Scripture:

Acts 23:23-35
"Then [the tribune] summoned two of the centurions and said, 'Get ready to leave by nine o'clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor.' "

Observation:

Wow! What made Paul such a target, such a VIP 

(very important prisoner) as to warrant a jail transfer under 

the protection of an armed guard of 470 soldiers?

One can't help but contrast the efforts made by this tribune and the governor to ensure that Paul gets a fair trial against the kangaroo court that tried and convicted Jesus to death in the middle of the night. Citizenship is a difference maker. Paul's status as a citizen of the Roman empire provides him with a degree of protection, privilege and power well beyond what Jesus possessed. Later, in many of his letters, Paul will go on to teach and preach that as Christians we are citizens of the reign of God. Though the privileges, rights and protections of heavenly citizenship are not the same as citizenship in our nations, Paul argues that this citizenship is a difference maker with respect to how we conduct ourselves in the face of powerful persecution.

Application:

The LORD God is our one true king. As adopted children of God's household and citizens of the reign of God, we are authorized (given authority) to represent God to the world. With this authority come real power and protection. This reality allows followers of Christ Jesus to step out boldly in faith in service of the good news. It also allows us to endure any and all indignities in the name of Jesus, since by his example we know that such worldly "push-back" comes with the territory.

The real question for today is not whether or not we have power to change the situations we encounter daily. The question is how will we creatively wield this power (that does not belong to us, but flows through us) in service to God's mission to redeem all of creation through sacrificial love and vibrant economies of grace?

What in your life today makes you wish you could be 

surrounded by an armed escort? 

Be still and know, that all 

the power and protection you will ever need has already 

been poured out over, into and through you.

Prayer:

LORD, I believe. Help me in my unbelief. Amen.

Life Sentence!

 ASH WEDNESDAY

"LIFE SENTENCE"

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Palm Branches from Holy Week 2014

Jesus come and save us,
We are but dust, 
we are like ashes,
but you can touch our unclean souls.
Jesus come and forgive us,
Our hearts are heavy,
our burdens are great,
cleanse us with the water of life.
Jesus come and heal us,
Restore our sight,
teach us truth,
speak to us words that bring us wholeness.
Jesus touch us with your heart of love,
cleanse us with the water of life,
restore our sight that we may see, 
teach us truth that we may lead Godly lives.
Amen.


Sisters and brothers, we stand together, poised at the edge of lent, confronted by the interrogating light of truth. This light, God’s light, is the same unrelenting, radiance of Jesus Christ transfigured. Standing in this light we can no longer manage any delusion of self-righteousness.

We suffer from exposure here in the wilderness. We gather this night around the truth of God’s Word for us: 
Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Set On Fire For You Lord

So, I say, “greetings Dusty, and Ashley! Hello, Asher and Dustin! Peace, be with you fellow mud-people, formed along with Adam and Eve. You have been formed out of the simplest of materials, shaped with the greatest of care by the hands of a loving and creative God, who upon completion of his every unique blessing for the world – upon completion of each of you – stoops and breathes Holy Spirit – the very breath of life into you.

You see, the words, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return!” are so much more than a death sentence from our heavenly Judge. To be sure, we are all in bondage to the structures and machinations of Sin in this life. And, yes, we are most likely all too aware of our own sins of commission and omission; sins that stem from our stubborn pride, born of a common fallen humanity. 

But The Fire Did Not Consume It

Rather, these words: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” are a great mercy for us all. They tell us the truth about who we are in God’s eyes. And, as such, they have the power to release us from all manner of foolishness: striving to define ourselves and our own worth through our accomplishments and possessions; through our words and wits; through our will power and our piety.

Thank God, then that we stand here together about to embark on a holy Lent, under the watchful care of the righteously loving God who puts us – individually and collectively – under a LIFE sentence. 
Remember, we are dust, and to dust we shall return.

Remember You Are Dust, And To Dust You Shall Return

Thank God, then, that we can gather here tonight to receive a very public sign of our dustiness and thereby be recalled to our true identies, even as we go forth marked with Ashen crosses to bear public witness to the truth we have in Christ Jesus. 

… Of course, this ritual is made somewhat awkward by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, a part of which we have just heard. In this part of Jesus’ teaching regarding the Reign of God, he challenges us not to be pretending hypocrites – whose inward intentions are contrary to their outward actions. He is seemingly suspicious of the worthiness of prayers, fasts, or acts of mercy that put us on display. He teaches that true faith can never tolerate anyone other than the Living God as its center. … And yet, here we stand, poised to follow Jesus into the discipleship training ground of Lent, preparing to receive Dusty crosses that are not exactly inconspicuous in the present day and age.

It begs the question: What genius decided to pair this rite with this Gospel?

But, upon more careful examination, we can perhaps see the deep wisdom in holding these two closely together. You see, this faith by which we live is one that must be navigated in tension between two equally untenable extremes.

1. On the one hand, we have the error of the Christian reformation pursued past the point of usefulness. Joke – “Pastor, I know that I am saved, because I have never done any good works.”

2. On the other hand, we have the error of the hypocrites which Jesus would warn us from. This error is especially clear in verse 2 of our Gospel. “So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocries do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”

Their error is in striving to secure their own worth in the eyes of mere human beings, or perhaps even in the eyes of God. In the words of one wisened commentator…
“They were not giving, but buying. They wanted the praise of men, they paid for it” (Davies-Allison, 1:582).

Family, as we earnestly walk our faith in Christ – from baptismal font, to the foot of the cross and beyond the grasping hands of death – we must always remember that our righteousness, our worth, comes from the grace of God alone. And yet, this living faith in the Living God, requires that we act boldly. 

Recall, earlier in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has already commanded us in Chapter 5 v.16 “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

The thing to remember then, is that all of our actions are to point to who we are by God’s amazing act of creation, and yet more amazing faithfulness in upholding us in Grace through faith. That is why these words: 
“Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” are not just law, not simply Dr. Phil's feel good ideas, but, the very Law and Gospel of Holy God. These words testify to who God is and to who we are as a result.

So, clinging to the Truth that has promised to give us life in abundance, we remember that this Lenten journey upon which we embark tonight is never about being or becoming holier than thou. Nor is it about manipulating or currying favor with God. Rather, bathed in the sometimes harsh light of the Transfigured One, this walk is about the gift of being radically honest with ourselves.

Taking up the tried and tested spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and sacrificial acts of justice and mercy, we might well ask, “Who am I to pray in secret or in public to Holy God?” “Who are we to fast in secret or in public before Holy God?” “Who am I to seek to do justice and love kindness with my neighbors in service to Holy God?”

Getting Our Hands Dirty With Sharing God's Blessing

The answer, of course, can be found in Jesus Christ who teaches us, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” Even now, God is sprinkling us with the waters of baptismal grace, rewetting the broken shards of our clay-person lives and taking them into loving hands to remake us en route to redeeming the world!

Amen. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Scripture:

2 Chronicles 24:8-10
"8 So the king gave command, and they made a chest, and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. 9 A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10 All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full."

Observation:

If you ask me, this qualifies as a full-blown miracle story! 

I mean, can you really imagine any scenario whereby the 

king (president, prime minister, or premier) declares a 

new tax and the people rejoice?

What gives?

King Joash and his advisors have noted that the temple of the LORD has fallen into disrepair because of a lack of faithful leadership in Judah over a couple generations. They set to work making repairs. In order to fund this important work, they look to their past and remember that Moses had laid a tax upon the Israelites during their exodus wanderings in order to create the tabernacle of the LORD.  

As we look through the the exodus saga there are three main traditions for how to think about collecting resources from the community to support its worship.  

"The tabernacle [in Exodus 25] is to be constructed through free-will offerings from the people (see Ex 35:4-9, 20-29, 36:3-7). The people give more than what is needed (36:5-7). An alternate tradition says a half-shekel was collected from each male twenty years or older (Ex 30:11-16; 38:21-31). Tithing, giving one-tenth of one's wealth or income, is yet another way the worship of God is supported (See Genesis 14:20; 28:22; Deut. 14:22-29; 26:12-15)." (Lutheran Study Bible, Augsburg Fortress, 2009)

Application:

The communities of faith I grew up in did not do a very good job of educating me about financial stewardship, nor did they equip me to practice this discipline well as an adult member of the church.

It seems to me that, too often, we are silent on issues of ethics or discipleship with our young people. Our silence is mostly about our own awkwardness and feelings of inadequacy about those same topics. The problem is our silence doesn't do our youth, or our communities as a whole any favours. If we don't talk to our people about healthy, life-giving, God-honouring sex; they will come to their own conclusions and we may not like the results. Same goes for money: specifically, we need to talk about what our faith communities require to operate and what our faith has to say about stewardship that is healthy (abundance based as opposed to scarcity based), life-giving, and God-honouring.

As I am growing in my walk of discipleship, this has been an area of much challenge and growth. Now comes the scary part ... helping others to grow by raising (helpful) challenge with them.

Prayer:

Lord, we are so blessed. Your hand guides us and provides for us always. Let us bless those around us as you have called us to do, guiding and providing with your word as our foundation. Amen.

• 

  
  

  
  

  Scripture:  

  
  

  2 Chronicles 21:18-20
  "18 After all this the Lord struck [Jehoram] in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19 In course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor, like the fires made for his ancestors. 20 He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed with no one’s regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings."
  

  Observation:

  
  Jehoram is one of the Kings of Judah that is said to have "followed in the ways of the Kings of Israel" by setting up unauthorized locales for worship (in high places); by turning a blind-eye to practices of idolatry in his kingdom; and, by leading his people into unfaithfulness. As a result of all these short-comings he is struck with an horrific death.
  
  Now, we might be tempted to get overly focussed on the physical mechanism of his demise, but that is not what seems really horrific to me. Even though a long, drawn out death by prolapse of the bowels sounds awful, the throw away line sounds even worse: 
  
  

  "He departed with no one's regret."

  
  

  Application:

  
  It has been said that, so long as our vertical relations with the Creator are out of balance, so too will be our horizontal relations with our neighbours be. It sounds like this was most certainly true of Jehoram. I can't imagine what kind of life patterns would leave such a wake of indifference amidst family, friends and neighbours in the moment of death. I also never want to find out.This all begs the question: 

  
  

  How are your relationships going these days? 

  
  

  What are you doing to strengthen your (UP) relationship 

  
  

  with Creator God? 

  
  

  Are you making sufficient time to invest in your most 

  
  

  intimate relationships (IN)? 

  
  

  When and how are you stretching your comfort zones to 

  
  

  get to know more folks from outside your normal interest 

  
  

  groups (OUT)? 

  
  

  If any or all of these relationships need 

  
  

  attention, perhaps it would be good to start with a move 

  
  

  in the vertical (UP) direction.
• 
  

  Prayer:

  Holy, mighty and merciful God, your very Triune nature reveals that to be created in your image means (at least in part) we are created for vibrant relationships. Guide us, we pray, to live in ways that honour you, ourselves, and our neighbours. We trust that living in this good way will save us from the awful fate of Jehoram. Yet, on days when we find our relationships to be spiralling out of control, we are so thankful for the knowledge that you are never indifferent about our individual or collective lives. Amen.

Hables espanol? Parle-vous francais? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Scripture: 

Acts 21:31-22:2
"37 Just as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” The tribune replied, “Do you know Greek? "

"22 “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you.” 
2 When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet."

Observation:

Paul has been arrested on trumped-up charges of defiling the temple and disturbing the peace. The two quotes above are turning point moments in this part of his story. He is able to turn the situation around because he takes the time              (and has put in the time to be able) to speak to two separate groups of people in their own languages. 

Paul had great news to share with Jews and Greeks alike;

but, he also recognized, if you want people to listen, 

you have to speak the language of your hearers. 

Application:

I wonder how many of our efforts to spread the good news go awry not because they "fall on deaf ears", but because we haven't put in the work to learn the languages (of heart, culture and tongue) of the people we would like to reach?

Likewise, how often are we frustrated at the Lord's silence? Could it be that we haven't put in sufficient time in the discipline of learning to speak God's language of costly, grace-fuelled discipleship?

Prayer:

Our Father, thank you for teaching us so clearly the basics of your language. Grant us grace to grow attentively in this practice. And, teach us to follow your incarnate lead as we endeavour to learn the languages of those who have yet to hear Your good news. Amen.

Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For Today?

• 

  
  

  
  

  Scripture:

  
  2 Chronicles 18:12-17
  "The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, 'Look, the words of the prophets with one accord are favourable to the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.' But Micaiah said, 'As the Lord lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak.'
  When he had come to the king, the king said to him, 'Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?' He answered, 'Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand.' But the king said to him, 'How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?' Then Micaiah said, 'I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd; and the LORD said, 'These have no master; let each one go home in peace.' The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything favourable about me, but only disaster?'
  

  Observation:

  
  What a bizarre story! We have a prophet who swears he will only speak what he hears from the LORD who goes on to utter a false prophecy in the next verse. We have a the foolish King Ahab who forces the lying prophet (Micaiah) to tell the truth, not apparently so he can take heed of it, but simply so his assessment of Micaiah's character would not be proven wrong in front of King Jehoshaphat.
  
  It seems that King Jehoshaphat's role is central to the meaning being communicated through the story. His counterpart, King Ahab, is primed for war and has surrounded himself with no shortage of prophets and advisors who will tell him just what he wants to hear. We get the sense that Ahab is pretty used to getting what he wants.  
  Jehoshaphat finds himself in a tight spot: since he is bound to Ahab through blood alliance, he cannot easily refuse Ahab's request to join in the ill-conceived proposed concflict. His response, in faith, is to seek out a prophet who is more focused on breathing a word from God then upon giving Ahab what he wants.
• In Micaiah is found such a prophet, and still, he is ignored as both kings go off to war. In the end though, it seems that Ahab's scorn for God's plan leads to his doom, while Jehoshaphat's attempt to honour God's plan (even though he ends up participating in an endeavour not according to God's plan) is his salvation.

• Application:

  
  I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that most reading this post understand from hard experience that God's plans are notoriously difficult to discern. In the passage above, Micaiah looks like an idiot until later events unfold to reveal him to be a faithful prophet. Ahab has a clear sense of purpose for his kingship, but this purpose is eventually revealed to be more about his own folly than any desire to follow God. Jehoshaphat has an inner sense that what he is being pressured to do is not what God would want. He imperfectly attends to that inner call, actually giving in to the peer pressure, only to be protected and delivered by God anyway.
  

  
  

  I love that last part. I love it, because I need it to be true.

  
  

  I want to hear, but my ears are dull. 

  
  

  I squint to see, but my eyes are dim. 

  
  

  Thankfully, God does not require my perfection. 

  
  

  Instead, God uses our faithfulness - our willingness to 

  
  

  slow down and seek Him out in every situation - to direct 

  
  

  our meandering paths to his good ends.

  
  Today I am thankful for the opportunity to stop and listen, and then to listen again in the presence of a faithful band of fellow followers.
  
  So, what do you think? What do you hear God saying to us in 2 Chronicles 18?
  

  Prayer: 

  (From the Moravian Daily Texts for February 12, 2015)
  Great Truth, we never see you directly but we know you are there. Deep down, we feel your power and presence. Help us to share that understanding with those for whom the trials of the world cause their faith in you to falter. Amen.