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…

20121107-213645.jpgWhen 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!

Close, but no cigar…

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:28-34 ESV)

You are not far from the kingdom of God, but you are not there yet either…

So what does that mean?

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul and mind  and the second is like the first, to love your neighbor as yourself. So from these 2 commandments we have to love 3 people(s): God, our neighbor and our self. We have to love ourselves, our neighbor like we love ourselves, and God. And these three loving acts are more important than burnt offerings and sacrifice. These things are more important to worshiping God than any act of worship prescribed in the law, is what the scribe is saying.

But that is not quite all of it, that doesn’t get us to the fullness of the kingdom… Jesus tells the scribe that he is not far from the kingdom, so what is he missing? What part is not there?

This is not in our text but maybe it was his understanding of what he was saying, or the position of his heart? Maybe he was playing lip service to the things coming out of his mouth. He did not feel or believe what he was saying.

You see this is all saints day and many of us believe that we can not be a saint until we have died. And my friends that is simply not the truth. We are saints now in this life, it is not something we wait for. We are connected to God here and now, and so through that connection we are saints.

Live in your sainthood, and believing that God loves you and wants to to love others. Be love to the world around you, helping all of creation to gather and give praise to God and know the love that they all have from Him.

Book Review: Leadership by Example by Dr. Sanjiv Chopra

Leadership is something we think a few people do. There are leaders in the country, leaders in business, leaders in church, you name the place and there are leaders there. And we look to these people to show us the way to do things. Sometimes these people are leaders in only one aspect of their lives, and followers else where. That is the point Dr. Chopra makes clear, we all have the potential to be leaders. We may not be leaders in every aspect of our lives, but we all have the potential and the moments to be leaders.

This book is written from a series of talks Dr. Chopra gave on the topic of leadership. He uses the “LEADERSHIP” mnemonic to explain his view on leadership is as follows: L – listen well. E – empathy. A – attitude. D – dreams and decisiveness. E – effectiveness. R – resilience. S – a sense of purpose. H – humility and humor. I – integrity and imagination. P – principles, and willingness to pack other people’s parachutes.

In this book Dr. Chopra explains how we have to move people and understand where they are at in order to lead them to places and to do things. He gives warm moving examples of leadership from normal everyday people who did not see themselves as leaders, but led many people and did wonderful things for society.

I highly recommend this book for everyone to read to unlock the leadership potential in all of us. This book will move you with examples that will not surprise you, but with examples that will show you, you can lead by example!

Go and do… likewise!

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37 ESV)

What must I do to inherit eternal life? The answer that is wanting to come out is nothing… We can do nothing to inherit eternal life… God freely gives that gift to all, yet we will be held accountable for our actions, so there is something we have to do…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. See the lawyer then looks for the loop hole. Who is my neighbor? Is it the people who live next to me? How many blocks away count as my neighbors? Is the guy the street behind me my neighbor? How far does this go Jesus?

I wonder how I can love people as myself, because sometimes I really do not like myself. I get into that place that Paul talks about not being able to do the things I want to do and doing the things I know I should not do. And I do not like that or the way I behave. When I play music people will say it was so good, but I remember every mistake, every wrong note and I cringe and know I could have done better, and I do not like myself. Same goes for public speaking, or preaching, or teaching… I am my own worst critic and that makes me wonder how can I love my neighbor as myself? Or is that a cue to us, that is how God loves us????

You see we are His creation but we are also His neighbors, and rather than holding all of our loud partying and late night parties against us, He loves us as He loves Himself…. So we too must love all of creation as God does…

Go and do likewise. Find the people that your people are suppose to hate and not get along with and help them. Because when you were separated from God, God came low to pull you up to Him. Stop looking for loop holes and love everyone as God has loved you.

Play Nice…

“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:32-37 ESV)

Honor your elders, treat those who are not natural born of your country as if they were when they are in your borders, and be honest in your business dealings…

How many of us say we do this? All of the talk about border patrols and keeping those people out of our country here in the USA. We worry about the people coming over our southern border, because we don’t want them using our tax money. We need to have those benefits for our self. But yet wasn’t all we have given to us by God, and we need to manage that so that all of His children are cared for? If we ignore this passage of Leviticus 19 then we might want to rethink the whole chapter or book. We can not pick and chose the verse we want to uphold, it has to be all or none… We have to accept the sojourner as one of our own, that is what God tells us.

Honor your elders and do not cheat in weights and measurement, in your business dealings be that at the office or at home. Do not cheat anyone.

Basically Play nice! Share your things and treat others with honesty and respect.

 

atone…

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12 ESV)

Through His blood He has secured us eternal redemption. This brings us to atonement…

What do you think when you hear the word atonement? If you were raised in the church you think of Jesus dying on the cross, because a blood sacrifice had to be made. There is a vengeful blood thirsty God that had to have His pound of flesh. There needs to be a sacrifice, and Jesus is the one to do it. He dies on the cross so that we can be reconnected with God.

Ok maybe God is not blood thirsty and vengeful. But what kind of God needs to have a blood sacrifice? Is not our God loving and caring for the last, least, little and lost, so why must there be blood? The cross was a part of the plan, that I can say I do not completely understand, but here is one thing I know. The cross and not just the cross, but all of Jesus’ life leads us to a relationship bridge to God.

You see when I read this passage today from Hebrews I looked up the word atonement. And here is the definition from Merriam-Websters Online:

Definition of ATONEMENT
1 obsolete : reconciliation
2 the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ
3 reparation for an offense or injury : satisfaction
4 Christian Science : the exemplifying of human oneness with God

This was not that helpful. So I looked some more and I found and answer at Bibleq.net:

According to the OED, the English word ‘atonement’ was probably in use at least by 1513, but it was first used in a translation of the Bible by William Tyndale later in the 1500s, possibly while in exile in Antwerp . The word  “at-one-ment” comes from a contraction of “at one”. So first Tyndale (1526), then the Bishop’s Bible under Queen Elisabeth 1st (1588), then the Authorised Version under King James (1611), employed the word ‘atonement’ 69 times through the OT where the Hebrew is ‘cover’. However since the original context of the Hebrew meaning, sin-covering, comes through in the context, whatever Tyndale’s intentions, the meaning ‘covering’ has attached to ‘at-one-ment’ because of the contexts of the OT verses in which his new word was used. Later, following Tyndale’s death, the noun  ’atonement’, created the coinage of another new word ‘atone’ (first seen in 1574 according to Merriam Webster).

This I thought was interesting. You see atonement is from the words at and one. Thus the contraction at-one or atone. The act of covering our sins is what allows us to be at-one with God. The life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ allows us to be at-one with God. It is not about a gruesome death that Jesus had to die or the blood sacrifice required by some vengeful blood thirsty God. It is about a life lived in obedience to God and one that shows love for other over self. It is the life that Jesus lived as an example to us to be at-one with God. Jesus lived a life that does give us atonement, but lets not get hung up on His death when we should get hung up on His life. A life that leads us to live for the other and truly be connected with God.

I also wanted to share a quote from David Lose from a few weeks ago on this subject. The original article here was found at WorkingPreacher.org.

One last thing: The popular religious culture in our country tends to get hung up on the second half of last line of this passage: “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” But I have a hunch that understanding the second half of that verse correctly rests in taking the first half more seriously. Maybe, that is, Jesus’ giving his life as a “ransom” doesn’t describe some elaborate and rather gruesome mechanism by which God has to brutally punish Jesus before God can love us. Maybe Jesus “buys us back” by showing us a way out of the devastating cycle of looking for glory, joy, and peace on the world’s terms by teaching and showing us how to receive by giving, how to lead by serving, and how to find our lives by losing them for the sake of the people around us that God loves so much.

So what do you think?