Blog Archives
Good News! He’s Gonna Tear Us to Pieces!! A Sermon on Hosea 5:15-6:6
Good News!
He’s Gonna Tear Us to Pieces!
Hosea 5:15
† I.H.S. †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ encourage you to accept the work of the Holy Spirit, who purifies you and makes you holy!
This News is Awesome!
In the middle of the lesson from Hosea this morning, there is some of the greatest news I can share with you!
God is going to meet a critical need this morning…if He hasn’t already!
As surely as the sun came up, He has either done this, or He is about to do it.
Here is what Hosea credits with God with doing,
“He has torn us to pieces…
He has injured us…”.
Like I said, if God hasn’t done this to you, He will… and that is good is a good thing.
And if you need God to tear you to pieces, I hope this sermon will make you look forward to it!
- A Need to Be Met!
- Self-inflicted, here and Ezekiel 6:9
Let’s go back to the first verse of the reading, the last verse of chapter 4, “Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me. For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.”
God tells the prophet Hosea that he’s going to let Israel realize their need for Him. He’s just going to wait for them until they realize they need it!
I think that is what they call “tough love.” Letting someone walk away as a prodigal, knowing the pain and suffering they would endure.
It is an amazing thing to see God be that patient with us, I mean how patient are we with everyone around us? God has the advantage of being God, and knowing that as Father, Son and Spirit, they had planned to redeem us all, but still, we, every human from every language, culture, age group, have walked away… and chosen sin at times.
But the response is more challenging, ““Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds
It takes a lot to say this! Not only to realize that God will heal us and bandage our wounds, but that He was the One who disciplined us, and did so in a way we might consider harsh.
Though what it often is, is not God’s intent, but what He warned us about. HE won’t always withhold the punishment that we earn with every sin, He will let us experience the consequences.
That is something each of us has to face, to come to the realzieation of the prodigal – that I had it better back home.
What God promised in regard to sin is true, but so is what He promises in regard to grace.
One leads to pain, punishment
- The Doctor is In!
- Heal, Bandage, Restore
But when we come to our senses, God is right there.
That same verse says he will heal us, that He will bandage our wounds providing long term healing and growth to health and He will restore us to the image of Christ that He created us to shine into this dark world.
This all became true for people starting at Pentecost – and it comes true for us this day as well.
If we are running from God, its time to come home.
It’s time to stop being torn to pieces, its time to stop getting injured by the consequence of sin, it’s time to stop, and let God finally restore us to His image.
- Best News
- He wants this as much as we do!
The good news in this was that the Lord loves us enough to tear us to pieces, to allow ourselves to be wounded by the sins we so easily choose over him.
The better news – that God will welcome us back, heal us, bandage us,
But here is the best news, a response to the prophet’s plea to his people,
3 Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”
That is a critical example of faith, this ability to cry out to know God better, this encouragement to get to know Him, and the confidence that we shall – because we know He shall respond to us, even as we come back to Him.
And here is His response,
4 “O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the LORD. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight. 5 I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces— to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light. 6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.
That God responds to us, knowing what we’ve done, knowing how much we struggle and how our love can be there one moment and not the next, is incredible.
Yeah – He did hit people hard judging them, but doing so with the purpose of reconciling us to Himself – of drawing us back to the only place, to the only One who loves us enough to heal and restore us…
And why?
Because He wants us to know Him, more than anything else.
He wants us to know Him,
Knowledge not is academics, knowledge as in experience, as in understanding how much love there is, of knowing how much He cares, and thinks of us, and wants the best for us, and designed and formed us specifically (mentally, physically, socially, intellectually) to interact with Him.
This is our God, let us return to Him, and dwell in His peace. AMEN!
There is only one place to go, to find hope
Devotional Thoughts Reminding Us of our Hope in Chirst… while dwelling ina seemingly broken world.
“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. 1 Chronicles 28:9 NLT
So, too, those who boast of great learning, wisdom, power, prestige, family, and honor and who trust in them have a god also, but not the one, true God. Notice again, how presumptuous, secure, and proud people are when they have such possessions, and how despondent they are when they lack them or when they are taken away. Therefore, I repeat, the correct interpretation of this commandment is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart trusts completely.
When I think of the angels who veil their faces before the God who cannot lie, I wonder why every preacher in North America does not begin preaching about God—and nothing else. What would happen if every preacher just preached about the person and character of God for an entire year—who He is, His attributes, His perfection, His being, the kind of a God He is and why we love Him and why we should trust Him? I tell you, God would soon fill the whole horizon, the entire world.
A third fruit of the night of spirit is the purification of our idea of God, the God of our childhood or the God worshipped by the particular group to which we belong.…
The number of people in the last 24 hours who have mentioned the need for Jesus to come back right now is staggering. Person after person, so disturbed by the grief, by the anxiety, by the brokenness, mention the prayer, “Maranatha,” which simply means, “come Lord Jesus.”
We recognize that His return, and the promise of eternity, seems to be the only hope we have. Perhaps we’ve given up on the idea of creating heaven on earth. The naivete of creating a perfect world—shattered by the events on the daily news.
Life has crushed our dreams and our idols. Luther and Keating sadly point to the necessity of this. Our false gods, our ideas of god that we blindly accept, must die. Otherwise, there is no way for us to gain that most precious commodity: hope.
David, at the end of his life, calls for Solomon to go through such a process. To intimately know God means to know WHO He really is, who He reveals Himself to be. That means Solomon had to have his illusions shattered. He needs to know God, not just have theories and handed down knowledge about God. He needed to know the God David loved and trusted. Solomon needs to go from trusting the God of his father and his ancestors to simply trusting God.
It isn’t easy…. it is necessary….
For only knowing God’s heart and mind toward His people can we find that we actually don’t have to go anywhere for hope.
It is here, for He is here. You dwell in His presence, as do I.
Amid the tears, He holds and comforts us.
Amid the smiles and laughter, He is there as well.
Tozer desired that we get to know Him, and that pastors would help their people get to preach in a way people get to know the God that loves them enough to die on the cross. That we could live… now and eternally.
He’s there, and if you don’t believe it, let’s talk. Let me help you get to know Him..and encourage me to know Him more, while we see Him revealed to us. For then we will know His peace which is beyond reason.
Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism” Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 387.
A. W. Tozer, Tozer for the Christian Leader (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015).
Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living: Excerpts from the Works of Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O., Sacred Scripture, and Other Spiritual Writings, ed. S. Stephanie Iachetta (New York; London; New Delhi; Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2009), 145.
Time to Pray God’s will is done…in us.
Devotional Thought for this day:
To everyone who shares with us in the privilege of believing that our God and Savior Jesus Christ will do what is just and fair. 2 I pray that God will be kind to you and will let you live in perfect peace! May you keep learning more and more about God and our Lord Jesus. 2 Peter 1:1-2 CEV
The sentence that precedes this cited paragraph brings us exactly to our point: “Worse yet, the poll results suggest that what we know has very little effect on how we live.” This statement could be expressed in neon lights, for it says exactly what lies beneath the remarkable resistance we are analyzing in this chapter. “What we know has very little effect on how we live.” This applies not only to a wise use of food, but also to what we know from the beautiful moral teachings of Scripture, what we see in the lives of the saints and celebrate in our liturgies all through each year. “What we know has very little effect on how we live.”
However, a caution is in order. The general statement should be qualified, for there are people who are growing in deep conversion as they are growing in prayerful intimacy with the Trinity.
As a failure at dieting, I know that Dubay is right when he compares what we know about dieting having an effect on how we actually eat and drink. Even more concerning is projecting that insight into the life that should be lived based on our knowledge and trust of God. We know how we should live, we know what would please God.
Yet, the Apostle has to pray that those who trust in God grow, not just in their knowledge of God, but their intimate knowledge of Him. (gnowsei in Greek is knowledge, the intimate kind of knowing shared between a husband and wife that are in love. ) It is as if this is our greatest battleground as a believer, this knowing God deeply.
It isn’t that the option is there, the entire liturgy, from the songs and hymns, to the readings, to the prayer, to the intimate time of the Lord’s Supper. The nurture of this relationship is provided, the opportunity to explore the love of God together is part of the reason the church exists. (the other reason is to invite people to join us!)
So why aren’t we falling deeper in love with God? Why aren’t we becoming truly holy, why aren’t our lives becoming more and more dedicated to God? Why isn’t prayer becoming easier and our desire for that time becoming stronger, and even unquenchable?
I could come up with 10,000 reasons, each taking up time and effort. But perhaps it is better to do as Peter does, and pray for each other, and perhaps for ourselves. What would happen if we truly begged Jesus, as the old hymn noted, to have His own way with us?
It is time to find out…
Heavenly Father, do not look on us as if we are weak and broken, and unable to relate to You. Instead, send Your Holy Spirit to set us afire, purifying our hearts and empowering us to live life walking as the children You love. We pray this in the name of Jesus, Your Son, our Lord and Friend, who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, AMEN!
Thomas Dubay, Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 51–52.
The Church Needs to Want This..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
So the LORD said to me, 5 “I, the LORD, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness. 6 I will watch over them and bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pull them up. 7 I will give them the desire to know that I am the LORD. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart. Jeremiah 24:4-7 GNT
40 I want to obey your commands; give me new life, for you are righteous. Psalm 119:40 (TEV)
The parish of St Louis-St Blaise has been experiencing graces of charity which are drawn from Eucharistic adoration: links are forged or tightened, the parishioners are more attentive to each other, more supportive. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament overwhelms the heart of the parish and opens it gradually to the mission that we are trying to put in place.
In the title, it says “the Church”, and by that I do not mean any one congregation, or denomination. I don’t mean just the Lutherans, or the Romans Catholics, the Evangelicals, the Conservative or the Liberal/Progressive groups in the church.
I mean the One Church, the people set apart for God (Holy), Church that includes every time period, every culture, every demographic (catholic) and the Church that is on a mission from God (apostolic) whether she lies it or not.
What the Church needs is to have the desire the psalmist describes, a desire to treasure what God has called into being, what He has commanded. (Not just the do this/don’t do that – but every command God has uttered ) We need to hear the voice of God, and revel in the fact that He comes to us, and creates in us life.
We need the desire to know He is the Lord, to know that He is drawing us toward Him!
Please look at Jeremiah’s passage carefully, and see this. “Then they will be my people and I will be their God because they will return.” The words of God recognize His people, even when they are struggling in bondage, when they are in captivity, either to Babylon, or Egypt or sin! This is the God who hears the psalmists plea to give him (and us!) new life, and does so.
This is why parishes and congregations who dedicate time in the presence of God find themselves more attentive to each others’ needs, more supportive of those in their community that aren’t part of the church, yet! It is why churches that have dedicated times to adore Jesus, and/or spend time in prayer find themselves renewed and revived, responding to the needs of those around them.
it doesn’t come because we force it, it comes as a result of being drawn into intimacy with God. It is not a programmatic response, it is one from the depths of our souls, as the Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ, and united to Him, we serve as He served.
This is our hope, this is who we are.
The people of God, who are being drawn back, who are returning to Him.
Florian Racine, “Spiritual Fruits of Adoration in Parishes,” in From Eucharistic Adoration to Evangelization, ed. Alcuin Reid (London; New York: Burns & Oates, 2012), 208.
The Effect of the Resurrection. Part III Losing our ignorance – a sermon on Acts 3
The Effect of the Resurrection
Transformed Minds,
Part III: Losing our Ignorance
Acts 3
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ circumcise your heart, cutting away all the ignorance, hatred and sin. Leaving you holy, transformed in heart, soul and mind. Amen!
I need a break!
Over and over this week, there is one phrase that I kept on wanting to explore. It is one I think I understand, but there are times, where I wonder what it would be like to experience such a time.
The phrase is, “times of refreshment”
I mean if our weeks at all were similar, you don’t know what that means either.
I mean it sounds like those days when we were young and were playing baseball or in our case hockey, or whatever, and after sweating and running around I the hot sun, we all had a cold glass of Kool-aid, then dove in the lake, or a friend’s pool
That sounds refreshing!
In our reading from acts, it is not just a time of refreshment that is promised as God transforms us, as our sins are wiped away, buts times, seasons of it. Time upon time of living in that refreshment, that time when the soul is healthy!
But as to what such a time is today, I am not sure. You might say I am ignorant of such a time, but it sure sounds nice!
How could they be that ignorant?
As Peter discussed all of those who were involved in crucifying Jesus, he doesn’t call the people and their leaders, evil. He doesn’t say they are wicked, or bad. Instead, He says that they were ignorant, that they didn’t know better.
Now I suppose it is better to be called ignorant rather than evil. Still being called ignorant is not really fun to hear. In this case, where they rejected and crucified the Messiah, despite Pilate’s protest, it seems impossible. How could they not know Jesus was the Messiah?
I think before we go any farther, we need to understand what ignorance in the Bible is.
It is not about having the data about something. It goes deeper than that, and in fact, that depth is the key to defining ignorance and overcoming it.
We talked about this term last week, when the two disciples walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and they didn’t know it was him. The word isn’t talking about simple recognition, it’s the term that indicates understanding someone the way you can when you live with them for year and decades. When you can finish their sentences for them when you know how they are feeling and what is on their hearts.
It is what, for lack of a better term, I call having an intimate relationship.
Not that kind, though oddly enough, the same word in Greek and Hebrew describes that as well.
They crucified Jesus because they didn’t understand Him. Despite all the scriptures telling them about the Son of God, they did it. They sinned.
Much the same as we do when we choose to sin.
We forget Jesus, we don’t understand or really, deeply know God. And so, being ignorant about Jesus, being ignorant of God, we ignore the way He planned for us to live, a life of love and peace.
And a God draws us to Himself, as He brings us to repentance as He brings us to this transformation where we allow Him to cut away the sin, and the guilt and the shame, the ignorance is removed as well
And what we find out when we enter this relationship is that God loves us, He cares so deeply for us. He makes us whole and brings us a peace.
That is what the ignorance was hiding, that is what we couldn’t know when we didn’t understand God. And it was that way until God started to work in our lives. Until He brought us to repentance, to that place where our souls find healing, much as this lame man found healing.
Everything changes when we realize how much God loves us, how unwilling He is to be separated from us.
One pastor, in explaining how a church service is organized, explained this love of God in this way.
This is the only way the true structure of the liturgy can be restored, a structure that, as we have just seen, makes concrete in divine worship the fundamental structure of divine action. God, the Revealer, did not want to stay as solus Deus, solus Christus (God alone, Christ alone). No, he wanted to create a Body for himself, to find a Bride—he sought a response. It was really for her that the Word went forth.
This is why we do what we do, why we worship the way we do, and study the Bible and pray, and remind each other of the Lord’s presence, for the more we do, the more we know Him, in a way that is so full of peace and joy.
It is as we see this God, revealed to us, that the power of sin is broken, that it is wiped out of our lives that we are free, that we finally find the love that we so need, and the peace, and the refreshment until He comes and restores all things…as He has promised.
So let us pray…
You need to be a saint…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
14 Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant. 15 Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy. 16 The scripture says, “Be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:14-16 (TEV)
250 I listened in silence as you said to me, “Yes, I want to be a saint”—although generally I have little respect for such a broad and vague assertion.
In Juan Carlos Ortiz’s classic book “Disciple”, he tells a story of a man who wanted to be God’s, who was in shock as God revealed to him what that meant, as God stripped him of everything, step by step.
His car, his home, his belonging, even his clothes, and well himself.
If he was to be God’s, fully sold out to him, then that is what is what God would give him. Eventually, the man’s vision had God entrust all back to him, to help him realize that all the man had been blessed with, he was accountable to God to use for the ministry God has entrusted to us.
Just as Jesus used all He was, to care for us.
I think that is what St. Josemaria is getting at, in the quote in blue above.
Being a saint, being holy isn’t a vague description, It can’t be determined by a broad overview of our life. Taking our 50 or 70 or 90 years as a quick glimpse, and recalling just the good things we have did.
Being a saint is seen in the small things, in the thoughts and words that betray what we do. In the moments when no one is watching, and in the moments when our hearts and souls are stretched tightly, ready to snap.
It is at that moment that sainthood is revealed, as we turn to God and cry out for mercy, as we cry out for help. It is then when we realize that faith isn’t just about the doctrines we believe, but the trust and dependence that God will see us through the time of trial. A cry that happens without thought, an automatic response to the oppression. A response of trusting God, no matter what happens.
But that doesn’t happen if we talk about being holy, about becoming a saint without seeing God touching every part of life, without knowing His love, and realizing it is beyond all that we could ever expect. It comes from realizing that love, about receiving in regularly in word and sacrament, in letting the Holy Spirit transform us, as we see Jesus, as we explore the dimension of His love.
We become holy, even as we confess our sins ( yeah – even that one!) and believe they are forgiven because Jesus for joy bore the cross for us. For confession happens when we trust God to love us, to be merciful and faithful to us.
Be holy my friends, cry out to the Lord for mercy… and as you receive it, as you relish and rejoice in being made clean, as you rejoice in being His, you will find, He has declared you to be, and made you into a saint.
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way (Kindle Locations 668-670). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Challenge of Being Right
16 I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. 17 For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, “The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.”
Romans 1:16-17 (TEV)
When relating these events in his Gospel, Saint Matthew continually emphasizes Joseph’s faithfulness. He kept the commandments of God without wavering, even though the meaning of those commandments was sometimes obscure or their relation to the rest of the divine plan hidden from him. The Fathers of the Church and other spiritual writers frequently emphasize the firmness of Joseph’s faith. Referring to the angel’s command to fly from Herod and take refuge in Egypt,7 Saint John Chrysostom comments: “On hearing this, Joseph was not shocked nor did he say: ‘This is strange. You yourself made it known not long ago that he would save his people, and now you are incapable even of saving him—we have to flee, to set out on a long journey and spend a long while in a strange place; that contradicts your promise.’ Joseph does not think in this way, for he is a man who trusts God. Nor does he ask when he will return, even though the angel left it so vague: ‘Stay there, until I tell you to return.’ Joseph does not object; he obeys and believes and joyfully accepts all the trials.”8 Joseph’s faith does not falter, he obeys quickly and to the letter. To understand this lesson better, we should remember that Joseph’s faith is active, that his docility is not a passive submission to the course of events. For the Christian’s faith has nothing whatever to do with conformity, inertia, or lack of initiative. Joseph entrusted himself unreservedly to the care of God, but he always reflected on events and so was able to reach that level of understanding of the works of God which is true wisdom. In this way he learned little by little that supernatural plans have a logic which at times upsets human plans.
There are days where it is a challenge to live by faith, to live in view of the brutal world where people are butchered, tortured, and enslaved. There are days where the pain is much closer, a friend struggling with cancer, a son dealing with the death of a parent, the parent dealing with the death of a child. It can even be more of an irritant, an argument among friends, or even a relationship being broken, a relationship between people who should be united, but can’t get past their brokenness.
Some may dismiss these latter things by noting that we are sinners, that we are supposed to be broken, that what we need to do is be confident in our absolution. Surely that is true for sins in our past, but the danger lies in assuming that such a lack of faith is appropriate for tomorrow. The lesson that some will hear is that we don’t have to be concerned about loving our neighbor, caring for the widow and orphan, and if we fail to because of self-interest or greed or apathy? Oh well, confess it, and be confident in your forgiveness.
St Josemaria, in talking about Joseph, quotes one of the key verses for Martin Luther. The just shall live by faith! But what does that mean? Does it mean that we are simply quickened (as the old Creed says) and are alive because of faith, or does it mean we actually LIVE, day by day, moment by moment, dependent on God, trusting Him for what He has promised, revelling in the joy of His presence, even when life sucks?
That is life by faith, life in Christ, real life, the kind of life that accepts what comes to us, trusting and depending on God. This was ultimately freeing to Luther, not just in absolution, but in living. For Joseph, Escriva claims it gave him the strength to obey the angelic visitation that occurred in dreams (unlike Mary who encountered the angel face to face.) He just went, because he trusted God. He went depending on God, despite the oddities, despite the lack of answers, despite the appearance that God didn’t care.
You want to be right? Live this way, dependent on God, so dependent that obedience becomes more natural, and that when we fail, we run for forgiveness – in both cases dependent on the promise of God… How does this grow? Through encountering Christ through His word, through sacraments like the Eucharist, and through prayer and meditation on Christ.
For this is life!
Escriva, Josemaria. Christ is Passing By (Kindle Locations 1355-1371). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Our Need for Prayer
Devotional Thought of the Day:
3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? Hebrews 2:3 (NLT)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
The more you suffer, the more you are tempted the more you need to pray; prayer now alone can strengthen you with help and consolation. Let not pain and fierce temptation paralyze you prayer. The devil does all he can to prevent you from praying at these times. But rather than give into weak human nature which absorbs the soul in its paid so that it sees nothing else for the time, turn your eyes to our Lord and speak to Him standing so near. He is with you, looking on you lovingly, listening for your words. He tells you to speak, that He is there to hear you, that He loves you and you have not a word to say to Him, no look to give Him. What ingratitude! Look at Him speak to Him without ceasing, The deeper your agony, the deeper you must bury yourself in the Heart of your Beloved, and cling to His side with ceaseless prayer! (1)
I have to admit, while I don’t spend the time i would like, perhaps as much time I really need in prayer, the words in blue resonate with me.
I know them true, and it is why I can desire to spend more time, more hours, more days in prayer.
You may ask why I put the first reading there, about ignoring salvation. Simply put, because salvation isn’t just about the event, where God cleanses us from sin, washing us clean as He promises in our baptism, replacing our heart of stone with a heart of flesh and giving us His Spirit, (see Ezekiel 36:25). Salvation is rescuing us from and delivering us to something that is incredible.
As we are saved we become something. We become part of the people of God, daughters and sons of God, adopted and marked as His children, we enter into a entirely different relationship with God, one where He promises to never forsake us, never abandon us, never to stop working in our lives. We find life, a life lived in fellowship, in community, in communion with God.
And that is what we should never neglect, that is what we need to grow in, the awareness that the Lord is with you. (and yes, thank you – also with me). We need to learn to depend up this, not as a fact, but as reality. He is with us, ready to listen, ready to comfort, ready to heal, ready to reach out into this broken world.
Prayer then becomes the way of life, the very meaning of our salvation. Walking with God. Please re-read the second scripture passage and the italicized blue above, there is our hope. our peace, our comfort, our very ability to live.
In the past couple of weeks, many people I know have encountered death of their loved ones. I’ve talked to others, who have lost jobs, or are afraid of losing a relationship. Just knowing this is exhausting, tiring, painful, the feeling of emptiness and loneliness I observe is… crushing. For those directly involved, the devotional writer gets it right. The sorrow and grief consumes us. Nothing else can matter in that moment.
Until God breaks through, until He reminds us that He is here. There is a strong correlation between how quickly we hear His voice in those moments, and the time we spend walking with Him at other times. Even if we feel that there aren’t the other times. Yet if we neglect this, if we take Him for granted, it may take a longer time to find Him, when only His comfort is the answer. Don’t neglect Him, don’t
Then we can find rest and peace, dwelling in His love.
So pray my friends, realize God walks with you, and share with Him everything… and spend some time in stillness, and in quiet, and know He is God. AMEN!
(1) from Celtic Daily Prayer: Finian Reading for April 10th.
Where God Puts His Name
Where God Puts His Name
1 Kings 8:22-30; 41-43
† In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! †
May your ministry as people and pastors, proclaim the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to all of the broken people you come in contact with, including each other
When God Put His Name
Ted my friend, today you are going to hear some very special words… then again, you have heard them before. Sometimes with your ears, and other times, they sunk right down into your soul.
The first time your soul heard these special words, was just three years after the end of World War II. You were only three months and seven days old, and before you could even play the organ (I think), those words forever changed you, and your life. God marked you with them, He put His name on you in Baptism.
I messaged you last week, and asked you to think about how many times you’ve heard them in your life, and I could hear you laughing. Just the number of times you heard them, while sitting over on that organ bench, is beyond count.
From that bench, you heard Dr. Hendry say them, and Pastor Jerry, you heard the Reverend Vicar Dustin say them, and watched Vicar Matthew say them, and heard Dr. Stoterau say them, when Matt became a pastor, your pastor.
Each time you heard them, it was a blessing. It was a moment to remember and re-call that God made you one of His children, and the blessings of that relationship, both in this life and for eternity.
Today, when Dr. Stoterau says them over you as you are ordained, it is not for your sake, it is not to bless you. Stand up, and look around, see your friends, your church family. The reason you will hear these words is for their blessing… even as it costs you.
Adter you hear the words “I ordain you”, these are those special words, “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Those words are for them to hear, as God places His name here, for them! When you see the excitement in their eyes, because God has marked you again with His name, when they are as excited as Patriot fans in February, it is for their sake you will endure this. They may not realize it, but those words are for them.
The Parable of Solomon’s Temple
The Old Testament reading this afternoon is a parable, an illustration for everyone here to understand what ordination is.
As Solomon prays, he reveals why God puts His name places, why He will identify certain buildings and people to have an identity that is set apart from the norm. Maybe that is why pastors are not all that normal! Seriously, you know enough of us Ted to know it is not that the person who is ordained is anything special, it the reason that God ordains us that is special…
The same reason the Temple was built, for your parish to know that God hears their prayers, and responds to their prayers.
For Your “Identified” Parish!
When someone works as a chaplain, or a social worker in the medical field, you talk of your identified clients, and your unidentified clients. It is true about ministry as well You have your identified parish, and your real parish,
Your identified parish is the people here at Good Shepherd, the members, regular attendees, young and old, brand new Christians and those who have been Christians back into the middle of the last century.
When they come to you, whether it is here, or to your home, or at C&S coffee shop, pray with them, just like people went to the temple of Solomon. As you do, assure them, what was true in Solomon’s day, is still true. He prayed,
And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
By the way, this is the hardest part of your ministry, and sometimes the most frustrating. For in helping them to hear that God forgives them, you must remind them that they need to be forgiven.
That can happen in a coffee shop, as you preach, or hear their confession. It can happen as you counsel them.
Every one of us needs to know that God desires to forgive us, to heal our brokenness, to give us hope. Every one of us, including your peers in ministry, especially us. For if God can clean us up…
That is why God is marking you with His name. So that they can know that nothing will separate them from God, including their sin, and the sin of this world. As John writes in his first epistle, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous forgiving us of sin, and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.”
Still, they will not like to hear that they are sinners. Be patient and loving and you will get past that. They realize you are here, that God has put His name on you to assure them of that forgiveness, so they could audibly hear it, then, they will rejoice.
That is why you will preach, that is what you guarantee them in baptism, and part of what they receive as they the Body and Blood of Christ. It is what they hear when you say, as a called and ordained servant, I forgive you in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You will use His name, as He calls you to, and they will know they have been reconciled to God.
It is what they need, what God wants them to have.
It is why He marks you with His name today. To make sure they know His love and mercy!
For Your “Real” parish
Solomon’s prayer insisted that the temple was not built just for Israel. It is the same thing for you. Never think your people are only the people who find their way here on Sunday morning.
Your parish includes every person that comes to you! It includes the former students of La Contenta; the people you know about the town; anybody who knows you are a pastor. Your parish includes those who come up to and says, “Ted, can I have a few moments of your time, I need to talk.” It might be a former co-worker, it might even be one of these guys dressed funny. It might even be someone you do not know, who sees you in your collar.
God is putting His name on you for them that they too could pray, even if they do not know God by name yet! God knows their name, and He will have them contact you, so that you can encourage them to pray. Remember Solomon’s words here as well,
“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name, 42 for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, 43 then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. 1 Kings 8:41-43 (NLT)
The same Name that will mark you as one of the shepherds that He has given to His people. Not to make you famous, or special.
He is putting His name on you again, so they can know Him.
I’ve said this day, this time is a blessing for all of the people you know, and will know.
God placing His name on you is going to cost you a lot, and I am not just talking about those college loans. You already know this, that you will spend time at people’s bedsides. You will miss dinners (and Barb will miss you cooking dinner!). You will hand someone those last couple of bills you have in your pocket. You will cry with them, rejoice with them… be crushed when they refuse to repent, dance (reverently) when the prodigal comes home.
You will be here. You will be the place where God has put His name. So the believer can pray and know that God hears… and forgives. So that the unbeliever can pray, and know God hears… and know and trust in Him.
Those two things will make it all worth it.
When God puts His name on you, and makes you one of those that gets to help people realize He makes them His… I cannot explain the joy of this ministry (I can explain the pain) …but you will know it.
Blessings to you my friend, for God has made you His child by placing His name on you, and is putting His name on you again, to bless them, and so many others,
In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! AMEN!
What we need to know… to survive the Monday’s of life….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you. 26 I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart. 27 I will put my spirit in you and will see to it that you follow my laws and keep all the commands I have given you. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from everything that defiles you.. Ezekiel 36:25-29a (TEV)
12 My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13 The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. 14 And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17 This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:12-17 (TEV)
2 God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration. Jesus is my intimate Friend (another rediscovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart. The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road. Consider this often: you are God’s… and God is yours.
This morning as I was working out, I hit a wall. I thought I was done, at 12 minutes into my final treadmill session i knew I couldn’t go on any longer. I looked for an excuse to quit. I looked for a reason to end my suffering. I didn’t want to endure. A little more than 20 seconds later, the wall was there imposing, I needed to quit.
I heard in the back of my head my high school P.E. teacher’s rasping voice crying out LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Like back then, it made me want to quit even more.
Just like Mondays, and all the other days in life that seem like Mondays.
You know the feeling, like when you are in a meeting that is going on forever, as all the same issues keep frustrating things keep being rehashed. as you do your bills, and wonder about the day when there will be money left over. It’s when the long awaited rain shuts down roads you need to use to get to work. It’s when all that was good and precious that you experienced in worship yesterday become a faded memory, choked out by the world….
It’s monday.
Or it might as well be.
There is only one hope on Monday, there is only one thing that will kill off the drama, the anxiety, the lows that we face.
It’s to realize that we, you and I, are the people God loves. the people that He claimed. That the Trinity in all of Their glory has called you to live life in their glory. They didn’t insist that you come to Them, they’ve come to us!
Look at the promise in the reading from Ezekiel – the promise of Baptism! Look at how God takes care of us, from eliminating the sin in our lives, to setting up shop in our lives, creating something quite incredible!
Look at the words of Jesus. I know there is much criticism of those that treat Jesus as their brother, as if that meant all we did was “play” with Him. But there is something far different in knowing Christ is our brother than that (check out yesterday’s sermon for one)
Look at the words of Josemaria, these blessed words which encourage us to really think through what it means for God to be our Father, Jesus our brother/friend, and the Holy Spirit to be our very needed comforter!
This is what the Christian religion is about. It is how we get through life, even as we despise its shame, we look for the joy of walking with God, and one day, seeing Him face to face. it’s how we get passed minute 12 in our journey, how the wall that we hit, exhausted and weary, is destroyed. we find His strength, and He comes to us and helps us get to realize that though there are “Mondays” that even those Monday’s become our Sabbath, our day of rest.
For we are God’s people…..
and that trumps any Monday.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 237-242). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
