October 28, 2018 Reformation Sunday

John 8:36  (The Promise)

“36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.”

To be set free is not to be able to do what ever I want to do when ever I want to do it.  To be free is to be a different person than I was, with a heart open to being willing to forgive;  willing to encourage;  willing to help;  willing to be a servant of compassion in a world of hate, bringing light in the darkness.

To be set free by the love of God is to become, as Luther once said, “Little Christ’s” who go about doing good, not because this is the way to earn heaven but because this is the way to show that we are free from the fear of losing heaven and to show not only that we love God, but that God first loved us!

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, let your light shine through me;  set me  free to love!”

October 21, 2018 22nd Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 10:23-31  (The Message)

23 Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" 24 The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. 25 I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom." 26 That set the disciples back on their heels. "Then who has any chance at all?" they asked. 27 Jesus was blunt: "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.

Having it all - and we all have much more then we need - makes it difficult to say I need help, I need something money can’t buy.  I need to be saved.  I need the grace of God.
We are so used to being in control that we find it difficult to “let go and let God.”  Yet that is the key not only to the AA way of life but to the life of faith.  It is hard to see how poor we are when we have so much that hides this truth from us.

As  Rudyard Kipling said to a graduating class of medical students.

“You’ll go out from here and very likely make a lot of money.  One day you’ll meet someone for whom that means very little.  Then you will know how poor you are.”

“Let go and let God!”  is more then a nice cliche;  it is a way of life which opens the doors of the Kingdom of God to us.  It is the way in - for all!




!

“The problem is not that we’ve tried faith
and found it wanting,
but that we’ve tried mammon
and found it addictive.”
Arthur Simon, Founder of Bread
                   for the World









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to not become addicted to things money can buy,
and miss out on what money cannot buy…the grace which is free and the love which is eternal,
and the happiness born of faith, hope and love.”

October 14, 2018 21st Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 10:17-22 (The Message)

17 As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?" 18 Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. 19 You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother." 20 He said, "Teacher, I have - from my youth - kept them all!" 21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye - and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me." 22 The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.


What is going on in this story is a battle of the wills, not just the pocketbook.  A confrontation with addiction and a call to surrender.  It is your story and mine!

The question is sincere for the man is sincere.  But he wanted to be in control.  He wanted to do it his way.  “Just tell me and I’ll do it!” might well be a correct paraphrase of his dialogue with Jesus.

Jesus loved him.  What follows comes out of love not judgment.  He enters the man’s life at the one place where he does not want God to be, the one place he does not want to surrender.

This is always where God seeks entrance into our lives.  For until we surrender where we least want to surrender, we are still in control and doing it our way.  We are still seeking to be saved by good works rather than grace.  We have to reach the place where we know we can do nothing, then God can do everything.






“By grace we are saved, not works!
Let go and let God!









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord help me to surrender what I most want to keep and accept Your love as enough…enough to make the journey joyful beyond measure.”

October 7, 2018 20th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 10:13-16  (The Message)
13 The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. 14 The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. 15 Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." 16 Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.

The Kingdom of God is ours as a gift - all we have to do is accept it,
openly, freely, confidently, joyfully, like a child.

It isn’t difficult for a child to accept a gift - it is a natural response, often with joy.  The child doesn’t think about deserving the gift; the child just accepts the gift.

A child also has a great capacity to trust.  When we trust we believe the offer of a gift, and  accept the gift without thought to why or how or why me?  The gift doesn’t depend on me.  It is freely given out of love; like a child I can accept  it, in love.  And live in confidence knowing no matter what, I am loved!












Prayer thought for the week:
“Lord, keep me mindful today and every day
that I am loved as a child and can trust in
your never ending grace.”