No Exchange Policy

Jeremiah 2:1-13, 29-32
Romans 1:16-25
Portions of two of today’s readings intersect to offer a word of warning for those whose attention is not on God and the divine will. “Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,” we read in Jeremiah, “send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD…” (Jeremiah 2:10-12). In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes the same point clear, saying, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever!” (Romans 1:25). In each case, the issue is one of idolatry, the placing of anything – any aspect of life, any activity, any idea or concept – between ourselves and God. The people of Israel had “changed gods,” according to the prophet, had chosen to serve “the creature rather than the Creator,” in the words of Paul. As a result, the heavens should be “appalled… shocked… (and) utterly desolate,” according to Jeremiah.

While it is easy to place such comments in the past tense and therefore to see them as historic failings, we ourselves must continually be aware of our own focus, that in which we place our ultimate allegiance. The problem, even within the Christian community, is that we find the idolatries of others to be so much worse than those we carry. We easily remove the speck from the eye of fellow believers while the log remains firmly lodged in our own. Why is that? Why is it that people of faith have so much trouble finding common cause on this issue? If nothing else, we Christians should be able to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our day to day lives and God’s help in our effort to cast aside whatever it is that blocks our view of God’s will. We all fall short of God’s intentions. We all have “changed gods” at some point in our lives. We all have been bedazzled by the creature and lost sight of the Creator, if only for a season or for a moment. We all stand in humble need of God’s forgiveness and grace, and it seems to me that prayers of confession should replace words of accusation and acrimony on all levels.

Then, perhaps, once we have recognized our common plight as sinners in need of redemption, we can pray for one another, humbly and honestly seeking what is best even for those with whom we disagree strongly, for God’s glory is certainly not served in our willful disregard for the hurts and needs of others any more than by our inability to remain focused on the one by whose grace we all live.

Prayer: Lord of light and life, we confess that we have not always followed you and your will for our lives. Forgive us when we allow anything to distract our attention from your glory, and restore us in our faithful obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Here’s Hoping

Hebrews 3:1-11
There are things I hope for that are, in the grand scheme of life, of little lasting importance. For example, I hope the San Antonio Spurs win the NBA championship this year. As a fan, I would be very proud of that accomplishment and it would give me a certain amount of confidence, I suppose, among other basketball fans. Besides, the Spurs are a model of consistency, led by an outstanding coach and a core group of players who understand the importance of teamwork. So I hope they win the championship. But even if they do, in a matter of months it would mean very little as my life moves on and challenges arise; challenges like providing for my family, or caring for those in need, or participating fully as a citizen of my country. Those are issues that cannot be resolved or dealt with simply because a particular team wins a title. And yet, even these aspects of my life, these challenges, do not approach the level of meaning expressed by the writer of Hebrews. In our epistle reading for today we read, “Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope” (Hebrews 3:6). True hope, true Christian hope, leads to a kind of confidence, a sort of pride that stands over and above the day to day aspects of our lives –– even the important ones –– because it is focused on eternity and not merely on the here and now. Indeed, to live with the sort of hope that the writer of Hebrews is talking about is to live with no fear of what challenges may confront us, but with a sense of peace and resolve that transcends even the most trying of circumstances because we know –– we know –– that something better, something more complete, something more profound awaits us.

As one whose faith is placed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, I have the opportunity each and every day to face life with all the energy, all the strength that I can muster, embracing life and all of its ups and downs. Even even if I fall well short of the goals or aspirations that my faith holds out to me, even if I am subjected to ridicule or hardship because of what I believe, I am blessed with the knowledge, the certain hope, that in Jesus Christ God has claimed me and will continue to love and guide me no matter what. And when I allow that to really sink in, when I let that enter into my consciousness in a meaningful way, I realize that I really do have nothing to fear. The confidence I feel is not in my own abilities, the pride I have is not based on anything I have done; it is all based on the fact that in Jesus Christ I am a part of God’s house and as such blessed beyond measure.

I will be rooting for the San Antonio Spurs to win the NBA title in 2013. But regardless of whether or not they do, I will be striving to live my life with the pride and confidence that comes from knowing God is at work in and through me and that something far greater than I could ever imagine awaits me. That is the nature of Christian hope.

Prayer: Almighty God, may we each live out the hope with which we have been blessed, and may we demonstrate our confidence and pride in you to those around us, this day and always. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What You Don’t Know That You Don’t Know

Acts 19:1-10
It was in Ephesus that the Apostle Paul encountered some disciples whose knowledge of the faith was limited. “(Paul) said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They replied, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’” (Acts 19:2). According to Acts, Paul quickly shared the gospel with them, and when they were baptized in the name of Jesus “the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied - altogether there were about twelve of them” (v. 6b-7).

It seems significant that the number of these “disciples” was twelve. That of course is the number of the original disciples called by Jesus. It is also the number of the tribes of Israel. The number twelve also shows up in accounts of the feeding of the five thousand as the number of baskets needed to collect the leftovers (Matthew 14:20, and John 6:13). This is a fairly common number associated with the Christian faith, and not to oversimplify the point, but when the author of Acts tells us there were “about twelve” of these disciples it would seem to indicate that they, as a group, are representative of the gospel enterprise as a whole, all those who have been called, set aside, and tended to by God through Jesus Christ. In other words they represent you and me as people of faith. If this group of twelve had more to learn about what they believed (in their case, the existence of the Holy Spirit), then it appears that all of us have more to learn.

What is it that we need to know? Sometimes the only way to answer that question is to pay attention. A friend of mine is fond of saying, “It’s amazing what you know that you didn’t know you knew.” The reverse of that would also be valid: it’s amazing what we don’t know that we don’t know. The best way to deal with this lack of knowledge is to study, and to ponder, and to pray, and to share, and to consider, and to ask, and to compare notes, and to attend church and Sunday school, and to read, and to reflect, and to do all sorts of other things in order to learn what it is we didn’t know we didn’t know. Then we, like the twelve disciples of Acts 19, may live more fully for God because we, like them, will have more of the tools we need to do the work of God’s reign.

Prayer: God, help us to open our hearts and minds to your word, humbly receiving its truth for our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Friend or Foe?

Galatians 4:12-20

Now there’s a loaded question for you one that almost guarantees a confrontation. “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16). By asking such a question of the church in Galatia Paul is actually making two claims: first that he is telling them something they need to hear; second that the Galatians may not want to hear it from him. We can actually push it a further than that. The truth of Paul’s message, of course, is Jesus Christ. To find fault with Paul’s message is also to find fault with the gospel and thus to become enemies of God. How’s that for a challenge?

In his commentary on Galatians Hans Dieter Betz reminds us that “among true friends it is possible to speak the truth with frankness without becoming enemies; telling the truth in this way distinguishes the ‘true friend’ from the ‘flatterer’” (p. 228). So here is a question that all of us need to consider. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ are we true friends, willing to hear the message even when it challenges our comfort and our sense of balance, or are we attempting to flatter Jesus with half-hearted participation in the life of the church while not making any effort to live a Christ-centered life?

Paul would have us receive the gospel as “true friends,” those who are willing to hear a word of challenge without being threatened by it, instead accepting it as a source of grace. How we respond, then, says everything about our faith.

Prayer: Lord, help us to hear your word with openness that we may live as your people and be guided by your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Where Faith Meets Life and Death

Galatians 2:11-21

Just yesterday it was my honor to conduct a service in witness to the resurrection and in thanksgiving for the life of a member of the church I serve. While I would not say that I enjoy funerals, I do appreciate them and find them to be among the most meaningful things I do as a minister because they are centered on the most profound aspects of the faith we profess as Christians.

In my meditation yesterday I said that we had not gathered because the deceased had died, we were there because though she died, she lives. And we were there because in Jesus Christ she has been freed from sin and death in the light of Easter. And we were there because though she is no longer with us in body, she is most certainly a part of that great cloud of witnesses. We were, I said, gathered at the place where the believer and the one in whom she believed are united in the light of glory, at the intersection between death and the one who defeated death, between the loss and sorrow we feel at the death of a loved one and the great joy that claims those who have gone to their eternal rest.

In Galatians Paul also speaks of an intersection of sorts. “I have been crucified with Christ;” he says, “and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19b-20). To be united with Christ in his death is to be completely changed. No longer must we fear death, no longer must we face the future with a sense of dread, no longer must we live as though we are lost. It is no longer we who live! It is Christ who lives in us, the same Christ who gave himself for us and was raised to eternal life.

The relationship between believer and Jesus Christ is one of the great mysteries of the faith. But there is no doubting the love of God at work in and though us nor the hope that we have been given through faith and by which we are able to live and––perhaps most importantly––by which we are able to die.

Prayer: Lord, help us to live in this day in faith, and to trust in your promises for the days to come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

It's Not About People Pleasing

Galatians 1:1-17

What an astonishing claim Paul makes in his letter to the Galatians: “If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10c). As a minister I find these words incredibly challenging. Integral to my sense of call are my relationships with individuals. I want to get along with folks and I want folks to get along with each other. I want to build bridges and to knock down walls. I want the church to be one big group hug where everyone finds welcome and conflict is forgotten in the warmth of community. And because I want these things I too often find myself worried about what people think of me, whether or not they approve of my efforts. After all, it is congregation members who pay my salary. Shouldn’t they get what they pay for? Shouldn’t they be pleased with what I am doing?

Paul puts a stop to such foolishness. If the goal of the ministry is to please people then it is not really ministry. If all I have to offer others is what they think they want, or worse, what they already have, then I offer them nothing. It is only when I seek the will of God in Jesus Christ that I have something worthwhile to give. Jesus Christ is the corrective for my actions for in Jesus Christ I find the courage to say what needs to be said, to do what needs to be done, to offer what needs to be offered. When I seek to please people the ministry becomes a factor of my life, it becomes all about me. But when I am faithful to Jesus Christ the ministry ceases to be about me, about my opinions, about my need for approval.

Nor are Paul’s words for ministers alone. They are, in fact, a challenge for all people of faith. If the Christian community is to be truly obedient it must offer the world not what the world thinks it wants, or worse, what it already has. It must offer the truth of the gospel and the power of God’s grace with unflinching honesty. The survival of the church cannot be a function of making people happy. It must be about serving the one who came calling sinners into reconciliation with God. Let other entities worry about pleasing people. Our job is to live as servants of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, give us courage to live according to your will and not as others would have us do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Business Card of Faith

Ephesians 1:1-10

The introduction to Ephesians sounds a little like the information on a business card: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” (Ephesians 1:1a). While there is some speculation that a follower of Paul’s may actually have been the one to write this letter and not Paul himself, we may set that issue aside because Ephesians 1:1 still helps us to understand who Paul was and the work in which he was engaged.

The word “apostle” means one who is “sent away,” implying an emissary or messenger. To be an apostle requires one to travel or move––if not literally then perhaps by growing in faith or understanding. But Paul was not just any emissary, he was an apostle of Jesus Christ which means that the content of his message was the gospel. To be “an apostle of Jesus Christ,” then, means to carry the Christian faith to others. Furthermore, Paul’s apostleship came to him “by the will of God” which means that he, like the prophets before him, was called and set aside by God for this work, a fact that authenticates his ministry. Why should we pay any attention to the words of Paul? Because this is the job given to him by God, a task by which he could be readily identified. So if Paul had used a business card, right under his it might have read, “Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”

In contemporary life we seldom use the term apostle to refer to individual Christians. But if we were to carry business cards defining who we are as believers we would do well to follow the example of Ephesians 1:1. We, too, have been called by God into a relationship of faith. We, too, are “sent away” or charged to carry a message as emissaries. And like Paul the message that we carry is the gospel of Jesus Christ…or it should be. Perhaps is it appropriate to reflect on how others identify us, with what occupation or activity we are most closely associated. When others look at us do they see us as disciples eager to share the gospel, or is there another way we are known, one based on a less significant aspect of life? In short, does our business card of faith look anything like Paul’s? If not, why?

Prayer: Lord, help us to serve you faithfully and to live our lives in faithful obedience in to your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

On Weakness and Strength

1 Timothy 2:1-6

Our reading from 1 Timothy this morning comes from a time when Christians were a decided minority of the total population. How should disciples of Jesus Christ live in such circumstances? “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (1Timothy 2:1-2). Pray for those in positions of authority and seek a life of peace, the writer advises. Live according to God’s will and in such a way that the faith may be held in honor. These are wise words.

But what happens when the Christian faith is no longer a minority, when it becomes the single largest religious movement in the world? There is a significant difference between the godly and dignified efforts of a small minority on one hand and the power wielded by the modern church on the other. Indeed, the movement begun by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was rooted in the lives of common folks who had no earthly power to speak of. Today it has grown to encompass the world—praise be to God!—and operates from relative strength. But what do we do now? The writer of 1 Timothy, I believe, would call on us to continue to pray for those in authority and to lead peaceable lives with “all godliness and dignity” just as before. To do so in our present circumstances takes imagination and effort, however, and requires us to see things differently, as through the eyes of those who lack power, who are at the margins of our culture, who readily recognize their dependence upon the grace of God. In other words, as Christians we might use power in an attempt to compel acceptance by the wider culture, but this will never allow us to be known as people of “godliness and dignity” the way 1 Timothy challenges us to be.

The magnitude of the modern Christian movement requires us to constantly adjust our perspective and to remember “where we came from.” Otherwise we will find ourselves alienated from our own tradition, our own beginnings, the gospel that is our message.

Prayer: Lord, help us to remember who we are and whose we are. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Merely Human

1 Corinthians 2:14-3:15

The journey of faith is one filled with challenges, the greatest of which is staying focused on God's will. Paul looked at the church in Corinth and could see that there were issues making it impossible for the members to remain steadfast in their faith. "For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you," Paul writes, "are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another, 'I belong to Apollos,' are you not merely human?" (1 Corinthians 3:3b-4).

We are human, but what does Paul mean when he talks about being merely human? In this case it has to do with what motivates a person in their relationship with God and with others. When the people of God allow "jealously and quarreling" to creep in, when the body of Christ is divided into various camps each claiming to have the more authentic faith, when the will of God is lost in a sea of worldliness, then the church has become a merely human institution. And Paul means this as a harsh criticism. He might also have described his readers as spoiled brats, or as self-centered jerks. "Grow up!" Paul is saying.

The good news is that Paul remains confident of the work God is doing in Corinth. If the believers there will look beyond themselves they will see grace and mercy in abundance, they will see the fellowship of the Holy Spirit taking root, they will see growth and development taking place. The same can be said of the church today. If we will shift our focus away from issues that divide and concentrate on the gospel and its message of hope and peace we will see great things. And by God's grace we will no longer be merely human.

Prayer: Lord of all, bless us with eyes to see the work you are doing in our midst so that we may push beyond ourselves and become partners in you service. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Taking Part

Hebrews 13:1-16

I have mentioned before how relatively easy it is to be a Christian in America. There are those who might dispute this assertion to some degree but the fact remains that I am free to attend (or not to attend) worship, free to pray (or not to pray) in the privacy of my own home, and free to speak (or not to speak) of my faith publicly. Nor is there an established religion in the United States. I consider myself richly blessed by the freedoms I enjoy. Our reading from Hebrews this morning, however, comes from a time when being a Christian was anything but easy, when it required commitment and resolve in the face of persecution and opposition. Read in this light Hebrews 13:3 is far from hypothetical. It is a real-life exhortation. “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.” When these words were written Christians were in prison, Christians were being tortured. This was far from a matter of occasionally showing up for worship or deciding whether or not to tithe. This was hardly a matter of politicians comparing their religious qualifications while appealing to a fractured electorate. This was the stuff of life and death in the name of a Savior who himself was willing to die for our sake.

Here then is the challenge we face, to live the faith not as one of the things we do when it fits our schedule, but as those willing to be imprisoned or tortured for the sake of Jesus Christ. If and when we are able to make that type of commitment to the faith we may finally understand what the writer of Hebrews meant and may finally begin to get it. This is serious stuff that God is asking us to do.

Prayer: Lord, give us the courage and the strength to live as your people at all times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Difficult Faith

John 4:43-54

According to commentator Lamar Williamson Jr. is his book Preaching the Gospel of John: Proclaiming the Living Word, our text from the fourth gospel today is a story in which a man’s life is transformed by his desperate search for a miracle. “Then (Jesus) came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’" (John 4:46-48).

For me the challenging part of the text comes in Jesus’ initial rebuff of the official. It is only when the man persists that Jesus heals the son (from a distance) and as a result plants the seeds of faith. But would Jesus really have allowed the son to die had the father not continued to beg? There is no way to tell. We only know what we read which is that Jesus did act and the boy did recover as a result. If nothing else, though, this passage should remind us that faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is to be taken very seriously. If we want signs and wonders for our own delight, if we seek a good luck charm that we can keep in a dresser drawer for special occasions, if we are only interested in Jesus on our terms (what can Jesus do for me?) then we will find that we have no faith at all. But if we are willing to trust Jesus as Lord of our lives all the time, to remain attuned to the message of the gospel even when it is not to our liking, to allow Jesus to work through us as vessels of grace for others, then Jesus is already calling us to respond.

As difficult as it is, the story about the royal official’s son is a reminder of the demands that faith places upon us, of the claims it makes on our time and talents. Faith, too, is difficult, but as a gift from God nothing is more important in our lives.

Prayer: Lord grant us the faith we need to live as your people all the days of your lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.