Lead us not?
OK, sports fans, we have changed petitions. We are now on to the 6th petition of the Lord’s prayer, the ever popular, “lead us not into temptation” or the more contemporary “save us from the time of trial.” 
Either way you phrase it, I am for it. I have never been much for trials and quite frankly temptation… well that is just too darn tempting.
Seriously to the best of my memory, this is one of the first theological humdingers I wrestled with. As a comedian once noted, “lead us not into temptation, pffftt… I get there just fine on my own!”
Honestly this was the phrase that got me thinking, ok, well maybe one of the things that got me thinking. Does God lead people into temptation… certainly not, does God allow us to go through trials, ummm…. well I think the answer would have to be yes?
Way to make a stand there Mr. I have a Masters in Divinity!
Testing and temptation do happen. I think we will always struggle to some degree on God’s role in this. Ultimately we do have to remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.
“So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
Our hope is that even if we are tested, and tempted God will not let it go beyond our capacity to endure.
In other words I believe this passage is there not as a theological statement about how God works in trials and temptations, but to reassure use that God is for us in all things. The Message puts the end of the 1 Corinthians verse this way… Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. When we pray this prayer and this petition, we are asking to grow our God-confidence.
Luther in his explanation of this petition lists “despair” as a temptation that we as God to protect us from. This struck me as odd for the longest time. That is until I was getting ready to preach on this petition last week and I came across something that listed despair as the opposite of pride. Now pride we know what a temptation that can be, but despair?
I have no idea what this is doing here... I searched for time of trial and came up with this!
Well think of it this way, if the sin of pride is that we feel that can do it on our own, we are god like and do not need God or his salvation. Then the sin of despair is that we are good for nothings that not even God can love or save. Both are real situations, I have seen them from inside and observed them in others. I think it is important to stress that we are not talking about depression here per se, but a sense of worthlessness, of un-lovedness. In this prayer we pray “save us from the time of trial, or Lead us not into temptation” ultimately I think we are asking God to walk with us each step of the way growing our “God-confidence” as we seek to become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
Yo Playa!
Quick, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you read the word prodigal?
Don’t answer… check out this list of um… adjectives…
Wasteful, reckless, dissolute, profligate, uncontrolled, spendthrift, squanderer, self-indulgent, immoral, and debauched.
Take those words, especially debauched, dissolute and profligate (my personal favorites) and line them up with this picture.
The picture is “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt.
Do they match? Were any of those words the first word on your mind when you read the word prodigal? Most likely not.
In all honesty being a prodigal looks a little more like this… With my apologies to Zac Efron… (I guess that is this guys name) a prodigal is a fast living low life that cares only for self… notice I didn’t say himself… this adjective knows no gender.
Why the confusion with this word? I think it is because of the out come of the story. In the love of God and the example of Christ, we have almost turned the word prodigal into a nice word.
The point of this story is in fact not the prodigal, well at least primarily. I would venture to guess that at various times in your life as in mine, we have been the prodigal son, the party animal friends hanging on as long as the good times last, the older brother who gets bent out of shape and in our best moments we have been the father waiting with open arms and running out to grab in a loving embrace those who have sinned against us even when they were far off.
We play these roles not only in family. It happens at work, it happens in politics. Tony Campolo talked about it in his recent blog entry. When he referenced the current grumblings about the economic programs offered by our president toward those who seemingly prodigally loaned money to people who couldn’t pay it back!
As I mentioned before often when something goes wrong and we are harmed or some how damaged, we want our pound of flesh. But into this world Jesus tells us “Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13)
When I searched google images for prodigal I found no examples of slime balls, of high rollers or playa’s, instead I found images like the Rembrandt above and this one.
I think this is a good thing. For when we think of prodigal God’s forgiveness and reconnection go hand in hand. As we pray Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, we know there is a comfort there, and while we may trespass into areas we don’t belong, God is waiting for us to return and while we are far off he reaches out in love for you and me. Lord may we continue to grow in love and forgiveness even as we become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
Jr. High Madness!
Tonight was our Jr. High lock in… Thank God for Ben and the group leaders who are staying up so I can go to bed by one… and get up by six, which means 5 more hours of sleep than they are getting. Tonight we looked at sacraments; Holy Communion and Baptism.
The focus of these is well, forgiveness… kinda neat how this all fits together. We are given these gifts, promises from God attached to earthly elements and the command to “do this” not as a burden, but as a blessing.
One thing that has filled my head lately is the difference between being right and being in right relationship. I can be right about something and my relationship with others can be way wrong. Now I am not saying you need to abandon your moral compass… but what I am saying is you can stress your rightness, or you can let the road of right relationship bring you to a place of forgiveness and healing where you being right isn’t at the core.
Put it this way… Sin is real, and as Paul says “the wages of sin is death.” Then we God would be right in toasting the whole lot of us. But God chooses right relationship and so sends his Son, so that all might have life. Right relationship costs more, takes more time and the out come well, from our vantage point the outcome is in question. So for us we would much rather be right, and sometimes that boils down to the old, eye for an eye justice.
God doesn’t have the same limitations we have and so sees the whole picture. It is in this vision that Jesus commands us to forgive as God has first forgiven us.
Well the communion bread is about ready to come out of the oven for Holy Communion before breakfast, and I am shot! So… if any of the above makes sense, wonderful, if I have erred in any way, or if I have stated a heretical position, please don’t call my bishop, forgiveness might be in order.
Be careful if you are on the roads in Reedsburg, WI tomorrow morning at 6:30ish… a groggy pastor with fresh Communion bread will be on his ay to church!
Debt Relief
Finally we move off of daily bread to… “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Umm…oh, oh… can I go back to Twinkies?
Forgiveness… sin this is big stuff. Our devotions dive into the deep end of the pool by tackling the word that causes much fuss amongst us Christians. Is it sins, debts or trespasses? There has been a lot of heat and light generated about which word “ought” to be used here, but I think they all have their place.
First off I would like to say that the statement about forgiveness is a two-way street is dead on. Forgiveness can never happen in a total vacuum. Forgiveness is at the relational core of who we are. God forgives us and we in turn are enabled to forgive as we have been forgiven. More about this later…
But for today what are we being forgiven from? Sins? That is the word we use at St. John when we pray the Lord’s prayer and I am good with that. Trespasses, that is the old school word that I used for most of my 45 years on this planet, and I am good with that word too. Then there is 
debt. Um…. as the cool kids say, I am not down with that word. Ok, that isn’t exactly right… I just wanted to say “I wasn’t down with something…never mind…
Ahem..I understand that “technically” the word used in the versions of the Lord’s Prayer we have in scripture use the Greek word that means in English “debts.” But as so often happens our little English word can’t carry the intended weight of the word. I am not going to go into detail here if you want to know more let me know and it may come back up again as we devote our way through the week… moving on…
I guess my thought is while the devotions go on about “debts” I fear that we too often feel that “debt” is something we can handle on our own. The devotions rightfully point out that our debt to God is so great that we cannot pay it. My problem comes when he starts talking about what we “owe” God.
Well, in fact, I “o
we” God everything. But I cannot pay for any of it. I am the spiritual equivalent of the mortgage crisis! Yes, I have debt, no I cannot pay it off, it is paid for me in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For that, I live, love and struggle to live my life, not in paying back, but in fact as one big thank you note to God.
If we think that living the Christian life is paying God back for the forgiveness he has already shown us, don’t we work ourselves into a pickle? If we could in fact pay any of it back why did Jesus Christ come, why did he have to die, couldn’t he just set up a toll free number and have sin debt councilors set up a plan for re-payment?
I guess I do understand the authors point that whenever we go against God’s will for us we rack up more debt and maybe the harder we try to pay it off the deeper in debt we get. The Good News is that in Christ we are free, the debt has been
paid, canceled… wiped out! Having thus (I love that word… thus!) been forgiven we give thanks to God even as we try to forgive as we have first been forgiven!
Snickers?
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Ho! I never quite understood why the translators insisted on keeping that phrase… I mean do you know anyone who says “HO?!? Other translations I have read begin with an invitation… Come, or phrase it as a question “Is anyone thirsty?”… now that makes sense! Maybe re-enactors on a Wild West dude ranch say HO!….but… ok sorry, just a minor rant!
We continue our look at the petition “Give us today our daily bread.” The book of faith devotional again stress’ that too much can be made of bread. We gorge ourselves on sweets and junk food both the stuff you put in your mouth and the stuff we continually stuff into our lives. We are a people looking for satisfaction, there is something missing in our lives, often whether we realize or not, we are always seeking to fill that void. I really like Augustine’s quote “God you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”
Our whole culture is geared toward filling that God shaped hole in our hearts and lives. Remember that “Snickers” campaign from a couple years back… “Snickers… its what really satisfies!” Well if this is so… why as one old soul put it “do they make a king sized version?”
Jesus is the bread of life, he is the vine that supplies what is needed so that we might have life. Apart from Jesus we can gorge ourselves on the finest things in this world and we will find ourselves only temporarily satiated. The hunger will return, but when we are grafted onto the vine of life, Jesus Christ we find that we a filled with daily bread and more.
The Candy Jar
Today our devotions mentioned that “It is possible to make too much of bread.” I am not so sure of that. It also mentioned that it is very easy to confuse our needs and our wants. That statement I have no problem with at all!
Is it indeed possible to make too much of bread, well I am sure if you worked at it, yes it would be. However, you would have to limit the understanding of “daily bread” and carry it to the extreme! However, I have already talked about the fact that bread is whatever we need for life. That is not limited to our physical needs. Daily bread also includes God’s word and will for our life. In this case I don’t think you can make too much of bread. Is God abundant with daily bread, yes. It is ours to hoard, to keep as signs of special blessing, I don’t think so… If we were to get what we deserved, we would get so very little. But God… well…
The following is my version of a story I read someplace, but I think it gets to my point of God’s gracious providing in all things and our need to share those gifts.
One fine day a young boy went shopping with his mother bef
ore going to play with his freinds. In one old fashioned boutique the mother shopped as the young boy did his best to keep his fingers off of things. The shop keeper noticed the boy and offered him a handful of candy from a large jar on the counter.
The mother nodded her approval, but the young boy didn’t make a move. Again the shop keeper offered the glass jar filled with treats to the boy, and the mother added her verbal approval saying “go ahead hun’ take some candy.” But still the boy didn’t take any candy.
They shop keeper asked the boy: “you like candy don’t you?” in reply the boy rapidly shook his head in the affirmative. So at last the shop keeper reached in the jar himself and pulled out a handful of candy, put it in a little sack and gave it to the young man who was grinning from ear to ear.
On the way home the mother asked the young boy “why didn’t you take the candy when the shop keeper offered it to you?”
The young boy replies, “Mom! My hands are very small and if I took the candy, I could only take a few, but you see how many I got when the shop keeper used his big hands, now I can share them with everyone!
So the point of this lovely little story… When we take we may get a little. But when God gives… He gives us more than we can imagine or hold. However, we are not called to horde our gifts, we are called to use our hands to share out of the abundance God graciously gives so that all might have their daily bread!
A loaf of bread, a hunk of cheese a can of lemonade and thou…
Perhaps one of the most memorable meals I have ever eaten, was not so much of a meal as it was all we could scrounge up at the time. Kristi and I had just flown into London and taken the train into town to try and find our hotel. It was a long trip, and I was wedged between the bulkhead behind me and a lady who insisted on reclining her seat. On the best of flights things are tight, but by the time we got to London, I had the two semi-permanent divots in my knee caps from the little metal bars on the seat back in front of me. Anyway… once we landed we were ready to begin our adventure. So, with luggage in tow… we wondered out of the train station and on to the streets of the first foreign country we had ever been in. Fine, I know its England and they speak English, more or less, but still!
Anyway we were trying to get our bearings and after wondering around a bit, we were still lost, but we or at least I discovered I was very hungry! So 
we found a little shop just off the Thames, bought what we thought we could afford for dinner, it amounted to a Baguette, a hunk of cheese and a big can of a lemonade-y type drink. We walked back up to the river and ate and looked and soaked it all in.
Glamorous? Not really, it was London, not Paris! Memorable? Absolutely! Would I have remembered this if I was all by myself, well maybe, but what made it really memorable was that I was with my wife!
As we looked at daily bread in our book of faith devotions today it brought up the fellowship aspect of our daily bread. It talked about all those people Jesus ate with, and the somewhat interesting fact that most of the people Jesus ate with were not, how shall I say this, hmmm… well they were people your mother would most likely frown upon you hanging out with.
Yet, these were the very people the Gospels tell us over and over again that Jesus actually invited and accepted invitations from, to share meals. There is a whole ton of cultural stuff that “breaking bread” brings with it in Jesus day and ours, and I am not going into it here. But suffice it to say many of the memories about what Jesus taught and where he taught it, revolved around food. Then there are all the comparisons between heaven and the most outrageous all you can eat buffet that you have ever seen! The best part is that everyone is invited.
With that in mind, think about the most memorable meals you have ever had. Who was there, what made them memorable. Have you had a memorable meal because someone was there that you would rather not have eaten with? How does it make you feel that person has an invitation to the heavenly banquet just like you?
Ok, more questions than anything else today, but it is Friday, my lap top is giving me fits, but the question mark key still works well! Blessings!
Built-in Time Machines
We all have things that evoke strong memories. Sights, smells, songs… other words that begin with s… um… well you get the point, we all have triggers that act as time travel devices. Once you experience one of these triggers you are instantly transported back in time.
For me one of those triggers is this picture. No matter where we lived for years this picture hung next to our dining room table. I cannot see this picture and not remember meals shared and time spent with my family.
The official name of this picture is “Grace” as in saying grace, before your meal. But it has another name as well, and it is “Daily Bread.” The themes of thanksgiving and daily bread are tightly interwoven and right fully so, but daily bread means more than just being thankful.
Our book of faith – 40 day Lenten devotions today say that as we pray “give us this day our daily bread” it begs the question, about “our” bread. We do not ask for my bread, but that our daily bread would be 
granted. So what does the our mean for you.
Frankly I think our devotions over play the justice side of this a bit. That doesn’t mean I don’t see injustices in how daily bread is handled they do exist. But when they equate this justice matter to a sacramental level by comparing it to Holy Communion, I am troubled. These lines from the devotions got me thinking: “Everyone regardless of his or her station of life, gets the same small piece of bread, the same small cup of wine. The “haves” do not get the whole loaf while the “have-nots” get the crumbs, as so often happens in the world outside the church.”
Um…I don’t get the cup nor the bread at many houses of worship. God’s justice is bigger than our human understanding of this sacrament, this wonderful gift.
You can argue that our Lord’s intent is that everyone of his baptized children should receive communion, and I believe that to be true, but it doesn’t work that way.
So in comparing the justice of “daily bread” to how humans actually handle this gift from God, may not work so well. I don’t have a complete answer to this… it is a struggle.
But in all these things I trust that God does in fact supply my daily bread, your daily bread, and daily bread for all of creation. I guess my simple prayer is that I might not get in the way of God doing what God does out of Love for all he has made, and if I am lucky, I just might get to be a part of providing others their daily bread.
Buzzie and flaps are talk’n theology.
Conflict of Interest
One of the great perks of being a parent is that you get to watch children’s’ movies, with no social judgment. Not only do you get to watch the current ones, you get to re-watch the ones you might have seen when you were a kid. I know I watched “The Jungle Book” when I was a kid, most likely on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as I have no idea where the closest movie theater might have been. Anyway… I don’t remember it being particularly funny as a kid, but there are lines in that movie that as an adult, I find a riot! One of those lines is a dialog between the buzzards as they hang out on branch. It
goes like this:
Buzzie: Hey, Flaps, So what are we gonna do?
Flaps: I dunno. What’cha wanna do?
And on and on it goes… It is perhaps only funny, because; as an adult I can’t think of the times when there wasn’t anything on our schedule and my wife has turned and said to me “So David, what’cha wanna do? And I say I dunno. What’cha wanna do? And on and on it would go!
Today we continued the look at the “your will be done” phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. I have found often that it isn’t that we don’t know what God’s will is, it is just usually, we have other ideas. These ideas are not on the surface evil, or even bad, but they are not always God’s will. I mean, how many times have you turned to God in prayer and said, “What’cha wanna do?” Well…
Technically every time we say the Lord’s Prayer that is what we are doing, but do we really mean the words we are saying? Our devotions say we should take a look at Paul’s words in Philippians 2:4-7.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
If God’s will is that we empty ourselves and serve others, to have the same mind as Christ Jesus we may hit re-dial and ask “um… are you sure that’s what you want us to do?” In this world of “look out for Number 1,” and “you deserve a break today,” we are called to care for the other. Every Christian, from the smallest to the tallest, pastors, plumbers, homemakers, the whole lot of us are all in this together.
It seems like a pretty big conflict of interest. Our will vs. God’s will. God’s will seems to be a pretty big challenge, it can seem so much easier to go with our own will and hope that God doesn’t mind too much. But Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray “your will be done, if it isn’t too much of a bother for me.”
The good news is that six verses later Paul writes “It is God, who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure”
Wow! God is at work in us! That is news we all need to hear. We are not doing this on our own, it is not just a human thing, it is a God thing, and that is why we can pray with confidence “your will be done.”
Can’t get it out of my head
We went to the Choraliers Home Show yesterday; they are a show choir and managed to squish CATS into a 25 minute show. They did a really good job, but the whole event was over three hours long because the Junior High show choir performed and they had “features” in which the kids did their solo and ensemble pieces. Thus the length of show, which for me is a long haul on a Sunday afternoon! One of the songs, is one of my least favorite of all time… “Send in the Clowns.” I just can’t stomach the song. Well, as it would happen, my dear wife couldn’t get that song out of her head today… it nearly drove both of us nuts!
I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t had that happen. A song, one you like or if you are unlucky, one you are not overly fond of, sticks in your head and you just can’t shake it! Why this happens is a mystery, but it is usually a song you heard quite often. I have a number of songs like this.
One song that gets stuck in my head from time to time was one that was in heavy rotation back when I was a kid in Sunday School. “The will know we are Christians by our love.” Today in our devotions it talks about walking humbly with God, “then God’s will must be that those of us who are doing just that help others get to the same place.” We call this evangelism. But for many evangelism has gotten a bad rap.
There is a phrase that goes “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” Back when I was in High School, there was a kid in choir that had a tee-shirt that said “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t hunt id down and kill it.” Ok, maybe it is kind of sad, but I thought it was funny at the time and still do a little because it just shows us how upside down we have it. Evangelism isn’t about dragging someone to God’s saving love kicking and screaming, it is about bring them good news for that is what the word evangelism really means. Evangelism isn’t coercion, it isn’t about power or authority, it is basically “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
One quote I also love that speaks to this loving spreading of the good news is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi who said “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” Walking humbly with God does not mean we are to be bull horns for Christ, we are to show God’s love in our daily love for the other. Our devotions quoted Mother Theresa saying we are all “a little pencil in the hands of God who is sending a love letter to the world.” When you are loved, you want to let others know about it don’t you? You almost can’t help but tell those people closest to you what this means to you. When we pray “your will be done” we are asking for the strength, faith and courage to live God’s will and to invite others into this incredible relationship.
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!
Waiting and not waiting
It has been a busy day. First it was a Tuesday, which in my life are my Monday’s, they are always nuts. Second, Kristi was working so I was on for supper. Third, it was Council meeting. Then I got home and after 20 minuets of helping Hannah study for her APUSH test, I got a call. Hannah got the phone and sighed. The caller ID said RAMC, Hannah always sighs when it says RAMC after 5:00. A congregation member had landed in the ER. So it was down to the Hospital for a couple hours.
In all of that I was blessed enough to see the kingdom again today… in Council, despite financial struggles, they deliberated thoughtfully, about more than money, about how best to minister. In all of it I could see the trust and hope that even in these hard times God will provide. The not yet-ness of God’s kingdom are the struggles that we face day to day, but in the knowledge that God’s kingdom is already we can find hope even in the midst of our hardest days.
Then there was the hospital visit. As I sat with the family the words from one of my favorite passages kept coming to me. Ok, it was also part of doing my devotions earlier in the day, but non-the-less, it was there!
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.
7And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
8he will swallow up death for ever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9)
This reading is most often used during Advent, and funny as it may seem, at funerals. I guess it isn’t that odd. Advent is about the kingdom breaking into the “not yet” in the person of Jesus Christ. Funerals about the Kingdom already and the promises received in our baptisms into Jesus life, death and resurrection! Our hope is in this heavenly reward, kingdom life, but our hope is in what God will yet do in this world, which is also kingdom life!
In our devotions they didn’t have verse 9, but I thought that might be an oversight, as it helps us wrap our heads around the already and not yet-ness of God’s kingdom. The first part of the reading sounds a lot like heaven, perfection, a wonderful peace, and no more tears! But verse nine is all about the not-yet. Waiting! Uggg! How I hate waiting, but waiting is very much a part of the in-breaking of kingdom. Waiting in the ER, waiting for a word, waiting for healing, waiting for justice, waiting for peace, waiting for just about everything. We grow impatient and want the kingdom to come now and can’t understand why God just doesn’t get on with it! “Thy Kingdom come now!” we whine… yet this is the God for whom we have waited, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Wait! There are wonderful things yet to be done in the “not yet” part of the kingdom, so that all might come to know the loving salvation of God and tears might be wiped from eyes even as we wait. So when we are waiting for the kingdom, we are not waiting because it is breaking in all the time and we get to be part of that wonderful event! Already and not yet, waiting and not waiting all at the same time…right?
Ok, well that was more than I thought I had me, if it makes any sense… thank God, well even if it doesn’t make sense… thank God for becoming what you already are in Jesus Christ.
Extra mustard please
The kingdom of God is like…
Isn’t it funny how time after time, complex concepts, when explained properly aren’t very complex at all. We are STILL looking at the kingdom of God in the Lord’s prayer in our book of faith Lenten journey devotions. In the Gospels Jesus lays out what life is like in the kingdom. Its like: a mustard seed, a bit of yeast, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price, and a net. Not one of those items I described do we have the least bit of trouble wrapping our heads around.
Really… These are all common items, some are a bit more pricey than others, but there is a commonality among them that we can all identify with.
- While maybe everyone doesn’t know about mustard seeds. But, I don’t know of a kid who at some point in his or her life didn’t plant a bean seed, or a flower seed in a Styrofoam cup and watched it sprout and grow.
- Yeast, well not everyone is into bread baking, but we know it when we taste it. The smell of fresh baked bread that yeasty smell, the taste of bread still warm, with a bit of butter or honey, we know what its like to be fed like this.
- Treasure, especially buried treasure…arrrrrgg… ahoy matey’s! Kids draw maps of buried treasure and go seek it, even if there isn’t anything there, the chase, the adventure, the hope of finding treasure fills our imaginations. Even adults know and love this idea, who do you suppose bought all those tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean I, II and III!
- Pearl of great price, ok not everyone is big into pearls,
of great price or otherwise. But show me a 1957 Gibson Les Gaul Gold top and I will show you a pearl of great price. We all have such pearls in our lives, not all of them are things though!
- Nets, well not much imagination here… you catch things with them, from fish to butterfly’s or at St. John Lutheran, bats! Nets are made to snag everything in their path. They are meant for catching things plain and simple.
The point is that the kingdom of God is not some far off hard to imagine thing, it is reflected in our normal everyday experiences. We can taste, see, feel and experience the kingdom of God in our everyday lives.
Perhaps the kingdom of God is celebrated nowhere else quite like eating together. If are close to Reedsburg, please feel free to stop by St. John for our soup, bread and pie prior to our mid-week services. You can come at noon, or supper starts at 5:30 (I think, I am already there when it starts so I forget!) The meals are a fund raiser for our youth, but if things are tight financially, give me a nudge and I will see to it that there is no cost for you. This is the kingdom of God! If you come on Wednesday evening, there will be a table set aside for us to talk about our devotions if you would like to join us!
One last thing. It may only be pizza rolls and a coke, but a prayer before your meal is an excellent way to celebrate the kingdom of God. In our home it is usually the good ol’ “Come Lord Jesus” (talk about a loaded phrase!) But I would like to share a special family prayer that was used at Grandma and Grandpa Braaten’s home when we would visit. If it works for you great!
“Great God we praise your gracious care, which does our daily bread prepare. O, bless the earthly food we take and feed our souls for Jesus sake. Amen.”
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?
That Father thing…
Today in our “book of faith – Lenten Journey” we looked at the word, Father. What does Father mean to you? What does the phrase “Our Father” mean?
Father, I guess I have been blessed, I have no problem thinking of God as an ever loving, just, merciful Father.
Others, well, not so much. Many people have issues with their earthly fathers, some petty, some huge and they say these issues get in the way of understanding God as Father.
My father, my dad… is not perfect, he would be the first one to admit this, but all in all, I have a great dad, no real complaints, no issues (that I know if anyway!). But I don’t confuse my dad, as wonderful and well meaning as he is, with God. He, like me is a pastor, and I don’t even think I confused him with God or Jesus. It happens to pastors I know. One day a 4 or 5 year old pointed at me just before a wedding ceremony and I heard him ask his mom if I was God. She told him no, and shushed him… a little later he said, “is that Jesus?” Again he was shushed. After the wedding was over he came up to me and looked at me and said: “you are a pastor!” True enough, but my demotion came pretty fast, but I am alright with that, because I don’t need or want anyone to confuse me with God or Jesus!
I also know that God is not restricted to human limitations. After all both male and female are created in God’s image so I don’t get hung up on the title Father, in some ways it is way too limiting. But it is the word that Jesus used. Maybe Jesus used this term because we can wrap our heads around that term, it is a relational term and God is big into relationships. Or maybe it was because he knew that our earthly fathers and others we are in relationship with, often fall short and we need to understand the length and breath of Gods love for us and in this relational term we find our example as fathers, mothers, children, friends and neighbors.
Don’t get me wrong I am not denying the struggles that some people have with their fathers, but I hope that we can look beyond those examples to the ultimate example of sacrfical love for us in the one who Jesus called “Abba” Father.
Little Words
Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference. It might sound trite, but it is true. One little fuse pops and my little Mazda pickup doesn’t run, its just a little thing no bigger than my thumbnail… ok I have big thumbs but hang with me here… but without it my truck is only so much metal and plastic sitting in my driveway.
Today I was working through the “book of faith – Lenten Journey” many at St. John are using as a corporate (big word but I use it on purpose, you’ll see!) devotional and the focus was on small words. In life, in the reading of scripture we often focus on big words, words in large quantities; books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, paragraphs, sentences, phrases and then the big words themselves draw our attention.
But it is the small words that often do the heavy lifting in our verb-age. In this case it is the word “our” as in Our Father… Our is a small word, I know the Lord’s Prayer in two other languages, ok, they are similar languages, but they are different… Norwegian and Icelandic. The Norsk version starts out “Fader vår” and the Icelandic is “Faðir vor” similar, but the point is a little three letter word in each of these languages. Icelandic Our Father
Vår, vor, our… it is a small word that is laden with implications. Our is the possessive form of we, another very small word, that expresses a commonality, a bond between two or more people.
We pray “Our Father…” “If God is our Father, then God is not only my Father.” It is a corporate prayer, in other words a prayer that is never prayed alone, even if you are, in fact, all by your self.
In praying Our Father, we recognize that we are all part one big very unique family with all the joys and struggles that brings. In the devotional I felt it stressed that this should bring us some kind of unity as we seek to be responsible for each other. I do in fact understand that point, but I also feel that it explains allot of our behavior that isn’t quite so loving.
Now, I grew up in a wonderful family, great parents and siblings, but, ummm… things are not always smooth in these relationships. But I do think think this sence of family does help in understanding our lives and our lives of faith. Yes, God is “Our Father” but that doesn’t mean we are all one big happy family skipping down a yellow brick road with rainbows over our heads on the way to OZ. Families; love, live, fight, fuss, struggle, forgive and learn each day. But it is something that we do in relationship, there is no way to be family all on your own, it is always OUR family.
There are no first person pronouns in this prayer either. The Lord’s Prayer can never be “my prayer” it is always “our prayer” in this way we need to remember that we are created to be in relationship, to God and with eachother. Even as we pray this prayer in times of our individual need, there is a sence of community here. We are not alone, we pray this prayer not only on our behalf but on behalf of all our brothers and sisters and yes even all of creation itself.
Oh, and yes, the weather came today… it slushed out.. about 3 inches. Not snow, not rain, not ice, slush… tomorrow morning might be a real treat!
