The Innocent

 

The reading reflection for this week is Matthew 2:13-23 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A13-23&version=ESV

This is so sad a passage of scripture. It makes me pause and think. Death was the threat and death was carried out in such fierce crude fashion that the evil of this world seems to be predominate in this passage. 

But on second look, I hear the words of angelic voices from God sending Joseph, Mary and Jesus into Egypt, protecting Jesus for a later act of love that would overthrow and deny all power of the evil forces of, not only this world, but the spiritual world as well. There is a resurrection story in this passage as well as the demonic, evil story of Herod killing innocent children.

Egypt seems to bring forth a mystery in time. When I look to the powers of the pharaohs and the building of magnificent pyramids, there seems to be an intriguing wonder, a mystery. The very stories of the plagues and the acts of God along with the acts of the magicians of Egypt in duplicating the early plagues brings to mind mysteries.

There are even some early stories that Jesus went to Egypt to learn the trade of a magician.  A magician that could re-enact the miracles out of Egypt. I'm not sure of the age of Jesus at this time in Egypt, but this information seems to be a stretch for me to buy into. 

Anyway, from this passage, I hear angelic direction. When to go... where to go... when to return... where to return. All leading to a spiritual component in the life of Jesus and his family. And making me recall a sort of reverse story of a journey into and out of Egypt by Joseph and Moses.

I see a merciful God in that Jesus and family are saved from the present evil of Herod killing the babies in the suspected region of Jesus birth. Perhaps 20 to 25 children were killed just because a ruler had a fear that his power and prestige would be surpassed by an up and coming king. How egotistical and selfish!

But then I'm troubled that the Messiah and the spiritual powers of God would protect Jesus at the expense of the lives of babies in Israel. I can't imagine the cry of the mothers who lost their babies in Ramah. What is that about?

Isn't there a better way?

I can try to find some comfort in the idea that God sent Jesus on a mission that surpassed the lives of babies to bring salvation to all people. That God would fill the hearts with his Spirit and bring forth a resurrection story for Jew, and Gentile. That Jesus was sent to redeem those under the law to be adopted into God's family. But it all seems, for me, to be a rationalization of a horrible event that God permitted to take place in time and history, for a purpose that is beyond my human understanding.

So, I cry out to God... Why? Why is this world full of evil that you permit to happen? Why is there this struggle here in my time and place of war, hunger, poverty and death that you, God, permit to take place. Why? Why don't you take all of this away, and take it all away now?

And then I stop. I stop and think on my sin. I think on the Law and realize that I don't deserve salvation. What you created was perfect. What you created was paradise. You, God, didn't ruin it all. I did!

How many people have I killed in my heart? How many have I judged useless and good for the trash heap? How many people have I left hungry as I gorged myself in food and lavish living? How have I ignored the plight of my neighbor and refused to act to help? Should I go on?  I deserve to die a more cruel death than those innocent babies. I deserve death for the actions and the inactions of my life. You, God, didn't make me to be this way. I did all this on my own!

Yet, God, through the spiritual message of angels, saved the One who could make it all right. God saved Jesus not to teach him some cheap magician tricks in Egypt. God saved Jesus from death at that moment in history, in order that Jesus may complete God's saving act of saving me all the people of his perfect creation from sin, the devil, evil and death by taking our place. Jesus would take on the punishment that I deserve for my own sin, my sin, not Jesus' sin, but my sin! Jesus would take on my sin and die for me, and he died for you as well, that the death of those innocent babies would not be the final act of evil in their lives. Jesus death would be the final act of the death of the traps set by sin. And to show us what is to come for me and for you. Jesus arose from death to life everlasting, for you, for me, and for those babies, for whom we cry out for in Ramah.

Lord, I look to you. During this Christmas Season you have taken on flesh. You have blood pulsing through your veins of everlasting life that was dead, and now is alive. May your blood feed us and sustain us with everlasting life as we live to proclaim your power and glory to a world in sin, that your people may come to believe that you graciously give life eternal. Life beyond any act of evil rulers or the evil powers of the devil in this world and the spiritual realm so hard to fathom. Thank you for coming into our lives and saving us... today... tomorrow... and forever! Amen!!!

The Birth the Light the Beginning

Reflection on John 1:1-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201%3A1-18&version=ESV 

(Read it!)

Entertain me for a moment.

 In life I have had times of deep darkness. The darkness of sin, the darkness of covetousness, the darkness of indulgence, the darkness of death and pain. I’ve been in the presence of darkness and separation from God. You see, I like so many love the darkness. I’ve spent time  myself at the gross, darkness of the cross of Jesus, knowing, in my heart, that I put Jesus on that cross with my sinfulness.  I’m sinful and evil.  I’ve seen the darkness of death and hell in my life. Deep, deep darkness that I have brought upon myself. 

Yet in the midst of the darkest times, I came to realize the presence of God. I didn’t seek God, but rather God sought me. God hunted me down. God came out of time before me into my time. God broke into the midst of my darkness and hell to speak beyond my time, of a time in eternity. A time past, now, and forever into the future. God speaks in time and breaks through time and darkness to reveal the love and life he gives to all creation.

Jesus brought life into the world. Jesus brought life before the world and time, and during and after into eternity. Jesus is the source of all life and light. Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory. Light, Life, and Darkness are all spiritual realities. All exist. The Life of God enters history with the gift of eternal life into the present.

As God comes to me in the midst of my deep darkness, he freely pours his Light into me. God seeks to fill every crevice and space in my life with his Light. The Light is so intense, it sets off a fire in me that can’t be quenched. A fire that Christ daily feeds with the anointing oil of forgiveness and grace. God sweeps me up and overwhelms all senses of body and spirit.  Even the darkness of the cross cannot overcome the Light which radiantly shines forth upon the resurrection of Jesus and his gift of new life and new Light.

God is spirit, so God came to us to show himself. God shows himself to us as Word and Light. The Torah… the Living Word of God has come in Jesus.  And Jesus is born into time and space, God comes to me and to you.

Jesus’ light makes clear our human experience and destiny. Jesus born as God’s expression of himself to all people. God comes to tabernacle with his people and live with us as one of us.

And Jesus goes into time and space to reveal God’s eternal love on the cross. A Love full of grace and truth. Jesus brings God and man into a new relation.

Out of my darkness I take refuge in Jesus and live in the joy of his Light and the beautiful message he gives to me and to all who believe in him. God takes my senses from ear to eye. I can now hear and see through the darkness the Light of Christ. But seeing is different from believing. The abundance of God’s divine gift of Jesus, the Light, the Word, is never exhausted but is continually being renewed. Jesus made my fight against sin, death, the devil and eternal darkness, his fight. In Jesus battle, he frees me.

Daily God passes on some of his own nature and Light that I now come out of the darkness as something new and different and strange. I can’t change myself into what God wants me to be, but God changes me into what pleases God. 

And suddenly there is someone beside me. That someone is Jesus, God in flesh and Word and Light, bringing me through life to life.

This message of darkness, light, word and life is for all the world. It’s not just mine. But it’s a message born into space and time in Jesus this Christmas for all people to see, hear, feel and to believe.

My wish for this Christmas Season is that all who believe in God’s saving grace and love through Jesus may let some of his Light shine in and through. For the Light is the central glory to behold in Jesus coming.

Thanks be to God that Jesus has come and will come again. Merry Christmas, my friends! May God dwell with you and in you… today… tomorrow… and forever. --- Amen

Respond

 

Matthew 1:18-25 https://www.bible.com/bible/59/MAT.1.18-25.ESV --- read it! 

Joseph was a fine man, but as I read this passage of scripture, I realize it’s not really about Joseph. The passage seems to be a little bit about Mary, but not all that much either. The center of this passage, for me, is the action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is active on Mary and on Joseph and on me as well today.

There are a few other readings for this 4th Sunday in Advent that point my thinking in this direction. 

Isaiah 7:10-17 helps me to see the Messiah or in the Gospel passage, the One to be named Jesus; as a sign from God. A sign for me to see and to recognize and to ponder and gaze to.

Psalm 24 caused me to cry with the psalmist, “May the King of glory come!” May the Messiah come to me this day, tomorrow and every day, to hear my confession, forgive me and send me out into this world to work his will in his way.

Also Romans 1:1-7 permits me to see Jesus declared to be the Son of God through whom we receive grace and love.

If you have time, read the above passages and jot down a note or two of what you hear God speak to you.

So, anyway… back to Matthew 1:18-25… my notes and reactions

• God is with us

• He will save his people

• Jesus is the Eternal Word

• Mary/Joseph are obedient to God

• God is now present in a new way

• God’s presence is with men now --- not in the Temple

• Joseph is “just” – he observes the Jewish Law

• Joseph could expose Mary or divorce Mary to save his own image with the people he lives around 

• Mary and Joseph were quick to heed the call of the moment

My take? What do I hear God saying to me?

There are times in my life that God has chosen to radically change me and the world that I live in today. There are times that God speaks through the mouth of other people and the actions of people that God places in my life. I have dreams and thoughts that perhaps angels have placed in my mind and my soul. 

Here, in the Gospel message, there is witness to the action of Mary and Joseph. Actions that the Holy Spirit has infused their lives with and the Spirit has invaded their souls with. I, like Mary and Joseph need to listen carefully, prayerfully respond to in times in haste, to be quick to notice the call of the moment and respond to God and to change my actions, my ways and my path. Respond to the unknown, knowing that God has granted me grace to live out new and changed ways of living in the sure, hope and trust that God’s plan is way beyond me and my own world.

God draws each of us out of ourselves and invites us in to live, even in our sinfulness, in the grace and freedom of the forgiveness of sin, so that God can accomplish something new and revealing about God. New to me, to you and to the world in which we live, but sure in the revelation of the fulfillment that God has planned for his people.

So, yes, respond to that call when you hear it, like Mary and Joseph, knowing that God’s action in you, and in this world is what the call is really about. Say yes, and do what you least expected you would do, in the trust and hope and knowledge that God’s will and call in your life will bring glory to God.

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus, come… to me… to this world… to all called through you… today… tomorrow… and forever. --- Amen

Change

 

There's a big change coming! A huge change! Read Matthew 11:2-15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2011%3A2-15&version=ESV --- Read it!

I doubt all the time. Apparently John the Baptist and his followers had doubt also. This pointing to Jesus is a big Big BIg BIG change!

This was not just a change coming upon us from God, but a huge change in the ages from the beginnings of eternity. Here in this passage we have a change coming from the time of the Law and the Prophets, from which John the Baptist came, to an age of the of the Messiah, the day of the Lord Jesus, and the age of the End  times. 

So, when the people of John the Baptist's time went out to see John in the wilderness... what did they expect? What did they see in this John the Baptist? I mean John dressed in hairy clothing and eating a strange diet, living off of what God alone gives, wasn't exactly like the Evangelist in a suit on a stage screaming and dancing and singing. John the Baptist wasn't in a suit and tie or robes. John was living off of the land and wearing what he could find from the land. John wasn't a soft handed character, he was rugged and determined to fulfill the call God gave to him in passion and certainty. John certainly didn't waver or flip-flop around in what he had to say about the Messiah.

But now...  in this passage... John's voice does not cry from the desert. John's voice cry's from the dungeon, perhaps of prison. John's cry from the wilderness was about to be silenced in the dungeon. So, he doubted his very own word and needed to listen to THE WORD. 

This goes for me too. In the midst of my sinful doubt, I need to stop... to listen... to hear deeper meanings.

Jesus wasn't doing what John proclaimed he would do; at least not in John's mind, I think. Is Jesus the Messiah? John proclaimed the coming of God the Judge... God coming with the fire of Judgment on this sinful world and these sinful people that need to turn and to repent and face God. John was the one that identified the Messiah out in that wilderness. Was Jesus really the right guy? So, he doubted.

John could see the flames of the judgment of God, but not so much the quiet beginning of the good will of God. John could see God the Judge, but not so much God the Father. The ministry that Jesus tells John's disciples to report back on is a ministry of the Messiah of mercy, love and compassion.

Herein lies the BIG change. The BIG change of Law and Prophets, of which John comes from to a NEW age of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus makes the BIG BIG difference between the two ages as well as for you and me and all of God's children, between our personal changes of life and death.

The greatest of the past age, now fall in line with the least of this age. You see, the "Least" are not now greater because of what they have done or earned or obeyed... rather, now the "Least" are the greatest by the grace of God in Christ Jesus in this new age.

We live in an age that is a BIG change. Are we making God in an image that we want to see? Or will we live in the BIG change of a God that lives on his terms, not our terms. A new age with Jesus saving grace that would bring mercy, love, healing, and a salvation that reaches beyond all ages of the world.

God comes to save you and me and all his people. Keep me patient Lord Jesus. For as you declared to John the Baptist, in his doubt, as you declare to me in the midst of all of my doubts... you have come and will come again. You promise to come yet again... to judge. But, today in this age of my life may I turn to you and believe. I simply believe, trust and hope in you alone.

And then... and then... so majestically and wonderfully we will all gather around the throne of God and praise you into eternity. Praise the Lord!

Lord, in the midst of my doubt, forgive me, forgive all your people who look away, that we may all see Your age, and the BIG change of your acts of love mercy and salvation. Make us Listen! Listen for the deeper meanings and see it all the more clearly. Today... tomorrow... and forever. Come Lord Jesus, come! --- Amen

Repent! Change! Turn! Why not?

 I've seen this image many times before. I've seen not just an image, but the real thing while I worked at Armco Steel in years past. The reading from Matthew 3:1-12 (read it!) reminded me of my past. 

In the reading, John the Baptist is in the wilderness, baptizing, of course... duh! 

Even through the food that John lived on, he relied on food provided by God the Creator. It was food that God gave directly. Food that didn't need human intervention. Honey... from the bees... some say it was sweetness from pods naturally grown, and locust, well they don't need any human intervention either. John depended on life totally from God.

 John's life was God given towards a God ordained task. All of us are given life and God has a task for each and every one of us. 

John's task was to turn folks around. John declared in the midst of the wilderness, "Repent!" But why?

Well... if I just look at myself. I have so many reasons to repent. I can reflect on my daily life and see reasons to repent. I see things I've said and done that just ain't quite right. In fact, some of those things are downright wrong towards God and towards those people I encounter each day. So... I NEED to repent. I need to change my mind for the better. But how?

It's easy to look to my own sin and explain it away. I can rationalize my bad behavior. Christians do this all the time. They don't look to their own sin, they look to the sins of other people and judge the other person. I do that too much... way too much. So, I need to put away all that phony Church Man, or Church Lady stuff and look at myself. Look at my relationship with God and with those God gives to me and see first hand my sin. See my sin up close and disturbingly uncomfortable. See my failure to live the life God wants me to live. I need to repent!!!

But still, why?

John's God given task was to open the eyes of the people. People then and today. John's baptism of repentance was to wash us and turn us around. You see, John was pointing to Jesus the Messiah. John wants you and me to look to our past... repent... then turn to life in Christ. 

It's the only way. I can't make all of those things of which I repent right again. Only Jesus can. So John tells me that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Whoa!!! Fire? Yep, fire. And thus comes my Armco Steel image.

You see, when I daily repent, when I daily turn to Jesus for new life and a new day, God turns up the heat a little bit. Each day, a little hotter. And finally when the crap from the metal rises to the top. God, through Jesus, scrapes all my junk and sin away. Jesus takes it away... I can't. 

Well guess what? Eventually all that crap on top will boil away and when Jesus looks into that pot of molten metal of myself, Jesus will begin to see himself more clearly in me.

Now that's an Advent of Jesus coming I didn't expect. Jesus coming to me in and through the forgiveness of sin, each and every day of my life. All due to Jesus taking away my sin.

So there you have it. Why does the pot of molten metal remind me of repentance? Because it's all about Jesus Advent, his coming into my world, into my life, into my very being.

Repent! Change! Turn! Why not?

Let Jesus scrape all that crap away and live your life today anew in him and for him and for all those God gives to you each day, in newness of life. God is all you need after all... just ask John.

God gives you life each day and gives you his task as well.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Thanks be to God, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Arrivals

 

How many of us arrived somewhere this weekend? Did you go somewhere? Did someone come to spend time with you? How about those unexpected arrivals? Something happens in our daily living, we may have a hint that it may happen but don't quite believe it will happen right away.

Ukrainians arriving at the borders as their lives are upended by war and suffering... Friends or family having to move home or away from home for one reason or another... Arriving at the hospital with an unexpected heart disease, pneumonia, kidney stone or any multiple of ailments... A deer jumps in front of your car and arrives on your windshield and causes you to arrive somewhere that you least planned.

Arrivals happen... some planned and many not. Some happy and some terrible. This Sunday's Gospel reading is Matthew 24:36-44 (read it!) and it speaks of arrivals. A great and wonderfully life changing arrival.

When the flood came, Noah knew it was coming. He told the people of the day, but doubt set in that there would be a sudden rush of water. So... many people went about life. A few that took heed to the voice of God through Noah lived on, but so many that were hesitant were left to fend for themselves and ultimately died in the flood. They lived their lives in the pre-flood times as if nothing would happen. Perhaps many of them felt that life was under control. Eating, drinking and living life without looking to what God may or may not have in store.

It's fine to live life to the fullest in the here and now. There is nothing at all wrong with this. But the Matthew passage encourages us to be ready. Live with eyes open to the present. But also, look for  more than oncoming trains, swerving cars and signs of disease. Keep your eyes open beyond this physical world and look to the time of advent. 

You see, God has little advents each day. God comes in ways that are unexpected. Listen and be ready. God knows times... I certainly don't know or can even understand his time or timing. So why guess at it or try to predict his time?

This is the Advent Season of the church. Spend some time looking beyond the routine. Be ready for Jesus to come at any time and any place. God is near and will come when... I don't know. 

Enjoy the daily living of these days, but be ready. Live with eyes open and watch! Pray, watch and rejoice in this time and the time to come when we will see, hear, touch and worship our Lord.

Now that's the day I live for! Today... tomorrow... and forever!

Come. Lord Jesus, come...

Christ the King

 This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday and I can't get this image out of my head. I don't think of a King hanging on a cross between two criminals, but there he is.

It's such a contrast between good and evil. And yes, I play my part in all the evil and God plays his part in all the good. There is such a difference between the righteous and the wicked. I see myself hanging with Jesus sometimes to his left and sometimes to his right. 

There he is next to me on his own cross, Jesus, the very image of God on this earth.  I must stop, be still and think and know that God is God and here he is right next to me, suffering, bleeding, gasping for air and dying... right there next to me.

As I hang to Jesus left side, I make fun of him and mock him and join in with the crowd and soldiers in my usual smartass way. I know I deserve death and this guy, this phony, surely deserves death too! Jesus, if you think you're so much, save yourself and us. Save me from suffering, pain, death, cold, heat, labor, illness, thieves, murder, war, pollution...  and sin. Save me from this awful world I live in with all of these awful people around me that do nothing but stand by and watch us all die. Useless people that revel in the punishment and death that we deserve. Exhale a little blood from your lungs and curse these people that kill you and me. Come on Jesus, curse God and die!

As I hang by Jesus on the right side, I know that I'm a sinful man. I know that I deserve death. Yet, as I look at Jesus, I realize that his death is about something much different from my own. From the middle cross I hear words of forgiveness to the crowd and all people in this time and throughout time and into eternity.  You say, "Forgive them..." 

From the right side of Jesus I can see a sign declaring Jesus as King. But I also now know that this King next to me is a King of something far beyond me and this world. It occurs to me that Jesus is King of something beyond death and the grave. 

So, I speak... some kind of faith and hope wells up from within myself as I have visions of this King. I ask Jesus to remember me when he comes into his Kingdom.

And shortly thereafter, it happens! Jesus promises so much more than I could ever imagine. I didn't deserve his promise. I didn't do anything for what Jesus was doing for me. 

What I saw on that middle cross was no longer bloody flesh, but a beautiful Spirit that took me in his arms and escorted me into Paradise, the resting place of the saved before the final judgment and resurrection. Jesus promised me so much more than I ever asked! And my King gave it all to me this very day.!

So what am I to think of all of this?  Some days I'm hanging on the left and ask God to turn me around so that I can see his face and do his will and move me to the cross on his right, where I hear his promise and see his will for me in life. 

A place on the right of Jesus as I die to myself and bleed out in death to live with my King eternally, praising Jesus my King with all his Children in Paradise.

It's definitely Christ the King! My King, my God, my Savior!

… and yours too... come along with me in Jesus arms to Paradise... this very day!

Thanks be to God and Christ my King... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Time

 

Reflections on Luke 21:5-36 (read it!)

Time, what is it? What do we do with time? How do we use time? Is time really worth anything?

Just last week we changed clocks to Standard Time, whatever that is. I hate this time change. I screw my clocks all up... especially the one on the mantle of the fireplace that chimes the hour. It always gets screwed up when I have to go back an hour. The passage above makes me think of time. Not my time.... but God's time.

Somehow, I don't think time is important to God.  God's time is the only time that has any importance. But it seems to me, in the passage above, time is not important. But yet again, in Jesus, time has value. God came into our time and was born, lived, suffered and died and then...

Jesus brought to me and you and this world a sense of urgency and an eternal order of things. We are called to be patient. We live in God's time, not our time. There is an hour of opportunity that is given to each and all of God's Children. An opportunity to look around and testify.

Jesus talks about the Temple in this passage. The Temple of his day was beautiful. People thought that surely, this house of God was the gate to heaven. But, I don't think Jesus thought of this earthly temple in the same way we do. In so many words, Jesus tells us that this earthly temple will dissolve. Jesus points us to another Temple. An everlasting Temple that comes down from God out of heaven.  Perhaps this Temple is like a messiah, to worship, to sing praises to, pray and give glory to.

But look out! Beware... there will be false messiahs. Not coming down from heaven. Messiahs that I tend to be fooled by, that I think may offer salvation to me, here and now, in this place and time.

I need to understand that I have One Messiah. I, as a Child of God, have One allegiance. I need to take heed and watch out for the false messiahs that I see and not be blinded by my present time and situation. Messiahs like political saviors, technological saviors, scientific saviors, monetary saviors, and on and on. These are all temporary. The One Messiah is eternal... God is, I AM, now and forever.

So what about this time I spend in the here and now, upon this earth? Jesus calls his disciples to take a stand. Now is the time.  We live in a world that is painful and full of suffering and death. We live in a world of destruction and decay. A world in need of renewal, forgiveness, peace and strength.

This is a world that calls us out to take a stand. We can't fall to the terrors of this world and fear the evil contained here.  While here in this place we are called to stand in faith, not cower in fear. As disciples we must not just watch the evil herein, but must stand up! We must take all the action we are capable of delivering. We must use all the gifts God has given us and stand up and do something.

This makes me think of something that my Mom once told me... "God gave you a mouth. Use it!"

Likewise when Luther was told to recant his writings, on the grace of God, he took a stand. "God helping me, I can do no other." He stood by what he saw as God's Word in that place and time. But so much more importantly, I think of Jesus.

Even Jesus didn't step free from the suffering of this world. Jesus had a cross. Jesus suffered, died and stood in place of you and me and the sinful world in which we live, giving his very life and becoming our sin. Jesus took a stand to save us all from sin, death and the devil.

In this stand Jesus took, I see visions of God's time, an ending and a new beginning, for all God's Children. I look upward to the heavens and see a cross of death and pain and blood and suffering, outlined against the clear blue sky of joy, hope, love and salvation that spans onward into eternity.

I see the signs of the end, the suffering, destruction, sin, hate, evil and death, are the signs of God's New Beginning.  I see Jesus, resurrection and my resurrection, and your resurrection and the resurrection of all who believe. Jesus is coming!

So what about this time thing? Repent, watch and pray. Tell the Gospel wherever you can and to all you can.  God's Word... the Word made flesh in Jesus, will never pass away. 

And in God's time... we will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud raising all of his people to be with him.... yes... in time... today... tomorrow... and forever. 

Rejoice in this time and may God direct our hearts in love towards him and love towards one another to do what is right.

Thanks be to God!

Looking back from Eternity

 

I wonder what it's like to look back from eternity. What does God see?

What does the water see in the stream after it has passed by me? Water that flows on and on and on forever. Water with life in it passing by. I can sample and live on a few drops of water as it continues to pass by me to another place and another time.

What is God's Law in reverse? All the "You shall" and the "You shall not."

What do God's children see as they rest in waiting for Jesus return and the resurrection? What is it like to look back from heaven?

What does the song of the people of heaven sound like? 

How are God's children gathered together when death comes and my loved one is no longer with me on this earth?

When I read Matthew 5:1-12, commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, all of these questions cause me to pause and ponder and pray and think and act out in love as one of Jesus' disciples.

It's like Jesus went up the mountain... reminding me of Moses going to God for the commandments. But this time Jesus sits down and reverses the commandments. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God in a way that is different somehow, yet really, in time, all the same.

This time Jesus Law seems to reach deep within me. To my gut and the very center of my being. Jesus reaches into my soul and convicts me of the way I treat other people and shows me how to respond to his grace in the love of God and love of my neighbor. Jesus puts Law and Gospel all together in one setting.

On that mountain Jesus makes me sit in the darkness of my sin so that I can clearly see the Light of his saving grace. I need that darkness. When I'm in the darkness of my sin, Jesus Light is blinding, convicting and all that more gracious to me in my life, here and now.

When I think about looking back from eternity to now through the lens of Jesus grace and action upon the cross... I'm deeply inspired to act out in love. And this response isn't a response of paying back... rather it is a response of love, joy, happiness and  hunger to love God. Oh how I want to see Jesus and to feel his love!

You see, God's grace is somewhat like an inheritance. I can't do anything to receive God's grace. I can't earn an inheritance. Nor do I deserve the inheritance because of my status or family. God adopted me and brought me to him out of that same grace and love that only God can give.

As I sit at the feet of Jesus on that mountain and he teaches the Beatitudes to me, I hear of blessing. Blessings for people that live in a world of trouble... yet are blessed. Blessings that encourage me to love my neighbor in a different way. Blessings to me as I'm in my darkest times and blessings for those around me who suffer as well.  Blessings that pass through this earth ,this time, and move back and forth from eternity where God lives and loves his children.

I see the actions and ministry of Jesus on that mountain and it becomes clear that Jesus is the One who fulfilled all the Beatitudes of which he speaks. It's so different from the Law of God to Moses, where I think I am to obey all the commandments to see the grace of God. It's the reverse here. Jesus fulfilled all the Law of God to Moses, yet came to me and to you to grant us blessing as we live in the mud of our failure to do so on our own. I can't fulfill God's Law!

So here I am at the feet of Jesus on this mountain... poor, mourning, hungry, sinful, greedy, and making war. Yet Jesus sees through it all and tells me that he is here for me, to bless me, and love me, and take me to him eternally. Oh, how I love to see Jesus! How I long to eternally sing his praise and respond!

So what am I to do? As Jesus blessed me... I respond in the same love and example Jesus gave me. I bless my neighbor, with love, compassion, care and a reflection of the Light of Christ.

Why? Because my eyes have turned from my own sin and darkness to the eternal Light of Jesus righteousness and love for all his people and all creation. I no longer need to stare at myself and the mud of my sin because it's all changed. Jesus turned me from myself to look at his Light. 

Jesus permits me to look back from eternity and act out the love He has freely given.

Now I can see a little bit of what it's like to look back from eternity. I see love and righteousness only in Jesus.

Thanks be to God!

The signal broke through the ionosphere

 It's kind of like a radio signal breaking through the ionosphere and travelling through space into eternity.

Oh how awful I am to be a slave to sin! I try to be good but fail to all sorts of temptation. You want the truth? That's the truth of it. I'm addicted to sin and can't stop it. I hate it but I keep going back to it. I'm a slave to sin, to gluttony, to sexual desires, to murder of all sorts, I covet, I steal, I judge falsely, I break every one of the commandments in some form or another. I'm a slave to sin and that's the truth of it. 

Knowing my sinful self, I live in the fear of a God that is just the opposite of my sinfulness. God never changes. God always protects me and yet I know that God hates my sin more than I hate my sin. I deserve death and eternal damnation. That's the truth of it.

I look around and see that everyone struggles with sin. Some acknowledge the struggle, some run from the struggle, some give up and run towards the sin for even more of that good stuff. And then there are those that admit their sin, realize they are slaves to sin and turn to God.

Or did God turn to us? I hear the message of the Baptist in the wilderness to Repent! Turn around. See God! See God in flesh among us. Give God glory even in the midst of our sin.

Where is the Truth in all of this? I know I sin... that's one truth, but how do I deal with my sin?

Then I hear the Gospel of John 8:31-36. Jesus is Truth. Truth leads to freedom... my freedom comes through the Truth. And real Truth is revealed from above. From the other side of that ionosphere so to speak. The Truth came down to me beneath the ionosphere.  Only with Jesus can I break through and be free for eternity. 

It's on this "other" side and then on "this" side that Jesus frees me. He frees me from my sin beneath and upon this earth to a new life in eternity. Will I live in this freedom? Will I return to my sinfulness? 

Most likely. But I can return, repent, and live in the knowledge that my Truth, my Jesus, my Savior has a place for me on my journey towards his house and his Truth on the other side... even as I live here and now.

You see, it's not just about how I get there. I go along and grow. I go along in my truth of sin and look to what Jesus Truth has done for me. 

I can't do this... but Jesus has already done this for me. Jesus is the one that frees me, the slave to sin. Frees me to live a life in joy, happiness, love, honor, service and discipleship to the One who grants the freedom and to the other people God gives me daily who are all in the same boat with me in sinfulness.

So I rejoice that Truth and Freedom and Jesus come to me, not through some ritual or some automatic descendancy. Truth comes to me and frees me to live for one another and live in the knowledge that I'm free from sin. I can leave that sinful stuff behind and respond in the joy of eternal freedom.

The signal broke through the ionosphere... came to earth and gets sent right back freeing all of us to a live a life of freedom, on and on and on into eternity.

All thanks to God for loving grace and freedom and life!

Thanks be to God... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Standing Under the Sun

 I look towards a sunrise or a sunset and begin to realize my place in this universe. It's a place before God. It's a place that needs God. 

I read in the book of Genesis... Eve produced Cain with the help of God. Eve also produced Abel with the help of God and then once again... things took a turn.

Two brothers offering gifts and one is jealous of God's acknowledgement of the other brother's gift to God. Murder... death... separation happen.

Sometimes I think I'm like Cain. I'm produced with the help of God, yet I get jealous of my brother and "kill" him, so to speak. And yes... I suffer the consequences of my sin. My brother's blood cries out to me, and to God from the very ground of this earth... but God forgives me and saves me and marks me for protection against the evil of this place under the sun. 

In my sinfulness, I am saved through the waters of baptism and marked as God's own child... even in the midst of my sin, God loves me.

You see, I can't trust myself. I'm going to sin. I can't make myself right before God. I can't... I sin! So, why do I sometimes think  that I can regard others with contempt? They are in the same situation that I'm in. All of us sin and need to take refuge in God alone. Surely I can't hide in my own good works.

Jesus tells a parable about a couple guys who come to the temple to pray. One of the guys prays about how great he is... he prays I, I, I, I, I... me, me, me... It's like he is praying to himself and how God owes him something. 

The other fella knows his place before God. He knows that he is sinful and in need of God's grace and love. This guy realizes his sin before God and prays for God to have mercy on him.

How do I internalize this parable? I realize that there is only one "Big shot" in heaven, and that's not me. There are Children of God in heaven.

So, I need to realize that I can't exclude myself from the other people around me. My sin is great and I'm no better than anyone else as far as sin goes.

Jesus does not justify my sinful life... he hates it!

There is a danger in spiritual pride.

God "owes" me nothing. In fact, everything I have comes from God. Not because I have been good and done all the things to please God, but because God chooses to.

I open my soul to God, instead of locking on myself. No matter how  good I think I am; I confess my need for God to save me from my sin. I certainly can't trust in myself to be righteous.

I turn to God in trust... unquestioning trust. I look for God's justification and acceptance of heaven's grace. I need Jesus to touch my life, my soul, my being.

And yes, I look for a second childhood before Jesus. For I am fully dependent on God. 

God loves us not for being good. God loves us because God helped  our mother make us. God loves us because we are part of a creation given by God. God loves us as children who need him and his love to survive a life not only under this sun but beyond this sun into another place and  time. God loves us because God chooses to love.

So, here I am Lord, standing under the sun, asking for mercy because I'm sinful. Only you, God, can save this your child. I cry out to you... today... tomorrow... and forever. Here under this sun and beyond this sun in your eternal realm of love, grace and glory.

I fall in the arms of Jesus and seek his touch always.

Come on already

 

Come on already! Just this week I was impatient. On my way to the drive through after sitting through a concert that my grandson Daemien played in, some one pulled out in front of me and drove slowly... Come on, you Jackass! Then I get to McD's and the person in front of me takes forever to pay. After she pays, the attendant takes forever to take my money and the food takes forever to come to the window. Come on already!

There's a parable in the book of Luke about a poor lady that wanted a judge to give her justice against her opponent.  This judge didn't really care about God or the people. The woman was probably poor and didn't have any power to hold over the judge, so she pesters the crap out of the judge so much and so many times that the judge finally grants her request.

So what do the above two paragraphs have in common for me? I think God has a message for me here, and maybe it applies to you as well. That's up to you. But here is what I gather:

Before God I hope and desire to be faithful, true, and honest in the hope that God would keep me in his care. But then I realize that all that action of mine is a little screwy and backwards. God cares for me and loves me into being faithful, true and honest with him... he doesn't love me and care for me because I'm faithful, true and honest.

But kind of like this woman going to the judge, I go to God in prayer and ask and sometimes wrestle with God to help me and guide me and show me his will and his way for my life. I wrestle with God because I want answers!

But... I don't want to wait! Hurry it up God! Give me what I want! Fix this thing or that thing and tell me what to do or how to handle this or that situation.  Pick up the pace! Don't dart out in front of me and then slow down. Don't drive up to the window of my life and take forever to grant me what I want! Come on, God! I don't have forever, like you do!

So my prayer life goes. I go back and back and back for the same thing and no answer. I persist like the woman with the judge and bug the crap out of God. I don't give up and I persist.

And then through this little passage in Luke, I think about this woman and the judge and I also think about me and God.

God teaches me to be patient. In this patience God is making me persistent and more importantly creating in me faith. God is faithful. I hear the voice of God telling me that there is more to all of this than any request I may make.

God answers my prayer through a call to me to stop being in such a hurry. Listen and respond to the call. There IS after all this forever thing going on, that goes far beyond my persistent requests. God wants to hear from me over and over and over again. Through all this prayer, God is WITH me, God HEARS me, and God responds to me and my prayer requests.

And then,,,, beyond my persistent prayer requests and the constant requests of all God's people... a Kingdom is coming. A kingdom led by Jesus. A Kingdom of Jesus' faithful gathering together with Jesus. A Kingdom where Jesus IS faith. A persistent faith of the people from Jesus. A Kingdom in which the faithful don't give up and a Kingdom where all God's people respond to the call with the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to each and every one of God's faithful people. This is a Kingdom that comes to me and to you and to all who believe and have faith in that time when all will see Jesus face to face. Jesus comes... yesterday... today... tomorrow and will be forever.

Lord, may I be like that poor old lady. May I be persistent in my requests to you, knowing all along that, you give me faith in time, you have so much more in store for me than I could ever imagine.

God will answer prayer. In a way that is beyond any expectation I may have placed upon God. Believe it!

So, Billy... get off your high horse. Settle down. It's in God's time not yours... have a little faith will ya?

How about you? Can you relate to my situation here?

Return in Faith and Believe

 

Ten lepers... all healed. Jesus sees them and loves them and has compassion on them. Jesus commands them to show themselves to the priests... but along the way... healing occurs. One of the lepers is a Samaritan, kind of a double outcast, not only is he a leper, he is spurned by Jews. 

The Samaritan didn't even get to the priest, he turned back to Jesus. I suppose the other nine strictly followed Jesus' command to show themselves to the priest.

I can identify with the Samaritan and the other nine. If Jesus commanded me to go to the priest... I go!

Also, I can identify with the Samaritan. I think I identify with the Samaritan even more. I'm a diseased outcast myself. I see Jesus... Jesus sees me and loves me. Jesus has compassion towards me and heals me. Jesus heals me in a much deeper means than from leprosy and disease to body. Jesus heals me eternally. Jesus heals my soul with his love. 

As I journey through life, as my body rots and decays and becomes diseased; I notice a healing taking place. A deep healing... from the inside out. And the healing is from the love and compassion Jesus has already shown to me, without my even making it to the priest.

Jesus loved me so deeply that he suffered and died and rose again, all for my disease and death that I am going towards in this life. Jesus loved me to death... his death and my death. 

Just as in my baptismal waters... while going under the water... I died to myself. Even as an infant... I died in my sin to rise again to a new life in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A new life free to me as a loving gift. I do nothing for this gift of love from God.

And Jesus returns to me in body and spirit each and every time I follow his command and partake of his body and blood in with and under the bread and the wine of communion. Jesus comes to me... both in my body through the bread and the wine and in my spirit through his body and blood. I take Jesus in and he is part of me, healing me for a future resurrection even after Jesus own resurrection and promise to return for me, for you, and for all who have faith and believe in Jesus.

I'm a sinful, separated leper for sure. But along the way Jesus has loved me and saved me and healed me in a much deeper sense than this rotting flesh of mine reveals. I certainly do not deserve this gift of healing on my own accord.

My response? Thanks be to God! 

Jesus didn't ask to be thanked or worshipped --- but, I think, myself and the rejected Samaritan leper, witnessed Jesus' deep love and compassion... and we return to Jesus with a thankful heart to worship Jesus. To love Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus. To follow Jesus.

Jesus is my savior and your savior as well. Jesus saves you from sin, death and  the devil. He has done all that needs to be done to give you life, here today, tomorrow and forever! Return in faith and believe. My only response.

Thanks be to God!

(Painting by Melani Pyke)

Forgive

 

Jesus can be blunt. Jesus can seem mean. Jesus can give some really tough and brutal commands.

How am I supposed to forgive that low life neighbor of mine after all they have done to me. They lie, cheat, steal and gossip all the time about me. That neighbor slanders me and ruins my reputation. 

Forgive? No way! I want to eliminate them, kill them, be done with all they have to say. I want to hurt my neighbor in so many and various ways. How else am I to respond? I want to hurt him individually, up close and ruin my neighbor.

Lord, Jesus, you want me to forgive? No way! I'm just going to act like I forgive. I'm going to get all churchy and be all pleasant in some fake forgiveness that looks good to the public and my friends at church. Yep! That'll do it. And I'll look good too!

Then I hear Jesus tell me to forgive and forgive and forgive, over and over and over. If my neighbor asks forgiveness just keep on forgiving. I hear Jesus tell me that's what I'm commanded to do.

Jesus tells me all that churchy forgiveness crap I'm doing is just causing problems for someone seeking to follow him. My fake forgiveness is leading them astray. My churchy sin is a snare, a trap to the new disciple. I set a trap that will snap on myself. So now I need forgiveness myself for my own deceptive behavior. 

How, Lord, am I to do this forgiveness thing sincerely?

I look to you, Lord Jesus... upon the cross... you show no anger as you bleed and die... yet I see you furious when the weak are deceived, when the poor go hungry, when the old are abandoned. You seek the lost, bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong are destroyed. 

You are humble on the cross when you forgave the world and died for sin... yet you are angry when I don't forgive... truly forgive.

Lord... I need faith in this forgiveness of neighbor thing. I'm just as sinful as my neighbor, I know. Help me forgive. Give me your true humble faith.

But what is faith? Best I can figure... faith is casting that tree or even a mountain out into the sea of an unknown future with the hope that life is given. I mean really... how's that tree going to have life in the middle of the sea. And what use is that tall mountain in the sea. I don't know. But, I'll need the faith that the unknown future will take care of all the questions I may ever have. 

Lord, I need this kind of faith when I forgive my neighbor over and over and over again. I need this faith that my forgiveness is real. I need this faith based in your humility and making me humble. 

Help me to forgive like you forgave me and all the world. I know that I'm responsible for my evil and my failure to forgive my neighbor. I don't seek any reward for forgiving. It's what you expect and I'm only doing what you command. 

Lord, forgive my sin as I forgive those who sin against me.

In the unknown future of your love and grace... I forgive.

You're tough command is tough love as well. Tough, eternal, everlasting, love. I'll forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive forever, because I know what you did for me on that cross. You took care of it and made my future in you bright. I know I'm cast into that sea of everlasting life with you. I don't really care how it turns out, because it's with you and I love you.

Thanks for being blunt and brutal and sometimes mean to me. It's just what I needed.

Thanks be to God.... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Heaven and Hell

 

What's on my mind? --- Dives and Lazarus.

Dives, a rich man and Lazarus, a poor beggar.

Opposites... Heaven and Hell...

Opposites with a great big chasm between them.

I think of hikes in the Smokies. I think of looking out over form the top of one mountain to the top of another mountain. I think of the amount of effort it would take to get from the peak on which I stand to the peak on which perhaps someone else is standing and looking my way.

I confess that, in this life there have been times that I have created a chasm between myself and someone else. Even someone I love and care for... yes I can and do create chasms.

I confess that I create chasms between myself and someone that I should show compassion and love. I could feed them. I could listen. I could care. I could love... but I insulate myself from the need they have and create a chasm.

I create a chasm between myself and God when I fall into my own selfishness and believe that I don't need God. I can save myself. I can do better than this life all on my own.

Sometimes it's not a chasm. Sometimes I erect walls and push the other person back and ignore their need to the point that I don't even want to see the pain and torture that the other person is enduring. I erect a wall, so that I don't have to meet that person and confront the need.

Like Dives during his life on this earth, I become so absorbed into myself that I can't see. I can't see the need of my neighbor, I can't see the hunger, the pain, the suffering. I can't see because all I see is myself!

Lord, forgive me! Forgive me as I remember my sin. Forgive me as I pray and confess before you and all people my sin.

On this earth and in this time, all Lazarus wanted was a piece of bread, a crumb from a table. Lazarus plead to Dives for a little attention to his needs. And then...

As Dives was after this life... he plead to Lazarus for a drop of water. But the chasm was in place. One mountain to another. A chasm too deep for help. It was all too late now...

So what do I make of this? I know, here and now, that God comes to me through the Word, through the Water of my baptism, through the Bread and the Wine and the presence of Jesus. It's all here and now. God crossed that great chasm of my sin and his love for me with the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, God's son and God in flesh. Why? To save me from my sin that created the chasm to begin with because God loves me.

God loves you as well. God crosses the chasm in the here and now that we may all come to believe in the here and now. 

We are free to live in the here and now with compassion for one another. To care for one another, to feed one another, to listen to one another, to break the wall down and welcome one another and live for God and one another, crossing chasms and breaking down walls while we are still in the here and now. Why wait? God has set us free to love, here and today.

Every day is a time to love God, serve God and to love and serve one another.

Don't wait! Don't wait! Please, don't wait!

Thanks be to God!

Face the Facts

 Let's face facts. I cannot be my own savior. 

Am I casual about my soul? Do I really mean it when I profess Christianity? Do I really go at it like it's life or death? 

I tend to work harder at earthly goals than I do on my discipleship of Jesus. I talk more about ham radio, morse code, football,  this and that and the other than I do about following Jesus. Does my life with Jesus show up in daily conversation and daily living? Can people tell that I follow Jesus?

Do I plan my earthly future more than I plan for a heavenly future with God? Do I consider home to be with God or do I consider home to be with family here on earth?

Am I child of earth or heaven? Do I claim being a child of God? Even on Monday?

Do I immerse myself in this world and let heaven go by the way?

Let's face facts. I need forgiveness and salvation from God.

But God has made me a steward. I may be a steward of a pig sty, but non the less God has made me a steward. I'm not the owner. God is the owner of my life. I'm only the steward of what God has already given me.

And every day I must think back and account for my use of the gifts of what God has given me. I'm a steward with wonderful gifts given straight from God. How great is that?

I handle this world's gifts as a steward, as a caretaker and I deal directly with the God who made me and loves me to death so to speak.

I am free to live my life as a steward in the light and the sight of eternity. God frees me to live not for this world but in this world with my sights set on eternity with God. Eternity now and forever. Eternity here and there.

You see, little things matter. In the eyes of God, greatness is not size. Greatness is like intensity. Greatness is to work as a disciple of Jesus, full steam ahead with all the passion I can gather.

The cross was a small thing in comparison to the greatness of the act of love that Jesus took upon it. Jesus was intense in the gift of grace to all people.

When I think of earthly wealth it pales in comparison to what Jesus did for all people upon that teeny tiny cross. 

Wealth is in Jesus righteousness... not any earthly endeavor of my own.

But there is a choice here and now. I can't walk both east and west. I need to choose. Am I following Jesus or myself?

Will I choose to develop my life here in this earthly home? Or will I choose something else?

I choose Jesus. I choose to live with the ONE God.

In this choice, may I work as hard to follow Jesus as his disciple as I would work to save my own skin in this world. The Dishonest Manager account in Luke 16 reminds me of the passion that can be taken to save skin in this earthly place. That guy was out to make a way for himself when his life was about to change drastically. He went about saving his own skin with great passion! He was intense. Read the account for yourself... Luke 16:1-15.

So, for me, my real treasure is not earthly. My real treasure comes from my love for Jesus... here in this earth... but more so.... in paradise forever.

Sure... I'm still going to stumble along on this earth and pull some really boneheaded mistakes in the eyes of God. But my passion, my love and my following is as a disciple of Jesus.

But it will be OK. All because Jesus loves me enough to make me his steward here and now and forever with him.

So how about you?

For me? All thanks to God in Christ Jesus!

Lost

 

Boy oh boy! Is it ever so easy to get lost. As a sheep, I can eat those tufts of grass that lead me away from the pasture step by step, bite by bite, into a world of sin, temptation and evil. Bite by bite I go towards, greed, move a little further away towards gluttony, take a couple more bites and I'm off into sexual desires and satisfactions. Bite by bite, tuft of grass by tuft of grass, I wander away from my fellow sheep into a world of my own.

Sometimes I meet up with some other lost sheep and then along comes the Shepherd. The Shepherd comes along to sit with and eat right beside all of us lost sinners. He comes to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus, to sit by my side and the side of the sinners with me.

I didn't ask for Jesus to seek me or to even eat with me, Jesus just takes it upon himself to find me. Jesus is always following me as I nibble my way away from the flock. And once I think that I have found the way myself, the way to that perfect life, I realize that I have nibbled my way into a world of my own, that leads to NOTHING but me! Boy oh boy, am I ever lost now!

But Jesus sees me as precious for some reason. God looks on each one of us and tells us that earth's treasure isn't in the silver, gold or diamonds. Earth's treasure isn't in power or mighty kingdoms. Earth's treasure is each person that God has created.

For God gave it all. God turned it all upside down. God turned the earth, over and over to find one, to find each individual person... yet all people. God came to supper with us, he lived with us, he died for us, he rose again ahead of us and gave it all for us... for me... for you... for all. Each individual is precious to God and at the same time all people are loved by God.

And from God's finding me, finding you; I have joy and you have joy and God has joy. I say rejoice! God has found you and me!

The Law condemns me, It shows me how I deserve hell... yet the Law seen through the love and grace of the Gospel, leads me, guides me, and frees me to forget my sinful self in the knowledge that God has done everything that needs to be done, because God loves me enough to save me, and to find me, and to set me free to love him, and to love my neighbor. 

And to this... Thanks be to God!

Focus

 Jesus demands our focus, attention and close hearing to his word. I must give my undivided attention to Jesus even in the midst of the sinful, noisy, tempting world in which I live. Jesus demands my focus on him. And  that's a good thing. If I look away, I stray and am lost. If I focus on Jesus and listen I can hear his will and way in daily living. I will stray. I will look away. But Jesus daily calls me back. Daily Jesus grants me forgiveness and a new direction.

Jesus tells me to bear my cross. It seems funny that when he placed this demand, Jesus had yet to carry his own cross to that new hill of God. A New Testament Hill of Calvary where, like years before at Mount Sinai, God broke through to us, with the Law, but on this hill, Jesus breaks through to us with grace and love beyond anything I could do for myself or ever earn on my own.  

In Jesus day, they all knew what carrying the cross was about. It was a familiar and cruel sight to see. Yet, I suppose today we see just as many cruel sights of death and destruction as well. So, as I follow Jesus my sinful desires clash with this demand from Jesus to carry my cross and die to myself for the final joy of the gift of resurrection that only Jesus can give as a sign of his triumph for me. As I consider being a disciple of Jesus I must be serious in the act of carrying my cross out, I must see and count the cost that Jesus took upon himself for me.

It's important that I listen. I want to listen. I want to hear. I want to obey. I want to focus and listen and follow. For in the following lies not only death but life and joy in a resurrection free for me because of  the great cost Jesus paid in his, life, death and resurrection.

In joy I listen, pick up the cross, focus, and follow. How can I do anything else? It's a love given at a great cost. 

And it's all there for everyone to receive.

Great Feast

 

So, it's easy for me to fall into the sin of believing that the world and all people should revolve around me and my needs. It's easy for me to expect God to forgive my sin and restore me to myself again as the center of it all. It's easy for me to think that when I approach that Great Feast to come, that God would call me forward to the table in honor with all the disciples, prophets and leaders of his kingdom. That's easy... but it's a fantasy.

I'm not the center. The world and all people do not revolve around me. I don't deserve honor at the table because of myself. I'm the sinner that deserves hell for the terrible sins I have committed. I'm the evil person that thinks that everyone should do my will in my way and for me. Rather, I'm the poor person in spirit and the needy person that needs a hand out. 

And all of this drives me to acknowledge. My lowliness is a celebration of gratitude that springs from the depth of my spirit to God. When God has given so much through the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, my lowliness jumps out from the reverence that I am a sinful man. Sinful yet God gives me the knowledge of sins forgiven. My sins that have been labeled as reason to be stoned and killed. 

But... I live in the surprise that God has called me to that Great Feast as one he favors. I am one that God dies for. One that God forgives. My heart breaks and is contrite. I am humbled in the presence of God... yet somehow, for some reason he exalts me. What love! 

What love God has for me and for you as well. That even in the midst of sin and the fire of hell, God would pull me out, call me and gift me to sit at the Table. To privilege me to be able to work in the Kingdom, here in this place and forever to come.

Lord, I give you thanks that you heal on the Sabbath or any other moment of time, for when you rested on that seventh day, my heart swelled in praise to the goodness you show your people. 

You didn't leave me uncured. You saw me as precious and healed me when everyone thought the time wasn't right. Yes, you took the chance and went against the grain to heal me on a sabbath. your day of rest and my day to give thanks and praise you and you alone.

Thanks be to God... today... tomorrow... and forever!

Baptism

 Today, I think of baptism. Jesus baptism in contrast to my baptism specifically. 

Both are a death to self. Jesus died in obedience to the Father's will.

It wasn't easy. Jesus was human too. I don't think he wanted death. I don't think he wanted the suffering and the pain. But he was obedient to the will of the Father. So, Jesus faced the baptism of death.

And then came those few days in the tomb of his death. Under the water so to speak. Dead to the world, yet being changed and brought to life, resulting in resurrection.

I live a lifetime of baptisms of a sort. Each day I must die to myself. None of this life is about me. But rather through the gift of baptism, I find my death to self, under that water, and I see only a life in God as I arise from the tomb of those waters, to see the Light of God shining brightly into my now open eyes. 

It never was about me  and my life. It was always about God and the life given to me... even in my sin and death and selfishness. God displays to me a division in my life lived to me and his life lived in me. 

A huge division! My life, lived for me, will only result in my death and eternal damnation. God's life lived in me results in my death to self, and a resurrection to life with, in and for God.

Only through God can I live. 

And I can expect it to take my lifetime to die to myself and my sinfulness each and every day. 

But in the end... it's God who gives me life eternal... nothing about myself.  Wonderfully, a love that God has for me... and for you. And it's all free!

Thanks be to God!

Three Sheets in the Wind

Acts 11:1-18 RSV

Now the apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” But Peter began and explained to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, something descending, like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came down to me. Looking at it closely I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘No, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brethren also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” When they heard this they were silenced. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life.”

Three Sheets in the Wind

Three times... three seems to be a common number in the Bible. And what did God say? What God makes clean is clean... even if it was once unclean. And that ain't common... not God's words but mine as I read it. And how did the unclean become cleansed. It wasn't due to what the unclean did... hey! wait a minute... that's me! I'm an Unclean Gentile animal of sorts. I didn't make myself clean. Only God can cleanse the unclean. And that is not common!

Then the Holy Spirit drops by. Maybe that the Wind in the Three Sheets. But don't take what I have to say here lightly. It's not in jest even though I'm making it to be. Because in the end... myself, perhaps you also and the Gentiles to which "God has granted repentance unto life."  are gathered together in that sheet dropped to this earth and taken back into heaven to be with God. And that IS a big deal. I am acceptable to God not because of me but because of God. I am cleansed in the waters of my baptism through the Holy Spirit and claimed by God. Claimed, even though I come unclean. For it is through God that I am cleansed. "If then God gave the same gift to them (me... you) as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?"

That believing in Jesus. As I recall my baptism... how can I help to not respond in belief?

Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Lord... you show me in your life and your ways how to believe. How can this common man be acceptable? Only through you. I give you all thanks and praise for what you have done for me and all humanity... today... tomorrow... and forever.

Amen

Father... "Give me to Jesus!"

 John 10:22-30

22 It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; 28 and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me,[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Jesus... walking in the Temple and under cover. It's winter after all and the Jews are commemorating the purification of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus. It's the 25th of Chislev... our November/December time frame. I think maybe Jesus had something to say as he walked in the temple. But Jesus was met by some Jewish hecklers who wanted it plain and clear from Jesus, "Are you the Christ, Jesus? Huh?" "Come on and tell it plain to us!" 

But Jesus turns it all on them to an issue of believing. Earlier in the book of John in chapter 5... Jesus was at another festival and it was the Sabbath. Jesus approaches a man who had been sick for some time and Jesus asks the man if he wants to be made well. Jesus tells  the man to get up... the man gets up and is well. The man believed in Jesus and he the man goes on to tell others that he was healed by Jesus. He heard the voice of Jesus and followed what Jesus told him to do.

Well... this started a ruckus with the Jews... it was the Sabbath and Jesus told the man to pick up his mat and go... it's against the law to pick up his mat on a Sabbath... but... but... when I believed in Jesus and did what he told me to do... look! I'm healed!

Jesus declares the the Jews then that the Father bears witness to the Son. The Father sent the Son. Believe! 

And so now, in this passage the Jews want it plain and clear. Are you the Christ? Tell us. 

And just as with the sick man, Jesus' reflects upon his works. It's Jesus works that saved the man and Jesus' works that save us as well. If you don't believe... then you aren't listening.

Jesus sheep know his voice... they believe in Jesus as the Messiah and they follow him. Just like the man with the mat on that Sabbath.

You see... God gives and God gives abundantly. And God gives you, me and all of us to Jesus. Will you believe in Jesus as the Messiah?

If so... listen to the Shepherd... take up your mat... believe... and follow the Shepherd's voice. 

How I love how God keeps it all so simple... dumb sheep that I am.

Thanks be to God!

Prayer

My Shepherd... thanks and praise to you for taking me in to yourself. Thanks and praise to you for calling my name. Thanks and praise to you for covering me in my weakness, my illness, my sinfulness to give me a rest in green pastures beside still waters. For it's your voice that calls, you know me. I believe in your work of love, your strength of will, your salvation that your have poured abundant living water into, onto and all over me in my life with you. You are the Lamb at the center of it all. As I listen to your voice, lead me today... tomorrow... and forever with you by my side to eternal life in you.

Amen.