Oct. 30, 2022, Reformation Sunday

John 8:31-36 (The Message)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

    33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants[a] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

    34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The Reformation is about change.  We don’t like change.  We even use the Bible to keep us from change.  God wants to make a new covenant with us.  We don’t want it.  We want the old covenant where we know what to expect and are more in charge.

God’s Word is an instrument of change and will, if we let it, change the way we look at things. It “is the source of all that is creative in the life of the Church.”  (Luther)  It sets us free to be new and different people.  People who put love at the center of life and let nothing keep it from doing its thing.

Today the Reformation calls us to dare be different.  To dare risk letting go of the way it was and seek to make a difference in the way it is.  To confess that we didn’t do everything right, nor did we know with certainty what God’s will was for us. To change the way we look at the world, and everyone in it.

Listen carefully to these words from Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and theologian of the 20th century.  They call us to make the Reformation real for our day.

   

"You are Christian only...so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as you emphasize the need of conversion both for yourself and for the world, ...so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come.  You are Christian only when you believe you have a
role to play in the realization of this new Kingdom, and when you urge everyone you meet with holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled."

Henri Nouwen, "Circles of Love”

Oct. 23, 2022, 20th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 18:9-14  (The Message)

9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’

13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”

14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

This parable seems to be simple, black or white, right or wrong.

But it isn’t.  And we have to see ourselves in both; take the good with the bad.

For there is good and bad in both, and in us.

The pharisee is everything we might wish to be in terms of religious commitment and dedication.  But it carries him to self righteousness, the last thing we want to be.  

The Tax Collector  is everything we don’t want to be in terms of life style yet his prayer of the heart is the best he or we can pray.

Both need God’s grace; neither deserve it;  both need it.  One appreciates it.  The other is too set on his own goodness to see his need of it.  Let’s be like the tax collector!  For to live in God’s grace is to never stop praying his prayer even as I live with the zeal of the pharisee - knowing that a God of grace will “never let me down, never let me go, nor never let me off.”

"Grace isn’t a gift for getting it         

right but for getting it wrong!"   

Richard Rohr

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to be as humble as the tax man and as zealous as the Pharisee in the living out of your love and grace.”  Amen

Oct.16, 2022, 19th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 18:1-8  (The Message) 

18 1-3 Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’

4-5 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”

6-8 Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”

This parable is not about God and how God answers prayer.  It is about us and how we pray.  It is not about God and what God will do for us if we beg him long and hard enough;  it is about us and what we can do to not lose heart, when all around us goes smash.

We can pray!  And keep on praying until something good happens!  And it will!

It may not be a healing: it may be the strength and faith to match the burden.

It may not be a solution to a problem, solving it for us; it may be the strength, insight and determination to solve the problem ourselves.

It may not be a bolt of lighting, like Martin Luther; but it may be a gradual awareness of a pull and tug towards God’s will for our lives which will not stop until we go with it.

It takes persistent faith to pray persistently .  Faith which will not give up, give in, or throw in the towel no matter how impossible things seem to be.  

The faith which is able to hang in there, persisting in God’s goodness, justice, fairness, love, mercy and kindness even when there seems to be no evidence that God even exists!

As it was for Elie Wiesel and many other Jews in Nazi Germany.  He writes:

“There were many periods in our past when we had every right in the world to turn to God and say, ‘Enough.  Since You seem to approve of all these persecutions, all these outrages, have it Your way: let Your world go on without Jews. Either You are our partner in history, or You are not.  If you are, do Your share; if You are not, we consider ourselves free of past commitments.  Since You choose to break the Covenant, so be it.”

“And yet, and yet...We went on believing, hoping, invoking His name...We did not give up on Him...For this is the essence of being Jewish; never to give up--never to yield to despair.”  A Jew Today, p. 164

This is also the essence of being a Christian!  To never give up no matter how bad it gets.  To persistently confess with the unknown person in a cellar in Cologne during the bombing of WW II: 

“I believe in the Sun even             

when it is not shining;

I believe in love even 

when I feel it not,

I believe in God even 

when He is silent.”  

Unknown

Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, I believe, help me to never not believe in Your

love, or despair over what seems too much to endure.”

Oct. 9, 2022, 18th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 17:11-19  (The Message)

It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Taking a good look at them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

They went, and while still on their way, became clean. One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus’ feet, so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus said, “Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?” Then he said to him, “Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”

Life tastes better when we are thankful.  It takes the bitterness out of life.

The one who returned was not only healed; he was also made thankful.

He was made whole.  Jesus healing touched not only his body but also his heart.

He knew he didn’t deserve what he was given.  It was a gift.  And the only response was to turn back and give thanks.  His heart was healed as well as his body.  He felt good…happy…whole again.  That is the way it it is with  God’s healing grace.  It does more than we ask for and it never fails to make a difference in our lives.  Even if the difference is facing our illness with hope in our hearts because God is with us and no matter what happens, we cannot loose!

So turn back and thank God. Be happy for God’s healing grace where ever and however you have experienced it in your life.

 

"The best and most beautiful 

things in the world cannot be 

seen or even touched.  

They must be felt with the heart."  

Helen Keller

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to see that life and all that is precious in it is first of all a gift which warms the heart before it can be said to be a right, which enrages the mind.  Keep me thankful for the giftedness of life and Your healing grace.  A gift indeed!”

Oct. 2, 2022,17th Sunday After Pentecost

 Luke 17:7-10  (The Message)

7-10 “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”

When we have done every thing we can do we have only done our duty, and even then we are not worthy to be called children of God.  We are never good enough to be worthy of that!  For it is ALWAYS by grace that we are saved…become worthy of being called children of God!

It is our duty to do what God calls us to do - to forgive as we have been forgiven!  Too love as we have been loved.  To be a blessing as we have been blessed.  And we are reminded today that we are also to be a servant, not a celebrity!  

That is, to live by grace, and not keep score.  When we have done everything expected of us, and maybe even more, we are only doing what a servant is called to do - and the thanks we receive is in the doing.  No big deal.  No praise to inflate our ego.  Just a job well done, and something of God’s grace at work through us.  What an awesome joy that is!  The joy of being a servant!

“He (Jesus) sat down and  

summoned the Twelve. 

‘So you want first place? 

Then take the last place. 

Be the servant of all.’”

Mark 9:35

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me be a servant who isn’t caught up in keeping score or getting credit.”