Thursday, March 29, 2018

So You want to Become Great? Here's the Way


“Whoever wants to become great among must be your servant…”Matthew 20:26


The story in today’s Gospel reading is a familiar one.  It’s one that has been replayed in various ways in each of our lives.  The mother of James and John is looking out for her two boys and their future.  She wants greatness for them.  Wanting them to get their foot in the doorway before anyone else has a chance, she takes Jesus aside to demand, not ask, a favor.  She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

This is no different than a bunch of school kids pushing and shoving to see who get to be first in line.  This is no different than spreading rumors about a friend in order to make yourself look better… This is no different than making your spouse do all the dirty work around the house while you lie on the couch.  This is no different than what I did to a friend in college.  I told him someone wanted to talk to him.  While he was gone, I asked the girl to the dance before he did. That’s the way you end up on top. You push and shove… you lie… you gossip… you stab in the back… you do whatever it takes.

The problem is that kind of greatness carries a price - lost friendships, broken relationships, strife, bitterness and division.   It divided the disciples. When the ten heard about this, they became indignant…   What’s more greatness sought this way is not real greatness.  You are great only until someone stronger or prettier or more popular or more ruthless comes along.  It’s like the girl that moved into our church in the 7th grade.  She was the popular girl that year. She loved the attention… But the next year someone else moved in and she wasn’t the center of attention anymore. 

Jesus gives us another way.   Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.   In God’s kingdom greatness is measured not by how high you reach but by how low you stoop… not by how many serve you, but by how many you serve. . 

That’s scares us.  Oh, we talk about being servants.  We sing its praises.  Yet when push comes to shove we are like those disciples in the upper room.  Someone needed to do the dirty job, to wash the feet of the others.  Yet no one moved.  Each was too proud to do such menial labor.  There they sat, silent, afraid to become the foot washer.  They knew that whoever got up would become the doormat, the fool, the loser.  You become slave, not master. How can that be the way to greatness?

Yet this is the road our Lord Jesus traveled.  Jesus says it here, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  When the disciples insisted his work was too important to be bothered with little children, Jesus took the time.  “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.”  When people complained he was spending too much time with “tax collectors and sinners” Jesus went and ate with them. When all the disciples were too proud to wash feet, Jesus got on his hands and knees to do the job. Then the next day He stooped even further…  He listened to the false charges against him and said nothing.  He endured the whipping. He wore the crown of thorns. He went to the cross.  He gave His life as a ransom for many, for all, for you and me.

That road led to greatness.  Having humbled himself, therefore “God has highly exalted Him and placed on Him the name that is above every name…”  Having been crucified for the sins of the world, the third day God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him with Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…” 

Now to all who would follow Him He offers the towel and basin full of water.  He invites you to travel on your knees a road that leads to a glory that does not end.   Don’t get Him wrong.  You don’t earn heaven by becoming a servant.  No this is the road to greatness because this is the road Jesus traveled  ahead of us.  By giving His life Jesus purchased for us a greatness that you and I could never earn -  no matter how far we rise, or how much we own, or how many people must wait on us.  Because He did that we can give up all the power struggles.  There is nothing to fear in getting down your hands and knees to wash the feet of others.  In Christ, ours is the attitude that says, “So what if others take me for granted? So what if others treat me like a doormat.”  We don’t lose anything by serving.   In Christ, we are God’s children.  We have the glory purchased to us on the cross, promised to us at baptism, sealed to us with His body and blood in Holy Communion.  That’s already ours because of Jesus.  We don’t need to push and shove. We can let others go before us. We can say please and thank you.  Maybe, just maybe, by our service they might meet Him who came not to be served but to serve them.  They might meet Jesus who give His life for them.  Now that would really be great!  Amen.


Thursday, March 22, 2018

No Easy Button


“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
Mark 8:34



How many of you remember the “easy button?”  A few years ago Staples Office Supplies used these in their commercials.  The idea is that if you find yourself in a difficult situation you just push the easy button and it gives you an easy way out.  There was one commercial where a large ferocious army is riding down to attack and destroy a much smaller army.  Just in the nick of time, the general of the smaller army pushed his easy button.  Out of nowhere a great large wall appears cutting off the larger army and protecting the small one.   Don’t you wish you could have an easy button for life?

I think that is what Peter thought Jesus was going to be that for him.  Jesus has just spoken some hard words to his disciples about his mission.  He would have to “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed,”   Peter went ballistic.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him“Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”  In other words, “You can’t go to the cross.  You are supposed to be my easy button, my short route to an easier life.”

I think sometimes that we too want our Christian faith to be an easy button that gives us an easy way out.  We want a low commitment Christianity, that doesn’t expect too much of us.  We want our two hours on Sunday to make us feel good about ourselves, not challenge us to be different.  We want to have a faith we can keep locked away at church, not one we have to live out there every day.  People might not like us.  That might affect our jobs. We want to know enough about God to get us into heaven, but don’t expect us to read our Bibles or go to a Bible Class.  When confronted with our daily sins, our sinful habits and addictions, we want a faith that comforts us with the thought, “That’s okay.  Don’t worry.  God will forgive you anyway.”  We don’t want a faith that expects those things to change.  That’s unreasonable.  Its okay to ask for a few dollars in the plate or to give up something for Lent, but don’t ask us to change our lives.  We want to know God is there when we need Him – when our jobs are on the line, when our marriage is on the rocks, when a family member has cancer, when someone dies…that whenever we find ourselves in a difficult situation we can pray to Him and He’ll fix it.   But don’t expect us to talk to you every day.  We want an easy button. 

The problem with such easier ways is that they are deceptive.  That General pushes the easy button and saves his army.  He however is on the wrong side of the wall and now finds himself alone with that huge army charging down on him.  The Proverbs warn us about this easier way.  There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  Jesus gives the same warning,  “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it… 

That’s why Jesus chose the way of the cross.  That’s why He told them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected… and that he must be killed.  He was offered an easy button.  That’s what Peter was offering him.  “You don’t have to go to the cross.  Here is an easier way.”  But it was a lie.  Jesus is not fooled.  “Get behind me, Satan!” he said to Peter. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  Jesus knew there is no easy button for what he came to do.  He had been sent by the father to be despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  His was to be no jeweled crown, only one with thorns.  He was to have no golden throne but only the hard wood of the cross.  The only way that would lead to life was the hard way.  The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected and then he must be killed, and after three days rise again.  Only by going to the cross could the price for our sins be paid.  Only the cross, the hard way, could lead to Easter.  There would be no Easy button for Him.

That’s why Jesus gives us a cross to bear, not an easy button to push.  “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  This is not a call to make a few resolutions, to give up a luxury for Lent, to overcome a bad habit.  He must deny himself.” Jesus says to us.  Our sin is not a matter of a few mistakes.  The old sinful self in you and me must be put to death – every day!  Luther writes that it should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die.  Why?  Because daily God wants bring forth in you and me a new man to live and serve before him.  I must daily be crucified with Christ so that it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.  Then Jesus adds, He must take up his cross.”  The purpose of our cross is not to pay for our sins.  Jesus already did that.  Your cross is any burden you bear, any wrong you suffer from others, any sacrifice you make because you belong to Jesus.  When people make fun or you or shun you because you give witness to your faith, that’s a cross.  If your friends reject you… if you lose your job… if, like the Coptic Christians at the hands of Isis, you lose your head because of your witness to Christ that is a cross.  Why would you do that?  Because your friends and family are living an easy button life that leads to death and you know the Easter way that leads to life. I read a story once about an unbeliever who was assigned to bunk with a committed Christian.  That Christian kept telling this man about Jesus… until the man became so irritated that he punched the Christian.  The Christian fell, hit his head on the corner of a table.  He lay there bleeding.  “Now will you leave me alone?”  “No,” came the reply.  Holding up his hand, covered in blood, “Jesus loved me enough to bleed for me.  How can I love you any less?    Finally Jesus says of us, He must follow me.”  Called to the cross you can not simply go back and live your life as you please.  God has given you a new self, with a new burden to bear, with a new purpose to live for.  He died for you that you might no longer live for yourself but for Him who died for you and rose again.  Leave your easy buttons behind.   You have something better.   You have His promise that whoever wants to save his life  will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  You have in Jesus the only path that leads to Easter!  Amen. 

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Pay Attention to the All Important "BUT"


“But” 
Psalm 130:4; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Ephesians 2:4 and more



Last night in my sermon for our midweek Lenten service, I said to the congregation, “There is a really big “but” (B U T) in this Psalm.  That of course drew some laughter.  Everyone was chuckling at what they saw as a play on words.  Someone even suggested that this might make a great title for a book – “The ‘Buts” of the Bible.  All kidding aside though, I was serious.  The little word “but” can often be one of the most important words in many texts… one worth paying attention to.

Now I know that in life, the use of the word “but” often means that bad news is coming.  People start out saying nice things about us.  Then they say “but” and we know the bad news is coming. “We have really enjoyed having you work here for 20 years BUT we are ending your position.”  “Honey, I know we have been great kids, a wonderful family, BUT I don’t love you anymore.  I want a divorce.”  “Well the tests all turned out well.  You don’t have a thyroid problem.  BUT we found something else.  You have cancer.”  You can probably add your own “but” story.  In life the word “but” often means someone is about to tell you something unpleasant… something you probably won’t enjoy hearing. 

With God it’s just the opposite.  99%  of the time the use of the word “but” in Scripture that good news is about to come.  Take the text I preached on last night – Psalm 130.  In verse 2 the Psalmist writes, “If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O LORD, who could stand?”  That is so true.  If God is keeping a record of our failings.  If we are to be judged on that record – on the things we have thought, said or done – we are in trouble.  We are sunk.  We might as well give up now – because that list is a long one for each of us.  Thank God the Psalmist doesn’t stop there.  He has good news for us.  There is a big “but” in this text.  “If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O LORD, who could stand? BUT there is forgiveness with You.  Therefore You are feared.”  What a relief!  What a joy!  God forgives.  “As far as the east is from the west so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”  “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 

Or there is Ephesians 2.  The news at the beginning is all bad.  Paul is not glossing over our sinful condition. “As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins…”  We were already dead.  The battle has been lost.  What hope is there?  Then comes verse 4 and another big “but.”  “BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

One of my favorite “buts” in the Bible is in 1 Corinthians 15.  Once again, Paul starts out with a gloomy assessment of our predicament because of sin.  He describes exactly what it would mean for you and me if Easter didn’t happen.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.   Once again, on our own, without Easter, because of our sin – we would be sunk!  Then comes the “but” in verse 20.  BUT in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.   Easter did happen.  Christ has been raised!  Praise God.
That little word “but” is so very important.  In that little word, in each of these verses, is summed up the whole meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection.  Jesus – his birth, his life, his sacrifices for our sins, His Easter victory over the grave is God’s “But” to sin and death.  

My point is this. There are times when guilt weighs down… when fear rules our life… when worry and anxiety takes hold… when all you see is gloom and doom.  At those moments pay attention to the all important “but.”  What God has done in Christ changes everything.  In Jesus God has said “but” to all the troubles us. He has said “but” there is hope in Jesus.  Amen.  

Thursday, March 8, 2018

A Cross Perspective


Isaiah 43:2a
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…”


I know it’s already been 3 or 4 weeks since our latest school shooting but it has taken me a while to get some perspective on this.  As you know, I purposefully stay away from politics in this blog, and today’s devotional will be no exception.  It has just been hard these past weeks, at least for me, to get to the point where I can see this tragedy through eyes of faith. 

In the past weeks I have found myself considering this from all sorts of different perspectives.  First, there was that father in the meeting with the President – so understandably angry about his daughter’s death… angry because it seems that by this time we would have found a way to protect our kids in school.  I can only imagine what this is like for any of those parents whose children were killed or injured.  Just imagining this brings pain and tears.

Then there was a post on Facebook from by an American friend living in Germany.  She wrote about how thankful she is that she is not raising her children here… that she is thankful she doesn’t have to be afraid to send her kids to school.  That fact just made me at first.  It also got me thinking about my grandkids going to school in America.  School shouldn’t be a place of fear.  I always felt safe there.  It scared be to think that something like this could happen at the schools of my grandkids.  But then my eldest said to me, “Dad, don’t let fear control you.  It’s no use living that way.”  He was and is right.

So then how should we look at this tragedy and others like it – where human beings inflict great pain and suffering on each other.  What perspective does our faith bring?   That’s when my meditation took me to the cross.  What perspective does the cross give us on this?  The answer is quite simple.  The cross of Jesus teaches us that God reveals Himself by hiding Himself.  He reveals Himself by being present in places where we don’t expect to find… indeed in places where we might even think – “God shouldn’t be there… That’s not a proper place for God to be.”

Take the cross of Jesus.  The Cross is one of the reasons the Jewish people struggle with the Christian belief that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Old Testament is clear. “Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree.”  How, they ask, can the Messiah be this man who was crucified?   The Word of God is clear – such a person has been cursed by God.   Yes is our answer.  In His death Jesus was being cursed by God.  He was cursed for our sins… in our place.  That is precisely what it meant for Him to be the Messiah.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by Himself being cursed for us for it is written, ‘Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree.’”

What does this have to do with the shooting in Florida, or any other tragedy?  The cross reminds us that Jesus came into this world to enter into our suffering, as our Savior.  He came to suffer beside us, to suffer with us, to suffer for us.  God reveals Himself and His love for us most clearly by hiding Himself in the suffering of His Son on the cross.  Therefore we can know even in the midst of the worst suffering that God is there, hiding Himself, making Himself known.  I think of Cory Ten Boom who saw God’s love most clearly while suffering in a concentration camp and then went around the world sharing the lesson she learned – “That no pit is so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”  I think of the coach who put himself between the shooters and his students – giving his life to save theirs.  Is that not a picture of Christ who, on the cross, put Himself between us and sin, death and Satan – giving His life to save ours.

Please know I am not saying that God wanted this tragedy.  He didn’t. He did not cause it.  But He does not leave us alone in this tragedy.  He who took flesh and blood to live among us and die for us.. even today comes into the midst our tragedies to make known to us His love… that He is with us.  While I still feel anger and sadness over this and other senseless tragedies, I find great comfort in this – The Lord still keeps His promise given in Isaiah 43 - When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior… 


Thursday, March 1, 2018

What Defines You?


“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” 
Psalm 121:1


The DCE at Trinity Frankfurt comes from a church in Florida.  The Pastors there have a very strange custom.  At Christmas time, when the congregation is done decorating the church, the Pastors will sing a Christmas Carol to the melody of a Lenten hymn.  Imagine “Deck the Halls” sung to the tune of “Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted.”  “Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly, Fa la la…”  Doesn’t sound right does it – to take a fun, happy song and make it sound like a funeral dirge. 

Have you known people who can do that with life?  There are people who are defined by negativity. You know what I mean – people for whom the glass is always half empty not half full… people who can see the dark side of any situation.  We even have them at Church.  Someone comes up with a great idea and these people can always be counted on to come up with a dozen reasons why it won’t work or it’s too much work.  Some are like that all the time.  All of us are like that some of the time.    We each get in those moods where all we seem to be able to do is complain or worry… nothing makes us happy or joyful. There are times when each of us is defined by negativity.  It’s understandable.  Our journey through life is not easy, even for followers of Jesus.  A couple of weeks ago, on Sunday, my sermon was about the fact that there will be trials in life.  Temptation will come.  We will make wrong choices and do wrong things.  The economy that prospers, will go into recession.  Jobs will be lost.  Marriages and families will have difficulties.  Divorce happens.  People get sick.  Loved ones die.  The list of trials we encounter in life is long.  It’s no wonder that there are times when the song we sing on our journey is a sad one, lamenting life’s hard road. 

Such a lament could easily have become one of the Psalms of Ascent.   A walking journey up to Jerusalem was not easy.  Linda and I experienced this on our first trip to Israel.  It was a hiking trip, the kind Ray Van Der Laan leads.  The purpose of the trip is to experience the climate and geography of Israel.  We did just that, hiking 70 some miles that week.  The land is rocky.  They say God had rocks left over when He created the world, so He just dumped them in Israel.  In some places the land is fertile fields, in others its rugged mountains or arid dessert.  The climbing isn’t easy.  I did stumble and fall.  9 months of the year there is a blue sky, a blazing sun. It’s hot. It’s humid in some places, bone dry in others.  Sun stroke happens.  At night it can get very cold.  I am sure on such pilgrimages to Jerusalem, people got tired, grumpy, and found lots of things to complain about.  I did.   

That’s why Psalm 121 is so powerful and comforting.  For this song is not a lament. This Song celebrated God’s love and care on the journey.  The central point of this Psalm is not the dangers we encounter.  Psalm 121 is about the God who walks with us.  The point is that in the midst of all those dangers, we have a God to look to for help.   “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  Picture again those Hebrews making their pilgrimage.  The hills which they could see ahead of them were the hills of Jerusalem.  There on the highest point sat the temple… the symbol of God’s presence among His people. Where does my help come from?  The temple provides the answer.  My help comes from the Lord…”   As we journey through life, we have one who journeys with us… one whom the Bible says is greater than the temple. We have Jesus who made this pilgrimage ahead of us. We have Jesus who was tempted in every way that we are except He was without sin.”    We have Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame and sat down on the right hand of God…   He paid the price for our failings… He endured the pain of our falling. He carried our sorrows, our worries, our fears, our wounds, our sicknesses to the cross… and by His wounds we are healed.  On the third day He conquered them all.  He says to us, “IN the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.”  “Where does our help come from?  Our help comes from the Lord.”   Therefore, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith…”   In the midst of temptation… when guilt weighs us down… when sickness or worry or any other danger comes our way… we know where to turn.  We know Jesus.  “Let us approach the throne of grace of with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

There is a word that summarizes God’s care and protection – Providence.  That’s our song this week… Psalm 121 is a song of God’s Providence.  This is what that providence looks like “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.   The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”   In other words, all along the way… from the beginning to the end of your pilgrimage, in the face of every danger that comes your way – God will be with you, protect you and take care of you. Paul described it this way in Romans 8.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sometimes it can be very easy to let the dangers and struggles of life define our lives. It can be easy to obsess with the things that go wrong or might go wrong.  But then I think back Marcia Williams, who lived every day bedfast, paralyzed, only able to move her right arm and her head.  Do you know what I remember the most about her?  Her smile… the fact that she would almost always be on the phone encouraging others, talking about Jesus.  Her ailments didn’t define her.  Her faith defined her. Her Savior defined her.  God’s care defined her.  His love for her and her love for others – defines her in my memory.  That’s the point of God’s providence.  That’s the message of this Psalm.  Walking with Jesus our journey through life is not defined by our troubles.  In Christ our journey is defined by Gods Providential care.  Our journey through life is defined by our God who preserves and protects us through the troubles.  Our journey is defined by Jesus. This is the song God gives us to sing on our journey up to the heavenly Jerusalem.  Where does our help come from?  My help comes from the Lord.  Amen!