spare change?

In the presence of all the people, Jesus said to his disciples, “Watch out for the legal experts. They like to walk around in long robes. They love being greeted with honor in the markets. They long for the places of honor in the synagogues and at banquets. They are the ones who cheat widows out of their homes, and to show off they say long prayers. They will be judged most harshly.” Looking up, Jesus saw rich people throwing their gifts into the collection box for the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow throw in two small copper coins worth a penny. He said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than them all. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had to live on.” (Luke 20:45—21:4, CEB)

What do we give to God? This woman is used by many. She is used as an example for stewardship when I don’t think that is what Jesus is getting at here. She put in her money as an obligation to the system and the others were merely tipping God.

God doesn’t deserve our spare change. God Deserves everything. We do not give God what is left over, we give to God first and then use what is left to provide for ourselves. I have said it and typed it many times, show me your checkbook register and I will tell you what your god is.

Do not tip God. Love God with everything you are and have.

Loving People. Loving God.

free yet slave

Although I’m free from all people, I make myself a slave to all people, to recruit more of them. I act like a Jew to the Jews, so I can recruit Jews. I act like I’m under the Law to those under the Law, so I can recruit those who are under the Law (though I myself am not under the Law). I act like I’m outside the Law to those who are outside the Law, so I can recruit those outside the Law (though I’m not outside the law of God but rather under the law of Christ). I act weak to the weak, so I can recruit the weak. I have become all things to all people, so I could save some by all possible means. All the things I do are for the sake of the gospel, so I can be a partner with it. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23, CEB)

Paul here says he is free yet he makes himself a slave to all so that they might see and know the love of God.

We are free from the constraints of this world but some do not understand that so we need to meet people where they are and help them see the love of God for them. We are a slave to them in the way we interact with them, yet always free in the grace God gives to us.

We live in a way that shows forth God’s love in everything we do.

Loving People. Loving God.

Spiritual Gifts

My understanding of spiritual gifts really has not been expanded, as I have done lots of work on the Natural Church Development (NCD) in the past and also the 3 passages of the body of Christ in the Pauline corpus and the gifts listed there.

I did love the discussion we had about tongues and interpretation. The understanding of vertical vs. horizontal tongues. How one can pray in tongues to God and that is vertical. We can say things even we do not understand but that is the Holy Spirit speaking through us in “sighs too deep for words… (Romans 8:26). We pray in a way that gets our thoughts to God even when we do not understand. I still believe that if one is using tongues horizontally or between people there needs to be interpretation as Paul says.

According to the Spiritual gifts assessment we took tonight in class (Spiritual Gifts Assessment Tool – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) my top gifts are:
Music-Instrumental
Artistry (Which I think is because the artistry questions to me were about my music ability – so I would say this is the one above.)
Teaching

I love playing music in both worship and secular settings. It is always fun to play in a pit orchestra and get to know the other musicians and actors and have them get to know me as a person not associated with the church and then when we get to those moments when we talk about what we do for a living since none of us make enough playing to survive and I say I am a pastor, their jaws hit the floor because they have never met a pastor like me. A pastor who is real and genuine. I think if more of us lived our lives in the way we would be and did not worry about what others would think we would be honestly who God created us to be and we would lead more people to the understanding that God is love and loves everyone as they are.

Teaching was not necessarily a surprise for me, and I would say I teach in many different ways. One of the things I had a lot of fun doing was developing an online curriculum for confirmation. This was done over several years and I have used it in teaching confirmation in my call in Wisconsin. I also know other members of the writing team still use it as well as other pastors around the country. It is a curriculum for multiple years and can be used for any age.

I would like to use my gifts for music more in my campus ministry setting but also am self-conscious about making it all about me and having the focus be on just me. This is not my ministry but a ministry I get to serve. I want the ministry to flourish and thrive in a way that will allow it to exist long after I am the called leader here.

So is not using our spiritual gifts a spiritual gift? Is there a time when using something is more self-fulfilling than fulfilling the will of God and how do we discern that and know when we are actually doing the will of God?

rejected

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them. They were incensed that the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus. They seized Peter and John and put them in prison until the next day. (It was already evening.) Many who heard the word became believers, and their number grew to about five thousand. The next day the leaders, elders, and legal experts gathered in Jerusalem, along with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others from the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?” Then Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, answered, “Leaders of the people and elders, are we being examined today because something good was done for a sick person, a good deed that healed him? If so, then you and all the people of Israel need to know that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is the stone you builders rejected; he has become the cornerstone! Salvation can be found in no one else. Throughout the whole world, no other name has been given among humans through which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:1-12, CEB)

The stone you builders rejected; has become the cornerstone.

God gave clear signs of how the building was to be built but those with the plans thought they had a better idea for how to make the structure. So they rejected the stone provided for the base and went their own way.

When we do not use Jesus as the foundation of our life things will be off. But when we have Jesus as the cornerstone and basis for all of our life things will be the way God intended even when we do not understand them.

We do not need to fully get it, but trust that it is the right way.

Loving People. Loving God.

Who do you serve?

Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager.’ “The household manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses. “One by one, the manager sent for each person who owed his master money. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your contract, sit down quickly, and write four hundred fifty gallons.’ Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ He said, ‘Take your contract and write eight hundred.’ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted cleverly. People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much, and the one who is dishonest with little is also dishonest with much. If you haven’t been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? If you haven’t been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No household servant can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:1-13, CEB)

As I typed the title to this devotional I sang in my mind the song Who do you love?

But this is an interesting passage where a business manager cheats the land owner and is commended for it. And then Jesus says you cannot serve God and wealth.

So who do you serve?

Do you serve God or wealth?

If you show me your checkbook register I can tell you who you serve. We need to live but when we serve God our needs are provided for.

So share the love you have been given and serve God.

Loving People. Loving God.

Model or slave

Jesus sat across from the collection box for the temple treasury and observed how the crowd gave their money. Many rich people were throwing in lots of money. One poor widow came forward and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I assure you that this poor widow has put in more than everyone who’s been putting money in the treasury. All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44, CEB)

This passage is used all the time for stewardship. Look at this woman and how she has given everything but the others aren’t getting close to what she is giving. It could be moving.

But is she giving because she wants to or because she has to? Is the system set up so that if you are not giving you are not a part of the system? The reading says, “Many rich people were throwing in lots of money.” Those who had money were throwing in large sums because it was expected you would give. So this woman only having two small copper coins has to give. She could have given one, but then she probably doesn’t have enough to live on and she has to give even though she needs both copper coins to live, so now I will just give it all. And we read it as she is a great steward. When in reality the system of religion is making her a slave.

Let us liberate the world with God’s love. Share it as you go.

Loving People. Loving God.

If

So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us. Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, We are being put to death all day long for your sake. We are treated like sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created. (Romans 8:31-39, CEB)

Anytime I see an if in a translation I look to see what the word is in the Greek text. And this if, “if God is for us…” is εἰ. εἰ means if, but I was taught in seminary that εἰ also can mean since. So which is a better word to use here? If God is for us or since God is for us?

I honestly like Since God is for us, because it is not a question of if God is for us. God is for us, even when we turn on backs on God, even when we wander away, even when we are stupid, God is always for us. And since God is for us who can be against us? Even if they are against us what will it matter with God for us?

Know that God is always with you and for you.

Go into the world and share love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Let’s do…

So what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Or what’s the benefit of circumcision? Plenty in every way. First of all, the Jews were trusted with God’s revelations. What does it matter, then, if some weren’t faithful? Their lack of faith won’t cancel God’s faithfulness, will it? Absolutely not! God must be true, even if every human being is a liar, as it is written: So that it can show that you are right in your words; and you will triumph when you are judged. But if our lack of righteousness confirms God’s justice, what will we say? That God, who brings wrath upon us, isn’t just (I’m speaking rhetorically)? Absolutely not! If God weren’t just, how could he judge the world? But if God’s truth is demonstrated by my lie and it increases his glory, why am I still judged as a sinner? Why not say, “Let’s do evil things so that good things will come out of it”? (Some people who slander us accuse us of saying that, but these people deserve criticism.) (Romans 3:1-8, CEB)

God is faithful, so even when we are evil, God is still faithful.

We aren’t going to break the promise God gives us by what we do. No matter if we are good or evil God’s promise will still be faithful.

So then should we go and do evil things so that good things will happen? I mean maybe not. But when we do evil it doesn’t change God’s faithfulness but it does not help others understand God’s love. So no, Let’s not do evil so good will come.

Let us do good things and share love.

Loving People. Loving God.

A Psalm of Despair

O Lord where are you,
          I feel all alone as if you are not here
I'm straining under the load of life
          Struggling to take care of myself and my family
Wondering why you are not here to help me
          Wondering where you are to guide me
I wonder if the way Paul discussed would be better
          To leave this world and be with you
But if I left this world would I be with you 
          Or is there another option?
Help me, Lord!
          Pull me from my despair and show me you are here.
Help me, Lord! 
          So I know I'm not alone.

Might

No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:13-17, CEB)

We have all seen the signs at sporting events and other gathers.

John 3:16.

We all know John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. My version here is a little different than above because I typed this from memory. A mix of NRSV, KJV, and others. Which is really what we all do with this verse. But honesty I do not think John 3:16 is the most important verse out of the lectionary passage above.

When I have classes on the passage I always ask for people to say 3:16 from memory and then after someone does I ask if anyone can do 3:17 from memory. 3:17 is way more important in my thinking than 3:16. Now don’t get me wrong, 3:16 is important, especially when we look at the language. ἠγάπησεν – Agape is in the third person aorist active indicative. This means it was an action that happened at one point in the past and has reoccurring influence on the future forever. At one point in the past God so loved the world and that love continues forever. So that is pretty important. But I digress. Do you know John 3:17 without looking above?

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. And again my version is a little different as it is from memory and a mash-up of NRSV, KJV, and others. And something else about this passage, the might is not in the Greek. The Greek says, “οὐ γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα κρίνῃ τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ.” Literally, this is “not for sent the God the son into the world in order to condemn the world but in order to save the world through him.” Or in more proper English, For God did not send the Son into the world in order to condemn the world but in order to save the world through him.

God loved the world at one point in the past so much that God sent Jesus and God sent Jesus not to judge and condemn but to liberate the world. Not to judge or condemn but to love and liberate.

That is really what we all should do.

Loving People. Loving God.