This is funny.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Your Prayers Would Be Appreciated
Two days ago, my Dad went for a follow-up on a colonoscopy he had undergone two weeks earlier. The doctor had seen something not to his liking.
On Wednesday, it was discovered that his colon was perforated. That necessitated emergency surgery.
During the operation, it was also found that he had a hernia, a tumor that proved to be cancerous, and two aneurysms.
Both the hernia and colon were successfully addressed. The pathology report came back yesterday and indicated that the entire tumor was removed and Dad won't have to undergo either chemotherapy or radiation treatment. A vascular specialist said that the aneurysms will be monitored and addressed at the appropriate time. Knowing of several people who have undergone successful surgery for aortic aneurysms lately, I feel comfortable with that and obviously, given all that hit my Dad in one day, my family and I are relieved.
The surgeon told us that Dad was doing well enough immediately following surgery that he could skip the surgical ICU and go straight to intermediate care. Doctors and nurses marvel at his resilience at nearly age 80.
But he's had some rough days. You can imagine the pain he's in after such massive invasive surgery. I'm also a little concerned about his breathing, but I'm happy that a doctor has ordered albuterol treatments.
My father is an incredibly sweet guy and funny. On Wednesday afternoon, as I was leaving the hospital, I had a prayer with Dad and the family members who were in the room and gave him a kiss. "I'll be back tomorrow, Dad," I said. "You don't have to come back, Bub," he told me, paused, and finished, "But you'd better."
Please keep my Dad in your prayers. Thanks.
On Wednesday, it was discovered that his colon was perforated. That necessitated emergency surgery.
During the operation, it was also found that he had a hernia, a tumor that proved to be cancerous, and two aneurysms.
Both the hernia and colon were successfully addressed. The pathology report came back yesterday and indicated that the entire tumor was removed and Dad won't have to undergo either chemotherapy or radiation treatment. A vascular specialist said that the aneurysms will be monitored and addressed at the appropriate time. Knowing of several people who have undergone successful surgery for aortic aneurysms lately, I feel comfortable with that and obviously, given all that hit my Dad in one day, my family and I are relieved.
The surgeon told us that Dad was doing well enough immediately following surgery that he could skip the surgical ICU and go straight to intermediate care. Doctors and nurses marvel at his resilience at nearly age 80.
But he's had some rough days. You can imagine the pain he's in after such massive invasive surgery. I'm also a little concerned about his breathing, but I'm happy that a doctor has ordered albuterol treatments.
My father is an incredibly sweet guy and funny. On Wednesday afternoon, as I was leaving the hospital, I had a prayer with Dad and the family members who were in the room and gave him a kiss. "I'll be back tomorrow, Dad," I said. "You don't have to come back, Bub," he told me, paused, and finished, "But you'd better."
Please keep my Dad in your prayers. Thanks.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
McCartney and Dylan Set to Collaborate?
They've been signaling their mutual interest in a musical collaboration quite a lot in the past several years. The most recent issue of 'Rolling Stone' contains a Dylan interview in which he is, by turns, uncharacteristically candid, then typically obscurantist. There, he makes clear--or, as clear as Dylan makes things--that he would love to work with McCartney.
Now, according to Gibson Lifestyle, that collaboration will happen:
Bring on an LP and please, a tour!
Now, according to Gibson Lifestyle, that collaboration will happen:
Recent months have seen both Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney express interest in working together. Now, according to Britain's Daily Express, that collaboration is set to become a reality. The newspaper reports that the legendary rockers will head into the studio together this summer, presumably to work on new songs as a duo.I've been listening to and getting to know the latest Dylan collection and was hugely pleased with McCartney's adventurous Fireman release late last year. Artistically then, both still more than cut it.
"Paul has a home in California not too far from Bob's, so the idea is for the two to meet when Paul is in California over the summer," an unnamed McCartney spokesman said. "They'll obviously want to work in privacy and it's felt one of their homes will be the best bet. Getting these two together for any length of time is difficult schedule-wise but they both want this to work out. The music that comes out of this will be fascinating to hear."
Dylan's latest album, Together Through Life, recently topped both the American and British charts. Last year McCartney released an acclaimed album under the auspices of his alter ego, The Fireman.
Bring on an LP and please, a tour!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Look at This Coming Sunday's Bible Lesson
[Most weeks, I present a few comments on at least one of the Bible lessons around which our worship will be centered on the succeeding Sunday. It's designed to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, to prepare for worship. But because we used a lectionary plan used by most churches in the Western world, others may find the notes helpful, too.]
The Bible Lessons:
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
The Prayer of the Day:
Mighty God, You breathe life into our bones, and Your Spirit brings truth to the world. Send us the Spirit, transform us to Your truth, and give us language to proclaim Your gospel, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
General Comments on Acts 2:1-21:
1. Pentecost already was a festival on calendar of pious Jews. It was a harvest festival, falling fifty days after the Sabbath of Passover week. For more, see here. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of the Church Year, along with Christmas and Easter. The first Christian Pentecost happened fifty days after the first Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead, and ten days after He ascended to heaven.
2. The they mentioned in verse 1 are presumably the group of 120 Christ-Followers mentioned in 1:15.
3. The events of Pentecost fulfill the promise Jesus made in 1:8, that He would send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would make it possible for them to boldly witness for God in spite of their fears. The gift of the Spirit would also fulfill Old Testament prophecy, Peter points out. We'll discuss that more in the verse-by-verse comments.
4. The first Christian Pentecost introduces what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and has always been present from eternity. But in the era in which we live now, it's the Holy Spirit who makes faith possible and who gave birth to the community through which God speaks to the world today, the Church. (For more see here and here.)
Verse-by-Verse Comments:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
(1) Were these first Christians afraid? Probably. Were they praying? No doubt. But they were also doing what the risen Jesus told them to do just before He ascended to heaven: waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Faith often involves waiting.
2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
(1) In Old Testament Hebrew, there is a word (ruach) which can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. A similar word exists in New Testament Greek, pneuma. It's God's ruach that bears down upon the watery chaos in Genesis 1 and brings life into being. God also breathes ruach into Adam to give the first man life. Here, the very life-giving breath of God breathes His Church, the fellowship of believers committed to Christ's mission for it, into being. (For more the life-giving power of God's Spirit or breath, see Ezekiel 37:9-14.)
(2) Luke, the writer of Acts, shows us that this wasn't some gentle little breeze. The Holy Spirit came into the place where the first Jesus-Followers were gathered "like the rush of a violent wind." The Spirit filled the entire house...there was no escaping God for the believers who were there! And the noise of the moment attracted a crowd.
3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(1) This is different from the gift of tongues which the New Testament talks about elsewhere. As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 14, that's a worship language which God gives to some Christians as a means of building up the church internally.
The Holy Spirit is given to every believer in Christ. It's the Spirit Who makes it possible for once-fearful followers of Christ like Peter to share the good news of new life for all with faith in Jesus with boldness and humility.
(2) The Holy Spirit has been referred to as the "shy member of the Trinity." (The Trinity describes one of God's many mysterious attributes: God is one and yet is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) And yet the Spirit's appearance on Pentecost was an occasion for sensory overload. First, He filled the house where the disciples were sitting with a roar. Then, He appeared visually in some way. Finally, He sent the disciples out onto the streets of Jerusalem, each telling the story of God's mighty deeds in various languages for all to hear.
(3) Jaroslav Pelikan, an emeritus professor in History at Yale University, points to the use of "fill" and "filled" throughout Acts. The disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, but are accused of being filled with "new wine." On the brink of martyrdom, Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, prays for the forgiveness of those who murder him.
In his helpful book on the Holy Spirit, Billy Graham mentions that all Christians are given the Holy Spirit, but, we require new fillings of the Spirit to sustain our faith and faithfulness throughout our lives.
Without submission to Christ, as evidenced in these first followers of Jesus after Jesus had ascended to heaven, other things may fill us--fear, greed, hopelessness, whatever. This is why Martin Luther spoke of the importance of living in "daily repentance and renewal."
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
(1) The "devout Jews" were in Jerusalem, the center of worship for God's ancient people, as explained here.
6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
(1) The crowds didn't hear a strange language, as would have been the case if the first Christians were speaking "in tongues." They heard intelligible accounts of God's mighty acts in their own native languages, the ones they spoke in their dispersed homelands. (I can't help but think here of the lyrics in a new U2 song: "Let me in the sound, Let me in the sound...Meet me in the sound.")
7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
(1) How is it possible, the crowd wonders, for these Galileans to speak in their languages? This really is the miracle of Pentecost: God empowers the first Christians to share the Good News in accessible ways!
(2) Notice that the disciples weren't apparently confined to speaking of Jesus' death and resurrection. They were recalling for this international gathering of their fellow Jews "God's deeds of power."
This underscores Luke's emphasis, evidenced both in his Gospel and in Acts, on the unity and consistency between the God revealed in Old Testament times and the God seen in Jesus and now, in the Holy Spirit.
This, according to Luke, is exactly what the resurrected Jesus emphasized when He met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus back on the first Easter. Recalling the Law and the Prophets from the Old Testament, He demonstrated how His death and resurrection had been the plan for the Lord's Messiah always and that the means of salvation--trust or belief in the God ultimately revealed in Jesus--has always been the same.
We Christians tell the story of God's mighty deeds, especially Jesus' death and resurrection, the central event of human history, so that people will call upon the Lord and so, be saved from sin and death. As with the first Christians, it is the Holy Spirit Who gives us the ability to do this.
12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
(1) People always try to explain away the miraculous intervention of God in human life, including Jesus' resurrection. Even religious folks do that. In Old Testament times, a devout woman begged God for a child. Overcome with emotion, the priest thought she was drunk. But she wasn't drunk and God gave her a child destined to be one of the great figures in Israel's history, Samuel. (See here.)
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
(1) This demonstrates the power of the Holy Spirit. Just seven-plus weeks before, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Now, in spite of the implicit danger of being associated with Jesus, Who was executed, Peter stands up to give witness to his faith in Christ.
15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning.
(1) Peter evidences having done the very first thing any witness for Christ must do: He listened. His words come in response to the questions and accusations of the crowd in Jerusalem.
(2) Peter is arguing that it's way too early for all these people to be drunk; the taverns aren't even open yet!
(3) These people aren't under the influence of spirits, but of the Spirit.
16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
(1) Another thing a witness for Christ must do is connect God's story with my story and your story. By knowing the Bible, Peter knows God's story.
(2) Peter is saying that there is a different explanation for this strange phenomenon. Simply, God's Holy Spirit has come to Jesus' believers, empowering them to witness for Christ.
(3) To prophesy, in Biblical terms, is to share God's truth.
21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
(1) In its way, this passage, lifted from the Old Testament prophet Joel, is "the Gospel in a nutshell." Gospel is the Old English translation of the New Testament Greek term, evangel, meaning good news. Christians have good news to share: God is for the human race. All who seek help and forgiveness from the God we meet in Jesus Christ will be saved from sin and death and have fellowship with God forever.
[These notes appeared last year in slightly different form. A little has been taken away and a little bit added.]
Pentecost Sunday
May 31, 2009
May 31, 2009
The Bible Lessons:
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
The Prayer of the Day:
Mighty God, You breathe life into our bones, and Your Spirit brings truth to the world. Send us the Spirit, transform us to Your truth, and give us language to proclaim Your gospel, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
General Comments on Acts 2:1-21:
1. Pentecost already was a festival on calendar of pious Jews. It was a harvest festival, falling fifty days after the Sabbath of Passover week. For more, see here. On the Christian calendar, Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of the Church Year, along with Christmas and Easter. The first Christian Pentecost happened fifty days after the first Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead, and ten days after He ascended to heaven.
2. The they mentioned in verse 1 are presumably the group of 120 Christ-Followers mentioned in 1:15.
3. The events of Pentecost fulfill the promise Jesus made in 1:8, that He would send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would make it possible for them to boldly witness for God in spite of their fears. The gift of the Spirit would also fulfill Old Testament prophecy, Peter points out. We'll discuss that more in the verse-by-verse comments.
4. The first Christian Pentecost introduces what might be called "the era of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and has always been present from eternity. But in the era in which we live now, it's the Holy Spirit who makes faith possible and who gave birth to the community through which God speaks to the world today, the Church. (For more see here and here.)
Verse-by-Verse Comments:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
(1) Were these first Christians afraid? Probably. Were they praying? No doubt. But they were also doing what the risen Jesus told them to do just before He ascended to heaven: waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Faith often involves waiting.
2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
(1) In Old Testament Hebrew, there is a word (ruach) which can be translated as wind, breath, or spirit. A similar word exists in New Testament Greek, pneuma. It's God's ruach that bears down upon the watery chaos in Genesis 1 and brings life into being. God also breathes ruach into Adam to give the first man life. Here, the very life-giving breath of God breathes His Church, the fellowship of believers committed to Christ's mission for it, into being. (For more the life-giving power of God's Spirit or breath, see Ezekiel 37:9-14.)
(2) Luke, the writer of Acts, shows us that this wasn't some gentle little breeze. The Holy Spirit came into the place where the first Jesus-Followers were gathered "like the rush of a violent wind." The Spirit filled the entire house...there was no escaping God for the believers who were there! And the noise of the moment attracted a crowd.
3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(1) This is different from the gift of tongues which the New Testament talks about elsewhere. As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 14, that's a worship language which God gives to some Christians as a means of building up the church internally.
The Holy Spirit is given to every believer in Christ. It's the Spirit Who makes it possible for once-fearful followers of Christ like Peter to share the good news of new life for all with faith in Jesus with boldness and humility.
(2) The Holy Spirit has been referred to as the "shy member of the Trinity." (The Trinity describes one of God's many mysterious attributes: God is one and yet is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) And yet the Spirit's appearance on Pentecost was an occasion for sensory overload. First, He filled the house where the disciples were sitting with a roar. Then, He appeared visually in some way. Finally, He sent the disciples out onto the streets of Jerusalem, each telling the story of God's mighty deeds in various languages for all to hear.
(3) Jaroslav Pelikan, an emeritus professor in History at Yale University, points to the use of "fill" and "filled" throughout Acts. The disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, but are accused of being filled with "new wine." On the brink of martyrdom, Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, prays for the forgiveness of those who murder him.
In his helpful book on the Holy Spirit, Billy Graham mentions that all Christians are given the Holy Spirit, but, we require new fillings of the Spirit to sustain our faith and faithfulness throughout our lives.
Without submission to Christ, as evidenced in these first followers of Jesus after Jesus had ascended to heaven, other things may fill us--fear, greed, hopelessness, whatever. This is why Martin Luther spoke of the importance of living in "daily repentance and renewal."
5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
(1) The "devout Jews" were in Jerusalem, the center of worship for God's ancient people, as explained here.
6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
(1) The crowds didn't hear a strange language, as would have been the case if the first Christians were speaking "in tongues." They heard intelligible accounts of God's mighty acts in their own native languages, the ones they spoke in their dispersed homelands. (I can't help but think here of the lyrics in a new U2 song: "Let me in the sound, Let me in the sound...Meet me in the sound.")
7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
(1) How is it possible, the crowd wonders, for these Galileans to speak in their languages? This really is the miracle of Pentecost: God empowers the first Christians to share the Good News in accessible ways!
(2) Notice that the disciples weren't apparently confined to speaking of Jesus' death and resurrection. They were recalling for this international gathering of their fellow Jews "God's deeds of power."
This underscores Luke's emphasis, evidenced both in his Gospel and in Acts, on the unity and consistency between the God revealed in Old Testament times and the God seen in Jesus and now, in the Holy Spirit.
This, according to Luke, is exactly what the resurrected Jesus emphasized when He met the two disciples on the road to Emmaus back on the first Easter. Recalling the Law and the Prophets from the Old Testament, He demonstrated how His death and resurrection had been the plan for the Lord's Messiah always and that the means of salvation--trust or belief in the God ultimately revealed in Jesus--has always been the same.
We Christians tell the story of God's mighty deeds, especially Jesus' death and resurrection, the central event of human history, so that people will call upon the Lord and so, be saved from sin and death. As with the first Christians, it is the Holy Spirit Who gives us the ability to do this.
12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
(1) People always try to explain away the miraculous intervention of God in human life, including Jesus' resurrection. Even religious folks do that. In Old Testament times, a devout woman begged God for a child. Overcome with emotion, the priest thought she was drunk. But she wasn't drunk and God gave her a child destined to be one of the great figures in Israel's history, Samuel. (See here.)
14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
(1) This demonstrates the power of the Holy Spirit. Just seven-plus weeks before, Peter denied even knowing Jesus. Now, in spite of the implicit danger of being associated with Jesus, Who was executed, Peter stands up to give witness to his faith in Christ.
15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o”clock in the morning.
(1) Peter evidences having done the very first thing any witness for Christ must do: He listened. His words come in response to the questions and accusations of the crowd in Jerusalem.
(2) Peter is arguing that it's way too early for all these people to be drunk; the taverns aren't even open yet!
(3) These people aren't under the influence of spirits, but of the Spirit.
16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. 20The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
(1) Another thing a witness for Christ must do is connect God's story with my story and your story. By knowing the Bible, Peter knows God's story.
(2) Peter is saying that there is a different explanation for this strange phenomenon. Simply, God's Holy Spirit has come to Jesus' believers, empowering them to witness for Christ.
(3) To prophesy, in Biblical terms, is to share God's truth.
21Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
(1) In its way, this passage, lifted from the Old Testament prophet Joel, is "the Gospel in a nutshell." Gospel is the Old English translation of the New Testament Greek term, evangel, meaning good news. Christians have good news to share: God is for the human race. All who seek help and forgiveness from the God we meet in Jesus Christ will be saved from sin and death and have fellowship with God forever.
[These notes appeared last year in slightly different form. A little has been taken away and a little bit added.]
Monday, May 25, 2009
A Memorial Day Prayer
Written by my friend and colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot.
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please hold our service men and women in your strong arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and presence as they stand in the gap for our protection.
We also remember the families of our troops, and ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes and your peace, provision and strength to fill their lives.
May the members of our armed forces be filled with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord's mighty power to accomplish each task. Let our military brothers and sisters feel our love and support.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
What Jesus Reveals About God
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
John 17:6-19
As a pastor, I’m often with people in times of crisis or difficulty. As much as I hate to see people enduring such circumstances, the way I've seen many people do so has often been nothing short of inspiring.
That’s because it’s in times of crisis that those who see life with the eyes of faith can most clearly see God at work in their lives—helping them, encouraging them, strengthening them.
Often when I visit with folks going through hard experiences, I can remind them, “There are a lot of people praying for you.” And usually, they will tell me, “I know that. I can sense their prayers. There is no way I could have gotten this far without people praying for me.”
Our Gospel lesson for today indicates that it isn’t just other people who pray for us. One of the many things that makes the Church unique is that it’s the only gathering of people for whom Jesus has prayed. Think about that: Jesus Christ, God the Son, has prayed for us to God the Father. As believers in Jesus, you and I are beneficiaries of Jesus’ prayers. That includes all believers in Jesus, whether we feel that we are worthy of His love for us or not.
Some of you have heard me tell of my visit one day with an elderly woman in a nursing home. She was almost eighty, had a strong mind and while somewhat frail, still functioned well. When she knew that I was coming and would be offering Holy Communion, she got into her Sunday best and awaited my arrival.
But after I had shared a passage from the Bible and spent a little time visiting with her, she refused to take Holy Communion. I asked her why. She told me that she was unworthy of receiving Jesus’ body and blood. There was something that she had done when she was seventeen years old which, she said, made her too horrible a sinner to be in fellowship with Christ.
After she’d confessed her sin to me, I tried to explain that if she truly repented—in other words, if she truly wanted to walk away from her sins—she could be sure that she could walk into the welcoming, forgiving arms of Christ. Though we talked for a long time, she remained convinced that God could never forgive her.
But she was wrong. And if this morning, you think that God can’t forgive you, I want to tell you that you are wrong.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus prays on behalf of all believers. At one point, He says to the Father, “I have made Your Name known to those whom You gave Me from the world.”
The late, great Lutheran Bible commentator R.C.H. Lenski, who taught at Capital before I was born, writes that in this part of His prayer, Jesus is saying that, in His very Person—in Who He is and what He does—Jesus has revealed the heart of God. It echoes what John writes near the start of his Gospel:
We could spend a lifetime talking about the things Jesus reveals about the heart of God to us. But I want to focus on just three of them this morning.
First of all: Jesus reveals that God, not Nationwide, is on our side. In His famous encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus said that He had come into the world not to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved from sin and death by Him. This will come as a disappointment to some judgmental people.
A man was bitter about the wife who had left him for another man. He cornered me one night, I'm not kidding, at a pool party. He wanted me to tell him that his ex-wife and her new husband were both headed for hell.
“I can’t say that,” I told him.
“But they sinned,” he said.
“You’ve never sinned?” I asked him.
The man allowed as how he had sinned. But he seemed to feel that the sins his ex-wife and her husband were worse than his. “Besides,” he said, “they’re still together. So, they’re just committing adultery every day.”
I countered by saying that I had known couples who had begun their lives together in just that way. They regretted what they had done. But they were committed to not repeating their sin. They had turned to Christ and received forgiveness and the power to go on living with God in their lives. They had, in fact, become exemplary Christians and even taken steps to be reconciled with their former spouses.
My pool party friend was disappointed because Christ shows us that God is willing to forgive repentant sinners.
I tell you what: I’m not disappointed by that! I’m grateful for it because I’m a sinner in desperate need of the forgiveness I receive through Jesus Christ. I’m grateful that, even when we’re not worthy, God is for us and wants what is best for us.
Second: Jesus reveals that God understands who we are and how difficult our lives can sometimes be. Once, you remember, Jesus came into the little town of Bethany, where three of his friends—the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—lived. Lazarus, he was told, had died. Jesus’ response? He wept. He wept for those who mourned without hope for the resurrection. He wept too for the dying his friend had experienced.
The New Testament book of Hebrews says that Jesus has experienced everything that you and I go through in our lives. The cross where He died confirms that. Yet, Jesus promises to be with us always. The Bible also tells us that nothing can separate us from the love God offers us through Jesus. Can God forgive you and me? Of course He can; Jesus, God in the flesh, demonstrates that God understands who we are and how difficult our lives can be.
Third: Jesus reveals that God has compassion for us. Jesus was often surrounded by people hungry for His love and His touch. Once, the Bible says, He looked on the crowds and felt compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Life can sometimes leave all of us feeling that way: harassed and helpless.
As some of you know, early in my ministry, a man came to me to talk. He’d been sent by a counselor at Lutheran Social Services in northwestern Ohio. “Mark,” he told me, “this guy is at the end of his rope. He’s made a lot of mistakes in his life. Our sessions have gone pretty well. But I’ve realized that there’s a spiritual dimension to his problems.”
When the man arrived, he looked haggard, disheveled. After awhile, we came to the nub of things. “I can’t believe that God will help me," he said. "I’ve screwed up too many times.” We talked for a long while. Eventually, as some of you who know me well will understand, I turned this man’s attention to Romans 8, where Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
I’m not exaggerating when I say that as we read those words together, that man’s face lit up. “Would you write that down for me?” he asked. I wrote the passage on a 3-by-5 card and handed it to him. I urged him to look at the card periodically each day. I don’t know what happened in that man’s life from that point. But I do know that it came as really good news to him to know that God has compassion on us and that while we may walk away from God, the God we know through Jesus Christ will never walk away from us.
Early in my ministry, a woman approached me with a big concern. It was about my preaching; she didn’t like it one bit. In fact, she hated it.
Why, she asked, was I always talking about how wonderful God is? Shouldn’t I be bawling people out more for their sin?
Sin is serious business. God hates sin. But God hates sin because of what each one—whether it involves taking God’s Name in vain, murder, adultery, thievery, putting the motives and actions of others in a bad light--does to us.
Sin separates us from God.
It brings death.
It destroys our relationships with others.
It distorts our humanity.
God is the loving Father Who wants to welcome us home today and forever. Every time we’re tempted to see God as a cold, distant deity, we need to remember that when God came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ, He was loving, compassionate, and involved.
We may condemn ourselves by not repenting for sin and not believing in Jesus Christ, but far from condemning us, on the night He was arrested, Jesus prayed for us. I preach about a wonderful God because in Jesus Christ that’s exactly what we see, the wonderful God of all creation!
There are many mysteries in life—suffering that doesn’t go away, prayers that seem unheard, temptations that dog us, relationships that go sour in spite of our fervent prayers, and others. But Jesus demonstrates beyond all doubt that each of us matters to God.
Jesus’ resurrection says that in the end, God will act lovingly and decisively on behalf of those who believe in Jesus. The Savior Who prays for us will never walk away from us. We can count on that!
John 17:6-19
As a pastor, I’m often with people in times of crisis or difficulty. As much as I hate to see people enduring such circumstances, the way I've seen many people do so has often been nothing short of inspiring.
That’s because it’s in times of crisis that those who see life with the eyes of faith can most clearly see God at work in their lives—helping them, encouraging them, strengthening them.
Often when I visit with folks going through hard experiences, I can remind them, “There are a lot of people praying for you.” And usually, they will tell me, “I know that. I can sense their prayers. There is no way I could have gotten this far without people praying for me.”
Our Gospel lesson for today indicates that it isn’t just other people who pray for us. One of the many things that makes the Church unique is that it’s the only gathering of people for whom Jesus has prayed. Think about that: Jesus Christ, God the Son, has prayed for us to God the Father. As believers in Jesus, you and I are beneficiaries of Jesus’ prayers. That includes all believers in Jesus, whether we feel that we are worthy of His love for us or not.
Some of you have heard me tell of my visit one day with an elderly woman in a nursing home. She was almost eighty, had a strong mind and while somewhat frail, still functioned well. When she knew that I was coming and would be offering Holy Communion, she got into her Sunday best and awaited my arrival.
But after I had shared a passage from the Bible and spent a little time visiting with her, she refused to take Holy Communion. I asked her why. She told me that she was unworthy of receiving Jesus’ body and blood. There was something that she had done when she was seventeen years old which, she said, made her too horrible a sinner to be in fellowship with Christ.
After she’d confessed her sin to me, I tried to explain that if she truly repented—in other words, if she truly wanted to walk away from her sins—she could be sure that she could walk into the welcoming, forgiving arms of Christ. Though we talked for a long time, she remained convinced that God could never forgive her.
But she was wrong. And if this morning, you think that God can’t forgive you, I want to tell you that you are wrong.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus prays on behalf of all believers. At one point, He says to the Father, “I have made Your Name known to those whom You gave Me from the world.”
The late, great Lutheran Bible commentator R.C.H. Lenski, who taught at Capital before I was born, writes that in this part of His prayer, Jesus is saying that, in His very Person—in Who He is and what He does—Jesus has revealed the heart of God. It echoes what John writes near the start of his Gospel:
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, Who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.Martin Luther said that if we truly want to understand Who God is and what God is like, we should look at Jesus on the cross.
We could spend a lifetime talking about the things Jesus reveals about the heart of God to us. But I want to focus on just three of them this morning.
First of all: Jesus reveals that God, not Nationwide, is on our side. In His famous encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus said that He had come into the world not to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved from sin and death by Him. This will come as a disappointment to some judgmental people.
A man was bitter about the wife who had left him for another man. He cornered me one night, I'm not kidding, at a pool party. He wanted me to tell him that his ex-wife and her new husband were both headed for hell.
“I can’t say that,” I told him.
“But they sinned,” he said.
“You’ve never sinned?” I asked him.
The man allowed as how he had sinned. But he seemed to feel that the sins his ex-wife and her husband were worse than his. “Besides,” he said, “they’re still together. So, they’re just committing adultery every day.”
I countered by saying that I had known couples who had begun their lives together in just that way. They regretted what they had done. But they were committed to not repeating their sin. They had turned to Christ and received forgiveness and the power to go on living with God in their lives. They had, in fact, become exemplary Christians and even taken steps to be reconciled with their former spouses.
My pool party friend was disappointed because Christ shows us that God is willing to forgive repentant sinners.
I tell you what: I’m not disappointed by that! I’m grateful for it because I’m a sinner in desperate need of the forgiveness I receive through Jesus Christ. I’m grateful that, even when we’re not worthy, God is for us and wants what is best for us.
Second: Jesus reveals that God understands who we are and how difficult our lives can sometimes be. Once, you remember, Jesus came into the little town of Bethany, where three of his friends—the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—lived. Lazarus, he was told, had died. Jesus’ response? He wept. He wept for those who mourned without hope for the resurrection. He wept too for the dying his friend had experienced.
The New Testament book of Hebrews says that Jesus has experienced everything that you and I go through in our lives. The cross where He died confirms that. Yet, Jesus promises to be with us always. The Bible also tells us that nothing can separate us from the love God offers us through Jesus. Can God forgive you and me? Of course He can; Jesus, God in the flesh, demonstrates that God understands who we are and how difficult our lives can be.
Third: Jesus reveals that God has compassion for us. Jesus was often surrounded by people hungry for His love and His touch. Once, the Bible says, He looked on the crowds and felt compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Life can sometimes leave all of us feeling that way: harassed and helpless.
As some of you know, early in my ministry, a man came to me to talk. He’d been sent by a counselor at Lutheran Social Services in northwestern Ohio. “Mark,” he told me, “this guy is at the end of his rope. He’s made a lot of mistakes in his life. Our sessions have gone pretty well. But I’ve realized that there’s a spiritual dimension to his problems.”
When the man arrived, he looked haggard, disheveled. After awhile, we came to the nub of things. “I can’t believe that God will help me," he said. "I’ve screwed up too many times.” We talked for a long while. Eventually, as some of you who know me well will understand, I turned this man’s attention to Romans 8, where Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
I’m not exaggerating when I say that as we read those words together, that man’s face lit up. “Would you write that down for me?” he asked. I wrote the passage on a 3-by-5 card and handed it to him. I urged him to look at the card periodically each day. I don’t know what happened in that man’s life from that point. But I do know that it came as really good news to him to know that God has compassion on us and that while we may walk away from God, the God we know through Jesus Christ will never walk away from us.
Early in my ministry, a woman approached me with a big concern. It was about my preaching; she didn’t like it one bit. In fact, she hated it.
Why, she asked, was I always talking about how wonderful God is? Shouldn’t I be bawling people out more for their sin?
Sin is serious business. God hates sin. But God hates sin because of what each one—whether it involves taking God’s Name in vain, murder, adultery, thievery, putting the motives and actions of others in a bad light--does to us.
Sin separates us from God.
It brings death.
It destroys our relationships with others.
It distorts our humanity.
God is the loving Father Who wants to welcome us home today and forever. Every time we’re tempted to see God as a cold, distant deity, we need to remember that when God came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ, He was loving, compassionate, and involved.
We may condemn ourselves by not repenting for sin and not believing in Jesus Christ, but far from condemning us, on the night He was arrested, Jesus prayed for us. I preach about a wonderful God because in Jesus Christ that’s exactly what we see, the wonderful God of all creation!
There are many mysteries in life—suffering that doesn’t go away, prayers that seem unheard, temptations that dog us, relationships that go sour in spite of our fervent prayers, and others. But Jesus demonstrates beyond all doubt that each of us matters to God.
Jesus’ resurrection says that in the end, God will act lovingly and decisively on behalf of those who believe in Jesus. The Savior Who prays for us will never walk away from us. We can count on that!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Can Homelessness Be Abolished in Ten Years?
The cost of maintaining a person in homelessness is more expensive than solving his homelessness. Can I spend $35,000–$150,000 per year on emergency rooms, police, fire, public defenders, and so on for a chronically homeless person? Or should I spend $13,000–$25,000 on supportive housing in order to create stability for that person and a trajectory toward self-sufficiency and recovery? You don't have to be Warren Buffett or Suze Orman to figure that out.See here.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Practical Advice for Loving Others
Yeah, this uses a homely metaphor, but it makes a good point. Too often, my judgments of people have been based on whether I agree with them on such tangential matters as political preferences, musical tastes, food choices, sports allegiances, or other things. What a goofball I can be.
More, in a similar vein, here. (Thanks to my friend, Glen VanderKloot, for this.)
More, in a similar vein, here. (Thanks to my friend, Glen VanderKloot, for this.)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Please Continue to Pray for David Wayne
Fellow blogger and pastor David Wayne gives an update on his physical condition. Please continue to keep David in your prayers.
Monday, May 18, 2009
The "PSST" Food Drive Helps Local Needy Households
Here's a press release I just sent to the local newspaper about our PSST Food Drive. (PSST stands for peanut butter, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, and tuna.)
Some of the 50 Saint Matthew members who participated in the second phase of PSST sorting food in the church fellowship hall. [Click to enlarge image.]
Saint Matthew members formed "bucket brigades" to get completed sacks from the fellowship hall to vehicles waiting to take them to Hocking County Jobs and Family Services. [Click image to enlarge.]
The second phase of the Saint Matthew Lutheran Church PSST Food Drive happened on Saturday, May 16, resulting in at least 218 bags of food for Hocking County households. “They filled two offices and a hallway” at the Hocking County Jobs and Family Services, where the items were taken for distribution, noted assistant director Cindi Garrelts.It was a fantastic event. Sharing the love of Christ with others is a mountaintop experience...and it can also be a lot of fun!
On May 9, thirty-four members of Saint Matthew distributed empty sacks to about 800 Logan households. Attached to each sack was a flyer asking residents to donate peanut butter, spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, and tuna, place them in the sack, and then set the filled sack on their porch the following Saturday.
On May 16, Saint Matthew members went out to collect the sacks. About 40% of all the households receiving the sacks filled them with food donations.
The sacks were then brought back to Saint Matthew’s fellowship hall where, joined by six employees of Jobs and Family Services giving of their time during “off-hours,” the food was sorted into the 218 bags for distribution among needy households in our county. Jobs and Family Services will see that families they serve receive the food.
About 50 Saint Matthew members were involved in the pick up of sacks. Among the words used by them to describe the experience were “Fun!” and “Awesome!”
Becky Webb, who chairs the committee which spearheaded the effort, Saint Matthew’s new Servanthood Team, described herself as “overwhelmed.”
“I am so thankful to the people of our community who responded so generously,” said Saint Matthew pastor, Mark Daniels. “I also can’t thank the people of Saint Matthew enough for their hard work on this project and for their Christian compassion,” Daniels also said. He added, “Of course, the biggest thanks goes to God for working in our community in this way.”
An additional forty pounds of food not bagged will go to the CHAP emergency food bank. Several people who said they’d forgotten to get the PSST items donated cash, which will also be used for the Servanthood Team’s efforts.
The Logan Kroger store provided the sacks, Daniels noted. “We’re thankful for their help,” said the pastor on Saturday.
Some of the 50 Saint Matthew members who participated in the second phase of PSST sorting food in the church fellowship hall. [Click to enlarge image.]
Saint Matthew members formed "bucket brigades" to get completed sacks from the fellowship hall to vehicles waiting to take them to Hocking County Jobs and Family Services. [Click image to enlarge.]
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Creative Cartography
The Chinese government has submitted its claimed maritime boundaries in the South China Sea. Its proposals give credence to notions that the Beijing regime intends to exercise unquestioned hegemony in Asia, at the expense of neighboring nations. Read the BBC news article on their proposals here or, cut to the chase, and look at their proposed boundaries on a map.
I've been writing with considerable concern about the threat to international peace and stability represented by the Chinese government. See here. Go here for a rundown of recent writing about the Chinese government' human rights policies and its aggressive military and economic impulses toward the outer world.
I've been writing with considerable concern about the threat to international peace and stability represented by the Chinese government. See here. Go here for a rundown of recent writing about the Chinese government' human rights policies and its aggressive military and economic impulses toward the outer world.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
How to Know a God-Sighting
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]
Acts 8:26-40
My wife Ann and I graduated in succeeding years from West High School in Columbus. So, I always enjoy going to her class reunions with her. They seem like reunions for me, too.
Four years ago, we were at Ann’s reunion and I had a conversation with Sandy. “How’s it going?” I asked. She told me about what was happening at the congregation of which she and her husband are members, a Lutheran church in another part of Ohio. Her husband was the president of the congregation and chair of the Call Committee at the time, looking for a pastor to replace one who had taken a call to another congregation some time before. They had already interviewed several candidates and none of them seemed to be a good fit for their church.
“But just today,” Sandy told me, “Steve spoke with a pastor. He sounds like he’d be perfect for our church, Mark.” In spite of those hopeful words, I could sense hesitation in Sandy’s voice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “This has been such a frustrating process,” she told me. “I’m afraid to hope.” Because Sandy was a friend from high school days, I decided to go where pastors aren’t supposed to tread. “Who’s the pastor?” “I shouldn’t say,” she said. “Sandy, it’s me. I won’t say anything.” She identified the pastor as Jon (not his real name), a friend of mine, and one of my very favorites. I told Sandy, “Snap him up!”
Last Sunday evening, Ann and I were at that church, where Jon has been the pastor for four years. We were there for a surprise party with 160 other people. Sandy was working in the kitchen. Steve was one of the speakers. We celebrated the 25th. anniversary of Jon’s ordination.
Just before Ann and I left, we spoke with Sandy. She said that God had used our little conversation at Ann’s high school reunion to reassure her that their sense about Jon was right. “It was a God sighting for sure,” she told us.
Every Christian who’s ever been dialed into God knows what Sandy meant when she said that. God sightings are those moments when you indisputably know that God is reaching out to you with a message, a gesture, some instruction, or reassurance.
But how do we know a God-sighting when we see it?
Our first lesson for today can help us with this question. It comes from the New Testament book of Acts. In Acts, we’re shown the history of the early Church from the day that the risen Jesus ascended into heaven until about thirty years later. Our specific lesson from Acts tells us about how, prompted by the Holy Spirit and an angel, a messenger from God, a layperson named Philip, shared the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection with a man from Ethiopia. The Ethiopian was returning home from Jerusalem, where he had evidently gone to learn more about the God of the Jews.
When Philip finds him, the Ethiopian is reading from the book of the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. In accord with the custom of those days, he’s reading out loud. When Philip offers to explain that Isaiah wrote at least 550 years before Jesus’ birth, about Jesus, the Ethiopian invites Philip to tell him more.
Philip shares the whole Biblical story for the man, how Jesus was the culmination of Israel’s history and how, through faith in Jesus, all people can experience forgiveness of sin, God’s presence in their lives right now, and eternal life.
The Ethiopian comes to believe in Christ and asks if he can’t be baptized right then. Philip goes into a nearby pool of water with the man and performs the baptism.
Having served the function to which God had called him, Philip then disappears, traveling a road astride the Mediterranean coast, sharing Christ along the way. The eunuch returns to his homeland. Tradition says that the oldest Christian denomination in Ethiopia today was started by him.
This passage is filled with God sightings, although not everybody would have been as alert to them as Philip and the Ethiopian official were. Their experience here can help alert us to those moments when God is reaching out to us.
Before diving into some of the specific insights our passage gives us on this question, I should say that the number one principle for deciding if you've had a God sighting is whether the experience conforms with the character and personality of God as you know God through the Bible. If in what you think was a God sighting, you sense that you're being told to blow up a bridge or start a terrorist movement, there's a good chance you haven't had a God sighting. In this, as in all other areas, the revealed Word of God, the Bible, is the authoritative source and norm of our life, faith, and practice.
But what else might tell you that you've had a God sighting?
First: Our lesson in Acts tells us that God sightings usually happen when we particularly need help or reassurance from God.
The angel who told Philip to take a wilderness road to Gaza showed up right after Philip and other Greek-speaking Jews who confessed Christ had fled Jerusalem because there was a general persecution against their kind. Philip was among those early Christians whose lives were in danger because of their faith in Jesus. But God was still reaching out to them, assuring them of His loving purpose for their lives.
God wants to do that for you when you face tough times, too. When Sarah S., of our congregation, was at Children’s Hospital, gravely ill with leukemia, her father, Bryan, was getting gas at a filling station in Columbus. He was returning home to Logan after a long day at the hospital. He'd already filled his tank. It was a February night with the first hints of spring in the air and he was just standing by his car, taking in the fresh air.
A woman before pulled up to the other side of the gas pump. She was driving an old clunker. Bryan noticed fluid leaking from the back of the vehicle. She saw Bryan and asked, "What are you doing here?" "I just filled my tank and I'm getting of a breath of air," Bryan explained.
The woman told Bryan, "I didn't want to stop. I just wanted to get home. But I was nearly out of gas and kept thinking that, for some reason, I was supposed to be here."
Without a word having passed between them about his child, the woman looked and said, "God wanted me to tell you that your little girl is going to be OK."
Now, what are the odds of that? I think that it’s safe to call that a God sighting! God sightings happen when we need them.
Second: Our lesson also shows us that when we encounter God and God seems to give us directions, God will usually tell us to do a hard thing that will force us to rely more heavily on Him. The angel told Philip to leave the ease and success he’d experienced in sharing the Good News of Jesus in Samaria and, instead, travel down a dusty road filled with foreigners and thieves. One reason Philip could be sure that he had heard from the Lord is that God had called him to do the harder thing.
Ann, our kids, and I loved our first parish in northwestern Ohio. A congregation of 450 members, our average attendance was 280. (The percentage of our baptized membership in worship each Sunday was among the highest in the Lutheran Church.) The people there loved God, taught us a lot about being Christians, and were fun, too. We could have stayed there happily for the rest of our lives.
The church had just approved a major new building addition in 1990, when I was asked to start a new congregation in the Cincinnati area. No building. No budget. No people. I would have to wear out several pairs of shoes going door-to-door in order to invite people to consider becoming part of this new venture of faith. It was a crazy thing to do. But we went, convinced that God has not called us to a life of ease, but a life of joyful reliance on Him!
Third: Our lesson shows us that when we encounter God, we can be certain that afterward, God will want us to share His Son Jesus with others.
Jesus says of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to [God] the Father, except through Me.”
In John, chapter 3, Jesus says, “God did not send His 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.”
Our eternal destiny rides on whether we entrust our lives to Jesus Christ. Don’t believe that because Pastor Daniels says it or because the Lutheran Confessions say it. Believe it because Jesus, the One Who died and rose for you, says it. And if you and I find Jesus credible, then we must believe it when He says that those without faith in Him are lost and that He has come to “seek and save the lost.”
People may ask why we give food to CHAP, or help to Lutheran Social Services, or prepare shoe boxes of gifts for children through Operation Christmas Child. They may wonder why we run a food drive for our county’s Jobs and Family Services.
We want to love our neighbor, of course. But our love has a particular aim. It’s the same aim we have when we put our worship on the radio each week and place signs in our front yards inviting neighbors to Easter worship.
It’s why we’re sprucing up the outside and the inside of the building, why we invited our high school prom-goers to have breakfast in our fellowship hall in the middle of the night, and the reason we have Sunday School, Catechism, adult studies, and Vacation Bible School.
It’s why we’re going to have a Friend Day to invite our non-churchgoing friends and neighbors to worship.
We do all these things because we believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and therefore the only way to forgiveness, hope, peace with God, others, and ourselves, and the only way to everlasting life.
Philip believed that too, which is why he ran toward the Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot. He felt a sense of urgency, the same urgency that you and I are called to have about others’ salvation. When we encounter God, we can be certain that God will want us to share His Son Jesus with others.
God doesn’t want to be a distant stranger—distant from you or from those we meet in our daily lives. We can be certain we’ve been blessed with a God-sighting that brings God up close...
Acts 8:26-40
My wife Ann and I graduated in succeeding years from West High School in Columbus. So, I always enjoy going to her class reunions with her. They seem like reunions for me, too.
Four years ago, we were at Ann’s reunion and I had a conversation with Sandy. “How’s it going?” I asked. She told me about what was happening at the congregation of which she and her husband are members, a Lutheran church in another part of Ohio. Her husband was the president of the congregation and chair of the Call Committee at the time, looking for a pastor to replace one who had taken a call to another congregation some time before. They had already interviewed several candidates and none of them seemed to be a good fit for their church.
“But just today,” Sandy told me, “Steve spoke with a pastor. He sounds like he’d be perfect for our church, Mark.” In spite of those hopeful words, I could sense hesitation in Sandy’s voice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “This has been such a frustrating process,” she told me. “I’m afraid to hope.” Because Sandy was a friend from high school days, I decided to go where pastors aren’t supposed to tread. “Who’s the pastor?” “I shouldn’t say,” she said. “Sandy, it’s me. I won’t say anything.” She identified the pastor as Jon (not his real name), a friend of mine, and one of my very favorites. I told Sandy, “Snap him up!”
Last Sunday evening, Ann and I were at that church, where Jon has been the pastor for four years. We were there for a surprise party with 160 other people. Sandy was working in the kitchen. Steve was one of the speakers. We celebrated the 25th. anniversary of Jon’s ordination.
Just before Ann and I left, we spoke with Sandy. She said that God had used our little conversation at Ann’s high school reunion to reassure her that their sense about Jon was right. “It was a God sighting for sure,” she told us.
Every Christian who’s ever been dialed into God knows what Sandy meant when she said that. God sightings are those moments when you indisputably know that God is reaching out to you with a message, a gesture, some instruction, or reassurance.
But how do we know a God-sighting when we see it?
Our first lesson for today can help us with this question. It comes from the New Testament book of Acts. In Acts, we’re shown the history of the early Church from the day that the risen Jesus ascended into heaven until about thirty years later. Our specific lesson from Acts tells us about how, prompted by the Holy Spirit and an angel, a messenger from God, a layperson named Philip, shared the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection with a man from Ethiopia. The Ethiopian was returning home from Jerusalem, where he had evidently gone to learn more about the God of the Jews.
When Philip finds him, the Ethiopian is reading from the book of the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah. In accord with the custom of those days, he’s reading out loud. When Philip offers to explain that Isaiah wrote at least 550 years before Jesus’ birth, about Jesus, the Ethiopian invites Philip to tell him more.
Philip shares the whole Biblical story for the man, how Jesus was the culmination of Israel’s history and how, through faith in Jesus, all people can experience forgiveness of sin, God’s presence in their lives right now, and eternal life.
The Ethiopian comes to believe in Christ and asks if he can’t be baptized right then. Philip goes into a nearby pool of water with the man and performs the baptism.
Having served the function to which God had called him, Philip then disappears, traveling a road astride the Mediterranean coast, sharing Christ along the way. The eunuch returns to his homeland. Tradition says that the oldest Christian denomination in Ethiopia today was started by him.
This passage is filled with God sightings, although not everybody would have been as alert to them as Philip and the Ethiopian official were. Their experience here can help alert us to those moments when God is reaching out to us.
Before diving into some of the specific insights our passage gives us on this question, I should say that the number one principle for deciding if you've had a God sighting is whether the experience conforms with the character and personality of God as you know God through the Bible. If in what you think was a God sighting, you sense that you're being told to blow up a bridge or start a terrorist movement, there's a good chance you haven't had a God sighting. In this, as in all other areas, the revealed Word of God, the Bible, is the authoritative source and norm of our life, faith, and practice.
But what else might tell you that you've had a God sighting?
First: Our lesson in Acts tells us that God sightings usually happen when we particularly need help or reassurance from God.
The angel who told Philip to take a wilderness road to Gaza showed up right after Philip and other Greek-speaking Jews who confessed Christ had fled Jerusalem because there was a general persecution against their kind. Philip was among those early Christians whose lives were in danger because of their faith in Jesus. But God was still reaching out to them, assuring them of His loving purpose for their lives.
God wants to do that for you when you face tough times, too. When Sarah S., of our congregation, was at Children’s Hospital, gravely ill with leukemia, her father, Bryan, was getting gas at a filling station in Columbus. He was returning home to Logan after a long day at the hospital. He'd already filled his tank. It was a February night with the first hints of spring in the air and he was just standing by his car, taking in the fresh air.
A woman before pulled up to the other side of the gas pump. She was driving an old clunker. Bryan noticed fluid leaking from the back of the vehicle. She saw Bryan and asked, "What are you doing here?" "I just filled my tank and I'm getting of a breath of air," Bryan explained.
The woman told Bryan, "I didn't want to stop. I just wanted to get home. But I was nearly out of gas and kept thinking that, for some reason, I was supposed to be here."
Without a word having passed between them about his child, the woman looked and said, "God wanted me to tell you that your little girl is going to be OK."
Now, what are the odds of that? I think that it’s safe to call that a God sighting! God sightings happen when we need them.
Second: Our lesson also shows us that when we encounter God and God seems to give us directions, God will usually tell us to do a hard thing that will force us to rely more heavily on Him. The angel told Philip to leave the ease and success he’d experienced in sharing the Good News of Jesus in Samaria and, instead, travel down a dusty road filled with foreigners and thieves. One reason Philip could be sure that he had heard from the Lord is that God had called him to do the harder thing.
Ann, our kids, and I loved our first parish in northwestern Ohio. A congregation of 450 members, our average attendance was 280. (The percentage of our baptized membership in worship each Sunday was among the highest in the Lutheran Church.) The people there loved God, taught us a lot about being Christians, and were fun, too. We could have stayed there happily for the rest of our lives.
The church had just approved a major new building addition in 1990, when I was asked to start a new congregation in the Cincinnati area. No building. No budget. No people. I would have to wear out several pairs of shoes going door-to-door in order to invite people to consider becoming part of this new venture of faith. It was a crazy thing to do. But we went, convinced that God has not called us to a life of ease, but a life of joyful reliance on Him!
Third: Our lesson shows us that when we encounter God, we can be certain that afterward, God will want us to share His Son Jesus with others.
Jesus says of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to [God] the Father, except through Me.”
In John, chapter 3, Jesus says, “God did not send His 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.”
Our eternal destiny rides on whether we entrust our lives to Jesus Christ. Don’t believe that because Pastor Daniels says it or because the Lutheran Confessions say it. Believe it because Jesus, the One Who died and rose for you, says it. And if you and I find Jesus credible, then we must believe it when He says that those without faith in Him are lost and that He has come to “seek and save the lost.”
People may ask why we give food to CHAP, or help to Lutheran Social Services, or prepare shoe boxes of gifts for children through Operation Christmas Child. They may wonder why we run a food drive for our county’s Jobs and Family Services.
We want to love our neighbor, of course. But our love has a particular aim. It’s the same aim we have when we put our worship on the radio each week and place signs in our front yards inviting neighbors to Easter worship.
It’s why we’re sprucing up the outside and the inside of the building, why we invited our high school prom-goers to have breakfast in our fellowship hall in the middle of the night, and the reason we have Sunday School, Catechism, adult studies, and Vacation Bible School.
It’s why we’re going to have a Friend Day to invite our non-churchgoing friends and neighbors to worship.
We do all these things because we believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and therefore the only way to forgiveness, hope, peace with God, others, and ourselves, and the only way to everlasting life.
Philip believed that too, which is why he ran toward the Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot. He felt a sense of urgency, the same urgency that you and I are called to have about others’ salvation. When we encounter God, we can be certain that God will want us to share His Son Jesus with others.
God doesn’t want to be a distant stranger—distant from you or from those we meet in our daily lives. We can be certain we’ve been blessed with a God-sighting that brings God up close...
- when we’re in special need of help or reassurance;
- when the instructions we sense tell us to the harder thing, the thing that will cause us to lean more heavily on God; and
- when we know that the faith within us, renewed by our encounter, must result in our sharing Jesus with others.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Trusting What You Can't See? (A Re-Run)
[I wrote this back in June, 2005, and thought I'd present it again now.]
"You're packing a suitcase
For a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed
To be seen"
The words come from Walk On, a song by U2, written in honor of the Burmese activist, Aung San Suu Kyi. In it, Bono and his bandmates urge the political prisoner to carry on with her life and work, trusting that the free land she envisions, a place far different from the one that keeps her under house arrest these days, will one day come into being.
The lyrics were the first thing to flash through my consciousness as I awoke this morning--odd because I haven't listened to the song in many weeks--and they set me to thinking about the whole phenomenon of trust or faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," a wise person once noted.
"Is that true?," I wondered as I woke. Then I remembered hearing people catalog all the things we do each day as articles of faith, entrusting our lives to numberless, faceless people, circumstances, and things we know nothing about.
Often offered as an example is flying. I love to fly! But boarding a jet entails trust in pilots I've never met, flight controllers I've never seen, ground crews I don't know, engines and other physical components of the plane I've not examined, FAA officials charged with ensuring that all we passengers will be safe, and principles of aerodynamics that, as a post-modern primitive, I frankly don't understand.
And yet, I never think about these things when I board a plane. I trust that all will be well.
The God many believe is revealed to the world in Jesus Christ seemed to enter my life decisively back when I was in my mid-twenties. I sensed Jesus telling me, as He has billions of people down through the centuries, "Follow Me."
Follow a Savior you can't see because He promises you harmony with God, peace with yourself, and a new life that goes beyond the grave? It seemed ridiculous. I was insensitive to all the ways in which I entrusted my life to the unseen and unproven and thought there was no way I could ever surrender my life and will to Christ. Or should. (I still struggle with that trusting surrender. In fact, it's true to say that much of the life of faith, for many of us, is about struggling to trust. I myself am a lot like the man who told Jesus, "I do believe; help my unbelief!")
There were two major impediments preventing me from taking up Jesus' "Follow Me" invitation.
The first was Jesus Himself. In spite of having been brought up in a "Christian culture," I didn't really know Him. Jesus is history's greatest rorshach blot. On Him has been thrust all manner of interpretation and spin, from supposed Christians justifying murder, conquest, and oppression to the ignorant who approach him with what they call faith, but is really superstition.
I decided to get to know Jesus for the first time in my life by reading what His earliest followers said about Him in the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. (I'm reacquainting myself with Jesus right now in a series of blog articles called, Getting to Know Jesus One Chapter at a Time.)
The second and bigger impediment to my following Jesus was His resurrection. I had never met anyone who'd come back from the dead. Still haven't.
Getting to know Jesus triggered a reaction I never would have anticipated: I fell in love with Him. I learned that He wasn't a milquetoast in a bath robe but the ultimate giver of tenacious love. He positively haunted my thoughts and consciousness. I wanted to be with Him all the time.
But a resurrection? A Savior Who died two-thousand years ago, risen from the dead and still living. Even after I became aware of scholars like Pinchas Lapide saying that they bought the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, I still found it hard to swallow.
Maybe you share the skepticism I once had. If so, please ask yourself a few of questions.
First: Do you find Jesus credible? If you do, then remind yourself that the New Testament Gospels find Him repeatedly saying that He would die, taking our punishment for sin, and then, rise again to offer life to all who trust Him.
Second: Why did more than five-hundred people risk their lives to avow that they had seen the resurrected Jesus? That's how many the New Testament reports having seen and talked about Him.
And: What's the likelihood that a conspiracy to back such a lie or in service to what some have suggested was a mass hypnotism the likes of which have never been seen, if the resurrection were a lie, would stand the test of time? There was simply no good reason for these people to risk supporting a Savior Who had been executed. It exposed them to the possibility of the same fate. But they did, many giving their lives in the cause.
Okay, you may say, "I'm ready to accept the possibility of following Jesus. I'd even like to do it. But I find it hard to trust."
The Bible understands this. It insists that we can't believe without the help of God's Spirit. So, if you'd like to trust Christ, please tell God this. The God Who came into the world to experience all that you go through and to go to a cross for you is more than willing to meet you where you are. Just say something like, "God, I want to believe that Jesus has come into the world to change my life forever and that He has risen to give me this blessing. Help me to believe."
If you do that, I know that it will be the beginning of many changes in your life.
Let me know if you've offered that prayer and I'll try to provide some pointers for how you can open yourself to a relationship of deepening trust with Jesus Christ.
"You're packing a suitcase
For a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed
To be seen"
The words come from Walk On, a song by U2, written in honor of the Burmese activist, Aung San Suu Kyi. In it, Bono and his bandmates urge the political prisoner to carry on with her life and work, trusting that the free land she envisions, a place far different from the one that keeps her under house arrest these days, will one day come into being.
The lyrics were the first thing to flash through my consciousness as I awoke this morning--odd because I haven't listened to the song in many weeks--and they set me to thinking about the whole phenomenon of trust or faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," a wise person once noted.
"Is that true?," I wondered as I woke. Then I remembered hearing people catalog all the things we do each day as articles of faith, entrusting our lives to numberless, faceless people, circumstances, and things we know nothing about.
Often offered as an example is flying. I love to fly! But boarding a jet entails trust in pilots I've never met, flight controllers I've never seen, ground crews I don't know, engines and other physical components of the plane I've not examined, FAA officials charged with ensuring that all we passengers will be safe, and principles of aerodynamics that, as a post-modern primitive, I frankly don't understand.
And yet, I never think about these things when I board a plane. I trust that all will be well.
The God many believe is revealed to the world in Jesus Christ seemed to enter my life decisively back when I was in my mid-twenties. I sensed Jesus telling me, as He has billions of people down through the centuries, "Follow Me."
Follow a Savior you can't see because He promises you harmony with God, peace with yourself, and a new life that goes beyond the grave? It seemed ridiculous. I was insensitive to all the ways in which I entrusted my life to the unseen and unproven and thought there was no way I could ever surrender my life and will to Christ. Or should. (I still struggle with that trusting surrender. In fact, it's true to say that much of the life of faith, for many of us, is about struggling to trust. I myself am a lot like the man who told Jesus, "I do believe; help my unbelief!")
There were two major impediments preventing me from taking up Jesus' "Follow Me" invitation.
The first was Jesus Himself. In spite of having been brought up in a "Christian culture," I didn't really know Him. Jesus is history's greatest rorshach blot. On Him has been thrust all manner of interpretation and spin, from supposed Christians justifying murder, conquest, and oppression to the ignorant who approach him with what they call faith, but is really superstition.
I decided to get to know Jesus for the first time in my life by reading what His earliest followers said about Him in the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. (I'm reacquainting myself with Jesus right now in a series of blog articles called, Getting to Know Jesus One Chapter at a Time.)
The second and bigger impediment to my following Jesus was His resurrection. I had never met anyone who'd come back from the dead. Still haven't.
Getting to know Jesus triggered a reaction I never would have anticipated: I fell in love with Him. I learned that He wasn't a milquetoast in a bath robe but the ultimate giver of tenacious love. He positively haunted my thoughts and consciousness. I wanted to be with Him all the time.
But a resurrection? A Savior Who died two-thousand years ago, risen from the dead and still living. Even after I became aware of scholars like Pinchas Lapide saying that they bought the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, I still found it hard to swallow.
Maybe you share the skepticism I once had. If so, please ask yourself a few of questions.
First: Do you find Jesus credible? If you do, then remind yourself that the New Testament Gospels find Him repeatedly saying that He would die, taking our punishment for sin, and then, rise again to offer life to all who trust Him.
Second: Why did more than five-hundred people risk their lives to avow that they had seen the resurrected Jesus? That's how many the New Testament reports having seen and talked about Him.
And: What's the likelihood that a conspiracy to back such a lie or in service to what some have suggested was a mass hypnotism the likes of which have never been seen, if the resurrection were a lie, would stand the test of time? There was simply no good reason for these people to risk supporting a Savior Who had been executed. It exposed them to the possibility of the same fate. But they did, many giving their lives in the cause.
Okay, you may say, "I'm ready to accept the possibility of following Jesus. I'd even like to do it. But I find it hard to trust."
The Bible understands this. It insists that we can't believe without the help of God's Spirit. So, if you'd like to trust Christ, please tell God this. The God Who came into the world to experience all that you go through and to go to a cross for you is more than willing to meet you where you are. Just say something like, "God, I want to believe that Jesus has come into the world to change my life forever and that He has risen to give me this blessing. Help me to believe."
If you do that, I know that it will be the beginning of many changes in your life.
Let me know if you've offered that prayer and I'll try to provide some pointers for how you can open yourself to a relationship of deepening trust with Jesus Christ.
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