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The Secret to Loving and Serving Others
Devotional thought for the day:
“When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’, he said, ‘what I have done to you? 13 You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. 14 If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.” John 13:12-15 (NJB) (
Consider listening to this song –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I47c29GvFY while reading this blog
The church has been designed to be a community, a place where people have learned to lay aside their wants and desires, and serve others, to nurture others, to imitate Christ’s life, and the blunt clear lessons like the one in John 13 – where he washes the cracked, dry, smelling feet of men who hadn’t learned yet to love, to be in a relationship – not just with their Lord, but with each other. THe lesson is harsh, and convicting, how often are we willing to get down on our knees, and deal with the muck those we are called to love have walked through?
It cannot be done, not in our own strength at least. Their burdens are too heavy, their pains too deep, the crap in their lives can, indeed cause us to turn away, spiritually and physically nauseated, disgusted. Or we wonder why, as Michael Card sings, we have to do this day after day, after day…..
So where do we find the strength to obey? Where do we find the power to live lives in this holy manner?
A catholic priest once wrote:
“When you start out each day to work by Christ’s side and to look after all those souls who seek him, remember that there is only one way of doing it: we must turn to the Lord. Only in prayer, and through prayer, do we learn to serve others!” (1)
That’s the answer – through prayer – through intimate conversation, through communion/fellowship – through letting Christ wash our feet,through letting him, remove our burdens, through letting Him still – clean up those parts of our lives that have gotten dry, broken, blistered, smelly….. through letting Him be God. It is the only way, as St. Josemarie told us, to find the strength to serve, to be there for people, to bring healing and love to their lives. We don’t have the strength
We have to let Jesus do that to us….cleanse us, heal us…
and then, the Holy Spirit will work through us to do the same for others.
And oh the joy, oh the inexpressible joy that comes from seeing others cleansed, and counted holy and righteous.
It sends you right back in prayer, to the throne of God, to praise and glorify Him!
Lord, show us Your mercy… even as You work through us to bring that mercy to those we serve around us!
(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 474-476). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Gates of Hell Cannot Withstand….those standing firm in Christ!
“The Gates of Hell Cannot Withstand Us”
Ephesians 6:10-20
† In Jesus Name †
As we are engaged in spiritual battle, may we find the strength, and His might, which enables us to focus, not on the Evil, but on His Love and Mercy! AMEN!
St. Peter’s Confession!
In one of his better moments, right after putting one foot in his mouth and perhaps seconds before placing the other one there, St Peter proclaims to Jesus (and to the others) “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 (NLT)
Jesus response there in Matthew’s gospel affirms Peter’s words.
16:17 Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. 18 Now I say to you that you are Peter which means ‘rock’, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not stand against it. Matthew 16:17-19 (adapted from NLT/ESV)
We shared this same hope we in the words of the Nicene Creed, They remind us that we are in a spiritual war, that we were once hostages that were rescued by Jesus, that there are still many that need to be rescued, and the gates of hell are powerless against the cry of faith in God.
It is a spiritual war, and spiritual warfare, though simple in words never seems to be so easy.
Most people, facing spiritual warfare and our epistle today take one of two actions. One they see themselves as a spiritual super-hero, Captain America or Superman – ready to take on the world if need be! Or having common sense, they run faster than the Enterprise going into warp
Often, we come often back from such spiritual warfare bruised and battered, as I have to admit, I did this week. The challenge is to realize that taking such a beating…isn’t always a bad thing. For it drives us to Jesus…
A Confession of Failure
As Vicar Mark and I went to St. Louis this week, we had some incredible moments. Some of the lessons were great, as we heard that the seminary process is as much about forming Mark as a pastor, not just a theologian. They left him a bit in awe, and somewhat in fear of the next four year’s work they demand. They did the same for us “mentors”. They told us of the burden we will bear – opening our lives us to share and model and help mold th making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
em as men of God, as leaders of their church.
I failed the very first test as Mark’s mentor, as we struggled through the week, and as frustration eventually got the best of me. I didn’t model very well being strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, and in remembering that flesh and blood are not our enemies – but forces of much more conniving and forceful and yes diabolical nature.
It started with a rental car which our 5’7 inch 150 pound friend found quite snug with the seat all the way back! (So you can imagine Mark and I trying to wear it!) Then there was the perfect weather – well the numbers matched perfectly – 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity. Add in every class we moved from was on the 2nd or third floor with the stairwells without any airflow. Toss in a number of irritating moments, like losing paperwork and forms multiple times. And cap it off with a mind-number eleven hour journey home including a challenge with TSA, weather delays, missed connections, and airport staff who seemed to delight in causing us problems! One of us, on a conveyer belt bringing us from one terminal to another mentioned the passage in James… “count it all joy when you endure..” except we couldn’t even find that quote funny. We were done, we were beat, and we lost sight of God’s incredible blessings of the week, or the people He brought us into contact with…including the divorced doctor going to see his son, and the foreign student who Mark and I had the opportunity to share God’s love with, on the first leg of our journey.
I have to confess that I struggled not to see the ticket agent as my enemy. Knowing I was preaching on this very passage, I gave up the opportunity to be a blessing to her, and to be an example on dealing with frustrations for Mark.
I had lost the war… or so I believed, as I shared with Vicar Mark that we needed to remember the incredible blessings, even as Satan and His demons, NOT DELTA, was trying to distract us from the grace we know so well! The goal isn’t to beat us up, but to do whatever is necessary to pull us away from Jesus, and then into the bondage of sin!
So where is our armor?
I am convinced that a great deal of spiritual warfare begins and ends with simply distracting us from Jesus. Whether it is causing us frustration or anxiety, getting us to be burdened by guilt or shame, causing us to repress our feelings, or giving into sin, the goal is the same – the people of God will struggle if we are weakened by forgetting the presence of God in which we dwell! That’s why one of the first tactics is to indicate that we don’t need to be gathered together around God’s mercy and love, poured out on us through His word and Sacrament.
Look at the weapons we are to take up – they lead us – each and every one of the weapons, to Jesus – and His work in our lives.
We start the belt of Truth! Back then a belt girds and strengthens us for the run, think of the kind of belt a weight lifter or stockroom worker uses.. John 14:6 tells us Jesus is the Truth – and so our first weapon, strengthening our endurance is given to us, as we dwell in Christ!
The Breastplate of Righteousness – as we read Romans 3-5, and we find that which protects our heart is Jesus. The second tool of the battle is the righteousness, for in Him and through Him we are found righteous, and free from the sin which so easily subverts us!
The shoes, the incredible shoes that were put on, ready to go out and share the gospel of peace! Again, the focus is on being in Christ, for in Him, there is the peace that passes all understanding!
The helmet that keeps our mind safe and secure, just as the breastplate kept our heart safe- our salvation – which is found again, as we live in Jesus Christ, it is His work in our lives! Does it sound familiar that our heart is guarded and our head is guarded as we journey in peace? This is a common theme for Paul, the blessing of our being united in Christ Jesus!
Lastly the sword, the Word of God, the words which cut open our sin-plagued heart and exorcises the sin – not just a weapon to attack and stab with, but a tool to use for healing as well! What an incredible thing Jesus does in our lives!
Used in
Prayer –
It is amazing, that as Paul focuses us on these weapons, the tools of our faith, the emphasis isn’t really on the war, but on realizing that we dwell in Christ! That is why he naturally moves from realizing what God has done, to communicating with God in prayer and supplication!
You see, that’s where we find our strength – not in our own maturity, but rather in communion with the Creator of all! That means, trusting in Him, we do lay every burden down, we bring Him into every situation! We trust Him not only with our life, but with the people we pray for! We trust Him with the lives of those for whom we “intercede” as we bring before the God that loves us. We know that as He takes them from our hands into His heart, the care will be there… that all things will work for good for them, for those who are loved and called into the very relationship we have with God!
A war against principalities and the cosmic powers of the present darkness means we realize that so many are still held in bondage – bondage to that which causes fear and guilt and share and anxiety!
Our war isn’t with them, it is to free them, as it was Paul’s vocation and prayer as well.
Think about these last verses,
“making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel!
As we consider where we are in Christ, we realize they mystery is revealed completely! What we’ve been saved to, the peace, of heart and mind! The peace of knowing real truth that God has cleansed us and freed us of that which poisons our lives! We realize our battle is to free those who were bound as we have been, whose life is missing that peace.
The funny thing, I said above that I was shocked at what a poor example I was, but perhaps the example that was needed is not that I reacted badly to the stress of the day and the burdens of the week – but instead that having sinned, I found the strength that cleanses our sins, and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus….
For that is our combat lesson. AMEN?
The Struggle of Holiness
Devotional; Discussion thought for today.
” Sanctity does not consist in great concerns. It consists in struggling to ensure that the flame of your supernatural life is never allowed to go out; it consists in letting yourself be burned down to the last shred, serving God in the lowest place… or in the highest: wherever the Lord may call you. Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 441-444). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Tomorrow I preach on the topic of “Spiritual Warfare”, not a favorite topic at all, because I think I see so much misunderstanding of it.
The first reaction when it is mention is “gung ho!” Let’s go attack the hordes that would tear down and destroy the church! Let’s go to war with sin and sinners and if God is with us, we shall surely wipe them out! ( Depending on the time period, this is either burning them at the stake or forcing them to submit and tap out because of our superior logic and strength! )The church militant, misapplied! The other reaction is the one that heeds “discretion is the better part of valor” and high-tales at speeds reminiscent of of the USS Enterprise at the sight of Evil, or an encounter with the demonic. (btw – I highly recommend the latter if you resonate with the first – check out the sons of Sceva!)
But the answer, seriously is found in the quote above. Sanctity, Holiness, the struggle, the battle to cling to that which kindled our lives and set us ablaze. Ablaze to the point where our lives become living sacrifices, not on the battlefront, but in serving others. I love how Fr. Escriva talks of God burning us down to the last shred – and in places of great humility or honor – but to the last shred in either place. Being willing to follow God where ever He leads – no matter the personal cost. As I’ve mentioned before – holiness isn’t an attitude – it isn’t some smug feeling that I am purer than those others. It is gratitude that despite my impurities, God has called and cleansed me and given me a vocation – several vocations, where He has put me – not to glorify myself – but to reflect His love to a broken world. With that gratitude comes a sense of joy and fulfillment that only comes when we walk with Jesus throughout out lives. For it is God, the Holy Spirit – that continues to kindle and stoke our fires – that bring people before us, who need, desperately need to know the love and healing that comes from being in Christ.
The struggle of holiness of being sanctified isn’t about preservation, or about becoming pure and devout. It just isn’t. Those are side effects of being in the glory of God, sharing a life of ministry in vocations that God has called us to, and accompanies us on the journey, as we our hearts burn, as He reveals His love and mercy poured out on us.
So hear His voice, walk with Him in His glory, as He loves, guides, purifies you… His children!
AMEN
I love the will of my God?
Discussion point at the end of the day…
That friend of ours would finish his prayer in this way: “I love the Will of my God and that is why, abandoning myself completely into his hands, I pray that he may lead me however and wherever he likes.” Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 374-376). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
That is a hard statement to say – especially for me these days. I think of several of my friends, for who the journey of the moment is scary, it not only causes them great anxiety and fear, but it causes me to be anxious, to try and analyze and research and find ways to encourage them. I think of a friend who just started his “formal” formation to the pastorate today, knowing the challenges he will face, even as his families undergoes a number of other life transitions. Another friend who will walk beside him the next four years – and faces different challenges along the same road. A young seminarian I met, who I have a gut level instinct that he is something special, but his road will not be the norm as many other pastors.
How can each be encouraged to simply trust, to simply abandon their own desire and let a God who is here, but not always easily seen and felt, take them into His loving hands. How can we love the will…that we aren’t sure we like?
How can I, even as I look to the future as a pastor, and see where God would do the same thing – not just with me, but with a congregation of people I love. (Knowing that some may struggle with what God is planning for us, even as we abandon ourselves into His hands…
Luther would say this is a First Commandment issue – will we trust that He is our God, our Father, our Almighty, Everlasting, Wise Counselor, One who creates a kingdom of peace – in the midst of our messed up broken lives. That is a level of trust that is foreign to us today, hard, difficult, risky,….
necessary.
We can’t play God anymore. We can’t pretend to have strength that we don’t have. We need to find the rest that comes only when we get into the passenger seat, and let someone else pilot our lives. For there, in letting God reign, and rule, we find the rest and peace to hear His voice, to feel His presence, the stillness to have peace and know… to experience, to have revealed to us that He is our God.
Lord, this evening, help me to abandon myself to you… help my heart rejoice in being Your child, in letting You guide the way of my friends, to bless the path of Vicars Mark and Eduardo, to help the people I shepherd know Your love and hear your voice….and may we all pray the same prayer that start this blog…
I love the Will of my God and that is why, abandoning myself completely into his hands, I pray that he may lead me however and wherever he likes.”
AMEN
Familiarity Breeds ….. Awe!
As always – feel free to comment/discuss:
There is an old saying – which cam to mind while discussing yesterday’s devotion on the Trinity. A good friend of mine indicated that he feared reducing his faith to that of the country/gospel songs where Jesus is described as a friend/pal – almost as if he will raise a mug of Coors or Bud with us. ( blech) . I get that, there is a point where we can make God our ole bud and then take him for granted. (as we sometimes do with our best friends)
It’s what the old phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” so aptly describes. THe idea that the longer we spend with someone, or with something, the more we take it for granted.
We have to admit – most of us take God for granted, and treat Him contemptuously from time to time. 🙁
I wonder though, is our taking Him for granted just based in our being too close? That we only take Him for granted when we think of Him as friend as a familiar part of our lives? Or do we take Him for granted when we think we related to Him as the Creator, and we are just a speck of the Creation? I would suggest its both.
So let’s look again at a familiar passage..
15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. 13 The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. 14 And you are my friends if you do what I command you. 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 15:11-17 (TEV)
It is in realizing that Jesus, Lord of Lords, King of Kings shares with us what the Father entrusted Him with, that we are no co-heirs of Christ, adopted children of God. That level of familiarity, that yes, does include the entire Trinity, that is amazing! A common sinner like me (and yes you as well) welcome into the presence of God, not as a servant/slave, as one indebted (yet we owed a great debt) but as family, is too me something I desire not to take for granted, not to treat contemptuously, and yes, it hurts and sickens me when I realize that I have. How it should crush us, for a moment, as we realize that we have forgotten the Holy Spirit, who abides with us, the incredible gift of our baptism.
We are His people,….I am His own. He has called us by name – His name….
He became common – that He could be with us… that we would share in His glory, as we abide in Him, and He abides in us…
May this familiarity continue to breed such awe..that my life responds in worship and praise!
The Triune God…revealed
Devotional thought of the Day:
A Catholic priest once wrote:
“God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration. Jesus is my intimate Friend (another rediscovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart. The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road. Consider this often: you are God’s… and God is yours” Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 237-242). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
It is a beneficial thing to contemplate on the trinity. From an Academic standpoint, the creeds, those incredible statements summarizing the work of the Trinity – they are great! Pretty good for contemplation as well, as we focus in on why we have confidence, why we trust in God, Father Son and Spirit. A lot of weight in these statements that we have had handed down to us!
Escriva’s words, taken in conjunction with those creeds reminds us that there is more to the Trinity than academic and theological insight. There is an intimacy with God, what some of the guys I work with reluctantly once, now playfully refer to the “r” word – the relationship. And that’s what Escriva’s words help us to remember – all those incredible things – all the creation, all the word redeeming us, all the work in making us holy, making us saints – proof that God is with us. The challenge, when we are talking about the Trinity, is to realize that They keep us in their conversation, that They are One, yet call us into that dance, that call us to share in that love, that dance with joy as the people that are called by Their name… realize that very truth.
Rejoice my friends, the Triune GOd loves you!
God’s Commands, or God’s Commission?
Devotional Thought of the Day.
It’s amazing the difference a word makes, or just a few letters ending words starting with “comm”. TO be precise “and” versus “ission”.
As I prepared my studies for this weeks sermon, the difference glares out to me. The word in Greek has, very definitely, the nature of commission. Yet over and over we translate it command. With that translation, we create a load of issues that are not really there.
If you commission something, a piece of art, a building, a musical piece ( I think of Mozart’s Requiem) any project, you give the scope of the work, what your expectations are when it is completed. It draws the boundaries of the work and brings definition to it. It is a project something that takes on beauty over time. And if the work is fulfilled, the one who commissioned it has caused a masterpiece to be created. It is about the end product, and the formation of it – a masterpiece.
A command is something with even harder definitions – I always think of an execute order in computer program. Print X, the sum of 3+4. Or the directive that is specific and immediate. Don’t do this, do that, go here, and that which is commanded must do what is to be done. The command executed, the project finished, then what?
When it comes to God, and what He would have us do, He is commissioning something, He is describing the parameters and vision for a project that is underdevelopment all our lives. His goal is a masterpiece, without flaw, something that will endure, and br praiseworthy and glorious. It’s far more than a moment by moment execution in blind obedience, its being formed and shaped and there is a goal. The goal is simply defined by one word – a relationship. The relationship we recognize when we see that He is our God, and when we also recognize that by His work, we are His people.
Indeed a masterpiece!
Yet how many times would we get in the way of that – would we decide to ignore that which He commissioned – to draw outside the lines, the parameters that a common to the commissioning. (SOme refer to this as disobedience – but its more – the is is that it is an attempt to destroy the masterpiece God commissioned – to ignore or mar His plan with what we want. It is like spraying grafitti over the artwork in the St Peter’s Basilica, it is like having someone “sit in” and overdub “Dust in the Wind” with a Kazoo.
Using commission brings a whole different understanding to why God draws the parameters for our lives the way He does. It reflects on that great verse of Paul in Eph 2:10. “2:10 We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10 (NJB)
So to does commission create a more vivid picture of sin, as we destroy a masterpiece in the making, as we ignore the beauty that God would see in us…so that we create the havoc we think is …
Luckily we aren’t the one who holds the commission – that responsibility is belong’s to the Artist – to the One Isaiah calls the Potter, the One in Whom we are created. And in Christ, somehow, miraculously, that artwork we once thought was destroyed, is restored, brought back to life and beauty, healed and made whole. That was His commission – and the giftedness it took, literally was an investment of His life.
Thank God for that mercy, shown to us.
His people, His work.
May as we cry out Lord have mercy, respond with our lives, lived within that which He has commissioned.
AMEN
My Most Unpopular Post…EVER
Devotional Thought of the Day:
It’s amazing how much a five year old reflects the behavior of a society, and even more amazing, the people who make up God’s church in America. ( I don’t know about other countries – yet…)
I happen to have a brilliant five year old. He reads well, he can do 2 and 3 digit addition, but he has a major issue with patience, and sometimes a complete lack of awareness of that which is going on around him. A chip off the old block in many ways (okay – he get’s the brilliance from his mom) Most repeated lesson these days, get what you need to done, without the whining. I tell you – there are times I wish he was a teenager – and had matured past the whining part. (please don’t disillusion me!)
I see in myself, and in churches and among church leaders, the same impatience. We want everything fixed right away, we want to see our people go from just baptized to having the faith of Moses and David and John right away. (we have to remember that John was once a “son of thunder” and I don’t think his transformation was immediate either.)
We whine about the fact that others don’t mature, and that we can’t “go on” or we decide to “go on” without them. If this is in the church – we devalue each other, saying that our personal growth and maturity is more important than the growth of the entire community in their faith. Tough call, very tough call here, but we see the evidence of it in the incredibly high “church shopping” movement. People don’t see their needs being met – even in the mega-churches – and they mvoe to the next one, to the next place that is hopping – and then try to drag their friends there as well.
We see it in the movement today – in those that look at the 25 year studies of churches and note that the “common” thing is for decline ( while we over look the stat in the same study that says this is easily addressed by re-committing to the vision of the church, or adapting it) and that “true” growth occurs fastest in “church plants”. IMHO – that attitude will prove to result in more danger as good – about 20 years from now – as those people see that they created a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it is also there in the movement that has little patience with those who are so excited to discover the grace of God, that they want the world to know! More whining, more complaining, more impatience.
Please hear me – I as much as anyone – want to see people grow in their trust in God, and mature in how that is expressed. And I struggle with the plodding that sometimes is evident, as people don’t see a need to grow – and our content where they are at – stagnant it seems.
But spiritual maturity is a process of endurance, not sprints – it needs to last generations, not just years and perhaps a decade. It has to show the characteristic that we see in God,
3:9 The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (NJB)
I used to think the patience in this passage, was talking about those that hadn’t rbeen brought to repentance yet – but Peter is addressing the people that are believers already. Could it be that God’s patience is with His kids? The ones who whine and complain about others, the ones who are to be about planting seeds, the workers in the harvest, the church that has been gifted and given the vocation of being the light in the darkness? I think that we have to be careful and to discern the difference between tolerating stagnation, and knowing when to be patient with the slow and steady growth that must occur in the church – the patience that knows that endurance in the ministry means being able to guide people from where they are at, to a greater and greater dependence on God.
It means realizing and ministering to people in their brokenness – and making sure they grasp the wonder of God’s presence in their life, and the need of that presence in the lives of those around them. It means slowing some down to savor God’s presence and rest – while still bringing hope and healing to those around them. It means sticking to the place where God has gathered you – and encouraging each other continually to look to Christ, to reflect His glory.
It’s not easy, its not always popular, but the discipline is that which reflects God’s love to you…. as you work with people, enduring, patient – longsuffering, and as they work with you.
Know this – where you are at – there God’s presence is… learn that it is enough – and that is the maturity that really matters.
