Here.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message from yesterday's worship. A few seconds got cut off from the beginning of the message.]
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
Resurrection Hope
John 11:21-27
[This was a message presented during a memorial service today.]
As I learned a little bit about Ella last week, I got the idea she was someone I would have liked knowing. It seems she tried her hand at everything. She was an adventurous traveler, a musician, an avid listener of music, a seamstress, a history buff, and a nurse. And I’m sure that had I gotten to know her, she would have opened my eyes to a whole culture I know nothing about, the world of QVC.
As you gather to honor a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend today, it’s good to laugh together as well as to grieve together. It’s wonderful to draw on happy memories in the midst of grief.
But, of course, our laughter and smiles would amount to nothing more than whistling in the dark were it not for Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in human flesh, Who led a sinless life and sacrificed Himself on the cross He didn’t deserve so that all who daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Him have life with God today and, beyond the gates of our own death, in eternity, a place where death and grief will no longer afflict us. As Jesus told a man named Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
In the midst of your grief for one you loved and the inevitable reminder of your own mortality your loss brings, it’s good to remember that we have not only Jesus’ own resurrection to remind us of His power over death and life. He displayed this power on more than a few occasions, in the presence of many hundreds of witnesses. In fact, just a few verses beyond our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is seen displaying this power again in raising yet another person from the dead.
In our lesson, John 11:21-27, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died. Jesus had known that Lazarus was dying several days earlier and had deliberately waited for Lazarus’ death before journeying to the village of Bethany with the twelve apostles. His intention was to demonstrate the power of God to bring new life to the dead, a sign of Who He was and is. He would raise Lazarus from the dead.
But, of course, nobody else knew that. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Martha initially speaks to Jesus almost reproachfully.
Yet, even her words of reproach are tinged with an understanding of just Who Jesus is and what He can do for those who trust in Him. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Even now, in the midst of my grief, Martha was saying, I know Your connection to God the Father. Even now, I understand that You are more than just a man, more than a great teacher or a good guy. And even now, I know that you have the power to reverse the impact that sin, death, and darkness have on human life. You can change everything.
Martha, in a way, had no idea what she was saying. All she knew was that she trusted--she believed in--Jesus. And you can too. Even in the midst of your grief.
Jesus assured Martha that her brother would rise again. Pious Jews, especially those who belonged to the sect of Judaism known as Pharisees, believed that those who trusted in God would rise from the dead, that the grave was not the end of life for those who lived a lifestyle of repentance and belief. And so, Martha says of her brother: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
'Wait a moment,' Jesus seems to say next, 'you miss my point, Martha. I’m not saying that God has control over life and death just in the sweet by-and-by. God controls life and death and eternity here and now!'
Eternity in the presence of God can invade the earthly lives of anyone who trusts in Christ. That’s true right now, even in the midst of griefs and challenges. And so Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
For the believer in the God we meet and know in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead isn’t some theological abstraction, a phrase in a dusty creed. Resurrected life happens in Him. Life beyond the grave and life beyond the fear of death, the fear of a meaningless life, happens in Jesus and in Jesus alone.
This is why Jesus says elsewhere: “I and the Father are one” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the way to life. He’s the source of all life and the source of all life beyond the grave. Only Jesus can comfort us in our sorrow, give meaning to our lives, and save us from sin and death.
That's why the first Christians said: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
This is exactly what Jesus told Martha as she grieved for her brother. It’s what He tells you and me today. And He promises Martha, and you, and me, and all who grieve or who face death themselves: “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Then Jesus asked the most important question any of us will ever be asked, the question on which the fate of our eternal existences hinges, and the question which, I am told, Ella answered in the affirmative: “Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that Jesus Himself rose from the dead, a fact that more than 500 witnesses insisted on despite facing certain persecution and possible death for sticking to their witness?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give life beyond the grave?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give you life, strength, joy, comfort, peace, and purpose even now?
When Martha was asked if she believed, her response was clear: “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
None of us knows what our tomorrows in this world may bring. But we do know that everything--past, present, future, and eternity--belongs to the God we meet in Jesus Christ.
That was the faith of Martha.
It was Ella’s faith.
It's the faith of Christ's Church.
And it can be our faith too.
Jesus is the resurrection, the God Who makes all things new. As you grieve and look to your future, trust in Him to be your resurrection and your life. He will never let you down. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[This was a message presented during a memorial service today.]
As I learned a little bit about Ella last week, I got the idea she was someone I would have liked knowing. It seems she tried her hand at everything. She was an adventurous traveler, a musician, an avid listener of music, a seamstress, a history buff, and a nurse. And I’m sure that had I gotten to know her, she would have opened my eyes to a whole culture I know nothing about, the world of QVC.
As you gather to honor a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend today, it’s good to laugh together as well as to grieve together. It’s wonderful to draw on happy memories in the midst of grief.
But, of course, our laughter and smiles would amount to nothing more than whistling in the dark were it not for Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in human flesh, Who led a sinless life and sacrificed Himself on the cross He didn’t deserve so that all who daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Him have life with God today and, beyond the gates of our own death, in eternity, a place where death and grief will no longer afflict us. As Jesus told a man named Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
In the midst of your grief for one you loved and the inevitable reminder of your own mortality your loss brings, it’s good to remember that we have not only Jesus’ own resurrection to remind us of His power over death and life. He displayed this power on more than a few occasions, in the presence of many hundreds of witnesses. In fact, just a few verses beyond our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is seen displaying this power again in raising yet another person from the dead.
In our lesson, John 11:21-27, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died. Jesus had known that Lazarus was dying several days earlier and had deliberately waited for Lazarus’ death before journeying to the village of Bethany with the twelve apostles. His intention was to demonstrate the power of God to bring new life to the dead, a sign of Who He was and is. He would raise Lazarus from the dead.
But, of course, nobody else knew that. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Martha initially speaks to Jesus almost reproachfully.
Yet, even her words of reproach are tinged with an understanding of just Who Jesus is and what He can do for those who trust in Him. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Even now, in the midst of my grief, Martha was saying, I know Your connection to God the Father. Even now, I understand that You are more than just a man, more than a great teacher or a good guy. And even now, I know that you have the power to reverse the impact that sin, death, and darkness have on human life. You can change everything.
Martha, in a way, had no idea what she was saying. All she knew was that she trusted--she believed in--Jesus. And you can too. Even in the midst of your grief.
Jesus assured Martha that her brother would rise again. Pious Jews, especially those who belonged to the sect of Judaism known as Pharisees, believed that those who trusted in God would rise from the dead, that the grave was not the end of life for those who lived a lifestyle of repentance and belief. And so, Martha says of her brother: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
'Wait a moment,' Jesus seems to say next, 'you miss my point, Martha. I’m not saying that God has control over life and death just in the sweet by-and-by. God controls life and death and eternity here and now!'
Eternity in the presence of God can invade the earthly lives of anyone who trusts in Christ. That’s true right now, even in the midst of griefs and challenges. And so Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
For the believer in the God we meet and know in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead isn’t some theological abstraction, a phrase in a dusty creed. Resurrected life happens in Him. Life beyond the grave and life beyond the fear of death, the fear of a meaningless life, happens in Jesus and in Jesus alone.
This is why Jesus says elsewhere: “I and the Father are one” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the way to life. He’s the source of all life and the source of all life beyond the grave. Only Jesus can comfort us in our sorrow, give meaning to our lives, and save us from sin and death.
That's why the first Christians said: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
This is exactly what Jesus told Martha as she grieved for her brother. It’s what He tells you and me today. And He promises Martha, and you, and me, and all who grieve or who face death themselves: “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Then Jesus asked the most important question any of us will ever be asked, the question on which the fate of our eternal existences hinges, and the question which, I am told, Ella answered in the affirmative: “Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that Jesus Himself rose from the dead, a fact that more than 500 witnesses insisted on despite facing certain persecution and possible death for sticking to their witness?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give life beyond the grave?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give you life, strength, joy, comfort, peace, and purpose even now?
When Martha was asked if she believed, her response was clear: “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
None of us knows what our tomorrows in this world may bring. But we do know that everything--past, present, future, and eternity--belongs to the God we meet in Jesus Christ.
That was the faith of Martha.
It was Ella’s faith.
It's the faith of Christ's Church.
And it can be our faith too.
Jesus is the resurrection, the God Who makes all things new. As you grieve and look to your future, trust in Him to be your resurrection and your life. He will never let you down. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Luther's Catechisms, Part 3 (AUDIO)
Here. From an adult Sunday School class we're doing these days.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Perfect Though Imperfect?
Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, τέλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, Τετέλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, τέλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, Τετέλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Saturday, February 18, 2017
"Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Piggybacking off of my post from several days ago...We were headed to an ordination service this past Sunday afternoon when traffic into the town we were going to came to a halt.
Ahead, I could see the flashers of a police cruiser. We were only five cars back in the growing traffic jam. With the incident, whatever it was, so fresh, I decided to see if there was any help I could provide.
I approached an SUV, which had clearly swerved out of control, then flipped over, its passenger side now resting on the pavement. The EMS had not yet arrived, but in addition to the police, several people were already on the scene to help.
Three men had clambered onto the SUV and opened the driver's door. I was wearing my collar, which of course, to some people makes me look like a priest.
One of the fellows working to extract a woman still strapped inside the SUV spotted me approaching and bellowed out in a voice filled with enthusiasm and relief, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Before I had spoken a word, that Good Samaritan saw in the collar associated with my office as pastor, a sign of God's presence and concern for people.
If any voice I've ever heard in my life registered joy and gratitude beyond the words it spoke, it was that man's voice. He was inviting me to celebrate with him! And the collar I wore signaled to him that God was ready to be with people in suffering and death, as well as in joy and life...and in celebration!
To be privileged with the the particular ministry that God has given to me--and God gives a ministry to every Christian--is a blessing and deeply gratifying. The moment that man called out, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!" was, for me, one of gratification and blessing.
Thank You, Lord!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Ahead, I could see the flashers of a police cruiser. We were only five cars back in the growing traffic jam. With the incident, whatever it was, so fresh, I decided to see if there was any help I could provide.
I approached an SUV, which had clearly swerved out of control, then flipped over, its passenger side now resting on the pavement. The EMS had not yet arrived, but in addition to the police, several people were already on the scene to help.
Three men had clambered onto the SUV and opened the driver's door. I was wearing my collar, which of course, to some people makes me look like a priest.
One of the fellows working to extract a woman still strapped inside the SUV spotted me approaching and bellowed out in a voice filled with enthusiasm and relief, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Before I had spoken a word, that Good Samaritan saw in the collar associated with my office as pastor, a sign of God's presence and concern for people.
If any voice I've ever heard in my life registered joy and gratitude beyond the words it spoke, it was that man's voice. He was inviting me to celebrate with him! And the collar I wore signaled to him that God was ready to be with people in suffering and death, as well as in joy and life...and in celebration!
To be privileged with the the particular ministry that God has given to me--and God gives a ministry to every Christian--is a blessing and deeply gratifying. The moment that man called out, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!" was, for me, one of gratification and blessing.
Thank You, Lord!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Thursday, February 16, 2017
When I wore my clerical collar to Sam's
After leaving the church building on Wednesday, on my way back to the condo for lunch and to do some work here, I swung by Sam's Club to pick up a few items.
I checked myself out, then showed my receipt for verification to the employee stationed by the self-check station. He did his thing, then fixed me with a friendly gaze and said, "Reverend, may I tell you how happy I am to see you in your collar?"
Sometimes, when I go to places and I'm wearing my clerical collar, I almost forget that I have it on. Over the past 32 years, it's just become part of me, I suppose.
But I realize that for many people, merely appearing in the uniform of my office as a pastor of Christ's Church makes them feel good. The collar becomes a reminder in places you might not associate with Christ that He cares about every aspect of their lives. It feels good for me to be able to help people remember this even when I don't say a word.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
I checked myself out, then showed my receipt for verification to the employee stationed by the self-check station. He did his thing, then fixed me with a friendly gaze and said, "Reverend, may I tell you how happy I am to see you in your collar?"
Sometimes, when I go to places and I'm wearing my clerical collar, I almost forget that I have it on. Over the past 32 years, it's just become part of me, I suppose.
But I realize that for many people, merely appearing in the uniform of my office as a pastor of Christ's Church makes them feel good. The collar becomes a reminder in places you might not associate with Christ that He cares about every aspect of their lives. It feels good for me to be able to help people remember this even when I don't say a word.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Lutheran Catechisms (Session 2) (AUDIO)
Here's yesterday's adult Sunday School class on Luther's catechisms, among the confessional documents of the Lutheran movement, which we believe to be faithful witnesses to the truth of God's Word in the Bible.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Tough Talk from the Tender Savior
Matthew 5:21-37
Before considering Jesus’ tough words to us in today’s Gospel lesson, it’s important to remember several things.
First, our lesson continues Jesus’ sermon on the mount. This “sermon” is an extended time in which Jesus teaches disciples like you and me about life in the kingdom of heaven we enter by faith in Christ.
It’s also important to remember that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
People who deliberately violate God’s laws are, in Jesus’ words today, “in danger of the fire of hell.” But, God also understands us. There isn’t a soul who doesn’t sin unintentionally, every day. God, the Bible tells us, “...remembers that we are dust.” [Psalm 103:14]
Thank God that Jesus, as He told us last week, came to fulfill the law you and I are incapable of fulfilling and covers those who repent and believe in Him with His righteousness through the power of His death and resurrection!
So, once again this week, we remember that, in these words, Jesus isn’t saying: “Do these things and your will be saved.” He’s really saying, “If you have received new life through Me, this is how you get to live.” For all their toughness, Jesus’ words for us today are brimming with love for those for whom He died and rose. And they teach us what it means for disciples to live in Jesus’ kingdom of love.
There isn't a soul in this sanctuary or in this world who perfectly keeps the commands Jesus lays down here. If anyone says they do, they're lying. But these commands reflect the pattern in which God's Holy Spirit is forming us--in the image of Christ--each day as we turn from sin and trust in Christ.
In today’s lesson, Jesus looks at anger and murder, lust, divorce, and oaths. (You know, the stuff that makes up a lot of the daily programming on HBO and Netflix.)
Let’s take a look at what the Lord is telling us, starting at verse 31: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment...”
Here, Jesus refers to Exodus 20:13, which gives us the fifth commandment. Our English translations of this verse and of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson almost always mistranslate it, rendering the commandment as, “You shall not kill.” Even our catechisms are translated in this way.
But that’s not what God’s Word says. God recognizes that there may be times when a parent, soldier, police officer, or good neighbor may be forced to take the life of someone out to murder someone else. People in these circumstances do not violate the fifth commandment. What God does condemn is the willful taking of a human life. The command is, “You shall not murder.”
Just as we start to wipe our brows in relief over this understanding of the commandment though, Jesus expands the definition of murder. Jesus says that sustained anger, hatred, or disdain of another human being is murder. That means that in Jesus’ eyes, it’s possible to murder someone without laying a hand on them. (I learned this a long time ago as a kid whenever my folks gave me a withering look for misbehaving.) Seriously though, anyone who’s ever been bullied by classmates, belittled by parents, treated with contempt by a spouse, or abused in any way knows exactly what Jesus is saying.
A person who willfully murders another human being seeks to rob their victim of the life and dignity that only God can give. In just the same way, the person who denigrates another person or holds a grudge against them is harboring the same hatred, hostility, and denial of respect that murderers harbor toward their victims. In treating others as though they have no right to exist, we are guilty of murder. In 1 John 3:15, we’re told: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Jesus then emphasizes how seriously He takes this matter through the use of a little exaggeration or hyperbole. (Jesus often used hyperbole. Remember when He talked about a camel going through the eye of a needle?) Verses 23-24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Remember, that Jesus is in Galilee as He speaks these words. His first audience is composed of Galileans, who live about 75 miles from Jerusalem, the site of the temple where pious Jews leave their sacrifices. It would be preposterous to think of a Galilean leaving the temple, going back to their home region to make things right with someone, then making the return trip to Jerusalem.
What Jesus is saying this: Don’t dare to worship God without trying to be reconciled with those with whom you have differences. The reason for this is simple, as we see in 1 John 4:20:: “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” We can’t claim to truly love God if there’s any person with whom we’re not willing to be reconciled.
In verses 27 and 28, Jesus goes on to say: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As with murder, it’s one thing to be technically compliant with God’s will, but still be in violation of the sixth commandment.
That’s because adultery is a sin that happens in the heart, mind, will, and words long before it happens bodily. Adultery is a rebellion against God’s will for marriage that may never be expressed in an affair, but in things like the pursuit of pornography, or fantasies of being with someone other than the person to whom we’re married.
From the standpoint of the Bible, lust in itself is a good thing, given by God to men and women bound together by God in marriage. And also from the standpoint of the Bible, lust is not exclusively sexual.
Any desire that we allow to carry us away from being faithful spouses adulterates a marriage. The dictionary gives this definition of adulterate: “[to] render (something) poorer in quality by adding another substance, typically an inferior one.” Our marriages can be adulterated--made poorer--whenever we give other things--another person, our careers, our hobbies, alcohol and drugs--consideration, respect, and attention that belongs exclusively to our spouses. Because God wants our marriages to be blessings to us, Jesus takes a dim view of all forms of adultery.
Then, Jesus says maybe the toughest thing in our entire lesson. Verses 31 and 32: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These were tough words because in the first century Roman world in which Jesus lived divorce was at least as common as it is today. (Probably more common.) And in the Jewish nation of which Jesus was a part, a man could send his wife a certificate of divorce just because she no longer pleased him.
In Matthew 19:8, Jesus says that Moses allowed divorce among God’s people because of their “hardness of heart.” But even in Deuteronomy 24, where Moses makes the allowance for divorce, Moses makes it clear that divorce should never be undertaken for frivolous reasons. Jesus mentions unfaithfulness as a grounds for divorce. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that spiritual abandonment their by unbelieving spouses is a legitimate reason for divorce.
But Jesus’ words are tough for us too.
Rare is the extended family, even among Christians, that hasn’t been visited by the tragedy of divorce. In my own extended family, several members have been victimized by constant emotional abuse from unbelieving spouses, making divorce seem like the only option.
But even under those circumstances, committed Christians will take stock to see how their own “hardness of heart” may have contributed to the demise of their marriages.
Always it’s important to remember that the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is able to cover the sins of the repentant in His grace and forgiveness. As we currently have posted on our signboard out front, “Jesus can forgive all that we regret.”
What Jesus wants us to remember is that marriage is a sacred thing, instituted by God, the only legitimate place in which the intimacy between woman and man is to be expressed, the place from which the young are to be prepared for adulthood and introduced to Jesus Christ as God and Savior.
At the end, Jesus addresses the business of oaths. Jesus says, “do not swear an oath at all.” The key to understanding Jesus’ words here come in verse 37, where He says: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
People who are truthful don’t need to swear by God or anything else. Their simple yes or no stand on their own. Jesus is saying here, Don’t you dare invoke the name of God to prop up your lies!
I grew up in a family in which lying was just part of every day life. It made me comfortable with telling lies. It’s a habit that I’ve had to learn to hate, repudiate, repent for, and learn from as God’s grace has sunk more deeply into my life.
I'm not certain that I'm so alone in that experience, though. The truth is that descendants of Adam and Eve are prone to lying, distortion, exaggeration, misstatements, responsibility-dodging, excuse-making, and “little white lies,” whatever those are.
Often we lie just to avoid the unpleasantness of the truth. But Jesus says that lying has no place in the Kingdom of God.
Of course, some people take words like these from Jesus as license to say whatever comes into their heads, no matter who gets hurt by it. But Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak “the truth in love.” If it’s not loving, even the truth shouldn’t escape our mouths!
The love of God given to us through Christ is, in fact, to be reflected in everything about us, in everything that Jesus talks about today! That's something you and I will do only imperfectly on this side of our own deaths and resurrections. But to all who believe in Christ, God sends His Holy Spirit to daily refashion willing believers after the image of Christ.
In the meantime, for those saved by God’s grace in Christ, as God transforms us day in and day out by the power of His grace, love is becoming less of a distasteful obligation than it might otherwise seem to be.
Our call is to daily repent for sin and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord Who has conquered sin and death for us.
Our joy is to live as people set free from our slavery. Jesus sets us free to live lifestyles of true, pure, Godly love:
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was prepared for worship this morning.]
Before considering Jesus’ tough words to us in today’s Gospel lesson, it’s important to remember several things.
First, our lesson continues Jesus’ sermon on the mount. This “sermon” is an extended time in which Jesus teaches disciples like you and me about life in the kingdom of heaven we enter by faith in Christ.
It’s also important to remember that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
People who deliberately violate God’s laws are, in Jesus’ words today, “in danger of the fire of hell.” But, God also understands us. There isn’t a soul who doesn’t sin unintentionally, every day. God, the Bible tells us, “...remembers that we are dust.” [Psalm 103:14]
Thank God that Jesus, as He told us last week, came to fulfill the law you and I are incapable of fulfilling and covers those who repent and believe in Him with His righteousness through the power of His death and resurrection!
So, once again this week, we remember that, in these words, Jesus isn’t saying: “Do these things and your will be saved.” He’s really saying, “If you have received new life through Me, this is how you get to live.” For all their toughness, Jesus’ words for us today are brimming with love for those for whom He died and rose. And they teach us what it means for disciples to live in Jesus’ kingdom of love.
There isn't a soul in this sanctuary or in this world who perfectly keeps the commands Jesus lays down here. If anyone says they do, they're lying. But these commands reflect the pattern in which God's Holy Spirit is forming us--in the image of Christ--each day as we turn from sin and trust in Christ.
In today’s lesson, Jesus looks at anger and murder, lust, divorce, and oaths. (You know, the stuff that makes up a lot of the daily programming on HBO and Netflix.)
Let’s take a look at what the Lord is telling us, starting at verse 31: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment...”
Here, Jesus refers to Exodus 20:13, which gives us the fifth commandment. Our English translations of this verse and of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson almost always mistranslate it, rendering the commandment as, “You shall not kill.” Even our catechisms are translated in this way.
But that’s not what God’s Word says. God recognizes that there may be times when a parent, soldier, police officer, or good neighbor may be forced to take the life of someone out to murder someone else. People in these circumstances do not violate the fifth commandment. What God does condemn is the willful taking of a human life. The command is, “You shall not murder.”
Just as we start to wipe our brows in relief over this understanding of the commandment though, Jesus expands the definition of murder. Jesus says that sustained anger, hatred, or disdain of another human being is murder. That means that in Jesus’ eyes, it’s possible to murder someone without laying a hand on them. (I learned this a long time ago as a kid whenever my folks gave me a withering look for misbehaving.) Seriously though, anyone who’s ever been bullied by classmates, belittled by parents, treated with contempt by a spouse, or abused in any way knows exactly what Jesus is saying.
A person who willfully murders another human being seeks to rob their victim of the life and dignity that only God can give. In just the same way, the person who denigrates another person or holds a grudge against them is harboring the same hatred, hostility, and denial of respect that murderers harbor toward their victims. In treating others as though they have no right to exist, we are guilty of murder. In 1 John 3:15, we’re told: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Jesus then emphasizes how seriously He takes this matter through the use of a little exaggeration or hyperbole. (Jesus often used hyperbole. Remember when He talked about a camel going through the eye of a needle?) Verses 23-24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Remember, that Jesus is in Galilee as He speaks these words. His first audience is composed of Galileans, who live about 75 miles from Jerusalem, the site of the temple where pious Jews leave their sacrifices. It would be preposterous to think of a Galilean leaving the temple, going back to their home region to make things right with someone, then making the return trip to Jerusalem.
What Jesus is saying this: Don’t dare to worship God without trying to be reconciled with those with whom you have differences. The reason for this is simple, as we see in 1 John 4:20:: “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” We can’t claim to truly love God if there’s any person with whom we’re not willing to be reconciled.
In verses 27 and 28, Jesus goes on to say: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As with murder, it’s one thing to be technically compliant with God’s will, but still be in violation of the sixth commandment.
That’s because adultery is a sin that happens in the heart, mind, will, and words long before it happens bodily. Adultery is a rebellion against God’s will for marriage that may never be expressed in an affair, but in things like the pursuit of pornography, or fantasies of being with someone other than the person to whom we’re married.
From the standpoint of the Bible, lust in itself is a good thing, given by God to men and women bound together by God in marriage. And also from the standpoint of the Bible, lust is not exclusively sexual.
Any desire that we allow to carry us away from being faithful spouses adulterates a marriage. The dictionary gives this definition of adulterate: “[to] render (something) poorer in quality by adding another substance, typically an inferior one.” Our marriages can be adulterated--made poorer--whenever we give other things--another person, our careers, our hobbies, alcohol and drugs--consideration, respect, and attention that belongs exclusively to our spouses. Because God wants our marriages to be blessings to us, Jesus takes a dim view of all forms of adultery.
Then, Jesus says maybe the toughest thing in our entire lesson. Verses 31 and 32: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These were tough words because in the first century Roman world in which Jesus lived divorce was at least as common as it is today. (Probably more common.) And in the Jewish nation of which Jesus was a part, a man could send his wife a certificate of divorce just because she no longer pleased him.
In Matthew 19:8, Jesus says that Moses allowed divorce among God’s people because of their “hardness of heart.” But even in Deuteronomy 24, where Moses makes the allowance for divorce, Moses makes it clear that divorce should never be undertaken for frivolous reasons. Jesus mentions unfaithfulness as a grounds for divorce. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that spiritual abandonment their by unbelieving spouses is a legitimate reason for divorce.
But Jesus’ words are tough for us too.
Rare is the extended family, even among Christians, that hasn’t been visited by the tragedy of divorce. In my own extended family, several members have been victimized by constant emotional abuse from unbelieving spouses, making divorce seem like the only option.
But even under those circumstances, committed Christians will take stock to see how their own “hardness of heart” may have contributed to the demise of their marriages.
Always it’s important to remember that the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is able to cover the sins of the repentant in His grace and forgiveness. As we currently have posted on our signboard out front, “Jesus can forgive all that we regret.”
What Jesus wants us to remember is that marriage is a sacred thing, instituted by God, the only legitimate place in which the intimacy between woman and man is to be expressed, the place from which the young are to be prepared for adulthood and introduced to Jesus Christ as God and Savior.
At the end, Jesus addresses the business of oaths. Jesus says, “do not swear an oath at all.” The key to understanding Jesus’ words here come in verse 37, where He says: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
People who are truthful don’t need to swear by God or anything else. Their simple yes or no stand on their own. Jesus is saying here, Don’t you dare invoke the name of God to prop up your lies!
I grew up in a family in which lying was just part of every day life. It made me comfortable with telling lies. It’s a habit that I’ve had to learn to hate, repudiate, repent for, and learn from as God’s grace has sunk more deeply into my life.
I'm not certain that I'm so alone in that experience, though. The truth is that descendants of Adam and Eve are prone to lying, distortion, exaggeration, misstatements, responsibility-dodging, excuse-making, and “little white lies,” whatever those are.
Often we lie just to avoid the unpleasantness of the truth. But Jesus says that lying has no place in the Kingdom of God.
Of course, some people take words like these from Jesus as license to say whatever comes into their heads, no matter who gets hurt by it. But Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak “the truth in love.” If it’s not loving, even the truth shouldn’t escape our mouths!
The love of God given to us through Christ is, in fact, to be reflected in everything about us, in everything that Jesus talks about today! That's something you and I will do only imperfectly on this side of our own deaths and resurrections. But to all who believe in Christ, God sends His Holy Spirit to daily refashion willing believers after the image of Christ.
In the meantime, for those saved by God’s grace in Christ, as God transforms us day in and day out by the power of His grace, love is becoming less of a distasteful obligation than it might otherwise seem to be.
Our call is to daily repent for sin and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord Who has conquered sin and death for us.
Our joy is to live as people set free from our slavery. Jesus sets us free to live lifestyles of true, pure, Godly love:
- free to seek reconciliation with others because Christ has reconciled us to God for all eternity;
- free to seek to be faithful in all of our relationships because Christ has set us free from death, hell, and futility;
- if we're married, free to pursue solid, joyful marriages because Jesus Christ has made us eternally part of His bride, the Church; and
- free to become more honest people because we know that no matter how the truth may offend, in Christ, we belong to God forever.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was prepared for worship this morning.]
Thursday, February 09, 2017
Washing Your Sheets, Productive Writers, and Jitney Linches
Some miscellaneous stuff I've read in recent weeks.
If there was ever any doubt about it, why you need to wash your sheets at least once a week.
Stephen King considers whether a novelist can ever be too productive:
There's something to be said for taking one's time, whatever the task. But I also think that there's something to be said for keeping at one's work, taking into account the assessments of your work by people whose judgment you trust, then forging ahead.
It's possible to produce both quantity and quality. Church historian and writer Martin Marty was once asked the secret of his remarkable productivity. He said the answer was simple, "Deadlines."
At the height of his career as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was asked whether he ever considered doing a weekly show and if doing so would allow him to up the quality of his production. No, Carson said, quality grows to fit its space.
We can all name people who have churned out garbage because they were operating on a tight timeline and trying to do too much. (We can even claim that for ourselves if we're honest.) But I buy into the idea of what Hans Selye called eustress, an optimal stress level: significant enough to challenge us, not so great as to overwhelm us. The right eustress level probably varies from person to person. That may be one reason why Joyce Carol Oates has been a prolific and, many critics believe, a good one; other writers might not be capable of such a pace.
Read all of King's piece.
Back when I was in elementary school, only a few kids stayed at school for lunch. The school day began at 8:30 and ended at 3:30. In the middle of it was an hour-long lunch from noon to 1, time enough for a leisurely walk from school to home and back and a good homemade lunch.
At the first school I attended, Dana Avenue Elementary, a big annual treat was the Jitney Lunch. When it came along, we actually got to stay at school with all of our classmates for a homemade meal. (Like the one we got at home each day, of course. But it was the change of routine that made it special.)
The anticipation of the Jitney Lunch began when our teachers handed out 6"-x-9" envelopes that had been run through the school mimeograph machine. On the fronts of the envelopes were menu choices that we checked. Our parents tucked money for the lunch inside the envelopes and we returned them to school. The lunch was a fund-raiser for the PTA.
I was reminiscing about all of this a few weeks ago with my mom and dad when a question struck me. What exactly does jitney mean anyway. No one knew.
Of course, I pulled out my smart phone and consulted with that repository of all knowledge, real and fake, the Internet. This is what the folks at Grammarphobia plausibly say:
The Grammarphobia folks continue:
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
If there was ever any doubt about it, why you need to wash your sheets at least once a week.
+++
Stephen King considers whether a novelist can ever be too productive:
THERE are many unspoken postulates in literary criticism, one being that the more one writes, the less remarkable one’s work is apt to be...
Mostly, it seems to be true. Certainly no one is going to induct the mystery novelist John Creasey, author of 564 novels under 21 different pseudonyms, into the Literary Hall of Heroes; both he and his creations (the Toff, Inspector Roger West, Sexton Blake, etc.) have largely been forgotten...
Yet some prolific writers have made a deep impression on the public consciousness. Consider Agatha Christie, arguably the most popular writer of the 20th century, whose entire oeuvre remains in print. She wrote 91 books, 82 under her own name and nine under a nom de plume — Mary Westmacott — or her married name, Agatha Christie Mallowan
Those novels may not be literary, but they are far above the porridge turned out by John Creasey, and some of them are strikingly good. Christie gave us two characters — Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot — who have achieved a kind of immortality. Add to this the stylistic and thematic unity of Christie’s novels (the cozy warmth of the settings and the British stereotypes, placed within the context of her surprisingly cold appraisal of human nature), and one must view those many books in a different light...
[David Suchet, who portrayed the definitive Hercule Poirot. Suchet also was a wonderful Aslan in the Focus on the Family Radio Theater production of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.]
[Joan Hickson, who was my favorite Miss Marple. When she was a young actress, Hickson met Marple creator Agatha Christie, who declared that Hickson would be a great Marple, but that she would have to age into the part. She did, many years after Christie had died.]
No one in his or her right mind would argue that quantity guarantees quality, but to suggest that quantity never produces quality strikes me as snobbish, inane and demonstrably untrue.As with many alleged truisms, King's essay on writing productivity suggests that this one may not always be true.
There's something to be said for taking one's time, whatever the task. But I also think that there's something to be said for keeping at one's work, taking into account the assessments of your work by people whose judgment you trust, then forging ahead.
It's possible to produce both quantity and quality. Church historian and writer Martin Marty was once asked the secret of his remarkable productivity. He said the answer was simple, "Deadlines."
At the height of his career as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was asked whether he ever considered doing a weekly show and if doing so would allow him to up the quality of his production. No, Carson said, quality grows to fit its space.
We can all name people who have churned out garbage because they were operating on a tight timeline and trying to do too much. (We can even claim that for ourselves if we're honest.) But I buy into the idea of what Hans Selye called eustress, an optimal stress level: significant enough to challenge us, not so great as to overwhelm us. The right eustress level probably varies from person to person. That may be one reason why Joyce Carol Oates has been a prolific and, many critics believe, a good one; other writers might not be capable of such a pace.
Read all of King's piece.
+++
Back when I was in elementary school, only a few kids stayed at school for lunch. The school day began at 8:30 and ended at 3:30. In the middle of it was an hour-long lunch from noon to 1, time enough for a leisurely walk from school to home and back and a good homemade lunch.
[The Dana Avenue entrance to the elementary school I attended from kindergarten through third grade.]
At the first school I attended, Dana Avenue Elementary, a big annual treat was the Jitney Lunch. When it came along, we actually got to stay at school with all of our classmates for a homemade meal. (Like the one we got at home each day, of course. But it was the change of routine that made it special.)
The anticipation of the Jitney Lunch began when our teachers handed out 6"-x-9" envelopes that had been run through the school mimeograph machine. On the fronts of the envelopes were menu choices that we checked. Our parents tucked money for the lunch inside the envelopes and we returned them to school. The lunch was a fund-raiser for the PTA.
I was reminiscing about all of this a few weeks ago with my mom and dad when a question struck me. What exactly does jitney mean anyway. No one knew.
Of course, I pulled out my smart phone and consulted with that repository of all knowledge, real and fake, the Internet. This is what the folks at Grammarphobia plausibly say:
...in 2016, the language scholar Stephen Goranson of the Duke University Libraries managed to confirm what had previously been only conjecture: The source of “jitney” was jetnée, an African-American word, via the French or Creole spoken in Louisiana, for jeton, French for “token.”
Goranson cites a ditty described in a 1915 issue of the Literary Digest as “a little catch popular with the Louisianian French-Speaking Negro”:
“Mettons jetnée danz il trou / Et parcourons sur la rue— / Mettons jetnée—si non vous / Vous promenez à pied nou! This may be freely translated: Put a jitney in the slot / And over the street you ride; / Put a jitney—for if not / You’ll foot it on your hide.”
The 1915 article suggests that jetnée/“jitney” was coined by Southern blacks to mean a nickel, and was influenced by French jeton or jetton.
Now for the news. As Goranson says, “The following newly reported discovery appears to confirm such an origin by giving—in an African-American newspaper in 1898—a transitional form.”
Here he cites an article, published in January 1898 in the Illinois Record, headlined “Spingfield South-End Happenings”:
“What little jetney coachman on S. 6th street has such a big head he cant put on the coachman’s hat he only wears the coat with brass buttons?”
Goranson adds: “Note association with coach as well as (presumably) coin (or token), of little worth.”
[Old sheet music covers.]
Slang dictionaries say that at the turn of the century, “jitney” (sometimes spelled “gitney”) meant either five cents or a nickel, the fare to ride minibuses at the time.All of this made sense to me. Both my grandmother and mother attended the same school when they were kids. The jitney lunches were established in my mom's time and I'd remembered her telling me that the lunches cost a nickel when she was a student.
The Grammarphobia folks continue:
...by the early 20th century, the term was being used adjectivally to refer to the minibuses themselves...
...the next step in the evolution of “jitney”—as a noun used attributively (that is, adjectivally) to mean cheap or shoddy or inferior.
The site's article on jitney lunches came in response to a reader who wondered how lunches at his wife's country school had acquired that name. Grammarphobia concludes:Dana was a city school. But I loved those cheap meals...and now I know why they were called Jitney Lunches.
As for those hot dogs served at your wife’s country school once a month, we imagine the meal was referred to as a “jitney lunch” either because it was cheap or uninspiring or because it was delivered by a jitney.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
When the Bit Breaks, Drill Somewhere Else (Quiet Time Reflections)
These notes encompass what I feel the Lord said to me through His Word during my quiet time with Him today. For an explanation of quiet time and how I listen to God through it, look here.
Look: “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 13:46)
I find it striking the way in which Paul and Barnabas respond to the rejection by their fellow Jews of the Gospel message in Pisidian Antioch.
On a sabbath, they had gone to the synagogue there and then Paul, after he was invited to do so, addressed both their fellow Jews and Gentiles who were together worshiping the God of Israel. He shared the Gospel and there was initial interest.
So much interest was shown, in fact, that the next week, they were asked to speak again. But this time, they encountered heckling from jealous synagogue leaders who turned the Jewish worshipers there against Paul, Barnabas, and their message.
I’m struck by what Paul and Barnabas say in answer to those rejecting the Gospel about Christ. They say that the rejection is rooted in a belief that they aren’t “worthy of eternal life.”
It’s always sad when people reject Christ and His Gospel. In doing so, they’re spurning the forgiveness, life with God, and purpose that only Christ can give.
There are many different reasons people might reject Christ.
For me, when I was an atheist, the biggest reason was that I couldn’t accept someone being bigger or more important than me or the human race.
I also felt that our knowledge of many of the mechanics of the universe and the lack of empirical evidence for God meant that there was no God.
Above all, it was my egotism that led me to my atheism.
There are some people though, who reject faith in the God revealed in Jesus Christ and the truth of His death and resurrection not because of their egos, but because they don’t feel worthy of eternal life.
They’ve moved from legitimate guilt, the kind of guilt that can lead to repentance and new life with God through Christ, to shame.
It was no doubt to this shame and the certainties of a legalistic religious system that the opposing synagogue leaders were able to appeal to among their fellow Jews in in Pisidian Antioch. In other words, they played upon shame and tradition to convince people that, even if the good news of justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ, was true, it was too good for them. They weren’t worthy of the life that was being offered to them in Jesus’ name. They were so conscious of their inadequacies that they couldn't accept the free gift of new life God offers to all who repent and believe in Jesus.
The sense of shame and unworthiness from which some people suffer is the hardest, most resistant rock for the Gospel message to drill through.
For Paul and Barnabas, addressing their fellow Jews in this place, the bit broke.[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Jesus tells us: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet” (Matthew 10:14). That’s exactly what Paul and Barnabas ended up doing in this chapter (Acts 13:51).
Listen: We should be lavish and inefficient in sharing the Gospel with others. This is what Jesus’ parable about the seed scattered on the different soils (Matthew 13:1-23) tells me.
And we should never stop lifting people up in prayer, asking God to send workers (disciples) to them so that there can be a harvest of the seeds of the Gospel that have been planted in people's minds and wills (Matthew 9:38; 1 Corinthians 3:6).
But loving witnesses for Christ sometimes reach the point at which they can’t drill past the resistance. They must pray that the witness they’ve given has not been in vain and that at some point later, the resistance will disappear and that even those who don’t count themselves as being worthy of God’s grace or salvation given in Christ, will embrace the Gospel.
When the bit breaks, change things and drill somewhere else.
Respond: God, help me to be lavish in spreading the Gospel with others. But help me to accept that there are some rocks of resistance on which you won’t use me to break through; that task will be someone else’s. Help me to pray for and to love those I haven’t reached and to move onto the next person with whom You call me to share Your Gospel. In Jesus’ name.
Just because...
...it's beautiful!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]firenze pic.twitter.com/sd1GXOfg26— ILoveItaly (@I__Love__Italy) February 8, 2017
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Looking at the Lutheran Catechisms (Part 1) (AUDIO)
This past Sunday, we began an adult class on the Lutheran catechisms. We've established a web site where we'll park audio of the classes. The first class audio has been posted. Here's the link to the site. And here is a link to audio of the first session. Hope that you find it helpful.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is a recording of the first session of an adult Sunday School class on the Lutheran Catechisms. We're using this study resource from Sola Publishing and using the texts of the catechisms from Concordia, the collected basic faith statements of the Lutheran movement rooted in Scripture and Jesus Christ.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is a recording of the first session of an adult Sunday School class on the Lutheran Catechisms. We're using this study resource from Sola Publishing and using the texts of the catechisms from Concordia, the collected basic faith statements of the Lutheran movement rooted in Scripture and Jesus Christ.]
Monday, February 06, 2017
Super Bowl Sunday
At the Dayton Art Institute. This is clever.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Using God's Greatest Gifts (AUDIO)
Here.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was shared during worship yesterday.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was shared during worship yesterday.]
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Using God's Greatest Gifts
Matthew 5:13-20
An accomplished musician offered to teach a young man how to play the piano...for free. The young man was excited to learn.
For the first few sessions, the young man excitedly came to the lessons prepared and he did learn.
But then, something happened. The young man still wanted to receive the free gift he was receiving and still wanted to play like his mentor. But he didn’t want to practice. He liked the idea of being able to tell people that he was a musician. But he clearly wasn’t being one or becoming one.
Finally, his teacher said, “You’re not using this gift.” and he dropped the young man’s lessons.
What do we do with the free gifts that come to us in this life?
I’m not talking about the “free gifts” we receive from businesses trying to get us spend our money on their products. I’m talking about precious gifts given to us with love.
Of all the precious gifts that might come to us in this life, none is more spectacular than God’s gift of His Son, Jesus.
Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sin, the perfect bridge between a righteous God and you and me, who are born into a state of unrighteousness, of sin, of separation from God that can only lead to death. Jesus enacts and proves the powerful love of God for each one of us. In Romans 5:8, we read: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And Jesus refers to the magnitude of this gift when He tells Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
All who repent and believe in Jesus Christ have a great gift. It cost Jesus a death of great suffering on the cross to secure it for us. As a friend of mine once told me, "Whenever I think of what Jesus did for me on the cross, I wonder why I sin." She values this incredible gift!
The question for all who confess Jesus as their God and King each day then is this:
Our first lesson from today reminds us of how ancient Israel was given great gifts like a relationship with God, a land of their own, and the promise of life with God for all who believed. But Israel seemed to think that God’s gift was their entitlement.
They turned their relationship with God into a business transaction. They thought that if they worshiped right, prayed right, sacrificed right, God would owe them what they wanted.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God told Israel: “...on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers...You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high...Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer [what we would today call immigrants or refugees] with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn…”
James delivers the same message to Christians in the New Testament when he succinctly writes, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” [James 2:17]
Are we using the gift of new life God grants to all who believe in Jesus, as intended?
Or are we forgetting the gift, living without the power of God in our lives, ignoring the needs of others?
This brings us to Jesus’ words for us in today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:13-20. Jesus’ words here continue His time of teaching disciples, believers like you and me, that we began to look at last week. So, please look at our lesson. Verse 13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
In first century Judea, salt not only seasoned food, it was also widely used as a preservative.
Jesus’ disciples are people who change the flavor of this world. They’re not caught up in dog-eat-dog. They know they belong to the God Who has conquered sin, death, and darkness of this world and so, they pour themselves out in love for God, love for neighbor, and in sharing Christ with others.
Jesus’ disciples also preserve the message of the Gospel for the world to know. Someone has said that the Christian Church is always just one generation from extinction. Unless we pass the good news of Jesus onto our families, friends, co-workers, classmates, and disbelieving world, that good news might not be available to others.
They won’t know that God can save them from sin and death.
They won’t know that God can give their lives meaning and purpose.
They won’t know the freedom God gives to us to fight injustice, feed the hungry, and make disciples.
When salt loses its saltiness, it’s useless. When disciples no longer live out their faith, their faith is useless and they erect a wall between themselves and God.
Verse 14-16: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
When I was in the fifth and sixth grades, it was common for boys and girls who liked each other to say that they were "going steady." Going steady then basically meant that they held hands when they walked home from school and when their parents dropped them off at places like the movies or Fun Night. In the sixth grade, I couldn't figure out why any girl wouldn't go steady with me, because I was a charmer. Eventually, I asked a girl to go steady with me. She said yes. Then, I thought better of it. The girl wasn’t popular and I was afraid that people would make fun of me if they knew that I was seeing her. So I asked her if we could keep the whole thing our little secret. Not good.
Here’s the deal: When Jesus Christ is your God and Savior and King, you don’t ask Him to let you keep the whole thing your little secret.
When we push Jesus into the closet of our lives, we can’t fulfill our purpose in life of bringing His light to others.
We also plunge our own lives into darkness, snuffing out the flame of Christ’s grace that comes to those who believe.
Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Do you own your relationship with Jesus before the world?
Do people know that the good you do in your daily life comes from Jesus Christ alone?
You and I were saved from sin and death so we could be free to live in the brightness of God’s grace, with Christ’s love at the center of everything. It's not a thing to be concealed, but shared!
In Matthew 5:17-20, the balance of our Gospel lesson, Jesus warns us not to forget God’s moral law. The moral law is summarized in the ten commandments. Jesus further distilled them in the great commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength sums of the first through third commandments; love your neighbor as you love yourself summarizes commandments four through ten.
Jesus came into our world not to abolish the moral law, but to fulfill it perfectly, so that a sinless Savior could take the death punishment He didn’t deserve on behalf of sinners, like you and me, who do deserve it. All who live a lifestyle of sustained repentance and belief in Jesus have the victory over death that He won on the cross.*
Some people see God’s forgiving grace as license to do whatever they want to do, to ignore God’s will for human beings as embodied in God’s moral law. Wrong!
That’s why Jesus says in verse 19: “...anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
A disciple would never presume to say things like: “Because I’ve been saved by grace, I can steal, I can take God’s name in vain, I can slander others, I can commit adultery.”
God’s grace isn’t permission to ignore the will of God.
God’s grace is the freedom to daily call out to God for help in the name of Jesus to seek to live a life lived in the power of God.
Christians see grace as their emancipation proclamation; in Christ, God sets us free to pursue being our best selves, our God selves. That’s what Christians seek to be with the gifts of grace--forgiveness, new and everlasting life with God--that come to us through faith in Jesus.
In the last verse of our lesson, Jesus says: “...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The Pharisees of first century Judea, of course, were known as a straight-laced, judgmental bunch.
The Pharisees boiled down their faith to a contract with God: If I do good things, God is bound to recognize my righteousness.
But the Bible testifies that none of us has or can attain righteousness on the strength of our own good works.
You know, there are times when I do something good, that follows God's will, and I think to myself, ever so subtly, "I really am a good person." Even the good things I do in response to God's grace then, aren't free of the taint of my sin.
This what the prophet Isaiah was confessing when he said “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” [Isaiah 64:6]
And Paul reminds us in Romans 3: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” [Romans 3:10-11]
God wants us.
He wants us with Him for eternity.
He loves us passionately.
And to everyone who daily surrenders to God’s grace, available in Christ, God gives what we can’t earn, manufacture, or pretend our way into having. God gives us His righteousness, a right relationship with Him, with others, with ourselves.
God covers us in the pure, perfect righteousness of Jesus that infinitely surpasses any righteousness that can be found or faked in this world.
The righteousness of Jesus given to those who believe is the greatest gift of all.
Use it well, disciples!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message shared during both worship services earlier today.]
*It's important to remember that repentance isn't simply sorrow for one's sin. It's a sorrow that leads one to turn to Christ for forgiveness, for the granting of grace that covers our sins, and for the power of the Holy Spirit to lead new lives filled with peace with God.
An accomplished musician offered to teach a young man how to play the piano...for free. The young man was excited to learn.
For the first few sessions, the young man excitedly came to the lessons prepared and he did learn.
But then, something happened. The young man still wanted to receive the free gift he was receiving and still wanted to play like his mentor. But he didn’t want to practice. He liked the idea of being able to tell people that he was a musician. But he clearly wasn’t being one or becoming one.
Finally, his teacher said, “You’re not using this gift.” and he dropped the young man’s lessons.
What do we do with the free gifts that come to us in this life?
I’m not talking about the “free gifts” we receive from businesses trying to get us spend our money on their products. I’m talking about precious gifts given to us with love.
Of all the precious gifts that might come to us in this life, none is more spectacular than God’s gift of His Son, Jesus.
Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our sin, the perfect bridge between a righteous God and you and me, who are born into a state of unrighteousness, of sin, of separation from God that can only lead to death. Jesus enacts and proves the powerful love of God for each one of us. In Romans 5:8, we read: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And Jesus refers to the magnitude of this gift when He tells Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
All who repent and believe in Jesus Christ have a great gift. It cost Jesus a death of great suffering on the cross to secure it for us. As a friend of mine once told me, "Whenever I think of what Jesus did for me on the cross, I wonder why I sin." She values this incredible gift!
The question for all who confess Jesus as their God and King each day then is this:
What will we do with this gift?
Our first lesson from today reminds us of how ancient Israel was given great gifts like a relationship with God, a land of their own, and the promise of life with God for all who believed. But Israel seemed to think that God’s gift was their entitlement.
They turned their relationship with God into a business transaction. They thought that if they worshiped right, prayed right, sacrificed right, God would owe them what they wanted.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God told Israel: “...on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers...You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high...Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer [what we would today call immigrants or refugees] with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn…”
James delivers the same message to Christians in the New Testament when he succinctly writes, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” [James 2:17]
Are we using the gift of new life God grants to all who believe in Jesus, as intended?
Or are we forgetting the gift, living without the power of God in our lives, ignoring the needs of others?
This brings us to Jesus’ words for us in today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 5:13-20. Jesus’ words here continue His time of teaching disciples, believers like you and me, that we began to look at last week. So, please look at our lesson. Verse 13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
In first century Judea, salt not only seasoned food, it was also widely used as a preservative.
Jesus’ disciples are people who change the flavor of this world. They’re not caught up in dog-eat-dog. They know they belong to the God Who has conquered sin, death, and darkness of this world and so, they pour themselves out in love for God, love for neighbor, and in sharing Christ with others.
Jesus’ disciples also preserve the message of the Gospel for the world to know. Someone has said that the Christian Church is always just one generation from extinction. Unless we pass the good news of Jesus onto our families, friends, co-workers, classmates, and disbelieving world, that good news might not be available to others.
They won’t know that God can save them from sin and death.
They won’t know that God can give their lives meaning and purpose.
They won’t know the freedom God gives to us to fight injustice, feed the hungry, and make disciples.
When salt loses its saltiness, it’s useless. When disciples no longer live out their faith, their faith is useless and they erect a wall between themselves and God.
Verse 14-16: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
When I was in the fifth and sixth grades, it was common for boys and girls who liked each other to say that they were "going steady." Going steady then basically meant that they held hands when they walked home from school and when their parents dropped them off at places like the movies or Fun Night. In the sixth grade, I couldn't figure out why any girl wouldn't go steady with me, because I was a charmer. Eventually, I asked a girl to go steady with me. She said yes. Then, I thought better of it. The girl wasn’t popular and I was afraid that people would make fun of me if they knew that I was seeing her. So I asked her if we could keep the whole thing our little secret. Not good.
Here’s the deal: When Jesus Christ is your God and Savior and King, you don’t ask Him to let you keep the whole thing your little secret.
When we push Jesus into the closet of our lives, we can’t fulfill our purpose in life of bringing His light to others.
We also plunge our own lives into darkness, snuffing out the flame of Christ’s grace that comes to those who believe.
Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Do you own your relationship with Jesus before the world?
Do people know that the good you do in your daily life comes from Jesus Christ alone?
You and I were saved from sin and death so we could be free to live in the brightness of God’s grace, with Christ’s love at the center of everything. It's not a thing to be concealed, but shared!
In Matthew 5:17-20, the balance of our Gospel lesson, Jesus warns us not to forget God’s moral law. The moral law is summarized in the ten commandments. Jesus further distilled them in the great commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength sums of the first through third commandments; love your neighbor as you love yourself summarizes commandments four through ten.
Jesus came into our world not to abolish the moral law, but to fulfill it perfectly, so that a sinless Savior could take the death punishment He didn’t deserve on behalf of sinners, like you and me, who do deserve it. All who live a lifestyle of sustained repentance and belief in Jesus have the victory over death that He won on the cross.*
Some people see God’s forgiving grace as license to do whatever they want to do, to ignore God’s will for human beings as embodied in God’s moral law. Wrong!
That’s why Jesus says in verse 19: “...anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
A disciple would never presume to say things like: “Because I’ve been saved by grace, I can steal, I can take God’s name in vain, I can slander others, I can commit adultery.”
God’s grace isn’t permission to ignore the will of God.
God’s grace is the freedom to daily call out to God for help in the name of Jesus to seek to live a life lived in the power of God.
Christians see grace as their emancipation proclamation; in Christ, God sets us free to pursue being our best selves, our God selves. That’s what Christians seek to be with the gifts of grace--forgiveness, new and everlasting life with God--that come to us through faith in Jesus.
In the last verse of our lesson, Jesus says: “...unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The Pharisees of first century Judea, of course, were known as a straight-laced, judgmental bunch.
The Pharisees boiled down their faith to a contract with God: If I do good things, God is bound to recognize my righteousness.
But the Bible testifies that none of us has or can attain righteousness on the strength of our own good works.
You know, there are times when I do something good, that follows God's will, and I think to myself, ever so subtly, "I really am a good person." Even the good things I do in response to God's grace then, aren't free of the taint of my sin.
This what the prophet Isaiah was confessing when he said “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” [Isaiah 64:6]
And Paul reminds us in Romans 3: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.” [Romans 3:10-11]
But thank God, God seeks us!
God wants us.
He wants us with Him for eternity.
He loves us passionately.
And to everyone who daily surrenders to God’s grace, available in Christ, God gives what we can’t earn, manufacture, or pretend our way into having. God gives us His righteousness, a right relationship with Him, with others, with ourselves.
God covers us in the pure, perfect righteousness of Jesus that infinitely surpasses any righteousness that can be found or faked in this world.
The righteousness of Jesus given to those who believe is the greatest gift of all.
Use it well, disciples!
- Trust in Jesus.
- Then let Him use you to be salt and light, upholders of His law, bearers of His righteousness.
*It's important to remember that repentance isn't simply sorrow for one's sin. It's a sorrow that leads one to turn to Christ for forgiveness, for the granting of grace that covers our sins, and for the power of the Holy Spirit to lead new lives filled with peace with God.
Saturday, February 04, 2017
More Power to Share
Five mornings a week, I try to begin my days with a Quiet Time in which God speaks to me through His Word and I ask Him to help me to respond. Here are what God seemed to be telling me today.
Look: “Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.” (Acts 9:22, NIV)
Saul, once the persecutor of the Church, encountered the risen and ascended Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was heading to that city with papers from the temple authorities in Jerusalem authorizing him to move toward the excommunication of any his fellow Jews who confessed faith in Jesus as the Messiah/Christ. But rendered blind and helpless by his meeting with Jesus, Saul came to be a believer in Christ. Under the nurturing hand of Ananias and other church leaders in Damascus, Saul began receiving what amounted to catechetical training and, in no time, was preaching of the Gospel of new life through faith in Jesus Christ.[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
He meets with skepticism at the synagogue. “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” people ask (Acts 9:21). This reminds me of the skepticism Jesus was met with at His hometown synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4:22: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” Skeptics always want to cut the things of God--whether it’s God enfleshed like Jesus or Saul, a former enemy of Christ who proclaims Christ, like Saul. People do this in order to elude the lordship of Jesus.
But in verse 22, we’re told that in the face of skepticism, “Saul grew more and more powerful.” This rendering is OK, but it hardly does justice to how Luke, in the Greek in which he wrote Acts, expresses things. A more literal rendering is: “Saul however, was all the more empowered.” Σαῦλος δὲ μᾶλλον ἐνεδυναμοῦτο. That last word, transliterated into English as enedunamouto, carries the meaning of was empowered. The danger of the NIV translation is that it makes it seem that as Paul spoke, he gained greater confidence in himself and became more powerful.
But that’s not what that verb implies at all! What Luke is saying is that Saul was being filled with power from an outside source. Saul had nothing to do with the power that was enabling him to prove that Jesus is the Messiah. That was and to this day, is the work of the Holy Spirit in believers willing to share Christ and His Gospel with others.
We see how the power of a Christian’s witness grows as they make themselves available to share Christ in two separate incidents recounted in the Gospel of John.
In John 4, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman by a well outside the village of Sychar. After Jesus tells her everything about herself, she runs into the village and speaks to people she had earlier been avoiding. She starts simply by inviting these people who had been gossiping and ignoring her to come and see a man who told her everything about herself. She ends by broaching the possibility that Jesus may be Messiah.
In John 9, Jesus heals a man born blind. The religious authorities are in an uproar and ask the now-healed man to tell them what happened. As the veracity of his story is challenged and as his own fearful parents leave him to fend for himself, the blind man becomes increasingly bold in proclaiming Who the Man Who healed him must be.
In each instance, the two who dared to say a good word about Jesus in the face of skepticism and opposition, even threats in the case of the once-blind man, grew bolder in their proclamation. They became more powerful.
I think more is going on here than the growing certainty that comes to us when we repeatedly rehearse something. That verb, enedunamouto, tells me that the more we lean on the truth of God’s Word about Christ, the more we share it, the more the Holy Spirit empowers us to share that Gospel word.
In Acts 1, the risen Jesus, just before He ascends to heaven, tells the apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit to to come to them before sharing the Gospel. They do, the Spirit descends at Pentecost, and they proclaim the Gospel. And the more they proclaim it, the more power--power to convince others, power to sustain the proclaimer, power to confound skeptics (Acts 9:23)--comes to those who proclaim or share the Gospel.
Listen: Here, Lord, I feel that You’re telling me not to give up on proclaiming the Gospel. I need to proclaim the Gospel, not myself. I need to do so boldly and lovingly and not give up on doing so. I need to encourage the Church to do the same thing. As we do, You will give our witness more power: more power to convict and convince (John 16:7-11), more clarity, more ability to confound those who are skeptical, critical, or even enemies of Your Gospel.
Respond: Today, I make myself available to share Your Gospel with others. Help me to do it with boldness and humility (Acts 4:29). In Jesus’ name.
Friday, February 03, 2017
The Power of the Cross: A Word to Al Qaeda and ISIS
We're now seeing reports of online training videos from Al Qaeda's Arabian Peninisula terrorist group, one of which is called, "Courses for Destroying the Cross."
There are all sorts of thoughts this provokes in me. But two in particular stand out.
The first is this. Islamist terrorist groups operate under the misconception that the pluralistic West, including the United States, is entirely Christian. And like many non-Christians in this country, they also are under the misconception that some boisterous, political Christians speak on behalf of all Christians. Just as I do not assume that Isis or Al Qadea speak for all Muslims, people shouldn't assume that terrorists speak for all Muslims. It's dangerous and inappropriate to dump all Westerners or Christians in the same category. Shorthand stereotypes like this are almost always false.
The second thought is this. Whether it's to Islamist terrorists or most people in the post-modern West, the cross is always an object of derision.
The cross is seen by most as a place of defeat and many self-identified Christians shroud it in sentimentality or ignore it altogether.
Christians believe (and by faith, have experienced) that the cross on which Jesus Christ died is also the place where He achieved victory over sin, death, and darkness for all who turn from sin and trust in Christ. That's why we call the commemoration of Jesus' death on the cross "Good" Friday.
Jesus, revealed to be both God and human, led a perfect, sinless life, then offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. By that sacrifice, He won life for those who believe. Romans 6:23, in the New Testament, says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Jesus says that we become heirs of His victory when we pick up our crosses--in other words, admit our own need of forgiveness and new life, submitting to the crucifixion of our old sinful selves--and follow Him--that is, trust our whole lives to Him and seek to live in faithful dependence on Him.
The good news or gospel is that, by faith, we can apprehend a share in Christ's destruction of our sin, by belief in Him. Jesus' resurrection affirmed Christ's victory on the cross. Death couldn't contain Him...and it can't contain those who trust in Him. This, in turn, frees us to love God, love our neighbor, seek justice, and boldly share Christ with others.
For many, the cross of Christ and the gospel of freedom from sin, death, and darkness that was unleashed from the cross seems foolish and implausible. But with the apostle Paul, Christians can say: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." (Romans 1:16)
This past Sunday, in many Christians congregations around the world, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, was the appointed second lesson. We read and heard these verses at Living Water Lutheran Church as well. Paul addresses those who think that the power of the cross can be destroyed in the ways buildings can be or that it can be killed the way mortal human beings can be. This is what he writes:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'”
So, a word to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a word also to ISIS: You will never destroy the cross or its power to change lives for good.
You will never conquer its life-giving power.
You will never erase the witness for Christ.
You will never stop the Church's Christ-mandated mission of making disciples.
The Word of God will have the last word.
And all who trust in the Lord Who gave Himself on the cross will keep on loving God and loving you, and living beyond the bounds of death, irrespective of your nihilism, your violence, your hatred, and your bombs.
From the cross, Christ said, "It is finished," or more literally, "It is completion." On the cross, Jesus has already defeated the sin, death, and darkness in which you truck. And you can do nothing to undo His victory or the victory He gives to all who believe in Him.
And one more word: Christ died on the cross for you too. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Join the people of the cross in daily turning from sin and daily trusting in Christ. You too can live in the power of God's amazing grace given in Christ. You too can know the victory of the cross!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
There are all sorts of thoughts this provokes in me. But two in particular stand out.
The first is this. Islamist terrorist groups operate under the misconception that the pluralistic West, including the United States, is entirely Christian. And like many non-Christians in this country, they also are under the misconception that some boisterous, political Christians speak on behalf of all Christians. Just as I do not assume that Isis or Al Qadea speak for all Muslims, people shouldn't assume that terrorists speak for all Muslims. It's dangerous and inappropriate to dump all Westerners or Christians in the same category. Shorthand stereotypes like this are almost always false.
The second thought is this. Whether it's to Islamist terrorists or most people in the post-modern West, the cross is always an object of derision.
The cross is seen by most as a place of defeat and many self-identified Christians shroud it in sentimentality or ignore it altogether.
Christians believe (and by faith, have experienced) that the cross on which Jesus Christ died is also the place where He achieved victory over sin, death, and darkness for all who turn from sin and trust in Christ. That's why we call the commemoration of Jesus' death on the cross "Good" Friday.
Jesus, revealed to be both God and human, led a perfect, sinless life, then offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. By that sacrifice, He won life for those who believe. Romans 6:23, in the New Testament, says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Jesus says that we become heirs of His victory when we pick up our crosses--in other words, admit our own need of forgiveness and new life, submitting to the crucifixion of our old sinful selves--and follow Him--that is, trust our whole lives to Him and seek to live in faithful dependence on Him.
The good news or gospel is that, by faith, we can apprehend a share in Christ's destruction of our sin, by belief in Him. Jesus' resurrection affirmed Christ's victory on the cross. Death couldn't contain Him...and it can't contain those who trust in Him. This, in turn, frees us to love God, love our neighbor, seek justice, and boldly share Christ with others.
For many, the cross of Christ and the gospel of freedom from sin, death, and darkness that was unleashed from the cross seems foolish and implausible. But with the apostle Paul, Christians can say: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." (Romans 1:16)
This past Sunday, in many Christians congregations around the world, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, was the appointed second lesson. We read and heard these verses at Living Water Lutheran Church as well. Paul addresses those who think that the power of the cross can be destroyed in the ways buildings can be or that it can be killed the way mortal human beings can be. This is what he writes:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'”
So, a word to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a word also to ISIS: You will never destroy the cross or its power to change lives for good.
You will never conquer its life-giving power.
You will never erase the witness for Christ.
You will never stop the Church's Christ-mandated mission of making disciples.
The Word of God will have the last word.
And all who trust in the Lord Who gave Himself on the cross will keep on loving God and loving you, and living beyond the bounds of death, irrespective of your nihilism, your violence, your hatred, and your bombs.
From the cross, Christ said, "It is finished," or more literally, "It is completion." On the cross, Jesus has already defeated the sin, death, and darkness in which you truck. And you can do nothing to undo His victory or the victory He gives to all who believe in Him.
And one more word: Christ died on the cross for you too. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Join the people of the cross in daily turning from sin and daily trusting in Christ. You too can live in the power of God's amazing grace given in Christ. You too can know the victory of the cross!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)