Blog Archives
In Memory….
Devotional thought of the day:
26 This means that every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:26 (TEV)
437 If one of my fellow men had died to save me from death … God died. And I remain indifferent.
On Friday, I “shared” a picture on FB. It was a picture of men, paratroopers in a World War II airplane. The right side was the original picture, the left was a picture of men who had served then, but today. It was an amazing morph, the men in their youth, young, excited, ready to jump out of a perfectly functioning airplane. That side of the picture was black and white. Contrasting that picture was the older men, pictured in color, their weary bodies not overloaded with combat uniforms and packs, but ties and blazers, their grey hair covered by berets.
More than other picture I have shared or posted, this picture has been liked and shared by more people than any other picture. Maybe it is because people are realizing that memorial day is about more than barbecues and beaches, that it is ore than the unofficial kick-off to summer.
We remember that some men have given their lives to free others who were mistreated, who were oppressed. Surely that wasn’t the aim of some of them. Some were more about revenge, or gaining fame. But many simply fought, bled and died, because that is what they were called to do.
And some lived, and suffer for years for what they’ve seen, or what they’ve had to do. Those who sufferi from Post Traumatic Stress, (those who’s sleep is at best is uneasy because of the memories, the pains, the guilts and shame.
We need to remember these men, for no matter their motivation, they have served, and all have been wounded in their souls…. war creates victims without any rationale. Maybe that is why the picture was shared so many times. Gratitude on our part, and a desire for those who served to find peace., to be able to face that which they’ve tried to bury, so that they can know peace.
This morning the blue verse above was in my readings. I was struck by it, because of the timing, because of the context of Memorial Day Weekend. St. Josemaria is correct We stand in awe of those who have died or embraced suffering for us. If we know some wh’ve served, we might worry about the demons they didn’t leave on the battlefield, the pains and hurts. We put flowers and flags at their grave sites. We have parades and concerts and flies flags in their honor.
Bow much more should we remember the death of God? The suffering, the sacrifice that was embraced with full knowledge and pure and holy intent A sacrifice that not only liberates those who are the victims, but liberates those who were the oppressors, A sacrifice that brings peace that that a war’s end cannot imagine.
A sacrifice that can even bring healing to those who were broken by war…Like my dad, who didn’t die, but one could say that a part of him. Who struggled to receive the Lord’s Supper, often crying as he faced the love of God, who would give His life, deliberately to assure my dad of God’s love for him, to assure dad of a place in heaven. I just know the mixture of pain and relief and joy of being loved all was there, as my dad knelt at the rail, and remember Christ’s sacrifice as he shared Christ’s Body and Blood For a second there was God’s peace, overwhelming everything else. A peace that now he knows.
We need to remember Christ’s love, first and foremost. We need to celebrate it, and the freedom and peace it brings. We need to see it as powerful, as overwhelming as awe-inspiring as those who understand the depths of pain that it relieves.
Pray for those who are serving, those who have served. That they would know the Prince of Peace, AMEN.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1074-1075). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Tithe To Remember – A Good Friday Sermon
A Tithe to Remember
Luke 23:46
May the grace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ bring such comfort and peace, that you with joy commit your spirit into their hands
Introduction
As this service draws to close, there is something we need to discuss, something I need to encourage you to do, that you might not want to do.
I am here to convince you to tithe.
Is that okay Pastor Rich? You aren’t going to mind if I talk about tithing a little, right?
By the way, by tithing I am not talking about a measly 10 percent of your net, or better 10% of your complete worth.
I am going to talk about a tithe of 100 percent.
The goal is to give it all to God, for that is what Peter is talking about when he tells believers,
“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21 (NLT)
To tithe, to give it all, to take up your cross,
It is difficult, but not as difficult as you think. For Jesus shows the way, even as He utters these words,
46 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last. Luke 23:46 (NLT)
I entrust my spirit, or as the translation here has, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”
When we hear Paul say, imitate me, as I imitate Christ, this is the kind of tithe we are talking about.
When we hear Jesus say, take up your cross that too is part of this tithe which we speak
So are you ready to tithe?
II. Christ’s tithe.
To tithe, means to commit, to entrust, to give over.
It is what Jesus does, as He entrusts everything to the Father as he is dying. Not 10 percent, not holding back anything. Theologians will talk discuss whether this is an act of the human part of Jesus, or the divine part, missing the point.
Jesus trusts the Father. They committed themselves to our salvation, before the world was began. You see it during all the work God did with Israel, assuring us of Christ’s presence, His love. And here, in the depth of His pain, as he bears the weight of the sin of the world, as He bears the weight of our sin.
Jesus entrusts Himself to the Father. He tithes.
He endures to the end, trusting in the Father, and the promises the Father made to us.
He entrusts Himself to God the Father, even as we should.
That is tithing,
Trusting, having faith, believing that the Father will keep to His promises.
III Our tithe.
So now, let’s talk about you and I, and how we take up our cross, how we walk in Jesus steps, how we are to tithe, commit, and entrust our Spirit to Christ.
The simple answer is, you already did. Well you didn’t…God took care of that for you. Nevertheless you are committed into His hands. You just need to realize it.
When a pastor poured water over you, or dropped you into a baptism tank, it wasn’t the pastor at work. It was God, taking you into His hands, promising to care for you, body, soul, spirit and mind. He united you to the cross with Christ, nailing your sins there, but promising that by the power that raised Christ from the dead, you would know that resurrection as well.
He committed Himself to holding you in His hands. He tithed you, completely into His hands.
When you hear a pastor forgive your sins, you are reminded, you are not your own, you’ve been bought with a price, the price pain on that cross.
When you are given His Body, when you drink His blood, the promise remains.
He died for you, and you shared in that death.
Even as you hold His body and blood in your hands, He has placed you into His own. He tithed you there.
When He says, Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit… we are there, the children of God, the sisters and brothers of Christ, united to God through the death of Christ.
Here His words from the apostle John:
19 And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth. John 17:19 (NLT)
All this, the sermons, the music, the service, is here to convince you to persuade you of this, that as Christ tithes, as He commits His Spirit to the hands of the Father, so all in Christ are placed there too.
Secure, saved, redeemed, in Christ. Dead to sin, and alive to Him.
AMEN
(for the Greek and Hebrew Scholars out there, yes, I know that there is a word in Hebrew that means 10th, and iithemi – or paraTITHEmi is the word in Greek. Yet a tithe in Hebrew is a iving that represents ownership of the whole, by the one the 10th is given to.)
The Perspective of Death… and Eternity
Devotional Thought of the Day:
13 “I wish you would hide me in the grave and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again! 14 Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. 15 You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. 16 For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins. 17 My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt. Job 14:13-17 (NLT)
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said .1 Corinthians 15:1–11
I woke up this morning, exhausted in body and spirit and especially soul.
In the last 6 days, six families i know have had to face grief and death. Four deaths in a forty-eight hour span. Not to mention 4 or 5 other things that are pretty high on the trauma scale.
I don’t feel like Job, exactly, for I am not the one who is directly suffering. Just praying and trying to comfort those who are. I do understand his weariness, and the above quote, wishing there was a way to put life on hold until the day when this broken world that seems so futile ends. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be frozen, and didn’t have to endure this complicated and broken life?
Yeah, I resonate with Job’s thoughts. More often than I would like you to know. Even this week, as I face so much, I really resonate with them, so much I wanted to shout amen when I read them. For if only that would happen, and the next thing to hear from God would be, “welcome home!”
But what Job hopes for, Paul reminds us that we have. We have a God, a Father who doesn’t want to look at sin and injustice. He wants to see things made right, and if broken, healed. In the middle of wanting to know if Job found an out, in the midst of death, there is another death to consider.
The death of Christ. The only death I know of, where the answer to “why” is answered.
“For you”, the Father whispers. We hear it again, as we proclaim and celebrate His death in the Lord’s Supper. Take and eat, the Body of Christ, given FOR YOU!. Take and drink, the Blood of Christ, shed for you, f or the forgiveness of sins.
The answer is staggering..
For me? Broken, sinful, confused, anxious, depressed, mourning – that me? Trusting in this, is the key to our faith, that God would do this, for us.
Job’s dream, come true,
“ You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.”
The words of Paul in Ephesians 2:10, says Job was right, his vision of what would be glorious is found to be true. His hopes exceeded.
That is the perspective death brings, it causes us to ask the questions we dare not, and here the answers that we can only dream of in our brokenness.
An answer we can hear, and know, passed down to us. For He died, was buried, and rose again. United with Him, this is seen in our baptism, and as we feast at His table, as we look forward and cry out with hope, with great expectation for Him to return. AMEN
Need to Find Peace? There is One Place You Can Always Find It.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
4 I am writing to Titus, my true son in the faith that we share. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace. Titus 1:4 (NLT)
772 These are the unmistakable signs of the true Cross of Christ: serenity, a deep feeling of peace, a love which is ready for any sacrifice, a great effectiveness which wells from Christ’s own wounded Side. And always—and evidently—joy: a joy which comes from knowing that those who truly give themselves are beside the Cross, and therefore beside Our Lord. (1)
It is one of the greatest Paradoxes of our faith.
That a place of torture would be the place we find serentiy.
That a place of horrific death is the place we will find the greatest of peace.
That the place where we give up our desires, where our very being is sacrificed, is the place where our lives truly begin.
The Cross of Christ,
The place where we are joined with His death.
In a week where a friend’s mom lies in critical condition, where another is dealing with great grief, where the politics of my church body are extremely frustrating, and churches are struggling and not being strengthened, there should be a lack of peace. I could go on and on, as our church on Sunday had 134 different people, families and groups to pray for, and we did, ( Everytime we get down to 100, it seems to grow back up)
Except for the cross, the cross where we can bring those burdens, those anxieties, those sins, both that we commit, and are committed against us. All three sacraments lead us back to there, as we are joined to His death in baptism, as we feast on His Body and Blood, given and shed there, and the absolution that is ours, as our sins are atoned for and washed away….
It is at that cross where we find ourselves joined to Him… and that is enough…..and more.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2773-2776). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Refuge for A Tiring Monday…..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling….. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:2,5 (NLT)
19 So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead—killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on his cross, Galatians 2:19 (TEV)
“We live in a world where mental ability is rewarded. But the heart is not trained. It just muddles along. Soon we know more and more, and understand less and less. (1) (emphasis mine)
770 When you walk where Christ walked; when you are no longer just resigned to the Cross, but your whole soul takes on its form—takes on its very shape; when you love the Will of God; when you actually love the Cross… then, only then, is it He who carries it. (2)
It was a long, busy weekend, and I am very tired, and thanks to some allergies… wiped out more than usual.
Monday is the longest day of the week for me, most of the time, and I while I love what I do, this day will tire me more. I know it, even as my aging body groans…..
No amount of knowledge will make it easier. I won’t find the strength to endure in my knowledge of Greek, or in being able to discuss the communication of magisterial attributes of Christ. Both things are blessings, but as my prayer book notes, there is a difference of knowing things, of acquiring data, and knowing something, or someone.
I loo around my office, and see the crosses, one painted by a friend, another some fancy hand stitching. Crosses from Ecuador, from the Ukraine, from Rome and Estonia. The latter one where Jesus’ body and ornately molded details have been word away from hundreds of years of people holding it close while they prayed. People who probably could quote the great preachers in history, or the theologian whose works line seminary library walls.
But they knew where to find comfort and peace, in the midst of pain, or anxiety. They went to the cross, and laid out their lives to the One who loved them. It’s why Paul modeled knowing Christ crucified alone, that they would place their trust in God, in Jesus with who they were crucified.
This goes so against the models of the world, which seeks knowledge for the mind, and allows the heart to struggle and barely survive. Even in the church, the focus is again moving towards a unbalanced focus on knowledge, of getting every aspect of theology, even the minutiae known. We see a pursuit to explain the mysteries that are unexplainable, and are meant to be that way. We don’t want to build the tower of Babel, rather a theological equivalent!
But what we need it not knowledge of the material of the cross, or the effective distance of the words of Institution.
we need our souls to live in Christ. To know the height and depth, the width and breadth of His love, of His mercy, of His desire that we would all become His people. That can’t be known with the mind alone. It must be known in our soul, in our heart. That is where the Holy Spirit transforms us (see Ezekiel 36 and 37), as the Breath of God begins our life, and sustains it. (the mind is also transformed, but not just the data storage, but the ability to use that data)
St Josemaria words so resonate here… as do the Celts with Paul. The cross, the place where suffering can make sense, the place of life….that is where we survive Monday. It is where our heart, our soul, our mind find the love of God, and find Him carrying all that afflicts us, indeed, it is where He carries us. For we dwell in Him, in His precious, sacred heart.
So it’s Monday. You may not want to be where you are, you may be dragging, so much so that your pessimism can’t be overcome with three Trente coffees….. that’s okay…
Run tot he cross… cling to the Lord who died there… that you may live in Him forever.
AMEN
(1) Celtic Prayer Book – Finian Readings for January 25th.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2768-2770). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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?
A Radical. Ordinary,Practical Faith….Woven Into Our Very Lives
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 And I have been made a servant of the church by God, who gave me this task to perform for your good. It is the task of fully proclaiming his message, 26 which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people. 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. Colossians 1:25-28 (TEV)
Recognizing time as a reality made holy by a loving God, the Celtic saints valued the daily, the routine, the ordinary. They believed God is found, not so much at the end of time when the reign of God finally comes, but now,where the reign ous already being lived by God’s faithful people. Theirs was a spirituality characterized by gratitude, and in our stories,we find them worshipping God in their daily work and very ordinary chores. (1)
140 Live your Christian life with naturalness! Let me stress this: make Christ known through your behaviour, just as an ordinary mirror reproduces an image without distorting it or turning it into a caricature. If, like the mirror, you are normal, you will reflect Christ’s life, and show it to others.
It is rare, but every once in a while people ask me why this blog quotes a Catholic saint by the name of Josemaria Escriva so often. After all he is the founder of what seem to think is a radical catholic movement called Opus Dei. I am a Lutheran pastor, a spiritual descendant of one who didn’t quite get along with the Catholic hierarchy of his day.
So what are you thinking pastor? ( Some might even think I am some kind of radical infiltrator, a sheep in wolves clothing, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing! ( I guess mot only would Lutherans be suspicious, maybe some Catholics might be as well?)
An explanation is in order, and my thoughts this morning, looking on the lake near where I grew up got me thinking about this.
I want, no, I need a practical faith. Like the quote in green above, like the Celts had. A relationship with God who is Immanuel, that is God with us! A daily relationship with jesus – whose names is literally Yhwh (the name of God in Hebrew) and saves,
I don’t want a God who is locked in libraries, or only found in the sanctuaries where He does gather His people. I need one who bakes bread with bakers (I highly suggest Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of Christ) , and is with kids and collegians in classrooms, and with maudlin 50 year old pastors, going back to where they grew up.
I need, no, we need, a God who is closer to our hearts than our skin. Who brings peace where there was anxiety, where broken hearts find healing. A God who ensures we are not, whether in Los Angeles or a small New England town, or a city of 15 million in China. that we are never, never alone.
A God who not only shares our lives, but His own, Not just His death, but His glory.
A God who I am grateful to know.
All of my favorite Christian writers talk of such, find rest and sanctuary in this God. St Escriva and Martin Luther perhaps more than any, but also Gene Edwards, or Martyn Lloyd Jones, Brother Lawrence, or Robert Webber and William Willimon. In Escriva’s books, it is boiled down simply, naturally, Christ is here… we just need to realize it.
We need a God whom we can worship, because He is here…
And praise and glorify Him, for He is here…. we don’t have to find Him, He found us, even at great cost… and is bringing us home!
(1) From Celtic Daily Prayer, for October 18: Original from EC Sellner, Wisdom of Celtic Saints. .
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 690-693). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Editi
God’s Not Dead… but He did die on a Cross…
Devotional Thought of the Day
22 Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. 23 As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles; 24 but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (TEV)
16 I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, 17 and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, 18 so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. 19 Yes, may you come to know his love—although it can never be fully known—and so be completely filled with the very nature of God. Ephesians 3:16-19 (TEV)
I venture to assure you, my dear reader, that if you and I enter into this forge of the Love of God, our souls will become better, being cleansed of some of the dross that clings to them. (1)
I watched a couple of interesting movies yesterday. The first was Good Will Hunting, and then I watched the movie that has become quite popular among Christians, God’s Not Dead.
I wrote last night on FB that both were about redemption, and that both fell short. They both dealt with brokenness, they both had characters, several of them, that needed to be healed of the darkness they dwelt in, and they both seemed to find healing for their brokenness. And both fell short. Both were incomplete.
But what surprised me is that I found that God’s not Dead seems to have fallen shorter in some ways.
Good Will Hunting isn’t a movie trying to serve as an apologetic. It is simply a John Hughes movie, done in the context of Boston. Quite realistic, even to the language. it got it when the character that is redeemed can’t be helped by the wisdom and knowledge of the world, of the professors and clinicians. It takes a broken, battered man (Robin Williams) and the unlikely average joe to bring about the promise of redemption, of meaning. And it is found, not in the career, not in the perfection of life, but in the need for real love, and the chase of the one who loves. Replace Minnie Driver with Christ, the sexual scenes with times of intimate prayer – and you have something.
But the brokenness and pain can’t be healed by anything but love.
Now to God’s not dead
Did you notice anything really conspicuous missing from the movie?
Think.
Think again.
The ontological arguments were well done. The brokenness of relationships with God and between Dean Cain and his family, and Kevin Sorbo and his girlfriend, students and life in general are well done, if a bit over the stop in stereotypes. The dealing with cancer, and the band ministering to the girl with a cancerous death sentence, nice done as well.
But there is something missing.
Figure it out yet?
I’ll help.
Where was the cross?
You can prove the existence of the Divine, of a Creator, logically and completely, and still have someone who is bound by satan, enslaved by sin, in anxiety over death.
Luther noted that this was true, as he explained the work of the Holy Spirit in the Large Catechism
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. (2)
We can know all about the existence of God, but without the cross, you cannot know God’s attitude is towards you. All we can realize is that you don’t deserve love, but punishment. Like the mathematicians and fancy psychologists, we cannot find a way out of our brokenness. We are so broken, so torn up, so enslaved by sin. Even forensic, scientific apologetics becomes, not a hope, but a hindrance. The victory of young Wheaton in the movie is something we can triumph in, we defended God successfully! We won the battle, even as they don’t see the victory in the back room, or out on the street, or even behind him, as the girl who lost her family but found Christ was there.
We have to have the cross, for it is there we find God’s attitude toward us, we see the incredible dimensions of His love in those rough beams, in the blood soaked body of Christ. We proclaim His death until He comes again, as Paul says we do as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the incredible love of the Eucharist. We are joined to that cross in our baptism (see Colossians 2, Romans 6, Titus 3)
it is impossible to know the love of God without seeing His work, without seeing the cross.
And it was missing.
The relationship? It was a minor secondary thing compared to the victory. Compared to the people who came to “know” about God by deciding God’s case.
As if we could comprehend His ways, understand His actions simply by deducing there is a God.
We have to know there is a God who loves us……who loves us enough to die for us.
Yes, God’s not dead, but He did die….
for you.
Get to know Him, walk with Him, it is why He died.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 203-204). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) The Large Catechism of Martin Luther.Part II Of the Creed: Article III
Take Up Your Cross: photo What Does that Look Like?
Take Up Your Cross: 
What Does that Look Like?
Romans 12:9-21
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
May the grace, mercy and peace of God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ flood your lives, enabling you to “really” love others!
Take up the Cross…but what does that look like?
The words of Jesus we know well, we’ve heard them before, but how often do we think through what they mean?
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
Turn from our self-centered, self-serving, self-focused needs. That is a real challenge, especially in a culture that jokes about what it feels to be true. You know that saying, “It’s all about me”
That’s tough, and God’s law does convict us when we act like life is “all about me.’
But it’s the second and third actions that are required, that make it more challenging.
Taking up a cross? Which one – the one above the altar – hey no problem. The one Vicar Chai carried in this morning? It’s kind of heavy – but most people can carry it. No, it is something far more than that.
Take up the cross, and follow me, Jesus says!
Are you willing? More importantly, are you able?
In order to answer that question, we have to know what does this mean: “take up your cross, and follow Jesus”.
You have to know what it looks like.
That is what the section of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome describes, so let’s look there.
What it looks like
Though the description of taking up your cross and following Jesus flows through the entire twelfth chapter, I want to start with verse 11 this morning, for it is the key
11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 2 Rejoice in our confident hope.
Now, most of the people here are not even remotely lazy, most work hard. We commit to serving the Lord enthusiastically. We are confident in the hope we have; that God will be faithful to His promises. So this bearing the cross thing seems possible, and since we are good people, we can do this!
But those encouraging words are to spur us on to do that which is more challenging….
It goes on,
Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.
And on….
15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!
And on…..
17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. 18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. 19 Dear friends, never take revenge.
These actions and attitudes are not easy, they are indeed, what it looks like to take up your cross, and follow Jesus. They sum as well, this idea of love, which started the reading.
9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them.
No hypocrisy allowed, no “but they did, said, thought,” just really love them….
So how do we “really” love
This is difficult, is it not? I mean we are supposed to really love our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, those annoying phone solicitors and even our pastor? Really love them? Not sure we can do that all the time, Are we sure we can bear that cross. Are we sure we want to bear that cross.
But bear it we must, if we follow Christ, if we are with Christ, if we are in Christ.
For that is what bearing our cross is, it is walking in Christ. To give up our lives, if that is what it takes, for that is what love led Him to do.
Peter said it well,
21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21 (NLT)
This doing good, this bearing one’s cross, this setting aside what benefits us, what makes us happy is what happens when we are being transformed by God. Remember – that is where the chapter started,
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)
So What happens when we slip and throw a whine party?
These words cause a bit of anxiety. Because I know that we are not always following Christ. I know we struggle to bear our cross, tossing it aside at times.
So what can we do, when we find ourselves justifying why we shouldn’t love this person, or that one? When we want to justify tossing the cross aside, because we don’t want to love them, to really love them? Or we are afraid to, for the pain we might go through.
Jeremiah knew that feeling. In the Old Testament reading we find it, and God’s response to Jeremiah’s whining,
Jer 15:19 To this the LORD replied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.
When we struggle like Jonah loving Nineveh, or Jeremiah loving the rebellious children of Israel, it is simply that, a struggle. It is the same struggle Jesus had when he looked at the cross, and realize the shame that carrying it might bring, and that is where we find our answer, on how to love others.
Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT)
The struggle for us is not that we can’t love them, it is that we’ve taken our eyes off what Paul told us to do, to 1”Rejoice in our confident hope.”
This was Peter’s answer as well, that we should always be ready to have an answer for the reason we have hope.
You want to follow Jesus? Take up the cross of walking in His love, keeping your eyes on Him. The cross where He has joined you to Himself, and realize that there, you can see their need for His love, for His mercy, even as you needed it yourself.
This is what it all boils down to, our baptism, our celebration of the Lord’s Supper, our hearing that our sins are forgiven, it is all about God coming to us, uniting us to His cross, bringing us with Him…
Knowing His cross, we cling to that hope, we find the will of God, and a desire to see it come to be, that all would know His love, that all would be ministered to, no matter the sacrifice.
For that is what happens, when we allow God to transform us into people who dwell in is peace, the peace that goes beyond comprehension or explanation. The very peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN?
Forgiveness for Any Other Reason but Love…. Is Not…
Devotional THought of the Day:
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. 40 And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. 41 And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. Matthew 5:38-41 (TEV)
806 You were very sorry to hear that most un-Christian comment, “Forgive your enemies: you can’t imagine how it angers them!” You could not keep quiet, and you replied calmly, “I don’t want to cheapen love by humiliating my neighbour. I forgive, because I love, and I am hungry to imitate the Master.” (1)
Yesterday I wrote about the fact that forgiveness is not learned, it is not a discipline, it is simply the result of love.
Today, I cam across the quote from Escriva, and I again was amazed at the thought. Simply because I’ve heard this said before, I’ve even probably used something like it along the way. Just show them you are bigger than them, and forgive them. ( I apologize to any I’ve said that too. I’ve also heard it said this way, you don’t have to like forgiving them, you just have to obey God and do it.
Or perhaps the most common excuse. Forgive them, for it may not benefit them, but it benefits you
Somehow I can’t see Jesus, on the cross, being benefitted by forgiving his captors, or Stephen, being stoned by Paul’s friends, being benefited. Or any of the martyrs over the last 2 millennia, who forgave as they were tortured and died, benefitting from being free of the resentment and anger they felt.
If we forgive because we desire what is beneficial for ourselves, when the hurt and pain come back, then we will be ill-prepared to deal with it. It will again fuel resentment and anger, and thoughts of how to make them pay for the sin will creep back into our hearts
The way to forgive, to bypass revenge is simple – love.
To accept the pain, the hurt, the cost of loving that person. To give that all over to Christ, the one who taught us to pray to the Father to be forgive and to be able to forgive. The one who died for His enemies, because He loved them. The One who frees us, by paying for every debt, every trespass, every pain.
The one we hunger to love, and desire to imitate, because He has loved us…..
Mercy, Love, forgiveness….. on package deal.
May we do so…counting on the Lord’s mercy
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 3326-3329). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
