Thank Be To God

 Psalm 85 is the Psalm for the second Sunday of Advent.

When I read verses 8-13 my entire body felt peace.  

So I wanted to share it with you this morning.  Hoping that it will give you peace as well. 

⁸ Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,

   for he will speak peace to his people,

   to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. 

⁹ Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,

   that his glory may dwell in our land. 

¹⁰ Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;

   righteousness and peace will kiss each other. 

¹¹ Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,

   and righteousness will look down from the sky. 

¹² The Lord will give what is good,

   and our land will yield its increase. 

¹³ Righteousness will go before him,

   and will make a path for his steps.(Ps. 85)

In the later months of 2020 we are beginning to see a new movement across our land. A new hope for what can be restored to the people of this nation.

Thanks be to God.

God Creates New

 Have you ever noticed how many times in scripture the word ‘new’ is mentioned?  

Many times throughout the Bible we hear of God making all things 'new.' 

Let me give you a quick review of what we have heard over, and over, though out our lives:

¹⁸ Do not remember the former things,

   or consider the things of old. 

¹⁹ I am about to do a new thing;

   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (is. 43)

¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.(Is. 65)

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jere. 31)

, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’(Luke 2)

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’(John 13)

^18…..for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ ¹⁹Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ ²⁰And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.(Luke 22)

What I am wondering, is God doing a ‘new’ thing in our world these days?

It seems to me that the winds of the Spirit are moving mightily across our nations — our world.

There is a breeze of hope mounting with the promise of a new day.

Simple Things

Ted Loder, in his prayer, ‘The kettle of the day,’ wrote something that woke up my brain.

The prayer is a simple one full of small gratitudes.

“For nothing to do,

                          sitting still,

            listening,

        watching,

            thinking,

        praying,

      sleeping.

For loving and being loved.”

I decided to sit and think a moment about what I so often ignore or take for granted.  

The question I asked my self was what it might be like not to have: 

   

a brain to think,

     ears to hear,

   eyes to see,

      a nose to smell,

 taste buds to taste,

     hands to touch,

      legs to walk. 

All ordinary abilities we unmindfully brush aside as nothing to give much thought to.   Yet so important to our every day lives.

In a year of feeling limited, confined and unable to gather with friends, family; and do just normal activity.  It is good to be reminded to appreciate things we do so naturally that we don’t even recognize as blessings.  

And one other precious truth we may miss.

                                     God’s living Spirit blowing in the wind.

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;

   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 

² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

³ For the Lord is a great God,

   and a great King above all gods. 

⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;

   the heights of the mountains are his also. 

⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,

   and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,

   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 

⁷ For he is our God,

   and we are the people of his pasture,

   and the sheep of his hand. 

O that today you would listen to his voice! 

          (Ps.95)

Faith Does Indeed Count

 The election, the pandemic, and the will of God/Jesus have my mind in an exciting whirl.

The assumption I will start, this mental conversation, with is that most people know what God's will is for those who desire to follow in his ways.  

We know Jesus asked his follower/students to demonstrate empathy in their living and speaking.

If we know nothing else, we know Jesus asks us to love as he loves — which is basically unconditionally.

He asks us to forgive others as we have been so freely forgiven.

He ask us to be unquestionably aware of others needs and feelings. 

He asks us to live peaceably with each other — building up, not tearing down the identity of others.

And, by the way, I think that Jesus would ask us all to wear masks.

I just had to add that point(;

So, about now your mind might be suggesting that I have said all this before.

And you would be correct.

However, I am inviting you to think about what you already know.  I am asking you to do this because all of Jesus requests are critically relevant to todays particular national and world-wide situations.

An  election that is being unfoundedly contested.

A pandemic that has flared up in extraordinarily massive numbers.

All of which has heightened the emotional tensions of the population all over the world.

God, I believe, is asking us to pay more attention then ever to the call to follow his original plan for the human creation.

Now, more that ever, we are all called to step up and do our part in bring order into all of the chaos.

³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, ⁴for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. (1 John 5)

 

They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

 ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’(Jn. 13)

My mind is still full of thoughts about the parable of the ten bridesmaids.

As I think back over the history of Christianity; I would have to say that we humans have not done such a good job at following Jesus’ call to servanthood and humility.  

Oh, I don’t think we have dishonored Jesus intentionally.  However we have given a somewhat skewed — not symmetrical — definition of what being one of His followers means.

What made me  think of this, as I was enjoying a quiet time in bed this morning, was the lyrics to a song: 

“They'll know we are Christians by our love…”

As well as a quote Mahatma Gandhi from years ago: 

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I got to thinking about the message of bridesmaids and what it is telling us.  At least in my mind,  Jesus was telling us to live our lives more intentionally all the time.  Sometimes that idea seems almost humanly impossible no matter how much we would want to.

The little song is the dream Peter Scholtes wrote about in 1991.

His dream was the unity of Christians all over the globe.

Listen to his dream:

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord….And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.

Refrain:  They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand,…And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land.

We will work with each other, we will work side by side;….And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride….”

That little song’s message certainly expresses the four Gospels in a nutshell — unity in the Spirit, God’s presence in our land, equal dignity and pride for every human, the love of Christ for all.

It certainly expresses a positive definition of what each follower of Jesus is to look like.

Now heres how crazy was my mind work.  

I am wondering if our world is coming full circle in this ideal Christians  dream.

I am wondering if we have all, or mostly all, have seen our land almost totally miss the point of Jesus’s Gospels.  

That is, we almost slid right past the dream of unity to a place of destruction.  The ruin of the American Dream. 

The dream of a nation “under God” where all are “equal.”  

The dream of a government:  “of the people, by the people and for the people” is actually a reality.

I am thinking that this is the beginning of recreation of what we almost lost in the last four years.  Four years with an unfortunate mistake in the White House.  Ending with a depressing pandemic that has caused so many lives to be cut short.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.(Eph. 4)

What do you think?

God Does Not Close The Door On Faith

This morning I am still completely occupied with why Jesus was so hard on the five bridesmaid who didn’t come with enough oil.

However, first I want to remind you -- as a parallel example -- of how the Israelites lived.  They daily assumed God would give them victory over all their enemies.  

My take:   They assumed that without doing anything, or living differently — by just being Israelites — that God would give them political power, military strength and personal privilege simply because they were His “chosen.”

What they forgot was what God had ask of them — to be faithful and to take care of each other. 

While we wait for the time we meet God; we are invited to “prepare” — to be ready —  for that time by living in faith/trust in the God Jesus came to tell us about. 

We are to be prepared by believing — however the size of our belief —  God will provide for our welfare with whatever faith we have.

Here is the key to this tiny parable, that is to often over looked: considering the oil as a substance, something we can see, feel and understand about its use.

The oil in that story supplied fire for the lamps.  Right?

We also use this oil to cook with.  Too soothe a pain or soften the skin.

The oil that can be shared.  This oil is a liquid that can be measured.

Oil like this is easy to understand.

However the oil analogy in this parable is more complex in nature;  having various parts that are all interrelated.  And are much more difficult to share easily.

This oil relates to ones faith, trust, belief and spiritual strength — ingredients we are unable to borrow from another.

Caution, the temptation right now would be to think of this oil as a measure of one’s worthiness or value to God.

                                                No so!

The tiniest of faith is worthy of God’s love and acceptance.  I know because Jesus said so.   So I am thinking that this story seems so harsh because it was critical to Jesus that we find spiritual strength to sustain us through all of life.  Not just for an assigned time.

I am thinking Jesus wants us to realize that our faith needs attention all the time, not just when the lamps oil runs out.

In other words it is not wise to assume, or procrastinate, or put God’s will aside until later.

 

Clarification:

Being a good Christian does not necessarily mean being a member of an organized religion; nor belonging to a church.

Being a Christian is one who believes in Jesus Christ, and all he represented, modeled and taught.

Believing in God/Jesus, no matter the size of your faith, Is all that is needed to be a child of God.

And the door will not be closed to you.

¹³Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

 

The Bridegroom Didn't Open The Door

  “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” ¹³Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Harsh words from a loving Jesus.  

The bridegroom won’t answer the door to their call to open it.

Once again the lectionary puts in this difficult parable for us to grapple with.   

It is a parable that grabs at my heart.  

How could Jesus be so harsh to those who call out  “Lord, lord, open to us.”

 

There is a load full of assumptions that pull on this hard to hear parable.  So let me try to explain my simple theology here.

First: 

   The lamps are the ten bridesmaids,

     The oil, faith and spiritual reserve,

       The wise/foolish, the mixed nature of believers. 

The world is filled with wise and foolish people.

                                                                    That is just the truth.

Point of reference:  They all fell asleep and so did their lamps.

So, I want to suggest is that the story of the ten bridesmaids is dealing with the problem of assumptions.  

It is not, in my opinion, about an attempt to scare nor judge our human frailty.  

 To 'assume’ presents a complicated challenge to the human condition.

The foolish made a huge assumption. They assumed the future without taking the responsibility of preparing for other possibilities.

                                                                    

 The bridegroom was “delayed.” 

God doesn’t always fit into our timing.  Or our plans.

BIG jump:

              The word that could be helpful here is: procrastination.

How many of us are not well versed in procrastination?  The temptation to wait to do something we know we have to get done.

As a high school student I was famous for putting off what I didn’t want to do “right now.”  It has taken me a life time to resist that habit.

I am thinking that Jesus’ refusal, to open the door, is a not-so-gentle reminder of how important it is for us to not to assume nor procrastinate.  When it comes to our faith in his love.

Now, before I go on, what is on your mind?

I leave you with this complicated parable until tomorrow.

‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. ³When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; ⁴but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. ⁶But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” ⁷Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” ⁹But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” ¹⁰And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. ¹¹Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” ¹²But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” ¹³Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matt. 25)