Monthly Archives: December 2016
The Need to Seek God. Why prayer is more than tweeting Him!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
16 But he would go away to lonely places, where he prayed. TEV Luke 5:16
But there are other reasons why God has bestowed this external knowledge of Himself upon the minds of all men.
In the first place, He has done so for the sake of the external discipline which God wants all men to observe, even the unregenerate.
Paul explains the second reason in Acts 17:27 with the words “to seek the Lord.” This expression has been placed in the causal construction, “because of or on account of our deficiency.” Thus there is absolutely no doubt that this knowledge has been revealed so that we will seek God.
Nay, you must even accustom yourself to know how to pass from prayer to those occupations which your state of life lawfully requires, though ever so distant from the affections you have received in prayer: for example, let the lawyer learn to pass from prayer to pleading, the merchant to his mercial transactions, and the married woman to the care of her family, with so much ease and tranquillity that their spirits may not be disturbed; for, since all of them are in positions according to the will of God, they must learn to pass from the one to the other in the spirit of humility and devotion.
Chemnitz, in the reading in blue, notes our need to seek the Lord. In the passage it comes from, he is talking about what we see from natural revelation, but that too only wets the hunger for contact with God, and more than contact, for intimacy. In the intimate moments, we find peace and rest. When we enter that peace and rest, then something miraculous happens, we find healing, for we are being transformed into His likeness.
We need God, we can’t make it on our own, we have broken too much, and been broken too many times. The requirements of scripture primarily show us this, not just a path to enlightenment. We need him as much when we have been made His children, as when were alone in the darkness.
We are made for fellowship with the Father, we see that in Jesu’ own life, as He seeks the peace that comes as He finds rest in the Father’s love.
Why are we more in need of seeking God, of finding HIs presence? Don’t we mature? Don’t we become strong believers who can handle things on our own?
No
Simply put, no.
If anything, we become more aware of our brokenness, More aware of the healing needed in our lives, and in those around us. So we need Him more, we need HIs comfort, His peace, His presence. We need to be assured we are healing. The affections that he talks of maintaining.
Which is where prayer is so desperately needed.
I am not talking about praying unceasingly, as some portray it. Prayer is not a text message here and there or sending a tweet to God and occasionally seeing if. That isn’t the unceasing prayer.
Rather it is like De Sales advocates, this times of prayer where we find ourselves so enamored of God’s love that it becomes part of our parenting, part of our being an employee, part of being a boss, whatever it is. We move from our time of peace, our time of healing through our life.
That is unceasing prayer, a life of being there, in the presence of God, which stems from our sacramental time (3) where we deliberately take time to seek God and realized that He is our life, our breath, our breathing, as Paul states in Acts 17:28.
So go, spend some time crying out to the Lord! Find your rest and peace in His presence. Take your time there, consider the Lord’s supper, your baptism, the promises made then. Explore the dimensions of His love, allowing Him to relieve you of all your anxieties, your worries, your burdens, and yes your sin and shame. Then, knowing the glory of God’s love, re-enter life, assured of His presence as you walk by His side….
The Lord is with you!
(1) Chemnitz, Martin, and Jacob A. O. Preus. Loci Theologici. electronic ed. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999. Print.
(2) Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
(3) Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XIII talks of prayer as a sacrament, and if we knew it as one, maybe we would be more quickly run to it!
More or Less – A Sermon on who we are during Advent
More or Less
Matthew 11:2-15
† Jesus, Son & Savior †
As we continue our journey through Advent, my you be blessed knowing that neither God’s grace, nor His presence will ever be far from you…
Some Concern
As we hear about John sending His disciples to ask Jesus if He is truly the Christ, the Messiah, the one Chosen and set apart to save humanity, there is both comfort and concern.
The comfort comes from knowing that John’s faith was challenged, even as my faith waivers now and then. Perhaps more often it is now rather than then.
It is not uncommon to know that feeling that leads to John sending out his people to ask. Even though John knew in the womb that Jesus was the Messiah, even though John saw the Holy Spirit and Heard the Father’s voice when Jesus was baptized. Even though we sing John’s song, the words he said the day after the baptism –
“There is the Lamb of God! He who takes away the sins of the world!”
Now I can hear John crying out the words added to that liturgical hymn…. “Lord, grant me peace.”
That’s really what is behind his question about whether Jesus is the Messiah. As John sits in the dark, dank jail cell, with breaks only to confront the man who is sinning, sleeping with his brother’s wife.
“Jesus, are you truly the Messiah or do I need to find peace somewhere else.”
It’s comforting to know I am not the only one to ask that… it’s concerning because if John’s faith couldn’t withstand the challenges of life,
how can mine…?
Compared to this greatest of the prophets, the man who testified about Jesus while in his mother’s womb…. Who are you and me?
And how can we have the faith to endure?
More Concern
As the gospel goes on, as we read the words St Matthew, the insignificance of my faith seems to multiply.
As John’s disciples leave, Jesus starts to praise John to the crowds.
John wasn’t weak and hollow like a willow reed. He wasn’t spun around easily by life, or bent and broken by the storms. He wasn’t a fashion plate, he wasn’t rich and famous, yet people flocked to hear him speak, which tells us he was not just a powerful speaker, he had a message that people needed to hear, and desired too, even if it was painful!
He was a prophet, and more than a prophet.
And people came to hear him, they couldn’t stop themselves.
Jesus says that as great as John was, and no who has ever been born is greater, he can’t be compared to the least in the kingdom of God.
Ouch.
What hope does that give us?
How do we compare to the prophets of prophets?
How can he who is so much more than us, and so much less than them… Hearing that, how do we know joy, on this third day of Advent?
Listening and Understanding
To understand this, we have to listen to Jesus,
He says, about John being the fulfillment of the promise of Elijah’s return, that those who have ears to hear should listen and understand.
Understand what?
That he is our Messiah. Just as He was John’s.
It’s the same answer, the answer to John, and the answer those who listen and hear.
Hear the answer to John again,
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. 6 And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.*.’ ”
It took me a while to see it, but the answers are the same – and the challenge is seeing that Jesus is the Messiah.
Not just the He is here to save the world,
He is here to bring you and me, and every other broken person we know, into the Kingdom of God.
For those He heals and cleanses, the poor souls that hear the gospel, the good news, and cling to Him, they are the ones dwelling in the Kingdom of God.
They are those who are greater in faith than John the Baptist. “They” includes you and me.
That’s you and me, for we depend on the promises of God, that He will never leave or forsake us, that He will let nothing divided us from His love.
You and I have been raised to life with Christ, we dwell with Him.
We dwell in God’s kingdom by His invitation, by His declaration.
So we are more, even as we see ourselves as less.
We need to know this, we need to count on the fact that we are children Of God. We live in His kingdom, we can’t run from Him, because He abides within us.
He is here, he dwells with you, and though we can’t sustain our faith based on our observations, He sustains us anyway. That is why He came. That is why John/Elijah came and set up his ministry.
That is why Jesus points to his ministry, and the important prophecy about Elijah’s return, these all point to Jesus’ role as the Messiah. They point to His role as the one God sends to restore His people, to give up His life, to redeem us from the bondage of sin, to make us pure and holy in the Father’s eyes.
As the Messiah – as He is lifted up on the cross, he draws us into the Kingdom of Heaven, we become its citizens, we become the children of the King.
We are there, secure in Him, our hearts, our souls, our faith, and trust sustained, even on the dark days, for it is about His strength, His power, His love…
Love that never fades…Love that provides peace, and comfort, and when we see Him providing that love, we even know the joy that shatters the darkness. Love that we can see, through the word, as He reveals Himself in the sacrament, as He renews our spirits.
AMEN!
That Manger Has A Specific Message for You.
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God. 36Remember your relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old. 37For there is nothing that God cannot do.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary; “may it happen to me as you have said.” And the angel left her. Luke 1:35-38 TEV
18 “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see. 19 “The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God! 20 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you.
Revelation 3:18-20 (MSG)
The second (step to learning mental prayer (1) ) means to place yourself in his sacred presence is, to reflect that God is not only in the place where you are, but that He is, after a most particular manner, in your heart, nay, in the very centre of your soul, which He enlivens and animates by his divine presence, being there as the heart of your heart, and the spirit of your spirit; for as the soul, being diffused through the whole body, is present. (2)
Wednesday nights, we’ve been looking at the incarnation for something unique, as we find in the night’s darkness that is shattered by the glory of God, the reason we love Him with everything we are. As we learn why our heart, our soul, our strength and our mind cry out for his love.
Francis de Sales wrote something quite similar, which appeared in my morning devotional readings. Teaching a lady about prayer, he commented as you see above. An intimacy we each have, because of the incarnation. Just as Mary’s womb bore Jesus, just as He became incarnate there, so too does he become incarnate in the very center our soul. He comes into us, makes Himself home, so incredibly home that He intertwines himself into who we are.
Think of this, as through Mary’s umbilical cord shared her and his blood, so too our life and his life circulate within us because He is there.
That is how He “enlivens (the old quicken in the Creeds) and animates us by His presence. He clothes us, He heals, He corrects and comforts.
All because he is there, in your heart, in the depth of your soul.
He’s there, knocking at the door to you and me…for we are the people he loves. Read that second quote again, and hear His knock….and His desire to be incarnate, to be entwined in your heart and soul, to be your life blood.
May you answer, as Mary did – “may it happen to me as you have said…”
AMEN
(1) The first step is simply to that God is everywhere, and in everything.
(2) Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
Loving God With All Your Soul – The Blessing of the Incarnation.
Loving God with All Your Soul– the Blessing of Incarnation
Isaiah 61:1-10
† I.H.S. †
May Jesus’s incarnation in your life be so real, so tangible that your love for Him grows with every breath you take!
My eyes are dry…the broken soul
It seems that many people this year would describe themselves with one word.
Tired.
There may be some factors that cause us to be so weary, so many it seems like all we do is go from trial to trauma, from prayer request to prayer request. And as we talked about hearts being broken and needing Christ’s healing presence last week, the song talks about another part of us that is just worn down.
Our souls.
The part of us, that inner part that provides our courage, our character, our desire and the holiness that we need to walk through life in love with God, and to love our neighbor.
As we look at loving God as He asks, with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength, this one is hard.
When our soul is weary, when it is worn and broken, we hear the encouragement to love God, and we think about trying, and our soul cries out,
I’ve got nuthin. Nuthin.
It’s that dryness that causes us to wonder why we pray, or if God is listening, or if He cares at all. It is that dryness that causes us a spiritual exhaustion that robs us of hope, and leaves us thinking we still abide in the darkness.
He incarnation changes us… it dresses us.
Which is why we need to think about the incarnation, not just the incarnation when Mary is carrying Jesus in the womb, although contemplating that helps us contemplate His incarnation into our lives.
He came then, and angels sang. They sing as well as Jesus draws us into Himself on the cross, taking all of our sins into Himself, and cleansing us of it. He takes that dryness as well, as we understand the cross, as we understand he is not distant. He is here.
Isaiah’s second reading now makes sense –
I rejoice Heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul!
We are in Him, we abide in Him, and as we realize this, everything begins to change as well.
This is the joy we find in Advent, the restoration of our soul when we realize that Holy Spirit is there, despite our dryness, that He is here to comfort us, to restore us, to translate our prayers as Paul tells the church.
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. 28 We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26-30 (TEV)
See that?
So, even in those periods where we aren’t sure if God is listening, He is listening. Hearing and responding to the deepest cries of our heart. Even when we don’t know what to say. Even when we are too dry to say anything.
He is with us, He is here, ministering to us, assuring us of His presence. Using speed bumps to help us slow down, and know He is God, and He cares. As we realize this – so much happens, our souls come alive, as we realize His power saving us, as we are dressed in His righteousness, as He treats us as His beloved bride. Our reaction, from the deepest part of our soul, is to love Him back… with all we are.
This is why our services include the Lord’s Supper, even before our eating dinner.
Because as we commune we stop and we find ourselves giving Him everything, our burdens, our anxieties, our fears, our sins, our dryness. In his presence they actually fall off us, God removes them…as we stop and receive His blessed Body and Blood, given to us, His beloved, which strengthens our faith, helps us to depend on Him all the more, and dwell in peace. AMEN!
Do We Choose and Pursue the Unprofitable?
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
38 And he said to them, “Keep watch, and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” TEV Mark 14:38
23 “We are allowed to do anything,” so they say. That is true, but not everything is good. “We are allowed to do anything”—but not everything is helpful. 24 None of you should be looking out for your own interests, but for the interests of others.
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (TEV)
Games, balls, feasts, dress, theatres, are not evil things in their nature, but indifferent, and may be used both well and ill; yet, notwithstanding, these things are dangerous, and to have an affection for them is yet more dangerous. I say then, Philothea, that although it may be lawful to play, to dance, to advice yourself, to be present at moral dramas, and at banquets; yet to be over fond of such things is contrary to devotion, and very offensive and dangerous. It is no sin to do such things, but it is a sin to pursue them to extremes. It is a pity to sow in the garden of our heart such vain and foolish affections, which take up the room of virtuous impressions, and hinder the sap of our souls from nourishing good inclinations.
When my devotional readings harmoniously scream the same message and grab my attention, I tend to want to hide, accosted by a law which seeks to conform us to the image of Christ.
It’s too random to be random, one might say.
As I did my reading this morning, this happened. De Sales’s comments struck a chord, thought I would replace the events with other things. Hobbies, Television, “computer” games, golf, even social media, all these things can be neutral, and even positive. Moments to relax, times to share with friends (Pokemon hunting with 4 or 5 is kinda fun, and other conversations happen ) theses are all beneficial. We could add to that even our religious traditions, music, cultural identity, etc. We in the USA talk about the “pursuit of happiness”, which, divorced of the joy of God’s presence, becomes a demanding idol to pursue.
Any of these can dominate our lives (and some are programmed to!) as they become things we grow in affection for, as we grow fond of, and those feeling turn to desire, desire which enslaves us. Which is when what is permissible become unprofitable, when our desire for these things override our desire to love God, and love our neighbor.
Which sounds all too easy.
For we are like St. Peter, so desiring to follow Christ in the spirit, yet so weak. Affections for things distract us, anxieties cause us to turn away. We deny Christ, we allow our time with Him, and our time working in his kingdom to be minimized. Am I one of His? Hmmm, I will be after I do this. I’ll get back to you after I….
I am not talking about asceticism here, that too has its ability to become an affection, it too can become a form of pietism, and looking after out own self-interest. (think about the idea that those who fast should not show their hunger – but how do you do that without your own pride taking control?)
I am talking about realizing the presence of God, in our lives. I am talking about depending on Him, asking the Spirit to mold us as He would. To see others needs before our own, because God puts us in the place we are, not for our benefit, but that they would be reconciled to Him, that they would be cared for, that they would realize they are loved.
The only way to see these things put in their proper place, is to find Christ’s love so incredible, that it draws our attention. To become so enamored, so wanting to know His love, that all else fades, and is dropped asidee.
This isn’t easy…. for it means shedding those things we are overly attracted to…. to allow God to break their hold on us.
Lord have mercy on us! Help us to have no greater desire that to know your presence, and then to minister at Your side to those you bring into our life. AMEN!
Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
The Value of Life….of His Life… of our lives…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
28 “If a bull gores someone to death, it is to be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but its owner is not to be punished. 29 But if the bull had been in the habit of attacking people and its owner had been warned, but did not keep it penned up—then if it gores someone to death, it is to be stoned, and its owner is to be put to death also. 30 However, if the owner is allowed to pay a fine to save his life, he must pay the full amount required. 31 If the bull kills a boy or a girl, the same rule applies. 32 If the bull kills a male or female slave, its owner shall pay the owner of the slave thirty pieces of silver, and the bull shall be stoned to death. Exodus 21:28-32 (TEV)
14 Then one of the twelve disciples—the one named Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.
Matthew 26:14-15 (TEV)
It is a shocking thought, the value that the priests set on Jesus, was the value of a slave back in the days of Moses.
They thought Jesus’ life was worth that of a slave. The lowest of the servants. About $225 in modern money, not for a day’s hire, but the value of his entire life.
Given my understanding of math, this means they placed the value of my life at significantly less than 30 pieces of silver. Here is how it looks mathematically.
30 pieces of silver = value of Christ’s life, sold to the priests = the cost of buying back every soul that was enslaved to sin, Satan and death.
My freedom from hell, my deliverance from the guilt and shame, the chains that sin uses to strangle the life from me, that was purchased at the price of life, a price that authorities thought was only worth 30 pieces of silver.
But that is not how much value God places on our souls, on our lives.
To God, our lives, our redemption was worth more than all of His creation, it was worth the life of Jesus, His only begotten Son. The Son with whom He created everything, planned everything, the Son He loved, the Son who loved Him enough to share the value they placed on our lives.
How can it be? How am I worth that much to God? How are those people I love, and even those I hate. How can we be worth so much, that He would place such a value on us?
I can’t know, from my mortal position; from my frame of reference where I struggle to set aside sin and temptation, guilt and shame, from my position of brokenness.
I can only know, when I look to the cross, as see the joy that was set before Jesus, what caused Him to choose the cross was the love of God, Father, Son and Spirit, for me. I need to drop the other stuff, set it aside, and focus, meditate, devote myself to contemplating on this amazing love.
The love that changes me… and all others who encounter it.
The love that values me…..and values you.
Follow up: you might think about this for a while, and while you do, he’s a video that puts the words thought together well.
A Sermon Parable: Pastors and Deacons are simply Speedbumps!
Of the men I have taught and trained to be deacons, few have worked harder than Chuck, and few thought he could handle the work. Yet he is a natural, enthusiastic evangelist, one who is always sharing the love of Christ in very down home simple ways people remember. As part of his training, he delivered this sermon. ( All deacon sermons preached at Concordia are written with my oversight, assistance, and approval.) He aced this one, as people responded to its simple message, praising God for the grace, the love and mercy we’ve received. – pr. dtp
Chuck’s Parable:
Pastor, Bob and I are Speedbumps, that you Need!
† In Jesus Name †
(Take a deep breath, and silently pray, “Jesus, may the words of my heart and the thoughts of my mind be acceptable to you, and may the words reveal to these people your love” )
My prayer for you this day is that the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ draws you to them, as the Holy Spirit fills you with love and mercy. AMEN!
Introduction – Meet your speedbumps!
Part of what I learned this week has to do with verse 20 in the Old Testament. It says there,
20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins.
As pastor and I talked about these “obstacles”, I thought they were like big speedbumps. Things God puts in your way to cause you to slow down so that you stay alive. In this case, staying alive spiritually.
The pastor asked me what those obstacles, those speedbumps were.
And after a few moments, it came to me.
Pastor, and Deacon Bob and I are the speedbumps!
I kinda like that.
That’s my story, my parable today. Pastor, Bob and I are speedbumps, speedbumps you need!
We have to be pretty big speedbumps as well, for we need to slow you down enough for you to be still, and know God is God. Which means you need us to be speed bumps.
That has two parts,
Part 1
and Part 2.
So let me tell you about part 1.
part 1 – slow down, so you don’t die in your sins
The first reason I am a speed bump is to help you is to warn you about sin, and the consequences of it. That isn’t easy, or pleasant, so God helps us keep focused on it, He tells us,
17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths.
That sounds pretty serious. If I don’t remind you that the wages of sin are death, then I would be responsible for you spiritual death – not just physical death, but spiritual, eternal death.
I don’t really think I need that threat – I want you all to be in heaven because I love you. But that is what it says, maybe in case I get annoyed at you someday. (SMILE)
And if you get annoyed at me, well, I might have annoyed you about something less important before. This is important.
You need to know God takes sin seriously. We weren’t meant to live life following other Gods, or not using His name right. We aren’t supposed to murder each other or be unfaithful to our wives, or gossip about each other.
We are to love each other. And if we don’t, that is sin.
Reason #2
The second reason that Pastor, Bob and I are speedbumps in your life is to get you to slow down enough to become repentant. Repentant is not just being sorry, it means to be transformed, to be made new in our heart and mind.
That isn’t easy.
Imagine my garage is like your soul, and everything in it is your sin and unbelief.
You need to slow down, to put less and less into it, or you will not be able to walk in it. And the first reason, speedbumps slow you down. In the second reason, the speedbump gives time for the garage to be transformed. That’s a nice way of saying that God has to clean out all the stuff in our spiritual garages. He must clean out the garage so well that it is as clean as Carol’s kitchen.
That’s what we call a miracle.
Come to think of it, anyone needs a corner cabinet? Talk to me later if you do.
Oh yeah – we need to become repentant. That’s God’s work, that happens as we hear the gospel proclaimed, whether it is heard at church, or over lunch, or even in my doctor’s office.
That cleaning out is repentance, it is the change our-our heart, soul, and mind that happens because Jesus died on the cross to make it happen. He took that penalty of death that each of us deserved….
He died so that we might live eternally.
He died because the Father poured out all of his wrath, all of his anger, all of the punishment we deserve on Jesus.
So we can be cleansed, so we become not just sorry for our sins, but so we become repentant.
conclusion.
I am up here, to be your speedbump, to get you to slow down enough so that you know God’s love, to help you to slow down enough when you walk up here and kneel down, so that you are still, and as you eat the body and drink the blood of Christ you know He is God.
And I pray that Pastor, Bob and I are good speedbumps and that God will work through our preaching, our teaching and our giving you the body of Christ. Because God is working in your lives, you will know His peace, the peace of God that passes all understanding.
AMEN!
Is Your Church a Refuge Where You Can Really Pray????
Devotional Thought of the Day:
17 He then taught the people: “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for the people of all nations.’ But you have turned it into a hideout for thieves!” Mark 11:16-17 TEV
I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. 8 For the Sovereign LORD, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.”
Isaiah 56:7-8 (NLT)
Thus confession of sin is a sovereign remedy against sin itself. Contrition and confession are so precious, and have so sweet an odour, that they deface the ugliness and destroy the infection of sin. Simon the Pharisee pronounced St. Mary Magdalen a sinner; but our Saviour denied it, and speaks of nothing but of the sweet perfumes she poured on Him, and of the greatness of her charity. If we be truly humble, Philothea, our sins will infinitely displease us, because God is offended by them; but the confession of our sins will be sweet and pleasant to us, because God is honored thereby. It is a kind of consolation to us to inform the physician correctly of the disease that torments us.
As I grew up, I preferred walking into St Francis rather than St Joes, and definitely St Basil’s over Mary Queen of Peace or the Formation Center in Andover.
Not because of the priests, or because the masses were better, or because of the music was more to my liking. It wasn’t that at all. I loved the stillness, the quietness, the ability to sit and kneel before the cross, to think about the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) that we would receive, to just find peace, there in the presence of God.
The other churches were much more friendly, much more interested in you. Those churches were full and had lots of activities. But as I went into the church, I didn’t have the time, or so I thought, to settle in, to hear the silence, to be in awe of God.
Even today, as I pastor a church without a sizeable narthex, I enter the church just before service, bow at the altar, move over to the musicians, and try to catch my breath, and long for 10-15 minutes of silence. ( as much as I love our worship music, I love our quiet communion in our midweek Advent services…)
As I read the scriptures this morning and considered what it meant to be a house of prayer, I thought for a moment and wondered if they truly are….
Our churches need to be places of prayer, whether silent or sobbing, full of joy and excitement as we come to our Father and share with Him our lives. There are many forms and ways of prayer, each has their own time and place. But when scripture is talking about the church, or the Temple being a house, a home of prayer, it has something specific in mind.
Something our churches today need to be that we must be, if we are going to make a difference in our people’s lives. Whether the church is a place where 20 people gather in a storefront, or a cathedral where thousands pray.
We need to realize what that means to have a house of prayer to go to, what Isaiah is hinting at (as Mark cites him,) as he talks of sacrifices and offerings being acceptable again.
What Solomon mentioned, as God dedicates the temple by being present, and listening as Solomon prayer,
19 Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you. 20 May you watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have said you would put your name. May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. 21 May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. 2 Chronicles 6:19-21 (NLT)
If our churches are to be a place of prayer, then they need to be a place where we give God every burden we have, especially the burdens of guilt and shame, the weight that is added to the sin that we commit.
This is the prayer the temple and the church are set apart to facilitate, to make the prodigal (whether they realize they are one or not) welcome home, to dress them up again,, to help them realize they are part of the family. The ministry of reconciliation; as the incredible love of God is revealed to those who are broken. As they hear, “you, child of God, are forgiven and restored.”
By the way, this isn’t a Sunday morning thing, this should be anytime you need it, the chance to go and sit in the quiet with God, to talk to a pastor, to hear of God’s love, to leave those burdens at the altar, to walk away with your hunger for righteousness sated, to know you are loved.
That’s what it means to have a church that is a house or prayer….
May our churches be houses of prayer… may our shepherds help us pray, be relieved and overjoyed as we find out He hears us and forgives.
Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
The Devout Life: Taking Hell and Heaven Seriously
Devotional Thought of the Day:
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand! Matthew 13:41-43 (NLT)
1. O hell, I detest thee now and for evermore; I detest thy torments and pains; I detest thy miserable and accursed eternity; and, above all, I detest those eternal blasphemies and maledictions which thou dost vomit forth eternally against my God. And, turning my heart and soul to thee, O beautiful Paradise, everlasting glory and endless felicity, I choose my habitation, forever and irrevocably, within thy fair and sacred mansions, within thy holy and most lovely tabernacles. I bless thy mercy, O my God, and accept the offer which it pleaseth Thee to make me of it. O Jesus, my Saviour, I accept thy everlasting love, and I acknowledge that it is Thou who hast acquired for me a right to a place in this blessed Jerusalem, not so much for any other thing as to love and bless Thee for ever.
One of the devotional books I am using this year is De Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life. Over the last year, my sermon research has regularly included quotes from this 19th century priest, so I thought I would add it to my list, along with a deep theological text by Martin Chemnitz.
Early on, it has used the hell a significant number of times as part of the devotions; something I was surprised to see. Partially because I am not a “hell, fire and brimstone” type preacher/evangelist, trying to keep God’s Law and the Gospel in tension. Or to use a covenantal approach, making sure people understand both the curses and promises that exist in our covenant, our “contract” with God.
But as I think about our devotion to God, the reason we are drawn to Him, the reason we adore Him, it makes sense that we take both heaven and hell seriously.
Knowing what He has delivered us from creates some of the devotion, it gives us a reason to adore Him. Over 25 years ago, I had a cardiac arrest. I can still remember who it was who did CPR till the doctors got there. I remember who was in my ICU room (even though I was sedated) Those moments of coming back to life are indeed precious to me. Those people I will always feel a special way towards.
SO much more so when we meditate on the hell we deserve because we choose disobedience, rebellion and sin rather that walking with God. As believers to look back and know what we deserve, yet His love changes all that! As we consider what we deserve yet are rescued from, our devotion, our adoration,, our hunger to worship Jesus grows.
As we adore Him, let us look to our future as well, and to what God does in our lives at this moment. For the heaven that we can know only in part is glimpsed in this life, ever so briefly.
Otherwise, heaven is too great a concept for our minds, our hearts, and souls to contemplate. But in the eyes of a sinner, freed as they realize the mercy and love of God, the comfort that settles on one who mourns, the relief as a beloved prodigal walks back into the life of a church they left behind.
These are glimpses of heaven….just as when we see someone claimed by God in their baptism, or we eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus.
As we consider the reality of both heaven and hell; as we realize the enormous difference between them, our hearts will cry out, glorifying the Lord who delivered us from Hell and into Heaven.
This we need, we so need….. and it changes everything….
As our cry of Hosanna (Lord Save Us!) and Kyrie Eleison are proven answered!
Francis de Sales, Saint. An Introduction to the Devout Life. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1885. Print.
