every moment

Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgements, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’ Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers.  Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, (Isaiah 58:1-9a, NRSV)

Why do we do what we do?

Do you fast?

Do you pray in public?

Every act we do is something that we should see as a moment we are worshiping God.

Yes Every act!

Every Moment!

You see Jesus told the disciples in today’s gospel lesson that they are salt and light. He did not tell them that they could be, or will be, or might be.

He said Y’all are salt and Y’all are light! Everything you do as you go about your life is a way in which you share God with the world!

For the christian there is no time that we are serving God and a time we are not. We can not flip a switch and be dutiful followers! We are always being salt and light to the world and everything we do every moment of our life is showing the world about love and God!

honor how?

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ (Mark 7:1-8, NRSV)

Do you wash your hands before you eat?

Most of us will say yes. Because your parents told us to. We know if we don’t wash up we could get sick….

We do it because we were told to do it…

Or for hygiene…

What about praying before you eat?

Do you always say a prayer before you eat?

Always? At school? in public?

Why?

Because you were told to? Because you always have?

Because it is right to give thanks for everything God has given us?

Why do we do the things we do, because it honors God and the love He has given us?

Or is it to uphold a human tradition we may know nothing about?

Look at what you do and why you do it, and live out the life that God calls you to live. Not doing things because it will make someone happy. Do things that will make God happy by living for Him and His creation!

Who is wise?

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3: 13-18, NRSV)

Who among us is wise?

We should show our good works and our life that is reflecting of the love that God first showed to us. Not for what we get, or the attention or the notoriety, or anything like that…

If there is any selfishness within us that leads us to do something good, then it is not done for the right reasons.

Disorder and wickedness have no place in us.

So who is wise?

The one who follows after Jesus and does what they do in good works, not for selfish gain but because Jesus first loved them.

Sow your works in peace and peace will be the harvest that you reap!

World conqueror

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5, NRSV)

We will overcome the world! We have no need to fear anything or any one.

For if we love God, we are His children and therefore we will be one with Jesus and through the relationship we have with Jesus we will conquer the world!

We will be victorious!

So cling to your God and know that no matter what it is you are facing that He will walk with you through it and see you to the glorious life He has in store for you.

selfie

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. (Luke 6:17-26, NRSV)

Like the Matthew version you might have heard this weekend, Jesus is just plain blessing people here. He is not setting up conditions by which you could be blessed. He is saying that the poor, hated, excluded, reviled, defamed, those who are weeping are blessed. Not because of what they have, what they’ve done, or what the have been through. Simple because God can and does bless those the world does not deem acceptable.

But then Jesus goes on to say that if you are not looking out for the other, than you are not doing what God has called us to do. If you are hungry and know of others who aren’t then there is an issue. You see there is nothing we can do to be blessed, but once we are blessed, we are blessed to be a blessing. Not to continue the blessing, but because we were first blessed.

We can not selfie our way through life. We can not make it on our own, we need others.

So do not claim to have it all together and that you don’t need anyone else. But be a part of the community in giving and receiving.

What you reap

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. (James 5:1-6, NRSV)

Have you worked hard to get ahead?

Do you have a lot of nice stuff and yet still don’t seem to have that void inside of you filled?

We try to keep up with the Jones and have all the best things, the newest gadgets, the latest technology, and what does it get us?

A pile of garbage that rots and needs to be taken out…

You see no amount of stuff will ever fill the void we feel in our lives. Stuff is not going to make us happy and in the end will only cause more strife and anguish.

We need to be looking out for the people in our lives, the ones that God put there for us to notice and to be with. We need to not be worried about getting what we want, but doing what God has called us and placed us to do.

So stop keeping up, and start walking with God, filling the void and being salt and light!

patience and trust…

Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret—it leads only to evil. For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight in abundant prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is a little that the righteous person has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. (Psalm 37:1-17, NRSV)

Do not go forth in the world like the world does. We see people every day doing things that God would not have us do. To get back at those around them. To get their way…

We need to be above the fray and not take our fleshly desires out on others. We need to hold fast to the patience and trust we have in the promises of God that He will see us through.

So hold tight to Him and believe that He will see you through.

Stumbling

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31, NRSV)

When you trip over something what do you do?

I usually look back to see what I tripped over…

Christ as the one who will be the leader of the Jewish nation is not suppose to be crucified. It is a stumbling block for the Jews, and for the wise Greeks it is sheer foolishness!

Jesus should not have died, that just doesn’t make any sense, and just is not what a savior does.

Bit to those of us who are being saved, the message of the cross is one we can cling to even on our not understanding of why it had to be and know that it was and that God did it for me!

So look to see what you tripped over, but never lose sight of the cross.

Plans ~ Newsletter ~ February 2014

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Have you ever wondered if there was a plan to life?

Like there seems to be a road map that your life is following only you have never seen it…

Jeremiah is an interesting book that starts with a calling to a boy who says he is too young and unable to speak, leading through to many conversations with him and many peoples for God. All of this leads to the verse above in chapter 29…

God knows the plans He has for each and everyone of us, plans for us to prosper and not fall, plans for a future and a hope. That hope is Jesus Christ! He is the future and the hope each of us can base our lives on, He is the map that will lead us to where we need to go.

Just as Jesus brought St. John’s and my family together, He is continuing to work in and through all of us to bring about His plan and mission here in this place.

So remember to notice where Jesus is working, to share that and invite others to come and see and to always keep Jesus in view, and be ready for the ride of your life as we continue to His wonderful mission here in this place!