Are You Safe in Church? Part II

“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword,

It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Hebrews 4:12

Last week reflecting on the shootings in South Carolina, I asked the question, “Are you safe in Church?”   Well, I hope you will be patient.  I want to ask the question one more time.    This time though I am looking at this question from a new angle, unrelated to the shootings in South Carolina.  This time I want to answer this question three different ways. 

“Are you safe in Church?”  First, I hope not!  Think about the passage from Hebrews 4 where the word of God is called a “double edged sword.”  That tells me that if the Word of God is being proclaimed in all its fullness, then there are going to be moments when we feel uncomfortable in Church.  There are going to be times when we are cut to the heart, when our sinfulness is exposed.  Church should not be a place where we are allowed to continue hiding from the truth of our sinful habits, our unloving actions, our worried and fearful hearts.  I once saw a sign that read, “The truth will make you free but first it will make you miserable.”  One person told me, “I know I need to face the truth about what’s been going on in my life but I really don’t want to.  It hurts too much.”  If the church is place that allows you to feel safe by avoiding the hard truths… If the church is a place that simply pats on the head and says, “Don’t change a thing” then the church is not proclaiming the full word of God.  So in that sense you shouldn’t feel safe in church. For our own good we should feel exposed and called out!

Are you safe in Church?  Secondly, I hope so!  Having had the hard truths of God’s word penetrate our hiding places, we also so badly need the even greater truths of God’s love in Christ!  A church should be a place like that church in South Carolina, that offers forgiveness and love even to those who come in shooting a gun.  When guilty or lonely, or worried or grieving, or struggling the word of God has great comfort to offer – a savior who gave his life for you, a community of believers to be your family and friends, a God who listens to all your prayers, who promises to be with you always, who says to you, “Have no anxiety about anything” and “fear not,”, a God who has conquered death and comforts all who grieve.  In the church you should meet Jesus. You should meet the Father who knows all about you and loves you anyway. You should meet the God whose arms are open… who embraces you  as His son or daughter.  Yes you should be safe in Church!

Are you safe in Church?  Finally, I hope not.  Too often you and I want the church to be a fortress, a place where we can hide from the world.  We want to build walls and keep the world out.  Like I told you last week Jesus didn’t call us to stay behind locked doors and be safe.  He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…”  We don’t come together as God’s people for worship, for the Lord’s Supper, for Christian fellowship in order to avoid the world.  We come together so that God can strengthen us with His love and power in order to go out into the world.  Jesus called us to be “in the world but not of the world.”  John 17   God doesn’t want us hiding behind Church doors. He calls us to go through those doors into the world to share His love with that world.  He promised that when we go the gates of hell can not prevail against His love in Christ… He promised as we go He would go with us.  In short the church is not a place for running from our troubles or running from the world.  The church is a place to run to for help… to run to for strength… so that you can then run to the world with the good news.  Are you safe in Church?  Well I hope so and I hope not!

Are You Safe in Church?

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Psalm 91:11-12

I know I discussed safety on this blog only a couple of months again.  We were in Israel and I reflected on the fact that people were asking me, “Is it safe there?”  Well the subject came up again this week.  This time the question wasn’t about Israel.  This time the question was, “Do you feel safe in Church?”  I was being interviewed by a reporter. She wanted my reaction as an American pastor to the shootings at the Church in South Carolina.

I, like I am sure most of you, had a mixture of reactions – anger, grief and sadness.  I was angry that people at a prayer meeting in a church would be shot at by a man apparently filled with racial hatred.  I have also been grieved for the nine families who lost people they loved.  I was saddened, thinking how this would affect how people look at Americans.  I want people here to know that this isn’t what Americans are like.  Americans are a kind and generous people, not madmen with guns. 

Then the reporter asked the question, “How will this affect you?  Will you still feel safe in church?” Wow!  How sad that we even have to ask that.  How terribly tragic it is that in some places children must pass through metal detectors to go into their schools. How sad that now we need to worry about safety at a church prayer meeting!  How sad that there are pastors with body guards protecting them!

Are you safe in Church?  I think the people from that church in South Carolina have given the right answer to this question.  Look at their reaction.  Within hours of the arrest of the man who did this, they acted to say to him – we forgive you!  In the midst of all their grief, they were concerned for the shooter, for his spiritual well-being.  Wow. That’s what Jesus did for us.  Within moments of being nailed to the cross, Jesus prayed for those who executed Him.  “Father forgive them.”  He was also praying for us.  After all, our sins nailed Jesus to that cross. We too are His executioners.  He prays for our forgiveness. 

Are you safe in Church?  Our safety isn’t the issue.  Our safety is God’s concern. Psalm 91 -  “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”  Ours is the confidence that Luther expressed in the final words of his famous hymn -  “Take they goods, fame, child or wife.  Let these all be gone.  They yet have noting won.  The kingdom ours remaineth.”  Ours is the confidence that even should the worst possible things happen to us, we are still safe in the Father’s hands.

Being safe isn’t the mission God gave us.. Jesus did not say to us, “Go and be safe in Church.” He said “Go into all the world…” He calls us to love others, even our enemies, even those who harm us, as we have been loved by God.  “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  Why? “Because God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us…. While we were God’s enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…”  (Romans 5)  With our God we are free from worry and fear to love as we have been loved, to love even those who hate us.  After all, the person full of hate needs to know the God who loves him..  

God has a Vision

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:2-3

This is my third time to bring you out to this site.  Back when I first came here they were starting to tear down the building that once stood there. I wrote about how God tears down in order to build us up new.  A couple of months later, I brought you out here to show you the slow and steady progress they were making – a reminder that God’s work in our lives takes time.  Now here we are again.  The big building is gone.  They are moving dirt around, preparing a foundation, getting ready to build something new here.  Looking at this sign it looks like they will be building some kind of classroom building or dormitory here for the nearby University.  That’s what amazes me.  I look at this field and see just some piles of dirt.  The architect and builders look and they see the building that will eventually stand here.  I really admire people who can do that… who can look at this empty piece of land and imagine something entirely different standing here.

Our God is like that, a God with a vision.  In Genesis 2 he looked at a pile of dirt and had vision of what that dirt could become. He formed that dirt into a man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  The dirt man became a living man.  But God’s vision for that dirt went way beyond creating Adam.  He had a vision for a whole human race.  Wow.  Think of the story of Abraham.  He was old.  His wife was barren.  What more could be made out of their lives? But God could see what He could do.  He saw whole nations coming from this unlikely couple. He saw the savior of the world coming from their offspring.  Then He turned that vision into reality.  Think of David, the youngest son of Jesse.  When Samuel came looking for the next King of Israel, David seemed such an unlikely choice that Jesse didn’t even bother to call him in from tending the sheep.  Yet God knew what He could do with David and He did it. He formed and shaped David to be a slayer of Giants, Israel’s greatest king, a man after God’s own heart and the one through whom God would give a King who would rule forever.

I know that sometimes you look at yourself and I look at myself and we wonder, “What would God want with someone like me?  How could God make anything meaningful out of my life?”  I want you to remember these stories from the Scripture. These were the most unlikely people for God to choose.  Yet He did.  That’s the way He is.  He chooses the lowly and through them does great work.  He looked at that pile of dirt, at old Abraham, at runt of the litter David and had a vision of what He could do in and through them. 

He looks at you and me the same way. Yes we are sinners. Yes we make a mess of things.  But He is a God who can do great things with the small and weak.  He wants to do His great work in and through you and me?  How do I know? He gave Jesus that we might be His.  He adopted us into His family at baptism.  He called us to faith.  He has poured out His gifts on us.  He has a plan for you, and for me.  What do you do with that?  You put yourself in His hands.  Like Abraham You go when He calls –even if you don’t know where He is leading. All you need to know is that He is leading.  Like David, when you stray, you ask forgiveness and continue to follow.  He is a God with a vision, a vision of what He can do in and through you and me.  

God's "No's" are Always Good "No's"

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

I have told this story in a couple of my sermons.  I was in my first call in Nebraska.  It was the Sunday in January when I was going to announce to the congregations that I was taking a call to go and serve in Texarkana, TX.  It was my first time to ever make such an announcement.  I was nervous.    One member walking into church before the service sized me up and said to me, “Pastor Braun I hope you have good news for us this morning.”  As this fellow turned away and walked into church I let me head fall against my chest.  I sighed deeply. I hate disappointing people and that was exactly what I was about to do.   One of the church elders standing behind me saw my reaction.  “Pastor,” He said, “You just tell them that God’s news is always good news.” 

Yesterday, I was reminded of that story.  A member of Trinity stopped by my office.  For the past three years she and her husband and their two children have been praying and looking for a new place to live.  The place they lived, for all sorts of reasons was not a good one for their family – too small, too far from the kids school and so on. For three years they have been frustrated.  Every time they thought that they had found a place, they would get their hopes up only to see everything fall apart.  It was very frustrating and discouraging.. Why couldn’t they catch a break?  Why did God keep telling them “no?”  Then a few weeks ago, they found an apartment.  This apartment had everything they were hoping for, praying for and looking for. The lease went through.  Now they have been able to rent their old apartment to someone else.  She stood in my office and said to me, “Now we know why God kept telling us ‘no.’ He had someplace better in mind for us.”

As I sat there listening to her, I thought of a variation of what that elder said to me all those years ago – “God’s no’s are always good no’s.”  We all have or are perhaps going through a time it seems like God’s answers to our prayers are one “no” after another.  They are moments when it seems that things we hope for never seem to work out.  They are times of discouragement.  Sometimes we get frustrated and angry.  Where is God?  Isn’t God listening to our prayers? 

At those moments I love the Bible verse I choose for today’s blog – Jeremiah 29:11.  This verse was written by the prophet at just such a time in the life of God’s people. The Babylonians had destroyed their nation, their capital, their temple.  The people of Judah were to be taken into exile in a foreign land. Where was God?  Why was this happening?  Why was He saying “no” to them?  At just that moment the Lord speaks through His prophet.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  What a great verse, a reminder that even when things all seem to be falling apart we can still count on God’s love for us.  Even when we can’t seem to catch a break we can be confident that our loving God is still in control. Even when we can’t see a way that things will work out, we can trust Him with the outcome.  Even when God says “no” we can trust that He knows better than us… that He has plans to give us a hope and a future.  After all, as St. Paul wrote, “If God did not spare His own Son but gave Him for us all how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?”  Be patient in those difficult moments.  Trust your loving God.  Live in the confident faith that “God’s ‘no’s’ are always good ‘no’s.”

Bloom while You Can

All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field...

 The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:6b, 8

You have heard the old saying, “Bloom where you are planted!”  It’s an old cliché reminding us to not always be looking over the fence for greener pastures.   Instead until God moves you some place, do your best to live life, serve others and walk with God right where you are.  If you are constantly planning how you will live and serve in the next place, you will never truly live well anywhere.  So instead of always hoping for something better, rejoice in and walk with God right where you are – “bloom where you are planted.”

Today however, I want to change that cliché a little.  I want to say to you “Bloom while you can.”  What do I mean?  Well I thought of this today while I was walking to work – looking at all the beautiful flower boxes hanging from window after window.  Germans love their flowers.  This time of year, and I am told, throughout the summer, Germany is decked out with flowers.  Linda and I were remarking the other day about all the beautiful roses you see.  They are everywhere..  This starts as soon as it gets warm and stays warm.  The Germans don’t waste any time in buying flowers and planting them.  After all the season for flowers won’t last forever.  Fall and winter will come.  The days will grow dark and cold again.  There will be harsh frost.  Then the flowers will fade and die.  So if you are a flower you have to “bloom while you can.” 

I think Isaiah is saying the same thing about you and me in the 40^th chapter.  “All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field...  The grass withers, the flower fades…”  The meaning of that text is obvious.  Our time here is limited.  We are born, we grow strong for a while but then our strength fails.  We fade.  Eventually we die.  We won’t live forever.  Just as for the flowers, the fall and winter of life are coming.  Therefore we need to “bloom while we can.”

Now I know that all sounds very sobering and full of law.  But I think there is Gospel here.  After all, temporary though we are – we have beauty to offer.  He compares our beauty to the beauty of the flowers.  Wow!  God has made us as His beautiful creation. Even marred by sin, this beauty is still there.  You see it in the love between a husband and wife, mom and a baby… in the little acts of kindness people do for one another.  This is good news for all who struggle to like themselves or see any beauty in themselves. God looks at you and He sees beauty…beauty He created in you. 

Indeed in Jesus you and I have a beauty to offer that erases all traces of ugliness from life.  We have the beauty of God’s love shown us in the manger, on the cross and at the empty tomb… the beauty of forgiveness that Christ purchased for all people… This is the beauty God gives us to offer to the world… to our friends and enemies… to neighbors and strangers… We offer it not by pressuring and condemning people around us but by loving and caring for them unconditionally just as God has loved and cared for us.  It bothers me that far too often we Christians are known for condemning people around us. When it comes to the world around us, what we should be known for is the beauty of loving people unconditionally!

That’s the one permanent lasting thing that we have in this world… that we have to offer others… 

the beauty of God’s love in Jesus.  He is the Word of God who stands forever.  Isn’t that cool?  

Even through our lives are temporary.  Even though we will wither and our beauty will fade, as 

we love the people God brings into our lives, we are able to share with them a beauty that lasts

 forever – the beauty of God’s love in Christ.  So knowing the fall and winter are coming it’s 

important that we get to it… that we not waste time… that we “bloom while we can.”