Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Servanthood Deserves Applause
Read about this "outstanding woman you should know" from Hilliard, Ohio, near Columbus. Small things done in the Name of Jesus Christ have an impact, though they rarely get noticed. I'm glad the many things Colleen Barta does for others in Christ's Name are being noticed. I've been privileged to know thousands of people like her through the years. They are the great ones among us!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Especially Thankful for George Washington Today
Watching what's happening in the Middle East, where sick men have held onto power for decades, I'm thankful to live in the United States.
Here, we take for granted the peaceful transition of executive power.
The human instrument by which that incredible blessing has come to us was George Washington.
As I've pointed out before, Washington turned down the offer of absolute power more than once. Most notably, of course, he did when he resigned his commission as general of the US Army at the close of the Revolutionary War and then again, when he refused to hold onto the presidency, instead voluntarily retiring to Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia.
The pressure on Washington, who, except for periods when the American cause appeared lost during the Revolution, was an almost deified public figure, to become a dictator was almost constant. In one famous incident during the war, Washington learned that American officers, disgusted with Congress' failure to pay them their salaries, were plotting to overthrow Congress and give absolute power to Washington. In his typically self-controlled manner, Washington called the officers together and defused their plot, calling it shocking. Always a master of political theater, Washington won the day when, as he prepared to read a letter from the Congress, he paused to pull out a pair of eyeglasses. Nobody had ever seen Washington wear glasses before. He explained, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.” Grown men who had watched Washington's heroics during the war and loved him, began to weep. The plot was extinguished and this country's trajectory toward becoming a true republic was established.
In their book, The American President, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt, observe that in its formative years, the United States, a nation that declared itself into being, but whose constituent states had little experience of working together or of seeing themselves as part of a single nation, had little in the way of a national character. The galvanizing Washington, they say, lent his character to the United States. The new country took shape largely in his image.
That's a very good thing. Had the United States borrowed Thomas Jefferson's character, for example, one could see it quite quickly devolving into what the founders called "mobocracy," a chaotic and splintered mess. Had it borrowed the character of of John Adams, it likely would have broken apart under attempts at too much centralization. Washington, as general and as first US president, exercised the incredible self-control and focus of purpose that was his trademark to allow an unlikely collection of independent colonies to become what it has become (and still strives to be): a place in which liberty and mutual accountability are held in balance to maximize the freedom of people, a model for most of the democratic nations of the world.
Washington was not perfect. While it's clear that he was moving toward a belief in emancipation of slaves, he shared the blindness of whites in his time to the sin of racism. As a general, he was less of a military tactician, his plans often bogging down from their Rube Goldberg-complexity, than he was a political general, recognizing fairly early in the war that his main obligation was to keep his army intact and win a battle of attrition against an empire he hoped would tire of fighting.
As president however, Washington had perfect pitch. Always good at listening to the best counsel from the best minds and then making the best decisions, he showed this capacity throughout his eight years. Recognizing that the United States needed time to develop free of outside pressures, he wisely steered clear of aligning the country with either Great Britain or France in their struggles. Knowing the country needed to be established as a unified entity, he embraced Alexander Hamilton's plan for assuming the massive debts the states had incurred during the Revolution, thereby knitting the country together. Sponsoring Hamilton's broader economic plans, Washington ensured that free enterprise would flourish in the United States.
During most of his second term, Washington endured vicious--and anonymous--attacks on his character sponsored by Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, among others. But Washington, as always, bore it and overcame it, comporting himself with dignity.
My son once asked me who my greatest heroes were. You have to be careful about naming heroes. I never want to engage in hero worship; the only Person I worship is the God made known in Jesus Christ.
I esteem the apostles, who carried the Gospel of Jesus into the world. Martin Luther and Billy Graham are also special figures to me.
But in the political realm, George Washington is without peer, a man who overcame his own rugged upbringing, his lack of formal education, and volcanic passions, learning to control himself and so, becoming the farmer-statesman he early envisioned himself becoming. I agree with historian Garry Wills, who, in an interview on CSPAN once said that George Washington was the greatest political leader of all time.
I think that's indisputably true. And even King George III, the monarch from whom independence was gained in the American Revolution, seems to have agreed. Informed by American painter Benjamin West that it was Washington's intention to go home to Mount Vernon at the end of the Revolution, King George said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." Washington did and in his time, he was.
Below are links to some of my favorite Washington biographies.
Here, we take for granted the peaceful transition of executive power.
The human instrument by which that incredible blessing has come to us was George Washington.
As I've pointed out before, Washington turned down the offer of absolute power more than once. Most notably, of course, he did when he resigned his commission as general of the US Army at the close of the Revolutionary War and then again, when he refused to hold onto the presidency, instead voluntarily retiring to Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia.
The pressure on Washington, who, except for periods when the American cause appeared lost during the Revolution, was an almost deified public figure, to become a dictator was almost constant. In one famous incident during the war, Washington learned that American officers, disgusted with Congress' failure to pay them their salaries, were plotting to overthrow Congress and give absolute power to Washington. In his typically self-controlled manner, Washington called the officers together and defused their plot, calling it shocking. Always a master of political theater, Washington won the day when, as he prepared to read a letter from the Congress, he paused to pull out a pair of eyeglasses. Nobody had ever seen Washington wear glasses before. He explained, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.” Grown men who had watched Washington's heroics during the war and loved him, began to weep. The plot was extinguished and this country's trajectory toward becoming a true republic was established.
In their book, The American President, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt, observe that in its formative years, the United States, a nation that declared itself into being, but whose constituent states had little experience of working together or of seeing themselves as part of a single nation, had little in the way of a national character. The galvanizing Washington, they say, lent his character to the United States. The new country took shape largely in his image.
That's a very good thing. Had the United States borrowed Thomas Jefferson's character, for example, one could see it quite quickly devolving into what the founders called "mobocracy," a chaotic and splintered mess. Had it borrowed the character of of John Adams, it likely would have broken apart under attempts at too much centralization. Washington, as general and as first US president, exercised the incredible self-control and focus of purpose that was his trademark to allow an unlikely collection of independent colonies to become what it has become (and still strives to be): a place in which liberty and mutual accountability are held in balance to maximize the freedom of people, a model for most of the democratic nations of the world.
Washington was not perfect. While it's clear that he was moving toward a belief in emancipation of slaves, he shared the blindness of whites in his time to the sin of racism. As a general, he was less of a military tactician, his plans often bogging down from their Rube Goldberg-complexity, than he was a political general, recognizing fairly early in the war that his main obligation was to keep his army intact and win a battle of attrition against an empire he hoped would tire of fighting.
As president however, Washington had perfect pitch. Always good at listening to the best counsel from the best minds and then making the best decisions, he showed this capacity throughout his eight years. Recognizing that the United States needed time to develop free of outside pressures, he wisely steered clear of aligning the country with either Great Britain or France in their struggles. Knowing the country needed to be established as a unified entity, he embraced Alexander Hamilton's plan for assuming the massive debts the states had incurred during the Revolution, thereby knitting the country together. Sponsoring Hamilton's broader economic plans, Washington ensured that free enterprise would flourish in the United States.
During most of his second term, Washington endured vicious--and anonymous--attacks on his character sponsored by Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, among others. But Washington, as always, bore it and overcame it, comporting himself with dignity.
My son once asked me who my greatest heroes were. You have to be careful about naming heroes. I never want to engage in hero worship; the only Person I worship is the God made known in Jesus Christ.
I esteem the apostles, who carried the Gospel of Jesus into the world. Martin Luther and Billy Graham are also special figures to me.
But in the political realm, George Washington is without peer, a man who overcame his own rugged upbringing, his lack of formal education, and volcanic passions, learning to control himself and so, becoming the farmer-statesman he early envisioned himself becoming. I agree with historian Garry Wills, who, in an interview on CSPAN once said that George Washington was the greatest political leader of all time.
I think that's indisputably true. And even King George III, the monarch from whom independence was gained in the American Revolution, seems to have agreed. Informed by American painter Benjamin West that it was Washington's intention to go home to Mount Vernon at the end of the Revolution, King George said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world." Washington did and in his time, he was.
Below are links to some of my favorite Washington biographies.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Be Perfect? Are You Talking to Me?
If you're like me, when you read or heard the last verse in today's Gospel lesson, you may have felt intimidated. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Perfect? I'm not that!
Is Jesus just toying with us the way a cat plays with a mouse it's going to kill?
No.
The word translated as "perfect" from the original Greek of the New Testament is "teleios." It means things like true, sincere, truthful, or loyal. It doesn't have the meaning of flawless moral perfection or any other kind of flawless perfection, for that matter.
During the 3rd. and 2nd. centuries BC, Jewish scholars living in Alexandria produced a Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. (This is often referred to by the Roman numerals, LXX.) Jesus Himself was no doubt knowledgeable of this translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, as were the writers of the New Testament. This is important because the use of the word, teleios gives us insight into how the word is meant when used in the New Testament, including in Matthew 5:48.
For example, the Septuagint version of Genesis 6:9 tells us the Noah was true or loyal to God, unlike the rest of his generation. In the Septuagint's rendering of Job 1:1, God boasts of Jobs sincere loyalty to Him. And in Deuteronomy 18:13, part of Moses' sermon to the people of Israel as they're about to enter the promised land, Moses encourages the people, as the NRSV well translates it, to "remain completely loyal to the Lord your God."
Only Jesus has led a perfect, sinless life, of course. It's only through Him that our sins can be forgiven. In essence, Jesus gives His perfection to those who turn from sin (repent) and believe in Him, covering our sins with His perfect sacrificial life and death. In response to this incredible gift, believers in Jesus are called to be true to Him. This entails living in a lifestyle of daily repentance and renewal: a life of turning honestly to God each day, owning our faults, and receiving the forgiveness of sins and the help of God in facing off temptations in the future.
Jesus makes a tremendous promise to those who remain true to Him: "The one who endures [in believing in Him] to the end will be saved" (Matthew 24:13). Teleios loyalty to Jesus is nothing other than faith in Jesus.
Breathe easy. Jesus isn't playing with you. Be sincerely loyal to Jesus Christ and, despite your faults, all eternity will be opened to you.
[A helpful source: Matthew (The Anchor Bible Commentaries) by W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann.]
Perfect? I'm not that!
Is Jesus just toying with us the way a cat plays with a mouse it's going to kill?
No.
The word translated as "perfect" from the original Greek of the New Testament is "teleios." It means things like true, sincere, truthful, or loyal. It doesn't have the meaning of flawless moral perfection or any other kind of flawless perfection, for that matter.
During the 3rd. and 2nd. centuries BC, Jewish scholars living in Alexandria produced a Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. (This is often referred to by the Roman numerals, LXX.) Jesus Himself was no doubt knowledgeable of this translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, as were the writers of the New Testament. This is important because the use of the word, teleios gives us insight into how the word is meant when used in the New Testament, including in Matthew 5:48.
For example, the Septuagint version of Genesis 6:9 tells us the Noah was true or loyal to God, unlike the rest of his generation. In the Septuagint's rendering of Job 1:1, God boasts of Jobs sincere loyalty to Him. And in Deuteronomy 18:13, part of Moses' sermon to the people of Israel as they're about to enter the promised land, Moses encourages the people, as the NRSV well translates it, to "remain completely loyal to the Lord your God."
Only Jesus has led a perfect, sinless life, of course. It's only through Him that our sins can be forgiven. In essence, Jesus gives His perfection to those who turn from sin (repent) and believe in Him, covering our sins with His perfect sacrificial life and death. In response to this incredible gift, believers in Jesus are called to be true to Him. This entails living in a lifestyle of daily repentance and renewal: a life of turning honestly to God each day, owning our faults, and receiving the forgiveness of sins and the help of God in facing off temptations in the future.
Jesus makes a tremendous promise to those who remain true to Him: "The one who endures [in believing in Him] to the end will be saved" (Matthew 24:13). Teleios loyalty to Jesus is nothing other than faith in Jesus.
Breathe easy. Jesus isn't playing with you. Be sincerely loyal to Jesus Christ and, despite your faults, all eternity will be opened to you.
[A helpful source: Matthew (The Anchor Bible Commentaries) by W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann.]
A Strange Way to Live
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
Matthew 5:38-48
I was meeting with a group of fellow pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed. Then, one of our number said something I’ll never forget. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known is…sort of strange.” He didn’t mean it as an insult. He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” I think my colleague was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went there to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there. It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in a station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India. I would, I fear, have become angry with God. Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge. And I likely would have gotten the next plan out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to a knighthood in England. Gladys even said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and He wants us all to be like them.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from today’s bulletin and turn to this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount. Read the first verses of the passage along with me silently, please:
Let’s be clear about two things at this point.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent that from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs. Revenge is never something human beings are to administer.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
Folks, this is a strange way to live.
And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44:
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself. When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no God.
But how do we live such a life? Just this past week in an email many of you received, I shared a story of Martin Luther’s. It’s worth repeating. Luther spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives. You see, Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
Some of you have heard me say that there’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request. “Lord,” I say, “I find myself incapable of loving this person right now. But I know that you love him or her, just as you love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love from me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God often has transformed those relationships and made a way for me to truly come to love as I love myself the very people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a strange way to live.
But truly, it’s the only way to live!
Matthew 5:38-48
I was meeting with a group of fellow pastors when one of them brought up the subject of committed Christians they had known. “Being around people like that,” this pastor said, “always inspires me.” We all agreed. Then, one of our number said something I’ll never forget. “You know,” he said, “every committed Christian I’ve ever known is…sort of strange.” He didn’t mean it as an insult. He meant that the committed Christians he’d known weren’t afraid of being different, weren’t afraid, as Jesus Himself put it, to let their “light so shine before [the world]…that [others]…see [their] good works and give glory to [God] in heaven.” I think my colleague was right: People committed to following Jesus Christ are strange.
And that can be hard.
Australian Graham Stains and his wife, Gladys, became missionaries in India in 1984. There, among other things, they oversaw a leprosy hospital. In January, 1999, Graham and his sons, Philip and Timothy, 10 and 8, traveled to a village called Manoharpur. As Graham had done for 14 straight years, the three went there to provide Bible teaching along with training in health and hygiene. Graham knew that some of the tribal Hindus in the area opposed any Christian teaching. There had been at least sixty attacks on churches in the territory between 1986 and 1998. But felt called to share with them the Gospel of new, everlasting life with God for all who repent for sin and believe in Jesus. He also wanted to serve the people there. It was cold when Graham and the boys arrived. They slept in a station wagon. One night, about 50 people approached the vehicle, “screaming and swinging axes and other weapons.” They beat the missionary and his sons, put straw under their station wagon, and torched it.
If I had been in the position of Gladys Stains, Graham’s widow, I fear that I would have dissolved into a fierce hatred for the people in that region of India. I would, I fear, have become angry with God. Were I in her position, I think I might have looked for revenge. And I likely would have gotten the next plan out of India.
But Gladys responded strangely. She and a daughter, Esther, remained in India, continuing to share the Good News of Jesus and to minister to lepers until 2004, when Esther went to medical school and Gladys left to be near her.
In 2005, Gladys’ strange way of life was recognized when she was given “the Padma Shri award for distinguished service,” India’s equivalent to a knighthood in England. Gladys even said that though she loved and missed her husband and sons, she saw it as an honor to them that God had counted them worthy to give their lives in the cause of sharing the Gospel with those who, as evidenced by their cold-blooded murder of three innocent believers, so clearly needed that Gospel.
For a world that values self-preservation and self-promotion, Gladys’ faith is strange. But in our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us that it’s strange people like these who populate his kingdom and He wants us all to be like them.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from today’s bulletin and turn to this morning’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:38-48. Here, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount. Read the first verses of the passage along with me silently, please:
[Jesus says:] You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.Jesus begins here by citing Leviticus, chapter 24. It says, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”
Let’s be clear about two things at this point.
- First, God in the Old Testament is not commanding the rough justice of revenge. That’s not what “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” means.
- Second, God in the New Testament—Jesus—is not overturning Old Testament law.
God gave the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" command to prevent that from happening. He wanted to ensure that the punishments meted out to people never exceeded the gravity of their wrongs. Revenge is never something human beings are to administer.
Jesus amplifies God’s Old Testament intentions with the commandment He gives to anyone who would follow Him in today's Gospel lesson. Never resist people who do evil to you, Jesus says. Keep doing good even when the world does its worst to you.
- In Jesus’ day, being backhanded across the cheek was the act of an arrogant person who thought himself superior to another. The natural reaction for the victim is to slap back. But Jesus says, “Don’t stoop to seeking revenge. Maintain your dignity, rely on Me, and offer your other cheek as well.”
- In Jesus’ day, people were even more likely to take others to court than people are today. And in his day, most people owned only two articles of clothing: a cloak and a coat. One served as an outer garment, the other was like underwear. If someone sues you, Jesus says, don’t fight back. Let them take both your garments. Even then, you’ll remain clothed in the grace, love, and dignity of God.
- In Jesus’ day, Roman soldiers who had something to be carried could, at will, pick an ordinary person from off of the streets and force them to act as a pack mule for one mile. Jesus says that if you’re forced to carry something for a mile, confound those who treat you as a slave and volunteer to serve them for an extra mile.
Folks, this is a strange way to live.
And Jesus makes this way of life sound even stranger in the latter part of our lesson. Look at what He commands in verses 43 and 44:
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…One question that Jesus' words may bring to our minds is this: Why exactly would anyone want to live the strange lifestyle that Jesus describes here?
Well, it isn’t because, if you hang in there, the world will recognize what a wonderful person you are. For every Gladys Stains, who received a major award from the country where she rendered her service to Jesus Christ, there are millions of believers who are put down, despised, shunned, and forever ignored for being faithful.
One good reason for pursuing the strange life style of loving God with our whole beings and of loving our neighbors as ourselves is that, in fact, those who live any other way aren’t really living.
Author Lois Cheney tells a parable about a man who saw that love was hard and so kept to himself; saw that the striving for high ideals was strenuous and so put his head down and focused on surviving from day to day; saw that serving and giving to others got one embroiled in challenges they wouldn’t otherwise have and so just took care of himself. When the man died, he approached God and said, “Here I am, Lord: undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled, no worse for the wear. Here’s my life” “Life?” God asked. “What life?”
The strange life of love in which we keep on loving even when others—even others in Christ’s own church—may hate us, is, truly the only real way to live. Every other way of living is a living death: no risks, no challenges, no fulfillment, no God.
But how do we live such a life? Just this past week in an email many of you received, I shared a story of Martin Luther’s. It’s worth repeating. Luther spoke of what happened when the devil tempted him to sin. “When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”
The strange and beautiful way of life Jesus commands in today’s lesson—the way of love that refuses to take revenge and stands strong in the power of God—is possible when we let Jesus Christ, the One Who died and rose to give us life—into the center of our lives. You see, Jesus lived the perfect life of love He describes throughout the Sermon on the Mount and if we will let Him into our every decision, our every moment of temptation, our every relationship, He will come to live inside of us and change our lives today and for all eternity.
Some of you have heard me say that there’s a prayer I offer up to God whenever someone vexes me, or is unkind to me, or just annoys me. First of all, I tell God how I’m feeling. Then I make a request. “Lord,” I say, “I find myself incapable of loving this person right now. But I know that you love him or her, just as you love me in spite of how annoying or wrong I can be. You sent your Son to die and rise for them, just like You sent Him for me. So, please God, love this person through me. Grant that they’ll only experience Your love from me.”
You know the strange thing? God has answered that prayer every time I’ve offered it. And, here’s something else: As I’ve let Jesus into those relationships in this way, God often has transformed those relationships and made a way for me to truly come to love as I love myself the very people I once found so impossible to love.
If you’re serious about living the life style of the Sermon on the Mount, there’s only one way for that to happen and that’s to let the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, be the Master of your whole life.
Jesus will take up residence in your life.
He will give you a strange way to live.
But truly, it’s the only way to live!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
How About a Little Character Study?
Here are past posts on the topic of character you might find interesting.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Reading the Bible in a Year: The List of Readings
For those who are interested in joining with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, as we read through the Bible in a year, starting on March 9, here's the complete list of readings for the coming year.
2011
March 9: Genesis 1-3
March 10: Genesis 4-6
March 11: Genesis 7-9
March 12: Genesis 10-12
March 13: Genesis 13-15
March 14: Genesis 16-18
March 15: Genesis 19-21
March 16: Genesis 22-24
March 17: Genesis 25-27
March 18: Genesis 28-30
March 19: Genesis 31-33
March 20: Genesis 34-36
March 21: Genesis 37-39
March 22: Genesis 40-42
March 23: Genesis 43-46
March 24: Genesis 47-50
March 25: Exodus 1-3
March 26: Exodus 4-6
March 27: Exodus 7-9
March 28: Exodus 10-12
March 29: Exodus 13-15
March 30: Exodus 16-18
March 31: Exodus 19-21
April 1: Exodus 22-24
April 2: Exodus 25-27
April 3: Exodus 28-30
April 4: Exodus 31-33
April 5: Exodus 34-36
April 6: Exodus 37-40
April 7: Leviticus 1-3
April 8: Leviticus 4-6
April 9: Leviticus 7-9
April 10: Leviticus 10-12
April 11: Leviticus 13-15
April 12: Leviticus 16-18
April 13: Leviticus 19-21
April 14: Leviticus 22-24
April 15: Leviticus 25-27
April 16: Numbers 1-3
April 17: Numbers 4-6
April 18: Numbers 7-9
April 19: Numbers 10-12
April 20: Numbers 13-15
April 21: Numbers 16-18
April 22: Numbers 19-21
April 23: Numbers 22-24
April 24: Numbers 25-27
April 25: Numbers 28-30
April 26: Numbers 31-33
April 27: Numbers 34-36
April 28: Deuteronomy 1-3
April 29: Deuteronomy 4-6
April 30: Deuteronomy 7-9
May 1: Deuteronomy 10-12
May 2: Deuteronomy 13-15
May 3: Deuteronomy 16-18
May 4: Deuteronomy 19-21
May 5: Deuteronomy 22-24
May 6: Deuteronomy 25-27
May 7: Deuteronomy 28-30
May 8: Deuteronomy 31-34
May 9: Joshua 1-3
May 10: Joshua 4-6
May 11: Joshua 7-9
May 12: Joshua 10-12
May 13: Joshua 13-15
May 14: Joshua 16-18
May 15: Joshua 19-21
May 16: Joshua 22-24
May 17: Judges 1-3
May 18: Judges 4-6
May 19: Judges 7-9
May 20: Judges 10-12
May 21: Judges 13-15
May 22: Judges 16-18
May 23: Judges 19-21
May 24: Ruth 1-4
May 25: 1 Samuel 1-3
May 26: 1 Samuel 4-6
May 27: 1 Samuel 7-9
May 28: 1 Samuel 10-12
May 29: 1 Samuel 13-15
May 30: 1 Samuel 16-18
May 31: 1 Samuel 19-21
June 1: 1 Samuel 22-24
June 2: 1 Samuel 25-27
June 3: 1 Samuel 28-31
June 4: 2 Samuel 1-3
June 5: 2 Samuel 4-6
June 6: 2 Samuel 7-9
June 7: 2 Samuel 10-12
June 8: 2 Samuel 13-15
June 9: 2 Samuel 16-18
June 10: 2 Samuel 19-21
June 11: 2 Samuel 22-24
June 12: 1 Kings 1-3
June 13: 1 Kings 4-6
June 14: 1 Kings 7-9
June 15: 1 Kings 10-12
June 16: 1 Kings 13-15
June 17: 1 Kings 16-18
June 18: 1 Kings 19-22
June 19: 2 Kings 1-3
June 20: 2 Kings 4-6
June 21: 2 Kings 7-9
June 22: 2 Kings 10-12
June 23: 2 Kings 13-15
June 24: 2 Kings 16-18
June 25: 2 Kings 19-21
June 26: 2 Kings 22-25
June 27: 1 Chronicles 1-6
June 28: 1 Chronicles 7-9
June 29: 1 Chronicles 10-12
June 30: 1 Chronicles 13-15
July 1: 1 Chronicles 16-18
July 2: 1 Chronicles 19-21
July 3: 1 Chronicles 22-25
July 4: 1 Chronicles 26-29
July 5: 2 Chronicles 1-3
July 6: 2 Chronicles 4-6
July 7: 2 Chronicles 7-9
July 8: 2 Chronicles 10-12
July 9: 2 Chronicles 13-15
July 10: 2 Chronicles 16-18
July 11: 2 Chronicles 19-21
July 12: 2 Chronicles 22-24
July 13: 2 Chronicles 25-27
July 14: 2 Chronicles 28-30
July 15: 2 Chronicles 31-33
July 16: 2 Chronicles 34-36
July 17: Ezra 1-3
July 18: Ezra 4-6
July 19: Ezra 7-10
July 20: Nehemiah 1-3
July 21: Nehemiah 4-6
July 22: Nehemiah 7-9
July 23: Nehemiah 10-13
July 24: Esther 1-3
July 25: Esther 4-6
July 26: Esther 7-10
July 27: Job 1-3
July 28: Job 4-6
July 29: Job 7-9
July 30: Job 10-12
July 31: Job 13-15
August 1: Job 16-18
August 2: Job 19-21
August 3: Job 22-24
August 4: Job 25-27
August 5: Job 28-30
August 6: Job 31-33
August 7: Job 34-36
August 8: Job 37-39
August 9: Job 40-42
August 10: Psalms 1-5
August 11: Psalms 6-10
August 12: Psalms 11-15
August 13: Psalms 16-20
August 14: Psalms 21-25
August 15: Psalms 26-30
August 16: Psalms 31-35
August 17: Psalms 36-40
August 18: Psalms 41-45
August 19: Psalms 46-50
August 20: Psalms 51-55
August 21: Psalms 56-60
August 22: Psalms 61-65
August 23: Psalms 66-70
August 24: Psalms 71-75
August 25: Psalms 76-80
August 26: Psalms 81-85
August 27: Psalms 86-90
August 28: Psalms 91-95
August 29: Psalms 96-100
August 30: Psalms 101-105
August 31: Psalms 106-110
September 1: Psalms 111-115
September 2: Psalms 116-120
September 3: Psalms 121-125
September 4: Psalms 126-130
September 5: Psalms 131-135
September 6: Psalms 136-140
September 7: Psalms 141-145
September 8: Psalms 146-150
September 9: Proverbs 1-3
September 10: Proverbs 4-6
September 11: Proverbs 7-9
September 12: Proverbs 10-12
September 13: Proverbs 13-15
September 14: Proverbs 16-18
September 15: Proverbs 19-21
September 16: Proverbs 22-24
September 17: Proverbs 25-27
September 18: Proverbs 28-31
September 19: Ecclesiastes 1-3
September 20: Ecclesiastes 4-6
September 21: Ecclesiastes 7-9
September 22: Ecclesiastes 10-12
September 23: Song of Songs 1-4
September 24: Song of Songs 5-8
September 25: Isaiah 1-3
September 26: Isaiah 4-6
September 27: Isaiah 7-9
September 28: Isaiah 10-12
September 29: Isaiah 13-15
September 30: Isaiah 16-18
October 1: Isaiah 19-21
October 2: Isaiah 22-24
October 3: Isaiah 25-27
October 4: Isaiah 28-30
October 5: Isaiah 31-33
October 6: Isaiah 34-36
October 7: Isaiah 37-39
October 8: Isaiah 40-42
October 9: Isaiah 43-45
October 10: Isaiah 46-48
October 11: Isaiah 49-51
October 12: Isaiah 52-54
October 13: Isaiah 55-57
October 14: Isaiah 58-60
October 15: Isaiah 61-63
October 16: Isaiah 64-66
October 17: Jeremiah 1-3
October 18: Jeremiah 4-6
October 19: Jeremiah 7-9
October 20: Jeremiah 10-12
October 21: Jeremiah 13-15
October 22: Jeremiah 16-18
October 23: Jeremiah 19-21
October 24: Jeremiah 22-24
October 25: Jeremiah 25-27
October 26: Jeremiah 28-30
October 27: Jeremiah 31-33
October 28: Jeremiah 34-36
October 29: Jeremiah 37-39
October 30: Jeremiah 40-42
October 31: Jeremiah 43-45
November 1: Jeremiah 46-48
November 2: Jeremiah 49-52
November 3: Lamentations 1-3
November 4: Lamentations 4-5
November 5: Ezekiel 1-3
November 6: Ezekiel 4-6
November 7: Ezekiel 7-9
November 8: Ezekiel 10-12
November 9: Ezekiel 13-15
November 10: Ezekiel 16-18
November 11: Ezekiel 19-21
November 12: Ezekiel 22-24
November 13: Ezekiel 25-27
November 14: Ezekiel 28-30
November 15: Ezekiel 31-33
November 16: Ezekiel 34-36
November 17: Ezekiel 37-40
November 18: Ezekiel 41-44
November 19: Ezekiel 45-48
November 20: Daniel 1-3
November 21: Daniel 4-6
November 22: Daniel 7-9
November 23: Daniel 10-12
November 24: Hosea 1-3
November 25: Hosea 4-6
November 26: Hosea 7-10
November 27: Hosea 11-14
November 28: Joel 1-3
November 29: Amos 1-3
November 30: Amos 4-6
December 1: Amos 7-9
December 2: Obadiah
December 3: Jonah 1-4
December 4: Micah 1-3
December 5: Micah 4-7
December 6: Nahum 1-3
December 7: Habakkuk 1-3
December 8: Zephaniah 1-3
December 9: Haggai 1-2
December 10: Zechariah 1-3
December 11: Zechariah 4-6
December 12: Zechariah 7-10
December 13: Zechariah 11-14
December 14: Malachi 1-2
December 15: Malachi 3-4
December 16: Matthew 1-3
December 17: Matthew 4-6
December 18: Matthew 7-9
December 19: Matthew 10-12
December 20: Matthew 13-15
December 21: Matthew 16-18
December 22: Matthew 19-21
December 23: Matthew 22-24
December 24: Matthew 25-28
December 25: Mark 1-3
December 26: Mark 4-6
December 27: Mark 7-9
December 28: Mark 10-12
December 29: Mark 13-16
December 30: Luke 1-3
December 31: Luke 4-6
2012
January 1: Luke 7-9
January 2: Luke 10-12
January 3: Luke 13-15
January 4: Luke 16-18
January 5: Luke 19-21
January 6: Luke 22-24
January 7: John 1-3
January 8: John 4-6
January 9: John 7-9
January 10: John 10-12
January 11: John 13-15
January 12: John 16-18
January 13: John 19-21
January 14: Acts 1-3
January 15: Acts 4-6
January 16: Acts 7-9
January 17: Acts 10-12
January 18: Acts 13-15
January 19: Acts 16-18
January 20: Acts 19-21
January 21: Acts 22-24
January 22: Acts 25-28
January 23: Romans 1-3
January 24: Romans 4-6
January 25: Romans 7-9
January 26: Romans 10-12
January 27: Romans 13-16
January 28: 1 Corinthians 1-3
January 29: 1 Corinthians 4-6
January 30: 1 Corinthians 7-9
January 31: 1 Corinthians 10-12
February 1: 1 Corinthians 13-16
February 2: 2 Corinthians 1-3
February 3: 2 Corinthians 4-6
February 4: 2 Corinthians 7-9
February 5: 2 Corinthians 10-13
February 6: Galatians 1-3
February 7: Galatians 4-6
February 8: Ephesians 1-3
February 9: Ephesians 4-6
February 10: Philippians 1-4
February 11: Colossians 1-4
February 12: 1 Thessalonians 1-5
February 13: 2 Thessalonians 1-3
February 14: 1 Timothy 1-3
February 15: 1 Timothy 4-6
February 16: 2 Timothy 1-4
February 17: Titus 1-3
February 18: Philemon
February 19: Hebrews 1-3
February 20: Hebrews 4-6
February 21: Hebrews 7-9
February 22: Hebrews 10-13
February 23: James 1-3
February 24: James 4-5
February 25: 1 Peter 1-5
February 26: 2 Peter 1-3
February 27: 1 John 1-3
February 28: 1 John 4-5
February 29: 2 John, 3 John, and Jude
March 1: Revelation 1-3
March 2: Revelation 4-6
March 3: Revelation 7-9
March 4: Revelation 10-12
March 5: Revelation 13-15
March 6: Revelation 16-18
March 7: Revelation 19-22
Reading the Bible in a Year
This is an announcement recently shared with the members of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio. If you'd like to join us in reading the Bible in a year, I'll be putting the reading list on the blog as well.
THIS COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER! Beginning on Wednesday, March 9, every member of Saint Matthew is invited to join in on the journey of READING THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR. Starting with Genesis 1 (on Ash Wednesday) and ending with Revelation 22 one year later, you’ll have the support and encouragement of the entire Saint Matthew family as you follow through on that resolution you’ve found so difficult to keep in the past. You’ll be acquiring a more intimate relationship with the God made known to all the world in Jesus Christ.
Here’s how it will work:
(1) On Sunday, March 6, you’ll receive a list of the complete daily readings as we read the Bible in one year together. The entire Bible can be read all the way through by reading an average of three to four chapters per day. (Note from Pastor: My great-grandmother used this method to read the Bible completely through nine different times in her life.)
(2) If there are days when you can’t get to the three or four chapters of the Bible to be read then, don’t worry. Just pick up the next day and keep on truckin’. Remember that the idea behind this isn’t to face a grim daily appointment, but to get to know the God Who loves you better, through His Word.
(3) Along the way, usually on Sunday mornings, you’ll also receive brief overviews of each of the Bible’s 66 books to help you better understand what you’re reading.
(4) On Wednesdays throughout the year, the pastor will offer two different weekly opportunities to gather with him and discuss any issues or questions you’ve encountered in the readings for the preceding week. One weekly session will happen on Wednesday mornings at 11AM; the other will happen on Wednesday evenings at 7PM. If you want to go to the morning session one day and the evening session the next, that’s fine; whatever works with your schedule is great. If you can’t make it every Wednesday, that’s great too. The idea is to keep reading to keep getting to know the God better, in the same day-to-day you build any relationship.
(5) Don’t be intimidated. Nobody knows the Bible thoroughly. Everybody has questions about the Bible. Reading the Bible together is a way we all learn and grow in our faith together.
Just a few additional notes: We will have our usual Ash Wednesday service on March 9. But we won’t have our usual midweek Lenten or Advent services over the coming year. Our Wednesdays will be focused on discussing what we’ve read in the Bible.
Some will wonder what translation of the Bible to read. The answer is that you should read the one with which you are most comfortable. The translation in the Celebrate inserts that we use on Sunday mornings is the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). It’s accurate and accessible while retaining the majesty of some of the older translations. Our pew Bibles are the New King James Version (NKJV), which is also very good.
Other really fine, accessible translations include The New International Version (TNIV), very similar to the NRSV; The Message, a beautiful modern rendering written by Old Testament scholar, longtime pastor, and poet Eugene Peterson; or The Good News Bible, also known as Today’s English Version (TEV), pitched to a sixth grade reading level. Yet another one, which you can often find at Half Price Books, is The Bible for All People, also known as the Contemporary English Version (CEV).
It’s advisable to have a Bible that includes maps, topical indexes in the back, and overviews at the beginnings of each Biblical book. The gold standard of such editions of the Bible is The New Oxford Annotated Bible, but it tends to be a bit pricey. The Life Application Bible is excellent, as is the outstanding Study Bible, co-edited by the Christian writer and journalist Philip Yancey.
If you would like help in selecting a new Bible for this venture, just let Pastor Mark know. He will be happy to help you.
As we prepare for this venture, please pray that God will use it to strengthen our faith in Christ and our witness for Him in our daily lives.
Book Review: Outstanding Resource for Congregational Role Plays on Book of Romans
Occasionally, I write book reviews for the quarterly publication of my seminary alma mater, The Trinity Lutheran Seminary Review. Here's my latest submission:
Roman House Churches for Today: A Practical Guide for Small Groups. By Reta Halteman Finger. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (www.eerdmans.com), 2007. 221pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-0764-9 $15.00 (Paperback).
The letters that comprise most of the New Testament contain essential teachings about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, justification, Law and Gospel, and, in fact, all the central tenets of Christian faith. Yet, much of the preaching and teaching that happens in modern churches, at least in Lutheran congregations, tend to ignore this part of the written Word of God in favor of the Gospels.
That’s probably understandable. Narrative is often more powerful and memorable than exposition, even exposition rooted in real-life situations. The Gospels are narratives that recount “the greatest story ever told.” On top of that, the Gospels, especially Luke, are filled with stories—or parables—from the Greatest Storyteller who ever walked the earth. It’s easier to preach on Gospel texts than it is on the New Testament letter. Yet the letters contain a treasure trove of important teachings that shouldn’t be ignored.
That’s where this impressive resource for creating simulations (or role plays) built around the New Testament book of Romans, comes in. This well-researched volume not only provides extensive background material on daily Roman life and plausible character studies of the individuals Paul addresses by name in Romans, it also provides lesson plans for eight simulations. The simulations are designed to help participants experience the teachings of Romans in more than abstract ways. Each participant plays the part of a person mentioned in Romans.
Finger is Mennonite and occasionally, her reading of characters and Christian doctrine reflect her specific views. (Pacifism as a given of Christian teaching, a notion not accepted by all Christians, is one example.) But that’s no reason not to use this resource.
The groups of people recruited to participate in the simulations detailed in this book would need to make a serious commitment, one requiring several hours of study each week in addition to the hours spent in the simulations and the out-of-character reflective discussions afterward. But for anyone intent on understanding this important book of Scripture, the payoffs in deeper understanding and an enriched faith, the commitment could be worthwhile.
Aided by resources like Jo-Ann Shelton’s As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History, a leader wanting to make Scripture come alive for the earnest Christian, will, I think, find Finger’s book an outstanding tool.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Feeling the Heat of Adversity? That May Be a Great Sign
The opening illustration of today's installment from Our Daily Bread may be trite, but the entire piece makes an important point.
God is in the business of strengthening and purifying the characters of those who believe in Him. I love the last line: "The only way God hurries holiness is by turning up the heat."
If you're a believer in Christ feeling the heat these days, lean on God a little harder; He's up to something in your life!
Read the whole thing.
**********************************************************************************
It's based on Isaiah 43:1-13, written about 500 years before Jesus' birth to God's chosen people:
God is in the business of strengthening and purifying the characters of those who believe in Him. I love the last line: "The only way God hurries holiness is by turning up the heat."
If you're a believer in Christ feeling the heat these days, lean on God a little harder; He's up to something in your life!
Read the whole thing.
**********************************************************************************
It's based on Isaiah 43:1-13, written about 500 years before Jesus' birth to God's chosen people:
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 4Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. 5Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; 6I will say to the north, “Give them up,” and to the south, “Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— 7everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”Keep trusting in the God Who has definitively disclosed Himself in Jesus Christ; you and your character, the most important thing about you, will always be the better for such trust!
Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! 9Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them declared this, and foretold to us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, “It is true.” 10You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 11I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. 12I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses, says the Lord. 13I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is no one who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?
Monday, February 14, 2011
Whose Side, God's or Ours?
"I know that the Lord is always on the side of right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." (Abraham Lincoln)
Christ Sets Us Free for Lives That Matter
"Thus the disciples are bidden...to think, not about their own way, their own sufferings, and their own reward, but of the goal of their labors, which is the salvation of the Church." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
Fear of God Overcomes Fear of Death...and Sets Us Free
"[Christians] must not fear men. Men can do them no harm, for the power of men ceases with the death of the body. But they must overcome the fear of death with the fear of God. The danger lies not in the judgment of men, but in the judgment of God, not in the death of the body, but in the eternal destruction of body and soul. Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men. All preachers of the gospel will do well to recollect this saying daily." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Internet is Amazing!
The Internet really has the ability to create a global village. Over the past several days, this blog has seen substantial incoming traffic from an Indonesian web site citing an article I wrote six years ago about Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville's 19th-century observations of the link between Christianity and the success of US democracy. That just amazes me.
Let Christ In; He'll Do the Rest
Over the past several Sundays, as we've looked at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount during worship, I've been struck by how impossible the way of life Jesus describes in it truly is for us. (So far, we've looked at Matthew 5:1-37. More of the sermon will be shared in coming weeks.)
If any of us read the sermon and say, "I'm resolved to live like this," it might very well be commendable.
But, if undertaken in the power of our own grit and determination, we're sure to crash and burn and it will leave us feeling guilty or ashamed and defeated. We might even give up on the whole notion of being a Christian.
But consider what Tom Wright says about the Sermon on the Mount:
And in describing a life that shows us "a new way to be human," He also shows us a way of life that we imperfect, forgiven sinners can only appropriate as we let Jesus into the center of our lives.
In Revelation 3:20, the risen Jesus speaks to a congregation in a town called Laodicaea:
Paul explains how this works in the New Testament book of Galatians. He speaks of how God's law--the Commandments--alerted him to the reality of his sin, his distance from God, and his need for a Savior. Then he says:
All you have to do is open the door to Jesus each day. Don't worry; just keep letting Jesus in to the inner recesses of your life. That's all you need to do. Christ will do the rest.
If any of us read the sermon and say, "I'm resolved to live like this," it might very well be commendable.
But, if undertaken in the power of our own grit and determination, we're sure to crash and burn and it will leave us feeling guilty or ashamed and defeated. We might even give up on the whole notion of being a Christian.
But consider what Tom Wright says about the Sermon on the Mount:
The Sermon on the Mount isn't just about us. If it was, we might admire it as a fine bit of idealism, but we'd then return to our normal lives. It's about Jesus himself. This was the blueprint for his own life. He asks nothing of his followers that he hasn't faced himself. And, within his own life, we can already sense a theme that will grow larger and larger [as we read further in Matthew's Gospel] until we can't miss it. If this is the pattern that Jesus himself followed exactly, Matthew is inviting us to draw the conclusion: that in Jesus we see the Emmanuel, the God-with-us person. The Sermon on the Mount isn't just about how to behave. It's about discovering the living God in the loving, and dying, Jesus, and learning to reflect that love ourselves into the world that needs it so badly.As I see it, in the entire Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes that life of perfect surrender to God that He and He alone has lived.
And in describing a life that shows us "a new way to be human," He also shows us a way of life that we imperfect, forgiven sinners can only appropriate as we let Jesus into the center of our lives.
In Revelation 3:20, the risen Jesus speaks to a congregation in a town called Laodicaea:
"Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me."Don't take the words of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as a judgment over your life. That's not Jesus' ultimate intent! See them instead as an invitation to let Him live in you and as you keep letting Him in, His life will be replicated within you.
Paul explains how this works in the New Testament book of Galatians. He speaks of how God's law--the Commandments--alerted him to the reality of his sin, his distance from God, and his need for a Savior. Then he says:
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:19-21)Riffing off of this passage of Scripture, Martin Luther talked about what happens when Christ lives in a believer and is confronted by the temptation to violate the radical ethic of love for God and neighbor that Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount:
When [the devil] comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The devil, seeing the nail prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.Let Jesus into your life and, no matter how imperfect you know yourself to be, He will change you from the inside out. Only the grace of God obeys the loving will of God and Jesus is the only One Who can bring that saving grace into your life.
All you have to do is open the door to Jesus each day. Don't worry; just keep letting Jesus in to the inner recesses of your life. That's all you need to do. Christ will do the rest.
The Call to Honest Surrender
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]
Matthew 5:21-37
As we begin this morning, I'd like to warn you that we are going to cover some uncomfortable topics--uncomfortable for all of us. As we do, remember the love and the desire to bring you forgiveness and healing that God bears for you.
Now, please pull out one of the pew Bibles and turn to page 565. We're going to look at a parable told by Jesus that relates to our Gospel lesson for this morning. Look at Matthew, chapter 21, and starting at verse 28, please read along with me silently:
Where are your heart, mind, and life oriented this morning?
Every Lutheran Catechism student has been taught that the Ten Commandments, God’s inviolable law for the whole human race for all time, is divisible into two tables.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day, you’ll recall, looked at the commandments and tried to discern what it was they absolutely had to do in order to obey them. They reduced relationship with God down to a list of dos and don’ts, effectively putting God on the same level they would put a street vendor with whom they might negotiate prices in the marketplace. The Pharisees, though claiming to revere and honor God, in effect, thought they that they could force God to bless them as they self-consciously adhered to the strict letter of God’s commands.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus challenges us to move beyond Phaisee-like religion to a trust relationship of love with God, our fellow church members, and the world around us.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts so you can scan our Gospel lesson as we explore the passage. Jesus starts by saying: “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire…”
We should note that Jesus’ version of the Fifth Commandment is the accurate one. In the original Hebrew, God doesn’t say, “You shall not kill,” but “You shall not murder.”
Yet Jesus’ explanation of the commandment hardly gets us off the hook. Evangelist Billy Graham’s late wife, Ruth, was once asked if, in their long years of marriage, she had ever considered divorcing her husband. Her reply: “Murder yes. Divorce no.”
She understood the reality to which Jesus is pointing us today: Physical murder is only the outward manifestation of a sin that occurs inside of us first. That sin is to be so angry with someone that we want to murder them, to take away a life that is only God’s to give and take.
Don’t be confused, though. Anger in itself is something that happens to us. It’s a basic human trait. Even God gets angry. Remember Jesus in overturning the tables of the extortionists in the Temple. (What I call His "temple tantrum.") The New Testament book of Ephesians tells us, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” In other words, don’t allow your anger to cause you to dehumanize the person at whom you’re mad and always seek reconciliation. Otherwise, we will have committed murder without raising a fist.
Slip down to verse 27 in our Gospel lesson. Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As in the earlier verses, Jesus is telling us to look at more than the letter of God’s commandments, to their intention.
God has created sexual intimacy for one man and one woman in a lifetime covenant known as marriage. Lust, like anger, isn’t a bad thing in itself. In fact, it’s the mechanism God invented to foster intimacy in marriage.
But, irrespective of the popular romantic myths of our world, lust need not be in control of our behavior. No one should be able to say with a straight face, “I couldn’t help myself.”
Jesus says that we are to be in control of all our impulses, not the other way around. In this, He echoes the words of God, when he told Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, “Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Lust outside of marriage is a sin that can happen in more than just the sexual sphere. We can allow all sorts of desires to lead us away from being a committed married person. There are literally thousands of ways for husbands and wives to be unfaithful that don’t involve sex. Scholar Amy Oden writes that “we can create primary relationships with work, sports, or even the internet, rather than our spouse.” That makes sense to me. In fact, in every instance of adultery I’ve encountered as a pastoral counselor through the years, the adultery—the splintered loyalties, the lack of trust, the end of intimacy—occurred long before the physical adultery ever happened.
Please look at verse 31. Jesus says, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These are hard words. They were even harder in Jesus’ day. In that sexist society, a man might come home and find a burnt dinner or no dinner and feel justified in divorcing his wife on the spot. Divorce was even more common then than it is today.
Here again, Jesus is pointing us to something deeper than the letter of the law. Ancient Jews thought that a person must be married. God’s kingdom only grew when couples had children. Singleness and barrenness were regarded as curses from God.
But Jesus ushered in a more eternal understanding of God’s kingdom. The Church truly grows not through the birth rate, but when people hear Christ’s call to repent and come to believe in Him. Marriage isn’t a necessity for Christians.
But if we do feel called to be married, Jesus says that it’s to be undertaken with seriousness. A woman once told me that when she married her husband, he was hardly the man of her dreams, and she figured that, if things didn’t work out, she could always leave him. But, over the course of the years, God worked in their relationship. In them both, God cultivated the kind of self-giving love that He gives us in Christ. To break that bond became unthinkable to them both. That's the kind of fidelity to love for God and love for neighbor to which God wants us to aspire each day of our lives, in every relationship of our lives.
Of course, we know of tragic situations in which divorce becomes the only option. Situations of abuse, adultery, or spiritual abandonment come to mind. And I’ve never known a spiritually healthy person who had been through a divorce who couldn’t also enumerate some things they brought to their former marriage that contributed to its demise. God understands and God can forgive our relational failures, just as He understands and can forgive all our failures. The Bible says that God remember that we are dust, created beings filled with frailty and sin.
But, in this teaching on divorce, as in today’s entire Gospel lesson, Jesus commands us to take the call to love our neighbors—even the neighbors with whom we have shared a marital bed—with utmost seriousness and respect.
Look now to verse 33. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all…Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
And really, these final verses from our lesson, with their call to unswerving authenticity and openness, will do as a good summary of everything that Jesus is getting at in today’s lesson.
Remember that these words come to us as part of his Sermon on the Mount. It was directed not so much to the crowds who thronged around Jesus, but to His disciples, people like us who seek to follow Jesus. In it, Jesus is telling us about what it means to live in His kingdom here and now. We are to be authentic in our openness to Him and to others. Listen: This sermon explains the radical ethic of a people who know that they cannot keep God’s commands by their own strength or resolve, yet know that God is implacable in His demand that we keep those commands.
But we don’t despair! We come as imperfect sinners to a gracious God committed to healing our every ill and, if we will be honest about who we are and who we are not, will help us to become the people He calls us to be.
At another point in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that it will be harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples are befuddled. They think that wealth is a sign of blessing from God. “Who then can enter the kingdom?” they ask. “With people, it’s impossible; but with God all things are possible,” Jesus says.
A committed Christian hopes to live with the kind of inner authenticity and commitment to love of God and of neighbor that Jesus describes in today’s Gospel lesson. But the point is that none of us will ever live like this if, like the Pharisees, we strive to prove ourselves spiritually.
Jesus has fulfilled God’s implacable law for us. Jesus’ call and command is to simply, day in and day out, surrender to Him. This is what He means when He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus’ kingdom has come. He died and rose to make it so.
Surrender to Christ honestly and you will do the impossible: You will be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven in the midst of this world. The love of God will live in you and, even in a world of conflicts and challenges, you will be right with God, right with your neighbor, at peace with yourself. Amen
Matthew 5:21-37
As we begin this morning, I'd like to warn you that we are going to cover some uncomfortable topics--uncomfortable for all of us. As we do, remember the love and the desire to bring you forgiveness and healing that God bears for you.
Now, please pull out one of the pew Bibles and turn to page 565. We're going to look at a parable told by Jesus that relates to our Gospel lesson for this morning. Look at Matthew, chapter 21, and starting at verse 28, please read along with me silently:
[Jesus asks:] “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.”Jesus told this story to demonstrate that it’s possible for someone to appear to obey God’s commands and yet be far from God. Jesus wants our hearts, minds, and lives to be aligned with the faith we confess.
Where are your heart, mind, and life oriented this morning?
Every Lutheran Catechism student has been taught that the Ten Commandments, God’s inviolable law for the whole human race for all time, is divisible into two tables.
- The first three commandments command us, as Jesus sums it up in the Great Commandment, to love God completely.
- Commandments 4 through 10 command us, as Jesus also sums it up in the Great Commandment, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day, you’ll recall, looked at the commandments and tried to discern what it was they absolutely had to do in order to obey them. They reduced relationship with God down to a list of dos and don’ts, effectively putting God on the same level they would put a street vendor with whom they might negotiate prices in the marketplace. The Pharisees, though claiming to revere and honor God, in effect, thought they that they could force God to bless them as they self-consciously adhered to the strict letter of God’s commands.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus challenges us to move beyond Phaisee-like religion to a trust relationship of love with God, our fellow church members, and the world around us.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts so you can scan our Gospel lesson as we explore the passage. Jesus starts by saying: “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire…”
We should note that Jesus’ version of the Fifth Commandment is the accurate one. In the original Hebrew, God doesn’t say, “You shall not kill,” but “You shall not murder.”
Yet Jesus’ explanation of the commandment hardly gets us off the hook. Evangelist Billy Graham’s late wife, Ruth, was once asked if, in their long years of marriage, she had ever considered divorcing her husband. Her reply: “Murder yes. Divorce no.”
She understood the reality to which Jesus is pointing us today: Physical murder is only the outward manifestation of a sin that occurs inside of us first. That sin is to be so angry with someone that we want to murder them, to take away a life that is only God’s to give and take.
Don’t be confused, though. Anger in itself is something that happens to us. It’s a basic human trait. Even God gets angry. Remember Jesus in overturning the tables of the extortionists in the Temple. (What I call His "temple tantrum.") The New Testament book of Ephesians tells us, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” In other words, don’t allow your anger to cause you to dehumanize the person at whom you’re mad and always seek reconciliation. Otherwise, we will have committed murder without raising a fist.
Slip down to verse 27 in our Gospel lesson. Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As in the earlier verses, Jesus is telling us to look at more than the letter of God’s commandments, to their intention.
God has created sexual intimacy for one man and one woman in a lifetime covenant known as marriage. Lust, like anger, isn’t a bad thing in itself. In fact, it’s the mechanism God invented to foster intimacy in marriage.
But, irrespective of the popular romantic myths of our world, lust need not be in control of our behavior. No one should be able to say with a straight face, “I couldn’t help myself.”
Jesus says that we are to be in control of all our impulses, not the other way around. In this, He echoes the words of God, when he told Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, “Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Lust outside of marriage is a sin that can happen in more than just the sexual sphere. We can allow all sorts of desires to lead us away from being a committed married person. There are literally thousands of ways for husbands and wives to be unfaithful that don’t involve sex. Scholar Amy Oden writes that “we can create primary relationships with work, sports, or even the internet, rather than our spouse.” That makes sense to me. In fact, in every instance of adultery I’ve encountered as a pastoral counselor through the years, the adultery—the splintered loyalties, the lack of trust, the end of intimacy—occurred long before the physical adultery ever happened.
Please look at verse 31. Jesus says, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These are hard words. They were even harder in Jesus’ day. In that sexist society, a man might come home and find a burnt dinner or no dinner and feel justified in divorcing his wife on the spot. Divorce was even more common then than it is today.
Here again, Jesus is pointing us to something deeper than the letter of the law. Ancient Jews thought that a person must be married. God’s kingdom only grew when couples had children. Singleness and barrenness were regarded as curses from God.
But Jesus ushered in a more eternal understanding of God’s kingdom. The Church truly grows not through the birth rate, but when people hear Christ’s call to repent and come to believe in Him. Marriage isn’t a necessity for Christians.
But if we do feel called to be married, Jesus says that it’s to be undertaken with seriousness. A woman once told me that when she married her husband, he was hardly the man of her dreams, and she figured that, if things didn’t work out, she could always leave him. But, over the course of the years, God worked in their relationship. In them both, God cultivated the kind of self-giving love that He gives us in Christ. To break that bond became unthinkable to them both. That's the kind of fidelity to love for God and love for neighbor to which God wants us to aspire each day of our lives, in every relationship of our lives.
Of course, we know of tragic situations in which divorce becomes the only option. Situations of abuse, adultery, or spiritual abandonment come to mind. And I’ve never known a spiritually healthy person who had been through a divorce who couldn’t also enumerate some things they brought to their former marriage that contributed to its demise. God understands and God can forgive our relational failures, just as He understands and can forgive all our failures. The Bible says that God remember that we are dust, created beings filled with frailty and sin.
But, in this teaching on divorce, as in today’s entire Gospel lesson, Jesus commands us to take the call to love our neighbors—even the neighbors with whom we have shared a marital bed—with utmost seriousness and respect.
Look now to verse 33. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all…Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
And really, these final verses from our lesson, with their call to unswerving authenticity and openness, will do as a good summary of everything that Jesus is getting at in today’s lesson.
Remember that these words come to us as part of his Sermon on the Mount. It was directed not so much to the crowds who thronged around Jesus, but to His disciples, people like us who seek to follow Jesus. In it, Jesus is telling us about what it means to live in His kingdom here and now. We are to be authentic in our openness to Him and to others. Listen: This sermon explains the radical ethic of a people who know that they cannot keep God’s commands by their own strength or resolve, yet know that God is implacable in His demand that we keep those commands.
But we don’t despair! We come as imperfect sinners to a gracious God committed to healing our every ill and, if we will be honest about who we are and who we are not, will help us to become the people He calls us to be.
At another point in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that it will be harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples are befuddled. They think that wealth is a sign of blessing from God. “Who then can enter the kingdom?” they ask. “With people, it’s impossible; but with God all things are possible,” Jesus says.
A committed Christian hopes to live with the kind of inner authenticity and commitment to love of God and of neighbor that Jesus describes in today’s Gospel lesson. But the point is that none of us will ever live like this if, like the Pharisees, we strive to prove ourselves spiritually.
Jesus has fulfilled God’s implacable law for us. Jesus’ call and command is to simply, day in and day out, surrender to Him. This is what He means when He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus’ kingdom has come. He died and rose to make it so.
Surrender to Christ honestly and you will do the impossible: You will be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven in the midst of this world. The love of God will live in you and, even in a world of conflicts and challenges, you will be right with God, right with your neighbor, at peace with yourself. Amen
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Power Up!
Small things done in the power of God's Holy Spirit can change the eternities of those you touch. So, power up through prayer in Jesus' Name and watch what God does for others through you!
Friday, February 11, 2011
"The Promise and the Perils of Democracy"
That's the title of a series of pieces I wrote six years ago. On this day when we celebrate the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt and a hoped-for transition to democracy in that country, the series seems appropriate again.
"Democracy is the worst form of government," Winston Churchill said, "except for all those other forms that have been tried." Democracy holds great promise. But it has its perils, especially when it lulls us into selling out for less than the complete freedom God wants all people to experience.
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 1, March 2, 2005)
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 2, March 11, 2005)
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 3, March 15, 2005)
"Democracy is the worst form of government," Winston Churchill said, "except for all those other forms that have been tried." Democracy holds great promise. But it has its perils, especially when it lulls us into selling out for less than the complete freedom God wants all people to experience.
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 1, March 2, 2005)
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 2, March 11, 2005)
The Promise and the Perils of Democracy (Part 3, March 15, 2005)
It's a "Get To," Not a "Have To"
At least that's true on the days that I get my gaze off my own navel. Followers of Jesus are His ambassadors and we get to tell others the best news ever...news not just about Him, but, news that can also be about them!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
More Excellence from Ohio State
If you live in central Ohio or nearby, chances are you know how excellent The Ohio State University Medical Center is. But here's a short article that tells you (and other readers) about the Center's strategy for excellence.
As a pastor who has reason to visit the varied portions of the medical center, I can tell you I always come away impressed with the competence and compassion of its personnel and the treatment the entire institution provides.
I'm proud to be a 1975 graduate of the university! Go, Buckeyes!
As a pastor who has reason to visit the varied portions of the medical center, I can tell you I always come away impressed with the competence and compassion of its personnel and the treatment the entire institution provides.
I'm proud to be a 1975 graduate of the university! Go, Buckeyes!
Why Christians Must Speak the Truth About Jesus
In my last post, I talked about being willing to speak the truth in love. That's true in more than just what we usually consider when speaking of interpersonal relationships.
Christians are commissioned by Jesus to proclaim the good news (or the gospel) about Him and the need all people have to trust in Him. We are to let people know that Jesus teaches that He is the only means by which we can receive reconciliation and eternity with God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian and pastor martyred as a result of his opposition to Nazism, spoke of the love that must compel followers of Christ to fulfill our commission in another book I've been reading (actually, rereading) lately, The Cost of Discipleship. He cites Matthew 10:11-15, in which Christ commissions the first apostles to spread the gospel:
Then Bonhoeffer writes this powerful paragraph:
So, the next time someone makes a face when the word "evangelism" comes up, don't be intimidated. It's a good word! Based on the New Testament Greek word, euangelion, meaning good news. When Christians evangelize, they're simply broadcasting the most important news anyone could ever receive from the one and only King of the universe. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. As the apostle Paul writes in the New Testament book of Romans:
Other friends who read this: Please turn to Jesus, your God, Savior, and best friend, and trust in Him as your only hope in this life or the next. Because that's exactly who He is!
Christians are commissioned by Jesus to proclaim the good news (or the gospel) about Him and the need all people have to trust in Him. We are to let people know that Jesus teaches that He is the only means by which we can receive reconciliation and eternity with God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian and pastor martyred as a result of his opposition to Nazism, spoke of the love that must compel followers of Christ to fulfill our commission in another book I've been reading (actually, rereading) lately, The Cost of Discipleship. He cites Matthew 10:11-15, in which Christ commissions the first apostles to spread the gospel:
Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.He points out that the disciples' greeting as they enter the houses in which they stay in the communities to which they go is to be simple: "Peace to this house" (Luke 10:5).
Then Bonhoeffer writes this powerful paragraph:
This is no empty formula, for it immediately brings the power of the peace of God on those who are "worthy of it." Their proclamation is clear and concise. They simply announce that the kingdom of God has drawn nigh, and summon [people] to repentance and faith. They come with the full authority of Jesus of Nazareth, they deliver a command and make an offer with the support of the highest credentials. And that is all. The whole message is staggering in its simplicity and clarity, and since the cause brooks no delay, there is no need for them to enter into any further discussion to clear the ground or persuade their hearers. The King [Jesus] stands at the door, and he may come in at any moment. Will you bow down and humbly receive him, or do you want him to destroy you in his wrath? Those who have ears to hear have heard all there is to hear. They cannot detain the messengers any longer, for they must be off to the next city. If, however, men refuse to hear, they have lost their chance, the time of grace is passed, and they have pronounced their own doom. "To-day if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 4:7). That is evangelical preaching. Is this ruthless speed? Nothing could be more ruthless than to make [people] think there is still plenty of time to mend their ways. To tell [people] that the cause is urgent, and that the kingdom of God is at hand is the most charitable and merciful act we can perform, the most joyous news we can bring. The messenger cannot wait and repeat it to every man in his own language. God's language is clear enough. It is not for the messenger to decide who will hear and who will not, for only God knows who is "worthy"; and those who are worthy will hear the Word when the disciple proclaims it. But woe to the city and woe to the house which rejects the messenger of Christ. They will incur a dreadful judgement; Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of unchastity and perversion, will be judged more graciously than those cities of Israel who reject the word of Jesus, but the man who rejects the word of salvation has thrown away his last chance. To refuse to believe in the gospel is the worst sin imaginable, and if that happens the messengers can do nothing but leave the place. They go because the Word cannot remain there. They must recognize in fear and amazement both the power and the weakness of the Word of God. But the disciples must not force any issue contrary to or beyond the word of Christ. Their commission is not a heroic struggle, a financial pursuit of a grand idea or a good cause. That is why they stay only where the Word stays, and if it is rejected they will be rejected with it, and shake off the dust from their feet as a sign of the curse which awaits that place. This curse will not harm the disciples, but the peace they brought returns to them...We Christians must speak the truth about Jesus. If we love as Jesus commands and calls us to love, then it would be the height of arrogance and selfishness for us not to invite others to repent and believe in Christ.
So, the next time someone makes a face when the word "evangelism" comes up, don't be intimidated. It's a good word! Based on the New Testament Greek word, euangelion, meaning good news. When Christians evangelize, they're simply broadcasting the most important news anyone could ever receive from the one and only King of the universe. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. As the apostle Paul writes in the New Testament book of Romans:
...I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith...(Romans 1:16-17)Christians who read this: Share the news about Jesus and let the chips fall where they may!
Other friends who read this: Please turn to Jesus, your God, Savior, and best friend, and trust in Him as your only hope in this life or the next. Because that's exactly who He is!
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
When Minding Our Own Business is Wrong
One of the books I'm reading these days is When to Speak Up and When to Shut Up, written by Dr. Michael D. Sedler and published in 2003. The title of the book intrigued me, especially since many of my problems in life have been caused by speaking up when I shouldn't have and clamming up when I should have spoken out.
Sedler has an interesting biography. A social worker who has an advanced degree in Christian ministry, he was raised in a devoutly Jewish home. He came to faith in Christ at the age of 22.
In chapter 2 of his book, titled "When Silence Isn't Golden," Sedler points out something I had never noticed in the Bible before and when, in passing, I shared it with the adult Sunday School class at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor, people were as surprised as I had been.
Sedler says that there are times when those we love would definitely benefit from our speaking up. He then points to a famous incident in Scripture to underscore that truth, Genesis 3:1-6. It contains the account of Adam's and Eve's fall into sin. Here's the entire thing, as translated in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible:
Consider what Sedler writes:
Nonetheless, as my wife mentioned during this past Sunday's class, "I always thought that Eve talked with the serpent and then went to Adam." Every person there either nodded in agreement with her or verbally affirmed her impression.
But, as Sedler points out, you find the same story in almost any translation you consult: Adam was standing right next to Eve during Eve's entire conversation with the serpent. Here are some other translations' renderings of Genesis 3:6:
Sedler says that this fact has, in some Christian circles, been ignored with more sinister results than has occurred in Lutheranism as I've experienced it:
As Sedler points out though, there are deeper lessons to be learned from Genesis 3:6:
Love must be tough enough to risk incurring the anger of those we love. If we can't tell the truth in love, we can't tell the truth at all.
Sedler has an interesting biography. A social worker who has an advanced degree in Christian ministry, he was raised in a devoutly Jewish home. He came to faith in Christ at the age of 22.
In chapter 2 of his book, titled "When Silence Isn't Golden," Sedler points out something I had never noticed in the Bible before and when, in passing, I shared it with the adult Sunday School class at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor, people were as surprised as I had been.
Sedler says that there are times when those we love would definitely benefit from our speaking up. He then points to a famous incident in Scripture to underscore that truth, Genesis 3:1-6. It contains the account of Adam's and Eve's fall into sin. Here's the entire thing, as translated in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Familiar, right? Nothing in there to teach us about speaking up, right?
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Consider what Sedler writes:
This story has been recounted over and over in homes, churches, synagogues, in books, magazines, and on television. Always it is the same. The snake deceived Eve and she ate. She then urged Adam to eat. He did so and the two were condemned to a life of hardship. But was it really that simple? Was Adam "tricked" into his actions? Or was silence involved, a time when a voice should have been heard but was not?Sedler then goes on to point out a truth that is often hidden in plain sight, that Adam was Eve throughout her entire conversation with the serpent:
...and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate...Now, in the Lutheran circles in which I run, no one has ever suggested that Eve bore more responsibility for humanity's fall into sin than Adam. The Biblical witness is clear and anyone who's exercised the office of teacher in the Lutheran movement of which I'm a part has said simply that both Adam and Eve fell into sin and both bore responsibility for its consequences.
Nonetheless, as my wife mentioned during this past Sunday's class, "I always thought that Eve talked with the serpent and then went to Adam." Every person there either nodded in agreement with her or verbally affirmed her impression.
But, as Sedler points out, you find the same story in almost any translation you consult: Adam was standing right next to Eve during Eve's entire conversation with the serpent. Here are some other translations' renderings of Genesis 3:6:
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (The New International Version)So far, the only translation any member of the class has been able to find in which it wasn't pointed out that Adam was with Eve during her interview with the serpent is The Message.
...she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (New American Standard Bible)
...she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (King James Version)
...she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (English Standard Version)
...Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too. (Contemporary English Version)
...She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. (New Century Version)
Sedler says that this fact has, in some Christian circles, been ignored with more sinister results than has occurred in Lutheranism as I've experienced it:
Many Bible commentaries skim over verse six, choosing to ignore it rather than deal with it. Venerable Bible commentator Matthew Henry writes:Sedler dismisses this as an attempt to get Adam off the hook, to lay the blame on Eve, and therefore, to insinuate that women are more responsible for the fall into sin than men. But verse six says otherwise.
It is probable that he [Adam] was not with her [Eve] when she was tempted, surely if he had, he would have intervened to prevent sin.
As Sedler points out though, there are deeper lessons to be learned from Genesis 3:6:
Adam heard the conversation, saw Eve's dilemma, but remained silent. All the while that his wife was being deceived, Adam watched and assessed the situation, but kept his thoughts to himself. He chose to be silent.He did nothing, Sedler points out. Or did he? Sedler turns to Genesis 3:12. There, Adam responds to God, Who has just asked Adam if he had taken a bite from the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”Sedler writes:
Adam did what people do best when feeling defensive: He blamed another person...Could Adam have prevented [Eve from taking the fruit]? It would seem that he carries...responsibility for watching a precious helpmate make a destructive decision without intervening."Mind your own business" can be a good cautionary motto in many circumstances in life. But when you see people about to make errors that risk destroying them or parts of their lives, "mind your own business" is a cover-up for a failure to love. It's an excuse for personal cowardice. (I know what I'm talking about; I've been a coward so many times that it's painful to remember.)
Love must be tough enough to risk incurring the anger of those we love. If we can't tell the truth in love, we can't tell the truth at all.
"Five Reasons to Make Walking Your Way of Getting in Shape"
That's the title of my latest post over at Associated Content from Yahoo! I hope that you find it helpful.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
"Is Your Dream Too Small?"
That's the title of this great sermon by Pastor Glen VanderKloot. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Tough One Ahead for My Buckeyes
Wisconsin, at Madison, will be a formidable obstacle to the Buckeyes' quest for an undefeated season. Go, Buckeyes!
Be a High-Impact Parent
[In our community, pastors share the writing of a regular column for the Logan Daily News. Here's the piece I just submitted.]
Parents have the most important jobs in the world. “You shall honor your father and mother” is the first commandment of what’s called “the second table of the Ten Commandments,” those addressing our relationships with others.
The relationships of parents and children are foundational to all other relationships in life. When parents relate well to their kids and teach their kids to relate well to others, the children are set on a path for happiness and fulfillment in life.
The responsibilities of parents boil down to two key elements:
(1) Preparing their children for responsible adult living.
(2) Sharing Jesus Christ, God-in-the-flesh, with them.
In fulfilling these two responsibilities, parents prepare their children for both their earthly and eternal futures. Both are important, but the second one is most important.
Jesus tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Parents who fail to give priority to sharing Christ with their children are really saying that they don’t care about their kids’ eternal destinies.
Sharing Christ with children means more than seeing that children are baptized, that they go to Vacation Bible School or an occasional Sunday School class, or that they have Christian trinkets.
Faith in Jesus Christ is caught more than taught. Parents: Your kids will learn to know and rely on Christ when they see that you know and rely on Christ. When they know that you talk over the decisions of your life with God in prayer, that you read and heed the words of God’s revealed Word, the Bible, and that you worship regularly and receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion regularly, it will have a powerful and eternal impact on your kids. They’ll know that you and the God revealed in Christ are for real.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). To know God is to know peace in our lives, even in difficult times. To know God, it’s essential to know Jesus. There is nothing more important for parents to teach their kids than the truth about the God revealed to the world in Jesus.
Be a high impact parent: Live for Christ and share Him with your kids!
Parents have the most important jobs in the world. “You shall honor your father and mother” is the first commandment of what’s called “the second table of the Ten Commandments,” those addressing our relationships with others.
The relationships of parents and children are foundational to all other relationships in life. When parents relate well to their kids and teach their kids to relate well to others, the children are set on a path for happiness and fulfillment in life.
The responsibilities of parents boil down to two key elements:
(1) Preparing their children for responsible adult living.
(2) Sharing Jesus Christ, God-in-the-flesh, with them.
In fulfilling these two responsibilities, parents prepare their children for both their earthly and eternal futures. Both are important, but the second one is most important.
Jesus tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Parents who fail to give priority to sharing Christ with their children are really saying that they don’t care about their kids’ eternal destinies.
Sharing Christ with children means more than seeing that children are baptized, that they go to Vacation Bible School or an occasional Sunday School class, or that they have Christian trinkets.
Faith in Jesus Christ is caught more than taught. Parents: Your kids will learn to know and rely on Christ when they see that you know and rely on Christ. When they know that you talk over the decisions of your life with God in prayer, that you read and heed the words of God’s revealed Word, the Bible, and that you worship regularly and receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion regularly, it will have a powerful and eternal impact on your kids. They’ll know that you and the God revealed in Christ are for real.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). To know God is to know peace in our lives, even in difficult times. To know God, it’s essential to know Jesus. There is nothing more important for parents to teach their kids than the truth about the God revealed to the world in Jesus.
Be a high impact parent: Live for Christ and share Him with your kids!
Sunday, February 06, 2011
We've Had the Revolution...Now What?
[This was prepared to be shared with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
Matthew 5:13-20
This past week, we have witnessed a kind of revolution happening in Egypt. It looks as though this revolution will result in the end of a long period of iron fisted rule. But assuming that the pro-democracy demonstrators there are successful, there will be questions the people of Egypt will be asking of themselves soon. They’re questions like, “What now?” “How do we go forward?” People who go through revolutions always wrestle with questions like these in their aftermath.*
Last Sunday’s Gospel lesson, taken from the opening verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, was a place where Jesus laid down an absolutely revolutionary life, one that puts the world’s standard operating procedures on their heads.
In it, Jesus described people as blessed the world might see us unfortunate, at best. Jesus, it turns out, wasn’t just laying down God’s law in the Beatitudes, but also describing a way of life that seeps into the minds, hearts, and wills of those who cultivate daily closeness to Jesus Christ. Even if we have questions about all that though, because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, because of His resurrection, and because of the new life we know He offers to all who repent and believe in Him, we hear the Beatitudes and we want to sign up for the Kingdom of heaven.
But after Jesus, through His death and resurrection, works this revolution of transforming us from the enemies of God we were when we were born into the friends of God we become when we are born from above, we have questions: What now? How do we go forward? Jesus starts to answer those questions in today’s lesson. Please take out your Celebrate bulletin inserts and look at today’s Gospel lesson.
Now, as you read the opening verses of the lesson, you’ll have to keep the Beatitudes in mind. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus is saying, “You blessed ones are the salt of the earth. You blessed ones are the light of the world.”
With that in mind, read verse 13 along with me silently, please: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”
Most of us love salt. It enhances the flavor of food. But salt is also a great preservative. Those who walk with Jesus preserve what is true and godly. Without moralizing or judging, true followers of Jesus remind us all of God’s will, God’s love, and God’s ability to express His power through weak people surrendered to Him.
Ernest Gordon was a young Scotsman studying Philosophy and History when World War II broke out. He joined the military and was captured by the Japanese in the summer of 1942. He and his fellow prisoners were given rations of one lump of rice each day. They were tortured daily and were worked incessantly, under blazing sun and torrential rain. The brutalization included savagery and thievery among the prisoners themselves, who stole food from other prisoners too weak to defend themselves. Gordon, suffering from multiple diseases, was sent to a holding hut, one where all those certain to die went. One prisoner though, dared to do something that no prisoner had previously done. He cared for weaker prisoners. He took Gordon under his wing, giving him massages, encouraging words, and the occasional smuggled banana. Improbably, Gordon survived and through his benefactor something else happened. Though he had never been interested in God, Gordon came to follow Jesus Christ. He would later say, “'Faith thrives when there is no hope but God.” Folks, the man who cared for Gordon, a Christian, was salt of the earth. He preserved the kingdom way of life. In a place of horrors, he preserved the life of love and compassion and righteousness Jesus sets us free to live. That’s the kind of life we’re called and commanded to live too.
Read verse 14, please: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Over the past several weeks, several of our lessons have featured variations of the phrase, "light of the world." In the Old Testament, we’re told how God called the people of Israel into being to be a light to the nations, showing the world the one true God of the universe, preparing for the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus comes and we’re told in the New Testament that He is the light of the world. In today's lesson, Jesus is saying that those who follow Him—you and me—are to give light to the world. His fellow Jews would have found Jesus’ imagery unmistakably clear. The temple in Jerusalem was built on a high mount. From it, God’s people exalted God before the world.
Now, we Gentile Christians who, the New Testament says, have been grafted into the people of God by the grace given in Jesus and our faith in Him, are to lift Jesus up before all the world. Faith in Jesus Christ is a public thing. Jesus commands us to be lights in this darkened world; we’re to let everyone know about the new life that only comes through Jesus.
That can be a hard way to live. Many Christians, in fact, are like the young man desperate for a girlfriend who asked an unpopular young woman he didn't much like to go steady. She was elated until he said, “But let’s not tell anyone else about it. It’ll be our little secret.” “Don’t keep your relationship with Me hidden,” Jesus says. “Live it out loud.” If we keep our faith in Christ a personal thing, doesn’t Jesus have every right to think that we’re ashamed of Him?
In what Jesus has said so far, we see that we are blessed—saved by the undeserved, unearned grace of God—in order to be blessings to others. But this amazing grace does not bring an end to the commands— laws—of God given in the Old Testament.
Read what Jesus says next, starting at verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished…”
So, what law is Jesus talking about? We know that the Old Testament contains dietary laws that God rescinded in the New Testament. We know that ritual laws revolving around sacrifices are no longer needed because Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, once and for all.
Jesus here is referring to the moral laws in the Ten Commandments. These laws are inviolable for all time. Want to know the will of God for your wallet, your mouth, your sex life, your soul? It’s all there in the Ten Commandments and they haven’t changed in 3500 years. Jesus says they won’t change until heaven and earth pass away. They remain as protective fences meant to steer us always toward life at its best.
But you and I know that we can’t successfully obey these laws. The law can’t save us from sin and death. Only Jesus can do that. So why does Jesus still say the law is important?
Lutheran Christians have considered this question and said that there are three purposes that the Law still has.
This passage used to trouble me a lot! The Pharisees were righteous in their own eyes, but not in God’s. They thought that they were great people who had conquered their own sin. But, in their arrogance, they completely lacked the love for God and neighbor that the Law commands.
So, what, I wondered, did Jesus mean by seeming to tell all His followers to try to out-righteous the spiritual snobs He called hypocrites and whitewashed tombs?
Then I realized something: We will be more righteous than the Pharisees—we are more righteous than the Pharisees—when we are humble enough to let the shed blood of Jesus cover our sins and wash us clean. We will be righteous, right with God, when we rely completely on the God we know in Jesus Christ, and not our own wisdom, not our own pretended goodness.
For twenty years, I’ve been doing my taxes using the TurboTax computer program. And every year, I make the same mistake. I’ll be working on some part of my return and figure that I know something better than the program. I input data where I think it should go and totally mess things up. If I could get back all the hours I’ve spent on the unnecessary, grief-inducing side roads I’ve created for myself, rather than simply following the prompts the program gives, I probably could have done something productive with my life.
The Law is still important. It contains prompts from God, pointing us not only to the right way to live, but also to the One Who wants to lead us into His Kingdom. Unless we let the law lead us each day to Jesus, it will condemn us. But if we let it drive us back to Jesus whenever our lives go off course, we will be right with God, in sync with His purposes for our lives. We will be the salt of the earth who preserve what is godly and good. We will be the light of the world who show others the way to Jesus. We will be graced. We will be blessed. The Kingdom of heaven will be ours. Amen
*This approach to the sermon, how to live after the revolution, is that taken by N.T. Wright in his commentary on this text, found in Matthew for Everyone. I so liked his approach, finding that it so clarified what Jesus is doing in the sermon, that I couldn't resist using the same approach myself here.
Matthew 5:13-20
This past week, we have witnessed a kind of revolution happening in Egypt. It looks as though this revolution will result in the end of a long period of iron fisted rule. But assuming that the pro-democracy demonstrators there are successful, there will be questions the people of Egypt will be asking of themselves soon. They’re questions like, “What now?” “How do we go forward?” People who go through revolutions always wrestle with questions like these in their aftermath.*
Last Sunday’s Gospel lesson, taken from the opening verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, was a place where Jesus laid down an absolutely revolutionary life, one that puts the world’s standard operating procedures on their heads.
In it, Jesus described people as blessed the world might see us unfortunate, at best. Jesus, it turns out, wasn’t just laying down God’s law in the Beatitudes, but also describing a way of life that seeps into the minds, hearts, and wills of those who cultivate daily closeness to Jesus Christ. Even if we have questions about all that though, because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, because of His resurrection, and because of the new life we know He offers to all who repent and believe in Him, we hear the Beatitudes and we want to sign up for the Kingdom of heaven.
But after Jesus, through His death and resurrection, works this revolution of transforming us from the enemies of God we were when we were born into the friends of God we become when we are born from above, we have questions: What now? How do we go forward? Jesus starts to answer those questions in today’s lesson. Please take out your Celebrate bulletin inserts and look at today’s Gospel lesson.
Now, as you read the opening verses of the lesson, you’ll have to keep the Beatitudes in mind. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus is saying, “You blessed ones are the salt of the earth. You blessed ones are the light of the world.”
With that in mind, read verse 13 along with me silently, please: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”
Most of us love salt. It enhances the flavor of food. But salt is also a great preservative. Those who walk with Jesus preserve what is true and godly. Without moralizing or judging, true followers of Jesus remind us all of God’s will, God’s love, and God’s ability to express His power through weak people surrendered to Him.
Ernest Gordon was a young Scotsman studying Philosophy and History when World War II broke out. He joined the military and was captured by the Japanese in the summer of 1942. He and his fellow prisoners were given rations of one lump of rice each day. They were tortured daily and were worked incessantly, under blazing sun and torrential rain. The brutalization included savagery and thievery among the prisoners themselves, who stole food from other prisoners too weak to defend themselves. Gordon, suffering from multiple diseases, was sent to a holding hut, one where all those certain to die went. One prisoner though, dared to do something that no prisoner had previously done. He cared for weaker prisoners. He took Gordon under his wing, giving him massages, encouraging words, and the occasional smuggled banana. Improbably, Gordon survived and through his benefactor something else happened. Though he had never been interested in God, Gordon came to follow Jesus Christ. He would later say, “'Faith thrives when there is no hope but God.” Folks, the man who cared for Gordon, a Christian, was salt of the earth. He preserved the kingdom way of life. In a place of horrors, he preserved the life of love and compassion and righteousness Jesus sets us free to live. That’s the kind of life we’re called and commanded to live too.
Read verse 14, please: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Over the past several weeks, several of our lessons have featured variations of the phrase, "light of the world." In the Old Testament, we’re told how God called the people of Israel into being to be a light to the nations, showing the world the one true God of the universe, preparing for the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus comes and we’re told in the New Testament that He is the light of the world. In today's lesson, Jesus is saying that those who follow Him—you and me—are to give light to the world. His fellow Jews would have found Jesus’ imagery unmistakably clear. The temple in Jerusalem was built on a high mount. From it, God’s people exalted God before the world.
Now, we Gentile Christians who, the New Testament says, have been grafted into the people of God by the grace given in Jesus and our faith in Him, are to lift Jesus up before all the world. Faith in Jesus Christ is a public thing. Jesus commands us to be lights in this darkened world; we’re to let everyone know about the new life that only comes through Jesus.
That can be a hard way to live. Many Christians, in fact, are like the young man desperate for a girlfriend who asked an unpopular young woman he didn't much like to go steady. She was elated until he said, “But let’s not tell anyone else about it. It’ll be our little secret.” “Don’t keep your relationship with Me hidden,” Jesus says. “Live it out loud.” If we keep our faith in Christ a personal thing, doesn’t Jesus have every right to think that we’re ashamed of Him?
In what Jesus has said so far, we see that we are blessed—saved by the undeserved, unearned grace of God—in order to be blessings to others. But this amazing grace does not bring an end to the commands— laws—of God given in the Old Testament.
Read what Jesus says next, starting at verse 17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished…”
So, what law is Jesus talking about? We know that the Old Testament contains dietary laws that God rescinded in the New Testament. We know that ritual laws revolving around sacrifices are no longer needed because Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, once and for all.
Jesus here is referring to the moral laws in the Ten Commandments. These laws are inviolable for all time. Want to know the will of God for your wallet, your mouth, your sex life, your soul? It’s all there in the Ten Commandments and they haven’t changed in 3500 years. Jesus says they won’t change until heaven and earth pass away. They remain as protective fences meant to steer us always toward life at its best.
But you and I know that we can’t successfully obey these laws. The law can’t save us from sin and death. Only Jesus can do that. So why does Jesus still say the law is important?
Lutheran Christians have considered this question and said that there are three purposes that the Law still has.
- First, the law acts as a curb on the sinful impulses of all people, even before they know Jesus Christ.
- Second, the law drives us to Jesus for grace and forgiveness. When we’re honest, we acknowledge that while we understand God’s commands, we don’t keep them. Our inborn sin prevents us from keeping them. Desperate, we turn to Jesus, seeking the same mercy He showed to the repentant thief who hung on a cross next to Jesus and to whom Jesus promised, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
- But for the followers of Jesus, there is a third use of the Law. It’s a guide for us. Having been freed by grace from sin and death, the Ten Commandments become a road map for us. God told the prophet Jeremiah to tell His people centuries ago: “stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies…[to] walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” God was telling the people to remember His commands for them and so be led back to Him. When God’s law drives us to Jesus, it leads us to the place where life is found, where rightness with God, with our neighbors, and with ourselves is found.
This passage used to trouble me a lot! The Pharisees were righteous in their own eyes, but not in God’s. They thought that they were great people who had conquered their own sin. But, in their arrogance, they completely lacked the love for God and neighbor that the Law commands.
So, what, I wondered, did Jesus mean by seeming to tell all His followers to try to out-righteous the spiritual snobs He called hypocrites and whitewashed tombs?
Then I realized something: We will be more righteous than the Pharisees—we are more righteous than the Pharisees—when we are humble enough to let the shed blood of Jesus cover our sins and wash us clean. We will be righteous, right with God, when we rely completely on the God we know in Jesus Christ, and not our own wisdom, not our own pretended goodness.
For twenty years, I’ve been doing my taxes using the TurboTax computer program. And every year, I make the same mistake. I’ll be working on some part of my return and figure that I know something better than the program. I input data where I think it should go and totally mess things up. If I could get back all the hours I’ve spent on the unnecessary, grief-inducing side roads I’ve created for myself, rather than simply following the prompts the program gives, I probably could have done something productive with my life.
The Law is still important. It contains prompts from God, pointing us not only to the right way to live, but also to the One Who wants to lead us into His Kingdom. Unless we let the law lead us each day to Jesus, it will condemn us. But if we let it drive us back to Jesus whenever our lives go off course, we will be right with God, in sync with His purposes for our lives. We will be the salt of the earth who preserve what is godly and good. We will be the light of the world who show others the way to Jesus. We will be graced. We will be blessed. The Kingdom of heaven will be ours. Amen
*This approach to the sermon, how to live after the revolution, is that taken by N.T. Wright in his commentary on this text, found in Matthew for Everyone. I so liked his approach, finding that it so clarified what Jesus is doing in the sermon, that I couldn't resist using the same approach myself here.
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