28 February 2015 - friend request

But I say to you, love your enemies

Enemies? Do we have enemies? We don't let ourselves think in terms that strong. Enemies are for video game characters and superheroes. We just have the people we love and the people we love less. But is that really true? Do the filters we place on our thoughts obscure the reality?

Jesus, reveal our hearts to us. You want us to be a people that is peculiarly your own. But Jesus, if we are honest we mostly love people who love us. If we are honest, we do have enemies. The freeway in heavy traffic brings this point home. Our careful masks of charity sometimes slip and we are exposed. People cut in line. They talk over us. They ignore us. They impose on us. They don't notice us. Enemies? The word seems strong, but are we loving these people even when they are not loving us?

Jesus you want us to be yours in an amazing way. You want us to "be children of your heavenly Father". You are the only Son of the Father and so that means to become like you. You died for us while we were still enemies of God (cf. Rom. 5:8). You call us to a love that is more than mere self-serving reciprocity. 

Jesus, show us the people and circumstances where we don't let your love flow in us. Show us if we are giving undue priority to those from whom we get some benefit, loving those who love us. Show us if there is an in group of brothers and sisters whom we greet and others whom we don't.

LORD, you call us to love with generous hearts. You call us to love as you love. You call us to a standard which, ultimately, only you can meet.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

But what you ask us, you empower. You give us grace to fulfill your command. We have so much more for which to be thankful than the Israelites. They are given the command but can never quite live it. They never quite achieve the "praise, renown, and glory" that you intend for them. They never quite realize the blessings of walking without blame in your law. They can never quite internalize it.

I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.

But the new law you give is not merely an external command which we hear and to which we must respond by our own strength. You write this new law on our hearts (cf. Heb. 10:16). You give us your Holy Spirit "in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (cf. Rom. 8:4).

We try so hard to not have enemies because we are afraid that we can't love them. But you show us that we do have enemies in some sense. You teach us to love them even while they are enemies. It is your love for them flowing through us which ultimately transforms them from enemies to friends. After all, we were your enemies, but your love has made us friends (cf. Joh. 15:15).

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

27 February 2015 - raqa'n out

Jesus, transform our hearts.

You tell us, "how pleasant it is for breathren to dwell together in unity!" (cf. Psa. 133:1). But we get angry with our brothers. They make little mistakes and we are ready to insult them, to say "Raqa" in our hearts even if not out loud. We are all too ready to entertain the thought that they are foolish.

Teach us to love our brothers. Teach us to be reconciled with them and to have unity with them. Teach us to "keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (cf. Eph. 4:3). If we block this unity we sabotage our unity with you, too, LORD. It is you who try to restore us to unity with our brothers. If we block this effort we end up separating ourselves from you, too.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.

Our brothers sometimes do things which seem like us to be mistakes or failings. We are quick to assume that they do these things because of their faults: they are not wise enough, they do not have enough self-control, they have a lapse of judgment, or something else. We place ourselves in judgment over them to no benefit to ourselves or to them. Jesus, if you were to treat us this way we wouldn't last long:

If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?

But you do not treat us this way.

But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered. 

You are as understanding as can be. You don't just forgive those who crucify you. You render the best assessment of our motives as you can, the motives that excuse our transgression to the largest degree possible. You say, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (cf. Luk. 23:34) and you teach us to say the same thing.

You do not "derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked". But we are all too ready to allow ourselves the subtle, perhaps even subconscious, feelings of superiority that we experience when we judge the motives of our brothers. Teach us to not mark their iniquities, just as you do not mark ours. Sometimes we must reprove our brothers. Now we realize just how dangerous this responsibility is for us. If we see genuine fault we may have to act for their sake. But we must never give these thoughts room to give us any sense of pleasure or superiority. We must learn to take the plank first from our own eye (cf. Mat. 7:5).

Our righteousness will never surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees on our own. But if we put our trust in you it can. You fill us with your own righteousness so that we "become the righteousness of God" (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). It is you that give us unity with our brothers. It is you who work in us "to will and to act in order to fulfill" your "good purpose" (cf. Phi. 2:12). And so we entrust ourselves to you with great confidence.

I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the LORD
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
Let Israel wait for the LORD.

26 February 2015 - knock, knock

Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.

Help us God. We too have no one but you who can really help us. We don't always realize this as acutely as Queen Esther but it is true nevertheless.

Esther can teach us this morning. When her people are threatened she is not content to hide in the comfort of palace life. She goes before the king for them, even though this means taking her life in her hand. What does she know that we don't? Where does she find her courage?

As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.

Esther knows who you are. She trusts in you. She knows that she stands in continuity with the stories she reads in the bible. They are her forefathers, not fiction. They show the real way in which God protects and delivers his people. What do we hear when we listen to the bible. Do we recognize the books of our forefathers?  We should, because "it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring."

We can say with confidence, "The LORD will complete what he has done for me" because that is what you do LORD. That is who you are, "for you have made great above all things your name and your promise."

Even more then Esther, we have good reason to ask, to seek, and to knock. You are not distant LORD. You are more than the God of our forefathers. You yourself are our heavenly Father and you give good things to those who ask. You give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (cf. Luk. 11:13). The Spirit in turn increases our confidence in you as our Father, because "by him we cry, "Abba, Father" (cf. Rom. 8:15). This makes even more confident that "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (cf. Phi. 1:6).

You are a God of deliverance and salvation. You intervene in history. You intervene in our lives. You make a real difference. All of the hopes that we have which are worth having are worth entrusting to you. Fulfillment of these desires doesn't always come quite the way we want. But you always give good things to those who ask. You always give the Holy Spirit when we cry out. Even if our prayers aren't answered in the way we hope our confidence in your promise grows.

Lord, on the day we call to you for help you do answer us, and so

Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”

25 February 2015 - keeping up with the jonahs

LORD, we are not an evil generation. We seek you.

Really?

This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign

A sign would be nice, now that you mention it. We need something louder than the world. We need something more entertaining than our entertainment. We need something more pleasurable than our pleasure. This is the sign we want. When you have compassion on us and multiple loaves to feed our hunger we begin to get excited. We're almost ready to run off and make you king. But we miss the point of that sign. You aren't here to feed the cravings of the flesh. 

no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah. 

You yourself are the sign. You yourself are the truth to which the sign points. You are greater than Jonah. If our eyes are open to you we will be quick to repent just as the people of Nineveh are quick to repent. If our ears our open we will come to you from the ends of the earth because your wisdom is greater than that of Solomon, the wisest man to ever live.

So why are we so reluctant to take notice? Why do we find ourselves condemned by the queen of the south and the men of Nineveh?

For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles

This isn't the sign we expect. This isn't wisdom we recognize. Your sign, the Cross, looks like foolishness to us. But "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" (cf. 1 Cor. 1:25).

We want a sign and wisdom. We want some sort of proof according to the paradigm of this world, perhaps according to the limited expertise of science.  But you offer something else entirely. You do not compete with the wisdom of the world. You do not compete with the signs of the astrologers, of UFO-watchers and psychics, or even the signs of controlled and reproducible experiments. You render all worldly wisdom as foolish. You show the signs of the world to be empty or limited.

Teach us to look at you, Jesus. You are greater even than Solomon and Jonah. Teach us not to insist on the categories of wisdom and sign that the world imposes. Call, us, Jews and Greeks alike to recognize you, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (cf. 1 Cor. 1:24).

When we discover this truth we are quick to repent. Jonah is only one day into a three day journey through the city but we already proclaim the fast and put on the sackcloth. You are the power of God and the wisdom of God and we comes from the ends of the earth to see you. You do something utterly greater than any worldly truth or paradigm can. You pour out your own Holy Spirit.

I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power (cf. 1 Cor. 2:3-4).

We long for this. We come from the ends of the earth for this. We beg you for this. It is worth more than any worldly sign or wisdom.

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me. 

24 February 2015 - unavoidable conclusions

So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

Your word is powerful, LORD. It is "living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart" (cf. Heb. 4:12). It is not like our words, it is "not a human word" but "word of God, which is now at work in you who believe." Because it is your word it actually works within us, transforming us. By the very speaking of this word the thing which it says is done.

So what kind of fire are you passing to our hands when you, the Word himself, give us your own words to speak? No wonder our hearts burn within us when you speak (cf. Lul. 24:32) You teach, "This is how you are to pray" but we are accustomed to hearing this. We become insensate to the fact that these are not our words, these are not human words, but rather the words of God himself. These are precisely the words which always achieve the will of him who sends them.

Jesus, you send these words into the world through us. They are spoken only if we speak them. But this isn't about simply repeating some ritual formula. We need your help, LORD, lest they become mere habit and ritual. As channels of this heavenly rain of grace we must not be like the pagans. It is not our own efforts which have power. When we are attentive to the words you give us the power which they possess is allowed to manifest and flow through us. Then the world is watered with the living water which only you can give. Then it becomes fruitful with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Seed is given to the missionaries who sow in lands far and near. The bread of angels is given to men. All this happens provided we give your word the space and attention to do what they are meant to do.

This is what you mean when you say, "I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." It is not our words or our power in which we trust. It is your word alone which does not return void.

The psalmist reminds us to first look to you, Jesus that we "may be radiant with joy", and then, with our gazed fixed on you, to "cry out" to you. With our gaze fixed on the Word we cannot help but cry out the word which achieves the end for which you send it.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

23 February 2015 - living and active

Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you? 
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?

You call us to recognize you in the least brothers of yours. You say, "love your neighbor as yourself." Sometimes we imagine loving you as something separate. You are holy and set apart. Can when not lose ourselves in worship of you and forget the problems of this broken world? We think that we want to forget ourselves, not love ourselves. We imagine that we can focus on you more perfectly if we forget our neighbors as well. But you tell us that this not only isolates us from others it isolates us from you, too. You say, "Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy." You say, "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (cf. Joh. 13:34). Holiness means to be set apart from the profane. But it is not a solitary thing. You are holy and you are three in one. We learn from you that we can love ourselves, our neighbor, and you. We learn that there is no path to holiness except this.

This is why you call us to love in a way that is not merely passive. You tell us not to bear hatred for our brother and this is the easy part to accept. We are happy to except a definition of freedom and morality that does whatever it wants provided it does no harm to another. Even Google was happy to take "Don't be evil" as a corporate slogan. But you call us to more. You say that we may even have to reprove our brothers.  We are called to an active concern. We are called to a concern that is like your own. It does not simply let us go our own way but lays down its life for us. It is not content to see hunger, and thirst, sickness and imprisonment. It is a love which engages, which changes and transforms the the world.

You call us to this and remind us, "I am the LORD." You call us to this way of living because this is who you are. You are calling us to enter into your own love. Even as you call us to love one another you are at the same time calling us to union with yourself. This is why John reminds us that "we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments" (cf. 1 Joh. 2:3). Keeping his commandments proves that his grace is at work within us empowering us to keep them. Only united to you, LORD Jesus, can we love in the way we are called to love. Without this union we are frustrated by our attempts to love. But united to you we find joy in your law:

The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.

You are the LORD, Jesus. You call us to something even greater than imitation of your love. You give us the love with which we love both you and our neighbor. It is possible because we share one Spirit with you (cf. Eph. 4:4). "Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life", even the words of your law, when we are united with you.

You are so good LORD. We long to be at your right hand. We long to here you say "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." You are the shepherd who is pleased to give his sheep the kingdom. You say to us, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom" (cf. Luk. 12:32). We never want to here you say, "Depart from me". We desire you presence, so we stay amidst your sheepfold. We desire your presence, so we go with you to seek and save the lost.

22 February 2015 - not watered down

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.

Remember us, Jesus. It is who you are to be kind and remember us.

Yet we cry to you precisely because we feel forgotten. We feel as though the waters of the flood are starting to rise. They are at our feet one moment and the next we are up to our necks. We struggle to tread water. Didn't you promise that would never again devastate the whole world with a flood? Didn't you put your bow in the clouds as a sign of this promise? Is it there now? The waves are reaching high clouding our eyes. We are tossed by every wind of doctrine (cf. Eph 4:14). Our eyes can't see past the things of earth to gaze on the things above (cf. Col. 3:2).

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.

Yet the flood comes only once and you, Jesus, are the one to endure its unrestrained violence.

Christ suffered for sins once, 
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, 
that he might lead you to God.

The flood is powerful and destructive but you are an unsinkable ark. In the waters of baptism we are joined to you as you face this flood which culminates in your death. But we face it within you, within the ark of your body, the Church, and survive. We are brought safe to the distant shores of eternity.

This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body 
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, 
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

When we feel the winds driving on the outside of the ark we take comfort in knowing how good you are. We take comfort in your promise. You are strong and the victory is already won.

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.

When this ark feels driven by winds we can take comfort that they are the winds of the Spirit. Just as the wind drives Jesus into the desert for forty days so too does it drive the ark of his body. The ark cannot stay stationary here, surrounded by the waters of death. It must eventually find dry land. It is strong enough to survive the journey. From too much water in the flood to too little water in the desert we are being prepared. We are being prepared to find the living water which we drink and thirst no more. And we will find it soon because this "is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand."

Even when we feel driven by winds we still turn to you and acknowledge the strength of the ark who sustains us.

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.

Even when the winds are pushing us we take comfort to know the place where the ark eventually comes to rest, "heaven ... at the right hand of God". The Spirit now drives the ark on. But one day he will descend with the olive leaf. Then at last we find the haven for which we long.

21 February 2015 - the high road

He said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus, you call us to follow you.

You want to be light for us in our darkness. You want to change our gloom to become like midday. You want to be our strength. You want to give us the living water so that we may grow and flourish. You want us to be homesteads for your very presence.

We want this Jesus. We want your light in our lives. But it seems that we do not want it enough. On the Sabbath we follow, not you, but our own pursuits. From there it is a quick step to oppression and malicious speech. Forgetting you and forgetting the hungry and afflicted go hand in hand.

But you desire us. You do not abandon us. We walk in every direction but the right one. We walk every way but yours. But even as we get lost in the darkness you call us back. You invite us to follow.

He said to him, “Follow me.”

You are always ready to welcome us. You are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you. Even if we are tax collectors and sinners you still come and eat and drink with us as you do with Levi. We are the sick who need you, our Divine Physician. On our own we wander and quickly lose our way. "Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth." You are happy to teach us. You show how to follow your way. You do this for our sakes so that we may experience true blessing.

If you honor it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice—
Then you shall delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

You teach us to delight in you. When we do we follow you with ease, riding on the heights of the earth.

20 February 2015 - stand fast

O Bridegroom, do not tell us you will be taken from us.  We want your presence. We want the joy of being near you. Do not tell us that there will be a time where we do not have this. Do not tell us there will be a time when we will fast to mourn your absence.

Yet the truth of your passion causes us to flee. "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: "'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'" It isn't that you shun us, LORD. It is that we shun you. We see you being stripped of your strength and we run away. We run off to our own pursuits where we think we can find solace.

Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits,
and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting,
striking with wicked claw.

And the only way to return to you in your suffering and your pain is to set aside our own pursuits and labors.

Would that today you might fast
so as to make your voice heard on high!

LORD, teach us not to shun you when we see you hurting. Teach us not to shun you when you are hungry, oppressed, and homeless. Teach us not to run from you when you are naked. Let us not pretend that we don't see you in pain.  We often ask you, "when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?" But you insist, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."

LORD, you chose to go to the cross. You chose to bear the weight of all of our sins. We want to be around when you are multiplying loaves, healing the sick, and casting out demons. But if we don't want you taken from us we must go with you to the cross. We must take up our own cross and follow you (cf. Mat. 16:24). We must take up our place with the beloved disciple and the mother of Jesus at the foot of your cross. She can teach us how to do this. To do so implies fasting. It is to forget ourselves by fixing our gaze, not just on your glory, but on your pain. Sacrifices that we do apart from this concern are superfluous. They do not please you. But this sacrifice, the heart that gazes on your cross, you do not spurn.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Your mother teaches us and you yourself give us the power to remain at your cross. When you are taken from us you yourself empower us to return to you.  "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (cf. Gal. 5:1).

19 February 2015 - crossing our i's

Jesus, you want to teach us how to find life.

You do this because we look in the wrong places for life.  "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it". We find ourselves looking for life and finding death.

Yet, you insist "Choose life, then, that you and your descendents may live". You do not delight in the death of the sinner (cf. Eze. 18:23).  You permit us to go that way, but you do not desire it.

You call us to love you and walk in your ways. You call us to hold fast to you and heed your voice. Your voice gives us your law. That is why we are blessed when we meditate on it day and night. That is why we find true life in your law. We find the nourishment of running water and we are able to bear fruit. We find resiliance against circumstance that makes our fruit never fade. We find success in whatever we undertake in you even if it does not seem to meet worldly criteria for success. Love is always successful. We think of the law as burdensome. But it is your voice, solid and available. Your commandments are not burdensome (cf. 1 Joh. 5:3). They are part of your invitation to life. 

but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Losing our lives for you is not burdensome. It sounds burdensome but it is not. It is the culmination of holding fast to you and heeding your voice. Even if we lose "the whole world" we gain something far greater in you. With Paul, we say "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ"

We want to know you this much LORD. We want to know you so much that we can let go of the things of this world. We want to know you so much that we hold on to you no matter the circumstance. We rejoice because, as much as we want to know you, you want to be known even more.

You say, "Choose life". And you mean, "Choose me" because there is no life apart from you. There is no other name under heaven which saves (cf. Act. 4:12). So teach us to walk in your ways. Teach us to drink from the living water which comes from you alone.

Teach us to hope in you, not the world. "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord."

18 February 2015 - reward program

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.

Jesus, you are calling us to yourself. You are calling us to give you our hearts fully, to rend from them all that keeps us from you. You are calling us to experience your grace, your mercy, and your kindness. Help us, Jesus, to set aside the distractions. Let us experience a profound desire for you and for your presence.

Jesus, you are what we seek. We don't want to be those who busy themselves with the externals. If what we truly seek is not you, if the rewards we pursue is of this earth, it is here that we find them.

Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.

But these rewards never satisfy. Even though we continue to pursue them we continue to hunger. When we seek them and ignore you, Jesus, we forget the joy of your salvation. Even though you pursue us we do not experience your presence. Even though the Holy Spirit remains in us he is a dormant power. Our lips are sadly closed to your praise. Jesus, why do we consider this a reward? It is worthless! 

Let us turn to you! Let us return to you! You teach us to acknowledge our offense and turn to you for a clean heart. When we are lost in distractions you still seek us. You are made to be sin who did not know sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. You die so that in you we might die to ourselves.

May our reward not be here below. May our reward be in the Father's arms. May we seek it in the inner room, in the secret and quiet of our hearts where you await us with love beyond all telling. No wonder you call us to look presentable when we fast. In fasting we tap into deeper blessings than anything the world can give.

And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

You long to meet us in our inner rooms this morning. You are quickly stirred to concern for your land and take pity on us. If we tarry in the world let us run to him because the time is now.

In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.

17 February 2015 - flood of mercy

When the LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth,
and how no desire that his heart conceived
was ever anything but evil,
he regretted that he had made man on the earth,
and his heart was grieved.

The LORD just wants man to be happy and blessed. But man constantly fails to choose this when God offers it. We constantly put ourselves first and try to create happiness on our own terms. We exult things, themselves good, against God as if they can provide happiness apart from him. God is grieved because he longs for us to flourish. He says choose life so that we can live (cf. Deu. 30:19). But the options we choose lead to death. These impermanent things simply draw us toward their own fate when we try to enjoy them apart from the God who gives them.

It isn't that the LORD wants to destroy us. It is simply that we don't choose the one thing which lasts.

“I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created,
and not only the men,
but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air,
for I am sorry that I made them.”

He is sorry because they don't choose the blessings he offers. And when man doesn't do this all of creation suffers. All of creation shows the scars of the selfishness of man. The LORD decides to send a purifying flood over the world. But he does this not in wrath but in mercy. He does it in hope of a new and better world where we wisely choose his blessings. The flood consists of the cleansing waters of baptism.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin (cf. Rom. 6:3-6:6).

He doesn't destroy us. He only destroys the old self so that the new self might flourish. This happens first in baptism but it is a grace into which we are constantly invited to enter.

you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth (cf. Eph. 4:22-24).

On our own the flood waters sweep us away. But God invites us into the ark of his Church. His Church his the structural integrity to preserve the good things within ourselves and creation even as the flood waters purify us. Within the ark the truly just can survive and even thrive. Within the ark we are invited to fully embrace the reality of the new creation which God brings forth.

Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator (cf. Col. 3:9-10).

We are not part of the old world of sin and sorrow which is washed away. We are the just who live within the ark that is the Church because it is Jesus himself. Only he survives the purifying flood of death.

The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic. 

We, like the disciples, sometimes forget that we are part of this new creation. We get caught up in details and our spiritual sense is dulled. We fixate on earthly bread rather than the bread from heaven. We avoid earthly leaven when we should avoid the leaven of sin. But when this happens Jesus teaches us. Even the earthly loaves are superabundant where Jesus walks. Even the earthly loaves have twelve and seven baskets left over. These signs are meant to point us toward the world we finally enter as the floods subside and we step forth into the new creation.

The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever. 

16 February 2015 - abel hearts

Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.

Cain, your sacrifice isn't the problem. It isn't the thing you are doing which is at issue. It is your heart.

In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD
from the fruit of the soil,
while Abel, for his part,
brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.

Abel, it seems like you are accepted because of the thing you give. But actually it is what it means to you that matters. It is the disposition of your heart which is acceptable. Because you are concerned more with what the LORD thinks than anything you are able to give the best of what you have.

Cain, you are competing. You want to be seen as better than Abel. You resent that the LORD looks with favor on Abel's offering. The LORD asks you why you are so resentful and crestfallen to hear that another has done better than you. He tells you that this is not a competition. You don't have to outperform anyone. "If you do well, you can hold up your head".

Abel is your brother but you can only see him as a threat. In the parable of the prodigal son the older brother refuses to celebrate the younger son's return. He feels as if his own perogatives and happiness are threatened by the joy surrounding the return of the younger son. Cain, you carry this attitude to the extreme. God has joy enough to bless both you and your brother but you are too selfish to see it. You go to the extreme to prevent God from giving his joy to Abel lest you not receive what you consider to be your due.

Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

It is now too late to feign disinterest.

Then the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
He answered, “I do not know. 
Am I my brother’s keeper?”

You do know where he is. You do care. Your self interest has done this. It starts as a preoccupation with being first. It prevents you from giving the best of what you have. But it transforms to something which threatens you. It festers into hatred.

“You sit speaking against your brother;
against your mother’s son you spread rumors.

When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.”

Hearts like yours don't act sincerely. When they ask for a sign Jesus sighs "from the depth of his spirit" because they are not sincere requests. The Pharisees come forward to argue with Jesus rather than to seek truth. It is the same insincere heart that we see in you, Cain. It is a heart so concerned with self-aggrandizement that it can only perceive others as a threat. The Pharisees act first on this selfishness by the violence of intellect and argument. Their words before others are there first line of defense for their own egos. But Cain, you are not so different. You slay Abel. They slay Jesus.

We see your motives with ourselves, Cain. We see the motives of the Pharisees in our own hearts. And we see precious little of Abel, offering the first and best of what he has. Jesus tells us, "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise." He sighs when we test him, but he longs to reveal himself to us. He doesn't want hearts that must avoid his presence. If our hearts are more Cain than Abel the LORD is willing to grant us "more offspring in place of Abel".

I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.

We must open ourselves to the correction which Cain cannot bear. God will teach us to offer him the sacrifice for which he longs.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (cf. Psa. 51:17).

It does not consist in things that are external. It is nothing with which we can compete with others or compare ourselves to them.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship (cf. Rom. 12:1)

We offer to God all that we are. When Cain dominates our hearts this threatens us. But with Abel we are able to realize that it is in fact our hope of joy and blessedness.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name (cf. Heb. 13:15).

15 February 2015 - be made clean

“The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

On our own this is all we can do with our faults. We cannot fix them but we must acknowledge them. We must keep ourselves separated. We can never really be united. We dwell "outside the camp". The leprosy of sin is indeed infectious. It does indeed cause pain and suffering as it spreads. On our own all we can do is to minimize the damage. We quarantine ourselves even as our hearts long for relationship.

But we are not on our own. Jesus comes to set us free. We get so used to this life of minimizing the damage of our faults that we have a hard time believing it. We are so used to living in such a way that we hurt as few as possible yet remaining unchanged that we can scarcely believe that such change can happen. But in Jesus it can happen. Jesus wants it to happen.

"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
"I do will it. Be made clean."

We are transformed by Jesus. We no longer live to minimize the damage. Instead, "whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." We do try to avoid giving offense to anyone. We do try to please everyone just as Paul says. This is very different from how we are without Jesus. Rather than trying to hurt the fewest number of people by isolating ourselves we are trying to spread the glory of God to the benefit of the many, "that they may be saved." Rather than a concern that we infect people with the leprosy of sin we now seek to spread the good news. We can say with Paul, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." We have a new infection worth spreading!

When we experience this healing from sin that Jesus offers we know the blessing of the LORD:

Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.

Like the man with leprosy in the gospel reading we can't help but be "Glad in the LORD and rejoice".

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad

How wonderful it is. And so we remember simple secret of the leper: "I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation."

14 February 2015 - a day at a time

Then the LORD God said: “See! The man has become like one of us,
knowing what is good and what is evil!

Instead of looking to God for happiness we choose to decide for ourselves what can make us happy. We ignore the good he has for us. We take the evil and call it good. The fruit looks shiny and appealing and delicious. Never mind that God tells us that it won't make us happy. We succumb to the lie that we should be able to decide these things for ourselves. We should be able to impose our own will on reality. Too bad it doesn't work.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (cf. Isa. 5:20).

It would not be generous to leave us in this state forever. It would not be a mercy for us to eat from the fruit of the tree of life also. We are made to find our happiness in God himself. The world is good and there is much joy and pleasure to be found in it when it is used according to God's purposes. But when insist on choosing our own goods and exulting the creation above the creator we do not find satisfaction.

A merely natural life will not satisfy us. Even at the heights of the human vocation there is a lacking that cries out for more. Even with the exulted dignity of being the mother of all the living Eve must still come to terms with the imperfection and incompleteness which marks creation apart from God.

“I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing;
in pain shall you bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall be your master.”

It is not just Eve, all of creation cries out for something more, for something better, and for things to be set right.

"For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now" (cf. Rom. 8:22).

He makes man to guard the garden and till the soil. But without God in the highest place everything is now disordered. Man can no longer find the fulfillment in his vocation which he is meant to find.

Cursed be the ground because of you!
In toil shall you eat its yield
all the days of your life.

But we certainly try to find our happiness and fulfillment in these things. Even those of us who should know better often fall into this trap. This is why we ask:

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.

He turns man back to dust, not to destroy him, not to punish him, but to prevent him from making the mistake of setting his hope on the things below. He teaches us, "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth" (cf. Col. 3:2).

He teaches us that the bread from earth will never satisfy us. He says, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life" (cf. Joh. 6:27). He himself is the only source of this food. We must set our minds on the bread from heaven.

They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.

The effects of the fall seem harsh. But when we remember that they are ordered to ensure that we find the full happiness which God intends we can accept them and even be thankful for them. Jesus knows we are hungry. And he longs to satisfy us. Only he himself can do this, because "from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

13 February 2015 - in-deaf-inite

the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God

We must not hide from the LORD. Even when we are the least presentable and feel the most naked we must not hide from him. The man and the woman commit a grave sin by eating the forbidden fruit. But God does not immediately withdraw from them. He does not hide from them. He continues to move through the garden. He gives them a chance to ask for mercy and forgiveness.

But unlike the Syrophoenecian woman they can't look past themselves and see God. They can only see the taint of sin. They should still be able to see a God who is rich in mercy....

Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,”
and you took away the guilt of my sin. 

...but instead they run from the LORD. Yes, sin is an offense to God. His holiness and sin are utterly incompatible. But as much as he hates sin he loves us still more. If we let him find us in our weakness and failing he gives us the power to repent. He gives us mercy. He enables us to overcome the sin which he can't tolerate. He makes possible holiness, without which no one may see God (cf. Heb. 12:14).

Only if we come to him can we have the grace and strength we need to live a life of holiness. And this means coming to him when we fall. If we do not do this our ears gradually become unable to here him. Our mouths become unable to speak his praise. We fear him and we run from him.

But if we are doing this now, we need not continue. Let us come to him and here him say to us, "Ephphatha! (that is, "Be opened!") Let our ears be opened to the mercy he wants to give us. Let our tongues be loosed with his praise.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round. 

12 February 2015 - puppy eyes

He said to her, "Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."

It seems like Jesus is saying no to this Syrophoenician woman. Her daughter is possessed by a demon. That has to break a mother's heart. It pushes her to ask Jesus for a cure even though he is a Jew and she is aware of how Jews see Greeks. It pushes her to hope that Jesus, famous for his compassion and healings, will not look at her in the same way. But he does. Or at least it seems that way. He calls her a dog. OK, the term is more endearing. He calls her a puppy. But even so, it isn't the response for which she hopes. She still finds herself categorized as a Greek. It is easy to infer from here many things. She might easily imagine that Jesus is saying that there is only enough food for the children, the Jews, and that the dogs will not be fed.

Yet Jesus does not deny her request. It would be easy for the heart without faith to hear denial. But Jesus never implies that the food is limited. He does not say 'Only feed the children' but rather "Let the children be fed first." And indeed they are. He comes first and foremost for the lost sheep is Israel. This is the privilege of the covenant people. But the message is destined to be shared with the world. And even now there are scraps enough for the puppies around who are wise enough to gather around the table.

The woman's faith is able to see in Jesus one who is generous. She is not deterred whether she is dog or puppy or child. She isn't at all concerned with who she is. If she were concerned about that she might despair of Jesus's help. But instead she is only concerned with Jesus. She is concerned with what he can do and what he wants to do. She perceives his abundance, generosity, and compassion regardless of the apparent limitations of her own social status. Jesus gives her a test. 'Can you forgot yourself and look only at me?' By his grace she can and does.

"For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter."

In many ways this attitude of the woman recaptures the attitude of Adam and Eve who "were both naked, yet they felt no shame." Jesus leaves his Father and comes to his bride, the Church of whom this woman is destined to be a part. Yet in order for this marriage to be consummated preoccupation with self must be set aside. Adam and Eve feel no shame until they eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But ever after all people feel shame when they are exposed to others. There is always the risk that they will be exploited, used, and treated as objects. There is always the risk that they will be regarded as dogs and left unfed. The only way past this risk is faith in Jesus. In him we first discover a love that is never selfish and which always regards the other with dignity. The woman is able to see this love in Jesus even when he challenges her. She may be a puppy. But even if that is true she sees a love which will raise her up as a daughter.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sonsf of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (cf. Rom. 8:14-17).

What is the invitation this morning? It is to discover a love that doesn't care about worldly categories. It is to discover a love that will never use and abuse (*cough*Shades of Gray*cough*). If we have been struggling with a an apparent 'no' from Jesus we should take heart. Let us look beyond ourselves and whether or not we deserve his help. His help has nothing to do with deserving. We then have the faith to receive what he wants for us in to have peace regarding the things which we want but which he does not give at present. As we experience this love which is absolute and unqualified we are invited to begin to love in the same way.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.

11 February 2015 - don't leave me breathless

Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

It isn't the existence of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is the problem. There are many external factors that may be in play. The fruit might look shiny and delicious. We might be genetically predisposed to want that sort of fruit. Circumstances may leave us hungry and this fruit may seem like the best and easiest choice. But "everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile". So what is it about this fruit toward which we seem inexorably pulled? It seems that eating it will defile us, because "the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die." Yet it cannot be that the fruit is evil in itself. 

It is "what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him." It is in the choice that we are defiled. From within our hearts come disobedience to the order the LORD God gives us. It is at the deepest level that we choose to decide for ourselves what is good and evil over and against the reality God gives us. Everything that the LORD makes is good. But we choose lesser things and exult them over the more precious. In unchastity and adultery we choose pleasure over persons. In theft, envy, and greed, we choose material possessions over others. Property and pleasure are good, to be sure. But they are lesser goods!

God breaths the breath of life into our nostrils and tells us to cultivate and care for the world. But we are not to do so apart from his plan for it. He is not only the source and origin of all things but he is the one who sustains them. Only in accordance with his divine plan can creation thrive and flourish.

If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.

It is Jesus himself who holds everything together. "And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (cf. Col. 1:17). We must love him and put him first if we want all things to work together for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28).

Yet we do choose the lesser good. We do it all the time. We choose the more immediate over the more sustainable. We choose the quick pleasure over that which will allow us to thrive. What are we to do? We sympathize with Paul:

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (cf. Rom. 7:22-24).

Yet the psalmist knows that even if we hold back from the sustainer of the world and his breath is withdrawn from us we may hope to breath it again.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

We need his Spirit to renew us. All that defiles us can be washed away by his power. We need to take Paul's advice to Timothy. He tells us, "I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands" (cf. 2 Tim. 1:6). The Spirit is not only the origin of our new life but he makes it possible to live it from day to day. But only if we live in reference to him. We are content with warm embers but the Christian life is only possible if he continues to burn as a flame. This is true because we believe that "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies" (cf. Rom. 8:11).

We must live with the Spirit as our main point of reference, our guiding star, and the deepest basis for our decisions. This is only possible if we nourish our relationship with him through prayer. This is what it means to fan the flame. When we do this we let go our imagined right to decide good and evil for ourselves.  Rather than snatching apparent good things for ourselves we are able to trust in God to provide the good things he has for us.

All creatures look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

With this attitude we cannot help but say, "O bless the Lord, my soul!"

10 February 2015 - concrete

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

God is the one who creates all things. He is the one who says "Let the water teem" and "Let the earth bring forth". He is the one who divides day from night and earth from sky. He is the source of the substantial and the true. No wonder then, that he doesn't tolerate superficiality and hypocrisy. He delights in the real, in fertility, in life and abundance. And we are made to be like him.

God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.

The Pharisees get distracted by the trivial at the expense of things which, while simple, are more real and true. They are hung up on purifications and washings. They are fixated on purifying cups and jugs and kettles and bells. But they neglect family! 

you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.

You nullify the word of God

We need to have priorities which are properly ordered. Creation is good! It is art! It is beauty! Our practice of religion should not withdraw from this fact. Our love is called to be concrete. It is cannot be a distraction from the brokenness of the world. It must loving engage the world. Religion is not a running or withdrawing. It does not impose a artificial level of "purification" over something which remains broken within. Sometimes these externals point us to our need for internal change. But ultimately internal change is what matters. "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation" (cf. Gal. 6:15).

This is just what Jesus does! He does not merely cleanse us in a legal and fictions way. He changes us from the inside out. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here" (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). This shouldn't surprise us when we see the delight he takes in his work. We are made in his image. In precisely this way we are little less than angels and crowned with glory and honor.

You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.

And when we mess this up is he content to fix the surface and leave the depths unchanged? No!

"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (cf. Rom. 6:4).

Precisely because we are made in the image of the one who loves like this we must love like this, too. We must love with concrete love! "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (cf. 1 Joh. 3:18).

This is how the story of the new creation is written. We are made co-creators in the old order because we are empowered to be mothers and fathers and to have power of the creation. In the new order we are made co-creators by spreading the message of salvation to the ends of the earth.

O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

9 February 2015 - pointing to purpose

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss,
while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

From nothing, nothing comes (Latin: nihil fit ex nihilo). This is one way we know God with our minds. That there is anything at all points to that being which is sufficient in himself and does not depend on another cause for his being.  From chaos this self-sufficient being whom we call God brings forth order. He imposes form on formlessness. He causes the differentiation of this from that. He establishes boundaries of one thing from another. Is this good? Does it not contain within it the possibility of war? On the one hand, yes. But formlessness cannot contain a place to stand, to live, or to rest. Life itself insists on these definite boundaries to form individuals. Boundaries create the conditions not just of aggression but also of love. Darkness is unknown and unknowable. Into darkness God brings light.

These boundaries commit the universe to a certain course. They forego the potential of many different divisions for the actuality of certain ones. And it is good! Mere potential is not enough. Actual creation is the good that God chooses. He not only chooses it he delights in it.

God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning 

When these boundaries grow weak the universe slides back toward chaos. This is possible because of sin. Humans are intended to mediate God's presence to creation. We are meant to be the guardians of creation.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth.

But as Adam and Eve choose to sin they bring creation down with them.

Cursed is the ground because of you!
In toil you shall eat its yield
all the days of your life.

Yet this is not God's plan. Suffering is something which is permitted. But it is not taken lightly. It is not the creators ultimate intention for creation.

You fixed the earth upon its foundation,
not to be moved forever;

He refuses to sit back and watch while his work slides back into the waters of chaos. He refuses to sit back and watch his masterwork, mankind, sliding toward the waters of death and destruction.

The healings of Jesus are the beginning of a new and restored creation.

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

And ultimately all of creation will be brought along with us. It is good and God doesn't give up on it.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God (cf. Rom. 8:20-21).

God does not give up on or run from this world. It has a purpose and reveals his glory. It is not random and therefore not without value. It is good. And so we can't run from the difficulties of life here toward a more formless and abstract ideal. We must trust in God's purpose here. We must trust that he continues to work to heal the damage in the beginning. And so we pray:

May the Lord be glad in his works.

8 February 2015 - job skills

Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.

We all feel like Job at times. We all find life to be a drudgery at times. We all occasionally face nights that drag on filled with restlessness. We all have hopeless days. There are times when the way back to happiness seems hard to find.

The LORD understands our suffering. His knowledge is exhaustive. It is comprehensive. Not even the slightest momentary affliction of ours escapes his notice. Every single thing which Job goes through the LORD knows through and through.

He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.

We read and know that the LORD is great and mighty in power. So why does Job suffer? Why do we? Why must we wait for the LORD to come and heal our broken hearts?

Perhaps he is trying to reveal something to us. Perhaps he is trying to show us, not the power that immediately alleviates the pain, but something so real, radical, true, and good that it's value cannot be diminished by our suffering. Suffering can change us in bad ways if we let it. It can make us more self-centered. It can make us more the center of our own worlds. Even God is just one more treatment option. This brokenness, perhaps, is what he wants to address in us. Yet his solution is not to ignore us in our suffering. He does indeed heal the brokenhearted though not always in the way we want and not always when we want. Neither is his solution to hit us with a dose of divine painkiller. His solution is like that of Paul.

To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.

His solution is first to be with us in our suffering. His solution is to show us that the reality of who he is, Emmanuel, God with us. He wants us to see that this reality is greater than any suffering we can ever face. It is for this purpose that Jesus comes. He does not come to stay in deserted places while we suffer. He comes to us. He suffers with us. In this way he enables and empowers us to put God first even in our pain. It is hard to understand and our egos have a hard time letting go of the idea that we should be healed right now. But here he is with us, suffering too. If this is our God then surely we can love him even now. Especially now.

He meets us in such a personal and imtimate way. He grasps us by the hand and tells us to rise from our suffering. So let us go to his door. Let us draw as near as possible to the one who embraces us entirely. He shares our condition. He shares our pain. He is in the form of God but empties himself to be with us (cf. Phi. 2:6). And it is in this union only that we share his healing. So let us gather at his door with our various diseases and demons. We wonder why we are not already healed. But here at this door something more valuable than that healing begins to happen in our hearts. We begin to understand who he is.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.

We think we know him. But suffering hits and suddenly we are running our own show again and God is on the peripheries. But Jesus meets us this morning so that we may say with Job:

By hearsay I had heard of you,
but now my eye has seen you.
Therefore I disown what I have said,
and repent in dust and ashes.

Does that sound like a difficult thing to say? It is in a way. But it is wonderful that we come to a place where we no longer need to accuse the LORD of not healing us. We come to a place of new and more profound trust in him.

Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.

7 January 2015 - the herd heard

May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great shepherd of the sheep
by the Blood of the eternal covenant, 
furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (cf. Joh. 10:11). He is our shepherd and if we follow him there is nothing we shall want. He gives us all that is good so that we can do his will. He is the one "who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (cf. Eph. 1:3).

He and the shepherds he trains live selfless lives for the sake of we who are sheep. People come to them and great numbers so that they often have no opportunity even to eat. We leave them little time to go away to the desert places to have time to themselves. Yet they do not abandon us.

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

We ought to trust Jesus completely. He puts us even before himself. And his apostles and their successors do the same.

Obey your leaders and defer to them,
for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account,
that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow,
for that would be of no advantage to you.

We need to appreciate our shepherds. We need to appreciate and take advantage of the ways in which they make the chief shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep, present to us. They do not neglect to do good and share what they have with us. God is pleased but we are often indifferent, like they are just more people doing their jobs out in the world.

Yet it is through these shepherds that he carries out in us whatever is pleasing to him. It is through these shepherds that he leads us to the restful waters of baptism and spreads the table of the Eucharist before us. It is through them that he anoints us with oil in Confirmation and the Anointing of the Sick. It is only through them that we are able to dwell and God's house and to experience his goodness and kindness as profoundly as he desires.

They empower us to offer the sacrifice of praise that pleases God. Jesus does not abandon us. He himself is our shepherd. And wherever he can he makes himself present through his apostles and their successors. Look up. Even if we find ourselves in a dark valley this morning we can take comfort that the shepherd is at our side. Are there bad shepherds out there? Shepherds who are selfish and don't shepherd after God's heart? Yes, but let him worry about that. Like faithful sheep ours is to come to the shepherd who is great and good. Ours is to trust him.

6 February 2015 - content with too little contentedness

be content with what you have,
for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.

We often qualify this with conditions. We say, 'I will be content with what I have as long as' and insist on a certain minimum. We are people who can imagine ourselves to be easily content yet still leave room for the possibility of catastrophic failure.

But actually, if we know Jesus, we may say with confidence:

The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

We think that it is good enough to be easily content rather than always content. We are content with a contentedness that is too partial. It leaves fear lurking in the backgrounds of our hearts. It is an unexamined belief that there is something that can snatch us from the hands of God. Or it is the belief that there is something that we need more than God. Let's try to think about these things the way Paul does. Let's ask, "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?"

With this question as our starting point we are able to remember our leaders who spoke the word of God, consider the outcome of their lives, and imitate their faith. We are able to imitate John the Baptist. We can proclaim the truth in season and out of season (cf. 2 Tim. 4:2) no matter how Herod and his family feel about it. Even if we find much of the freedom we're used to taken from us we can be content in our prison cells because we hear Jesus say:

Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor (cf. Luk.  7:22).

Does this give us courage? Or does it make us jealous, we in a prison cell, and mighty deeds happening everywhere but here? If we say...

 The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

...we are not jealous. We are courageous. We have the one thing necessary. Yet we delight to hear that his glory is being revealed more and more int he world (cf. Luk. 10:42). This works when we have a clear idea of who Jesus is. He is not John the Baptist raised from the dead or Elijah. He is emphatically not a prophet like any of the prophets. He is the Word made flesh. He is God with us, Emmanuel. And with him in our boats we need not fear any storm (cf. Mar. 4:37-41). He is enough!

We can imitate Paul Miki and the martyrs of Nagasaki. They know Jesus. They are able to endure what we consider catastrophic failure in their circumstances and still say, "I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?" They have no minimum baseline for comfort after which they draw back. Hearts like this are filled with courageous no matter what life brings.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.

5 February 2015 - kingdom authority

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.

We receive authority, too! It isn't just the Twelve. It isn't even just them and their successors the bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church. We are all members of a kingdom which is not of this world (cf. Joh. 18:36). We are all royal (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9). We are all caught up in this battle which "is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (cf. Eph. 6:12). Will all have to deal with "unclean spirits" in one way or another.

We confront unclean spirits in ourselves. We aren't pushovers because we have kingdom authority. "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (cf. 2 Tim. 1:17). We need this because "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (cf. 1 Joh. 5:19). When we are part of the kingdom of darkness and not the kingdom of light this includes us. But Jesus brings us into the kingdom of light. 

No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled Blood that speaks more eloquently
than that of Abel.

It is not just to a place we come, but primarily to a person, to Jesus himself. By the power of his precious blood he fills us with himself. He has overcome the world (cf. Joh. 16:33). He is stronger than the one who is in the world (cf. 1 Joh. 4:4). This is how we have authority. It is his own authority in us.

But this authority is not for ourselves alone. We see brothers and sisters throughout the world who find themselves at the mercy of the kingdom of darkness. Oftentimes they don't even know it. But they suffer. They think they are free because they give free reign to their passions. But they are thereby enslaved. Unclean spirits hold the hostage. We have the authority to speak to them words of power which can set them free. How can we hold back from offering so great a gift? We can help to heal. We can help to bring freedom. It isn't necessary all overtly miraculous (though it is always actually miraculous). It is often just the small words, gestures, and actions which the Holy Spirit inspires in us. Let us give him, and not our passions, free reign.

So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Let us all find our place in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Let us all fully enter the kingdom of light where the darkness no longer has any power over us.

As we had heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts,
In the city of our God;
God makes it firm forever.

4 February 2015 - close to home

Strive for peace with everyone,
and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Holiness starts at home. It begins with the everyday and ordinary things. Perhaps we imagine that our neighborhoods and offices can be places of strife and jealously but that we can escape these and run to distant temples and far-off lands to see God. But we are called, at least on our part, to peace with everyone. We are warned that bitter roots can spring up and deprive ourselves and others of God's grace.

Since we can't get past these things to God's presence in the distance let us instead welcome God himself into our daily grind. We see today that it is not as easy as it sounds. Jesus is challenging when we let him in to our daily lives. He teaches us something so contrary to the wisdom of the world that it is hard to trust and easy to mock.

They said, "Where did this man get all this? 
What kind of wisdom has been given him? 

As Paul tells us, "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." It is the message of the cross which tells us to forego self-promotion, to stop working only for our advantage, to stop seeking to save our own lives and to instead seek first the kingdom (cf. Mat. 6:33).

At a distance we appreciate the beauty of the cross. But when we see it closely we see all the lines and creases of pain on the face of Christ. This sort of sacrificial love is recommended to us but we often draw back. Or perhaps we accept it. But when someone gets on our nerves again for the umpteenth time and we are called to lay down our life for them, for this person that should know better, for this person that has had so many second chances already, this person who it seems will never change, when we are called to lay down our lives for this person specifically things get real and they get challenging.

Our hands begin to droop and our knees grow weak when we see this up close. But we are looking at this all wrong.

My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.

God is trying to help us to live as his children. He wants to be more fully our Father. He is teaching us how to give and receive his kind of love rather than our own. After all, how many second chances does he give us? How must we test his patience after failing again and again. Doesn't it seem at times as though we ourselves are the people who will apparently never change even though we know better. Even as he teaches us to love others he teaches us that we ourselves are worthy of love.

The end goal is seeing him face to face. The promise set before us is a pure heart which can see God (cf. Mat. 5:8). The hard stuff we endure isn't God beating us up because he is cruel or capricious. He is training us. He is disciplining us. He is helping us to grow up. And this is true in each and every little thing where we are called to surrender. This is true of every invitation to offer our lives as a gift.

When we see things correctly we are able to welcome Jesus into our daily lives without taking offense at him. He will have honor in his native place and not just in the distance. And when he is so honored, recognized, and welcomed he is able to do, not just a few healings, but many mighty deeds.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him,