Monthly Archives: February 2014
What if We Treated Those Who Gossip Like We Treat… (insert favorite sin to condemn)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT)
10 Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all. James 2:10 (TEV)
800 This is the prayer of a soul who wanted to belong wholly to God, and, for his sake, to all mankind: “Lord, I beg you to work on this sinner, to rectify and purify my intentions, to pass them through the crucible.” (1)
In the church at large, there is a very unhealthy tension that I am noticing grows more and more each day. On one side of it, there is a tendency to overlook sin, to justify it, to claim that it cannot be overcome, that it is even natural. On the other side is the reaction to sin (espcially the sin of others) that wants to immediately condemn and execute the sinner, and purify our church and our communities of those who do “those” things. The first are like those in the days of Noah, or the churches in The Revelation who need to be called to face their sin, not to hear words of condemnation, but to know mercy, and the transformation and healing that God would bring to them. The second, well, like the men gathered around the adultress, with stones in their hands, our condemnaiton of others seems little more than hollow words.
In the former case, a treatment which would bring about healing is found in simply asking the question, where do we find the authority to overturn scripture here? Some will fight it, but again our efforts need to be, not to condemn, but to provide the way yo be free from condemnaiton, to know grace, to say – yeah that’s sin, I own it is as mine, and Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Then having confessed it, to walk away rejoicing in its absolution. No more hiding, no more justifying, no more denying what we know to be true, and try to deceive ourselves. Quickly, let us confess our sins, confident that He will forgive them and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
I often frin the other case, more frequent. We would condemn others, for a sin, and for their lack of mercy towards our sin. A rule I often use in the latter case, when one sin is being singled out, is to ask whether gossips deserve the same treatment, the same attitude as those who repeat other sins. Most of us know gossips – some quite intimately, even perhaps caught a glimpse of them this morning, as we looked in a mirror to comb our hair. Do we want to treat the gossip like the murderer, the abortionist, the adulterer, those who have sex outside of marriage between husband and wife, those who hate based on race and ethnicity, those who lie, those who disrespect authorities, those who schedme to take what is others, those who commit very public sins, those who commit them very privately, etc etc,
Do we?
Do we want the gossip to hear the same words as “those” people? Do we want to treat them the exact same way, with the same words?
YES!
The more I see people, entrapped by sin, enslaved to it, no matter the sin, the more I want us to hear the same words…
Your sins ARE forgiven, Go in peace, and sin no more….
That’s the Father’s desire. That is why Jesus came and lived and died, and was raised from the dead. It is the mission that God has given us, the church, for it is saving them, delivering them from sin and the fear of death, into the presence of God, our Creator, the One-in-Three who calls us, the beloved….
Lord have mercy on us, the sinners. AMEN.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2854-2856). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
UnderCover Boss: What if God became One of Us?
UnderCover Boss:
What if God became One of Us
Hebrews 2:14-18
† IHS †
May the grace, mercy and peace God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ has planned to be part of our lives become more and more the reality we live in, as we realize God became one of us…
What if God became one of us?
Whatever the reason they agree to give up their comfortable lives, their homes and their families, the end result is staggering. CEO’s of everything from restaurants like Hooters to portable toilet suppliers; from hotel chains to retail stores and airport shuttles. They go on the show, and are changed by doing the basic things their people do every day.
At the end of the show, if you have never seen it, the boss calls them into the corporate office, for a little chat. He’s given money to help them change their lives, scholarships, promotions, new roles. But the big change is in their lives, as they stay in simple hotels, and live like the rest of us. The changes they can cause in their peoples lives are nothing compared to the changes they find in their own lives, in their own work.
In the television show “Undercover Boss” there are great lessons for us all to learn, as we realize we aren’t dealing with just numbers, but with real people that are around us. People with real challenges, People that become important, as we realize our lives are impacted by so many different people, people whom we don’t really know.
I owe credit for today’s sermon title to Kay, who looked at my sub-title – and thought of the show. But can you imagine if the Boss came undercover, and lived life as part of your world, your work?
How would that change your life at the end of the day, when you are called into His office?
What would happen today, if God became one…of us?
Do we realize God knows what our life is like?
Some of you, the theologians and scholars in our midst, are probably thinking that God has. Remember the baby in the manger, the miracles, the transfiguration and cross and grace and Resurrection?
Yes, I do… but I meant today.
What would happen if the person next to you tomorrow at Starbucks was Jesus? Or the person you encounter about 10:00 at work or the nurse taking your blood pressure at the doctor’s office?
What would that be like? If that person was “the Boss”?
The real question behind this is one we need to seriously ask ourselves. Does God know what our lives are like, and more importantly, does He care? Or are we just another piece in His puzzle, another number on a spreadsheet, some of us in the assets column, some in the liabilities?
Does God know each one of us, and does He care?
How we answer that question will determine a lot of things in our lives. Especially how we relate to each other, and well of course to Him.
God’s answer is seen in the reading from Hebrews 2 this morning
Reason #1 to Come – You can’t help if you aren’t here
We often hear, and talk about, the role Jesus has and had, in delivering us from the power of sin, about the grief and shame we know, because we fail to do the things we are supposed to do, and we can’t stop those things we do the negative and things we think and have anxiety about. It is true, that Jesus came to take care of those things, to deliver us from guilt and shame and the anxiety that sin causes.
But the author of Hebrews looks at another aspect of Christ’s coming here, to deal with our fears and anxieties, including that of death. Hear the words again, “14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
it is amazing in the show to see what the bosses learn, not about their job, but about their people. The things that handicap them, the things that could be done to make their lives easier. When at the end of the show the Bosses help the people, the emotional level is so high, they realized the Boss is human too.
The apostle John said that Jesus, the logos of God, came and dwelt among us, and that they beheld His glory, A glory that shatters the darkness, a glory that is demonstrated in a love that took on death for us. A glorious love that shattered it power over us, and freed us from the fear and anxieties we have about it.
That’s what the cross does, it puts everything in perspective. It tells us Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man, has been here. He has come.
If that was all it would mean, for Him to come, there is much to rejoice in, but that isn’t all.
Reason #2 to Come – to run to our aid..
I want you to look at the last verse of that reading, where it says:
18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.
The word translated help, is a bit more powerful than that, though I don’t know any word that adequately would cover it. It combines the concept of a scream or a yell – and an immediate run to give aid. That’s the word picture, Jesus, not looking perfectly groomed, but rushing headlong to our aid.
Since He knows our lives, since He lives with us, since He is… here.
Unlike most of the undercover bosses, Jesus knows us completely.. He knows the ups and downs, and how to survive, for He lived and still lives in us. He didn’t come here to make a television show, or to make His company more profitable, or perfect. He came into our lives to stay, to bring mercy, comfort and love and peace.
He is here, and He has promised that we will never ever be forsaken, that He will be with us to the end of the age.
Undercover Boss? Not really, not at all. He desires we reveal His presence to every person, so they can know for sure, that He has become one of us, even more, through His death on the cross,
God didn’t just come to be one of us, but God came to be one with us.
God has come, and dwells among us.
That’s what this is all about…this service, this church, our preschool.
Helping you realize His presence, in every moment of our lives…..
and knowing this, the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN!.
I Don’t Think We Realize He’s Talking to Us….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
20 Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me. Revelation 3:20 (TEV)
“Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is to think often of God, by day, by night, in your business,and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone…” brother lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God – quote from Celtic Daily Prayer..
Some of us, when we read this passage, visualize a painting of Jesus, standing outside the door, robed in glory, ever hair perfectly in place. The entire walled garden radiating a sense of peace, the originates with Him.
We hear evangelists like Billy Graham, pleading with thousands to just open that door, to let Jesus in, for then their life will be idyllic, clean, and at peace.
Some of us nod our head even, thinking of that, picturing people we would like to see open that door, and let Jesus come in….
Except, that passage is not directed to unbelievers at all. We don’t think of the context, we might know it is in the book of the Revelaiton of Jesus Christ, (no “revelationS”) but we don’t realize that it was part of a letter to a church. TO people just like us, to people who claim to believe, are part of a church, and yet somehow….. are missing out on communing with God – not just daily, but all the time.
This passage isn’t talking about daily quiet times, or a prayer life that is at meals, and before bed. It’s not advocating going on some retreat either, spending time in silence and meditation.
And the time Jesus would spend with us isn’t just the perfect times, when everything is in place. It is the times where our lives are in storms, where we’ve been bruised and battered by sin, the times where we are grieving, and anxious because of the presence of death. And the simple times, as we hug our kids and grandkids, as we watch the superbowl with friends, even as we hum a song that is in our mind, as we go about cleaning our homes, or shoveling snow. He is even in our “nothingness”, those times we have when we are just vegetating, thinking of nothing, just.. there.
The church in Laodecia had forgotten this. They thought they had everything in its right place in life. Work had its place – and it was good, family its place, and they were fine, church had its place, and when it was convenient, they would make it part of their life.
But God is there, patiently waiting, pleading even, wanting to share life with them, with me, with you.
Not just to teach us, and to guide us, not just to clean up our sins, but to laugh with us, to feast with us, to share life – even the nothingness of life with us.
When we remember Jesus is here… it changes everything, The storms, though raging and violent, seem less threatening. Death loses its sting and the grief becomes a ache that is matched by knowing His comfort and finding rest.
And life is as it should be, shared with God… as we go with Him, watching Him redeeming the time.. and those we love (and will come to love)
So walk with God, throughout your days… and know He hears you when you cry, “Lord have mercy”. For He is there…
