Friday, December 31, 2010

December 30, 2010

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." (Ephesians 1:17)

It was Thomas Edison who once said, "we don't know one millionth of one percent about anything." Even someone who has devoted their entire life to studying something, and who is considered the premier expert in their field, probably really doesn't have command of all the idiosyncrasies surrounding their area of expertise. As complex as anything in this world is, that "anything" is still just the creation. How much more complex and deep is the creator of the creation! "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things." (Romans 11:33-36) It's obvious that if we humans can't even get a tip of the iceberg grasp on anything in the creation, that we will certainly never be able to wrap our minds around the complexity of the creator of the creation. But the good news is that the Holy Spirit uses the Good News and the Word of God to reveal no less than than all the wisdom and knowledge necessary for our eternal survival. Remember what we are told in the closing words of John's Gospel? "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31) We have the written words that we may have life in His name. We have the "...Holy Scriptures, which are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15)

Without the Holy Spirit however, the Holy Scriptures themselves would be nonsense to us - the Scriptures would be but foolishness that requires discernment that's beyond our comprehension. Luther had it right in his explanation to the 3rd Article of the Creed, "I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith." Or think of what the Apostle Paul wrote, "No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3) Without the Spirit, we would have no understanding or be able to conceive or percieve the message of the wisdom of God. (here comes a big chunk of Scripture - avoid the temptation to skim over it - allow the Spirit to use these words, "so that you may know him better") "We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2: 6-15) Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who has opened our eyes and minds, and who has revealed to us just what we need to understand about the out of this world wisdom of God!

Yes, none of us now know even a fraction of one millionth of one percent of the wisdom of God, but because of the work of the Spirit and through faith, all of us know one hundred percent of what we need to know to be prepared to share in the inheritance waiting for we who are God's holy people. Knowing enough however, shouldn't hinder our hunger for learning more, because the better we get to know Him and the more we grow in the knowledge of Him, the stronger our faith will become. While we are in the flesh and while we are in the world and while the devil is doing his best to find a way to devour us, our faith needs to be as strong as possible so that we may endure, moving forward day by day towards the perfection of fully knowing God, which we will experience when we begin to enjoy our inheritence in heaven. May God "fill [us]with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that [we] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that [we] may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light."(Colossians 1:9-14) My prayer for you (and for myself) for the new year is that God would continue to "give [us] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [we] may know Him better!"

O Holy Spirit, thanks and praise
in this new year we render,
For you have led our eyes to see
Your truth in all its splendor
And thus enkindled from above
within our hearts true faith and love
And other Christian virtues. (CW 72:3)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

December 23, 2010

Because of all the special services that will take place on December 24th, it's likely that the Scripture that we are going to consider here won't be heard in many, or even any of your churches. Nevertheless, this Lesson happens to serve as our Epistle Lesson for Christmas Eve.

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." (Titus 2:11-14) (NIV 2010)

Maybe it's just the practicality in me, but the first thing that I do after I crack open and identify a Christmas gift that I am receiving, is to try and determine how I am going to use it, or what I am going to do with it. As mentioned a few devotions ago, just because it's cliche' doesn't make it in any less true - the greatest (Christmas) gift this world has ever seen is the gift God gave us - His Son Jesus Christ. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) This Christmas, as we crack open God's Word and identify and ponder the Good Message of the Christmas story - that God loved us enough to give us what was most precious to Him - His Son, let's ask ourselves, now what? Let's determine how we are going to respond to receiving the greatest gift and what we are going to do with the greatest gift.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8) We have been purified and and redeemed and consequently by grace, and through faith, we have been given the gift of salvation. Now that we have our ticket to Salvation punched, we should be good to live and to do and to follow the world in doing what pleases ourselves - right? After all, after we sin, can't we just whip out our "salvation gift card" and use it to pay for those sins? As though we are going to somehow make God greater - as though the more we give in to worldly passions and ungodly living, the more merciful God will be and the more His grace will increase. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:1-2, 15) God didn't give us the blood of His Son to purify us, so that we can be free to dirty things up to whatever degree we please. No, God gave us the gift of Jesus, "to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."

When we begin to identify and realize the magnitude of the gift that we have been given - when we begin to fully contemplate the fact that God gave us this gift, we will begin to realize that God did everything He did, as Luther put it in his explanation to the Second Article, "that I should be his own, and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness." God gave us the gift so that we can be set apart as His own children - living lives in the world, but not being of the world. Our natural response to this gift will be to "just say no" to sin and to be "eager to do what is good." When we crack open the gift of God's Son, we will naturally want to find a way to say thanks. When we live "self controlled, upright and godly lives," in accordance with God's commands, we are expressing thanks, "This is love for God to obey His commands," (I John 5:3) and we can say thanks for the greatest gift ever, by living our life for Him - as He wants us to live.


And I have brought to thee down from my home above,
Salvation full and free, my pardon and my love.
Great gifts I brought for thee; come bring thy gifts to me.

Oh, let thy life be spent, thy years for me be giv'n,
as I for thee was sent to bear thee home to heav'n.
I gave my life for thee; come, give thy life to me. (CW 454: 5,6)


Our first natural response to receiving the Good News and the greatest gift, is to live as redeemed and purified people of God. What are we going to do with the gift? We are naturally going to be eager to do what is good. This message is made abundantly clear in this Epistle Lesson from Titus. But there's another response that's a little more hidden, but no less important. "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people." The gift isn't offered to just a few select people - it's offered to all. "God our Savior, wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth," (I Timothy 2:4) or think of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) This gift is for all, but it only can be received through faith. "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) The world needs the word of Christ. The world needs to hear the message. We have the message. Let's tell the world the message! In our society the idea of "re-gifting" carries with it a negative connotation. You re-gift when you receive something that you don't know what to do with - so you give it to someone else. We have received the gift of eternal life from our God and naturally we will want to re-gift it, but not because we have no use for it ourselves, rather because it's use in our lives is a necessity and we know that it's use in the lives of others is necessary for their salvation too. There's plenty of God's gift to go around - there's enough gift for all men in the whole world - let's get re-gifting. "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!" (Romans 5:15) One of our natural responses to the gift of God - the Savior born in Bethlehem - is to re-gift the gift. To spread the Good News. To share the fact that God has offered salvation to all people.

We have received the greatest gift ever. This Christmas as we once again consider the fact that the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord is God's gift to us, we should consider how we will respond to receiving the gift. The gift of becoming one of God's redeemed and purified people, motivates us and causes us to naturally respond by being eager to do what is good. The gift also motivates us and causes us to naturally respond by not keeping quiet about the gift we have received. The gift that we have received can also be received by all people. Let's share and re-gift the Good News - the greatest Christmas gift ever - to all people starting with the "all people" that God has placed in our lives. These responses will please God and are our small way of simply saying thanks to God for the greatest gift ever - the gift of Jesus. "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

December 16, 2010

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:22-23)

"Oh, rejoice, all Christians loudly, for our joys have now begun; wondrous things our God has done. Tell abroad his goodness proudly, who our race has honored so, that He lives with us below, Joy, oh joy beyond all gladness, Christ has done away with sadness! Hence all sorrow and repining, for the Sun of grace is shining!" (CW 45:1)

We as Christians do have reason to be rejoicing loudly. The wondrous things that God has done and the very essence of Christmas is that Christ came from heaven above, to earth, to join the human race. And this is exactly what needed to be done in order to redeem us humans and do away with our sadness. This Good News is our joy, which causes us to rejoice. And as we are rejoicing during this crazed time of year, with (as the Advent prayer writer in Christian Worship puts it) the "stress of deadlines and the frenzy of commercialism," we might appear to be acting strange to the watching world. When someone in the watching world catches us rejoicing loudly - maybe we are humming or whistling a Christmas hymn, or maybe we are just smiling obnoxiously - when someone catches us rejoicing loudly, they just might ask us, "what's with you?" Our joy as Christians has nothing to do with what's with us, but has everything to do with who's with us.

God has been with His people throughout the ages. We think of how God was always with the children of Israel in the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. "Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." (Exodus 13:22) We think of how God was with the people of the Psalm writer's day, "The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress" (Psalm 46:7) We think of how God will continue to be with His people, as Jesus promised before he physically left the world, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) These are comforting thoughts to us as Christians, to know that God is with us always - that God is omnipresent. But what about all those dark times when we give in to one or all of the temptations and lies of the unholy trinity - the devil, the world, our sinful flesh? At those times are we comforted by the fact that God is with us always? During our dark times the thought that God is with us and sees not only our dark actions, but also our dark thoughts and hearts could cause us to be discomforted and could cause us to repine, to be sorrowful, to be sad.

But what we haven't fully considered in this devotion yet is that Jesus also came to be with us in a different sense as He came to join the human race. Why did Jesus take on human flesh? Paul in his first letter to Timothy includes the incarnation as one of the great mysteries of God, "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He (God) appeared in a body, (in the flesh) was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory." (1 Timothy 3:16) Why God loved us enough to send His only Son cannot be fully understood and will remain somewhat of a mystery to us humans. Perhaps the best explanation is the simplest one - "God is love." (1 John 4:16) What we do know is that because our God operates with justice, He needed to take on flesh and blood. "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:25-26) C. S. Lewis explains why God became man as he once put it this way: "The Son of God became a man that men might become sons of God." "God made him who had no sin to be sin (or a sacrifice for sin) for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) God needed to come to be with us and to take on flesh and blood so that He could sacrifice blood to atone for the sins of the world. "The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

And because Jesus, our Immanuel, carried out the plan of Salvation that rescued us from the darkness - a plan which required Him to be born and take on flesh and blood, to live a perfect life in the flesh as our substitute, and to sacrifice His blood that washed away our sins - we now want nothing more than to have Jesus, the shining Sun of grace, to be with us and to stay with us. I'm reminded of the text to a beautiful work sung by choirs around the world - Egil Hovland's Stay With Us. "Stay with us, Lord Jesus. It soon is evening and night is falling. Jesus Christ, the world's true light, shines where the darkness cannot overcome it. Let your light pierce the darkness and fill the Church with its glory." (Luke 24:29) and (John 8:12).

Because Jesus, our Immanuel, not only came to live with and be with us, but because He also came to live for us and die for us and redeem us, we want nothing more than to have our Lord be with us as our light, and stay with us until it's time for Him to take us home so that we can be with Him forever. "Joy oh joy beyond all gladness, Christ has done away with sadness." We don't have to wait to begin rejoicing until we reach our heavenly home where we will be completely void of all sadness. No, because of our hope, and through faith in our Immanuel, our joys have now begun! And if we should get caught rejoicing loudly, and if we are asked, "what's with you?" let's take that as our cue to respond by explaining that it's not what's with us, but it's who's with us. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who came to become one of us and live and die for us. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who is not only with us, but who, through faith, also can be with those to whom we tell His goodness proudly. We rejoice because of our Immanuel who will be coming again to take us to be with Him forever. We rejoice in Jesus, our Immanuel! Amen. Thank you Immanuel for coming into this world as our redeemer, stay with us now and come again Lord Jesus to take us to be with you forever! Amen

Saturday, December 11, 2010

December 9, 2010

"When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matthew 11:2-5)

I imagine that most of us are familiar with, and remember the PBS children's television program, hosted by Levar Burton, called "Reading Rainbow." But do you recall how the show always ended? The program ended with a children's book report segment which was kicked off by Burton's signature phrase: "But you don't have to take my word for it."

We're not told why John sent his disciples to Jesus to question whether or not Jesus was the promised Messiah. Some think that John himself was doubting whether Jesus really was the promised Messiah. John was in prison and probably had been there from some time. Maybe he just couldn't help but think and question, after he heard about all the miracles that Christ was doing, why Jesus wasn't helping him. Don't we ourselves follow that line of thinking from time to time? When we're stuck in a really tough situation, do we ever find ourselves questioning where is God and why isn't He helping us (as we think He should be)? Maybe doubt is why John sent his disciples to pose the question to Jesus, but let's not forget the crystal clear confession of faith that John provided when he first saw Jesus in the desert. "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” (John 1:29-31) John certainly wasn't doubting in the wilderness, but perhaps the mental anguish caused by time spent in prison was wearing him down. Perhaps John was doubting.

Or, maybe John was sending his disciples to Jesus, not for his own good, but for their own good. Martin Luther liked this theory, he weighed in by writing, "It is certain that John proposes the question for the sake of his disciples; for they did not yet deem Christ to be He whom they should believe Him to be. And John had not come to draw disciples and the people to himself, but to prepare the way for Christ and bring all men to Christ, making them subject to Him." (Luther 11:75) It's as though John was saying, this is Jesus, the promised One, "but you don't have to take my word for it." Go see and go ask for yourselves. A good teacher knows that having their students go through the process of figuring out the answer, rather than just feeding them the answer, is most beneficial for the student.

We aren't able to go be eyewitnesses of Jesus. We walk by faith and not by sight, but in our walk of faith, we have something that John the Baptist's disciples didn't fully have. "From infancy [we] have known the holy Scriptures, (including prophecies and some fulfillment of those prophecies) which are able to make [us] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15) It's likely that all of us have had "John the Baptists" in our lives. We have had people who pointed us to Christ - people like Christian parents, Christian Day School teachers, Sunday School teachers, Pastors. Do we just take the word of the "John the Baptists" in our lives, or do we go to the Word and examine what we are being fed to make sure it is good food? I am reminded of a group whose personal "John the Baptist" was the Apostle Paul - remember the Bereans? "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11) How's that for not just taking Paul's word for it? When Levar Burton said, "but you don't have to take my word for it," a book review of a good children's book followed. When we, like the Bereans, realize that we don't have to (and shouldn't) take anyone's word for it either, a "Good Book" review should follow.

A residual effect of reviewing and examining the Scriptures everyday, is coming to a better understanding of what our purpose is in this world. I am blessed to be often reminded that our purpose as Christians is to be ambassadors for Christ, and it's not a question of whether or not we want the job, it's a question of how well we are going to do the job. "And [God] has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:20) Before Jesus made his first entrance into ministry in the world, God made his appeal through one of His ambassadors named John the Baptist. Right now during this time before Jesus makes his second and final entrance into the world, God is making his appeal through us. We are ambassadors of the message of reconciliation. We are "John the Baptists" to those around us, as we show others why they need Jesus Christ and then point them in the direction of Jesus Christ - just as John the Baptist did for his disciples even while he was in prison. And the more well versed in the verses of Scripture we become, the more we are equipped by the Holy Spirit to be able to point people in the right direction so we are able to say, "but you don't have to take my word for it," take a look at this passage or story which will help you with what you are struggling with. The more well-versed we are in the verses of Scripture the better ambassadors we become.


John the Baptist's disciples didn't have to take his word for it because they were able to go to the Word made flesh (John 1:14). We, like the Bereans, don't have to take anyone's word for it either because we can take everything and filter it through the Word of God to examine whether or not it is in line with God and His will. When we, like the Bereans, examine the Scriptures every day and receive the message with great eagerness, we become better equipped ambassadors of Christ. To those, who through us God is making His appeal, we can say,"the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." We can say that because of sin we are all spiritually blind, lame, diseased, deaf, dead and poor. But because Jesus took care of our sins and the sins of the world, our eyes have been opened, we are healed from the disease of sin, we hear the Good News, we will live eternally, and we are now Spiritually rich. And then we can say "but you don't have to take my word for it," rather take to the Word of God where the Spirit still speaks to us and strengthens our faith and makes us more and more sure that Jesus is the one who was spoken of by the prophets - Jesus is the long expected Savior - our Savior!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

December 2, 2010

"And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham." (Matthew 3:9)

The son of a prominent community figure asks the local authority who has pulled them over on suspicion of drunk driving: "Don't you know whose son I am?" As though whose son he was would be the ticket to avoiding a ticket and the way to get out of trouble. We don't have such a quote in our Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, maybe this is because John the baptizer gets ahead of the Pharisees and Sadducees who joined him in the desert by providing them with the warning - "And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father." The Pharisees may have thought that whose sons they were - the fact that Abraham's blood was running through their veins - caused them to be exempt from needing to truly repent. As though whose sons they were, and consequently who they were and the "good life" that they lived, would be the ticket to their salvation and their ticket to favor with God. In the Gospel of John we learn that the one and only ticket to God the Father is through the Father's one and only Son Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

We, who are gentiles, aren't sons of Abraham like the Pharisees and the Sadducees were, but ALL of us are sons of mankind's first father - Adam. God created our first father, Adam, from dust- "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) When Adam and Eve sinned, God could have just given up on mankind. God could have started over, and this time instead of using dust, He could have used stones as his creation medium to create new living beings. Wouldn't that have been an easier plan?

But God didn't take an easy route. He didn't give up on mankind. It was His pleasure and His will to save sinners and bring them, not just into Abraham's family, but to bring all who believe into His family. Instead of using stones to start over and create children, He sacrificed and gave His one and only Son, and sent Him into the world so that through repentance and through faith in that Son, we have the privilege of being God's adopted sons. Just because the phrase is cliche' doesn't mean that it's not true or that it's not worth pondering and appreciating - God the Father giving the world His only Son was, and always will be, the greatest Christmas gift ever. God lavished us with the greatest gift ever - through the gift of Jesus Christ we are the Father's adopted sons! "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Ephesians 1:5-7) God the Father lavished us with love and lavished us with the gift of His Son Jesus, the One He loves. The One who lived the perfect life that the Father expected, that we could not, in our place! The One who died to pay for all the times when we did not live life perfectly and according to the Father's will. Because of what Jesus did for us, we are the loving Father's adopted children! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (I John 3:1)

If we ever have a day when our spirits are down, a day where it just seems like the worldly people among us - the "sons of the world" - are getting all the breaks, while we as Christians suffer all the setbacks - we should remember that the world and its cheap thrills will soon pass away, but the Alpha and the Omega and what He offers is eternal. The people of the world are "sons of the world," but we are "sons of the Alpha and Omega." We can say to ourselves, "We have God as our Father!" We can encourage fellow Christians by reminding them with the question: "Don't you know (or aren't you considering) whose sons we are?"

Whose sons we are makes all the difference for us now, and for the world to come. While John the baptist was preparing the way for Jesus' first entrance into the world, we are in a state of preparing to celebrate Jesus' first entrance into the world, even as we are concurrently also in a state of preparing for Jesus' next and final entrance into the world - when Jesus will be the judge of all. "For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." (Romans 14:10-12)

While it probably would be somewhat disrespectful to phrase it in this way, when we approach the judgment seat, we will be able to say to Jesus, when He asks for our account, "Don't you know whose son I am?" The only reason we will be saved from being sent to be burned up in the unquenchable fire is because of whose son we are. "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." (Galatians 3:26-27) When, in faith, we clothe ourselves with Christ, our Savior and Brother, we clothe ourselves with everything that He merited for us and we will have a perfect record to present on Judgment Day. We can say (with joy) to ourselves that, "We have God as our Father!" How incredible is that?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

November 25, 2010

"Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matthew 24:42-44)

How many of us this Thanksgiving weekend can say that we are fully prepared to celebrate Christmas? Even the "anti-crastinators" among us, who may have completed their gift shopping, probably haven't wrapped all of those gifts yet. Or consider your church choir who may have all of their Christmas pieces selected, but who likely don't have any of the numbers solidly rehearsed or polished. And who of us can say that we have taken the time to properly ponder the wonder and great mystery of all the events that led up to that first Christmas - when Jesus "became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14)? It stands to reason that none of us are properly prepared for Christmas yet - and that's fine, because we know we have another month to take care of all of our Christmas preparations. We know that in exactly one month, we will be celebrating the time when our Lord first came into this world. What we do not know is the day when our Lord will return, "you do not know on what day your Lord will come." Because we do not know, and in order to avoid being surprised, we must be "ever ready" for that day - which could even be today yet!

How can we be ever ready? Jesus tells us here to "keep watch." Does this mean we should be signing up for time slots, so that at all times one of us can be watching and looking up into the sky to see if we can spot Jesus' feet coming down out of the clouds? I suppose if that's what it takes to get us to think about His return on a daily basis, then it wouldn't hurt. But I would like to bring to light some other suggestions that may be a little more practical. Often when we hear about keeping watch, we hear it coupled with something else - we hear keeping watch coupled with prayer.

Teach us in watchfulness and prayer
To wait for your appointed hour,
And fit us by your grace to share
The triumphs of your conqu'ring pow'r. (CW 9:5)

Another example of this coupling would be what Jesus told His disciples to do in Gethsemane - “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (Matthew 26:41)

Maybe we don't need to make a habit out of going out and watching and looking up into the sky everyday, but maybe we should make a habit of praying about being prepared for Christ's return. One way to make such a prayer a habit could be to marry it to something that is already a ritual for us in our daily lives - like brushing our teeth or taking our pills. Every time, out of habit, that we do one of these rituals, we could also pray about being properly prepared for the day of the Son of Man's return. Here's a simple prayer that we could use as a framework for our personal "ever ready" prayer: "Dear Jesus, today could be the day that You return, please help keep that thought in my mind throughout the day. Please guard my heart and mind from anything that could cause me to be unprepared for, or surprised by, Your return. Amen."

So, one way we can "keep watch," is through prayer. The pastor and hymn writer, Paul Gerhardt, provides another suggestion for how we can be "ever ready" and unsurprised by the day of our Lord's return - should it happen in our lifetime.

O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you, My Hope, my heart's Delight.
O Jesus, let your Word be a lamp to light my way,
To show me how to please you, to guide me ev'ry day. (CW 19:1)

God's Word serves as a guide that keeps us on the path of proper preparedness - a path that also draws us closer to Him. As the Word brings us ever closer to Jesus day by day, we are also ever closer to being with Jesus as every day passes. As the final stanza of Amazing Grace puts it, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun." (CW 379:4). As each day passes we have no less days to sing God's praise, but we do have less days until we are taken to the place where we will be singing His praises eternally. The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans contains a passage, which also happens to be a part of our Epistle Lesson for this Sunday, that speaks to the fact that every day we're a little bit closer to our day of salvation- "And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." (Romans 13:11)

Whether the Son of Man returns in our lifetime and brings the world's time of Grace to a close, or whether our own personal time of Grace comes to a close before Judgment Day, the fact of the matter is our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. It might even be nearer than we currently anticipate. We know that we have another month to prepare for the celebration of Christ first coming into this world, we don't know how long we have to prepare for Christ's return. Because of what we we are preparing to celebrate in a month - because God was willing to send His Son, our Savior, into this world as our ransom, we can be ready for the day when God will send His Son, our Judge, into the world again. As we keep watch, our prayer is that we will be ever ready, and as we keep watch and when we dig into God's Word, we find a guide and a path that will bring us closer to Jesus. In order to avoid being caught by surprise and unprepared, during this Advent season, as we make all our various preparations to celebrate our Lord's first entrance into this world a month from now, let's also keep watch and make paramount our preparations for that unknown day when the Son of Man will make His final entrance into this world - which could even happen before 12/25/2010!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

November 18, 2010

"The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." (Luke 23:35-38)

Picture for a moment a police officer on his beat, walking down the street. On one side of the street you have a law abiding citizen who sees that police officer, and feels a little extra safe and a little bit more at ease. One the other side of the street you have a law breaking citizen who sees that same police officer, and feels a little more apprehensive and a little more anxious. Same exact police officer - two different perspectives. Paul in his first letter to the church of God in Corinth provides two perspectives of Christ and His cross from their respective "sides of the street." "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18) In our Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, Luke gives us the perspective of Jesus the King of the Jews, from the side of the street that sees the cross of Christ and the message of the cross of Christ as foolishness - something to joke about. Let's also consider the perspective from the other side of the street that through faith we are on - the side of the street that views the cross of Christ as the power of God and our only hope of Salvation, our only hope of admittance into the King's Kingdom.

From the side of the street with the foolish perspective, the rulers looked and mockingly doubted the fact that Jesus was the true Son of God, they used the word "if" - "if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” When we survey the wondrous cross, from the other side of the street, through the eyes of faith we see a King who we know is the Son of God - no ifs ands or buts. Remember what God the Father in the voice from heaven said at Jesus' baptism? "And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

From the side of the street with the foolish perspective, the soldiers looked and mockingly doubted the fact that Jesus was a king. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” They saw a "wanna-be" king who was all talk. How would this Jesus ever have a chance to rule when He would soon be dead? If Jesus was going to have an opportunity to rule, He would have to save Himself and come down from the cross. The soldiers failed to realize or understand what Jesus had told Pilate, "Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36) When we survey the wondrous cross, from the other side of the street, through the eyes of faith, we see a King who without question had the power to come down from the cross, but who instead chose to endure. Out of undeserved love, by sacrificing Himself, Jesus gave to all who have faith in Him the opportunity to be able to live under Him in His Kingdom that is from another place.

Remember what the angel told Mary when she first learned that she would be the mother of the Savior? Among other things, the angel told her precisely what the rulers and the soldiers mockingly questioned about Jesus - whether Jesus was God's Son and whether He would reign as a King. The angel said, "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33) The sign hanging over Jesus' head, that was put up by those on the side of the street with the foolish perspective, read, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." And while it was meant to sarcastically mock what appeared to be a pathetic reign, it actually couldn't have been more true. Jesus is the one who was long expected by David and Jacob and Abraham and their descendants. I am reminded of a verse of a children's Sunday school song, "Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them and so are you, so let's all praise the LORD!" We probably don't have any of Abraham's blood running through our veins, but Spiritually speaking, we are son's of Abraham, we are "Jacob's descendants," and we are subjects in the King of the Jews' Kingdom. Jesus is our King too. Praise be to the LORD that because we are adopted subjects in His everlasting Kingdom, that we are able now to properly view His cross from the right "side of the street."

But if we are evaluating honestly, don't we sometimes find ourselves straying over to the other side of the street? Don't we sometimes have a little ruler, or a little soldier in us? One way we have a little ruler or a little soldier in us, is whenever we question why Jesus our King isn't exercising His authority over earthly issues as we think He should be. We have a little ruler or a little soldier in us whenever we start out our prayers (even if the thought is understood) with: "if you are really God, then you should be..."

Thankfully, God's Messiah - the Chosen One - stayed on the cross and made the final ransom installment for the debt that was created by all those times when we stray to the other side of the street. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we aren't banished from His Kingdom. "The Son of Man did not come to be served," (as a ruling earthly king might be served) "but [He came] to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Jesus played the role of servant during his first stint on this earth, but Jesus will return, and next time the King will come in all His glory to take us, who through faith and because of what He did for us on the cross, to live as subjects in His Kingdom that's outta' this world and that will never end! Amen! Come King Jesus and take us to your Kingdom. Amen!

Friday, November 12, 2010

November 11, 2010

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." (Isaiah 65:17-19)

Have you ever heard someone wax nostalgic, by recalling only the best of times, as they talked about the "good old days?" The last people who would have been able to think back and talk about the "good old days" and actually have had something legitimately and purely good to talk about, would have been our first parents Adam and Eve. They experienced Eden. They experienced life before sin tainted the creation that was very good - "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31) And things were very good until sin complicated and frustrated the order that God established. Sin created a new order that is laced with weeping and crying and groaning. Paul said in his letter to the Romans "that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8:22)

But God's plans were, and still are, to eventually put an end to the groaning for good, by creating new. Near the end of John's vision of the new creation that we have recorded for us in Revelation, we find a passage that quotes a line from the passage we are considering from Isaiah, "Then [John] saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away" (Revelation 21:1) The order, or how this world currently operates, will pass away. "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:4-5) Everything about the way things operate now on this earth will be no more. What a change God's new creation will be for us. "Change" and "new" are words that might make us Lutherans feel somewhat uncomfortable. I am reminded of a joke, (Question) "How many Lutherans does it take to "change" a light bulb? (Answer) ... Lutherans ... change something? nah..." We should thank God that we have been blessed with such a great heritage and we should thank God that we have been blessed with such enlightened forefathers so that our practices, and most importantly our theology, doesn't need reform. "If it aint broke, don't fix it," they say, but sometimes our motivation to avoid trying something new is strictly because we are intimidated by our fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown can be a strong emotion associated with thinking about life after our physical bodies die. Those who are unbelievers are really in the dark about the unknowns associated with the afterlife, but even we who believe and are students and searchers of the Scriptures, even we don't have a crystal clear picture of what God's new creation will look like or be like. But we can be comforted, and our fears of the unknown can be silenced by what the Holy Spirit tells us in these verses through the prophet. We have nothing to worry about, in fact we can "be glad and rejoice forever in what God will create."

Eventually someone who is talking about the "good old days," if they talk long enough will likely stumble into recalling days where situations affected by sin caused them to suffer and maybe even cry. We can take comfort in the fact that when our struggles on this earth come to an end and we begin our new life in the new creation, that nothing about "the old days," from our sin-tainted life on this earth will be remembered. We will be in a place where not only "the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more," but we also will be in a place where we won't even hear the sounds of weeping or crying in our minds or in our memories, because these sounds - which are a result of sin and sin's consequences - "will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."

Yes, we have a new creation to look forward to, and while we aren't given all the details, we don't need to suffer from the fear of the unknown, because God has promised that His new creation will be a place of joy for us. Thankfully, when we reach this new place of joy, we won't remember anything about any of the days we spent here on this earth - days that were tainted with sin and the mess that sin creates. When we reach the new creation, we won't be talking about what are actually the "not so good old days" from here on this earth, we will be too busy experiencing the joys and delights of the "best new days," spent in the new creation. And not only will we be taking joy and delight, but God will also be rejoicing and taking delight in us and with us! "[God] will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in [His] people." How awesome will that be? Amen - come Lord Jesus and take us to Your new creation! Amen!

Friday, November 5, 2010

November 4, 2010

"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. (Luke 19:1-6)

A few years ago on a Friday afternoon, my family and I were on our way to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. Heavy flooding caused portions of I-90 westbound between Madison and the Dells to be shut down. All cars were diverted to the smaller 2-lane State Highway 51 causing it to become overburdened with bumper-to-bumper traffic. One of the cities that Highway 51 runs through is the city of Portage, Wisconsin. The road through Portage was so crowded that when at one intersection, even when the traffic light turned green, we couldn't go - simply because there was nowhere to go! The only reason we we had to contend with the major traffic jam - the only reason we were even in Portage, was because we needed to go through it to get to the Dells. In this Gospel Lesson we find Jesus entering Jericho, and His whole purpose for entering Jericho was because He needed to go through it to get to Jerusalem, "Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through." And in attempting to pass through, Jesus ran into a traffic jam of His own - there was quite the crowd surrounding Jesus as he traveled the road through Jericho. It's possible that many of those people who were adding to the human traffic jam were people of Jericho who had just witnessed Jesus give the blind man his sight outside the city gates, people who were following Jesus to see what He was going to do next. What Jesus was planning on doing next was making His way through town to the other side - again His purpose in entering Jericho was to pass through. But Jesus' purpose in entering this world superseded and took precedence over his purpose for entering Jericho. At the end of this account, a few verses later, Jesus explains what His whole purpose in entering this world was, He tells Zacchaeus: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) This primary purpose took Jesus' focus off the crowded course and to the lost Zacchaeus.

On our daily paths through life, whenever one of "the lost" looks our way (as Zacchaeus was looking Jesus' way), we have an opportunity to show Jesus to them, to "let [our] light shine before [them.]" (Matthew 5:16) But do we sometimes fail to shine or fail to even pay any attention to the lost at all, because our path is so crowded with all the activities and responsibilities that consume our day? The holidays that are fast approaching only seem to add to to the congestion and worsen our daily activity traffic jam. When I was driving in that bumper-to-bumper traffic jam in Portage, I put the blinders on and focused on the bumper of the car ahead of me. Do we ever find ourselves putting on the the blinders to focus on the activity that's ahead of us in our bumper-to-bumper daily schedule? We should pray that God would take our blinders off so that we might not only gain peripheral vision, but that we would scope out the opportunities we have to share Jesus with the watching world. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost," - the saving part Jesus took care of - what's left for us is to emulate the seeking part, and we have the perfect template when we use Jesus as our pattern. We should pray that we become more and more like Jesus so that our true purpose in this world - to seek the lost and make disciples of the lost - always takes precedence over all the other bumper-to-bumper activities that so often crowd our path.

Friday, October 29, 2010

October 28, 2010

"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today." (Deuteronomy 10: 12-15)

Have you ever enjoyed a dish at a potluck so much that you just had to learn how to make it? Maybe the particular dish happened to be quite complex - too hard to try and figure out on your own, so you just had to have the recipe. Who do you go to for the recipe? To the one who created the dish of course. We have in our Old Testament Lesson God, who is the One who created and preserves, and to whom belongs "the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it," asking His chosen followers to follow His recipe for life here on this earth.

And His recipe is a good one - one that "[He gives us] today for [our] own good!" The hymn writer nailed it: "What God ordains is always good; His will is just and holy, as he directs my life for me, I follow meek and lowly. My God indeed in ev'ry need knows well how he will shield me, to him I will yield me." (CW 429:1)

How can we not yield ourselves to Him by following this good recipe? How can we not fear, love and serve God with all our soul? How can we not walk in His ways and observe all of His commands and decrees? The recipe is good, but if we're honest, we will confess that we often have a hard time getting the recipe to turn out because we have a contaminated tool to work with - our sinful nature. "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:18-19) Our sinful nature contaminates the whole dish. What will we do? On the day of judgment, God will ask us to present the results of our recipe "For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.' So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." (Romans 14:10-12) For us sinners this is a recipe for disaster - all we will have is a ruined dish to present to the Judge. "What God does in his law demand and none to him can render brings wrath and woe on ev'ry hand for man, the vile offender. Our flesh has not those pure desires the spirit of the law requires, and lost is our condition." (CW 390:2)

Yet, we who are saved - we who the LORD has "set His affection on" - we who the LORD has loved and chosen - we have someone who followed the good recipe for us - and He followed it to a T. Through faith we will have the perfect dish to present to the Judge on that day of judgment, not because we followed the recipe ourselves, but only because Jesus followed the recipe for us and gave us the perfect dish to present.

Praise be to God - by grace and through faith we're good to go! So now what? Should we just ignore what the LORD our God asks of us? "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (Romans 6:15) "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" (Romans 6:1-2) As we celebrate the anniversary of the Reformation this upcoming Sunday and the "sola fides" are flying, let's keep in mind what James says about "fide" without action, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2: 14 & 17) Sola fide doesn't mean that we can show up for church on Sunday morning, check in with God and be reminded of His grace, and then checkout for the rest of the week because we convince ourselves that "we don't have to do anything." When we do nothing, our faith is dead. When we fear, love and serve God with all our soul and when we walk in His ways and observe all of His commands - then our faith is alive as we follow His recipe for our lives. Our motivation to follow the recipe is not to try and make the perfect dish, hoping that God will think it's good enough (cooks and bakers - imagine the kind of pressure associated with following a recipe if your eternal destiny was dependent on how your recipe turned out!) No, we follow the recipe because He has asked us to, and because when we consider everything He has done for us - the fact that God sent His Son Jesus to follow the recipe perfectly and to pay the penalty for all the times that we botched the recipe - we will be glad and we will want to do what He asks us to do. This is how we show love to God - by following his good recipe. "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

October 21, 2010

"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18: 1-8)


Have you ever heard someone say, "it's not what you know, but who you know that counts?" If you have, then you probably were listening to someone who "got in" to something, not because of their accomplishments or what they knew, but strictly because of who they knew. This phrase is usually married to a positive outcome. Not so in Jesus' parable where He tells us that the "who she knew" - the who the widow knew, was "a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men," and that he was an "unjust judge." We aren't even told "what" the widow knew. We don't know if she had a good case or not, all we know is that she just kept striking out because of the "who" that she was dealing with.

We as Christians could say that "it's what we know about who we know that counts." The writer to the Hebrews offers the following advice about prayer, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) We know that the One "who we know," our just God, loved us enough to justify us and help us with our greatest need. Unlike the unjust judge, God "cared about men" and while He extends mercy, offers grace, and has love for men that is undeserved, He doesn't simply forget about the times when we have given in to our adversaries and ended up sinning. He doesn't simply forget about the punishment the sinner deserves. He doesn't say, "oh that's OK, you sinned but I'll just look the other way." No, He is a just God. When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will," (Matthew 26:42), The Father's answer was no, you have to go through with this. Because I am a just God, you have to drink the cup and pay for the sins of the world so that the world may be redeemed. We know that "who we know" is a God who demands justice, but who also has justified us.

And because the One "who we know" loved us enough to justify us, when we go to him in prayer, we can be sure that every single time he will see that he answers our prayers according to his justice and according to our needs that He knows even better than we do. In fact, we are told that the One "who we know" has his eyes and ears on those who have been justified and made right, "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer." (I Peter 3:12) There are numerous passages in Scripture that urge the righteous to "always pray," but the one that is most concise is found in I Thessalonians, where we find the command: "pray continually" (I Thessalonians 5:17). Our continual prayers aren't offered up simply in hopes that we might wear down the One "who we know," so that he will eventually answer us. No, our God's eyes and ears are zeroed in on us waiting for our prayers. He won't put us off, but every time we come to Him he will answer and graciously give us everything according to our needs. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

In the parable, the widow's plea was for justice against her adversaries. Our adversaries in faith are the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. Jesus wants us to "always pray and not give up," in our battle against these adversaries. For the Christian, "it's what we know about who we know that counts," but in the end what also counts is "who knows us." Remember what Jesus said earlier in the Gospel of Luke about what He will say to those who on the day of judgment who claim that they know Him, but who really didn't have faith? He will say, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!" (Luke 13:27) Jesus echoes His message from Luke 13, that when the Son of Man comes, only a few will be saved - He echoes that with the question that he tacks on to the end of this parable, "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Through constant prayer to the One who has made us right, and to the One who not only invites, but commands us to pray to Him, we are able to "not give up."

Because of what we know about who we know, and through faith, who also knows us - if the Son of Man returned tonight the answer to His question would be yes - at least in our case. What we know about who we know is that our God is a God of justice who demands justification. We also know that the One who we know, sent His son so that each of us would be justified. When we have faith in this, then the One who we know will also know us. Our "always prayers," to the God who always hears our prayers, should include pleas for justice from our adversaries - the devil, the world and our sinful flesh - that we may be on the winning side in our battles with them here on earth, and that in the end, because of what Jesus has won for us, that we will also win the war against them. So that "when the Son of Man comes, [he will] find faith on the earth," let Him find faith in action in our hearts and expressed on our lips in prayer.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

October 14, 2010

"Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him." (2 Timothy 2: 11-12)

I've had my fair share of job interviews over the course of the past 10 years. And I don't know that I have ever been asked it in an actual interview, but one of the questions that inevitably shows up on all the "employment expert's" job interview question lists is this: "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" The answer I have always had prepared had something to do with seeing myself in a position where I was continually challenged while having the opportunity to grow and learn, blah, blah, blah. The answer that co-existed in my head with the rehearsed answer is that I'm going to be in the exact place doing the exact thing that best serves my God's ultimate purposes. "[God] determined the times set for [men] and the exact places where they should live." "For in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:26 and 28). While we all have plans and ideas, we don't really know exactly where we are going to be or exactly what we are going to be doing 5 years from now. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21) An easier question to answer - a question that is answered in the verses from our Epistle Lesson for this Sunday that we are looking at is this: "where do you see yourself in a hundred and five years from now?" The Psalmist tells us that, "the length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength," (Psalm 90:10), and then what? When our strength is up and we take our final breath - then the infinite possibilities that we had in our temporal future, suddenly are drastically limited to only two possibilities for our eternal future. We either spend our eternity in heaven living with and reigning with God, or we spend our eternity in hell wishing we were in heaven living with and reigning with the only true God - period. Because we "died with him," and because by the grace of God and because of His mercy - our faith "endures," in a hundred and five years from now, we can can be sure that we will "live with him" and "we will also reign with him."

Paul explains what he means by "dying with Him" in the book of Romans - and it has to do with baptism, "don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him." (Romans 6:3-5, 8) We "died with him" when we were baptized which united us with Jesus and His death. Everything that Jesus won by his death is now ours - including the opportunity to live with Him forever!

But, just because we were baptized into life doesn't mean that we can't lose our opportunity for "life with Him" for eternity. The concept of "once saved, always saved" is one of the devil's lies. It stands to reason that it is likely that at one time Judas Iscariot had faith and was being saved, and yet just because he was once saved, in the end it appears his faith didn't endure, and he was lost to an eternity of "life without parole," and "life without Jesus." Judas let his sinful nature get the best of him. Our own sinful nature isn't completely dead until we shed it completely when we physically die. When we are baptized into Jesus' death, we would do well to remember to daily drown our Old Adam, because it will try to daily emerge and take over. Paul tells us in Galatians what to do with our sinful nature - we are to crucify it. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." (Galatians 5:24) We need to endure by daily tapping into the power of Jesus and His power to daily drown and to daily crucify our sinful nature before it gets out of control. Thankfully, God allows us to daily start out fresh. "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23) We would also do well to daily pray like the Psalmist, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) God, in His mercy answers David's prayer for every Christian every day with the ultimate result Jesus promised: "he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Mark 13:13b) When we stand firm and endure and are steadfast, we will not only be saved, but we will also reign with Him. The Holy Spirit through the pen of John writes, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelations 2:10) When we are enduring, being faithful, and standing firm we "we will also reign with him."

Where do you see yourself five years from now? We probably all have an idea of where we think we might be, but none of us knows for sure. We have more than just an idea and we can be absolutely sure and certain where we will be a hundred and five years from now. Because of what our Savior has done for us and what our Preserver continues to do for us on a daily basis which allows us to endure - we can count on living and reigning with God a hundred and five years from now right on through eternity. "If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him" May the "ifs" in the "trustworthy saying" turn into "becauses" for all of us. Amen!

Friday, October 8, 2010

October 7, 2010

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:7)


What does a spirit of timidity look like? When it comes to living our faith, a spirit of timidity usually doesn't look like anything - and that's the problem. I imagine you have probably noticed that in these "Choir Devotions," that the "Word of God" is always bold - the Bible passages are always in bold print. This is done to attract special attention to them because the words of the inspired writers of the Word of God are more than just words: "our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction." (I Thessalonians 1:5) The opposite of timidity is boldness. When it comes to matters of living our faith, when we act on the spirit of boldness that God has given us, then we ourselves are bolded, so that when others look at us we attract special attention, not to ourselves, but through ourselves to our God and to his power and to his love that he has revealed to us in his Word.

If we're honest with ourselves, we will confess that sometimes sin causes us to have more of a spirit of timidity than a spirit of boldness when it comes to wearing and sharing our faith? It's easy to be bold on Sunday morning when we are with fellow believers, but what about on Monday morning when we are with those who we might feel embarrassed to boldly share our faith with, because we are worried about what they might say to us, or we are worried about what they might say behind our backs later on? Or what about Tuesday morning when we are with those who think that faith is outright foolishness? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (I Corinthians 1:18) The message of the cross doesn't make sense to the unbeliever, and the Christian who displays a Spirit of timidity doesn't help with the unbeliever's perception of a foolish, senseless gospel. There's nothing that confuses the watching world more than when one of us fails to be bold in our faith - when we just blend in with all the other characters and act as though we have no reason to be bold. The Christian author Brennan Manning put it this way, "The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” This quote might not be entirely true, but it does give us something to think about. A spirit of timidity in a Christian doesn't leave those around them simply unaffected by the positive- it actually affects them and infects them with more of the negative.

So, how can we shed our timidity and boost our spirit of boldness? By digging into that very same message that the unbeliever thinks is foolish, because for us it's the power of God - it's the power that inspires and equips us with a "spirit of power." Later on in 2 Timothy, Paul writes, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) When we are strengthened by the power of the Word, we are equipped for every good work and we can shed our timidity and say with boldness, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16) Now that's the spirit!

God didn't choose us and give us faith for us to be timid in living and sharing that faith. God equips us with all the necessary tools and inspiration to live our faith boldly. When we operate with the spirit of boldness that God has given us, and that lives within us, then we ourselves will be bold among the other characters - bold and attracting attention. We will stand out and what makes us tick will stand out. Our prayer should be that those watching see through us to the God that motivates our very spirit, so that He will be bolded.

May His spirit live within me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him. (CW:467 )

Friday, October 1, 2010

September 30, 2010

"Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come! You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror. You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end." (Amos 6:1, 3-7)

Joseph P. Kennedy fathered not only the 35th President of the United States of America, but he also fathered the phrase, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." When the going gets tough for a Christian however, they don't need to get tough, they just need to get going to the Lord. The Lord told the apostle Paul that "[God's] power is made perfect in weakness," and that "[God's] grace is sufficient for [him]," (2 Corinthians 12:9). It often takes a tough situation to revitalize the spiritual life of a Christian - to get them to remember the words from the song Jesus Loves Me, "[we are] weak but He is strong."

But what about when the going gets easy, then what happens?

Whenever we dig into a warning by one of the Old Testament prophets and attempt to apply it to our lives today, we must remember exactly who the prophet's audience was. Amos's audience here, the nation of Israel, was a nation of the world, but they were also God's chosen nation - his chosen people of the Old Testament. Today, in New Testament times, there is not a single world nation that makes up God's chosen people, rather those from every nation who belong to God are part of the New Testament nation of God's chosen people. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9) We who are a part of the "holy nation" that live here in America in the 21st century also happen to be living in a world nation where the going has gotten easy. The Israelites that Amos was warning here had an easy going existence and yet if we were to look back to the way that people in America lived, say a generation or two before our current generation, we would likely find a lifestyle that was even more easy going than that of the Israelites of Amos's time. Now compare how we as Americans live today with how those from a generation past lived - those who had to walk five miles to school, in a foot of snow, uphill both ways. Lifestyles are only getting more and more cushy and comfy - the going is easy indeed. The warning here from Amos is that when the going gets easy, we who are a "people belonging to God" shouldn't allow the luxuries of the easy-going lifestyle to consume us.

"Woe to you who are complacent in Zion" The definition of complacent is: "contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned." When the going gets easy, are the comforts of the luxuries in our lives causing us to become content to a fault - content to the point where our luxuries are getting in the way of being concerned with God's commands? "You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches," We as Americans lie on "sleep-number" beds and lounge around on wrap-around sectionals - we even have "easy" chairs. Do we ever find that we are so content lounging around on our couches that we become unconcerned with making the effort to attend a Bible study? "You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves." We as Americans have buffet restaurants where there are not only 6 or 7 ore more different meat choices, but also what seems like hundreds of different side dishes. Do we ever find that it's the third time this week that we are eating out at a restaurant and it has been forever since we have thought about the needs of those around us who are hungry and truly needy in other ways? "You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments." We as Americans have ipods and video games and home entertainment systems. Do we ever find that we have a hard time finding time to get into God's Word and at the same time we have 3 or 4 television programs every night that we are hooked on, that we just can't miss? "You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions." We as Americans have wine racks filled with wine bottles and stores in shopping malls dedicated exclusively to fine lotions. Do we ever find ourselves clouding our minds with alcohol when we could be spending that time either meditating on or sharing God's Word? Do we ever spend more money in a month on "health and beauty aids" and trips to the salon than we set aside for the Lord's work? Jesus tells us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40) Are we so concerned with pleasing ourselves with the luxuries in our easy-going lifestyle that we are content to a fault - oblivious to the point where our contentedness is at the expense of loving others and loving God?

"Go to Calneh and look at it; go from there to great Hamath, and then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they better off than your two kingdoms? Is their land larger than yours?" Things change, and cities and nations that had it easy one day, suddenly have it easy no more. Some think the day is coming soon - someday people will likely be talking about the "once great nation of America." When the going gets easy, remember that this can change. The obvious example would be Job. Job had it all one day and then God took it all away from him, but whether the going got tough or the going got easy, Job's focus was not on himself, but on the glory of the LORD. Job had it right when he said, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:21) Paul also experienced both sides of that coin, he writes, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Phillipans 4:12) The secret of being content, especially when the going gets easy, doesn't lie in what we have or don't have, but in who we have and who has us. We have a Savior - Jesus Christ and we are his. This is the Christian's true source of contentment, "But godliness with contentment is great gain." (I Timothy 6:6)

When the going gets easy, it's easy to let the "easy" get the best of us. There's not a whole lot of Gospel in this passage form Amos - he gets to that later in his book, (take time to read through Amos and you will find a few choice Gospel morsels), but we know the rest of the story. The prophet's predictions were right - Israel was exiled, but there was a remnant who returned, and from that remnant came our Savior who left the luxuries of heaven - luxuries that would make our luxuries look third rate - to take care of all the times when we put ourselves and our own selfish desires ahead of loving others and ahead of loving God himself. God loved us enough to create a plan of Salvation and Jesus loved us enough to follow the plan. What more motivation do we need to listen carefully to the warning of Amos and to follow the advice Paul offered his letter to the Corinthians? "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:12)

Friday, September 24, 2010

September 23, 2010

"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone" (I Timothy 2:1)

How many people do you encounter everyday? I suppose it depends on the day, but being a part of the society we all live in, you will likely encounter hundreds of people everyday. You probably won't say anything to most of them, and you may not even know most of their names, but living in this corner of the world means living in and amongst people. Even when you don't leave your home, people and their stories come to your doorstep in the form of a newspaper, people are beamed into your living rooms through your television sets, people are put in front of you on your desktop when you surf the internet or check your email. Now, another question: How many people do you pray for everyday?

The NIV heading over the second chapter of Paul's first inspired letter of encouragement to his friend Timothy states: "Instructions on Worship." Certainly we can apply this passage to our worship practices - and our synod does. Christian Worship contains "Prayers of the Church" that include prayers not only for our church, but also for everyone else in our nation and the world. But, we can also take a look at this passage on a personal level and consider just who everyone is that we are urged to personally pray for. If you're anything like me, then if you pray for yourself, your close-family, and maybe for someone who has asked you to pray for them - if you get all these prayers in before you doze off or before you are interrupted by something else - then (sadly) you might consider it to be a good prayer day. But you would have a hard time categorizing this kind of prayer day as a day you prayed for "everyone." Everyone is kind of an overwhelming term. Only God knows the exact number, but there are nearly 7 billion people living in the world today - so there are 7 billion individuals included in everyone! To make it more manageable, maybe we should start with the "everyones" who we come in contact with on our daily paths.

We are encouraged in Thessalonians to "pray continually" (I Thessalonians 5:17) Consider praying continually by praying your way through your day - by praying for those you encounter. If you turn on the radio in the morning - pray for the radio personalities. If you read about someone in the morning newspaper - pray for them - pray for the writer of the article too! If you see your next door neighbor on your way to work - pray for them. If you see a jogger or a dog-walker - pray for them. If you see a crossing guard escorting kids across the street - pray for them. If you are in line with someone at the grocery store - pray for them - pray for the checker or the bagger too! Pray for your co-workers. Pray for the people you talk with on the telephone - even if they are telemarketers! If you are stopped at a red stoplight and there is a family in a vehicle in front of you - pray for them. If you are in a waiting room - pray for the others who are waiting. If you are watching a television program - pray for the actors or the reality show host. These people that you encounter everyday can be your personal "everyones" who we are urged to pray for. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone" (I Timothy 2:1)

Now that we have identified and targeted who our "everyones" will be, our next question might be - what should we say in our prayers for them? There are a countless worthwhile things to pray for on behalf of others, but if we want to prioritize, then our prayers will be focused on their greatest dilemma (whether they know it or not) - the fact that they are a part of all the nations who will be gathered on the Last Day and they will either be put on Jesus' right or Jesus' left - and without faith in Jesus they will be in trouble. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Matthew 25:32-33) When we encounter one of our "everyones," we are not able to tell if they are on a path that will lead to Jesus' right or Jesus' left - we are not able to know if their heart is a heart that trusts God, or not. Only God can look at and judge their hearts - we are only able to look at their outward appearance. "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (I Samuel 16:7) So as we construct our prayer for those we encounter, we have to take into account the only 2 kinds of people there are in the world - those whose hearts trust in the LORD and those whose hearts do not trust in the LORD. Maybe we can use a variation of the following prayer as we encounter and pray for our "everyones." This prayer suggestion comes with the following caveat - I am in no way a prayer expert, so this is in no way an expert prayer suggestion. Not to worry, God the Holy Spirit will take our imperfect prayers and step in to help. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." (Romans 8:26).

A prayer suggestion for the "everyones" that we encounter:

Dear God, you want all men to be saved. If this is a person who is being saved, then strengthen and preserve their faith. If this is a person who is still lost, then please put them in a situation where they will run into your Word, that the Holy Spirit might plant saving faith in their hearts. Amen.

Could all the effort put into praying for the "everyones" we encounter really be worth it, or are we just wasting our time? In James we learn that "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5:16) There is a little plaque (I think it's a plaque - it might just be a little card) that sits by the entrance to the office at my church that always catches my eye on the way in - it reads, "prayer changes things." Wouldn't it be awesome when we are in heaven one day to meet one of the "everyones" in our life, and to realize that our prayer for them changed things for them - that one of our prayers put a detour in their path - a detour that ran them right into the Word and to the Holy Spirit and the saving faith that he creates? Let's take the time and make the effort to follow Paul's urging and begin praying for everyone by starting with the "everyones" we encounter on our daily paths.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

September 16, 2010

"I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)

If you have any "German Lutheran reserve" in you - like I do - then you may not be prone to expressing emotion and you may not do a whole lot of outward rejoicing. According to my trusty dictionary, the definition of rejoicing is, "the expression of joy or gladness." If we had to come up with an example of the last time that we actually really outwardly rejoiced about something worldly-related, I imagine we might have to go back to some major milestone in our life. Maybe it was the news from the doctor that the cancer is now in remission, maybe it was a new job opportunity after a long spell of unemployment or "un-happy" employment, - - - or maybe it was the day when our child or grandchild or niece or nephew was born. If you have ever been in a labor and delivery room when the newborn takes in their very first breath and lets out their very first cry, then you will know what a sweet sound that is. That cry signals to those in the room that the baby is alive and breathing - and that cry is usually followed by outward rejoicing by the others in the room. There is a "birth sound" that trumps this sound in terms of sweetness. Jesus once told the Pharisee Nicodemus that, "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:3). Jesus also said, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:6) When the Holy Spirit first breathes life into a soul, and that person is "born again," the angels in heaven rejoice and cry out in excitement. "I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10) What a sweet sound that must be!

"One sinner" needs to not only repent, but also be found. "One sinner" can repent until they are blue in the face, and even if it was possible for them to never commit another sin again, they would still be lost because they couldn't pay for the sin they had already committed. Jesus had a solution for this predicament. "Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:14-15) Jesus tells us to repent AND believe the good news - the good news is that Jesus "came to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10) Jesus came "to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28) Jesus' whole purpose in coming to this earth was to redeem. When just one sinner repents and believes this is great cause for rejoicing as Jesus' purpose is being accomplished. In a sermon that I just heard this past Sunday, I was reminded that we as Christians who are "fighting the good fight," are not an "Army of One" - we don't have to battle alone - we have our fellow Christians as allies. But in a way we are an army under one. Because through one, sin entered the world and we all became lost; and through "the One" sin was taken away and we were found. "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17) When even one sinner, who was lost, repents and is found by "the One" - Jesus Christ - then "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God."

Because "the One" has given you the gift of righteousness, when you were found and when you first believed, the angels in the presence of God rejoiced for you - personally! If we reach heaven before the Last Day, we will be able to hear that sweet sound, and even join the angels in the rejoicing over sinners who repent. But we don't have to, and we shouldn't, wait until we get to heaven to join the angels in rejoicing. The Psalms are filled with encouragement to rejoice NOW - the verse from the book of Psalms regarding rejoicing that is probably most often quoted is from Psalm 118 - "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) Paul tells us (and then he tells us again) to, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4) For us who have that "German Lutheran reserve" in us, when it comes to rejoicing, we should consider getting past that. We shouldn't just rejoice to ourselves - we need to rejoice out loud. We need to rejoice loud enough so that those who are still lost recognize us and ask us what we are so glad about. And then when recognized and interrogated, we must, "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have," (I Peter 3:15) so that one of the lost who hears your rejoicing and hears your answer as to why you are rejoicing, might be birthed by the Spirit, be found, repent and believe. Let's pray for the motivation to rejoice out loud - let's keep the angels busy rejoicing over sinners who repent.

Friday, September 10, 2010

September 9, 2010

"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25-26)

I'm not sure if the jingle is still in use today, but back in 1982, a nationwide advertising and publicity campaign was launched by the Isaly Klondike Company with the tag, "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" If you have seen or heard the commercial, then the tune is probably stuck in your head right now - and I apologize for that. I am personally not a huge fan of ice cream treats - they don't really do much for me - so my answer to the question has always been - not much - I wouldn't do very much for a Klondike bar. In our Gospel Lesson for this upcoming Sunday, Jesus spells out what we need to do - to what lengths we need to go - if we are to be considered one of his disciples. The question we need to ask ourselves is, "what would you do to be a disciple of Jesus?" The understood thought that comes before the Klondike bar question is (considering how good they are and what they do for you) "what would you do for a Klondike Bar?" The understood thought that comes before the disciple of Jesus question is (considering how good he is and what he has done for you) "what would you be willing to do to be a disciple of Jesus?"

I don't know about you, but for me there is one word that Jesus uses in these couple of verses that rings in my ears - the "H" word. Many families that I know, don't even allow the word "hate" to be in their family member's vocabulary. And here we have Jesus telling us that we need to hate what most people value most in life - even more than their precious "stuff" - we need to hate the relationships with those who are closest to us. And then Jesus throws in the one thing that often trumps the value we place on "stuff," and even sadly often trumps the value we place on our relationships with others - as he includes "me, myself and I," in the list of things that must be hated in order to become a disciple of Jesus. Of course we aren't supposed to go around literally hating everyone and ourselves - there are countless other passages from Scripture that instruct us to love one another, which would contradict the hate modus operandi. But we are to love God so much more than we love even our closest loved ones, that relatively speaking, how we love our loved ones is actually closer to hate than it is to love. Jesus tells us we are to 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40) The second command is like the first, but it is far inferior to the first and greatest command. In Luther's "what does this mean" to the "first and greatest commandment" - we are told "we should fear, love and trust in God above all things." the "all things" includes even our closest relationships. "What would you do to be a disciple of Jesus?" Would you love him so much more than you love everything and everyone else that is most precious in your life, that relatively speaking, it appears that everything and everyone else is hated by you?

Before we answer the question, let's consider what Jesus has done for us. As much as our closest loved ones care about us and would do anything for us - there is still one thing that they cannot do for us - they cannot make our relationship with God right. Only Jesus could do that. After sin created a barrier between God and man, Jesus was faced with the question: "what would you do to redeem these fallen people?" Jesus responded in the most extreme way - his actions matched his extreme love for us. Jesus left the perfection of heaven to come into this imperfect sinful world to become like one of us. And then after 33 years of wrestling and resisting every sinful temptation that he faced, as he lived a perfect life in our place, Jesus even was willing to die for us - and his death was NOT of natural causes - it was a gory painful death being crucified on a cross. Jesus' actions clearly answer the question regarding what he would do for us. "[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2: 6-8) Jesus did all this for us, so that we could have a right relationship with God.

What would you do for a Klondike bar? My answer is - not much. What would you do to be a disciple of Jesus? Considering what he has done for us - we should love him so much that it appears we hate everything else that's important to us. Jesus deserves more than the love that's leftover after we love everyone else - he deserves the first fruits of our love. He deserves it, and he demands it, if we want to be one of his disciples. When we consider and survey what Jesus has done for us, this shouldn't be a difficult command to follow - we will want to love him most. Unfortunately, the good we want to do we often do not do, but the Good News is that Jesus' obedient life and sacrificial death on the cross paid for our sins of omission too - like the times when we fail to love him most. Out of thanks for paying for all our sins, including the times when we fail to love Jesus to the extreme, we will want to do our best to give him what he wants from us, which is our all when it comes to love. "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a tribute far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." CW 125:4