How to Have Faith

"I wish I had a faith like yours," a man told me one Sunday. "It makes me feel guilty that I don't."
"Don't ever wish you were someone else, especially not me," I answered. "I believe in Jesus, for sure, and I'm grateful that He went to the cross and rose from the dead for people like me.

"But I'm just a forgiven sinner. And every day I still do, say, and think sinful things, things that don't show love for God or love for others. I have to go back to God every single day, asking Him for forgiveness and for help in living like a Christian."

The man said that he understood all that. What he wanted was a stronger faith. He wanted to be more sure about Jesus.

With a clearer grasp of what the man was getting at, I then shared with him one of the most important truths I've learned on how to appropriate faith in Christ, as well as on how to enjoy a deepening relationship with Christ.

"Here's what I've found," I told him. "You have to live into faith. No amount of praying, reading, or thinking will get you there, as important as those things are. Faith in Christ is a gift from God. All you have to do is grab hold of it. And you can grab hold of it when you live your way into it."

As many who have read this blog or heard me preach know, I was an atheist when my wife and I first married. Marrying an atheist wasn't the smartest thing Ann could have done. She was a Lutheran Christian and it would be hard for her to build a strong marriage with a husband moving in a different direction from the one in which she moved.

But early in our marriage, mostly to get Ann off my back for sleeping in late on Sundays, I started going to worship with her at the Lutheran congregation of which she was a member.

I liked what I saw and experienced there. The members were real, down to earth people who dealt with real issues in their lives and also had real faults. What I learned from them, as I've told others, is that the church--any church--is a hospital for hypocrites, a place for sinners to come and be nudged toward a new way of life by the God we meet there.

I found that whatever tough times or personal flaws of character the members of Ann's home church dealt with in their lives, they kept coming back to Jesus. They kept seeking healing and the power for living morally better lives in the hospital for hypocrites, the church.

In worship, they confessed their sins, heard God's Word of forgiveness and new life through Christ, and tried to follow Jesus in their everyday lives.

In spite of myself, I found that I wanted to be like these people. I wanted to have faith in Jesus. But I really didn't know how to get it. (I was also too embarrassed to tell even my wife that this was what I wanted. I guess I didn't want to appear either weak or ignorant.)

Then, without knowing that this desire to have the faith was percolating in me, the pastor of Ann's church stopped by our apartment one evening. "Would the two of you take over as leaders of the junior high youth group?" he asked.

I had never admitted to the pastor that I was an atheist. But I was still on the roll of a Methodist church in which I'd been confirmed. So, I tried to use that as a an excuse to say, "You know," I told him, "I'm not even a Lutheran." He wasn't buying it. "We won't hold that against you," he said with a smile. Left out of defenses against taking on this task, I retreated, certain that Ann would put a stop to the whole thing. "Ann just told him, "We'll do it." "Well, if Ann wants to do it," I told him, "I guess I could try to help her."

This was a turning point in my road to faith. My wife and I were suddenly supposed to provide some spiritual leadership to young people. That entailed getting to know the kids and providing them with an environment in which it was safe for them to talk with God and interact with others in their own unique Christian way.

I started doing things that were needed for me to play my role with some sort of authenticity and effectiveness. I...

• showed up for the evening youth group gatherings
• hung out with the kids
• listened to what was happening in their lives
• helped plan activities
• listened to their Bible devotions
• tried to pray, though at first seemed a little weird to me.

Later, I began to more seriously do things that would help me understand what I was doing alongside my wife when we hung out with the youth. Among other things, I...

• attended worship regularly
• began to read the Bible (I couldn't believe I was doing this. But I was...and enjoying it!)
• started attending adult Sunday School class and adult Bible studies

Notice the progression: I moved from activity to appropriation of the faith; from living the Christian faith to actually believing it.

If you want Christ in your life or if you want to enjoy a deepening faith relationship with Christ, I recommend following this pattern. If you're not a Christian, find a church and, without expecting to be a leader (in fact, always expect and aspire to be a servant), volunteer to be involved in some ministry the congregation does. It might be...

• helping collect food for area needy
• corresponding with a child sponsored by the congregation through organizations like World Vision or Compassion International
• driving an elderly person or a family with young children to church or to doctor appointments
• joining in whenever the congregation does a community kindness outreach
• if you're a musician, offering to play your instrument (it could be brass or woodwind, strings or piano, guitar or bass, harmonica or bongo drums, whatever) for worship or for other gatherings 
• volunteering to go on a church mission trip, whether it's in town or to impoverished Third World locations
• helping the homeless

It could be a million other things like these.

But whatever it is, if you want faith or you want a deeper faith, find a worthy Christian ministry and get involved.

Live into your faith and the living Jesus will live in you in ways that bring you confidence, hope, and...a deeper faith.
As long as you haven't landed at a church filled with institutional gatekeepers or where your particular talents are wildly out of sync, I believe something incredible will happen to you. As you live as a believer in Jesus, God will turn you into a believer in Jesus.

If you're a member of a congregation, this will entail getting off your tail. It will mean getting in the game. Suddenly, I think you'll find, that a faith you once found boring or meaningless will come alive. Jesus will come alive to you.

I have seen this work in countless people. But how? The answer, I think, is that Christian faith is not about us. It's what God has done for us in Jesus. And it's about sharing forgiveness, hope, and new life that comes from God with others. Living into Christian faith--serving others in Christ's Name before we fully understand what that means--gets our minds off of ourselves, cultivating the belief that, no matter what, God is with us.

Freed from the slavery to ourselves, God's Spirit empowers us to trust in Christ and to get on with the business of living.

When that happens, the Spirit has an open will on which to imprint new ways of living and thinking.

Live into Christian faith and it will grow inside of you.

Only Sinners Need Apply

If you think a past sin disqualifies you from serving Christ, consider Peter. That's who Joe Stowell points to in this piece, which I recommend you read.

As Stowell points out, over a fire during a session of the kangaroo court that convicted Jesus of a capital crime, he reneged on his pledge of loyalty to Jesus and denied knowing Jesus three different times. Think of that: Peter denied any acquaintance with the One he had earlier confessed to be the Messiah, the Son (or the very image) of the Blessed, God.

Yet over another fire on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus called on Peter to affirm his belief in Jesus--three times--and Peter knew that, leaning on Christ's grace, he could, imperfections notwithstanding, be used for good by Christ.

Some people refuse to worship or get involved in a local church because they feel that they're not good enough. Pay heed to the wisdom of Virgil M., a member of the first congregation I served as a pastor:

"If there weren't any sinners in the church, it would be an empty place."

He's right!

If you're a sinner who can acknowledge your dependence on the mercy God gives to all with faith in Jesus Christ, God has great plans for you!

Learning what they are begins, as it did for Peter, with confession, repentance, and belief in Christ. As with Peter, that happens within the fellowship of Christ's very body on earth, the Church.

If you're an imperfect sinner, I invite you to be in worship this weekend with Christ's fellowship of recovering imperfect sinners, the Church. The Word of God you encounter there can erase the power of sin to keep you from becoming all that God made you to be.

When it comes to church membership, only sinners need apply.

And only sinners who trust that Christ is greater than their sin can be used by God. If you doubt it, just consider Peter.

The Dangers in Haiti May Not Be What You Think They Are

Here.

Christ Sets Us Free for Lives That Matter

"Thus the disciples are bidden...to think, not about their own way, their own sufferings, and their own reward, but of the goal of their labors, which is the salvation of the Church." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

Fear of God Overcomes Fear of Death...and Sets Us Free

"[Christians] must not fear men. Men can do them no harm, for the power of men ceases with the death of the body. But they must overcome the fear of death with the fear of God. The danger lies not in the judgment of men, but in the judgment of God, not in the death of the body, but in the eternal destruction of body and soul. Those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God, and those who have fear of God have ceased to be afraid of men. All preachers of the gospel will do well to recollect this saying daily." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

It's OK to Ask God Tough Questions

From Chosen: The Story of God and His People:

There is no question so out of line that you should not ask it. The people who wrote the Bible asked God some hard questions. They did not hold back out of fear that questions showed lack of faith or respect. They knew God wanted them to be honest with him and with themselves. There is no way you can grow in understanding or faith if you do not ask the questions that need asking.

At the time of the exile in the Old Testament or the time of the crucifixion [of Jesus] in the New Testament, it was hard to see God at work in the world. There are similar times in our own lives. But the Bible tells us he is present, working with us, even in those difficult times when it is hardest to believe this.

Matching the Walk with the Talk

From today's devotion by Julie Ackerman Link in Our Daily Bread: 

I’d rather see a Christian
Than to hear one merely talk;
I’d rather see his actions
And behold his daily walk. —Herrell

God, forgive me for all the ways in which I have failed to live a life consistent with the faith I profess. Help me to walk like a Christian and not just talk like one. In Jesus' Name. AMEN

You'll want to read the entire devotion and the passage on which it's based, Titus 3:1-8.

UPDATE: From Stanley Hauerwas' commentary on Matthew, chapter 3:

It is not what the Pharisees and Sadducees say that John [the Baptizer] and Jesus condemn; but rather it is the inconsistency between their lives and what they commend. (emphasis mine)

God Will NOT Abandon Those Who Want Him More Than Anything Else!

In this time when the Church itself often appears to be set against God, God's Word, and God's will, those who seek to live the life style of daily repentance and renewal to which Jesus Christ calls us, can take encouragement from Psalm 127:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
²
When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall.
³
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.
⁴
One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
⁵
For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.
⁶
Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
⁷
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek.
⁹
Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help.

Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
¹⁰
If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
¹¹
Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
¹²
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence.
¹³
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
¹⁴
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! 

Psalm 127 is the scriptural basis for this fantastic piece by Philip Yancey.

"I aint got no horror story..."

"...God kept me in my youth I give him all the glory
got my story with the flow,
and now I know
the blood of the lamb has saved my soul
and that's my testimony..." (great rap from Da T.R.U.T.H.)

Here's a "video" from his recording.


Here's a live version. It's great that he asked some audience members come up on stage.


What I love about this track is that it's simply this guy's testimony about his own relationship with Christ. So often, Christians who have always believed and never been doubters, addicts, thieves, or serial adulterers feel inferior because they don't have a dramatic story to tell about their conversion. These are people like Fred Meuser, who was the son of a pastor and served as president of the seminary from which I graduated. If you spent any time with Fred, you would see as all of us who were students at Trinity, that he believed fervently in Jesus. Jesus was the center of his life. And yet, Fred had experienced no drama in his life, no years of hollow rebellion, no dark nights of doubt. "I can't remember a time when I didn't believe in Jesus," he told a group of us who had just begun our seminary training in back in January, 1980.

It's OK for Christians to have always believed. In fact, it's more than OK. Ask any Christian who, before coming to faith in Christ, wandered far from God, and they'll tell you that they would gladly have skipped all that "drama" if in its place they could have known and followed Jesus sooner.

Who need earthbound "drama" when you can have the King of kings as your best friend?

How to Be What You Cannot Be

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Luke 14:25-33
When I was a boy, our family took a fishing vacation to Michigan with my grandparents. We had done this several times before, but the cabin my grandparents rented this particular year was in a different spot next to a different Michigan lake. My grandfather was pleased because, though he had never seen the cabins before, they were owned by an old friend of his and he felt that he had gotten a good deal. The brochures his friend sent to us pictured this as a great place that all of us would enjoy.

When we first pulled up to our cabin, we were all disappointed; the lake was a little more than a pathetic pond and the cabin itself was a dump. The disappointment continued when we went inside and searched in vain for a bathroom. My grandfather confronted his friend: “The brochure said that the cabins had bathing facilities." With a sweeping backhanded wave, his friend drew our attention to the water and said, “There’s a whole lake right there.”

A little truth in advertising might have spared a friendship and our family having what turned out to be a fairly rotten week. Of course, both of those outcomes could also have been avoided had my grandfather followed a simple old motto: Buyer, beware! A few questions, a little research, and he wouldn’t have even booked those cabins in the first place. One of the last things any of us want to do is make decisions that we later regret.

Our Gospel lesson from Luke for today finds Jesus engaging in “truth in advertising.” He wants people to know exactly what is involved in following Him. God’s grace, His forgiveness and favor, is a free gift; but to grasp hold of it costs us everything, our whole lives. Jesus is intent on our knowing that.

Turn once more, to the Celebrate inserts and find this morning’s Gospel lesson, Luke 14:25-33. Read along as I read just the first clause of verse 25: “Now large crowds were traveling with him.” Whenever references to crowds appear in Luke’s Gospel, Luke is talking about people who are interested in Jesus, maybe even hopeful that Jesus will do something for them, but who haven’t committed to following Jesus. Like many people today, they wanted just enough of Jesus to get from Him what they wanted, but not enough to change their personal priorities.

Read on with me, please: “and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.’” If Jesus were writing a promotional brochure, it’s hard to imagine Him doing a worse job of attracting people to Christian discipleship than in starting out like this! In Jesus’ hands, the brochure sent to us by my grandfather’s friend might have said, “The lake is really a pond. The cabins don’t have any bathrooms. And, oh, by the way, the fishing is lousy! Call to make your reservations now!”

What is Jesus saying here about being a disciple, then? In Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke every day, the word “hate” didn't imply hostility, but often had the meaning to love less, to hold one thing or person as having less important than another. In this verse, Jesus is telling us to love our families and our own lives less than we love Him, to love Him more than these things.

The so-called “family values” crowd of today will be appalled to know that Jesus doesn’t agree with them when they say, “Family is the most important thing.” Jesus says, “No. Your family is not the most important thing. I am.”

To modern narcissists who talk about needing to take care of themselves, look after themselves, or find themselves, Jesus says, “Finding yourself, being happy, is not the most important thing in the world. I am.”

Jesus refuses to be just another item on a religious buffet table. We can’t take one from Column Buddha, one from Column Mohammad, one from Column Joseph Smith, and, oh, a side of Jesus. Jesus is saying that He will either have first place in our lives, or He will have no place in our lives.

I like what one Lutheran wrote on Facebook this past week about the God Who comes to us in Jesus: "God does not offer us a choice. He comes, not hat in hand, but ready for battle. He breaks into the strong man’s house [that is, He breaks into our wills, held captive by sin from the moment of our conceptions] entering into contention against the heart, soul & mind of the [sinner]. The rational free will of [human beings] cannot believe or accept this & as such God always ...appears as the opposite, contrary to our expectations, confounding appeals to choice." Where does Jesus and His Word found in the Bible fall on your list priorities in life? Is Jesus everything or nothing to you?

 Read verse 28 now [Jesus is still speaking]: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” One scholar writing about these words, says: “The language of cross bearing has been corrupted by overuse. Bearing a cross has nothing to do with chronic illness, painful physical conditions, or trying family relationships. It is instead what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus Christ. Cross bearing requires deliberate sacrifice and exposure to risk and ridicule [I would add, even death] in order to follow Jesus. This commitment is not just a way of life, however. It is a commitment to a person. A disciple follows another person and learns a new way of life.” That person Who calls us to a different way of life is Jesus. Discipleship then, means breaking with the world’s values, radically turning from what is popular or politically correct to follow Jesus and the Word of God alone.

After this, Jesus tells two parables, each meant to urge those considering following Him to count the cost involved. In one, Jesus says that farmers, who in first century Judea where He lived, often built towers to give themselves early warning about marauding thieves or wild animals, would be crazy not to figure out whether they could afford the structures before starting to build them. Similarly, Jesus says, a king who didn’t know about the strength of an opposing army would be foolish to start a war with that army. Again, Jesus wants us to know that following Him isn’t easy.

Then, in verse 33, as if to totally turn off His original listeners (and us), Jesus says, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” I don’t think that Jesus means that we all have to sign the deeds to our houses over to the Church. It’s one thing to read the Scriptures for their literal meaning, which I do, and quite another to read them literalistically. If you read the Bible cover to cover, which I hope every Christian will do more than once in their lifetimes, you’ll read about believers in Israel’s God and followers of Jesus who had a lot and others who had very little. They all belonged to God. The only person I can recall who was told by Jesus to sell everything he owned, give it away, and follow Him, was a rich young man who, Jesus saw, valued his wealth more than anything. Jesus knew that unless this young man got rid of his wealth, it would get in the way of his following Jesus. Wealth in itself is not a bad thing. Nor are the things Jesus mentions in today's lesson: parents, siblings, spouses, children, or life itself. All are gifts from God. A literal, if not a literalistic reading of the Bible will tell us that if we value any of God’s gifts more than we do Jesus, we cannot be His disciples.

Now, if these words of Jesus for this morning are as daunting—almost frightening—to you as they are to me, as we close, I want you to consider some important good news.

Three times in our lesson, Jesus uses the phrase “cannot be my disciple.” Look, it's in verses 26, 27, and 33. In the original Greek, the same words are used in each place, giving the verses this literal meaning, “You don’t have the power or ability to be my disciples unless you put me in first place, take up the cross, and give me access to your whole life.”

Martin Luther said that if we want to understand passages of Scripture that confuse us, the best thing to do is to go elsewhere in Scripture to clear things up. It might interest you to know that Jesus uses that word for power or ability in another place in Luke’s Gospel. It comes on the heels of His encounter with that rich young man, after Jesus tells the disciples that it will be harder for a rich person—someone who is more tempted than others to rely on their money rather than on God—to enter God’s kingdom than it would be for a camel to be pushed through the eye of a needle. The disciples, who had thought that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, ask Jesus, “Then, who does have the power or ability to get into the kingdom?” Jesus says, literally, “The things that human beings cannot do [or don’t have the ability to do], God can do.”

Folks, I can’t imagine why anyone who gets to know anything about Jesus wouldn’t want to follow Him. Those who follow Jesus have all the gifts He came into our world to bring: forgiveness of sin, lives lived for good purposes, strength when we’re weak, and eternity with God. But unless Jesus rules over our lives without rival, these gifts cannot come to us.

The good news is that your ability to follow Jesus doesn’t depend on you. If you want Jesus to take first place in your life, all you need is to make yourself available to Him and ask Him to help you do just that. This is what Luther called “daily repentance and renewal.” Today, as you come to receive Jesus’ body and blood, I invite you to say a silent prayer:

“Jesus, help me to be what I most want to be, but what I cannot be without You. Make me your disciple. Help me to live in the covenant of Baptism You’ve made with me. Take control of my whole life.”

Now, if you’re anything like me, one nanosecond after you’ve prayed that prayer, you’ll start making your own plans, dreaming your own dreams, obsessing on your own thoughts, maybe even committing your own favorite sins. Just keep asking Jesus to take first place in your life.

But, just as the buyer should beware, the would-be follower of Jesus should be aware, too: Let Jesus in and He will start to make of you what cannot make of yourself. Jesus will make you His disciple.

How do we grow up in Christian faith?

"How do we grow beyond being just spiritual babes?" is a question asked in this wonderful piece from Our Daily Bread.

The answer given by Bill Crowder, the piece's author, is to regularly meditate on God's Word and to devote ourselves to prayer.

I would add one more element to that answer, something which is indispensable to the growth of our relationship with Christ and which is pure gift. It's regularly receiving the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion.

In Holy Communion, Christ both bodily and spiritually imparts Himself to us and in God's mysterious way, works within us, making us over into His image.

One must be careful, though. None of these three things--meditating on God's Word, prayer, or Holy Communion--are works that we human beings undertake.

A good way to picture them might be as roaring fires blazing on cold nights that we, racked by exposure to wind, snow, and ice, happen upon. We can walk away from the fires. Or, we can move toward them and allow them to warm us. We warm ourselves--literally come alive and grow in life--when we move to God's Word, prayer in Jesus' Name, and taking the body and blood of Christ when offered to us.

But we don't start those fires and we are incapable of stoking them. Growth in faith is not the equivalent of a weekend spent in retreat with a motivational guru, irrespective of the impression one might get from some preachers these days. You could do motivational self-talk until you were blue in the face, telling yourself, "I will be a better Christian," and you won't have faith, let alone a growing faith.

Christian growth is dependent on the same thing that faith in Christ is dependent on in the first place: The action of God in Christ and our surrender to Christ. Nothing less. 

Last week, in an ecumenical service at a local senior activities center here in Logan, I spoke of the importance of growing up in Christ. I haven't yet posted it, but hope to do so soon.

This is a really important topic. Most contemporary Christians are as some first-century Christians in addressed by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:1-17.

Growing up in faith is one of the greatest challenges for Christians and the Church today. The Church is bedeviled by an alarming degree of spiritual immaturity--causing many churchgoers to accept teaching and practice that run directly contrary to Scripture. And that, in turn, means that the Church ceases to play the role that it, and it alone, was called, commissioned, and commanded by Jesus Christ to play. If we don't play that role, millions of people risk losing out on the eternal salvation that comes through faith in Christ alone. But, if the love of Christ even flickers within us, that is just too horrible a prospect to consider!

Martin Luther and the 16th-century reformers led a movement that insisted that every Christian, lay and clergy, is part of the priesthood of all believers, each of us in direct relationship with Christ, each of us participants in Christ's Church, each of us commissioned to make disciples, and each of us given the privilege and the responsibility of being God's spokespeople in the world and humanity's advocates before God.

When we meditate on God's Word, when we devote ourselves to prayer in Jesus' Name (including the confession of sin, praying for others, and asking that God's kingdom will come to us and all the world), and when we regularly receive the body and blood of Jesus, we dance by the life-giving fire of the Holy Spirit, we let God call the tune and animate our every moment, the Holy Spirit brings growth and maturity to us, and God empowers us to play the role Christ has given to us.

By these means, God puts our wills in sync with God's will. By these means, we bear witness to the new life that can come to all through Christ. By these means, we grow as Christians, come what may. Come what may.

Put Off the Old, Put On the New

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Colossians 3:1-17
1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. ⁷These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
⁸But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. ⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

¹²As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. ¹³Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Chapter three of the New Testament book of Colossians represents something of a break from the first two chapters of this letter on which we’ve been focused for several weeks. In the first two chapters, Paul (with the help or, at least, the assent of the young pastor Timothy) makes an extensive confession of Who Jesus is: God in the flesh come to earth to die and rise and share His victory with believers. All who believe and are baptized are Christ’s resurrection people.

In fact, just to get you in the right frame of mind, I invite everybody to make two affirmations right now:

• “I have died and risen with Christ!”
• “We are Christ’s resurrection people!” 

No matter what the current state of your health, finances, family relationships, or anything else, those two affirmations ought to make you feel good! You belong to God just as much today as you will in heaven! You already have eternal life!

But it’s at this point that a question should arise in our minds: Now what? Jesus hasn’t come back yet nor have we died and come face to face with Jesus yet, so how do we live today?

This was an important question for Paul and Timothy to answer for the Colossian Christians because they wanted to correct the incorrect impressions of the Christian faith created by teachers who had come to the Colossian church and told the believers there that, on top of Jesus, they also needed to obey a string of regulations. (Some of their regulations seem to have been like Jewish ritual law, some of them like a first-century version of New Age mysticism.)

No, says the letter to the Colossians, we only need Christ to be saved from our sins and to have life with God!

So, does that mean that we Christians can do anything we want? There have been some Christians who have thought so. Some of you will remember the scandal that enveloped televangelist Jim Bakker some years ago. His downfall involved extensive sexual scandal, financial misdeeds, and prison time. To his credit, Bakker later wrote a book, the title of which contained his confession: I Was Wrong. But when Bakker went to prison, one denominational group said that they would be happy to ordain him, repentance or not. Their reason: Bakker's sin was of the flesh, but as a Christian, he was only responsible for spiritual sins. I have no idea what that means; but it shows the extent to which we human beings can go to exonerate ourselves of responsibility for our sins.

Often, we all can be like the character in one of George Bernard Shaw’s plays who says, “I love to sin. God loves to forgive. It really is an admirable system.”

But in fact, the follower of Jesus Christ is called to choose an entirely different orientation for his or her life and daily decision-making. We are to live as people who, through our Baptism, have died and risen with Christ, no longer oriented to the sin and death of this world, no longer taking our cues from what the New Testament calls life in the flesh, but living lives that reflect the reality of heaven and the new life that is ours through Jesus Christ.

Now look at verses 1-4 of our lesson on the special handout we distributed this morning. Read those verses silently, while I give a more literal translation from the Greek in which it was first written:

If therefore, you were co-raised with the Christ, seek the things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand [that is, the power hand] of God. Fix your mind on the above things, not on the things of this earth. For you died, and your resurrection life has been hidden [in this world] with Christ through God Himself. Whenever Christ, our life, becomes visible in this world [that is, when Jesus comes back to the world], then also the glory of God living in us will be seen by all. 

After these verses, we’re told that if our basic orientation has shifted from earth to heaven, there is something we must do. Verse 5 expresses it this way: “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly…”

This is what Martin Luther was talking about when he said that each day we need to come to God to repent for our sins and each day, through the forgiveness God gives through Christ, we’re to walk in the power of Christ’s new life. That's daily repentance and renewal.

Colossians then lists five interrelated, overlapping sexual sins that Christians need to put to death within themselves.

First there’s fornication. The Greek word is porneian, from which we get the English word "pornography." According to the most renowned theological dictionary of the New Testament Greek, in its entry on porneia or fornication, “the [New Testament] is characterised by an unconditional repudiation of all extra-marital and unnatural intercourse.”

The list of sins we are to put to death through repentance goes on to include uncleanness (which would include any dirty, demeaning, or sexist words about sexuality), passion (which, in this case, means the desire to use another person for one’s own desires with no regard for the other person), evil desire (which refers to improper sexual desires, such as the desire for someone else’s spouse), and greed (which is actually a covetousness that makes either sex or the object of sexual desires a god for the covetous person).

That list pretty much runs the gamut of all of humanity’s sexual sins and they all, Colossians says, are to be put to death by daily repentance. Failure to strive to put them to death, our lesson tells us, will cause even those who have been baptized to incur God’s wrath.

I know that this makes God seem like a terrible spoilsport. But, in fact, God wants us to respect the gift of sexuality He has given to us. We see God's elevated view of our sexuality throughout Scripture. Genesis, for example, says that God created us male and female. The Song of Solomon celebrates in beautiful imagery the sexual relationship of husband and wife. In the books of the prophets, God said that the relationship of spouses stood as a metaphor for His relationship with Israel: He was Israel’s husband, Israel was God’s wife, and God lamented Israel’s faithlessness in running after other gods. In the New Testament, the Church is called the Bride of Christ. God wills that Christians’ relationships with members of the opposite sex be as unadulterated as our relationship with Christ. Thank God that whenever we fail to live in purity, either sexually or in other ways, we can turn to Him in repentance and receive forgiveness.

Our lesson goes on to talk about sins of the mouth—literally, the original Greek says, sins that come from our “stomatos,” our stomach or our gut. We're told to get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language.

God takes His gift of speech to us seriously, too. This is why the Ten Commandments include the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” In The Small Catechism, Luther explains the commandment in this way: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.” Again, thank God for the gifts of repentance and forgiveness and fresh beginnings and new starts.

Verses 9 and 10 tell us: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”

In the first century church, those who were baptized took off their old clothes, were baptized, and then received new white robes in recognition of their having put off the old orientation to this world and put on the new orientation to Christ and to heaven. Since we have put on this new way of life of being “Christ’s resurrection people,” our call is to keep putting off all the vices that our lesson lists, so that our relationship with Christ can be kept clear and clean and pure.

Now, I wanted to be sure to talk about verses 12-17, even though they're not appointed for today, because it’s important to see that a relationship with Christ is not just about the things we put off or get rid of. This is, by the way, one of the deficiencies I see in how we usually commemorate the Lenten season. Everybody talks about what they're going to give up during Lent: "I'm going to give up chocolate." "I'm going to give up swearing." That's fine if the giving up leads us to a deeper relationship with Christ. But life with Christ is also about putting on new ways of living, joyful ways of living! Read verses 12 to 15 out loud with me:

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Just think how different the life of the world and of the Church at large would be if, in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we chose to put on those virtues every day of our lives?  That can happen as we daily surrender to Christ!

None of this is to say that Christians are to be milquetoasts. Verse 16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom…”

This passage bears directly on something coming up at Saint Matthew. You may have heard that there’s a vote on August 29. The issue at hand will be whether Saint Matthew should leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Some are worried about the vote because people have varying opinions. I’m not. As someone once said, “If two people agree on everything, at least one of them is irrelevant.”

Whether it’s on how the Church addresses social justice issues, what pastors and bishops should say on political matters, how much emphasis should be placed on evangelism and discipleship, how much heed we should give to Latin American and African Lutherans who are deeply disturbed by recent actions of Lutherans in North America and Europe, or what we teach our children about the gift of sexuality, if your opinions are rooted in the Word of God—chapter and verse—then, by all means, you need to share those views among yourselves.

When we let Christ’s word dwell richly in us, we will all have times when we have words that teach and even admonish one another and help us all to put off the ways of the world and to put on the things of Jesus Christ.

Finally, verse 17 says, “And, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” May this be our aim every single moment of every single day. Amen

Another Great Observation

This one from John H. Armstrong himself:

"I have...come to see that the primary mission of the church is not just to bring people into the visible church but to bring into the knowledge of Christ and his kingdom."

Worshiping by the Lives We Lead

These words come from the daily emailed inspiration sent out by my friend and colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot, Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois:

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

 A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Live Christ's life in your action.
Don't just go to worship.
Live the worship in everything you do.
Don't just partake of communion.
Be the Body of Christ in every action that you take.
Don't just observe the baptism.
Live the death and resurrection in your work, in your planning.
Don't just read the words.
Be the Word!
Let the Word become flesh and dwell among and in and through you.

    (Eric Law  "Sacred Acts, Holy Change"  p. 5)

Scripture: 
Colossians 3:16   New International Version
           
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach
and admonish one another with all wisdom,
and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Prayer:
Lord, help me to embody the Gospel,
not just think about or talk about it.  Amen
   
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"No one really wants to hear what we have to say about the love of Jesus until they’ve seen it in our lives."

LIVING out faith in Christ is important. But even then, Christians can expect to be misunderstood and reviled. No matter; because of the incredible grace of God and not by our deserving, we belong to Christ forever!

Jesus says:

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
¹³
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. ¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:11-16)

The "Centrifugal Force" of Christian Faith

"At the core of the Christian experience a centrifugal force pushes believers-sometimes successfully, sometimes not-beyond the temptation to tarry forever with their own problems or with preoccupation with Christ's benefits so that they may join God's work in convincing the world of his holy love." (Charles B. Cousar, Galatians (Interpretation: A Biblical Commentary of Teaching and Preaching, 1982)

To Make Disciples, the Church Shouldn't Dumb Down

John Schroeder hits it out of the park:

When we reduce the Christian message to such concise sound bites - we get a lot of Amens, but we do not get a lot of people whose lives are genuinely transformed - people who in depth know what it means to be a Christian on a day-to-day basis.

Read the whole thing.