Monthly Archives: August 2025
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 5: Work Priorities–A sermon on Luke 14:1-14
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 5: Work Priorities
Luke 14:1-14
† IHS †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ embrace you as your priotities in life begin to reflect Jesus’ priorities!
I wanna Do it My way!
There is an old phrase that comes into play when children go to work with their dads. It is that someone grew to big for their britches
You know the attitude, when the child tells God they know exactly how to get the work done, and they don’t need the Father, or their God’s direction or oversight
I can hear the cries…
“I can do it…!!!!”
“I know what I’m doing..”
And of course the famous, “I did it my way!!!”
Yeah, I remember a couple of projects I did my way…. I am amazed my dad let me – and even more amazed he didn’t laugh over the completed work….
The biggest lessons I would learn in those moments was that there was an order to do things, a priority, and that usually included doing the hardest and most challenging thing first.
In today’s gospel, there is a couple of priorities set by Jesus, or priorities reset by Jesus.
Higher Priority – People over Practices
The first priority is seen at the home of the one of the chief pharisees.
There’s a man there in pain, and it time for fellowship after they had worshipped together, they are ignoring him. I don’t know how long he’s had edema, but I know the pain the man was enduring. His issue was caused by a poorly functioning heart, which gathers in the legs and chest to cause more tension so that blood can return to the heart. Edema is a symptom, but it makes it harder to walk, harder to do anything – and as it turns to congestive heart failure, it can result in a brain fog.
And the poor guy is all but ignored by the pharisees.
Jesus notices him, not just like, ‘there’s Joe,’ but, ‘there’s Joe, and he’s in a lot of pain!” I Compelled to do something, Jesus also realzies that he can help—and yet there are other hearts that need to be healed.
Other hearts that are struggling and under pressure, and whose answer to Jesus’s question about healing on the Sabbath, shows that they are in a fog as well. They were so focused on proving their holiness, by keeping all the rules – God and their own, that they forget about God. Their hearts were far from them, and the harder they worked to keep the rules, the more pressure they put on their heart and soul.
They had spiritual edema!
Instead, excess water being stored in their legs, they had so much that caused them to lose focus on God’s love. You see pharisees and those who were “experts in the law” knew more, and tried to live life perfectly, and they added all these rules that would prevent them from accidently breaking any commandment. If you’ve ever seen the Jewish people who were all black, have the really cool hats and the men have long rair with ringlets – the are Hassidic, the modern Pharisees who say they keep the law. They would even tithe their spice rack, Jesus said “23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Matthew 23:23 (NLT2) Can you imagine yelling at your ids or your parents for interrupting your count of garlic salt and dividing one in 10 grains to give to the church kitchen?
A lot of those rules were attempts to keep safe the Lord’s name, and to keep holy the Sabbath.
When they wer faced with a decision not covered by their rules, scripture says, “they could not answer…”
Jesus’ didn’t just heal the man with physical edema. He would die to heal them of their spiritual edema to do, as he promised through Ezekiel. “26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NLT2)
That is the promise of baptism, what starts as God claims us as His own and cleanse us of all sin…
That new heart gets rid of all the edema, and more importantly it heals the cause of it. In the process, we see others with spiritual edema – and we want to see them find the cure we do… and that is more a priority…than our man-made rules and routines.
Prioritizing People
Even as we look at how Jesus teaches us to prioritize people’s hearts and souls over the the systems and structures we have put in place, He also teaches us how to prioritize people.
It starts by talking about our own place in the world, and not assuming we get the best position—even though God promises we are His prized possession, but like Jesus leaving heaven, embracing the lower position isn’t a big deal.
Nor is making sure you have done proper networking, making sure you get all the “best” people over for dinner. Jesus said it this way,
12 Then he turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. 13 Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
The cool thing is you, when you do such things, are doing what Jesus did. Giving up, even sacrificing the easy life, ot make sure those with edema, or spiritual edema, are taken care of, even it is takes a little more effort. Some of those are physically disabled, but look out as much for those who are spiritually disabled, cripped by past experiences, blinded to the truth.
In need of a healer, in need of Jesus.
For once we in need of His healing… and most of us still are. But He is here, caring for us. As we go to work, as we do things the Father’s way, we find ourselves caring for them, as they, like we, are to be His work of art, created anew in Christ Jesus. AMEN.
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 4: Make Room for ‘Em All! A sermon on Psalm 50:1-15
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 4: Make Room for ‘Em All!
Psalm 50:1-15
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ assure you of your place in His kingdom, even us others join our “going to work” with our Heavenly Father!
Siblings Joining us at Work!
As we’ve been using the parable of God taking you, His child to work with you, we come to this amazing passage from Psalm 50, A glorious passage that describes all of humanity gathered around God the Father, revealed in all His glory, as we see and feel and know and are united by His glorious love!
I think back to the first time I went to work with my dad, he was remodeling an apartment owned by one of my uncles. I think all I did that day was hold my dad’s hammer – but I was excited to go, having heard from brother all the great things he got to do. (My father was smart enough to not have me ever do those things!) And we were guaranteed to go to Howard Johnson’s on the way home and wreck our dinner by having and ice cream sundae, or a root beer float or a malt frappe.
I later understood my brother’s attitude, when my dad started bringing my sister, and leaving either Steve or I at home. There was a certain… jealousy, a certain territorialism, a certain attitude caused by having to share my dad’s attention. Heck the attitude still exists… a little.. notice who ended up with the hammer?
In fact, the attitude of my brother and I can be seen in the people of God in today’s Psalm—as people worshipped God, as they worked with Him, but they didn’t get what this was all about…just going through the motions.
It’s not our motions- but why?
As I looked at the judgment of God on His people, I was shocked to see them praised at first. God declares,
“O Israel: I am God, your God! 8 I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.”
When it comes to Israel in the Old Testament, this is about the highest praise they received. They were always messing up worship and the sacrificial system—offering the wrong thing, or offering it to an idol instead of to God, doing for the first time the actions that God described to Moses and Abraham in Leviticus.
In other words, they done good!.
But they didn’t.
Like my brother and I, they went through the motions, but their heart wasn’t in it. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what the problem was,
“But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. 10 For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.”
It seems to me that they got the impression that they were doing all this work for God – that he couldn’t have a good life unless they did that part.
That would be like me thinking my role, holding my dad’s hammer, was essential to his work.
Imagine thinking that God would go hungry if Israel didn’t sacrifice the right animal and grill it the right way! Yep, God couldn’t run the universe without me!
As God shakes His head, and has to chastise His people once again.
It’s as naïve as me carrying the hammer and thinking that work as hard as my dad, and I absolutely necessary,,,,
No wonder Steve and I were irritated when we realized my sister could carry the hammer!
Be Thankful – and Let Me Be Your God!
Instead of making worship and the Christian life all about our work, all about all we “sacrifice” for God, look at what the Psalm focuses upon.
“14 Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. 15 Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
Three things we can do, and all of it is focused on Jesus.
First -be thankful. Realize that God wants to spend time with us, He wants to share in the great joy of seeing “all humanity” gather and realize His love that shines because it is glorious. Our lives are ones where we are aware of what God has done in saving us, and in what He is doing in our lives each day.
It’s like my brother and I, admiring the work my dad accomplished. We are there, and we see Him at work, as He crafts new lives from those once damaged by sin.
Second, we do what He asks us, to love, to forgive, to even sacrifice as God works through us, to summon all humanity. Basically, our vow is to hold the hammer, to keep God company, to learn from Him, as we learn on the job what it means to love…
And lastly, we bring God glory when we call on Him, as we get ourselves in trouble. That could be like me dropping my hammer, and shattering a floor tile, or my brother using the saw and not cutting the 2 by 4 straight. Or in our case, whatever commandment we broke—from having a false idol, to murdering and being unfaithful to our spouse or stealing or gossiping.
It is in those times, as God comforts and consoles us, as He fixes up the mess we’ve made our lives, as we cry out “Lord—have mercy!
It is then we see our Father smile, for at least this moment, we recognize our need to be there with Him, for Him to still minister to us, for Him to still forgive us, for the cross to have meaning, as our sin is forgiven because of another hammer, the one that nailed Jesus to the cross, that we might die with Him, and be raised to life with Him. As we are joined by people from all humanity…as we live with Him.
AMEN!
The Other Plans of God for you… from Jeremiah 18
Thoughts which carry me, kicking and screaming, to Jesus, and to the Cross..
“But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’ ”” (Jeremiah 18:10–12, NET)
952 A disciple of Christ can never think as follows: “I try to be good; as for others, if that’s what they want… let them go to hell.” Such an attitude is not human. Nor is it in keeping with the love of God, or with the charity we owe our neighbour.
Without a doubt the most quoted verse from Jeremiah is found in 29:11, “I know what I have planned for you,’ says the LORD. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NET) I have heard it used at ordinations and church plants, at weddings and even as a motivational verse for sports teams. I have heard people share it with others going through hard times, as if the plans they think God has in mind start right now, changing trauma into joy, because everything is going to work out, not ust fine, but perfectly! (and of course, we want to be in change of determining what the perfect life style is!)
The problem is that those plans in 29 aren’t the only plan God laid out for His people. And if we are going to trust him to fulfill 29:11, then we need to look carefully at the other plans Jeremiah lays out – like those in my devotion today, “I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing.”
Gulp! It is going to take some work to see these plans as compatible, to welcome Jeremiah 18 and let it bring us the same comfort and peace tat 29 does. For scripture has to be consistent, so, somehow these plans must be compatible! If they are, we have to look forward to the one as much as the other. But how can we do so?
How can we look forward to plans which would punish us, that would cause us to seek the Spirit, and the gift of repentance? For only if God is using these plans to call back His people, that would get their attention so that they could realize the futility of their lives.
To not punish, that would be far more harmful. To not call us into the repentance He offers, that would be the most violent thing God could do.
This attitude of God needs to infect our lives as well.
We need to carefully love our neighbor, loving them enough to work for their salvation, caring and loving them enough to do whatever is possible to see them in heaven, and see them sent to hell. St. Josemaria is correct – it neither living and loving God or loving our neighbor to just write them off.
This is who we are becoming in Christ.
AMEN!
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Forge (pp. 197-198). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Faith is Nothing Less than Intimacy with God…
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to His cross…
“For,’ I say, ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah tightly to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. But they would not obey me.” (Jeremiah 13:11, NET)
I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day. ALBERT CAMUS
I think it might shock some of us profoundly if we were suddenly brought face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the forges of practical living. How many professing Christians boast in the Lord but watch carefully that they never get caught fully depending on Him? Pseudo-faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God “fails.”
What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians prepared to trust God as completely now as they must do at the last day! For each of us, the time is surely coming when we shall all have nothing but God! To the men of pseudo-faith, that is a terrifying thought!
For true faith, it is either God or total collapse, and not since Adam first stood up on the earth has God failed anyone who trusted Him! We can prove our faith by our committal to it—and in no other way!
It almost sounds silly to compare the intimacy God desires to a pair of tight-fitting underwear. Heck it almost seems blasphemous!
But that is how our Lord wants us to be, so…
The reason for it is seen in Tozer’s work, for his words about dependence on God parallel the experience of the people of Israel and Judah. We want a distant faith, with an escape clause for when our faith fails and we do not, perhaps even cannot, see God being faithful to His promises. Tozer and Camus both point to the day when there is nothing else left but Jesus! Camus goes farther… identifying that day as today.
We need to recognize the intimacy that God not only desires, that He offers at the Cross in baptism, and as He tenderly and with great precision cuts away all our sins as He washes us clean, and as He feeds us His Body and Blood at the altar. This is the God who gives us His word, His promises, and would have us cling to Him, and the hope He provides.
It is such a powerful concept, this intimate relationship that God desires, that the greatest example provides a bit of laughter, a lighthearted but deeply challenging thought.
You and God – as close and as intimate as your underwear!
And from that intimacy comes the faith and trust necessary to live, in this life, through the judgment, into eternity.
You and God, underwear and body – as inseparable as it gets!
AMEN!
Shelley, M. (1986). Helping those who don’t want help (Vol. 7, p. 13). Christianity Today, Inc.; Word Books.
Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2008). Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers.
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day: Week 3: The Family Business, a sermon on Hebrews 11:32-12:3
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 3: The Family Business
Hebrews 11:32-12:3
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ strength your trust in them, as it did all of His family throughout history!
Dad, I Can’t…
As we continue our journey of life in Christ, as we conitnue to compare it to God taking us to work like dad’s took their kids to work we come to an interesting passage in Hebrews,
One that desribes those our Father in heaven worked with before, those He raised up before, those He gave His Spirit too, empowering them and guiding them in the work He was doing.
It doesn’t help us that some have named chapter 11 as the Hall of Faith, as if these older and brothers of ours were superheroes, and we were the little brothers and sisters who looked up to them, wanting to be like them, and thinking that would be miraculous.
I mean, look around, not many of us have the physique of Samson, or the holiness of Samuel or the myriad of abilities and talents of King David. Those guys are heroes, holy, talented, able to withstand the most challenging of times—I mean hear what they did..
33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword.
And how they could embrace suffering,
But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. 36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.
I mean if we had to suffer like that, I would hope we would be like this..
But, too often I’II look at these hero’s and look at what God asks us.. and I tell him, “I can’t do that…” I feel the same way I did when my dad asked me to carry a couple of 12 foot long 2×4’s from the van to the house. I tried to pick up from one side. Not knowing how to pick them up in the middle and blance them om my shoulder.
We need to hear this line out of the middle of the passage, “Their weakness was turned to strength.”
Weights that impede us from running with endurance
If you try to carry a 2×4 or a board from one end, you will never be able to do it – the weight of the wood will bear to heavily on you. You won’t be able to carry/drag the weight very far. It will wipe you out.
The same thing goes for spiritual weights, they wreck our endurance…. Hear agin from Hebrews, “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
Notice that sin isn’t the only weight, but it is “especially” important to toss away. Other you could ad our anxieties, fears, doubts, but really, all those go back to the idea of sin. It’s going to hurt to when I say this at first, but hear it out..
Most of our issues do get back to sin…even if it is simply the sin of not letting God be our God. That’s the one I am guilty of the most, as I try to play God, trying to lift the board by one end and wearying myself out too quickly, too completely.
Scripture is clear – strip off that weight!
Don’t let it trip you up!
Look to Jesus.
Here is the key to carrying our burdens,
“2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”
Please hear that correct – he initiates and perfects our fatih.
Not our faithfulness – he initiates and perfects our faith, our trust in His – in the work He did at the Father’s command.
If we look at Jesus – we realize He picked up our burdens.
He carries them to the cross, they were dealt with there, and now, raised to life with Him, He carries us
If we are concentrating on what we can or cannot do, we lose sight of what Jesus has done. We are along for the journey, we travel by looking and trusting in what He did.
Again – Jesus initiates and completes our trust in Him, not our faithfulness.
It’s the entire reason He came, and here is what is amazing –
It was for joy set before him that He did it! For the joy of carrying us home, he carried our sin.
It was for the joy set before Him that endured the betrayals, from Adam and Eve, through Cain, and all those people mentioned in the chapter. They had faith in God, not in their faithfulness.
They found His strength in the midst of their own weakness, and learned to depend on God – who is their strength. Who is our strength, when we are at our weakest point.
And so we get to the bottom line,
“3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
there is a secret to living in Christ, to working alongside of the Father in seeing people made perfect and mature in Christ—it is found in thinking about what Jesus has done for us, does with us.
And as He is perfecting our faith, as He has for every member of our faith family. He will sustain us, and carry us, and those whom follow…
Amen!
The Age of the Church Plant is Over in the USA
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross:
“But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed. All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the LORD caused the sin of all of us to attack him. He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. He was led away after an unjust trial— but who even cared? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded.” (Isaiah 53:4–8, NET)
“Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.” (Ephesians 5:1–2, NET)
The first work that blessed Francis undertook, after he had gained his freedom from the hands of his carnally-minded father, was to build a house of God. He did not try to build a new one, but he repaired an old one, restored an ancient one. He did not tear out the foundation, but he built upon it, always reserving to Christ his prerogative, although unaware of it, for no one can lay another foundation, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus
959 When they take their little children in their arms, mothers—good mothers— make sure they do not have any pins in their clothes which could hurt them. When we deal with souls, we should have the same gentleness, together with all the determination required.
It was nearly 30 years ago that I was told, “just close the church, start a bunch of Bible Studies and re-open the church in 6 or 9 months with a new name.”
So said my mentors, experts in planting churches and in church growth. The church under discussion had diminished to the point where attendance could be counted on two hands and a foot, and all but my wife and I were over 70.
11 years later I was told – don’t accept the call to that church, it will kill you and it will die within 2-3 years. The people are too broken, too argumentative, too divided. No pastor can change that. DON’T TAKE IT.
Yesterday, I saw a young pastor suggesting that such “dead” churches can find growth by simply becoming a “church plant”, and using the same strategies that you would if you were starting from scratch.
What I believed in my young naivete, I know now to be true. Do that, and you will have a nice empty building to sell, and underwrite more church planting failures.
What if, instead of forcing their hand, writing the old guard of the church off and running them off, we actually imitated Christ in their presence. What if we joined them in their brokenness and carried it to Jesus with them? What if we lived in love for them, sacrificing what is needed, and didn’t care if the rest of the world noticed? What if we treated them with the pastoral care that a mother has for her little children.
Francis didn’t try to build a new church, but rebuild the ancient one. These churches that once thrived and were community centers. welcoming broken people and offering them life in Christ. Oddly enough, that church is still there, centuries later, still pointing to Jesus, still telling people their sins are forgiven, still giving out the sacraments. It’s “life-cycle” didn’t end at 40 years, its meaningful ministry keeps going.
I firmly believe the age of church planting is over. What we need in the USA and Europe is too rebuild on the ancient foundations of Christ. It will take sacrifice, it will mean joining people in their brokenness, it will means ministry…and prayer,
SO be it.
Escrivá, Josemaría. Furrow (p. 162). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (p. 230). New City Press.
Life: God’s version of Take Your ChIld to Work Day” – Set Up to Succeed – A sermon on Luke 12:22-34
Life: God’s version of Take Your Child to Work Day”
Set Up to Succeed
Luke 12:22-34
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ remove from you all anxieties and fears, as you go with Him about His work, every day!
-Was there stress going to work with Dad?
As we look at the idea of God taking his children to his work, to learn His craft, to work side by side with him. As I look back on those days, I realized something was missing from working with my dad. Something that has been part of every workplace I have ever have been at.
That lovely thing called stress….
Or maybe call it anxiety, or we simply worry about work.
I don’t remember that kind of stuff, as I worked alongside my dad, there was just the work. At least for the children that accompanied their dads—what their dads are going through is a different matter.
For us, being away from our normal world of school, the chance to be with our dad, and share in His work made for a day to be savored and enjoyed.
Just like we should savor and enjoy going to work with our Heavenly Father sd we daily go to work with Him.
What Stresses us out? Why?
When I was running bookstores, we have two kinds of audits, our annual audit by our company’s internal auditors, and several times a year, our regional managers did, called “zero defect” audits. Even though 2 of the 3 RM’s I worked with were really nice, sweet people, the specter of their audits haunts me even to this day.
The auditors from Chicago could be bluffed, could be distracted, they didn’t know us well enough to know where to look. They just knew they couldn’t go homne without finding something… so we would leave one little error…aand then thery would smile and go “gotcha” and then we would take them to lunch in Malibu. Anna and Peter though, knew us and our staff, and knew our weak points. And as they wanted us to succeed, that is where they focused their attention
Look at the gospel, here are the points where Jesus knew we were weak:
Fhe first area is large – “everyday life” and includes the really big things – where we will live and what we eat, or whether we will have good looking clothes, whether we we live to 100, or merely 61. We aren’t going to add time to our life just by worrying.
But we do it!
I do it all the time, and this week was harder than most. Between my surgery and needing more students, and the stresses of watching people in pain all around me, it was really easy for me to lose track of working with God!
Mark Jennins used to ask my why we need to, as pastors, live in the middle of our sermon. That is me this week. How do you balance all of this? How do we adress all the what ifs and what if it doesn’t…. And we consumed by our fears, urworries, our anxieties and doubts. TO the point where we are not thinking clearly.
And Jesus says
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—
We know this, we believe it, so why are we unable ot stop the stuff that chase us in the night? Does that mean we are failures, does that mean we don’t believe God? Or that we get His promises wrong…
Then Jesus goes on, and says, “25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 26 And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
And I feel nearly condemned, like the apostles did when Jesus confronts them with, “You have so little faith!”
Been there, done that, and to be honest – it is exhausting – physically, emotionally, spiritually….and if not careful, it can paralyze us, dividing us from those we love and care about…forgetting God put them there… to pray and support us in times like this!
Why can’t life be like when our dad or mom took us to work, and we just did the work they delegated, and enjoyed their company? Why can’t I just enjoy seeing what God is doing, and just relax – counting on His promises/
- Where does faith come in?
When Anna and Peter gave their seemingly brutal debriefing on the zero defect audit, there was something different than the games played with the auditors from Chicago. Those guys didn’t care, it was their job to point out what was wrong. Anna and Peter however, had more invested in us – their success was judged by how we improved – their bonuses tied in part to it. For them to succeed, for them to hit their goals, we had to improve!
They had to invest in us.
Jesus would have us look at how the Father invests in their world. The beauty He creates, the care He takes of birds and wildflowers. All these little things, that he barely cares about, that He created four our enjoyment,
If he takes such care of these things, how will God take care of that which He cares the most for – the people He calls His children.
Jesus says don’t worry, and often I hear that part and get fixated on that…and let it be addded to the weight of the day…
But Hear it in context.
Don’t worry about such things. 30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. 31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.
Hear that….the Father knows what we need!
As we work with Him, we can concentrate on the tasks at hand, knowing He is there to make it work, to cause us to grow, to help us succeed. He would rid us of every little thing that would hinder us, that would cause us worry.
After all, Christ didn’t die on the cross to provide for ravens and daffodils. He died on the cross for us, to forgive our sins, to bring us to the Father, and we get to go to work with Him!
We still do the work, but with a freedom that God is in control, that He is the one who promises that all will work for good for those of us who love Him.
That freedom is what allows us to set a different se of priorities, focusing on things of heaven, realizing our treasure is there, with Him. AMEN!
The Church isn’t supposed to convert people! It has a greater task!
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus and to the Cross
“For this reason I kneel before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14–19, NET)
953 I think it is very natural for you to want the whole world to know Christ. But start with the responsibility of saving the souls of those who live with you and sanctifying each one of your fellow workers or fellow students. That is the principal mission that the Lord has entrusted to you.
Just as the early Church did not attempt to save its existence either by trying to make a concordat with Nero, Domitian, and Decius, or by stirring up a revolution against these tyrants, or by making an alliance with the Persian Empire, but simply by confessing the truth of the Gospel and building up a truly confessing Church whose members were prepared to die for the faith, so Luther and the early Lutheran Church confined themselves to do what the Church, according to its nature as an ordinance of God, can and ought to be doing.
There is a desire in most churches to see the world saved, I will never doubt that. But i think our idea of salvation is weak, and it confuses the ministry we are to share in as the church. I think St. Josemaria’s words here are profound – evangelism isn’t about what missionaries we send out do — it is about what we are doing in our communities, within our family structures, within the places where we live. Our work places, our doctor’s offices, and the stores we shop.
We are the evangelists, the missionaries, sent by God to this place–whereever you are reading this–and if you look around–there are plenty of people who trust in God, who don’t know Him. That’s why Sasse said that Luther and the early church weren’t content with becoming the state church-they had a mission – what the church was to be focused upon–what they were willing to die for… and did.
And it is not about making “converts.”
Not at all…
Look at what Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus…conversion wasn’t the experience he prayed for the church in Ephesus.
He prayed for them to experience the Love of God – to be filled with that which goes beyond any measure, that which cannot be fully explained. To encounter and experience the love of God who created us, and re-creates us in His image. When they do, a change certainly occurs, but not one generated by man. It is only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit! Get used to that, it is not us that converts people, we simply reveal the love of God, the very reason we have hope.
And it is so valuable a experience that martyrs across time have willingly given up their lives if it would help their captors know this love of God.
That is our mission – that is the good news we share with those whom we know, whom we love, and hate and are even indifferent towards..
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Escrivá, Josemaría. Furrow (p. 161). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Sasse, H. (2001). This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (pp. 203–204). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 1: Time to Get Ready – A sermon on Colossians 3:1-10
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 1: Time to Get Ready
Colossians 3:1-10
† I.H.S. †
May the grace, mercy and peace of God be yours, as you labor in the faith, rejoicing as God brings His lost home!”
Robert Webber, the great modern expert on Liturgy wrote, “The purpose of worship is not only to glorify God by celebrating the work of his Son but also to assimilate in our own lives the pattern of dying to the sin that Christ died to destroy and rising to the new life that Christ rose from the dead to inaugurate.”
It’s an interesting thought, and it goes with the theme of the next 8 weeks. Whereas his statement is more from our perspective, we are going to look at how God assimilates us into this pattern of Christ’s death, resurrection and eventual ascension….as we begin to live life in the way that God has chosen for us, a life filled with love, and peace and mercy.
The way we are going to picture that goes back to an old practice, where dad’s would take their boys to work with them, so they could learn two things. One, to introduce them to a potential career, and two, to respect their father’s hard work.
It’s too bad the practice has been pretty much forgotten, or because of insurance and OSHA rules, stopped!
Some of my friends’ families really got into it, even make the children clothes that would resemble their dad’s – making them “twins” for the day! Some of my friends loved it, the banker’s son had to wear a suit, the police Lt.’s son had a uniform—complete with BB gun, the fireman and doctor’s kids dressed up to…
The only friend I had that didn’t like that day, was the kid whose dad owned the septic tank cleaning company…he had a crappy day…
Each and every morning you and I wake up, God is taking us to His work, to learn how and what He’s doing in the world, and teaching us to do the same work, as we learn how, and grow even more in our adoration and respect for Him.
So, it’s time to get ready, and for today, we will look at the very beginning fo the day, and getting ready, getting dressed to go to work, with Dad.
Get undressed
Unless you are a pre-school teacher or maybe an elementary school teacher, most of us don’t go to work in pajamas or whatever we wear to bed…. and I think that’s a good thing!
Can you imagine if Deacon Bob was wear his flannel “spidey” pajamas under his role?
But the first step in “getting ready for work,’ is leaving the clothes of the night, behind.
Paul says, “5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
The phrase for “you have stripped off” is the based on the word “dyo”, to undress, to shrink out of, to remove.
The clothing of the darkness, the clothing of the night, needs to be removed, before we can get ready for work. We have to be stripped of it, it has to be removed, no matter the cost.
But look at what’s being removed…
The sinful matter described in these verses. It starts with desires and sexual immorality and all that goes with it, the desires, and it moves on to the bad stuff, uncontrolled anger, bad behavior – in fact, the word “bad” is the word for human waste product, the stuff they make fertilizer from. The list goes on and includes slander —what we term gossip today, and dirty or inappropriate language.
All that stuff has to be done away with, like the pajamas that are tossed in the hamper in the morning – they have to be put aside, even as Paul says, put to death. This is not only so we can go to work with God – but that we can live with Him.
The challenge is that we can’t – those stupid sins stick to us worse pajamas after a humid night in the 90s…. or some people stick to their bed despite 6 or 12 alarms going off!
The gospel begins as God causes us to rise out of bed, shrug off the pajamas, and He cleanses us like a steaming shower…
And now that we are cleansed, the gospel dresses us up… and get us ready to go to work…with dad.
Getting Dressed.
The same word that has a negative to it to make “undress” appears again- without the negative. Paul writes, “10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”
It is interesting that where as the behaviors of the old nature, the pajamas, the clothes worn in darkness are well documented, the behaviors to be expressed as we are clothed in Christ, as we are made ready.
We don’t have to describe the behaviors, the actions of those who are dressed with the nature of Jesus, because God walks with us, He guides us, He causes us to love and serve those who are different, those who are broken, those who lives the world has tossed aside, or glorified fro the wrong reasons.
To me this is the most amazing thing about God taking us to work –the complete change he works within us, the unbelievable peace and love that fill our lives, as we live in Christ with God our Father.
This is seen in Paul’s words to the council of Athens,. 28 For in him we live and move and exist.’ Acts 17:27-28 (NLT2)
This idea of is expressed as we are told to put on Christ, that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, the we are in fellowship with God, that He will never leave or forsake us.
And He takes us to work every day, that we might share in His joy when He shows us how He saves, heals and equips others just like us… and the learn that when Jesus rose from the dead, we did as well, to share in His life, and His dad’s work.
AMEN!
