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The Theological Hymn the Entire Church Needs Today.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
22 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. 23 These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. 24 That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. 25 But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. 26 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. 27 He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. 28 That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Romans 8:22-28 (MSG)
But I pressed towards Thee, and was thrust from Thee, that I might taste of death: for thou resistest the proud. But what prouder, than for me with a strange madness to maintain myself to be that by nature which Thou art? For whereas I was subject to change (so much being manifest to me, my very desire to become wise, being the wish, of worse to become better), yet chose I rather to imagine Thee subject to change, and myself not to be that which Thou art. (1)
139 Nothing less than Christ’s power is needed for our conflict with the devil. We know that for Christ’s sake we have a gracious God and his promise. And therefore, we pray that the Holy Spirit may govern and defend us, so that we may not be deceived and err, nor be driven to do anything against God’s will. (2)
The congregation gathered around, absolutely devasted by the events they had endured. They humbly gathered, downcast, not know what to do or say. Heartbroken, unaware of how they will continue on, a simple, profound, wondrous hymn breaks out among them…
A hymn maligned, denigrated, and used as an example of poor hymnody, poor theology, poor worship by countless experts. I will contend that if we learn this hymn if we sing it as it was meant to be sung, there are few that express the theological depth it does.
It doesn’t matter to those singing it, for it is a lament that expresses the only hope they have… the gentle words pleading for that which is promised. A prayer expressed in words so significant that they must resonate in the church today.
“Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya, Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya, Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya, O Lord, Kumbaya;”
O Lord, be with us…”
These words express the same sentiment that Augustine reveals he needed. The attitude that is found in brokenness, the attitude of facing death, and dying to self. St. Paul’s words echo this, comparing this life’s brokenness to labor pains, as we await the recreation, the rebirth of all things. It speaks of those moments when our hearts are too broken to know what to pray, and the Holy Spirit must be our intercessor, the translator of the groans too deep for words.
This song speaks of the eschatological hope we have in Christ, which St Peter begs us to be ready to do.
This song is an expression of the Theology of the Cross, the simple hope found in our brokenness and the healing promised and delivered in word and sacrament.
This song speaks of the incarnation, as we count on Christ’s presence in our lives
This song speaks of vocation, as it asks God to be there in every situation we encounter.
This song talks of the Omnipresence of God, who incarnates Himself into our lives, who draws us into Himself.
It speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, our comforter-paraclete, who teaches us of God’s love.
Amazingly, this song speaks of the sacraments, as we know He has come to us as we are united to Him in the waters of baptism, as we hear His words, you are forgiven, as we are fed with His body and Blood.
It does all this in a humble way, not with glorious melodies, not with perfect 4 part harmony, not with a worship that seeks to impress both God and those who are spectators. Rather, it is sung by voices barely able to create an audible noise. It resonates with the depth of the hearts aid open. It can capture the heart of all, growing in fervor, moving us from darkness to the glory found in His presence.
It is sung with hearts who realize their only hope, the only way to find peace, to receive mercy, is to encounter Almighty God in all His glory and plead for mercy, to cry the Kyrie Eleison, to plead, O Lord, be with us…
This must become again the cry of a church, in a broken world, for it points us to what is necessary, what we need to desire more than all, the presence of God. Here, now, in our lives.
May we be able to cry such words in faith, together, knowing that He who has promised is faithful….
Amen!
(1) Augustine, S., Bishop of Hippo. (1996). The Confessions of St. Augustine. (E. B. Pusey, Trans.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 126). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Are You Experiencing a Spiritual “Monday”? Do You Feel God isn’t There?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense. 26 Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God. 27 I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. Job 19:25-27 (TEV)
235 Don’t complain if you suffer. It is the prized and valued stone that is polished. Does it hurt?—Allow yourself to be cut, gratefully, because God has taken you in his hands as if you were a diamond. An ordinary pebble is not worked on like that.
Ignatius describes the pattern of life as one where we move from being aware of God’s consoling presence into times of desolation, times where we feel abandoned by God. The latter times are when we cannot easily recognize His presence in our lives. It is a devastating feeling. It’s the Spiritual equivalent of a month of Mondays.
It can wipe you out, this feeling of darkness swallowing you. Satan may try to convince you God doesn’t exist, that’s he a fable. Or failing that, you might struggle with your past/present, sure that some sin weakened you so much that God can’t even heal you, that His mercy isn’t enough to save you.
You may feel like St Josemaria’s diamond, being polished and cut, yet unaware of the precision that God is using to create in you a righteous spirit, a holy priest, a blessed child and co-heir of Christ. But even knowing that doesn’t stop the pain and feeling of abandomnet and loss.
So how do you survive these times?
Job’s focus was eternal. He knew the promise of God, that God would save Him. That even in death, in HIs body He would see God.
Knowing God, knowing God’s ultimate desire does that. This intimate knowledge of God doesn’t ease the pain or the grief by eliminating it. Instead, knowing that promise helps us to realize the emptiness is temporal, and isn’t our reality. St. Paul saw this as well,
2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory! Colossians 3:2-4 (TEV)
So are you stuck in a spiritual cycle of Mondays? You are defeated, for you are Christ’s, and nothing can separate you from His love. Patiently hold onto the hope that Job and so many others testify to, that when we see God, He will be not be a stranger.
AMEN.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1179-1182). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Prayer for the Right Attitude on a Monday!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 iI will set my tabernacle in your midst, and will not loathe you. 12 Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people. Lev 26:10–12 NABRE
40 *They will confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors in their treachery against me and in their continued hostility toward me, 41 so that I, too, had to be hostile to them and bring them into their enemies’ land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember. Lev 26:40–42
273 Dear Jesus: if I have to be an apostle, you will need to make me very humble. Everything the sun touches is bathed in light. Lord, fill me with your clarity, make me share in your divinity so that I may identify my will with your adorable Will and become the instrument you wish me to be. Give me the madness of the humiliation you underwent, which led you to be born poor, to work in obscurity, to the shame of dying sewn with nails to a piece of wood, to your self-effacement in the Blessed Sacrament. May I know myself: may I know myself and know you. I will then never lose sight of my nothingness. (1)
It’s Monday, and that means lots of posts and tweets about how Monday is a pain in the buttocks. We grieve over Mondays, we hate them, we struggle with them.
Part of the struggle is that we think we have to deal with Monday’s alone, we somehow decide to be hostile to God. You may say, I am a believer, I went to church for 90 minutes yesterday and didn’t even complain when the pastor kept boring me to death!
But being hostile to God isn’t just about going to church, or saying you are a believer. Being hostile to God includes going off on a Monday without Him. Trying to struggle through the return to work, without considering He is as with you today, as He was when you were receiving His body and His Blood at the altar. We are hostile to God when we deny Him the opportunity to comfort us, the opportunity to walk with us, the opportunity to be in a relationship with us that is more than 90 minutes of visitation a week.
What if your Monday stress is simply a call to humility? To remember that you are His children, that He is your God? To remember His role in your life, and welcome it with you?
That is what St. Josemaria’s prayer is all about; as we find the humility to share in His divinity, in His glory. In setting aside our will, our pleasure, instead revelling in His presence, content in His peace.
That is the key to dealing with the frustration of a Monday. That is how dealing with the stress, or the weight of the workload, or the bad attitudes of those around us. To realize we are nothing, like Christ, who emptied Himself. Because from that place, nothing is impossible, and in every situation we can find joy.
For we are with Him, and He reveals to us His love.
AMEN.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1341-1347). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Attitude of Advent: Our dearest Friend is coming to be with us!
Devotional Thought to Prepare us for Advent….
15 I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. 17 This, then, is what I command you: love one another. John 15:15-17 (TEV)
233 You spoke about the scenes in the life of Jesus which moved you most: when he met men suffering greatly… when he brought peace and health to those whose bodies and souls were racked with pain… You were inspired—you went on—seeing him cure leprosy, restore sight to the blind, heal the paralytic at the pool: the poor beggar forgotten by everybody. You are able to contemplate Him as He was, so profoundly human, so close at hand! Well… Jesus continues being the same as then. (2)
There is an attitude that negatively views contemporary worship (or that of 30-100 years ago) that treats Jesus to0 close, too intimate, too friendly. They would rather perceive God from the perspective of great distance, and perhaps great fear.
Which would make sense if we were approach Christ’s advent, His coming, with the anticipation of judgment without the cross’s benefit. To turn advent into a time of anticipating hell, fire, and brimstone, wrath and tribulation is wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, we need Jesus to come back, perhaps even desperately so. Life is too screwed up, we all need to be delivered from sin completely, we need to come home to God. But that turns advent from anxiety about Jesus coming, to realizing we and anxiety is more caused because of the wait we endure until He returns.
If we have friends we haven’t seen in ages coming to dinner during the holiday; we look forward to it. We anticipate it, we work hard, trying to get everything as perfect as possible. It is the same for Jesus second coming, we desire to grow in faith, we desire to see people come to know Him, to come to trust in Him, because He is our friend, because He loves us so completely.
Those contemporary worship songs which treat Jesus as a friend, they aren’t as far off base. They bring home that which we need to know, the attitude that Luther noted, makes the difference between one who knows God, and one who only knows of Him,
“For all outside of Christianity, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, although they believe in, and worship, only one true God, yet know not what His mind towards them is, and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him; therefore they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. For they have not the Lord Christ, and, besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy Ghost.” (2)
If we don’t understand God’s desire for an intimate, deep friendship with the people He calls and makes His own, we truly only know a God whose presence evokes fear and brings to the front of our heart the condemnation of guilt and shame. We have to realize the intent of Christ’s incarnation, to head resolutely to the cross, to show us the depth of His love, to bring us healing and forgiveness.
Yes, we should be in awe of God’s presence, we are overwhelmed by His glory, but a glory that pours out grace, that delights in showering us with His Mercy, embracing us in the love, even as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. The awe of realizing God, in all His glory, desires to be our friend.
Which makes the wait of Advent tense, as if we hear every passing car as if it is our long awaited Friend…
For He is coming!
May your patience and desire to see God sustain you, even as you anxiously await His return. AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1170-1174). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) The Large Catechism of Martin Luther. The Apostles Creed: Explanation of the Third Article.
Christian Peer Pressure? Stopping the “pile on” mentality
Devotional Thought of the Day
What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:31-34 (MSG)
Paul is therefore free and independent of the favor of mortals; faith is therefore, not a form of adulation for him, but a preaching of the truth and consequently of true love. To please God—that is what makes Paul free. God must become a reality for us, too, must be more real to us—no! not just more real—than the things we can grasp, so that to please God can become for us a criterion that is also a final liberation from the question of success. “To please God” can thus become the center of our life, that which sustains and guides us. When faith experiences God as a reality and pleasing God is recognized as the sustaining and sheltering joy of our life, then faith makes us free.
The topics in the news are volatile, there is not doubt.
Homosexual Marriage
Planned Parenthood
Illegal Immigration
Fear over Middle East Refugees
Pre-Presidential Election Politics
But what is extremely concerning to me is how the people of od deal with such things. We see one person come out with something that is a reaction based in anger, or froma position of fear, and we all dive on top of the comment, lke a loose football in a Superbowl. We don’t care how hard we dive, we don’t care who gets hurt, we want our stab at the ball, at our moment in glory. Or like sharks trying to find what delicious thing is causing the blood spreading through the water. We want our position to triumph over the other. If someone happens to quote St. Paul’s direction to love your enemy and pray for those who oppress you – well they are just naive, or worse – they really are working for the enemy.
I sometimes think this is simply mass hysteria, a form of cyber peer pressure where we are sucked into behavior we know is wrong. That may be too easy an explanation. I am not sure of the cause, but I have seen the damage, as Christians on both sides of fences ae struck, and strike back. They attack, mock and assume the worst about their adversaries. And when someone creates a meme that is full of hatred and vile attacks, whether true or not – the like button is hit, before the mind can actually see if it is compatible to Phil 4 simple standard<
Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Philippians 4:7-9 (MSG)
The solution to all this might be to put a time delay on all like buttons – a 10-second warning that asks us if the thing you are liking truly is Godly. With loud warnings from the sermon on the mount flashing all over our screens.
A better option would be what is included in the quotes above, specifically, being drawn into the presence of God. Some call it abiding in Christ Jesus, others practicing the presence of God or living the baptized life. I usually refer to such a concept as the IR – having an intimate relationship with God. Being so enraptured by His presence that it makes other issues pale in comparison. Being so aware of His love, His mercy, seeing Him revealed as more real as Joseph Ratzinger stated.
That awareness transforms us, as it did for Moses, and the prophets, as it did for the apostles. It is the transformation that happens as described by Paul in 2 Cor. 3 and Romans 12.
Spend time with God my friends, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Let Him show you how to love those you find unlovable. It will be an amazing journey.
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. 296). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
How Many Times Do I Need to Hear This? What About You? The Paradox of Life!
Devotional Thought of the Day
5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Philippians 2:5-8 (MSG)
If someone doesn’t care whether they live or die it is hard to threaten them. If our identity lies in whose we are, and not just in who we are, then even the loss of reputation will only be a temporary setback. The need to be someone, to have clout, to command respect, to have prestige or position are the shackles every bit as those of materialism. To been seen as holy, o spiritual mature, someone of depth, having a quiet authority, are these not also ambitions or bolsters of our status?
If we can only reach the true poverty and yielded-ness of not “needing to be” anything (even a humble nothing!) then we will truly be invisible. (1)
For where God’s Word is preached, accepted or believed, and bears fruit, there the blessed holy cross will not be far away. Let nobody think that he will have peace; he must sacrifice all he has on earth—possessions, honor, house and home, wife and children, body and life.
Now, this grieves our flesh and the old Adam, for it means that we must remain steadfast, suffer patiently whatever befalls us, and let go whatever is taken from us. (2)
Nietzsche once said he could not abide Saint Augustine—he seemed too plebeian and common. There is some justification for Nietzsche’s attitude, but it is precisely in these qualities that we discover Saint Augustine’s true Christian greatness. He could have been an aristocrat of the spirit, but for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his fellow men, in whom he saw Christ coming toward him, he left the ivory tower of the gifted intellectual in order to be wholly man among men, a servant of the servants of God. For the sake of Christ he emptied himself of his great learning. For the sake of Christ he became increasingly an ordinary person and the servant of all. In doing so he became truly a saint. For Christian holiness does not consist in being superhuman and in having an extraordinary talent or greatness that others do not have. Christian holiness is simply the obedience that puts us at God’s disposal wherever he calls us. (3)
I could have included a passage or 2 from St. Josemaria that were part of my devotions over the last few days. More passages where Jesus laid into the disciples the concept of sacrifice, where setting aside your life is the way to fulfill it. That anyone who set aside everything will find far more. This even as Jesus mourned as the rich young man couldn’t leave all behind. The words of Paul are encouraging us to imitate Paul where He imitated Jesus. The words of Stephen as boulders crashed upon Him, giving up even his “right” to revenge, that those who tortured them would be healed, that they would receive mercy, that they would rejoice in the love of the God whom they killed.
All those passages and the ones above coalesced this morning into one message.
It is the paradox of following Christ, to abandon to receive everything. It is why we are drawn to Christ, to see our Father’s Kingdom come, His will be done – for the world to come to repentance, to be transformed, to be cleansed, to be filled.
As we are emptied, even as Christ emptied himself, there is freedom and peace. Assured that nothing can separate us from God, we are free to love, to be merciful, to share a blessing that is so far beyond anything we know, anything we used to value, including ourselves. We get to share a blessing that is more than anything that could cause us anxiety, fear, or disturb our peace. We are emptied of all that…
It is simplicity that doesn’t even recognize itself, as we cling to Jesus and know we are His.
It is then the Holy Spirit is free to minister through us, guiding us, helping us love. This is so subtly done we don’t realize it, for we are at peace…even if it costs us our physical lives like Stephen, Paul and Jesus. Or, as living sacrifices where we live trusting and depending on God.
This is our paradox… not to think about as much as embrace. It is our life in Christ.
AMEN
Celtic Daily Prayer, Devotion for 8/29
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Large Catechism from The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 429). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
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. 274). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
?? Is the Church Asking the Right Quesion as It Tries to Share its Hope??
Discussion/Devotional Thought of the Day
10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (TEV)
15 But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, 1 Peter 3:15 (TEV)
“If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?” “why?“ (1)
“The only preparation which multitudes seem to make for heaven is for its judgment bar,” (2)
Nearly 30 years ago, my pastor and I were trained in what was known as Evangelism Explosion. The goal of the ministry was to prepare people with a scripted message that they could share the Christian faith. Tens of thousands of pastors and people were trained in the method. The scripts basic concept (as with most evangelism methods ) was to give peopel the assurance of eternal life in heaven, rather than eternal damnation/annihilation/punishment and the wrath of God.
In fact, last week someone asked those very questions to me via social media.
And this blog has been simmering ever since. The key was the quote from my devotions this morning, which brought it home. is our evangelistic work as believers primarily focused on making sure people get into heaven? Or is it about giving them the life, the peace, and the knowledge of God’s presence in this life, that is our hope for eternity?
If it is evangelism to prevent them from being sent to hell, there is strong motivation that would cause us to share God’s love with those we care for, with those we love. But that mission accomplished, is there the tight communion that you should see, is there the shared life, is there a willingness to stay together through thick and thin. To be blunt, does create a life that struggles with sin, and strives to love others as Christ did?
If our questions and manuscripts lead people only to get past the St Peter and those who guard the gates of heaven, what are we really doing? is conversion something that happens in a twinkling of an eye? You were going to hell, woops now you are going to heaven?
Or is our hope, our expectation based on a promise that we have a hint, a glimpse of in this life, and that glimpse changes everything? A promise that is repeated time and time in the scriptures. “You will be my people, and I will be your God.”
isn’t that where our hope lies? In the fact that who weren’t once a people, are now a people? Isn’t our hope seen in the promise that God will transform us and cause us to walk in ways that are incredible and blessed. (even though they might include suffering)
The evangelism explosion questions have their place, much of the material I still use to this day. Even so, the direction of our evangelism must be more than selling eternal fire insurance. What our hope is based on is one promise, that is as true now as it will be then. That gives us hope for this world, when it seems like it is falling apart, and yes for eternity.
The hope that is found when we know that the Lord is with us, and will never abandon us.
May the questions you ask lead people to realize this.
(1) paraphrase of the two questions from Evangelism Explosion used in many evangelism training seminars
(2) Celtic Daily Prayer, Harper 1 Publcishing – the devotion for this day
Y’all Come Back Now, You Hear? A sermon on Ephesians 2 (manuscript)
Y’all Come Back Now, You Hear?
Ephesian 211-22
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace and mercy of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ assure you of the peace that is found as the world comes back, reconciled to Him!
Concordia Hillbillies
Another Pastor Parker Parable….but one that needs a bit of a set up…
They were gathered, at the end, around a pool that reminded you of a Roman Villa.
As the credits rolled past, the cast of the sitcom would, with a hospitality that seems somewhat unknown today, invite us to watch next week with the words,
Y’all come back now, you hear?
You might call this pastor Parker parable, “The Kingdom of God is like the Beverly Hillbillies!”
Another way to put it is that if we made a television show about our church, it could be called the Concordia Hillbillies!
We certainly are a diverse group of characters, and there is no one that would walk in our doors, that wouldn’t be welcome.
If you are unfamiliar with the show, here is the basic plot, a poor family of people from somewhere in the Appalachia strikes it rich with oil on their property. They load up their truck and move to the Beverly Hills, the place of dreams and where rich people belong.
Of course, there are some things they had to get used to, As the slide says, Ma, somethings just ain’t going to be the way they used to be! Things like indoor plumbing, a pool in the backward instead of a creek and a pond, and the manners of the rich and infamous they would need o learn to deal with, and quickly. It was a study of cultural anthropology, and conflict resolution between peoples of different cultures and backgrounds done with great humor.
As we hear the words of Paul to the church in Ephesus, we see similar cultural issues, and we see a community being formed, as the people become one. There were things that the Gentiles and the Jews would need to learn, as they were brought together in Christ.
This is our goal for today. That we would begin to desire that all people would come and hear our plea, “be reconciled to God!” No matter their place of birth, their native language, their gender or economic status, that they would come, and that they would all come back to God, you hear?
Did We Worry About Fitting In? Or Did we Look Down on the newbies
The first plea to be reconciled goes to those who are new to the community. Those who were, and you have to here the “were” aliens. They weren’t part of the community, they weren’t governed by the law of the covenant, they were considered outsiders.
Some of us have experienced that feeling once or twice in our lives. We were born in a different place, some even on a different continent, like South America, or Asia. Some have come from Africa or Europe Some of us came from really strange places, like the lakes region of New Hampshire. We may have had people mock us, and California natives tell us we weren’t welcome or we felt like we would never fit in. Hear Paul’s words again, and see if the feeling sounds familiar,
- “11 Don’t forget that you – used to be outsiders.
- You were called “heathens” by the others
- In those days you were living apart.
- You were excluded from bein part of the community
- You did not know the rules and benefits of bein a part
- Therefore, you lived in this world without God and without hope”
For the Gentiles, it was just a matter of being held without the hope of fitting in,
I love Paul’s concern for these new believers that they will fit into the community of God. But part of that is helping them understand that they aren’t unbelievers anymore. These things were true – but they aren’t anymore.
It is as if he said, “Clampetts – you used to go to the bathroom out back, but Jethro, you don’t need to anymore.” Paul says, “Gentiles – remember you were like that before, but now you have hope, now you are part of the covenant, now you are in the community, no longer separated, no longer aliens!” They were now saints.. and that means something.
But they weren’t the only one’s who needed to learn!
Does anyone remember the name of Miss Hathaway’s boss? You know the rich banker who used to try and acquire the Clampett’s money? Was it Clydesdale?
Whatever his name, I think they modeled him after the older brother in the story of the prodigal son. He had trouble, serious trouble, adjusting to the fact that someone whom he didn’t think was worthy ended up with more blessings than he did. The Jews had the same struggle. Their pride in their circumcision and the other traditions they counted on caused them to lose contact with God’s vision.
It’s a problem we all struggle with at times, as our faith isn’t focused on Christ, but on something of us. I love how this translation puts it, “even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.”
Do we let our religious lives get like that at times, where they affect our body, but not our souls? Do we get to the point where we go through the motions and say the words, but don’t rejoice over the incredible mercy and love God shows us? The point when our traditions, or our preferences become more important than others coming to know God’s love?
What will it take for the new folk and the old folk, for the Jew and the Gentile, for all the cultures, all languages, all life to be at home together?
What Makes it Home
It happens when the same way it did in the Clampett household. It happens as we feast together.
It happens when we remember the life, death and resurrection of Christ includes us. We come home as we are joined together with Christ’s death and resurrection.
That’s how we know when we are home… home together. Hear Paul’s words again,
17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
to His home together
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
We belong together, we have been made one people, one holy people as we are God’s family. He is making His home out of us. People from every background imaginable, people who’ve committed every sin and been forgiven, people who are broken, who’ve come to be healed. God will work with people who’ve even come, like the apostle Paul did, to fight God, He can heal those who come to persecute God’s people, and like Paul was filled with awe, God can reach them! We can welcome, and even love them, and shown glimpses of the glory of God which we shall share in, together.
That is the power of God, seen as He makes us one….in Christ…
And y’all come back now, to His table for there will be a feast, celebrating His death and resurrection, the power of which is at work in us.
AMEN!
The Image of God and His People You Will Never Forget (though you might want to!)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth as the LORD directed me, and I put it on. 3 Then the LORD gave me another message: 4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me. 6 A long time afterward the LORD said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing. 8 Then I received this message from the LORD: 9 “This is what the LORD says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! 11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me. Jeremiah 13:1-11 (NLT)
538 There he is: King of Kings and Lord of Lords, hidden in the bread. To this extreme has he humbled himself for love of you. (1)
There are many images in scripture used to describe the close, intimate relationship between God and His people. He is the Good Shepherd who carries his lost sheep home, the Father who runs to meet His prodigal son, The Bridegroom awaiting His perfect spotless Bride. We are His temple, His dwelling place, His home…
And then there is this one
God and His people, who are pictured as… His underwear? (that’s what a loincloth is…)
I mean, that is how close God wants His people to be to Him? Not only that, He wants us to be like clingy underwear?
TMI!!!
(which could stand for too much information or too much intimacy!)
It is an odd picture to be sure, this picture that the prophet Jeremiah puts on paper, inspired by the Holy Spirit. But it drives the point home in a way we cannot deny.
God wants His people close to Him, Closer than anything else.
Yet too often, we don’t want to be that close to Him, we don’t even want to be in his bureau. We want to keep God at just the proper distance. Close enough to rescue us when we sin, but not so close that His presence causes us to move with Him, We want to have our sins forgiven, but not have to spend time clinging to Him, having our lives wrapped around His life, going where He wants to go.
He wants us that close. He wants to be that involved in our lives, and we to be that involved in His. For even as the prophet Jeremiah pictures us as God’s clothes, Paul will picture God wrapping Himself around us
26 It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. 27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. Galatians 3:26-27 (TEV)
This intimacy is not just pictured, but occurs at a deeper level, as we take Christ’s Body and Blood into us, in the Lord’s Supper, where Christ hides Himself, as St. Josemaria tells us, that we can know His love.
This intimate relationship is why the Father sent Jesus to live among us, to die for us, to restore us to the very ideal that God created us to be…. HIs people, His pride, His glory, and that we can bring Honor to His name.
Remember, the Lord is with you!
And if you need help remember how close… remember this picture from Jeremiah!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1299-1301). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
