March 2009 Archives

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 ¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

This passage in I John ch.1 tends to run me in a circle. Then it places me where I need to be, confessing my sins and experiencing the faithfulness and justice of God. We are to walk in the light and trust the power of the cross of Jesus to live in obedience to him. Our pietistic heritage has emphasized the importance of living consistently and with integrity for Christ. There is an old chorus that states it well, "Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please him in all that I do." The problem comes when you fall short, or act selfishly out of pride or neediness. That is when you feel a strong urge to protect the image or to hide the sin. This passage says when that happens you are deceiving yourself, the truth is not in you and you make the Lord out to be a liar.

     Adam and Eve hid when they disobeyed God in the garden. That began a long history of people using a righteous exterior to hide sin, always with disastrous results. But the answer is not found in lowering the standards or excusing ourselves by saying "I'm only human" or "everyone does it." The answer is found in verse 9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Practicing the discipline of the Confession of Sin and welcoming the Holy Spirit to bring light fully into our lives places us where we need to be on the pilgrim journey.

The aspect of this passage  that stood out to me as I read it this morning was that of confession.  IF we CONFESS....he will forgive us.  Confession is an important and essential piece to forgiveness, one that I wonder might be missing from our vocabulary. 

I don't like to confess and I assume most people are in the same boat.  It is uncomfortable, scary, we run the risk of rejection, and we lose control.  After reflecting on the healing service last night this idea of confession became all the more real to me.  As we confess together and admit that we are sinful we become all the more aware of our need for healing.  I am so grateful for those who came to the service last night and I pray that they in some way experienced healing (whether that was spiritual, emotional, or physical healing). 

But I am also aware that those who attended the service were a small sampling of the larger congregation.  I am left wondering why few choose to come last night.  I can't help but wonder if on some level our culture has tried to convince us that we don't need healing.  Could it be that we exclusively tie healing with the physical?

 

What do you think...What message(or messages) does our culture communicate when it comes to confession and healing?

Walking in the light

 ⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

 ⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Okay so I am going to take a slightly different approach to these blogs.  Instead of reflecting on the passage, I want to take a back seat and see what you feel about the topic.  So in the passage this week (Philippians 2:5-11) we see this calling to have the same attitude as Christ.  In my previous reflection (see past post) I felt like this was a pretty daunting task.  The virtue of humility really stands out to me as I look at character of Jesus.  This leads me to the following questions.  I am eager to learn from you and your understanding of this passage as it relates to your life.


1. How would you define humility?



2. How do/could you demonstrate humility in the work place or school?




3. What does humility look like in your marriage or in the friendships you have?



  

As a pastor still in my twenties (although not for long) I am frequently wrestling with my role in the life of the students I work with, their parents and the larger congregation.  When do I push, when do I comfort, when do I speak the wise word, when do I shut up and listen?  I'll admit it is intimidating to be a pastor for a congregation like ours.  I see the success that people have in life, the skills people have in business, music, education and I wonder what skills I have to bring to the table.

The passage we are reflecting on together as a church begins with this phrase: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus."  I don't know about you but this is an intimidating phrase.  I am left wondering if this is even possible or how do I even begin?  Is Paul really asking me to clothe myself with the virtues of Christ....God....in the flesh?  The answer is yes and that's scary.  When I was on the retreat with the high school students last month I was refreshed and encouraged by the speaker's reflection on humility.  He explained that not only does humility mean that we consider other people's needs and wants before our own, but that we recognize our need for help.  In the context of the mission of Christ (to bear and forgive the sins of the world) a daunting and intimidating task, Jesus in his humility looked to the father for support, wisdom, encouragement and strength. In humility we recognize that we don't have it all together, that left to our own devices we fall woefully short.  In humility we recognize that we need a savior.

It is intimidating to think that we are supposed to live like Jesus.  But in our humility and dependence on the Holy Spirit we search through God's Word and go out in faith.

It has come to my attention that people are intimidated by these blogs and the reflections within them.  I have heard that people feel in adequate or intimidated to contribute a thought or response to these reflections.   As Christians we are called to be the body of Christ, to sharpen each other and to urge one another on in our calling to live out his attitude in the world. I invite you to join me not because you have something to offer or because you have it all together, but because in humility we recognize that we are in the same boat headed in the same direction. 

Philippians 2:5-11

     Usually we read a book, or a passage of scripture, from beginning to end. But sometimes it is actually best to begin in the middle and work outward to the edges. What do I mean? Well, if I am giving advice to a new Bible reader on where to start reading, I often tell that person to begin with the Psalms, which are in the middle. Another approach would be to start with John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." Put an anchor in John 3:16, which is the center of the Gospel, and then move outward to the letters, or to the Old Testament, but always holding on to the rope that is attached to the anchor. That way, as we learn our way around the Bible, we always know that the Bible is about God's love for the world, and God's gift of Jesus his son, and not primarily about dietary laws or the wars with the Caananites. Stay in the middle, and then work out to the edges.

     What if we read Philippians ch.2 from the middle? Let's see what happens.

The middle - v.8 "(he) became OBEDIENT to death, even death on a cross."

Then we step back one line, "he HUMBLED himself (found as a man)"

and we step ahead one line, "God EXALTED him."

Now back to verse 7 "(he) made himself NOTHING"

and ahead to verse 10, "at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should BOW."

Then go back to verse 6, "did not consider EQUALITY with God something to be GRASPED"

and ahead to verse 11, "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD"

     By reading from the middle, we see how much Jesus trusted the Father, to be obedient even to death. Then God was faithful to uphold and exalt Jesus.

 I often struggle with obedience to God, mostly because I want to stay in control, to stay on top. But this passage shows us that obedience is rooted in trust. When I trust God with my life, that is when I am able to obey God.

 

Philippians 2:5-11 (New International Version)

 ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 
 ⁶Who, being in very nature God, 
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 
 ⁷but made himself nothing, 
      taking the very nature of a servant, 
      being made in human likeness. 
 ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, 
      he humbled himself 
      and became obedient to death-- 
         even death on a cross! 
 ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
      and gave him the name that is above every name, 
 ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
 ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
      to the glory of God the Father.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Remain...not a word you hear used a lot these days. Yet Jesus uses it 3 times in the first two verses of this passage. What does it even mean to remain? When I think of remain I think of staying in one place. Well now that doesn't make much sense. We are supposed to be growing in our faith, which implies movement. Then how can I stay put but be moving at the same time. I would say then that remain isn't a static action like staying in one spot but dynamic like continuing a friendship over a long distance. Staying requires no work at all you just...well you just stay there. Remaining though seems to imply work. Meaning that it will take an effort to remain in the Father's love.

 Now verse 10 gives a distinct way to remain in God's love. That is to obey his commands. It gets even easier from here. Jesus says that his command, and in this passage he gives us only one command, is to love others as he loves us. Easy right. Sweet, all I have to do in Gods love is love others no problem. Then comes the tough part. Jesus basically says that to love like him you have to give up your life for your friends.

I don't know about you but I don't often find my self in situations where I can literally give up my life (you know, take a bullet for someone) in my day-to-day life. So what does this mean to us during Lent? Don't really have a solid answer for you on that. I think that is where a little discussion with God could do wonders for us. Ask God what he would have you do to show your love for others during Lent. How might you lay down your life for your friends? Oh and don't forget that the passage also tells us Jesus is now our friend too. So how might we lay down our life for him?

Verse thirteen stands out in this passage; "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." If you eliminate verse thirteen entirely from the passage, notice how smoothly it flows. "Love each other as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command." It all sounds so good and so achievable. All you need is love.

     But the cross interrupts the smooth flow of words here. The cross breaks into this text. The cross never fits easily into our thinking or our living. Yet, the cross is at the center of what it means to remain in Jesus. Our self- confidence is questioned here. We all think of ourselves as loving, good people. Surely we are the ones who keep the commands of Jesus. Surely we are the branches remaining in the vine.

     Then we look again at the events leading up to the cross, found in Matthew 26 and 27. Jesus and his friends are preparing to eat the Passover meal together. They seem to be filled with love and obedience and loyalty.

 But when a woman pours costly perfume on his head, anointing him for burial, these friends are indignant.

 When they gather at the table Jesus raises the uncomfortable issue of betrayal. One whose hand is dipping in the common dish is also selling Jesus to those who would put him to death.

 Peter is the most loyal, promising his devotion to the end. Yet he is the one who gets caught in fear and denies even knowing Jesus.

 At Gethsemane, when Jesus most needs his friends to stand by him in prayer, they sleep.

Soon enough they will flee.

     "Remain in me," he says. That is precisely what his disciples could not do. And yet he laid down his life for his friends.

     So he also laid down his life for us, and calls us friends, not because we would have been more loyal, more courageous, more faithful than the disciples, but because Jesus demonstrates the greatest love. He gave his life on the cross, so that we might come by faith to remain in him. There is transforming power in the cross. It is the greatest love.

 "Jesus, keep me near the cross."

My junior high and high school students have made fun of me recently because I finally broke down and got my first pair of glasses.  I knew for a long time that I had a slight sight deficiency but I chose to avoid the inevitable for as long as I could.  There was something defeating about acknowledging that my body was failing me in some small way.  After consecutive days of squinting at my computer screen I dragged myself over to the Lenscrafters and purchased my very first pair of glasses.  I came home that night and to my amazement I could see things much clearer than before.  The computer screen had a clarity that I didn't think it possessed.  It was as if a whole new world was now open to me. 

Through our study in the Gospel of John, the high school guys noticed a continual theme of Jesus doing exactly what he sees his father doing.  The will of the son was in perfect alignment with the will of the father.   One gets the sense from the Gospel of John that Jesus functions as a pair of glasses enabling those who hear his word and see his actions to get a clearer perspective and understanding about who their God is.  In the passage that we are reflecting on this week, Jesus says that "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have a called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."  And in John 17, Jesus says that he has come to give eternal life.  He goes on to say that eternal life is that they might know the one true God.

In lent, we are reminded of our poor eye sight caused by sin that blurs our ability to see God clearly.  We come to confess that we need a new pair of glasses and that we desire to see God with a renewed sense of vision.  The call of this passage then is to remain in the spectacles of Jesus, to dwell in his word, to reflect on his actions and to anticipate the fruit that comes from this "remaining."  Let us this Lenten season "see" Jesus and experience the power of the clarity that he brings to our lives.

 ⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

I asked Josh Becker as a junior high youth leader to put together a reflection on lent each week...here is his first.

 

Return to the Lord

 

            So as I sit here having just read this weeks passage and thinking about the theme for the week. Two things struck me

1) Is that in the 12^th verse of Joel 2 the Lord says "Return to me now, while there is time!" Fancy that, it is our theme for the week.

2) Is how as a prophet Joel's entire goal was to get Israel to return to the Lord. To bring them back from their wanderings and have them turn their eyes back to the Lord.

           

The act of turning seems to me to show a first time commitment or understanding. Where as the act of returning has the significance of a repeated action. Meaning that we have turned towards the Lord and that something has caused us to turn away making it so we need to RE-turn or turn back to the Lord. That I think is our first step in Lent. Recognizing that we have turned from the Lord and that there is a need to RE-turn to Him.

 

            This RE-turning to the Lord isn't a casual "turn left at the next light" sort of turn, it's not a "veer right here" sort of turn. If anything it's a "Make a U-turn immediately" sort of turn. It is an understanding that we must shift our views from whatever has caused us to stray over the year back to the holiness and glory that is our Lord. This first week I challenge myself to make the sort of turn that leaves tires squealing and your knuckles white as they grip the steering wheel.

During a rather cold weekend in November our senior high students went on an outdoor, camping fall retreat.  I don't ever remember a time where I was so cold for such a long period of time, and yet I loved it!

On Sunday morning while the rest of the congregation was worshiping together at Libertyville Covenant Church, the youth met together as a church and shared communion.  There was something powerfully odd about breaking the bread and sharing the cup together around a campfire.  The feedback I got from students was that they liked having communion together in a different environment. Students expressed that it brought about new meaning and significance in their lives. 

I have sensed lately while working with the high school group that students are interested in the traditions of the church.  They want to know the meaning and significance behind them.  As we engage in the season of Lent, it is my desire for students and adults alike to understand the heart of Lent, that it is a season of renewal, of confession, of drawing near to Christ. 

In the passage that we are reflecting on as a church (Joel 2:12-17), the prophet speaks of returning to the Lord with our entire heart.  As Pastor Dwight reflected, this includes fasting, weeping, and mourning.  I thought his reflections were wonderful.  I personally was drawn to the next phrase in the text, "Rend your heart and not your garments."  At first I had to make sure I knew what "rend" meant.  To rend is to separate into parts with force or violence.  It means to tear apart, to pull violently.  The action of rending was most often associated with mourning and seeking repentance.  The mournful person rent (tore) his clothing as a representation of the condition of his heart.  

But Joel says that we are to "rend your heart" and "not your garments."  The temptation can be, and has been throughout history, that our actions reflect only the tearing of the garment and nothing deeper.  In other words, we go through the motions while our very core remains unaffected.  Joel implores us that as we return to the Lord we need to do so from our very core.  Lent is a season of reflection, meditation, weeping, fasting, seeking, and healing. 

As Jesus responds to Mary and Martha, mourning the loss of their brother Lazarus, Jesus says "I am the resurrection and the Life."  In Lent we are led the reality of the resurrection, a reality that should shake us at our very core.   So as the high schools students gained a new appreciation and understanding about communion, let us in this Lenten season return with our all our heart and in the process gain a new/fresh understanding of the cross and the significance it has in each of our lives.

The following is a truncated version of this morning's sermon as a general introduction to Lent and this devotional series.

Lent is a season of renewal, it is a season that mirrors the transformation that takes place in nature around us.  Lent is a season of time set aside for our return to the Lord and our pursuit of his Holiness.  Lent is also a time of confession and a recognition of where we have missed the mark and in humility, recognize our need for a savior.

Lent is a time to dwell on the words and teachings of Christ and to allow them to have power in our lives.  The text this morning is quite interesting (Matt 23:1-12).  Jesus is not far from the cross and the intensity of his teaching and the crowds around him give us a indication that things are going to change.  While the events of Jesus last weeks swirl around him, Jesus teaches his disciples three important lessons.  These lessons very appropriately can and should be applied to our thinking and participation in this season of Lent.

Lesson One: Integrity and authenticity   (Jesus makes critical comments with regards to the Pharisee and their application of the law in their own lives)


Jesus desires for his followers to find integrity in the marriage of their teaching and the application of that teaching in their own lives.   This is a strong word for us to hear, because I think we have at times in our lives seen the tension between what we know to be true as followers of Christ and the putting into practice  that which we know to be true in our lives.   On Sunday night of the Retreat to Covenant Point with our senior high students I had one of these moments.  As I listened to the speaker talk about childlike faith and how as adults we grab on to control and we lose our innate sense of need for a parent or in a spiritual sense our heavenly father I realized that these words which were not only directed at my students, but were also directed at me.  Deep down I knew that I needed to allow God to be in control of my life, and so my teaching reflected that....but was I living that way?   If I was honest with myself, I had to admit that I was the one who wanted to grab the reins of my life.  As we gathered together as a group afterwards I confessed that my teaching and my practically living  weren't on the same page and that I was committing myself to the authority of God in my life.   In lent we reflect on our lives we reflect on our relationship with Jesus and we actively seek the Holy Spirit to make us aware of those areas where what we know about Christ and even proclaim about Christ differs from the practical out flowing of that truth in our lives.  We confess our short comings and we draw near during this time to allow Christ to infuse us with the integrity we need to live Christ like lives.  Much of this is done by watching the life of Christ, his actions and the integrity of his walk with his own father.  Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a renewed authenticity.

Lesson Two: Inward and outward piety (Jesus addresses the Pharisees wearing physical reminders (phylacteries and tassels as a symbol of their own holiness)

Clearly Jesus is picking on the Pharisees but I think we all can see that this is a temptation we all fall victim too.  In the pursuit of holiness it is annoying easy to get caught up in spiritual comparisons, to find ourselves wanting to be noticed for the sacrifices we make and the righteousness we think we have secured.  We want people to notice the box of spiritual growth on our forehead and the religious tassels that hang by our side.  Historically lent has been as a season for the pursuit of holiness.  Lent is a time set aside for the follower of Christ to pursue Jesus with a renewed sense of intensity.  This is not a season to strut your spiritual stuff, to wear your spiritual achievements on your sleeve, but to recognize where we have fallen short and to be reminded that the box we were to place on our forehead has been replace by the cross.  Through the cross we encounter God's profound intervention in our lives. There is nothing about the cross that we can lay claim for credit of personal achievement but in humility we receive it as a gift from God.  Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a renewed desire to see God's holiness in our lives.

Lesson Three: Humility (Jesus addresses the acquisition of power through the acquisition of titles)

Clearly humility has a dimension of selflessness and a perspective of power that run contrary to the way we see our world work and operate.   But humility is deeper than that.  When we seek titles of authority like we see here in the text we claim for ourselves a sense of authority and self control.  We attempt to become self sufficient, the creators of our own destiny and as a result we lose the recognition of our need for a savior. A child recognizes his or her need for a parent to make things right after falling and hurting themselves, a child recognizes his or her need for a parent to look out for them and protect them.  But we lose that as we get older and I think it affects the way we come to see Jesus.   This year has been a difficult one in our family.  When Drew was born 18 months ago we saw what we thought to be a healthy, happy baby.  But quickly we realized that the next 12 months of our lives would be both filled with question marks and not a lot of answers.  When Drew came out of his first surgery last may, this kind of humility we see Jesus talking about became very real to us.  We walked down the hall to the recovery room and looked at our son, hooked up to what felt like hundreds of wires and monitors.  We saw our child clearly confused, scared and hurting and in need of his parents.   As parents we too were placed in position where we lost our sense of control, waiting and wondering what would happen during those 2 hours of surgery.   In those tense moments both my son and his parents recognized in humility the need we have for abba father, rabbi, teacher, savior.   At the very heart of Lent, we come to recognize that we need a savior, abba father who can come and meet us in our helplessness, to draw us out of the pain, to meet us where we are at, and to forgive that which put separation between us.  The Prophet Joel said...

  ¹² "Even now," declares the LORD, 

       "return to me with all your heart, 
       with fasting and weeping and mourning."

 ¹³ Rend your heart 
       and not your garments. 
       Return to the LORD your God, 
       for he is gracious and compassionate, 
       slow to anger and abounding in love, 
       and he relents from sending calamity.

Let us as a community pursue in this Lenten season a humility and a return to the Lord. This morning as we approach the table, let us approach the table in humility, in the recognition of our need for father, rabbi, teacher, savior.   AMEN.