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We Find Our Rest.. In His Cross
We Find our Rest in His Cross
Matt 11:25-30
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† IHS †
As we learn the depth of the grace of God, how it floods our lives, may we learn to trust as children, leaving our burdens behind, and learning to rest in His presence!
A Parker Parable….
Being a Christian is like Playing Golf…..
It leaves me a little in awe how often my life includes lessons that coincide with the message of the sermon for the week. It happens most weeks, sometimes multiple the same lesson learned through the experience of several lessons, and sometimes one of them is perfect to use in the sermon. When those happen, I call them “Pastor Parker’s Parables” even though they are the lessons I learn…the one’s I’ve been taught.
So get ready, this week, the parable is that, “Living the Christian Life is like playing golf!”
No, I don’t mean the part about the frustration, the anger, losing things left and right, from golf balls going in the water to one’s temper, to all desire to keep going.
Well, those things are included, it’s what called the law….
But there is another aspect to golf, that is not about suffering, but actually develops character, and joy….
A Little Success is a dangerous thing!!!!
The day on the course starts our great… well, great for me. Nice strong drives… decent bogies, nothing too pathetic. Then, on the par 5…. confident in my drive, the ball dribbles off the tee, it wouldn’t even make it to the parking lot! The next 6 hits went about as far, one even bouncing off of three trees to land at the base of the first one! The next hole – a par three (that mean you meet the standard by getting the ball in the hole on the third “hit”) the penalty strokes for getting the ball in the water exceed par on their own! Frustration is set in, every possible change to my swing is being analyzed…… I am relying on every bit of wisdom.. and failing.
We are like that in life, things can be going well, we can be doing good, and then confident, we try to do everything on our own, We want to decide not only what is good and right, but we become wise in our own eyes, trying to solve the messes we get into, because we think it is all about us.
Most of us, at one time or another, fall into the trap that Jesus so clearly describes, when He describes those “who think themselves wise and clever.”
Not that we would use those words, but how often do we try to run our lives? How often do we set aside God’s word and do things that we think will be beneficial to us, without considering its effect on others, or on us. The more our playing God fails, the digger the hole we dig ourselves in, Or instead of trying to run our own lives, it is telling others how they should live, or helping them justify their playing god, in the way they deal with others.
Ultimately, all sin, any time we break any of the commandments boil down to our thinking we know what’s best. Somehow we think we are wiser, or more clever than God. That we can handle it all on our own, without any help from Him, or those He sends.
Not only do owe not measure up, but we get more and more frustrated, until we want to give in, or give up…..or just hurl a golf club farther than the ball we hit with it went.
Playing God doesn’t lead to peace, but just frustration and anger and anxiety and….. we don’t ever find ourselves measuring up. We find ourselves so far from par, from being righteous, from being the people God came to share life with, eternal life, that is.
Even long after we’ve left the course, we are going to feel the frustration, the tension, the disappointment in ourselves. We will go from thinking we are perfect, to condemning ourselves, putting ourselves down, and giving up what we love, and are meant to do.
No, I am not talking about golf, but the lesson can be seen there as well.
Finding the Ability to Cease, to Give Up Control…
If those who find themselves wise and understanding struggle, it is amazing to see that the simple, that the naïve, that the very childlike do not.
It is because of the ease, the natural way they come to trust in God, to know Him, to walk with Him. How they accept what is revealed to them by God.
It’s not that they don’t sin, but they learn to seek forgiveness, to count on mercy, quickly. They get to know the Son of God and therefore the Father.
And when Jesus says come, knowing His love, knowing the joy of walking with Him, they come.
And find rest, they find the ability to relax and cease their struggles in life. They learn to stop trying to force life to go the way they think is best, and just revel in His presence.
That is the key to live, it is what those who think they are wise cannot figure out. It is because it is something beyond figuring out, beyond our capacity to comprehend.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t experience it….
The Rest….
It has been said that it is not the power of the swing that causes a golf ball to sail far, but the smoothness of that swing. That a relaxed smooth that might appear to be effortless will cause it to go farther than one is far more powerful but is forced.
The same is true for a believer in Christ.
There is Jesus, saying come to me, and I will give you rest…
I love how the paraphrased translation the Message says this….
29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:29-30 (MSG)
That’s what the yokes are for, as we see in Hosea,
“4 I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.”
The blessing of being yoked to Christ is learning to live in His grace, His love, His peace. It isn’t about God controlling us, or turning us into robots, it’s about teaching us to live.
When you go through physical therapy after surgery, as many of us have done around here, as some are doing right now, the therapists aren’t just trying to cause us pain, but teach us how to move again, so that other places don’t give out. What seems like a curse, or may cause a curse or two, is there to help us live as free as possible.
When a golf instructor has you swing the club over and over, without hitting anything, he’s conditioning you body to do what is right. Same for the martial arts instructor who makes you punch the same spot in front of you 10,000 times.
Hear the Message again,
29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:29-30 (MSG)
Where do we walk, bound to jesus? Learning His grace?
To the cross, and then to the resurrection.
To see God’s handiwork through all of life – even suffering, even death…for even there, in the shadows of death…. we find His life…eternal, everlasting, immortal.
We can stop guessing, we can stop trying to play God, or pretending we are wise and clever.
We can move with Him, through our baptism, to the altar. To look upon His sacrifice, His body given for us, His blood shed to seal His contract with us, to seal us to Him. We can move with Him, as He takes our burdens, as He takes our cares, and anxieties, and binds Himself to us, that we may know how to live.
To live, now as well as then, in a peace that passes all understanding, a peace in which we are kept, heart and soul… guarded by Jesus Himself.
AMEN?
Where is Jesus Taking You Today? For Whose Benefit?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
3 and Moses went up the mountain to meet with God. The LORD called to him from the mountain and told him to say to the Israelites, Jacob’s descendants: 4 “You saw what I, the LORD, did to the Egyptians and how I carried you as an eagle carries her young on her wings, and brought you here to me. 5 Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people, 6 a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests.” 7 So Moses went down and called the leaders of the people together and told them everything that the LORD had commanded him. 8 Then all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has said,” and Moses reported this to the LORD. Exodus 19:3-8 (TEV)
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:21-23 (TEV)
377 The Lord wants a definite apostolate from you, such as catching those one hundred and fifty-three big fish—not others—taken on the right-hand side of the boat. And you ask me: How is it I know myself to be a fisher of men, can live in contact with many companions, and be able to distinguish to whom I should direct my specific apostolate, but still catch nobody? Is it Love that is lacking? Do I lack interior life? Listen to the answer from Peter’s lips, on the occasion of that other miraculous draught:—”Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” In the name of Jesus Christ, begin again. And being strengthened, rid yourself of that indolence! (1)
From the very beginning, God has determined that those whom he has saved, those He has delivered are special to them. They have a special role in the world, acting as priests, serving Him, interceding for others. This is done in various ways, as the Spirit determines, as the Spirit distributes the charisms, the gifts described in such places as 1 Corinthians 12, and Romans 12. Many of those gifts are simple, others more visible, all are miraculous. Not because of what we see, but because God has rescued us, placed us in specific roles, specific vocations, all to bear witness to His love. That is as much the miracle – the way the Holy Spirit coordinates all of this, gifts, people, places,
We are all to share a hope that we have come to know, as we realize what God has done for us. We all have to be ready to explain the reason we have hope – which for most of us strikes fear into our very core.
I don’t think it is because of our fear of persecution, whether that being tortured or being thought not relevant. I think it is because we are afraid to reveal how dependent we are on God, to reveal how precious this intimate relationship is to us.
But that is exactly what they need to know! That is exactly where they need to be, exploring how high, how wide, how deep is the love of God is for them, for their family, for all who have wandered, or run far off from God. They need to know God desires that they not be lost, not be wandering, but that they come home…..This is our vocation, our mission, our apostolate…..
He has sent us all out to let them know this, to call them home, to bring them hope…..
So where is Jesus taking you to this day? Where is He sending you, even as the Father sent Him? Where is your mission field this week, who will you encounter? Have you prayed for them yet? Have you prayed that you would hear God’s guidance? Have you considered your baptism, the Body and Blood of Christ which you received yesterday, the gospel that was shared with you? These are all the things, these means of grace, that will guide you, the very thing that will help you know He is with you….
As you walk with God, as you go to the places He sends you, you will realize something I quoted from Pope Francis yesterday,,
“Our mission, then— the mission that frightens us and makes us offer excuses like the ones we hear from the lips of the reluctant prophets in the scriptures— is to evangelize, to shepherd the faithful people of God. And that mission establishes us in our vocation. In calling us to that mission, Jesus gives us solidity in the depths of our hearts: he establishes us as pastors and makes that our identity. In our visits to the sick, in our administration of the sacraments, in our teaching of the catechism, and in all the rest of our priestly activity, we are collaborating with Christ in establishing Christian hearts. At the same time and by that same means, that is, by the work we do, the Lord is establishing and rooting our hearts in his own.” (2)
Lord have mercy on us all, as we share His mercy with those He has sent us too!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1720-1728). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Pope Francis; Jorge M Bergoglio (2013-11-18). Open Mind, Faithful Heart (pp. 39-40). The Crossroad Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
Stressed? Anxious? Worried? Simple Fix….Really
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 A pilgrim song: GOD, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. 2 I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content. 3 Wait, Israel, for GOD. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always! Psalm 131:1-3 (MSG)
Part of me hopes, as I read the verses from the Psalms above, that I would have learned this lesson by now. That I would simply accept that God is in charge, that I would relax, that I would drop my anxieties, my fears, my worries at His feet. It is not easy, but over the years, I’ve become better and better at it. Or so I thought.
Sunday was a time for a lesson in humility, as I was struck with a flu bug that caused me to end up in the ER. I had Sermon studies to write, because others depend on them. Worship services to plan, and annual report to write. I have another couple of critical issues I thought I had to deal with, some people i care deeply about who are facing incredible trauma, one situation where someone in need was begging to talk to me in person, and I could barely stay awake.
And I had to lie there, in bed, like the proverbial child ( is pslamial a word?) and simply let God be God.
Peace didn’t come easily, or maybe it was the fever that caused me to toss and turn? No, let’s be honest, it was trying to fix everything, or at least come up with a fix, or 22,538 possible fixes!
Two days in bed (okay the second was in my recliner – doing the sermon study and worship plans on my laptop) and finally, here on Wednesday, I am back in my office.
God’s worked out some of the issues, given me the peace to enable me to deal with another, and well, the others will be dealt with, as God enables. Some will be long term struggles, some will be able to imitate the psalmist. I can only point to the fact that when we let God be God, He is… and when we try to play God, He still is, and will call us back to Him, waiting to heal us, waiting to show us mercy, waiting to hold us in His arms. Waiting to dance as His prodigal child again returns home.
The simple way to deal with stress, and anxiety and the worries of the world?
Be His…. oh wait – you are! So remember you are His….
Why Do We So Struggle With Sin….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:7-10 (NLT)
15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:15-16 (NLT)
25 He shows a great deal of enthusiasm and understanding. But when he realises that it refers to him, and that it is he who has to contribute in earnest, he slinks away like a coward. It reminds me of those who, during moments of grave danger, used to shout with false courage: War! War! But they did not want to give any money or to enrol to defend their country. (1)
In a number of conversations this week, people have had to deal with sin.
In one case, a young man tried to convince me that he is the first since Jesus to completely live without sin, to live the perfect life. In several others, this being Lent and all, we’ve talked about calling people to repentance.
Like the man in St. Josemaria’s quote, everything changes when it comes to dealing with our sin, with our personal challenges, with our….gulp…. sin.
Take on the sin of the world in your sermons pastor – just don’t hit me with mine. That’s right, go after the Fred Phelps, the homosexuals, those who are addicted to porn (well the hard stuff) those that fornicate outside of marriage – get them! Take on those politicians. Warn them all about hell!
My resentments? My lack of forgiving others,My inability to live at peace with those around me, my inability to love as I want to be loved? My anger issues, my self-defensive mechanisms? That just small stuff pastor, There are bigger sinners to fry.
We struggle with sin,OUR sin. We deal with it, much like we deal with death, or any issue where we find ourselves grieved….
We DENY it… we claim it isn’t sin, even though we know it is.
We BARGAIN – we want to make it seem less destructive. less of a sin than others sin…
We get DEPRESSED…. – we wonder if we would ever get past win the one that haunts us, the one we can’t overcome!
We get ANGRY… especially if someone questions us, or compares our sin to murder or adultery or gossip…
We ACCEPT it… we just give up – and continue letting sin dominate us, letting it rule over us, letting it wreck our lives, steal our peace, drive us nuts……..
Unless, in accepting it, we do what God tells us to do, to lay it at His feet. To let Him bring us healing, to allow those He has brought into our lives, to shepherd us through the dark times. We learn to accept our brokenness, not in despair, but because in doing so, in admitting it, confessing it, we can hear His voice, “Do not be afraid, do not be anxious…” When we, like the woman at the well, hear that God has sent us the Messiah, the Lord who will care for us, love us, cleanse us. When we hear like the man let down through the roof by his friends, and by the man at the pool, “your sins are forgiven.”
When like Peter along the lake, we realize what Jesus is asking, when we are more aware of our failures than His presence isn’t whether He knows whether we love Him, it is whether we know it….
Sin? Struggling with it isn’t in our job description. It’s above our pay grade… it is what Jesus did.
So don’t hide it, or minimize it, or despair over it, or get angry when you pastor meddles with it….
Let God deliver you from it, heal and restore you, and remind you that you are His Child, and He is your Loving Father.
Hear Him as He answers your cry, “Lord, have mercy!”
Come, confess your sins, and know He is faithful, they are forgiven, you are cleanse of all unrighteousness. AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 336-339). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Change: A Lenten Journey
Devtional THought of the Day:
2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:2 (TEV)
2 May your behavior and your conversation be such that everyone who sees or hears you can say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.
This morning, I found out a good friend of mine is going to be experiencing a massive change this summer, as he returns to the U.S.A from the mission field. His children were born on the field, all they know is living in Asia. It will be a massive challenge to readjust to life here.. Another friend, a Catholic priest, will be also changing parishes, leaving behind people he loves, and taking on some challening responsibilities. Many I know are going through changes of life, as they get older, as they are married, as they leave school and enter the workforce. The change that happens as health crisis threaten.
Change – it is challenging, it is frieghtening, it is ocverwhelming, and based on a lot of experience, it often simply, sucks.
Maybe that is why Lent is such a challenge for us. Because of the changes that we will undergo as we consider our lives. I am not talking about giving up chocolate, or not eating meat on Friday, or of committing to do a good thing every day. These actions, taken with great sincerity, are simply symbolic of what we hope and fear to see coming out of a Lenten season, our of a life that is, to use a fancy church word penitnent. (More than just being sorry, but grieving over sin and the brokenness it causes.
Lent is a season of change. A season of transformation, a season of realizing our desperate, yes desperate need for the presence of God in our lives. For Him to come into our life, into our brokenness, into the deepest parts of our lives. The parts we would rather not face, the pasts we are scared to revisit, He comes there, and takes on the sin, the pain, the brokennes. He consumes it, there on the cross where it is with Him. This is a change as fierce, as daunting, as radical as anything we can undergo in life. For it is death for that part of us, the part we cannot cope with, the burdens we need to be freed from, for they crush the life out of us.
It could be said that this process of facing our brokennes is hard, is extreme, is a process of change that goes beyond our ability to bear. For we have to die to self, and trust that we will coem alive in Christ. It is a re-living of our baptism, for it happened there as well. Unting with the death of Christ………the strkness, the cruelty of the cross.
Yet, on the otherside, there is light and peace… and joy.
For there is God, there is Christ, there is the gift fo the Holy Spirit who walks us through this valley of the shadow of death, to celebrate Christ’s feast.
That is our journey of lent, our journey that changes us, as we walk with Jesus to the cross, and to the resurrection.
May you embrace the change this year, knowing God’s mercy, and allowing Him to clean out the places in your life where you fear to go.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 174-175). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Hate Sin? Or Just Passively Accept it’s Existence?
Broken by sin, one lost is returned by the Shepherd
Devtional/Discussion THought of the Day:
29 Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. 30 The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?” 31 Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? 32 I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.“ Luke 5:29-32 (MSG)
1024 Help me repeat in the ear of this person and of that other one… and of everyone: a sinner who has faith, even if he were to obtain all the blessings of this earth, will necessarily be unhappy and wretched. It is true that the motive that leads us (and should lead everyone) to hate sin, even venial sin, ought to be a supernatural one: that God abhors sin from the depths of his infiniteness, with a supreme, eternal and necessary hatred, as an evil opposed to the infinite good. But the first reason I mentioned to you can lead us to this other one. (1)
Yesterday in our Adult Bible Study the comment came up again, about Jesus’ words. “judge not, lest you be judged”. We were dealing with the Leviticus 19, and the call to confront those we struggle with, lest we carry the burden of their sin. It seems, that we are challenged, greatly challenged, by what appears to be contradictory commands in scripture. We are not to judge (actually condemn might be more accruate) but we have to make the judgment that a relationship damaged by sin, needs to be fixed. We have to risk being judged for being judgmental. (for surely those accused of jduging will be judged!)
Some will say in response, “You have to hate the sin, and love the sinner!” If this is just a way of accepting the inevitable fact that all of us still sin, and that we have to love people who are dominated by such sin, then it is not accurate. Hating the sin means hating the hold it has over people, the oppression it causes, as people get sucked into its grip. We have to realzie that sin is powerful, it does control and oppress people, and it can do devastating damage to a person, and to those around them. No wonder Paul said,
17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! 18 I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. 20 My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 21 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 22 I truly delight in God’s commands, 23 but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. 24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? Romans 7:17-24 (MSG)
Do we hate that feeling that nothing we can do helps, when we are oppressed by sin? Do we cry out as Paul does here, openly, to the Church in Rome? Or, have we just given up, and left people in bondage to it, accepting that it just is that way?
Remember why Jesus said He came above. It’s not for us who think we are whole, who claim we’ve broken the power of sin, and we are holy.
It is for those broken by sin, devastated by it, those who are crying out for help. Those who need a healing that only Jesus Christ can bring about, as He unites us to Himself, as He takes on our sin. That’s what the Pharisees didn’t see, that Christ didn’t come to celebrate the good life, but to crush sin and its power. Hating sin as God does means that we want to see people come to that transformation, that incredible thing called repentance, to the freedom from its power. Paul finished off his cry above with this,
25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. Romans (MSG) 1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 3 God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. Romans 7:25-8:3(MSG)
In Christ, we are set right, once and for all. But that means we need to realzie that people need to be set right, they need to be freed from this oppressive thing we know as sin…..
But that means we need to confront, in love. A tough challenge, a lot of risk. But that is why He came – and that is why we are here….for if Christ didn’t come to care for the well, but the sick, shouldn’t we be following His example?
Lord have mercy on us, help us to hate the sin, and seek healing for sinners from its ravages!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3623-3628). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Alleluia He is Risen….therefore We are Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Alleluia, He is Risen! Therefore
We are Risen Indeed!
† IHS †May you rejoice as you realize the gifts of God our Father, poured out on you in Baptism, as we are united with Christ’s death and Resurrection!
It’s not just for Easter Season!
For someone whose been to church for a while, some phrases we say are as automatic as responding to someone who sneezes.
They sneeze, we say, “God bless you”
For those who’ve been around this church and many others, if I were to say, “The Lord is with you”…. Hahaha… I knew some of you would not wait to hear me respond…so please – don’t respond to this next one…
“Alleluia! He is Risen@” you would normally answer, “He is Risen Indeed!”
Not today, today I want you to respond, “Therefore we are risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Let us try it – “Alleluia – He is Risen!”
“therefore we are risen indeed! Alleluia!”
One more time?
“Alleluia – He is Risen!”
“therefore we are risen indeed! Alleluia!”
We desperately need to understand this – that because He died, and He rose, we too with the church in Rome, can consider ourselves to be dead to the power of sin, and alive to God, through Christ Jesus.
That has to become part of our daily thought, to realize we are dead to sin, and alive to God through Christ. As it does, we become more and more aware of His love for us, and His walking with us through life.
How we would want to live
With 15 years of being a fulltime pastor now, I think one of the greatest challenges that exist for people is to understand the Doctrine of Justification personally, in their daily lives. Or to put it clearly – to get the connection between the phrase Alleluia! He is Risen, and “therefore we are Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
We know how God expects us to live, loving Him, loving those around us. We understand that is God’s salvation is His gift to us, and it is found in trusting Christ, not in our works. Many of us have known these truths as long as we can remember.
Yet when we look at our lives, we struggle, because there great truths aren’t always seen in our daily actions, We know what’s good, but can we live that way throughout our lives? It’s a paradox, one that can make us question whether God really is active in our lives. Or take the opposite tack, and try to excuse and defend our sin, rather than seeking the comfort
Though we think more of Romans 7 and 8 when we talk about our struggle with sin, it really begins here, in the first verses of chapter 6. Here Paul begins to address sin, and our being declared without sin, because of Jesus. We lose our ability to just dismiss it, or justify it’s constant presence in our lives. First, he deals with the dismissal, that sin isn’t that big of a deal, because God is glorified as He forgives and cleanses us of sin. Therefore, more sin equals more glory, so no big deal?
He says we can’t let that attitude even be born in our lives, because, we’ve died with Christ. Having died with Christ, why should we go back to it?
Paul strips away our excuses for our sin, by reminding us of what happened. Being in bondage to sin isn’t our normal way of life anymore.
Hear the Message!
That’s the key to this passage, sin and its power over us is history, sin doesn’t have the power we once knew it to have. It cannot, for we have been baptized into Christ, joined with Him
And as we have been united with Christ – the words are incredible there – we are nailed to the cross with Christ, they are compound words – syn-staurothe – crucified together with Christ, Synthapto, buried together with Him. The prefix syn indicating a communal aspect – all together in this, sharing in it, one with Him in His death.
These picture us so untied to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection that we can’t be separated from it, Paul then goes on to say, if this is true regarding being one with His death, we will be one with His resurrection, in His tossing aside death, in His leaving sin so powerless – that we are considered dead to each other.
For Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Therefore?
Consider yourself…
So what do we do? We realize what Paul is saying to the church in Galatia as well,
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Galatians 5:24 (NLT)
That is what living in Christ is all about – about leaving our sin, our passions and desires, nailed to the cross – and when we struggle with sin, to bring it back there and leave it where it belongs.
You’re dead to its power – and alive to Christ. Because God claimed you in baptism.
When we said earlier that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, that’s what we know, yet it is something for which we need daily reminder. It’s why we pray that God would lead us away from temptation and deliver us from evil, so that we will know He does. It is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and hear St Paul say that every time we do this, knowing Christ, we proclaim His death until He comes again.
Because in proclaiming His death, we are proclaiming the victory, the liberation of us from the power of sin. Delivering us into a life filled with the Father’s love and mercy and comfort and peace.
So you sinned this week, God’s dealt with it, and when you face temptation, your struggle is not to overcome it by your own strength, but to look to Christ, know you are in His presence, flee to His side, to the cross, and know that sin cannot defeat you there. Remember you are baptized into Christ’s death, and raised with Him, think of the body and blood given to you in this place, and know God has separated you from your enemy sin.
That’s what this service, and Sunday School, and our Bible study are all about.
To help us know this.
That we are dead to the power of sin, and alive to God through Christ.
For Praise God, He is Risen, and therefore we are risen indeed, Alleluia?
Getting Past Betrayal: Finding Healing for That Which You Broke.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. 7 For a dead person has been absolved from sin. 8 If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Romans 6:6-8 (NAB)
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; 7 for he that hath died is justified from sin. 8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; Romans 6:6-8 (ASV)
18 For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit. 19 In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison, 20 who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. 21 This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him. 1 Peter 3:18-22 (NAB)
613 God has a special right over us, his children: it is the right to our response to his love, in spite of our failings. This inescapable truth puts us under an obligation which we cannot shirk. But it also gives us complete confidence: we are instruments in the hands of God, instruments that he relies on every day. That is why, every day, we struggle to serve him. (1)
In my devotions today, I read of Peter’s denial of Jesus, and the grief that he dealt with, in realizing that he betrayed the promise that was made with all his heart, in realizing he betrayed Jesus.
How do you go on, after betraying someone you depend upon, someone you care for, someone you told you would die for? Do we just let the relationship fade into our past, even while we deal with the haunting guilt and the shame?
It maybe a family member you betrayed, or maybe an old friend, that person who you stood beside all those years. Definitely, all of us have betrayed God, some perhaps as tragically as Peter did, the night before Christ’s crucifixion. At some point in most of our lives, we’ve cried those same tears as Peter. We felt the pain and crushing anxiety of knowing that things will not be the same, ever again. In order to deal with this, we find distractions, new relationships, new hobbies, we work more, even things that would numb us from our pain.
We need hope, even when we feel things have gone beyond any reasonable expectation of hope.
Peter found such hope, and restoration, a complete transformation. Paul did as well.
Most translations in Romans 6:7 use the phrase “freed from sin” in translating dedikaiwtai apo tes amartias. I believe that this is a serious error, given the use of the root word’s ( dikaios ) multiple appearance in chapters 3-5. There it in its various forms is translated as righteious, made righteous, just or justified. It is more than being freed, it is God’s judgment, saying that you have been counted not guilty, that He views you as righteous, a view that is possible because Christ took upon Himself our guilt. This is more than just being freed from sin, it is declaring that sin has no claim on us, whatsoever.
The old ASV gets it right in saying we are declared justified, the NAB I think even makes it clearer with absolved from sin. We are cleansed and declared righteous, just, because of what. God has done.
In both passages, this answer is our baptism. Baptism, not as our work, but the appeal to God because we’ve been unifed to Christ’s death and resurrection. When we look at what God does, what He promises in baptism, we find the source of healing, of cleansing. We’ve died with Christ and live in Him. We have been absolved, counted righteous, cleansed, healed…
And it does something wonderful, it shapes us into God’s instruments, Our response to this work is to become God’s people, created to do good works, for we dwell in Christ.
How does Peter go from tears just before dawn on Good Friday, to the one who responds to others grief at their own betrayal of God? How can Peter point them to Baptism, and the transformation of their souls?
Because of the confidence that dieing with Christ, and being raised with Him brings. A confidence not in our ability to absolve us from sin, but His.
So rejoice in your baptism, may you grow in your knowledge of the extent of His love, mercy and healing given to you there.
Where He Lives (with us) Is Glorious!
Where He Lives Is Glorious!
Isaiah 11:1-10
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
As you experience the grace and mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, may you realize you dwell, even now, in His glorious presence!
The Irony of Looking for What is Already Here…
It’s time for another of Pastor Parker’s Parables.
The Kingdom of God is like setting up a Christmas tree a couple hours before the company arrives.
You have set it up every year in the same place, and you know how it all fits together! You get the stand to work this time, on just the 6th attempt. You place the lights on it carefully, having laid them all to test them. On goes all the ornaments, even that ugly indestructible, hideous one you got years ago. It was your Christmas present as a married couple from that one friend, so you put It on. (Maybe this year it will finally be crushed when you take the tree down!)
You finished decorating, you go to plug it in, and somehow the cord is 6 inches short… it won’t reach the wall outlet! In 10 minutes, your company is due to arrive! You head out to the garage; absolutely, positively sure there is a power strip right on the workbench, where it is supposed to be! You look, it is not there, you start to move things around… and…where is it! Anxiety starts to build!
You hear a car stop at the curb, oh no! You will never get it find it now! You look out, whew! It isn’t’ your guests, it’s the neighbor’s kids and grandkids. (you don’t even complain that they are parked in front of your house, you are so relieved…) You go back to the work bench – still trying to figure out where that dang power strip is…
And you realize it is in your hand. You picked it up, to move it out of the way so that you could find it….and it never left your hand…
Now the car with your friends arrives, as you are laughing maniacally, half embarrassed, half relieved, completely drained by the stress that leaves you…
Ready to enjoy the friends that you’ve been working to prepare the house for.
That’s the kingdom of heaven, that moment where the realization that what you need is here….right here.. even though you couldn’t see it.
That is our message of advent, as we focus on the peace and rest we have been given, because our long expected Jesus, is here. The rest and peace and glory that was prophesied to arrive with Him, that we struggle to remember is here…..
The struggle with Injustice in a dog eat dog world
As we look at the message in Isaiah, we begin to see what the Jewish people were expecting in the coming of Christ. I love the description of the peace that will exist between natural enemies, and predators, and even those who would innocently invade the area of others.
There is no more dog eat dog world, it is gone. There is no need to be on the defensive, to be anxious over those who could get hurt. There is no need to guard what we say, wondering how others might use it against us.
There is peace, and there is rest. It is a way that is foreign to us, for we will truly be able to be still, and just know that He is God….
Think about it, we will not have to worry anymore if our rights are going to be violated, or if someone is going to make our life more of a challenge. How many of us are ready to have nothing to complain about? No one to blame for why our lives are not as wonderful as they could be. Nothing holding us back.
I almost wonder how we will adjust… ( I mean – what will we post on facebook !)
Cynicism is no longer an art form, for many it is a survival mechanism. To throw away everything Luther told us about putting the best construction on what other’s say and do – and assume what they say and do is about their best – not our best interests. Of course, should someone point out that our words and deeds aren’t so loving, we might get upset.
And the Israelites were expecting the Messiah to change all that! They needed to someone who had all the wisdom, all the knowledge, the understanding and the ability to make this all right. Someone not just as wise as Solomon, or as aware of God’s heart as David, or with the gift of miracles like Elijah, but the one who they pointed to!
I love how Isaiah describes Jesus, 700 plus years before He is born of Mary
3 He will delight in obeying the LORD. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. 4 He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.
That’s the promise of the word of God, promised to be fulfilled when the Messiah arrived on the scene…
So two thousand years later… why don’t we live in this peace? Why do we struggle with things that destroy it? Paranoia, Defensiveness, anxieties, resentment and thirst for revenge?
Simply put, it’s because the Kingdom of God is like putting up a Christmas tree…
Has this happened yet?
You have been baptized (if you have not – we can take care of that!) you have been welcome into the community of God’s people. Your sins have been forgiven and you are reminded of that quite often around here, because we need to be.
We, especially here at Concordia realize what a great God we have, for He has been lifted up on a cross, our flag of hope – our banner of victory, and we have seen the nations rally around Him, proclaiming His glory.
We live in God’s Kingdom, so why aren’t we aware of life being the way Isaiah prophesied? Why do we live still on edge, on guard, and battling anxiety? Why do we resent other, and desire revenge? Why do we feel we have to protect what is ours? Why can’t we see this Kingdom of God?
I suppose it is gooder grammar to ask why don’t we see this Kingdom of God?
It is here, you are reminded of it when you pray, which is why St Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. You can’t deny someone being there..if you are having a conversation with Him!
You know you are baptized, so heed Martin Luther’s advice and start each day knowing what is yours – the very gift of the Holy Spirit, the wiping away of all sins from your life, the healing of heart and soul. End each day as well remembering your baptism, for then you will know God is with you, and that you can sleep in peace.
Come to His table, and as one song tells us, taste of that glory, the bread of forgiveness, the win of His peace. Know that all struggle with can be left here as well.
Fellowship with others, as we learn the scriptures together, as we measure the height and depth of width and breath of His incredible love for us.
Know He has come, He is here…realize that you can entrust God with the world, with the justice He has promised, with the fact that nothing can prevail against His love. Be free to love those around you, even those you struggle with whom you struggle. God is here…right here… all the time.
That is why you live in the peace of God, which will guard you heart and mind in Christ Jesus. AMEN?
Finally,… Pray
Baptism of Christ. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
today at Concordia, just minutes before this sermon, a little girl was baptised, claimed by God to be His daughter. Read about what happens in baptism in Ezekiel 36:25 and follwoing and in 1 Tim 3:2-8. This is truly a miracle, one of the greatest we experience!
Finally… Pray!
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
† In Jesus Name †
As we receive the grace, that mercy and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, may Jesus lead our hearts into the full understanding and expression of the love of God, and may we, in Christ patiently endure!
How much will life change in Her life?
I want you for a moment to dream of the future.
A time 60-80 years from now, as Cayleen is sitting in the front row of this church, watching her granddaughter or even great-granddaughter being baptized. The church might have different music then, our new music becoming the old, archaic stuff that her generation longs to hear occasionally.
Maybe there will not be cars in the parking lot, but those little family jets that we saw on the Jetson’s.. Cell phones? Texting? Tablets? I can’t even begin to imagine what life will be like for them. I just think about how much it has changed since my son was baptized 6 years ago.
Except for one thing.
She will still need to know God’s love. There will still be the challenges of life that we will have to endure, for while many things in life changes, life itself will not change as much for her as it did this morning.
Which is why Paul not only asks us to pray, but then offers a blessing for the church in Thessalonica, as He asks God to lead our hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God, and the patient endurance that is found in Christ.
Come to think of it, if you can’t remember what to pray for her and indeed for all the baptized, that’s a pretty good prayer to remember!
You promised to pray…
Full understanding and expression of God’s love
That means His mercy, and His granting repentance
I pray that you remember to keep the commitment you made this morning to God, as you keep Cayleen in your prayers. Do not just make this something you said, as you were caught up in the moment. Pray for her, and for those around you, for we all need prayer. Even apostles, even pastors, even grandparents.
Sometimes we do not know how to pray, or what to pray, and I think that is where a passage like this comes in so handy. Two simple things to pray for, to know and express God’s love, and to endure. There will probably be some points where you need to pray for Dan and Kristen for that as well – like when Cayleen is 2, or when she’s that sweet age that starts just after the 12th year and 364th day of her life.
Seriously, pray for her, and for all believers in Christ, and for everyone you know.
Pray that they would follow Jesus, as He leads their hearts into a fuller understanding of the depth of God’s love for them. A love that does not just write us off the first time we sin but he continues to call to us, to urge us to repent, and to sin no more. The love of God that desires to fix the parts of our lives that are broken, to heal the wounds that our hearts and souls have encountered.
For to fully understand God’s love is to realize we do not have to hide our sins, we do not have to pretend they aren’t sins. Rather, we are to go to God and confess those sins, to ask Him to fix them. That takes faith, and confidence, and knowing God’s love and faithfulness so well, that we run to Him whenever we are struggling, whenever we are broken, whenever we break life.
Patient endurance?
Christ must lead us there!
That is how we endure as well, realizing that Jesus has united us to His death, and to His resurrection. That iss the promise of baptism, that unity to Christ. It is the hope He’s given us of sharing in His glory (col. 1:26-29 talks of that)
When we realize that our destiny is secure, that this life, as long as it may seem some days is going to become eternity in God’s presence, it helps us incredibly to endure. We can stand firm, knowing God’s promise that all things will work for good for us, because we love the God who called us and made us His.
It’s in knowing what Christ endured for us, that leads us to endure in His presence. For that too is a blessing given to Cayleen and all who believe and are baptized. God promises in Matthew 28 that He will never leave us, even until the end of the ages.
That’s why Paul says Jesus must lead us in knowing and expressing God’s love and into that ability to endure. It isn’t based in our own inner strength, even as Christians. Maturity for a believer doesn’t happen after we go through puberty and our voices change.
It happens when we know God’s love, when we know the promises of love given this day. When we realize how Jesus is always faithful, how He is always guarding our hearts, our minds, our souls. How He leads us as the 23rd Psalm says besides still waters and restores our soul. (which means it needed restoration)
That’s what Jesus does, that is what our Lord is tasked with, saving us from sin and the power of satan and death, and restoring us to life, quickening it us. That’s why a believer doesn’t live in terror of God, but in awe of Him, knowing His love, and being able to express that knowing (not knowledge of but knowing) through their voices in praise and through their lives.
But pray also for the mission and for those needing rescue
So pray for Cayleen, pray for those people around you! Make this your prayer for them; that they would be lead by Christ into the full understanding and expression of His love, and that they would, in Christ, endure!
Paul asks us also to pray for the mission, that this message of God’s love be honored, that it is heard and responded to with praise, wherever it goes. And to pray for those who have to deal with what the translation says are wicked and evil people – those who can’t comprehend God’s love, who don’t feel comfortable dealing with His mercy and those who are guilty, and need to deal with it. God dealt with them by the way, as we hear all of Paul’s guards in jail came to know God’s love and were granted repentance.
So finally my friends, pray, give into God’s care those you love – and those you struggle with. Let Him take the anxieties, the worries and challenges from you, freeing you to love them without distraction, to care for them as He would, to point them to Him when you don’t know what to do.
Having does so, knowing God’s love more fully, you will find yourself expressing it, in a place of peace beyond all comprehension. It is there where you are kept, guarded, your heart and mind protected by Jesus himself. AMEN?
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