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Why Advent is a Blessing for Sinners… (like me)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.f 8 If we say, “We are without sin,” we deceive ourselves,* and the truth is not in us.g 9 If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.h 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.1 Jn 1:7–10) NAB-RE
“Confession has not been abolished by the preachers on our side. The custom has been retained among us of not administering the sacrament to those who have not previously been examined and absolved.
2 At the same time the people are carefully instructed concerning the consolation of the Word of absolution so that they may esteem absolution as a great and precious thing.
3 It is not the voice or word of the man who speaks it, but it is the Word of God, who forgives sin, for it is spoken in God’s stead and by God’s command.
4 We teach with great diligence about this command and power of keys and how comforting and necessary it is for terrified consciences. We also teach that God requires us to believe this absolution as much as if we heard God’s voice from heaven, that we should joyfully comfort ourselves with absolution, and that we should know that through such faith we obtain forgiveness of sins.”
Part of the purpose of Advent within the Church year consists in reviving once more this awareness in us. It should urge us to confront these truths, to admit the extent of our lack of redemption, which did not simply exist in the world at some time and perhaps still exists somewhere but which is a present reality within ourselves and within the Church. The Christian existence, therefore, includes this as well: that we, out of the distress of our own darkness, like the man Job, dare to speak to God. It also means that we do not think we could present to God only half of our existence and must spare him all the rest because it might grieve him. No—to Him in particular we may and must carry the total burden of our existence in complete honesty.
There is a patterned to which the church year flows, one reflected in the Northern Hemisphere’s calendar. As the year ends, and begins, the days grow shorter, the amount of light we see daily diminishes, as often with it, hope. People deal with more depression, and grieve deeply, as the oncoming holidays remind them of the loved one’s they miss.
Sins become more magnified, as we have more time to dwell on them. Both those sins that were committed against us, and those which we ourselves commit. Again, because of more time in darkness, we have more time to think, to ponder, to feel the guilt, to be weighed down by the shame. To realize how much we are beyond any help,
save the help of God.
I think Pope Benedict nails it, in the third quote above, when he say we shouldn’t spare God the grief of dealing with half of our existence, we may and MUST carry the total burden to Him, in complete honesty. (I am reminded of people who filter out their pastors and priests from seeing ALL of their facebook/twitter feeds, because they feel ashamed, or are afraid of feeling that way!) If we need help, if we need to be rescued from the crushing weight of sin and shame, then He is the person, He is our Hope, He is our answer.
As the Lutheran Confessions say, when the pastor/priest speaks the words absolving you of sin, they aren’t just his words, they are the words of God you need to hear, that you must hear. This absolution is the comfort that relieves the guilt and the shame. That is why we talk of it as such a great treasure.
As I’ve been contemplating Advent, and the nature of repentance, penitence, I am realizing more and more we need to go through such times of self-evaluation. of coming face to face with our sin. Of realizing the depth of it. Not to end up drowning in guilt and self-loathing, but because it will bring us to the Father in heaven, it will cause us like Job, like Abraham, to work with God honestly. To run to Him, because He is our hope.
This is what confession is, the very thing God knew we needed. To hear his voice, through others He called and commanded to be there for you, to say the words, “you are forgiven, in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
So take the time during this advent, during this time when darkness seems to hide all that is good and holy, to consider, confess, and be comforted by God.
AMEN
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 61–62). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
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. 382). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Advent Message #1 Psalm 51 Have mercy on me!
Have Mercy On Me
Help me to know your unfailing love!
Psalm 51:1-6
† IHS †
David’s Scenario
The pastor descends, and heads straight toward a member of the church. The look on his face is serious, there is no humor in his eyes.
He walks up to one of the most respected leaders of the church, the man respected for his faith. He zeroes in on him, heads straight at him, and as he stops, he reveals to the man that he knows about that specific sin. The sin that was serious enough for the people to take up stones and kill him. The sin which didn’t just break a commandment, but shattered several of them.
He calls him out on it, in front of everyone
What happened to David, happens all over again.
Except that it happens to Tom. Or Al, or Doug, or Wanda..
I want each of you to think how David felt in the first reading, as Nathan revealed to the world David’s sin. The sin he thought no one knew. The sin that ate him, that continued to eat at him.
What if tonight, instead of David’s sin, it was yours that was revealed.
What terror would you feel, what pain?
Even though we are looking at the Psalm during this advent, we can’t understand the strength of David’s plea for mercy, we can’t understand how desperate His cry to God, without hearing the depth of despair, as David’s sin was found revealed not just before God, but before all.
How Can this Be?
It is in the aftermath of this scene, that David writes these words,
Have mercy on me, o God, because of your unfailing love!
Have mercy on me, I am a sinner, I am a wretch.
He cannot deny it. He cannot simply say, no, I’m good with God. Nope, don’t worry pastor, that Confession thing, hearing you tell me I am forgiven, it’s not a big deal. It’s the other people that you have to worry about.
You know, those that rip their neighbor’s off, those who are sexually immoral, those who lie and cheat and gossip. That’s for them, not for me.
David’s sin is laid out. Undeniable, horrid, sickening.
It would still make every headline today.
You are the man.
You are the woman.
You’ve sinned.
And revealing that sin, in a way you can’t deny, in a way you have to confess, is part of the healing. It is why Luther and the early reformers didn’t get rid of confession, either public of private.
Because we know in our plea for mercy, that it will be answered.
Just as David’s was, just as Moses’ was, just as Peter’s was.
Just as Tom and Al and my plea’s for mercy will be answered.
Hear David’s words again,
Have mercy on me, o God, because of your unfailing love!
That is what Advent is about, learning to depend on God’s unfailing love. Learning to cry out what has been called the Jesus Prayer, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.
Crying it out, knowing the heart of God, knowing the heart revealed at the manger and the cross, as God comes into the word to show us that mercy,
Crying out, not based on anything but the unfailing love of God. For that is our only refuge when we come face to face with our sin. When we realize how wrong it is, and that we can’t fix it.
To do as David would continue to pray,
Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:1-7 (NLT)
A prayer of despair, a prayer of recognizing what we had done, a prayer of faith, knowing the heart of God.
The heart of God that answered David, and answers you and I
“Yes, you have sinned, but I have forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin..”
Amen!
The Joy of… Suffering?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 “But as for you, Israel my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from Abraham my friend, 9 I have called you back from the ends of the earth, saying, ‘You are my servant.’ For I have chosen you and will not throw you away. 10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:8-10 (NLT)
254 An incurable illness restricted his movements. And yet he cheerfully assured me: “The illness suits me well and I love it more all the time. If I were given the choice, I would be born again this way a hundred times!”(1)
Moreover, the people are instructed often and with great diligence concerning the holy sacrament, why it was instituted, and how it is to be used (namely, as a comfort for terrified consciences) in order that the people may be drawn to the Communion and Mass (2)
I have the honor to visit a 97 year old lady for about 10 minutes a week. She lives with some other eldery people around the corner. It isn’t much of a visit by the world’s standards, but it is one I treasure.
She has lived a fascinating life, one that would have me asking her to tell the stories from, for she has worked in places that I find extremely fascinating. But with the strength she has, just a few minutes of hearing about God working with our preschoolers, and a prayer of blessing, and it is time to leave.
Yet her contentment is amazing, her joy as she sees me is so evident. She doesn’t mind her weakness. She seems to treasure our brief moments together. This incredible lady, me, and the God who loves us so! A few moments that make such an incredible difference.. in my life.
It is hard to look at her weariness, for the smile and the assurance of her love for God overwhems it. She is more at peace than so many I know. So much more full of joy. Despite the suffering, despite the hours spent alone.
There are all different types of suffering. Suffering can be caused by evil oppression, by poverty, by health, by age, by loneliness?
But what we find in the suffering makes all the difference in the world. In this time of Advent, can we find Christ there? Can we find the joy of having no other hope but that which is found in Christ Jesus? The hope of sharing in His glory?
When we do, when in the midst of the pain we hear His voice; when we realize the comfort Jesus brings to us in the Lord’s Supper; in those moments of prayer when we can only listen, and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us, that is when the quiet joy comes flooding through our souls. That is when the brokenness finds healing.
That is when we know we are loved.
Such a joyous thought…
I pray that you and I would know God’s love that deeply, with that assurance, at any age, in any situation. Because of that love, may joy be generated at our very core.
AMEN!
.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1244-1246). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 56). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Augustine on Sin and Counterfeit Glory.
Devotional thought of the day:
Well, no wonder! Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! 15 So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve. 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 (TEV)
Thus all pervertedly imitate Thee, who remove far from Thee, and lift themselves up against Thee. But even by thus imitating Thee, they imply Thee to be the Creator of all nature; whence there is no place whither altogether to retire from Thee. What then did I love in that theft? and wherein did I even corruptly and pervertedly imitate my Lord? Did I wish even by stealth to do contrary to Thy law, because by power I could not, so that being a prisoner, I might mimic a maimed liberty by doing with impunity things unpermitted me, a darkened likeness of Thy Omnipotency? Behold, Thy servant, fleeing from his Lord, and obtaining a shadow.
I am not sure why I added Augustine’s Confessions to my devotional reading for this year. It may be because of the major role his work played in Luther’s life, or in my desire to understand the divisions between the Roman Catholic Church and my own Lutheran church. But a month in, I am glad. There is deep simplicity in the words, as we observe his reflection on his life, including a life attracted to sin that ensnares us. It’s brutal, honest, uncomfortable, revealing and liberating.
In today’s reading, he brings up something incredible, the idea that all of the sins we choose are a simple counterfeit, and imitation of that which is of God. And in analyzing what we pursue, the very perversion reveals both our idol (the self) and the true life we would have, in Christ.
It is brutal because it reveals to us our idolatry, our desire to do that which Adam and Eve fell prey to, the desire to be God, to judge things as righteous or not. It is uncomfortable because it reveals how poor an imitation these things are. Here are some of examples which precede the quote,
“Luxury affects to be called plenty and abundance; but Thou art the fulness and never-failing plenteousness of incorruptible pleasures. Prodigality presents a shadow of liberality: but Thou art the most overflowing Giver of all good. Covetousness would possess many things; and Thou possessest all things. Envy disputes for excellency: what more excellent than Thou?”
Is it no wonder the emptiness that haunts us, the depression that we seek to ignore,to laugh off, to overwhelm and even self-medicate ourselves against?
Is it no wonder that the upcoming generation attempts to throw off the modernistic search for a scientific, tangible reality, yet can’t create one either? At least not where they are Lord of Lord and King of Kings?
Truly King David is correct in his similar diagnosis,
1 Why this uproar among the nations, this impotent muttering of the peoples? 2 Kings of the earth take up position, princes plot together against Yahweh and his anointed, 3 ‘Now let us break their fetters! Now let us throw off their bonds!’ Psalm 2:1-3 (NJB)
So what hope is there? What can we offer to those burnt out on their idolatry, on their struggle to find a suitable, comfortable imitation of God?
We hold out the hope, not of an imitation of God, but of being in a relationship where we are transformed and imitate Him. His love, His mercy, His grace. King David speaks of this as well in that same Psalm,
11 Worship GOD in adoring embrace, Celebrate in trembling awe. 12 Kiss Messiah! Your very lives are in danger, you know; His anger is about to explode, But if you make a run for God—you won’t regret it! Psalm 2:11-12 (MSG)
Walk with Him, ask for His mercy, ask Him to reveal His love. He Shall, for He is no shadow, He is our Reality.
Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc. (Chapter VII)
Forgiveness and Reconciliation – Dividable?
Devotional thought of the day:
12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. Matthew 6:12 (TEV)
16 No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so. 17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 18 All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. 19 Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 (TEV)
236 Those who flee like cowards from suffering have something to meditate on when they see the enthusiasm with which other souls embrace pain. There are many men and women who know how to suffer in a Christian way. Let us follow their example. (1)
This post may cause you some grief, some anger. You may want to dismiss it; I know I struggle even writing it. But it is something I am dealing with, and I believe most of us need to work through to see God’s peace revealed.
There are many treasured phrases out there, but they all say the same thing, “forgive – but don’t forget.” I saw several today, basically saying that forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to let them hurt you again. Or that the real reason we are to forgive is to free us from the resentment, not to free them from the consequences of their words and actions.
They are saying this, forgiving someone shouldn’t cause you to suffer more. Even if that suffering is only becoming humble.
So here is the question, can you forgive someone without desiring reconciliation?
Can you really ask God not to hold their sins against, and vow to not hold their sins against them, and desire that the relationship remains in the broken, separated state it is?
I am not talking about their heart, they may refuse the reconciliation, but ours cannot harden to the possibility of it. We have to grow in our desire of it. We have to pray for it, work for it, struggle with the sacrifice and humility of it. And when it doesn’t happen, we have to weep.
It is that simple.
We have to bear that cross. We have to love that deeply.
Reconciliation may be a long process; it may seem beyond our ability, beyond the ability to even desire. It’s not going to be a smooth path, but it is one we are called to embrace. It is our deepest vocation as children of God.
We may not like that; we may not want to hear it. We may rebel against it, find excuses, rationalize the need away. We may say that God wouldn’t ask us to embrace that level of suffering.
We would be wrong.
God desires that none perish, but that all would be changed, their hearts and their minds. Our hearts and our minds.
This is how we live in the baptized life, the reconciled life, the redeemed life.
Even on the days we have to cry out, “Lord, I believe, help me when I can’t believe”; on the days we cry out, “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.”
He has..so rejoice and love.
AMEN.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1183-1186). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Attitude of Advent: Our dearest Friend is coming to be with us!
Devotional Thought to Prepare us for Advent….
15 I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17 This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:15-17 (TEV)
233 You spoke about the scenes in the life of Jesus which moved you most: when he met men suffering greatly… when he brought peace and health to those whose bodies and souls were racked with pain… You were inspired—you went on—seeing him cure leprosy, restore sight to the blind, heal the paralytic at the pool: the poor beggar forgotten by everybody. You are able to contemplate Him as He was, so profoundly human, so close at hand! Well… Jesus continues being the same as then. (2)
There is an attitude that negatively views contemporary worship (or that of 30-100 years ago) that treats Jesus to0 close, too intimate, too friendly. They would rather perceive God from the perspective of great distance, and perhaps great fear.
Which would make sense if we were approach Christ’s advent, His coming, with the anticipation of judgment without the cross’s benefit. To turn advent into a time of anticipating hell, fire, and brimstone, wrath and tribulation is wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, we need Jesus to come back, perhaps even desperately so. Life is too screwed up, we all need to be delivered from sin completely, we need to come home to God. But that turns advent from anxiety about Jesus coming, to realizing we and anxiety is more caused because of the wait we endure until He returns.
If we have friends we haven’t seen in ages coming to dinner during the holiday; we look forward to it. We anticipate it, we work hard, trying to get everything as perfect as possible. It is the same for Jesus second coming, we desire to grow in faith, we desire to see people come to know Him, to come to trust in Him, because He is our friend, because He loves us so completely.
Those contemporary worship songs which treat Jesus as a friend, they aren’t as far off base. They bring home that which we need to know, the attitude that Luther noted, makes the difference between one who knows God, and one who only knows of Him,
“For all outside of Christianity, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, although they believe in, and worship, only one true God, yet know not what His mind towards them is, and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him; therefore they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. For they have not the Lord Christ, and, besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy Ghost.” (2)
If we don’t understand God’s desire for an intimate, deep friendship with the people He calls and makes His own, we truly only know a God whose presence evokes fear and brings to the front of our heart the condemnation of guilt and shame. We have to realize the intent of Christ’s incarnation, to head resolutely to the cross, to show us the depth of His love, to bring us healing and forgiveness.
Yes, we should be in awe of God’s presence, we are overwhelmed by His glory, but a glory that pours out grace, that delights in showering us with His Mercy, embracing us in the love, even as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. The awe of realizing God, in all His glory, desires to be our friend.
Which makes the wait of Advent tense, as if we hear every passing car as if it is our long awaited Friend…
For He is coming!
May your patience and desire to see God sustain you, even as you anxiously await His return. AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1170-1174). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) The Large Catechism of Martin Luther. The Apostles Creed: Explanation of the Third Article.
Our Intimate Relationship with God: His Desire, His choice, His Work!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you are telling me: Lead this people. But you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said: You are my intimate friend; You have found favor with me. 13 Now, if I have found favor with you, please let me know your ways so that, in knowing you, I may continue to find favor with you. See, this nation is indeed your own people. 14 The LORD answered: I myself will go along, to give you rest. 15 Moses replied, “If you are not going yourself, do not make us go up from here. 16 For how can it be known that I and your people have found favor with you, except by your going with us? Then we, your people and I, will be singled out from every other people on the surface of the earth.” 17 The LORD said to Moses: This request, too, which you have made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend.
18 Then Moses said, “Please let me see your glory!” 19 The LORD answered: I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name, “LORD,” before you; I who show favor to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will.f 20 But you cannot see my face,g for no one can see me and live. 21 Here, continued the LORD, is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. 22 When my glory passes I will set you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face may not be seen. Ex 33:11–23 NABRE
The New Testament does not say that men conciliate God, as we really ought to expect, since after all it is they who have failed, not God. It says on the contrary that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19). This is truly something new, something unheard of—the starting-point of Christian existence and the center of New Testament theology of the Cross: God does not wait until the guilty come to be reconciled; he goes to meet them and reconciles them. Here we can see the true direction of the Incarnation, of the Cross. Accordingly, in the New Testament the Cross appears primarily as a movement from above to below. It does not stand there as the work of expiation which mankind offers to the wrathful God but as the expression of that foolish love of God’s which gives itself away to the point of humiliation in order thus to save man; it is his approach to us, not the other way around.
Moses is not the only one to have the struggle he describes in this passage from Exodus. We all do, we all face situations where we don’t want to go another step further, because we simply do not have the strength.
It may be that we can’t deal with the people we are called to serve, as Moses often struggled. Or maybe we see how impossible the task is, and we know it cannot be done with God’s presence. Maybe we perceive the situation as being unfair, (whether it is or not is actually not relevant -get used to this idea: life isn’t fair!)
It might be more personal, the struggle that you have that you don’t want to face. It may be that you have to be freed from a sin that has its hooks in you, like Israel faced so many times in the desert. It could be some dark area that God wants you to be freed from, but it is so hard to break free.
Moses keeps telling God – I can’t go there without you! If you are my God, please help, if I have an intimate relationship with you, don’t leave me alone. He’s pleading for what every other religion tells us is impossible.
For God to come to us, as we are crushed, oppressed, weary and broken. As we know the law that condemns us or the people we care about all to well.
As Pope Benedict XVI points out, this is where things are different with Jesus, with the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. He comes to us, He always has! He came to Adam and Eve in the garden, He came to Abraham (even when he was trying to pass off his wife as his sister!) He came to Hagar at the well. He came to David in his sin, and encouraged Moses and even Hosea to deal mercifully with the unfaithful, and gave them the strength of heart and soul to deal with those trapped in sin.
He even gives us glimpses of Him, as He ministers to us. Yes, the obvious glimpses of His faithfulness in the past, to those who are broken like us, in need of healing, like us. In need of knowing we are in His presence.
But glimpses as well in the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, the feast were we see the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who takes away our sin.
Who comes to us, and we hear Him as He promises, “your sins are forgiven.”
He comes to us… He brings us through the transformation that is repentance and makes His presence known, and that His presence is, as this translation puts it, that of an intimate friend.
This is what Advent is all about, as we meditate on His coming to us, in all our need!
May we realize our need, the same need as Moses, and may our eyes be opened to His presence.
AMEN.
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. 372). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Not all roads lead to God, yet…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
4 God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. 5 God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. 6 God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. 7 Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (MSG)
231 I like the motto: “Let each wayfarer follow his way”, the road God has marked out for him, to be followed faithfully, lovingly, even though it is hard. (1)
It is one of the hardest lessons to learn as a pastor. It is one that is not often taught in Christian Universities or Seminaries, except maybe a short aspect of a pastoral care class.
It is simple and profound, it wears you our and leaves you in awe. Here is one of the greatest secrets to ministry:
You can’t minister to every person the same way, you can’t shepherd 100 people from 105 different places along the same exact path. They need to be drawn/dragged from where they are at to the foot of the cross, to the very mercy of God, poured out as His blood paid for all our sins.
Yet we are trained to use the same materials, the same processes in our discipleship of those in our churches. Those processes are based in some core thought that is essential ( for example, afflict those comfortable in their sin, comfort those afflicted by their sin. ) but how that is applied to the people in our churches should fit a particular process. it is a big job, but discipleship is both corporate and individual.
Is it any wonder that most churches stop discipleship once people have passed a new members class? Or if there is is a program, some drop out because it assumes a different starting path, and they are too frustrated to wait and see if it comes by where they are.
I know a great example of this, a lady who is a member of one of the churches I have pastored. She insists that she is a novice when it comes to faith, yet lives a life a devotion to God. A life I think is far more “along the path” that she realizes.
So how do you do this? Do you make everyone take the same path? Study the same scriptures? Do you not care if people get lost or bored? Or do you work with people individually?
It’s the same issue that Paul was talking to the Corinthians about. As they would serve in different ways, in different manners expressing the faith and growth in their trust of God. Not everyone will do the same things, have the same vocations, have the same exact path to spiritual maturity.
So how do we minister this way, effectively discipling people, shepherding them from the basics of trusting God, to actually walking with them?
Not sure yet, but it will be a lot of what I think through during advent.
Discussion very welcome on this one!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1161-1163). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Final Lesson: We are priestly companions of Jesus the King!
Companions of the Cross
The Final Lesson:
Priestly Companions of the King
† IHS †
May you know the grace and peace that is yours, the gift of the One who is, Who always was, and who is still to come!
The Vision/the Mission
While both the Old Testament and Epistle reading today are about the end of time, about looking toward the end of time, the gospel takes us back to thirty weeks ago, to the remembrance of what happens the morning of Jesus’ crucifixion, It covers one of the events we remember during Holy Week.
The gospel covers the trial of Jesus, the moments before he is sentenced by mankind to die. The moment that God our Father planned for, that Jesus was committed to before the foundations of the world were laid.
The trial, the cross, the critical moment in all of time, as eternity hung in the balance.
Your eternity, my eternity.
We need to look back, in order to see why Daniel and the Revelation of John can talk so positively of the of the end. Hearing that Christ has been the King, even at the cross, we understand our future, and can walk confidently in the present.
For we walk with a king, and we are His companions. The very King of King and Lord of Lords who makes us a Kingdom of priests, ready to serve God our Father. Ready to serve alongside Jesus.
Let me rephrase that, He makes us into the priests of His Kingdom.
That was His vision, His mission, and it is what He has accomplished on the cross, even as Pilate was condemning Jesus, enabling Him to shed His blood for us.
The Ordeal of Hope
When we are involved in planning something, there is a hope that everything will work out well. It doesn’t matter if the planning and preparation are for a game, or for an event like the women’s advent tea.
Hope can sometimes be an ordeal as our minds consider all the things that could destroy our hope. For instance, for a football team, we could focus on a critical injury or just an accumulation of them. For an event like the Advent Tea, it could be that the speaker cancels out at the last moment. It could even be the week between finishing a course, and getting the grades! Our minds can spin wildly out of control, conceiving of all the things that could go wrong. It is no different for our lives, and for our eternity. When we think of hope, it can be an ordeal as we wonder what will happen to mess up that which we hoped for so eagerly.
Which is why I think the readings work together so well today. They lay out a pattern that assures us that our hope is not in vain, that there is nothing that can change what we hope for, what our trust in God leads us to expect. If we didn’t have that assurance, the first verses in Daniel would be terrifying; hear them again.
I watched as thrones were put in place and the Ancient One sat down to judge.His clothing was as white as snow, his hair like purest wool. He sat on a fiery throne with wheels of blazing fire, 10 and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened.
If we feel anxiety watching a football game, or waiting for the guests to arrive, of the report card to show, what kind of anxiety would we experience, knowing we had to stand before all of the missions of angels, and all of humanity, as God opened the story of our life and began to look at the details, examining our actions, our thoughts, our words?
We could try to dismiss the guilt and shame, but it still would haunt us. We could try to rationalize it, we could argue that it isn’t fair for God to give us desires that cannot be eased without sin.
Before the throne, before a God that not only knows our thoughts but the hearts where those thoughts originate, such attempts at self-preservation do not matter. If we are to have hope that Jesus is our salvation, that we will live in His Kingdom that has no end, we have to be serious about the fact we needed to be saved.
We sin. Thoughts, words, deeds.
As we will say in Advent, it is our fault, we need to grieve over that fault, we need to seriously grieve over that sin.
If we are to know the grace and peace of God, we have to realize how radically different it is to know God’s grace and peace, compared to the brokeness of our lives.
Realizing the love of God
For then, understanding the depth of our despair, we find ourselves blown away by this word grace, by the peace that is ours when we should be weighed down by guilt and despair. We begin to understand how incredible these words written by the Apostle John are,
All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. 6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
It’s not just that Jesus has freed us from sin, and Satan, that He’s robbed death of the anxiety it can cause, that guilt and shame are wiped away. It is that He’s made us like Him, He’s made us priests who serve the Father, He’s made us holy enough to be the very attendants of God the Father.
All of us, from the smallest to the largest, youngest to the oldest, we have been made companions of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
No wonder all of creation will bow before Him! No wonder we will shout about the glory of God He has revealed to us.
He loves us!
He freed us from our sin, by shedding HIS BLOOD for us.
He has made us priest, …..
ALL GLORY TO HIM FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN!!!
What if the Lord didn’t ask for you to be the martyr, but..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 The LORD spoke to Moses and said: 2 Consecrate to me every firstborn; whatever opens the womb among the Israelites,a whether of human being or beast, belongs to me. Ex 13:1–2 NAB-RE
209 You made me smile, because I know what you meant when you said: I am enthusiastic about the possibility of going to new lands and opening a breach there, perhaps very far away… I would like to find out if there are men on the moon…Ask the Lord to increase that apostolic zeal of yours. (1)
On facebook this morning, I saw a man saying that he definitely would speak for Christ if he was put in the place of a potential martyr, where the decision was to either say he believed in another god or Jesus. And then he challenged everyone else to claim they would as well.
It made me think of the passage in red that I came across a few days ago, about the command of God to dedicate to His service every firstborn. We can think of those who did in scripture. Hannah comes to mind, as does Elizabeth. Abraham had the question put to him, and his faith in God was proven true. And less we forget Mary’s first son, who she watched God the Father dedicate to the purpose of saving all of mankind.
Dedicating a child to God’s work isn’t something new, but it is something forgotten. During the middle ages, and even until recent history, the second male was encouraged to enter the ministry. Not the first, because that would be the heir of the family name, but the second. (Who gets the better inheritance IMHO)
These days, we aren’t so ready to do so. Not with the first or the second. We aren’t ready or willing to give them up to a life of service, or for that matter, a life of martyrdom, as they sacrifice and even are sacrificed to accomplish the work of God.
Fewer men are entering the ministry, fewer women dedicating their lives to working in the church and church schools as well. Fewer willing to go on the mission field, whether far abroad or here in the inner cities.
We claim to be people who trust God in everything, will we trust Him with our children? Will we trust Him with those who are precious to us?
Even if their vocation is to be a pastor or priest, missionary or even if they are called to martyrdom?
Do we trust Him with life?
Again, go back to Mary’s son, her first born. The only-begotten Son of our Heavenly Father. Who was the pastor, priest, missionary, and yeah – martyr as He died on the cross. As He saved us from our sin. As He came to us.
The firstborn of the firstborn.
May our trust in God grow, as we consider what God the Father committed and consecrated His firstborn to do, and may we seriously encourage more and more people to consider a vocation that sees them ministering to others.
Amen.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1082-1085). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
