pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Abundant Grace

Reading: Matthew 20: 1-16

Verse Eight: Call the workers and pay them their wages.

In the parable today the going wage is a denarius.  It was the standard pay for a day’s labor.  For the vineyard workers, four of the five groups received generous pay.  They had worked three, six, nine, or eleven hours less then the first ones hired.  All four of these groups walk away happy with their pay.

The fifth group – those who agreed to a denarius and those who worked the longest – receive the same pay.  In a way this too is generous.  They began the day with nothing to do and were fortunate to be hired.  But what they agreed to does not sit so well with them.  As each group of workers receives their denarius, their unhappiness grows as they come to realize all are being paid the same.  In complaining to the owner, they voice their grumbling relative to the ones who worked only an hour.  They speak of the ones who best ‘prove’ their case.  Yet I think they did not think the groups who worked three, six, or nine hours deserved a denarius either.

God’s grace extends to all who labor for the kingdom of God.  There is no minimum time required before one can begin to draw on grace.  There is no cosmic scorecard somewhere in heaven that determines how much grace each person is allotted or tracks how much we have earned.  We are each given as much as we need.  We are each given the undeserved and unlimited gift of grace anytime we need it.

Our churches are filled with people from all five groups.  Some have just begun to draw on God’s grace.  Others have been living in His grace for 10, 30, or 40 years.  Still others have been living in God’s grace for as long as they can remember.  Many of these receive grace like most of the vineyard workers.  They receive more than they deserve and walk away grateful for the owner’s generosity.  May we each respond to God’s grace the same way, realizing we are receiving more than we deserve, walking away grateful for God’s abundant Grace in our lives.


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The Blood

Reading: Matthew 27: 11-26

Verse 23: Why? What crime has he committed?

Today we read of the “trial” before Pilate, the Roman governor.  Like a few stops along the journey to the cross, we could ask if Jesus had to die.  Couldn’t there have been another way?  Pilate had the authority to free or to condemn Jesus.  The decision concerning life and death rested in his hands alone.

The religious authorities that have been pushing the action to this point in the story would say that Jesus has to die.  They have traded barbs with Him over the last few years and it has increasingly become an “us or Him” type of situation.  They have schemed and trumped up a charge.  They have the crowd whipped up and ready to influence Pilate.  All goes according to their plan.  Even though Pilate senses Jesus is innocent, the crowd is too much for Pilate.  They roar for Jesus’ death even as he asks them, “Why?  What crime has he committed”?  Pilate condemns Jesus to desth, but washes his hands of Jesus’ blood.

Is it all going according to their plan?  Did Jesus gave to die?  The plan being followed is not the religious authorities’ plan.  It is God’s plan.  To die, to be our sacrifice, is why God sent Jesus in the first place.  It is hard to understand why a father would send a son knowing his fate on the cross.  But God has a few years of experience with humanity.  God has sent prophet after prophet, priest after priest, king after king to try and lead the people to live in a right relationship with God.  He has seen dove after dove, lamb after lamb, cow after cow sacrificed on the altar.  None brings atonement.  None removes the guilt of our sins.  None ultimately changes the relationship between God and the people.  Mankind is sinful.  We are of the flesh so we struggle with sin.  We live in a constant battle with sin.  The old covenant left humanity captive to sin and death.

In Jesus’ death and resurrection God established a new covenant with humanity.  On the cross, Jesus took on the sin of the world.  He took on sin that was, sin that is, and sin to come.  In His sacrifice Jesus paid the price for our sin.  We do not have to offer sacrifices any longer.  Jesus is our sacrifice.  He chose the cross so that the sins of the world could be washed away.  Through His blood our sins are washed away.  Jesus fulfilled His statement: “I am the way, the truth, and the life”.  Through the name of Jesus we can claim eternal life.  In His name, our sins are forgiven.  Thank you God for the blood of the Lamb.


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Love for All

Reading: John 3: 16-17

These two verses summarize the love of God for mankind.  God sent His only Son for you and I.  God sent Jesus so that we could believe in Him and have a personal relationship with Him, so that one day we could share in eternal life with Him.  It is a wonderful example of love.  It was a great sacrifice.  It is the best gift the world could ever receive.  Just to be sure we understand the gift, the second verse reminds us that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.

God’s unconditional and unlimited love is for the world, for everyone.  Whether or not one worships God, God loves us all.  Whether or not one lives according to God’s ways, God loves all of us.  God desires for each of us to step within His love to claim our birthright as a child of God.  God wants each of us to enter our eternal rest.  Jesus came to open the way to God for all people, to provide a path that all people can walk.  Jesus modeled the way to eternal life during His earthly ministry.  Just as God’s love is for all people, love guided Jesus in all He did or said.  This is how Jesus saves the world – through love.

Do all people accept God’s love?  No.  Do those who accept His love always follow God’s ways?  Nope.  Do those who strive to follow His ways live a life without sin?  Certainly not.  In spite of all this, God still loves us.  In spite of who we are at times, God does not condemn us.  God knows who and what we are and loves us anyway.  God knew who and what we were, and God still sent Jesus, so that through His sacrifice, we could all enter our eternal rest.  It is unconditional love and the ultimate sacrifice rolled up into the greatest gift we have ever been given.  It is a gift meant to be shared.

Each day, as we live out our life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we are called to share this gift with others.  We are called to let the whole world know that God loves them.  We share the gift so that all may one day live in the personal relationship with Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  To the ends of the world we go!


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One Man

Reading: Romans 5: 12-19

In today’s reading, we have the first Adam and the second Adam, Jesus Christ.  In both Adam and Christ we are all connected together.  By all, I mean all people – not just Christians.  The choices that Adam and Jesus made affects all people, not just believers.

Adam chose to sin and through that sin death entered the world.  In this one act of disobedience, Adam brought death to humanity.  We will all one day die as a part of this earthly existence.  Whether or not you believe in God or in Jesus, one day death will come.  Death comes not just to our human bodies.  Sin also brings death to our relationships, to our dreams, to our connection to God.  All of humanity shares in these realities.  Adam’s choice brought sin into the world.  In turn, sin brings condemnation and death.

Christ made a different choice.  Christ’s choice was also made by one man, but in obedience to God.  Through Christ’s decision, true life entered the world.  It is not the earthly life we now experience but the glimpse of eternal life that all who call on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will one day experience.  Verse nineteen reads, “Through the obedience of the one man many will be made righteous”.  Jesus, in His obedience, paid the price of our sin and instead of condemnation, God now offers us justification.  Through the body and blood of Jesus, we can be made whole again, righteous in God’s sight, because Jesus washes away our sins.

Just as Adam’s choice affected all of humanity, so too does Christ’s choice.  We also know from Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.  We know from all four Gospels that Jesus always operated from the place of love.  Jesus’ love was extended to all people – to tax collectors, to prostitutes, to Pharisees, to lepers, to any and all who came to Him.  In the same way, Jesus offers eternal life to us all.  To me, a sinner.  To you, a sinner.  To all.  It is a free gift, generously given to one and to all.  Thank you Lord Jesus for this amazing love.


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The Faith OF Christ

Reading: Galatians 2: 15-21

In the original Greek of today’s text, there was no word between ‘faith’ and ‘Jesus Christ’.  The structure of the original sentence would have implied a certain connection.  Through the study of this and with an understanding of the whole message of the Bible, the word inserted is almost always ‘of’.  As is: the faith of Christ.  In using ‘of’ it places the redemptive work of saving grace fully on Jesus, not on us.

While it is true that we often live as if faith ‘in’ Jesus is what matters, wrongly thinking that somehow our own actions will save us.  In using ‘faith in Christ’ we are trying to take a role in something that is solely the work of God.  It was Jesus’ faith alone that led Him to the cross and it is God alone who offers us grace – that unmerited, undeserved free gift of love.  Our role is simply to live into the faith of Jesus Christ in God that allowed Him to go to the cross.

Once we can accept this and begin to understand the faith of Christ in His saving act, then this initiates a response on our part.  Once we wrap our heads around this great gift, then we begin to live our life as a grateful response to this gift and to His love.  As one of my devotionals put it this morning, we begin to “embrace a cross-shaped faithfulness of our own”.  In embracing this we understand and begin to live out God’s desire and plan to make all things new and to restore all of creation, bringing healing to all brokenness.

We understand that we ourselves are made new as children of God.  We respond by inviting and bringing others into this right relationship with God.  We respond by seeking to bring healing and restoration to the brokenness of our world.  The faith OF Jesus Christ dwells in us and shines out into the world through our lives.  This is the gift a faithful follower of Jesus Christ offers back to a world in need.


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Breath of New Life

Reading: Psalm 104: 24-34 & 35b

When God created the world, He gave the breath of life to all living things.  Each day since then, He has breathed new life into each that is born.  But for humanity, God has taken one more step.  For all who call on His name, God offers grace.  He breathes the Holy Spirit into each who professes their faith in Christ and makes each a new creation, children not of the world but children of God.  As a child of God we continue to live for a time in the world, but we are no longer of this world.  As heirs of Christ, we now belong to Him and heaven is our destination.

Once we claim Christ and He claims us, the Spirit comes and dwells in us.  We begin to live as free people, no longer chained to the desire to acquire more, to rise higher, to seek the approval of man.  Instead we are freed to give, to love, to serve.  In the body of Christ, we experience life abundant.  As the body of Christ we find support, encouragement, guidance, help, and fellowship in Him and in each other.  In our interactions with the world we meet many people who do not know Jesus as king.  The body of Christ is an inclusive body.  In Him there is no Jew or Gentile, no this or that.  The peace and joy we know in Christ is ours to share so that all can come to know the way of the cross.

As a redeemed people we are called to make disciples of all nations.  This task is the task of every Christian.  Sometimes we do this directly as we go to those in need and meet their needs.  The need can be physical, emotional, spiritual, or relational.  We do as Christ did and simply offer all we can.  Sometimes our witness is by how we live our lives.  The light of Christ within us should shine forth so that all see it and are drawn to it – eventually wanting to know how they can have that joy, peace, contentment, and love in their lives.  They come to desire that God breathes the breath of new life into them as well.  In all we do and say this day, may we bring God the glory!


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A Personal Connection

In His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus goes to the temple and teaches from the scroll containing the words of the prophet Isaiah.  Luke makes mention that many there are aware of and appreciative of Jesus’ teachings up to this point.  What He reads that day would be a well-known passage.  The ideas of bringing the good news to the poor, releasing captives, bringing sight to the blind, setting the oppressed free, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor all were part of the Jewish mindset.  Heads would have been nodding their approval.  But then Jesus added one more thing.  He claimed to be the fulfillment of this passage.  He states that He is this Messiah.  He created discomfort and ruffled feathers.

Fast forward to now.  When one speaks of sharing the good news, of freeing people from whatever oppresses or holds them back, of giving spiritual sight to one who is blind, all of us nod our heads approvingly.  We too view helping others as worthy and as the calling of the church.  But sadly enough we have our “just hold on a minute” line.  It’s a wonderful idea to feed and care for the needy.  Could you just do it over there?  It is great to share the gospel with those who have not heard it.  But do they have to come and worship here at our church?  It is noble and godly to help people overcome addiction and sins in their life.  But does little Suzy have to see it played out in person?

Sorry, but yes, we need to minister to people in our churches.  Alas, we must sit beside those new to the faith, to love and mentor them, to help them connect to God.  Yes, it is messy.  Folks who struggle need help in the form of a personal connection.  We are to be Jesus’ hands and feet, touching their lives directly and walking side by side with those who are new to faith or who are struggling.  May we find a little discomfort, may our feathers get a little ruffled, and may we like it.

Scripture reference: Luke 4: 14-21


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Buffet Grace

Do you like buffet restaurants?  I do.  But there is a good and bad.  I really like the variety you find at a good buffet.  The inherent danger is eating way too much.  In both of these senses it is like a good church potluck!

God’s grace is like a buffet in a few ways.  The most obvious way is that His grace never runs out.  Christ’s sacrifice was not a one-time pass to the table of God’s grace – it is unlimited.  God’s grace is not limited in variety either.  Our sins are varied and of all types.  His grace covers them all.

The buffet and God’s grace differ as well.  No matter how many times you go back for more grace, you walk away feeling great.  You can never get enough.  Most important difference: His grace is free.  God’s grace is a gift freely given.  It has no cost and requires only that we accept it.

God’s grace and the buffet line are also alike in one last, very important way.  When you have had your fill of both, you walk away sensing that you must do something.  It is not required, but boy does exercise feel good!

We exercise our faith by doing good works.  Once we are filled with God, we are compelled to share Him with others.  It is our grateful response to His free gift. Today, drink deeply and exercise well!!

Scripture reference: Ephesians 2: 8-10