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Ash Wednesday Sermon: Treasuring God’s Gifts: Being Content, not Covetous
Treasuring God’s Gifts:
Results in Living Content with What He Provides!
Exodus 20:17, Eph 2;!0
† IHS †
My friends, my desire for us for this Lenten Season is this, that from us is removed all that hides that we are the Masterpiece of Christ. For that is what God’s grace and mercy does, leaving us in His peace.
Lent’s Beginning
From now until Easter Sunday morning, we find ourselves in the time of the year know as Lent. Some think it is a time to sacrifice, to give up something, to embrace some suffering, and doing without, to help us realize what it costs to give up pleasure, to suffer. So they give up candy, or caffeine, or some have even suggested giving up all things electronic!
As I look at it, its not about sacrificing that which is good, or even that which we treasure in order to suffer. It’s about seeing our idols sacrificed, the things we give control over our lives, a time of testing them. Because if it is a god, it can be killed off and rise again, without our help, without our desire.
Lent is about purifying ourselves from our self-centeredness, not because we have to, but because we know these things have power over us, they take our attention off of God. In doing so, they rob us of remembering God’s grace, of remembering our access of Him.
As we journey through this particular year of Lent, it is going to be a journey where we begin to treasure God’s gifts to us more, to treasure the promises, and the life He has created us to live, the work of our lives that with Him are glorious.
The works that sin would mar, that self-centeredness would hide from us…
That is why we hear in Luke, that the life God commissions for us, the masterpiece He’s designed can be summarized in two statements.
Love Him,
Love those He brings into our lives.
All of them.
We are going to look at the 10 commandments, in a way that we don’t often talk about them. To see them as God’s blessing of our lives, as the Old Testament version of the Beatitudes. We are going through them backward, seeing them confront our lives, not to condemn or judge us, but to free us, in order to love each other, in order to love each other, and those who so desperately need the freedom we rejoice in.
So let’s get at it.
The Challenge of Contentment
In the ninth and tenth commandment, the issue is described as not coveting, not desiring that which others have been given, the blessings and curses with which they have to live. That’s one of the odder things, we often desire what those who have them consider great burdens!
The opposite of coveting, of desiring what others have, is knowing contentment.
Be satisfied with what you have, not letting some thing or someone so consume you, that your thoughts are consumed, and eventually your heart and mind by possessing it, by getting their affection. To believe that your life will only complete if you get that car, or can live in that kind of house, or get that next promotion, or if can have a relationship like the ones you have with others. Or simply have their life, or their health.
Contentment, a hard thing to have, its completely contrary to the environment we live in, that we’ve been raised in. Today it might be having the Benz, or the BMW, or going to that school, or on that vacation, or having a spouse that looks like, acts like, etc.
The Real Challenge – Will We Trust God Completely?
Do We Believe His promise?
As we will see with every single commandment, there is a challenge that is far deeper than the challenge we see. The “rules”, the shall nots and shalls, are often misunderstood as regulations, even as we often see religion and relationship with God somehow divided.
But the basis of the commandments, or the Decalogue as it used to be called, is not a list of impossible commands, it is the life that God described through the apostle Paul.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago!
The commandments, the Decalogue is about trusting God has made our lives into that masterpiece, into something where we can do the good things that He has planned, to live our lives in His presence, to love Him with all we are, and to love those around us fully, and with abandon.
TO live content is nothing less, than to see God’s blessing of each of us, and to realize He knows what He is doing. That if one person has more, or less, then God has given them a burden. It is there in contentment we find the healing that comes when we give up the desires that dominate and oppress us. The desires that somehow turn into what we deserve, what we have a right too, will slowly disappear as we see Christ, and the cross, and His gifts to us.
Contentment is about trusting God’s wisdom, trusting what He given us, from our talents and abilities, to the blessings of our homes and all in them, to the blessings of the relationships He has called us into, professionally, our family and friends, even our romantic relationships.
As we realize these treasures, given to us by the One we treasure above all, we find ourselves trying to help others realize how they are blessed, more than we chase what they have. More than we let desire consume us, we can help them, and they us, enjoy our blessings, the different things God gives us.
You see, the masterpiece God has commissioned, like a rich person commissioning an sculpture, or a painting, or a musical, is not about restricting us from fun, or living the good life. These commandments are about living a full and abundant life.
Lent is realizing that we need His presence to live this way, to have Him fix the times we fail to, to bring healing to the times we ignore His presence.
We can’t live this way, without Him, we don’t have the strength, or the power, or the ability to. But as we journey to the cross, as we realize His care and His design, and His desire to see us this way….
We find ourselves treasuring His ways, because we treasure Him. Because we know His love, and His work transforming us, and we trust Him because of it.
and there we find peace….
Let us pray..
Every time Ya Think You Got God Figured Out…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 While I was still in prison in the courtyard, the LORD’S message came to me again. 2 The LORD, who made the earth, who formed it and set it in place, spoke to me. He whose name is the LORD said, 3 “Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about. 4 I, the LORD, the God of Israel, say that the houses of Jerusalem and the royal palace of Judah will be torn down as a result of the siege and the attack. 5 Some will fight against the Babylonians, who will fill the houses with the corpses of those whom I am going to strike down in my anger and fury. I have turned away from this city because of the evil things that its people have done. 6 But I will heal this city and its people and restore them to health. I will show them abundant peace and security. 7 I will make Judah and Israel prosperous, and I will rebuild them as they were before. 8 I will purify them from the sins that they have committed against me, and I will forgive their sins and their rebellion. 9 Jerusalem will be a source of joy, honor, and pride to me; and every nation in the world will fear and tremble when they hear about the good things that I do for the people of Jerusalem and about the prosperity that I bring to the city.” Jeremiah 33:1-9 (TEV)
924 You should try to have the holy shamelessness of a child who knows that his Father God always sends him what is best. That is why even when the apparently most necessary things are lacking he doesn’t worry; and with complete serenity he says: I still have the Holy Spirit and he remains with me. (1)
There are days where I wished that God told us of the wondering and marvelous things that I know nothing about.
And then there are times I am so struggling with what He’s revealed… that I am more than willing to let the rest simply come about – as I naively and trusting in God, walk through life.
Sme of these wonderful and marvelous things take us by shock, because we do not see the big picture. like in the verses that follow in verse 4. Hard to see the suffering and shock happen, as God strips the people of God of everything that separates them from Him. It seems cruel, vicious, even mad for God to use Babylon’s destructive power to bear on His own people. It can be easy to dwell on those times to be so overwhelmed that we don’t look to the promise, and trust in God’s faithfulness. Maybe its the pain of losing a favorite sin, or some long held resentment,
But the promise is there – God will purify, God will cleanse and heal. God will restore the joy of His people in such a way it will attract people from all over the place to come and witness the restoration, and join in the praises.
Trusting in this way leads to the child like faith that Josemaria Escriva talks about – a faith that looks beyond what is necessary, a trust in God that finds one living in serenity, in incomparable peace. for you realize you are living in Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you – giving you a life that goes beyond what is necessary – giving you a life with God.
So when God throws you a curve ball…and you find youself playing basketball..on ice…in a scuba gear…before 250,000 people…
Relax… He got it all under control..
And it is wonderful and marvelous – for the Lord is with you!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3257-3260). Scepter PublisThhers. Kindle Edition.
I was glad when they said, “let’s go to the house of the Lord?” Really?
Devotional THought of the Day:
1 It made me glad to hear them say, “Let’s go to the house of the LORD!” Psalm 122:1 (CEV)
4 The one thing I ask of the LORD— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. Psalm 27:4 (NLT)
Have you ever woken up in the morning, and felt ashamed because you didn’t bounce out of bed, eat reakfast and race to the car, wanting to get to church a little early, to help or just to pray?
Or when people are so joyously ravind about their worship “experience”, have you wondered if they somehow were in a different dimension and were part of a different service?
Do you worry that you are becoming like that church in Revelation that was described as having lost their “first love”?
Good, that means I am not alone!
It may not happen as much anymore, but there are seasons in my life, even as a pastor, when church became a chore. Where my sense of worship became more mechanical, where I just did my job. And no, I wasn’t glad when the alarm went off, when I wasn’t overjoyed at being in church, and my mind ran off to a thousand other things. Where scriptures like the first one above, just seemed to cause more guilt, than encouragement. Where I figure, well if I can’t get anything out of it. at least I can serve God.
Which leads me to ask, what are expecting? Hopefully some good music (here excellent music) a decent sermon, some needed hugs and smiles.We expect to hear that our sins are forgiven, that all is right in God’s view of the world.
These things are all awesome things, but they aren’t the reason we are glad to go up to the house of the Lord.
Pslam 27 gives us the reason, to gaze upon Him, to fidn the greatest joy in His presence, to be able to just, know His love, and revel in it. What we need to remember about such gatherings that God draws us to be part of, the communities He brings us into, is that He is there. The reason I am glad to go to church, is when I think through all the ways He makes His presence clear to us, when are gathered by Him in His name. When we can breath and slow down, and His comfort and ehaling find us, where we feast with Him. When I can realize the motions I so often find myself going through, as not just motions, but God ordained dance steps with Him as our partner. Where we hear his guidance, where we look upon His love, the body and blood given and shed for us, when we remember His promises poured out on us in Baptism. Church isn’t about the actions, but the Lord’s presence those actions reveal.
Think about Moses, walking onto Holy Ground, about Isaiah before the throne of God, about Solomon as they dedicate the temple – and God’s presence fills it, about Thomas in the upper room gathering, seeing the hands and side… pierced for Him. Know His love, revel in the relationship that is manifest there.
the reason I was glad to go to the house of the Lord? Because He is there… calling me to come be part of His family… to come home, to be home, with Him.
Related articles
- December 1 (stmarkssa.wordpress.com)
A Celtic Advent: The Trinity’s Look Towards Christ’s Birth
The Father’s Thoughts:
Looking forward to the Birth of Christ
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
18 …may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT)
Mary did you know? God did!
If it hasn’t happened yet, soon your mailboxes will be filled with cute Christmas cards, some of them actually daring to be “religious”, to have picture Mary and Joseph looking down, adoring the “6lb, 7oz. Baby Lord Jesus” asleep quietly, without dirty diapers in a manger so spotless, cleansed by the glorious light of the star, that you wouldn’t hesitate to make Christmas cookies there.
We’ll sing the carols, eventually, as they help us contemplate what it means to look into a manger and see there Jesus, our savior. We’ll even hear songs like Joseph’s song, as he tries to comprehend what it means to raise Christ, or “Mary, did you know”, as we celebrate Christmas. As we consider if Mary really understood the pain that Simeon prophesied she would bear – as she watch Jesus be crucified, or the joy she would know as He ministered, and healed and rose from the dead.
This advent, I want to prepare us for those joys by seeing what the Trinity expected, as Jesus was sent to be born. Tonight, we will look at what the Father thought, as the plan made before the foundation of the world became reality, as His only begotten was born into this world, amidst the sin and brokenness…
What did He see, what did He plan, what was He expecting, as He sent Jesus into our world?
A difference, a Mission, and a wedding banquet
He’s different… (so you will be!)
The first thing we need to consider is who is sent! It is not a soldier on an impossible mission, it’s someone who has been hand-picked.
Picture God the Father, looking down into the manger and saying the words He wrote through Isaiah,
““Take a good look at my servant. I’m backing him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose, and I couldn’t be more pleased with him. I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life. He’ll set everything right among the nations. 2 He won’t call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. 3 He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant, but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right. 4 He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands wait expectantly for his teaching.” 5
This babe, this man, this Savior, is our God, who will not disregard anyone us, He will set things right, not just in one place, one country, but in the world. He won’t tire or quit on us, He won’t give up, even when we do.
As the Father prepares for these moments of Jesus’ Incarnation, His life among us, He knows the relationship He has with His Son, that is the kind of relationship He wants with each of us, His people.
But Christ’s being sent, is what that will cost!
Here’s what will happen!
You see, even as Christ is the image of the Father, in sending us Jesus, the Father sends us the very image we are being transformed into, the very life we are being reformed to live. The image that we can see, as we look at our own children in love, or in those moments where we struggle with the injustice and unrighteousness of the world. The times where we operate “outside ourselves” in the way we love and sacrifice, just because we need it.
Hear again what the Father says to Jesus, and picture Him saying it over Jesus, laying in the manger.
6 “I am GOD. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, 7 To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons.
This manger – these lights, the blue paraments, that is what it is all about, this time of Christmas.
It’s about the Father sending Jesus with the deliberate intent of dealing with our brokenness, about freeing us from the darkness of sin and self-centeredness, about releasing us from that which constrains and binds us, Satan’s work deceiving us and getting us to buy into our rights.
Freeing us to live in a relationship with the Father, as His children, as those who He rejoices in, whom He takes responsibility for, the people that He keeps safe.
You’ve been invited!
As we look at advent, the Father’s intent becomes clear as we are invited to His son’s wedding feast in the gospel. For Christ has come, and as we look at His coming again, no message sends that more clearly than the feast we’ve been invited to, to celebrate His love, to celebrate the fulfilment of His mission.
To celebrate His taking our burdens and bringing us is, everyone the Spirit has laid eyes on, the good, and those of us who aren’t so good. To look forward to the feast, and to realize we continue in the very ministry of Christ, inviting all to be fed, to know His love.
For in Jesus, all has been set right, as we live in Him this work of His is being finished.
For we have been called to dwell in His peace.
Celtic Cross (Photo credit: freefotouk)
Related articles
- A Celtic Advent: Looking at God’s Expectations about Jesus Birth (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Celts to the Creche: St. Columba of Iona (saintsbridge.wordpress.com)
Finally,… Pray
Baptism of Christ. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River by John. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
today at Concordia, just minutes before this sermon, a little girl was baptised, claimed by God to be His daughter. Read about what happens in baptism in Ezekiel 36:25 and follwoing and in 1 Tim 3:2-8. This is truly a miracle, one of the greatest we experience!
Finally… Pray!
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
† In Jesus Name †
As we receive the grace, that mercy and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, may Jesus lead our hearts into the full understanding and expression of the love of God, and may we, in Christ patiently endure!
How much will life change in Her life?
I want you for a moment to dream of the future.
A time 60-80 years from now, as Cayleen is sitting in the front row of this church, watching her granddaughter or even great-granddaughter being baptized. The church might have different music then, our new music becoming the old, archaic stuff that her generation longs to hear occasionally.
Maybe there will not be cars in the parking lot, but those little family jets that we saw on the Jetson’s.. Cell phones? Texting? Tablets? I can’t even begin to imagine what life will be like for them. I just think about how much it has changed since my son was baptized 6 years ago.
Except for one thing.
She will still need to know God’s love. There will still be the challenges of life that we will have to endure, for while many things in life changes, life itself will not change as much for her as it did this morning.
Which is why Paul not only asks us to pray, but then offers a blessing for the church in Thessalonica, as He asks God to lead our hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God, and the patient endurance that is found in Christ.
Come to think of it, if you can’t remember what to pray for her and indeed for all the baptized, that’s a pretty good prayer to remember!
You promised to pray…
Full understanding and expression of God’s love
That means His mercy, and His granting repentance
I pray that you remember to keep the commitment you made this morning to God, as you keep Cayleen in your prayers. Do not just make this something you said, as you were caught up in the moment. Pray for her, and for those around you, for we all need prayer. Even apostles, even pastors, even grandparents.
Sometimes we do not know how to pray, or what to pray, and I think that is where a passage like this comes in so handy. Two simple things to pray for, to know and express God’s love, and to endure. There will probably be some points where you need to pray for Dan and Kristen for that as well – like when Cayleen is 2, or when she’s that sweet age that starts just after the 12th year and 364th day of her life.
Seriously, pray for her, and for all believers in Christ, and for everyone you know.
Pray that they would follow Jesus, as He leads their hearts into a fuller understanding of the depth of God’s love for them. A love that does not just write us off the first time we sin but he continues to call to us, to urge us to repent, and to sin no more. The love of God that desires to fix the parts of our lives that are broken, to heal the wounds that our hearts and souls have encountered.
For to fully understand God’s love is to realize we do not have to hide our sins, we do not have to pretend they aren’t sins. Rather, we are to go to God and confess those sins, to ask Him to fix them. That takes faith, and confidence, and knowing God’s love and faithfulness so well, that we run to Him whenever we are struggling, whenever we are broken, whenever we break life.
Patient endurance?
Christ must lead us there!
That is how we endure as well, realizing that Jesus has united us to His death, and to His resurrection. That iss the promise of baptism, that unity to Christ. It is the hope He’s given us of sharing in His glory (col. 1:26-29 talks of that)
When we realize that our destiny is secure, that this life, as long as it may seem some days is going to become eternity in God’s presence, it helps us incredibly to endure. We can stand firm, knowing God’s promise that all things will work for good for us, because we love the God who called us and made us His.
It’s in knowing what Christ endured for us, that leads us to endure in His presence. For that too is a blessing given to Cayleen and all who believe and are baptized. God promises in Matthew 28 that He will never leave us, even until the end of the ages.
That’s why Paul says Jesus must lead us in knowing and expressing God’s love and into that ability to endure. It isn’t based in our own inner strength, even as Christians. Maturity for a believer doesn’t happen after we go through puberty and our voices change.
It happens when we know God’s love, when we know the promises of love given this day. When we realize how Jesus is always faithful, how He is always guarding our hearts, our minds, our souls. How He leads us as the 23rd Psalm says besides still waters and restores our soul. (which means it needed restoration)
That’s what Jesus does, that is what our Lord is tasked with, saving us from sin and the power of satan and death, and restoring us to life, quickening it us. That’s why a believer doesn’t live in terror of God, but in awe of Him, knowing His love, and being able to express that knowing (not knowledge of but knowing) through their voices in praise and through their lives.
But pray also for the mission and for those needing rescue
So pray for Cayleen, pray for those people around you! Make this your prayer for them; that they would be lead by Christ into the full understanding and expression of His love, and that they would, in Christ, endure!
Paul asks us also to pray for the mission, that this message of God’s love be honored, that it is heard and responded to with praise, wherever it goes. And to pray for those who have to deal with what the translation says are wicked and evil people – those who can’t comprehend God’s love, who don’t feel comfortable dealing with His mercy and those who are guilty, and need to deal with it. God dealt with them by the way, as we hear all of Paul’s guards in jail came to know God’s love and were granted repentance.
So finally my friends, pray, give into God’s care those you love – and those you struggle with. Let Him take the anxieties, the worries and challenges from you, freeing you to love them without distraction, to care for them as He would, to point them to Him when you don’t know what to do.
Having does so, knowing God’s love more fully, you will find yourself expressing it, in a place of peace beyond all comprehension. It is there where you are kept, guarded, your heart and mind protected by Jesus himself. AMEN?
Related articles
- I Have Certainly Seen, I Am Aware, I Have Come Down! (justifiedandsinner.com)
Church Services. To serve God, or to serve people?
Devotional Thought of the day:
23 Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of wheat. 24 So the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do that on the Sabbath!” 25 Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry, 26 so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God. This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. According to our Law only the priests may eat this bread—but David ate it and even gave it to his men.” 27 And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23-28 (TEV)
Sunday, a friend of mine shared a article he read on FB. It was on a topic near and dea to my heart – the topic of worship. More specifically, the type of worship that happens when God gathers His people together and there is something called a mass, or a worship service, or church service.
Here is the article: http://www.thewinedarksea.com/2013/10/27/can-perfect-mass-idol/
The thoughts in the article, though not my own, are so akin to it, that it might as well be.
You see, a mass, or church service isn’t about our impressing God. It’s not something we do to gain points with God, and if we gain enough, then we get into heaven, or a better viewof God in heaven, or a nicer mansion. It’s not about who sings the best, or how hip or how smooth the pastor or priest is, or how dynamic the “show” is. I am not saying that any pastor, or any musicians shouldn’t do their best, we should, because it is often through us that people receive what God meant them to receive – the reveleation of His love and His mercy and His invitation to share in His glory. Here is a passage that demonstrates that:
27 God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. 29 To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me. Colossians 1:27-29 (TEV)
The point is this – that church is not about how well we do it. It’s about our realizing the depth of God’s love, the lengths He will go to bring healing to our souls, to bring peace to our hearts. That can’t happen if we treat church, whether very anicent liturgy or very contempory service, (both can be high choreographed and rehearsed) as if anything that distracts from what happens up fron is more important than any person there.
God wants to gather all people to Himself, to bring them inot our family, to make them a part of us. All people. And so each one has a role in church, and in every event the church has, from Bible Studies to Potlucks.
The first and primary role, whether pastor or infant, the couple celebrating their 70th anniversary or the single mom, the people whose parents or grandparents were there when the church was built, and the family hasn’t missed a sunday since, or the person who immigrated to the US yesterday.. and wandered in accidently. Every one of them belongs in God’s house. Every one of them God wants to reveal His love to, whether for the first time, or the 10,000th. These times are about God taking care of His people, all of them, all He created.
That means it will be messy, because people are messy. Sometimes visibly so, more often emotionally and spiritually so. And all need the healing of their hearts and souls….which are butalized by sin and the world’s pressures.
That’s why He gathers us… and that’s why we praise Him.
Because of His great love for us.
May we remember that as we worship together, as we study together, and as we find those around us that need His love, and share it with them in their homes, or bring them home to church!
AMEN
Related articles
- Who is more faithful to the faith? Wrong question! (justifiedandsinner.com)
- “Promises, Promises, Promises” – Confirmation Worship Sermon 10.27.2013 (pastorcraig.org)
- Reformation Day, A Day I Pray Would Become… Obsolete. (justifiedandsinner.com)
“My own faith?” … not so much!
Discussion thought of the Day..
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. 11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.1 John 4:7-11 (TEV)
“A disciple of Christ can never think as follows: “I try to be good; as for others, if that’s what they want… let them go to hell.” Such an attitude is not human. Nor is it in keeping with the love of God, or with the charity we owe our neighbour.” (1)
This Lent the theme of most of our readings continues to be reconciliation among the people God has created. We have seen God’s heart – that he will not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, that He only wants them to come home, as the prodigal did.
When will our heart break for those who walk without Christ? I am not talking about the kind of guilt caused by a spiritual version of those programs that show starving children, seeking to get us to send wads of money to appease our shame, to give us the feeling that we helped a little, therefore it is alright to go back to living life. I ask the question again, when will our hearts truly break for those that do not know the mercy of Christ, or the peace of God our Father.
When will we love them, as He loves them?
It has to come down to whether we see ourselves as His family, that our neighbor, even the one we struggle with, as someone as close to us as family. It is because… they are. Christ died not just for us – our faith is not an individual faith, Jesus is a personaly savior – He died to reconcile us all to Him, and therefore to each other. We aren’t really talking aboout ng strangers, but our own people, our own family. And that takes patience, and love… time.
So look on those who do not know the love of Christ, and love them and be patient with them, until their journey brings them home as well.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 3358-3361). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do we do “devotions” or are we devoted?
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 (ESV)
9 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. John 15:9 (MSG)
14 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, 15 this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. 16 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— 17 that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, 18 you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! 19 Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 (MSG)
Jesus has died. He is a corpse. Those holy women had no expectations. They had seen how he had been abused, and how he had been crucified. How vivid in their minds was the violence of the Passion he had undergone! They knew, too, that the soldiers were keeping watch over the place. They knew that the tomb was sealed shut: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door?” they asked themselves, for it was a massive slab. But all the same…, in spite of everything, they went to be with him. Look: difficulties, large and small, can be seen at once… But if there is love, one pays no heed to those obstacles: one goes ahead with daring, with conviction, with courage. Don’t you have to confess your shame when you contemplate the drive, the daring and the courage of these women? (1)
We hear these words from the Gospels often, we talk of the love of God weekly, if not daily, but how often do we do it? Would we go and challenge soldiers – an attempt to move away a stone from a tomb, out of love for our Rabbi who has died? How much more should we strive to show our love to the Resurrected Lord of Lords and King of Kings? They went to be with His body, the body given for them, even though they couldn’t understand this completely, they knew the miracles he had done, they had even been the recipients of that kind of grace – and they didn’t realize the grace that was about to be revealed.
Still they went!
How can we show Him a love that has recognized His love for us, the passion that God has, passion that would lead to that grave. How can we respond in love?
John tells us, in the verses following that we remain in His love by treasuring that which He has commissioned – we often see that translated commandments – but it is more than the 10 – it is the life that God has called us to dwell in – the very work of art (Eph 2:10) that we have been created for – which includes the work – that He has planned for us.
This is nothing more, and certainly nothing less, than walking with Christ. Realizing that each day is a gift – one that we can be at His side, as He continues to call people into a relationship with Him. They would be our family, our friends, our co-workers, or even people we meet on the other side of the world from home. We can’t do this simply out of a desire to obey so that we get something. We would soon dry out, become weary, give up.
But if we love Him, if we come to adore the Lord who adores us enough to be buried… then we come….
Think often today of God’s love,
4 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, 15 this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. 16 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— 17 that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, 18 you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! 19 Live full lives, full in the fullness of God! Ephesians 3:14-19 (MSG)
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2489-2496). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Let His Message Fill Your Lives!
Let His Message Fill Your Lives!
Colossians 3:12-17
† In Jesus Name †
My friends in Christ, may your lives be filled with the richness of Christ’s message – that He in love has chosen you to be the Holy People He loves!
What does this mean?
It is referred to as the “Lutheran Question”. Like our theology, it predates Luther and the reformation that God created – not just in our churches, but in Christianity. It goes back to a Greek Philosopher, named Socrates – a man who, like Luther, and like St Paul, the author of Colossians, irritated more than a few people.
His way of phrasing it was a bit different. He said that the unexamined life is not worth living. He would love the way Luther phrased it, as he taught young people and pastors, using the phrase, “What does this mean?”
We need to ask that question about our faith – what and why we trust in God – and we need to hear the answer – really hear and absorb it. The more I do, the deeper that trust becomes, the more the words of the songs and hymns we sing mean, for the more we desire to worship God. This is because the more we ask, “What does this mean”, the more we understand how great it is, that God works in our life.
This time of year then, as we gather to celebrate Christ’s birth, is as good a time as any to start asking that question again.
What does it mean that we trust in God, what does it mean that we hear Jesus was incarnate – that He was born into the world and that we are reborn – in Him?
Paul’s epistle this week answers the question, what does this mean? (looking at the manger …
What does it mean that Christ was born of Mary, that He was incarnate?
What does it mean… for us?
What does the incarnation mean…for you?
You’ve been chosen! GULP but that’s a good thing!
Practically, we find the answer to the “what does the incarnation, what does Christ’s birth mean” in our epistle reading this morning. Specifically there in verse 12.
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves,
There it is – because Christ came into the world, because He was born of the Virgin Mary, because He humbled Himself and left heaven to be here, to dwell among us we have been chosen to be His people. The people He loves.
Get this – His holy people.
We’ll get to what that means in a moment, but I want you to really hear this,
God chose you to be the holy people he loves,
I don’t think you can hear it enough times!
God chose you to be the holy people he loves,
The entire reason for the incarnation boils down to that, the reason He came – was to reveal to us His decision to make us His holy people – whom He loves!
That answer does raise yet again the question – What does this mean that He chose us to be the holy people He loves? What difference does it make? What effect does it have on your lives?
What Effect does being chosen mean in in your life
It changes your behavior – not who you are!
It’s the difference between getting dressed after your shower in the morning, or just walking outside without dressing!
That’s not my idea – that’s Paul’s!
Hear all of the sentence that begins in verse 12,
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
If you go outside without getting dressed appropriately, you are not ready to face the world- and they are definitely not ready to face you!
This is as true spiritually as it is physically – indeed I believe even more so. The things that describe how someone lives – who has been clothed with Christ, who has put on Christ, are not something we should dismiss as being legalistic, or to difficult, but it is indeed the way we are to live; for we live in Christ. The very change is generated in us in our baptism, as we are granted repentance, as we are given the Holy Spirit.
Without these things – without tenderhearted mercy, without kindness, without humility and gentleness and patience – we find ourselves out there naked – raw – our emotions not governed, our reactions neither modest nor controlled. We become merciless – and cannot find the strength to love – and we find ourselves excluding others and isolating ourselves, rather than being bound together in perfect harmony.
Which is why, in nearly every letter to a church – Paul talks of Christ first – and then of what it means for us to be in Christ – how we live, as members of His body, as living sacrifices – standing firm and reflecting His love to the world.
In this case, the relationships we have are well documented and worked through.
I find it interesting – and we will talk in Bible Study – about the burden being, not on the sinner, but on the one sinned against whom the sin was committed. The key becomes our acting Christlike, and putting the best construction on things, on making allowances as the passage talks of, of forgiving.
The more then we act like Christ – and do not allow the relationship to be broken, the more we find ourselves living together – even bound together in Christ’s peace, in the completeness that comes in Him. For it takes much more for a relationship to break – when both parties are forgiving and when we make allowance for each other’s faults.
How can This Be?
I have to admit – this sounds easier than it is, and that is why we need to hear it so often! To be reminded of how God has designed us to live – how we are to be imitators of Christ. To get back from where we started.
That is where we are challenged; we think these attitudes, even if we know better, originates by our work, by our will. Sometimes we get a defeatist attitude because, it isn’t hard to always be patient with each other, and often we do forget that we are dressed in these things, already!
I would so prefer it to read – you must be clothed – or be clothed, the verb there is imperative, but it is not active – it is middle/passive in voice – the work of being clothed – of putting on Christ is more than ours – and it has already been done.
In verse 12 it says that we have been chosen by God, and that we are chosen to be the holy people He loves. That choice has already been made, the work to present us holy, that has already begun. The peace of Christ, the peace that He generates… that will rule our lives that provides the harmony that too is His responsibility that is a blessing as well of our baptism!
Where our focus begins and ends – what makes living in Christ’s peace, what gives us the strength to love, to be patient and kind, is not our will, but what Paul urges us to do in verse 16.
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.
There is our key to dwelling in peace, to loving in such a way we are bound together.
It is found as we hear the word of God, as the Holy Spirit uses it, as on the day of Pentecost, to do heart surgery on us, to bring us to life, as Ezekiel says to remove our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.
A slightly different take- but the same thing as being clothed with Christ – for all those attributes we are to show – are His. As we are transformed into His image – we take on those characteristics and we begin, whether we realize it or not, to live in them. To dwell in Christ, to cherish the words in our Bibles, to discuss it and deeply drink of its wisdom, and even more – the message of God’s love for you, His holy people – that is how we grow in love.
The more we spend in His word, and in meditation and prayer based upon it, the more we naturally resort to verse 16 – the rejoicing and praising and thanking God as we sing to Him. As we adore Him, for we realize the depth of His love for us, a love that He demonstrated in choosing us, in cleansing us, in filling us with His word, and His peace.
AMEN?
Complacent…and Broken
Discussion thought of the day:
“If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all.” James 2:10 (CEV)
“what little love for God you have, when you give in without a fight because it’s not a grave sin” Jose marie Escriva.
We have a tendency in the church, to favor (or perhaps more accurately disfavor) one sin more than another. That is, it seems every decade has the sin that is more evil than any other, and of course that sin, and those who commit that sin are rarely found in the “real” churches. As a child I remember the whispers about the lady in town who had a child without being married, Then the sin was divorce that was unforgivable, now, for many Christians – it’s the homosexuals, or the liberals (whatever that means – I thought the church was supposed to be working at liberating people… o well!
But will we dare look in the mirror, and call our sin… well sin? Will pastors preach against sin that is prevalent in their people’s lives? Or will we stay safe, preaching against the HHA mandate, or the gun control laws, or… or…or. will we be complacent, hiding our sin, from God, yet letting it consume us, for even the small
It is time to change all that…
Let’s address our sins, let’s stop saying that we are better than those people who are active this or that…Let’s try something new, if we want our world to change.
Let’s confess our sins to God – let’s stop being complacent about our sin… Let’s hit it head on… and see God at work…let’s fight sin – at the place where it cannot win… before the throne of God, for there… we are cleansed… of our sin… our real sin…
this old hymn says it well….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHY8QC0UY-M
So before we go out – and condemn others, or somehow feel more holy, let us indeed cast aside our brokenness.. and see the healing God has called us to.
AMEN
