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Love God, Love People

3/17/2015

Scripture: Matthew 22:34-46 Click here for the reading

Observation: Questions arise (again) to trap Jesus. An expert in Religious law offers the question "what is the most important commandment?" Jesus' answer neglects to fall into that trap.

Application: Jesus' answer does, however, help answer the question for us about what we are supposed to prioritize. At it's basic level, Jesus said; "love God and love people." The commandments teach us what this looks like. Jesus compassion shows us who it looks like. The cross shows us the cost.

Love God, and love People. Sounds simple but in reality it is anything but. I get in the way of myself doing that. It is easy to say but it doesn't cost me anything. If I loved God and loved people like I am able or ought, I might feel much differently about God and people. Jesus asks us to do this because this is what it means to follow him. Jesus puts flesh and blood on this reality and it will cost him his life. Loving God will change me deeply in my habits and desires. Loving my neighbor might stretch me to be more compassionate and understanding. Sometimes I am. Other times I am not, in both relationships.

Prayer: Lord, help me to love. To love you and the people you place in my life)

(But seriously, have you met my neighbor?)

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Challenging human systems

3/16/2015

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Scripture: Matthew 22:15-33 Click here for the reading

Observation: Jesus has never wavered in his commitment to the Kingdom over and against the human earthly structures and institutions of this world. The Kingdom of God is bigger than these things.

Application: Jesus insistence that participating in the kingdom will challenge our allegiance everywhere else, at home and within country. Jesus demands full allegiance to God and the Kingdom while participating in human structures (for now). But we should never confuse the two. Yes, when we are married we have a commitment to our spouses. But Jesus challenges the assumption that this relationship carries over to the afterlife. "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage In other words, marriage much like taxes have no place in the resurrection life. 'For we will be like angels." Our sole attention in the resurrection will not be on those relationships we once had but on the 'up' relationship we have with the loving parent.

How does this Scripture challenge the things you hear at funerals (i.e. you will see your loved one again = being married to them in heaven)?
When has our allegiance to our country or patriotism been challenged by Jesus' words here?

The thing that grabs me when Jesus speaks about the kingdom is that kingdom feels far off from our own experience and so we (like the pharisees and sadducees) attempt to understand the kingdom within the human constructs of this world.

Prayer: Lord, inspire us to see the kingdom bigger than the things of this world, and strengthen us to commit ourselves to you above all other systems or people.

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Gift

3/11/2015

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"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them." Matthew 25:14

Life is a gift. Or so I have been told. I didn't come to realize how much my life was a gift until I was about 26 years old. I was serving Faith Lutheran Church in Bellaire, TX. My parents came to visit me. We had some time with my supervising pastor, when my mother begins to unfold the story of how we both almost died when I was born. How my father was almost asked if he had a choice to save one of us, would it be my mother or me. It was all too frightening and all too real. How did I not ever hear this story? My mother then began to tell Herb (as if I wasn't in the room) the prayer she had from the time I was born to the time I entered seminary; 'Lord, use the life of my son to be a reflection of your love." Basically she prayed that I would become a pastor, which, was more likely her prayer than the one I composed on her behalf.

Since that time in my office at Faith Lutheran Church, I realized that life is a gift. It becomes part of my story. It is part of God's story. "I wasn't supposed to be here." When I utter those words I realize that my life is a gift....one not to be squandered or hidden. That is the story that Jesus tells in the parable of the talents. It is one that troubles us and at the same time excites us. Talent as it is intended here is best translated as 'special gift." Jesus tells this parable as the man going on a journey, he is away. He entrusts specific gifts to specific servants. One of these servants does nothing with the special gift he has been given. the others are praised for taking a risk and using those gifts.

Jesus point is that before the Son of Man returns disciples are called to use the special gifts that they have been given in faithful service to the kingdom.

What special gifts are you blessed with?

When was a time you may have missed the opportunity to use that gift?

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Cleansing

3/10/2015

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Scripture: Matthew 21:12-22 Click here for the reading.

Observation: This passage is often referred to as the cleansing of the temple. It is when Jesus is often depicted as losing his $#!7. Following this passage, Jesus then goes and curses a fig tree. There are two things going on here. Jesus cleansing of the temple shows us that Jesus is not exactly happy with any interference with worshipping God. Secondly, the cursing of the fig tree Jesus shows (in correlation of the cleansing of the temple) that faith/religion without substance is dead.

Application: The new trend every year is a cleanse. More like a purge. We let our bodies become so unhealthy that we need to have a cleanse. Or we have gotten so financially in ruin that we need to buckle down. Or we lack even the least bit of connection with God and feel we need to get 'back to church.' Jesus isn't satisfied with a cleanse. This is not the point. Jesus desires health. Our responsibility in following Jesus is bearing fruit of the gospel. When other things get in the way, they wither up and die or they are overturned.

What in your life is interrupting your life with God?
What in your life is not bearing fruit of the Good News?

Prayer: Lord, push us toward health and not just fads and disciplines that fade away.

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Ask

3/9/2015

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Scripture: Matthew 20:17-34 Click here for the reading

Observation: In two separate instances, Jesus asks the question: "what would you like me to do for you?" Jesus never assumes but rather has those he encounters from blind beggars to mothers of his disciples.

Application: I find it hard sometimes to claim what it is that I am seeking from God. In the words of my friend Ernie.....that makes me normal, I guess. But I love that Jesus is willing to go there. To ask the mother of her want and desire for her sons (selfish as it may be). To have the blind beggar ask what might be implied. In a way, Jesus has us name it and claim it, both to know of what is ailing us (blindness) and our selfish wants (having our children sit at the place of honor).

How do my prayers reflect my ability to claim what it is that I am seeking that God speak into my heart, change my behavior, resolve a conflict? How do I articulate that if Jesus were to ask me?

Prayer: Lord, help me claim what it is that I really desire from you.

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Your Jesus is too safe!

3/4/2015

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Scripture: Matthew 16:13-23 Click here for the reading

Observation: Just when Peter figures it out and confesses Jesus as Lord and Messiah, he misses the whole point. Jesus is not going to do what we want Jesus the Messiah to do. Jesus reinforces the difference by predicting his death. The Son of Man WILL suffer many things, be handed over by religious leaders, and DIE! Yikes! Jesus is just not very safe. But Peter (we) wants him to be.

Application: In my view of how Christ is talked about in popular culture and North American society that Jesus is very sanitized and cleaned up. This scripture reminds us that Jesus is not safe at al. He is willing to go to the cross and take on the mess of the world. it is an image that is filled with death and blood and suffering: things that make us uncomfortable. There is a strand of Christianity that would prefer Jesus not to have to go to so much trouble and wouldn't it be great if we could skip the whole Good Friday and jump ahead to easter. yet in the lenten season we are able to see the cross emerge before us and watch as Jesus embrace that cross, that mess, that blood, that death. Jesus doesn't hope that we have a good weekend, Jesus hope for us is much deeper than that. His life was marked with a suffering we cannot imagine, so that we know that God is willing to be in the mess of our life. If we sterilize this message, we sanitize the crux of the gospel message.

How does the gospel make us uncomfortable?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for risking your life on our behalf, help us to embrace the cross you set before us, knowing that you have overcome the cross to provide us with real life, abundant and eternal.

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Signs

3/3/2015

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Scripture: Matthew 16:1-12 Click here for the reading

Observation: People demand a sign from Jesus that he and his ministry are from God. The request of a sign is nothing new. The demand for a sign is met with Jesus explanation of the weather. Which seems odd, but his point is that the signs of the times, his ministry, and revelations about the Kingdom Of God, are there to be received. As good as human knowledge is about some things, like the weather, we seem to remain in darkness about the knowledge of God.

Application: The issue of the knowledge of God is not about intellectual ability but about receptivity. How many times have you tried to figure out God? I remember going through a struggle with my head and heart abilities to comprehend the fullness of God and God's kingdom when I was in my 20's. It was painful and messy. And trying to demand a sign from God was met with this same type of resistance. The only (dis?)encouraging words came from my mother when she related some wisdom in trying to logic God into existence...."Son, sit back and enjoy the mystery." Her point and Jesus' point was to be open and receptive to the work of the Kingdom rather than try and figure it all out. This would include demanding signs.

Prayer: Lord open our hearts that we might receive your kingdom and see the signs you are already doing in our work and our world.

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Love God, Love People

Challenging human systems

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Your Jesus is too safe!

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