Blog Archives
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.
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.
What Are You Doing Here? A sermon on 1 Kings 19:9b-21 from COncordia
God, who am I?
What Are You Doing Here?
1 Kings 19:9b-21
† In Jesus’ Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus help you know why you are where you are!
As the people of God, we’ve been given a huge task. It’s called the great commission – the responsibility to help people becoming those who follow, who walk with Jesus. Part of that Commission is that we get to teach people to treasure what God has commanded, how they are to live their lives with him!
In teaching them to treasure this life God has given us, there is an important distinction that is made… that has to be understood.
Do we place greater emphasis on doing what is right, or on why we do what we do?
I mean we’ve all done the right things for the wrong reasons, right?
And have we done the wrong things for the right reasons?
Which is better?
Which do you think you get more blame for, take more heat for?
But what if you do the right thing for the wrong reason, and everybody thinks what you did was wrong – that just by doing what you did, you sinned, without any consideration for why you did it.
You see, most people judge Elijah’s actions in the Old Testament reading as wrong…. and in doing so, we miss the work of God in Elijah’s life, a work that we desperately need in ours.
Was Elijah a Coward.
When I read this passage when I was younger, and when I heard pastors preach on it, the usual observation about Elijah was he was weak, that he should have stayed and battled Jezebel and her armies.
After all, he had, well God had through him, toasted up 450 priests of Ba’al and defeated! He was on a winning streak of winning streaks, able to mock his opponents without mercy. Hey – your idols not answering your prayers? Maybe your god Ba’al is sleeping, or maybe he’s on vacation, or maybe he’s in the restroom?
And after the victory, instead of having a parade, instead of celebrating freeing God people, he runs away and hides… in cave! And then he whines, oh does he whine, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
Remember a moment ago, when I talked about doing the right thing for the wrong reason?
I think Elijah did exactly what he needed to be doing. I think he needed to hide in that cave and rest.
But the way that He answered God’s question, shows where he sinned.
It wasn’t in the running and hiding and resting – we all need to do that.
But hear what God asked him….
“What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Not why are you here… not what caused you to be here. But what are you doing, here?
And this is where Elijah sin is revealed…
He didn’t know why he was there…..
You see, he couldn’t tie what he knew intellectually and instinctively, to the reality of his situation.
He ran to escape, not to find a refuge, not to find sanctuary, not to find a fortress where he couuld be safe, and heal.
“I’m here because they are evil, I am here because they didn’t listen when I told them “the Lord is with you!” in fact…
Wait Elijah, not what caused you to be here…. What are you doing here?
Through the windstorm, through earthquake, through the fire…and Elijah still didn’t know…
Right action – wrong reason – no reason, and that is where he sinned…
That is where we sin.
The sin isn’t that we shouldn’t run away… the sin is that we don’t know what we are to do when it is time to run. We run an hid and whine just like Elijah did, forgetting we dwell in the presence of an alimighty, all-powerful, all-wise, God who loves us. And had promised to make everything work together for our good.
What Was He Supposed to be doing there?
So what was Elijah supposed to being there?
We heard in in Luther’s most famous hymn, out of the 1000s he wrote, the one we all know – the one that starts,
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing!
Our helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing!
Elijah was provided for, all along the journey. Birds brought him food, he found places to rest. He didn’t realize it, but he was never alone on the journey, he ever was talking to God, when God told him to go outside, to find God.
Typical guy, oblivious to everything going on around him!
God never failed him, no matter how bad the flood, no matter how overwhelming the flood of what ails and torments us, we find our refuge in the love and care of God.
This is the nature of the cross, and the resurrection.
I saw that at the convention, when Jim couldn’t help himself—and spoke up “and therefore” when one of the speakers said “Alleluia! He is Risen!” I saw it again, as I told one of Elizabeth’s teachers about how we got to be part of Edith’s being claimed as one of Jesus’ family in baptism – and he brought it up in his presentation this day – an example of what it meant, not to be educated as a Lutheran, but to live and share your hope in Jesus.
What are you doing here?
Spending time with my heavenly Father, with Jesus Christ, my brother, being comforted and healed by the Holy Spirit.
The great thing—that even as Elijah forgot this, God was at work doing it!
We might forget—but He doesn’t.
When it’s time, when Elijah remembers who he is—the one God loves—it is time to get back to the mission – to train up another generation of believers, of leaders, of those who worship and are thankful to God—willing to sacrifice their lives, as we have been, when we don’t need to run away and let God be God…
And then it is time to get back to work, sharing the love of God with people who are so broken, they don’t even realize how broken they are. Who have been turned inside out and ravaged by sin. Not only do we bring them news of God’s love, but we prepare the next generation to do so…
For we know why we are here, we know why we run to the Father…and fall on His grace… AMEN!
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!
The Greatest Challenges Revealed, and Crushed: The Nature of the Lord’s Supper.
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to His cross.
“Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must in fact be divisions among you, so that those of you who are approved may be evident.Now when you come together at the same place, you are not really eating the Lord’s Supper.” (1 Corinthians 11:17–20, NET)
If the Sacrament of the Altar occupies such a central position in the Church, it is easily understood why it has become time and again the object of dissension and controversy. Every disease of the Church becomes manifest at the Lord’s Table….
Just as the Church of Christ becomes conscious of its own nature as it gathers around the Lord’s Table, so its weaknesses, errors, and sins also become manifest on that occasion.
It has been said by scientists that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As a theologian, I know this not to be true. There are cases where the reaction is significantly over the top of the original action.
If it wasn’t this way, being a pastor would be worthless, and ministry would be impossible.
I believe Sasse was right – that at the Lord’s Supper dissension and division become manifest most clearly. It is there that diseased and divided churches find no where to hide their brokenness.
I am not just talking about theological disagreements about the Lord’s Supper, fro even in those churches who do not recognize the miracle and mystery, divisions become so much clearer at the Altar. For the hope of healing isn’t seen, there is just contention, and avoidance. (this is why sharing/passing the peace once came after the words of institution and still does). And the lack of intimacy within the family of God leads to distancing ourselves from God.
Anecdotal stories abound about this – from the situation in Corinth to those who time their approach to the altar so as not to be close to those they are divided from–something that may be evident to others in the church.
If there is room for division- if that is the observed action at the Lord’s Supper, how much greater is the reaction – the invasion of the Lord and His mercy? To look upon and receive the Body sacrificed for us, and the Blood shed for the forgiveness of all our sin. To think and dwell on this mystery brings healing of damaged emotions and damaged relationships – this too is the work of the Holy Spirit–the comforter. It is the power of the gospel which saves and joins us all together, and breaks down the differences.
This isn’t magic, or some medicinal nature. It is because of the promise–the forgiveness of sins, both of me and my adversary. FOr if God is communing with one, He is communing with the other. And what was once coming together for worse (judgment in fact) is now coming together unified in Christ.
For what division, what way of arguing is worth the companionship and communion of God?
These divisions, the broken relationships, even when based on errors need God’s intervention, His love and mercy to flood our hearts (ours – as in everyone together). It is then, based on His word, that we will find things healing, being reconciled and redeemed to Him.
This is our God. Amen
Sasse, H. (2001). This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (p. 3). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Plan Reveals Who We Are! A Sermon on 1 John 3:1-3
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan Reveals Who We Are
1 John 3:1-3
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to accept that you are His child and that you are pure and holy!
I am Your Father!
On Friday, I was over at the retreat Bob was heading up, with the purpose of meeting the team, and giving a 20 minute talk about what it meant to be friends with God.
The format that they gave me required some pretty deep thought about my identity and who I was, and what I’ve went through in life. The basic idea – was that God was there, in the midst of the trauma, in the midst of it all…
Jesus no longer called us slaves or servants, He calls us His friends.
Which means something we can hear and know with our minds, but it will take a lifetime to really, really understand with out heart and our soul…
Think about how long it took Luke Skywalker to comprehend that Darth Vader was his dad—no I have a better illustration, a real one. Rather than being a reunion with a dad, it was one with a mother, my birth mom. (and it didn’t cost me my hand!)
In July of 2006, at 10:16 in the lobby of a casino in Vegas, I met the lady who gave birth to me 41 years before. It was an awkward, confusing, joyful, amazing time as we gave each other a hug and talked for 4 or 5 hours.
Over the next few days, I learned a lot, had a number of questions answered that gave me insight into who I am, and oddly enough, enhanced the other relationships I have in my life, including those with my adopted parents.
My point is simple here… whether we are talking about Jesus calling us his brothers, or the Father calling us His sons and daughters, there is a lot to think through, a lot to understand this truth here in our head, and then it boil in our hearts and souls as this truth begins to affect out life.
The world can’t help us! They have it all wrong!
The first challenge to this, the transforming truth comes from the world. The Apostle John describes it with these words. “But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”
I first read this with a sense that the people of this world were antagonisticly evil, that they were opposed to us so viciously, and so violently because they didn’t like God, and therefore they didn’t like us.
But then I thought of my birth mom and my conversation, finding out that our families ate at the same restaurant on Sundays, that her mom was a nurse where I often was a patient, and fifty other times and places where we could have been a couple of feet apart.
But we didn’t know…
In the same way, people don’t understand what it means to be a Christian and child of God, because even though they are close. They don’t see a God who loves us as a good Father loves His children, but instead they see God as a Darth Vader type character, who will cut anyone in half, if they don’t do what He expects.
Using our theme for October and November, they didn’t know the plans God has for them, they didn’t even have a clue about God’s love, so they are without a future and a hope, which is why sin doesn’t bother them in the same way as it does us.
Or the way it should bother us…
John wrote, “3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
If you don’t know God’s plan, if you don’t understand the relationship we have with God, then you can’t understand the doctrines affecting holiness, the doctrine of having a pure, unmarred, unmarked by sin.
If the relationship matters, even if we don’t comprehend it completely, then our attitude toward sin is different. We realize the division sin causes in the relationship with God, and we dread the consequences.
And when we are thinking properly, we communicate about sin that way – talking of being saved from it and wanting people saved from it, rather than being in bondage to it and the condemnation it carries with it.
The love of a parent
That is why it is so essential to see God as our heavenly Father, or even better, as our Abba – our daddy. The one who cares for us so much that He sent His one and only begotten Son Jesus, to join with us.
Martin Luther described this passage with these words, As if he were what we are, he makes whatever concerns us to concern him as well, and even more than it does us. In turn we so care for Christ, as if we were what he is, which indeed we shall finally be—we shall be conformed to his likeness. As St. John says, “We know that when he shall be revealed we shall be like him” [1 John 3:2]. So deep and complete is the fellowship of Christ and all the saints with us. Thus our sins assail him, while his righteousness protects us. For the union makes all things common, until at last Christ completely destroys sin in us and makes us like himself, at the Last Day. Likewise by the same love we are to be united with our neighbors, we in them and they in us.[1]
This was God’s plan, to reveal to us in Christ what the transformation, that’s what God’s plan has always been, to make us like Jesus… to unite us to our Dad, God the Father, and all our siblings AMEN!
———
[1] Luther, M. (2012). Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (W. R. Russell & T. F. Lull, Eds.; Third Edition, pp. 190–191). Fortress Press.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Wisest Plan, with the greatest result! A Concordia Sermon on Matthew 11:12-19
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Wisest Plan, with the greatest result!
Matthew 11:12-19
† In Jesus Name! †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you that His plan intended to, and always has included you, and those around you!
Trickle up, or Trickle down Ministry
As long as there have been missionaries, as long as churches have been planted, or replanted in a communities, there has been a question that has been discussed and discussed – who do we target our ministry to?
In some countries, the tactic was to focus the reach on those with the most influence, the scholars, the rich, the influential people in the world. That is still a popular way to do it, even in our church. And so money and the “best” pastors are sent into the rich areas to plant new churches, with the intent that they can eventually develop ministries to those less… well… just less.
The other tactic most readily used was to send the missionaries to the inner cities and poorer remote communities, to the people that were presumed to have the greatest need for hope in this life. Money would poor in, to develop education and like skills training.
In both cases, the primary goal is revealing God’s love in Christ to these people. They get the idea heard in Colossians, 15
“… God planned to reconcile in his own person, as it were, everything on earth and everything in Heaven by virtue of the sacrifice of the cross.” Colossians 1 (Phillips NT)
But the strategy of how to reveal this to a new community, or a new nation, or reach out with it often boiled down to this – Who do we start with—the top of society, or the bottom?
Which is God’s plan? What if neither is?
What does today’s gospel reading say about this,
And can we take a passage like today, and draw a firm conclusion from it?
More importantly, can we use that plan here, at Concordia?
For we need to continue to reach out – and not just add one or two people a year… for their sake – we need to reach out to everyone….so they dwell I heaven.
But where do we start this time?
How do we know if they are “ready”
As we look at the gospel reading this morning, we see the people and leaders of Israel that are talking to Jesus aren’t quite ready for the message that God has come to them, to love them. Let’s listen to it again!
16 “To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, 17 ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.” Matthew 11:16-19 (NLT2)
It sounds a lot like the generations we deal with today!
We try to reach them this way, they don’t respond, we try to reach them with another tactic, and they still don’t respond. Indeed, we get blasted for ministering both ways!
There are going to be people that aren’t ready, that either don’t want to grieve over the depth of their sin, or rejoice over the lifting of the burdens that sinning brings to consume us. They didn’t want to hear John’s message of repentance, or Jesus’ message of what creates a repentant spirit – the message of grace and forgiveness.
These people would be eventually ready to repent, but they would need a few things first.
Wisely Discerning God’s Plan!
If we look at who did respond to Jesus in this passage, it was not one demographic exclusively. Let’s hear it again,
19 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
Tax Collectors were among the richest folk in the land, those identified as sinners, were among the poorest, as their families were forced to abandon them to their fate.
What they had in common?
They were the outcasts, those whose lives were undeniably broken. Those who sin could not be denied, for relationships with loved ones and entire communities were sacrificed at the altar of self, to gain the sin that so wanted to entrap them—and it had!
They knew this, they knew the despair, they knew the violence that sin did to establish someone it its grip. They were broken – from Zaccheaus to the women caught in adultery; from the Gadarene Demoniac to the Centurion whose servant was ill. From the lepers to the man let down through the roof that Jesus declared forgiven before he told him to get up, to all the other broken people like Peter and Paul
And you and I!
This is the wisest plan of God, with the greatest plan—to have Jesus Christ, the Son of God, come into the lives of the broken, no matter rich or poor, no matter famous or infamous or abandoned, to heal and restore us. To grieve with us over our broken lives and world, and to rejoice with us as He forgives and heals those we bring to Him.
That was what Marilyn saw so many years ago, that define who we are so well, and why so many people need to know we are here… for we fit God’s plan, as we are the place where broken people find healing and hope in Jesus, while helping others heal.
The wisest of plans with the greatest result. AMEN!
Lord, Don’t Ask Me That….
Thoughts which drive me to Jesus, and to the Cross
6 When Jesus saw the man and knew that he had been sick for such a long time, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be well?”
7 The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the pool when the water starts moving. While I am coming to the water, someone else always gets in before me.”
8 Then Jesus said, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was well; he picked up his mat and began to walk. John 5:6–9. NCV
He fills our souls with hope,
That we shall yet arise
To dwell with Him in realms of bliss—
In mansions of the skies;
There through eternity to raise
The sacrifice of endless praise.
828 Have you ever thought how you would prepare yourself to receive Our Lord if you could go to Communion only once in your life? We must be thankful to God that he makes it so easy for us to come to him: but we should show our gratitude by preparing ourselves very well to receive him.
I have heard many a sermon, and more than a few lectures in pastoral theology about the question Jesus asks the man poolside in Siloam. Most of the time it is to make the point that “most” people are comfortable in their brokenness. It doesn’t matter if the issue is physical or spiritual–the point the preacher/professor is trying to make is that all people don’t want it, that all people will not have the desire to resolve the issue.
As someone who has battled physical and spiritual issues all my life, I am revolted by that kind of talk. For the despair that steals desire puts that desire often beyond my reach–sometimes far beyond my reach. If I mention that, some doubt my faith, some doubt my prognosis, and some simply discount me and treat me like I am worthless, already dead. Make no mistake, Jesus knew the answer – as he knew the man’s capabilities, and the stage of burnout he was in at the time.
I am willing to write this because I have also preached those sermons, I have given those lectures, and I regret it.
St. Josemaria’s words I read this morning, made me think of the one thing I can do – I can celebrate God’s presence in the Eucharist, in the Lord’s Supper. For there, just as in life, He comes to us, He nourishes us, He forgives and comforts us. And it is not only once, it can be weekly, even daily! While I appreciate St Josemaria’s words on how we come, with reverent expectation, it is He who comes to us there, to minister to us. That is the preparation we need – to realize how much we need Him–and to go tto the sanctuary, to go to the altar, expecting His work to be done there… in our lives.
God knows our weakness, our brokenness, the level of burnout and hopeless that paralyzes us… and He comes and asks – knowing the answer. He then brings healing into our lives…as He takes our burdens on himself.
It is there we rise from the lives were we thought we had no assistance. It is from there, burnt out, broken, without hope we are able to rise and take up our mat. Oddly enough, the man will try and minister to those who think they are well! (that is just a seed being planted – don’t assume it a failure!)
It is there – as Christ comes to us…that we find healing. If you can’t make it to church, let the leaders of the church bring the church to you. Jesus will be there… ready for you…even if you think you aren’t ready for His healing.
Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1853, p. 144.
Escrivá, Josemaría. The Forge . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Search for Freedom’s Necessary Question: From What?
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross!
51 God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because you are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs. 2 Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again. Ps 51:1– 2. NCV
We know in how many places it (the church and the smallest unit if it – the family) has been torn already; we know how many predatory fish have worked with might and main to tear it to pieces, allegedly in order to free people from their imprisonment in it. But it would be an empty freedom into which they would sink: the freedom of death, of loneliness, of the darkness that comes when truth is lost. It would be a liberation from the Kingdom of justice, love, and peace—from that new dimension into which the net is drawing us.
Defend and protect me against the wiles and deceptions of the evil one and all his power, and against the perversity of his servants, that their pride, hypocrisy and unrighteousness may not obtain over me nor bring harm upon me. Teach me to watch and pray, lest I enter into temptation, and grant me to hear with mine ears and see with mine eyes. For Thine, O Lord, is the glory, Thou only Source of all Grace
At the beginning of the United States of America, freedom was sought. Originally from outrageous taxes, but then a large group of other things were laid out as well. Freedom for religion, freedom of speech, freedom from injustice and others the Bill of Rights well defines what they sought. Over time, more calls for freedom were heard, and acted upon.
In my childhood, the cries for freedom once again were heard across the land, as the freedoms won in the civil war, had not yet become reality for many. Again, these were defined in various documents, such as the Civil Rights Act, and various court decisions.
We’ve learned to cry for freedom well, but we do not awlays engage wisdom and logic, asking the one critical question that needs to be asked.
From what do we want freedom from?
In far too many cases, we want freedoms that have unintended consequences that cause more pain and heartache. Some of these are religious freedoms, or freedom from religion. Free speech is awesome, until it allows for gossip and slander which hurts reputations, and causes damage to relationships. Sexual Freedom was so wanted, yet the damage it has done to marriage – even to those who are faithful once married, is beyond explanation. As a pastor,
As a pastor, I’ve helped many people heal from brokenness caused by the pursuit of freedoms that are ill-advised. For there are some that talk of casting off all bonds, all things that restrict us in any way, that freedom may take its course. They would rip the net God has established in the church, not realizing that it is primarily a safety net, to be there when a fall is immanent. That net draws us closer to Jesus, the course of our healing, the refuge we need, when all seems broken.
For His word is the answer to the Psalmist’s prayer mercy, it is the answer to the cry for our brokenness to be dealt with, for us to be restored. His word is the hope we have, when faced with temptation, when faced with decisions that could result in major trauma, to ourselves and to others.
And as such, it brings about the greatest of freedoms, the freedom from guilt and shame, the freedom to love, the freedom to know that we are the children of God, welcome in His presence, and that we can ask Him to help us with any burden, any situation.
This is the one freedom we cannot give up, the freedom found in our baptism, and reignited every time we commune, eating and drinking the blood of Christ. The freedom from sin and brokenness, won for us as Jesus gave up His freedom, and came and was born of Mary, and loved and died for us.
This is our hope for this Lent, to cause us to think of what we need to be freed from, and to cry out to Lord who makes that freedom possible. AMEN!
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. 69–70.
Lœhe, William. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller, Wartburg Publishing House, 1914, pp. 189–90.
What Is Needed for Reconciliation and Real Peace?
Dawn at Concordia
Thoughts that draw me closer to Jesus, and His cross.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won.”29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But the man said, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.
30 So Jacob named that place Peniel, saying, “I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved.”…
3 Jacob himself went out in front of them and bowed down flat on the ground seven times as he was walking toward his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and put his arms around him and hugged him. Then Esau kissed him, and they both cried. 5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Genesis 32:28-30, 33:3-5, NCV
For the minds of these people have become stubborn. They do not hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might really understand what they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. They might really understand in their minds and come back to me and be healed.’ Matt 13:15, quoting Is. 6:9-10 NCV (emphasis mine)
The culture of individualism, consumerism, and quick fixes continues to creep into the work of the counselor whenever performance and quick results are the primary motivations. Often we get so extremely busy and preoccupied by our compulsion to quickly remedy “problems” that in reality require an unhurried transformation not only of the head but of the heart, that we grasp for the next best treatment available or hold onto tried and tested modes of intervention. Yet at the end of our therapeutic work we somehow get the sense that something is amiss and unfinished, that somehow all these theories and techniques have fallen short of responding to the soul ache that comes from a deeper, more primal place.
It is taught among us that the sacraments were instituted not only to be signs by which people might be identified outwardly as Christians, but that they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us for the purpose of awakening and strengthening our faith.
2 For this reason they require faith, and they are rightly used when they are received in faith and for the purpose of strengthening faith.
I do a bit of counseling now and then, sometimes in groups, and sometimes with individuals. Almost always, it is because of conflicts and strife, even if that is because of an internal conflict.
Having that occur more often as the holidays come near – I saw something in this morning’s devotion that I’ve overlooked before. Jacob/Israel’s dramatic change in dealing with his older brother Esau. Jacob left his homeland, fearing for his life, as he scammed his borther out of everything – his birthright, his blessing as older (and therefore chief of the tribe) son. His fear was obvious, as he sought to buy forgiveness, sending gifts on a head.
But his encounter with Jesus changed all that…he was drawn back to God, even fighting him–as stubborn as ever–refusing to submit. But that fight and blessing changed him, even as he “triumphed,” and was saved. For it was only by engaging God that this could happen, it was only then that reconciliation, true reconciliation was possible for Jacob/Israel.
That is what Jesus points to, in quoting Isaiah’s ordination warning. Only by engaging God can sin be dealt with, and the person healed. Just as the Lutheran Confessions talk of the sacraments being the place where we are healed as our trust/dependence on God is strengthened and made our foundation of life.
That is the primal place where Nolasco notes the soul’s ache originates. The healing necessary to pursue healing with others can only be seen when God’s peace is known, when He is depended upon for a deeper healing. It is there the transformation takes place – even if the transformation takes 20 years. (some of us wrestle with God longer than others!) That of course means that pastoral counselors and shepherds, and regular counselors as well as we need to be patient, and let God draw us to himself. It means trusting in the promisess given to us through His word, and through the sacraments He instituted and blesses us through.
It is not a quick fix, even though the road starts with a dramatic change of heart. That change was being caused by God for a lot longer period of time than we can see, for it was planned for from before the cross, from even before time.
But God will make it happen – He will complete the work He began in us, showing us miracles of reconciliation, miracles of healing, even as we wrestle with Him through it.
So hang on, and let the Spirit cut open your heart (see Ezekiel 36:25 and Acts 2:36-37) and bring healing…and then, rejoice for you well in a peace beyond comprehension… even though you may not always see/feel/know it.
Rolf Nolasco Jr., The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2011), 7.
Augsburg Confession – XIII The USE of the Sacraments; (emphasis mine) Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 35.
