It’s not offending if it’s in love and concern

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Uhhhmmm, I don’t know… “Of importance to the courage of leadership is cultivating spiritual and religious humility, which is an attitude of respect and esteem developed when encountering people of other faiths.” (Fr Leo Nkwasibwe Business Courage p 397)

A Christian should never be disrespectful to any other person, regardless of anything; religion, race, sexual preference. But it seems to me that Christians are a little too quick to defer, to willing to back off, to me that’s a little too, well I’ll say it, gutless to Christ. Jesus didn’t back down one bit when confronted by the Jewish leaders, by Pontius Pilate, by anyone who some how called Him out. He directed demons, He took control of the situations He was in. He didn’t concede the field to anyone, now a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that He is God. He created the people He was confronting, He knew more in an instant, than they’d ever know in a lifetime. So that’s a little difficult for me to reconcile how Jesus, who is God, confronts, as compared to me. One way I am looking at it, is that Jesus’s life is the example that I should follow. No question, Jesus was never obnoxious about it, but He was always assertive. This is the way it is, this is the truth and you need to deal with it.

As a Coast Guard Petty Officer, I was trained as a law enforcement officer. A law enforcement officer by the nature of the vocation is going to encounter confrontation. It is incumbent on the officer to handle a situation as safely and expediently as possible, this in the best interests of everyone. This reduces the possibility losing control, injury of any parties, and getting the parties involved to where they need to be.This is analogous to Christian witnessing.

I’m not saying that Jesus wasn’t meek and humble, certainly the incarnation itself was a demonstration of Jesus’ willingness to humble Himself in order to do what was necessary for man. John MacArthur quotes the NASB:

Have this attitude 1in yourselves which was also in bChrist Jesus,

6  who, although He aexisted in the bform of God, cdid not regard equality with God a thing to be 1grasped,

7  but 1aemptied Himself, taking the form of a bbond-servant, and cbeing made in the likeness of men.

8  Being found in appearance as a man, aHe humbled Himself by becoming bobedient to the point of death, even cdeath 1on a cross.

We should always look to serve. But perhaps I see service not as caving in, but as doing what is best for those involved. Certainly I serve Christ by being an assertive witness for Him. Christ died for the sins of the world, it is not God’s will that any should die, but all should be saved. Sorry, the fact of the matter is this, only in Christ are we saved. Same old discussion, I can tell people what they want to hear and not offend, or I can tell them what they need to hear. In an assertive way, no one is hurt, in fact ultimately they are saved from eternal hurt. I have stayed in control and kept the focus on Christ, too often these discussions end in everyone either genuinely considering what was said or being offended, frankly I’m more concerned about offending Jesus, then offending people who are misguided to begin with. Jesus said the Gospel would offend, we can’t help how other people react, we can only be faithful and assertive.

“Assertive”, does not mean loud, obnoxious, pugnacious, it means “this is where it’s at, this is how it is. You can chose to accept it or not, but this is how it’s going to be. If someone is being arrested for cause, they can be offended (they usually are), they can talk all kinds of smack about you, your momma etc, but the fact of the matter is this, they’re under arrest and just as in Christ there will be a judgment. All are going to be judged, I want to be judged faithful to Christ, when others are judged and found to be not in Christ, well… suffice to say, it’s not going to be pleasant for them. A secular judge can send someone to jail, the ultimate Judge will condemn those who have rejected Him, and jail will seem like a luxury resort compared to where they will be condemned.

These aren’t my words, they are Jesus’. I’m not making this stuff, it is the way God the Son promised that it would be. I’m not doing my co-worker, family member, neighbor, other guy I play basketball with, a favor, by patting them on the head and sending them on their way because they were offended. Hopefully not by the way I said it, because those in the world will always use that as an excuse, but as respectfully and in love, wanting what is best for them.

Maybe Father Nkwasibwe has a different definition of esteem, I esteem the fact that we were all made in the imago dei. But I’m sorry I do not “esteem” someone else’s wrong opinion. You can condemn yourself, but I wouldn’t esteem your killing yourself with pills versus hanging. Either are evil and so is spiritual poison, that kills, not just the body but for eternity. I have to be serious and assertive about the Gospel, not antagonistic, because I don’t want anyone hurt, but in a way that conveys that I am very serious, that I have full confidence in what I’m doing and if the other person doesn’t want to end up spiritually damaged they would do well to listen to what I have to say.

People do respond to assertiveness and confidence, they may not comply as if they were under arrest, but they will think about it. We often don’t see the results of our witnessing, we are told that we will be used to plant. Don’t quit because there are no results, we are called to be faithful, when we witness with confidence, assurance and in genuine love, we are being as faithful as we can be.

So, no, don’t start a holy war at work, there is such thing as discretion. But don’t be too fast to just concede the field. I’ve had Christian pastors tell me that other pastors shouldn’t be allowed to say the Name of Christ in their public prayer. Why? Well they don’t want to offend. The Gospel offends, Jesus told us it would, we are called to faithful, if that offends, well, there’s not a lot I can do about that, except to continue to faithfully serve the Lord of Life.

We meet on Wednesday’s 10am the Green Bean Coffee Co. corner of W King and Beaver Sts in downtown York, parking behind the church.

The temptations of us

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The temptations of us

March 9, 2014 First St Johns

 

There is no doubt Father that we are weak vessels, we are constantly being tempted, we know that our strength is only in You, but there are times when that Old man/the Old Jim will prevail, where we will fail and give in to temptation. We also know that when we bring our failure to You, You forgive us, that You always welcome back Your prodigal child. We ask for your protection every time we pray what Jesus taught us, to remind us that it is through Your strength and power that we resist temptations, but when the Old man overtakes us, it is in Your strength that we are forgiven. Help us to remember Jesus’ example and every time we are tempted we resist by remembering Scripture, remembering our baptism into new life in our Lord Jesus. We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who will remember their baptism and the promises of Jesus in the face of temptations said … AMEN

I know, that’s kind of a tall order, to remember Scripture, to remember our baptism in the face of temptations but it is what the Father gives us to resist temptations. That is why we take time to be at worship, to be with brothers and sister in Jesus, to study Scripture, to take time to journal about our experience in confronting and over coming temptations.

Arlo Pullmann takes an illustration from C.S. Lewis: “Turkish delight is a tasty confection used by the White Witch, the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia, to deceive poor Edmund, the son of Adam. The queen offered the Turkish delight to sate Edmund’s hunger, but the more he ate, the more he desired it. The fact is, she didn’t have what was necessary to satisfy Edmund’s most basic needs. Since she didn’t have it, she could not give it. Instead, through her deception, she caused Edmund’s downfall. He became enslaved to the wicked White Witch and brought trouble on many others, including his own brother and sisters. The deed that brought about the end of trouble and the freedom of Edmund was the self-sacrifice of the ever-good, mysterious lion, Aslan. Aslan had life and was therefore able to give it for Edmund’s sake.

Edmund, by talking to an evil one and eating what the evil one offers, mimics not only Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3: 6-7), but he’s like all of us in that we, too, [give in] to evil temptations that ultimately are not able to satisfy but leave us wanting life. Like Aslan, the Lord of life comes to our rescue. What he has, he gives. He does have life and by giving up his life on the cross, he gives us life and heavenly delight.”1

So we have bookend readings today having to do with Satan and each have to do with temptation, Satan trying to, and succeeding in, tempting the first Adam/Eve. The next, Satan trying to, and failing, to tempt Jesus, the second Adam. Satan is attempting to get Jesus to put His immediate needs, probably: hunger, thirst, fatigue, general discomfort, cold/heat, to put those needs ahead of humanity’s eternal needs, that of being in relationship with God, to be saved, to have eternal life in the resurrection.

People often say how “unfair” it is that we should all be condemned because of one man’s action. Let’s look at the facts. There they were in the Garden of Eden, does anyone doubt for a second that they had all they needed in the Garden? We all want peace, we all want to feel safe, we all have material needs. Do you think that God did not provide for all these needs in the Garden? There was nothing to be afraid of, I have no doubt that there was plenty of food and drink, that Adam and Eve lived very well, safely, peacefully, they were fully content. All they were told to do was: “See that tree over there, yea that one in the middle of all these good things, all the things that you will ever need, there is nothing I have denied you, so just leave that one little tree over there alone.” But as much as we have, there is always one temptation; to be in control, to run things, essentially, to be God. And that is exactly what Satan appealed to, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God…” And so it goes, at some point, someone, as Satan himself did, was going to decide; “I can do things better, I should run things, I should be God” and would give in to the temptation.

So let’s be honest here, we would probably all give in to the promise of ultimate power and authority. Satan succeeded in deceiving us. Deitrich Bonhoeffer notes: “It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire or ambition or vanity or desire for revenge or love of fame and power or greed for money or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature. Joy in God is … extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality and only desire for the creature is real’ the only reality is the devil. Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.” Even though Adam and Eve had daily fellowship with God, Satan found a way to make Eve forget, just for a moment, God’s will and insist on her own will. We can readily see why Eve would cave, we are as human as she is, we just might cave. Jimy Akin raises a good question, “How could Jesus be tempted?”. He is God, what could Satan possibly tempt Him with. Akin goes on to say: “The Greek word used here for temptation (peirazo) does not indicate that Jesus had the disordered desire that we refer to in English as temptation. Instead, it means “to try,” “to attempt.” Here the devil tries to get Jesus to sin–and fails.”2 Yes, but, let’s never forget, Jesus is as much human as any of us, He is fully God, He is fully human. Why? We don’t know, frankly we don’t need to know. He was born of Mary, He was intended to be human and intended to experience life as much as any of us do. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15) If you’ve been watching the “Bible” series on television, the way this scene was portrayed really drove this home for me. Jesus knows how this plays out, He knows that in a very short time, He is going to be unmercifully beaten, tormented and nailed into a rough cut tree, where He will be left to hang until He dies. So the scene cuts back and forth between Jesus being tortured and crucified and Jesus being crowned, I think one shot has Pilate condemning Him and in the next Pilate is crowning Him. Jesus makes the right call, but that human part of Him had to be divided: “I could be king and not have to go through all that!” But He, the Father, the Spirit are in one purpose, anything other than the sacrifice of Jesus will not free us, will not pay for our sins and that is the main purpose of the incarnation. Jesus knows full well how this has to play out and it will play out that way, but the temptation was real, as the writer of Hebrews tells us. Jesus knows, first hand, what we deal with and in the mercy of the Godhead, and in the righteousness of Christ when we give in to temptation we know we are forgiven. We will be tempted, and temptation is not a sin, Jesus was very much tempted, He showed us that temptation can be resisted, He was confronted with life and power or brutal death. But that is with the realization that we are weak and fallible vessels, we do give in to temptation, but in Him we have forgiveness.

So take some time this week, take that journal out and write out, deal with, some of the main temptations in your life. Remember Scripture, how Jesus refused to give in. If we remember our baptism and how it has made us reborn, born in the Spirit, adopted sons and daughters of the Father, how will that help us to resist the temptations, turn them over to Him and how will we feel when we have won the victory over temptations in the strength and power of Christ our Great High Priest, our Lord and our Savior?

We can act like we are a victim, we can complain that God is trying to keep us from pleasure, we can whine that we’re being cheated or we can trust the promises of Him who endured temptation and endured the humiliation of a Roman Cross, He in whose Name we are baptized and born again and defeat the temptations in our life.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

1Arlo W Pullmann, What Truly Delights “Concordia Pulpit Vol 24, Par 2 Series A p 7

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The Promising Word

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Sermon: The Promising Word (Luke 23:39–43)   (I am doing a sermon series on “Words of Life from the Cross”, Concordia Publishing House)

The second word from Jesus’ dying lips is a word of promise and salvation: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” These words are spoken not to a religious man or to a fine, upstanding citizen or to one of His disciples. They are spoken to a convicted man guilty of a capital crime. He and his fellow convict were hung on crosses with Jesus between them. Jesus is the innocent one among the guilty, the Man among the thieves. These two convicted criminals are the ones given the privilege of being at Jesus’ left and His right when He comes into His kingdom, a privilege the disciples bickered over but had no idea what they were asking. Who could have known?

We do not know the exact nature of their crime. “Criminals; thieves” are what they are called. Perhaps “insurrectionist” or even “terrorist” might strike somewhat closer to the reality. These were no common robbers but those who presented a threat to Roman security. Their public crucifixion was intended to ward off others.

There they hung, one on Jesus’ right, the other on His left. Legend puts the “good” one on Jesus’ right, the “bad” one on His left, perhaps in view of Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats. The one on Jesus’ left reviles Jesus and hurls insults at Him, joining the chorus of the religious leaders and the passers-by who had come to shake their fists. “Aren’t You the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”

Strange, isn’t it, that the man’s mockery should come in the form of a prayer for salvation? “Save Yourself and us!” This is not a prayer of faith but of derision. What kind of Christ are You? What sort of Messiah are You going to be? Flex some of that messianic muscle and save Yourself and us too. Or are you a fake, an impostor, a phony Christ? Spare Yourself from this death, and spare us too.

This thief on the left is the spokesman for the unbelieving world. His mocking “prayer” comes in the form of a demand, not a “Kyrie.” If Jesus is worth His salt as a Messiah, He would come down from that wretched cross and save Himself, and while He was at it, save His fellow criminals. But that is not the way of salvation at all. That is the devil’s way, the way that Peter represented when he took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for speaking of His death and resurrection. This mocking prayer echoes Satan’s temptations in the wilderness: “If You are the Son of God . . . If You are the Christ . . . ”

The thief on the right instead rebukes his fellow thief. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” (Luke 23:40). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To fear the Lord is to put all others fears in their place. “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things,” certainly in life and especially at our life’s end, when we, too, find ourselves under the same death sentence of the Law. To fear the Lord under those circumstances is to be wise in the way of faith, trusting that in life and in death, Jesus is mighty to save.

This thief is a penitent. He confesses his sin; he tells the truth. “And we indeed [are condemned] justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds” (Luke 23:41). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The thief recognizes his sin and confesses it. The only truth a liar can say is: “I am a liar.” The only truth a sinner can say is: “I am a sinner.”

The thief is also faithful. He confesses Christ: “But this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). Behold the unblemished Lamb of God! He is pure, holy, and innocent. We are guilty, justly convicted. Did the thief understand all the implications of what he was saying? Did He fully understand who Jesus was for him? What did he actually know of Jesus? We do not know. All we know is his dying prayer: “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Of all the people to address Jesus, he is the only one to use Jesus’ name without some other title. Simply “Jesus.” Familiar, direct, no flattery—Jesus. Death is the great leveler; it puts everyone on a first-name basis.

“Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” A simple word of faith. He sees this broken, bleeding, dying man next to him and takes the sign over His head literally. He is a King with a kingdom. All this criminal asks is to be remembered. Not spared the agonies of death, not rescued—simply remembered. And this tiny little mustard-seed-sized faith is acknowledged by Jesus and credited to the thief as righteousness sealed with Jesus’ own Amen: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Some people wonder and speculate. Was this criminal baptized? Some would make the grand exception out of him to show how Baptism is not necessary. But that is missing the point. He has no need for either Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. The Sacrament of sacraments is there next to him: dying Jesus nailed to the cross. What more does he need? His preacher is the sign over Jesus’ head, written in Latin, Greek, and Aramaic—Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and all the people who are taunting Jesus, calling Him the Christ and the Son of God.

What sort of Man is this who promises Paradise to a dying thief who admits the guilt of crime? What sort of justice is this that speaks pardon to the unpardonable, that acquits the guilty, that saves those society deems unsalvageable and worthy of the cruelest form of death? This is the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of fallen mankind, the One who reconciles the enemy as enemy and justifies the sinner as sinner. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Hear that word of promise for yourself. Hear it now, and at the hour of your death, for none of us knows the day and the hour of our “Today” when Paradise is opened to us in our death.

 

For Your Word of promised Paradise, opening Your kingdom to sinners, rebels condemned to die as the just wages of our sin, we give You thanks and praise, most holy Jesus. Amen.

God’s will, even in the little things.

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We had a great “Coffee Break Bible Study” today, (you could have too, you are all invited 10am Wednesdays Green Bean Coffee Co, corner of W King and Beaver Sts, downtown York, Pa.). Part of the discussion was on liturgical worship, but we also made time on the Gene Veith book that we’ve been studying. I had to share some of his book today.

“…The point here is not to identify vocations for people who think they do not have one, but to emphasize that our Christian calling is to be played out in whatever our daily life consists of.” (Gene Veith God at Work pp 58-59)

Cannot emphasize this enough, we compartmentalize our life and if it doesn’t “have to do with religion”, then we leave God out of the equation. However, God is who put you there (“For such a time as this” – Esther 4:14), He has you there at that time and place for a reason. Discern His will, be open to what the other person is doing and what God is moving you to do.

“If a person is married, that is his or her calling. Thinking I should never have married that person or I have no vocation for marriage is no excuse for divorce or abandonment. “If anyone lives in marriage, in a certain way of life, he has his vocation”, wrote Luther. “When this is interfered with – by Satan, or neighbors, or family, or even by one’s own weakness of mind – it ought not to yield or to be broken in spirit. Rather if any difficulty impedes, let one call on the Lord … For it is sure that here, in fidelity to vocation, God has insisted on hope and trust in his help” (Exposition of Psalm 127; quoted in Wingren, 195) Yea, especially in this case, we let friends (who way too often just tell us what we want to hear), or family with that whole history etc going on, or Satan who will twist and try to manipulate any way he can. He doesn’t care how, so long as it separates you from Jesus and messes up your life.

We are put there for a reason, just because it’s not what we like, doesn’t make us happy or blah, blah whatever excuse we have, does not mean that God did not intend for us to deal with this. We grow when we deal with the things in our life, marriage, work, worship etc. Running away is not growing, it’s immaturity. When we deal with the issues at home, at work, at church, we have taken a test and passed, not saying always well, but we grow, mature. Hopefully all involved grow and mature and see God’s hand at work. But the world’s idea of “well if it’s uncomfortable, unhappy, then it must be wrong…” no, it means that God has you there to confront, deal with and grow in.

“We can do nothing about the past. The future is wholly in God’s hand. Now is what we have. The future-oriented obsession of today’s culture pushes our attention and our good works to the future, to what we are going to do later. We must “live in the hour that has come,” says Wingren. “That is the same as living in faith, receptive to God, who is present now and has something he will do now ‘(214)'”

“…Whatever we face in the often humdrum present – washing the dishes, buying groceries, going to work, driving the kids somewhere… this is the realm into which we have been called and into which our faith bears fruit in love..”

What you are doing now is important, God has you there for a reason, so do it well, oh yeah sure, sometimes we aren’t in the right place, doing the right things and we know perfectly well we’re not. But I’ve certainly had the experience, something that doesn’t seem all that important and yet, the person I’m interacting with sees it as being very important. Even if that person doesn’t express it, I’ve had the feeling, walking away, that wow, I’m glad I stopped for that, it didn’t seem important at the time, now I can really see God’s hand in this.

Be open to what God is doing, it isn’t always a big splash for you, but it might be for someone else. Lots of things we think are boring and unimportant, God is using to move us somewhere or do something in our life. We are often too quick to chose  otherwise and then miss what’s supposed to be happening. Putting our will over God’s will, which is never a smart idea.

I could go on, yea I know, when don’t I? But this would be a good topic for next Wednesday. As I said 10am, the Green Bean Coffee Co, corner of W King and Beaver Sts, downtown York, Pa. Parking in the little lot behind the church. Everyone is welcome no charge, obligation etc, I will even buy your first cup of coffee.

If you make disciples, you always get the church . But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.

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      As part of our Renewal process at First St Johns, we have decided to make a concentrated effort in terms of modeling, teaching and living discipleship. One of the big things that we have identified in terms of discipling is that we all have to be much better equipped, we have to be much more outwardly focused and we have to recognize that we are in a very different world. Most of us would agree that we are in a “post-Christian” society. Where before the fundamentals of Christianity, church, worship were assumed to be almost universal, that is not the case in this day and age. I was not raised a Christian and I had to “learn” church as an unchurched person.

We may not like it, but as the church is different from what it was 500 years ago and 2,000 years ago, it will be different in the not too distant future. If anything, it will resemble the Acts Church more than anything we have been familiar with. As the Acts church grew in the midst of pagans and philosophies of all types, we see that all around us now. It has been my experience and I genuinely feel a leading of the Holy Spirit that if anything, the church will become much more liturgical, much more of an anchor in the storm vs what seems to be now at full sail in a storm. When a storm came up a ship’s crew would be desperate to quickly “reef” the sails. Three reasons: It would improve the ships stability, if the ship took a heavy wave midships and wind at the same time it might be enough to push it over. Second, it would be difficult enough to maintain a course or try to maintain a position without the sails, reefing would help the ship to maintain a position. Third if the wind tore up the sails, the ship’s main means of propulsion would be gone.

More and more I hear people saying that the church has to return to its roots, that the storm has been brewing and is about to be upon us. We need to be as solid as possible in the midst of the storm. More and more people are realizing the lack of stability in their lives. Government that can’t live up to its promises. Most people in the younger generations come from broken homes; stability at home is rare and very disabling at so many levels. They are moving into an economy that if you can get a job you are doing well, counting on that job being there too long is not realistic. So even while they are employed they are on the lookout for their next job. They are realizing that the Imagethat was focused on “entertainment”, on making people feel comfortable, is not realistic. The mega-churches are seeing that, they’ve focused on the unrealistic and when people encounter the trials and tragedies they realize they are not prepared, when this happens (not if).  Who do they blame? Sure their unstable upbringings, their unstable income prospects, the instability of the all sorts of institutions, up to and including the church. There were more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century then in all history combined. Yet the places that are primarily responsible for Christian persecution and martyrdom are the places that have seen the fastest growth in Christianity. Those places are, primarily, Africa and Asia. Latin America has also seen substantial growth, not because of persecution, but much of Latin America still struggles with serious economic hardship as do Africa and Asia. The areas where Christianity has at least plateaued and even declined, significantly, North America and Europe. We are comfortable, we don’t need the church, the church doesn’t deal with the realities of contemporary life, too much of church even at the adult level, is really only advanced Sunday school and when (not if) the trials and tribulations of life come along, the people in the pews aren’t equipped to handle them in a discipling way. Church is seen as heavy on platitudes and pleasure and not as a place that is supposed to instill trust and faith in God’s plan for our lives. We have promises, but it is of some vague ethereal place that when we talk about it is rather boring, there is no promise, hope and faith in Christ. We read the Bible stories, but we really don’t take them seriously, we are Americans, nothing threatens us, until it does and then it’s too late. The church can step in, but is not taken seriously. We as pastors are patronized, endured and then hurriedly sent on our way. Why? We never gave any hope, promise, faith before, how are we supposed to do it in the few hours before a funeral, an operation, a difficult childbirth, job loss, home loss, on and on.

This is where discipleship comes in. We are finishing a Bible study on the Book of Judges. When was the last time you did a study on Judges? There are a lot of creepy, gritty, nasty books in the Bible, but Judges has to rank at or near the top. (Always cracks me up when people say they don’t read the Bible because it’s boring. Just another example of the failure of the church.) That’s not a bad thing, the Bible is describing real life. Remember the repeated line in Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17 and again in 21) The whole point to the book of Judges was how Israel would be in right relationship with God and then would decide to do it their own way and God would give them a smack down. Judges is then, what contemporary America is.

Bet you didn’t know there were two Micahs in the Bible? One of the minor prophets and also in Judges 17. I will give you a brief buzz through about Micah: He took a lot of silver from his mother to make an idol. He decided to make a Levite his resident priest and actually ordained him (Jud 17:12). A bunch of Danites came, took his priest, took his stuff which consisted of “ephod, household gods, a carved image, and a metal image”, none of which (priest included) Micah had any business having in his house. But since everyone did what was right in their own eyes, Micah went ahead and set up the quasi church of Micah.

So, as for me and my house, we are going back to “classical worship”, something that does resonate today, something that does have a feeling of stability, of true worship versus entertainment, it is not meant for “itching ears” (1 Timothy4:3 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,”

…hmmm sounds like Micah.

This is where discipleship comes in, why we do what we do, in his book “Building a Discipling Culture”, Mike Breen observes: “The problem is that most of us have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church. Most of us have actually never been trained to make disciples. Seminary degrees, church classes and training seminars teach us to grow our volunteer base, form system and organizational structures or preach sermons on Sunday mornings and assimilate newcomers from the Sunday service. As we look around, as Christendom is crumbling and the landscape of the church is forever changed, a stark revelation emerges: Most of us have been trained and educated for a world that no longer exists.” (Truth be told, we weren’t trained in seminary or anywhere else to grow, form or assimilate, heck that would at least be some semblance of discipling – Driskell)

Breen goes on to say: “If you make disciples, you always get the church . But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.” Hmmmm, wasn’t that the way the Christian church started?

So the question is how to do that? Not with programs, not with show, not with entertainment, but getting people to sit down (whether they are 8 or 80), getting a good curriculum, Breen’s book was recommended by Dr Seaman, and starting from scratch. I’m here to tell you that the few churches I’ve been in there were people there who thought they knew everything they needed to, but upon closer questioning, it was obvious they had no idea. So don’t let anyone tell you they don’t need this, we all need it (yes even you and I fellow pastor). We are called to be disciples of Christ, you, me, everyone in those pews. The pastor has particular responsibility because as Paul wrote to the Ephesians (4:11-13) “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” This is our responsibility as pastors and I can tell you, that we are not measuring up to this call. We are called to equip the saints, not entertain and amuse the audience. Our Renewal Team is all excited and charged to start two small groups of discipling. We have been wrestling with this, praying over this, studying, journaling and we feel we have a firm basis. We have to make disciples to build/restore/renew/grow the church, otherwise “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” (Matt 7:26)

U.S. Coast Guard Station Point Allerton

This is the current patch, there have been a lot since I’ve been there, of Coast Guard Station Point Allerton. I had the privilege of serving there for about 24 years and it was quite an adventure. P.A. is one of the most historic stations in the Coast Guard. One of the most decorated and long- serving life savers in Coast Guard history was the, essentially, commanding officer, Joshua James, who is said to have died at about 70 years of age during a life boat drill, he collapsed and his dying words are supposed to be “The tide is ebbing”. Not sure about the historical reliability, but it sounds great. For my own benefit I will be writing, at times and probably not too soon, about the history of the station and some of my own adventures there. Not sure it will generate a lot of interest, but it’s more for me. Feel free to jump in.

I ripped the following off the station website:

Station Point Allerton

Captain Joshua James, USLSS (1826-1902)

View Larger Image of Joshua James Captain Joshua James served for nearly sixty years patrolling the shores of Hull. He participated in his first rescue at age 15, receiving his first medal of many at the age of 23. In 1876 he was made keeper of four lifesaving stations in Hull, including Point Allerton. He was 62 at the time and rules requiring his retirement had to be waived by an act of congress.

During his career, Joshua James has been credited with saving over 600 people and has been touted as the world’s most celebrated lifesaver.

On March 17th, 1902 the Monomoy Lifesaving Station tragically lost seven of its crew during a rescue attempt. Joshua James deeply affected by this tragedy, took his crew into the surf to ensure the capabilities of the boat and proficiency of the crew met his high standards. After more than an hour of maneuver’s Captain James said to have been “very satisfied” with the drill, and ordered the boat ashore. After returning to the beach and disembarking  the boat Joshua James glanced at the sea and remarked “The tide is ebbing,” and dropped dead on the beach at the age of 75. He left a widow and several children with no money. This situation so intensely appealed to the public that a contribution of $3,733 was collected and given to his wife.

Joshua James is honored every year at his gravesite on May 23rd (Joshua James Day) by the Hull Lifesaving Museum and Station Point Allerton.

Joshua James’s medals include:

  • 1850, Humane Society Bronze for rescue of crew of French brig L’Essai
  • 1885, Humane Society Silver Medal for “brave and faithful service of more than 40 years in the lifeboats of the Humane Society,” and $50
  • Humane Society Gold Medal for Great Storm of 1888
  • Congressional Gold Lifesaving Medal for the Great Storm of 1888

The church can be its own worst enemy

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This is one of my regular themes, that the church, in the name of “go along to get along”, tries way too often to be “accepting”, which often puts our fidelity to the Lord, behind our desire to, oh I don’t know, hang with the cool kids? Father Frederick Nkwasibwe raises this issue in his book Business Courage, quoting Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland: “…the process of secularization has been accelerated by the efforts of the Church or religious leaders to conform to the popular culture of the times … which to Christians, for example, could become a type of civil religious: politically correct, but without the cutting edge of the Gospel” (Cf. Neumayer, April 2011; Marin, 2009) (Business Courage pp 290-291

Yea, well AMEN. My wife and I were the Massachusetts coordinators for the National Day of Prayer, I had a pastor suggest to me that I should let the Christian pastors know that they shouldn’t be referring to Jesus in their public prayers!!!! Yea, really!!! I still can’t get over that, here’s a person, an ordained pastor, has taken an oath to faithfully proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but hey, you don’t want to make that public???

As a Lutheran pastor might have theological issues with the Archbishop but boyo, couldn’t agree more. In fact this is a theme with Martin Luther “the right-hand kingdom” (the church) and the “left-hand kingdom” (the secular). These are entirely separate kingdoms, but both created by God and both responsible to Him, with the church always mediating, being the conscience of the world, not imposing Christ, but certainly not forsaking Him or somehow denying Him just because there is a secular audience.

As a Christian minister, I am by definition a representative of Christ, I represent Christ no matter what the forum. Anything less would be to deny Him, how would that make me different from Peter or even Judas? If the church had been a lot more concerned about its faithfulness to Jesus and a lot less concerned with its public persona over the last however many decades, it would be taken a lot more seriously today. Despite its very serious issues with some of its priests, the church is still respected, albeit grudgingly, because it ultimately still maintains a faithful witness to Christ. They may do it wrong, but they still confess Christ and that is what is ultimately important. If the rest of the church had faithfully proclaimed Christ and not worried about its polling numbers like some slavish politician, the church would be taken much more seriously and respected today.

How does that fit into our life in the workplace, pretty much the same way. Christians for way too long (again at least decades) have been living like the world for six and half days and expect that they can just put that Christian facade on Sunday mornings and their good to go for the next six and a half days. You don’t have to parade around with a Bible, or jump on your desk to preach at work, but living out a living witness to Christ as best as possible, and taking advantage of opportunities to tell people about Christ being your Lord and what that means. I lived that way in a regular, old corporate job and on active duty in the military and I lived it in a Christ honoring way, people knew it, respected it and often talked to me about it. Don’t know that I can really say how and why others related in a handful of words, but it sounds to me like something you can talk about to your pastor (yea, like me) and keep in prayer looking for the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We meet on Wednesdays at the Green Bean Coffee Co, corner of W King  and Beaver Sts 10am, park right behind the church. All welcome, no cost, no obligation, heck for your first visit I’ll even buy you coffee.

The Transfiguration of Christ.

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Jesus, God our Savior reveals His deity

First St Johns March 2, 2014

So now we go from Christmas/Epiphany to Lent/Easter, a profound switch. Christmas /Epiphany a season of great celebration, of great promise, the baby, the magi. We go from a pregnant-teenage Mary, courageously traveling 70 some miles on a donkey to give birth to Meshach, the promised one, in the promised location of Bethlehem foretold 700 years earlier by the prophet Micah. Now she courageously follows Jesus to the cross which Jesus certainly foretold, He tells us in our reading today: “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Simeon told Mary in the temple “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), (Luke 2: 34-35) Later in Matthew 17 Jesus explicitly says “…”The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.” (Matt 17: 22-23) Everyone is on notice, and they seem to take it seriously, but this passes and it’s business as usual. Lent is a season of repentance, part of repentance requires some serious introspection. We are so focused on moving forward, so focused on tomorrow, not only do we forget the past pretty quickly, but most of the time we aren’t even in the moment, we so often don’t realize what is going on around us, the importance of what is happening in real time, right here and now. Look at Peter. As usual, God bless him, he is off and running. He has just seen an astounding event, he certainly knows Jesus the man, He has been with Jesus for sometime, Jesus’ ministry was for three years. So Peter knows Jesus the man, but now he has been privileged to see Jesus God the Son. “His face shown like the sun”, even with today’s technology, we can only light something up so much. Athletes can easily tell you the difference between playing on a sunny day, compared with playing under the lights at night. “…his clothes became white as light”. Remember they’ve just climbed this mountain, now it is hilly here, much more then I’m used to in Massachusetts, but having been to Israel and seen the “mountains” we are talking a hike, a serious effort climbing up a rocky, dirty, dusty mountain. How do you think they looked by the time they got to the top of this mountain?… Yea, scroungy and sweaty and covered with dust and whatever. How do you think that despite the grime and grunge of climbing up a mountain, that these guys looked when they got to the top, that now they see Jesus in such glory that they are down on their faces, terrified? Maybe covering their eyes from the intensity of the light? They‘ve seen Jesus in His essence as true God, the “Keyword Study Bible” describes the Greek wordmetemorfw,qh“To transform, transfigure, change one’s form …Spoken literally of Christ’s transfiguration on the mount.”1 Jesus literally transformed into His essence as God the Son.

As I said, Peter is off and running, he’s so eager about what he’s seen, what should he have been eager about? … He’s just seen Jesus as God! I will bet that Peter, like too many of us today, was a little too familiar with Jesus the man, even though Jesus never hesitated to hold Peter accountable, to assert His authority over Peter, after reading this I think that Peter got a little too chummy, a little too familiar. Why does it seem that way? … Yea Jesus is great and He’s done great things, but right here I’ve seen these two guys I’ve heard about all my life,WOW! “Lord, it is good that we are [wow, thanks, that was so cool seeing Moses and Elijah, thanks and ah… of course You]. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” What’s Peter really telling Jesus? … “Oh yeah, you’re great! And so are Elijah and Moses”. Ya, NO! Elijah and Moses are great, but they are still men, regular people just like you and me. To be sure, God used them mightily, but they are still men. Who is Jesus? … Not only did this happen, but they’ve seen Jesus in a way that could only be seen in terms of Jesus being God, the divinity of Jesus. Peter’s trying to make them all equally great, but right on cue God the Father chimes in from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Elijah and Moses are great, but this is My Son, the One and only the Meshiach, the promised One, true God, true man, He is and will be the redeemer of all who know Him as Lord. So, listen to Him. “The Case for Christ Study Bible”, Lee Stroebel, notes: “Moses appears as the representative of the old covenant and the promise of salvation, which was soon to be fulfilled in the death of Jesus. Elijah appears as the appointed restorer of all things…”2 Elijah was supposed to be the person who would make the way straight for the Lord, Jesus explained that John was Elijah and that is what John did. Both men have set the table, in baseball you have the guys who can get on base, they reliably hit singles to get on base to be driven home by the big slugger. Jesus is the big slugger, Jesus is the ultimate slugger, the Son of God, He is going to drive His chosen people home, the entire history of the Bible, by being that perfect sacrifice, being the complete fulfillment of everything the cumulative revelation of God through Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, on and on. All that they have done can only be brought together by Him who has demonstrated for the past three years who He is, but has now given them a very graphic representation that He is indeed God the Son. Great, Moses and Elijah, but God the Father proclaims who Jesus is and that we should always, ultimately listen to Him.

Peter tells us in his epistle, our reading today: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty…we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven…” David Ohlman writes; [The word] do,xan “glory, manifestation of radiance, brightness, splendour.’ The important point about the glory of which Peter speaks [2 Peter 1:17] is that it is manifested. This glory looks backward to Moses and Elijah and forward to the second coming of Jesus.”3 As Rev Ohlman points out: “…there is something that false religions lack. They lack the Word … God continues to speak, apart from anything man might do. He continues to call out to his children and bless them. The true God is not sitting in some particular place waiting for someone to bring him something…”4 The point was made on the White Horse Inn, that, “It was well known in the ancient world that the God of Israel acted and spoke to Israel, the “gods” of other people’s didn’t.”5 There are a lot of dumb idols that people worship today, they don’t speak or act either, Peter points out that there are many cleverly devised myths from his time. He is probably writing to the Christian churches 30-40 years after the event on the mountain, and this isn’t the first time, Peter wasn’t with Jesus at His baptism, but certainly it was common knowledge that the Father pronounced: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” (Mark 9:7) He was an eyewitness on the mountain and there were numerous eyewitnesses at Jesus’ baptism, there was no doubt about what the Father was proclaiming, this is Him who has been promised, my only begotten Son, true God.

The Father bookends His proclamations of who Jesus is around Jesus’ ministry, from His baptism to the point that leads to the cross. Jesus is making it very clear from this point, where this will end, He will die as the sacrifice for the sins of the world and all people that He brings to Himself, all of us who are adopted through our baptism into His death, who take His Body and Blood who know Jesus as their Lord, will be saved because God the Son came to minister and to ultimately be the sacrifice by which we are saved. So take some time this week to journal what this means, that God, who reveals Himself to us through His Word, is your Lord and your Redeemer. What would be going through your mind if you were on that mountain as Jesus revealed Himself as God. Begin now that introspection and repentance that we should practice in this season of Lent

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

1Keyword Study Bible p 2222

2Lee Strobel The Case for Christ Study Bible p 1344

3Rev David Ohlman Concordia Pulpit Vol 24 Part 1, Series A p 43

4Ibid p 44

5White Horse Inn podcast, December 2013

10 Reasons Why Gratitude is Good for You By David R. Hamilton PhD

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Gratitude is an important concept. The world is just full of bitterness, too many of us seem to think that we should never have problems, problems are for other people, not for us. We truly don’t care what is God’s will and when things go well, it must be because we are so good, so gratitude is all about us. We should be grateful and I think Dr Hamilton is right that we should be grateful, but it has to be more than just a technique, because that will be effective for only so long. When you raise it up to God as our source of our blessings and are grateful to Him, it will mean something and it will grow instead of just another technique that will only run its course.

God builds leaders and gives them gifts for leadership

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Thought I would refer back to Fr Frederick Nkwasibwe’s book Business Courage as much as being a Christian is supposed to be about spiritual growth and maturity, yes I agree that there are interpersonal relationship benefits. (p 224) “…spirituality is considered a system of developing the inner life or spirit of the leaders and workers in order to receive and awaken important gifts. Moxley (2000), in his book Leadership and Spirit, makes a list of such gifts. They include becoming more centered internally and better connected relationally, getting a new kind of self-confidence, having a sharper understanding and acceptance of our personal power, becoming better able to engage in the activity of leadership and fostering a genuine partnership in relationships (p 151). For them, spiritual development is correlated to human development through developing interior life.”

Certainly it makes sense as we grow in the image of the Lord we grow in our relationships. Certainly Jesus is an example of how we should relate to others and in different situations. For those who needed confronting, He did not have a problem confronting. For those who needed compassion, He gave compassion. Not in a way that was enabling, but in a way to let people know that He knew we are weak vessels, we need compassion, but we also need encouragement. We need to understand that we need to grow, have better skills, be better listeners, empathetic, encouraging, on and on, just as Jesus was. He encouraged, but He also made it clear that He expected better. The more we become more like Him the better we relate to others.

I have had to be assertive, I’ve had to take the lead, confront problems. Can’t say I’ve always enjoyed it or looked forward to it. There were plenty of times when I wished I could have avoided confrontation and there were times when I just did. I can look you in the eye though and say that the more I’ve grown in Christ, the more I’ve felt the need to confront, especially when it was in Christ, but also to do what was right and to step up for the weak, the disadvantaged, the bullied. But always as a witness for Christ, always pointing people to Him through our better skills and in fact relying on Him to give us the words to speak. I’ve had plenty of times when I wondered “where did those words come from”. The Holy Spirit works through us at the workplace as much as anywhere else in our life. Hey we normally spend more time at work then anywhere else in our life, why would God leave that part of our life out and what we need to function in that part of our life unequipped? God has certainly developed leaders and He gave them the necessary gifts for leadership.

Let’s discuss more and/or Dr Gene Veith’s book that we’ve been talking about for awhile. Wednesday 10am Green Bean Coffee Co at the corner of W King and Beaver Sts, park behind the church.