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Helping Those Who Seem to not Want Help
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross
“When Jesus had finished these parables he left the place, and came into his own country. Here he taught the people in their own synagogue, till in their amazement they said, “Where does this man get this wisdom and these powers? He’s only the carpenter’s son. Isn’t Mary his mother, and aren’t James, Joseph, Simon and Judas his brothers? And aren’t all his sisters living here with us? Where did he get all this?” And they were deeply offended with him. But Jesus said to them, “No prophet goes unhonoured except in his own country and in his own home!” And he performed very few miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Matthew 13:53–58, Phillips)
These camouflaged souls represent a special category of people who need help: those hiding their need—either consciously or unconsciously. In order to help those who don’t want help, we must recognize that some of these people will ask for help, but they will ask for it through a tangential issue.
But doesn’t a personal relationship involve more than that? A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind and thoughtful, is not the same thing as a friend. Jesus says, “I have called you friends” (John 15:15) and “Look, I am with you every minute, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20, paraphrase).
Every church has them, every form of social media abounds with them They will often put up great defenses of their views, and sometimes are out on the offense. One friend describes them as “”For those who feel the zealous fumes of righteous rebellion coursing through their lungs,” Books have been written about them- these well intentioned alligators, these people who are more worried about being perceived as right that actually seeking the righteousness of Christ. They are labelled with terms like toxic, non-compliant, They don’t get the help, the healing they need, because they are so focused on defending their brokenness.
Others have different coping mechanisms, as they hide their hurt and pain deep within themselves. declaring all is good in their lives, and refusing, even getting offended by the offer of help.
And neither group experience of the healing, the miracle that is available to them in Jesus. Which is most regrettable, as it was when Nazareth rejected Jesus.
The question is whether our response is one based in the grief of knowing what is missing, or whether we simply wanting to correct and/or brush the dust off our feet and leave them in their brokenness. Will we see them asking for help in a very different way, and whether we will respond, or not.
This takes patience and more than a little sacrifice. It takes effort to restore these people to spiritual health, to the point where praising God is their constant focus, for they know they have been established in Christ Jesus. That is our goal, as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, to see them healed and restored.
I love how Dallas Willard used to phrase this – to know Jesus as a friend, not just a benefactor. To know that Jesus is not just invested in your performance, but is invested in you. This is where their hope like ours, is found. Where peace is beyond comprehension, where we (all of us!) are healed of our brokenness and sin.
Learn to humbly pray for their healing, pray for your own patience, pray for the love to care for them, and to hear their call for the hope you have. AMEN!
Shelley, M. (1986). Helping those who don’t want help (Vol. 7, p. 91). Christianity Today, Inc.; Word Books.
Willard, D., & Johnson, J. (2015). Hearing God Through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional. IVP.
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 4: Make Room for ‘Em All! A sermon on Psalm 50:1-15
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 4: Make Room for ‘Em All!
Psalm 50:1-15
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ assure you of your place in His kingdom, even us others join our “going to work” with our Heavenly Father!
Siblings Joining us at Work!
As we’ve been using the parable of God taking you, His child to work with you, we come to this amazing passage from Psalm 50, A glorious passage that describes all of humanity gathered around God the Father, revealed in all His glory, as we see and feel and know and are united by His glorious love!
I think back to the first time I went to work with my dad, he was remodeling an apartment owned by one of my uncles. I think all I did that day was hold my dad’s hammer – but I was excited to go, having heard from brother all the great things he got to do. (My father was smart enough to not have me ever do those things!) And we were guaranteed to go to Howard Johnson’s on the way home and wreck our dinner by having and ice cream sundae, or a root beer float or a malt frappe.
I later understood my brother’s attitude, when my dad started bringing my sister, and leaving either Steve or I at home. There was a certain… jealousy, a certain territorialism, a certain attitude caused by having to share my dad’s attention. Heck the attitude still exists… a little.. notice who ended up with the hammer?
In fact, the attitude of my brother and I can be seen in the people of God in today’s Psalm—as people worshipped God, as they worked with Him, but they didn’t get what this was all about…just going through the motions.
It’s not our motions- but why?
As I looked at the judgment of God on His people, I was shocked to see them praised at first. God declares,
“O Israel: I am God, your God! 8 I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.”
When it comes to Israel in the Old Testament, this is about the highest praise they received. They were always messing up worship and the sacrificial system—offering the wrong thing, or offering it to an idol instead of to God, doing for the first time the actions that God described to Moses and Abraham in Leviticus.
In other words, they done good!.
But they didn’t.
Like my brother and I, they went through the motions, but their heart wasn’t in it. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what the problem was,
“But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens. 10 For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.”
It seems to me that they got the impression that they were doing all this work for God – that he couldn’t have a good life unless they did that part.
That would be like me thinking my role, holding my dad’s hammer, was essential to his work.
Imagine thinking that God would go hungry if Israel didn’t sacrifice the right animal and grill it the right way! Yep, God couldn’t run the universe without me!
As God shakes His head, and has to chastise His people once again.
It’s as naïve as me carrying the hammer and thinking that work as hard as my dad, and I absolutely necessary,,,,
No wonder Steve and I were irritated when we realized my sister could carry the hammer!
Be Thankful – and Let Me Be Your God!
Instead of making worship and the Christian life all about our work, all about all we “sacrifice” for God, look at what the Psalm focuses upon.
“14 Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. 15 Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
Three things we can do, and all of it is focused on Jesus.
First -be thankful. Realize that God wants to spend time with us, He wants to share in the great joy of seeing “all humanity” gather and realize His love that shines because it is glorious. Our lives are ones where we are aware of what God has done in saving us, and in what He is doing in our lives each day.
It’s like my brother and I, admiring the work my dad accomplished. We are there, and we see Him at work, as He crafts new lives from those once damaged by sin.
Second, we do what He asks us, to love, to forgive, to even sacrifice as God works through us, to summon all humanity. Basically, our vow is to hold the hammer, to keep God company, to learn from Him, as we learn on the job what it means to love…
And lastly, we bring God glory when we call on Him, as we get ourselves in trouble. That could be like me dropping my hammer, and shattering a floor tile, or my brother using the saw and not cutting the 2 by 4 straight. Or in our case, whatever commandment we broke—from having a false idol, to murdering and being unfaithful to our spouse or stealing or gossiping.
It is in those times, as God comforts and consoles us, as He fixes up the mess we’ve made our lives, as we cry out “Lord—have mercy!
It is then we see our Father smile, for at least this moment, we recognize our need to be there with Him, for Him to still minister to us, for Him to still forgive us, for the cross to have meaning, as our sin is forgiven because of another hammer, the one that nailed Jesus to the cross, that we might die with Him, and be raised to life with Him. As we are joined by people from all humanity…as we live with Him.
AMEN!
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 1: Time to Get Ready – A sermon on Colossians 3:1-10
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 1: Time to Get Ready
Colossians 3:1-10
† I.H.S. †
May the grace, mercy and peace of God be yours, as you labor in the faith, rejoicing as God brings His lost home!”
Robert Webber, the great modern expert on Liturgy wrote, “The purpose of worship is not only to glorify God by celebrating the work of his Son but also to assimilate in our own lives the pattern of dying to the sin that Christ died to destroy and rising to the new life that Christ rose from the dead to inaugurate.”
It’s an interesting thought, and it goes with the theme of the next 8 weeks. Whereas his statement is more from our perspective, we are going to look at how God assimilates us into this pattern of Christ’s death, resurrection and eventual ascension….as we begin to live life in the way that God has chosen for us, a life filled with love, and peace and mercy.
The way we are going to picture that goes back to an old practice, where dad’s would take their boys to work with them, so they could learn two things. One, to introduce them to a potential career, and two, to respect their father’s hard work.
It’s too bad the practice has been pretty much forgotten, or because of insurance and OSHA rules, stopped!
Some of my friends’ families really got into it, even make the children clothes that would resemble their dad’s – making them “twins” for the day! Some of my friends loved it, the banker’s son had to wear a suit, the police Lt.’s son had a uniform—complete with BB gun, the fireman and doctor’s kids dressed up to…
The only friend I had that didn’t like that day, was the kid whose dad owned the septic tank cleaning company…he had a crappy day…
Each and every morning you and I wake up, God is taking us to His work, to learn how and what He’s doing in the world, and teaching us to do the same work, as we learn how, and grow even more in our adoration and respect for Him.
So, it’s time to get ready, and for today, we will look at the very beginning fo the day, and getting ready, getting dressed to go to work, with Dad.
Get undressed
Unless you are a pre-school teacher or maybe an elementary school teacher, most of us don’t go to work in pajamas or whatever we wear to bed…. and I think that’s a good thing!
Can you imagine if Deacon Bob was wear his flannel “spidey” pajamas under his role?
But the first step in “getting ready for work,’ is leaving the clothes of the night, behind.
Paul says, “5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
The phrase for “you have stripped off” is the based on the word “dyo”, to undress, to shrink out of, to remove.
The clothing of the darkness, the clothing of the night, needs to be removed, before we can get ready for work. We have to be stripped of it, it has to be removed, no matter the cost.
But look at what’s being removed…
The sinful matter described in these verses. It starts with desires and sexual immorality and all that goes with it, the desires, and it moves on to the bad stuff, uncontrolled anger, bad behavior – in fact, the word “bad” is the word for human waste product, the stuff they make fertilizer from. The list goes on and includes slander —what we term gossip today, and dirty or inappropriate language.
All that stuff has to be done away with, like the pajamas that are tossed in the hamper in the morning – they have to be put aside, even as Paul says, put to death. This is not only so we can go to work with God – but that we can live with Him.
The challenge is that we can’t – those stupid sins stick to us worse pajamas after a humid night in the 90s…. or some people stick to their bed despite 6 or 12 alarms going off!
The gospel begins as God causes us to rise out of bed, shrug off the pajamas, and He cleanses us like a steaming shower…
And now that we are cleansed, the gospel dresses us up… and get us ready to go to work…with dad.
Getting Dressed.
The same word that has a negative to it to make “undress” appears again- without the negative. Paul writes, “10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.”
It is interesting that where as the behaviors of the old nature, the pajamas, the clothes worn in darkness are well documented, the behaviors to be expressed as we are clothed in Christ, as we are made ready.
We don’t have to describe the behaviors, the actions of those who are dressed with the nature of Jesus, because God walks with us, He guides us, He causes us to love and serve those who are different, those who are broken, those who lives the world has tossed aside, or glorified fro the wrong reasons.
To me this is the most amazing thing about God taking us to work –the complete change he works within us, the unbelievable peace and love that fill our lives, as we live in Christ with God our Father.
This is seen in Paul’s words to the council of Athens,. 28 For in him we live and move and exist.’ Acts 17:27-28 (NLT2)
This idea of is expressed as we are told to put on Christ, that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, the we are in fellowship with God, that He will never leave or forsake us.
And He takes us to work every day, that we might share in His joy when He shows us how He saves, heals and equips others just like us… and the learn that when Jesus rose from the dead, we did as well, to share in His life, and His dad’s work.
AMEN!
The Great Harvest Begins! An Easter Sermon on1 Corinthians 15:19-26
The Great Harvest Begins!
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
† I.N.R.I †
May the Grace and Peace of God our Father and the Risen Lord Jesus Christ fill your heart, mind and soul, as you realize the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work IN YOU!
I will never get tired of saying this…
Pastor: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Congregation He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Deacon: And therefore,
Congregation: We have risen indeed! Alleluia!
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”
As I was thinking about this idea of a great harvest, and how to explain it, my memory went on a weird trip. It took me back to my childhood, as we were visiting a church. I don’t remember which one, probably Salem First Baptist, or the Pentecostal church my dad’s friend Pastor Brazil led. I don’t remember much of the service, except one strange hymn.
They sang it with a lot of energy and incredible joy, which is what impressed me, because I had no idea what they were singing about!
I mean, what in the world is a sheave?
They kept using that word, and being that the church was not in a farming community, I am not sure they knew what it meant either, but they were singing about bringing them in, with great joy!
Bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves,
We will come rejoicing,
Bringing in the sheaves!
Did they mean sword-sheaths? Sheets? Sieves? Sleeves? Steves?
What in the world is a sheave?
And why were people so excited about bringing them in?
And what does that have to do with Easter?
How many times is our reaction to the resurrection there, because we hear everyone else’s conviction, because we see the joy and we want to be part of it, but we don’t get that we are part of the harvest?
- Death in Adam
I don’t remember how many times they sung that chorus, but it seemed like for forever! And the first 4 or 5 times through, it was cool to see them all excited and singing loudly. It obviously meant something to a lot of these people!
But after a while it got old…and I disconnected from the singing, and focused on the musicians, then, looked around the church, then started to daydream, and maybe escaped to the restroom.
There was nothing there for me, and I don’t think anyone would have noticed I wasn’t there.
That is what sin is like, the sin that entered the world from Adam. It kills us off, separating us from the Lord, and from others. It’s as if they are speaking another language, and what is enjoyable to them, is empty to us. That frustrates us even more, and we wander off, separated from all that is good…
And that death is a foretaste of eternal death—the empty, hollow life that is hell….
It’s like being out in the low desert in the midst of summer, as wind sweeps blazing hot sand across the land, creating an unquenchable thirst in land and beast and man. For life is not capable of being sustained, never mind gathered and harvested.
There is no hope to escape that emptiness, that loneliness, or so it seems…
2. The New Life
In another lifeless situation, God provided life where it could not have been.
This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. Romans 4:17 (NLT2)
And that is what happened the morning of the Resurrection, where there was no life in the crucified, spear pierced body of Jesus, from death came life.
He power of the grave, of death was shattered.
The separation thought to be permanent was made erased with the flash of light, as Jesus defeated death. As Jesus lived, but had already paid for our separation. His life would give a way for us to come to life, to know the joy, to be able to sing with meaning.
Only God can erase all that spiritually kills us, and wiukd end with our physical and eternal death as well. Only God can bring us to life again. Only God can include us in the great harvest of souls that have risen from the dead, both spiritually, and one day physically.
He did this by uniting us to Christ’s death and His resurrection…We are made new, complete, and in God’s eyes are His children, without sin. We become part of those “sheaves”, a part of the people of God, all who trust in Him and depend on His promise.
This is why we come to church, to celebrate this work of God, it is why we sing and pray and read the Bible, It is why we ask questions when we don’t know what a word means, or how a song fits in…. for it all testifies to the work God is doing in us.
And knowing that, that the power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is at work in us, we enter into God’s peace, a peace far beyond our Logic and reason, for we dwell in our risen Lord, Jesus the Messiah! Amen!
Do They Know His Attitude Towards Them?
Thoughts on the One, Holy, catholic and Apostolic Church.
These three articles of the Creed, therefore, separate and distinguish us Christians from all other people on earth. All who are outside this Christian people, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites—even though they believe in and worship only the one, true God—nevertheless do not know what his attitude is toward them. They cannot be confident of his love and blessing, and therefore they remain in eternal wrath and condemnation. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and, besides, they are not illuminated and blessed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.[1]
But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ’s body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.[2]
It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.[3]
The irony was not lost on me, within an hour of having breakfast and a great discussion on our faith and the Lord’s Supper with a very devout Catholic Priest who I’ve known for a decade, and a Nazarene pastor who I met that morning, I was called a heretic by a catholic apologist on social media, and a similar label by another self-appointed theologian who claimed to be a confessional Lutheran.
In some very important ways, I am separated in my doctrine and practice from three of the four people. Serious divisions, one that would necessitate great care, especially when it comes to the sacraments, and how we see grace applied to our people.
But the first two, I would not hesitate to say are my brothers in Christ, nor would they hesitate to return that identification. We share something more important than doctrine, we share a dependence on Christ and the work He has promised to do in our lives. I see that faith, and realize that Vatican II has a point – none of of us are deprived of the justification by faith in Christ’s work–applied in Baptism. That is the same concern as Luther – to know we can depend on Jesus
Luther seems to agree–for he acknowledges the difference between an attempt to worship God, and knowing God’s attitude toward us. I am sure my two brothers know this! I have heard one preach, and talking to the other, I am sure that is part of his message as well. That dependence on Jesus sees them moved from the ranks for false Christians, Heathens, Turks etc. That doesn’t blind me (or them) to the significant difference in how we see Jesus working, or how we should respond to it.
And there is the core of the position – salvation not based on the sign in front of the church, but on the Lord we cry out to, confidently, to have mercy on us.
[1] Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism” Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (p. 440). Fortress Press.
[2] Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio. In Vatican II Documents. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
[3] Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio. In Vatican II Documents. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
God will not forget….and why that is good!!!
Thoughts that carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross…
“In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.’ ”” (Leviticus 26:44–45, NET)
581 How humbly and simply the evangelists relate incidents that show up the weak and wavering faith of the Apostles! This is to keep you and me from giving up the hope of some day achieving the strong and unshakeable faith that those same Apostle s had later.
They were the chosen ones, the holy nation of Israel, and yet they turned their back on God and all He provided for them! They worshipped false gods, ones that promised wealth, power, sexual satisfaction–they chose the brokenness of idolatry, and all its false promises.
They are taken into bondage, the direct cause of their sin, and one would imaging God would write them off, and leave them to deal with the consequences of their actions, telling them that He and all the prophets “told you so!”
Leviticus, of all books, the book written as a manual for priests, tells of a God who is not like that, this is the God that doesn’t forget His promises, Hlove and devotion to His family, His people. This book designed to ensure doctrinal integrity and proper worship gives a picture of loyalty and faithfulness to a promise to them. As it refers to the rescue from Egypt it infers that God will rescue them from their captivity, again.
As He will rescue the Apostles,
and us.
That is the reason we see Thomas’ doubt, and James and John’s competitive temper, and Peter’s rash, unfiltered nature. It’s the reason Paul will share his despair in Romans 7, and His inability to deal with physical limitations in his letter to the holy, broken-yet-healing people in Corinth.
SO we will know this part of the nature of God, the one who desires to be our God, our Protector and Healer. So we will begin to understand wonderful words like mercy, grace, redemption, restoration…
SO we will know hope and that our faith will be based in the faithfulness of our Lord.
The one who remember us, and went to the cross… for us…
Rejoice my friends, and find rest in the promises
——–
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Way (p. 124). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Grace Revealed, Glory Revealed! A Christmas Eve sermon on Titus 2:11-14
Grace Revealed, Glory Revealed!
Titus 2:11-14
† In His Name †
May you always rejoice in the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ the way a six year old rejoices over the Christmas presents found in their stockings!
Intro: the glories of young Christmas
Most everyone I know has a Christmas from their childhood that they remember for certain present, or group of presents. Sometimes it is something big like a toboggan, other times it something we didn’t like, except at Christmas, like those old lifesaver books with 10 whole rolls of lifesavers in them.
Maybe its not your childhood, but your children opening the presents, that the memory is so precious that you want every Christmas to be like that! Where the joy is so prevalent that you almost match the angels and shepherds singing for joy!
Sometimes as we grow older, we get more cynical about Christmas, Bob Bennett sang his lighthearted song, “Christmas for cynics, like me” the other night, and I realized sometimes I am the old ground, a match for any Scrooge, and even act like the grinch, desiring to steal other people’s joy as well as my own.
What steals that grace
There was one mem family who used to ruin Christmas for the others, well at least he tried to for his older brother. You see, mom and dad mostly got us the same presents. So if one of us got underwear and a shirt, the other got one, maybe a different colour but the same pattern and style. If one of us got a cassette player, so did the other.. So what the younger brother did was he found ways to determine what his brother got, and then he would know.
But he might leave enough evid4ence to show the package was tampered with…and since he always got in trouble, they never suspected the younger, more intelligent child, and perhaps geekier looking one to have done ANYTHING wrong.
We all have Satan playing a similar role in our lives, as we are tricked into doing things wrong, as we fall into temptation and evil. That is why Paul wrote Titus, 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures.”
Note he didn’t write this to unbelievers, but believers, which means that some believers have problems with godless living and sinful pleasure! If that is you, take courage, there is hope.
We’ve already admitted we need to be healed from sin, we need the help that came and was laid in a manger, born of a young virgin girl,
The glory lit up the skies that night, as His star pointed to His birth, as the grace of God came and dwelt with us, so that we could know that God could and wanted to restore each of us as His child.
That is what this night is about =-revealing the incredible grace of God, the grace the archangel testified to when he said “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Well pleased being another way of saying those who receive grace from God, those whom are restored from the havoc sin causes in their life.
This is what Christmas is all about…
That God came to us, determined to live with us. Who came to restore what sin had stolen, to pay for the punishment that sin deserved.
That wonderful day!
In Lord of the Rings, Gandalf learned that hobbits have a second breakfast, (and a second lunch and so on) We have a second Christmas—the day Paul refers to as that wonderful day, that glorious day when the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. The day oif the second coming, the second gathering of Jesus, of His people.
That is the day we await for now, the return of the Messiah, when the glory of God is revealed, not just in Jesus, but it is shared with us.
Because He came once, and as Paul writes, “14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds. Titus 2:14 (NLT2)
And I pray hoping for that day, brings you the excitement of a 6 year old, waiting to see what they got for Christmas… time a million.
AMEN!
How to Not Become a Legalist…
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to The Cross
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”” (Matthew 15:8–9, NET)
“My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for they will provide a long and full life, and they will add well-being to you.” (Proverbs 3:1–2, NET)
Indeed, in this great and awesome mystery of the cross, the charisms of graces, the merits of virtue, and the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge are concealed in such profound depths as to be hidden from the wise and the prudent of this world. But it is revealed in such fullness to the little one of Christ, that in his whole life he followed nothing except the footsteps of the cross, he tasted nothing except the sweetness of the cross, and he preached nothing except the glory of the cross. In the beginning of his conversion he could truly say with the Apostle: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Gal 6:14].
“Belief is always consequent upon the encounter with the Source of the grace of faith. Therefore Christians do not worship because they believe. They believe because the One in whose gift faith lies is regularly met in the act of communal worship—not because the assembly conjures up God, but because the initiative lies with the God who has promised to be there always.
As I read the quote from Matthew, my heart and mind wanted to weaponise it, it pointed out those I encounter who have created “laws of men” regarding the Liturgy, or regarding the “viability” of small churches, or any of a thousand other pet peeves I would outlaw.
And then it hit me, I was creating my own set of laws. I was as guilty as those I judge! (I might justify myself – but even so…) I know I have this ability, it is part of my make-up, part of my humanity, part of my personal warping of justice and righteousness. As I realize that, it sucks out of me some of the harsh judgment and wrath I want to spill out.
I want to focus, as Proverbs advises, on the commandments of God, to not forget what God teaches us, to treasure (the root word of keep) the commandments, and the relationship defined by the Covenant God has made with us.
But I don’t alway do that – and I have to try… but how?
Francis provides the simplistic attitude, to focus on the cross, to walk towards it, to savor it as we would a good meal, to be so enraptured by the cross, that nothing else, I realize, is worth my time – save connecting others to it.
It is at that cross that I encounter my Jesus, that I start to experience His love in all its vast dimension-less measure. It is there in the cross I find hope, I find a reason to have faith and depend on God, it is there I find the healing from the brokenness that dominates my life.
It is there I find the grace to deal with other broken Pharisees, Saducees, God-deniers, and unbelievers.
It is there that I encounter the God whom I will worship – and then learn to more about the God who loves me enough to invade my brokenness, and carry me to the cross, to rise with Him…
God is with us, here at the Cross, this is where we learn to live and worship, and know the Lord who loves us!
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (p. 332). New City Press.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 7). Emmaus Academic.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Plan Executed! (Literally)A sermon on Hebrews 9:24-28
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan Executed! (Literally)
Hebrews 9:24-28
† Jesus-Son-Savior †
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus help you understand the depth of their plan to deliver you to the freedom of Heaven!
Intro: Don’t ask if you don’t want to know!
Imagine if you were a leader, and in your possession came all your competition’s papers. Included in that collection were letters from your own people, who were planning to betray you. How would you handle it?
That very thing happened to Julius Caesar, as he defeated general Pompey. Inside the chest full of documents there were letters from some of the closest people to him, who were seeking to overthrow him.
Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher and historian, included this part of the story, “if Caesar had read those letters it is probable that he would have been so angry with many of his friends that he would have put them to death for playing him false. Fearing this, he magnanimously took the box and destroyed it without reading a single line.” [i]
It has been said that what you don’t know can hurt you!
Those were the men who would later, on what became to be known as the Ides of March, stab Julius Caesar was literally stabbed in the back by his friends who had written the letters…
The letters he did not read, identifying his betrayers, the ones who planned his death…
Caeser sacrificed his own life, because he didn’t want to face his betrayers.
Our Lord Jesus was also sacrificed by people he loved… the difference is that He knew it was coming, had known for millennia…
For He not only knew their plan, He was the Father’s plan, the plan for our future and hope!
Law – God knew the content of your life
In our reading from Hebrews this morning, there is a comparison between the Jewish High Priest and Jesus, between the Temple’s holy of Holies and the presence God’s throne in heave.
The Holy of Holies is a picture of the heavenly throne where God the Father dwells. The place where the offering is brought to make payment for our sin, the difference.
The place described as the “place made with human hands,” that is either the Tabernacle or its replacement the temple, was only a temporary fix, the offering having to made, as John writes, “like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.”
Why did God provide this way of Old Testament sacrifice?
For the same reason He had a plan: Jesus.
Because unlike Julius Caesar, had read the record, and knew every sin, every bit of work we’ve done to rebel from God and every thought where we decided we know more than God.
God’s read the letters of your life, even the darkest ones…
He knows, He knew those sins, even before we committed them.
Gospel – One final death….
Caesar didn’t want to know his enemies and what they were doing. He sacrificed his own life for blissful ignorance.
God wanted to know His enemies, for only then could He execute His Plan. For His Plan, Jesus, was to be the sacrifice offered to save their lives. That is why the title of this message is – The Plan Executed – Literally. He was the Plan and He was executed for us!
Hear it again from John the apostle,
“Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.”
No sacrifice every year, just Jesus, God’s plan—His only plan from before the foundation of the world to save us, the Plan – had to be executed.
That was what the tabernacle and the Temple pointed to, every sacrifice of every type, that there would be a final sacrifice that would take away our sins.
Domino’s Delivers
So complete a sacrifice, that when Jesus returns, there will be no longer be any need to deal with sin, it was finished off, its power to condemn us stripped away,
Salvation is Greek actually means to deliver. It is not only salvation from sin, but salvation to a new state of life! If you have a pizza delivered, or food from Grubhub, it is only part of the process to pick up the food at the restaurant—there has to be a delivery.
We have to realize that people aren’t just delivered from sin—they are delivered into the presence of God, where they are welcome. Now as the Holy Spirit takes us residence in us—as promised in our Baptism.
Eternally as one day we are welcomed into heaven!
And that is all He comes back to do, the judgment is already secure because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. So we have been saved from and we await being saved to…
Because the Plan was executed for us.
And because of that – we dwell in the peace of God which is beyond all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus! AMEN!
[i] Spurgeon, C. (2017). 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon (E. Ritzema & L. Smoyer, Eds.). Lexham Press.
Come and See What We Treasure! The God Who Comes Near! Deut. 4:1-2,6-9
Come and See What We Treasure!
The God Who Comes Near!
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
† In Jesus Name †
Blessing
May the grace and mercy of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help your treasure the fact that you dwell in the very presence of God, and will, forever!
Who Do You Hear?
Have you ever been in a situation where you were talking to someone, and you didn’t quite hear what they said?
When you look at them, you realize that they know you lost track of the conversation, and they know you realize that they know?
Do you politely ask them to repeat themselves? Do you just pretend you know what they were talking about? Do you hope that they somehow say something that gives you some clue as to what they are talking about, and the importance of it?
Have you been listening to what I am talking about?
What did I just say?
Hmmmmm! (does Mandarin have a thought like “Hmmmm”)
In the passage this morning, God is talking through Moses to Israel about the relationship He wants to have with them, and the most incredible blessing that would provide a blessing—not just to the people of Israel of that day, and their descendants—but to all who would become part of the family of God.
Decrees and Regulations!
What it seems the descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob need to listen to, are the decrees and regulations that they are about to learn about. We aren’t just supposed to hear them, but not add or subtract from them. We just have to obey and treasure them.
The challenge is that most people in the world really don’t like being told what they are supposed to do and what they aren’t supposed to do. You want proof? Just watch the speed of cars out on the street when children are being dropped off here and across the street Monday through Friday! You don’t even need to look to the street—just try standing out in the parking lot with a slow sign! If you aren’t run over cussed at, you will understand that people don’t like obey the decrees and regulations they hear or read in the scriptures!
“Love your neighbor!
“Maybe?”
“Honor your father and mother?”
“Uh… do I have to?”
“Make disciples of all ethnicities?”
“God, what did you just say?”
“love your enemies”
“…..”
Hmmmmm!
Israel, even with reminders of the Tabernacle and Temple, with the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire, struggled to keep what they saw as the rules God forced on them.
That’s going to be the problem—one that continues even in our day. We see God’s decrees as His rules, rather than what it is… and the regulations we see as the judgment God makes on those who fail to live life in the way God advises—and therefore live as those facing condemnation.
We still feel that way today sometimes – that either God has condemned us, or we take care of that for Him, condemning people, and condemning ourselves.
Because we didn’t listen, and we didn’t hear…
You see, the word decree is from the Hebrew word “engraved” as in “engraved in stone.” Engraved in stone like the Decalogue – the 10 words, or as often translated, “the 10 Commandments.”
Where the first thing engraved is, “Anokiy YHWH ka Elohe aser hose ti’mi” translated “I am the LORD your God who rescued you,”
When we need to hear God speak of our relationship, the first thing we need to hear, is that
“I am the LORD your God who rescued you!”
Wisdom!
That is why Deuteronomy goes one to say…” When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ 7 For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? 8 And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today?
They nations understood what the primary decree was—and the relationship it established between God and His people – the people through whom the salvation of all nations would come, as Jesus saved them.
That’s how they go from the decrees to the fact that God came near to His people when they call on Him. They understand the decree starts with the fact the God declared Himself to be their God—for He was involved in their lives
As He is in ours.
He calls us to hear this, this intimate relationship He establishes with His people whom He loves. That was what was decreed, that was what the regulations, the judgments of God are based on—even in the Old Testament, as God promised to always forgive and restore His people.
That is what the Mosaic Covenant promised, it is what the tabernacle pointed to, it’s what is found over and over in the prayers as the Temple was dedicated, when Solomon voiced, “34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them…” 1 Kings 8:34 (NLT2)
And that is fulfilled at the cross, as Jesus looks down at us, not condescendingly, but full of love, and tells the Father to “forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Remember this (and pass it on!)
That is why the passage ends with these words: “But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.”
never forget….
Never forget…
23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NLT2)
This is how we listen carefully, how we see what those who saw God come near the people of Israel saw – that we have “a God as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on Him.”
Amen!
