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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)
The First Sunday in Advent: He Will Do What is Promised
This sermon can be heard at https://youtu.be/8DWDeB6_GYY
He Will Do What is Promised (Faith)
Jeremiah 33:14-16
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
May the grace of God, that incredible mercy, and peace that resides in you because of the Holy Spirit, sustain you until His imminent return!
The Time Is Close
You wondered with every passing car, whether the guests arrived. A car door closed and you rushed to the door, disappointed that it was the neighbor’s guests that arrived.
Perhaps you were even jealous.
You had worked so hard, to make your house a welcoming place, a place where everyone felt at home. Where people were able to set aside life, and enjoy each other. It is one thing for sure, to have a clean, beautifully decorated home, with great comfort food.
It takes a bit more preparation for the façade to be matched by a sense of peace, and the blessing of being a place where everyone knows they are loved. That is God’s desire for heaven as well, and He will make it happen!
That is the preparation of Advent, the adventure that we travel until we find ourselves at home with God.
Our Advent journey is preparation for His coming, preparing for our being drawn into His presence.
For it takes a bit of work to understand that He’s waited expectantly for the day of Christ’s second coming, that He is awaiting us, His family to come home!
The Wearied Wait..
I want to go back for a moment, to that time when you are glancing out the window. When you are expecting your company, friends or family you dearly love, who you have missed,
It is in that last hour, before their arrival, time seems to slow down. That every noise, whether it be a car door, a phone ringing causes your level of anticipation to race. You wonder if the food will be enough, or be good enough. You wonder if they will be comfortable as you rearrange the pillows on the couch for the thirtieth time.
That last hour seems to take a week.
Have you ever thought about God waiting for the fulfillment of time in that manner?
He knows the timing, so He doesn’t worry like we do, but can you see Him waiting expectantly for your arrival?
You need to be able to, for we aren’t the only ones who plan for the future and then wait with expectation.
Think about it, Jesus is described as the Bridegroom, the Father as the one who throws the wedding feast for His Son.
The Father, who awaits his prodigal son, the one finding the coin or the lost sheep throw feast when they find that which was lost.
Hear Jeremiah’s words again,
14 “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
It is one of our challenges that we struggle to see God’s anticipation, a challenge caused by the guilt and shame we struggle with daily.
It is why we are uncomfortable with the silence during confession and absolution if it goes more than 15 seconds…. Yet how many of us need to take more than that time, to realize how much God frees us from?
The expectation of God blessing us in the way He promises is the nature of our Advent journey. Looking forward to His completing that which He all the good He has promised us, His refining us, gathering us, leading us home.
Back to the first promise, the one that when it came true at the cross, made the rest possible.
The Promises Coming True
Hear Jeremiah’s words once again,
I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
15 “In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. 16 In that day Judah will be saved,
Judah and Israel, the divided kingdom of God’s people, back together. Those who stayed dedicated to God and the prodigal brothers who have finally come back home.
It represents the people of God, in its entirety, those who have known God all their lives, and those who come back at the end of time.
In that day, because of One who was completely righteous, completely without sin, and His sense of what it just and good, and to use the old word from the liturgy, salutary, because of the Righteous one’s benevolent love, because of the sinless One’s actions done in love, the people of God will be saved.
Have been saved.
Are saved.
For the last sentence of Jeremiah’s promise, of this prophecy says it all.
The Lord is our Righteousness.
He became everything we would need, that we would be able to come home to God. On the cross, He took care of every sin, and then in the resurrection, He brought us back to life.
He became our Righteousness. He recreated us, made us His own people.
Why the promise?
One last thought….
Look at the passage again, Look for the phrase that keeps occurring.
The day will come…
In those days…
In that day…..
That day has come, you have been saved… and are on the way home, sure to get there, because we will be refined, gathered, and led there, for we live in Christ Jesus.
Home to a feast beyond imagination.
Not because of the cleanliness of heaven.
Not because of the magnitude of the feast.
But because of the love, that which God promised us.
Until that day, the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, which is at work in you, that same power will keep you in the peace of God our Father. AMEN!.
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.
Preparing for Christ’s Return by asking Why Me?
Preparing for Jesus Coming:
We Need to ask:
Why Me?
† IHS †
May Your Christmas Celebration be one where you get the answer from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, of why me?
Parker Parable – Advent = Sleeplessness nights
It is time for a pastor parker parable, one that is a more serious note.
The parable will help us understand this advent season as it grows to a close, and help us be patient for just a few more days, until we can break loose with hallelujah’s and gloria’s and the most abundant praises our voices and hearts can sing…..
So here is the parable:
Advent is like a sleepless night!
You know, the nights where you toss and turn, and your body finds trouble resting. The same nights when you mind is working fast than lightening, as you process every possible outcome, and how those will complicate life in the days to come?
Yeah – that kind of sleepless night.
We know these nights….
Advent is like that…..
It’s like a question we ask…
Why Me?
Advent is that time where we look to the sky, and ask that question. “Lord, why me?”
Over the years, I’ve asked that question a million times, it’s even caused those sleepless nights, as I’ve pondered why me…..
It’s the question of Advent, as are those dark sleepless nights.
We ask in regard to tragedy, trauma and “bad luck”
We usually ask, “why me?” in those times when it seems like life overwhelms our trust in God.
Maybe we are asking the “why me?” question because we have to deal with the consequences of sin. We can even know God’s forgiveness, and know our eternity is secure, yet we have to deal with the brokenness of things.
We ask because of the broken hearts, broken relationships, things broken by our jealously, envy, hatred, and desire. Often we don’t sleep because of our inability to deal with temptation by our own strength or reason. Sin is a horrid thing, and we think we have two options in dealing with it. Either we struggle against it, or we begin to harden our own hearts, so we don’t feel judged or condemned. Either way the guilt and shame can cause us to question our existence in the dark hours of the night.
Maybe we are asking, “why me?” because we can’t see that God is working in our lives. When we don’t doubt His existence, but we wonder if those promises are for other people.
You know, that promise we hear, that all things work together for good for those that love God?
Or that God will never leave or forsake us?
Paul talks about the fact that God’s plan was kept secret from the beginning of time, and then was revealed. Asking “why me?” is sort of like wondering if we missed that moment when God’s plan from the ages was revealed to everyone else.
Did we miss it? Because we did, did God forget to include us in it?
I’ve had those moments, the wondering, the questioning, the trying to make heads and tails of life. Where you don’t know why you have all the bad luck.
I hate those kinds of sleepless nights, those times of asking why me. Why did I grow up with a genetic issue that affects my heart and spine? Why did I get in a motorcycle accident, or drop out of school, or have a cardiac arrest, each of those times I’ve asked that question, just as all of you have asked those “why me’s”
Just like I’ve had times where I needed to face my sin and confess it, because if dealing with the consequences now is challenging, those same sins have an eternal consequence. Just as we all have….
Good thing that Advent isn’t like those kinds of sleepless nights, that it isn’t about those times of asking “why me?”
That there is another reason for sleepless nights and asking “Why me!”
We need to ask in view of blessings.
Advent is like the sleepless night, or about asking “why me?” But not in the sense of those traumatic nights I’ve mentioned. It’s the kind of sleepless night where your joy and expectation is building up.
Like that restlessness you feel before you go on vacation with dear family and friends you haven’t seen in a while, or the night before you get married.
Or like the night before Christmas when you are a child, and try to stay up, imagining what gifts you are going to get, and who you are going to tell about it, and who you are going to share it with, and how much you are going to enjoy it!
The excitement, the expectation, the joy of the next morning is keeping you up.
When we realize what Jesus coming into our world means, we should ask, “LORD, WHY ME?” in joy, even with a little disbelief as we struggle to believe that God would love us that much!
What have we done to deserve the presence of God? What have we done to deserve these promises that the prophets and apostles reveal to us? What have we done to be included in this plan…
YET WE ARE!!!
Jesus the Messiah came into this world, to live and die, for us.
He died on the cross to free us.
He rose again that we should rise with Him, and even live through this life, every moment in His presence.
When scripture talks about the gentiles being included in His plan, it’s talking about all of us who breathe, who walk, who have been baptized. Who have been made His children? Do we realize it is talking about us?
Advent is like the time, when we can’t sleep, because we are thinking about His gifts, about His presence (and his presents!)
it is the attitude of Mary, as she hears, ““Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God!”
It is the joy King David, the repentant adulterer and murdered knows as he hears Nathan say, “Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings!
“Why Me?” they surely asked… and we would do well to ask as well.
Why God, why did you choose me?
While we wait
It is as he begins knowing the depth, the height the width and breadth of this love that Paul can say something we need to hear from this passage, that God is able to sustain us, to keep us strong, not with our strength, but surrounded by His care.
It is the message that must everyone, everyone who doubts God would love them, that believe they are separated from Him need to hear.
To make us strong there, it’s not by causing us to be spiritual superheroes. It’s to support us, confirm us, to establish us and set us in place, to bring us to a state of peace. To know that our place in Christ cannot be challenged,
The “why Me” changes dramatically, from why would God allow this all to happen to me, to “why would God choose you, or me, or cause Jesus to die, for us.
To answer this “why me?” sustains us in those other “why me’s” and reminds us to rest in His strength, to find mercy in His peace, to look forward to His second coming with the anticipation of children awaiting Christmas morning, but doing so, not restless with anxiety and stress… but with joy… and hope, and peace… for we know His love!
AMEN!
Prepare the Way!
Prepare the 
Way! It’s All About Jesus
John 1:6-8, 19-28
† IHS †
May You Realize That Life is All About Christ, and As You Do, May You Realize His Life Is All About You!
The New Pastor
I’ve heard the story a number of times, there’s even a pastor who did something similar and posted it on youtube. No matter who did it, it is a great object lesson. It went something like this.
A church was waiting expectantly to hear a pastor they were thinking of calling. He was supposed to come to town in time to preach at their evening service. He was reputed to be an incredible preacher, a great pastor, and one who led churches through times of great blessing.
He wrote them ahead of time, telling them the message would be one to encourage them to love their neighbors. Everyone was looking forward to it.
That morning, a man was sitting outside the church, with a piece of cardboard with the words Leviticus 19:18b written on it. He was unshaven, His clothes were filthy, his hair was messed, the letters on the sign were crooked.
Some people didn’t even look at him, as they passed by. Others looks, and muttered under their breath, A few walked up and tried to hand him a dollar bill, one man even tried to threaten him with calling the police – trying to scare him off the property. He stayed there all morning – and ever as people drove by later in the afternoon, he was there.
That night though, to almost everyone’s relief, he wasn’t there. The new pastor wouldn’t have to see him, and they wouldn’t have to feel guilty about treating him badly.
They were waiting for the message about caring for their neighbors. There was excitement in the air…. But wait, up by the altar, the man they thought was deranged talking to the elders…..and his sign was leaning against the altar…. One person looked it up – Leviticus 19:18B….
Love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord (NLT)
They had seen his message all morning – but they didn’t see it. They heard this amazing pastor speak, but they didn’t hear him.
They would repent, ashamed and shocked by the message, and perhaps they were only more surprised, when they heard the pastor announce that he would take their call, that together they would learn to love God and their neighbor
it is a story not unlike the story of John the Baptist that we heard this morning. For he too was not listened too by some, and we see that in the gospel today.
Why Couldn’t They See or Hear His Message.
Who are you the Priests and Levites ask John, not once, but five times.
Who are you, why do you act like a messenger from God, these messengers from the leaders of Israel ask. Men who most likely grew up with John, for his father was a priest as well.
Every time I see this passage, I wonder, why they couldn’t realize who John is.
Why couldn’t they get it? Why didn’t they hear his message? Was it the odd clothes?
We look at them, and ask those questions, but would we treat the odd looking guy in different clothes, whose life was very different from ours any better?
Would we try to drive off a pastor who was dressed like a bum and acted a little weird when we first met him?
Or might we check out the Bible passage on the cardboard sign he held?
Why Didn’t John Answer Them?
As odd as it is that they didn’t recognize John, John’s blunt refusal to consider their question is even odder. Jesus would tell people that John was Elijah. Did John lie? Did Jesus?
Why doesn’t he just say yes, I am Elijah, and over here – the Messiah, the Prophet you’ve been looking for? That’s my cousin Jesus from Nazareth.
Why not just make it easy on them?
Why not just slap them upside the head, and say, “look – the answer to your question is here, right here, right before your very eyes?
The Answer:
I think we find the answer in the reaction of the crowds when they do realize that Jesus claims to be the Messiah. They either try to kill Him, they try to make Him a king that will provide everything on their time schedule, when God is doing something far greater, far more eternal.
But God is about something else – about redeeming mankind, of reconciling everything together.
7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (NLT)
Surely they wouldn’t have killed Jesus, if they truly knew He was the Messiah, they wouldn’t have sacrificed Him, and he wouldn’t have borne our sin. They would have honored him, praised him, expected him to lead them in glorious battles, but that isn’t why he was born of Mary, that’ isn’t why he emptied Himself, and lived under the weight of being human.
That is what John means when he says he is the one who cries out get ready for God to come! A cry of despair, a cry of last resort, a cry for God to act, for only God can make the changes needed for people to be ready to in His presence.
if John admits to being Elijah, then the attention is on him again, and not on the message, the message people need to hear.
Are you ready for God to be part of your life? Are you ready to be part of His?
John’s message has to be about our need for Jesus. It can’t be, “look at me, I am Elijah!”
It has to be about Christ.
Without His Incarnation, His Birth, His life, Death, Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension, we won’t be ready when it is time for us to be before the throne of God. We simply can’t do the miracle of reconciling every relationship we’ve broken, every hurt we caused others, every time we’ve betrayed others, and been betrayed by them.
Yet that is why He came. That is the ministry of Christ! That is the work He accomplished, to make our lives, as bruised and battered as they can be, lives that are masterpieces because of what He does…
We know of Him, and His work, and that it was all planned…..
For John testified of his work, as we do, with our words and our lives.
For when we trust God at His promises, the promise of a Messiah, of a Prophet, of our Savior, and what He would do to save us… everything changes, and it begins to make sense.
What changes the most? We go from darkness to light, we go from questioning God to reveling in His presence, we know Him… He’s the pastor, who sees us at our worst, at the moments we aren’t loving, and says, I’ll stay, let’s walk together.
Therefore, knowing why He came, knowing He will come again, trust in Him, count on the promises He has made us, and live in His incredible peace…. AMEN!
We Pray (but not alone), Comfort Your People
We Pray,
Comfort your People
Isaiah 40:1-5
† IHS †
May you know the comfort of the grace poured out upon you by God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Can We Be Honest?
Advent is a time for honesty. Brutal honesty.
Because without it, we can’t hear the Voice that cries out of Isaiah the words we heard tonight.
Comfort, comfort MY people….
The honesty requires us to realize, that if we are the people of God, we are the people that the Voice is talking about. We are the ones who need comfort, who need peace.
But will we recognize it?
Do we realize we need Jesus to reveal Himself, just as the shepherds in the field did? Just as the wise men from what is now Iraq did? As much as the people Isaiah prophesied to, the people of God who were about were in slavery and bondage, far away from their home, yet living in view of a promise that would care for them.
They needed the comfort, the tender care, the chance to return to full health.
Advent is about realizing we need it as badly as they need it. Mankind lives in the same desperation, we have the same need for God’s rescue from darkness…
We need to hear this cry, this prayer that God would bring comfort to all of His people. Those who know they are His people, those who don’t know it… yet.
We aren’t lost…we aren’t broken
Even as we hear the prayer for comfort, we hear the why that comfort is needed.
Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills!
Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places!
These cries of desperation will be repeated as Jesus begins His ministry, as Jesus begins this work. We need to hear that – as He begins His work.
You see most of us spiritually are in the same place where the average man is, when he keeps refusing to stop for directions, when he denies he needs a GPS, when everyone else knows he is lost, and has no clue where or when to turn next. We deny the need for help, we’ve never gotten lost before. It’s funny when you get lost in Oaklahoma, it’s not so funny when you get lost in combat zones of the inner city.
We aren’t just lost though. Sin isn’t satisfied with that, we are broken, battered, stuck in the wilderness on the side of the road, with no direction, no path, no spiritual yellow brick road.
We look at the world and see they are lost, that they cannot even tell the difference between darkness and light. Is torture right? Is violence? Is sex of any kind outside of marriage? Is gossip and slander and disrespecting authority? Too often we find ourselves justifying that we know is wrong. We should know it simply because we have to justify our thoughts, or actions or words.
We need those roads straightened out, we need to see where we are heading clearly, we need to have a straight direction. This is the focus in advent, to know that those cries will be heard, that God will act. That we can hear His voice.
We’ve got to hear His Voice… We Got to Know His word.
Even as we hear that the path needs to be prepared, we have to hear the voice again that cries out for it.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone,
and her sins are pardoned.
This is the cry we hear, what will bring comfort to the people whom God the Father call His children.
The comfort is found in the mercy of God, shown in the work of Jesus. For it is His work to straighten those roads, to fill in the valleys, to make straight the path for God.
That is the incredible view of Advent, seeing the work to make God’s way smooth, the way that will bring us comfort, for the way is the one which we travel with Jesus, as He brings us to the Father.
A way of mercy, a way of peace, a way of joy.
That road, smoothed out, is Jesus work, it is the glory of God revealed to us. The glory that we dwell in, with Him. The glory we see together, His children, with nothing in the way.
For He has spoken.
One more thing… who is praying to whomThe Father cried out to the Son, that Jesus would comfort us.
It is why He needed to come…. It is why He would lay in a manger, and die on the cross. It is why we are united to Him in baptism, why He gives us His body and blood.
Hear it again, we aren’t the only people who pray and plead that all of God’s people would find comfort.
The Father cries, “Comfort, comfort my people!” The Son brings us comfort… and peace. So it was at the incarnation, so it will be at His return. AMEN!
Prepare! Clear the Way for Jesus!
Prepare! Clear the Way for Jesus!
Mark 1:1-8
† IHS †
My friends, my desire for us for this Advent Season is this: that from us is cleared away everything that divides us from God. From knowing His Love, from adoring Him. That is what God’s grace and mercy does, leaving us in His peace.
Preparing for Christmas Shopping – Rent a pastor!
It’s time for a Pastor Parker Parable, Advent edition. As we prepare for the Christmas holidays, for the party’s, and as we buy gifts for people we love, I have an idea that might provide some insight into how the gospel works, using the idea of surviving the shopping, and the incredible crowds. Here it is:
For a small donation to the elder’s benevolence fund, I will go shopping with you.
Let me explain how this is of a benefit. I need four volunteers…. One lady and let’s say Dane and Bob and Chuck. Did I say volunteers? Well – you’re here, so you volunteered. You three stand here, and pretend you are talking about football, or guns or even politics, and completely oblivious to what’s going on around you… Oh you are in the middle of a busy store…say Sears or Walmart
Now, over here we have Debbie, tired and weary of trying to find Tom just the right present. She sees it over there, on the other side of the three guys talking, and there is no way to get through them. You are out of luck.
But with the Pastor Shopping Assistant, this is problem is no problem at all. There is an advantage to having a 6’2” pastor dressed in black with his collar. You point out where you want to go in the store and I walk there, with you following behind. I navigate through the three men, who aren’t sure they are moving because of the collar, because I am big, or because I look mean and ready to send them to hades, or to the woman’s lingerie section. But move they do…. And you get what you desired.
This is how a pastor can benefit you in your shopping, and the same benefit you get from time in God’s word, whether in a sermon, or Bible Study or personal time reading God’s word! It’s the same thing we see as John preaches to the people of God and baptizes them as a sign of their repentance.
So the parable is this; pastoral assistance prepares for the appearance of Jesus the Christ! The way is clear, there is a path to the goal
Getting through that which would separate you from Christ
In our lives, there is much to be cleared out, much that slows us down, junks that stops us from living life in the peace God has given us. It’s the stuff that in Peter’s reading will burn up in the end.
Very few of us are the John the Baptist types, who live off the most basic of things.
I mean, how many of us are willing to take cast-offs to wear, for that’s what he wore for clothes. Or to eat whatever we came across, as we lived out in the field? We probably can’t find that much raw honey, but there is a good source of protein out there! His life was pretty well prepared. The way for him has few obstacles…
John preached the message about clearing the crap that gets in the way of our relationship with God. About clearing the way, making ready the path. He’s not talking about re-tarring the driveway at church, but getting rid of things like bitterness, resentment, anxiety, fears, and sin. He talked getting rid of our idea that we are right, and God just doesn’t know what life today is like.
We do that, when we don’t repent of sin, or when we allow others to think their sin isn’t a major one. We do it when we make personal comfort our goal, rather than knowing we find our comfort in Christ. We do it when we criticize others and gossip about them, rather than pray for their soul. We do it, when we don’t help those in need, or when our help is more to soothe our consciousness, rather than actually help them. This is the sin and unrighteousness that we hang on to, we protect, and we are don’t want to give up. Though that makes very little sense.
All these things need to be cleared away. Anxiety, fear, sin takes a straight road and turns into the spiritual version of Malibu Canyon road or trying to get one of the Black Friday super-specials. On our own we stand a better chance of winning three consecutive state lotteries, than in being prepared for Jesus’ second coming.
We need to hear the word of God, we need to hear the John the Baptist, and be cleansed of our sins, of our idols, of the crap that blocks our way to Jesus. We need to see His promises, we need to have the comfort He has promised, we need to know we are loved.
But there is so much that blocks us from Jesus, so much sin, so much anxiety, just so much!
How will we get it done in time?
Or will we give up and cling to the very things that poison our lives? The things that stop us from being close to Jesus?
This is the stuff we need to get through, but it is so hard!
Is He there?
That’s where the word of God and the sacraments come into play. Where a sermon or Bible Study that we are part of reveals Christ’s presence. When we hear the gospel crushes that which stops us from our time with God. Where it clears away the things that would block our access to God. That’s how God’s word works, that is how the Holy Spirit uses it…to ready us for Jesus’s coming
Why else would people treasure it enough to wander out to the desert to hear him? Why would they listen, what moved their hearts so much they admitted their sin?, Why would they run into the water, demonstrating that the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives, bringing them to repentance?
They gave up the game of being self-righteous, about pointing out the sins of others. They acknowledged they needed God’s presence, and their lives were cluttered and blocked. The crud washed away as promised, for and the word of God broke through, much as the 6’2’ 315 pound pastor can break through a crowd in a mall at Christmastime.
I want you to think about the ways Christ’s birth is declared in scripture. A people living in utter darkness have seen a great life. A time of healing a time of death being shattered by life, A day of the greatest rejoicing.
If that was true at Christ’s first coming to us, how much more will it be when He returns?
Hear again how Peter said in ( 2 Peter 3:8-14)
We are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
It is the same concept, know that your life, your vitality is found in Jesus. That His word reveals all that you need to see that the way is prepared, it has been planned, and for us, the way made sure at the cross, when Jesus died. It is the blessing of having the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to us in our baptism. It is the blessing of having God’s word tell us of this, over and over again.
For the Spirit grants us repentance, and brings us comfort, and testifies to the promise of the death, burial, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ.
We need to know we have access to God the Father, that there is nothing that blocks us, no amount of crud, nor a temple curtain. We’ve been invited to His feast, and He’s made sure we can know we are welcome.
Knowing that, we can have the peaceful, pure and blameless lives Peter encourages us to live in, for we dwell in Christ, He has claimed us, and He will get us home.
AMEN.
An Advent Lesson: The Desperate Need for Spiritual Growth
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 Write down for the coming generation what the LORD has done, so that people not yet bo
rn will praise him. Psalm 102:18 (TEV)
1 That is why we must hold on all the more firmly to the truths we have heard, so that we will not be carried away. 2 The message given to our ancestors by the angels was shown to be true, and those who did not follow it or obey it received the punishment they deserved. 3 How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation? The Lord himself first announced this salvation, and those who heard him proved to us that it is true. Hebrews 2:1-3 (TEV)
16 I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, 17 and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, 18 so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. 19 Yes, may you come to know his love—although it can never be fully known—and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (TEV)
136 Therefore we also hold that the keeping of the law should begin in us and increase more and more. But we mean to include both elements, namely, the inward spiritual impulses and the outward good works. Our opponents slanderously claim that we do not require good works, whereas we not only require them but show how they can be done.
450 You need interior life and doctrinal formation. Be demanding on yourself! As a Christian man or woman, you have to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, for you are obliged to give good example with holy shamelessness. The charity of Christ should compel you. Feeling and knowing yourself to be another Christ from the moment you told him that you would follow him, you must not separate yourself from your equals—your relatives, friends and colleagues—any more than you would separate salt from the food it is seasoning. Your interior life and your formation include the piety and the principles a child of God must have, to give flavour to everything by his active presence there. Ask the Lord that you may always be that good seasoning in the lives of others. (1)
The Psalm that starts off this devotion has been ingraining itself into my brain for the last few days.
We’ve been given this great treasure, the gospel that we have been entrusted with, this promise of salvation, this revelation of the love of God.
Not heeding the warning in Hebrew, we neglect it. Sometimes we avoid it, we don’t spend time reading it, we think that the church service on Sunday is enough, even though that 10-45 minutes sermon barely scratches the surface. It is one of our greatest treasures, as it reveals that which should mean the absolute most in our lives, the love God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has for us.
Maybe we neglect it because we are to busy with theology, too busy doing ministry, to busy being evangelists (or at least pretending we are on-line) We as pastors study it, but sometimes all it is, is studying it. We don’t become part of it, and therefore our people do not as well.
The keeping/treasuring of the law that Melancthon speaks of, results in spiritual growth. Growth in both the desire deep in our hearts and it becomes visible in our actions. St Josemaria describes the same things as interior life and doctrinal formation. Of knowing we are with Christ, that in our baptism, that relationship that unity is there. It may sound odd to be “another Christ”, but that is what we are, called into a relationship and sent into the world, appointed and yes anointed bearers of the Holy Spirit.
But missions, or our apostolates cannot happen without the relationship with God, without the time treasuring the height, depth, width and breadth of His love for us. Without growing deeply, not by academic study or memorization for its own sake., but by learning by exploration of His love, walking with Him, losing ourselves in the relationship so that our ministry is our lives.
This isn’t a Lutheran thing, or a Catholic thing. I could add quotes from Wesley, from Spurgeon, from Lewis, from pentecostals and charismatics and baptists. I included them because of recent conversations.
We need to grow, and the way we do it, is not by exercising the body or mind, but the heart. By learning of God’s promises and faithfulness, of experiencing His love. That very love causes a hunger, a desire, and an appreciation for the very means of grace.
this is what it means to be a disciple – and it is what we need to be doing as His body.
Godspeed!
(1) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 126). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1722-1730). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
We pray….Lord, Rip Open the Heavens and Come!
We pray….Lord, Rip Open the Heavens and Come!
Isaiah 64:1-9 Psalm 102:18-22
† IHS †
As you grow to know God’s mercy, may you find your prayers sustained by the Spirit’s presence, even as you pray for Christ’s return!
Rip’em open Lord
There are days where Isaiah’s cry I hear with great anger, and other times I hear it with great heartache. As we look out into this world, with its wars, with it massacres. When we see people causing division, rather than trying to bring reconciliation, when we see people struggle with the political games, with broken relationships, when they get played by extremism, or self-centeredness. When we look around us, and all we see is sin. There is a frustration that results in anger, and in tears. There is a desperation to our prayers, to connect to God!
Lord, come quickly, come so quickly you rip the sky’s open, and bring it to and end1
Isaiah certainly didn’t mean this as a casual invitation, but it was a cry born of pain, he pleaded with God to not hold back, but to come down with all His power, and set things straight.
To make things the way they are supposed to be.
Why can’t people love God, and love each other?
We can get so frustrated, there are times where we aren’t sure whether to be angry, or crushed. For that matter, we aren’t even sure which we are, at the moment.
The World Deserves it….
The cries for God to fulfill His promises resound throughout the Old Testament. For God promises, as he does in our reading tonight, to come with all of the angels and fix it. To come and destroy all that is Holy, to shake it up the way He did in the Old Testament, to deal with those who do things that are unrighteous.
You see it in all of the prophets, they pray for God to come and fix it all that is broken.
To take care of evil once and for all.
Even as Christ came the first time to save us, we know He is coming back to judge the quick and the dead. He will reign, He will fix everything, and that will go one forever.
They plead with God to return, they can’t stand living amid the brokenness any longer, so they turn to God and cry for help. The God the psalmist notes is looking down, listening to the cries of those in bondage, and will come to release them.
We deserve it
Back in Isaiah, even as the prophet cries for God to rip open the heavens, there is a realization, a hesitation. For Isaiah realizes how much the people of God have wandered away. He realizes that God isn’t just angry at them, but at us as well. That our desire to do good, is worthless, that we are dried up by sin,
What is alarming is verse 7,
No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you….
I have to ask, how much is prayer a part of our lives. Whether it is taking the psalms and praying through them, or whether it is just pouring out our heart to God. How often do we think of Him, talk to Him, find our selves concerned with what He is concerned with in our lives, in our world?
How often do we follow what He tells us to do? Or do we justify our sin, not caring if it breaks God’s heart?
We get frustrated by the very thing that in others we want to condemn. We need to learn to hate this sin, this failure, in our own lives. We need to call out to God to cleanse us, heal us, forgive us.
As Isaiah says, we cry for Him to remember we are His people. The people He poured water upon in baptism, the people He feeds and nourishes the souls of during the Lord’s Supper.
We are people that the psalm was recorded for, so that we could praise the Lord with angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven.
For He has promised to look down and release those for whom Christ died. To free them from their sins…. He promised that to us.
Advent makes Christmas something special, for it takes it from something historical, and we realize that it was to us He came. Because we needed Him To save us, and eventually, to return and bring us home to the Father.
Where we will dwell for eternity, in His presence. A day we should long for, even as God gives us His peace, until we return.
AMEN? AMEN!
Without Advent, Christmas is Just History….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the LORD. 19 Tell them the LORD looked down from his heavenly sanctuary. He looked down to earth from heaven 20 to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die. 21 And so the LORD’s fame will be celebrated in Zion, his praises in Jerusalem, 22 when multitudes gather together and kingdoms come to worship the LORD. Psalm 102:18-22 (NLT)
419 It seems an excellent idea to me that you should tell the Lord often about your great and ardent desire to be a saint, even though you see yourself filled with wretchedness… Tell him, precisely because of this! (1)
This evening, we take up our advent journey, a journey I hope to be one of intense prayer. We are going to look at different prayers in the Bible, where people cried out for the presence of God, Prayers that plead, Come Lord Jesus!
As I was thinking through the service this morning, it became apparent that we need this time of Advent. THe title above declares why. Without Advent, Christmas is a celebration of a historical event. An incredible one for sure, as Eternal God become mortal man, and dwelt among us. As the angels and shepherds sing God’s praises, as the glory of God was experienced in a way that even Abraham and Moses, David and Elijah never experienced.
Immanuel! God with us!
But what needs to be said is that life prior to the incarnation was in desperate need fo that incarnation. THat is what Advent services, the readings, the music, the devotions, should cause us to understand. To see the Incarnation, Christ living amongst us, not just as a historical exercise, but as an answer.
An answer to a prayer uttered in despair. In despair because of evil oppression, in despair because of the darkness of our own sin, in despair because without the presence of God, life is hopeless. An answer to those groaning souls imprisoned by guilt and shame, battered, downcast, broken.
it is the prayer that St. Josemaria encourages us to utter, even in the midst of knowing our own failure. A prayer that acknowledges our desire to live life worthy of Christ’s love, but unable to. It is the prayer cry of despair, depression, submission, and one that is made with the inkling of hope. The hope as we realize what is needed, is promised. The hope that expects the answer deep in our hearts, even while our minds struggle with the possibility of it.
Knowing this despair is answered is the nature of Christmas -advent simply identifies what life is, without God. It brings Christmas’s meaning beyond history into the present, and affects us here… and now. It provides hope for us who are broken.
For Advent shows a pattern to God’s love. It is why it was recorded for us. To know that God looks down. He sees our lives, lived in bondage, He hears our cries, and answers, freeing us, comforting us, cleansing and healing us. Without realizing the desperate need for God’s presence, Christmas just becomes a time of celebrating what happened. With the realizations of Advent, it becomes much more… Christmas becomes a celebration of our hope, because our Lord God is with us.
Knowing this, may our lives be lived in the praises of His people, as we wait again for His coming.
AMEN
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1616-1618). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
