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I’m Not Sure Who Needs God’s Mercy and Peace more..
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross
“So I said, “My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the LORD.”” (Lamentations 3:18, NET)
“For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.” (Hebrews 4:15–16, NET)
“Listen to my appeal for mercy! Deliver me, as you promised.” (Psalm 119:170, NET)
985 The day you no longer strive to draw others closer to God—since you ought to be a burning coal all the time—you will become a contemptible little piece of charcoal, or a little heap of ashes to be scattered by the slightest puff of wind.
Back when I served as a prison chaplain, I had the incredible joy of seeing men who realized the depth of their sin, who had the Holy Spirit cut it away, circumcising their heart, just as the Apostle Paul describes in Colossians 2, the same experience that Luke describes in Acts .2:37. There is no doubt in that moment where they realized the depth of their sin, as the trauma they brough on themselves shattered them, that they were in need of God’s mercy and peace.
And there He came to them.
There is a strong part of me praying that the young man who took a life this week is able to see Jesus coming to help him. I am praying he experiences the mercy and love of God, and in that experience finds peace.
And yet, he’s not the only one in need of such peace. From the people who rejoice in his actions, to those who who want to strike back and anger — we all need it to. We all need to experience the mercy and love found in Jesus. (an example – a minister who rejoice in “blocking people” because they obviously need Jesus, seems to be in as much need of God’s love, mercy and peace as those he would deny it to.
Here is the bottom line, we are all hurting, we are all damaged by our sin, the sins of our family and community, and the weight of the sins of the world. In that pain and confusion we strike our, say things that don’t make sense in reality, but we are going by the rumors and gossip based on things taken our of context that has prevailed on both sides. (Example – politicians on both sides stating the other sides is 100% responsible for the environment that lead to Kirk’s death. I don’t know what the ratio is – but it is because of the caustic environment the man grew up in, then the sin of all is responsible.)
I even falter, resonating with Jeremiah’s words that my endurance has expired. I find myself overwhelmed at the hatred being spewed out by both sides, and I want to judge both sides, respond prophetically to both sides, to show them their own double standards that lead them to judge their perceived opponents, rather than encouraging them towards Jesus. Several times in the last few days, as I look at the responses to the shotting and I understand Jeremiah’s lament, and I fear I am becoming that piece of charcoal – burnet out by people refusing grace for one, and therefore denying its existence, even for them. WHat good is my voice against such a storm? How can I convince fellow believers never mind unbeleivers, that God’s love and mercy can be found even here–in these dark days.That Jesus is here… ready to forgive, to heal, to reconcile us to the Father, as one family..
The Jesus that would come to all of us. The Jesus whom embraced the crowds cry for his crucifixion, by dying to free them from sin.
He knows our pain, He’s lived through it, He’s seen the weight of sin try to crush us all – not just “them.”
Let’s not cry out for a man’s death, but cry out to God instead that he come to know mercy. And cry out our nation comes to know it as well.
.Escrivá, Josemaría. The Forge (p. 204). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Job’s Death Wish… and finding Jesus there!
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the cross
““Oh that my request would be realized, and that God would grant me what I long for! And that God would be willing to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and kill me.” (Job 6:8–9, NET)
Hard fights are rarely fought except by those with the greatest strength.”
In each case, this line of theological thought expresses well that divine initiative brings about sudden conversion and that therein exists the indispensable spiritual basis for theology. Consequently, the words of Paul—“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20)—are foundational for Ratzinger’s understanding of theology.
“The knowledge of God is a way; it means discipleship. It is not revealed to the uncommitted, permanently neutral observer but, rather, is disclosed in the measure in which one sets out on the way.” Such knowledge requires deep conversion so that it remains a constant encounter. True reasoning requires “a purification of heart.” It is bound to the Logos and includes death and resurrection.
His words came out of a place of great despair, for everything he treasured, everything he found joy in, was stripped from him over the course of moments.
He was broken, overwhelmed by grief and pain and suffering, and his cry, his desire to die seems like the only hope.
He doesn’t have the strength that St. Francis alludes to, to battle thi hard fight. He just wants to get past it, and the only option appears to be death. Even his wife realizes this – as she encourages him to curse God and die.
I may not have lost as much as Job, but I’ve lost a lot at times. There have been pains in my life I didn’t think I could get through, times of hurting and to be honest, times where I wished Jesus would either return, or call me home. Not because I wanted to get to heaven, but because I wanted to escape from life.
And in a real way, the answer to life is found in death.
Not our physical death as we know it, but as we die with Christ in baptism, only to rise–united with Him as He lives.
it takes some thought to think through the change, to realize it with our mind, but our heart realizes it at the altar, and when we hear His word, and our old nature struggles with the fact we are loved, that we are forgiven, as demons struggle to keep their hold on us, trying to load on the guilt and shame removed at the cross of Jesus.
To help people experience that blessing, to experience that love is the purpose of all ministry, From facilitating worship through music, to the sacraments; from feeding the poor to counseling and advising the rich.
This is the true administration, the proper stewardship of the gifts of God, for the people of God.
To help them know and understand, and experience, as Job spoke, ““As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God,” (Job 19:25–26, NET)
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (p. 187). New City Press.
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; p. 211). Emmaus Academic.
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; p. 212). Emmaus Academic.
Will Anyone Miss You When You Are Gone?
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross:
“After about two years his intestines came out because of the disease, so that he died a very painful death. His people did not make a bonfire to honor him, as they had done for his ancestors. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. No one regretted his death; he was buried in the City of David, but not in the royal tombs.” (2 Chronicles 21:19–20, NET)
Finally, after a pleasant conversation, the abbot, as he left, humbly asked him to pray for him. The dear man of God replied: “I will willingly pray.” When the abbot had ridden away a short distance, the faithful Francis said to his companion: “Wait a little, brother, because I want to pay the debt I promised.” As he prayed, suddenly the abbot felt in spirit unusual warmth and sweetness like nothing he felt before, and rapt in ecstasy, he totally fainted away into God. This lasted for a short time, and then he returned to his senses and realized the power of Saint Francis’s prayer. From that time on, he always burned with ever greater love for the Order, and told many about this miraculous event.
When doing our morning devotions this morning, we were talking about the people who built the tower of Babel, and their ambition, creativity and focus. All praiseworthy characteristics, except that you were used in self-interest and to achieve personal fame.
Then in my private devotions, I came across the passage about Jehoram, and it is grievous. No one cared that this king died, and perhaps no one cared about the pain he was in.
I can’t imagine that fate, and I certainly would not want it for any of my friends, or even some of my adversaries. It’s not about seeking fame and fortune, it is about life have meaning and value…about making a difference in other people’s lives.
Nothing could be better than hearing something like this about somone… “He went out of his way to pray for me, and because of that, I knew that God was with me…” Which is basically what St Francis did for the rich abbot. He didn’t give him wise advise, he didn’t donate millions (though our preschool would willing accept a few million in donations – then we could not charge tuition!) he simply prayed for him, and the abbot knew it, and never forgot.
That’s the point, being there in a time of need, because Jesus is there for us, make the largest difference in the world. And it causes us to be remembered, and God to be praised. It may be the teacher given a hug, it might be the elder who made people laugh, it might be the night caregiver, who changes the bedpan and comforts the one infirm. It might be the manager – who invests her faith in her people, and gets to see the results, as they come to love the God, who comes to them.
IF you have a moment, think of those people, and give thanks to God for those whose passing you would regret, whose life you value because of their impact on you. Give thought as to why they have that value, and thank God for them… and maybe even tell them you are thanking God for them!
And if some abbot asks you to pray for them, surely do it! (anyone else that asks you should pray for as well!)
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (pp. 160–161). New City Press.
In times of despair… there is the greatest hope
The Good Shepherd, carrying His own.
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. 12 The worker who is paid to keep the sheep is different from the shepherd who owns them. When the worker sees a wolf coming, he runs away and leaves the sheep alone. Then the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them. 13 The man runs away because he is only a paid worker and does not really care about the sheep. Jn 10:27–28 NCV
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never die, and no one can steal them out of my hand. Jn 10:11–13. NCV
A friend of mine, who depended for years on kidney dialysis and who realized that his life was slipping away from him moment by moment, once told me that as a child, and later as an adult, he had had a special devotion to the Way of the Cross and had often prayed it. When he heard the frightening diagnosis of his illness, he was at first stunned; then suddenly the thought came to him: what you have prayed so often has now become a reality in your life; now you can really accompany Jesus; you have been joined to him in his Way of the Cross. In this way, my friend recovered his serenity, which thereafter illumined his countenance to the end of his days and made visible the light of faith that was in him.
Insecure people tend to take all criticism as a form of persecution–as a threat, a personal attack–but seldom as a call to refine or amend behavior. Thus it is St Josemaria’s priority, because he is a good father and coach, to secure his spiritual children in the love of God. And you can only find your security there in the Pauline paradox.: by felling weak and humble and yet simultaneously and wholeheartedly being totally dependent oon the power that comes from God. (see 2 Cor. 12:1-10)
I see the beams of endless day,
All radiant in yon world afar;
I long—I long to fly away,
And be where saints and seraphs are;
To join the everlasting song,
And mingle with yon ransomed throng.
I resonate a lot with Luther’s hymn, and the desire to flee this world in order to be in the presence of God. I will freely admit part of this is because of the burdens and pains of this life, There are some days those burdens, and the evil in the world combines and comes close to crushing me, somedays it seems like it does. The option of standing, perfected, holy, pure, righteous in the glory of God, to see Him as He is, and to be welcomed there… that sounds so much better than what we have here.
I resonate a lot as well with Pope Benedict XVI’s friend, who found that in the process of severe health challenges–almost I know the Way of the Cross, and I know we are united with Christ’s death and resurrection, it is a deeper thought to consider our suffering is part of His, that His included ours, and the depth of despair we know and endure, is because the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is sustaining us. When I am thinking clearly, I remember this – for instance when our church responds with “and also with you”, or I am feeding them the Body and Blood of Jesus. This is where this peace comes from, finding the strength of Christ, finding the power involved in His death and resurrection, to be at work in us, for that God has promised.
That is why St Josemaria had, as every pastor should, the drive to secure his spiritual children, his parishioners and others he disciples, in the love of God. That is the only place we can find security, it is the only place we can find peace. It is why one friend will park his car in front of church on the way home from a bad day at work, and why another, dealing with the deepest struggles, found they could rest better than any other place, in front of the altar at their church. St Josemaria’s correct, only by being at our weakest, can we find the strength–again , for me, that comes at the altar, and looking forward to it, when I get to say only a few words, “the body of Christ, given for you…” and I see the most incredible bring healing to those who are broken. (the same as I baptize, or tell someone God has forgiven them!)
This is because in those moments we realize He is our Shepherd, that we have life, both now and eternally, when we are hearing His voice, because He walks with us. We can trust Him, and those He calls as shepherds, who are willing to suffer and sacrifice for the sheep. that takes a lot of pastors, as it took a lot out of Jesus–the sufferings and sacrifices he made prior ot the cross.
Our hope is found there… depending on Him, and His presence. It is our life… with our Shepherd….
Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, pp. 110–11.
Hanson, Dr. John Henry, Coached by Josemaria Escriva, Scepter, NY, 20204
Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1853, p. 156.
The Core of Worship….A Lesson Learned at a Homicide Scene…
Thoughts that draw me to Jesus and toi the cross
2 When the LORD first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, “Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her. In the same way, my people have left me and become unfaithful.” Hosea 1:2 GNT
Jewish thought continually returned to that mysterious moment when Isaac lay bound on the altar. Often enough, Israel was obliged to recognize its own situation in that of Isaac, bound and ready for the fatal knife, and was thus heartened to try to understand its own destiny. In Isaac, Israel had as it were meditated upon the truth of the word, “God will provide”. Jewish tradition tells that, at the moment when Isaac uttered a cry of terror, the heavens opened and the boy saw the invisible mysteries of creation and the angelic choirs. This is connected with another tradition according to which it was Isaac who created Israel’s rite of worship; thus the Temple was built, not on Sinai, but on Moriah.2 It is as though all worship originates in this glimpse on the part of Isaac—in what he then saw and afterward communicated.
Two years ago today, I found our George had passed away.
He greeted me a few times as I stopped in his store to buy a bottle of sparkling water, or some quick snack. But few people in my life have I been as close too as we became that night
On October 15, 2021, he was bunch in the face by a young man, just one punch, and George fell back, and proceeded to bleed from his nose, ears, mouth and his skull where in cracked open. For twenty minutes I held this man, a man I learned later was a man whose trust was unshakably in Chirst Jesus.
I just held him, and prayed.
The Sherriff’s department showed up- they said the Fire Department was on the way – best if we don’t move till they got there. I was on the ground for nearly 20 minutes, it seemed like so much longer, til the only thing I could do was to cry, “Lord, have mercy…”
And yet those words took on a deeper meaning that evening… as I went from despair to grieving to oddly, being at peace.
It was a Friday night, and worship on Sunday was never sweeter, as my people reminded me that the Lord was also with me.
I wasn’t Issac, I wasn’t the one being sacrificed. Nor did a ram appear in the bushes outside the 7-11. I didn’t hear the Lord’s voice, though I got to speak about him to the deputies on scene. I still would prefer, like Hosea, that the event wouldn’t have happened. Too many nightmares, to many tears driving by the 7-11 come, even to this day. Yet, there are moments where insights into the presence of God gained in those moments amaze me.
When I went to his service, as I greeted and told his son I was praying for them, I said I was there… He and his mom broke into tears as they realized the person that held him was a pastor. They started praising God…in the midst of their grief, their loss.
Life is short…God is there!
Life is painful…God is there!
Life doesn;t have to be alone…for the message of Hosea is not only that we’ve walked a way and betrayed God… but that we are welcomed back, cleansed, and dressed for a party!
And then, life is eternal, and filled with joy and peace!
Somehow, this truth is more relevant in the presence of death, and even in the presence of suffering and horrid sin.
Hosea learned that, and the man Joseph Ratzinger did as well.
Joseph Ratzinger, Behold The Pierced One: An Approach to a Spiritual Christology, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 115.
The Need for Dark Empty Nights… and their effect on our soul
Thoughts that drive me to Jesus, and to the Cross
I envy those who are dead and gone; they are better off than those who are still alive. Ecclesiastes 4:2 GNT
19 If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. 1 Corinthians 15:19 GNT
753 When you pray, but see nothing, and feel flustered and dry, then the way is this: don’t think of yourself. Instead, turn your eyes to the Passion of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Be convinced that he is asking each one of us, as he asked those three more intimate Apostles of his in the Garden of Olives, to “Watch and pray”.
To this you have been invited, now is the time to come, now the supper is ready. Your Lord Jesus Christ is already born, has died and risen again, therefore do not remain away any longer, accept your promised treasure with joy, come to the table, eat and be happy.
I think we need to go through days as Solomon did, at least the kind of days that cause writing so full of darkness and despair.
I hate those days, as I can easily echo Solomon’s jealousy of those who have gotten to pass through this life and are now awaiting Judgment Day in the presence of God. MY mind comes back to the promise of what is waiting for us there – that the glory of God is more than we’ve ever seen, heard, or can imagine. (1 Cor. 2:9) So I long for that day, even as I grieve fro the broken world that surrounds me, and ingrained in me.
St. Josemaria must have had those days as well, for he could not describe the flustered, dry feeling that can occur when praying. WHen words are beyond you, because you don’t know how to pray, and you even wonder whether God is listening! (Or even worse, if he is playing a Jeremiah 20:7/Job idea on us!)
But we have to go through those “dark nights of the soul”, as one writer called them.
St. Josemaria’s advice is clear – look to Jesus, and see His dark night – that He chose to embrace for us. He knows the emptiness, the vanity of it all, for He experienced it – and was able to focus on the joy of rescuing and redeeming you and me! This is what Solomon would eventually remember – this relationship with God, but he had to process the vanity, the hopelessness of life without God, even as we have to remember that emptiness.
TH\hat is why the Apostle Paul reminds us of eternity and that our hope goes far beyond this life, far beyond this life’s dark times. If that was all there was, so go eat and drink into oblivion. And piuty those who use religion as a outlet for despair. Jesus died and rose so we don’t have to live without hope, but we can have hope ever while we are despairing of life.
This is why Luther, who knew some dark nights and a lot of futility, became so excited when considering the Lord’s Supper, and the feast that it anticipated. To be invited as a guest of honro, to share in Christ Jesus, to know His presence, love, mercy as we take and eat His body, as we drink His blood–knowing it is the price of our relationship being renewed. This is a moment of incredible, overwhelming joy.
Even in the midst of this life… and its brokenness, we enter into that time where all is set aside, but Jesus.
God is inviting you.. so come to church tomorrow, and know the joy of knowing God is with you now… but has something awaiting you that the Apostle Paul describes this way, “9 “What God has planned for people who love him is more than eyes have seen or ears have heard. It has never even entered our minds!”” 1 Corinthians 2:9 (CEV)
Come, celebrate with us, or if too far away, find a church that will provide for you the feast of Jesus…
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Martin Luther and John Sander, Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915), 252.
Friends??? With Him??? A Good Friday Sermon on Romans 5:6-11
Friends? With Him?
Romans 5:6-11
† Jesus! Son and Savior! †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ embrace you!
- Can you imagine?
I want you to picture yourself, sitting in a limousine. You have been invited to spend some time with one of the most famous people in the world.
On your way the excitement grows, as you consider what was said in the invitation.
“I would like to get to know you, for I think you are a person I want to count as one of my closest friends.”
And as you drive to where they are… you even get nervous, this could be an incredible day.
As you arrive, you notice what you think is pretty heavy security, as you get closer to his home, you realize they aren’t his security. They are a SWAT team, and there are police officers all over his property. The limo stops, and a police captain walks up to the window and says that your friend is about to be arrested and taken away—if he’s lucky he will only get life in prison, but if not, the death penalty awaits.
THe paperwork is on the way, and your new “friend “ has promised to surrender when it gets here. But there is an hour or two before that will happen, and the Captain asks, “do you want to spend that time with your “friend” in his garden?
What do you do?
- Here is why we need it…(saved from condemnation)
We need that “friend” who was arrested by a police many times the size that was needed. He would have surrendered anyway, for he knew we needed him to be punished for our sins.
Hear again the apostle Paul,
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
I really don’t like people knowing how helpless I am, physically or spiritually. I suppose some suspect it, but I still don’t like it. Yet, amid the brokenness, Christ came to being healing, to restore what sin had damaged.
We needed, no, we desperately needed Jesus to come and deliver us….
And the only way to do that—was to die on the cross.
And so we need to be befriended by this Jesus, this one who would die as a criminal.
- Here is why You want it…
But here is far more to the cross than the forgiveness of sins.
When I started my illustration, I mentioned the invitation to meet was based on the celebrity saying He thought he wanted you as a close friend.
Going back to our reading that started the service….
10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Therefore, we don’t care about the shame of the cross, or associating with someone the world has written off as worthless, c as wrong. But He invites you to spend time with Him, both now and for all eternity.
This is what the cross is about—our invitation to join Christ in His death, that with all sin and injustice cut away, we can live as His friends… now and forever.
And as His friends, we dwell in His unimaginable, unexplainable peace. For God has placed us there—in the death of Christ, so that we share in His resurrection and eternal life. AMEN!
We Need to Be Shocked Back to Life! (Spiritually )
Devotional Thought of the Day:
23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
Romans 8:23 (NLT2)
The question keeps coming up in John’s Gospel: Where does this man Jesus come from? Does He come from God or only from man? The question is the most basic one that can be asked about us and our love. Are we and our love born again from above, from God? Or are we and it only the product of human nature? The answer to this question makes an infinite difference, the difference between Heaven and Hell in the next life.
This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways—mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.
Thirty years ago, I was defibrillated 5 times. Just like you see on every medical show when they should “clear” and electricity is passed through the body, with the intent of rebooting the electrical and chemical nature of our body, so our heart will restart and run normally.
Spiritually, we need something like that. What Spurgeon called vivification, the idea of bringing us back to life, being born again, where God brings us to life. Kreeft indicated this was the one question that matters, the one most basic to our life, and the one that makes the greatest difference, period
The problem is when we want to be brought back to lift without dealing with what caused us to whither and die. If all the paramedics and ER doctors did was to shock me back to life, and never try to address the cause, it would have mattered not. The same is true spiritually, and while one day we will be free from all sin and suffering, God is freeing us from its effects, even now. This is the mortification that Spurgeon said was part of the same work – the process of eliminating the rot caused by sin, and sin itself.
Mortification isn’t easy, neither is vivification. Both require drastic changes, and discipline and some pain. And yet, the life that is provided, free from the rot, free from the pain, is beyond words.
God is with us, He’s the great physician, the one that does both pieces of work… that makes it not just a possibility – but a promise.
So let Him get to work on you…
Let Him draw you to the cross – where both things happen, as the sinful you dies, and you are raised with Christ Jesus. Amen!
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 26.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
May We Never Think This Life Is Normal!
Thoughts that drag me to the cross of His mercy
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 (NLT2)
6 “I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the LORD, who serve him and love his name, who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who hold fast to my covenant. 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56:6-7 (NLT2)
In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were “normal.” Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.
Paul says, “While we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). Thus, according to his view, the passion and resurrection of Christ are going on all the time. They are always present and not limited to an historical moment. It was rather an historical moment which introduced the eternal values of the cross and resurrection into the whole of time. We participate in Christ’s divine life through baptism and the other sacraments. As a consequence, we must learn how to express the risen life of Jesus rather than our false selves in our conduct and relationships.
We also believe, teach, and confess that no church should condemn another because the one has fewer or more external ceremonies not commanded by God than the other has, when otherwise there is unity with the other in teaching and all the articles of faith and in the proper use of the holy sacraments,
I’ve heard people talking about the “new normal” in relation to both COVID and the price of gas. Just get used to things being broken, and hardships, for life is different now. Get used to the new morality, or at least how it is being re-defined.
And the church hears these things and marshals its people to go to war at the ballot box, and on Social Media. I’ve even heard that such times will find us allied with folk we shouldn’t be allied with, for politics and apparently faith makes strange bedfellows.
And once again the Church has entered the wrong war, and is using the wrong weapons.
Because of that, it is losing the war for control over public opinion, and far, far more importantly, we aren’t even in the battle for people’s souls. We are letting them be destroyed, and dare I say, the church is even helping by destroying people’s faith.
Tozer is correct, and we must realize that we always exist in crisis. Add to that the idea of Keating, that our way of battle is not promoting ourselves, but dying to self, that Jesus may be seen, instead of us. That those who are baptized become the evidence of Christ’s death and resurrection. That must be our strategy, that must be our missional value.
How about this for a mission statement for a church?
Making manifest Jesus’ love, by dying to self!
This is how we see our real enemies, sin, self-centeredness, and Satan defeated.
Our weapons are simply, the early Lutherans identified them as all that is necessary for church unity.
Teaching people what they need to know about Jesus, and sharing Him through Baptism, Absolution and the Lord’s Supper.
Each of these sacraments helps us see how we died to self and have risen in Christ. Each shows us the love and mercy of God. They do so for they are commissioned by Jesus to deliver that promise.
You want the world to change? You want everyone to do what is right? You want to win the war we are in?
Know Jesus, experience His love poured out on you… share that victory with others, seeing them freed from what Christ has freed you- not from – but to… to share in the glorious love of God.
For that … should be what we consider normal.
A. W. Tozer, Tozer for the Christian Leader (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015).
Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living: Excerpts from the Works of Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O., Sacred Scripture, and Other Spiritual Writings, ed. S. Stephanie Iachetta (New York; London; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2009), 223.
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 516.
The meaning of the empty tomb…
8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home. John 20:8-10 NLT
This changes the conversation on problems in the ministry immensely. Yet most of us still don’t get it. We keep focusing on visible things and neglect the spiritual. Ironic, isn’t it? You and I both know that most of our work involves things that are invisible, yet very real. No one has ever seen God, after all, and yet you and I daily teach and preach about him to others. We console, comfort, rebuke, and exhort the faithful using the invisible power of the Holy Spirit mediated through the word and sacraments. Forgiveness, peace, holiness, joy, consolation—all these are intangible and beyond the range of the senses, and yet our work revolves almost totally around these invisible things. It’s strange, then, that when confronted with roadblocks and obstacles in ministry we address only things we can see, touch, and measure externally.
But if we view creation with the eyes of love, then we will understand it, despite all the evidence that seems to point to the absence of love in the world. We will understand the ultimate purpose of creation: not only the purpose of its essence, which we seem to make some sense of through the various intelligible relationships among individual natures, but the purpose of its existence in general, for which no philosophy can otherwise find a sufficient reason.
The disciples had a lot to learn, as does every Christian.
But it is not just something discovered in the classroom or found by reading blogs or listening to podcasts. Like the sermons preached every Sunday in a million churches, lectures, lessons, and the ubiquitous podcasts and blogs are heard by the intellect. The “aha” moment that struck up such a passionate response in praise on Sunday is gone by Tuesday, or perhaps Wednesday.
This was true of the disciples – they heard Jesus speak of his death and resurrection. They heard that the seed needs to fall to the ground and die, then life is given to a multitude. They heard all the parables. The Apostle John said that until the moment they entered the tomb… they still didn’t understand the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.
They had to encounter and experience the incredible love of God, at work at the cross, and then, only then, in the darkest spiritual despair, find the living Lord. The impossible had to happen – they would never understand it until it was experienced. The word of God simply points to that experience, where forgiveness, peace, holiness, joy, consolation – all these things Senkbeil points to and more, flood the life of one who knows Jesus died and rose… for them.
As we encounter Jesus, risen from the dead, life can make sense. Existence is no longer an ordeal to be navigated. It is about God’s love for us and the ability to love He enables in us. That is the ultimate purpose of Creation seen in the empty tomb… we need to know the power of His resurrection – for it is at work in us.
This was done…
for us!
The scriptures reveal this; this is what the sacraments help us experience.
We need to look in the tomb… we need to experience the death and resurrection of Jesus. We need to finally understand…He is Risen, and therefore we are risen indeed! All praise and glory to our Lord! Amen!
Senkbeil, Harold L. 2019. The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. 2004. Love Alone Is Credible. Translated by D. C. Schindler. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
