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!