20 Looking at his disciples, he said:"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23 "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.
For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
(Lk.6.20-24)
Saturday I spoon-fed melted ice-cream to a guy named Larry. Larry is a resident at a local nursing home called Byron Manner. He's living with Alzheimer’s. It’s one of those diseases we hope we never get too familiar with. Nancy Reagan called it ‘the long good-bye’.
So I thought of good 'ol Larry as I read these words of Jesus today. We don’t preach on this passage much in evangelical circles. Probably because it doesn’t lend itself to a ‘practical take-away’. It’s not easily apparent what Jesus wants us to ‘do’ with his strange words. “Fortunate are the unfortunate?” No one crochets that on a wall hanging.
Yet here’s my thought this morning. Perhaps the takeaway for me is a startling realization that God sees things differently than we do. While we look at the big house on the corner and say “Blessed,” God says “woe” (vs. 24). He says “woe” not because there is anything wrong with having a big house (I have one), but because making much of our stuff can make it very difficult to make much of God. It’s very hard to depend solely on God when you are a D.I.N.K. (dual income, no kids) like me. But if you’re Larry, and you can’t hold your own spoon, dependence comes naturally. And God says: THAT is a blessed. The truth is, the rest of us are just as dependant as Larry. We just do a better job of faking it.
So here's to looking toward God today as Larry does.
Peace. Love. Ice-cream.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday June 27th :: Lk. 5 :: Friends
Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." (Lk.5.18-20)
I have often heard preachers offer snappy formulas for how to get your sins forgiven. And there’s nothing wrong with that I suppose. Many folks have begun a relationship with Jesus by praying a certain kind of prayer, etc…
Yet the verse above is one of those that doesn’t lend itself to formulas. It’s strange. Sure, you can try to turn it into a ‘tract’ to hand out at the mall. But in the end you may wind up sounding a bit silly.
“So you want to be forgiven…Here’s how…
Step One: Get on a mat.
Step Two: Find some friends to hoist you through a hole in the roof.
Step Three: When Jesus sees the faith of your friends (Lk. 5.20) He’ll forgive you.
The end.
Some verses just don’t lend themselves to pamphlets.
Yet here’s the takeaway for me today.
It seems from this story that Jesus intervenes in this man’s life not just for his own sake, but on behalf of his friends. He saw their faith - the love they had for him - and it was their faith that tore at the heart of Christ.
May we provide that kind of friendship to one another.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." (Lk.5.18-20)
I have often heard preachers offer snappy formulas for how to get your sins forgiven. And there’s nothing wrong with that I suppose. Many folks have begun a relationship with Jesus by praying a certain kind of prayer, etc…
Yet the verse above is one of those that doesn’t lend itself to formulas. It’s strange. Sure, you can try to turn it into a ‘tract’ to hand out at the mall. But in the end you may wind up sounding a bit silly.
“So you want to be forgiven…Here’s how…
Step One: Get on a mat.
Step Two: Find some friends to hoist you through a hole in the roof.
Step Three: When Jesus sees the faith of your friends (Lk. 5.20) He’ll forgive you.
The end.
Some verses just don’t lend themselves to pamphlets.
Yet here’s the takeaway for me today.
It seems from this story that Jesus intervenes in this man’s life not just for his own sake, but on behalf of his friends. He saw their faith - the love they had for him - and it was their faith that tore at the heart of Christ.
May we provide that kind of friendship to one another.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thursday June 26th :: Lk. 4 :: Temptation in Suburbia
I am wrestling with the temptation of Jesus today (Lk. 4.1-13)
In reading the passage again, I find it interesting that satan works so hard to keep Jesus from suffering. He works hard to keep him safe and comfortable:
Have some bread…rule the world…angels will catch you…
Each temptation is an opportunity for Jesus to choose momentary comfort and prosperity over God’s ultimate (self-sacrificing) agenda for his life…
Perhaps it’s not that different us. I’m thinking of temptation in suburbia. Byron Center. West Michigan. What if the most dangerous temptation for us is the lure of momentary comfort and prosperity over and above God’s risky, self-denying plan our lives.
What if the most subtle and dangerous temptation for me is the call to submit to The American Dream (lots of shiny things with barcodes) over and above God’s Kingdom Dream for my life - that I would pour myself out for him and others.
Dangerous thinking, that.
In reading the passage again, I find it interesting that satan works so hard to keep Jesus from suffering. He works hard to keep him safe and comfortable:
Have some bread…rule the world…angels will catch you…
Each temptation is an opportunity for Jesus to choose momentary comfort and prosperity over God’s ultimate (self-sacrificing) agenda for his life…
Perhaps it’s not that different us. I’m thinking of temptation in suburbia. Byron Center. West Michigan. What if the most dangerous temptation for us is the lure of momentary comfort and prosperity over and above God’s risky, self-denying plan our lives.
What if the most subtle and dangerous temptation for me is the call to submit to The American Dream (lots of shiny things with barcodes) over and above God’s Kingdom Dream for my life - that I would pour myself out for him and others.
Dangerous thinking, that.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday June 25th :: Lk. 3 :: Vipers!
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! …Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (Luke 3.7-8)
This is the kind of sermon that could get a pastor fired.
Still I’ve been thinking of John’s words in Luke 3 today. He condemns the Jewish people for boasting about their religious pedigree while forgetting to live a godly life. They’re proud of their nationality and their religious roots. We might even say they were life-long ‘church-goers’.
But John calls them snakes. Vipers! Because their lives did not produce ‘fruit’ (i.e. ‘results’) in keeping with repentance.
I often take heart in the fact that we do not earn our salvation. And it’s true. Yet Jesus clearly states that one can tell a tree by its fruit. In other words, our true identity as a son or daughter of God comes out in our actions. If I am a child of God, then my life will show it. I will be more loving, less gossipy, more generous, and less greedy. My life will produce fruit, as John says: ‘in keeping with repentance’.
Perhaps then, John’s harsh words are an opportunity for each of us to examine the ‘fruit’ being produced in our own lives.
This is the kind of sermon that could get a pastor fired.
Still I’ve been thinking of John’s words in Luke 3 today. He condemns the Jewish people for boasting about their religious pedigree while forgetting to live a godly life. They’re proud of their nationality and their religious roots. We might even say they were life-long ‘church-goers’.
But John calls them snakes. Vipers! Because their lives did not produce ‘fruit’ (i.e. ‘results’) in keeping with repentance.
I often take heart in the fact that we do not earn our salvation. And it’s true. Yet Jesus clearly states that one can tell a tree by its fruit. In other words, our true identity as a son or daughter of God comes out in our actions. If I am a child of God, then my life will show it. I will be more loving, less gossipy, more generous, and less greedy. My life will produce fruit, as John says: ‘in keeping with repentance’.
Perhaps then, John’s harsh words are an opportunity for each of us to examine the ‘fruit’ being produced in our own lives.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday June 24th :: Luke 2 :: First Words
I’m thinking about the first recorded words of Jesus today.
We come across them here in Luke 2.49.
He says this to his understandably worried parents:
“Why were you searching for me?
…Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
I imagine those words cut deep for Mary and Joseph. I mean, here they are wanting Jesus to act like a good little boy, and here he is reminding them that he has another agenda to accomplish. He won’t be treated like an ordinary snot-nosed kid. He is God’s Son and he must be about his Father’s business.
Just as the first red-letter words were likely tough for Mary and Joseph, perhaps they ought to be a wake-up call to me as well. I often want so badly for God to conform to my agenda, my wants and my desires. And yet he keeps reminding me, as he did with Mary and Joseph, that there are bigger things at stake than just my feelings or my comfort.
Christ is not a genie-in-a-bottle-deity who lives to grant our wishes. He is the Lord of the universe and we must submit to his plan.
That said, I’m left today with Jesus’ first words stuck in my head as if he were asking them of me: “Why were you searching for me?” What are my motives in approaching God? And how must my desires be bent toward his will?
-Theophilus
We come across them here in Luke 2.49.
He says this to his understandably worried parents:
“Why were you searching for me?
…Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
I imagine those words cut deep for Mary and Joseph. I mean, here they are wanting Jesus to act like a good little boy, and here he is reminding them that he has another agenda to accomplish. He won’t be treated like an ordinary snot-nosed kid. He is God’s Son and he must be about his Father’s business.
Just as the first red-letter words were likely tough for Mary and Joseph, perhaps they ought to be a wake-up call to me as well. I often want so badly for God to conform to my agenda, my wants and my desires. And yet he keeps reminding me, as he did with Mary and Joseph, that there are bigger things at stake than just my feelings or my comfort.
Christ is not a genie-in-a-bottle-deity who lives to grant our wishes. He is the Lord of the universe and we must submit to his plan.
That said, I’m left today with Jesus’ first words stuck in my head as if he were asking them of me: “Why were you searching for me?” What are my motives in approaching God? And how must my desires be bent toward his will?
-Theophilus
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Monday June 23rd :: Lk. 1 :: Dear Theo-philos
Be sure to post questions you may have while reading.
As I read for myself today I am struck by a rather strange detail in verse 3 of Luke 1. Apparently, Luke is writing his account of Jesus’ life to someone named Theophilos. People disagree about who exactly this dude is, but his name means LOVER (phile) OF GOD (Theo).
Several years back, when I first made a commitment to spend time daily in God’s word, I began to journal a bit on the passage I read each day. (Honestly, it was just a way to keep my thoughts from wandering…) I’d ask questions and write out prayers to God, etc. And maybe because I started in Luke (like we are doing now), I began to sign each journal entry with a particular name: THEOPHILUS: ‘Lover of God’.
For me that’s the takeaway today. The only reason to read the Scriptures consistently is that we genuinely want to LOVE GOD more. We don’t read to amass knowledge or check off boxes on a spiritual to-do list. We don’t read to earn brownie points with Jesus or feel superior to our neighbor. We read the Bible to be and become LOVERS OF GOD. That’s it.
And that’s my prayer for you these next few months.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Take the Challenge!
Greetings All!
We'll begin our 'Summer Bible Challenge' at Compass Church on Sunday June 22nd.
The name of this journey is 'Engage' and the goal is pretty simple. We're encouraging all members of our community to make a commitment this summer to spend time in the Scriptures. The idea is to prayerfully read a chapter a day, for 5 days a week, asking God to reveal himself to us as we read.
In other words, we want to read the Bible NOT to accumulate 'brownie points' with God, but to be transformed into more loving and God-honoring people. We want to engage the Scriptures so that we can be transformed into what we call 'non-religious followers of Jesus Christ'. That's our mission.
Beginning June 22nd, I'll be posting helpful insights for our journey through Luke and Acts.
You'll be able to leave questions and comments as you wish, and I will do my best to answer them.
That's all for now!
I encourage you to take the challenge and invite others to do the same.
We'll begin our 'Summer Bible Challenge' at Compass Church on Sunday June 22nd.
The name of this journey is 'Engage' and the goal is pretty simple. We're encouraging all members of our community to make a commitment this summer to spend time in the Scriptures. The idea is to prayerfully read a chapter a day, for 5 days a week, asking God to reveal himself to us as we read.
In other words, we want to read the Bible NOT to accumulate 'brownie points' with God, but to be transformed into more loving and God-honoring people. We want to engage the Scriptures so that we can be transformed into what we call 'non-religious followers of Jesus Christ'. That's our mission.
Beginning June 22nd, I'll be posting helpful insights for our journey through Luke and Acts.
You'll be able to leave questions and comments as you wish, and I will do my best to answer them.
That's all for now!
I encourage you to take the challenge and invite others to do the same.
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