Who are you?

Who are you was a hit song by the Who, and has some interesting lyrics…

I was reminded of this song though today as I read through the gospel passage for the lectionary of today, Luke 8:4-15, the parable of the good soil.

You see “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” And so I wonder who are you?

Are you the path where you get trampled on or are the birds eating you alive, or are you rock and lack moisture and withering away, are you the thorny ground and feel choked, or are you good soil and are producing????

I think we are all all of these over our life time. We are trampled by others and the world around us and eaten up by those who are there to pick us apart in the ministry we try to do. We lack moisture and wither when we are not really connected to the root and not foundationally rooted in the living God. We are choked out by the thorns of life that try to make us think we are not doing what we need to. Sometimes we are good soil producing a hundredfold and allowing God to work through us.

Who are you? includes the lyrics:

I know there’s a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees

I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still recieve your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?

My heart is like a broken cup I only feel right on my knees… In prayer is where I get it right and live as the good soil. I spit you out like a sewer hole when I live as the path, rocky, or thorny soil and do the things I shouldn’t do when I’m not connected to the root that feeds me. Yet I still receive your kiss – even though I do not deserve you  grace, a relationship with you because of who I am, I still get it. How can any of us measure up after a love such as this…

Who are you? Cause I really wanna know…

Earthly tent…

2 Corinthians 5:1-5 ESV

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Our earthly home is only for a time. But we need not worry about our earthly home. As Paul tells the Corinthians that when our earthly tent is destroyed we have a home in God. God has prepared a place for us that is much better than we could ever image because we have a home in God. A home that is better then anything we could ever image…

So live in the thought that God has prepared a place for you that is beyond your imagination and a place that will be a safe place for you for all eternity!

Out of the depths…

Psalm 130 is the appointed psalm for today. And it begins, “Out of the depths I cry…”

Have you ever felt like you were so far away from God that you didn’t what to do? That you were in the depths of Sheol, or worse? “What can I do, everything is crumbling around me and no matter what I try it doesn’t seem to help it only gets worse, will somebody please help me!”

The psalmist understands this, and knows this place, that is where they are… Asking if God remembers our iniquities and holds them against us who will be able to stand, so please God be attentive to me crying out for you help from the darkest hole I’ve ever been in. The psalmist tells us that is where they are, and they know all about it. The hole seems so big and dark like there is really no way out, and the sad news is it is going to get deeper and darker before the help actually arrives…

The psalmist tells us, as they did, we have to wait on the Lord, our souls have to wait on the Lord and we have to hope in His word. To find solace in the comfort and the words from the God who created us and promised to never leave us or forsake us. And we have more than the psalmist, who would have only known the word of the Lord to be spoken by the prophets or written in the Law, we have Jesus and the revelation of the love God has given through His only begotten Son.

And we have the Spirit…

Remember even the depths of God… my blog post from 2 days ago. Where Paul tells the Corinthians that the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. That the Spirit goes to the unknown places of God, and here the psalmist tells us that they are crying out of the depths… The depths that were created by God, the places that the Holy Spirit is searching…

So fear not as the hole gets darker and deeper, cause the Spirit is with you, and God will see you through. Hope in His word as the psalmist reminds us and cry out of the deep, knowing that He is with you, even in your deepest darkest hole!

What is a lamp for?

This is a lamp that is in my house, I made it from a lamp kit from Lowes and a clarinet someone gave me. The base is a table top microphone stand. I glued all of the pieces together and had a tube cut in the middle that was threaded and ran the cord for the lamp through this. Now this lamp is not only cool to look at, add to any room and start many conversations, it is also a functional lamp.

It gives light to the room, in fact it is getting close to the time I will need to turn it on as it is in the room I am typing this blog, and the sun is going down. While I prefer God’s light, when the sun goes down, the buildings around block out God’s night time lights…

But I digress, what is a lamp for?

Merriam-Webster online defines lamp as

1a : any of various devices for producing light or sometimes heat: as (1) : a vessel with a wick for burning an inflammable liquid (as oil) to produce light (2) : a glass bulb or tube that emits light produced by electricity (as an incandescent lightbulb or fluorescent lamp)b : a decorative appliance housing a lamp that is usually covered by a shade
2: a celestial body
3: a source of intellectual or spiritual illumination
4: eye 1a —usually used in plural

Interestingly the site says that the first known use of lamp is the 13th Century.  Of course Jesus spoke in Aramaic so that is fine but this word was not the original…

But  a lamp is for light or heat. It can be a vessel for burning oil with a wick, or a bulb as an incandescent, or a new halogen bulb. It is a celestial body or a source of intellectual or spiritual illumination. It is a way to bring light into a dark place. Or it is a bringing of things that we want to not be known to a place where they are known.  That is what Jesus speaks of today in Mark 4:21-25.

A lamp is not brought into a room to be put under a bushel basket. For those of us in the 21st Century this is a funny thing, because a lamp will still usually show under a bushel basket, because our electric lamps are taller than a bushel basket, so this would just be an annoyance, and I think that is what Jesus is really getting at. But you see in Jesus day putting a lamp under a bushel basket would not only not allow the lamp to light the room, it could really cause the lamp to light the room by setting everything on fire.  But the annoyance of a bushel basket hanging on a lamp (I wish I had a bushel basket to put over the clarinet lamp and take a picture!) is what the things we are trying to hide coming to light would be for us. They would embarrass us if people knew what we were hiding. We would not be able to go the same places or do the same things, as our world would be turned upside down. Or would it be better? Have you ever had a secret you kept from people because you were afraid of the reaction you would get for this secret? You hid your life from everyone and tried to act and be a person you were not, because you thought that is what everyone wanted, but once it was out you were able to really live as who you were created to be with out the hindrance of the secret weighing you down.  Well Jesus says that one day everything will be brought to light, even the things we do not want to be known. Everything will be known even our deepest darkest secrets.

So instead of trying to keep the lamp from showing our secrets, and pushing the lamp towards others as we point out all of the things they are doing wrong, maybe we should just let our sins come to light and allow everyone to know that we are hurting and not perfect. Instead of trying to bring others down so we feel better, why not bring our own trash and crap to light to show the world that we are hurt and scared, but Jesus still loves us and uses us to reach the world?

Which gives a better witness, pointing out our neighbors sin and showing how much better we are, or showing we are damaged but Jesus loves us anyhow?

Use the lamp you’ve been given to shine a light that will help others see His light!

 

even the depths of God

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

This is Paul writing to the Corinthians. I love this passage, but something made me stop when reading it today. I actually went back again to make sure I read it correctly.

Paul starts by saying he came not with lofty words or ideas, he just brought to them Christ and Christ crucified. So that nothing else could get in the way. He pointed to the moment we were all bought and made children of God, co-heirs of the kingdom. Then he talks about wisdom, which many of us lack (usually I am included in the lacking wisdom group more often than not…) and how the Spirit moves in and through all of us to search the depths of everything and to bring things to light. And then I read it…

“for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

Now Paul has spoken before about the depths to which the Spirit goes into us to bring out the things that are too deep for words, the sighs and moans that make up our innermost wants and desires and needs…

But what is the depth of God? And why does the Spirit need to be searching there? It makes a powerful play or statement about the Trinity – That the Father is the only one who knows the times and the places things will happen, and the Son sacrifices Himself for the restoration of relationships, and the Spirit, moves and goes where it pleases, to reveal the inner most truths, even those truths at the very depth of God!

So if you are having problems figuring out your life, don’t sweat it! Even the Holy SPirit has to search out the depths of God to bring things to light!

So let God be God and just hang on for a nice ride, and enjoy the journey.

God’s Holiness…

This is a depiction of a Cherubim… Does this look like an angel to you?

The scene in Revelation 4 depicts 4 living creatures on each side of the throne. They have eyes all over them, on the front and their back. They have 6 wings, and eyes all over them… Does this look like and angel to you?

And imaging God’s holiness…

Rolf Jacobson from Luther Seminary argues that the singing angels did in Heaven is not actually melodic sounds but shrill cries because of God’s holiness. God’s holiness is so great that the angels can not stand to be in it… Can you image what it will be like for us?

How about the scene we got yesterday in Isaiah 6 of Isaiah standing in the temple of God and realizing where he has. And Isaiah says that Isaiah said, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.” If that would have been me, I probably would have said, “Oh no I’m done for!” Remember the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where the ark of the covenant is opened? The only ones who did not get their faces melted where the ones who did not look. All hell broke lose, or was it hell or was it God’s Glory? God’s holiness was contained there in and that is what did the damage. He is so holy we will not be able to stand in His presence.

What can you do to be able to stand or survive in the holiness that God exudes?

Trinity…

This is an icon of the Holy Trinity that I have fallen in love with. It is so beautifully depicted and shows us the reason behind the Trinity.

On this Holy Trinity Sunday we talk about one of the doctrines of the church that we do not understand or comprehend. We try to explain the Trinity through things we know…

Like an egg – it is 3 things in 1 – a shell, white and yolk…

Or an apple – it is 3 in 1 – skin, meat, and seeds…

Yet you can have an egg shell all by itself, and you can not have one member of the Trinity without another…

So what is the Trinity all about…

Romans 8:12-17 tells us how we are children of God and heirs of the kingdom. Everything that is God’s will be ours. And we are co heirs of everything with Christ.  Why do we deserve this? We are sinners and are not like Christ, but God does it, and that is what we get. The familial relationships that can not be broken over time. Just like that brother or sister you love to hate – you are stuck with, and you are stuck with God, because He wants it that way.

So remember that Trinity is about relationship. The 3 in 1 is a relationship and the above icon shows us the relationship that is open, see the space at the bottom of the icon? That is the space that is open because the Trinity is not complete, there is space there for you.

You are invited into the dance with the trinity, into relationship that will change your world forever!

If the world hates you

Have you ever been hated?

Have you ever hated anyone?

I was told once in a bible study I was leading that hate is a very harsh word, and as Christians how could we ever hate anyone… Well I hated someone. They had wronged me and my family, and they did things that I never thought someone who loved me could do. I guess to make matters worse, this person that I hated was a member of my family, it was a sister… She had wronged all of my family. And I hated her for what she did to us. I love her today don’t get me wrong, but she hurt us badly and that made me feel very strongly… But I love her because she is my family. Get it. It is the old statement that I do not like, “love the sinner, hate the sin.” You see it is impossible to love the sinner and hate the sin, because we are one and the same, we are the sin that we commit and the sin that we commit effects every other member of the body of Christ. It is not possible to separate the sin from the sinner, except for God. Hate is a strong word, and that is why Jesus used it here…

If the world hates you, beware because they hated me before you. They will hate you because you are like me, and you love like me and act like me.  We are to be known for our love, not for our hate… We are to help others the way Jesus did through the comforting and moving of the Holy Spirit, instead of pointing out the sins we see others committing. Sins are what keep us from God, what create idols in our lives, and a sin for me may not be a sin for you… So who are we to judge. We are to love and help others know God. Then God will change them through the giving of the comforter, the advocate, the Holy Spirit…

Love so much that the world hates you. Love them like Jesus…

let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 2 tells us the story of all nations streaming towards the mountain of the Lord.

We hear that all peoples are coming to hear and learn from the Lord. That He will be the judge and arbitrator and all nations will seek His justice…

What is Justice in the biblical sense?  Have you ever stopped to think about that? I mean really, according to the Bible what do you deserve? Ok sure there is that Jesus guy who came and paid the price for all people… But let’s just take Him out of the equation for a moment. Without Jesus what do you deserve? What is justice for you according to the Bible?

We are all unholy and unable to be with God, therefore the justice we would receive in the biblical sense would be eternal separation from God. We would not want to go and learn from the Lord, we would not be streaming to Him seeking the living water that He gives, we would be running away because we know what we deserve, what is just for us. Isaiah knew this all to well a little later on in chapter 6 when he finds himself in God’s temple, and Isaiah knows he is unworthy to be there…

We would not stream to God to arbitrate our issues, or to be judge over us if we wanted true justice for ourselves. But is that what we want? We know we are taken care of by that Jesus fellow, but all those other sinners out there need to know God’s wrath because they are obviously a worse sinner than I am.  They need to have divine wrath brought down on them… But remember watch what you ask for because you just might get it, what you are asking for about someone else, they just might be asking for you.

The truth of the matter is none of us deserve to stand in the temple of the Lord, none of us will ever get to be with God eternally on our own, and God’s justice is to let us be there anyhow, because of what He did.

So today and always let us walk in the light of the Lord, and seek His justice, which is grace and mercy that every should come to be in a relationship with Him. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for all His creation. That includes you and your neighbor who is the worst sinner of all, which is what your neighbor says about you…

for those who are in Christ Jesus

“There is therefore now no condemnation” are comforting words used by Paul to start the 8th chapter of the epistle to the Roman’s…

They are comforting.  Now there is no condemnation.  There is no condemning of us any more. But hold on there is a catch the no condemnation is only for those who are in Christ Jesus…

Ok so we are all ok then right? Because we are obviously in Christ Jesus… But if we set our minds on fleshly things and seek after our carnal pleasures then we are pleasing the flesh and living in the flesh and are not in the Spirit, and therefore not in Christ Jesus…

Paul continues, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If we are in the flesh then we can not please God and therefore are condemned by our sins. If our mind is set on the Spirit we will have life and peace, but otherwise we have death. But are we not constantly living in the flesh? We have to fight ourselves daily to live in the realm of God and not go after our own desires and needs. We are constantly fighting with the body to get our way and to fight for our promotion and the needs we want met. We continue in the community we are a part of so that we get our 15 seconds of fame, and glory, so the mission we do as a body will make us have some kick backs…

All of us our sinners and constantly living in our flesh and therefore condemned.

Thankfully though this chapter to the Roman’s is not the end of the letter, but the climax to the need for a savior and what He has done for us. He makes us all saints, and therefore we are in Christ Jesus. So fight your flesh, but know that the battle has already been won!