Hello My Name Is ~ Matthew West
What is your name?
You Are More ~ Tenth Avenue North
This song reminds me of what Jesus has done for each of us, as He did for the man bound by “Legion”.
It is not about what you have done, but about what’s been done for you!
Hello my name is…
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:26-39 ESV)
I read a commentary this week about the sad part of this story is the man’s answer to Jesus when He asks him what his name is.
The man does not respond Frank, James, Joeseph, Allan, Henry, or any other name, but he answered Legion, because he is defined by what has taken control of his life. He is no longer who he was but has become the very thing that controls him. And this is something we do to know in our age do we?
You see we have this today as well. People are stil defined by who they were. Alcoholics, drug addicts, sex offenders, and the like are defined by their life and the thing that controls them. We are all in that same boat. When we are alone we think about what we have done and how we are kept from God. We define ourselves by the very thing that are has freed us from. Jesus healed the demoniac and released him from Legion and He will also release you from the very thing that holds you captive.
Remember that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But we are also all set free by Jesus, released from our past failures, released to our future in Him.
Your name is Child of God, received at your baptism, so live out your baptismal promise. Love deeply as you were loved!
what separates us
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. (Isaiah 59:1-8, ESV)
Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened and His ear is not dull. He can always reach you and hear you…
So when it feels like you are far from Him, why is that?
The psalmist makes it clear “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” It is all our doing that moves us away from God. Our nature is what creates the chasm. We are sinners, and that is what God can not be around. Our hands “are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.” We look out for our own good, and try to make ourselves better than we are. We are looking out for number 2. (Ok really that is number 1, but we are not number 1, we are number 2…) We do things that raise us in stature and the eyes of the public. We do it for business and if we are honest we do it in the church. God sees all of this and this is what is keeping Him from us. Motivation is the key… What motivates you do to what you do, is it sacrificial or is it for your own gain?
But back to our sin… Yes we are all sinners and it can define us, it would be very easy to just write down all of the things we have done wrong and define our selves by this list, but God can and will release us from this list. As the picture above shows us, and Paul told the Romans (8:38-39) “nothing can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus.”
Do not be defined by the sin that separates you from God, but allow God to redefine you!
Lousy Leaders Coddle
Coddling leaders are safe; compassionate leaders dangerous.
Coddling, like all leadership behaviors, reflects attitudes about yourself and others. Coddling isn’t compassionate it’s needy, misguided, self-important, and self-propagating.
The more you coddle the more you need to coddle.
Coddlers can’t stand to see others stressed or struggling, but growth and development require both.
Coddling or Compassion:
- Coddling disables. Compassion enables.
- Coddling rejects. Compassion accepts.
- Coddling is doubt. Compassion is trust.
- Coddling is short-term and immediate. Compassion takes the long view.
- Coddling is about your ability. Compassion is about their capacity.
- Codding makes others helpless. Compassion helps less and strengthens more.
- Coddling is doing for. Compassion is doing with, often from a distance.
- Coddling is walking in front, protecting. Compassion is walking behind, supporting.
- Coddling is arrogant, I’m capable and you aren’t. Compassion is humble.
- Coddling makes things safe. Compassion lets danger in.
Downside of experience:
It’s easy for you – but…
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Why do I persist?
I was asked yesterday by a friend, “When is it time to give up?”
Now most of you know that I am an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and I have been on leave from call for the past 16 months. I have been diligently seeking where God is calling me to be next. And my friend who has been with me through the rough times while I was serving my previous congregation and had listened to me and helped me through things just asked, “when is it time to give up?” He was not being mean, or trying to tear me down. He was asking a question to get me thinking. And I have been, hence this post.
I told him that I was not ready to give up. But he reminded me that I was a few times we had spoken. And yes it is true, I was in some dark valleys and deep sad places, as I heard over and over again, “we are releasing you…” or “we are not continuing the process with you…” It is hard to hear that you are second best all of the time. So I was there ready to give up, but I haven’t. I haven’t given up, and why?
Well if you really get down to it, aren’t all of us only second best? None of us will ever come in first in life, only God can do that. So why not be second best? Is it hard to always hear that I am not the one for that congregation. Yes and no. It allows me to know that that place is not the place for me. I know that the congregation has done the discernment of working through the process to find the right fit at that time. The congregation for me is out there. And to be chosen by one that is not the right place will only mean this happens again soon.
And through this process, I have my family who loves me and home and a wife who is the best faith partner anyone could ask for. She has supported me and helped me discern where we are going and what we are doing. She is a rock and a true gift that God placed in my life 23 years ago. I believe that God has called me to this and others have told me again and again they see the gifts. So I know it is not time to give up. God has never given up on me, so I’m not giving up on Him.
Know that we are not made right because of our actions, but because God loved us when He shouldn’t have. He loved us when we were too dirty and stained to be around Him, but He came to us any how and loved us as we are, and since He did that for me, I’m not giving up on what I know beyond the shadow of a doubt He has called to.
I found this picture yesterday, and I believe it speaks why I have not given up, nor will I give up until the call is found. And then I won’t give up on leading God’s people to deeper and richer relationships with Him, and each other.
Promise
Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, ‘And to offsprings’, as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring’, that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one. Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:15-22, NRSV)
I have read this passage of scripture many times like you probably have. I am always struck though how a detail that has always been there now reaches up and slaps me in the face.
We know that we are justified by grace, as a gift and not by following the law. Most of us as Christians get that. It doesn’t matter what rules we follow, it will not get us in the good graces of God, only grace through the faithfulness of Jesus to go to the cross for us can get us there. So why do we get hung up on the rules? Two days ago we talked about rules and how they do not matter to God. So we know the rules do not matter.
And Paul makes that perfectly clear to the Galatians here, by reminding them that God made the promise of an offspring to Abraham, and that this was done four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law to Moses! Four hundred and thirty years is a long time! And the promise was made that Abraham would be the father of many nations and his people would be God’s people! Because of faith! Not because we did anything to earn it, because we can’t earn it!
Faith is a gift, because we can not see it, we can not explain it, we can not always understand it, we just have faith! God’s grace is big enough to cover all of our questions, just trust that the promise is real, because He has not let us down yet!
Don’t trust in the rules, to be right, trust in the promise, and He will move you to be right!
Letter of the law…
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:17-29 ESV)
As Christians we wonder why the world looks at us with disdain. We wonder why they can not hear the wonderful message we have to give them. God is blasphemed among those who do not k ow Him because of us. We claim to know the law and follow the law, and we are seen doing things we are telling others not to do. We act one way at church and around our church friends and then when we go other places we act in ways we abhor and talk down about when we are worshipping. We forget though that God is always with us, and every time we step into public we are the hands and feet of Jesus so everything we do is giving some one an example of what God is like.
Paul tells the Romans that if you are circumcised and you act like the law doesn’t matter you are giving God a bad name. It is not about keeping the letter of the law, but living in a way that shows forth the love of God. Circumcision is not a physical thing, it is a matter of heart. We need to follow the love that God has given us and show that love to others.
Our praise should come from God which means that we are doing things that society will not like. We need to look at pleasing God, not ourselves or our neighbors. Live the life of a person who is called to called and circumcised in heart and shows God’s love to all the world!
Rules…
And many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly. They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the Kidron Valley. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. They took their accustomed posts according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests threw the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites. For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves. Therefore the Levites had to slaughter the Passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to consecrate it to the Lord. For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness. And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. (2 Chronicles 30:13-20 ESV)
How many of you have rules for people attending worship at your congregation?
We all do. We have rules. Like “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.”
Ok we probably don’t have that on our doors like some other business do, but what if some showed up without shoes and shirt for worship? Would they be turned away? Would God turn them away?
There were many at the temple for the Feast of Unleavened Bread that were not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary. So Hezekiah prayed that the people would be made clean through their participation in the meal. Remind you of another meal we partake in?
Some of us remember when you had to declare your intention to partake of communion. We had to prepare our hearts and minds. So now we don’t do this, are we really ready? The truth of the matter is regardless of how we prepare ourselves we are not clean and not prepared to take the meal. God cleans us through the meal to be a part of His kingdom.
Rules are for man, not for God. God will work in-spite of our rules and whether or not we follow them.
So go and love freely as God has loved you and do not be hung up on the rules…
aSacredRebel 