"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17)
Saturday, February 03, 2018
People with Purpose
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17)
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
If God wills it, it's NOT impossible!
This the journal entry from my quiet time with God earlier today. For me, what God said to me in His word today was powerful and important. It may be for you as well. But nothing can replace adopting the daily practice of quiet time with God for yourself. This message from a year ago will explain how I approach quiet time.
Look: “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Exodus 15:24-25)
Three days after the Lord delivered the people of Israel at the Red Sea, throwing the Pharaoh’s chariots and horses who had been chasing them, into the sea, we come to this verse. The Israelites are beginning to wonder where their water is going to come from out in the wilderness.
The people have short memories. None of them stop to think, “The Lord Who controlled the wind and waves to save us can also provide us with the water we need.”
Instead, they panic.
Not only that, they seem to forget any connection they have with God, despite having sung God’s praises just three days earlier (Exodus 15:1-18). They grumble to the man they think is in charge, Moses.
But while the people grumbled, Moses prayed.
Moses “cried to the Lord.” On that, God created fresh water for the people.
God is good at making ways where there are no ways, at opening up new possibilities, of doing “a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19).
Doubters grumble about what can’t be done.
Believers submissively ask God to do what they know only He can do.
At their best, believers remember that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20) In fact, by living in the lifestyle described by Martin Luther of daily repentance and renewal, they seek to constantly remember God’s faithfulness. And in the sacrament of Holy Communion, they’s grateful to be re-membered to Jesus.
Listen: Of course, even the most fervent believers are sometimes doubters. That’s why I need to keep remembering God’s promises and God’s track record of kept promises.
Today, God extends His promises to all who believe in Jesus. Through Jesus and our faith in Him, we can know God as the One to Whom we can cry out like Moses did. Jesus says: “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)
Jesus says that I can trust God enough to stop grumbling and to start praying: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)
The people of Israel were right in one sense. There was nothing they could do to get the water they needed. That was the reality. The problem was in their response to that reality: They grumbled instead of praying. Fortunately for them, Moses prayed for them.
When I think about the impossible things in my life, I can grumble, give up, become bitter.
Or I can pray to God in the name of Jesus, my God, Savior, and High Priest, Who died and rose for me.
When I pray like this, Jesus may help me get through the impossible; get around the impossible; give me the strength to endure; create a new path. I may die or I may live. I may suffer or get through without a hitch. I may be asked to sacrifice something of myself or I may be showered with miraculous provisions.
All of that is up to God as He works what’s best for my development as a child of God.
In any case, as I choose to pray--to submit, to surrender, to ask that God’s will be done, I learn the truth of Paul’s words: “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)
Respond: Lord, I need to pray and not grumble, to trust You to do the impossible rather than thinking about what I face that’s impossible.
I need to remember that if You will something, it is NOT impossible!
Give me boldness to trust in You with the things that seem impossible, Lord. Help me to remember Jesus’ words: “...with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
As I pray that, help me to not to fall into a “name it and claim it” heresy. You are not an ATM that dispenses goodies if I only believe it enough and say it enough. You are the sovereign God of all creation. As I pray to You, help me to genuinely surrender to Your will and Your will alone.
Prayer is, before it’s anything, submission to You. Help me to seek your kingdom first and above all else (Matthew 6:33). Help me to alter my requests to You as Your Word speaks to me and as I listen for the voice of Your Holy Spirit.
Above all, Your will be done!
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Look: “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Exodus 15:24-25)
Three days after the Lord delivered the people of Israel at the Red Sea, throwing the Pharaoh’s chariots and horses who had been chasing them, into the sea, we come to this verse. The Israelites are beginning to wonder where their water is going to come from out in the wilderness.
The people have short memories. None of them stop to think, “The Lord Who controlled the wind and waves to save us can also provide us with the water we need.”
Instead, they panic.
Not only that, they seem to forget any connection they have with God, despite having sung God’s praises just three days earlier (Exodus 15:1-18). They grumble to the man they think is in charge, Moses.
But while the people grumbled, Moses prayed.
Moses “cried to the Lord.” On that, God created fresh water for the people.
God is good at making ways where there are no ways, at opening up new possibilities, of doing “a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19).
Doubters grumble about what can’t be done.
Believers submissively ask God to do what they know only He can do.
At their best, believers remember that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20) In fact, by living in the lifestyle described by Martin Luther of daily repentance and renewal, they seek to constantly remember God’s faithfulness. And in the sacrament of Holy Communion, they’s grateful to be re-membered to Jesus.
Listen: Of course, even the most fervent believers are sometimes doubters. That’s why I need to keep remembering God’s promises and God’s track record of kept promises.
Today, God extends His promises to all who believe in Jesus. Through Jesus and our faith in Him, we can know God as the One to Whom we can cry out like Moses did. Jesus says: “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:7)
Jesus says that I can trust God enough to stop grumbling and to start praying: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)
The people of Israel were right in one sense. There was nothing they could do to get the water they needed. That was the reality. The problem was in their response to that reality: They grumbled instead of praying. Fortunately for them, Moses prayed for them.
When I think about the impossible things in my life, I can grumble, give up, become bitter.
Or I can pray to God in the name of Jesus, my God, Savior, and High Priest, Who died and rose for me.
When I pray like this, Jesus may help me get through the impossible; get around the impossible; give me the strength to endure; create a new path. I may die or I may live. I may suffer or get through without a hitch. I may be asked to sacrifice something of myself or I may be showered with miraculous provisions.
All of that is up to God as He works what’s best for my development as a child of God.
In any case, as I choose to pray--to submit, to surrender, to ask that God’s will be done, I learn the truth of Paul’s words: “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)
Respond: Lord, I need to pray and not grumble, to trust You to do the impossible rather than thinking about what I face that’s impossible.
I need to remember that if You will something, it is NOT impossible!
Give me boldness to trust in You with the things that seem impossible, Lord. Help me to remember Jesus’ words: “...with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
As I pray that, help me to not to fall into a “name it and claim it” heresy. You are not an ATM that dispenses goodies if I only believe it enough and say it enough. You are the sovereign God of all creation. As I pray to You, help me to genuinely surrender to Your will and Your will alone.
Prayer is, before it’s anything, submission to You. Help me to seek your kingdom first and above all else (Matthew 6:33). Help me to alter my requests to You as Your Word speaks to me and as I listen for the voice of Your Holy Spirit.
Above all, Your will be done!
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
On State of the Union Messages (Briefly...please)
Tonight's State the Union address, which I did not see, clocks in as the third longest ever.
This reminds me of a story about Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth president. A noted orator, Wilson was lauded for his usually short speeches. A member of his cabinet asked him how long it took him to prepare his addresses.
Wilson replied: “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”
That quote has often reined me in as a preacher and incited me (most weeks) to begin preparing early.
By the way, Wilson, despite his placid exterior, was a man of volcanic passions who could be as deeply wrong as he was stunningly right.
He was deeply wrong about race and the first "Red Scare" created by his administration.
He was right about what needed to happen in post-World War 1 to prevent a future global conflagration.
On this second issue, Wilson hurt his own cause by insisting that the agreement he brought home from France, the Treaty Versailles, be approved by the Senate with no amendments. His intransigence, which led to Senate rejection of the treaty, meant that the United States wouldn't play the positive role it could have played in the League of Nations toward preventing World War 2.
But on speech writing and delivery, he was a champ, which is why he became the first president since Thomas Jefferson, who loathed public speaking, to deliver the State of the Union address to Congress in person.
[By the way, I wrote about State of the Union messages and the need to get rid of their "Skutnik moments" twelve years ago here.]
This reminds me of a story about Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth president. A noted orator, Wilson was lauded for his usually short speeches. A member of his cabinet asked him how long it took him to prepare his addresses.
Wilson replied: “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”
That quote has often reined me in as a preacher and incited me (most weeks) to begin preparing early.
By the way, Wilson, despite his placid exterior, was a man of volcanic passions who could be as deeply wrong as he was stunningly right.
He was deeply wrong about race and the first "Red Scare" created by his administration.
He was right about what needed to happen in post-World War 1 to prevent a future global conflagration.
On this second issue, Wilson hurt his own cause by insisting that the agreement he brought home from France, the Treaty Versailles, be approved by the Senate with no amendments. His intransigence, which led to Senate rejection of the treaty, meant that the United States wouldn't play the positive role it could have played in the League of Nations toward preventing World War 2.
But on speech writing and delivery, he was a champ, which is why he became the first president since Thomas Jefferson, who loathed public speaking, to deliver the State of the Union address to Congress in person.
[By the way, I wrote about State of the Union messages and the need to get rid of their "Skutnik moments" twelve years ago here.]
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I haven't had a counter showing me the number of page views of my blog from its beginning. But since that became a standard feature for blogger.com sites, it's been interesting to see the countries from which readers view it.
Below are two graphs. The first shows where recent hits have come from. The second shows the countries from which readers have logged on since the counter started.
The counter shows me nothing about who the readers are. You can remain anonymous.
But I'm curious about who stops here. So, when you read a post here, consider leaving a comment. I'd love to read what you have to say.
Below are two graphs. The first shows where recent hits have come from. The second shows the countries from which readers have logged on since the counter started.
The counter shows me nothing about who the readers are. You can remain anonymous.
But I'm curious about who stops here. So, when you read a post here, consider leaving a comment. I'd love to read what you have to say.
Freedom to Build Up, Not to Tear Down
[This message was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, this past Sunday.]
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
I once took some youth from a church I was serving on a Group Workcamps mission trip.
Youth and adults from all around the country converged on a site in a small city where, for five days, we worshiped, had group Bible studies, prayed, ate, tried to sleep, fellowshipped, and had a lot of fun. Most of our days were filled with going out with groups of six or eight on various service projects, each group composed of a mixture of youth and adults from various churches. The group of six youth I led spent part of each day at a local nursing home, where we interacted with residents.
Among the residents was a woman in her late eighties we’ll call Doris. She was usually congenial and fun. But on our second day, we discovered that Doris was an Olympic-class grudge-holder and that if anything reminded her of her grudges against, say, some of the nursing home employees, she would slip into a torrent of cursing until you moved her to another subject.
Some boys found it funny to set Doris off whenever they could. I have to confess that I said little to stop them when this happened and I even found Doris’ outbursts a bit funny myself.
But then another pastor told us, “You guys are egging Doris on. You need to stop.”
He was right. The boys were taking advantage of Doris in a way, giving permission to her tirades and taking God’s name in vain.
And I had just stood by. Even if Doris was no longer responsible for her own words, those who prompted her to sin and I who watched were guilty of sin. I repented.
Jesus says that we disciples of Jesus Christ, who have been saved by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus, are under a solemn obligation not to cause others to sin. "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come,” Jesus says. “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” (Luke 17:1-2)
Disciples of Jesus aren’t supposed to be moral vigilantes, telling others what to do and not to do. That was what the Pharisees of Jesus' day did. But no disciple of Jesus should ever want to cause other people to stumble into sin.
In today’s second lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:8-13, Paul shows us that Christians must also avoid tripping fellow Christians, those who may be less mature in the faith than we are, into behavior that, on its face, isn’t sinful. But the behavior may be sinful for that person weaker in the faith who look to us to provide them with a model of how to live as a Jesus-follower in everyday life.
Let me explain.
The first-century city of Corinth was rife with idol worship. People who worshiped false deities offered various foods to their idols.
After the offerings were made, there would be meals made of the food that had been sacrificed. Food prepared in this way was seen as continuing people’s worship of the idols.
Some of the food would end up going to people’s homes to be served in meals there. Even there, a connection to the idols would be retained in the minds of the families and guests who ate the foods brought from the sacrifice. Sometimes Christians would be invited to these meals, both those more mature in the faith and those whose coming to faith was more recent.
As Christians we know that all the little gods and godlets that people worship--from pieces of wood or stone to the forces of nature, from the money that the world bays for to the sex without marriage as ordained by God that many crave, from the accolades of the fickle crowd to lives of pleasure without purpose or accountability--all these idols and more are nothing.
Because the more mature Christians at Corinth knew that the idols worshiped in their town were nothing, they felt no hesitation about eating food that their idol-worshiping neighbors had brought from their places of worship. Food is food. Followers of Christ are free to eat any food that has come from God’s hand. (This does not include Tide detergent pods, which, it's feared, is a culinary rage these days!)
But in exercising their freedom, the Corinthian Christians more advanced in their faith, were confusing less mature Christians sitting at tables with them. These less spiritually mature Christians were converts to Christian faith. Christians teach and believe that there is only one God (one God in three persons). Their Christian mentors in the faith had taught them that, “You shall have no other gods before me” and that faith in Jesus is the only way to connect to the one true God of the whole universe. But these newer Christians wondered as they watched mature Christians eating food offered to idols if the teaching they'd received was true. Was the God they’d come to know through Jesus just one of many gods to be worshiped? It was confusing and risked seeing them fall into the sin of idolatry, carrying them away from God.
When the apostle Paul got wind of things, he was incensed. Look to our second lesson now to see what he wrote to the churches in Corinth, starting at verse 4: “So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’ and that ‘There is no God but one.’...[then] there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
If you have your Bibles with you, you might want to underline or highlight the last few words in verse 8: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
“You have every right to eat that food,” Paul is saying. “But watch out that when you do it, you don’t cause those weaker in the faith or in willpower back into their old idolatrous habits.”
When Jesus Christ died and rose for us, He set us free from the harsh condemnation of the law, from works righteousness. He gives us the freedom to live.
But our freedom in Christ does not give us license to tempt others to sin, to put their eternal salvation at risk.
Look again at Paul’s words, starting at verse 10: “...if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
The principle for us today? We need to avoid doing anything that harms another person's relationship with Jesus Christ or that lures them into sin.
You may say, “I would never do that.” Of course you wouldn’t do it intentionally. But the problem with us as disciples of Jesus is that we’re often unintentional about living out our faith.
Jesus calls us to use our freedom in Him intentionally for the good of others, whether they stand outside the faith or they are Christians.
So, for example, you and I know full well that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with drinking alcohol. (Beer is almost a third sacrament for we Lutherans. That's a joke.) Jesus drank wine and, despite the convoluted reasoning of some teetotaling Christians, we know that what He drank was real wine with a higher alcohol account than you or I would be accustomed to drinking. The Bible does warn against excess in drinking, but that’s it.
Nonetheless, I realized many years ago that although I was free to drink a glass of wine, I shouldn’t do it around people who I suspect or know have trouble with drinking. I don’t want to use my freedom to give license to others to engage in behaviors which would result in the sinful abuse of their bodies. Christ has set me free to love my neighbor, not to drive my neighbor away from Him!
In his essay, On Christian Freedom, Martin Luther writes: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.”
As disciples of Jesus, we are set free from the bondage of sin, the condemnation of the Law, and death.
Confident of God’s grace given to all who trust in Christ and of our place in His kingdom, we’re also set free from thinking about ourselves and our own desires all the time.
We know that God has us in His loving hands, now and always, whatever happens. So we can think of others.
We can be intentional about sharing our faith with them.
We can be intentional about honoring Christ and loving and giving to others with no thought of being loved or of receiving in return.
And we’re free to think, “What can I do today or what can I avoid today to help a sister or brother in Christ grow strong in their faith? What can I do to draw them closer to Christ? How can be a faithful influencer for Christ in my everyday relationships?”
I invite you to do something this afternoon or tonight--there’s time, the only thing on TV today is the Pro Bowl and who cares about that?--and ask God to show you ways in which, this week, you can be an encouragement to deeper faith to your kids or grandkids or a Christian who’s newer to the faith.
Think of some Bible passage that might encourage them, that you could share with them.
After this reflection, jot some notes down for yourself, then seek out the opportunity to build others up in their discipleship.
This is we call "reaching in" at Living Water, the call to reach in to support and inspire our fellow believers.
It’s one great way we can use our freedom in Christ. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
I once took some youth from a church I was serving on a Group Workcamps mission trip.
Youth and adults from all around the country converged on a site in a small city where, for five days, we worshiped, had group Bible studies, prayed, ate, tried to sleep, fellowshipped, and had a lot of fun. Most of our days were filled with going out with groups of six or eight on various service projects, each group composed of a mixture of youth and adults from various churches. The group of six youth I led spent part of each day at a local nursing home, where we interacted with residents.
Among the residents was a woman in her late eighties we’ll call Doris. She was usually congenial and fun. But on our second day, we discovered that Doris was an Olympic-class grudge-holder and that if anything reminded her of her grudges against, say, some of the nursing home employees, she would slip into a torrent of cursing until you moved her to another subject.
Some boys found it funny to set Doris off whenever they could. I have to confess that I said little to stop them when this happened and I even found Doris’ outbursts a bit funny myself.
But then another pastor told us, “You guys are egging Doris on. You need to stop.”
He was right. The boys were taking advantage of Doris in a way, giving permission to her tirades and taking God’s name in vain.
And I had just stood by. Even if Doris was no longer responsible for her own words, those who prompted her to sin and I who watched were guilty of sin. I repented.
Jesus says that we disciples of Jesus Christ, who have been saved by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus, are under a solemn obligation not to cause others to sin. "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come,” Jesus says. “It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” (Luke 17:1-2)
Disciples of Jesus aren’t supposed to be moral vigilantes, telling others what to do and not to do. That was what the Pharisees of Jesus' day did. But no disciple of Jesus should ever want to cause other people to stumble into sin.
In today’s second lesson, 1 Corinthians 1:8-13, Paul shows us that Christians must also avoid tripping fellow Christians, those who may be less mature in the faith than we are, into behavior that, on its face, isn’t sinful. But the behavior may be sinful for that person weaker in the faith who look to us to provide them with a model of how to live as a Jesus-follower in everyday life.
Let me explain.
The first-century city of Corinth was rife with idol worship. People who worshiped false deities offered various foods to their idols.
After the offerings were made, there would be meals made of the food that had been sacrificed. Food prepared in this way was seen as continuing people’s worship of the idols.
Some of the food would end up going to people’s homes to be served in meals there. Even there, a connection to the idols would be retained in the minds of the families and guests who ate the foods brought from the sacrifice. Sometimes Christians would be invited to these meals, both those more mature in the faith and those whose coming to faith was more recent.
As Christians we know that all the little gods and godlets that people worship--from pieces of wood or stone to the forces of nature, from the money that the world bays for to the sex without marriage as ordained by God that many crave, from the accolades of the fickle crowd to lives of pleasure without purpose or accountability--all these idols and more are nothing.
Because the more mature Christians at Corinth knew that the idols worshiped in their town were nothing, they felt no hesitation about eating food that their idol-worshiping neighbors had brought from their places of worship. Food is food. Followers of Christ are free to eat any food that has come from God’s hand. (This does not include Tide detergent pods, which, it's feared, is a culinary rage these days!)
But in exercising their freedom, the Corinthian Christians more advanced in their faith, were confusing less mature Christians sitting at tables with them. These less spiritually mature Christians were converts to Christian faith. Christians teach and believe that there is only one God (one God in three persons). Their Christian mentors in the faith had taught them that, “You shall have no other gods before me” and that faith in Jesus is the only way to connect to the one true God of the whole universe. But these newer Christians wondered as they watched mature Christians eating food offered to idols if the teaching they'd received was true. Was the God they’d come to know through Jesus just one of many gods to be worshiped? It was confusing and risked seeing them fall into the sin of idolatry, carrying them away from God.
When the apostle Paul got wind of things, he was incensed. Look to our second lesson now to see what he wrote to the churches in Corinth, starting at verse 4: “So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’ and that ‘There is no God but one.’...[then] there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
If you have your Bibles with you, you might want to underline or highlight the last few words in verse 8: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”
“You have every right to eat that food,” Paul is saying. “But watch out that when you do it, you don’t cause those weaker in the faith or in willpower back into their old idolatrous habits.”
When Jesus Christ died and rose for us, He set us free from the harsh condemnation of the law, from works righteousness. He gives us the freedom to live.
But our freedom in Christ does not give us license to tempt others to sin, to put their eternal salvation at risk.
Look again at Paul’s words, starting at verse 10: “...if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
The principle for us today? We need to avoid doing anything that harms another person's relationship with Jesus Christ or that lures them into sin.
You may say, “I would never do that.” Of course you wouldn’t do it intentionally. But the problem with us as disciples of Jesus is that we’re often unintentional about living out our faith.
Jesus calls us to use our freedom in Him intentionally for the good of others, whether they stand outside the faith or they are Christians.
So, for example, you and I know full well that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with drinking alcohol. (Beer is almost a third sacrament for we Lutherans. That's a joke.) Jesus drank wine and, despite the convoluted reasoning of some teetotaling Christians, we know that what He drank was real wine with a higher alcohol account than you or I would be accustomed to drinking. The Bible does warn against excess in drinking, but that’s it.
Nonetheless, I realized many years ago that although I was free to drink a glass of wine, I shouldn’t do it around people who I suspect or know have trouble with drinking. I don’t want to use my freedom to give license to others to engage in behaviors which would result in the sinful abuse of their bodies. Christ has set me free to love my neighbor, not to drive my neighbor away from Him!
In his essay, On Christian Freedom, Martin Luther writes: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.”
As disciples of Jesus, we are set free from the bondage of sin, the condemnation of the Law, and death.
Confident of God’s grace given to all who trust in Christ and of our place in His kingdom, we’re also set free from thinking about ourselves and our own desires all the time.
We know that God has us in His loving hands, now and always, whatever happens. So we can think of others.
We can be intentional about sharing our faith with them.
We can be intentional about honoring Christ and loving and giving to others with no thought of being loved or of receiving in return.
And we’re free to think, “What can I do today or what can I avoid today to help a sister or brother in Christ grow strong in their faith? What can I do to draw them closer to Christ? How can be a faithful influencer for Christ in my everyday relationships?”
I invite you to do something this afternoon or tonight--there’s time, the only thing on TV today is the Pro Bowl and who cares about that?--and ask God to show you ways in which, this week, you can be an encouragement to deeper faith to your kids or grandkids or a Christian who’s newer to the faith.
Think of some Bible passage that might encourage them, that you could share with them.
After this reflection, jot some notes down for yourself, then seek out the opportunity to build others up in their discipleship.
This is we call "reaching in" at Living Water, the call to reach in to support and inspire our fellow believers.
It’s one great way we can use our freedom in Christ. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Monday, January 29, 2018
Prayer Journaling Helps Us Face the Present and the Future
During my quiet time with God today, I was struck by this verse:
But God knows fallen human nature. He knows how habituated we can become, even to slavery. He knows that sometimes human beings opt for the horrors that are known over the risks of the unknown.
He also knows how readily we can forget God's past faithfulness, how easily are brains can be fogged over by nostalgia.
And God knows how easily we can change our minds when we face adversity or change in our lives.
God had answered His people's prayers: They were now free from the Egyptians, free to go to the land God had promised to Abraham's descendants centuries before.
When God has been faithful to us in the past it should encourage us to believe that He will keep being faithful in the present and in the future.
But that's not how the fallen human mind works.
When we're confronted with present risks, dangers, or terrors, we lose our memory. We forget God's past faithfulness and think that we're on our own, facing insurmountable difficulties.
Then we get nostalgic for days we falsely remember as idyllic.
That's what happened to God's people later in their wanderings toward the land God promised them. They forgot about how tough things had been in Egypt or how God had sustained them in slavery and then set them free. Instead, they pined for the past: "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic." (Numbers 11:5)
God knows that if the people immediately faced adversities in claiming the land He had designated for them, they would turn tail and run, back to the known certainties of slavery. So, God decides to lead them by a more circuitous route, one which won't give the people an early reason for discouragement and one by which they will learn the importance of trusting in Him, even in situations in which they may have felt more in control.
There are things for which I have prayed for years. There have been times in those years when I felt like giving up on praying. But I've learned to keep praying because of my experiences with God answering those prayers in ways I never would have imagined. Or God has worked with me to show me that I needed to change what I was praying for.
There are still things I'm praying for and have been for a long time, things for which I may need to pray a long time still. In praying for them, I also need to ask God to help me pray not for the easy paths, but the faithful paths.
I need to ask Him to prevent me from looking on the past with nostalgia--which is fake history, but to instead see the past with clarity, including the times in which God sustained me through tough times, inspired me to believe, and fulfilled the promise that He gives to all who follow Jesus: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)
One way I try to remember God's past faithfulness as a way of sustaining my faith through the uncertainties of the present and the future is to keep a prayer journal. It has two columns.
In the left-hand-column is the date of the prayer and the prayer itself. I
n the right-hand-column is where things are at on any given date, including the final disposition of the prayer.
Often, I edit my requests as I sense God is leading me.
When a prayer request has been fulfilled, I highlight it with yellow.
If it seems that God has told me no (no is also a legitimate answer from God to our praying, incidentally), I highlight it with caramel.
Those yellow-highlighted prayer requests are reminders of God's power to do what I can't do.
Those requests colored in caramel invite me to learn what it means to truly pray, "Thy will be done."
(By the way, I also have items that are lilac-colored. Lilac is how I designate prayer requests I've sensed God calling me to make, often for people I've never met. I'm having this experience more often lately. I'll be getting ready for bed when the name of someone flashes into my mind, someone I don't know personally and know nothing about, someone I haven't seen anything about in years. I take that as God calling me to pray for that person. I don't need to know what their need may be; all I know is that God wants to be invited into that person's circumstances and that He wants me--and probably others to whom He communicates because God is always communicating with us if we'll just listen--to issue the invitation.)
In steering the Israelites away from immediate adversity, God was helping the people develop a deeper memory of His faithfulness, power, and grace.
The Israelites would subsequently by inspired to continued trust in God by telling the stories of God's past faithfulness.
We can be similarly inspired when we read God's Word, which records the promises God has kept and made, including the greatest promise ever made, that of the Savior Jesus, Who died and rose to give everlasting life to all who repent and believe in Him.
But we can further do this by keeping prayer journals, records of the prayers we've offered in Jesus' name and how God has answered those prayers. Such journals, over time, become personal records of God's faithfulness to us.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, 'Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.'” (Exodus 13:17)God has just miraculously set His people free from 430 years of slavery in Egypt. They no longer would be owned by the Egyptians. They would be given their own land.
But God knows fallen human nature. He knows how habituated we can become, even to slavery. He knows that sometimes human beings opt for the horrors that are known over the risks of the unknown.
He also knows how readily we can forget God's past faithfulness, how easily are brains can be fogged over by nostalgia.
And God knows how easily we can change our minds when we face adversity or change in our lives.
God had answered His people's prayers: They were now free from the Egyptians, free to go to the land God had promised to Abraham's descendants centuries before.
When God has been faithful to us in the past it should encourage us to believe that He will keep being faithful in the present and in the future.
But that's not how the fallen human mind works.
When we're confronted with present risks, dangers, or terrors, we lose our memory. We forget God's past faithfulness and think that we're on our own, facing insurmountable difficulties.
Then we get nostalgic for days we falsely remember as idyllic.
That's what happened to God's people later in their wanderings toward the land God promised them. They forgot about how tough things had been in Egypt or how God had sustained them in slavery and then set them free. Instead, they pined for the past: "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic." (Numbers 11:5)
God knows that if the people immediately faced adversities in claiming the land He had designated for them, they would turn tail and run, back to the known certainties of slavery. So, God decides to lead them by a more circuitous route, one which won't give the people an early reason for discouragement and one by which they will learn the importance of trusting in Him, even in situations in which they may have felt more in control.
There are things for which I have prayed for years. There have been times in those years when I felt like giving up on praying. But I've learned to keep praying because of my experiences with God answering those prayers in ways I never would have imagined. Or God has worked with me to show me that I needed to change what I was praying for.
There are still things I'm praying for and have been for a long time, things for which I may need to pray a long time still. In praying for them, I also need to ask God to help me pray not for the easy paths, but the faithful paths.
I need to ask Him to prevent me from looking on the past with nostalgia--which is fake history, but to instead see the past with clarity, including the times in which God sustained me through tough times, inspired me to believe, and fulfilled the promise that He gives to all who follow Jesus: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)
One way I try to remember God's past faithfulness as a way of sustaining my faith through the uncertainties of the present and the future is to keep a prayer journal. It has two columns.
In the left-hand-column is the date of the prayer and the prayer itself. I
n the right-hand-column is where things are at on any given date, including the final disposition of the prayer.
Often, I edit my requests as I sense God is leading me.
When a prayer request has been fulfilled, I highlight it with yellow.
If it seems that God has told me no (no is also a legitimate answer from God to our praying, incidentally), I highlight it with caramel.
Those yellow-highlighted prayer requests are reminders of God's power to do what I can't do.
Those requests colored in caramel invite me to learn what it means to truly pray, "Thy will be done."
(By the way, I also have items that are lilac-colored. Lilac is how I designate prayer requests I've sensed God calling me to make, often for people I've never met. I'm having this experience more often lately. I'll be getting ready for bed when the name of someone flashes into my mind, someone I don't know personally and know nothing about, someone I haven't seen anything about in years. I take that as God calling me to pray for that person. I don't need to know what their need may be; all I know is that God wants to be invited into that person's circumstances and that He wants me--and probably others to whom He communicates because God is always communicating with us if we'll just listen--to issue the invitation.)
In steering the Israelites away from immediate adversity, God was helping the people develop a deeper memory of His faithfulness, power, and grace.
The Israelites would subsequently by inspired to continued trust in God by telling the stories of God's past faithfulness.
We can be similarly inspired when we read God's Word, which records the promises God has kept and made, including the greatest promise ever made, that of the Savior Jesus, Who died and rose to give everlasting life to all who repent and believe in Him.
But we can further do this by keeping prayer journals, records of the prayers we've offered in Jesus' name and how God has answered those prayers. Such journals, over time, become personal records of God's faithfulness to us.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, January 26, 2018
God can be my friend, never my buddy
Here are reflections from a recent quiet time with God. I try to do this five days a week, letting God's Word speak to me in a dynamic, relational way. To see how I approach quiet time, read here. I hope that these journal entries are helpful to others. But nothing can replace your own personal quiet time encounters with God!
Look: “...And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:6)
God has just revealed Himself to Moses in Midian at the burning bush. When Moses realizes that he’s in the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he hides his face. Moses understands the infinite distance between God and himself: God is immortal; Moses is mortal. God is perfect; Moses isn’t. God is the Creator; Moses is the creature. God is sinless; Moses is, like the rest of the human race, sinful.
No wonder Moses hid his face. His response is appropriate, understandable. Centuries later, Isaiah was conscious of the infinite distance between God and himself when he encountered God. He knew that for an unclean human to dare to look at God meant death. He cried out after God had initiated His call to Isaiah to be His prophet: “ “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)
Theologians and experts in comparative religions say that Moses and Isaiah experienced “numinous awe,” awe, respect, terror, fear in the presence of the God of all creation.
Neither in Biblical history nor in the history of Jews and Christians since would this be the first time that people experienced awe or terror in God’s presence. During their wilderness wanderings, the people of Israel, who God called Moses to lead, caught a glimpse of God’s holiness and were terrified. They asked Moses to act as a go-between so that they wouldn’t have to look at God and be killed by the infinite distance. "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." (Exodus 20:19)
Decades later, Israel would marvel at how Moses enjoyed an intimate relationship with God. Deuteronomy 34:10 says, “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face…”
Here’s what strikes me in this passage: Where is my numinous awe?
I often seem to treat God as an afterthought.
Or I take Him and, maybe worse, His grace for granted.
I often ignore Him or treat Him like a buddy.
Listen: Of course, with Jesus, the new covenant or the new testament has come. God has revealed Himself to all people in Jesus Christ. John writes in the prologue to his gospel: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (John 1:19)
In Jesus, to use Martin Luther’s phrase, all are able to see God’s friendly face, the same friendly face Moses, Isaiah, and others came to “see” as their relationship with God developed.
God IS perfect. God IS immortal. God IS sinless, righteous, and, in Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich’s phrase, “wholly other.”
But God loves us, cares for us, and wants a relationship with us. If these things weren’t true, God wouldn’t have met Moses and Isaiah. And if these things weren’t true, He wouldn’t have reached out to Gentiles as well as Jews, to the whole world, in Jesus Christ.
God wants to be reconciled to us, to forgive us our sins, to give us new life, and to shower His love on us for all eternity. Jesus told Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
To all who repent and believe in God as revealed to us in Jesus, God offers life, forgiveness, citizenship in His kingdom, and intimacy with God.
Through Jesus, we can speak with God and ask of God anytime, anywhere. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full,” Jesus says (John 16:24).
“...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin [God has been subjected to temptation and death when He shared in human life in Jesus]. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Citizens of God’s kingdom, believers in Jesus, are to approach the God revealed in Jesus, our “high priest,” “with boldness,” the preacher in Hebrews says. But it’s interesting to see where Jesus is as we approach Him: “God’s throne of grace.”
No matter the intimate friendship with God that Jesus opens to those who believe in Him (John 15:15), He is still the King of all creation, my God, my Creator. He still deserves our honor, praise, and submission. When unbelieving Thomas finally realized all of Who Jesus is, he fell to his knees and confessed Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
The God Who seeks intimacy with me is also owed by submission, surrender, awe, and praise. In fact, His desire for intimacy with a sinner like me, along with His desire to cleanse me of sin and make me fit for living in His kingdom, should incite me to the deepest and most reverent of fear, honor, and praise.
But too often, I turn Jesus into a buddy.
Or my prayers are like emails dashed off to an indulgent uncle, an easy mark.
Not only does such an approach to God mock Him and His desire for closeness with us, it risks turning God into an idol, a good luck charm. Instead of being an expression of an intimate friendship with God, my “prayers” risk becoming messages to a false god I’ve created in my own head, a god I use for my convenience and comfort. I don’t want that! I want real intimacy with God! And I never want to forget that God is God and I am not!
Forgive me, Lord! For taking You for granted. For forgetting, in the words of the preacher of intimacy with You, that it is nonetheless, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Forgive me for forgetting that only You are God and I am not. With the saints in the heavenly city, help me to say and believe, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Revelation 5:12).
I realize that this is a practical issue. If I don’t reverence, fear, honor, praise, and glorify God, it indicates a deficiency in my understanding of You, a deficiency in my relationship with You.
Help me, Lord, to heed the words of the preacher in Hebrews 12:28: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,”
Respond: Lord, to help me to get in the habit of acknowledging Your holiness and giving it to You, help me to spend time next week contemplating several passages of Scripture for five consecutive days: John 9:16-24; Revelation 5; psalms of praise. Help me to note reasons to honor and praise You. Help me to understand more fully the depths of Your love and grace. Teach me to honor You more fully as God. Help me to not be flippant. Help me to know You more fully as my best Friend, but not my buddy. In Jesus’ name I pray.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Look: “...And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3:6)
God has just revealed Himself to Moses in Midian at the burning bush. When Moses realizes that he’s in the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he hides his face. Moses understands the infinite distance between God and himself: God is immortal; Moses is mortal. God is perfect; Moses isn’t. God is the Creator; Moses is the creature. God is sinless; Moses is, like the rest of the human race, sinful.
No wonder Moses hid his face. His response is appropriate, understandable. Centuries later, Isaiah was conscious of the infinite distance between God and himself when he encountered God. He knew that for an unclean human to dare to look at God meant death. He cried out after God had initiated His call to Isaiah to be His prophet: “ “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)
Theologians and experts in comparative religions say that Moses and Isaiah experienced “numinous awe,” awe, respect, terror, fear in the presence of the God of all creation.
Neither in Biblical history nor in the history of Jews and Christians since would this be the first time that people experienced awe or terror in God’s presence. During their wilderness wanderings, the people of Israel, who God called Moses to lead, caught a glimpse of God’s holiness and were terrified. They asked Moses to act as a go-between so that they wouldn’t have to look at God and be killed by the infinite distance. "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." (Exodus 20:19)
Decades later, Israel would marvel at how Moses enjoyed an intimate relationship with God. Deuteronomy 34:10 says, “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face…”
Here’s what strikes me in this passage: Where is my numinous awe?
I often seem to treat God as an afterthought.
Or I take Him and, maybe worse, His grace for granted.
I often ignore Him or treat Him like a buddy.
Listen: Of course, with Jesus, the new covenant or the new testament has come. God has revealed Himself to all people in Jesus Christ. John writes in the prologue to his gospel: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (John 1:19)
In Jesus, to use Martin Luther’s phrase, all are able to see God’s friendly face, the same friendly face Moses, Isaiah, and others came to “see” as their relationship with God developed.
God IS perfect. God IS immortal. God IS sinless, righteous, and, in Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich’s phrase, “wholly other.”
But God loves us, cares for us, and wants a relationship with us. If these things weren’t true, God wouldn’t have met Moses and Isaiah. And if these things weren’t true, He wouldn’t have reached out to Gentiles as well as Jews, to the whole world, in Jesus Christ.
God wants to be reconciled to us, to forgive us our sins, to give us new life, and to shower His love on us for all eternity. Jesus told Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
To all who repent and believe in God as revealed to us in Jesus, God offers life, forgiveness, citizenship in His kingdom, and intimacy with God.
Through Jesus, we can speak with God and ask of God anytime, anywhere. “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full,” Jesus says (John 16:24).
“...we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin [God has been subjected to temptation and death when He shared in human life in Jesus]. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Citizens of God’s kingdom, believers in Jesus, are to approach the God revealed in Jesus, our “high priest,” “with boldness,” the preacher in Hebrews says. But it’s interesting to see where Jesus is as we approach Him: “God’s throne of grace.”
No matter the intimate friendship with God that Jesus opens to those who believe in Him (John 15:15), He is still the King of all creation, my God, my Creator. He still deserves our honor, praise, and submission. When unbelieving Thomas finally realized all of Who Jesus is, he fell to his knees and confessed Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
The God Who seeks intimacy with me is also owed by submission, surrender, awe, and praise. In fact, His desire for intimacy with a sinner like me, along with His desire to cleanse me of sin and make me fit for living in His kingdom, should incite me to the deepest and most reverent of fear, honor, and praise.
But too often, I turn Jesus into a buddy.
Or my prayers are like emails dashed off to an indulgent uncle, an easy mark.
Not only does such an approach to God mock Him and His desire for closeness with us, it risks turning God into an idol, a good luck charm. Instead of being an expression of an intimate friendship with God, my “prayers” risk becoming messages to a false god I’ve created in my own head, a god I use for my convenience and comfort. I don’t want that! I want real intimacy with God! And I never want to forget that God is God and I am not!
Forgive me, Lord! For taking You for granted. For forgetting, in the words of the preacher of intimacy with You, that it is nonetheless, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Forgive me for forgetting that only You are God and I am not. With the saints in the heavenly city, help me to say and believe, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (Revelation 5:12).
I realize that this is a practical issue. If I don’t reverence, fear, honor, praise, and glorify God, it indicates a deficiency in my understanding of You, a deficiency in my relationship with You.
Help me, Lord, to heed the words of the preacher in Hebrews 12:28: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,”
Respond: Lord, to help me to get in the habit of acknowledging Your holiness and giving it to You, help me to spend time next week contemplating several passages of Scripture for five consecutive days: John 9:16-24; Revelation 5; psalms of praise. Help me to note reasons to honor and praise You. Help me to understand more fully the depths of Your love and grace. Teach me to honor You more fully as God. Help me to not be flippant. Help me to know You more fully as my best Friend, but not my buddy. In Jesus’ name I pray.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Flying High with Two Religious Carnival Pitchmen (Ugh)
Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis are two heretics who espouse a false message referred to as the "prosperity gospel." Like people such as Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen, they tell people that if they give enough (especially to them) and pray enough and believe enough, they'll have riches and be happy and problem-free. (Clearly, they must not have noticed how the early apostles, like Jesus, had no wealth and were martyred for their faith in Christ.)
From this clip, I guess that they also never noticed that Jesus, even though He was intent on going to Jerusalem to fulfill His mission of dying and rising for us, always moved among the crowds and made Himself interruptible. When people asked for help--blind people, the parents of sick children, those suffering from some other affliction, those who had questions, He took the time to be with them and help them. Jesus had an agenda; but He knew that He could best pursue it by being interruptible, underscoring His identity as the long-awaited Messiah (the Christ) and helping people to see that He was the way to life with God.
The fact is that it's when we Christians move among people and allow ourselves and our agendas to be interrupted by the needs of other people that we do God's will.
Copeland and Duplantis seem to forget the whole point of God's incarnation, His taking on human flesh in Jesus. He came to move among the evil, the demon-possessed, the druggies, and everyone else. If God isn't too good to do that, then I'm surely not! Neither are Copeland or Duplantis.
I've had some of my most amazing opportunities to share Christ's love and to pray with and for people while flying on commercial jets.
The crap peddled her is nothing more than a rationalization for materialistic impulses. Duplantis and Copeland aren't seeking to help people or to glorify God, but to help and glorify themselves. Their private jets are no different than gold-plated coffins. Jesus' question applies here: "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36)
(Hat Tip to Ann Althouse for posting this video.)
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
From this clip, I guess that they also never noticed that Jesus, even though He was intent on going to Jerusalem to fulfill His mission of dying and rising for us, always moved among the crowds and made Himself interruptible. When people asked for help--blind people, the parents of sick children, those suffering from some other affliction, those who had questions, He took the time to be with them and help them. Jesus had an agenda; but He knew that He could best pursue it by being interruptible, underscoring His identity as the long-awaited Messiah (the Christ) and helping people to see that He was the way to life with God.
The fact is that it's when we Christians move among people and allow ourselves and our agendas to be interrupted by the needs of other people that we do God's will.
Copeland and Duplantis seem to forget the whole point of God's incarnation, His taking on human flesh in Jesus. He came to move among the evil, the demon-possessed, the druggies, and everyone else. If God isn't too good to do that, then I'm surely not! Neither are Copeland or Duplantis.
I've had some of my most amazing opportunities to share Christ's love and to pray with and for people while flying on commercial jets.
The crap peddled her is nothing more than a rationalization for materialistic impulses. Duplantis and Copeland aren't seeking to help people or to glorify God, but to help and glorify themselves. Their private jets are no different than gold-plated coffins. Jesus' question applies here: "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36)
(Hat Tip to Ann Althouse for posting this video.)
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Ambition
[This is the journal entry for my quiet time with God today. I hope that you'll find it helpful if you wrestle with the same temptations and sins with which I daily wrestle. To see how I approach my quiet time with God, read this.]
Look: “41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” (Mark 10:41-45)
Jesus had just foretold His crucifixion and resurrection a third time when James and John approached Him with a request. They wanted to be His right- and left-hand men when He came to glory. They had no idea what they were asking for. Meanwhile, the other ten disciples hear about the brothers’ impudent desire and start haranguing about it. Clearly, they thought that they had equally valid claims to be elevated once Jesus fully ushered in His kingdom.
That’s when Jesus calls for a huddle. He says that the greats among the Gentiles (to be read here as, the fallen world) lord their authority over others. But, Jesus says that’s not how things go in the kingdom of God that He has brought into the world.
Listen: What’s interesting to me as Jesus explains what it means to be great in His kingdom is that He doesn’t put down the desire to be great. Instead, He redefines greatness. “...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Then Jesus says that we must take Him not only as our King and Savior; we must also take Him as our example: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That phrase, Son of Man, references Jesus’ deity, His status as God enfleshed. Although Jesus has been given all authority (Matthew 28:19), He doesn’t lord it over people.
Instead, He became a servant: becoming human, subjecting Himself to human limitations, death, and temptation, washing the disciples’ feet, dying for the sins of the world.
That’s the point of the hymn that Paul quotes in Philippians 2:5-11:
To be great in God’s eyes and God’s kingdom is to dare to be a servant of others, to not toot our own horns, to not tell stories about my life in which I’m the hero, to not try to be the first one in line, to not resent others’ success, to not seek affirmation or accolades from the fickle world, to not put other people down in order to lift myself up.
It means to honor God, to share Christ, to show consideration and respect to others no matter how we may feel about them, to pray for those who rub us the wrong way or who have done us wrong, to pray for those we don’t understand, to help the poor, the despised, the neglected, to surrender all to Christ.
This is daunting. Even when I seek to be a selfless servant, I often find myself thinking, “Wow! I’m being a selfless servant.” That’s hardly the thinking of a selfless servant.
But instead of giving into despair, which Luther, in The Small Catechism, identifies as one of many “great and shameful sins,” I need to repent and ask God to change our ways of thinking. From an earthly, human point of view, I can’t see how God can make a selfless servant out of this bundle of selfish ambitions and desires. God though, can do anything. As Jesus says a few verses earlier in regard to those who worship their own wealth being able still to gain entrance into the kingdom of God: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
God can save sinners like me. He can transform the self-absorbed into the selfless disciple, if my ambition is to be great in the eyes of heaven and not in the eyes of the world.
Knowing God’s grace and my own depravity, I would even say that if I want to want to be a selfless disciple while the old Adam is still saying, “Not really,” God will bring His transforming grace into my life and transform me.
I simply need to let Jesus in, to ask Him to work on me, to fill me with the Holy Spirit, to crowd out the old Adam in me with Himself, and to shut the old Adam down, to tie him up, and to destroy his power, as well as the power of the devil and the sinfulness in the world, over me.
“Here I am!” Jesus says to the Christians in the ancient city of Laodicea who had become blase about their faith in Him. “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
If I aspire to greatness in the kingdom of God, I must daily repent and daily be renewed by the power of God’s saving Word and His Holy Spirit’s life-giving power. Sometimes I want this; but, Lord, I do want to want it. Since I’m giving you that inch into my life, please, Lord Jesus, take a mile! Take all of me!
Respond: Lord, help me today to pray for those who, over the course of my life, have been my detractors, those I have hurt, and those I have found difficult. Help me not to think about what people think of me. And help me to point others to You. Help me not to aspire to be honored by the world in any way, but only to live a life that honors You. Today, I ask You, Lord, to crucify the old Mark with all his vain ambitions so that the new Mark, the Mark turned to You alone for life and affirmation, may rise with renewed vigor. In Jesus’ name. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Look: “41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” (Mark 10:41-45)
Jesus had just foretold His crucifixion and resurrection a third time when James and John approached Him with a request. They wanted to be His right- and left-hand men when He came to glory. They had no idea what they were asking for. Meanwhile, the other ten disciples hear about the brothers’ impudent desire and start haranguing about it. Clearly, they thought that they had equally valid claims to be elevated once Jesus fully ushered in His kingdom.
That’s when Jesus calls for a huddle. He says that the greats among the Gentiles (to be read here as, the fallen world) lord their authority over others. But, Jesus says that’s not how things go in the kingdom of God that He has brought into the world.
Listen: What’s interesting to me as Jesus explains what it means to be great in His kingdom is that He doesn’t put down the desire to be great. Instead, He redefines greatness. “...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” Then Jesus says that we must take Him not only as our King and Savior; we must also take Him as our example: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That phrase, Son of Man, references Jesus’ deity, His status as God enfleshed. Although Jesus has been given all authority (Matthew 28:19), He doesn’t lord it over people.
Instead, He became a servant: becoming human, subjecting Himself to human limitations, death, and temptation, washing the disciples’ feet, dying for the sins of the world.
That’s the point of the hymn that Paul quotes in Philippians 2:5-11:
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:Aspiring to greatness is not a bad thing. But we must redefine our understanding of greatness. Greatness is achieved not be ascending above others. Greatness is something to which the human ego, human pretensions, and human sensibilities must descend. In the Kingdom of God, the way up is the way down.
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
To be great in God’s eyes and God’s kingdom is to dare to be a servant of others, to not toot our own horns, to not tell stories about my life in which I’m the hero, to not try to be the first one in line, to not resent others’ success, to not seek affirmation or accolades from the fickle world, to not put other people down in order to lift myself up.
It means to honor God, to share Christ, to show consideration and respect to others no matter how we may feel about them, to pray for those who rub us the wrong way or who have done us wrong, to pray for those we don’t understand, to help the poor, the despised, the neglected, to surrender all to Christ.
This is daunting. Even when I seek to be a selfless servant, I often find myself thinking, “Wow! I’m being a selfless servant.” That’s hardly the thinking of a selfless servant.
But instead of giving into despair, which Luther, in The Small Catechism, identifies as one of many “great and shameful sins,” I need to repent and ask God to change our ways of thinking. From an earthly, human point of view, I can’t see how God can make a selfless servant out of this bundle of selfish ambitions and desires. God though, can do anything. As Jesus says a few verses earlier in regard to those who worship their own wealth being able still to gain entrance into the kingdom of God: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
God can save sinners like me. He can transform the self-absorbed into the selfless disciple, if my ambition is to be great in the eyes of heaven and not in the eyes of the world.
Knowing God’s grace and my own depravity, I would even say that if I want to want to be a selfless disciple while the old Adam is still saying, “Not really,” God will bring His transforming grace into my life and transform me.
I simply need to let Jesus in, to ask Him to work on me, to fill me with the Holy Spirit, to crowd out the old Adam in me with Himself, and to shut the old Adam down, to tie him up, and to destroy his power, as well as the power of the devil and the sinfulness in the world, over me.
“Here I am!” Jesus says to the Christians in the ancient city of Laodicea who had become blase about their faith in Him. “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
If I aspire to greatness in the kingdom of God, I must daily repent and daily be renewed by the power of God’s saving Word and His Holy Spirit’s life-giving power. Sometimes I want this; but, Lord, I do want to want it. Since I’m giving you that inch into my life, please, Lord Jesus, take a mile! Take all of me!
Respond: Lord, help me today to pray for those who, over the course of my life, have been my detractors, those I have hurt, and those I have found difficult. Help me not to think about what people think of me. And help me to point others to You. Help me not to aspire to be honored by the world in any way, but only to live a life that honors You. Today, I ask You, Lord, to crucify the old Mark with all his vain ambitions so that the new Mark, the Mark turned to You alone for life and affirmation, may rise with renewed vigor. In Jesus’ name. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Monday, January 22, 2018
How Jesus Disciples Live
[This was shared during worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church yesterday morning.]
Mark 1:14-20
In today’s short gospel lesson, Mark 1:14-20, Jesus shows us something of what it is to be His disciple. It boils down to four words:
Take a look at verse 14, please: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” (Mark 1:14) John’s ministry had been preparation for this moment when Jesus began His ministry. John had worked to get people ready for the coming of Jesus, the King. “After me,” John had said, “comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1:7)
Verse 15: “‘The time has come,’ [Jesus] said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”
The word translated as “time has come” is, in the Greek in which Mark wrote his gospel, Πεπλήρωται, from the verb πληρόω. It means full up, fully complete. The time was full up, Jesus was saying. Full up for the kingdom of God to be ushered into our world by the King of kings, Jesus!
There may be no more overlooked Biblical concept than the kingdom of God. Yet Jesus talks about it all the time.
When we think of that phrase “kingdom of God,” we might think of something that will happen in the future, beyond our own deaths, after our resurrections.
This view of God’s kingdom turns this life into nothing but heaven’s waiting room.
Not only is that incredibly boring, it’s built on a false understanding of the kingdom that Jesus came to bring to us.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to petition God, “Thy kingdom come.” When we say that, we’re not asking God to make us part of His reign after we die. We're asking God to reign over our lives right now.
In explaining this petition of the prayer, Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit [now], so that by His grace we believe His holy Word [now] and live a godly life now and in eternity.”
Jesus says in John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
He says to those who come in contact with Him, “...the kingdom of God is in your midst." (Luke 17:21)
And 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “... if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
So, Jesus comes to bring us into direct relationship with God our King in these days, as we walk on this earth! We become citizens of His kingdom now. We don’t have to wait till we die!
Jesus explains exactly how the kingdom of God comes to us in verse 15 of our gospel lesson too. When Jesus brings God’s kingdom to us--in His Word, in the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, in the fellowship of other believers, we enter the kingdom of God and we enter it at deeper and deeper levels of connection and joy when we “repent and believe in the good news.”
Those are the first two aspects of being disciples in the kingdom of God: repenting and believing in the good news.
Let's unpack those two things for a moment.
As you know, a lot of people have the wrong idea about repentance. Repentance does begin with sorrow for sin, with regret over hurting the God Who made us and sent Jesus to die and rise for us. But after sin has been confessed honestly to God, repentance ends with the joy of reconciliation with God. It ends with God telling us we are forgiven. Repentance clears the clutter of sin that otherwise obstructs our relationship with God. His life flows to us again.
To believe in the good news is to believe in Jesus, to trust that when He died on the cross, He died for my sins, to trust that when He rose from the dead, He did so to give me life. That’s good news! “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
Discipleship begins with repentance and belief. These two things alone are enough to save us. They are gifts God gives to those who are open to Jesus. Repentance and belief in Jesus, both of which only God the Holy Spirit can create within us, are the conduits by which we are saved by grace through faith in Christ.
But we live in a world darkened by sin. And until our own physical deaths, you and I will be dogged by our sin and the temptation to sin. Unless we remain resolutely connected to Christ, we can fall away from God. We can lose our ways.
This is why Jesus told the disciples who wanted to sleep at Gethsemane, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)
So, on top of repenting and believing, the disciple of Jesus will diligently seek to follow Him.
They follow Jesus so that they can be filled with God’s strength and not have to face life or temptations to sin on their own.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus finds Simon and Andrew, two brothers who are fishermen, and tells them, “Come, follow me…” (Mark 1:17). Later, Jesus calls another set of brothers, John and James, to follow and they do (v.20).
But what does it mean for you and me to follow Jesus?
Imagine for a second a couple who get married, then decide, even though they live under the same roof and have jobs in the same city, that they’ll just see each other for one hour every week...unless they have something more interesting or fun to do.
How deep do you think their relationship would be?
How prepared do you think they’d be when adversities hit?
You couldn’t really describe what they had as a marriage, could you?
As ridiculous as that illustration sounds, it precisely describes the manner in which most people who call themselves Christians approach the most important relationship in their lives, their relationship with Jesus.
They set up a time to meet Jesus every week (unless something more interesting or fun comes along) and then forget Him the rest of the week. Weekly worship with fellow believers is essential to the Christian life; I'm not knocking it. But if that’s the only connection you have with Christ over the course of your weeks, how deep can your relationship with Christ really be? How prepared will you be for life’s adversities when Jesus is nothing more than a distant acquaintance?
We need to spend some focused time each day in prayer, in reading God’s Word, in asking Jesus, “What do you have in mind for me to think or do in this passage of Scripture today, Lord?”
I also find myself as I grow older more closely adhering to Paul's admonition to pray without ceasing. Many times over the course of my days, I'll find myself talking with God about one thing or another. I'll be driving along in my car, praying. And I know people who pass by think I'm talking to myself. I don't care what they think! I want to keep praying that God's kingdom will come to people.
But even if you're not that crazy, having a daily focused time with God is important. If it seems too hard to do for say five days a week, try at first to do it one day a week, then two, and so on. And, if you need help in even getting started on following Jesus in this way, contact one of the members of our Life and Learning Team to ask them for tips.
So, disciples of Jesus repent, believe in the good news, and follow Jesus. And then, they fish. Jesus told Simon and Andrew to follow Him “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Matthew 1:17)
This metaphorical description of every disciple's mission would have resonated with Simon and Andrew. And not just because they were fishermen.
You see, God’s people, the Jews, viewed the sea as a daunting, evil thing. It was a place of death and ferocious sea monsters. They remembered Genesis 1, in which God’s Holy Spirit moved over dark chaos to impose order, bring good from evil, and to create life.
To fish for people is to draw them out of chaos, sin, evil, and darkness.
To fish for people is to bring them to life with God, to the light of God’s goodness.
To fish for people is to make disciples.
I try to go fishing all the time, even though it doesn’t come naturally to me, even though I would rather keep to myself. (Believe it or not...and Ann will vouch for this, I am an introvert. God has had to kick me out of my shell and still has to remind me to move beyond myself all the time!)
So, at Jesus’ behest, I go fishing for people.
Last night, I made a run to a Kroger deli.
Not my usual one.
I was trolling different waters last night.
I happened to be in uniform, my clerical collar. That can be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
Whatever, I followed my usual pattern of interaction: I struck up a conversation with the clerk who waited on me. “Have you been busy today?” “No need to put paper between every slice of cheese.”
This is the way you start when you go fishing for Jesus:
Fishing for people is the greatest expression of love in the world.
Repent. Believe. Follow. Fish.
This is how disciples live.
This is how Christ uses us to make more disciples.
May we always be faithful disciples of Jesus. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Mark 1:14-20
In today’s short gospel lesson, Mark 1:14-20, Jesus shows us something of what it is to be His disciple. It boils down to four words:
- Repent
- Believe
- Follow
- Fish.
Take a look at verse 14, please: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” (Mark 1:14) John’s ministry had been preparation for this moment when Jesus began His ministry. John had worked to get people ready for the coming of Jesus, the King. “After me,” John had said, “comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” (Mark 1:7)
Verse 15: “‘The time has come,’ [Jesus] said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”
The word translated as “time has come” is, in the Greek in which Mark wrote his gospel, Πεπλήρωται, from the verb πληρόω. It means full up, fully complete. The time was full up, Jesus was saying. Full up for the kingdom of God to be ushered into our world by the King of kings, Jesus!
There may be no more overlooked Biblical concept than the kingdom of God. Yet Jesus talks about it all the time.
When we think of that phrase “kingdom of God,” we might think of something that will happen in the future, beyond our own deaths, after our resurrections.
This view of God’s kingdom turns this life into nothing but heaven’s waiting room.
Not only is that incredibly boring, it’s built on a false understanding of the kingdom that Jesus came to bring to us.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to petition God, “Thy kingdom come.” When we say that, we’re not asking God to make us part of His reign after we die. We're asking God to reign over our lives right now.
In explaining this petition of the prayer, Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism: “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit [now], so that by His grace we believe His holy Word [now] and live a godly life now and in eternity.”
Jesus says in John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
He says to those who come in contact with Him, “...the kingdom of God is in your midst." (Luke 17:21)
And 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “... if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
So, Jesus comes to bring us into direct relationship with God our King in these days, as we walk on this earth! We become citizens of His kingdom now. We don’t have to wait till we die!
Jesus explains exactly how the kingdom of God comes to us in verse 15 of our gospel lesson too. When Jesus brings God’s kingdom to us--in His Word, in the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, in the fellowship of other believers, we enter the kingdom of God and we enter it at deeper and deeper levels of connection and joy when we “repent and believe in the good news.”
Those are the first two aspects of being disciples in the kingdom of God: repenting and believing in the good news.
Let's unpack those two things for a moment.
As you know, a lot of people have the wrong idea about repentance. Repentance does begin with sorrow for sin, with regret over hurting the God Who made us and sent Jesus to die and rise for us. But after sin has been confessed honestly to God, repentance ends with the joy of reconciliation with God. It ends with God telling us we are forgiven. Repentance clears the clutter of sin that otherwise obstructs our relationship with God. His life flows to us again.
To believe in the good news is to believe in Jesus, to trust that when He died on the cross, He died for my sins, to trust that when He rose from the dead, He did so to give me life. That’s good news! “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
Discipleship begins with repentance and belief. These two things alone are enough to save us. They are gifts God gives to those who are open to Jesus. Repentance and belief in Jesus, both of which only God the Holy Spirit can create within us, are the conduits by which we are saved by grace through faith in Christ.
But we live in a world darkened by sin. And until our own physical deaths, you and I will be dogged by our sin and the temptation to sin. Unless we remain resolutely connected to Christ, we can fall away from God. We can lose our ways.
This is why Jesus told the disciples who wanted to sleep at Gethsemane, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41)
So, on top of repenting and believing, the disciple of Jesus will diligently seek to follow Him.
They follow Jesus so that they can be filled with God’s strength and not have to face life or temptations to sin on their own.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus finds Simon and Andrew, two brothers who are fishermen, and tells them, “Come, follow me…” (Mark 1:17). Later, Jesus calls another set of brothers, John and James, to follow and they do (v.20).
But what does it mean for you and me to follow Jesus?
Imagine for a second a couple who get married, then decide, even though they live under the same roof and have jobs in the same city, that they’ll just see each other for one hour every week...unless they have something more interesting or fun to do.
How deep do you think their relationship would be?
How prepared do you think they’d be when adversities hit?
You couldn’t really describe what they had as a marriage, could you?
As ridiculous as that illustration sounds, it precisely describes the manner in which most people who call themselves Christians approach the most important relationship in their lives, their relationship with Jesus.
They set up a time to meet Jesus every week (unless something more interesting or fun comes along) and then forget Him the rest of the week. Weekly worship with fellow believers is essential to the Christian life; I'm not knocking it. But if that’s the only connection you have with Christ over the course of your weeks, how deep can your relationship with Christ really be? How prepared will you be for life’s adversities when Jesus is nothing more than a distant acquaintance?
We need to spend some focused time each day in prayer, in reading God’s Word, in asking Jesus, “What do you have in mind for me to think or do in this passage of Scripture today, Lord?”
I also find myself as I grow older more closely adhering to Paul's admonition to pray without ceasing. Many times over the course of my days, I'll find myself talking with God about one thing or another. I'll be driving along in my car, praying. And I know people who pass by think I'm talking to myself. I don't care what they think! I want to keep praying that God's kingdom will come to people.
But even if you're not that crazy, having a daily focused time with God is important. If it seems too hard to do for say five days a week, try at first to do it one day a week, then two, and so on. And, if you need help in even getting started on following Jesus in this way, contact one of the members of our Life and Learning Team to ask them for tips.
So, disciples of Jesus repent, believe in the good news, and follow Jesus. And then, they fish. Jesus told Simon and Andrew to follow Him “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Matthew 1:17)
This metaphorical description of every disciple's mission would have resonated with Simon and Andrew. And not just because they were fishermen.
You see, God’s people, the Jews, viewed the sea as a daunting, evil thing. It was a place of death and ferocious sea monsters. They remembered Genesis 1, in which God’s Holy Spirit moved over dark chaos to impose order, bring good from evil, and to create life.
To fish for people is to draw them out of chaos, sin, evil, and darkness.
To fish for people is to bring them to life with God, to the light of God’s goodness.
To fish for people is to make disciples.
I try to go fishing all the time, even though it doesn’t come naturally to me, even though I would rather keep to myself. (Believe it or not...and Ann will vouch for this, I am an introvert. God has had to kick me out of my shell and still has to remind me to move beyond myself all the time!)
So, at Jesus’ behest, I go fishing for people.
Last night, I made a run to a Kroger deli.
Not my usual one.
I was trolling different waters last night.
I happened to be in uniform, my clerical collar. That can be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
Whatever, I followed my usual pattern of interaction: I struck up a conversation with the clerk who waited on me. “Have you been busy today?” “No need to put paper between every slice of cheese.”
This is the way you start when you go fishing for Jesus:
- You strike up conversations.
- You ask questions.
- You show genuine concern.
- As time goes on and people get to know you, as appropriate, you mention your faith in Jesus.
- As they share things about themselves, you ask if you can pray for them.
- You plant the seeds of the good news of the God Who sent His Son Jesus so that all who believe in Him will never die, but have everlasting life with God. You go fishing.
Fishing for people is the greatest expression of love in the world.
Repent. Believe. Follow. Fish.
This is how disciples live.
This is how Christ uses us to make more disciples.
May we always be faithful disciples of Jesus. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Saturday, January 20, 2018
A Place, A Hope
[This message was shared earlier today during the memorial service for Jane, a disciple of Jesus who was part of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Psalm 23
John 14:1-6
My wife Ann and I first met Jane in August, 2013, when we came for a visit with the people of Living Water for a weekend designed to help the congregation look us over and decide exactly what they wanted to do with us. We knew Wayne a bit from his work on the call committee. But Jane was a new acquaintance.
She struck me immediately as a person of faith in Jesus, good humor, a quiet commitment to serve others (including needy animals), and a live-your-life-come-what-may attitude.
All of those attributes were tried greatly over the last year-and-a-half of her life.
Someone has said that adversity has a way of showing who a person really is. Since the onset of her medical issues, who Jane was could be clearly seen.
She was exactly who she always seemed to be the first time we met her--a person of faith and good humor, a person committed to service who took life as it came to her--and even more.
She was so intent on not having people fuss over her in the period before her death that her passing caught many by surprise.
Wayne, David, Anne, and all of you who make up Jane’s family, we know that you grieve the loss of a loved one who was such a vital presence in all of your lives.
But we pray that you can take comfort from the same faith and hope that allowed Jane to be the person she was, even at the end of her life.
In Jesus Christ, we can all have the same hope and power for living and the power to face dying that we saw in Jane. That’s why the words of Jesus in today’s gospel lesson, John 14:1-6, are perfect.
They’re words spoken by Jesus in a moment a bit like this moment. Jesus is in the upper room with the apostles. He’s made it clear that He is about to die and the apostles are shocked and grief-stricken.
But Jesus assures them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus had a place prepared for Jane.
He has a place prepared for anyone who dares to let go of things like our common human desire to be our own gods, our puny imagination’s inability to fathom the possibility of a power greater than us, or our unwillingness to accept the witness of the church’s first martyrs that this Jesus, seen to have been murdered on a cross, was also seen to have risen from the dead. Jesus has a place in His kingdom for anyone who opens their minds, hearts, and wills to Him and His good news.
Jane knew that. Jane lived that. She was one of the people who, by her faith in Christ, let eternity slip into this life, allowing all of us a glimpse of what promises belong to those who believe and how those promises can impact the ways we live, the priorities we adopt, the promises we keep.
Her illness baffled Jane and caused her suffering, to be sure. The nights seemed especially hard for her. But her illness didn’t disrupt Jane’s faith or destroy her hope. She lived in simple, faithful response to the message in the only sermon by Jesus quoted in the gospel of Mark: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The time has come.
Jesus has died and risen for needy mortals like you and me.
He has prepared a place for all who turn from their sin and receive God’s forgiveness and trust in the gospel message of new life for all who trust in Christ.
It’s time now to turn to Jesus and live with God in our lives.
When Thomas heard Jesus speaking of the place that he was going and that the apostles knew where that was, he was baffled. What was Jesus talking about? Several years into their apprenticeship under Jesus, following Jesus everywhere He went, Thomas still had no idea where Jesus was taking him. “Lord” Thomas says, “we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To be with the God Who made you and loves you and sent His Son to die and to rise for you, the way is Jesus Christ.
This is not sweet-by-and-by stuff! We can have life with God right here and now. Jesus promises all who follow Him: “I am with you always.” Even now, as you pass through “through the darkest valley.” The Savior Who could not be contained by death is unlimited in His capacity to give you the strength, peace, and hope of God.
King David, writing in Psalm 23, showed that he knew the God ultimately disclosed to all the world in Jesus. That’s why he could say that he feared no evil and that God could comfort him even in darkness.
He can bring comfort to you too.
The apostle Paul once addressed the disciples of Jesus in the first-century church in Thessalonica. The Thessalonian Christians grieved and worried about the eternal destinies of loved ones who had trusted in Jesus but who had died before Jesus returned to the earth. Would they miss out on the resurrection when Jesus returned to the world?
Paul told them that he didn’t want them to grieve like the rest of the human race. They grieved as people, he said, “who have no hope.”
Followers of Jesus grieve. Death is real. Loss is real. Missing those we have loved is real. I spoke with a widow the other day who said of her husband, “I miss him every day.”
But followers of Jesus also have hope.
In Jesus, they know the God Who sustains and encourages the grieving and protects them from despair.
In Jesus, they know the God Who understands our pain.
And in Jesus, they know the God Who has overcome illness, grief, and death, Who has blazed the trail to an eternity with God filled with joy, life as it was meant to be lived, useful work, and utter love.
They know the God Who through Jesus promises that if we will accept the crucifixion of our old sinful selves, sharing in His death, He will share Christ’s resurrection victory over death!
Because Jane followed Jesus, she is experiencing the eternity Christ prepared for her even before she was born.
And I know that if there is one message she would have me share with you today, it would be this: To be comforted, to live life to the full, to face death without fear or cynicism, follow the Lord that has prepared a place for you.
Follow Jesus.
Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Psalm 23
John 14:1-6
My wife Ann and I first met Jane in August, 2013, when we came for a visit with the people of Living Water for a weekend designed to help the congregation look us over and decide exactly what they wanted to do with us. We knew Wayne a bit from his work on the call committee. But Jane was a new acquaintance.
She struck me immediately as a person of faith in Jesus, good humor, a quiet commitment to serve others (including needy animals), and a live-your-life-come-what-may attitude.
All of those attributes were tried greatly over the last year-and-a-half of her life.
Someone has said that adversity has a way of showing who a person really is. Since the onset of her medical issues, who Jane was could be clearly seen.
She was exactly who she always seemed to be the first time we met her--a person of faith and good humor, a person committed to service who took life as it came to her--and even more.
She was so intent on not having people fuss over her in the period before her death that her passing caught many by surprise.
Wayne, David, Anne, and all of you who make up Jane’s family, we know that you grieve the loss of a loved one who was such a vital presence in all of your lives.
But we pray that you can take comfort from the same faith and hope that allowed Jane to be the person she was, even at the end of her life.
In Jesus Christ, we can all have the same hope and power for living and the power to face dying that we saw in Jane. That’s why the words of Jesus in today’s gospel lesson, John 14:1-6, are perfect.
They’re words spoken by Jesus in a moment a bit like this moment. Jesus is in the upper room with the apostles. He’s made it clear that He is about to die and the apostles are shocked and grief-stricken.
But Jesus assures them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus had a place prepared for Jane.
He has a place prepared for anyone who dares to let go of things like our common human desire to be our own gods, our puny imagination’s inability to fathom the possibility of a power greater than us, or our unwillingness to accept the witness of the church’s first martyrs that this Jesus, seen to have been murdered on a cross, was also seen to have risen from the dead. Jesus has a place in His kingdom for anyone who opens their minds, hearts, and wills to Him and His good news.
Jane knew that. Jane lived that. She was one of the people who, by her faith in Christ, let eternity slip into this life, allowing all of us a glimpse of what promises belong to those who believe and how those promises can impact the ways we live, the priorities we adopt, the promises we keep.
Her illness baffled Jane and caused her suffering, to be sure. The nights seemed especially hard for her. But her illness didn’t disrupt Jane’s faith or destroy her hope. She lived in simple, faithful response to the message in the only sermon by Jesus quoted in the gospel of Mark: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The time has come.
Jesus has died and risen for needy mortals like you and me.
He has prepared a place for all who turn from their sin and receive God’s forgiveness and trust in the gospel message of new life for all who trust in Christ.
It’s time now to turn to Jesus and live with God in our lives.
When Thomas heard Jesus speaking of the place that he was going and that the apostles knew where that was, he was baffled. What was Jesus talking about? Several years into their apprenticeship under Jesus, following Jesus everywhere He went, Thomas still had no idea where Jesus was taking him. “Lord” Thomas says, “we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To be with the God Who made you and loves you and sent His Son to die and to rise for you, the way is Jesus Christ.
King David, writing in Psalm 23, showed that he knew the God ultimately disclosed to all the world in Jesus. That’s why he could say that he feared no evil and that God could comfort him even in darkness.
He can bring comfort to you too.
The apostle Paul once addressed the disciples of Jesus in the first-century church in Thessalonica. The Thessalonian Christians grieved and worried about the eternal destinies of loved ones who had trusted in Jesus but who had died before Jesus returned to the earth. Would they miss out on the resurrection when Jesus returned to the world?
Paul told them that he didn’t want them to grieve like the rest of the human race. They grieved as people, he said, “who have no hope.”
Followers of Jesus grieve. Death is real. Loss is real. Missing those we have loved is real. I spoke with a widow the other day who said of her husband, “I miss him every day.”
But followers of Jesus also have hope.
In Jesus, they know the God Who sustains and encourages the grieving and protects them from despair.
In Jesus, they know the God Who understands our pain.
And in Jesus, they know the God Who has overcome illness, grief, and death, Who has blazed the trail to an eternity with God filled with joy, life as it was meant to be lived, useful work, and utter love.
They know the God Who through Jesus promises that if we will accept the crucifixion of our old sinful selves, sharing in His death, He will share Christ’s resurrection victory over death!
Because Jane followed Jesus, she is experiencing the eternity Christ prepared for her even before she was born.
And I know that if there is one message she would have me share with you today, it would be this: To be comforted, to live life to the full, to face death without fear or cynicism, follow the Lord that has prepared a place for you.
Follow Jesus.
Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, January 19, 2018
How do I live in God's Kingdom TODAY?
Most days, I try to begin the morning in quiet time with God. You'll see an explanation of how I approach quiet time here. Below is the journal entry for today's quiet time.
Look: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15)
Jesus brings the kingdom of God. He embodies it. He is its king. Jesus is saying here, I think: “You’ve been looking for the kingdom of God. Here it is. And if you want to be part of it, you need to do two things. First, turn away from your sins and trust in the forgiveness I bring from God. That’s what it means to repent. Second, trust in or believe in the gospel. The gospel is the good news that all who trust in God’s Son, crucified and risen for us, is part of God’s kingdom.”
And when is someone part of God’s kingdom? NOW. The kingdom will come in its fullness, of course, when Jesus returns to the earth, closing down this old creation, and those who have trusted in Him rise to be with Him eternally in His new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). But the kingdom has already come to us. When we repent and believe in Jesus, we are in the kingdom now.
Jesus says in John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
And He says in Luke 17:21, that “...the kingdom of God is in your midst."
Listen: How do I live in Your kingdom now, Lord?
In the high priestly prayer offered in the garden before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to the Father: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:14-15)
It’s Jesus’ will for His disciples to live in the world while not being of the world. We are to be cordial and loving toward the world, but when its worship, values, actions, thoughts, and approach to justice conflict with those of God’s kingdom, we’re to stand with Christ. To manifest the kingdom of God today, we must be in but not of the world.
This is hard.
But I have several important resources to rely on when it comes to being in but not of the world.
Jesus mentions one of them in this petition of the prayer: God’s Word. Spending time in God’s Word is essential. Otherwise, my brain gets addled and I go to the default position of my sinful, human nature. Spending the first hours of my day Fox and Friends or Morning Joe will help me live in the kingdom. (Help me to remember this, Lord.)
But this will only happen, I think, if my reading of God’s Word is begun, filled with, and supported by the very thing that Jesus did in the garden. He prayed. I must pray. Prayer is a conversation in which I connect with God. When I ask God to show me what I need to see in His Word, I find that I see lots more of God and His will for my life than I would if I approached it as a reading assignment.
These are two private resources God gives to us to buttress kingdom-living, to foster our own growth as disciples.
But God also makes me part of the body of Christ, the indispensable Christian community.
People who profess faith Christ but don’t want to have anything to do with the messy business of being part of His family, the Church, are at risk of becoming lost sheep who wander away from Christ and His kingdom. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
We are made for life in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). When the kingdom of God comes fully, we will be part of an eternal kingdom that lives out the great commandment, a fellowship in which we love God and love others.
Other Christians may annoy us, offend us, even harm us. But we need Christ’s body, the Church.
It’s in the body of Christ that we hear God’s Word, not always as we want to hear it, but as read and proclaimed; we receive the sacraments, in which God claims us as His own (Holy Baptism) and which renews us and fills us with Christ’s very life (Holy Communion); we commit ourselves to mutual care and accountability.
Respond: As I think about how I can manifest my citizenship in God’s kingdom right now, I ask, Lord, that You will help me:
1. Express love for my fellow citizens of the kingdom today.
2. Look for opportunities to share Christ with those who seem to live outside of the kingdom.
3. Seek justice for those who are abused or left behind by the world’s system of warped values.
4. Treat others with simple decency.
Help me in these ways, Lord Jesus, to live as one saved by Your gospel and so prove to be an ambassador in this foreign land in which I live on this side of the resurrection (1 Peter 2:11-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Look: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15)
Jesus brings the kingdom of God. He embodies it. He is its king. Jesus is saying here, I think: “You’ve been looking for the kingdom of God. Here it is. And if you want to be part of it, you need to do two things. First, turn away from your sins and trust in the forgiveness I bring from God. That’s what it means to repent. Second, trust in or believe in the gospel. The gospel is the good news that all who trust in God’s Son, crucified and risen for us, is part of God’s kingdom.”
And when is someone part of God’s kingdom? NOW. The kingdom will come in its fullness, of course, when Jesus returns to the earth, closing down this old creation, and those who have trusted in Him rise to be with Him eternally in His new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). But the kingdom has already come to us. When we repent and believe in Jesus, we are in the kingdom now.
Jesus says in John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
And He says in Luke 17:21, that “...the kingdom of God is in your midst."
Listen: How do I live in Your kingdom now, Lord?
In the high priestly prayer offered in the garden before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed to the Father: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:14-15)
It’s Jesus’ will for His disciples to live in the world while not being of the world. We are to be cordial and loving toward the world, but when its worship, values, actions, thoughts, and approach to justice conflict with those of God’s kingdom, we’re to stand with Christ. To manifest the kingdom of God today, we must be in but not of the world.
This is hard.
But I have several important resources to rely on when it comes to being in but not of the world.
Jesus mentions one of them in this petition of the prayer: God’s Word. Spending time in God’s Word is essential. Otherwise, my brain gets addled and I go to the default position of my sinful, human nature. Spending the first hours of my day Fox and Friends or Morning Joe will help me live in the kingdom. (Help me to remember this, Lord.)
But this will only happen, I think, if my reading of God’s Word is begun, filled with, and supported by the very thing that Jesus did in the garden. He prayed. I must pray. Prayer is a conversation in which I connect with God. When I ask God to show me what I need to see in His Word, I find that I see lots more of God and His will for my life than I would if I approached it as a reading assignment.
These are two private resources God gives to us to buttress kingdom-living, to foster our own growth as disciples.
But God also makes me part of the body of Christ, the indispensable Christian community.
People who profess faith Christ but don’t want to have anything to do with the messy business of being part of His family, the Church, are at risk of becoming lost sheep who wander away from Christ and His kingdom. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
We are made for life in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). When the kingdom of God comes fully, we will be part of an eternal kingdom that lives out the great commandment, a fellowship in which we love God and love others.
Other Christians may annoy us, offend us, even harm us. But we need Christ’s body, the Church.
It’s in the body of Christ that we hear God’s Word, not always as we want to hear it, but as read and proclaimed; we receive the sacraments, in which God claims us as His own (Holy Baptism) and which renews us and fills us with Christ’s very life (Holy Communion); we commit ourselves to mutual care and accountability.
Respond: As I think about how I can manifest my citizenship in God’s kingdom right now, I ask, Lord, that You will help me:
1. Express love for my fellow citizens of the kingdom today.
2. Look for opportunities to share Christ with those who seem to live outside of the kingdom.
3. Seek justice for those who are abused or left behind by the world’s system of warped values.
4. Treat others with simple decency.
Help me in these ways, Lord Jesus, to live as one saved by Your gospel and so prove to be an ambassador in this foreign land in which I live on this side of the resurrection (1 Peter 2:11-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
You never can tell when you might need a ukulele
More than seven years ago, I wrote about the sadness with which I'd watched Martin Scorcese's documentary biography of George Harrison. I saw part of it again recently. I'd forgotten this story told by Tom Petty about the day Harrison came to give him unsolicited ukulele lessons and then, opened the trunk of his car. It made me smile.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Reuben, Dysfunctional Families, Depending on God
[I try to keep a quiet time with God five days every week. Below is my journal entry for today. Here. I explain how I approach my quiet time with God.]
Look: “When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him [Joseph] from their hands. ‘Let’s not take his life,’ he said. ‘Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.’ Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.” (Genesis 37:21-22)
Reuben is a man in the uncomfortable middle. Nine of his brothers are intent on murdering their step-brother Joseph.
In these circumstances, nine people constitute a mob and Reuben is afraid to stand up to them. They want Joseph, the kid brother preferred by their dad in their dysfunctional extended family, gone. (This rings true: Extended families often behave exactly like willful, controlling mobs, anxious to keep its members in line.)
The nine want to murder Joseph. Reuben wants to rescue Joseph and take him back to their father. But, fearful of his brothers’ rage, sure that he can rescue Joseph later, he suggests that the mob simply throw Joseph into a cistern. Then he, Reuben, would go back, free Joseph, and return the kid to Jacob.
Compromise and calm can be good things. Shrewdness can be too. Jesus says that believers are to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). But when our shrewd acts are rooted in our own analysis and not in the mind and plans of God, they can backfire. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25).
Later, when Reuben returns to the cistern to rescue Joseph, he finds that his brothers have sold the younger brother to passing slave traders. He goes to his brothers and says: “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
Reuben then acquiesces to the brothers’ plan of lying to their father about what had happened to Joseph. Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal, they intimate. Reuben may have rationalized being a party to this lie. “After all,” he may have thought, “better for my father to think that Joseph is dead than to learn he’s still alive and set us off to search for a brat nobody liked.”
Besides, the lie was now being enforced by the conspiracy that had been hatched at Dothan. The mob (the family) had proven ruthless enough to dispose of those who stood in their way; who was to say that they wouldn’t go after Reuben if he showed any inclination to break from the conspiracy?
Reuben had reason to feel guilty on multiple counts: (1) for not standing up to his brothers in the first place; (2) for hatching his own plan, relying on his own resources; (3) for not trying to find Joseph after he had been sold into slavery.
Listen: Peer pressure can a be a horrible thing, especially when the peers in question are one’s own family members. Families can have a brutal way of pigeonholing and suppressing their members.
This happens a lot when there are dysfunctionality and favoritism from parents. These spawn a kind of dog-eat-dog nastiness among siblings that remains into adulthood. I’ve observed this many times, making the story of Joseph and his brothers accessible and believable.
The basic problem, of course, is disconnectedness from God. When we remain connected to the God now revealed to everyone in Jesus, in faith buttessed by worship, prayer, receiving Holy Communion, and remaining in fellowship with God's people, the Church, God gives us the capacity to deal with things like family dysfunctionality, fear of the crowd, and our own limited thinking. As we pray to God in Jesus’ name, He supplies the Holy Spirit to give us faith, authentic repentance, guidance, a desire to do what God wills, love for God and for others, and courage.
These are all assets that Reuben could have used at Dothan and beyond.
Even his fear of death at the hands of his brothers in revenge for his helping Joseph would have been overcome. When we cultivate a close relationship with the God we know in Jesus, we know that death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to us.
In fact, there is a kind of living death that Reuben must have endured all of those years.
Not all things that people know need to be revealed, of course. The Hebrew midwives were right to conceal the birth of Hebrew boys from the murderous Pharaoh (Exodus 1:19). Corrie ten Boom and her family were right to conceal the Jews they attempted to save from the murderous Nazis.
Sometimes, I think, it’s also best to conceal facts that would only hurt, disrupt, or kill relationships. Much of the Oprah-zation of America, our practice of spilling all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, is predicated on the idea that this is healthy for the one doing the revealing. But how healthy, how helpful, is it for the one to whom sinful thoughts and actions of which they had no knowledge of them are revealed? Jesus says that one day, all of our secret thoughts will be revealed, of course (Luke 8:17).
But God’s Word also tells us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Some people speak the truth but without a hint of love, making others miserable. They speak it in order to shock, to elevate themselves, to bring others down. This is weaponizing truth, a bit like what the serpent did in the garden when he told Eve that if they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, they wouldn't die. That was a true statement, in a way: Eve and Adam didn't die immediately after eating the fruit. But what the serpent concealed with his artful truth-telling was that because they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve would die, just not right away.
We should always, I think, prayerfully examine our motives before speaking truth to someone else. God, in fact, may sometimes call us to keep our traps shut and keep the misery to ourselves rather than unnecessarily spreading it to others.
This, in fact, maybe what Reuben thought he was doing by not telling his father all those years what had really happened to Joseph. On that then, we might want to give Reuben a pass and spare him our judgment. (This is an example of why I'm so happy not to be God!)
But since Reuben was complicit in so many ways with what happened to Joseph and he failed to do the right thing because he relied on himself rather than on God, it’s hard not to see him as a morally compromised person.
The question that remains, of course: Is God showing me some of myself in Reuben? Is there something in Reuben story indicating that God wants me to see or change my own behaviors?
I have to say yes. Like Reuben, I’m prone to stand down when I should stand up. Like Reuben, I can be fearful of what others might say or think of me rather than heeding God’s will. Like Reuben, I often busy myself with my own plans when I should be consulting with God regarding His plans for me.
Respond: Help me, Lord, in a tangible way, to stand with You today. And help me today to make plans in consultation with you and not with my own heart, mind, or preferences. In Jesus’ name I pray.
Look: “When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him [Joseph] from their hands. ‘Let’s not take his life,’ he said. ‘Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.’ Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.” (Genesis 37:21-22)
Reuben is a man in the uncomfortable middle. Nine of his brothers are intent on murdering their step-brother Joseph.
In these circumstances, nine people constitute a mob and Reuben is afraid to stand up to them. They want Joseph, the kid brother preferred by their dad in their dysfunctional extended family, gone. (This rings true: Extended families often behave exactly like willful, controlling mobs, anxious to keep its members in line.)
The nine want to murder Joseph. Reuben wants to rescue Joseph and take him back to their father. But, fearful of his brothers’ rage, sure that he can rescue Joseph later, he suggests that the mob simply throw Joseph into a cistern. Then he, Reuben, would go back, free Joseph, and return the kid to Jacob.
Compromise and calm can be good things. Shrewdness can be too. Jesus says that believers are to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). But when our shrewd acts are rooted in our own analysis and not in the mind and plans of God, they can backfire. “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25).
Later, when Reuben returns to the cistern to rescue Joseph, he finds that his brothers have sold the younger brother to passing slave traders. He goes to his brothers and says: “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
Reuben then acquiesces to the brothers’ plan of lying to their father about what had happened to Joseph. Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal, they intimate. Reuben may have rationalized being a party to this lie. “After all,” he may have thought, “better for my father to think that Joseph is dead than to learn he’s still alive and set us off to search for a brat nobody liked.”
Besides, the lie was now being enforced by the conspiracy that had been hatched at Dothan. The mob (the family) had proven ruthless enough to dispose of those who stood in their way; who was to say that they wouldn’t go after Reuben if he showed any inclination to break from the conspiracy?
Reuben had reason to feel guilty on multiple counts: (1) for not standing up to his brothers in the first place; (2) for hatching his own plan, relying on his own resources; (3) for not trying to find Joseph after he had been sold into slavery.
Listen: Peer pressure can a be a horrible thing, especially when the peers in question are one’s own family members. Families can have a brutal way of pigeonholing and suppressing their members.
This happens a lot when there are dysfunctionality and favoritism from parents. These spawn a kind of dog-eat-dog nastiness among siblings that remains into adulthood. I’ve observed this many times, making the story of Joseph and his brothers accessible and believable.
The basic problem, of course, is disconnectedness from God. When we remain connected to the God now revealed to everyone in Jesus, in faith buttessed by worship, prayer, receiving Holy Communion, and remaining in fellowship with God's people, the Church, God gives us the capacity to deal with things like family dysfunctionality, fear of the crowd, and our own limited thinking. As we pray to God in Jesus’ name, He supplies the Holy Spirit to give us faith, authentic repentance, guidance, a desire to do what God wills, love for God and for others, and courage.
These are all assets that Reuben could have used at Dothan and beyond.
Even his fear of death at the hands of his brothers in revenge for his helping Joseph would have been overcome. When we cultivate a close relationship with the God we know in Jesus, we know that death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to us.
In fact, there is a kind of living death that Reuben must have endured all of those years.
Not all things that people know need to be revealed, of course. The Hebrew midwives were right to conceal the birth of Hebrew boys from the murderous Pharaoh (Exodus 1:19). Corrie ten Boom and her family were right to conceal the Jews they attempted to save from the murderous Nazis.
Sometimes, I think, it’s also best to conceal facts that would only hurt, disrupt, or kill relationships. Much of the Oprah-zation of America, our practice of spilling all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, is predicated on the idea that this is healthy for the one doing the revealing. But how healthy, how helpful, is it for the one to whom sinful thoughts and actions of which they had no knowledge of them are revealed? Jesus says that one day, all of our secret thoughts will be revealed, of course (Luke 8:17).
But God’s Word also tells us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Some people speak the truth but without a hint of love, making others miserable. They speak it in order to shock, to elevate themselves, to bring others down. This is weaponizing truth, a bit like what the serpent did in the garden when he told Eve that if they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, they wouldn't die. That was a true statement, in a way: Eve and Adam didn't die immediately after eating the fruit. But what the serpent concealed with his artful truth-telling was that because they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve would die, just not right away.
We should always, I think, prayerfully examine our motives before speaking truth to someone else. God, in fact, may sometimes call us to keep our traps shut and keep the misery to ourselves rather than unnecessarily spreading it to others.
This, in fact, maybe what Reuben thought he was doing by not telling his father all those years what had really happened to Joseph. On that then, we might want to give Reuben a pass and spare him our judgment. (This is an example of why I'm so happy not to be God!)
But since Reuben was complicit in so many ways with what happened to Joseph and he failed to do the right thing because he relied on himself rather than on God, it’s hard not to see him as a morally compromised person.
The question that remains, of course: Is God showing me some of myself in Reuben? Is there something in Reuben story indicating that God wants me to see or change my own behaviors?
I have to say yes. Like Reuben, I’m prone to stand down when I should stand up. Like Reuben, I can be fearful of what others might say or think of me rather than heeding God’s will. Like Reuben, I often busy myself with my own plans when I should be consulting with God regarding His plans for me.
Respond: Help me, Lord, in a tangible way, to stand with You today. And help me today to make plans in consultation with you and not with my own heart, mind, or preferences. In Jesus’ name I pray.
Proud and Happy to be associated with Haiti
I posted this three days ago over on Facebook. It came in response to comments attributed to a prominent public figure.
[SMI Haiti is the organization through which we work and minister in Haiti.]
Our congregation has an ongoing relationship with several Haitian churches and communities. Haiti does suffer from grinding poverty, ongoing government corruption, the effects of natural disasters, and the impact of voodooism and other superstitions.
But the people there inspire us with their amazing faith, resilience, love, commitment to education and mutual service. We love Haiti and God loves the Haitian people as surely God loves all people.
We are proud and happy to be associated with Haiti and all the other places we do ministry. In fact, I know I speak for the many people of our congregation who have been touched by our Haitian partnership that the Haitian Christians have given far more to us than we have given to them. They have taught us so much about Jesus and what it means to be His disciples.[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[SMI Haiti is the organization through which we work and minister in Haiti.]
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
"He's probably brought it on himself..."
That line is from a recent Tracey Ullman sketch on the BBC. It features a stinging role reversal: A man is robbed at knifepoint and female cops suggest he was at fault for the event because he dressed in a way that signaled he liked people taking his possessions. It made me laugh...and think.
Women, of course, face this kind of absurd reasoning whenever they contemplate filing complaints for sexual assault or sexual harassment. The male-dominated world is often slow to accept that women are innocent victims of assault or harassment, that they didn't do something to "deserve" what happened to them. Some women even buy this nonsense.
I hope that events of recent months will encourage women to speak up when they're victimized by harassment or assault. And I'm praying that we males will believe them!
Women, of course, face this kind of absurd reasoning whenever they contemplate filing complaints for sexual assault or sexual harassment. The male-dominated world is often slow to accept that women are innocent victims of assault or harassment, that they didn't do something to "deserve" what happened to them. Some women even buy this nonsense.
I hope that events of recent months will encourage women to speak up when they're victimized by harassment or assault. And I'm praying that we males will believe them!
Monday, January 08, 2018
The Clash of Kingdoms
[This was shared yesterday morning during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Matthew 2:1-12
Our gospel lesson for this Sunday of the Epiphany presents us with a clash of kingdoms.
At one level, the clash is between the baby Jesus and Herod the Great.
But, more accurately it’s a battle--the battle--between God, on the one hand, and all the demonic kingdoms of darkness, sin, and death of this world.
Jesus, King of the Jews, came into the world to die and rise for a human race in need of saving, then to share His resurrection victory with all who believe in Him. From the moment of Jesus’ birth, the mission of the kingdoms of this world was to prevent Jesus from successfully completing His mission.
The clash of kingdoms began on the first Epiphany.
Matthew tells us about it in today’s gospel lesson, Matthew 2:1-12. Take a look at the first verse, please: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’”
When Jesus was born, most of His Judean homeland had no idea.
Think of that! The Messiah promised by God hundreds of years before showed up and the only ones to notice were a few shepherds and two old people in the temple--Simeon and Anna--eight days after Jesus’ birth.
Everyone else was oblivious.
But the Magi, these foreigners from the East, who held a superstitious belief in the power of stars had, back in their homeland, noted a strange astronomical phenomenon and, believing that such things indicated some important event on earth, then apparently rummaged through other people’s cultures and books to determine that this star was announcing the birth of the King of the Jews.
And then, they followed the star.
The Magi had more faith in the God first revealed to Israel than the people living in the holy land at that time!
They show us that just because you’re a member of the religious club--just because you’re a genetic descendant of Abraham or you take up a place on the membership rolls of a church--doesn’t mean you follow God or that you belong to God.
The key issue always is whether we trust God first revealed to Israel, now known definitively in Jesus. At some level, the Magi trusted in God.
And they cared about the birth of the King of the Jews because some of the prophecies of the King found in the Old Testament said that this Messiah would be more than a King to the Jewish people. He would bring God’s reign to the whole world. He would make God’s salvation available to all people.
For example, Isaiah 11, written about eight centuries before Jesus’ birth, says of this King: “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” (verses 4-5) And through Him, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (verse 9)
Back to our gospel lesson, verse 3: “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”
Herod wasn’t a Judean. He was an Edomite, a thug appointed to be king by the murderous Roman Empire. He was a puppet.
The Romans helped Herod spread the fake news that he was a descendant of King David.
In exchange, Herod was submissive to the Romans.
And the Empire didn’t care when Herod murdered people he feared would overthrow or undermine him. It's why Herod would later murder the baby boys in Bethlehem. It's why he murdered his own sons. It's why he arrested John the Baptist.
The Magi may have been “wise men.” But they were naive about Herod and the Judea into which Jesus was born.
The Magi thought that, as the king of Judea, Herod would already know about the birth of Jesus.
They thought too, that Herod would be as excited as they were about Jesus.
But Herod was disturbed, though he evidently hid it behind a poker face. Verse 4: “When [Herod] had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.”
A Jewish king would have known the answer to that question. Herod has to be told.
Verse 5: “‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” The priests and teachers were quoting Micah 5.
Matthew already told us that both Herod and Jerusalem’s elite were “disturbed” at the thought that the King of the Jews had been born. They had built comfortable lives in the kingdom of darkness. So had many people who depended on Herod’s puppet regime and the Roman government--merchants, farmers, craftsmen--for their wealth.
And, of course, the lion’s share of the Judeans would have found Jesus disturbing too, having no interest in the Kingdom Jesus came to bring, a kingdom that doesn’t promise wealth or ease, but forgiveness of sin--even for the sins we don’t want to give up.
Three decades after the events in today’s lesson, the Judean crowds, disappointed that Jesus wasn’t going to throw out the Romans and give them the goods and privileges of this world that they wanted, turned on Him. Herod then was just the first of many to be disturbed by Jesus.
Truth be told, Jesus can disturb us.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as sinners in need of forgiveness.
We don’t like to think that our being all-around wonderful people isn’t what makes us fit for God’s kingdom.
And when we hear Jesus say things like, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), we look for ways to hold back some parts of our lives for ourselves.
We’re still born wanting to “be like God.”
We want to be our own kings.
And so, Jesus is disturbing even to us.
But it’s only in giving up on the little kingdoms each of us try to build that we can take the free gift of new and everlasting life with God that Jesus offers. It was an offer in which Herod had no interest. Are we interested?
Verse 7: “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’”
Consider how evil Herod is. With murder in his heart, he claims he wants to worship Jesus. Lying comes naturally to people mired in the kingdoms of this world.
When life is all about yourself, anything you can do to promote the self, preserve the self, boost the self is fair game.
But Jesus tells us: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25).
Are we willing to lose our lives, including the dying comforts of this world, in order to gain life with God that never ends?
What are we willing to let go of in order to take hold of Jesus?
Verse 9: “After [the wise men] had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”
They were ecstatic! They were in the presence of the King of the Jews, the object of their search, the hope of generations, the fulfillment of God’s great promise of grace!
When I considered these words this past week, I couldn't help recalling the words of the old spiritual: "Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble." That's how the Magi must have felt on seeing Jesus!
And so what did they do? Verse 11: “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
Jerusalem didn’t worship the King of the Jews and on a Friday we now call Good, Jerusalem would, on behalf of the whole sinful human race, kill Jesus.
But these foreigners welcomed and worshiped Jesus!
Listen: God cares about you. But He doesn’t care who you are.
He doesn’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done.
He doesn’t care what your parents did, good or bad.
He doesn’t care where you’re from.
If you will welcome Jesus and His reign over your life, if you will submissively trust in Him, you will be part of His eternal kingdom.
Even Gentiles.
Even Americans.
Even Lutherans!
Verse 12: “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
One of the biggest takeaways from the first Epiphany for me is this: God will guide those who listen for His voice. (Even the naive!)
The Magi heard God’s call in a far-off land. They heard Him now as He pierced their naivete, allowing them to be instruments for protecting the Child and in protecting the Child, ensuring that Jesus would fulfill His mission of dying and rising.
Just as He did with the Magi, God gives each of us a part in Jesus’ mission in the world.
We are to be and to make disciples.
And He both calls and empowers each of us to do our part.
Our mission is best filled not with flashy programs or glitzy concerts or multimedia presentations, but as we allow ourselves to be the humbled and humble instruments of God’s grace, letting people encounter Jesus in the simplicity and authenticity of our faith in Him.
The most vivid and influential witnesses for Christ in my life haven’t been preachers, but laypeople who followed Jesus:
When you think about it, it was, ultimately, a simple personal encounter with the baby Jesus that caused the Magi to know that the needed to bow down and worship Him.
And because Jesus promises to be with us always (Matthew 28:20), He can also be present in our humble encounters with Him when we worship, pray, study His Word, and receive the Sacrament and in our humble encounters with others as we tell them, “We’ve met the King. He’s changed and is changing me forever. Come and see” (John 1:46).
Jesus is the winner in the clash of kingdoms.
Let the whole world know! Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Matthew 2:1-12
Our gospel lesson for this Sunday of the Epiphany presents us with a clash of kingdoms.
At one level, the clash is between the baby Jesus and Herod the Great.
But, more accurately it’s a battle--the battle--between God, on the one hand, and all the demonic kingdoms of darkness, sin, and death of this world.
Jesus, King of the Jews, came into the world to die and rise for a human race in need of saving, then to share His resurrection victory with all who believe in Him. From the moment of Jesus’ birth, the mission of the kingdoms of this world was to prevent Jesus from successfully completing His mission.
The clash of kingdoms began on the first Epiphany.
Matthew tells us about it in today’s gospel lesson, Matthew 2:1-12. Take a look at the first verse, please: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’”
When Jesus was born, most of His Judean homeland had no idea.
Think of that! The Messiah promised by God hundreds of years before showed up and the only ones to notice were a few shepherds and two old people in the temple--Simeon and Anna--eight days after Jesus’ birth.
Everyone else was oblivious.
But the Magi, these foreigners from the East, who held a superstitious belief in the power of stars had, back in their homeland, noted a strange astronomical phenomenon and, believing that such things indicated some important event on earth, then apparently rummaged through other people’s cultures and books to determine that this star was announcing the birth of the King of the Jews.
And then, they followed the star.
The Magi had more faith in the God first revealed to Israel than the people living in the holy land at that time!
They show us that just because you’re a member of the religious club--just because you’re a genetic descendant of Abraham or you take up a place on the membership rolls of a church--doesn’t mean you follow God or that you belong to God.
The key issue always is whether we trust God first revealed to Israel, now known definitively in Jesus. At some level, the Magi trusted in God.
And they cared about the birth of the King of the Jews because some of the prophecies of the King found in the Old Testament said that this Messiah would be more than a King to the Jewish people. He would bring God’s reign to the whole world. He would make God’s salvation available to all people.
For example, Isaiah 11, written about eight centuries before Jesus’ birth, says of this King: “He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” (verses 4-5) And through Him, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (verse 9)
Back to our gospel lesson, verse 3: “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”
Herod wasn’t a Judean. He was an Edomite, a thug appointed to be king by the murderous Roman Empire. He was a puppet.
The Romans helped Herod spread the fake news that he was a descendant of King David.
In exchange, Herod was submissive to the Romans.
And the Empire didn’t care when Herod murdered people he feared would overthrow or undermine him. It's why Herod would later murder the baby boys in Bethlehem. It's why he murdered his own sons. It's why he arrested John the Baptist.
The Magi may have been “wise men.” But they were naive about Herod and the Judea into which Jesus was born.
The Magi thought that, as the king of Judea, Herod would already know about the birth of Jesus.
They thought too, that Herod would be as excited as they were about Jesus.
But Herod was disturbed, though he evidently hid it behind a poker face. Verse 4: “When [Herod] had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.”
A Jewish king would have known the answer to that question. Herod has to be told.
Verse 5: “‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” The priests and teachers were quoting Micah 5.
Matthew already told us that both Herod and Jerusalem’s elite were “disturbed” at the thought that the King of the Jews had been born. They had built comfortable lives in the kingdom of darkness. So had many people who depended on Herod’s puppet regime and the Roman government--merchants, farmers, craftsmen--for their wealth.
And, of course, the lion’s share of the Judeans would have found Jesus disturbing too, having no interest in the Kingdom Jesus came to bring, a kingdom that doesn’t promise wealth or ease, but forgiveness of sin--even for the sins we don’t want to give up.
Three decades after the events in today’s lesson, the Judean crowds, disappointed that Jesus wasn’t going to throw out the Romans and give them the goods and privileges of this world that they wanted, turned on Him. Herod then was just the first of many to be disturbed by Jesus.
Truth be told, Jesus can disturb us.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as sinners in need of forgiveness.
We don’t like to think that our being all-around wonderful people isn’t what makes us fit for God’s kingdom.
And when we hear Jesus say things like, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24), we look for ways to hold back some parts of our lives for ourselves.
We’re still born wanting to “be like God.”
We want to be our own kings.
And so, Jesus is disturbing even to us.
But it’s only in giving up on the little kingdoms each of us try to build that we can take the free gift of new and everlasting life with God that Jesus offers. It was an offer in which Herod had no interest. Are we interested?
Verse 7: “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’”
Consider how evil Herod is. With murder in his heart, he claims he wants to worship Jesus. Lying comes naturally to people mired in the kingdoms of this world.
When life is all about yourself, anything you can do to promote the self, preserve the self, boost the self is fair game.
But Jesus tells us: “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25).
Are we willing to lose our lives, including the dying comforts of this world, in order to gain life with God that never ends?
What are we willing to let go of in order to take hold of Jesus?
Verse 9: “After [the wise men] had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”
They were ecstatic! They were in the presence of the King of the Jews, the object of their search, the hope of generations, the fulfillment of God’s great promise of grace!
When I considered these words this past week, I couldn't help recalling the words of the old spiritual: "Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble." That's how the Magi must have felt on seeing Jesus!
And so what did they do? Verse 11: “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
Jerusalem didn’t worship the King of the Jews and on a Friday we now call Good, Jerusalem would, on behalf of the whole sinful human race, kill Jesus.
But these foreigners welcomed and worshiped Jesus!
Listen: God cares about you. But He doesn’t care who you are.
He doesn’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done.
He doesn’t care what your parents did, good or bad.
He doesn’t care where you’re from.
If you will welcome Jesus and His reign over your life, if you will submissively trust in Him, you will be part of His eternal kingdom.
Even Gentiles.
Even Americans.
Even Lutherans!
Verse 12: “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
One of the biggest takeaways from the first Epiphany for me is this: God will guide those who listen for His voice. (Even the naive!)
The Magi heard God’s call in a far-off land. They heard Him now as He pierced their naivete, allowing them to be instruments for protecting the Child and in protecting the Child, ensuring that Jesus would fulfill His mission of dying and rising.
Just as He did with the Magi, God gives each of us a part in Jesus’ mission in the world.
We are to be and to make disciples.
And He both calls and empowers each of us to do our part.
Our mission is best filled not with flashy programs or glitzy concerts or multimedia presentations, but as we allow ourselves to be the humbled and humble instruments of God’s grace, letting people encounter Jesus in the simplicity and authenticity of our faith in Him.
The most vivid and influential witnesses for Christ in my life haven’t been preachers, but laypeople who followed Jesus:
- the house-painter who told me how good Jesus had been to him even as he grieved the wife he adored on the day we buried her;
- the nurse who took my face in her hands after my first sermon and said, “Mark, honey, I see the Holy Spirit in you. Don't ever lose Him!”;
- the mentor in the faith who put up with my immaturity because she saw in me someone Jesus had died for.
When you think about it, it was, ultimately, a simple personal encounter with the baby Jesus that caused the Magi to know that the needed to bow down and worship Him.
And because Jesus promises to be with us always (Matthew 28:20), He can also be present in our humble encounters with Him when we worship, pray, study His Word, and receive the Sacrament and in our humble encounters with others as we tell them, “We’ve met the King. He’s changed and is changing me forever. Come and see” (John 1:46).
Jesus is the winner in the clash of kingdoms.
Let the whole world know! Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
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