aSacredRebel

good stewards…

The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11, NRSV)

You thought this post was going to be about money….

You read the title and thought, “great another devotional about money and how I don’t handle it correctly.”. We get hung up in stewardship and good stewards being only about money. However being a good steward is a whole lot more than money. It is the proper handling of everything we have been given.

For instance being a good steward means being a good parent. You were blessed by God with the children you have and because He has given them to you, you need to treat them as children of God and raise the, to love and fear God. We need to pass along the faith we have been given and help to raise the men and woman God has planned for this world. It is part of being a good steward.

Also we must use the gifts we have been given for the greater good of all. Regardless of how we feel about someone or how they have treated us, we must serve one another and be hospitable. Because every time we serve some one we are serving a child of God. And we must speak the truth, because the words we speak as children of God reflect on God and how others will see Him. We will either always spread God’s love, or we will give people reasons to hate God and run from Him. Or actions are our stewardship of His creation and our words have impact far beyond the life they live. We are always to be managing the time, talent and treasures God has given us for His kingdom.

So be hospitable serving all and speaking the truth of God in love.

Relationship: Parent

Great thoughts from a parent on who is the socially accepted parental unit in schools…

The Lutheran Zephyr

I recently completed a marathon of paperwork for my children’s elementary school. It is my annual handwriting workout. I write more by hand at this time of year than at any other time of the year.

Emergency contact forms.
Medical forms.
Tell us about your child forms.
School policy forms.
How your child gets to and from school forms.
Acknowledgement of receipt of homework and discipline policy forms.
A form to confirm receipt of forms (ok, not really)

Many of these forms ask for the names of adults and their relationship to the child.

Name: Chris Duckworth
Relationship to student: Parent

I write Parent. Not Father. But Parent.

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bless those who abuse you…

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called that you might inherit a blessing. For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:8-12, NRSV)

When someone does you wrong, what is the first things that goes through your mind?

How you can get back at them?

How much they hurt you and should be hurt just as much?

These are what we are wired to think about. We are wired to take care of number 1, ourselves. And when someone hurts us, they need to pay.

But Peter tells us that this is not how it is for those of us who follow Jesus. We need to keep our tongues from evil and not look to doing evil to anyone, regardless of what they did to us. We are not to repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse. We need to rise above the ways of everyone else and follow Jesus, loving everyone because they are a child of God.

It is countercultural to love your enemies and to do good to those who hurt or harm you, but Jesus never said it would be easy, after all He said we have to bear our cross everyday.

save or destroy

On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11, NRSV)

Jesus has a habit of healing on the sabbath and making the leaders of the synagogue upset…

You see the law of the sabbath is something the Pharisees keep and keep it because it is their life. They came from Egypt, where Israel was in slavery and the day of rest is something that is freeing for them. They keep it because it saves their lives!

But y not doing good and allowing for healing are they really saving their lives? You see we are all interconnected and when one of us is hurting, then the body is not well. Jesus knows this and so He moves to heal the body and allow the Pharisees to actually be free and use their day of rest.

So next time we hold to something that we have always done and do for a very good reason, and Jesus is asking us to think about it differently, we need to take a step back and look at it from His point of view and know that He will always save us!

Learning How to Give

Great words on stewardship!

The Lutheran Zephyr

You’d think it wouldn’t take much to learn how to give. Just reach into your pocket and give, right?

Of course, if you’ve ever spent time in a preschool, you know that there is often a reluctance in giving and sharing. Sharing toys doesn’t come naturally. Giving that toy to Bobby is even harder.

I was raised by parents who, each in their own way, were generous with their time and treasure. They modeled giving. As a young adult I strived to follow their model, often volunteering for and giving financial gifts to those organizations that were important to me, particularly the church.

But I didn’t start giving in a more significant, sacrificial way, until I met Larry. Larry hired me to work in the development office at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. I was young, about to get married, and this was my first job where I…

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Hold fast

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ (Revelation 3:7-13 ESV)

God has opened the door to our future, and it is a door no one can shut.

Has a door ever shut on you? They always say when one door closes another opens. I wonder though if that door that closes was never door we were intended to go through. The above writing to the church in Philadelphia says that God opens the door and it can never be shut. We need to discern what door we are to go through and then hold fast to what we have been given. Because the support and faith we have been given is enough to get us through and God will set our enemies on the edge and keep them from controlling us. The little power we have is enough, so hold fast and know that the door to your future has been opened and God is waiting for you on the other side.

save me…

But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads. Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love. Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it. Let them curse, but you will bless. Let my assailants be put to shame; may your servant be glad. May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle. With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death. (Psalm 109:21-31, NRSV)

Have you ever felt like life is caving in on you? Like someone is coming up behind you and trying to erase your life and make everything harder than it has to be?

What do you do when you are at the end of your rope? Where do you turn when the rope is fraying and starting to unravel?

The Psalmist here tells us that we can turn to God, our Lord. He will take care of us and remove the eraser and give us the life He has intended for us! Just call out to the Lord and trust that He will save you according to His steadfast mercy!

Up or In?

I was talking with someone yesterday about my call story and how I became a pastor. I ran in the beginning as most of my clergy friends did. We think God really isn’t calling us to be a pastor, we know who we were and where we had been and what we had done, so how could God call me.

I ran at first, but God kept after me…

And I said, “And finally I gave up.”

And the person I was talking to asked, “Gave up or gave in?”

I responded, “Gave in because I have not given up…” I have been looking for a congregation for sometime now to lead and guide. God has been with me through this process and I am not without call, but looking for the full time position with a congregation as their spiritual guide/leader.

But I have been thinking about this conversation, and I wonder if gave up is not the right answer.

When I decided to follow where I felt God was leading me, I did give up. I gave up control over my life and said I will follow where you are leading me. I gave up a nice job making good money doing computer support to move my family 8 hours north and go into debt by borrowing money to go to school for 4 more years. I was also entering a profession not known for the money those in it make. I was not doing it for the money though, because I had given up. I gave up control or what control I thought I had on my life.

So I wonder what your thoughts are?

Is there a difference between giving up and giving in?

Is giving in merely trying to maintain and allowing something to happen?

Is giving up a bad thing? (please see my post on the dip)

a certain point of view…

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. (Luke 13:10-17, NRSV)

My question after reading this text is the woman has been ill now for 18 years, what is another 12 hours going to hurt? Why didn’t Jesus just wait?

Well there is a lot to be seen from this, one is the point of view in which you see the text. Which got me thinking about Star Wars. In particular this scene from Return of the Jedi:

in this scene Luke confronts OB1 about what he told him about his father. He said that his father was murdered by Darth Vader, not that Darth Vader was his father. But the spin that OB1 puts on it is the truth from a certain point of view… And think about it. What do you hold true? I believe that Jesus is the messiah the chosen one of God foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures and therefore the truth I believe is based in that point of view. Things we believe are based on the point of view we view them from.

This is true of the leader of the synagogue where Jesus heals on the sabbath. You see the Israelites have the sabbath commandments which they see as a huge weight lifted off their shoulders. The laws were not given to them until after they were freed from the slavery of Egypt. So to tell a people who had always been told when to work and what to do, without a day off, that now they have to take a day with no work, this was not a commandment that is heard as a burden, but is a freeing weight removing wonderful announcement. They are free and get to rest! They will do whatever they need to to keep this commandment and help everyone else see the need fro it. Thus when Jesus sees this woman that is ill and knows the whole body is ailing because of this, He suspends the law of the sabbath to uphold the law of love. HE heals and brings back right relationships, and thus makes the body well. But the leader can’t see this because the law he holds dear has been compromised.

We all have a law that we will do whatever it takes to make sure it does not get compromised. We all have that thing we get uptight and very nervous when someone or something gets close to breaking it. One of my things is Christmas music during Advent. Worship in Advent is to be expecting and waiting for the coming Christ child, but if we are singing songs that proclaim He was already born, then we are not expecting it, it has happened. I try to keep the expectation. And I struggle with that…

But I wonder what your law is, and what it would take to give up your point of view and use Jesus’ point of view instead…

Lord of the Sabbath

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 6:1-5 ESV)

We read this and say, “what is wrong with picking grain and eating when one is hungry?”

Well, first off, who’s field is it! Do you have permission to be picking this grain? Are you breaking another commandment? But none of these are what the Pharisees are worried about. What they are up in arms about is the next part. They are upset because the disciples rubbed the grain in their hands. They did work on the Sabbath. And work is not allowed on the day of rest.

Now if a person is hungry and no food is prepared does not one have the ability to prepare food? Remember though where the Pharisees are coming from. The Israelites were slaves for many years in Egypt where they were told when to work, they probably didn’t get a day off. So a law that demands they take a day of no work sounds really good and something we will uphold. If you we a slave and forced to work all the time, someone telling you to take a day of rest is not a command you will have trouble with, and will fight to keep it!

But we have to remember that the Sabbath was created for man. “And Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'” (Mark 2:27 ESV) The Sabbath is a day of rest for us. And we all should rest but if something more important in the grand scheme of relationships is needed then that trumps the Sabbath.

So remember that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and follow His lead!