Imparted Strength

  Luke 4:1-13             

 The scripture today is an interaction between Jesus and the Devil. 

                Now there are some of you who will begin to immediately dismiss what comes next just because I mentioned “the Devil.” It’s not popular to talk about him.  In seminary, the devil is often only referred to as a literary character rather than a spiritual reality.  Intellectuals scoff at the idea as a 2000-year-old superstition.  It is far more in vogue to talk about social injustice and psychological disorders than to consider that there are spiritual forces that are beyond our control or understanding.  When I studied religion at Central Michigan University I was taught several different ways of understanding God other than the way that says that God actually exists. 

                Intellectual pursuits are good.  Understanding through reason is good.  But you can’t expect someone to fully understand something they have not experienced. 

I don’t know who said it but it seems true, “for those without faith, no explanation will be sufficient. For those with faith, no explanation is necessary.”

                Back in 1999, I experienced God in such a way that I could never doubt His existence again.  His presence was so convincing that I started making the transition from self-employed business owner to itinerant pastor.  Within a year I was a full time student again to make that happen.  I was in an English class somehow a discussion about God came up.  The Professor said, “We cannot know for sure if God exists.”

I often wonder how people without sight understand the moon.  The primary way to
experience it is through sight.  One must be completely dependent on another
for a good description to have any experience of it. Likewise how do you adequately
explain God to those who have never experienced God?
Photo by Alex Pohl

                I raised my hand immediately.  “I can.” 

                “Excuse me.” The professor said.

                “I can say for sure that God exists.”

                Who knows what he thought.  He didn’t question my statement. He just went on from there as if I had said nothing.  But before that experience I year previous, I was an earnest searcher of God but I would have agreed with his statement that “no one can say for sure…” But the moment you dip your toe into the ocean you can never deny its existence.

                By gathering together as we do to worship God, we are, on some level, all acknowledging that God is in charge; that God is our guide; That God sets the standard.  We know this and not one of us can say that we are perfect followers of all that we know to be good and true.  We have all failed to live up to our own understanding of what God expects from us.  We are constantly distracted.  We are constantly tempted.  Life as a disciple of Jesus Christ requires attention and intentional living.  Just like being a good friend or a good spouse or a good parent.  We can easily get into the habit of going through the motions in all these relationships.  If I don’t pay attention, even being a pastor can distract me from my relationship with God. 

                God is constantly loving us and guiding us.  When we take that love and guidance for granted and try to add to it or do it our own way, we start to depend on other things for our fulfillment. 

                “I have my friends. They fulfill me.”  It’s good to have friends.

I have my spouse; I have my job; I have my family; I have my kids; I have my hobbies; I have my car; I have my house; I have my boat; I have my cabin; I have my girlfriend; I have my health plan; I have my medicine; I have my chocolate; I have my sassy attitude; I have my superior recycled, granola, eco-friendly lifestyle.  Whatever we look to for fulfillment in that is not God can and will let us down.  And just like a drug addict, when we aren’t finding fulfillment with a little then we will think the answer is a little more; then a little more.  It doesn’t take long before we are slaves to the things of this world.  Jesus offers freedom from this addiction.  

                Remember Jesus went into the synagogue and read from the Prophet Isaiah and claimed that what he read was fulfilled in him?  He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…”  That’s us! We are slaves to those things we put our energy into.

                And so we begin this first Sunday of Lent.  If you find fulfillment in chocolate and you have given up chocolate for Lent to focus on God, that’s awesome.  Experience that freedom!  Whether it’s from chocolate or from some other false source of fulfillment cast it aside and live in the freedom that Jesus has won for us. 

                So…How’s your will-power these days?  How are your best intentions working out?  How are those New Year’s resolutions doing?  I don’t know about you but the harder I try or the more I think about making a life change the more difficult it becomes to do so.  Not only are habits deeply ingrained in our person but our family and friends expect us to act in familiar ways.  When we change, it doesn’t mean that they have and they don’t always make the change easy.  

                Even if our friends and family are on board for the change we make in our lives, there is something more.  You ever notice when you resolve to give something up the desire for it increases?  Or when you want to add something like exercise or regular prayer to your life it suddenly seems particularly difficult to get started.  What is that?

                Like I said before people don’t like to talk about the Devil.  Some folk are just too sophisticated to have such simple explanations for things.  What do you want to call it when genocide happens?  What do you call it when someone opens fire on young ones?  You can call it “Negative energy; bad mojo; karma.” Maybe you call it bad luck or statistical anomaly.

                But in the book that we love we read a story of our Lord fasting for 40 days.  He suspended his attachment to the earthly things to find his way spiritually.  At the end of that period the devil came and tempted him. 

                It is always when are at our weakest when the things of this world seem the most appealing.  The devil tempted Jesus with the most simple of foods, bread.  Jesus knew where his fulfillment ultimately lay.  Jesus was clear about who he was.  Jesus identity was secure as the Son of God.  He was free from the slavery to earthly desires and attachments. 

Then the Devil got right to the point.  The Devil wanted Jesus to worship him.  The Devil never had a chance.  Jesus knew that he had already won and one day the devil would bow down to him. 

I imagine the Devil was frustrated and infuriated when he suggested that Jesus should throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple.  Jesus dismissed him with words from scripture.

                                As you grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ you may be tempted to measure your life by your successes and failures.  Don’t do that.  You are God’s beloved child.  When you are tempted, draw near to Jesus. Pray to him. Read about him in scripture.  Seek his presence.  The Devil or whatever you want to call it can’t stand that. You will be distracted from God’s wonderful love from time to time.  When you realize that you have lost your way, just come back.  God isn’t going anywhere.

                So you have given up Chocolate (or whatever) for lent, let me ask you, do you plan to pick up that yoke of slavery again after Easter?

                Would you pray with me?

Ash Wednesday

Palm leaves with paper bearing the burdens that are holding
some people back.  We are giving it all to God

Ash Wednesday

                This is the beginning of the 40 day journey to Easter.  As Christians our eyes are ever on the empty tomb of Jesus as the source of our hope.  But these 40 days we turn our gaze inward and zero-in on the brokenness of our human nature, we contemplate our mortality and commit to a more God-focused life.

                It would be easy to overlook the difficult things of our spiritual journey and go straight to the cross.  Our faith tells us that we have forgiveness for our sin because of the sacrificial love of Jesus
Christ and what he did on that cross. 

                We have been justified! We have been redeemed! We have been saved!

                It would be easy to take the truth of what Jesus did and lay that over the story of our lives and say, “it’s all good.”  Well, my friends, that’s not the whole picture.  Jesus did sacrifice himself for humanity.  Your sins are indeed forgiven when you have faith in him.  But that does not mean that you are getting the full measure of the love that he is trying to pour out on to you.  You are not necessarily receiving all the blessings that God has intended for you.  It’s because those who have life eternal may be mostly dead and have only the appearance of life about them. 

                The appearance of life. 

                There is no escaping death.  There is no other alternative on this earth.  We are all temporary inhabitants of this world we are all impermanent.  The palms used nearly a year ago for our Palm Sunday celebration were green and leafy and apparently full of life.  But the moment they were cut and delivered to the flower shop where I picked them up they were essentially dead, though they had the appearance of life. 

                We took those green leafy branches and we celebrated and remembered the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem.   There were shouts of great joy.  Then when the celebration was over I took the remaining palm leaves and I stored them for nearly a year. Slowly the chlorophyll faded from them and they turned brown.  They were no longer supple.  They were rigid.  And just this morning I burned them.  And what was once green and leafy is now a pile of ash.  We too, in our mortal bodies, are living.  But if we are not connected to the eternal source of life; if we are not connected to God, we only have the appearance of life and are, in fact, dead already.  When we have that connection to God, through Jesus Christ we have eternal life, though the mark of death is still in us. Our mortal bodies will still die.  We have weakness in our body. Our bodies fail us.  Cancer cells develop. We have weakness. Temptations arise. Sometimes well-meaning folk give in to those temptations. Sometimes we do things that distract us from the eternal source of life.  We have to be careful not to cut ourselves off from communion with God.  We have to take care to keep ourselves connected to our God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

                While we live on this earth we would like the mark of death to be as slight in us as possible, and the connection to God through Jesus Christ as strong as possible.  We cannot earn merit before God.  We cannot do well enough on our own through good deeds to merit eternal life. Just like no matter how good that palm leaf that you held in your hand was. It may have been a beautiful palm leaf.  No matter how much joy it brought, since it was already cut off, it was already dead. 

These 40 days are about making the connection to God stronger than ever.  Faith and trust in Jesus Christ does that.  Eliminating things in your life that distract you from your relationship with god helps you live by faith.  We have to take care though.  We cannot make the sacrifice the center of our attention. 

I hear it every year, “what are you going to give up for Lent?” 

Chocolate?

Coffee?

Meat?

The question should be, “what are you going to change in your life that will bring you closer to God?”

And really it shouldn’t even be a question that you ask or answer.  If we look at the words of Jesus on the matter of our devotion to God, he says that we ought not to let people know what our devotion entails. That everything we do should be done in secret.  If we get “credit” for being pious from our friends and neighbors then we have received our reward.  But if we are devoted in secret, if we are praying, giving and fasting outside the attention of everyone but God then our rewards will come from God. 

That would be a good measure of your own faith.  Do you need the attention and approval that your service brings or are you pleased to give it to God and let the blessings fall where they may?

Yes we have been justified! We have been redeemed! We have been saved! And we cannot add a single thing to that.  But we ought not to mistake the justification of our souls for the justification of our actions.  God loves us where we are; and God expects us to grow in Him.

So how is it with you the beginning of this Lenten season?  What are the things that you need to let go of so that God can get a better hold of you?  

The Ash we use to mark ourselves as a reminder of our mortality and our
need for repentance. 

Only The Brave Pray

Luke 9:28-36

Here we are.  Its February 11, 2013 and it's still winter.  We should be in the upswing as far as the weather goes.  With the cold and the snow it seems like we are more isolated.  It seems that during these cold months that people just don’t get out of the house as often.  We are hunkered down.  Oh sure we get out to do the necessary things but it is quickly to the car get the groceries then head straight back home.  It is difficult to act leisurely and luxuriate like a tourist in Ludington.  I’m starting to feel like a local.

Did I say last week that I wanted to experience a “real” Ludington winter?   I’m sorry. 

One of the great things that has come into my life that is really helping me through these dark months is the exercise class that Nancy leads here at the church.  Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 8 am we show up. We chat; we work; we chat some more and we pray.   In March we will have been meeting for a full year.   We don’t always meet though. The weather sometimes gets in the way.  Sometimes we don’t meet because some of us may be out of town.  But, if we are all here and are all healthy we meet. Those weeks when there has been a long break between times, the groans and the complaints are a little more pronounced when we finally do get together.   Our efforts are effective and consequences of not keeping up with them are apparent.

People often say, “I should exercise more.”  I know I have said it. I think it.  A treadmill is over at the parsonage largely unused.  I should use it.  I know it’s good for me. I know that I will feel better and have a more positive outlook if I do use it. 

Do we think of prayer in the same way we think of exercise?  I don’t think there is anyone here that thinks that praying is a bad idea.   I have never heard anyone suggest that one should stop praying, or that one shouldn’t pray too much.  Yet praying is not a priority in many lives.  Prayer often is “squeezed” into a schedule.  It is inserted when there is nothing else pressing for your time. Obligatory prayers are given from rote memory at the beginning of a meal.  Is this what Jesus intended when he taught his disciples how to pray?

Imagine someone that you love very much and desire to spend as much time with as possible comes to you and the only interaction this person has with you is that they give you a daily report of what their problems are?  It’s better than nothing I suppose.  What if someone you love and care for deeply came and spent only one hour a week with you and the whole time was distracted and thinking about other things?

Praying is spending time with God. 

There are different things we can say about prayer.  We can say that prayer is effective.  There are studies that show that people with serious illness who have people praying for them recover faster than people that don’t.  But that’s like saying that people with families get more pumpkin pie at thanksgiving.  That may be true but it’s more of a side effect.  Having more pumpkin pie is a good thing but the real blessing is the family relationships.

Praying is about spending time with God.

Being an introvert by nature I find renewal in solitude.  I
took this pic on a hike with a group of 3rd graders.  Our
guide stopped for a teachable moment about who-knows-what
while I stole a moment of solitude in appreciating the rising
sun. 

We can say that prayer changes you.  When Peter, James and John went with Jesus to the mountain top they went with the intent to pray.  “As he (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his cloths became very bright, a brilliant white.” Jesus appearance to his disciples changed.  Or perhaps, for the first time, they could see Jesus for who he really is.  Prayer does change you. But not into something that is foreign but it changes you into the image that God had originally intended for you.  God created you uniquely and for a purpose.  We have allowed our brokenness to distort that image.  We have notions of how we want things done.  In our humanity we desire control and power so that we have a sense of security.  Jesus calls us to trust him and leave all that behind. When we pray we are connecting with God.  This is a powerful thing.  It’s no wonder that many people don’t have strong prayer life.  Truly seeking and connecting with God is a transformative experience, and most people don’t want to change.   But if we say that the purpose of prayer is to change, well then it is nothing more than a self-help program.  If you enter into anything with your mind on the benefits you will receive, then you are at the center and not God.

Prayer is about spending time with God. 

We can say that prayer will bring you a sense of well-being.   Peter certainly wanted to make permanent the moment of exultation on the mountain top.  He wanted to build shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. But prayer isn’t about you. Prayer is about the Kingdom of God.  Prayer is about bringing ourselves into accord with the will of God.  Prayer is more about listening than it is about speaking.  We get that part backwards all the time. 

When Peter offered to build the shelters a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid. Then a voice came from the cloud, saying “This is my Son, My Chosen One.  Listen to him!” Listen! Jesus didn’t bring Peter, James and John to have an experience.  He brought them to pray.  And when they were fumbling around trying to respond to what they did experience, they were interrupted by God saying, “Listen to him!”  Jesus has instructions.  Jesus has guidance.  Jesus has commands.  They are in Holy Scripture. Read it! Heed it!  Jesus has written his law on your hearts.  Listen to it.  The Holy Spirit guides us and empowers us. Listen for it!

Yesterday four youth participated in a prayer retreat here at the church.  They were presented with different ways people have approached God in prayer.  Part of that learning process was the practice of quieting our minds so that we can hear God speak.  It’s hard work when it hasn’t been practiced.  Just like Nancy’s exercise class.  When you haven’t done it in a while, it seems difficult when you begin again.  Our schedules, our routines fill up quickly with other things and it is easy to put off, delay or even completely remove prayer from our lives.  But this is what we are built for.  We are disciples of Jesus Christ, the One who saves, and the one who shepherds us.  How will we know our God’s will for us unless we spend time with God?

This is the scary part about prayer.  This is why most people don’t pray.  Because when you understand the will of God for your life then you have to make a choice whether you will act on that information.  It is easier to keep your ears shut and go about living life according to your terms.  God might just have something for you that doesn’t fit into your plan.  And that can be scary.  But let me tell you from every bit of my being and experience that if God leads you to it he will guide you through it!

Praying is bout spending time with God.  You will be so blessed when you deepen your relationship with God.

How is it with you today?  Are you tenacious enough to work those prayer muscles and get past the initial pain of feeling like you aren’t doing it right or not doing it well enough?  Are you brave enough to listen for God’s will in your life?  Are you willing to be directed in a way that you cannot predict right now?  This the way of the disciple.  I invite you to this adventure of faith.  

Get Set

I could pretend that I added this photo as an illustration of how mind
training is stressed in the training of Jedi in the Star Wars movies.
Honestly.  I just wanted to take a picture of my Luke Skywalker
action figure.  

Luke 4:21-30

Did you know that there is going to be a football game on TV this evening? Be honest.  How many of you have no idea who is playing?

Yeah, I don’t really care either.  I’m gonna watch the game though.  I’ll probably root for Baltimore just because I’m partial to the East Coast. Other than that my head is not really in the game.  I have never been a fan of either team.  I am sure the people of Baltimore and San Francisco are thinking a lot more about football than I am.

It’s interesting how your world is shaped by what you give your attention to.  We give our attention to things that demand it.  When we have pain in our bodies we want it gone so we do something about it.  When someone we love is suffering we try to give them relief.  An ambulance approaches with its lights on from behind us so we pull over. Your husband or wife yells so you yell back. The baby cries so you feed her. The phone rings so you answer it. The television is on so we watch it.

It seems there is hardly a moment when our attention is not being grabbed or demanded by someone or something.  So if we are shaped by what we give our attention to, we are letting others shape who we are if we are not selective about it.

Television news just loves a big tragedy.  You can know just about everything there is to know about a big tragedy if you watch CNN long enough.  If they have run out of details to share they will just repeat the ones they already know so that you can memorize what has happened. You can live the tragedy over and over again.  You can begin to believe that what has happened is the only thing happening in the world.  I remember 11 years ago having to make myself turn of the television because I didn't want to hear any more about the attacks of September 11^th.  I purposely avoided the evening news the day of the tragedy in Newtown Connecticut.  I grieved those things.  I was angered by those things.  But I don’t want to give the evil of this world undue attention. 

Imagine if we were given titles based on what we give our attention.  Think about it what do you spent most of your attention on?  What would be on your name tag just below your name? Would it be Health worries? CNN/Fox News?  Family issues?  Sports? Hunting? Perhaps your mind is occupied by other things.  Would you want whatever it is printed on your name-tag for everyone to see?

What we are striving for is for that name tag to read “disciple of Jesus Christ.” 

What would it take to make that happen for you?

Our Gospel reading today is a continuation from last week when Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.  Remember?  He was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he read the scripture, rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

Remember how we talked about the scripture was defined by Jesus not the other way around? I used the analogy of a race at a track meet.  The starting point is your mark. Our starting point is the Scriptures.  The next command by a track official is “set.” That means “get set” and don’t move a muscle until you get the starting gun.  This is a moment when you are poised for action, singularly focused on the task at hand.  

Jesus read from the scroll and said what he said and they were amazed at the gracious words coming from his mouth.  Then someone said, “Hold on!” Well, scripture doesn't record those words but the feeling is there.  Someone said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

Jesus just had made a bold proclamation about who he was.  He was telling them that he was the messiah.  He is the one they have been waiting for but the one in the synagogue couldn't see past the fact that this was Joseph’s son.  You know Joseph, the one that didn't make it into rabbi school.  He was a year ahead of me in school back in Nazareth.  You've had these conversations.  How could someone who was the son of that guy, a nobody, be the messiah?

Their expectation was that the messiah would be someone important and powerful.   If he is the son of Joseph then it can’t be him. You’ll notice in verse 22 that it wasn't just one person that felt this way it says “they said. Is this not Josephs son?”  It was the mood of the room that Jesus was not really who he was claiming to be. 

So Jesus fires right back and says, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”  And he brought to their memory stories about the history of the Hebrew people when foreigners were blessed when they were not.  This upset them a bit. They drove him to a brow of a hill with the intent to do him harm. 

There is a passage in a book in the Bible called Deuteronomy where is says, “But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak, that prophet shall die.”  This may be their justification for trying to chuck Jesus off a cliff.  They think that he is saying things that God has not commanded him to say.  They get him all the way to the hill top and scripture says, “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”

Whoever wrote this story down clearly thought that this was vindication for Jesus.  The inability of the crowd to kill Jesus that day was proof that what he was saying was true. 

I also think that this gives us another layer of understanding as to why the crucifixion was so devastating.  On a Friday sometime later, the crowd was able to kill Jesus.  If the one claiming to be messiah was able to be killed then he must have been a false messiah.  But as we know, the crucifixion was not the end of the story.  The resurrection, two days later, was the triumphant defeat of death. Again, attention was paid to the wrong thing.  Jesus sacrificed himself but his followers only paid attention to the apparent defeat. 

We are shaped by that which we pay our attention. 

How would your name-tag identify you?

If come to have faith in Jesus Christ and continue to live the way we have always lived then we are not “set”.  We've joined the team. We wear the uniform.  We know the schedule. We know the rules. We know where the starting line is. But are you getting into the race?

If you are not actively working on growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ then you are actively growing as a disciple of whatever you are paying your attention to.