pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Choices

Reading: Isaiah 1:15-20

Isaiah 1:19… 20… – “If you agree and obey… But if you refuse and rebel…”

Isaiah was a prophet called by God to speak God’s word to Judah, the southern kingdom. Isaiah called Judah, particularly its leaders, to a radical trust and faith in God and away from their sinful behaviors. Judah is characterized at the start of Isaiah 1 as children who have turned away from God. The nation outside of Jerusalem is ravaged and the cities burn as Assyria wages war against Israel and Judah. But still Judah refuses to turn towards God. Yes, they are going through the motions of worship but their hearts are far from God. In fact, God calls all of their offerings “worthless.”

Because their worship is full of hypocrisy, God’s eyes refuse to see their extended hands. God’s ears are closed to their lengthy prayers. All because Judah’s hands are “stained with blood.” God even implores them, “Wash! Be clean!” Yet it is not the blood of warfare that stains their hands. The blood comes from within Judah. God instructs them, “Put an end to evil; learn to do good.” What good? To champion justice and to care for the oppressed, the orphan, the widow.

As if in a courtroom setting, God says to Judah, “Come now and let’s settle this.” With promises of their scarlet sins being made white as snow, God tells Judah, “If you agree and obey you will eat the best food of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Choose God or idols. Choose good or evil. Choose life or death. The same choices lie ever before you and before me.

Prayer: Lord God, since the beginning of creation these have been our choices. Until Jesus comes in final victory these will be our choices. Just as Isaiah spoke words of warning and words of life, may your Word and your Spirit guide us to faithful obedience. Lead us to walk your path in faith and trust, O Lord. Amen.


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The Foundation: Love

Reading: John 14:18-21

Verse 20: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

Jesus continues to offer words of reassurance and promise as we press on into the second half of this week’s gospel lesson. Reassuring the disciples that their connection to him, that their relationship with him, will not end in his death. He states, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” While this will not be in the earthly physical sense it will be in a tangible, real, spiritual sense. The presence of the Holy Spirit is something that we can feel, sense, and connect to.

Jesus then says, “You will see me.” As the Spirit works in the hearts and minds of the disciples it will remind them of Jesus. It will bring back memories of his actions and words, bringing guidance, direction, encouragement, strength… In this way, they will see Jesus. Along these lines, because Jesus lives in them, they will in turn live as his hands, feet, words, and actions in the world. No, they will never be orphans. They will forever be connected to Jesus Christ and to the kingdom of God. We too experience this living presence when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In verse 20 we read, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” Indeed so! On the day that the Holy Spirit becomes a part of our lives we realize this indwelling of Christ in us and of us in Christ. In the Biblical story, the disciples will soon experience this as the risen Christ breathes the Holy Spirit upon them. In the last verse, Jesus speaks again and again of love. This is the foundation of our relationship with the Lord and with one another. Each day may we live into this love and may we pour it out into the world.

Prayer: Lord God, your Spirit is a wonderful gift. It connects us 24/7 to you. It is a constant guide and companion. Through the power and presence of your Spirit lead me in love – for you, for others, for the world. Amen.


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Praise Lived Out

Reading: Psalm 148

Verse 13: “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.”

The psalmist calls for praise. Following the order found in Genesis 1 in the creation story, the writer calls for praise from all parts of our existence. From the sun, moon, and stars, all the way to humanity, the call is to praise the Lord our God. In verse 13 we are provided with the ‘why’: “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.” God alone is worthy of our praise. Yet praise is more than simply worshipping God.

Walter Brueggemann argues that our lives should be praise lived out. Yes, we are to worship and praise God for all that God has done and continues to do. But our praise cannot stop in the past or even reside just in the present. Our lives and our praise must also be a part of building God’s kingdom here on earth. Jesus – God with us – best personifies this idea. His life of praise was lived out in the ways he sought the lost and the least; in the ways he healed and cared for the orphan, the sick, the widow; and, in the ways he gave mercy and grace to the outcasts, the marginalized, the sinners. Jesus revealed a new way of being and living in the world. It was the way of love.

As we stand on the brink of a new year, we often think of and reflect back on the year that is ending. May one of our questions be to ask ourselves if we loved as Jesus loved. And then may we consider how we can love God and one another more deeply and more completely in 2023. As we prepare to enter a new year, may we commit to being praise lived out, all for the glory of God.

Prayer: Lord God, as this 24 hours rolls into the next one, it is just another day. Yet it also is a significant change, a moment that calls me to reflection and introspection. Pause with me today, O God. Help me to consider how I can better praise you with my life in the coming year. Sit with me and show me how I can better live out my praise of you, my God, my Lord and Savior. Amen.


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Again and Again

Reading: Luke 18:1-8

Verse 7: “Will not God bring about justice for God’s chosen ones, who cry out day and night?”

Returning today to Luke 18 we focus on the widow and her faith. She was fully convinced that an injustice had been done against her. As a widow, she was powerless to affect change in this case. The judge was her only option. So she goes to the judge over and over. And then she goes again and again. The widow persists; she will not give up.

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever been so moved by an injustice that you won’t give up? If so, you were like the widow – you prayed and prayed, you came over and over to the one(s) who could affect the injustice, you acted in ways to bring healing or change or justice. You demanded to be heard and used any means possible to shine light on your “case.” You were persistent. You would not give up.

Who or what in our world or in your life needs your focus and attention? Who or what do you need to pray and pray and pray for? How else can you affect change? Maybe it is the divided in our nation and among us. Maybe it is for a friend in an unjust situation. Maybe it is for the homeless or the orphans or the single parents or for the foster care system.

Whatever it is, remember that the parable is about always praying and never giving up. It must be so because we pray to a God who will bring about justice. May we go to God again and again, trusting God to act.

Prayer: Lord God, you are gracious and merciful and loving. You are a champion of justice and peace and wholeness. Lord, bring your power to bear on our hurting and broken world. Amen.


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Love God, Love Neighbor

Reading: Matthew 22: 34-46

Verses 37 and 39: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself”.

The Pharisees loved the law. It was a tool to maintain their position and their appearance of goodness. With the law they could judge and shame and control others. The law could be used to define who had value and worth and standing. Jesus chose love. That is the key word in the two great commandments. Boiled down to their simplest form, Jesus said, “Love God, love neighbor”. The highest form of love welcomes the other, serves all, extends mercy and grace and forgiveness without cost, and is generous with all one has and is. And, in the end, it is not the law that saves us, it is love that saves.

Love saves us because it is greater than our sin. Love saves us because it is stronger than the power of death. Love washes us clean when we stumble and give in to the lures of the world and to the pleasures of the flesh. Love makes us new again over and over, allowing us to continue to be in right relationship with the Lord our God. The love that grows within also extends outward, leading us to offer grace and mercy and forgiveness not only to others but to ourselves as well. Love leads us to see others as valued, as worthy, as beloved children of God. Love leads us to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned and the lonely, to provide for the orphan and widow and stranger. Love calls us to die to self again and again, surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, the one who modeled what it is to fully love God and neighbor. Each day may we seek to share Christ’s love with others as we bring love into the world.

Prayer: Lord of love, deepen my relationship with you each day, empowering me to be love lived out. Capture my whole heart and open it to all I meet. In these encounters, may others see you. Amen.


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Partners of God

Reading: Psalm 99: 1-5

Verse 4: “The King is mighty, he loves justice”.

The psalmist’s love of and awe for God are obvious. In the opening verses the psalmist recognizes God’s reign over all the earth as well as God’s great and awesome power. God is exalted over all the nations of the earth because God is holy. It is a good and right thing to have a holy reverence for the Lord our God. Humility is then drawn forth from within us as we acknowledge the might and power of God as he reigns over the whole earth.

In the next two verses, however, we are reminded that God does not just reign with power and might. Yes, his voice can make the earth shake. But his gentle touch can also break the bonds of injustice and oppression. In verse four we read, “The King is mighty, he loves justice”. In our world today this is an odd combination. Often those powerful enough to rise into places of authority have done so on the backs of others and have lost their sense of justice and equity on their way to the top. They become insensitive or even callous to the plight of the poor and the marginalized and the powerless. Not so our God!

Our God loves justice and seeks to stand with the oppressed, the broken, the hurting, the downtrodden. God has always been a protector of these as well as of the widow, the orphan, and the imprisoned. Nowhere has this love been more evident than in the incarnation. Jesus, God in the flesh, fully lived out this love of justice and all who were oppressed or pushed to the edges of society. Providing the example of what God’s justice and love looked like when lived out to the full, Jesus then invited us to “come and follow me”. In our awe and love of God and as our response to our loving Savior’s invitation, may we too be lovers of justice and sharers of salvation from all that binds. May we become partners with God, working daily to bring wholeness and restoration and reconciliation to a world in need.

Prayer: Loving and awesome God and blessed son Jesus Christ, fill me with your love and passion for the least among us. Guide me to those places and people who need to know your healing love and your freeing grace. May I be an instrument of your peace and love this day and every day. Amen.


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A Heart for the Weary

Reading: Psalm 68: 1-10 and 32-35

Verse 9: “You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance”.

Reading the first few verses of Psalm 68, one gets a sense of God’s powers. God can scatter the enemies and can make the wicked perish before him. David has experienced these things happening and has a confidence that God remains capable. When these things have happened, the righteous have been made glad, they have rejoiced. In our own lives we experience this as well. We might not see the walls of Jericho fall or see the sea swallow up the whole Egyptian army, but we so see sins fall away as we seek to deny self and to live for God’s glory as a new creation. We experience the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, giving us the same confidence in God’s love for us.

God’s love is, of course, not limited to us. In verse four there is a shift in God’s care, provision, protection. David begins with praises to God. As one reads verses four through six, there is a connection to Jesus, the shoot of David’s line. Jesus came to more fully reveal God to humanity and in doing so more fully revealed the special place in God’s heart for the orphans and widows, for the lonely and the prisoners. The list in the Psalm is just a partial list. To get a fuller list we turn to the gospels. God has a special love for the broken and the lost, for the marginalized and the powerless. Verse nine sums this up: “You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance”. God pours out his love on the weary… From this love God also “provided for the poor” from “his bounty”.

As people created in God’s image we too should hold a special place in our heart for the weary, the poor, the broken… In verse 35 of our Psalm we read, “the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people”. This remains true today. When we seek to partner with God, when we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, we too can pour out abundant blessings on the outsiders, on those on the edges, on those who are imprisoned. May we seek to praise God not only with our voices, but with our hands and feet as well.

Prayer: Loving Father, break my heart for what breaks yours. Fill me with your compassion for those often overlooked or pushed aside. Empower me to be your hands and feet today. Amen.


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A Verb

Reading: John 14: 15-21

Verse 21: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”.

If I only had one word to describe God or Jesus it would be “love”. A one word description is woefully short, but all of God’s teachings and actions, all of Jesus’ too, can be traced back to love. Just as a one word description is left wanting, we have two earthly models that describe divine love. Marriage gives us a small glimpse into the love of Jesus for his church and parenthood yields a tiny insight into God’s love for us, his children. In these two models, when lived out really well, we begin to understand divine love. As we do, we learn that love is a verb, not a noun.

As Jesus is soon to leave this earthly place, he wants to comfort and reassure his disciples. He knows the fear and isolation they will soon experience. Instead of leaving them as “orphans”, instead of asking them to live with just memories of his love, he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit. The disciples have spent most of three years with Jesus. But they were not with him 24/7. They were with him most, but not all of the time. In the Spirit, Jesus promises to be in them “forever”. Because of this constant presence, they will then realize that “I am in the father, and you are in me, and I am in you”. This intimacy is based upon love. In verse 21 Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”. Love is revealed in following Jesus’ teachings. Remember, love is a verb. How will you live out Jesus’ love today?

Prayer: God of love, thank you for your indwelling presence of love. The Spirit reminds me to love and of when I am failing to be love. It calls me to follow you. May I love well today. Amen.


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God’s Will

Reading: Luke 18: 7-8

Verse 7: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night”?

At first reading of verse seven we think that Jesus is referring to us. Surely if we are a disciple of Christ we are part of the family of God, part of the chosen ones. If we consider the context of the whole parable, maybe we are not the ones that Jesus is speaking about.

In arguably the best known prayer we pray, “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. In these words we are asking that God’s will would reign – not just in heaven but here among us on earth as well. It is asking that God’s will be done, not our will be done.

The widow is the central figure in the parable. She would be one who lived on the edges of society. She represents not just the widows but the orphans, the sick, the lonely, the outcast, the prisoner, the stranger… What if these were the chosen ones? God has long directed Israel to care for such as these. In his teachings, Jesus makes it clear that as his followers we too are to care for the lost and the broken. What if these are the chosen ones who cry out day and night for justice? What then is our role to bring about justice?

Are we then the judge – the one who neither cared about God or men? We cannot pray the “thy will be done” prayer and then ignore the cares and pleas of the needy and the outcasts. We must instead hear their cries and seek to be light and love, first meeting their immediate needs. Second, we must seek to remedy injustice and other things like oppression and unfair treatment. Lastly we are to start them on a new road – one with Jesus at the center. We are to walk alongside and with the lost and broken, the needy and the outcast, until they are these things no more.

As we hear Jesus teaching us to pray without ceasing, to come to God over and over, may we ever remember that we pray for God’s will to be done. As we pray and as we live out our lives, may all we do be aligned with what God wants us to do – loving the chosen ones. May it be so.

Prayer: God of love and compassion, tear my heart for what tears yours. Open my eyes to the needs and empower me to be one who walks with those in need. Use me as you will. Amen.


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God Calls

Reading: Isaiah 1: 16-20

Verse 17: “Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow”.

Verse sixteen opens with God’s admonition to “wash and make yourselves clean”. It continues the strong language of verses ten through fifteen. God continues on to tell his people to “stop doing wrong, learn to do right”! One can hear the frustration in these words. God set the law before them long ago, had led by example, has sent prophetic voices that have called the people back over and over. Once again, they have wandered away. Once again God seeks to call them back.

God does offer instruction on how to ‘do right’. In verse seventeen God implores the people to “seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow”. These are common themes throughout the Bible. Moses dealt with it, Micah addresses it. In the New Testament Jesus addresses the cause of justice, care for the other… often. Jesus himself quotes from Isaiah 61, revealing how the oppressed, the widow, the orphan have a special place in God’s heart. God is clear that these should have the same special place in our hearts. Why is this?

Most of us are secure in life, confident in who and what we are. We have position and status that allows us to voice our needs, our thoughts… We also have people and a community around us that will listen, that will care for us. Through Isaiah today and throughout the Bible, God is calling us to stand with those who do not know these privileges. God is calling us to walk beside those who are powerless and who are often outside of community. God is calling us not only to stand with and walk beside these, but also to bring them into community, into relationship. God calls us to love as God loves so that WE can become more like him. The prophets and then Jesus echo this call over and over again. May we join them all as we seek to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, to release from darkness the prisoners, and to comfort all who mourn. May it be so!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, break my heart for what breaks yours. Pour into me your compassion and love so that I may minister to the oppressed, to the poor, to the widow, to the captive among us. Grant me your heart, Jesus. Amen.