Lenten Devotion – Day 28

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Today’s Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-21

“For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Cor. 4:20-21)

“Religion requires perfection, but the kingdom values excellence. If we strive for perfection and don’t allow ourselves room to be wrong, we will never grow. Perfection is an unattainable destination, but excellence is an exciting journey. It’s a journey in which we allow the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, and mentor us. If you strive to never make a mistake, you will make the biggest one by never stepping out in faith.” ― Bob Hazlett, The Roar: God's Sound In A Raging World

  Paul is speaking to the Corinthians as a father. He appears to speak with a degree of severity, but his main motive is to bring them back to the right path, as a father speaking to a foolish son who has gone astray. Paul wants to admonish his beloved children not to make them ashamed and guilty. He does not wish to humiliate them, only see that they are properly instructed in Christian principles. They are a young congregation and they have learned from Paul, while Paul was with them and like all of us we often forget our early lessons.

  As I was growing up, I had many people in the church, school, college and seminary who gave me guidance, counsel and served as mentors. I did not always appreciate their feedback about my progress, but over time I came to realize they were correct and their remarks were loving expressions toward me. I came to realize, if they did not love and care for me they would have never bothered to take the time to correct me. I have noticed over the past 30 years ago or so, many are offended when others attempt to provide guidance and discipline to correct improper behaviors. There is a tendency to want to blame the person who gives the guidance as the source of the problem.

  I recently read an article about how involvement and regular attendance at church worship and events can help us in many ways, not just spiritual. This did not come as a surprise to me, I knew from experience this was true. Now, some research had been conducted to confirm it. Our involvement in a faith community provides us regardless of age, loving mentors, guides, and counselors. People who care for us, motivate us, and support us in the difficult and often painful moments of our lives. When we go astray they guide us back, when we do things which may harm us they show us the way to health and wholeness and when we don’t know the way ahead they help us sort out the choices before us.

  Involvement in a faith community, points us toward traveling the road leading to the kingdom of God. Within the life of the church many have been able to achieve educations, they never thought possible; careers which they thought were beyond their reach; and helped care for their families in ways thought beyond our grasp. When a faith community leads us to the kingdom of God, it frequently leads us in making life enhancing decisions and choices about our physical, mental, emotional, relational, and economic stability as well as our life as spiritual beings within God’s creation.

Lenten Devotional – Maundy Thursday

Q. 96. What is the Lord’s Supper?

A. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor. 11:26)

"The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father's house." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 66.

  The simple act of sitting down around a table is something a lot of people don't find particularly important - but for Christians, the shared supper is a vital aspect of spiritual life. The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that “their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” (Luke 23:31)

  This meal is provided, not because we have earned the right to eat and drink with Jesus, but simply as an act of divine love. For Presbyterians this divinely initiated meal is one of two sacraments of the church, instituted by God and commended by Christ. We are following in the tradition of the early church when we affirm three primal material elements of life - water, bread and wine - as the primary symbols of offering life to God. Being washed with the water of baptism, we receive new life in Christ. In eating the bread and drinking the cup offered by God, our memory of the promises are made present by the Holy Spirit.

  “The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of continuous growth, nourishment and new life. In our Reformed tradition participation in this sacrament should follow the sacrament of baptism. Just as humans need food and drink for nurture and sustenance, Calvin wrote that the Holy Meal is God's way of providing for our maintenance during the whole course of our lives after we have been received into God's family. Both sacraments provide a visible, in fact a graphic, way of presenting God's promises.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Fellowship of the Table” Life Together, p. 66-69

Lenten Devotional – Day 35

Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?

A. The sacraments of the New Testament are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread,” (1 Cor. 11:23)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt. 28:19)

Tradition becomes the initial and fundamental source of Christian theology – not in competition with Scripture, but as Scripture’s spiritual context. . . . The church, as Eucharistic community, existed before the New Testament books were written, and these books were themselves composed in and for concrete local churches. Their written text is meant to be read and understood by baptized, committed people gathered in the name of the lord. Theology, therefore, is not simply a science, using Scripture as initial data; it also presupposes living in communion with God and people, in Christ and in the Spirit, within the community of the church. — John Meyendorff, “Theology in an Eastern Orthodox Perspective”

  To better understand the Westminster Short Catechism it is often helpful to look to the other confessions to view their perspective on the question being asked. The Scots Confession speaks to the is question, “As the fathers under the Law, besides the reality of the sacrifices, had two chief sacraments, that is, circumcision and the passover, and those who rejected these were not reckoned among God’s people; so do we acknowledge and confess that now in the time of the gospel we have two chief sacraments, which alone were instituted by the Lord Jesus and commanded to be used by all who will be counted members of his body, that is, Baptism and the Supper or Table of the Lord Jesus, also called the Communion of His Body and Blood. These sacraments, both of the Old Testament and of the New, were instituted by God not only to make a visible distinction between his people and those who were without the Covenant, but also to exercise the faith of his children and, by participation of these sacraments, to seal in their hearts the assurance of his promise, and of that most blessed conjunction, union, and society, which the chosen have with their Head, Christ Jesus.” (The Scots Confession, 3.21)

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks to the importance of the sacraments within the life of the church-community, “the body of Christ takes on visible form not only in the preaching of the word but also in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both of which emanate from the true humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. In both, Christ encounters us bodily and makes us participants in the community of his body. Both sacraments must be accompanied by the proclamation of the Word. In baptism as well as in the Lord’s Supper the content of that proclamation is the death of Christ for us (Rom. 6:3ff.; 1 Cor. 11:26). The gift we receive in both sacraments is the body of Christ. In baptism we are made members of Christ’s body. In the Lord’s Supper we receive the gift of bodily community with the body of the Lord, and through it bodily community with the members of this body. In receiving the gifts of Christ’s body, we become, thereby, one body with him. Neither the gift of baptism nor the gift of the Lord’s Supper is fully understood if we interpret them only in terms of the forgiveness of sin. The gift of the body conferred in the sacraments presents us with the Lord in bodily form dwelling in his church-community. Forgiveness of sin is indeed a part of this gift of the body of Christ as church-community… Baptism and the Lord’s Supper belong solely to the community of the body of Christ. Whereas the word of proclamation is addressed to believers and unbelievers alike, the sacraments have been given solely to the church-community. The Christian community is thus essentially the community gathered to celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and only then is it the community gathered in hear the word proclaimed.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, First Fortress Press paperback edition, 2003, pp. 228-29.

Lenten Devotional – Day 26

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” (1 Cor. 15:42-43)

Please God, don't let me be behind Mother Teresa at Judgment Day. - T-shirt seen at Chautauqua Institution

  God in Jesus Christ assures us that the final victory will be God’s and the establishment of God’s Kingdom into eternity will also include judgment. The Westminster Confession indicates that “God hath appointed a day, wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father.” All will be judged to “appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deed; and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.” The comfort of the disciple of Christ is the recognition that judgment will be carried out by Jesus Christ who is also our savior.

  20^th Century theologian Karl Barth comments on this comfort by saying: “This future comforts the church in all affliction and persecution because it knows the Judge… The Judge is one who was judged for us. Through him we have been acquitted and from him we can now look forward to joy and glory.” - Karl Barth, The Heidelberg Catechism for Today, Richmond, John Knox Press, 1964, p. 82.

  “Jesus said, ‘God is not the God of the dead but of the living’” (Luke 20:38). His meaning was that those who love and are loved by God are not allowed to cease to exist, because they are God’s treasures. He delights in them and intends to hold onto them. He has even prepared for them an individualized eternal work in his vast universe.”...

  “On the day he (Jesus) died, he covenanted with another man being killed along with him to meet that very day in a place he called paradise. This term carries the suggestion of a lovely gardenlike area.”

  “Anyone who realizes that reality is God’s, and has seen a little bit of what God has already done, will understand that such a “Paradise” would be no problem at all. And there God will preserve every one of his treasured friends in the wholeness of their personal existence precisely because he treasures them in that form. Could he enjoy their fellowship, could they serve him, if they were “dead”?” - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 84-85

Lenten Devotional – Day 21

Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?

A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which, in this life, do either accompany or flow from them.

“He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, NRSV)

“In printers' language to "justify" means to set type in such a way that all full lines are of equal length and are flush both left and right; in other words to put the printed lines in the right relationship with the page they're printed on and with each other. The religious sense of the word is very close to that. Being justified means being brought into right relation.” - Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking (Harper & Row, 1973), 48.

  One day an individual asked a church elder, if he was a Christian. He replied, “In spots.” All of us find ourselves faced with making a similar confession. God graciously came to us in Jesus Christ, called us, gave us faith, and the gift of grace, yet we often find our faith “spotty.” We have moments of steadfast faithfulness and others where we come up short and sometimes very short of the glory of God.

  One of the mistakes many of us make is that we keep trying to have a better past. Life does not work that way. Your past is never going to improve, but your future can improve if you turn loose of the past. The greatest battle in our lives, however, is not with these forces that lie beyond our control, as frightening as they may be. Our greatest battle is with ourselves. Most of our defeats come because we have not learned to fight effectively against the enemy within.

  Remember the scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan? When Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) is dying, he says to Private Ryan to make it worth it. Earlier, he had said, "He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb."
  When the old Ryan stands before the grave of Miller, he asks his wife if he was a good man. "Tell me I have led a good life," he says.
  His wife responds: "What?"
  "Tell me I'm a good man."
  "You are," she says. Ryan, even in his old age, was not sure he had lived a life of meaning, a life that meant something - especially in light of the fact that someone had died so that he might live.

  Many of us were raised with the idea that in order to please God we have to try to be good and hope at the end our good stuff outweighs the bad. Sound familiar? Trouble is, we're never really sure how "good" good really is. Is God just sitting and watching from the heavens waiting to give us a big whack in the back of the head at the end? How do I know God is pleased with me?

Lenten Devotional – Ash Wednesday

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

Honor and glory are indeed due to God and to Him alone, but He will accept neither of them if they be not preserved in the honey of love. Love is sufficient of itself; it pleases by itself and on its own account. Love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit. It is its own fruit, its own enjoyment. - Bernard of Clairvaux

  A person walks up to an information counter and asks the clerk, “What’s the meaning of life?”  This joke has appeared in many forms over the years. The comic line is that no clerk could possibly give an adequate response to such an impossible question. We would all find ourselves scratching our heads attempting to give a suitable answer. However, the very first question asked in the Westminster Shorter Catechism comes close to posing a similar question, what is the “chief end” of humanity? In other words, what were we chiefly given to do here upon this earth? What is the meaning of life?

  To glorify and enjoy God – what a compelling and beautiful answer to our chief end in life. For a while, we rest quiet and in awe of the statement and then we discover ourselves saying, “Wait a minute – how? How can human beings glorify and enjoy God?”

  Something, similar is at work in the opening line of the Scots Confession, which uses four verbs to describe our relationship to God. “We confess and acknowledge one God alone, to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must worship, and in whom alone we put our trust.” (Scots 3.01) The Westminster Shorter Catechism makes the same point when it describes “the chief end of man” as “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (7.001). Unfortunately, there is little in our society that prepares us to find joy in service or subordination. When we do manage to take pleasure in the glory of another, more often than not it is a misplaced fascination with the rich and famous, film stars and sports heroes. The Reformers remind us that only God is worthy of such glorification.