The Word: Shapes – Day 34
Seven Wonders of the Word
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” – 2 Timothy 3:14-15
About 20 years ago, (wow where did the time go) I was the Executive Director of the Wright County Historical Society. I had applied for this job at a time when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I had the same position at the Meeker County Historical Society, and well, there didn’t seem to be too much of a future in History for me at that time, so I was looking. I had applied, and interviewed, and didn’t hear anything from them for a time.
During that time, I received my call to enter the ministry and was preparing to go to the seminary. As things would happen they called and offered me the job. Ugggg… now what do to. Well I told them no and thought that was that. They called back, and offered to be flexible if I wanted to go to school part time they would work with my schedule. So, it seemed to be a perfect deal.
The rest of that story may show up at some time, but what got me thinking about this was a display we had set up and a certain visitor to the museum. One day I was working on the “Nelsonian” a brilliant one-man band contraption that used pneumatic pressure to operate over 30 instruments. A gentleman came up to me as I was working and inquired about this display. We talked for a bit, and at some juncture he asked me if I was “saved.” I said well, yes, I was and he became quite effusive!
He pulled out his wallet and produced a tattered cardboard card with a date in the 70’s some time. This was his conversion date; this is when he became a “real” Christian. He asked when I was saved and I stopped and thought for a moment, and said, “February 12, 1964 I think, for that was the day I was baptized by my Grandpa Braaten in Elk River Minnesota. We then got into a conversation about that, which I think he didn’t see eye to eye with me.
The point is this; I have never not known that I was a child of God. I have had my moments of doubt, of denial, of struggle, but in hindsight even in those moments, God didn’t love me any less. I have even my moments of less than stellar faithfulness been a saved and loved child of God. I have never had what I call a “poof bang” conversion experience.
There have been times when I envy those who have had such times in their lives, great moments of clarity about life and faith. But I it seems I have something they don’t, I have been blessed with a consistency, an on going and blooming relationship with Jesus Christ. He has always been there where I was looking for him or not. Walking with me shaping me, and guiding me. This doesn’t mean I haven’t had my struggles, made bad choices, and all the rest, its just that I have never been alone. There were times when I felt that way, but in hind sight, I have no other explanation other than that God has been faithful with me even when I was less that perfect in my own faith.
I give thanks for my parents and others who have kept me in their prayers, who have witnessed to me what to what God has done and continues to do in their lives and in mine even as I continue to be shaped and loved into the image of Christ I first received in my baptism. It seems like that old “Nelsonian” my life too has been powered pneumatically, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Word: Shapes – Day 32
Seven Wonders of the Word
“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” – John 8:31-32
I never saw the movie “A Few Good Men” but I saw the trailers, I have seen a number of spoof’s of Jack Nicholson’s character bellowing out the line… “you can’t handle the truth!” There is if you will pardon me, some truth in that line. It’s not that we can’t handle the truth, its very often we don’t want to. When the truth is known, we lose control, we fear that the house of cards that we have constructed to give us the illusion of freedom will come tumbling down if the truth is truly known.
When Jesus speaks to his disciples, those who had been following them, he was laying bare the illusions that we cling to, that the world and our lives are all about us, that we are the boss, that we have everything in control. I think that is why Jesus addresses those who follow him in this way. To know the truth the real truth is to be exposed to its fullest in relationship to the God of all creation, nothing hidden, nothing reserved, we are fully connected to the Word and in being so known, we are free. Free to be who God created us to be in the first place. The problem is that often we are tempted to be something else, something we think we are supposed to be.
These things, the expectations of what truth is, can be imposed on us by family, culture, friends and even religion itself and we cling to them thinking that we will be truly free if we only… But Jesus points out a little later in John that he is in fact THE TRUTH. It is by connecting to him in relationship, fully known, totally exposed good and bad, that we find that we are loved with a love that not even death can defeat. When we cling to that love, when we draw our strength from that relationship we find that the Word shapes us and guides us into the fullness of truth and life and freedom.
Yes, I know connecting seems to be the opposite of freedom, but we all connect to something, we all align ourselves in some fashion or another, there is no such thing as a freedom apart, there is only freedom within. Jesus tells his disciples then as he does us today that if we want to know the truth, then we need to remain, or dwell in relationship with him and in him we are connected with the fullness of God.
When we are so connected, we find that we are free to live, free to love, free to serve, free to be who we really are, not just what we think we are, or what we think we need to be. The key here is where do you draw your strength from? Is it from the Word, or is it from yourself or other things that appeal to your sense of freedom? Jesus tells us that if we stay connected if we continue in all things we will be made truly free, all other ideas of freedom are forms of bondage, and in that light we very well might not be able to handle the truth. The truth of Christ, will change you, and maybe that is why we struggle with it. We like our own little self defined worlds, but Jesus doesn’t let you stay there with yourself as the center of the universe. The truth calls us beyond what we define ourselves as and into the fullness of what God has created us to be. Often we might squint deeply once we see, but it is in the light of God’s love for us that we not only can handle the truth, we can grow and flourish in this life and in our lives for others and be truly free.
This truth will change you.
The Word: Sustains – Day 27
Seven Wonders of the Word
“Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all the people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” – Isaiah 40:5
What first comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “the glory of the Lord?”
Honestly, I struggle with this a little.
Years ago I would hear the word “glory” and the context in which it is used, as in the glory of the Lord, and my thoughts turned to the epic! Something large, grand, a full blown phenomenon, that would be the glory of the Lord. I know that works of art, music and the architecture of churches and grand cathedrals was meant to evoke the glory of the Lord and that rational buys into the epic-ness of God’s glory.
Sun beam, check; clouds, check; mountains, check... Must be the glory of the Lord!
Go and Google “glory of the Lord” and do an image search, you will get lots of pictures of clouds and the sun shining through clouds in those epic pictures! You will find gold and images of nature and of strength.
While I have been dually inspired by epic, and I can see where the glory of the Lord can and often does have that awesome nature to it, as I grow older, I think I also see the glory of the Lord shown in much more mundane circumstances.
Take a look at Jesus, he is the fullness of the glory of God, yet this Savior was born in a manger, grew up in a normal working class household, lived and worked among the well to do and the run of the mill and even the dregs of society and finally died on a plain old wooden cross. In most ways not very epic like at all.
The glory of the Lord in my experience is found where God meets us in our daily life. It is in those small moments when we get to see the Kingdom of God break into the upside down world in which we live. When the poor are treated with respect, when the widow and the orphan are cared for, when we are for the neighbor, what Christ is for us.
Glory of the Lord? Anyone... Anyone...
I think if we miss the glory of the Lord it is because we are looking up, we are looking for fireworks and epicness, when in fact it is most likely found by looking around to see what God is up to in your life and in the lives of those around you.
Take a look around you can you see the glory of the Lord? Where is God calling you today to love as you have first been loved? If you can see that, you see the glory of the Lord.
The Word: Saves – Day 23
Seven Wonders of the Word
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us… full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14
Words do stuff.
In a word; if a word is to be what a word is, then that word must do what it says it does.
Clear?
Ok, its like that illustration from My Fair Lady, when Eliza plaintively cry’s out to Freddy, “if you’re in love, show me!” Sometimes we misuse words, we misunderstand them or just plain old abuse their actual meaning, because when it comes down to it the word doesn’t do what it says it does…
In Christ Jesus, God comes to us incarnate; that is the love of God becomes solid, flesh and bone, that is what the word incarnate means. What it does, what love really is, can be seen not only in the word, but most clearly in THE Word.
In what God has done for us in Christ we see the depths of his love, we see the fullness of God’s love for us. On the cross God’s love was lifted up for all to see. Did God have to do this? Is this the only way God could have worked? I really don’t know, but what I understand in faith is that this is the way God chose to work, so that we might not only hear the words that God loves us, but that we might also see that God’s love for us.
In the flesh God came to us so that we might know we are loved and in that love know that we are saved by the Word.
What word do you need to speak and show today so that someone might know they are loved? I am not talking about bribing your children or who ever, so they might think you love them, but what acts of self giving love might you show them to reflect the love of God for you and all people into their lives. I have found most often the thing that can show someone this love, is not a thing at all really. It is seeking to know them, it is being there for them, it is taking the time to be present, to be love incarnate for the other, as God in Christ is for all of us. Impossible? Maybe by ourselves, but in Christ we have love incarnate that is there for us, may the Word be made real in you today!
C-3PO
If you are not a Sci-Fi fan, maybe C-3PO just looks like an odd jumble of letters and an number. But for Star Wars fan’s C-3PO is well known as a protocol droid (robot) central to all of the Star Wars movies. You may not know this but there is a new animated Star Wars series call the “Clone Wars.” I don’t get to watch it often, but my son does! Recently I saw a blurb for an episode that fits out theme pretty well it was simply called, Trespass.
As I mentioned yesterday as we look at the petition “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” sins, debts, or trespasses, they all work to do the heaving lifting.
God is better at dealing with trespasses than we are!
I guess I have been partial to trespasses as that is the word I grew up using. But I like it for other reasons. To trespass put most simply is to go someplace we do not belong. If you think about it is a perfect word for what we do, cross boundaries, we play gods all the time. The boundaries we cross are not just in relation to God either, we cross boundaries in each other’s lives all the time.
Getting back to C-3PO… It seems people are trespassing all over the place, because of greed, or pride or who knows what. So in an effort to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help — and finds his fluency in more than six million forms of communication to be most useful.
C-3PO and Luke Skywalker... more than a Sci-Fi movie?
There is only one language we need to understand when it comes to sin, debts and trespasses and that is the language of forgiveness. The debts we pile up, the sin we commit, and the boundaries we cross as we trespass are impossible for us to pay off. The Good News is that God has indeed wiped out our sins and has communicated this in the most concrete of ways in the gift of his Son Jesus the Christ.
A little now on forgiveness… Some have taken Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” as a conditional clause. If it is we are all in some serious doo doo. No, as I have prayed and studied this prayer I have heard in these words both an example and a goal. We are to forgive as God in Christ has already forgiven us. That is the promise of baptism, that is the promise of Jesus. We have the purest form of forgiveness laid out for us here, this is the example. Secondly this is also our goal, we are called to become what we already are in Christ Jesus, as we learn to forgive as we have first been forgiven.
Finally I must speak to our forgiveness of others. As our devotions stated, it is indeed a two way street. Often people who have been hurt quite badly struggle with the issue of forgiveness. This is an honest an faithful struggle not a sign of weakness. We need to learn, heal and grow from experiences where we will be called upon to forgive. It may not come quickly, it may not become perfectly, but this is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,”
Spiderman and the will of God
I have been slaving away on my sermon for this weekend. Ok, slaving away is an exaggeration, as my daughter said; “and watching Spiderman 3 helped you write your sermon?” The kid has learned well from her parents 
Our devotions today continued to focus on the will of God particularly focused on the loving kindness part. It seems so simple, but I was reminded after watching Spiderman 3 (gotcha!) how often can we look into the face of ugliness of the world; hate, fear, violence, revenge, hunger, injustice, and pain and not curl in on ourselves in self protection? Loving kindness demands vulnerability, it calls for us to step out into this world to do God’s will not necessarily our will. We do ask in this prayer that God’s will becomes ours even as he strengthens us by his life giving spirit each day.
In doing my prep work for the sermon I came upon this next piece. It didn’t really fit the particular direction I was going but it is too good not to use someplace. It was attributed to a Dr. Ted Loder, from his book, GUERRILLAS OF GRACE. I hope it blesses you.
Humbly-mumbly
Ahhhh… peace and quiet. I love Wednesdays in Lent. Oh sure you say “because of mid-week worship, or is it the soup, bread and pie you had for supper?” Ok, fine, those things are a part of it, but what I love most is now… after all that. In the still quiet of the evening, I am alone in my house. The kids are at youth group, my wife is at choir and it is just me and the cats and right now they are not being demanding, it is lovely.
I didn’t get to the devotions earlier in the day; they had to keep until now. But it was worth it. I sat and read, undistracted, and unhurried in absolute quiet. Listening to what Micah 6:8 was whispering in my ear. Oh, I love this passage, have for years, I have read it over and over again. I have used it for devotions, sermons and to try and focus junior high kids on what it means to walk, live and breathe the Christian life.
It all sounds so simple, “God has told you, O mortal, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Easy, right? It is all laid right out there, no complicated directions, and no long list of rules just do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Piece of cake I can do that! Oh…humbly, humbly now… oh, that’s right… humbly…
How often do we get in the way of doing justice, or if not outright obstructing justice, just plain old not stepping out and doing it?
How often do we get in the way of loving kindness? I mean who has a problem with being kind, well except of course to those people who don’t deserve kindness, surely God can’t be talking about them?
How often do we, when we actually get around to doing justice and loving kindness, creep ever so slowly into the “look at me” mode of existence?
Our devotions ask, what if everyone who is a Christian and who prays the Lord ‘s Prayer and says the words “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” actually did the will of God in doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. In fact it states these points should shape our every action as a congregation, church and individuals.
I can’t argue with that, but I do know people, well, at least a little bit. I know that what I consider to be justice isn’t always what God would consider justice, what I consider to be kindness, is not always the kindness that God expects. Then there is that whole issue of remaining humble, I am not going there!
The brokenness of sin raises its ugly head once again, and I have a choice to make, I can either be crushed by the overwhelming demands that these three little statements place upon me, or I can lift up my eyes to the cross of Christ, and dust off the self pity and self centeredness and trust that I and all who are baptized are all becoming what we already are in Jesus Christ. I think that each day I need to “lift my eyes to the hills” and with the cross in full view ask God to guide me as I see to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with him as I seek to God’s will each step of each day.
There… got that done, no one is home yet and I am going to sit here in the silence for a while and just soak it up!
Love as a way of life
I have 12 weddings this summer, not a ton, but a fair number. At some point when I sit down with each couple during the pre-marriage council sessions I will tell them my philosophy on love. That is quite simply, love is not simply an emotion, or a feeling, at its core love is a way of life, love takes effort, love is the hardest work you will ever do and it is worth it!
It’s not that I don’t go in for romance, but we don’t need to go there today. But think about love even in a romantic context. It still takes work. Someone has to prepare a lovely evening on the town; clear the schedule, make the phone call to reserve a spot at the restaurant, by the tickets for the play, call the baby sitter, and the list goes on… even romance is hard work my friends!
In the book of faith Lenten Journey devotions today we continue looking at what life in the kingdom is like. Love is the norm, our devotions say that “the rule of God is the rule of love.” They go on to talk about the scribe who asks what the greatest commandment is and Jesus responds first love God and second to love your neighbor as yourself. The scribe is then gets just bubbly about how great Jesus is… and Jesus replies you are not far from the kingdom of God. (Mark 12:28-34)
I really like what comes next so I will put it here verbatim. “Not far? Why not in? Perhaps because Jesus saw a difference between knowing the right answers and living the right answers. The distance between “not far” and “in” is the distance between talking about love and loving.”
That distance can be huge for us. Loving as a way of life is hard work. As I read these devotions to day a photo I saw on the net someplace came to mind and through the power of Google… I found it.
It reminds me of Paul’s words in Romans 12 “No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
To love the co-worker who has stabbed you in the back, to love the family member who over and over and over again has broken your heart is hard work. It is the work of a way of life, it never really ends. Jesus never said life in the kingdom would be easy. In fact he sort of promises the opposite. But as we journey through lent we are reminded that in God loves us so much that he gave his only Son so that we might live in his love.
I take comfort in my stuff
The title of today’s entry comes from the band Hocus Pick called the “Comfort Song.” Honestly I don’t know to many Americans that are huge fans of Hocus Pick, they were a Christian Rock band from Canada, a collection of odd balls, with a sharp whit, and wry sense of humor. So naturally, I like 
them!
The main chorus in the comfort song is “I take comfort in my stuff.” I have to admit, I have a deep and passionate connection with my stuff. I like to think that I have a healthy relationship with my stuff, but it can get in the way some times.
In our book of faith Lenten Journey devotions today we continued our look at the phrase “Your kingdom come…” We touched a bit on a topic I think we will revisit when we get to the “daily bread” part. But life in the kingdom is about also about trusting in God’s rule.
We worry and fret about so much, ourselves, our family, our job, our future our past, yaddi yaddi yadda… you name it we can in fact worry about it. Today we worry about our stocks, our retirement funds, our jobs and our mortgages. Now don’t get me wrong, we are not to be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it were, blissfully ignorant to the pain that is around us, but our devotions do ask us to think about an interesting question. “Is it true that we need much less than we have to live a happy, meaningful life?”
I think the answer, at least for me is yes. Often I find that my stuff gets in the way of happiness rather than promoting it. I worry about my stuff and I worry that I won’t be able to get more stuff. But Jesus asks us to trust in God for what we need.
Need, now there is the kicker… I need very little of what I actually have. I don’t need 10 guitars, but I have them, I need one, maybe two… aw dang there it is creeping up on me again! I have a house full of stuff, I have stuff in the garage, I don’t even use. My defence is always, well I might need it at some point so, there it sits unused in my garage.
Jesus comes to us and lets us know that God has provided for all we need (see Matthew 6:25-31). In fact there is one thing that is truly need-full. “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt 6:33)
The problem is that enough never seems to be enough. The first verse of the “Comfort Song” goes this way: “I put my comfort in my stuff. The more I get, well it’s never quite Enough Life without it would be really rough I put my comfort in my stuff.”
In this light, my question is: in this day of mortgage crisis, job loss, and family strife, do we dare trust that God will provide enough? Do we step out to share out of our abundance so that the kingdom will come among us even as we pray, “your kingdom come…”
Until the Cows come home
As a kid I remember grownups using the phrase “until kingdom come” when something was going to take forever to happen or would happen forever. Perhaps the only phrase that was used in this context more often was the famous “until the cow’s come home.” For example “Oh that Johnny can stack bales until the cows come home.” Ok, maybe that belies my mostly rural up bringing but the point is this, when the phrase “until kingdom come” was used it meant a forever or distant kind of thing.
“Oh, that won’t happen until kingdom comes.” Old timers don’t have a corner on this phrase either, I have seen it in the words of songs by Cold Play and Kamelot … “For you i’d wait til kingdom comes,” and “I’ll follow my heart until kingdom comes.” Very romantic I ‘spose, but in reality… the kingdom is in fact not that far off, which sort of dampens all that mushy stuff.
You see, when we pray “your kingdom come on earth as in heaven” in the Lord’s prayer we need to recognize that God’s kingdom does in fact come to us long before the cows come home.
God’s kingdom, is present in heaven, yes, true and very important to remember. But we must also remember as we pray this petition that God’s kingdom comes now even as we pray this prayer, in the here and now.
God’s kingdom isn’t just a far off thing, it is indeed here and now present among us. I have seen this kingdom, it shows up in little ways and in big ways each day. It is present when as people of faith we live our lives in a Godly way… not just singing nicely in church, but fueled by the Holy Spirit to bring that very kingdom into our lives and into the lives of others around us in loving service.
Does God rule in your life? We might cringe at this thought. We don’t much like people even God to rule over us. To that end I have a couple questions for you to ponder. Do you see God ruling like a despot, yelling out rules and punishing every chance God gets. Or do you see the rule of God as the Lord’s prayer teaches us, like a loving parent who can admonish, but also reassures, blesses and guides us each day until God’s kingdom comes fully?
Finally, what does Gods kingdom look like to you? Do you see it? If not what gets in the way? If you do see it, what enables you to see such a sight?
