The Word: Shapes – Day 35
Seven Wonders of the Word
“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” – 2 Timothy 3:16
I like books. It’s not that I am a voracious reader, I am not, but I do like books, I like the idea of books, the feel, the look, and yes even the smell. It is nearly impossible for me to get rid of book once it has been given to me or purchased. This can be problematic.
I am related to and know many retired pastors who at some point have shared parts of their libraries with me once retired. So, I have shelves full of books, and yes, boxes of books that will remain there for a while because, well I have only so much shelf space. I have another issue. I only have so much time to read and most often what I read is either to address an current issue, need or concern, and I have another pile that I read for pleasure. So this means that there are many books that look good on the shelf that I have never cracked open. Many of these books are classics, the knowledge and concepts they contain could be interesting, and even helpful if I ever got around to reading them.
I also have a whole bunch of Bible’s. Last time I took a count I have well over two-dozen. These, well most of them, ok some of them get a little more usage. My two primary Bibles are my floppy NRSV Bible I received from my internship congregation and a NIV I received from my Dad on my ordination.
The difference between the rest of the books on my shelf and these Bibles is summed up in the passage from 2 Timothy. While the rest of my books might be good for one thing or another, scripture is the guide, the context in which all else is contained. This doesn’t mean that the Bible directly addresses every issue, concern or topic that will arise in life, even a life of faith. The key even in the tough passages is that scripture is inspired by God, and its purpose is for our good, so that we might have life.
Well its Holy Week, and I am at maximum distraction getting things ready for worship, and all that follows, so this is all I got today! Keep me in your prayers and may your Holy Week be blessed as well!
The Word Creates – Day 3
Seven Wonders of the Word
… and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1
A gentleman who has become a dear friend of mine came to my office a number of years ago. He was to say the least in the midst of a pretty major life change. One of the things that emerged from our conversations was a growing interest, in Christianity. You see my friend was Jewish, not just in culture, but also in faith, albeit a faith that ebbed and flowed fairly dramatically over the years.
Long story short, he came to faith in Jesus Christ, was baptized and well, lets just say it was all part of a pretty interesting story. But one of the things that was so hard for him was the concept of the Trinity. As a Jew, he had no issues with Monotheism, that is the faith in only one God, but oh did he struggle with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. When he would speak of God, his conversation was pointedly directed to God the Father. I say this because when we spoke of God, or when we prayed or talked of prayer he would say something like, “God and Jesus” or “Jesus and God” or “God and the Holy Spirit.” God as one but in different persons just made his logic circuit’s spark and a grey haze form above his head (ok not really, but it came pretty close some times!)
Clear?? Ok, there is only so much one can do with lines and words, it is God we are talking about here after all!
Now I am not picking on him, not at all. The Trinity it isn’t easy to grasp, in fact I don’t know if anyone ever does, well at least fully. Some make a fuss because the Trinity is not directly mentioned in the Bible. The Trinity as we (more or less) understand it comes from the witness of Scripture and how people of faith have experienced God through that word. The church has ultimately left the Trinity in the realm of “mystery.” But mystery does not mean unknown or unknowable.
I have never had huge issues with the Trinity, because that in part is how I have always known God. I think that is what I liked about today’s reading the author Kathryn A. Kleinhans writes “Trinity is not just how experience God, but names who God is.” During the season of Lent I am reminded of my limitations, but I am also reminded, that God’s Word creates. Our devotion touches on some of Luther’s work on the Apostles Creed. “What does faith in the Triune God mean? It means that God created me. Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, has redeemed me. The Holy Spirit calls, enlightens, gathers and sanctifies me.” This is something that is true for all Christians, and I too am brought into this relationship. I don’t know if I am on shaky theologically ground here, but God may in part be the way God is so that all people might be personally involved in this relationship. From the very beginning, God has been in relationship and continues still to be…. More on that tomorrow… yea, I looked a head, it’s a great passage from Genesis!
“Simul Justus et Peccator”
Its the back of my ipod... and yes it does say "Simul Justus et Peccator" oh... and "Soli Deo Glora" I am such a Lutheran Nerd.
Today is Maundy Thursday… it starts off the Triduum or “three days.” Ok, Easter is great, its wonderful and as Christians it would be fair and appropriate to call us “Easter People.” But if all you have is Easter and you don’t walk the days before it… you are missing a very big part of what Easter is.
I invite you where ever you find yourself to participate in the these days and their worship services as much as you can. From today’s services to Good Friday and the Vigil on Saturday evening, they all bring out different parts of the bigger story, the divine drama, if you will. The empty tomb is what brings us hope as Christians, but why do we have to go there? How did we get to this remarkable joy? Well in part that is what the journey of Lent and in particular these last three days of Holy Week are all about. The story of the resurrection brings us back to the beginning of the story, it is about our relationship with God and what God will go through for us and for our sake.
Speaking of journeys…In the closing of our Lenten devotions, the book of faith Lenten Journey just touches ever so lightly on the last petition of the Lord’s prayer. “Deliver us from evil” you would think that evil would get a little more time, but I guess whe
n you think about it, it really doesn’t need any more!
When we pray that we might be delivered from evil, are in part praying that everything will come out ok. You could say that when we pray this petition we are really asking for what we already prayed for in the first three..holy name, kingdom come, will be done, when these three are happening we are indeed delivered from evil.
We are a people who live in the middle. A paradox if you will, even if you won’t I believe this is where we are at. We know the end of the story, the one who is Alpha and Omega has been here done that and bought the T-shirt. 
But we still live between. There is a Latin phrase that is a big deal in Lutheran Theology… that phrase is “simul Justus et Peccator” Basically that means we are saint’s and sinner’s at the same time, simultaneously a righteous person and a sinner.
Our lives are between the already and not yet… we are becoming what we are already in Jesus Christ (ohhhh… notice how smoothly I worked that in!) But it is true.
Maundy Thursday for me is ultimately about two things… The gift of the Lord’s Supper and an example of humble service.
Many people do the foot washing thing that Jesus does in the Gospel lesson appointed for this day. I think that is fine in many ways, but I think it is way too little. People get hung up on their feet nowadays… while our feet may not be suitable for a Dr. Scholls ad, they are not for the most part caked with disgusting animal waste and filth from the streets. When we symbolically wash feet today that is great as long as it informs our service to others. I would rather have people do something for another person, or donate their time to a good cause, because I think this gets at Jesus point. Being a Christian being an Easter people person, means 
not reveling in our glory or salvation, but rather reaching out in love.
Here is where the supper comes into play… fed and nourished with the Word and at the Lord’s table we are energized to live in this between-ness… to love fully and serve fully as we were first fully loved and served in Jesus Christ.
Time for bed… its gonna be a great couple of days…
BRIDEZILLA!
Oh no, there goes Tokyo. Go go Bride-zilla, yeah. 
History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men
Bride-zilla!
Yes it is that time of year once again, the weddings kick off pretty soon. I have about 12 of them between April 25th and the end of October! I am not whining… honestly, I have done more in fact I think my record was something like 21 weddings in a single summer… none during the winter mind you!
I don’t really mind weddings that much. Some pastors would rather gnaw their arm off in a rusty trap than do a wedding, but I have generally found them to be wonderful occasions. One of the reasons for this is that I spend a fair amount of time doing pre-marriage counseling which allows me to really get to know the couple as I hopefully help them get their life together as husband and wife off to a good start.
I have competition in this though. There is Evil in the world and it is personified in the Brides Magazine. Now I am sure most if not all of the people who work for this publication are nice enough, and well meaning, but if you want to know where Bride-zilla’s (over the top brides if you don’t get my drift here) come from… they are often spawned by this magazine.
“873 Great reception ideas!” or “666 ways to make your wedding day memorable.” The problem is that one or two of these ideas may not be bad, but well meaning couples try to do too much about their weddings and not enough about their relationships. They often spend; more time, more money and more energy on the wedding day than they ever will on their actual marriage!
Now I say this with the proviso “SOME” not all. Maybe the reason I don’t have too many “bride-zillas” to deal with is because I tell each couple if they are looking for the perfect wedding, a fairy tale wedding… I may not be your guy… I do weddings more like, well… more like the comic strips than fairy tales.
Ok, back to my point!
Finally we broach the petition “Deliver us from evil.” Yes, that was what all the above was leading up to!
Our book of faith Lenten Journey devotions points out that even non-religious types will admit there is evil in the world. I mean look around how could you possibly deny it? We don’t tend to personalize it as I sort of did with my whole “Brides Magazine” rant. Maybe because it would seem silly? I apologize if I have aided and abetted in this with my opening story, but I think it is a perfect example of how evil does work.
Evil comes often in hidden guises. Evil in person is ugly, but evil has a great makeup person, so sometimes we don’t know it when we see it. The best way to identify evil, in the personal or in the “supra – personal” (I had never heard that phrase before today) forces in this world is to ask a question…
Does this separate me from God. Does this seeming innocuous thing build a wall between ourselves and God and ourselves and others? If it does… dollars to doughnut’s it’s evil.
So what are we to do about this. Well in this petition we ask that we not be fooled or overcome by evil and in as Paul writes in Romans 12:21 that we might indeed “overcome evil with good” as we seek to become what we already are in Jesus Christ!
Prayers please… For me and all pastors! Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday… the wonderfully exhausting onslaught of Holy Week is upon us! Blessings.
NERDS!
I know it might hard to believe, but I was not always the ultra cool pastor dude I am today. In fact as a youth, I was ummm… well… I was a bit of a well… I was a nerd of sorts. Maybe a better word would be geek, whatever you call it I was not one of the popular kids in school. In fact when I was younger, I got picked on, and in my memory, quite a bit. I got picked on for a lot of reasons, some I had absolutely no control over.
I had glasses, I was uncoordinated, a late bloomer and about as socially awkward as you can imagine! I also loved Star Trek, Star Wars, computers, photography and I wasn’t particularly into sports.
In many ways I am not all that different than I was as a kid, but I have sort of grown into my personality and body over the years and quite frankly people don’t tend to pick on people who are 6’6″ and push 300 lbs. It is funny how some things don’t change but their perception of them might change. You know those glasses I wore as a kid, those horn rimmed thingys… well I guess they are a fashion statement now. Back in my day the only person that looked good in them was Berry Goldwater, not a 7 year old kid!
I don’t let teasing bother me too much either. In fact I think I can take a good joke and I rather enjoy the give and take of poking fun amongst people who genuinely care for each other. Most of all in regards to our book of faith Lenten Journey devotions, I am not harassed because I am a Christian, nor am I harassed because I am a Christian pastor.
I am fortunate to live in this country. There are many in this world today who are not so fortunate. Big or small, good looking, popular or otherwise, if you are a Christian you can be picked on and much worse. There are people each day who find their lives and livelihoods in trouble because of their faith. So it has been for much of the history of the Christian faith. In the earliest days I think those first disciples heard this petition and good news… as the purest form of Gospel there is.
“Save us from the time of trial” Oh.. boy! Those are some trials. But as followers of Christ should the fact that we might be picked on and persecuted for our faith come as a surprise?
Think about it… we are in Holy Week; Good Friday is but days away. If God’s Son so offended people with his love and honesty, don’t you think we might have a hard go of it from time to time? After all Jesus was the one who called to us to pick up our crosses and follow him.
Now this doesn’t mean that we look for trouble, nor does it mean you can count on being persecuted on a regular basis. Whew! But when you side with the poor and powerless in the world you might come under some suspicion. I mean it is all about power and wealth isn’t it?
Well the cross and empty tomb attest to the fact that the things we often think are important are not. Life, love and service in Christ’s name are in fact what it is all about. Does this mean as cross bearers as Christians who love the lost and the least that we are relegated to horrible lives? No, in fact being a follower of Christ can in fact open up the way for a life full of blessings, among these blessings is this very petition of the Lord’s Prayer “save us from the time trial.”
As we face trails, we do not walk alone, as we struggle, we do not walk alone, as we experience the joys of life and celebrate each turning point we do not do this alone. I don’t think you can over rate this experience, this knowledge that we are not alone. We are a people made to be in relationship and it is in Christ that we find we are never alone, even when all others may be against us, Jesus love is with us in all things, And that is the biggest blessing there is!
True love = Cleaning the bathroom?
Does anyone like to clean the bathroom?
I don’t think I know anyone. I know several people who don’t mind it so much, but nobody who really looks forward to cleaning that essential room!
One young lady said she knew her fiance was the one when one day when she was at work, he cleaned the bathroom for her, and had continued that practice ever since! A real keeper!
Serving one another, it can the easiest thing to do and the hardest.
Harry Wendt author of the Crossways Bible study describes Jesus, as “servant without limit.” No temptation of power, nor even the most basic human needs were enough to pull Jesus away from his service for us.
We in turn are also called to serve God and one another for Jesus sake. The week a head is Holy Week and Maundy Thursday is the start of the 3 holy days. It is in the liturgy of the church “the night in which he took the cup gave thanks… you get the point. He gave us the gift of Holy Communion, but he also served his disciples by washing their feet.
Foot washing was and in some places still a sign of servant hood and some folks even practice this as a part of their Maundy Thursday worship. For those of us in this part of the world, foot washing is well… it is just symbolic. Today we have clean streets and good shoes, back in Jesus day sewage ran in the streets and they wore sandals. Foot washing was important, but it was also disgusting… worse that cleaning a bathroom! So it was left to the lowest of the servants, to slaves and others of no social status (read women .) When Jesus washed feet he was showing his disciples they way of God was the way of loving service, not of power and manipulation.
When we pray “Save us from the time of trial” we are asking that nothing get between us and God. But our pride does so easily. We are called to 
be humble, but the need for power and control creeps around every corner. The church is not exempt from this temptation either. The greatest blunders of the church as a whole and Christians as individuals happen when succumb to the temptations and trials of power and do not humble ourselves by trusting fully in God.
But what of the Christian life. Shouldn’t there be some perk, so bonus for living the Christian life? You might want to take a look at Jesus and his life before you start going down that road too far!
I really liked what the book of faith 40 day Lenten Journey devotions had to say about this today so I am pretty much going to copy what was there.
“If I am a child of God, bad things shouldn’t happen to me, should they? So why do I have cancer; why did I lose my job; why did my marriage break up; why does my child take drugs; why is my house being forclosed? So, God, do something to prove to me that I am your child, do something to make it right.” Jesus said no to this temptation;
rather than test God’s love, he entrusted himself to God’s love.
Really that is where this petition really clicks, in our lives. “Save us from the time of trial” means when the rubber hits the road, we pray that we might trust that God will in fact save us from the time of trial so that we might live to serve God and the whole world.
Crud
The first line in the book of faith 40 day Lenten journey today was this; “The Lord’s Prayer is for ordinary people – not spiritual athletes.”
Crud.
Ok, two things.
One… I cannot see the phrase “Ordinary People” and not think of the movie by the same name. Dreadful, dreadful movie… fine it’s a 
compelling story, and it was the first movie Robert Redford directed… big whoop. You see, in my youth we thought it would be cool to go to a drive in movie. So late one fall before the drive in closed down up in Madison, a bunch of us headed up to c
atch the show… A double feature… except the movies we thought we were going to see were the ones that were there the week before so this bunch of teenaged boys got stuck watching “Ordinary People” and “the Great Santini” In today’s parlance… these were “Chick flicks” if I ever saw them… maybe it would have been great if I had gone to the movie with a date… but noooooo…
I have been emotionally scarred for life.
Anyway… I digress, again!
Point duex!
Not spiritual athletes? I didn’t catch the place where Jesus said, when you pray, if you are an ordinary person pray this way… Our Father… However, if you are a spirutal athlete, then… you can’t pray this prayer.
Fine I may be picking a nit here… but I really struggled going any deeper in our devotions because of that beginning. Now I know the 
author of our devotions wasn’t picking on the fine folks at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but he was picking on the smug self-righteous folks Jesus so often struggled with.
When we pray this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Save us from the time of trial” we are acknowledging our need for help because despite our best intentions, we often make the wrong choices in life.
Our devotions use Jesus’ story of the two dudes praying at temple. One a Pharisee (SOUND EFFECT: dump dun da….) and the other a tax collector (Wah wah wah….)
Anyway the story goes this way the Pharisee bellows out his prayers stating his qualifications and his holy life style and he gives thanks that he isn’t like that pond scum of a tax collector over there. (For Pete’s sake… he did this out loud for everyone to hear, shesh you can tell he wasn’t born and raised in the Midwest!) Then it is the tax collectors turn… and he basically prays… dear Lord have mercy on me cause, whoa… I have messed up, shoot I am messed up!
The point here is that the tax collector was counting on God’s righteousness, the Pharisee… he is what we call self-righteous.
Getting back to the core of my rant, I don’t have a problem with spiritual athletes praying this prayer, because often the best of them know they can’t do it alone. Nearly any professional athlete worth his or her salt will tell you it is the coaches and team mates that make them successful. Spiritual athletes will tell you the same. It is God who saves, it is Christ who justifies, we are who we are because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
Now… spiritual actors… now there is another kettle of fish! Not that 
acting is a bad profession or avocation, but if your spiritual life is all an act… uuuuboy do we have a problem. I think that was the Pharisee’s problem, his prayer was all a show… the real guy under the fancy robe and the social status was not all that different from the tax collector.
Self -righteousness is just a form of self deception, of acting, but not really being the part. In this prayer we ask that as we are who we are, 
God would come to us all; spiritual couch potatoes or spiritual athletes, the sinners, the self-righteous and whatever category you place yourself in and as we pray I hope we learn to trust that God can control even those temptations that would undo us.
Well I have gotten too wordy again… Sorry!
Blessings!
You know the type don't cha?
Oh… and I thought this was cool too. You can’t point this web site to another web site or you can type in your own words and the tweak this lovely little word picture thingy.. it is a http://www.wordle.com
It’s about us
Just got back from a band concert at the CAL center up at the Reedsburg Area High School It wasn’t just the high school that played, the 7th, 8th, and Senior High bands all had their moment in the sun, and they all played at once for the finale.
It always amazes me the progress that these kids make up through the years… The first time you hear the 7th graders play it can be, well a little tough to hear even if your pride and joy is up there. Then comes this time of year and well, they sound better… and on it goes through 8th grade and on to High School.
Maybe the coolest thing of all is they (mostly) play together and
Not This Conductor!
(mostly) at the right time and that is because of the conductor.
The conductor keeps the beat, and lets people know when they should come in and how loud or softly they should play. If someone doesn’t look at the conductor,
a major melt down often ensues… I have seen it!
Like this!
A thought struck me again about the word “us” in the Lord’s Prayer. Again our book of faith 40 day Lenten Journey devotions pointed this out… we don’t pray “and save me from the time of trial” it is save “US” from the time of trial!
We are an interconnected bunch that is to be sure. And when Jesus tought this prayer he knew that. But we so often want to isolate ourselves. To pull ourselves out of relationship, because after all it is all about me, isn’t it? Relationships are at the very core of faith. They are at the very core of who God is… I mean remember Genesis… God says “let us” hmmm… think on that for a while! From the beginning this God is all about relationship.
When I was a kid a common defense for any activity that could be judged rightly or wrongly as not exactly good was this phrase. “What happens behind closed doors between two consenting adults is none of your business.” For many that ended the argument… for me it meerly began it (I was a pain in the butt!)
Seriously when was the last time you did something that it didn’t have an impact on at least one other living soul? Ok, I can hear your wheels turning… but honestly everything we are and everything we do seen and unseen impacts us and impacts others. Maybe some of those impacts are negligable, but they are there non-the-less.
I am not saying this to set up religious police in peoples bedrooms or other rooms with locked doors for that matter, I simply want you to think about the fact that we do impact others.
Maybe that is why I like Celtic Crosses so much. The center if the cross is the cross of course… but the intertwining strands that make up this distinctive style show how things are connected to the point where you can’t tell where it starts or stops.
In Chirst we all are connected and when one of us is brought to the time of trial we all feel the effects. In this prayer we ask to be spaired from these times so that we might all of US fully live the life Christ intends for all people.
Odd combos
I can’t tell you how today’s post will go, been slogging away getting all my ducks in a row for Holy Week. I know it is well over a week away, but for some reason people want to know what is happening in advance! So tha
t is what has been keeping be busy and will be until Maundy Thursday next week when it all actually gets better. The preperation is done and It is just a matter of, well worshiping and letting the story of Easter do its thing, I just try not to get in the way.
I would be interested if you have been working on the book of faith 40 Day Lenten
Journey to hear how things have gone for you. Please leave a comment, write an e-mail or gasp… talk to me in person!
Sometimes there are things that normally don’t go together and when you think about them it strikes you as just odd. But, when you finally experiance them together, well, a light bulb goes on and things change.
Now, I am not talking not going together like broccoli and bubble gum… but things that might not automatically strike you as going to gether. I like mustard, and until a few years ago, I wasn’t a big fan of mayo. Imgagine my suprise when I first dipped a prezle into some yellow dip only to find out that it was mustard and mayo and it was really good! In fact I am eating it right now… pardon the mustard stains….
Sort of like Reese’s peanut butter cups… ok fine chocolate and almost anything goes together pretty well! But you get my point.
How about this combo… you are an innocent man about to be murdered… and just before you die, and with what little energy you have left, you forgive all those who either by their actions or by their in-action, are responsible for your situation.
Umm… ultimate injustice, and forgiveness ummm… not a combo you 
would ever in your wildest dreams come up with, but that is God for ya.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and we say these words “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” The one who teaches us to pray this knows a forgiveness that is deeper than I can imagine. It is from this deep pool of love, ultimate relationship, that a forgiveness like this can be offered to all.
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.
BUSTED!
So, this forgiveness thing… I am pretty sure I know why Jesus put it in the prayer, you know the Lord’s prayer.
We don’t do it so well, but forgiveness is at the heart of every relationship we are involved in.
There is that part of us though, that doesn’t like this idea of forgiveness, well we like it for ourselves, but others? Well, lets just say, we muc
h prefer to bust people, we like shows like COPS etc… that catch the bad guys in the act… the phrase caught red handed makes our inner judge grin. We like people to get what they have coming to them.
The book of faith 40 day Lenten journey devotions remind us that we all need forgiveness everyday… just like we need our daily bread. And like daily bread we are called to share this forgiveness with others.
I love the Galatians passage: “My friends,* if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.” 6:1 But our devotions didn’t have that last line printed. I think that is vital.
Ok, sure we don’t often restore people with a spirit of gentleness, and we in Christ we are called to do just that. But one of the reasons we should is that last line… or as The Message states the same passage: “Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.” Way to go Eugene…. nailed it right on the head!
The key here is not to bust people, but to restore them. It isn’t about punishment, it is about gentleness. Yes forgiveness is a two way street, the other may not grow in that forgiveness, but that is not your call. You can’t make someone love, just as you can’t truly make them forgive unless they really want to! The key here is we are asked to forgive as we first have been forgiven.
Blessings… Worship tomorrow at St. John Ev. Lutheran Church Reedsburg, WI… I’d love to see you!
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!
Smörgåsbord
I have to admit, this food thing is starting to get out of hand! I noticed that my last two day’s posts were sugar induced and today we have Smörgåsbord. I think I was in college before I knew what a buffet was, but a Smörgåsbord, well I knew all about them. Even though it is a Swedish word, it was in fact an accumulation of enough food to even mellow out our Norwegian pride.
Lavish, is a word that comes to mind. Oh a Smörgåsbord is more that a buffet, it is an experience! You say buffet, I think of “Old Country Buffet” massive quantities of food to be sure, but 4,000 drum sticks, next to a tub of mashed potatoes, and an equally sized tub of corn on the cob, well at least they have a soft serve machine there.
But a Smörgåsbord: BORK BORK BORK! Now we are talking food. Maybe not in shear bulk, but style, and flavors, when I think of a smorgasbord I think of good food, carefully prepared, and shared with many. Maybe this is because the only buffet type meals I ever attended until I was well into my adult years were smorgasbords held in church basements. No mass produced food here, this food was homemade, made with pride and purpose and it was enjoyed in an atmosphere of fellowship! They do say ambiance is everything, and there is nothing like a church basement, sitting on a cold folding chair at a table covered with a table cloth that was hand embroidered the same ladies who are currently peering into the bottom of a now empty 100 cup coffee pot.
Ok, and this has to do with Lent, The Lord’s Prayer and Give us this day our daily bread, how? Well, It does, daily bread and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper were the focal points of today’s devotion. Communion is very much a part of my daily bread though I don’t consume it quite that often. Oh there are weeks when I do have it five or six times, (my personal record was during Holy Week 2 or 3 years ago, I think I had communion, ummm at least 15 times!) but the point is it is daily bread in the fact that Christ comes to us in this meal and feeds us with his presence in our lives.
Some may say (as someone did today) that Christ isn’t only with us in communion, and that is a good point and it is true. But this is the place where he has promised to be. So as we gather for worship and receive the gift of Holy Communion, we also know in faith that Christ is in fact there, we don’t have to hope or wonder, for he has promised.
One of the reasons this is daily bread is Christ’s presence to be sure, but it is also because of something I notice every time we gather. It is a perk of being a pastor and leading worship. But I get to see the whole people of God gathered, streaming forward for the meal, that in itself is a powerful image in my mind. I did a Google search for images of communion, and I found a lot of pictures of bread and wine, many of the pope giving communion to someone, but I couldn’t find a picture that gave that vision of the whole people of God coming to receive this gift of God.
Maybe we fixate on daily bread even in communion as a me thing and not an us thing, as in “give us this day our daily bread.” To me part of this daily bread is the bread and the wine, but it is also feeding and being feed with others. It is my friend a smorgasbord, in the best sense of the word. Holy Communion is daily bread, all God’s best gifts are given to us not in bulk, but enough, carefully prepared for each of us in Christ.
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!
Let them eat cake.
People seem to love cake. I don’t.
Cake is fine and I think I know why people like it, it is just I wouldn’t cross the road to get a piece of cake, with the exception of a German chocolate cake with my grandma Glesne’s fudge frosting, for that I would cross a four lane highway. Daffodil cakes, coffee cakes, bunt cakes, fancy wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cakes made in bakery’s large or small thrill me not at all.
I am not a pastry snob in any way shape or form. However one of my first jobs as a kid was working at Fosdal Home Bakery in Stoughton, Wisconsin. No I did not bake, I did not frost, I did not decorate, I cleaned up. I washed hundreds upon hundreds of cake pans, cake, sheets, and angel food cake forms. Granted I was in Junior High at the time, but the experience has left me scared for life! Ok, that is a bit dramatic, I think it is just that I plain old don’t like cake that much, give me a just baked loaf of bread any day!
But people do tend to make a fuss about cake, they love cake they go on and on about cake. I have heard people say “oh, they have cake, well I guess I will be there!” I guess the thing about cake for most people is 
that it sets the occasion apart as something special, you just don’t have cake every day! Marie Antoinette aside… Bread is a staple, it is the basic building block of many of the world’s daily diets. Cake on the other hand is well… ummm… well in the realm of our daily bread, cake is the icing on the cake… uggg… I don’t believe I just wrote that… well you get the point.
But here is my thought. In the book of faith Lenten Journey Devotions today we continued our look at daily bread. They highlighted Luther’s explanation of daily bread. “Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as: Food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.” A pretty big list, in fact our devotions seem to expand that list even further with things like; the arts, health care, freedom from political and military violence (I wonder what Luther would have thought about the additions to the list!) I think I get the point, daily bread goes way beyond a loaf!
But as I looked at the lists Luther’s, which is a bit more basic and grounded, and the list from our devotions, very modern and quite a bit more specific, I began to wonder… when does praying for and accepting our daily bread become and expectation for daily cake? Even for those folks who come into St. John and get a bag of groceries are getting way more than just the basics of bread. Now no one is going to get caviar in their bag of groceries, but we do a fair job of going beyond the basics, to add a loving touch to the basics that many people so desperately need. Daily bread is in fact more that the basics just needed to keep a pulse going, daily bread is also relationships, and life, and not just life, but as Jesus puts it abundant life.
But the question just what is our most basic daily bread, and when do we if in fact we do, cross the line from daily bread to daily cake? Because there is want in this world, there are those who do not receive for one reason or another their daily bread, be that food, or relationship or the life that God intends for us in Jesus Christ. Maybe, as it state in our devotions, it is a distribution problem, too much cake for some not enough bread for others…
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.
Humble Hotdishes
I smell of cheese and sausage. I have washed my hands but the smell just won’t go away! You see I just got done slicing 3 metric tons of cheese and one honking enormous summer sausage for part of our volunteer appreciation celebration tomorrow at St. John. I have lived in Wisconsin for well over half my life, but I still don’t think I could eat cheese and sausage at 9:15 in the morning unless eggs and toast were also involved.
Today the book of faith devotions talked about the walking humbly with God part of Micah 6:8. Perhaps there are no better examples of those who walk humbly with God than those we celebrate tomorrow. Ok the term volunteer and church don’t always work for me. Yes I know people volunteer their time, but the work done is ministry. Walking humbly with God is making yourself available to do God’s will. That could be setting up bars and coffee for fellowship time between services, making a hotdish
THE Tater Tot Hotdish, the gold standard of hotdishes
(that is a casserole for those of you non-Midwestern Lutheran types) for a family who is in crisis, folding newsletters so that they might go in the mail, ushering, singing in the choir, setting up tables and chairs for a potluck (an event where hotdishes are served) and nearly anything that brings the kingdom into this world.
I don’t know anyone who slices cheese and sets out the salads for a funeral luncheon who does it in hopes that someday Martha Stewart will show up and discover them so they can have their how HGTV show or whatever. Walking humbly in my view has to do with doing tasks large or small not out of any hope for heavenly brownie points, but simply standing humbly at the foot of the cross, and gazing at God’s ultimate gift to us, it is the least we can do. Walking humbly means constantly turning away from ourselves and returning our gaze to God. I think it is interesting how many times returning to God involves reaching out in love to others. It is doing things that normally you wouldn’t do on a bet, and doing them for the sake of others. The funny thing about humility is that you never really know when you are doing it. It just flows from you. The second you stop to think “am I being humble,” anything resembling true humility vanishes. Humility comes from walking with our eyes fixed on God and his will for us, trusting that God in his love will guide us and provide for us… but now I am getting ahead of myself…
Blessings and thanks for journeying with me this lent. I would love to hear if you have any comments, corrections or questions. I hope on some level to make this less about me pontificating and more about a conversation of faith, and life as we all become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
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.
My will be… er…ummm…
Not gobs of time for reflection today. Like so many days, I start off with many goals, dreams and ambitions. I make plans, lay out ways to achieve these things and at the end of the day I pour myself into bed with nary a check mark next to my haughty plans and wonder what happened to the day.
Oh, I am not perfect when it comes to single minded pursuit of my goals. I get distracted way to easily. But often what distracts isn’t the unnecessary flotsam and jetsam of life, it is something more. It just might be the will of God breaking into my life. But there are days when that doesn’t seem very fair.
I have a friend Mike who helps keep me centered even if he is Norwegian too! One of Mikes favorite things to say is; “want to make God laugh?? Tell him your plans.” There is much truth to this, but it is also true about our “wish lists.” Our devotions today focused on the passage from Micah 6:8 we talked about yesterday. Today they looked at the justice thing a bunch. Part of doing God’s will is doing justice, and part of justice is that everyone would have enough, for in fact God has provided enough.
But even in the midst of our economic struggles, we still suffer from “Affluenza.” My will is for more stuff, good stuff, stuff I like, and short of that stuff in general will do as long as I have more than the next guy. A thought that comes to mind in this area of justice is that we often equate justice with well… equality, sameness, uniformity and fairness. But this isn’t always the case.
Ok for instance, it would perhaps be fair that everyone get the same clothes so that no one would be without. Sounds just doesn’t it? Sounds fair. But take me and my associate pastor. I am 6’6″ she on a good day is at the 5′ mark. We could both own the same alb to wear for leading worship. However, if it was made to fit her, it wouldn’t work so well for me, or if it was one size fits all we would both look silly. (its late and it has been a long day so forgive me) Justice is not always about equality. It is about getting enough. Sometimes that means that others may get more than I have because they “need” it. I may want it, but it doesn’t mean I “need” it.
Ok, back to the will thing. Gods will is that we have enough, not more than, and not the same. But enough. So how do you know when enough is enough, and it isn’t too much… Uggg… exceptions and problems are popping up all over with this … maybe I need to get back to praying! Your will be done… ok, Lord please let me see and be a part of that will unfolding into this world each day for Jesus sake.
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!
