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Lord, You Really Want Me to do this? Don’t you have a better option?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
17 When the seventy-two n came back, they were very happy and said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we used your name!”
18 Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Listen, I have given you power to walk on snakes and scorpions, power that is greater than the enemy has. So nothing will hurt you. 20 But you should not be happy because the spirits obey you but because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 NCV
10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. Ephesians 2:10 (NJB)
I think that the hands of a priest, rather than expressing routine gestures, must tremble with excitement when administering baptism or giving the absolution of sins or blessing the sick because they become instruments of the creative power of God.
For priests, pastors and all those who minister to others, there is a fine balance between humility and confidence. And if we are honest, it is when we are struggling with the latter that we don’t act all that humble. I imagine there may be one or two of us that think they are God’s gift to the church. (In a way they are0 But many of us still wonder why God has put us here, why God has entrusted to us this incredible, sacred, beautiful, demanding ministry.
I love Pope Francis’s words about our ministry. He nails it when talking about the awe that hits you when you pray over someone, or see their body loose every bit of tension and anxiety as they realize God’s forgiveness, as they realize He is present. I still can recall the eyes of people after I have baptized them, or their children. (Two incredible “devout” atheist/agnostic types come to mind as I baptized their children – eyes bright and full of tears… and God isn’t done with them either!) But his also occurs when we pray with someone over breakfast, or see people having an “aha” at work, as they realize another dimension of God’s love because we said something.
It is in those moments that our lives do feel like a work of art, as God weaves our lives with others, and creates something wonderful. If it iis awe-inspiring to consider sinners in the hands of an angry God, how much more incredible is it to see God work through the hands of a repentant sinner who trusts in Him?
Still, my heart cries out… why? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?
Nothing of course.
Which is where the first gospel reading helps us maintain some manner of balance. As wonderful it is that God can use us, the even more wonderful thing is that we already are certain He’s got us, we are HIs, our names are written in the Heaven,
That is even more amazing. As broken, as sinful, as able as I am to screw up something, God has claimed us as His.
SO tomorrow, as you go to preach, or lead worship, to distribute communion or work with the children’s ministry, or just tell the person next to you – God is with you, indeed, you are being used by God, you carry His presence within you, and it is blessing others. Remember though, that is simply proof of a greater mystery, a greater blessing. You are one of God’s people, He is your God, and He loves you! (me too!)
Pope Francis. A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. Ed. Alberto Rossa. New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013. Print.
Happiness? Sex, Anxiety and the Daily Grind…. but also…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
4 May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! Philippians 4:4 (TEV)
61 “Happy?” The question made me think. Words have not yet been invented to express all that we feel in the heart and in the will – when we know ourselves to be children of God!. (1)
I just entered a chapter in Furrow that is all about happiness, or perhaps, more accurately in English – joy.
I don’t feel all that full of joy today. I have a bear of a sermon to write ( on the plan of God revealed in “Do not Commit Adultery.” to my older congregation. I am dealing with some anxiety because of what I know some friends are enduring things I cannot imagine. I am tired and sore and the idea of putting on a fake smile and saying, “It is well”. I would feel like a hypocrite. a liar, and in this season of Lent, not quite right. I am supposed to be, and in many ways I am lamenting this broken world in which we walk. THere are days when what resonates with me is not “Rejoice!” but the phrase from my teenage years, “Life a b&@*#” or as Siddhartha Buddha put it, “Life is suffering”
Rejoice always?
Yeah, Sure.
Even as I type, I know that tonight, as the beginning notes of the Kyrie are played, as the voices of our congregation sing God’s praises, as they proclaim His love, I will know joy. It will hear such joy in laughter, as they watch an middle age pastor try to preach about God’s masterpiece of life….within the scope of God’s words about….. SEX? I will know such joy as we communion, fellowship, as we share in Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. It will extend through-out the service, and as we eat together, sharing in each other’s lives.
But what about until then? How will I know that joy? How will I obey Paul’s command to “REJOICE?”
I need to hear it less as a command, more of an encouragement, a reminder,
St . Josemaria does a great job helping me see beyond what I have read (and heard ) for years. It is as we know ourselves as God’s children that we can find that joy. Even in lament, as we know, as we trust God, and know His promises of His presence, of His love, mercy and how He cares for us, It is that incredible love that gives us a sense that all will work it out.
No wonder ancient Jews would bind the word of God to their forehead and to their hands. TO constantly remind them of this. It’s why I usually wear a cross, either the one embroidered on my shirt, or one around my neck.
Paul says that to the church in Phillipi, in that passage ( I chose to use the TEV this morning – because it makes it more clear) Joy is found as we now we are in Christ. In that union. For God has attached us to Christ, to Him in His death, and in His resurrection. And even more, in the very presence of the Father. Again, from Paul,
1 You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. 2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.Colossians 3:1-3 (TEV)
There it is, the words of life, that remind us of our greatest joy…..>
That we aren’t alone, that God is here… with us… and we are more than just walking through this life…
There is our joy, there is our hope, there are we…. with Him.
(1) Escrvia, Josemaria Furrow
The Holy Spirit gives gifts… but not to individuals…
Devotional THought of the Day:
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. 5 There are different ways to serve the same Lord, 6 and we can each do different things. Yet the same God works in all of us and helps us in everything we do. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (CEV)
422 If the Lord has given you some natural quality or skill, you should not just enjoy it yourself or show off about it; you should use it charitably in the service of your neighbour. And what better occasion than now will you find to serve, since you live with so many souls who share the same ideal as yourself?
Yesterday I wrote about our need as believers to grow, and the responsibility of the church, (and by this I mean not the institution, but all the peope of God) to encourage and develop each other.
But that is… a little misleading. For while we work together, while we encourage each other, while we occaisonally confront each other, it isn’t our work. It isn’t our strenth, our skills, we don’t get to take credit for it.
It is His work, we are, together, collectively, His masterpeice, His poetry, THat’s where the word poetry comes from – poeima – His work, His masterpiece, the very work of God. That is who we are, not passive people, but people working with our Father in His business – in recreating this world, taking that which is broken and battered by sin and the world, and bringing His healing, His love, his reconciliation, that’s our work.
Whereever God takes us, whether it’s working in the drive through at McDonald’s or managing a department of a univerity Whether it’s being the low man on the totem pole or being the President. It’s His placement, When we talk about HIs gifts, and the fact that He gives gifts to us, but it is not a gift to us… the gift is us to each other. We are His creation, His masterpice, but we are given to Him , and too each other.
That’s a challenge, because as gifts, we must do things, we work together, with the gifts we have become, strengthening each other, loving each other, serving each other. That’s who we are. Not passive, not employed at at other thing… but to serve God by serving each other.
That’s what we are abot – that’s why we have gifts..
.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1889-1892). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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Grateful to be used…
English: Jesus Christ – detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional?Discussion Thought of the day:
10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. Ephesians 2:10 (NJB)
I don’t like to speak of someone being singled out to be part of a privileged elect. But it is Christ who speaks, who chooses. It is the language of holy Scripture: “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy,” Saint Paul tells us.3 I know that such thoughts don’t fill you with pride nor lead you to think yourself better than other men. That choice, the root of our vocation, should be the basis of our humility. Do we build monuments to an artist’s paintbrush? Granted the brush had a part in creating masterpieces, but we give credit only to the painter. We Christians are nothing more than instruments in the hands of the creator of the world, of the redeemer of all men. (1)
Among the mysteries of God that easily overwhelm me, is the idea that God uses us….especially that he uses me….
But this idea of someone else, even Someone else, using me – at times rubs raw against the way I have been raised. Don’t I have a choice in the matter? Can’t I choose when and where and … how much?
Especially the how much!
It seems like God wants an aweful lot from us at times! First all the behaving appropriate, following the rules, do this, don’t do that, and even though I know the rules are there to protect my peace, my sanity, my eternity – there is a part of me that just…needs to rebel. Claim some of my own time, take a spiritual day off, get some freedom…..maybe even adopt a pet (sin) or two. I mean, does God really expect us to be available for others, serve others, love others, and forgive others, all the time?
The answer is – yeah – pretty much.
After all, He didn’t just create us, He designed and created and breathed life into us. He created us and then cleans us up – renews us – breathes life into beings that really, only knew death. In doing so, He makes of us even a more glorious masterpiece – but the glory is all His. For in us – we find a masterpiece that is an incredible paradox. Spirit and flesh, sinner and saint, creature yet friends, partners with creation, dead to sin, yet alive in Christ, part of the Body of Christ, yet also His Bride. Living in mortal bodies, yet blessed with immortality… people who walk with God.
For we are created… to be His children.
That is His goal, that has always been His goal…. and He is the only one that can assure it.
And even as He uses us, even if that means like Paul we are to be poured out like a drink offering… we come to rejoice even in that…. and we find ourselves…grateful… joyful, that God would use us…. for that proves we are His chosen people.
AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). Christ is Passing By (Kindle Locations 379-385). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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