Love/Hate

But he says to his Son,
God, your throne is forever
        and your kingdom’s scepter is a rod of justice.
You loved righteousness and hated lawless behavior.
        That is why God, your God,
        has anointed you more than your companions with the oil of joy.
And he says,
You, Lord, laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning,
        and the heavens are made by your hands.
They will pass away,
        but you remain.
They will all wear out like old clothes.
        You will fold them up like a coat.
They will be changed like a person changes clothes,
        but you stay the same,
        and the years of your life won’t come to an end.
(Hebrews 1:8-12, CEB)

God is a god of Love. God loves righteousness and hates lawless behavior.

God hates those who are self-centered and only considers their needs and what will be best for them. The world is not about us making it higher. We are supposed to love and help others. Everything in this world will fade, except for God and God’s love.

Anything you do that is not loving another part of creation is not what God is leading us and calling us to do.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Know Your Place…

Then Jesus began to teach his disciples: “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise from the dead.” He said this plainly. But Peter took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him. Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, then sternly corrected Peter: “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.” After calling the crowd together with his disciples, Jesus said to them, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:31-38, CEB)

I love this text. Jesus says to Peter, “ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, σατανᾶ.” Get Behind me, Satan. Because Peter was trying to dictate how things were going to go and what the plan was. Like he knew better than God what should happen. The thing I really love about this text is the phrase, ὀπίσω μου. Behind me in our text today. But in Mark 1:17 we see this same phrase, ὀπίσω μου, and there it is translated as Follow me.

The words Jesus used to call the disciples to follow him are the same words he says to Peter to rebuke him. Basically in Pastor Jerry’s understanding, this is a know-your-place. You are to be behind me. I have told congregations and classes before that if you do not see the back of Jesus’ head you are in the wrong spot. Maybe the pictures we have of Jesus in our congregations and homes should be the back of his head.

Jesus is the one leading. God is in control, not us. When we think we know better we should hear, “ὀπίσω μου” and know our place.

Remember who is leading, and be a light to the world.

Love Like Jesus.

ὀπίσω μου

Loving People. Loving God.

Who am I?

Jesus and his disciples went into the villages near Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

They told him, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.”

He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone about him. (Mark 8:27-30, CEB)

How do we define ourselves?

It seems even Jesus knew that some of what society thinks we are is what others say about us. We like Jesus may want to ask “Who do people say that I am?”

I would say we should only do this to get a feel for how we are perceived because society does not determine who I am. Who you are is not determined by society. Who defines you is God, and you.

Jesus was not defined by society. We are defined by God. No one else can tell you who you are.

Worry about making God and yourself happy and let others see you and wonder at the beauty and strength of our light living our your calling as a beloved child of God who knows who they are and lives that out loud.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Credited…

So what are we going to say? Are we going to find that Abraham is our ancestor on the basis of genealogy? Because if Abraham was made righteous because of his actions, he would have had a reason to brag, but not in front of God. What does the scripture say? Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Workers’ salaries aren’t credited to them on the basis of an employer’s grace but rather on the basis of what they deserve. But faith is credited as righteousness to those who don’t work, because they have faith in God who makes the ungodly righteous. In the same way, David also pronounces a blessing on the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from actions: Happy are those whose actions outside the Law are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Happy are those whose sin isn’t counted against them by the Lord. Is this state of happiness only for the circumcised or is it also for those who aren’t circumcised? We say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” So how was it credited? When he was circumcised, or when he wasn’t circumcised? In fact, it was credited while he still wasn’t circumcised, not after he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that comes from the faith he had while he still wasn’t circumcised. It happened this way so that Abraham could be the ancestor of all those people who aren’t circumcised, who have faith in God, and so are counted as righteous. He could also be the ancestor of those circumcised people, who aren’t only circumcised but who also walk in the path of faith, like our ancestor Abraham did while he wasn’t circumcised. (Romans 4:1-12, CEB)

We earn a salary, a wage for the work we do. It is not gifted to us. We put in the work and we make the money. If we do not work, we do not get paid.

But Grace doesn’t depend on us doing anything. We get grace because God wants to give it to us. We can not brag about the fact God loves us, because there is no one or no thing that God doesn’t love.

We are loved by God because God wants to love us. We can not earn that love, and we can not unearn that love. This does not mean we are free to not love and to be evil in the world. Ephesians 2:8-10 says this plainly. Here is my paraphrase: By grace you have been saved through faith, not of your own doing, it is a gift of God, not from your work, so that no one can boast. We were made in the image of God and set apart for the good works God set for us to do. We can not earn grace, but grace moves us to be agents of God’s love in the world.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Faith

But now God’s righteousness has been revealed apart from the Law, which is confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous. What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? No, not at all, but through the law of faith. We consider that a person is treated as righteous by faith, apart from what is accomplished under the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t God the God of Gentiles also? Yes, God is also the God of Gentiles. Since God is one, then the one who makes the circumcised righteous by faith will also make the one who isn’t circumcised righteous through faith. Do we then cancel the Law through this faith? Absolutely not! Instead, we confirm the Law. (Romans 3:21-31, CEB)

God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Christ.

We have all fallen short of the mark God set for us. We do not measure up. But does that mean we just give up?

Not at all. God came to be with us in Jesus and showed us the mark is obtainable. All be it very hard and impossible for us, as we are constantly focused on our own self-awareness and well-being rather than that of others.

We need to trust God and follow where they leads us. We need to have faith in the process and know that we will always fall short and look to ourselves, but God made a way and has shown us how to live.

All are accepted because God made a way.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Since

Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. The tempter came to him and said, “Since you are God’s Son, command these stones to become bread.” Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.” After that the devil brought him into the holy city and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down; for it is written, I will command my angels concerning you, and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.” Jesus replied, “Again it’s written, Don’t test the Lord your God.” Then the devil brought him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said, “I’ll give you all these if you bow down and worship me.” Jesus responded, “Go away, Satan, because it’s written,You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” The devil left him, and angels came and took care of him. (Matthew 4:1-11, CEB)

I have always liked this passage because normally the statement from the Devil to Jesus is If you are…

But the CEB gets this right, I think. The Devil isn’t questioning Jesus’ identity. The Devil is trying to get Jesus to question Jesus’ identity.  Since you are the son of God…

What if Jesus does those things and it doesn’t work the way he thinks it will?

And that is what the Devil does to us. Makes us question our identity.

Remember the Devil knows your name and calls you by your sins. But God knows your sins and calls you by your name.

You are a beloved child of God. Don’t let anyone make you question that.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God 

Be of one mind

Finally, all of you be of one mind, sympathetic, lovers of your fellow believers, compassionate, and modest in your opinion of yourselves. Don’t pay back evil for evil or insult for insult. Instead, give blessing in return. You were called to do this so that you might inherit a blessing. For

those who want to love life
    and see good days
should keep their tongue from evil speaking
    and their lips from speaking lies.
They should shun evil and do good;
    seek peace and chase after it.
The Lord’s eyes are on the righteous
    and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the Lord cannot tolerate those who do evil.

Who will harm you if you are zealous for good? But happy are you, even if you suffer because of righteousness! Don’t be terrified or upset by them. Instead, regard Christ the Lord as holy in your hearts. Whenever anyone asks you to speak of your hope, be ready to defend it. Yet do this with respectful humility, maintaining a good conscience. Act in this way so that those who malign your good lifestyle in Christ may be ashamed when they slander you. It is better to suffer for doing good (if this could possibly be God’s will) than for doing evil. Christ himself suffered on account of sins, once for all, the righteous one on behalf of the unrighteous. (1 Peter 3:8-18a, CBE)

Do good and be of one mind.

I know this is hard, being of one mind with all people. Working along side people who see things differently and sharing love.

Buy God asks us to focus on the things that unite us and be loving. To love like Jesus. Never repay evil for evil but in everything you do be loving.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Saved by grace through faith

At one time you were like a dead person because of the things you did wrong and your offenses against God. You used to live like people of this world. You followed the rule of a destructive spiritual power. This is the spirit of disobedience to God’s will that is now at work in persons whose lives are characterized by disobedience. At one time you were like those persons. All of you used to do whatever felt good and whatever you thought you wanted so that you were children headed for punishment just like everyone else. However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace! And God raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus. God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus. You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives. (Ephesians 2:1-10, CEB)

I normally like the Common English Bible (CEB). However the translation for verse 8 here falls a little short for me.

You are saved by grace because of your faith. This makes my salvation about me and my faith. Other translations say saved by grace through faith. And the construction of the Greek is not clear whose faith it is. I like to think of it and believe it is not my faith but Christ’s faith to follow the plan through. He asked to have the cup removed but faithfully follow God.

It is not my doing or your doing. It is God’s love that saves us.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

tempted

About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.” At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him. After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” (Mark 1:9-15, CEB)

At once the Spirit forced Jesus to the wilderness.

This was a beautiful moment. Jesus coming up out of the water and God saying he is the beloved and the Spirit steps in and ruins the picture.

Everything in Mark happens at once, or as the NRSV always translated, and immediately.

That is the urgency of the Gospel. At once we should share grace. And immediately we should share mercy. And at all times we should love.

Follow Christ and at once share the overflowing love.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

What!?!?

People brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a cot. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man who was paralyzed, “Be encouraged, my child, your sins are forgiven.” Some legal experts said among themselves, “This man is insulting God.” But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you fill your minds with evil things? Which is easier—to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so you will know that the Human One has authority on the earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“Get up, take your cot, and go home.” The man got up and went home. When the crowds saw what had happened, they were afraid and praised God, who had given such authority to human beings. As Jesus continued on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. He said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. As Jesus sat down to eat in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples at the table. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. Go and learn what this means: I want mercy and not sacrifice. I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:2-13, CEB)

Why were the paralyzed man’s sins forgiven?

Nothing he did. Not his faith. Not because God loves him, well ok it is ultimately because God loves him.  But our text says that people brought a paralyzed man to Jesus on a cot and when he saw their faith he forgave him.

Their faith. Not his. The community that cared for the man. Their faith forgave him.

We have the power as community to forgive and share love. When we are united in love the world is changed.

Love like Jesus.

Let’s change the world!

Loving People. Loving God.