liberate the lost

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus. Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.” Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. The Human One came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:1-10, CEB)

I have read some things lately about the word σῴζω (sozo) which is the basis of the word σωτηρία (soteria) or salvation. And it is centered around not using saved as the translated word but liberated. And that seems to make sense to me.

Because in our passage above Zaccheus was a tax collector who had to charge a fee to those he collected taxes from to make a living, we need to work through this on paying back 4 times to those who were cheated. If the fee is minimal it is the only way he lives so it would be cheating but an exorbitant fee would be cheating. But Zaccheus was liberated and set free from his bondage to wealth and has now seen love and returns love in giving to the poor.

How are we liberated?

Loving People. Loving God.

you would love me…

They replied, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus responded, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do Abraham’s works. Instead, you want to kill me, though I am the one who has spoken the truth I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. You are doing your father’s works.” They said, “Our ancestry isn’t in question! The only Father we have is God!” Jesus replied, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God. Here I am. I haven’t come on my own. God sent me. Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? It’s because you can’t really hear my words. Your father is the devil. You are his children, and you want to do what your father wants. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has never stood for the truth, because there’s no truth in him. Whenever that liar speaks, he speaks according to his own nature, because he’s a liar and the father of liars. Because I speak the truth, you don’t believe me. Who among you can show I’m guilty of sin? Since I speak the truth, why don’t you believe me? God’s children listen to God’s words. You don’t listen to me because you aren’t God’s children.” (John 8:39-47, CEB)

No matter who we encounter our go to response has to be love.

God loves us even though we do not deserve it and because of that love, we are given the ability to love others and help them see that God loves them.

So regardless of the crowd believing Jesus is God’s son if they actually followed God they would have loved Jesus and should not want to kill him.

I know there are people out there we really want to hate, but we have to love them. That is what being a follower of Christ calls us to do. It doesn’t mean we approve of their actions or believe what they say, and it doesn’t mean we like them actually. We have to love them. and want the best for them. That will heap burning coals on their heads and allow God to work in and through the situation and them.

Love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Faith

From Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who received a faith equal to ours through the justice of our God and savior Jesus Christ. May you have more and more grace and peace through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. By his divine power the Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by his own honor and glory. Through his honor and glory he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, that you may share the divine nature and escape from the world’s immorality that sinful craving produces. This is why you must make every effort to add moral excellence to your faith; and to moral excellence, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, endurance; and to endurance, godliness; and to godliness, affection for others; and to affection for others, love. If all these are yours and they are growing in you, they’ll keep you from becoming inactive and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever lacks these things is shortsighted and blind, forgetting that they were cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be eager to confirm your call and election. Do this and you will never ever be lost. In this way you will receive a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:1-11, CEB)

May you have more and more grace.

May you have more and more peace.

We need to add to our faith moral excellence. What is moral excellence? Well excellence is doing something to the best of your ability and even better and moral is knowing and doing right over wrong, or m-w.com says “conforming to a standard of right behavior” or at least that is the definition I thought fit best. But who decides the standard and who decides what is right? Even when going between right and wrong who decides what is right and what is wrong? I know there are things most of us agree are right and wrong, but where did we get that?

We get that from knowledge but knowledge isn’t always good. But even knowing bad things can lead us to do more right in the world than wrong because knowing what is right and wrong can lead us to self-control to not do the things that will cause others harm. And the more we stop or curb our desires we build our endurance and we are able to do more right in the world. And when we do more right in the world we become more like Jesus asked us to live and grow to knowing and giving more love. Love is the beginning and the end and in love, we can make the world a better place.

Loving People. Loving God.

Hope

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother. To God’s church that is in Corinth, along with all of God’s people throughout Achaia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. That is because we receive so much comfort through Christ in the same way that we share so many of Christ’s sufferings. So if we have trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is to bring you comfort from the experience of endurance while you go through the same sufferings that we also suffer. Our hope for you is certain, because we know that as you are partners in suffering, so also you are partners in comfort. Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia. We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive. It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves. God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again, since you are helping with your prayer for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people. (2 Corinthians 1:1-11, CEB)

Our hope for you is certain Paul says to the Corinthians.

Paul is certain in their hope because they are partners in the suffering so they will also be comforted. Because we know God raised Christ from the dead and those of us who are in the family of God will also receive a resurrection like Christ.

Our suffering is not for naught.

So endure whatever you are going through because there is always hope.

Hope is what keeps us going into the world to share the love we have been given.

Do not lose hope. And love as you go.

Loving People. Loving God.

What?

“What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ “‘No, I don’t want to,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. “The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ But he didn’t go. “Which one of these two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first one.” Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you. For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn’t believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and you didn’t believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32, CEB)

I have to be honest I have never gotten this passage. Jesus said a father asked his two sons to go and do work. One said no but later went and one said yes and didn’t go. And then he asked those gathered who did what the father asked. They said the first and then Jesus says the tax collectors and prostitutes are getting into heaven before those gathered because their hearts hadn’t changed. What does any of what Jesus said at the end have to do with the fact neither son did what the father asked?

One blatantly said no but then felt bad so went anyway, and the other said they would go and then decided they really didn’t want to so they didn’t. Neither of the sons did what the father wanted. But actually pleasing the father isn’t what life is about.

We have already obtained the inheritance. We do not need to earn it, but we can show others the love God has for them by loving those around us and not judging them by some standards that actually mean nothing to God. All out created by God and loved by God so our standards do not matter.

Love.

Loving People. Loving God.

answer your call

Therefore, I have a request for the elders among you. (I ask this as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and as one who shares in the glory that is about to be revealed.) I urge the elders: Like shepherds, tend the flock of God among you. Watch over it. Don’t shepherd because you must, but do it voluntarily for God. Don’t shepherd greedily, but do it eagerly. Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory. In the same way, I urge you who are younger: accept the authority of the elders. And everyone, clothe yourselves with humility toward each other. God stands against the proud, but he gives favor to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under God’s power so that he may raise you up in the last day. Throw all your anxiety onto him, because he cares about you. Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. Do so in the knowledge that your fellow believers are enduring the same suffering throughout the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you. To him be power forever and always. Amen. (1 Peter 5:1-11, CEB)

Why do you do what you do?

On the day I wrote this devotional I stopped by Stella’s to get coffee. They have a cup that you pay $35.95 for and get free coffee or tea for life. Those of you that know me, know they are losing money on me. The workers know me now and today the young lady that got my coffee said, “have a great day at work. If you are going to work, you are going to work?” I responded, “yes but my work really isn’t work.” I get paid to do this, which still catches me off guard from time to time. Because I really love what I do and only when it was being questioned or pushed back on does it get stressful and become work.

Peter here says be a leader because that is what you are. Do it because you have been gifted, not because you have to do it or because someone is making you, but do it because God called you to do it.

When you know what you call is and you do it, it won’t be work.

Loving People. Loving God.

ham sab

Tonight’s journal entry is on the topic, what does liberation look like in your relationship with God and your relationship with others? 

This is interesting given the topic of our discussion was on lament and the Advent Devotional done by Pastor Tahina Verna Rasche and Pastor Jason Chesnut in 2016 called Fuck this Shit. It was a discussion of what lament is and how lament is different from complaint and how the decisions we make to follow where the gospel is leading us will sometimes lead us to trouble and to issues by speaking the truth in love and using the vernacular and meeting the people where they are.

Pastor Tahina spoke to our class this evening about her involvement and personal journey around the devotional and it reminded me of some things in my story, which I will get to in a moment, but first the name of the entry tonight. I had to google it, but this is what I found for Hindi for we. Pastor Tahina said she learned to pray in the car as a young lady with her mother doing left turns and the prayer was always for we, for her and her mother, and for all of the people around them in other vehicles and walking. The prayer was always we, not I and it was communal. As lament is communal. I wrote a note in the word doc on my computer – “Lament is communal – those who are looking to leave this world because they don’t find love, are not accepted or feeling the love of community”. And we need to understand that lament is a cry to God to know that we are in this and need to work together to make God’s kindom come.

We are the community.

We are the lamentors.

We are the liberated.

There is a lot in the community of the world today that wants to look at the Gospel in a way that has salvation be liberation. We are not saved to something but liberated to be something. We are liberated from the bondage of the world. We are liberated from the bondage of the boxes we are put in, by others and ourselves.

But what does liberation look like? I said earlier the conversation tonight reminded me of a story. It was 2009, months before the ELCA would vote to allow congregations that wanted to have pastors in life-long monogamous same-sex relationships to be their pastors they could, when I was in conversations with a congregation in the Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA. I thought things were going well and as I was preparing to visit with the call committee for the first time in person I spoke with the assistant to the bishop there about my earrings. And he told me, “if you really want this call, you should remove your earrings.” So I did. I put myself in the box of what the congregation would want. And the call was extended and I accepted. In September of 2010 the congregation made it clear that they wanted out of the ELCA, and I did not, so I put back in my earrings. Not because I believed differently than the congregation, but because I knew that God had called me there to help them in this moment, and that by hiding who I was I was only hurting myself and the congregation. There were many conversations around my earrings. And I remember one older gentleman came into my office and asked me what I would tell a young man in high school if he came in and said his parents wouldn’t let him get his ear pierced. I told him I would tell the young man to honor the 4th commandment. (For those of you, not Lutheran, that is Honor your parents.) As long as he is living with his parents he needs to do as they say.

So many times we hide our true selves and fit into a box to make others happy, but that is not liberation. Liberation is when we are who God created us to be. Liberation is all of us living our lives as God intended. Liberation to me is being who God created and not hiding that from anyone. Living your life out loud unapologetically. (Unless you by chance happen to offend a given understanding or community in a way that belittles them or denied their existence, then make amends and learn and do better.)

Liberation is salvation.

The cross frees us to live love out loud and be the child of God we were created to be.

Until we are all living the way God created us, we are not ham sab and are not liberated.

It takes all of us being as God created us to be ham sab and liberated.

surprise

Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. If you are mocked because of Christ’s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you. Now none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or evildoer or rebel. But don’t be ashamed if you suffer as one who belongs to Christ. Rather, honor God as you bear Christ’s name. Give honor to God, because it’s time for judgment to begin with God’s own household. But if judgment starts with us, what will happen to those who refuse to believe God’s good news? If the righteous are barely rescued, what will happen to the godless and sinful? So then, those who suffer because they follow God’s will should commit their lives to a trustworthy creator by doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:12-19, CEB)

As I read this I heard Private Gomer Pyle say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.” As he was adept to say when something happened that wasn’t a surprise. We should not be surprised when we go through hard times as that is life and following Christ did not make it so hard times go away. In fact, we could go through some hard times because we actually follow Christ when the world around us doesn’t want to be what God has called us to be because it means giving up privilege or securities.

So don’t be surprised, but stand tall and keep moving forward.

Loving People. Loving God.

up or down…

Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” (Luke 18:9-14, CEB)

God have mercy on me a sinner…

Do we lift ourselves up or put others down, or neither?

One person prayed that he does everything right, which if he is human we know is a lie, and said he is glad he is not like the tax collector. Actually in reality none of us is any better than the next person. We are all sinners and we all put our pants on 1 leg at a time. And we all have no place to boast because we all fall short.

Pray for God to forgive you a sinner and to forgive all sinners rather than heap on big words and platitudes that do you, your neighbor, or God any good.

Loving People. Loving God

Magnificat

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
        because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
    He shows mercy to everyone,
        from one generation to the next,
        who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
    He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
    He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
        and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
        remembering his mercy,
    just as he promised to our ancestors,
        to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55, CEB)

The great song of Mary praising God for her being chosen along with her cousin to be the mothers of the cousins that would help the world see how we should live.

Mary tells of the great wonders of God and how God has always been with her and will always be with us.

Know you are never alone and that God is always with you.

Loving People. Loving God.