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Evaluating Life: Personal, Spiritual and that of Your Church
Thoughts which drive me to Jesus, and to the cross…
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. 2His disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?”
3 Jesus answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.
They answered, “You were born and brought up in sin—and you are trying to teach us?” And they expelled him from the synagogue. John 9:1-3, 34 GNT
We begin to wonder whether we really have taken the words seriously, whether we are really sincere, or perhaps whether we really have accepted Jesus as our “personal Savior,” whatever that is supposed to mean. I may hear the words “Your sins are forgiven,” but then wonder whether it could be really me that is meant, or whether it is even relevant to my needs. We become a prey to adverbial theology. Do we really, sincerely, truly, personally, believe? Do we live abundantly, joyously, affirmatively? Do we think positively, praise gratefully, respond generously? What do I do if I just do not see all those marvelous things happening that the preacher is always on about?
While we walk in the faith of his righteousness, God has patience with the poor, frail righteousness of this earthly life. He honors our human holiness by supporting and protecting it during the time we live on earth; just as we honor our corrupt, filthy bodies, adorning them with beautiful, costly garments and golden ornaments.
The baptismal character conforms us to the priesthood of Christ by an indelible spiritual sign which makes us able to unite ourselves with the worship by which the Incarnate Word, as Mediator between God and man, drew a fallen creation back into union with His Father. The sacramental character is, therefore, an orientation of our souls towards our Source and our Last End, in worship.
The questions in blue above are not rare in my experience.
I’ve heard people ask them in jail, in hospital beds on hospice, in counseling appointments, and conversations over breakfast and lunch. People who know about Jesus and want to go to heaven, but somehow struggle with their role in it. People wonder if their own lack of faith is why their entire life feels like they’re caught in quicksand.
I’ve seen the same kind of evaluation occur as pastors meet with their elders or their board of directors. They look at attendance numbers; they look at finances, and they see the struggle that the future might bring.
If we slow down, if we take the time to see where we are at, we will have dark moments where we doubt–either personally or as part of the family of God. Which we need to do, we cannot continue to live in denial of dumpster fires in our lives and churches. We need to realize we are broken, and often, more broken that can be dealt with on our own.
That isn’t a bad thing.
You see, our brokenness, like the blind man’s, is not always our fault, or caused by the environment around us. Even if it were, it still has the same fix, the same hope of being restored, to the same end – that God is glorified.
So don’t listen to those who tell you that it’s all because you are a sinner, or you are too broken, or anything else.
God has patience with us when we are broken and weak–that is what Luther reminds us of from my devotions this morning. We are dressed with Christ’s life, His righteousness, just like I put on my compression socks to deal to make up for my varicose veins. He works wih our brokenness, our frailty, our weakness. David confesses that God treats him that way, as does Jeremiah and Paul. Many others in scripture show this rule to be in our lives.
That is why our hope filled reality doesn’t depend on whether someone says we aren’t good enough, or we are spiritually dead. God is carrying us, God is breathing life into our bodies, God is recreating us in our baptism, as He brings us into the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
It is His work, it is His love for us that guarantees it can be done… no matter how bleak the examination is. Examining our lives is to provide hope – to show us where God has taken us from… not to show the depth of our decline.
Look to Him – He started you on this journey, accompanies you on it, and guarantees it will end as you enter the Father’s rest.
Gerhard O. Forde, “Proclaiming,” in Theology Is for Proclamation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 159.
Martin Luther and John Sander, Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915), 125.
Thomas Merton, The New Man (London; New York: Burns & Oates, 1976), 144.
Sliding into a Culture of Death
Devotional Thought of the Day.
As a society, we love to play God.
And we are fascinated by death – both physical death, and spiritual death.
All you have to do is peruse blogs and facebook this day, and see that we are doing battle over death constantly. First there is the HHS mandate, and the idea that anyone but churches need to pay for abortions – that is, we need to pay for our insurance to pay for the option to abort. Church leaders of many denominations are fighting this, and sometimes – they are fighting other church leaders who hold the opposite view. It is very sad, even more so when we realize that the pro-life movement is re-trenching around this. We used to challenge abortion as a whole, now we are reduced to fighting who is responsible for it.
Even as all the focus is on abortion and the Health Care Mandate, there is another battle brewing on the horizon. In Massachusetts, the state where I was born, the looms a battle over Doctor assisted suicide. It is on the ballot there, as it has been in Oregon. Again we as a country are being decided whether some have the right to play God, and determine whether a life has the value or lacks it, and should be terminated with prejudice. Yes – prejudice, for if we make the decision that a life, whether in the womb or in their 90’s isn’t worth it, we are deciding the issue based on prejudice.
But I would bring up one more way that we, as the church, are faced with “sliding into a culture of death”, although sliding may be a bit of an understatement. We condone spiritual death with much more ease and much more frequency than we do physical death. We do this, in two ways, one very active and violent, the other, passive and without care or compassion.
ACTIVE CONDEMNATION: This is the first way in which we embrace a culture of death. When we outright condemn others – (for instance, those who back abortion or euthenasia) because we feel they are too evil. In doing so, we steal the authority of God and make a determination only He has the right and authority to make. (Yes, God gives the church the authority to bind the sins of those in our midst who are unrepentant – but that is so they will learn to repent – and more importantly, its in regards to those we are actively and personally calling to repentance) When we condemn someone, when we mock and deride them (see the Sermon on the Mount) we are committing murder in thought and word even as others commit it in deed.
We can judge them, call and encourage them to depend on God’s mercy, without damning and condemning them.
The other way is more subtle, and shows a lack of care, and indeed a lack of compassion. It is when we decide, actively or passively, that there is no need for them to know Jesus, to be embraced by His love and mercy, to be given the opportunity to know the life that is germinated as faith and repentance is given to them. We know how it happens, in hearing the gospel, in the Holy Spirit working through word and sacrament to create and nurture that life. And we passively and again with prejudice, let them continue to live without the knowledge of God, save what they can learn through nature.
In all four of the above ways, we see the church and the world sliding into death. Sliding into the seemingly inevitable consequence of sin’s dominion. Death, both physical and spiritual.
Except that it is not – there is always God’s gospel, the call to not take life, but to sustain it. The call to not terminate, but to enourage. The call to not condemn, but to talk and offer forgiveness. There is One who embraced death, so that we would not have to – that we could live, and even if we physically pass, we shall live forever. For that is where death is defeated, as Jesus hangs on the cross, and asks the Father to forgive us all….
May we realize He has, and even as we realize how that frees us to live, may we help others to see it as well.
Lord Have Mercy… and thank you Lord, for letting us know You have!
