Baptismal Promises

In the Lutheran baptismal liturgy there is an ancient portion that asks the believer to renounce sin, evil and all that keeps us away from God.  The pastor asks the parents, sponsors and those who can answer for themselves, (I paraphrase here:) "Do you renounce the forces of evil. . . the devil and all his empty promises. . . that which keeps you away from God?"

Participants answer, "I renounce them!"

What does this mean in a world filled with darkness and pain?  People all around us, perhaps including us, are suffering from grief, after-affects of long term abuse, residual baggage that just won't seem to go away, not to mention temptation, frustration, and on and on. . . it seeks to hold us captive, denying us true life and vitality.

There's a line in one of our beloved hymns that starts, "Praise the One who breaks the darkness with a liberating light. . . "  Darkness is shattered by Christ's light forever.  It has no power over us and that is not just a bunch of empty words but the reality of life in Christ.  Oh, we can let it take us over; we can allow other's assaults on us to be foremost in our minds, holding us hostage, keeping us from growing and thriving, separating us from the One who loves us most . . . but it doesn't have to be that way.  I know it's not easy but the good news is that Healing Does Happen.  Prayers for healing are answered.

We can and DO renounce those forces of evil that seek to take away our confidence, security, self-esteem, energy and LIFE!  Christ's light frees us from whatever prison we might find ourselves in. . . "Praise the one who preached the gospel, healing every dread disease, calming storms and feeding thousands with the very bread of peace."

Christ calls us to come out of the darkness and into the light of his love!

Remember your baptismal promises and if you have to, renounce the devil every day!  Renounce the darkness and evil and pain that have a grip on you!  Christ is with you in this, he's been there/done that!  He loves you beyond all measure of love and wants you to be free to live, REALLY live!!  Amen.

Hymn reference:  ELW 843 Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness

Let us not be weary in well doing. . .

Galatians 6 (The Message)

 ^1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.^4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

 ^7-8Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.


 ^9-10So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.


A weed is a matter of opinion apparently.  It is identified by what plants are undesirable to to the gardener.  Some say that Queen Anne's lace is a weed, growing where it isn't planted and taking over flower beds of prize roses and petunias.  It grows in abundance by the roadside waiting for the county road crews to mow it down in the fall.  Others say that its pretty white lacy heads are an herb, a plant of value, suitable for eating if you really wanted to.  So which is it?  A weed or an herb?  

St. Paul advises us to deal gently with others in matters of sin.  We are all prone to sin, this much is true.  We are captive to it and only through Christ can we be freed.  This is good news for all of us!!


But the culture we live in today is puzzling to me.  There seems to be no consensus on what is right and what is wrong.  What's good for you may not be good for me but that's the way it is so deal with it.  What's right for me may not be right for you but please do not trample on my fragile psyche by trying to point out my errant ways.  That's just your opinion, we might say.  Don't judge me, we cry.


Some of our actions are not life giving.  Some of our responses are more hurtful than helpful.  Some of our ways are selfish.  Some things we do break the hearts of others and we are great at self-justifying.


What ever happened to objective truth?  No longer does my truth have to be your truth and vice versa.  Is Paul pointing to the subjectivity of truth in this passage from Galatians?  "Save your criticisms for yourself."  "Keep your mouth shut because you are not perfect."  "Do you think you are better than another?"  It gets very confusing sometimes.  


Why have an opinion on anything at all?  Why try to work it out and come to a conclusion for ourself if in the end "truth" is up to each individual?  Why is everything so subjective these days?  I want answers!  (Do you?)  Obviously I don't believe that there is no "real" truth.  Obviously I deny that truth is subjective and individual and personal.  "I am the way and the truth and the life," said our Savior.


Here's what I do know. . . 
Each time we gather for worship we confess our sins and hear a much needed word of forgiveness.  We take time to seriously consider our failings.  We actually repent.  We wait to see if we will be welcomed back into God's merciful fold-- an lo and behold, we hear those precious words uttered, "In the name of Christ, you are forgiven!"  Hallelujah!  


Do we take it to heart?  Did we really think we had anything to repent of in the first place?  Come on, be honest!!  Maybe a few bad thoughts or a tinge of jealousy over our neighbor's new car (9th / 10th commandment kind of stuff). . . but have we anything to repent as far as living out the First Commandment?  "You shall have no other gods before me!" 


 Isn't confession, I mean TRUE repentance, a part of taking responsibility for ourselves like St. Paul urged the Galatians to do?  And then, once we've done that, or at least started to become aware of our need for forgiveness, don't we have to begin to see this God-given life in a new way?  Can we simply carry on like we did before?  Or is there a new truth, which is actually the same eternal truth, governing our lives?


Shouldn't we be planting and harvesting good seeds rather than weeds?  Or are we so lost that we can no longer discern between what is a good plant and what is a nuisance for the flower bed?  What is helpful and what it killing out the rest of the plants?  If we can't then we are in sad shape I should say.  Our gardens are likely a big tangled mess! As we grow in our gardening skills shouldn't we be better able to tell weeds from flowers?  And are we allowed to say, "That is a weed; that is a flower," without inciting the wrath of the gardener next door who may have a different horticultural viewpoint?  


Let us not grow weary in doing what is right Paul says.  Is what is "right" a subjective thing? How will we know if something is "right?"  Someone else might say that it is not right!  Is there something deep inside of us, something that is God-planted that helps us to know right from wrong?  I teach my children that there is. . . and it all starts with loving God and putting God first and that includes adherence to God's word and command.  


Perhaps part of the journey of faith is learning to discern weeds from flowers and then repenting of the sowing of weeds rather than justifying that those weeds are flowers- what's wrong can't you see that this is a flower?  


Sometimes speaking the truth in love is also the most loving thing to do when we live in Christian community and have made a commitment to one another to pray for each other, help each other AND admonish one another when needed.  If we cannot trust one another with our weeds then how will we ever grow a garden of lovely flowers that honors our Lord?  With his help we do this, for sure, for he is our master gardener!  

So we continue to do good, sow flowers rather than weeds, and we do it tirelessly. . . BUT I think we ought not be afraid to identify weed versus flower when the opportunity happens to present itself.  Courage is what is called for. . . and love so as not to turn anyone away from Christ. Our gardening requires serious consideration-- otherwise we may be reaping a bunch of stuff that is killing out the good plants.  


Keep up the "good" work! Amen.


Image credits: ct-botanical-society.org, alchemy-works.com

Ramblings sparked by a funeral

It occurs to me that what I write on this blog is nothing new to you who so graciously read it.  I am not telling you anything that you don't already know. . . thing is, I know that.  I just want to remind you of what you do know and keep you thinking about Christ and living for Christ.

I went to a funeral today for my best friend Kim's grandmother who also happened to be my mother's best friend.  Geraldine was her name, everyone called her Jerry.  Lovely, lovely lady.  One of the most encouraging and positive people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  She loved Jesus!  She exemplified grace.

One of the best character traits she has was that even when she didn't agree with you on some hot button issue she would hang in there with you.  If you were a friend then you were a friend and that was that!!  She was one of the few rare souls you find in this life that are mature enough to be able to agree to disagree and still stay in touch.  She knew what she thought and she also respected your opinion.  That is what I call Christ-like.  

You know, as Christians, as human beings, we don't always agree with each other on everything and that is really okay.  But how do we treat one another in the midst of all of that?  Do we walk away from our friendships?  Do we refuse to acknowledge one another?  Do we sit on the opposite side of the room in order to avoid the discomfort?  Do we place blame on the other and take no responsibility for ourselves?   Or, like Jerry do we talk it out, decide that we still love one another despite our differences of opinion, accept that the other has no evil intentions toward us and move on with life?  I think that takes great courage.  I think we are called to just that!  It can be tough, I know.

Miss Jerry's brother in law asked me an important question as we said goodbye.  First I asked if I had gotten his name right, which I had and then I said what I believe to be true, "names are important and I wanted to get it right." It's a matter of respect for me toward that other person- he didn't care that much about me getting it right but instead thought about something else:
       He said, "Now Jesus- there's a name."

Yes, the name that is above all names!  Wonderful name, wonderful Savior.  Then he asked, "Don't you just love Jesus?"  "Yes, I do," I said beaming from ear to ear!

 I LOVE JESUS!
I love that name.
I love my Savior.

I love my fellow Christian even if we disagree.  And I love strangers too because Christ has given me the ability to love- I'm not capable of that kind of love-- but Jesus is!

So, I want to remind you today that Jesus loves you!  I mean really, really loves you!  More than you could ever possibly imagine!  And he gives you the ability to love others, no matter who they are!!  Isn't that amazing?  Jesus probably doesn't agree with me on everything either, but I know he still loves me just the same.

So, when did you realize that you really, really loved Jesus?  This is a serious question!  When was it?  As a young child?  A teenager?  An adult?  Maybe you haven't figured it out quite yet?

My friend Jerry really loved Jesus, she wasn't afraid to say it either!   She showed it with her kindness and generosity, but more than that--- she didn't try to change people.  She loved them for who they were.  She didn't try to alter their thought processes or bully them into changing their minds or behaviors or attitudes and she didn't dismiss them because they thought differently.  She just loved them.

Jesus says something about that in our gospel lesson for this Sunday, "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me."  Isn't part of welcoming another allowing them the freedom to make up their own minds?  Martin Luther was all about that for the people he served thus the Small Catechism was created so that people could be informed and then decide for themselves.  I think part of welcoming the other is letting them have their say, treating them with respect even when we disagree.  Relationships are what is at stake-- when we are dismissed or chastised for our views then things go sour.

We may actually choose another church because we disagree about things.  It's happened before and it will happen again.  Maybe that's okay. There are a million and one churches out there, one for everybody who seeks Jesus.  Thing is, they are not one size fits all!  Each one has it's own character and personality and life-- all in Christ Jesus of course.  But when it comes to personal relationships I think we can hang in there even though we don't always agree and in the end everyone has to make up their own mind, do what is best for them and ultimately answer for their own actions.  Miss Jerry, I believe, would have said the same thing.  Rest in eternal peace my dear lady, lover of Jesus, saint of God!

Photo credit: Amy Little, Outdoor Chapel at Camp Mowana

The depth of discipleship

Yesterday I was grocery shopping and ran into a fellow who plays music at two different churches in the area.  (The grocery store is such a great place to chat with people-- some very real and meaningful conversations happen in the mustard aisle!)
Just looking at his face I could see the Holy Spirit radiating through him.  His love for Christ was evident in his passion for leading worship. . . he spoke of God's call on his life, an undeniable call that had been emerging from the depths of a difficult period in his life. . . he reveled in the mystery of how life turns out for us vocationally, sending us places we never dreamed we would be.

It is truly amazing and a wonderful blessing to stop and chat with someone who simply radiates the love of Christ from their pores.  The joy of the Lord exudes from their very being and you can't help but feel warm inside just looking at them.  When I see a person like this and have the great opportunity to engage with them in conversation about faith and life, the word "disciple" continually runs through my thoughts as we speak.  So, Daniel Patrick Ryan, musician, artist, calligrapher, re-enacter of John Muir and John Appleseed, lover of Christ, Irish by blood, saved by baptism-- this one's for you, sir.

Discipleship is a way of life.  Being a disciple of Christ reveals the fullness of who we are and it is lived out in grocery store shopping, worship, work, play and everywhere else that we find ourselves.  It is not simply a nod at the One who hanged on the cross, saying in passing, "Yes I believe" or checking the box on a form that asks about religion, "Christian," and then failing to live that out in any meaningful or even intentional way.  It is ALL about intentionality.  A person cannot say "I believe" and then put that so-called faith on a shelf for safe keeping, taking it down only when it is convenient or PC.  Faith is to be lived.  Faith is to be active and alive and prominent in our lives.  Faith is not relying cheaply on God's willingness to forgive, it is living at the foot of the cross, begging for forgiveness daily, loving and serving Jesus by loving and serving the neighbor, listening for the call on our lives, giving generously of our resources and more.

It is obvious.  
It is oozes out.  
It cannot be contained.

Something other than that is not discipleship.  I don't know what it is. . . but I know what it isn't.

I have written and preached a lot about our Christian vocation and how God calls each of us to share our gifts and talents with the world.  I rely on Luther here who lifts up ordinary, everyday work as being holy.  From the trash collector to the brain surgeon and every job imaginable, to work is to do honor to God, to work is to fulfill a calling on our lives, to work is to do something holy.  But it occurs to me that I haven't gone deep enough on this vocation thing. . . it's not JUST about working or serving (esp. if you work in the service industry) but it is about an awareness of what you are doing and how that serves the kingdom.  You see, I used to work in toxicology research (histology to be exact) and I never, ever realized that what I was doing was useful or holy in any way.  It was a job and I needed a job.  Now I can see that it was useful and helpful for the kingdom.  Drugs had to go to market to cure illness, to save lives and those pharmaceuticals had to be tested and approved for use.  I had no clue as to how my Christian life played a part in that vocation.  The daily dissecting of lab animals, the making and staining of slides for the pathologist to read had no meaning for my life.  But it could have!!  If I had had an awareness of it, an intentionality about it!! Instead off I went to seminary looking for some way to meaningfully serve the Lord that I love.

It is holy to serve and to work in a vocation but when we do it with intentionality, with sacrifice, with discipline for the sake of others and in the name of Christ THEN we are living the life of discipleship.  When we bring in our faith in the incarnate Word of God THEN we are living the life of a disciple.  We are no longer slogging away at something simply to be employed or to put food on the table- which is of course noble to be sure-- but we are recognizing God's call on our lives and we are living it out with intentionality!  That's discipleship!  And sometimes we hear God calling us to do something else for the sake of the Kingdom!  That's part of the journey too but we have to be listening!  And with intentionality comes a greater ability to listen.  When the call comes we put our fishing nets down, or lab equipment as the case may be, and we follow Jesus.  And it costs us something.  Discipleship costs us something, but we get so much more out of it than we put into it!  We get a living, breathing, changing, deepening, loving relationship with our Lord Jesus.

Through our baptism we are called to be disciples.  We cannot be disciples without being obedient to Christ and being disciplined in that calling.  Awareness is key.  And awareness can create an intentionality that was not there before and soon everything we do becomes part of obeying Christ in this discipleship journey.  We cannot say we believe in Christ's saving love and sit around doing nothing with our lives. . . we have to do what disciples do-- follow, obey, live fully.  This is what grace is all about!  Recognizing God's activity in our lives and then wanting to please the One who loves us most.  This is not about shoulds and have tos-- it is about get tos!!

Allow me to offer a metaphor about this from my world of coaching track and field.  Sometimes I will have an athlete on my team who might be less than motivated to work hard or to win.  I should say, they like to win for sure, but putting in the hard work is less than desirable.  When they lose a big race they shrug it off saying, "I don't care, it didn't matter to me anyway!"  On the contrary, the dedicated athlete who is the last to leave practice everyday, who desires to be coached and critiqued so they can become better goes into that big race ready to give it their all.  If they fail to win they may be disappointed that they lost but they are still happy with their performance because they gave it all they had!  They may even have a new PR out of it and that means a lot.  They never dismiss the race or the competition and say, "It was no big deal, I didn't care about it anyway."

Discipleship has its own rewards-- a closer relationship to the Good Shepherd.  But there is cheap discipleship and there is costly discipleship.  We are not saved by our works, however, we despise the gospel if we fail to take our walk with Christ seriously.  It is something completely different when an athlete who has worked their proverbial tail off to get better loses by a lean at the tape and when a lazy athlete loses and says it doesn't matter.  We deceive ourselves when we think that the life of discipleship doesn't matter and we fail to truly know what grace is all about!  Only when we give it 110% can we truly embrace what Christ has done for us- otherwise it doesn't really matter all that much because we have not felt the deep need for salvation.  Discipleship is more than mere words-- it is a deep abiding commitment to the One who saved us by dying on the cross, whom God raised from the dead so that we might have new life.  It cost Jesus big time.  And it ain't cheap for us either!

Image credit: pviactrack.com

We are all "works in progress"

1 Peter 1: 3-9 The Message:

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 

Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation.

We are all works in progress- moving from something that is less than true and real toward something that is deep, alive, genuine and pure-- TRUE faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ.  Every aspect of life, whether we like what's happening or not, is used by God to refine us like gold refined by a fire.  I'm not telling you that God causes things to happen just to test you, simply that testing comes on its own.  Life happens.  Aggravations abound!  Irritants are everywhere!  But, God desires nothing less than for us to come to him with our deepest felt needs (Luther on the Lord's prayer).  Each and every circumstance that is put before us, on us or around us is an opportunity for God to show himself to us in ways that we have yet to imagine.  God is with us through it all and he will guide us, strengthen us and lead us to a deeper life in Christ Jesus.  

I know that some of you are really dealing with a lot right now.  Stuff is piling on like a bunch of linebackers making the all important defensive tackle!  But Christ is in the pile with you.  He doesn't pile on. . . he is underneath all of that force and impact and dead weight that has been hurled upon your vulnerable body and soul.  The result will be a purer faith-- that's not my opinion--- that's the promise!

Martin Luther, speaking of this passage in 1 Peter writes, "Fire does not impair the quality of gold, but purifies it, so that all alloy is removed.  Thus God has imposed the cross on all Christians to cleanse and purge them well, in order that faith may remain pure, just as the Word is, so that one adheres to the Word alone and relies on nothing else."  (LW 30:17)

As those who are in the process of being purified like gold that is refined by heat and fire, so we are on a journey of discipleship that draws us ever closer to the source of all that is good.

We can never become completely refined or pure, says Luther, but it is part of the process of our Christian life to "improve constantly and to become purer" than we are at this moment.  This is not done by our own will or our own work. . . if we could do it for ourselves we would do it, now wouldn't we?  But instead, in faith, we trust that God is up to something in our lives even amidst the pain and suffering, the testing and temptation.  He gives us moments of pure joy and glimpses of the eternal to keep us going. 

 One day we wake up and say to ourselves, "Wow, how did I make it through that?  Ten, five, even two years ago I would have never been able to hold on to my faith if that happened to me back then!"  It's like a child whose parents can't see the growth in them because they are with him every day but others who haven't seen him for awhile say, "My how you've grown!!"   

When you get down on yourself, take a look back a few years and see how much progress you've made in your Christian walk-- or I should say-- how much progress Christ has made in you over the years!  Thanks be to God!!

Image credit: southcountry.org