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Will You Let His People Come?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘This is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says, “Let my people go, so that they can hold a feast in my honour in the desert.” ‘ Exodus 5:1 (NJB)
1 It is taught among us that the sacraments were instituted not only to be signs by which people might be identified outwardly as Christians, but that they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us for the purpose of awakening and strengthening our faith.
2 For this reason they require faith, and they are rightly used when they are received in faith and for the purpose of strengthening faith. (1)
Hear, Lord, my prayer; let not my soul faint under Thy discipline, nor let me faint in confessing unto Thee all Thy mercies, whereby Thou hast drawn me out of all my most evil ways, that Thou mightest become a delight to me above all the allurements which I once pursued; that I may most entirely love Thee, and clasp Thy hand with all my affections, and Thou mayest yet rescue me from every temptation, even unto the end (2)
Although the sacred liturgy is above all things the worship of the divine Majesty, it likewise contains much instruction for the faithful34. For in the liturgy, God speaks to His people and Christ is still proclaiming His gospel. And the people reply to God both by song and prayer. (3)
All of the above readings are selections of my devotional reading, and they all have one thing in common. The people of God were responding to His love, to His call, to be in His presence.
For as people come into His presence, as they are made aware of His love, as they begin to understand it, something wonderful happens. Augustine describes this transition so clearly and begs God to help preserve it. It is a state of being where we are completely freed from anxiety, from guilt and shame, and we find rest in God’s presence.
The Augsburg Confession describes how the sacraments help bring about this awareness, as do the writings of Vatican II. That the liturgy brings this awareness out, as God’s love is revealed through the word, delivered in the sacraments. It is in these events that our faith is surely strengthened, our love of God and each other grows.
So now to the Bible passage – the Pharoah, who will hear these words from God over and over.
“Let my people go!” Put slightly differently, “Let my people come and feast with me.” It’s not a request from God to Pharoah. It’s not a suggestion. Pharoah will pay for his obstinance, for his attempt to block the will of God.
I sometimes wonder if the church is acting more like the Pharoah than it is acting like Moses.
We hold people back from coming into God’s presence. We won’t let them go, and feast with God. Consider…
* We don’t let them go when we put man-made systems and rules in place, which then deny them the desire God is putting in their hearts.
* We don’t let them go when we think they aren’t interested, or won’t bother, and we leave them in the suffering slavery of sin. ( Israel wanted nothing to do with Moses a couple of times in the process, remember?)
* We don’t let them go when we think they aren’t the right kind of people. (Check out Ex. 12:38 it wasn’t only the Israeli’s that were counted among the people of God in the Exodus!)
* What kept running through my mind during the devotion is that we don’t let them go, when we let our fears and anxieties stop us from letting them come among us, the people of God. Those who are fleeing violence, or drugs or war. When we tell them, hundreds of thousands of you in need aren’t worth the risk
In this last case, I am saddened by the number of church folk, people who claim to follow Jesus. As He is being lifted up by missionaries “on the ground” working with those refugees and they are coming to know God’s love, we are sending them a different message with our posts that they aren’t welcome, by the political leaders comments that we share, men who say just shut the borders down completely, and offer no option to helping those in need. We are showing those in dire need that we are more afraid of man than we can trust and obey in God.
We won’t let them come, because of fear. We won’t let them come to a place where they will hear of Jesus and find out about his love. We won’t let them come and feast with them.
Are we any different than Pharoah?
Read the blue, green and purple words again, and remember what Jesus said about if He is lifted up, he will draw all men to himself.
Reach out to all around you, and help them come to know Jesus.
One last thought, from last Sunday’s reading from the Old Testament
And those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever. Daniel 12:3b (NLT)
It is time to shine, people of God, and find out there are far more os us, than we ever thought, as God draws people to Himself. AMEN
(1) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 35–36). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
(2) Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
(3) Catholic Church. (2011). Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
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.
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!
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.
Another year, another step, an incredible look at God’s glory, and hopefully a greater dependance on Him.
Devotional thought of the day:
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.10 He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people* did not accept him.12 iBut to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 *j who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh* and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory,the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. Jn 1:9–14 NABRE
I will seek Thee, Lord, by calling on Thee; and will call on Thee, believing in Thee; for to us hast Thou been preached. My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.
This sacred Council has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church. The Council therefore sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy.
As we can see in the lives of such individuals, faith is a kind of passion, or, more correctly, a love that seizes an individual and shows him the direction he must go, however fatiguing it may be—the spiritual equivalent, perhaps, of a mountain to climb, which to the ordinary Christian would seem foolish indeed but to one who has committed himself to the venture is clearly the only direction to take—a direction he would not exchange for any conceivably more comfortable one.
5 We should have preferred, and we besought and petitioned the Almighty, that our churches and schools might have been preserved in the teaching of God’s Word and in agreeable Christian concord and that they might have been well managed and carried on in a Christian fashion and in harmony with God’s Word, as they were while Dr. Luther was alive
I started a journey a year ago, and today I start a new one.
The journey began by adding to my devotional reading several things. The Bible, using a translation I like called the New Living Translation, The Book of Concord, which I read twice, The Documents of Vatican II, the Edicts of the Council of Trent, and as I went on I added a devotional called the Co-Workers of the Truth, a very pastor devotional book composed of the writings of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.
It was an interesting journey, one which unexpectantly opened up a new category for my devotional blog. It is called Augsburg and Trent, but simply is where I see the Lutheran Church (once called the Evangelical catholic Church ) and the Roman Catholic Church (referred to recently as the Evangelical Catholic Church by George Wiegel and others) holding a pastoral application of doctrine together… or more together than I would have thought.
I will do a similar journey this year, dropping the writings of Trent, and adding two earlier sources, that of the writings of Augustin and Patrick. Augustine’s because is writings were the basis of a lot of what Luther wanted to see the church reform to, at least according to Him. Also, Calvin points to him often, and I’ve heard scholars describe his Christian faith as simple. Patrick because I am curious about the dude. A strong theologian by all accounts, and a noted missionary/apostle. Both writers write from a time of the earlier church, and in times where God’s love was revealed to many.
The goal is simple – not much different than the quotes above. To seek Christ as Augustine desires, and to call upon Him in faith. As Vatican II urges, to learn to given people a new energy and desire to examine the height and depth of God’s love which will impact their very lives. As Cardinal Ratzinger writes, to create the passion and love for God in my own life and the life of His people. Finally, as the Book of Concord writes, to have for the people a perspective that produces in believers a life like Christ’s, lived in harmony with scripture.
Such a journey is worth the time, (probably about 45-60 minutes a day) if indeed I can help us realize the truth that the Apostle John notes, that Jesus dwells among us, and to help us see His glory, finding in it the mercy, the love and the peace we so desperately need.
And yes, I will continue to blog where I find ideas that strike me, that challenge me and cause me to grow in understanding of God’s love for us, and communicating that to others. And I would love the comments and discussions that come from these thoughts.
Thanks for reading… and encouraging me to record my journey… Godspeed
Rev. Dustin T. (d.t.) Parker
Pastor, Concordia Lutheran Church
PS – my prior pattern was a Bible Translation and a book called Celtic Prayer, and writings of a Catholic saint by the name of St. Josemaria Escriva. The Bible reading and the writings of Escriva will continue. 🙂
Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.Catholic Church. (2011).
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 345). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
.A Necessary Workout…to Help Us Value God’s Grace
Devotional thought of the day:
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. 31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (NLT)
72 If you are heavy-laden and feel your weakness, go joyfully to the sacrament and receive refreshment, comfort, and strength. 73 If you wait until you are rid of your burden in order to come to the sacrament purely and worthily, you must stay away from it forever.
142 If you are really fighting, you need to make an examination of conscience. Take care of the daily examination: find out if you feel the sorrow of Love, for not getting to know Our Lord as you should.
If you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a fictitious grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a fictitious sin. God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world
We don’t talk about it much, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic or those of us somewhere in between.
Because of the pressures of time, we don’t take the time we need for it either. This practice that would lead us to appreciate the sacraments better that would make more vivid and real what it means to be promised that our sins are forgiven and removed.
For I think we fall into two categories when it comes to sin.
We dismiss it, because, after all, our sin isn’t as great as “their” sin. I mean – look at the world, their sin is so much greater than ours, and they proudly flaunt their sin in front of all the world.
Or they are so crushed by it, they can’t imagine that God would ever notice their pitiful existence, never mind welcome them into His presence, nor spend the time and patience to create something holy and sacred, while removing all that mars the beauty He created in them.
That is where this idea of the “Examination of Conscience” comes into play. It is a time to think about our sin, and the struggles we have in our faith. Not to add to the guilt and shame, though we may shudder a bit as we really think through how much we have done wrong. But in examining our conscience, in taking the time to realize how often we push God away and put ourselves in His place, we begin to realize how incredible His love for us is. We begin to realize what He has saved us from, and then we appreciate more what He has saved us to experience. Being in the presence, sharing in the glory of God. This is what an examination of conscience leads to, as it allows us to realize our need for Christ.
I sometimes think we think of salvation, of God’s deliverance of us from sin like a lifeguard saving us from a near drowning experience. We needed the salvation, because we couldn’t calm down, we couldn’t overcome the waves of life. Examination of our conscience reveals to us that we’ve been saved from drowning, not in a simple rip current, but as we opened the front door of our submarine a mile under the ocean.
And there, in the depths, we find the cross, we find the blood of Christ, we find salvation, a rescue we so need. Even us who count on so many other things to save us, or count on them to have proven we’ve been saved. Examination of conscience removes all such illusion.
That’s why Luther advises us not to wait until we are holy enough to run to where God’s grace is poured out on us. Because if we wait, we will never be good enough, we will never be free enough, for it is at the baptismal font that we find our peace. It is at the altar we find the promise of God’s love, it is as the pastor pronounces our sin forgiven, that we realize the height, depth, width and breadth of God’s love for us. It is an awe-inspiring ride, from the depths of despair to the heights of highest joy.
This is the love of God, for you!
So take the time, examine your conscience, and know the love of God which truly rescues you. AMEN
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 455). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 794-796). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s Works, vol. 48: Letters I. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 48, pp. 281–282). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Anticipating a glimpse of Heaven this weekend.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
20 “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: People from nations and cities around the world will travel to Jerusalem. 21 The people of one city will say to the people of another, ‘Come with us to Jerusalem to ask the LORD to bless us. Let’s worship the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. I’m determined to go.’ 22 Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD of Heaven’s Armies and to ask for his blessing. 23 “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” Zechariah 8:20-23 (NLT)
186 People from different countries, different races, and very different backgrounds and professions… When you speak to them about God, you become aware of the human and supernatural value of your vocation as an apostle. It is as if you are reliving, in its total reality, the miracle of the first preaching of Our Lord’s disciples. Phrases spoken in a strange tongue, which open up new ways, have been heard by each one, in the depth of his heart in his own language. And in your mind you can see that scene taking on a new life, in which “Parthians, Medes and Elamites” have come joyfully to God.
Sunday at my church we will celebrate the old feast of All Saints.
It is also the day that both congregations that are our church gather as the church. One people, One service, Two languages, (and many, many more represented!)People from five continents ( can anyone bring an Antarcian and an Australian?) It takes a little more to plan the worship, my sermon has to be translated, and we gather the most incredible food from all sorts of cultures.
There are days I feel like Peter at Pentecost, looking out on such a crowd. Other times, the Old Testament prophecies like the one above in red, the scenes described fulfilled in the Revelation to St John, are made manifest. God is with us; He has gathered us, so diverse, and yet to united in and by the blood of Christ Jesus. The same Lord that gave the vision to Zechariah and St. John is the same God who descended upon the apostles, and works through His people today.
It is truly amazing, overwhelming, beyond belief.
God has brought us all here… to celebrate His work in us, To celebrate being made part of our family
It is a beautiful foretaste of what is too come – and it creates a desire to complete the work, too see people from every time in history, from every place where the sun has shined, from every Langauge and clan! It is a foretaste of the healing of the nations talked about that will occur when God brings us together, and we glorify and praise and honor Him for what He has done. It also puts perspective to this life for us… that we are really one, not divided by race or nationality or ethnicity or language, but one because of the blood of Christ, cleansing us all.
Bringing peace to all, bringing sustenance to all..
This is our hope, our expectation, because of the love of God. The love of God for us…
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 991-996). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Travelling Companions of the Cross Lesson 6: Will We Be Companions to Whom He Was?
Travelling Companions of the Cross
Lesson 6: Will We Be Companions to Whom He Was?
Matthew 11:12-19
† I.H.S. †
But Wisdom is shown to be right by its results
That last line of the gospel reading is interesting to me.
“Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”
It sounds at first, like an intellectual version of faith without works is dead. And the more I think about it, the more I realize it is not the intellectual version of faith without works is dead, it simply is the same statement.
Not the normal phrase to preach on, as we celebrate the 498th anniversary of Martin Luther insisting that we aren’t saved by works, but simply by having faith in God.
Having faith in God =Trusting in God = Depending on God = Wisdom.
And that trust, that wisdom, is seen as our lives, and our hearts and minds, are transformed into the likeness of Christ.
We aren’t saved by our works, or our results, or even our knowledge. Wisdom knows this!
But all of those are evidence of our relationship with God.
That is the reason He saves us. To have a relationship with us!
So let us see how that is recognized in our lives.
The set-up
When I hear Jesus describe the generation of the apostles, I realize our generation doesn’t get it any more than they did back then.
They got everything backward, they didn’t repent when they should, and they didn’t celebrate when God brought together what should be together. Heck, they didn’t even know how to play, to pretend, to imagine what the future held.
That is why they criticized John the Baptist for calling for people to be united to God, and why they criticized Jesus for celebrating that fact that God dwelt among His people.
Would we welcome them? If so, their sin?
Which brings about an interesting question.
Would we be companions to the people Jesus was a companion too? Would we be worried if people thought we were drunkards, I mean, the glutton thing is hard to deny. What would people say if they knew the pastor of this church enjoyed hanging out with politicians, or drunks, or people whose morals were loose, heck if they were non-existent? Would there be a scandal, if the world knew the leaders of this church hung out with a bunch of dirty rotten sinners?
I mean – wait – would it be really any different than any other week around here?
This place is a place for broken people to celebrate that God has given up on them. To find in God, the Lord, who would heal them, and love them. Who would draw them back to Him? That is what the church is supposed to be, a place where a sinner haunted by his sin like Luther was could find respite in the cross.
Where the church was supposed to share God’s mercy, they didn’t. They didn’t offer comfort to those who were broken by sin, by the loneliness that sins can often result in, for sin divides.
Would we welcome the broken? Would we celebrate their being here?Would we help them realize he healing, comforting presence of God in their lives? Would we celebrate with them as God makes them His own?
That calls for a feast – and so we shall!
That may make us different from the world, and even from other churches.
But it isn’t just the comforting of those broken by sin… it is calling people who need to, to repent.
Not the ones already broken by sin, but those who play God, or who hide their brokenness, or ignore and deny it. For Jesus called people to repentance as much as He comforted the broken.
The difference is he called to repentance those who others believed were holy and perfect. Those who pretended they were good and faithful. We need to repent, allow Jesus to heal our brokenness and forgive our sins.
We need to mourn, and we need to dance, we need to repent, and we need to celebrate the love of the Lord who draws us to Him.
Not crush the sinners and applaud the self-righteous….
But to let the Holy Spirit draw the self-righteous to repentance, and lift the prodigal, broken and desperate to the throne of God, to be welcomed home to a feast.
The Reformation – these can be saved.. and so can we…
You see, that was what the Reformation was about.
The theology was important, but more important was helping the church realize that our lives are to be like Jesus Christ’s. We’ve been anointed in our baptism, united to Him, not only because God wants us to be holy, but because He wants the world to be Holy, and He will use us to draw people to Jesus.
To bring sinners into grace, to help the self-righteous to realize that they are sinners, so they too can know the grace, the love and mercy of God.
That was Luther’s issue…it drove him crazy thinking he couldn’t be forgiven. It didn’t just bother him; he was driven nuts, screaming late into the night, trying to find some hope, some sense of love.
The goal of the reformation then was to help people know the peace He found, the peace we each need to find… the peace of Christ given to us because God loved us enough for Jesus to come and die on the cross.
The results of God’s wisdom was our being saved, sinners being comforted. Broken folks being healed…
I said earlier in the sermon, one of the problems of the self-righteous was that they wouldn’t play because they don’t have the ability to imagine that which they can’t see, especially the future.
The humble, the broken, simply struggle and hear the hope of God’s love, of a life of peace, and they can’t think of everything else.
There is a time to mourn our sin, to mourn the brokenness and death….
And there is a time to feast, to celebrate the love of a God who dwells in our midst…
Because He is here… AMEN
