Blessings, Saints and Grace

“What is unique about a moment that has the power to bless us and the potential to feed us is not so much in the power of the moment itself, but rather the quality of the presence we bring to that moment. Our presence can change an ordinary, unnoticed moment into a moment of beauty that can feed the soul. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary.” - Macrina Wiederkehr

  This past week Karen and I traveled to Logan, WV to attend a funeral at the First Presbyterian Church where I served as pastor from 2002-2008. A good friend and church member Lillian Clegg had passed away the prior Friday. Lillian had meant a great deal to me and Karen during our time in Logan and in the years after.

  Her husband, Bill who passed away last May were two wonderful members within the life of the church. Both served with dedication and joy in many aspects of the church's life, giving of themselves in the music ministry of the church, serving in the operation of the Food Pantry, and regular members of the Bible Builders Sunday School class for decades. I have only listed a few of the many ways they contributed to building up the common ministry of the First Presbyterian Church. Their service and influence was far and wide both in the church and community. When I was new to the congregation, Lil was one of a few persons within the congregation I could call when I had questions about the church's practices and customs in years past and getting to know the people within the church.

  Our trip to Logan was both a mixture of sadness and joy. We last had the chance to sit down and talk to Bill and Lil three years ago during our last visit to Logan and it was now a sad trip, because we both realized we would no longer have the opportunity to sit down and speak to them again in this life.

  There was also joy because we had the chance to once again renew friendships among many other members of the church we loved as we together served within Christ's church. Karen and I both loved and respected these individuals at the church and we missed them greatly. If not for health issues I had which made living in southern WV impossible I had intended to serve there until retirement.

  Our trip to Logan reminded me of the many blessings I have been given in my life. Particularly, the blessings of people God has introduced me to along my spiritual journey. In the life of each congregation I have served I have been blessed by the witness and service of those who lived out their lives in Christ, both locally, in the presbytery, synod and beyond and within their communities. Their witness as disciples of Christ taught me lessons in grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, hope and faith. They enabled me to reflect upon the important questions and aspects of discipleship while widening and deepening my faith and spiritual formation. They also provided me countless sermon stories and illustrations during the past 30+ years.

  When I was younger I had hoped that God would allow me the opportunity to serve a single congregation for 30+ years, but I discovered God had different plans. The plan to learn about God's people and their struggles, their sins, their hopes, their transformations, and how amazing God's grace truly is. God seemed to say to me, “Lee, you need to hit the road, I have got some wonderful people for you to meet” and what a wonderful trip it has been and continues to be. God was abundantly blessed me through all the wonderful disciples of Christ I have been privileged to get to call my friends. Friends who have left me with wonderful memories, amazing stories, lasting impressions on how to lead a life of faithfulness, steadfast love and grace.

  Grace refers to all those unearned blessings that help make us who we are. As a person who has been abundantly blessed I recognize that I am called to show gratitude and be a blessing to others. I, both strive and struggle with how to bless others and share the wonderful experience of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. How to share with them that life which can become deeply enriching to their lives by being surrounded by others within the community of faith. I see each day individuals who are attempting to find blessing in all the wrong places and in things in which only separate us from the love of God. My greatest hope and prayer is they will discover the opportunity to experience the same great blessings I have experienced. My joy and blessings have came to me through the honor of knowing a few of God's saints, like, Bill and Lil, Earl and Suzanne, Jack, Radine, Bea, Fazal and many others, each day they continue to bless me and one day our joy will be complete when we are reunited in the life to come.

  “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward

Lenten Devotion – Day 31

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Today’s Scripture: Acts 19:1-10

“He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” (Acts 19:8-9)

“Jesus is not saying, “Make sure you pray a prayer of repentance, start going to church, and wait for Me to come back.” He is saying, “You can live a radically different life because there’s a new world order that just broke in, so stop walking in the direction you’re going, turn 180 degrees, and walk toward Me and life in the kingdom of God.” - Halter, Hugh. Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, David C. Cook, p. 53.

  When Luke wrote his gospel and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the reader of both will observe that Luke had clear objectives in writing each. First, in the Luke’s gospel, Luke gives witness to the work and person of Jesus Christ, as the Son of the Living God. Then, after Jesus’ ascension, Luke begins to tell us of the work of the early church in Acts, but not just the story of the church, but he gives witness to the work and person of the Holy Spirit to proclaim, spread and invite others to enter and receive the kingdom of God. Luke begins by stating, “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2) Luke tells us how the Holy Spirit worked through the early church and apostles to change and transform their world and bring others into the kingdom of God.

  The original apostles, as well as Paul, did not use the term kingdom of God as often as Jesus used it, but not because it was not important to their proclamation of the good news. Luke in his gospel, had Jesus using the phrase, “kingdom of God,” thirty-one times, then in Acts, the phrase is used on six occasions. They did understand and believe in the kingdom of God Jesus taught them, for the apostles and the early church they understood that they were currently living in the kingdom as their present and current reality. They would speak of the kingdom coming to completion at the end times when Jesus returned, but the kingdom currently existed, in part within the community, the body of Christ, but it did not end with the church, they proclaimed it and called to others to follow the “Way” within the context of their known world.

  At the beginning of Acts, Luke has Jesus speaking to the apostles about the kingdom of God before his ascension (1:3) Then, Paul and Phillip used phrases, such as, “proclaiming the good news about….” (the kingdom of God) (8:12); “must enter….” (14:22); “argued persuasively about…” (19:8); “testifying to the ….” (28:33); “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ,” (28:31)

  The use of the phrase, “kingdom of God,” may not be as numerous as Jesus, but they were not deserting Jesus’ concern for the kingdom of God. They were simply expressing the same idea in their own way and spoke of the essential elements that were experienced when one lived in the kingdom. They expressed the kingdom as, God graciously giving salvation as a free gift of grace (extending His kingdom) to anyone who will receive it (enter the kingdom) through His Son Jesus Christ, and this salvation begins now (the kingdom is in the midst of you) and will be completed in the future (the kingdom will come like a thief in the night). As Paul put it, “the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17).

Lenten Devotion – Day 24

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Today’s Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matt. 20:15-16)

The Kingdom is about the common good the whole of society not just us, first. This most fundamental teaching of faith flies right in the face of all the selfish personal and political ethics that put myself always before all others: my concerns first, my rights first, my freedoms first, my interest first, my tribe first, and even my country first - ahead of everybody else. Self-concern is the personal and political ethic that dominates our world today, but the kingdom of God says that our neighbor’s concerns, rights, interests, freedoms, and well-being are as important as our own. - Jim Wallis, “On God’s Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good”, Brazon Press, 2013, p. 6.

  It's true sometimes. Sometimes we are in charge, it's our responsibility, and the buck stops squarely in front of us. And although we may complain and grumble about those times, most of us kind of like knowing that we are in control of what is going on and what is coming up next. In fact, we like it so much that we tend to try to take over the reins of control when we are clearly no longer qualified to be running the show. We are constantly tempted to "play God." We quickly forget that the most basic kindergarten lesson in spirituality is this: "God is God ... and we are not."

  In the parable told in today’s text, Jesus provides an ironic glance at the difference between God's designs and human desires by engaging us in his story, which many find objectionable. The landowner's generosity is bestowed on these last-hired laborers for a reason known only to him. He does not explain or apologize for the accounting system that lavishes the same wage on everyone hired, regardless of the amount of time logged on the job. The only response the landowner has to the disgruntled first-hired workers is "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?"

  Is God not allowed to do what God chooses with what belongs to God? God is God, and we are not. Jesus understood the value of all people regardless of what the culture thought of them. He gave all people value. Even the last one to arrive at the table is given a full-course meal.

  In one penetrating parable, Jesus leaves us with a lot to think about. We know that we can't work our way into heaven. We can never do enough good stuff in this life to earn everlasting retirement, whether we start our Christian service at six in the morning or at five in the evening. Our IRA’s (Individual Righteousness Accounts) will simply never be fat enough to fully fund a future in eternal kingdom of God.

  We also learn that we are all in need of God's grace and forgiveness, every single one of us. In the kingdom economy, we can be grateful that God chooses to be generous. We learn, too, that in God's service, we do not all have the same work to do. Some of us can teach, others sing, others cook, others organize, others visit the sick, others evangelize, others serve the poor, and others care for children, while others repair the church roof. Like, the workers in the vineyard, we have different tasks to perform, with different time frames, energy levels and abilities.

  But the really cool thing is the equal nature of the rewards. No matter how menial or glorious the task, we all get paid the same. In God's eyes, you see, we are all equal. At the end of the day, we are all paid the same and are paid what is right.

  New Testament professor Darrell Doughty puts it this way: "In the kingdom of God all people are already equal - because all people are loved by God." In the kingdom, every person should receive "what is right" - regardless of the work they do. In the kingdom, all people are equal, rich or poor, wealthy or destitute, righteous or sinners, and powerful or powerless. All people are equal because all people are loved by God. And since this is true in the kingdom, it should also be true in the life of the church, whether we are leaders or helpers, teachers or students, administrators or nursery attendants.

Lenten Devotion – Day Five

Monday, February 23, 2015

Today’s Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17

“Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." (John 3:3)

What "born again" in the gospel means, however, is literally to begin all over again, to be given a second birth, a second chance. The one who is born again doesn't all of a sudden get turned into a super-Christian. To be born again is to enter afresh into the process of spiritual growth. It is to wipe the slate clean. It is to cancel your old mortgage and start again. In other words, you don't have to be always what you have now become. Such an offer is too good to be true for many, confusing for most, but for those who seek to be other than what they are now, who want to be more than the mere accumulation and sum total of their experiences, the invitation, "You must be born again," is an offer you cannot afford to refuse. — Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1996), 188.

  When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said that no one could help being impressed with the signs and wonders that Jesus did. Jesus’ answer was that it was not the signs and the wonders that were really important; the important thing was whether a person’s inner life had experienced a new birth. In verse 3:3, Jesus tells us new birth is necessary to see the Kingdom of God and later in verse 5, he says that new birth is necessary to entering the Kingdom.

  When Jesus said that a man must be born anew or born again or born from above, depending upon the translation you use. Nicodemus misunderstood Jesus’ description. Nicodemus took Jesus too literally. The Greek word used here is challenging to translate into English. In English, it comes across to our understanding in different ways, meaning; from the beginning, anew, a complete radical change or it can mean again, or the sense, for the second time or from above, therefore from God. To undergo a radical change, like a new birth. It was based not on human achievement, but exclusively comes from the grace and power of God alone.

  This being born anew or above runs throughout the New Testament. Peter speak of being born anew by God’s great mercy “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3) and later he again talks about being born anew not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, “You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23)

  In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that new birth comes from the Holy Spirit, and everlasting life comes through belief in God's only Son. Nicodemus, however, was so focused on the "How to" questions that he was confused by Jesus' answer to him. Nicodemus wanted to line up proofs and arguments in order to arrive at a clear conclusion and thereby become a believer. Nicodemus assumed that this was how faith is born and sustained. Consequently, Jesus' rebirth story was completely incomprehensible to Nicodemus.

Lenten Devotional – Palm Sunday

Q. 92. What is a sacrament?

A. A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

“While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:26-28)

The congregation is the basic locale for telling and celebrating the Christian story. Here is the place where, in season and out, the Word is preached and the sacraments administered, and by the grace of God, rightly so. For all its manifest flaws, this assembly is the basic bearer of the promises of God to this people of God. — Gabriel Fackre, “The Congregation and the Unity of the Church”

  The terms “sign” and “seal” have been important in Reformed thought to indicate the nature of what occurs in Christian baptism and the Lord’s Supper. A sacrament is, as Augustine put it, an “outward sign of an inward grace.” It is an outward expression of a spiritual reality. Sacraments are called a “means of grace,” an “instrument” God uses to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the sacraments God seals believers in redemption, God renews our identity as God marks us for service. But participation is a corporate act rather than an act between an individual and God.

  God’s promise of grace precedes any human decision to be baptized. For adults as well as children, baptism is a sign of grace and a means of grace. Baptism is a sign that God’s grace is being received. The outward action of baptism is an act of God, given by God.

  For John Calvin, God has ordained the Lord’s Supper, as a sacrament, as a means by which Jesus Christ with the benefits of Christ’s death are imparted to those who receive the Supper in faith. The sacrament is given for your, so you can remember Jesus Christ who gave his body for your and shed his blood for you.

  In 1977 Oscar Romero, a quiet, traditional cleric, was consecrated Archbishop of San Salvador. Deemed a safe bet by government authorities, his installation service was even used as an excuse for more government- sanctioned murders. The killings radicalized Romero, prompting him to agree with the sentiment circulated by the priests aligned with the poor people of the country: The church is where it always should have been: with the people, surrounded by wolves.

  The martyrdom of a rural priest furthered Romero's radicalism. Against official policies Romero began to support new liturgies and worship services more relevant to the poor and oppressed. He called for the church to become the voice of those whose voices were stopped up. Romero became more and more of a thorn in the government's side.

Lenten Devotional – Day 32

Q. 86. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

“But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.” (Heb. 10:39)

Faith comes not from intellectual conviction, but from an open, trusting "yes" to God’s invitation to loving unity. Of course, without intellectual conviction, the mind will not instruct the will to say yes. Even so, faith opens one to realms that the mind cannot know. - Nuggets from the Stream of Life from "Caring for the Self, Caring for the Soul," by Philip St. Romain.

  Practice is the best evidence of faith. Because Abraham had faith in God, he left his own country. Because Moses had faith in God, he refused to stay in the luxury of Pharaoh's palace, choosing instead to suffer with God's people (Hebrews 11:25-26). Because others had faith in God, they were stoned, sawn in two, executed by the sword, mocked and tortured, thrown in prison, and forced to wander about in animal skins, poverty and torment (Hebrews 11:32-38). — Gerald R. McDermott, Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 221.

  A businessman was asked to tell what his personal faith meant to him. He reached back to his boyhood experience. He recalled walking with his father one day, having to reach up to hold on to his hand. After a while he said, "I can't hold on any longer, and you'll have to hold on to me for a while." And he remembered the moment when he felt his father's hand take over. That, he said, was the way it felt to him to have faith in God. And that was precisely an act of grace.

  It is important that Christians not let grace become a universal principle or ideology. It is the grace of God of which the Bible speaks. Not the grace of some abstract principle of justice or love or acceptance. As God's grace, and not some principle of grace, God is the one who determines what it will be and where it will go. "God ... called us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to his own purpose and grace" (2 Tim. 1:9 NRSV). "But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift" (Eph.4:7 NRSV).

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 22

Q. 33. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, where he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” (Rom. 5:1-2)

“It was not the justification of sin, but the justification of the sinner that drove Luther from the cloister back into the world. The grace he had received was costly grace. It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of a self-chosen way and forgiveness of all his sins. And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing him from good works, it meant that he must take the call to the discipleship more seriously than ever before. It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace. That was the secret of the gospel of the Reformation — the justification of the sinner.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship

  The life of discipleship involves the application of a threefold understanding of our spiritual formation through justification, adoption and sanctification. These three are the focus of the next four questions of the Shorter Catechism. They all belong together, if we embrace one to the exclusion of the other two, we cut ourselves off from the full understanding of our faith and impend our spiritual formation.

  Roy Gustafson tells the story of a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the Continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, “I’m having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?”

  Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday.

  The poor bloke wondered: “How much is this going to cost me?” So when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: “Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce.” That’s justification.

  Reformed theology insists that when justification and sanctification are not kept properly distinct, God’s once-for-all gifts of faith (i.e., salvation) and our continual struggle for holiness become confused. To begin with, the classical Protestant affirmation of the nature of justification is necessary to affirm, namely that in Jesus Christ God has once and for all forgiven us. This is our justification through the faith that is God’s gift. However, we need to make a second point, to affirm that in Jesus Christ we must continually strive to live the holy life that we undertake with the advocacy and power of the Holy Spirit. The emphasis in justification is on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The emphasis in sanctification is on what we must do for God with the aid of God’s Holy Spirit, although here too we emphasize that this striving also is in and through Jesus Christ. - Andrew Purves & Charles Partee, Encountering God: Christian Faith in Turbulent Times, p. 88-89.

The Passion of Amazing Grace

"But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — “I believed, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” (2 Cor. 4:13-15, NRSV)

 

  If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.   Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Evangelism is good news, it is the amazing grace of God revealed to God's people. The good news is not about introducing a program, gaining more members, changing worship style, attracting young people or increasing budgets. Evangelism is the good news of God’s healing and saving love in Jesus Christ. Evangelism is about sharing the Amazing Grace of Jesus Christ with our family, friends and neighbors. For the church to pursue its full redemptive potential, a passion for the life and work of Jesus Christ must be reclaimed. We must rediscover for ourselves the amazing passion of sharing God's amazing grace. When we witness others experiencing the life of grace as a “new creation” in Christ, then we as a church, as disciples are transformed.

We believe that God created a good and beautiful world. However, this beautiful creation is broken because the first humans decided that they would be better off being God than serving God. Humanity continues to choose this path of destruction. The good news is that God is not content to leave us in our brokenness. God takes on human flesh and blood to rescue us and show us the way into life’s purpose and meaning.

We often sing that old favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace” during worship. It is one of the most favorite hymns within the church regardless of denomination.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
   That saved a wretch like me!
   I once was lost, but now am found,
   Was blind, but now I see.

Is this hymn merely a nice hymn we sing occasionally or is it for us a witness to the glorious grace we see witnessed in those transformed by Christ's grace. God has given me the honor of witnessing this amazing grace in the lives of others as they experienced this grace and became new creations through Christ's grace. As a witness to this wonderful miracle of God my life, faith, hope and love was renewed and refreshed each time.

Today, I want to share a video simply called, “Amazing Grace.” It visually illustrates the power and significance of this grace and the powerful witness it gives the world and the church. I hope this might help to spark the passion for sharing the good news. “... so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” (2 Cor. 4:15, NRSV)

 

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