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| St. Paul: On The Same Page
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| What is this blog about? - Friday, June 01, 2007Each week I'll be writing some thoughts about the upcoming Sunday lessons, two Sundays ahead. My hope is that this will help laity be better prepared for worship, that it will help me to be better prepared for preaching, and that it might possibly be a service to some of my fellow pastors as well. NOTE: this is not a heavy exegetical blog. I won't be digging into the Hebrew or Greek. That is step-one of the sermon preparation. This is step-two, some cogitating about the devotional application of the text. How can we apply it to our lives. I hope it's helpful.
You can find a schedule of all the Sunday readings here.
You can read the SPOTS Devotion from St. Paul here in pdf format. read more ... |
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| What is this blog about? - Friday, June 01, 2007Each week I'll be writing some thoughts about the upcoming Sunday lessons, two Sundays ahead. My hope is that this will help laity be better prepared for worship, that it will help me to be better prepared for preaching, and that it might possibly be a service to some of my fellow pastors as well. NOTE: this is not a heavy exegetical blog. I won't be digging into the Hebrew or Greek. That is step-one of the sermon preparation. This is step-two, some cogitating about the devotional application of the text. How can we apply it to our lives. I hope it's helpful.
You can find a schedule of all the Sunday readings here.
You can read the SPOTS Devotion from St. Paul here in pdf format. read more ... |
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Pastors
While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"
Ouch. That's against everything I've learned about making "notifications." Did you know that there are instructions available for how to break bad news? The police officers who show up at your door to tell you, "There's been an accident..." have received training in making notifications. The military officers and chaplains who come to break bad news have gotten the same training.
They all learned that you never just plop the news out there. First you tell the story. You let it out a bit at a time. It may only take 2 or 3 or 4 sentences, but you never, never, ever give the bad news in the first sentence.
How-Not-To-Do-It example #1... "Your daughter is dead."
So what does Jesus do? He breaks the rules too!...
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
Our district, the Michigan District of the LCMS, is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign. Commemorating the 125th anniversary of the district, we're trying to raise $13 Million together. But one feature of those campaigns that I've always been uncomfortable with is the whole process of hyping the gifts.
You know what I mean. Every week or two a newsletter comes out telling us what this congregation or that congregation has done. These people raised this much. And this church gave that much.
I grew up with a natural reluctance to talk about my giving publicly. Although my parents were generous givers, who supported many charities in addition to the 10% to their church, I didn't learn about their giving until I was an adult. So naturally I'm reticent. And yet, the Apostle Paul was not...
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed...
Jeremiah has been called "The Weeping Prophet." How would you like that for a nickname? But he had a lot to weep about. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem twice - once in prophecy and once in person. He saw the terrible consequences of rebellion against God when the city of Jerusalem was beseiged, the people starved and reduced to cannibalism, the nation overthrown, the king blinded and taken away along with most of the population in chains.
The book is called, in our English translations, "Lamentations." Outcries. Weeping. In the Hebrew it is called 'ekah, "How..." A poignant beginning that expresses the yearning for an understanding of these tragedies.
And yet the Gospel is here too. It begins at last, after pages of pain, in chapter 3 verse 21. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope..."
What do you "call to mind" when you are in despair?...
On what were [the earth's] footings set, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
First of all, I'm glad to be back after 3 days of an intense workshop on funding Lutheran schools. I apologize that my ancient laptop was unable to connect to the wi-fi. It would have been refreshing to use some of that time to write to all of you. (...both of you?)
Have you ever looked around in church to see if anyone else was singing? Last Sunday, at one of the less-attended services, I noticed a sudden drop in the volume of the hymn as I was distributing Communion. I looked up and noticed that 2 rows of people who had been singing with gusto had gotten up to approach the altar rail. The loss of just those 8 or 10 people had cut the volume of the church in half!
What's up with that?...
Now we know tha if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling...
Jon and I went backpacking last week in the Smoky Mountains. We drove down there on Sunday afternoon, arriving too late to rent a campsite or get a camping permit. I thought of this Bible passage as we slept in the car. (Those seats are not made for sleeping.) And I thought of it again as we lay on our sleeping pads in our tent after a long day of climbing. My left elbow touched the tent wall. My right elbow touched Jon's left elbow...
I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it...
In commencement addresses given at this time of the year I have often heard speakers say that the students before them have been given "roots and wings" with which to move into the future. (It's a rather funny mental picture actually, to imagine someone with roots trying to fly.)
Their intention is to say that the students have roots in the past, but have wings to fly toward a grand future. But God uses these metaphors differently...
"Men of Israel, listen to this..."
You've got to know that a pastor's mood has got to, at least a little bit, affect his preaching and teaching. That's a real challenge, because I don't always get up on Sunday mornings feeling particularly ready to be "up" and enthusiastic and encouraging. And your mood affects how you listen, and what you hear in God's Word.
Today, for instance, as I read these verses the part that stands out are the very first words. "Men of Israel, listen to this!" Of course, Peter was blessed with a large audience that did listen to his message. But over the years that plea would become increasingly anxious.
"Men of Rome, listen to this!" People of Persia, listen to this! Citizens of France, listen to this! People of Great Britain, of America, of New York, Chicago, Ann Arbor, LISTEN to this!!! And yet...
"Woe is me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."
My son and I were standing on top of a mountain where we had stopped to take our lunch break, when 3 more backpackers came up the trail. We got into a conversation about equipment (a favorite topic of backpackers), "What are you doing for water?"
Jon and I were using a good quality ceramic water filter that removes bacteria, especially giardia lamblia. Before we bought it we studied up quite a bit about what would keep us healthy and this filter would work for every single danger except one - viruses. (Mainly a problem if you're hiking in Africa or a country with serious ground water problems.) That's why these other 3 hikers used chlorine and iodine tablets instead.
However, chlorine is...
In the weekly SPOTS devotion sheet our fourth devo is based on the hymn "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest." And I mention there that every single hymn in our Pentecost section refers to the Holy Spirit's comfort and relief from sadness. Of course, that's because Jesus says, in John 15 (yesterday's verse) that he will send us a "counselor" (in the NIV), or a "comforter" (in the KJV), or a "helper" (in the NASB), or a "friend" (The Message).
Well? Which is it? What does this comforter/counselor/friend really mean?
Oddly, I couldn't find an English translation that got it right...
...[the Holy Spirit] will testify about me. And you also must testify...
Do you know someone who incessantly harps on just one topic? Boy, I sure do. Certain people, as you see them coming toward you, you know what they're going to say. We used to make a game of it with some college professors. How long did it take in each class before he or she used a certain word?
We think that such people are dull, but that's not necessarily so. What if the one thing that they keep harping on is the ONE THING that we all need?...
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Task number one, remind yourself that this is not a parlor trick. It's not intended to be entertaining. It wasn't a "prayer language" or anything the benefited the recipient directly. In fact, the real recipient of the "gift of tongues" that day was NOT the disciples... it was the crowd.
The gift of tongues is a gift for the listeners.
That's worth remembering, in view of all the arguing over the gift today. Stop for half a minute and think....
Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live...
It's a bad habit that some people have, to spiritualize Bible verses. That is, sometimes people take a miraculous promise and remove the physical miracle in order to make it seem more plausible. But in this case, that's exactly what we need to do with these verses - and we do it in order to understand a greater miracle that God promises, not in order to have a lesser miracle.
Yes, there is a physical resurrection from the dead, and that's taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. But in this case God is promising a different kind of resurrection. The vision that Ezekiel has of an army being raised from the dead is intended to teach him that God can raise the nation of Israel - not from a literal physical death, but from their spiritual death.
Does this apply to people today in any way?...
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
In our printed devotions I focused on the first sentence above (verse 15). I was struck by the idea that we were deliberately "left behind" by Jesus. He left us here in the world, and did not even pray that the Father would take us from it, but only that we would be protected from the evil one (Satan).
There are lots of things to think about from those startling words. They suggest a lot about the purpose for our lives here. But this morning when I read these verses again my mind moved on to verse 16. "They are not of the world..." Here Jesus doesn't just suggest why we're left here, but he suggests how we should live here...
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son...
Wow! Who would have the chuztpah to accuse God of being a liar? That was my first thought when I read this. Then I got to thinking... I've been here before. This is a familiar situation.
The boss says, "At our last meeting we decided to do such-and-such." And you're thinking, "That's not what we decided." What do you do? If you disagree with the boss, he could say, "Are you calling me a liar?" Then what?
My own co-workers know what to say when this happens to us...
"Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry..."
Tonight (May 19) there's a congregation meeting that will include election of officers. It's funny. In a way we'll be doing the very same thing that these disciples were doing - choosing people to assume places of leadership in the church. And yet there will be one big difference that doesn't show up in the New Testament.
It seems that they easily chose 2 people to put forward who were capable, strong, faithful, met the qualifications for preparation, and were willing to risk their lives. We'll have a hard time nominating even ONE person for each office...
"...test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God..."
We've talked about this warning against false prophets several times recently. But now John gives us a test to use in order to tell who's a false prophet and who is not. But doesn't it seem like an odd one?
"Every spirit that acknowledges the Jesus Christ has come in the flesh..." What in the world? Doesn't nearly everyone acknowledge that Jesus Christ came "in the flesh"? All but the most radical theologians would say that Jesus was at least a flesh and blood person. So are they all OK?...
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on the way...
There are a lot of pregnant phrases in the Bible. I like the words "started out." I've always been distressed at the number of things in my life that I have started, but not finished. The giant model railroad layout - the model ship - the cool website idea - the new way to teach confirmation... I could list them all day (and get more and more depressed).
On the other hand, there's this other pregnant phrase, "and on the way..."
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep...
What more is there to say about these verses? They're so well known. We've discussed them so often. I've preached on them repeatedly. We just discussed them last Sunday in our Bible class.
And yet, like the 23rd Psalm, they continue to have a strange power to move us. Jesus is our shepherd...
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
I used to like the letters of John because, when you're trying to memorize all the names of the books of the Bible, it was nice to get a freebie like "1,2,3 John." But as we get older we get more serious, don't we? And if I didn't like the mushy talk about love back in grade school, I find it much more profound and moving now.
"This is how we know what love is..." Our whole society is trying to answer that question, isn't it? More than solutions to climate change, more than nuclear fusion, more than world peace, we have devoted more time, more energy, more passion, more money, and more thought into figuring out what love is. And we still don't know...
(I have no idea what happened to that one post last week. The text was there in my document, but it disappeared from the webpage and nothing that I attempted was able to make it appear. Sorry.)
"If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple... then know this... It is by the name of Jesus Christ..."
This is the kind of situation that Peter talks about many years later when he cautions believers, if they are going to be persecuted, make sure that they're persecuted for doing good - not evil. I hate to say this, but that's not always the case for us, is it?...
[Jesus] asked them, "Do you have anything to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Have you ever noticed how important it is for us to eat together? When we want to get close to each other, we almost always include food.
Yes, I know, that's not the purpose of Jesus eating this fish. He was trying to show them that he was not a ghost. But still...
You handed [Jesus] over to be killed... you disowned him before Pilate... You disowned the Holy and Righteous One... You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.
(Hey! Warm greetings to our readers from the English Language Class in Panama! God be with you!)
I wish I could preach as powerfully as this. Of course, Peter had an advantage. Speaking only a few weeks after Jesus' death and resurrection, he knew that his audience included people who had been there when Jesus died. Some of them had shouted, "Crucify him!" and "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"
But not everyone who heard Peter was directly to blame for Jesus' death...
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came...
Do you lock your doors? Some people are really big on locks. They use the door lock, the dead bolt, and the chain... and then they lock the screen door too. Others are more casual and some never lock up the house at all.
But there are times when we all lock up, aren't there? In the big city... among strangers... when we feel all alone and vulnerable... then we are more likely to lock the doors, check the window latches, and pull the shades. What is the significance of the disciples' fear?....
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life... we proclaim also to you...
Karen and I knew each other for one year and built a close relationship, and then we were apart for one year. That was quite a learning experience. We grew a lot when we were together, starting each day with prayer before going to breakfast and classes. But, as much as I hated it, I would say we grew even closer when we were apart...
Now the full number of those who believed was of one heart and soul... and with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus...
Wow, look how long it's been since I posted here! It's easy to figure out why. Not only the traditional busyness of Holy Week, but the passing away of my father-in-law, his sickness before that, the visiting with family and the many people to talk to, the funeral service and on and on and on. I never thought of this before. I had always pictured the disciples, after Jesus' crucifixion, just sitting around - moping - talking to one another. Do you know all that has to happen after an event like this? Can you imagine what that first week after the first Easter must have been like???...
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you...
Do you feel much like rejoicing or shouting? Depending on the day, it's hard to feel that way. Our emotions go up and down with each gain or set-back.
Currently, in my family, we are rejoicing at the imminent arrival of our first grandchild. But at the same time we are lamenting at the critical illness of my father-in-law. His illness has been a roller coaster of feelings, one doctor's report brings good news and the next report brings ill. You might feel the same way...
As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air...
Yikes! "Dead" I can take. I feel dead sometimes. But to say that I was a follower of "the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air"??? Isn't that going a little far?
I don't know about you, but I've always found it a little hard to relate to those "I was once a sinner" testimonies. I've almost been embarrassed by my lack of interesting sins. (Clarification: I have NO LACK of sins, but nothing exciting to tell about.) Selfish? Yes. Petty? Yes. Lustful? I'm afraid so. Disobedient, slothful, discontented? Yeah, that's me. But a servant of Satan? Me?...
The people grew impatient along the way...
Impatience? Is that all? Is that why God sent venomous serpents among the Israelites? Here we go again; God is doing the kind of things that lead modern commenters on the Bible to picture "the God of the Old Testament" (somehow thought to be different from other gods in the Bible) as a megalomaniacal tyrant. What's SO bad about a little impatience?
On the other hand...
You can tell from my absence here what my week has been like. Mornings especially have been spent chasing the phone and the email between meetings with people who needed to talk. Your life might have been like that too... and yet, even in between all of these things I kept my SPOTS devotion sheet folded in my shirt pocket, and I had many opportunities to think about these verses. I hope you did too.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
I struggled when I wrote the devotion with how to handle a devotion on all the Ten Commandments. There's either too much to say, or too little. But I was drawn to these opening words. Why would God introduce himself?...
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace...
I used to think of this "peace with God" as a cessation of hostilities, the end of a war. Lots of pastors have preached on it that way, and the metaphor is valid. But I heard a much better understanding of it from an old professor of mine a couple of months ago. He said that God's goal in justifying us, and his goal in giving us the law, and even his goal in paying for our sins by Jesus' sacrifice was NOT to make us perfect...
You will be called the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham...
My wife changed her name when we got married. Frankly, I expected her to - and so did she. But it never really hit me until recently what an uncomfortable, inconvenient, and momentous thing that is! (When I get home, I will thank her for it.) What does it mean if you change your name?...
And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
I wish God would speak with a voice from heaven. Don't you? I mean, just every once in a while if he could speak up and say, "Here is what you really need to focus on today..." But then, what would he say that we don't already know? God has given us pretty clear instruction. In fact, in the transfiguration God the Father did not tell Jesus anything that he didn't already know either, did he?
If God voice thundered over your head today, I expect that he would say...
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial...
I don't think I'm a 'confrontational' person. I don't like to argue. When I have a conflict with anyone I can quickly feel my heartbeat increase, and my hands even feel trembly. And yet, I have always had a strong conviction that I have to tell people the truth... straight up. I can't compromise on God's Word in order to make someone feel better.
God has gotten me through some painful conflicts. But I'm not at the point where I can say with James, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials." How can we?...
I confess. I just ate three paczkis (pronounced like punchkeys), a traditional fat-loaded pre-Lenten delicacy. Each paczki is over 400 calories. Why do we do such things?!?
They call today Shrove Tuesday. It is the day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow, according to ancient tradition, the Lenten fast would begin. And so today, on Shrove Tuesday, believers would go to confession (the origin of the word shrove comes from the writing out of an order for penance).
But we have feast without fast. We have no fast. We have little or no confession. But we will load ourselves with self-indulgence and debauchery. (Read more...)
Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there..."
What is missing from this story? Probably the first thing that jumps out at most people is Abraham's silence. Only a few chapters before he argued with God - he bargained with God - he repeatedly confronted God in order to plead for mercy for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And yet here, when God asks for his only son, Abraham is silent. What's going on?...
There [Jesus] was transfigured before them...
I always struggle with this story. It's not hard for me to believe - but it's hard for me to imagine. That is - I can picture Jesus glowing like the sun, his clothes whiter than any launderer could make them, as the Bible says. That's easy. Anyone who's watched a movie or two in the last 10 years can imagine the image. But what is harder to get is the sense of awe that such a sight would have given to his disciples. Think about it...
Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts... we do not lose heart... For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord...
It's striking how many times Paul brings the person of Jesus Christ to the very front and center of every question. And here, it is the preaching of Jesus that makes our ministry "radiant" like that of Moses. Even more so, because Moses preached the law, "that which was passing away," while we preach the Gospel, "that which will last forever." But what is this veil?...
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.
You know, we're just not as impressed with glowing faces as we used to be. Special effects being what they are - and the software being available even to the average computer user to manipulate his own photos and videos - I don't think that people would react the same way today, even if they saw it "live" and in person. But...
A man with leprosy came to [Jesus] and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man...
What do you know about Clostridium difficile? "C. diff.," as it's often called, is an increasing problem in hospitals and nursing homes. It's not unusual to visit patients in the hospital today and be asked to wear gloves, a gown, or even a face mask. Only a few years ago that was fairly unusual. But today we know that every time we touch someone we may be giving, or receiving, something deadly...
Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head...
Why do we have such issues with authority and equality? On the one hand we quarrel with the Bible's description of an order in relationships. We don't like those parts of the Bible that seem to say that men and women have different roles - or that Christian believers may even accept slavery or a position of servantlike submission to others.
But on the other hand, we balk at the Bible's description of everyone as equally sinful. We can't quite believe that Adolf Hitler and Mother Theresa stand in the same condition before God - unless they believe in God's Son...
Elijah sent a messenger to say to [Naaman], "Go wash yourself seven times..." Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy..."
Have you ever watched a television faith healer? I don't suppose they're all alike - but all those that I have seen are less like Elijah, and more like Barnum and Bailey. Healings (whether they are real healings or not, I will leave to you) are achieved with maximum showmanship and visibility. But contrast the approach of a true prophet...
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed...
This is right after a long night of constant visitors - crowds of people bringing the sick for healing - people with questions - people with needs. And it is right before Jesus healed a man with leprosy and the resulting crowds became so heavy that he "could no longer enter a town openly."
It fascinates me that Jesus would take the time to go off for prayer in the midst of all this. Why?...
Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible...
There are several lines of thought I'd like to pursue on these verses, but time doesn't permit me. Let me take the one off the top. Christians have been slammed repeatedly with the allegation that "the Bible approves of slavery." In a sense that's true...
Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God?"
You can tell a lot about a person from his or her complaints. When a person complains a lot about their body letting them down, about aches and pains and weariness, what it really means is, "I'm discouraged." We take a lot of aches and pains in stride when we have a hopeful spirit.
When a person complains....
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach..."
You know how it works at St. Paul. We have services in two different places, and Pastor Wentzel and I share the preaching. Lately we've both been writing sermons every week and preaching at different services. This means that every weekend there are large sections of the congregation that I don't see - and he doesn't see - because we're not preaching at that service. Sometimes I wonder what it's like to be the person in the pew as the preacher comes in - and goes out...
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
First, let me start with a disclaimer. I realize that the scenario Paul is using is a hypothetical. It isn't usually crystal clear in real life whether we're doing more harm by partaking or by refraining - by avoiding offense, or by giving a false impression of the law. Example: Paul refuses to go along with Peter and others whose weakness led them to take refuge in the Jewish dietary laws. Their weakness Paul did not accomodate because it would confirm a false gospel.
But let's apply this to ourselves, shall we...
"Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."
At first this seemed strange to me, people asking God NOT to speak to them. Then I realized, we do this all the time. We don't want to hear from....
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
I'm trying to write a sermon on this text for this coming Sunday, and the word that keep popping into my mind is "Ypsitucky."
When I moved to the Ann Arbor area I was told...
"Everything is permissible for me..."
The NIV puts that in quotation marks because Paul is repeating one of those phrases that was, evidently, popular among his listeners. When do you suppose people used a phrase like that? "Everything is permissible for me."
"I want to divorce my wife." Everything is permissible for me...
"Speak, for your servant is listening..."
Sunday School curriculums all include this story. I think they figure that kids love to see the drawings of little Samuel, getting a new coat from his mother, serving Eli at the tabernacle, and then hearing God speak to him and becoming the spokesman for God.
Nice... until you stop for a moment to think about the message this little boy was commanded to carry...
And so John came, baptizing... the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him...
When was the last time you went out to hear a "speaker?" I don't mean going to a movie or a concert, or going out to hear a famous singer or actor. When was the last time you heard about a religious or political figure who was coming to town and was going to speak somewhere and you went to hear what he or she had to say?...
Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase?
I used to think that was a stupid question? Who would really think that? Surely nobody would say that, just because we are forgiven, we can now do whatever we want.
Silly me.
Look around you. Our society is not exactly a religious one, and yet it does seem to have listened to some of the Christian message....
Did God create darkness?
I've had a lot of conversations with people who want to know where evil came from, and who would like to blame God for the bad things that happen. (If God's at fault, then he can't judge us for anything.) But I wonder if this is comparable to the very first day of creation...
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
It's nice to think about gardens right now, isn't it? But it's also a bit unrealistic. It's not only very remote in an ecological sense, seeing as how we're buried in snow right now. But it also seems unrealistic in the longer term, national sense...
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary...
It's worth remembering how these books were written. We call Luke one of the "synoptics" because it contains similar material to that which is in Matthew and Mark, and yet there are great differences. No other gospel includes the events of Luke 2 - perhaps because Luke wrote his gospel by interviewing eyewitnesses... including Mary. Does that change how you read these verses?...
Many of you know that James Neuendorf went into the Darien Rainforest in Panama 2 years ago to find out more about the Christian people there and what their life and faith is like. Now, at last, his book about their stories is available at Amazon.com. (Direct link here)
NOTE: The price is a lot higher at Amazon than it will be when the book is made available at church, but if you're in a hurry you can order it direct already.
About the book...
The books of Samuel, for instance, have stories of romance and recklessness, great battles and one-on-one duels, adultery and assassination. It begins to sound like "The Princess Bride" but Samuel has one thing that even that popular book (and movie) doesn't have...
I will send my messenger ahead of you... And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
If you were to decide to start a new business, would you be OK if you planned NOT to succeed? That sounds crazy. Who would invest themselves in something that was just a dead end? Why spend the time and the headaches, when you could just work for someone else and get by?
Nevertheless, my father did that once...
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
We love to ask children "what they want to be" when they grow up. It's a funny question, don't you think? What they want to BE? I mean, we could ask them what kind of job they hope to get - what kind of work they want to do - how much money they want to make - where they hope to live - or how they want to spend their time - but instead we ask them what they will BE.
Who can answer that? Compare it to this...
"In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
Nice words. It's always nice to come to church and hear familiar words. It's even nicer when we don't have to actually DO what they say, isn't it?
Let's leave it to Isaiah, or to John, to prepare a way and make straight highways. After all, if WE are responsible, what might we have to do?...
When the Son of Man comes in his glory... all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
I'm told that a new popular video clip on the internet shows Alaska Governor Sarah Palin granting a pardon to a Thanksgiving turkey (one of those goofy political traditions) and then granting an interview to the press afterward. The sensation is that during the interview the business of the turkey farm continues as usual in the background with turkeys being fed into a guillotine of some kind right there on camera.
The shock! The horror! Many people never realized that their Thanksgiving turkey didn't grow on a turkey tree. In the same way, many people like to talk about going to heaven, but never consider the other side of that coin...
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Paul begins this chapter, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you..." And he calls this "of first importance." It seems so obvious to us, and yet we are quite capable of forgetting it. In fact, even when we remember it we too often fail to allow this truth to affect our lives.
How does this work? "I am worried that I might lose my job." Do you respond, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead"?...
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
To appreciate what God is saying here you really need to back up and read the chapters before. Ezekiel describes the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders - priests participating in or permitting pagan celebrations in his temple - the people wandering away to worship in the high places and sacred groves - injustice throughout the kingdom that was supposed to be a witness to God's righteousness. And then God says...
[The kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent...
First, you need to make a deliberate effort to de-link your brain from that word "talents". It shifts our emphasis to volunteering, when Jesus is using gold as his illustration. Certainly our time is included here by extension, but it begins with the gold, and that's appropriate because, as Martin Luther once said, the pocketbook is the last part of a man to be converted...
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night... But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you...
This web site (http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm) lists over 220 different dates that have been set for the end of the world. (Note: 3 of them are from the Weekly World News, a spoof newspaper, so those don't count.) Quite a number of them are in recent years, not just around the year 2000 (though there were lots then), but even now people are still trying to identify a date. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS???
False prophecy is a terrible thing, but stupidity is apparently also a powerful force in this world...
The great day of the Lord is near - near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom...
...Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold willbe able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath...
So - can you see why we don't read further than verse 16 when we use this text in church? Not very cheerful, is it? Why does the Bible contain things like this??? Isn't this too gruesome to be God's Word? Well... maybe you should think of it this way...
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money...
"God didn't give me much, just the sunshine in the morning..." That's how an old campfire song begins. Yes, I know, it's terribly saccharine. But it does make a sarcastic point (and I always love sarcasm). When we look in our bag to see how many talents God has given to us, aren't we always dissapointed?
"Oh, I don't have many skills, really." "Oh, I'm not rich or anything." When we were children our trick-or-treat bags seemed to fill too slowly and empty too soon, although we deserved none of it. Now as adults we're little better...
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have not hope...
I am deeply troubled today. Sure, I have lots of opinions about politics and economics and what government should do about this or that. But as vital as some of those issues might seem they pale to insignificance before the one issue that lies so heavy on my heart. Worse, I don't know how to find comfort in this case from Paul's words.
Please note: add up the populations of Michigan (10,095,643), Indiana (6,313,520), Ohio (11,478,006), Illinois (12,831,970), Wisconsin (5,556,506), and Minnesota (5,167,101) and you'd have 51,442,746 people. That's a lot of people.
That still does not equal the 53,430,000 American citizens who have been killed by abortion since it was legalized in 1973.
And now what do we do with Paul's words, that we should not be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep nor grieve like the rest of men if our nation appears to be bent upon continuing down this path?...
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light...
I just voted. There were long lines of people voting, many of them with high hopes for the result. "If so-and-so gets elected, we're saved!" But even if you get your way - even if all the people who voted for today are elected, will that mean what you hope it means?
In the case of our political elections, that's true because we know the people we elect are sinful, but in the case of our hopes for the Lord's second coming...
"The Be-Happy Attitudes" That is how a famous preacher once described these verses. He could not have been more wrong.
Oh, it's true that if a person could be some of these things - meek, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart - that he would be blessed. But even if we're blessed it doesn't mean that we're happy.
In fact, that raises the question... "Is happiness really what we're after?"...
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
There was no punctuation in the original manuscripts, OK? We know this sentence is not a question because of the form; it begins with an imperative. "LOOK!" (In Greek, idete) "Look at the greatness of love..."
So our English translations take some liberties with the punctuation. They have an exclamation point after both these first two sentences, probably because of the punchy aorist (one time, immediate action) imperative that begins it all. But the way it reads in English... what if we changed the punctuation to a question mark?
I know. I know. That's not in the text. But bear with me for a moment...
After this I looked adn there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb...
I don't like crowds. Orderly crowds, like in a stadium, where everyone is sitting in rows, are bad enough. I find it depressing to think about so many lives, so many issues, so many emotions, many of them lost or sad or heading down a wrong path. Disorderly crowds, random mobs of people at an amusement park or something, are even worse. Even if they are well behaved a large crowd is a place where your own identity begins to become submerged. Even your intention, the direction you want to walk, begins to be changed by the flow of the crowd.
This is why people often look at heaven in a negative way. They see only a mass of unidentifiable people. People speaking strange languages. People who are all facing the same way, worshiping the same Lord. Some people see that as dehumanizing....
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
Wow. There are a lot of remarkable things about these verses and those that follow. It's remarkable that Jesus makes exclusive claims to the truth - that he offers believers a place in God's family and eternal freedom. But I'm used to those things. That's not what really jumps out at me...
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...
I Googled the word "righteousness" and I looked through page after page of search results, trying to find any examples of it's use outside of the Christian faith. I finally came upon one occurence in an article about Al Gore, and it also shows up in a video game item (a mocking reference to Christianity). So... it appears that we own the word righteousness. And yet we don't pay much attention to it....
"Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on earth..."
It's a strange feature of Biblical prophecy that events foretold can be fulfilled in stages - or "fulfilled" many times in a preliminary fashion, each "fulfillment" serving as an additional anticipation of the ultimate fulfillment. So, as each king of Israel took the throne his earthly reign as a descendant of David was an anticipation of the ultimate Son of David who would come to be the King of kings.
In the same way...
"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
What a wonderfully crafted sentence. It seems a shame to dissect it, but it's good to look at each of the 4 parts of the sentence and how they contribute to the whole. Paul is talking about works in this whole section, but notice how he frames them...
Just returned from three days at a pastoral conference where I had no opportunity to post to the blog. Our subject there was reconciliation - and we focused a lot on confession and absolution - especially private confession. I hope we have a chance to discuss that here soon... and that I get a chance to buy some of the books that were recommended.
The lessons for this Sunday are about a "harder edged" subject, but one that applies very well to our lives today. God called Cyrus (and it's interesting, don't you think, that Isaiah calls him by name a century before he comes to power)...
Alright, so heaven is a grand celebration, a great banquet. Got that.
And we can "rejoice in the Lord always" because his coming is near. Got that.
So now... why do I find it so hard to rejoice? Why does this feel so little like a party?
Have you ever tried to throw a party? I mean a really big party - like a wedding. We have had some experience with that recently...
"REJOICE in the Lord always! I will say it AGAIN: Rejoice!" Do you think Paul could have done more to emphasize this?
Ironically, Paul couldn't do ALL CAPS to make it stand out. The original manuscripts were already written in all caps - the whole thing. (Ouch, my eyes!) And they didn't do underlining, or italics, colors, or exclamation points. All that came later. But by saying "I will say it again" Paul is really bringing this out. He's saying, "THIS IS IMPORTANT!" And then...
(We're back in business. Praise God!)
The Bible talks a lot about parties. Have you ever noticed that? In some ways it makes me uncomfortable because I'm never totally at ease at a party. I've never been that kind of social person, and I don't quite know what is expected of me. In fact, I was raised to be a bit suspicious of crazy behavior, yelling and cheering that are often accompanied by a good deal of drinking and other worse behaviors. But what kind of party does God want to host?...
There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, "Son, go and work today in the vineyard." "I will not," he answered...
Wow, that's a familiar scenario. Actually, I suppose the 2nd child is more familiar, the one who says that he will but then he doesn't. Jesus tells this little tale to make the point that those who come late to obedience are still more obedient than those who only pay lip service. The Jewish religious leaders paid lip service to obedience to God, but it was the outcasts who were coming to Jesus in repentance.
But how can we apply this text today...
DON'T MISS the CPH book sale over at Concordia. It's Friday and Saturday of this week, down in the Riverside Room beneath the student union. I just came from there with $40 worth of books, 14 regular books and 3 books of organ music. Worth going to.
Hey, I just thought you'd like to know.
Now to Philippians. It's funny how much can be packed into a few words, like when Paul says "what happened to me..." Wow, what a LOT of stuff happened to him. Riots, beatings, stoned and left for dead, pursued, hunted, escaped in a basket over the wall, arrested, jailed, on trial before Ceasar. Wow!
Occasionally I'll talk to a member who has a similar history...
"It's not my fault!" Those are the immortal words of Han Solo in the first of the Star Wars movies. But they're certainly not new. The Israelites were saying the same thing in their proverb, "the fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
It is my parents' fault that my life is messed up. It was the sins of an earlier generation that put us in this predicament. We're inheriting the national debt that came from someone else's spending. The economy was wrecked by other people's poor choices and now I'm suffering the effects of it. My father's alcoholism, my mother's bad food choices, my uncle's anger management issues, my sister's drug use, my family history of you-name-it...
OK, humility block here. In the printed SPOTS I based my devotion on Matthew TWENTY-ONE verses 1-16, instead of chapter TWENTY. The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday is actually in chapter 20, so I guess that's what we should think about here. (You know what a "humility block" is, right? It's a *deliberate* mistake put into one block of a quilt just to remind yourself that you're not perfect. I wish I could claim my mistakes were that humble.)
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
I would like to use these words to talk about labor unions, or fair wages, or property rights - all topics that we love to pontificate about and would love to find Bible verses to support our various points of view. Unfortunately, that's not at all what this is about...
"I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel..."
I just finished leading chapel at our elementary school and I'm exhausted, sweaty, ready for a break. ("Pssshhhh!" That's the sound of the Pepsi I just opened even though it's only 9:30a.m. - sorry Mom.) When I do chapel with the kids I want to keep them engaged - I want to make sure I get the message across - I want to make a lasting impression, so I tend to be high-energy. We sing energetic songs. I move back and forth across the bleachers a lot so that I can be close to as many of them as possible and keep their attention.
In short... I figure if I WORK HARD ENOUGH that I'll be able to share the gospel better. But Paul says...
"Seek the Lord while he may be found..."
Do you mean to say that there may be a time when God cannot be found? I can give thanks that I have never experienced such a thing, but I have to acknowledge that it's possible.
It has nothing to do with how bad things are. It's not that in the middle of a battlefield, or in the fierce battering of a hurricane, or in the most crowded and busy place that somehow God is hard to find. No - under even the worst of physical conditions, God is still there. But...
"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?"
How in the world can we understand these things when we have completely abandoned the framework for understanding them? Do people still "sin against" one another? Really???
Or do we just experience "friction" or "misunderstandings". You know the routine...
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not...
Ah, but here's the rub: what are the "disputable matters"? Which teachings are merely personal preferences, and which are critical truths? Paul himself does not hesitate to pass judgment on some disputes...
We just finished Genesis in our Sunday morning Bible class (starting the Gospel of John next, 9:30 a.m. if you want to join us). Chapter 50 was a fitting, but somewhat poignant, ending to the book.
"Am I in the place of God?" Joseph asks his brothers. But that is precisely where we see ourselves so often...
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities...
These are hard verses. I remember having trouble with these verses even when I was a child, long before I could vote. By the time I was 9 years old I could think of a long list of excuses for disrespecting and, consequently, disobeying the authorities...
I know, I know. Why wasn't I posting all week? You don't want to know. I'd just clutter these pages with whining.
Of course, I wouldn't be alone, would I? Think of Ezekiel. God called Jeremiah to preach the bad news to Israel - that they would be defeated and taken off into exile. But Jeremiah got to stay behind in Jerusalem.
God called Ezekiel to go along with the exiles on the long march to Babylon. And then he has to make a life there and tell the people to settle down and get used to it - God is not going to rescue them anytime soon. In fact, he would soon destroy their proud city...
"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things... and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
Last night was the big speech at the close of the Democratic convention. In another week we'll see the same kind of thing happen with the Republicans. Such speeches tend to celebrate the candidate's accomplishments and make promises about a glorious future, if we only choose this person to lead us.
But how long do you think you'll have to wait to hear any political leader talk like Jesus does here?...
Just looking at that Jeremiah verse again. You know, I think I could write several more posts about that. I hope you think more deeply about it too.
So... Romans 12. How many times have I misquoted this verse about heaping burning coals on your enemy's head. We tend to use it when the kids come home from school very irate about injustice, about bullying or namecalling or something. I've suggested a good way to "get even" is by being nice.
Hmmm...
Jeremiah is my favorite Old Testament character. He is a reluctant preacher. He would really rather keep his head down, not make a fuss, not draw attention to himself. But he cannot remain silent. He has to speak the message God has given him to speak. And when he does, he is rejected and reviled.
"...think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name."...
"Who do you say I am?
I'm rather wistful today, which is a nice way of saying sad. James and Christel returned from their honeymoon last night, which is happy, but they're off again tomorrow. God is carrying them off to other things - other tasks than mine. James is not mine to worry about anymore. On days like this I react differently to such existential questions as the one Jesus asks his disciples. "Who are you, Lord? How can I reply. I hardly know who I am myself."
But then I think of another verse...
"Therefore..."
It's always good to pay special attention to words like this. Paul is drawing a big conclusion from what has gone before. He goes into more detail as he continues... "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices..."
"In view of God's mercy." Since he said "therefore" we have to assume that what we just read in the preceeding paragraphs must have shown God's mercy to us. How did we see it? In some ways that previous chapter may have seemed harsh to us, since Paul talks about the Jewish people being lost without the Messiah, and the gentiles having been lost for so many centuries. The P.C. view today is that God should just love everyone and let everyone be saved...
"My justice will become a light to the nations..."
Since the end of May we've been dipping into bits of Isaiah for many of our Old Testament lessons. We've been in chapter 49, 55, 44, 55, 56, 51, and we'll read from Isaiah 4 or 5 more times yet this year. And in nearly every case the prophet is talking about God reaching out to the nations, the gentiles... us.
Why is that?...
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."
Why would Jesus say this to a foreigner, a pagan woman, who is in need? It's worth noting that Jesus has at this point left the land of Israel. He and the disciples have hiked out of the Jordan River valley, climbing from 600 feet below sea level to 2,000 feet above the Mediterranean Sea. They are traveling through non-Jewish territory and have left behind the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, the crowds of people seeking miracles, and those who know what "Messiah" means. Presumably, though Matthew doesn't say so directly, Jesus is using this time to teach his disciples.
And now this woman comes, crying and pleading, and the disciples say, "Send her away..."
"I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them..."
Did you notice that Jesus did the same thing? "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you," he told the chief priests and elders.
Do you ever envy someone else's ministry?...
"And the foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him... these I will bring to my holy mountain..."
Do you think very much about "foreigners"? Last week, with my son's wedding, we had many out of town guests, several of which were from Canada. One of them complained that our network coverage of the Olympics focused too much on "the Americans". I thought (unkindly) that if Canada had television networks they would probably focus their attention on Canadian athletes, wouldn't they?
And yet, there is something there worth thinking about...
"When evening came, [Jesus] was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it."
Have you ever paddled a canoe or rowed a boat against the wind? I have. I remember one particularly frustrating canoe trip in which I had to go several miles on still water with the wind in my face. I was alone in the canoe and the wind continually forced the bow of the canoe off to one side or the other. It was nearly impossible to go straight and I began to feel like I would NEVER get where I was going. It was as if I was canoeing through molasses, my progress was so slow.
In the midst of this frustration...
"And how can they preach unless they are sent?"
I think I can say this fairly, understanding that my personal experience doesn't apply to everyone and that there are always exceptions, but I think I can say with some confidence that most pastors feel some guilt about getting paid. Did you ever suspect that?
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand."
This is what is called a "rhetorical question." That is, it's a question to which we already know the answer. God isn't asking it in order to gain information for himself. He's asking it in order to gain information for US - to get an idea into OUR head, not his. Look at God's exam...
"A farmer went out to sow his seed..."
We just talked about this parable in our staff meeting. (I sure wish that all of you could be a part of our staff meetings, just for the devotion. We have great discussions.) And it occurred to us that when we read or preach on this parable we generally look at it as if it were a lesson about conversion, or about preaching, a description of the various "kinds" of people who hear the word.
But why would Jesus' listeners, seated along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, need a lecture about conversion? No, that's not what the topic was. Jesus was talking to them about...
"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear..."
Who are you? Is it just me, or are we all prone to play different parts - put on different identities for different parts of our lives? I can go into dad-mode or husband-mode as soon as I walk in the door. I can go into pastor-mode as soon as I see someone for whom I must fulfill that role. And I have other modes that I acknowledge less willingly, like aggrieved-and-unappreciated-genius-mode...
"Come, all you who are thirsty..."
Jesus echoes the words of Isaiah, and they are sweet and comforting words... to those who are thirsty. But is it possible to be thirsty and not know it?...
What is the kingdom of heaven like? Jesus has a list of things - and they're not exhaustive either. How many more comparisons could Jesus have made to describe the indescribable?
The kingdom is like a hidden treasure, a found pearl, a net of fish...
"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him..."
We know? Do we? I've met with many people who were doubting that very thing. But if we do not know this, then what DO we know? (or think we know) If God is not working for our good...
"God did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore..."
"God loves America." We hear phrases like that a lot, and it's hard to argue very forcefully against them. After all, look around at the astonishing blessings he has given this country. The natural beauty, the expanse, the bountiful resources, the fertile fields, the persistence of freedom, the economic prosperity. It's remarkable - and so we remark on it.
But does God love Sudan?...
This is the text I'm preparing to preach on this coming Sunday, but it's a bit perplexing. The spirit of the text is victorious. After Paul's frustration with sin, and the wonderful news about being set free from his sinful nature, these verses reflect that we should now live differently... not like slaves, but like sons. But...
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven... so is my word that goes out from my mouth..."
The rain is falling right now, as I write. It's funny how we can look at such a commonplace thing, something we are so totally familiar with, and see it almost every time as a negative. "Oh rats, it's going to rain today. I won't be able to..."
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin... Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
People often debate "difficult" parts of Scripture. They might find it hard to believe miracles, or hard to understand concepts like the Trinity. I have spent years trying to help people see the truth and trustworthiness of God's Word. But in these verses there are two words that even I have trouble with. "We know..."
This is a funeral sermon.
At least that's how I think of it. Zechariah (whose name means "Yahweh remembers") is a priest and prophet after the Babylonian exile. The people he is preaching to are the folks whose parents and grandparents had been dragged off to captivity with hooks in their cheeks. They lived 70 years in a foreign country while their homeland was destroyed. And now these are the remnant, the smaller number who returned after the Babylonian Empire fell. What would their life be like?...
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on the earth."
That's a disappointing phrase, isn't it? We prefer Jesus' words just one chapter later, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Can both those phrases be true at the same time?...
You might want to pay special attention to the epistle lessons for the next couple of months. They are all in sequence from a very important part of Paul's letter to the Romans. I'll be preaching on them the first 2 Sundays in July.
Here at the beginning of chapter 7 Paul is concerned with the question, so what do we do with the law? Have you asked yourself that? What is the place of the law in your Christian life?...
OK, so I never got back to blog on the Gospel lesson for last week, but I preached on it and that sermon audio is posted (for what it's worth), so you can check that out if you want.
I really wanted to preach on the Jeremiah text because it has always fascinated me how he openly confessed that he didn't want to preach. He tried not to preach. But he found that he had to - and whenever he did, he had to tell the truth... which was bad news and got him into trouble...
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
Man, this is frustrating. I'm sitting here trying to come up with words for this weekend's sermon and I'm getting nowhere. Note: this is not a new experience. I've got soft instrumental music playing on the computer (I recommend www.pandora.com - it's great and free). I've got a cold soft drink to supply the caffeine. I've got a great text to work with (Matthew 10, about being sent out as sheep among wolves). But I don't know how to begin to put it all together.
Pursuing an idea for an opening illustration, I read through several recent commencement speeches. It discombobulated me - so that I am a mixture of depression, cynicism, irritation, doubt, and determination. In other words, frustration.
Or, to pick a much more accurate word... sin.
"Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies." Easier said than done...
"O Lord, you deceived me..." There are lots of interesting things about these verses, not least of which is this one raised by Jeremiah's opening words. Did God "lie" to Jeremiah?
The word translated "decieved" could have been rendered "seduced" or "enticed". But the effect would be the same. Does God mislead us?...
Is it law-and-then-gospel, or is it gospel-and-then-law?
We normally preach God's law, which convicts us of sin, and then preach the gospel, the good news about his forgiveness and love for us so that we can be comforted in our grief over sin. But in this case God tells the Israelites the gospel first. "I carried you on eagles' wing and brought you to myself."
Why?...
Today I'm starting to work on this text for my sermon this coming weekend. I find the hardest Scriptures to preach about are those that seem the simplest and most straightforward. After all, what's left to say?
Jesus tells Matthew to follow him. Matthew does. Some people don't like it because Matthew is a tax collector. Jesus tells them that he came for people like that, for sinners, which is something we already know, right?
But...
"It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise..."
What promises have you received? I got a document in the mail the other day that told me what the government would be giving me in Social Security when I retire. By law they have to give it to me... but I'm a bit doubtful that it will be there.
Many of us expect that when our parents pass away we will recieve an inheritance. That's their promise. It's in their legal will. On the other hand, a lot of things can keep that from happening - a long illness, a lawsuit, an unexpected expense...
I've often thought that Hosea should be published as a marriage manual - but if it were, who would ever get married?
What do people want out of marriage? We want companionship, sexual intimacy (the primary thing if you follow the magazines), economic stability, perhaps children, a sense of tradition and home. But who among us ever got married just to prove the power of God's love?...
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who built his house on the rock..."
Which words? It's interesting that most Christians today talk about building their house on the rock in the sense of building upon Jesus. Perhaps because Paul says (Romans 9:33) that Jesus is a rock that causes men to stumble, or because he says (1 Corinthians 10:4) that Jesus was the rock in the wilderness that gave water to the Israelites. But is that what Jesus is talking about?...
"There is no difference..." It's interesting to think of those words in light of what we see around us. My eldest son, James, has been participating in a journalism institute in New York. On his blog he has been describing the wide and fascinating variety of people he meets in the big city. An artist in the park with a Russian accent, a gift store clerk who is a sherpa from Nepal, a street cleaner from Peru, a homeless woman from Bosnia...
While we're in this chapter I can't resist commenting on verses 10-12. "The land you are enteringn to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to the end."
In a few weeks, on June 8, Karen and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Those verses were the sermon text we chose for our service...
"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds..."
My wife is really good at memorizing things. A Bach sonata, a 15 verse hymn, a book of the Bible, she likes to take a piece at a time and commit lots of things to memory. And the result is evident. When we face any trouble or need she is often ready with "salty" words - words of comfort and wisdom that she has committed to memory.
But is that all these verses are about?...
"No one can serve two masters."
Of course not. But surely a person could serve one master... and then just have a little part-time thing on the side, right? I could love Jesus with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength - but I could maybe carve out an hour or two a week for a favorite TV show that Jesus might not like. Or I could just reserve a day here and there on special occasions to indulge in too much drink?...
"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world..."
Is that what you do FIRST? Not me. By nature I'm a recluse. My first inclination would be to find a good book and a nice quiet place to read it. When my kids want to play a game, my first inclination is to pass. But then, when I play, I have a lot of fun. What do you think of FIRST?...
(25 May) Let's try a larger font and see it that's more friendly.
Prophecy is weird and confusing. I don't mean to be negative. It's just that there is a cultural disconnect here that frequently messes us up. We "moderns" (and even in this so-called post-modern age we are still pretty much modern in our outlook) always see things in a linear fashion. We like our history in timelines. We like our books to have numbered pages and chapters. We expect movies to move from exposition to conclusion...
Wow... this could be a whole huge discussion of creation versus evolution. We could go over some of the questions people have raised about "how" God created, the differences between the accounts in chapter 1 and chapter 2. There are layers of symbolical connections in the order of the 6 days and meaning in the existence of the Garden.
But it feels like we've discussed all this stuff 100 times. And that's a dilemma for me. Is it just me that has talked this to death, and you still have lots of questions? (After all, I've talked this through with umpteen different Bible classes in 3 congregations, but you might not have been there.) What do we really need to talk about here?...
OK, so here we are again. We read a part of this story a few weeks ago, the sermon that Peter preached on Pentecost. Now the reading includes the sound of rushing wind, the tongues of flame, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of languages.
Does this add anything?...
Context. We really don't get what's going on till we look at the context. Consider the Pentecost OT lesson. It would be easy to focus on the fact that the Holy Spirit comes upon the 70 elders (not just on the appointed spiritual leaders - the priests, or Moses and Joshua), and that this is not in competition with Moses.
Taken out of context, I've heard some people try to use this as a justification for not requiring ordination in order to preach or conduct other distinctive tasks of spiritual leadership. That's not the point....
Jesus said, "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them..."
That about sums it up, doesn't it? Jesus ascended to heaven. He's no longer in the world in the same way. But here we are.
Stuck.
How do you feel about that?...
This year we'll be moving the Ascension Day texts over to the following Sunday. Ascension Thursday services have gotten smaller and smaller over the years. Why is that?
Why does the Ascension of Jesus seem less important, perhaps less relevant than Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost?...
I'm back after a week of vacation - during which I had hoped to be able to keep blogging, but our hotel internet was broken. So... I hope some of you are still checking in now and then. And I pray that I can now get back to a regular blogging routine.
Acts 17:16-31 is the first reading for this coming Sunday. I'll be preaching on it - but it's a bit difficult for me. It's not a hard text, but it seems to offer the members of St. Paul a unique challenge. Do these verses portray the ministry to which God has called us at this time and place?...
(Argh! Wrote this once and lost all my work. We'll see if I can do it as well again.)
This bit of church history has always interested me. The early church was growing faster than they could handle it, a problem we would love to have. And the disciples make a remarkable statement...
On April 6 and 13 the first lesson is drawn from the 2nd chapter of Acts, the events of Pentecost, Peter's sermon and its response. I confess to being a bit puzzled, wondering why this lesson appears in the first few Sundays after Easter instead of waiting until after Pentecost. In the first selection Peter confronts the crowd with their guilt in Jesus' death and the promise of forgiveness, and 3.000 come to faith. In the 2nd selection we see the response of these new believers who devote themselves to learning and growing in faith together.
I have often said, "One sermon won't turn everything around."...
It's hard to keep our timeframe straight in the Sundays after Easter. This Sunday's Gospel lesson takes place still on Easter Sunday itself. Although we are 2 full weeks after Easter, these 2 disciples on their way to Emmaus are only a few hours from the first news of the resurrection. For us the Easter decorations are all put away and we're starting to shift our thoughts to summer vacation plans. But as these 2 men walked they were still very much overcome by Good Friday...
(I wrote a post for Saturday, but it didn't appear when I expected it. So here's another one. Perhaps we'll end up with two.)
It's very quiet at church today. I'm here to work on my Easter sermon, and I can't help but think about the disciples and the women who loved and followed Jesus on this day. Did they sleep that Friday night? Did they awaken on Saturday, the Sabbath, and go to the synagogue?...
A day of worship. A day of rest. A day on which Jesus' disciples would have met, perhaps at a synagogue, as was Jesus' regular practice. Would they want to talk or not? What would there be to say?
I often compare our lives to that Saturday. We can easily see the tragedy, the death or failure of things in our lives. Sickness is quite visible. And sin. But we cannot so easily see the Easter Sunday that hasn't yet arrived. Worse yet, we often cannot even see the Easter that we know has already come!
It's all over. The crowds are dispersing. All three of the criminals executed are dead now, their legs having been broken so that they died of suffocation, unable to lift themselves up to exhale. Except for one. They didn't break the legs of the one in the center. Evidently he was already dead when they came for him.
A couple of his friends are there now...
I'm writing this just before our noon hour service. It was at noon that Mark says the sun was darkened. It remained dark until 3pm.
Jesus was brought to Pilate at about 6am. The crowds filled the courtyard while Pilate examined Jesus. You're familiar with the scene. Pilate's attempts to release Jesus - his strategy for escaping the issue by sending Jesus to Herod - his effort to substitute Barabbas - and the final trap in which he found himself, crucify Jesus or face a riot and a possible delegation to Rome to call for his removal. Pilate surrendered Jesus, who was beaten severely and then marched to the cross...
Did you sleep well last night? Like the people of Jerusalem, when we arise in the morning we find that Jesus did not sleep at all.
After the supper with his disciples, they sang a hymn (probably Psalm 118) and left the city. They walked through the dark and quiet streets and out the city gate, across the valley and up the slopes of the Mount of Olives until they came to the Garden of the Oil Press, the Garden of Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed and prayed, while his disciples dozed and dozed...
We've already spent 6 weeks talking about each piece of the meal (in our Wednesday evening services). What about earlier?
Jesus awoke on Thursday morning. He knew he would not sleep again until his death on Friday afternoon. Arising and eating with his disciples, he gave them assignments for the day. Prepare for the Seder meal in the evening...
(Matthew 21, Mark 11)
The withered fig tree serves as an illustration a second time, this time as they enter the city again on Tuesday and they find it dried up. It is a shadow of the events of the day ahead.
Jesus makes his way to the Temple once again, and today he is greeted by an official delegation, no doubt they were recruited the day before and given their assignment, and now they have been waiting for Jesus to show up. They represent all 3 of the ruling classes of Israel which made up the Sanhedrin, the priests, the scribes, and the elders. Surrounding Jesus, they ask him, "By what authority do you do these things?"...
(Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19 - for the chronology of this week, I am relying on "The Life of Christ" by Adam Fahling, CPH 1936)
The Gospel writers do not break the events of each day into an hourly record. In fact, they blur things together at times so that it's hard to be sure which things happened on which days. The only way to make it clearer is to compare all 4 accounts carefully to find those places where the authors are quite specific. Matthew blends Sunday and Monday, making it sound as if Jesus cleared the Temple on Palm Sunday. But Mark (11:11) has greater detail. The events of Palm Sunday were so lengthy, the parade...
I've got a bone to pick with the ILCW. That's the InterLutheran Commission on Worship, they devised the current lectionary (modified a bit by our own church body) that is used by most Lutheran congregations. There are lots of lectionaries - lists of chosen Scriptures to be read on certain days. Did you know that?...
(Pardon me for not posting on these lessons earlier in the week. It has been a difficult week for a number of reasons.)
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus..." Wow, not asking a small thing, is he?
Of course, Paul is not asking us to give up as much as Jesus gave up. Jesus was "in very nature God"...
Prophecy is strange to us. In modern movies and books like the Harry Potter series a prophet goes into a trance, gets eerie, maybe starts to speak in a different voice (more like he is possessed than anything else) and then utters some obscure poetic reference. Prophecies are prose enough to clearly apply to a certain person, but poetic enough to be capable of misinterpretation (which, of course, is what makes the story exciting).
The "Servant Songs" in Isaiah....
I've preached on this chapter for numerous funerals. I've read it in who knows how many funeral homes and hospital rooms and by many death beds. I've focused on Jesus' deliberate delay when he knew that Lazarus was sick - and what that means for us when Jesus doesn't *seem* to hear our prayer. (Note that it says "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And yet he delayed.)
I've talked about...
What can you do when you read these words... and they don't lift you up?
Over the years I have read these verses hundreds of times. I've pointed others to them time and time again. Following Paul's desperate cry in chapter 7, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?" they are are very powerful words. But the other day, in weariness and discouragement, I read these words and I groaned. "I don't feel like being encouraged. Just let me sulk here."...
"Dem bones... Dem dry bones..." The song doesn't do it justice. It's all bouncy and jivy, but I don't imagine this was a comical or hilarious scene. This was not just about dancing bones, or even just about the resurrection of these dead bodies. This was a field of war - the scene of carnage and destruction. And God changed it. What does this mean?...
I've written or spoken on this text numerous times, and often I've made the comparison with the "Who's On First" routine that Abbot and Costello made famous. It's an apt comparison, but let's look at these events through a different lens.
"They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind..." 'They' in this case must be the neighbors. But why would they take the man to the Pharisees? It's a little hard to believe that they were really outraged that he had been healed on the Sabbath...
I've only played paintball once. (Although I'd like to do it again.) I was visiting my family and my younger brother had to leave to attend a little party that the guys at our family business were giving. One of the employees was getting married, and the guys in the shop were all taking the groom out to play paintball as a bachelor party.
Here's how it worked...
A sense of extreme frustration seems to permeate these verses. The chapter begins with a joyful tone. The Lord's servant is coming and he will establish justice. It continues with God's promise to open the eyes of the blind and free the captives. It goes on with, "sing to the Lord..."
But then, the prophet reflects God's anxiety (for lack of a better word, this is, after all, an anthropomorphism). He reveals what it will cost God to do all these wonderful things...
I know - I'm way behind. I'd just skip the Gospel lesson and move on to the readings for Lent 4, but I can't bring myself to do it. There are too many wonderful things to think about. Of course, that's true of almost all the things we do in the Lord's service, which is probably why I'm so often behind.
Thirst. All 3 of the lessons for this coming Sunday about thirst. The Old Testament in which the people are complaining that they're going to die - the epistle in which Paul reflects on the longsuffering of the people of God - and now the Gospel in which this woman, who doesn't even clearly see or confess her own thirst, is really in desperate need of a drink...
"We also rejoice in our sufferings..."
OK... how real is that? My instinct suggests that this is something that we can do in theory, but when we actually come to a time of suffering then we'll find it a lot harder to rejoice. That's what my instinct says. But surprisingly my experience tells a more complex tale...
If we followed the Hebrew tradition, I might give names to the rooms in my house. The living room I might call "Resting" or "Singing." The family room I could call "Laughing" or "Playing." And the kitchen and dining room I would call "Whining and Dining."
Although it happens elsewhere too, it seems that the dinner table is the place where issues get raised. As I think back, I can remember so many arguments about so many trivial things...
Just in the Gospel of John (21 chapters) Jesus says "I tell you the truth" 26 times. A more literal translation from Greek might be, "Amen, Amen I say to you." He says it 3 times just in these 17 verses, and notice that each time he says it he is already *doubling* the statement. It's not just "truly", but "truly, truly..."
Why all the emphasis on truth?
Have you ever noticed how the appointed lessons sometimes skip a few verses? Usually, the purpose is to keep them to an understandable length - one that people can listen to - and to avoid parts that might be too confusing. (It's hard to explain difficult concepts in a sermon since the listener is seldom taking notes or consulting the Bible for him/herself.)
But it might be interesting for us to take a peek at the part that was left out...
What are the dominant themes in this text? God's grace in calling Abram - Abram's faith in following God's call and leaving home - the incomprehensible vastness of God's promise to Abram. Those are the first that spring to mind. But - what part of this is likely to resonate with listeners on a Sunday morning? Or, more important, what part of this ought to resonate with them? What does God want to show them?
How long is 40 days?
There are a couple of ways to think about that question. What has happened in your life in the last 40 days? Even if you consider yourself pretty boring, I'd be willing to bet that a lot has happened in that time. Forty days ago you were still doing Christmas shopping. The primary elections had many more candidates 40 days ago. The stock market looks very different now than it did 40 days ago. If you were on vacation for 40 days - how would that length of time feel differently than if you were in the hospital for the last 40 days - or waiting for test results for 40 days - or facing an audit by the IRS for the last 40 days?
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man..." These verses are an echo of the Old Testament lesson, aren't they? And if the OT lesson is just a legend, a fable, a story told to illustrate a point, then these words loose much of their power too. We worried yesterday that the story of The Fall is too often taken lightly. It is written in a summary fashion, without living characters that would make it feel more real to us. Paul's letter may suffer from a similar problem, at least for some people...
It's hard to preach on Bible stories that are hyper-familiar. Like the Noah's ark wallpaper and toys that cause our people to forever think of Noah as 6 inches tall, the story of the Fall Into Sin is too familiar. It is not familiar in a good way, because people have studied and understood it. But it is familiar in a bad way, because people have skimmed it many times and think they know what it means...
I just finished reading the latest issue of The Lutheran Witness which is all about evangelism - being Ablaze! to share our faith in Jesus. And then I turn to this text where Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
What's up with that?...
What do people do when they manage to get close to a famous person? Whether it's a movie star, a musician, or a politician, they try to get that person's autograph. Better yet, they want their picture taken with the star. I know a man who has many pictures on his family room wall of himself with famous people. Did you notice that Peter doesn't do that?...
Last Sunday was a "mountaintop experience" for our congregation. We had a big service to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Hundreds of people were there. The choir was big - reinforced with students from Concordia. The brass players trumpeted God's glory and the handbell ringers rang out his praises. It was great. But... how much difference do you think it made by Monday?
Many people (and many churches) seek to have "mountaintop experiences" all the time. How much difference would it make to you if God actually took you up on a mountain and revealed himself to you?...
It's Friday. Most people in offices and factories are glancing at the clock and looking forward to calling it quits for a few days. Most pastors are in the middle of sermon preparation, getting everything ready, considering how else they can break the husk that people use to insulate themselves from the Word of God.
Since I'm not preaching this weekend I have a few moments to reflect. Our congregation will be celebrating its official 100th birthday in two days. Many people are preparing - baking - bringing items needed for worship - flying in from out of town - setting up chairs - a sound system - an organ. But some others, from what I hear, are preparing to stay home. What's up with that?...
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Can you think of a more "uncool" sermon theme? I think it's a mistake for us to assume that Jesus' words were more acceptable in the first century than they are now. Why would they be? Although people did wear robe-like clothing, they were probably no more likely to stand on street corners and call their neighbors to repentance than we are today.
Preachers of repentance seem weird. Why?...
Few pastors will preach on this text because we just heard it in the Advent/Christmas season. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given..." But it gets repeated now in the Epiphany season because of the earlier verse (2), "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light..."
In the midst of presidential campaigning, these verses make a nice contrast. I took a few young people to hear Senator John McCain speak yesterday...
For many centuries people were suspicious of anything "new." It was older and more time-tested things that were more highly valued and trusted. New ways of doing things were suspect.
Of course, that was a foolish attitude in many cases. Many old ideas and old ways of doing things were wrong and needed to be changed. But... on the other hand, not every thing that was new was better.
Now we've turned 180 degrees. Now we expect every year to be more and better. Housing values must always rise. The stock market must always increase. Our standard of living must move in one direction only - sameness is not good enough. Every year there must be an INCREASE in retail sales. The same as last year is considered a loss. Every year we expect NEW technology, NEW inventions, NEW special effects in our movies. Last year's stuff is not good enough. We throw away almost new things in favor what this year's model.
But God doesn't work that way...
At first it still seems like these first-Easter readings don't fit with the day. Hey, it's Christmas Eve, after all. And yet, listen to what Jesus is talking about. "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven..."
And what words will you hear at the Christmas Eve candlelight worship this evening?...
Are angels really invisible? Or is it possible that they are right there in front of us and we just don't see them?
When other people in the Bible spoke to angels, they were generally astonished, or even afraid. But Mary walked into the empty tomb and the angels spoke to her and she wasn't even phased. Why not?...
Maybe it seems funny reading this Easter text just before Christmas. But I like the analogy with our gift giving. We all want to surprise someone this Christmas. We want them to open their gift and be astonished and happy. And we'd all like to be surprised by what we receive from others (pleasantly surprised, like with a set of car keys if possible).
But Mary had the best surprise of all - opening an empty gift...
What would you like to do for Jesus?
If you could, wouldn't you want to reach the entire city with the Gospel? Wouldn't you want to save a life - rescue an unborn child - start a huge program that would feed the poor - lead crowds of people to saving faith - carry the truth about Jesus into the whole world?
What did God call Joseph to do?
Sigh... Please accept my apologies for failing to change the discussion questions in this week's Gospel readings. I'm afraid everything was done just a little too fast.
And of all chapters for that to happen, this should not have been the one. The events of John 19 deserve long, quiet, serious contemplation. "So the soldiers took charge of Jesus..." In those words you can see it all coming. God's Son is given over - he surrenders himself to those who are weaker than himself - he permits what is about to happen...
Who is actually on trial here?
Jesus is the one who is beaten. Jesus is the one who is questioned. And yet he seems calm and in control. It is Pontius Pilate who is on the spot. He is the one who is caught between two sides and doesn't know what to do...
- "What charges are you bringing..."
- "Are you the king..."
- "Is that your own idea..."
- "Am I a Jew?"
- "What is it you have done?"
Lots of questions in a short space of time. Are these the questions you would have wanted to ask?...
People have marveled over Peter's denial for centuries. Sometimes we sound as if it is an incredible thing that he could deny knowing Jesus. It doesn't seem incredible to me.
You're standing with a group of co-workers and someone makes a snide remark about people who believe that God created the earth in 6 days. You have about 8 seconds to respond before the conversation moves on. 8... 7... 6... 5...
Yesterday's reading (sorry I didn't blog - I awoke with a sick headache and had an excessively full day) included verses we've read a lot. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message..." Those words are amazing, knowing that even on the night before his death Jesus was actually thinking about us.
But I was even more struck by his words just a few sentences later. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory..." As we said in our worship last week, "When Jesus comes..." What a glorious gift to pray for!
Now in today's reading Jesus is arrested at last. In a way it is anticlimactic...
What's the longest prayer you've ever prayed?
Most of us (and here I'm making assumptions about others based on my personal experience, so don't hurt me if I'm wrong about you) don't pray very long. Most of my prayers are like bottle rockets sent up throughout the day. When I sit down for a "time of prayer" it may be as much as 5 minutes long...
According to 18:1 it sounds like Jesus and his disciples were not yet in the Garden of Gethsemane at this point. After Jesus is finished praying this prayer, he then crosses the Kidron Brook into the garden. However, John has included Jesus' prayer, but omitted other details (like the disciples falling asleep, etc.), so it is hard to be sure of the exact sequence of events.
This is not evidence of a contradiction in Scripture. Rather, it is what naturally happens when several people tell a story in which they each summarize and select what they wish to tell...
"When Jesus comes" we will not grieve. But for now... our daily experience is a mingling of grief and joy.
Jesus compares our emotional state to that of a pregnant woman. Certainly, you can see evidence of the church through the centuries being suddenly seized by cravings for unusual things. More to the point, our every experience, even the most successful and joyful, is intermingled with grief...
"I have some good news and I have some bad news." Ever heard those words before? They are the opener for a lot of jokes, but they're always dark humor. (ie. "The bad news is we removed the wrong leg. The good news is we found out your remaining leg is OK afterall.")
The bad news is they'll kick you out of the synagogue. People will think they're serving God if they kill you. The good news is you'll be better off if I leave you and send you the Holy Spirit.
Huh...
In yesterday's Detroit Free Press (pg.12a), Tony Blair comes out of the closet. Are you ready for this??? He is a "person of faith"!
Are you yawning? I'll be he wasn't. It was a big risk for him to admit this. As he says, "You talk about [having religious convictions] in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter." Worse yet...
At the end of chapter 14 Jesus said, "Come now; let us leave." In chapter 17 he is praying for his disciples and when his prayer is ended he is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. So where do chapters 15 and 16 take place?
It's important to remember that the Gospels are not necessarily a strict chronological recording of Jesus' life. Luke is the most orderly that way, but they all arrange the things they remember of Jesus' teaching and his ministry to fit the message they are working to convey. As a comparison...
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you," Jesus says. But doesn't this entire chapter feel like we are being left... abandoned?
Perhaps it just my own emotional state - our personal circumstances certainly affect how we hear God's Word each time we read it - but this chapter is filled with forlorn statements...
It's the day before Thanksgiving Day. The whole world is getting decorated for Christmas. Here in the church office we are scrambling to be ready for Thanksgiving and Advent. And in our devotions we're reading about Jesus preparing to die - confronting his disciples at the Last Supper.
I wish that everything could always be in neat and tidy chronological order. I tried to arrange our readings so that we could get through the Bible in 2 years, so that we'd have a not-too-challenging option every day, and so that the Gospels would be spread out over the 2 years. But I couldn't make it work so that we would always be reading and thinking about God's Word in synchrony with what is happening in our lives.
Maybe that's for the best. After all...
I have, literally, 5 minutes to reflect on these verses before I have to be off to another meeting. Perhaps it's my personal context, but the text seems to be like that too.
People are coming and going. It's the Passover. Jesus is teaching. People are opposing him. He's getting ready to be betrayed and has all these important things to say before he dies. And here some foreigners come up to say, "we would like to see Jesus."...
On the radio they're always playing snatches of the song "I love a parade" when the news covers big parade events. The traditional idea is that parades are a big family affair, with everyone trooping downtown and lining the sidewalks to see the elaborate floats, listen to grand bands, and wave at cruising dignitaries.
I'm sorry. But I'll have to pass. Yes, I have my own fond memories. And we took our kids to the 4th of July parades when they were small (in a small town, not in giant Detroit). But there are several features of parades that have always bothered me - and they are all present in this Gospel story...
It's just a dinner party! What does that have to do with politics? It's the Bible! There's no politics in the Bible! It's about Jesus' death and burial, not elections. Why does our title today raise the spectre of politics???
Our pastor must have politics on the brain. (grumble, grumble)...
"Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days."
Leave where Jesus is teaching his disciples and go back to the house where Lazarus lies in bed, sick. What's happening? Can you picture it?
Finish this sentence. "All I know is..."
No. Seriously. Go back and finish the sentence. What are you absolutely confident of knowing? Which things in your life are you sure of? I suppose there could be many - but there are even many more things of which we are very unsure. In fact, there are innumerable things of which we are almost completely ignorant! But, "one thing I do know..."
I've always loved this chapter because it seems so funny. Everyone is confused about who is really blind - and in the end Jesus says that the religious authorities, the neighbors, the parents are all blind. The only one who can see is the one who was born blind.
However, is it really funny?...
I'm puzzled by these verses. Not Jesus' teaching - that's clear enough. He is clearly saying that those who believe in him are truly God's children - and those who do not believe in him don't really know God, even if they think they do, and even if they follow the traditions and rules of the faith that God gave through Abraham. We take comfort in these words, knowing that we don't have to be born into a special group of people - we're special because Jesus called us to faith by his Spirit.
But... to whom is Jesus talking? "To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said..."
Once again, I can't escape the striking parallels between these interrogators of Jesus' day and people today who still fear what he had to say.
I don't care what your political party preference is, just imagine a candidate for president saying these words, "I am the light of the world." Wow, I almost wish it would happen just so we could witness the explosion. Newscasters heads would explode! And imagine of the candidate said, "You are from below; I am from above." Yikes! News people nearly burst if a candidate says that Jesus Christ is their hero, or a role model, or someone that they talk to...
It ought to have been a slam dunk. They had Jesus dead to rights, didn't they? They had the clear word of the Law. They had the woman caught in the act. If Jesus wanted to act as a teacher of the Law then here he would have to make a public stand. "What do you say?"
Here's a question I hadn't considered before... Why did they choose this particular issue to bring before Jesus?...
I'm amazed at how familiar the response of the Pharisees sounds. I don't like to bring politics into the picture, but the illustration is too perfect. Imagine the response if a prominent Democrat (let's say Joseph Lieberman, for example) were to say, "Maybe the Iraq War wasn't such a bad idea after all." KABOOM ! Can't you hear the response?
"WHAT? Are you a fan of Bush, too? Have you been brainwashed by Karl Rove? Don't you know that nobody who is anybody thinks that?"
Or, imagine if a leading Republican were to suggest, "Maybe Al Gore is right, after all." KABOOM !...
"How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
OK, I admit to some bias right up front. I was brought up to have a healthy skepticism of advanced education. Not that my parents didn't value it. They did. But that they recognized that education by itself did not make a person wise - or even well informed.
Having said that, I still think that the people who would have the most trouble with Jesus today would be the most highly educated...
People love spy novels, Mata Hari, the Maltese Falcon, the thrill of secrets and things that happen behind the scenes. We like them when we read the books because we are in on the secret that the characters don't know. But we don't like them much in real life when we suspect that things are happening behind our back that we don't know about. Someone is making decisions for us that will be revealed later.
Get used to it...
Some words convey the emotion in them even when they are translated into another language. "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked. And it is easy to hear the humility and vulnerability in Jesus' voice. He will not force anyone to follow him - but he offers his disciples the chance to freely follow him... or disown him.
Peter's answer is equally humble...
Gift openings are stressful. I've never seen a study on it, but I'm sure that most people experience elevated blood pressure when opening a gift in front of others. It's not the joyful anticipation, it's the pre-performance jitters. "What if it's not what I wanted? What if it's tasteless and dumb? Will I have to wear it if it's a hideous color?" And worst of all, "How can I act excited and grateful if I really don't like it?"
If you say you've never experienced that, I won't believe you. I've opened gifts from my children (with their eager eyes watching me to see if I like it) that I couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be! That memory makes me more sympathetic to Jesus' listeners in this chapter...
What is the point here? Jesus, walking on the water, comes to his disciples.
In another context this would seem like (dare I say this) "showboating." Adolescent boys love to do this kind of "look at me" stunt. Walking on the top of walls, standing in dangerous places, performing gymnastic feats. Surely that is not what's going on here - and yet, when we read these verses we invariably focus just on the act of walking on the water. What's the point?...
"[Jesus] asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do." We've all studied this event since we were in Sunday School. You know about how Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish, a small boy's lunch, to feed over 5,000 people. I'd like to focus on Jesus' question...
I asked a group of people last week to recall a time that they said what they believed. I was a little surprised at the result. Of about two dozen people, half remembered a time they stood up for a moral principle - speaking up that something was wrong. About a quarter had expressed their faith to a family member or friend. And the rest could not remember a time in which they had stated what they believe. They said, if I can paraphrase, that they had not faced any conflict in their life - they had no occasion to "stand up for Jesus."...
I'm not lying when I say, as I read through this story I kept thinking that the heads of Jesus' opponents would explode!
Right now the Republicans and Democrats are holding televised "debates" of their presidential aspirants. And one thing is consistent about them no matter what their party or their position, they are all trying to say what they think people want to hear. Jesus didn't. Not by a long shot...
So you were wondering when I was going to post again? Hey, it was only a couple of days! But I've been gently scolded for failing to write every day. "Pastor, when you don't write every day I get discouraged from checking the blog..."
I understand. I get discouraged too sometimes, wondering when I'm going to "turn the corner" on the calendar, or the budget, or the problem du jour. Funny how well that fits with yesterday's reading and today's. We talked about this at the Parish Council meeting last night...
I often play the mental game "Where Am I in This Story?" In fact, that's what most authors and screenwriters want us to play. They want us to identify with the victim or with the protagonist so that we get involved in the story and keep reading or watching.
But who am I in this tale? Am I like the woman at the well? Like the villagers? Like the disciples? Or am I like Jesus?...
Don't pass over this too quickly. An amazing thing is happening here. John is a powerful speaker, a leader, a man with many devoted followers, and yet as Jesus' ministry begins he is willing to fade into the background. He even says, essentially, that he is happy to lose his "fans" and followers to Jesus. "The bride belongs to the bridegroom."
What is there left to say on these verses? In the Bible there are just a few verses that everyone knows: Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13 (misunderstood as a romantic passage), Matthew 7:1 (ripped out of context), and John 3:16. Held up on signs at NFL games - pasted on bumper stickers - worn on shirts - what is left to be said?
Americans seem to be, by their nature, dualists. While Communists are into "dialectical materialism" and believe that events in this world are determined by materialistic evolutionary forces, the philosophical position of many in the West is not much better...
No one has ever called me a "rock." I've been called a lot of things, but never that. Actually, these verses are even more interesting than that. Jesus did not call Peter "a" rock. He renamed him. He called him "Rock."
What name do you wish people would call you? What name do you wish Jesus would call you?
The expression "Lamb of God" only occurs this one time in the Bible. And yet the phrase must have communicated rich associations for Andrew and the other follower of John (unnamed). "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Or, another way to think of it, "Look! The Lamb of God..."
It's worth thinking about how different such an announcement is from those we give to celebrities, to politicians, to rulers and powerful people...
I loved reading through Paul's letters. And I still remember the first time that I ever read the entire Old Testament straight through and how exciting it was when my professors at Concordia helped me put it all together as a coherent whole instead of bits and pieces of Sunday School lessons. But in all the Bible there is nothing like the Gospels.
Is it just me? Or do you too find it refreshing, like a cold drink, to open up one of the Gospels and read the words of Jesus - or even just the narratives that describe what he did. So it is with joy that we come in our reading schedule to the Gospel According to John, the last of the 4 Gospels for us to read.
First, a caveat: I'm in a bad mood. My mood, I know, does not change the truth of God's Word and should not change how I read it or write about it. And yet, it does. The way we feel changes how we see things. I don't know where moods come from - many things, probably. The need for sleep, frustrations with too many unfinished tasks, sinus trouble, and Satanic attack. (Scratch that. I doubt that I merit Satan's attention. We'll just call it demonic attack.)
But God's Word stands there, refusing to change....
Paul tells Pastor Titus, "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive."
First, let's clear this out of the way. No, Paul is not advocating slavery. But, yes, Paul is telling slaves to be obedient in their condition. That outrages many modern people. But let's look just a bit closer...
"In everything set [the younger believers] an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us."
It's not possible for us to be perfect, but it should be possible for us to at least control our outward behavior so that we do not bring disrepute upon the name of Jesus. I can't think of a better inspiration to this sort of life than the response of the 23 kidnapped Korean Christians to their captivity (the surviving 19 have since been released). Take special note of their pastor... | |