“God, why are you not blessing what we’re doing?” Answer: “Because you are doing it on your terms versus on mine.” “Lord, we’re showing up for church every Sunday. We’re having our quiet times. We’re being decent parents. Where’s the blessing?”
Answer: “You are in, but only partially. What I really long for is not religious observance but just and compassionate action. How are you treating your employees? Do you even see the hungry around you? Do you ever invite someone in need into your home? Do you ever give someone clothes who needs them?”
“Nobody needs that stuff. This is America.” Answer: “Look again.”
Whenever I read this passage my mind goes back to one glorious morning at 33 Stephan Razina in Irkutsk. We were new missionaries. The Director of our mission’s social concern ministry had come in to give us some training. He focused on this passage. One of the things he said was this: “When you come upon a homeless person, look them in the eye. Just by doing that you are extending dignity to them. Then ask their name. They will share it with you, because they know you are seeing them. Then start a conversation, using their name.”
This is so simple yet so profound. As a team, we started doing that with everyone. We would look them in the eye, learn their name and use their name. It’s amazing the doors that opened, from homeless people on the street all the way up to the President of the Russian Bible Society.
Our light started to break forth like the dawn. Yours can too!
“Transfiguration of Jesus”, Giovanni Bellini, circa 1480-1485, National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.
Imagine you are with Jesus who has invited you up a mountain by private invitation for just you and two other guys. Suddenly he lights up like the sun. Then when it’s over he says, “Don’t tell anyone until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,”
You aren’t quite sure what he meant by that, and you are committed to silence anyway, so you file it away.
Much later Jesus is crucified. You think it’s OVER. But then he RISES FROM THE DEAD! Suddenly it all makes sense. The Son of Man is HIM, and now you can talk about it!
Peter says “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” Then he goes on to say, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
We are called to light up this world with the love and forgiveness of Jesus. In your marriage, with your kids, in your work, in your neighborhood, LIGHT IT UP.
1 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
The book of Malachi is the last one in the Old Testament. It provides connective tissue from that first testament to the second one we call the New Testament.
The Prophet Malachi tells us two things. First, there will be a Messenger who comes to prepare the way for the Messiah who was promised. Second, the Messiah himself will then come. But be careful what you wish for, because he will come either a refiner’s fire to purify his church!
I want you to see two things here. First, there are no mysteries with God. He tells us what he’s going to do and then does exactly that! Second, there are no compromises with God. He won’t tolerate corruption of His purpose!
We can trust him to do what he says! We can trust him to do it with integrity of purpose! Therefore, move forward in confident faith today as you follow his lead. LET HIM SPEAK AND ACT!
Spiritual resilience is critical for thriving amidst chaos. We’re all going to have to surf the change. Let’s do it together, with a Heavenly Father who loves us and is never moved, by anything.
“Young Beggars”, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803-60), Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Please join me in reading from the Revised Common Lectionary this week. I welcome questions or comments on the passages.
Jeremiah is one of my favorite prophets. He lived thru the fall of his own country yet saw God’s faithfulness returned to him 100-fold. God’s healing balm NEVER runs out.
Psalm 48 For Sunday, July 4th, 2021 Year B, Proper 9
The Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Have you ever been emotionally enthralled with a view of majesty? For me, it was seeing the Teton mountains in person for the first time. They rise out of the plains of Wyoming with no foothills to tip off their presence. They are absolutely majestic.
We each need a prevailing presence in our lives, and for Christians, this prevailing presence is the majesty of God. This is what Psalm 48 is all about.
Psalm 48 gives us 3 marks of a prevailing presence: a sure defense (vv. 1-3); a resounding victory (vv. 4-8); an enduring guide (vv. 9-11).
A Sure Defense (vv. 1-3) The first mark of a prevailing presence is a sure defense. “Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense (v. 3)” Have you seen a contemporary picture of the main hill of Jerusalem? There is a gentle slope upward capped off by the Dome of the Rock. Imagine what the view would have been with the temple of David there! It would have created the emotional connection that we Americans have for The White House, or Mt. Rushmore, or the Tetons. We think in our hearts, “Now there is something solid that I can hang on to when everything else hits the fan.”
It is so powerful to experience God having one’s back in the midst of tumult. My wife Heather and our family had spent ten amazing years ministering in Russia, in Siberia actually. Suddenly, it all came to an end very unexpectedly under extremely painful circumstances. As painful as it was, we experienced God having our backs over and over again as we navigated our way forward thru the wreckage. We learned at a very core and emotional level that God really is our sure defense. Our Father wants us to know this about him!
Most of us have experienced trauma, difficulty, or profound loss at some point in our lives. It’s part of living in a fallen world. Yet once one knows God has one’s back, there is a fearlessness and ferocity that develops that nothing can stand against. What does Romans say? We are more than conquerors. Why? Because God is our sure defense!
A Resounding Victory (vv. 4-8) The second mark of a prevailing presence is a resounding victory. V. 4 talks about the kings of the earth coming in force against Mt. Zion, yet in all their might, “as soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight.” They were trembling as women in childbirth! It was as when a strong east wind absolutely obliterates the ships of Tarshish. I can hear the wood planks cracking and shearing from here, centuries away. Yet amidst all this tumult WE ponder his steadfast love (Hebrew ‘hesed’). God’s right hand is filled with victory. What is in his right hand? Ultimately, his son’s absolute obliteration of sin at Calvary.
I remember when the Green Bay Packers won their first Super Bowl with Brett Favre. We Packers fans had suffered for decades since the great days of the Ice Bowl. But here it was: a resounding victory. It was absolutely thrilling.
Even MORE thrilling is Jesus victory on the cross. Think about it: no one can ever take that away from us! IT IS FINISHED.
An Enduring Guide (vv. 9-11)
The third and final mark of a prevailing presence is an enduring guide. The author encourages us to “Walk about Zion, go all around it, counting it’s towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels …” Why, so that we know how many towers there are? … So that we know where to find our glasses when we set them down unattentively? … So that we know how the whole thing is constructed? No! It’s so that we develop a mental picture of God’s prevailing presence that will never leave us!
‘Consider well’ means to meditate until a firm mental picture is implanted in our minds and hearts. It’s what professional golfers do when visualizing their next shot. Let’s fix this in our minds: “He will be our guide forever.“
How often do we subconsciously think we have to figure everything out in life for ourselves, and that we are alone? In actual fact, we reside in the very heart of Mt. Zion spiritually every day, and it is from this place, and this emotional safety, that God wants us to live out each day in strength, in joy, in peace.
Conclusion It’s too easy to read Psalms like Psalm 48 and think subconsciously, “Oh yeah, I know, God is great. God is majestic. Okay, now let’s get to something more useful.” Yet there is nothing more useful than connecting emotionally, physically and spiritually with the prevailing presence of God in our lives.
“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.“
For Sunday, June 6, 2021 2nd Sunday After Pentecost Year B, Proper 5
Was there ever a time in your life as a kid when you wanted something, you knew your parents were against it, but you were convinced your parents were wrong? Only later did you discover how right your parents actually were. That is what is happening in 1 Samuel 8.
The people of Israel realized they were in a predicament. Their leader Samuel had been holding things together as judge, prophet, and priest. But his sons were corrupt. The people realized they needed something different. But instead of coming to God in repentance to reform their country and take responsibility themselves, they wanted someone else to solve the problem. They didn’t want to be different than any of the other nations but rather to be just like them. They wanted the easy path.
God says to Samuel, “They are treating you exactly the way they have been treating me since I brought them out of Egypt. They forget me and they turn to other gods. Warn them about what they are asking for. They’ll end up giving away 50% of everything they have and earn, but if that’s what they want, give it to them.” And so it was.
Why were they so unable to make better choices? Pride, arrogance, ignorance, and passivity. Will things be any different for us today? Only if we humble ourselves and realize we too are prideful, arrogant, naive, and passive.
Let’s do some business today with God for ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, our states and our countries. Let’s be careful what we wish for.
Think of a time in your life when you really felt free.
For me, it was one morning on a motorcycle cresting the pass overlooking Pagosa Springs in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. The entire valley floor opened up before my son Noah and I in a glorious display of shimmering golden and green sunlight. The taste of freedom was palpable.
So it is meant to be for us in our spiritual journeys. This passage is about the taste of freedom that comes from realizing we are no longer under the claim of the flesh but now under the claim of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes to really appreciate what God wants to say to us we need to change translations. There is a newer translation called The Passion Translation (TPT) that does a great job capturing some of the emotion that Scripture is intended to convey by speaking truth to us in contemporary English language. It’s so easy for us to get caught up in tradition. We end up domesticating the gospel. The gospel was never meant to be caged! Let this passage speak to you uncaged. I’ll share the whole thing here from the TPT:
12 So then, beloved ones, the flesh has no claims on us at all, and we have no further obligation to live in obedience to it. 13 For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life.
14 The mature children of God are those[a] who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit.15 And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,”[b] leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.[c] But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,”[d] enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”[e]16 For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”
17 And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has.[f] We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings[g] as our own.[h]
That last phrase “provided we accept his sufferings as our own” can be jarring. Yet all it means is that we put ourselves under the discipline of his discipleship. He died on the cross for our sins. When we accept that, when we own that, our own challenges become the light and momentary afflictions that they actually are, which we gladly accept, for the sake of qualifying to share in his inheritance as co-heirs of our Heavenly Father.
John 17:6-19 For Sunday, May 16th, 2021 7th Sunday of Easter, Year B
This is a very significant post for me. I named this blog “Church in the World” and realized in studying this passage that it speaks about precisely the name of this blog: the church in the world.
What did Jesus want the community that commits to follow him to look like and be? Here is the answer. Let’s set aside for a moment our current conceptions of ‘church’ and let Jesus prayer repaint the canvas for us.
The church in the world that Jesus envisioned carries 3 marks of identity: ● We carry the Father’s name revealed ● We are unified in purpose ● We experience the completed joy of Jesus
We carry the Father’s name revealed (vv. 6-8) The first mark of the Church in the world is that we carry the Father’s name revealed. Jesus says, “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world” (v. 6, NET). Because we carry our Father’s name, Jehovah, we understand that everything comes from him (v. 7). We accept and really understand that Jesus came from his Father who is now our Father (v. 8a). We believe that our Father sent his son to save us (v. 8b).
How easy it is to lose sight of these ground truths amidst all our concerns about theological propriety, worship styles, and church issues of 100 stripes. We carry the Father’s name revealed. That is what matters!
I remember working with some young pastors in Siberia. I encouraged them to meet in groups of 3 and simply come together around the wellspring of the gospel, drop their guards in complete confidentiality, and let the Spirit encourage them. They were gone for about an hour. When they came back, the light in their eyes and the joy in their hearts was an absolutely beautiful thing to behold. We carry the Father’s name revealed!
We are unified in purpose (vv. 9-11) The second mark of the Church in the World is that we are unified in purpose. Jesus prays, “Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one” (v. 11). To be “one” means to be “unified”. Please note that the context of this unification concerns our mission versus or theologies or organizations. We must understand that that rather than the church having a mission, the mission has a church! God the Father so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. His son completed the mission given to him by the Father. The Son is glorified in us: our unity in continuing the mission brings the Son of God glory!
How easy it is to lose the forest for the sake of the trees here. Unify not around everything that doesn’t ultimately matter. Unify instead around the one thing that ultimately does: the mission of reclaiming those who belong to the Father out of the world.
We experience the completed joy of Jesus (vv. 12-14) The third and final mark of the Church in the World is that we experience the completed joy of Jesus. Jesus prays, “But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves” (v. 13). As the church, as a community of believers, we are intended to experience together the completed joy of Jesus! Jesus, when he was with our spiritual forbearers, “kept them safe” and “watched over them.” Now Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, knowing that he completed his mission, and that not one of us that belongs to him can ever be lost. Can you imagine the joy that must bring to Jesus as he looks down upon us? He wants us to carry in our own hearts this very same joy. It is the joy of victory complete.
There is something very special knowing that you’ve done something that no one can ever take away. Think of the satisfaction you would have as the winner of a Super Bowl or of a World Cup. How much greater is our joy knowing that we have won the ultimate spiritual battle because of what Jesus accomplished for us by dying sacrificially for us on the cross and then being raised to life to show his total victory over pain, suffering and death!
Conclusion Jesus closes his prayer for us by asking that his Father keep us safe from the evil one. We are safe from the evil one. Jesus asks that the Father would sanctify us (set us apart) in truth. The Father has. Jesus tells the Father that he has sent us into the world. We have been so commissioned.
We have our victory already secured. We have our protection. We have our orders. Now, the only question that remains is this: will we go and fulfill our destiny as the Church in the World? How thankful I am today for the shared identify, victory and calling that I have together with you.
Have you ever had your emotional fur rubbed the wrong way? How do we get from there back to a place of relational shalom? Psalm 133 gives us a picture of the glory and joy of the destination so we can push thru what is encumbering us.
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” Can you think of a time in your life when you enjoyed complete unity with someone else – perhaps a parent, a spouse, or a good friend. Memories that come to mind for me are a conversation about coming to Christ in junior high school with a good friend on the side of my parents’ house; locking in as a jazz drummer with one of my favorite bass players; and having a good laugh with my wife Heather over a shared experience we had just this morning.
David says that such unity is like precious oil running down Aaron’s beard. This is not a simile that most of us will relate to readily. When I first read it I wanted to reach for the emergency spot remover in my satchel! Who wants oil on their beard much less on their clothes?! Yet think in terms of overwhelming abundance and the picture will come into focus. Often when I’m writing and studying I’ll light a candle and burn frankincense. The light of the candle and the aroma of frankincense bring my too easily troubled mind and heart back into a place of peace and strength, or shalom. The unity God wants for us with him and with others is this shalom.
Then follows another difficult to access simile. “It is like the dew of Hermon, which flows down upon the hills of Zion.” The key to unlocking this one is to understand that Mount Hermon was the chief mountain of the northern kingdom of Israel while Mount Zion was its counterpart in the south. When David wrote this he was mourning over the split between the northern and southern kingdoms of the formerly unified Israel. He was mourning over the splits within his own family. I’m sure many of us can identify at this point. Mount Hermon was renown for the heavy dew that graced its slopes every morning because of the moist climate. Mount Hood in Oregon might be a good equivalent. Mount Zion on the other hand was very dry in the summer. David is saying when there is unity that the blessings of abundance flow to the places of lack so that everyone wins. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
“For there the Lord commanded the blessing.” Unity is what our Heavenly Father enjoys in constancy. He enjoys it within the three persons of the Trinity, he enjoys it with his bride, the church, and he enjoys it with everyone who responds to the forgiving and healing voice of the Holy Spirit. Hear his voice today. Respond to our Father’s committed grace. Receive Jesus’ forgiveness and healing. This is where the Lord commanded the blessing.
Acts 10:34-43 For Sunday, April 4, 2021 Resurrection of the Lord, Year B
The Apostle Peter was a passionate man. This sometimes got him in trouble, like when, in front of a charcoal fire, he denied Christ three times in a moment of abandonment and anger. Yet even though failing at that crucial moment, Jesus did not reject Peter, but rather, appearing to him personally after having been raised from the dead, restored Peter to leadership. Where? Again, in front of a charcoal fire (see the Gospel of John’s account). Can you imagine the gratitude and commitment this evoked in Peter’s heart?
Peter opens here by saying, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” This has a double meaning. On one level, Peter is thinking about Jews and Gentiles. He’s saying, “Now I get it. God wasn’t out just to save Israel. He was out to save every nation on earth!” That was a stupendous discovery! Yet on a deeper level isn’t it likely Peter was also thinking about himself? God doesn’t show partiality even to leaders that fail at crucial moments!
We live in a culture that wants to be lord of it’s own reality, but there is only one Lord “ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” This is the best news any nation or person could ever receive. Forgiveness of sins is available. Healing from the devil’s oppression is available. Jesus Christ, Messiah, is the one about whom “all the prophets testify”. Because of what he accomplished on the cross, WE are acceptable to him, full stop.
