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Do we know what Patience is? Really?
Thoughts that carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross:
“But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God. You are patient and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15, NET)
God communicates his will to humanity so that the whole human race may take part in his divine life. In his high priestly prayer in John’s Gospel, Christ prays to the Father, saying:
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belong to you, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:6, 20; author’s translation)
The purpose of God’s revelation to humanity is for humanity to share in his divinity
Patience.
A virtue that is quite misunderstood at its core.
We think of it as being willing to wait a time in order to see our wants and desire come to fruition. I waited patiently in line for this, or I waited patiently for my promotion, or to be noticed by that person. Too often patience is intertwined with our own self-centeredness, our own narcissistic
I think if the goal is primarily about us, while it is delayed gratification, it isn’t the fullness of what patience is, at least scripturally. I think patience, Godly patience, is waiting for the best to occur to someone else. God’s will was to bless us, for us to take part in His divinity, in His glory, in His eternal life. It was already His, He didn’t have to wait for it, but He waits for us to join Him, to share in that life He plans for us.
Does He benefit? Yes, in seeing us benefit.
Is God willing to be patient with our understanding, our internalizing His revelation? Absolutely! All scripture testifies to His guiding our individual and communal journey toward Him.
There is nothing more important in life that this, nothing more amazing to think through, nothing more important to wait for–For that is what God is patient with, turning our very lives into works of art.
This is why we praise our God, for His vision of making us one with Him and in Him, and His patience and love which makes this happen.
(and now, let us imitate God, and be patient with others whom God is working on….)
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; p. 180). Emmaus Academic.
FROM GLORIOUS LIGHT TO GLORIOUS LIGHT: The Light is On, and So We Come Home!! An Epiphany Sermon on Isaiah 60:1-6
FROM GLORIOUS LIGHT TO GLORIOUS LIGHT
The Light is On,
and So We Come Home!!
Isaiah 60:1-6
† In Jesus’s Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you it is time to come home, and to bring your friends home with you!
- Introduction – Street lights…
Those were the days, when parents told their kids to “go outside and play” and outside had a 3 to 5 mile limit. Or at least it did in New Hampshire. Or maybe in Massachusetts it was an area several city blocks in dimension – maybe a quare mile or so.
Needless to say, whether there you were in the city, or in a town, there was one rule…
When the streetlights came on, you should be home!
Of course, we interpreted that to mean – when they came on, we had to start home! Where we would hear the rule again! When that streetlight comes on, you need to be at home!
There was the problem that on Brookdale Road that I lived on – there were only 5 street lights in 4.3 miles of road, and one of them was right across the street from our house!
But front lights and street lights growing up meant someone was home, and you would be welcome. You fell on your bike, riding in near darkness – was the Stober’s light on? The Zahn’s? the Jacksons? Or the Breen’s. If the light was on, they were home and guests—including injured kids—were welome.
- In Isaiah todey, the basic message is,
God is shinging the light of Christ on His people, letting others know it’s time, and it is okay, to come home.
The Absence of Light….
There are a bunch of cute stories going around, where a professor, or a junior teacher makes a comment about the existense of God and one of their students has to teah them a thing or two.
The basic premise of the teacher is that God can’t exist, because of negative things. If there was a God, we would only have good, and evil couldn’t exist. We would only have good health, and illness, heart problems and cancer wouldn’t exist. There would only be light, and darkness wouldn’t exist. His point was the the existence of evil, of illness, of darkness, and injustice wouldn’t exist.
The student, having thought through the words, asked to respond. Politely, she explained that those things he didn’t want to exist, only are known because they are the conseequences of removing what is good.
Evil doesn’t it exist on its own, it is simply is how we describe the lack of good. Illness is simply a term to describe the absence of health. Injustice is what happens where there is no justice. And of course, darkess is how we describe the absence of light.
For the people of God at the time of Israel, there was lacking a lot. The people of God were going into, or were already taken into captivity, their freedoms given away as they pursued sins, sins common to our society today.
You could start with the way they dealt with the widows and orphans and foreigners in their midst. You could move onto their lack of ethics and sexual morals, and in gossip and slaner. And most of all, the people of Judah and Israel were caught up in idolatry, the sin God warned about over and over in the first five books, as man created gods in their own likesness, who they asked to meet their desires.
In other words, the darkness that surrounded them was often the darkness they chose—the consequences of the sins they chose….
And in our day and age, the sins are much the same. We still struggle with dealing with those who have less, we still have trouble with ethics in business and life, and in following God’s plan for sexual morality. Gossip and slander abound, especialy as we try to find scapegoats for things that hurt us and those we love. And we create our own idols—things we count on when life is updside down.
Hear the description of their days, “”Darkness as black as night covers ALL the nations of the earth….
but….”
- They come to worhsip the Lord – because Christ shined..
but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you. All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance. “Look and see, for everyone is coming home! Your sons are coming from distant lands; your little daughters will be carried home. Your eyes will shine, and your heart will thrill with joy,
What a big but.. hmmm – what an enormously different direction the scriptures twist, as thy aniticipate the one who would be recognzied when “Vast caravans of camels will converge on you, the camels of Midian and Ephah. And…”The people of Sheba will bring gold and frankincense and will come worshiping the Lord.”
This prophecy is part of why we call the visitation of the Magi, the Wise Men, Epiphany. Days after the birth of Jesus, Isaiah’s prophecy aabout people who weren’t the people of God coming to worship Him—something that has been happening every since, and even more since the resurrection and ascension.
The light has come, and all are welcome to come home!
Look at the joy Isaiah speaks of! The kind of joy where your eyes twinkle and sparkle with joy. Picture the joy of grandparents, seeing their grandchildren for the first time as babies.
What a glorious moment! What a trememdously incredible moment, to see people come to God, to come home, because they saw the light of Christ.
We reflect that glory, that light of Christ which shatters our darkness, sometimes even on a daily basis…
And that reflection, as we realize the glory of the Lord, as we realize that love of God, results in even more coming Home…to the Father, through Jesus.
To confidently celebrate in the glorious prsence of our Lord…the presence where we find His peace – that passes all understanding, as our hearts nad minds-for we dwell in Christ. AMEN!
If We Expect Others to Come to Repentance…
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross
“During the day when the people are watching, bring out the things you would pack as captive. At evening, with the people watching, leave your place like those who are taken away as captives from their country. Dig a hole through the wall while they watch, and bring your things out through it. Lift them onto your shoulders with the people watching, and carry them out in the dark. Cover your face so you cannot see the ground, because I have made you a sign to the people of Israel.”” (Ezekiel 12:4–6, NCV)
For the Gospel does not preach the forgiveness of sin to indifferent and secure hearts, but to the “oppressed” or penitent (Luke 4:18). And in order that contrition or the terrors of the law may not end in despair, the proclamation of the Gospel must be added so that it becomes a “contrition that leads to salvation” (2 Cor. 7:10).
28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:28 (NLT2))
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5 (NLT2)
One of the men I trained for ministry, first as a deacon, then as a pastor, was excellent at stating the profoundly obvious. He did it in a fun, but also deeply challenging way. Perhaps his best observation was a couple of years into preaching regularly as he said, “we preach the same thing every week, we just use different words.
But another deep thought he caused, when he asked, “why are my best sermons the ones where God forces me to apply the passage to my own life all week long.” If we were preaching about God lifting up the humbled, we would be humbled. If we talked about God being there with those who were broken, something would break us. If we were preaching about worshipping the God who came near and rescued us…. we would get to worship, only if we had to be rescued from something.
It seems like we aren’t the first to notice it, Ezekiel had to be a model of what God needed to teach Isreal, more than the one time in today’s devotion. Jeremiah is often frustrated by this as well, as are others, even Hosea. Our lives as leaders in the church (not just pastors – all leaders) are broken in the ways our congregations are, and we need to let God address them–and then appropriately worship and praise Him.
Moving through my devotions to my reading in the Lutheran Confessions, this hit a little close to home. If I am going to preach the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, that means I have to let the Spirit circumcise my own heart. I have to recognise how sin oppresses, I have to learn (again!) to trust God to take action in my own life, that I may hear with joy the forgiveness that comforts this broken soul.
Mark was right – we need to let God preach our messages into our hearts first, to let the words that cut and heal have their way.
Then we rejoice when we share them with the flock entrusted to us, the ones we are tasked with guiding towards the Healer of their souls…as ours have begun healing. That is the other advantage to being the exmaple, we recognize the healing they join us in…as we are all ministered to, by the Ho.y Spirit.
Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration: Law and Gospel, Tappert, Theodore G., ed. 1959. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Lord, You Hear Us? Yes you Do!
Thoughts which drag me back to Jesus and to the Cross
He will say to me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock, my Savior.’ 27 I will make him my firstborn son, the greatest king on earth. 28 My love will watch over him forever, and my agreement with him will never end. 29 I will make his family continue, and his kingdom will last as long as the skies! Ps 89:26–29. NCV
LORD Jesus, I regard Thy bowed head upon the cross, as the sign that Thy head is ever graciously inclined to hear me and all poor sinners in our need. Hear, therefore, the poor contrite hearts and minds, who, in these latter evil days, sigh and cry unto Thee without ceasing. Their hearts are assured that Thine ear is open unto them, and Thou wilt not let them cry in vain; for Thou wilt answer them quickly, “here am I, here am I.” Thou wilt save and grant them life and full satisfaction. Amen.
Basically, then, whatever Jesus did in the company of the Twelve served, at the same time, to lay the foundation of the Church insofar as it was done to prepare them for their role as the spiritual fathers of the new people of God. He regarded the new community of salvation that he created as a new Israel, as a new people of God that has as its center the celebration of the Last Supper in which it originated and which continues to be at the heart of its life. In other words: the new people of God is the people of the body of Christ.
I usually start my posts saying the thoughts draw me to the cross, but lets be honest, some days they have to drag me there.
My thoughts contend with where I know I should be, as they seek to take up burdens I thought I laid down at the altar before. Thoughts about things far out of my control, or even if can be an influence in the issue, the influence has to point to Jesus, not my wisdom, (this is hard for some of us to distinguish)
This is where, hopefully, a devotional life helps constrain my desire to fix everything, knowing that hope comes from God, and that Jesus is the Savior, their Savior. I am not saying there aren’t times that the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak thru me, but that needs to be the cry of the Psalmist – who prophetically points to our Lord Jesus–for it is His agreement with the Father that reconciles us, that provides the remedies we need.
The section of Loehe’s prayers that I am in now, so speak to this – that Jesus will hear our cries, that He will understand our heaviest sighs, that His Spirit will comfort and defend us–as He presence is revealed to be where we are! I and the church so desperately need that!
This is why the Lord’s Supper is so critical in a church that has experienced trauma, or division, or decline. It pulls us out our our individual selves into the community of God’s people. It refocuses us on the sacrifice of Christ, for us. It draws us into that sacrifice on the cross, where our passions and sin are cut away. It is there the church and the individuals God has called to be one in Hm find healing, that find peace…that find hope.
And from that place of healing–that is where we find the heart that will call out to others, that they may be reconciled to Christ as well.
Even if they have to be dragged there, as we do at times.
Lœhe, William. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller, Wartburg Publishing House, 1914, p. 370.
Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 182.
They Need Jesus, not just words about Jesus! (A Sacramental Discussion)
Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross,
10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The LORD knew Moses face to face 11 and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt. 12 Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see. Exodus 34:10-12 NCV
That’s essentially the same joke as the one about the theologian who died and was given the choice by God between going to Heaven or going to a theology lecture about Heaven, and he chose the lecture.
Constricted by our finitude, driven by restlessness, and induced by unfulfilled longings we go about our lives in frantic search of our true home, true love, and true identity. We cling to ideas, people, experiences, relationships, or professional identities that we hoped would fill the gaping hole within us. The cycle of restlessness, reaction, and rapaciousness is the breeding ground of human suffering. The creation narrative exposes this daunting yet redeemable reality.
Yesterday in reading Peter Kreeft’s excellent apologetic treatise, I came across the line in blue above.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a joke unless it bore some resemblance to truth. Unfortunately, I think this vocational risk for academic theologians has infected the clergy and leadership of the church. We hear more about the church, and more about apologetics, and more about the nature of God than we do being introduced to God and interacting with Him. I am as guilty of it as any, but while we should be hearing Him, while we should be know God, as Moses did, face to face, we talk about Him.
And then we wonder why our churches are lifeless, why they are more and more empty, why our lessons and sermons fall on deaf ears, why pastors will spend saturday afternoons surfing the internet to find a sermon that might make a difference! (I’ve seen it, some weeks I will have 400 hits on searches find a sermon from 6 or 9 years ago! I think about Nolasco’s words about the people searching, and I don’t believe they will find that which fills the holes that cause such mental, psychological and spiritual anguish if all we do is tell them about the doctrines of Christ.
They will just move on to try and find some hope, somewhere else. They will find some other substitute to cling too, some other remedy, or more likely, something to deaden the pain.
Our Lord isn’t dead. We don’t have to talk about Him as if He was!
They need to know Him, they need to experience His love! They need to walk with Him on the side of the lake, or through the streets surrounding Union Station in KC (if you read this in the future, there was a gun battle there yesterday) They need to realize His presence in courtrooms, and rehab facilities.
They need to experience their reality redeemed, and reconciled with how God exists in their life.
They need Jesus…and so do you and I.
That is where word and Sacrament ministry – that is the sharing of God’s word in scripture, and the sacraments being the conduits of God’s merciful blessings are all about. The word of God, the gospel that tells you that is was always His plan to be in relationship with us, and detail what that looks like (what is called the law) and ho He creates and restores in (the promises of the gospel) The sacraments bring us into that relationship – that union/unity with Jesus. Each in its own way, not only assuring us of our forgiveness, but welcoming us into the presence of God, That is what baptism, confession and absolution, and the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper promises and delivers!
The chance to experience what Moses did and better, the opportunity to have God dwell in us, and us in God.
This is what matters, this is what our family needs, our churches, our communities, our countries… our world.
Lord, help us draw people to You, where they will find life.
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 57). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Nolasco, Rolf, Jr. 2011. The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
Before the Harvest! A Sermon on Psalm 67
“Before the Harvest”
Psalm 67
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be evident in your life in the Harvest field!
- You are that answer to Prayer
For the next 11 weeks we are going to be talking about God working through us, turning us into an answer to prayer—a prayer Jesus taught us to pray. It comes from Matthew 9:38, There, we find written:
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
Matthew 9:36-38 (NLT2)
And so we pray, and then we find that we are the answer to pray – each one of is not just sent into the harvest fields once in a while, God has called us to live in the midst of the field that He has planted.
As we look at this, there are a number of lessons to learn experientially, before we get to the reading of Revelation 7, and the final eternal celebration of the Harvest:
We will hear that description on Reformation day,
“9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a mighty shout, (have everyone read this part) “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10 (NLT2)
I can’t wait to hear you say that in heaven!
Today’s reading from Psalm 67 talks about it… we see the promise of the harvest, 6 Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. 7 Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him.
So what happens before that…
- Before the harvest
Is prayer – a prayer that God’s blessings be known, not just to us, or to the Israeli people, but to everyone. Hear it again!
2 May your ways be known throughout the earth, your saving power among people everywhere. 3 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 4 Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world.
5 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you.
I still wish Bible translators knew of the existence of exclamation points!
People throughout the whole earth, people everywhere, need to know what God is doing! How He is using all His power to save people everywhere! We need to know, everyone needs to know God is there, to the point where their reaction is simply to praise Him.
Which means to know what it means to be saved.
We need to explore that – because to just say, “hey, you were just saved.”—especially without a exclamation point…. Doesn’t inspire a lot of praise and adoration.
Our salvation – yeah that does. Or it should!
- Justice and Guidance
So to understand salvation – we have to look deeper into the passage, to where it talks about God governing the nations with both justice and guidance.
The first is justice – everyone thinks they want justice in this world, until you really think about what it means. I had two instances where I had to think about what justice truly is this week. One situation has played out in the news, the other was regarding something I witnessed.
The first case, I urged patience in, the details of the court case was only given by one side. And the other side is only beginning to be heard. Rumors abound, which doesn’t help anyone, it just divides people. The second case, I thought I wanted what I thought would be justice… and then, when it didn’t go quickly or easily, I became uneasy, and when the dust settled – my thought was the accused got way too light of a sentence for the suffering he caused.
And then I looked at my sermon notes again…
If anyone of us got the sentence that justice demands for our sins, the sins we commit in our thoughts through our words and what we do, not one of us should be here. Not one of us should be allowed to receive communion, in fact, Bob and I should be struck dead as we approach the altar…
So God’s justice cannot be what we call justice. It must be something more…
It has to be God’s justice, or to use the other word that is translated as–His righteousness. God governs us, which is about judging us and our lives.
And in His righteousness, He sees us as righteous.
His level of righteous…for in Christ’s death and resurrection, Jesus was credited with our sinfulness, as He credited us with His complete righteousness. So, God is completely just, His judgment is unquestionable.
After judging us as righteous, God does something even more phenomenal. He invests in our lives. He guides us and takes responsibility for our lives.
This is why we praise Him! He makes us His own, caring for us, cleansing us, walking with us through life, simply because He loves us.
These are His ways that need to be made know throughout the earth, the effective way He will save everyone who depends on Him..
- The Harvest that is now – and not yet
As we spread that message, as those seeds are planted, they grow until the harvest at the end of time. We heard it from the Psalmist earlier, but let’s hear it again,
5 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. 6 Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us
Or as Jesus said it
13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come. Matthew 24:13-14 (NLT2)
So its simple – we work in the fields we live in, sharing the work of God, knowing His presence, and then, the harvest happens, and we are all brought before the throne of God. Until that day, God governs us and guides us, His people as we dwell in His peace…doing His will, sharing His love with the world. AMEN!!
The Peril of Theology-Driven and/or Social Ministry Driven “Church”
Thoughts which guide me to Jesus, and to the Cross
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from death, after you had killed him by nailing him to a cross. 31God raised him to his right-hand side as Leader and Saviour, to give the people of Israel the opportunity to repent and have their sins forgiven. 32We are witnesses to these things—we and the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to those who obey him. Acts 5:30-32 GNT
I have read a statement by Martin Lloyd-Jones, the English preacher and writer, in which he said: “It is perilously close to being sinful for any person to learn doctrine for doctrine’s sake.”
I agree with his conclusion that doctrine is always best when it is incarnated—when it is seen fleshed out in the lives of godly men and women. Our God Himself appeared at His very best when He came into our world and lived in our flesh!
For those who are always impetuously anxious to be about the business of helping the world it must be said that this is also the primary way in which the church can help the world. The world needs above all to know that in the gospel of the crucified and risen Lord it too comes up against its limit, end, and goal. Only where and when the gospel is heard will people be set free to turn back to the world and genuinely care for it. As the “outpost” of the new age, the kingdom of God, the church must proclaim this gospel so that all, including the world, may be saved.
As I look at the church today, whether Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, or the various colors and shades of Evangelical, I see two groups. The first is concerned with theology and doctrine, what is being taught in sermons, in Bible studies and the like. They talk in a language they think everyone should understand, and to be honest, they come across uncaring at times. (they do come from every part of the theological spectrum, by the way) Without intending to, they become the people MLJ and Tozer identify, those who are studying doctrine for doctrine’s sake. They have their blogs, their podcasts, their micro-conventions, and their para-church ministries set up to share what they’ve learned with others.
The other group of people are concerned with social ministry of one kind or another. It can range from feeding the poor, to a Bullet’s and the Bible club, from ministering to the LGBTQ community (whether supporting or trying to rescue them rfom their lifestyles) to protecting the lives of pregnant mothers and the babies within them. They also can get to the point where their ministries become their reason for “religion,” and anyone outside of this is just not like Christ, and those who are apathetic toward their cause, well, maybe they aren’t truly Christian. Forde tries to offer insights to those who would change the world, and jump on bandwagons that promise it can be easily done.
There are a few of us who try to reconcile the doctrine/practice division, only to find frustration as neither group is satisfied. And to be honest, striking that balance is challenging. And, to be honest, the desire to reconcile these two things may fall into the same error that they both do….
The key must be to see Jesus, to see both theology and action as side effects of walking with Jesus. Not proof that we are, not requirements that we do, but just something that happens as we wander through life with Him. We need to know that He died and rose, and His death is where our journey with Him really starts. It is what the Spirit draws us into, in our baptism, the same Holy Spirit who abides in us, comforting us, drawing us into this relationship with God that is what holiness really is. Both Tozer and Forde see that as key point that the theologians and social ministry folk need to come back to as their focus.
This is who we are – those who have been cleansed of sin, who are HIs beloved children. Theology then is learning about Him and the journey we are on with Him, and social ministry is something we do together with Him.
But it comes back to being in His presence, to knowing His love…
Anything else, any other way becomes idolatry, quickly.
So spend time with Him, get to know Him, walk with Him and see what He does with your mind, and you actions.
A. W. Tozer and Gerald B. Smith, Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008).
Gerhard O. Forde, “Proclaiming,” in Theology Is for Proclamation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 190.
Are We the Modern Prophets?
Thoughts that drag me to Jesus, and to the cross
15The 50 prophets from Jericho saw him and said, “The power of Elijah is on Elisha!” They went to meet him, bowed down before him, 16and said, “There are fifty of us here, all strong men. Let us go and look for your master. Maybe the spirit of the LORD has carried him away and left him on some mountain or in some valley.”
“No, you must not go,” Elisha answered.
17 But they insisted until he gave in and let them go. The 50 of them went and looked high and low for Elijah for three days, but didn’t find him. 18Then they returned to Elisha, who had waited at Jericho, and he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” 2 Kings 2:15-18 GNT
In other words, the church is not just any assembly that happens to call itself by the name of Jesus for whatever reason or purpose, or where there may be orders calling themselves holy and so on. To counter a current heresy, the church is not just “people.” That assertion may rightly controvert the idea that the church is a building or even an institution, but it too easily forgets that the church is a gathering called and shaped by the gospel of its Lord, Jesus Christ. The Christian church occurs where the quite specific activity known as speaking the gospel occurs and the sacraments are administered according to that gospel. Where that does not occur there is no such thing as the church of Jesus Christ.
I look at the 50 prophets that Elisha encountered, and I see me.
And I see the church today.
We can recognize the Spirit of God on someone; we see the call God has laid on their life, But when they speak for Him, it is as if we didn’t know them, or we doubted they speak for God, and we go and waste a couple of days, doing our own thing.
We do this with each other, and we do this even with the scriptures. Liberal and conservative alike, we look for what resonates with our emotions and our thoughts, blissfully forgetting those emotions and thoughts have been twisted by sin.
We see that to an extent in the claim that “people are the church,” when people are talking about the buildings, but even more about the structure and those in responsibility. No longer is the church where God’s word is preached, and He blesses people with the sacraments. Forde rails against this–for where is there hope given, where is life cleansed, where else is there a chance to be still, and be revived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
While church should serve man, it should not serve his desires. Elisha was grieving, but he was also aware the time had come for others to step up, for Elijah to rest. The 50 should have done the same, for they saw God at work. When we hear the gospel, when we see the miraculous sacraments, I pray that we can be like Elijah, and work from that place of communion, humbling ourselves, and repenting of our trying to replace God.
Lord, help us to recognize the Elisha’s in our lives, help us to hear Your word, and receive your sacraments, and then help us to die to self, and see Christ live with us. AMEN!
i
Gerhard O. Forde, “Proclaiming,” in Theology Is for Proclamation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 186–187.
The Necessity of Self-Examination
Thoughts which drive me to Jesus, and to the cross!
Do not work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him John 6:27 GNT
We must at least know ourselves well enough to recognize our own illusions, our own limitations, our own weaknesses, enough to be able to tell when it is not the charity of Christ that speaks in our hearts, but only our own self-pity … or ambition, or cowardice, or thirst for domination.
Dry bones. We see sin and judgment on the sin. That is what it looks like. It looked that way to Ezekiel; it looks that way to anyone with eyes to see and brain to think; and it looks that way to us.
“But we believe something else. We believe in the coming together of these bones into connected, sinewed, muscled human beings who speak and sing and laugh and work and believe and bless their God. We believe it happened the way Ezekiel preached it, and we believe it still happens. We believe it happened in Israel and that it happens in church. We believe we are a part of the happening as we sing our praises, listen believingly to God’s Word, receive the new life of Christ in the sacraments. We believe the most significant thing that happens or can happen is that we are no longer dismembered but are remembered into the resurrection body of Christ.
I read the words of Merton in my devotions this morning, and they stung.
As they should!
Perhaps they should have even stung more!
We must regularly examine our thoughts, words and deeds, as Paul tells us to in 1 Corinthians. To walk thorugh the valley of Romans 7 and realize that Paul wasn’t talking about a battle prior to coming to Christ, but the battle within each of us this day. We need to recognize when it is Christ that lives, and when we are struggling not to die to self.
We need to see the dry bones, to see the ravaged wasteland caused by sin in our world, but even more in our lives.
We have to see them, there is no option. It is depressing, it can suck the life out of you. But we need to see the effect of our sin.
For only by doing so, can our knowledge become our plea, and the answer our reality. For just as we had to acknowledge our sin in order to see our need for the cross, so to do we need to see our sin so that the Holy Spirit can create new life in broken lives. We need to know that our cry, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner” is, and always will, be answered!
Peterson’s words come in the midst of a dialogue about the necessity and focal point of pastoral ministry, that of word and sacrament–and the need of people to receive that – even if they don’t presently want it. That’s the message of Jesus’ words this morning as well–to go after what really matters, what really brings us to life– the work of the Holy Spirit as the words and Sacraments serve as the conduit of a grace beyond measure.
This is how life begins… this is how it is nurtured, as the old, sin-burdened man is put to death, and a life transformed in and conformed to Jesus begins anew.
Lord, once again, heal our brokenness by killing off that which is not of You, and bring us to life, in Christ. AMEN!
Thomas Merton, The New Man (London; New York: Burns & Oates, 1976), 138.
Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, vol. 17, The Leadership Library (Carol Stream, IL; Dallas; Waco, TX: Christianity Today; Word Pub., 1989), 144.
Challenging but Necessary…
Thoguhts that drive me to Jesus… and to the Cross
When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the paralysed man, “Courage, my son! Your sins are forgiven.” Then some teachers of the Law said to themselves, “This man is speaking blasphemy!” Jesus perceived what they were thinking, so he said, “Why are you thinking such evil things? Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? I will prove to you, then, that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralysed man, “Get up, pick up your bed, and go home!” Matt 9:2-6 GNT
Wherever the carnal man is savingly touched by the Word of God, one thing is felt, another is wrought, namely, “The Lord killeth and maketh alive.” Though God is the God of life and salvation and these are his proper works, yet, in order to accomplish these, he kills and destroys, that he may come unto his proper work. He kills our will, that he may establish his own in us. He mortifies the flesh and its desires, that he may implant the Spirit and his desires; and thus “the man of God is made perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
For what, indeed, is a position of spiritual authority but a mental tempest in which the ship of the heart is constantly shaken by storms of thoughts, tossed back and forth, until it is shattered by a sudden excess of words like hidden rocks of the sea?
All too often what happens is that the systematic theology short-circuits the process and usurps the place of the proclamation. The secondary discourse about love displaces the “I love you.” One ends then by delivering some species of lecture about God and things rather than speaking the Word from God. When this occurs, it matters little whether the lecture in question is conservative, liberal, evangelical, or fundamentalist. That only means the lecture is to one degree or another theologically correct. But that is of no great moment if it does not issue in proclamation.
Luther’s words about God killing off our will are so needed today, in my life. And I believe they are needed to be heard by every person in the world, if the individual and indeed, communities, are going to survive.
For until our will is finished with, we will be satisfied with whatever thrills us, whatever agrees with us, and we will not see a need for anything else. We will be satisfied with talking about love, rather than knowing we are loved. We will be glad about talking about God’s covenant, rather than rejoicing we are in a relationship. Mercy will just become a blessing, rather than something which transforms the soul.
In order to take that step, we need to be put to death, our passions, our pride, our will. I think this is why Gregory talks about the tempest those in ministry go through…because, like Peter, we need to let Jesus rescue us from drowning… it isn’t enough to just walk on the water. We need what Luther calls mortification – the dying off time, when all there is to life is the hand of God, lifting us out of the darkness.
This is what Paul shares with the church in Rome in Romans 6-8 – that part of salvation is God cleansing us, breaking us, and killing off our will so that we rise with Christ anew. I see it in the lives of some of my people, who take on incredible burdens, and find it joyous, as they see God at work in the lives of those they help, or those who see them helping. It is amazing to see God at work at such times. There is a correlation between knowing God’s love and showing that love to others that is only possible because of a deep, intimate relationship with God.
This is stuff that needs to be not only thought through – but lived through. Some may even experience it, without being able to put it into words. Like the man whose friends brought him to Jesus, they have imply clung to God during the storm, and treasure His presence. They know He has said to them, “I love you”
I pray then that we can enter those stormy times in our lives… assured of His love for us, and His presence that will see us through.
Martin Luther and John Sander, Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915), 397–398.
St Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, ed. John Behr, trans. George E. Demacopoulos, vol. 34, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007), 42.
Gerhard O. Forde, Theology Is for Proclamation (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1990), 4–5.
