Turn out the lights…

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:9-20 ESV)

Paul has just been telling the Romans that those without the law, i.e. Gentiles are judges in their sin, and are not right with God. Then n Chapter 3 he asks then about Jews, if those with the law are any better off. Paul clearly states that none of us are in the good. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

Well that is is turn out the lights, the party is over. We are all going to fry…

Paul tells us that knowing the law doesn’t help us, it actually helps us understand what we have done wrong. “Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” You see if we do not know the law then we are better off, we can plea no knowledge of the situation. We have plausible deniability. If we don’t know we can’t be held accountable. But Paul covered that earlier in Romans. (I invite you to read that to see what he has to say about those who do not know the law.)

But you see Paul here does give us something. He shows us that the Law can not save us. He plainly says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” By following the law to the t does not mean we are in, it does not justify us. We can not earn our way to the party with God. The law serves 2 purposes.

1. To give us civil order. We need order in society so there is not anarchy or chaos, and the law helps to maintain the boundaries of what is allowed and what is not allowed.

2. To convict us of our sins. By knowledge of the law we know what we should and should not do. What is sinful. However that does not mean that if something is not forbidden by the law that it is still not sinful. The law merely is a guide to helping us understand what could be sinful and separate us from God.

When we move to the third use of the law, salvation, is where we get into trouble. The Law can not save us, it will only condemn us. Paul clearly states that if we cling to the list of rules to make it we never will.

It is not about following the rules and being good boys and girls. It is about following Jesus.

So turn out the lights, because with only the law we will not be at the party…

But thanks be to God that the law was not the final word, and Jesus was is and always will be the final word.

Can you see Jesus’ head?

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:27-38 ESV)

This is a great text, actually one of my favorites. And this morning I heard a wonderful sermon preached on this about standing up in the face of injustice, and how we are guaranteed 2 things, death and taxes…  No no no that is what the world gives us, but God gives us death and Resurrection. We want only the latter, but we have to do the first in order to get the second… But I digress…

I love this text for many reasons.

First it shows us the disciples are just like us. You see in the beginning Peter gets it! Jesus if the Christ, the Messiah the chosen one of God who has come to lead us into God’s kingdom! But then Jesus turns around and Peter gets stupid! Has that ever happened to you. You got it one minute you are there with God and everything is going along great and then you look around like what is going on here… The disciples were slow in the up take sometimes, so that should give all of us courage and hope to go on!

Second it has some stuff we can not see in the English. In verse 33 Jesus says to Peter, “ὀπίσω μου”. Now you are probably looking at the screen funny and scrolling up to see, no that is not what Jesus said, he said “Get behind me.” And you are correct, that is one translation for ὀπίσω μου.  But not the only way to translate that phrase. First of all lets look at the last word μου – this is a form of me. So the phrase would be _______ me. Hence the get behind. But just what is ὀπίσω?

It does mean “1) back, behind, after, afterwards  1a) of place: things that are behind  1b) of time: after” yet it also means to follow. It is one of the words used in the New Testament to say follow. The other times we see follow in our text today is ἀκολουθέω which means “1) to follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant,  accompany him  2) to join one as a disciple, become or be his disciple  2a) side with his party”. This word means more of an accompanying than follow behind. ὀπίσω μου is saying get behind me and know your place. I am the one sent from above, and you do not get to make the decision based upon what you think you know.

How many times do we do things because we think that is what God wants us to do? Because that is what we learned in Sunday School or at church? We learned that this is the way we need to do things for church. This is how we have to dress when we come to church and if someone comes in not dressed that we we need to inform them they are not welcomed. Or if they act in a way that is unbecoming, because we all know that Jesus surrounded himself with perfect disciples who got it right the first time and always… And we know only perfect people are accepted by God. (if this is the case we are all in big trouble!)

It is not up to us or our ways. Our ways are not God’s ways, and sometimes the stuff we learned is not the right way! Jesus came to show us the way and to help us see that it is not as clear as we thought.

So again if you have the bumper sticker “God is my Co-pilot” I think you better switch seats, and if you can’t see the back of Jesus’ head, you might want to slow down, and get in the right place….

Follow Jesus and the trip will be magnificent, but make sure you can always see your guide!

Why do you love the Lord?

I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
(Psalm 116:1-9 ESV)

I was struck by the first line of this psalm today as I read it. I love the Lord because He has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy. Is that why you love the Lord?

I’ve heard a lot of people say they love God because He first loved me, when I was covered with sin and living a life that was far from Him He came in and took a hold of my life and loved me when I did not deserve it.

I do not think I have ever heard someone say that they love the Lord because He listened to them…

But really isn’t that what a relationship is? Isn’t that what true love does?

We think of love as an emotion, as something we feel. We get all cushy inside and we feel all bubbly… That is love, our insides turn and we get butterflies in our stomachs…

But is that really love? Is love an emotion?

Looked on Merriam Webster for the definition and there is a noun and a verb. Love is an action word…

I plated bass the other day for the first time in a while and it was fun and reminded me how much I love playing bass. I like to play bass, I desire to play bass, I take pleasure in playing bass… I love to play bass. Can we say the same thing about God? Do we desire God, do we like to spend time with God, do we take pleasure in God?

The 4th definition of love as a verb is to thrive in…

If we truly love God and follow after Him, our lives will thrive in God. He will feed us and lead us where we need to be.

So why do you love the Lord? Because He first loved you? Because He listens to you? Because your life can thrive in Him?

For all these reasons and more, I love the Lord, and I pray that you will too.

Works vs Faith

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:17-26 ESV)

So as a Lutheran this passage made me squirm in my seat. And a lot of my friends commented lately and I was taught if a passage of scripture makes you uneasy, you have to dig in deeper…

So Luther and Paul taught us “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV) Ok actually it probably wasn’t Paul but somebody writing saying they were Paul, but in the epistle to the Ephesians we are told we are not saved by works. It is by faith. James tells us “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” So which one is it?

Both Ephesians and James are a part of the cannon, and are scripture that are good for reproof and teaching, so is is faith alone, or is it works, with faith?

Now I know some of my friends would read the above and be squirming in their seats. But you left out Ephesians 2:10 as any good Lutheran would do. As Lutherans we are quick to pull the faith alone card and say we are saved by faith, and not by works so there is nothing I can do. We use this to get out of doing any kind of work for the Lord. But that is a misuse of scripture, because the verse after Ephesians 2:9 is Ephesians 2:10 which says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” You see we are saved by grace through faith not by our works, but we were created to do the works of God. We need to do works.

James is right that a faith without works or action is not doing so well, it may not be dead yet, but it will be taking a ride on the cart very shortly. We have to show our faith through the life we live.

The thing that makes me squirm more than James saying our works justify us, is the other side of the coin. You see we are saved by grace through faith, and then we tell others what they must do to achieve heaven… We tell them how bad they are and our actions of exclusion keep them away from the relationship that saves them. We do not allow people access to God, by the actions we do. So when our actions get in the way of people coming to God, how do those works impact us?

We are quick to say we want to see faith in action, but the world sees our faith in action and they wonder why they want to be a part of it…

How can our works, our actions actually show the love we have been given?

What do you do by faith?

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:17-22 ESV)

Hebrews 11 is the champions of faith chapter… The author tells us about the people of the past who had faith and by that faith they did wonderful things.

They over saw the odds when everything was against them.

They held out under circumstances that would make a normal person buckle and run screaming.

But how are they different from you? What do you do by faith?

Now if you are like me, you are scratching your head and wondering if there really is anything you do by faith. We know how our schedules work, and even with bumps in the road we can manage everything that comes. We have planned out our finances and without any unexpected things we will be ok and that is planned there is not faith to life…

Or is there…

Every day is something lived out in faith. You get in your car and some of us more than others hope it will start but by faith we know it will (unless of course your car needs to be replaced then there is probably a lot of prayer as you turn that key…). We hope that our kids will make it to and fro school on the bus ok, we have faith in the transportation department to get them around safely. We have faith we will not be fired…

We have faith that God will keep his promises… I seriously doubt that any of our lives will be tested by God as much as Abraham was, with the offering of his own son. But that does not mean that our faith is not working and tested every day. We have to allow our children to grow up and be the women and men that God has created them to be, and in that we have to have faith that we did all we could to help them learn and grow into the people God created them to be. God may not ask you to sacrifice your child on an altar, but He does ask you to let them go as they grow and have faith that because of the love He has for you He has that same love for them and will protect them like He protects you….

Life is best lived in faith control, that is give up the control and let God be the one that leads you. Follow where He leads and let the faith He has given you guide you through life. Live by faith!

And I still say if you have a bumper sticker that says God is my co pilot, you better rethink that and switch seats fast!

Useless…

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:14-20 ESV)

Have you ever felt useless? Like you couldn’t do anything right?

Have you studied something under the guidance of a master for several years and still unable to do what seems to be a simple task for the master?

You see this boy was held by a demon and it should be something easy for the disciples to remove from him, but they are unable to get the demon to leave. Why?

Well if we read the rest of the text Jesus seems to say that their faith is not big enough. If you had the faith the size of a mustard seed you would be able to tell this mountain to move from here to there and it would obey. The mustard seed being the smallest of all seeds during Jesus’ day… So their faith is smaller than the smallest seed, and they are unable to do the simple tasks… Yet the above translation has a foot note after verse 20, because the reading for the day is Matthew 17:14-21, that some manuscripts add the verse “But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting” So maybe the disciples were not praying or fasting…

So what does this say about our abilities to do ministry? Are we useless because we do not pray or fast? Or if we do pray and fats, do we do it for the right reasons? Or maybe our faith is just too small…

I do not agree our faith is too small. It is a gift, faith, so how can what we have been given too small? We have the faith that was given to us and is nurtured in us… We have the faith that God used to draw us to Him, as He feeds and nurtures that.

I mean if we take the text for today to heart, we all should be able to say to the mountains to move and they should move. But I don’t know about you, but I have never made a mountain move. So maybe the faith we have is enough…

The faith we have is enough for us to do what God needs for us to do. So you are not useless… None of us are useless. God will use you to do His mission if you will allow Him to.