Mark 5:21-43
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” 36 Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
“Your Faith Has Made You Well”
It is easy, with a text like today's, to make faith something magic rather than deeply human.
The power to heal was not in Jesus garment. It was hidden someplace in what happened between the woman and Jesus. Had she not reached out, she would have never known this healing. Had she not risked doing what was both forbidden and scary, as well as a bit selfish, nothing would have happened.
Miracles happen when we believe in them enough to make them happen. This doesn’t mean we create the miracle; it could mean that we have something to do with creating the possibility of a miracle happening in our lives. The miracle begins with me. I have to want it bad enough to risk doing what is forbidden to get it! The woman made it happen by reaching out in faith. How many miracles don’t happen because we don’t reach out in the same faith?
Don’t wait for God to create a miracle for you and lay it at your feet. Create the possibility of a miracle and lay it at God’s feet. This is what faith dares to do! It dares to believe that God can and will make miracles out of my efforts. God will create the miracle of reconciliation as I
open my heart and mind to being reconciling. God will create the miracle of forgiveness as I confess and become forgiving. This in no way diminishes God’s power. It makes God even more real, and intimate. Not a magician who does things I cannot do; but a Friend who walks with me and enables my life to be a miracle!
“Don’t Be Afraid, Only Believe”
These words could sound superficial to us as well as Jairus - they point to the truth not that God keeps bad things from happening to good people but that God continually makes life out of death, hope out of despair. The miracle is that as we lose life we find it.
To say, “Don’t be afraid - only believe” is not a cop out on real living. To the contrary it is really living and believing that death is not an epilogue at the end of life but an episode in the endless life and is in fact, often the source of new life. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the old, the master calls a butterfly.”
“The Miracle Is Faith”
The issue of this text is faith, not miracles. Faith which dares to trust in the goodness of God against all odds. Which dares to say, “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shinning. I believe in love even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent.” (Words found on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany after WWII.)
God is not in the business of producing mass miracles. God is in the business of loving us uniquely, personally, powerfully, so that no matter what happens to us in our lives, ‘his unfailing love and mercy still continue’ and we can live in hope.
To worship miracles is to worship unrealistic expectations. To worship God is to trust God’s
unfailing love and mercy” which can turn the worst into the best - and that is a miracle indeed!
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
June 21, 2015 4th Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 4:35-41
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
It is easy to feel that God doesn’t care; so much bad happens to good people.
We look for signs of God caring for us by how God uses his power for us - in miraculous ways. Perhaps we need to look again at how God cares for us, not in miracles, but in the miracle of our faith.
What if the disciples had fought the storm rather then wake Jesus, trusting that they could do it? What if they had made the miracle happen by trusting that Jesus did care about them and trusting their own God given strength to overcome? It would still have been a miracle!
This is not to diminish the uniqueness of what Jesus did; and the sign it is for who he is!
It is to say that there are miracles of God in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary things of life.
“Anxiety impelled faith which turns people to Jesus for deliverance in emergencies is not the faith Jesus calls for.”
Jesus calls for the faith which empowers one to believe strong enough to create one’s own miracle, by not letting fear immobilize and paralyze; by daring to believe against all odds that God is for us, not against us. always! He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will give us all things, even the power to overcome fear and make our own miracles.
Don’t wait for God to do it for you. Ask God to do it with you and see what miracles can be created when you dare to believe that asleep or awake, God does care for you.
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
It is easy to feel that God doesn’t care; so much bad happens to good people.
We look for signs of God caring for us by how God uses his power for us - in miraculous ways. Perhaps we need to look again at how God cares for us, not in miracles, but in the miracle of our faith.
What if the disciples had fought the storm rather then wake Jesus, trusting that they could do it? What if they had made the miracle happen by trusting that Jesus did care about them and trusting their own God given strength to overcome? It would still have been a miracle!
This is not to diminish the uniqueness of what Jesus did; and the sign it is for who he is!
It is to say that there are miracles of God in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary things of life.
“Anxiety impelled faith which turns people to Jesus for deliverance in emergencies is not the faith Jesus calls for.”
Jesus calls for the faith which empowers one to believe strong enough to create one’s own miracle, by not letting fear immobilize and paralyze; by daring to believe against all odds that God is for us, not against us. always! He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will give us all things, even the power to overcome fear and make our own miracles.
Don’t wait for God to do it for you. Ask God to do it with you and see what miracles can be created when you dare to believe that asleep or awake, God does care for you.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
June 14, 2015 3rd Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 4:26-34
26 He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
"God Does It'"
The Kingdom of God seems terribly insignificant and insufficient in the affairs of the world, yet it has the dynamic that can make the difference even in our world.
That dynamic is the love of God as known in Jesus Christ. A love which is individual and universal. “If Christianity doesn’t begin with the individual it doesn’t begin; but if it ends with the individual, it ends.”
In the parable of the seed growing secretly we are reminded that we have little to do with the building of the Kingdom. It grows on its own and at its own pace!
“The Kingdom of God is not a ‘cause’ for which we fight, nor a ‘program’ that we run. It is what God does on His own. We do not build God’s Kingdom.” God does!”
God uses us to be sure. Yet we do not do it; God does. And it takes time. Patience is the word when we wait for seed to grow - in the ground and in the Kingdom.
The parable of the Mustard Seed reminds us that God often works God’s purposes out through the insignificant. In the Kingdom of God, it is not bigness which counts, but making a difference in someone’s life.
26 He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
"God Does It'"
The Kingdom of God seems terribly insignificant and insufficient in the affairs of the world, yet it has the dynamic that can make the difference even in our world.
That dynamic is the love of God as known in Jesus Christ. A love which is individual and universal. “If Christianity doesn’t begin with the individual it doesn’t begin; but if it ends with the individual, it ends.”
In the parable of the seed growing secretly we are reminded that we have little to do with the building of the Kingdom. It grows on its own and at its own pace!
“The Kingdom of God is not a ‘cause’ for which we fight, nor a ‘program’ that we run. It is what God does on His own. We do not build God’s Kingdom.” God does!”
God uses us to be sure. Yet we do not do it; God does. And it takes time. Patience is the word when we wait for seed to grow - in the ground and in the Kingdom.
The parable of the Mustard Seed reminds us that God often works God’s purposes out through the insignificant. In the Kingdom of God, it is not bigness which counts, but making a difference in someone’s life.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
June 7, 2015 Pentecost 2
Mark 3:20-35
20 And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." 23 And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. 28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit." 31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the middle of this text Jesus drops a bomb. We have to say a word about that before we get here what else he has to say.
What ever Jesus means about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - a sin which cannot be forgiven - this is for sure: anyone who fears they have committed it haven’t.
It is a sin which happens when we believe we are right so strongly that we are not open to any other thought or any other possibility. We are not even open to the Holy Spirit having something different to say to us and through us. It is not letting anything – even the spirit of God which blows over us and through us like the wind - or change are closed mind and heart.
It is a reminder that a totally closed mind and heart are headed on a dead end street.
As we struggle with faith, hope, and love in our lives we need the encouragement which comes from the promise of forgiveness, not the threat of condemnation. The God (Jesus) I meet in the New Testament is a God who would rather forgive then condemn, and doesn't like the unforgivable sin any more than we do.
Having said this, we can listen to Jesus's words about a divided kingdom that is sure to fail and the true kingdom which won’t fail for all are brothers and sisters.
Dare we say yet,? Jesus words regarding a divided kingdom remind us of what is happening in our country right now. It is no way to live in our earthly kingdom and no way to live in the kingdom of God.
We are called to live in harmony, letting the Spirit of goodness, mercy and respect lead us to decisions which must be made for the good of all for we are family! And only as we live as family will we be able to stand, and standing, be a blessing to others.
20 And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." 23 And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. 28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit." 31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the middle of this text Jesus drops a bomb. We have to say a word about that before we get here what else he has to say.
What ever Jesus means about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - a sin which cannot be forgiven - this is for sure: anyone who fears they have committed it haven’t.
It is a sin which happens when we believe we are right so strongly that we are not open to any other thought or any other possibility. We are not even open to the Holy Spirit having something different to say to us and through us. It is not letting anything – even the spirit of God which blows over us and through us like the wind - or change are closed mind and heart.
It is a reminder that a totally closed mind and heart are headed on a dead end street.
As we struggle with faith, hope, and love in our lives we need the encouragement which comes from the promise of forgiveness, not the threat of condemnation. The God (Jesus) I meet in the New Testament is a God who would rather forgive then condemn, and doesn't like the unforgivable sin any more than we do.
Having said this, we can listen to Jesus's words about a divided kingdom that is sure to fail and the true kingdom which won’t fail for all are brothers and sisters.
Dare we say yet,? Jesus words regarding a divided kingdom remind us of what is happening in our country right now. It is no way to live in our earthly kingdom and no way to live in the kingdom of God.
We are called to live in harmony, letting the Spirit of goodness, mercy and respect lead us to decisions which must be made for the good of all for we are family! And only as we live as family will we be able to stand, and standing, be a blessing to others.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
May 31, 2015 Trinity Sunday
John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
"HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?"
Nicodemus wanted to believe Jesus,
but his head got in the way of his heart.
His heart said, “Go for it!”
“Follow Him!”
“This is the One!”
but his head asked, “How can these things be?”
He tried his best but he couldn't figure Jesus out.
Not yet anyway. He did become a secret believer and he was with Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus body was buried. But today he is wondering what it is all about, and asking “How can these things be?”
How can it be that we have to be born again...and again...and again...and again, again, again? Born from above; of the Spirit; of the one God sent?
It can be because we do not make it be. God does!
And because we never get it all at the first time, or the second, or third.
We have to be born many times, over and over again as it slowly sinks in that God’s “love never ends and dazzling grace always is’. And it is for all! All!
An insight I have gained over the years as a Pastor.
In religion, Issues of the heart are deeper and more powerful then of the head. We don’t think our way into faith; we are captured by that which penetrates into the depths of our souls and there creates peace, joy, love,
and hope, and enables us to say, “Lord I believe; help mine unbelief.”
It was with the heart more then the head that the unknown person spoke when it was written on the wall of a cellar in Calogne Germany during World War II -
“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I feel it not.
I believe in God, even when He is silent.”
But how can these things be, we ask?
How can it be that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son ...in order that the world (and that includes me and you) might be saved.
It can be because God makes it be. For God not only created the world. God also became entangled with life on this planet when He chose to send his Son to ”pitch his tent with us.” To dwell among us as one of us! Who “for our sake was crucified” as we confess in the Nicene Creed.
A second insight which has been reinforced and impressed upon me over the years: At our best we are still imperfect. we are still , as Luther says."lost and condemned creatures" At our best, we still need forgiveness.
At our best we fall far short, and need to confess our sins and be forgiven.
BE forgiven.
We often talk about being forgiving. Maybe we need to talk more about being forgiven. For we are never without the need of forgiveness. We never outlive our need for forgiveness. We are never holy enough, righteous enough, faithful enough, good enough to not need forgiveness - daily.
As one person put it in a novel I reread recently, “We have to forgive. We have to forgive because in the end we all need forgiveness.”
Absolute Truths, p.525
But how can these things be we ask? How can it be that “it is by grace (we are) saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph.. 2:8,9
It can be because God makes it be.
As we heard in our 2nd Lesson - “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God”. All who have been touched by the gift of God’s grace walk this earth as children of God. And with the gift of grace comes the call to be a servant, the call to make our “faith active in love. “
For as James says, “faith without works is dead.” James 3:17
A true gift is also a responsibility. As Patricia Hampl so clearly reminds us when she reflects on receiving a $275,000 genius grant from the MacArther Foundation. Not knowing who nominated her; not knowing who choose her; she said the only thing she could do to show how thankful she was was to“give the gift.”
This is our challenge too. To give the gift we have been given. The gift of faith and hope and love. The gift of compassion as a way of life.
A third insight which has come over the years, as I’ve struggled with my mind to grasp the mysteries of God’s grace and love.
As Christians, we are not to judge and condemn;
nor are we to parade around as those who think God loves us best or maybe even most, if not only. That is not the purpose of John 3:16 - an egotistical, arrogant, condemning attitude towards all who hold different views of God.
We are to be compassionate as our God is compassionate and let God sort them out; let God handle judgment.
If there is any word which has come into focus for me in the 35 years of parish ministry it is the word compassion.
Compassion - mercy - pity - sympathetic - tender - responsive - inclusive - steadfast love - all words used to try capture what it is.
It is, in the raw greek - “to be moved in one’s bowels” - to be moved deep within to act on behalf of others. To make the world ‘gentle’ for others so they have a chance too.
Whatever else it means - to be compassionate is to err on the side of mercy not judgment; it is to, in the words of P. T. Forsythe, allow our faith to become “a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life.”
“He Came By Night”
He came by night to ask the question we all ask - only he didn’t know what he was asking and we often don’t either. It is the question which arises our of our need for a Savior as Dr. Thielicke puts it:
“At root very primitive things play the decisive role in our lives. Our stomach with its need of nourishment, our conscience with its lack of peace and our death towards which we irresistibly move...these are the forces which decisively constitute life. The one who can master these, taking away anxiety, consoling the conscience and supporting us in dying is the one for whom we truly look Nicodemus had an obscure feeling that Jesus might be that person.” Out Of the Depths, p. 63
How does this happen? Being born anew?
It happens like falling in love. It happens not because we figure lit out but because we let the wind of God’s forgiving love and grace blow over us. God does it. We just let God do it by surrendering ourselves to God and feeling the power of his grace at work in our lives.
The wind blows - the sun shines- God’s love is real. Let it happen to you.
“God Is Predictably Unpredictable”
The wind is predictably unpredictable. So is the Spirit of God. It blows where it will. We do not control it nor can we always predict it. God loves whom God will - and that includes those I would exclude. It is the world God desires to save, not just us. For as Paul says, “(God) will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion.” Rom 9:15
John 3:16 is a statement of grace, not judgment; love not condemnation. It is a statement of divine generosity.
God sent Jesus into the world not so we could gloat over being children of God but so we could say, God is for you too, whether you know it or not. To be born again is to face the truth that God loves all people and it is to face this truth over and over and over again, until it finally sinks in.
As those who believe in Christ we are to live as those who are led by the Spirit of God,
which means others will be glad we were given the gift of life, and of faith!
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
"HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?"
Nicodemus wanted to believe Jesus,
but his head got in the way of his heart.
His heart said, “Go for it!”
“Follow Him!”
“This is the One!”
but his head asked, “How can these things be?”
He tried his best but he couldn't figure Jesus out.
Not yet anyway. He did become a secret believer and he was with Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus body was buried. But today he is wondering what it is all about, and asking “How can these things be?”
How can it be that we have to be born again...and again...and again...and again, again, again? Born from above; of the Spirit; of the one God sent?
It can be because we do not make it be. God does!
And because we never get it all at the first time, or the second, or third.
We have to be born many times, over and over again as it slowly sinks in that God’s “love never ends and dazzling grace always is’. And it is for all! All!
An insight I have gained over the years as a Pastor.
In religion, Issues of the heart are deeper and more powerful then of the head. We don’t think our way into faith; we are captured by that which penetrates into the depths of our souls and there creates peace, joy, love,
and hope, and enables us to say, “Lord I believe; help mine unbelief.”
It was with the heart more then the head that the unknown person spoke when it was written on the wall of a cellar in Calogne Germany during World War II -
“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I feel it not.
I believe in God, even when He is silent.”
But how can these things be, we ask?
How can it be that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son ...in order that the world (and that includes me and you) might be saved.
It can be because God makes it be. For God not only created the world. God also became entangled with life on this planet when He chose to send his Son to ”pitch his tent with us.” To dwell among us as one of us! Who “for our sake was crucified” as we confess in the Nicene Creed.
A second insight which has been reinforced and impressed upon me over the years: At our best we are still imperfect. we are still , as Luther says."lost and condemned creatures" At our best, we still need forgiveness.
At our best we fall far short, and need to confess our sins and be forgiven.
BE forgiven.
We often talk about being forgiving. Maybe we need to talk more about being forgiven. For we are never without the need of forgiveness. We never outlive our need for forgiveness. We are never holy enough, righteous enough, faithful enough, good enough to not need forgiveness - daily.
As one person put it in a novel I reread recently, “We have to forgive. We have to forgive because in the end we all need forgiveness.”
Absolute Truths, p.525
But how can these things be we ask? How can it be that “it is by grace (we are) saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph.. 2:8,9
It can be because God makes it be.
As we heard in our 2nd Lesson - “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God”. All who have been touched by the gift of God’s grace walk this earth as children of God. And with the gift of grace comes the call to be a servant, the call to make our “faith active in love. “
For as James says, “faith without works is dead.” James 3:17
A true gift is also a responsibility. As Patricia Hampl so clearly reminds us when she reflects on receiving a $275,000 genius grant from the MacArther Foundation. Not knowing who nominated her; not knowing who choose her; she said the only thing she could do to show how thankful she was was to“give the gift.”
This is our challenge too. To give the gift we have been given. The gift of faith and hope and love. The gift of compassion as a way of life.
A third insight which has come over the years, as I’ve struggled with my mind to grasp the mysteries of God’s grace and love.
As Christians, we are not to judge and condemn;
nor are we to parade around as those who think God loves us best or maybe even most, if not only. That is not the purpose of John 3:16 - an egotistical, arrogant, condemning attitude towards all who hold different views of God.
We are to be compassionate as our God is compassionate and let God sort them out; let God handle judgment.
If there is any word which has come into focus for me in the 35 years of parish ministry it is the word compassion.
Compassion - mercy - pity - sympathetic - tender - responsive - inclusive - steadfast love - all words used to try capture what it is.
It is, in the raw greek - “to be moved in one’s bowels” - to be moved deep within to act on behalf of others. To make the world ‘gentle’ for others so they have a chance too.
Whatever else it means - to be compassionate is to err on the side of mercy not judgment; it is to, in the words of P. T. Forsythe, allow our faith to become “a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life.”
“He Came By Night”
He came by night to ask the question we all ask - only he didn’t know what he was asking and we often don’t either. It is the question which arises our of our need for a Savior as Dr. Thielicke puts it:
“At root very primitive things play the decisive role in our lives. Our stomach with its need of nourishment, our conscience with its lack of peace and our death towards which we irresistibly move...these are the forces which decisively constitute life. The one who can master these, taking away anxiety, consoling the conscience and supporting us in dying is the one for whom we truly look Nicodemus had an obscure feeling that Jesus might be that person.” Out Of the Depths, p. 63
How does this happen? Being born anew?
It happens like falling in love. It happens not because we figure lit out but because we let the wind of God’s forgiving love and grace blow over us. God does it. We just let God do it by surrendering ourselves to God and feeling the power of his grace at work in our lives.
The wind blows - the sun shines- God’s love is real. Let it happen to you.
“God Is Predictably Unpredictable”
The wind is predictably unpredictable. So is the Spirit of God. It blows where it will. We do not control it nor can we always predict it. God loves whom God will - and that includes those I would exclude. It is the world God desires to save, not just us. For as Paul says, “(God) will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion.” Rom 9:15
John 3:16 is a statement of grace, not judgment; love not condemnation. It is a statement of divine generosity.
God sent Jesus into the world not so we could gloat over being children of God but so we could say, God is for you too, whether you know it or not. To be born again is to face the truth that God loves all people and it is to face this truth over and over and over again, until it finally sinks in.
As those who believe in Christ we are to live as those who are led by the Spirit of God,
which means others will be glad we were given the gift of life, and of faith!
Sunday, May 17, 2015
May 24, 2015 The Day Of Pentecost
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
“The Energy Of The Spirit”
The Holy Spirit is about power. Power to believe; power to show mercy and kindness; power to live in hope. Power to change and be changed. It is an energizing power.
Energy: the capacity for vigorous activity.
God gives us his Spirit to be creatively alive, creatively different (sometimes disturbingly so) and creatively compassionate.
This is what is needed in our world today - revolutionary and redemptive activity!
Forging a anew humanity in Jesus name.
A humanity which erases distinctions between people.
which regards none from the human point of view, but Jesus’ point of view where forgiveness is paramount.
“To think of changing the world by changing the people in it may be an act of great faith;
to talk of changing the world without changing the people in it is an act of lunacy.”
Lord Eustace Percy
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
“The Energy Of The Spirit”
The Holy Spirit is about power. Power to believe; power to show mercy and kindness; power to live in hope. Power to change and be changed. It is an energizing power.
Energy: the capacity for vigorous activity.
God gives us his Spirit to be creatively alive, creatively different (sometimes disturbingly so) and creatively compassionate.
This is what is needed in our world today - revolutionary and redemptive activity!
Forging a anew humanity in Jesus name.
A humanity which erases distinctions between people.
which regards none from the human point of view, but Jesus’ point of view where forgiveness is paramount.
“To think of changing the world by changing the people in it may be an act of great faith;
to talk of changing the world without changing the people in it is an act of lunacy.”
Lord Eustace Percy
Thursday, May 7, 2015
May 17, 2015 Seventh Sunday of Easter
John 17:6-19
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“In But Not Of The World”
Prepositions are important little words. They hold the big words together and give them direction. i.e. “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.”
We are called to be IN the world but not OF the world. This does not mean we negate the world, have no fun, know no joy. It means we have a different perspective by which we see the world. Being sanctified in the truth that God loves me, calls me, challenges me to live so that in all I say and do something of God’s love is present.
The world tells us that money is enough; God’s word tells us that money is never enough.
Only love and intimacy is enough. God’s love for us and our love which flows out of God’s love into all our being.
“Becoming a Christian is changing our power base...from money to the cross. There are two things to work on ( in our being sanctified) prayer and money. And don’t let any of us think that we are not in trouble every second.” Anonymous
We need to spend more time along with God and God’s Word. Not to be better informed; but to be better formed by God’s Word.
“Never let the limits of your understanding become the limits of your faith.”
Howard Campbell
“People Of the Word”
The story is told of a Norwegian pastor who, during the German occupation of World War II was called into the Gestapo Headquarters for interrogation. Before the Gestapo officer began he took his Luger out and placed in on the desk. Immediately the pastor pulled out his Bible and placed in beside the Luger. “Why did you do that?” the officer asked. “You put your weapon on the table, I did too!”, replied the Pastor.
The Bible is our weapon - not for evil but for good. To be sanctified in it’s truth is to live in love and compassion, not hatred and condemnation.
We are to dare risk loving rather than hating for loving is a more difficult and profound emotion. It can do what nothing else can do!
Dr. Martin Luther King in “Strength to Love” identifies what love can do:
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; loved illumines it.
“In The Word”
The Church lives in the Word of God.
“I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightening. but faith did not seem to come. One day i read in the 10th Chapter of Romans: ’Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God!” I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” Dwight L Moody
God speaks to us through the Bible. It is not magic; it is an encounter with a living Word.
To be in the Word is to be sanctified by the Word. We will be changed, more then we thought possible. We will also be confronted with challenges which will cause us to struggle more then we like. It is a struggle to live as a child of God in the world of men (and women).
To be in God’s Word requires discipline; I listen and obey, trusting this is the way.
The Church lives in the Word; it is it’s meat and potatoes. We are the Church. How are we eating these days???
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“In But Not Of The World”
Prepositions are important little words. They hold the big words together and give them direction. i.e. “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.”
We are called to be IN the world but not OF the world. This does not mean we negate the world, have no fun, know no joy. It means we have a different perspective by which we see the world. Being sanctified in the truth that God loves me, calls me, challenges me to live so that in all I say and do something of God’s love is present.
The world tells us that money is enough; God’s word tells us that money is never enough.
Only love and intimacy is enough. God’s love for us and our love which flows out of God’s love into all our being.
“Becoming a Christian is changing our power base...from money to the cross. There are two things to work on ( in our being sanctified) prayer and money. And don’t let any of us think that we are not in trouble every second.” Anonymous
We need to spend more time along with God and God’s Word. Not to be better informed; but to be better formed by God’s Word.
“Never let the limits of your understanding become the limits of your faith.”
Howard Campbell
“People Of the Word”
The story is told of a Norwegian pastor who, during the German occupation of World War II was called into the Gestapo Headquarters for interrogation. Before the Gestapo officer began he took his Luger out and placed in on the desk. Immediately the pastor pulled out his Bible and placed in beside the Luger. “Why did you do that?” the officer asked. “You put your weapon on the table, I did too!”, replied the Pastor.
The Bible is our weapon - not for evil but for good. To be sanctified in it’s truth is to live in love and compassion, not hatred and condemnation.
We are to dare risk loving rather than hating for loving is a more difficult and profound emotion. It can do what nothing else can do!
Dr. Martin Luther King in “Strength to Love” identifies what love can do:
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; loved illumines it.
“In The Word”
The Church lives in the Word of God.
“I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightening. but faith did not seem to come. One day i read in the 10th Chapter of Romans: ’Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God!” I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” Dwight L Moody
God speaks to us through the Bible. It is not magic; it is an encounter with a living Word.
To be in the Word is to be sanctified by the Word. We will be changed, more then we thought possible. We will also be confronted with challenges which will cause us to struggle more then we like. It is a struggle to live as a child of God in the world of men (and women).
To be in God’s Word requires discipline; I listen and obey, trusting this is the way.
The Church lives in the Word; it is it’s meat and potatoes. We are the Church. How are we eating these days???
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