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Our Need for a Church Community
Devotional and Discussion Thought of the Day:
3 How excellent are the LORD’S faithful people! My greatest pleasure is to be with them. Psalm 16:3 (TEV)
9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. 10 Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. 11 Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. 12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. 13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers. 14 Ask God to bless those who persecute you—yes, ask him to bless, not to curse. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. 16 Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties. Do not think of yourselves as wise. Romans 12:9-16 (TEV)
465 I think it is all right for you to feel concern for your brothers—there is no better proof of your mutual love. Take care, however, to keep your worries from degenerating into anxiety. (1)
For those of us who regularly gather with other believers, it is something we wouldn’t consider giving up for other things. Yet I don’t know if we can explain this well to others. The words from Solomon above tell me that those I gather aren’t the first to feel this way. Even Solomon looked forward to gather with others who also tried to walk with God.
But it takes time to get to this point. It takes effort to look past the fact that we are all sinners and to be comfortable knowing that we can gather with each other. Being honest with each other comes slowly, but it comes, and then we being to see people react like the second quote above. We become like that.
We will, I have seen it.
Even in the most broken of congregations, there are those who will take time to listen and to pray. Often there are people that sacrifice their time and talent, and yes sometimes help out financially. Let me give you an example. We had a visitor one year to our midweek services. She worked somewhere else, and couldn’t have communion regularly. So the congregation agreed that from that point on – Wednesday services will have communion. A simple decision, yet a decision which made our visitor feel quite at home. I don’t think it is a coincidence that those services, during Lent and Advent, have quadrupled in size over the last few years. I could tell other stories, of people underwriting tuition for children, of people bringing others meals, or caring for their lawn.
But to see all of these incredible acts of love one has to be involved. One has to hear the stories, to cry and weep with those around them. They have to let others cry and weep with them. One has to learn to love deeply, and allow yourself to be loved deeply.
The reason to go to church isn’t the love of your neighbor though that is one of the blessings that comes with it. The reason we come together is to see God’s love to you revealed! We are gathered together as He works in our lives, from bringing healing of your heart and soul, to bringing comfort, to sustaining us. We realize this as we find great joy when a baby, or a 90-year-old, is baptised, reminding you of the very promises given to you.
It is an amazing thing to see those promises poured out on the lives of others, to share in it, to be comforted by it. To realize that a church is more than listening to some music and a message. But that the message and the music, because of God’s love, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, impacts lives. It does this as we explore the height, depth, width and breadth of God’s love for us, His family, together.
Come join us, spend some time together with us, and experience the love of God, poured out on a community.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1134-1135). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Given for YOU (plural!)
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
2 How I want to be there! I long to be in the LORD’S Temple. With my whole being I sing for joy to the living God. 3 Even the sparrows have built a nest, and the swallows have their own home; they keep their young near your altars, LORD Almighty, my King and my God. 4 How happy are those who live in your Temple, always singing praise to you. Psalm 84:2-4 (TEV)
22. Whenever the Sacrament of Baptism is duly administered as Our Lord instituted it, and is received with the right dispositions, a person is truly incorporated into the crucified and glorified Christ, and reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the Apostle says: “You were buried together with Him in Baptism, and in Him also rose again-through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead”.40
Baptism therefore establishes a sacramental bond of unity which links all who have been reborn by it. But of itself Baptism is only a beginning, an inauguration wholly directed toward the fullness of life in Christ. Baptism, therefore, envisages a complete profession of faith, complete incorporation in the system of salvation such as Christ willed it to be, and finally complete ingrafting in eucharistic communion. (1)
“…for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd,” etc.”
I am sitting in my office, the first day “back” from a short vacation with my mother.
I am filled with anticipation for tomorrow, even as I thumb through my mail and lose some of that joy. For some would try and use their “authority” to convince me what i know about my congregation isn’t true with the church at large. That somehow there is a “us and them” in the Church.
You see, there is something special, something sacred, as the people of God are gathered to the altar, and as baptized believers, share in the body and blood of Christ. As I communed at another congregation on the other side of the United States last week, my heart looked forward to being “home”.
That is how I look at the divisions that exist in the Church. There are some that won’t be healed until we are all home, before the Father. He will settle the squabbles that exist between various siblings in the church. But being “home” means celebrating the feast with all who are believe and are baptised. For from God’s perspective, we cannot deny our brothers and our sisters, united in Christ at baptism, are indeed brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
Some discuss this in arrogance and pride, rather than sorrow and regret They put in roadblocks to the unity that is the Church in Christ by focusing ont he division, not the hope. They weep, not over the brokenness of the church, but over those who would look to that brokenness being healed in Christ. ( By the way, I am not talking of just one incident, or from just my own denomination)
I love the way Vatican II puts it in the quote above – we are linked together, all who are reborn in Christ. It’s a beginning, a start to seeing us all linked at the altar, the foretaste of the feast to come. Our baptism gives the vision of what should be, what will be in Heaven, and yes, something that should be worked towards here. Not dismissed with a – well that is them, and this is us mentality.
I also love the way the Lutheran confessions, in a section that deals with those (the Roman Catholic hierarchy at that time – but equally applicable to divisive types of today) describe the church as a child would, “the believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd.”
I read those words and hear the voice of Jesus, “take and eat, this is my Body, given for you” and “take, drink of this all of you, it is my blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sin”
There is our goal, to hear the voice of the Shepherd, to grow in unity until we realize that we are one in Christ. Just as He and the Father are One. What begins in baptism is our goal, our desire, just as it is His. Complete unity, because He has lovingly healed the brokenness, giving us new life.
It is that unity in Christ, the miraculous unity of baptism in Christ, that gives me joy. I look forward to sharing in that unity tomorrow, as people gather here, as they hear of the peace promised and given by the Lamb of God, as they commune together with God. As we deal with division, as we deal with brokenness and separation, may we never forget that His feast is what we were re-born to share.
His love, His unity, trusting in Him and His work.
Lord, Have mercy on us all.
(1) Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 614). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
The Transformation of Easter: Part 1 The Change to Our Church
How Easter is Transforming Our World!
The Change to Our Community
Acts 4:31-35
† IHS †
May the Grace of God our Heavenly Father and our Risen Lord Jesus strengthen you, even as it transforms us.
Change versus Transformation:
I am about to tell you something is coming, and I want your reaction to the word I use.
What is coming, what will happen to us here at Concordia is “change”. You will not be able to resist it, you can’t stop it. Resistance is futile.
If you are like 90 percent of the population, hearing that might make you a little anxious, or you might wonder if there is anything that can be done to stop it.
Some of you might even begin to wonder what is changing. Some will automatically look and think of negative changes. Some of you might be thinking of things that could change for the positive. And what is ironic – you might be thinking of the same exact thing!
For the rest of Easter, we are going to be looking at the changes that happen to a church, matter of fact that are happening at our church.
But to alleviate the stress, the worry, the concern, how about if I use the word transformation instead? A transformation so complete, we might not even recognize ourselves, or our church, when God is through with us!
Today’s observed transformation
In our reading from the Book of Acts this morning, we see an incredible description of the change that will, no, the change that is happening to us.
It talks there of a church, the people that trusted in God that became united in both their heart and their mind. In every part of their existence. They were one in the way they felt, in the ways they thought. They desired the same thing; they reacted together to what was going on, and they identified themselves, all 8000 of them or more, as sharing the same life.
Luke tells us the uniqueness of this church; they were of one heart and mind to the extent of sharing everything they had with each other. I love the way the word pictures describe this; everything is held to be common, nothing special and set aside.
Therefore, if there were people in need, the rest of the people found a way to meet that need. No one lacked, because how can you let your people go without?
What a transformation we see happening to the people who trusted God! Who continually heard that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! (wait…)
I mean, what kind of people would liquidate their wealth, to help others, people they barely know?
The Change to our Norm
If we look at what God does to his people from the perspective of “before” the cross, the change seems frightening, and the description of the early church doesn’t make sense.
Give up what is precious? Trust people with what I treasure? Give up my security, to make sure others feel secure?
We talked about this when we talked about the Lord’s prayer, and the idea that we trust God to provide everything we need. It takes faith to live like this, an incredible amount of faith.
You can’t listen to the questions that would raise doubts about our fellow man. You can’t wonder if people need, or if they will abuse the blessing, or whether someone will be there for you, when you need the help, instead of being able to provide it.
You need to reach out and trust rather than be cynical, you have to have the wisdom to discern need, and the compassion to meet the need.
Our nature, even on the good days hears this and takes it as an obligation. That God requires us to change our hearts, to reach out with this kind of love, making the sacrifices as proof of our faith.
And if that is our belief, we shall surely fall short. We need to change…
Our old nature that was once in bondage to sin, Satan and feared death calls for us to protect ourselves, and what we’ve earned, what is ours by right. That leads to sin, as we struggle to get what isn’t ours, or we overlook our neighbors, and what they need.
The change is not so much in what is individually ours. Instead, we see what is God’s, and treasure that more than anything else.
The Beauty of the transformation…
Though the vision cast here in Acts is that what it looks like financially to be of one mind, I think we’ve seen here, at Concordia, what it means to be emotionally of one mind.
Paul talked of this too, when he told the church in Rome,
Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Romans 12:15-16 (NLT)
We’ve become “of one mind” here. We share deeply in each other’s joys, the moments when someone is baptized, or when someone has good news. We’ve shared as well in each other’s sorrows and griefs, stood beside each other in moments of grief. We’ve cried with each other often; it seems as often as we laugh together over meals we have shared.
That is the transformation that God works in His church, in His people. That we respond to each other. To meet each other’s needs before thinking about ourselves.
It’s come about not by force, but rather by focusing on God’s love for us, the love seen in the cross, and reflected as we share in His body and blood. By sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It’s what happens when we look to Christ, and as Paul says in 2 Cor 3, the Holy Spirit changes us, transforms us into Christ’s image, as we reflect His glory.
This change that happens isn’t our work, just as it wasn’t the idea of the apostles. It happens when we realize the love of God, revealed in the death of Christ for your sins, in his burial, and in the fact He is risen from the grave.
He has given us life, now and for eternity, living in the glory of His love, with one heart, with one mind. AMEN.
A Challenge to Christian Podcasters/Bloggers/Tweeters
Discussion Thought of the Day:
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 3:8-11 (CEV)
11 1. Hence we reject and deem it as false and detrimental when men teach that the Gospel, strictly speaking, is a proclamation of conviction and reproof and not exclusively a proclamation of grace. Thereby the Gospel is again changed into a teaching of the law, the merit of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are obscured, Christians are robbed of their true comfort,….
32 You’ll never be a leader if you see others only as stepping-stones to get ahead. You’ll be a leader if you are ambitious for the salvation of all souls. You can’t live with your back turned on everyone; you have to be eager to make others happy.
This week before Holy Week has been incredibly thought provoking.
One of the reasons is the amount of death that has affected people I care for, not just because I am their pastor, but because God has joined us together.
The other reason is the constant bombardment of negative Christian podcasts, blogs, tweets and comments, especially from those within my own small section of Christianity.
Finally, the gulf between those two reasons, and the grief and concern it raises in me.
St. Paul’s words above stand in sharp contrast to what I read. His desire, to know Christ, to see the Holy Spirit at work, revealing, transforming, and drawing people to Christ, even as He was drawn to Christ.
Certainly, in the face of death, that is all that matters. to know and be known.
Certainly, in the face of our sin, and the injustice and unrighteousness of the world, to know Jesus is what gives us hope.
Certainly, as we encounter the world, it is what makes the difference between anxiety and peace.
So why don’t our words reflect this hope? Why do the words posted by those in the church focus more on topics that are condescending and divisive? Do we somehow feel we aren’t good Christians unless we step on others, crushing their beliefs, rather than gently reforming them? That we have to humiliate those not like us, mock them, spit on them and nail them to Christ’s cross?
Don’t we realize if we lift Him up in our praises, that He will draw all men to Himself?
We need to grow in desire to see all men saved, but that answer to that isn’t found primarily in better understanding of theology, where though accurate, the gospel is never mentioned. It isn’t in some better use of some program or initiative.
it is at the foot of the cross, where broken sinners find healing, and joy and peace….and forgiveness, and the hope of being quickened to life with God, for ever.
As Jesus glory, the very love of God, welcomes us home and overwhelmed by joy, we find a desire for everyone to join us, with Him.
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 479). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 235-238). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Serve God, or Does God Serve Us?
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
18 And I told them how God had been with me and helped me, and what the emperor had said to me. They responded, “Let’s start rebuilding!” And they got ready to start the work. Nehemiah 2:18 (TEV)
1 Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love. With your apostolic life wipe out the slimy and filthy mark left by the impure sowers of hatred. And light up all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you carry in your heart. (1)
When elected President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy directed the citizens of the USA to ask themselves a question. Occasionally, I’ve heard that question adapted to the church, especially when a church is low on funds or wants to start a new ministry. The adapted question reads something like this:
Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God (or at least for His church).
When I hear such motivational malarky (an old-fashioned word for bullshit) it irritates me slightly. Okay, more than slightly. Not because God’s people shouldn’t be active in ministry, they must be. But the reason for such activity is not to do something for God as if to earn His favor. Or to do something for God, as if to repay some debt. Our living as Christians isn’t something that has to be manipulated.
I’ve heard a similar question asked about church. Do we go to church to serve God or to let God serve us. Matter of fact, there are great debates about this, with judgment being poured out on those who think otherwise. Both sides take up their positions, prepare their defenses, pump up their disciples, and start tossing cliche’s and one-line statements of wisdom.
It is the same question – do we serve, or are we served? Is it all about pleasing God, or do we expect to be made happy.
It is neither. Both sides of the question have overlooked the obvious.
it is not about who does what for whom.
It is about communion. It is about knowingly living in the presence of God. As Nehemiah wrote, “God had been with me”. as St Josemaria wrote, “with the fire of Christ you carry in your heart” For them, what is to be done pours out of that intimate relationship with God. Not from demanded obedience, but from hearing Him, (Greek and Hebrew scholars who are struggling with this, go look up the word for hear.)
Whether it is giving a thirsty man a cup of cold water, buying a homeless lady breakfast, visiting that person who is bedbound and can’t live a normal life, or kneeling and receiving the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for you; our actions aren’t about who benefits. it’s not a God scratches our back, we will scratch His.
It’s about walking with God, about rejoicing in His presence. To use an old phrase, it is about abiding with Christ or practicing the presence of God. (Except it isn’t practice!)
It is a Heavenly Father, walking through life with His children, even when our Father has to pick us up and carry us, because the road seems too tiring, to long.
So don’t ask what God will do for you, or what you will do for God. Don’t go to church expecting to be served, or struggling with whether your service will be acceptable.
Simply be in the presence of God, enjoy His company, let Him be your Father and know you are His children.
The rest? It will become obvious.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 171-173). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Time for Church? Time to Celebrate or be Reverent?
Devotional Thought of the day:
8 They gave an oral translation of God’s Law and explained it so that the people could understand it. 9 When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God, so you are not to mourn or cry. 10 Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who don’t have enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don’t be sad. The joy that the LORD gives you will make you strong.” 11 The Levites went around calming the people and telling them not to be sad on such a holy day. 12 So all the people went home and ate and drank joyfully and shared what they had with others, because they understood what had been read to them. Nehemiah 8:8-12 (TEV)
There are those that think church is a time for high reverence. For everyone to sit calmly and sedately, to not make noise. To somberly listen to the music, the sermon, play their part in the responsive readings and prayers.
And while I know we are to be in awe of God, I think the somberness of church can be taken too far. This is especially true when God is at work. At work as He reconciles and restores His people. Seeing God at work, whether it happens when God’s people are gathered together, is an awesome thing. I am not saying being irreverent, but that our definition of reverence needs to be changed, changed to include the joy of God’s love, manifested in our lives.
As people hear God’s word, things happen. This is why it is so critical that they are told, as they were in the passage above, in a way they can understand! The Holy Spirit’s work is amazing, as the Spirit breath’s life into people.
You see it in this passage, as the crowd has to be told that this day, the one God has made, is not a time for weeping and mourning. tHey heard the Law, they knew where they fell short, and hearing the law grieved them. They had a heart that was no longer stone (see Exodus 36:25) but flesh, and was still broken, damaged by the sin. Their hearts were broken because they realized how they had rebelled against God, how they had treated the special relationship He had created, where He would be their people, and He would care for them, love them, and protect Him, for He is their God.
Hearing that was painful. So much, that the priests had to go around and assure them of God’s love, and teaching them not to mourn, not to cry, this is God’s day. As they gather they are told that this is the day, He has set aside for us to rest, to be at peace, to know His love.
Not the day to mourn, not the day to dwell on the failures of our past, but the day to celebrate! You are His people! He has restored you! He is your God, you are His people, and nothing will separate you from Him.
The result is amazing! They leave the gathering and go and feast together. Even the poorest of the poor are provided for, as they celebrate His love.
IF this was the pattern before the Crucifixion, before Jesus rose from the grave. How much should it be now? For now we can explore the height, the depth, the width, the breadth of His love. Now we can realize that He has brought us to life with Christ in our Baptism.
Church, a place for mourning and tears because of our sin? Now, there are times and places for that, This is the time for a feast, for a celebration, to realize that the Lord is with us!
So make sure you don’t miss the celebration tomorrow… and when you are there, celebrate!
Struggling with The Reality of One, Holy, Catholic/Christian and Apostolic Church
Discussion/Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. Ephesians 4:1-6 (NLT)
932 God is right there in the centre of your soul, and mine, and in the soul of everyone who is in a state of grace. He is there for a purpose: so that our salt may increase, that we may acquire more light and that each one of us from his place may know how to distribute those gifts of God. And how can we share out these gifts from God? With humility and piety, and by being very united to our Mother the Church. Do you not recall the vine and the branches? How fruitful is each branch when united to the vine! What large bunches of grapes! And how sterile the broken-off branch that dries up and becomes lifeless! (1)
As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on, and, in the sacrament of the eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ is both expressed and brought about. All men are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live, and toward whom our whole life strains.(2)
When I was first installed as a Lutheran pastor, part of the service was my assent to the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. i gave assurance that i believed in what the word of God teaches, and that i found the explanation of that found in the documents of the book of Concord to be a clear explanation of them.
I did then, and I do now so believe.
Yet, I struggle with the dissonance between those documents and what is commonly held to today.
One of those struggles is found in the words from the Nicene Creed, “and I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” (3) I hold to those words, and find great comfort in them. I believe there is only one church, yet I see the fragmentation of it, and worse, I see pastors and people who rejoice over that fragmentation.
Yet that fragmentation is not something praised in scripture. The Ephesians passage above makes this clear. We can add to the passage the 12-14th chapters of Romans and 1 Corinthians 12-14. We could also mention Philippians 2, not just the well known 5-10, but the verses that are the reason Paul includes 5-10; the call to unity, the call to serving other. Add 1 John – the entire letter, but especially chapter 4.
And yet we deny the church is one.
And in doing so, we deny the desire of Christ Jesus. We deny the unity we find in Christ Jesus, who draws us all to Himself, and who unites us to Himself, as we are united together in His death, and in His resurrection. It is the unity we see, as we kneel and commune together, a family feast with not just the congregation we gather with, but the whole church, including all the company of heaven.
I am not saying that we should compromise on our doctrine! However, the Una Sancta (that there is one group of holy people – those who trust in Christ Jesus) is part of that doctrine; what we discern because it has been revealed to us in scripture. To deny this does what St. Josemaria states, it causes us to wither and die,
I love what Vatican 2 describes, the very nature of the Lord’s Supper brings about and reveals that unity. Luther does an excellent job, although with many more words, in the Large Catechism’s explanation of the Creed.
The challenge i see is that we continue to think unity comes about by studying doctrine, debating over who is correct. Yet the church has often claimed what we pray determines what we believe. Why is that not true here? Unity is found at the altar, at the baptismal font, as we together have the grace and peace of God abundantly poured out upon us. Unity comes from the Spirit, given to each of us in baptism – gathers us together into one family of God.
Yes, there will be arguments, but those need to boil down to being discussions, with the end result acknowledging the presence of Christ. Yes there will be those who wander away, but we are called to work to reconcile and restore them, rather than vilifying and condemning them. Yes, we have to identify false teaching, but we need to do it with the idea of reconciliation, and with the attitude of love that Christ demonstrated, dying for us.
Unity in a church of unperfected saints isn’t easy, but it isn’t optional. We are one, holy catholic and apostolic church!
Maybe it’s time that was more clearly revealed in our lives, and how we treat each other. Maybe it’s time to meet in prayer, and ask God to make His reality, ours.
Kyrie Eleison!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3287-3293). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Catholic Church. (2011). Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium. In Vatican II Documents. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
(3) The original translations of the Creed use the word Catholic, which means universal. However, Lutheran churches often substitute the word Christian in instead. I have been told that there was no word for catholic in german at the time the Creed was translated into german. While I cannot confirm that, I still prefer to use in my writings Catholic and explain its meaning, rather than change the creed.
On Sunday Morning, Do We Not Hear Christ’s Cry, Do We Know Hear the Father’s Desire?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
50 Don’t you realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people, instead of having the whole nation destroyed?” 51 Actually, he did not say this of his own accord; rather, as he was High Priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish people, 52 and not only for them, but also to bring together into one body all the scattered people of God. John 11:50-52 (TEV)
906 That cry of the Son of God, lamenting that the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few, is always relevant. How it tears at our heartstrings. That cry came from Christ’s mouth for you to hear too. How have you responded to it up to now? Do you pray at least daily for that intention? (1)
A few weeks ago, as I answered the call to provide the invocation at my city’s Martin Luther King day celebration, I thought of the charge laid against the church in the 80’s, which may be still true today. It noted that Sunday morning was the most segregated time in a church’s week. With few exceptions, (my Concordia is close to being one ) churches in our country are primarily ethnocentric. It is true, unfortunately, that churches, even the most missional ones, are this way. My own denomination’s national magazine recently had our president lamenting that a district hadn’t planted a church in a predominantly Anglo community in fifteen years.
While this may be an issue of passivity and comfort, there is something that is even more staggering. A move to isolate the church on Sunday from the world. A pendulum swing reaction from the Seeker-sensitivity of the 80’s and 90’s, that is claiming that Sunday Morning worship services are for believers only. That we have to return deliberately to encoding everything in practices and languages that a unbeliever would not be able to comprehend. This is what is faithful, we are told, to use words like salutary, or beseech, to strive for an ethereal and beautiful service, but one that our own people struggle to value.
Let me be clear, I am in no way advocating the abandonment of the liturgy. if anything, I think word and sacrament order should be made more available.
But I am saying we need to hear the Father’s desire that all come to the transformation of repentance. We do need to pray for the work, even the work on Sunday morning! We all need to realize that the harvest doesn’t pause for a station break on Sunday morning as we, the holy people’ recharge. Evangelism happens as well as a couple chooses to move from their comfortable place, to sit with those visitors and make them comfortable, and explain the service movements. Harvest work should be seen throughout every aspect of the service. Our spiritual homes must be places of hospitality to all. That has always been true, even at Solomon’s temple, and at the tabernacle.
The idea that Sunday is only about those who are members of the church is as ludicrous as those who say it should only be about seekers. Both ignore the fact that Christ would die for those who are already in covenant with God, as much as He died to bring the nations into that covenant. For all to know that He is God, and we are His people.
Worship wars, liturgy wars, wars about what is beneficial or not cease, as do the flurry of articles bashing contemporary worship liturgy, as well as that bashing traditionalism, have no place. They do stop when we focus on God’s desire to call all His people, to gather them together as one. (this includes those that don’t know… yet!) As we pray that, God would send more workers into the harvest fields, so these battles diminish. I pray we realize that the harvest is great, not just in Turkey and Ghana, but also in our own sanctuaries.
May our worship teach anyone there what they need to know about Christ – His presence, His mercy, his faithful love…
AMEN
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3202-3204). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.(1(
Are We Afraid of Sanctification? A Cry for the Spirit to Breath Life into the Church
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 The LORD took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the LORD to a valley filled with bones. 2 He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3 Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign LORD,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” 4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6 I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” 7 So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8 Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” 10 So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ 12 Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!’” Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NLT)
683 When a person really lives charity, there is no time left for self-seeking. There is no room left for pride. We will not find occasion for anything but service!
Imagine you are there, in the presence of the LORD, given the right to not just call him Lord, but to call Him by name. You are the son of Man, in this vision, the one He takes to the valley of the fry bones.
As the muscles form, as the skin begins to cover their bodies, as the effects of sin are reversed, you look in amazement at the miracle and begin to praise God for the miracle. You write liturgies to celebrate it, songs to teach people about it, you go off and establish ways to tell people – God has justified His people.
Yet they are there, still sitting in their pews… err… standing in the valley.
Without breath, without life, but righteous none the less.
What happens when the church forgets that God not only justifies us, but breathes life into us, sanctifying us?
What happens if justification is the end of our theology, not just the core of it?
Will our churches be like the bones covered with muscles and skins, present, undecayed, righteous and yet…. not alive?
We need to remember the third article of the Creed, the work of the Spirit, who is to be called upon, to breath life into these bodies, to breath life into these souls, for He is the Lord and Giver of Life. Sanctification is not some minor doctrine, slinking about in the shadows of its big brother Justification.
Sanctification, the Spirit making us alive and Holy is part and parcel with Justification in the larger concept of Salvation. Which brings to mind Hebrews 2 – how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Sanctification, the Holy Spirit working is us, giving us life, repentance, revealing to us the height and depth, the breadth and width of the Father’s love, revealed in Christ. As He sets us aside and breathes life into us, that we would become God’s army, His family, As we begin to walk with God, as our lives begin to be described as St Josemaria mentions – lives lived in charity, where love prevails. Because we know His love, because we experience it, because our faith is alive…. there is the church – serving, ministering, loving… and as it does… growing and alive.
This is the church, this is the people of God, living in the presence of God. This is the baptized, sacrificed life….
LORD, you have given us your Holy Spirit in baptism, may that Spirit breath life into your people! May we never again be so focused on one part of salvation, that we neglect all of it. May your church be holy, set apart, brought to life and nourished by the Holy Spirit. AMEN1
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2514-2516). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
It’s time to be “The Church”
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, 26 the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. 27 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. 1 Corinthians 12:25-27 (MSG)
575 To think of Christ’s Death means to be invited to face up to our everyday tasks with complete sincerity, and to take the faith that we profess seriously. It has to be an opportunity to go deeper into the depths of God’s Love, so as to be able to show that Love to men with our words and deeds. (1)
I am getting tired of conversations about the church. There are theologians who will talk of church militant and church triumphant.and the visible and invisible Church. There are consultants who will talk about healthy churches, revitalizing churches, legacy churches (the new euphemism for a church dead or dying, usually blamed on being 25 years or older) There are goals to be seeker oriented, confessional, conservative, liberal, missional, contemporary, and a thousand more labels.
It’s time to stop all of the strategic talk, all the planning and plotting and vision casting and calls for others to repent.
I love the description of the church in Paul’s 12th chapters of Romans and 1 Corinthians. It’s not an organization, or a entity. It is a family, a body, an organism, not an organization. When one part of the church hurts, whether through real persecution/martyrdom, whether through grief and bereavement, no matter the cause, the entre church hurts, whether this is a cell ground of 6 or 8, a small church like mine of 60, or a mega church of 2000, or the Church as the entire body of Jesus Christ. The same thing is true with moments of joy. If all of heaven parties, if God dances when a prodigal returns home, when a baby is baptized, when a cynic or critic is gifted with faith and repentance/transformation, the whole church should as well.
For this is who we are – one body, Christ’s body.
It shouldn’t take a team of experts consultants to realize this, or to provide 8 steps to seeing it happen. What it does take is bearing our cross with Christ, of seeing everything as killed off and that cross and re-created, reformed, brought together, bonded to His resurrection as we were to His death quickened, made alive IN Christ.
In the past week, I’ve been there when friends are hospitalized, when a former member of my church was buried, when another friend struggled with sin, when they needed encouragement to enter that struggle. I’ve watched quite a few struggle in relationships, and I’ve seen people struggling with change, both good change, bad chance and just the fear of potential change. This is church stuff my friends, it is the time where we need to all be together, weeping working, encouraging, partying,
I love St Josemaria’s quote today… Each of the moments, each of these struggles, and the celebrations as well – each is a time to encounter Christ, each is a time to see the marvelous love of God at work, to share that love, to receive that love.
When the people of God, called together do such things – whether 2 or 3 or 10,000 do this, they are His people, His church… they aren’t just talking and setting visions, they are finding the healing they need in Christ Jesus.. and helping others to heal….this is Eph. 2:10, and Article 6 of the Augsburg Confession.
This is the Church…. let’s be it.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2141-2144). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
