Monthly Archives: November 2015
How do we treat scripture? How do we teach people to treasure it?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 I keep your law in my heart, so that I will not sin against you. 12 I praise you, O LORD; teach me your ways. Psalm 119:11-12 (TEV)
Sacred scripture is of the greatest importance in the celebration of the liturgy. For it is from scripture that lessons are read and explained in the homily, and psalms are sung; the prayers, collects, and liturgical songs are scriptural in their inspiration and their force, and it is from the scriptures that actions and signs derive their meaning. Thus to achieve the restoration, progress, and adaptation of the sacred liturgy, it is essential to promote that warm and living love for scripture to which the venerable tradition of both eastern and western rites gives testimony
Yet I was forced; and this was well done towards me, but I did not well; for, unless forced, I had not learnt. But no one doth well against his will, even though what he doth, be well.
Augustine’s comment from my devotions this morning is something I need to think about, as I prepare my sermon for tomorrow. How do I teach people to see the Bible? Do my sermons, and what and how I teach lead them to treasure this incredible gift of God? Or does what I teach and preach cause them to dismiss is, willingly twist it, and allow them to create a god that appeals to their desires, rather than meets the needs of their deepest brokenness?
The same for the scripture that resounds from within our worship – the liturgy which is so full of scripture. Do I facilitate their worship with a passion that honors God as He blesses us through the words He dictated, that He breathed through prophets and apostles, kings and leaders of worship?
If we preach about other than Jesus, if we teach Christianity as a simple set of rules to follow or something that changes from what was written, we dismiss the blessing of scripture. If we treasure theology over the word, we again dismiss the word of God, for the word of mankind. We dismiss the message of His loving-kindness, His mercy, His presence in our lives, which the scriptures reveal. The very treasure that reveals that we don’t need to be God, for He loves us. That real, lasting pleasure comes through His word. That peace is found in Him, and as we live in Him, we realize this incredible blessing, this incredible grace.
Scripture, the word of God, can make us uncomfortable. If afflicts us in the places we need to be corrected, the very place of our brokenness. It confronts our broken and twisted desire for pleasure, our love of self, our illusion that we are truly master’s of our fate. It is hard to learn to love that which hurts. Even so, when we realize the Holy Spirit applies it to our brokenness, even the discomfort is embraced, sure that God’s peace will comfort us, and bring us to wholeness. If we are to find hope for our brokenness, if we are going to offer and provide it to those people we are to care for, where the Spirit reveals it is in scripture. It is there the Lord who is our hope of glory, of life eternal, is found. There what He needs to heal us of is shown, as is the cure, His presence, His blessing of us through His word, joined to water as He baptizes us, as He nourishes us with His body and blood.
Back to the original thought, of teaching and preaching in such a way that the word of God is treasured. That our words portray His word, which He, the WORD, is revealed. That people know this isn’t just man’s words written on paper, proclaimed in our message. It is the word of God, the One who desires to love us, reveals to us that this love has no limits there on the pages of scripture.
If we show them we treasure it, they will begin to as well, and they will do well as they hear it, as they read it, as they treasure His word in their hearts.
As we do this, as we treasure the word that reveals to us the love of God, as we set an example for our people, we shall find that He has answered our plea. That our thoughts and words are acceptable to God, our Rock and Redeemer. AMEN!
Catholic Church. (2011). Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
A Deacon-Candidate’s First Sermon: “What I need You to hear…”
What I Need You To Hear…
A sermon based on Phil. 2:1-10
By Chuck Zetzman
Dear Friends in Christ, the Lord is with You!
I am making a step of faith to speak of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to tell you of the love I have found in believing and trusting in Jesus Christ.
While I have a great desire to do this, the process of writing a sermon isn’t easy or natural for me. Matter of fact, some people wondered if I could do it.
But I so long for you to know the God who loves us all, I have struggled through it, I learned a lot, and I so want to share it with you.
Law –
I have a new heart of compassion and trust in Jesus Christ for His help and forgiveness and mercy. New because it wasn’t always that way.
It is like when I taught softball, sometimes you have to unlearn things you are doing wrong, in order to do things “naturally” And God had to teach me, like he teaches you, what not to do.
That’s why Paul wrote
Philippians 2:1-6 NLT
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
But the problem is, we didn’t, and we don’t always share God’s comfort with each other, we don’t always agree with each other, we don’t always work together well, and we are often more interested in what benefits us, than what benefits each other.
Even when we know it is wrong.
We have to break those bad behaviors, just like a pitcher has to break their bad behaviors.
The problem is, we can’t.
We need someone to coach us, to call us on our self-centeredness. We call that it, in the church, calling someone to repent.
it’s not easy, but it is necessary.
We have to be called to repentance, if we are going to get life right.
Which means we have to realize we sin. You sin, I sin, Pastor Parker sins, my fellow deacons sin. We all sin.
But God, can fix it, and He really wants to.
Gospel
That is why He came, as the Apostle Paul tells us,
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
This attitude we are supposed to have, Jesus came to help us have.
We must remember Christ took on the position of a slave for us and gave us His divine privileges. He humbled himself in obedience to God and died on the cross for us.
That does two things…
One it takes care of the bad habits, as He died to pay for those sins. He removes them Himself, as we are made one with Him in baptism. It isn’t always easy, but it always good.
The other thing He does, is show us how to do it right, and He gives us the Holy Spirit to do it right.
I’ve seen it happen, and I remember it, so I know you all can!
It may be the only the thing I can remember, but remember it I do.
God loves us,
He sent Christ to save us
He doesn’t leave us alone, but walks with us, coaching us, loving us, forgiving us when we need it. And inspiring us to love others, sometimes in ways others think are crazy… or silly.
But those crazy things, those silly things, are what matters, as God loves us through others, as He gives us the mind of Jesus, and encourages us to live for others.
Again, I’ve seen it.
I have found love and compassion and help at Concordia from all of you here. You will find love and encouragement by belonging to Christ, by being part of His family, for they will love and encourage you as well!
And then you will know a peace you cannot find anywhere else… the peace of God, which we can’t understand, but we can find rest and hope in, a peace that Jesus keeps us in, our hearts and our minds safe… in Him.
AMEN.
A Missional Lesson Not ot Be Forgotten…the Epistle Written on Hearts
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 It was He (Jesus ) who “gave gifts to people“; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. 12 He did this to prepare all God’s people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. 13 And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature. Ephesians 4:11-13 (TEV)
1 Does this sound as if we were again boasting about ourselves? Could it be that, like some other people, we need letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read. 3 It is clear that Christ himself wrote this letter and sent it by us. It is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (TEV)
195 When there is zeal for souls, good people can always be found, fertile soil can always be discovered. There is no excuse! (1)
This weekend was one of those lessons in ministry that had to be driven home with an exclamation point. I listened to 6 sermons, all by men who desired to serve God, who knew HIs love. One was during our church service when a deacon preached about a widow who would give all because she God could care for her. Then five deacon candidates preached a sermon on Philippians 2 as part of their homiletics course.
There were other sermons, not prepared, but sermons like the letters Paul mentions to the church in Corinth. The letters testifying to ministry being done, of the word being preached, of the Holy Spirit at work
One lady, who very rarely comes to church (like 3 times 7 years!) who was telling another guest about how great the church was, and that she should come here regularly. (And her laugh as I looked at her, and she realized she was talking to herself) Another man who was taken aback by several telling him he should be in the next class, and seeing his heart consider it, as He was speechless at the thought. Another man talked to me about how much these friends of his matured, how God had caused them to grow. Most impacting were the tears of one lady, as she watched her husband of forty-plus years come alive as he preached, and as she encountered the power of God at work in their lives. I could go on, to tell the stories I witnessed, as people were impacted by those messages, by those messengers.
None of the men who I heard yesterday would most consider “Minister material.” But the people they ministered too could not deny God’s work through them. Like the small shepherd who would be king, or the terrorist who would become an apostle, or the coward who would lead God’s people to freedom. They have some rough edges; each has significant struggles in life that would make most hesitate to put them in a pulpit. But this is undeniable, God used them. The proof was seen in the lives and conversations they touched. They worked their tails off, and God blessed others through them.
We are all called to ministry, and it is a wondrous thing to watch the church growing and serving each other. Even those we don’t anticipate God use so dramatically.
So how are you going to become the messenger whom God will write on others hearts this day? Or how will someone else by used by the Holy Spirit to imprint on your heart the message of God’s love? For we need both, we are fertile fields, and workers set apart to work in the fields ready for harvest.
Godspeed!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1026-1027). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Facing Death… and facing death…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
19 Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple, and in three days I will build it again.” 20 “Are you going to build it again in three days?” they asked him. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple!” 21 But the temple Jesus was speaking about was his body. 22 So when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had said. John 2:19-22 (TEV)
The span of Sarah’s life was one hundred and twenty-seven years. 2 She died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan, and Abraham proceeded to mourn and weep for her. Gen 23:1–2
179 Days of silence and of intense grace… Prayer face to face with God… I broke out into thanksgiving, on seeing those people, mature in years and experience, who opened out to the touch of grace. They responded like children, eagerly grasping the chance to convert their lives, even now, into something useful… which would make up for all the times they have gone astray and for all their lost opportunities. Recalling that scene, I put it to you: do not neglect your struggle in the interior life.
They aren’t the devotional readings you want to come up the day someone takes a long needle, places it in your carotid veins, and checks out your heart from the inside. There these readings the readings in red were, The procedure they told me, had less than 1% serious complications, but if you know me, that’s not good odds. I would prefer them in the region of .0000001% chance.
But here I was, waiting impatiently for the procedure to began. I had signed the paperwork saying who had the power to make decisions for me if I didn’t come out of the sedation, papers authorizing blood transfusions, and, of course, the paperwork saying I understood that such medical procedures are risky and that I wouldn’t sue if I died. (How could I? But that isn’t where your mind goes…)
For the first time in 10 major surgeries in my life, I was afraid going into the surgical suite/cath lab, I didn’t like that feeling at all. I have sat by many during such times, I have been there myself before, but the fear this time… I started to plan my own funeral- but who would I tell?
I was sure I was facing death, and yet… I survived.
So now what?
I’ve had people tell me before that such events change people. But then again, a motorcycle accident, a cardiac arrest, a surgery to replace two heart valves, all that didn’t change me that much, except to prepare me for ministry. Okay, to prepare me for a very unique and different ministry.
But what would come out of this very dark, very anxiety-laden time? Why didn’t God come and quiet my soul, like He had some many times? Why couldn’t I, a guy who teaches people how to minister to others in such times, find the peace I had led so many others too?
It’s funny, in that emptiness, in that moment where they “sealed” my body to the surgery table with some super form of saran wrap, ( My anxiety helped me wonder if they were pre-fitting me for a body-bag!) in that lack of peace, in those moments in that lack of anything, I was sure it didn’t matter. If I went home to God, the sins that concerned me would be covered. If I stayed, there was a final to take, sermons to grade, blogs to write. But those things didn’t exist at that moment when they put a drape over my head so the surgeon could do his job….
there was nothing…
and because there was nothing… there was the proof of God.
Again, I couldn’t point to any feeling, matter of fact they led me down other roads. My knowledge as a pastor failed me.
But that doesn’t mean God did. If God is God, then in those moments I sense nothing, in those moments where I can’t depend on logic, or emotion, He has to be there, beyond me. If we die, we are with Him, if we don’t, He will draw us closer to Him, strengthening us so we can bring others along on the journey.
I have often wondered why Jesus, who was, is, and will be God had to face His own… well, mortality, so often. Why God would go there so often, almost as if he was fixated on it.
Because it wasn’t just His death He faced. It was all our death. The death of sin.
He did that, so we could face the emptiness of death.. the barrenness of the moment of facing it.
So that in our baptism, our leaving this life will become meaningless.
For no matter what, whether our mind can process it or not, whether our emotions can cope with it… ultimately we are in His hands.
Nothing else matters…
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 957-963). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Was She a Victim or a Hero, a Sinner or Saint; and her Overlooked Encounter with God
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur 8 and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.” 9 He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” 10 Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your cry of distress. 12 But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.” 13 Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the LORD, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.” 14 That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” 15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old at the time. Genesis 16:7-16 (TEV)
Her story struck me far different this morning that it ever had before. Usually, she is just an aside, we acknowledge she is there and quickly pass her by.
She slept with another man’s wife, (even if at the wife’s direction). She didn’t have a good attitude to either afterward, and they didn’t have a good attitude toward her either. She tried to escape her situation and that is where the story gets interesting.
God chased after her.
Even as I type that, I think, this is increible.
God chased after her.
He chased after her, blessed her, made her promises and restored her.
Despite all the drama in her life. Despite all the pain.
As she so perfectly puts it – He is the God who sees. God saw her, in the midst of her brokenness, in the midst of her trauma, in the midst of running away, trying to escape the drama. He saw her, and blessed her, and gave her the strength to go back, to return to the midst of the brokenness,
And we have this encounter, with the one who was not favored with the one who would struggle, with the one whose descendants would constantly battle God’s people, until one of the descendants of Issac would be born, and die, and become the ultimately blessing to all peoples.
Including Hagar’s descendants.
I asked in the title if she was a victim, or a hero, a sinner or a saint. I also wonder what the relationship between Sarah and her was like upon her return. The questions are interesting and I honestly don’t know.
But what is important. what I do know about Hagar is this. She was the lady whom God saw, and she lived.
May we as well, in our mixed up, broken lives, know the love of God who sees even those of us whom others overlook. For we too are a part of Christ’s story… for He saw us, and died, and rose again, for us. May we too, encounter Hagar’s along the road, and watch God minister to them, through us.
God’s peace my friend.
AMEN!
Struggling in Your Relationship with God: A Absolute Necessity
Devotional Thought of the Day:
24 This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25 When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” 28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” 29 “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. “Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 30 Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.” Genesis 32:24-30 (NLT)
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NLT)
158 You have become more keenly aware of the urgency, of the “preoccupation” of being a saint; and you have gone into battle daily with no hesitation, convinced that you have to root out bravely any symptom of being fond of comfort. Later, while talking to Our Lord in your prayer you understood that fighting is a synonym for Love, and you asked for a greater Love, with no fear of the struggle awaiting you, since you would be fighting for Him, with Him and in Him
It is one of the hardest things to accept as a Christian.
That I will continue to struggle with sin, especially the sin of idolatry, especially the concept of self-idolatry. Not that I worship and praise myself, but that I depend on myself more than I depend on Jesus. That I listen to my own reason more than I listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. An idol or a god isn’t just whom you worship with your voices, and maybe with an act to appease anger. It’s so much more than that, as we enter into a relationship with God, on His terms.
A relationship between God and man is not just about praise and worship a few hours a week. It is an intimate, dependent relationship. Where we turn to Him, rely on Him, in every situation in life. We rely on Him to rescue us from the sin that entraps us, from the despair of dealing with death and in dealing with Satan, and the temptations that would see us crushed.
As St. Josemaria says, the life of holiness, of being a “saint,” one separated from the world to have that relationship with God, is a nearly constant fight. Sometimes that fight is a battle against the spiritual powers in the world as He guides us in redeeming and reconciling the world to the Father. But as often, the fight is our human nature, battling for supremacy, rather than simply realizing that God is God. Such battles leave us tired, weary, even depressed seeing our lives not dominated by God as we would like, but by the sin that leaves us broken.
The hope is the hope that Jacob, the one re-named Israel finds in his dark night of the soul. Where he wrestles with God, trying to dominate, trying to show his mastery over God. When he can’t, the struggle changes – I won’t let go until you bless me, God, I won’t relax the struggle until I know your peace. It is one of those things that amazes me, that the name of God’s people was taken from the last of the Patriarchs. Not Abraham, or Issac, or even Jacob, his given name.
But Israel, the one who wrestles with God.. the people who would wrestle with God. They entire history is a similar fight, and in Christ, the blessing comes, through the fight on a cross, and through a grave until the morning comes and the grace is revealed.
So you like I, struggle in your faith. This is good. May you learn to, like Israel, struggle through the darkness of night, and refuse to give up, but hang on for dear life, and hang on until you knw the blessing of His peace. For that is what it means to not only fight for God, to not only fight with Him, but to fight in Him.
AMEN
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 865-869). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
All Saints’ Day Sermon – The Gathering of All Companions….
The Gathering of All Companions
Rev. 7: 9-17
† In Jesus Name! †
We’re all here….
In the epistle to the Hebrews, after describing the great heroes of the faith, there the following words,
39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us. Hebrews 11:39-40 (NLT)
Thhat prophesy we see in Hebrews is described in the first reading, the one from Revelation 7. When people from every continent, from every culture, from every language, from every time period in history are gathered together, and God looks out on them,
and they praise Him.
Much as God has gathered us from every corner of this world and brought to this room. To celebrate the same thing we will celebrate then, that,
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”
I want to hear those words, said by us all, to give us and idea of what they will sound like, in various accents, in various voices, male and female, young and old
We are here for the same reason, for the same purpose, to praise the God who comes to us and loves us.
The Tribulation
There has been much to be written and said about the answer the elder gives about the great crowd dressed in white.
Some translations talk of them coming through, or out of the tribulation. The translation we use here describes it as those who died in the great tribulation. I am not sure how it translates into Chinese, but the idea of tribulation in English has for a couple of centuries caused great fear, so much fear that theological systems have developed, not around Christ Jesus, but around when and how this tribulation occurred.
Oh, by the way, its not just any tribulation – it is the mega-tribulation. The greatest tribulation, the greatest suffering known to man, in all of history, since this passage happens at the end of time.
A tribulation that only God can bring us through, a tribulation where God brings forth all of His wrath against sin. A tribulation so great, that sin can’t withstand it, and those who are sinners are killed off by it.
All sinners, and it doesn’t matter what they have done.
For as Paul tells the church in Rome, all have sinned.
You might find it interesting, but that mega tribulation has already happened. It happened much as the Old Testament prophet claimed it would,
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. 7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck done. Isaiah 53:5-11 (NLT)
That is why the passage of Revelation mentions that the blood spilt, that causes their robes to be white is not their own, but it is Christ’s.
For it is in His death that we find life, it is united to His death, that we find our sins stripped from us, and our being brought to life. Don’t take my words for it, that is what Paul writes often,
11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:11-14 (NLT)
My dear, dear brothers and sisters, what makes us family, part of the family of all Saints, is simply this, that Jesus suffered and died for us….
That’s Why We Praise Him
Because He died, we died with Him, because He has risen, we have been given new life, we’ve been born again, we’ve been quickened by the Holy Spirit, and been cleansed from every sin, and can wear the white robes of God.
That is why we can gather here, people from so many different backgrounds, and yet we are one people, God’s one people. The saints He gathers in His presence, and as we realize this, our voices cry out in praise.
This is our God, who loves us, who gathers us together, as His holy people. It is time to celebrate His love, just like the people do in Revelation.
Church, and especially the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, has been described as the Feast that is a foretaste of the feast to come….. and so the church is supposed to be is a small glimpse of what heaven will be.
So as we feast, on the Lord’s Supper, may we see that moment, when millions upon millions will gather, from many more backgrounds, ethnicities, languages than here.
But this glimpse, is a small view of that peace, the peace that passes all understanding. ..
For we are His people, gathered by Him together… gathered to live with Him.
AMEN.
