Better Living: Thoughts from Mark Daniels

Good Words to Remember Each Day

2009-11-20T13:30:00.001-05:00

From God's Word, the Bible:

The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ⁸Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. ¹¹Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11)

These are the words on which today's installment of Our Daily Bread is built.

Interesting

2009-11-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

Here. I wonder if LutheranCORE will make some effort to mesh with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), formed about nine years ago by congregations concerned about what they saw as the dilution of the authority of Scripture following the passage, ten years ago, of Called to Common Mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)?

See here.

[UPDATE: Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA has issued a video statement on the state of the ELCA here.]

Hunger...

2009-11-18T17:46:00.004-05:00

in the world, in America, and in Ohio.

At Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, on Sunday, November 29, worshipers at the 10:15 service are encouraged to bring their offerings of nonperishable food items. They will be taken to the CHAP emergency food bank, providing food relief for area households.

This is a tremendous--and extremely important--way for us to share the love of Jesus Christ with our neighbors!

In 2009, in addition to our support for CHAP, Saint Matthew has had several new initiatives on behalf of our neighbors in need. There was our PSST food drive in which we left bags on the front porches of our neighbors, then picked them up, and gave the collected items to the county Job and Family Services agency. Later, we worked with the local Developmental Disabilities agency and County health department with our drive-through baby shower, collecting diapers and infant formula.

In 2010, we hope to serve our neighbors in need in more ways. May God bless us with active imaginations and deep commitment to Jesus as we find new ways to love others!

Invitation to a Meaningful Advent

2009-11-17T16:32:00.007-05:00

[Below is my pastoral article for the December, 2009, newsletter of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, where I serve as pastor. The building of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church is located at 258 East Hunter Street in Logan, Ohio. If you find yourself in Ohio's Hocking Hills this Advent season, feel free to join us for Sunday worship or for the Advent midweek services mentioned here.]

The Advent Season, that four-week period before Christmas, begins this year on November 29.

The word, advent, literally means coming. You hear or read it used in phrases like, “With the advent of the Internet…," meaning, “With the coming of the Internet…”

Advent is also related to the word adventure. An adventure, whether in everyday life or in books, movies, TV shows, or video games, is a tale full of surprises, of events that we couldn’t have anticipated. Heroes in several of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia novels—fantasy adventures filled with allusions to the Christian life—will buck one another up by saying, “Let us take the adventure that is given to us.”

The Advent Season incorporates both of these meanings of advent, coming and adventure.

We remember the centuries when the world awaited the coming of its Savior.

We remind ourselves to live in faithful anticipation of when that Savior, Jesus, now risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, will come again to this earth to establish the kingdom of God for all eternity.

We commit ourselves to following Jesus through whatever comes to us—joys, sorrows, life, death—knowing that Jesus promises, “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13).

This Advent, I invite you to take the adventure of this season. Fortify your faith with the incredible truth that God has come to be one of us on this earth, that this same God is returning one day, and that, through Jesus Christ, you and I have God with us always, come what may.

Make prayer a central part of what you do each day this Advent. Ask God to strengthen your own faith, to renew your commitment to loving and serving others in Jesus’ Name, and to help you share your faith with those without faith connections to Jesus and His family, the Church. I invite you to use the Our Daily Bread devotionals to help you in your daily prayers.

I pray that you will also get involved in Sunday School. We meet every morning at 9:15 and we have classes for every age. Soon, our adult Sunday School will be tackling new topics bound to expand and strengthen your faith, fortifying you for life and empowering you to love God and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Finally, I hope that you’ll come to our midweek Advent gatherings. This year they happen on three succeeding Wednesday nights: December 2, 9, and 16. We’ll enjoy potluck dinners. (More specifics on that elsewhere in the newsletter.) After the dinners, we’ll enjoy a brief devotional time in the chapel. We’ll engage in Evening Prayer, sing an Advent hymn, and hear an Advent devotional reading. For those who are interested, the chapel will be open for about an hour after that for silent prayer for our congregation, community, and world.

God has great plans for Saint Matthew, for you and your family, and for our community. In the Advent Season, let’s commit ourselves to taking the adventure that God lays before us in the certainty that the Lord Who came to us on the first Christmas will always be with those who trust in Him.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Mark

[This is a picture of the stained glass window on the south end of the Saint Matthew Lutheran Church sanctuary. Click on the image to enlarge.]

More About the Widow

2009-11-17T10:02:00.004-05:00

Here. She made her most recent appearance on this blog here.

Give Thanks Always!

2009-11-16T11:07:00.001-05:00

[This is today's daily emailed inspiration from my coleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot.]

OnLine with Faith

November 16, 2009 Issue 526a
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

WELCOME to the daily issue of ONLINE WITH FAITH.
ONLINE WITH FAITH is a ministry of Faith Lutheran Church,
2313 Whittier Avenue, Springfield, IL, 62704, Glen VanderKloot, Pastor.

We encourage you to worship and be involved in a local congregation

If you have any questions, comments, or prayer requests
please be in touch with us at pastor@faithlutheran.com

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Thought for the Day

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.
No Americans have been more impoverished than these who,
nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

Scripture
1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 NIV

Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Prayer

Lord, help me to give thanks at all times and in all circumstances.
Amen

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What We Need

2009-11-16T11:03:00.001-05:00

"Self-sufficiency distracts us from pursuing the things we really need...If you’d rather have cash than character, if your credit cards are maximized and your righteousness is minimized, if you’ve become smart but aren’t wise, then you’ve been shopping in all the wrong places." That's Joe Stowell. Read the whole thing.

All That Matters

2009-11-15T22:47:00.006-05:00

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

Mark 13:1-13
A few years ago, I heard a couple tell about a party they had for three other couples at their house. All eight of these people were committed Christians who were also highly successful. Much of their conversation revolved around the latest job offers, the houses they were building, the new cars they'd just bought, and the latest gizmos and gadgets they'd acquired. Their conversation took a more serious turn though, when one of the men reminded them all about the fate awaiting this earth according to the Bible. "One day," he said, "this will all burn."

Let's pray.

God: Remind us this morning of what is truly important. In Jesus' Name. Amen

In last week’s Gospel lesson from Mark, you’ll remember, Jesus contrasted the large offerings to the temple made by powerful religious/political elites (what one of the kids during last week's Children's Sermon called bishodents, mixtures of bishops and preidents) to the paltry offering made by a poor widow. Jesus said that because the widow gave all she had to live on, while the bishodents put in their leftovers, the widow's offering was worth infinitely more than theirs.

That should have been a warning sign to the disciples (and to us). God doesn’t value the things that we often value.

Bigger isn't necessarily better.

Influence doesn't mean moral rightness.

A seminary diploma doesn't indicate deeper faithfulness.

God doesn't always look at things the same way that the world does.

This is the same principle that God revealed to the ancient judge Samuel hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.

Samuel had gone to Bethlehem in order to anoint a son of a man named Jesse as the new king of Israel. Samuel was about to give the honor to the handsome Eliab. Eliab evidently looked like a king. But God said, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature...for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart..."--that is, on the faith and the motivations a faith relationship with God creates in people.

Even if the disciples didn’t remember an incident which, even for them, would have been part of their ancient religious history, they might have understood that big isn’t always better or that outwardly religious or successful doesn’t necessarily mean closeness to God, from Jesus' encounter with the rich man.

There, you’ll remember, Jesus told an evidently religious wealthy man that his riches were getting in the way of his eternity with God. But apparently, the first disciples were as thick-headed, slow-hearted, and faithless as I am much of the time!

In any case, our Gospel lesson for today finds a disciple, Jesus' words extolling the faithfulness of the poor widow still ringing in his ears, commenting on the beauty of the large stones and large buildings of the temple. (Maybe he was trying to change the subject.) “Look, Teacher," he says, "what large stones and what large buildings!”

The temple complex in first century Judea was enormous. It was also visually stunning. Many world travelers of the day saw it and declared it to be the most beautiful building they’d ever seen.

Setting at the top of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the one-time site of a threshing floor purchased by King David one-thousand years before, this particular temple had been built more recently by King Herod as a symbol of his dubious claim to the throne of David.

The temple was the center of Jewish worship, the place where the dispersed Jewish population from throughout the Mediterranean basin came for festivals like the Passover.

For first-century Judeans like Jesus’ first followers, the temple was not just the place where they believed the presence of God lived in the holy of holies. It was also a focal point of national pride. The Romans may have conquered them, they felt, but in the cavernous temple, the God of all creation met them.

“Just look at this place,” the disciple tells Jesus. Jesus doesn't miss a beat. He asks all of the disciples to do some looking themselves.

“Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus asks. “Some day, they will all be thrown down. Not one stone will be left.”

Jesus is right, of course. In 70AD, thirty plus years after His death and resurrection, the Romans would destroy the temple. Today, it’s the site of the third holiest mosque of Islam. All that’s left of the temple is the Western Wall, which you see pictured in books and movies, a place where pious Jews and others pray and also leave written prayer requests in the crevices between the ancient stones.

Bigger isn’t better.

What we think to be holy and inviolable may not be what it seems.

By the time Jesus was born and conducting His ministry in Judea, God’s people had walked far from God. So far from God, in fact, that when the real presence of God Himself showed up on the earth in the person of Jesus Christ, they joined with the rest of the world in a conspiracy to kill Him on a cross.

In His flesh, Jesus was the real holy of holies and Jews and Gentiles saw in Him the chance to get rid of God and to be their own bosses. They put more stock in the things of this world that can be seen—buildings, mortar, personal strength, power, money, military might—than they did in God, Who when they finally caught a glimpse of Him—was a carpenter from Nazareth they thought they could easily kill off.

But as Jesus speaks with the disciples in today’s lesson, all of that lay a few days ahead. Right now, they’re frightened by His words. They want Jesus to tell them more about the future. “When will the temple be destroyed?” they wonder. “What signs will point out that it’s about to happen?” For them, these questions were more than queries about the future of a building. For them, the end of the temple was tantamount to the end of the world.

People have always wanted to get special insight into the future. There's a whole cottage industry built around people's interest in knowing when the world will end and how it will come about. The Left Behind books are in that category. So is the new film evidently based on ancient Mayan mythology, 2012.

But whenever Jesus was asked for insights into cataclysmic events like the destruction of the ancient temple or the end of the world, He gave no inside information. He didn’t tell us to hide in caves, commandeer a nuclear weapon, or drink a steady diet of spring water and Tofu.

And in today’s lesson, in talking about the signs associated with the demise of the temple, Jesus simply gives a series of signs that had already happened repeatedly in history before He speaks and which have happened repeatedly since. He says that counterfeit preachers will come along claiming to speak for Him even though their words have nothing to do with God’s revealed Word in the Bible. He says that there will be wars and rumors of wars, enmity among nations, earthquakes, and famines. Those things were prevalent then; they’re prevalent today.

So, what is Jesus telling us? Just this, I think: We live in an imperfect world; but don’t let it take you in.

Your faith cannot be built on the fleeting things of this world, even those made of granite, stone, or marble.

We need to build on the God Who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.

True story of two young preachers, friends, each regarded as among the best at their trade: They specialized in reaching out to young people with the Good News of Jesus Christ. They spoke to teenagers and university students across the country. Thousands came to faith or experienced a deepened faith through their preaching.

Each though, early in their careers, went through crises in their faith. They each began to question the authority of Scripture, dogged by things they couldn’t fully understand or explain in the Bible. One renounced his faith, becoming an atheist.

The other, in California, where he was on a preaching and missionary tour, took a walk through a field. He agonized in prayer over his doubts. He came to a large rock. He set his Bible on the rock and kneeled in submission to God. Pointing to his Bible, Billy Graham told God, “I don’t understand everything in this book. But I intend to trust in You and in this book.” Through the access he gave to God, God built up Billy Graham’s faith. And through his ministry, millions of people have come to faith in Jesus or had their faith in Jesus strengthened.

Every day, you and I confront the same issues that confronted Billy Graham as he took that walk some sixty years ago and that confronted the disciples as they walked through the imposing temple grounds in Jerusalem.

Who and what will you trust?

Who or what will you live for?

No matter when cataclysm or the end of this world may come, we each need to know how we’re going to live. What will be most important to us?

What will be our highest priority? Will it be the paychecks, the safe life, the best house, the nicest car, the greatest applause, the most power?

These things fade, die, crumble, or pass away as surely as the temple in Jerusalem did.

In Mark 13:13, after telling His followers all that they were likely to endure just for being His followers—persecution, trial, betrayal, death—the very things He would endure just a few days after He speaks these words--Jesus says this, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

The one whose heart is fixed on Christ rather than on the rewards of this dying world, will live with God forever.

As a younger man, I had absolutely outsized ambitions. I wanted to be a best-selling author. I wanted to be President. I wanted to be a big shot.

But I can honestly say today that when I see the love and grace of God given to me in Christ despite my sinfulness and when I see that God has, thankfully, never given me the punishment I deserve, I have finally arrived at only one ambition in life.

All I want is to endure in faithfulness.

I just want to live each day to the glory of God, no matter what God asks me to do.*

I’m comforted by the fact that, even though I fail and sin each day, those who turn to God in repentance and make faithfulness to Christ their aim--those who endure, will be saved from sin and death and hopelessness by the God Who went to a cross for all who trust in Jesus.

Endure in trusting in Jesus.

Build your life on Him.

That’s the way of salvation.

As we prepare for Consecration Sunday next week, don’t worry about the future. Make following Christ today—each day, one day at a time--your one and only aim in life.

That’s all that matters.

Amen

*I should say that most of the time this is what I want. Or better yet, it's what I want to want. But I am a selfish sinner and there are times when I want to glorify myself--or at least be comfortable--more than I want to glorify Christ.

Wish I Could Attend

2009-11-13T13:56:00.000-05:00

Maybe you can.

No Deal!

2009-11-13T10:32:00.002-05:00

C.P. Hia's great reflections on Luke 4:1-13.

We live in an instant gratification age; so, Hia's words are downright countercultural.

We also live in an era in which the Church often mistakes grace for license. Through the grace God gives believers in Jesus, we're not to make excuses, but strive to live faithfully, in daily repentance and renewal.

My Personal Prayer:
God, help me to turn to You every time temptation and "the easy way" call. Forgive me for all those times I fail to turn to You. Help me to move in the power of Your Holy Spirit so that I successfully resist the devil, the world, and my sinful self and so, grow closer to You. When tempted, give me the power to say, "No deal!" In Jesus' Name. Amen!

Go Strong, My Buckeyes!

2009-11-12T21:50:00.001-05:00

Veterans Day Thoughts and Prayers

2009-11-11T10:42:00.003-05:00

The following is from today's daily emailed inspirations sent by my colleague and friend, Pastor Glen VanderKloot, OnLine with Faith:

November 11, 2009 Issue 525c
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

WELCOME to the daily issue of ONLINE WITH FAITH.
ONLINE WITH FAITH is a ministry of Faith Lutheran Church,
2313 Whittier Avenue, Springfield, IL, 62704, Glen VanderKloot, Pastor.

We encourage you to worship and be involved in a local congregation

If you have any questions, comments, prayer requests, or would like to subscribe, please be in touch with us at pastor@faithlutheran.com

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Thought for the Day

As we celebrate Veteran's Day this year, we remember
all those men and women who have served and continue
to serve in our Armed Forces. We deeply appreciate all
they have done to secure our freedom and to keep America
one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.

Dear Heavenly Father,

In every age, You call certain persons to defend
the human family from oppression, tyranny, and evil.
Since our founding as a nation "conceived in liberty,"
countless American men and women have stepped forward
to defend our country and many others from aggressors,
and to liberate those held captive.

Today we respect all our veterans: those who rest in
honored glory, those who still suffer from the wounds
of war, and those who, with us, enjoy the blessing of
living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O God, thank You for the selfless sacrifice of
these veterans and of their families. Help us to
remember them, to pray for them, and to care for them.
Please bring all our departed veterans into Your Kingdom,
and console their families with Your unfailing love.
Please heal our wounded veterans through the power
of Your Holy Spirit, and give to all our veterans
the satisfaction of having served You even as they
have served us.

Thank You for Your gifts of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness. May we fight to keep
these rights available to all.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

From:
Living Grace
5226 South 31st Place
Phoenix, AZ 85040

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Rick and Kay Warren Talk About Their Unlikely--and Sometimes Difficult--Marriage...What It Tells the Rest of Us

2009-11-11T06:05:00.002-05:00

Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose Driven Life, among other books, and the founding pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, California. He and his wife Kay have undertaken an international ministry dealing with Third World poverty and the prevention of AIDS.

But in a new book, excerpted in Christianity Today online, they reveal that their marriage hasn't been of the story book, happily-ever-after variety. Kay Warren recalls preparing for their wedding, an event precipitated by the belief each had that God meant for them to be together though they had no real affection for one another:

"I remember standing in the back of the church," Kay recalls, "waiting to walk down the aisle, going, 'Okay, God, those feelings that you said you'd bring? It would sure be nice if you'd bring those feelings sometime soon.'"

Things went from bad to worse as the couple descended into what the book describes as "marital hell," including a disastrous honeymoon, sexual dysfunction, constant squabbling, a hospitalization triggered by ongoing stress at home for Rick Warren, and other issues.

The two have kept their marriage together over the years, it seems, owing to two major personal factors.

First, they were, as mentioned above, convinced that God wanted them to be together.

Second, they entered their marriage with the firm resolve that divorce would never be an option. They believed firmly in Jesus' words on the subjects of marriage and divorce. One place where Jesus discusses these topics is in Mark 10:2-12:

Some Pharisees came, and to test [Jesus] they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

These words may be grating to our twenty-first century ears. (They were probably even more grating on the ears of Jesus' first hearers: Whether among his fellow Judeans or their Roman overlords, divorces were far easier to get and far more common than is true today.) But, we must wrestle with the fact that Jesus was firm in asserting that God means for marriage to be a lifelong commitment and that it shouldn't be destroyed for flimsy reasons.

The Warrens believed that. So, they decided that no matter what, they would not divorce.

I once knew a couple who vowed to one another prior to their wedding day, as the woman told me some forty years into their marriage, "We will never divorce." Like the Warrens, this couple hasn't had the easiest of times. One of them is a recovering alcoholic; the other has found it hard to keep steady work. But they've stuck it out and today they enjoy a happy marriage, savoring each other, their children, their children's spouses, and their grandchildren.

Most of us, of course, never get a clear sense of God telling us to marry a particular person, as happened to both Rick and Kay Warren. (It was a weird experience for both of them, it seems. Rick Warren says that never before or since did he sense God telling him to do something so directly and clearly.) So, most won't have a moment of clear revelation to fall back on when a spouse drives them nuts for the umpteenth time or when the arguments seem never to stop or when husband and wife seem, simply, to be rowing in different directions.

But, like the Warrens and countless others, we can rely on God to help maintain and strengthen our marriages.

In the marriage liturgy of Lutheran Book of Worship, the following address, rooted in sound Biblical teaching, is often given to couples as they stand before the altar:

The Lord God in his goodness created us male and female, and by the gift of marriage founded human community in a joy that begins now and is brought to perfection in the life to come.

Because of sin, our age-old rebellion, the gladness of marriage can be overcast and the gift of family can become a burden.

But because God, who established marriage, continues still to bless it with his abundant and ever-present support, we can be sustained in our weariness and have our joy restored.

There are several things that I love about this address.

First, I love how it alludes to Genesis 2, where we're shown that men and women, created in God's image, are complementary. Males and females are called together into the marital relationships because only a man and a woman both share the imprint of God's image while remaining utterly different. The two of them are made complete by their union into one flesh. They are made for each other.

Second, I love how it reminds us of the promises of God. God is always willing to renew and strengthen us in the impossible venture of remaining in a marriage for a lifetime. Every time our faith flags, our enthusiasm wanes, and we think we can't take one more moment, those who dare to submit to God for help can find the same renewal the prophet Isaiah talked about hundreds of years before Jesus was born:

God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. [Isaiah 40:29-31]

I'm personally convinced that every day of the week, there are couples who crash land into divorce courts unnecessarily, faint, weary, and exhausted from trying to keep their marriages together with personal effort and duct tape.

But what happens if both husband and wife submit their marriages to God, if each partner willingly takes responsibility for whatever personal sin and selfishness they brought to the table on the day they said, "I do" and everyday thereafter?

That submission to the God we know in Christ and those confessions can be the first steps toward the healing and restoration of their marital relationships. Such reliance can help couples realize that their spouse may not be the enemy, that, in fact, their enemy is often themselves, or their ridiculous romantic notions, or a culture that so elevates individual and personal fulfillment that it leaves no room for the most wonderful human relationship any of us can enjoy, the marital relationship.

In recent weeks, as some people have challenged me for my opposition to changes made in the policies of my denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), regarding the acceptance of monogamous homosexual relationships, whether among clergy or laity, I'm asked, "If the Church has so dramatically changed its views on marriage and divorce, why shouldn't it change its tune on gays and lesbians in committed sexual relationships, legitimizing such relationships?"

There's a certain fairness in the question. While the Church and Christians are not called to play the role of vigilante, the Church does have a responsibility to declare God's truth as found in God's Word. The Church is also called to exercise the Office of the Keys conferred upon it by Jesus, to declare forgiveness to the repentant and to withhold it from the unrepentant.

In spite of the call to both restraint and respnsibility though, the Church--the whole Church--has, in recent decades more or less looked the other way as Christians have married, divorced, and remarried. (And done so at levels which often surprass those of the general population.) We don't spend much time reminding couples that the Rick and Kay Warrens of the world, in staying together in spite of enormous challenges and differences of opinion, ought to be the norm and not the startling exception.

Christians are called to have the same unassailable commitment to making their marriages work that the Warrens have demonstrated. Like them, couples who decide to take Jesus seriously both as God-in-the-flesh and the One most capable ot laying down God's expectations when it comes to marriage, may need to seek out good counseling. Successful marital restoration isn't guaranteed; but failure is guranteed for those who don't seek God's help in prayer and who aren't honest enough and courageous enough to enlist the help of competent help from counselors who can provide godly advice.

To those who point to the failure of the Church to deal with the seriousness of marriage and God's dim view of divorce as a reason for ordaning gays and lesbians in committed life relationships and for allowing churches to bless the unions of gays and lesbians in such relationships, I can only say that I admit the mistake of the Church in not doing all that it can to encourage married couples to stay together. This is a mistake I personally pray to avoid in my future years as a pastor. We need to take marriage more seriously...and more inviolable.

But just because we have dropped the ball in upholding marriage as a lifelong commitment and ignored couples' adoption of a "for as long as we both shall dig it" proposition, doesn't mean that we should replicate the same mistake. Having turned our back on one Biblical imperative doesn't mean that we should ignore yet another Biblical teaching on marriage, namely that it exists for a man and a woman living in complementarity and mutual servanthood for a lifetime. One mistake cannot jutify making another one.

But the core point that Rick and Kay Warren demonstrate for us all is that not even the most problematic of marriages is beyond help from the God we know in Jesus Christ.

So, the next time you get exasperated with your spouse, remember a few inportant points:

Whether you think that God brought you together or not, you are together. God expects the two of you to work things out, to do your level best to fulfill the vows you once made to each other.
Pray for help from God. Be prepared for that help to sometimes come through competent counselors. (You should expect your counselor to evidence both counseling competence and a deep connection to what the Bible has to say about marriage, divorce, life, death, salvation, and priorities. If they don't fit the bill on both counts, don't go to them for counseling!)
In the end, it doesn't matter what brought you together in Holy Matrimony, unless you have a spouse who has committed adultery, has utterly spurned you for your faith, or subjected you to abuse, divorce shouldn't be an option.

Where there's a vow, there's a way. The question is if both husband and wife remain willing to live out their vows. If they are, good things can happen. God can make it possible for them to do things they cannot do on their own, however well-intentioned they may be.

Always There!

2009-11-10T09:54:00.001-05:00

And always sending emissaries.

No Leftovers for God

2009-11-08T22:00:00.008-05:00

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

Mark 12:38-44
Here’s a bit of trivia: I love vegetable soup. Love it. I especially love it a few days after Ann makes a big pot of it. Two days on, after being cooked and then refrigerated and set on the stove to simmer for a time, vegetable soup hits its stride as a taste treat. Sometimes, leftovers are the very best thing you can set before another person!

But leftovers--the leftovers of our time, our talents, and our treasures--are the worst things we can set before God. Why is that?

One reason is that unless we give God first place in our lives, He’s likely to have no place in our lives.

“I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,” God tells us in the Old Testament.

What? Is God jealous like a lover, demanding exclusivity? Yes, that’s exactly what God is like.

In fact, in the Old Testament, God is portrayed as a husband to His people, Israel. When they chase after other gods, their idolatry is seen as a kind of adultery. And when they ignore His will, they’re seen as turning their back on their relationship with Him.*

In the New Testament, the Church is sometimes pictured as “the Bride of Christ” with Jesus as its husband.

It also calls the Church, “the body of Christ,” denoting an almost organic connection to the One Who died and rose to give us everlasting life.

Whatever picture of God in relation to you and me that we like best, it’s clear that God means to have a close, intimate relationship with those who follow Him.

Leftovers can sometimes be a great way to express our love for those we care about. But they’re not the best way for us to express love and gratitude to the God Who, in Jesus, gave Himself on the cross for us.

We were designed to put God and His purposes first, not because God is an egomaniac, but because God made us for a relationship with Him. We are only complete--what our English translations of the Bible unfortunately call perfect--when the holes in all of our souls are filled by God.

Only we can give God permission to do that by putting Him first in our lives.

And it’s only when we let God have first place in our priorities, decisions, relationships, and plans that our lives can reflect His loving design for our lives.

When we do put God first in our lives, it will be clearly seen not only in how we use our time and our abilities, but also in our checkbook registers.

Most of us remember that the first murder in human history happened when one son of Adam and Eve, Cain, killed the other, Abel. What’s less remembered is why Cain killed his brother.

It turns out that Abel had offered the first offspring of his flocks to God. Cain gave God his leftovers.

Their offerings may have been of equal value, but God obviously enjoyed Abel’s offering more. When Abel gave God the very first bit of his wealth, the first ten percent of his income, he was expressing gratitude to God. He was also expressing faith that God would sustain him even if he only had 90% of his wealth left.

Cain was so resentful of the pleasure God took in Abel’s faith that he killed Abel. The first murder occurred because one child of God thought so little of God that he offered God his leftovers. At least for the moment he took to kill his brother, Cain gave no place to God in his life. Unless we give God first place in our lives, He is likely to have no place in our lives.

There’s a second reason it’s dangerous to only give our leftovers to God’s purposes in the world.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus lashes out at a group of supposedly holy people, the scribes. The term for a scribe in the original Greek of the New Testament is grammateus, a word from which we get the word, grammar in our English language. Literally, it means someone with the ability to write. Over time, the term came to be used of a person who was expert in both religious and civil law.

Jesus says that many of the scribes in first-century Judea “like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets!” And then an even worse indictment: “They devour widows’ houses...”

Some suggest that Jesus was accusing the scribes, experts in Biblical law, of figuring out how to get their greedy hands on the meager estates of widows, who usually had no money. Widows who, in that deeply patriarchal society, by some strange happenstance, had an estate or income were deemed incapable of managing on their own. Scribes were appointed to act as their financial managers and often, lined their own pockets with the widows' money while leaving the widows with nothing.

But, at a deeper level, I think that Jesus meant to say that the scribes were perfectly content to let the poor--people like widows--give everything of their small resources to the support of the Temple and priests while they gave their leftovers.

And they did this while courting reputations of religious faithfulness and piety, giving a tiny fraction of their fat wallets, of their more than ample free time, and of their abilities to the purposes of God.

I’m sure you’ve heard or read about the Pareto Principle. It “states that for many events, roughly 80% of the events come from 20% of the causes...” In most businesses, for example, 20% of the people will make 80% of the payroll. And 20% of the people will do 80% of the work and 80% of the people will do 20% of the work.

As Jesus watches the scribes and then the widow in our lesson today, He really is lamenting the injustice which results when a fraction of believers—in this case, the scribes--demand that those with less time and treasure give their all while they give their leftovers.

That’s why Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

It's interesting to note that the Greek New Testament word that's translated as "all she had to live on" in our lesson is the word, bios, which means life. (We get words like biology and biosphere from this word.) Jesus says that in spite of the ingratitude of selfish people, the widow gave her life to God. She foreshadows what Jesus Himself will do on the cross, giving His life for the sake of all of us.

The widow gave everything she had to God. In this, she also foreshadows the early believers. One of the characteristics of the early Christian Church, the Church that began after Jesus rose from the dead and went back to heaven was how it violated the Pareto Principle: 100% of its members did 100% of the work, contributed to the work of the Church and helped one another out. One passage in the New Testament book of Acts, which tells the history of the early Church, says: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.”

What would happen if something of the spirit of the early Church infected the Church today?

What if it infected Saint Matthew Lutheran Church?

What would happen in the lives of those Jesus describes as "the poor in spirit," people who have no connection to Christ or the Church, if we in the Church were more like that widow and less like the scribes, giving ourselves, our efforts, and our treasures to Christ and His purposes in the world?

I tell you what would happen: Thousands of lives, first ours and then, our neighbors’ lives would be eternally changed for the better!

Our trust in Jesus would deepen and the fire and the passion of our faith would lend power to our invitations to others to come and follow Jesus with us!

In two weeks, we will have our Consecration Sunday. When you receive your time and talent survey and estimate of giving card by mail, please pray about how you will respond to the Savior Who gave His life for you and how you will be part of what God wants to do at Saint Matthew.

Speaking specifically to finances, let me tell you that I know that for many of you, this has been a hard year.

I also understand--and more importantly, God understands--how your time for Saint Matthew's ministries can be limited.

Whether it's our time or our talents or our money, God doesn't ask us to give anything more than we have.

God also knows that Saint Matthew isn't the only place where you can serve God's purposes in the world. There are lots of worthy ways to serve God and neighbor and to glorify Jesus Christ that have nothing to do with the formal ministries of Saint Matthew.

But I urge you, as you approach Consecration Sunday, to ask God, whatever your ability or limitations, to help you put Him first, to ask God to help you discern what you can do...because you know that on the cross, God put you first.

Leftovers are great when it comes to comfort foods like vegetable soup. But the God we know in Jesus Christ deserves our first and best and all. Amen

*Spurned lover though He is, God still wants to restore His relationship with the unfaithful Israel, just as He wants to be in relationship with us when we willfully walk away and abandon God.

I Have an Easy Fix for That

2009-11-06T18:37:00.002-05:00

The Austrian government should buy the thing, tear it down, and, in its place, erect a memorial to all who died as the result Adolf Hitler's madness.

Is Denmark Successfully Recovering From Fossil Fuel Addiction?

2009-11-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here are two recently broadcast reports on the development of wind power and other alternative energy sources in Denmark. Steep energy taxes seem to be helping the northern European nation to both end its dependence on foreign oil and do its part to clean up the global environment.

The Real Enemies

2009-11-05T21:33:00.004-05:00

Here's the great thought that appeared in today's emailed inspiration from my colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot of Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois.

The next time you're tempted to be consumed by anger with those you may see as your "enemies," remember who our real--and common--enemies are.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Thought for the Day

“For those who will fight bravely and not yield, there is a triumphant victory over all the darks things of life.” (James Allen)

Scripture: Ephesians 6:12 [New Century Version]:
“Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.”

Prayer:
Lord, give me the courage to stay in the fight against the darkness. Amen

*************************************************

We Have No Rights

2009-11-03T21:50:00.007-05:00

Let's be clear. God's Word shows us that you and I have no "rights."

The notion of "rights" is helpful in the civil realm. But Christians must acknowledge that the very notion is a fiction. The Bible doesn't support the notion that we have certain "inalienable rights." The Bible only recognizes that, as human beings made in the image of God, we have certain responsibilities to one another and that the simple privilege of living is a gift from God we don't deserve, that the amazing privilege of eternal life with God is a gift we cannot earn granted by grace to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says this: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

One of my frequent prayers is, "Thank You, God, for not killing me." Death is what my sin warrants, but God is gracious, charitable. God has given me the miracle of life!

Even more amazing, God has given me a life with Him forever through Christ!

When I consider what I deserve, I am stunned by God's gifts to me.

Adrian Warnock, riffing off a tweeted message from his pastor, talks about all of this eloquently here. John Schroeder has additional thoughts here. David Wayne also shares a pertinent quote from Oswald Chambers.

[UPDATE: A blogging lawyer completely misunderstands the point of this post, thinking that I live each day in quaking fear that God is going to zap me when, in fact, I'm amazed by the graciousness of God, Who has every right to zap me, and doesn't. Then, a commenter says that I'm "insane" and for good measure, accuses me of being anti-Catholic. I have no idea what's up with that. Go here.]

[ANOTHER UPDATE: For an intriguing secular take on the notion of "rights," see here. The prologue and footnote to this post demonstrate that it is possible for believers and secularists to dialog respectfully and even agree on ways in which we can all live together, irrespective of what fringe folks say in either the religious or secular communities.]

I Have a Rendezvous with...Life!

2009-11-01T13:08:00.005-05:00

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

John 11:32-44
In English class in high school, I came to love a poem written by Alan Seeger, a young man killed in battle during World War One less than a year after he penned it, I Have a Rendezvous with Death. One reason I liked the poem so much, I think, is that it was just dawning on my sixteen year old brain that all people--even me--have a rendezvous with death.

But we can go to absurd lengths to deny the reality of death and all the other realities that go with it: aging, deterioration, and sagging bodies. Three years ago, blogger and author Annie Gottlieb wrote about seeing a famous political campaign strategist on TV:

She's on CNN right now and she has had a really terrifying facelift, eyelift and Botox assault. She can hardly move her mouth, she can't smile at all…She looks like a particular fake alien face on the original Star Trek. It's a disaster! Hey, I feel bad about my neck too, but at least it's still my neck.

That woman, as Annie Gottlieb describes her, is proof positive of the saying, “Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.”

None of us may like it, but the truth is that we all have a rendezvous with death. That reality is acknowledged in today’s Gospel lesson.

But so is another reality, a deeper, more powerful reality.

In our lesson, Jesus’ friend Lazarus dies. In fact, earlier in chapter eleven of John’s Gospel, we see that Jesus knew that Lazarus was dead even before He told His disciples that they were setting off to Bethany, Lazarus’ hometown. The disciples hadn’t wanted to go there. That's because just a short time before, they had escaped their fellow Judeans with their lives, mobs bent on stoning Jesus and those with Him to death. Now, Jesus wanted to take them back into the jowls of death.

According to John’s Gospel, these reluctant disciples had already seen Jesus perform six major miracles, six major signs of Who He is, of His Lordship, of God’s Kingdom. They’d seen Jesus turn water into wine, heal a desperate father’s son, restore healthy legs to a crippled man, feed 5000 with a few scraps of bread and some fish, get the disciples to a safe shore while the boat in which they rode was swamped by a furious storm, and make a blind man see.

Those were all impressive miracles, the disciples must have thought. But Lazarus was dead. Dead is dead. Why should Jesus risk His neck and theirs to simply pay His respects? They didn’t know that Jesus had another miracle, another sign, He wanted them to see.

Our lesson finds the disciples, Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, and the people of Bethany all struggling to follow Jesus in the face of death, the greatest enemy any of us will ever face. In the bargain, they can’t help blaming Jesus. Three times in John, chapter 11, and twice in our lesson, they tell Jesus or each other, “If Jesus had been here, Lazarus wouldn’t have died.”

We have similar thoughts when someone we care about has died. We may think, “If only I had gotten so-and-so to a doctor sooner...” Or, “If only I had known how much pain he was in...” Or, “If only I’d arrived five minutes sooner, I could have called the life squad..”

Some even think that if God was in heaven and all was right in the world, this person wouldn’t have died at all. They become angry or even disbelieving toward God.

But it’s interesting to see that in the course of events at Bethany, John reports several times that, not just the mourners, but Jesus was agitated. At one point, He even began to weep.

I have puzzled over why Jesus had such a reaction. After years of study and prayerful reflection, I’ve reached two conclusions. Part of Jesus’ reaction, I think, stems from grief for us. He hates to see us suffer, die, or grieve. This was never part of God’s plan for our lives. But until Jesus returns, we live in a world groaning under the burdens of death, decay, and sin. Jesus wept because His friend, Lazarus, and each one of His precious children, have a rendezvous with death.

But I think that there was another reason for Jesus’ tears. He was frustrated to the core of His being that the people around whom He had lived for several years, the disciples, Mary, Martha, and the people of Bethany, refused to get it. They refused to dare to believe in Him. “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” He asks with bewildered frustration.

Were they so stymied by death that they couldn’t see that the God Who made life and was among them at that moment could overcome all our fear and dying to give us eternity with God?

Jesus didn’t begrudge them their grief. Grief is natural. But He was frustrated by their hopelessness. The follower of Jesus need never be hopeless!

Pastor Mike Foss tells the story of visiting a man about to undergo surgery. Says Foss:

Eyes sparkling, he laughed. I had met him at the hospital and, before any anesthetic had been administered, he and his wife and daughter gathered with me at his bed side. There I began to talk of his impending surgery. “It’s natural,” I said, “for you to be anxious.” And I didn’t get any further than that, because he laughed. It wasn’t a laugh of derision. Instead, it was the laughter of one who had no fear. As I stood there (at a loss for words) he grinned and said, “Pastor Mike, I’m not afraid. I already died once. I know what’s on the other side because I saw it…and I saw Jesus. I’m not anxious at all because I know that no matter what happens it’ll be okay.” Later, after his surgery, he told me his story of dying on the operating table and being brought back after a long time of great efforts by the surgical staff. He shared his story of traveling above the operating table and into a wonderful light where he met the Savior. He will die, this man of faith, but he has no fear of it.

When, through Jesus Christ, you know what awaits you beyond the grave, you're not afraid.

In fact, you even give others encouragement. The seminary professor who most influenced me was Pastor Bruce Schein. He had come to Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus from Jerusalem. There, for twelve years, he served as pastor of a Lutheran congregation. Most of the members were Palestinians and his ministry was a constant life and death business. Then, during my second year at seminary, he came to teach. He was gravely ill, though only one of our classmates figured that out. Pastor Schein was so intent on glorifying Christ and preparing us for ministry that I didn't even notice the signs of his physical deterioration that I might otherwise have seen. A year after I graduated from seminary, he had surgery that lasted hours. I saw him sometime after that. He had lost so much weight, it was shocking. We talked for awhile. Then he told me that he had actually died during his surgery. "Mr. Daniels," he said, "I was in the throne room. I put in a good word for you."

Pastor Schein taught me that we need not fear death. That was precisely the lesson Lazarus learned that day in Bethany. Dead four days, his body emitting the stench of death, bound in the tight bands of cloth in which the dead in first-century Judea were always buried, Lazarus was called from death back to the once mournful, now astonished villagers of Bethany.

I’ve often wondered if Lazarus hesitated when he heard Jesus call, knowing that on returning, he would re-enter a life of death and decay, a place where people get facelifts and eyelifts and Botox injections in order to fool themselves and the world with the lie that we really don’t have a rendezvous with death. Lazarus knew that, in returning, he would have to go through death again. Knowing that, I might have hesitated to return.

But Lazarus knew that deeper reality I mentioned earlier, something C.S. Lewis called “the deeper magic.” Lazarus knew that all who entrust themselves to the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, will live in God’s presence forever. And I’ll wager that when, any time after that, people tried to tell him how natural it was to be afraid, he laughed.

How can a follower of Jesus Christ really be afraid when she or he knows that beside a rendezvous with death, we also have a rendezvous with God that lasts forever?

How can we be afraid to use this life in full in reverencing God's Word, proclaiming Jesus' death and resurrection, repeating Jesus' call to repentance and renewal, and serving and sharing Christ with others?

This is All Saints’ Sunday. In part, it’s a time to remember the blessed dead who have lived and died believing in Jesus, the resurrection and the life, and who are now in His presence. Especially we remember those members of Saint Matthew who have died in the past twelve months--Priscilla Stevens, Joanne Magle, Zerna Stiverson, Elaine Meyers, Juanita Mowery, Luke Mowery and Pastor William Luoma.

But there’s more to All Saints’ weekend than remembering the blessed dead. A saint, according to the Bible, is nothing more than a forgiven sinner, someone who has turned from sin and let Jesus loose them from death.

Whether we’re saints on earth or saints in heaven, we all are spared separation from God. By God’s gracious acceptance of those who turn from sin and believe in Jesus, we belong to God forever.

The Lord Who has conquered our sin and our death allows us to say, “Yes, we have a rendezvous with death and through Christ, we also have a rendezvous with God!” And we can laugh!

In two weeks, we will be celebrating our annual Consecration Sunday. We’ll have a catered dinner on that day.

You and I will also be asked to estimate how we will use the gifts of time, talents, and treasure that God has given to us to advance the mission of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in 2010. This will help us plan for the year to come.

But, as you prayerfully do your estimating, I want to ask you to remember that we belong to a God Who calls the dead back to life and who gives all who follow Jesus a rendezvous with life that lasts forever.

Don’t be afraid!

Keep trusting Jesus Christ. He has eternity in His hands.

Remember that this congregation, its ministries, or buildings aren’t things we own or have to worry about. (Take care of, yes; worry about, no.) They belong to God; our job is to keep following, trusting in Him and His Word.

Let the God we know in Jesus Christ have you and let Him have Saint Matthew completely--mind, spirit, body, time, talents, treasures—so that together we can do the work all the saints are called to do, the work of living and sharing the Good News of our risen Savior Jesus!

[BY THE WAY: Here and here are links to two posts in which I deal with our penchant for denying death.]

Spending Relaxing Time in the Beautiful Hocking Hills

2009-10-31T20:04:00.008-04:00

Here in Hocking County, we're blessed to be surrounded by a lot of God-made natural wonders. A national forest and state parks with awesome cave systems are great places to go hiking and exploring.

Both my wife, Ann, and I came to this area when we were kids growing up in Columbus. More recently, over the New Year's holiday, 2002-2003, our family spent time staying in the cabins at Old Man's Cave State Park. We had a particularly memorable hike on the Cedar Falls trail with my brother and sister-in-law back then.

Now that we live in Hocking County, we make frequent forays to the caves. Recently, we hiked at Ash Cave and at Cedar Falls with our good friends, Don and Lisa. Most of the pictures below were taken by Don, who has a fantastic eye for composition and a real love of nature. [You can click on the pics to enlarge them.]

[Here pictured at Ash Cave is Lisa, my wife Ann (aka: My Honey), and me.]

[A great picture of the breathtaking Ash Cave.]

[The beautiful Cedar Falls.]

[More pictures to come later.]

Saturday Sports

2009-10-31T00:44:00.002-04:00

Go, Buckeyes!

Go, Phillies!

[UPDATE: Wow!]

Does This Sound Familiar?

2009-10-31T00:21:00.003-04:00

There are questions in France about why, two years after stepping down as president of his country, Jacques Chirac is standing trial for corruption charges stemming from his time as mayor of Paris in 1977 to 1995.

But the questions seem to have less to do with the substance of the charges than with an apparent French tendency to overlook bad behavior on the part of prominent people, especially if it goes back more than a few years.

Chirac's one-time opponent, Ségolène Royal, has responded ambiguously, “He deserves to be left alone, but justice must be the same for everyone.”

The second part of that statement reads like obligatory rectitude. But the first part sounds a lot like what many French leaders said when US authorities moved to extradite convicted rapist Roman Polanski from Switzerland. Polanski is older now, they said, leave him alone.

The statute of limitations may be up for some of the crimes Chirac is alleged to have committed, politics can't be dismissed as a possible motive for the charges, and financial corruption, as wrong as it may be, is, in a criminal sense, not as serious as Polanski's proven rape of a minor.

But the willingness to let old scoundrels off the hook, if, in fact, Chirac is an old scoundrel, seems endemic to French sensibilities.

Good for Medvedev

2009-10-31T00:17:00.001-04:00

Here.

Good for Obama

2009-10-31T00:16:00.000-04:00

Here.