufficiency is even more dangerous within the Church. In fact, it’s demonic.
Romans 6:19-20 reminds believers that we are totally dependent on God for our lives and for the eternal life Christ gives to those who repent and believe in Him: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. [A purchase Jesus made on the cross where He spent His life to save us.] Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (That means with our whole selves!)
And Jesus tells believers in John 15:5: “apart from Me, you can do nothing.”
We need the God revealed to us and the rest of the world in Jesus Christ.
But we also need and are called to sacrificially love those who make up Christ’s Church.
Jesus says to His Church: “ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And then, Jesus says: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [John 13:34-35] The credibility of Jesus and the Church’s message about new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ depends on whether Christ’s Church sees itself, collectively and individually, as mutually-dependent, mutually-accountable sisters and brothers of faith in Jesus.
Romans 12:4-5, drives home the call to mutual dependency, telling the Church: “...just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
The New Testament repeatedly refers to the Church as “the bride of Christ.” One truth we see from this metaphor is that the believer’s relationship to Christ and His Church is more important than the relationship of a husband and wife. Marriages end at the grave. But the Church endures for all eternity!
We Christians need each other and we are commanded to live in love with each other and in accountability to each other for the sake of Christ’s mission in the world.
But let's be honest: Whether among husband and wife, friends, family members, or the disciples who make up a Christian congregation, conflict happens.
And conflict isn’t inherently bad. Conflict can be creative and lead to new ways of people looking at things and relating to each other, if the parties are healthy, loving, and Christian toward one another.
Over the past several weeks, in this series called Freedom in Christ, we’ve been looking at the words the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Galatia in about 49 AD. Paul wrote to correct a dangerous heresy, a false belief, that had taken root among some of the Galatian Christians. They believed, in effect, that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient to give those who repent and believe in Jesus life with God, that the men had to be circumcised and that all believers also had to add to it good works proscribed by Old Testament law.
There was a conflict in the churches at Galatia between those who believed what Jesus taught--that all who turn from sin and believe in Him are saved and have new, everlasting life--and those who believed that what they did was what saved them. Paul called one the life of the flesh and other, the life of the Spirit. Clearly, the two perspectives contradicted each other. There could be no compromise between them: one was of God and the other wasn’t. It was to correct those who had strayed from God’s truth that Paul had written this letter.
In today’s second, Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18, probably praying that the first sections of his letter had reminded those who had strayed what God’s truth and the way to life really were, Paul wrote to encourage all the Galatian Christians to repent, reconcile, and move on with their life as Christ’s people in the world.
Take a look at our lesson, please. Paul writes: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.”
Unrepentant sin on the part of just one Christian disciple in Christ’s Church has an impact on the whole Church. There may be times, then, when it becomes the responsibility of another member of the Church to approach the person engaging in unrepentant sin.
It isn’t easy. I’ve told before about the Christian I knew and respected who used God’s name to make exclamations or punctuate sentences. Finally, I asked, “Why do you use God’s name like that?” “I’m not cussing,” he said defensively. “No, you’re not cussing. But you are using God’s name for something other than prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. That disses His holiness.” The man thought for a moment and said, “You’re right.”
Now, listen: I didn't tell that story to paint myself a hero. (If you knew how much my knees were knocking when I confronted that brother in Christ, you'd know that I'm no hero!) But, hers my point in telling you that story: It was at the moment that I helped that man see the need for repentance for taking God’s name in vain though, that I was in the most danger as a Christian. Do you hear what I'm saying?
It was right for me to be concerned--in Paul’s words “to carry that fellow believer’s burdens”--about unrepented sin. Lovingly confronting him was a way to fulfill Christ’s law that I love others.
But had that little confrontation become an occasion for me to cave into self-righteous crowing, even within my own mind, I would have fallen into sin myself.
We’re to speak the truth in love to help our fellow believers hold onto Christ, not to make ourselves look or feel better than others.
Let’s slide down a few verses now, to verse 7, to see Paul’s warning against self-righteousness in dealing with conflicts and disagreements: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Earlier in Galatians, you’ll remember, Paul spent some time distinguishing between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh.
Life in the Spirit is life lived with the freedom of knowing that while I’m not perfect, as I trustingly turn my sins to Jesus and seek to follow Him obediently each day, the life of faith, I am being saved from sin and death.
The life of the flesh is life lived according to the beliefs of this world. Whether their belief system is religious or secular, people who live life in the flesh look at themselves and pronounce, “I’m good enough to pass muster with God and the universe.”
The Galatian Christians who got circumcised and claimed that their good works would save them were living life in the flesh.
But, Paul was warning, any time we rationalize or forget our own sins while looking down our noses on fellow Christians or other people because we think they’re not as good as we are, we’re sowing our own eternal destruction.
If we want to live in the grace of Christ, we need to extend the grace of Christ to others. Jesus says bluntly in Matthew 6:15: “...if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
In the Church, Paul is saying here in our second lesson, “You must call each other to account. You must call each other to live in the freedom of forgiven sin, helping each other out of the traps of sin and death with which life this life is littered. But you must also forgive. Otherwise, you’ll fall into death too, via the sin of self-righteousness.”
Finally, Paul writes to anyone who may be inclined to say, “Who is this Paul character to tell us how to live out our faith in Christ?” Verse 14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”
“My only brag,” Paul is saying, “is in the power of Jesus’ cross to crucify the old sinner in me and in all of us, so that the new self can live in the freedom of forgiven sin, new life, and holy purpose."
Folks, nothing else matters! Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as we were made to live by God. Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as a vibrant church.
The cross of Christ is our only brag too.
The cross is where freedom comes from, both for individual disciples and for Christ’s Church.
Our common confession is that in order to live in the freedom to be all God made us to be, to claim the victory over sin and death that Jesus won on the cross, we need Jesus Christ and we need His eternal family, the Church. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of Christian life today in North America and western Europe is this: Whenever and how we profess our faith in Christ, we are saying, “I am not in this alone. I’m part of the Church. I care about other believers. I’m accountable to other believers. I need other believers to live in the freedom Christ died to give me.”
We chafe under this kind of thinking as Americans. We like to think we’re self-sufficient.
But the fact is, we’re all dependent on countless other people. They produce the food we eat and guarantee its safety, give us running water and electricity, make the cars we drive and the computers we use, and provide the medical care we need, and so on.
The notion that any of us is self-sufficient is a dangerous lie, dangerous because it makes us think that we don’t need God, when in fact, everything--even safe food, running water, cars and computers and medical care--ultimately comes from God.
The lie of self-sufficiency is even more dangerous within the Church. In fact, it’s demonic.
Romans 6:19-20 reminds believers that we are totally dependent on God for our lives and for the eternal life Christ gives to those who repent and believe in Him: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. [A purchase Jesus made on the cross where He spent His life to save us.] Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (That means with our whole selves!)
And Jesus tells believers in John 15:5: “apart from Me, you can do nothing.”
We need the God revealed to us and the rest of the world in Jesus Christ.
But we also need and are called to sacrificially love those who make up Christ’s Church.
Jesus says to His Church: “ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And then, Jesus says: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [John 13:34-35] The credibility of Jesus and the Church’s message about new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ depends on whether Christ’s Church sees itself, collectively and individually, as mutually-dependent, mutually-accountable sisters and brothers of faith in Jesus.
Romans 12:4-5, drives home the call to mutual dependency, telling the Church: “...just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
The New Testament repeatedly refers to the Church as “the bride of Christ.” One truth we see from this metaphor is that the believer’s relationship to Christ and His Church is more important than the relationship of a husband and wife. Marriages end at the grave. But the Church endures for all eternity!
We Christians need each other and we are commanded to live in love with each other and in accountability to each other for the sake of Christ’s mission in the world.
But let's be honest: Whether among husband and wife, friends, family members, or the disciples who make up a Christian congregation, conflict happens.
And conflict isn’t inherently bad. Conflict can be creative and lead to new ways of people looking at things and relating to each other, if the parties are healthy, loving, and Christian toward one another.
Over the past several weeks, in this series called Freedom in Christ, we’ve been looking at the words the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Galatia in about 49 AD. Paul wrote to correct a dangerous heresy, a false belief, that had taken root among some of the Galatian Christians. They believed, in effect, that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient to give those who repent and believe in Jesus life with God, that the men had to be circumcised and that all believers also had to add to it good works proscribed by Old Testament law.
There was a conflict in the churches at Galatia between those who believed what Jesus taught--that all who turn from sin and believe in Him are saved and have new, everlasting life--and those who believed that what they did was what saved them. Paul called one the life of the flesh and other, the life of the Spirit. Clearly, the two perspectives contradicted each other. There could be no compromise between them: one was of God and the other wasn’t. It was to correct those who had strayed from God’s truth that Paul had written this letter.
In today’s second, Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18, probably praying that the first sections of his letter had reminded those who had strayed what God’s truth and the way to life really were, Paul wrote to encourage all the Galatian Christians to repent, reconcile, and move on with their life as Christ’s people in the world.
Take a look at our lesson, please. Paul writes: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.”
Unrepentant sin on the part of just one Christian disciple in Christ’s Church has an impact on the whole Church. There may be times, then, when it becomes the responsibility of another member of the Church to approach the person engaging in unrepentant sin.
It isn’t easy. I’ve told before about the Christian I knew and respected who used God’s name to make exclamations or punctuate sentences. Finally, I asked, “Why do you use God’s name like that?” “I’m not cussing,” he said defensively. “No, you’re not cussing. But you are using God’s name for something other than prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. That disses His holiness.” The man thought for a moment and said, “You’re right.”
Now, listen: I didn't tell that story to paint myself a hero. (If you knew how much my knees were knocking when I confronted that brother in Christ, you'd know that I'm no hero!) But, hers my point in telling you that story: It was at the moment that I helped that man see the need for repentance for taking God’s name in vain though, that I was in the most danger as a Christian. Do you hear what I'm saying?
It was right for me to be concerned--in Paul’s words “to carry that fellow believer’s burdens”--about unrepented sin. Lovingly confronting him was a way to fulfill Christ’s law that I love others.
But had that little confrontation become an occasion for me to cave into self-righteous crowing, even within my own mind, I would have fallen into sin myself.
We’re to speak the truth in love to help our fellow believers hold onto Christ, not to make ourselves look or feel better than others.
Let’s slide down a few verses now, to verse 7, to see Paul’s warning against self-righteousness in dealing with conflicts and disagreements: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Earlier in Galatians, you’ll remember, Paul spent some time distinguishing between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh.
Life in the Spirit is life lived with the freedom of knowing that while I’m not perfect, as I trustingly turn my sins to Jesus and seek to follow Him obediently each day, the life of faith, I am being saved from sin and death.
The life of the flesh is life lived according to the beliefs of this world. Whether their belief system is religious or secular, people who live life in the flesh look at themselves and pronounce, “I’m good enough to pass muster with God and the universe.”
The Galatian Christians who got circumcised and claimed that their good works would save them were living life in the flesh.
But, Paul was warning, any time we rationalize or forget our own sins while looking down our noses on fellow Christians or other people because we think they’re not as good as we are, we’re sowing our own eternal destruction.
If we want to live in the grace of Christ, we need to extend the grace of Christ to others. Jesus says bluntly in Matthew 6:15: “...if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
In the Church, Paul is saying here in our second lesson, “You must call each other to account. You must call each other to live in the freedom of forgiven sin, helping each other out of the traps of sin and death with which life this life is littered. But you must also forgive. Otherwise, you’ll fall into death too, via the sin of self-righteousness.”
Finally, Paul writes to anyone who may be inclined to say, “Who is this Paul character to tell us how to live out our faith in Christ?” Verse 14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”
“My only brag,” Paul is saying, “is in the power of Jesus’ cross to crucify the old sinner in me and in all of us, so that the new self can live in the freedom of forgiven sin, new life, and holy purpose."
Folks, nothing else matters! Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as we were made to live by God. Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as a vibrant church.
The cross of Christ is our only brag too.
The cross is where freedom comes from, both for individual disciples and for Christ’s Church.
Our common confession is that in order to live in the freedom to be all God made us to be, to claim the victory over sin and death that Jesus won on the cross, we need Jesus Christ and we need His eternal family, the Church. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]
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