aSacredRebel

The Lord has sent me…

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away. (Luke 4:16-30 ESV)

Have you been sent?

Do you have a mission?

One of my favorite movies is The Blues Brothers. They are on a mission from God to save the orphanage that helped them out.

Do you have a mission?

In the text above, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He says that the spirit of the Lord is upon me, and we can probably all agree that this is true of Jesus, but is it true of all of us?

You see the problem comes when we can say this is true of us, because then it is true of others. God’s Spirit will reside on whomever the spirit decides to, and use all of us. We can not do ministry to those who know us, because they know our past. They know who we use to be, all of the bad things we did. Now do not hear that as me saying that Jesus did bad things. He was without sin, but he was also a teenage boy, who happened to be the son of God and a creator of the universe. Think about it…

But the point is that we are all sent on a mission from God. We are sent to give good news to the poor, to set the captives free, and to help those who can not see to see, to set at ease those who are in need. We are sent on a mission to proclaim the gospel.

I have always wanted signs over the doors out of the sanctuary that say, “Servants Entrance.” So we would all be reminded that when we leave worship we are entering the mission field, and we are going to be a servant. We are leaving where we were “on break” and going back to work as servants to the world. Giving them the message of the gospel.

So know that the Lord has sent you. Go and be a servant to all you come in contact with.

Be like Boaz

So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” (Ruth 3:14-4:6 ESV)

Taking care of family is what Boaz is about. Maybe he does it because Ruth took care of his family, but he still does not shun her or throw her out. He even goes farther than he needs to by making sure she is not seen for being in the threshing floor when she shouldn’t be…

Boaz goes the extra length to make sure the family is cared for, and not just actual family, but family that is brought in through circumstances. Ruth is not blood, but is family through the marriage and remains family because of her devotion to the family. Boaz could have treated her as an outsider, but he includes her. How many of us would include her? How many of us shun our own families, our own blood families?

We need to to treat the stranger and the alien as our own. We need to be like Boaz…

Care for your relatives…

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:1-8 ESV)

Honor an older man and encourage them as you would a father and a younger man honor them as you would a brother. An older woman treat her with respect like you would your mother and younger women treat as you would your sister…

Now think about how you treat your family… Should you treat your family as you do? Or should there be more respect for them? In our society in the USA today we do not count on our families like we use to. Our extended families would be the back bone of our existence. Now we can make it as an individual and leave our family behind. We go off in search of the golden ring that will be our ticket to the good life, and do not worry about anyone else.

Or worse, we are so hung up on the rules of living a right relationship we shun our family because they are breaking the rules and living a life of sin. They are doing things that will not get them into heaven and therefore I can not have them in my life so they become a leper or worse and must be shunned out of our family. They need to figure out what they are doing wrong and need to correct it before I will love them and support them. Yes just like God did to you…

God told each of us that we had to have it all together before we would be welcomed at His table, at His house… No that is not how it went. God welcomed us into His family when we did not deserve it. He took us in and loved us in spite of our wrongs, inspite of our sins.

So care for your relatives and love them as God loves you. And do not leave them to fend for themselves, because we all know life is better lived with others to help with the struggles of the journey…

Escape…

As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Mark 12:38-44 (NRSV)

We hear this text as a model for giving over and above our means. We hear sermons preached and lessons taught that the woman is a model of good stewardship because she gave everything to the church.

However this section starts with Jesus saying beware of the religious leaders who look or the best seats and look to be greeted with respect. They have the rules and know who has to do what in order to get the best seats and be in the right way with God. They have received their reward. Jesus saw what was happening that the religious system was holding people in place by having them give more than they could and live under rules that did not matter. Then the widow who could not afford to give but needed help was forced to give because of the system. She is not a model for stewardship but a model for how the church should not make people live. We should not hold people to rules or giving systems that hold them prisoner. We need to lift them up and give them what they need. Not be one more guard in a prison they can not escape…

Doubt or faith or…

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:12-14, 20-25 ESV)

Wow this is one of those passages that can get us into trouble if we read only this. You see this passage clearly says that if ask for something in prayer and truly believe it has been given to you in your heart, and do not doubt then you will get it. So when you pray for something and it does not happen it is because you doubted that it would. If you had enough faith and just believed what you asked for was yours it would happen. You can change the landscape if you only had enough faith…

The problem with this is that our faith is not ours. It is a gift, given to us and then grown in us. It is not ours to say it is enough or not enough and it is certainly not for someone else to judge if our faith is enough.

You see faith is a gift that God gave us through Jesus and to doubt is not the opposite of faith. Doubt feeds faith and makes you rely on your faith. Doubt is not bad and does not keep prayers from happening. In another part of the gospels Jesus says if you ask for something and it is in the will of God, then it will be done. So maybe it isn’t that you doubted, maybe it’s not God’s will that what you want is done. I think of the song by Garth Brooks, Unanswered Prayers, that speaks of a prayer that if God will let him marry his high school sweet heart he would be content and not ask for anything else, and this does not happen. And his life turned out better than he had ever imaged it would be, so sometimes we need to thank God for unanswered prayers…

You see I think God has 3 answers to pray.
1. Yes
2. No
3. Not yet/maybe

And unanswered prayers to us are no. Maybe God says no and we ignore or image He did not say anything…

But do not think your doubt or lack of faith caused a prayer not to be answered… God works in God’s own way and we will not understand until we stand with Him and see fully, not as we now see dimly… Your faith is a gift and i is enough for you and doubt helps that faith grow…

So prayer fervently, and believe with all your heart and trust that it is enough and know that God’s will will be done.

New Covenant

For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. (Hebrews 9:15-24 (NRSV))

We are accepted as we are because the old covenant is not in play, but a new covenant is. Tonight I am gathered at a camp for a JR High retreat on Baptism. We just heard a message about how we are claimed in our baptism to be part of something bigger than ourselves. This is because of the new covenant. Jesus made it possible the one who baptises is with fire and the Holy Spirit. He created the new covenant with the Trinity and willing entered into it. And He offers you a place in it as well…

Being a part of the covenant does not mean your life will be all roses and great. But it means you are never alone and a part of something way bigger than your self!

So give up trying to do it on your own and allow the new covenant to cover you.

Change…

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV)

Rarely will someone do something for someone else even when they deserve it. We go out of our way in our humanness to not give to the one in need, to look out for ourselves first. We set up rules and regulations for people to come and join us in fellowship with God. We want change, but we really don’t. We only want change if it looks like us, smells like us, and feels exactly like us. When we invite people into our fellowships what we are really saying is, you are welcome to come here as long as you start to act like us and not expect us to do anything differently You have to become one of us. God was not and is not the Borg. Assimilation is not the point. We are not all suppose to be alike. We are suppose to be a part of a collective that is the body of Christ.

You see the most interesting thing I find from this is we expect people to change from their sinful lives and follow our rules to be a part of our fellowship. But the thing is, God did not expect us to change, He knew only He could bring the change, and it was not something that happened first, it was a slow process like a tree growing. He came to us and bridged the gap and while we were still in need of lots of change, He died so that we could be changed, by Him.

So I want change, and not the kind you get from a transaction of a monetary sort, I want change that makes society look and wonder what has happened. I want change that I can not do on my own or bring about on my own. Let us truly give it over to God and allow the change to come…

Right here… Right now…

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, “Where I am going you cannot come.” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:31-35 ESV)

Now the Son of Man is glorified… Now not sometime in the future but now. Today I started listening to Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels. In the first chapter she talks about the possibility that Jesus said that not all those hearing this prophecy would die before the coming of the kingdom of God. I wondered at this…

We think of the glory of Jesus as something that is to come, or comes on the cross. We ink of the coming of the kingdom as that moment when Jesus comes back, even though He is always with us. We think of the events of the bible as future events not here and now. Eternal life is something that will happen, not something that is happening…

Well here in John Jesus said the Son of Man is glorified now. And so His glory and God’s glory is fulfilled at once, now or then as it maybe…

So not all of you will die before the kingdom of God comes in its power. The power of the kingdom has come, has it come in your life? Are you waiting for something that will happen. Are you waiting to get eternal life, to see Jesus glorified, to see the power of the kingdom? These are not future events, they are future events only in the fact that these events occur and keep occurring. The power of God’s kingdom is being shown throughout all of creation yesterday, today and tomorrow over and over again. The same as Jesus’ glory, happened when He spoke this, happened everyday and moment since. And eternal life is not something we await, but is something we are living in right here, right now…

Live into the power that God has bestowed upon you now as an eternal child of a glorified and risen savior!

A new Heart

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Psalm 51 ESV)

Everything we do as a sin is not against another, or even ourselves. It is true that when we sin we can hurt others, and we can hurt ourselves. Usually the hardest person to forgive is ourselves, for the wrongs we have done to ourselves and to others. But the one I think we most forget about in the forgiveness equation is God.

You see God goes everywhere with us, and sees everything we do. He actually walks with us as we do the terrible things we do to sin against ourselves, our friends and most of all our creator! Every thing we do that is sinful is done to God. And there is no escaping this.

I think that is why this passage fro Psalm 51 is a part of our liturgy in the Lutheran denomination and many others. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

O Lord I have strayed so far from you and done terrible things. Create a new heart within me a clean one, one that will love you and do what is right to you and my neighbor. Renew my spirit that I may have a power to move forward in the cleanliness you gave me. Do not cast me away from you, but stay with me and help me to be upheld by your love and spirit that alone can make me clean…

Allow God to have all the muck, He already knows about. Then walk with Him in a new and wonderful life, upheld by His grace and mercy. Let Him remake your heart, so you can show forth His love!

In His hand…

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 146 ESV)

I will praise the Lord as long as I live and in Him alone will I place my trust. I will not trust in powers or principalities, or anything other than the one who created me and knit me together in my mothers womb, who has a plan for me to do good.

You see the psalmist here tells us that God is in control. The picture he paints is one of us playing in the hand of God, that everything is in His control. He has control over the prisoners, and can set us free. The Lord gives us sight to see things we would never be able to apart from Him. The Lord lifts up those who are weighted down by struggles of this life. Those who are held low by those around them or society keeping them from their full potential, God lifts them up gives them eyes to see how He sees them and sets them free from the bondage that holds them!

The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. He looks over those who are wandering, those who have no home or place to be. Those who have no way to take care of themselves, or those without someone to watch over them. But the wicked will be brought to ruin. Those who look out for themselves, and do not think of others…

So is your life in His hand? Do you rest in the hand of your creator and praise Him everyday?

Even in the darkest valley in the hand of God we have reason to praise Him every hour, every minute, every second!

Give God the praise and rest in His hand!