Traitors Welcomed as Crew

Have you ever been tricked or deceived by somebody? To me it’s typically only happened as a joke, there was the time Billy put my favorite coffee mug in Jello this summer, it was only on Monday that my older brother called me. His wife is pregnant and they had their first ultrasound appointment Monday morning. He called to tell me there were two heart beats…I fell for it like an idiot, getting excited for the prospect of twins and he simply laughed and said, just kidding, only one. He then proceeded to call my mom to try the same line on her.

Being deceived is no fun, even when it’s a joke. Yes it can be funny, but for the most part, it leaves us as the deceived feeling gullible, silly and just plain stupid. What happens when the stakes are higher?

The story of Judas betraying Jesus is well known to many of us. Judas, for 30 pieces of silver, hands Jesus over to be arrested, put on trial, beaten and eventually die via crucifixion. Judas however, did not see such things. He hanged himself when he realized what he’d done.

Hopefully in our lives, we won’t be faced with life or death situations of betrayal.

A brief explanation of the clip you're about to see. Firefly is a show that follows around the crew of Serenity, a spaceship of the Firefly class. They are a group of smugglers, thieves and other interesting professions. Two of the more interesting characters are Simon and River Tamm, a brother and sister. Simon is, well was a doctor, and a very good one. River was held captive by the government because of her amazing brain powers. Simon’s job throughout the entirety of the series is to try and cure River and keep her safe. They are fugitives with quite a hefty reward for their capture. Tempted by the reward money, Jayne Cobb, the ship’s muscle man, attempts to betray Simon and River for the payoff.

Jayne’s attempt doesn’t quite work. All three of them are captured Jayne has to help Simon and River escape and the ship’s captain, Malcolm Reynolds helps to save them as well. Through all of this, nobody knows Jayne’s act of betrayal. He thinks he’s gotten away with it scot-free, but well, you’ll see what happens.

Clip...(It would help to watch the entire Firefly episode of Ariel.)

Jayne betrays Simon and River and isn’t honest about it, but we as the viewer (if we’d seen the whole episode) know what he did, even if none of the other crew members do. Simon in fact thinks Jayne was the hero of the day, and tells everyone so.

Mal, however realizes what happened and turns the screws on Jayne. This scene is one of the most defining for Mal. We know from previous episodes that he takes care of his crew no matter what, but we see perhaps a glimpse of why in this scene. As the conversation goes:

Jayne: “What are you taking this so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds.”
Mal: “But you did. You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me. But since that’s a concept you can’t seem to wrap your head around, you got no place here. You did it to me Jayne and that’s a fact.”

It’s very similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46, especially verses 44 and 45.

Jesus takes all of us in as his crew, even the least of us. We are valuable to him, valuable enough to die for. We don’t know why he loves us so, but we know that he does. This love is reflected in Mal for his crew. No it is not a perfect love. It is not Godly love. But we see how he takes ownership of his crew and when they feel pain, he feels pain. When they rejoice, he rejoices. When they are betrayed, he is betrayed.

Thanks be to God that Christ has taken ownership of us.

We don’t choose our own crew. We may not even like our crew, but they are our crew and so we watch their back and we love them. Our crew is the Body of Christ.

It is unclear to me if Mal was planning on actually letting Jayne die.

Or if Jayne’s repentance may have moved Mal to let him live.

Or I suppose it is possible that Mal knew the repentance was coming and was just waiting for it…

In this scene, Mal once again lives out his own words from an earlier episode Shindig “Mercy is the mark of a great man.” Jayne deserved to be treated like a traitor, but Mal treats him like crew.

It is the same with us and Jesus. We deserve to be treated like traitors, like sinners. We have done nothing to deserve God’s love. We’ve only done things to deserve his wrath, hatred and punishment. But God treats us like his crew, like his children, like his friends because of Jesus death and resurrection.

Jesus takes that punishment we deserve and is treated like a sinner, like a betrayer, so that we God’s creation might be treated like Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly Father.

That is indeed how we are treated, being gifted with eternal life in death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This clip reveals a certain beautiful balance of Law and Gospel. Mal lets Jayne know the truth: that Jayne’s actions are unacceptable and are worthy of death. That is the Law at its best. But it doesn’t end with Law. It ends with Life, with a second chance, with forgiveness, with precious Gospel.

All Saints Day vs. All Sinners Day

Disclaimer: At Concordia University Saint Paul, in celebration of All Saints Day, we decorate the chapel with thousands of stars, many with names of those who have died in the faith from our community and throughout history. When I reference stars, that is what I'm referring to.

It is a very comforting thing, to think that every single person, whose name is written on one of these stars around us was a believer in Jesus Christ, that they lived their lives of faith and were granted eternal life. As Revelation 2:10 says:

“Be Faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

It however may not a very comforting thing to know that all of these people who have their names written on a star were sinners. As Romans 3:23 says

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

We don’t like to think about that do we? How those who have passed on were sinners. We focus so much more on how great they were, how much we’ll miss them and rightly so I believe. Because we know that they were unconditionally loved by God, even if we were not able to love them unconditionally while they were here on earth. As Romans 8:38-39 says.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

While we hear that passage in life, it is a great comfort to us, but it is also a great comfort as we think about those who have died in the faith, knowing that death cannot separate our loved ones from God’s love. Death is a hindrance to our loving and being loved by those who have passed on, but it is not a hindrance for our Heavenly Father, who conquered death by sending His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world and then raised him to life again.

All of us undoubtedly have friends or family who have been called from this earth to their heavenly home with God. While we miss them, we take comfort in the fact that they are in Good Hands.

But what about us? We are saints too are we not? If we died today we’d be assured of our resurrection from the dead to eternal life with our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, right? But yet we still sin. We still suffer. We still struggle. We still cry. We still hurt. How can we be forgiven and still hurt?

As Romans 7:15-20 says

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me."

That passage reminds me of this clip from The Fellowship of the Ring...

Watch Fellowship of the Ring (extended edition disc 2) from 21:14-23:47.

Gandalf’s words about Gollum are very relatable to us here on earth. “He hates and loves the Ring, much as he hates and loves himself.” Gollum has forgotten who he is. He is not Gollum, he is Smeagol, a gentle creature who loved to fish and relax on the water. But the ring poisoned his mind and turned him into something else, it turned him into Gollum. And throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy he struggles to understand who he is, what he is.

It is just as we struggle with who we are. Am I (insert your name here) the Sinner or am I (insert your name here) the Saint? We hate the sinner inside of us and love the saint inside of us. We wish we could be only saint, but we can’t. As Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 26:41 as they struggle to stay awake in Gethsemane.

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We desire nothing more than to be rid of our flesh and its weakness. And we struggle with the fact that this will not occur on this side of heaven.

As the scene from the clip you’ve just seen continues, Gandalf lectures Frodo on his immediate judgment of Gollum. As he says, “Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them Frodo?”

In our world, that line would be tweaked to say “All that live deserve death, and the ONE deserved life, died.” That One is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who took what we deserved and gave us what only He deserved: eternal life with our Heavenly Father in Paradise.

May we find peace in that our God loved us with that deep of a love, to make us His children. As 1 John 3:1-3 says:

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."

Amen.

Putting Things Back to Normal

Reference Isaiah 35:5-8

This passage from Isaiah seems to me to be a calling back to creation as it was when it was first created. It describes a time when things will be back to “normal” back to perfection. The eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf opened, the lame shall leap like a deer, water in the desert and nobody can go astray. This is what Jesus does when he comes into our world. His healing miracles are about putting things back to the way they were in creation.

Jesus himself speaks of this in Matthew 11 “Now when John (that is John the Baptist) heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. All those magnificent acts of healing done by our Lord and Savior when he walked this earth, restoring God’s creation bit by bit to how it was created to be, perfect.

Now certainly God is not the one who screwed up creation, we did, and we could not and cannot fix it, so God interceded with Jesus to fix it.

Have you ever screwed up and tried to fix it. I’m immediately brought back to my childhood when my brothers and I ruined countless things, the record player, the lawn mower, the camera, and probably dozens of light bulbs, yes I learned very early on how to change a light bulb in order to stay out of trouble. Sometimes things worked sometimes they didn’t. Once when my brother threw a baseball through a hall closet door, we simply taped a picture over it, thinking our parents would never think to look under it. They’d appreciate the new found art, yeah, that lasted about 4 minutes.

Trying to fix problems beyond our ability reminded me of this clip from Dennis the Menace…

Watch Dennis the Menace from 36:40-39:20

Dennis screwed up. He ruined Mr. Wilson’s dentures and he did the best he could to fix the problem, but Chicklets just didn’t cut it and he ended up getting caught and in trouble.

We see this in humanity every day. When Adam and Eve first sinned, they hid and sewed fig leaves to hide their nakedness. When we sin, we hide our face from God hoping he won’t notice how we screwed up this time. When we forget something for our spouse, friends, or family we do our best to cover our mistake, but when it comes to salvation, we cannot fix the problem. We’re stuck like Dennis, needing teeth when all we have is Chicklets and who are we going to fool? Certainly not God.

But God knows how stuck we are. He knows we are blind, deaf, lame, and mute and he comes into our world with His own Son and relieves all those shortcomings. Not only does he relieve them, he makes them perfect, knowing full well that we can’t do it ourselves. More than that, he dies for us, because he knows that because of our sin we will die some day and by ourselves, we’d never be able to attain the resurrection from the dead, but through Christ and his resurrection eternal life is ours through our risen Lord and Savior.

God fixes the problems in our world that we have caused knowing we can’t fix them, knowing the mess we create when we try to fix the problems. And he cleans up the mess for us in one fell swoop by sending His Son Jesus to die for us.

Ask me the Questions Bridge Keeper, I'm Not Afraid

All of us are amazing at something. Something we can take pride in. Whether it be something useful or ridiculous, all of us has some talent or skill that very few other people have. I for instance could tell you almost everything there is to know about Seinfeld. That indeed is not very useful. Many of you undoubtedly have talents such as teaching, learning Hebrew vocabulary, knowing every statistic there is to know about the 1991 World Series champion Minnesota Twins, knowing every episode of Grey’s Anatomy like the back or your hand, or an uncanny skill for memorizing Bible passages, all of us has something rare that we are good at.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he lets them know how amazing he is at certain things. Here is the text…

Philippians 3:4b-6

Paul shows them how he is better than all people at these things, but his point is not how great he is, but rather how much greater Christ is as he continues…

Philippians 3:7-14

All of the skill and talent and work that Paul has put in himself is worthless, rubbish, filth, garbage compared to what he has in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What Paul and all of us have in Jesus Christ is the assurance that after death we will be raised from the dead just as Christ was raised from the dead. What we have is forgiveness of sins in our Savior and Lord. What we have is eternal life because of what Christ has done for us in his death and resurrection.

But oftentimes, many of us forget that we need a Savior, we think we can do it alone, we forget due to pride that we aren’t capable of perfection, we aren’t capable of being blameless. For an example of this today, we’re going to watch a short clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ll explain things after you watch the scene.

Watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail

So who are you acting like? Are you like Lancelot, thinking you can take paradise by force? Are you like Robin, thinking it’s easy to obtain paradise then realizing you can’t do it by yourself? Are you like Galahad, answering even the simplest of questions incorrectly, or are you like Bedivere, waiting for your King to answer the questions, because you know he’ll not only answer for himself, but will answer so well that it will allow you to cross into paradise with him?

Obviously, this is not a perfect analogy to our lives and God’s Kingdom, but it shows how our attitude should be in pressing on toward reaching salvation. We should not think it is easy, we should not think we can obtain it by force or alone. We should seek to follow our living Lord and Savior because he casts down those who try to keep us from salvation. Jesus accomplishes what we can’t accomplish in living a perfect life. He dies on our behalf to save us from eternal death. And he rises to life again, to assure us of our own resurrection from death.

How Can We Live?

Reference Ezekiel 33:7-11

Particularly focus on these words "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How can we live?"

The short answer to that question is, we can’t. Sin destroys us. Sin kills us. As Paul writes in Romans 3 the wages of sin is death and this is true for all who have sinned. It was true for Adam and Eve in Eden. It was true for Moses in Egypt and the wilderness. It was true for David and Solomon. It was true for Jesus disciples. It was true for Augustine, it was true for Thomas Aquinas, it was true for Luther, it was true for Bonhoeffer and it is true for us. Sin causes death.

But the long answer to the question how can we live is we can, and we see a hint of it in the imagery created by Ezekiel. It gives us a beautiful connection point to how we will not rot away from our sin being upon us. How is that? It exists as Jesus Christ, true God and true man comes into our world and takes our sin, that sin which is causing us to rot away and puts it on himself and allows it to rot him away, allows it to kill him. How then can we live? If this sin was taken from us and it killed our God, how can we hope to survive? How can we live? Because he didn’t stay dead. He conquered death. He rose from death to life and not just another mortal life where he would die again, no. An eternal life. A life he gives to you and to me freely.

What amazing news this is, but this text keeps going to speak of how the Lord does not take pleasure in the death of wicked people. He wishes that they would turn from their ways that will cause death and live. We as humans are not as generous as God. After all, when we’re watching a movie and the good side defeats the bad side, by killing them, we rejoice. We cheer that once again good conquered evil. But when we see an evil character turn into a good character, we’re confused, and mistrust them. We refuse to believe it is possible and we’re still hoping in the back of our mind that they perhaps die. Sure there are times when we rejoice in the turning, when we know it is genuine. The best example is from Star Wars Episode VI, Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader throws the Emperor into the giant space hole, but what are we rejoicing in, that Vader has turned or that the Emperor is dead, probably a bit of both.

For a more modern and bit more complicated example. I'll refer you to two scenes from the first of the Lord of the Rings movies, the Fellowship of the ring.

In the first scene you’ll see Boromir, the character in question, and Frodo one of the “good guys.” Frodo has this powerful weapon, the One Ring and Boromir has sworn to protect Frodo as he seeks to destroy this ring. The first scene is an altercation between them regarding the ring.

The second is self explanatory.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (extended edition) disc 2:

1:13:55-1:16:20

1:25:54-1:28:34

Aragorn tells Boromir that he has fought bravely and kept his honor, and perhaps that is true. But Boromir is also right. He has failed. He has failed them all by succumbing to the temptations of the ring and wanting the power for himself, even if it is for the good of his people. He has still failed his friends who he swore to protect. He became enemy to Frodo when he promised to help him.

As Boromir is about to die he loses all hope, believing the world of men will fall, all will come to darkness and his city to ruin. But his hope, his faith is restored in his true king, Aragorn, who promises to not let his city fall or his people fail.

In the first scene, Boromir’s hope was in the ring, powerful indeed, but as Frodo says later to Boromir’s brother Faramir, “The Ring will not save Gondor (his home country) it has only the power to destroy.”

This is the truth of the law for us. The law has power, but for us who are sinners it has only the power to convict us of our sin. It cannot save us. It is beyond our reach.

I think the beginning of one of Aragorn’s lines is the most poignant and best connection to Christ. “I do not know what strength is in my blood…” He’s right to doubt. He is a man, he is mortal. He has limits, he has weaknesses. But for Boromir, in middle earth, there is no-one better to put hope in than Aragorn.

But we on real planet earth do have something better than a mere man. We have Jesus Christ, both man and God. How good it is then that we know the strength that is in our King’s blood. We know that Christ’s blood has the power to forgive sin and grant eternal life. And that blood was spilled on the cross out of love to do just that for us, for all of us, whether wicked or good or any combination of the two. As God lives, He does not delight in our death, whether wicked or good, but that all turn to him for salvation and truly live with him unto eternity. Amen.

No Soup For You!

Reference: Romans 11:1-32

Today we’re going to focus on the first few words from Romans 11 “I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means!”

The word reject struck me as the most intense and vigorous word in this reading, I will be hovering around that word quite a bit.

In Greek it is Aposato – to thrust away, to push back, to push off, to reject.

Reference the Greek

When the question comes “did God reject his people?” It seems there is an understanding there that perhaps he should have, but he didn’t. Perhaps rejection was deserved, but it didn’t come. While at the same time, the emphatic “By no means” stands to say, are you crazy? God is God, he is not a God of rejection. He is a God who welcomes, a God who accepts, a God who pardons.

Rejection, as I see it, is something that we tend to fear from our fellow human beings. We fear that our applications to grad school or a new job will be rejected. We fear that a paper we’ve written will be rejected and given back to us for more work. We fear our spouses and significant others will reject us for our callous, selfish behavior.

Anyone who has ever played basketball or volleyball can tell that being blocked or “rejected” is one of the worst feelings in any sport. It is being denied something that you thought was a sure bet. Something you were confident in, something perhaps that had worked before, but now has failed utterly and completely. Rejection is active. A person needs to go out of their way to reject something. A center in basketball in order to reject another player, must make great effort and have precise timing to successfully reject an opposing player.

However, very often we tend not to so much fear of God rejecting us, rather we fear the possibility of him forsaking us. We know we’re not capable of making it on our own and we need God, that is why it is so comforting that he tells us that he will never leave us, nor forsake us.

Forsaking something is passive. All one has to do is nothing. When aid is asked for it is not given. It is turning away from someone when they are most in need of help.

The text today deals with rejection, not forsaking, so for an example of Rejection today, we turn to a man who is known throughout the world as a rejecter. A man who can refuse any one at any time for any reason he chooses. Of course I’m talking about the Soup Nazi.

Clip…

3:27-4:19 – George and Jerry
7:43-8:50 – George and Elaine

The Soup Nazi accepts and rejects his customers based on how well they follow his ordering procedure. When you walk in, move immediately to the right, step to the counter, state the soup you want loudly and clearly, put the money on the counter, move to the left, receive, leave, no compliments, no questions, no other words.

Sound like God’s Law to anyone else? A set of rules that you must follow perfectly to attain your goal. In the case of the Soup Nazi, this is a mulligatawny, crab bisque or jambalaya, in the case of God it is heaven. Somehow people managed to actually get soup from time to time from the Soup Nazi. In the case of God’s Law, none of us are so fortunate and how terrifying when the stakes are so much higher than soup, even if it is the best soup in the world. We fail on a daily basis to keep God’s Law and deserve to be rejected by him for such errors, but God sends his only Son Jesus Christ into the world, to keep that Law that we so miserably fail to keep. Moreover, Jesus Christ offers himself up to be rejected by us undeservedly forsaken in our place, as he cries out to his Father from the cross, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

The people of earth rejected Jesus. We did not believe he was God and actively rejected him so aggressively that we killed him. And God stood by doing nothing to stop us from rejecting Jesus and he forsook his only Son.
How tragic that they only person of earth who deserved to be accepted by humankind was rejected and the same person, being the only one who deserved to be saved from death by God is the only one truly forsaken.

Indeed since Christ was forsaken by God, we no longer are under that sentence of being forsaken. Christ took that punishment of being forsaken away from us, on the cross and now when we face death, we know that it is not a permanent death, but rather a death that leads to the resurrection through our Savior Jesus.

Hydrated in Him

Reference: John 7:37-39

This passage deals with the very basic principle of being thirsty. It’s something we all can relate to, just craving some refreshing liquid to quench the parching thirst we’ve acquired after a period with no refreshment.

Stop and think about it for a second, if you hadn’t had anything to drink for hours and hours and were desperately thirsty, what drink would you hope was ready and available?

In this passage from John’s gospel, Jesus tells everybody that anyone who is thirsty should come to him to drink. If this were to happen today, I think we’d all wonder what type of sports drink or energy drink does he have. Is it filled with caffeine or alcohol or fruity deliciousness or what? Well, it’s filled with none of these things. Jesus isn’t talking about actual water or physical thirst, but rather spiritual thirst. And as we begin to understand that’s what Jesus is talking about, we realize how spiritually thirsty perhaps we truly are, right here, right now.

For an example of extreme thirst, I’m going to show you a short clip from one of the greatest comedies of the 1980s, Three Amigos.

Clip

Now I knew I wanted to use this clip for a while in relationship to this text, but I wasn’t sure how to interpret the three examples in this clip. This is what I’ve come up with, but I’m sure it could be taken a few other directions.

In one way, Steve Martin’s character Lucky Day seems to be where most people are often at, we are spiritually thirsty beyond all thirst, we reach for our canteen and find there are only a few drops to relieve are thirst. Most likely the canteen is dry because we have not returned to the well recently enough to fill our canteen, but we get just enough to make it back to the well.

In another way, Martin Short’s character, Ned Nederlander seems to be where many people are at. Those who go to the well even less frequently, and when they’re really in a bind, in total need of water, there is absolutely none there, just sand. Nothing to quench our thirst, nothing to give relief, just dry, painful, coarse sand.

Then there’s Chevy Chase’s character, Dusty Bottoms, who when he reaches for his canteen, finds it as full as it’s ever been, so full that he can spit out water, dump it all over his face, and toss it aside because it is more than he needs. How often do we wish this is where we were in life. Able to be so spiritually filled that we don’t need to worry about filling up our jug, instead we just toss it to the side.

While the order of this sketch is perfect for comedic timing, it is the exact opposite of what is often true in our own lives.
In the waters of baptism we are filled to the brim with so much spiritual water that as Jesus says, Streams of Living Water are flowing within us, but we act like Dusty Bottoms, we cast aside the abundance, not sharing it with others, not even keeping our canteen when we’ll undoubtedly be thirsty again, we cast aside our spiritual water because we don’t think we need it. Then when we realize we do need it, we go back through the desert and search for it, and then find it and put it up to our mouth and discover that the water is gone and now sand remains.

And then we clear out the sand and find that miraculously there are still a few drops remaining to quench our thirst and we realize we need to return to the well to fill up on our spiritual water, so that living water can flow through us once more, maybe after tasting the bitterness of sand when we hope for a cool refreshing drink, we may realize just how important this water is, and we stop taking it for granted, and begin to show others where they can fill up their canteens.

Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection provides us with this spiritual water that we so desperately need. Our well comes from hearing the words of Gospel truth that Christ died once for all, to save sinners from sin, death, and the devil. We are constantly being filled to the brim and our heavenly father is more than willing to pour out His Spirit with living water again and again to keep us hydrated, in Him.

Delivered May 13, 2008

Why Would I Want Your Burden Jesus?

Delivered July 2, 2008

Reference Matthew 11:25-30

This text has always been one that is quoted by my friends and family and myself when others around are having a rough time with life. When people are weary, burdened, heavy laden etc. Jesus invites them to come to Him and find rest in Him, because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Until last week, I found this to be unequivocally true and a very necessary and comforting message to hear, but then I started thinking a bit about Jesus burden and realized something. His burden is absolutely not light. How can a person of the Triune God come to earth, become human, take on the sins of the whole world as a burden, while not sinning himself and still say that His burden is light. It doesn’t make sense. Jesus Christ had the heaviest burden of any person of any time ever. Why in the world would I take his yoke upon myself, his yoke can’t be easy. And so I began for the first time in my life to truly struggle with this text.

And so I began to study a few things, and the understanding I gained was this:
The burden Jesus carries to the cross is not his burden. It is ours. He took it from us and gave us his burden, his yoke; which are easy and light, whereas our burden and yoke are heavy and strenuous due to sin.

Jesus speaks to those who are burdening and wearying themselves by putting demands of the law on themselves because they think that’s what is needed accomplish salvation, and Jesus is speaking to those who are being loaded down by other people telling them what they need to do to gain salvation. He is saying, Come to me to all of you. I have a better solution.

Burden exists because of sin, and constantly striving to be saved by what we do. Jesus says to us, no take my burden. Take my nonexistent burden because I have never sinned, and I’ll take away your burdens. Christ says “I will make my burden heavy so yours can be light.”
And this is all done that we may rest. Christ does not come to give us more commands. He does not come to pile on more burdens. He comes to silence them. He comes to give this all to us as a gift – to give relief and rest – to take away our burdens and weariness.
Earthly life may not be easy, but access to salvation is. It is accomplished in Christ’s death and resurrection.
For a connection to the text, we are going to watch a short clip from the first Lord of the Rings movie, “The Fellowship of the Ring”
The fellowship is in trouble. Gandalf, their leader was recently taken from them. They’re all quite sad and uncertain what to do next. They’ve found their way into the safest place they could find, perhaps the safest place left in Middle Earth, Lothlorien. Where the Lady Galadriel speaks to the 8 remaining members of the fellowship.

Watch Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring extended edition, disk 2, from 48:15-51:30.

It’s always interesting when movies quote Scripture. In this case Galadriel quotes John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” She knows they are weary and burdened. They are burdened with sorrow for losing Gandalf, but moreover, they all feel as though the salvation of Middle Earth depends upon them. And if they fail, it will be to the ruin of all. And they’re right. The pressure comes internally from themselves and externally from all who know of their quest.

And yet she tells them that they will sleep in peace.

All of the members of the Fellowship were feeling the burden and weight of accomplishing deliverance from evil for all people. Their purpose is to destroy the One Ring, but how can they now, without their leader?

If this were a straight allegory, Galadriel would take the ring, destroy it herself and all would live happily ever after, but this is not the case, there is still 8 or 9 hours of movie to watch!

If you continue watching for a few minutes, Galadriel lets Frodo know it’s all on him. He’s carrying the ring. He must find a way to destroy it or no one will.

This just goes to show how our God is so great. How he humbles himself to take our burdens and exchange our heavy burden for his light burden. How he secures salvation for us, instead of giving us advice on how to get the job done ourselves. We can’t get the job done ourselves.
God intersects our lives in the person Jesus Christ to complete salvation for us by dying on the cross and bursting forth from the empty tomb on the third day.
Because of this we know that we can indeed come to our Savior and Lord and truly find rest.

But I Don't Want To...

Delivered May 30, 2008

Reference Jonah 1

Jonah isn’t exactly anybody’s favorite Bible story character is he? Well maybe for the humor involved, but in all reality, isn’t Jonah just a whiney little brat. God tells him to go to Nineveh, he says no and runs in the other direction. He’s swallowed by a great fish, he’s spit out onto the shore. He finally does what God tells him to and then he gets mad at God for not smiting the Ninevites and wants to die. He’s just a bit over dramatic don’t you think.

For a humorous parallel illustration of Jonah, watch Seinfeld, season 5 episode 3 - The Puffy Shirt.

Watch from 10:11-11:46

So Kramer’s girlfriend is what Seinfeld coins as a low-talker. Somebody that talks at such a low volume that you can’t hear what he or she is saying.
In Jerry’s interest at being pleasant and agreeable, he nods and says sure to whatever the low-talker “says” and He ignorantly agrees to wear the puffy shirt on national TV, which I believe was the first artifact from a television show to be showcased in the Smithsonian institute.
The puffy shirt, the ridiculous ruffled, frilled up, pirate shirt. And in Jerry’s hope to escape, knowing that he’ll be heckled endlessly for wearing this shirt, and being the “First pirate” he utters in desperation, but I don’t want to be a pirate.

Amazingly it would seem that Jerry appears better than Jonah in his actions. Jonah hears the Lord loud and clear and runs the other direction in effect saying, much like Jerry, “But I don’t want to go to Nineveh” while Jerry, doesn’t hear a word the low-talker says, agrees to something not so pleasant and goes through with it.

But this attitude of whining, complaining at what they are supposed to do is very much an underlying theme and problem for many of us today.

I believe a growing attitude in America has become, “I’m only going to do what I want to do.” People don’t want to be encumbered by anything other than their own personal agendas and I would count myself among that crowd. I don’t want to help you with your snow shoveling, I have 9 seasons of Seinfeld to watch, why would I help you?

No matter what we want to do or don’t want to do, Christ does what is right in the lives of his people, regardless of our complaining and whining.

And the Lord is impossible to run from. Which Jonah found out the hard way. What I take away from Jonah’s story is that God will put you where he wants you on this earth, whether you like it or not. You can resist, but to what point and to what end? Resisting God’s will got Jonah swallowed by a great fish. And we know from Scripture that resisting the Holy Spirit can be detrimental to our eternal salvation.

Perhaps the word of the lord doesn’t come as clearly to any of us as it did to Jonah, and then again perhaps it does. But it is comforting on some level to know that while the word of the lord may come and we may not hear it clearly, the Lord doesn’t stop speaking. He is ever persistent with his word. As Christ says in Matthew, Mark, and Luke “Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

So it is good to know that while we may miss God’s words from time to time, they will always remain, just as he promises to always remain with us, Amen.

Unashamed of the Gospel and Myself

While growing up in the faith, I learned at a very early age that sin produces guilt, and being guilty and feeling guilty, we are led to repent of the sin which is bothering us, and receive forgiveness for the sin we have committed.
In many eastern cultures, being shamed or losing face is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. Keeping one’s reputation intact is extremely important while building relationships with people from China, Japan, and other south east Asian countries.
This concept of shame is not nearly as prevalent in America, where while we may worry what others think of us, it’s not very often that people who think low of us are forthright and straightforward enough to say it to our face, to make us feel bad or shame us.

But oftentimes I find there are many people who are of the attitude that they would prefer greatly that if you have a problem with me, say it to my face, let me know, right here, right now, don’t go gossiping behind my back.
This is not the case in many other places, southeast Asia I know in particular. Confrontation is not a good thing to many people.
It seems to me that in my life. When I sin, I not only feel guilt, which motivates me to repent, I also sometimes feel shame. I just feel so awful for what I have done, that it makes me reluctant to repent because I don’t feel like I deserve or can even ask for forgiveness, from God or from another person.
Some people have tried to mesh guilt and shame together saying they’re essentially the same thing when dealing with sin, but I will say flat out that not only do I disagree, but that is just plain incorrect.
And here’s why:

Reference: Romans 1:8-17

We’re going to be dealing with verses 16 and 17 in particular “I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.”’
When I sin, the law that is written in my mind and on my heart makes me feel guilty, but it does not make me feel ashamed. What makes me feel ashamed, I believe, is a misapplication of God’s law, and a missed opportunity for God’s Gospel.
I believe guilt is the result of a correct application of the Law, when somebody does not feel guilty for their sin.
I believe shame is the result of a misapplication of the law when a person already feels guilty for their sin.

This is most often done to me by myself. I sin and my mind knows the sin and my heart feels the guilt and my mind bashes my heart again, saying you should have known better, you’re a terrible person for thinking that, for doing that, for saying that.

Or I hear the law from a Christian brother or sister who cares deeply for me and knows I am ignoring the beginnings of guilt and the law takes root and I feel guilt.

I feel shame when I’ve heard the Law from any number of sources repeatedly that I am a terrible person, that I am worthless, that I am not worthy of God’s righteousness, nor will I ever be. I hear all that, with no hint of the Gospel to interrupt, to give me life, to restore my soul.

And when I feel shame, it blocks the Gospel. Shame makes my ears numb to the gospel. It no longer has the same effect it would have if applied before the law could smash me deeper into my hurt.

For an example of this you can watch a clip from the movie X-Men, the first movie of the trilogy. These movies are about a group of humans who has mutated and gained superpowers, it’s based on a series of comic books.
In these two scenes, you’ll see a girl named Rogue, whose power is to steal other people’s energy, in the case of mutants, their powers. You’ll also see the most famous X-Men, Wolverine, who has an impenetrable metal running through his body, Adamantium and also the power to heal extremely quickly. His dark past causes him to have nightmares, one of which he is having in the first scene.
You’ll see what happens, and the aftermath…

Watch X-Men from 38:30-40:34
Watch X-Men from 44:08-45:20

So this young boy Bobby (well it's really Mystique posing as Bobby) makes Rogue feel even worse for what she had done. She felt terrible already, and he drove her even further down to the point of self-loathing and great personal shame.

Paul says “I am not ashamed of the gospel” so let’s take that a few steps further, therefore I am not ashamed that my sins are forgiven, therefore I am not ashamed of the sins I have committed in the past, as the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will remember their sins no more.” We should not wallow in sin that has been forgiven.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God does not call us to shame, he calls us to forgiveness, as Paul continues, “for in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed.” A righteousness from God is revealed and placed upon us as children of God “from first to last”

If we remain ashamed of our past sin, we are in great danger of being ashamed of the Gospel. We are in great danger of being ashamed of who we are as children of God, redeemed and restored by Christ on Calvary.

There are people out there, truly suffering, truly hurting inside from previous mistakes. They know their fault, they know their sin. And what do they receive? Very often they receive the Law. They receive dirty looks and a general segregation from society. We look down our noses at them, thinking that they are despicable people for their past conduct. We look at them Ashamed of the Gospel. We look at them hoping to make them feel worse for their actions instead of sharing with them the awesome power of the knowledge we have that Jesus Christ DIED FOR their sins and TOOK THEM AWAY!

Dear friends, this world is filled with people who are broken and hurting. It is filled with plenty of people who could care less about their sin, but it is filled also with people who know their sin and know no escape from it.

We perhaps wish to boil it down to if they are secure in their sin, then use the law, if they are broken in their sin, use the gospel.

Do you really think it is that simple for any one human being, that they can be labeled as secure or broken in their sin. All of us undoubtedly have some mixture of security and brokenness, but you can’t just look at a person and know that mixture. It takes a relationship, it takes time, it takes listening, not just “you’re a sinner” or “Jesus loves you”

Both are true statements, but letting somebody know that they are not mutually exclusive is very important. Yes you are a sinner, and yes Jesus loves you. As Paul writes in Romans 5, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Delivered May 29, 2008

Overcoming Darkness (or the Dark Side)

Disclaimer: If you are not a Star Wars fan, do not bother reading this post.

As a wedding present, my wife and I received Episodes I, II, and III of Star Wars, so we took our gift cards and made sure we bought IV, V, and VI as well. And of course, we’ve watched them all already. I’m sure in the 12 plus hours of movie watching you could find many things that would connect Star Wars to the Christian faith, but this is the theme that I think is most prevalent.

Reference: John 1:1-14

I’m primarily going to focus on verse 5 – "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."

I’ll explain connections after you watch these two clips.

From Episode VI - Return of the Jedi watch from 1:23:38-1:25:41.

So here we see Luke attempting to convince his father to come back to the side of good. To let go of his hate, and return to his former self. But Vader says it is too late for him. He feels as though the darkness of the dark side has consumed him completely.

From Episode VI - Return of the Jedi watch from 1:55:52-1:57:30 (and beyond if you like)

And so we see that Luke was right, Vader could be turned. Throughout the series as we learn that Darth Vader is evil, people close to him, namely his wife, Senator Amidala (in Episode III) and his son, Luke (in Episode VI) defend Darth Vader, saying, "I know there is still good in him." For whatever reason they were able to see a light somewhere amidst the darkness of this machine-man.

It seems in our lives, it is exceptionally difficult to find the good or the light in certain people. Sin clouds our vision terribly, both our own sin, and the sin of other people around us, to the point where we often forget that each person we see each day was died for by the same Jesus who died and was raised for me and for you.
This light shining in the darkness of Darth Vader seems to be an internal goodness.
But the light that shines in each of us, in all of us, is a much more important light, a light that is much more difficult to extinguish, it is the light of Christ.

While it is of great importance to recognize this light in others, for the sake of community, reconciliation, and peace, it is as important and perhaps more difficult at times, to see that light in yourself. It’s so easy to beat ourselves up over the sins we commit on a daily, even hourly basis. So many people in this world, when met with the Gospel message seem too ashamed to realize that "yes, this can still speak to me." Rather they think as Darth Vader did, it is too late for me.
But it is not too late! The light of Christ shines in the darkness of our lives and the darkness has not overcome that light.

I don’t know Greek all that well anymore, but I know a few translations have translated this verse into English as, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it. Overcome and understood are very different terms in English, but I’m assuming in the Greek that there is a certain sense of intentional ambiguity. I think that works quite well for this illustration.
The darkness has not overcome the light of Christ in our lives. But for many people. They are excessively conflicted, much like Darth Vader. The darkness can’t understand this light that is inside them. They feel it, but they don’t know how to pay attention to it. They can’t figure out how to make it work for them, when the truth of the matter is, they don’t have to do the work. The Holy Spirit at work in our lives, helps us with this understanding.
While it is not easy by any means, we need to let go. Let go of trying to figure it out for ourselves and let God help. Let that light come forth and shine, stop holding it back, stop assuming it’s too late, stop hiding that light.
The light will continue to shine in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it. Let it shine for others to see and for yourself to see.

Delivered May 23, 2008

Not a Tame God

If you haven't gone to see Prince Caspian yet, be forewarned. I don't talk too much about plot lines, well at least not predictable ones. I'll post other thoughts in more blog form and less public speaking form within the next few days.

Delivered May 22, 2008

If you haven't seen Prince Caspian, I’d recommend it. I won’t say it is as good as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, but it is just a very different movie. More medieval warfare than a story of growing up and being brave.

The Christian nature of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is inescapable. It is very clear how the death and resurrection of Aslan reflects the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In Prince Caspian, the dialogue on faith is much more subtle, allowing people like me to dig deeply into it.

I looked through youtube and couldn’t find the clip I wanted to show, when it is available, I'll put a link in here.
So for now I’ll simply quote/paraphrase the scene I wish to use as an illustration.

At one point in the movie, there is a bit of a power struggle between Prince Caspian and the High King Peter Pevensie. Caspian wants to stay at the stone table fortress and ward off the attacking armies from there. Peter wants to go to the enemies’ castle and bombard them with a surprise attack. Both options seem rather gloomy and defeat seems inevitable. Lucy, the youngest queen of Narnia gets everyone’s attention and says, and I’m paraphrasing "why does everyone assume there are only two options, die here, or die at the castle?" and there’s some argument here and there and Lucy calls Peter out, smacking him in the face with his pride, "or did you forget who really defeated the White Witch?" Peter still filled with pride responds, "I think we’ve waited for Aslan long enough." And he goes forth to attack the castle and lose many soldiers.

Isn’t that how it is in our lives so frequently. We just plain think we know better than anyone else. We are too stubborn to hear the words of truth ringing through our ears, from any other source We continue to think, no, I’m right and nobody will convince me otherwise.

Peter thinks Aslan has abandoned them, that he is gone, that he doesn’t care about them anymore, perhaps even that Aslan doesn’t exist anymore. And what’s worse, he thinks he doesn’t need Aslan anymore. He thinks he can do it alone.
I know I’ve felt that way about God. If God really cared about me, he’d show up right now and help so I could see what he was doing, so I could know he hasn’t abandoned me, but I can do it alone. I don’t need him.
I’m sure in some way we all have done that.
We see it illustrated throughout scripture. Notably Jonah. God says go to Nineveh and Jonah says, no, I think I’ll run in the opposite direction.

Also the attitude of being forsaken is many Psalms.

From Psalm 10 – "Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?"

From Psalm 13 – "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?"

From Psalm 22, some words from Jesus’ own lips on the cross – "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

But now, we understand, that since God forsook Jesus on the cross and poured out his wrath on his only Son, that we no longer need to fear being forsaken. Paul says in Romans "The wages of sin is death." Death, being forsaken by God so that your life is no longer intact. yet he continues… "But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Yes we have earned death with our sinning. We deserve it. But grace abounds because of Christ who died in our place, so that our death is not an eternal death, but rather a death that knows that since Christ was raised from the dead, we too shall be raised with him.

Eventually, Peter realizes his error and sends Lucy to find Aslan because he knows he can’t win by himself. Aslan shows up and does help, but in his own time, and in his own way. As the saying goes, "He’s not a tame lion." Just as our God is not a "tame God." We can’t put God into a box or wrap him around our finger and say do this for me now God. God can’t be put in a box, nor should we ever try to do so.

It seems that when God is placed in a box, he bursts out of it, much like he burst out of the tomb after it had been closed. If death could not hold him, how can we expect to?

And we should be glad that we cannot, because as the prophet Isaiah writes, '"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.' declares the Lord." And what great news, because his ways are superior to our ways. Amen.

Come Back to Me and Say My Land is Best

Reference: Joel 2:12-19

I will be focusing on three main words from that lesson, “Return to Me.” The Lord calls for us to return to him when we have gone astray and he will receive us with steadfast love. We hear much of this from the Gospel of John when Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I imagine what the voice of the LORD sounds like, I think about the Charlton Heston movie the 10 commandments with the voice of the Lord being deep, full, rich and slow. “Moses, Moses…” and when I think about that type of a voice I think about Treebeard…Treebeard is as many of you know from the magical land of Middle Earth, a land that JRR Tolkien writes about in his famed The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Treebeard is an Ent. An ent is a type of shepherd for trees, ents can walk and talk and do all sorts of things. They are strong, powerful, wise, and never hasty.

Now Treebeard appears in the second part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and he is surprisingly quite the poet. We get a taste of one of his compositions in the movie, but not the whole thing, This composition tells of how the ents, all males, have lost the entwives, all females.
So keeping that in mind, here is the entire poem.

An excerpt from " The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien

ENT: When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough; When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow; When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!
ENTWIFE.: When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade; When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid; When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air, I’ll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

ENT.: When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold; When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West, Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!
ENTWIFE. : When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown; When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town; When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West, I’ll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

ENT.: When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay; When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day; When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I’ll come to thee again!
ENTWIFE : When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last; When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past; I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again: Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH : Together we will take the road that leads into the West, And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

Now doesn’t that sound an awful lot like us? And I don’t mean our typical male/female romantic relationships, but rather a relationship we are all involved in together.
We know from Scripture that Christ is the bridegroom and we the church are the bride, so let’s pretend like Christ is the Ent and we are the Entwife.

Christ is calling us back, back to his land to his ways which are best. And we stand and argue saying “No thanks Jesus, I like where I am at here without you.” And we’re good through the Springs and Summers of life, until the winters of life come, the bitter wind, rain and cold. And in that time when we are in peril, before we call out for help or even realize we need help, Jesus is already on the lookout for us. Coming to us in our sin, coming to us in our stubbornness, and he finds us. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
While we were still stubborn in our ways, loving our earthly things, God sent Christ into the world to take on sin, and sin’s punishment of death and Christ conquered them both and was raised from the dead.

Paul reflects on this firsthand on how it effected his life in 1 Timothy.

Reference: 1 Timothy 1:12-17

How beautiful. “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
How true, Christ as bridegroom shows his perfect patience to us his imperfect and ever impatient bride. And He comes after us, enters our world and saves us from the peril that most certainly would await us.

So how appropriate that we speak of this so near to the day of St. Valentine, who according to some was known for marrying people who weren’t supposed to get married for whatever reason.

And how fitting for us. There is no reason God should have chosen us, the church, to be Christ’s bride. We are so far below what Christ would deserve from a bride, and yet God decides to unite us in perfect union by the blood of our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

This can be shown in another of Paul’s writings.

Reference: Colossians 1:17-23

And all that brings us back to the reading from the Prophet Joel, “Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD weep and say Spare your people O LORD and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations”

And indeed through Christ we are above reproach and we are at peace with God through Christ’s blood.

Delivered February 15, 2008

Conversion

Reference: Acts 9:1-22

Conversion…The reading from Acts 9 tells what I would say is the most famous conversion story of all time. The story of someone filled with disbelief in the one true God coming to faith and the knowledge of the truth. This story is about someone who not only disbelieved, but someone who persecuted the followers of Christ, hated the idea that the Messiah had come, and had killed those who were preaching Christ crucified and raised from the dead. This Saul, later known as Paul, not only was converted to become a believer, but to an Apostle of Christ, to the man who went on Missionary journeys to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and show them the power of Christ crucified and raised from the dead, the man who wrote numerous letters to churches throughout the world many of which have been saved and are now placed in holy scripture.

How strange this conversion must seem to anybody who has ever converted. Usually in our culture when we speak of conversion or know anybody who has actually been converted to Christianity, we are speaking of people who have been on the fence and unsure about this Jesus guy for quite a long time, and about this book called the Bible, and eventually through much careful thought and deliberation and a whole lot of work from the Holy Spirit, these people come to faith in Christ and believe that he was crucified and raised from the dead for the forgiveness of their sins.

It is very seldom that we find such immediate change from one side of the spectrum to the other. People often seem to move much slower than that, we don’t expect change overnight. But this was the hand of God at work in Saul’s life, calling him to faith, calling him to ministry, calling him to serve.

I’m now going to show you a more modern version of “conversion” not to the Christian faith, but more generally from evil to good. It is from the box office smash hit Spiderman 3. In this clip, you will see Spiderman aka Peter Parker in a black suit, not his usual red and blue. This suit has made him turn into a terrible and powerful creature and he wants it to stop. And you will see the man who will become his nemesis, Eddie Brock praying for something quite unusual. Let’s watch.

Clip… (coming soon)

So Eddie prays that Peter Parker would die. Isn’t that a bit strange. I am fairly certain I’ve never prayed a person would die. I’m sure I have sinfully wished so in my heart, but I’ve never gathered the nerve to ask God to take someone’s life.
But you’ve got to wonder if maybe some Christian people in the first century AD didn’t pray that Saul would be killed. He was “breathing threats and murder against them” he was making their lives miserable, his death would have made things much easier for followers of Christ, and in fact it did.

Did you see where Saul died in the text.
I’ll recap Saul’s death.
“So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hand on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized!”
And in being baptized, he died. He died the death that all of us who have been baptized have died. The death of which Saul, better known as Paul to us writes of in Romans.

Reference: Romans 6:3-11

So you see this prayer for death of another person, may be one of the most loving prayers one can pray for another, in the correct context of course. Eddie wasn’t justified in praying for the death of Peter Parker, but in a way what he prayed for happens, even if it wasn’t what he truly wanted.
But praying that a person may die to sin and become filled with the Holy Spirit through the water and words baptism may truly be a life saving prayer. Amen.

Delivered January 25, 2008.

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

In the season of Advent there a few key phrases that come to mind, they include, waiting, preparing, being ready, and Christ is coming.
The following lesson focuses on the word “prepare.” Matthew speaks of John the Baptist preparing the way for the true Messiah, that is Jesus Christ to begin his ministry.

Reference: Matthew 3:1-12

In the frantic world that we live in, we also do a lot of things to prepare for Christmas. Maybe you put up a Christmas tree, or decorate your yard with a dazzling display of lights. Maybe you go to the Hollidazzle parade and check out Macy’s 8th floor. Maybe you go out and buy presents for all of your family and friends, or send Christmas cards. It may sound a bit silly, but one of the things I do to prepare for Christmas is something I’m sure many of you do and that is watching Christmas movies with my friends and family. There are 5 movies that are must sees during the holiday season, in no particular order. Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Home Alone 2 and Elf, and

I’m going to share with you a portion of the movie Elf. This clip requires little introduction, just know that Will Ferrell’s character, Buddy the Elf, grew up at the north pole in santa’s workshop surrounded by elves and nobody in this scene knows that about him. Enjoy.

Watch clip... (will be available soon)

A couple key phrases to remember.
“But Santa’s coming there is so much to do…”
“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”

Now just to be clear, I in no way am trying to say that Jesus and Santa Claus are the same person nor am I trying to draw any similarities whatsoever other than they are important to their respective stories.

My point is this. In preparation for Santa coming, Buddy goes all out and creates a fantastic Christmas montage, because he wants Santa’s coming to be beautiful and wonderful. He does it all out of love, excitement, and joy.

In your preparations for our celebration of Christ’s coming, while you’re putting up the lights, the tree, or whatever else it happens to be, are you preparing as Buddy with joy, love, wonder, amazement, or is it with stress, anxiety, fear and necessity. I think a very important lesson can be learned from Buddy the Elf, he seems rather wise in his attitude and even his words are captivating. He says to the young lady Jovi, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear” Perhaps we need to tweak that a little bit, but it’s a good start.

How about The best way to spread Christmas cheer is telling people about Jesus, about his birth, about his life, about his death, about his resurrected life and about his ascension into heaven. That’s why we spoke the Nicene creed toward the beginning of this service, to profess those things of the faith we all hold together, which includes Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection “for us and for our salvation.”

So as you prepare for Christmas to come with all of the typical things such as the tree, the lights, the presents etc. remember that while you’re doing all that, you can reflect upon Jesus and you can spread true Christmas cheer, by telling others about Him.

Delivered December 11, 2007

Squeaky Clean

Have you ever just felt dirty and disgusting? I know growing up on a farm there were plenty of times when I felt dirty and disgusting. Probably the worst was baling straw in the July heat. It was generally my responsibility to stack the bales in the loft of the barn where temperatures soared to above 120 degrees at points. Dust never settled and we’d bale between 2000 and 2500 bales in two or three days. After each day, not only was I exhausted and 15 pounds lighter, but I felt like everything, from my hair to my feet was just dirty, not only that, my lungs, inside of my mouth, inside of my nose and ears were filled with dust and dirt. I would take a shower, but I still felt dirty for days afterward. I itched from all of the tiny cuts I sustained on my arms, I couldn’t breathe quite right from all of the dust I inhaled, and no matter how often I cleaned my ears or blew my nose, there was still more junk waiting to come out.

Now perhaps you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the dirtiness that comes with baling straw in July’s 90 degree heat, but there is a dirtiness of another kind, that I’m certain you have not avoided and cannot avoid. It is the filthiness of your own self. It is the disgusting feeling of guilt you receive after you have sinned. It is the unavoidable stain of who you are as a human being.

You can read the words of the Lord to his people of Judah, from the prophet Isaiah, after they had rebelled against their Lord.

Reference: Isaiah 1:10-18

How often do we become like the people of Judah, rebelling against our Lord with sins of every kind. Becoming dirtier and dirtier. Isaiah even writes that the people of Judah’s hands are full of blood. It is difficult to become much dirtier than that.

The Lord pleads with the people for them to wash themselves, and to stop doing evil.
For our illustration today. I’m going to ask you to read a section from C.S. Lewis’s “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” This story is part of the Chronicles of Narnia.
For a little bit of context. The main character speaking in this section is named Eustace. He is the cousin of Edmond, Lucy, Susan and Peter, who you hopefully remember from previous stories. Eustace is a nasty little boy who has done nothing but be a whining brat ever since he arrived in Narnia. Due to his brattiness and greediness, he has since been turned into a dragon and there is a bracelet wrapped around his arm or front leg that is causing him considerable pain. In the section, Eustace is recounting how he was turned back into a boy.

Voyage of Dawn Treader Reading (exactly what portion will be available shortly)

So not only was Eustace dirty with his wretched personality as a boy, he was so wretched it turned him into a dragon, filled with scales and smoke filled nostrils and all sorts of other things that are gross by our standards.
At this point, Eustace had realized that he was being quite nasty and wants nothing more than to not feel so dirty from being nasty to everybody. He also is quite concerned with relieving the pain in his arm that has become so excruciating.
But notice what happens. Eustace tries to do what Aslan, the great lion says, but he can’t, he can’t cleanse himself at all. He rips his dirty disgusting skin off, but it grows right back, as hard and terrible as ever.
It is at this point, that Eustace perhaps should have brought his Bible to Narnia, so he could pray Psalm 130.

Reference: Psalm 130

Eustace had fallen, just as all humanity into the depths of sin and he cannot get out on his own. Aslan, the great Lion let’s Eustace know what happens. Aslan rips off the scales of Eustace to the very depth of his being and throws him into the water and Eustace comes out a completely different creature. More refreshed, thankful, and pleasant than he has ever been because Aslan did for Eustace, what Eustace could not do himself and that is be fully cleansed.

In our lives we also cannot be fully cleansed by ourselves. We cannot just decide one day to be washed in such a way that we will never again be dirty. We are drawn to the filthiness of sin and cannot escape it alone, but Christ acts on our behalf and dies for our sin, and we are only made truly clean by his blood.

Thanks to Christ’s saving act of death and resurrection we are cleansed. We have been given the gift of baptism to drown our wretched human natures within and put in their place Christ himself, sinless and perfect. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Our sinful clothes are thrown away and we live with Christ.
So even when we feel the dirtiness of sin, we can remember that we have been washed clean by the blood of Christ himself.
It is impossible to become any cleaner than that. Amen.

Delivered November 9, 2007

Promoted and Renamed

It will help if before reading this post you reference Genesis 32:22-30

In most men, there is a basic desire and hope for the ability to physically dominate all other males in the room. I believe most of the males in the room will agree with me that they at some point have played the game, whether in their own minds or out loud with friends as to who they could beat up in a fight. It was somewhat humbling for me to realize in my later years of college that many of my friend could very easily pummel me if they so chose to do. Many males seek to idolize people who are the best in some physical proportion. I believe this is why the sport of Ultimate Fighting has reached an unseen height in popularity recently. Being the dominate male of a group provides a sense control. “We’re going to do what I say, or I’ll just knock your teeth out.” Controlling people by force does have its allure.

To illustrate this let’s watch a series of clips from undoubtedly the most popular television show amongst CSP students, The Office. This episode is aptly named “The Fight” you will see Michael Scott, the regional manager of the Scranton Branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company along with Dwight, Assistant to the Regional Manager. I’ll let you just watch the rest.

Watch Clip... (The clips will be available shortly)

So Dwight is provoked to punch Michael, Michael and Dwight fight at Dwight’s Dojo and Michael seemingly beats Dwight up. Then Michael repairs the relationship by promoting Dwight well sort of, at the very least by re-titling him.
That similar to Jacob wrestling with God, God “touching Jacob’s hip socket” and then God renaming Jacob, Israel.

Michael dominates Dwight for the sake of their relationship. Michael has to let Dwight know he is still the boss. God let’s Jacob know who the boss is with His superhuman ability to devastate Jacob with a single touch. This injury for Jacob and this fight for Jacob were things that kept him ever remembering his struggle with the Lord.

So what about the Title/Name change?
Notice, Jacob gives his name freely, and his name at this point, is not a very good one. Jacob in giving his name is admitting his own guilt, that he is a cheater and cheated Esau out of his birthright blessing. The change of his name to Israel, shows the man formerly known as Jacob his new direction. It is a blessing that lets him know that he is forgiven, and he can start over in a new relationship with his Lord. No longer as a cheater, but rather as one who has over come his struggles because of the new relationship with God, that comes through the struggle.

Michael promotes Dwight from Assistant to the Regional Manager to Assistant Regional Manager. And we may think that is absolutely nothing and simple semantics, but for Dwight Schrute, this promotion is pretty much the most important moment of his life.
Dwight does not prevail in his fight with Michael. He is humbled just as Jacob is humbled. But after being humbled he is brought more near to Michael than he has ever been before with the simple removing of two words from his Job Title.
The relationship between Michael and Dwight was on the rocks, and it is restored with a change in title, a change in direction. In essence Michael says to Dwight, you were going backwards in being humbled, but now, you need to get up and go forward, into uncharted waters and unfamiliar territory, with me helping you along the way.

How true that also is for Jacob who was in some serious trouble at this point as he is about to fight his own brother Esau for misdeeds 20 years previous. But Jacob is humbled by this fight with God. Jacob is devastated by God’s touch and Jacob is renamed. So that his past is stopped at this very point, he leaves behind Jacob and is blessed with that fresh start as Israel and walks into a conflict with Esau that is a guaranteed success, with the Lord’s intervening.

Jacob’s struggle with God, his perseverance through the struggle lead to his renaming. With such a name as Israel, his ancestors will see that Jacob struggled with God and men and triumphed and when they are reminded of that, they can have hope that they themselves can overcome struggles and triumph thanks to the relationship and the new direction they now have with the LORD.

We too have this in our own baptism. Perhaps we were not renamed formally, I’m still Andrew, you’re still William, etc. etc.
But we all were taken from the name of SIN and renamed SAINT thanks to the struggle not of Jacob, but thanks to the struggle of God himself in Jesus Christ.
We were in the spot of Jacob or of Dwight. Humbled, unable to ensure a solid outcome on our own, but the LORD doesn’t just let us get smashed to pieces. He takes our struggles whether with the world or with God himself and throws them on his own Son and says there, now you will not be punished for your sin, because there is one who has been punished for it. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
So Jesus is named sin and we are named the righteousness of God, pretty good name, don’t you think?

If you read through the next few chapters of Genesis, and even the rest of the Scriptures, you’ll notice that Jacob is not called Israel all of the time. He is referred to by both names. Just as we, even though we are Saints in Christ, are still sinners in this world. That paradox is a struggle and a fight in and of itself for us.
Dwight in later episodes fondly recalls his promotion to Assistant Regional Manager. He considers it one of the greatest moments of his life. That change is very important to him, whether we see it or not.
Jacob’s name, the memory of fighting with God and his injury were reminders to him of who he was as Jacob and who was to be as Israel, in a new relationship with the LORD and on a new path in the LORD. Just as we through Jesus’ death and resurrection are reminded of who we once were, lost in this world in great need of rescuing as Sinners, and who we are now, in a new relationship with God as Saints of his kingdom. Amen.

Delivered October 26, 2007

A Place to Call Home

Have you ever felt like you don’t belong here? Maybe you’re wondering already, what I mean by here. Do I mean on the internet, or at this blog, or in this particular chair, in whatever city you're in, or maybe I just mean, like you don’t belong on earth at all. I’ll let you continue to ponder my meaning as I move on.
Before going any further though, I’d like you to read a selection from Luke’s Gospel

Reference: Luke 16:19-31

Here we see how the rich man was doing fantastic on earth and then in eternity was absolutely miserable in hell, whereas Lazarus who was absolutely miserable on earth but then is doing fantastic in heaven sitting with Abraham! How cool would that be? Has the question ever been posed of you, “When you get to heaven, who do you most want to meet and talk to?” I bet for a first century believer it could have very well been Abraham. Who would you say, seriously feel free to comment.
Now do you think Lazarus had any idea he would get to sit with Abraham after he died? I guess I really don’t know. But he got to, whether he thought he deserved to or had even dreamed of it, he got to. The angel Gabriel sweeps him up from the earth and carries him to heaven, where Lazarus really belongs.

Now let’s watch a clip from the increasingly popular Harry Potter series. This clip is from the first movie – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and for those of you who are unaware of Harry Potter’s background. His parents were magical people and they were murdered when he was just over one year old. Harry was somehow spared from death and then sent to live with his aunt and uncle who were not magical, and also happened to think that all things to do with magic were ridiculous rubbish, so they treated Harry much like Cinderella was treated by her wicked step mother. Like a slave. He lived in a closet beneath the stairs and was regarded as the lowest in the household. You’ll see in the clip Harry’s uncle Vernon, Harry’s Aunt Petunia, Harry’s cousin, Dudley, and Harry’s version of the angel Gabriel.

Clip

So Harry is taken out of this wretched home where he is treated like a slave and he is brought where he belongs, to Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry by the most odd looking of messengers, Hagrid – the half giant.

Both stories, I feel strongly reflect what Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2…
“And he (Jesus) came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

So even though Lazarus was poor and nobody on earth paid any attention to him, he was still brought near to the Father by the blood of Jesus.
And even though Harry was treated like scum in the world of non-magic folk, he still had a home where not only was he welcomed with open arms, but he was famous, everybody knew who he was. Hogwarts was like Harry’s heaven and though he was far off and didn’t even have a clue that he belonged in this world, he is brought near to it.

And perhaps we often feel like we are foreigners and aliens on this planet. And perhaps that’s because we are foreigners and aliens on this planet and our true citizenship lies in heaven, because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

So even when we’re treated like dirt here on earth, and under appreciated, taken for granted, and lost amidst the world’s chaos, we can have peace in knowing, that our home is in heaven and that a place has been prepared for us in heaven because of God’s undying love for us, where we will not be taken for granted, where we will always feel at home.
And our heaven is far greater than Hogwarts. There is no room for evil in heaven, there is no chance of wickedness or sin stepping in.
There is only the good and perfect will of our heavenly Father and a place that we can truly call…home. Amen.

Delivered October 5, 2007

From the Pot Hole

The example comes from my favorite TV show in the world, Seinfeld.
I’m certain you can watch Seinfeld re-runs multiple times throughout the day. I own the DVDs, so I just watch them whenever I want.
Before you watch the clip however, please look at a couple passages from Scripture.

Reference: Psalm 40:1-11
The psalmist depicts how we were in a pit of destruction and how the Lord heard our cries from the pit and rescued us from out of the pit. Keep that in mind, in particular.

Reference: John 12:27-36
From this keep in mind what Jesus says about being lifted up from the earth, and drawing all people to himself.

Now to the clip, you are about to see a series of four clips, you’ll see George Costanza who has lost his keys. On his key chain he has a toy that when you squeeze it, comes the voice of famous New York Yankee announcer Phil Rizooto saying “Holy cow!” George is tracing his steps trying to figure out how he lost his keys and where they might be. You’ll see him trying to get help to get them out, and you’ll see him drilling to get them, and succeeding in getting them, well, sort of. Let’s watch.

Watch Clip (A link to the clips or simply where you can watch them will soon be available.)

Now, let us paint the metaphor. In Psalm 40, we hear that we are or we were in the pit of destruction. In other words, we’re in a pot hole that was sealed up and now we’re stuck.
God hears our cries from the pit and he hears them from the pot hole, much like George heard his key ring chiming “Holy Cow” every time a car runs over the pot hole, so also does God hear us as we cry out in need of help. He knows we’re stuck in the pot hole and he wants to get us out, and he knows how to get us out. He knows how to help us.

And how does he do that? Our heavenly Father sends Christ to bring us out of the pot hole, and how does Christ succeed, by going into the pot hole with us. This pot hole represents our own sin and our own death that is a result of our sin. Christ comes into the world, into our pothole and takes on all of our sin, and through the cross, takes on our death as well.

And then what happens? George comes along with a jackhammer to get his keys out of the pit. To rescue them out of the pothole.
George Costanza is like the Father in this instance, and yes, it happens more than you might ever dream.
George jackhammers down to get his keys out of the pot hole. In the same way, the Father, bursts open the tomb and Christ walks out resurrected, after being in the pot hole with us.
When Christ is lifted up on the cross, we are lifted up with him out of the pit.
When Christ bursts from the tomb, we burst out from our own tombs of death with him.
Because Christ laid down his life, we are lifted up with him.
And now what happens since Christ was lifted up on the cross and then lifted out of the empty tomb. What does the text say, John 12:32 “And I, When I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself” And that’s exactly what Jesus does in his death and resurrection. Christ draws all people to himself and he says come with me into heaven.

George probably drew quite a crowd himself while bursting that water line, but the power of the resurrection is able to draw more than just an angry mob from a New York City street. It is able to draw all people from all ends of the earth, both living and dead, both slave and free, both men and women, both young and old. All people are drawn to Christ and are given the power to come with him as his children and be raised from the dead and spend eternity with their eternal Father in heaven. Amen.

Delivered September 14, 2007