Yesterday we read Psalm 127; Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17; Mark 12: 38-44; and Hebrews 11 and 12: 1- 13.
The life of faith isn't an easy life, but it is a blessed life. It's also a life that requires giving it all we have. That's what the widow Jesus takes notice of does. Those with position, money & land, and power (rich people in that day always had position, money & land, and power), didn't give God their all, and guess what?, Jesus, God Incarnate, notices. But the poor widow gives all she has and expects God to provide what she needs.
That's what the people of faith have always done to the best of their ability.
There is much in some modern theologies that says, "God wants us to be rich and financially and materially prosperous (the "Prosperity Gospel"), God's going to keep us physically safe at all times and God's just not going to let the hard times come and stay. If we're in God's will, relax and no harm will come." You get the picture.
We look to some of the favored promises in Scripture and forget that God's often talking about Him protecting our spirits, our souls, our faith. Oh, He may extend the promises to include our bodies sometimes, but that's HIS choosing.
If we look to the giants of our faith that the writer of Hebrews lifts up as examples, we are reminded what the life of faith really looks like. We'll do better to look here than to follow some modern day heresies.
The life of faith is one where we have abiding hope that God will keep His promises, even if we don't live to see them fulfilled. We believe God exists, is the Creator of all and creates even in our nothingness and creates in what we cannot see.
A life of faith will look like Abel's when we bring God the best we have and are willing to sacrifice our best for Him. God asks us to do that on a daily basis. "Place the best you have, the best of you, the best, in My hands and see what I do." God's can use our hum-drum and ordinary, but that means we're hoarding our best for ourselves and He won't be happy and we won't be in right relationship with Him then. Remember Abel and Cain. Abel sacrificed his best and Cain gave his ordinary. Which of them is still, to this day, lifted up as righteous? Which isn't?
A life of faith will look like Noah's. God can look at any of us, at any given time, and tell us to do something that will make us look crazy and set the neighbors to talking. He can tell any of us to "Go build a boat, a big boat, in your backyard." A life of faith will go get busy building that boat to God's specifications. Now, I don't know what your "boat" may look like. But it will be something totally out of left field and folks watching will think you're nuts. But if you're sure God said, "Build a boat," you better build a boat!
A life of faith will look like Abraham's. God can look at any of us, at any given time and say, "Go. Trust me on this one and just pick up and go. I'm not telling you where or why. Just do it." A life of faith will "go." When I was pastor at Concord and Seaboard UMCs before coming to Warren Plains, we all thought I'd retire while serving those churches. But there came a time when I was sure God said, "Go." Mitch and I didn't pack boxes and leave our home, but, we moved from a church setting we never thought we'd leave to "go", and at the time, didn't have a clue "where." I'm a local licensed pastor, which means, in the Methodist denomination, I have to have a church or I'm not "clergy" and I can't go to Duke for Course of Study. My DS, at the time, presented me with two choices and God was telling me "no" to each one. As time, that year, drew closer to Annual Conference when our appointments would be fixed, I needed God to get on the ball and reveal His plan. I needed a third option and when Mack and I met that day in June, less than a month away from Annual Conference and he told me about a "third option," I knew God was leading me where I was to go. A life of faith trusts and a life of faith "goes."
A life of faith can look like Sarah's. Not necessarily to have a baby at an older age, but to be open if God says, "Expand your family." He may be calling you to adopt a child, foster one, open your heart to a child. Don't laugh. Have faith and "have a baby".
A life of faith understands that this world isn't all there is and we're journeying through this place. God's got some place better than this prepared for us. But we've got to move through here first.
So do our children. And, like Abraham, our life of faith can involve God asking us to trust Him with our child. That child of promise and hope. That's a hard one to be sure. And we place our child in God's hands and sometimes God gives our child back for a season and sometimes God doesn't. But a life of faith trusts God has kept and will keep His promise, even when we don't see it or understand it.
A life of faith can be like Jacob's and give blessings and worship, even while dying.
A life of faith can be like Joseph's and make plans to move with God's promises even if you know you won't be alive to physically move with them, but you count on others to move for you. Can you imagine the hope it gave the people when Joseph said, "When God moves us out of Egypt, take my bones with you."?
A life of faith looks like Moses' parents when they defied Pharaoh and protected their baby and didn't let him be killed like other baby boys. Gee, maybe that's where Moses got it from? Because a life of faith also looks like Moses, who later defied Pharaoh (who was his adopted granddaddy!) and not only left Egypt but took the Israelites, and Joseph's bones, with him!
A life of faith focuses on what God is doing and where God is going and goes with God and doesn't let the fear of what's coming up from behind, or what's staring us in the face, deter us from God's plan.
A life of faith gets thrown in the lions den and sometimes the lions' mouths are shut. And sometimes they aren't.
The people from Scripture are in our cloud of witnesses to our faith. They cheer us on. We, in turn, will one day be in that cloud with them, cheering on others. We are, all, to look to Jesus and keep our eyes on the cross. A life of faith will move towards the cross and we all have a cross that we are to pick up and bring with us. And we are to follow Jesus with our cross to the cross.
The writer of Hebrews likens this to an endurance race, a marathon. Life isn't a sprint. We cheer each other on but we also have a Coach, God our Father, Who disciplines us as we race towards our finish line. It's not an easy race but it was never meant to be. Much will be asked of us. But much more will be given us. Because a life of faith understands that as we race towards our finish line here, we are racing into God's arms as we race through His Gates of Praise.
There will be pain, disappointment, heartache, and things will be asked of us that we cannot imagine. But a life of faith trusts God in all things and understands all of that that is unholy can serve a holy purpose and the purpose is to perfect our faith. To strengthen our weak knees and help those who are struggling.
A life of faith will require trust. It will require giving all we've got to give. It will require us being disciplined by God. It will require us looking toward the cross and following Jesus' example.
A life of faith is not an easy life but it is a blessed life.
Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.
Today and tomorrow.
Blessings.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Hope, Boldness, And Relationship With God
Yesterday we read Ruth 1: 1-18; Psalm 146; Mark 12: 28-34; and Hebrews 9: 11-28; 10: 19-39.
It has been quite a week since we last came together! Hurricane Sandy has brought death, destruction, and havoc to large portions of the USA, which meant millions of people were affected. More locally, we have received word that several children need our church to step up to the plate in a real and tangible way for Christmas. There's a lot of hopelessness and brokenness all around and within us.
Ruth knew hopelessness. When she, Naomi, and Orpah set off for Judah from Moab, they were three women with nothing but each other. No husbands, sons, or other male relatives they could count on for support. Traveling to a country only Naomi had ever lived in and it had been a while. No jobs, no visible means of support, nothing waiting for them in Judah. A God that only Naomi knew. Before entering Judah, Orpah, at Naomi's insistence, went back home. That left two women to face the unknown together. Ruth did not know God and Naomi thought God was angry with her, hence all the trouble she was experiencing.
But God knew Naomi and God knew Ruth. And God was at work, taking a very broken time for both of them, and working to bring much good not just to them, but to all of Judah, and later, the world. They could not see the big picture and would not have believed it if they could have seen it. Ruth would become the great-grandmother of King David. She couldn't have seen that one on the horizon at all when she eventually did have a son...Obed. But I bet David heard the family stories about Ruth and how she came from Moab, a widow, and married Boaz. I bet he reflects those family stories in some of his Psalms, like today's 146, when he talks about God's love of widows and the foreigners among us. None of them could have foreseen Jesus in their family tree, either.
Naomi and Ruth fearfully, yet boldly, entered Judah and God was with them in their boldness. God could handle what they faced. And God can handle what we face.
The world has always depended on putting "hope" in money, power, land/possessions. The world has always done that. In God's realm, though, we put hope in our relationship with God. God is where the real power is, anyway, and it is from His hand that we get our resources. The more we grow in relationship, the more hope we have, especially in our broken times. And the more we grow in relationship with God, the more we are able to look back and see how He has carried us through those times in the past and we grow in confidence that He will see us through those times we face today and will face in the future. And we can approach Him with boldness. Not only will we grow in boldness in our approaching His Throne, but we will grow in boldness in doing the right thing in troubling times. In God's realm, these three things go together: growing in relationship with God, hope, and boldness. That doesn't exclude other things in God's realm, but yesterday, we looked at these three as they related to the Scriptures listed above.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus was approached by someone full of boldness asking a question about what's the greatest commandment. Not only did Jesus answer his question in a way that fully satisfied the man, Jesus kept His honor (which the man was trying to diminish), and Jesus wasn't put off by the man's boldness. He actually, in an indirect way, commends him for it by telling him that's he's not far from the Kingdom of God. Which, btw, he really wasn't far from it...he was staring it in the face.
Jesus' response to the question of what's the greatest commandment? “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
That's how we grow in relationship with God, how our hope increases, and how we become more bold...both in living in this world God's way and in approaching God's Throne of mercy and grace when we need His help and strength in our times of need. We learn to love Him with everything we have: our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Or as The Message puts it, "with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."
When we bring everything we have to the table, we find He's already there. We can, also, look back and see how God has already been at work in our lives, weaving people together in our journeys when we needed them or they needed us. We can see how He has used things in our past and even redeemed things in our pasts. We trust that He is doing the same thing now even though we can no more see it now than we could yesterday. God is at work. And just like Ruth never knew David or Jesus would be coming in her family tree, we don't know who or what God is bringing together, from us and our journey that will bring great good to a corner of the world or the world at large. We just don't.
But we can trust that God is taking our brokenness and bringing good from it. We may never live to see it. We might be blessed with a tiny glimpse. But we can trust God is at work and our brokenness will never have the last word. That last Word always belongs to God and it is always a good Word. A healing Word. A bold Word of Hope.
As we each grow in relationship with God, may we hear His bold Word of Hope clearer and clearer in our lives and in our times of brokenness.
Amen and Amen!
It has been quite a week since we last came together! Hurricane Sandy has brought death, destruction, and havoc to large portions of the USA, which meant millions of people were affected. More locally, we have received word that several children need our church to step up to the plate in a real and tangible way for Christmas. There's a lot of hopelessness and brokenness all around and within us.
Ruth knew hopelessness. When she, Naomi, and Orpah set off for Judah from Moab, they were three women with nothing but each other. No husbands, sons, or other male relatives they could count on for support. Traveling to a country only Naomi had ever lived in and it had been a while. No jobs, no visible means of support, nothing waiting for them in Judah. A God that only Naomi knew. Before entering Judah, Orpah, at Naomi's insistence, went back home. That left two women to face the unknown together. Ruth did not know God and Naomi thought God was angry with her, hence all the trouble she was experiencing.
But God knew Naomi and God knew Ruth. And God was at work, taking a very broken time for both of them, and working to bring much good not just to them, but to all of Judah, and later, the world. They could not see the big picture and would not have believed it if they could have seen it. Ruth would become the great-grandmother of King David. She couldn't have seen that one on the horizon at all when she eventually did have a son...Obed. But I bet David heard the family stories about Ruth and how she came from Moab, a widow, and married Boaz. I bet he reflects those family stories in some of his Psalms, like today's 146, when he talks about God's love of widows and the foreigners among us. None of them could have foreseen Jesus in their family tree, either.
Naomi and Ruth fearfully, yet boldly, entered Judah and God was with them in their boldness. God could handle what they faced. And God can handle what we face.
The world has always depended on putting "hope" in money, power, land/possessions. The world has always done that. In God's realm, though, we put hope in our relationship with God. God is where the real power is, anyway, and it is from His hand that we get our resources. The more we grow in relationship, the more hope we have, especially in our broken times. And the more we grow in relationship with God, the more we are able to look back and see how He has carried us through those times in the past and we grow in confidence that He will see us through those times we face today and will face in the future. And we can approach Him with boldness. Not only will we grow in boldness in our approaching His Throne, but we will grow in boldness in doing the right thing in troubling times. In God's realm, these three things go together: growing in relationship with God, hope, and boldness. That doesn't exclude other things in God's realm, but yesterday, we looked at these three as they related to the Scriptures listed above.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus was approached by someone full of boldness asking a question about what's the greatest commandment. Not only did Jesus answer his question in a way that fully satisfied the man, Jesus kept His honor (which the man was trying to diminish), and Jesus wasn't put off by the man's boldness. He actually, in an indirect way, commends him for it by telling him that's he's not far from the Kingdom of God. Which, btw, he really wasn't far from it...he was staring it in the face.
Jesus' response to the question of what's the greatest commandment? “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
That's how we grow in relationship with God, how our hope increases, and how we become more bold...both in living in this world God's way and in approaching God's Throne of mercy and grace when we need His help and strength in our times of need. We learn to love Him with everything we have: our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Or as The Message puts it, "with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."
When we bring everything we have to the table, we find He's already there. We can, also, look back and see how God has already been at work in our lives, weaving people together in our journeys when we needed them or they needed us. We can see how He has used things in our past and even redeemed things in our pasts. We trust that He is doing the same thing now even though we can no more see it now than we could yesterday. God is at work. And just like Ruth never knew David or Jesus would be coming in her family tree, we don't know who or what God is bringing together, from us and our journey that will bring great good to a corner of the world or the world at large. We just don't.
But we can trust that God is taking our brokenness and bringing good from it. We may never live to see it. We might be blessed with a tiny glimpse. But we can trust God is at work and our brokenness will never have the last word. That last Word always belongs to God and it is always a good Word. A healing Word. A bold Word of Hope.
As we each grow in relationship with God, may we hear His bold Word of Hope clearer and clearer in our lives and in our times of brokenness.
Amen and Amen!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Restoration And Transformation Through The New Covenant
Yesterday we read Psalm 34: 1-8, 19-22; Job 42: 1-6, 10-17; Mark 10: 46-52, and Hebrews 7 & 8.
The twin themes of "restoration" and "transformation" run through all of these readings.
In Job, God has finished questioning Job and now Job responds. Even though he had maintained his innocence throughout and was sure he was not a "sinner," now that God has made Himself known, Job realizes that though he spoke rightly about God, he really is a sinner and he repents. God restores what Job originally lost...double. God also blesses Job with ten more children. And here's where it gets interesting when considering God's covenant. We are given the names of Job's three daughters and not the names of his seven sons. Most unusual in the Hebrew Bible! The names of women are seldom given, while the names of men are everywhere. I know, patriarchal society and that's the way it was. True. But, we are also told Job included his daughters in his will along with their brothers. That's not the way it was! I think we're getting a glimpse of the time when God promised His sons and daughters will prophesy. And we're getting a foretaste of daughters sharing in the inheritance right along with sons. In God's eyes, we are all equal. It doesn't matter what society says in the long run about that. God's covenant restores and it transforms. Hallelujah!
As we move to our Psalm we see the transformation prayer brings. Even though fearful circumstances may not change, our response to them changes when we bring God into them and pray. We can know joy in the face of fear or shame. Instead of getting lost in times of trouble, God comes to our rescue. Instead of being thrown to the wolves, we know protection. Though God's covenant isn't mentioned, it doesn't need to be. God covenanted to be our God and we will be His people. That was the covenant to the House of Israel and as we come to Christ, and are adopted into the Family of God, that covenant extends to us as well. God's covenant with His people is behind all Scripture and does not need to always be explicitly stated. It's always implied. Always trusted.
Covenant. Binding. Much more than a flimsy promise we humans can make to each other. When God makes covenant, God means business. He made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses (all those commandments...they were part of the covenant), the prophets. God speaks of His covenant often; often in terms of us breaking it. The "new covenant" the writer of Hebrews quotes comes from Jeremiah 31 and God has much to say about this new covenant to Jeremiah.
God also has much to say to Ezekiel. Particularly pertinent is Ezekiel 34. While God is definitely not pleased with His shepherds, and we preachers always need to hold ourselves up to God's criteria here, He has a comforting Word to His sheep. We come face-to-face with this Good Shepherd He promises in our reading in Mark.
Jesus Christ, God's new covenant personified. We see Jesus tending His sheep, bringing back the strays, strengthening the weak, bandaging the injured, bringing healing and hope...opening the eyes of the blind. Restoring Bartimaeus' physical vision and transforming his spiritual vision. Bartimaeus sees Who this Jesus really is and he follows Jesus.
We are all Bartimaeus at some time in our life. Up a tree, calling out to Jesus, people telling us to shut up (don't ever be that person telling someone who needs Christ to shut up), but we need mercy so we keep calling out. And Jesus hears and Jesus sees and Jesus looks at us and tells us, "Come on down out of that tree and we'll talk." And if we just come on down, Jesus is there, waiting. And He will talk with us, show us mercy, heal our hurts, restore us to society and to Himself, transform our lives, open our eyes. And if we're smart, we will choose to follow Him where He goes from there. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the New Covenant.
Well, we stand with the church the writer of Hebrews is preaching to. We are in the days that God's "new covenant" He gave through Jeremiah has been fulfilled in Christ. We aren't going to come in contact with the physical Jesus that touched Bartimaeus' eyes and opened them. But the physical Jesus couldn't write God's laws on our hearts or put them in our minds.
That's the Holy Spirit's job. We are post-Pentecostal. Job and the Psalmists were in pre-Pentecostal times and pointed to Christ. The Gospels show us God incarnate through Christ. So now, we live the "new covenant" promised through Jeremiah and will continue to live it until Christ comes again. God made the promise and God is keeping it. It hasn't been completely fulfilled. Yet.
What does living in the new covenant look like? We come to Christ, asking for mercy, we come to Him and He touches our lives and restores us and starts transforming our lives. Think of an Etch-A-Sketch. When we write/draw/doodle on it, it changes. It's not blank anymore, it's not "clean." As we come to God and He brings mercy, healing, and forgiveness...He shakes our Etch-A-Sketch. Look at the promise at the end of the new covenant..."And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."
We all have "pasts" of some kind. We all have things we stand in need of forgiveness for. It would be more than enough if God just forgave. That alone would be awesome! But! God doesn't stop there. When God forgives, God forgets. That can be hard to wrap our human minds around because we aren't like that. Oh, we may forgive and let something go...but...we know exactly what we have forgiven and we remember what we let go of. We may forgive, but we do not forget.
God does.
And when God forgets, we become that blank Etch-A-Sketch, once again that He can write His covenant/laws on our hearts some more (remember, The Law was covenant) and our relationship with Him is restored and we continue to be transformed more and more into His Holy image. He IS our God and we ARE His people.
Oh this new covenant hasn't been completely fulfilled yet. Look around and look within. We still need to be taught. We aren't there yet when we don't need to teach our neighbors and our relatives about Jesus. We still need to be taught ourselves. And we aren't yet to the place where everyone knows Christ. We can still have days that we don't reflect that we know Him.
But God is at work and we can trust what He is doing.
So, today, when you hear His voice telling you to, "Come here" also here His voice reassuring you, "Go, for your faith has healed you."
Then take your erased Etch-A-Sketch and go and follow. Know restoration with God and a transformation of your life.
The process has begun.
The road is before you.
A fresh start is yours to take hold of and grow into. Your sins have been forgiven and not only forgiven but forgotten by God.
That's the promise and we can bank on it.
Not because I say so but because God says so.
The twin themes of "restoration" and "transformation" run through all of these readings.
In Job, God has finished questioning Job and now Job responds. Even though he had maintained his innocence throughout and was sure he was not a "sinner," now that God has made Himself known, Job realizes that though he spoke rightly about God, he really is a sinner and he repents. God restores what Job originally lost...double. God also blesses Job with ten more children. And here's where it gets interesting when considering God's covenant. We are given the names of Job's three daughters and not the names of his seven sons. Most unusual in the Hebrew Bible! The names of women are seldom given, while the names of men are everywhere. I know, patriarchal society and that's the way it was. True. But, we are also told Job included his daughters in his will along with their brothers. That's not the way it was! I think we're getting a glimpse of the time when God promised His sons and daughters will prophesy. And we're getting a foretaste of daughters sharing in the inheritance right along with sons. In God's eyes, we are all equal. It doesn't matter what society says in the long run about that. God's covenant restores and it transforms. Hallelujah!
As we move to our Psalm we see the transformation prayer brings. Even though fearful circumstances may not change, our response to them changes when we bring God into them and pray. We can know joy in the face of fear or shame. Instead of getting lost in times of trouble, God comes to our rescue. Instead of being thrown to the wolves, we know protection. Though God's covenant isn't mentioned, it doesn't need to be. God covenanted to be our God and we will be His people. That was the covenant to the House of Israel and as we come to Christ, and are adopted into the Family of God, that covenant extends to us as well. God's covenant with His people is behind all Scripture and does not need to always be explicitly stated. It's always implied. Always trusted.
Covenant. Binding. Much more than a flimsy promise we humans can make to each other. When God makes covenant, God means business. He made covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses (all those commandments...they were part of the covenant), the prophets. God speaks of His covenant often; often in terms of us breaking it. The "new covenant" the writer of Hebrews quotes comes from Jeremiah 31 and God has much to say about this new covenant to Jeremiah.
God also has much to say to Ezekiel. Particularly pertinent is Ezekiel 34. While God is definitely not pleased with His shepherds, and we preachers always need to hold ourselves up to God's criteria here, He has a comforting Word to His sheep. We come face-to-face with this Good Shepherd He promises in our reading in Mark.
Jesus Christ, God's new covenant personified. We see Jesus tending His sheep, bringing back the strays, strengthening the weak, bandaging the injured, bringing healing and hope...opening the eyes of the blind. Restoring Bartimaeus' physical vision and transforming his spiritual vision. Bartimaeus sees Who this Jesus really is and he follows Jesus.
We are all Bartimaeus at some time in our life. Up a tree, calling out to Jesus, people telling us to shut up (don't ever be that person telling someone who needs Christ to shut up), but we need mercy so we keep calling out. And Jesus hears and Jesus sees and Jesus looks at us and tells us, "Come on down out of that tree and we'll talk." And if we just come on down, Jesus is there, waiting. And He will talk with us, show us mercy, heal our hurts, restore us to society and to Himself, transform our lives, open our eyes. And if we're smart, we will choose to follow Him where He goes from there. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the New Covenant.
Well, we stand with the church the writer of Hebrews is preaching to. We are in the days that God's "new covenant" He gave through Jeremiah has been fulfilled in Christ. We aren't going to come in contact with the physical Jesus that touched Bartimaeus' eyes and opened them. But the physical Jesus couldn't write God's laws on our hearts or put them in our minds.
That's the Holy Spirit's job. We are post-Pentecostal. Job and the Psalmists were in pre-Pentecostal times and pointed to Christ. The Gospels show us God incarnate through Christ. So now, we live the "new covenant" promised through Jeremiah and will continue to live it until Christ comes again. God made the promise and God is keeping it. It hasn't been completely fulfilled. Yet.
What does living in the new covenant look like? We come to Christ, asking for mercy, we come to Him and He touches our lives and restores us and starts transforming our lives. Think of an Etch-A-Sketch. When we write/draw/doodle on it, it changes. It's not blank anymore, it's not "clean." As we come to God and He brings mercy, healing, and forgiveness...He shakes our Etch-A-Sketch. Look at the promise at the end of the new covenant..."And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."
We all have "pasts" of some kind. We all have things we stand in need of forgiveness for. It would be more than enough if God just forgave. That alone would be awesome! But! God doesn't stop there. When God forgives, God forgets. That can be hard to wrap our human minds around because we aren't like that. Oh, we may forgive and let something go...but...we know exactly what we have forgiven and we remember what we let go of. We may forgive, but we do not forget.
God does.
And when God forgets, we become that blank Etch-A-Sketch, once again that He can write His covenant/laws on our hearts some more (remember, The Law was covenant) and our relationship with Him is restored and we continue to be transformed more and more into His Holy image. He IS our God and we ARE His people.
Oh this new covenant hasn't been completely fulfilled yet. Look around and look within. We still need to be taught. We aren't there yet when we don't need to teach our neighbors and our relatives about Jesus. We still need to be taught ourselves. And we aren't yet to the place where everyone knows Christ. We can still have days that we don't reflect that we know Him.
But God is at work and we can trust what He is doing.
So, today, when you hear His voice telling you to, "Come here" also here His voice reassuring you, "Go, for your faith has healed you."
Then take your erased Etch-A-Sketch and go and follow. Know restoration with God and a transformation of your life.
The process has begun.
The road is before you.
A fresh start is yours to take hold of and grow into. Your sins have been forgiven and not only forgiven but forgotten by God.
That's the promise and we can bank on it.
Not because I say so but because God says so.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Grow Up Already! Pre-Pentecostal Or Post-Pentecostal?
Yesterday we read Psalm 104: 1-9, 24, 35c; Job 38: 1-7, 34-41; Mark 10: 35-45; and Hebrews 5 & 6 from the New Living Translation.
Yesterday was Laity Sunday. What did God have to say to the laity of Warren Plains United Methodist Church? A lot. And a lot to me, too. I spent the first 40 years of my life in the pew before God started moving me to the other side of the pulpit. Whenever Jesus talks with the Pharisees, I pay attention. When Jesus talks to the disciples, I pay attention. When there's a word for the larger church, I pay attention. I cannot separate myself, nor should I. But laity need special encouragement to grow spiritually. Spiritual growth isn't just the job of the preacher. Pity the church where that's the belief!
The writer of Hebrews wants his readers, people in the early church, to grow up! They aren't teaching...they still need to be taught. They're still on the very basics of the faith and aren't moving on into the deeper things of faith. To be post-Pentecostal, they are acting very pre-Pentecostal.
We have those times. Before we come to Christ, before we accept the infilling of the Holy Spirit and walk in His power, we are in our own personal "pre-Pentecostal" time. The Holy Spirit hasn't set us ablaze; we aren't sporting a tongue of fire over our heads. The world and our viewpoint is still "me-centered" instead of Christ-centered. After we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, we still aren't perfect, but we're moving towards it. We start seeing the world more and more as God sees it. Our viewpoint becomes more and more Christ-centered and less and less "me-centered."
When the church is filled with pre-Pentecostal people we have trouble. If each person in a congregation is at the center of their own universe...watch out world because that's not good. However, when more and more become post-Pentecostal, then everyone else is more important than me. That's when the world really needs to watch out because transformation is coming!
In our reading from Mark, Jesus is dealing with pre-Pentecostal disciples; Pentecost has not happened, historically or personally, and James and John are being immature and very human. They are playing something of a modern day game of "king of the hill." I'm important and I want everybody to know it! I want honor and special recognition because this is all about me.
Jesus looks at them, and at us modern day disciples, and asks, "Oh really now? Have you got what it takes to grow up and really follow me and do this my way and the way I'm going to do it? Can you drink from the cup of suffering? Pick it up and drain it dry? That's a willful act. Can you choose to do that? And can you submit to suffering and be immersed in it? Huh? Are you able?"
Can we understand the deeper things of faith and go beneath doctrine and put our faith talk into a brisk faith walk? Can we eat a balanced diet of milk and meat? We do need both. Milk is never discredited in Hebrews...the writer says we need more in our spiritual diet, though, if we're to be strong in the faith. We've got to have meat. The commercial asks, "Got milk?" Hebrews asks, "Got meat?"
Understand about repenting of our sins and evil ways, place our faith in God and God alone, be baptized and know what it really means, practice the laying on of hands, believe in the resurrection of the dead, and know there will be a final and eternal judgment. But don't stop there! Don't be satisfied with placing faith in God and talking about having faith...show that faith to the world and live that faith you claim to have! Let God stretch your faith and show you what He's made of! Don't be satisfied with thinking you've got your ticket to Heaven stamped and ready for when you need it. This is more than about eternal life, it's about life right now and our relationship with God.
It's about working for God now, showing our love for Him now by how we love other believers and other people. We are to grow spiritually now and keep growing as long as we shall live. A lot of people who claim to be believers are not growing, nor are they actually showing love to their fellow man. We can often forget that we are all examples. Somebody, somewhere is watching us and looking to see how we live, how our faith talk and faith walk match up...if at all. Are we pre-Pentecostal or post-Pentecostal? Me-centered, we-centered, Christ-centered, what or who is at the center of our universe? We are all examples of something!
Jesus challenges us, like He did the earliest disciples, to be examples of being servants and slaves to others because that will be following His example. The disciples wanted to be leaders and to be recognized as such. That's how the world models leadership and that's the example they wanted to follow. Jesus says we aren't to be like leaders of the world. We aren't to strive for recognition and that "king of the hill" title. We're to serve. Period. Remember that cup and baptism of suffering? Being that servant to all isn't a cushy job. If we are pre-Pentecostal on a personal level, we want it the world's way. If we are post-Pentecostal on a personal level, Jesus' way is exciting, challenging, and the best way to go.
And when we go that way we find the anchor for our souls holds. We find Him to be trustworthy and true. We find our hope is confident and strong.
But folks, we've got to take the anchor out of the box and throw it in the water to find that the anchor does hold. We've got to grow up. We've got to incorporate meat into our diets. We've got to put our feet to walking our faith and not just paying it lip service.
Lip service is for babies just learning to talk. Who need nothing but milk. Who have a tough time standing much less walking.
Grow up already!
You'll never know what your Anchor is made of until you do.
Yesterday was Laity Sunday. What did God have to say to the laity of Warren Plains United Methodist Church? A lot. And a lot to me, too. I spent the first 40 years of my life in the pew before God started moving me to the other side of the pulpit. Whenever Jesus talks with the Pharisees, I pay attention. When Jesus talks to the disciples, I pay attention. When there's a word for the larger church, I pay attention. I cannot separate myself, nor should I. But laity need special encouragement to grow spiritually. Spiritual growth isn't just the job of the preacher. Pity the church where that's the belief!
The writer of Hebrews wants his readers, people in the early church, to grow up! They aren't teaching...they still need to be taught. They're still on the very basics of the faith and aren't moving on into the deeper things of faith. To be post-Pentecostal, they are acting very pre-Pentecostal.
We have those times. Before we come to Christ, before we accept the infilling of the Holy Spirit and walk in His power, we are in our own personal "pre-Pentecostal" time. The Holy Spirit hasn't set us ablaze; we aren't sporting a tongue of fire over our heads. The world and our viewpoint is still "me-centered" instead of Christ-centered. After we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, we still aren't perfect, but we're moving towards it. We start seeing the world more and more as God sees it. Our viewpoint becomes more and more Christ-centered and less and less "me-centered."
When the church is filled with pre-Pentecostal people we have trouble. If each person in a congregation is at the center of their own universe...watch out world because that's not good. However, when more and more become post-Pentecostal, then everyone else is more important than me. That's when the world really needs to watch out because transformation is coming!
In our reading from Mark, Jesus is dealing with pre-Pentecostal disciples; Pentecost has not happened, historically or personally, and James and John are being immature and very human. They are playing something of a modern day game of "king of the hill." I'm important and I want everybody to know it! I want honor and special recognition because this is all about me.
Jesus looks at them, and at us modern day disciples, and asks, "Oh really now? Have you got what it takes to grow up and really follow me and do this my way and the way I'm going to do it? Can you drink from the cup of suffering? Pick it up and drain it dry? That's a willful act. Can you choose to do that? And can you submit to suffering and be immersed in it? Huh? Are you able?"
Can we understand the deeper things of faith and go beneath doctrine and put our faith talk into a brisk faith walk? Can we eat a balanced diet of milk and meat? We do need both. Milk is never discredited in Hebrews...the writer says we need more in our spiritual diet, though, if we're to be strong in the faith. We've got to have meat. The commercial asks, "Got milk?" Hebrews asks, "Got meat?"
Understand about repenting of our sins and evil ways, place our faith in God and God alone, be baptized and know what it really means, practice the laying on of hands, believe in the resurrection of the dead, and know there will be a final and eternal judgment. But don't stop there! Don't be satisfied with placing faith in God and talking about having faith...show that faith to the world and live that faith you claim to have! Let God stretch your faith and show you what He's made of! Don't be satisfied with thinking you've got your ticket to Heaven stamped and ready for when you need it. This is more than about eternal life, it's about life right now and our relationship with God.
It's about working for God now, showing our love for Him now by how we love other believers and other people. We are to grow spiritually now and keep growing as long as we shall live. A lot of people who claim to be believers are not growing, nor are they actually showing love to their fellow man. We can often forget that we are all examples. Somebody, somewhere is watching us and looking to see how we live, how our faith talk and faith walk match up...if at all. Are we pre-Pentecostal or post-Pentecostal? Me-centered, we-centered, Christ-centered, what or who is at the center of our universe? We are all examples of something!
Jesus challenges us, like He did the earliest disciples, to be examples of being servants and slaves to others because that will be following His example. The disciples wanted to be leaders and to be recognized as such. That's how the world models leadership and that's the example they wanted to follow. Jesus says we aren't to be like leaders of the world. We aren't to strive for recognition and that "king of the hill" title. We're to serve. Period. Remember that cup and baptism of suffering? Being that servant to all isn't a cushy job. If we are pre-Pentecostal on a personal level, we want it the world's way. If we are post-Pentecostal on a personal level, Jesus' way is exciting, challenging, and the best way to go.
And when we go that way we find the anchor for our souls holds. We find Him to be trustworthy and true. We find our hope is confident and strong.
But folks, we've got to take the anchor out of the box and throw it in the water to find that the anchor does hold. We've got to grow up. We've got to incorporate meat into our diets. We've got to put our feet to walking our faith and not just paying it lip service.
Lip service is for babies just learning to talk. Who need nothing but milk. Who have a tough time standing much less walking.
Grow up already!
You'll never know what your Anchor is made of until you do.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Hello Hebrews 3 And 4
I recently read that church websites need five things, one of which is the pastor's sermons. Oh my! I don't write out my sermons, not even notes, so that presented a conundrum, because I do want my church website to be all that it can be. So after some serious pondering, and there is no other kind for me, I decided to reflect on Monday what I preached on Sunday.
For the record I haven't written a sermon since 2003 except when one was required to hand in for a class. I do write wedding and funeral sermons out, but not the week-to-week ones. There's a reason though and it's not because I'm cocky. There have been way-too-many-to-count Sundays that I got in God's way in the pulpit and I wished I had a written text to fall back on...but alas and alack. I read, I study, I pray. I do everything I'm supposed to do to get ready for Sunday. I just don't take pen in hand or sit down at a keyboard. God had a time, a long time ago, that He put a stop to that. And it took a while, but I finally understood. It was absolutely necessary for me to learn to hear His voice above all others and trust Him in all situations. For me, that written sermon was a prop that I relied on so I wouldn't have to grow in those ways. One week God kicked that prop out from under me and it has been gone ever since. Rats. But it is what it is.
And so here I am at the start of a brand new blog. I'm a lectionary preacher, meaning I preach on the prescribed texts (Revised Common Lectionary) as established by the The Consultation on Common Texts. The United Methodist Church supports the lectionary, though we are free to preach on whatever texts we feel God calling us to preach on. While the lectionary is recommended, it is not mandated. But I do it. There are four weekly readings and, in my church, we read all four during the service. I may expand on what is recommended and that is what I have been doing lately. I just finished preaching the entire Book of James and am now preaching the Book of Hebrews. The lectionary gives some verses, and not from every chapter. We're taking Hebrews two chapters at a time and reading all the texts.
This is the only post I'll give such a lengthy intro on. But I did want to state the whats, whys, and wherefores of this blog.
Yesterday we read Psalm 22: 1-15; Job 23; Mark 10: 17-31; and Hebrews 3 & 4. I read from the New Living Translation.
I preached on Hebrews but worked in the Mark reading. My musings and recollections:
It's easy and natural to want to go back to the old, the comfortable, the familiar. I can smell fresh cut wood and I go back to my granddaddy, who was a sawmill man. We can long for the house or community we remember with fondness. Churches can long for their glory days when attendance was at its highest and there were wall-to-wall children. The writer of Hebrews knows the people he is writing to are being tempted to go back to their comfort zone, the good old days before they became Christians who were being persecuted. He warns them about that though, over and over, in this book, which was originally written as a sermon.
Our rich man Jesus encounters in our Mark reading, turned back. He couldn't leave his comfort zone. He couldn't push ahead and do what was required for him to follow Jesus. He wants to follow and Jesus goes over some of the commandments with him...which to his credit, the rich man says he has kept. He keeps the last six of the ten...the ones that have to do with our relationship with others. He keeps the ones most people of faith keep. He hasn't murdered anybody. He hasn't committed adultery. He hasn't knowingly stolen, intentionally lied, or cheated anybody. He honors his parents.
It's those first four commandments we mess up on the most and it's where this man, standing before Jesus, is messing up. Go back and read Exodus 20, particularly the first four commandments. No other gods before God, no idols of any kind, no misuse of God's name, and keeping the Sabbath holy and as a day of rest. This man has set up his possessions as his god, his idols. Jesus tells him to to what it takes to dethrone them from that position in his heart and life...be as drastic as it takes, and for him it means selling them all and giving all the proceeds to the poor. Pretty tough love and drastic action. But it's what Jesus knew this man would have to do. If he kept his fine belongings, they would entice him to keep worshiping them. There's an order to what Jesus tells him. Go, sell, give, have, come, follow. We may try to follow and not keep to that order, but it won't work. We have to go confront our god(s), get rid of them completely, give to others from out of that...others are to be blessed when we get rid of our false god(s), that's when we discover the true treasure we will have in heaven, and then we are free to come to Jesus and follow Him. His words, not mine. We cannot truly follow him any other way. As long as our worldly god(s) are in the way, we won't be completely following...we'll always have that compulsion to go back.
In this fellow's case, he couldn't do it. He blew his "today" moment we read about in Hebrews. He had the chance "today" to hear God's voice, but his heart was hardened and it remained hardened "today." Did he ever get another chance? We aren't told.
Today, as you read the Word, pray the prayers, sing the songs, hear God's voice. Today, don't harden your hearts towards Him. Today, listen to God. You may not get a tomorrow. Bu you do have "today."
Today you can enter God's rest. "God's rest" has two facets. One is that eternal rest. But there's also the rest we can know today. That rest that comes when we are in right relationship with God, when we trust the work God is doing over and above our own work, when we rest in His faithfulness, when we know His peace. The heart disease may still be there. The cancer may still be there. We may still be growing old with the challenges that come with that, but we can know God's rest today, during these times, when we obey Him and walk this walk His way and not our own. Today.
He tells us in His Word how to have that right relationship with Him and that's a Word we can rely on. It's a Living Word that encourages and convicts. It exposes and reveals what we try to hide from others. What we even bury deep within and hide from ourselves.
God says, "I've been there. I've been tempted and tested. I understand what you're going through and dealing with. I've lived it and seen it. I can handle it and you don't have to try and hide those things you're ashamed of and hiding. You don't need a fig leaf with me. Let's bring this baggage out in the open where we, you and I, can deal with it. Clean it up. Wash it away in my Living Water."
Come to the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Find that Help when you need it the most.
Just like we have, or have had, a daddy we could go to and say, "Daddy I need..." so too, we've got a Daddy we can go to now, today, and say, "Daddy, I need." And we can expect Daddy to come to our rescue.
If you never had a daddy like that, I'm telling you you've got One.
Today, hear your Daddy's voice, trust what He says, do what you have to do to soften your hearts and follow.
Be blessed.
For the record I haven't written a sermon since 2003 except when one was required to hand in for a class. I do write wedding and funeral sermons out, but not the week-to-week ones. There's a reason though and it's not because I'm cocky. There have been way-too-many-to-count Sundays that I got in God's way in the pulpit and I wished I had a written text to fall back on...but alas and alack. I read, I study, I pray. I do everything I'm supposed to do to get ready for Sunday. I just don't take pen in hand or sit down at a keyboard. God had a time, a long time ago, that He put a stop to that. And it took a while, but I finally understood. It was absolutely necessary for me to learn to hear His voice above all others and trust Him in all situations. For me, that written sermon was a prop that I relied on so I wouldn't have to grow in those ways. One week God kicked that prop out from under me and it has been gone ever since. Rats. But it is what it is.
And so here I am at the start of a brand new blog. I'm a lectionary preacher, meaning I preach on the prescribed texts (Revised Common Lectionary) as established by the The Consultation on Common Texts. The United Methodist Church supports the lectionary, though we are free to preach on whatever texts we feel God calling us to preach on. While the lectionary is recommended, it is not mandated. But I do it. There are four weekly readings and, in my church, we read all four during the service. I may expand on what is recommended and that is what I have been doing lately. I just finished preaching the entire Book of James and am now preaching the Book of Hebrews. The lectionary gives some verses, and not from every chapter. We're taking Hebrews two chapters at a time and reading all the texts.
This is the only post I'll give such a lengthy intro on. But I did want to state the whats, whys, and wherefores of this blog.
Yesterday we read Psalm 22: 1-15; Job 23; Mark 10: 17-31; and Hebrews 3 & 4. I read from the New Living Translation.
I preached on Hebrews but worked in the Mark reading. My musings and recollections:
It's easy and natural to want to go back to the old, the comfortable, the familiar. I can smell fresh cut wood and I go back to my granddaddy, who was a sawmill man. We can long for the house or community we remember with fondness. Churches can long for their glory days when attendance was at its highest and there were wall-to-wall children. The writer of Hebrews knows the people he is writing to are being tempted to go back to their comfort zone, the good old days before they became Christians who were being persecuted. He warns them about that though, over and over, in this book, which was originally written as a sermon.
Our rich man Jesus encounters in our Mark reading, turned back. He couldn't leave his comfort zone. He couldn't push ahead and do what was required for him to follow Jesus. He wants to follow and Jesus goes over some of the commandments with him...which to his credit, the rich man says he has kept. He keeps the last six of the ten...the ones that have to do with our relationship with others. He keeps the ones most people of faith keep. He hasn't murdered anybody. He hasn't committed adultery. He hasn't knowingly stolen, intentionally lied, or cheated anybody. He honors his parents.
It's those first four commandments we mess up on the most and it's where this man, standing before Jesus, is messing up. Go back and read Exodus 20, particularly the first four commandments. No other gods before God, no idols of any kind, no misuse of God's name, and keeping the Sabbath holy and as a day of rest. This man has set up his possessions as his god, his idols. Jesus tells him to to what it takes to dethrone them from that position in his heart and life...be as drastic as it takes, and for him it means selling them all and giving all the proceeds to the poor. Pretty tough love and drastic action. But it's what Jesus knew this man would have to do. If he kept his fine belongings, they would entice him to keep worshiping them. There's an order to what Jesus tells him. Go, sell, give, have, come, follow. We may try to follow and not keep to that order, but it won't work. We have to go confront our god(s), get rid of them completely, give to others from out of that...others are to be blessed when we get rid of our false god(s), that's when we discover the true treasure we will have in heaven, and then we are free to come to Jesus and follow Him. His words, not mine. We cannot truly follow him any other way. As long as our worldly god(s) are in the way, we won't be completely following...we'll always have that compulsion to go back.
In this fellow's case, he couldn't do it. He blew his "today" moment we read about in Hebrews. He had the chance "today" to hear God's voice, but his heart was hardened and it remained hardened "today." Did he ever get another chance? We aren't told.
Today, as you read the Word, pray the prayers, sing the songs, hear God's voice. Today, don't harden your hearts towards Him. Today, listen to God. You may not get a tomorrow. Bu you do have "today."
Today you can enter God's rest. "God's rest" has two facets. One is that eternal rest. But there's also the rest we can know today. That rest that comes when we are in right relationship with God, when we trust the work God is doing over and above our own work, when we rest in His faithfulness, when we know His peace. The heart disease may still be there. The cancer may still be there. We may still be growing old with the challenges that come with that, but we can know God's rest today, during these times, when we obey Him and walk this walk His way and not our own. Today.
He tells us in His Word how to have that right relationship with Him and that's a Word we can rely on. It's a Living Word that encourages and convicts. It exposes and reveals what we try to hide from others. What we even bury deep within and hide from ourselves.
God says, "I've been there. I've been tempted and tested. I understand what you're going through and dealing with. I've lived it and seen it. I can handle it and you don't have to try and hide those things you're ashamed of and hiding. You don't need a fig leaf with me. Let's bring this baggage out in the open where we, you and I, can deal with it. Clean it up. Wash it away in my Living Water."
Come to the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Find that Help when you need it the most.
Just like we have, or have had, a daddy we could go to and say, "Daddy I need..." so too, we've got a Daddy we can go to now, today, and say, "Daddy, I need." And we can expect Daddy to come to our rescue.
If you never had a daddy like that, I'm telling you you've got One.
Today, hear your Daddy's voice, trust what He says, do what you have to do to soften your hearts and follow.
Be blessed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)