"To Him be glory forever": Luke

Showing posts with label Luke. Show all posts

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Offended?

When you think about Jesus, what kinds of things come to mind? Do you think of someone who is always kind and ready to be with people? The kind of person who is able to accept any person, no matter what they might look like or act like? The person whose patience with others never runs out, no matter how annoying they might be? The person who always has just the right words to say, and always says them in the right way for the maximum effect? Words of comfort? Words of peace? Words of hope? Words of love?

Those images, frankly, are ones that we would all probably agree with. They describe the Jesus we would love to spend time with, love to talk with. They are also images that you could also find widely scattered throughout the four Gospels. But if you looked a bit more closely at the Gospels, to see Jesus as He describes Himself, you would also find something very different.

You would find the Jesus who gets under peoples skin. The Jesus who gets in your face. The Jesus you might wish would just go away and leave you alone.

That's what I noticed when I was reading from Luke and saw these words in Luke 7:23:

"And blessed the one who is not offended by me."

Jesus is offensive? Can't be!

And yet it is true. Jesus himself says that there are people who find him to be quite offensive. People who perhaps feel insulted at the words he would say to them. People who would turn their backs and cover their ears if Jesus were to speak to them. They are offended because, in Jesus' own words from Luke 5:32, he says of his particular task,

"I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

There is the problem in a nutshell. Jesus refuses to let us set the standard for our righteousness, or our ability to come before God in peace. He reminds us that God has set the standards for our righteousness and that when we violate those standards we need to admit, to God, our error, and to seek His forgiveness. There is no other way.

To hear that call to repentance, to believe it, and to act on it by seeking God's mercy, is to not be offended by Jesus. And the blessing from God that follows as we seek Him is glorious in ways that we can barely imagine.

May you hear the words of Jesus and see yourself as you truly are, a sinner in need of a Savior. Of all the things that we can think of when we think of Jesus, the one that is the most precious, that is most essential, is that He, alone, is our Savior, and in that we rejoice. Amen.

Sunday, December 25, 2016

"...the time came..."

As I was getting ready for worship on Sunday morning it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten something when planning our worship service. It was Christmas morning and I had left out the Bible's telling of the Christmas story.

On the one hand it was a pretty easy thing to skip. I was planning worship for this Sunday much as I plan any Sunday. There are parts to our worship service that happen every Sunday and I had planned all of those parts in the same manner as I do every Sunday. It wasn't that I was planning on not talking about Christmas, but just that the Christmas story itself just wasn't among my planning materials at the time.

And it was not as if I had completely ignored the Christmas story in worship. During our Christmas Eve service we read it from Luke 2:1-20. The weather was dicey that night but we had about 20 people present, and they got to hear the story, read from the Bible.

Anyhow, as I was doing my usual Sunday morning pre-worship activities I started to think about the Christmas story and I decided to read it as part of the introduction to the sermon. And so I read it aloud before reviewing my sermon notes. And as I read it one tiny phrase jumped out at me.

Joseph and Mary are in Bethlehem, and Mary is pregnant. Verse 6 says:

"And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth."

Luke tells the story in a very ordinary fashion. Any of us who are parents and were present when our children were born understand well the idea that in one moment the mother is pregnant and then the time comes for the process of giving birth to the baby. And so what Luke tells is quite true, but that phrase, "the time came" points to something so much more significant.

"The time came" for God to actively work out the long-awaited plan of redemption.

"The time came" for God to begin the process that would one day restore everything that went wrong when sin entered the world.

"The time came" for God to free sinners from bondage and show them the way to true peace.

This morning was the time to remind my congregation of this truth: that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and that without faith in Him we are truly, eternally, lost and without hope. And yet, while we were lost, "the time came."

May you know the hope and peace that are only found in Jesus. Amen

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Forsaken

I don't know about you, but there are times when I could say something to someone but I just don’t want to say things clearly and directly as I could. There are times when I understand the truth about a situation but I don’t want to speak that truth in a way that would come across as harsh or offensive. I have a tendency to want to soften things rather than to say something that might cause hard feelings.

Sometimes we could call this "tact" or "being prudent." In our day this kind of approach may also be labeled being "politically correct." There are times when this is clearly the right approach, where exercising some restraint in the short-term helps hold a relationship together over the long-term. But there are times when, as Christians, we might be making a mistake by shading the truth, thinking of the short-term and forgetting that our words and actions can have long-term, even eternal, consequences.

This idea came to my attention in an unexpected way as I was reading Luke 13 while waiting with my wife at the hospital last Sunday evening. Jesus has been talking with some Pharisees, leaders among the Jews, and he expresses sadness and disappointment over their spiritual condition and their historic rejection of the prophets God has sent to his people. In the last part of verse 34 he says some very familiar words:

"How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"

And then in verse 35 he says:

"Behold, your house is forsaken"

That phrase, "Behold, your house is forsaken" nearly stopped me in my tracks. To be forsaken means to move away or depart from; to leave and be separated from. Jesus is telling the religious leaders that because they, and the Jewish people generally, have repeatedly ignored God that they are going to find themselves abandoned by God. They are supposed to be God's people, and yet because they ignore him God will separate himself from them. They will be forsaken by God.

The Good News of Jesus, that God saves sinners through the death-and-resurrection of Jesus, is not just another one of many things a person may choose, or not choose, during their life. When faced with a choice about the Good News of Jesus, we have the only choice in our lives that truly has eternal consequences. One choice is that we can believe in him and have eternal life with him. Any other answer is the same thing as saying "no" to him, and the consequence of that is being forsaken by him.

Every believer in Jesus knows people, many people, who don’t have faith. Sometimes our desire to share the Good News is muted by our desire to keep peace or not offend. But the danger our unbelieving friends face is very real. Let us be people know God's love so deeply that we are willing to speak the full truth of a merciful Savior to a world that desperately needs to hear and believe the Good News of Jesus.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Who are you?

I have "no Facebook" a rule when I'm writing my sermon, meaning I don't go on Facebook that day until after I do the writing I intend for the day. My original plan today had been to write but late in the day, when it was apparent that I wouldn't and I had the other work-related tasks for the day finished, I spent some time catching up with the world on Facebook. And in doing so I came across something I couldn't pass up.

It was a quiz. I usually skip quiz's. This one was called Which Bible Character Are You? and I passed it by, but then came back. A friend had done it and was told he was King Solomon. So I decided to check it out.

I was asked a question about who I was (curious, because they already knew I was Brad) and then, with a single click, I would be told which Bible character I was and put that information on Facebook. I paused.

My friend was told he was Solomon. Not too bad at first glance. Most powerful of all the kings of Israel. Unparalleled wealth and wisdom. But there is also the matter of 700 wives, 300 concubines, and most seriously, the words of 1 Kings 11:4,

"For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father."

For all that God had given to Solomon, his story ends with him being a long ways from God, worshipping everything but God.

There is a character in the Bible that I do identify with, although I suspect that the quiz didn't include many of the lesser-known people found in the Bible's storyline. He is a man who speaks but six words. Luke 18:13 says,

"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’"

A man who knows the distance between God and himself. A man who knows that his sin against God lies in that distance. A man who knows that God is a God rich in mercy, and who will lavish His mercy on all who turn from their sin and seek Him.

When it comes to the characters of the Bible, I am the tax collector coming to God, seeking His mercy. Who are you?

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Open my eyes Lord

It is Tuesday morning and I am working on my sermon for next Sunday. I am preaching through the book of Ruth and the passage for this week is Ruth 3:1-5. This will be the third time I have preached through a book of the Bible, working my way through 1 Peter last fall and Colossians this past spring.

Chief among the reasons I have done this is because I was noticing a tendency to drift towards my favorite topics as I prepared to preach each week. I was using the Revised Common Lectionary to choose texts and it seemed that more often than not I was going after my favorite themes as I read the options for each week.

Not that there is anything inherently wrong with what my favorite biblical themes may be, but I am called to preach to a particular congregation and I should be bringing to them, and myself as well, a broader understanding of God's word than what I happen to like the best.

Preaching through a book may not seem to have much breadth, as books may have their own broad themes and be restricted by the specific things they deal with. But staying within a book and a particular passage forces me to look more closely at the teaching of the passage, and then to bring what I find there to the congregation on Sunday morning. I think of it as having the text drive the message, rather than the preacher's own personal preferences underlie the message.

This method of selecting a text has its clear advantage in directing my sermon away from my hobby horses, but it also has its difficulties. The primary difficulty emerged again as I began to prepare this week. As I read the text my first question was, "What on earth is the message of this text and how can I can bring to the congregation on Sunday?"

If you take a moment to read Ruth 3:1-5 you might see what I mean. It isn't the kind of piece where something clearly stands out to bring as a word of comfort, or direction, or encouragement, or any other purpose a sermon might have. At least it didn't for me. Not at the first reading. Or the second. Or the third.

Maybe I should pick a different text. Maybe this week I need to change my plan and expand the passage, until I find something I can clearly hang my sermon on. Maybe.

As I wrestled to find the message within this passage, two other pieces of scripture were floating through my head. One was Luke 24:27, where Jesus has been on the road to Emmaus and explains some things to the people He walked with. Luke writes:

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."

And the other one was 2 Timothy 3:16-17, where Paul writes:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man[1] of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

The Luke passage doesn’t teach that Jesus is in absolutely every little bit of the Old Testament, but it does encourage us to dig deeply in each part of the Bible to find those things that increase our understanding of Him and nurture our love for Him.

And the 2 Timothy passage reminds us that God gives us His word, all of it, so that we might grow as His children throughout our lives.

So I went back to Ruth 3. I prayed. I dug a bit more. I thought about it and prayed again. And I think I have found something that speaks to me, and that I can bring to the congregation on Sunday.

Open my eyes, Lord, that in your word I may see your Son.

[1] While the ESV translates the Greek as 'man' here the intent of the text is to speak equally to men and women.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Scrooge

"Men's lives lead to certain ends." So says Ebenezer Scrooge while looking at his tombstone in the company of the Ghost of Christmas Future.

We were watching A Christmas Carol tonight and that line just jumped out at me. To that point the movie had presented a pretty secular version of Christmas, and I hadn’t expected it do any differently. That line jumped out at me, and when Scrooge said it the ghost nodded his head in the affirmative. And then Scrooge asked, "But if the lives change then the ends change?"

Whoa! Now that really got my attention! As a pastor I find myself saying something similar to Scrooge's words from the pulpit each week. Lives, of men and women do lead to certain ends, and absent Christ, those ends aren’t good. But if the lives change, through the saving work of Christ, then the ends change, and that is a change that is for the very best.

In Luke 1:32-33 the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary, telling her about the destiny of the son she will bear, saying,

"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

In just a few days it will be Christmas, the day Christians celebrate as the birthday of Jesus. Jesus is the one Gabriel speaks of, and while we remember his birth we also need to remember where Gabriel points our vision.

Mary's son, Jesus, came and led a life of particular purpose and that led to a certain end. He gave His life to save sinners. He gave His life to save all who would call in faith on His Name. And because He did that two things follow.

The first is that all that Gabriel foretold about Him is fulfilled. He is the Son of the Most High and He has a kingdom that will have no end.

And the second is that because of the purpose for which He lived His life, the end for my life, the end for your life, can be changed. When we come to faith in Him we are joined to Him and are His forever.

When we come to Him and this life ends, as one day it most certainly will, we will be in the fullness of His kingdom, enjoying His presence, eternally.

As this Christmas comes may it be your joy to celebrate the birth of Jesus as Savior, as the one who has saved you. May you know in the purpose of His life the certain promise of future glory in His eternal presence. Amen

Monday, September 22, 2014

Distance

Distance has been on my mind the past few days. A bit more than a year ago we moved from the Midwest to the West. We left Rochester, Minnesota for Dulce, New Mexico, a distance of a bit more than 1200 miles. And one thing we have done more of since we came out here is drive. Dulce is a great place for us to live but it is a small town in a sparsely-inhabited area, and without many of things that were so close to us in Rochester.

We participate in a home-school co-op, which is in Pagosa Springs, CO, a one-way trip of 48 miles. Our daughter's piano lessons are also in Pagosa, as well as a few other things she participates in, so in the average week we (truthfully, usually my wife) heads to Pagosa twice. Some weeks more than that.

To have a dealer work on our car means a trip to Durango, or 108 miles. Target, Sam's Club, etc. means a trip to Farmington, or 85 miles. That is also where I go to make hospital calls on members of our church. I have gone 2+ weeks without a trip to Farmington. And I have also made that trip three times in a week.

Traveling at night adds time into distance. Saturday we made our first trip to Albuquerque, for the state fair. It was a three-hour trip down and a bit longer on the way back. Night settled in just as we returned to the reservation, so the 60 or so miles left to home, which I drove at 60 MPH on the way down, took a bit longer, as I kept the speed at 45-50 MPH. Shortly after we arrived in Dulce we learned that when it gets dark on the reservation the deer and elk come out, and Saturday night was no exception.

Distance, in terms of time, was evident in a another way Saturday. In addition to going to the fair we were able to connect with a nephew I have living in Albuquerque. I had not seen that nephew since 1985 or 86. He is now nearly 36, with two children of his own. It was blessing that on our first trip to Albuquerque we were able to visit with them. Last May we were able to spend some time with his sister, my niece, when she made a trip north to visit us. While those distances of time were large, they closed rapidly, and easily, and we all look forward to getting together again.

Each week as our congregation gathers for worship we have a prayer of confession. In that prayer this Sunday I was thinking about the distance that sin creates between a person and God. Of course the big sins separate us from God. Anyone can see that. But what about the little ones? The sins that are so small, so insignificant, from our perspective? Thinking like that is when I misread the distance, because for all practical purposes the gap is the same. It may seem small, but for me to cross it would be similar to me jumping across the Grand Canyon. There is no way that on my own I can cross the gap caused by my sin.

It is a gap that is only crossed by my Savior, Jesus, who carries me to the other side. One Sunday last year I preached from Luke 16:19-31, a story that not only shows the chasm that exists between sinners and God, but that teaches that it is a chasm that can only be crossed in life. If a person doesn't come to have faith in Jesus before death, it is a chasm that they will never cross.

And thinking about faith brings me to the last of these thoughts I have been having about distance. And that is the distance to which God's forgiveness of sin reaches. Sure, it starts here, where I confess, but where does it end? The answer to that question is found in Psalm 103:11-12, which reads:

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."

That is incredible. The Savior who closes the gap made by my sin takes that sin and casts it away. He casts it far away. He casts it as far as the east is from the west, a distance that is infinite. His adversary may still bring memories of forgiven sin to mind, but the truth of God's word is that when I come to God in faith my sin is taken away, the chasm is bridged, and there is no going back. Amen. To God be all the glory!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Story

Today is Christmas Eve. It is my first Christmas Eve as a pastor, and I want to get things right.

That was one of my thoughts as I spent some time in prayer this morning, and it has been a recurrent thought as I prepare to lead God's people in worship each week. And frankly, as a pastor I have recurrent struggles with that thought, mostly because I want to "get things right" for the right reasons, and not the wrong ones.

I have the desire to "get things right" in worship because I am the pastor and leading worship is what the people in the congregation expect me to do. But the temptation is to do things in such a way that they begin to think of how great a pastor I am, or what a wonderful preacher I may be, or similar things.

I certainly want to be competent at what I do, but not in a way that points their attention on me.

What I really want is to be competent as a pastor in such a way that the people in my congregation cast their eyes past me and onto their Savior. I want to tell God's story in such a way that the people hearing it don't focus on the storyteller but on the Hero of the story.

It’s a captivating story, God's story that begins in creation and ends in the fulfillment of His plan of redemption. It isn't captivating because it is told well in the Bible, although it certainly is. Fascinating characters. Compelling plot. Unexpected turns of events.

Its captivating because it is true.

From beginning to end, it's true. I understand that my way of seeing God's story, as truth, isn't the way many other people understand it. So another prayer is that I would be able to serve Him well in carrying His truth into the world, wherever I may be at the moment.

As I prepare for worship this evening here is the small part of the story that stands out in my mind, from Luke 2:

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

As you hear the story, may you look past the storyteller and cast your eyes on the Hero.

A Savior…Christ…the Lord.