Museum memorializes "the perpetual struggle to live up" to our national ideas

The museum, Mr. Obama said, would make visitors face uncomfortable truths. But it would also capture the essential greatness of the United States — the perpetual struggle to live up to its highest ideals.

Mr. Obama spoke emotionally of his many flights on Marine One across the Mall, past the alabaster spire of the Washington Monument and the lighted figure of Abraham Lincoln, sheltered in his memorial. He said he had watched the museum rise from the ground and thought of the days when he and his family would return to visit it as private citizens.

“We’ll walk away that much more in love with this country,” he said, “the only place on earth where this story could have unfolded.”

From The New York Times' coverage of the dedication of the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture, located on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

I hope to see the museum the next time I'm in Washington.

As season winds down, Brandon Phillips' days as a Red may be numbered

The player who may be remembered as the second-best second baseman in Cincinnati Reds history--after Joe Morgan--seems likely to be traded during the off-season. Since he has the right to veto any trade, it's likely, based on remarks he makes in the linked article, that he'll only go to a contender. I will hate to see Phillips go; he's one of my all time favorites.

Would selection committee give Houston a chance?

According to a survey of fifteen Power Five Conference ADs conducted by USA Today, yes, the Cougars could have a path to the College Football Playoff. But there are a lot of games to be played yet, including a game against #3 Louisville in Houston on November 17.

The way things look right now, the match-up versus Louisville would be even more demanding than the game the Cougars won in Norman over Oklahoma, which was also ranked #3 on the opening Saturday of college football season when the two teams played. Louisville impressively dismantled Florida State last week; so, they are likely to be a team to be reckoned with.

I'm pulling for the Cougars for a great season, not just because they play in the non-Power Five American Athletic Conference and I love rooting for the "little guys," but mostly because the Cougars' head coach is Tom Herman. Herman was the offensive coordinator for my Ohio State Buckeyes when OSU won the first College Football Playoff championship two seasons ago. His play-calling then was masterful. And he's done an amazing job with all facets of his job with the Cougars.

Houston is rumored to be one of the schools that the Big 12, a Power Five conference, is looking to add to their number. Should the Cougars go 13-0 in regular season play, as seems likely, it would only burnish the case for their admission among major colleges.

Admission into the Big 12 might also entice Herman, who could probably write his own ticket to any available major college program, to stay at Houston. The heightened level of competition and the bigger salary he could likely count on might keep him on. Houston is already a major hotbed for high school football player recruitment and Herman is winning many of them over. He's building something there.

[UPDATE: The likeliest scenario by which Houston could get into the playoffs, I think, is for Oklahoma, now 1-2, to win out the rest of the season as Houston similarly takes care of business in their own weaker conference. This will make their win over Oklahoma a more impressive item on their resume. Houston is still a long shot.]

Of course, if, improbably, Houston gets into the College Football Playoff and faces off against my Buckeyes, who have a great chance to make it to the final four this year, I'll hope that the Cougars just roll over and play dead.

How losing weight and eating healthfully are going

I've written here and here about my quest to lose weight and eat more healthfully after I tipped my doctor's scales at a gargantuan 189.7-pounds. That weigh-in occurred on June 13. On June 14, I began to cut my daily calorie intake.

In the first linked post, I talked about what I'd learned after about a month of more sensible eating. In the second linked post, I gave a progress report; at that point I weighed in at 176.5 pounds.

Yesterday, I went to the local Little Clinic because of a cough and cold. The examination room had scales in it and since I'd not weighed myself since September 1, I decided to bite the bullet.

I wasn't hopeful. I'd fallen off the calorie wagon several times over the past few weeks. On the other side of the ledger though, I had, a few days before, bought a new pair of jeans with a size 34 waist and felt comfortable in them. But when I put my hands on my belly, I could tell that it wasn't shrinking as dramatically as it did when I first began the process or when I'd been more consistently disciplined. (Many people have commented to me how weight comes off readily initially, but gets tougher as time goes on.)

I climbed on the scales. I couldn't believe it! I had lost more weight. I was now at 173 pounds. Not a dramatic reduction, of course, but I had half expected a gain.

In addition to all the lessons this process is teaching me, which I mentioned here, I guess I would point to another one: Maintaining a daily positive discipline isn't easy. (I know that's obvious. But I think it's worth noting.)

Whether, we're establishing disciplines to lose weight, get fit, be financially responsible, serve others, inform ourselves as voting citizens, or keep a daily quiet time with God, all positive things, there will always be some urgent or more compelling thing that keeps us from being disciplined. The hardest thing in the world to do is the right thing.

I've learned that truth more from my failures--including my failures at eating more healthfully--than I have from my successes.

But even that phrase "my successes" makes me laugh. The reason is simple: The reason that I've lost more than 16-pounds since June 14, a paltry amount if the diet technique commercials are to be believed, is not because of my will power. My will is to eat what I want, do what I want, spend as I want, look out for myself with no regard to others as I want.

But God is in the process of taming this rebel sinner. Each day, often many times a day, I turn to the God I know in Jesus Christ and ask Him, despite my self-will and stubbornness, to bring me under His control, to meet my willing but weak spirit and create and deepen faith in Christ within me, to create and deepen my dependence on Christ. And, I also pray that as Christ does this, He will cultivate in me the habits that will cause me to daily welcome Christ as Lord over my whole being.

The old Mark--sinful, selfish, willful--my default mode is always trying to steer me away from letting Christ have charge of my whole life. My only defense is the disciplines of Christian life, the means by which Christ comes to us and strengthens us to be who we know, through Christ, we can be:

• God's Word, the Bible;
• worship with fellow believers;
• the sacrament of Holy Communion, the true body and blood of Jesus;
• prayer;
• the fellowship of other believers;
• serving in Christ's name. 

As I indicated here, I regard this movement toward more healthy eating and a lower weight as a spiritual battle. There is nothing that the devil, the world, and our sinful selves (our old selves) like more than for us to be on "cruise control": self-satisfied, resigned to being who we are, unconcerned with others, unconcerned with taking care of the bodies that God has given to us.

When we follow these ordinary pathways of the world, we take ourselves out of the game in which God enlists us at our Baptism--and in which God wants to enlist all people: to love God, to love our neighbor, to surrender to the life-changing grace of God given only in Jesus, to make disciples.

I want to be in God's game until the moment I draw my last breath on earth. That's why I'm trying to eat healthfully and get to a good weight. Despite all the roadblocks I put in God's way, I keep turning back to Him to help me to make this new life style stick.

He can do the same thing for you.

Being Shrewd Managers of God's Graces

Luke 16:1-15
[Audio of this message can be found here.]

Let’s get one thing off the table immediately as we look at the strange parable Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 16:1-15. The God we know in Jesus Christ does not commend thievery or dishonesty.

The seventh commandment still says, “You shall not steal.”

The eighth commandment still tells us: “You shall not bear false witness.”

The Savior Jesus, the foundational Truth of the universe, Who came into our world not to abolish God’s Law, but to fulfill it, would never compliment dishonesty in financial dealings. Nor would He compliment cheating. But Jesus does commend the manager’s shrewdness. And He commends the shrewd use of all that has come under His disciples’ control in this life. It remains commendable for you and me. Let's find out why.

This parable is, above all, about stewardship. Not just the stewardship of our money, but the stewardship of our whole lives.

Each of us has been given the gift of life. Stewardship is about what we do with this gift.

James 1:17 reminds us: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” We tend to forget this and the moment we take something in hand--be it a job, a house, a car, a career, whatever--we think of it as being intrinsically, by right, ours. In perpetuity...or, until we decide to get rid of it or trade up or sell it or will it to our kids.

But that’s not what God’s Word tells us. Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

Whatever we have, not just property and goods, but also our minds, our bodies, our health, our friends and family and spouses, aren’t ours. We only have them on loan from God. So, how will we use this life that God has given to us? That is the question Jesus challenges us to answer in this parable.

Let’s look at verse 1: “Jesus told his disciples: There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”’”

The rich man isn’t quite ready to give his manager a pink slip. Maybe he’ll give the guy another--less cushy--assignment. But the rich man has heard that the manager is wasting his money.

This is curious! The manager is on the brink of getting fired or demoted because the rich man has heard rumors from gossips. He tells the manager, in effect, “I find you guilty. Now give me the evidence.”

Now, in your experiences, what sort of person is quickest to believe that someone else is cheating them, that someone else has lied to them? It’s usually someone who’s an accomplished cheat and liar themselves. They figure that everyone is as bad as untrustworthy as they are. So, when the rich man hears rumors about his manager, he believes them. We’ll get confirmation of this later in the parable.

Read on, please. “‘The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.” [The manager’s career options are dwindling.] So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” “Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,” he replied. The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.” “Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?” “A thousand bushels of wheat,” he replied. He told him, “Take your bill and make it eight hundred.”’”

Let's be clear: the manager is being completely self-serving. That's not the thing Jesus is commending.

But Jesus says that the manager is using the money owed to his master--or more accurately, forgiven portions of money owed to his master--to create a soft landing for himself--a golden parachute--after he gets fired. The manager figures that each of those whose debts were forgiven will be grateful to him and welcome them into their own households. We still have no idea from what Jesus tells us whether the manager actually had, as the gossips had reported, wasted the rich man’s possessions. But we do know this: That the IOUs the rich man was waiting to come due were now worth a lot less than they had been before.

And there’s something else we know now for sure: This rich man himself isn’t such an upright character. Old Testament law was clear in condemning usury, which it defined as loaning fellow Jews money with interest. Deuteronomy 23:19 says: “Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.”

Yet, here was the fictional rich man in Jesus’ parable likely making loans to other Jews with interest. Why do I say that was likely? Stick with me. But I will tell you now that I believe that the rich man violated God’s law and the law of his country to make money. He was a crook. No wonder he was suspicious of the manager without a shred of evidence.

And here’s the deal. There’s a good chance that the manager reduced what the rich man’s debtors actually owed him, without interest added, under the laws of Israel. It’s likely that one guy really only owed the rich man 450 gallons of olive oil and the other really only had borrowed 800 bushels of wheat. Either way you slice it, the manager was being shrewd. The debtors would appreciate his action. And the rich man would be more likely to get a 450 gallon payback of olive oil than 900 or 800 bushel payback of wheat than 1000...just as today, lenders will pay collection agencies to get at least something out of overdue loans, pennies on the dollar.

This may explain the next verse: “[Jesus says:] The master [didn’t fire the manager, but] commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For [Jesus goes on to explain] the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light [‘People of the light’ being disciples of Jesus]. I tell you [Jesus continues], use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Now, don’t miss Jesus’ point. Jesus is talking about how we are to manage every blessing that comes to us in this world and whether we will be prepared for what happens beyond death. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”

Death, for we fallen descendants of Adam and Eve, is inevitable. It hangs over each of us, just as the loss of his way of life hung over the manager in Jesus’ parable. The question for us, as it was for the manager, is this: Will we prepare for the life to come by being good stewards--good managers--of the lives we’re living right now? Will we share the riches of God's grace with others so that, by our sharing of the Gospel and of our lives with them, they too will become Christ's disciples and be there to welcome us gratefully in eternity? This is an enormous question!

One scholar says, rightly, I think, that there are three ways we can “manage” this life that God gives to us.

One way is to be like the rich fool of Jesus’ parable in Luke 12. Jesus tells about a man who acquired so much that he decided to build bigger barns to hold all his stuff. Then, he told himself, he would relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But Jesus says: “...God said to [this rich man], ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” [Luke 12:20-21] Watch out, Jesus says, that whenever you come to life’s end, you haven’t been spending all of God’s gifts on this life. That’s short-sighted: There will be no soft landing in eternity for people like this.

Another way we can “manage” the gifts of this life--and this life itself--is to, understanding that this life will pass from our hands one day and so, ignore taking care of God's gifts to us in this life. This what fifty years ago, the hippies in communes tried to do. They weren’t going to own anything. Or take care of anything. They were just passing through, man.

Through the centuries, there have been Christian movements that have adopted this line of thinking. These folks can be, as the saying puts it, so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good. Short as this life may be though, the gifts that come to us from God are to be taken care of, even our bodies. (By the way, have you had a physical lately?)

By His death on the cross, Jesus paid the ransom to buy us out of captivity to sin and death; even as we look forward to eternity, we owe it to Him to take care of this life and this world.

That entails being faithful to the promises we made to God and the Church when we were confirmed:

...to live among God’s faithful people, to hear His Word and share in His supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

That’s how we’re to use the gifts God has given to us. That's how we're to live and celebrate the free gift of grace given in Christ. That’s how we’re to manage our lives while on this planet!

This leads us to the third way we can live our lives. It’s the way of the manager in Jesus’ parable. It’s the way of shrewdness. One scholar has written that the manager uses “the authority he still has in the present [world] to feather his bed for the future [world].”

Every bit of this life God has given to us is meant to be invested in eternity, in the things of Christ’s eternal kingdom. Invest your life, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, in glorifying the God Who has saved you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

We all will get pink slips someday, our time and work on earth will be through.

But when it happens, may we stand before our Lord, gloriously spent, good managers who gave this life our all for Christ’s glory, people who, by the way we have entrusted all that we have and all the we are to Christ, have lived faithfully and wisely in response to God's goodness to us.

It will be the ultimate soft landing, right into the hand of God.

And Christ will tell us: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” [Matthew 25:34] It’s then that all will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that those who have managed their lives with gratitude for all that God has done for them are the shrewdest people of all. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during worship on September 18.]

Does 1 Timothy 2:8-15 Show That Paul Was a Sexist?

Not being aware during this morning's worship of the events in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota, I called two of the appointed lessons for this Sunday "fire bombs" because of their power to disturb. Late in the week, I got an email from a member of the Living Water family asking if I would say a few words of explanation of 1 Timothy 2:1-15, the last eight verses of which might raise questions, to say the least. (The other disturbing passage appointed for the day was the Gospel lesson, Luke 16:1-15, which includes a parable in which Jesus tells Christians to be shrewd.)

Anyway, I decided to spend some time talking about these verses, 1 Timothy 2:8-15, before preaching:

⁸ Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. ⁹ I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰ but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

Here's a link to that discussion. It's about seven and a half minutes long.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Old As Religion by John Reuben

It's been seven years since rapper (and Columbus native) John Reuben released his last LP, the phenomenal, Sex, Drugs, and Self Control.

I'd read a few months ago that he was back in a recording studio. On Friday, he dropped this new track onto the Internet. It's a great tune that I look forward to getting to know better. Welcome back, Johnny Reubonic!

(The words to Old As Religion can be found right now on Reuben's home page.)

Please pray for Nabeel Qureshi

Please pray for Nabeel Qureshi. This extraordinary scholar and man of God came to faith in Christ, after being a devout Muslim, eleven years ago.

Since then, he has sought both to reach Muslims with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help other Christians to reach out lovingly to their Muslim neighbors.

Qureshi has learned that he has stomach cancer. The cancer is in the advanced stages and he reports that doctors say he has a 4% chance of surviving.

Qureshi is the author of the extraordinary, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity. Just this past week, his latest book, No God but One: Allah or Jesus?: A Former Muslim Investigates the Evidence for Islam and Christianity was published recently.

Please ask God to bring him healing.

Just finished reading...

Here are two books I finished reading this week.

Transforming Discipleship by Greg Ogden is a great overview for church leaders interested in helping their congregations to develop cultures of disciple making. Ogden's model is built on triads, groups of three people, including a convener or catalyst, and two other people who all covenant to grow together in their faith through study, prayer, action based on what God's Word says, and mutual accountability. It eschews programs and opts instead for the relational methods employed by Jesus, Paul, and Barnabas. We are in the process of implementing a discipleship culture at Living Water Lutheran Church, where I serve as pastor, and it's exciting to see how God is moving us toward the fulfillment of the only mission Jesus ever gave to the Church: making disciples. Ogden is a helpful resource. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

The Element by Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica is all about finding the thing we're passionate about to determine what we should do in life. That's a thin (and obvious) reed on which to hang a 270-page book and, let's be honest, not everyone has the opportunity to pursue their passions in life. But, as Artemis Ward (not Abraham Lincoln, as I had long believed) once said of a book he'd been asked to review: "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like." The book is filled with interesting anecdotes. I rate this book at 2.5 stars out of a possible 5.

Truth

Love this quote from the late Dallas Willard: "The average church-going Christian has a headful of vital truths about God and a body unable to fend off sin."

True...and virtually the same as Jesus said of His disciples: "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

All the more reason for we who confess Christ as God and Savior to pray, "Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil."

Handle with Care by The Traveling Wilburys

Just before reading The Economist's piece on George Frideric Handel (mentioned in the previous post), I read about another musician called George from across the pond and a trip he took to America before he became famous. That other George was George Harrison.

Harrison visited his sister Louise in Benton, Illinois, along with his brother Peter, a few months before the US was infected with Beatlemania. I was sent down the rabbit hole of reading about Harrison in Illinois by the announcement from a high school classmate, Peter Conrad, that a song of his is included in the soundtrack of a film about Harrison's visit to Benton.

Harrison wrote Handle with Care as a B-side and thought it would be fun to get some others involved in its recording, namely, Jeff Lynne (who was producing the LP on which the A-side of the single was to appear), Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison. After the recording proved to be satisfying and fun, the five musicians decided to do more tracks, resulting in the LP, The Traveling Wilburys.

Handel was unavailable to record with other five musicians at the time, though his name (sort of) appears in the title of this track.

Handel with Care

On this date in 1751, George Frideric Handel completed The Messiah. Here's an article from The Economist; it anticipated the anniversary of Handel's death in 1759.

Lord of the Riff Raff

Luke 15:1-10
[Here's an audio version of this post.]

Apple rolled out its new iPhone 7 this past week. It’s generated a lot of advance sales and buzz. That’s because the new phone has no headphone jack because it uses wireless earbuds, called airpods.

A big concern has arisen though: What if people lose their airpods? This burning question has been the subject online articles at Forbes, Marketwatch, The Daily Beast, Barron’s, and The Chicago Tribune, among other places. One article was headlined snarkily and accurately: "Entire world terrified about losing Apple AirPods that no one even owns yet."

When you can't find your AirPods anywhere pic.twitter.com/t6sUfLT1oA

— Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) September 7, 2016

Now, I love my Apple products. In fact, I love to go into Apple stores just to smell all the technology! But when I consider...

the young people likely to lose normal life spans or normal brain function because of their drinking water in Flint, Michigan...

or the people losing their lives because of interminable wars in places like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan...

or parents and others losing family members to the horrors of drug-addiction...

or the lives of babies being lost when abortion is used as a birth control method...

or children losing their innocence in a global sex-crazed culture...

anxiety over losing a couple of airpods seems sinfully inconsequential.

Nonetheless, all this anxiety demonstrates a truth: The value we attach to things or people directly corresponds to the anxiety we feel over losing them as well as to the joy we experience when, after losing them, we find them again.

In Luke 15:1-10, today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells two parables. They’re both familiar to us.

In the first, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd charged with overseeing one-hundred sheep. One of the sheep gets away. Apparently, the shepherd believed that all his sheep mattered. So, he searched for the lost sheep, found it, carried it back to its place, then threw a party for his friends, all because this valuable thing that had been lost now was found.

In the second parable, Jesus tells the story of a woman who owns ten silver coins, then loses one. She scours the house until she finds the coin. Like the shepherd in the first parable, she invites her neighbors over for a celebration because this valuable thing that had been lost now was found.

Of course, Jesus didn’t tell these parables just to entertain us. (Although I remember hearing Dr. Henry Mitchell say at a lecture, "The opposite of entertainment is not education.") Jesus told parables to educate and inspire us. But mostly He told them to transform us.

To get in on the transforming power of these two parables, it’s important to remember the context within which Jesus told them. In the first two verses of our Gospel lesson, Luke gives us the context:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Two groups of people were present, each with their own motives for gathering around Jesus.

One group included tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors, in those days, of course, were hated people, shaking people down so that they could line their own pockets. They were thieves. We don’t know exactly what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of “sinners.” But He probably meant people who had, until this point, been unrepentant sinners, but now, like the tax collectors, saw in Jesus Someone Who bore the authority of God and the power of God’s love, Who would grant them God’s forgiveness and make their lives new.

The other group to whom Jesus spoke were Pharisees and teachers of God’s law, people who saw themselves as upright people above reproach, alarmed by Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and new life to those who repented and surrendered to Him. They were alarmed too that Jesus, while claiming to be from God, would spend His time with and sit down to party with such sinners. They gathered around Jesus so that they could gather incriminating evidence against Him.

It’s significant that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were horrified by Jesus eating with notorious sinners. For centuries, Jews had been looking forward to the day when they would sit at the great heavenly banquet with God’s anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ.

Isaiah 25:6 promised: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.”

The feast was promised (and is promised) to all who trusted in God and in His Messiah. Well before the day that Jesus told the two parables in our lesson, people were starting to speak of Him as the Messiah. In Luke 9:20, after Jesus asks Peter and the other disciples who they think He is, Peter answers plainly: “God’s Messiah.”

For the Pharisees and teachers of the Jewish law, this was deeply disturbing. Now the One being called Messiah by some was feasting--hinting at the great banquet all who trust in God will enjoy in eternity--with the riff raff. Was Jesus saying that this collection of no goods and nobodies were going to feast with God and them in eternity?

Actually, that was close to what Jesus was saying. The riff raff who turned from sin and trusted in Christ would be welcome to the Messiah’s banquet. But the Pharisees and teachers of the law were, it turns out, a bit too confident about their own places at the table.

That’s why Jesus ends the first parable at verse 7, with these words: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

According to Jesus, there’s a party, an outbreak of the Messianic banquet, every time a single sinner turns from their sin and trusts in the Savior Who died and rose for them to give them new life. That’s good news, or as the Old English word we use without much thought, puts it, God-spell, Gospel!

Yes, Jesus is saying, all this riff raff will be at the banquet. And so will all the other riff raff who turn to Him in despair over their sins and turn to Him too with faith in Him as their only gracious God and King. (That’s gospel even for riff raff like you and me!)

But did you notice what Jesus also says in that verse to all the Pharisees and others who think that their goodness secures their reservations for the heavenly banquet? Did you see the little barb in Jesus' words? Jesus says that there will be a bigger party in heaven over one sinner who repents than over “ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Now I ask you, can you name a single person besides Jesus since Adam and Eve fell into sin who has had no need of repentance?

The Pharisees and teachers of the law thought that they needed no repentance. (And maybe we think that sometimes.) But, Jesus is saying, people who are confident in their own goodness need to think again.

Listen: Every sinner matters to God. Every sinner can receive grace that can transform us into God’s friends and transform the way we live each day. But that only happens for those who can acknowledge that they’re sinners in need of forgiveness, debtors to God for Whom Jesus has paid the price when He died on the cross.

True story: A seminary professor had just finished a lecture and was approached by a first year student with a big smile on his face. The professor had just lectured on temptation and sin, big topics. “Professor So and So,” the student said. “It’s amazing. But I just wanted you to know that it’s been seven years since I've been tempted to sin.” He was pleased with his own righteousness. The professor replied, “That’s about the worst thing I can imagine hearing.” The student’s expression changed, “Why?” “Because,” the professor told him, “it means that you’re so filled with self-righteousness that you’re not hearing God’s call to repent and trust in Jesus’ righteousness, rather than your own.” The professor was telling that student that he was really lost.

But the God we know in Jesus Christ can find lost people. And He can use believers in Christ like you and me to find them.

Another true story. A prominent Christian speaker was doing a seminar in Hawaii. The event was to begin in the evening and so, this speaker and some of his friends decided to grab an early dinner at a local greasy spoon. A group of women, whose profession was obvious, came in at the same time for coffee. The Christian speaker learned that it was the birthday of one of the women--we’ll call her Doris--and that at the end of the evening, at about three in the morning, Doris and the other women would gather again for a late night supper before heading for their homes.

The speaker and his friends hatched a plan. They bought a birthday cake, candles, streamers, noisemakers, and went back to the diner to await the women’s return. When the women got back, they threw a birthday party for Doris. They led everyone in singing Happy Birthday. Doris, who hadn’t been treated with genuine kindness in a long time, wept.

Later, someone asked the speaker why he and his friends had thrown this party. “Because,” he said, “we’re Christians.” “Really?” the questioner said. “What kinds of Christian are you?” “The kind of Christian who throws parties for prostitutes at three o’clock in the morning.” That speaker and his friends knew the truth of Paul's words in Romans that tell us that it's the kindness of God that leads sinners to repentance. That speaker and his friends were Christians who treated lost people exactly the way Jesus treats lost people, including you and me. He welcomes us and invites us to a party!

Every sinner (that's all of us) and every dying person (that's all of us too) matters to God.

You matter to God.

God doesn’t want to lose you. God doesn’t want to lose anybody.

God has dedicated Himself and He’s called us to the pursuit of one single purpose: Finding those dying in sin and hopelessness and helping them to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ!

On the cross, Jesus bore the punishment we deserve for sin, so that as we turn from sin, we are set free from death and share in His resurrection. We become part of His banquet, even today as we trustingly receive His body and blood in Holy Communion.

In response to Christ, this week, I ask you to do two things.

First, let Christ find you! Let Christ call you to repentance, and cover you with His forgiveness. Live in His love. Relish God’s celebration of His love for you.

Second, ask God to help you to invite the lost ones in your life to “come and taste the goodness of the Lord.” Do that for one simple reason: Everyone matters to God.

That, and because God loves to throw a party when the lost are found. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during both worship services today.]

The Cost of Being a Disciple (AUDIO)

Here.

Her Majesty by the Beatles

Paul McCartney drew the curtain on the Beatles' years with this little throwaway.

I wanna tell her that I love her a lot
But I gotta get a belly full of wine
Her majesty's a pretty nice girl
Some day I'm gonna make her mine

So far as we know, he never did.

Should You Follow Your Heart?

Not so much.

'Which Professions Have the Most Psychopaths?'

That's the headline for a piece from TIME that got my attention when I saw it linked on Twitter a few weeks ago. I wondered: Does my profession have more than its share of psychopaths? I suspected that it did.

But before the TIME article gets around to revealing which professions have the most psychopaths, it defines what a psychopath really is:

...psychopath doesn’t just mean someone who cuts you up with a chainsaw — though the majority of people who do things like that are psychopaths.

[Then quoting Wikipedia, that last word in all human knowledge evidently, we're told that,] "Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial character, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality."

The ten professions with the highest incidence of psychopaths (designated with a + sign) and the lowest (designated with - sign), according to both TIME and The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success, the book from which the following lists come, are:

And there's my profession, in at number 8, right after journalists and police officers, just before chefs and civil servants.

Frankly, it all looks like a bad case of "pop psychology" to me. Whatever it is, I hope that the lists are wrong.

Think Christianity is Shrinking?

Think again. From The Washington Post:

The center of Christianity has shifted from Europe to the global South.

The religious landscape is particularly changing for the world’s Christians. A century ago, 80 percent lived in North America and Europe, compared with just 40 percent today.

In 1980, more Christians were found in the global South than the North for the first time in 1,000 years. Today, the Christian community in Latin America and Africa, alone, account for 1 billion people.

Over the past 100 years, Christians grew from less than 10 percent of Africa’s population to its nearly 500 million today. One out of four Christians in the world presently is an Africa, and the Pew Research Center estimates that will grow to 40 percent by 2030.

Asia is also experiencing growth as world Christianity’s center has moved not only South, but also East. In the last century, Christianity grew at twice the rate of population in that continent. Asia’s Christian population of 350 million is projected to grow to 460 million by 2025.

The global religious wildcard is China. Even today, demographers estimate that more Christian believers are found worshipping in China on any given Sunday than in the United States. Future trends, while difficult to predict because so much is below the religious radar, could dramatically drive down the world’s religious “nones.”

Nones are those who say they have no religion.

So, while the rest of the world is becoming increasingly Christian, the United States presently is moving in the opposite direction.

And, while it's often said that Islam is growing more quickly than Christianity is on the world scene, that's misleading. In fact, Islam's growth is a byproduct of births to Muslim families. But Christianity is seeing hundreds of thousands more conversions to Christian faith. That's real growth. Reports of the demise of Christian faith are not only premature; they're incorrect.

Do presidents need a 'council of historical advisers'?

Graham Ellison and Niall Ferguson, co-directors of Harvard Kennedy School's Applied History Project, make a good argument that our presidents should have a group of trained historians to help in the formulation of policy.

I've always loved the study of history, but I'm not an advocate of the "history for history's sake" school of thought. I study history to learn the lessons it can teach me, as a person and as someone given the precious right to vote. This is what Ellison and Ferguson call "applied history."

History doesn't repeat itself, as some say. But it is true, as King Solomon wrote, that there's nothing new under the sun. Human nature being human nature, there are always analogs in history that can help us navigate the present.

When I was a kid, my parents bought an encyclopedia of United States history for me. It had sixteen volumes, a new volume released each week for four months. Those sixteen volumes became well worn during my elementary school years! President Kennedy wrote the foreword to the whole thing. I was so taken with one line that I memorized the words. I still remember them fifty years later:

A knowledge of the past prepares us for the crisis of the present and the challenge of the future.

That's a truth that has never left me.

As Ellison and Ferguson point out, many policy makers are either completely or partly ignorant of history. The result is that when new challenges arise, they, in essence, "fly blind," oblivious to what history might teach them about the options they're considering. Policy decision-makers become like someone pulling the pin from a hand grenade without knowing that doing so is going to blow them and everything around them to pieces. 

A presidential council of historical advisers, operating like the Council of Economic Advisers we've had for decades, could help presidents in four ways, Ellison and Ferguson say:

• Were a Council of Historical Advisers in place today, it could consider precedents for numerous strategic problems...
• The council might study whether a former president’s handling of another crisis could be applied to a current challenge (what would X have done?).
• A president might also ask the council “what if?” questions. What if some action had not been taken, or a different action had been taken? [In essence, Ellison is here suggesting that the advisers could do after-action reviews that might help in the formulation of future policies.]
• Finally, the council might consider grand strategic questions... [i.e., Is the United States in decline?]

The ignorance of history, particularly the kind of applied history that Ellison and Ferguson are talking about, has had a destructive impact on our country. Neither American citizens nor American leaders know much about history and, as a result, stupid and often tragic mistakes are made that would otherwise be avoided. I like Ellison's and Ferguson's proposal.

The Cost of Being a Disciple

Luke 14:1-14
An old bit of wisdom says, “Let the buyer beware.”

It’s a good idea whatever we’re in the market for to be careful not to buy a “bill of goods” and to make sure that whoever is trying to convince us of anything is engaging in “truth in advertising.”

Our Gospel lesson from Luke for today finds Jesus engaging in “truth in advertising.” He wants people to know exactly what is involved in following Him, in being His disciple.

God’s grace, His forgiveness and favor, is a free gift; but to grasp hold of it costs us our whole lives.

To take hold of Jesus means to let go of the world’s way of thinking and living. It means also letting go of our own way of thinking and living. Those are hard things to give up!

Jesus wants us to understand that there is a cost to being His disciple.

Take a look, please, at this morning’s Gospel lesson, Luke 14:25-33. Verse 25 starts: “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus...”

Whenever Luke references crowds, Luke is talking about people who are interested in Jesus, maybe even hopeful that Jesus will do something for them, but who haven’t committed to following Jesus.

The crowds wanted just enough of Jesus to get from Him what they wanted, but not enough to let Him change their lives. If this is our approach to Jesus, no matter how many good things we do--in church or outside of church--we’re no more Jesus’ disciples than those crowds.

It's important understanding the difference between being part of a crowd acquainted with Jesus on the one hand, and being a follower of Jesus, on the other hand, as we consider Jesus' words to us today.

Read on with me, please: “...and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.’”

In Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke every day, the word hate didn't necessarily imply hostility, but often was a comparative term. It meant to love less, to hold one thing or person as having less importance than another.

In this verse, Jesus is telling us to love our families and our own lives less than we love Him, to love Him more than these things.

Frankly, this command from Jesus has incredible relevance for how we live our lives in 2016. This past week, I saw a stunning Infographic on bigthink.com about 'helicopter parenting,' you know the phenomenon of parents hovering around the lives of their kids, no matter how old the kids are.* They talked to job recruiters, people in charge of finding people to fill professional positions and learned, for example, that "30% of recruiters have had a parent submit a resume for their child." And that "12% had a parent call to set up an interview."

Parents like these think that they're being loving toward their children. But if one of the goals of parenthood is to prepare children for adulthood, then their behavior can only be described as unloving. Helicopter parenting cripples kids and creates unhealthy co-dependencies. And it stems not from love, but from egotism, narcissism, and a need to be needed, which is nothing other than the ancient human desire to "be like God."

The truth is that we will love our families better if we love Jesus most of all.

In commanding us to this, Jesus isn’t expecting more of us than He expected of Himself: It would have been easy for Jesus to listen to His family’s and followers’ plea to avoid the cross. But He ignored them to pursue the will of God by taking the cross, where He loved us and offered us the possibility of salvation through faith in Him, which he couldn’t have given to us had He not given God the Father first place in His life!

I like what a person wrote in an online article a few years ago about the God Who comes to us in Jesus: "God does not offer us a choice. He comes, not hat in hand, but ready for battle. He breaks into the strong man’s house [that is, He breaks into our wills, held captive by sin from the moment of our conceptions] entering into contention against the heart, soul & mind of the [sinner]. The rational free will of [human beings] cannot believe or accept this & as such God always ...appears as the opposite, contrary to our expectations, confounding appeals to choice."

Where do Jesus and His Word found in the Bible fall on your list priorities in life?

Is Jesus everything or is He nothing to you? (Because those are the only two choices before us.)

Read verse 27 now [Jesus is still speaking]: “...whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

One scholar says of these words, says: “Bearing a cross has nothing to do with chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships. It is instead what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ. Cross bearing requires deliberate sacrifice and exposure to risk and ridicule in order to follow Jesus. This commitment is not just a way of life...It is a commitment to a person. A disciple follows another person and learns a new way of life.”

That person Who calls us to a different way of life is Jesus.

Discipleship means breaking with the world’s values in order to follow Jesus and His Word alone.

After saying these provocative things Jesus tells two parables, each meant to urge those considering following Him to count the cost involved.

In one, Jesus says that farmers, who in first century Judea where He lived, often built towers to give themselves early warning about marauding thieves or wild animals, would be crazy not to figure out whether they could afford the structures before starting to build them.

Similarly, Jesus says, a king who didn’t know about the strength of an opposing army would be foolish to start a war with that army. Again, Jesus wants us to know that following Him isn’t easy.

Then, in verse 33, Jesus says what may be the most dumbfounding thing of all in this lesson: “...those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”

What do we make of this? In James 1:17, we’re told: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…”

Every penny that comes into our possession, no matter how hard we work for it, is a gift from God to be used not just for our own needs, but for the glory of God, the sharing of the Gospel, and the good of others.

We may say, “I earned the money through brain and brawn and hours of over-time or extra work.”

But who gave you the brain and the brawn and the power to put in extra time?

Who made the resources from which our daily bread and our luxuries are made?

Jesus is not asking every Christian to take the vow of poverty. He’s calling us to allow His grace to change our attitude about our money and possessions. He wants to be the Lord of our money, our life, our families, our intimate relationships, our work, our everything. We can have nothing of Jesus’ kingdom unless we are willing to let Him be King over every part of our lives!

And make no mistake: Jesus has every right to demand that of us! On the cross, we were bought out of slavery to sin and death by Jesus’ suffering and death.

In response to such unfathomable grace, He calls us to give Him the final say on how we spend not just our time and our lives, but also our money.

The old saying tells us, “You can’t take it with you!” That’s true. But we can invest it in the kingdom--in sharing the good news, in expanding the ministries of churches, in helping the poor. In short, we’re to use our money for the same purposes for which we’re to live our lives as grateful recipients of God’s amazing grace: To love God, love neighbor, love the Church, tell the good news that all who believe in Jesus Christ have everlasting life with God. To...

Reach up,  
Reach in,  
Reach out!

Now, if these words of Jesus for this morning are as daunting to you as they are to me, I want you to consider some very good news. Three times in our lesson, Jesus uses the phrase “cannot be my disciple”: in verses 26, 27, and 33. In the original Greek, the same words are used in each place, giving the verses this literal meaning, “You do not have the power to be My disciples unless you put Me in first place, take up the cross, and give Me access to your whole life.” Jesus uses that word for power or ability in another place in Luke’s Gospel. It comes after Jesus tells the disciples that it will be harder for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom than it would be for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. The disciples, who to that point, thought that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, ask Jesus, “Then, who does have the power or ability to get into the kingdom?” Jesus says, literally, “The things that human beings cannot do [or don’t have the ability to do], God can do.”

Sisters and brothers in Christ, those who follow Jesus have all the gifts He came into our world to bring: forgiveness of sin, lives lived for good purposes, strength when we’re weak, eternity with God.

But unless Jesus rules over our lives without rival, these gifts cannot come to us. The good news is that your ability to follow Jesus, the Savior Who died and rose for you, doesn’t depend on you.

If you want Jesus to take first place in your life, all you need is to make yourself available to Him and ask Him to help you do just that. Give Jesus room to work in your life and He will work in your life. Right now. Every day. The Holy Spirit Jesus sends into open lives and open wills can take care of the rest!

Now, if you’re anything like me, immediately after you tell the Lord something like, “I’m available, Jesus; be first in my life,” you’ll start making your own plans, dreaming your own dreams, obsessing on your own thoughts, maybe even committing your own favorite sins. Keep asking Jesus to take first place in your life. He is faithful, even when we’re not.

But, just as the buyer should beware, the would-be follower of Jesus should be aware, too: Let Jesus into your life and He will start to make of you what cannot make of yourself. Despite the temptations you face, despite the sins for which you must repeatedly repent, as you turn to Jesus, He will relentlessly, lovingly, and in ways you yourself will be unable to perceive or understand, turn you into the person God wants all people to be, the person our secret hearts most yearn to be.

Do you know what Jesus will make of you? He will make you His disciple.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was shared during worship with the people of Living Water yesterday.]

*Thanks to writer and blogger Leslie Sholly for sharing this Instagram on Twitter.]