pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Acts of Surrender

Reading: Titus 3:3-8

Titus 3:5 – “He saved us because of his mercy, not because of righteous things we had done.”

Photo credit: Shane Rounce

Stepping into Paul’s letter to Titus in 3:3, Paul acknowledges their (and our) former state. Before professing faith in Christ and committing to follow his teachings and example we were “foolish, disobedient, deceived” people who were enslaved to the desires and pleasures of this world. We were filled with jealousy, yes, but with many other things too: greed, pride, lust, judging… We lived a very self-centered and self-focused life until we encountered Jesus.

When we met Jesus, we met kindness and love. We found salvation through Christ’s grace. Our sins were not held against us. In verse 5 we read, “He saved us because of his mercy, not because of righteous things we had done.” Paul is addressing the false ‘balance scale’ theory that we can try and live by early in our faith journey. A part of that self-centeredness is still hanging on. We think that we can do enough good to outweigh all of the sin that we commit. In time, as we mature, we realize that this is an impossible equation to balance in our own.

Jesus helps us out. Through the washing of “new birth” and through the “renewing” of the Holy Spirit we are “made right” and we “inherit the hope for eternal life.” This is partially an ongoing process. We may sin less as we mature in faith but we do still sin. That is our human nature. The hope we find in Christ sustains us in our times of struggle and it encourages us in times of doubt. This is also a completed process. Our inheritance is kept safe for us by the Lord our God. Our response to all of this? As Paul writes, we “give careful attention to doing good.” May it be so.

Prayer: Lord God, humble us day by day. Seeing ourselves honestly, guide us to bow before your throne of grace. Admitting our limits, lead us to yield our will to your will. Call us to these acts of surrender again and again and again, over and over until they become second nature to us. Amen.


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That Is Enough

Readings: Job 38 through Job 42

‭Job 40:8 – “Would you question my justice, deem me guilty so you can be innocent?”

God speaks from the whirlwind. There is power and might in God’s voice. Right away Job is put on notice: get ready, God has some questions for you. God then asks a series of questions. Was Job there when God laid the earth’s foundations? Can Job command the morning to come? Has Job surveyed the earth’s expanses? Can Job tame the wild donkey or the ostrich? Can Job make the hawk fly? No, no, no, no, and no! These questions humble Job and make him aware of God’s vastness and of God’s control over all things.

God then asks “God’s instructor” to correct anything needing correction. Job says, “Look, I’m of little worth.” He spoke before but will not do so now. God then asks, “Would you question my justice, deem me guilty so you can be innocent?” God challenges Job to humble the proud and to trample the wicked. Go ahead Job, says God, “Then I, even I, will praise you.” Job has no response.

To further help Job (and friends – they’re still there) understand the scale or immensity of God, God speaks of Behemoth and Leviathan – two dangerous and terrifying mythological creatures. Even these were created by God and are within God’s control. Yes, the universe is much larger and more wondrous than Job (or friends) can fathom.

In chapter 42 Job speaks. Job understands that God is all-powerful and is fully in control of all things. Job is humbled, having spoken of things he did not really understand. And Job knows God in a new way: in his heart, not just in his head. Job relents to God’s power and might. There is no answer to why he suffered. Job now knows God in his heart. And that is enough. May it be so for you and for me.

Prayer: Lord God, power and might are yours! All glory and praise and honor to you, O God! You know the answers inside out. We can barely formulate a few questions. Reign over our lives and our world. Reign in our hearts, O God. Amen.


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A Heart Turned to God

Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Matthew 5:23-24

Verse 19: “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death.”

In Deuteronomy 30 Moses presents a choice: God or not God? It is a choice all people must make. Most people in our modern world come across God. They hear of or know of God and faith. Some are drawn in and accept faith and others reject it. And then there are those who live and die without ever hearing about God or Jesus. Some of these folks sense good within and in the world and they live reflecting this spark of the divine within them. Others in this situation reject the good and choose to live for self. All people choose between life and death, between good and evil.

Moses is presenting this choice to the people of God. They clearly know and understand who and what God is. Moses makes it clear that it is a choice: “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death.” The choice that Moses lays out is more about the way we choose to live day in and out rather than checking off more of the boxes that represent us keeping each and every law. Faith is not a giant balance scale. It is not a grand race to become “perfect.” Faith is about a heart turned to God. In verses 20 Moses describes the outcome of such a heart: “that you may love the Lord your God, listen to God’s voice, and hold fast to God.” These words ooze covenant love and presence and relationship.

Turning to the Matthew text for today, Jesus connects our relationships with one another into what it means to choose God. In verses 21-37 Jesus uses “But I say…” statements to guide us to look within, to look at what drives our choices, our actions, our inactions. In today’s 2 verses Jesus hones in on the importance of living in right relationship with each other. He places this as a prerequisite to coming before God. He tells us that we cannot be in a place of brokenness or sin with one another and think it okay to come before the Lord in that state. Jesus says, “First go and be reconciled… then come.” Made right with one another then we can come before God. This is a powerful statement. It reveals how much God values community and living in right relationship with one another. Both are revealed in a heart turned to God. May this be our heart.

Prayer: Lord God, where and when I struggle to offer reconciliation, help me. Lead me and guide me past self. Make my heart to better reflect yours, O God. Amen.


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“L” is for…

Reading: Matthew 25: 31-40

Verse 40: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”.

In today’s passage Jesus sounds a bit like an Old Testament prophet. His words and what I imagine his tone to be evoke visions of Ezekiel or Isaiah. Jesus is once again speaking of heaven and hell. Passages like this naturally bring to our mind the question: am I in or am I out? Reading this passage I’ve often fallen into these ways of thinking. In my rule-following mind it was and sometimes still is hard not to feel some condemnation when I read this passage.

Jesus is clear in the overall message today. There is a right or faithful way to live with one another. Therefore, there is also a wrong way. The right way is to care for the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned. The wrong way is to ignore them, to not care for them. In verse forty we read, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”. In verse 45 we read the result of failing to care for such as these: “you did not do for me”.

Reading this passage we can tend to think: Am I a sheep or am I a goat? The judge living inside of us can easily start to scroll through our lives, weighing the evidence for and against. The ‘in or out?’ question can become a balance scale of sorts. But then I stop and ask: does this align with the Jesus we see in the Gospels? Can you really see Jesus judging you this way when you one day stand before him? This is not the Jesus revealed to me in the New Testament or along my faith journey.

Then what is the point of the teaching? We cannot simply toss it or skip by it because it makes us uncomfortable or because it causes us to wrestle with our faith and how we live it out. In a way this was the underlying point of all of Jesus’ teachings. These words were spoken by the one that always calls us deeper into relationship, deeper into loving God and one another. So what if this teaching is about a way to live, about a rule of life? Jesus was one who sought to connect to the least, the lost, the last, the lonely. What drove him to do so was another “L”: love. Yes, the ideal is to always care for others, in whatever form that may be.

I struggle less with this parable than I used to. Now I see it as the model that Jesus set. I still fail at times. I don’t always feed the hungry… I do not always visit the lonely… But I do strive to love each to the best of my ability and capacity – to the best of my faith. When I fail, the Holy Spirit always goes to work within me, leading and prompting me to love deeper the next time God presents an opportunity. I am a work in progress. I’d guess you are too. May the shepherd continue to lead you and me.

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for a heart that yearns to love more each day. Guide and lead my heart to be more and more like yours. Amen.


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By Faith Alone

Reading: Romans 4: 1-5 and 13-17

Verse 13: “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise… but through the righteousness that comes by faith”.

As Paul and the rest of the earliest church were sorting out just how Jewish one must first be to become a follower of Jesus Christ, he penned these words that we read today. Before becoming an apostle, Paul was known as Saul. In that phase of his life he was a self-proclaimed Jew among Jews. He was a very devout Pharisee who knew and followed the letter of the law. As the early church grew and began to add Gentile believers, a huge debate arose over just how much of the Jewish faith must be followed to become a Christian.

In our reading for today Paul points to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. Paul chooses him for two reasons. First, he is one of the pillars of Judaism. His faith is one of the models. God declares Abram righteous because of his faith. As we’ve been reading, God called and in obedient faith, Abram went where God led. He stepped out and followed God. Second, at the time there was no law. It had not been given yet. Paul is saying that one can be saved by faith apart from the law. Paul, known as the apostle to the Gentiles, is not in favor of applying Jewish laws to the Christian faith. Paul himself became a believer when he met the risen Lord and then entered into a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ. For Paul it had nothing to do with the law. In the next chapters Paul will go on to argue this point further. Martin Luther will pick up these texts many hundreds of years later as he works out his “justification by faith alone” doctrine that will rock the church.

Even though the New Testament clearly spells out that one is saved by faith alone we can often feel like we must do good works or follow some set of prescribed steps to be saved. God does not have a giant balance scale that one day weighs out our good versus bad. We know from the scriptures that as soon as we confess and give our sins to God, they are wiped away – they are no more. Nothing is being stacked up on the “bad” side of some mythical scale. Yes, our faith will lead us to do good things. That is how we live out the love of God within us. It is the model Jesus set for us. As we follow Christ, living out our faith, may his ‘why’ become our ‘why’. Jesus loved others because the love of God within him overflowed into the lives of others. May we do the same. May the sharing of God’s love be our grateful response to our God who saves.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for your unconditional love and grace. It is certainly not deserved but you pour it out upon me anyway. I definitely cannot earn yet it is still there in unending abundance. It is an amazing love, an amazing grace. Thank you. Amen.


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Do It Quickly

Reading: John 13: 21-32

Verse 21: “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me”.

At the start of John 13, Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet. He has “set you an example” and encouraged them to do as He has done. Next Jesus goes on to predict that one of His own disciples will betray Him. In verse 21 we read, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me”. The disciples react as we all would in Jesus’ presence – at a loss. They each think in their own hearts – surely not I! They are all curious and Peter prompts John to ask. By sharing the bread with him, Jesus reveals it is Judas Iscariot. Jesus directs Judas to “do quickly” what he will do. At this, Judas slips off into the night.

Reading the story, we think poorly of Judas. Yes, it had to be done to fulfill the scriptures. But we still dislike him because he betrayed Jesus, the one whom he had spent the last three years with. It feels like a worse betrayal than if it had been one of the Pharisees or a stranger. It could have been Matthew or John or James or Bartholomew or Thaddeus or even Peter, the one who most seemed like a leader. In the next section, Jesus predicts Peter’s denial. It could have been any of the twelve.

It is Judas Iscariot that slips off into the night to betray Jesus. John tells us “it is night”. Night and darkness symbolize evil and Satan. By contrast, day and light represent God, Jesus… Because Judas does not question or linger, but acts, we can infer that he has been wrestling with this. He has been brought to the decision point this night: light or dark? Good or evil? When he takes the bread, we read “Satan entered into him”. On this night, the darkness won. The scale tipped in favor of evil.

We are all in this place often. The Spirit works to keep us walking in the light and the evil one tempts us to step off the narrow road and off into the darkness. The temptation may be to gossip or to tell a little white lie. It may be to steal that set of headphones that is just lying there or to cheat on that big test. Maybe it is to turn in a false tax report or to click that pop-up that is so enticing. Perhaps it is to falsely accuse another to paint a better picture of ourselves or it is finally consummating that affair. The degree of sin matters not to God. Yes, the human or earthly impacts and affects will be greater for one scenario versus another. But to God, all temptation that leads to sin is the same. We are choosing dark over light, evil over good, Satan over God. Each week, each day, each hour, we face temptation. May we each turn to God and may we do it quickly. May we allow the light to chase away the darkness. May we strive to walk in the light.

Prayer: Lord, the battle is hard. Satan is ever at work. So I pray that the voice of the Holy Spirit is loud and strong in me today. Quiet the call of the earthly and fleshy desires within me. When they rise up, remind me quickly of your will and your way and your word. Strengthen me, O God. Amen.