As we did last Saturday morning, a group of us from Saint Matthew Lutheran Church hit the streets to give away free bottled water to motorists stopped at a heavily-trafficked intersection here in Logan, Ohio.
It was another of our congregation's Kindness Outreaches in which we share God's love, no strings attached.
Unlike last Saturday when we split into several groups, we all went to a single prominent Y-intersection today, with folks stationed at three different corners.
This morning, we gave away 210 bottles of water in about eighty minutes. Last Saturday, we gave away the same amount of water in seventy minutes.
But overall, we all seemed to have more personal interaction with folks than most of us had last Saturday at other intersections. That's something I love! The reason for this may be that the lights last longer where Zanesville Avenue, Hunter Street, and Culver Street meet here in Logan. Longer lights allow for the possibility for more good-humored interaction.
They also allow for the development of what I refer to as "positive peer pressure." If people in the first vehicle stopped at a red light say, "Yes" to receiving our free gifts, then those in vehicles in line behind them are more likely to follow suit. By the same token, if the folks in the first vehicle refuse our gifts, then those who follow in line are more likely to turn us down as well.
Of course, it helps to pray. Today, at the corner where I was working, we went through about four red-light cycles during which not a single passenger or driver was willing to accept a free bottle of water. So, I prayed out loud for God to bring us positive peer pressure at the next red light. And what do you know? The occupants in every vehicle stopped at the next red light accepted our gifts meant to show them that God's love is free and available to all willing to receive it. (The fact that happened after I prayed was not a coincidence, by the way. It was a God-incidence!)
As always happens when churches give away free items to strangers, we got questions from people about why were doing this today. Kindness Outreaches refute the common stereotype of churches as only being interested in getting people's money. But we refuse any offers of money! God's love is a free gift and we believe that God has given us all His gifts so that we can share them with others.
But Kindness Outreaches can perplex people.
Today, for example, one woman who looked to be in her late fifties, tilted her head from her perch behind the steering wheel of a minivan and asked me, "Why is it free?" "We're just trying to share God's love, no strings attached," I told her. She took the water.
Another woman pulled out her purse to make a donation. But Joy, from Saint Matthew, told her with a chuckle, "No, I can't take your money. I'll get fired."
A man on a motorcycle with a female passenger onboard stopped for the red light at Zanesville Avenue on west-bound Route 93. We said that the passenger could have a bottle of water. But we told him that we didn't want him "drinking and driving." Both laughed and thanked us, waving as they roared away.
One woman seemed absolutely overwhelmed that anybody would give her and the four other people in the car in which she was the "shotgun" passenger bottles of water for each. She thanked us profusely, a big smile on her face.
Each bottle of water is shared with a business-style card that tells the recipient: "You looked too thirsty to pass up!" with an explanation of why a group of Christians in love with Jesus would be doing such a crazy act of kindness. On the back, there's a little information on Saint Matthew along with an invitation for the recipient to let us know if there are any other ways in which we can serve them.
Eight Saint Matthew folks helped today. We had thirteen show up last Saturday. And everyone of them had fun! Thanks to every one of them!
Kindness Outreaches are the brainchild of my friend, Steve Sjogren. His book, Conspiracy of Kindness, absolutely changed my life when it was first published back in 1993. The people of the congregation I formerly served as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church in Amelia, Ohio, began doing outreaches shortly after I first read Steve's book and later, conducted them every Saturday for five years, "committing" 15,861 acts of Christian kindness in that period.*
I'm excited that Saint Matthew has now joined the conspiracy of kindness for Jesus Christ!
[To see the simple preparations necessary to do a Kindness Outreach, go here, where you'll find two short videos I did last Friday night.]
*Several years after reading Steve's book, I got an email from him; a mutual acquaintance had told him about me. We became fast friends and have remained so since. And so, I have been doubly blessed: first by Steve's book and work and second by his personal friendship. He's one of the nicest people you will ever meet!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
New One from Lecrae: Be Like You
My counseling and conversation indicates that the need for men to "man up," spurning macho misogyny, is more than an issue of black culture, as addressed here by Lecrae.
Friday, July 08, 2011
The Kindness Outreach Chronicles (Part 1)
UPDATE, July 9: Thirteen Saint Matthew folks showed up today and then gave away 210 bottles of water in about an hour-and-ten-minutes. Way to share the love of God in a practical and fun way! Hope to have some pictures to share here soon.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Storms on Saturn
An international spacecraft, as well as telescopes on earth, have tracked a big storm on the planet Saturn:
The cited article also says that Jupiter is a hotbed of storms, while they're rare on Saturn.
(Thanks to Joe Case for tweeting this interesting story.)
The storm system, which occurred during the start of Saturn spring, grew in size and intensity, eventually stretching around the planet. Scientists don’t exactly know what stirs up the storms, but they think it could be linked to the change of seasons.The Associated Press article, which I've taken from the CBS Sacramento site, also has a link to a recording of the storm. That helps to answer an ancient riddle: "If a storm happens on Saturn and no one is there to hear it, does it make any sound?"
At the height of the storm, Cassini detected 10 lightning strikes per second. Scientists said the electrical activity emitted by the bursts were 10,000 times stronger than lightning on Earth.
The cited article also says that Jupiter is a hotbed of storms, while they're rare on Saturn.
(Thanks to Joe Case for tweeting this interesting story.)
Mayor Coleman Shows Off Scioto Mile
This evening brought the grand opening of Scioto Mile, on the riverfront in downtown Columbus. I've gotten a few up-close glimpses of it in the past week and I think it's going to be a great asset to my hometown. Here, Mayor Michael Coleman, shows off Scioto Mile. I look forward to spending some time there this summer.
Audio of Wednesday's 'Read the Bible in a Year' Discussion
This is the audio recording of Wednesday morning's discussion of 1 Chronicles 13 to 2 Chronicles 6, at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio. We have weekly opportunities for discussion, either mornings or evenings, of the chapters we've been reading that week.
Here is a general overview of our approach to Read the Bible in a Year.
And here is the list of readings.
A few notes on this particular discussion:
While the Babylonian Captivity began in 586 BC, as I say in the recording, some of God's people were allowed to return to Judah starting in 538 BC. They didn't have to wait until 400 BC, although many chose not to return ever.
Both 1 and 2 Chronicles were probably written about 400 BC for those of God's people who had chosen to go back to their land, who were interested in looking at their history for guidance on how to reconstruct their spiritual life as they reconstructed the temple in Jerusalem.
I mention Robert Farrar Capon's image of "the hat on the invisible man." It appears in his book, The Third Peacock. But in this image, Capon isn't referring to Christ embodying God--revealing Him, rather to the bread and wine of Holy Communion embodying Christ for us as we worship.
The Galatians passage I was trying to find during this discussion was Galatians 2:20:
...it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ Who lives in me...
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Who Do You Say Jesus Is?
[This is a the column version of an earlier blog post. The column will appear in The Logan Daily News.]
The most important question any of us will ever be asked is one that Jesus Christ once asked: "But who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 6:15)
When I was an atheist, my answer to that question was that Jesus was a nice man. But when Jesus first asked it of His disciples, He accepted only one answer, one that came from a man named Peter: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
“Messiah” was the Hebrew term used by Jews for the anointed king they expected God to send to bring God’s kingdom into the world. "Christ" is the English version of the Greek word, Christos, meaning the same thing.
Jesus also claimed to be “the Son of the living God.” In first century Judea, where Jesus lived, this didn’t mean that Jesus was “a chip off the old block.” It meant that Jesus was God in the flesh!
It's only when we trust that Jesus is Who He says He is—God and King of all kings—that we receive the gifts He came to bring: forgiveness of sin for all who repent and trust in Him, new and everlasting life with God, and the presence and power of God in our daily lives.
Our eternal destinies hang on whether we trust that Jesus is exactly Who He says He is.
Jesus says that “flesh and blood” can’t teach these truths. Reasoning, force, tradition or goose bump-inducing experiences can’t convince us to believe that Jesus is God and King.
That's why the Bible tells us that, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).
If you're open to believing, God can help you believe in Jesus, Who took your punishment for sin on the cross, then rose from the dead to give you new, everlasting life with God.
If you’re not open to Christ, nothing will convince you otherwise and you will be lost to God for eternity.
You may be an atheist, as I once was. Or you may simply be a skeptic. Whatever the case, I’d like to do a little begging right now:If you’re willing to take Jesus at His word, though you find it hard to believe, then ask the God you may not even be certain is there to help you to see Jesus as Jesus demanded to be seen.
Not as a nice man.
Not as a great teacher.
Not as a good example. (Though He was all these things.)
But as your God and your King. Your God. Your King.
You can’t see Jesus this way “by flesh and blood”; only by the power of God’s Spirit.
But, if you’re willing to let God build faith in Jesus in your life, you’ll see Jesus differently…and because of it, have a brand new life.
As Jesus puts it, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Who do you say Jesus is? It’s the most important question you’ll ever be asked. Ask God to help you see and live the only answer that leads to life with God: “Jesus is God and King and I give my whole life to Him.”
[Mark Daniels is pastor of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, 258 East Hunter Street in Logan. Sunday worship is at 10:15AM.]
The most important question any of us will ever be asked is one that Jesus Christ once asked: "But who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 6:15)
When I was an atheist, my answer to that question was that Jesus was a nice man. But when Jesus first asked it of His disciples, He accepted only one answer, one that came from a man named Peter: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
“Messiah” was the Hebrew term used by Jews for the anointed king they expected God to send to bring God’s kingdom into the world. "Christ" is the English version of the Greek word, Christos, meaning the same thing.
Jesus also claimed to be “the Son of the living God.” In first century Judea, where Jesus lived, this didn’t mean that Jesus was “a chip off the old block.” It meant that Jesus was God in the flesh!
It's only when we trust that Jesus is Who He says He is—God and King of all kings—that we receive the gifts He came to bring: forgiveness of sin for all who repent and trust in Him, new and everlasting life with God, and the presence and power of God in our daily lives.
Our eternal destinies hang on whether we trust that Jesus is exactly Who He says He is.
Jesus says that “flesh and blood” can’t teach these truths. Reasoning, force, tradition or goose bump-inducing experiences can’t convince us to believe that Jesus is God and King.
That's why the Bible tells us that, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).
If you're open to believing, God can help you believe in Jesus, Who took your punishment for sin on the cross, then rose from the dead to give you new, everlasting life with God.
If you’re not open to Christ, nothing will convince you otherwise and you will be lost to God for eternity.
You may be an atheist, as I once was. Or you may simply be a skeptic. Whatever the case, I’d like to do a little begging right now:If you’re willing to take Jesus at His word, though you find it hard to believe, then ask the God you may not even be certain is there to help you to see Jesus as Jesus demanded to be seen.
Not as a nice man.
Not as a great teacher.
Not as a good example. (Though He was all these things.)
But as your God and your King. Your God. Your King.
You can’t see Jesus this way “by flesh and blood”; only by the power of God’s Spirit.
But, if you’re willing to let God build faith in Jesus in your life, you’ll see Jesus differently…and because of it, have a brand new life.
As Jesus puts it, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Who do you say Jesus is? It’s the most important question you’ll ever be asked. Ask God to help you see and live the only answer that leads to life with God: “Jesus is God and King and I give my whole life to Him.”
[Mark Daniels is pastor of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, 258 East Hunter Street in Logan. Sunday worship is at 10:15AM.]
Monday, July 04, 2011
"Pray with Boldness"
That's the title of this great sermon by Pastor Glen VanderKloot. He preached it yesterday morning during worship at the congregation he serves in Springfield, Illinois, Faith Lutheran Church. Glen is one of the most inspiring, authentic preachers around and, at a personal level, the real deal as a Christian!
If you live in the Springfield area, you might want to worship at Faith some Sunday morning soon.
If you live in the Springfield area, you might want to worship at Faith some Sunday morning soon.
Sunday, July 03, 2011
The Wisdom of Surrender to Christ
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]
Matthew 11:16-30
In his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Pastor Don Piper recounts what happened to him on January 18, 1989, on a bridge over Lake Livingston in Texas. An eighteen-wheeler hit the 1986 Ford Escort Piper was driving head-on.
For ninety minutes, Don Piper was dead.
A pastor who had attended the same conference from which Piper was driving at the time of his collision, happened on the accident scene. He asked rescue personnel what he could do.
Nothing, they said. The other drivers in the accident were unhurt. The driver of the Escort was dead.
But this second pastor, Dick Onerecker, sensed God telling him to go to the Escort and pray for the body.
Onerecker knew, of course, that you don’t pray for dead people. The dead are either with God or they’re not. No prayers can change the destinies either of those who have repented and trusted in Christ and entered into the presence of God or of those who have spurned Christ and live with the consequences of their decisions.
And yet, Dick Onerecker strongly felt the need to pray for the dead driver of the Escort.
He finally got permission to climb into the wreckage next to the body.
As he prayed, he felt led by God to pray that this lifeless body mangled beyond recognition be brought back to this life without any brain damage.
Onerecker prayed with deepening fervor and then, in desperation, began to sing, What a Friend We Have in Jesus:
But the rest of his body was horribly damaged! Since that January day in 1989, Don Piper hasn’t lived a single moment without pain. It started with an initial 105-day stay in the hospital. There have been many shorter ones since. He’s undergone 34 surgeries. To save his left leg, he underwent a gruesome procedure with a device known as an Ilizarov. It’s designed to allow bone that has been lost to grow back by stretching the affected limb through the turning of screws every few hours every day for months.
Any person who goes through agonies like Piper has gone through is bound to ask, “Why am I still living? It doesn’t make sense.”
For Piper, those questions take on more urgency because of what he experienced during the ninety minutes he was dead. He had gone, he says, to heaven. He experienced his resurrected body in heaven along with others he had known who had trusted in Jesus Christ while on earth.
But then, in answer to Dick Onerecker’s prayers, God brought Don Piper back to this world. Since then, Piper has faced a lifetime of pain. There have been times of deep depression for Piper, a depression born, in part, of doubt about God’s wisdom in bringing him back here. What was God thinking? What did God have in mind?
Can you identify with Don Piper?
I haven’t gone through anything like what he has gone through. But I understand his feelings.
Some of the worst times in my life have happened to me since I became a Christian, because I am a Christian. (Or, rather, because I thought--even though I would never say so--that being a Christian entitled me to special privileges not enjoyed by others.)
I haven't had these tough times because of physical suffering, but because God wouldn’t act as I expected Him to act. I’ve sometimes prayed, “Thy will be done,” only to be appalled by what God willed for my life.
As a young Christian, for example, I remained intent, as I had been since I was a little boy, on a life in politics. (Yes, I was a nerd!) After coming to Christ, I figured that with Jesus by my side, I could be both effective and faithful. But while I dreamed my dreams, God awakened me to His call to be a pastor, just about the last thing in the world I wanted to be! In fact, one of the most influential people in my young life, the grandfather for whom I was named, used to tell me, "Never be a pastor. Pastor's are worthless. All they do is take people's money and then don't do anything!"
I wasn’t happy at first with the change of plans God made in my life, even though I now see how wise it was.
We create all kinds of agony for ourselves whenever we pray, “Thy will be done,” while really meaning, “My will be done.”
Every believer can testify to having experienced disappointment and maybe even depression and anger with God because, in spite of all their fervent prayers, things didn’t go the way they thought they should.
At the outset of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus—God in the flesh—expresses God’s frustration with the people of first century Judea. In words that echo a scene from the Old Testament book of Isaiah in which God puts His chosen people on trial, Jesus asks, “To what will I compare this generation?”
He says that His fellow Judeans are like little children in the marketplace, wanting to order others—in this case, wanting to order God and an emissary from God—around. “We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance!” they whine. “We wailed and you didn’t mourn along with us!” Pointing to the ministry of His earthly cousin, John the Baptist, Jesus says that John didn’t eat sumptuously and never touched strong drink and people claimed that he was demon-possessed. Jesus ate and partied even with sinners and they called His behavior scandalous. They wouldn’t be happy unless God did things the way they wanted God to do things.
Then Jesus says, in verse 19: “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” The Good News translation puts it this way: “God's wisdom, however, is shown to be true by its results.”
Wisdom isn’t the same as knowledge.
And it’s not what we would call “common sense.”
Wisdom is a gift from God, something that He reveals to those who seek to faithfully follow Jesus Christ.
The wisdom of God can’t be intellectually proven any more than can the existence of God. When Dick Onerecker arrived on that bridge, there was no rational, empirical reason he could offer—to others or even to himself—for going to Don Piper’s body to pray. Don Piper was dead. And yet, God impressed on Onerecker the need to do what didn’t make sense. The wisdom of doing that was vindicated when a dead man started singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The apostle Paul says that even “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.”
Of course, we don’t have to be in extraordinary circumstances or search far and wide for the wisdom of God. All that we need to know about God, the will of God, the way to a life of purpose here, and the way to peace even in the midst of turmoil in this life has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. (And, as we’re learning as we read the Bible together this year, the Bible is authoritative in the wisdom it gives because, from Genesis to Revelation, it reveals and points us to Christ.)
In verses 20 to 25 of our Gospel lesson, Jesus mentions two foreign cities notorious for their sinfulness—Tyre and Sidon, and an Old Testament city whose very name is synonymous with evil, Sodom. He says that even places like those would bow to the wisdom of God and bow to Him as God-on-earth had they seen the miracles He performed in some of the Judean cities and towns to which He had gone. On the day of judgment, Jesus says, those places of evil will be in better shape than the places that had seen Him and heard His call to turn from sin and believe in Him and yet spurned Him. Wisdom and salvation were revealed to them in Jesus. But they rejected them when they rejected Jesus.
The same thing happens today. Often I have conversations with people who are living unrepentantly in sin, then wonder why they have no peace in their lives. When I was called to start my former congregation, I knocked on thousands of doors. Once, I was welcomed into a beautiful home set on a golf course. Living there was a man whose father was a Baptist pastor and a woman whose father was an Assemblies of God pastor. They had both been previously married and gone through divorces. Now they were living together. They knew what they were doing was wrong. Yet they wondered why they didn't have peace in their lives. It wasn't obvious to them that anyone who knows the God revealed to all the world in Jesus Christ couldn't deliberately flout God's holy commands and actually have peace. There's no mystery in that.
Nor is there any mystery in the lack of peace committed Christians sometimes feel--and I sometimes can be included in their number--who try to tackle life's problems and challenges on our own. Without even meaning to, we can refuse to give Christ control of our lives. We would rather rely on our own intellects, our own common sense, or our own stubborn wills rather than on God. We can have no peace when we do that!
We’re just like our parents, Adam and Eve; we want to “be like God.” The result is untold and unnecessary worrying, stress, sleeplessness, and illness.
Relying on anything but God will get us nowhere.
In verse 25 of our Gospel lesson, Jesus prays: “I thank You, Father…because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Jesus isn’t telling Christians to check their brains in at the Baptismal font.
We don’t need to dumb down. But we do need to wise up!
God told King Solomon 1000 years earlier: “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.”
Intelligence uninformed by God’s revealed wisdom might tell you that since you’ve never seen God, God can’t exist.
Common sense might tell you that since there’s no such thing as a free lunch, the love and forgiveness of God couldn’t possibly come to those whose sins deserve death.
And yet, God’s wisdom has been revealed.
Through Christ, we know that the creation has a Creator and we know that Christ has paid the price for our sin, meaning that all who repent and believe in Christ can claim eternal life and forgiveness as free gifts.
God doesn’t help those who help themselves. God helps those who turn to God for help.
Are we humble enough to recognize our need of God in any situation?
And, when we rely on Christ, God can do even more than give us help in getting through life. Pull out the special insert and read verse 28 with me. Jesus says: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
God wants you to know peace. This side of heaven, we never will have all the answers. We won’t have it all figured out. And we will never be insulated from the evil that exists in this world, which lurks like thistles among the wheat. But in this world, we can have Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord Who sticks with us through everything and because of His cross and empty tomb, can promise all who trust in Him eternity with God.
God is still in the miracle business. And I still pray for miracles for those who suffer. I've seen God answer prayers for miraculous intervention too many times to believe that they're all just coincidences. When people pray humbly and helplessly in the Name of Jesus, God does things--great and wonderful things--that wouldn't happen otherwise.
But more than answers to our questions or our prayers, more than control, and more than our own ways, we need Jesus.
And when we take hold of Him, we have peace. In Jesus, even in the midst of life’s uncertainties, we can live in the certainty of His peace.
If you’ve been holding back any part of your life from Christ, turn to Him now. Tell Him, “Lord, Thy will be done. Truly, Thy will be done.”
If you’re like me, you’ll have to pray that prayer countless times every day.
But as we surrender all the pieces of our lives, the peace of Christ will come to us.
We’ll find rests for our souls.
To trust in Christ is the way of wisdom and, one day, God will vindicate all who trust in Him.
May the peace of Christ fill you now and always. Amen
Matthew 11:16-30
In his book, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Pastor Don Piper recounts what happened to him on January 18, 1989, on a bridge over Lake Livingston in Texas. An eighteen-wheeler hit the 1986 Ford Escort Piper was driving head-on.
For ninety minutes, Don Piper was dead.
A pastor who had attended the same conference from which Piper was driving at the time of his collision, happened on the accident scene. He asked rescue personnel what he could do.
Nothing, they said. The other drivers in the accident were unhurt. The driver of the Escort was dead.
But this second pastor, Dick Onerecker, sensed God telling him to go to the Escort and pray for the body.
Onerecker knew, of course, that you don’t pray for dead people. The dead are either with God or they’re not. No prayers can change the destinies either of those who have repented and trusted in Christ and entered into the presence of God or of those who have spurned Christ and live with the consequences of their decisions.
And yet, Dick Onerecker strongly felt the need to pray for the dead driver of the Escort.
He finally got permission to climb into the wreckage next to the body.
As he prayed, he felt led by God to pray that this lifeless body mangled beyond recognition be brought back to this life without any brain damage.
Onerecker prayed with deepening fervor and then, in desperation, began to sing, What a Friend We Have in Jesus:
Oh, what peace we often forfeitThen something incredible happened! Don Piper, a man who had been dead for ninety minutes, began to sing along. He had come back to life! And, in spite of being dead for an hour and a half, he experienced no damage to his brain.
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Ev'rything to God in prayer!
But the rest of his body was horribly damaged! Since that January day in 1989, Don Piper hasn’t lived a single moment without pain. It started with an initial 105-day stay in the hospital. There have been many shorter ones since. He’s undergone 34 surgeries. To save his left leg, he underwent a gruesome procedure with a device known as an Ilizarov. It’s designed to allow bone that has been lost to grow back by stretching the affected limb through the turning of screws every few hours every day for months.
Any person who goes through agonies like Piper has gone through is bound to ask, “Why am I still living? It doesn’t make sense.”
For Piper, those questions take on more urgency because of what he experienced during the ninety minutes he was dead. He had gone, he says, to heaven. He experienced his resurrected body in heaven along with others he had known who had trusted in Jesus Christ while on earth.
But then, in answer to Dick Onerecker’s prayers, God brought Don Piper back to this world. Since then, Piper has faced a lifetime of pain. There have been times of deep depression for Piper, a depression born, in part, of doubt about God’s wisdom in bringing him back here. What was God thinking? What did God have in mind?
Can you identify with Don Piper?
I haven’t gone through anything like what he has gone through. But I understand his feelings.
Some of the worst times in my life have happened to me since I became a Christian, because I am a Christian. (Or, rather, because I thought--even though I would never say so--that being a Christian entitled me to special privileges not enjoyed by others.)
I haven't had these tough times because of physical suffering, but because God wouldn’t act as I expected Him to act. I’ve sometimes prayed, “Thy will be done,” only to be appalled by what God willed for my life.
As a young Christian, for example, I remained intent, as I had been since I was a little boy, on a life in politics. (Yes, I was a nerd!) After coming to Christ, I figured that with Jesus by my side, I could be both effective and faithful. But while I dreamed my dreams, God awakened me to His call to be a pastor, just about the last thing in the world I wanted to be! In fact, one of the most influential people in my young life, the grandfather for whom I was named, used to tell me, "Never be a pastor. Pastor's are worthless. All they do is take people's money and then don't do anything!"
I wasn’t happy at first with the change of plans God made in my life, even though I now see how wise it was.
We create all kinds of agony for ourselves whenever we pray, “Thy will be done,” while really meaning, “My will be done.”
Every believer can testify to having experienced disappointment and maybe even depression and anger with God because, in spite of all their fervent prayers, things didn’t go the way they thought they should.
At the outset of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus—God in the flesh—expresses God’s frustration with the people of first century Judea. In words that echo a scene from the Old Testament book of Isaiah in which God puts His chosen people on trial, Jesus asks, “To what will I compare this generation?”
He says that His fellow Judeans are like little children in the marketplace, wanting to order others—in this case, wanting to order God and an emissary from God—around. “We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance!” they whine. “We wailed and you didn’t mourn along with us!” Pointing to the ministry of His earthly cousin, John the Baptist, Jesus says that John didn’t eat sumptuously and never touched strong drink and people claimed that he was demon-possessed. Jesus ate and partied even with sinners and they called His behavior scandalous. They wouldn’t be happy unless God did things the way they wanted God to do things.
Then Jesus says, in verse 19: “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” The Good News translation puts it this way: “God's wisdom, however, is shown to be true by its results.”
Wisdom isn’t the same as knowledge.
And it’s not what we would call “common sense.”
Wisdom is a gift from God, something that He reveals to those who seek to faithfully follow Jesus Christ.
The wisdom of God can’t be intellectually proven any more than can the existence of God. When Dick Onerecker arrived on that bridge, there was no rational, empirical reason he could offer—to others or even to himself—for going to Don Piper’s body to pray. Don Piper was dead. And yet, God impressed on Onerecker the need to do what didn’t make sense. The wisdom of doing that was vindicated when a dead man started singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The apostle Paul says that even “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.”
Of course, we don’t have to be in extraordinary circumstances or search far and wide for the wisdom of God. All that we need to know about God, the will of God, the way to a life of purpose here, and the way to peace even in the midst of turmoil in this life has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. (And, as we’re learning as we read the Bible together this year, the Bible is authoritative in the wisdom it gives because, from Genesis to Revelation, it reveals and points us to Christ.)
In verses 20 to 25 of our Gospel lesson, Jesus mentions two foreign cities notorious for their sinfulness—Tyre and Sidon, and an Old Testament city whose very name is synonymous with evil, Sodom. He says that even places like those would bow to the wisdom of God and bow to Him as God-on-earth had they seen the miracles He performed in some of the Judean cities and towns to which He had gone. On the day of judgment, Jesus says, those places of evil will be in better shape than the places that had seen Him and heard His call to turn from sin and believe in Him and yet spurned Him. Wisdom and salvation were revealed to them in Jesus. But they rejected them when they rejected Jesus.
The same thing happens today. Often I have conversations with people who are living unrepentantly in sin, then wonder why they have no peace in their lives. When I was called to start my former congregation, I knocked on thousands of doors. Once, I was welcomed into a beautiful home set on a golf course. Living there was a man whose father was a Baptist pastor and a woman whose father was an Assemblies of God pastor. They had both been previously married and gone through divorces. Now they were living together. They knew what they were doing was wrong. Yet they wondered why they didn't have peace in their lives. It wasn't obvious to them that anyone who knows the God revealed to all the world in Jesus Christ couldn't deliberately flout God's holy commands and actually have peace. There's no mystery in that.
Nor is there any mystery in the lack of peace committed Christians sometimes feel--and I sometimes can be included in their number--who try to tackle life's problems and challenges on our own. Without even meaning to, we can refuse to give Christ control of our lives. We would rather rely on our own intellects, our own common sense, or our own stubborn wills rather than on God. We can have no peace when we do that!
We’re just like our parents, Adam and Eve; we want to “be like God.” The result is untold and unnecessary worrying, stress, sleeplessness, and illness.
Relying on anything but God will get us nowhere.
In verse 25 of our Gospel lesson, Jesus prays: “I thank You, Father…because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Jesus isn’t telling Christians to check their brains in at the Baptismal font.
We don’t need to dumb down. But we do need to wise up!
God told King Solomon 1000 years earlier: “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.”
Intelligence uninformed by God’s revealed wisdom might tell you that since you’ve never seen God, God can’t exist.
Common sense might tell you that since there’s no such thing as a free lunch, the love and forgiveness of God couldn’t possibly come to those whose sins deserve death.
And yet, God’s wisdom has been revealed.
Through Christ, we know that the creation has a Creator and we know that Christ has paid the price for our sin, meaning that all who repent and believe in Christ can claim eternal life and forgiveness as free gifts.
God doesn’t help those who help themselves. God helps those who turn to God for help.
Are we humble enough to recognize our need of God in any situation?
And, when we rely on Christ, God can do even more than give us help in getting through life. Pull out the special insert and read verse 28 with me. Jesus says: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
God wants you to know peace. This side of heaven, we never will have all the answers. We won’t have it all figured out. And we will never be insulated from the evil that exists in this world, which lurks like thistles among the wheat. But in this world, we can have Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord Who sticks with us through everything and because of His cross and empty tomb, can promise all who trust in Him eternity with God.
God is still in the miracle business. And I still pray for miracles for those who suffer. I've seen God answer prayers for miraculous intervention too many times to believe that they're all just coincidences. When people pray humbly and helplessly in the Name of Jesus, God does things--great and wonderful things--that wouldn't happen otherwise.
But more than answers to our questions or our prayers, more than control, and more than our own ways, we need Jesus.
And when we take hold of Him, we have peace. In Jesus, even in the midst of life’s uncertainties, we can live in the certainty of His peace.
If you’ve been holding back any part of your life from Christ, turn to Him now. Tell Him, “Lord, Thy will be done. Truly, Thy will be done.”
If you’re like me, you’ll have to pray that prayer countless times every day.
But as we surrender all the pieces of our lives, the peace of Christ will come to us.
We’ll find rests for our souls.
To trust in Christ is the way of wisdom and, one day, God will vindicate all who trust in Him.
May the peace of Christ fill you now and always. Amen
Saturday, July 02, 2011
But What is Freedom? (More Thoughts Inspired by the Fourth of July)
The sad truth is that, except possibly for the benefit of close family and friends, we human beings value freedom more than just about anything, more even than we value love. We'd a lot rather have our own way than to ever give way. It's part of our fallen human nature, inherited from Adam and Eve and all the other parents in between then and now.
Love, from the standpoint of God and the Bible, is not an emotion. It's a tough commitment to what honors God and helps others. It’s what the apostle Paul was talking about when he told the first century Christians at Philippi: “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
Real freedom resides in being so secure in yourself and your place in God’s kingdom that you don’t need to “look out for number one.” You know that, in Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead, God has already looked out for you and will keep looking out for those who repent and believe in Christ, for all eternity. You have the mind of Christ and are set free, as Christ was while He was on earth, to truly live, whether you're living in a penthouse or the big house, whether you're being commended or being condemned. You have the freedom to become the person of steely love and obedience to God you were made to be.
None of us will experience this freedom in its fullness on this side of death. Personally, I admit that I do, say, and think things every day that have me turning to God to ask for forgiveness and to seek the power to live my daily prayer, “Thy will be done.”
But those who follow Jesus Christ have freedom in ways that no Declaration of Independence and no Constitution, no matter how cherished or important they may be, can ever bring.
True freedom--freedom from sin and death, freedom to live this life without fear--comes to all who trust in Jesus Christ, no matter the governmental system under which they live. I hope that you're experiencing the freedom that comes from Jesus Christ alone on this Fourth of July weekend.
Love, from the standpoint of God and the Bible, is not an emotion. It's a tough commitment to what honors God and helps others. It’s what the apostle Paul was talking about when he told the first century Christians at Philippi: “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
Real freedom resides in being so secure in yourself and your place in God’s kingdom that you don’t need to “look out for number one.” You know that, in Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead, God has already looked out for you and will keep looking out for those who repent and believe in Christ, for all eternity. You have the mind of Christ and are set free, as Christ was while He was on earth, to truly live, whether you're living in a penthouse or the big house, whether you're being commended or being condemned. You have the freedom to become the person of steely love and obedience to God you were made to be.
None of us will experience this freedom in its fullness on this side of death. Personally, I admit that I do, say, and think things every day that have me turning to God to ask for forgiveness and to seek the power to live my daily prayer, “Thy will be done.”
But those who follow Jesus Christ have freedom in ways that no Declaration of Independence and no Constitution, no matter how cherished or important they may be, can ever bring.
True freedom--freedom from sin and death, freedom to live this life without fear--comes to all who trust in Jesus Christ, no matter the governmental system under which they live. I hope that you're experiencing the freedom that comes from Jesus Christ alone on this Fourth of July weekend.
Thoughts on the Fourth
Monday is the Fourth of July, the day on which we Americans celebrate the Declaration of Independence, approved by the Continental Congress in 1776.
The Declaration's second paragraph contains the famous words Thomas Jefferson borrowed and reworked from John Locke and other political philosophers: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Fourth is a great day to remember. But we might do well to celebrate September 17 as much as we do July 4.
In 2004, Congress established September 17 as Constitution Day. It commemorates the day in 1787 when the United States Constitution was signed. But barely a murmur will be heard about that day when it comes.
Maybe that’s because the Constitution deals with things we don’t like to talk about as much as we like to talk about freedom, things like personal responsibility and mutual accountability, things that prevent personal liberty and freedom from becoming what the Bible calls “license.” License is doing anything that may come into our heads—good or bad, right or wrong, helpful or hurtful. It's freedom without checks, balances, or concern for others.
From 1781 to 1789, this country tried to govern itself under the Articles of Confederation with freedom as its only principle. The result was a nation descending into chaos. Under the Articles, the new United States couldn’t defend itself or ensure political or economic opportunity or security for its people. That’s why the Constitution came into being. That's why it was essential.
“We the people of the United States,” the Constitution begins, “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Many historians say that the Constitution completed the American Revolution. Without the responsibility and mutual accountability it imposed on the willing and the unwilling alike, the American experiment of freedom would have failed long ago. I think that’s worth at least a few fireworks.
The Declaration's second paragraph contains the famous words Thomas Jefferson borrowed and reworked from John Locke and other political philosophers: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Fourth is a great day to remember. But we might do well to celebrate September 17 as much as we do July 4.
In 2004, Congress established September 17 as Constitution Day. It commemorates the day in 1787 when the United States Constitution was signed. But barely a murmur will be heard about that day when it comes.
Maybe that’s because the Constitution deals with things we don’t like to talk about as much as we like to talk about freedom, things like personal responsibility and mutual accountability, things that prevent personal liberty and freedom from becoming what the Bible calls “license.” License is doing anything that may come into our heads—good or bad, right or wrong, helpful or hurtful. It's freedom without checks, balances, or concern for others.
From 1781 to 1789, this country tried to govern itself under the Articles of Confederation with freedom as its only principle. The result was a nation descending into chaos. Under the Articles, the new United States couldn’t defend itself or ensure political or economic opportunity or security for its people. That’s why the Constitution came into being. That's why it was essential.
“We the people of the United States,” the Constitution begins, “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Many historians say that the Constitution completed the American Revolution. Without the responsibility and mutual accountability it imposed on the willing and the unwilling alike, the American experiment of freedom would have failed long ago. I think that’s worth at least a few fireworks.
Friday, July 01, 2011
The Most Important Question
The most important question we will ever be asked to answer is one that Jesus asks in Matthew 16:15, "But who do you say that I am?"
For years, as an atheist, my answer to that question was that Jesus was a nice man. Yet when Jesus first asked it of His disciples, He spurned all answers but one. It came from a guy who often got things wrong, Simon Peter. He said: "You are the Messiah*, the Son of the living God."**
It's only when we trust that Jesus is Who He says He is--God in the flesh Who gives new, eternal life to all who turn from sin and entrust their lives to Him--that we see Jesus right and reap the benefits of His death and resurrection.
Jesus says that "flesh and blood"--things like reasoning or force or tradition or a goose bump-inducing experience--cannot lead us to a confession like that made by Peter. In the end, we're incapable, on our own, of believing the great news of new life for all who turn from sin and believe in Jesus. We're incapable of confessing our faith in Jesus for Who He claimed to be: the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In a bad news world, it doesn't compute.
That's why in another part of the New Testament, we're told that, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).
If you're open to believing, God can lead you to a confession like Simon Peter's...and to a new life with God that never ends.
If there's anything about Jesus you find attractive or compelling, then ask the God you're not ever certain there to help you to see Jesus as He demanded to be seen. It might change your life.
How do you answer the most important question you'll ever be asked?
*Messiah is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning Anointed One. It's the term used by Jews who were expecting God to send a king to fully establish His kingdom and set the world right. The Greek translation of the world is Christos, which in English becomes Christ.
**In his language and culture, Peter's confession of Jesus as "the Son of the living God" did not mean that Jesus issued from God the Father in the way a human son issues from his mother and father. It means that Jesus is the very embodiment of God or, as the Nicene Creed puts it, "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God...not made."
Paul was getting at what it means to call Jesus the Son of God, when he wrote in the New Testament book of Colossians, "He is the image of the invisible God..." (Colossians 1:15).
For years, as an atheist, my answer to that question was that Jesus was a nice man. Yet when Jesus first asked it of His disciples, He spurned all answers but one. It came from a guy who often got things wrong, Simon Peter. He said: "You are the Messiah*, the Son of the living God."**
It's only when we trust that Jesus is Who He says He is--God in the flesh Who gives new, eternal life to all who turn from sin and entrust their lives to Him--that we see Jesus right and reap the benefits of His death and resurrection.
Jesus says that "flesh and blood"--things like reasoning or force or tradition or a goose bump-inducing experience--cannot lead us to a confession like that made by Peter. In the end, we're incapable, on our own, of believing the great news of new life for all who turn from sin and believe in Jesus. We're incapable of confessing our faith in Jesus for Who He claimed to be: the Messiah, the Son of the living God. In a bad news world, it doesn't compute.
That's why in another part of the New Testament, we're told that, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).
If you're open to believing, God can lead you to a confession like Simon Peter's...and to a new life with God that never ends.
If there's anything about Jesus you find attractive or compelling, then ask the God you're not ever certain there to help you to see Jesus as He demanded to be seen. It might change your life.
How do you answer the most important question you'll ever be asked?
*Messiah is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning Anointed One. It's the term used by Jews who were expecting God to send a king to fully establish His kingdom and set the world right. The Greek translation of the world is Christos, which in English becomes Christ.
**In his language and culture, Peter's confession of Jesus as "the Son of the living God" did not mean that Jesus issued from God the Father in the way a human son issues from his mother and father. It means that Jesus is the very embodiment of God or, as the Nicene Creed puts it, "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God...not made."
Paul was getting at what it means to call Jesus the Son of God, when he wrote in the New Testament book of Colossians, "He is the image of the invisible God..." (Colossians 1:15).
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
"A Little Glitch"
A little glitch can have a big impact, even in our relationship with God. That's why we need Jesus Christ! (Thanks to Carol, a Saint Matthew member, for pointing me to this insightful devotion.)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
"A Small Untangling"
Pastor Russ Saltzman, who I knew briefly as I began my seminary education and he completed his at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, talks about his involvement with a new congregation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) in Nebraska. His reflections on that experience and on the departure of some people from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that gave rise to it are interesting in themselves. The discussion in the comments is also worth reading.
Monday, June 27, 2011
What I'm Reading Right Now
I started reading 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper a few days ago. I read it while I'm speed-walking at night. While the writing can be a bit clunky, this true autobiographical tale about the experiences of a Texas Baptist pastor who was, by all signs, dead for ninety minutes following a horrible accident, will keep you turning the pages.
When my wife and I go any distance together by car, she drives and I read aloud to her from a book that we've chosen. Right now, I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, a multi-character biography involving Abraham Lincoln and his chief rivals for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, all of whom Lincoln brought into his cabinet. I read it myself right after it was first published. I'm enjoying sharing it with my wife now.
Back in 2006, when I first read the Goodwin book, I posted this and this about it.
When my wife and I go any distance together by car, she drives and I read aloud to her from a book that we've chosen. Right now, I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, a multi-character biography involving Abraham Lincoln and his chief rivals for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, all of whom Lincoln brought into his cabinet. I read it myself right after it was first published. I'm enjoying sharing it with my wife now.
Back in 2006, when I first read the Goodwin book, I posted this and this about it.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Keeping Your Gold Medal
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]
Matthew 10:40-42
Imagine for just a second that you’ve turned on your TV to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.
This is always a popular event. Athletes from around the world march into a stadium for the official starts of the games.
But imagine, for just a second, a different kind of opening ceremony this time. On the field are row after row of pedestals, all of equal height. At the appointed time, just as always, all the athletes march into the stadium. But today, all of them stand on a podium and every single one of them, before a single game, quarter, period, match, bout, round, scrimmage, or scrum has happened, receive gold medals.
Every single athlete.
Then imagine the announcer saying, “You’ve already received your medals. You don’t have to play to win them. The goal of these games is to play so that you don’t lose your reward.”
Grace, God’s undeserved favor, God’s charitable action for us to save us from sin and death and to give us life with Him for eternity, is a reward we cannot earn.
It’s a gold medal God wins for us.
The New Testament book of Romans says that “God proves his love for us, in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Before we even knew we needed a Savior, Christ died and rose for us.
Before most of us were aware of it, we were claimed by God in Baptism as His very own children.
Salvation, eternal life, the promises of Christ to be with us—all these things are ours not because of any good thing we have done, but simply because God has acted for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Life for the Christian is about keeping the prize—the reward—we’ve already been given.
Today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew comes at the end of what scholars call Jesus’ missionary discourse. It takes up all of Matthew 10.
Jesus is sending His disciples throughout their native Judea with “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”
They’re to proclaim the good news of new life that comes only through Jesus.
Most of Matthew 10 is taken up with Jesus telling the disciples how they’re to conduct themselves while on their mission. But in our verses, Jesus tells them (and all of us who follow Christ) what’s at stake for those who have the choice of receiving or rejecting the people like us who share Christ with them. Nothing less than the gold medal of God’s grace is at stake.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from the bulletin and turn to today’s Gospel lesson. It’s short. You can read along with me as I read it again:
The only way we can receive the gold medal of God’s grace is to position ourselves in a faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
The rewards of eternal life with God come to those with faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus famously told Nicodemus, ““For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Now, it’s precisely here that we Lutheran Christians often get ourselves into trouble. We turn faith into some proposition we agree to, no different from saying things like, “I believe that rainbows are pretty,” or, “I believe that LeBron James is the greatest basketball player since Michael Jordan.” In other words, we turn belief in Christ into nothing more than intellectual assent.
But, as I’ve pointed out before, even the devil believes that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jesus says the true believers in Him will be known by their fruits. The seed of true faith in Christ won’t sprout as sinful actions, even though on this side of the grave, you and I will never shake ourselves of our inborn human orientation to sin.
Yet, as the New Testament book of James reminds us, “Faith without works [faith without evidence of the lordship of Jesus in your life] is dead.”
To believe in Jesus—to have faith in Jesus—is to trust in Him and when we trust in Jesus, it will show up in how we live our lives.
It’ll show up in the decisions we make.
It’ll show up in the service we render in His Name and in our willingness to give a witness for Him, even in something as simple and fun as our “This meal’s on us!” kindness outreach cards.
Faith in Jesus is active reliance on Him in our lives.
I once heard what this means illustrated by the picture of a canyon across which a tightrope is strung. Born sinners, we start out lives on one side of the canyon while on the other is God and the life God wants to give to us—His presence with us today and His promise of eternity for tomorrow. There’s a shuttle that crosses the canyon. It's a man on a unicyle who tells each of us, “Climb on my back. I’ve never lost a single person. Not one. But you’ve got to trust me to get you across. I’m the only way.”
Of course, in this homely illustration, Jesus is the unicyclist and faith is our dependence on Him to take us through the often scary, tragic, hard, and unknown places of our lives, beyond death and to a resurrected life with God.
When Jesus sent the disciples out in Matthew 10, they had no idea what following Him might entail. He was inviting them to climb on His back across all the canyons of life.
They found that the life to which Jesus called them wasn’t easy. Judas, of course, bugged out and betrayed Jesus before Jesus went to the cross. Of the remaining eleven, only John lived to an old age. The rest of them lost their earthly lives taking the good news of new life for all who turn from sin and believe in Jesus into the world. They didn’t always get this discipleship thing right. But there was a direction in their lives, a purpose. Their faith was more than something they said on a Sunday morning. It was the way they lived their lives. Christ gave them the rewards of His grace before they set out on their lifelong mission of faithfulness to Christ. And by their faithful reliance on Christ, they did not lose their reward!
The same can be true for all of us, whatever our professions or social status or age.
Earlier in Matthew 10, Jesus warned the disciples that not everybody would welcome them when they lived out their faith in Him. Some would reject them. Some would persecute them. Some would kill them. Yet, He told them to persevere in their trust in Him anyway.
He tells us to do the same, even when it would be easier not to persevere in following Him.
In one of my former congregations, I was approached by a church member, a really good man, who said that he needed prayer. Competent and thorough in everything he did, he said that he’d reached a crossroads in his professional life. “Every day, Mark,” he told me, “I’m asked to do things that are shady or unethical. It’s made very clear that if I don’t do them, I not only won’t advance, I probably won’t even have a job. I’ve got a lot of years in this profession. I’ve always gotten good reviews. But I think that if I left my current position over qualms about what’s right and wrong from a faith standpoint, I wouldn’t even get a good reference. Would you pray for me?”
That man was being called by Christ to choose between the rewards offered by his career—financial security, chief among them—and the rewards of life with God already given to him at Baptism. To take Christ or kick Him away, that was his choice. That was a tough call.
If we're truly living for Christ though, we will face those kinds of tough calls often, too. Following Jesus isn’t easy. Steve Taylor, a Christian poet-musician, wrote some years back, “It’s harder to believe than not to.”
To trust in the rewards of a Savior you’ve never seen more than you trust in the rewards of things you can see, like financial security, comfort, or popularity, isn’t an easy or obvious choice. But when we come to the end of our lives and we stand before Jesus, the wisdom of living a life of holding onto the gold medal of Christ’s grace will shine through. Our Lord will look at us and say, “Well done, good and faithful slave. Inherit the kingdom God has prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” We'll know for certain then that all the things we've worked and slaved for in this life die, rot, and decay; only those filled with the new life that comes from Jesus Christ will last.
Jim Elliot was a missionary who was killed by the Waodoni people in Equador to whom he had gone to share Christ. It was only years after his death that most of the people in the place where he was martyred, including people who had murdered him, came to faith in Christ. Some would say that Elliot’s death was a waste. But he wouldn’t see it that way. Elliot’s aim was always to honor the God revealed in Jesus Christ for the reward of eternal life that comes to all with faith in Christ. He knew that those who spend their lives trying to earn the rewards (and the regard) of this world are the ones wasting their lives. As he once said of his call to live for and share Christ with others, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
You can throw away Christ’s grace by failing to trust in Him to help you live for Him every day of your life.
Or you can hold onto Him.
If we will hold onto Christ and follow Him in every part of our lives, we’ll experience real purpose in our lives.
If we’ll turn back to Him for forgiveness and new life every time we become aware of our sin, He will give us a lifetime of fresh starts.
And if we will devote ourselves to truly believing in and following Jesus, we will never lose our reward.
We will never lose our gold medals. Amen
Matthew 10:40-42
Imagine for just a second that you’ve turned on your TV to watch the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.
This is always a popular event. Athletes from around the world march into a stadium for the official starts of the games.
But imagine, for just a second, a different kind of opening ceremony this time. On the field are row after row of pedestals, all of equal height. At the appointed time, just as always, all the athletes march into the stadium. But today, all of them stand on a podium and every single one of them, before a single game, quarter, period, match, bout, round, scrimmage, or scrum has happened, receive gold medals.
Every single athlete.
Then imagine the announcer saying, “You’ve already received your medals. You don’t have to play to win them. The goal of these games is to play so that you don’t lose your reward.”
Grace, God’s undeserved favor, God’s charitable action for us to save us from sin and death and to give us life with Him for eternity, is a reward we cannot earn.
It’s a gold medal God wins for us.
The New Testament book of Romans says that “God proves his love for us, in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Before we even knew we needed a Savior, Christ died and rose for us.
Before most of us were aware of it, we were claimed by God in Baptism as His very own children.
Salvation, eternal life, the promises of Christ to be with us—all these things are ours not because of any good thing we have done, but simply because God has acted for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Life for the Christian is about keeping the prize—the reward—we’ve already been given.
Today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew comes at the end of what scholars call Jesus’ missionary discourse. It takes up all of Matthew 10.
Jesus is sending His disciples throughout their native Judea with “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”
They’re to proclaim the good news of new life that comes only through Jesus.
Most of Matthew 10 is taken up with Jesus telling the disciples how they’re to conduct themselves while on their mission. But in our verses, Jesus tells them (and all of us who follow Christ) what’s at stake for those who have the choice of receiving or rejecting the people like us who share Christ with them. Nothing less than the gold medal of God’s grace is at stake.
Please pull out the Celebrate inserts from the bulletin and turn to today’s Gospel lesson. It’s short. You can read along with me as I read it again:
[Jesus says,] “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”If the Olympic athletes in our imagined opening ceremonies don’t stand on the podium, they can’t receive the gold medal. They have to be positioned to receive the reward they don’t deserve.
The only way we can receive the gold medal of God’s grace is to position ourselves in a faith relationship with Jesus Christ.
The rewards of eternal life with God come to those with faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus famously told Nicodemus, ““For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Now, it’s precisely here that we Lutheran Christians often get ourselves into trouble. We turn faith into some proposition we agree to, no different from saying things like, “I believe that rainbows are pretty,” or, “I believe that LeBron James is the greatest basketball player since Michael Jordan.” In other words, we turn belief in Christ into nothing more than intellectual assent.
But, as I’ve pointed out before, even the devil believes that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jesus says the true believers in Him will be known by their fruits. The seed of true faith in Christ won’t sprout as sinful actions, even though on this side of the grave, you and I will never shake ourselves of our inborn human orientation to sin.
Yet, as the New Testament book of James reminds us, “Faith without works [faith without evidence of the lordship of Jesus in your life] is dead.”
To believe in Jesus—to have faith in Jesus—is to trust in Him and when we trust in Jesus, it will show up in how we live our lives.
It’ll show up in the decisions we make.
It’ll show up in the service we render in His Name and in our willingness to give a witness for Him, even in something as simple and fun as our “This meal’s on us!” kindness outreach cards.
Faith in Jesus is active reliance on Him in our lives.
I once heard what this means illustrated by the picture of a canyon across which a tightrope is strung. Born sinners, we start out lives on one side of the canyon while on the other is God and the life God wants to give to us—His presence with us today and His promise of eternity for tomorrow. There’s a shuttle that crosses the canyon. It's a man on a unicyle who tells each of us, “Climb on my back. I’ve never lost a single person. Not one. But you’ve got to trust me to get you across. I’m the only way.”
Of course, in this homely illustration, Jesus is the unicyclist and faith is our dependence on Him to take us through the often scary, tragic, hard, and unknown places of our lives, beyond death and to a resurrected life with God.
When Jesus sent the disciples out in Matthew 10, they had no idea what following Him might entail. He was inviting them to climb on His back across all the canyons of life.
They found that the life to which Jesus called them wasn’t easy. Judas, of course, bugged out and betrayed Jesus before Jesus went to the cross. Of the remaining eleven, only John lived to an old age. The rest of them lost their earthly lives taking the good news of new life for all who turn from sin and believe in Jesus into the world. They didn’t always get this discipleship thing right. But there was a direction in their lives, a purpose. Their faith was more than something they said on a Sunday morning. It was the way they lived their lives. Christ gave them the rewards of His grace before they set out on their lifelong mission of faithfulness to Christ. And by their faithful reliance on Christ, they did not lose their reward!
The same can be true for all of us, whatever our professions or social status or age.
Earlier in Matthew 10, Jesus warned the disciples that not everybody would welcome them when they lived out their faith in Him. Some would reject them. Some would persecute them. Some would kill them. Yet, He told them to persevere in their trust in Him anyway.
He tells us to do the same, even when it would be easier not to persevere in following Him.
In one of my former congregations, I was approached by a church member, a really good man, who said that he needed prayer. Competent and thorough in everything he did, he said that he’d reached a crossroads in his professional life. “Every day, Mark,” he told me, “I’m asked to do things that are shady or unethical. It’s made very clear that if I don’t do them, I not only won’t advance, I probably won’t even have a job. I’ve got a lot of years in this profession. I’ve always gotten good reviews. But I think that if I left my current position over qualms about what’s right and wrong from a faith standpoint, I wouldn’t even get a good reference. Would you pray for me?”
That man was being called by Christ to choose between the rewards offered by his career—financial security, chief among them—and the rewards of life with God already given to him at Baptism. To take Christ or kick Him away, that was his choice. That was a tough call.
If we're truly living for Christ though, we will face those kinds of tough calls often, too. Following Jesus isn’t easy. Steve Taylor, a Christian poet-musician, wrote some years back, “It’s harder to believe than not to.”
To trust in the rewards of a Savior you’ve never seen more than you trust in the rewards of things you can see, like financial security, comfort, or popularity, isn’t an easy or obvious choice. But when we come to the end of our lives and we stand before Jesus, the wisdom of living a life of holding onto the gold medal of Christ’s grace will shine through. Our Lord will look at us and say, “Well done, good and faithful slave. Inherit the kingdom God has prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” We'll know for certain then that all the things we've worked and slaved for in this life die, rot, and decay; only those filled with the new life that comes from Jesus Christ will last.
Jim Elliot was a missionary who was killed by the Waodoni people in Equador to whom he had gone to share Christ. It was only years after his death that most of the people in the place where he was martyred, including people who had murdered him, came to faith in Christ. Some would say that Elliot’s death was a waste. But he wouldn’t see it that way. Elliot’s aim was always to honor the God revealed in Jesus Christ for the reward of eternal life that comes to all with faith in Christ. He knew that those who spend their lives trying to earn the rewards (and the regard) of this world are the ones wasting their lives. As he once said of his call to live for and share Christ with others, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
You can throw away Christ’s grace by failing to trust in Him to help you live for Him every day of your life.
Or you can hold onto Him.
If we will hold onto Christ and follow Him in every part of our lives, we’ll experience real purpose in our lives.
If we’ll turn back to Him for forgiveness and new life every time we become aware of our sin, He will give us a lifetime of fresh starts.
And if we will devote ourselves to truly believing in and following Jesus, we will never lose our reward.
We will never lose our gold medals. Amen
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Good Question from Wednesday Night Discussion Group
On Wednesday night, during one of our weekly Read the Bible in a Year discussion groups, a great question was asked about the prophets Elijah and Elisha, whose stories are told in the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Kings.*
God empowered both of them to perform miracles, including bringing several dead persons back to life. The question raised was why neither Elijah or Elisha were hailed as the Savior of the world the way Jesus would be by some people about nine centuries later.
Here are a few possible answers that cross my mind.
First: Both Elijah and Elisha lived before anyone really considered the possibility of a Messiah. The two prophets lived in the northern kingdom of an Israel that had fractured in two after the death of King Solomon. The north, which took for itself the name of Israel, was mired in idolatry and arrogance while enjoying relative prosperity and stability. They weren't looking for redemption from Israel's God.
Second: Even if the people of the northern kingdom had had hopes for a Messiah, chances are that they would have been just as wary to see Elijah or Elisha in that role as the people of Judea (and their Roman overlords) were to see Jesus as Messiah eight centuries later. A Messiah/Savior rightly demands on our lives that we, as self-centered people, prefer not to meet. That's one big reason that many people spurn Jesus to this day.
Third: Neither Elijah nor Elisha ever made the same claims for themselves that Jesus made for Himself.
In John 10:30, for example, Jesus flat out says, "The Father and I are one."
Earlier in John's gospel, He tells some of His fellow Jews in a grammatically awkward phrase, "Before the Father was, I AM." "I AM," ego eimi in the Greek of the New Testament, translates the Hebrew noun and verb that Israel's God gave to Moses as His Name at the burning bush, Yahweh.
Jesus claims to be God in human flesh. From any other person, even miracle workers like Elijah and Elisha, this claim would be blasphemous. And it was on the charge of being a blasphemer that the Jewish religious leaders of His day sought Jesus' execution.
But Elijah and Elisha claimed simply to be prophets, people who go before others to tell them (and show them) the Word of God.
*Go here and type in 1 Kings, chapter 1 [1 Kings 1], if you want to see what we've been reading lately. Then, keep following the arrows leading you to the next chapters.
God empowered both of them to perform miracles, including bringing several dead persons back to life. The question raised was why neither Elijah or Elisha were hailed as the Savior of the world the way Jesus would be by some people about nine centuries later.
Here are a few possible answers that cross my mind.
First: Both Elijah and Elisha lived before anyone really considered the possibility of a Messiah. The two prophets lived in the northern kingdom of an Israel that had fractured in two after the death of King Solomon. The north, which took for itself the name of Israel, was mired in idolatry and arrogance while enjoying relative prosperity and stability. They weren't looking for redemption from Israel's God.
Second: Even if the people of the northern kingdom had had hopes for a Messiah, chances are that they would have been just as wary to see Elijah or Elisha in that role as the people of Judea (and their Roman overlords) were to see Jesus as Messiah eight centuries later. A Messiah/Savior rightly demands on our lives that we, as self-centered people, prefer not to meet. That's one big reason that many people spurn Jesus to this day.
Third: Neither Elijah nor Elisha ever made the same claims for themselves that Jesus made for Himself.
In John 10:30, for example, Jesus flat out says, "The Father and I are one."
Earlier in John's gospel, He tells some of His fellow Jews in a grammatically awkward phrase, "Before the Father was, I AM." "I AM," ego eimi in the Greek of the New Testament, translates the Hebrew noun and verb that Israel's God gave to Moses as His Name at the burning bush, Yahweh.
Jesus claims to be God in human flesh. From any other person, even miracle workers like Elijah and Elisha, this claim would be blasphemous. And it was on the charge of being a blasphemer that the Jewish religious leaders of His day sought Jesus' execution.
But Elijah and Elisha claimed simply to be prophets, people who go before others to tell them (and show them) the Word of God.
*Go here and type in 1 Kings, chapter 1 [1 Kings 1], if you want to see what we've been reading lately. Then, keep following the arrows leading you to the next chapters.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
God Has a Sense of Humor
Yesterday afternoon, I was stoked about pulling into the drive-through line at our local McDonald's. I was going to buy some bottled water.
No! It wasn't the water that I was excited about. I got into line mainly to use our congregation's new "This Meal's on Us!" card. I was going to pay for my bottled water and also pay for the order of whoever was ordering in the car behind me, then ask the cashier to give the card to that person. The card would explain why some stranger had just paid for their order.
Each "This Meal's on Us!" card tells the recipient that God loves them, no strings attached, and that Saint Matthew Lutheran Church stands ready to serve them in other ways in which they might need help.
I ordered my bottle of water, pulled up to the pay window, explained to the cashier what I was doing, and handed her both my credit card and the "This Meal's on Us!" card. The cashier processed the two transactions and gave the receipts to me.
I saw mine; a buck-fifty for my water.
Then I looked at the receipt of the next car. The person had ordered an iced-tea from the dollar menu!
At that rate, I was tempted to drive through three or four more times. But I had a shut-in to visit.
I'd sort of hoped, for my first personal kindness outreach in a while, to pay for an order that included about fifty Big Macs. You know, some stunner that would cause a tapped-out agnositc construction worker who'd been drafted to pick up burgers for the whole crew to break out into the Hallelujah Chorus.
But instead, God put a person in the line behind me who only wanted an iced tea from the dollar menu.
It was a humbling reminder that we don't undertake acts of kindness in Jesus' Name to get goose-bumpy thrills for ourselves.
We do them to share Jesus in the ways God determines to be necessary at the time. Then, we leave what happens as a result in the hands of God's Holy Spirit.
As my buddy, Pastor Steve Sjogren likes to say, "Small things done with great love will change the world." I'm learning to trust that God will use the small acts of faithfulness we do to bring positive changes to the world, one person--even one iced tea--at a time.
Meanwhile, as He puts me gently in place for my grandiose visions, I have to smile. God has a sense of humor.
No! It wasn't the water that I was excited about. I got into line mainly to use our congregation's new "This Meal's on Us!" card. I was going to pay for my bottled water and also pay for the order of whoever was ordering in the car behind me, then ask the cashier to give the card to that person. The card would explain why some stranger had just paid for their order.
Each "This Meal's on Us!" card tells the recipient that God loves them, no strings attached, and that Saint Matthew Lutheran Church stands ready to serve them in other ways in which they might need help.
I ordered my bottle of water, pulled up to the pay window, explained to the cashier what I was doing, and handed her both my credit card and the "This Meal's on Us!" card. The cashier processed the two transactions and gave the receipts to me.
I saw mine; a buck-fifty for my water.
Then I looked at the receipt of the next car. The person had ordered an iced-tea from the dollar menu!
At that rate, I was tempted to drive through three or four more times. But I had a shut-in to visit.
I'd sort of hoped, for my first personal kindness outreach in a while, to pay for an order that included about fifty Big Macs. You know, some stunner that would cause a tapped-out agnositc construction worker who'd been drafted to pick up burgers for the whole crew to break out into the Hallelujah Chorus.
But instead, God put a person in the line behind me who only wanted an iced tea from the dollar menu.
It was a humbling reminder that we don't undertake acts of kindness in Jesus' Name to get goose-bumpy thrills for ourselves.
We do them to share Jesus in the ways God determines to be necessary at the time. Then, we leave what happens as a result in the hands of God's Holy Spirit.
As my buddy, Pastor Steve Sjogren likes to say, "Small things done with great love will change the world." I'm learning to trust that God will use the small acts of faithfulness we do to bring positive changes to the world, one person--even one iced tea--at a time.
Meanwhile, as He puts me gently in place for my grandiose visions, I have to smile. God has a sense of humor.
Want to Know God? Read the Bible
Right now, members of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, and I are reading the Bible together in a year's time. We're reading it straight through, about three chapters a day, from Genesis to Revelation.
Here are a few thoughts underscoring the importance of constant study of Scripture that I've run across in the past few days.
Rick Warren, the pastor who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, tweeted this five days ago:
Here are a few thoughts underscoring the importance of constant study of Scripture that I've run across in the past few days.
Rick Warren, the pastor who wrote The Purpose Driven Life, tweeted this five days ago:
We cant watch TV for 3 hrs then read the Bible for 3 min & expect to grow spiritually.
And I just read this from the final chapter of David Platt's fantastic Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (it comes as part of his plea to readers take on an experiment in radical Christian living that, interestingly, includes taking a year to read the Bible in its entirety):
I want to put a particularly strong emphasis on this step of the Radical Experiment [reading the Bible through in a year's time]. The Christian marketplace is filled with books today--some of them healthy, and some of them not so healthy. To be honest, I have been very hesitant to write this book, because I look at our bookstores and think, Do we really need another one? I suppose only time will tell if it was worth it, but time has already spoken on one Book.
God has chosen by his matchless grace to give us revelation of himself in his Word. It is the only Book that he has promised to bless by his Spirit to transform you and me in the image of Jesus Christ. It is the only Book that he has promised to use to bring our hearts, our minds, and our lives in alignment with him. I'm not saying that God has not used or blessed other Christian books throughout Christian history, but there is only one Book that he has perfectly inspired by his Spirit for the accomplishment of his purpose. When you or I open the Bible, we are beholding the very words of God--words that have supernatural power to redeem, renew, refresh, and restore our lives to what he created them to be.
Of course, there are passages of Scripture that trouble us or that we can't explain. But as you read the Bible daily, great themes of faith emerge, themes that will bring your faith and your relationship to God alive.
Don't be satisfied with a second-hand knowledge of God, a verse here, and a devotional thought there. Such things can be helpful to us. Hearing or reading the perspectives of others on passages of Scripture--like you get a daily devotional--can be a great antidote to our penchant for riding our personal hobby horses as we skim the Bible just for things we like. (And as readers of this blog know, I do read a daily devotional. But I also read and study chapters of the Bible each day, not just in preparation for preaching, but for other reasons.)
The daily reading of Scripture will move your relationship with the God ultimately revealed to the whole world in Jesus Christ to a ever-deepening level of intimacy, dependence, true awe of God, and true confidence in your living.
And, as with any relationship of love, the key is not some chimerical entity people call "quality time," it's quantity time. If we don't spend lots of time with God--in things like daily Bible reading and study, daily prayer, regular service in His Name--along with weekly group Bible studies and weekly worship, our relationship with God can only be superficial.
If you want more than a superficial faith or a superficial understanding of God, you can begin to address that desire by reading the Bible every single day.
The daily reading of Scripture will move your relationship with the God ultimately revealed to the whole world in Jesus Christ to a ever-deepening level of intimacy, dependence, true awe of God, and true confidence in your living.
And, as with any relationship of love, the key is not some chimerical entity people call "quality time," it's quantity time. If we don't spend lots of time with God--in things like daily Bible reading and study, daily prayer, regular service in His Name--along with weekly group Bible studies and weekly worship, our relationship with God can only be superficial.
If you want more than a superficial faith or a superficial understanding of God, you can begin to address that desire by reading the Bible every single day.
Monday, June 20, 2011
It's About Life and Death: Some Thoughts on God's Love for You
Today's Our Daily Bread devotion based on Psalm 117, a two-verse hymn of praise composed of just 30 words in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation I usually use when I read the Bible. David Roper, the writer of the devotion, cites a translation of the passage taken from The New International Version (TNIV) (I've italicized words I want to briefly talk about below.):
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD.
Here's Psalm 117 as rendered by the NRSV (I've italicized the words corresponding to the ones italicized above):
A covenant is a compact or agreement.
In Old Testament times, covenants were made (or cut) by conquering kings with their subject peoples. "I will be your king," a covenant might begin. "I will protect you from violence and thievery. In response to this, you will pay taxes, obey the laws, and be subject to service to the king."
Israel's God--YAHWEH, I AM--made a covenant with Israel. You see it embodied in the Ten Commandments, which begin, not with commands, but with a promise. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out the house of slavery..." (Exodus 20:3). Before issuing a single command of His moral law (valid today and for all time, by the way), God promised to be the God, Lord, and Protector of His people. It's only after issuing this promise that He says, in effect, "In response to this gift of grace, I expect you to fulfill the following commandments."
In Jesus, a new covenant has been instituted by God for the whole world. Jesus expresses it in, among other places, Mark 16:16:
Jesus puts the same point in a different way in John 3:16-18:
1Praise the LORD, all you nations!
Extol him, all you peoples!
2For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the LORD!The word from the Psalm's original Hebrew translated by the italicized phrases above, is a form of the Hebrew word, hesed. It specifically refers to God's covenantal faithfulness. The word means that God will not break the promises He makes in His covenants.
A covenant is a compact or agreement.
In Old Testament times, covenants were made (or cut) by conquering kings with their subject peoples. "I will be your king," a covenant might begin. "I will protect you from violence and thievery. In response to this, you will pay taxes, obey the laws, and be subject to service to the king."
Israel's God--YAHWEH, I AM--made a covenant with Israel. You see it embodied in the Ten Commandments, which begin, not with commands, but with a promise. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out the house of slavery..." (Exodus 20:3). Before issuing a single command of His moral law (valid today and for all time, by the way), God promised to be the God, Lord, and Protector of His people. It's only after issuing this promise that He says, in effect, "In response to this gift of grace, I expect you to fulfill the following commandments."
In Jesus, a new covenant has been instituted by God for the whole world. Jesus expresses it in, among other places, Mark 16:16:
The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.As was true in Old Testament times, when the patriarch Abraham believed in God's promises and God counted him righteous--right with God, free from the debt of sin which would have otherwise have cost him his life for eternity, under God's new covenant, those who believe (or trust) in Jesus, God-in-human-flesh, are forgiven their sins and freed from death in order to live with God eternally.
Jesus puts the same point in a different way in John 3:16-18:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God."This is the kind of love--hesed love, covenantal love--that Psalm 117 talks about. "I have done this for you (in ancient Israel's case, the this was deliverance from slavery in Egypt, in Jesus' case, the this is deliverance from slavery to sin and death), now entrust your life to me.
This is what God's love is like. It's love that calls people away from the sins that will kill them, back to the only one who can give them life.
It's not sentimental love. It's not mushy love. It's not about feelings. It's about life and death.
Accepting this love and Christ's authority over your life brings life. Rejecting Christ's love and authority spells death.
Covenant love--hesed--does not smile indulgently on our sins. It demands that we turn from our violations of the ten commandments--every day--and entrust our lives to Christ. (For a good rundown of the ten commandments and their meanings, go here.)
God loves sinners and hates our sins. He wants to love us back into relationship with Him.
But if we choose our sins over God, if we refuse to turn to Him, God is one king who will not force us to obey.
But if we choose our sins over God, if we refuse to turn to Him, God is one king who will not force us to obey.
He tries valiantly to free us from sin (and its rightful consequence, death). Not only did He take on flesh to die and rise for us in the person of Jesus Christ, today He will orchestrate events, encounters, experiences, and send messages to our hearts and minds in order to win us over. (This post may, in fact, be something God is orchestrating in your life this very moment.)
But He will not force us to come to Him.
The message of the Bible is simple: Come to the God made plain to all the world in Jesus Christ. Turn from sin and trust in Him each day. Let God's covenant love change your life and your eternity.
The message of the Bible is simple: Come to the God made plain to all the world in Jesus Christ. Turn from sin and trust in Him each day. Let God's covenant love change your life and your eternity.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
So, There's a Holy Trinity...What's That Got to Do with Me?
[Today, I did a re-run. Few sermons I've done in thirty years engendered more conversation than this one, given three years ago. I decided that on this Holy Trinity Sunday, I'd share it again. It was shared this morning during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio.]
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
I was about eight years old and I had a question. The first person to whom I posed it was my Mom. When I asked, she stammered. She probably hadn’t expected me to ask the question I asked at such a young age. And so, she told me that I should take my question elsewhere, not to my Dad, but to our pastor at the time, Reverend Blackburn.
I did. I walked up to him the next Sunday after worship and asked: “Reverend Blackburn, can you explain the Trinity to me?”
“Mark,” he told, “I think of the Trinity in this way. Water comes in three different forms: liquid; ice, a solid; and steam, a gas. But though it shows itself in different ways, it’s always water. In the same way, God shows Himself as three different personalities—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God is always one God.”
That’s a pretty good explanation and it’s one I’ve used myself when inquisitive children ask me about the Trinity. But on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we may have other questions. First among them may be, “I lead a busy, often demanding, life. What does the Trinity have to do with the life I live? What’s the Trinity got to do with me?”
I hope to answer that question. But before I do, I should explain a little about the Trinity. The word “Trinity” is never used in the Bible. But repeatedly, by inference in the Old Testament and in plain words in the New Testament, the Bible affirms that three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are co-equal, co-eternal personalities of the one and only God the universe.
We see the footprints of what the theologians call God’s “triune nature" in three of our Bible lessons for today.
Our first lesson, which is the first of two creation accounts from the book of Genesis, we’re told that a “wind” moved over chaos when God created. The passage might as readily have been translated to tell us that the “spirit” moved over the waters because, as I mentioned last Sunday, the Old Testament Hebrew word ruach can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. So, at the very beginning, we see God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And when I read Genesis 1:26, I picture God talking to Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—when God says, “Let us make…”
In our second lesson, which is from 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul tells the squabbling Christians in the Greek city of Corinth to live out a commitment to what’s best for one another. Live in peace, he tells them, and then he invokes the three Persons of the one God when He says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” In this phrase, Paul puts the three persons of the Trinity on a par with one another, all one God, three persons.
Then, there’s our Gospel lesson, from Matthew. It recounts how Jesus gave the eleven apostles what we call “the Great Commission." Jesus told them and us to teach the whole world about Him and the new life He brings to repentant sinners who believe in Him. Then, Jesus says, we are to baptize, “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” putting both Himself and the Holy Spirit Who on an equal footing with the Father.
“Fine,” you might be saying, “I accept the Trinity, although I don’t quite understand it. But what difference does God being one God in three Persons make in my life?”
Let me suggest three ways it may make a difference to you and me as we go through our daily lives.
Ann and I had been married about five-and-a-half years when my father offered the only piece of advice I remember him ever giving to me. Dad and I were alone when he asked me, "Are you and Ann ever going to have children?" I gave an intelligent reply: "I uh...We uh..." Dad said, "If you're waiting for the perfect time to have kids, the time will never come. You'll never be able to afford them." Then, this man who's the father of five gave his closing argument for having children. Do you know what he said? "Mark, there are no good reasons for having kids. Have them anyway."
There are lots of things we do that aren't really necessary. Having children is among them. So are creating art or music. So are starting a business, going on mission trips, telling someone about Jesus, perpetrating an act of kindness just to let them know that God loves them, no strings attached, or building a better mousetrap. There are so many things we do that we don't have to do.
But the desire to express ourselves or to give our love away is so powerful that we feel compelled to do the most extravagantly unnecessary things. This fact about we human beings, I think, is one way in which we reflect the presence of the image of God in us.
The Trinity makes a difference in our daily lives, first of all, because in the Three-in-One-God, we see overflowing extravagance of God's love! God gives us His love at least three times over!
God didn't have to create the universe or give us life. But He did.
God didn’t have to take on human flesh to die and rise for us. But He did.
God doesn’t have to reach out to us as He does today through His Holy Spirit, Who creates and nurtures the Church, inspired the Scriptures, and is still inspiring believers today. But He does.
God enjoyed completeness without us. But the Three-in-One-God wants us, wants us today, wants us for all eternity!
The Holy Trinity, this big, full God, cares about you. He’s invested Himself in all His fullness, in you and in your future. God does that over and over again. In the Trinity, God demonstrates, underscores, and underlines that you, your every moment, your every decision matters to God! That’s the first way in which knowing the Three-in-One-God makes a difference in our lives.
Here’s another way. Since the Middle Ages, artists have crafted paintings and sculptures for churches called Gnadenstuhl. In these works of art, Jesus is on the cross, lifeless following His execution. His arms or the crossbeam of the cross are held aloft by the Father, Who is behind Jesus. And from the two of them, a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, descends.*
We often think of the agony Jesus experienced on the cross, especially as He cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But we don't often consider the agonies of the Father and the Spirit as they watched the Son bear the sins of the world.
If you’ve ever been a parent who listened to a child cry over homework that seemed too hard, homework it would be easier for you to do for them, but which you know they must do themselves, you know the Father felt agony as Jesus completed His earthly mission on the cross.
If you’ve ever been a parent or a sibling or a relative of someone addicted to drugs and alcohol, knowing that their agony would go away for a moment if you slipped them the money they needed to buy the dope or if you gave them a drink, but for their good, you refused, then you know how the Spirit felt as He groaned in sighs too deep for words at the sight of Jesus in His death throes on the cross.
If you've ever spent days or weeks with loved ones as they lay suspended between life and death, you know what both the Father and the Spirit went through as Jesus hung on the cross.
These agonies the Trinity endured for you and me. And when the Spirit comes to us in Baptism, He brings God's compassion for us in all that comes to us in life. The Spirit comes to fiercely protect us from a life alone, compassionately placing us in the community of the Church, a spiritual family that allows us to experience something like the connectedness enjoyed by the Father, Son, and Spirit.
In the Trinity, God stands with us in our joys and in our sorrows, in everything that we go through. We know this because the Trinity was there together on the cross, sharing our life so that we can share life with God forever.
So the Trinity makes a difference by assuring us that we matter to God and that God stands by us always: Jesus says this is so to the close of the age. Now, here’s a third way the Trinity makes a difference in our everyday lives: He draws us into community with Him.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, describes how the Three-in-One-God does this when, for example, we pray. “What I mean is this” he writes. “An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God [God the Father]. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God so to speak, inside him [God the Spirit]. But he also knows that all real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God [God the Son]— that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying — the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on — the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. The whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary act of prayer.”
God in His fullness, Who cares about us even though He doesn’t have to, Who is able to stand with us in every experience, also makes it possible for us to experience fellowship, community, with Him and with His family, the Church.
Pastor Mary Anderson says that at the age of three, she had her first experience of how something could be three and one at the same time. She watched her grandmother taking her afternoon nap and said, “That's Grandmamma, Mamma, and Odelle." Her grandmother smiled as she heard her granddaughter call her by the names by which her grandchildren, her daughter, and her husband called her. As Anderson puts it, "Three names, three relationships -- and yet the same person.”
The Holy Trinity—God in three Persons—is a mystery and that’s as it should be. As I often tell my Catechism students, if you could explain everything about God, then you would be God and you're not. But when we think about all the different ways in which people see us from day to day—friend, employee, boss, parent, child--then the Trinity isn’t so farfetched. And it matters to our daily lives that God is Three-in-One. In the fullness of the Trinity...
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
I was about eight years old and I had a question. The first person to whom I posed it was my Mom. When I asked, she stammered. She probably hadn’t expected me to ask the question I asked at such a young age. And so, she told me that I should take my question elsewhere, not to my Dad, but to our pastor at the time, Reverend Blackburn.
I did. I walked up to him the next Sunday after worship and asked: “Reverend Blackburn, can you explain the Trinity to me?”
“Mark,” he told, “I think of the Trinity in this way. Water comes in three different forms: liquid; ice, a solid; and steam, a gas. But though it shows itself in different ways, it’s always water. In the same way, God shows Himself as three different personalities—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God is always one God.”
That’s a pretty good explanation and it’s one I’ve used myself when inquisitive children ask me about the Trinity. But on this Holy Trinity Sunday, we may have other questions. First among them may be, “I lead a busy, often demanding, life. What does the Trinity have to do with the life I live? What’s the Trinity got to do with me?”
I hope to answer that question. But before I do, I should explain a little about the Trinity. The word “Trinity” is never used in the Bible. But repeatedly, by inference in the Old Testament and in plain words in the New Testament, the Bible affirms that three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are co-equal, co-eternal personalities of the one and only God the universe.
We see the footprints of what the theologians call God’s “triune nature" in three of our Bible lessons for today.
Our first lesson, which is the first of two creation accounts from the book of Genesis, we’re told that a “wind” moved over chaos when God created. The passage might as readily have been translated to tell us that the “spirit” moved over the waters because, as I mentioned last Sunday, the Old Testament Hebrew word ruach can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. So, at the very beginning, we see God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And when I read Genesis 1:26, I picture God talking to Himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—when God says, “Let us make…”
In our second lesson, which is from 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul tells the squabbling Christians in the Greek city of Corinth to live out a commitment to what’s best for one another. Live in peace, he tells them, and then he invokes the three Persons of the one God when He says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” In this phrase, Paul puts the three persons of the Trinity on a par with one another, all one God, three persons.
Then, there’s our Gospel lesson, from Matthew. It recounts how Jesus gave the eleven apostles what we call “the Great Commission." Jesus told them and us to teach the whole world about Him and the new life He brings to repentant sinners who believe in Him. Then, Jesus says, we are to baptize, “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” putting both Himself and the Holy Spirit Who on an equal footing with the Father.
“Fine,” you might be saying, “I accept the Trinity, although I don’t quite understand it. But what difference does God being one God in three Persons make in my life?”
Let me suggest three ways it may make a difference to you and me as we go through our daily lives.
Ann and I had been married about five-and-a-half years when my father offered the only piece of advice I remember him ever giving to me. Dad and I were alone when he asked me, "Are you and Ann ever going to have children?" I gave an intelligent reply: "I uh...We uh..." Dad said, "If you're waiting for the perfect time to have kids, the time will never come. You'll never be able to afford them." Then, this man who's the father of five gave his closing argument for having children. Do you know what he said? "Mark, there are no good reasons for having kids. Have them anyway."
There are lots of things we do that aren't really necessary. Having children is among them. So are creating art or music. So are starting a business, going on mission trips, telling someone about Jesus, perpetrating an act of kindness just to let them know that God loves them, no strings attached, or building a better mousetrap. There are so many things we do that we don't have to do.
But the desire to express ourselves or to give our love away is so powerful that we feel compelled to do the most extravagantly unnecessary things. This fact about we human beings, I think, is one way in which we reflect the presence of the image of God in us.
The Trinity makes a difference in our daily lives, first of all, because in the Three-in-One-God, we see overflowing extravagance of God's love! God gives us His love at least three times over!
God didn't have to create the universe or give us life. But He did.
God didn’t have to take on human flesh to die and rise for us. But He did.
God doesn’t have to reach out to us as He does today through His Holy Spirit, Who creates and nurtures the Church, inspired the Scriptures, and is still inspiring believers today. But He does.
God enjoyed completeness without us. But the Three-in-One-God wants us, wants us today, wants us for all eternity!
The Holy Trinity, this big, full God, cares about you. He’s invested Himself in all His fullness, in you and in your future. God does that over and over again. In the Trinity, God demonstrates, underscores, and underlines that you, your every moment, your every decision matters to God! That’s the first way in which knowing the Three-in-One-God makes a difference in our lives.
Here’s another way. Since the Middle Ages, artists have crafted paintings and sculptures for churches called Gnadenstuhl. In these works of art, Jesus is on the cross, lifeless following His execution. His arms or the crossbeam of the cross are held aloft by the Father, Who is behind Jesus. And from the two of them, a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, descends.*
We often think of the agony Jesus experienced on the cross, especially as He cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But we don't often consider the agonies of the Father and the Spirit as they watched the Son bear the sins of the world.
If you’ve ever been a parent who listened to a child cry over homework that seemed too hard, homework it would be easier for you to do for them, but which you know they must do themselves, you know the Father felt agony as Jesus completed His earthly mission on the cross.
If you’ve ever been a parent or a sibling or a relative of someone addicted to drugs and alcohol, knowing that their agony would go away for a moment if you slipped them the money they needed to buy the dope or if you gave them a drink, but for their good, you refused, then you know how the Spirit felt as He groaned in sighs too deep for words at the sight of Jesus in His death throes on the cross.
If you've ever spent days or weeks with loved ones as they lay suspended between life and death, you know what both the Father and the Spirit went through as Jesus hung on the cross.
These agonies the Trinity endured for you and me. And when the Spirit comes to us in Baptism, He brings God's compassion for us in all that comes to us in life. The Spirit comes to fiercely protect us from a life alone, compassionately placing us in the community of the Church, a spiritual family that allows us to experience something like the connectedness enjoyed by the Father, Son, and Spirit.
In the Trinity, God stands with us in our joys and in our sorrows, in everything that we go through. We know this because the Trinity was there together on the cross, sharing our life so that we can share life with God forever.
So the Trinity makes a difference by assuring us that we matter to God and that God stands by us always: Jesus says this is so to the close of the age. Now, here’s a third way the Trinity makes a difference in our everyday lives: He draws us into community with Him.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, describes how the Three-in-One-God does this when, for example, we pray. “What I mean is this” he writes. “An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God [God the Father]. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God so to speak, inside him [God the Spirit]. But he also knows that all real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God [God the Son]— that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying — the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on — the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. The whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary act of prayer.”
God in His fullness, Who cares about us even though He doesn’t have to, Who is able to stand with us in every experience, also makes it possible for us to experience fellowship, community, with Him and with His family, the Church.
Pastor Mary Anderson says that at the age of three, she had her first experience of how something could be three and one at the same time. She watched her grandmother taking her afternoon nap and said, “That's Grandmamma, Mamma, and Odelle." Her grandmother smiled as she heard her granddaughter call her by the names by which her grandchildren, her daughter, and her husband called her. As Anderson puts it, "Three names, three relationships -- and yet the same person.”
The Holy Trinity—God in three Persons—is a mystery and that’s as it should be. As I often tell my Catechism students, if you could explain everything about God, then you would be God and you're not. But when we think about all the different ways in which people see us from day to day—friend, employee, boss, parent, child--then the Trinity isn’t so farfetched. And it matters to our daily lives that God is Three-in-One. In the fullness of the Trinity...
- God assures us that our every moment matters,
- that He stands with us always, and
- that He wants us to live in constant relationship with Him.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?Like the psalmist, we might well wonder why a God so big and so great would bother with us, too. But the God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows us that He does care for us. More than we could ever imagine.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
More on This Year's Mission Week
As mentioned here on Wednesday, Monday through Friday was the 2011 Mission Week for the youth of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church and the adults who assisted and supervised them throughout. It's another way the people of our congregation try to share the love of Jesus Christ in practically.
On Thursday, the group did a lot of yard work for a couple who, because of illness, weren't able to keep up. Both Thursday and Friday, the group got some painting done at another local residence. Most of Friday was taken up with cleaning, sprucing up, and mulching at the church building.
Last night, we had a lock-in at the church building.
Thanks to Glenn and Sue for a great lunch on Thursday.
Below are pictures and videos from the week.
Dick and Stephen look over what needs to be done next.
Lori and Kirsten do some trimming. Laikyn takes the brush to a burn pile.
Mike and Kayla clear a path, while Jim, Critter, Jacob, and Stephen do some heavy-duty pruning.
The group works while the preacher takes pictures.
Jim scrapes.
Stephen puts down mulch at Worthington Park. The group did this work for Logan in Bloom in order to help prepare for this weekend's Washboard Festival in Logan.
Critter did the hard work of loading the mulch brought to Worthington Park in the back of a pick-up truck into buckets, then taking them to the other Saint Matthew folks spreading the mulch.
Had to include this one! Jacob and Critter continuing to transport mulch from the pick-up to other Saint Matthew folks at Worthington Park. When I said that we'd have to be our own media, it refers to the fact that I had just returned from the offices of the local newspaper to see if they'd be interested in covering our mission week. They were, but with it being such a busy week in Logan, they didn't have a reporter to spare. They asked if I'd submit a story. I will.
The group pictured at Glenn's and Sue's, where they worked hard and then enjoyed a fantastic lunch provided by our hosts!
Stephen and Jacob tell me about the work the entire group had done that morning. We ponder the mystery of what we later learned is a defunct man-cave. But where's Critter?
In this picture, some of our group can be seen putting down mulch. From left to right: Jacob, Dick, Kirsten, Lori, Stephen, Mike, Kayla, (Jim's hat visible above her), and Critter.
Mike works hard.
On Thursday, the group did a lot of yard work for a couple who, because of illness, weren't able to keep up. Both Thursday and Friday, the group got some painting done at another local residence. Most of Friday was taken up with cleaning, sprucing up, and mulching at the church building.
Last night, we had a lock-in at the church building.
Thanks to Glenn and Sue for a great lunch on Thursday.
Below are pictures and videos from the week.
Lori and Kirsten do some trimming. Laikyn takes the brush to a burn pile.
Mike and Kayla clear a path, while Jim, Critter, Jacob, and Stephen do some heavy-duty pruning.
The group works while the preacher takes pictures.
Critter did the hard work of loading the mulch brought to Worthington Park in the back of a pick-up truck into buckets, then taking them to the other Saint Matthew folks spreading the mulch.
Had to include this one! Jacob and Critter continuing to transport mulch from the pick-up to other Saint Matthew folks at Worthington Park. When I said that we'd have to be our own media, it refers to the fact that I had just returned from the offices of the local newspaper to see if they'd be interested in covering our mission week. They were, but with it being such a busy week in Logan, they didn't have a reporter to spare. They asked if I'd submit a story. I will.
Stephen and Jacob tell me about the work the entire group had done that morning. We ponder the mystery of what we later learned is a defunct man-cave. But where's Critter?
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Scandals
In this era when there are few moral standards, a new scandal seems to hit every week. As a society, we feign being scandalized, but we don't seem to really know right from wrong.
It isn't that the so-called "puritanical" crowd goes after folks like Representative Andrew Weiner; it's, by and large, those who claim that truth is relative who get all hot and bothered about these "scandals," many of them pols who fearfully anticipate how their constituents might react if they don't respond the scandal du jour with moral rectitude.
The people least scandalized by "scandal" are, it seems to me, those seeking to authentically follow Jesus Christ. People like this recognize that the whole human race, including themselves, are faulty and sinful. They recognize sin and the need for the forgiving grace that comes from God through Christ.
If crimes or violations of ethical standards are violated, there must be consequences, of course. But Christians are "shockproof" when it comes to human frailty; we recognize the disease from the inside out and that prayer for all sinners is our weapon of choice, not the nastiness of the mob.
It isn't that the so-called "puritanical" crowd goes after folks like Representative Andrew Weiner; it's, by and large, those who claim that truth is relative who get all hot and bothered about these "scandals," many of them pols who fearfully anticipate how their constituents might react if they don't respond the scandal du jour with moral rectitude.
The people least scandalized by "scandal" are, it seems to me, those seeking to authentically follow Jesus Christ. People like this recognize that the whole human race, including themselves, are faulty and sinful. They recognize sin and the need for the forgiving grace that comes from God through Christ.
If crimes or violations of ethical standards are violated, there must be consequences, of course. But Christians are "shockproof" when it comes to human frailty; we recognize the disease from the inside out and that prayer for all sinners is our weapon of choice, not the nastiness of the mob.
What a Steady Diet of Soft Drinks Will Do To You
What we in Ohio call "pop" isn't good for you. (Thanks to The News Diva for linking to this article.)
The Mission Week So Far
Today brought us to Day 3 of our local mission week.
By way of background, three years ago and again two years ago, a large group of Saint Matthew youth and a few adults, including me, participated in Group Workcamps mission trip weeks, in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee. As had been true of a mission trip I took with youth and adults from a congregation I previously served, we had great experiences on both of those trips, working with folks from other congregation (of varying denominations) working with places like community centers, thrift shops, Christian education programs, senior centers, and so on. We cleaned, planted, weeded, mulched, sorted, built, painted, and so on.
Last year, we decided that we would "go local" and do our own local mission "trip" in our home area of Logan and Hocking County. It went so well that we opted to do it again this year.
The reason we undertake mission weeks--or many of the other things we do to share God's love in practical ways with others--is pure and simple: Jesus has told us to! We remind ourselves of this throughout the week. Biblical passages we've looked at on the first three mornings of this year's mission have reminded us of this:
Here's this year's mission week schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We...
Among the projects we've taken on this year
We've been blessed with the help, supervision, transportation, and food provided by adult members of the congregation.
The youth who have participated have, once more this year, dug in and worked hard and had fun together!
I love the way the mission week brings youth and adults together.
Today, we put a little bit of fun and a great additional service project into the week's mix. We met at the church building at 7:45, then drove to Columbus, about an hour away.
In the morning, we toured the American Whistle Corporation's small manufacturing facility. This company is the only manufacturer of metal whistles in the United States. The ten employees churn out tens of thousands of whistles every year. This was interesting and the tour guide made it lots of fun. (I got the idea for doing this after seeing the tour featured on Ohio News Network. American Whistle Corporation's manufacturing process has also been profiled on the Discovery Channel.)
After the tour, we went to Tommy's Pizza's East Lane Avenue location, across from the campus of The Ohio State University. Although my pizza-eating days are largely over (except for the occasional half-slice of the real stuff or individual servings of the healthy stuff), Tommy's remains my favorite pizza on the planet. And while Martha and I ate our salads and many dove into subs, I think the rest of the group enjoyed their pizza. Before eating, the sixteen of us joined in praying a common Lutheran table grace:
People needing food evidently screened into the process when they arrive at the pantry.
Volunteers then meet these folks with shopping carts and proceed to help to bag items from categories like grains, proteins, meats, vegetables, breads, greens, and fruits.
What I love about the process is that, for the recipients of the food, it's more like going shopping than it is sticking out their hands. That diminishes any threat to their dignity.
I also love the interaction with the clients the process gave to volunteers like us. It was fun talking about various foods and different ways of preparing them with folks as we moved from aisle to aisle with shopping carts today.
Most of our folks were involved in dealing with the recipients directly in this way. But some of our young people were drafted to bring food items upstairs from a basement storage area, replenishing supplies on the main floor. This was really needed, as some of the LSS staff told us that today brought an unusually large number of folks to the pantry today.
There were a number of volunteers from Bank of America too. They appeared to be working really hard.
I was unable to snap pictures at either the American Whistle Corporation or at the food pantry. I took some pictures and videos on the Monday and Tuesday of our mission week. I'll hopefully post those later.
In no particular order, I want to thank the following folks for their hard work with the mission week so far:
Kayla
Isaac D. (aka: Critter)
Jacob
Stephen
Laikyn
Kirsten
Lori E.
Mike M.
Jim V.
Jim K.
Dick B.
Martha S.
Bob and Carolyn
Martha
Sarah G.
Isaac G.
Megan G.
Debbie K.
Cameron
Nancy
Jim F.
Tony (aka: Chuck!)
We're also thankful to all who have donated items and money. I'm especially grateful to all who are praying that God will keep us safe, teach us to serve in Christ's Name, and have fun. (I hope that I haven't forgotten anyone!)
More volunteer names will be added as we come into the last two days of the mission, which will include a Friday night sleep deprivation...er, lock-in.
By way of background, three years ago and again two years ago, a large group of Saint Matthew youth and a few adults, including me, participated in Group Workcamps mission trip weeks, in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee. As had been true of a mission trip I took with youth and adults from a congregation I previously served, we had great experiences on both of those trips, working with folks from other congregation (of varying denominations) working with places like community centers, thrift shops, Christian education programs, senior centers, and so on. We cleaned, planted, weeded, mulched, sorted, built, painted, and so on.
Last year, we decided that we would "go local" and do our own local mission "trip" in our home area of Logan and Hocking County. It went so well that we opted to do it again this year.
The reason we undertake mission weeks--or many of the other things we do to share God's love in practical ways with others--is pure and simple: Jesus has told us to! We remind ourselves of this throughout the week. Biblical passages we've looked at on the first three mornings of this year's mission have reminded us of this:
- In Acts 1:6-8, the risen Jesus, just before going to heaven, told His disciples to share the Good News that all can have new and everlasting life with God when they turn from sin and believe in Him. As followers of Jesus, we're to share this wonderful news in both word and deed in our own communities and in the whole world. We do this through our mission weeks.
- Acts 2:44-46 finds the first Christians not only being outwardly focused toward the world, serving and loving others outside the Christian family, but also looking out for others within the Christian family. We do this through our mission weeks, when we undertake projects for some folks from within out own Saint Matthew congregation.
- Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we aren't saved by the kinds of good works we do during our mission weeks. We are saved from sin and death by Christ's death and resurrection and our faith in Jesus. But, James 2:14-17, reminds us that if you have become one of God's people through Christ, then you will undertake good works as a way of thanking God and loving God back.
Here's this year's mission week schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We...
- meet at 8:00 for breakfast, devotions, and prayer (the devotions remind us of why we serve)
- split into two crews to take on two projects at the same time
- have a lunch provided for us by wonderful folks or fix our own from lunch meats we have on hand
- do more work
- finish up at 3:30
Among the projects we've taken on this year
- scraping and painting a porch
- weeding flower beds
- weeding and mulching at a local public park
- volunteering at a food pantry
- made logs
We've been blessed with the help, supervision, transportation, and food provided by adult members of the congregation.
The youth who have participated have, once more this year, dug in and worked hard and had fun together!
I love the way the mission week brings youth and adults together.
Today, we put a little bit of fun and a great additional service project into the week's mix. We met at the church building at 7:45, then drove to Columbus, about an hour away.
In the morning, we toured the American Whistle Corporation's small manufacturing facility. This company is the only manufacturer of metal whistles in the United States. The ten employees churn out tens of thousands of whistles every year. This was interesting and the tour guide made it lots of fun. (I got the idea for doing this after seeing the tour featured on Ohio News Network. American Whistle Corporation's manufacturing process has also been profiled on the Discovery Channel.)
After the tour, we went to Tommy's Pizza's East Lane Avenue location, across from the campus of The Ohio State University. Although my pizza-eating days are largely over (except for the occasional half-slice of the real stuff or individual servings of the healthy stuff), Tommy's remains my favorite pizza on the planet. And while Martha and I ate our salads and many dove into subs, I think the rest of the group enjoyed their pizza. Before eating, the sixteen of us joined in praying a common Lutheran table grace:
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. AmenWe had six youth, three children, and seven adults for our foray to Columbus and, after lunch, we went to the Lutheran Social Services food pantry on Champion Avenue on Columbus's south side. This is an impressive operation.
People needing food evidently screened into the process when they arrive at the pantry.
Volunteers then meet these folks with shopping carts and proceed to help to bag items from categories like grains, proteins, meats, vegetables, breads, greens, and fruits.
What I love about the process is that, for the recipients of the food, it's more like going shopping than it is sticking out their hands. That diminishes any threat to their dignity.
I also love the interaction with the clients the process gave to volunteers like us. It was fun talking about various foods and different ways of preparing them with folks as we moved from aisle to aisle with shopping carts today.
Most of our folks were involved in dealing with the recipients directly in this way. But some of our young people were drafted to bring food items upstairs from a basement storage area, replenishing supplies on the main floor. This was really needed, as some of the LSS staff told us that today brought an unusually large number of folks to the pantry today.
There were a number of volunteers from Bank of America too. They appeared to be working really hard.
I was unable to snap pictures at either the American Whistle Corporation or at the food pantry. I took some pictures and videos on the Monday and Tuesday of our mission week. I'll hopefully post those later.
In no particular order, I want to thank the following folks for their hard work with the mission week so far:
Kayla
Isaac D. (aka: Critter)
Jacob
Stephen
Laikyn
Kirsten
Lori E.
Mike M.
Jim V.
Jim K.
Dick B.
Martha S.
Bob and Carolyn
Martha
Sarah G.
Isaac G.
Megan G.
Debbie K.
Cameron
Nancy
Jim F.
Tony (aka: Chuck!)
We're also thankful to all who have donated items and money. I'm especially grateful to all who are praying that God will keep us safe, teach us to serve in Christ's Name, and have fun. (I hope that I haven't forgotten anyone!)
More volunteer names will be added as we come into the last two days of the mission, which will include a Friday night sleep deprivation...er, lock-in.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
These Lines Will Go Into a Song, If I Ever Get It Finished
The tentative title of the song is The Stranger, not to be confused with the Billy Joel composition of the same name. In this case, the Stranger is a real person. These words come from the perspective of somebody who knows the Stranger:
When I say the things they want to hear
They're quick to smile and lead a cheer
But when I speak truth that they despise
They mock and spit and roll their eyes
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