Blog Archives

The Staff of Leadership

8/25/2014

Exodus 4:1-17 Click here for the reading

Today is the anniversary of my ordination in 2007. It's funny, every time someone asks me how long I have been ministering I respond; "Since I was Baptized." Participating in the body of Christ is ministry. AND I firmly believe that baptism trumps ordination.

Reflecting on this event that changed my life when the bishop and other ordained ministers laid their hands on me in the covenant of annointed leadership, I am moved.

There was a time in my life where Exodus 4 summed up my resistance to God's call: 'can't you find someone else?' God literally had to throw down the gauntlet or staff as it were. Picking up the staff of leadership is one of the most rewarding and formidable tasks I have had the honor to experience.

I felt the call to ministry early on (about the age of 15) but spent most of my next few years trying to run away from that call. Who wouldn't be suspicious of God calling someone like me! And yet that is the point of the staff of leadership that God lays down, it belongs to one (God) who then shares it with a whole bunch of ordinary people to accomplish extra ordinary things! Moses holds on to this staff, moves the people of God from slavery to freedom. And when his time is done, Joshua (someone Moses mentored) picks up this staff to complete the task.

As I think about how God has used me in demonstrating and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, I'm humbled and proud at the same time. In one of my favorite hymns, the last line I can never get through without welling up...."Sing, sing a new song, sing of that great day when all will be one, God will reign." To me this is what this ministry is all about! We are called to participate in what God is doing....and we will participate until that great day when all will be one, GOD WILL REIGN!

Lord, I thank you for calling me out of baptismal waters to participate in your kingdom, thank you for the people who helped me hear and discern that call, thank you for surrounding me with people to speak this kingdom life into, thank you for a gracious partner in ministry, and thank you for your church. It is the most terrifying thing I have particpated in. - Amen

1 Comment

Epilogue

8/9/2014

0 Comments

1 John 5:14-21
14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

16 If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.

18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

0 Comments

Purpose Statements

8/7/2014

0 Comments

1 John 5:13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

Purpose Statements are helpful to know what the purpose of a letter, a company, a song, a book report, a relationship....pretty much anything. I am always grateful when Scripture reads so plainly. Here John could not be more clear; "I have written this to you who believe so that you may know you have eternal life." The whole reason for his writing is to know we have eternal life. PTL!

The purpose of 1 John is calculated on all of this. Read any previous devotional post on this letter and it reflects this purpose....so that we would know we have eternal life. Amen? Amen!

Yet, it is one thing to know and another thing to be reassured of....in John's community that reassurance is necessary and comforting. because of all the false prophets and all of the turmoil of competing theologies and practices, this community needs reminded of God's promise of Eternal life that comes in Christ Jesus.

I need that reassurance from the community I participate in, don't you? I can't overstate this but one of the simpliest forms of reassurance I recieve every night is not from an educated theologian or a colleague with words of grace, it doesn't even come from the blogs I read...it comes from the people in my OIKOS (my household). Every night my children climb into our bed for stories, prayer and blessings. Every night my children and my wife mark the sign of the cross on my head and remind me that "God loves you very much." This is the blessed assurance of knowing we have eternal life.

Thank you God for reminders of your purpose in sending your only son to bring us into eternal life.- Amen

0 Comments

Testimony Concerning the Son of God part 2

8/6/2014

0 Comments

1 John 5:9-12
Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

L-I-V-I-N
Those were the words (and letters) spelled out by Matthew McConaughey in the movie "Dazed and Confused." As Christians we talk about life as it has been given to us, eternal and abundant. We talk about new life in Christ. We talk about being in a better place when someone dies. We talk about being born anew. We talk a lot.

John reminds his community that this life comes through Jesus Christ. That is the testimony about the Son of God. However, that is the testimony we receive, we are also called to testify. Our Testimony comes through the lives we live or L-I-V-I-N. Our lives are a reflection of God's life, our story is God's story (and vice versa). We may not feel comfortable with that, being that many of us were raised with a piety of personal acceptance and keeping faith to ourselves. But John is only reiterating what he has told his community before; our witness is reflection of the love we receive and therefore we are called to share this love with one another. Simply put, Love God, Love others because God first loved you. How we live is a testimony to those around us in that basic truth.

So....How ya L-I-V-I-N?

0 Comments

Testimony concerning the Son of God Part 1

8/5/2014

0 Comments

1 John 5:6-8
And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony. So we have these three witnesses— the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree.

Testimony is a funny thing. Some people get weird ed out by having testimony in church, others probably are on the other end of the spectrum, with testimony about everything. Here John explains that Jesus is the Son of God, both divine and human. Salvation occurs in belief that Jesus was born of God, Baptized by John in water, and died a human death with Blood. The water and blood give us the testimony that Jesus was born of the spirit in water, and died a very human death on the cross, through his blood. So water and blood symbolize for John and his community a recognition of salvation coming through the Son of God, born of a virgin Mary, made human, and named God's beloved at his baptism. these two, water and blood, testify that Jesus was the Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

And since John is writing to those who did not see and touch Jesus, the Spirit confirms this truth for us who believe Jesus is the Son of God by their testimony. This testimony is greater than any human testimony.

Water and Blood are important aspects of our Christian identity. It is in these sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, that we recognize Jesus promise and presence. The Spirit's confirmation of these sacraments is added testimony. These are signs of God's grace active in the world.

Lord, remind us thru the water and the blood you extend grace upon grace, upon grace to us as signs of your love, confirmed by your Holy Spirit. - Amen

0 Comments

Faith Conquers the World

8/4/2014

0 Comments

1 John 5:1-5
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

John is writing to his community that real and constant hope is found in faith, not in the empty promises of this world. The final verses above recall verses from John's gospel:
"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” - John 16:33-34

Jesus never promised that following him would be easy. As a matter of fact, here he promises that it will be difficult. The way I memorized this verse was to be reminded of those two promises. In this world you will have trouble (Duh!). AND Take heart, I have conquered this world so that you might have peace.

As the old hymn says, The strife is Over, the Battle won! Jesus has already conquered the threats of this world (sin and death), and therefore our faith in him provides us victory.

0 Comments

God is love part 6

8/2/2014

0 Comments

1 John 4:19-21 click here for the reading

We love because God first loved us. This sums up John's book of love. John calls us to exemplify, to practice, to participate in the love that we receive from God thru Christ. The only way we are able to love is because we are first loved. The community of believers reflects the love that they receive from God within the community they participate...koinonia (true fellowship with God and one another).

But this very community that John was writing to struggled to live into this because of the divisiveness of understanding of Christ (see previous posts on this). We have trouble hearing "If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar." For John this is troubling not just for his community but for ours. Being the church in the world means living like Jesus lived and loving like Jesus loved (See God is love part 5). Saying I love God but hating others is not in the Christian playbook.

Yet the in authenticity of this very issue is lived out in all of our churches and communities. When I was 22, I left the community of faith for this very reason. I saw people proclaim that they loved the Lord, while they hated their brothers and sisters in Christ. When words don't match behaviors, there is a problem. We are not far removed from this truth. turn on the TV and see Christians spout hate at the next group that doesn't look like them (unaccompanied minors, Palestinians, homosexuals, blacks, Muslims, etc). Anne Lamont said it best; "you know you have created God in your own image when God hates all the same people that you do."

John's premise for his community is that the fullest expression of love was made known to us in Christ (death and resurrection) and because we know this love, experienced it, we are moved to love one another just as God has loved us. True? Yes! Practiced? Sometimes.

My biggest problem with the church community when I left it at 22 was it wasn't willing to be honest with itself and with one another. There was a lack of vulnerability, a lack of willingness to share the pain and joys of life. Hopefully we are getting better at it, after all Jesus' wounds from the cross were healed and show as scars now.

Lord, see us for who we are, broken hurting people in desperate need of your love. Fill us with that love so that we may love like your son has taught us to love. - Amen

0 Comments

God is love part 5

8/1/2014

2 Comments

1 John 4:16b-18 click here for the reading

Discipleship is a church word that describes people who follow Jesus. To be a disciple is to live the faith. It is a matter of practice. (Lawyers practice law, doctors practice medicine, disciples practice following Jesus).

To be a disciple then, is to live like Jesus lived, and love like Jesus loved. To be honest, that reads well (bumper sticker here we come "live like Jesus lived, love liked Jesus loved"). the problem is this is the hardest thing in the world to do. Jesus was compassionate when no one else was, Jesus was patient when no one else was, Jesus loved people who were hard to love and people who the world didn't love.

And that is the thing about discipleship and practicing this life and love that Jesus exhibits, we are called to be Christ's ambassadors, Christ's representatives. Martin Luther called this aspect of our faith "being little Christ's to one another."

Given the context of polarization, divisiveness, brokenness, and division in our society, loving like Jesus loved makes it difficult but maybe even more necessary. Who are you finding it difficult to love recently? How might trusting God's love made known through Jesus help you love that person or group?

Jesus, come into our hearts and take over, so that

2 Comments

Archives

Categories