Monthly Archives: June 2015
How Do You Plead?
How Do You Plead? 1 Corinthians 5:11-21
† In Jesus Name †
May you realize the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that mercifully and lovingly reconciles you and brings you back to our Father!\
The Plea
Two men stood in front of the judge and the jury, waiting to hear how their pleas were heard, and how their pleas for just would be answered. Whether they believed their pleas or not, their long struggle for the justice was about to be answered.
It was different this time, as I handed the bailiff the verdict, as justice was delivered.
In the back of my mind, I heard the words of Barry, one of my fellow jurors, CLICK
I would rather have justice, than the outcome of the law….
How I wish we could have had the time, and the opportunity to share with them the true nature of justice, that they could have heard that plea.
For that day, in the court room, the plea for reconciliation, the plea for true justice, was the furthest things from what occurred, the furthest thing from anyone’s heart.
And as everyone walked away from that courtroom in Norwalk, the verdict we had given was fair in our minds, but scripturally, it was far from just.
You see the wrong plea was entered… the plea should have been the pleading we’ve been given by Christ, as Paul wrote:
We speak for Christ when we plead, CLICK “Come back to God!”
Our Need For that Judgement
All over the news and the internet, people crying out for justice, crying out against what they perceive as injustice. If you talk to a judge or a lawyer, they can tell you the wait for justice can be three to five years. If you talk to those who are pleading for justice, their ideas differ. And a jury can struggle to determine what is truly just, for in a civil trial how can you put a price tag on it? How can you place a number of years in a criminal trial, that will bring to balance the injustice?
Even so, people cry out for justice, for things to be made right. We so want what we think justice is. But here is how God defines justice, (verse 19) CLICK
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them!
and
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
True justice, true righteousness is seen in the work that God our Father commissioned, the cost of reconciliation, of making people right with the Father.
True justice then, would have resulted in a friendship between the two men suing each other, and their ability to do so, knowing that Christ paid the price for both of their sins!
They could have known that, they could have known a kind of justice that would have healed the broken relationship that they had. For as their sins were counted against each other, as they were erased, what could separate them?
That’s justice, and it is so completely unexpected. CLICK
This is how Jesus saves us, this is how God planned for this, as we hear from Isaiah, whose words were written centuries before the cross.
5 But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received. Isaiah 53:5 (TEV)
and
10 The LORD says, “It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed. Isaiah 53:10 (TEV)
In the very suffering and death of Jesus, we find all of us reconciled to the Father. That is justice. Being reconciled to God is the kind of Justice He seeks.
From my devotions yesterday, this quote explains it well, CLICK
But when a person has once met Christ, when a person has once seen Jesus and really learned to know him, then everything is changed. Then everything else is comprehensible and life is renewed. And you [priests] have really only one task: to present Jesus to all people in such a way that they see him and learn to love him.[i]
When God reconciles us, we are that new creation, as Paul says, the old life is gone, the new life, our new life in Christ has begun!
Everything has changed, the gift of God that is so incredible!
Our plea is different now…
As we look at what has changed, our plea for justice stands out. It is no longer a plea to some vague idea of justice that favors us over others, it is a plea for God’s justice, that they would know His love, that they would welcome His mercy.
It has changed as well from a plea to God for that justice, to a plea to those who cry out for justice, to hear God’s version of it, to be called back to God.
This is what the ministry is all about, this is what the Christ’s love compels us to do.
To share with each other, that in Christ, we have been reconciled to God. Christ’s work is so perfect, that there is no relationship that is beyond His ability to heal, as He brings us into Himself, as He makes of us, one family, one people. His people.
Reconciled to the Father, which is how we see each other. As His children, as those He died for, as those who no longer live for themselves, but live in Christ, who died and was raised for us. That’s why we plead, not to God, but with people to come back to God.
A plea that is an interesting word picture. We become their paraclete’s, the one’s that come alongside them, lift them up and lovingly carry them back to Jesus. If the word sounds familiar, it should. It is one of the names for the Holy Spirit. That is why our pleading is effective, for it is done in Christ, and by the Holy Spirit’s power!
What an amazing thing this message of reconciliation we have been given, this plea that God entrusts to us, to call out to others, to beg them to see the work of God, done for them, and to trust that God has reconciled them as well.
Two last thoughts about God’s Justice CLICK
When we love our neighbor, pleading with them to see Jesus, to recognize His work reconciling them to the Father!
And there is no greater testimony to God’s love and mercy at work in us, that the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in us, than to plead with our enemies to be reconciled to Jesus Christ.
For it takes a level of peace to do this, a peace that goes beyond logic, that goes beyond understanding, a peace that unites all in Christ, where He guards their hearts and minds. AMEN!
[i] Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 191). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
How Do We Plead: A sermon on 1 Cor 5 ( Video… sort of)
This is a test, it is only a test of the Justified and Sinner Sermon Broadcasting System.
Noting that sound quality may improve, and I might add video of me… in the corner of the slides – please watch this and tell me if it is worth doing.
Thanks!
Why We (pastors and priests) Do What We Do… and Your Role as well
Devotional Thought of the Day:
27 God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. 29 To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me. Colossians 1:27-29 (TEV)
Ultimately that is what the priesthood is all about: to have seen Jesus oneself, to have received with love him whom we have seen, to live in that seeing, and then to show him to others. (1)
3 After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ. (2)
One of the greatest challenges for a pastor or a priest in this day is to minister to those who think they are already “saved.”.This includes ourselves and our peers. The challenge is complicated by the fact that we often forget what our calling is, losing it in the various functions of our ministry.
We are expected to be jacks of all trades, able to do plumbing, accounting, music, leading a non-profit, knowledge about employment law, property law, tax law, teach, and keeping the balance between being a solid administrator and a competent theologian. It is this latter role, that of a theologian, which can consume us even more than the rest. In letting it consume us, it can lead us away from the ministry, the ministering to which we have been called, and set apart.
It’s odd for a Lutheran pastor to quote a pope or a Catholic, I probably do it more than most. The above quote in blue is from a pope, but not as some might expect Francis. It is from Benedict, whose writings are as pastoral as Francis’s words. He sees his role, and that of priests (and I would hope pastors ) as simply and clearly as St. Paul did to the church in Colossae. It is also, according to Lutheran confessions, the reason we are gathered together with the people of God. This is seen in the quote in green, our purpose, our reason for existence as the church, is to give people what they need to know about Jesus.
It is that simple, everything we do as pastors, priests, ministers of all kinds in all places, boils down to that. Introduce people to the love of Christ. Help them as Paul says, explore (and be in awe of) the immense dimensions of God’s love for you, for me, for us, that is revealed in Jesus. From the planning of our salvation before the world began, to its creation, to His incarnation, life, teaching, miracle working, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and even His on-going advocacy for us at the Father’s side; He does this that we would know Him!
Our people need to know this, their friends and neighbors need to hear it. Even our enemies and adversaries (and people who are simply a pain in the… neck) need to know Jesus.
Pope Benedict, a pastor at heart, in the same message, wrote why:
But when a person has once met Christ, when a person has once seen Jesus and really learned to know him, then everything is changed. Then everything else is comprehensible and life is renewed. And you priests have really only one task: to present Jesus to all people in such a way that they see him and learn to love him. Then everything that faith teaches will be self-evident. (1)
There it , it is why we do what we do… why we struggle to do it, trying to keep our eyes on Christ, working hard to see people know His love.
By the way, you are welcome to help as well, and as you get to know His love, you will find a innate desire to do so, for that is how much His love will mean to you.
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 191). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. (devotions for June 13th)
(2) Augsburg Confession, Art XXIV
The Image of God and His People You Will Never Forget (though you might want to!)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth as the LORD directed me, and I put it on. 3 Then the LORD gave me another message: 4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me. 6 A long time afterward the LORD said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing. 8 Then I received this message from the LORD: 9 “This is what the LORD says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! 11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me. Jeremiah 13:1-11 (NLT)
538 There he is: King of Kings and Lord of Lords, hidden in the bread. To this extreme has he humbled himself for love of you. (1)
There are many images in scripture used to describe the close, intimate relationship between God and His people. He is the Good Shepherd who carries his lost sheep home, the Father who runs to meet His prodigal son, The Bridegroom awaiting His perfect spotless Bride. We are His temple, His dwelling place, His home…
And then there is this one
God and His people, who are pictured as… His underwear? (that’s what a loincloth is…)
I mean, that is how close God wants His people to be to Him? Not only that, He wants us to be like clingy underwear?
TMI!!!
(which could stand for too much information or too much intimacy!)
It is an odd picture to be sure, this picture that the prophet Jeremiah puts on paper, inspired by the Holy Spirit. But it drives the point home in a way we cannot deny.
God wants His people close to Him, Closer than anything else.
Yet too often, we don’t want to be that close to Him, we don’t even want to be in his bureau. We want to keep God at just the proper distance. Close enough to rescue us when we sin, but not so close that His presence causes us to move with Him, We want to have our sins forgiven, but not have to spend time clinging to Him, having our lives wrapped around His life, going where He wants to go.
He wants us that close. He wants to be that involved in our lives, and we to be that involved in His. For even as the prophet Jeremiah pictures us as God’s clothes, Paul will picture God wrapping Himself around us
26 It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. 27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. Galatians 3:26-27 (TEV)
This intimacy is not just pictured, but occurs at a deeper level, as we take Christ’s Body and Blood into us, in the Lord’s Supper, where Christ hides Himself, as St. Josemaria tells us, that we can know His love.
This intimate relationship is why the Father sent Jesus to live among us, to die for us, to restore us to the very ideal that God created us to be…. HIs people, His pride, His glory, and that we can bring Honor to His name.
Remember, the Lord is with you!
And if you need help remember how close… remember this picture from Jeremiah!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1299-1301). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Nice Place to Stay But It Isn’t Home!
A Nice Place to Stay
But It Isn’t Home!
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
† IHS †
As you wander through this journey of life, may you know the grace of God our Father, that reminds you that this isn’t your final home!
A Parker Parable: The Christian Life is Like a Vacation!
Often in scripture, a story is used to illustrate a point of great spiritual significance. The old name for these, especially when Jesus used them, was a parable. Today’s Epistle reading, the one William did, will be explained with such a parable….
The Christian Life is like a vacation.
That is, it might be a nice place to stay for a while, but it isn’t home.
The Good Bad and Ugly
Anyone here ever have the a vacation that could have been made into a movie, because it was such a comedy of errors? How about the vacation that was the ultimate in disasters? Even the most perfect vacation, there is a point where you’ve exhausted yourself, and realize it is time to go home.
You know how you feel, when you get back home, drag the suitcases from the trunk, a drag them into the bedroom, and collapse on the bed, and fall into a deep and peaceful sleep?
in a real sense, life is like that vacation, and heaven is even more like home than the bed you fall into… even more restful, even more peace-filled, but glorious!
The Man Made Life
The Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter to the church, uses this illustration in the last verse of our reading, when he says,
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
Anyone here remember going tent camping for the first time, or in my case, using a tent-trailer for the first time… or wait…even the last time? When you struggled to put it all together, when you accidently camp in the dry stream bed? When you realized you didn’t plan for going to the bathroom, or you forget the can opener or the matches to light you coleman stove?
We make a lot of errors in our lives. Some are out of ignorance, some are because we are too proud and stubborn, and have the strange idea that we know more than God about how life should be lived.
The result? Watching the tent washed away by the sudden rush of water that filled the creek, or finding out that poison oak is not a good substitute for toilet paper, or spending all your energy trying to rub two sticks together for 45 minutes to start that fire.
You want to give up, you want to quit, you want to drive home now, and call the vacation quits. Sometimes life is like that, we get so overwhelmed at how broken it can get. The troubles may not be as big as we make them, matter of fact we may learn a lot from them, if we breath and take our time.
Other troubles are that big, and the brokenness they cause may seem like we can’t go on, that we can’t get past them.
So I spoke.
Let’s go back up to the beginning of the reading again. Paul explains why he preaches, why he talks about Jesus.
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”
When we hear this, what we don’t hear is the context of Paul’s life, and we really don’t hear what the Psalmist was thinking, because the verse is only partially included. Let me share with you’re the rest of it,
Ps 116:10 — I believed in you, so I said, “I am deeply troubled, LORD.”
Sounds like David’s been on some of my vacations!
You see, the faith that the Psalmist and St. Paul shared was a trust in God that led us to call out to God when life falls apart. When our own sin, or just the unrighteousness of a broken world consumes us.
Because we believe, we go to Him, we speak to Him, we call out to Him.
You see, one of the sins that so easily ensnares us, is when we think we can live without God, either because we think He doesn’t care, or that He has written us off because we’ve done something so bad He can’t heal and restore us.
If you are familiar with the 10 commandments, one of them is,
7 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. Exodus 20:7 (NLT)
I want you to think about something for a moment.
We usually think of misuse being when you use God’s name to cuss, or swear, or teach false doctrine. But it is also a misuse of God’s name when you don’t use it when you should. When you could call out to Him for help and comfort when you are troubled, when you need to be rescued, when you find life to broken or to frustrating.
That’s the point of being in a relationship, with God and with the people of God. To know the presence that brings comfort and peace. To know the love that will sustain you, and will celebrate with great joy with you.
The Glorious Relationship
This is what enables St. Paul to write:
16 That is why we never give up! Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
Paul knows that the troubles that we face, and he often faced the worst of them, don’t have to lead us away from God to find peace, but rather, they lead us to Him. That is the trust that Paul and the writers of the Psalms have in God, to know that the God who will renew their spirits, who will lift them and us up, when we are down. That will help us, as Paul continues,
we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever!
The things we can’t see? This is what the passage before the reading told us:
18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)
We fix our eyes on the promises we have in Christ. We fix our eyes on Christ
And knowing His plans for us, for all of eternity, knowing His love and mercy which can heal our brokenness, can cleanse us of the effect of every sin, that brings us into the Father’s glory… we call out to Him in confidence, and find in His answer, a peace that goes beyond all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
AMEN.
My Love-Hate Relationship With “the” Church
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch. Isaiah 62:1 (NLT)
489 A keen and living faith. A faith like Peter’s. When you have it—our Lord has said so—you will move mountains, humanly insuperable obstacles that rise up against your apostolic undertakings. (1)
(Disclaimer: This is not about my present congregation/parish, or any individual congregation or parish. It is about the church at large)
There are times it is tempting to walk away, citing the quaint but blasphemous statement, “I love your Christ, but I hate your religion”. There are times where the politics, the focus and dependence on theology and/or pragmatic theory, rather than on the Holy Spirit’s guidance drives me crazy. There are days where people’s desire to divide the church rather than work for the unity Jesus prayed for leaves me feeling empty and depressed. There are times where leaders fight to gain control and power or to make the church in their image rather than Christ’s could give me just cause me to leave.
I hate “the” Church.
But I also love her. This Church. She is the bride of Christ; she is the body of Christ. She is the joy in the dad’s face as he helps baptize his newborn baby. Jesus’s love is reflected in the tear-filled eyes of the lady as she receives His body broken for her… His blood shed to cover all her sins. I love the church s I see people, once adversaries, laughing together and sharing life because the Holy Spirit has become their Lord and Giver of life and reconciled the relationships that were thought to be shattered. That when we strive to not only live according to God’s revealed plan, but quickly run to confess our trespasses, that He heals us, He heals His church.
It is because of all of this, the good, the bad and the ugly, that the words in red mean so much to me above. I do yearn to see the church realize the presence of God that God’s kingdom is here, and now. That He is heard to bring peace, that the means of grace, the sacraments and word of God (which we even argue about) are used by the Holy Spirit to transform us all into the image of Christ, to remind us of the promise we shall share in His glory. It is that hope, that Jesus won’t abandon His church, that sustains us, even when things seem broken.
It takes the keen and living faith, quickened and sustained by Holy Spirit, to not only see what the church should be, what religion is, but to see that in the people of God. Our relationship with God, the leading of the Holy Spirit, not only empowers our mission, our apostolate, but gives us the desire to see it happen, to see the church grow in its faith, in its awareness of God’s presence, to depend on His love and mercy.
That same desire…can be momentarily frustrated when we look at our beloved Church. Because we forgot what makes the church the Body of Christ, He does.
Let us look to Him! Let us watch the Holy Spirit transform us into His image, into people who naturally obey His law. the law He put into our hearts, and He drew us into His on the cross.
Lord Have Mercy! Help us love the Church you love, and see her as you do!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1196-1197). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Can I Faithfully and Firmly Believe This? (Audio and Manuscript)
Can I Faithfully and Firmly Believe This?
Isaiah 6:1-8
† IHS †
May the grace and mercy of God our Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, sustain your trust in their love, and reveal to you more and more, Their Presence in your life!
Can I?
A moment ago, if you were paying attention as we began the Athanasian Creed, you might have had a moment of concern as we began, as I said,
Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the Christian faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.
But the nature of reciting a creed gave you only a few seconds to say this, and before you could process it, we were moving on to the next phrase.
A little way down, perhaps some of you gasped as we read,
Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.
If you had a moment to think at that point, you might have jotted down a question for me during Bible Study, and if you did, that is awesome – I will try and answer it then. But really? How can we believe in these words we barely can comprehend as we are reading them off of the page.
And then, my last words,
This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.
Which brings me to a question. Can I faithfully and firmly believe something I just read, even though I don’t understand it completely? Pastor, someone is thinking, if this is that important, shouldn’t we do it, maybe once a month or so? At least more than once a year?
What do you think Chris? Do it monthly?
Back to the more important question….and the one that follows…
Can I faithfully and firmly believe this ancient mind-twisting, theological statement? And if can’t understand it, does that mean I am not saved?
We will answer that in a few moments.
The Isaiah Moment –
In many ways, saying the Athanasian Creed is like the situation Isaiah finds himself in, as we hear it described in the Old Testament reading this morning.
He’s overwhelmed, and confused. Everything he thought he knew of, he is unsure of, all he knows is that God is a lot bigger, than he ever contemplated before. His eyes can’t keep up with all he sees, and you will notice that the one thing he doesn’t describe in any depth, is what God looks like.
Isaiah sees Him, but all He tells us is that God is sitting on the throne, and God is wearing a robe that would take Carol, Linda, Barbara, and Cyndee a lot longer to sew than 18 stoles!
As Isaiah is overwhelmed, he forgets everything he knows about God, and is intently aware of how he doesn’t belong in God’s presence. He’s a sinner, a man who can’t filter his thoughts, and he is surrounded by people just like him.
All he can think of, is I don’t get it, and no maybes, (CLICK) I don’t belong here in God’s presence.
That is where his thoughts are going, as he realizes the glory of God, as He encounters it.
As he finds himself dropping to his knees, in awe, unable even to plead for mercy…
Encountering God
That is what happens to us when we sit down, and start to consider what we do know about God, when we try to summarize it, whether in 12 verses of the Apostles Creed, or the fifty of the Athanasian Creed, or in a sermon, or in a book.
It is not easy to get our minds wrapped around all the scripture teaches about God. Heck I could teach for forty-five hours just on the titles we have for God, and on His name, and on the one line from this creed,
But the whole three persons are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped!
The Grace of God
And in those four underlined words, we find our hope. We find out that like Isaiah, we belong in God’s presence. Not because we are good enough, or qualified enough, or know and understand enough, but because of the reason we worship Him.
There was one more line that should give us pause…
And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.
He has judged us already, as Christ bore the iniquities of us all. Because Jesus bore the stripes on His back, and the nail scars in His hands. That judgment comes when the Holy Spirit is poured out on us, as we are declared His people, as we are promised eternal life. Because He loves us, because that love and mercy sent Jesus to die for us, and rise again. Because His death and resurrection brings us into a relationship with Him, a covenant with Him, where God judges us and says, you are righteous, you have done good.
In awe and confusion and fear, we find ourselves in the presence of God.
We hear the angels and archangels, the seraphim and elders, singing the words Holy, Holy, Holy…. And then we are touched, our lips and heart cleansed as God comes near.
And we join in the praises….
For God has judged our trust in His work, our need for Him to do that work, our need to cling to Him, and it is enough.
Enough so that God not only welcomes us into His presence, but sends us out to bring His message to a world that needs it, but needs the work of the Spirit to help them hear it.
There is s a lot of truth in this creed, this statement about the God who we trust, who we know, in who are beliefs are found, revealed to us in Christ. The creed puts what we know is true, and what we know isn’t true.
Yeah, it’s long and complicated, it helps us know that things like Gnosticism and Subordinationism, that donatism and other things are wrong. What it does best? It reveals to us the God who reveals Himself is bigger than our thoughts, is bigger than our theories that try to explain what God keeps as a mystery.
I wrote yesterday that the mysteries of God aren’t there primarily to be solved and explained. These mysteries are here to leave us in awe, to bring us to the point where we are silent, where we know He is God.
Like Isaiah, before the throne, like us as we bend a knee, and take and eat, and take and drink, the body and blood of Christ.
This is our God, trust in His promises, revel in what He reveals, and know that He is your God, and we are His people, who dwell in His peace, and Christ guards our hearts and minds in that place, and no one can change that.
AMEN!
Who Deserves Our Trust? Who’s Promises Bring Real Hope?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 31:1 (NLT)
482 What does it matter if the whole world with all its power is against you? Forward! Repeat the words of the psalm: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? … Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum—“If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear.” (1)
As I was working out on Saturday, the televisions in the gym all had the announcement that another person was joining the competition to become the next President of the United States. Though I was listening to music, you could read the captioning of the new candidate, and the commentators critiquing his performance.
I hate politics, not because of the games, though I dislike them. I hate what the politics reveal, that we are by nature idolatrous, and we will place our hope in candidates that meet our agenda, specifically whose promises could make our life better. Not sure how you define that, for everyone has a separate definition. But we defend our candidates as if they were our Savior, we promised. Anointed Deliverer from all things evil. We will fail to understand that our man is a sinner, just like his opponents, just like us.
And we will attack the competition, arguing that their promises are empty. We will demonize them, condemn them, judge their followers as stupid, or blind, or if they can argue better than us, simply as evil. And there is no way their candidate could possible be a justified sinner, someone who follows and depends on Jesus, a man made righteous because Christ died for him (or her!)
Idolatry will grow over the next month, and we will all need to repent. Those who are conservative, those who are liberal, and even those like me, who are more cynical and apathetic. And our idols will let us down, either by losing the competition, or perhaps even more, if they win it, and e find their promises are nothing but air.
We need to stop trusting in mankind to save us, to make our lives good. Yes, we need to use wisdom and discernment in voting. But what we have to avoid is replacing our hope that is in Christ, our trust that is in God the Father by entrusting ourselves to a man or woman, a vision or a article.
Our hope is greater than mankind can accomplish, It was accomplished at the Cross, it was revealed as the Body of Christ was broken, as His precious blood was poured out, a sacrifice made on our behalf. This hope is revealed in God’s love, in the promises that are never broken. In the promises that are in our best interest, not just feeding our narcissism.
You see, if God is there, in our lives, if we are aware of it, if we depend on Him, then who wins the compteition for our vote in unable to steal our hope, our joy. There is nothing they can do to separate us from what is most important – knowing Him, living loved by Him. St Josemaria is correct, in Christ there is everything we have hope for!
So as you read the political stuff that will assault you, the propaganda and positions, continue to seek after God’s kingdom first, and dwell in His peace.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1179-1181). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
