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The Experiences of Advent Week: 1 Experience Great Joy! A sermon on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
The Experiences of Advent Week 1
Experience Great Joy!
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
† I.H.S. †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to experience joy as we enter His presence!
The Experiences of Advent.
In Matthew 13, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God with parables comparing the Kingdom to the great harvest. The first to be gathered up are the wicked, to be gathered and tossed into the fire. Then the good are gathered up, and enter into God’s presence!
Right in the middle of those parables, Jesus says this, “17 I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” Matthew 13:17 (NLT2) It echoes the thoughts of Jesus regarding Abraham, “56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad.” John 8:56 (TEV)
You think of all who waited, from Adam and Even to Abraham, to Moses and Johus who knew the promised land wasn’t real estate but a home with God; to David—whose psalms looked forward to His Lord coming, and all the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who warned taught people to prepare and long for the coming of the Messiah-Savior, to Mary and Joseph, and finally the shepherds, the first to leave everything behind them to see Jesus. And finally, we hear the words of Paul today,
“Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.”
What incredible joy they had, as they considered the coming of Jesus, of seeing people come into the presence of Jesus!
Hmmm, did anyone catch what I did there?
When would Paul enter the presence of Jesus?
So, what in the world does that have to do with preparing for Jesus’ coming to His people in Advent?
Simple, the joy of knowing you are coming into the presence of God.
Think back to the quote from Augustine…we started with…
“Let us love him, for he made these things and he is not far off,44 for he did not make them and then go away: they are from him but also in him. You know where he is, because you know where truth tastes sweet. He is most intimately present to the human heart, but the heart has strayed from him. Return to your heart, then, you wrongdoers, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him and you will stand firm, rest in him and you will find peace.”[1]
What were they experiencing prior?
I want to take a moment to think about these people who longed for and looked forward to Christ’s coming, before hearing the good news of being in the presence of a loving, merciful God.
Abraham was a businessman from Ur. Moses was a foreigner, a man wanted as a criminal, an alien who worked in the fields of his father-in-law, tending his animals. David was pretty much written off by his family, given the most menial and meaningless job in the family. We can go through them all, servants and lesser priests. This is especially true after the destruction of the Temple and the removal of the Ark of the Covenant from the people of God.
They had one thing in common: they didn’t have a hope in the world beyond the next day.
What sense does life, suffering, and brokenness make if we don’t know what comes later? How do we deal with broken sin, both your sin and your brother’s sin, if you don’t have the encouragement and comfort that comes from knowing God’s mercy and comfort?
So what were they thinking? How in despair could they have been, or what were they ignoring in their life?
Just like the world, when they are stressed and overwhelmed, dealing with guilt and sin and resentment, with anxiety. Haunted by the past, anxious about the future, unable to find peace….
Wait- that sounds like some of us, as we forget the blessings we have in Christ…
Being reminded of them is the purpose of Advent – to remind us of life before Jesus entered our lives and cause us to rejoice as we look forward to the day Advent prefigures.
What were Paul, Mary and the Shepherds thinking.. “on the way”.
The Advent journey isn’t about the time before we knew about Jesus. It’s about the time we find out about Him and are driven by the Holy Spirit into His presence. It’s the reaction of the Shepherds when the angels told them the Messiah was born.
It’s the same reaction that Paul had, as he thought of the people of the church in Thessalonika… whom the Spirit was driving into the arms of Jesus. Hear his prayer for them, which has been our benediction for the last year,
“May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen!
This is the effect of the work of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit prepares us to appear before the Father on the judgment day. It is the work we refer to as Salvation, as deliverance, a work driven by love and compassion, a work that knows what it means to come into the presence of God.
It is why Paul knew he would enter God’s presence with great joy, because of the work he witnessed in the lives of people, as He spoke and wrote to them—telling them about how God would cause them to love each other, strengthen our faith, set us apart as His kids—all looking to the day that Christ rejoiced He would bring about, as He died on the cross – to make sure it happens…
And this is the source of our joy – as we gather together to share in the laughter and tears that come along the way.
Enjoy the journey, and the knowledge that God will sustain you until that day…. And rejoice in His work in your life.
AMEN!
44 See Ps 99(100):3; Acts 17:27.
[1] Saint Augustine. (2012). The Confessions, Part I (J. E. Rotelle, Ed.; M. Boulding, Trans.; Second Edition, Vol. 1, p. 104). New City Press.
Augustine, Luther, Vatican I and the Purpose and Mission of God’s People.
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the cross:
“ And as they came down the hill-side, he warned them not to tell anybody what they had seen till “the Son of Man should have risen again from the dead”. They treasured this remark and tried to puzzle out among themselves what “rising from the dead” could mean. (Mark 9, Phillips)
Have you never read this scripture— The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvellous in our eyes?” ” (Mark 12 Phillips)
[1]Let us love him, for he made these things and he is not far off,44 for he did not make them and then go away: they are from him but also in him. You know where he is, because you know where truth tastes sweet. He is most intimately present to the human heart, but the heart has strayed from him. Return to your heart, then, you wrongdoers, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him and you will stand firm, rest in him and you will find peace.
Concerning the use of sacraments it is taught that the sacraments are instituted not only to be signs by which people may recognize Christians outwardly, but also as signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us in order thereby to awaken and strengthen our faith. [2] That is why they also require faith and are rightly used when received in faith for the strengthening of faith.
…so the Church, constituted by GOD the mother and teacher of all nations, knows its own office as debtor to all, and is ever ready and watchful to raise the fallen, to support those who are falling, to embrace those who return, to confirm the good and to carry them on to better things. Hence it can never forbear from witnessing to and proclaiming the truth of GOD, which heals all things, knowing the words addressed to it: “My Spirit that is in thee, and My words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, from henceforth and for ever.”*
Today is the last day of the Liturgical year. Not a big deal to some, but to me, it has some significant meaning.
It lies between the Sunday of the CHirst the King – the Sunday that celebrates His victory for us, which we know is coming, and the beginning of Advent, a season of repentant waiting for Jesus to become Immanuel, that is, God with us! (Note the exclamation point; it is there for a reason.)
Like the disciples after the transfiguration, I have questions about the cross. Not about the necessity, but the fact that Jesus volunteered for it with joy, to save you and me. We so desperately need not just a Savior, but a brother, who leads us back to the Father. It is truly a marvelous mystery to treasure, this grace that unites us to God.
We get to know this through the sacraments, those moments when God draws us near and unites us to Himself. As He originally cleanses us, cutting away our stone-hard hearts, and replacing them with His Heart, His Spirit (see Ezekiel 36:25) He then cleanses us of not only all sin, but all unrighteousness–all injustice. All the damage done to us by our sin, the sin of the world, both present and in the past. And of course, the incredible feast where Jesus feeds us with His body and blood. The Lutheran Augsburg Confession nails the purpose: not to define us to the world, but to strengthen our faith, to lay the foundation and build our lives on Jesus.
This is why Augustine talks of such an intimate relationship with God. It is of the most incredible value, so much so that He begs us to return to our heart, for that is Jesus, our Heart. He recognized, the hard way, that there is no option, no other name in which to find comfort, hope, and a relationship that heals.
This is what the world needs to know!
Vatican I sees this clearly! It is the purpose of the church, the purpose behind preaching, catechizing, teaching, and distributing the sacraments. Not just to indoctrinate people. Not to receive their tithes and offerings, and building artistic edifices. This is what ministry is! This is why we are here! This is the very thing at the heart of the Reformation (at least Luther/Melanchthon’s portion of it), and for some, the Counter-Reformation.
It is who we are, and I pray all the church, Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, and others, return to this ministry in the next year…AMEN!
Saint Augustine. (2012). The Confessions, Part I (J. E. Rotelle, Ed.; M. Boulding, Trans.; Second Edition, Vol. 1, p. 104). New City Press.
Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (p. 46). Fortress Press.
McNabb, V., ed. (1907). The Decrees of the Vatican Council (pp. 17–18). Benziger Brothers.
Stand Firm! Geta grip! A Sermon on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8,13-17
Stand Firm!
Geta grip!
2 Thessalonians 2:1-8,13-17
† Jesus, Son and Savior †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ sustain you’re your grip on your salvation as you stand firm in the hope of the Resurrection to eternal life!
The key verse
Most of the time I preach, I try to come up with some illustration to help understand what scripture is teaching us. Educational theory tells us we are a visual people, which is why those who have tried to teach morals use storytelling, fables, parables, to help people see the point.
Today, I couldn’t come up with one.
That’s okay, as the point today is pretty simple…
“15 With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.”
That seems simple enough… stand firm – hold on to the hope we have taught you.
The hope found in the experience of salvation.
The hope found in the work of the Holy Spirit who makes us holy, and lead us to believe in the truth.
Stand firm there, and get a grip on this…
But there are challenges.
The challenge – false teaching leading to lawlessness
One of the challenges that I don’t talk about enough is false teaching – especially about End Times. Paul is warning the church about such people who would use the End times to motivate us through fear. Listen to Paul, “2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. 3 Don’t be fooled by what they say.”
It doesn’t matter how sincere these men and women who preach are, it doesn’t matter how they have studied and dissected the numbers and days that create their message. If they focus more on developing fear and horror at the thought of the end, they missed the hope we have…
So ignore them.
Despite the temptation to follow their logic and examine it thoroughly. Despite the attempts to make you come to repentance fearing the Day or Judgement, or the Tribulation, or anything else that puts the “fear of God” and the fear of judgment or condemnation in you, and then asks you to take some action to assure your survival.
But all that does is convince you that God’s grace is sufficient, and puts the burden of survival on you… and reinforces a stereotype that our sin is great than God’s ability to deliver.
The call to share in the glory of Christ.
When Paul writes to a young pastor named Titus, he addressed this idea of the believer fearing God because of their sin. He wrote, 3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:3-5 (NLT2)
That is the same message as he tells these believers from Thessalonika. Instead of worrying about the End Times, focus in on what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life, as we started with, “a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth. 14 He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That last line is what we should be focused on, what we pin our expectations on, this idea that we can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When we think of end times, this is what our focus needs to be! Not on the trauma, for life itself can be just as traumatic as anything the doomsayers and fearmongers put forth.
We need to remember the promise of our baptism—that we receive the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and everlasting life.
This is a constant theme in scripture,
27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
Colossians 1:27 (NLT2)
23 but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NLT2)
And how many of the parables, from the wheat and the tares to the sheep and the goats talk about us entering everlasting life…
Us, those who were born into sin, and have struggled with sin, the kind of people this place was built for…
Not that we would fear Judgment Day, but that we would expect it and rejoice as we see it coming.
For it will come, and we will be at home with our Lord! AMEN!
Life: God’s Version of ‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day Week 7: Dad’s Happy! (so are we) A sermon on Luke 15:1-10
Life: God’s Version of
‘Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 7: Dad’s Happy! (so are we)
Luke 15:1-10
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus be yours, and may you rejoice as others who were lost are found!
Intro – The Job is done!
There were days that I went to work with my dad that were more special than others.
We were doing something with cement, building a new stone wall, or patching some foundation, or creating a walkway. As we laid down the last wheelbarrows load of cement, as we were younger we always watched my dad take out a pencil and carve his initials in the last section.
As we got older, my brother and then I would do enough work, and do it well enough, that our initials, STP and DTP would join TEP in some corner of the project.
And then off to Howard Johnson’s for an ice cream shake and a beer.
There was great joy, the job was done. Something was created, something was made right!
Time to celebrate!
That is the same thing that happens in heaven, every time a sinner is found and brought home. And like my dad and brother celebrating, like the shepherd finding the one, and the lady who found the silver coin, there is incredible joy, and a party that goes beyond belief.
And what is really cool – because life is God taking his kids to work, we get to celebrate as well!
And what a celebration it is! Dad is happy, and so we are happy.
Sort of like the shepherd who carries home his sheep…and the woman who found her very valuable coin.
Law – We don’t like those…. People/Sinners
The context of Jesus’ parable cannot be overlooked.
The Pharisees and those that studied the law didn’t get it. Both of these groups focused on living their lives as holy as possible, trying to eliminate any practice or behavior that wasn’t allowed for in scripture. They were devoted to their way of life, and proud of it, because of the effort put into it.
As hard as they practiced their disciplined life-style, they forgot to love their neighbor, to be concerned about them, and they just looked down on them, because they didn’t follow.
When they Jesus spending his time with these lesser beings, they are ticked off—if he’s truly God’s holy chosen messiah, he should be with them, praising them for their diligence and hard work.
Here again how the Bible declares the scene.
2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
Imagine Jesus coming back today, and sitting here in church, and then we invite him to come eat with us, and his response was to leave, and head down to a picnic with…. Hmmm… who you do you think you are holier than? Or maybe those horrible rotten sinners who…
Or maybe, instead of heading to lunch with us, he heads to a jail in Colorado, to spend a couple hours with a 22year old assassin.
Maybe that puts us in the mood of a the pharisees.
“Pastor, you can’t mean that Jesus would rather spend His time with “him” rather than us…
My only reply – is God’s job today to search for the one, or the ninety nine?
Who is the lost coin that needs to be found – us or him?
Yet the interesting thing is, that God would have some of his kids with Him, to make the point of God’s love – to be there, as God does what only God does. As God works on Him seeking to finished the job that began as Jesus died for everyone of his sins.
And those of us who can’t go to jail to visit him, can God at work by praying for him, and for his family, as they realize that only Jesus can deal with the depth of his sin.
For in prayer, asking God to be at work, we confess that we believe God can and desires to save everyone.
And can you imagine the joy that would be in heaven, should this young man be brought home, carried by Jesus? Could God do it? He already has – in David’s case, in Paul’s case, in the case of one of the soldiers at the cross, a man named Longinus, who used his spear to prove Jesus was dead. Each a murderer was changed by the power of God’s love.
I know who the first person who would want to greet him when he gets before God’s throne. I mean after God the Father would welcome him home. Two forgiven sinners, saved by Jesus – what a image!
And I would pray we would all go ballistic with joy!
Gospel – Look at how God searches for us, finds us brings us home and rejoices!
Moving on to how incredible the gospel is–When both the lost sheep and the lost coin are found, the term used gives us a modern word- heurisko – the art and science of finding something, or someone. It combines intuition, deep research, intelligence, basically pursuing the thing with everything one is, and haves.
And Jesus came to find us, with everything He had and is, including His life.
To find all of us.
I saw something in Luke that I’ve never seen before in this parable, but it is there, both in Matthew’s account and the account from Luke we have today…
“Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness”
As I thought through this passage, this one verse captured my heart.
The 99 weren’t even home yet. They were still in need of their Shepherd for they were in the wilderness.
They were on the way, but they weren’t home, yet we still need Him to bring us home.
We still need Jesus, we still need the Spirit’s guidance, we still need the Spirit’s guidance to deal with temptation, to live a life with Him. And because we are really all more like the 1 than the 99, we know the Lord is with us. We and the pharisees aren’t the 99- we are the one, and Jesus is carrying us home. `1
We know that heaven went ballistic with happiness when we God put His mark on us. He was so happy.. another job well done.
And then he invites us to work with Him to share in His happiness, to share in His joy, as others are re-created in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
As He invites to go to work with Him, even as He takes on the toughest of jobs.
Amen!
Is it to horrid a thought?
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus and to the Cross!
“Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, Hear the word of the sovereign LORD! This is what the sovereign LORD says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.Your altars will be ruined and your incense altars will be broken. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out.The slain will fall among you and then you will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 6:3–7, NET)
4. But I was far too impetuous, poor wretch, so I went with the flood-tide of my nature and abandoned you. I swept across all your laws, but I did not escape your chastisements, for what mortal can do that? You were ever present to me, mercifully angry, sprinkling very bitter disappointments over all my unlawful pleasures so that I might seek a pleasure free from all disappointment.
It is one thing I suppose, for Augustine to rejoice in God in God turning Augustine’s joy and pleasures into sour, disappointing losses. It would seem to be another to rejoice in God fulfilling the destruction He has Ezekiel communicate to the people of Israel, as He rids them of their idols.
It may not be.., in fact, we need to rejoice and ask God to wreck our idols, destroying them, even if it costs us our lives. That sounds painful and it will probably be very traumatic, for these idols have burrowed deeply into hearts and souls. We don’t even recognize them as idols in some cases, they have managed to become so ingrained in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is the only one who can cut away that kind of idolatry, using the Scriptures to cut away all that is not of God. (see Colossians 2:11-12) It’s not pretty – because of the grip idolatry and other sin has on us, and our own attraction to it.
This brutal attack on our idols is God’s desire, even as it is our cry when we cry out for His mercy.
When the Spirit frees us from our idols, the freedom enables us to rejoice in the pain, to look with joy and fondness at God spoiling the joy we once found in our rebellion and sin.
So what are these idols? The things we chase after, mistakenly believing that obtaining them will lead to our peace and contentment, that will calm our anxiety. We are more sophisticated in our how we create our idols these days. But they still promise what they can’t provide, they still offer security, or fame, or health, or peace.
And God in his mercy, removes these idols crushing them, as your life seems sour, and without joy, and even dead. Jesus can and does bring life to the dead, and life where there was nothing.
We will find a whole different life as God cuts away the idols…
And we we rejoice in His work, and the difference it makes in life.
Saint Augustine. (2012). The Confessions, Part I (J. E. Rotelle, Ed.; M. Boulding, Trans.; Second Edition, Vol. 1, p. 64). New City Press.
“Life: God’s Version of Take Your Child to Work’ Day” Week 6: More Than… Philemon 1-21
Life: God’s Version of
Take Your Child to Work’ Day
Week 6: More Than…
Philemon 1-21
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace!
Intro: Whose view?
The book of Philemon is the shortest that Paul wrote, yet it is contains one of the greatest challenges, along with an incredible miracle and one of the best examples of what it means to be a servant-leader who shepherds the people of God.
I have heard sermons about it focusing on the change in Onesimus, I have heard sermons about the challenges for Philemon – as his community would frown upon the precedent he was asked to set. I’ve even heard a sermon to pastors about how to imitate the “tactics” that Paul used to manipulate Philemon into doing what Paul wanted to do…
Today, the goal is to see the work of God, that He calls all three to be involved in, as he takes two of His kids to work together…
For some days, you will have the role of Onesimous, and other days, you will have the role of Philemon, and there will be a time where you have to take on the role of Paul….
But God’s work work this day is the same project for all three… to realize that each is…
“more than”
As in “16 He is no longer like a slave to you. He is more than a slave, for he is a beloved brother, especially to me.
The task is simple, rebuilding the relationship that was shatttered.
- The PROBLEM – this is a horrible, worthless sinner
There is no doubt the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus was strained. It was more than that, as Philemon being an escaped slave, He had a price on his head, what we would call in old West, dead or alive.
He ran away, he was a slave, he would have been considered major property theft, not to mention Paul’s own mention that Onesimous was a pretty lousy slave. “11 Onesimus hasn’t been of much use to you in the past,” Paul says, yet the Greek is far more caustic
That’s not to say Philemon wasn’t a horrible worthless sinner. He was a slave owner who was brutal enough for a slave to run away, risking death to find some sort of freedom, the kind of guy that Paul wrote Ephesians to address. “8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. 9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites. Ephesians 6:8-9 (NLT2)
So these guys weren’t quite ready to go to work together with the Father.
I hate to say it, but we all have relationships like this – some of which we are the one who seems to be the bigger sinner – the slave who runs away, And some, we are the sinner who slowly wears down someone else, leaving them no seeming option but to sin.
Or maybe our sin would have been to take sides, like Paul did at first, only to set aside the personal benefit to choose to encourage reconciliation of these two men. HE would encourage Philippians, “2 Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. 3 And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life. “ Philippians 4:2-3 (NLT2)
We have these relationships, just as they did in the day of the Apostles. They seem shattered, the sins committed hanging around like a stench, affecting life.
- The solution
And yet, there is hope…there is the realization we started with, as each person sees, that . “He is more than a slave (/owner/shepherd,) for he is a beloved brother,
Paul writes,
“4 I always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon, 5 because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. 6 And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. 7 Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.
He goes on to say,
“8 That is why I am boldly asking a favor of you.”
Paul is pretty blunt- pointing out the incredible change that occurred in Philemon’s life, as he began to have faith, as he began to trust in Jesus, as he depended on the Holy Spirit.
Look at what God did with you… now listen, God did that with someone else… and I want you to hear me out..
He probably had the same conversation with Onesimos, “look I know I am sending you back to where you have a price on your head, but the God who makes you holy and previous to me – God is at work in Philemon’s life as well!
This is what is so amazing – these relationships that seem irreconcilable, at the right time where reconciled, but that reconciliation happened only when we realize we are all loved by God, that Jesus died to forgive our sins to bring us to the Father,
And there we are found together, baptized, cleansed, gathered, one, in Christ Jesus.
That’s why, between confessing and being forgiven and then coming up to the altar to share in the body and blood of Christ, we declare to each other – “the peace of God is with you!” and “and also with you” – a chance to recognize, as Philemon and Onesimos would, what unites us.
Being at peace in Christ Jesus.
For Alleluia! He Died, and we died with Him.
Alleluia! He is has risen!
And therefore WE, with Paul, and Philemon and Onesimos – are risen indeed.
Amen!
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” – Set Up to Succeed – A sermon on Luke 12:22-34
Life: God’s version of Take Your Child to Work Day”
Set Up to Succeed
Luke 12:22-34
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ remove from you all anxieties and fears, as you go with Him about His work, every day!
-Was there stress going to work with Dad?
As we look at the idea of God taking his children to his work, to learn His craft, to work side by side with him. As I look back on those days, I realized something was missing from working with my dad. Something that has been part of every workplace I have ever have been at.
That lovely thing called stress….
Or maybe call it anxiety, or we simply worry about work.
I don’t remember that kind of stuff, as I worked alongside my dad, there was just the work. At least for the children that accompanied their dads—what their dads are going through is a different matter.
For us, being away from our normal world of school, the chance to be with our dad, and share in His work made for a day to be savored and enjoyed.
Just like we should savor and enjoy going to work with our Heavenly Father sd we daily go to work with Him.
What Stresses us out? Why?
When I was running bookstores, we have two kinds of audits, our annual audit by our company’s internal auditors, and several times a year, our regional managers did, called “zero defect” audits. Even though 2 of the 3 RM’s I worked with were really nice, sweet people, the specter of their audits haunts me even to this day.
The auditors from Chicago could be bluffed, could be distracted, they didn’t know us well enough to know where to look. They just knew they couldn’t go homne without finding something… so we would leave one little error…aand then thery would smile and go “gotcha” and then we would take them to lunch in Malibu. Anna and Peter though, knew us and our staff, and knew our weak points. And as they wanted us to succeed, that is where they focused their attention
Look at the gospel, here are the points where Jesus knew we were weak:
Fhe first area is large – “everyday life” and includes the really big things – where we will live and what we eat, or whether we will have good looking clothes, whether we we live to 100, or merely 61. We aren’t going to add time to our life just by worrying.
But we do it!
I do it all the time, and this week was harder than most. Between my surgery and needing more students, and the stresses of watching people in pain all around me, it was really easy for me to lose track of working with God!
Mark Jennins used to ask my why we need to, as pastors, live in the middle of our sermon. That is me this week. How do you balance all of this? How do we adress all the what ifs and what if it doesn’t…. And we consumed by our fears, urworries, our anxieties and doubts. TO the point where we are not thinking clearly.
And Jesus says
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—
We know this, we believe it, so why are we unable ot stop the stuff that chase us in the night? Does that mean we are failures, does that mean we don’t believe God? Or that we get His promises wrong…
Then Jesus goes on, and says, “25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 26 And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
And I feel nearly condemned, like the apostles did when Jesus confronts them with, “You have so little faith!”
Been there, done that, and to be honest – it is exhausting – physically, emotionally, spiritually….and if not careful, it can paralyze us, dividing us from those we love and care about…forgetting God put them there… to pray and support us in times like this!
Why can’t life be like when our dad or mom took us to work, and we just did the work they delegated, and enjoyed their company? Why can’t I just enjoy seeing what God is doing, and just relax – counting on His promises/
- Where does faith come in?
When Anna and Peter gave their seemingly brutal debriefing on the zero defect audit, there was something different than the games played with the auditors from Chicago. Those guys didn’t care, it was their job to point out what was wrong. Anna and Peter however, had more invested in us – their success was judged by how we improved – their bonuses tied in part to it. For them to succeed, for them to hit their goals, we had to improve!
They had to invest in us.
Jesus would have us look at how the Father invests in their world. The beauty He creates, the care He takes of birds and wildflowers. All these little things, that he barely cares about, that He created four our enjoyment,
If he takes such care of these things, how will God take care of that which He cares the most for – the people He calls His children.
Jesus says don’t worry, and often I hear that part and get fixated on that…and let it be addded to the weight of the day…
But Hear it in context.
Don’t worry about such things. 30 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. 31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.
Hear that….the Father knows what we need!
As we work with Him, we can concentrate on the tasks at hand, knowing He is there to make it work, to cause us to grow, to help us succeed. He would rid us of every little thing that would hinder us, that would cause us worry.
After all, Christ didn’t die on the cross to provide for ravens and daffodils. He died on the cross for us, to forgive our sins, to bring us to the Father, and we get to go to work with Him!
We still do the work, but with a freedom that God is in control, that He is the one who promises that all will work for good for those of us who love Him.
That freedom is what allows us to set a different se of priorities, focusing on things of heaven, realizing our treasure is there, with Him. AMEN!
Freedom, Liberty, and your Rights –
Thoughts which carry me, even drag me to Jesus and the Cross
“When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters! So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians?” (1 Corinthians 6:1–5, NET)
Francis told them: “When you pray, say “Our Father” and “We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches throughout the whole world, and we bless you, for by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
To any human who bothers to think a bit, it should be evident that there is in our society no such thing as absolute freedom—for only God is free!
It is inherent in creaturehood that its freedom must be limited by the will of the Creator and the nature of the thing created. Freedom is liberty within bounds, liberty to obey holy laws, liberty to keep the commandments of Christ, to serve mankind, to develop to the full all the latent possibilities within our redeemed natures. True Christian liberty never sets us free to indulge our lusts or to follow our fallen impulses
Tozer’s words about freedom seem so appropriate today, though written decades past. He smacks down the illusion of idols named freedom and liberty. For they are not absolute, they are not all powerful, and they aren’t all merciful… for they have a cost that is reminiscent of slavery….unless…
It has been redeemed by the one who saves us, that He is allowed to put the limits on our freedom, limits which recognize His role as our God, and the limits He placed on Christ’s freedom, which was given the boundaries of what best cared and provided for us.
Tozer said “mankind,” but lets simplify it – our children, our parents, our parents, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Our liberty must be in tune with how we love those around us, those who need us to sacrifice for their well-being. whether the need is physical, psychological or spiritual.
That is what Paul us getting at with his comments on lawsuits–wisdom is required because God’s justice is different than man’s. It is based in mercy, love and loyalty– not just what is our “right” or allows us to maintain our liberty, above our community.
This is the truest freedom.. that found in our relationships…the freedom to be loved and to love.
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (p. 192). New City Press.
Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2008). Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers.
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.
