Category Archives: Christian Life

Questions can often only be answered by doing and not fussing.

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Having been a still, relatively, recent seminary graduate, Master of Divinity (2010 – Concordia Seminary St Louis, Mo.), I think I can comment with some authority on Henry Blackaby’s comment”…merely ‘talking about the Christian pilgrimage is not sufficient. We must actually set out on the journey! We can spend many hours debating and discussing issues related to the Chritian life, but this means little if we never actually step out and follow Christ!” (“Experiencing God day by day” p 24). Yea and amen, it doesn’t just apply to seminary students, although it seemed as if too many thought that ministry was all about sitting around thinking great thoughts and then on Sunday morning coming down to dispense their great wisdom. Yea, well neither one applies to anyone that I met, and I think that after 4 years of actual ministry (my anniversary was this past August), I think I can say with some authority that I didn’t meet any students that had many, if any great thoughts.
The same can be said for many who have spent years, decades in the church. Sure we are to study Scripture, right up until they are throwing dirt on our face, but as Blackaby writes “Christianity is not a set of teachings to understand. It is a Person to follow. As he walked with Jesus, Andrew watched Jesus heal the sick, teach God’s wisdom, and demonstrate God’s power. Andrew not only learned ‘about’ God; he actually experienced Him!”
OK, point taken Christianity is about being a disciple, unless you are in unusual circumstances, discipling means being taught by another person and teaching another person, at the same time. While also continuing to study and be encouraged by Scripture.
I disagree that “Christianity is not a set of teachings to understand…” Yea, it really is, you always have Jesus and He will disciple you, but there may be unusual times when you just have Scripture and no one to disciple, be discipled by. Certainly we turn in prayer to God and are guided by the Holy Spirit. But point taken, bottom line being a Christian is being in relation with Jesus.
In that discipling relationship there will no doubt be questions. Certainly it is our nature to have our questions answered before we start out. In the Coast Guard you had these guys who had to have every question answered before they got underway, generally they just got shoved out the door. You can stand around talking it to death or you can get underway, get on scene, and you will get answers and rely on your training, experience and greater minds at the station to address the situation. In the meantime, yapping about it at the station and instead of getting there produces very little.
In my Christian walk it has been uncanny how many times the answers have come while I was in the process. Sometimes they wouldn’t come until after you were settled in the lane you were guided to travel and realize that the only way those questions could have been answered was to actually follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and play it out. I’ve had many experiences of looking back and thinking “ohhhh, that’s how that was supposed to be, that’s so cool, I would have never have thought that.” Like it or not, the Holy Spirit is going to do it much better than you and in a way that often just leaves you in awe. “I would never have done it that way.”
Despite what you think, you are not entitled to answers to everything, often the whole point is for you to get underway and the answers come. Your growth comes in being guided by the Spirit, getting answers on the way and it’s the only way it could have happened.
Many think that they have a “choice”, well yea, the right way (God’s way) or the wrong way (your way). Some people like to go to God with an attitude of; “You answer all my questions, give me your pitch and then I”ll think it over and get back to you.” As if God’s Son is some kind of vacuum cleaner salesman.
Blackaby suggests that Jesus might say, ‘Put on your shoes, step out onto the road and follow Me.’ As you walk daily with Him, Jesus will answer your questions, and you will discover far more than you even knew to ask.”
Get off your high horse, listen, quit quibbling. There are no better offers and when you really submit yourself to God and trust in His Word instead of listening to your own, often, pompous nonsense, you will find that you really do understand, and that you aren’t even close to really understanding. That you realize you don’t need to know everything. You can trust Jesus and His Lordship and you can get on with what you need to do.

Make church and worship a little challenging for yourself.

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Yea, “Leadership Magazine” is out (Summer 2014 p 92) and Skye Jethani has written an editorial to challenge our idea of what a sermon should be like. I will take his column a little further. Lutheran worship has always espoused a sermon that is “Law and Gospel”, remind people why they are in worship. We are sinners, we need to be reminded that we violate God’s Law on a regular basis, so we are reminded of what His Law is. But God doesn’t stop there, because we also have the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus came to be the sacrifice, the payment, the propitiation for our sin. The Law and our regular violation of the Law separates us from God. God is holy, just, righteous. If there is a violation of His Law then His justice requires that there be payment for that violation. Jesus made that payment for us on the cross, through His death and sacrifice. Jesus restored our relationship with God the Father through that sacrifice, when God sees us, He sees His Son. Jesus is perfect, sinless, God the Son and the only One who could make a sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. When the Father sees you or me who are in Jesus, He sees His Son and we are restored in the relationship with the Father.
But in this day and age, too often, pastors downplay our sin and give us a more “rose-colored” view of the world and ourselves. We continue to sin, but that gets soft pedaled. Skye writes “…we only grow when we are uncomfortable, and too much comfort can be downright dangerous.” For me it’s dangerous in a couple of ways, it makes us complacent towards the content of the sermon and to the seriousness of the sin that separates us from God the Father and leaves many condemned because we don’t take our Christian discipleship seriously enough for those who don’t know Jesus.
Skye writes: “…With the best intentions, we have tried to make worship a comfortable place for both believers and seekers to learn about God.” And I might add, to learn about our relationship with Him and how we separate ourselves from Him.
Skye points out that our brain functions on two levels. One is when we kind of coast, take it in, but don’t think about it too critically. Our other level is when we are “…required to rethink assumptions, challenge ideas, and construct new behaviors and beliefs. System two must be active to learn. Research shows that the brain shifts from system one to system two when forced to work; when challenged and uncomfortable.” So he asks the question, “…should we be seeking engagement that requires more work on the part of our listeners rather than less?” Shouldn’t my sermons be more challenging, more critical, uplifting, but in terms of remembering what we have to be thankful for and why. We should be able to take what we get from a sermon, examine our own life, our family’s and to be able to articulate that to a person who does not know Christ as Lord of their life? In order to do that I have to push you in my sermons and not make them easy or comfortable.
Skye writes about how: “…Jesus was a brilliant communicator, … it is obvious that the comfort of his audience was not a significant consideration. In fact, Jesus taught in a manner that challenged (sometimes baffled) his listeners. He expected them to work in order to understand his teaching. He asked them questions wrapped his teaching in opaque parables, and often taught in distracting settings.”
Speaking for myself, I want people to be even a little baffled when they leave worship. I would love it if they came up to me and said “hey pastor, what did that mean when you said … and how does that apply to me?”
There’s an old pastoral saying, that we are “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” When you sit in those pews in front of me, I want you to feel challenged, convicted, not beat up on, but in a way that makes you want to fight to that next level. When you really confront what the Law is, what Jesus did for you and how that applies to you and those around you, it should raise a host of questions. When you leave on Sunday morning I will feel I have achieved my goal as a “seel sorger” a soul healer if you leave feeling a little challenged. Not because I’m so smart or so good, believe me, that sermon should reach both of us and remind us that only by God’s grace, by the life, death and resurrection are we saved in Christ. And when we remember that, we should also feel that we’ve been pushed and prodded to grow in the faith.

“Tolerance” in the church is undermining the integrity and credibility of the church

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Yea, rant alert, I’m not even sure how this is going to come out, but I’ve really felt I have to deal with this. I’m hoping instead of the usual knee jerk reaction of the world that I be given the benefit of the doubt, so try to over come the narrow minded lashback and hear me out. While this discussion was prompted by an “Inc Magazine” article about integrity. The discussion has been rattling around in my head and was prompted by an encounter with at least a couple with whom I have the issue.
(The article at issue is from the “The Art of Strategic Influence” produced by GE Capital, the article is in the Dec 2013/Jan 2014 issue p 8), we good with all the attribution stuff?
“…the factor that often spells the difference between success and failure is ‘strategic influence’. Today, an executive’s strategic influence is not nearly as dependent on authority as it is on integrity, and on the strong ties forged with people inside and outside the organization who respect that executive’s knowledge and point of view and respond positively to them.”
OK, now my perspective in this context, the world seems to think that all the churches should come together, you know the cheesy “coexist” bumper sticker, ya, I know, bumper sticker philosophy. Well frankly that’s where most of these people are coming from, about an inch thick and an inch wide, i.e. do not know from whence they speak. That is an issue of integrity, where does anyone come off throwing their “opinion” around, when they just don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s not a matter of perspective or opinion, it comes down to what is genuine, has integrity. As a proof of that, we have become more detached from God and what He has taught us and we have more dishonesty (think corporate, political scandals of the last thirty years), more corruption, violence on a scale that is becoming out of control, on a scale that was unimaginable even a century ago, warfare in the twentieth century resulted in more death and violence then every century in history, combined. All of this while the world continues to deny genuine belief and worship to God and worship of self, of personal opinion and choice. There is no integrity and no one cares the least about it, it’s my way or no way.
Well that effect extends to those who profess Christ. I’m not saying that they are not genuinely saved in Christ what I am saying is that without any real preparation, they presume to teach and preach on Christ’s behalf and often just don’t know what they’re talking about. At the same time they presume to criticize the established church, because the church won’t recognize their ministry. Ya, sort of like asking the American Medical Association to recognize a guy who with no medical training sets up in the strip mall doing heart surgery. Ya! Really! To that extent. There is spiritual poison in the world, poison that will kill physically and spiritually, that is, it messes up people’s minds and bodies and puts there eternal life in the resurrection in jeopardy. To those who presume to be a pastor, they really don’t care, it’s all about them and what they teach and don’t try to confuse them with the facts.
These little groups are usually the result of one person, maybe a husband and wife or small group and they decide to pull together a group. As far as that goes, great, but then they decide, well with no other background they go ahead and start telling people how they should worship, that it should be about what they want and what makes them feel good and really nothing much in terms of what God wants, what He’s trying to do in people’s lives and how He is trying to make us mature in Christ. Nasty stuff like Jesus’ passion, martyrs, standing up for Christ in a hostile world, well they don’t want that, what a buzz kill! They want a “god” whose there to make them all happy and smiley, gives them what they want, when they want it.
These are people who haven’t put in the time to genuinely learn what God has been teaching His people in His revelation for two millenia, no, they have a better idea and if God wants He can get on board, but they really know what’s best. There is no attempt to lead from a position of preparation and truly being trained to really help people in Christ, creating an environment of respect and integrity, they’ve learned how to put together an organization that is all about people pleasing and God? Well He should just respect that, and the established church should too. I’m not letting the Church off the hook, the liberal/flatline, uhmm mainline church has been caught up in the people-pleasing mode also and has made itself look pathetic and irrelevant, which most of these churches are. Hey, even as a Lutheran, I will give credit to the Roman Catholic church, we may not agree on a lot, but the Roman church has maintained, doctrinal and liturgical credibility, albeit credibility has suffered in other areas. But ya, let’s get over that too, really from business, to government to education to the medical establishment, there’s been enough lack of integrity and credibility to go around. Let me fire back on those who love to quote the Bible but don’t know enough about the Bible to fill a thimble, “let those who are without sin cast the first stone”. Those in any other institution, have at least, if not more, than their share of sin, so get over your bigoted attitude toward the Church of Christ.
Let me cut to the chase, if you don’t put in the time and work to truly become a legitimate Christian leader, pastor, than you have cheated and that is a lack of integrity.
As the writer of the Inc article writes: “It begins with networking, progresses to relationship building and culminates in a strong bond characterized by a high level of trust and respect, to the point where the person values your opinion over most.” These little groups expect the church to endorse their little efforts, they tell me I should trust and respect them, but then give me no basis whatsoever to do so. If you want to truly be what you profess, put in the time, make the sacrifice and continue to do so. There is way too much mediocrity in the world as a whole, why should I lower my standards, compromise all my work and effort to indulge someone’s uninformed opinion?
The lack of integrity of these little groups and frankly many in the flat line/main line church reflects on the credibility of the Christian church as a whole. When the church is raising up men who are genuinely (or should be) concerned with the spiritual health of society as a whole and each individual and when there are a bunch of groups who think it’s all about jumping around, doing people-pleasing productions, just plain “make me feel good”. Groups that make the church, as a whole, look frivolous and irrelevant. Look at society. Do you see a lot of genuine spiritual health? Luther said that a Christian pastor is a “seel sorger” a “soul doctor”, one who is responsible for the spiritual health of those He is called to lead. Is it spiritual health when the prescription isn’t about you and the cancer of sin that’s eating your soul, and it’s about making you happy, simply being a people pleaser? A lot of these people who presume to take spiritual leadership really need to take a hard look and remember that those who teach and preach are going to be held to a higher account at the final judgment. If these people are seen to be frivolous or worse, spiritual poisoning, how can a truly righteous, holy, perfect God not condemn them? Maybe they should get over themselves and submit to genuine Christian discipling. How long will the church tolerate being a joke, because a bunch of people presume to speak for Christ and make us all look like a laughing stock to the world. How long will this damage to the church be tolerated by those who truly want to be disciples of Christ and are indulging and supporting false churches? When will we as leaders in the church take Christian spiritual health seriously instead of as a party and realize the tremendous benefit that we can bestow on society as a whole? How can the church be a positive influence, a credible partner with all the aspects of society, when we do not denounce those who treat being a faithful Christian as just a frivolous party?

Bosses you’re called to serve those who work for you.

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Bosses are favorite whipping boys, or girls. It’s tough as, Gene Veith points out, to be a boss, at least it should be and especially a Christian boss. Most bosses have people they supervise, but they are usually responsible to someone else too. So they have a duty to serve their boss as they would serve Christ, as discussed in an earlier post. In Ephesians 6:9 Paul puts it to “masters”: “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him”. (KJV)
Calls to mind marriage vows. Ideally, the wife is to respect her husband, and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church? How did Jesus love the church? He suffered and gave His life for the church in a very graphic and dreadful way. There’s no middle ground, for anyone. Do it to the death or not at all.
There were more protections in the Roman Empire for slaves than what we would normally assume, still masters could make life very difficult for slaves and while it might cost them some money, a slave could die with only slight notice or consequence. As a husband serves his wife up to the death, sometimes a boss has to serve his/ her employees to the extreme in order to be a Christian boss that exemplifies Christ.
A master is to remember that he has a Master too. As Dr Veith points out, a master should see Christ in his “servants”. Do you really think it’s a good idea to abuse Jesus in your servants? Since we will all be held accountable, we should remember that we will be judged according to how we treat anyone and especially employees.
I’ve had my share of bad bosses in the private sector, it was an experience that hung over me at work, I took home with me, and I’m sure I wasn’t the most pleasant husband and father. It often seemed as if you were walking on a tightrope, while walking over eggs.
Having said that, while it may seem to be a sweet deal to be the boss, it’s difficult to do it well. It’s even more difficult as a Christian. We have to be Christ in all our roles. Are we going to do it as well? No. But as a boss/master, we have to do our best to witness to those who report to us who Christ is. This doesn’t mean, necessarily, some kind of evangelistic discussion (but if the opportunity arises, there might be risks, but you might be showing someone eternal life). It does mean not giving people an excuse to disregard Christ because their Christian boss was not a Christlike boss.
If your boss is trying to live out Christ in his workplace and his role, support him/her, do what you can to encourage. He/she might not be your favorite person, but don’t you have a duty to love your brother or sister?
I know this is short notice, but let’s talk about it tomorrow, Wednesday, 10am at First St Johns 140 W King St, downtown York, there’s parking right behind the church.

Le Tour est finis

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Certainment, It est triste. J’aime Le Tour. OK, seven years of French, that’s all I got. But I really do look forward to Le Tour, (Tour de France, in case you don’t know) It is the premier cycling race in the world. It really is transfixing, getting a tour of France, England (this year) a little bit of Spain, Belgium, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and to see some superb athletics. I was doing a lot of flipping between Le Tour and the Red Sox. It struck me, how a lot of professional team sports are starting to get a little tedious. My biggest beef is the move to video replay. For almost a century and a half we enjoyed watching baseball, pretty much like we did it in the neighborhood sandlot. Today, we have to listen to a long lecture on the rules and wait to find out if we’re going to further delay with a video review. The NFL is so ridiculously over the top with the technology and rules that it has really taken any fun out of the game.
Le Tour works like this, for about three weeks you get on a bike and cycle for about 120 miles a day. You go up incredible heights, you deal with rain, heat, other geographic features. Your bike might develop a mechanical problem, get a flat tire. Do you get a review, or get to whine about it to anyone? No. You may bump the guy in front of you, beside you, you’ve got 195 guys bunched together, stuff happens. Just like in other sports, but in bicycling there’s no opportunity to whine and fuss, you keep going until you get to the end. Whoever gets to the end first, wins. Real easy.
Le Tour is a true test of strength, endurance, technique, tactics and not whining and replays. Triathlon, another individual sport, other sports that are not so prissy and just interested in getting out and doing it. Please, take out all the nonsense in sports. Sure drugs have been an issue in cycling, but that’s being cleaned up. Certainly the team sports have had their own issues with drug abuse, behavior issues, which is also taking the fun out of it.
Let’s get back to having true contests, enjoy the skill, intelligence and challenge of sports and cut out the rest of the nonsense. But to be sure, sports is certainly a reflection of our current culture.

I do by the grace of God

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This is how you respond when you are taking vows in the church. You may be making vows at your baptism, the baptism of your child, your confirmation or being received by a profession of faith, being married.
Since I don’t do it all the time, and I’ve only been a pastor four years, I am still a little taken aback when I review these vows with people and then stand before them as they make these solemn vows before a congregation. For example I may be confirming a teenager, to an adult of any age. Often when I go over these vows with them, I really lean on these on these questions. “I want to make sure you really understand what this is.” I will say. The response is always a sort of glib, ‘yeah what’s the big deal’ response, ‘oh yeah I understand’. When I stand up in front of the congregation with them I really lean on those words. Because I want them to really understand what is going on, I don’t want someone having some kind of an excuse later; “I didn’t know, nobody told me.” Who yea “they” did.
I know I’m hitting a nerve for some people, and I’m not really pinging on those who have been divorced, I’m sure that most who have been divorced have come to terms with that, with themselves and their pastor. But for those who haven’t been married, or are still married and maybe thinking about giving up, think of your vows. For the guy the vows are even more compelling. Are you going to give up, forget about the vows you made before God and your brothers and sisters in Christ? Or is this time to stand up? Yea, the world will back you up, “hey he/she, they weren’t happy, they ‘deserve’ to be happy, fulfilled, have someone else, whatever the excuse. Those things are more important than some simplistic promise you made and anyway God’s supposed to forgive, right?” Yea, OK, so much for integrity, so much for your Christian witness, after all it’s all about you and not what Christ did for you. Right?
As I said the guy has an even greater responsibility, because part of the vows you made were to do for your wife, what Jesus did for His bride, the church. To sacrifice yourself for her.
Yea, I know, nothing’s ever going to happen, no one’s going to kill you because of your being a Christian… Right? Sure, being a Christian is just another membership, you know like Jackie Gleason and Art Carney were members of the Loyal Order of Moose, like the Masons. Yet, there are many thousands who have lost their life, it is happening right now. In Iraq, China, India, Southeast Asia, Nigeria, Kenya, many other places. There were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century then all the previous centuries, combined. Sure, if you ever confront the situation, you can just recant, disavow Jesus and you’ll live. But what do you think that means in eternity. Sure you lived, but what does that mean in terms of your day to day relationship with Jesus, with your church? Do you pray, how do you think that’s going to go now that you’ve disavowed Jesus? Is it possible that you may not have verbally done so, by your acts, by your lifestyle, you really have all but said, “I’m not really interested in living as a Christian, it’s not important, doesn’t really mean anything, it won’t matter.”
If that’s how you really feel why even bother taking vows, or is it just some simple “pro forma”? Go through the motions and things are just hunky, don’t you worry your pretty little head, right? Yea, tough decision, really stand-up kind of guy. What do you think it will be like at the final judgment, and there will be one. God won’t be interested in your excuses, you will be there entirely by yourself, don’t try to blame someone else, it’s you and you alone. How do you think that’s going to go … for eternity. I’d seriously think about those vows, maybe you aren’t/never will be a Christian. OK, that’s bad enough, but why make it worse by rejecting your integrity and your word to God? Or maybe you just don’t want to deal with being persecuted. Is anything you could suffer on earth be worse, then anything you could suffer before an all holy, all powerful Creator of everything who will condemn you for eternity?
It’s up to you, but I’d take those vows, and then find a way to really live them out. It may not be fun or pleasant, but if you promise to “…continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” If you promise that woman who trusted you that you will serve and defend her even if it costs your life, if I were you, if Christ means anything to you at all and what He suffered, then I would make sure I live up to those vows.
Rev Randall Golter reminds us that: “What God wills, God sees through! Be comforted. You don’t plan your death or even your public witness; God does, even as He plans your life.”Lutheran Witness June/July 2014 p 4
It’s not your call, you can quit, or, I pray, the Holy Spirit will help you figure it out, it’s way better doing it God’s way.

Spirit, mind and body

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Thanks to the York County Council on Aging for a great “Seniors Game”. I have to admit that it sort of bristles that I’m “old” enough to be in anything that refers to “seniors”, however the YCCA, AARP, various other organizations posit that I am “old” enough. It was fun though and I did pretty well, even won in backstroke, which I’ve never won anything at. So I won three silvers and one bronze, 100 yard free, 50 yard back, 50 yard breast and 100 yard breast.
The entire competition went awhile, started at 10am and ended at 3pm, but considering the events and age groups the volunteers made sure things went off bang, bang. Gave me time to chat with new friends, get some good tips, allowed me to reflect back to the competitions I did in school/YMCAs. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a swim meet and there was plenty of time to take it in and get that old feeling from many years ago.
We are very physical beings, when we die, assuming the Lord Jesus doesn’t return before then, we will be in spirit, but only for a short time. We were made to be physical beings. God put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden intending that they should live there in a perfect, very physical world. That is what the resurrection will be. We will live in a world much like it is today, but Jesus will be our very visible light, we will be sinless, our bodies will be strong, there will be no illness, no physical disability or death. We will be as we were intended to be until we undermined God’s work with our sin and corruption.
Point being we were made to be very physical, in body, to use our minds for God’s glory and to have a spirit that transcends the world and by the Holy Spirit is guided into eternal life. As God’s children in Jesus we are responsible to use the gifts associated with body, mind and spirit to our best abilities and to the glory of God.
So yea, I try to make a good witness by trusting in God, being led by Him and doing the things that bring glory to Him in all the ways He made me, to rip off the YMCA, in spirit, mind and body. Having swum for YMCA teams, been a member, lifeguard, swimming instructor, phys ed instructor, aquatic director and filling various and sundry other jobs at the “Y”, and being a Christian organization, it’s always great to see that motto and remember all the things that God made us for.
It was fun to compete, it was fun to win some, but it was fun to just have a little God given ability and use it as He intended and maybe, just maybe be an example to someone else who might just decide; “it’s time to get back in there and do something to make myself stronger in body, mind and spirit.” I hope you will join me and share how you have decided, to make yourself stronger in all the gifts God gave you.

You don’t have to win, place but just show up for the challenge, the fellowship and to His glory.

I looked over Jordan and what did I see…

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Well no, it wasn’t angels, but seeing the Jordan River for the first time was a little surprising.

If you’re any kind of student of the Bible you know the Jordan River pops up in Scripture over and over. Joshua led Israel over the Jordan up to John the Baptizer preaching in the Jordan when Jesus said to him: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matt 3: 13-17) I’ve always had an image of the Jordan being much grander, bigger. We went to the headwaters of the Jordan, up in the Golan Heights and it was a brook, an impressive brook, but no more than five feet wide. I’ve seen the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Susquehanna, the Hudson River, the East River, heck the Charles River, the Jordan isn’t even close. But in terms of our Lord being baptized in that river, there is nothing even close to the Jordan.