Tag: church

Successfully Unsuccessful

Psalm 144; Song of Solomon 8:5–14; John 11:45–57 ISV

‌⁜Focus⁜

A great deal of water cannot extinguish love,
rivers cannot put it out.
If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love,
he would surely be viewed with contempt.
Song of Solomon 8:7 ISV

“…You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
John 11:50–52 ISV

When we look at people’s lives and the result of their lives, we ought to be looking from God’s perspective rather than the world’s (or the earthly) perspective.

‌⁜Devotion⁜

‌The comparison trap is real. Are my kids as successful as yours? Are your kids as well-adjusted as mine? Is your career doing better (financial, influence) than mine?‌

It is an easy mental and emotional trap to fall into because others are the only way we believe we can measure our lives. There is, of course, a problem with that. Who decides what makes for success?‌

The world looks at tangible (money and stuff) and intangible (influence and power). God looks beyond even the intangible.‌

In many respects, God’s baseline measurement is based on nothing we’ve done, nor anything we can do. God’s measurements begin with Jesus.

‌The High Priest, Caiaphas, had prophesied the death of Jesus. Not a good marker of success for Jesus, or anyone. Death is rarely a measure of success, but of failure.

In the Song of Solomon, the bride says, “If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, he would surely be viewed with contempt.” Jesus gave up the wealth of his house for love…his love for us.

The bride of Christ has long been a term used to describe the Church (as a whole). It is somewhat ironic, then, that the bride is saying such words, for Jesus is the groom. According to the bride’s words, then, Jesus is understandably viewed with contempt.

No one reading this, I hope, views Jesus with contempt, yet it seems that many Christians evaluate success in the lives of others, and in their own lives, based upon what the world views as success.

We will often hear that history is written by the victors, except that isn’t entirely true, for Jesus and those who followed him were the losers. Yes, Christianity did eventually win in the Western World. We can see how the church is growing outside of the Western world, where becoming a Christian is a losing proposition, and should question the definitions of success we’re using.

‌⁜Reflection⁜

‌What do you think of as success? Do you ever wonder if you are successful? Who/what are you allowing to define success for you?

‌‌⁜Act⁜

‌Talk to a believing peer and discover how they define success. Talk to a non-believer and discover how they define success.

‌⁜Prayer⁜

Lord Jesus, your birth, life, death, and resurrection break every human model of success. Holy Spirit guide our thoughts to success as you would have us define under the authority and wisdom of God, the Father. Amen.

2023 10 11
Perspective and Significance

Psalm 144; Ezekiel 19:10–14; 1 Peter 2:4–10 (ISV)

In the fictional universe housing the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams), there is a machine called the Total Perspective Vortex. Originally built (per the fictional universe) to provide beings a comparison of themselves to the infinity of creation, it became a torture device to (effectively) destroy a being’s mind.‌

‌It sounds a little extreme, except that much of the religions over the years are concerned with is much about finding our place in the universe.‌

‌The (Roman Catholic) Church attacked Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei for proposing that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun (and the other planets) revolving around the earth. While the majority of the (entire Christian) Church now believes Galileo Galilei, we need to recognize that Galileo Galilei’s hypothesis was, for that era and theological framework, similar in effect to the Total Perspective Vortex.‌

‌On the other hand, in contemporary fiction and philosophy, there is a deep concern regarding the Butterfly Effect. This is the theory that if time travel were possible, a person going back in time could catastrophically affect the timeline (including the era from which the time traveler came). Many people have bought into this concept, and yet disparage the one small thing they do today.‌

‌Perspective matters deeply to how we function in life and how we treat others.‌

‌For me one of the most peaceful things is to stare at the night sky at the stars (most effective away from city light pollution). It brings peace to my soul and heart. It also guides me to have a better perspective of myself. I am tiny compared to the entire of Creation. I am only 1 person among over 8 billion people walking the earth at this moment.‌

‌For you, this may be disquieting. We have a need to be significant, but so much around us shows how insignificant we are.‌‌

Lord, what are human beings, that you should care about them, or mortal man, that you should think about him?
Psalm 144:3 (ISV)

‌‌God cares about us. No matter how insignificant we believe or are told we are, God cares for and thinks about we humans. In comparison to the infiniteness of God, we are not even microscopic, yet God loves us.

‌‌If we derive our significance from others, we are often emotionally and spiritually doomed. If we derive our significance from God, however, that is a solid foundation on which to place our worth and identity.

‌‌There is, though, the danger of arrogance. “I’m loved by God, so I can do…” We are all guilty of this to some degree.

Now it is planted in the desert, in a dry and thirsty land!
‌Ezekiel 19:13 (ISV)

‌When we get too full of ourselves, or when we look too much to others, we can be in the desert of faith and relationship with God. It’s not that God ceases to care, quite the contrary. We can be chasing after things that we think will water and feed us, but we end up in a desert, where receive the bare minimum to live.‌

‌The desert experience isn’t necessarily bad, ultimately. It can teach what is really important if we let it. On the other hand, far too many people stubbornly refuse to move from the desert, and so end up dry and withered. That doesn’t have to be the end.‌

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
‌1 Peter 2:10 (ISV)

‌God is merciful. Yes, we’ve done stuff that doesn’t please God. We could even say that because we are fallible and fragile creatures, we will never measure up to God’s holiness and love. God is merciful.

‌⁜Reflection⁜‌

‌To whom are you significant? Why?‌
‌How do you think significance and mercy are related?‌

‌⁜Act⁜‌

‌Share with someone what makes them significant to you.‌

‌⁜Prayer⁜‌

‌God, it is often so hard to see my significance to you. Help me to be understand my significance to you, and help me focus on you defining my significance, rather than leaving it to others. Amen.

‌

2023 10 09
Untrashed
Malachi 1:6-9

Perhaps you’ve heard an acquaintance, a friend, a family member say, “God won’t accept me until I clean myself up.” Or perhaps, “if I enter the church, lightning will come down and/or the church will catch on fire.”

Behave, believe, belong has long been the order in the church. That’s likely where these saddening responses likely come from. Even worse, some church-type folks might have said to clean up their act so that God loves them.

It’s strange. Long after the Reformation brought us back to saved through faith, it amazes and horrifies me that people who claim “the faith” still believe and (even worse) tell others that they must behave first before belief can kick in.

The Scriptures don’t, I think, lead us that direction. God has long pursued those who left God behind and does so today. Which leads me to Malachi.

Malachi’s oracle is about people claiming to worship God, which was (per the rules, the Law) including a healthy animal and viable grain. Instead, people were giving God anything besides the “good stuff”. Set aside the whole sacrifice part (that does tend to trip up we modern folks) and recognize the intent behind the actions. The people claimed to love God and worship God, but deliberately chose not to, because the sacrifice of the good animal and good grain was too much.

It could be tempting to equate the broken animals and rotten food to the people we see in the opening paragraph, but we must not. Such a person is bringing the best to God, themselves. If they are lame, God will love them. If they are blind, God will love them. If they are diseased, God will love them.

God accepts broken people. I know this because I too am broken and was more broken still when I began my true relationship with God.

The sacrifices that are condemned in Malachi reflect the people who brought them. They were blind, lame, and diseased. Yet, they chose to neither acknowledge it nor repent of it. In fact, it seems they took pride in it.

The blind, lame, diseased person who comes to God saying, “here I am, broken and all.” God says, “welcome, beloved.”

⁜ Reflection ⁜
- How do you see yourself in this? Do you see yourself in this?
- Does this challenge or change how you view those whose life decisions (including lifestyles) and their place before God?
- How often do we see the blindness, lameness, and illnesses of others rather than our own? Why does that matter?
⁜ Prayer ⁜

Gracious God, help us to learn how to be gracious and welcoming to others, just as you have been to us, and because you have been to us. Amen.
2023 09 08
Too Busy To Live
Exodus 5:7-9; Romans 8:5-8, 12-17

Recently, there was a song going around the internet called the “Rich Men North of Richmond”. It mostly speaks to the anguish of a working man who is striving and working and is not making ends meet, and, yes, there are some digs that many are questioning, and sometimes just questioning those who are supporting the song.

There seems a lot of truth, or a lot of perception of that this is the truth, that below middle-class wage earners (and many middle-class ones, too) are working their fingers, bodies, souls, minds off to make ends meet. How many are the like the Hebrews at this point in Exodus, who are trying to make ends meet without a basic component previously supplied, and now not.

In a culture that has idolized working hard to the nth degree, why are we surprised that rest and worship are viewed as a measure of luxury and a sign of laziness. There is, of course, too much rest, but our culture, at this point, does not value rest.

COVID seemed to have reset the rest aspect, but we are now watching it fade away. Mindfulness and meditation apps were all the rage during COVID. It doesn’t seem so now. As worship, especially the type depicted in the Pentateuch of no normal work (arguments over what defines normal, aside), is not normal work (which, of course, is the point), it must be rest, and rest is not to be trusted.

As the culture turns away from organized faith, it appears to diminish and deride worship as well. We can see this among people who used to call the church a home. We know that the human body itself cannot function without rest. Neither can the human mind. Binge-watching television, youtube, or tiktok, isn’t resting, or relaxing. It is, in so many words, medicating. It is helping us bury our lack of rest.

I wonder if many people are so leery of rest and so leery of a set time of difference, that times of gathered singing, praise, prayer, and thoughts (i.e., sermon or homily), are to be avoided. It may be that we are watching even many of whom were thought to be Christian walk away from gathered worship because it is different. And we avoid the different, and different includes worship and rest.

Whether it is the drive to make money, for person or corporation, would have fill our lives with activity without rest, we can see that we do not value rest, and that we are no different than pharaoh and looking at rest and worship it’s nothing more than laziness.

We can see it in the old (in internet age) FOMO (fear of missing out) and YOLO (you only live once). FOMO has fear in its name. YOLO is really the same, just with a positive twist. It seems we almost might fear rest.

Whether we’re looking at the world or reading the Word, fear is not always fully understood (or desired to be understood). The fear noted in Romans may seem different that the fear of FOMO and YOLK, but the fear is still fear. The paarticular type of fear of YOLO and FOMO can lead to parents, meaning well, burying their children in activities so that they don’t miss out on something. What if my child is a hidden talent? What if my child is the greatest gift to humanity in something? They must know!

However, perhaps they are missing out on what is most needed, us. What if, too, we keep them busy because we are to fearful of rest? True rest.

⁜ Reflection ⁜
- How do you view and experience rest? How does worship (gathered singing, praise, prayer, and thoughts) fit into that?
- Who in your circle of influence do you see as needing rest? How can you encourage them to take rest?
- What activities in yourself and others do you see as attempting to be rest, but actually aren’t?
⁜ Prayer ⁜

Jesus, you didn’t call us to work to the bone. You called yourself the Lord of the Sabbath while telling your disciples that Sabbath was made for humanity. Help us to continue to recover what it means to rest as was intended for us, not for how we see it. Give us the courage to say, “no” and help us not self-condemn when we seek rest. Amen.
2023 09 03
Wise in Whose Eyes

Psalm 119:121–128, 1 Kings 4:29–34, Ephesians 6:10–18

‌We are often presented with the wisdom of Solomon. The Scriptures seem convinced that Solomon was gifted wisdom beyond normal humans by God. Yet, Solomon retained his freedom to make choices contrary to God revealed instructions.

‌We cannot know the heart of Solomon. Perhaps he believed he was doing the wise thing (and he was politically) by marrying many foreign women for the protection of the nation. However, elsewhere, the Scriptures tell us that Solomon got a bit lost later in life and would worship gods other than God with his foreign wives.

‌If you read the passage from the psalm, you can get either the mental image of a truly faithful and humble servant or the image of one who thinks they are.

‌Every time I read these verses, I ask myself if I (at the time of reading) am being the true servant or the self-deceiving one. I have learned, over time, that depending on where I am spiritually, I can be either or even both.

‌There is a temptation to automatically think one’s perspective of self is correct, and that even includes the question of being a true servant or a self-deceiving one.

‌There are many Christians who have been deceived (and self-deceive) that they are not faithful servants because they have not lived up to the archetypal perfect Christian. Thus, they are accused of, or self-accuse, being hypocrites. While the “perfect” Christian is often thought to be only a legalistic issue with Holiness denominations (such as my own, the Church of the Nazarene), I have spoken to many people who have internalized this who were raised in completely different Christian traditions.

‌The Western World, with its Christendom history, has also internalized this to both its and the Christian faith’s detriment. I have met very few Christians (only 1, I think) who believed they had become the perfect Christian. The rest, well, the more they perceive that they have been shaped by Jesus Christ, the more they realize they have further to go.

‌At least for today, read Paul‘s words to the Ephesians in the context of realizing that we have allowed the world to falsely define what it means to be a Christian, and we ourselves, have created the ideal Christian in the mold of unachievable perfectionism, which is (really) legalism that destroys the spirit.

‌Freedom in Christ is not truly possible when we are held in bondage to perfectionism or legalism. The external behavior may be seen as correct, but God wants the heart.

‌※Reflection※

‌What is your reaction to the psalmist’s words? Why do you think that is?

‌How does the wisdom the world differ from the wisdom of God? How are the two similar?

‌※Prayer※

‌Lord, as we ask for wisdom, help us to be able to tell the difference between the wisdom of the world and your wisdom. Help us not be discouraged as the world tries to define for us what it means to follow you, while we diligently and humbly seek you. Amen.

2023 08 01
Enduring Soil

⁴Now while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from every city, he said in a parable: ⁵“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, were trampled on, and birds from the sky ate them up. ⁶Others fell on stony ground, and as soon as they came up, they dried up because they had no moisture. ⁷Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew with them and choked them. ⁸But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced 100 times as much as was planted.” As he said this, he called out, “Let the person who has ears to hear, listen!”

⁹Then his disciples began to ask him what this parable meant. ¹⁰So he said, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of God. But to others they are given in parables, so that

‘they might look but not see,
and they might listen but not understand.’”

¹¹“Now this is what the parable means. The seed is God’s word. ¹²The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³The ones on the stony ground are the people who joyfully welcome the word when they hear it. But since they don’t have any roots, they believe for a while, but in a time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The ones that fell among the thorn bushes are the people who listen, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, wealth, and pleasures of life, and their fruit doesn’t mature. ¹⁵But the ones on the good soil are the people who hear the word but also hold on to it with good and honest hearts, producing a crop through endurance.”
Luke 8:4–15 ISV

Reading the Scriptures (i.e., The Holy Bible) daily continues to bring my joy. It fills some of my curiosity, and often drives my researching desires. As a habit, I read a different translation each year for my daily readings (versus sermon prep). This year it is the ISV.

Part of my rationale is that I believe it helps me see the same Scriptures differently. Whether it’s phrasing or vocabulary or punctuation, something gets triggered (in a good way) in my brain.

I’ve read the Parable of the Sower many times. I’ve preached on it. Heard plenty of sermons on it. Verse 15 hit me today.

What struck me this time, in particular, was “endurance”. When you go back and re-read the parable, endurance makes sense. It may indeed be the point of the entire parable (not saying it is).

Endurance

Endurance and resiliency are the new corporate buzz words coming out of COVID lockdowns and remote work. The church has started to focus on them, too. It’s not a bad thing. Developing resilience might actually make the world a better place.

Perhaps, instead of feeling attacked or belittled, instead…we endure. The good soil is the soil that endures.

In church, we’ll often talk about the “good soil”. What is the “good” soil? We’ll talk about the Christian that overcomes adversity. We’ll talk about the one that doesn’t contain thorns and briars. We’ll about the one that doesn’t contain stones.

Even when we talk about the good soil, we don’t often focus on the endurance. It’s not the soil’s fertility that is the source. It is the endurance.

We don’t like to talk about endurance, because generally that comes along with difficulty. We see on the internet (and even, gasp, in bookstores) the latest book with the latest vital skill set that we must have today. There is the latest shortcut (with and without AI), so that we can get what ever it is done faster, and so we can minimize the time we experience difficulty.

In other words, we avoid requiring endurance.

Training

Athelete’s train. Anyone who regularly participates in physical activity trains. Training produces endurance. We seem to get that when it comes to physicality. We actually do get it mentally with our focus on education. Even that, though, is often about regurgitation and not thinking. Rote and regurgitation do not produce mental endurance.

We are truly awful about endurance when it comes to emotional, and (especially) spiritual. I’m still trying to figure out what happend with the emotional part. I don’t think that the “stiff upper lip” (British) or stoic (Germanic) tendencies and patterns were always healthy. Often they led to people burying their feelings. So, for those that claim “those were the days”…I disagree.

It’s easy to blame the internet (currently) or television (previously), but is that really true? Have we really forgotten how to healthily emotionally endure, or did we just have yet another mask we wore?

We have mental health counselors as a growing field (need far outweighs practitioners). I do think they are necessary because we have done such a poor job of being trained and training others.

This also pours over into spiritual endurance. This is not about spiritual abuse, but just the straightforward character to endure trials, perceived unanswered prayer, and the horrors of a fallen world, without one’s faith being crushed.

Just Believe

Just believe is very similar to rote and regurgitational mental learning. It does not produce endurance. We struggle with endurance. I know I do. It’s okay to acknowledge that you struggle with endurance.

The beauty of the current cultural emphasis on endurance (or resilience) is that the community of faith (i.e., the church universal) can talk about it, too. Think about it. We have the ability to faithfully talk about God and an enduring faith, while the world is also struggling with endurance. There’s the open door…will you walk through it?

Prayer

God, we know that we are called to endure. We see throughout the Scriptures you provided examples of enduring faith from flawed human beings just like us. We know through the witness of Jesus, that you understand our struggles, including our struggle to endure. Holy Spirit, please help us be the enduring soil that produces faith in ourselves and others. Amen.

2023 07 20
Movie About a Christian

Read: Luke 9:18–50

One of the reasons I love and appreciate the concept of the “church year” is that we are often confronted by the hard passages, especially those that often make no sense to our post-enlightenment (i.e., science- and data-driven) minds. This is, as you probably inferred, one of those days.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. It is this strange day that we “witness” a strange experience that defies our everyday experience.

Luke’s “bookends” of the Transfiguration are: before, Peter’s declaration of Jesus as Messiah, Jesus’s subsequent command to be silent, and Jesus’ prophesy of his suffering road, and his prophesy of sacrifice for and by those that follow him; after, a healing and Jesus’ rhetorical question of the unbelieving character of the Jews (and, honestly, most of humanity). With what most of us believe about God (God has a plan) and the Scriptures (the Scriptures help us interpret the Scriptures), these seemingly unrelated events before and after the Transfiguration should affect how we view the Transfiguration.

If we view the Transfiguration and its bookends as a “movie” of the Christian life, it disturbingly makes sense. “Who do YOU say I am,” Jesus asks. Peter responds, “the Messiah.” Sounds like a person accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (salvation).

Jesus then says, “deny yourself. Daily sacrifice yourself. The world will demand you deny me and be ashamed of me.” One of the first struggles of a new believer (and long-time believers, too) is the realization that accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is only the beginning. Life-giving hardship is the Christian life.

The Transfiguration is (in the context of our “movie”), then, like the Holiness Movement concept of the Second Work of Grace (i.e., Entire Sanctification in Church of the Nazarene verbiage). We are “transfigured”—not by our will (other than a will to self-sacrifice and submission to the will of God)—by the will and work of God to be “transfigured” into the likeness of our holy God, and particularly in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, John Wesley (who “codified” the conception of Entire Sanctification) noted, we are to rarely, if ever, to speak of our experience of this “transfiguration”. This is similar to the actions of Peter, James, and John who kept silent about their experience. They shared it later, at the right time and to the right people, to reinforce the place of Jesus Christ in their experience of and with God.

After this life-changing experience, then we come back to the real world (coming down the mountain) and face demands for miracles, healings, along with the unbelief of the world, and often even our own disbelief at the miracles of God. This disbelief is often not merely about “miracles”, but our transformation by God that we didn’t “earn”. We could even go so far as to say that the “unbelieving” performers of miracles (Luke 9:49–50) are like our scientists and doctors who perform “miracles” that could not possibly be imagined in the days of Jesus.

We also have the sad, but real, argument between those who claim to follow Jesus about who is better (Luke 9:46–48). Those arguments can follow theological lines, church formation lines (ecclesiology), spiritual formation lines (holiness), political lines, gifting lines, and so on. This is the object lesson for denominations (even the earliest split resulting in Orthodox and Roman Catholic, long before Protestants), church splits, and church departures.

When we read the Scriptures and find passages that we feel conflict with other Scriptures, or our experiences and understandings, perhaps it is times like that when we can best view ourselves through the lens of God.

May God who Transfigures us poor and needy people into those that glow and reflect the glorious and holy light of Jesus Christ. Amen.

2022 02 27
How to Come Back

1 Corinthians 11:17–33

It’s almost over it seems. The time of being masked and constrained nears its end. On the other hand, already another strain of COVID is showing up, but the reality is that we, as an entire world, are at our limits.

It seems great that we’re almost there, except that we really have a lot of things that we need to work through, and many of them may be far harder than COVID, masks, inoculations, and social distancing. The wounds that have opened over the last 2 years are far deeper, far more scarred, and far more gangrenous than many of us were prepared for.

As we come back, it is far too easy and tempting to attempt to go back to old habits and practices and forget what has just happened and the mirror that we saw ourselves in. We, as Christians…we, as the church…cannot just come back.

Many of us will “come back” to church and be unwilling to be uncomfortable. The world has trained us to be exactly like the Corinthians…divided. And, even worse, we may be more divided than the culture at large, which should terrify and condemn us.

Paul was speaking on how the rich self-segregated from the poor. Instead of common Communion, it was a separate one. Instead of a “love feast” celebrating unity, Communion (the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection!) shined the light on the division, and it was then unworthy of the grace that Jesus had bestowed upon them.

While we may not take Communion separately in the church, there is no question that the church is divided. Whether it is by culture, country, skin color, language, socio-economic class, or even denomination, the church is divided.

The community that Jesus granted the world the right to judge regarding love (John 13:35), desperately needs to love one another. As we learn to love each other, looking beyond politics, borders, skin color, language, power, weakness, honor, shame, wealth, it will be hard.

Learning to love beyond ourselves isn’t optional. For those that follow Jesus, it is an act of loving obedience.

※Reflection※

As you prepare to go/come back to normal, is the “old” normal really what Jesus wants from you?

What is one thing that you will do different as the situation settles into the new way of things?

※Prayer※

Jesus, the craziness of these last 2 years may feel like forever, and, yet, in your eyes, it was only a breath. Grant us the grace and peace and love to come together as your disciples to show that your love can truly transform the human heart, and from the human heart transform the world. Amen.

2022 02 22