Monthly Archives: September 2014
The Need for Families..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
21 Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ. 1 Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents, for this is the right thing to do. 2 “Respect your father and mother” is the first commandment that has a promise added: 3 “so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land.” 4 Parents, do not treat your children in such a way as to make them angry. Instead, raise them with Christian discipline and instruction. Ephesians 5:21, 6:1-4 (TEV)
19 Be grateful to your parents for bringing you into this world, thus enabling you to become a child of God. And be all the more grateful if it was they who placed in your soul the first seeds of faith and piety, of your Christian way, or of your vocation. (1)
Later this week, my mom and I will take a day and just get away. It will be one year since my dad passed, and the grief and loss that we feel may indeed well up inside of us. So I have been thinking of family a lot recently. This morning I came across St Josemaria’s quote you just read in my devotions, All over the news o that the brokenness of some famous athletes’ families recently aired out in front of the world, and an odd comment on facebook recently, sparked off this blog.
The comment this morning that struck me as odd, was the reference to the Virgin Mary as simply a “vessel”, nothing more, nothing less. It struck me as pragmatic and lifeless, and against the very idea of family as taught in the scripture. For no mother is simply a vessel, a holding place for life for 9 months.
God designed us to be part of families, and while many are dysfunctional… no wait, all are dysfunctional because of sin, that doesn’t mean we should devalue them. Yet that is what we allow. Mother’s are reduced to vessels, and holding tanks. Father’s are thought unnecessary, and of little value. Children are tossed aside, before and after they are born. Siblings are made to think that rivalry is the norm, rather than a loving family.
This isn’t new – you can’t read scripture without seeing the brokenness of families, and directions about how things really should be. Directions that are critical to be really heard, and by that I mean the scriptural meaning of hear – to absorb and let affect and transform you. This is not just something that we can take as what theologians call adiaphora, it is not optional. Nor is it it simply environmental or biological. As an adopted child, I have met my birth mother, and much of who I am, I see in her. As well, I see a lot of my adopted parents as well.
It is the relationship of family, even if we struggle with it.
The reason this is critical is simple. The family is an image of our relationship with God. He is our loving Father, our merciful Brother. We are all siblings, whether we note the relationship, or not.
Frequently, we take the image of family that we know, our broken, confused, dysfunctional families, and those we see, and project them onto our relationship with God. It becomes a fight for who is wiser, or who is in control, who is the authority, who has the rights. And we treat God like we treat our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters.
If instead of projecting on God’s family what we know from dysfunctional experiences, we let it work the other way?
We would honor our parents, praying for them, hearing them.
We would sacrifice for our family, the way Jesus did for us, knowing that in love, no sacrifice is too great for those who are in His family.
We would value the people God has given us, parents, children, siblings in our families, and in our church families.
We would seek those who are part of this family, yet don’t know it… yet.
We would love.
Lord Have mercy as we worship and love you, as we embrace our families in love.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 304-306). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Conversations On the Way to Heaven: Get Along Back There!
this was the destination of so many of our trips, My Aunt and Uncles home in North Andover…..those trips had some great times, and some challenges…
Conversations on the Way to Heaven:
#1 Get Along Back There!
Matthew 18:21-55
† IHS †
May our journey together always be filled with God’s joy and peace, as His mercy flavors every moment!
A Bajillion Hours crammed in the back seat…
I remember every twist and turn, as if it was yesterday, and not 42 years ago.
Everyone went and got in the old yellow Dodge Dart. Up two miles on Brookdale Road, the right onto North Policy, then right onto Pelham Road. Up onto route 93, then route 213, then southwest on route 495, off the highway on Mass Ave, then right on Fernwood to my Auntie Lanie’s and Uncle Wally’s house, where Thanksgiving Dinner and my favorite French onion dip awaited.
I remember so much of the drive, the rest area we never stopped at, the Mall and the golf course, going over the Merrimack River on the double decker bridge, and along its banks the dump and the reform school, My dad always remembered to point that out for some reason. Some great memories, and well some challenging one’s as I squeezed into the middle seat between my older brother and little sister.
I looked it up on google maps this week – it was 12 miles, 18 minutes in no traffic. I swear there were times that it seemed like a bazillion hours.
And as we look into conversations that occur on the way to heaven, this was the often heard phrase,
“Get along back there!”
Which was usually followed by something like, well we will hear those in the weeks to come!
Why is it so difficult to get along with each other? Why do we hear these same kinds of conversations today? As Jesus, guiding our journey, hears not only our words, but our thoughts, it is difficult to hear him asking us to get along!
Get Along back there?
In today’s gospel, the words of Peter so sound like one of my siblings. “Do I have to forgive my brother? Do I have to forgive my sister? Peter’s not as blatant as my brother and sister were, he asks, “how many times do I have to forgive?” But you know if Jesus said 7, Peter was going to go to his brother Andrew and tell him he was at 7 already…and so the next time? You do it again Andrew, and you will pay for it!
But the base question is the same – do we have to forgive those who sin against us?
The answer is, of course yes. We are people that believe in reconciliation.
It’s not a measure of the law, but a description of those who live the life of the baptized, those who live in a relationship where Jesus has reconciled them to the Father, and they are His children together.
That Is why Jesus tells the parable about the two slaves, they both belong to the same household, they are, legally, family. Yet the first man, although forgiven that which he was to pay back, refuses to forgive the debt of the other man. Even to the point of visiting violence on the other slave.
Sounds like one of those backseat things – even up to the contact.
Why do we fight, and why do we struggle to forgive each other, when the dust settles? Haven’t we heard jesus’ 7 times 70 enough, or this parable? Don’t we realize that we’re the ones who sins cannot be paid for in a thousand lifetimes, and we are willing to collect the debt for what is petty in comparison?
That sin you are holding onto, that pain, that resentment, how does it rate against the pain that your sin has caused God? You have decades of it? Do you really want that sin dividing the body of Christ Jesus?
I realized something this week as I was going over all three readings today. There is account after account in scripture of how we are bound together, how we worship together, how we feast and fellowship together, how we endure together, how we face persecution and even die, together. In all these things we are together, weeping together and rejoicing together. What happens to one, happens to all. What happens to all effects each one?
One exception, verse 12 of our epistle.
12 Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.
Hearing that, we come back to the gospel….
33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters* from your heart.”
Faith if God is where we find the strength….
So what do we do? How do we find the ability to really forgive, to give no more thought to the debt incurred by sin?
Well Peter and Andrew weren’t the only brothers in the readings this morning. There was also Joseph in the Old Testament Reading. You know, the guy who his loving brothers kicked out of the back of the family station wagon, and sold to wandering merchants?
Look at how he forgave his brothers…
19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. 21 No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.
Can you see those words of Joseph coming from your mouth, to those who have sinned against you? What do you think their reaction would be? What do you think yours would be?
The sinners who thought their brother would grab them by the neck in revenge, he gave up that right, because of the work of God in all their lives. A work that saved their physical lives.
We have something more incredible, something more beyond thought, in the work of Christ, who doesn’t just forgive 490 sins of ours, Heck, that is just this week! He’s the master who forgives us all, who brings us home to the Father in heaven, cleansed, pure, holy. Who gave up everything to make that happen, because He loves us. Who endured the pain of the cross, because of His love for us.
If Joseph could forgive, knowing the blessing of God seen in the saving his people from famine, we should be even more eager to let them know the gospel. That every sin was paid for on the cross, that we have been forgiven a world of sin. That is what the communion feast celebrates!
We are a forgiven family, we are brought together on a journey home, to heaven, to a feast. We are called to love each other, even if for a moment we struggle with it – we still love, and we shall forgive, even as we are forgiven.
For that is what the Holy Spirit is transforming us into, giving us the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry mercy. The Spirit’s transforming all of us who trust in Christ’s work, and the promises made to us, which we hear in His word.
So drop all the burdens, drop all the sins an rejoice in Christ’s peace…look to Christ, and find that we are all getting along on this journey in peace! AMEN?
Walking with Christ, to the Cross, and in Ministry to Others
Devotional Thought of the Day:
24 It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church, 25 of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God’s message, 26 the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people. 27 It was God’s purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory: 28 this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ. 29 And it is for this reason that I labour, striving with his energy which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:24-29 (NJB)
These two aspects of mission are inseparable, as we see clearly from Jesus’ calling of his apostles (Mark 3: 13-19). Our being with the Lord will be genuine only if it leads to preaching, and our preaching will be authentic only if it derives from our being with Christ on the cross. (1)
I’ve always wondered about people who think that ministry will never include suffering, that somehow it will simply be a perfect and easy life.
Don’t they realize that there is going to be death involved? Don’t they realize that ministry means having to deal with death, and anxiety and dears, That those who minister will face their own brokenness, their we have to see ourselves healing, if we are going to frag to Him.
Ministry is service, it is work, it is the hard decisions to set everything aside, because we know that what God has in plan is to walk beside us the entire way. Paul will talk of of striving – that isn’t punching some kind of clock, meeting some minimal expectation.
But it isn’t striving on our own power, or for our own good. it is for the good of others, those who do not know this incredible news that we know. That not only about the forgiveness of sins, but the glory that is here, and will be fully revealed when God calls us home.
We can’t divide these things, as Pope Francis points out – knowing God’s love, living in His glory will lead to sharing that with others, and the more we are bringing people to the cross, the more we adore Him, The investment of time and treasure and talents becomes our norm, our life. A life that is being transformed by the Holy Spirit into one resembling and reflecting Christ to this broken world.
It’s what we do, it’s who we are…
Walking with the one crucified so that we could be with Him.
Gods blessings to you this weekend, whether your preaching is tomorrow before 10’s or hundreds or thousands, or whether it is today over a iced coffee….
For having been to the cross – you will preach!
(1) Pope Francis; Jorge M Bergoglio (2013-11-18). Open Mind, Faithful Heart (p. 59). The Crossroad Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
Remember…..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
23 For I received from the Lord the teaching that I passed on to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took a piece of bread, 24 gave thanks to God, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.” 25 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup and said, “This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.” 26 This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (TEV)
15 In these times of violence and brutal, savage sexuality, we have to be rebels: we refuse point blank to go with the tide, and become beasts. We want to behave like children of God, like men and women who are on intimate terms with their Father, who is in Heaven and who wants to be very close to—inside!—each one of us. (1)
Disclaimer: This blog is not primarily about 9-11.
there was a massacre once, the slaughter of the innocent, that we should not, will not, cannot forget.
It was ultimate act of depravity, the ultimate act of violence, and it is something we have to remember, not because of the violence, not because of the savagery, but because in that very act, we are given hope. Even in that death, we are given life. Even in that savage, torturous, incomprehensible act, we find our rest an peace.
There is no greater paradox.
Paul instructs the church to remember not just the act above, but the One who was brutalized and killed. In Greek the work translaeted “to remember, to not forget, to memorialize, etc” is much stronger than just give him a passing thought. It is related to words like repentance (to have a new mind) and the root where we get paranoia. It is something that deeply affects and is rooted in the mind. Not just knowledge, not just a passing thought, but something that burns into our mind and soul, that causes in us a change.
We proclaim that death, we reveal again the love that is revealed in His willing sacrifice of His life for us.
Something that changes everything.
Some of us will remember 9-11, like those before us remember the Shuttle exploding, or the Oklahoma City Bombing, like those, who remember Kennedy getting shot, or Pearl Harbor. There are other events that we will never forget because they scar our souls, they ring us to the core, they cause us to be on guard.
this remembrance, where we take and eat the Body of Christ given up for us, where we drink the Blood of Christ given and shed so that sin is forgiven, this knowing the presence and depth of the love of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, doesn’t just scar our souls, it brings healing and life to our heart and soul, our mind and body that have been scarred by sin and the injustice of the world. It sustains us through the rush of the world’s evil, and the traumas of life.
That is why we remember, that is why we proclaim His death until He comes….
For in knowing Him, we know peace.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 290-293). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Only Safe Place in Life.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
16 Jerusalem, I can never forget you! I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:16 (TEV)
5 Lord, we are glad to find ourselves in your wounded palm. Grasp us tight, squeeze us hard, make us lose all our earthly wretchedness, purify us, set us on fire, make us feel drenched in your Blood. And then, cast us far, far away, hungry for the harvest, to sow the seed more fruitfully each day, for Love of you. (1)
I live in a land of earthquakes. I have friends that live in Tornado alleys, others who live in the normal paths of hurricanes, Where I grew up, snow storms could strand you for a week. Where my first church was located, you could dehydrate so fast that you could die before you knew it. There are places where there are wars, cities where drugs and gang violence is rampant.
I have come to this conclusion, if you are searching for a safe place to live, there is no such geographical location on the earth. As long as we are alive, there will be some threat living over us.
Some of us even have those threats inside us, for me, it was a genetic issue that affected my heart. For others, it may a tendency to addiction.
There can even be problems and threats inside places that should be safe, churches, schools, hospitals.
Is there a safe place?
Where do we go for safety, for refuge, for sanctuary?
Is there a place where we can know peace?
There is a place, rather, there is a person, and the relationship we have with Him, that is our sanctuary, that is our place of refuge, He is our peace.
Even in the worse cases. Consider in the book of Daniel, the three men in the furnace:
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered, “Your Majesty, we will not try to defend ourselves. 17 If the God whom we serve is able to save us from the blazing furnace and from your power, then he will. 18 But even if he doesn’t, Your Majesty may be sure that we will not worship your god, and we will not bow down to the gold statue that you have set up.” 19 Then Nebuchadnezzar lost his temper, and his face turned red with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. 20 And he commanded the strongest men in his army to tie the three men up and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So they tied them up, fully dressed—shirts, robes, caps, and all—and threw them into the blazing furnace. 22 Now because the king had given strict orders for the furnace to be made extremely hot, the flames burned up the guards who took the men to the furnace. 23 Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, still tied up, fell into the heart of the blazing fire. 24 Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement. He asked his officials, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the blazing furnace?” They answered, “Yes, we did, Your Majesty.” 25 “Then why do I see four men walking around in the fire?” he asked. “They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt—and the fourth one looks like an angel.” Daniel 3:16-25 (TEV)
Jesus was there, and in the midst of the the moment, they knew His peace. They found their refuge.
Daniel Himself knew such opposition,
20 When he got there, he called out anxiously, “Daniel, servant of the living God! Was the God you serve so loyally able to save you from the lions?” 21 Daniel answered, “May Your Majesty live forever! 22 God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. He did this because he knew that I was innocent and because I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.” 23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders for Daniel to be pulled up out of the pit. So they pulled him up and saw that he had not been hurt at all, for he trusted God. Daniel 6:19-23 (TEV)
A final example, this time Stephen in the New Testament, who was killed, and tortured, and yet…. knew peace, and was in a very special refuge.
54 As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God. 56 “Look!” he said. “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!” 57 With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, 58 threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul. 59 They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!” He said this and died. Acts 7:54-60 (TEV)
Even there, in this midst of death itself, in the moments when all hell is trying to break loose, in what many would never be able to comprehend the existence of peace, there it is.
For the Lord was with the three men! He was with Daniel, He was with Stephen!
And the Lord is with you.
No matter the trauma, no matter the disaster, no matter the threat. No matter what, we are covered by His blood, sent by Him into these places, to be a beacon of hope, a reminder of God’s love and mercy and peace. For you need to know and count on this.
The Lord is with you!
and that is why Paul writes to us
6 Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. 7 And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus! Philippians 4:6-7 (TEV)
Amen!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 249-252). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
What we need to know… to survive the Monday’s of life….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. 26 I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. 27 I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from everything that defiles you.. Ezekiel 36:25-29a (TEV)
12 My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13 The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. 14 And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17 This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:12-17 (TEV)
2 God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration. Jesus is my intimate Friend (another rediscovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart. The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road. Consider this often: you are God’s… and God is yours.
This morning as I was working out, I hit a wall. I thought I was done, at 12 minutes into my final treadmill session i knew I couldn’t go on any longer. I looked for an excuse to quit. I looked for a reason to end my suffering. I didn’t want to endure. A little more than 20 seconds later, the wall was there imposing, I needed to quit.
I heard in the back of my head my high school P.E. teacher’s rasping voice crying out LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Like back then, it made me want to quit even more.
Just like Mondays, and all the other days in life that seem like Mondays.
You know the feeling, like when you are in a meeting that is going on forever, as all the same issues keep frustrating things keep being rehashed. as you do your bills, and wonder about the day when there will be money left over. It’s when the long awaited rain shuts down roads you need to use to get to work. It’s when all that was good and precious that you experienced in worship yesterday become a faded memory, choked out by the world….
It’s monday.
Or it might as well be.
There is only one hope on Monday, there is only one thing that will kill off the drama, the anxiety, the lows that we face.
It’s to realize that we, you and I, are the people God loves. the people that He claimed. That the Trinity in all of Their glory has called you to live life in their glory. They didn’t insist that you come to Them, they’ve come to us!
Look at the promise in the reading from Ezekiel – the promise of Baptism! Look at how God takes care of us, from eliminating the sin in our lives, to setting up shop in our lives, creating something quite incredible!
Look at the words of Jesus. I know there is much criticism of those that treat Jesus as their brother, as if that meant all we did was “play” with Him. But there is something far different in knowing Christ is our brother than that (check out yesterday’s sermon for one)
Look at the words of Josemaria, these blessed words which encourage us to really think through what it means for God to be our Father, Jesus our brother/friend, and the Holy Spirit to be our very needed comforter!
This is what the Christian religion is about. It is how we get through life, even as we despise its shame, we look for the joy of walking with God, and one day, seeing Him face to face. it’s how we get passed minute 12 in our journey, how the wall that we hit, exhausted and weary, is destroyed. we find His strength, and He comes to us and helps us get to realize that though there are “Mondays” that even those Monday’s become our Sabbath, our day of rest.
For we are God’s people…..
and that trumps any Monday.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 237-242). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Ezekiel 33:7-9
† In Jesus Name †
May the peace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ be your sanctuary, your refuge, and may you always welcome the journey there!
Cain’s question should haunt us….
There is something special about having friends and family around us. We see that today, as some have come long distances to help their friends celebrate forty years of marriage.
But there is a challenge for family and friends as well, for no one can disappoint us, no one can hurt us, no one can challenge our ability to love, as much as they do. It seems like it has always been so, well not always. Once Adam and Eve screwed up in the garden though, there has always been tension in families, and among friends.
We see it especially in the relationship of their first two sons, Cain and Abel. The challenge of loving each other was brutally sacrificed to bring some sense of relief to the pain and jealousy that found a place in Cain’s heart.
The reason that I bring him up this morning, is a question he once asked of the Lord.
Am I my brother’s keeper?
The son of man hears the answer to Cain’s question, and the answer is found in our Old Testament reading today.
7 “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me.
Yes, we are to work to keep your brothers safe… for if something happens to them and they are unaware, the passage from Ezekiel tells we are held responsible.
That is a heavy burden, yet is our mission in this life.
The Apostle John wrote about this as well:
20 If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God whom we have not seen if we do not love others, whom we have seen. 21 The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also. 1 John 4:20-21 (TEV)
We have to be watchmen for each other…we have to warn each other, as best as we can, for this is the will of God.
We have to care for the wicked folk too!
As we look at Ezekiel’s watchman, it helps to make the connection between the words watchman and keeper. It’s the same word in Hebrew, to guard them. TO be on guard is to work for the safety and peace of those entrusted to your care. A peace and safety corrupted and destroyed by sin.
But note in the Old Testament reading, those entrusted to the watchman’s care are called the people of Israel. They are named, appropriately, after the one whose name means to struggle with God. Not after Abraham, the father of Nations, or Isaac, laughter, but Jacob/Israel, the one who wrestles, who fights God.
It goes on to say that these we care for are wicked, and are certain to die unless they change their ways.
Great description of the people we have to keep safe! Oh wait – he’s describing the people of God. Uhm, that means the description could very well be of us.
Wicked here means those who are guilty, those who have violated either God’s law or His will. Scary thought, if that is the definition of evil. Do we realize we embrace evil when we sin? Paul said it this way,
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. Romans 1:29-31 (NLT)
All those people are evil, right? Do you hear that it includes those who gossip and quarrel? That it includes those who are proud and boastful? What about those who do not show kindness or mercy?
It is them we are called to warn that certain judgment is coming.
Some of you may contend that the watchman are just the Old Testament prophets, and maybe the apostles and evangelists of the New Testament. We might bristle a bit when we realize it includes the pastor, and that it could include deacons and vicars and elders.
But what if I said that each of one you is called to care, to help your brothers and sisters stand firm in the love of Christ Jesus?
That keeping them, guarding them in Christ by warning them is what we do, because we are called to love them? Think about it for a moment, is it loving to allow someone to do harmful actions? Maybe we can’t prevent them, Ezekiel seems clear about that, but we can call them to repentance. We can call them back to Christ. We can love them that much because He loved us!
Let this mind be in you…. Which is in Christ!
So what do we do with our past? What can we do when we screw up and fail? What do we do with our sin?
What do we do with those times when we failed to be our brother’s keeper, to serve Him as a watchman? When we’ve allowed them to be in bondage to sin without warning them, or when we failed to call them to repentance? When we’ve failed as watchman, guards, and keeping them safe? What about when we’ve rejoiced that they got what they deserved, ignoring our responsibility to call them to trust God?
Well, we don’t “do” something. We listen.
When we confessed it we need to listen and hear of the faithfulness of Jesus to forgive us, and to cleanse us of that sin. Maybe we need to hear His absolving us again. Maybe we need to hear the words of our baptism, that we are united with His death and sin has died to us. We need to hear that His blood was shed, His body broken, that we would live forgiven. We need to hear (and therefore proclaim) His death, until He comes again.
You see, ultimately, this prophecy is about Jesus as well. He is our watchman, our guardian; He is our brother who is our keeper. He is the one who warns us, and makes possible the very repentance, the change of heart and mind that repentance is.
That is why Acts talks of repentance being granted to the Gentiles, even as it was to the apostles and disciples who were Jewish.
He’s called you out of wickedness, into a life filled with hope, with goodness, with joy as we see Him at work. As we see Him take people that are gossips and haters and do not show mercy, who struggle with God, and re-create them into children of God.
This is why the cross happened; this is why He died, taking on the burden of the death and condemnation that awaited us.
That is how a brother acts towards his brothers and sisters. He sacrifices Himself, so that they may live. That is what it took to get our attention, to reveal not just the existence of God, but His love for us.
For our brother, our Lord, Jesus our savior is our watchman – He is the One who is our Keeper, as He keeps us firm our heart and mind in the peace of God our Father. AMEN!
God’s Not Dead… but He did die on a Cross…
Devotional Thought of the Day
22 Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. 23 As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; 24 but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (TEV)
16 I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, 17 and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, 18 so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. 19 Yes, may you come to know his love—although it can never be fully known—and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (TEV)
I venture to assure you, my dear reader, that if you and I enter into this forge of the Love of God, our souls will become better, being cleansed of some of the dross that clings to them. (1)
I watched a couple of interesting movies yesterday. The first was Good Will Hunting, and then I watched the movie that has become quite popular among Christians, God’s Not Dead.
I wrote last night on FB that both were about redemption, and that both fell short. They both dealt with brokenness, they both had characters, several of them, that needed to be healed of the darkness they dwelt in, and they both seemed to find healing for their brokenness. And both fell short. Both were incomplete.
But what surprised me is that I found that God’s not Dead seems to have fallen shorter in some ways.
Good Will Hunting isn’t a movie trying to serve as an apologetic. It is simply a John Hughes movie, done in the context of Boston. Quite realistic, even to the language. it got it when the character that is redeemed can’t be helped by the wisdom and knowledge of the world, of the professors and clinicians. It takes a broken, battered man (Robin Williams) and the unlikely average joe to bring about the promise of redemption, of meaning. And it is found, not in the career, not in the perfection of life, but in the need for real love, and the chase of the one who loves. Replace Minnie Driver with Christ, the sexual scenes with times of intimate prayer – and you have something.
But the brokenness and pain can’t be healed by anything but love.
Now to God’s not dead
Did you notice anything really conspicuous missing from the movie?
Think.
Think again.
The ontological arguments were well done. The brokenness of relationships with God and between Dean Cain and his family, and Kevin Sorbo and his girlfriend, students and life in general are well done, if a bit over the stop in stereotypes. The dealing with cancer, and the band ministering to the girl with a cancerous death sentence, nice done as well.
But there is something missing.
Figure it out yet?
I’ll help.
Where was the cross?
You can prove the existence of the Divine, of a Creator, logically and completely, and still have someone who is bound by satan, enslaved by sin, in anxiety over death.
Luther noted that this was true, as he explained the work of the Holy Spirit in the Large Catechism
For all outside of Christianity, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, although they believe in, and worship, only one true God, yet know not what His mind towards them is, and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him; therefore they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. (2)
We can know all about the existence of God, but without the cross, you cannot know God’s attitude is towards you. All we can realize is that you don’t deserve love, but punishment. Like the mathematicians and fancy psychologists, we cannot find a way out of our brokenness. We are so broken, so torn up, so enslaved by sin. Even forensic, scientific apologetics becomes, not a hope, but a hindrance. The victory of young Wheaton in the movie is something we can triumph in, we defended God successfully! We won the battle, even as they don’t see the victory in the back room, or out on the street, or even behind him, as the girl who lost her family but found Christ was there.
We have to have the cross, for it is there we find God’s attitude toward us, we see the incredible dimensions of His love in those rough beams, in the blood soaked body of Christ. We proclaim His death until He comes again, as Paul says we do as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the incredible love of the Eucharist. We are joined to that cross in our baptism (see Colossians 2, Romans 6, Titus 3)
it is impossible to know the love of God without seeing His work, without seeing the cross.
And it was missing.
The relationship? It was a minor secondary thing compared to the victory. Compared to the people who came to “know” about God by deciding God’s case.
As if we could comprehend His ways, understand His actions simply by deducing there is a God.
We have to know there is a God who loves us……who loves us enough to die for us.
Yes, God’s not dead, but He did die….
for you.
Get to know Him, walk with Him, it is why He died.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 203-204). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) The Large Catechism of Martin Luther.Part II Of the Creed: Article III
It isn’t Faith or Works…. or Faith versus Works…
Devotional THought of the Day:
1 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. 2 I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. 3 Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4 And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. 5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: Philippians 2:1-5 (TEV)
1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (TEV)
18 All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (TEV)
Walther wrote: “Luther, you know, taught that good works do not save a person, but only faith, without good works. From this rejection of good work, papists draw the inference that Luther must have been a wicked man because he taught that to get to heaven, man should only believe and need not do any good works. However, that is by no means Luther’s doctrine. Luther taught the exact contrary. True, he did not say that, to be saved, a person must have faith and, in addition to that, good works, or love; but he did teach that those who would be saved must have a faith that produces love spontaneously and is fruitful in good works.
The progressive identification of the soul with Jesus Christ, which is the essence of the Christian life, is carried out in a hidden way through the Sacraments.3 It also needs an effort from each one to correspond to grace: to know and love Our Lord, and to have the same dispositions as he had.4 The aim is to reproduce his life in our daily conduct, until we can exclaim with the Apostle: Vivo autem, iam non ego: vivit vero in me Christus,5 it is not I who live, it is Christ who lives in me.
I could have provided so many more quotations from scripture, so many more from Luther, Walther, Pieper or from Benedict XVI and Francis.
Recent Conversations on this topic exploded into my mind as I read the quote in blue this morning from the Introduction to the Forge, by Josemaria Escriva. The day before I had found the quote in green from CFW Walther’s (first president of my denomination the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod).
Yet despite such things there are people that argue that works have no place in the Christian life, since we cannot save ourselves by them, Theospeak – they do not merit our salvation. There are others who say unless we break our backs in proving our holiness, that there we cannot be saved. The first want to reject works because they smack of pietism (that we are Pharisees if we insist on good works) , the latter want to reject faith because they see it being antinomial. ( that being free of God’s law means we can do whatever the h&ll we want!)
In both cases, these arguments nullify the work of God in our lives. The first denies the work of God through the means of grace in sanctifying us, in His setting us apart to be His special people. That in setting us apart, He is transforming us, that the Holy Spirit is changing our hearts and minds to reflect the nature of Christ. Such a change should be reflected, not only in our actions, but more importantly in our attitudes towards our neighbor, toward “those people”, toward the ones who are our adversaries, or just antagonize the hell out of us.
But the transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is done, as the quote from the Forge says, in a hidden way. As God comes to us, through the word and sacraments He takes up residence in us, He delivers the blessings promised, (see Ez, 36:25ff) He strengthens our trust in Him – the trust which causes us to correspond to this work. We begin to desire His heart, we begin to confess our sins, and receive absolution, we begin to desire the Lord’s Supper-the Eucharist more and more.
it is subtle, yet it requires much of us. Sometimes we want to rebel, to correspond less, or even not at all. It is then those very same sacraments, especially Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Confession and Absolution come into play even more. For as Jeremiah learns during his rants against God, God’s love it to wonderful, God’s mercy is to extravagant, God’s presence cannot be denied. We are transforming.
So stop all the arguments trying to divide faith and works. It is a division God doesn’t intend. One isn’t just the result of the other, for that still puts the emphasis on us. Both are the result of God coming to us, saving us, granting us faith and repentance and replacing hardened hearts and minds with the presence of the Holy Spirit. A presence that is undeniable and that we desire more and more in our lives.
To Him be glory for ever and ever.
Amen!
(1) Thesis X, Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, CFW Walther
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 138-143). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Healthy Do Not NEED to Pray, the Broken Do…..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
15 For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” 16 God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children….. 26 In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. 27 And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people and in accordance with his will. Romans 8:15-16, 26 (TEV)
“The Cry to God as Father in the New Testament is not a calm acknowledgment of a universal truth about God’s abstract fatherhood. It is the child’s cry out of a nightmare. It is the cry of outrage, fear, the shrinking away when faced with the horror of the world. Yet not simply or exclusively protest, but trust as well.” ( From Celtic Daily Prayer, meditations Day 3)
He responded generously to Christ’s invitation to “take up his cross each day.” Escrivá’s aspiration, “In laetitia, nulla dies sine cruce” (In joy, no day without the cross) was a reality in his life.
In the last couple of days, i have had people marvel at the medical story of my life. For readers that don’t know, I grew up knowing I live with a genetic time bomb. Most died from it back then, without knowing they had it. Marphans turned you into a timebomb. All of a sudden one day, their aorta disconnects from their heart, ti either tears or blows off, and they are dead. Because they knew of it, and when the surgeries developed, I have had defibrillators put in , and replaced. I’ve had two artificial valves put in, and my aorta has a sheath around it.
So I tick. Which on Sunday led to people listening to the tick and saying “Crazy” (over and over – each one entering a room was made to listen to me – and that was each person’s response)
Last night, at a banquet for a crisis pregnancy center, several of the women wanted to touch my hand, because they considered me a walking miracle.
I’ve considered y situation over the years, more akin to a walking nightmare. I’ve had many a night where I couldn’t sleep, and others where I ranted at God like a wolf baying at the boon. I’ve dealt with every emotion common to man. There was a break for a few years, then my son was born, to whom I passed on this struggle. The pains and heart came back again, worse than ever, as I see my son examined every year.
If there is any depth to my prayer life, if there is any strength I have in facing these trials, it is because of the effect of prayer. Not the recitation of prayers that were written for sharing on Sunday morning together. Not the pious prayers of daily devotions. But the prayers that arise out of my brokenness, out of my despair, out of my frustration with God, and with the complications of life.
No, the depth of prayer comes from those cries, begging for God to help us in this life of nightmares. It may start like jeremiah, with a cry of anger, of protest, of WHY GOD!!! But that cry in all of its honesty, in all of its broken and barrenness is where we find the truth of Romans above. That God is at work, that the Holy SPirit is comforting us, and conforming or translating our prayers, even with groanings that go beyond our ability to bring to our mind, to release from our hearts.
It is in those times when peace goes beyond our expectation. When love fills our soul, when we know God is with us, caring for us.
I hate those dark days of the past, and I know some are coming in the future. My body is broken, patched together and bionic, my soul suffers with it at times. But I wouldn’t trade the one’s in the past for anything, for the result is, as described in the third quote – joy, and peace. I will try to embrace the one’s in the future – with that hope, with that expectation.
For we know the heart of God, and He will sustain us.
Lord, have mercy!
Coverdale, John F. (2014-07-09). Saxum: The Life of Alvaro del Portillo (Kindle Locations 2110-2112). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
