Every Knee Will Bow

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

                                                                                     (Phil 2:5-11 KJV)

Who would not honor one who saved their lives? I am really not sure why one wouldn't. But, there sure does seem to be a whole lot of people who don't take what Jesus did for us all that seriously. Yes, we can chalk that up to a lack of faith. 

Years ago I was overseeing one of my granddaughters as she was participating in an online history class. The historical Jesus was talked about and yes this was an online public school. She looked at me and said. "Jesus really was real?!" That really floored me. She had been brought up in a church; attending Sunday School and Worship just about every Sunday. I was her pastor as well as her grandmother. Her reaction caused me to wonder where I had gone so wrong that she thought I would dedicate my life to teaching and preaching about something or someone that was nothing more than a nice story; a fairy tale. Until this public school teacher relayed to her that Jesus had been a real live person she simply could not believe any of it.

There are a whole lot of people who do not know or believe that Jesus died for us. There are a whole lot of knees that do not bow at the name of Jesus. But, one day they will. One day they will see him and know that he is not just a myth. One day every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God our Father.

That day will come when he returns in full glory. On that day every knee will bow before the one who gave his life that we might have life in the eternal presence of God.

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Teach The Children To Praise Him

I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

(Psalm 145:1-5 KJV)

One of my pet peeves is hearing Christians complain that the world has corrupted their children. The institutions (particularly public schools) have turned them away from God. It makes me a bit irritable when I hear that the state has kicked God out of school when it became illegal to pray in school. First of all: it is not illegal to pray in schools. It is illegal to force a child to pray in school. It is illegal to mandate that a teacher lead your children in prayer. Think about it for a half a minute! Do you really want someone who is not a Christian leading your children in prayer? What will they be teaching them with the prayers. Remember, Christianity is not the only religion whose people pray. 

It is not illegal for our children to pray in school. If God seems to be absent from the schools it is not the state's fault. If our children do not pray wherever they may be, it is the church's and the parent's fault. No one can stop our children from bowing their heads and praying before a test. No one can stop them from giving thanks and praise to God for the lunch that is provided for them. But, it is not the state's job to teach them to do this. It is ours as the church. It is ours as parents and grandparents; as family members and friends.

I do not agree with many things the public schools now teach our youth. Secular society has taught them many things that we would prefer that they had not learned as it can be most damaging to them and to future generations. As for our young children, we do need to be cautious about what kind of environment we are allowing them to engage in. But, when it comes to giving thanks and praise to God, it is our job, as Christians, to teach them that and not the state's; not our public school systems.  Psalm 145 is a reminder of our privilege and responsibility to teach the generations that come after us: "One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts."

Having served as a pastor responsible for previewing Sunday School material for over twenty years, I found that much of the material does not teach our youth about Jesus or about being in relationship with God our Father because of what Jesus has done for us. Many never even consider introducing them to the Holy Spirit! Many of these programs do not teach our faith as much as it teaches our youth how to be good citizens. My contention is that if our youth come to know Jesus, they will also be good citizens, not because they are so good; but, because the Spirit of Christ abides them is. 

I have also found that many within our congregations assess young people to be little more than irritants at worship. Some of these servant/leaders end up on committees and councils that spend more time trying to regulate youthful behaviors rather than teaching the next generation why God is to be praised.

If the generations after us do not praise God, it is no one's fault but our own. Martin Luther recognized this problem in his day. He wrote the Small Catechism as an aid for heads of households to teach their families the very basics of our faith. Sadly, the Small Catechism is used very rarely in the home today. I am not sure if it is even prevalent in the church any longer.

May God remind and inspire us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to teach our children of the awesome works of God that God might be praised by them. Maybe it would help if we spent a little more time praising Him in their presence.

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Who Will You Listen To?

And now, my child, listen to me,
   and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Keep your way far from her,
   and do not go near the door of her house;
or you will give your honor to others,
   and your years to the merciless,
and strangers will take their fill of your wealth,

   and your labors will go to the house of an alien;

and at the end of your life you will groan,

   when your flesh and body are consumed,
and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,

   and my heart despised reproof!

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

   or incline my ear to my instructors.
Now I am at the point of utter ruin

   in the public assembly.

                            (Prov 5:7-15 NRSV)

Taking the advice from others; learning from their pasts, takes a pretty strong person. Our nature tends to make us want to do things our way. We'd rather not listen to teachers, or parents, or anyone that God has put in authority over us. We'd rather do what pleases us than what pleases God.

But, we are reminded in the book of Proverbs not to be following in the ways of those who do not follow the way of the Lord. Do not be following the advice who will lead you away from the Lord to a point of utter ruin. Do not follow those who will lead you away from "The Way." Rather, follow those who God has appointed to teach you. 

Do not listen to those who would lead you away from God. They do so in order to justify their own selfish existence. They do so for their own benefit. Incline your ear to those who would show you "The Way" in which to go. 

Be careful who you listen to! Be careful who you follow!

God's Peace - Pr. J 

 

Public Trial and Execution?

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

                                                                                John 8:2-11 NKJV

I did not sleep well last night. In fact, I have been up since 3 a.m.. There were a few reasons. But, mostly it was because I grieve what I perceive to be the hard-heartedness of humankind. It is so easy for us to see the sins of others and so difficult to recognize the sin within ourselves.

In the story of the woman caught in adultery; the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought a woman into the temple courts to be publicly judged and executed for the crime of adultery. It appears that the custom, at the time, was to depend heavily on the law and very little on grace. 

And, in comes Jesus; full of grace; full of mercy, reminding us that there is not one of us without sin (except for Jesus, himself). Because he was without sin, he was able to be the sacrificial lamb that took away our sin. Through him our sins have been washed away. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)

As the woman stands ready to die, in comes Jesus, empathizing. As he listens to the accusations being hurled at her, he silently writes on the ground and then looks at her accusers, "“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  No one comes forth. The public humiliation is over. She has been forgiven her sins and told to go on her way leaving behind her life of sin.

The point of my not being able to sleep last night was not so much that she was confronted about her sin. Sin is sin and it should be confronted. But, to publicly accuse someone with the presupposed notion that the person is guilty is just a little outside of Christian authority. The story about this woman is pretty short. I'd like to see a few more details included. I'd be curious to know if any of her family and friends were there to see her abused in such a manner by the church of the day. If so, what were they thinking? How did the impending execution of their loved one make them feel? What about the man or men that she was accused of having adultery with? Were they there? Were they some of her judges or witnesses against her?

There is a lot going on in this story; enough so that it was difficult to sleep as I considered that even the church today can cast stones pretty quickly and will cast them not just in secret but publicly whether the accused is innocent or guilty.

Sin is sin and it does need to be called out so that we might have an opportunity to repent; turning back to the Lord. But, let us make sure that we're not calling it out simply in an attempt to cover our own sinful natures.

May God help us to discern whether we should call out sin so loudly and publicly rather than attempt to reconcile us to one another and to God in a more private way; one that will not bring shame to others who may very well be innocent.  

There is a procedure that Jesus outlined for us to deal with sin and perceived sin. It does not begin with public humiliation. It begins with a conversation between two people. One of those two people usually (not always) ends up being the pastor. There will be times when that conversation may lead to more action by the church. But, there will also be times during this conversation that we may find the accused not the guilty party. Conversation is important and we should all remember that something said in the pulpit is not a two-way conversation. If we condemn someone from the pulpit, we may never again have the opportunity to have that conversation with the one who has been humiliated and condemned without the conversations required by scripture in regards to church discipline.

I cannot fathom how publicly humiliating someone along with their family will ever reconcile anyone to the Body of Christ. In fact, public humiliation will only send them further away from the church. There is a process to resolve disputes, disagreements, and outright sins within the church. Many of those disputes and disagreements are sins in themselves. That process is found in the Gospel of St. Matthew, the 18th chapter, verses 15 thru 17. According to Jesus:

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

May God help us to treat others with the same respect and dignity that we would have others treat us. 

God's Peace - Pr. J

Respect Civil Authorities

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. (Rom 13:1-4 NIV)

Concerning Civil Government.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For the power which exists anywhere is ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Rom. 13:1-4.

Book of Concord; Luther's Small Catechism/Table of Duties

 

We see more and more disrespect for our elected officials and public servants as each year passes. Unless, it clearly goes against the word and the will of God there is no excuse for the public to persecute these men and women so unjustly. I am old enough to remember a time when whether we particularly liked our president or not, we still respected the office of the President of the United States and we showed it. It's not all that apparent today. There are peaceful means in place to replace them. If the majority wants someone out of office they will use those means. We do not have to become so ugly that we look like bullies to do it.

 

A person gets stopped because of a possible traffic violation and instead of cooperating they choose to disrespect the person stopping them by refusing to cooperate. A neighbor reports unruly behavior and instead of responding calmly to the officers or possibly protective service workers who show up at your door; they are met by all sorts of disrespectful attitudes and behavior. That is surely not God's will. Those men and women who are responding to the call are there to ensure that you and all of your household are safe and well.

 

It is not God's will that we should set ourselves in such a high place that we think that we are above the law of the land. The law of the land is not just for everyone else. It is for all people. It is not God's will that we should act like uncooperative bullies; but, to use the system that has been set in place for the good of all people. Use the system to try to change the system if it needs changing. Violence against others is not the way to get what you might want. Those who would encourage other than peaceful protests that result in harm to others as well as the property of others go against the will of God. He is the provider of all. We don't get to destroy the property of others and still say that we are doing God's will.

 

God's will is for the good of all people; not just for you; not just for the few.

 

May God help us to live peacefully in the land.

 

Pr. J