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Did Jesus Rest on this Sabbath?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
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)
“Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead:” (1)
A conversation yesterday, between Good Friday Services, brought up the issue of what Jesus was doing, in the time between His death on the cross, and the Resurrection.
The people I was in dialogue with said he simply rested in the grave. They were using this to “prove” that everyone should worship on the Sabbath, during the time between Sunset on Friday, and Sunset on Saturday.
It brought up memories of my childhood, sitting in the pews at St. Francis in Lawrence, or St. Joes in Salem, and wondering about the line in the Apostle’s Creed above.
Why did Jesus have to descend to Hell? Wasn’t the suffering and death on the cross enough?
It bothered me greatly, and those I asked about it, had no answer. Which bothered me a little more. Would the Father let Jesus go to Hell, to suffer there for our sins? Why did He have to go?
I am not sure when I came across the verses in Peter’s epistle above, but they seem to settle the issue. Jesus didn’t go to Hell to suffer, but to preach, to proclaim the love of God, that He would die for the sin of the world. All sin. That those who trust in Him as their God, would know His salvation. it is not quite a victory parade, though it is to declare victory. And the gates of Hell cannot prevent it, Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God. He was sent, apostle’d to deliver to the Father, those who have, would, will become the children of God
The words about baptism are not remiss therefore, for it is in Baptism that we are united with the death of Christ, and with His Resurrection. Glorious events, worthy of praise, (yes the cross is glorious) for they show the depth of God’s love for us. Love that wouldn’t even let those imprisoned by sin not know of His love, of His grace. It is what takes those dead in sin, and makes them alive in Christ Jesus.
Which brings us back to the Sabbath, and the purpose of it.
It’s not about not working, for surely God is continually at work, sustaining the universe. And those of us, who preach, who lead worship, who do a myriad of things on Sunday (or Saturday – Romans tells us we have this Freedom) certainly are at work in the House of God. The Sabbath is about priority, teaching us to rest – not just from labor, but to rest in the presence of God. To be in awe of His love, to be aware of the depth of His love, that will even descend into hell to deliver the children of God to their home… with Him. That is why Paul says the sabbath is simply a foreshadowing of Christ, for it is in Him we truly find rest.
Even on a Saturday, while we prepare to celebrate the resurrection… Even here, the Lord of the Sabbath reigns, and because He does, we know we dwell in the Father’s peace, an indescribable peace, a peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
AMEN.
(1) The Apostles Creed
Why Are We Satisfied With GIGO? (garbage in – garbage out)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. 8 Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ 9 and to know that I belong to him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ. 10 All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as he did, 11 so that somehow I also may be raised to life. Philippians 3:7-11 (CEV)
8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.Philippians 4:8 (TEV)
65 Once again you had gone back to your old follies!… And afterwards, when you returned, you didn’t feel very cheerful, because you lacked humility. It seems as if you obstinately refuse to learn from the second part of the parable of the prodigal son, and you still feel attached to the wretched happiness of the pig-swill. With your pride wounded by your weakness, you have not made up your mind to ask for pardon, and you have not realised that, if you humble yourself, the joyful welcome of your Father God awaits you, with a feast to mark your return and your new beginning. (1)
In the movie “Footloose”, there is a characterization of Christianity, or at least Christianity that used to be.
A Pharisaical legislative, in your face, take names Christianity where those that danced, or drank, or went to movies rated “PG” or worse were held up and scorned. Where the rules of behavior were set in stone, and by golly, if you weren’t going to obey those rules, you were going to be tossed out. If you questioned the rules, you were considered a rebel and someone to be watched.
A generation later, and perhaps we’ve gone the other way, yet are still “legislating” what is right and wrong. Or more accurately, we are simply legislating everything as right, and banishing any thought of the idea of something being “wrong”.
The Pendulum has reached the other side of the swing, This time, it has done what it rarely does – it has taken the church with it, gotten the church’s okay for what is vulgar, profane, sinful. I look at my fb page and what I and others post, and am shocked. Even if permissible, the things we post aren’t beneficial, (didn’t Paul say something about that?)
As one whose vocation, whose career deals with helping people in their brokenness, I see both these extremes as wrong. I have dealt, and continue to deal, with those damaged by these forms of legalism. The damage is horrendous, the pains are real, the broken families, broken marriages, broken friendships, broken people just mount up,
The ways that would excuse and/or justify any behavior, and the kind that would force behavior modification.
That’s not how it works in scripture, for like the old computer rule, these tactics focus on negative behavior – and even taking them in leads to sin. Garbage in, garbage out. Both ways do this – one by approving it, the other by making it tempting and looking good, in the very way we forbid it.
Holiness is something else though. It is abandoning all of these behaviors, not because we are forced too, but because we realize their value compared to the value of knowing Jesus, to knowing the love of God, to knowing His comfort and peace.
Paul’s idea of Phil. 4 – about concentrating on the “good stuff” isn’t law – it is 100% gospel, when you hear it with chapter 3 still fresh in your mind. Because those things he says to focus on are found in the presence of God. They are God’s nature. They lead us to adore Him, to want to be like Him, and in Him finding the strength to that which is positive. The more we see this, the less desirous the life of the prodigal will be, the more we realize the grip of sin was broken at the cross. There is something about that cross, about the crucifixes and crosses we have, that remind us of His love, of His devotion, of that which is unlike anything else we can now.
Will we see God’s glory for what it is? Will we walk with the Lord? Will we realize the garbage that we feed on daily for what it is, and leave it behind to know the love of God?
Lord have mercy on us, and help us to desire you in our lives, and therefore find the holiness that is found in your peace.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 490-495). 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?
Real Burdens, Real Crosses to bear, and walking with Christ
Devotional Thought of the Day:
37 “Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples. 38 Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples. 39 Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it. Matthew 10:37-39 (TEV)
995 A Christian always triumphs from the Cross, through his self-renunciation, because he allows God’s omnipotence to act. (1)
521 I wrote to you: Though I can understand that it’s not an uncommon way of talking, I’m not happy when I hear people describe the difficulties born of pride as “crosses”. These burdens are not the Cross, the true Cross, because they are not Christ’s Cross. So struggle against those invented obstacles, which have nothing to do with the seal Christ has set on you. Get rid of all the disguises of self! (2)
I came across these two quotes this morning from St. Josemaria Escriva in two different books – one that I finished yesterday, and one that I picked up and continued in this morning. In them, and in the passage from Matthew above, I find something that has been on my heart for a while.
We don’t understand crosses, or burdens that we are to carry. We even label some people our crosses to bear, or our “thorns in the flesh”, as if the only reason they are in our lives is to keep us humble, broken, and praying for mercy.
In 521, St Josemaria describes that we take on problems,which we label crosses, that we think are holy burdens, but are not really. When we find a person burdensome, bothersome, requiring great patience, when we barely tolerate his presence. If that is all we do, we haven’t born Christ’s cross, we haven’t shouldered a burden God would give us to bear.
That is not to say we do not have crosses to bear, that we are free to disobey what Christ commissions us to live, as His masterpeiece. (see Eph 2:10) There is a transformation in us, at our baptism, that as we live in faith causes us to take up the very crosses God has wanted us to bear, to make the sacrifices, to love, not just rolerate, the unlovable. A cross that requires us to confront brokenness, sinfulness, not with the goal of condemnation, but with the goal of seeing people healed in Jesus Christ. To lift the weary, to nurse the sick. These crosses take self-denial, or as it is put above, self-renunciation, Its putting others welfare – especially their eternal welfare, before our own wants and needs.
This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Philippians 2:
1 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. 2 I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. 3 Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4 And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. 5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: Philippians 2:1-5 (TEV)
You might suggest that this is too much of a burden, that you are as unable to comply with this standard, as you are with the law of Moses. That I can’t expect sinners who are justified in Chirst to become this obedient, this transformed, this…. holy.
If that is true, why then inlude Christ’s commission to bear the cross in scripture? Or at least have it footnoted with the statement that this is the ideal? No, this is really what Christ commissions, what he expects, Beyond the above commissions, and Eph. 2:10, and Romans 12:1-8, and all of 1 John, we could add the Beattitudes, Hebrews 12:1-3, and the list goes on.
You have a cross to take up, a place to serve, where you bring people face to face with the God who brought you to Him.
How you do it, is actually simple – you remember you are nailed to the cross with Him, that you have died, that you have risen as His. That He never will leave us, and that as we look to Him, He transforms us into His likeness. THe description of that is the people who take up the cross – and walk like Him.
So I encourage you… start this new year right,
Call our Lord Have Mercy, and realize that loving others is proof that He has.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 4024-4025). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1976-1980). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
To what extend do we sacrfice for others? And for what purpose?
English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
16 This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others! 1 John 3:16 (TEV)
“there comes a time when you have to stop crossing oceans for people who wouldn’t even jump a puddle for you…”
“But then I realize there is never going to be a day when I stand before God and He looks at me and says, ‘I wish you would have kept more for yourself.’ I’m confident that God will take care of me.” -David Platt
The above two quotes in black were on my facebook news feed this morning, one above the other. They contrast they set was incredible, as they look at relationships from different perspectives.
The first, while it is willing to make sacrifices, demands a “give and take” to a relationship. That if I am to pour my love, my sacrifice, my all into a relationship, then I should be able to expect something in return. If there isn’t some return, then the relationship should be tossed aside and no more put into it. It may not be demanding much, but it still demands, it still expects and it still will be disappointed, for such investments rarely pay off quickly, and sometime, never directly to the person who invested their all.
The second take a different tack, reminding us that the meaning of life isn’t found in our personal gain, our being valued. It puts faith in the result of our investing our lives in the hands of God, not the hearts of others. It assumes that we might wonder whether this is all “worth it”. It makes clear that suffering or denying ourselves so that others will benefit is the norm of life, for the norm of life is Christ.
This means using God given wisdom of course, knowing how to sacrifice that people will benefit, but it doesn’t mean that part of that calculation is our own pleasure, our own “fulfilment”. It assumes that fulfillment is found with Christ, on the cross, giving Himself for us, as John’s passage tells us, even as it encourages us to give our lives for others. This sacrifice is for the same reason as Jesus’s – that they may know the love of God.
Don’t hesitate to live your life in ways investing God’s love into others. Be there for them, encourage them, love them. As Paul also wrote:
1 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. 2 I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. 3 Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4 And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. 5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: Philippians 2:1-5 (TEV)
Lord have mercy on us, and help us to love those you have brought into our lives. AMEN!
This News Strengthens Weak Hands Unsteady Legs and Racing Hearts
The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This News Strengthens Weak Hands
Unsteady Legs and Racing Hearts
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
As we experience the grace and mercy of God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, may our hearts be calmed, and may we find ourselves strengthening others we encounter!
The Kingdom of God is like.. Christmas Morning…
There was a rule in the house I grew up in, we were not allowed to have our feet touch the first floor of our house until 6:30 on Christmas morning.
Needless to say, by about 5:45, my sister Kelly, my brother Steve and I were crowded on the first step of the stairs, pointing out the presents under the tree, wondering which presents were for which of us. Some of it was easy – if there were two boxes the same shape and size – one was Stephen’s, one was mine – my folks like to buy us the same thing. I think to see who would break the item the fastest?
At 6:31, my mom could be heard descending the stairs, a few moments more, my dad. That was the morning of instant coffee, for they were up late the night before, for we often didn’t get home from grampy’s until after 11. Then they had to wrap presents, and get everything ready.
Exhausted when we woke them up, something always happened as they watched us rip open presents with the energy that only children can have. They began to laugh and smile and enjoy themselves, despite their tired, cold, achy bones. A transformation occurred, as the tiredness somehow evaporated. There is something about sharing joy that is transforming.
The coming of the Kingdom is like that!
The dramatic change of Isaiah’s desert and desert highlands is lost on most of us. We can’t picture a place like Arizona suddenly looking like Yosemite, or the coastal redwoods of Santa Cruz. We don’t see the area between here and Las Vegas all of a sudden looking like the Everglades. The transformation is that incredible, as God comes among us. Can we even begin to comprehend it?
We can understand the language found in verse three and four, about having the tired hands, and knees that just want to give out, and hearts that are so crushed, that they are racing because of stress and wear and tear they undergo.
We need this season of Advent to not just about to be about waiting – but to hear the news –that God is coming, that God is with us…. For then, as the King David says –
11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, 12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever!Psalm 30:11-12 (NLT)
This week, the third of our advent journey, that is what we find joy in, the news of how the tired, weary and anxious are more incredibly transformed than parents were on Christmas morning!
What causes our weaknesses? What causes our hearts to race?
It was once said that a pastor’s sermon should afflict those comfortable in sin, by comfort those afflicted by it. Those who spiritually are tired, worn out to the point of stumbling, those whose heart races. In other words, a lot of us in this place – are not in need of me ranting about the condition of the world, or of the sins that cause consequences in our lives.
We’ve felt them often, enough so that I can joke about needing to invest in whatever corporation owns Kleenex. It’s why this place is called a sanctuary, a refuge – and why Sunday is our day of hiding in Christ and finding rest.
We know those Isaiah says need to be strengthened and encouraged and to lift our hearts. Sometimes, like John the Baptist in the Gospel, we are the ones who ask – are you really there Jesus, are you really listening to us God? Not because we don’t know – but we need to remember.
We need to know we have a real God whom cares for real people with real problems.
We need to hear God’s message, as we struggle in what seems to be a desert wilderness.
Be calm, be strengthened by this… Immanuel!
That is what advent is all about – this time where we recognize our need for God’s presence, where we try to imagine what going through this life would be like in ancient days.
Not talking about the days with black and white televisions, brownie cameras, pong video games and rotary phones. I am talking about the days before Christ’s being born of Mary, when they knew of God, but because of Jesus not coming yet, they couldn’t quite understand the promises of the Messiah spoke of a hope beyond belief. The hope of a desert suddenly growing plants and trees like a rainforest, the promise of ground cracked and dry, not just having enough water to become muddy, but to become a tropical paradise.
Lives that seemed dry and useless, become lives that are alive, as we bring people to Christ like freeways bringing people to LA.
Though we know Christ, and though we are learning more and more about His love, we still tire out like John the Baptist. We still lose focus on what God is doing here, Advent reminds us – that what is coming when Christ returns is incredible, a wondrous transformation even more radical than what happens when we realize that He has saved us.
That there will be a day when what we know is true in our lives, will be seen in all of creation! When everything is redeemed, when Heaven and earth is recreated, when there is no more sorrow or sadness or tears.
When God display His glory, His splendor, when life begins anew.
Not later, the change is now, if you look at it
It is with such a vision that we can revive hands and legs, and calms anxious hearts. This is the reason we have been entrusted with this news!
Because the truth of such a vision is that, we don’t have to wait for the transformation to begin. It already has, the glory of God revealed clearly in ways that go beyond speech.
The Son of God, choosing to enter into this world, to come and abide with us, to restore us to the image in which we are created. To reverse in us the effects caused by sin’s brokenness.
That same Man, hanging there on a tree, paying for the sin of the past year, the sin of all creation, Our being united there in His death, so that we could rise with Him.
This vision of Isaiah that strengthens us, our weary hands, our wobbling knees and calms our hearts, that even though He has died, all the forces of evil couldn’t keep Him dead… He rose and is at the Father’s side… working on our behalf, our of love for us.
Because He was transformed from death to life, so are we. Get that, it isn’t that we will be. We have been. We have been changed, and we are no longer lost in the desert – we have become that highway in the desert.
As we become the highway for others in the wilderness, the work Christ does in us brings the water of life to others, and brings them to comprehend this transformation, as the Holy Spirit brings life into their barrenness.
Just as He has into ours. We may not get it completely; we may not see the fruit and vegetation yet, but we knows His presence, and the promises that have been made sure as He has cleansed us in baptism – as He increases our faith in our times with Him. As we pray, as He nourishes us with His word, and the promises like these in it. As He invites us to lay our burdens down, and as He strengthens us with His Body and Blood.
That’s why we become the road for others, so that they can learn of the healing, the restoration, what it means to be saved and rescued.
For Christ has come, and it changes everything far more than a parent’s weariness fades as kids unwrap presents..
That is the peace that passes all comprehension, but which we know guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
AMEN!
Pastor? Preacher? Spritual Director? Life Coach? which do I NEED to minister to me?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 (NLT)
1 Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine. 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NJB)
1 Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another. 2 I urge you, then, to make me completely happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. 3 Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4 And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. 5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: 6 He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. 7 Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. 8 He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.Philippians 2:1-8 (TEV)
It seems more and more advertising dollars are spent trying to convince me that I either should become a life coach, or that I need one. A lot of master’s programs at Catholic and Protestant universities have M.A. and M. DIv programs in becoming a spiritual director. Heck, one group is willing to provide me coaching, via videos and taped phone calls where I have no imput at all, but I can listen to them anytime I want. I also have been inundated with books by preachers about ministry, and how to take my church from a failure to a success, and books about how to preach to my people so their lives turn completely around and they can live a good and proper life.
Lots of advice….
Now, don’t compelte read me out of context, there are those that are wise, and experienced coaches, some of whom I talk to and bounce ideas with on occaison. But I’ve also talked to a coach in revitalization who was trying to get me to hire him as a coach, whose experience in churches under 1000 members was non-existent. They developed their theories and their plan based on statistics and the works of others.
As I look at all these programs, and talk to some who director them, I am reminded of a ministry opportunity I once had, to teach and shepherd a group of young married couples. Only one problem, I was 23 years old and had just broken up with my fiance a few months before!. But hey, I could have purchased the latest book by Dobson, or Trent and Smalley and taught the material.
As I think about the ministry, and how we train our ministers (deacons) and pastors, I wonder what sort of message this sends them about how they should serve their people. Do we want ministers who stand back and observe people and give advice that they haven’t quite experienced themselves? Do we want them to turn to studies and books and “journeys” that are not unlike an old diagram with yes/no questions with tracks to take? Or do we want someone who will be there, who may not have the answers but will continually point us to Christ’s presence in our lives, to His promises revealed in scripture, who assumes that God’s presence in our lives, is the final answer… and how that applies is something we work through together.
I think we need to get away from the cookie cutter approach, whether it is more traditional, or more contemporary, more cutting edge or more based in cautious stewardship of yesterday’s concepts. We have to stop de-humanizing the relationship between pastor and people, and and humble ourselves and get down in the mud together, and see what God is doing. That’s not the way Chirst worked among those with whom He lived. He got involved, He knew their pain, He took their burdens.. and He calls us to love each other in the same way. Including being patient with those whom we serve.. He didn’t meet them in an office, he met them at tax tables, and by the waiting room at the ppol, on the road and where the boats gather… He met them in their life, and endured with them
Jesus Christ Crucifix (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Maybe that’s the point about all this, that it isn’t just a title, but finding someone to work with who is willing to do what Christ did – to come to us in our brokenness, and minister healing to us. Not just advice, not just a sermon series, not just rubrics and guidelines and 6 steps to that. But someone who comes and serves, and cares, and brings healing and trains us to do the same to others.
May we train ministers and pastors and bishops and our laity – all who minister in Christ’s name.. to do so as Christ did..
Sinning? Deal with it!
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Romans 6:1-4 (NLT)
We should concern ourselves with this revealed will of God, follow it, and be diligent about it because the Holy Spirit gives grace, power, and ability through the Word by which he has called us. We should not explore the abyss of the hidden foreknowledge of God, even as Christ answered the question, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” by saying, “Strive to enter by the narrow door” (Luke 13:23, 24). Luther puts it this way: “Follow the order in the Epistle to the Romans. Concern yourself first with Christ and his Gospel so that you learn to know your sins and his grace. Then take up the warfare against sin as Paul teaches from the first to the eighth chapter. Afterward, when in the eighth chapter you are tested under the cross and in tribulation, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters will show you how comforting God’s foreknowledge is.”5[i]
So much so that we neglect the Biblical admonitions to be free of sin, to realize that Christ has overcome it, and we have something far better to do, to think, to say.
I think it is partially fear that stops us from talking about living as disciples, living in Christ, living lives set apart to the purpose of walking with God. For us, its not the fear that noone will listen. (We already know that only about 10% of what we say sinks in..) Rather its a fear that we will somehow, accidently cause people to believe that they do something to be saved. That does happen, simply because all of us like to think we are better than we are. For us the usual temptation is to think that because we’ve go the right doctrine, because we are baptized and believe, we are saved. Even so, the balance of works caused by faith, as compared to works causing faith is a tough one to manage.
Yet, we have to, and Luther tried to give us a pretty simple way of handling sin in his commentary on Romans… that I find.. intriguing.
1. Let Christ deal with the sin… look to Him, see His cross – see HIs love for you demonstrated as he takes the sin from you…
2, Go to war with sin – realize how it steals your life, your hope, your ability to love. The way we battle it is by confessing it and trusting In Christ’s cleansing. As we war – we also go after those captured by sin, and take them back, for they were made by God to be His. Seeing people freed from sin is a powerful encouragement to all around.
This is all seen in the great passage from last week’s epistle,
But realize we do this – not because we have to, but as a response to the gifts we’ve been given by God…
Cry out “Lord have mercy” and remember that freeing you from sin is a way He has…
5 Preface to Romans, EA, 63:135.
[i] Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 621–622). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Related articles
- How and Why do we confront sin? (justifiedandsinner.com)
Cooperate to Graduate and other Ethical Dilemnas
Finally, brothers, let your minds be filled with everything that is true, everything that is honourable, everything that is upright and pure, everything that we love and admire—with whatever is good and praiseworthy.
9 Keep doing everything you learnt from me and were told by me and have heard or seen me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 (NJB)
With a school year fast approaching, one of the challenges for students will be dealing with the temptation to cooperate to graduate. In certain classes, in order to get a high grade, there is the thought that they must deny their own beliefs, their own research, their own thoughts and give the answer the professors have been told to produce. ( Or so they think – that some professors have to toe the department chair’s or Dean’s position)
This kind of thought, this lack is thought to be one of academic independence, but in rather, a lack of room for ethical integrity. Given enough of this, the student will bring this programmed attitude into workplace as well. We reward those who work within the system, even if the cost is one of their betraying their ethics. This also deviates into politics, and even into church politics.
We program people to a form of Machiavellianism- do what it takes to get rewarded, rather than do what is true and honorable and upright and pure. No wonder morality is no longer a standard, but is bound to its situation, and needs and wants of the moment. The good end that Machiavelli justified his unethical actions isn’t even considered anymore.
This again even occurs in the church, as I noted above. Maybe the goal is to avoid confrontation, or to please people who are “important”, or rather than work through issues, we pretend that the morality or the need for confession and absolution isn’t really needed.
Can we change this? How?
The only way is to look to the truth! And scripture defines truth, quite simply – not as something, some someone. It’s a relationship, nor a matter of cloning the right answers, but giving people the time and instruction to give them those answers. It’s about helping them through the struggles, about guiding…and loving.
Its found in walking with Jesus, in looking to Him, in treasuring not just what He’s taught us, but what He has promised to do to and through us. The grace that forgives us, the love that empowers us, the Spirit that guides us. He is our priority, not the grades, not the diploma, not the promotions, or a church which pleases our denomination or the families that have always been in power, or the newcomer who wants to know if something really is sin,
Our priority is Christ, their priority needs to be Christ.
Jesus Christ Crucifix (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That is what shall make a difference in their lives. That is what makes a difference in ours.
It’s not Fair! (or right, or legal or just or moral ) Uhm, who made us judge?
English: Jesus Christ, polychromed and gilded woodcarved relief by Martin Vinazer (* 1674 in St. Ulrich in Gröden; † 1744) signed MVF (MV Fecit) Deutsch: Gefasstes Holzrelief des Martin Vinatzer gezeichnet MVF (MV Fecit) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional thought of the day:
7 And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. 8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. 9 Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you. Philippians 4:7-9 (TEV)
“When a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morals, he frequently errs; laymen can be only disciples.” (1)
A disclaimer to start with: I have been having to deal with, preparing to deal with, and contemplating taking on a few things that are injust, unfair, and is in one situation – evil. Why I do this, I don’t know – and it frustrates the heck out of me.
When I read the words of St Josemaria Escriva, quoted above this morning, my reaction was twofold.
The first was that I thought the word pastor/priest should be added to the word laymen. As I think through that one, I realize that we as individuals do not, but in our role as ordained, as we stand in Christ’s place – by his command and forgive and retain sins, we do have that role. We even have the role to confront people who have sinned against us. (see Luther’s Large Catechism – the section on the Ten Commandments – The 8th Commandment for a great discussion of this)
But we cannot set ourselves up as the arbiter, as the judge, jury and executioner. Not our role.
The other reaction I had, is – this statement flies in the face of 60% plus of what I see on FB. From people commenting on selected photos of presidents and their umbrellas, to comments about how evil that person is, or this one, or how unjust this situation and that is, we vent our frustrations on the internet. We like having that illusion of power, and an illusion is all that it is. We feel like we can strike back, that we aren’t powerless, that we have a voice, that we somehow fulfilled a religious obligation. And we are just spinning our wheels, and our souls. There is a time to effectively work to overcome evil – in a way that is personal and caring and effective.
We haven’t been doing what’s good and beneficial. In fact, when we set ourselves up as judge and jury, as we spend our time digging up the mud on this person or that, as we fight for our “rights”, we effectively say “no” to the peace of God. We take the matter into our hands – and with the illusion of power, allow things to take our minds off of what St. Paul suggests we should be doing,
Focusing on Christ, and His work. Looking at the things which will bring Christ into the picture, His mercy, His love, His gospel.
Whether it makes things fair or not. After all – Christ didn’t combat evil – talking about what was fair and moral. He overcame it – by loving us enough to suffer the evil – to show us that love.
As we deal with Mondays, and a complicated week – and we want to strike out because its not fair, let us instead remember we are nailed to the cross of Christ – that we’ve died and risen with Him.
Therefore – we are home – and at peace.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 310-311). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Related articles
- It’s Not About Calling the Qualified, or Even Qualifying the Called… it’s about revealing Christ. (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Serving God where ever He calls you to service (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Dissatisfied? Discontent? Frustrated? Try losing yourself! (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Do they know of your trust in God from your FB postings? (justifiedandsinner.com)
