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Rejoice! For God is in Charge! (and a pastor parker parable)
Rejoice! God is in Charge!
Matt 4:12-25
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace and mercy of God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you that the Kingdom of God is here… and that He’s made you to fish for men!
The Kingdom of God is like…
Another one of Pastor Parker’s Parables this morning.
“The Kingdom of God is Like Starting Your Very First Job.”
For me, it was as dishwasher at the restaurant at the Salem Inn. Four to Eleven three nights a week, Four to Twelve Fridays and Saturdays, plus sometimes banquets on Saturdays and Sundays. Two dollars and eighty-five cents an hour,, plus a dollar or two if the waitresses were busy and I delivered room service for them.
I remember the first day, the cool industrial dishwasher (I thought I would be doing it by hand!) the noise and bustle, the ancient 45 year old chef, the sweetness of the waitresses and the speed at which they could turn into Medusa, if their orders were delayed.
I remember getting yelled at a bit, and working so hard to try and keep up with the flood of dirty plates, silverware, coffee mugs, taking out the trash, and the absolute fear when in front of the manager I accidently dropped a plate….
Fear and joy, frustration and terror, determination to do a good job and keep ahead of the game, and yet… why was I always the last person in the restaurant to get my job done? Why was I the guy to shut off the lights?
As we are going about our lives, and hear the call of Jesus to follow Him, to be transformed for the Kingdom of God is here… our heart might race like it is the first day on the job.
For while we are excited to be there, we don’t quite comprehend what we are called to do. The difference is that we can “Rejoice! God IS in Charge!”
I’ll screw up!
If you can remember your first job, and the first day there, do you remember that absolute fear that you would screw up? That you would do something that would see you fired halfway through your first shift?
Slowly but surely you built up confidence, or if not on that job, the next one. We eventually learn that in every job, every person makes mistakes. Those who are successful are the ones who don’t let the fear of mistakes paralyze them, but take responsibility, correct them, learn from them and keep going.
We struggle with that though, this idea that we are imperfect, we are anxious that we will somehow screw-up – and we either become paralyzed, or a self-fulfilling prophesy. The same with sinning. We think that this sin or that sin is the end of the world, and like a young dishwasher hiding the broken plates in the walk-in until he can take them out in the trash… we think we can hide it, cover it up, or even ignore it.
Most of us I bet have experienced the moment where the errors we made at work are found, where our “accidents” that we thought were buried are revealed, usually before everyone to see. I wonder sometimes if that is what slows down our commitment to seek and save the lost? What if we screw up here, what of we overlook something there?
Is that what happens to us, when Jesus says, come follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people? Many similarities to that first day of work!
Do we freeze like we are on the first day of work? Do we fear making mistakes, or when we make them, do we fear it is all over? We’ve heard God’s call – for most of us, we’ve heard this passage, or the one’s like it in the other gospels more times than we can count. We know that we are called to be the light to the world, that we aren’t to hide the light we reflect from Christ….
Yet we find ourselves as nervous as a 15 year old..in fear of being chewed out by an old chef.
The Blessings of the Kingdom
I’ll remind you that the parable is that “the Kingdom of God is like starting your first job”, and the title is “Rejoice, the Lord is in Charge!”
Later in my career in food service, I learned that most good managers planned for the learning opportunities that occurred when their people messed up. They never told them they were expecting them to screw up, but they were, and would be there to help them learn. Because most of us learn better from mistakes than from carefully laid down errors.
God is no different, at least according to Luther, who writes:
“for here in all three articles He has Himself revealed and opened the deepest abyss of his paternal heart and of His pure unutterable love. For He has created us for this very object, that He might redeem and sanctify us; and in addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has given to us even His Son and the Holy Ghost, by whom to bring us to Himself.” (Large Catechism Apostles Creed, Article 3)
When Jesus says, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people,” He is doing it with the same wisdom He uttered the “Repent of your sins for the Kingdom of God is at hand” He knows what He is doing when He calls, and He has called each one of us to serve alongside Him.
He’s called us, to repent and be baptized, and now to work beside Him in fishing for people, people who need to be caught up in His net, as He calls them to His people.
And yes, He knows that as we go to work for Him, He will have opportunities to teach us, because we will make a mistake or twenty – but never a mistake He will not use for good. He’s given us Himself, not just as a guarantee of our salvation, but as a guarantee our work with Him will be a blessing.
He’ll craft you into fishers of men…
You see – the calls of Jesus in this passage aren’t two different calls – a call to repentance – that transformation that comes to us in Baptism and a call to mission that only some will hear. The call to mission – to come walk with Christ is the same call – and it explains it a little clearer – we join Jesus on a fishing trip that lasts our lives – even as it did His.
It’s the same call, the same transformation, the same walking with Christ as He cleanses and heals us, as He works through us to bring that healing to others.
That’s the point of the pastor parker parable – we find ourselves in this Kingdom of God – our first real “work” in life. For nothing else we’ve done, or we will do matches the work we do at God’s call. For His work is done in every other part of lives, our vocations as parents and children, our vocations where they pay us, our vocations in our community, and in the world.
Never forget though, what we are made for, what we are made to be, is the recipients of His love, to be the redeemed and Holy people of God, who catches us, and turns us into His children – the fishers of people.
As we do this, as we God’s graced pull them in, cleanse them, make them His children, we are reminded of what He’s done for us, and knowing that, we rejoice, and know His presence.. AMEN?
Is it insane to keep doing/teaching/preaching the same thing over and over, and expecting…
Devotional Thought of the day>
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and because he is coming to rule as King, I solemnly urge you 2 to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience. 3 The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear. 4 They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends. 5 But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News, and perform your whole duty as a servant of God. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 (TEV)
\573 Please don’t abandon the task, don’t deviate from the way, even though you have to live with people who are full of prejudices: as if you thought the basis of arguments or the meaning of words were fixed by their behaviour or by their assertions. Do try to get them to understand you… but if you don’t manage it, carry on anyway. (1)
There is a point in minsitry that occurs when you realizing you are bashing your head against the wall.
Jesus Christ Crucifix (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
An example – someone comes to you looking for spiritual guidance, and you offer it, and they go – thanks, and then going back to the same behavior that caused them to come to you in the first place.
Or someone who saks you to help them understand a Bible passage, you take the time to work it through with them, and then watch them return to the confusion, only to ask the same question in a similar manner a few weeks down the road.
It has been said that insanity can be defined by doing the same thing repeatedly, but hoping for a different outcome. In this case, many pastors, priests, teachers, counselors are not just simply insance, but completely insane.
There see to be two options to this insanity, first – keep doing the work in the same way, but give up caring about the results, or second, change things regularly, looking for the precise combination that will work in your community, in your parish, in your classroom. Sometimes we even bounce betwen the two, depending on who we last heard that appears to be successful, that appears to at least give an answer to our dilemna.
This glass half full/half open pendulum, and the second guessing and thinking that our “return on inventment” must result in a immediate reult that is satifactory dominates our churches. We are blown about by winds of, not of doctrine, but of some definitions and measurements of “faithfulness” and “success.”. We are hurt because we get into these fields beause we desire to change the world, and would like to at least change some lives. We know the answer is Jesus, (as does every pre-schooler !) we know where people will find the answers, we are trained to give them both clearly and in a way that should appeal to people.
And then we wonder if they will ever hear us…
And eventually we wonder if we are insane (in the sense above) or we act on the lack of success and desperately try new ways. Even to the point where we don’t give them time to see if they will work.
The nearly identical advice is seen above, ( I saw St. Josemaria’s first – my Bible devotional reading was somewhere else ). Our endurance in the midst of our preaching, teaching, counseling is not based on their changed lives. It’s not about “faithfully” doing it by dialing it in either. It is about realizing our role is to give the message, Because Jesus is coming back, and that is news that is incredible to anyone who trusts in Him, and if they don’t hear it, they won’t be able to trust in it.
Days preaching and teaching and counsling aren’t supposed to be easy, they often demand great sacrfiice, it often requires us to carry on, to keep looking at Christ and realizing the treasure that they need. Ministry and teaching and cousneling isn’t about our strength, its about the glory of God in which we work, sustaining us, encuraging, helping us endure, and driving us when needed. We are going to have to suffer in this role. Not just because of persecution, but because of those who do not hear the message, who we weep for, even as Christ weeped over Jerusalem. We need to realize that this struggle is okay.
That’s the example we have in Christ, and in our Father in Heaven. They have kept calling us, hounding us even though the results haven’t been all that spectacularly different. We still sin, we still forget about God, we still struggle, then repent, then worship. And still God loves and calls, and forgives and comforts and is here with us. He doesn’t change.. He never will… although the results can’t be seen b y us yet, He knows them, and dances with joy as He realizes those who trust in Him, who treasure His love.
In Him, we find the strength and the patience to avoid the insanity of reacting to what the world things is insane. So let us keep our eyes on HIm, He who begins faith and completes it is us, and in those who hear our message.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 2448-2452). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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Church Services. To serve God, or to serve people?
Devotional Thought of the day:
23 Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of wheat. 24 So the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do that on the Sabbath!” 25 Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry, 26 so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God. This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. According to our Law only the priests may eat this bread—but David ate it and even gave it to his men.” 27 And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23-28 (TEV)
Sunday, a friend of mine shared a article he read on FB. It was on a topic near and dea to my heart – the topic of worship. More specifically, the type of worship that happens when God gathers His people together and there is something called a mass, or a worship service, or church service.
Here is the article: http://www.thewinedarksea.com/2013/10/27/can-perfect-mass-idol/
The thoughts in the article, though not my own, are so akin to it, that it might as well be.
You see, a mass, or church service isn’t about our impressing God. It’s not something we do to gain points with God, and if we gain enough, then we get into heaven, or a better viewof God in heaven, or a nicer mansion. It’s not about who sings the best, or how hip or how smooth the pastor or priest is, or how dynamic the “show” is. I am not saying that any pastor, or any musicians shouldn’t do their best, we should, because it is often through us that people receive what God meant them to receive – the reveleation of His love and His mercy and His invitation to share in His glory. Here is a passage that demonstrates that:
27 God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. 29 To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me. Colossians 1:27-29 (TEV)
The point is this – that church is not about how well we do it. It’s about our realizing the depth of God’s love, the lengths He will go to bring healing to our souls, to bring peace to our hearts. That can’t happen if we treat church, whether very anicent liturgy or very contempory service, (both can be high choreographed and rehearsed) as if anything that distracts from what happens up fron is more important than any person there.
God wants to gather all people to Himself, to bring them inot our family, to make them a part of us. All people. And so each one has a role in church, and in every event the church has, from Bible Studies to Potlucks.
The first and primary role, whether pastor or infant, the couple celebrating their 70th anniversary or the single mom, the people whose parents or grandparents were there when the church was built, and the family hasn’t missed a sunday since, or the person who immigrated to the US yesterday.. and wandered in accidently. Every one of them belongs in God’s house. Every one of them God wants to reveal His love to, whether for the first time, or the 10,000th. These times are about God taking care of His people, all of them, all He created.
That means it will be messy, because people are messy. Sometimes visibly so, more often emotionally and spiritually so. And all need the healing of their hearts and souls….which are butalized by sin and the world’s pressures.
That’s why He gathers us… and that’s why we praise Him.
Because of His great love for us.
May we remember that as we worship together, as we study together, and as we find those around us that need His love, and share it with them in their homes, or bring them home to church!
AMEN
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Reformation Day, A Day I Pray Would Become… Obsolete.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! John 17:22-24 (NLT)
Most Lutheran churches celebrated a church “holy day” yesterday. The 496th anniversary of Martin Luther inviting theologians and pastors and people to a dialogue on issues that gravely concerened him. The issue was a very serious one – which affects how we see Christ’ work and the cross. As you read this, please understand me, this is still the serious issue for me. It is why I am Lutheran and not Roman Catholic Christian.
But the unintended side affects of that action has resulted in a splintering of the church, as we have taken serious issues, and far less issues and made them “the” points of division. 40,000 divisions, and whether they are over issues like Christ’s work on the cross, or whether we baptize with a little water or much, or what instruments we use, or what we call the guy who preaches and teaches the congregation about Jesus, or about whether something is sin. Those divisions are to be grieved, not celebrated.. Seriously grieved over.
Simply because the division breeds contempt, and often attempts at reconciliaiton – true reconciliation are avoided, ignored, and even mocked. We celebrate these days, and rejoice that God “purified” His gospel, without considering that millions won’t hear it, For if we believe the difference is that important, why don’t we engage is discussion, that the position may be evaluated, tested against scripture, that it might be heard?
There are times where it would seem like reconciliation is impossible, like when Luther had a death warrant on him. But that doesn’t mean we stop praying for the church to find that reconciliation, even praying those from whom we are divided. It doesn’t mean we stop engaging in discussion when we can. It means we trust in God, even risking all, to depend on His working these things out, in His performing miracles.
You see, any sense of unity that would happen, would happen not in board rooms, but at the foot of the cross. It won’t happen through negotiation, but through absolution. It happens as we are broken together before God, and we praise Him together for saving us, redeeming us, reconciling us to Him. Where we celebrate Christ uniting us to Himself in Baptism, and we find we are together there. That is when I believe that we will begin to find unity that demonstrates the love of the Father for the Son, for the Trinity for us. That unity is found in no other name, no other label, in unity or disunity with no one else. For only Jesus can deal with our sins, those very things that divide us from God, those things that divide us from each other. We can’t deal with sin, any sin, especially the sin of division, unless it is there, in Christ.
Wittenberg All Saints’ Church. The “Theses Doors”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I doubt I would ever sit down with my own Synodical President, never mind Pope Francis (who I greatly admire, perhaps more than any church leader in my life so far) That doesn’t stop me from praying for them, praying to see what the theologians call the “invisible Church” be more clearly manifested in the “visible Church”. That Christ would be known by the world.
Yeah- I Pray that Reformation Day would become obsolete, preferably by its 500th anniversay…..and I struggle to celebrate it. Because the next day… matters even more. The Day we celebrate All Saints, as we have testified along with countless others, that God has one, holy, universal (i.e. small c catholic) and apostolic church. A church that rejoices together in God making us His people, and it being revealed to us He is our God.
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Have We Shut Down…the church
English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)
228 The masses have been going off down “the road of a justified discontentment” and continue to do so. It hurts… but, how many we have caused to be disaffected among those who are spiritually or materially in need! Christ may once more be set among the poor and the humble: it is precisely with them that he is more at ease. (1)
The news this morning, and the talk I overheard at breakfast at the pastor’s conference I am at, is about the government shut-down. People can’t go here and do this – the grand canyon is closed, this agency is closed – that agency is closed. Some are rejoicing, some are voicing that “justified discontent” at our leaders and their inability to get things done.
Many are disaffected, discomforted, and even more will become more and more disillusioned.
But I wonder about the church – and if we’ve done the same thing. That in order to maintain our entitlements – we’ve disaffected the very world which we are to be serving. We don’t focus on relieving burdens, we don’t focus on bringing comfort, we don’t bring Christ’s healing to where there isn’t.
Not because we aren’t working. Most pastors and most church people do, instead of too little, too much. We study and we gather and we strategize and we wonder why we aren’t effective.
It’s because we don’t take time in our relationships – seriously, we don’t take time to bring Christ to people – to bring them to Him. It’s not because of a lack of desire – I think we have that. It’s because we simply don’t spend enough time with Him ourselves. Time in prayer, time in reading – not to study, but to read to understand His devotion to us… time to simply sit and adore Him.
For it is in those situations we allow Him finally, to take our burdens, our cares our anxieities, and dree us from them. We learn to just walk with Him. absolutely absorbing His presence….
Then from there.. we walk with Him in ministering to the lost, the broken, the poor in Spirit.
Spend time with Jesus…. please….
For then, we will not have shut down the church, we will have opened it up…. and it will minister in His Name..
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1151-1155). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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Where are our Bridges? A Lesson From My Past..
Devotional thought of the day…
18 Jesus came to them and said: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! 19 Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20 and teach them to treasure (do) everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. Matthew 28:18-20 (CEV) adapted
Monday, Wednesday and this mornign I returned to my undergraduate alma mater, the school were 30 years ago I started my journey towards becoming a pastor. I had the pleasure of working with some senior students, talking to them about sacramental views of the Lord’s Supper. It’s been a great experience, and provoked not only much thought about what I beleive and why I trust in God, but many memories.
As I walked across campus, I saw where the escalators were, and even though they never ran, it still seemed odd that they weren’t there.
Even odder was that the walking bridge that cross Nutwood Avenue is no longer there. Though never an “official” symbol of the school, it was a valued object lesson in missions, and in going to “all nations”. For across that bridge was the world, or at least the 28,000 students of California State University at Fullerton. A veritable mission field, and one of the reasons my alma mater, Pacific Christian College (now Hope International University), was re-located from Long Beach to Fullerton. 28,000 students, their faculty and staff, and our little school of 400 students had a mission field.
That bridge was our access point. Sure, you could cross at crosswalks – crosswalks that were still there.
Doug Dickey was one of my professors, as in his retirement he served as a professor of homilatics (preaching) and as the pastor of Campus Christian Fellowship. He led the students who did outreach over the CSUF. He constantly encouraged and molded us to keep our sermons and our ministry focused on Jesus, on Christ crucified. When i would write a sermon about some great theological truth, the question asked was, “where is Christ-crucified in your sermon Dustin? How will it save anyone, how will it give them hope?”
The Bridge….. was a way to share Christ… it was a way into others lives… it was a way to get to the what Peter called, “the words of life!” The words that were the reason Peter and others stayed with Christ. Words that made even more sense after the cross. A Bridge Doug would cross – leading us in prayer, zealous to engage our peers and friends in conversation, conversations that would eventually focus them on the cross, and on the love of God, and the presence of God in thieir lives. That bridge, it was the way to get the message out to the world, to people of every ethnicity, of every imaginable type.
It leaves me think ing….
Where are my bridges today? Where are yours? Were are the places we can go – to teach people of all nations about a Lord who loves them enough to die for them?
Dove of the Holy Spirit (ca. 1660, alabaster, Throne of St. Peter, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The local coffee shop? A Doctor’s office?
Where are our bridges, where we can teach everyone to treasure what Jesus has taught us…
To teach us His love…
May we never forget those people – or how to get to them….
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Our Church’s Strategic Plan: Prayer
The Mission: Briefing #2
Our Strategic Plan: Prayer
John 12:20-33
† Jesus, Son and Savior †
As You look around you, may you realize the great need there is for the grace, the mercy and love that is yours to give, for that is your gift from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
At least we can? Not..
It’s probably a matter of semantics, just the way people phrase things, but I have heard it a lot this week. It’s been said different ways, but it still sounds the same…
“Pastor, we’ll be praying, but if there is anything we can do….” Or
“Pastor, we know there is probably nothing we can do, but we’ll be praying for you and your family…”
By the way, if you’ve said that, I know that isn’t how we mean it. Or at least I don’t think we think that way. Or maybe….. we do.
In contrast – today’s epistle reading takes a different tact…
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
In our Lutheran Confessions, Melancthon wrote of it this way,
16 Ultimately, if we should list as sacraments all the things that have God’s command and a promise added to them, then why not prayer, which can most truly be called a sacrament? It has both the command of God and many promises. If it were placed among the sacraments and thus given, so to speak, a more exalted position, this would move men to pray.[i]
So I repeat Paul’s words – and will more and more today, I urge you, first of all… to pray for all people!
Where is our faith?
Whether we realize it, or not, when we set prayer as a secondary action, as a safety valve, we are breaking the first and second commandment. You heard me, we are sinning, by placing another god in our lives, by not calling upon God in both prayer and praise.
Luther wrote about it this way:
What does it mean to have a god? or, what is God?
Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart;
For faith is not just about salvation, it’s about deacon Mike’s favorite theological phrase! It’s about that intimate relationship we have with God. It’s about trusting Him in everything – and running to Him first when we don’t know what to do, or how to love and care, all that we know is that He is where we find hope, and comfort, and love.
So Paul urges not just Timothy, but us to pray for all people. To get God involved in their situation, to deliver them from whatever is oppressing them, especially the sin and unrighteousness of this world. To pray that God would save them, even as He has saved us. That His grace, His mercy and love that we know – for that is why we praise Him…would be revealed to them so clearly it would knock them over…like Paul was knocked over on the road to Damascus.
You see that’s how we deal with all people! Yes – I mean all people. Pray for those who annoy you, who irritate you, who’ve hurt you, who’ve betrayed you! Put them in God’s hands, let God help them with their hurts, and your will find yourself healing as well. For that is what it means that God is our God – that we trust Him with our who heart – even with our bruised and battered hearts…
For He is faithful and He will reconcile us all in His heart.
We have to grasp the heart of God!
That is really what prayer is about, and why it makes so much sense to put those we care for, and those who we struggle to care for, into the very hands of God. He’s the one who can take care of their burdens, and the burdens and anxieties that they can cause us.
That is why Paul brings in God’s will. He just does not want everyone to be saved – that is a weak translation there. The word is desire; it is a word full of passion and zeal. It is all about His heart yearning to know each and every one of us, to bring healing to us, and you know – that means He has to deal with those we love whose situations break our hearts… and those who simply break our hearts.
For Jesus came and lived and died for each of us, even as we broke the Father’s heart, and occasionally still do. As we get to know God’s heart; as His love is revealed to each of us.
That’s why the great prophecy about baptism in Ezekiel 36 talks about God cleansing us and removing our hard stone hearts and putting in them a heart of flesh and His Spirit – that’s part of the transformation that begins in us when we are baptized, when God gives us His Spirit.
The closer we come to God, the more His love is revealed in our lives, the more we find ourselves trusting in Him enough to give Him our pains and anxieties, which so often include, or are about, or caused by others.
The same “others” that Jesus also hunt on the cross and for whom He died.
That’s what we have to understand, that is what is true – the love of Go, seen as Jesus, the only one who can act as an intermediary between God and man – does that very thing.
We’ll talk about that more in Bible study – but think about this – the reason Jesus can bring God and man together.. is because He is… God and Man.
His heart is for us, and He brings us into His sacred heart – He brings us into a relationship so clear that the more we spend time in it, the more we heal and our new heart is revealed to be His.
But our first step isn’t to go on a crusade…
Protos panton
That is why our first step is not some crusade to go save the world. Our first step is to fall on our knees and ask God to bless people, to help them, that’s why we intercede on their behalf.
It’s not something we do as a last resort, or when we can’t think of something else to do. Paul urges us, literally he comes along side to help us and points out our first step – is to reach out…not to them, but to the Father who will have Jesus intercede in their lives.
This is the strategy of our mission as believers, our mission of the church.
I urge you, first of all to pray for all people.
And Paul repeats the concept – Ask God to help them..
Intercede with Him on their behalf.. even if you don’t like them… ask God to be with them..
Four times in four ways… God asks us this. It’s called a parallelism.
It’s like when you wife, or your mother, tells you to do something… if she tells you twice.. uhm you better listen…
But if she gets to three…
But this is even more important…we’re talking about our eternity here, and about our relationship with God. Our relationship with God…. Like communion its not an individual thing – but a God pulling us all into Him thing. That’s what He does – that’s why we go to Him, and as Paul says – as Paul urges us, we go to Him first.
A last thought: Why give thanks?
As we chew on this, for the heart of God is something we cannot just academically “get”, as we strive to realize what it means that God wants us all, in Christ, reconciled, as we learn to pray for all men, I would ask one more thing….
Why do we give thanks for them? Why are we urged by Paul, along with praying for them, to give thanks for them? Even the politicians and bosses and all that oppress and antagonize us?
Because, when we realize God’s heart toward them, our hearts melt as well… and even more..
Because whether positive or negative influences in our lives…when we are urged to bring them and their situation before God.. wefind we are in His presence… and there…
There is peace. And may your realize that unexplainable, unsurpassable peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN!
[i] Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 213). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Some thoughts about why the Church is Here….
Devotional/Discussion THought of the Day:
10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 For the scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? 15 And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring (the) good news!” 16 But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what was heard from us?” 17 Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. Romans 10:10-17 (NAB)
196 Rest assured, there are many people there who can understand your way. There are also souls who, whether they know it or not, are looking for Christ and have not found Him. But “How can they hear about Him, if nobody tells them?”
197 Don’t tell me that you care for your interior life, if you are not carrying out an intense and ceaseless apostolate. The Lord— whom you assure me you are close to— wishes all men to be saved.
30 years ago, when I started “officially” studying to become a pastor, I was also dealing with some pretty challenging personal issues because of a genetic disorder. In one of the discussions, a question was asked. I can still remember where I was when it was asked, because it got me thinking.
“What is the reason the church is here?”
My thoughts went something like this. If God’s desire is for us to be with Him, in a place where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more suffering, no more Marphan’s Syndrome, then why doesn’t He just take us home like He did with Elijah? As you get baptised, the chariots of fire come down and whisk you to heaven. Of course, some pastors, evangelists and ministers would have to remain behind to continue to work to convert people, but hey, God will take care of us.
There have times where I have re-thought this. When a friend is dealing with cancer, when a mom has to visit her son in jail, when we have to deal with authorities whose works frustrates us (whether those authorities are at work, in government, or the most frustrating type, in the church. I could go on and on, with the struggles of life, but the question remains. Why not just take 99 percent of the believers and bring them home to the purest of joy and save them from the crap we go through on earth? If the doctrine of the rapture was applicable (my college had some pro-rapture – and a lot against it) then no one should struggle, no one should go through any kind of tribulation. And there is a lot of tribulation out there in life.
This question, “why does God allow us to go through all the stuff we go through? Why doesn’t He just bring us home?” Would not that be the loving thing for God to do? To alleviate our suffering, to save us from the ravages of sin?
My answer is… His Mission.
You see, if ministry is only for pastors and missionaries, then taking the rest of us out of here is logical. We don’t need to be here, we don’t need to see churches burning in Egypt, the Sudan. We don’t need to wait for the results of CAT Scans, and colonoscopies, and angiograms. We don’t need to be there for those grieving, or those struggling with addictions or mental illness, or watching their children deal with their special needs.
But God, as odd as this sounds, needs us all here. Yes, God needs us here.
For we are those who will minister, who will serve, whose lives are testimonies to His work. As such, they testify to His presence, in the good times and the bad, We are the ones sent out – not just the pastors and missionaries – but everyone of us, into every place we go.
God wishes everyone to be saved, and so He sends His people, He apostles us to the world… and our own little corner of it.
And the more we realize how He is with us in this endeavor, the more we realize that He is our life, the more we want people to know this…….the more God’s mission, God’s work becomes our life.
And our devotional life and our understanding of our mission, and our prayer and worship and study all coalesce, for that is who we are in Christ Jesus.
God’s sent people…..
Stained glass at St John the Baptist’s Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus’ description of himself “I am the Good Shepherd” (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: “To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1028-1033). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Patience, Professors, Persevering, and the Plan of God.
education (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)
10 You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, 11 troubles, sufferings—suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! 12 Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there’s no getting around it. 2 Timothy 3:10-12 (MSG)
Study. Study in earnest. If you are to be salt and light, you need knowledge, capability. Or do you imagine that an idle and lazy life will entitle you to receive infused knowledge? (1)
Recently, I chose to return to school. I have to admit some trepidation over this, I’ve never been the one to fit into most educational systems, I don’t care about the what as much as why, and that gets me in trouble at times.
My first class, two weeks in, I am struggling with the texts, and the line of thought which doesn’t going directly to the stated purpose of the course, or for that matter, to the reason I challenged and entered this program. As I was thinking last night – do I challenge the professor? Do I just drop out? Or do I trust God who opened this door, and dedicate the work to God, who makes it all possible?
The latter will be tough, it will challenge me in a way I do not like – it challenges my intellectual pride and my apathy when it comes to education without clear cut meaning. But that is perhaps where I need to be challenged the most – to do things in a disciplined way even though I don’t see the logic or reasoning. I’ve got to go through the motions, but seeing them, not just as make work, but rather as part of His plan.
We need to do this as followers of Christ as well. Maybe we don’t get why we go through the motions of liturgy, or why it is beneficial to go to Bible Study as well Sunday Church. We don’t get yet, why communion is so critical to our faith and our need to commune as often as possible. It may take some time to realize how precious the work of God is, when He baptizes a baby, or a 94 year old lady. We may know the Bible passages – we may be able to argue it intellectually, but there is something in the process of grasping the why… that takes it to a whole different level, that of our soul. That of instinctual trust, that of Christ transforming us, as we look to Him for the strength to do that which challenges us.
So pray for me inmy studies, that I could dedicate them to God, and do well… and pray for us all, as we struggle with God’s plan, not seeing His hand in it, but finding the strrength to persevere, because He is here.
Lord Have Mercy we pray!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 868-870). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Related articles
- Meditating on God’s Love (justifiedandsinner.com)
- We must bear our cross….an powerful observation…. (justifiedandsinner.com)
- A Blog of/for the Tired and Wondering if it all Matters… (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Can we be this Holy? In the face of our “enemies”? (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Doesn’t God Care I am Tired? (justifiedandsinner.com)
Dan Brown, Dante’s Inferno and the Missio Dei
English: Dante Alighieri’s portrait by Sandro Botticelli. Tempera 54,7 x 47,5 cm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. 28 We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. 29 That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me. Colossians 1:27-29 (MSG)
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis. (Dante) For Langdon, the meaning of these words had never felt so clear: In dangerous times, there is no sin greater than inaction. (1)
Throughout Dan’s Brown’s latest novel, the above italicized words are repeated, over and over. ( I happen to like this one – even though it’s attack on the church was much more… veiled)
There is something to be said for those who are inactive in the face of a crisis, in the face of a moral crisis. To passively live as if there was not some looming disaster that would come is simply wrong.
Most of us would look at this and think of things like war, abortion, racism and other forms of discrimination, political corruption, slavery.
In view of the book though – and the crisis there and the so-called “solution”, I kept coming back to the cause of all sin – including inaction. Idolatry, especially that of Narcissism. It is encoded in us, as surely as if it was part of our DNA. Spiritual leaders, self help authors and counselors of many types make money – many of them with great sincerity.
But the answer isn’t found in growth, or development in the way we set our minds to it and grow. The way is through dependence, through recognition of our weakness, through something that radically changes us, radically transforms us.
In church language, the concept is what Peter talked of at Pentecost. “Repent (literally – to have a changed mind) and be Baptized (see Ezekiel 36:25 and following to see how the Holy Spirit works there ) In both cases, the work is beyond us, it is beyond our ability, and it is the work of God. We have to, however, trust Him. We have to die to ourselves – as the Spirit unites us to Christ’s death on the cross, so that we can be born again, that we can come to life. It is their (not in purgatorio ) that we are purged of our sin. We trust God to do this – to cleanse us, to give us life. This is basic Christianity…. and once alive – we dwell – even now, in the presence of God.
Back to Dan Brown and Dante’s quote about inaction.
The world’s population is growing – for sure. I don’t think to the extend of Brown’s theories, but it is growing none the less. Even so, there is a crisis more severe than that of Brown’s thoughts – it is the crisis of faith – that much of the world is unaware of God’s heart toward them, His desire for a relationship with them, and the extent of God’s work to see that happen.
We who know this – do have an obligation – that of loving our neighbor – to share with them that which we know. Know legalitically, nor condemning their symptomatic demonstration of sin in a way that gives them no hope. Rather, our job is to share why we, who also sin – have more than “just” hope. We have Him
Let us not dwell in the sin on inaction – but with Paul, let us share God’s love, with the power and strength God gives us. AMEN.
(1)Brown, Dan (2013-05-14). Inferno: A Novel (Robert Langdon) (p. 464). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
