Getting Ready for a New Day

[This was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, yesterday.]

Mark 1:1-8

Truth is a rare commodity, it seems... 

From the advertisers who tell us that their products will make us happy, healthy, or sexy to the friend who soothingly says that that article of clothing doesn’t make us look fat... 

From the bigot who claims, “I’m not prejudiced” to the politician who insists that the other guy is a crook...

Truth is often is short supply.

One reason for this is that truth isn't always the socially acceptable option. 

During Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign for president, a reporter visited his mother Miss Lillian in Plains, Georgia. “Miss Lillian,” he said, “your son says that he will never lie to the American people. Has he ever lied?” Miss Lillian replied, “Oh, I suppose he might have sometimes told a little white lie.” When asked what might constitute 'a little white lie,' she responded, “You remember when you came in here and I told you that I was glad to see you?” 

Miss Lillian told her little white lie because sometimes, maybe more often than we like to admit, we would rather be lied to than to be told the truth. The truth can hurt. 

Especially when it tells us things about ourselves, our characters, our actions, or our lives that are less than moral or healthy or wise or Godly.

Today’s Gospel lesson, Mark 1:1-8, brings us face to face with John the Baptist. Even though John lived in New Testament times, he was, in a way, the last of the Old Testament prophets. 

You see, the chief characteristic of a prophet wasn’t that they foretold the future, although their messages often contained such “prophecies.” The main thing a prophet did was tell the truth. Prophets told and sometimes acted out truth that God had revealed to them. 

They shared God’s truth whether people wanted to hear it or not. 

Many of the prophets over the centuries, for example, told Israel that it needed to turn back to God at the very moments when Israel was dividing its loyalties between God and various idols. (Just to cover all the bases.) This message of return to God was the last thing Israel wanted to hear when everything in their lives seemed to be working so well, when the GDP was high, when there was full employment, when their military seemed invincible. 

They believed that their worldly success indicated that God was for them and that the prophets were wrong. 

They couldn’t believe that a loving God would mind it if they mixed in a little self-reliance in with His calls for utter reliance on Him alone. 

They couldn't imagine God being offended when they lied and cut corners to get ahead of those they saw as the undeserving people of their society or those from other countries, religions, and races that they encountered. 

And they certainly would not have liked it when one of the prophets spoke God’s truth to their selfishness, idolatry, materialism, and injustice. Micah wrote: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” [Micah 6:8, ESV]

But there were other times when the truth of the prophets came like healing salve to wounded skin or like living water for thirsting souls. 

For example, in the first two verses of today’s Old Testament lesson, the prophet Isaiah speaks to an Israel that had been conquered, seen its livelihood destroyed, witnessed its best and brightest sent into exile, all because it had arrogantly walked away from God. 

Now, what was left of Israel had humbly turned back to God and through the prophet God said, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” [Isaiah 40:1-2]

Prophets always told God’s truth. 

Prophets called people mired in sin and arrogance to repent, to repudiate their sin and turn back to God. 

Prophets also called people who did repent to trust in God’s forgiveness and grace.

This is exactly the message of John the Baptist. Take a look at today’s Gospel lesson on page 699 of the sanctuary Bibles. Verse 1: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” This is the title that Mark gives the gospel.

I believe that Mark meant this sentence fragment to be the title of his book about Jesus. The story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are only the beginning of the Gospel, the good news, about Jesus. It's only when people come to faith in Christ and only after Jesus has returned to judge the living and the dead and to usher in the new creation, that the Gospel will be completed.

Verse 2: “...as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”--’a voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’” 

Because Isaiah was considered the more important of the Old Testament prophets, Mark only mentions Isaiah here. But part of what Mark quotes is also from Malachi. No matter, the point is that these Old Testament prophecies said that God was going to send a prophet to get things ready for the arrival of the Savior of the world. 

That prophet--that messenger--they’re talking about would “prepare the way” for the Messiah. 

Malachi said that this messenger would “make straight paths.” That’s road construction language. John appeared in the wilderness to be a bulldozer! 

He came to build a freeway to give the world access to the Savior. 

Through John’s ministry, all that might keep people from seeing and trusting in the Messiah--all their sin, cynicism, despair, and arrogance--was to be cleared away. 

He would clearly speak the truth about what they needed to receive the Messiah’s favor--repentance and faith. 

People would either accept that truth or they wouldn’t. But no one, after hearing John. could honestly say they didn’t know how to prepare for the coming, the advent, of the Messiah. Neither can we.

Verse 4: “And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” 

Mark is engaging in hyperbole here. He doesn’t mean that every house in Jerusalem and Judea was emptied. We know, for example, that the king who would eventually order John’s execution didn’t go out to hear John’s message. But he did hear about it. Which is what John got in trouble. Kings don’t always like to hear that they’re sinners in need of repentance and surrendering trust in God. Few people do. 

What was it, though, that, despite the distastefulness of his message, attracted the crowds to John? 

It wasn’t because of his dress or diet. Verse 6: “John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.” Both his clothes and his food would have been considered weird ven back in first century Judea. 

And it wasn’t because John thumped his chest and proclaimed how great he was. He didn’t promise that his message would make anybody wealthy or healthy or trouble free. Verse 7: “And this was his message: ‘After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’” 

John was pointing to Jesus. 

At the very moment he did so, thousands of people were hanging on his every word. 

He was the center of attention. 

Some were even claiming that John himself was the Messiah. Heady stuff!

But John says, “I’m just a messenger. I'm an unworthy slave.” 

In those days, tying and untying the straps of a great man’s sandals was the job of the lowliest of servants. John says that he wouldn’t even be worthy of doing that for the Messiah about to appear. 

This is a truth about ourselves that we must all learn to accept. 

And it’s harder for us to accept than it should be. 

I know that it is for me. 

It’s the very truth that the human race has resisted and chafed under since Adam and Eve bit into the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

It’s this : God our creator is infinitely greater than we are and we must submit to His will, not the other way around. 

In the Advent and Christmas seasons, we remember again how great God truly is. 

But His greatness can't be measured by the means that this dying world uses.

Jesus' greatness is beyond worldly greatness. The Savior Who was so great that John couldn’t get a job as his slave, bore the full weight of our humanity, becoming a servant of the whole human race, washed the feet of His disciples, suffered the consequence of our sin by dying on a cross, then rose from the dead so that, despite our unworthiness, all who repent and entrust themselves to Him can live with God forever. It's a truth summarized in the Bible's most famous verse. 

We know it by heart. But I'm not sure how much we take it to heart. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16] 

This describes the great God worthy of our complete surrender!

Verse 8: [John said:] “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 

John’s baptism was a symbolic washing that repentant people underwent to demonstrate to God that they turned from sin and were ready for the Messiah to come into the world. In it, the person who was baptized was the main actor. 

Later, Jesus instituted a completely different kind of Baptism. In Holy Baptism, God sends His Holy Spirit, the same Spirit Who moved over the waters in Genesis to bring the universe into being, and gives new life in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He does this to people who are utterly incapable of helping themselves or of making themselves right with God, whether they're brought to the baptismal waters as infants, teenagers, or adults. God is the main actor. We are the recipients of His gracious will to make us part of His new creation.

The Messiah, John the Baptist was saying, was coming to make people new, to make the whole creation new. 

In Advent, we remind ourselves that the Messiah is coming again. 

We need to be ready for that day. 

We prepare ourselves in the same way that John’s preaching commended: We willingly confess our sins, turn from them, and trust the God we know in Jesus Christ to make us new. 

Confessing sin means accepting hard truths about ourselves. We’re not always the good people we think we are or portray ourselves to be. 

Trusting in Jesus means shelving all pretense of self-sufficiency. That wounds our pride. 

But when, day by day, moment by moment, we repent and trust, we are ready to meet the Messiah, our God and King. 

And that’s the truth about God and about us that will stand for all eternity. Amen

[For a discussion of Holy Baptism, see here. For more on confessing sin, see here. And, to see a discussion of repentance, look here.]

I'm not surprised, but...

...U2 got only one Grammy nomination for its latest LP, Songs of Innocence, and Lecrae received only two for his album, released on the same day, Anomaly. Peter Furler got no recognition for his wonderful Sun and Shield. Sigh.

Reaching Up, Reaching In, Reaching Out

Shared this today with the people of Living Water Lutheran Church of Springboro, Ohio, on the congregation's Facebook page:

Remember the five building blocks of church life and of personal discipleship?

• Love God
• Love our neighbors
• Love our brothers and sisters in Christ
• Make disciples for Christ
• Personally grow in Christ

Growing in Christ entails a commitment to building our lives on these five building blocks, which we have summarized as:

• Reaching up
• Reaching in
• Reaching out

Reaching up means loving God through worship and prayer.

Reaching in entails loving our church family through mutual care and through involvement in group Bible study.

Reaching out includes making disciples through involvement with kindness outreaches and personal faith sharing and serving our neighbors through congregational opportunities and in our everyday lives.

Reaching up, reaching in, and reaching out reflect levels of growth as followers of Jesus.

It begins with worship of God and a relationship of daily contact with God, when we seek His forgiveness and His guidance and will for our daily lives. That's reaching up.

It continues with a commitment to caring for the needs of our fellow Christians, serving and encouraging them not only in adversity and not just with words, but with acts of practical service. A strong congregational family that shares in the love of Christ and works out conflicts in healthy, Christ-honoring ways is a launching pad for the deepest level of Christian discipleship. That's reaching in.

Reaching out is being the vital connection between Christ and a world lost in sin, death, and darkness. It shows in acts of service to neighbors--locally, nationally, and internationally. In the next few years, there will be more opportunities given to the people of Living Water to grow in this area. We will be allowed to take baby steps in ministries of outreach such as kindness outreaches, but also in personal discipleship. God wants us to feel confident in fulfilling our one and only mission as Christ's Church, making disciples. That's part of reaching out.

Please prayerfully consider where you are on the reaching up, reaching in, and reaching out continuum and ask God to help you move with faith, hope, confidence, and humility toward becoming more of what the Lord can empower us to be as individuals and as a congregation.

God bless you!
 

Happy Beginnings

[This was shared during worship with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, today.]

Mark 13:24-37
A confession: I’m a sucker for chick flicks. A friend recommended one of them, The Lake House, to me and so, this past week, when I saw that it was going to be on, I set my recorder and watched it the next night.

I don’t want to give it all away if you haven’t seen it. (I loved it, by the way.) But The Lake House revolves around two people, played by Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock who, having realized their love for each other, nonetheless face the impossible obstacle of living in two different time periods, able only to communicate, miraculously, by letters they place in the mailbox of a lake house.

It’s hard for two people to get together under those circumstances. And so, Bullock’s character, tired of the futility and the sense of defeat, tells Reeves’ character that while they had been involved in a beautiful fantasy, they should leave it behind and move on with their separate lives. But Reeves’ character responds with a simple message: “Don’t give up on me.” (I will tell you that there's a happy beginning at the end of the movie, but that's all.)

The plea of Reeves' character, “Don’t give up on me,” is really the message of Jesus to us on this first Sunday in Advent.

“I know that You can’t see Me right now,” Jesus, the groom, is telling us, the Church, His bride. “I know that our only communication is through the printed Words of the Bible, the water of Holy Baptism, the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the fellowship of people as imperfect and as needy as you are. There will be tough days when My love for you will seem to be making impossible promises and giving you seemingly impossible hopes. But it is going to work out. With God all things are possible.”

“We will be together one day,” Jesus is telling us. “There will be a happy beginning beyond the world's endings. Don’t give up on Me.” 

This, in fact, is truly the message of the entire Advent season. Don’t give up on Jesus.

Advent, of course, is just a human creation. But it’s a shrewd one. Think about it: Here we are preparing for the celebration of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. You may have noticed, though, that few of our preparations, whether as individuals, families, or nations, includes anything about Jesus.

One reason for that, I think, is that, in our minds, we tend to put Jesus in the past. He lived on this earth in the past. He died in the past. And we Christians believe He also rose in the past.

We seem to live in separate times, the notion of connection between us an impossible, beautiful fantasy. And so, we move on with our lives as though Jesus weren’t even there.

Advent is a gauntlet thrown down before a disbelieving world and an often disbelieving Church and, calling our attention to God’s Word, the Bible, tells us, “The same Jesus Who was born at Christmas, died on Good Friday, and rose on Easter, is coming back and when He does, He will bring a new heaven and a new earth and an end to this world. What good will all your frenzied materialism be then?"

Advent says: “Do not make the mistake of giving up on Jesus. Trust in Him."

We see that message in today’s Gospel lesson, Mark 13:24-37. You’ll find it on page 710 of our sanctuary Bibles.

Now, in this passage, we find Jesus speaking, I think, simultaneously about two different times and events, compressing them into a single narrative.

On the one hand, He’s talking about the invasion of Roman armies and their desecration of the temple in Jerusalem, an event that would happen about forty years after Jesus spoke these words. That event, Jesus asserts, will be the result of God’s chosen people’s failure to reach out with His love and grace to the whole world.

The Temple, the Old Testament teaches, was meant to be a house of prayer and worship for people of all nations, Jews and Gentiles. Empowered by regular encounters with God in the temple, Israel was to be God’s messenger into all the world, teaching people to repent and believe in the God of Israel in order to have new life with God. As God told the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah: "“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Instead, Israel largely chose either to ignore or horde God. But faith in God, just like the manna with which God fed His people Israel in the wilderness, will go bad if it’s horded. It must be given away or it will rot, die, or disappear. Whenever Israel forgot God and its mission to the world, it always led to problems. And in His words today, Jesus is saying, it would ultimately lead to its destruction as it did in 70 AD.

Now, Jesus says elsewhere, that He is the temple that cannot be destroyed and today He sends all who believe in Him into the world to make disciples.



But in today's lesson, Jesus also speaks more generally of the end times, when this world will come to an end and He will establish His eternal kingdom.

Verse 24: “But in those days, [Jesus says] following that distress [times of persecution and hardship He has been talking about in earlier verses], the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;  the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ [Here Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament book of Isaiah.] At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

The first time Jesus came into our world, He did so on a silent night in an obscure village of which the world would not have heard. God sent His angels to announce the birth only to shepherds, people on the bottom end of the economic and religious food chain. Jesus lived and died and rose again in a backwater country that had spent most of its history under the thumbs of foreign powers.

But when Jesus returns, there will be nothing obscure or silent about it.

The whole world will know at once, “in the twinkling of an eye.” And, He will send His angels out to gather together His elect--those chosen for salvation not by fiat, but because they have believed in Jesus Christ. They are elect because God has saved them by His grace through their faith in Jesus.

Interestingly, that word that we translate as elect is, in the Greek language in which the New Testament was originally written, eklektos. It literally means "called out from." But it's transliterated into the English as eclectic, a word that can mean, diverse.

The elect the angels will gather on the day of Jesus' return from this world will be diverse, eclectic. They will come from "every nation, tribe, people and language," formed by the Holy Spirit into a single family through their faith in Christ.

The elect are the people who refuse to give up on Jesus.

They face tragedy; but they don’t give up.

They face death; but they don’t give up.

They face opposition for their faith but keep believing.

They wrestle with the will of God, but keep holding onto Jesus.

They’re the people who believe that it’s always too soon to give up on Jesus, the conqueror of sin and death.

They trust the promise of Jesus in Matthew 24:12-13: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”



Verse 28: [Jesus goes on] “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Two messages come to us from Jesus here, I think:

(1) Most obviously, be ready for His return;

(2) And you never can tell when His return may happen because every condition necessary for His return has already happened while Jesus was still on the earth.

It’s such a silly waste to look for “the signs of the times.” The world was already full up on those signs, full up on sin and death even before Jesus went to the cross. It was ready for the end even then.

So, our focus shouldn't be on speculation. It should be on being ready for Jesus to return.

And how we do that is to keep repenting for sin and to keep trusting Jesus, the Way and the truth and the life, to cover our sins with God’s forgiveness and to fill us with life eternal.

We get ready for Jesus’ return by following Him now and into eternity even when the world wants to tie Him down to the ancient past.

That’s why the words with which Jesus closes in today's lesson, found in verses 32 to 37, boils down to one word alone: “Watch.”

The One we try to tie to the past is actually our future and through the eyes of faith, we need to keep focused on Him.

One Bible scholar has observed that, “Modern Christians often think, ‘Since the time [of Jesus’ return] is unknown, it could be hundred, or thousands, or millions of years from now…[But Christ’s words for us this morning should cause us to think]...’since the timing is unknown, it could be today! Maybe this evening, or at midnight, or when dawn breaks.’”

The scholar goes on to ask: “But does anyone actually think that way? Does anyone go through every day, wondering at morning, noon, and night if now is the time that someone long gone might return?"

"Yes," he says. "People who are in love do that.”

Are we in love with Jesus enough to take Him at His word that one day He will return and make all things right?

Because of the love God has shown us in Christ, because of the cross and empty tomb, because the Holy Spirit has given us faith in Christ, we know that we are loved and we know that it’s safe to love Him in return. We're on solid ground in loving Him back. Christ’s love is one that will never let us down.

And so we wait for His return.

We wait with eager anticipation.

We ready ourselves while we wait by attending to His Word, worshiping with His people, receiving His body and blood, sharing His love and His message with others.

This Advent season, may Christ teach us to look forward to a lot more than Christmas day.

May He teach us to live lives spent in active attentiveness to Him.

May we learn to watch for Him and, in the watching, be ready for anything in this life or in the one to come.

When we watch for Jesus and trust in Him to return, to dry our tears and to make things right, we can be assured that beyond all the endings--beyond the end of this world, beyond the ends of our own lives, He will bring us a happy beginning that never ends. Amen

Thinking About the End

Mark Allan Powell, a New Testament scholar with whom I often disagree, writes this about the Gospel lesson that will be front and center in most churches around North America tomorrow, Mark 13:24-37:

Modern Christians often think, "Since the time of Jesus' second coming cannot be known, we need not think much about it." Mark [the writer of the New Testament's second gospel] draws the opposite conclusion: since the timing is unknown we should think about it all the time.

Not to quibble with Powell, but I think Mark got this conclusion from Jesus Himself.

Be that as it may, Powell makes an important point. We modern day Christians are complacent to the point of functional disbelief when it comes to Jesus' promise of a second coming, when He will end the life of this time-bound, sin-bound universe to usher in "a new heaven and a new earth."

That isn't to say that Christians should get caught up in speculation about when Jesus will return. The very words of Jesus that Powell explores tells us that only God the Father knows when Jesus will return and that all the conditions for that return had already been met in Jesus' generation.

But how might it affect the lives of Christians if we really believed and lived out of the belief that Jesus could return at any time? Even right now?

How would it change our priorities?

Would it cause us to live with less fear?

Would it cause us to be less concerned for ourselves and more concerned for the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors, not to mention Christ's call to treat them with love and justice?

Those are good questions to ponder, I think.

(By the way, thinking about and believing in the End that Jesus promises will come is not to be confused with "rapture theology," a la Left Behind. See here.)

Ohio State wins, but...

The Buckeyes won today in Columbus, 42-21.

The defense looked good in the second half, for the most part, although our penchant for giving up the big play was seen again.

The offense played well through much of the game, although it sputtered throughout most of the second quarter. Worse, quarterback J.T. Barrett, the surprise linchpin of the offense, was injured. I feel very badly for this young man, who has been mentioned in connection with the Heisman Trophy, amazing considering that just twelve days before the season began, when Buckeye starter Braxton Miller, who had already figured in Heisman talk, re-injured his shoulder. I pray that Barrett will be feeling better soon and that Miller's recovery and rehabilitation will continue strong.

The Buckeyes will face either Minnesota or Wisconsin in next week's Big Ten championship game. The Bucks already beat Minnesota in a tough away game a few weeks ago. As I write this, the Gophers, called by most experts the underdogs, are up on the Badgers, 17-0.

Either opponent will be tough as it's likely that third-string quarterback Cardale Jones will get the start. He has few real-game snaps this season. (I would expect to see the Buckeyes try the Wildcat formation with greater frequency next week, taking advantage of phenom Jalin Marshall's experience as a high school QB.

Should Ohio State win next week's game and teams ahead of them in the rankings lose, the College Football Playoff committee would have to decide whether, without Barrett, the Buckeyes are a championship-contending caliber team.

There already were questions about the Buckeyes being worthy of the top four spots nationally. Today's game and what happens next week may either answer them...or muddy the waters.

[UPDATES, 11/29/2014: J.T. Barrett's injury, as reported by Dom Tiberi of WBNS 10TV, was a broken ankle. He will undergo surgery tomorrow. Wisconsin beat Minnesota. The Badgers will be the Buckeyes' opponents next Saturday in the Big 10 championship game.]

[ANOTHER UPDATE, 11/29/2014: Here's a link to head coach Urban Meyer's post-game press conference.]

Truly a "Happy Ending"

I love today's installment of Our Daily Bread. An excerpt:

Heaven is not an afterthought or an optional belief. It is the final justification of all creation. The Bible never belittles human tragedy and disappointment—is any book more painfully honest?—but it does add one key word: temporary. What we feel now, we will not always feel. The time for re-creation will come.

For people who feel trapped in pain or in a broken home, in economic misery or in fear—for all of us—heaven promises a timeless future of health and wholeness and pleasure and peace.

Read the whole thing, but before you do, be sure to read Revelation 21:1-7.

When Love Comes to Town By U2 and B.B. King

"When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train
"When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame.
"Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
"But I did what I did before love came to town."

Before love comes to our town, before love becomes real to us, before it singes us with its power and starts the painful work of transforming us gut deep, we're prone to thoughtless betrayal of those who love us and who, we realize too late, we both love and were always called to love.

Yet love, true love, the love that has only one source, can conquer any divide. It can make war on our selfish impulses. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

"I was there when they crucified my Lord
"I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword.
"I threw the dice when they pierced his side
"But I've seen love conquer the great divide."

First though, we must surrender to it. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved..." (Acts 16:31)

And we need to keep surrendering to it "...because of the prevalent disregard of God's law the love of the great majority will grow cold; but those who stand firm to the End shall be saved." (Matthew 16:12-13)




[See here.]

All My Trials by Mary Hopkin

The sound quality of this live recording isn't great and I'm not so fond of the montage of photographs connected with it on this homemade video, but I love the Mary Hopkin version of the folk classic, All My Trials. It's been recorded by many people, as noted here. I find Hopkin's version the most affecting.

A Bit of Columbus History...F & R Lazarus

Click on the pictures.

Hey, Black Friday Shoppers

Be careful out there. (And have a good time, which is probably the main idea.)

Go, Buckeyes! Beat TTUN

"You're a Big Girl Now"

Love these lines from a song on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks:

I’m going out of my mind, oh, oh
With a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Ever since we’ve been apart

These lyrics are from what has long been a go-to album for me.

One-time blogger, the novelist Richard Lawrence Cohen, a huge and insightful Dylan devotee, once told me that the LP was "pretty," but not his favorite.

I suppose that in the grand scheme of things, Dylan collections like Highway 61 Revisited, along with his earliest work, as well as John Wesley Harding may rightly be regarded as more important.

And truthfully, I love almost all of Dylan's albums, owning nearly all of them.

But, while Richard is a brilliant man I truly respect, Blood on the Tracks is still my favorite Dylan LP. I love its vulnerability, immediacy, and melodies.

It's a painful album in many ways. But it's also amazing.

"I think we're smart enough to converse"

Lecrae, a committed follower of Christ and a great recording artist, has taken some heat for trying to engage in useful dialogue about the broader issues involved in what has happened in Ferguson, Missouri.

Like him, I can't claim to know the facts of the specific case, but I believe the reaction indicates that there is a broader issue to be addressed.

Prayer and the humble pursuit of unity and understanding are goals that we all can embrace, especially as Christians who seek to love our neighbors, white and black.

Like Lecrae, I have no political agenda. (Politics seems irrelevant to this entire issue, really. It's more a matter of our wills, minds, and hearts.)

Before recording this video, Lecrae, undoubtedly already exhausted from a recent tour, had spent long nights trying to convince young people not to use violence in protesting the wrongs they perceive. For that alone, he deserves a fair hearing.

I long ago came to love this man's music. But, increasingly, I love his heart for Christ and for his neighbors, his courage, and his integrity.

Praying...

...always.

'Letters to My Non-Churchgoing Friends'

Here's a link to a series of columns I wrote for a suburban Cincinnati newspaper years ago. They're letters from this former atheist, now Christian, to non-churchgoing folks about why they might want to consider becoming part of God's family, the Church.

Advent Season Welcome

This is the welcome that visitors to Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, will find in their worship bulletins during the upcoming Advent season, which begins this coming Sunday, November 30. Advent is a great time for people without church homes to find one. Wherever you live, I hope you'll find a church where you can hear God's Word and feel welcomed. To learn more about the Church Year, go here.

We welcome you to Living Water Lutheran Church in the Name of the God made known to all the world in Jesus Christ! We hope that while here, you feel welcomed and that as we worship God together, you are drawn closer to God.

We’re in that part of the Church Year called Advent. Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which always happens on December 25 and is the festival of Jesus’ birth to a virgin named Mary.

Advent is a time that remembers the expectant waiting of God’s people, the Hebrews or the Jews for the coming of the King, the Anointed One, promised centuries before the birth of Jesus. In the Hebrew language of God’s people, the title for that King is Messiah. In the Greek language in which the New Testament was written in the first century, that title is rendered as Christos, Christ.

Advent is also a time when we modern day Christians expectantly anticipate the coming of the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ Jesus to bring an end to this fallen universe and usher in with finality and perfection His new creation.

The word Advent comes from the Latin and means coming.

The color of the season is blue. With its connection in our imaginations to clear skies, blue suggests the hope that we have as those who trust in Jesus Christ as God, King, and Savior, knowing that through Him, we have a certain hope of eternity with God.

Once again, welcome and may God bless you! 

Thanksgiving

The thing for which I am most thankful is the gift of new life brought to the world--even to a sinner like me, through Jesus Christ. When we trust in Him, He brings us out of sin, death, and darkness into His marvelous, eternal light!

'The Lake House'

For a long time now, a friend has told me what a good movie, The Lake House, is, but I've never had the chance to see it. Tonight, I found out it's going to be shown tomorrow afternoon on E! So, I've got my TV set to record it and I look forward to watching tomorrow night.

[UPDATE, 11/29/2014: I watched it this evening and loved it.]

A Baby Changes Everything by Faith Hill

With clips from the outstanding movie, The Nativity Story.

I'm Happy Just to Dance with You by the Beatles

George Harrison takes the lead in this clip from the Beatles' first movie, A Hard Day's Night.

Trygve Skarsten

Just learned of the passing of one of my favorite seminary professors, Trygve Skarsten.

He was a man whose love for Christ and gentle piety oozed from every pore. I will never forget when he was honored for his years of service during a banquet at the seminary. Tryg was asked to speak a few words at that time.

He spoke of how Jesus had changed his life, after being a member of a gang in his native New York City. He talked about the prayers of his pious mother for his salvation and spoke gratefully of how Jesus had changed his eternity. He spoke movingly of the power of Christ's gospel to change everyone's life similarly.

When he finished speaking, Skarsten received a standing ovation. I turned to my mentor, the late Pastor Bruce Schein, and said, "Tryg is alright." As he clapped appreciatively, Schein looked at me and replied with feeling, "He's in the vision."

He indeed was in the vision of heaven and earth as the domain of the Lord Who saves us from sin and death and darkness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Trygve Skarsten is in the presence of his Lord Jesus right now and, I am sure, he is bursting with joy and celebration!

UPDATE: Here is a sermon I preached in 2010, in which I mention an article written by Dr. Skarsten. The anecdote from his life cited there evokes his passion for Christ and for sharing the Gospel.

Life and Welcoming Jesus and "the Least of These"

[This was shared during worship with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 25:31-46
It’s always humbling to realize that there is so much more in the Bible, the Word of God, than we sometimes imagine and that the understanding of it that we sometimes take for granted isn’t entirely correct. Or even substantially incorrect.

That’s the experience I’ve had this week in studying today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew 25:31-46.

I confess that I approached my study and the prospect of preaching on this text with something of a ho-hum attitude. Everyone could see, I thought, what these words of Jesus are about: Jesus the King is portraying the final judgment scene. Some will be welcomed into His eternal kingdom because their faith in Him has led them to serve those in need, while others, who have refused to trust in Christ and so have refused to serve their neighbor, are separated from God and sent to hell. Throughout my Christian life, I have believed that these words of Jesus were about how faith in Christ leads Christians to an ethic of love for the needy and a concern with justice for them.

Now clearly, when we know that we have been saved by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, it will change how we live. Jesus’ life and heart will be planted within us and we will feel motivated, not be legalism, but by gratitude, to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” But, I’ve come to realize that that is not what the words in our Gospel lesson from Christ our King today are about. They’re about something altogether different.

Jesus' words for us today are not about how believers treat the needy of the world. They're about how the world treats His disciples who, because of their belief in Him, experience need.

To follow Jesus means to risk, in a sinful, disbelieving world, going without food, water, shelter. It means to risk being despised and imprisoned.

The world casts judgment on itself when it fails to welcome the children, the disciples, of Christ the King.

People receive salvation and eternal life when they welcome Christ and His messengers into their lives.

To set us on a course to more clearly understanding this, I’d like to ask you to look at three other passages of Scripture with me this morning.

First, please look at Isaiah 52:7 (page 511 in the sanctuary Bibles). It says: “‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’"

God cherishes those who proclaim His truth and the good news of new life through faith in Him. And the proclaimers God values aren't confined to the ranks of the ordained clergy. First Peter, for example, reminds us that every Christian is a proclaimer of God’s good news, telling and showing others how God has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light and how He is willing to do that for anyone who repents and believes in the God we know in Jesus.

Now, look at Matthew 10:40 and 42 (page 682). Jesus is speaking to His disciples, ordinary followers of Him just like us. Jesus says in verse 40: “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” (Of course, the One Who sent Jesus is God the Father.) Slip down to verse 42, where Jesus goes on: “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

These little ones are Jesus’ disciples. When people welcome Jesus’ disciples and their message of new life through Jesus, they too become disciples. It’s through Jesus’ little ones, followers of Jesus, that others come to know and believe in Jesus as their God and King.

Finally, let’s look at Matthew 18:6 (page 688). Jesus says: “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

What do we learn from these three passages and the rest of Scripture?

First, we learn that God transmits the message of new life in Christ through ordinary, humble people, not people the world might call superstars.

Second, we learn that when people receive the message and the messengers of the Gospel, they have new lives. And those who reject them and their message, are condemned.

Third, we learn that Christ cherishes the faithfulness of His little ones, the humble “least of these” of the world who trust in Him as their only God, King, and Lord.

So now, let’s look at our Gospel lesson, Matthew 25:31-46 (page 695). It begins: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him...”

As in other lessons we’ve been looking at over the past few weeks, Jesus is talking about the end of earth’s history, when judgment will come to humanity. The Old Testament has several passages that speak of this final judgment by God. God is portrayed as being on the throne. Here, Jesus makes clear Who He is by claiming that He, “God in flesh appearing,” as we sing at Christmastime, will be humanity’s judge. All the nations--the very nations to which He commands His Church to go with the message of new and everlasting through faith in Him--will stand before the King.

Jesus goes on, “...and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” I’ve read that even in the Middle East of today, shepherds pasture their sheep and goats together during the day. At night, the shepherds separate sheep from goats. Like the wheat and the weeds in Jesus’ parable in which He says He will allow the righteous and unrighteous to live side by side until the day of judgment, Jesus says that He won’t separate His sheep from the goats until the night of this world comes, when no one can work.

Verse 34: “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

Salvation and eternal life come to those who receive the message about Jesus through the humble servants of Jesus. They’re the messengers that the world underestimates.

The world would never guess that for me, the great-grandmother who mentored me in Christ and prayed for my salvation is a more important person than all the kings and rulers this world has produced in my lifetime, because it was she who, even when I couldn’t see it, set my course for eternity.

The world would never guess that welcoming unassuming saints with their good news of new life through faith in Christ, like Martha Schneider, my mentor in the faith when I was in my twenties of whom I’ve spoken before...or a simple housepainter named Charlie, who shared his faith in Christ with me on the day of his beloved wife's funeral...or Betty, a woman whose life was hard, yet who openly proclaimed her love for Jesus...or dozens of other messengers from Jesus who have crossed my path in life...were and are more important to me and are more important in the eyes of God and the Kingdom of God than all the VIPs, prime ministers, presidents, kings, and potentates that have ever occupied this planet taken together.

To welcome Jesus' disciples, even when their needs make them weak in the eyes of this world that values the strong and powerful and self-sufficient and beautiful, is to welcome the King of the universe.

To let these disciples' King become our King is to experience life with God and everlasting salvation...the only way to experience these things.

In their humble, unassuming ways, Jesus' children reflect the presence of Jesus within them.

In the eyes of the world, one of the great scandals of the Christian faith is that we claim that the God Who created the whole universe has come down deep into our lives.

He hasn’t overpowered us with His infinite strength.

He hasn’t used His power to force us to believe.

Instead, He became one of us and chooses, by His Holy Spirit and His Gospel, to woo us with His love.

He suffered as we suffer.

He died on a cross.

It was only after He experienced the worst that any and every human being will suffer in this world that He destroyed the power of suffering, death, and sin over us by rising from the dead.

Today, by His Holy Spirit unleashed within them, Christ the King works in the lives of ordinary people who experience the full gamut of hardships and challenges that come to human beings, making them His ambassadors to neighbors, friends, relatives, and strangers who, just like us, need Jesus.

We who believe in Jesus bring Jesus to this world.

It’s as true today as it was when John the apostle wrote in the prologue to His Gospel: “...to all who did receive [Jesus], to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become the children of God [the little ones, huh?] born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

You know what happens with the goats in our Gospel lesson. They’ve lived alongside the sheep all their earthly lives. When they’ve met the King’s sheep, they haven’t welcomed them. When they’ve heard the sheep’s message, they’ve rejected it. To them, Jesus says in verses 45 and 46: “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

At the end of history, at the ends of our lives, Christ’s judgment over us won’t be about the service we render, though if we believe in Christ we will render service to God and to others.

Instead, Christ will judge us over whether we have received Him through the witness of believers in Him, no matter how inferior they may seem--no matter that they are “the least of these.”

We will be judged on whether we have believed the Gospel message of Jesus, the Servant King.

The words of Jesus this morning have, I think, special meaning for us at Living Water.

Throughout the just completed series of Getting to Know You dinners, the most commonly mentioned aspiration for the congregation is that we would grow.

I want that to happen too, especially spiritually. It would be nice for it to happen numerically too, although it’s important to remember that Living Water is already bigger than 75% of the churches in North America and that the church growth experts would classify this, not as a small church, but as mid-sized one.

And maybe some day, God will bring the millions of dollars we would need to build a facility that allows us to do as much ministry to our community and our world as we’re able to do from this building with which we’ve been blessed.

But whatever God’s plans for our congregation may be, our Gospel lesson tells us that our call will always be the same:

First, to welcome the messengers of Christ and their message about Christ, irrespective of how humble or powerless or worthless those messengers may seem to be.

AND second, to be disciples who point the world around us not to our power, or our class, or our building, or out programs, or to ourselves at all, but always and only to our King, Jesus Christ. Amen

Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel

It's a blessing to have a friend as devoted to us as the "narrator voice" in this song is to their friend. I know of what I speak. I have experienced having such friends. They have blessed me.

But this song, I think, at its core, expresses an aspiration we all have, even if we sometimes bury it beneath cynicism, self-glorification, and self-protection. We want to be this kind of friend to our friend, someone who's always there, who can be counted on for a listening ear, a compassionate shoulder, a warm embrace.

That kind of friend I haven't always been. In fact, I've been that kind of friend too infrequently. I pray for God's forgiveness, for the forgiveness of my friends, and for the empowerment of God's Spirit to be "a bridge over troubled waters" to those whose friendship means the world to me.

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted? by Jimmy Ruffin

This is going way back. (I'm also really fond of Paul Young's much later version of this song.)

By the way, this video is a little weird. Don't know exactly what's going on in it, but the tune is still touching.

Praying...

...for friends I love.

"Waiting with Patience"

A high school classmate posted these words from Henri Nouwen on Facebook yesterday. Tough to remember.

How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.

The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior which means "to suffer." Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which we stand grow into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

What Does Your Local Food Bank Need?

First and Last Pictures of Lincoln's Presidency and Thoughts on Worry

The first & last portrait photos of Lincoln as President: May 1860 & Feb 1865. pic.twitter.com/BmTmanTNPL
— ClassicPics (@History_Pics) November 20, 2014

The toll of his worry and care can clearly be observed by comparing these two pictures, one taken at the beginning of Abraham Lincoln's presidency, the other taken just two months before his assassination.

Worry and care do the same thing to all of us, which is why Jesus told us not to worry.

He undoubtedly told us this because to not worry is so foreign to human nature. We needed to be warned against it.

Worry is uniquely human. Creatures capable of anticipating the future, we use that capability in a way that expresses the fundamental sinful impulse of wanting to "be like God," to call the shots and control the future.

How many of the things that we want to control, are we able to control?

And more importantly, how many of those things should we control?

In the book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has his fictional senior tempter talk about different kinds of "time": the past, the present, the future, and eternity. (And how hell tries to leverage our confusion about these modes of "time" to destroy our having relationships with God.)

For we human beings, the past is done, something over which we have no control. We can repent for the sins of our past. But to spend time ruing that past, is a waste of energy for something that cannot be changed. If the devil cannot tempt us to new sin or away from repentance and God's forgiveness for past sins, he loves to weigh us down with shame or regret, not just for sins, but innocent actions of our past.

The future is as insusceptible to our control to the past. We can make plans. Some may even succeed. But we have no guarantees that they will be fulfilled or be fulfilled as we want. This world is imperfect. We are imperfect. Our plans are imperfect. And the follower of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is called to believe that God is in the final control of everything, despite our plans.

Both past and future are unreal. The past no longer exists. The future has yet to exist.

Yet, people often spend more time in these two unreal places, ruing and worrying, than they do in the two places that are real, where things can be changed.

Those two places are, first of all, the present, when we can decide what actions we will undertake, what thoughts we will think, what words we will say.

And the second is eternity, the place where God always dwells in what Lewis in another of his books, Mere Christianity, describes as "the eternal now." By His resurrection, Christ has secured a place for all who turn from sin and believe in Him, in that certain eternity.

Focusing on those two real places--the present and eternity--will mitigate our worry.

Focusing on what we can and should do in the present empowers us for living fully in the unfolding moments of our earthly lives.

Focusing on eternity assures us that even if we mess up, as we inevitably to, even when this world does its worst to us, those who trust in Christ, have a connection to a loving, sustaining God and to a perfect kingdom in which our tears will be dried and we will live in eternal certainty.

Christ the King Sunday Welcome

With every season or special day of the Church Year, there is a special welcome for worshipers in the bulletin of Living Water Lutheran Church. This is the welcome that will appear in the bulletin for this coming Sunday, November 23, Christ the King Sunday.

Welcome to Living Water Lutheran Church. We’re happy that you’re worshiping with us today.

This morning, we celebrate Christ the King Sunday. On this Sunday, we take time to celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is the King of the universe. It’s a kingship that was expressed in His humble submission to death on a cross, accepting the punishment for sin we deserve, and His resurrection from the dead, by which He opens eternity and new life to all who turn from sin (repent) and believe in Him. Jesus will finally and fully assert His kingship over all that God has created when He returns to this world and establishes a new heaven and a new earth.

In the meantime, all who trust in Christ as their God and King, trust in Him to be with them always, to bring their prayers to God the Father, and to assure them of their place in His kingdom.

Unlike Christmas or Easter, holy days that can be traced to early Christianity, Christ the King Sunday is a new day on the Christian calendar. It began in the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. In 1970, Lutherans, Anglicans, and other Christians adopted the day for their calendars. It happens annually on the last Sunday of the Church Year.

Thank you for being with us. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will use our worship and fellowship to draw You close to the God we know in Jesus Christ. We pray too, that you will feel welcomed and worship with us again soon!

For more about the Church Year, see here.

If you don't have a church home, why not find a church close to you and attend worship? It could change your life for the better...and forever.

The "Defeated Adversary" Cannot Overpower Us

From today's Our Daily Bread:

The good news is that Satan is a defeated adversary. While he is a powerful foe, those who are protected by salvation, prayer, and the Word of God need not be paralyzed in fear at this roaring lion. We are “kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5). James 4:7 assures us: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

These words put me in mind of words in one of my favorite hyms:

"...Though hordes of devils fill the land
All threatening to devour us,
We tremble not, unmoved we stand
They cannot overpower us."

(Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress is Our God) 

"13 Ways to Keep Your House Warmer This Winter"

Wish this weren't so relevant so early in November. Stay warm!

Anyway by Paul McCartney

I know that I've posted this song before. But it's a great one.

"We can cure each other's sorrow..." Nice thought.

Should You Eat Gluten-Free Bread?

Even if, like me, you have Celiac Disease? Five experts asked by TIME magazine say no. Their reasoning is sound. (Thanks to halehawk for sharing this article with me.)

The Call to Risk

[This was shared during this morning's worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio.]

Matthew 25:14-30
When we look at Jesus’ parable in today’s gospel lesson, we have to be careful.

That’s because a lazy reading of this story might cause a person to think that, at the ends of our lives, God judges us on the basis of how much good we’ve done or how good we’ve been. But that’s not what this parable is about.

If we simply stop and think about it, we realize that that can’t be Jesus’ message to us this morning. After all, throughout His ministry, Jesus took pains to announce that He had come “to seek and save the lost,” the sinners of the world. (Like me and, if I may say so, you.)

He frequently went after the Scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders who thought they obeyed God’s Law and who boiled a saving relationship with God down to abiding by a list of some 620 rules. They had made themselves good people, they thought. And so, they also thought, God preferred them and loved them and didn’t like the sinners Jesus spent so much time around.

Jesus told them they were wrong.

So, we have to leave behind any notion that Jesus is talking about being saved by our works when we read this parable. We are saved from sin, death, and darkness not by our works, but simply by our faith in--our trust in--Jesus Christ. That's one message of this parable, in fact.

But faith or trust is not simply intellectual agreement. Faith is more than intellectual assent to a proposition. That too is a message of this parable.

Let’s dig into it now, Matthew 25:14-30.

Jesus’ words follow those He spoke last week. He says: “Again it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.”

I understand why the translators of the New International Version, from which we're reading, used the term bags here. They wanted to convey that the master was entrusting a lot of cash to his servants. But the word that appears in Matthew’s manuscript isn’t bags, but talenta, talents.

A talent was a Greek word for a sum of money. “A silver talent was worth c 7,300 denarii,” a single denarius being worth a single day’s wages. A gold talent could be worth thirty times that!

So, the Master is entrusting huge sums of money to these three slaves. And he does so fully intending that they should try to make the money grow. He expects them to take risks with the trust He has given to them.

Jesus tells this parable as part of a string of parables all about the end of this world and His coming kingdom. In this particular parable, it’s clear that Jesus is the Master. He’s the One Who has gone away for a time and Who will one day return to settle accounts.

You and I, His Church, are the slaves.

And the talents? This is the message of the Gospel, which promises us that all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ have forgiveness of sin and new and everlasting lives with God.

In another parable, Jesus gave an idea of how valuable this Gospel--this good news--is for us when He talked about a man who “sold everything he had” in order to possess it.

But, as we’ll see, faith resides not just in the possession of the Gospel. Faith also resides in trusting God enough to recklessly invest it in every aspect and all the people of our lives.

Jesus goes on: “The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.  The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

Something important needs to be pointed out here: Jesus gives bags of different value to the three men. He gives them a trust over his money in proportion to their ability.

You know, one of the foundational principles of this country is that all people are created equal. And, as Christians, we can affirm that all people have equal worth in the eyes of God. Jesus Christ came to be the Savior of all human beings willing to have Him.

But not everyone has the same gifts, abilities, advantages, opportunities, or even faith.

Jesus graciously does not hold us accountable for the blessings we don’t have. He doesn’t expect me to be a mechanic, for example, because God hasn’t endowed me with that gift or interest. But Jesus does hold us all accountable for how we use the freedom from sin, death, and darkness He gives to all baptized believers in Him.

The man in Jesus’ parable who doubled the two bags (or talents) with which He’d been entrusted was given the exact same commendation for doubling what He’d been given as the man to whom the Master had entrusted five bags. Now, Jesus knows full well that 10 bags are more than 4 bags.

Here’s the point: We are only accountable to God for using the faith and the life that we have. God doesn’t expect me to be a Billy Graham, or a Dan Mershon, or a John Bradosky, or a Martin Luther. But He does expect me to seek to live out my call to be the Mark Daniels His gospel has set me free to be.

All of which leads to the next part of the parable. Verse 24: “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’”

In first century Judea, where Jesus told this parable, the religious leaders of His day had been guilty of burying the truth that human beings, Jews or Gentiles, were saved not because they belonged to the right ethnic group, nor because they slavishly adhered to a set of religious do’s and don’t’s, but solely because they believed in the God revealed to Israel. (This same God has been revealed to all the world in Jesus Christ, true God and true man.)

The first century religious leaders had buried salvation by faith in a gracious God under a mountain of religious duty born of distrust. They didn’t trust God.

They didn’t trust that even if they were killed for their faith in God, God would see their enduring faith and welcome them into eternity.

The third man in Jesus’ parable didn’t trust the Master. So, instead of risking to make something more of the one talent with which he had been entrusted, he buried it.

This man is like the Christian who refuses to take any risks in pursuing the one and only mission with which those of us who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ have been entrusted. This man is like Christians who want nothing to do with making disciples. Monday through Saturday, they bury their faith in Christ in a private place.

Because of this burial, they don’t grow in faith or character or in certainty of God’s love for them. And the people they might touch with the good news of new life in Christ remain untouched.

This kind of safe living is not what God intends for us as believers. He has set us free for more than just slinking through life, heads down, fearful.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus tells believers: "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

In the book of James, Jesus’ earthly brother writes: “...faith without works is dead.”

We are not saved by our good deeds or works; we are saved by our faith in the God we meet in Jesus Christ. But if we have faith--in other words, if we trust Christ to stand with us always, to bring meaning to our lives, to give us the power to forgive as we’ve been forgiven, to have life beyond the grave with God, then we will do the deeds that God empowers us to do.

They’re deeds that will bring God glory, show Christ to others, make disciples, and build God’s kingdom.

Our call is to not bury our faith and make ourselves more palatable to others in our everyday lives, but to let that faith and our Savior be seen as we serve people in His Name, offer to pray with the hurting, tell others about the hope that we have through Christ even in this life’s dark times, and to help others know Christ and His salvation for themselves.

At the end of Jesus’ parable, the faithless servant is condemned, thrown “...outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” He was separated from his Master.

Jesus here uses language that He uses elsewhere in describing hell. Truly, this was the fate the faithless servant chose for himself when he turned his back on his Master’s grace, choosing instead distance from and wariness of the master, rather than trusting relationship with Him.

In a sense, he chose death over life by choosing seeming safety and security over trust in the Master who had given him so much.

The Master in Jesus' parable was gone a long a long time. Similarly, it’s been many centuries since Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. In a world that evidences everything between indifference to hostility regarding the good news that can save a life for all eternity, it’s tempting to bury our faith.

I face this temptation all the time, frankly. "Oh, no," I imagine family and friends and acquaintances telling themselves, "Here come the preacher." When imaginings like this go through my mind, I'm tempted just to bury any mention of my Lord or of the gospel hope that's mine in Christ.

Recently, we went to visit the family of a friend we have known for about thirty years who was dying. In all that years, we hadn’t really talked about Christ, though I knew there is much faith in the family. I wanted to do and say the right thing. I prayed silently that God would help me to be faithful. Then I asked before we left, “Would you mind if we all shared a prayer?”

The response was immediate, “Yes, please.” And there at what would prove to be our friend’s death bed, we prayed.

Never be afraid to risk sharing your faith.

Never be afraid of investing in others with the good news that has changed your life for eternity.

It’s only when we risk and invest in this way that God’s kingdom grows and that we grow in our relationship with God.

And in doing so, we fulfill the very purpose of our lives. Amen