"'Follow Me!' What Does That Mean?"

Mark 2:14 (ESV)

And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

To me the stories of Jesus calling His disciples are amazing stories.  Jesus comes to Levi (you may know him as Matthew) sitting in the tax collector’s booth… He comes to James and John, Peter and Andrew by their fishing boats and nets… He says to each of them, “Follow Me!”  Now here is the part that startles me.  They do it.  Levi “rose and followed Him.”  Of Peter and Andrew Matthew writes that “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”  Wow.  His call was so powerful, that they just leave their past lives behind to follow Him.  Yet their reactions are not the real shocking part of this story.  His are.  Jesus called them to be His disciples, to follow Him.  Do you want to hear something even more shocking?  He has also called you and me.

So, what does His calling mean?  Well first off, it means He wants you and me!  Think of how amazing it is that Jesus calls Levi.  He was a tax collector… known as someone who had betrayed his people… who cheated them, even as he worked for the hated Romans.  People despised tax collectors.  No one wanted to be his friend, except maybe other tax collectors.  No one that is, except Jesus. Jesus want him. That’s startling.  That’s gracious. Well, Jesus calls you and me as well. That’s just as undeserving and gracious.  I remember back in my dating years.  I was always afraid to ask the girl out.  I could think of all sorts of reasons why she would never want to go out with me.  Well, it’s the same in our relationship with the Lord.  We are, as we confess on Sundays, “poor miserable sinners.”  There is no good reason why Jesus should want you or me. Indeed there are all sorts of reasons why He shouldn’t.  Yet He does. At baptism, He came to you and me.  “Follow Me!”  He said.  “I have called you by name.  You are mine.”  For no other reason but that He is gracious and forgiving, Jesus wants you and me.

Secondly, His calling to follow is a call to trust Him.  He calls us to follow but He doesn’t always tell us where He is taking us or what will happen.  Most of the time, we don’t know those things but He does!  Think of Abraham, “The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”  Abram had no idea where God was taking him, or what would happen there.  He only knew that God knew and that was enough.  When I woke up on Feb. 24, 1996 I expected to spend the day doing pre-marital counseling, and getting ready for Sunday Worship.  I didn’t know that Linda and I would rush to may parent’s home because my dad would have a heart attack.  I didn’t know that my dad would die that day.  But God did.  He knew that He was about to take me on a journey of grief and pain.  He knew… and as I learned – that was enough.  He would use that journey through grief to shape me as a better Pastor.

You see, God had a higher purpose.  That’s the third thing about Jesus calling us.  His calling means that God has a greater purpose for our lives than just making it through each day.   St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Jesus  “died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”   Our purpose is follow Jesus… to live for Him… to serve and love others as He has loved us.  For the disciples that meant leaving their present occupation to be Christ’s Apostles.  More often, however, that means that you stay right where we are, carry out our callings in His service.  It is said that a shoe maker once asked Martin Luther, “Now that I believe in Christ what should I do?”  Luther is said to have answered, “Make the best shoes that you can.”  Our lives are now about living God to His glory, not our own!

Finally, to follow Him, means that on this journey through life, we are never alone.  He is always with us.  I personally hate going on trips alone.  When we were in Europe, all the trips we took we were made richer by the fact that Linda was on the trip with me.  When Jesus calls us to follow Him implicit in that invitation is the promise, “I will be with you always.”  He will be there to talk with in prayer, to comfort us in times of grief, to bring us back on to the right path when we stray… to pick us up when we fall… to rejoice with us at the great moments and hold us… to lead us through all of life.

Isn’t that amazing?  Think of  how God changes our lives through that simple call, “Follow Me!” 

Your Words Have Power

Ephesians 4:29

^“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

It wasn’t until I moved to Germany that I realized how much of American humor is sarcasm.  We poke fun at each other with sarcasm all the time.  In Germany though I soon discovered that such humor was lost on people, often misunderstood, even perhaps perceived as being mean and hurtful speech.  The impact was that I started listening to myself.  I soon discovered that the speech I intended to be funny was often in fact biting and perhaps even mean.   Now don’t get me wrong.  This blog today is not about changing our American sense of humor.  I am not advocating doing away with sarcasm. 

I am advocating that we stop ourselves before we speak and ask – Will what I am saying be helpful or harmful?  In our reading this week for staff Ole Hallesby made the comment, “It’s easy to criticize leaders.  After the thing is done, everybody is wise. Then we all see how it should have been done.  Beforehand no one sees what ought to be done, but that is just when leaders must act.  Let us pray for leaders rather than criticizing them.”  Think about how easily critical thoughts enter your thoughts.  Think about how quickly they escape your lips, before you have considered the impact of what you are saying.  Consider how easily you join in gossiping about someone.  James was right in his letter, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”  Careless words of criticism and biting sarcasm can do great harm to others and to our relationships.

Now don’t misunderstand.  I am not saying that we should never be critical of what others may be doing or saying.  Our Lord speaks critical words of law into our lives, words that call us to account for sin and error.  However, He speaks those words to help us.  He speaks those words because He desires us to turn from sin. He speaks those words because more than anything He desires to speak words of forgiveness and grace to us.  He desires to let us know that He loves us.  He speaks the truth in love – the whole truth – Law and Gospel, because He wants to build up and bless.

So let me share some ways in which our speech can be shaped by His.  Paul lays it out for us in his words in Ephesians 4.  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.   Before you speak, ask yourself your reason for speaking.  Are you trying to harm someone?  Are you speaking out of anger or hate?  Sometimes, I know that I am guilty of trying to build myself up by tearing down someone else.  Or are you trying to build someone up – maybe help them to laugh at themselves, or perhaps saving them from making some grave mistake, or maybe simply wishing to let them know you care?

Someone shared with me three questions to ask myself to know whether or not something is gossip.  Perhaps these three questions might apply to all the things we say to or about one another.  The first question is, “Is it true?”  Lies and half truths help no one.  Second, “is what I am about to say helpful to the other person?”  If I am just trying to help myself at someone else’s expense, or simply to impress people, then I should keep silent.  Finally, “does the person I am speaking to need to know or hear what I am sharing?”  If they don’t really need to know the information… or if they are only trying to satisfy their curiosity, then again I need to keep silent.  If the answer is a resounding yes to all three questions, then I can be reasonably certain that what I am about to say is wholesome and helpful.  However, if the answer to even one of those three questions is no, then I should say nothing.

Words have power.  Your words and mine have power to tear down or build up.  It would be better for all if our words would reflect the wonderful word of forgiveness and grace that God has spoken to us in the gift of His Son Jesus Christ – God’s word made flesh – full of grace and truth. 

Lord, Teach us to Pray

“Lord, teach us to pray…”

Luke 11:1

To me it seems to be one of the most seminal moments in the Gospels.  The disciples come to Jesus with what seems like a simple request.  “Lord, teach us to pray…”  Think of the implications of that request, of what it signals in their growth as disciples of Jesus Christ.  They wanted to learn how to pray.  They wanted to learn how to have a daily conversation with the God of heaven and earth.  The words of Psalm 42 were coming to life in the disciples -, “as a deer pants for flowing streams” so now their souls were thirsty for God.

This is on my mind this week because in our staff meetings here at Fishers, we talking about prayer… seeking to learn more about our daily conversation with the Lord.  We are reading and discussing a classic book on prayer by a sainted Lutheran Pastor from Norway – O. Hallesby.  It’s a great little book and I would recommend it to any of you longing for a deeper conversation with your Lord. 

This week, I thought I would wet your appetite with three lessons I learned this week from our study.  First, Hallesby writes, “We think we must help God to fulfill our prayers.”  In my own words – its not our job to tell God how to do His job!   Think about this.  Where we can see no way for God to answer our prayers, we find it hard to pray.  However, when we see any way for Him to do what we ask, we not only ask him but tell Him – “Lord, here is what you can do…”  Let me give you an example.  Right now our son Jon and his family are in preparation to turn to the USA to live.  I find myself not only praying for them and their needs in this process, but also praying about the things God ought to do to fill those needs – where He can find him work and so forth.  Who do I think I am to tell God how to do His job?  Much better is what Mary does when they run out of the wine at the wedding.   She simply says to Jesus, “They have no more wine.”   She goes to the right person with the need – Jesus.  She tells Him the need. Yet no where does she tell him what He should do about it.  That’s one big lesson for me – I pray. But I leave the listening and answering in God’s hands.

Hallesby then points out a second grave mistake in prayer.  “We make use of prayer for the purpose of commanding God to do our bidding.”  Once again let me put this in my own words – praying is about us submitting to the Lord, not the Lord submitting to us.  Too often I find myself giving the Lord a laundry list of things He can do for me.  Its almost like a “spiritual honey do list…”  Yet notice again Mary’s attitude.  After she brings the need to Jesus, she receives a fairly sharp response.  “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”   She responds completely different than my mom might have.  She does become defensive or get angry.  She doesn’t bow up. She doesn’t argue with him, or try to change His mind She accepts his response.  She submits.  That’s really an important lesson in prayer.  I don’t pray to God not in order to shape Him according to my will, but so that He might shape me according to His will!  The best example of this is Jesus Himself who in the Garden prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.”

Finally, Hallesby points to one final prayer flaw – “We forget to pray in Jesus name.”  Don’t misunderstand that.  He doesn’t mean that we forget to use the words.  You can say those words at the end of every prayer and still not be praying in Jesus’ name.  These words are not some kind of magic password that get you into God’s presence.  They are rather words of faith.  They remind us that there is nothing in us that commend our prayers to God.  Instead our confidence in prayer is centered in the merits of Jesus Christ.  We add this words as an expression of the reason for our confidence in prayer.  We are not heard because we deserve to be heard.  We don’t.  We are heard because our God is a gracious God.  We are heard because He gave His Son to open for us the way into God’s presence.   He gave His Son to open that way by dying for our sins and rising again.  We are heard for Jesus’ sake… in His name, not our own.  Because of Jesus and only because of Jesus we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  That’s what it means to pray in Jesus’ name.  That’s the kind of daily conversation we are invited to have with our heavenly Father.  

Grief Reminds Me!

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.  Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit,

That they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”

Revelation 14:13

February is kind of a hard month.  In part that is because it comes right in the DEAD heart of Winter.  Even down here in warm Houston all the trees are bare, no flowers are blooming.  Its just not a pretty time of the year.  Then you add to that the fact that the football season is finished and baseball hasn’t yet started – It’s a hard month.

However, for me the reasons are much more personal.  Tomorrow, Feb. 8, marks the 7^th anniversary of my mother’s death.  Then at the end of the month, on February 24, it will be the 23^rd anniversary of my dad’s death.  Someone who lost her mother once asked me if you ever stopped grieving?  Ever stopped missing them?  My answer was “No.  You just get used to grieving their loss.”  Its true.  No matter how much time has passed, I still miss both my parents.  I find myself thinking, “I wish they could meet the wonderful spouses their grandkids married... see all the cool things our kids are doing with their lives.  I wish they could meet and play with their great grandchildren.  It makes me sad that the people I have served at CUW, Flower Mound, in Germany and now in Sugar Land never knew my dad. Those in Germany and Sugar Land never knew my mom.  I wish they could go to Steven’s graduation and ordination this year.  They would be so proud.

Yes, grief remains.  But it also reminds me of a few important things.  First, that you should never take the passage of time for granted.  You never know how much time you really have left with anyone. In the days before she died, the hospice nurse told me that mom’s time was getting close. Yet that Feb 8^th I chose to go workout first before going to be with mom.  I will always regret that choice.  At the fitness club I got a text message to hurry over.  Mom didn’t have much time left.  She passed just before I arrived.  What’s more my mom had Alzheimer.  That horrible disease basically robbed us of mom for the last 3 to 5 years of her life.  Don’t take for granted the time you are given with people you love.

Grief also reminds me of how blessed I am.  Think about it.  I have parents who when they were gone – I missed them.  It was painful.  It hurt.  What’s so blessed about that?  Not everyone has parents that when they are gone, they miss them.  I did.  My dad was my hero.  He loved me unconditionally.   I loved going to work with him as a kid.  All my friends loved him.  He was great with children.  I served a dual parish in Nebraska.  Whenever they came to visit he would go to both services every Sunday.  He was proud of me.  I hold strong images in my mind – such as Dad holding Steven’s little hand, walking him outside their home in North Carolina… the worried look on his face when Bethany was in the hospital.   My mom was a complicated woman.  She was always worried.  She could speak hard words… but normally they were words I really needed to hear.  She passed on to me her love of reading.  I think of her every day when I look at the ship she painted… that painting hangs in my office.  I remember when I couldn’t fall asleep as a child and she would rub my back until I relaxed and fell sound asleep.  Grief reminds me how blessed I am by God that I had two parents who loved me and that I loved.

Finally, believe it or not, grief reminds me of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.  Grief reminds me that at its heart, this is why Jesus came.   Because we have flesh and blood Jesus likewise partook of the same “so that by His death He might destroy him who hold the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”  That’s why Jesus was born.  That’s why He lived. That’s what He accomplished by His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection from the dead.  He destroyed him who holds the power of death. He conquered death.  My parents both believed that.  Because of Jesus, they are now in Him.  On the last day when Jesus raises up me and all the dead – I will see them again.  Because of Jesus we will all together enter into the kingdom of God… the new Jerusalem.  What a great reunion that will be.  Yes, grief mixed with the hope that Jesus gives reminds me that these words from Revelation 14 are true. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.  Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, That they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”

So in one way I am glad I am still grieving!  I need these reminders!  I imagine you need them too!