Scattered

Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Now those who had been forced to scatter went around proclaiming the good news of the word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them. The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, were coming out of many who were possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:1b-8 NET)

Stephen was just stoned to death and Saul (Paul) approves of this and is going around collecting more followers of the way to bring to justice…

And the devout were scattered…

Do you feel like you have been scattered? For the past 2.5 months I have been without call, searching, wondering and wandering…

I have questioned why I am in this place at this time. I have questioned why this has happened to me, and why did I do this to my family? I wonder when this will be over and if ministry is actually what I am to be doing…

Now do not be concerned, the day I do not question God’s call on my life into ordained ministry is the day I will look for another vocation. God has called me, and that is really the point. In Acts those following the teaching of the apostles just saw one of those selected to serve them killed by those who were persecuting the church, the followers of the way. They are like the disciples who left Jesus on the cross they were scattered, because they were worried about being persecuted. But in Acts these people go out spreading the word about Jesus, they do not go and hide in a locked room. They are all out doing what they need to do.

I pray that God will lead me where He needs me, as I do the same for you. If you feel like you have been scattered, and do not belong, or you are running from persecution, or life that is getting you down, remember that the scattered in Acts still spread the news of Jesus and that is what you can do, because He gives you the strength to do that.

How much time do we need?

I was looking around on Facebook and found this quote and I had to share.

It made me wonder how much time do we need? I guess the real question is what is our priorities?

Here is the quote:
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer

Magic Jesus Dust…

Today in the gospel lesson (John 14:26-31) we hear Jesus tell the disciples as the head up the Mount of Olives that they will all desert Him, and that Peter will deny Him 3 times. Peter vehemently said, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.”  And all of the disciples agreed…

However we know what comes next. At this point in the story though, Peter and disciples have this all worked out in their minds. They have seen what has happened, and they are looking forward to what they know will happen. They knew that Jesus was going to be the king and put down those who were oppressing their nation, and they were correct, but not how they thought.

And we never do that do we? I have had plans all of my life and think that is the way it should be. I heard Mark Hall of Casting Crowns this morning on the radio talking about magic Jesus dust. Magic Jesus dust is the stuff we go to Jesus for when we have our plans all together and we go to get His blessing on it. But as we see from the gospel passage in John that this is not how it works. We can not make up our minds and set our plans how we want and then go to Jesus and say, “Here it is and this is how it is going to happen.” He will tell us, “not so fast, I think we may need to rethink this…” There is no magic Jesus dust to make all of our plans to be what God wants. All through the Bible we are told to ask for what we want and God will give it, if it is in His will. If is the smallest biggest word in the English language.

If your plans are in line with what God knows is best for you, and we all know how often that happens… Well we can plan, but do not get attached. Ask Jesus first what needs to happen, and go with what He is telling you. Your plans are not His plans, and His ways are not our ways. So don’t go to Jesus looking for magic Jesus dust to make all your dreams come true, go to Jesus asking what His dreams are for you, and live into that, because that is the best way to go.

And always remember if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Will you be satisfied?

What is it that will satisfy you?

Or maybe a better question is will we ever be satisfied?

In the gospel text sent to me today, Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Now is that really all it will take?

We all know people (and probably most of us if we will admit it) who say that if I could only get this I would be happy. They mean they would be satisfied with life. I worry about one of my children because they are like me and they want everything. I am horrible at the coveting commandments! I see something that some one else has and I have to have it. I have learned over the years that it is not possible to have everything, that does not mean that I still do not want it! But it is that thought that if I could have that then my life would be complete. And I see that in one of my children. I am trying to help them all (my children) realize that it is not what you have, or that everything is not worth having. I am trying to teach them the value of a dollar and what is affordable. For instance the older ones want cell phones. I do not think they “need” them yet, so my answer is when you can afford to pay for it, you can have one. That not only means the phone but the service… Recently we have had discussions about this because we have started Financial Peace Jr with our three children so the older 2 are asking about cell phones for their saving for things.  My wife and I explained to them that the phone that I have was $100. for just the phone and I pay about $100 a month for service (phone/data) and I have a 2 year contract so to get what I have they would need to save $2500 in order to do this. That does not change their resolve to getting their own phone, but it does show them it is not something that is going to happen quickly. I told the oldest to think about a Kindle, because she loves to read and this is a quicker item to achieve. But it is about learning that even once you get this thing, you will not be satisfied.

Philip asked Jesus to see the Father, and Jesus said “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?” Philip already had what he was looking for and he did not know it. And that is true with most of us. We have so much around us that we are blessed with and yet we still want something else.

So I ask with what will you be satisfied? Look around you and count your blessings, and see how much you have and bask in the glory of what God has blessed you with. And then go and help others see their blessings, and help others see the love that God has for them.

Look on the heart…

How many of you have ever seen someone and automatically judged who they were and what they thought. Whether or not they were a Christian, simply by their outward appearance?

We know we are not suppose to do this, but we all do it. Everyone of us is guilty of this. Our reading for today is from 1 Samuel 16. Here Samuel is sent to anoint the son of Jesse to be king. And so Samuel goes and sees the eldest son and thinks this must be the one. God tells Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ God does not see as we see. He looks beyond the tattoos and the piercings. He looks past the sins of the past, the things that are worn on our sleeves, and what names us and tells society who we are. Interestingly one of the people I follow on Twitter said a few weeks ago that they were among the few who did not have a tattoo or piercing so they were rebelling against what society was accepting as normal. But what society sees as normal, the church has not accepted. And one could argue that as the church we are not to be like society. We are to be like God. Who does not judge people by their appearance, but by their heart. And if this is the case, why is it when David is finally brought in his description is “he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.” He had beautiful eyes, and was handsome… Now he was red in complexion. But he was handsome. Not really the person we were all envisioning when God tells us He looks on the heart. But that is where true beauty lies. You can be the most beautiful person in the world, but if you do not have love for neighbor in your heart, you will be ugly, and God sees what is truly in the heart.

It reminds me of the story of the old cowboy who came to worship at a local church one Sunday morning. He put on his best pair of jeans, and his finest flannel shirt and his best hat and brushed off his good boots and felt good going into worship. Members of the church stared at him the whole service, and as the pastor greeted the old cowboy at the back door the pastor told the cowboy, he should take some time and talk to God about how he should dress when he comes into the house of God. Well next week the old cowboy decided to go back to that place of worship, and he put on the same clothes he had worn the week before. He did laundry them of course. As he sat in the pew waiting for worship, the pastor came up to him and asked, I thought I asked you to talk to God about how you should dress when you come to worship here. The old cowboy looked at the pastor and answered him, I talked to God and he said he had never been to this church and so he did not know the dress code.

It is not about appearances. God sees through your motives. So love God and love neighbor and everything else will take care of it self.

Whose accord?

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday… We hear Psalm 23 and the section from John 10 that Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd…

We know about shepherds, even those of us who have never been around shepherds, or possibly seen a flock of sheep. We hear a lot about shepherds in the Bible and Jesus talks about sheep and shepherds because this was common day knowledge. It was something everyone would have known about…

But that’s not what caught my attention today as I read this. We look at and hear this text every year. We hear that Jesus is the true shepherd because He lays down His life for His flock, and the other flock we do not know that He is bringing with Him. Others are hired hands (i.e. pastors and lay leaders) because we will all run and not lay down our lives. The other flock is people we do not know and probably people we wouldn’t want included if it was up to us. They are not like us, but Jesus is their shepherd and therefore we are part of their flock as much as they are a part of our flock…

But still that doesn’t get what I heard this morning. I was caught by verses 17 and 18 of John 10…

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes* it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

The Father loves Jesus because He lays down His life in order to take it up again… God loves Him because He is following the plan set forward. But it is not this, it is the next part… The one that talks about whose accord by which all of this is done. Jesus says that no one takes His life from Him, He freely gives it up and dies of His own accord. He alone has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up, as this was commanded by the Father. See this is interesting to me, because we spend a lot of time giving Judas a bad name because he betrayed Jesus.  He delivered Jesus to the enemy by treachery according to Merriam-Webster online. See all of the definitions here.  But is this really what happened? In order for Judas to betray Jesus, did not Judas have to have power over Jesus? We talk about Judas betraying Jesus and we hear this each week in the celebration of the Eucharist, “In the night in which He was betrayed…” I do not think this is the real meaning of what happened here.  Jesus told Judas to go and do what you must at the last supper, which was to go to the high priest and lead them to Jesus. Judas did not have the power, Jesus did. Jesus tells us here in John 10 that He lays down His life of His own accord, Pilot doesn’t take it from Him, Judas doesn’t take it from Him, Jesus has the power. That night in the garden, Judas does not betray Him (one definition for the Greek), Judas hands Him over (another definition of the Greek). Sure you might say this is semantics. But who’s accord is it? Who has the power? Jesus does and He is not betrayed, Judas performs the task of handing Him over so that the plan can be done…

In the night in which He was handed over, our Lord took bread and blessed it and gave it to His disciples and said take and eat this is my body that I lay down for you by my own accord.

Know that Jesus has the power, and allow him to be the power in your life as well.

rest awhile…

Do you feel like you have not done enough for the Lord? Like no matter what you do it is not enough? Do you feel empty and a need to be serving more? Are you tired of waiting to go and do, and just want to get out there and love and serve people for the Lord?

We all want to be doing. That is the way we are wired, and the way society has made us be. Everything is fast paced and we need it now. We need the stuff around us to be moving quickly and we almost have to be entertained all the time. The world out there is very fast paced, so fast that we have easy hot dogs and easy mac and cheese. As if it takes that long and is so hard to make hot dogs and mac and cheese…

Our gospel passage today is from Mark 6:30-34. The beginning of this gospel has the disciples telling Jesus all they had done. Jesus doesn’t reprimand them because they didn’t do enough. He listened to what they did and what they taught, and then He said, “Let us go away to a deserted place and rest.” He told them to get away. And now that you have served go and be with yourself and recharge.

Jesus did this Himself. He would disappear and go off by Himself to pray and spend time with God. Jesus tells His disciples and us that at times we need to not be serving others, but give ourselves some time with God. We have to do this, otherwise our relationship with the Father will diminish and we will not be able to serve as well as He needs us to.

So in this fast paced world where we want to show others the love Jesus has given us we also need to remember to rest awhile, we need to remember to get away and be alone with Jesus.

So take some time and rest, and be with Jesus.

Are you ready to go to jail.

Today’s reading is from Acts 4:1-4. In it Peter and John are arrested because they are talking about Jesus to the people around them. They are so moved by Jesus and who He is and what He has done for them that they can not be quiet about it. And so the religious leaders have them arrested.

Is that why we don’t talk about Jesus? Are we afraid we will be arrested? Is that why we don’t share the wonderful relationship we have with Him with our friends and those around us? We are afraid of being jailed and ridiculed by others or worse… are we afraid our sharing Jesus with others will mean He has less time for us or He will care less for us?

So why don’t we share Jesus? What are we really afraid of? We need to be bold and step out ready to go to prison or get laughed at because He loved you enough to hang on a cross for you, can you not share Him with your friends?

Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd…

Many of us call the pastor of a congregation a shepherd. The pastor is the shepherd of the flock, the one who leads this group where they need to go. The pastor is the one who shows the good water to drink, the good grass to eat, the right time to start a new program, gives guidance for bible study…

But who shepherds the shepherd? Many pastor friends of mine say I am only one of the sheep like you. We all follow after the real shepherd Jesus. And the 23rd psalm is a wonderful description of what God through Jesus does for us if we will only follow His lead.

First of all He is our shepherd. He leads us beside still waters to drink. Sheep will not drink from moving water, actually sheep will drink nasty dirty still water than drink fresh moving water. Much like us who will quench our thirst on the muck this live gives us rather than seek the goodness God can give us. We need someone to help us see the bad and to lead us to the good. The 23rd psalm goes through many renditions of how dumb sheep are and how they will follow after each other creating ruts and not finding good pastures and dirty water. We need a person to lead us to the good things that God has provided. Jesus will lead us if we will let Him.

So look to Jesus and fix your eyes on Him. He is the author and perfector of our faith and He will shepherd you if you will let Him.

Snake handling…

Have you ever been bitten by a poisonous snake? Were you worried about dying?

Mark 16:18 says bitten by poisonous snake and drinking poison will not harm you. If you do do this then others can lay hands on you and you will be cured. Interesting. Now I have never seen this, yet I have never seen a lot of the things mentioned in the Bible. Like water into wine, raising people from the dead…

This section of Mark was probably not part of the original writing of Mark. This was more than likely an addition to Mark because someone or a group of people didn’t like the ending of the women running away in fear saying nothing.  So why did the person who added this had the idea of adding this part of snakes and poisons and that people would not be effected by this. I’m not sure how this linked to the ending of Mark. Why do we think we have to have all the answers and know exactly everything that could happen?

I wonder why we feel the need to think that a poisonous snake bite or drinking poison would not kill us or we could be cured by laying on of hands. Not that I question this happening. Yet why do we need to be sure of this? Is snake handling not testing God? And we are not to test God.

So handle snakes… but do not test God. Trust the promise that you are loved and follow Jesus being His disciple. Living your life with no fear but passionately living His love out loud.