Blackbird appeared on The Beatles, known popularly as "the white album."
It's interesting to listen to McCartney play with the song as he figures out how to complete it.
Inspired by the US Civil Rights struggle, Blackbird was Macca's attempt to say something to encourage African-Americans. In it, he imagined himself singing to a "black bird," bird being a common English slang at the time for a young woman.
But, of course, as is often true of McCartney's songs, the lack of specificity in the lyrics gives the song a more universal application. It's a bit of encouragement to anyone. And the melody is gorgeous.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Renewed in Thankfulness and Awe
God amazed and humbled me as I spent my quiet time with Him again this morning. (I explain quiet time here and here.) To consider God marshaling His majesty and power to take the form of a servant and make purification for my sins on a cross, when I take time to consider it, overwhelms me.
When coupled with an amazingly answered prayer from yesterday, one answered in the most unlikely of ways, I'm looking at God with renewed awe and thankfulness this morning.
From my journal, here's what God told me today as I read Hebrews 1 and found my attention drawn to Hebrews 1:3. (The parenthesis show verses of Scripture to which God led me today.):
When coupled with an amazingly answered prayer from yesterday, one answered in the most unlikely of ways, I'm looking at God with renewed awe and thankfulness this morning.
From my journal, here's what God told me today as I read Hebrews 1 and found my attention drawn to Hebrews 1:3. (The parenthesis show verses of Scripture to which God led me today.):
Look: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3)
This verse tells me everything I need to know about Jesus in order to be reconciled to God and saved from sin and death.
Jesus is God, reflecting the radiance of God that shone on Moses’ face after he met God and the holy fire that so intimidated the people of Old Testament days.
The whole world exists and continues to exist because of “his powerful word.” Jesus is the Word uttered by God in Genesis (John 1:1-14; Genesis 1-2). He speaks and life happens.
If Jesus weren’t still speaking, “Live!” the universe would cease to exist.
And one day, when the Father gives the signal, He will bring an end to speaking this world to life and He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth for all who believe (Matthew 24:36; Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).
This will come to all who have believed the Word about Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 3:16-18; John 10:30; John 14:6).[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Paul says in Romans 1:16-17: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”
The Word shared about the Word Who sustains the universe and Who “provided purification for [our] sins” creates new life for those who believe (2 Corinthians 5:17). Simply put, speaking the message about Him makes faith and new life happen: “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
Wow!
And now, in consequence of the victory He’s won for us, Jesus sits “at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” From there, He can bring the prayers who are empowered to speak to God by the grace Christ gives to sinners who repent and believe, to the Father. Jesus speaks His Word of forgiveness over us (Acts 10:43) and we can then approach God in intimacy and boldness that the ancient Israelites chose to delegate to Moses (Hebrews 4:16; Exodus 20:19).
It remains “a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Were we to do so uncovered by the grace of God given in Christ, we would stand naked in our sin, condemned, and ticketed for death. But when the Word of Jesus has been spoken over us and we believe, we can come before God as children, just as Jesus has taught us to come to Him (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:16; Luke 11:2).
Listen: In this verse, I see God as, in Tillich’s phrase, “wholly Other,” infinitely different from me, infinitely greater than me, infinitely purer, infinitely more self-giving. I see Him as the One Whose word brought the universe into being and Who continues to speak it into being even as it dies in its sin (Colossians 1:16-17).
I also see Him as the God Whose love for me and all sinners is so infinite that He chose the path of submission to a cross in order to provide purification for my sins.
How can I callously disregard all that God has done and is doing for me by sinning against His revealed will?
And when I do sin, how can I callously refuse to repent and once more trust in the One Who has done all of this for me?
When I do, the One Who did all of this speaks promises through His Word given to the apostle John: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)
Respond: Lord, help me today to hear and heed Your Word, to trust and live: “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) In Jesus’ name. Amen!
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
The Call to Repentance
Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Samuel 12:1-14
Ash Wednesday
Sometimes we forget that the Word of God in the Bible arose from specific historical circumstances or specific encounters between God and real life human beings, like you and me.
Psalm 51, which we read responsively a short time ago, was written by Israel’s King David, later in his reign, sometime after 1003 BC. And it arose from a specific situation.
Open one of the sanctuary Bibles to 2 Samuel 12, which you’ll find on page 215, please. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, Uriah. Bathsheba became pregnant. David tried to make it look as though Uriah was the father. But that didn't work. So, David made arrangements for Uriah to get isolated and exposed to enemy fire and killed in battle. The king God refers to as “a man after [My] own heart” [1 Samuel 13:14] was guilty of adultery and murder and a cover-up!
In 2 Samuel, God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David for his sins. Nathan does it by telling David the story of a poor man who owned a ewe lamb. This ewe lamb was so beloved that both the poor man and his family see the lamb as another one of the children. When a rich man down the road has visitors, he decides that as a good host, he has to throw a big dinner for them. But he doesn’t want to use any of his own flock for the main course. So, he steals the poor man’s ewe lamb and serves it up at dinner.
Look at David’s reaction in 2 Samuel 12:5-6. “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’”
The king had spoken and rendered his verdict. But there was a question: Who was the man who had done this awful thing? Nathan gives the answer in verse 7, telling King David: “You are the man!"
He goes on: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.’”
Through Nathan, God was telling David, “I gave you blessings you never could have earned nor deserved. I did these things for you out of pure divine and fatherly love and mercy. But instead of gratitude, instead of trying to follow the way of life I revealed long ago in the Ten Commandments, you decided to go your own way. Why?”
You know, every time a Christian deliberately flouts the will of God, I wonder if God asks the same question: “I went to the cross for you, endured the beating, the punches, the spitting, the insults, the nails, the thorns plaited into a mocking crown, and a slow agonizing death...all for you. I took the punishment for sin you deserved. I rose from death to open eternity up to you. I did all these things to give you a new life freed from the power of sin and death. I set you free to become the person I made you to be. And I want to spend eternity showering blessings on you. So, why would you block Me from your life by deliberately doing anything that I have shown you is the way of death? Why?"
Having been confronted for his sins, David might have reacted in a number of ways.
As king, he could have simply ordered Nathan’s death. It wouldn't have been the first time David had ordered the murder of an innocent man, after all. But David didn’t do that.
Or, he might have made excuses. But David didn’t make excuses either.
Or, after hearing Nathan out, David might have set up a commission to discern, given the ways the world had changed and grown more complex since God gave the Ten Commandments, whether sin and murder might not be sins any more. “If our consciences are bound to different ideas, not bound by a relationship with God,” David might have said, “it could be that now, when we know so much more than God did hundreds of years ago, adultery and murder are OK.” But David didn’t lash out at Nathan, didn’t make excuses, or appoint a commission to cover the truth with lies.
Look at how David did react, in verse 13: “I have sinned against the Lord." That's it. Here, David is exemplifying what the Bible--both the Old and the New Testament in their different languages--calls repentance. In the Greek of the New Testament, the most common word for repent is metanoia. It means to have a change of mind.
The person who repents--or lives the lifestyle Martin Luther called, “daily repentance and renewal”--is saying, “I got off track. I was thinking my way. I was following my own sinful nature. But now, aware of the sins I’ve committed, I’m asking God to change my mind, to change the way I’ve been thinking. I’m asking God to help me think His way, not mine.”
This is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 2:5 when he exhorts followers of Jesus: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus...” God wants us to take on the mind of Jesus: a mind that wants what God wants, even when what God wants isn’t pleasant for us. Even when it means turning away from the things we most desperately want.
As I’ve said before, to repent is to confess that when God and I disagree about anything, God is always right and I am always wrong. This can be a bitter pill to swallow when it conflicts with the inborn cravings and impulses for sin with which we all are born.
After David said plainly, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan told David, “The Lord has taken away your sin...” This all reminds me of what Paul says in Romans 6:23: “...the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Only the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus can set us free from death--separation from God--and hell. And that can only happen when we repent and trust in Christ, relying on Christ alone to give our lives meaning.
On this Ash Wednesday, as we remember that we are creatures of God formed from the dust and that we will return to dust again [Genesis 3:19], we also remember this: If we will change our minds, turning to Christ and to the way of God, rather than to the ways we prefer, this dust will rise again!
And we can live each day in the knowledge that when we live in daily repentance and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, nothing will ever separate us from God [Romans 8:31-39].
Had David steeped himself in God’s Word, remained in fellowship with other believers, or been praying instead of ogling on the day he first set eyes on Bathsheba--in other words, if he had allowed God to reign over his thoughts--the terrible chain of events that followed never would have taken place. That’s one lesson we can learn from David’s experience: Life with God belongs to those who seek live life God's way and not our own.
But there’s another lesson, a lesson about God’s grace and goodness: If, when we have sinned, we can forgo our tendency to block out the truths of God we don’t like and instead, let God change our minds, then acknowledge our sins and trust in God to help us to do the right thing--even when it means consequences we don’t like--our relationship with God can be restored.
Life with God belongs to all who repent for sin and trust in Christ. May repentance and renewal be our way of life not just on Ash Wednesday or during Lent, but every day we live on earth. Amen.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was the message for tonight's Ash Wednesday worship.]
Ash Wednesday
Sometimes we forget that the Word of God in the Bible arose from specific historical circumstances or specific encounters between God and real life human beings, like you and me.
Psalm 51, which we read responsively a short time ago, was written by Israel’s King David, later in his reign, sometime after 1003 BC. And it arose from a specific situation.
Open one of the sanctuary Bibles to 2 Samuel 12, which you’ll find on page 215, please. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, Uriah. Bathsheba became pregnant. David tried to make it look as though Uriah was the father. But that didn't work. So, David made arrangements for Uriah to get isolated and exposed to enemy fire and killed in battle. The king God refers to as “a man after [My] own heart” [1 Samuel 13:14] was guilty of adultery and murder and a cover-up!
In 2 Samuel, God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David for his sins. Nathan does it by telling David the story of a poor man who owned a ewe lamb. This ewe lamb was so beloved that both the poor man and his family see the lamb as another one of the children. When a rich man down the road has visitors, he decides that as a good host, he has to throw a big dinner for them. But he doesn’t want to use any of his own flock for the main course. So, he steals the poor man’s ewe lamb and serves it up at dinner.
Look at David’s reaction in 2 Samuel 12:5-6. “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’”
The king had spoken and rendered his verdict. But there was a question: Who was the man who had done this awful thing? Nathan gives the answer in verse 7, telling King David: “You are the man!"
He goes on: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.’”
Through Nathan, God was telling David, “I gave you blessings you never could have earned nor deserved. I did these things for you out of pure divine and fatherly love and mercy. But instead of gratitude, instead of trying to follow the way of life I revealed long ago in the Ten Commandments, you decided to go your own way. Why?”
You know, every time a Christian deliberately flouts the will of God, I wonder if God asks the same question: “I went to the cross for you, endured the beating, the punches, the spitting, the insults, the nails, the thorns plaited into a mocking crown, and a slow agonizing death...all for you. I took the punishment for sin you deserved. I rose from death to open eternity up to you. I did all these things to give you a new life freed from the power of sin and death. I set you free to become the person I made you to be. And I want to spend eternity showering blessings on you. So, why would you block Me from your life by deliberately doing anything that I have shown you is the way of death? Why?"
Having been confronted for his sins, David might have reacted in a number of ways.
As king, he could have simply ordered Nathan’s death. It wouldn't have been the first time David had ordered the murder of an innocent man, after all. But David didn’t do that.
Or, he might have made excuses. But David didn’t make excuses either.
Or, after hearing Nathan out, David might have set up a commission to discern, given the ways the world had changed and grown more complex since God gave the Ten Commandments, whether sin and murder might not be sins any more. “If our consciences are bound to different ideas, not bound by a relationship with God,” David might have said, “it could be that now, when we know so much more than God did hundreds of years ago, adultery and murder are OK.” But David didn’t lash out at Nathan, didn’t make excuses, or appoint a commission to cover the truth with lies.
Look at how David did react, in verse 13: “I have sinned against the Lord." That's it. Here, David is exemplifying what the Bible--both the Old and the New Testament in their different languages--calls repentance. In the Greek of the New Testament, the most common word for repent is metanoia. It means to have a change of mind.
The person who repents--or lives the lifestyle Martin Luther called, “daily repentance and renewal”--is saying, “I got off track. I was thinking my way. I was following my own sinful nature. But now, aware of the sins I’ve committed, I’m asking God to change my mind, to change the way I’ve been thinking. I’m asking God to help me think His way, not mine.”
This is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 2:5 when he exhorts followers of Jesus: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus...” God wants us to take on the mind of Jesus: a mind that wants what God wants, even when what God wants isn’t pleasant for us. Even when it means turning away from the things we most desperately want.
As I’ve said before, to repent is to confess that when God and I disagree about anything, God is always right and I am always wrong. This can be a bitter pill to swallow when it conflicts with the inborn cravings and impulses for sin with which we all are born.
After David said plainly, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan told David, “The Lord has taken away your sin...” This all reminds me of what Paul says in Romans 6:23: “...the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Only the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus can set us free from death--separation from God--and hell. And that can only happen when we repent and trust in Christ, relying on Christ alone to give our lives meaning.
On this Ash Wednesday, as we remember that we are creatures of God formed from the dust and that we will return to dust again [Genesis 3:19], we also remember this: If we will change our minds, turning to Christ and to the way of God, rather than to the ways we prefer, this dust will rise again!
And we can live each day in the knowledge that when we live in daily repentance and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, nothing will ever separate us from God [Romans 8:31-39].
Had David steeped himself in God’s Word, remained in fellowship with other believers, or been praying instead of ogling on the day he first set eyes on Bathsheba--in other words, if he had allowed God to reign over his thoughts--the terrible chain of events that followed never would have taken place. That’s one lesson we can learn from David’s experience: Life with God belongs to those who seek live life God's way and not our own.
But there’s another lesson, a lesson about God’s grace and goodness: If, when we have sinned, we can forgo our tendency to block out the truths of God we don’t like and instead, let God change our minds, then acknowledge our sins and trust in God to help us to do the right thing--even when it means consequences we don’t like--our relationship with God can be restored.
Life with God belongs to all who repent for sin and trust in Christ. May repentance and renewal be our way of life not just on Ash Wednesday or during Lent, but every day we live on earth. Amen.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was the message for tonight's Ash Wednesday worship.]
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Listen!
Matthew 17:1-9
Transfiguration Sunday
The key verse in today’s Gospel lesson is Matthew 17:5 in which the voice God the Father calls out from heaven to Peter, John, and James with a message about Jesus: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Why did the three apostles who accompanied Jesus to the top of a mountain need this message?
And why do you and I still need to be reminded to listen to Jesus?
In a way, these words from the Father come as a direct rebuke to Peter. Back in Matthew 16, Jesus had asked the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter gave the right answer, one that Jesus said came not from Peter’s good sense and insight, but from Peter’s openness to the Holy Spirit’s witness about Jesus. Peter said: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” [Matthew 16:15-19] But then Jesus explained that He as the Messiah, God in the flesh, was going to Jerusalem to be rejected by the Jewish religious authorities, the Roman government, and the people, suffer death on a cross, and rise from the dead.
Peter was horrified! Peter thought that the Messiah would come into political power, vanquish the Romans, and establish a trouble-free reign of prosperity for God’s people. Jesus’ words didn’t compute for Peter. Crucifixion for the Messiah? “Never, Lord!” [Peter] said. “This shall never happen to you!” [Matthew 16:22]
At this, Jesus let Peter have it with both barrels: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
It was Satan, you’ll remember, who tried to tempt Jesus into avoiding the mission of His life on earth, the mission of offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Now, Jesus was saying that Peter, who had just confessed that Jesus was Messiah and the Son of God, God in the flesh, was acting just like Satan. “Peter, be quiet,” Jesus was saying. “Knock off your religious-sounding talk. Wait to speak until after you understand Who I am.”
Six days later, our Gospel lesson for today shows, Peter still had some learning to do.
As members of the inner circle of Jesus’ first followers, Peter, John, and James were terrified to see Jesus appearance “transfigured,” or “transformed.” A cloud came down from heaven filled with the blazing light of God and there Jesus stood talking with Moses, the giver of God’s Law in the Old Testament, and Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet.
Imagine how overwhelming this all must have been for these three fishermen from Galilee!
But Peter, it seems, was never at a loss for words. Even when he should have been. Matthew 17:4 tells us: “Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’”
On the face of it, this is a religious-sounding thing for Peter to say. But it demonstrates that he just doesn’t quite get it. Peter has called Jesus the Son of God, yet he wants to build shrines of apparently equal importance for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
Back in chapter 16, when Peter tried to educate Jesus on Jesus’ job as Messiah and Son of God, it was Jesus Who set Peter straight. Now, on the Mount of Transfiguration, it’s God the Father’s turn to thunder!
In effect, the Father, in verse 5 of our Gospel lesson is telling Peter: “Peter, put a muzzle on it, man! Listen to My Son. Moses and Elijah, great though they were, are Jesus’ inferior. You won’t find life and salvation in Moses or Elijah. (Or in Buddha, Allah, or a big fat bank account, for that matter)’ Life and salvation can only be found in Jesus. So, button it up and pay heed to Jesus only!” “Peter, this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Poor Peter, always trying so hard to say and do the right thing. But that’s the problem. He’s trying way too hard. He thinks he’s being faithful by spouting religious talk.
But, in talking about building these shelters, he shows that he isn’t really listening to Jesus or to His Word.
Christ’s Church today is filled with a lot of well-meaning Peters. I can be among them. We say things that sound religious, but show that we really haven’t been listening to God’s Word or to Jesus.
Last night, I jotted down three things that I hear well-meaning Christians say, but that, according to God’s Word, just aren’t true.
One thing well-meaning Christians say is, “Follow your heart.” Wrong!
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” So, if my heart is going to deceive me and lead me into a deceitful life, a life apart from God, why would I follow my heart?
Jesus never says, “Follow your heart.” Instead, Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” [Matthew 16:24] Follow Jesus: Turn from sin and trust in Him to save you for all eternity and to guide you always. Keep following Jesus.
Another false thing said by well-meaning Christians is, “God helps those who help themselves.” This is a whopper!
The Bible actually says that God helps those who cannot help themselves. And that’s all of us! Romans 5:6 tells us: “...at just the right time, when we were still powerless [or, helpless], Christ died for the ungodly [those of us born in sin...and that's all of us].” God helps those who recognize that they need Jesus as our King and Savior.
A third common falsehood uttered by Christians is, “Everything happens for a reason.” That’s another big fib!
I once heard a woman at a funeral visitation tell a father that his young son had died because God needed another angel in heaven. It would have been better for that woman to have shut her mouth than utter such unbiblical rot. When believers die, they don’t become angels. Humans are made in God’s image, angels aren’t! Human beings are of higher importance to God than angels are! Christ didn’t die and rise for angels; He died and rose for people!
Besides, the very notion that God would decide to take a boy’s life to sate His desire for more angels turns God into a monster, unrecognizable from the God we meet in Jesus!
The tragedies that happen in this world can’t be explained away as part of some master plan by God. Bad things happen to faithful people because we live in a fallen world in which sin, death, and darkness are on the loose. It was these things that Jesus came to conquer for us. That’s why Jesus says in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Death and tragedy don’t have the final word over the lives of those who entrust their lives to Jesus; it’s the resurrection Jesus has won for us that will have the final, eternal say over our lives!
If Peter had listened to God’s Word in the Old Testament or if he had listened to Jesus, he wouldn’t have said foolish things like He did at the Transfiguration.
If Christians today listened to God’s Word--not just on Sunday mornings, but everyday of their lives--they wouldn’t say untrue things like the three I just mentioned.
More importantly, when we listen to God’s Word, meet the God we know in Jesus in His Word each day, we will know God intimately.
As Jesus promises, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all of God’s truth [John 16:13]. When we listen to Jesus, we experience the amazing promise He makes in John 15:5: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” That’s a stunning promise!
To be friends with Jesus, God in the flesh, means that we trust in Him, we trust in the power of what He accomplished for us on the cross, we trust that He can bring us God’s forgiveness, we trust that He can give us life with God, however blurry this world may sometimes make it, and life with God in perfection in eternity.
When we are friends with Jesus, we live in the assurance that, as He promises to all who follow Him in Matthew 28:20, He is with us always!
All of this comes to us when we listen to Jesus. Paul summarizes the power of what happens when we listen to Jesus and the Word about Jesus in this way: “...faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” [Romans 10:17]
So, how can we listen to Jesus? You might want to pull out a pen or your smart phones right now and note a simple method for listening to Jesus each day--one I've learned from our friends at Navigators, as I've mentioned before, and a way of listening to Jesus that I have found to be powerful. Here’s how to listen to Jesus each day.
First, stop. Find a quiet place, away from the laptop and the iPad, away from the TV or the PlayStation. Ask Jesus to meet you as you read a chapter from a Biblical book like Matthew or John.
Second, look. Read that Word and ask Jesus what He wants to tell you that day.
Third, listen. Consider what Jesus has told you and what truth He wants you to grasp from Him that can guide you that day or the next day.
Fourth, respond. If there’s some sin for which you need to repent or a sinful habit you need to jettison, lay it honestly before Jesus, asking for His forgiveness and help with living differently that day or the next. If there’s some act of love you feel compelled to undertake, ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit’s power to do it. Give Jesus glory for His death and resurrection for you; ask Him to guide you in the next twenty-four hours; pray for those who need God’s help; ask God to fill you with His wisdom; and ask God to help you be part of His mission of making disciples that day.
I want to underscore how freeing and important it is to listen to God each day and to help you with that day. How many times have we realized some sin or deficiency in our character, some bad habit we'd fallen into, and said something like, "From now on, Lord, until the end of my days, I will...so and so." How has that worked for you?
Let me put the question in another way: Do you remember what your New Year's resolutions were for this year?
You know, the power of the Twelve Step program is that it calls people to recognize their need and get help for that day alone. It's easier to trust in Jesus one day at a time after we've spent time in His Word and then spend time with Him again the next day and the next, than it is to trust Him without ever listening to Him again. This is why it's important to spend daily time with God in addition to the time we spend together once a week in worship.
From the cloud that overshadowed the mountain somewhere in Caesarea Philippi, God’s voice commanded Peter and the other disciples, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
That's our command today. May we obey it. May we listen to Jesus and so, live under the grace and forgiveness, power, wisdom, guidance, and love of God all of our lives. Amen!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message that was shared this morning during worship.]
Transfiguration Sunday
The key verse in today’s Gospel lesson is Matthew 17:5 in which the voice God the Father calls out from heaven to Peter, John, and James with a message about Jesus: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Why did the three apostles who accompanied Jesus to the top of a mountain need this message?
And why do you and I still need to be reminded to listen to Jesus?
In a way, these words from the Father come as a direct rebuke to Peter. Back in Matthew 16, Jesus had asked the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter gave the right answer, one that Jesus said came not from Peter’s good sense and insight, but from Peter’s openness to the Holy Spirit’s witness about Jesus. Peter said: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” [Matthew 16:15-19] But then Jesus explained that He as the Messiah, God in the flesh, was going to Jerusalem to be rejected by the Jewish religious authorities, the Roman government, and the people, suffer death on a cross, and rise from the dead.
Peter was horrified! Peter thought that the Messiah would come into political power, vanquish the Romans, and establish a trouble-free reign of prosperity for God’s people. Jesus’ words didn’t compute for Peter. Crucifixion for the Messiah? “Never, Lord!” [Peter] said. “This shall never happen to you!” [Matthew 16:22]
At this, Jesus let Peter have it with both barrels: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
It was Satan, you’ll remember, who tried to tempt Jesus into avoiding the mission of His life on earth, the mission of offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Now, Jesus was saying that Peter, who had just confessed that Jesus was Messiah and the Son of God, God in the flesh, was acting just like Satan. “Peter, be quiet,” Jesus was saying. “Knock off your religious-sounding talk. Wait to speak until after you understand Who I am.”
Six days later, our Gospel lesson for today shows, Peter still had some learning to do.
As members of the inner circle of Jesus’ first followers, Peter, John, and James were terrified to see Jesus appearance “transfigured,” or “transformed.” A cloud came down from heaven filled with the blazing light of God and there Jesus stood talking with Moses, the giver of God’s Law in the Old Testament, and Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet.
Imagine how overwhelming this all must have been for these three fishermen from Galilee!
But Peter, it seems, was never at a loss for words. Even when he should have been. Matthew 17:4 tells us: “Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’”
On the face of it, this is a religious-sounding thing for Peter to say. But it demonstrates that he just doesn’t quite get it. Peter has called Jesus the Son of God, yet he wants to build shrines of apparently equal importance for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
Back in chapter 16, when Peter tried to educate Jesus on Jesus’ job as Messiah and Son of God, it was Jesus Who set Peter straight. Now, on the Mount of Transfiguration, it’s God the Father’s turn to thunder!
In effect, the Father, in verse 5 of our Gospel lesson is telling Peter: “Peter, put a muzzle on it, man! Listen to My Son. Moses and Elijah, great though they were, are Jesus’ inferior. You won’t find life and salvation in Moses or Elijah. (Or in Buddha, Allah, or a big fat bank account, for that matter)’ Life and salvation can only be found in Jesus. So, button it up and pay heed to Jesus only!” “Peter, this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Poor Peter, always trying so hard to say and do the right thing. But that’s the problem. He’s trying way too hard. He thinks he’s being faithful by spouting religious talk.
But, in talking about building these shelters, he shows that he isn’t really listening to Jesus or to His Word.
Christ’s Church today is filled with a lot of well-meaning Peters. I can be among them. We say things that sound religious, but show that we really haven’t been listening to God’s Word or to Jesus.
Last night, I jotted down three things that I hear well-meaning Christians say, but that, according to God’s Word, just aren’t true.
One thing well-meaning Christians say is, “Follow your heart.” Wrong!
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” So, if my heart is going to deceive me and lead me into a deceitful life, a life apart from God, why would I follow my heart?
Jesus never says, “Follow your heart.” Instead, Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” [Matthew 16:24] Follow Jesus: Turn from sin and trust in Him to save you for all eternity and to guide you always. Keep following Jesus.
Another false thing said by well-meaning Christians is, “God helps those who help themselves.” This is a whopper!
The Bible actually says that God helps those who cannot help themselves. And that’s all of us! Romans 5:6 tells us: “...at just the right time, when we were still powerless [or, helpless], Christ died for the ungodly [those of us born in sin...and that's all of us].” God helps those who recognize that they need Jesus as our King and Savior.
A third common falsehood uttered by Christians is, “Everything happens for a reason.” That’s another big fib!
I once heard a woman at a funeral visitation tell a father that his young son had died because God needed another angel in heaven. It would have been better for that woman to have shut her mouth than utter such unbiblical rot. When believers die, they don’t become angels. Humans are made in God’s image, angels aren’t! Human beings are of higher importance to God than angels are! Christ didn’t die and rise for angels; He died and rose for people!
Besides, the very notion that God would decide to take a boy’s life to sate His desire for more angels turns God into a monster, unrecognizable from the God we meet in Jesus!
The tragedies that happen in this world can’t be explained away as part of some master plan by God. Bad things happen to faithful people because we live in a fallen world in which sin, death, and darkness are on the loose. It was these things that Jesus came to conquer for us. That’s why Jesus says in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Death and tragedy don’t have the final word over the lives of those who entrust their lives to Jesus; it’s the resurrection Jesus has won for us that will have the final, eternal say over our lives!
If Peter had listened to God’s Word in the Old Testament or if he had listened to Jesus, he wouldn’t have said foolish things like He did at the Transfiguration.
If Christians today listened to God’s Word--not just on Sunday mornings, but everyday of their lives--they wouldn’t say untrue things like the three I just mentioned.
More importantly, when we listen to God’s Word, meet the God we know in Jesus in His Word each day, we will know God intimately.
As Jesus promises, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all of God’s truth [John 16:13]. When we listen to Jesus, we experience the amazing promise He makes in John 15:5: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” That’s a stunning promise!
To be friends with Jesus, God in the flesh, means that we trust in Him, we trust in the power of what He accomplished for us on the cross, we trust that He can bring us God’s forgiveness, we trust that He can give us life with God, however blurry this world may sometimes make it, and life with God in perfection in eternity.
When we are friends with Jesus, we live in the assurance that, as He promises to all who follow Him in Matthew 28:20, He is with us always!
All of this comes to us when we listen to Jesus. Paul summarizes the power of what happens when we listen to Jesus and the Word about Jesus in this way: “...faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” [Romans 10:17]
So, how can we listen to Jesus? You might want to pull out a pen or your smart phones right now and note a simple method for listening to Jesus each day--one I've learned from our friends at Navigators, as I've mentioned before, and a way of listening to Jesus that I have found to be powerful. Here’s how to listen to Jesus each day.
First, stop. Find a quiet place, away from the laptop and the iPad, away from the TV or the PlayStation. Ask Jesus to meet you as you read a chapter from a Biblical book like Matthew or John.
Second, look. Read that Word and ask Jesus what He wants to tell you that day.
Third, listen. Consider what Jesus has told you and what truth He wants you to grasp from Him that can guide you that day or the next day.
Fourth, respond. If there’s some sin for which you need to repent or a sinful habit you need to jettison, lay it honestly before Jesus, asking for His forgiveness and help with living differently that day or the next. If there’s some act of love you feel compelled to undertake, ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit’s power to do it. Give Jesus glory for His death and resurrection for you; ask Him to guide you in the next twenty-four hours; pray for those who need God’s help; ask God to fill you with His wisdom; and ask God to help you be part of His mission of making disciples that day.
I want to underscore how freeing and important it is to listen to God each day and to help you with that day. How many times have we realized some sin or deficiency in our character, some bad habit we'd fallen into, and said something like, "From now on, Lord, until the end of my days, I will...so and so." How has that worked for you?
Let me put the question in another way: Do you remember what your New Year's resolutions were for this year?
You know, the power of the Twelve Step program is that it calls people to recognize their need and get help for that day alone. It's easier to trust in Jesus one day at a time after we've spent time in His Word and then spend time with Him again the next day and the next, than it is to trust Him without ever listening to Him again. This is why it's important to spend daily time with God in addition to the time we spend together once a week in worship.
From the cloud that overshadowed the mountain somewhere in Caesarea Philippi, God’s voice commanded Peter and the other disciples, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
That's our command today. May we obey it. May we listen to Jesus and so, live under the grace and forgiveness, power, wisdom, guidance, and love of God all of our lives. Amen!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message that was shared this morning during worship.]
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Perfect Though Imperfect? (#AUDIO)
Here.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message from yesterday's worship. A few seconds got cut off from the beginning of the message.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is the message from yesterday's worship. A few seconds got cut off from the beginning of the message.]
Monday, February 20, 2017
Resurrection Hope
John 11:21-27
[This was a message presented during a memorial service today.]
As I learned a little bit about Ella last week, I got the idea she was someone I would have liked knowing. It seems she tried her hand at everything. She was an adventurous traveler, a musician, an avid listener of music, a seamstress, a history buff, and a nurse. And I’m sure that had I gotten to know her, she would have opened my eyes to a whole culture I know nothing about, the world of QVC.
As you gather to honor a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend today, it’s good to laugh together as well as to grieve together. It’s wonderful to draw on happy memories in the midst of grief.
But, of course, our laughter and smiles would amount to nothing more than whistling in the dark were it not for Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in human flesh, Who led a sinless life and sacrificed Himself on the cross He didn’t deserve so that all who daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Him have life with God today and, beyond the gates of our own death, in eternity, a place where death and grief will no longer afflict us. As Jesus told a man named Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
In the midst of your grief for one you loved and the inevitable reminder of your own mortality your loss brings, it’s good to remember that we have not only Jesus’ own resurrection to remind us of His power over death and life. He displayed this power on more than a few occasions, in the presence of many hundreds of witnesses. In fact, just a few verses beyond our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is seen displaying this power again in raising yet another person from the dead.
In our lesson, John 11:21-27, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died. Jesus had known that Lazarus was dying several days earlier and had deliberately waited for Lazarus’ death before journeying to the village of Bethany with the twelve apostles. His intention was to demonstrate the power of God to bring new life to the dead, a sign of Who He was and is. He would raise Lazarus from the dead.
But, of course, nobody else knew that. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Martha initially speaks to Jesus almost reproachfully.
Yet, even her words of reproach are tinged with an understanding of just Who Jesus is and what He can do for those who trust in Him. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Even now, in the midst of my grief, Martha was saying, I know Your connection to God the Father. Even now, I understand that You are more than just a man, more than a great teacher or a good guy. And even now, I know that you have the power to reverse the impact that sin, death, and darkness have on human life. You can change everything.
Martha, in a way, had no idea what she was saying. All she knew was that she trusted--she believed in--Jesus. And you can too. Even in the midst of your grief.
Jesus assured Martha that her brother would rise again. Pious Jews, especially those who belonged to the sect of Judaism known as Pharisees, believed that those who trusted in God would rise from the dead, that the grave was not the end of life for those who lived a lifestyle of repentance and belief. And so, Martha says of her brother: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
'Wait a moment,' Jesus seems to say next, 'you miss my point, Martha. I’m not saying that God has control over life and death just in the sweet by-and-by. God controls life and death and eternity here and now!'
Eternity in the presence of God can invade the earthly lives of anyone who trusts in Christ. That’s true right now, even in the midst of griefs and challenges. And so Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
For the believer in the God we meet and know in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead isn’t some theological abstraction, a phrase in a dusty creed. Resurrected life happens in Him. Life beyond the grave and life beyond the fear of death, the fear of a meaningless life, happens in Jesus and in Jesus alone.
This is why Jesus says elsewhere: “I and the Father are one” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the way to life. He’s the source of all life and the source of all life beyond the grave. Only Jesus can comfort us in our sorrow, give meaning to our lives, and save us from sin and death.
That's why the first Christians said: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
This is exactly what Jesus told Martha as she grieved for her brother. It’s what He tells you and me today. And He promises Martha, and you, and me, and all who grieve or who face death themselves: “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Then Jesus asked the most important question any of us will ever be asked, the question on which the fate of our eternal existences hinges, and the question which, I am told, Ella answered in the affirmative: “Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that Jesus Himself rose from the dead, a fact that more than 500 witnesses insisted on despite facing certain persecution and possible death for sticking to their witness?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give life beyond the grave?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give you life, strength, joy, comfort, peace, and purpose even now?
When Martha was asked if she believed, her response was clear: “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
None of us knows what our tomorrows in this world may bring. But we do know that everything--past, present, future, and eternity--belongs to the God we meet in Jesus Christ.
That was the faith of Martha.
It was Ella’s faith.
It's the faith of Christ's Church.
And it can be our faith too.
Jesus is the resurrection, the God Who makes all things new. As you grieve and look to your future, trust in Him to be your resurrection and your life. He will never let you down. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[This was a message presented during a memorial service today.]
As I learned a little bit about Ella last week, I got the idea she was someone I would have liked knowing. It seems she tried her hand at everything. She was an adventurous traveler, a musician, an avid listener of music, a seamstress, a history buff, and a nurse. And I’m sure that had I gotten to know her, she would have opened my eyes to a whole culture I know nothing about, the world of QVC.
As you gather to honor a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend today, it’s good to laugh together as well as to grieve together. It’s wonderful to draw on happy memories in the midst of grief.
But, of course, our laughter and smiles would amount to nothing more than whistling in the dark were it not for Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in human flesh, Who led a sinless life and sacrificed Himself on the cross He didn’t deserve so that all who daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Him have life with God today and, beyond the gates of our own death, in eternity, a place where death and grief will no longer afflict us. As Jesus told a man named Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
In the midst of your grief for one you loved and the inevitable reminder of your own mortality your loss brings, it’s good to remember that we have not only Jesus’ own resurrection to remind us of His power over death and life. He displayed this power on more than a few occasions, in the presence of many hundreds of witnesses. In fact, just a few verses beyond our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is seen displaying this power again in raising yet another person from the dead.
In our lesson, John 11:21-27, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died. Jesus had known that Lazarus was dying several days earlier and had deliberately waited for Lazarus’ death before journeying to the village of Bethany with the twelve apostles. His intention was to demonstrate the power of God to bring new life to the dead, a sign of Who He was and is. He would raise Lazarus from the dead.
But, of course, nobody else knew that. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, Martha initially speaks to Jesus almost reproachfully.
Yet, even her words of reproach are tinged with an understanding of just Who Jesus is and what He can do for those who trust in Him. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Even now, in the midst of my grief, Martha was saying, I know Your connection to God the Father. Even now, I understand that You are more than just a man, more than a great teacher or a good guy. And even now, I know that you have the power to reverse the impact that sin, death, and darkness have on human life. You can change everything.
Martha, in a way, had no idea what she was saying. All she knew was that she trusted--she believed in--Jesus. And you can too. Even in the midst of your grief.
Jesus assured Martha that her brother would rise again. Pious Jews, especially those who belonged to the sect of Judaism known as Pharisees, believed that those who trusted in God would rise from the dead, that the grave was not the end of life for those who lived a lifestyle of repentance and belief. And so, Martha says of her brother: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
'Wait a moment,' Jesus seems to say next, 'you miss my point, Martha. I’m not saying that God has control over life and death just in the sweet by-and-by. God controls life and death and eternity here and now!'
Eternity in the presence of God can invade the earthly lives of anyone who trusts in Christ. That’s true right now, even in the midst of griefs and challenges. And so Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
For the believer in the God we meet and know in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead isn’t some theological abstraction, a phrase in a dusty creed. Resurrected life happens in Him. Life beyond the grave and life beyond the fear of death, the fear of a meaningless life, happens in Jesus and in Jesus alone.
This is why Jesus says elsewhere: “I and the Father are one” and “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the way to life. He’s the source of all life and the source of all life beyond the grave. Only Jesus can comfort us in our sorrow, give meaning to our lives, and save us from sin and death.
That's why the first Christians said: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
This is exactly what Jesus told Martha as she grieved for her brother. It’s what He tells you and me today. And He promises Martha, and you, and me, and all who grieve or who face death themselves: “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Then Jesus asked the most important question any of us will ever be asked, the question on which the fate of our eternal existences hinges, and the question which, I am told, Ella answered in the affirmative: “Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that Jesus Himself rose from the dead, a fact that more than 500 witnesses insisted on despite facing certain persecution and possible death for sticking to their witness?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give life beyond the grave?
Do you believe that Jesus has the power to give you life, strength, joy, comfort, peace, and purpose even now?
When Martha was asked if she believed, her response was clear: “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
None of us knows what our tomorrows in this world may bring. But we do know that everything--past, present, future, and eternity--belongs to the God we meet in Jesus Christ.
That was the faith of Martha.
It was Ella’s faith.
It's the faith of Christ's Church.
And it can be our faith too.
Jesus is the resurrection, the God Who makes all things new. As you grieve and look to your future, trust in Him to be your resurrection and your life. He will never let you down. Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Luther's Catechisms, Part 3 (AUDIO)
Here. From an adult Sunday School class we're doing these days.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Perfect Though Imperfect?
Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, Ï„Îλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, ΤετÎλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?
As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”
So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?
First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, Ï„Îλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.
Jesus uses a related verb, ΤετÎλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.
And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”
Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus and our faith in Jesus.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).
To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.
Why is that?
Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.
This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.
Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.
The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.
Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.
Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]
To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.
We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.
In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.
Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”
The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.
Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.
Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.
Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.
After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.
I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.
Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.
And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.
I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.
Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.
I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.
If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.
It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.
But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.
You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!
Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!
When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.
In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]
In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.
When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.
We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]
Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.
We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.
But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.
As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.
In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]
This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.
They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.
Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.
Christ has measured up for you!
Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.
Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.
Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.
When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.
In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.
It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]
Saturday, February 18, 2017
"Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Piggybacking off of my post from several days ago...We were headed to an ordination service this past Sunday afternoon when traffic into the town we were going to came to a halt.
Ahead, I could see the flashers of a police cruiser. We were only five cars back in the growing traffic jam. With the incident, whatever it was, so fresh, I decided to see if there was any help I could provide.
I approached an SUV, which had clearly swerved out of control, then flipped over, its passenger side now resting on the pavement. The EMS had not yet arrived, but in addition to the police, several people were already on the scene to help.
Three men had clambered onto the SUV and opened the driver's door. I was wearing my collar, which of course, to some people makes me look like a priest.
One of the fellows working to extract a woman still strapped inside the SUV spotted me approaching and bellowed out in a voice filled with enthusiasm and relief, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Before I had spoken a word, that Good Samaritan saw in the collar associated with my office as pastor, a sign of God's presence and concern for people.
If any voice I've ever heard in my life registered joy and gratitude beyond the words it spoke, it was that man's voice. He was inviting me to celebrate with him! And the collar I wore signaled to him that God was ready to be with people in suffering and death, as well as in joy and life...and in celebration!
To be privileged with the the particular ministry that God has given to me--and God gives a ministry to every Christian--is a blessing and deeply gratifying. The moment that man called out, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!" was, for me, one of gratification and blessing.
Thank You, Lord!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Ahead, I could see the flashers of a police cruiser. We were only five cars back in the growing traffic jam. With the incident, whatever it was, so fresh, I decided to see if there was any help I could provide.
I approached an SUV, which had clearly swerved out of control, then flipped over, its passenger side now resting on the pavement. The EMS had not yet arrived, but in addition to the police, several people were already on the scene to help.
Three men had clambered onto the SUV and opened the driver's door. I was wearing my collar, which of course, to some people makes me look like a priest.
One of the fellows working to extract a woman still strapped inside the SUV spotted me approaching and bellowed out in a voice filled with enthusiasm and relief, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!"
Before I had spoken a word, that Good Samaritan saw in the collar associated with my office as pastor, a sign of God's presence and concern for people.
If any voice I've ever heard in my life registered joy and gratitude beyond the words it spoke, it was that man's voice. He was inviting me to celebrate with him! And the collar I wore signaled to him that God was ready to be with people in suffering and death, as well as in joy and life...and in celebration!
To be privileged with the the particular ministry that God has given to me--and God gives a ministry to every Christian--is a blessing and deeply gratifying. The moment that man called out, "Hello, Father! No fatalities!" was, for me, one of gratification and blessing.
Thank You, Lord!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Thursday, February 16, 2017
When I wore my clerical collar to Sam's
After leaving the church building on Wednesday, on my way back to the condo for lunch and to do some work here, I swung by Sam's Club to pick up a few items.
I checked myself out, then showed my receipt for verification to the employee stationed by the self-check station. He did his thing, then fixed me with a friendly gaze and said, "Reverend, may I tell you how happy I am to see you in your collar?"
Sometimes, when I go to places and I'm wearing my clerical collar, I almost forget that I have it on. Over the past 32 years, it's just become part of me, I suppose.
But I realize that for many people, merely appearing in the uniform of my office as a pastor of Christ's Church makes them feel good. The collar becomes a reminder in places you might not associate with Christ that He cares about every aspect of their lives. It feels good for me to be able to help people remember this even when I don't say a word.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
I checked myself out, then showed my receipt for verification to the employee stationed by the self-check station. He did his thing, then fixed me with a friendly gaze and said, "Reverend, may I tell you how happy I am to see you in your collar?"
Sometimes, when I go to places and I'm wearing my clerical collar, I almost forget that I have it on. Over the past 32 years, it's just become part of me, I suppose.
But I realize that for many people, merely appearing in the uniform of my office as a pastor of Christ's Church makes them feel good. The collar becomes a reminder in places you might not associate with Christ that He cares about every aspect of their lives. It feels good for me to be able to help people remember this even when I don't say a word.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Lutheran Catechisms (Session 2) (AUDIO)
Here's yesterday's adult Sunday School class on Luther's catechisms, among the confessional documents of the Lutheran movement, which we believe to be faithful witnesses to the truth of God's Word in the Bible.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Tough Talk from the Tender Savior
Matthew 5:21-37
Before considering Jesus’ tough words to us in today’s Gospel lesson, it’s important to remember several things.
First, our lesson continues Jesus’ sermon on the mount. This “sermon” is an extended time in which Jesus teaches disciples like you and me about life in the kingdom of heaven we enter by faith in Christ.
It’s also important to remember that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
People who deliberately violate God’s laws are, in Jesus’ words today, “in danger of the fire of hell.” But, God also understands us. There isn’t a soul who doesn’t sin unintentionally, every day. God, the Bible tells us, “...remembers that we are dust.” [Psalm 103:14]
Thank God that Jesus, as He told us last week, came to fulfill the law you and I are incapable of fulfilling and covers those who repent and believe in Him with His righteousness through the power of His death and resurrection!
So, once again this week, we remember that, in these words, Jesus isn’t saying: “Do these things and your will be saved.” He’s really saying, “If you have received new life through Me, this is how you get to live.” For all their toughness, Jesus’ words for us today are brimming with love for those for whom He died and rose. And they teach us what it means for disciples to live in Jesus’ kingdom of love.
There isn't a soul in this sanctuary or in this world who perfectly keeps the commands Jesus lays down here. If anyone says they do, they're lying. But these commands reflect the pattern in which God's Holy Spirit is forming us--in the image of Christ--each day as we turn from sin and trust in Christ.
In today’s lesson, Jesus looks at anger and murder, lust, divorce, and oaths. (You know, the stuff that makes up a lot of the daily programming on HBO and Netflix.)
Let’s take a look at what the Lord is telling us, starting at verse 31: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment...”
Here, Jesus refers to Exodus 20:13, which gives us the fifth commandment. Our English translations of this verse and of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson almost always mistranslate it, rendering the commandment as, “You shall not kill.” Even our catechisms are translated in this way.
But that’s not what God’s Word says. God recognizes that there may be times when a parent, soldier, police officer, or good neighbor may be forced to take the life of someone out to murder someone else. People in these circumstances do not violate the fifth commandment. What God does condemn is the willful taking of a human life. The command is, “You shall not murder.”
Just as we start to wipe our brows in relief over this understanding of the commandment though, Jesus expands the definition of murder. Jesus says that sustained anger, hatred, or disdain of another human being is murder. That means that in Jesus’ eyes, it’s possible to murder someone without laying a hand on them. (I learned this a long time ago as a kid whenever my folks gave me a withering look for misbehaving.) Seriously though, anyone who’s ever been bullied by classmates, belittled by parents, treated with contempt by a spouse, or abused in any way knows exactly what Jesus is saying.
A person who willfully murders another human being seeks to rob their victim of the life and dignity that only God can give. In just the same way, the person who denigrates another person or holds a grudge against them is harboring the same hatred, hostility, and denial of respect that murderers harbor toward their victims. In treating others as though they have no right to exist, we are guilty of murder. In 1 John 3:15, we’re told: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Jesus then emphasizes how seriously He takes this matter through the use of a little exaggeration or hyperbole. (Jesus often used hyperbole. Remember when He talked about a camel going through the eye of a needle?) Verses 23-24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Remember, that Jesus is in Galilee as He speaks these words. His first audience is composed of Galileans, who live about 75 miles from Jerusalem, the site of the temple where pious Jews leave their sacrifices. It would be preposterous to think of a Galilean leaving the temple, going back to their home region to make things right with someone, then making the return trip to Jerusalem.
What Jesus is saying this: Don’t dare to worship God without trying to be reconciled with those with whom you have differences. The reason for this is simple, as we see in 1 John 4:20:: “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” We can’t claim to truly love God if there’s any person with whom we’re not willing to be reconciled.
In verses 27 and 28, Jesus goes on to say: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As with murder, it’s one thing to be technically compliant with God’s will, but still be in violation of the sixth commandment.
That’s because adultery is a sin that happens in the heart, mind, will, and words long before it happens bodily. Adultery is a rebellion against God’s will for marriage that may never be expressed in an affair, but in things like the pursuit of pornography, or fantasies of being with someone other than the person to whom we’re married.
From the standpoint of the Bible, lust in itself is a good thing, given by God to men and women bound together by God in marriage. And also from the standpoint of the Bible, lust is not exclusively sexual.
Any desire that we allow to carry us away from being faithful spouses adulterates a marriage. The dictionary gives this definition of adulterate: “[to] render (something) poorer in quality by adding another substance, typically an inferior one.” Our marriages can be adulterated--made poorer--whenever we give other things--another person, our careers, our hobbies, alcohol and drugs--consideration, respect, and attention that belongs exclusively to our spouses. Because God wants our marriages to be blessings to us, Jesus takes a dim view of all forms of adultery.
Then, Jesus says maybe the toughest thing in our entire lesson. Verses 31 and 32: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These were tough words because in the first century Roman world in which Jesus lived divorce was at least as common as it is today. (Probably more common.) And in the Jewish nation of which Jesus was a part, a man could send his wife a certificate of divorce just because she no longer pleased him.
In Matthew 19:8, Jesus says that Moses allowed divorce among God’s people because of their “hardness of heart.” But even in Deuteronomy 24, where Moses makes the allowance for divorce, Moses makes it clear that divorce should never be undertaken for frivolous reasons. Jesus mentions unfaithfulness as a grounds for divorce. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that spiritual abandonment their by unbelieving spouses is a legitimate reason for divorce.
But Jesus’ words are tough for us too.
Rare is the extended family, even among Christians, that hasn’t been visited by the tragedy of divorce. In my own extended family, several members have been victimized by constant emotional abuse from unbelieving spouses, making divorce seem like the only option.
But even under those circumstances, committed Christians will take stock to see how their own “hardness of heart” may have contributed to the demise of their marriages.
Always it’s important to remember that the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is able to cover the sins of the repentant in His grace and forgiveness. As we currently have posted on our signboard out front, “Jesus can forgive all that we regret.”
What Jesus wants us to remember is that marriage is a sacred thing, instituted by God, the only legitimate place in which the intimacy between woman and man is to be expressed, the place from which the young are to be prepared for adulthood and introduced to Jesus Christ as God and Savior.
At the end, Jesus addresses the business of oaths. Jesus says, “do not swear an oath at all.” The key to understanding Jesus’ words here come in verse 37, where He says: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
People who are truthful don’t need to swear by God or anything else. Their simple yes or no stand on their own. Jesus is saying here, Don’t you dare invoke the name of God to prop up your lies!
I grew up in a family in which lying was just part of every day life. It made me comfortable with telling lies. It’s a habit that I’ve had to learn to hate, repudiate, repent for, and learn from as God’s grace has sunk more deeply into my life.
I'm not certain that I'm so alone in that experience, though. The truth is that descendants of Adam and Eve are prone to lying, distortion, exaggeration, misstatements, responsibility-dodging, excuse-making, and “little white lies,” whatever those are.
Often we lie just to avoid the unpleasantness of the truth. But Jesus says that lying has no place in the Kingdom of God.
Of course, some people take words like these from Jesus as license to say whatever comes into their heads, no matter who gets hurt by it. But Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak “the truth in love.” If it’s not loving, even the truth shouldn’t escape our mouths!
The love of God given to us through Christ is, in fact, to be reflected in everything about us, in everything that Jesus talks about today! That's something you and I will do only imperfectly on this side of our own deaths and resurrections. But to all who believe in Christ, God sends His Holy Spirit to daily refashion willing believers after the image of Christ.
In the meantime, for those saved by God’s grace in Christ, as God transforms us day in and day out by the power of His grace, love is becoming less of a distasteful obligation than it might otherwise seem to be.
Our call is to daily repent for sin and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord Who has conquered sin and death for us.
Our joy is to live as people set free from our slavery. Jesus sets us free to live lifestyles of true, pure, Godly love:
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was prepared for worship this morning.]
Before considering Jesus’ tough words to us in today’s Gospel lesson, it’s important to remember several things.
First, our lesson continues Jesus’ sermon on the mount. This “sermon” is an extended time in which Jesus teaches disciples like you and me about life in the kingdom of heaven we enter by faith in Christ.
It’s also important to remember that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
People who deliberately violate God’s laws are, in Jesus’ words today, “in danger of the fire of hell.” But, God also understands us. There isn’t a soul who doesn’t sin unintentionally, every day. God, the Bible tells us, “...remembers that we are dust.” [Psalm 103:14]
Thank God that Jesus, as He told us last week, came to fulfill the law you and I are incapable of fulfilling and covers those who repent and believe in Him with His righteousness through the power of His death and resurrection!
So, once again this week, we remember that, in these words, Jesus isn’t saying: “Do these things and your will be saved.” He’s really saying, “If you have received new life through Me, this is how you get to live.” For all their toughness, Jesus’ words for us today are brimming with love for those for whom He died and rose. And they teach us what it means for disciples to live in Jesus’ kingdom of love.
There isn't a soul in this sanctuary or in this world who perfectly keeps the commands Jesus lays down here. If anyone says they do, they're lying. But these commands reflect the pattern in which God's Holy Spirit is forming us--in the image of Christ--each day as we turn from sin and trust in Christ.
In today’s lesson, Jesus looks at anger and murder, lust, divorce, and oaths. (You know, the stuff that makes up a lot of the daily programming on HBO and Netflix.)
Let’s take a look at what the Lord is telling us, starting at verse 31: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment...”
Here, Jesus refers to Exodus 20:13, which gives us the fifth commandment. Our English translations of this verse and of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel lesson almost always mistranslate it, rendering the commandment as, “You shall not kill.” Even our catechisms are translated in this way.
But that’s not what God’s Word says. God recognizes that there may be times when a parent, soldier, police officer, or good neighbor may be forced to take the life of someone out to murder someone else. People in these circumstances do not violate the fifth commandment. What God does condemn is the willful taking of a human life. The command is, “You shall not murder.”
Just as we start to wipe our brows in relief over this understanding of the commandment though, Jesus expands the definition of murder. Jesus says that sustained anger, hatred, or disdain of another human being is murder. That means that in Jesus’ eyes, it’s possible to murder someone without laying a hand on them. (I learned this a long time ago as a kid whenever my folks gave me a withering look for misbehaving.) Seriously though, anyone who’s ever been bullied by classmates, belittled by parents, treated with contempt by a spouse, or abused in any way knows exactly what Jesus is saying.
A person who willfully murders another human being seeks to rob their victim of the life and dignity that only God can give. In just the same way, the person who denigrates another person or holds a grudge against them is harboring the same hatred, hostility, and denial of respect that murderers harbor toward their victims. In treating others as though they have no right to exist, we are guilty of murder. In 1 John 3:15, we’re told: “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Jesus then emphasizes how seriously He takes this matter through the use of a little exaggeration or hyperbole. (Jesus often used hyperbole. Remember when He talked about a camel going through the eye of a needle?) Verses 23-24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Remember, that Jesus is in Galilee as He speaks these words. His first audience is composed of Galileans, who live about 75 miles from Jerusalem, the site of the temple where pious Jews leave their sacrifices. It would be preposterous to think of a Galilean leaving the temple, going back to their home region to make things right with someone, then making the return trip to Jerusalem.
What Jesus is saying this: Don’t dare to worship God without trying to be reconciled with those with whom you have differences. The reason for this is simple, as we see in 1 John 4:20:: “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” We can’t claim to truly love God if there’s any person with whom we’re not willing to be reconciled.
In verses 27 and 28, Jesus goes on to say: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As with murder, it’s one thing to be technically compliant with God’s will, but still be in violation of the sixth commandment.
That’s because adultery is a sin that happens in the heart, mind, will, and words long before it happens bodily. Adultery is a rebellion against God’s will for marriage that may never be expressed in an affair, but in things like the pursuit of pornography, or fantasies of being with someone other than the person to whom we’re married.
From the standpoint of the Bible, lust in itself is a good thing, given by God to men and women bound together by God in marriage. And also from the standpoint of the Bible, lust is not exclusively sexual.
Any desire that we allow to carry us away from being faithful spouses adulterates a marriage. The dictionary gives this definition of adulterate: “[to] render (something) poorer in quality by adding another substance, typically an inferior one.” Our marriages can be adulterated--made poorer--whenever we give other things--another person, our careers, our hobbies, alcohol and drugs--consideration, respect, and attention that belongs exclusively to our spouses. Because God wants our marriages to be blessings to us, Jesus takes a dim view of all forms of adultery.
Then, Jesus says maybe the toughest thing in our entire lesson. Verses 31 and 32: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
These were tough words because in the first century Roman world in which Jesus lived divorce was at least as common as it is today. (Probably more common.) And in the Jewish nation of which Jesus was a part, a man could send his wife a certificate of divorce just because she no longer pleased him.
In Matthew 19:8, Jesus says that Moses allowed divorce among God’s people because of their “hardness of heart.” But even in Deuteronomy 24, where Moses makes the allowance for divorce, Moses makes it clear that divorce should never be undertaken for frivolous reasons. Jesus mentions unfaithfulness as a grounds for divorce. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 7:15 that spiritual abandonment their by unbelieving spouses is a legitimate reason for divorce.
But Jesus’ words are tough for us too.
Rare is the extended family, even among Christians, that hasn’t been visited by the tragedy of divorce. In my own extended family, several members have been victimized by constant emotional abuse from unbelieving spouses, making divorce seem like the only option.
But even under those circumstances, committed Christians will take stock to see how their own “hardness of heart” may have contributed to the demise of their marriages.
Always it’s important to remember that the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is able to cover the sins of the repentant in His grace and forgiveness. As we currently have posted on our signboard out front, “Jesus can forgive all that we regret.”
What Jesus wants us to remember is that marriage is a sacred thing, instituted by God, the only legitimate place in which the intimacy between woman and man is to be expressed, the place from which the young are to be prepared for adulthood and introduced to Jesus Christ as God and Savior.
At the end, Jesus addresses the business of oaths. Jesus says, “do not swear an oath at all.” The key to understanding Jesus’ words here come in verse 37, where He says: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
People who are truthful don’t need to swear by God or anything else. Their simple yes or no stand on their own. Jesus is saying here, Don’t you dare invoke the name of God to prop up your lies!
I grew up in a family in which lying was just part of every day life. It made me comfortable with telling lies. It’s a habit that I’ve had to learn to hate, repudiate, repent for, and learn from as God’s grace has sunk more deeply into my life.
I'm not certain that I'm so alone in that experience, though. The truth is that descendants of Adam and Eve are prone to lying, distortion, exaggeration, misstatements, responsibility-dodging, excuse-making, and “little white lies,” whatever those are.
Often we lie just to avoid the unpleasantness of the truth. But Jesus says that lying has no place in the Kingdom of God.
Of course, some people take words like these from Jesus as license to say whatever comes into their heads, no matter who gets hurt by it. But Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak “the truth in love.” If it’s not loving, even the truth shouldn’t escape our mouths!
The love of God given to us through Christ is, in fact, to be reflected in everything about us, in everything that Jesus talks about today! That's something you and I will do only imperfectly on this side of our own deaths and resurrections. But to all who believe in Christ, God sends His Holy Spirit to daily refashion willing believers after the image of Christ.
In the meantime, for those saved by God’s grace in Christ, as God transforms us day in and day out by the power of His grace, love is becoming less of a distasteful obligation than it might otherwise seem to be.
Our call is to daily repent for sin and trust in Jesus Christ as the Lord Who has conquered sin and death for us.
Our joy is to live as people set free from our slavery. Jesus sets us free to live lifestyles of true, pure, Godly love:
- free to seek reconciliation with others because Christ has reconciled us to God for all eternity;
- free to seek to be faithful in all of our relationships because Christ has set us free from death, hell, and futility;
- if we're married, free to pursue solid, joyful marriages because Jesus Christ has made us eternally part of His bride, the Church; and
- free to become more honest people because we know that no matter how the truth may offend, in Christ, we belong to God forever.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was prepared for worship this morning.]
Thursday, February 09, 2017
Washing Your Sheets, Productive Writers, and Jitney Linches
Some miscellaneous stuff I've read in recent weeks.
If there was ever any doubt about it, why you need to wash your sheets at least once a week.
Stephen King considers whether a novelist can ever be too productive:
There's something to be said for taking one's time, whatever the task. But I also think that there's something to be said for keeping at one's work, taking into account the assessments of your work by people whose judgment you trust, then forging ahead.
It's possible to produce both quantity and quality. Church historian and writer Martin Marty was once asked the secret of his remarkable productivity. He said the answer was simple, "Deadlines."
At the height of his career as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was asked whether he ever considered doing a weekly show and if doing so would allow him to up the quality of his production. No, Carson said, quality grows to fit its space.
We can all name people who have churned out garbage because they were operating on a tight timeline and trying to do too much. (We can even claim that for ourselves if we're honest.) But I buy into the idea of what Hans Selye called eustress, an optimal stress level: significant enough to challenge us, not so great as to overwhelm us. The right eustress level probably varies from person to person. That may be one reason why Joyce Carol Oates has been a prolific and, many critics believe, a good one; other writers might not be capable of such a pace.
Read all of King's piece.
Back when I was in elementary school, only a few kids stayed at school for lunch. The school day began at 8:30 and ended at 3:30. In the middle of it was an hour-long lunch from noon to 1, time enough for a leisurely walk from school to home and back and a good homemade lunch.
At the first school I attended, Dana Avenue Elementary, a big annual treat was the Jitney Lunch. When it came along, we actually got to stay at school with all of our classmates for a homemade meal. (Like the one we got at home each day, of course. But it was the change of routine that made it special.)
The anticipation of the Jitney Lunch began when our teachers handed out 6"-x-9" envelopes that had been run through the school mimeograph machine. On the fronts of the envelopes were menu choices that we checked. Our parents tucked money for the lunch inside the envelopes and we returned them to school. The lunch was a fund-raiser for the PTA.
I was reminiscing about all of this a few weeks ago with my mom and dad when a question struck me. What exactly does jitney mean anyway. No one knew.
Of course, I pulled out my smart phone and consulted with that repository of all knowledge, real and fake, the Internet. This is what the folks at Grammarphobia plausibly say:
The Grammarphobia folks continue:
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
If there was ever any doubt about it, why you need to wash your sheets at least once a week.
+++
Stephen King considers whether a novelist can ever be too productive:
THERE are many unspoken postulates in literary criticism, one being that the more one writes, the less remarkable one’s work is apt to be...
Mostly, it seems to be true. Certainly no one is going to induct the mystery novelist John Creasey, author of 564 novels under 21 different pseudonyms, into the Literary Hall of Heroes; both he and his creations (the Toff, Inspector Roger West, Sexton Blake, etc.) have largely been forgotten...
Yet some prolific writers have made a deep impression on the public consciousness. Consider Agatha Christie, arguably the most popular writer of the 20th century, whose entire oeuvre remains in print. She wrote 91 books, 82 under her own name and nine under a nom de plume — Mary Westmacott — or her married name, Agatha Christie Mallowan
Those novels may not be literary, but they are far above the porridge turned out by John Creasey, and some of them are strikingly good. Christie gave us two characters — Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot — who have achieved a kind of immortality. Add to this the stylistic and thematic unity of Christie’s novels (the cozy warmth of the settings and the British stereotypes, placed within the context of her surprisingly cold appraisal of human nature), and one must view those many books in a different light...
[David Suchet, who portrayed the definitive Hercule Poirot. Suchet also was a wonderful Aslan in the Focus on the Family Radio Theater production of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.]
[Joan Hickson, who was my favorite Miss Marple. When she was a young actress, Hickson met Marple creator Agatha Christie, who declared that Hickson would be a great Marple, but that she would have to age into the part. She did, many years after Christie had died.]
No one in his or her right mind would argue that quantity guarantees quality, but to suggest that quantity never produces quality strikes me as snobbish, inane and demonstrably untrue.As with many alleged truisms, King's essay on writing productivity suggests that this one may not always be true.
There's something to be said for taking one's time, whatever the task. But I also think that there's something to be said for keeping at one's work, taking into account the assessments of your work by people whose judgment you trust, then forging ahead.
It's possible to produce both quantity and quality. Church historian and writer Martin Marty was once asked the secret of his remarkable productivity. He said the answer was simple, "Deadlines."
At the height of his career as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson was asked whether he ever considered doing a weekly show and if doing so would allow him to up the quality of his production. No, Carson said, quality grows to fit its space.
We can all name people who have churned out garbage because they were operating on a tight timeline and trying to do too much. (We can even claim that for ourselves if we're honest.) But I buy into the idea of what Hans Selye called eustress, an optimal stress level: significant enough to challenge us, not so great as to overwhelm us. The right eustress level probably varies from person to person. That may be one reason why Joyce Carol Oates has been a prolific and, many critics believe, a good one; other writers might not be capable of such a pace.
Read all of King's piece.
+++
Back when I was in elementary school, only a few kids stayed at school for lunch. The school day began at 8:30 and ended at 3:30. In the middle of it was an hour-long lunch from noon to 1, time enough for a leisurely walk from school to home and back and a good homemade lunch.
[The Dana Avenue entrance to the elementary school I attended from kindergarten through third grade.]
At the first school I attended, Dana Avenue Elementary, a big annual treat was the Jitney Lunch. When it came along, we actually got to stay at school with all of our classmates for a homemade meal. (Like the one we got at home each day, of course. But it was the change of routine that made it special.)
The anticipation of the Jitney Lunch began when our teachers handed out 6"-x-9" envelopes that had been run through the school mimeograph machine. On the fronts of the envelopes were menu choices that we checked. Our parents tucked money for the lunch inside the envelopes and we returned them to school. The lunch was a fund-raiser for the PTA.
I was reminiscing about all of this a few weeks ago with my mom and dad when a question struck me. What exactly does jitney mean anyway. No one knew.
Of course, I pulled out my smart phone and consulted with that repository of all knowledge, real and fake, the Internet. This is what the folks at Grammarphobia plausibly say:
...in 2016, the language scholar Stephen Goranson of the Duke University Libraries managed to confirm what had previously been only conjecture: The source of “jitney” was jetnée, an African-American word, via the French or Creole spoken in Louisiana, for jeton, French for “token.”
Goranson cites a ditty described in a 1915 issue of the Literary Digest as “a little catch popular with the Louisianian French-Speaking Negro”:
“Mettons jetnée danz il trou / Et parcourons sur la rue— / Mettons jetnée—si non vous / Vous promenez à pied nou! This may be freely translated: Put a jitney in the slot / And over the street you ride; / Put a jitney—for if not / You’ll foot it on your hide.”
The 1915 article suggests that jetnée/“jitney” was coined by Southern blacks to mean a nickel, and was influenced by French jeton or jetton.
Now for the news. As Goranson says, “The following newly reported discovery appears to confirm such an origin by giving—in an African-American newspaper in 1898—a transitional form.”
Here he cites an article, published in January 1898 in the Illinois Record, headlined “Spingfield South-End Happenings”:
“What little jetney coachman on S. 6th street has such a big head he cant put on the coachman’s hat he only wears the coat with brass buttons?”
Goranson adds: “Note association with coach as well as (presumably) coin (or token), of little worth.”
[Old sheet music covers.]
Slang dictionaries say that at the turn of the century, “jitney” (sometimes spelled “gitney”) meant either five cents or a nickel, the fare to ride minibuses at the time.All of this made sense to me. Both my grandmother and mother attended the same school when they were kids. The jitney lunches were established in my mom's time and I'd remembered her telling me that the lunches cost a nickel when she was a student.
The Grammarphobia folks continue:
...by the early 20th century, the term was being used adjectivally to refer to the minibuses themselves...
...the next step in the evolution of “jitney”—as a noun used attributively (that is, adjectivally) to mean cheap or shoddy or inferior.
The site's article on jitney lunches came in response to a reader who wondered how lunches at his wife's country school had acquired that name. Grammarphobia concludes:Dana was a city school. But I loved those cheap meals...and now I know why they were called Jitney Lunches.
As for those hot dogs served at your wife’s country school once a month, we imagine the meal was referred to as a “jitney lunch” either because it was cheap or uninspiring or because it was delivered by a jitney.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
When the Bit Breaks, Drill Somewhere Else (Quiet Time Reflections)
These notes encompass what I feel the Lord said to me through His Word during my quiet time with Him today. For an explanation of quiet time and how I listen to God through it, look here.
Look: “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 13:46)
I find it striking the way in which Paul and Barnabas respond to the rejection by their fellow Jews of the Gospel message in Pisidian Antioch.
On a sabbath, they had gone to the synagogue there and then Paul, after he was invited to do so, addressed both their fellow Jews and Gentiles who were together worshiping the God of Israel. He shared the Gospel and there was initial interest.
So much interest was shown, in fact, that the next week, they were asked to speak again. But this time, they encountered heckling from jealous synagogue leaders who turned the Jewish worshipers there against Paul, Barnabas, and their message.
I’m struck by what Paul and Barnabas say in answer to those rejecting the Gospel about Christ. They say that the rejection is rooted in a belief that they aren’t “worthy of eternal life.”
It’s always sad when people reject Christ and His Gospel. In doing so, they’re spurning the forgiveness, life with God, and purpose that only Christ can give.
There are many different reasons people might reject Christ.
For me, when I was an atheist, the biggest reason was that I couldn’t accept someone being bigger or more important than me or the human race.
I also felt that our knowledge of many of the mechanics of the universe and the lack of empirical evidence for God meant that there was no God.
Above all, it was my egotism that led me to my atheism.
There are some people though, who reject faith in the God revealed in Jesus Christ and the truth of His death and resurrection not because of their egos, but because they don’t feel worthy of eternal life.
They’ve moved from legitimate guilt, the kind of guilt that can lead to repentance and new life with God through Christ, to shame.
It was no doubt to this shame and the certainties of a legalistic religious system that the opposing synagogue leaders were able to appeal to among their fellow Jews in in Pisidian Antioch. In other words, they played upon shame and tradition to convince people that, even if the good news of justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ, was true, it was too good for them. They weren’t worthy of the life that was being offered to them in Jesus’ name. They were so conscious of their inadequacies that they couldn't accept the free gift of new life God offers to all who repent and believe in Jesus.
The sense of shame and unworthiness from which some people suffer is the hardest, most resistant rock for the Gospel message to drill through.
For Paul and Barnabas, addressing their fellow Jews in this place, the bit broke.[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Jesus tells us: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet” (Matthew 10:14). That’s exactly what Paul and Barnabas ended up doing in this chapter (Acts 13:51).
Listen: We should be lavish and inefficient in sharing the Gospel with others. This is what Jesus’ parable about the seed scattered on the different soils (Matthew 13:1-23) tells me.
And we should never stop lifting people up in prayer, asking God to send workers (disciples) to them so that there can be a harvest of the seeds of the Gospel that have been planted in people's minds and wills (Matthew 9:38; 1 Corinthians 3:6).
But loving witnesses for Christ sometimes reach the point at which they can’t drill past the resistance. They must pray that the witness they’ve given has not been in vain and that at some point later, the resistance will disappear and that even those who don’t count themselves as being worthy of God’s grace or salvation given in Christ, will embrace the Gospel.
When the bit breaks, change things and drill somewhere else.
Respond: God, help me to be lavish in spreading the Gospel with others. But help me to accept that there are some rocks of resistance on which you won’t use me to break through; that task will be someone else’s. Help me to pray for and to love those I haven’t reached and to move onto the next person with whom You call me to share Your Gospel. In Jesus’ name.
Just because...
...it's beautiful!
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]firenze pic.twitter.com/sd1GXOfg26— ILoveItaly (@I__Love__Italy) February 8, 2017
Tuesday, February 07, 2017
Looking at the Lutheran Catechisms (Part 1) (AUDIO)
This past Sunday, we began an adult class on the Lutheran catechisms. We've established a web site where we'll park audio of the classes. The first class audio has been posted. Here's the link to the site. And here is a link to audio of the first session. Hope that you find it helpful.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is a recording of the first session of an adult Sunday School class on the Lutheran Catechisms. We're using this study resource from Sola Publishing and using the texts of the catechisms from Concordia, the collected basic faith statements of the Lutheran movement rooted in Scripture and Jesus Christ.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This is a recording of the first session of an adult Sunday School class on the Lutheran Catechisms. We're using this study resource from Sola Publishing and using the texts of the catechisms from Concordia, the collected basic faith statements of the Lutheran movement rooted in Scripture and Jesus Christ.]
Monday, February 06, 2017
Super Bowl Sunday
At the Dayton Art Institute. This is clever.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Using God's Greatest Gifts (AUDIO)
Here.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was shared during worship yesterday.]
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was shared during worship yesterday.]
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