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Why We (pastors and priests) Do What We Do… and Your Role as well
Devotional Thought of the Day:
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)
Ultimately that is what the priesthood is all about: to have seen Jesus oneself, to have received with love him whom we have seen, to live in that seeing, and then to show him to others. (1)
3 After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ. (2)
One of the greatest challenges for a pastor or a priest in this day is to minister to those who think they are already “saved.”.This includes ourselves and our peers. The challenge is complicated by the fact that we often forget what our calling is, losing it in the various functions of our ministry.
We are expected to be jacks of all trades, able to do plumbing, accounting, music, leading a non-profit, knowledge about employment law, property law, tax law, teach, and keeping the balance between being a solid administrator and a competent theologian. It is this latter role, that of a theologian, which can consume us even more than the rest. In letting it consume us, it can lead us away from the ministry, the ministering to which we have been called, and set apart.
It’s odd for a Lutheran pastor to quote a pope or a Catholic, I probably do it more than most. The above quote in blue is from a pope, but not as some might expect Francis. It is from Benedict, whose writings are as pastoral as Francis’s words. He sees his role, and that of priests (and I would hope pastors ) as simply and clearly as St. Paul did to the church in Colossae. It is also, according to Lutheran confessions, the reason we are gathered together with the people of God. This is seen in the quote in green, our purpose, our reason for existence as the church, is to give people what they need to know about Jesus.
It is that simple, everything we do as pastors, priests, ministers of all kinds in all places, boils down to that. Introduce people to the love of Christ. Help them as Paul says, explore (and be in awe of) the immense dimensions of God’s love for you, for me, for us, that is revealed in Jesus. From the planning of our salvation before the world began, to its creation, to His incarnation, life, teaching, miracle working, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and even His on-going advocacy for us at the Father’s side; He does this that we would know Him!
Our people need to know this, their friends and neighbors need to hear it. Even our enemies and adversaries (and people who are simply a pain in the… neck) need to know Jesus.
Pope Benedict, a pastor at heart, in the same message, wrote why:
But when a person has once met Christ, when a person has once seen Jesus and really learned to know him, then everything is changed. Then everything else is comprehensible and life is renewed. And you priests have really only one task: to present Jesus to all people in such a way that they see him and learn to love him. Then everything that faith teaches will be self-evident. (1)
There it , it is why we do what we do… why we struggle to do it, trying to keep our eyes on Christ, working hard to see people know His love.
By the way, you are welcome to help as well, and as you get to know His love, you will find a innate desire to do so, for that is how much His love will mean to you.
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 191). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. (devotions for June 13th)
(2) Augsburg Confession, Art XXIV
Prayer, Holiness Mission and the Unplugged Cellphone
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8 (NLT)
107 Sanctity without prayer? I don’t believe in such sanctity.
109 If you’re not a man of prayer, I don’t believe in the sincerity of your intentions when you say that you work for Christ. (1)
I woke up this morning and reached for my cellphone to see what time it was. I unplugged it and tapped the screen three times to turn on the screen.
Immediate I got a warning, less than 5% power remaining, and it shut itself off. No power and it didn’t work. No phone, no internet, not even the simple information about what time it is. Apparently, while I ensured I plugged the one end of the cord into my phone, the other end wasn’t plugged into the wall.
No problem, I’ll just switch to my tablet. It had power, and I found out it was 8 o’clock here, or 5 am at home. Okay. I got what I want.
But then during my devotion time, I came across a number of passages about prayer, and the necessity of it. Then a blog post that talked about all of the different conferences and things that help pastors become more missional, more serious about the apostolate.
I started to wonder, how many of these conferences have a focus, not just a section or a speaker, I mean an entire conference, If it were, would pastors and church leaders come?
Do we see the correlation between time spent in conversation with God, bi-directional conversation, and effective ministry? The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (one of the basic documents explaining the Lutheran understanding of our relationship with God) encourages prayer, even naming it as a sacrament because then men may pray more.
Because we need it. It is not just our source of power; it is our source of life. It is the source of our mission as well. Without an active conversation with God, our life becomes stale, our wisdom is reduced to dry knowledge, and there is no relationship we can share with others. Like a cellphone with a dry battery, a believer without prayer is dead.
But an active prayer life helps us understand the will of God, His desire to love all of us, to show us mercy so we could realize that love. It brings healing to our brokenness. Healing so great it drives us to others, with the compassion to share the healing with them.
One last thing. Don’t read this and start praying so that you will be a more effective evangelist, to be a better witness of God’s mercy. The more time you spend with Him, the more the zeal for inviting others to the conversation will occur, not forced, but naturally.
Just walk with God, pouring out everything to Him, and hear him pour out His heart to you.
Have a blessed day…. with Him!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 399-402). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Dare We Pray, THY Will Be Done?
Do we Dare Pray:
Thy Will Be Done On Earth?
May you be so aware of the grace and mercy of God our Father that you desire and to see His will revealed in your life!
A Picture of God’s Will, made Complete in heaven:
I want to re-read the Revelation passage, that describe what God’s will looks like, when revealed in Heaven:
9 When this was done I looked again, and before my eyes appeared a vast crowd beyond man’s power to number. They came from every nation and tribe and people and language, and they stood before the throne of the Lamb, dressed in white robes with palm-branches in their hands. With a great voice they shouted these words: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb!”
11 Then all the angels stood encircling the throne, the elders and the four living creatures, and prostrated themselves with heads bowed before the throne and worshipped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength be given to our God for timeless ages!” Revelation 7:9-14 (Phillips NT)
It is the vision of the Nunc Dimitis, the incredible song Simeon spoke as he held Jesus. The song we will sing, having been given Christ’s body and blood…
29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. 30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people. 32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” Luke 2:29-32 (NLT)
When we pray for God’s will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, we are asking Him to save the world, to bring us all into a relationship with God the father, through Christ. To see the love of God revealed, to and in the people we know, to see them join the name of those whose names are written in the book of life.
What a thing to celebrate.
For every time a sinner is welcome home, cleansed and made a child of God, the heavens rejoice, and so should we!
Every time they learn to pray and trust to lay everything in God’s hands, including their very lives, the joy of heaven is inexpressible. God’s will had been revealed in our midst. Every time we approach this altar and share in His feast…. His will is seen again, for we take His body and blood into us, even as we have been joined to His death, and the resurrection, and added to the number whose voices will thunder His praises!
But Why Would We Hesitate?
To see this happen, what needs to happen to us?
Do we dare pray this happen?
Do we realize what we are asking God to do? How He will change us?
What will it take, for Jesus to be that well known here by people here, in our little corner of Cerritos?
it is the same question that Chris asked a couple of weeks ago, when He asked what it meant for God’s name to be Holy in this place. We are going to have to let God, not Chris or Albert or I, meddle in our lives.
We will have to embrace being uncomfortable, as we have to make sure our traditions and practices work to draw people to Jesus, that what we do and say and think reveal that our lives have been changed by God, and that we are eternally grateful.
We will have to embrace change, as God cleans us up, ridding our lives of our desires, our words and actions that aren’t consistent with His will, strengthening us against the temptation, ridding our hearts of anything that isn’t loving towards anyone.
We are asking God to invade our lives, and rip out anything that isn’t loving, that isn’t reflecting His love and mercy.
Because if His will is to be seen in our midst, it has to be seen in our lives.
You resent others? That has to go.
You hold on to things people have done and said to you? Those feelings and thoughts have to go.
You are jealous and envious of others things or relationships or roles because you deserve better – that attitude has to go.
You would rather be safe and secure, rather than be willing to give up all, that some would know Jesus? Time for that to change as well.
Frustrations, Anxieties, Lust, unrighteous anger, desire for revenge?
They all go, because they will stop you from realizing the will of God, and seeing what God desires happening in your life, in our life together.
Do you still want to pray this prayer?
Are you ready to?
Why We Pray this may be done among us.
So why do we pray this?
Go back to the vision, of people from every place and time, from every culture, from every language coming together in the presence of God – all of gathered as His people, as His family.
To a place where tears no longer flow, where there are no enemies, no adversaries. Where we gather to celebrate His love, to see the miracle that we are, when we have been saved, and realize that God wanted to do this very thing.
To realize that when we pray this, that God’s will be done, it is being done in our lives, personally, and as a community. Right now! When see someone baptized, and united to Christ means they are united to us as well, they become part of that crowd that will be there in heaven, with each of us. This service is a foretaste of that To kneel at this altar with people, to be part of the great company of heaven singing His praises.
You and I, despite our selfishness, despite our sin, welcome into His kingdom, and not just welcome, but welcome as His children, His blessed children He wants to share His glory with. His greatest desire, His will is that we would be with Him.
May it happen in heaven… and may it happen here and now….
For the Lord is with us, and we know we need to know His will, will be done here in our lives. So let us spend the rest of this service talking in prayer with our Father…. Amen!
Being Missional is a Happy Thing!
How can on not receive this bread and wine with joy? In the same way, how can one not share that joyous good news with others?
Devotional?Discussion Thought of the Day:
23 The LORD says, “The wise should not boast of their wisdom, nor the strong of their strength, nor the rich of their wealth. 24 If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the LORD, have spoken.” Jeremiah 9:23-24 (TEV)
914 If your prayers, your sacrifices and your actions do not show a constant concern for the apostolate (2 see below for what the apostolate means), it is a sure sign that you are not happy, and that you have to be more faithful. Whoever possesses happiness, and the good, will always seek to give it to others. (1)
When I first read the words in blue this morning, I was taken aback, stung by them. I went through a cycle of emotions; first I denied that the words were true (or had an effect on me). Then I moved on to anger, trying to justify myself by saying they were not trie. Then a brief battle with guilt and shame, as I know I am not always thinking about the mission, even when I am thinking about my ministry.
Once past that smaller rollercoaster of emotions, I started to meditate on these words, and on the Bible passage I earlier read from Jeremiah. It is the one cited above talking about how our boasting should be that we know and understand God. It is the same thought, for boasting about God is our mission, our apostolate.
We know His mercy, His love, we know His desire that we have a deep and abiding relationship with Him. We know that our being in that relationship pleases Him. We know he does this our of His Fatherly love for us.
How could knowing this not be that point where we know the joy, where we know happiness? How could we know this and keep silent? If we are knowing and understanding God and His love doesn’t result in our proclaiming it, we do need to trust Him more, we need to understand His blessings more.
This is not about being forced to be missional, to understand our apostolate. It’s not about being a good Christian or making sure we are checking off all the right boxes in spiritual growth. Being so engaged in our apostolate, being missional is a sign of the joy that comes from knowing God’s love. We trust God at promises that exceed anything we can know or experience on our own. It is about walking hand in hand with God.
That is worth boasting about, that is worth rejoicing over, this God who loves us enough to come to us, cleanse us, and make us His own people.
So boast away my friends, in the love of God for you… and may many hear it, and come to rejoice with you!
It’s Time, Let’s Go Fishing!
It s time…. Come Fishing with Me!
Mark 1:14-20
† IHS †
May You Be So Changed by the Transforming Gifts of Repentance and Faith that You Don’t Think about Fishing With God, Rather, You Just Do it
Plans? Nah, let’s just go…
There are two types of fishing trips in life.
There is the professional or expert fisherman.
They have everything planned out, they have a place for everything and everything in its place in their tackle boxes. They have every piece of equipment known to man and Bass Pro Shops. They have checklists and itineraries, water temperature equipment, fish finders and sonar, first aid kits and emergency beacons, and coolers stocked with food and a Lutheran beverage or two.
In comparison, there was my grandfather, who basically would call up the night before, or show up about 5:30 in the morning, honking his horn a few times rather than knocking on the door, and inviting us to go fishing.
My brother and I, who had trouble waking up for school, would be out of bed, dressed, rods and reels in hand, down the stairs, and out the door, before my mom could wake up and say, no, no, it’s a school day.
We’d be out on the Lake, or in Hampton Harbor, or just outside the Jetty – with the sun barely clearing the horizon. Fishing… enjoying life… catching a couple dozen flounder, or if it was a bad day… some crabs and eels.
No planning, no fancy equipment, no life jackets, just our rods and reels, a Chinese food carton full of sandworms, a couple of sodas and his cup of coffee.
For a kid, real fishing wasn’t the first kind of fishing.
Real fishing for a 8 year old, was going out in Grampy’s little aluminum boat.
As the disciples abandon their dads, as they leave everything behind, to go fishing for men with Jesus, I picture it like that.
Not a moment’s thought, we knew what we are being called to, and to be honest, we didn’t think about the fishing. It was what happened, when Grampy picked us up. What it was about was being with him. The same occurs, when we are awakened by God, and we spend each day fishing for men with Him….
Even as there seemed to be nothing much to Grampy taking us fishing, there was…and those things are there as Jesus takes Peter and Andrew, James and John fishing as well.
Repentance
While we never knew what would cause Grampy to decide to take us fishing on this day or that, it was His decision. He would have to change His routine, hook up the boat, and drive north from his place.
His horn blast before dawn was like Christ’s call to repentance. It’s time! Let’s go!
With that, everything would change for that day. Our attitude about staying in our warm beds, about not wanting to leave our place, would dramatically change. It’s like we weren’t even the same kids. Our minds focused on something else, our attitudes were that of being alive, and excited about getting up and out! It wasn’t a conscience change, it was one brought about by the horn. We heard it, we reacted, we went.
That’s repentance.
Repentance often is pictured as being sorry, or contrite. Or it is explained as choosing to change how we think and act. To make a u-turn, especially in how we behave.
It’s not those things. It is far more internal, in the subconscious. It is hearing the voice of the Lord, and the change that hearing His call awakens in us.
That’s why Luke describes repentance in the book of the Acts of the Apostles as something from God.
30 it was the God of our ancestors who raised up Jesus, whom you executed by hanging on a tree. 31 By his own right hand God has now raised him up to be leader and Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to Israel. Acts 5:30-31 (NJB)
and
18 When they heard this, they stopped their criticism and praised God, saying, “Then God has given to the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live!” Acts 11:18 (TEV)
Do you year the horn going off? That Jesus has come to take you with Him through life? That things will never be the same?
Maybe its time to wake up, and join Him on this journey through life?
Faith
My grandfather drove a 1970 Ford Maverick. Besides no back leg room, not even enough for a 8 year old, it had a unique horn sound. Sort of like a sick frog going through puberty.
Unique enough that it would wake up my 11 year old brother and myself. It would mean something special – because we knew it was Grampy’s.
It wasn’t just believing Grampy was out there. It meant so much more. A day fishing with Him, We knew it would be special, because we knew Him.
Having faith in God is like that. It’s not about believing some cosmological argument for the existence of God, or some theological treatise that attempts to explain how Jesus’s divinity mixed with His humanity.
You just know Him, you trust in Him, and if there is one thing my job boils down to, it is introducing you to the God who loves you enough, to die for every act of self-centeredness you ever committed, for every bit of idolatry, every angry attack on your neighbor, every intimate word, thought or action not directed toward your spouse, every bit of envy, every act of gossip.
He took care of them all, as He said, “it is finished,” and bruised and broken Jesus stopped breathing… and died.
And the promise of everything being made brand new and right and perfect with Him became clear, as He rose from the dead.
That’s what Jesus proclaimed, as He announced the kingdom of God was near…. As near to Peter and James, Andrew and John, as it is to you, this very moment.
The gospel for you to hear.
He is here, calling for you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve known him all your life, or this is the first time getting to know His call to you, come walk with me, come join me…..
Let’s go fishing. Not for flounder or Pollock, but for men and women, those that God the Father sent me to call, to catch, that everything would change for them.
Bweeap Bweap….
Time to go fishing, as we live together, as we journey together through life.
Fishing
It’s one thing for two young kids to go fishing with their grandfather. Yet the eagerness, and the carefreeness of the disciples, is not so different. They leave everything behind, as will a tax collector, a rebel, a Pharisee and so many others that went with jesus, and lived life fishing for men.
When my brother Stephen and I went with Grampy, it didn’t matter if we caught a ton of fish, or we didn’t. The experience was about being with someone we loved. The journey? The sitting in a cold boat? We enjoyed it all, just because we were there. Everyone knew that we went fishing the next day (even our teachers!)
Fishing for men is like this…. Except it is even better.
Because as our attention is spent on Him, that resulting relationship is what draws others to Him, it is how they are caught.
No worms needed, no bait, no trickery or skill.
it is the effect of knowing we dwell in the presence of God.
For He has called us, transformed us, given us a relationship where we know His incredible love……
So it’s time, let’s walk with Jesus through life, having repented and trusting Him, and fish for men. AMEN?
Two Kinds of Apostles: Which Are You?
Devotional THought of the day:
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.
19 This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” 20 He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.”21 “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No,” he replied. “Are you the Prophet we are expecting?” “No.” 22 “Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” 23 John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’ ”24 Then the Pharisees who had been sent 25 asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?” 26 John told them, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. 27 Though his ministry follows mine, I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.” 28 This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. John 1:6–8, 19–28
This morning a group of pastors and I gathered around an altar, and then a table. During our time for communion, and then later, this passage formed the basis for our conversation. The attitude of John the baptist. This is a summary of my devotion.
You know in this passage there are two types of disciples, and in our own ministry we have to choose which we are, and which type we will encourage our people to be.
The first type of apostle is John. He’s the sent one, the apostle’d one. The one that comes from God to bring a message – a message that affects his very life. He pours his life into the message, and he will have his up and downtimes. But he is not just a messenger, he is a martyr, a witness (martyr is a Greek word for witness – but the witness is willing to die to prove their truthfulness) to the work of God, and to the message God has given him to share. The Holy Spirit is working through him, and the results are evident. Those who hear the word are granted repentance, and will be cleansed of their sins.
That’s not to say he is perfect. We will struggle with faith while imprisoned because of the faith. He trusts in God, and yet, the despair can reach in, and he knows he needs to be reminded again of the promises of God. John knows who he is in relationship to the messiah, yet his message is to point to Jesus, where we will find hope, mercy and the love of God.
The priests and levites (temple assistants) are also sent, but by man.
Look at the attitude of these ecclesiastical visitors, these men who are sent.
They demand to know who John is, they have their checklist, they want to know why John is caring for the needs of the people they were supposed to shepherd and serve. They are all about the examination of John, ignoring the needs that are being met, ignoring the response of people whose lives are being cleansed and cleared of sin. They know the limits of their authority and responsibility only in view of those who sent them, their message is to bring back an evaluation, answers to whether the ministry is done well and proper.
How different is God’s messenger, who humbly gets down in the water, who serves, who doesn’t demand an answer, but gives the answer, the answer full of hope, the answer that will reveal the depth of the love of God. That’s his message, as imperfect and outrageous he is. His message is from a humble man – to other men. Truly a cry of brokenness and despair, a call to make ready the way for the Messiah for everyone.
And people listen, they hear his message and respond…… they know He is there to bring them a message of repentance and yes hope. I really like how Luther explains it:
Build up, build up, prepare the way. “Behold, this person shall become a preacher for you, because one who will trust in Me will be full of the Spirit so that he is able also to teach others.” Now, this is the voice: Build up, as John says, “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). The preacher must first reprove the world, so that they may repent and remove the roadblocks, that is, their own righteousnesses and religions. The preacher’s first message is to teach penitence, remove offenses, proclaim the Law, humiliate ( I would rather see this as the verb humble) and terrify the sinners. No one can do this but a godly preacher. Hypocrites cannot preach this way because they do not truly feel sins.[i]
John is sent/apostoled/given the mission by God. He knows the brokenness of sin, and the blessings of God’s promised mercy. The apostles of men can’t know that, they haven’t witnessed it personally, they don’t know this love, this grace, this overwhelming peace. That’s the difference, the difference that all of us, sent by Jesus into the world, clergy, laity, pastor, prophet and simple witness need to realize. THe message only gives hope, it can only transform and bring faith and repentance, if it is a witness to the work of jesus..
May we indeed bring a message to others of what we’ve seen God do, that they too may believe!
[i] Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 17: Lectures on Isaiah: Chapters 40-66. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 17, p. 277). Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
The Church’s Mission is NOT to Convert People
Devotional THought of the Day:
26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me. John 12:26 (NLT)
356 The first Apostles, when Our Lord called them, were by the side of an old boat busy mending the torn nets. Our Lord told them to follow him and statim—immediately—relictis omnibus—they left everything—everything! And followed him… And it does happen sometimes that we, who wish to imitate them, don’t quite leave everything, and there remains some attachment in our heart, something wrong in our life which we’re not willing to break with and offer up to God. Won’t you examine your heart in depth? Nothing should remain there except what is his. If not, we aren’t really loving him, neither you nor I. (1)
Every once in a while, I hear a financial appeal for finances from a mission group. While they may never use the word “heathen”, that is what they are really saying. It may be to a inner city mission, or some foreign field in the middle of a desert, or swamp, or jungle. But the idea is that we must convert them, win them to Christ. Some may say they’ve had so many say a “sinner’s prayer”, or decisions for Christ. Others talk about the numbers of baptisms.
What they are focusing on is that moment when someone “becomes” a believer, the moment they were “saved”.
But the church isn’t in the business of converting people, of a one time moment that changes life, or at least gives us a guaranteed visa to heaven.
That isn’t what Jesus did, not is it what we are commissioned to do.
We are told to make disciples of all nations, not convert them.
Jesus didn’t tell Peter and Andrew, or James and John to just believe in Him. He didn’t ask Matthew the tax collector to do that either.
What God is after, what He desires isn’t a nice photo album of those who repented of their sins at a crusade, or who were convinced by a logical apologetic speech or emotional appeal.. He wants a family, people who are His, who know He is theirs. A relationship where He can bless His children and care for them. Where He can teach them and share His glory with them.
You might say, that’s what conversion does. And yes, there is a quickening, a bringing to life. A baptism, a prayer, a confession of trusting God. But our transformation, that work of the Trinity in our lives takes a lifetime, the promised completion date is Christ’s return.
What does this matter? Why am I saying our goal isn’t to make converts? Why can’t conversion be our mission our goal?
Image a lady, who wants to become a mother. Has she achieved her goal the moment conception occurs? Or is there 9 months of pregnancy, and then years of sacrifices and successes, of joy and sorrows?
Our journeys only begins at baptism, our life in Christ starts there, when we go from not knowing God, to finding Him revealed in our lives so clearly that we trust Him. Where a relationship occurs as we walk with Him, as we are taught by Him, as we enjoy this life He has brought us.
We don’t want to just convert people, we want to see them become our brothers and sisters, we want our Father in heaven to adopt them….. our mission is far longer, far deeper, far more important than winning a debate.
It’s helping them to walk with God….. to know His love and mercy. To realize that nothing else is important, compared to walking with God.
to know when we cry together, “Lord Have Mercy!”. He answers.
That is what being missional is about, about what the apostolate is about.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1406-1412). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Work of Love to Important to Leave to a Few…
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
1 Imitate me, then, just as I imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1 (TEV)
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)
Before Christ and my own conscience I assure you that I am speaking the plain truth when I say that there is something that makes me feel very depressed, like a pain that never leaves me. It is the condition of my brothers and fellow-Israelites, and I have actually reached the pitch of wishing myself cut off from Christ if it meant that they could be won for God. Romans 9:1 (Phillips NT)
622 Do you realise how much depends on whether you are soundly prepared or not? Many, many souls! And now will you cease to study or work with perfection? (1)
There is a attitude in the church today, that needs to be confronted, that needs to be corrected. It is the idea that our lives are our own, that we have no obligation to work in the Kingdom of God. We have no obligation to tell people about God’s love, to either them, or to God.
We’d love to leave that to pastors (and pastors leave it to missionaries!) or to the religious fanatics. We don’t want the obligation and the obligations that come when those people we share God’s love with need to be loved…. by us. Or the obligation to know God’s word beyond the basic “believe and your will be baptized” type promises, the ones assure us that we aren’t going to hell The obligation of even praying for people is more than most of us are willing to take seriously.
how do we feel when we read Paul’s despair over the people of Israel? Is such love a foreign thing to us?
His is not the only love like this – look at Moses making a similar offer to God. What about Abraham, so worried about Sodom and Gommorah that he would bargain with God, over and over. These weren’t the best people these men of God tried to save, it was rebellious sinful people. The same kind of people around us. Will we hear their cries? Will we know their pain?
The problem is this idea that satan convinced the church of, that sharing our faith is an obligation, that it is commanded and we must do it. We buy into that, because it gives us an out – if it is law – we assume our guilt, claim to repent, and go our merry way, assured we are forgiven.
But sharing our treasured hope is not a matter of law – it is a matter of love. To look at those who suffer under the burden of shame and guilt, who are enslaved to sin, who are broken because of it. Who try to find their peace in bottles or drugs or anything that will numb the pain, that will allow them to ignore it, or set it aside. To look on these people is to see the need they have, that we know can be met, that can bring about healing and holiness.
It is a matter of loving them, and remembering when we realized what forgiveness is, what the promises of our baptism brings, what it means to know that God looks at us as His children, whom He chose to adopt.
We look those who don’t know Him, whom Jesus endured the shame of the cross to save… and we know we are called ot love them…..to be the ones who point them to life, to rest, to walking with God. Can we picture them, as the burdens are lifted, as the sins are removed, as the joy fills their hearts?
Lord, you’ve made us your children, help us to be patient, and desire that non perish…..and help us to embrace any sacrifice that will help us lead others into Your family. AMEN!.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 2629-2631). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
How To Deal with the Stress of God’s Mission!
How to Deal with the Stress… Of His Mission! 
Matthew 10:5a, 21-33
† In Jesus Name †
As you go out, bringing the news of God’s loving us enough to take responsibility for our lives, may you endure, knowing the grace of Christ!
The Mission
There were some words I read this week by a priest that resonated deeply with me.
I am going to paraphrase them here, putting the thoughts in words that would make sense to us…
In our visits to the sick, in our administration of the sacraments, in our teaching of the catechism, and in all the rest of our priestly (pastoral) activity, we are collaborating (serving) with Christ in establishing Christian hearts. At the same time and by that same means, that is, by the work we do, the Lord is establishing and rooting our hearts in his own. (1)
What he is describing is what we are sent to do, to bring Christ to people. We all do it differently. Dane does it while going and checking on a good friend, Joanie does serves in such a way, at the Korean grocery Store, where she invited Jenny to Bible Study. It is what Rainbow does at Hope International University, and what Wanda and Kay do as they interact in the office with all who come into see them.
This is our mission, the same one that started among us when Jesus sent the twelve out to a certain group – but now sends us to the entire world.
It is the same mission, to bring the gospel, the news of the Kingdom of God coming among them, or as the pastor said, seeing “the Lord establishing and rooting our hearts in His own!”
This incredible mission is ours, but, you need to be warned, as the apostles were, it might not be the easiest…
The Challenge…..
One might read these verses in our gospel reading and wonder what you’ve gotten yourself involved in, following Jesus, hearing and trusting Him and sharing your faith with others.
I mean what is this about, breaking up families, even to the point of one handing over another to be executed. Why would people hate us? And real persecution, the kind of persecution where people zealously hunt us down and enslave or oppress us?
There are a number of temptations to dealing with such opposition.
The first is simply to be okay with their sin, to not see their sin, or ours as something we have to worry about. Christ died for all those sins, right? For jealousy and envy, for gossip and sexual immorality, for wanting to kill people, well at least with our thoughts and words, for not honoring those God placed in authority, or those who dismiss the times of rest with which God desires to bless them. Or maybe we become comfortable with people using God’s name wrongly, or even worse, with their not using it at all.
The reading of Paul’s epistle should straighten us out on that….
Don’t be slaves to sins, and don’t let others continue to dwell in spiritual death as their reward,
Don’t weaken the message of God’s mercy, by pretending we don’t need it. That will not free you from persecution. Don’t be cowed by those who would dismiss you from doing God’s work, by saying it isn’t necessary to treasure the life God has given us.
But that doesn’t give us the right to just stand up and act as jerks condemning people as sinners left and right. We can’t combat the opposition to God’s word, by getting ready to wield the rock with which to stone them. We can’t use the idea that using the Bible offensively is the best defense of the gospel.
We are called to love, and yes, sometimes to suffer, for the sake of those who need to hear of God’s love and mercy. As I heard yesterday, a basic summer of the gospel, that they know God matters, and that people matter to Him.
So how do we do this, in the face of opposition from friends and family and those that would rather not hear of their need for God, and His desire to show them all His love?
How do we deal with the stresses of the Mission that God has given us, to take His message to the world, that they would be saved?
The Key – the Relationship We Have with Jesus
If you could see the verse that precedes the bulk of our passage, you would hear how we deal with it.
19 … don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. 20 For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:19b-20 (NLT)
How can this be? That as we focus on God, the words we speak are not ours, but those of the Holy Spirit? Who are we to speak for God, to utter not our words, but His?
We aren’t apostles, are we?
Hear verse 24 of the gospel again:
24 “Students are not greater than their teacher, and slaves are not greater than their master. 25 Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master. And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names! Matthew 10:24-25 (NLT)
We are His students, His disciples, His slaves, He is our Teacher, our Master, the One into whose image the Holy Spirit is transforming us. It should be natural, the more we think about His love, the more we contemplate the cross, and realize the link their to our unity with Him in baptism, and how we testify to that death for us, as we eat His body, as we drink His precious blood in communion, that we take on His nature, That we understand His desire is that not one of the people around us would perish in Hell, but that all would come to know His love and mercy.
The very unity we have with God in Christ, will see us through any discomfort, ever persecution, even as it did Jesus as He started this mission.
We are so His, that nothing can separate us from Him, and so we should go, and do that which He has sent us to do, to preach the gospel to all creation, to do so with each of our talents, with each of our gifts, abilities, to see this as the reason we are here, even as He came to us.
For that is the greatest miracle of this, that we dwell, we find our life, as St Paul said, in Jesus.
Or as the pastor I quoted at the beginning of this wrote,
In our visits to the sick, in our administration of the sacraments, in our teaching of the catechism, and in all the rest of our priestly (pastoral) activity, we are collaborating (serving) with Christ in establishing Christian hearts. At the same time and by that same means, that is, by the work we do (in Christ), the Lord is establishing and rooting our hearts in his own. (1)
hear the last line one more time… as you go into the world to share Christ in such a way that people’s hearts are established in Christ…. Then know
At the same time and by that same means, that is, by the work we do (in Christ), the Lord is establishing and rooting our hearts in his own. (1)
Established there, we know the incredible, indescribable peace of God our Father, the peace we know in Christ… in which He guards our hearts and minds. AMEN?
(1) Pope Francis; Jorge M Bergoglio (2013-11-18). Open Mind, Faithful Heart (pp. 39-40). The Crossroad Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
Is This Claim Audacious, Blasphemous or Simply Crazy?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
18 All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (MSG)
1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (TEV)
200 “When you consider how many people do not take advantage of a wonderful opportunity, but allow Jesus to pass by, think: where does this clear calling which was so providential, and showed me my way, come from? Meditate on this every day: an apostle has always to be another Christ, Christ himself.”
If you read the words of St.Josemaria Escriva (in blue) first, they might startle you. Every apostle has to be another Christ? We have to be Christ Himself? How in the world can he say those things! How audacious! How….. blasphemous it seems!
It becomes even more audacious when I tell you that by apostle, St. Josemaria means each of us who follows Jesus. Not just the 12 back in the day, not just missionaries who go to exotic places, meet interesting people and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not just pastors and elders and deacons. Each one of us is sent by God into places where we represent Him, where we reflect His glory, where we bring Christ’s love to invade the darkness.
You who are reading this, God has placed you where you are, to reflect His love today. for you dwell, in Christ. You have, since your baptism.
Audacious to think you are Christ? Blasphemous to say you are? Or perhaps you are just nuts, insane, and have a Messiah complex?
That’s why I noted the two Bible passages above, where we are transformed by God into the image of Christ. When our attention is so captivated by the mercy of Christ, by His love, by His presence, that our old self is killed off, and all that remains is what is of Christ. That is why Paul will also write:
“19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:19-20 (NLT)
We don’t have to die on the cross, as Jesus did, for we died there with Him. But there is another part of that, the what does our baptismal life mean? How do we live, and we need to remember and struggle with the fact that we are to continue the work of Christ, that we are those He has sent, even as the Father sent him. Does this mean we need gimmicks and programs and all have to head off to seminary? No. Does it mean we have to sell everything we have, give it to the poor, and move to the Amazon or Siberia?
No, you are where as God placed you – that is where He has sent you. (for now) To be a father, mother, employee, boss, child, parent, but to do those things in view of your vocation as an apostle, as a son/daughter of God who has been put there to reflect His glory, to help people see God, to help them realize that Christ is there, and they can’t just let Him pass by. Because you are there – reflecting the Father, and Christ is loving them through you. The prayer in my devotional this morning said it well:
At every moment of our existence,You are present to us, Father. In gentle compassion help us to be present to one another so that our presence maybe may be a strength that heals the wounds of time and gives hope that is for all persons, through Jesus, our Lord and Brother. Amen. (2)
May this be so….may we live to Christ, dying to self. AMEN.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1041-1045). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) from Celtic Daily Prayer – May 17th, the year of Aidan
